HOW TO WIN THE WAR OVER DEPRESSION

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he...Proverbs 23:7

I didn't like that verse at first.  I believed that my negative conditions weren't due to the ways I had been thinking.  I was not my problem.  No, the rough times were due to how people had mistreated me...or...how I had done the same to them.  The bad breaks I encountered were not of my doing.  So why should I be responsible for my reaction?

Inner peace is reachable every day in every circumstance by every person.  Please don't volley your explanation of how I don't understand stress and pain and conflict and heartbreak which lead to towering depression.  I might have a bit of experience which would match, even surpass, yours.  But, I learned (the hard way) how to combat this gigantic ever-present opponent.

Victory revolves around the way we think.  Does this eliminate pain?  No, but it stops us from camping there over the weekend.  Think with me.  People or issues which hurt us not only inflict wounds at their given moment; we tend to rehearse...and rehearse...and rehearse...our injuries.  And just where does such take place?  In.  The.  Mind.  Our thinking is the battle ground.

Here's what I've experienced; being bent on insecurity, being blue, perpetually counting the offenses against me or mine toward others.  We can't undo the past; but we don't have to establish permanent residence there.  We have an amazing alternative.  Get this: WE ALL HAVE THE OPTION to lead a happy, refreshing, productive life.  Yes.  You.  You hold the key.  Open your mind.

But open it to what?  Stop replaying the injuries or the neglects or the disappointments.  Replace the junk mail with the truth of what's going on with you.  Rehash everything that is going right.  THINK in healthy format.  Who loves you?  Name them.  Start your list.  One?  Three?  Eighty-nine?  Then THINK on these.  Forty-two friends are a bigger number than two enemies.

Second, quit giving the negative people air-time in your head.  STOP IT!  You can, you know.  You and only you has access to the control switch.  Refuse to tune in to their repetitive, harping, poor-me station.  They are exactly like you in places; fearful, frustrated, angry.  So don't be carrying their dysfunctions in your heart.  Love them, indeed.  But do not inherit their displeasure as your own.

Philippians 4:4-8, one more time (and I'll quit sighting it when everyone has it mastered), transforms the way we think which transforms the was we experience which transforms the way we feel.  I know.  I fought depression and it still creeps in.  But I learned through God to quit inviting it in to stay overnight as a guest in my heart.

I'll choose to think about the amazing people in my life and the impossible wonder.  For some, I encourage you to drop the excuses as to why yours are the exception to maintaining your depression profile.  When we want to feel better about ourselves and about others, it will always be found within the basic training of how we allow our minds to be creatively aware of our blessings.

Overcoming depression, I have discovered, is not theory.  It is reality.  Be bummed.  Be sad.  We all hit those walls.  But within our thinking processes we are able to conquer day by day.  Therefore, I recommend possible actions which might bring favorable adjustment to your life experience:

    1.  Stop talking about your ailments.  We've all got 'em.  Well is who you are.  If your hand hurts talk about your feet that don't, your heart that doesn't, your ears that hear and your eyes that see and your......

    2.  Focus on others.  Talk about what you like about them....to them.  Share your gratitude for their walk, their faith, their successes.  They could always use a pep talk and yours would be ideal.

    3.  Believe that you carry the power to make others have a better day.  Give them hope and love and life!  If you want attention, sow it.  Give it to others.  Otherwise, you are annoying the daylights out of those around you by bumming everybody out with your bemoaning whine.  Stop it.

Now....go bless somebody and you'll find you have new purpose and meaning in life.  Yay you!

DO WE BELIEVE FAITH?

Faith is a very common fundamental word quite easily understood.  Or...is it?

I suggest that we may have had a tendency for quite some time to have talked the "container" while possibly having overlooked the "content".  Faith isn't just a step or a concept linked to Bible discussion.  We all know this.  Yet, to observe its existence is one thing.  To follow (see) its activity is quite another; a worlds-apart another.

Faith sees what can't be seen.  II Corinthians 5:7...we are to walk by?  Faith.  And, not by?  Sight.  Yet, our tendency is to live day by day in the reverse.  I don't speak critically; but wish to informatively.  We've changing/improving to do.  Yay us!

While the platform of faith easily passes through the lips of we Sunday School students, we are speaking micro and mega experiences in the invisibles which, quite honestly, bugs the teacher (us).  We prefer things cut and dried, black and white, explained, understood....and manageable.  Fortunately, faith isn't going to abide by such yearnings.

Faith takes a person into a realm that is unmonitorable regarding its operational scheme.  Yet, one can "see" its results.  It sees (II Cor. 5:7) into, through, and out the other side of what normal visibility can provide.  We are called to believe faith; not believe "in" faith; but believe that faith is an activity of most profound, yet immediate, sensory.  A world of actuality and reality exists which can only be reached via this believing scope called faith.

And the question always remains.  Do we believe faith or do we simply use the terminology with a bit of a spiritual wink?

