The Wrong Kind of Fear

2 Kings 17:33-34 They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods—according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away. 34 To this day they continue practicing the former rituals; they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel, 

"These two verses caught me. The people here are those brought in from Assyria after the captivity of Israel. The Lord sent lions among them and they feared The Lord because of it yet served their own gods. How foolish! They even sent a priest to teach the people how to serve The Lord and they still made their high places, carved images and their own way of worship. That is why they feared the Lord, being afraid of him sending lions, in verse 33 but did not fear the Lord in verse 34. How many are come into the church that want to dwell as a Christian in title and by proximity? When the devil, that roaring lion, comes seeking whom he may devour they fear the Lord, they listen to the teaching, and yet still serve their own gods, money, sex, self, and do not fear the Lord"

These thoughts speak of our present day condition don't they? I am reminded that in the New Testament it says that people have a form of godliness and yet deny it's power. We know who Jesus is and yet don't serve Him and operate in the power that we should. 

It comes down to having the right kind of fear. 

The wrong fear is being afraid without knowledge. It is a fear that will drive you away from God. Without knowing the loving and powerful nature of God you will see the pressures of life as cruelty and end up distanced from God. 

The right kind of fear is one that is based on the knowledge of who God is. When you know His power and love you will be in awe of Him to a place of respect. You still won't mess with God but you will not be driven from Him. Instead His power and love will draw you to Him. 

Spend time with God in prayer, worship and in His word. As you do you will get the knowledge and will fear no evil. It will produce in you the right kind of fear that is expressed in your service to Him. 

What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave some comments below. 

Avoiding Pitfalls

"I spent more than I wanted but you should never send a bored man to a hardware store."

I guess after reading my comment from last year the same could apply to window shopping with a woman during a sale. There are just things that we should know better. We also should know ourselves. 

Most of the time when I have messed up I can look back and see where I went wrong. Sure there are times where I am blindsided and didn't see the pitfall but most of the time I know I could have avoided the problem. 

It starts with knowing better. To know better we have to look to a higher way than our own. I could try to do life on my own thoughts or feelings. I could also try to get a better way from others in society or education. The problem is that all of these ways are flawed just like my own. The only way to know better is to go to God's ways. 

God is perfect. He is all knowing, ever present and all powerful. It just makes sense to look to Him for wisdom. Jesus even modeled His ways so that there would be no guessing on our part of what the will and way of God looks like in the flesh. When we look at Jesus we know better because it is made plain to us in His life. 

This is wonderful but we also have to know ourselves. We need to take inventory and look at the scene of the accident to find out where we veered off the road and what the factors were that got us off track. The signs will be evident. What time was it? Is that a factor? Were you tired or weary? Did you lack information, time or resource? Did you assume or jump to conclusions? Were others involved? Why did their involvement effect the situation? 

When we know the answers to these questions we can conclude that in the future we can look for these factors and find a way around them. Like the guy who went to the doctor and said he broke his arm in two places to which the doctor responded "Stay out of them places." We need to be aware of what factors are involved in our mess ups. This is especially true if it is a habitual sin or something that dominates our lives. It has to be addressed in the Spirit through prayer and the scriptures and then resisted through imitating Jesus and resisting temptation. Remove or reduce those factors in the natural if you can. 

You can do it. We all have things that God is working on or working out of our lives. Don't get discouraged if you fail from time to time. Repent, stay after it and maybe a year from today when you look over your journal you will find that you are operating in a higher way than you used to. That is called progress. 

Are there any other factors you can identify that would add to accidents along the road? What progress do you see in your life from knowing God's ways or knowing yourself? 

Life Support

"Another great day in church! During the first service I had just finished explaining that when you believe God for something the devil will come and cross examine your faith and the power went out. The church roared. We prayed and took authority and I used it as an illustration for my sermon. The power came back on and we were able to have a great rest of the church service. My favorite quote from the message was that we don't need to support our faith, we need our faith to support us."

All of the issues you face every day will crush you under the pressure if you don't have faith. Faith sees past the natural circumstances to a supernatural God and a supernatural result. Faith supports us when we would have fallen down. Faith supplies us where we are lacking. 

