The Narrow Road

I read an interesting passage in Matthew today while we were in church that has been stuck in my head all day today. The passage is from chapter 9, verses 13-14 and it comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:

13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”

I think what I’m most interested in with this passage is how obvious it should be, but how easily we overlook its message. Sometimes we can look around our surroundings and see an entire caravan going down the highway to hell (or, in the Greek version, destruction), and it makes me wonder why we don’t try to turn our own vehicle around. There’s this broad highway full of people traveling the wrong way, and rather than try to drive back against the flow, we just continue down this path.

Meanwhile, there are so few people in the world who take the time to find the narrow road that leads toward Heaven. We don’t see as many people alongside us, so we wonder if we’re even going the right way. Clearly, with so few people using this road, it must not be the road we thought we wanted to be on.

Think about any road trip you’ve ever been on. There’s no feeling less reassuring on a road trip than when the map or GPS says “turn right at County Road 45” and it’s an empty, gravel road with rows of corn on either side. We look down thinking, Surely, this can’t be the road we’re supposed to be on. We long for the security of the highway, where so many cars are traveling the same direction that they clearly all must know where they’re going. But everybody on a highway to nowhere doesn’t accomplish anything positive, even if we are all driving the same direction.

Every once in a while, stop and take a look at your surroundings. Are you and those around you just following along the same highway, secure in knowing that everyone else is doing the same (even if the direction you’re headed isn’t the direction God wants you to be traveling)? Or are you pushing yourself and trusting God to lead you down the narrow, difficult road that few ever find (the road to Heaven)?

It’s easy to follow the pack. But rarely is it the best way to travel.

-Mike

Photo by Dan O’Brien. Thanks Dan!

God Has The Power

Sometimes you get news that breaks your heart. And while I’m not at a point where I’m able to talk about that news (due to the privacy of the other people involved), the bad news I received made me do a lot of thinking.

What I realized was that, two or three years ago, the news I’m talking about would have completely thrown my world off its axis. Despair would’ve taken over. I would have panicked and I would have ultimately spent at least a few nights contemplating the negatives of the situation and getting just about no sleep while I worried.

But as I’ve grown in my walk with Christ over the past year and a half, I’ve really started to realize how powerful His peace can be in my life. When I got that bad news a few days ago, my first reaction wasn’t despair or sadness. The feeling I felt instead was immediate hope and resolve. I knew that my first step had to be prayer and positivity, not negativity and panic. I never once asked God “Why?!”, but instead focused my attention on asking God for His healing and blessings on everyone involved.

It’s incredible what freedom we have in God. Every day, life presents us with circumstances that require a reaction. How we choose to react is a direct reflection of the faith we have in Him. You’re not wrong to feel despair when you receive heartbreaking news. But you are wrong if you feel like a situation is hopeless and God doesn’t have the power to turn it into something positive.

He does.

So stay positive. Trust in His plan. Believe  in His unending grace. There’s more power in that grace than any other force in the universe. And if you need prayer, don’t forget to visit Lindsie’s new Facebook group “The Altar” and let us know. Lots of praying going on over there, and we’d love to have you in our prayers too.

-Mike

Photo by Evan Courtney. Thanks!

Every Time I Run

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Courageous

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Casting Crown’s newest album comes out on October 18th.  I love the rich truth found in their lyrics.  Let this inspire you to be courageous!

Fight the Good Fight

My darling, little sister surprised me this week by writing another guest post for our blog.  I’ve been so swamped with school work lately that its been hard to find free time to write. I’m so grateful for her willingness to share in my absence.

How is it that the Lord knows exactly when to intervene in our lives?  He knows exactly when to jump in and save the day and He knows exactly how to save us from despair.  Until then, we often times are left to wait patiently and have faith that He knows exactly what He is doing.  However, these are often the times I doubt that He remembers me and I doubt that He is near or that He even cares about the trials I am facing.  Brothers and sisters, it is during these times that we must understand that He is simply testing our faith.  We face trials daily as a test to see where our focus is and who we are putting in control of our lives.  I choose Jesus!!

