The sermon series our senior pastor has been focusing his messages on has been DECIDE NOW. He wrapped this up yesterday with the message focus being COURAGE. Following the second service we had our monthly Celebrate Recovery leadership meeting. I couldn’t help but think how everyone of us sitting at this table needed to take that courageous step when we first came to CR. There have been hundreds who have taken this first step in the past 16 years, but the first one is the hardest. With that first step one has to be willing to say out loud he has a need that must be faced and I cannot do it alone.

I have truly loved/appreciated these weeks of focus on this topic. God’s Holy Spirit nudges us to take this step. Sometimes He is nudging us to come along side someone who needs our encouragement to take the step. In these cases we need to muster our courage to ask them to take this step with us. Obedience is the key here which seems (at least it did for me) like it might cost me my entire career and friendships. Instead, what it did was open a door for joining God in an area I thought must be kept buried until my body was buried.

Oh, how important it is to DECIDE NOW. Trusting God in an entirely new way will become an unexpected benefit!

Last night we had the birthday party for my dear friend who lost his wife a couple of weeks ago. It was intended to be a fun time, but one cannot be joyful in spirit when one’s spirit is still in grief. Thus, there were tears of sadness which will linger for quite some time. However, there were also laughs of momentary fun and humor which only a group of dear friends can generate. It is painful to see a friend hurting like this. I know that God is the great healer and He uses all things to His Glory. This friend is still getting cards and letters each and every day lending support to him. God is supplying the emotional support he desperately needs. God is so kind and good.

As each day arises I keep getting my daily focus to worship God by keeping my eyes on Jesus, listening to His Voice and Obeying His Commands. I want to have my friend’s hurt obliterated. God on the other hand, wants to use this time to comfort him, grant him peace and remind him he is loved in many different ways. God’s timing is always perfect.

The lesson for today was very clear as I was starting my devotional time. Trust and have faith in God’s Word for our daily living. The devotional message was built around Isaiah 58:11. The Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones. The author goes on to say that our desire for instant gratification so often has us running ahead of this promise for our own selfish reasons. This can be in all kinds of areas including food, financial, social, sexual, relational fulfillments. God promises to meet all of our needs, but His timing doesn’t often match our own flesh desires.

The more I go into this year with the commitment I wrote in yesterday’s blog, the more I see the truth in today’s devotional message for myself. My timing is always needing to be surrendered. Trusting God’s timing is critical if I indeed want Jesus to be Lord of my entire life each and every day. God just never is done helping us see the ills of our flesh. We can’t know the beauty of God’s care if we put our own ahead of His timing. Today’s lesson!

I’m having one of those awakening periods of time in my devotions of late. Today’s scripture reading is from the first chapters of Deuteronomy. Moses is prepping the children of Israel for their entrance into the promise land. He does this by reviewing with them the teachings God has given to him for them. Today he was reviewing the Ten Commandments and outlining just what each commandment looks like as we daily live. As he was addressing the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” he spoke very plainly about the gods of the people presently living in the land they would soon possess. These were gods of man’s flesh, and just like the gods of man’s flesh today, very attractive to our flesh.

I found it so insightful reading this today when I had just written yesterday about why God wants us to worship Him. As I wrote yesterday’s message I know God appreciates our worship, but I strongly believe what He truly appreciates is seeing us having our eyes on Him rather than on any “idol that worships man’s flesh/desires”. Spending so much time with Celebrate Recovery these past many years I’ve truly awakened to so many ways idol worship is done by us. I’m not going to try and state them here for God’s Spirit within each of us will show us what these are for each one.

I want my life to honor God fully. My commitment for 2024 is to keep my eyes on Jesus, listen and believe His Voice and then obey HIs commands. Worshiping God and letting no other god be before me is my present lesson in obedience.

There is a message about God and me God is wanting me to learn as of late. This message centers around my love for God. God wants us to worship Him, adore Him, love Him. This much I’ve always understood. As I’ve thought about it however, I’ve done so through the lens of me and how I process love given to me. There is a much different picture of God wanting me to worship Him that today’s devotional time awakened me to. 

Everything about us–mankind–is self-centered. I hate knowing this and admitting this because I always used my dad or my brother’s behaviors as the epitome of selfishness. I’ve never wanted to be like them and God has taught me I’m not like them, I’m like myself–self-centered. God is showing me that my main reason to worship Him each and everyday is to get my eyes off of me and onto God Himself. Yes, I’m sure God appreciates this, but what He appreciates more than anything is me getting my eyes off of myself and onto Him. I do this when I worship Him. 

I’ll never fully grasp this immense love of God while I’m here on earth in my flesh. But, I want to live in worship to this God of mine–ours. He is so worthy of our praise and adoration! How grateful I am!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! The last couple of days the devotional I’m using is targeting the astounding love God has for each of us. At Christmas I give the same devotional to our quartet members so we have each day’s message in common. Yesterday’s message was hitting me head-on. It was centered around the idea that if we “work hard enough and do it well enough, maybe God will love us”. I spent a lifetime trying this out only to find that God already loved me. The quartet member who asked me to be part of his quartet the beginning of our freshman year in college (56 years ago), text me after he’d read the message. He said the message made him think of me. I responded saying I knew that message from first hand experience. 

Valentine’s Day is all about expressing love to those around us–especially those in our family. However, there is no greater expression of love than that of God our Father. Giving us Jesus as our pathway to Himself is utterly amazing! One of the best ways to love is taking a good, close look at the sacrificial love example Christ modeled for you and me. I know I’ll never live up to it, but I want to do my best to try and live it out one day at a time.

I’m always amazed how God works. As I went for my haircut yesterday afternoon from my grandson, I was ready to talk with him about what I had written in the blog. Before the topic came up he said he’d gone to church on Sunday. His mom and siblings rarely go to church so this was big news. It seems his good friend invited him. His friend had begun to go with his girlfriend. As we conversed through the time we were able to talk extensively about the fears he had ahead of him. Final exams, applying for positions and so on. It was nice to have him open up and share. It also gave me a chance to let him know how God opened doors for me at that point in my life. God will do the same for him. 

There is great joy in helping another find God in their trouble/fears. I look back now and see Him so well in my own past. It helps greatly to have someone to confide in who helps you see God and understand how to turn ourselves over to Him, trusting Him rather than in trusting ourselves to get us through. Being able to express the present bondage we face is a huge step in finding God. If we can express the problem, it helps us see our problem in a different way. Every problem is made up of pieces. Finding these pieces help us see the steps needing to be taken to work through it. 

God waits patiently for us to find Him in the midst of our strife. So often it begins when we open up with someone we trust and let God begin His miracle working ways. 

Today would be considered a light day. Only a haircut planned but it is an important one. My next oldest grandson is in barber college in Boise and I’ve been going to him for the past 6 months having him grow his experience of cutting hair with me. He’s needing some encouragement at this point so his mom tells me. I’m asking God to help me find words today that will do just that–encourage him. 

The fears of going into anything new, especially when one is thinking about your lifelong career, can be paralyzing. I sure know this! Thinking about what to say when I go today has brought about some of my own reflecting. When I was to begin my teaching career I was thrilled to get the job I did. The first day at the school, ahead of students arriving, I remember thinking, I’ve been planning to be a teacher since I was 9 or 10 years old. Now I’m here and I don’t have a clue what I’m actually suppose to do! The 5th grade teacher I had who inspired me to be a teacher, had retired. She gave me her collection of materials at the end of her year. I used these to put up my bulletin boards. From that point I was on my own. 

A few months into this first year I hadn’t slept this one night. I got up about 3:30 am and went to the school. I was determined I was going to make this work or I would find what God really meant for me to do. I had become discouraged questioning what I thought God intended for me. As those early hours progressed I put organization to all the piles I’d collected on shelves. As I did so, focus came into play and I saw the LIGHT. I never questioned my career again. That morning God showed me that He never makes mistakes. I may question, but He is my constant. This has remained true throughout my life. This is the message I want to pass along to a troubled grandson. 

Today would be my mom’s 114th birthday if she were still with us. It took me the first 60+ years of my life to finally let mom be human like the rest of mankind. She was the stable member of our family for all of us. She was the one we looked to for Godly wisdom. I still hang on to some of this wisdom. She also persevered even when there was no light at the end of the troubles. Mom had her struggles being the wife to my dad, but I never ever heard her make a contrary statement about him. I thank God for giving her to me and to all of us kids. 

The curriculum being used with the group of men I meet with on Saturday mornings is presently addressing our relationships. Its main focus is marriage relationships, but the applications are for all relationships if they are to be healthy ones as God defines healthy. One story being written for the participants was a troubled marriage due to the sexual abuse the wife had experienced in her growing up years. It deeply influenced her ability to be intimate with her husband. As we were addressing the questions being asked in the curriculum with one another yesterday morning, I told the group I felt like I was this wife in my own first marriage and even in mine with Kathy. The difference? I told Kathy my story knowing she’d leave this horrid man she married. What did she do? She stayed. She not only stayed but encouraged me all along to get help.

The relationship of Kathy and me has had its definite times of strife for we are made of flesh. However, with God as our first priority, this relationship has become the anchor I cherish. I keep my eyes on Jesus, but next in line is keeping my eyes on the gift God gave me so many years ago–my wife Kathy. 

Yesterday afternoon I had a very intense session with a family. I was asked to facilitate this session for them due to their inability to keep it civil on their own. The reasons behind the family meeting were intense and I thought it would go well, we only needed solid ground rules. Little did I know just how intense the feelings were within each family member. It only took about 10 mins to know this was not going to work at all. I asked the two kids to take a seat outside the room and asked the parents to stay. We came to an agreement that until the parents were unified themselves, we wouldn’t bring the kids into the picture. I had thought the parents were together, but….

I had prayed asking Jesus to take the lead in this session just as I ask with each of them. I trusted this would be the case. At the end of it I felt somewhat whipped. It wasn’t until this morning when I was journaling about it I realized that Jesus’ presence doesn’t dissolve conflict. Good grief, there is world-wide conflict going on centered around Jesus and His presence. I had presumed way too much about what I had been asked to do for this family. This session only allowed me to see the truth behind the message I’d been given. Jesus is definitely working and I just needed to see much more clearly where I was to fit into this situation. 

I write all of this because my own lesson from this is what most of us have heard many times. When we assume, it only makes an ass out of u and me. (breaking the word assume apart–pardon my language here). I know better than to assume, but I hadn’t asked all of the right questions to the adults ahead of time. I’ve needed to learn this lesson more than once, but today, I see clearly my mistake. Thank You Jesus for your faithfulness and PRESENCE!