SHIFT – God

You can listen to this message or any others at Journey here.

Today, our topic is God.  Now to be really clear right up front, we’re not saying that God needs to shift.  What were saying is all too often, our perspective on who God is and how he feels about us needs to shift!

And if I were going to encapsulate this shift that needs to take place into once phrase, it would be this – God is not aloof, God is personal.

I know “aloof” isn’t a word that we use allot, but it works really well here.  My dictionary defines aloof like this – “not friendly or forthcoming; cold and distant.”

Now maybe those aren’t the exact words you would use to describe God this morning.  But I’ve walked away from allot of conversations with people saying to myself that is exactly how they feel about God, that’s not how they would have described their feelings; but their actions or in-action, their attitudes, their outlook on life – all said God is distant, cold, and uncaring!

Having a proper image of God is vitally important!

Because here is the truth, “Nothing in all your life will impact your relationship with God, your relationship with people, your self-view, your decisions, and your purpose like the way you think of God” (Chip Engram).

And here is something that I always find interesting, when I talk with people who think that God is cold and distant – they always think they are the only one’s who feel like that.

But it’s really a very common feeling, in fact one of the longest stories in all of the bible is devoted to breaking this misconception that God is cold and distant.

In the old testament, God chooses one group of people that He want to experience His love, grace, and forgiveness like no others.  These people are called the Israelites, now since that time God has opened up that love, grace, and forgiveness to us all.  But in this time period, this was especially for Israel.

And about 90% of the Old Testament is God showing Israel how deeply He loves them, Israel forgetting or ignoring God’s love getting into trouble and then asking for God’s forgiveness and blessing once again.

One such story is the story of the Exodus.

Israel, God’s chosen people were enslaved to the Egyptians.  And the conditions had just been getting worse and worse, until they cried out to God for help.

God sends them Moses.  God does miracle after miracle, to free the Israelites from the Egyptians.  And after escaping, they are initially very grateful but they soon complain that they are hungry.  So you know what God does – the next morning when the entire nation got up their was enough bread on the ground to feed everyone.  The same thing happened day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

Then you know what happened?  Israel said, you know when we were enslaved to Egypt, we had pots of meat to eat.  Why has God brought us out into this desert and abandoned us?  In other words, because God only gives us bread every day he must not really care for us.  So guess what happens – God gives them meat eat.  Day after day, week after week, year after year – God provided this meat.

Then you know what happened?  Israel got tired of walking around the desert, and they complained they were moving around aimlessly, that God wasn’t really taking them anywhere.  So you know what God did, He said o.k. here is a cloud that will lead you by day and a pillar of fire that will lead you by night.  And so day after day, week after week, year after year – God lead them by a cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night.

Are you sensing a pattern?

Honestly the pattern continues throughout the whole Bible/History Israel/we turn away, complain, say God isn’t really here for us, and we mess things up and God rescues us.

And do you know what the root cause of everyone of Israel’s complaints was – a misconception of who God was.  God’s distant, God doesn’t care.

I want to help everyone of us make that mental shift from a distant God to a close and caring God and to do that I need to take us to two verses today.

The first is 1 Peter 5:7,  “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

I don’t know that I can say it anymore clearly than that.  God cares.  And notice, that verse says exactly what God cares about – He cares about all your anxiety’s.  It doesn’t say that God only cares about the big ones.  It doesn’t say that God only cares about the spiritual ones.  It says God cares about it all!

The second verse you need to hear today is Hebrews 4:15-16:

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

This verse tells us that God isn’t up in heaven twiddling his thumbs, but that God is deeply personal.  Jesus didn’t come as some religious leader that was isolated from every temptation and trouble that we face day in and day out.  But Jesus came and was tested and tempted in every way.  Jesus understands every struggle your facing in a personal way.

The bottom line is that: God’s ins’t distant and far off but that God is deeply connected to us.  

So if we can take these two concepts that: 1) God cares and 2) God is connected to us then all of a sudden God gets personal.

And let me tell you what happens then, when God gets personal – we get confident!

When we get confident in who God is, it changes who we are!

Toxic Series: WORDS

You can listen to this message or any others at Journey here

Our words are incredibly powerful.  They are often the most common weapon we wield on a daily basis and here is the kicker, we rarely give them a second thought.

Sociologists believe that most adults use about 16,000 words a day.

