What Will You Do With Your Spiritual Opportunities in 2015?

You Get to Decide. How Much Faith Do You Have?

Does you Christian walk need an energy infusion? Are you lacking clarity on what God has in mind for you? Is your current ministry turning into drudgery? Has your prayer and devotion time dwindled down to nothing?

Every single day is the first day of the rest of your life. But we are coming up on the first day of 2015, which will be the first year of the rest of your life. As you close out the last days of the first part of your life, are you ready to face Jesus and have Him judge your work? 

In a unambiguous and less than humble bit of self promotion, I recommend "God Called - He Needs Your Decision!" The purpose of the book is to help you answer all of the questions above and a whole lot more. The cost is $.99 on Kindle and will take two or three hours to read.

If you really believe the Bible and what Jesus and his Disciples have laid out for you in the New Testament, you will live your life differently in 2015 than you did in 2014!! That applies to Franklin Graham and Greg Laurie and every single Christian. But if you are honest, you just don't believe what Jesus is asking of you. Review the beatitudes as a starting point. How about 1 Cor 13?

We are called upon to love God and love others. We are called upon to "feed my sheep." We are called upon to "do unto the least of these." We are called upon to pray, worship, tithe, fellowship.

Risk 99¢. Waste an hour or two. Pick up a copy of "God Called - He Needs Your Decision!" Use the book as an outline for your new approach to Christian living in 2015.  Find it on Amazon

Christian Politics On Earth Or Only In Heaven?

How should we, as Christians, then live?

As a Christian living in a primarily non-Christian world how should we react to politics? It’s, after all, around us, dictating our lifestyle and to a greater extent our beliefs. Take, what is commonly dubbed, the Obama health plan, for instance. Ever stop to think who’s paying for the abortions that amount to thousands each year in the USA? All our hard earned money. When we pay our premium, like it or not, we are paying for others to get abortions for free.

So how can we Christians still abide by the laws of this land—which is incidentally becoming more and more anti-Christian and anti-biblical—and still have the clear conscience of not having paid for some people’s abortions?

How about other forms of violations of our faiths. I don’t know your inclinations when it comes to the homosexual agenda but as a Believer I feel that the Bible is quite clear about gay marriages and homosexuality. So what happens if you have a business printing T-shirts and people from the Gay Pride Movement wants you to print T-shirts to promote their cause—something which is anti-Biblical and against the Christian view. Do you as a business have a right to refuse to print the T-shirts?

In the USA apparently not! Recently, a Christian business owner was sued by the Gay Pride movement. You can read about it here.

The defending attorney says:

“No one should be forced by the government or by another citizen to endorse or promote ideas with which they disagree,” said ADF attorney Jim Campbell. “Blaine declined to the request to print the shirts not because of any characteristic of the people who asked for them, but because of the message that the shirts would communicate.”

Do you agree the Christian company has the right to refuse? I certainly do.

And what about schools? There are enough plays in schools that promote the gay agenda, but what if a Christian student wants to promote Christmas, or a biblical story, or perhaps just have a Christian theme for their drama. Would freedom of speech allow the student putting up the play to have the liberty to voice his opinion through drama? Again, apparently, not, according to one North Carolina school. You can read the story here.

Are these just isolated incidences of bigotry against the Christian faith? And so we have nothing to worry about? This country still honors freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right? After all, look at the art world. So many, in my opinion, pornographic type artwork is promoted as art in the name of freedom of speech. But, sorry to burst you bubble. I wish I could say I was wrong. But truth be told, daily, the incidences where businesses or some government officials come down upon individuals or businesses that try to honor what God wants increase in  number.

Our politics is in heaven, you might say, as a Christian, quoting scripture.

But, the reality is as long as we live on this earth the politics about us will influence our lives, our beliefs, and the future of our children and their right to live as Christians. If we, as Christians, despite our denominations, do not band together and state our stand, our stand will crumble like the Berlin Wall. When government begins to force churches to hire and promote homosexuality in our Sunday sermons, (they are already doing this in schools, and this, despite the school’s position that they don’t have enough money for school projects, but yet, have been able to foster out millions for new text books to enhance the gay agenda), we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

Why? Because we take the middle road, we don’t want to rock boats, we don’t want to “offend.”

