Nowhere in Scripture do I see a “balanced life with a little bit of God added in” as an ideal for us to emulate. Yet when I look at our churches, this is exactly what I see: a lot of people who have added Jesus to their lives. People who have, in a sense, asked Him to join them on their life journey, to follow them wherever they feel they should go, rather than following Him as we are commanded. The God of the universe is not something we can just add to our lives and keep on as we did before. The Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is not someone we can just call on when we want a little extra power in our lives. Jesus Christ did not die in order to follow us. He died and rose again so that we could forget everything else and follow Him to the cross, to true Life. –Francis Chan author of Forgotten God Reversing Our Tragic Neglect Of The Holy Spirit.
Sitting in a restaurant in Culver City last October, I told my friend Cynthia that I believed that, that moment, was my last few days of rest before the church was built. We’ve been happily rebuilding since, have started the RMA Re-store and continued on with our ministry.
I forgot about our annual trip. Most every year, my husband brings me here at this time. Sometimes we come to ski. Well to be honest, I ski one day then the other few days we are here, I bundle up in warm clothes and walk or shop or drink coffee. I didn’t think we’d get to come this year.
We arrived in South Lake Tahoe for a few days of rest. I walked in, put my pj’s and socks on and sat down with a book. In the stillness, I was asleep in no time. I woke up at 2 a.m. just long enough to settle deeper into the blankets and sleep again. Now here we are at 4:45 a.m. and I am wide awake.
Looking out the window, there is a beautiful layer of snow and I know there are people here to ski in that snow. I don’t think we’ll get to ski this year but it sure does feel good to just sit and take a deep breath before we cross the finish line of a church that is complete.
We will head home in a few days to finish up our church. Currently the sheet rock is going up and the last of the sprinkler system is being installed. I go back to pick texture design and paint color, tile for the bathrooms and baptistry and carpet. We are in the home run part of the process.
But I get ahead of myself. For today, the Lord has blessed me with a few days of sleep, and reading and silence to hear his voice. I’m listening. I’m still and I’m ever so grateful to my Lord for my life.
Psalm 66:1. All together now – applause for God!
2. Sing songs to the tune of his glory, set glory to the rhythms of his praise.
3. Say of God, “We’ve never seen anything like him!” When your enemies see you in action, they slink off like scolded dogs.
4. The whole earth falls to its knees – it worships you, sings to you, can’t stop enjoying your name and fame.
5. Take a good look at God’s wonders – they’ll take your breath away.
6. He converted sea to dry land; travelers crossed the river on foot. Now isn’t that cause for a song?
7. Ever sovereign in his high tower, he keeps his eye on the godless nations. Rebels don’t dare raise a finger against him.
8. Bless our God, O peoples! Give him a thunderous welcome!
9. Didn’t he set us on the road to life? Didn’t he keep us out of the ditch?
10. He trained us first, passed us like silver through refining fires,
11. Brought us into hardscrabble country, pushed us to our very limit,
12. Road-tested us inside and out, took us to hell and back; Finally he brought us to this well-watered place.
13. I’m bringing my prizes and presents to your house. I’m doing what I said I’d do,
14. What I solemnly swore I’d do that day when I was in so much trouble:
15. The choicest cuts of meat for the sacrificial meal; Even the fragrance of roasted lamb is like a meal! Or make it an ox garnished with goat meat!
16. All believers, come here and listen, let me tell you what God did for me.
17. I called out to him with my mouth, my tongue shaped the sounds of music.
18. If I had been cozy with evil, the Lord would never have listened.
19. But he most surely did listen, he came on the double when he heard my prayer.
20. Blessed be God: he didn’t turn a deaf ear, he stayed with me, loyal in his love. -“The Message”
Getting ready for the day means each morning seeing my husband off to work, then getting myself ready for work. Today I was jealous of Lulu. She hopped on my bed after a quick trip outside, cuddled under the comforter and was staring at the TV and yawning. Yep, sometimes I wish things were just that easy!
Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.
Do you ever feel trapped? Sometimes, I look at our saltwater tank in our family room and I think of the vast ocean where these fish were made to be, deserve to be and there is part of me that feels bad that the fish are trapped in 180 gallons of water. It seems like a lot of water and they seem happy to be fed everyday but I wonder what they would do in the ocean? Would they swim around in 180 gallons of sea or would they venture out past the boundaries and check things out? Just like those fish we find ourselves trapped in a limited space.
Only unlike those fish we can choose to swim beyond what we’ve always known and test the waters of the vast ocean of opportunity set before us. Freedom of a multitude of choices is the benefit of being human. Maybe we just want to explore the possibilities that are set out before us, only what keeps us from moving out into the great unknown? Fear. Fear and freedom are two opposing words.Fear keeps us from exploring what the Lord has for us.
