7holycrap Holy Crap, Life Lessons

No One Buys Gift Cards from a Store Going Out of Business

giftcards
I went to a store going out of business in my area last week and thought I would share my experience for humor and an important lesson I learned. First, when I pulled up, there were two signs on the side of the building. One said “Going Out of Business Sale – Everything Must Go!” and the other one said “Now Hiring!”. After chuckling and doing a double take, I thought I should take a picture and send it in to one of the late night talk shows so that others could get a laugh out of it. It was so weird to see those signs hanging next to one another knowing that only one of them were true. When I walked into the store, it looked like ants disassembling a Sunday picnic with people walking all over the store assessing the best deals and making their purchases. Plus, in the entire time I have lived in my area, that store has never had that many people in it to my memory.

As I walked up to pay for the discounted treasures I found, the check out aisle had a completely FULL kiosk of gift cards for the store. Again, I chuckled and then was instantly struck with a truth that applied to that store and to life; no one buys a gift card for a company going out of business. Our world puts an incredible focus on the temporary things causing people to strive to get things that, when they die, will not matter anyway. I remember taking my youth kids from church to a graveyard and asking them how many garages they saw by tombstones. The answer was obvious as I shared that there are no garages in graveyards. There are no U-Haul trucks in a funeral procession full of possessions to leave with the deceased person at their gravesite.

There is an incredible responsibility on all true followers of Christ to share with others about the relationship that they have with Jesus and help people shift the focus off of “gift cards that won’t have any value” when the “store” of life closes. Even greater, is if you call yourself a follower of Christ and have a passion to acquire things in this world that is out of balance with your pursuit of Christ, then you need to reevaluate your relationship with Jesus and what HIS value is in your life. I am only saying this because God has done some “housecleaning” in me including an evaluation of my focuses and things that I value.

Today, you have an incredible opportunity to show people around you the power of a focus that is on eternal things and not just the temporal. Just remember that not everyone you come in contact with will understand this principle and needs to not here your WORDS about what you believe with well crafted social media posts but see your ACTIONS that have a magnetic power to draw people to Christ through you.

7holycrap Life Lessons

How To Sin When Someone Offends You

Word on keyboard made in 3D
I wanted to give a few pointers on how to make sure to turn an offense of some kind into full-blown sin when someone offends you. Of course, I am typing this tongue in cheek, but how many times do we follow the rules below to make a situation even worse?

  1. Find 3 people that agree with you and disagree with the other person.
    It is VERY important to only tell your side of the story and not take responsibility for your side of the situation. Pulling people to your side is critical to insulating yourself from correction and making sure to discredit the other person.
  2. Concentrate on the offense as long as humanly possible.
    Make sure to let an offense fester in your mind and interfere with your prayer life and even let it change your personality. Making sure that others know you are mad at someone secures them feeling bad for you and hating the person in the altercation.
  1. ALERT: Stay FAR away from people will be honest with you and help you let go of what offended you.
    This is a KEY because others can help bring a sense of calm and levelheadedness that you DO NOT need when you are trying to stay mad at someone.
  1. Forget how many times Jesus forgave you when you did something to Him that would be considered an offense.
    Forgetting about your own shortcomings can definitely help to strengthen the length of time you can stay hateful and really feel like you are “getting them back” because of your anger.

The sad thing is that there is truth folded into the four points above when we get offended. I have a news flash for all of us; as long as we are breathing and walking on this earth we will be offended in life. So the question is not IF we will be offended but WHEN and how we will deal with those situations.

When someone offends us the FIRST thing we need to do is guard/watch our tongue and the people we try and pull into our painful situations. There is nothing good that can come from talking bad about someone else, no matter what the situation.

Our mind is where the devil wants to play and keep us distracted from working through painful situations and releasing them to God. A true sign of spiritual growth is turning over a destructive thought more quickly than before.

There is a power in the verse in Proverbs 27:17 about iron sharpening iron. When we put ourselves around people who we trust to be honest and give us Godly perspective in life we put ourselves in a place of growth in life and not destruction.

Remembering what we have been forgiven of with Jesus can be the very best way to release forgiveness to others. There is nothing worse than accepting forgiveness from Jesus and not releasing that same forgiveness to others that offend us. I am not saying there will be no process of releasing things to God, but when we keep our perspective on life and interaction with each other, we can work through pain and not let it keep us from growth in many areas of life.

Praying for you today!

7holycrap Holy Crap, Life Lessons

For those who Say They Can’t have Faith in God, Never Update Any Mobile Device…EVER

applewatchupdate
I had an update pop up this am for my Apple Watch. I went through the normal ritual of accepting the update on my phone, which brought me to a screen that asks for my permission with micro writing that I KNOW no one even cares about and trusts blindly. I scrolled down to the bottom, as I do every time, and mindlessly clicked “agree” when I did not even read one word or warning.

Then it hit me.

I come in contact with people all the time who tell me that they just can’t have faith in God because they need to be able to see, know and understand everything He is doing and will do. Just like when Apple asks me to trust them with a device update that they feel will be necessary to help with security and new enhancements for my watch, when I trust God in my life I am doing the same thing. I trust he knows better than me because he is the “creator” of my life as Apple is the creator of my watch. I was not there when the watch or my body was put together, but I trust the update and God will do what is advertised and that it will enhance my life in some obvious way.

When we can see that we put our trust in all kinds of things each day without truly having complete knowledge of how they were put together and how they will work, it makes trusting God just a little bit easier. Updates for most devices are based on two things; security and enhancements. Putting your life in God’s hands and allowing him to guide and direct it, are based on very similar principles. God wants to enhance our life by giving us the security of knowing that no matter what happens to us, He will be right there with us and will never leave us.

In all reality, we do not have trust issues in this life. We have issues with who/what we put our trust IN. We need to consider heavenly trust in the same category as anything else in life and give trusting God a chance. The Bible says that if you seek Him you will find him.

I guess I just dared you to trust in God’s love, provision and help for your life.
Are you up for the “trust” challenge?

7holycrap Life Lessons

Generosity has to do with HEARTS not HANDS

generous
I was talking to a friend about generosity and what motivates someone to give. I am the kind of person that if I have it I will give it. I can remember praying and having a conversation with God early in my life where I told him the more He gives me the more I will give.

During our conversation I said something that I think really sums up giving and meeting the needs of others.

I said, “Generosity is not what is in your hand, it’s what is in your heart.” Wow. I just sat there and looked at Aaron and said, “That statement is ending up in a blog post or on Facebook in some way.”

I think it is SO important to realize that generosity really has NOTHING to do with whether or not you have lots of money. Even the term “lots of money” is relative because “enough” to one person may be barely any to another.

The heart is the primary factor when it comes to a person giving to others and not what they see in their hand. When we only see what is in our hand we limit giving to simply a physical expression instead of really letting it be an expression from the heart.

God ALWAYS wants us operating from a place of heart and not simply evaluating what we think WE can afford to be without. Giving is not learning to go without because we gave to others. It is being content enough with what we have and being able to trust God for what we need so that we can be a blessing to others in their time of need.

Have a great day and, as always, I am praying for you!

7holycrap Jesus thoughts

Hollywood and the Disease of Being Famous

As I read more reports about Phillip Seymour Hoffman it just breaks my heart. So much talent, so much adoration from the world and movie industry, so much money and awards. Yet no peace, no contentment and no escape from the disease of being famous. Whenever a star from Hollywood dies in a way like this, it is a constant reminder that the superficial world that is Hollywood doesn’t bring true contentment with its adulation and awards alone. For those of us NOT famous and running in Hollywood circles, it can be easy to dream about the lifestyle of a star. Even though I am a pastor, I am just as prone as the next guy to allow thoughts of “what would it be like” to run through my head every so often. Then I am brought immediately back down to earth when I read about the death of a famous star from drugs, alcohol or other “escape routes” that famous people try to use. I know many people have made fun of Justin Bieber in the past few weeks but we need to be praying for him and his SCREAMS like a little lost boy of “HELP ME!” Being in Hollywood and having awards and money and opportunities are not terrible in themselves and can actually be really great. The main component is the relationship to Jesus that changes the focus and dynamic and the entire foundation of happiness in this world.
The point I am trying to make is that if you think you will have enough people love you and honor you and enough money to “be happy” and enough “shots to make it big” without a foundation in God then you are mistaken. There are MORE than enough examples in life of people that didn’t have a firm foundation in Jesus and in who they were and they kill themselves or end up in a never ending cycle of bad relationships or rehab to prove my point. We need to take the bright lights of Hollywood at face value and take a relationship with God as a priority.
Maybe you don’t even know how to start a relationship with Jesus. Do you realize how much patience God has with you? He will NEVER take control of a persons life or decisions. He is waiting for you to ask him to take control. It’s just as simple as “Jesus take control of my life. Amen” There are SO MANY resources on the web about study of the Bible and lots of great Jesus preaching, Bible believing churches you can go to and get involved with. All it takes is commitment and one step. And then another step. And then another. Have a great Wednesday and if you would like more information about a relationship with Jesus you can email me and I will help. Brimo777@gmail.com