Breath Deep

Have any of you ever almost drowned before? At the moment you were kicking , fighting to keep your head above water thinking this was the end, what was your biggest fear? Was it death, or something else?

I have almost drowned before and when I think back it wasn't death that I was most afraid of, it was what taking that first breath of water into my lungs was going to feel like. Was it going to be painful? Would death be instant or would it be slow and agonizing?

Isn't this how we all approach giving God control of our lives?

It's that intense moment as we sink just below the surface, exhausted, no longer having the strength to keep our head above water, lungs burning for a breath of air and crying out for mercy that we remember the promise that God makes to us. He says I AM the water of life, breathe me in.  

  As we read scripture God makes it very clear to us that He is in control of all things. He wants us to follow His will because He is the only one that truly knows what is best for us. When we try and keep control of our lives He will discipline us like the loving Father that He is, not because He is a cosmic killjoy, but because the love and plan He has for us is greater than we could image.

God is the creator of all things so why do we make Him small and think we can control our lives better than He can? Why do we have such a hard time trusting Him? God promises to provide for your needs, to give you strength, comfort, healing, love and life. All He asks for in return is that you believe and trust in Him.

The way I see it is there are two ways to trust God. We can stick our toes in and test the water or we can do a cannonball into the river of life. So take a deep breath, plug your nose and jump into the hands of God.

1 Timothy 6:17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

Jason   

From Inseparable Friends and Delinquent Teens to Brothers in Christ

Has God ever given you an opportunity to share the Gospel with somebody, but you didn't have the guts to speak it? I think that if we are honest the answer to that question would be a loud resounding "YES".

I recently got a great email from a friend and it went like this;

"Thanks for the blog. Somehow you decided to start writing the blog at a time in my life when I needed it. I really think the blog was the beginning for me realizing that I have so much more to give and so much more to let go of. I have also learned since my hospitalization that I have more friends than I ever knew that have the same beliefs in God that I do and we just somehow never talked about it. Such a sad thing that we never talked about it. Do you remember when I came to Sparks? I had very recently forged a relationship with God before coming to see you. I was very excited about it and was really living it. Actively going to church. Talking about it with friends. Reading the Bible daily. I was in a good place. When I cam and saw you, you were in a much different place at the time. I remember a rant at a bar we were at when you went off about Creed and their hidden agenda of talking about God. I think at the time you believed you were an atheist. I have always been disappointed in myself for not telling you what I thought that day. I wanted to tell you how wrong you were, but did not have the guts to do so. I am still a more than a little ashamed of that. Not surprisingly, we did not talk much after that. I can only think of a few times we spoke over the next several years. Funny to say that I sometimes thank God for Facebook. I may have never known that you have become a Christian and that everything is right with you now. We very well may have gone the rest of out lives not knowing that we walk in the same shoes. I thank God that you DO have the guts to put yourself out there and shamelessly let the world know that God is the answer. How ironic that it has worked out this way. I am as happy as I can be that we went from being inseparable friends and delinquent teens to brothers in Christ."

When Shawn came to Sparks, NV it was 10+ years ago and he's right, we were in very different places in our lives. I wouldn't say that I was an atheist, I would probably have identified myself as a Satanist. I lived for no one but myself and was more than happy to find my identity in that and get my power from him. Truth be told even if Shawn would have shared the Gospel with me I wouldn't have accepted it, it just wasn't my time God had plenty of work to do in my heart.

So why do we rely on Facebook to tell us that our friends and family have become Christians? Shawn and I have been friends for many years, but it's not like I called him up one day and said "Hey guess what happened to me today, I became a Christian, do you know Jesus?" It wasn't until I started writing this blog that I found out he had became a Christian years ago.

I guess what I'm trying to say is we should be SHOUTING AT THE TOP OF OUR LUNGS THE MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL! Jesus has pulled us out of the grave and breathed into us new life. Why wouldn't we want to share that with those around us? Is being accepted more important than their death? Pray for God to place people in your life to share the Gospel with and when He does seize the moment! The gift of Grace is too good to keep to yourself, share it with anybody and everybody. It's the seeds that we plant today that God springs forth life!

Shawn, I too thank God for Facebook, I thank God that He has saved the both of us, I thank God that we can say we went from being inseparable friends and delinquent teens to brothers in Christ. I love you brother!

Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes'   

Jason

Act Now, for Tomorrow May Never Come!

This weekend I got an email from a longtime friend that rocked me to the core.

My friend, Shawn woke up one morning to an intense pain in his lower leg. As he started to put all of the symptoms into a website it came back as DVT (blood clots in the deep veins of his leg). Knowing this wasn't something to blow off, he hopped into his car and headed to the ER.

