No Peace? Just Move.

Many times in life we look at peace as merely the absence of conflict, but in reality it is much more than just that. It’s possible to live in peace when your family is in upheaval. It’s even possible to live in peace while your spouse is generating conflict. It is possible.
Peace is not some separate entity that is out there in ‘wish land.’ Peace is an attribute or characteristic of God. In fact, one of the titles given to Jesus was, “Prince of Peace.” His very title is what we need and want in our lives. As followers of Christ, that peace is an innate characteristic that now resides in us, since Christ resides in us. It’s amazing! The peace everyone wants and needs is actually resident in me, and in you.
Of course, recognizing that peace and coming to grips with it are two different things altogether. We might say that peace is in us, but how do we leverage that and use it in our lives?
The first thing is to not think of it as a tool to be leveraged, but a state to live in. Peace is not something you take off the shelf when you need a peace fix, but it is the zip code of an easier life. There are so many trying things that happen in our lives. So many things that stress us out and overwhelm us that peace is not just a nice option, but a necessity for a sane life.
Think of peace as a place. Not a place you visit, but a place you go and live. Imagine if you moved here to Desoto County from a place like Michigan. You live here now, but your accent is still northern. It’s a different culture altogether. The food is different, the ice tea is different, and the people are different. You live in the south now. It might feel uncomfortable and even weird at first, but over time you will adjust, and realize that living in the south is good.
When you start living in the land of peace, it might feel a wee bit weird at first. You will have a sense that you should be more concerned or worried, but deep down you realize you don’t have to, because someone much higher has it all under control. It’s a weird feeling, but oh how refreshing.
The second thing we need to do is focus our attention on where we are - not where we’ve been. I cannot tell you how many people I talk to that want only to tell me where they have been. Okay that’s great and meaningful, but where are you going? Follow the analogy of the transient from Michigan. How fun would it be to have a neighbor who was constantly complaining about where they live and how wonderful it was where they came from?
If we are going to grab a hold of peace then we have to let go of our past. There’s an old church saying that says, “Let go, and let God.” Oh so true! Our past is our past and all it will do is form regrets and hardships for today.
To walk in the peace of God, we need to file for an address change. Sometimes it takes a few days for our mail to catch up to us, but it’s worth it. Let’s start living in a new place. A new zip code. Let’s all move from the land of worry and regret, to a land of peace.

Pain Heals Pain

Physical Therapy sounds so drole doesn’t it? Even borderline nice. Of course anyone who has ever undergone physical therapy knows that that is merely a sham. Physical therapy is always a painful experience that we wish we could bypass.
Several years ago I under went some pretty extensive surgeries due to an accident. After all said and done I was condemned to two months of physical therapy. At first I thought that it would be easy, a cakewalk even. I mean how can any place with hot tubs and “massage Therapists” be bad? This would be awesome! And to think insurance would pay for it. I could not have been more wrong. Never in my entire life had I experienced such excruciating pain. To top it off it was so called medical experts that order this barrage of torture! Thankfully within two months I was healthy again.
Over the past 18 years of ministry I have seen people come into the church, beat up, hurt, and wounded. They don’t really want to serve, well actually they don’t feel that it’s healthy for them to serve right now, because they need a time of ‘healing’. They need to just be ‘fed’ for a while. Then they sit, and sit, and sit. And wait, and wait, and wait. What are they waiting for, you ask. I guess they are just waiting to die.
Church and the Kingdom of God have never been set up as a hospice, yet that is what it has seemingly become. We enter the walls of a church when we are hurt, beaten, and bruised, and that is incredible because God cares for the hurting and battered, but he doesn’t re-establish our lives to merely see us sit and die. Nor does he want us to sit and wait on healing so we can then accomplish something. Church is much closer to physical therapy than a hospice.
P.T. is where the hurt, broken, and bruised are exercised, and pushed to their limits in order to rebuild broken and torn members of their body. To be honest with you, the times ive seen people heal the best is not when they are sitting in a pew, but when they choose to channel their hurt and pain towards helping others. More times than not, we find our own personal healing, not as a miraculous moment in time, but rather as a series of propping up other wounded individuals with the very crutches that we have been standing on. Somehow, in God’s miraculous way, He uses our pain and injury to heal others, and then in the process we find ourselves restored.
Think back through your past. How many times have you been helped or urged on by someone in the same situation as you? Someone who may still be in dire straights, or has just stepped out of their own personal hell to help you?
Just imagine what life would be like if we viewed the church as a P.T. office instead of a hospice. Imagine what it would be like if every Sunday we gathered together not to merely survive, but stretch. To be invigorated by our own troubles to go and help someone else who is hurting, bruised or broken. I believe that was the idea when Jesus told us to go out and bring them in. I think that was the reason he told everyone to go into all the world. Not when they were healed and healthy, but just go. Too many times we wait patiently in our stiff upright pews for our emotional and spiritual healing, when in all actuality our the mending of our hearts and spirits is waiting on us to move.
So how about today we all find somebody who could use a little love. Find a neighbor who could use a helping hand. Find your favorite enemy and encourage them. Who ever or whatever crosses your path, take a chance, bless them, and together we can see the kingdom of God take a step forward.

Bassinet give-a-way-praise

Hey, Another Co-worker who came Saturday could not express how thankful she was for the basinet for herself and got one for her friend. They are both struggling financially and this was such a blessing in their lives right now. She wanted me to be sure to let everyone know how much she really appreciated it. She also said she couldn’t believe how friendly and nice everyone was.

SouthPoint is such an awesome church and I’m so glad to be a part of it.

Praise God!!!!

Hey, I had lunch with the other co-worker who picked up a basinet and she said that everyone was so friendly and she was so impressed with the kids that were helping. She really enjoyed meeting everyone and is thinking about coming to visit.

SouthPoint Rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Marco's Pearls of Wisdom

I had coffee this morning with Marco, who is one of our cool band guys. We were sitting there talking about the finer things in life, and he said, "Ya know what I like about SouthPoint?" I of course told him that I have not perfected the art of reading minds yet and to please expound. he said, "my favorite thing about SouthPoint is that it's a part of life. you don't have to stop 'life' to do church. I like it."

Thanks Marco. I agree.

Spit or Endure

Noah – my 2 year old – was eating a popsicle just now. He took a huge bite and then got a mouth freeze. He started screaming in pain. He had this look on his face of utter shock. Like how could something so sweet and yummy revolt within my mouth and become something so painful? He was standing close to the trash can so I said, “Dude come here and spit it out.” He looked at the trash can, and then looked at me like, “What? Have you lost your mind!? Spit out this precious morsel of ecstasy? I’m not bleeding it’s just pain.” He held the popsicle in his mouth and endured the pain. He endured the pain, of course after which there was no more popsicle.

Have you ever had a hold of something….or someone, that just feels right and makes life sweet, but just as quickly turns pleasure to pain? Makes sweet moments painful moments? Yet we still hold on tight. In spite of the pain we just don’t seem to want to let go of the habit. We hold it close, keep it where we can enjoy it, tolerate it. Of course all we would ever have to do is listen to our dad…..our heavenly father, and spit it out in the trash. Remove it, or them, from our lives and let the healing process begin. Most of the time if we choose to endure the pain, there’s nothing left in the end anyway.

The Hands of Success

A desire to be successful is something that is born inside everyone. We come out of the womb not just survivors, but unwritten success stories. Sometimes individuals choose the wrong path and end up far from success, but they began with that desire. It’s why we work. It’s why we dream. It’s at the very core of all our aspirations, and God is the one who intrinsically wove it into our DNA.
With that addition to our internal helix, God also gave us some great instructions to bring it to fruition. He told us in Galatians chapter 6 to make a careful exploration of who we are, and the work we have been given, and then sink ourselves into it. He wants us to live life the most creative way possible. Now I don’t know about you, but that sounds like some good advice to me. So we dive in. We jump off the ledge of mediocrity and land in the pool of reality. Sometimes it hurts. Sometimes there’s not near as much water of acceptance in that pool as we thought.
But we’re fighters. We are not quitters. So we roll up our sleeves and work hard - really hard - at becoming that great success story. We try to make a reality that success God quilted in to our makeup. Sometimes we get frustrated, because things don’t move as quickly as we would like. But God understands our frustration. After all, He is the one who put it in us.
In the Old Testament we get a great snapshot of what God has for us and how long it takes to achieve. When Moses went up on mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, he was gone for a long time. Forty days, to be exact. Think about how long that is. Imagine if your boss didn’t come to work for forty days. You would get frustrated because there are deadlines to be met and meetings to be attended. So frustrated were the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty days with no leader. No direction, and no work. Basically no gauge for their own success. Enter, the “Golden Calf.”
While Moses was on the mountain the people created a Golden Calf to worship. The Bible tells us in the seventh chapter of Acts that “They rejoiced in the works of their hands.” Ironically, while they were forming things with their hands, God was forming the Ten commandments with His. Interesting don’t you think?
Many times we are so impatient that we bully our way through life to achieve a pseudo success, instead of leaning on God and trusting Him for true success. We take the quick road, or the fast track to achieve what we think will work out well for us and our families, only to find that what we once rejoiced in, now has become our Achilles heel. We need to be patient, and trust in God. We need to work hard, but not force the hand of God. There is always a season to wait on the Lord, and there is always a season to run through troops, and jump over walls. It is our job to discern which is which. By knowing the season of life that we are in, we can work with the hand of God to bring success in our lives. Otherwise, we merely rejoice over something we have made. We will quickly learn that when we work with the Creator, we are able to find true success.