7holycrap Holy Crap, Life Lessons

Talkers are Praised While Listeners Go Unnoticed

Listening
I cannot say that I know very many people who are great listeners, including myself. Someone who, when their name comes up, is known to others as an exceptional listener. At the same time, we can name numerous amazing speakers when it comes to people we think have full command of the words that come out of their mouth. It is an interesting thing to me that we praise talkers but great listeners in life go unnoticed. Maybe it’s because we feel like if we don’t share how we feel we will not be able to change our corner of the world. Maybe you grew up in a large family and if you were not able to express yourself well that you were ignored or even forgotten.

As a follower of Christ, I was ALWAYS taught growing up the importance of telling others about my relationship with Jesus. Even now, Christians far and wide believe the most important thing is telling the world about how much Jesus loves them. We even sing worship songs about “telling” and build vision/mission statements around talking! When was the last time you read the vision statement of a religious organization that says, “We will listen to the broken and answer with love first and words second.”

Please hear me. I am not poking holes in religious organizations or churches but just making a statement about maybe some of the pacing we do as followers of Christ that tries to mimic the people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus yet. The world is all about telling others who they are, how they feel and the convictions they have and operate by.

There is an incredible power exhibited when you LISTEN to someone who either disagrees with your stance on something or even says things based from a place of hurt or pain. Stop trying to come up with a witty antidote to something being told to you and just tell yourself to shut off your mouth and engage your ears and mind to just listen.

The amazing byproduct of listening is that it encourages others to hear what YOU have to say because they felt honored that you would listen to them. So it is not whether you ONLY listen or ONLY talk but that listening opens up the channels of communication with others and helps you share what is on your heart. Maybe it is a priority of listening with a result of talking. Even Jesus would interact with people in a question format, listen to what they would have to say and then share. The greatest communicator to walk the earth was first and foremost the greatest listener, and He is who I want to be.

7holycrap Holy Crap, Life Lessons

God DOESN’T Just Love You…

goddoesntjustloveyou-image
The Bible tells of instances where people came to Jesus because they knew who He was. Those people would be considered “believers” in our day. But it is also FULL of times where Jesus went out to minister to people needing help and not even knowing that Jesus could fix what was broken. They would be considered “lost” in our day.

If you are a follower of Christ, it’s not just about coming to church on Sundays, praying, reading your Bible and spending time with Jesus for self consumption. It’s about following Christ’s example and going out to get the lost. The church does not only exist for us to consume good teaching and feed only ourselves for the week. No one will know how great Jesus is and how the church can help them if we don’t go get them!

The question is what does it look like to “go get” people? For some, it is making sure that we find and tell people what they are doing is wrong and that we don’t show an ounce of care because that would be justifying what they are doing. Others have been led to believe that Jesus came to this earth to simply love with nothing else in mind. That is also incorrect. His love for people was and always is there regardless of the situation, but his REAL purpose for being on this earth was to bring CHANGE. It was change for Jesus’ followers to have to leave their known professions and follow Him and his teachings. It was CHANGE in the lives of people to be healed from disease that had plagued them for years. It was CHANGE for the religious officials who were more concerned about keeping the religious laws of the day rather than doing what Jesus directed which was helping the poor, sick and broken.

We are now the hands and feet of Jesus to those who are looking for a change in life and maybe don’t even know it yet. That means we love everyone no matter what but we are constantly asking God what we need to do to be an agent of change in their lives. It may be loving someone unconditionally while telling them that you think they may be making a poor choice. It is still love to care for someone and disagree with their actions. Jesus loves ME when my actions might not line up with what he thinks is best for me and because of that love I know where I can go when I want to make a change in my life.

It is very important to remember that we are not the ones who BRING change in people’s lives but that we set the stage for GOD to bring change. When we are focused on setting up opportunities for God to move in people’s lives it takes the stress off of us to think that we have to make something happen in people’s life. When I love with the knowledge that I am not going to MAKE anyone change, I can let God work in their hearts and then be there if they want to go in a different direction in life.

