7holycrap Life Lessons

Two Things to STOP and Two Things to START This New Year

1. Stop worrying about defending Jesus and Bible.
The Bible and Jesus have been around for far longer than you and I have even existed. The Word of God has been staving off attacks of all kinds for many many years. The Word has stood the test of time and continues to bring life and direction to all who heed its words. Jesus is in the business of defending YOU and not you worrying about how you are going to defend Him. He is not up in heaven nervous and biting his nails to the quick…so you shouldn’t either. It’s all about asking God for wisdom and to follow the verse in Matthew 10:16 for this new year; “…being wise as serpents and gentle as doves.”

2. Stop worrying about how to evangelize people and just start loving them!
There are so many things that are happening in today’s society contrary to the Word of God and its principles. The hard thing to realize is that many, if not all, of the things happening in our culture today were happening back in Bible times as well. Our CENTRAL focus in life should be how do we “out-LOVE” people around us who are screaming by their actions that they need someone to listen and show them Jesus. The key is when the opportunity comes and someone asks you “why are you being so nice to be?” or “why do you love me even when I can’t seem to love myself?” that you don’t say something like, “well, just because I am trying to make the world a better place.” You can say, “I follow Jesus in my life and he was the GREATEST example of love there ever was or will be. I am just trying to show the world what that love looks like through me in a healthy nonjudgmental way.” Just because you love someone doesn’t mean that you accept everything they do. Jesus loves YOU and he doesn’t always like the things You do either. People giving Jesus control of their lives will happen when you start SHOWING others what a healthy belief in God looks like coupled with loving others.

3. Start praying and asking God for opportunities to show true Christlike love in 2015.
It’s the age old adage; you don’t get what you don’t ask for. We need to realize that God is always speaking but sometimes we are not truly listening to what He has to say. When we ask God for his will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven” we are saying, “God, use me today to bring your love to a lost, hurt and dying world that is falling slowly out of love with itself and doesn’t even know it.”

4. Start believing for the impossible in your life.
When we go through problems in life, we can program ourselves to start believing or looking for the negative in situations. When we start believing for the impossible we open a door of opportunity for God to show up and show off to encourage our faith and lift the life of someone else. We need to start getting worse at unbelief and professionals at seeing the impossible and believing for something GREAT! I truly believe that 2015 will be a year where faith in the unseen will be needed more than ever and that God is looking for those who would see the “possible” in the “impossible.”

Have a great New Years and wonderful start to 2015!! See you next year!

7holycrap funny thoughts, Life Lessons

Resolutions, Resolve and Making Change Stick!

Today I had a revelation about my year coming up. I was driving back from skiing and was trying to think through a meeting that I had to make with a person and thought, “I can’t really do Tuesday’s because I have pastor’s meeting on that day.” The only issue is that I am no longer working for a church and don’t have that obligation each week anymore. Generally, for the past 20 years of my adult life, I have had a “pastor’s meeting” in some form or fashion every week. I know that now working in the television world that I will still have some kind of staff meeting, but it will be at a time I choose. I then called my wife, had a good laugh and continued to drive home. Then I was thinking about how many times we make decisions in life based on the familiar and not the truth. I was modifying my meeting time with something that didn’t even exist in my life anymore because my mind had been programmed to remember staff meetings every Tuesday.

Now think about something you want to change in your life this new year. It is not as simple as just deciding to do something different. Deciding to change is definitely a start, but not the deciding factor of whether your life is modified or not. There is going to need to be what I call “repeated disciplines” that you commit to in the process of your life each day. One of the BEST ways to shift thinking is to read the Bible. Even if it is not something necessarily spiritual, reading the Bible can have amazing effects in your life. I know many people think the Bible is just a dusty book of life suggestions, but it has been such an integral part of my life growing up and now as a person who tries to let Jesus be seen in everything I do.

I want to challenge you this new year to make reading the Bible a staple in your daily life if you are deciding to make some kind of positive change. You can start with the book of John which is such a great book about the love of Jesus and is a fairly easy read. I would read The New Living Translation or New International Readers Version instead of the good ol trusty King James which can be difficult to understand. Maybe you already read the Bible each day but you are reading it out of obligation only. Maybe that needs to be your “change” this year in that you pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal new truth to you before you read one word. I know that I always get more out of the Bible when I do that before I start to read.

