Nuclear Cookies

It was early afternoon when I arrived back in the office planning on accomplishing some paperwork. As I was setting up my place to work, the urge for a fresh, warm cookie hit me. Part of the marketing strategy of our company is to provide freshly baked cookies for our referral sources, so, we have an oven in the kitchen and tons of frozen cookie batter in the freezer. A recipe for bliss….if you want a great cookie.

Hey, I'm a rational guy and I usually can come up with a workable plan to accomplish my goals in mind. I knew that our frozen cookies required heat to cook, and I also knew that our microwave produced heat for cooking. So, equipped with my deductive reasoning and ample ability to place frozen cookies on a plate, I placed two of them in the microwave and pushed the appropriate button to produce the much needed heat. I carefully watched the process as the microwave came alive with energy and lazily turned the plate in a circular motion. Waiting hungrily for the desired results, my eyes stayed focused on the cookies as they traveled their appointed path.

Unexpectedly, a spiral of smoke began to rise from one of the cookies, and I sprang into action while the other cookie began to follow the first one’s example. I immediately pushed the button to stop the cooking process of the microwave and to open its door. When I did that, what was now a lot of smoke and bad smell poured generously out of the microwave. The cookie dough had a glazed-over-plastic-goo-sort-of-look as it had apparently tried to morph into something other than what it was created to be.

I quickly grabbed the paper plate of smoking, charred goo and ran to the back door looking to get it outside as quickly as possible.

The smell was expressing itself impressively. I would have rated it at about 8 out of 10 easily.  It really was awful….. and it quickly spread everywhere as bad smells often do. Part of its agenda was to broadcast my grossly mis-led journey in cookie baking.

While I was busily opening the doors to air out the office, I was receiving a lot of lighthearted grief from the staff about my adventure with the cookies. Our office manager was slightly shocked and stunned beyond words. She came by my office and just said, "Really? Really?” I took it that she was not impressed with my cooking skills.

At this particular moment my brain went on the blink as I offered up the best excuse that presented itself. “Hey, apparently there is a reason that I am field staff and usually kept away from the office!”  I think that in the universe of lame excuses, something of a new record was reached right then. I may someday even get a “lame excuse” award for that one……

Later that day, I received a text from our office manager that read something like this, “Maybe U can get some cooking lessons from your wife this evening!”  When my wife saw the text and heard my story later, she just shook her head and laughed……

My ego was not having a good day.

As I thought about this short, failed adventure in my life, I envisioned many parallels as to how we all sometimes approach living. We think of some really great ideas and then pursue them using all of our reasoning, reckoning, and experience in order to accomplish those good goals. We take all of the skills and decision making processes within us and bring them online as we approach the many challenges we all face daily. However, our troubles really begin when we ignore the directions already laid out for us in the Bible. It is then that we are just planning for failure.

Sadly, way too many times, the results we come up with resemble my nuclear cookies; smoldering, smoking, and toxic looking. We generate a mess and smell that screws up our lives and is awfully embarrassing to us, and, way too often, people who wind up this way already know the right way to do things….by the Bible…..but they choose to ignore it.

You see, I had it all rationally figured out, but in reality, I was wrong about how to bake cookies. I'm afraid that this concept is also what goes on when we rely on our own intelligence to make it in life. Many times I have counseled with people who thought they had it all figured out. Sadly, they were trying to exist in the middle of a toxic mess in their lives that was brought about by following their own ways.

 Understand this, there are no “undo” buttons in life so that we can restart our marriages or raise our kids again. There are no “delete” buttons in order to erase hurtful words or acts that we have done. And yet, even while in the middle of our messes, the Lord still gives us instructions as to how to deal with our situations when we do find ourselves in trouble.

Read these Bible verses and understand the Lord’s heart toward you:

Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV

11  For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

12  Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

13  You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.

When we find ourselves dealing with a mess, we need to seek Him with all our hearts…….so that we can find Him and His plans for us.

Another one of my favorite scriptures challenges me to not rely on my own intelligence to run my life. The idea here is, if I do rely on myself and my resources, then I would be settling for something much less that what I could have had.

