Day 284 - Shame Killer

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file.

**********

"I believe that understanding our place before God is the start of some personal healing that might help you too break the bonds in your life that have taken hold as a result of your attempts to cope with the cloud of shame you sometimes feel around you."

As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 61.

Our Bible reading is one we all need to take to heart. It says,

Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.
    Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth
    and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. Isaiah 54:4 (NIV)

I descried shame in our lives as being a cloud from time to time. When we are in a cloud, things are much more difficult to see. The fogginess that surrounds us when we are stuck in shame makes navigating this world a challenging and dangerous task. Just ask any sailor about navigating in fog. It is in those time when things are hard to see that we had better be paying the most attention or accidents will happen.

I have said this before but it is worth repeating. Shame is all about identity. Where guilt is the feeling we have when we have done something that we think is wrong, shame is thinking that we are bad because of the bad things we have done. It is when we let our identity be shaped or confirmed by things we do that victim thinking really takes hold in our lives.

Shame is all about condemnation. In Christ, there is no condemnation. That means believers should be in places where, when shame hits, they are able to quickly side step this obstacle to victor living. How do we get out of shame? I think the most powerful means of keeping shame in check is a proper view of who you are. That's where I have learned God has to be part of the picture.

You see, when I use anything other than God's view of me to define and confirm my identity, I'm setting myself up for that terrible feeling of shame. When I use things I can do to make me feel like a particular identity is possible, everything is OK until the things I do don't rise to the level needed to support that identity. The more the things I do seem to fail me, the more identity comes more into question. It is in those times when things that I do can bring shame into my life in ways God never intended.

When I am in a place where I understand God's view on identity, I can be a part of the process of defending my life from the debilitating effects of shame. It is when I stand in the faith of being a victor even when victory is far from my experience that shame becomes so much easier to deal with in my life. Failing to see my life the way God does makes it possible for my life to be influenced in ways that God never wanted to happen.

Our reading today starts with three important words. It says, "Don't be afraid..." Fear is what makes shame possible in the first place. It is when we are afraid that those we think are important in our lives might think less of us because of what we have done or failed to do that shame can play a role in our lives. That fear of what others think is what makes shame possible. Our reading today says, "Don't be afraid..."

We don't have to fear shame from God. He can't be ashamed of us. If He is, then Jesus' death was a total waste of time. Shame comes from the condemnation for the things we have done wrong. Jesus died to pay the penalty for all that we have done, are doing and will do wrong. If that is true, why would God feel shame and why would He condemn us? It was ALL paid for by Jesus' sacrifice. We can choose to live a life free of shame. Why aren't we living in that place more in our lives?

I believe it is because, deep down inside, we still believe that it is all up to us. We think we have to be the ones to create and maintain our identities. We think we have to be the ones to pay for all the badness that we might be tempted to allow in our lives. Those are the doors that let shame in. It is when we allow shame to shape our identity that victim thinking makes its presence knows all too well in our lives.

What's the answer to all this? Our reading has it right. It says "You will forget the shame of your youth..." We forget the shame of the past when we live in that place where shame doesn't exist. That's the place God's children are given the chance to live as they walk in their relationship with Him. It is when we let go of the past and let what God says about us be all we need for identity to be the power behind all we do, that shame moves to the background.

Our place before God is assured. We have every right to stand before this God that loves us. There is where He wants us to be. Nothing we have done or will do can change what He thinks about us. His thoughts have nothing to do with shame and condemnation. They have everything to do with relationship and love.

Step into the identity God has paid a high price for you to have today. Let your victor status destroy all the shame that this world will try to get you to take on as your day unfolds before you. 

Day 283 - Keeping a Watchful Eye

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file.

**********

"Stop doing and not doing because you are told so and start looking for what God is doing and join in with Him."

As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 81.

Jesus had this amazing ability to deal with religion in a perfectly acceptable way. He wasn't concerned with the do's and don'ts of the day as much as He was concerned with what His father was doing. Check out what Christ said about how He applied religious duty in His life.

Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. John 5:19-20 (NIV)

In our reading today, Jesus was answering His critics who were ready to kill Him. What was Jesus' offense that deserved death? Christ dared to refer to God as His Father. Jesus was about to be stoned for the audacity of thinking that this unapproachable, unknowable and all powerful being was someone a mere man could call Father.