Remember the Bible says, Satan is a thief and a liar. A thief come stealthily—slowly, surely and takes you in ways you didn’t realize... until it is too late. Already, the thief has stolen much of the biblical values in our country. How much more are we as Christian willing to stand by and allow the ungodly eat away at our belief system?

The Bible also says we are to be gentle as doves, which most Christian seem to be able to live out easily enough. But about the second part of that same scripture?

If we are to take God’s Words a whole, the second portion of the Bible verse says, we, Christians must be as wise as a serpent. The serpent is a symbol of Satan. Wise as a serpent? Think about it. Perhaps we are to not be so quick as to allow legalism to taint our thoughts and say, “Well, as Christians we must love everyone.” Don‘t get me wrong. But to love means to also speak the truth.

We must tell the world (unsaved) of the truth, the Biblical standards that our One true God wants us to uphold. (Don’t get me wrong—I know each of us will fall short often—at least I do…often. But this doesn’t mean we condone what is touted as the acceptable ways.) We cannot let the culture of our day—basically, anything goes and let’s all sing Kumbaya, and be politically correct—dictate how we live and our future. When it’s time to voting—vote. When God gives you a chance to voice your opinion that concerns biblical value, share stand firm and speak the truth. Be a light. A torch bearer for truth, and for Jesus.  Was Jesus politically correct? Follow His example. 

And when politics encroach on how we should live as Believers, we have not just a right, we have the duty to fight for what we believe in. I think it’s worth it. What about you?

Peak into New Disicpleship Book Designed to Challenge Mature Christians

On Amazon at amzn.to/1qY6MGa

Introduction: Do You Want to Hear from God? 

When I turned 50, I had an epiphany. I had always been big on setting goals and planning my next big thing. Then at age 50, it occurred to me that I might only have about 25 or 30 years left to do whatever needed to be done. Maybe less. 

I suppose I’m not the only one to think such thoughts. Hence, we now have the famous bucket lists that many of my friends are creating. Would it surprise you to find out that most of those lists are filled with exotic places to visit? (I certainly want to go to Eastern Europe and Australia) The lists might include a new place to live, a certain car to own, or achieving some level of expertise in a sport or game. My conversations with others on the subject commonly come around to amassing some amount of net worth that will allow them to at least maintain their current standard of living.

It is very unlikely that many of those lists include the decision “doing whatever God calls me to do.” Can you imagine how the rest of your life might look if you made that decision today? Whether you are 18, 30, or ancient of days like me, you could make a major impact in the days left to you. 

Are you too busy? Are you worried about money? Do you think you do not possess the needed skills? Do you doubt you know what to do? Does it seem too big? Will you miss your TV too much? Are you afraid your family and friends will think you are weird? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then you are missing the Jesus that Paul, John, Matthew, Mark, James, Luke, Peter, and Jude talk about. 

I’m not a special person. I’m a layman like most of you. I have prospered in life, but 5 years ago I lost almost everything and had to start over at age 60. I have some talents and skills, as do you. I wish I had more talents and skills, just as you do. 

I do know this: if only one out of every 100 people that love Jesus in the US made a decision today to “do whatever God calls me to do” for the rest of their lives, this country and the world could experience revival unlike any other. Are you going to sit by and let someone else be that “one” who will enjoy all the fun, all the amazing best that God has to offer you while here on earth and then in heaven?
To take up God’s call requires a lot of hard work, determination, and most of all, faith. Remarkably, if it really is God’s call, and you respond with your whole heart, the yoke will seem light as a feather.
Seniors, you can choose to kick back and start counting the sunsets. You deserve it. You’ve worked hard, and now it is someone else’s turn. Is that where you are?

On the other hand, maybe you’re a young go-getter and you want treasures and fame here on earth. You might be promising God that you will use your money and fame to further the Kingdom later. I can identify with that very easily. Is this you? 