Have a wonderful new year this week and do more than make resolutions that are filled with good intentions but lack a positive game plan for execution. Praying for you all!

7holycrap Life Lessons

Good Riddance to Moderate Christianity!

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The days of “moderate Christianity” are coming to close, and I say good riddance! I was talking with a couple of different people this past week about all of the “anti-Christmas” situations that have come up in the news. My favorite so far was a Fire Station in some town that had a “Merry Christmas” sign on it. An atheist group filed a complaint with the city so the fire department took their sign down, in compliance, and put up a new sign that read, “Happy Birthday Jesus, We Love You.” Each of these people I was talking to said that it was amazing to see the attack on Christ and Christianity in society and I said, “I think it’s great!” I said, “I think the opposition to Christ that is happening in America is good because it’s weeding out moderate Christians who only have a familiarity with Christ and not a real relationship.”

Never forget that your belief in anything will only have its personal value tested when it is opposed, and this includes being a follower of Christ. Jesus even mentions opposition in the Bible in Matthew 10:22 and also in Mark 13:13 where it says believers in Christ would not just be opposed but hated but that those who endured to the end would be saved. This was not only a forewarning of attacks but even a CONFIRMATION that they were living properly! It was also a word given for followers to make sure and count the cost of following after Jesus. I am not sure in today’s world of consumer Christianity that much cost counting is done before deciding to follow Christ, which makes me very sad. I am not saying this as a judgment but more of an observation of the society we live in and what people are willing to give up for Christ versus giving things up for self. If this wave of challenges concerning Christ and people who follow Jesus will help people get off the fence with their beliefs, I think it could actually be something amazing and good for the church. It can also be a good lesson for Christians to learn to lead with the love of Christ (shocker) instead of conjuring up a lecture ABOUT the love of Christ. Jesus’ words were ALWAYS followed up with action so if I say I am following Him, then my actions better line up in the same way. Have a wonderful holiday and Merry Christmas!

7holycrap Life Lessons

Keith Elder and His Impact on my Life

I was up hiking today and happened to check my Facebook and saw that a hero in the faith for me had passed and graduated to heaven. Keith Elder was such a larger than life person for me, literally and figuratively, when I was growing up in Montana in the Assemblies of God. I was heavily involved in my church and their Royal Ranger (Christian Boy Scouts) program as well as the youth group when I grew older. I can remember the first time I shook Keith’s hand. It was like I only had a wrist because his hand was so big that I couldn’t even see mine.

Growing up, there were three people in my life that helped me know and then “seal the deal” that I wanted to be a pastor. My 3rd grade Sunday School teacher Carol Davis, my youth pastor and best man at my wedding Lee Terry and Keith Elder. As I reflect on the impact of Keith in my life, it is interesting to see how God allowed me to interact with these three people at important times that formed me into the person I am today.

My greatest memories of Keith were in Hungry Horse Montana at Glacier Bible Camp every summer through my Junior High and Senior High years. It was always fun to see my dad and Keith hug whenever we would get to camp because they both had such big bellies! From Keith calling all of the kids at camp “suckas” to his super low voice when he was warning the girls and boys to stay out of each other areas of camp. His explanation of the “hand holding rule” at camp was always hysterical and epic. He would explain that you held the pinky on Monday, then two fingers on Tuesday and so on until you had bliss in your heart because on Friday, when you got to hold the whole hand. I remember sneaking out of our cabins at night when I was at camp. Keith had a “Big Bear” Polaris 4-wheeler (funny because that was his Royal Ranger FCF name and nickname) and we would know we were safe to goof around the camp until we heard the roar of that engine in the night driving to the guy’s area and we would either hide or run to our cabins. I have so many great memories of friends from Montana and our shenanigans.

