We Have Nothing To Lose

Since your future is absolutely secure and since your future is absolutely glorious you are freed not to grasp and crave and scratch after power and money and pleasure on earth you are liberated to love like nobody else loves. You are liberated to be engaged in politics, liberated to be engaged at work, liberated and engage in the neighborhood caring about what the world looks like, feels like, experienced like, whatever happens to you, you are home free. The future being rapped, a hope being set out there that absolutely makes your future certain makes you an absolutely free person who doesn’t need to mount up stuff as thought this were heaven, got have a heavenly house, got to have a heavenly neighborhood, got to have a heavenly car, heavenly cabin, heavenly kids you don’t. Heaven will come soon enough we are here to serve. Unless you become a slave of all men you can’t even be my disciple... Give yourself away to this world and if it cost you I promise you in the name of Jesus Christ it will be worth it. Every cost will be worth it. By John Piper, Pastor, Desiring God Sermon

We as believers who have faith and by the total grace of God have the liberty to live our lives fully engaged with NO FEAR for our future is already secured in Heaven. We are to give our lives away for others at all cost. It was freely given to us therefore we have no investment in it other than to give it away.

As Jesus said in Matthew 6:20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

As Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

So my friends engage don’t be afraid for heaven is really only a few days, months, years away and this short time will be inconsequential to that of eternity. Thank you John Piper for such clarity.

My Salvation

I am being conformed to the image of Christ through God’s Grace. This Grace is the calling from God for me to follow His will not mine. His will for me was set before I was conceived. This Grace is brought about through the complexities and experiences of my life. The choices, events and circumstances of my life are all a part of the process of forming me to the likeness of Christ, His one and only Son He sent to us in the flesh so we could have a tangible teacher to show us the way to God our true Father. God provides this Grace and path to me for the sake of God’s Kingdom and the world around me. I experience God molding transforming me in the innate driveness inside me that is never content that I am always striving to be a better man and now that I have heard His call a holier man. What Jesus has taught me is both and accession but also a sense of losing myself or better put a dying to my own will (self actualization or self fulfillment). As I pick up my cross I learn to live not for myself but for the Father.

Interweaved through my life is the constant presence evil. A counter spiritual presence that wants to keep me from God’s love and will. I know deep within me there is something set against me trying to prevent my relationship with God. I understand I am living in a fallen world, one of intense evil and good. Good things happen and so do bad things. What I have come to experience is God makes good out of those times when I do succumb to evil and fall away from his Grace. For God understands the evil one is so adept to getting me to go the opposite direction from God’s love. I also know that God gave me a choice to choose His good or the devil’s fallen way. Choice is the foundation of Love. For God’s knows that Love is not something born out of any kind of force or coercion. I must understand there are two realms to the world in which my soul and body reside. One is the world of what I can see that is tangible this where my body resides. The other realm is that of my spirit. This spiritual realm is much like the physical world in that it has an order and a process to it. The major difference is that the physical world is bound by time where as the spiritual world is timeless. Both worlds invade each other or better put they are intertwined. God uses both realms in order to conform me to be in His image (don’t be conformed to the things of this world).

One of the biggest dangers that evil uses against me is to make me believe is the absence of a spiritual world. This lie is the foundation of the fallen world or as we call it culture to a great extent. For evil teaches me only to believe what I can physically see and what my human rational mind can validated. This is where God’s calling comes into place in my life. He nudges me and if need be He invades my life with His presence to bring me a reminder that I was created in His image to be more than I being. These nudges and invasions if not paid attention to go unheeded by me sometimes for years and years. I can recall now so many nudges and invasions by God in my past. I just did not know how to listen or understand what God was saying to me. Most of the time they came in the form of irritations; broken relationships, failures, and more often just sadness and depression feelings of something is not right with my heart. It is for me that looming thought “I am not where I am supposed to be.” As if I want to say out loud “Mike stop go the other direction.” This is to me is what repent means. I am learning to respond to God’s call more often. As I let God into my daily life He begins to purge those things in my life that have gotten in the way of knowing Him. I see life differently now. I have begun to have a deep personal relationship with Him. He has grown to be my best friend, my confidant, and my ultimate power. I love Him more than life or anything in it.

Now that I am listening God is always purging me of my old ways. He is now my General my true Father. I do nothing without Him. I have a passion to follow Jesus and to learn how He lived how he brought the Kingdom to Earth. So I see life differently and do things differently. I am trying to become of servant to the world just like Jesus did by giving up my wants and needs so I can serve others with my skills, talents, wisdom and most importantly with the love in my heart. This pouring out of myself often empties me. I become worn out, burned out on life and religion. I must therefore go back to the well of the Lord to fill up. The only way I find to fill up is to spend time with God; to BE with God to seek is His company and to speak with Him, to let Him put things upon my heart. As I spend time with Him, He pours into me his Grace and love. It fills my heart and soul so that I can again pour out to others in my life. This pouring out illuminates me, it shows me the Kingdom and I experience in my heart God’s true love for me. I feel on purpose, alive like I have never felt before. I now have the eyes, ears, and heart to experience how I was made to be; a Kingdom builder!

Being with God requires activities that put me in a place to recognize and receive his Grace which means the way he communicates to me. These activities are contained in my survival kit which consists of fasting, a letting go of or dying a little, removal of things in my life so that I can focus without distraction on God. I am learning to silence the world around, so that I hear His still small voice, that heaviness on my heart. I seek solitude to find Him then I sit back and notice what He is doing in and around me. My priorities are to remain in Him, loving all God’s children, and bearing witness to God’s goodness to all that will listen and watch in me.

In order to stop the onslaught of evil in my life I must be disciplined and I must take up the battle against evil. I need to train, practice, and go to war in order to maintain my relationship with God. He has provided me the spiritual disciplines as weapons and tools to keep his Kingdom in my life. It is this regular practice and training that always me to win the war and to work out my salvation for the good of God. I ask God my Father for the heart, soul, mind and strength to do His will. Lord I am yours do what you will with me. Save me from evil. Let me see the Kingdom. Take me from here to be with you.

Where I am at today!

A letter to a friend this week reads:

All is well in the war over my heart and the hearts of my family and friends. I still listen to both Piper and Boyd. I enjoy the two points of view. I love Greg Boyd for his view of the Warrior Jesus who came to save us and show us how to fight the real battle for our hearts and how evil so is present in our lives. I love John Piper for his solid theology and reverence. I don’t get too caught up in any one preacher. My faith is not based upon any preacher, pastor or priest. These are men with their own beliefs and take on God’s word. I find little comfort in religion or denominational churchs. I find my relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit much more grounded in the Word and in talking, praying and watching God at work in my life and in those around me. Life to me now is much different; it is all Spiritual, it is all about evil and good(love) nothing in between. I don’t DO Christianity, I walk with God and try to do what he ask me to do. I try to live like Christ somehow and read how he said to do life, to do life from the heart and build his kingdom. I find no value in rational thinking, I find value in love. Where that takes me I have not a clue I just try to live differently as did Jesus.

In Service for God!

Movies To See

Here are some great movies I have watched over the last few years. I have ranked them 1=Good, 2=got to watch it sometime, 3=Put it on the list, 4=Must See, 5=Foundational go get it today

Freedom Writers 4
Luther(2003) 5
King David 4
How to Know God 3
Beyond the Gates 4
The Final Inquiry 4
Gabriel 4
Into the Wild 4
Last Sin Eater 3
Kingdom of Heaven 4
The Gospel of John 5
Off the Map 2
The Man from Snowy River 4
The Cowboys 4
One Night With the King 4
A Good Year 3
The Ultimate Gift 5
Conversations With God 5
Amazing Grace 5
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room 3
Jesus Camp 3
Sweet Land 3
The Passion 5
Water 4
The Nativity Story 5
A History of God 4
Born Rich 4
Peaceful Warrior 3
God Grew Tired of Us 3
Braveheart 2
Gladiator 2

This list is not meant for entertainment purposes but to offer you and I an opportunity to feel our hearts, see our faith, and experience love. Seeing the pain, joy, and love of other's stories moves us to discover our own hearts. There is some much for us to learn about how life really is not just this surface busy life, where we are all just trying to get ahead or keep from going backwards.

I hope will at least watch the movies with a 4 and 5 next to them. As always if you have a 4 or a 5 rated movie drop a comment to me so I make sure I add it my list. Most of these movies where recommendations from others and I am eternally grateful for their suggestions.

A CHRISTmas Gift - the gift of Joy

In keeping with doing life differently I wanted to make CHRISTmas 2007 different not partake in the materialism of culture. This letter to my Grandmother should summarize how giving something from the heart is what Jesus wants us to do.

Dear Gram- 12-27-2007

A late merry CHRISTmas to you! The three DVDs you see in this package are pictures of our family taken over the past 40 years. I have scanned and organized over 2,000 photos dating back to the 1940’s. After having scanned all the paper photos to digital I then organized them loosely by decade. The next step was to put them into a format in which I could share them with anybody especially those who don’t have access to a computer. The DVD can be played on any DVD player that one has attached to their TV.

I wanted to also share with you the reason for making this project. It was about the Joy of the past. Photos are a great way to remember the GOOD in life, the joy of specials days like CHRISTmas, birthdays, births and family visits. It is our human nature to remember the bad parts of life; the tough days but we need something to remember the joy. I hope this brings tears of happiness to you as it did for me. It reminds of how blessed I am to have lived a life filled with great people such as you.

In making this project I wanted to show my kids the joys of my life as grew up. It is important that they see the people who shaped me. So as I show them these same movies they ask lots of questions and it is in those times I share with them the great and joyful memories of the past.

Lastly this project was about celebrating the birth of Jesus the way he would have wanted us to celebrate how his birth changed us all. I believe he wants us to share joy of his new covenanted; his new way of life and life that was so different then that of the Old Testament. Jesus showed us how to love everybody no matter what. In this season of CHRISTmas I celebrate in a new way, to give gifts to which tell them how much I love them. This means giving from the heart not the wallet. Its not about the material things its about gifts of love. To give something that means something or crafted by your heart means so much more than a shirt that goes out of style in a few years. A great example of this is the fisherman’s sweater you knitted and gave to me at CHRISTmas many years ago. I still wear it and it keeps my heart warm thinking about how great of gift and its memory of you and the time it took you to make it. Thank you!

In closing I am also sorry for not being present in your life. I promise to make in a priority to make it to Maine this summer with the kids so they may get to know you.

With great love I give this gift. May you remember the joy of time spent with us and the family you bore, a family that makes earth more like God’s intended kingdom.

Love, Michael

Here is a little 3 minute sample of the video I created using Microsoft PhotoStory 3.

Things I don't do enough of

Things I don't do enough of;

-showing my kids how much I love and respect them.

-telling my co-worker how much it means to have them apart of our mission.

-telling my mom and dad how thankful I am for moral support, for how they raised me, for being role models, for being nice people.

-telling my mom how much it means to me that she loves my daughter and shows it all the time.

-offering my friends more of my time.

-praying for God to help me with my flaws

-showing the joy that I have inside.

-telling my sister how gifted and proud I am of her strength and capacity.

-telling everyone how much I enjoyed being married.

-expressing how hard divorce is on me.

-telling how hard being an entrepreneur is everyday.

-playing with my kids.

-giving hugs.

Help me God with these things you so want me to do.