Do you have any idea, how you used 1,000 words yesterday let alone 16,000 (and I know some of you, use allot more than that).

And Proverbs 18:21 says this about each one of those words: “the tongues has the power of life and death…”

Our words are powerful.  We may use them without thinking, they may fly out of our mouth faster than we can imagine – but that doesn’t mean they don’t have consequences.

The big idea, I want you to catch today is this – Our words can destroy or inspire.

“the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire” – James 3:5-6

One of the reasons that words are so powerful is that they hang around for so long.  We think of words as coming out of our mouths, going into the ears of our intended receiver and then simply disappearing.  But that’s not how it works, especially for those negative words we say, those words seem to echo sometimes for weeks other times for years.

Think about that, some awful toxic word you spoke to someone could be carried around by them their entire lives.  And not only that but the toxic words you said, combine with the toxic someone else said and all of a sudden it builds and snow balls.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:29,31-32

What Paul is telling us here is that our words have the power to give life, to build someone up, to chip away at some of the toxic messages people have been taking in most of their lives.

Did your parents ever tell you, or better yet do you ever tell your kids – “if you don’t have something nice to say then don’t say anything at all.”

That’s a good rule but here is a much better one – “if you have something good to say, say it every time!”  Something good pops into your head, it should could come right out of your mouth.

So many people, so often with hold the blessing of their giving words.  They think, “oh they don’t really need to hear it, or if I say that they think I’m silly.”  That’s crazy!

In a world where most of us are beaten over the head toxic words.  In a world where so many of us are carrying toxic words with us everyday that someone spoke to us years ago – and something good and positive comes to mind, some life giving word comes to your mind and your going to with hold that from someone because you might look silly.

That’s crazy!  So everybody agree with me this morning, a new rule I’m going to live by is “when something good comes to mind about someone – I’m going to say it, every time!”

Because, here is the truth.

• If your having trouble in your marriage one of the problems (maybe not all) but at least one; is that there are more toxic words spoken in your house than life-giving words!
• If your having trouble with your kids, I’ll gurante, one of the problems is that there are more toxic words spoken between you than inspiring words.
• If your trouble with a friend or co-worker, you got it, one of the problems is that there are more toxic words spoken than inspiring words.

That’s why it says in Eph. 4:29, “don’t let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth.”  Because God knows that our tendency as humans is not to speak the life giving words, the inspiring words but to speak the toxic words!

Next Level: LOVE

I don’t know what that next level is or was for you.  I don’t know what that thing is that you want or wanted so bad that you can almost taste it.  I don’t know if it’s a new job, a new title, or a new product.

But I do know this, just like there is a next level for your carrer, for your station life, for the next thing you want.  There is also a next level for your spiritual life.

And what I want more than anything today, is for you to have that same drive, that same passion, that same insatiable desire for the next level of your spiritual life!

There is nothing God wants more for you than for you to take that next step of faith, for you to go to that next level spiritually.  And that is true for you today whether your here this morning just exploring, trying to figure out this whole God thing or whether you started following God decades ago.  There’s a next level, a next step for us all.

___________

Last week we learned about the next level of prayer and fasting and this week we’re going to learn about the next level of love!

Jesus has some very interesting things to say about love.  Right in the middle of the Gospel of matthew (ch. 22) a lawyer comes up to Jesus and asks him a very hard question: “what’s the greatest commandment in all the scriptures?”

Jesus doesn’t even blink an eye, he says the best thing you can do is …

Matt. 22:37 ¶  “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

Matt. 22:38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

Matt. 22:39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

So, if I could paraphrase that for us this morning I’d do it like this, the best thing we can do in life – is love like God!

Let me say that once more, so I know that we all caught it – the best thing we can do in life is to love like Jesus!

Jesus loved people on a higher level.  Jesus loved people in a new way.

And this was his secret, this was the thing that Jesus knew that no one else around him had picked up on yet – and this is what allowed Jesus to love and a different level.  This what allows you and I to love at the next level!

Jesus understood that God’s love is abundant!

See, Jesus’ disciples, the people Jesus meet on the street, the religious leaders, the famers, the fishermen, you and I – we have a scarcity mentality when it comes to love!

Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 says (my paraphrase), “if you only love those who love you, what good is that.  Doesn’t everyone do that, don’t even criminals and the greedy do that?  But if you really want to show the world, my kind of love – love those who are mean to you and pray for those who make your life hard.”

Jesus can say that, because he has figured out what no one else has – God’s love is abundant.  Jesus doesn’t have the scarcity mentality about love like you and I do.

In fact Jesus is working in a completely different system, Jesus knows that God’s love is abundant – and that the more he gives away, the more love there will be!

Emerge Series – When God Shows Up!

The final and most important aspect of God doing something new in you, of God doing something new in this place is simply this – God just has to show up!

And let me share this with you, when God shows up – all bets are off, all possibilities are open, and what was just a few seconds ago impossible is now possible just because God showed up.

In fact if you spend anytime in the Bible, if you were to just open up a bible and flip through some pages – I guarantee you would find a story where something was impossible, where the was no way, were there was no chance – all of a sudden God showed up and everything changed!

That’s the story that God wrote time and time again in the scriptures, and that’s just the kind of story that God longs to write in you and me!

Ok, so that’s where we are going today.  I want to get there through a really fascinating article I read this week.

There was this study done by a guy named Al Seckel.  Al was curious about how the brain processed images.  And so he had an outlined picture of what you and I and any other adult would see as a man and woman hugging.

But what was really interesting, was when he showed this image to children under 10 years of age, what they saw was radically different – they saw the shape of 9 dolphins.  Both images were there, the test was to determine which one each group would see first.

The argument was this, because the children didn’t have a prior memory to associate with the picture of the loving embrace they couldn’t see it.

To say that a little clearer, “you can’t see what you don’t know.”

To say that in a different way,  ”the more we know of something the better we can see it.“

So, if I were going to apply this to our series on the new thing God wants to do in us – I would do it one sentence, “God is in the business of expanding our possibilities!”

And there is a great example of this in Acts chapter 2.

ACTS 2:1-4

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tonguest as the Spirit enabled them.

So God shows up, and all of a sudden the disciples can speak in multiple different language at once.

But what was even more spectacular was that not only could they hear what was being said in their own language, but the crowd began to look around and notice that people who didn’t speak the language they spoke – could hear in their own native language!

So here is one guy speaking in 6 – 8 – 10 – 20 different languages all at the same time!

See God shows up and all of a sudden what was impossible is possible.  God shows up and all bets are off.  God shows up and there is simply no telling what could happen next.

I read a story like this, and I’m usually intrigued as much by what wasn’t as what was said.

What that means is that all those people outside who were in their own little conversations, in their own languages – all of a sudden starting looking up at the place where the disciples were staying because they could hear their own language being spoken there.

I read a story like this, and I’m usually intrigued as much by what wasn’t as what was said.

For instance, when Peter woke up that morning and was having his “Honey Nut Cheerio’s”, he had no idea that God was going to use him that way; and that by the time he went to bed that night 3,000 more people would know the grace and love of God!

And part of what I want you to take away today is this -

I bet Peter’s “Honey Nut Cheerio’s” never tasted the same after that!  I bet peter woke up every morning wondering what amazing thing God could do that day.

See, God had expanded Peter’s possibilities!  Because, what was once impossible was all of a sudden possible, what once wasn’t even conceivable now had already been done, and from that day on all bets were off, and nothing was impossible with God.

 

You can also listen in here.

God Wants To do Something NEW

Isaiah 43:18-19: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

Isaiah’s writings to the children of Israel came at a bleak period of their history. They are in captivity, they have lost everything they thought they would keep forever, they are far from home, they are far from where God wants them to be!

When Isaiah went to speak with the people of Israel on behalf of God, they were stuck, they were out of energy, they were on spiritual empty.

We know what’s that like don’t we?  We know what it’s like to be trapped, to be stuck, to be on empty.  Maybe it’s not as literal for us as Israel, but we’ve been trapped financially, we’ve been a prisoner of our own sin, we’ve been drained by circumstances.

In other words, we’ve all been where Israel is in this story, knowing that there is more to life but unable to get from point A to point B for some reason.

To such a people, to Israel to you and to me today – Isaiah proclaims that God wants to do something NEW!