To the 1st century Jew, that was unheard of. Worse than that, it was about the most debase thing a person could do to blaspheme their God. They had a picture of God that had so little to do with relationship. Jesus was rocking that boat in a big way. He made a lot of enemies on this day. At the same time, He made it possible for you and for me to be the victor God sees us to be by stepping into the middle of a controversy that continues to this day.

What I find totally amazing is the first line of our reading. Jesus says that He can do nothing by Himself. That's so crazy. This is the same guy who helped design and implement a little project called our universe! To think that He can't do anything on His own is such a wild statement. What Jesus goes on to say is that what He does is only what the Father is doing. I believe that a lot of the victim thinking that happens in the Church today is a direct result of us not doing what Jesus did when He walked the earth. Let me explain that a bit more.

You see, it wasn't the rules and regulations that motivated Jesus to action. He couldn't care a bit about what the Church thought about what He did. Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. That meant that Jesus ran head long into direct conflict with the Church from time to time. When he healed on the Sabbath, He broke their rules. When His disciples picked food on the Sabbath, He broke their rules. When he talked to the Samaritan woman, He broke their rules. Jesus isn't concerned about religious rules to the detriment of a relationship with His Father - our God. The same should be said about our walk with God as well.

It is when we try to live a life filled with dos and don'ts that we get into places where victim thinking can really take over. God doesn't consider us victors because we are good at keeping a bunch of rules. We are victors because He sees us as His children. That fact has the power to change our view of life in ways that makes victim thinking that much harder to let into our lives.

Jesus was constantly looking for signs of the Father's presence. When He saw it, He responded with little regard to what others thought. When we follow the dos and don'ts put on us by others, all we can think about is what others think. Same goes with relationship with God. When we think we draw closer to God by doing and not doing we are focused on what God thinks about us. Rules and regulations do nothing for relationship other than make us think we don't measure up when we aren't able to follow those rules.

Making our relationship with God about rules and regulations automatically allows us to believe that God might think less of us. It is when we fail to keep the rules that we are tempted to think God might not be for us at all. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Following this God of ours isn't about keeping a bunch of rules and regulations. It is about seeing Him in our lives and moving in the directions He is moving in. Seeing Him is that much more possible when we live as God sees us! If we entertain thoughts that God isn't pleased with us or doesn't love us because we fail from time to time, it is so much harder to see Him in and around our lives.

How do you know where God is moving? It is always in the lives of those around us. Without fail, God is moving in the lives of people we come into contact with and He wants us to join Him in that movement. It might be as simple as a kind word to that person that is having a bad day. It might be helping someone out you have never met before. It might be making a phone call that you have put off for way too long now. It might be stopping what you are doing and just praying for someone who popped into your mind. God is constantly on the move. He wants us to join Him in that movement. It is rarely though our ability to keep rules and regulations that we will see His movement all around us.

Make today really count. Open your eyes and see where God is working. Join Him in that work and see what happens. Your victor status might just be the power needed to help another Child of God's step more fully into the identity they are struggling to make happen in their lives today. 

Day 282 - Destiny's Motive

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file.

**********

"Our destiny isn’t determined by our ability to get our will, intellect or emotions in line with what we believe our destiny is supposed to look like. Our destiny is determined by our knowledge of God."

As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 115.

Oh how my world would be different if I really understood and applied what I quoted. I have spent my life trying to get the powerful resources of my soul focused on making the destiny I want for my life to happen. How has all that worked out? Honestly, not all that great. 

I can give you shining examples where my soul driven efforts have paid off in big ways. I can just as easily give you glaring examples where the opposite was just as true. Fact is that failures I have experienced have cost my soul way more than the success will ever be able to repay. That's the problem when we look to ourselves to make something as important as destiny happen in our lives. The identity focused aspects of destiny just can't work to our advantage by applying a "win some, lose some" strategy. 

