Day 11- Unworthy Servant

Well I'm in Mark 1:7 and the verse reads "And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie..." I began to think about how I am such an unworthy servant of Jesus. I don't even deserve to stoop down and untie His Nike's. Back in those days a servant that was the lowest of the low would always seem to have the feet job. Jesus when He washed the disciples feet, or John saying he's not worthy to even untie His sandals. They were always associated with the feet. I found that interesting and began to think about it and why the feet were the lowest part. But if you think about it the feet are pretty nasty, and back then well Ew. They walked everywhere, and can you imagine how nasty those toes got? I mean that must have been so nasty with the dirt and grime all ground into their toes. And then Jesus willing to stoop down and untie the disciples sandals and wash those dirty nasty feet, WOW not that's a servant. I wonder how I'm a servant in my own life? What areas are lacking because I'm not a servant? How can I be a servant in my own marriage, work, or friendships? The only way that can change is to have Him do the serving through me. It is the waiter at the table concept, of I'm just serving whatever He does through me and I don't know what's on the platter but I'm going to give it to you. And of course the dish is always served the perfect temperature, and texture, and the dish is always Jesus! I need to submit my area of servant hood over to Him because I am just unable to do it without Him. I have so many areas of my life that need servants in them and time after time I'm not willing to let Him be that through me. Lord be a servant through me to my world. Let them know that You live inside of me just by my actions alone, and not even needing to say anything. I live in a world that NEEDS You Jesus and I'm longing for You to move in a way of such that is a radical change (unfortunately). Be the change that my world and I need, shake my thinking and actions by taking away my carnality and living through me a life of servant hood.

Day 11- Abraham and Issac

So I was talking with some friends who were missionaries to Poland, and were planning on being there for 1 year. They ended up selling a lot of their stuff, their car, furniture, pretty much everything except clothes, their bed and a dresser or two. Well they get over there and things don't quite work out and the end up coming back to the states. They were there about 2 months and felt defeated and kind of like "Why did you make me do all this so that we would come back in 2 months?" Well as I was talking to them last night they feel as though God needed to show them something and the only way to do it was to strip them of all of their comforts, possessions, and talents and send them over to Poland. Now they have come back with a passion and desire to have a ministry over here that is what they wanted to do over there. But how much easier it is because they speak the language, know the city, and are in a general sense familiar with the surroundings and culture. It made me think of the story of Abraham and Isaac. See Abraham was being spoke to by God and God told him that he needed to sacrifice his first born son. Abraham was kind of weirded out by this whole thing and wanted to know why. But God told Him to trust Him and so as Abraham had Isaac down to sacrifice him, about ready to cut his neck, God spoke up and said that He wanted to test Abraham. That he didn't really have to sacrifice his own son, and there was a goat in a bush nearby. Sometimes God wants to see if we are willing to "sacrifice our own son", or completely trust Him when we know it sounds off the wall. I think of Mark 1:1-4 it talks about John the Baptist and how he is out in the wilderness. Well the Greek word translated there means solitude, or gives the concept of being stripped down of everything. If you think about it, John the Baptist was stripped down of everything even to his clothes and all he had to rely upon was God. I want that in my life today, I don't want to rely on my talents, possessions, or situations, I want to rely fully on God. The second I stop relying on Him I'm sinning and need to repent because I cannot do anything myself to please Him, He must do it through me. Jesus make it so, I want to be stripped down of everything so I can gain You! I know once I gain You that I have the whole deal, the entire thing, the whole purpose for living. I want so badly to be dominated by You, I lay myself down as a sacrifice for You!

Day 10- Magic 8 Ball Jesus

I know from the title you're going, well the man obviously hasn't had food so he's delirious and needs to eat. However I'm not delirious, although some say crazy, but today at work it made me think of this. We have this new system we're going to be using at work where all of the separate systems will be narrowed down to one system so everybody is using the same thing. Great concept, so we went down to this kick off meeting to learn about it and they had bags down there filled with goodies like a pen, a note pad, and this little magic 8 ball thing. You know the one where it would give you the answer to any question you would ask it. Now the answer might not always fit the question and usually the question would have to be a yes or no question but it would give you the answer after shaking it up a few times. Well I began to think on this and what would happen if there was this "Magic 8 Ball" that you could ask any question to (not just yes or no) and it always gave you the right answer? That thing would be so hot the stores wouldn't be able to keep them on the shelves. Everybody would own one and would go to that thing every time they had a question about anything. Ok now what if the answer that always popped up was JESUS? No matter what the question, no matter what the situation the answer was always JESUS. Doesn't it seem to easy to have that, I mean can He really be the answer to anything we ask? YES!!! That is so exciting to know that no matter what the question is the answer is always JESUS! I was reading my good friend's book today and I love the comments in there they have a feel of this, Jesus doesn't provide us our salvation...HE is our salvation. Jesus doesn't give us peace, HE is our peace. Jesus doesn't give us answers, HE is our answers. So instead of going to a magic 8 ball to get answers I would highly recommend Jesus for any and every answer you're ever seeking about anything. He is the perfect fit and size, and length and just perfect for anything! What a Jesus!! He is so good to me to always be my answer!

