Your True Identity

Recently I lost my wedding ring.  I've been married to my smokin' hot wife for 10 years, and I've only taken my ring off a handful of times and only momentarily.  I don't even remember taking it off, but somehow while I was doing some painting this past weekend I lost it.  It felt so strange to not have it on.  It was like part of me was missing.  That ring identifies me as belonging to my wife.  It says I'm a married man.  I'm taken.  I chose her.  She chose me.

There are many such things in our lives that we place our identity in.  Some of them are good, and some are not so good.  If you are believing something about yourself that does not line up with the Word of God, then it is not the truth about you.  The Bible says if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior that you have been crucified with Him and you no longer live, but Christ lives in you (Galatians 2:20).  If Christ lives in you, then your identity is in Him.  How rawesome is that!!!!

Have you ever felt rejected, insecure, and insignificant?  I know I have.  The truth is, though, that to believe those things about yourself is to believe the lies of the enemy.  You see, having put your faith in Christ, you are Accepted, Secure, and Significant.  God says he chose you before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight (Ephesians 1:3-6)!!  Wow!  It says in John 15:15 that Jesus calls us friend!  In Romans 8:28-39 we learn that nothing can separate us from Gods love, and that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called to His purpose.  In Ephesians 2:10 is says you are God's workmanship; that he created you.  You are His masterpiece, and you are priceless!  It says He created good works for you to do already!  He loves and believes in you so much that He already knew how rawesome you are and prepared things for you to use your rawesomeness to bring glory to Him and show his love to others! 

So you see, God's word clearly shows that He loves you, you are accepted, He is your security, and you are significant.  If it is hard for you to believe these things are true about you, its because you have not been renewing your mind with the truth.  You will be transformed and your faith will be activated if you read the Word; but the Word cannot transform you sitting on your shelf collecting dust.  You want faith to always trust that you are accepted, secure, and significant?  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the words of Christ (Romans 10:17).

Everything You Need is Free

Imagine a place you could go to get everything you will ever need for free....how awesome would that be?!  The truth is that you do not have to imagine that place!  It is resting in God's grace...look at what 2 Corinthians 9:8 says, And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
It doesnt say having "some" or "most" of what you need...it says having ALL that you need.  So how is this free you say?  Ephesians 2:8-9 shows us: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.  How great is that!  It's the best gift you will ever recieve, but you may not even know that God wants you to have it.  In my next post I want to share with you the truth that God's grace is available to everyman.  Until then, grace is all you need :-)

Bap-ti-tized

Bap-ti-tized.  That's what my 5yr old son calls it.  I type this holding back the tears of joy because tonight, that 5yr old boy is getting baptized!  A couple of months ago he told us with giddy excitement that He loved Jesus and he asked Jesus to live inside him!  I was so excited that I ran around the house yelling and screaming "woo hoo, praise Jesus!"  Proverbs 22:6 says Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.  Before I had kids, heck even when my 1st born was young, I thought that meant I needed to teach my kids right from wrong, the ten commandments, and to obey the law.  Fortunately, I came to understand the truth before they were all grown up.  You see, "the way" is Jesus.  Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me."  Jesus, not the law, is the "way" we should train our kids to go.  Once I started seeking Jesus for a relationship, my family naturally followed....including my 5yr old son.  He knows the truth because we talk about it all the time.  We are so excited about truth in our house that we cant talk about anything else.  We are being transformed as we renew our minds in the Word.  Thank you God for loving me, and my family!  Thank you for my son, who is also your son; adopted into your royal family!  May he reign in life by the power of your Spirit!

Why Are You Striving These Days

  I love the lyrics to this Tenth Avenue North song By Your Side.  I posted them below, so read them and let them sink in.  Life is so much better when you understand the gift of grace and God's love that is available to you.  Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.  Ephesians 2:8-9 

Tryin's Lyin'

When I was 13 I had a really bad accident where I played a good game of chicken with an ATV.  I won the game, but it turns out it wasn't really a win for me!  A cracked knee cap and a fractured femur later, I ended up in traction for 6 weeks and a body cast for 2 months after that.  After my fracture had healed, I started going to a personal trainer to help me get my strength back so I could get back on the basketball court.  I had to get back in shape so I could practice my Michael Jordan moves!  (I still stick my tongue out when Im driving to the rim :-p)  So, anyway, back to me getting in shape- my parents hired a hard-core personal trainer to help me.  Her name was Ladawn Hladick.  She was really sweet until it was time to workout, and then she got her trainer face on!  She was gazelle intense as Dave Ramsey would say.  She was on a mission to get me back in shape, and wasn't taking any excuses from me.  She was always pushing me beyond what I thought I could do.  If she ever asked me to do something and I said, "I'm trying", she would always say, "tryin' is lyin', just do it."  That was 19 years ago and I still remember it to this day.  Ladawn was right because if I was saying I was trying, I already had doubts in my mind that I could not do it.  She was challenging me to change my perspective.

What doubts do you need to let go of?  What do you need to stop "trying" to do, and just do?

Change your "Should" to a "Must"

Last night, I was at a men's group we call Truth Group, and a good friend of mine named Steve Mielke was there.  It just so happens that he is a Team Beach Body coach (order you Beachbody supplies here and let my good friend Steve help you succeed).  He has been encouraging me to get myself back in shape for longer than I care to admit.  I always tell him, "I should do that workout" or "I should start drinking Shakeology", but I never do any of those things.  Last night Steve told me I need to start changing my "shoulds" to "musts".  WOW!  Some great wisdom from the best Team Beachbody coach I know.  Turn my "should" to a "must".  Brings a whole new perspective doesn't it.  I decided to take a look at the long list of things I have been saying I "should" do and start converting them to a list of things I "must" do.  It's really just a hard look at my priorities.  The way Steve said it just really clicked in my mind.  Hope it helps you too.

What "shoulds" do you need to change to a "must"?

Read the Instructions First

I'm one of those weird guys that likes to read the instructions before I assemble anything.  I have always been this way.  I'm a former/recovering perfectionist, so you other perfectionist instruction reading guys and gals can relate to my obsessiveness with reading instructions.  How else are you supposed to know what order to put things on and how clip things to this and screw things to that?  Some people I know think they know it all and don't need the instructions.  They just start putting things together and they just hope it is correct.  Most of the time when people do this, the item they assembled either falls apart, breaks, or doesn't work at all....and there are also usually many pieces left over that they just left off because they could not figure out where or how they went on the item.

Based on my word of mouth poll, I would say about half of you read the instructions before you put together that new trike for little Susie, and about half of you just wing it.  Based on another word of mouth poll only about 5% of those claiming to be Christians read their Bible consistently (for the purpose of this post I am defining consistently as reading 3.5 days per week).  Interestingly, about 95% of those I polled who claim to be Christians struggle with things like anger, bitterness, depression, fear, doubt, chronic illness, marriage problems, lust, etc.  See any correlation in my poll? 

Many people believe the Bible is not relevant to their daily life, but I believe that it is absolutely relevant and necessary for your daily life.  Who knows better what you need and how to communicate that to you than the One who created you?  The Bible is not about a set of rules for you to follow.  God saw that there was a better way than the law....it was JESUS!!!!!  The Bible is a love story.  The story of God's love for me.  His love for you.  He loves you.  The Bible is a manual on how to overcome, succeed, prosper, love, forgive, receive healing, and on and on I could go.  Dive into your Bible and start reading about how much God loves you.  I recommend reading  1 John, Ephesians, and Psalm 103-126 for starters. 

Just remember, its about relationship not results.  This post is not about condemnation for not reading your Bible, its a challenge for you to pursue a relationship with God.