UNFINISHED

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

…I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. – Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

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Not scared too say I used to be that one

Preaching it too u that u could overcome

I still believe it but it aint easy

Cause that world I painted where things just all work out

It started changing & I started having doubts

And it got me so down

But I picked myself back up

And I started telling me

No my God’s not done

Making me a masterpiece

He’s still working on me

He started something good & I’m gonna believe it

He started something good & He’s gonna complete it

So I celebrate that truth

I’m just unfinished

I’m just unfinished

So I celebrate that truth

I’m just unfinished – Mandisa “Unfinished”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejycllx5iwA

  

I was at GHOSTLIGHT Coffee a little earlier this week.  It is an eclectic little house on Wayne Avenue.  The coffee is good but in this case the conversation was better. 

I was catching up with a friend, a true champion for the addicted. He has helped countless folks.  He finds ministry just about everywhere he goes. NA meetings, AA meetings, driving for UBER, leading at NEXT STEP, counseling, pretty much wherever he is, ministry is happening. 

And it was he that reminded me of this little song from Mandisa this week.

He shared it in the context of announcing to me his “semi-retirement”. And while I fully expect him to continue to play an important supporting role in the recovery communities, he is relinquishing the lead.

Yet he was quick to say that he was UNFINISHED. 

He had been knocked down a little of late; beaten up by some of the challenges that come with funding his recovery efforts.  Church apathy, bureaucracy, inefficiencies have all led to his fatigue and stepping down, but he fully embraces that passage, that GOD who began the work, never stops the work and now the work is just “changing”.

So, I share this little song and brief glimpse into the journey of my friend to say this this morning. 

GOD is ALWAYS WORKING in your life. 

You may experience seasons when you feel like ALL is clicking, that you are in your lane, that you are in the lead only to have the season change, to have your "sure-footedness" suddenly experience a little craggy or slippery terrain; a unexpected bend in the road. 

IT’S OK…

GOD who began you on your path is still right there to lead you, instruct you, challenge you, and refine you!

Our job is to keep listening, stay obedient, stay faithful, and allow the work to continue! It will be worth it.

When your faith is proven to be pure, the result will be praise and glory and honor – 1 Peter 1:7 (ERV)

It is interesting to me though, this friend hasn’t been the only one who feeling ‘unfinished’.

There is a dear pal from Columbus, a financier who wants more for his life. There is a former Refuge fella who is being pushed from his comfortable small group into the challenges of Perry County. There is the sweet team of change-makers from Middletown who are “having to change the work" to continue the work.  A friend from Clinton County who has been in an extended season of purgatory and patience while GOD works the details.

The point today is this; we are ALL unfinished. 

We ALL are going to experience seasonal change. Trust me.

ALL our “faith” is being tested and refined on a daily basis by our GOD who has begun something in us and promises to complete it.

So, embrace your un-finishedness.

GOD has His hand on you.  He has from the beginning.

He started something good, believe it

He started something good & He’s gonna complete it!

Have a blessed weekend.

I love you all

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE

NEITHER CONFINES OR DEFINES

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

“Your past neither confines your or defines you.  Your worst day clearly wasn’t your last day, so grab hold of this day.”

Wise counsel.

It was shared at a little gathering of men on the east side of Dayton last night.  The ministry is called GOOD SHEPHERD and they are doing some good things. 

They provide sober living for many of the graduates from Woodhaven as well as other shorter term treatment facilities. They serve their neighbors with volunteer efforts.  The men seek to be a light to a very challenged and dark neighborhood. Pray for their efforts and their leaders.

And it was while a dear friend, Joyce, was sharing with these folks that those little quotes were uttered.  For Joyce was there last night to encourage the men to see the women they encounter on the street in a different light, a more compassionate and caring light.  She encouraged them to not reduce them to objects of their consumption but to see them as they wish to be seen, as valuable, relevant and purposed; to pray for them rather than seek to use them.

I will say, Joyce has a very real and very effective way to communicate that message and these men were moved and inspired to do things differently.

Yet it was after Joyce had finished sharing that the topic of “the past” was raised and it was then Joyce shared those nuggets of wisdom.  They are good for all of today I believe.

First, our past neither confines or defines.  Joyce is a living and breathing testimony to that.  250 convictions and now sharing the gospel?  Thousands of tricks and mistakes and now she is the one mentoring women just like her? No Joyce’s past neither defines her or confines her.  It doesn’t have that power over any of us.

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth... - Isaiah 43:18 (ESV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

Familiar passages but oh, so true.

Second, your worst day wasn’t your last day…

Remembering…

one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead – Philippians 3:13 (ESV)

While this truly resonated for the men there, for me too, these are good and familiar reminders for all of us.  Many of us have “stuff” in our past that seeks to define and confine.  Many of us have “bad days” that turn into bad weeks and if not checked, can turn into bad years.

So, the message is clear today. 

Remember not those former things.  Remember your newness.  Embrace today as a refining, forward moving day.  And finally remember while “We are products of our past, we don't have to be prisoners of it.” ― Rick Warren

Have a great day!

I love you all

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE

LITTERED LANDSCAPE

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

...be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. – Romans 12:2 (ESV)

“The psalmist says, “I have set the LORD always before me.” Paul says, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” They speak to the need for our souls to be completely and thoroughly with God. But as both of these verses suggest, it does not happen automatically. “Set” and “take captive” are active verbs, implying that you have a role in determining where your soul rests.” ― John Ortberg

I need that today; that encouragement to take an active role in my thought life.

Here it is the middle of the week and the landscape of my thoughts is and has been a little littered.

I have had angry thoughts.

I have had lustful thoughts.

I have had frustrated thoughts.

I have had discouraged thoughts.

I have had vengeful thoughts. 

Like I said a little littered.

But I realize both from Paul and from Ortberg that the landscape of my mind isn’t going to “clean/clear itself”.

Nope, I that got to get dustpan and broom, mop and bucket and get to work.  Because I don’t know about you but clutter connotes chaos and a cluttered mind and soul is not a restful one for sure.

So, what to do?

As Ortberg and Paul suggest it starts with putting GOD at the FOREFRONT of my mind and my minds eventual activity! 

Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things] – Colossians 3:4 (AMP)

And that should spark the cleaning and bring a little rest to the equation!

It is easy to let our minds get untidy.

There are lots of distractions.  There are lots of things vying for attention and space.  There are lots of things we think about that really belong on the trash heap. And at least for me, those thoughts serve to unsettle me, make me question who I am, distract me from my mission and purpose. 

You as well?

Therefore today, let’s take some action.

Let’s begin right from the jump and get our mind set on those heavenly things; joy, peace, possibility, opportunity, grace, and truth. 

Let’s gather up the trash, expose it for what it is and relegate it for removal.  

And after we have cleaned and cleared, let’s rest, walk and act in accordance with the will of GOD.

Remembering:

The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. - Milton

I love you all

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE