Day 9: Forgiveness ~ 30 Days Closer To God

Forgiveness

That is a powerful word. It is a word that means that no matter what you have done, you are no longer held accountable to it.

If you lie, it is like it never was spoken.

If you steal, it is as if you never have taken it.

Forgiveness is the 'Mulligan' of the spiritual golf world.

You see as Christians, we are often all too caught up with the 'forgiveness of our sins' so that our spiritual accounting is clean with God. However, Forgiveness is much more powerful than that. We have to learn to forgive ourselves.

Although we try, we will never be perfect. We have to come to grips that God loves us for who we are and who we strive to be IN HIM. Give yourself some slack. No, you are not the perfect person. Yes, you have immoral thoughts. No, you might not have said the right thing at work to your coworker. You simply have to forgive yourself.

Forgiveness is not just for those who you are forgiving... The real power is for you that forgive.

Day 8: I will give you rest ~ 30 days closer to God

28“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I needed this message today. I need to rely on Jesus as I am working through the pain of my sacroiliac joint. I do not like taking medicine. It is nothing religious about it simply I hate to depend on foreign chemicals in my body. Call it my manly man distrust of pharmaceuticals.

But today I say better living through chemistry.

Today is going to be a short message because I need a day of rest. I need to allow my body, my mind to be at rest. I must realize I cannot fix everything and my life will not always be perfect.

As a man learning to get closer to God, I simply need to rest. Not just to rest for my body but to rest for my soul and mind.

Day 7: Follow Me ~ 30 Days Closer To God

Follow Me

Those were the simple words I heard Yesterday morning. There are so many great stories of the Bible where Jesus asks his people to follow him.

What does that mean for the modern Christian?

In the biblical references, Jesus spoke to people to leave what they were doing and follow him. Many did exactly what he said, while some struggled such as the rich young ruler. In one instance, Jesus asked one to follow him, and the disciple replied that he needed to bury their loved one first. Does that mean Jesus didn't care?

No.

He wanted to convey the importance of receiving His teaching and learning from Him while He was still on this earth. Spiritually, this man would become alive in Christ and it is important to focus on the things of the kingdom versus the worldly things.

But what I think God wants of me is to stop being the pilot of my life. We do not know when Jesus will come again. Only the father knows. We should live in expectation that He is coming soon.

If Jesus was coming tomorrow what would you change? Honestly I think I have way to many thingsnthat I need to change before He comes.

It is sad really.

However I know that there's grace He has given me, and grace I have received. It really is a balance that we have to live in. If we become too dogmatic, we risk being prideful in our works. If we depend too much on His gratiousness, then we risk a quickly falling, backsliden path.

So the challenge is to lift everything to God. To follow Christ today hasn't lost it's purpose over the years howver the instrument of following comes not from Jesus, But the Holy Spirit who resides with you and communes with you. Since the Spirit lives inside you, you have a direct connection with the Eternal. All you have to do know is lift your needs, wants, desires and burdens up to God and HE WILL LISTEN.

It is important to Listen to the spirit and not to man. Listen to the Spirit in spite of the spiritual dogma of the church. The Bibles Heroes are not men who stood idly by and raising their hands in the pew. The men of God in the Bible stood up against their agreessors in acts of civil disobedience.

The stood in the face of death and allowed God to use their life for His purpose. Jesus turned the tables of the money changers in the temple. He raised a whip in righteous anger. A man of God trusts in the Lord. The more a man listens to God and not to man, the more great spiritual revivals we may see in our lifetime.

Day 6: Friends ~ 30 Days Closer To God

I was a little confused about the word that God gave me today in regards to 'Friends.'

I wondered how friends are viewed or are an impression on a man trying to get closer to God. As the picture above says... True friends are hard to come by.

So as a Man, I try to raise myself from the murk and mire only to realize that all I have to do is lift my prayers up to God to improve my station. In truth a man doesn't need many friends. He needs a few die hard, hard core, backs to the wall friends in this world.

The Bible talks about the importance of 'Iron sharpening Iron' as it speaks of brothers / friends lifting each other up and making each improve in the eyes of each other. Friends help each other to keep accountable, to carry each other's burden.

As I write this, I continue to hear 'What a friend we have in Jesus' ... 'everything to God in Prayer.'

