Blessed are:
 - the poor in spirit – they have died to self. They are crucified with Christ.
- those who mourn – they have faced tragedy, loss, pain.
- the meek – they have endured injuries with patience and without resentment
- those who hunger and thirst for righteousness – they have been persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12)
 and have given up their own desires, died to self
- the merciful – they have had wrong done to them that required them to show mercy
- the pure in heart – they have been persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12) and have had a heart transplant as the human heart is by nature impure. Their must have been a painful surgery
- the peacemakers – they must be in the middle of a battle to be having to make peace. They have probably taken shots from both sides
- those who are persecuted because of righteousness – ’nuff said!

Praying for a blessing? Are you willing to go through some bleeding?

Want a blessing in your marriage? Die to self! Want a blessing in your finances? Die to self. Want a blessing in your job? Die to self. Want a blessing in your ministry? Die to self.  Want a blessing in a friendship or another relationship? Die to self.  There will be pain. There will be difficulty. There will be hard work. There will be tears. Bleeding comes before blessing.

Fortunately, no one was physically hurt, though the pride of the Mythbusters team may have suffered a little and obviously there is some cost associated with the damage done to some unsuspecting victim’s home.  But all this shows that even professionals, those who are expected to get it right can get it wrong sometimes.

I am a professional Christian, AKA a pastor with lots of experience. So you would expect perfection, but ocassionally (my wife would argue frequently) I get it wrong. I miscommunicate, misunderstand, misinterpret, mess up, make a mistake.  I found out that it happened to me yesterday in a pretty big way and I upset someone who is very important to me, my family, and our Church. And like a loose cannonball, my mistake crashed through causing damage that I hope can be repaired as easily and quickly as the hole in the wall above.  

Actually, I know that God is already at work, fixing my mess up and my friend is very gracious to forgive me and my stupidity. I am sure the Mythbusters have insurance to cover their tails on the mishap (though maybe not for long if this becomes a pattern). I am thankful for grace to cover mine. Please do try that (grace) at home!

I have seen stories about Jesus showing up on an orange that was cut open, on the bottom of a clothing iron, in a bag of cheetos, and on a Wal-Mart receipt (which we know is legit because Jesus saves!). 

Now I don’t know about the theology behind all this but I guess if God wants to show Himself somehow in a cheezy snack, He can and will. I’m not the boss of Him. But here is what I do know! He wants to show Himself in and through His followers! Not with a beard and sandles, but with Love and Grace! So while most of your neighbors, friends and family will probably never see Christ in their grilled cheese sandwich, they will see Him in you if you will allow Him to take over and use you as He pleases. When someone sees Jesus it will be a huge deal! Front page news kind of stuff! Today Matters, so Matter Today!

So we have a choice, humility or humiliation? Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord or be humiliated as we try to be Lord.

“This is the greatest and most useful lesson we can learn: to know ourselves for what we truly are, to admit freely our weaknesses and failings, and to hold a humble opinion of ourselves because of them.”

Isn’t that the way we are with things, specifically sin?  We hate it so we limit ourselves to just a little.  Right?  Is that really hating it?  I don’t think so.  I think we hate the ultimate results of it: guilt, regret, and distance from God.  But we don’t hate the sin or else we would not go anywhere near.

Romans 12:9 challenges us to “Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.”  Too often it is the sin that we cling to.  We justify that we just have a couple.  We try to convince ourselves that we have limited ourselves to just a little.  And we sound just as ridiculous to God as that man sounded to me that day.

Proverbs 8:13 tells us that “to fear the Lord is to hate evil”    and Psalm 97:10 challenges us: ”Let those who love the Lord hate evil.”

If you honestly open up your life, are there things you would say with your mouth that you hate, but your actions prove otherwise as you cling to them and justify it away?

I pray that you and I would love and fear the Lord so much that we would develop a deep seated hatred for the things that are not pleasing to Him.  That we would truly hate what is evil so that we could truly cling to what is good.

Rusty

His very name in the Hebrew means “pain, or intense sorrw.” His mother named him that because she bore him in pain. We don’t know what kind of pain. It could have been financial difficulty, his father may have died in battle before he was born, he may have been a child of rape. We do not know, but we know that his entire life at the very mention of his name he would forever be reminded of the sorrow that surrounded his birth.

