DARE WE CHANGE OUR VIEW AND LIFE TODAY?

 

The beginning of any recovery begins with recognizing how powerless we are because of our dependency on outside influence, be it alcohol or drugs or whatever, to manage the day to day affairs of our live. Living this way really puts the skids on what you and I would refer to as good judgment. The inability to control and make good decisions is only complicated by the fact that in our own minds we don't want to admit to this behavior. We are doing fine. We are just having some set backs. Set backs? We haven't seen these kind of set backs since Uncle Harry refused to get on Cousin Noah's ark. There is a verse associated with this first step and it is found in Proverbs 14:12....
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.


Do you see this? Did you catch that verse? There is a way.........a behavior........an attitude that seems right....its seems socially acceptable..........it appears to make all the sense in the world........but the end result of this way, this decision is headed to only one place.......death, both physically and spiritually. Let's move on!


If we had stopped here at this first step, that would be a pretty hopeless place to pitch our tent. I am grateful that this first step is only the beginning. Each step builds on the other which takes us out of and above our dependencies. So now that I've admitted I am powerless and that my life is unmanageable, what next?


There must be someone or something that can aid me and help me with what seems like these insurmountable living problems I have created. Ahhh! There is help. The Calvary has arrived.
Step#2
We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

At the same place we admitted our inability, it is there we began the search (whether we were aware of it or not) to find an answer to our problems. Many of you may be reading this and think that it all sounds like mumbo jumbo or some kind of formula for self help. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If I have a problem and that problem is found within me, why would I think that the answer would also be inside me? You may be reading this and wonder what in the world am I talking about. Let me put it this way. You don't really have an alcohol/drug/dependency problem, you've got a living problem. You have a broken relationship with the one person who possesses the power to help you rise above all the destruction and pain created by your bad choices. That person is Jesus Christ. He is the power that can restore you to sanity. If I am in need of being restored to sanity, what does that say about my current state? It says that I am living a life of insanity. Insanity is the lack of ability to make sound decisions.

The answer to (this sounds so flippant but trust me, it isn't) all our problems is found in Jesus. Not the church, not some pastor (even though I am such an animal) but in Jesus. The church is where I go to hang out with people who are like me, kind of tore up from the floor up and looking to Jesus for the answers to my problems. Let's take a look at what we have so far.
We admitted, by that I mean we are brutally truthful to ourselves and those around us that we are powerless and not able to manage our own lives.

This powerlessness and inability to manage our own life has turned our focus from our self to looking for a power greater than us who can restore us to being able to make sound decisions.

Here are some verses that may help as you take this journey to a new beginning.

Philippians 2:13 - For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure

John 3:17 - For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.

Luke 9:56 - For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

Mark 9:23 - And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.

May God richly bless you and lead you into truth...

Mbb

WHERE ARE THE VOICES

 

Ezekiel 44:23
They will teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is common, what is ceremonially clean and what is unclean.

Seems to me today that there aren't any voices (or at least I am not aware of any) that are speaking about what is holy in our society and what isn't. We seem to have adopted a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude about what is and isn't acceptable for those who are believers. You won't hear a lot of messages about purity and holiness. Why? Because it infringes upon our liberty. The one statement that I hold to is one that I heard years ago. Liberty and freedom does not give you the right to do what you want to do.......if affords you the opportunity to do what you ought to do.

We somehow have the idea that because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us we can take the attitudes and behaviors of the world and turn then into things that are Holy before God. I don't believe that is the way it works.
Besides, it is easier to rail against the sin of the world, our society, and our culture than it is to turn that light back upon the church.

I don't think God has called us to holiness as a suggestion. I think He truly is jealous for a people who have , like the Apostle Paul wrote, "Been crucified to the world and the world crucified to the His church. Does this mean we neglect teaching against any behavior that rejects God? I think not. But maybe we need to get our own house in order. Think on this today-----Are there things in your life that are displeasing to God? Do you try and justify your actions under the guise of God's grace?

Seek that which is holy and cut off that which isn't.
God on you...........
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MAKING THE MOST OF 24

 

Matthew 6:25
That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life........

Matthew 6:32
These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.

I've said it myself when talking with someone about their recovery.
You know what I'm talking about.
"You just need to focus on one day at a time."
We see it on bumper stickers....
Wall plaques........
Throws and pillows....
Notebooks and lapel pins....
"ONE DAY AT A TIME".
But you know what?
I can't think of any thing that is better  at describing the way we all should approach life, not just someone in addiction.

A few years back I went with a friend of mine to do a "Twelve Step" call.
A mutual acquaintance had relapsed and was going off the tracks.
One bad decision led to two bad decisions, and you know the rest of the story.
Anyway, here we were, the three of us, standing outside talking over the situation.
Our relapsed buddy was all remorse and guilty, yet at the same time, he was spinning way out into the future of what all he needed to do. Never mind there was a mess to clean up today....let's get all wrapped around the axle about this weekend, as well as next week.
We quickly reminded him that his only concern was to take care of today.
Do what needed to be done to get back on the right road to recovery.
I told him that if he didn't take care of today, there would not be any "tomorrow" to worry about.

The focus should be on "What do I need to do today?"
Go to meeting? Probably...wouldn't hurt.
Place myself in a setting where I can be accountable? Well, duh? I would say that was a good start.
Do you catch what is going on here.....
All of us....
Sober or drunk, no matter what state you are in, need to focus on today.
"Did I spend time with God?" (Reading His word, listening for His voice). If not, why? Why did I neglect this valuable asset that would aid me in the journey He wants me to follow?

We discount today because of our problems, thinking that if I can simply get through this 24 hours, I'll be able to catch my breath. Well, sometimes that works. But more often than not, those things we have ignored hang around out there in the darkness waiting for tomorrow to get  here so they can rise up and bite with an even more vicious bite. Take the time to take care of your business today.....

Part of our daily "business-taking-care-of" includes watching over our heart and mind. Making sure we haven't allowed any bitterness, resentment or unforgiveness to take root. If we don't removes such character-defect-roots, we will harvest trouble at some point down the road. We do a daily inventory to make sure our lives are free from such. In fact, in Hebrews, we are admonished to not let our hearts go cold and hard to the leading of God.
Hebrews 3:15
Remember what it says (Psalm 95:7-8) "Today when you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts" as Israel did whey they rebelled.
Get it?
Today....
One day at a time....
Stay focused and always be listening for God to speak to you.
You'll know it's Him because He will always instruct you to do the things you don't really want to do.
Remember....
All you have to do is take care of today.

God on you....
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THE ARE OF HEAVENLY CONTENTMENT

 

RE-POST FROM 2015

Philippians 4  (The Message Bible)
Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quiet content whatever my circumstances. I'm just happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the ONE who makes me who I am. 

Stopping for a moment to ruminate on life.
Not looking for answers, or pontificating on the meaning of our existence. I'll leave that to minds that are more intelligent that my noodle.
Just looking back over my journey of years.
Wishing I could do somethings different, but fully realizing that had I been able to, it would have probably changed who I am today. So, I don't think I am going to paddle down that creek.

Very grateful for people I've met along the way....
Got a call from one of them today. He got a bad report after having an exam by his family doctor. Lung cancer. Seems as though the cancer didn't originate in the lungs, but has spread at this time. As he told me the news, his voice was lite and filled with hope. He didn't like hearing that his body had been invaded but, at the same time, he wasn't going to pack up and move to the land of depression and gloom. His take was that he would face it one day at a time. Celebrate the good days...and hang on to make it through the bad. I want to be like my friend. Have a total understanding that life happens on this side of heaven. Good people get cancer. Bad people seem to skate through every bad thing that happens. Good people get their drivers license and go to the store for their mother. Bad people get drunk and hit said good person head on killing them. Bad people go away without a scratch. I want what Paul wrote about in the Philippians passage. The ability to rest in Jesus, and by doing so find a heavenly contentment that doesn't make sense to an earthly mind.

A contentment that has a foundation that cannot be shaken by earthly situations or circumstances. One that allows our steps to be sure and steady even though the path we're on seems to be experiencing mega-quakes bent on unsettling us, and knocking us off our journey with Jesus. I want that kind of contentment.

Sometimes, I wish God had written or spoke out about having a spiritual "Backbone".
I'm not so sure such backbone isn't a part of the giftings of the Holy Spirit. A kind of grit and mindset (not to mention heart set) that speaks to us saying, "Dig your heels in and stand firm in the strength of the Lord....this thing your facing won't last forever." All part of being content. Oh yeah....by the way, contentment doesn't mean you are happy or joyful about your current state of life....it just means that your o.k., knowing that it is a temporary thing you are facing. Face, everything is temporary when it comes to following an eternal God. Hmmmm. Maybe that is part of what contentment is all about. 

God on you....
mbb

 

There seems to be two camps among the faithful.
One is about a pain-free God.
The other is about a pain-filled God.
I think maybe the real truth of the matter is found somewhere in the middle.
That there is a God who leads His children through what we have come to know as "Life".
Life happens.
It's messy.
It's fun.
It's happy and sad (sometimes at the same time).
It's hard and you want to run away.
It's satisfying and you want to live forever.
It's call life.
And in the middle of it is this voice. The voice of the Lord bidding (calling) those who would, come. Simply come to Him.
As Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote......Christ bids us to come and die. Nothing more. For in the dying we find true life.


Upon the shoulders of this one we call CHRIST....resides the Spirit of the Lord. He was chosen and sent here to this world to preach the gospel to the poor. Poor in material possession. He was sent and equipped to heal the brokenhearted. Those who had lost hope and wandered aimlessly at the mercy of the master of this world.


Jesus was sent to proclaim with a loud voice and with deeds and signs that let it be known beyond any doubt that God had, in fact, invaded time and space and declared war on the kingdom of darkness.


Jesus came to take back sight and give it to the blind..........both those who had lost their actual ability to see and those who were taken into spiritual darkness.


He had the ability to set free those who were oppressed. They may be held down by the system of this world, but nothing..........no government, no group, no ruler can ever bind and stop the spirit of God inside of a believer.


Jesus proclaimed that this was the acceptable and favorable year of the Lord.

Thank you Lord for life and I pray that I seek you out at every turn today so that I can follow your direction and live life in the manner you desire me to.
Blessed be your name,
and may you bless everyone who has stopped by Greene Street today.
In Jesus name....
Amen.

God on you..........
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TOTE THAT BARGE---LIFT THAT BALE---BLAME SOMEONE ELSE

 

Genesis 3:12
The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.

Blame shifting found its origin and birth when sin was brought into the garden by the actions of Adam and Eve. Actually, it was the man who tried to shift God's attention from his mess up to her mess up.  "Hey, God!!! Looky here at what this here woman has done. I told her she better not eat that fruit. Would she listen to me? Noooooo! She did it anyway." Basically what Adam was saying is that Eve disobeyed first, so she should be the focal point of any discipline that God doles out. Funny how love for each other (such as these two fine upstanding individuals that occupied God's garden) seems to go out the window when they were uncovered.

This habit of shifting the blame is alive and will today, especially in the world of addiction. I spent 18+ years at Rapha Treatment Center and if I heard "Me being an addict really isn't my fault once, I heard it a million times. Maybe not so much in those words, but fault for the addiction rarely settled at the feet of the one who was addicted.  Such is the nature of the beast of sin/addiction.

This is why real recovery requires rigorous honest and transparency on the part of the person seeking help. It requires an admission that they are responsible for the mess they've made...for the destruction that has been brought about because of their using. If a person cannot be honest about themselves and what they have done then they will always seek to cover up, hide, and shift the blame from themselves to others. Sometimes blaming even those who are closest to them, such as family. The very family that is trying to get them help becomes the target of their blame shifting. Kind of sick isn't it? Well, that is the power of sin when it has a place to hide and function within an individual. 

God's answer, like I said previously, is honesty and transparency. Living in this manner can only come when will and life has been turned over to the care of God. In other words, when conviction leads to confession and repentance, then and only then is the individual empowered to live in this new dimension of honesty.

King David wrote about such a lifestyle (being honest) in Psalm 51. We read in Verse 6: Behold, You (God) desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
This connection between me and God is linked by His Holy Spirit living and at work in me. His desire is for me to know the deep-down-inside-pass-my-brain kind of truth. I asked a group one time, "What is the greatest truth we can know and understand, outside of who God is?" I got several different answers ranging from "knowing His will for our lives"....to "Understanding the book of Revelation". To me the greatest truth we can know born in the deep place inside of us, is who we truly are in God's eyes.  In other words, letting God show us how He sees us, and what we need to surrender to Him.  This is where real, honest change begins to form. 

Think on this today...
God on you...
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NEW THOUGHTS IN AN OLD BRAIN

 

Isaiah 55:8
(God speaking) --- "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord.
And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

My thoughts....
Don't know how much room is in my brain for new thoughts and new ideas. I know for them to squeeze into my gray matter there is a battle. You see, I've collected almost 72 years of of memories....information.....and knowledge.
Some good..
Some useful....
Some just taking up space and is useless as a screen door on a submarine.
My wife use to tell me that I was trivia machine. I would not disagree.
By the way did you know that R. Buckminster Fuller created the first geodesic dome?
See what I mean? Good to know if you're playing board games, or happen to be on Jeopardy.

