Whirlwind or Soft Breeze Reactions

     We can either live in a soft breeze of the Spirit or a whirlwind of your own making.  It's the difference between walkin' in the Spirit or choosing the flesh.  In a persons life, something will happen and the person will immediately have the very worst first reaction possible. I've been there, done that (raises hand high to say "guilty"). When it turns out that it wasn't nearly as bad as it appeared in the beginning.  Which tells us that if they had remained in peace, it would have been a soft breeze of the Spirit but instead they made it a whirlwind and it takes a while for a whirlwind to stop spinning.
               The Bible says the enemy is like a roaring lion.  Meaning he wants us to become immediately afraid when he roars - but we do not have to allow fear to be our first reaction.  We must remember that he is LIKE a roaring lion with some stanky breath, but he isn't a lion, actually we serve the Lion of the tribe of Judah...the devil can only roar and if we refuse to react to his roar, we will remain in perfect peace and remain in the breeze that is the Spirit of God.
              I learned many years ago that my first reaction often determined the outcome.  It wasn't that God didn't want a good outcome; it was that my reaction of fear created an atmosphere where God could not work.  God works in atmospheres of faith.  God can still work it out for our good but our first reaction, if not one of faith, can also cause delays.
I have for years had First Responder training and unfortunately HAVE come upon instances where I was the connection between the incident and the EMS getting there. It's not a fun thing to have to do but I'm thankful for my training, but the first thing you're told to do is "remain calm" or you will be no good to anyone. Amazingly I HAVE been able to do just that in emergencies, some life and death ones. Ain't nobody want you to have a bad knee jerk reaction if their life is dependent upon it...am I right?! Can I get an Amen?! Ha ha
       Knee jerk reactions are not good ones usually because they are emotional ones (again, I've been guilty). This is why we generally have a bad first reaction; we allow our emotions to take over.  Because we allow our emotions to be in charge instead of our faith that starts a whirlwind of our own making. We need our faith to be our first response.  We need to see things from Gods perspective and ask that he would cause us to react in the manner that Jesus would react, in faith.
              This has truly been a battle of mine, of my mouth at times. It is vital to keep our mouth closed and our emotions in check until we can speak and respond in faith and faith alone.  I believe that this will affect our outcome and it will affect how long we remain in the battle. The Bible says we are to have a God kind of faith so we can continually walk in His peace, no matter what comes our way. Isn't that what we all want? To walk in continual peace.  I know it is what I want therefore I am determined in my heart to live in the soft breeze of His spirit, be led by His spirit and therefore walk in and remain in peace.  Praising God that His mercies are new every morning.

Walking Through the Fire

     Not long ago I read a story about a tree found in the West.  I don't remember the name but it is an unusual tree.  Every year it drops seeds to the ground, seeds from this tree continually fall,  and, the seeds just lay there.  They do not go into the ground and produce more trees; they just lay there...until a forest fire comes.  When the fire comes, these seeds begin to spring forth and sprout.  It is only in the fire that new life springs forth.

It is often that same way with us.  You will find that you grow the very most during difficult times.  You will find that you gain the most strength swimming upstream.  It is not in success that you learn to do things better, but in failures.  It's in the hard and challenging times that you learn to cling to God and to press on through to the other side. Those close to me know personally the fire I have walked through over the last three years. It's been hard. I've gotten angry, I've cried and I've thrown things, and I've had to dig my heels in to the dirt.   I've had to step out, and step up but I've grown tremendously, and become far more bold for Christ than I ever thought I could. 

Don't despise the fire, embrace it.  Welcome it.  Knowing that God is working in you and bringing you forth as gold.  He is bringing you to a place where you look, act and react just like Him.  He is causing all your seeds - and I know you have many - to spring forth and produce newness of life.  Trust Him in the fire.  Don't jump out.  Just trust Him - He will bring you through and you won't even smell of smoke.  It's His promise!

Isaiah 43:2  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

Investment

    I Was having lunch with friends today and we began to talk about investment. It's funny how certain words will etch into my heart and I become passionate about their meaning. Investment is one of those words that has deep meaning and strikes a passion in me because I believe deeply of its importance, and somehow knew I'd write about it.

I decided to look up its definition. This is what it said:

     A. To spend or devote for future advantage or benefit: invested much time and energy in getting a good education.

     B.To devote morally or psychologically, as to a purpose; commit: "Men of our generation are invested in what they do, women in what we are" (Shana Alexander).