Look at this:

Proverbs 3:5-6 GNB

5  Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know.

6  Remember the LORD in everything you do, and he will show you the right way.

The implication here is that my own understanding brings about a result that is much less desirable than what I would really like or want……. We might refer to it as what is viewed as “the wrong way”. However, in this verse the Lord’s intent appears to be to show us “the right way”.  What could be better than that?

 In my cookie adventure, I still had cookies at the end, but they were burned, scary looking, and not fit to be eaten.

Who wants to settle for less?

Who wants to settle for failure?

Who really wants to settle for toxic waste cookies?

Consider these other verses also:

Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV

8  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.

9  "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God has such a wonderful plan for our lives for now and in the future, but we have to adjust our thinking to His ideas. We cannot expect God to change His thinking to our ways……not gonna happen.

About right here most of us think of an obvious question: “If God’s plan is so good, then why am I still so miserable?

Maybe examining where your decisions come from might provide an answer……

However, I think we should go even deeper. What about when you have followed the Lord the best way that you can, made all the right decisions, and things still are all screwed up feeling? What then?

This is when we have the opportunity to approach things by trusting God. (That is what faith is, by the way.) Through faith we can claim His peace. When Jesus was approaching leaving the earth to go back to the Father, He said that He would leave His peace with His children on the earth.

I have to believe this and “mentally own it” for myself. Giving up my expectations, plans, desires, and self will……..

I need to become willing to trust the plan that He has in His will for me, even if it all continues to be screwed up for a while. He never said that those plans would all be comfortable or all go easily.

Some of our biggest challenges come in all this as we face the choices of being willing to ask Him for His plan and then for us being willing to genuinely follow it. When we are really honest with ourselves, we have to acknowledge the fact that we don't always know all that there is to being successful in life.  The truth is, most of the time we don’t.

Of course the thought pops up in our mind, “Well then, all I need to do is just make all the right decisions in my life, then I won’t have to worry about making a mistake!” This is a great concept and goal, but how am I to know which decisions are the right ones? Only the Lord knows, and He wants very much to let us in on the knowledge of it. The Lord definitely wants to share with us His best for us, but we have to at least talk with Him and listen to Him.

It is interesting that someone would say, “Hey, I know all this stuff you are talking about!” I'm sure they that they know these things very well, but then they still go ahead and try to do it their own intelligent, figured out way. How wacked is that?

I guess that I should stop right here and reluctantly confess something to you. I really have baked cookies properly at the office in the past. I used the proper oven, followed the instructions and had them turn out very well. It is just that this time I decided to ignore what I knew to be right and try it my newly devised way. The result was not a pretty sight, and I was not the only one affected by my poor choice. Everyone in the office suffered in some way because of my ill conceived, selfish plan.

My decision that day may not have been too bad just to destroy two lumps of cookie dough, but what about when it involves negatively affecting your children, or church, or friends, or your spouse?

A nuclear mess you don't want in any of these cases.

In The Old Testament, the Lord gave some assurances to His children that I believe we can also apply to His children now.  Listen to what the Lord says to us:

Isaiah 30:18 & 21 NIV

18  Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!

…………………

21  Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

This is a sweet, metaphorical way of the Lord telling us that He will guide us as we listen to Him.

Let me encourage you; have a good talk with the Lord about what it will take for your life to be a great success in all areas of it. He really does want you to be successful and He loves you so much.

Avoid the nuclear mess in your life……….. It's the only one you have on this earth.

Love,

Dan

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Venus and Mars

One day, as I drove to work early, the announcer on the radio was saying something that really captured my interest.

Whoever was speaking (and I really did not care at 7 in the morning who it was) said that today there were two rare occurrences that could be seen in the morning sky. The first event was in the east, where the horizon was just beginning to turn lighter because of the dawning of day. Anyone who cared to look could see clearly the planet Venus shining brightly like a star in the sky. I was really interested in this because I love astronomy and think that it is fascinating that we sometimes can see a planet in our solar system without using a telescope. I was driving in the direction that the radio announcer said, so I looked up and saw Venus just like he told me I could. It really looked beautiful!  The planet was just sparkling in a beautiful setting of sky just beginning to turn blue. The deep blue background and the star-like appearance of Venus was awesome to gaze upon. It was also exciting to think how that God created all this and that I was able to see it this morning.

