Have you ever said to yourself, "That's just who I am, or that's just how I grew up." It's amazing how the patterns we create in our lives can so quickly become the very things that define us. But the truth is it's absurd to define yourself based on whatever repetitive actions you partake in. Can you imagine if everyone who had a drug addiction, an eating problem, or depression bought in to the idea that it was just who they are? God didn't make people to walk in those things, he's a good God. Those are extreme cases and are easier to spot, but I see the Lord dealing with me in less obvious actions. Those little things that we deal with every day that no matter how little they seem can steal the true freedom and joy God has for us. I will honestly tell you God has brought some major freedom in my life through seemingly small things. At one point and time I have pegged myself as each of these things: a worrier, lacking courage, unfocused, ignorant, unable to follow through, etc. While these things aren't external addictions they are just as much not my identity in Christ.
I have been learning a lot about agreement since being married and moving to New Jersey. When we agree with something we give it tremendous power in our lives. What we speak with our mouths often seals the things we have agreed with in our hearts (Romans 10:9-10). I have been learning to watch what I say closely and to not embrace negative thinking. It is so easy at times confuse who I used to be (my old actions before Christ) with the work God did in me when I got saved.
Whatever my weaknesses or failures may be they are not just the way I am, and they are certainly not just chains from the past I have to keep on. I was made new in Christ from the very second I was saved, and I became a completely new person (Gal 2:20)! No longer a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:18) no longer under the requirements of the law but the freedom of God's grace (Romans 6:14). I received the Holy Spirit which freed me from the power of sin which leads to death (Romans 8:2). So my new self has not been given a spirit of fear and timidity but one of power, love, and self-discipline (1 Tim 1:7).
The Spirit God put in me, my new nature, is so contrary to my old way of living. It is crazy what the spirit of God can do to a person. I mean it make sense its the Spirit of God for crying out loud. But because I have been adopted as a child of God his Spirit joins with my spirit to affirm in me that I am in fact his child (Romans 8 15-17). The more I get around my Heavenly Father the more I begin to look and act like him. His attributes, his ways, and his thinking become mine. Think about any adopted kid who gets taken into a home. They take on his parents last name (identity), their parents mannerisms, and often their parents jobs or passions. This is the same story of us with our Heavenly Father.
A pastor told me once if something seems too good to be true it's likely from the Lord because that's the story of the Gospel. I am receiving his Good News today for what it really says. I hope this will give you confidence and discernment to pinpoint and not receive any thoughts that say you are any of the poor patterns you have taken on. These patterns are not who you are and should not be attributed as such. When you let go of those thoughts I know you will find freedom in those areas of your life. Believing what God says and receiving your new identity. When I see these things in my own life I am learning to take those thoughts captive (2 Cor 10:5) and to let grace come in and empower me to live the full life Christ gave me (2 Peter 3-4). We have been called to an overcoming life in Christ, what a sweet deal!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
7 Tips for New York City Driving
Based on my frequent NYC driving experiences I have decided to make a list of helpful tips to assist those of you visiting the city. These tips have kept me from frequent cussing, fighting, and temporary insanity when dealing with NYC driving.
1. The first step is to dehumanize every car you encounter. Assume that you are not driving beside a person but a large piece of metal that is driving itself. Rather than feeling bad when you make an aggressive move you can now rest assure due to the fact that large pieces of self propelled metal don't have feelings.
2. Don't assume the wheel base of your Honda Civic is automatically going to be of greater distance than the size of an approaching pot hole. I've seen babies disappear in these holes.
3. When taxi drivers cut you off don't get offended just remember: It's their job to cut people off!
4. Always read the sign below the sign below the sign when attempting to park or make a left turn. Parking signs can be like parables only those who seek out the solution will know the actual regulations.
5. When faced with a mass of pedestrians in your path accelerate quickly while at a slight distance. This will create enough hesitation and fear in to open a gap large enough for your car to squeeze through. Hit the gap as soon as it opens it's probably your only chance.