C.  To endow with authority or power: The Constitution invests Congress with the power to make laws.

D. To install in office with ceremony: invest a new emperor.

E. To provide with an enveloping or pervasive quality: "A charm invests a face / Imperfectly beheld" (Emily Dickinson).

To invest, without question is to give something of yourself. It may be money, it may be time. It may be as simple as a season, or a life long thing. It could be sowing truth or encouragement. When saying the word, it's often thought of as investment of money and to gain something back in return, but upon any kind of investment, it's a very true reality that what is gained of an investment may never be actually seen by the investor....but instead others may gain from such an investment.

I can think of many times in and throughout my life where people have chosen to invest in me.  When they did that, they may or may not have been the beneficiary of the results of that investment.  I can think of a teacher, Mr. Gerlach, that I had in high school who saw me headed down a wrong path. He took time to pull me aside and call me out, and also recognized my athletic ability and invested time in redirecting me to use that ability and keep me running in the right direction with encouragement, truth and love. He, to my knowledge, did not benefit at all from this investment, except knowing in his heart that it was the right thing to do. However, this mans time of investing in me not only changed my WHOLE life, but effected all those I'd come across  in my future as a player, teacher, and coach, as well as my own children's lives.  

I can also name countless amount of others who have invested time into me and who may or may not have been the beneficiary of those results, but I thank God they chose to do so.

We live so much in a "microwave" society. We often want to see results quickly and or want something for nothing.

I know as a teacher that if I have a problem student, I need to invest more time into them. More often times than not, I see the results of this investment. My goal is two fold....yes I'd like to have less classroom difficulties with them, but I'd also, in the long run, like to see it benefit themselves and others down the road. It's about relationship.  In the inner city school I teach, I can't expect a kid, whose brought up in a world of learning to trust no one, to trust me if I don't work on that relationship. It takes time, it takes follow through, it takes doing what I said I would do. It takes commitment but more than that it takes compassion.  You want to see someone's life change, invest in it. Don't do it out of selfishness but out of selflessness. Not because you may benefit but because the future might.

So much of the time people don't want to take the time, but you can't expect to help build God's kingdom if your not willing to look past the walls of your own. Im so glad that God decided to invest His Son so that I could be set free, aren't you?

Treasure in Every Relationship in Every Season

     As I sit here today while visiting the Bahamas,  listening and watching the rain hit the palm leaves,  and thinking about how it's snowing back home, it made me think about the changing of seasons and weather.  Often we go through seasons with God and we go through times where he moves people into our lives and other times he moves people out of our lives, but that isn't always a bad thing or a negative thing.  It doesn't necessarily mean either of those involved are doing things wrong.  It does not have to mean that one person is more spiritual than the other or one is not seeking God enough - sometimes, as my friend says, we are simply growing in a different direction.
              We can look at most things from a good point of view, if we only try, it doesn't have to be that we are going in a different direction but that we are growing in a different direction - I think that is a more positive way to look at it, don't you?
               As I said there are times that God brings people into our life who will sow into our life and into our destiny however the time may come when you begin growing in a different direction and their time in your life is complete, again, this is not a bad thing and it doesn't have to be on a bad note or with bad feelings between those involved, if you are both following God you should be able to speak a blessing over each other and hope the best for one another.  I have seen many friendships end in bitterness and offense simply because God was moving one in a different direction - it doesn't have to be this way.
               Over the past twenty plus years God has brought many people in and out of my life - all those he brought into my life sowed something valuable into my life and I still treasure those things.  I will admit when I first realized God moved people out of my life, I was confused and sometimes hurt - but I learned that God has a plan and each person has a path to walk.  Along that path we will meet some people who are in our lives forever and some who are in for a season, both of these are a treasure and we have to learn to let go and let God perfect those things that concern us, as the scripture says in Psalms 138:8.  This scripture means that God will bring into our life all we need to perfect our life OR he will remove all that needs to be removed in order for our life to be perfected.  That's good news!  We can let God move people in and out of our life and trust that he is perfecting all things that concern us.
              There is a scripture I love from the New Living Translation, it says; Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.  Col. 2:7
              When our roots grow deep into him, only he knows which direction we will grow.  We have to trust him in that - we can trust him in that.  And we can allow seasons to end with peace and love.
     If God is reordering relationships in your life, pray that it will be done with love, peace and joy - and refuse to end relationships with bitterness or anger.   God showed me a long time ago that whatever way I end or walk out of one season is the way I begin or walk into a new season.  I want to enter into my new season with love, peace and joy - how about you?