And notice, I think think this absolutely key, the first thing Isaiah says to these people (to you and to me today) is – if you want to know the new thing God is doing, the first thing you must do is — QUIT LOOKING BEHIND START LOOKING HEAD v.18

1. You Cannot Depend Upon Past Victories to Sustain you
2. You Cannot Depend Upon Past Failures to Tap you

God is holding out a hand of hope. He is in effect saying: Forget about your past — I am giving you an opportunity to start over.

So often God is working but we are blind!  God is trying to do something new, but we’re trapped in our past with no imaginations for the new work God wants to author in us!

Isaiah tells us today to “forget all the former things of yesterday” – because God is already in tomorrow working out his will to do a new and wondrous work in you!

Here is a question for you today: “What do you see when you view your life?”

• Do you see problems or hope?
• Do you see a troubled past or a promising future?
• Do you see impossibilities or possibilities?

Notice what God said:

I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.

The children of Israel had a choice. They could look at their past and the problems of their present, or they could focus upon what God wanted to do in their lives.

If you want to see what God wants to do in your life … you must see yourself as God sees you!

I have a couple of verses I want to share with you -

Romans 8:1,2 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Colossians 1:21,22 21And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight

God has this incredible ability to see past our junk, to see past our problems, to see past our sin – and to see all that we could be if we put Him in the center of our lives!

And that is what God sees, when He looks at you.  He sees all you could be with Him!

So … you can put aside your fears that your unlovable!  You can put aside your fears that your life is too messed up for God to use.  You can put all that away, because it’s just excuses.

I believe with all my heart today, that God has something new that He wants to do in each and every one of us!  God has something new that He wants to do in you even if you don’t know Him yet, even if you’ve never prayed.  But, God also has something new he wants to do in each of us, who have known him for years and have prayed thousands of times.

God isn’t finished with any of us yet!

Running On Empty

We are often well aware when we have run out of energy.  We’ve all had the feeling of just being worn out, overwhelmed, and over worked.  And when we feel that way, we know that we need to do something to change our stress and our schedules … but what we so often miss is that we can be spiritually worn out too.

Psalms 42:1-11

The picture we get here today is essentially someone running on spiritual empty.  They have just run out of hope, they are dangerously low on faith, and they have lost their joy.  I’m going to bet that’s some of us here today!

No matter what drains your joy; whether it’s life circumstances, a schedule that is too busy, or filling up on the wrong fuel.  I’m here to tell you today that this is not how God want’s you to live!

We talked about this last week, but I want to mention it again.  John 10:10 says that God came not just so that you could have life the same old normal way, but so they you could have life abundant!

In other words God doesn’t want you feeling like this, it’s not God’s plan.  God gets that sometimes life and circumstances get the best of us and they leave us feeling down and depleted but never think that’s what God wants for you.

In fact God wants to snap you out of the funk as fast as He can!

The apostle Paul in Romans 12:11 warns against running ourselves ragged.  “Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame.  Be alert servants of the Master” (MSG).

Paul tells us allot in this verse.  One of the most important pieces he shares is right in the middle of the verse, “keep yourselves fueled and aflame.”  You know a mistake I see allot of people make.  They think it’s my job to keep them spiritually filled up.  As your pastor I provide direction and discernment and I try and increase spiritual growth wherever I can.

But I can’t force it!  I can preach a hundred perfect sermons, but none of that would compare to you truly coming before God, confessing your brokeness and asking for His help.  I could spend 1000 hours teaching you what I have learned about the scriptures, and that would be good but it really can’t compare to you taking ownership of your own spiritual growth and just falling in love with God’s word.

Paul is clear, he doesn’t say “go to your pastor so that you can grow, he doesn’t say go to some t.v. evangelist, or some other professional.  Paul says “keep yourself fueled and aflame.”

You do that in your own prayer life, you do that in your own devotional life (reading the bible not just here on sunday but through the week), and you do that by living out your faith every day.  And yes I will help you every step of the way, but I can’t do it for you!

I  want to return to the psalm we started out with today.

Psa. 42:11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

When we find ourselves spiritually thirsty.  What we need more than anything is a new perspective on God.  We need to see God as the one who wants nothing more than to fill our tank back up.

After bearing his soul, the psalmist has this moment of realization.  Where he says to himself, why are you so down.  Are things easy, no.  Are things the way you want them to be, no.  Is this situation hopeless – not with God!

He closes this lament, this complaint to God, this list of everything that is going wrong in life with – but I’m putting my hope in God.

