CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

While trying to help a group of patients deal with their grief, a young phycologist took them out into the middle of a busy city street and had them observe their surroundings. He then, took them up to the roof of a tall building on that same street and told them to look around again and tell him what they saw. Their responses were completely different. Instead of flashing lights, noisy traffic, and people rushing around, some noticed the blue sky, some noticed sunshine, while others noticed the rooftops decorated with small gardens all around them. The doctor reminded them that they were on the same street as before, only their perspective had changed. I love that analogy.

There are times that we can become overwhelmed by entrapped feelings of not having answers, not understanding the motives and actions of others and discouragement which can keep us from not seeing past our current situations. However, it is in those moments that God can lift us up to a higher place, a place where if we will go, we can see things differently, possibly from God's standpoint.

I always find it helpful to remind myself by asking this question, "not only what does this time of struggle mean to me, but what does it mean to God?" In our most desperate moments, if we can mentally drag ourselves upwards to that higher place of spiritual footing or ground, God may very well give us a glimpse however brief, of His divine love, insight and perspective. And that different perspective may be just what we need to keep hanging on and enduring.

In most cases it is always simply, "another perspective". Seeing every situation from God's standpoint. A farmer may look at cow manure as something which he must endlessly shovel out of the barn and probably the least likely job to perform on the farm. The gardener, on the other hand, looks at manure as free fertilizer. He can see the potential when others may see only waste. The gardener delights in getting manure. They shovel it around in their gardens and flower beds with delight. A mere matter of perspective.

Our perspective is very much a reflection of who we are. A Christian’s perspective is very much determined by his or her spiritual gifts. To the apostle Paul, John Mark was a liability, a man who could not be counted on, and thus a man who should not be taken along on his missionary journeys. To Barnabas, whose gift was encouragement, Mark was an opportunity and a challenge to disciple. Mark was a man who needed encouragement, and Barnabas was the man to give it, just as he had ministered to Paul in the early days of his Christian walk.

Both men impacted the world with the gospel. Both, loved the Lord Jesus and loved each other. But they saw things from their own perspective and did ministry within their own spiritual gifts and personalities. "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…" Eph. 1:18. May God grant us all the perspective to see life through His eyes and for His good purpose and may we never, ever forget to walk in love!

Hold Fast,
-Bren

 

 

Finding God at the Bottom

 

THE MESSAGE OF EASTER

 

I love Easter, but today because of what I now understand and believe about Christ and His resurrection, it has a deeper meaning. When I was 10 years old I walked an isle prompted by a preacher’s message to receive a baptism that I did not understand. It was a fun experience, but nothing in me changed. When I was 13 years old, I ask Christ into my life, yet my life never changed. That decision too, was prompted by a number of firry conversations that my uncle had had with me out of the book of Revelation.  Still, I continued to do the same old things that I had been doing, until God began to stir in me at the age of 18, the gospel of the cross and opened my spiritual eyes through the Truth that He had been placing in my heart from committed soul winners that had been sharing the gospel with me over a period of time. Upon His opening up my eyes to the truth that had been shared with me, for the first time in my life, I really understood the difference between, having a head knowledge about who Christ was and what it was exactly that He had done for me on the cross. Once I understood that clearly, I then embraced it by receiving it, as the precious gift that it is. Luke 24:45-47 says this,  “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, "Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

 

