How Many Rubber Bands Does It Take To Hold It All Together?

Isaiah 5:11-12
Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink. Who continue until night, till wine inflames them! The harp and the strings, the tambourine and flute, and wine are in their feasts. But they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of His hands.

I love the picture above for this mornings posting. It's a symbol of how we try to fix our own lives. We are a broken mess, yet we keep trying to hold the pieces all together. We keep running around in our own strength, applying one more rubber band to the teapot to keep it intact. Never mind that the teapot can no longer hold water for the tea. Never mind that it's a mere "form" of what it was originally created to look like. In our minds, we think that if we can put enough rubber bands on it, no one will notice. We are in need of being healed from our rubber band addiction.

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, then you may have noticed that over the past few months, my postings have been filled with references of revival/ renewal. What do I mean by these words, revival/renewal? I mean a visitation of God's Spirit in our meetings and, more importantly, in our lives.

You may be asking, "Isn't God in every meeting?" To some degree the answer would be yes. But if you look at church history, there were seasons and times where the presence of God seem to be kicked up a notch. The word that was taught seemed to have a greater effect upon all the people. There seemed to be a greater validation of the Word of God through power encounters the people experienced. Some might say that I'm chasing after a feeling or a blessing. That I want God to come and do some "tricks" for us so that people will believe in Him. The answer to such is emphatically "NO!" I am hungry for nothing more than the presence of God.

Church is not going to save us. Sitting in a meeting makes you no more spiritual that sitting in McDonald's makes you a hamburger. We need to be touched and awakened to the reality of who God is and what He desires of us.

In the case of Vineyard ReCovery, we are a community of believers who understand the death and destruction of addiction. We know all to well what happens if we play at the church thing. People die. More than that, people die in their sin without ever knowing the truth of Jesus and the life He offered to save them out of their darkness. But at this point in time, I have been experiencing an urgency in praying for a visitation by God. I do so knowing full well that such a visitation begins with me. It begins in my own personal life.

I fear that the church has done a huge wrong to people by preaching that "all you need to do is come and be saved." Be saved and attend church and all is well. Maybe throw in some time working in the nursery, singing in the choir, or serving as an usher....but don't worry, you're saved".  What happened to growing in character? What happened to being led by the Spirit? What happened to having a hunger for the presence of God that extends beyond 9:30 a.m. to noon on Sunday's? Please, don't get me wrong..I'm grateful for everyone who attends church, but there is so much more God wants to do for you than to mark a check off by your name because you sat in a pew for a few hours. We all need an awakening.

Revival/renewal is a time where God will uncover us all. I usually refer to it as a time when God will come into your bedroom and empty out your underwear drawer. By that, I mean that He wants to uncover attitudes, thoughts, behaviors and mindsets that we have allowed into our lives that govern us in spite of the leading of God's Holy Spirit. Bitterness.....jealousy......anger....unforgiveness.....pride.....and the list goes on and on. Do you really thing that God is pleased when we harbor such in our hearts? What about the sexual sin? Oh yeah, the church is eat up with this one. Men secretly harboring porn.......adultery.....men and women having relations outside the covering of marriage. 

Maybe we need to be born again/again! You know the most wonderful part of God coming in Renewal/ Revival? He does so because of the love He has for His creation. It pains Him to see us embrace addiction and the darkness that comes from being separated from Him. Such a time as a visitation from Him, opens our eyes and hearts to the true state we are living in. It awakens us to the truth of how much we need Him. And it turns our attention to the promise that is offered to all.....eternal life in relationship with Him.

If anything I have written this morning stirs your heart....
Then please, join me in praying for a fresh visitation by God.
Pray for Revival/ Renewal....
And be willing to say, "Let it begin with me."

God on you...
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Do You Need A Road Map?

Proverbs 12:15
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.

