CONTROLLING FEAR

As I write this, I’m sitting out on my deck in the evening, overlooking the lake. There’s a Heron down on the lake shore keeping a close watch on me. It’s not doing what it normally does which is fishing. It’s too busy watching me. It feels threatened so it’s not doing what it’s designed to do.

See where I’m going with this?

We’re very much the same. When we feel threatened, when we fear, we change our lifestyle…our purpose…and spend more time focused on the fear than on our destiny. And when you make choices based on your fear, you make wrong choices.

God never intended for fear to control our lives.

So, how should you deal with fear? The following is an excerpt from my book “Broken Dreams, Shattered Lives.”

• First of all, realize that fear is not from God.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity [fear], but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:7

• Second, discover the father-child relationship that God wants to have with you.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Romans 8:15

Have you ever noticed how a very young child acts around someone they don’t know? Usually they are very shy and cautious. As they are around this new person more and more they start to warm up to them. They will try a few experiments to see if they can trust this person.
That’s the way we act until we learn to trust God. We mistrust Him even though we want to trust Him, because we don’t know Him well enough.
Then, little by little, we try a few things to see if we can trust God, and as God gains our trust, we learn to trust Him for greater things.
Eventually you begin not only to trust God but to obey Him. As your faith in Him grows, you find your fear dissipating. And it doesn’t take long for God’s love for you and your love for God to overcome fear.

• Third, learn to trust God.

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?

Psalm 56:3-4

If you are having difficulty trusting God, start by remembering how He brought you through other difficult times—maybe times when you didn’t even sense that God was at work.
Get into His Word and find reason to worship and praise Him. Discover how big your God really is! Share in the joy of discovery that so many people in the Bible experienced as they learned to trust God.

• Finally, fall in love with God.

How does that happen? It begins by letting God fill your life with Himself. He is “perfect love,” and as He takes more and more control of your life, His presence will replace the fear that has been punishing you.
The more you get to know Him, the more you will love Him, because you will sense and understand His love for you. The more you see and believe that He has a purpose and a plan for your life, the more you will trust Him and love Him…and lose your fear.

I trust this will help you live without fear. Make your choices and decisions based on your trust in God, not in fear.

CHANGING THOUGHTS

It was cold. And gray. And bleak.

I sat at my window looking out over the frozen lake. All of the trees had lost their leaves. There were a few patches of snow on the ground.

Grey, white and brown as far as I could see.

How depressing, I thought.

A bright red cardinal flew up into the tree closest to the window. It sat there for a few moments, fidgeting, taking in the landscape.

Must be depressed too, I thought.

Then suddenly the little bird began to sing. And sing. And sing.

I sat mesmerized. What incredible beauty from such a small creation.

And as that little cardinal continued to sing, I looked across the frozen lake. I noticed something strangely beautiful about the swirls and brushstrokes in the ice.

Then I realized the gray sky was not just gray, but multiple shades of gray constantly changing shapes with an occasional streak of light.

And the trees; the leafless trees. I’d never noticed before but all the branches point upwards as if to raise their arms as one great congregation.

One little cardinal. One little song changed the world that day.

Or maybe I was the one that changed.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your old heart of stone and give you a new heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and help you to keep my laws.” – Ezekiel 36:26-27

A CALLING FOR TODAY

I just spent the last week with my Mom and Dad.  They live in Virginia.  What remarkable saints and witnesses of God’s grace!  Mom and Dad were missionaries to Honduras for 25 years.  Then Panama.  Then Mexico.

Dad made an interesting statement as I asked him about what he felt he had accomplished.  He said, “I just feel that all we did was lay the groundwork for believers to come to finish the work, and I pray that they will stay faithful and follow up.”

It occurred to me what a great debt we owe to those believers that have gone before us.

Do you realize that you have been prayed for by untold thousands and thousands of believers that have lived before you?!?!?  It began way back with Jesus prayer for you:

20  “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21  that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:20-21)

That’s pretty amazing!  Jesus prayed for you!  And He specifically prayed that through you others would believe!

See, you are part of a great mission.  It’s not all about you.  It’s about what God wants to do through you.  And throughout history believers who understood that have prayed for you and laid the groundwork for you.

What will you do with that charge?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1)

REACHING THE LOST

I’m watching the rescue of the Chilean miners that have been trapped a half mile underground for 70 days. It’s an amazing rescue! Miners, volunteers, family, friends, and even volunteers from other countries have all worked together to rescue the 33 miners. It’s remarkable!

But it got me to thinking. This is a beautiful picture of what the church is supposed to be doing! Doing everything possible to reach souls that are desperately lost without hope unless someone reaches out to them.

If these miners represent those without eternal hope, and the rescuers represent the church, what is your church doing to reach the lost?

What  are you doing?

Most churches would just be saying “Come to church and discover life and happiness.” A few would be dropping tracts down the half-mile shaft. But very, very few would be going in after them!

Most churches and most pastors are going to be terribly embarrassed when we stand before God and give account for our responsibilities here on earth!

THROWING STONES

Colton Kennemore is a two year old boy that comes over to help me throw rocks into the lake.

There just isn’t much more fun for boys than to throw stuff into water.  He just giggles and dances and makes splashing sounds when he tosses a rock.  It’s charming, really.

And then when the ducks come around, well, it just doesn’t get any better than that!