To believe that faith is active in a prominent invisible form is to connect to the larger side of our basic existence.  It supplies us, fuels us, drives us, and blesses us.  Our hearts and minds are bent on approaching every single day with strong (and certain) ambition toward matters which haven't happened yet; but we "believe" they will.  Furthermore, we believe that seed sown yesterday will sprout in the future and we have zero skill-set to know how, when, why, nor where.

Odd, don't you think?

Faith is the binding of the physical with the spiritual.  It is the Grand Link.  The study of "physics" alone is mind-boggling because it cannot be approached without including the strong dynamic of the "spirits" (spiritual).  Therefore, read Ephesians 3:20-21 again.  Note the truth that we are to believe with an experiencial faith that is beyond....is beyond...even our wildest imagination.  Note: not beyond our greatest "understanding"; but far past our wildest "imagination".

And we insist upon conducting church in a way that is safe, manageable, routine, with no surprises?  No wonder we are at times dismissed by our neighbors with a shrug as if we are boring.  We must forever gain momentum in believing in our fundamental doctrine called faith.  It has no limitations for it is the very invisible fabric of the most powerful entity on earth....a believer.

DON'T LIVE UNDER THE BIG THUMB OF FEAR

Fear is profoundly bossy.  It highly prefers the chief seat at your table.  Our days take hits like crazy due to this manic, self-indulgent, obsessive personality which insists on air-time.  Yet, there is Good News from Above.  Faith is toxic to fear!

Inner conflict is surely a spiritual matter.  Faith and Fear stand in opposing corners of the Boxing Ring.  Because both are "inner" matters, we are engaged in perpetual slug fests for each wants to be crowned Champion.

Awaken to the dynamic of believing!  Faith isn't a step in some salvationalistic code.  It is the revised road map for all who wish to experience life rather than just a getting-by existence.  See the sheer wonder of hope and joy and meaning...from...within!  You are not average.  You were never created to live under the Big Thumb of fear.

To believe is not for the weak.  Faith is neither cowardly nor timid.  Rather it is the reason to hope when there isn't any, to celebrate when all others assume the party is over, and to anticipate another Sonrise when darkness shrouds midday.

Believe.  Dare....to believe....for God delights in blessing those who trust Him!!

Fear....go to the back of the bus and sit down!  Now!

GOD KNOWS HOW TO.....

W A I T could almost be regarded as a four-letter word.  We fundamentally, basically, over-all like to do many things in life without the interference of being forced to wait.  Yet, I've found it to be well beyond average in meaning and importance.  It carries impacting power.  To wait is often to restrain self in order to allow God to work from His timing rather than our insecure and self-induced weak management of life.

In the very beginning of the book of Acts (1:4), the disciples are told not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised.  Two things seem to be going on: (1) they don't have much to go on as to why other than a promise is coming, and (2) they don't know what the promise would mean.  Their immediate response would be typical and understandable as they offered immediate inquiry.

And the response they got?  It is not for you to know (1:7).  Talk about vulnerable leaders!  These willing followers are clueless; very likely a bit bewildered.  They are commanded to wait on who-would-know-what.  How will they know when "it" happens?  What if "it" happens and they missed it because they should have been alert; but they missed it?

The W A I T was for the incoming arrival of the Holy Spirit!  The moment was so lively that, when it eventually took place, these men never got over it....ever!  Their lives, hearts, minds, and ministries were converted to a newness that would change them in such a way that they would never be the same.  This took place all because they took one major step that a hurried world notes as a waste of time; they waited.

I cheer you on.  In a very accelerated society of which one is yanked to and fro by demanding hurry, slow down.  Stop.  Wait.  Anticipate God showing up at the end of your wait.  Look for Him when you don't have the information as to how long to wait nor for what you should be watching.  This is the wild dynamic of God.

We must be quite careful else we will step in and be god because we don't feel He's quick enough.

W A I T I N G is a powerful spiritual thread for every individual.  Try not to bypass nor abort progress because you are impatient.  God knows how to...manage your time.

BE THE FULLER, BRIGHTER, BETTER YOU!

You, my friend, are more than you can imagine....so keep imagining.  You are an implement of God designed to be more than you can be, to think farther than you can think, and to believe more thoroughly than you can believe.

We are not in this landscape called Life all by ourselves.  God so promised to partner with us that He has set up shop within our very hearts and minds.  He's lightweight so there's no burden of our carrying Him within.  He's the Grand Visionary so we are not stumped as to how to handle the most tedious dilemmas.  And, He's waiting....waiting on us to lean into Him for hope and wonder and the more-than-we-can-fathom style of living.

We are talking about you.  Yes!  You!

Refuse the gnarly snags of daily existence.  Arise to the wonder of it all.  Don't miss out...own your own life.  Yes, you are the decider.  You are the believer.  Determine to be the fuller, brighter, better you than you have ever been up to this point.  Discover your own awe which resides in direct connection to the Holy Spirit of God!