Romans 6:21
What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

It's like standing by the side of a railroad track watching a speeding train headed your way, and you know that it is going to wreck. 
You wave your arms....
You scream at the top of your voice....
Yet you know there isn't anything you can do to stop it.
Welcome to the wonderful world of addiction.

We see the mind of man, under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, driven by a sin nature, make choice after choice that defy human logic.
Running head long toward destruction with a heart filled with pride and a "Can't no one tell me what to do!" attitude. And they are right.

Sometimes it takes a personal encounter with the living God to make them see the truth. Sometimes that encounter comes in a form that most would not recognize. God's Spirit opening the heart and mind to the truth about where they are headed. That sudden moment where thoughts become lucid and move beyond the effects of the drug or alcohol. Where the state of the current condition is truly realized. "I am Powerless!"

For most who follow the Twelve Steps, they don't really believe that they will encounter a Higher Power until they reach Step #3. Truth be known, our Higher Power, Jesus, opens us to receive the truth. So why doesn't everyone who comes to this knowledge of being powerless move on in their recovery and have a normal life free of drugs and alcohol? If I could answer that one, I'd be a rich man. I don't know. I think maybe it has something to do with free will, and who you give yourselves to.

I just know that if we aren't brought to the truth about who Jesus is, and what He can do in any life, then the course is the same. We are headed toward the finality of life. Here again, everyone of us is headed toward that junction point. But when we finally reach that point, every decision we have made during our life will be sealed forever, and we will cross over into eternity. That means that if you've lived your life rejecting Jesus, then that will carry over and you will be forever separated from Him....from life....from joy....in other words, you will find out the truth about hell. 

Time and time again, I have heard others say, "Well, you know what? I could never believe in a God who sends people to hell." Me either. I could never love, follow, or believe in a God that would let people plunge into eternity without Him. And I'm glad that such a God does not exist. God expends Himself on loving people to Himself. He gave the ultimate price to see our salvation made available. He allowed His own Son, Jesus, to take our place, pay the price of our sin, so that we could have relationship with Him forever. We are the ones who push His offer away. We are the ones who reject anything to do with Him. We are the ones who choose to run headlong toward our destruction, as Mark Heard sang, "We ride our passions with the throttle in our hands".

If you are struggling with any form of addiction today, and you have read this posting, then give pause to think on what you've just read.
What if it were true?
What if Jesus, and relationship with Him were the answer to all the darkness you are going through?
Then cry out to Him....
Tell Him that you are ready to change...
Confess your wrongs....take responsibility for them...
Tell Him you are willing to follow Him....to learn to listen for His leading you, and that you are willing to do it.
Ask Him to fill you inside with His Spirit.....
And then simply believe that what you have just done is real and true.......
Now you're ready for real life....

God on you...
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Failure + Learning From Mistake = Wisdom

This picture was made on April 13, 2013...
The very first meeting of Vineyard ReCovery....
Sam Colegrove, long time friend and fellow laborer in the kingdom, took it and added the caption. Hmmmm....my beard is full of wisdom. Usually my wife will tell me, "You've got something in your beard," Which is code for there is BBQ Sauce, or pizza sauce, and we won't even mention ice cream....stuck in my beard. She has never looked into my eyes and said, "Honey...There's some wisdom stuck in the corner of your mouth."

Yesterday, I was at the church having a conversation with Jim Bentley and Debbie Handy, when another individual came through the room and stopped to chat with us. Once again a reference was made as to the three of us being wise. How did I suddenly attain the status of "wise man"? Did I take an on line course and didn't even know it? Did I spend time at Wisdom University? No, I think I would have remembered that. And just for the record, I don't feel wise.

No secret...if someone mentions that you seem wise, then chances are it is because you are older, have seen more, have had more failure, and have learned from said failure.Sometimes we cringe at the word "Failure"...it such a loser word. We like risk-taker better, don't we? Failure is a good school, when it comes to following God. Failure means that you're trying to hear God and then carry out those instructions. So let's go back through the hall of memories and see some that I've built. 

