I'm Trying to Bless You Bro

Have you ever tried to bless someone only to have it backfire?

On Nov. 2, 2020 Isaac had brain surgery.

Yes, he had brain surgery.

It was a very scary day to put it lightly.

The pediatric neurosurgeon assured us it was a 1 day overnight procedure and recover time would be minimal. "Endoscopic brain surgery to have a fenestration of an arachnoid cyst." That is the name of the procedure. 

After the surgery Isaac was resting in his room. The medical team said he would be groggy and might be nauseous. 

Once Isaac ate 2 meals he would be free to go home. 

He ate small bites but definitely did not have an appetite. 

Finally he finished enough and got the "all clear" to go home. 

We were so excited to see how the procedure would help him.

So much of our life and our home revolves around helping Isaac.

On the way home Chuck said "Let's get Isaac pizza!" This is his favorite food.

We don't buy pizza often because it can cause him to melt down wanting more food and not knowing/understanding when he should stop...

We ordered the pizza and were excited to help Isaac rest and recover at home...

What we neglected to notice was that the doctor said to feed him "light meals" for the next few days. 

Isaac ate the pizza and then vomited.

We felt HORRIBLE.

Here we were trying to bless Isaac and it backfired. He ended up feeling icky and vomited and now we had to clean his room, etc. 

"I was just trying to bless him"

Chuck and I have said this many times. 

We try to bless Isaac only to have the gift become a problem. 

It reminds me of Moses...

God appoints Moses to be the delivered and prophet to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery and into the Promised Land. 

This is what was said to Moses: 

The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” (Exodus 2:14)

Moses had killed an Egyptian man and he was trying to be a blessing...but his behavior backfired. 

In the New Testament Stephen mentions this very incident, "Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t." (Acts 7:25)

Moms and Dads are used to this....

You try (and try really hard!) to be a blessing to your kids.

As the saying goes "I am blessed to be a blessing." 

Then later you realize...sometimes our intentions can backfire or go unappreciated. 

I recall a very godly friend of mine was in a counseling session. Her daughter was struggling with same sex attraction and she literally said "I forgive you mom for how you raised me."

WHAT?

This mom had poured love, devotion, care and the child lacked nothing...yet she was now stating emphatically- "You wronged me! You raised me wrong"

I pray this daughter will one day return to the LORD and realize what a blessing her parents are...

Many many times we have thrown up our arms and said to Isaac directly "I was just trying to bless you!"

Isaac has special needs and all the circumstances must be exactly right. For example, if he sees a gift bag, he will want it. I cannot have wrapping paper or gift bags around in the home or he will rip them and assume there are gifts or treats in them. It's very hard. 

My point is this: 

How do we bless God?

How do we bless the LORD in a way that won't backfire?

We often think God wants us to serve Him. Yes! The LORD does love when we serve.

However, we must get to know God's love language. 

Everyone has a love language. I might tell Olivia she is beautiful and she is the most amazing daughter in the world. But using words of affirmation is not her love language. Her main love language is physical touch. She would rather me sit next to her or give her a hug. 

Isaac likes gifts. He does not like hugs...

I think you get the point.

God's love language is Jesus.

Yes-Jesus.

As we love the Son, the Father gets blessed. This will take a lifetime to live out and fully explore. 

In Him (Christ) dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 

This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. 

When we love on Jesus, the Father beams with joy.

We need to grasp this. 

We want to bless God but at times we feel like it "backfires." 

God's Word says "To obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Sam 15:22) and a broken and contrite spirit He will not despise. 

"My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. Psalm 51:17

Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Keith Green wrote a song "Asleep in the Light"

"Oh, bless me Lord, bless me Lord
You know, it's all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts, no one even sheds one tear
But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds
And He cares for your needs
And you just lay back and keep soaking it in
Oh, can't ya see it's such sin?"

In stead of trying to bless God in the way I WANT TO bless Him...I must bless the LORD according to His love language. 

We must decide to bless God by loving Jesus, seeking Jesus, clinging to Jesus, being ambassadors for Jesus, living like Jesus, praying to Jesus, and abiding in Jesus. 

Remember Mary and Martha?

Where was Mary? Sitting at Jesus' feet.

Martha was busy serving and neglected to sit at His feet. 

Jesus was RIGHT THERE in front of her...and she missed an opportunity to get to know Him better. 

Martha would say "I'm just trying to bless you Jesus."

I am trying to bless you with the best meal in town. I am trying to bless you with all of my gifts. I want to bless you with this meal. I want to bless you with my service. 

Somewhere along the line...she missed that Jesus wanted "her" not her services. 

Oh how we need to get this my friends!

Don't forget Jesus as you serve Jesus.

Don't forget to bless the LORD as you are striving to bless Him with your day to day tasks.

Get to know God's love language.

One day Jesus may want you to sit.

Another day Jesus may want you to step out of your comfort zone and serve. 

Lord help us bless you in the way that you desire! 

The Church Machine

 Did you hear the headlines?

Another one fell...

Oh how the valiant have fallen.

Did you hear? (so and so left the church....)

Did you know? (so and so is living with his girlfriend...Tsk Tsk...His parents had such a strong walk with Jesus too.)

Did you hear? Megachurch so and so has (insert big name) speaking at that church! We should go!

What are you doing on Sunday?

Well after church service, I serve, then after that I have a church meeting....

Has the church become a machine?

A business venture? 

A club of "do-good-ers?"

Oh Father! Please no!!!!!!!

I confess I have not heard a message in a long time talking about the very important topic of repentance. 

"Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit in me" Psalm 51

I feel like Social Media has both blessed the church and HURT the church in various ways. 

