I Am Moving...

I am trying out a new blog site to post to. You may link to my new site at http://www.charlessharpe.wordpress.com/. I look forward to seeing you there.

While Laughing, Keep Your Balance! (Part II)

Life is our challenge. In the last section we discussed the role that Christ plays in our minds. Now we will examine how all that works its way out in our lives. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, discusses the importance of keeping ourselves balanced as we take on the challenges of life. Charles Swindoll gives us three areas we must deal with.

1. Balancing purpose and power (Phil: 2:12-13)
2. Balancing attitude and action (Phil: 2:14-16)
3. Balancing seriousness and joy (Phil: 2:17-18)

Balancing Purpose and Power

"So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Phil:212-13)

In his letter to the Philippians, it is important to understand that Paul was not writting to try to convert the people. The subjects of his letter were already Christians. Therefore the idea of working out one's salvation must be referring to living out one's faith- carryig it out correctly. We are God's people. We are charged with the importance of obedience just as Jesus was our example and was "obedient to the point of death" (2:8), so we are to carry out our purpose with equal diligence.

The word "work out" was the same Greek term propularly used for "working a mine" or "working a field." Each had their own benefits that came from being faithful to its work. The mind would yeild valuable elements or ore and the field would yeld its crops. Paul was clear in his point: "By working out our salvation, we bring the whole purpose to completion . . . we carry out our reason for existence."

I think we sometimes get confused on what is our ultimate goal or purpose in our life. Spiritually speaking, it is "His good pleasure." We are to live our lives for God's greater glory - not our own selfish desires. The great thing is that we are not left alone to do this. God is at work in us! He gives us his power and strength to empower us to do his purpose. "Take special note that His pleasure (not our), His will (not ours), His glory (not ours) are what make life meaningful." This being said, this brings us to the potential conflict. We prefer to have things go our way. And, this brings us to that word again, ATTITUDE.

Balancing Attitude and Action

"Do all things without grumbling or disputing; that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain." (Phil: 2:14-16)

This verse shows us the balance of the negative and the positive. The first part speaks of the negative and the last part speaks of the positive. Therein lies the balance. Negatively - we need to watch our attitude! A bad attitude reveals itself from two sides: something we do alone - "grumbling" - and something we do when we are with others - "disputing." Both of these are joy stealers.

"What exactly is grumbling? It is not loud, boisterous grousing but rather low-toned, discontented muttering. It is negative, muted comments, complaining and whining. Disputing, however is vocal, Ill-natured argumentation . . . verbal expressions of disagreement that stir up suspiciion and distrubst, doubt and other disturbing feelings in others."

Swindoll poses the question if you've ever been around a "sourpuss"? I would have to say we all have. Notice how you can be having a great day - sun is shining, birds are singing, flowers blooming, and the world feels right. Then, WHAM! you run smack dab into a bad attitude person. Who is most likely to rub off on who? In very few cases does the good attitude influence the bad. Most of the time after spending a few minutes with this negative attitude in your midst, you start to "go over to the dark side". The sun doesn't shine as bright; all those birds that were singing are there just to poop on your windshield, and those flowers are just going to make you sneeze! Bad attitudes will steal our joy!

If you hope to laugh again you must learn to "do all things without grumbling or disputing." Verbal pollution takes a heavy toll on everyone. Furthermore who gave anyone the right to pollute the air with such pessimism. Someone once said "We have not more right to put our discordant states of mind into the lives of those around us and rob them of their sunshine and brightness thatn we have to enter their houses and steal their silverware."

In life we are all going to face circumstances that make us want to grumble and take a negative mindset. However, we must prove that we are different. Philippians 2:15-16 states, "... prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain."

There is no arguement that today we live in a world of crooks and perverts. Since we know this to be true; we, more than ever, must model lives that are not liek the majority. A positive attitude will make a major statement in this generation.

There are four major differences in those who know Christ and those who don't. As a child of God we are to be:

1. "Blameless. This suggest a purity of life that is both undeniable and unhypocritical . . . free of defect.
2. Innocent. This means unixed and unadulterated . . . inexperienced in evil . . . untainted in motive . . . possessing integrity.
3. Above reproach. This descrition is used of sacrificial lambs offered on altars and means free of blemish.
4. Lights. Acutally the term used her means 'luminaries,' meaning we are to shien like stars surrounded by darkness."

Paul goes on to tell us that we are to shine like stars, we are "holding fast the word of life." We are stars. Bold, blazing, light-giving stars! While the world turns in darkness and confusion, without light. So, Star, let your light shine! Why? "Jesus answers that question in the sermon He delivered on the mountain: Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven." Matthew 5:16. We don't need to stand up, shout, scream, or make a fuss. JUST SHINE!

