All posts tagged god

A Quick Word of Encouragement

Posted
June 19, 2012
Categories
Spiritual Insights

If you’ve read our previous post about overcoming some obstacles to get down to San Francisco, you’ll know that it hasn’t exactly been easy so far.

So when Lindsie and I sat down to read our Bibles the other night, I asked her where she wanted to start and she quickly replied “Let’s start at James. It’s one of my favorites.” Needless to say, I understood why within the first couple of verses.

Here’s just the very start of James, according to the New Living Translation:

1This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad.

Greetings!

2Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

5If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

Talk about an incredible start. And what’s awesome is that the whole first chapter is full of stuff that powerful. It’s just amazing how frequently the Bible speaks to our situations and the challenges we’re facing if we just take the time to read God’s Word and think about it.

I think my mom is working on memorizing the entire book of James as part of a Bible study. That seems like a pretty good idea to me, so I think I might try to do the same. (Thanks for the idea, Mom.) And thanks to God for the encouragement He shows through His Word.

-Mike

Photo by Tito & Eva Marie Balangue

God cares about the little things…

Posted
June 3, 2012
Categories
Uncategorized

This is a story about how God takes care of us, no matter how dire a situation might seem.

Here’s the background info: Last week, Lindsie and I had been frantically packing as we prepared for this walk across the country. We’d gotten 90% of our stuff into a storage unit, but we knew there was one thing we wouldn’t be able to store: our gigantic, very heavy, hand-me-down sectional couch that had been in my family for 12+ years now.

Knowing we wouldn’t be able to store it, we wanted to at least find a good home for it. We don’t have any friends in need of a couch, so we took the next best step and tried to drop it off at a thrift store, hoping someone could then buy it cheap and use it as thoroughly as we did.

After desperately trying to acquire a truck to move this massive couch, we finally got one last Tuesday night. Lindsie and I had exactly 5 hours to pick up the truck, move the couch OUT of our home, load it onto the truck, drop it off at a thrift store, and return it to its owner…all by ourselves.

Unfortunately, we were met with bad news. No thrift stores would take it because of ONE small tear in ONE seat cushion. So we figured we’d take it to a dump. It was now about 7:30 pm, which meant we only had 2.5 hours to get the couch dumped and the truck returned. It also meant that the dump was closed for the night.

Feeling very defeated, and not sure where we would put this gigantic couch of ours (we weren’t dragging it back inside, and we essentially had to be moved out of our apartment entirely by the following day), we decided to focus on moving other large things with the truck while we still had time. Lindsie and I both said a quick prayer asking that God would help us get rid of it. We didn’t think we could deal with the burden of having to re-acquire a truck and try this all over again the next day. We were reaching our desperation point, to say the least.

Just before we left to move the other items, I suggested we put up a “FREE COUCH” sign next to our burdensome couch. You know, just in case. As we were putting the sign in place (as in, literally setting it down next to the couch), a couple that happened to be walking through the alley next to our place saw the couch and said, “Free couch? We’d love to take it, but we don’t have any way to move it.” I looked up, amazed at the convenient timing and said, “We’ll drop it off for you. Whatever you need. We just have to get rid of it before 10 o’clock tonight.”

“Well I’ve gotta call my buddy to make sure we can take it, so I’ll let you know when I talk to him.”

We exchanged numbers. About 2 hours passed. It was 9:30 and we only had about 20-ish minutes to load the coach and move it wherever this guy needed it delivered. IF he even ended up taking it in the first place.

Then, at 9:35, the guy called me and said they could take it. We just had to drop it off. After saying a quick prayer of thanks, we loaded it up. As an added blessing, their house was only about a block away from us. After a quick unloading (and a nearly-destroyed back), we returned the truck around 9:52 pm, with 8 minutes to spare.

The point of this story is simple: even in our greatest moment of desperation—a desperation you might not understand from simply reading this story, but would definitely understand if you’d been there with us as we met with defeat over and over throughout the night—God was watching out for us.

Who knows what would’ve happened if we’d asked Him for help sooner? We might’ve gotten the couch off our hands in a matter of minutes. But either way, the fact that things aligned so perfectly is far too convenient to be coincidence.