JESUS CUT AGAINST THE GRAIN OF RELIGION

Jesus is the most fascinating personality ever!  His name has been, however, reduced as basically meaningless in public square throughout the world because of cowardly followers as myself.  Rather than being noted as an ultra-brave soldier who carried his own execution tool upon his back, Jesus is regarded with incredible indifference from bar to golf course to church pew.  No wonder Christianity struggles to make impact.  It has become devoted to plan far more than to the man.

I believe that the masses of indifference toward faith would surrender to Jesus if they could find him.  I'm not saying no one ever finds him, for such a thought is exaggerated.  Yet, the truth is that finding church does not mean one has found the Lamb of God.  Therefore, we who are church simply must restructure our drive to be one of promoting him which would allow him to add newcomers to his church.

If rebellious-toward-church society had any idea how boldly Jesus stood in the face of organized religion, these very ones would open to incredible possibilities of recognizing him as friend, as mentor, as saviour.  He hasn't been hidden by prostitutes nor gamblers nor thieves.  He has been set aside by the very group who believe we are in line with him.  He lost his life/gave his life fighting the crime of religious authoritarians who cared more for their pet doctrines that they did for hurting, lonely, and lost people.

Jesus fascinates me.  As the Son of God, this one saw life for what it surely is; everyone matters to Father.  Those who have the courage to break the mold of ritualism and, yet, remain in the process in order to develop into the personality of Jesus...THANK YOU!!  For those who have never given up on self and on others that we might make progress in being the church with eyes and heart for the hurting, THANK YOU!!  And then for those who are aging in the church; yet have a renewal of heart day by day that keeps you young instead of church grumpy...THANK YOU!!

I say to every person reading this post who doesn't care much for church, for religion, for spiritual direction, I get it.  I don't blame you.  Guys like me tend to shut down one's interest in such things due to our immaturity and our self-centeredness.  Try not to throw out the Saviour with the bath water.  Rebel against ones like myself if you must; but please ponder awakening to the truth that church habits are, at times, causing a blinding glare to restrain you from seeing when the Son is out.

Everyone in church and out, in religious organization and out, have the very same need.  We must know of someone who took the rigors of death and made jelly out of it.  We must meet the only one who was beaten to death on our behalf.  Once we do....we must spend the rest of our days thanking him rather than rejecting him.

Jesus....he's that one who dared to cut against the grain of religion.  The leaders killed him for it.  We praise him for it.  And then....we follow him because of it.  Might you who can't stand church be finding your heart wavering a bit?  Might you be wondering if, rather than  rejecting the idea, you might just be thinking your could be a part of it?  It happened to me.  It may very will be happening to you.  Listen to your own heart.  It will tend to lean toward the voice of God.

IF YOU HAVE CHANGED, WHY WOULD YOU BELIEVE OTHERS HAVEN'T?

The voice of God via His Word is repetitive with a call to start life over, to be a new person, to arise with a renewed dimension of power and hope and love. If there's a consistent fact about the God dynamic, it is that His people often make adjustments toward the improvement side. Hopefully, we mature.

I venture to guess that you are not the same person you were twenty-five days ago; let alone even twenty-five years ago. You believe differently. You approach problems more maturely. Frankly, in many instances you've simply changed your mind.

So, if we note within ourselves significant changes having taken place, why would we not believe the same would be possible for those within our cluster of stressful contacts? Grievances are carried on far too long. We may note progress within our own walk; but simply forget that those with whom we differ may have grown up at the same pace (or possibly even accelerated beyond us).

Living in begrudgment is a waste of heart-energy. It isn't necessary. Furthermore, it's costly. Our anger and frustration blocks out our enemies and contaminates our friends. Assuming that we are immune from identical mistaken behavior, we chatter with those "on our side" as if we are not just like "them". This practice merely strengthens mistaken barriers.

My guestimation is that, with age, you have changed. Yes, there remains room for improvement; but you've likely come a long way. So why would we not think such inevitable for those among our strained-relationships? Might we drop the grudges and begin to believe in the good side of....us?

SCARED TO DEATH IN ORDER TO BE THRILLED TO LIFE!

A God whom we couldn't have thought up on our own has turned to us, reached to us, is revealed to be someone quite other than the God we would have if God were merely a figment of our imagination--God is a Jew from Nazareth who lived briefly, died violently, and rose unexpectedly.  This God scared us to death but also thrilled us to life.....

.....Many Jews expected God to come and save them; few expected God to show up as a homeless man, unmarried, and unemployed.
                                                                     William Willimon (Why Jesus)

Mankind is stuck because the church is more stuck.  Hopelessness abounds when church focus is slanted toward ritual, religiosity, results.  The Good News is that all three of these are crushed by the unimaginable display of Heavenly Father taking form in Earthly Son.  Jesus defied every thing and every place where man thought he could hang his theological hat.

When one reads the Bible...and this is the Divine Revelation standing the test of time...the weird, the wonderful, and the absurd describe the Story.  Nothing is average.  The exciting Truth is that we are to be a part of this Story unfolding; overlapping into the next moment which (as of yesterday) was only known as future.  We are not to enter in as much as we are to realize we have entered in.

