Wow! The week has flown by and no new posts! Forgive me. I have been spending my mental energies engaged in learning this new mortgage business that I’m in. The only thing I can do on my free time lately is manual labor. Thinking has been used up for the week, so I grab the weedeater and mower and get to work. My old job didn’t afford me much time for extra projects. The first week of my new job, I went overboard on the yard work.

I tried to cram a year’s worth of projects and lawn care maintenance neglect into one day. I picked the hottest day of the week and went to work in full sun. Not a smart move, but hey I was motivated and I went with it. My first project was clearing out the brush behind my privacy fence. It had grown way out of hand. The grass was as tall as I am and filled with vines, thorns, and thistles. At first I thought to myself, “Man how did it get this bad? Four years ago when they showed me the house before I bought it, I didn’t look like this!”

It was a jungle in there. The thought crossed my mind, “This would have been so much easier if I would have just kept up with it.” It made me ask the question, “Are there areas in my life right now that if I don’t deal with are going to be an overgrown problem for me later? How can I make sure that I am rooting out those thorns, thistles, vines, and weeds on a regular basis so that I don’t have to face a massive back breaking project later on down the road?

In the end. I go it all cleaned up, but I wouldn’t want to do it again. I think I will keep up with it better from now on. Hard work has a way of reinforcing a good lesson. A little maintenance versus a monster. I think I will keep on the lookout for things getting overgrown before they get out of hand again again.

JL

Today my wife and I have been married 6 glorious years! We were thinking today about the things that have made our marriage strong, so I thought I’d share the top 5 reasons with you.

1. We are committed to honoring God with our lives and that includes our marriage.

2. The “D” word-Divorce- has never been in our vocabulary nor will it ever be.

3. We forgive each other, 70×7 times in a day if we have to.

4. We surround ourselves with other marriages that we want to learn from and model.

5. We understand each others needs and seek to meet those needs even if it means sacrifice of our own desires.

These are only 5 of many but they are the first five I thought of. If you have a strong marraige, what are some of the reasons why?

JL

I have been plugging away this week at my new job, so I haven’t posted much, but I wanted to let you in on a highlight of the week.

Steve Hill, the evangelist from the Brownsville Revival, visited Concord, NC this week. I was able to hear him preach a message on Thursday called “The O-Word”-Obedience. It was a hard hitting and challenging message. Should be on this site soon. I also got to sit in on a class that he taught at FIRE School of Ministry because they invited the alumni. It was classic Steve Hill. I laughed, I wept, I got an increase of the fear of the Lord! He preached on “He who endures to the end…shall be saved.” It was a wake up call to ministry students and leaders alike. He said the reality is that some in this room will not make it to the end following Jesus faithfully…that was sobering! He talked about deciding to follow Jesus no matter what’s going on around you….friends falling away, having a Judas in your life, being disliked or even hated because of preaching the cross of Christ and His blood, things not going your way in life etc.. He shared personal stories of things he and his wife have been through as an example of how tough things can get even when you are going after Jesus with all of your heart. He gave a pointed example of a 70 year old woman in his church who’s husband just left her for another woman! What good is it to follow Jesus all of your life, have a great family and ministry, only to blow it in the end?

He talked about “taking the test of time.” We all take it, we can’t cheat and look off of someone else’s paper (do what God has called you to do- don’t compare yourself), we are in the class alone (you won’t get to heaven because you know the right people), and there are no make ups (your life is but a moment). Powerful stuff! He also talked about how we are responsible for what God has told us to do. Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, what about this man” referring to John, but Jesus said in essence, don’t worry about him..you follow me!

In the end, it was the kind of exhortation that we as followers of Jesus all need to hear often, especially in the day we live in. I thank God for Steve Hill. I wouldn’t be the kind of Christian I am today without his influence in my life. He is truly a father in the faith, even if it’s from afar. If you have not ever heard him speak, you should! Start Here and go to the bottom of the page. If you are a minister, listen to the “Man of God Sindrome” first!

A friend once shared something with me that made good sense. He said he finally figured out that God isn’t move by our needs…He is moved by our faith. If we call out to Him, He will answer us. If we diligently seek Him, we will find Him. If we pray to Him in secret, He will reward us openly. If we ask, seek, and knock-we will receive, find, and have doors open to us.

Friend, don’t let the enemy of your soul wear you out. Wear him out by going after God in prayer despite how you feel. Don’t let the busyness of life, ministry included, and worthless distractions keep you from coming to God or else you will cut yourself off from the very grace and help that you so desperately need.

JL

So here’s the cycle as I see it: I start feeling pressure because of an increase in things going on in my life. I start having more things to do with less time to do them. I get bummed out and begin to look for a way to “veg out”-a diversion. I miss out on spending time with God, I lose peace and feel even more anxious. I start “stinkin thinkin”. My mind is off God and on my problems. I start to lose heart and want to give up. Ultimately the enemy is getting the upper hand.

