IPhone 4 and my Wife

So, my wife gets an IPhone 4. She does not know what she has. She had some sort if goofy flip type phone that texting was hard and did not show all of the message, did not get email, did not get internet, …. it was just like an old technology phone that was klunkier than an Edsel.  I hated it. We would laugh at it.   Me and the kids have macs.  All in.  But she resisted….until today.

Now, let me tell you this.  She does not know what she has.  She has an Iphone4 but does not know how to work it.  She does not know all it has to offer.  She does not know all that is is capable of.  She does not know all that it can do.  She does not know all that it was made to do.  She does not appreciate the power of it in a traffic jam to get around stuff.  She does not know the power it has to skype all over the world.  She does not know the power of money and purchasing it has.  She does not know …… well, the power and ability of all it was meant to be.  Then, I sit on the porch and think about me and God.

God has all this power, all this salvation, all this healing, all this provision, all this peace, all this love, all this joy, all this forgiveness, all this righteousness…… and I don’t just grab it!  Me!  I don’t access the application.  I don’t use it.  I don’t call on it.  I don’t just get into it and just soak in all that God has for me.  What am I thinking?  My wife has this powerful product and she got it because me and the girls have apple stuff and she sees it and says I want that too.

God has it, I want it too.  I think I can still learn from my wife.  God has all these applications for my life and I don’t know what I have.  I thought she did not know what she has…..it is really me.  God has it for me and you.

 

World Did Not End…. Darn It…No Apocalypse

Ok.   I am still here and not in Heaven.  Darn it.

So, I did not spend my life’s savings on bill boards.  I did not give away everything and wait up all night for the world to end..(although I was up pretty late).    Now, don’t get what I am saying wrong.  The cat that said the world was going to end on Saturday night……May 21, 2011…….I am not saying he is crazy…..  The scriptures just say that no one knows the end date…..not even the son…just the father.  The scriptures say that there will  be many that will say, Lord Lord…..  Don’t  be deceived.   The Scriptures say…..Do not follow them…!

So, what do we do with stuff like this……where the world is supposed to end……and it does not?

Well,……what we do is ……   we just make disciples.  We share the Word of God.  We look at those around us and we minister to them…..on earth as it is in heaven…

I suspect that you know someone that desperately needs Jesus Christ.  I suspect that they…(and me sometimes) does not  know what Jesus did on the cross is an absolute substitutionary work of judgement on us for today.  Share this love of Jesus with them today.

 

Red Shirt

 

So, I am in the Christian Book Store….and of course, all the folks look “churchy” ….they have their cross necklaces, have ties on, have the bible look…..and I am in there getting a video.

This guy comes in with a rushed look on his face and obviously out of place and uncomfortable.  Like the guys feel when their wives want them to go to Target and get them a fresh pack of kotex or worse yet,…tampons.  This guy was a fish out of water and it was all over his face.  He asked real quickly…where are the shirts….like he was an escaped convict and needed a change of clothes…..he saw the shirts and grabbed a red shirt…..and got to the counter.

He said that he had to have a passport photo for a job as a security guard and that his white t-shirt was prohibited…he needed red or blue and this job depended on it.  So, he grabs a t-shirt that says on it….only….Jeremiah 29:11….just the verse number….nothing else. 

So, he is in this Christian Book Store,….fish out of water,….needing a job….extremely uncomfortable in his surroundings… and this shirt is what he needs to help him get a job….  then he asks me….. hey, what does this mean, this Jeremiah 29:11?  I told him it meant that God had a plan for his life….a plan to prosper him.  He said, “cool, I need that.”  I told him that he would be wrapped in God’s word when he took the photo for the job. 

You see,…even when we don’t know what God’s word means….it has meaning.  Even  when we are not searching for God…he is searching for us.  Even when we don’t know that God has a plan for our lives, …. a plan to prosper us, a plan for a hope and for a future…..He is still working….

 God has a plan for us…..even when or if we don’t know it.  It may even be in a red shirt.

 

Unemployment

This good buddy of mine sends me a message that he lost his job…..I mean this was a dream job managing hundreds of acres of land and a business in the Carolinas.  He sent me pictures of what he did and they are on my screen saver at work.  Just spectacular.  My heart ached for him.  And on top of that, he is the type of person you want working with and for you.  He and I worked together for 15 years or so.  He is (not was) a go to guy.  You can trust him.  Solid.  You would want to hire him!

But he is a changed man.  After he got this job,….he gave his life to Jesus Christ…..after that….he married a Godly woman….started going to church (not a requirement for anything…but a good thing I think) and he turned his life around.  I am proud of him.  And now,…after I get this word from him….I am still very proud of him….because he knows that God has him in his hands.  As I was praying about my friend the other night,….I saw God providing for him….I saw God has a plan for his life….a plan to prosper him (like he already has)  it is like God has already paid him up and has more for him. 

I do not know about your situation, about your job prospects, about your outlook… but my buddy in the Carolinas has God in his corner.  He has God in his heart.  I know that God has a plan, a purpose, a success for his life.  I know he has for you too.  God loves you more than anything else and wants the best for you.  As I do this entry, I see success more than my friend can imagine…..I see it for you and I see it for….me.

So, tonight….I speak encouragement into my friend.  I speak prosperity into him and his situation.   I do the same for you,….and for me too.  God loves us.

 

Grace

Not talking about what you say at supper.  Not talking about the old lady across the street.  God’s Grace is what I am talking about.  Think I might do a couple of gigs on this.  Might be what I have been looking for too.

This concept has been working on me for years as I struggle to understand it better…..but really understand what the finished work of Jesus on the cross means.   Well, truthfully, to try to come to grips with my sin and junk and figure out what God thinks about all this.  Which is partially the total forgiveness for what we have, are and are going to do as it relates to sin and our penalty for sin.  Stuff I can’t pay for on my own.

Romans 6:14 says this in a neat way.  It says sin can’t have dominion over us any longer.  I mean, I have struggled with sin….worried about how it effected my relationship with God.  Shoot, I have even been pretty darn judgemental about others’ sin….Christians I know.  Then I began to realize more and more that what Jesus did on the cross has dominion over everything else….especially sin. 

The sacrafice of Jesus, grace given to us, has dominion.  And this dominion is paid for……one time.   Will do a couple more on this.  Don’t want to go too far and get out of breath.

Good to be back.  louie

 

Free After 35 Years….How About You?

So,….DNA evidence does just as much to  clear as to convict.  This guy is free after 35 years.  Wonder how he felt all those years?  Wonder how me and you feel after all these years of captivity?

Jesus came to set the captives free.  You captive somehow, somewhere, from something?  You may be for now…. this is prophesy to you right now….you are no longer captive…you are set free. 

The Prophet proclaimed this in the Old Covenant….but it is for you.  Be set free in Jesus name. 

louie

 

It Is Not About Music….It Is About Rocks.

It is not about music.  In the last post, Abraham was the one that brought sacrifice to the worship scene. I always thought about music as the central theme in worship.  I now “use” music sometimes to get me to a worship state..  But that is not all worship is about. 

Joshua crossed the Jordan River from East to West.  After he crossed the Jordan River,…he and about a million or so people entered the Promised Land….and almost immediately had to fight all the big folks that were there on their land.  But Joshua brought something with him to that new place…the promised land.    Rocks.

He had those with him bring out of the riverbed….rocks.  From the bottom of the previously uncrossable barrier….a river…..Joshua and his nation stopped the water….crossed the river on dry ground….brought up rocks from the river and then….well,..  they fell on their face and worshipped God. 

They listened to God.  Crossed a barrier.  Got stuff up out of the barrier,…rocks,….built an altar and worshipped God. 

What are you bringing to church?  What barrier are you crossing?  You bringing with you something?  Just checking?  I often bring criticism of what is going on.  I often bring selfishness in what I want at church.  I even want the temperature to be just right or the music to be just so loud….I often bring problems I have and want someone to solve them……I often preach about them myself……  Seldom do I just lay down and worship God.  Seldom do I bring a rock…..something of worship to bring with me into church. 

louie

 

So…How Do You Worship?

Got to spend some extended time with my brother this last  week.  A couple of days….about 24 hours total.  He is a worship leader at a big church in our town.  We talked about worship. 

So, …how do you worship?  A couple of concepts from my brother.  Here is one.