The second rare occurrence was that Mars was to be seen in the opposite sky shining just as brightly as Venus was.  Wow! This woke me up a little more as the thought of these two things happening at the same time began to sink in. Here I was awake and having this special opportunity to see something very rare in the sky. I couldn’t wait to look back in the other direction of the horizon and see Mars shining the same way that Venus was.

I passed up the turn-in to the office and went up the road a short way in order to turn around. I wanted to have a good view of the sky where Mars was supposed to be appearing.

.How disappointing it was as I saw that this part of the sky was draped with dark clouds and no Mars was in view. This was not a very welcoming or encouraging sight – really, it was kind of depressing to me.

With my disappointment in tow, I drove up the road, turned around again, and drove to the office parking lot.

As I contemplated my experiences with Venus and (almost) Mars, the Lord began to speak to my heart about what I had just seen. One view was a tremendous look at the planet Venus and the beautiful blueness of the dawn. The other view was dark, with dreary clouds and a depressing sky.

I then began to understand that I had a choice in my life today. I could choose to dwell on the beautiful things in life, or I could keep my mind on the cloudy, dreary things.

In life, we all have this same choice.  Whether it is work, family, friends, or situations concerning any of these, I can choose to place my mind on the beautiful parts of life, or give my mind over to thinking constantly about the dark parts that surround me.

In our lives we have beautiful and not-so-beautiful pieces that make up who we are. Too often we forget that not only does God make the stars and blue skies, but He also makes the clouds in the other parts of the sky…even the rain clouds.

I think that God views them both as beautiful, because He made them to fulfill His purposes.

Now, we each have our strengths and our weaknesses, but just think about this, these things are made by God to exist as a special mix that makes us who we are……so unique in the universe. We are God’s own handiwork painstakingly and masterfully made!!!!

Consider the truth revealed in these scriptures in the book of Psalms:

Psalms 139:13-18 NLT

13  You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.

14  Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous--how well I know it.

15  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

16  You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

17  How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!

18  I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, You are still with me!

Psalms 104:24 NLT

24  O LORD, what a variety of things You have made! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your creatures.

(Just in case you were wondering, “creatures” has the idea of creations…including us.)

…in God’s wisdom He has made us all….

How powerful that thought is!!

All of us, at times, will take a look at the stage of life and have wishes. Some of us wish that:

…we could sing like that

…we could preach like that

…we could look that beautiful or handsome

…we could be as smart as that person

…we could hold a powerful position like that person does

Yep, we all do.

It is usually then that we are thinking about the specifics of our lives that bring about discouragement to us. At that point, we begin to accomplish a goal that we did not want to; we become discouraged and depressed. This is one of Satan’s favorite platforms from which to work in our hearts and minds.

Here is more revealed truth to think about:

Romans 12:3-8 NLT

3  ……. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

4  Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function,

5  so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

6  In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.

7  If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.

8  If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

It is when we place our minds on the unique things that only we as an individual can do, that we begin to see ourselves from a more complete perspective.

--no one else has your smile or the glint of your eyes.

--no one else can pray exactly the same way that you do.

--no one else laughs like you.

--no one else has the unique gifts and talents that you do.

All of this is a result of how that God wants to use you in so many special ways. No other person can be used in the exact same way that God plans to use you!

Just think…..

--no one else has the same relationships that you do.

--no one else has the opportunities that you do.

--no one else is in your unique position of life.

--no one else can be used in the exact same way that God desires to use you.

…And this is all so beautiful…..

Some people say that self-esteem is developing a positive image about yourself.

I believe that true self-esteem grows as you begin to understand who you really are from God’s viewpoint….that is, how God actually sees you.