It is when we surrender to the notion that something bigger is in control of our destiny that the victories in life are so much sweeter and the defeats don't hurt quite as bad. I believe that we have taken this concept of surrender to an ends that just isn't true. Some mistakenly believe that surrendering to God means that our desires go out the window. I just don't see that to be correct. Who do you think put those desires there in the first place?

Sure we have done a lot to taint those desires with motives that aren't all that God focused. I just don't think that is an issue that God doesn't pay a lot of attention to. He knows our motives are going to be mixed at best. It is when we remember that God isn't concerned about the outcome as much as the process of getting to that outcome that we begin to live more fully as the victor He sees us to be. 

You see, us getting things done isn't very concerning to God. He doesn't need us to get done what He wants. The Bible says He created all we see, know and experience by speaking everything into existence. Compared to that kind of power, why does He need such limited creatures as humans to do everything from this point on? It isn't that He needs us to make our destiny happen. It is that He wants to be in relationship as we work together to see destiny be all it can be in our lives. 

I used a word earlier that made me think of today's Bible reading. Tainted is what happens when we let the world sway us into thinking we are on the hook when it comes to destiny and how it effects identity. Check out our reading with me now.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27 (ESV)

There are only two things that God sees that we need to do to make religion be all it can be in the lives of a victor. The first is to visit orphans and widows. This has to do with relationship and compassion. God wants us to love Him and to love others. Love takes time. Love requires an intentionality about it that we sometimes just don't think we have time to let happen in our lives. Without this kind of love, we are but a clanging gong in the world we live in as far as religion is concerned.

The second thing God says keeps us pure and undefiled is when we keep ourselves unstained by the world. I believe this goes to motive. Why do we do the things we do? What is the real reason for wanting your destiny to happen in the first place? I said it earlier, that God knows our motives will always be mixed at best. What I think this verse is saying is that we too need to recognize our mixed motives and be open with God about them.

I was on a phone call with a friend today. I was telling him about a meeting I am having with a person we both have recently met. This person has proven to be kind of hard to get to know. I felt the need to reach out and schedule a meeting with this person. My friend asked me why I wanted to schedule the meeting with this this friend of ours. That kind of stopped me in my tracks. For once, I really wanted to know what my motives were.

After a couple minutes of discussion and reflection I came up with two very interesting and real answers to this question that goes directly to motive. My first answer is that my personality is wired in a way that needs to know I can trust a person before I even contemplate let that person into my life. I want to meet with this acquaintance to see if this person is safe and can be let in. I want relationship but on my terms. That's not a very good motive for a productive and impacting relationship to be brutally honest. The second reason for meeting is that this person has access to an organization that might be beneficial on other projects I'm working on. The fact is that my relationship with this person might benefit me directly. Again, not a great motive for relationship if that is all there is.

With all that in mind, I kind of wanted to smack my friend for asking me that question of "Why?". Thanks a bunch! Reality is, that I really do own this friend my sincerest gratitude. That question allowed me to dig into my motives in a safe and non-judgmental way that enabled me to take those motives to God. After our phone call, I was able to sit with God and tell Him where I'm at. God did just like my friend and listened in a safe and non-judgmental way that made it that much easier to see how to walk into this future meeting in as undefiled and pure a way as possible.

That's what I mean by our destiny being determined by our knowing this God that loves us. It is because I have come to know this God as a safe and approachable person who wants to relate to me that has made it possible for me to come to Him with all my hidden motives. What that does is to help me realign my thinking, my actions and my intentions in a way that let relationship be as pure a part of my personal religion as it can be.

Will this business contact be safe to me in a way I can let them in? Will they be willing and able to open a door for projects I'm working on? Who knows? All I can bank on is that God wants relationship more than he wants results. I can now go into this meeting with that fact in mind knowing that God knows my motives and loves me all the more for my honesty with Him.

As a victor we have to realize that we are not perfect. At the same time we have to realize that our perfect God knows that fact and, for reasons I really can explain, doesn't see that fact as something that gets in the way of His love for us. It is in that place of love that we have the best chance of seeing destiny be all it can be in our lives.

Don't get trapped thinking that it is all up to you. Don't let your hidden motives stay hidden. Bring God into all you do and let what you put your hands to today be exactly what needs to happen as destiny is being shaped by this God who calls you His child. 

