Inspiration for a New Year

Inspiration is a word whose root meaning flows out of the physiology of the body. Inspiration at its root means to "breathe". To take in oxygen by inspiration and to remove carbon dioxide (the waste products) by expiration enables physical life to go on. Without a fresh supply of oxygen you will die within minutes.

Life is dependent on an ongoing intake of "new" air both to energize and supply the body but also to remove that which is no longer alive.... The new thing DEMANDS the removal of the old. If we hold onto Carbon Dioxide too long we will also die.
As it is in the physical realm so it is in the spiritual realm. Our financial provision flows out of an exchange in time and energy... When what we do brings added value to the world in which we live we are compensated/rewarded for that exchange. When the world changes suddenly and what we do no longer adds value, the compensation either diminishes or is eliminated. This is how the world works. When we fight against this we are wasting time. The world rewards a fresh supply of life and responds accordingly. When we live in the past we can count on diminished returns and lack. God allows us to hunger and thirst and even suffer to some extent so that we will embrace the new things he is trying to do in the earth. Let's reflect on the powerful word from the prophet Isaiah 43:18 and beyond, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. ....".

When we hold onto last year's provision, profession, idea or memory we deny God the opportunity to provide for us with fresh creativity and inspiration and we ensure our personal lives, families and communities will become a wasteland. God wants to restore, refresh and bring life to barren souls and communities but first we have to take a risk... open our hands and grasp the new things from God. Turmoil breeds distrust and paralysis. Risk apart from knowledge of God's will is futile and foolish. But when we cry out to God and he "impresses" our hearts and minds with a vision and plan we MUST MOVE with him into his future... the only secure place on the planet. Are you willing to move with me as I follow God?
Jim

A Christmas Message from Oswald Chambers

 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being, He is a Being Who cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from outside. His life is the Highest, and the Holiest entering into the lowest door. Our Lord's birth is an advent.

"Of whom I travail in birth until Christ is formed in you." (Galatians 4:19)

Jesus as our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a "Bethlehem" for the Son of God?  I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth. "You must be born again" ~Jesus  This not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. When Christ is formed in me, His nature... his life....begins to work through me.

Merry Christmas!

Crossing Over into your Future

Our hopes and dreams for life often lead us to a place of seeming impossibility. In the Old Testament book of Joshua we see God challenging the people of Israel and the leadership of Joshua with a transformational moment. They are on the edge of entering their 'promise land' when they face the raging waters of the river Jordan. How would they respond to this obstacle standing between them and their hopes of a land to dwell in and call their own?

As it was in example of Joshua and the nation of Israel (see Joshua chapter 3), God is doing something when he takes us to difficult places in our journey toward purpose and dream fulfillment. Our lives are ultimately not our own. We are not on the planet to glory in ourselves. God will often honor us as we honor him with obedience and trust, but ultimately we are meant to reflect his power and love to a doubting world. There comes a time when we need to know that God is really with us in our life's journey. In Joshua chapter 3 and verse 10 we see God speaking to and through Joshua, "Here s how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man. And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap."

God wants to do something in us and through us that is nothing short of miraculous. He knows that we will need great faith to walk out his purposes for our lives. God places himself in the midst of our seemingly impossible life obstacles.....and at the critical moment makes a way where there seems to be no way forward. So many people that I know and love are at a crossroads in their life. They've pointed their lives in the direction of change and newness. And now just before God's promise to them becomes reality they hesitate at 'water's edge'. There is a huge difference between a faith journey and presumptuous risk. In the story of Joshua and Israel we see a relationship at the center of direction and purpose. God is under no obligation to bless a vision and direction that we initiate and birth apart from him. But when God is guiding and empowering our dreams, vision and purpose he makes himself fully available to complete that which he has birthed in our souls. He is with us in this life and in many ways will prove his love and commitment to us.

Perhaps today some of you reading this are stuck in a place you know is not God's ultimate purpose for you. You've tried to make the next step in your life but you've either hesitated or been thwarted in your attempts to move on deeper into your dream. There are a few keys revealed in Joshua chapter 3 to keep you on track. First you need to be living in the context of Godly community. Joshua was leading a people of covenant into a God revealed direction and purpose. Too often we're seeking dreams and visions birthed out of our own badly informed concept of identity. When you don't know who you are, it's easy to get lost in life.  When God reveals himself to you he also brings us into community with people he has touched with his gift of life. You don't get to where you need to go in isolation. We were born for relationship not just with God but with a spiritual family who will 'have our back' during times of adversity but also hold us accountable when we are tempted to 'go back' in the direction of selfishness and sin. Joshua and his appointed leaders from the various tribes were the "Pastors" guiding the flock of Israel into God's appointed destiny. God still uses spiritual leaders in our lives to keep us on track in the day by day guidance we need in life. Don't allow yourself to become spiritually and relationally isolated!

Let's pick up back in the 3rd chapter of the book of Joshua , "So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as soon those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over to Jericho."

God came through. His purposes never fail. We need to make sure we are going where he is going to ensure we too are getting to the places in life marked out for us before we were born. Remember Psalm 37 and verse 4, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." So often we get lost in life when our hearts fail to acknowledge and worship God properly. When your heart is right, you always get to where you need to go in life.