That morning in the car on my way to work, I began to realize that I could not change the clouds or the sky, but I did have the power to choose where I would have my mind spend its time thinking.

At least for that day, I chose to think about the sparkling stars and blue skies that God had given me to brighten my life and to serve Him with. God had plans to use me that day in such a way that no one else could be used…and He does this constantly…….

This is so very true for you also. God has plans to use your unique self today, and tomorrow, and the day after that….and the day after that…and the day after that…….

You, like Venus that morning, are a brilliant, sparkling light set in place for God’s glory and God’s use today….and for the rest of your life…… 

Matthew 5:14 NIV

14  "You are the light of the world…...

Offered in His love,

Dan Akins

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Out of the Storms

I want to tell you something about myself: I love original oil paintings! They don't have to be painted by anyone special or even be expensive, but I am just fascinated by the talent of the people who do that kind of art. There are several reasons that I do not try that kind of artistic painting. One is, I can’t find a type of canvas that has an “undo” button on it, and another is, I am having difficulty finding a paint brush with a “delete paint stroke” key built into it.

Oh, well... onto my story.

One time an artist, who was a member of the church where I was youth pastor, said that she had an oil painting that she had painted especially for me. I was really excited as I looked forward to having an original oil painting hung in our house! However, when I saw the picture, some of my excitement was dampened. The artist did a great job of the painting... but it was the scene that did not impress me. The painting was of an oceanside landscape. In the middle of the canvas, there was a scraggly tree looking worn and beaten. The ocean seemed angry and troubled as its waves assaulted the big craggy rocks on the seashore. Black clouds were appearing to break up in the sky, and, to the left of the picture were a few rays of light bringing forth the touches of a rainbow.

I was hoping for some bright, cheery scene with lots of blue and sunshine….something that would be uplifting and fun to look at.

The painting she had for me was not what I had expected.

Since that time, I have had many opportunities to reflect on this painting and I feel that it has so accurately described my journey in life and ministry. Through all the troubles, pain, and dark moments, God's promises (the rainbow) have always watched over my life and been there to comfort me. No matter how dark and scary the scene is, He always reminds me of His promises when I am listening closely.

The book of Job has inched its way upward to becoming one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Although I have read and studied this book over the years, last week I saw something in it that I had never seen before. (The Bible is like that, you know.) In chapter 37, Elihu, (one of Job's friends) is speaking wrongfully (as well-meaning friends sometimes do) and eloquently taking Job to task about his apparently poor relationship with God.

Suddenly, a thunderstorm begins to move in on the scene. (I know this because of what the Scripture says later.) Elihu makes great literary analogies using words like roar, rumbling, lightning, thunder, rain showers, water, and clouds throughout the chapter. It is evident that there is a storm going on around them. And, as we know by the testimony of many chapters before this scene, there is also a storm going on in Job's heart and mind.

Job feels forsaken by God (chapter 23), most of his family is gone, his friends are making him miserable (as friends sometimes do), and the storm is raging outside. Also, the storm on the inside of his heart and mind was relentless in its fury.

Then, it happens. The greatest thing of all in the story….

Job 38:1 NIV

Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.

It was in the storm that God chose to speak to Job in order to ultimately bring him peace and comfort. God was always there through Job’s whole ordeal, but He chose the storm from which to speak to Him.

In this chapter, and forward, God shows things to Job that no other recorded Scripture, up till now, had ever listed. God shows Himself to Job in such a special way that otherwise could not have been, unless Job was also in the storm. This is important to realize. God’s presence in the storm brings it up to an entirely different level of meaning; both the natural storm and Job’s personal storm were allowed by God and were being used just as He had planned.

I remember a time that I had some distress (similar to Job’s in chapter 23) while going through my own storm during a difficult time of ministry. I was praying, reading, and looking for God's help while a storm raged on the inside of my heart. The ugly black clouds of fear, doubt, and hurt engulfed my whole being.

Drastic changes had come into my life under circumstances which I could not control. Someone whom I counted as a friend in ministry (a pastor) had helped to make my situation by choices that he had made. And yet, God used the situation to show Himself to me in such a special way that I could never have known otherwise.

