life in christ

Will Someone Please Lend Us Their Sunglasses?

Dr. Mike Journey in Christ , ,

sunglasses

My parents sent two of their three children through twelve years of parochial school, myself being one of the two.  One fortunate or unfortunate aspect of going to a private school was the dress code.  All males had to dress conservatively in dark color pants, a white or blue dress shirt and a tie.  So for twelve years the only colors I knew on a regular basis was white and blue.  And I was comfortable with it.  In fact, so comfortable that after we married my wife looked at all my clothes in the closet and shook her head in amazement.  Before we married, she didn’t realize that I had a white or blue shirt for everyday of the week.  They were the only colors in my wardrobe.  Since then, she has introduced me to all the colors of the rainbow plus some.  Today you will find a few white and blue shirts, but the majority are every other color and style that has been manufactured  in my lifetime.  And we are thankful.

There are more colors in life than the basic white and blue.  Likewise, there are greater excitements and adventures in life than what many of us experience in our daily routine.  For most of us as we age, life has become dull and predictable.  We have forgotten how to dream.  If we still dream, we probably dream only in black and white.  We have lost the hunger and thirst of drawing masterpieces and have settled for plain black and white prints.  We would rather accept a dull existence than put forth the effort of adding color into our gray life.

“Don’t rock the boat.” “I’m miserable and enjoy it.” “I’m just an average Joe, what can I do.”  These attitudes have been shared with us over the years.  Yet we have also seen them changed when people recover from their blindness and begin to witness to the ever-changing colors of God’s living spectrum.  God is a God of color.  He has created a world with color and variety.  When we accept Him into our lives, we accept the way He thinks and the way He views life.  He views life with color, action, and adventure balanced with peace, love, and joy.

Many of us had big dreams in our youth. But life destroyed them. The everyday battles and struggles to cope with its demands simply entombed them. After you wallow in your sins and experience the hopelessness of life apart from God, you become like a beaten dog that just doesn’t care anymore.  But then one day, after crying out to God in his great mercy, He begins to redress you.  He starts by placing a white robe over you, signifying the forgiveness of your sins and how He views you thereafter.  After which, He opens your mind to the possibilities with Him as your Partner.  Nothing becomes impossible.  Anything is a reality when He is first in your life.  As you walk with Him, you discover all the colors of God.  You experience all the inner joys and peace that He makes possible.  You discover how to dream again, with colors that the world hasn’t even captured.  As you allow Him to lead you each day, each day becomes a day of adventure filled with action.  Not the Hollywood version, but the heavenly one.  You begin to see how He is touching the lives of others.  You begin to become a part of His plan.  You begin to become a star in a world darken with sin.  You are now a disciple of His.

A DISCIPLE’S PRAYER

PRAY 9

Dear Dad, You are an abundant God with a vast spectrum of choices.  Thank you for breaking down any walls that have come between us.  Help us in our discontentment.  All these years we have lived in failure.  No one knows the real us.  No one seems to care.  Open the doors of heaven and help us experience your awesomeness and greatness.  Lead us down the journey and adventure of being a full time disciple of Jesus Christ.  Help us to follow you wherever you lead us. Build within us your masterpiece.  Let your creation glorify you in everything we do.  Let us not settle for mediocrity.  Instead, make a difference in this life and let this life make a real difference in the life of others.  Thank you Jesus as we pray in your name.  Amen.

Faith Moves Mountains

Dr. Mike Journey in Christ , ,

Sight Observes It; Faith Moves It

faith

We live by faith, not by sight (IICorth5:7). Remember how in our youth when someone would make a statement and another person would reply “Prove it?” The more unbelievable the statement, the more we needed to see something factual to substantiate it. Well it doesn’t change when one becomes older unless you have received the faith to believe.

Think of all the invisible features of the physical world around you. Over time, it becomes easier to understand that there are forces and powers that are invisible to the eye but the effects are real. For example, the gravity of the earth cannot be seen but the effects are real. You drop a ball from the tall building and it will drop. You cannot see gravity but you do see how the ball is affected by it. Likewise, the wind is something that cannot be seen but the effects are real. The wind blows and you cannot see it but you may feel it or you may witness the top of the tree branches blowing about. The same is true about the invisible nature of God. You cannot see God, but you can witness to the effects of His life.

Why is it so difficult to see without sight? Maybe,because sight living doesn’t require faith. Sight living is based on trusting the five senses. The rational goes if one cannot see it,feel it, taste it, hear it, or smell it, it cannot be real. But the fact is our senses cannot be trusted. Science has already done testing showing that our perceptions are incorrect more times than we realize.

There was the time in our graduate marketing class where the professor brought in twenty different bottles of various brands of natural water. Each bottle had a label identifying its producer. The room was divided in half and each of us would taste the water from each bottle to determine which water tasted the best. The end result was the bottle with the most prestigious label at the time came on top. The reality however was that each bottle had the same water taken from the school’s drinking fountain. The conclusion of the matter was that our taste buds were blinded by our perceptions. How much truer it is with our spiritual life?

What we see with our eyes is limited; but what we see with faith is unlimited.

What we hear with our ears is limited; what we hear with faith is unlimited.