Once I got my salvation right, I was then properly baptized. Where before, it was like having the cart before the horse. You see, like myself, many people make some sort of decision about Christ, but their decisions are based on what they think about God, as mine was and not what His Word says about Him. Our opinions, thoughts and ways are not God's according to Isaiah 55:8-9.  In John 3:16 you will find this, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not parish, but have everlasting life.” You see many people misunderstand what that verse is saying. The word believeth does not apply to a person who believes in Jesus in his head or mind alone. Satan himself believes that, yet he will never be saved. Hitler believed in Christ, many people believe in Christ, yet have never been born again. That word believeth is and should always be paired with other verses in the scripture that speak of salvation. You must always understand the Bible as a whole and not dig out the verses you want and come up with your own interpretation, that was what I was doing. I thought, “if I just believed in Jesus”, then I was good to go, by what John 3:16 said, and that made me born again, so I thought! Besides, John 3:16 said nothing about being baptized. Theologically, I was just a mess! Yet, God broke through all my messed up thinking about Him and brought the light of His Truth to overshadow my way of thinking in order to see His. He looked at my heart and knew that I was trying to get to Him. As He stood at the door of my heart knocking, with His help, I was able to open my heart up and allow Him to come in. It was the greatest decision I have ever made. Your belief is most important to your salvation, but it must involve more than a head knowledge about Christ. It must come from the heart, not merely the head. We cannot be mere fans of Christ only, but we must be followers as well. Once you understand who Jesus is and what He did for you in His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the grave you too will understand the greater message that Easter brings us all!

Loving on you,
-Bren

WHAT IS YOUR AIM?

2 Corinthians 4:9 tells us that we may be struck down, but we are not destroyed. Hebrews 10:35 encourages us, to not throw away this confident trust in the Lord...but, to remember the great reward it brings us! God often times can use our lives in spite of ourselves. The apostle Paul fought his own flesh on a regular basis, just as we do. Paul found that the essence of the crucified life was to daily die to that part of himself that would deny, destroy or distract him from the work that God was doing in him. Paul saw as he wrestled with his inner self, his wounded ego wrestled to the ground by the spirit of God, to rise up and be a different and changed man. A man, that beforehand, had no inkling that he could be. Good change in us my friend never comes without some kind of wrestling with God. We may walk away limping, but we will be the better for it. The enemy of our soul is not concerned about the damage that we could do to the kingdom of darkness, as long as we live in fear and feel incompetent and inadequate as children of the most high, but he does care about the great work that God wants to do in and through our lives as we yield to God's work in us.

Spiritual change is achieved largely by an act of the will. The apostle Paul breaks it down for us in Philippians 2:13-14. He explains that the Christian life is not a series of ups and downs, but a process of ins and outs. God works in us, while we work it out. It is a partnership involving God and the individual believer. God begins his work in us and uses three simple tools in the process of changing and growing us into the image of himself, that we cannot make happen apart from his work and power. Through his Word he teaches us how to live. I read once where a converted cannibal in the South Sea islands was sitting by a large kettle like pot reading his Bible when an anthropologist approached him and asked, "What are you doing?" The native replied, "I'm reading the Bible." The anthropologist smirked and said, "Don't you know that modern, civilized man has rejected that book? It's nothing but a pack of lies. Your wasting your time reading it." The cannibal looked him over from head to toe and slowly replied, "Sir, if it weren't for this book, you would be in that pot right now." The Word of God had changed his life, and his appetite. If you are serious about changing your life, you're going to have to live according to the Bible. You will need to read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it, and apply it. Through God's Holy Spirit he will provide the power, the conviction, and the direction for you to change. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to make the child of God more like the Son of God. The Holy Spirit acts like an internal warning system in the believer when they begin to make wrong steps and like an applauding cheerleader when they take the right steps toward becoming like Jesus. Lastly, God uses circumstances to change his children.

 

Circumstances are the problems, pressures, heartaches, difficulties, and stress of life. Suffering gets our attention one way or another. C. S. Lewis said, that God whispers to us in our pleasure, but shouts to us in our pain. Painful circumstances whether we bring them on ourselves, other people cause them, or the devil incites them, are used by God to help us grow in likeness to his son. Life change is not about trying, but about training. Merely trying to experience life change can never bring about life change. I can try very hard to run a 5 mile race, but that isn't what will enable me to do it. I will only be able to accomplish it by training my body to run. Training requires discipline and time. To truly live a Christ-like life, we have to order our lives around those disciplines and practices that were modeled by Christ. The apostle Paul was trying to relay this great truth to us when he said in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” “to die is gain,” Paul had learned not only that dying in his physical body in this world was gain in order to be with Christ, but to die to self while still in this world would bring him gain as well. Everything he had tried to be, everything he was, and everything he looked forward to being pointed to Christ. From the time of Paul’s conversion until his death, every move he made was aimed at advancing the gospel, and choosing to allow Jesus to be his all in all. What about you sweet friend? What is your aim?