For months I had no job, no direction, and a heart crushed more than you would care to know. As I prayed, the Lord led me to a special place on the top of a mountain that was close by to where I was living.

For days, weeks, and months I would go and spend hours before the Lord with my heart crying out to Him. The storm in my heart was raging furiously all the time, and I could not grasp what He was doing or even where He was in my life. Then the Lord led me to Job 23 and, I began to identify with the feelings and emotions that I was reading.

Job 23:2-9 NIV

2  "Even today my complaint is bitter; His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

3  If only I knew where to find Him; if only I could go to His dwelling!

4  I would state my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.

5  I would find out what He would answer me, and consider what He would say.

6  Would He oppose me with great power? No, He would not press charges against me.

7  There an upright man could present his case before Him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge.

8  "But if I go to the east, He is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find Him.

9  When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him.

In this story, Job could not understand why he could not connect with God. I could see, as I read the words of Scripture, how that torrents of emotions were raging in his heart. Fear, feelings of abandonment, and hurt welled up and covered him like a giant wave in the ocean.

I felt like I was drowning in the same emotions……… then God spoke to my heart in my storm.

As I read the verses in Job 23, I came upon one that struck me profoundly.

Job 23:10 NIV

But He knows the way that I take…..

I could read no further…..

It seemed as if the Lord said to me, “Dan, it is not important that you cannot find Me right now. What is important is that I know where you are.”

A flood of weeping and gratefulness came over me at that moment. Out of my storm the Lord gave me this assurance and a greater understanding of things that I could not have learned any other way except by being in the storm with Him. This remains a precious moment in my life…..it resembled the scene in the oil painting given to me….. the few rays of light breaking through the dark angry clouds and bringing forth the touches of a rainbow.

God spoke to my heart out of my storm…..

In another time and place we see Jesus doing the same thing; comforting his children during a storm.

Matthew 8:23-26 NIV

23  Then He got into the boat and his disciples followed Him.

24  Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.

25  The disciples went and woke Him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"

26  He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

I get the idea that the Lord knows how to handle a storm no matter when or how they burst forth on His children.

In this next passage, the Apostle Paul is in a literal storm.

Acts 27:18-25 NIV

18  We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard.

19  On the third day, they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands.

20  When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.

21  After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: "Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss.

22  But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.

23  Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me

24  and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.'

25  So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me.

What about the storms in the lives of others throughout history?  Look at these verses from scripture…..

Hebrews 11:36-39 NIV

36  Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.

37  They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--

38  the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

39  These were all commended for their faith……..

 See any storms here? Yea, more than most of us have ever had.

A great deal of frustration comes to us when we feel that the Lord ought to just show up when we think that He should and then do what we think He ought to do to fix the whole situation during a storm. Remember, He is in control... we are not. The work that He is doing in us is so magnificent that He would not dare to lower Himself to do it our way. He loves us way too much to do things according to what we think should be done.

Storms come and storms go, but they are always with us.

Everyone at sometime has felt abandoned and alone…but we never are. When we experience God in the storms, the storm takes on an entirely different meaning. When Jesus’ presence is recognized in the storm, it fundamentally changes that storm into an encounter with Him that enhances our lives in so many ways.

You may be asking, “But Dan, what about the times when we don’t hear Him speak in the storm”?  When that happens, He always speaks from His Word:

Romans 8:28 NIV

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him…….

….and then our actions in the storm are called faith. 

What storm is going on in your life right now?

Life's storms are scary and difficult, but the Lord is always with us in them. He lives in us and is never unaware of our pain and hurt.

In His way, and in His time, He speaks to us out of the storm.

Psalms 107:29 NIV

  He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.

Dan

P.S—if you have an internet connection you may want to check out this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-rW528qiYw

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The Gods We Worship

In world history Athens Greece stands out with ideas and culture that influence us even today. It is said that democracy got its start here, and it was the place that Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates hung out. Even buildings are still today being designed using architecture from the Greek culture.

