Chaps Insites

Fresh Start

2009-10-01T18:14:00.000-07:00

Well the "beast" was unleashed. This is not as bad as it sounds. The fact is that this is not a "beast" that is mean and nasty, but a "beast" that has been cooped up inside. The strong leader that others have sensed the potential for, but that has remained deep inside. When finally told to step-up or step-out, the choice was to step-up. I pray that the choice to step-up remains with me each day. I will keep in communication with Jesus as He only is my strength. Thanks go to God and to those who saw the potential and pushed to bring it out of me!

Education

2009-09-08T02:42:00.000-07:00

Well a new school year is upon us. God has created us to learn and grow. The question is do we stop learning and growing after we die? I think not. If we did we would be quite bored in Heaven. We can however miss the idea behind learning. We so often fill our minds with answers, and forget to apply. We think it is enough to know the answer. Knowing the answer is "good", but applying the knowledge gained to the benefit of others is "best". This is proper schooling. May we ask God for the wisdom He longs to give so we can be the "best" students our Teacher produces.

Focus

2009-08-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

After a great day with buds floating down the St James, it is good to have conversation about focus. We start with focusing on the day as we drive up to the river, and end with focusing on others. If we view and treat others correctly, we will take care of them without worrying about our potential gain. When our focus is right, we are rewarded in ways that we never thought possible and we enjoy life as God intended. True Joy is serving others. Looking forward to Sunday and and a new week in which to serve others!

Keeping it simple

2009-08-21T04:42:00.000-07:00

It is a wonder we as human beings constantly complicate our lives. God set it up for us to simply trust and obey. We complicated matters when we chose to go against the simple plan of God. We allowed a warped thought process to invade our lives. This thought process has lead us to question whether God has our best interest in mind or not. It has also changed our focus from God to ourselves. We know and see how weak we are, and we wind up scared. If we would just open our eyes and focus on Jesus, knowing that this is how God sees us (through Jesus), we would not be afraid of people. Instead, we would have a healthy fear (respect) of God, and we would be moldable vessels in the hand of the Potter. Thank you Jesus for ALL you are and did to allow us to be held by our DADDY!!

Challenging

2009-08-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

Isn't it interesting how we get caught up in life and often forget to acknowledge the one who set us free from our leprosy? Just like the man who came back to thank Jesus, we need to be thanking Him every day. Our Healer continues without our thanks, but if not for Him we would not be clean. I pray as David prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presents O God, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and renew a right spirit within me." The challenge is to keep this perspective!!

Thank God!

2009-08-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

After a great day with God's people and a great time with my brother, I thank God! We talked of faithfulness and focus. When we are in the vine, we can be faithful and our focus can be on others. It is when our focus is on ourselves, we are unable to reap the benefits of being unselfish. God has made it really simple and all we do is complicate matters. If we stay in the vine and focused on others, we do not have time to complicate matters. Oh, to be faithful to commit to doing it God's way!

Does anyone Care?

2009-07-30T02:16:00.000-07:00

So often we ask ourselves, "Does anyone care?" If we look at the world today, with the economy, family struggles, and spiritual boldness, we may find ourselves so very alone. As Elijah or Jeremiah thought they were the only ones left, so often we think these erroneous thoughts also. God does not set us up for failure, so we must understand that He will bring along the encouragement and help we so desperately need. Thank God for His Son who continually makes intersession for us, and His Spirit who joins us as brothers and sisters in Christ. He is all the encouragement we need, and He really does Care!!

Forgiveness is Key

2009-07-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

True forgiveness is rare, but should be implemented in our lives. Some may say we are only human and ask if we as human beings can actually have true forgiveness. The answer is an overwhelming and resounding YES!! You see true forgiveness is a choice. As God chooses to truly forgive and forget, so we must do the same. We have all been forgiven of much, and so we must forgive others of much. God has done this for His fallen creation, and we are definitely no better than He is. I pray for thicker skin and a sensitive spirit. God requires His leaders to have this combination to survive in leadership. I pray this prayer, because leaders influence people, and that means we are all leaders in some capacity. The more God develops us the more forgiveness we are to show others. Forgiveness needs to become our natural response!!

Attitude is key

2009-07-27T05:52:00.000-07:00

After a long day at work yesterday, I reflect on the different things that happened at work and at church with God's people. God is graciously granting wisdom and leadership application at work. He deserves the credit! I hear about and see more and more leadership giving "half-efforts". God is reiterating to me as I read through the book of Isaiah, that He holds His leadership responsible for the attitudes of the people. Not that the people, themselves, aren't responsible, but the leadership does a poor job of leading by example. When we lead, people follow. When people see our heart lived out, they can catch the vision of the leadership and be confident that the leaders have their best interest in mind. The leaders are setting them up for success. The opposite is also true. When leaders fail to give 150% in everything they do, the followers see this attitude and assume the leader is just in the position for the title, not because he truly cares about the followers or getting the job done correctly. May we be like our Heavenly Father who gives us the tools we need to succeed, and sets us up for success EVERY time!

Iron Sharpens Iron

2009-07-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

Isn't it cool how God puts people in our lives at the right time. He knows what we need before we ask. God provides us with brothers that know exactly where we are coming from. We can hold each other accountable and share in each others lives. Once again confirming God's desire for relationships. Both with Him and with others. God is sooo Good!!