He described the picture perfect ER visit, he got right in, was diagnosed with DVT, given medications, a care plan and then sent on his way. Once he got to his car is where it gets scary. He says " As soon as my butt hit the seat it feels like someone grabbed both of his lungs in their hands."  In less than three seconds, he went from chest pain, to Oh crap, to unconsciousness. According to the doctors he should have died where he sat, but by God's Grace he woke up, disoriented knowing he need to get back inside of the hospital. He pulled himself out of the car and only made it halfway before he felt himself going out again, so he laid down in the roadway of the parking lot, thinking someone would find him. No one did and again by God's Amazing Grace he woke up again determined to get into the hospital. In pure survival mode, he made his way back into the hospital and yelled for help. I'm so happy to announce that after a 5 day stay in the hospital and what could be a lifetime of medications he is doing well. I can't help but think that God had His hands on him that day, and at times picking Shawn up and carrying him to safety.       

Bigger than what had happed to him physically, was what had happened to him spiritually and emotionally.  Shawn says "as a man, father, husband, Marine, and Police Officer, I always felt like I was in control. I talk about God and saying that everything happens for a reason and that life is in God's hands, but I don't think I really believe that until now."  Shawn's overwhelming thought since that day is how fast this all happened. He had no time to think of his wife and children or his relationship with God. It brings him to tears every time he thinks about it.

Before this happened he had been struggling with the feeling that he wasn't close enough to God, or that he wasn't doing enough as a Christian man to really call himself a Christian. He says with absolute truth that several times he thought "I will get to that later, I'm just too busy with everything else."

To this I say, Shawn, it's not what YOU DO that makes you a Christian, it's what Jesus DID that makes you a Christian. God reminds us of that often and sometimes that discipline hurts...a lot! God wants 100% of our hearts, that is where we start, making God central in our lives and let everything else flow from that.

Shawn's point: Don't wait for one day get yourself right, let God redeem your relationships with friends, family and more importantly Himself. God is in control and only He knows which day will be your last and you have to be ok with that.

This email was sent to his family and friends as a call to action, to stop putting the important things off until tomorrow, for tomorrow may never come.

Matthew 24:36 "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."

Jason

I am a New Creation

 I have fought for some pretty stupid causes in my life. Causes that had no eternal value at all. I identified myself as a warrior, a solider for what I believed in. I have destroyed lives. I have destroyed relationships. I have caused pain. I have caused sorrow. I was an instrument of the Devil, believing his lies that I would somehow be rewarded and my life would finally be complete. But all of the things I once found my identity in, was just a smokescreen for my own anger, hatred and pain. I was angry so I took it out on those around me. I hated myself, so I hated those different from me. I was in pain, so caused pain to anyone I could, thinking that it would somehow take my pain away.

 In the midst of the life I was leading I would get glimpses of God and I would hear Him calling my name, but I never answered Him. I fought against Him, thinking, God is for the weak. "I can do this myself" I would say. But God is more persistent than I am, God is stronger than I am, and God is stronger than my sin and the sins committed against me.

 God grabbed a hold of me so tight one day, and this time He wasn't going to let go. By the Grace of God he put my wife into my life. I went to "Living Stones Church" with her one Sunday and it was a day that would drastically change my life. On that day I heard God audibly speak to me, and physically felt Him with his arms around me. He told me to follow Him, that he would heal my pain and fill the hole in my heart and make me complete. I wanted all that God was promising, but as I started thinking of the evil I had committed I had an overwhelming sense of doom. "How could God forgive me?" All that I had ever searched for was placed into my hands and then snatched away...or so I thought.

 I went months trying to work my way to this salvation that was preached every Sunday until I had exhausted my own power. I was at the end of myself,  ready to admit defeat and accept my punishment of eternal damnation. That is the point that I cornered one of our pastors after the service and told him all of the things I have done and that I was ready to accept what was coming to me. The answer I got from him wasn't the one that I was expecting though. He went through scriptures with me and showed me  that I hadn't gone too far, I hadn't done too much and that what God wants for me is greater than I could have ever imagined.

  My salvation wasn't based on me forgiving myself or by my own power. It is based on the work of Jesus Christ and the work He accomplished on the Cross. It was Jesus that bore my sins and the sins committed against me on the Cross. The wrath that I thought God had against me, Jesus took upon himself...for my sake. He lived the perfect life that I never could, died the death that I deserved and then resurrected from death to give me new life. He came to this earth to be the perfect sacrifice that paid my debt in full, but here was the kicker for me...Jesus' righteousness was passed onto me. Upon accepting Christ as my King and Savior I was made a new creation, God took my heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh and He now sees me as blameless in his eyes. All of the sins I have committed, commit and will commit are paid for. All of the sins that have been committed against me, that caused my anger and hatred against myself, that I then took out on others, were taken away in an instant. The chains that had made me a slave were shed that day and I never want to look back.  My past is now hidden in the body of Christ, and it is now through that power, that I am free to live the life, and be the man that he created me to be.    

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Jason