Coming Back from a Setback

"Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time" Jonah 3:1

     Have you ever blown it? Have you ever messed up? If we are honest, all of us have our own personal hall of shame where our faults, flaws, and follies are recorded. Consequently we find ourselves experiencing setbacks that set us back from fulfilling the potential and purpose that God has for our lives. In these moments we find ourselves discouraged, depressed, and defeated because we know we have let our God down, ourselves down, and our family down.  However there is good News for you today. Even after you have suffered setbacks, God can help you to come back! How do I know, because "Comeback", or restoration, is one of the themes of the Bible. The pages of scripture are lined and littered with examples of individuals who blew it, but were able to come back.
     In our text for today, Jonah, the preacher, had blown it. The Bible says that Jonah deliberately disobeyed God and went in the opposite direction of God's will for his life. Because of his own choices, Jonah suffered a major setback. He found himself in the dark, deep depths of a fish's belly. The Bible lets us know in Jonah 2:6, that he was going down, dah dah dah, going down. However the opening words of chapter 3 say, "Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time." How did Jonah go from experiencing a setback to coming back? How did he go from blowing it to blowing up? In the first place, Jonah recognized God (2:7a). Up to this point, Jonah had been asleep in the will, ways, and word of God. But now the Bible says he "remembered the Lord." He remembers God, the Covenant Keeping God, is gracious, forgiving, and will give him another chance. After recognizing the Lord, secondly he repented (2:7b). The Bible informs us that his prayer came up to God. You need to know that our prayers only have an affect when we come correct. We must be willing to say to God, "I blew it, God, I messed up, God, I'm sorry." Finally, he was willing to recommit to God's will for his life (2:9). Inside the belly of the fish he made a decision get back in line with God's will.
     Today no matter how far you have fallen, you need to know that failure doesn't have to be final nor fatal. God specializes in helping those with setbacks, comeback. If you Recognize who God is, Repent, and Recommit yourself to God's purpose for your life, you can go from blowing it to blowing up!
Peace!

Music

As you can probably tell by now, I love music. I did in my BC days (before Christ) and I do now in my AD days (after deliverance). In the last post I talked about the importance of lining up all life under the leadership of the Lord. Notice I said all of life, aka every area, which includes what we listen to, what we watch, who we kick it with, and etc.
Now music is of course a great debate for many individuals, especially church folk. Why? Because people tend to go to extremes when it comes to this subject. There are those who believe that everything you listen to should be in the Gospel genre. The opposite to this are those that believe you can groove to everything that's bumpin, jumpin. I won't give my take right now because I want to know what you think. Is it ok for Christians to listen to other genres of music?

Control

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. ---Matthew 6:33 NLV

     In the world in which we live you can basically divide individuals into 3 categories: those out of control, those losing control, and those under control. Which group seems to characterize your life? Do you find yourself losing control because of the struggles, stresses, and strains of this world?  Maybe you are plain old out of control being like Bobby Brown talking about, "It's my prerogative, I'll do what I wanna do."

      Or lastly, are you under control because you are learning to line up every area of your life under the leadership of the Lord? It's when we learn to yield control to the Lord that we can actually keep from losing control! The operative word is learn because we must admit that the difficulty we have on this Christian journey is that our fleshly nature wants control. In essence our flesh echoes what Janet Jackson said in her 1990's song entitled Control: “Got my own mind, I wanna make my own decisions, When it has to do with my life, I wanna be the one in control.”  The flesh definately wants to dominate the daily decisions we make. 

     Remember when we were young and we told our parents, "I just can't wait until I'm grown!" (Now of course we did say it down low so they couldn't hear us because mama didn't raise no fool). What we were saying was, we couldn't wait until we had control or could call the shots.  Ironically once we did grow up we found out that we've got to give up control in order to stay under control! That's just what Jesus is saying today in the midst of a world that seems out of control, give Him full control and He'll make sure you stay under control!  

Peace!

Psss.

Tuesday, September 22

Psss. I've got something to tell ya. It's a secret. Well is something really a secret if it's been broadcasted out for all to hear? I hope that's what the popular book from a few years ago The Secret realizes. It promises the secret to success but of course it's a couple of thousand years too late. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus gives us the key (because there's not really a secret) to success. Are you ready for it? Jesus said in essence we must Passionately Prioritize His Purposes. Did you get that? Passion, Priorities, Purpose. This verse could save us a whole lot of drama, trauma, and stress in our search to be successful. Because truthfully we do all want to be successful. But I've discovered it depends on what your perception of success is. In his new song Drake says he wants to be "Successful" and equates success with money, cars, clothes and (a word I can't say). However Jesus simplifies the equation of our lives by telling us to Seek (Passion), First (Prioritize), His Kingdom and Righteousness (Purpose). My wife is taking an algebra class right now, and the other night she was working out some complicated problems I must admit. She was moving things around in the problem but was having little success and was becoming a little frustrated. But in her own sophisticated style, she sat there and then figured out how to simplify the problem. It wasn't until she simplified the problem that she got her Answer. That's the word for the day. Jesus has simplified the problem of how to be successful for us, today Passionately Pursue His Purposes.
Peace!

First Things First

Monday, September 21, 2009

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:33

Let's begin this journey by taking a look at our priorites.
As you walk thru the days of your life, what are you preoccupied with? Is it a desire to gain more posessions, position, or popularity? Or could it be that you are heads over heels for some person that has you falling as Alicia Keys would say.
I've found out that part of being successful is being able to properly put things in their place. Jesus, in Matthew 6:33, points out plainly what our main priority should be. Interstingly, Jesus, who knew we would be living in a fast-paced society, didn't say that cash, clothes, or cribs should be our top priority. Amazingly He didn't even say church should be our #1 priority. What He did say was that our priority should be His Kingdom and His Righteousness. In other words we should be preoccupied with allowing God to have authority over every aspect of our lives and aligning ourselves with His will.
Does God have rule over the decisions you make everyday such as how you spend your money or who you hook up with?
Today seek to put first things first, God's Kingdom and Righteousness.

P.S. Hit me with a list of the things we spend most of our time thinking about or doing.