Relying on God

2009-07-23T01:48:00.000-07:00

Isn't it amazing how we rely on God for things we know we do not have the resources to handle or for things we cannot get? God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He owns everything, and His resources are inexhaustible. Why do we rely on ourselves and the limited resources that we know of. We should be looking to God for everything. God does provide everything, even to the smallest detail. He allows us to use the resources He has already made available. We are so selfish that we forget to thank Him for everything. We take the credit or give it to someone or something else. God forgive us. Forgive me. Everything we have and are is because of Jesus. May we not forget this!

Friends

2009-07-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

God is so much a God of relationships that He gives us friends. If we are a true friend, we listen, pray for, and confront. We are to be vulnerable. We should share our struggles and our victories, but caution goes out here. Be aware of the heart of your friends. Share with those who possess the wisdom that only God can provide. The wisdom to know when to speak out and when to keep what is shared confident. These friends are few and far between, but even Jesus had them. I pray that I would be this kind of friend with Jesus. To be open and honest about everything. Even when I know He knows, I try to hide specifics from Him. How stupid! It is that constant struggle with sin. I pray today, and may it be my prayer every day, that I die to myself so I am able to be God's vessel.

After a day of rest

2009-07-20T01:52:00.000-07:00

Thank God for a day of rest, and a day to be with His people. May this week be a constant reminder of living so others see Jesus. I choose to take the opportunities that so often I fail to take to demonstrate and share Jesus. This means my prayer is one of sensitivity and teachablity. I so often get in the way. May my eyes be on others and not on myself. May I be willing to go to the highways and byways as Jesus did. It is easy to address those we would normally hang with, but it is entirely different when we truly realize that God came to the ghetto to rescue us. We so often think of ourselves much more highly then we aught to think. Let us choose today to think through God's eyes.

New Every Morning

2009-07-19T03:33:00.000-07:00

Having rest is refreshing. Having a new day to make an impact for Jesus is rewarding. Even after we decided to be selfish and do things our way, God set us up for success. He knew we would expend our energy during the day, so He gave us time for rest. Time to renew our bodies and our minds. Time to reflect on yesterday yet move forward with today learning from yesterdays frustrations. Thank God for an opportunity to minister day after day. We need to keep being filled with God's Word so others can benefit from the overflow. Every morning is new for us. I pray we use the opportunities to minister and be light and salt for Jesus.

The Good Shepherd

2009-07-17T02:11:00.000-07:00

Well, once again God has proven Himself to be the Good Shepherd. His protection from outside enemies and from ourselves is outstanding! This should not surprise us as much as it does, after all, God does not change. What is surprising to us as sheep is the continued longsuffering of the shepherd with our foolish wanderings. I thank God that He is slow to anger and quick to forgive. His holiness and justice give Him every right to get angry with our foolishness, but being the perfect balance, His love and longsuffering enable Him to be so quick to forgive. I think of the times in Scripture where God was so frustrated, that He repented for making man. It is His desire to have interaction with His creation, who is able to reciprocate His love because they want to, that keeps human beings around. Too many time we have snubbed our noses at our Shepherd and gone our own way. Thank God for longsuffering!!

God Loves Relationships

2009-07-16T03:25:00.000-07:00

It started with God creating humans. I was driving with my boy last night, and he asked me, "Are we animals?" My answer was of course no, but the conversation ensued. "Daddy, we are mammals." I told him, he was absolutely correct, but that God made a distinction between humans and animals. We are the only mammals made in God's image. We have a living "soul". Animals are not going to live forever in a relationship with God. God wanted interaction so He created human beings. After sharing this with my boy, he said God really loves us then. I asked him to explain. He said that we are the only ones with the freedom to choose. He gets it!! What an awesome God!!

Oh the Coalation

2009-07-15T02:17:00.000-07:00

Isn't it ironic how God takes what He originally designed (a perfect world in perfect relational unity), and reveals it through His body, the Church, to society. God, being the relational being that He is, desired a relationship with His creation, but He wanted His creation to reciprocate the desire for a relationship with Him. Thus, He made man in His image, with the same relational desires. Without selfishness (sin at it's root form), man, God's creation that is able to reciprocate, and God can have undisturbed relations. Because of selfishness, man has to learn to re-think the importance of correct relationships. First man has to have a correct relationship with God, and then man has to allow his relationships with others to be relationships about others. No wonder Jesus said the greatest Commandment was to love God with our whole being, and the second was to love others as ourselves. It is all about having the correct relationships. Relationships that do not have "selfishness" muddying the waters.

Learning How to Respond

2009-07-14T01:59:00.000-07:00

God brings about the opportunities, and we have not practiced listening to the still small voice...or have we? We have not practiced responding to the still small voice. The prayer should be for our ready response. The thing is the opportunities are there, we have asked for the eyes of God to see them, and know we must ask for our minds to be so filled with God's Word that our natural response is Jesus. Feeding our minds with Jesus is key. The old adage, "garbage in; garbage out" is so true. Our response to God's opportunities is garbage if we are not filling our thought tanks with Jesus. God forgive me for garbage responses, due to my lack of Jesus' attitude.

What a Better Place to Start

2009-07-13T02:27:00.000-07:00

When God speaks He uses a still small voice that bellows volumes. He does not need to yell, although He would have every right to do so. He merely needs to catch the attention of His audience. This means His audience needs to be listening for His voice. As Isaiah puts it so well, it bares repeating, "I am a man of unclean lips." The prayer is as David prayed, "Create in me a clean heart oh God, and renew a right spirit within me." The idea is to have the heart and eyes of Jesus. "Others" focused and to God be ALL the credit. Thanks be to God who makes this possible through Jesus. May we be about His business when He returns.