Balancing Seriousness and Joy

"But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. And you too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me." (Phil: 2:17-18)

Paul used the term of "being poured out as a drink offering." This was a picture from the practice of pagans that would pur out a chalice of wine before or after their meals in honor of their gods. It was called a libation and was poured out either to gain the favor of or soften the anger of their gods. Paul had gotten serious. He did know know whether he would live or die in his current situation. If it was God's will that his life be pured out as a libation, and ment the end of his life; he knew it was worth every moment. Even if this imprisonment was his last; he would rejoice.

You see, Paul lived a balanced life. While living in what could be his last days (a point that would make most of us so serious) Paul still rejoiced. He refused to focus on the dark side. He would not even let the possiblity of sure death steal his joy. He even encouraged others to do the same. Throught this whole letter that Paul wrote, you cannot escape the themes of joy, rejoicing and laughter.

If we remain serious all the time, we will fill our minds with only the harsh and painful realities of live that keeps our perspective too tight and tunnel our hope for too long. In everything you do, I know you can find something every day to laugh about. "Experts tell us that laughter not only makes our serious lives lighter, but laughter also helps control pain in at least four ways: (1) by distracting our attention, (2) by reducing the tension we are living with, (3) by changing our expectations, and (4) by increasing the production of endorphins, the body's natural pinkillers. Laughter, strang as it may seem, turns our minds fro our seriousness and pain and actually creates a degree of anesthesia. By diverting our attention from our situation, laughter enables us to take a brief excursion away from the pain. Sometimes it is not literal pain but a too-serious mind-set." We need those moments away from our too-serious lives. We need to give ourselves persission to enjoy various moments in life - even when life it not perfect. This takes practice.

WARNING: All of this is not easy. Old habits are hard to break. Deep down inside of you is a voice that continues to nage you as you read this. It is saying, "'No, no, no No, NO!'" As soon as you attempt to bring some necessary balance into your life, you are going to have a fight on your hands. After all, self has had its way for years. Giving your freedomt to laugh aing and bring some needed joy into your life is not on self's agenda."

Regardless, this "invisible master" needs to be brought back under the authority of Christ if you ever hope to laugh again. "A life lived under the dominion of self is both unsatisfying and unproductive." Two ways to get started on a life in balance:

1. "Control self's urges to take the credit." When you let self rule, it lives for moments of personal gratification. Wean it away. Once you are able to see how out of balance you've become,you will have a fresh strength to control its urges. Self needs to be taken off it's "high horse." John Wooden, former coach of the UCLA Bruins basketball teams gives this helpful advise: "Talent is God-given, be humble; Fame is man-given, be thankful; and Conceit is self-given, be careful."
2. "Conquer self's tendency to take charge." The longer you live the more you will realize the value of having Chirst call the shots in your life. Self wants to call the shots in your life. "Self wants to gain the mastery and convince you that it is a reusalbe source of energy. It is not. Self cannot be trusted."

"But if we hope to bring things back into balance -- if we hope to change our habits of negative thinking, which leads to grumbling and a too-serious mentality -- we'll have to dethrone this master and give the right Master His rightful place over our lives. Not until we do, I remind you, will we begin to laugh again."

Friend of God

The below is a post from elijahlist.com:

"Friend of God"
by Kim Clement Sep 21, 2008

I recently held a small Bible study at my house, with my children and a few others of all ages. Some interesting points came out and I thought it would be nice to share with you.
Why Did God Create Man and Woman?

There are many reasons for God choosing to take a pile of dirt from the earth and breathe His own breath into it, but one of the most fascinating reasons, and one most rejected by human nature is - friendship.

Why would we even believe that friendship could be a possibility in our relationship with God? What makes friends? What are the ingredients that make up friendship? (I asked the group to give me their answers and they were enlightening to say the least.)

INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE UP FRIENDSHIP:
FUN: Friends have fun together. SECRETS: Friends share secrets with each other. INTERESTS: Friends share the same interests. COMMUNICATE: Friends love to communicate with each other whether near or from far.

WHAT DO FRIENDS DO FOR EACH OTHER?
They are LOYAL. They are PATIENT. They are FORGIVING. They will cover each other's faults. They are HONEST - "A mere friend will always agree with you, a true friend will argue." They are EQUAL - "Love is different to friendship. Love demands opposites and extremes. Friendship demands equality."

Now let's bring this into our relationship with God. Proverbs 16:28 says, "A whisperer will divide the closest of friends." (Also read Genesis 1:26-28.)

When God created man, it was His daily routine to walk in the Garden and speak to them as friends. Then the whisperer came into that Garden with intentions to divide this divine friendship.