Might it be time that we step out of our boats of security and begin walking atop of the waters of uncertainty?  Might this be the thrill for our lives which initially, we must admit, scares us to death?  We are called to move from a lifeless living to a living kind of life full of meaning and power and God's rich glory.

Don't be afraid to step out, step up, and step into the incredible zone of defiant hope.  Do be afraid of never taking the leap.  It's when we make the bold jump that we break the bonds of fear and slip into the freedom of wonder.  Don't stop at being scared to death.  But, be scared to death in order to be thrilled to life!

THE CURIOUS ADAM AND EVE SYNDROME

After all of these years---well centuries really---wouldn't you think that we would have gotten a few things corrected regarding the pathway to being a newly and vastly improved society?  Shouldn't the caliber of inner man have bypassed the hurdles of wear and tear a long time back?  Wouldn't what ailed families, businesses, and even churches have significantly subsided simply because each generation stepped forward/ahead of the last curve of stressful errors?

Wouldn't you think so?

But, no.  Disarray of the human course and disfigurement of the social process seems to find our present day course to have been perpetuated by malfunctioning philosophy of accumulated past.  Even in the church, we are snagged.  Why is this?  What's causing this ongoing mindset which cripples even the best of our best to the extent that current disorder among us is the same ol' story of ages gone by?

Could it be that there is extreme need for each of us to submit in humility?  And think about those two descriptive words (submit/humility).  Especially in any range of leadership, force and power tend to get the Gold Star.  Force and power are marks of strength, we assume, so move that man/that woman up the success ladder!  These two marks were clearly not a part of the leadership of Jesus; the only one who can spare us from this downward spiraling mess we are in.

The Adam and Eve Syndrome is curious, to say the least, for it causes each individual to approach each day with an assumption that, What I think is the correct way to think.  Such isn't necessarily violational until we then move to step two: Everyone should think as I think.  Thus, mankind is stuck just as broken today as the Two were back in the Garden.

The Good News is that there is a way to overcome this societal monster which hungers to ravage the hearts and minds of every one of us.  The formulaic way is that of the Cross.  And, wouldn't you know that the Cross is the very last place each individual wants to be found?  Didn't God mean to say Captain?  CEO?  Foreman?  President (of something)?  Boss (of someone)?  Older sibling?  Longest tenure?  Shouldn't He have come out with an impressive rather than submissive approach to effectivity?

No, the only way to success is not to be found at the top; but is always at the bottom.  Assess each of the aforementioned list.  The successful ones are those who maintain an inner awareness of humility which is the quality (of Jesus) that makes them/leads them to rise effectively to the top.  The curiosity of the Adam and Eve Syndrome is that it is broken while it tries to convince each of us that everyone else is wrong; but never ourselves.   Strangely, we continue to buy into the lie....as did Adam and Eve.

HAS THE TERM "BORN-AGAIN" DIED AGAIN?

I don't know if meaningful Christian terms are camouflaged or sabotaged.  Either way, much of what had original intent has been reduced to sloganalism which is heard; yet has lost its impact.  Such is possibly the case with "born-again" for it very well may have been hijacked by casual and very anemic religiousity.

To be born again is one of the most thrilling concepts of all mankind.  We must protect its mighty existence.  All experience being born-once as obvious fact.  This cannot be denied.  Too, all born-oncers would admit that life is a struggle of harsh reality.  Inner battles aren't random.  Nor, are they timid.  But rather, difficulty is compounded to the point that we wonder if we can carry on at times.

God saw this dilemma.  Satan wrecked the Garden scene.  Imposingly, he reversed wonder into wander.  From such a time, man has sought the Promised Land; a way of escape which would be the path to restored normalcy of hope, and of delight, and of sheer treasure.  Jesus was sent head-long into this quagmire of death for the very purpose of transforming the same walk into and new and robust gust of perpetual life.

This is why Jesus approached his mission at the very early stages with the call for men and women to begin anew by being rebirthed.  We are able to start life over.  Don't rush past this wonder of all wonders: WE.  ARE.  ABLE.  TO.  START.  LIFE.  OVER.  Just as the first life finds the infant born through the waters of the womb, the second begins through the baptismal waters.

Jesus calls every person to be born again.  Such isn't a call to be churchy.  Rather, it is a call to get to do what everyone wishes we could do anyway....step away from this killer life and shift into a new kind of life where possibility and potential are realities of hope and happiness.

There's much that goes into this fact that will forever grow us in spirit through the ages.  For now, I wish to point out that upon the first birth death looms as final word.  From the second birth, wonderfully so, death dies.  It can't have us.  It will sting us; but it doesn't get to keep us.  When Jesus left the grave, death went into depression for it lost its eternal bite.

Yay Jesus and your empty grave!  Yay.....for giving us the option for being reborn.  We must not let the term die for its origin is intended for the opposite...ALWAYS LIFE!