For starters, we almost didn’t even put the “FREE COUCH” sign up. Then, if we’d put it up either 3 minutes sooner or 3 minutes later, we would’ve missed the people walking by entirely. And if they’d walked by without us there, they wouldn’t have offered to take it because they wouldn’t have had a truck to pick it up. It just so happened that they were walking by RIGHT when I was able to tell them that we would drop off the couch for them. Then, they were finally able to take it off our hands just MINUTES before we had to return the truck to its owner.

All in all, it’s too incredible to be coincidence as far as we’re concerned.

God is pretty amazing. Especially when you just trust Him to be amazing for you.

As a quick update, we’re in South Dakota, preparing for our walk. Ten days from now, it begins. Crazy, right?

We’ll have more news and updates soon.

-Mike

God Has The Power

Posted
October 11, 2011
Categories
Uncategorized

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!

Stop. Breathe.

Posted
September 21, 2011
Categories
Uncategorized

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!

Getting Back In Bible Shape

Posted
May 26, 2011
Categories
Uncategorized

There’s a funny thing about getting back into the habit of something when you haven’t done it in a while: sometimes it’s terribly difficult. Even when it’s something as good as reading your Bible.

Here’s some background. Lindsie and I started running again and it’s been a few days weeks since either one of us really did it with a purpose. And after two days, we can barely walk. Now is about the time when we could give up. Maybe “just take a few days off” until we’re not so sore. The problem is that it’s easy for a few days off to turn into a few weeks off. And suddenly you’re back where you started and the next time you go running, you’re sore again. The cycle starts all over.

The same thing can happen when it comes to your walk with God. I know it happens to me all the time. Specifically with reading my Bible. Although Lindsie is great at reading hers consistently, I sometimes struggle. With so many great comic books and novels out there to read, sometimes I just feel like using my “free time” for something more exciting…more entertaining.

The past two nights, along with running, we’ve been reading our Bibles together. And it should be easy. I’ve read the entire Bible once in my life, and I’ve read it off and on for years since then. It’s not like it’s a book written in some foreign language or something. But for whatever reason, I can only manage to get deeply involved with my Bible for a few days and nights before I’m ready for more entertainment again. I can somehow manage to find more time for a Captain America comic than I can find for God.

The trick is not to give up. The trick is not to take “just a few days off.” In C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, demons are personified as intervening in the spiritual lives of their “patients” (i.e. – humans). Their goal is to disrupt their patients’ spiritual walks in whichever sneaky, evil ways they can. Although what Lewis wrote was fiction, I do think that’s what truly happens to us. Demons can recognize when we’re really getting into the groove with our faith. And they’ll do whatever they can to throw that off in any way possible.

Like I said – the trick is not to give up. There’s some great stuff in the Bible. Truly entertaining, attention-grabbing stuff. Last night we read James, chapter 1 and it seemed like almost every word in that entire chapter was speaking right to me. There’s a reason that’s the case. Because God WANTS us to read his Word. He wouldn’t have written a cruddy, boring book just hoping someone might suffer through it out of obligation. He wrote something that is truly alive. Something he wanted us to want to read.

So if you try to read your Bible and you aren’t quite feeling it like you were hoping you would, please don’t give up. Just like getting back in shape after a long exercise hiatus, it’s never easy. Especially right after the start, when you’re most sore. Fight through the spiritual soreness and stick with it.

Eventually you’ll get back in shape. And I guarantee that’ll feel really, really good.

Photo c/o Frames-of-Mind. Thanks!

Busyness

Posted
March 21, 2011
Categories
Uncategorized

Unfortunately, over the past few weeks, Lindsie and I have been busy.

With Lindsie taking 18 credits this semester and working full time, she’s doing her best to keep her head above water.  On my end, I’ve got my normal job at ADwërks and a few projects on the side that I’m hammering away on.

All in all, this has left us with just about enough time to occasionally sneak in a movie and, once every few weeks, go out and get a nice dinner together.