Can-Change-It
2000 - We had started our recovery meeting, House of Blue, and were rocking along, when we suddenly began to see an increase of people who were coming out of addiction and needed somewhere to live. A transition house, if you will.
Gadsden Vineyard had purchased Santos Printing, which is what we call the Great hall now. If one and one equals two, then the very idea that suddenly we had this huge building, complete with an upstairs of what use to be offices, then God must surely want us to convert that space into living quarters for people. Oh my goodness, we kicked it into overdrive....we began to ask people to put aside their pocket change and use that as a means to convert the upstairs space. There was a great feeling of actually starting to make some progress in this endeavor. But what I found out was that this whole plan was not really what was on God's heart. In the end it became very evident that it wasn't really feasible to build this. So what did we do with the money we collected? We took care of the poor with it. I learned a lot about myself during that whole episode. 

I have always said, and still maintain, that there is a lot of grace to mess up and get it wrong in the name of Jesus. That if you are trying to follow God and you miss it....then learn from it. Don't sit around beating yourself up over the mistake, take the lesson and learn from it. The devil and his whole crowd just love it when we load ourselves down with depression and despair over a mistake we've made. He wants us to remain in that place of self evaluation and doubt, because he knows if we stay there long enough, we will simply give up. 

Jesus knows our human tendencies and our propensity to fail, yet He keeps working with us and in us. In fact if you read Matthew 11:29, Jesus says, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me..." Did you catch that? Learn from Him....to learn is to practice and apply. Do you really believe that Jesus thought we knock a home run every time we came to the plate? No. Come on...this is the same species that ate the fruit in the garden. Hello....
But His love for us is greater than any mistake we can make if we are chasing after Him. Take heart in this the next time you feel like you failed in your daily walk. He'll pick you up and dust you off, tell you to try again.
How can you not love Jesus.....

God on you....
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Roasting Them 'Mallows For Jesus

Psalm 134
Behold, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who by night stand in the house of the LORD! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the LORD. The LORD who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion.

Jazzed, even though it's 4:37 a.m.
Why?
Because it's less than 27 hours until VRC meets.
Saturday night worship....
Hanging out with God....giving thanks for getting through another week....
A chance to celebrate the victories of the past week that others have experienced....
And a chance to comfort those who may have had a really bad week.
We get to love on God, and each other.
There will be laughter....back slaps....hand shakes and hugs....
Ton's of smiles....
And a whole bushel of "How have you been? How's your week?"

The room will feel warm and alive as life enters the building.
John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard, use to say that you have two kinds of churches in America. Those who have structure and are searching for life....or those who have life and are searching for structure. I choose the latter. I choose a community of people who have found life, and are searching for a structure in which to pour it out on others. Now the life/structure type of church can be messy and at times, loud. Such a place isn't real concerned with how church may look, as much as they are in simply connecting with God.
Why all this hubbub about connecting with God? Sounds like it could all be a self-centered type of church. Everyone running around saying, "Bless me, bless me!" Well it isn't.

When you have been touched by the fire of God's presence, you are changed.
When God's Holy Spirit rises up inside of you, you are very much aware of exactly how much this new life is all about Him and not you. You have this invisible urge to want to do something for Him.  You want to go out and help someone. You want to pray for those you see daily who seem to be struggling and never seem to get ahead. You want to give away what has been given to you.

VRC is a place where we can learn what it means to be filled with, and then follow after our Higher POWER, Jesus. We spend time in His presence and have the incredible opportunity to come together corporately to tell Him how much we love Him, and how much we appreciate what He has done in us and to us.