Day 9- Rest

I was on this weekly conference call that me and some other guys do, and one of the main topics was this rest concept. I really liked it because it gives the idea that I can get so wrapped up in the doing aspect of ministry and lose focus on the being aspect of it. See I can do a lot of things, but that doesn't mean anything unless He is doing them through me. When we get wrapped up in the doing aspect we often times feel overwhelmed, and can feel overtaken. But this concept suggests that I rest in Jesus and let Him dominate my situation and the overwhelming feeling that I have is no more. The bodies we have are Christian bodies and not built to handle worry, or stress. Look at how our bodies react to stress and worry, you get sick or shut down. So whenever I'm worrying, or I'm stressed out about something, if I look to Him for rest or as the calm amidst the storm, He is always there. He is my constant in an inconstant world. I know that if I rest in Him that His will can be done, but only if I rest in Him. If I try to rest in myself then that is not rest at all and things fall apart. I find myself discussing issues with people and we are always looking for a third road, or a fence to sit on, like if I rest in Him only when I need to. Duh, I always need to!! I am so insufficient even in my own life. I tried to take control of my life and it lead to drugs, alcohol, and obesity. I obviously needed to have Him dominate me and take the stressful and worry upon Himself. He commands us to give it to Him because He is capable to handle such things and I am not. I want to rest in Him today, and let my head fall on His chest as a comfort. I want to know that there are two persons living inside of me and the other person is taking care of the things that I can't do (which is everything). I want to live outside my means and do things I can't do and love like I can't love because He is doing it through me and I just rest in Him. Lord let it be so today and I will seek you and get so wrapped up in you that stress and worry fade away and all I'm left to do is REST!

Day 8- Rooted

I have found as I go along in life and through the scripture that one of the key elements is to always stay rooted. You must believe firmly in what you believe because if you do not stand firm then you do not stand at all. I have found recently that I am challenged by others who do not believe as I do. Some of this came as a shock because I guess you just believe everybody believes the same way you do. However I have found this is not the case. As I was reading in Mark it tells us how Jesus was lead out to the desert to be tempted by the devil himself. How hard I thought that must have been, to overcome that temptation. But then I began to think about it, Jesus just had the very Spirit of God descend on Him and fill Him and take over control. Was it really that difficult to overcome temptation? I've heard it said that "I've never overcome a problem by focusing on not giving into that problem." If I'm focused on the problem itself and overcoming it, it gets bigger and bigger in my life until it's unbearable. Then I have the same problem but in a bigger size. The only way I have overcome a temptation or problem is to focus on Him. If I'm focused on Him then that problem might still be there but I don't even notice it. I'm just so wrapped up in Him. At the same time when I stand firm on what I believe, I can say my peace but at the end of the day it is not my words that are going to win some kind of argument. No it's the person of Christ that will do the talking for me because I'm so wrapped up in Him. That way it leaves me out of the equation, which is a great thing because I always mess stuff up, and let's Him take control of whatever is going on. When we are rooted in Him, it makes me think of the vine and the branches, we are mistaken for Him. If we're secure and resting in Jesus, He's so solid that I don't have to worry about hanging out there alone, or what to say, or how to handle the situation. He already knows what needs to be said, He already knows the right thing to say at the right time. When we rest in the person of Jesus we are rooted in Him. I have found one of the best ways to be rooted is to study the scripture and to be solid in what it says. Not what we think it says but actually what the original language is saying to us. Find out the Greek or Hebrew of the text and watch it become more alive then it was before. When we are rooted in The Word, we are rooted in Him, and if we are rooted in Him, we cannot be moved or swayed. Let my root go deep into your person Jesus and may I just be the branch that is mistaken for the vine you are!

Day 7- From Worst To Best

Mark 1:9 says: "At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." I looked into the town of Nazareth and it was a trader town and not thought of well. When you thought of Nazareth you thought of a town where there was a lot of people passing through and it was kind of a slum kind of town. I found it interesting that Jesus was born here and that God's son was from Nazareth. Who would have thought that somebody like the person of Christ could ever come out of a town like Nazareth? I wonder how many times in our life that we look at our current situation and wonder how God will ever be able to work in the midst of it? I look at my life and wonder how in the world is God going to use me? I mean I didn't graduate college, I lived a hard life, I have a past and am over weight(there are may more negatives, but I don't have time to write them all). I mean how in the world is God going to use something like that? The fact of the matter is that no matter how bad we are, how bad the situation is, how bad of a life we have lived or how dirty our past may be He will use it. I know this first hand, I have gone from being drunk and high to preaching His word. I have left the past that used to haunt me behind and got so focused on Him that nothing else matters anymore. The key element that we must remember is that we are "New Creations" in Christ!! When we accept Him and have Him living inside of us so that we literally have two people in one body then and only then does He wash away all that filth that we have accumulated. We have to take the excuses that we have "I have a past, I had a hard childhood, I didn't have a father/mother, I'm not smart." or anything else that we can come up with, and quit using them to keep us away from Him. He doesn't care what we have been through, or what we have done, how we grew up or who are parents are He just wants us to be in a deep relationship with Him. That is the key to Christianity!! Not what we're doing, or how we're doing it, but a deep, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, so that He knows every thought we have, every moment we experience, every step we take He wants to be a part of it. I want that in my life, I want to grow deeper and deeper in love with Jesus. I don't want to use the excuses of my Worst, but I want to live in the promise of His Best. I know that this earthly life doesn't always promise to be easy or easier when we become a Christian, in all actuality it will become harder, but I do know that He loves me and that I don't have to worry about doing the right thing all the time. I just sit back and let Him take over control of my life. Now please understand that it's not a situation of where I sit on my butt and expect Him to do my homework, or cook dinner or do things that I hate doing. But my motivation for doing the things I do will change so that I no longer have a selfish attitude towards doing them but a selfless attitude. I want that more and more in my life so I become less and He becomes more. I'm leaving behind my Worst and embracing His Best!