We were talking and I have heard many teachings on worship…..most are by worship leaders…. and much of the teaching deals with how “they”  (worship leaders) think folks in a church should “act” when the music is playing.  From the quiet when you come in…..to the “you should raise your hands and jump up and down”  crowd.  So, me and Frank just talked.  I got a couple of points…here is one.

Abraham and his only son, he waited for 99 years for, (Isaac), went up this mountain to worship God.  Abraham did not go up to play music…not even mentioned….not to jump up and down and groove with a praise band….not talked about…..not to adjust the sound…not talked about…..not to get the most popular song of 88.3….never talked about……

Abraham and his only son went up a mountain….all alone….no music, …. no praise band…., no popular stuff……,  no…what the majority of folks want……..they (father and son) went up to sacrifice to God and just to worship…… the  Hebrew word means to “bow down….lay down,…..in front of God”  No music.  And Abraham…..was going to lay down his son….Isaac….to the lord. 

So,….. how do you worship?  Got some way you think is worship?  Check out this gig in Genesis 22 and look up the word Worship.  This might change the way you come to church and expect something from the praise team, the pastors, the Lord.  When was the last time you (or me for that matter)…just bowed down to God and listened to what he would have to say?  Worship.

louie

 

Foreclosure….Working From Inside Out

I was on a very long walk over the weekend in my neighborhood.  There has been this house in my neighborhood….well, many houses….all over…..in every town,….that are vacant due to foreclosure.  Some young working folks moved into this one house in my neighborhood.  They have been working on it really hard.  They are working folks….she is a medical person of some sort and he is in construction.  When I walk early in the mornings, I see them leaving for work.  They have a little girl and what looks like a grandfather living with them.  They have been working on this house for a month straight since they moved in.  I stopped as I was walking this weekend to tell them hello and praise them on what they have accomplished with the formerly run down….overgrown,….neglected house.

A neighbor saw me and after I left them and flagged me down.  She lives just across the street from this new family.  She asked me if I scolded them about the trucks, the lack of care and the unorganized look of the house.  She reminded me that these new folks were in violation of the homeowner’s association rules. 

I did not think of it that way.  I walk every day almost and have seen the progress they have made on the house.  I have seen the effort they have expended while both of them work all day, have a small child and an obvious grandparent living with them.  I have seen the paint, the drywall and the new curtains.  I just did not think about the outside appearance of the house, because I can tell…the family is working from the inside out…….just like me.

I asked the lady,….a retired, sits at home all day and looks at the house type person….if she would rather have the house vacant. 

Strange how we all view things differently.  I hope God still will work on me inside out…..rather than me being vacant.  God does not look on the outward appearance.  He looks at the heart. 

louie

 

You Think You Have Issues?

You have issues?  I know a woman that realized she had issues….Yep…a woman.  It was a bloody mess.  Sort of a sensitive subject.  So what.

There was this woman who had what the KJV says is….and “issue of blood”.  She had it for 12 years.  So, you think you have issues…..this lady had issues.  Her battle is described in scriptures in Matthew and in Luke….but my favorite version is in Mark. 

She had battled this issue for 12 years and Mark says that she spent all she had on many doctors but it did not get better but worse.  You see, …  she battled for many years with this and went every doctor she could afford.  She went to every primary care, every specialist, got multiple opinions, spent all she had…..and then when there was no where else to turn…. she turned to Jesus.  Me too!  Well, I mean that I seem to want to try to figure it out myself before I head toward Jesus.

She had probably seen the large crowds in town before.  She had probably walked right by Jesus while on the way to the doctors….and just dismissed him as a nut case…..because that is what the religious leaders of the day said about him.  She had probably rode by  him on I-95 on the way to Mayo, I-4 to Nemours… when what she needed was right there…..and immenently interruptible. 

Now….do not take me wrong.  I love Mayo, Nemours, Arnold Palmer, Moffitt….all the doctors…. but sometimes you have to get to where  you just have issues enough that you turn to Jesus Christ.  I have been there myself.  I have searched the web on “issues” I have had….and seems like I turn to the Lord…..when I am a bloody mess.

Think you have issues?  I do!  She did!  You do too! 

She was healed…. I have been healed…. you too?

louie