Another thing Athens was noted for was its gods. At least twelve main gods that we know of are recorded and there is also one extra known as the “Unknown God”. Along with these there were also many oracles, lesser divinities, and other personal gods that made up the subjects of worship in this city. Their kind of religion was known as polytheistic; which means that they worshiped many gods.

This idea of many gods troubles me. I know that there is only one God (I hope that you do also) and He is the Lord God Almighty. What troubles me so much is that the idea held by the Athenians concerning the belief in many gods still lives today, but it is deceptively hidden by our arch enemy, Satan.

What has happened throughout history is that people – smart, intelligent, educated people – have made themselves comfortable with the idea of God by formulating Him in such a way so that He is slanted to their ideas and thoughts. Their made up god believes what they believe and sees things the same way they do.  What makes this even more troubling is that generally they have no idea that they have done this.

I want to share how this happened with a group of people in the Bible, but it happened in a very strange way. These people developed their own view of the Lord God. This willful action actually caused them to stop worshiping the true God and start worshiping the other god (who was the one they had made up in their own imagination). It is important to note that this false god was still based on the true God. How weird is that!

Let's look at a story about them.

Matthew 15:1-9 NIV

1  Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,

2  "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"

3  Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

4 & 5………

6  … Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

7  You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

8  "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

9  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

They worship me in vain – the idea of emptiness or uselessness is here.

The reason their worship was empty and useless is because they were not really worshipping God, but some false image of Him that they made up in their minds.

The Pharisees were a notorious sort in the Bible. Almost every encounter they had with Jesus was conflictive and divisive. What they did, every time they met Jesus, was try to force upon Him their own view of God. During their times of challenging and questioning Jesus, they came to the conclusion that Jesus just did not fit their view of God. He didn’t believe the way nor act like they thought He should.  And since He neither looked nor acted like their view of God, then He certainly could not be God.

How wrong they were.

It terrifies me that we also do the same thing at times.

Let me illustrate.

Once a friend told me a story how that someone he knew was involved in an affair and was contemplating divorcing his wife to marry the woman with whom he was having an affair.

His reasoning?

He said that he really believed in his heart that God wanted His children to be happy, and since he could not be happy with his wife, he therefore believed that God wanted him to divorce his wife and marry his affair partner with whom he felt he could be very happy.

This guy just created the god he wanted to worship.

He wanted His god to agree with him and act like he wanted him too, so this guy just created a god that he could feel good about.

This makes my stomach lurch…………

But before we have an attack of self righteousness and begin throwing stones, let us look at some of the gods we create when it is convenient for us to do so.

In our religious society today we make up gods also.

Here are a few of the more popular made up gods we know pretty well……..

- gods that believe there is only one translation of the Bible and no other is acceptable.

- gods that think hymns and organs are useless and out of date.

- gods that do not like contemporary Christian music or any music loud or fast in the church setting.

- gods that do not care what else we do as long as we go to church on Sunday and give money to it.

- gods that are legalistic and condemning of people because of their look or       dress.

- gods that always agree with our side and view of things.

- gods that don’t care what we believe or how we act.

These gods are made up after our own beliefs. We make them resemble the Lord God just enough and keep them in our churches settings just enough so that we can try to convince ourselves that our “god” must be the only “real one”.

If I were doing a preacher thing, I would stop right now and ask, “Which god are you worshiping?” – but I'm not going to ask that, because of two reasons. One, I am not doing the preacher thing, and two, we all would tend to give the same answer……. Think about it.

However, I would say this though.

When we approach God, we must do it with fear and trembling, being fully aware of the deceitfulness of the heart and mind that works from the sin that dwells in our flesh. It can really screw up our minds if we let it…but we don’t have to give in to it because believers are no longer slaves to it.

When we do give in, we do it willingly.

Listen, Satan can make a really pretty talk for us to hear when we give him the time. He can convince us to make God conveniently into our own image if we listen to him. That god that he has us make up is always against something or someone and is usually hurt or angry over something. (This happens all the time during church problems and splits.)