If you've come to a crossroad in life it's time you fully surrender your next step to the God who made you. He knows you.... He created you....and He won't fail to provide a way forward even when there seems to be no way.

River of Tears

Childhoods stolen, Innocence lost

Wandering souls paid a heavy cost

Evil rips and tears again

Questions, Questions pouring out

Who will listen to the voice of love?

The mirror speaks but we turn away

Inside our hearts, the answers lay

The Father calls and whispers words

'I'm calling all to a land called love'

His hands extended, the tears are real

The scars were born with a heavy price

An innocent Son on the darkest day

You're not alone when the evil comes

On the other side there's a land called love

Tears are flowing like a river stream

No simple answers on the darkest day

Stay and listen, Hold a Hand

Embrace the mourning and share the love

The Journey to Healing: Lessons Learned in Getting Well

  I was seated in Dr. John Mason's office waiting for my one year follow up exam for treatment of a melanoma tumor discovered 13 months previously. Dr. Mason bounded into the room and looked precisely into my dilated right eye with a slit lamp. His diagnosis was curt and to the point, "Melanoma completely dead." And with that proclamation a journey that I never wanted to take had come to an end!

  In late October of 2011, I noticed a sudden change in the vision of my right eye. It came unexpectedly and without warning. We have a default setting in our lives that assumes health and well being. When sickness of any kind intrudes our first defense mechanism is often denial. We are supposed to be well.... right? So in the first few hours of noticing I could not see well, I wanted it all to just be my imagination. I didn't want to say anything to my wife Mary at first. Having an education in nursing and more specifically having received advanced training in Ophthalmology, I knew this potentially could be very bad. But I didn't want it to be.... I had plans! Illness and disease can interrupt our well laid plans with such immediacy and force that I was definitely going to try my best to deny my way out of this! I mentioned to Mary I was going to get an eye exam prior to my upcoming trip to Nepal. In a few weeks I was supposed to travel with a group to Nepal to work with my friends Sudip and Anne Lise Khadka. I needed to be well to travel to this beautiful nation on the other side of the world!

  I had a complete check up by an Optometrist two days after my initial change in vision. I failed my 'visual fields' test. I had a serious problem. The Optometrist initially thought the problem was a retinal hemorrhage and detachment (bleeding of the retina). I did indeed have that bleeding but it was caused by a large cancerous tumor pressing into the retina. It seems that for quite a long time I had this tumor growing dangerously into the back of my eye. For several months at least I had been in some form of denial. I remembered having a few 'near misses' while driving. I remembered tripping and falling several times while jogging when I didn't see things near my feet. I had fallen hard onto my left shoulder and it always seemed my right foot was betraying me. It took a long time for me to seek help for what was a life threatening problem!  If I had waited much longer for treatment and help it would have been much more difficult to bring healing to my life. Once Melanoma spreads beyond the eye it is often fatal.

  Denial had almost done it's fatal and sinister work.... of denying me healing and wellness. The first bedrock principle of healing is that we need to admit we're in need of help before we're healed! Too often we continue in denial until it's too late. Whether it's physical, mental or spiritual healing, the first step toward healing is always an acceptance of what's really happening in our lives. We don't want to get off the train of busyness to address the deep issues confronting our health. We want to do. We want to accomplish. We want to experience and live our dreams. But we are human beings and in that humanity there are ebbs and flows of wellness that sometimes say to us in various ways: Stop....Rest.....and become well.....be healed!

  We want healing ..... we want to be well....but we want it on our terms and timetable. I remember when I was advised by experienced physicians and experts that my own healing would involve the surgical implantation of a 'radiation plaque' into the back of my eye for 4 days. Needless to say it did not appeal to me at all. A radiologist informed me that most likely the effects of the radiation would  seriously reduce my vision in that eye. I didn't want either surgery or radiation! So prior to the surgery I prayed a lot! A few times after I prayed with eyes closed, I would open my affected eye and sense my vision was better. But in fact there was no change. It seemed as if I would have to go through the process recommended by my medical team. There was an internal struggle going on.  Couldn't I hit rewind and get back to being the healthy Pastor who helped heal others?

  Healing is indeed a journey. I hope to do some writing on the journey to healing over the next couple of weeks. The first lesson I learned on the journey to healing is that I need to move beyond denial. I need to be honest with myself and others to begin the journey and process that is healing. Let the healing begin!

Jim

A New Season

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." (Ecclesiastes chapter 3)

I would like to share with you about how God works in our lives in particular times and seasons. This message is flowing out of the one year anniversary of my eye surgery for a melanoma tumor growing in the back of my right eye.

One year ago I entered a season of my life that I didn't expect and I didn't want to experience.  For much of my adult life I've been the one on the care giving side of life. As a Medical laboratory technician, Registered Nurse and Pastor I've been the 'go  to' guy in providing advice, counsel, prayer and support.