Day 281 - When Faith Ends

Click here to link directly to the audio file.

**********

The last two days we have taken time to go off on a tangent that started when a friend called me puzzled over a couple of verses from Romans chapter 14. Here's the verses my friend brought up for discussion. 

So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. Romans 14:22-23 (NIV)

If you are joining this presentation without first listening to the past two days, I strongly recommend that you take a few minutes and listen to those podcasts before taking on what I want to say today. These two verses speak so clearly to the issue of victor living that I would hate you to miss something God has for you. 

The last thing I wanted to address from the Romans reading today is the issue of faith vs sin. Paul says in the last part of verse 23, "everything that does not come from faith is sin." That's a pretty condemning statement, if you ask me. I'm kind of worried that so much of what I do is not out of faith. That means so much of what I do is filled with sin. Ouch - that's not a very pleasant thought.

This line of thinking comes from the previous verse. In that verse, Paul points out that if we have doubts about what we think when it comes to drawing closer to God, condemnation will be the result. That condemnation comes as we step beyond the confines of faith and that is what moves us into this murky area called sin. 

What sometimes gets us all messed up is the notion of sin. Sin has been taught in the context of good and bad for so long that condemnation can't help but to be the result when we think that sin is in our lives. I'm not trying to minimize the issue of sin, but I think for this context we need to use my pastor friend's acronym for sin - Selfish Independent Nature. I think that every one, believer and non-believer alike can relate to this definition of sin. All of us are afflicted with this characteristic from time to time. It is when we think more fully of self as defined by our self-centered and independent nature that the ravages of S I N can make the effects of victim thinking a reality in our lives. 

Let's go back to my Bible reading example I used yesterday to illustrate what I think Paul is saying. I mentioned yesterday that there was a time when I thought that reading and studying significant portions of my Bible on a daily basis would help draw me closer to God. That strategy actually worked for a good while. It was when my Bible reading wasn't giving me that feeling of being drawn closer to God that doubts and ultimately condemnation entered my life. Now we need to consider the issue of faith vs Selfish Independent Nature, aka sin as it relates to this example. 

What today's reading is saying to me is that at first my Bible reading was something that was being driven by faith. I had a faith, based on teaching, that made me believe my study of God's Word would make me feel closer to Him. That faith was rewarded with a closeness that I wanted more and more of. It was when I leaned on my Bible reading more and more to help make that closeness happen that faith was being compromised. 

You see, there is nothing I can do to make this God of mine come closer to me. He is with me all the time. In fact He lives inside you and inside me. It doesn't get much closer to that. It wasn't wrong of me to read my Bible to try and get close to God. That was the extent of my faith at that time. As I grew, God wanted me to experience something better than a strategy of doing in order to be what He says I am. 

Slowly, He made it harder and harder for my strategy of doing (reading my Bible) to give me the result I wanted (feeling closer to Him). It was my Selfish Independent Nature that made me keep on trying to apply a failed strategy to get what He freely gives. I stepped from faith to sin when I made my reading more about God's love than the love God wanted me to experience from Him directly. That sin wasn't something God condemned me for. The condemnation I felt was coming from me. That's what doing to try and be does to us. It sets us up for failure in ways that make victim thinking a reality in our lives. 

I wish I could say I'm done with doing to try and be. That just isn't the case. What I am finding is that the period of time from which the things I think I need to do to draw closer to God goes from faith to sin is getting shorter and shorter. Eventually, I will be to the point where I will just stop doing and simply be who God sees me to be. Until that time, God loves me in ways that humor my silly attempts at trying to get from Him what He lavishly gives all the time. 

That's what God wanted my friend to hear from these verses. That's what God wanted me to take to heart. It isn't about what you will do today that makes you a victor. It is about what God has said about you that gives you the right to live in the fullness of this status. Let today be all about faith. Believe what God says about you and let that identity be all the power you need to make change happen in our world today. 

Day 280 - Doubts & Condemnation

Click here to link directly to the audio file.