Today, consider how you are going to go get the lost tomorrow by setting the stage for God to bring CHANGE in the lives of others. Jesus trusts that you are not going to screw it up so just go and love with a purpose!!

7holycrap Holy Crap

Take Heart and Trust God!

John 16_33 Pic
John 16:33
…In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

The world will be full of problems and trouble of all kinds. Even in the book of John in the Bible, there is a factual statement Jesus makes about problems and pain life saying that “this world will have trouble.” So it is not a question of IF there will be pain but WHEN and to what degree.

The term “take heart” means to evaluate your heart and where your trust is in difficult situations. This verse was not when Jesus and the disciples were lounging next to a lake eating figs and enjoying the cool fresh breeze. It was before Jesus’ arrest and the beginning of a very difficult time for his followers.

Today, think about where your trust is located. Is it in temporal earthly possessions? Is it in your looks or your personality? Or is it in Jesus who is the one who has overcome the world and all the destruction that will continue to occur around us? Find hope, peace and strength in Jesus and maybe start to give him control of even one area of life. You can do it. I am praying for you and believing for the BEST in your life.

7holycrap Holy Crap

GPS….Just…WOW!

GPS
I was typing an address into my car’s GPS the other day and thought, “Wow. We have come such a long way with navigation in this world.”

I can remember when I used to have to just know where to go and my own crappy directions. We also used to go to AAA to get a “TripTik” for longer vacations. It was basically a map that was spiral bound at the top and about 4 inches wide and 8.5 inches long with your route cut into 25 miles increments. The AAA agent would have to use a stamper to let you know where construction or obstructions were going to be on a trip. There was no guarantee that you would not get lost using the map because it was still up to you to find the turns.

I have voice-activated navigation in my car that has real time traffic as well as a Garmin in Yolanda’s car that you can wake up by saying its name and tell it where you want to go. It just boggles my mind how technology has advanced when trying to get around.

Then I thought about the life we live in general. What are we allowing to give us direction in life? Is it trusting ourselves and our knowledge of what we have experienced to help us navigate life, like when I first started driving? Is it just based on other people we know and their experiences as in the case of going to AAA to get a TripTik? Or is it looking to God with a global network of satellite “life” images and accurate positioning to trust in our journeys? I know now that if I were to not have GPS in my vehicles that it would be much more difficult to get to where I wanted to go and I would most likely get lost.

When we give God control of our lives we basically say, “God, I know you have mapped out every place that I would need or ever want to go and I trust in following your directions in everything I do.” The key as well with GPS is that you still need to make the turns!! You don’t put in the location you want to go and then just sit in your car. You need to still drive and follow the directions.

Think today about giving navigational control of your life to God by reading the Bible and seeking God in prayer. If you don’t know how to do that, then click the “Connect” button above and send me an email. I will be more than happy to help you calibrate and start using the “God GPS” in your life!
Have a great day!

7holycrap Holy Crap, Life Lessons

Empathy is the Finest HOLY in the CRAP

bt-against-empathy

Chapter 12 – “When Pain Has Value”

“It is interesting for me to look back on the “eyeball years” because I really feel God was working on my empathy for people more than He was working on my belief in Him while I was going through the worst of my eye situation. I want to state it again because I think this concept is so important for a person following Christ: God was working on my empathy for people more than He was working on my belief in Him. Now, to a “career Christian,” this can sound terrible. But I know that if I tell people I love Jesus more than anything in my life, but I can’t have empathy for people, give to the needy, help the poor, take care of widows and orphans, or just simply love people who are making bad decisions in life–as I do sometimes–then my relationship with Jesus is a lie.”

Many times we focus so hard on trying to believe things for our own lives rather than letting Jesus teach us empathy for others while going through crap in life. The empathy we have for others is what changes our relationship with Jesus. We go from just being concerned about ourselves and what WE can get and what WE need, to an outward focus that wants to serve others. It is the perfect and selfless example that Jesus gave us while on this earth. When we are focused on giving to others, Jesus not only meets our needs but meets them with perfect timing to receive it for maximum impact.