Any way, even when it comes to learning and understanding God in ways I never dreamed of, those thoughts have to muddle through all that "thought" baggage.
Such things as being able to make an "F" chord on a guitar in multiple ways.....
Not to mention all the memories that are floating around in my brain....
Sputnik.....
Alan Shepherd.....
Apollo 1 and the three men who died....
First time hearing the Beatles....
Weekly Reader we got every Friday in school....
The moment of my salvation and baptism....
The memories and knowledge all crowd out new things that want to lodge and take their rightful place. To be honest with you, I want them there, especially when it comes to knowing and experiencing God.

I don't ever want to be one of those people who proudly proclaim (in their relationship with God)...."We ain't never done it that way before". Which is tantamount to saying "We ain't going to change." Well, I want to change if God is leading. I don't want to drive my tent pegs down on what I know, thinking that I have the complete 22 volume set of "I KNOW GO" books. 

I want to be amazed daily...
I want to say "WOW!! I didn't know that."
I want to have that child like faith when it comes to following Jesus.
I think maybe this is the heart that God desires of all of us.
How could I, His creation, ever be apathetic and complacent when it comes to walking with Jesus daily? 

To me the picture above of Three Stooges Curly is what's wrong with religion. The idea that we, humanity, can capture God and dissect Him to study. Why you may as well try and catch the ocean to hold it in your hand. Not going to happen.
We create new ways of how we think God rules....and how we can slip in back of the curtain (like in the Wizard Of Oz) to see how the Wizard does his work. Well, there's no curtain, but there is a cross. And the cross is what you must embrace. The cross is the exclamation point on what real relationship is all about. God reveals to us what God wants to reveal. We can't force His hand or coerce Him into shelling out what we believe are His mysteries and secrets. I want to close with a scripture that pretty much sums up how I view my part in my relationship with God.

I Corinthians 13:12
.........All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely. (When I stand face to face with Jesus) just as God now knows me completely.

God on you....
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'TIS A BLOODY GOSPEL

 Hebrews 9:22

.......And without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins.

What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Not the blood of animals taken to a temple to pay my debt. But the pure, sinless blood of Almighty God Himself, walking on this planet as one of us. People don't want to believe this. People want the easier, softer way to live this life and the next. But the truth stands above every human wish and desire to change the power and healing capabilities of the blood of Christ.

What can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Complete, put together, functioning in the way I was created to. That is the power of the blood of Christ. Psychology can't bring wholeness to me. Medicine can put me back together. Religion can't lift me into the presence of God. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh precious is that flow, that makes me white as snow.
We have got to return to the place where we recognize the value of the blood of Jesus. Freely poured out on a hill outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem.
A hillside that had known rivers of blood. Many man had walked through the gates of that town, cross strapped to their backs. Many a man had felt the whip of Rome and had taken that journey to Calvary. But only one man carried within Himself the healing for the world. What can stand to challenge the death and resurrection of this man? Nothing and no one. 

No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
There isn't any other source of life. All others pale in comparison. They boast of their capabilities, but their words are empty promises. Trash and litter blown by the wind around the feet of the masses. But the blood and word of Christ delivers every time. 

It is not in vogue to speak of the blood of Christ. It offends people, so we shouldn't make them uncomfortable. Such is the mindset of some who claim to be a part of His body...His church. We need to be offended. We don't need the soft words of a bloodless Christianity. It only feeds our flesh and whisks us away on flowery ideology all the way to hell. I go back to the line from the hymn, "Oh precious is that flow".....the unsurpassed worth and value of that which was shed on my behalf so that I would not be separated from God. Such things as this are beyond my comprehension, but I find a thankfulness that cannot be put into words, for what God has done for humanity.

Thanks for letting me ramble this morning....
Been on my mind...
Been in my heart....

God on you....
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SITTING IN THE BALCONY

 

Philippians 2:8
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Looking upon Jesus, you would think Him one of the lowly few who's lot in life always seem to run contrary to what society deemed is successful.
Scripture says that there was nothing physically attractive about Him that would cause you to think of Him as a great leader or a statesman.
The form that Jesus took when He entered out time and space is a reflection of the heart of God.

In II Samuel 16, we read where God has sent Samuel the priest to the house of Jesse. There Samuel is to anoint the new king of Israel. Jesse has many sons and they parade through one by one so Samuel can see them. At one point, Eliab comes in and Samuel remarks, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him?" I mean this guy, Eliab, he had "king" written all over him. Tall, good looking, great hair, unblemished complexion, cut and ripped in his physique. In verse 7, God replies to Samuel's remark. But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

This flies in the face of what our society today thinks is most important about a person. God looks to the heart. The character and nature of a man. Is he teachable? Is he humble so that he can receive from God? Is he selfish or will he totally give of himself for the service of others?