**********

Yesterday we talked about keeping certain thoughts between you and God as you talk with others in the Church as well as those outside the Church. I indicated that God wants us to do so, so that we are better living out a life like He does. God is a relational God. All He does revolves around relationship. Doesn't it make sense that we, His children, should be relational as well. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 

Today, I want to continue our discussion surrounding the Roman's verses my friend woke up early one morning this week to read. As you might remember from our discussion yesterday, the following verses had my friend puzzled. Let's read these verses again and take a look at a different aspect of keeping our thoughts to ourselves that really has victor living written all over it. 

So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. Romans 14:22-23 (NIV)

As I thought about the concept of keeping our religious thinking between God and ourselves, I started to realize why this is so important. Not only is relationship hard to maintain when I'm busy trying go convince people to my point of view, sometimes my point of view isn't all that correct in the long run. How much of what I thought was gospel truth ten years ago is now thinking that I now see not to be all that important. When it comes to religious thinking, the best strategy is to keep the toothpaste in the tube for as long as you can. Getting that stuff back in the tube is so hard to do after you have squeezed it out all over everything.

How did I come up with this kind of thought process? Check out what the second sentence in our reading says today. "Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves." This is a pretty confusing sentence when you look at it on the surface. Combining blessing and condemnation is a mix of words that really makes my brain have to do back flips to try and figure out what is going on in Paul's head.

The beginning of the third sentence really opened my eyes to what Paul was getting across. It says, "But whoever has doubts is condemned..." Blessing is lost when our thoughts about how we are to relate to this God of ours doesn't seem to work in the ways they use to or in the ways we thought they would any longer. When our religious actions don't work any longer to make us feel closer to this God, condemnation comes in in ways that I believe highlight the kinds of victim thinking that I talk about in these presentations.

Let's go back to the subject from Romans 14. If you remember from yesterday, Paul was writing on the issue of whether it was right to eat meat sacrificed to idols. For one camp, they believed that eating meat sacrificed to idols was OK. In other words, they believed their eating of this meat had nothing to do with whether they were loved by this God or not. The other camp thought the opposite. They thought that by keeping idol worship out of their daily meals was a way to get closer to this God of theirs.

When you read Chapter 14 you will see that Paul doesn't argue for who is right and who is wrong. Why? Because, when it comes to both strategies, they have nothing to do with getting closer to God or not. Paul basically says, eat meat or don't eat meat. Getting more of God's love has nothing to do with anything we do. His love for us is there whether we subscribe to this religious tenet or to that one.

Notice also, that Paul doesn't say do or don't eat meat. In fact, He doesn't even say do or don't eat meat thinking it will draw you closer to God. He says, whatever you think about what it takes to draw closer to God, keep between you and God. Paul knew from experience that even wrong ideas about God might work for a while as a strategy to bring you closer to Him. He also knew that eventually God would make it so that your thinking would need to change. That happens as the doubts arise that bring condemnation in one's life.

To help make this point a little more relevant to current times, let's take a look at the issue of reading our Bible in light of what Paul is teaching. There was a time in my life when I spent hours upon hours of reading the Bible hoping to get closer to God. I was told that was the only way to get to know this God of ours.

Low and behold that strategy really worked! For years, I found relationship with God through gaining more and more knowledge about Him. Eventually, the feeling of being drawn closer got harder and harder to experience. I tried reading my Bible even more to no avail. I just wasn't feeling that closeness to God that I felt when I first started diving into The Word.

That's when the doubts came flooding in. Condemnation came as I thought I must not be good enough, and never would be good enough, to get close to this God that I wanted to know so much more. That's the process Paul is explaining so clearly in the reading my friend shared with me recently.

You see it isn't wrong that I spent so much time in my Bible drawing closer to God. It was that I made drawing closer to God a formula. That formula went something like this; "The more I learn, the better I will be seen in God's eyes and the more attention, and ultimately love I will receive from Him." Relationship can never be real when formulas are all we have to make relationship possible.

What Paul is saying is that whatever we need to make God more and more real in our lives is good for the moment. He is also saying that eventually, that way or relating will fail us in ways that will bring in doubts. It isn't that God doesn't love us that the doubts come. It is that we are trying to get to that love in ways that just aren't necessary. When the doubts and condemnation come, it is time to get closer and closer to the truth. God loves us whether we read our Bibles daily or not. No religious tenet will ever bring us closer to Him. He doesn't need us to do, He wants us to be!