Possibly, you have been badly wounded by life, and you’re struggling to put one foot in front of the other. You think God can use you later. Are you hiding behind your wounds? Do you think, “I’ll do it when the kids are grown and through college. I’ll surrender to God’s call on my life when I have $500,000 in net assets.” Do you think that God dare not call a parent with small children?

How do I know you think that way? Easy. I have thought those thoughts.

We need a revival in the US, and throughout the world. The ability to communicate the Gospel to every person on earth has never been easier. The world has never been more ready to hear the message. Unless you are missing the news, you probably think we are certainly in the last days. There isn’t a lot of time left to make sure your loved ones and those in your community have Christ in their hearts. 

If you are ready to commit to God fully and avoid any potential of being seen as lukewarm, this book is the outpouring of my heart intended to provide you with a pathway to victory. Here is an outline of the path. Each step is based on a decision. Just like your initial decision to follow Jesus, you will be making decisions throughout your walk.

• Decision: That I will listen to God for His call on my life.
  
• Decision: That I will do what is necessary to hear and obey God's call on my life.
  
• Decision: That in order to be in a position to hear God's calling, I will love Him and others, and seek the intimacy that accompanies that love. I hunger and thirst for a right relationship with Him and others.
  
• Decision: That in order to love like that, I will be poor in spirit and more humble. Humility means that I trust God for my direction, not myself or other people. I believe what God says.
  
• Decision: I will become a disciple of Christ, which means watching and hearing what He teaches, then doing those things.

The Bible describes five kinds of folowers of Jesus: the multitudes (Matthew 4:25), casual inquirers (John 4:9), disciples (Matthew 5:1), close disciples such as Peter, James, and John (Matthew 17:1) and intimately close disciple (John 13:23). Which kind of follower are you? 

The multitudes blend into the crowds on Sunday mornings. Rejecting service opportunities. Giving intermittently. Avoiding relationships. Avoiding commitment. They like being part of the crowd that gets close enough to Jesus to mollify the yearning desire in their hearts for relationship with Him, but not so close that His expectations touch them.

The casual inquirers ask endless questions about inconsequential matters. Seldom do they change their attitudes about the Lord but, rather, they relish the dispute and disagreements.

The disciples change the direction of their lives. They turn and follow Jesus after their encounter with Him. They learn from Him, they serve Him, they testify to what He’s done in their lives, they share His love with others, and they stay close to Him. Even when they drift away and wander off, they eventually turn around and come back to a close relationship and fellowship with Jesus.

The best picture of the intimate disciple is John reclining against Jesus with his head on Jesus’ breast. Do you think John heard Jesus’ heart beat? I do. And I want to be that disciple--the one that is so close to Jesus that I hear His heartbeat. Do you? I believe you can be!

You can be the kind of disciple who is so close to Jesus that there is no room for anything to come between Him and you. The kind of disciple that worships Him as closely and intimately as humanly possible. The kind of disciple that hears God’s voice distinctly calling to His service. The kind of disciple that, upon hearing God’s call, answers: “Here am I. Send me.” 

The rest of the book is now available on Amazon as a Kindle book or in print. The Kindle version is on sale. Normally $2.99 but until the end of October, the ebook will be just 99¢.

James 4:1 ff - What Is the Source of Conflict?

The Messy and the Neat Freak  as a metaphor on a primary source of human conflict

The folks who love their space to be neat as a pin are often unhappy when their spouses, children or office mates fall into the "messy" category. To be sure, many of the "messy" people in their life may not be that messy. It often doesn't take much to make the neatnik squirm.

Messies fall into two categories. The true messy who has no interest in cleaning anything, and is perfectly content to live in swill. The other group is the frustrated perfectionists.  I know this group.  I am one. I would like everything in life to be perfect, but since it is impossible, I've long since given up. My goal in life is Good Enough.

The Bible give us the reason for conflicts, large and small:  James 4:1 NIV What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.

So, the person who desires a neat environment and covets a perfect room, home, or work space, is in conflict with the person who desires to have a more casual situation, and has no desire to learn a new approach in order to meet the desires of the other.

The conflict can stay at the difference-of-style level, and merely result in resentments, nagging, and such. Or it may rise to the level of judging the motives of each player, resulting in name calling, anger, bitterness, and lack of fellowship for a time. To be clear, there is no right or wrong individual in this situation. The messy is just as likely to be the one who becomes upset to the point of sin.

And all this can happen over the minor issue of how neat should a space is kept.

The reality is that the neat or messy inclination is probably deeply engrained into the nature of each person. Whether it is raw personality, upbringing, training, or experience, each has arrived at this point with plenty of resistance to change. What is the Christian solution?

I suppose that the answer "grace" will seem just too obvious and simple. But the reason I've suggested that this situation is a metaphor is this. Being clear that the other people in your life are programmed in certain ways that are highly resistant to change should give you more, not less, reason for grace. To the extent that you are unable to be graceful in your thinking, attitude, and actions regarding those who have conflicting needs, wants, or desires, the relationship will suffer. But the real loser in the situation will be you. The failure of grace in such situations goes right to stress, anxiety, and angst. All of these will push you towards other negative consequences like depression, stress related diseases, and distance from God.

If you are a messy, don't you want Grace from the neatnik in your life? Are you prepared to give them grace for their goals to keep things clean? Now apply this basic concept to almost any other conflict in life.

Last thought.  Grace does not imply acceptance of sinful behavior by others. It implies that you have an understanding of their difficulty in overcoming the sin, such that you are not going to be subject to negative consequences in your own life that come as a result of your attitude about their sin. 

The Limbo Life - How Low Can You Go?

Growing up, my parents hosted cookouts on our patio. After-dinner entertainment included my father playing guitar (think: Kingston Trio) kids twirling Hula Hoops and everyone doing the new Limbo dance.

The Limbo worked like this. Two volunteers would hold either side of a bar about three feet long, at waist’s height. While Caribbean music played, each dancer would lean backwards, scooting bent legs and torso under the bar. Guests lined up to try their skill. After each turn, the bar lower. A player who touched the bar with their shoulders or chest was disqualified.

Now Limbo, as a game is great fun. It breaks the ice and has people cheering on their fellow party guests. Unfortunately, Limbo Life isn’t. When we can’t sell our house, find a job or fix an ongoing relationship that limbo frustration seeps in.

Bitterness follows frustration. We ask: why didn’t we sell our house sooner? Why did I marry this person? Why did my company downsize just when I started? And the universal question: “What happened to my 401K? Many Americans ask themselves these questions while we slogs through this recession.

The Limbo song invites the players, “How low can you go?” and we scream, “No lower!” But standing mid-thigh in life’s crises we realize we can bend more than we dreamed. In Limbo-Land we learn to flex our rigid spending habits without breaking, becoming satisfied with less money or a rental house. We discover marriage can weather the unemployment storm with the relationship still intact. Resilience, an underrated quality can take a person far in life.

I, as a practicing Christian, (I’m still practicing) have gone through four years of Limbo Life. Due to job changes, we’ve become nomads. But while maneuvering the gauntlet of anger, depression, self-introspection and apathy, I’ve learned my back can twist and curve with life’s music. God will give us his game plan for the next few steps when I stop fussing and realize He is raising and lowering the bar. I’d love to keep the bar high so I don’t strain. But He knows I can bend and become a more flexible disciple for His kingdom. I wasn’t promised a life of ease when signing my life over to Him. When we sign up to be disciples of Jesus, we sign on to make our life count for something dearer than comfort. So hang on and stretch.

by Carol Stratton

Do most in the church of Jesus Christ even know what it is to be a disciple?