What a rough start. Many people when they get a bad rap will just decide to just go with it and go off the deep end. You’ve heard it before. “If they think I’m nothing but trouble, I will show them trouble.” “If everyone thinks I’m a slut, I might as well act like one.” “If that’s what everyone thinks of me, I’ll just show them…” But not Jabez. He decided to rise above the name and label that had been on him since birth. And the memorial to him found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 says “he was more honorable than his brothers.”

And he got there by turning to God. You can overcome your label too. You don’t have to live up to the reputation, the nickname, the family dysfunction, the shame, the guilt. You can rise above your circumstances. Just call out to God and He will give you a new name!

After hearing this, on my drive home I was sharing that statistic on the phone with one of my best friends in the entire world, Brent Kellogg (there ya go BK, you finally got a mention in my blog) and it hit me that one of the biggest issues with this is that so many children will grow up in a home with no father. The immediate immorality of the mother and “father” having sex outside of marriage is there and is obviously not pleasing to God. But the long term is what alarms me even more.

Where will these children learn submission to authority as they see it modeled by their mother to their father? Where will they learn spiritual leadership and God’s design for the man to be spiritual head of his household? Where will they learn about a father’s love? Where will they learn the things that CAN ONLY be taught by a father?

I admire those women who persevere and work hard to teach their children everything they can. I know many children who have been dragged to church by their mothers and the mother is doing the best they can, but it is just not possible for them to be all that a father should be and do all that a father does.

I know in my experience counseling and dealing with teenagers, many boys who are “trouble makers,” as we get to the root of things are boys who have an absent father or do not have a good relationship with their father. Many teen girls who have identity issues and try to compensate for their poor self image by dressing provocatively or becoming sexually active, have absent fathers.

Here is what I have found as I did a little research about the fatherless. Violent criminals are overwhelmingly males who grew up without fathers, including 72% of adolescent murderers and 70% of long-term prison inmates.

Children in father-absent homes are also more likely to be suspended from school, or to drop out; be treated for an emotional or behavioral problem; commit suicide as adolescents; and be victims of child abuse or neglect. In this economic difficulty, I would be interested in seeing how the economy is effected by fatherless homes. As I said, the implications of this are far-reaching.

In 1960, less than 8 million children were living in families where the father was absent. In 2002 it was 24 million. Where are the fathers?

This Mother’s Day, I am praying for fathers. I am praying for men to rise up and be men. I am praying for sexual urges to be brought under the power of the Holy Spirit and holiness so that guys will stop hitting and quitting it and step up to the plate to honor God by honoring women as God’s creation, not objects to be used and disposed of. I am praying that men will begin to take responsibility for their actions BEFORE they act in a way that will cause so much long-term damage to society and to the individuals involved. I pray that men will quit grieving the heart of God by presenting a poor image of what a Father’s love looks like and leaving many with confusion and misunderstandings of who God is as Father.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!

But the verses that jumped off the page for me today were Genesis 1:2-4. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.”

As I meditated on this passage I saw a picture of our world today (in a spiritual sense) formless and empty and darkness covering it and the hearts and lives of those in it. As I spent the last 2 days with some brothers talking about the darkness that enslaves even many who are called by God, it has resonated in my heart that much of the reason there is no form, direction, solid shape to our world around us is because of the emptiness of those called to give shape and direction and form to the world. Darkness is covering the surface of the deep. There is a covering over the deep heart issues that we are unwilling to shed light on. Brennan Manning says “what is denied cannot be healed.” Darkness is covering those who Jesus called to be the light of the world. But the city on a hill is being hidden. Denial and justification and rationalization has kept the deep in the dark and has left many empty and without form when all the while, the Spirit of God is hovering over the waters, waiting to release and send His cleansing, healing rain down.

I am praying today for God to shed light on the earth once again. I am praying that He will “shine a light on every corner of your life until the pride and lust and lies are in the open” (Thank you Ross King) And that He will once again separate the light from the darkness and that WE – YOU AND I – will see this time that the light is good. And we will walk in the light as He is in the light.

Today Matters, so Matter Today

But whatever the origin, just a Chrsitians have done with other pagan and secular ideas and celebrations for centuries, I propose we reclaim this day and the time for the Lord.

In Acts 4 Peter and John are on trial for healing a crippled man for which they give Jesus the credit. They are forbidden to speak of Jesus again to which they respond in Acts 4:20 “we cannot stop speaking about that which we have seen and heard.”

So I propose 4:20 and 4/20 as International boldy share your faith time/day. If you have experienced the life-changing, healing, cleansing power of Jesus, do not stop speaking of what you have seen and heard. Share it boldly today!