FALSE BELIEF # 1 AND # 2

 

be·lief

biˈlēf/

noun

1. 1.

   an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.

   "his belief in the value of hard work"
2. 2.

   trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something.

   "a belief in democratic politics"

One of the cornerstone of recovery for us is what we refer to as the "Four False Belief's".  A world view or belief system that has been adopted by an individual that governs the way he or she  interacts and make decisions in their daily lives.

False Belief # 1

I must meet certain standards in order to feel good about myself.

Sounds innocent enough doesn't it?
Well, what happens when all you've ever done is fail?
What happens to your thinking if you never measure up to standards that you or others have set for you? Now, throw in some drugs and alcohol on a daily basis and the failures grow and multiply. This false belief will cause you to not even try anymore. After all, why should you? You fail at everything. This is one of the obstacles we create in our own hearts and minds when we succumb to the spiritual, mental and physical darkness of addiction.

False Belief #2

I need the approval of others to feel good about myself.

In this case, our own self worth is so low that we seek to manipulate those around us to tell us how wonderful we are. We thrive on their opinion. We bask in their adulation. And when we don't receive it, we wither and die inside. We have created an equation to define who we are.

Person = Performance

We have bought into a lie that who we are, as person, is defined by what we have done (Our behavior / or our performance). Looking at our track record, we haven't done too well, have we? Yet, most of us were raised to gauge ourselves this way. When we were small, and we did something really nice for our Mother's......Mom would tell us, "Oh my you are a good boy!" But turn that around. Maybe we broke her favorite vase or some of her good china. What did we hear? "You're a bad boy."  So we slowly build a belief system that told us our worth comes from what we have done. Not simply from who we are.

I see a number of people who continue to live like this.
Who even try to serve God this way......

"If I do good...the Jesus will love me!"

or....

"How can Jesus love me, I am a total mess up."

To counter this false belief, we have to address the issue or our person. Salvation puts me in the place where God sees me as perfect.

Hebrews 10:14 - For by one offering, He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Did you catch that?
"He has perfected."
Not "He will perfect" nor  "He is in the process of perfecting."

But has perfected.
So when God see me, He sees my person/spirit as being perfect because of the blood of Jesus.

Is my behavior/ performance perfect?
Nope!

But we're working on it.

God On You....

mbb

HAVE WE FORGOTTEN HOW TO TREMBLE AT HIS PRESENCE?

 

Isaiah 66:2
But on this one will I look. On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.

Reading in a devotional book yesterday morning set me to thinking. The verse for the day was the Isaiah 66:2 passage, and the question that was asked, was "Do you tremble when God speaks? When was the last time you were physically affected by the reality that almighty God had spoken directly to you?"

This led me to ask, "Have I become so hard and calloused that the Word of God has no effect on me any longer? Have I become stiff-necked and hard that I do not respond when God speaks?" Has our generation and society lost all fear and reverence to God who has poured Himself out to secure our salvation? I pray that the answer is no, but I fear that we may have indeed lost something.

Lets take a look at what happened in Scripture when God spoke.
Rev. 1:17  John lost all physical strength when God spoke to him.
Acts 9:4 Paul fell to the ground when Christ met him on the road to Damascus.
Acts 7:32 Moses trembled when God spoke to him.
Luke 5:8 Peter, when he realized who Jesus was, "fell down at the feet of Him, crying out, 'Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"

Do our meetings provide a place where the reality of who it is we have come to be with is as real as the Bible we carry? I'm not advocating that we need to whip up emotionalism....or manipulate people into responding a certain way in order to appear religious. I'm simply asking do we still have a clear understanding of WHO it is we are coming to meet with? That our focus should be to hear what is being taught, as the voice of God through the Holy Spirit in each believer should make the truth resonate inside of us. At the same time, the message, via the conviction of the Holy Spirit, should awaken the heart of those who are standing and living outside the will of God. But in both cases, we should be sensitive to God speaking to us.

Saturday night at ReCovery Church was a time of joy....a time of reflection to remember the price that was paid so that we might have life with Christ. A time to give a big old "Thank You, Lord!" For sustaining us and growing us over the past year. 

Such times are needed, but I don't want to soothe places in our hearts by never allowing God to speak through His word to us. I don't want to excuse people from never coming to a place where the awesomeness and presence of God does not affect us all. To be honest with you, I would love to go to the building on a Saturday night, and the presence of God be so thick that we all fell down in reverence. That we had to crawl out of the building on hands and knees, just like the priests did when Solomon dedicated the Temple. Such is not impossible, but do we actually believe that God would fall in a meeting like this, or have we lost sensitivity to the Holy Spirit?

Think on this.....
When you read scripture, the same God who spoke and created a universe is now speaking directly to you. If Jesus could speak and raise the dead, calm a storm, cast out demons, and heal the incurable,  then what effect might a word from Him have upon your life...my life? The possibilities of what He could do in my life should cause me to tremble!
Just thinking today.....
Do likewise.....

God on you...
mbb

WE CAN ATTEMPT TO REASON----OR WE CAN SIMPLY FOLLOW

 

You know, you really can overthink things. You can roll them over, look at them from every angle, thinking that you're missing something. That somehow you possess the ability to reason that which really is beyond our comprehension.

Why do I need to work some steps that were created by a couple of drunks? Such is the way the human mind works. If we don't see the value of something, we have a tendency to discount it. "That whole rehab scene doesn't work for me".  Well, truth is, that the whole rehab scene is NOT there to work for you. You are there to follow some simple steps.
You can attempt to dissect them in hopes that you will find something that others may not have seen. We like the idea of discovering "Secrets" and "Keys to", not to mention "Hidden truth". As the big book of A.A. tells us...those with an addictive nature have a tendency to look for the easier softer way. I hate to disappoint you, but sometimes the main thing is the main thing.
In other words, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.....
chances are...
It's a duck!

One thing that we tend to forget is that in order to find and follow a new way of living requires us to separated from our old ways, have the slate wiped clean, and learn new ways.

I particularly like the what Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5:17- Therefore, if any person is ingrafted in Christ, he is a new creation (a new creature altogether) the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, behold the fresh and new has come. As we have entered into this new covenant living arrangement with Jesus, we are like new born's fresh from the womb, in terms of how we view life and make our decisions. The old moral compass (which didn't work to well) has been discarded and replaced with God's Holy Spirit. To put it as simply as I can.....we are learning how to live life in a completely new way. Relying on God to guide us in our decision making. Relying on God when we don't know what to do next. We also must find a community of like minded people who are looking for the same thing we are. We understand our struggles and can be an encouragement for us to keep moving forward.

It's o.k. to have questions that come up in this new life. Just remember that the root word in "question" is "quest"...it's all about the journey, and learning how to apply what God is showing us to our everyday walking around, eating, sleeping, going to work life.
Such is why I need to be connected to a group of like minded folks. Jesus has called us to follow Him daily, not to expend ourselves looking for the short cut to everything. Such will surely keep us trapped in this old way of living. The self-inflicted pain will continue, the guilt and shame will only serve to keep us from moving forward, and those old voice will continue to accuse us of being no good. There's no room in this new life for this kind of abuse or thinking. So no matter what I'm facing today....no matter how hard life is....no matter how uncertain my future is....I will not go back to that old way of living.
You can bank on that, today! Just for today! One day at a time.

God on you...
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'GONE'

Jesus ain't there......So the world tries to explain Him away. "Oh the disciples stole the body." "He never really died." On and on with their silly ramblings. The smarter the world thinks it is, the more foolish it sounds.

He is gone....
He ain't there....

He beat the odds....
Pharisees could not stop Him....
Pilate could not condemn him....

The grave could not hold Him....
Death could not rot Him.....
And Hell didn't want Him.....

But He left it all lying in shambles when He stepped from that tomb early on the first Easter morning.

Such is why I just want to shout the biggest, loudest, most boisterous, HALLELUJAH! ever.

Thank you Lord for saving such a sinner as me...

For finding value in my life when I could see none...

For lifting me up, filling me with Your Spirit, and putting Your words in my mouth....

HE IS RISEN INDEED!

God on you...

mbb

EASTER 1980

 

Each year about this time, I think back to an Easter that has come to mean so much to Vicki and me.

The year....1980. Day before Easter. A Saturday night.
I had finished a hard day at a pizza restaurant at the Gadsden Mall and was now home with my wife.
Sitting in our living room, we were talking about the next day being Easter and what we were going to do. 
The time was 11:30 p.m.

It was to be our first Easter together since we had rededicated our lives to Christ. Seven years of living outside of God's will had taken a toll on both of us, but now we had begun the journey of following Jesus.
We were in our living room, our sons were down the hall asleep in their beds. Like I wrote, this would be our first Easter and I wanted to celebrate the real reason that put our lives and our marriage back on the right track. I wanted this Easter to be more than new clothes, chocolate bunnies and colored eggs.

In the background, as we talked, was the sounds of WDJC, a local Christian Radio Station, that was playing on our stereo.
The DJ was sharing about his life, the struggles he had faced and how the faithfulness of God had kept him all these years. His story was intense and it was as if he'd forgotten that he was on the radio. He had become a voice that filled our living room and was sharing intimate details of his life before Christ. The misery and the heartache of all the things he tried to fill his life and heart with, seem to add up and take a toll on his life. The longer this voice kept talking, the more we were drawn into his story. In fact, his story sounded a lot like our story. A journey into the darkness of sin, only to be brought out by the salvation that only Jesus can offer a suffering soul.

I remember that his story went on for nearly 30 minutes and the thought of running any commercials or station ID's were discarded. This voice continued to share how Christ had saved him from a life of destruction and a eternity of separation from Jesus. 