Here are some things to remember.

God is so much bigger than we are and we will never, in this life, wrap our minds around Him completely. He goes beyond our education and limited minds, and will never surrender His being God to my level of understanding alone. If we ever get Him fully figured out, then He stops being God Almighty and just becomes our god that we are comfortable with.

The truth is, it would be so awesome for us to abandon words and phrases like:

– God doesn't like……

– God feels……

– God will get you…..

– God is on my side…..

All of these make me sound like I have God all figured out, when really I don’t.

One of the sad things that I have seen is that people sometimes quote Bible verses just to make God say what they want Him to say in order to back up what they want to believe.

This is just another conjured up god to worship…

Scared yet?  I am. There are a lot of gods out there and I am afraid that we obscure the view of the Lord God by the idols we serve – our created gods.

I get amused, but saddened, by the public figures who conjure up their own god to back them when they get in trouble or get exposed for something. Their god agrees with them and is always on their side. I am amazed at people who claim that God is a liberal, or God is a conservative, or God is a Democrat, or God is a Republican, or God is a Catholic, or God is a Muslim, or God is a Baptist, or God is a Pentecostalist, etc. etc.

These folks, who use these phrases (sometimes they are just implied), are just trying to make up a god that fits their purposes for the time being. The good thing about this kind of god is that he will change quickly to fit the situation when they need him to. The bad thing is, he is a skewed version of the real Lord God. Not really real------just made up.

We are pretty good at conjuring up gods to fit what we want to believe and isn't it interesting that our god always believes what we believe?

You may question this whole idea and ask, “Dan, are you saying that denominational differences mean that each church faith is making up its’ own god?”

Nope.

Denominational differences stem from people seeing scripture through different viewpoints. It is when those viewpoints become so strong within people that they begin to mould God around them, that it becomes dangerous.

People who are becoming spiritually mature hold to the truth with an honest heart knowing that we, in our human frailty, can be mistaken—but never God or His word.

People who form gods hold to their understanding of the Lord, whatever that is, and then try to make God fit their own heart and mind. They are convinced that there is no possibility of them being wrong or mistaken. They find great comfort knowing that their god agrees with them completely.

So now what?

Trust these simple truths. 

1 – There is a God.

2 – You are not Him.

The Bible was not written for us to figure out God. Going there to learn about Him is great, but going there to figure Him out is futile and an arrogant move on our part.

The Bible was written to make us aware of God’s presence, and His provision of salvation through His Son. (Ok -- a lot of other things too. But I think you get the picture.)

Give Him the freedom to be more God than what you understand, and also trust Him to be the God that He is. (He can handle it—He’s been God for a really long time…)

Come before Him holding Him in awe.

Psalms 33:8 KJV

8  Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

Come before His Throne with boldness.

Hebrews 4:16 KJV

16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Realize that He is more God than we can possibly understand.

Don’t make Him any less than what He exists to be. Just love Him and worship Him for who He is.

Humbly Submitted,

Dan

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The Four Second Freak-Out

This is one of my goals in life—maybe even a step beyond that.

Let me explain myself.

Since our personal history and environment affects us so much, I will start with telling you something that happened during my youth.  When I was growing up, I lived in a family situation where freaking out was pretty common.  I remember one time that my dad (before he came to know Christ) was really going ballistic in traffic as we were stopped by road construction.  As we sat there, my dad’s anger, frustration, and language flowed rather fast and very strong.  I remember how that it was not a pretty sight.

Even though I knew Christ as Savior (later my dad came to know Him, too), the surrounding influences on me to allow circumstances to send me into fits of frustration and fretting were very strong because I had never been taught how to react to adverse circumstances in any other way.  When I would face situations going against me, although my reactions were pretty different than my dad’s, I would still tend to freak out also.  My freak-out sessions would linger sometimes for weeks. (You know….unrest, anxiety, frustration, anger…..those type things.)

