Are you a success???

Are you a success?
Seriously. Has you’re life thus far been what you would call successful? Have you done the things necessary to put yourself in the position you dreamed of being in? I think if we are honest with ourselves we will undoubtedly look back on many “shoulda-woulda-coulda’s” in our lives. But do any of those “missed opportunities” translate into your life being a success or failure? I mean really? My mother used to look at me in the heat of my tantrums when I was young and say, “Joshie, Is this really going to matter in ten years?” (In fact, thinking back, I used to think my mother was the most ignorant woman on the face of the earth when I was young, but you’d be surprised what she learned by the time I got to be 24 years old!!) Anyway, it’s probably true for most of us that many of the small events that wreak havoc on us usually don’t amount to much in the long run. Success though, by the world’s standards is measured by the much larger events in our lives: Where we go to school, or if we go to school, what Job we get, who we marry, how successful our marriage is, What our children grow up to be and do…the list goes on and on. Most of those “Requirements” are usually “sub par” at best. We all wish we had better jobs, we all wish our house was bigger, we all wish we could change this and redo that and the more we dwell on it the more depressing our lives become!!!! I’m thankful God’s View of Success is so drastically different from the worlds.

When I try to think of someone in the bible who was a success the first person who pops into my mind is Noah. The bible says that “Noah found Grace in the Lord’s sight” why???? Let’s see God asks a lot from Noah:  His time (100 years to be exact). Energy- I cant imagine doing this now at 24 years old, let alone being 500 years old when I started, his Social status- he was the laughing stock of the whole known world for 100 years! Wealth – Noah most likely gave all he had accumulated over the last 500 years in this venture.

BUT EVEN IN ALL OF THOSE THINGS, THAT’S NOT WHAT MADE HIM A SUCCESS!!!

Genesis 6:22 says “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.

The key to his success and ours is simply……Obedience.

God measures our success by our obedience to him. Are you truly living in Obedience to the Lord?
How do you Know?
Have you asked Him?
Did you listen long enough to receive His answer???                                                                                         -Josh

He is Our Comforter and our Un-comforter

I am always amazed at how quickly things can change. A beautiful sunny day can become a dreary wet mess in a matter of minutes. A prized possession can become garage sale destined in just a few short days. A baby can coo and mumble da da one month and then in the blink of an eye that same baby is asking to borrow the keys to your car! Yes, things certainly happen without a moments notice. I’ll never forget the day Lindsey came into the bedroom and announced “You’re gonna be a daddy!” In three seconds my life changed forever. I’ll also never forget several weeks later when the nurse looked at us through misty eyes and said, “I’m so sorry, but there is no heartbeat.” Again my life changed instantly. There are moments when God decides to alter our course. Sometimes it’s a slight modification and other times it’s a complete 180 degree turn. God allows things to turn our world upside down sometimes. Why is that? How could a loving and caring God who is supposed to have out best interest at heart take our lives and turn them on their heads? Why would he choose to make us so…….uncomfortable.

This may be hard for many of us to hear, but our comfort is not God's priority. In fact, I would argue that our discomfort, many times, is actually the greater priority. You see when we are comfortable we relax both physically and spiritually. Relaxing is something that Christians can’t afford to do. When we get comfortable in our walk with Christ, the devil starts getting excited because he knows it will only be a matter of time before areas in you life start losing their defense. We might start to think, “I am doing great….it must be because I am great. Thank you God…..for making ME so great!” and then we start dealing with pride. Or we wake up one day and wonder, “Where did God go? He was just right here a minute ago.” not realizing that in our complacency we drifted away. So we abandon our faith entirely blaming the lack of intimacy on God.

So, God will often times allow us to go through trials and discomforts so that we are consistently (and constantly it seems!!!) in the fire. He allows us to get in situations where we have no choice but to run to Him for comfort. God longs for our attention. Not because he has to have it, but simply because he is madly in love with us. God will go to incredible lengths to capture our attention. Wars have been fought, cities destroyed, children taken, loved ones snatched, all in the name of…… Grace……you see the ultimate gift is in the reward that comes after being faithful through the storms. Sometimes his gifts come in the form of taking things from us. In my own life I have often felt closest to God when nearness to him was a necessity.

