The Gloves Will Come Off Soon...

The Gloves Will Soon Come off...


Have you ever felt like just when everything is working out right, something goes wrong on the inside? You feel like a boxer right before getting a knocked out.....

Fights don't just happen in the ring, they happen in our hearts and our souls. The echoes of the burden of the cross ring in our ear, the temptations of our savior before his adversary, the denial of his followers, the betrayal of Judas, the doubting of Thomas, the misfortune of Paul's battle. "The things I want to do, I do not do. The things I do not want to do, I do."(1) Even the great Epistle writer Paul, of which 13 books of the New Testament our his, struggled. He spoke of the "thorn in the flesh", something that takes away your stamina, something that haunts your joy and stalks your ministry. That fight that never ends and always promises another battle.....

But, what does Jesus say? "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world(your disease, your hardship, your unfaithfulness, your injustices, your suffering, your pain, your enemies, your disbelief, your fear, your folly, your sin, your fight...." Despite everything we think is holding us back, the savior says "Be of good cheer....?"(2) He conquered sin and death, not because we deserved it but because is love is deserving. His love is all-encompassing. We may face battles but God has already won the war. We know how this all ends. We know the final outcome. It all comes out in the wash because....We Win!!!!

Everyone has fights and sometimes those battles are internal, in our minds, in our homes, in our hearts and many times those are the ones that sting the most. But we also face external enemies that gnaw at our being and find us wondering what this faith stuff is for anyway? Or it questions our ministry? Or it reminds us of our weakest points? It tells that we aren't good enough...It tells we won't succeed and that they road is too long, too hard, too arduous a task to finish. And yet, God says stay focused and have a pleasant demeanor, it's already been taken care of. Have peace through me, the world has been conquered through me. There is no condemnation! Yes, for my love has overcome the multitude of sins and my patience allows you to be covered in my hope for your tomorrow. Then we remember these words from Paul:

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7

The prize fighter has stepped into the ring in the final seconds; a upper left hook and the enemy is vanquished. The sting of death, the denigration of defeat, the sore of sorrow, the hurt of heartbroken is over and we are free, free indeed.

1.) Romans 7: 15
2.) John 16: 33

Walking by Faith with Daddy

Watching my 1 year old walk around outside made me think of us as believers in Christ. My son walks a few steps and then hits a slippery spot and stumbles, then falls. He gets back up to walk some more, then tries to manage the unstable terrain, then wobbles and falls again. He then sits awhile and sees the dirt on his hands, his pants, his ankles and his backside, waits for help from his father (that’s me) and then slowly gets back up again to try the maneuvering of thick grass, another unstable terrain. Failure again….

Then, just then he gets to the smooth path where the vehicles and dogs have made the ground level and safe, then he hasn’t any difficulty walking, even the whole length of a football field occasionally!

Isn’t that how it is with our Christian Walk sometimes?

We seek to understand the walk despite of our fallen attempts, yet we stand up to meet another challenge, to walk another step, to traverse another unfamiliar territory? We walk, we stumble, we fall and get up again. We fall because of gravity, we land because of God’s grace. You see sometimes we don’t see God’s hand in our landings. We just get angry and sit awhile until the Father has to help us up again.

We wrestle with demons just like the stubborn, dried up grass that clings to your clothes or the hardened points of needles that prick your skin and leave their poison underneath the surface. We sit and try to remove the dirt of guilt, the rocks of stubbornness, the poison of temptation, the needles of sin, the embedded gravel of heartache. The more we try, the more those things get stuck and unable to remove and we find ourselves restricted to attempt new and unstable paths….. Then they fester and grow and we allow our failures to suck the marrow out of our vision, our destiny, and eventually our legacy. We wrestle with insecurity, we toy with our “calling”, we feed from the slop of failure and think about the Prodigal Son who said, “Even the servants in my father’s house are eating better than me” (Luke 15: 17-18)

We wish we hadn’t fallen at all.

And yet, through our fallen state, we are not in a forgotten state. God the Father has remembered our name and has promised “never to leave us, never to forsake us.” He is there in the trenches with us as we are wanting escape from the trenches around us. He is there when we cry, “Abba, Father, Daddy, Dad…..Help me!” Just when we are saying that he will not come or that he will not dare be seen with filth and grime, God shows up! Praise the Father because he loved us and still does despite our feeble attempts at our walk.

Just as my son looks to me for a help- to walk in new paths and venture forth to new scenery....... so we must seek our Heavenly Father for help in doing the things we cannot, walking "by faith and not by sight."

II Corinthians 5: 7 (NASB)

Welcome to My Art

This is my first attempt to blog about the way God touches and corrects our hearts in order that we would seek his heart as did the Old Testament King David.  It wasn't that David was perfect because we all knew that he was not! The main reason why God said that David was a "man after God's own heart" is that despite his warrior mentality which resulted in much bloodshed(and excluded him from building the Temple); despite his lust and adultery, some would say possibly rape because could the wife of Uriah the Hittite have said no to the king? David sought her, not the other way around; despite his seeking to cover up his offense by suggesting that Uriah come home from war and lay with his wife(of which he did not); despite the fact that David told his commanders on the field to put Uriah the Hittite on the front lines and then pull back so that he would be slain(II Samuel 11); despite all these things- David was a man after God's own heart? Why?  A murderer? A liar? A thief? An adulterer? As my father-in-law says, "a Rounder." Why was he viewed this way by the Lord.....

The reason: David worshipped only the Lord God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yahweh.

He did not worship Pagan gods. He did not take on the customs of his wives and concubines as we shall see led to his Solomon's demise, through his children that is.  The Kingship of David was so much of a covenant that God showed favor to David in many cases and to his heirs.(II Samuel 7)

(I Kings 11: 11-13) Not because David kept all the laws or performed the right type of sacrifice but that he always, always looked to God's heart for direction. He poured his heart out to the Lord in his songs of praise(II Samuel 22); he danced before the Lord(II Samuel 6: 12-16); he prayed and fasted to the Lord(II Samuel 12: 16-17); he repented sincerely and in broken abandon (Psalm 51); he was the epitome of how we should love and seek God. The Jewish people had a term which they used called hesed or "steadfast love" of God which was vividly and most evidently shown in the relationship He had with His servant David. 

May we do the same and have the art of our heart stay pure and- when tainted by our own impurity, may we repent and show sincere pleas for reconciliation. God's love was so strong for David that He is mentioned in the Genealogy of Jesus at the first part of Matthew. He was mentioned at least 5 times in introducing the Davidic line. Even Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite(a non-Jewish woman) was mentioned in the Genealogy of Jesus along with Rahab (a prostitute), Tamar (a perceived prostitute) and Ruth (a Moabite who used her mother-in-law's cunning ways to persuade her future husband, Boaz) All of these unlikely women and this sinful King, David, were in the line of the the Messiah. In fact, Jesus was called the Son of David, illustrating his Kingship and his humanity. David tried and failed; tried and failed; tried and failed. However, Jesus was the final verdict when it comes to how we should seek the Father. He sought the Father so intimately and honestly that he prayed in the garden:

 "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." (Mark 14: 36) In the literal sense, Abba means, "Daddy" and Jesus was crying out through his humanity to his daddy, saying "You can make this go away because you are all-powerful, omniscient God, but let not my selfish desires and frail humanity take away from your divine destiny."  

Thus, David is a human of human example but Jesus is our perfect example: he honestly and righteously show how we keeping our heart checked in with the Father's is the best thing.