6. Never answer a horn with your own horn, it will only incite a chain of other excessive horn blowing individuals who regardless of their current situation will feel compelled to honk their hearts out.
7. Pretend that every trip to the city is a competitive race between you and every car that challenges your position. Think of it as a NASCAR race with the the Sprint Cup drivers (professionals) are driving the yellow cars and the Nationwide drivers are in the cars of assorted colors. This makes defeating taxis twice as rewarding, and is an activity the whole family can enjoy.
1. The first step is to dehumanize every car you encounter. Assume that you are not driving beside a person but a large piece of metal that is driving itself. Rather than feeling bad when you make an aggressive move you can now rest assure due to the fact that large pieces of self propelled metal don't have feelings.
2. Don't assume the wheel base of your Honda Civic is automatically going to be of greater distance than the size of an approaching pot hole. I've seen babies disappear in these holes.
3. When taxi drivers cut you off don't get offended just remember: It's their job to cut people off!
4. Always read the sign below the sign below the sign when attempting to park or make a left turn. Parking signs can be like parables only those who seek out the solution will know the actual regulations.
5. When faced with a mass of pedestrians in your path accelerate quickly while at a slight distance. This will create enough hesitation and fear in to open a gap large enough for your car to squeeze through. Hit the gap as soon as it opens it's probably your only chance.
6. Never answer a horn with your own horn, it will only incite a chain of other excessive horn blowing individuals who regardless of their current situation will feel compelled to honk their hearts out.
7. Pretend that every trip to the city is a competitive race between you and every car that challenges your position. Think of it as a NASCAR race with the the Sprint Cup drivers (professionals) are driving the yellow cars and the Nationwide drivers are in the cars of assorted colors. This makes defeating taxis twice as rewarding, and is an activity the whole family can enjoy.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Thoughts that Stirred in November
My hope in starting this blog is to help me communicate to my friends and maybe more too myself what I am experiencing and what God is doing in this newest phase of life. Vanessa and I have been in New Jersey for just over a month and have been on an adventure to move into New York City. We long to discover our talents and gifts, destroy the works of the devil, and to see God glorified in city and the lives of the people there. We want the name of God to be interconnected with the truth of his character. That the people we meet would forever know that God is good!
Below are some things I wrote back in November. I think they will give you insight into the call for more that God has placed on my heart since going off Young Life staff. Feel free to post comments and encouraging words are great. Also if you disagree or have questions about things I am posting I would love to see those posted as well.
Here I sit in McD's in Lynchburg, I am without a job for the time being and I am attempting to open up my mind to all the different places it would want to go. I have found since becoming unemployed that my thoughts began going places they never before had. It was as if I had placed certain restrictions on my brain but when the content that normally filled my mind bottomed out there was suddenly a void of thought room which needed to be filled. It was not until this point that I realized how asleep my mind had really been. I am supposed to have the mind of Christ, a mind that has the capacity to receive divine wisdom and revelation from God. A mind that is intensely focused and preservers even when the most intense stresses are placed upon it. But I found that my mind had been numbed and seemed afraid of being fully turned on. Some how my mind had convinced me not to use it so much. I often had a tendency to shut down my brain, as if somehow I am betting against my own minds ability to think.
I am writing this in hope to become a better steward of the mind God gave me. I hope to let my mind spill out on this page, and capture the truth the God has put in me. This tension I feel in my mind I can only help but attribute to the devil trying to keep my mind from fully functioning. If he can somehow get me and other believers to fight ourselves, and hold onto seeds of doubt and unbelief regarding the mind we have access to, then he has taken one of our greatest weapons. Not that he has the power to take away anything he can only take what our unbelief may forfeit to him.
I used to believe that I was in a struggle to believe in my heart the things that my mind knew already. However, I have new insights into this and found it is in fact opposite. Since the Spirit of God lives in me, I do in fact have access into all truth, and the truth comes from inside of me (John 14:17) not from my brain. All the things I want to beleive about God my Spirit knows to be true, but you see my mind is where the real battle is. I must take false thoughts captive and receive the truths of God which my spirit is constantly longing for because God's Spirit lives in me. I am learning to become more senstive to the Spirit and to let that change my thinking.