VRC is a place where you get to bring your spiritual marshmallows and toast them in the presence of God. Don't worry, you can't burn them like you usually do. But they do taste good when it's time to eat them. Even the Bible speaks of this divine marshmallow roast....
Psalm 34:8 -- Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
So if your sitting home and have nowhere to go....why not come out and join us tomorrow night at VRC.
Starts at 7 p.m.....
Oh yeah, one more thing....
We will provide the spiritual marshmallows for you to roast....
VRC is not a spectator event....
It is a "let's all get our mallows in the fire" kind of place.
Hope to see you there...
God on you....
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Revival + Recovery = LIfe

Revival.....
To be awakened.....
That means that there must be a state of being, or living, that is below the norm, or acceptable to be seen as operating in the way it was intended.
I guess that is a mumbo jumbo definition of revival.
I guess the easiest way to look at Revival is to break it apart.
Re ----"again"
Vive----from a Latin word meaning "Alive or to live again".
Why would we need revival?
Because we allow our passion, our fire for Jesus, others and His church to slowly fade away.

Hebrews 2:3 reads: How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him.
How shall we escape...
Escape what?
Everyday life with its traps and snares, just lying in wait to trip us up and send us down the "Self-lust" pathway. In other words, if we aren't diligent about staying focused on Christ daily, we will slowly lose interest and be led astray by our own wants, desires and lusts that slowly rise up to take control. Such is why we need to establish a daily discipline to keep our focus on Jesus.

One of the hallmark traits of addiction is chaos.
It is a life driven by the appetite.
"Self" lays down the rules and demands that the individual follow them.
Cravings, brought on by the usage of drugs and/or alcohol is the fuel that motivates the individual.
Couple this with an inability to cope with life itself, and a pattern is soon formed that drives the individual to use.
Such behavior, done time and time again, only strengthen the pattern, until it becomes a habit that cannot be broken, for the most part, by self will.
We are truly and totally in need of a POWER greater than ourselves who could restore us to sanity, or the ability to make sound decisions.
I've said it, as well as have written, that our Higher Power has name, and that name would be Jesus.

You could say that when a person works the steps, that they are following Jesus into a state of Recovery, that they are being "Covered" again to be brought to the original purpose the were created for.

Does Recovery = Revival?
On some level you could probably say yes...
But Revival, in my simplest way of thinking......
Takes any recovery and lifts it up beyond an everyday struggle.
Revival places the Joy of the Lord deep into the very being of the one being revived.
It puts purpose and an even greater awareness of the POWER that has been given.
Even though Jesus is at work in our lives, to aid us and guide us through the instruction and direction given to us by God's Holy Spirit, we will find ourselves turning outward in our view of life. We will find ourselves looking to help others discover what we have found.
IF the truth be known....
Revival and Recovery are to be given away to those who don't know our Higher Power Jesus.

Having had a spiritual awakening,

or having been "revived"

we seek to practice this principals in all our affairs...
And to take this message to others....

To others, who have not met the solution to

everything we face in our daily lives.
That which use to cause me to run away...
To medicate...
To drink myself into a state of numbness..
I can now face and overcome 

by the POWER given to me by Christ Jesus.

Think on these things today...
God on you...

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Self Denial

Luke 9:23 (The Message Bible)
"Anyone who intends to come with Me, has to let Me lead. You're not in the drivers seat, I am. Don't run from suffering, embrace it. Follow Me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way....My way, to finding yourself....your true self."

From his book "Revival Lectures", Charles Finney states that failing to practice self-denial is one of the sins of omission. He goes on to make an interesting statement that has worked its way down into my spirit. Finney says, "Self denial is a condition of discipleship". That one cannot claim to be a true follower of Jesus without it."

Now when I read this, I automatically went to the worse case scenario. You know.....total abject poverty....a suffering servant for Christ. I don't think this is what Jesus meant when He spoke the words of Luke 9:23. Of course, it really doesn't matter what I think....what does the Holy Spirit say. What if I love Jesus, but I also love the life-style that I've managed to create around me? What if my possessions have a little more attraction to me than Jesus does? 