WHAT TO DO ABOUT THOSE WHO SIN AGAINST YOU

There are no exceptions.  Every person has a host of others who sin against them.  It's rugged.  It's painful.  It's daily.

And, what is one to do about this?  What are we to do about them?  God is not vague in this matter.  How we choose to deal with them sets the parameters for how He will deal with us.  We set the course for our own trial and judgment.  It's weird; but it's true.  As a result, this changes our entire perspective on how we choose to deal with any who sin against us.

Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things (Romans 2:1).  Verses 2-5 reinforce the writer's statement.  We will be judged by how we choose to judge others.  Condemnatory?  Then we shall be likewise.  Merciful?  Such, then, will be afforded us.

This.  Is.  Serious.  Business.

Take inventory of just how many people there are whom you despise; even hate.  Look them over thoroughly with your self-righteous squint-eyed disdain.  God is not vague.  He insists that each of us is looking in the mirror.  Ah, how we don't want to believe it.  We just can't be like them.  Yet, it's true.

Our role is to be as Jesus; not only to die for those who sin against us, but to love them so much we take on their sins.  Tall.  Order.  We could not get well if Jesus did not suffer our due penalty.  He paid for what we deserved.  Why do you think we are to carry crosses day by day anyway?  Religious jabber?

No.  We are on a mission to die for the very people who hurt us....hurt us deeply....by their offensive and obnoxious sin against us.  This is what Jesus did...and continues to do...from within us.  It might be good for us to be reminded to park our high-horses and dismount as quickly as we can.  Should we continue to hold animosity toward any, we are setting our own Judgment Day in a framework that we do not intend.

Yes.  Of course we are mighty aware of the sins that some others commit while seemingly able to be quite forgiving of our own.  It feels good to dislike (even hate) others, do you think?  Such spite seems to keep your cause charged.  It seems to keep you charged.  But....drop it.  The greatest sinner you ever met will look back at you in the mirror every morning and then...will be waiting to look back at you every evening.

What to do about those who sin against you?  Forgive them as quickly as you can for Someone is monitoring your behavior.  And do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God (Romans 2:3)?

MIGHT WE NEED TO CHANGE OUR INNER PASSWORD?

I don't know how to say what I'm about to say--what I want to say--to you at this very moment.  Believe me.  My (com)passion is charged and ready to express in deep meaning the value that I see in you and how much I believe that each is basically unaware of your own profound depth of wonder.

Mankind is stripped of its potential because Satan's original work in the Garden divided us.  Oh, I don't mean that such division is merely one against another.  No, I mean that we entered a zone where we are divided against ourselves.  We want to be effective; yet, find ourselves plagued with failing moments.  We desire to really be alive only to spend far too much time in dread of a day or an event or of a person.

This is why faith enters the picture.  It is a warrior against fear for fear still wants to be the Boss.  That's what happened to Adam and Eve.  They simply became afraid....and many have never gotten over what we inherited from them.  Yet Jesus, at our rebirth, very much does reopen one's potential and possibility in a whole new power display.

From Princess to Pauper, we are all the same; wanting to be more than we are and blinded to our own positive dynamic at any given moment.  Don't misunderstand.  I'm not promoting rude self-centeredness.  But rather, I'm wishing to draw out an inner confidence embedded within us by the intentional design of the Holy Spirit of God.

Individuals do not grasp just how deeply wonderful they/you are.  Thus, we perpetually thirst for something more without realizing we are currently and valuably very much, very sharp, very effective, and very meaningful.  This is not to brush against one's ego; but rather, to dip into His Supply.  So how do we reverse this mistaken daily tendency of missing His glory within our very own interior?

Realize that we are all the same.  When I was entering the sales world as a 20-something, before I seriously entered into ministry, I was highly intimidated by any of slightest power.  How many times I heard from my colleagues, Hey, they all put their pants on one leg at a time.  But this didn't help...and I failed.

When I eventually entered into ministry, I was plagued by the very identical insecurity.  This is a part of the reason that it wasn't until my senior segment of Preaching School that I was sent out into area churches to preach (while all other students began such an experience in their sophomore term).  I.  Couldn't.  Do.  It.

I was scared.  Fear drove my every day.  But little by little, I gained confidence in Him.  I never gained confidence in myself (to this day).  Yet, the key was increasing in assurance of His absolute presence and His productivity.  I actually began to believe; to trust God.  Count.  Me.  In.

My burden for you is that I believe that every person on earth battles insecurities galore.  This, then, carries an inner defense mechanism within our thinking that goes unchecked.  We refuse to learn new ways for we are protecting what little security we dare think we possess.  We take the talent He gives us and we hide it.  We hoard it for fear that it, too, will diminish.

Often we balk at the very idea of just trying.  This very practice reduces blessings for those in your path as well as your own potential ones for you would rather play life safe.  There is nothing safe about this for it is robbing you of the real you.  This is your personal Thief.

Whether you are my friend or are my foe, I cheer you on.  Dare to open up your heart to your dreams and imaginations.  Quit playing it safe.  Refuse to hide within your manageable schedules and controlled talents.  Explore.  Dream.  Imagine.

