"Let the SON Go Down"

I had a revelation today as I read a blog titled "Do not let the sun go down on you if you are angry." Ephesians 4:16-27 talks about never letting the devil get a foothold on your anger before you retire for the day. I have always believed that with my wife, not letting conflict go to bed in our hearts. All the unsaid confrontations that we let go pile up on us throughout the day and have a cumilating anger effect on us. Most of the time they are untrue and false perceptions the devil leaves unsaid. What we hear usually is not what we really heard, but some misconstrued reality that is not communicated correctly.My new mantra is to be like Jesus, confront the situation head on to articulate the truth, and then instead "Let the SON Go Down" on our anger. If we let the SON in and ask for truth, the Son of the living God will reconcile the situation and bring the truth clearly. We will find that our perceptions are in the devil's details. Let the SON go down. I like that!

7 Day Spiritual Growth Challenge

Dear friends,

I pray all is well. You all met the challenge back in June doing the “Pentecost Experience.” I was wondering, now 3 months later, how this discipline is somewhat a part of your life or not today? As time has gone on for me, it has become harder and harder to do the daily journaling (and blogging). I have been fairly consistent reading scripture and praying, as well as doing a form of fasting called “portion control.” (fight the urge for seconds and desserts! Man I love food!). How are things going spiritually for you? Let me know via email or feel free to blog again on the website at: http://pentecostexperience.blogspot.com/

The last thing I wanted to let you know is I’m trying a seven day spiritual growth challenge of being rooted in the Seven Last Words of Christ. (this idea spanned when Pr. Bill told me he was going to use the Seven Last Words of Christ in his sermon tomorrow as part of our “TXT” worship series). I plan on fasting, journaling, meditating daily on the each of the seven last words, and spending time in prayer. Let me know if you would like to do the same and do the challenge with me. I’m attaching the seven last words for you I will follow and plan on blogging and journaling, as well as the Pentecost Experience guidebook to revisit some of the spiritual disciplines.

Peace my friends,

Pr. Brian

Paddling Upstream

Last week I took 30 7-8th graders whitewater canoeing down the Brule River. It is an exhilarating 3 mile stretch of fun rapids and moving water. On one stretch a young person sandwhiched his foot between a few rock and broke two toes. As I was coming to meet them from the back of the train of canoes, I realized there were no adults at the head of the bunch.

I made it to the final canoe landing and things got worse: no canoes! All the kids had proceeded further down past the final landing.My parent sense started freaking out. Not another canoe landing for 10 miles and Mays Ledges, a treacherous rapids somewhere in that stretch. So, I paddled like a demon possessed man catching up to one canoe after another and sending them back upstream. 15 minutes later all were safe...but 3 miles down the river with only one thing to do: Paddle Upstream!

Our Christian walk is like paddling upstream. It's easy to follow the downstream current of the world, but to follow Jesus? That takes a different, more difficult mindset and sometimes 5 times the amount of effort or strokes. Paddling upstream is hard, but worth it. God opens our eyes to see the hurting, the oppressed, and the lonely and actually do something about it. It's hard to serve, its hard to spend time with God in prayer and scripture...but it's worth it. Keep paddling and find that deep well of God within you. When you paddle upstream with God, sooner or later you're paddling downstream with God into the world! Amen!

Time to Exhale

Aspire to inspire before you expire.” Another billboard saying I read two years ago I have been wanting to turn into a sermon. Inspire means to give “spirit to or give breath to.” Maybe we need aspirations to take the Spirit of God that is breathed into us to breath out into the world. For we know as temples of the living God we have a lot of life and breath to give. It’s one thing to know God personally, it’s another thing to not share that breath.

However, most people live by the motto of another billboard I saw on the gulf coast last summer: “aspire to retire.” So you work hard all of your life to retire and turn off the life and breath of the Spirit’s power. The most amazing and inspiring people I know are the ones who finish strong and inspire me with their words and actions every day of their lives. They “fight the good fight” and pursue the heavenly way, which isn’t always easy. But, they try. When they are tired, they go deeper. When they are challenged, they rise above. When they are disheartened, they live by faith. When they make mistakes, they repent and live anew. When they are touched by God, they pass it on. And inspire.

I pray that this Pentecost Experience has inspired us and given us a different breadth and depth we haven’t had before. I pray that we will take the disciplines we have learned these 10 days and incorporate them into our daily lives in some way, shape, or form. I too need to remember that this is not a sprint, but a marathon. May we finish strong. May we take the dreams and miracles that God has placed deep in our hearts… and let them have breath.

It’s time to exhale.