Today, think about how you can get involved in someone else’s life in a practical way, especially if you are going through some kind of crap of your own. When we help take care of God’s children, WE are taken care of. It’s the Kingdom way; give yourself away to find your own needs met.

As always, praying for you all to have daily revelations from God and a heart that is pliable to His ways.

7holycrap Holy Crap

The Only REAL Control you Have in Life

Stubborn

Excerpt from Chapter 11 – Physical Sight versus Spiritual Sight

“As I have previously said, I am naturally a very stubborn person who has to learn most things the hard way;, I don’t let someone else help me by telling me how to change an attitude or general focus in my life before I will make the effort to change. Having no control over my health and no ability to change something in order to see a different result was very frustrating. What I didn’t realize in those years was that I could ALWAYS choose to be in control of what I thought or felt in my situation; I just chose not to.”

Maybe you are the same way with being stubborn and wanting to have things your way with your health or other painful situations. If you think about it, the real power in life is how you control thoughts and feelings in tough times. This is an important reason to give God control of your life so you can have help that can come from no other source.

Today, I pray that you just take ONE STEP closer to God and his authority in your life. One step is progress. Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.

7holycrap Orphanage Trips

#NepalOrphanage Trip – A Wonderful Trip to Nepal

File May 22, 5 24 12 PM
Well, Yolanda and I believe that it was the best trip we have taken to Nepal to go see the kids, our orphanage manager and his family. Everyone is doing well and we even got to see the kids that are fully transitioning out of the home and into real life as young adults. It is a strange and wonderful thing to see our kids growing up into men and ladies to be productive members of society.

I definitely saw the fruit of our decision to college educate all our kids. Some are becoming chefs, some are getting business management degrees and others are working in the travel industry as hotel management staff. I also spoke with one of our kids who is getting ready to enter his last year of college in business management. He said that he wants to be able to run a business and then do ministry around the area, which is awesome and proves the point that you don’t have to be in full time ministry to be able to minister to hurting people who need to hear about Jesus.

Yolanda and I were able to bring a suitcase of supplies as well as some fun things and luxuries for the kids to enjoy. There were many people who got involved in giving and we appreciate everyone’s gifts!

We were able to go shopping for basic supplies the homes needed as well as spend time hanging out with the kids and it was great. We had a worship night with other kids from the area and I was able to share a word about the importance of not just being a worship “performer” but living a lifestyle of worship. We also had a BBQ with the kids and played some games and got to just catch up talking. I loved this trip as well because the kids are getting older and easier to talk to because they trust that we are going to take care of them and want to be involved in their lives. Yolanda and I presented 10 study Bibles to kids who have graduated from High School (a gift that Yolanda and I have committed to each kid).

We were also able to go and look at land that is available in the area to possibly purchase and build our own compound with buildings for the boys, girls, our manager and a dorm area for people who would like to come and visit with us and work with the kids on trips. Please pray with us about this as it would involve quite a bit of money but we know that the home is God’s and He is going to take care of the kids as we listen and are obedient to do what He directs.

Yolanda and I want to bring a group of people back with us in October of 2017 so we made a site visit to the Chitwan National Park and stayed at a wonderful resort while there, Landmark Forest Park. Everything was wonderful and we got to see many things with walks into the local village an elephant safari and jeep safari! We made great new friends and a possible place to bring people so they can enjoy the culture and get to see a part of the world that many people from America never get to see.

At the end of the trip we spent a few days in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which was a great time of relaxing and winding down before heading home to the USA. Yolanda and I feel it is SUPER important to not just do ministry in life and miss the wonderful world that God has created and all of the interesting and amazing people in it.

Thanks to everyone who prayed while we were gone and will continue to pray for our kids. We have a great burden to see them all succeed and with the kids growing older they can present new challenges as teenagers and not little kids anymore. We also have some newer young kids that have come into the home and want the older ones to be a good influence on them and not bad ones.