 

Loving on you today,

-Bren

WILDERNESS TIMES

The wilderness is the last place that a believer wants to visit. That's understandable, since the notion of biblical wilderness brings with it thoughts of loneliness and suffering. People cringe at the thought of suffering. The very word conjures uneasy thoughts. Believers sometimes refer to suffering as a “wilderness time,” perhaps because it makes suffering easier to accept. However, it doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to endure. But suffering does not have to be all fearful if you desire and know the joy that is meant in your suffering. While God does not always spare His children of pain, they can be assured that He will use it for a better cause in their lives as well as in the lives of others. He never leaves nor forsakes His own and His seed never begs for bread, the scriptures tell us! If you are a believer and you find yourself in a dessert or wilderness season today you can transform your way of thinking about it from a place of suffering to a place of wonder, of change, of transition and transformation, and of being intimately cared for by the Lord while you are there. We are daily being called into a more intimate fellowship with God so why shouldn’t we experience the pain that we may be in at this time to drive us to Him. Through those doorways, God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. You may have but one question to ask yourself today sweet friend. Is God’s purpose worth your pain? For if not, you will count it all loss as you ask, “where is God in the bitterness of broken romances, the anguish of jobs lost,  the hunger of millions people all over the world and the struggles of all the refugees that seek a better way of living?  Or, you may think that free will isn’t worth what it costs. But God wants you to understand this; that you have a choice to walk with Him or to walk away from Him. Our pain on any level is excruciating for God, yet many times He must restrain Himself to intervene in the way that we think He ought to; for He knows His greater plan for that pain, even though we can even imagine it. Isaiah 63:9 tells us that, “In all their (Israel’s) distress he (God) too was distressed.” Remember this, God is not absent in His silence in your life. Eventually, if you continue to seek Him, you will find your answer or you will become content in His purpose for your pain, knowing that His ways are far greater than your own! Its easy teaching and talking from the mountain top experiences in our lives yet, it is from those valleys of stripping and plucking, crushing and dying, exploration and mining of the deepest innermost places of our heart that we learn to walk and trust Him. In Phil 3:10, it says, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”. Knowing Jesus personally and having access to the same power of His resurrection, as well as understanding and having fellowship in His personal suffering, allows us to be conformed and changed into His likeness as the old manly nature in us is being put to death. Take on the role of the postage stamp sweet friend and hang in there until you reach the destination that God has for you! 

 

Loving on you,

-Bren

 

OUT OF THE SLIMY PIT

In one of the Psalms the psalmist writes, "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.“. Have you ever been rescued from a situation as grave as being stuck and unable to get out? If you have, then you can relate to what David is saying in Psalms 40:2. Actually David had been in many pits in his life as he struggled with his relationship with Saul, his royal position as King and his dysfunctional family. But, he also understood the freedom of being released from those pits that often times felt as though they were slowing consuming him. While David’s pits may not have been the kind of pits that you may find yourself in or an actual muddy pit; the feelings he had, were so strong that he felt that he could compare them to what it must be like to actually being in stuck in a pit, just about to sink. Whatever it was that David was feeling at the time, we know that his troubles seemed to be beyond even the greatest human effort that he had access to at that time and proved only to be futile in handling them himself.