Jesus came to model for us the dynamics of a man after Father's God's heart. To reveal to us that we are servants and as such, spend ourselves on the Kingdom of God and on others.
Do what God tells us to do. (then that would involve "listening")
Go where God tells us to go (that would involve obedient)
Be the person God created us to be (that would involve surrender of our will)
But the benefits of living a life like this is beyond comparison to anything this world has to offer.

Humbling ourselves is a choice we have to make. IT puts us in a place where we can receive from God.
To be humble means that we are teachable.
It means that I am agreeing with God simply who God says I am.
It enables me to be in a crowd and by this attitude, be in a crowd. That means that I don't have to stick out or be center of attention. If God desires to lift me up or exalt me, that is His business. I am not in the business of self-promotion.

Read all of Philippians 2 today. See what God would reveal to your heart.
Until tomorrow....
God on you...
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RADICAL AMPUTATION (PT.1)

 

(Reprint From 2015)

II Corinthians 6:17-18
"Come out from among them and and be separate", says the Lord.
"Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters." Says the Lord Almighty.

II Corinthians 7:1
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleans ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

New life conflicting with old ways.
We want the best of both worlds.
We want to embrace this new journey we are on with Jesus yet, at the same time, we want to be the one in charge. Instead of following Jesus...we want Jesus to tag along behind us in case we get into trouble. In case we need His help. He becomes nothing more than a "Get-out-of-jail" card in some cosmic game of monopoly.

We have a call to change "people / places / and things. This isn't a suggestion...it isn't a hint....it is at the core of this new life. The old ways..the old haunts..the old people have influence over us. They bring out the old desires. The warp and change our memories. The memories we have of the old times move from seeing them as they truly were, into a kind of romanticized 
lie that only feeds the old nature we have struggled so hard to get away from.

There is a phrase that I've found that kind of describes what is needed if you are beginning in this journey of recovery.
The phrase?
RADICAL AMPUTATION!

Just as an arm or leg that has been infected with gangrene is a threat to a person's life, so are the old ways and lifestyle for someone who is in recovery. The limb must be amputated in order for that person to survive. The longer the delay in performing the amputation, the closer to death the individual is faced with.

Radical amputation is needed for survival in your recover, if you are to move on with your life. Easy? No. I understand the kind of misplaced affection for old ways...old places and people. And one of the things that makes this entire amputation process so hard, is the unknown of what life will be like if we do make the decision to remove ourselves.

But did you notice the promise that God gave in the verses from II Corinthians? That He would truly become OUR God and we would truly become His Sons and Daughters. A spiritual relationship and bond is created when we are saved and separate ourselves from the old lifestyle. We don't have to know the unknown..it doesn't have to be a fearful presence in our lives, because we are connected with someone who sees all and knows all. I know...I know...it sounds like some kind of science fiction stuff, but it isn't. It's truth...and at the heart of recovery is the embracing of real truth. God's truth. Not the empty promises that our drug of choice made to us. Not the lies and arguments that came through the relationships we tried to have with others who were just as sick as we were. 

Let today be the day you "amputate" yourself from your old ways.
Step over into life...
More than simply existing, you will find that you can thrive in this new life.
Think on these things.

God on you..
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WILL HE REALLY?

 

We read the words.
We ponder them in our minds.
We long for it in our hearts.
But do we truly understand what is being said?
What you may ask?

Revelation 22:20
He who testifies to these things says, "Surely, I am coming quickly."

This is not some random statement that is intended to make us feel good or give us goose bumps. It is true. Not only are the words true, but the intent of the message is true.
Jesus will return.
I do not say these things to elicit a response or a nod of your head, no...I say them so that you may ponder them and hide them in your heart.

Jesus' mother, Mary, is said to have treasured all the things the angel spoke of concerning Jesus' birth, in her heart. She held on to them not to give herself worth, but to give herself hope. She was an outcast due to her pregnancy. She needed hope.

Notice the verse in Revelation 22:
A.) Surely.........
This is certain. It will happen. His return is not contingent on anyone or anything. God the Father holds the key and at the appointed time, he will turn to the Son and say, "Go and get your bride."

B.) I am......
We have heard that name before. I AM.
But here it isn't a name but the declaration of an event.
I am.....

C.) Coming......
To us.
From Heaven.
He will come and if you think now is a strange time, wait until this takes place. Nothing will ever be the same, and I'm alright with that.

D.) Quickly.......
N0t based on earthly time.
According to the Father. He has appointed everything in its own time.

Are you ready?

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