The "Son in your Eye"

Yesterday, as I was driving to church, squinting from the rays of sun blinding me, I saw a profound church billboard scrolling the following wisdom: “Keep the Son in your Eye.” What a simple statement to remind me of my daily walk with God. “Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” Hebrews 2:2 ponders this reality of keeping Christ fixed on our spiritual radar wherever we are. That is not an easy task as we have realized these 10 days of this Pentecost Experience. Like Peter, as we begin to walk on water, get out of the boat, it’s easy to take our eyes and our hearts off of Jesus and start to sink. It’s easy to get busy, hard to balance our time with family, put off journaling, or even find time for authentic prayer and intimacy with God.

I guess I have realized that we are going be blinded by a lot of other things competing for our time and our hearts. And, most of the time those are all good things that God has blessed us with in the places and spaces of our lives.

Today, I’m praying for being blinded by the “Son.” Blinded by the awesome light and power of God’s amazing grace and love for me. For when we let that light so shine in us, it gets reflected through us and unto the world around us. And, we will shine. (even if it’s raining out)

Brian

Wow!

Wow. The fasting part of this ten day journey is difficult! I think I made the right choice in weeding out a couple select items from my digestion, instead of a meal every day. The meal didn’t seem to carry much weight with me; I’m used to not really eating lunch anyway. However, my selections which I’ve dealt without have really gotten me to think about their place in my day… to satisfy me. Nothing else, it’s simply for my own gratification. No coffee, no Kopps, no getting food with friends just for fun. I still have my coffee at work in the morning, but believe me; it’s not for my enjoyment. However, I’ve eliminated food in a different manner entirely. I have a habit, a craving which hits me almost every single night… to simply go and savor something very basic, yet tasty. Traditionally, this would be chatting for an hour or so with a friend over a cup of black coffee down at the lakefront. My intention, to simply let my taste buds run wild and to forget about my surroundings for just a bit. It has been incredibly painful to deal without. I never realized how much this “addiction” has consumed me. I never thought about how I have avoided God when I become null to my surroundings. Every time a friend calls me to go grab a cup, I want to… so badly. As a result, this has focused my attention on God. As painful as it has been, each urge to head out for the evening snack has redirected my attention on why I am doing this… I’m doing it to grow. Now, I’ve spent so much more of my days and nights thinking about the presence of my heavenly father in my life. Maybe in a couple of weeks, I’ll think about this lesson and God every time I take a sip of coffee? Hopefully. In the meantime, the pain has helped me grow more aware of how I often search for my satisfaction with material items like food.

My thought for the day has been some lyrics from one of my favorite songs which I happened to randomly hear from my computer this evening. “Here I am to worship” by Chris Tomlin has been inspirational to me for several years now. In the song, he writes “I'll never know how much it cost… to see my sin upon that cross” This chorus has spoken to me deeply in the past couple of days, as I realize that within my human lifetime, I will NEVER be able to understand how much my personal sin drags me further and further away from Christ. Even the things which I convince myself are minor hurt my personal relationship with someone who died for me. Even something as small as not being nice to my mom in the morning breaks-down the relationship with my savior… because he didn’t live a life like that… he lived a sinless life, and paid the price of yours and mine with it, brutally! I would encourage any of you to Google the lyrics of this song and study them very carefully. Next Sunday in worship, try to think about what they are saying and how we can prepare our hearts to do just that. Hopefully, It will help you as much as it has helped me keep my heart in worship.

Tonight, I pray Lord that you will help us drive out our desires for sin in our lives. Sometimes it seems so right, sometimes it’s easier, it makes us feel better. Help us wrap our strength around these barriers from you, and work to crumble them. You have already given us what it takes to live a life solely for you. As we battle the weight of sin in our lives, I pray that our every moment will help us do as you’ve commanded us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing” and to deeply ask for your presence every second of every day.

Ben

A thought on fasting

I have come to peace with the fasting part of this pentecost adventure. I have to say I have gone back and forth on it; thinking it is a good idea, then thinking it is just an old fashioned thing that is not longer relevant. I even tried to look at it positively as maybe a way to loose a few pounds (although I don't think that is really the spiritual factor in it).

Last night waiting in the airport to see if our plane would take off (it didn't), and entertaining our amazing children while sorting out the issues of rescheduling our flights, hotels, rental car, and finding our checked baggage, and a taxi home, the familiar evening hunger pain in my belly was a sweet reminder of God, and love and gratitude and blessings. Through what could have been an ordeal, my family, as well as a lot of people at the airport, remained in good spirits and worked through the situation. On the way home my son asked if the devil had made our airplane not take off. And my husband responded that it could have been the devil and maybe it was God taking care of us. I smiled and thanked God again for my amazing family.

It reminds me that in times of challenge we need God more. We seek God because we don't know if we can make it on our own (and we don't have to). For me the fasting part of this has been a challenge, and something that I wasn't sure I would be able to follow through with or even if I wanted to follow through. And it has been an experience of asking God for help, and doing my part and accepting forgiveness when I didn't do it perfectly. Maybe fasting is as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago.