puwtp

Keep your eyes on the truth

Posted on by therealra3

  Have you ever been at a place in your walk with God where you have stepped out in faith, but it didn’t go according to plan? Leaving you to wonder and doubt your capability? I know for me when I have stepped out in my faith in the past and it didn’t happen like I thought, there was something within me that caved to doubt every time. I would begin to focus more on how and why I failed, rather than just picking up and moving forward. It’s not an easy thing to admit failure or better yet admit that maybe I moved before God really called me. Lets all be honest here we’re humans we are going to fail, we’re going to step out before we’re ready and more honestly we’re going to have set backs in life. It’s just the way it is. So how can we become effective christians even in our failures? It seems almost impossible in the moment, especially when the struggle is right in our face. I have come across a scripture that portrays a perfect example of this very topic. 

  Peter and the disciples were out upon the water in Matthew 14:22-33. Jesus had sent the disciples on ahead of him as he went up on the mountain side to pray. The boat had already gone a great distance from the shore as it was being buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it (I imagine a pretty decent size storm had approach them). Later that night Jesus begins to walk toward them on the water, of course the disciples first reaction is terror! They cried out in utter fear. Jesus then says to them, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid”. Peter takes this moment to almost challenge Jesus ( in my opinion as if he still wasn’t convinced it was him) and he says Lord if its you then tell me to come. The Lord tells Peter to come, so Peter begins to get out of the boat onto the water and walks toward the Lord. That right there takes incredible faith, he is walking on the water with Jesus in the midst of a storm, that is amazing. But what happens next is Peter becomes human he snaps back into this-worldly reality of I can’t walk on water! The wind starts to blow and Peter panics and begins to sink immediately  He took his eyes off Jesus for a second, had doubt for a second and instantly sank. Peter is an example of us today in our walks with Jesus, we step out in faith walking the purpose and calling of God and then in one moment, we take our eyes off the truth and we sink! 

  The difference in this story compared to our walks is the attitude after the failure that Peter has. It goes onto to say Jesus pulls Peter out of the water saying, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Then they return to the boat, the wind ceases and they begin to worship Jesus! They begin to declare “truly you are the son of God”. There was no pity party here, Peter wasn’t in the back of the boat crying or focused on his failures! The disciples didn’t surround Peter and say hey man I’m really sorry about what happened here, I am sure your embarrassed we won’t say anything. They didn’t make a big deal of the situation that just went down. How often do we pity ourselves for our failures and then get surrounded in the pity from our fellow friends and family ( I’m not downing sympathy or even loving nature from friends and family, but when we are so wrapped up in the bad that we can’t even see the good. That is when we demolish the mission created for us). You start putting your focus on things that have failed rather than things that God can do! 

   My favorite part to this story is they get to shore finally after this intense moment, Peter gets off the boat and He starts ministry to long lines of people! I mean…. was Peter even dry from his near drowning experience?  Peter was worshiping wet and now he is ministering wet, how amazing is this!  How can Peter snap back so quickly? Because Peter knew the mission was more important than his short comings, he knew that even though he was soaking wet after doubting God that there was a bigger purpose here and he was going to keep moving forward! Peter kept his eyes on the truth even in the midst of doubt, of failure and of fear. Christians we’re called to a mission that holds more importance than our messes. I encourage you to worship wet, pray wet, preach wet whatever it takes but don’t let the wet rob you from his purpose. Keep your eyes on the truth.

TheRealRa3

Keep yourself in love

Posted on by therealra3

Keep yourself in love, is a message I preached to the youth at my church. I did a level comparison on our walks with God. By level comparison I mean this: Level ten, level six and level one, three stages that we can fall into as christians. Level tens, I like to call them “The Committers” devoted to God like no other. Committers have successful traits to their walk with God starting with these: Flamboyant values, willingness, boldness, desire, dreams and etc. Level six is called “Life Hits” this is where things can take a turn for the worst, we can either stay focused and devoted on God or we rely on our own resources and strengths to get us through. Lets face it life is going to hit whether we are Christians or not. The key is to stay in Gods perfect love allowing him to take on all our anxieties and fears, because he cares for us. Level six is summed up in these traits, Focuses on the struggle rather than on God, doubting, uncomfortable, insecure and etc. If we continue to allow this spiral effect of distraction go out of control, we will end up on a level one. Level one is called “square one” meaning this: we’re right back were we started before we we’re saved. The traits here are plain and simple: Fully operating in our sins, a part of the world, no longer after the heart of God and etc. So whats my point to all this level talk? My point is I see this happen more often than not with the fellow christian. We’re so on fire for God and things are great, but then life takes a turn and everything we ever stood for goes out the window, why? Because as humans we want to control we want the results on our favor immediately, resulting in us taking our eyes of Jesus and placing them on our struggle. If we focus on the struggle for too long we make room for the enemy to distract us enough till we’re eventually right back where we started.*Proverbs 26:11- As a dog returns to his vomit so a fool returns to his folly.
Once you were on that level 10 or had an encounter with God he took off your old nature and place on you a new nature of righteousness a new beginning out of the vomit and into the purity of the Lord. So when you go from a level 10 to a level 1 you are literally taking off the new nature of God and deliberately putting on your old nature and returning to your vomit. Now how can we avoid this from happening in our lives? I have two disciples that are perfect examples for the above levels. * Peter is first, in his biblical story of how he went from a level 10 to a level 1— Luke 22:33-34——— Luke 22:54-62… You see Peter was so outwardly loud about his devotion to Jesus, Jesus I would die for you! I love you! I like to think of this as he was getting all the Facebook likes and retweets on his devotion. He was a value guy. But what happens to peter? He ends up denying Jesus not once but three times, how does a guy go from I’ll die for Jesus to I don’t even know this man. I’ll tell you, Peter was way to focused on what he could bring and what he could offer Jesus rather than who Jesus is. Peter was an active guy like let’s get this done, list chorus he wanted results now! He was a control guy ( doesn’t make him bad, just makes him human). He didn’t understand resting in Jesus, he wanted to create to the rest by “doing”. Then we have John, I believe there is something that we can learn from disciple John, He was the only recorded disciple that was at the cross when Jesus was hung, He was also the called the one Jesus loved his beloved. He was definitely in the inner circle of one that Jesus had trusted. At the last supper Jesus was bringing some very heavy news that pierces the hearts of the disciples, they were outraged and wanted something to be done! Here is John  in the midst of this heavy new and what is he doing? He is using Jesus as his pillow, some might call him lazy or emotionless to whats happening. But who was at the foot of the cross? Only John, Peter was painfully absent. Here’s my point John understood what it meant to live in the love of Jesus. He knew how to rest his head on Jesus’ heart even when chaos and uncertainty and fear were the order of the day. The love of Jesus was his identity, his focus, his priority. Love was how he started and how he lived his life, and love led him to finish well. Not downing Peter here because he loved Jesus just as much, but he more often relied on his own bravery and strength then he did on Jesus. Which as we all do at times and that ultimately caused him to deny Jesus three times under the pressure. As where John knew that true security and strength were found not in frantic human effort, but in resting in Jesus’ love. The message is plain to staying on a level ten we must keep ourselves in the love of God. I will end this blog with one of my favorite scriptures: Jude 1:21- keep yourself in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our lord jesus christ to eternal life.

Our supreme Christ

Posted on by therealra3

 

   What does it mean when we say the supremacy of Christ? First lets look at the definition of supremacy The state or condition of being superior to all other leaders, powers and authority. So when we say Christ reigns supreme in our lives. We aren’t saying he can only handle this little bit of mess I am in, we’re saying he can handle all my messes today, tomorrow and forever. He reigns supreme from the furthest corners of the earth to the top of the highest mountains. To lowest trenches of the sea He reigns over every planet that spins in orbit, along with the perfect placement of every star. God is reigning supreme in every detail of creation that he so beautifully made. One might say well if God has such supreme power, why would he care for me? something so small compared to creation in itself? I found a scripture that really stands out to me, ” Psalms 135:6- Whatever the Lord pleases he does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all the deeps.” Notices the word used in this text “pleases” This doesn’t grieve or aggregate God it pleases him. There are several scriptures on Gods supremacy all using and referring to the word pleased. Leading me to Ephesians 3:20- Now to him who is ABLE to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. You see this verse is pointing to Gods sovereignty, his working power over all things. In that this scripture is saying it pleases God to be sovereign in your life, Because he is able to do far more than you could imagine. So if your out there feeling unqualified or insignificant to God, Know that it pleases the Lord to reign in your life. To have power over every detail good or bad. With that being said he can take all your bad and turn it into good. that’s how big and mighty our God is. This is the God we serve, a God who takes the unqualified and makes them qualified. The question “How can a God so big, care for me who is so small?” I believe is answered throughout scripture. All pointing to his supreme nature, that we have full access too. It pleases the Lord to take hold of your every moment. So Stop allowing the enemy to hinder the path the Lord has paved, and start walking in his supreme power. If we has believers could grasp his sovereignty over our lives, nothing would be impossible.

Therealra3