Jesus as written in earlier blog posts has come before me and sacrificed so much for me. He awaits to represent me in Front of God the Father as a faithful servant. He has gone before me and has stood beside me. Christ is  my wonderful counselor and friend.

God revealed to me today the importance of friends, the right friends in my life. My friend calls me today. He is struggling with some personal issues. Most of my time is spent listening, but eventually as I share in his burden, we were able to lift each other up and encourage each other.

From this conversation we can point each other to grow in faith, to improve our relationships with our families and point each other to look to God for answers.

Day 5: By His Stripes I am Healed ~ 30 Days Closer To God

By His Grace, We are Saved... By His Wounds We Are Healed.

The Punishment that was Our Peace, Being Crushed For our Sins....

No matter what I am going through, I am happy that I didn't have to endure the excruciating pain Jesus experienced upon the cross. That partly is one of the reasons I don't like the cross as a representation of Christianity. The cross represents an execution device. It represents pain and anguish. It doesn't represent the triumph of being raised from the dead.

I awoke this morning still in pain. As I prayed, I asked the Lord for the words he would give me to meditate upon and experience so that I can learn more about being closer to him. He gave me the following:

By His Wounds You Are Healed

That is such a powerful message and something that is so simple. Jesus went through pain, anguish and death. Our pain He knows. Our burdens he has shared. Yet He still loved me despite me being such a terrible creature.

The message of we are healed is something of a promise. We can be healed by God. No, I didn't get a miraculous healing over night, I am still in pain. I know that God hears my anguish, and he is concerned about my pains. I know that I need to lift these up to him so that I can trust Him to heal me and make me better. It is a process much like I have experienced the last couple of days as God taught me more about patience and peace.

Since I can do nothing other than lift my pains to him and trust him, there isn't any reason to get down or depressed. This is a struggle, this is teaching me patience and to be at peace with myself.

His pain and suffering paved the way to recovery for the Christian Soul. His life and trials were for Christians to understand and realize that while He was a man, He suffered. We know that he suffered on our behalf. It was Him who could have changed his mind, turned the other way and escaped the wrath he suffered....

But he didn't...

He knew that his pain and suffering will only last for so long and that he would be in paradise. He knew that His sacrifice would enable me and everyone to have a direct path to God. He felt the wrath or OUR sins as they scored and tore his body. His blood was split as an offering so that I can have the assurance of heaven.

His death meant that when I died, I have conquered death too. When I pass on, I can and will be in heaven. Death's grip is but a pinch on the road to eternity.

By His Wounds....

My heart is healed knowing that the world may reject me but He loved me enough to die for me.

My mind is healed knowing that while I am not perfect, His wounds enabled the Holy Spirit to teach me.

My body is healed knowing however imperfect, He will make me perfect in eternity.

My spirit is healed knowing that I was empty, yet He fills me and gives me Peace.

Day 4: Patience ~ 30 Days Closer To God

How do you eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time. Now that is an example of Patience!


Patience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties


Of course when I hear the word patience, I think of the 90's band Guns and Roses

So, Patience was the word I received from the Lord today in my journey towards learning more about him and becoming a true man of God. Boy did this day S-U-C-K!


Today was the toughest day I have had in a long time. My back which normally would heal by this time continues to bother me. It literally takes me about five minutes of walking around to be able to walk straight up. Then every time I sit, pain shoots up my spine. 


I started to worry. It caused me a lot of pain. I was afraid to move, to even get up and go to the bathroom. I have tried Ibuprofen, Aleve and even Tylenol. All of which didn't do anything for me. It wouldn't even dull the pain. 


My patience was worn thin. I wanted the pain to go away. I didn't want people to see me limp around. I don't like to appear weak. I don't have patience.


I am frustrated because I wanted to go to class at Meng's Martial Arts where I am study Ving Tsun. Because of the injury, I decided to stay back and not participate. Instead I took myself to the Urgent Care where a doctor confirmed that I have a pulled muscle in my back and urged me to take it easy and gave me a prescription for something that will help with the pain for a few days.


But what is patience? Enduring during difficult circumstances. God knew that today would be tough for me. I need to practice calm assurance in knowing that He will take care of me no matter the pains or the stress I may have.


I know that I have a long road ahead of me to totally understand and comprehend patience. However today was a great view of how to handle it. When the pain comes, when the stress is overwhelming, lift it to God. He knows what is best.