That’s what I want to invite you to do today.  I want you list out the stuff that’s not going right in life, list out the troubles, list out the confusion, list out the exaughtion – God’s not afraid of that stuff.

But then close your list, close your prayer the way the psalmist did – by saying ok, God that’s everything that is going wrong in my life and it’s hard and uncomfortable but I’m trusting, I’m putting my hope in you!

Patience

How many times do we poke, bang, yell and impatiently pull at the object of our desire?  We want it – NOW, NOW, NOW – right?

My daughter is 17 months old.  Just old enough to start articulating what she wants.  But does she politely point and patiently ask – NO WAY!  On more than one occasion she has gone up to my desk and demanded “I want that!”

Now, your guess is as good as mine is to what “that” is?

So you start handing her things, one by one.  Starting with the things that you want her to have.

• One of her toys from last night – nope.
• An empty plastic up – nope.
• a pice of paper with some scribbles on it, no again.

It seems whether your 17 moths, 17 years, or 70 years one this is for sure – patience isn’t easy.

While that may be true, the lesson that I want you to learn today is that while – patience may not be easy, it most certainly is HOLY!

Habakkuk 2:1-3

Habakkuk was a prophet during the period of the divided Kingdoms of Israel.  This was a period that was marked by sinfulness and Israel abandoning God’s rules and wisdom.

So Habakkuk goes up into a watch tower to pray to God and to ask him why.

And the answer he seems to get is “wait.”  Be patient Habakkuk and I will show myself in a way you couldn’t have seen coming.  Wait, but know this (God says) – my word WILL come true.  Verse 3 says “though it may linger it will not be delayed!”

The paraphrase of scripture The Message ends verse 3 with these words (I love this) “God … will come right on time.”

“God will come right on time.”  He won’t be here too early, He won’t be here too late – He will be right on time!

I don’t know what your waiting for today?

• maybe it’s a new job?
• maybe it’s a spouse?
• maybe it’s some God given direction?
• maybe it a new chapter in life?
• maybe your waiting on the salvation of some loved ones?
• you and God know what it is.

I may not know what it is that your waiting for but I do know this God will be faithful!

And I also know this, your not just waiting so that God can show His power.  Your not waiting just because God can make you wait.  Your waiting because God wants you to learn something in your waiting.

Not that this somehow makes the waiting easier but it is good to know that when you look through the bible you’ll find that your in good company when it comes to waiting.

• Noah waited 120 years before it began to rain.
• Abraham waited 99 years before his promised son (Isaac) was born.
• Moses wondered in the desert for 40 years before delivered to the promised land
• Joseph spent many years in prison before he became the ruler of Egypt.
• David had to wait until the death of Saul to become king, even though he was anointed king when he was very young
• Even Jesus waited 30 years before he started his earthly work.

Getting Our Minds on God – God’s Faithfulness

This is our last week in our series entitled “Getting Our Minds on God.”  The thrust of this series has been on this one very simple idea, that far too often we’re consumed with us.  Our plans, our agendas, our dreams, our desires, our problems, our troubles.

The way we have been trying to focus on God through these past few weeks is by each week taking a characteristic of God and zooming in on that aspect of God and seeing what we can learn about who He is.

For this final week of our series, we’re looking at God’s Faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:13-20 (Jeremiah complains to God about the destruction of Jerusalem)

Can you relate to any of Jeremiah’s complaints:

• Do you know what it’s like to fall down and then have someone come and rub your face in it?
• Have you tasted the ashes of your disappearing future?
• Felt utterly lost?
• Hit bottom?

Do you know what it’s like to DRAG through life?  Because, that’s where Jeremiah was!  His whole world figuratively and literally was crumbling around him.

But despite all the hardship that He and Israel were facing, despite the humiliation of loosing God’s own city to the Babylonians, despite the horrible deaths of the young and innocent, despite the starvation that he and his people faced.

Jeremiah, even in the midst of all of this, remembered God’s faithfulness and he wrote these beautiful words in Lamentations 3:21-23.

”God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,  his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.  They’re created new every morning.  How great your faithfulness!  I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).  He’s all I’ve got left.” (Lam. 3:21-23)

I don’t know if you have come here today with your tank full or empty?  I don’t know if you’ve come here off of a great week or a terrible one, but I know this – no matter what your weak was like God was faithful, God is now faithful to you, and God will forever be faithful!