Genesis 3:1, "NOW THE SERPENT WAS MORE CUNNING THAN ANY BEAST OF THE FIELD. AND HE SAID TO THE WOMAN, 'HAS GOD INDEED SAID, YOU SHALL NOT EAT OF EVERY TREE OF THE GARDEN?'"

She answered the serpent correctly, which meant that she knew exactly what God meant. At that point, the serpent used words that created all kinds of doubts. The word for devil is diablo, which literally means, to speak (breathe out) to divide, or to whisper in order to cause division.
Satan's only purpose is to use every breath that he has to cause division and suspicion, so as to break bonds and covenants. When the serpent said in Genesis 3:4, "You will not surely die," he was twisting what God had said and suggesting that God was trying to fool them or manipulate them into a lesser deal.

Once they acted upon the lie, their friendship with God was broken because now they did not feel equal in the sense that they could "communicate with Him" - spirit to Spirit. And when God came into the Garden to speak to them, what happened?

Adam ran and hid himself. The friendship was broken and from that point onward, man saw God as a monster - a terrible, mysterious, sinister and angry being. This was NOT true, but that is how they saw Him, and to make it worse, their nakedness was no longer a matter of natural beauty and life, but of shame.

Amazingly, God still found a few whom He would befriend, and when you read the stories about these people, you will find an amazing pattern that proves His desire to communicate with man as a friend does.

Abraham is called by God: "Abraham, My friend forever." Moses argues with God when God wants to destroy the Israelites in Exodus 32:7-14 (read the story, it's fascinating.) God actually told Moses, "Get out of My way," He said to let/leave Him alone, so that He could destroy the people. Notice how Moses behaves like a true friend would. He tells God that His reputation was at stake because those from the east would observe that God brought them out of Egypt to kill them in the mountains.

What Would a Friend Do When You're About to Do Something Outside of Your Character and Would Ruin Your Reputation?

A friend would stand in your way and warn you of the consequences of your actions and try to stop you in your wrath or anger. That's what a friend is and that's what Moses was to God - a friend. The Bible says that God relented of this evil. The word "relented" means to become more lenient, compassionate and forgiving. Moses, as a friend, literally caused God to become more lenient and compassionate and to "cool down."

Now let's look at Jesus and what He said about friendship. In Luke 12:1-4, Jesus is surrounded by an innumerable multitude of people, so crowded in fact, that they were trampling on each other. Instead of Jesus addressing the multitudes, He FIRST of all spoke to His disciples, and in verse 4, He calls them "My friends" and shares things with them that He would not share with the multitudes. So it's obvious that His disciples were in a friendship with Jesus, even though He was Lord of all and God's only Son.

John 15:15, "No longer do I call you servants...but now I call you friends...for all things I have heard from My Father, I have shared with you."

I love this passage because it adds credence to the fact that God created us, among many other reasons, to be a friend. Once you understand what the Biblical rendition of a friend is, it takes away the idea of modern friendship which barely exists anymore. We are so apt to say, "Meet my best friend," when in fact we have called many others, "My best friend."

Do we really know what a friend is according to Biblical standards? David was called the apple of God's eye. Abraham was called God's friend forever. The word "friend" is divided into two – Phileos, which comes from Phi-logos, and literally means someone to talk to. God created you so that He could have someone to talk to. Doesn't that make you feel wonderful?

Again, we see that there is most definitely a friendship that Jesus offers to those closest to Him and that a friendship would allow them to hear things that most others would not hear.
The Bible study turned out to be inspiring and certainly helped all of us to include the element of friendship in our relationship with God. After all, without friendship a marriage will never survive, and without friendship any relationship will ultimately fall.

Kim ClementProphetic Image ExpressionsEmail: hope@kimclement.com
Permission is granted (and you are also encouraged) to reprint these articles in hard copy form, as well as sending them to your own email lists and posting them on your own websites. We ask only that you keep ElijahList website, email contact info, and author contact information intact.

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When Laughing, Keep Your Balance (Part I)

This lesson was a good lesson for those of us who are growing older. Guess what. That’s every one of us. We have so much more to offer than we know. If we could see our own full potential, it would blow our minds. Charles Swindoll used an article from back in 1967 called “Advice to a (Bored) Young Man”

“Many people reading this page are doing so with the aid of bifocals. Inventor? B. Franklin, age 79.
The presses that printed this page were powered by electricity. One of the first harnessers? B. Franklin, age 40,
Some are reading this on the campus of one of the Ivy League universities. Founder? B. Franklin, age 45.
Some got heir copy through the U.S. Mail. Its father? B. Franklin, age 31.
Now, think fire. Who started the first fire department, invented the lightning rod, designed a heating stove still in use today? B. Franklin, ages 31,43,36.
Wit. Conversationalist. Economist. Philosopher. Diplomat. Printer. Publisher. Linguist (spoke and wrote five languages). Advocate of paratroopers (from balloons) a century before the airplane was invented. All this until age 84.
And he had exactly two years of formal schooling. It’s a good bet that you already had more sheer knowledge than Franklin had when he was your age.
Perhaps you think there’s no use trying to think of anything new, that everything’s been done. Wrong. The simple, agrarian America of Franklin’s day didn’t begin to need the answers we need today.
Go do something about it.”