And then....dare to step out of your comfort zone and into His.  Nothing in life has us trapped by enemy pursuants but what God cannot part your Red Sea and provide a way of escape into the unknown wonder of your very own Promised Land!

Change your inner password from I'MAFRAIDI'LLFAIL to GODLET'SGOFORTHEVICTORY.

PUSH BY FAITH

What kind of spiritual exertion are we to....well....exert anyway?  I reference our walk with God.  Is it all up to Him?  Or, all up to us?  Shared responsibility?  I send a bit of ponderment your direction for consideration.

Christians are to do work in the kingdom.  Yet, there's a subtle distraction that seems to undermine the theme of working.  We seem to transfer or translate such self-effort as if we are viewing our Bibles as a place to put our invisible savings stamps so that, when we get the book (the Bible) full, we can hope that we are saved.

This is the work-side that comes off as humanistic earning power with the hopes of persuading God that we could/should enter Heaven on that Day.  Aren't you impressed God?  See what we have done?

Yet, of course, Father puts a twist and a challenge into the biblical word work.  We are very much anticipated by Him that we will work in the Kingdom.  He wants it.  We want it.  That settles it.

Not quite.

Work is not knocking so many doors setting up Bible studies, per se.  Work is not attending church three times a week in hopes finding an Eternal Pass awaiting at Heaven's gate.  Neither is work an involvement in ministry which gives self the appearance of Kingdom connection.

These are to be questioned for one simple reason.  One can do these things without having any trust in God.  Many are in the church who know their place to sit; but do not have a relationship with the One.  Much labor goes on within and for the church which may be exercises of one's will without confidence in the Spirit that He would be engaged in any part of walk.

Not so strangely, all of the efforts above may also be mighty and powerful in content as well as effort.  The difference is, again, whether the work that we are doing is on the God-plane.  That plane?  Faith.  Faith is the work that we are required by God to do.  Without faith...without a working faith...our works are dead in their tracks.  Without faith in Him, we are possibly pursuing life in the church with faith in our own brain and brawn.

They said therefore to him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."  John 6:28-29

The work that we are to do is to believe in Jesus.  This is the work requirement.  Without this commitment we will be a people who serve without prayer-prep.  We will reach out with little expectation of Jesus' participation.  Too, our walk will be undermined by distraction--easily disturbed--because we have developed a ritual of church activity rather than a confidence in the very Spirit of Christ.  There.  Is.  A.  Difference.

May we be a people who push into our communities with the labor-intensity of the Spirit's highly productive leadership, provision, and backing.  May we be wowed at what He gets done with, in, and through us.  Yet, we will always be sensitive to the truth that He is the One doing the work....not our best foot forward.

Our defining work is to believe that God works.

GARAGE SALE AT MY HOUSE FRIDAY!!!

For all in the Tulsa area, we are having a garage sale Friday, June 23, starting at 8:00.

• Exercise equipment
• Antique signs
• Tools
• Table
• And lots of etc. stuff

10% of proceeds go to Mary!

2636 E. 18th St., Tulsa

FAITH MAKES NO EARTHLY SENSE

Maybe three decades ago, I wrote a book; The Holy Spirit Makes No Earthly Sense.  The meaning of the title is that one will never learn of the Spirit of God using earthly measurements.  No, these would need to be spiritually evaluated.  The title alone caused a stir within the church.  Some were irritated by the sheer fact that I believed the Holy Spirit works in our lives.  And, then, others were upset as they thought that I was saying that the Spirit made no sense in any realm.

So today I still say that the Spirit does not fit the 1 + 1 = 2 mindset of human efforts as if such  equals a basic formula for kingdom living.  What is required is a very unique territory known as faith.  Otherwise we are simply a batch of humanistic minds trying to make church work from earthage rather than from the heavenlies.  Our bodies will one day succumb to injury or disease or age.  Our spirits are the eternal portion of each of us.  Thus, we give attention to such a key element of....our us-ness.

The spirit world is in each of us, among each of us, and very much to be involved with all of us.  What is to be expected, then, in this zone which is the spirit side of us?

For one thing, we need to be aware that our flesh will strive to be boss of our spirit.  It will try to weigh godly Truth from the mindset of what would be regarded as normal and obvious thinking.  Faith, though, is not normal.  Faith believes that what isn't can still become.  Faith sees into the invisibles which blows the mind of the flesh.  As a matter of fact, the flesh can't tolerate this paragraph.  The flesh-mind resents what the spirit-mind strives to believe.

One's spirit, then, engages poles apart from the flesh.  The flesh is willing to attend church; but it doesn't want to pray.  You can't make it pray.  It doesn't want to learn new landscapes and regions of the Word and it most certainly does not want to be uncomfortable.  Ultimately, it is terrified of dying to self that others might be blessed.

The flesh is self-ish while the spirit is self-giving.  The flesh fights to preserve self at the very center.  Yet, the spirit goes to school in order to learn how to give itself away for the needs of others.