Chuch Swindoll http://Insight.org

"Most of us (Christians) are not Disciples" - Chuck Swindoll of Insight for Living

I have been a huge fan of Insight for Living and Chuck Swindoll for as long as I can remember.  On May 8 and 9 the sermon turned to the issue of discipleship.  Since that is very near and dear to my heart, I made a special effort to tune in by computer and listen.  You can, too, at http://www.insight.org/ 

Here are some of the points which line up very nicely with the key themes of my recently released book, God Called - He Needs Your Decision! 

He first noted that a new Christian should not be thrust into leadership roles or even service too quickly.  He makes a comparison to a new baby and says that the baby Christian needs time to heal, learn, and spend time with Jesus prior to starting to serve. 

Swindol also points out that the word discipleship is overused and under appreciated. I think he means that most who use the word use it incorrectly to refer to a process of seeking converts and trying to bring them to a point of accepting Jesus.  This is not discipleship.  Rather discipleship has two sides. 

First there is the process of being discipled or trained up in the ways of Jesus. Swindoll recommends that you ask two or three spiritually mature individuals to help you work out your faith. The goal is to reach a point where you have picked up your cross and followed Jesus, which includes giving up your possessions and your very life. 

At some point in this process you will be in a position to disciple others. You don’t have to be perfect to do so, but you have to be clear-eyed about you interests being God centered rather than earth centered.  One way you might know is if those around you clearly see that you’ve been “with Jesus.”

Swindoll told a variation on the story of the pearl of great price. He said that when the man asked the owner of the pearl what the price was, the trader said the price was not set. The man said he would pay whatever the price was. The trader said the cost would be everything. The trader showed him that this included his money, house, car, wife, kids . . . everything. The trader then said he would loan these things back to the man, but that he would have title, and could ask for them at any time. 

If you’d like to hear the entire message, please check it out at http://www.insight.org/

Abraham Struggled With The “What if’s” Of Life, Do You?

Have you surrendered the "what if's" of life to God?

I was reading about Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac, because God asked him to. I know, I know, there are at least a million and one sermons on this event, but it's so nice when God opens your heart to hear what He has to show you.

He has been teaching me about surrendering to Him. Mostly my fears which show me just how little I trust God. So When I read Abraham's encounter with God in Genesis 22 my brain processed it differently.

I had to ask myself, metaphorically speaking, if I was willing to hike the mountain with each of my children. Isaac was right by Abraham's side the entire journey. Then take the time to build an alter and strap them to it. Could I take the knife and trust my Father enough to surrender my kids completely into His care?

Since I think in pictures, it helps me to visualize a literal alter and placing my children on it in
complete surrender to God's will, for their lives, and for mine - as their mother.

Here is another thing that I relate to Abraham in. While he has faith in the big things, i.e. "He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead." Hebrews 11:19a
He had some trouble trusting in the "What if's" of life. In Genesis 12 and again in 20 Abraham is afraid of a "what if.' Both times they were entering a foreign land and Abraham asked Sarah to tell people that she was his sister. He thought, "what if" they kill me because you are so beautiful and I'm your husband? When his life isn't even really in danger, but he sees that as a possibility, he takes things into his own hands.

Oh yes, Abraham and I have a lot in common.


Here is one other side note: I teared up as I read Gen. 22:7-8 they are still on their way to the place of sacrifice when Isaac notices something strange about the things they have with them. He sees the wood and the fire, but he asks his father where the lamb is. Here is Abraham's response, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.' Wow! God says the same thing to each of us. He has provided the perfect lamb as the offering for my sins. It's as if God says, 'I got this."

I'm so thankful He does. What a wonderful gift salvation is! I'm reminded of a worship song that I love.

Take a listen.

Jesus died for you and for me and He is so worthy of our worship. I think He has all of the 'What ifs" covered!


If you are interested in learning more about who God is through the Old Testament, I’ve written The Presence of Shadows. This book is the first in a young adult fantasy series in which I dramatize the lives and event of the Kings and prophets of Israel. Dive into the world of Ta-Val and take a journey with Brehane as he decides who to trust.
Find out more about The Presence of Shadows Here KaraHowell.com
Want to read more of my blog posts? Visit my personal blog Kara's Blog