DIVE IN

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.

Many of you know that my wife is completing the finishing touches on her doctorate. 

In fact, next week she will be hooded in all her new regalia at THE Ohio State University. 

I couldn’t be prouder and you should expect a little more gushing in the future. 

But over the last year, Beth has been IMMERSED in her learning.  Every free minute up until early this week was at the laptop surrounded by reference materials and toiling away at her research.  Her head rarely lifted from the keyboard.  So much so her often less than reliable back and neck objected.

And now that the intensity has dwindled and the assignments submitted, she will admit she is a little “jello-y” all over. Yet it is safe to say that this past year she has MAJORED in doctoral studies and has been IMMERSED in research and assignments.

I do find her quite remarkable.

Especially when you realize she completed that while logging 60+ hours a week between her two careers.  

But her immersion reminded me of this little quote:

“Major in the grace of God. Focus on the cross of Christ. Grow fluent in the language of redemption. Linger long at the foot of the cross. Immerse yourself in the curriculum of grace.”

Don’t you like that last line?

“Immerse’ yourself in the curriculum of grace.”

Jesus puts it this way.

Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.

Matthew 6:33 (MSG)

To STEEP, you must IMMERSE for sure!

It means to dive in, get deep, cover completely, to bathe and bask in “GOD stuff”. 

Bask in His Word!

Revel in His realities

Grab His grace with both hands and then willingly distribute it!

Fully embrace His provisions and instructions.

So, the question for today is...

"Are we willing to “immerse?"

No seriously.

Are you ready to STEEP yourself in grace and let that attitude dictate the day? Are you ready to follow GOD’S initiatives for the day? Are you ready to recognize and express gratitude for the provisions of GOD? Ready to learn? 

GOD doesn’t want us to just dip a toe into His grace and provision today. Rather he desires a full dive into it; alert, awe-filled rather than just tepidly trolling through it.

Steven Curtis Chapman - Dive

Steven Curtis Chapman - Dive Music video by Steven Curtis Chapman performing Dive (Concept Video).

So, the encouragement today is fairly clear. 

Don’t just numbly wander through today. 

Instead dive into today with open eyes, open ears, and an open mind. Bask and bathe.

Be alert! - let’s not sleepwalk through life - 1 Thessalonians 5:6 (MSG) 

And IMMERSE!

Remember:

“We are what we think about and meditate on…” - McGill

Have a blessed weekend.

I love you all!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE

MINISTER TO NOT AT

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.

Back about a month ago I wrote a little OFH under the title “Neither Confines or Defines You.” 

For my faithful readers, it was after my good friend Joyce shared her heart at one of our men’s recovery centers.

Yet yesterday when I was in Athens with some folks from the West Virginia Attorney General’s office, a new friend and colleague and I were outside wrapping things up and we started talking a little about his perspective of FAITH. 

I am so encouraged by this new alliance between the West Virginia team and our Champions/Faith-Network efforts and now to know the heart of one of our primary partners encourages me even more.

My new friend grew up in Minnesota, with Pastoral roots linking back to his grandparents.  He is an insightful young man who worked his way to a law degree and a excellent position within the West Virginia team.  And yet as we chatted, he shared that he always “struggled” with the perceived expectations of ministry for him.  He said he never really felt “called” to the craft and even vulnerably shared that the thought of “shepherding folks” alarmed and disarmed him.

But as we were talking I could quickly sense a “deep-water” faith and conviction in him and it was evident that GOD was preparing to use that assurance and that upbringing to help stir the “CHURCH” in West Virginia to action against the opiate crisis and against human trafficking.

For he like me is a little frustrated at times with the church’s somewhat apathetic approach to these challenges, but he was not going to be deterred.

You are probably saying, well that is nice, but what does all that have to do with confine and define?

OK, it was as we were loading up and heading out, that he said something profound. 

He said that he wishes that church leaders and teachers would remember that those they often quote, refer, and press others to emulate WERE’NT always saints; that the Paul’s, the Peter’s, the Matthew’s and the David’s had their warts and their baggage, not unlike this population that we are trying to reach before the LORD REACHED OUT TO THEM; emphasis "THE LORD REACHED OUT TO THEM”.

He is right.

Currently often, our CHURCHES struggle with judgement for the addicted.  

The church often instead of accepting, reaching, and ministering to the hurting and addicted, choose to “minister at” them from a position of superiority rather than commonality; spitting condemnation rather than love from the pulpit. 

Creating barriers rather than breaking them down. 

Leaders forgetting that once they too were sinners who needed Jesus’ saving.

Forgetting that the past of folks neither serves to confine or define them.

Forgetting that Peter was pretentious and unrefined before becoming the ROCK.  That Paul as Saul was a scourge to the faith, that David despite his well-documented heart had his challenges with conspiracy, lust and sin.  

And yet the LORD saw their potential.

The LORD saw the message in their messes.

And the LORD never feared to engage them or define them by their mistakes and chose to trust them to carry the message, and carry the truth. 

Friends, my new friend is right.

We must be willing to look past the past of others and see them for what they could be; to serve others, to seek and point them to redemption.

Remembering: the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." - Luke 19:10 (NIV)

We must remember that the LORD used the broken to achieve his purpose.

Psalm 34:18 (ERV)

The Lord is close to those who have suffered disappointment.  He saves those who are discouraged.

And our job is to minister to them not at them.

To share the Lord with them not use the LORD to LORD over them.

We can do that can't we?

Have a blessed day.

I love you all!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE

MIRACLE is WAITING

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.

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” 

~Harriet Beecher Stowe

Maybe you have heard that same thought expressed as:

Don’t quit or don’t give up before the miracle happens.

I like the sentiments of both of those quotes.

I also like the way Paul encourages the same thing.

we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (MSG)

One of my go to passages!

Substance abuse disorder does it’s best to get people to give up.

Give up on their dreams.

Give up on the potential.

Give up on their GOD given purpose and possibility.

And yet those who persevere, those who don’t give up and live to tell about it are such POWERFUL voices for recovery and powerful voices for the Kingdom.

Last night while in Dublin Ohio I was talking with a church community group who were committed to helping those they were serving to NEVER GIVE UP.

They were offering support.

They were offering prayer.

They were offering HOPE!

Many told stories of personal perseverance! 

I walked away encouraged.

For often if those who are languishing in the mess of addiction; the challenges of chronic sin and struggle can be reminded that there is hope, that this will pass, that they can make it, to hang in there, miracles DO indeed happen. 

I have seen it!  I have shared in it.

An author once remarked…

When you get to your wits' end, you will find that God lives there.

That is so so true!

So, ask yourself today. 

Do I need to keep going?

Do I need to keep things in perspective; to persevere?

Or

Is there someone around you who could use a word of encouragement, someone who is at the end of their rope that could benefit from you tying a knot in it for them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5I4zbXA66I

The miracle is waiting. 

I love you all!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE