DEATH

deny yourself….

Dying sucks.

Clearly I’m not talking about a physical DEATH, even though that would be pretty cool since I am writing this. But I am talking about the many spiritual DEATHS we must take each and every day. Mainly DEATH to Pride.

Below is an excerpt from my very first blog post, from four years ago:

Four months ago I went on a Minister’s Retreat with my church, Blessed Harvest Institute, to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The name of the retreat was the Ridgecrest Conference Center. It was nestled in the mountains and exuded serenity. We arrived at about 10pm or so on a Thursday night and then had our first session at 2am on  Friday morning. At the first session we were each asked what has our Ministry cost us so far.

My answer was ‘nothing’. I didn’t feel as if I had lost or really given up anything for Ministry at that point. We took part in some more sessions and activities. At the end of that Friday night, right before we went to dinner, we were each offered a stack of turned down words and asked to pull one. I pulled the word DEATH.

I wasn’t alarmed about my word because I am a homicide detective and I deal with death on a consistent basis. I actually thought my word would pertain to something about work. However, we were told not to assume we knew what the word meant and to be open. As we sat at dinner, God whispered in my ear that the word DEATH did not pertain to my job, it was about me.

Huh? He said I needed to die to me. Self had to die now! He couldn’t use me the way He wanted to because of me. I didn’t realize that I had become my own stumbling block. I had become complacent and didn’t realize it. Selfishness had crept in disguised as me. Me wanting Ministry to be comfortable, me not wanting to be rejected, me not wanting to be inconvenienced, me not trusting Him, me concerned about what others thought, me wanting my desires met; me me me. DEATH to me!

When we are offended, or as we put it, ‘bothered’ with someone, something, or some situation, we hardly take the time to take a step back and see what we are contributing to the situation. And, even when we do we typically find a way to justify the stance or actions we’ve taken.

What happens when that thought flashes or someone says:

• ‘you could have handled that a different way’

• ‘it’s not about YOU’

• ‘why don’t you apologize?’

• ‘it doesn’t matter who did what first’

• ‘stop rehearsing it, because you are keeping it alive’

• ‘it’s not worth it’

• ‘forgive’

It’s been a while since I wrote. Literally a year to the day. Much has changed. God has blessed our family with a new baby girl and I am truly walking in His favor.

This morning he reminded me of this word because it wasn’t just relevant on that retreat four years ago. It will be a constant process in my life. And as I draw closer to Him, He will continually show me the things that have to DIE for me to be in His presence.

Today I want to boldly tell you that it’s not worth your soul to be unforgiving. There is no need to live in strife and tension. We must address situations quickly before they start festering and then stinking. It’s not worth your peace.

We can have peace at home, peace at work, peace at church, peace wherever we go because most of all we can have peace on the inside.

So I share my word with you.

DEATH.

What do you have to die to? Be honest.

Have a blessed day.

Blessings

JC

 

“Going under the Knife”…..

 

 

just a little humor……but our God knows exactly what HE is doing 🙂

 It’s been a while since I have written a post, and though I could have thrown something together, I like writing from an internal compulsion when something inspires me. Well, not to say that I haven’t been inspired over the past two months, but today was different. I had an ‘aha’ moment.

Over the past month or so, God has been dealing with me from the topic “Hunger for Humility”. He has been exposing things and thought processes in me that stemmed from pride and not humility. And it hasn’t been the obvious things that we would recognize and call pride……but it was in my impatience, my irritability, my having to deal gracefully with those who have offended me. Me wanting to see a little vindication (especially if I could help out 😉 ). But hearing God say “can you let me handle it, how and when I choose to?”….and giving Him a weak ‘Yes God’.

Anyway this is the season that I have been in…..learning not only to embrace the lessons God sends my way, but embracing the multiple ‘ways’ in which He sends them.

With that being said, I was in bible study this afternoon and a lady in the session said something that birthed my ‘aha’ moment. She said that as Christians we need to be more willing to go under the knife rather than take pills and self-medicate.

As I was driving back to work, I couldn’t help but ruminate on what she said. Let’s look at it:

Going under the Knife – requires one to be totally at the mercy of the surgeon. If God is our Surgeon, then we are totally at His mercy as to what He wants to cut out, trim away, prune, sew on etc. We are totally at His mercy, totally surrendered with no objections and excuses.

Self-Medicating – We can chose to fill or not to fill the prescription. Choose to follow the directions as to how many pills we want to take, when we take them, forget to take them etc. This is where our own rationalization comes in. Our reasons, excuses and explanations come in. After all we know best right?

Always a lawyer at heart, I still have a few arguments and excuses, but next level always requires a DEATH of something that is offensive to God.

We have to stay on the table until HE’s done….

So, my question to you to answer or ponder is: what has God revealed to you and about you that HE wants to cut away? Is it pride? Is it selfishness? Is it anger? Is it laziness? Is it procrastination? Is it hatred? Is it unforgiveness? Is it impatience? Is it lust? Is it mean spiritedness? Is it offense? I might have missed something that pertains to you, but if you’re like me, you already know what HE has been highlighting over the past few weeks, months or years.

Try Him and see if he wouldn’t replace it with more of HIM. More of His love, His compassion, His humility, more of HIM!

Embrace it 😉

Enjoy this beautiful day!!!

Blessings always

JC