My mom is a play it safe kinda gal. She’s been a great mom, in her, I know there is security and love and warmth and a safe place to fall if I need to. I know she isn’t going skydiving anytime soon and her big adventures consists of an occasional cruise or an occasional nickel or quarter slot machine in Vegas. She sees danger around the corner and as her daughter, she is always saying to me things like, “You are crazy! You need to remember you have kids!” Mostly it’s when I say things like, I went snorkeling in the Carribbean, (she sees sharks), or parasailing, (she sees a me crashing into the ocean), or a preaching trip to Africa, (she sees me being eaten by a lion) and when I told her that there were signs saying “Beware of Baboons” in Africa, she said, “Well, you BETTER be careful!”, in her mom voice which means business! When my daughter Casey went off to Midwest for college, my mom said, “Are you nuts? That’s too far!” And yet, she is proud of her girls on some levels. There is a streak of adventure in her as she sees an airplane up in the sky and says, “I’d sure like to be on that plane going wherever it’s going.” In those moments her sarcastic daughter (me) wants to say, “What if it’s going to AFRICA?!”
I think she found happiness in her life. She has been bold in her career as moved up the corporate ladder. She loved her career in banking and as promotions and new offers came in she never hesitated to take them. She showed me that my potential was only limited by my fear to go for it!
So where are you today? Are you swimming around in that 180 gallon tank of your life looking past the glass wishing, thinking about, but never taking the chance to swim past? Ask yourself, what the worst that could happen could be? You may fail and have to go back to the tank, but you might make it, and swim past things you never even knew existed. Are you living your life to its full potential or are you allowing fear to trap you? Resolve to live your life without regrets of things you should have done.
Take a chance to travel, take a chance to change careers, if your heart really wants to, take a chance in your life! You may find the freedom you were called to. Listen to that still small voice in your heart that leads the way to big adventures. Listen to it carefully as it guides you. No one ever promised you a safe life but you were promised a life worth living to its fullest!
Mark 2: 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
The metaphor here is the new wine which is the Holy Spirit, the moving of the spirit, the fire and power of Pentecost, the new church. Old Wineskin is religion, tradition, man-made, dry. Old wineskins once they aged became cracked and dry. New wine needs to be in new wine skins that are pliable and stretch and will move with the Holy Ghost.
To be a wine Christian you have to stop and resist the feeling of being pushed and pressured. We feel like we have to go here and there and we get caught up in the urgent and we miss the blessing of the important things God has set before us. A lot of things in our lives are like little fires, they seem urgent but will extinguish themselves if you leave them alone. To be a wine Christian ask yourself these questions;
1. Do you have a plan for you life? Do you have a dream that you want to see come through before the end of your life?
2. Do you have a goal and a plan or is your dream just a dream? Do you know how it will come to pass? What is your strategy?
Isaiah 32:8 But the noble man devises noble plans; And by noble plans he stands.
3. Who in your life is assisting you in your plan? Who speaks into your life? Who mentors you? Who is helping you? It is very dangerous to listen to no one. You hear people say, “I’m not going to church. I only need Jesus. I’m a good Christian.” Jesus is not even in this mix. He’s not hanging around this person because this person is rebellious and prideful and doesn’t think they need anyone. Then you have the flip side, the person who listens to everyone. Oh that sounds good let’s do that, that is a great idea let’s do that. Be careful what you eat in the form of books that you are reading and who you are listening to. Our Pastor warns us often, “Don’t eat from the garbage. Measure everything by what the word of God says.
4. How involved is God in the plan? Don’t forget to bring God into your meetings. And don’t move forward ignoring all the warnings. Learn to hear his voice.
That’s how you tell the difference between whether you are growing in your walk with Christ or standing still. Milk Christians are waiting to be fed the next word. Wine Christians can cook up a great meal and even feed others!
My Pastor preached on this and I want to share it.
1 Corinthians 3: 1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
Milk Christians are considered babes in Christ. That’s what we’d like to think.
Unfortunately though we’ve seen some milk Christians with full facial hair or breast of their own!
How can you tell if you are a milk Christian?
Milk Christians go to this church one week, this church the next week and midweek they are at a third.
They are always looking for something new; they are easily bored with everything. Their attention span is like that of a toddler, 3-5 minutes tops.
They believe everything and people easily deceive them.
Milk Christians run out of inspiration quickly.
They start lots of new things but never see it through to completion. I’ve had four jobs in 28 years, milk Christians brag about how many jobs they’ve had like it’s a badge.
Milk Christians get negative quickly.
They have very shallow relationships.
Milk Christians are not into long-term relationships.
Covenants to them are boring. That’s why you can have a long term Christian who still cheats on his wife.
They are listening to everyone and no one so they hear confirmations from sources outside of their covering.
There is no balance.
You see, milk has a time and a purpose but nursing when you are supposed to be weaned is retarded development.
Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Are you a milk Christian? If so, and you’ve been a Christian longer than 5 years it’s time to grow up!
Pastor Susan 