Suddenly and without warning 'the lights went out' in my right eye and I was now placed in a season of receiving care and being sent to places in the natural I would never want to go. In November of last year I wrote some reflections in my personal blog about what I was experiencing and I want to share some of that with you here. It references my expectation prior to the cancer diagnosis that I would be leading a mission trip to Nepal.

"On my way to Nepal, I took a wrong turn and wound up in Birmingham, Alabama. I had spent nearly a year planning on helping lead a team to serve the ministry of Compassion for Asia in Kathmandu, Nepal. I have had various emotions hit me over the last two weeks as I process the 'wrong turn' that led me to Birmingham, Alabama. It's one thing to understand and believe God is sovereign when he does what you want and expect with your life. But what about when our well laid plans are cancelled or altered? Well I am finding out it's not as easy as I thought! I have spent the last 31 years of my life immersing myself in God's word. It's a really good thing to have your soul saturated with truth. By God's grace which is transmitted to us through prayer and God's word, I've had an amazing peace on the inside of my life during this time.

Yesterday the radiologist who specializes in cancer treatment discussed my treatment with me. He gave me the facts regarding my prognosis and the effects the radiation will have on the cancer and also on my eye. The facts are stark and serious...but God is loving and he never stopped talking while Dr. Kim delivered his sobering assessment. One phrase of God's word which keeps coming to the surface of my soul over the last several days is 'momentary and light affliction'. I felt God telling me that whatever lies ahead of me must be placed in the context of his ongoing will for my life... an eternal perspective.

The phrase comes from Paul's letter to the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians chapter 4: and verses 16-18, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding  and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

I didn't get lost on my way to Nepal. I didn't make a wrong turn on my way to Birmingham, Alabama. The awesome and amazing thing about knowing and loving God is that he never leaves us...never forsakes us. His presence and purpose are being fulfilled in my life. So many of you who know me are praying and asking God to heal me. I have heard from hundreds of you via phone calls, texts, Facebook and Twitter. I appreciate your encouragement and love so much! I am listening to God through this process. I am still not completely comfortable being the the patient receiving the care and love from others. But clearly my right turn to Birmingham involves just that...being loved and cared for and healed by God and people...people like you, who choose to think of others and care for them in their time of need. I feel the love! I receive it with gratitude and great joy. There are three things that last forever, faith, hope and love. On the road to Birmingham I am being filled with all three in powerful and challenging ways. Thanks for taking the right turn to Birmingham with me. (end of blog from one year ago)

It's so very important to recognize that while we can observe the seasons of our lives and choose to embrace them...we cannot determine them or change them at will. Following God implies we trust him and lean to him for understanding.

Proverbs chapter 3: 5,6  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

We are all pilgrims on a journey with God. The examples of the Biblical saints and Godly men and women show us the way of trust and surrender. I love the Godly example of the life of Jim Eliot who said, "Wherever you are be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."

Jim and Elizabeth Eliot are well known for their lives of commitment and service to God in difficult places. Jim was martyred in 1956 (along with 4 of his co-workers) in Ecuador while trying to reach tribal people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He did not live long enough to see the transformation of the people he died for.  His life was guided by something he wrote in his journal in 1949, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

We are all living day to day with expectations of what 'should be' happening in our lives. Those expectations are often colored by our lack of eternal perspective. We are often more guided by selfishness than by God's desire or perspective. But God is sovereign and he overrules us just as he did the Biblical prophet Jonah and every other stubborn man or woman of God. If God wants you in "Nineveh", he will get you there!

When we recognize and surrender ourselves fully to the seasons of our lives we are better able to bear fruit for God's glory.
John 15: 4,5
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

God's life flows through us like sap inside a vine....it's often sticky, slow and messy! We want our dreams and desires to be fulfilled right here, right now but salvation is both a present reality and a process of ongoing growth, development and transformation. You have been saved,  You are being saved, You will be saved!

Too often we resent the present work of God by rebelling against his authority of "seasonal development" in our lives. Our resistance is futile and actually dangerous for our "growing up" and the ultimate fulfillment of God's destiny and purpose in our lives.

Listen to the wisdom of Jesus from the gospel of John chapter 12: 23-26
"And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me and where I am there will be my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."

When we learn to recognize, embrace and yield to the God designed seasons of life, we bear fruit for God's glory and honor...and thus we ourselves are honored by the Father's fulfillment of his purpose for creating us.

Perhaps God's will has taken you to places you never thought you would go. Right now you might be in a winter season of the soul... listen to this.

"Grace grows best in the winter." ~ Samuel Rutherford

Perhaps you are going through a winter season of the soul. All seems dark and cold. All that has supported and nourished you seems to have left you alone and feeling abandoned. Winter doesn't last forever. While you wait, the seeds of your future are being protected and prepared for the spring that will surely come. This season is a time for reflection and prayer. Listen for the Father's voice.

Every season that God has us in presents both challenges and blessings. As the wisdom of Solomon reveals to us in Ecclesiastes, we must understand that this is God's way of revealing himself in us and through us in this life of pilgrimage.

Don't resist God's times and seasons for your life. His grace is most fully realized and enjoyed when we place our head upon his chest like the apostle John at the last supper. You can trust him.