Am I Too BUSY????

Being that I have not posted any devotions on this blog in over a year, I feel that this may be an appropriate question to ask on this post.  Life has a way of getting in the way of our spiritual walk.  I have personally seen this over the last few years.  My children are in school, I have worked on and completed a Master's Degree (yeah), and my wife has gone back to school to finish a degree after a six year absence from college.  Our lives got real busy, real quick.  This does not include my new job as an Assistant Principal at a high school, and all of the things my children participate in after school.  My wife and I joke about when we will see each other on the weekends.  The question then becomes, have I become too busy for God?

John 15:5-6
 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned."

Our personal relationship with Christ is a crucial part of our daily lives.  Just like any other relationship, we need to devote time to the other individual to make the relationship a success.  I have been a Christian for almost 20 years now, and I still find that I struggle with devoting quality time with my Savior.  When we do not put in the time for that relationship, it becomes strained and our life is not as fulfilling as God wants it to be.  The same is true in a marriage.  If you want the marriage to work, you have to put the time into it.

So, what is it that we use to fill our time?  Are those things a part of God's plan for my life?  Do we spend an adequate time in study, prayer, and worship?  Hopefully, answering these questions will give you some perspective as it has me.

Thanks for reading, and I pray God blesses you all this week.

Personal Time

You know, it is not easy to get a chance to spend quality time with my wife. She is an amazing woman, and deserves all that I can give to her. But it just seems that something always gets in the way. Sometimes it is the kids. We have three wonderful children and I would not trade them for the world. But we stay so busy with them, that we are wore out by the time we get them in the bed. And if I do hug or kiss my wife, they want to be apart too and squeeze their way in between us. Sometimes its my job. Working as a high school teacher and a varsity coach, my schedule is never set. Sometimes I get home around 4:30 in the afternoons, and sometimes I am lucky to get home before midnight. Life always seems to get in the way of continuing to grow our relationship. I find that the same is true with God. How often do we try to grow our relationship with God?

Matthew 22:36-38
"“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment."

Here in this passage we see Christ quoting from the book of Deuteronomy on the greatest commandment which is to love God above all else. I noticed while reading this verse that it is meant for an individual. "You" should love God with all "your" heart, soul, and mind. Not, your family should love. Not, your church should love. Not, your spouse should love. But you should love Him. This denotes that we as individuals should be devoting ourselves, by ourselves, to loving God. It has to be personal. I know of many individuals who only pray when with family, and they never talk to God unless it is a large group doing so. Now don't get me wrong, coming together as brothers and sisters for worship and prayer time is a great thing. However, it should not be the only time that we set aside to develop that relationship. A proper relationship takes individual time and devotion to cultivate.

A good way to see this is in the relationship of King David and God. The Psalms of David give us an insight into the personal time and devotion that David spent with God. Now David still had his problems. He is also known as a man after God's own heart. There was a true relationship there. He still had his sins and shortcomings that He had to deal with. And we can see this in the lament of some of his prayers to God in these Psalms. But that is true of everyone's relationships. Even between my wife and I, we sometimes fall short. There are a lot of times that we have to apologize to each other. And that will never change. This difference between our relationship with each other, and our individual relationship with God is that He will never fall short. He will never fail us in any way.

So what do we need to do to grow our own relationship? We need to do a few simple things. 1) We need salvation. We cannot have that relationship with God unless we accept His Son and make Him the Lord and Master of our lives. 2) We need to humble ourselves before Him. We need to come to a place where we truly see who God really is, and what we are not. Sometimes we come to pray and do so selfishly. We pray for what we think is right, and what we want, instead of praying for the will of God to be done. 3) We need to set aside and guard our personal, private prayer time. By getting alone daily to pray and commune with God, we can develop that relationship with God. 4) We need to spend time each day in the Word. Whether it is a devotional book, Christian websites that teach scripture, or just opening the book and studying, we need to individually learn everything we can about God. We do the same when we try to date that guy, or that girl. We learn everything we can about them so that relationship can grow. What better way to learn about God, than to read His Word.

So, how is your personal relationship with God right now?

Thanks for reading, and God bless you all!

Needing Some Support

As I prepare for the upcoming soccer season at my school, I am in the stage of planning practices and strategies to help my team be successful this year. I have found that I have a couple of outstanding players, and I tend to plan around them. I make sure they those key people get the ball and go to work. However, these few athletes cannot do it alone. Without the support of the team, they themselves will never be successful. This made me think of the purpose of church in our lives.

Acts 2:44-47
"And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved."

It is very hard sometimes to go at it alone. It becomes lonely, and hard to complete the task at hand. But, when you have someone with you, it makes life a little bit easier. Just think about daily living. It is easier to witness to others when you have a brother or sister with you. It is also easier to fight temptations when you are around fellow believers. The support is also there when you are in need. This is one of the many functions of the church. To support the brethren. If you read through the book of Acts, you will see that even the Apostles traveled with companions on their journeys. They worked together, the prayed together, and even endured hardships together.