One of the most impactful moments of my life, and something that would shape how I dealt with students through the years and deal with adults now, came in a staff chapel when I was attending summer camp as a counselor. There was someone asking Keith about how to deal with kids that were getting out of hand and causing problems and Keith said the most profound thing. He said, “Always remember that kids don’t cause problems, they reveal problems.” Then I remember him starting to cry in the way that only Keith could cry. He had tears absolutely streaming down his face and his voice would never ever break or even quiver. He would go on to explain that the camp was often the only time that kids acting out would have away from the dysfunction and often horror of living at home. I truly believe that Keith was a man with a heart that was larger than the physical size of his body. Seeing him love on kids and their lives being changed at camps were hallmark moments in my life and caused me to hunger to do the same for youth when I grew up and to help people see Jesus in me.

I can only hope that someday, when I am dead and gone, that people will not remember me for my love of technology or my laugh or my multi-colored socks. But they would remember that I loved people like Jesus and took the time to not only talk like Christ but actually act like him as well.  I pray for his wife Marlys and kids D’awn & Kent and their families mourning his loss on this earth, but I can also hear Keith at the pearly gates saying in his low-tone Fat Albert voice, “Hey, Hey, Hey…I’m finally home.”

 

7holycrap Life Lessons

A 6.5 Millon Dollar Lesson on “Value”

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The image above is what a 6.5 MILLION dollar black and white photograph looks like. When I read the title of the news article about this picture from Peter Lik, I thought it was a misprint. I couldn’t believe that someone would pay that much money for a photo. Not even something that someone took years to create with their hands but just found that perfect moment to take a picture and made more money than most people could make in a lifetime. Even as I type this blog it’s still hard to register in my head.

Then I thought about God sending Jesus to die for mankind and the price that was paid on a cross. This is also something that completely dumbfounds me. God looked at the “picture” of our lives and decided that it had an incredible value and worth paying “top dollar” for, with the death of His son. As you celebrate Christmas this season, please realize that God sees value in you even when you feel like a “plain old black and white photo of a deserted dusty canyon.” His love for us is so boundless and his belief in our ability to withstand the pressures of life with Him at the helm is limitless.

Enjoy these few days leading up to Christmas and know that you have value in God’s eyes. It’s one of the reasons why I asked God many years ago to be the driving force behind everything I do. I encourage you to take a few moments today and think about how you see yourself and what you are motivated and driven by. If it is not a relationship with God, I encourage you to give Him a chance this Christmas season. Praying for you all.

7holycrap Jesus thoughts, Life Lessons

The Time it takes to Compliment Someone

I went running this morning and was thinking about ways to show the love of Jesus to people that I meet. One idea that I had was to make a running shirt that says “Stop me if you need prayer” on the front so that people will see it and I can interact if they want. Then I was thinking about the amount of time it takes to compliment someone about anything. I tried out my little “mental experiment” with a lady who was walking her dog and told her she had a pretty dog. Her eyes lit up and she said, “thank you!” I also saw a lady who lived in a beautiful house right off of the trail and told her that she had a beautiful house and she said, “thanks!” Those two smiles and compliments took less that two seconds each!

Now there is something you need to understand if you don’t live in or are from Colorado. People are not so friendly when it comes to being on their property or at their house. But when you meet or greet them outside on trails hiking or running, skiing at any one of many ski hills or just walking out in the sun, people are just different and much more friendly. I knew this from living here for almost fourteen years and understanding the culture.

The point I’m trying to make is to always remember one simple fact when considering your ability to be like Christ on this earth; we are all just part of the process. This sounds like a “duh” statement but it is really profound if you think about what it means. I truly believe that we get so caught up in the last step of someone giving his or her life over to Jesus. We forget we are part of a greater plan and need to realize that even small acts of kindness can lead to a person’s life being forever changed by giving God control of how they live their life. We never know how being kind to someone or something as simple as a compliment is going to be a catalyst to put them in a better mood and for the next person being obedient to God being able to talk about what Jesus did for them and planting another positive seed in their life.

So basically those two simple compliments were, quite possibly, the two most important interactions I had all day and took less that two seconds each! What an incredible shift from looking only at the result of the actions we take on this earth with our walks with God to just being obedient in the moment and trusting God for the results and letting Him get the glory.

Have a great rest of the week and know that I am praying for God’s love and Holy Spirit to guide and direct what you do in the moment and that you will learn to leave the rest up to Him.