Tag: Abide

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Stuck in the Changing Room

.Reading time 6 minutes.

I recently started listening to this book from Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad, titled A Passionate Life. I am listening to it because I always have so much time in the car between school drop off and pick up, soccer practice and everyday errands. At the opening of the book Mike describes a situation that happened when his children were younger. He tells of a time that his family had a membership at a “health club”. That term “health club” alone takes me back to the 80s and 90s. He talks about how he loved the hot tub. Then his children told him about the sun shower. It was like a beach experience. You get sun rays and a tropical breeze for a set amount of time. So he goes in and doesn’t enjoy it. His children loved it and told him to try again. Just try a lil bit more time. So he did. Still didn’t get it. They talked him into trying it a 3rd time. So he goes in again. This time, when he opened his eyes, he found a 2nd door handle in the small room. It was a door knob. He opened it and that is when he realized that he had been standing in the changing room the entire time. He hadn’t even opened the door to enjoy the sun shower. Then Mike goes in to ask: Is your relationship with Jesus like that? Have you gone through the first door and just stood there not knowing that there is more?

I think that many Christians are guilty of this. I know that I was. Often times when we grow up we are told a little bit about what Christians believe. We are told that Christians believe in God and that God sent his son Jesus to be the messiah and that he died on the cross for our sins. I am not saying that is not a great definition. What I am saying is that; that is just the changing room. If we believe that is all we need to know about God, we are fooling ourselves.

I dont pretend to know all there is to know about the Kingdom. One thing I am reminded of is Matthew 7:21-23.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’

I am also reminded of the words that were directed to the Church of Laodicea in Revelation 3

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

There is so much more to God than the knowledge of the sacrifice of his Son. C. H. Spurgeon said that, ‘ to disregard the study of God, you will sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. … this will waste your life and your soul’ I know that knowing that we are to know God is just the beginning. The next step is often harder. The next step is knowing where to begin in our journey to know God. I will give you the number one way to know God. His word.

We are all known by our Words. Our Words reflect what is in our heart. That is why the Word tells us, out of the mouth flows the heart. If all I ever talk about are other people, my heart is focused on other people. If all I ever talk about is money, my heart is focused on money. If all I ever talk about is people being “judgy”. My heart may very well be “judgy”. If I talk about kingdom things, my heart is focused on kingdom things. Be very carful who you allow to occupy the air space around you. Is the voice of the world louder than the voice of the Lord in your life?

Unpopular opinion: If you are never in his word, you don’t know him.

I pray this finds you well and hungry for the Word of the Lord.

Grace & Peace

Chorley

The Obligatory Season

.Reading time 8 minutes.
Photo by Daniela Constantini on Pexels.com

First off… let me tell you all that I love receiving your calls, texts, and emails. It really warms my heart to hear how you are spurred on, encouraged, and walking in freedom.

Every morning when I am getting ready I look out the window in my bathroom. I don’t look for any particular reason. I think it is probably just an old habit of checking my surroundings. This week when I looked out the window I was drawn to our huge pile of logs. This pile is about ten feet wide and five feet tall. The logs themselves are about 6-8 feet long. The entire pile has yet to be cut and split. The wood is still seasoning.

One of my favorite books in the Bible is Ecclesiastes. I know that many people see it as a doom and gloom book. However, it is known as one of the wisdom books. I think that is why I am drawn to it. When I know that I need to seek wisdom from the Lord, I often go to Ecclesiastes or Proverbs. I know that many of you have heard the phrase, “for everything there is a season”. Many times, that I have heard it from someone, it was because I was going through something hard and they had no other words of comfort. It has become something that sounds very patronizing, even if that is not the speakers intent. I want to give you some context of those words. While looking at the wood just laying there seemingly useless to me, I was reminded of this section from Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

1For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven; 2a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

If you have never really dug into each of these lines of poetry, please do this! If you don’t know how, head over to the resources page and download the PDF. It is a free tool that is amazing! I don’t know how else to express my emotions for the word other than to say that it makes me weep. Over and over. I can’t read this word without weeping because I am reminded of so many things when I read these words. Everything that is born, must die. When we have this hope in Christ, death can look much different to us. It can look like peace for the sick. Reprieve for the wounded. That does not mean that the loss of a child or spouse does not hurt. It still hurts. It hurts something bad because it cuts deep and leaves a black hole that is too big for us to fill alone. Being planted somewhere is great for growth. However, being plucked can look rough at first… until the roots are allowed to settle into new space that allows more growth. I understand the time to kill must be followed by time to heal. Not healing after killing is one reason that we currently have over 22 veterans committing suicide every day in America. Every season of life that we go through has been ordained by our God.

My wood pile is seemingly useless. It is big and takes up space. It is not cut or split. I know if I had to use it, I could. I need to put more work into it for it to be its best.  It needs to season. It needs time. God does not always use us when we want to be used. He uses us when it is time for us to be used. Some seasons he has us work, some seasons he has us rest. We need to be vigilant in the word to know exactly what season of life he has us walking. Many times he has us go through a hard season to prepare us to do his work. Just as my wood has no knowledge of when I will toss it in the fire, you never know when the Lord will call you to action or when you find yourself in a fire. After all, the Lord calls us to be prepared in season and out of season. (2 Timothy 4:2)

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is a list of antithetic parallels.  I am not going to lay all of these out for you. I think it would be a great exercise to go through this and think of how each of these seasons have been reflected in your life. Not everything will be literal. Remember: rabbinical people wrote the old testament. So, for those of you who have never killed anyone, consider a time that you hurt someone, or they hurt you. When a relationship was killed. When you think of casting stones, don’t assume that the word is referring to John 8:7, but rather 2 Kings 3:25. Really dig. Find the voice of the Lord in this text. You may find things you need to stop or start. I did.  

As always, feel free to reach out to me! All email subscribers will be entered in a drawing January 31st. The prize is a Sweater from Chorley’s Christian Clothing with a (TBD) amazing sublimation design! If you are not a subscriber, you can easily sign up on the main blog page or the home page.

Grace & Peace

Chorley