The one thing that has stuck with me all these years was the passion this man had as he told his story. The voice we were listening to became extremely excited as he moved into the portion of his journey where God became a reality to him. The thrill of his salvation experience and the desire to share his story with anyone and everyone. He spoke of the life he now has with Jesus as his savior and the Holy Spirit living inside him. On and on....he shared. Finally the voice said..."Well, it's 12:01 a.m. .............Easter Morning. Ladies and gentlemen...........He is risen!!!!"

Our living room was suddenly flooded  with the sounds of Easter Song by 2nd Chapter of Acts. Vicki and I sat there totally mesmerized as the presence of God became a reality while this song played. It was a celebration of the triumph of Christ over death, hell and the grave.. It was one of the most incredible times I have ever experienced. My first Easter celebration as a believer. . 
Enjoy this song! More than anything.....Worship while it's playing.
Let the truth of the resurrection become more than a mental piece of information...
Let it become life and healing and truth and love and grace and mercy and freedom in Christ.!
Why?
Because there aren't any bones in Jerusalem....
He Is Risen!!!!! 
God on you....
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De Garmo & Key - Mary

She, along with the other women, made her way to the tomb shortly before sunrise. She went with good intentions. She made this trek in spite of wanting to curl up in a corner and cry. The one she had seen, talked with, and touched now lay sealed in a tomb.

The silence was beyond comprehension. There was something in the air but she could not explain it. Her emotions were raw and seemed beyond being comforted in any way.  There was a part of her that was angry with the men who'd followed Jesus. "Follow!" if that is what you want to call it. They followed Him alright. All the way till the authorities had shown up in the garden to arrest Him, then they fled like scared children running into the night. She knew that she needed to forgive them for their actions. Such would be what Jesus would tell her to do, but right now her heart was breaking.

The sky began to gray as morning was pushing back the night. Suddenly it came to her that they had not thought out this mission all the way. Who would move the stone? Who would be there to help them? Were they too late? Was this a wasted effort on their part?

But that all changed as they rounded the path that led to the tomb where Jesus  The stone had been moved exposing the entrance to the tomb. "What could this mean?" she thought to herself. "Have the Romans, or perhaps the leaders of the Temple come and stolen the body to desecrate it somehow?" Slowly she entered the tomb only to discover that Jesus was not there.

As she moved outside from the interior of the tomb she was met by two men dressed in garments that seem to have caught the rays of a morning sun....shinning, glimmering, radiant garments. Great fear came upon her and she fell to the ground. Face down, afraid to look upon this scene, she heard both men speak. "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again!"

All her fear just seem to melt away as these words fell upon her ears and her heart. She would lay hold of this message and it would define her for the rest of her life. It would be the fuel that would move her to tell her story to whoever would listen. She was there on what now is known as Easter. She was there for the first one. But He isn't. He rose from the dead and lives forever on high seated at the right hand of His Father.

So come this Sunday morning let it ring out for everyone to hear. "HE IS RISEN!" Let this thought define you. HE IS RISEN! Make these words fill your spirit, heart and soul, HE IS RISEN. And then celebrate like no other.

One last thing............HE IS RISEN!

God on you....

mbb

SOMETHING EMPTY GAVE US LIFE

 

The Tomb of Jesus......

Easter coming up this weekend will provoke a lot of music and drama and other such stuff in an effort to pay homage to "the tomb".

It's not so much the tomb as it is what took place inside the tomb.

Resurrection.

"Ta-da!"

Once dead. Stone cold dead. Three days dead, now alive.

2nd Adam made right all that the first Adam had messed up.

Power of sin was broken.

Penalty for sin was paid.

Presence of sin was dealt with.

Jesus the Christ....

Because of Him....

I can approach Father God.

Father God can look upon me.

I have become a vessel for His Holy Spirit.
I have been pulled into a 4 way conversation (prayer).

I have been given rights and blessings that come with obeying my Father.

This Sunday, a lot of attention will be on the tomb, just as this Friday focus will be on the cross.

Maybe we should be thankful for these two, but instead, focus on the call God has given to each of us to be a "holy nation...a royal priesthood serving God."

Go beyond baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and start taking up the truth of "making disciples."

It is our call to "spiritual" reproduction. We teach what we have been taught ( Kind of makes it hard if you haven't been taught or you didn't pay attention). No where do I read that we are to watch others make disciples. Some things in the Kingdom of God are not optional.

I am grateful for the tomb....

My life is Jesus'.

I am grateful for the cross....

My life is Jesus'.

In Him, I find mercy in times when I need it most.

In Him, I find grace....a power...grace....a force....grace. More than unmerited favor...
Grace is....
God's empowering presence in my life that enables me to be who God created me to be and do what God has called me to do.......that, my friend, is grace.

So this weekend....celebrate Easter.

Wake up Easter morning and let the first thought in your mind be, "HE IS RISEN!" and then spend the day contemplating what this means to you. How does Jesus' resurrection truly translate into your day to day life.

Truth be known, the resurrection is so central to who we are as believers, that every day is Easter.
Everyday should be a "HE IS RISEN" day.

God on you..........

mb