Day 3 : Peace ~ 30 Days Closer To God

Peace.....

Inner Peace?

World Peace?

Give Peace a Chance?

What did God want me to discover today about Peace?

Of all days, I have not been at peace with just about anything. I have been irritable, angry, frustrated, and in pain. My back did not get better. Instead it got worse. It has progressed to a real 'thorn in my side.' It takes a minute for me to get up from a chair.

When I walk, I cannot stand straight up immediately. My bones and sinews need to warm up so that my back will finally allow the last of the vertebrae to move and thus allow my back to be in proper walking condition. I know what it feels like to walk like an old man.

This pain has caused my body to ache, and thus my attitude just stinks. Several times today without thinking, I dropped the F-bomb which is something I am not keen on doing.  :Maybe Peace isn't peace at all. Maybe Peace is a step towards war. The only way to have peace is to irradiate those who annoy you so that you finally can be at peace. Or at least everybody will fear you. But knowing my love of God, those ideas just don't line up.

Sure, Sure... he wiped out the whole world with a flood....

Sure, Sure... he wiped out whole civilizations who stood against his chosen people...

But is that really what God wants? No. God being perfect, and without sin cannot coexist with sin. The world during the flood was full of sin. Fallen angels were mixing with humans and having children. The world had lost it's focus of the one true God. With it, he wiped out the world to ensure that all that he had promised would come to fruition.

The nations that were annihilated in the old testament worshiped false Gods. They performed heinous acts against nature and morality. Child sacrifice, and other evil were part of the worship to their Gods. God's people could not coexist in a land filled with those who were polluted. He couldn't further the seed of Abraham in a land that would not harvest a Godly people. Even after winning the promised land, God's people fell short.

God wants us to be at peace. Peace means to operate harmoniously without violence or conflict. We sing songs in church such as 'Peace Be Still' which remind us that we need to bring our nature, and our faith under a flag of Peace.

I believe what God has shown me today is that I need to be at Peace with myself. Ever since I can remember, I have had some battle with being overweight. I have hated myself fore more than twenty five years because I didn't quite fit the mold of my peers. I was bigger, heavier, and simply built different than those around me. In High School and College, I didn't fit the mold of the sexy man the girls wanted. Most wanted the scrawny emo type guy who was in touch with his feelings. Me, I played football but dressed like Silent Bob well before Jay and Silent Bob were popular. Yes, I wore  trench coat and wore a baseball cap backwards at school. That was simply me.

No only if I could make the money Kevin Smith makes....

Honestly, it is tough being able to be 'At Peace' (imagine quote fingers here) because I have so many things I HATE about myself, my circumstances and world I live in. So, how.... HOW am I to be at peace?


Interesting enough, God led me to Alcholics Anonymous... Let's look at the Serenity Prayer"

Serenity Prayer

GOD, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,  Courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Living ONE DAY AT A TIME; Enjoying one moment at a time;  Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.  Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;  That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.

You see, the answer to living in peace isn't something that you just OBTAIN. It is something you strive towards. You can have Peace by accepting things that you cannot change. This means for me, that the things in my life that I have struggled with are simply there. If I cannot change them, there is no sense in fretting over them. Also having courage to change the things in my life that I know I can obtain will give me inner peace. Both are actions that don't happen over night. It isn't some hippy-drippy statement. It is an action.

Enjoy one moment at a time. That is powerful. Take each opportunity to find joy. Jesus tells us not to worry about tomorrow for we do not know what tomorrow brings. We can only enjoy the present, we can only deal with today. So instead of the worries and the frets, take time today to enjoy the experiences.

You know the next sentence talks about hardship as the pathway to peace. Interesting enough my back pain has taught me that I know that hardships come. That they teach me what is important and to focus on things that make me better. Tonight, I braved the jacuzzi. My fears of people laughing at me, small children running and crying or PETA throwing paint on me where all for not. I was the only one who was relaxing in the jacuzzi by the pool. It did wonders for my back and I feel ten times better already.

The final couple of sentences addresses the rest of what encompasses my everyday concerns. This world is bad, I have to accept it. I have to find my peace in the things that bring me joy today. Let God handle and fix the rest. It won't happen with me fretting about it and every time I try to fix it.... I make it worse. Trust God, he can handle it.