Finney goes on to say, "There are those poor unfortunates who will not give up the luxuries of this life to save the world from hell." 
Self denial is me realizing my position in Christ. That I have been bought with a great price, and my life is no longer my own. I am a follower. My wants, my desires, my plans should be replaced with God's wants.....God's desires....and God's plans. If one happens to have wealth or some semblance of luxury, God is the one who gets to dictate the usage of such. Is God against wealth and possessions? No. But He is against being replaced by such things in our lives.

The hallmark character trait of all people in addiction is selfishness...self centered. No room for anything or anyone else. It truly is the "ME" factor at work. The individual may surround themselves with other friends, other acquaintances, and even family, but only so they can be used to fulfill whatever needs the addict is giving into. No self-denial here.

No matter what your lot is in life, to follow Jesus is to live a life of self denial. To live a life under the influence, and submission to God's Holy Spirit.
IF you read the passage in Galatians 5 that lists the fruit of the Holy Spirit, you will see that Self-control" is one of them. How can one practice living a life of self denial without the power to be self controlled? How can one have the power, or fruit, of self control without the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in their life? It can't be done.

Thank you, Father, that you have not left us powerless to live out the life

you have called us to.

Thank you for the presence of Your Holy Spirit living in me today.
I know that I truly cannot explain how all of this works....

You in me...
Me in You...
Your power given to such a weak vessel as myself.
But with much gratitude, I am ready to deny myself this morning.
To listen for Your voice today...
To follow You where ever you may be leading me.

Thank you for letting me be a part of Your kingdom work,

and for giving me a place to play.

Now Lord, give us Your heart and Your compassion 

for those we will meet today who do not know You.

That they may "hear" and "see" You.
Let us love them, as You love them...
Let us tell my story of the cross....

Grant Your Holy Spirit, that they may be brought

under Your saving grace....
I pray this in the name of Jesus...
Amen

God on you..

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I Am The Weakest Strong Man There Is !

II Corinthians 12  (The Message Bible)
God's answer to Paul's prayer about taking away his thorn in his flesh.....
"My grace is enough, it's all you need. My strength comes into it own in your weakness."

Paul's thoughts:
"Once I heard this, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size-----abuse, accidents, opposition and bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

The very heart of recovery!!!
It is a matter of giving up.
Father Martin, long time spokesman and champion of A.A., said that addiction was like climbing in a ring every day to face the champion, and day after day you get your brains beat out.
You go home and spend the entire evening and night trying to figure out how to beat it. But the next day, like clockwork, you make your way back to the ring, climb in for another round with the champ. The outcome is the same....you get your brains beat out. Finally one day it comes to you........I don't have to get in the ring!!!! If I don't get in the ring, I won't have to fight the champ. In other words...you win by giving up.

Paul's statement concerning the whole weakness/strength thing is priceless. Paul has been praying to God because of what he refers to as "his thorn in the flesh". We're not told what the thorn is, it could be a physical ailment, or an emotional state that he could be suffering from. Some have even suggested that it was people, under the influence of Satan, who followed Paul everywhere to heckle and badge him when he spoke. Makes no difference what the thorn was...it was real...and it was something that Paul had focused on to the point that it had become a major distraction in his life. It was such that Paul found himself consumed with nothing else but the thorn. Praying to God, Paul received his answer. "Celebrate your own personal weakness, and at the same time realize that I (God) am working in ways that you won't understand, to strengthen you."

We win this daily battle by simply giving up....
By not getting the ring to face the champion....
We win by admitting our powerlessness and by turning to God for the answers.
By turning to God for strength to make it through this 24 hour period that we have been given to live.
Moment by moment...minute by minute, I look to God for direction on how to make decisions.
Will we mess up...Probably as we will sometimes look to our old way of thinking when problems arise. But don't let this deter you in this journey of a new way of living. Realize the decision you made for what it is..."For a brief moment, I was trying to climb back into the ring." Move on! Don't quit! Never stop!
Chew on this today and see if it has some truth in it.

God on you....
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