You have to see the solution in the Word of God before you can see it in the natural. When you have a promise from God you can believe Him for it. The great thing is you won't be disappointed because God cannot lie. You can know for sure that you will receive from God what you believe Him for. 

Life will try to kick our legs out from under us. If you have faith then you will be held up through the problem. Otherwise the pain or trial would have laid us out. We would have given up and quit except that God is real and true. 

Finally Faith supplies us where we were lacking. Whether it is strength we need or resources or whatever else, the reward and final result of our faith is that we will receive what we are believing God for. It takes time and patience but it will happen. Watch and see. 

Whatever you launched out in believing God for in the new year stay after it. Put your natural effort in to it and God will put His supernatural ability on it. Faith sees, faith supports and faith supplies. 

What are you believing God for? What scriptures can you believe God for in that are of your life? 

Thoughts on Fasting

"I was thinking about it and came to the conclusion that inconvenience is the essence of a fast. We are inconveniencing ourselves when we decide to not eat any food for a period of time."

Every year we take time to fast and seek the Lord for the new year. It focuses our prayers and our hearts as well as gives the first part of our year to the Lord. It is never easy or pleasant but that is the point. My mother in law who is also a huge influence in my life and a woman of God defined fasting one time and said "Fasting silences what is loudest in our lives in order to hear from God." In other words when we fast it is intentionally quieting our desires and appetites in order to hear from God in prayer. 

Many times you will see prayer and fasting together in the Bible. Other times you see fasting as a way to seek God for breakthrough in a specific area like when Esther was going before the king or Ezra was traveling through dangerous wilderness. Their fasts and prayers were heard by God and they got the breakthrough they needed. 

Jesus told us that when we fast, not if, that we shouldn't make a big deal out of it in order to be noticed by men. Our goal in fasting is to be heard by God and to hear Him. Fasting is an avenue to connect on an intense level with the Lord. I say intense because it shows extra effort. It breaks the habit of our three meals a day or our snack times, it goes against our natural impulses and it is unpleasant. But that is the whole point! We are denying the flesh in order to press in to the Spirit. Expect the flesh to cry out and push back. 

If you are seeking God for direction or want to see breakthrough in 2016 I would invite you fast. If it is your first time start small. Maybe choose a meal or certain times you will fast. Another way to fast is to choose certain foods or drinks you will not eat. There are ample scriptures and tons of great resources about fasting. The biggest thing is to focus your fast on prayer and seeking the Lord for your breakthrough. 

If you have any questions or comments about fasting you are welcome to post them in the comments section below. I would love to hear testimonies later in the year too about what God did and how He answered your prayers. 

Happy New Year 2016

"A new year and new things are happening. It was weird looking at last year's entry. Then to try and write a blog for it was just as weird. Hopefully I will get into a groove and the posts will get better. I have to grow as a writer if this is to be accomplished."

This seems to be an appropriate entry for the new year. I think I saw some growth in my writing abilities this past year. There were some posts I thought could be developed into something more. Some of them I did develop into messages I preached at our church. 

This year I am focusing on developing a new groove. There are new things happening in my life. I am only a few months into being a Senior Pastor and am learning what that means. Tonight my children stayed up until midnight for the first time (well, 2 out of 3). I am realizing that we are entering the tween years. Also the team we have and are building around us are mostly all new at what they are doing. 

What I think is great is that we are doing it together. What is life without sharing it with others? That is also part of the joy of writing this blog. 

Let me share some of the changes for Thoughts From Last Year. First of all I am going weekly. Every day was too much time for me because it is an extra. Most of the time I am writing late at night. I found that it started effecting my daily focus because I was tired and lagging. So I will try to stick to once a week. Second is a new look. The blue and the birds were getting old. Time for an update. Through the year I will develop it more. 

Personally I am seeking God's direction and vision as a leader, pastor, husband and father. I want to hear His voice and follow His direction closer and grow more deeply in love with Him. 

Feel free to share any of your goals for the coming year or any of your thoughts.