This past month I have been put to the ultimate test.  For a while now I have faced mental battles that I cannot even begin to explain.  I suffered from spurts of depression and often times felt lonely and completely helpless even in a crowded room of people.  It is now that I realize that this was simply because I wasn’t allowing myself to be completely filled with the Spirit, but instead I was letting Satan form these strongholds in my life and although I was crying for help, I felt like no one was listening.  I knew counseling was an option, but if you know anything about me I am a very stubborn person.  I wanted to figure this out on my own, but soon realized that it was next to impossible.

Psalm 142: 2-3, 5-6

“I pour out my complaint before him: before him I tell my trouble.  When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who knows my way….I say, ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.’  Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need.”

Why cry out to the Lord?  I have discovered that literally getting on your knees and verbally crying out to the Lord is a freeing experience.  We do this so we can somehow reach a point of rest and experience a mind at peace.  Through these mental battles with the devil I often felt like I was completely helpless and getting absolutely nowhere no matter how many times I prayed for healing.  I desperately wanted these obsessive thoughts to end and to experience a free mind concerned about nothing but serving the Lord and spreading His Word, fulfilling my purpose here on earth.  However, Satan was throwing too many obstacles at me and I was growing very weary.  But I knew my only choice was to continually breakdown to the Lord and release everything on Him…then sit patiently and trust His timing and His perfect plan and put my faith in God alone.  This idea of “God alone” is something that I struggle with daily.  It is God alone that could heal me from this battle and mental torture that Satan was throwing at me.  Only through Him could I experience freedom.

I desperately wanted to live a life free from this burden and free from these thoughts that were tearing apart my mind and not only having an effect on me and my relationship with the Lord but also the relationships with my friends and family.  This was the last string…as I lay on my floor one night after an hour with the Lord I knew I had to just continue to pray daily and put my hope in Him to heal me completely.  Once again I want to express how incredible I think it is that God shows himself to be present in our lives in all kinds of ways: through people, through events and opportunities.

As I sat in church on Sunday recently, the pastor was giving a sermon on 1 Peter and he made it very clear that trials and suffering is part of being a Christian.  When we accepted God into our lives he did not promise a painless, effortless or easy walk with Him.  He made it clear that we would definitely be faced with trials, but promised that He would equip us with Holy armor and teach us how to handle our suffering.  He promised to never leave our side and to protect us from our enemies.  The pastor taught that in times of trial we must write it down, refrain from asking why but instead ask what…ask the Lord what He is trying to teach us through these hard times…ask the Lord what good can come of this.  The purpose of this sermon was to teach that as Christians we are not to fixate our thoughts on the immediate things of this world and the daily things that we are faced with, but rather give these struggles to the Lord and fixate our minds on Jesus Christ and the resurrection to come…our eternal, beautiful life with Him.  Rest assured, brothers and sisters, that we know the end result of our life here on earth…we KNOW what happens at the end of the road…we do not have to sit and wonder where we will be when all is said and done.  Jesus Christ promises to return and all who are His followers will be invited to join His Kingdom eternally!!

Overall, I’m not completely cured.  Satan still finds ways to mentally attack me and make me feel weak.  However, these times of trial are good reminders of exactly who I am and in whom my hope and faith is rested upon!  These times remind me that I am a bold, strong and courageous woman of God and I am ready to fight the good fight!

2 Timothy 1:7

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline”.

Stop. Breathe.

Every once in a while, things get crazy.

Life gets a little out of control.

Panic starts to hit.

 

Stop.

Breathe.

 

And remember that God can (and will) ease your stress.

“The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.” (Psalm 9:9-10)

Remember that Jesus wants to relieve you of your burden.

“Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’” (Matthew 11:28)

 

Sometimes all you need to do is stop.

And breathe.

And give thanks that the Lord is with you.