That’s the message that Jeremiah was trying to leave with Israel, that’s the message he wants us to hear today.  Even when things look like they are at there very worst, God is faithful.

In the Bible, you find story after story of how Israel (God’s chosen people) abandon God.  They worship other God’s, the put up Idols in their lives, they ignore God’s commands.

And time after time, God is faithful even when His people are not! God saves us even when we don’t deserve it.  That’s really the plot line of the whole Bible.

God’s faithfulness is a fact!

There really isn’t that much more to be said about God’s faithfulness, the real question before us today is not whether God is faithful but when life gets hard, when we’re overwhelmed, when we don’t have the energy and resources to handle what is before us – how much then do we hold onto the hope of God’s faithfulness.

Because whether we believe it or not, God’s faithfulness is there.

Getting Our Minds On God – GOD’S LOVE

1 John 4:19 speaks to this problem about as clearly as we could ask for, it says “We love (God) because he first loved us.”

Now at a first glance that seems simple.  But take a moment and really think about that.

• Before you ever came to church – God loved you.
• Before you ever prayed a prayer or cracked open a bible – God loved you.
• When you were at the lowest point of your life with no idea of who God really was – God loved you.
• When you ignored God’s laws and lived in sin, as if He never existed – God loved you

God’s love was there for you before any good actions or good deeds.  God’s love was there for you before you even entertained a thought of who He is.

That means that you and I brought nothing to the table.  God doesn’t love you because your such a biblical scholar or because you give so greatly to the church.  God doesn’t love you because your such a great parent or such a good person.

God loved you before all of that.

1 John 3:16 says this – “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

So if someone asks you how you know that God loves you – there is no better answer than to say: I know God loves me because Jesus died for me!

Because we were trapped in death.  Separated from God by the wedge of our own sin, we needed someone to destroy that wedge of sin that keeps us from God – and that’s what Jesus did on the cross.

And he did it when we were still hostile to Him.  He did it when we were ignoring and rejecting Him!

…….

An objects value is always determined by what price is paid for it.

Anyone who owns a house right now knows this lesson.  I’ve put new windows and a new furnace in my house but my house isn’t worth any more money right now because what people are willing to pay for a house now is less than it was several years ago.

Chip Engram has a great story that illustrates this even better.

A drawing was found in the basement of the smithsonian in 2002, it was in a room that used to hold chemicals and cleaning supplies.  A visiting scholar, caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye.

It was an original Michelangelo and was valued at millions of dollars.  It was sold to the museum decades earlier for about $12.  And for decades it sat collecting dust, it didn’t sit behind protective glass like it does now, it wasn’t watched by security cameras or armed guards it sat between some crates and other stored items.

Maybe you’ve felt that way.  Like your sitting in the corner collecting dust?  Like your just a humble drawing that no body is much interested in and certainly wouldn’t pay that much for.

But here is some news for you!  The master artist, the great creator, the true expert in all that has value has seen your life: with all your messes, and all the dust that has collected on your potential, He has seen past the sin and the regrets.

And He has said, “this one, I’ll pay any price for this one!”  “I’ll pay millions, I’ll even give up my own life.”

That is how greatly God loves you.

Parenting Note – T.V. Time

A majority of kids – 53 percent – in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey said their families had no rules for TV viewing. The remaining kids said they had rules, but just 20 percent said those guidelines were enforced most of the time.  As if that’s not bad enough, the proportion of children with cable or satellite TV in their own room grew from 29 percent to 37 percent in the past 5 years.  What does all this mean?  Big trouble.  TV is raising many children.  And most of TV is not sending our children the right message.  So if you want to remain in control of your children as the parent, here are 10 suggestions for rules regarding TV:

1. TV is a privilege, not an inalienable right:
2. TV’s natural posture is “OFF”:
3. Parental modeling must be consistent with household standards
4. Turn the television off when “company” enters the house:
5. TV has no place in the bedroom:
6. TV is always off during family mealtimes:
7. Only parents may program access and restrictions:
8. “Stupid” and “mind-numbing” can be as harmful as “immoral” and “violent”:
9. TV is more fun when it is not overused:
10. TV must take its place among a broad spectrum of family activities:

More info at – All Pro Dad