The spirit wants to spend time in prayer, learn how to love enemies, become enthusiastic over giving of our money, and finally it wants to grow in freedom to reach to the world around us without being so paralyzingly self-critical.  There is no enemy to our spirit as large and monstrous as our fleshly approach to thinking which tends to hold us captive.

We incarcerate ourselves all the while complaining as if someone else did the arresting.  Others are never our main trouble.  Our interiors--the mind of the flesh or the mind of the spirit--set the course for our every day.  The former is captivity while the latter if freedom.  We.  Get.  To.  Choose.

Faith makes no earthly sense.  It makes much heavenly sense.  As the grave being empty still creates doubt in the flesh-minds who just can't believe it, that empty grave sets a believer's heart on fire for God because we operate more from the Spirit of God than our own lower-life thinking.

I'M ENTERING THE YOUTH GROUP OF OLD AGE

Tomorrow--June 18th--I am to turn 70 years old.  Since 30 sounded old when I was 23, you might imagine how old I thought 70 was way back then!  But it's sorta weird in a good-weird sorta way, that age seems to somehow grow on us with time.

I feel certain that my 70 isn't nearly as old as my grandparent's 70s.  I mean, mines much younger in feel, in attitude, and in....well, in most everything.  I do recall a gradual moving of my expectation factor when playing baseball in the Cardinal camps.  Beginning at age 36 and finishing at age 69, there was a trending away from actually catching the ball to feeling joyful that I could at least see the ball coming....and watching it go by.

Seeing had become key.  Who needs reflexes anyway?

Admittedly, 70 does sound old.

My agility has somewhat crystallized.  I never saw the day coming when I would need to sit down so that I could think on my feet.  And hey, young people, you know that country sound along the creek banks on a summer's night where you get to hear the humming of the locusts and grinding of the crickets?  Well, about age 60 or so, God implants both of those sounds directly inside of your ears and you get to enjoy a summer evening out all day long...everyday...all year long...really.

Regarding driving a car, I've noted that some people just don't respect my sudden change of lanes.  And green lights?  Yellow?  I've upgraded.  They are now the same to me sorta like slow down or stop.  Slow down works just as well and, frankly, saves a lot of time at intersections.  And, being the considerate man that I still am, my moving on through in yellow/reddish simply allows the lady behind me a sooner turn.  Just call me thoughtful.

One more thing.  I've noticed that as we age, others around us seem to become more confused.  They have incredible imaginations remarking that I already told them certain things...several times already.  They are obviously confused....yet I do a nice job of rolling with their absurd suggestions.  They can't help it.

So for now, 78 sure does sound old to me!  Yep, that's most likely the actual and true over-the-hill number!  Right now I 'm merely entering the youth group of old age.

DO YOU HAVE YOUR OWN DAILY BOG?

I ask, do you have your own daily bog?  At first glance, some might have thought that I meant to say blog; not bog.  But...not the case.

My question is whether you have those matters which bog you down day after day?  You know, those words, or deeds, or actions that knock the wind out of your sails?  Perhaps you set out for a time of anticipated wonder only to encounter a grump or a pessimist or and infraction by those around you...or....your own grumpy, pessimistic, infractionary disposition?  Either way, our balloon moments may encounter deflation.

So how do we negotiate a daily bog?  Philippians 4:4-9.  Oh, I know.  You've heard this before.  Yes.  And you'll need to continue to ponder it for daily bogs require daily mindsets upon all that is going right in our world in order to stay up.  Bogglism is always awaiting in the wings to drain your momentum.

Upbeat and forward moving is the stronger option.  This never pivots off of how things are going.  No, upbeat and forward consistently derives from how we choose to think.  Will we sink because of challenges before us?  Or, shall we choose to use these very intimidating struggles as stepping stones to an even higher walk?  Get behind me, bog!

Today is filled with potential, encouragement, and participatory awe.  Enter in.  Don't just wish it was so for you.  Claim it.  Expect it.  Live it.

WHY SHOULD WE UNSPELL "UNTIED"?

Division has become a way of life.  Not to be neglectful, there are those issues which such would seem necessary.  But truthfully, it appears that very much damage is being done in the name of stances taken against other stances.  In addition, I wonder just where people as myself have fueled it without thorough thought.  Have we/are we experiencing a time-warp of intense multi-level separations which are both unnecessary and avoidable?

The political and religious compartments among us are two potential sources of enormous strength and pressure-relieving harmony.  Yet, I hardly believe that their potential is recognized as such; but rather are perceived as contesting forces within their particular zones of seeking advancement and service.  Even the dear term of family has been hacked with terms of separation, abuse, and selfishly individualistic demands.  Pride reigns in all three of the aforementioned categories.

Admittedly, there is such room for improvement right where I live and serve.  That's why I even know what to address here.  Long before Facebook, mankind was hitting like or avoiding hitting it only upon the simple basis of preference.  Preference will not take us into the rough spots of society.  Neither will it win the enemy.  We are called to do both.