But really, the reason I started this post with the word “unfortunately” is that our busyness has managed to keep us from staying as connected to God as we should be. Too many nights have been spent working on things that “matter” now, but really, in the long run, won’t matter at all. Too many mornings have brought the dread of waking up to a list of things to do rather than waking up with a list of reasons to thank God we’re alive.

I won’t sit here and make some bold, impossible statement like “But all that ends TODAY!” because the truth is, I can’t say that it will. It’s a daily struggle all of us deal with. When we’re simply trying to make time for life, how are we supposed to also make time for Christ? It’s so much easier said than done, right?

But we have to try. Whether that means holding ourselves more accountable to others outside of our immediate circle or whether that means getting on a set, immovable schedule for spending time with the Lord, we need to do what it takes to stay connected to God. Because he’s just sitting there waiting for us with the awareness that, if we’d just give it up to him, he can (and will) take care of it.

It’s easy to drown in life. But God is sitting there with us in the water, just waiting for us to realize that he’s already holding us. We just have to trust him to help us float.

Think about it. And try to spend at least a few minutes with God today. It’s amazing how helpful it can be when it comes to getting rid of some of the busyness of life.

-Mike

Photo by Kenneth Barker. Thanks Kenneth!

Angels In Our Outfield

Posted
March 6, 2011
Categories
Uncategorized

Lindsie and I watched a timeless classic last night – Angels In The Outfield. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing it, Angels In The Outfield is a 1994 Disney movie where a kid named Roger (played by a young Joseph Gordon Levitt) prays the last-place Angels will win the pennant. After he does, the head angel (Christopher Lloyd) sends a team of angels down to help the baseball team, leading to a bunch of Disney-esque shenanigans. I won’t spoil the rest of the film for you, but it’s a Disney film, so you can imagine how it shakes out.

The other premise of the film is that only Roger (the kid) can “see” the angels and thus tell the manager (Danny Glover) which players will have the help of the angels in the games. As a result, the foul-mouthed, ill-tempered manager must simply believe that Roger sees the angels. As the season goes on and more people start to hear about this kid who “sees angels,” people start to question both the manager and the kid’s sanity. Nobody really wants to believe there are real angels helping baseball players on the field.

Here’s the point of this post. In Angels In The Outfield, only one kid had the faith to believe the angels were there. At first, not a single adult believed it was possible. They all “knew better.” So why is that, when the Bible tells us about angels throughout its pages, we adults don’t believe angels could be here on earth with us right now? Why is it that children can believe in angels and have often described how “they saw an angel” when miraculous events occur, but adults simply “know better.” Why can’t we see things with a childlike faith that angels are with us when God tells us directly (numerous times) that they are?

In the movie, only one kid can “see” the angels, but his faith convinces first the manager, then the players, then the entire stadium full of Angels fans. None of the other people—even Roger’s best friend—can see the angels, but people are witnessing the miracles and are realizing there’s something going on, even if they can’t see it. When will the rest of us start to look around, witness the miracles happening every day and realize there’s something going on…even if we can’t see it?

There are angels in our outfields right now, whether we can see them or not. Whether we have the strength and the faith to believe it is up to us.

-Mike

P.S. – The film also features a pretty young Adrien Brody and Matthew McConaughey, which is kind of funny. Also: Tony Danza. Yup…all-star cast for sure.

Creating A Disturbance

Posted
February 13, 2011
Categories
Uncategorized

Once again, I’m going to refer to, and hopefully expand upon, some thoughts from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost For His Highest. For a daily devotional, Mr. Chambers has some thoughts that go far deeper than most daily devotionals I’ve read, so I hope you get as much out of this as I did.