What we touch with our hands is limited; but what we touch with faith is unlimited.

What we taste with our mouth is limited; but what we taste with faith is unlimited. 

What we smell with our nose is limited; but what we smell with faith is unlimited.

Or to simplify it, with our sight we can only observe the mountain; but with our faith we can move the  mountain.

As a disciple of His, we are finished and done with walking by sight and appreciate learning the great joy of walking by faith. How do you see it?

OUR PRAYER

PRAY 9

Our Faithful Dad, help our unbelief. Help us to trust you.Help us to know you. Help us to see your work in our life.

You created everything and sustain everything, nothing is impossible for you.  You know our limitations and you know our potential. You know what it will take to convince us of your power and involvement in our life.Let us not doubt any longer. Please remove any limitations that we have imposed on ourselves. Open the door and help us see your awesome power in our life.

You are always faithful Dad.Help us have the same faith that Jesus had while He walked on earth.  Help us have the same faith that you have today. We thank you and make these requests known to you. Amen.

Dr. Mike – Consultant, Coach, Author of

Great Business Emulates a Good God 

Where Is The Beef?

Dr. Mike Journey in Christ , ,

 

beef 1Sometimes it just takes time.  It took this person over seventeen years of growing up under the ritual aspects of one faith and another twenty-five plus years living as a Jewish Christian to truly appreciate the power and awesomeness of God’s amazing grace. Now after being bathed in God’s sovereign grace, how can one go back to living a law motivated, self-righteous, shallow existence?

As the apostle Paul writes, the law is good. It gives us knowledge of what God is like and what constitutes sin; sin which blinds us from God. But law living cannot save us. Eternal life is a gift from God and cannot be earned. Keeping the entire law, crossing all the “T’s” and dotting all the “i’s” will not win us salvation. That is God’s gift to us through Jesus. He is the way, the life and the truth. He is our law.

When the law was our standard of measuring spiritual success, we were blind to self-righteousness. We along with the Pharisees of Jesus’ time period would have made great drinking buddies. We would probably gather together and laughed at the failures and weak­nesses of our brothers while esteeming ourselves in our ability to live up to God’s standards. We would probably tell jokes about incompetent people or people who were different than us. Because of our ability to self-manage ourselves, we would believe that God’s physical blessings showed us how well we were performing. The more we kept the law, the more God blessed us. And because God blessed us physically, we must be living up to God’s measurement of success. Oh, how ignorant and blind we were.  Thank goodness that God is also gracious to the stupid and ignorant.

When we made the law our daily objective, we probably eventually found ourselves confronted with questions that the majority of us have great difficulty in answering. Questions like how much physical work is appropriate to do on the Sabbath? How much of an offering is enough to please God? How much of a movie is enough to watch before it becomes vain and spiritually degrading? We find ourselves wanting to measure every area of our life to be sure we are not only meeting but, even exceeding the standards of God. Looking in hindsight, we were probably one pompous, self-centered, prideful, religious fanatic doing everything we could to be better than the law of God. And the more we lived God’s law apart from the Holy Spirit, the more important we became in the equation. Our spiritual salvation was more important than our neighbors. Our spiritual success was the most important activity of the day. Our life was the reason earth was created. Oh, how spiritually self-absorbed we became. We stunk up to high heaven but just didn’t realize it. Yet, through it all, God still loved us. He waited until the proper time to open our eyes to see his amazing grace in comparison to law living. Oh, how wonderful and awesome is God’s way when you begin to fully understand His plan of salvation and purpose for life today.

To compare law living with spirit living is like comparing grade school with graduate school. It’s like comparing eating at a fast food outlet versus a banquet at a gourmet five star restaurant; it’s little league versus professional sports; it’s sunshine compared to darkness. There is a place for both sides of the equation, but after you tasted the better side it’s hard to return to the former.

It’s like that old hamburger commercial where the mature lady looks at the meat between the buns and seeing how little there is between the bread exclaims, “Where is the beef?” When you compare the spirit-filled life with law-living, you likewise come out asking “where is the fruit of God’s Spirit?” There is no comparison. They are both in different leagues. And wouldn’t we rather play in the majors than the minors?

OUR PRAYER

PRAY 21

Oh Gracious Dad, thank you for showering your Grace upon us. Thank you for loving us even when we deserved less than nothing. Thank you for loving us even when we are in error with your doctrines and misunderstood you and your plan for us. Thank you for your mercy, understanding, patience, and deliverance.

Let your grace abound in our life. Help us live life in truth and in the spirit. Keep your laws in our heart and help us express them in love to others. Let nothing ever come between us. Let us not judge our brother or even ourselves. But let us place our life into your hands and trust you with its outcome. You know our heart, mind, and soul. You know what needs to be purified by your Spirit. You know what this life needs to excel in your kingdom. Help us keep focused on you. Do not let us down. Let us always glorify you in church, meetings, parties, family outings, public forums, and wherever you want us to speak up.

Be always gracious to us. Let your Graciousness always abound in us. Help us live a life truly glorifying you.  Thank you Jesus in whose name we ask these things. Amen.

Dr. Mike – Consultant, Coach, Author of

Great Business Emulates a Good God