Here’s how it should go: I start feeling pressure because of an increase of things going on in life. I make time to pray by fasting other things that take up my little free time. I cast my cares on the Lord instead of trying to deal with them on my own. I begin to speak God’s Word over the situations that I’m facing. I pray in the Spirit, confess God’s word, and cry out until I hit that note of victory in my heart. My mind is on God and the solution, not my problems. Wisdom enters my heart and peace floods my soul. I am more determined than ever to serve God and accomplish His will. My vision gets even clearer and causes me to walk in a greater discipline. I get to the place where I’m not praying about myself and my problems all the time and I can start helping other people out again.

Whenever we feel weary and worn out, we need to realize that our Heavenly Father is there to give us supernatural help and strength. We need to run to him and not ignore him, especially in these seasons. If we don’t feel like talking and all we can get out is, “help me Jesus” that’s a good place to start. He promises to meet us where we are and help us. In fact, He has sent us the helper, the Holy Spirit, who helps us in our weaknesses. We also need to help ourselves and not make the problem worse by being spiritually lazy and giving ourselves over to mindless diversions.

JL

There is no doubt that we are a media saturated generation in America. Our forefathers in the faith didn’t have to deal with nearly the same amount of distraction and diversion available to us today. One well known evangelist that lived in the first part of the 2oth century wouldn’t even let anyone into his house with a newspaper! Imagine what he would have done with all of the diversions we have now!

Here are just a few: Sat TV, DVD’s, Ipods, Sat Radio, Video Gaming, Cell phones-Txt, Pics, and Flics!, the vast cyber world, and more. This list doesn’t even include the hobbies that we pour time, money, and energy into. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating throwing your TV’s out the window or something crazy like that. Like a crash dieter, we would just go out and buy another one a week later anyway and may even get worse than we were! We need to have everything in moderation. I am not saying that you should not have any hobbies either. All of these things have their place when they are put in the right perspective. I am just calling our attention to the fact that we are fish and this is the ocean that we are swimming in. This is our reality. What we do with it is up to us.

JL

I love the Psalms in the Bible and places in the Prophets where men like David and Jeremiah talk about “pouring their hearts out before God.” There something freeing that happens with this kind of prayer. It’s raw, transparent, and gut level honest. I believe God loves it. He sees the stuff anyway. We are only acknowledging what He knows about our lives already. It’s when we come to this place that things can start to change in our lives and our peace is restored.

But the question is “Will we come to this place”?

I know that when I feel worn out that I don’t even feel like bothering. I am too tired to even talk much less pray. Have you ever been in a place where you are so exhausted that you just want to turn on the TV and “veg out”? You just want to escape reality and surf the internet mindlessly. Maybe you crank up the radio and try to drown out the creeping negative thoughts that are trying to flood your thought life. Some of us begin to take our hobbies way too far to the neglect of our families and our spiritual life. Whatever it is that keeps you from God’s prescence, this is exactly what the enemy wants. It’s up to us to resist this way of coping and fight for peace.

JL

Jesus is the prince of peace who calls us to come unto him when we are burdened and heavy. He promises us peace, relief in the midst of the pressures of life, and a lighter load than what we’ve been trying to carry on our own. The enemy knows that if he can cut us off from the source of peace by keeping us constantly on the move then he can make us vulnerable to fear, doubt, worry, and unbelief. He strategy is to cut off access to the grace and peace that we so desperately need by just plain wearing us out.

God’s Word has the answers to dealing with burdens, cares, anxiety, and the other things that try to debilitate us. As Christ’s followers, we are told to cast our cares upon God because He cares for us. We are told to not be anxious about anything and that after we pray with thanksgiving that peace would guard our hearts and minds.

When we are feeling far from God, we are reminded that nothing shall be able to separate us from his love in Christ Jesus. When we feel that we’ve failed Him, He reminds us that his mercies are new every morning. When we feel faithless, we know that He is still faithful. If his arms are open to the prodigal son who blew all of his inheritance and came running home, surely His arms are open to us when we feel that we have blown it even though we never left home. We can come boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

JL

I just finished writing this article that I want to share with you over the next few posts. I know alot of you will be able to relate to what I’m talking about. You are running hard and fast on the treadmill of life and it seems there is more life happening than time to enjoy it. I hope this series will help you find a way to stop the madness, reconnect to God, and bring balance to your hectic life.
JL

The Wearing Out of the Saints by John Lambert

“And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High”…(Daniel 7:25)One of the strategies of the enemy of our souls is to literally try to wear us out. He knows that if he can get us tired and frazzled then we won’t be as prepared to stand against him and fight.

Have you ever been in a place in life where it seemed like you were just running constantly? The outside pressure began to push its way inside and steal your peace. We all need rest physically. Sometimes taking a good nap makes everything better. Other times, the problem goes deeper. We are uneasy in our spirits. We need rest for our souls.

My wife has recently pointed out to me that it always seems that the enemy attacks hardest during times of transition and when we are tired. I see how the two can go hand in hand. In transition, so much is going on, so much has to get done and next thing you know the day has gone by without connecting to the source of our peace- God. Bill Hybels has a book called “Too Busy Not to Pray.” I haven’t read it, but maybe I should. I’m starting to understand that concept now more than ever.