 

-Mike

 
 
Photo by Shawn Rozzi. Thanks Shawn!

Simple Peace

Today was one of those days where, even though nothing went wrong, stress managed to keep piling up. And as I reached the end of this slowly stressful day, and all of those individual stresses were adding up into one big knot in my stomach, I managed to save over the wrong file and I lost a document I’d just spent about an hour and a half working on.

At that point, I was starting to feel a little bit of despair. I would now have to go home, work on this work project in my free time at home just to finish it up on time, and that would end up pushing back a personal project I’m already working on in my free time.

As I walked in the door of my house, I wasn’t sure what I should even do next. It seemed that, no matter what action I took, it would culminate in some sort of stress for me. I mean, the rest of the day had gone that way, so why would it change now?

And for whatever reason, I decided that my next step, before I did anything else, was going to be reading my Bible. I figured it was the only possible thing I could invest my time in that wouldn’t end with me feeling worse about things.

I was right. I didn’t find the “perfect verse” to help me relieve my stress or anything like that. I wasn’t blown away or amazed by the two chapters I read in Isaiah. There was nothing about reading my Bible (this time) that totally rocked my world off its axis.

But it did help me clear my head. And I think that might be what God was going for this time. He doesn’t always have to rock us to the core to have an impact on our lives. Sometimes He just wants to remind us he’s there.

So thanks for being there, God. And thanks for being a blessing, not a stressing. (I know stressing isn’t a noun, I really just wanted that to rhyme.)

If you’re feeling stressed about something, open up your Bible. You might not find that “perfect verse” it seems like people in stories and sermons always manage to find, but you might be surprised at what you do find in there.

-Mike

Photo by Baer Tierkel. Thanks Baer!

Healing In Jesus Name

I got a phone call today from a dear, dear friend of mine.  She was diagnosed with cancer a little over 2 years ago and had her tumor markers yesterday in Omaha, NE.  The doctors reported that they had found new growth and that she will be going in for surgery next week to have them removed and to determine what the next steps will be

The reason I bring this up is because when I hung up the phone, I was thinking about God’s ability to heal us.  In Exodus 15:26 the Lord is called Jehovah Rapha, the Healer.  Psalm 103:3 says he forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases.  1 Peter 2:24 echos the words of Isaiah 53:5 saying that by His stripes we are healed.  Matthew 9:35 says that Jesus himself went about preaching the gospel and healing all kinds of sickness and disease.

Satan is the author of sickness and disease.  The Bible tells us we must take authority over Satan to be healed.  In Luke 10:19, Jesus gives us that authority, that we may speak in His name and receive healing.  It is not our strength alone that releases this authority.  It is through the name of Jesus.  Peter demonstrates this in Acts 3 as he speaks healing over a lame man at the temple gate.  Invoking the power of the name of Jesus, the man is able to walk.

I often succumb to the lie that God doesn’t have the time to heal me… or that I need to wait it out.  Maybe I’m beyond healing…miracles are for other, more righteous people.  This, my friend, is a lie.  Jesus paid the price so that every single one of us might be healed.  Thinking otherwise is an insult to God and His power.

If you or anyone you know is suffering in any way, please take authority over satan in the name of Jesus and claim what is rightfully yours as a beloved child of God.  He is Jehovah Rapha, our Healer.

Great I Am

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So incredibly moving.  I love the powerful simplicity of these lyrics.  Worship with me, friends.

 

On This Day 88 Years Ago…

I’ve wanted to write about my grandpa for a long time, but whenever I think about it, I realize words really cannot capture who he was as a person and who he was to me.  It’s a feat I’m afraid I’m not quite up to yet.  But regardless of my shortcomings, in honor of what would have been his 88th birthday, I decided to share with you a video our family put together for his memorial service a few years ago.

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While days like this still make my heart ache, I am so comforted to know we will be reunited someday in the presence of our Savior.  Thank you, Jesus.