I love going to church on Wednesday nights. It gives me a chance to spend time with brothers and sisters, and gives me a spiritual booster shot to finish the week. As head of the FCA at my school, I along with two very special students, have organized bible study twice a week before school starts. This has also been a huge blessing to me. I feel strengthen by them when we pray together, and when we share God's word together.

Hebrews 10:24-25
"And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near."

So I encourage you today, spend as much time with fellow believers as you can. Go to church as much as you can, whether it is actual church time, nightly bible studies, pray meetings, witness teams, or whatever is going on that gives you a chance to spend time with each other. Encourage each other. Support your brothers and sisters in their time of need. Share with them your struggles so that you have others praying for you and helping you. You will find that life is so much better when you are not alone.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless you all this week!

Stay Close

I am forever amazed at some of the things that a child can play with, and it keep their attention for long periods of time. Now there are a lot of things at my house that we have to keep on lock-down because we do not want them to play with them and lose them. Such as the flashlight. I have yet to meet a kid that did not love to play with a flashlight, day or night. But, they seem to have trouble putting them back where they need to go. And when the lights go out, it is an interesting task to find them. One of the things that I have noticed that my kids love to play with is an umbrella. There is some fascination with watching it open up, and hiding underneath. Whether it is raining or not. Or whether they are in the house or outside, they do not care. The funny thing is, when it rains, they do not want to use it then. They want to run out in the rain and feel it falling on them. Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoy it sometimes too. But, my kids do not like to use the umbrella for its real purpose. Many times my wife and I will tell them to stand real close so they will not get wet. For when the umbrella is used correctly, it protects us all. This reminds me of a verse in the book of James.

James 4:8
"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded."

We will face many storms in this life. Whether they come as a tragedy, financial hardship, or relationship problems, we all will have struggles. The question is, are we prepared for them when they happen? Or the proverbial question, "Do we keep and umbrella around all the time just in case?" The best thing we can do is to draw close to God. By striving in our lives to form a good relationship with our Heavenly Father, He will get closer to us. Just like we tell our kids to stand close under the umbrella to keep them dry, we should draw close to God when we are faced with our troubles. And He is faithful to us to see us through.

Jeremiah 30:17a
"For I will restore you to health, And I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares the LORD."

Now some people think that their problems are too big for them to handle. And they are right. There are many things that we cannot handle on our own. But my God is bigger than any problem imaginable. My God is greater than anything. And as long as I draw near to Him, I know that everything will be alright. This reminds me of a song that I like to hear on K-love. The name of it is "Our God" by Chris Tomlin. The link to the song on You Tube is below if you would like to listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oksdb06SsTM&feature=fvsr (If this does not work, you can go to youtube.com and search "Our God" by Chris Tomlin)


Thanks for reading, and God Bless You all this week!

Line of Communication

I was blessed to have the opportunity to speak this past Sunday at my church. I always enjoy this chance to share what God places on my heart, and yet there is a load of responsibility that goes with it. Did I use the right verses? Did I misinterpret something? Did I make the point that was needed? Did I make a difference? All of these questions I used while praying for the message that God wanted. Now I do not claim to hear God's voice directly, but I believe that He uses subtle clues, i.e. lays on your heart what needs to be said. In this case it came from a young man that asked me what exactly is a personal relationship with God. I gave him an answer and had a good witness session with him, but the question kind of stuck with me. I started studying my bible and could not find anywhere that it used the phrase "personal relationship." This was perplexing. So I started thinking about what it means to have a good relationship. This lead me to a sermon. One of the big keys that I discovered while studying was the need for communication. Most of us sadly only seem to pray when we are at church, before we eat, and at bedtime. Lets think just for now about your spouse, significant other, special family member. How would your relationship be with that person if you only spoke to them before a meal, right before sleep at night, and three other times a week? The divorce rate might be higher. This lead me to think, what is the status of my relationship with God. When to I talk to Him? I come to find that my relationship was not too good. I mean, if you think about the person that only talks to you when something is wrong or wants something, does God see us the same way. Don't get me wrong, I know that God loves us all, but do you think He gets tired of us trying to use Him, instead of serve Him. Psalm 145 teaches that God draws near to all who pray to Him. We need that closeness with our creator. One of the other ways to best communicate with Him is constant study. The bible is the life story and legacy of Christ. By taking time to read and find out who He was, what He did for us, and what He expects of us, deepens our relationship. We have to ask the question, do we really know our Lord, and does He know us? John 10:24-28 reads "The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand." So I ask again. What is the state of our relationship with our Lord. Do we commune with Him often, or only at the appointed time or when we need something.

Thanks and God Bless You all this week!