This speaks loudly to the true power that must be found in the renewed mind of a believer. For surely what man would attack a castle so violently unless there was something of great value inside. I must then believe that my mind is of tremendous value, and that when I allow God to renew it the results will be huge. I will not subscribe to this idea that such thoughts about the power of my mind are only arrogant pursuits. I honestly have heard enough of such silliness. To say that anything powerful God does in me is arrogance is to limit oneself from experiencing God in any powerful way at all. It is rejecting the move of God because of fear of your own arrogance. If God does a mighty work in me I must believe he has accompanied it with the humility to receive the thing he has given me. If not you would be right to think that such a gift would destroy. Truth be told, God is pretty darn responsible in the way he distributes his gifts and how he chooses to move.
Proverbs 25:2 Says It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
I will not be afraid to search out the hidden treasures my Daddy has for me. And when I get them I will not hide my face in fear of my own pride and arrogance but I will dance and see how God is greatly glorified in me.
Below are some things I wrote back in November. I think they will give you insight into the call for more that God has placed on my heart since going off Young Life staff. Feel free to post comments and encouraging words are great. Also if you disagree or have questions about things I am posting I would love to see those posted as well.
Here I sit in McD's in Lynchburg, I am without a job for the time being and I am attempting to open up my mind to all the different places it would want to go. I have found since becoming unemployed that my thoughts began going places they never before had. It was as if I had placed certain restrictions on my brain but when the content that normally filled my mind bottomed out there was suddenly a void of thought room which needed to be filled. It was not until this point that I realized how asleep my mind had really been. I am supposed to have the mind of Christ, a mind that has the capacity to receive divine wisdom and revelation from God. A mind that is intensely focused and preservers even when the most intense stresses are placed upon it. But I found that my mind had been numbed and seemed afraid of being fully turned on. Some how my mind had convinced me not to use it so much. I often had a tendency to shut down my brain, as if somehow I am betting against my own minds ability to think.
I am writing this in hope to become a better steward of the mind God gave me. I hope to let my mind spill out on this page, and capture the truth the God has put in me. This tension I feel in my mind I can only help but attribute to the devil trying to keep my mind from fully functioning. If he can somehow get me and other believers to fight ourselves, and hold onto seeds of doubt and unbelief regarding the mind we have access to, then he has taken one of our greatest weapons. Not that he has the power to take away anything he can only take what our unbelief may forfeit to him.
I used to believe that I was in a struggle to believe in my heart the things that my mind knew already. However, I have new insights into this and found it is in fact opposite. Since the Spirit of God lives in me, I do in fact have access into all truth, and the truth comes from inside of me (John 14:17) not from my brain. All the things I want to beleive about God my Spirit knows to be true, but you see my mind is where the real battle is. I must take false thoughts captive and receive the truths of God which my spirit is constantly longing for because God's Spirit lives in me. I am learning to become more senstive to the Spirit and to let that change my thinking.
This speaks loudly to the true power that must be found in the renewed mind of a believer. For surely what man would attack a castle so violently unless there was something of great value inside. I must then believe that my mind is of tremendous value, and that when I allow God to renew it the results will be huge. I will not subscribe to this idea that such thoughts about the power of my mind are only arrogant pursuits. I honestly have heard enough of such silliness. To say that anything powerful God does in me is arrogance is to limit oneself from experiencing God in any powerful way at all. It is rejecting the move of God because of fear of your own arrogance. If God does a mighty work in me I must believe he has accompanied it with the humility to receive the thing he has given me. If not you would be right to think that such a gift would destroy. Truth be told, God is pretty darn responsible in the way he distributes his gifts and how he chooses to move.
Proverbs 25:2 Says It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
I will not be afraid to search out the hidden treasures my Daddy has for me. And when I get them I will not hide my face in fear of my own pride and arrogance but I will dance and see how God is greatly glorified in me.
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