I remember that the church I was attending then was full of precious people who loved Christ and they were dear to my heart, but they never taught me that the Lord had freed me from actions such as these in my life. I am not sure why they never did. Most of the messages that I remember had to do with stuff like “Don’t cuss, don’t chew, and don’t run with those who do!”  Plus there was a lot of preaching on hell, fire, and damnation along the way. I am sure that these things had their importance for me and others at the time, but I still wonder why my church family did not also teach me about my freedom in Christ.

But as I began to grow in the Lord and in the knowledge of the Bible, I began to discover truths that began to help me take control of my “freak outs”.

Truths like…

Galatians 2:20 NIV
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. 
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me 
and gave himself for me.

II Corinthians 5:17-18  (NASB)

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed
away; behold, new things have come.  Now all  these things are from God……..

Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. 
In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

                     “….do not lean on your own understanding…”

This part of the verse in Proverbs really explained my freak-out problem. I would lean on my own understanding every time I faced situations beyond my control.

No matter what else I may call it, this is what I am doing when I freak-out; leaning to my own understanding, education, strengths, and self.  I believe that this factuality applies to us all.

No matter our education, years of maturity, or how much Bible we know, Proverbs 3:5-6 indicates that our own understanding is flawed and inadequate. Yet, we find ourselves leaning on it way too often.

And even though I was learning these truths, it was still pretty difficult for me to focus on His peace when things would go wrong.

 I sometimes still struggle with that today…as some of you also do occasionally I’m sure.

However, over the years, I began to see that these Bible truths were to be made active in my life by claiming them through faith.

          (Faith – another blog, another day)

That is, I needed to believe what God said about my new life in Christ in these verses, and begin to live that way.

Over time I began to see a change in myself.  As I would consciously believe and trust the Lord’s promises, my freak-outs were beginning to take on a new face.  (I was growing in the Lord.)

In the beginning, I might would freak-out for several weeks over an issue that was troubling me.

As I grew and matured in the Lord (and in His truth) those freak-out times tended to be reduced to a much shorter time – maybe four days…sometimes.

As things went along, it seemed that I would remember God’s promises and His Word a little sooner every time a freak-out opportunity arose.  Times of quality freak-out were beginning to be less and less….closer to the four hour mark.

Now–a-days, I hover between the four hour and the four minute mark (just ask those I work with).  But I am not content with that.  Freaking-out hurts.  It hurts me mentally, physically, and spiritually.  You see, when I freak-out, it is making a very bold statement that I am just not trusting the Lord very much, and that I am leaning on my own understanding a lot. Leaning on my own understanding gets in the way of acknowledging Him in all my ways, and it blinds me to seeing the path He wants for me.

Ouch!

Now, my goal is that when the freak-out begins, I consciously want to bring my belief and trust in the Lord online much more quickly.

I am working toward the four second mark on my freak-outs.

The four second freak-out…..  Sounds good doesn’t it?

I know, I know.  You ask, “Wouldn’t it be better to not freak-out at all?”

Of course it would.  And if you are like a few of my Christian friends (including my spouse), you just trust the Lord so much that you don’t freak out at all. I love people like that and enjoy hanging out with them. These people are my heroes, and I want to grow in my trust in the Lord up to where their level is.

(In fact, when I am with these people and something freak-outable 

happens, I sometimes get the urge to say to them, “Don’t worry, I got it 

all covered! You just relax. I’m really good at this and I will take care of

the freaking-out for us both!”)

Am I getting there?

Well, yeah…sort of.  I am in that constant process of trusting the Lord more and more in my everyday living, and as I do trust Him, I have less and less freak-out time going on in my life.

But when I do slip up and freak-out, I want it to last no more than four seconds until I remember the Lord’s promises and actually, by faith, quietly trust in Him.

And who knows, I may someday become like my Christian friends, and even break the zero second mark.

Just quietly trusting the Lord no matter what…….

Philippians 4:6-7 GW

          Never worry about anything. But in every situation let God know what you need in prayers and requests while giving thanks.

          Then God's peace, which goes beyond anything we can imagine, will guard your thoughts and emotions through Christ Jesus.

Love Ya,

Dan

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