Like sinking in quick sand, David found that the more he struggled over his situation the worse it became and the more his situation drew him deeper into the pit. In his writing David was trying to create and convey his deep understanding of what it is like to plunge down into despair and what can appear to be, an impossible situation. We know that many of the things that caused David to feel the way he did stemmed from the effects of opposition from others be it friend or foe, from a military defeat or simply the effect of wrong choices made during the course of his lifetime. Not really knowing the cause of his Psalms 40:2 pit is actually to our advantage though. Because without knowing what it was that made David feel that way, allows us a window of sympathy and compassion to know that while we have also gone through trying times, we are encouraged that we too can come out on the other side; freed, once the trouble passes.

Where is your place of absolute impossibility today sweet friend? In a relationship, a habit, a wrong choice or a relapse of a past sin or situation that you cannot seem to get over?  Is someone opposing you? You never meant it to become what it has become. At first it was harmless, nonthreatening, but now you are stuck in it and feel the mud and mire covering you with darkness and depression. You wish there was a way out! If so, may I tell you that those are the very things that God is best at! Pulling us up and rescuing us when we cannot rescue ourselves. However, for Him to get to us, we must move out of His way and allow Him to work the way He wants to in our lives and not in accordance to how we want to instruct Him to do. The secret to receiving His help is found in Psalm 40:1 and says, “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry”. You see the problem is that God knows that we need Him; we are the ones that need to learn that concept and learning comes so many times through trials and tribulations, pain and even heartbreak. If God places you in an impossible situation, He has a divine plan for your rescue. But you must call on Him, and wait for Him to show up and know this: He is never too late for those that cry out to Him with the right heart attitude. So, remember, when you cannot see a way out, look to Him, He has the tools needed to get you to safety.

Hold Fast,

-Bren

The Father's Love For Us

So very often we tend to expect too little from God. We tend to imagine that He's too angry with us from our past failures or that He does not bother with us, if we do not bother with Him. That's not the God of the Bible, and that's certainly not how Jesus works in our lives. Jesus continually reaches out to people, yes, even people who mess up and need another chance. When ask how many times we should forgive others, Jesus replied seven times seven and that, is how He forgives us! You must start seeing God realistically. By that I mean, by seeing Him mending your hurts and disappointment. Seeing Him running out to meet you, to give you that other chance, just like the father of the prodigal son did. The more we view Him as He really is, the more we can trust Him with what we give Him. Because the most loving, powerful Creator of the universe wants to forgive, heal and restore you and me. Just think, if God can create a world and place it the arms of a universe, don’t you think that He has the power and creativity to meet your needs and minister love and compassion in your life where it is needed?. His word tells us that He holds us in the palms of His hands. What better place to be? There is no sin that God cannot forgive. There are many accounts in the Bible where God gave people other chances to do better. The devil not only wants to break the one who seeks forgiveness, he also wants to hurt God’s Son by using our wrongdoing to accuse us before the Father. Just like those teachers of the law trying to use the women’s sin as a trap to accuse Jesus in John 8. satan hates that God can forgive sin. He hates the fact that God even wants to forgive sin period. You see satan loves sin and sin is what separates God from man. That is why God went to all the trouble that He did, to reconcile those that could not reconcile themselves to Him. For He knows that we are but dust and wants to help us! Satan is unrelenting in his attempts to shame you, strip and dishonor you in order to challenge God's work in your lives. He wants you to believe that because of the life you have been living, you aren’t worthy for the Kingdom of God. He wants you to give up and throw your spiritual towel in. He wants you to think that God can’t use you anymore. But sweet friend, when you are feeling down and unworthy, remember all those God used in the past. Moses was a murderer; David slept with another man’s wife and had him killed so he could be with her. Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife, Peter betrayed his good friend, the Son of God, and the list could go on, yet as they became broken before God, they became mighty instruments for His Kingdom. Even the story of Jonah wasn’t about a fish. It was about the God of the another chance. Think of it this way; life is like a football game and until it is over you have many opportunities to get into the game and make a difference. Psalm 103:9-13 says it best. "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;".

Hold Fast,

-Bren