Being is what gives you the best opportunity to the victor's life God has given you. If you feel you need to do to make that happen - do all you want until your doing doesn't work for you any more. Sooner or later you, just like Paul, will see that doing is a failed strategy when it comes to relating to this God that loves. us. Live this day in the knowledge that you are God's Child no matter what you put your hands to today. That's the place where doubts and condemnation just can reside. That's the place of freedom God wants for your life today.

Day 279 - Conversation

Click here to link directly to the audio file.

**********

A friend of mine gave me a call the other morning with a Bible question. He had one of those experiences where he felt God woke him up this particular morning really early just to read the Bible. My friend said that he fought that feeling and tried to go back to sleep but time and time again he was jolted awake. It was obvious that God had other plans than my friend's desire to sleep to a reasonable hour. 

He said that he finally quit fighting the feeling he was to get up and just got out of bed. He sat in his favorite place and opened his Bible to Romans chapter 14. This is a really challenging chapter of the Bible to be reading early in the morning after a short night's sleep. Paul, the author of Romans, is writing about a subject that was dividing many in the Church at that time. Specifically, Paul was writing about whether to eat meat sacrificed to idols or not. 

Can you start to feel my friend's pain about being woken up so early in the morning to read about this abstract subject? What in the world does Paul's discussion in this chapter have to do with our lives in today's age? Turns out it has a lot to do with the entire discussion of victim thinking and victor living. 

My friend said that the last two verses of the chapter really had him puzzled. He read them to me over the phone and I found it pretty easy to relate to his feeling of confusion. I told him I needed a bit of time to let those verses settle in a bit. I was hoping God was going to help us get a perspective from these verses that might help us see this life as the victor God has called my friend and me to. That's exactly what God had in mind. 

Here are the verses in question. 

So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. Romans 14:22-23 (NIV)

The "these things" Paul opens with in verse 22 has to do with what the readers believed about eating meat sacrificed to idols. You see, some believed it was perfectly OK to eat that meat. Others thought it to be sacrilegious to do so. The two camps were firmly entrenched in their thinking and division in the Church was the result.

I love what Paul says about such thinking. He simply says, "keep it between yourself and God." In other words, if you don't think God cares if you eat meat sacrificed to idols. then eat it in quiet. If you think God is telling you that meat sacrificed to idols is wrong, then quietly abstain. Both camps need to be quiet about the subject, because it is a minor thing. Division happens when we major on the minors.

Church after church has divided over things that really aren't all that important. I know of Churches that had horrible and hurtful splits over what version of the Bible they should be reading. Not only does this kind of public division hurt those in both camps of thinking, it makes those outside the Church see a way of living that isn't all that appealing. Majoring on the minors is something that makes victims of us all. It lets victim thinking take over in ways that put God and His people in a bad light.

I think that is why Paul was saying that we need to be so careful in what we say to our brothers and sisters when it comes to differences we might have in our Church traditions. It is when we keep our thoughts between us and God that division is that much harder to make happen. God is pretty serious about unity among His Children. I think Paul's advice is a powerfully unifying strategy that the Church needs to bring back into it's midst if we are going to have the kinds of impact God has planned for this world.

This doesn't mean that we can't agree to disagree. There is a power to being able to have an open and honest discussion with a brother or sister in Christ about what we believe God is saying in our lives. It is when we try to impose our beliefs on others in our Church body that trouble starts to happen. Frankly, it is when we try to impose our beliefs on those outside the Church that the door to trouble opens in ways God just doesn't want in our lives.

I'm in no way saying that we shouldn't share the good news of Christ to those around us. What I am saying is that imposition can never be a motive behind any discussion we may have with believers or non-believers alike. When are driven by the goal of conversion to our way of thinking, we miss the mark of what God wants us to be doing in this world. God wants us involved in conversations, not conversions.

You see, all God has done, all God is doing and all God will do is completely and totally about relationship. I know this will ruffle some feathers out there, but God really doesn't need us to convert the world. What God wants us to do is to love the world into seeing the power behind a relationship with the Lord. Sometimes the best way to do that is to shut our mouths and open our hearts. That's what conversation does - it opens our heart.