Should any be fatigued over a few of the politicians' (and news pundits') sarcasm toward the other side, we just as well confess that churches are hitting our communities with identical thread.  Suspicion and hatred are fruits of our self-serving, self-promoting bias which demands microphone time.  Neither political party has mastered the escalating challenges of states and counties and cities.  None of we churches have captured the entire range of Truth; although competing tribes verify such a mission has been accomplished within our own narrow context.  In both cases, society loses.

We will ever be encouraged to learn the steps of Jesus; not in biastistic plans of salvation, but in walking toward the hurting and the confused and the lost?  Might we grow...up?  May we set out on any and every given day fully aware of flaws...major flaws that need correction...our flaws (not "theirs", not some of "them"; but m-i-n-e as well).

If we could unspell u-n-t-i-ed (meaning that we refuse to be linked in harmony) and rearrange the very same letters then just maybe a new word would have a chance among us; u-n-i-t-e-d.  We can do this.  To make progress, the route of Jesus is the only way... and that way is to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord.

DO NOT BE DISTRACTED BY BEWILDERMENTICITY

I have a daily routine.  It isn't necessarily a matter of following an order nor a procedure.  Neither is it conducive for monitoring impact.  Tangibility it most certainly is not.  My routine is to watch for and to believe that every person in my connectivity range needs encouragement.  There is no exception.

Person hood takes a beating.  We are beaten by forces from the exterior.  Yet, some of the most vicious are the mean ones within our interior.  Be certain.  Be reminded.  Every person, regardless of race, sex, or stature, needs a river of assurance flowing their way.

If we refuse to accept this platform, our personal insecurities go to waste.  At this juncture all one can do is mainly lick our own wounds.  Truthfully, this is not our calling.  Self is not our main interest.  Anyone other than self is.  I've heard it said that if you can't help yourself, you can't help others.  That may have a ring of wisdom; but it is exactly backwards to the Kingdom system.

When we attend to others, our own ills lessen in this deeply spiritual process.  And note, discouragement, frustration, anxiety, etc. are marks of one's spirit; not one's physical attributes.

I have this habitual ability to get distracted by my own maze of bewildermenticity.  I want things to go well.  Really.  But it is the not going well that is paving the road to meaningful and useful participation upon the life-scale of losing self by placing greater value in others.

I am to turn 70 years old Sunday.  I am still fighting this confidence bear.  How long is this going to go on?  It appears that it will continue as long as there are people around me who need a cheerleader.  Our presentations are not backed by our dollars nor by our accomplishments.  The hurting aren't up for our personal rehearsal of grandeur.  No, our value is what we learn from the biting, even stinging, stirring of balloon-puncturing disappointments and ugly failures.

These moments of seeming mishaps connect with others.  They do.  The very thing we don't believe we want (and spend enormous energy and focus trying to kill off) is the exact place we are to fruitfully hurt.  Believe me.  No, believe God.  There is a reason that Jesus is known as the Suffering Servant.  Suffering is what Servants do to reach the whole world.

This has been an IMPORTANT REMINDER.  Never quit!  Never be distracted by bewildermenticity.

DO YOU PRAY YET?

It's interesting how emotionally engaged we can all be in one or many areas of church life.  We enter into studies; both group and private.  Our knack for helping others is applaudingly noble.  It would seem that, for the most part, the vast majority of our members care about the direction and effectivity of the church.  Yet, there appears to be a gap in our walk which isn't Rocket Science.  It the participation and practice of prayer.

This does not reflect well upon my walk, but I went through a Preaching School and out the other side without giving prayer much of a look.  Oh, believe me, we studied about and believed in it.  I just didn't do it.  Prayer?  Would you be ashamed of me if I told you that I didn't like it?

Later I would hear of highly effective men and women who seemed to do extraordinary work while being most ordinary themselves.  I don't know if it would have been a sermon(s) I heard or a book(s) I read or a leading of the Spirit....or a combination of these.... but prayer began to become real in practice rather than a dull and obligatory expectation.

What changed it all?  One major component thrust me into a hunger for prayer rather than a time to take my spiritual medication which tasted badly.  When I saw that thankfulness was a central player in the relationship process of/with God, my prayer life was converted.  Thanksgiving for what He has done, is doing, and will do is a gravitational pull toward the activities arranged in Heaven.

I'm not saying that such a trek is the solution to all non-praying individuals.  I do offer at least this one possible solution of thanksgiving.  My concern is that we walk in the midst of highly-engaged, strongly-opinionated members of the church who are resistant to the heartbeat of the Spirit.  God longs for our interaction with Him as Father; not as Boss.

We walk with Him and we talk with Him.  Remember?  Prayer is where we connect, not just for okaying a meal before us; but, by carrying on a Father/son, Father/daughter walk...us down here...and Him down here with us in Spirit form.

Do you pray yet?  If so, then awesome!  If not, maybe practicing telling Him how thankful you are for all of the wonder in life might bring about a change that you've wanted for some time now.  It can happen.