For one, many people watch a 2 minute devotional video and they falsely tell themselves:

"That was my devotion for the day"

Although I love catching little sermonettes or sound bites from social media...this is NOT intimacy with God...

True intimacy with God comes from bearing your soul before your Creator, being still in His presence, reading the Bible, line by line and then spending time in prayer. (Jeremiah 15:16, Psalm 46:10, 1 Kings 19:12)

Like Jon Courson used to say "Read your Bible and pray" every single day. (Psalm 63:1-8)

The other day I was praying and I thought of this term 

"church machine"

Have we become part of the church machine?

Instead of an organic body of Christ have we become robotic and mechanic like terminator? Have we forgotten that Jesus (not Arnold) is the first one that said "I'll be back?"

I don't want to be a part of the church machine. 

I desire to be a part of the body of Christ. 

I want to be open to the Holy Spirit's leading...however that looks and wherever that may be. 

I remember one time I had a rough morning. 

I had gotten in a HUGE argument with Chuck on a Saturday night and then now on Sunday morning I was crying, weeping, lifting my hands in surrender and truly repenting. 

A friend pulled me aside and said "Hey are you ok?"

I was thinking about this the other day.

Are we truly aware of the fact that others around us are hurting?

Do we dare put ourselves out there and ask "Are you ok?"

As part of the church machine....we do not do this enough. 

We need to be real, raw, vulnerable and obedient to the Holy Spirit. It took a lot of courage for that friend to ask me if I was ok. I do not weep that much and she noticed. 

What a blessing and gift. 

Do we slow down enough to notice?

Are we missing out on ministering to God and hearing from God while we do ministry?

I think we are. 

You see...when you read the book of Acts....service to the LORD and others happened everywhere. On the streets, on the way to prayer meetings, during 1:1 prayer time, in corporate prayer time, and it looked different from day to day. This is the venture of faith and excitement I believe we are missing. 

We are so used to how church "should look" and operate that we forget about the Holy Spirit. 

Dr. Timothy Keller said in a sermon the other day hyper spiritual Christians go off "emotional highs" and hyper Bible teaching churches thrive off of "intellectual highs." God wants us to use both- our minds and our hearts. We need both. 

We need the Holy Spirit to ignite us. We need God's Word to ground us. We need both.

My fear is that living in America....we have become soft and weak in our sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. 

When I was young, I did not like scary movies. One of my older cousins said "Just watch it and remind yourself 'this is fake' The blood is fake. The person did not really get killed. it's not real" 

You get de-sensitized and you can watch the movie without fear. 

*(I still don't like scary movies!)

Have we in America lost the fear of God? Have we lost the sensitivity to sin? To the Holy Spirit's prompting?

Have we become a church machine where we go to church, read our Bibles a bit, cry and bit, go home and stay unmoved that there are SO many non-believers dying without Jesus?

This whole Covid pandemic should be making us different! 

We need to be different!

We need to be vibrant, caring, loving God-fearing compassionate people. 

I do not know about you but I am so tired of hearing about masks and vaccines. I am NOT tired of hearing about the Gospel. 

How do you dismantle a machine?

You self evaluate. You individually and corporately confess sin... 

You take it apart piece by piece and try to find out where the power source is. 

The power has always been Jesus. 

Advancing His kingdom....(not a specific church, a specific event, or a specific agenda)

It's always been Jesus. (Acts 4:12)

We need help!

Houston we have a problem. 
We have allowed complacency, routine, and apathy creep into the church and now we have a church machine. 

Please LORD Jesus give us hearts that break for what breaks yours. 

In Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, he talks about faith and "faith moods."

He writes: "The first step is to reognise the fact that your moods change. The next is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and religious readings and churchgoings are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief no any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?" 

Revive us again dear God! We need fresh wind and fresh fire and a hunger and thirst for righteousness!

Holy Spirit please send ONE MORE revival!

Rest/Respite/A Break

 Do you want a “break” before you break down?

I sure do.

We all need rest…

I didn’t even know what the word “respite” meant…

I literally had to look it up in the dictionary…

2 Kings 14:26

For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel which was very bitter for there was neither bond nor free nor was there any helper for Israel. 

God is our help.

He Himself is our break- our rest- our Sabbath. 

The problem is we often do not know what we need when we need it.

We cry out to others.

We go to food.

We watch TV.

We try to numb ourselves and binge on social media or something anything to give us a mental break.

We might even go on a walk or take a hot bath.

But true rest...true inner peace (true Shalom) comes from Christ. 

Rest is a person=Jesus. 

LORD our world has been unraveling for some time. 

2020 was insane...

2021 is even more intense...

So much death...so much pain...

LORD give us a break...

We need you. 

We need you Abba Father to help us. We need a break. We need you to hold our hearts in your hand and say "it's going to be OK"

LORD thank you for the hope of heaven. Thank you for the promise of heaven.

Thank you for the promise that if we come to you when we are weak and heavy laden you will provide rest. You provide rest for our minds. Our thoughts can be so scattered LORD. We have a hard time praying, focusing. We get intimated by all of the "what ifs" or maybes or is God even near me anymore? We fear the future. 

COVID has caused us all to truly question our days and our very existence. 

Friends have died LORD. Some have been saved. Others refused to repent...that is what scares us the most. 

LORD Jesus give us the grace to trust you every single day. Our world is not normal anymore. But Jesus, was it every normal? You have always encouraged us to rest in you...so LORD we pray it again. We need rest. We need you to cleanse us of all our old creature comforts....May we feel comfortable and rested only in your arms AFTER we have drank of the Living Water of your Word.
Jesus thank you for rest and for the break you give us. One day we will be in your presence with new bodies and we will truly be able to be still and know you are God. 

In Jesus' Matchless Name, 

Amen