Examples like Ben Franklin are great. They can inspire us. However, they can also frustrate us. Think of the father who is without a job on the job hunt trying to support his family; stuck between panic and pressure. What about the mother at home with five children under the age of five who barely finds the time to get dressed before noon. Some of us are so busy, we do good to read about great examples, much less go try to be one ourselves. Mark Twain, humorist, wrote, “ Few things are harder to put up with than that annoyance of a good example.”

Okay, so what options are we faced with when confronted with these magnanimous examples. Charles Swindoll gave us three options. (1) we can fake it; (2) we can hurry the process; and (3) we can strive harder.

Faking it

When faced with the desire to be a great example or live up to the same type of example in our lives, instead of working toward the goal of becoming, we fake it. The example of Milli Vanilli back in 1990 who shocked the entertainment world with their scandal when it was discovered that they were not actually singing the songs, but lip-syncing them, caught many off guard. They had “faked” the expertise and talent to obtain a goal they had set for themselves. We sometimes learn all the right words to say and the prescribed behavior and fake our way though something without putting in the required effort and time. All to reach a prescribed goal or level. This will never get you anywhere.

Hurry the Process

Much like faking it, we as a microwave society, don’t feel we can put in the time and effort it requires to obtain our prize. We want it now and we want it quick. We don’t want to pay the price, stand in line, follow the prescribed course… Just give it to me NOW!

Strive Harder

Trying to obtain the prize when faced with such great examples, can cause us to work harder. While hard work in itself is not wrong. It is when we do nothing but live our lives under striving 24/7 that it becomes futile.

Swindoll poses the question: “I ask you, is that the Christian life? If the answer is not faking it and if it is not hurrying thing, is it striving hard for it? You want to live the rest of your life striving to please Him in all that you do? Some who are painfully honest will admit, ‘I’m doing my best. I’m trying. But I’m exhausted.’ Surely that’s not God’s plan.”

The Greatest Example

While Ben Franklin is an awesome example in what he accomplished during his lifetime, he was far from the best. What was true about Franklin is not true of our best example – Jesus Christ. While other great examples may inspire, they cannot enable. They can motivate, but they have no power to change us. Christ is the only example that can do all of it. He can inspire you to greatness and then He give you His power to accomplish it. Christ not only lived the exemplary life, He also made it possible for us to live the same kind of life. He gave us the pattern “without” and at the same time provided the power to do it “within”. When we follow Christ’s example, we are able to Laugh Again. We don’t have to fake it, rush it, or strive for it. If He controls our minds, He gives us the right attitude to bring about the right actions.

What On Earth Have You Done!?!

I got this idea from a good friend of mine and a blog that he posted earlier. I would like to do an experiment. I find that we like to focus in our lives on what we don't have, wish we did have, or feel we should have; instead of what we do have in our lives. I'm sure you've probably some time during your life had a "list" of things you wanted to do before you died. If you were to walk into the Dr's this morning for test and he was to come back into the waiting room and tell you that you only had 24 more hours to live. Would you look at all the things in your life you didn't get to do? Would there be regrets from that incomplete list? -- there are several places I could go with this on living with regrets.

However, I would like to take a different look at this situation. Instead of focusing on what you "wouldn't get to do;" let's focus on what you did get to do. Take some time, think about it, and make a list of all the things you have experienced in life so far. And for those of you who have a first reaction -- like I did -- that you have not accomplished anything in your life, I'm here to tell you, that's a total lie!!!! You have done things in your life that no one else in this list has done. You have experienced things in your life that you probably have not thought about in a long time. I can assure you, you have had accomplishments in your life. For some, it may be having children, some it may be traveling, some it may be works of art, some it may be experiencing the sunrise on the beach, some it may be meeting famous people, some it may be sitting in your grandmother's lap while she read you stories... there are so many things you have done in your life already.

Go ahead, using the comments section, and list out the things you have already accomplished/experienced in your life already. Be encouraged that you already have already been blessed by God in numerous experiences that have touched yours and others lives. I am sure as you do this, it will bring a smile to your face and joy to your heart! John 10:10 states that He has come to give us an abundant life. (para)