Do you suppose God knew that when he made stones and water?  And ducks?

Don’t you imagine God already knew what sheer joy that would bring little Colton?

I do.  In fact, Psalm 139:17  says “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God!  How vast the number of them!”

God’s been thinking about you for a long time.  You’re on his mind a lot.

You may have really messed up your life, but God has you on His heart.  He knew about you before He created the world.  He’s got plans for you.  You haven’t blown it so bad that He can’t make something beautiful out of your life.  He’s thought it through.

If God can make something so simple like throwing stones into a lake so amazingly satisfying to a little two year old, don’t you think He can bring joy and fulfillment back into yours?

Of course He can.  It’s on His mind.

Is it on yours?

WE HAVE HOPE!

As many of you know I make my living as a voice talent – doing voiceovers for commercials, narrations, training videos, etc.  This past week I was invited to provide the voice work for a series of videos for grief counseling sponsored by a funeral services corporation.

I was struck by one of the statements made in the copy of one of the projects: “Hope is something we need.  But our loved ones who have died no longer need hope.”

What a remarkable statement!  And so very true!

You may have heard me say in class that hope is “confident anticipation”.  That’s the best definition of the intent of the word both in the Hebrew and the Greek.

Our loved ones that have gone on to be with the Lord are no longer “anticipating”.  They know the truth and reality of  being in the heavenly presence of God.  They understand what 2 Cor 5:4 means by “what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”

What a glorious truth!  What an amazing promise!  What an affirmation of eternity!

That, in and of itself, gives us hope.

My friend, if you are struggling in your grief over the loss of a loved one, know this:  Now more than ever God seeks to reveal Himself  and to bring you comfort, encouragement, and hope.  And while we may not know His presence the way our loved ones that are with Him may, we can still come into His presence to worship, praise, and sense His fullness, and know that we share that experience with those we love.

We have hope – confident anticipation!

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (Heb 6:19)

DEAD GRASS

Dead grass.

That’s what my yard is all about.  Dead grass.

I was out looking at it yesterday, thinking I need to start bringing this yard back to life!  Time to get some pre-emergent, and fertilizer, and grass seed for the spots that didn’t make it through the winter.

And time to get Marcia out there to get it all done.

Yeah, that part’s probably not gonna happen.

The amazing thing is how incredibly beautiful the yard will get with just a little attention.  Sure, it looks dead now, but I haven’t lost hope.  I know what’s in store.  I know that it will come back.  I know it will be beautiful again.

Sort of reminds me of the way God is with us.

Sometimes life deals us a harsh winter.  We  just seem to be spiritually dead.  And we wonder if we’ll ever come out of it.

I have good news.  God knows that you can flourish again.  He knows that He can restore you.  He knows how to make you spiritually beautiful again.

You see, it’s not about you making yourself spiritually whole.  That’s God’s job.  In fact, look at how God says it works:

8  He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.
9  He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.
10  His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man;
11  the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

(Psalm 147)

You see, it’s not about your strength and abilities, it’s about discovering a God who loves you unfailingly!

It’s about getting to know Him through worship (that’s the idea of “fearing” Him), and learning that because He loves you so much you CAN trust Him and put your hope in Him!

UH…HELLO???

Man, I’m pathetic!

Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to posting on this blog!  It’s not that I forgot about it, it’s just that when I did remember, I wasn’t somewhere where I could do anything about it.

I know.  Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Kinda reminds me of the excuses that people make for not serving God.  Remember in Matthew how Jesus said it would be:

44  “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45  “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’  (Mat 25:44-45)

Excuses are reasons without legs. They don’t get you anywhere.

So, pardon my excuses.  I’ll try to be a little more attentive to this blog and post more often!

A NEW RADIO STATION!

The Open Class is pleased to offer you a new radio station that you can listen to right on your computer or phone (if it’s set up for that).

We call our radio station “Open Heart” and you can listen by clicking on the radio station link on the front page of our website: http://www.TheOpenClass.com

We’re just getting the station started. There are a few glitches we have to work out, and we have a LOT of music to add, but it’s ready for you to start enjoying now. If there are some songs that you would like to hear on the station, just drop us a note!

Enjoy!

WHAT’S YOUR POINT?

We have some Dogwood trees in our yard.  They’re absolutely gorgeous this year!  Stunning! One has brilliant white blooms.  Two have very deep, rich pink blooms.

And one has nothing. Not one bloom.  Nada.

I had a little talk with it the other day.  I pointed out it’s siblings and told it that that’s what we expected of it.  I explained that I understood that some of us are late bloomers, but that didn’t change our expectations of it.

I concluded our little chat by saying, “Look, I’m not trying to be mean, but if you’re not going to bloom, what’s your point?  Why are you here?”

I know that you probably think I was being a little harsh, but I didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding.

Jesus had a similar conversation, although He, being much more intelligent than I, had His conversation with people.

6 “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any.
7  So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
8  “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.
9  If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'”   (Luke 13:6-9)

What Jesus was teaching was “What’s your point?”  If you’re not accomplishing what God created you for you’re just taking up space (or “soil”).

No matter how important you are, or think you are;  no matter what you feel you’ve accomplished;  no matter how indispensible you think you are, if you’re not doing what God designed you to do, you’re wasting time.

So…

What’s your point?