When the Holy Spirit is truly living inside of you, we have all that we need to face any trial. Sometimes we even get to find out why we went through them in the first place. Have you ever been late to work because you couldn’t find your keys and you thought, “Oh God please help me find my keys!!” and then half way to work you come upon the accident that… could of ………and in your heart you know ….would of…..been you?

Sometimes we just have to understand that we don’t need to know why God allowed the trial…because it’s better for us that we don’t know. The central issue all comes down to how much we truly TRUST the one we say is in control. The Holy Spirit is our comforter. Jesus himself referred to him as such. Let me end with this question. Why would we need to experience the comforter in our lives if we are already comfortable? -Josh

Thoughts on Image

It’s interesting first of all how easily we take our cues from people in the media. From the mild to the mortifying and everything in between, if someone popular is doing it, saying it, wearing it, or endorsing it, then drones of people will blindly and boldly follow suit. I remember a popular hip hop star who once wore a band-aid on his cheek during a music video. The first time I saw it I thought, “Maybe he had a mole removed, or skin cancer cells scraped off.” The very next day at school there were at least five people sporting guess what…..band-aids on their faces. I bet the teachers thought there was some sort of ringworm outbreak or something! Just today I noticed that many students walking up and down my hallway are dressed very “emo” (if you don’t know what “emo” is let me try to explain it in as few words as possible.) Emo - the term for “emotional hard core”. Emo is a style of rock music that is characterized by pleading or confessional lyrics. It stems from the punk rock genre. The new culture that has risen out of the music is shy or withdrawn, poetic, and clingy. They have a very unique sense of fashion which usually involves extremely tight pants known as "Skinny Jeans" or “girl pants”, long hair, converse style shoes, and dark and unusually tight tee-shirts. Okay back to what I was saying, there are emo kids walking the halls. They all look exactly like the musicians whom they love, and if you ask them, they all - or at least the vast majority - want to be rock stars just like their idols. The problem with that is they have gotten the cart before the horse. They have done things backwards- image first, work second. This poses a real problem. You see, most of the musicians they see on t.v. spent years in orchestra or marching band, taking violin and cello lessons or going to percussion sectionals. They have been called nerdy much much longer then they have been called cool. And yet they persevered through the hard times to get where they wanted to go. So in the end they have a talented, hard working interior, and an “Emo” or “Rockstar”, exterior. Kids only see the exterior. And nobody is telling them that image is the payoff to lots of hard work. Kids today quickly become wannabes.
If we are not careful our relationship with Christ can become the same way, fueling the fire to the world that says we are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites - saying we believe one thing externally but living life in a way that is far different internally. If we take the time to look, we will see Christ and that he has an image that is very appealing. We want it. So we try to externally wear His image. We don Christian tee-shirts and bumper stickers, we go to church, we sing on the worship team and assume that because we are doing Christian-y things we must be like Christ. And we never take the time to consider that we need something internally as well as externally. The difference is that the internal “work” is simply falling in love. (I’m not talking about falling in love with the stuff Christ can do or give us, I am talking about falling in love with God for who He is). When you fall in love with Christ and begin a relationship with Him, you begin participating in a “good work” that Jesus Christ already started in you. We have to go through a process just like the wannabes of the world. It’s a process that will start as soon as you are told about Jesus for the first time, and will end when you die. The process is a beautiful relationship that goes through a time of discovery, and pursuit, and hard times and great times, valleys and mountains, deserts and streams. The relationship transforms you internally and the result will be a genuine Christian that is glowing externally to a dark world full of people who are desperate for something far better than anything the world can offer. We all carry an image. What image are you carrying? Is it simply external? Or is it at the core of who you are. You see everybody wants to find Christ………..but so few want to seek him. -Josh