One of the topics Mr. Chambers discusses is creating a disturbance with your faith and asking for the Lord’s help instead of simply staying passive. Here are his thoughts on why creating a disturbance is importance (followed by my thoughts on his thoughts…lots of thoughts). Chambers refers to verses in Luke 18, in which a blind man in a crowd of people is healed by calling out and asking Jesus to give him back his sight. Chambers mentions the man’s persistence to keep calling out to the Lord even though the people in front of him in the crowd, as mentioned in verse 39, all told him to be quiet. To this point, Chambers advises us,

“Be persistent with your disturbance until you get face to face with the Lord himself… To sit calmly by, instead of creating a disturbance, serves only to deify our common sense… We think, ‘It is ridiculous to ask God to do this.’ If it is an impossibility, it is the very thing for which we have to ask… This man received his sight. But the most impossible thing for you is to be so closely identified with the Lord that there is literally nothing of your old life remaining.” (My Utmost for His Highest, Feb. 29)

The way I see it, a lot of people are afraid to make a disturbance with their faith. As Chambers mentions, we’ll find ourselves thinking “It’s ridiculous to ask God to do this.” So we let common sense tell us what to do. Common sense says God isn’t worried about this tiny facet of our lives. Common sense says there a million other people praying for something more important, so why even speak up?

Why we SHOULD speak up…

Let’s think about the man in the crowd whose sight Jesus restored. He was one of hundreds (maybe even thousands) gathered in Jericho that day as Jesus came through. And I’m willing to bet that he wasn’t the ONLY person gathered there who was suffering from an affliction of some sort. But all of the other people seemed to stay quiet, didn’t they? The only time some of them even spoke at all was to tell the blind man to shut up. Talk about approaching it all wrong.

Imagine how many other people might have been healed of their sicknesses and cleansed of their sins if they had been willing to create a disturbance like the blind man. None of them were willing to ask Jesus for what they considered to be “an impossibility.” Looking back on it, that blind man who was given back his sight doesn’t seem quite so crazy, right?

Out with the old, in with the new…

I also think the last sentiment Chambers reflects above is DEFINITELY worth noting. Can you imagine a life where we are SO closely identified with the Lord that our old life doesn’t even matter anymore? A life where you and Jesus have such a strong connection that your past actions and decisions are irrelevant, that the sins of your former life are forgotten and that everything in the world that kept you away from the Lord is lost to the past? Of course not. It seems impossible.

Which is exactly why we should be asking the Lord to get us to that point. Think about how much more enjoyable life would be if we were only concerned with God and his love for us. A little nicer than worrying about the stresses of our lives as they are now. At least, I believe that would be the case.

What do you think?

-Mike

Photo (“Stand Out”) by aeroix. Thanks!

Is God’s Cell Phone on Vibrate?

Posted
January 15, 2011
Categories
Uncategorized

I’m reading a book called “My Utmost For His Highest.” It’s supposed to be a daily devotional thing, but I read it in chunks of like, 8 days at a time. Anyway, Oswald Chambers is the author and he brings up a lot of interesting points throughout. Most I agree with, some I don’t, but it’s all thought-provoking either way.

One of the random things he talks about is from a verse in Isaiah (Isaiah 40:26, to be exact) that reads:

Look up into the heavens.
Who created all the stars?
He brings them out like an army, one after another,
calling each by its name.
Because of his great power and incomparable strength,
not a single one is missing.

In the discussion element of this devotional, Chambers writes, “One of the reasons for our sense of futility in prayer is that we have lost our power to visualize. We can no longer even imagine putting ourselves deliberately before God.”

So here’s my question for all of us – myself very much included: When we’re praying, do we truly visualize ourselves standing (or bowing) before God? Or do we simply feel like we’re in a dark room, calling out to Him with the hope He’s hearing us? Because that happens to me, and my guess is that it might have happened to you once or twice as well.

But this is the thing to keep in mind: He’s always hearing us. He’s always there. As Hebrews 13:5b tells us, “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” Instead of talking to God as a friend, we call out to Him as if He can’t hear us or something. When really, that’s like desperately calling out to someone who is sitting next to you on the couch. They’re right there. There’s no need to panic.

From here on out, I hope you can try to treat prayer as if you are always in God’s presence. Because you are. He’s listening and waiting to hear from you. It’s not like He’s out of the house and you have to leave a message hoping He’ll call you back later. It’s not like He’s not out and about, not noticing his cell phone vibrating when you try to get in touch with him.

God is right there with you. Always.

{mike}

Photo by Oracio Alvarado. Thanks Oracio!
1 2