You can't have a real conversation without relationship. There is very little opportunity for relationship in conversion. Some religions actually have factions that believe that if you don't convert to their way of thinking you deserve to die. That' a pretty big relationship breaker if you ask me.

What's on your mind today? If it is a thought that makes you think you are right and someone else is wrong, I strongly suggest you take Paul's advice. Keep it between yourself and God. Don't sweep it under the rug. Take it to God and ask Him what He wants you to do with those thoughts. Then, let what happens next be rooted in relationship. That's what God does all the time. Doesn't it make sense that's what He would want us to do as well?

Your victor status has nothing to do with how many people you convert to your way of thinking. However, your father in heaven loves it when you take time to relate to people in ways where they can more clearly see His love for them. You don't do that with convincing arguments. You do that with getting to know those God puts in your path and then going on a journey called life with them.

Let God change the world around you though your life today. Make relationship be the power of God's Love seen in all you do as you live out your victor status with God at your side.

Day 278 - Inheritance

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file.

**********

"Even the 'have to’s' a victor faces turn to 'get to’s' as they live out their God given identity as His Child. Crazy thing is that the bad circumstances can even take on a 'get to' attitude for the victor when they dwell in that place of Love that comes with being God’s Child."

As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 183.

I'm beginning to realize the power of God's love in my life. It is changing the way I view things. Even the challenging things that come my way are starting to take on an entirely different view as I let the fact that God's Love is for me take a greater hold in my life. It is as I live a life built on "get to" living that I think God's Love can be seen by others through the circumstances that come my way. 

It is as I let the fact that God is for me irregardless of what my circumstances look like that makes His power be more of what people see as I deal with what this life tosses at me. I'm not preaching a message on positive thinking with this notion. I am sick of trying to talk myself into better days when the stuff hits the fan in my life. I'm just as sick of letting bad times define who I am. I have gone down that well worn victim thinking path way too many times now. I want something different than what has resulted when victim thinking was so strongly in control.

I believe that difference is possible as I start to change my thinking when challenging times hit. Telling myself that I "have to..." do this or do that when obstacles seem to be blocking me to the good life I want to have and protect in my life, hasn't done a single thing to help me see God in those obstacles. There is a power that comes when we just surrender to who we are in the middle of what life tosses at us that can't be explained in any logical or empirical way. 

All I know is that when bad times come, my thoughts play a critical role in how I might see God in the middle of those times that threaten my good life. The more I lean into the fact that God is for me the better I'm able to weather the storms of life. If God is as big as we think He is and if His plans are for the benefit of this world like the Bible teaches, then even the bad times we have have a meaning that I want to get behind. Purpose goes a long way in helping God's power come through us in ways that really do change the world. 

That's what "get to" living does for our soul. It makes our will, intellect and emotions come alive in powerful and unmistakable ways. When we combine that power with the heavenly direction that comes with faith in who God is and who God says we are, I believe that God-sized things happen in and through our lives. 

Listen to our Bible reading today. This is the kind of power that we have available as our soul and spirit combine to live out God's love in this world.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5 (ESV)

Now, that is one hope filled and power packed set of verses. This the essence of who we are. When bad times hit, what God is saying about us doesn't change. We are in the middle of a living hope. What God promises doesn't perish. It cannot be defiled. It doesn't shine any brighter when our times are good and it doesn't shine any less when times are challenging.

If there is any "have to" thinking that needs to be part of our lives, it is the fact that we "have to" get this kind of God-sized thinking into our lives. The challenges that come our way aren't there as punishment for us falling short. They aren't a sign that we have fallen short of God's love in our lives. If those statements were true, what God promises would have to be considered as fading, defiled and perishing right before our eyes. That's the danger of letting circumstances be the foundation for who we think we are. Victim thinking can't help but be the result when this world is so good at making victims of us all.

Whatever comes at you today, remember who you are. Your status as a victor is built on the fact that God thinks enough of you to have died for you. That kind of value... that kind of identity... that kind of love... is something that makes a difference when life comes at you in ways we never expected. Let today be filled with "get to" opportunities as you step more fully into the inheritance God has for your life.