Please pray also about possibly supporting the Children’s Home of Love. We never want to share only about need because we are about giving people vision for what we want to see happen and motivate people to team up with us. We know that God will bring in what is needed at the right time. He has been with us from the beginning and will continue to lead us to help change our little corner of the world, seven thousand seven hundred and twenty four miles away, one child at a time.

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

What if the world ends on 12.21.12?

Had to get your attention. 🙂 So I do not think the world will end on the 21st of this month but it does give us some interesting social interaction in America and around the world.  If I had not become a pastor so many years ago I would have been a sociologist.  I am fascinated with the interaction of people and people groups.  The internet is replete with “doomsday” projections and people moving to small towns in distant countries based on who knows what.  As a follower of Christ, it makes me think about my personal belief system that promises a return of Christ someday to earth in what is called the rapture.  I think the church has done a lot of straying from preaching the return of Christ in the place of “living right” messages.  I am not against helping people understand the importance of living right lives, but if I don’t help people focus on their eternal existence as much as their temporal activity on earth then I am doing them a huge disservice. If you are a believer in Christ and you knew the world would end (like people who think 12.21.12 is the end) then what would you be doing differently than you are now?  Would you be loving your family more? Telling more people about Jesus? Moving to some obscure country town to “wait it out”? I remember when I was really sick with my eye and was thinking about what the end of my life would look like.  I definitely acted different back then. Now that I am “out of the woods” with my health I don’t think some of the same things which is not necessarily a good thing.  Jesus says in Mark 13:35 to “keep watch because you do not know when the master of the house (Jesus) is going to return”. Do we really live each day in a place of expectation? The funny and weird thing is that a “doomsday prophecy” needs to be a personal inventory about how we are each living our lives and if they are focused on the right things and not the wrong ones like status, pride, looks, money and basically everything that Hollywood and the world’s marketing system tells us we need.  I know that my focus needs to be less on me and more on the world around me looking for answers to tough questions that need more than an emotional validation but true healing. So THANK YOU doomsday Mayan calendar.  You have helped me remember what is important in my life and give me a desire to act better in the world I live in.

7holycrap Uncategorized

An Encouraging thing just happened

Tonight, I had a visit from my neighbor.  This may not seem like a big deal, but there are circumstances around this situation that are really encouraging to me and I thought I would share with you all.  When I was REALLY sick with my eye situation, God had convicted me of not sharing my faith enough with the people that live in our townhome complex.  One guy in particular, was a person who had always been on my heart since we had moved to this area of town  about six years ago but for one reason or another I had always found excuses not to talk to him about Jesus.  Being a pastor, I always said I was too busy putting together services for other people so THEY could go out and share their faith with the world.  Then my world was turned upside down by having Scleritis and almost losing my eye in the process.  If you have never been really sick to the point of a changed lifestyle, one thing to know is that your priorities in life change.  I went from “looking good” as a pastor to actually doing my job on this earth which is sharing my faith with others.  I can remember the night about five years ago when I decided that I was not going to go blind or die and not have shared my faith with this neighbor who had been on my heart for so many years.   I walked over and knocked on the door and he let me into the doorway of his house.  I told him, “I have lived here for two years and have never told you about the most important thing in my life which is my relationship with Jesus.”  I was then waiting for him to break down and start crying and give his life over to God right then and there.  Needless to say, that didn’t happen.  He went on to tell me how he had been involved with a denomination growing up and had been abused by the church staff when he was a kid and still had some pretty hard feelings for church in general.  I told him, “well, you know I am pretty sick right now and I dont know what is going to happen to me, but I knew that I needed to tell him about my feelings for Jesus and that I knew I was supposed to talk to him that night.  I walked back to my house and went on with my life and living out the next four most painful years of my life emotionally, physically, spiritually and financially.  Whenever I had seen this neighbor around it was good because I knew I had done my part to tell him about God and the rest was up to him.
So fast forward to tonight and my visit from this neighbor.  He proceeded to tell me that he was fully involved in a church now singing in the choir and that he had dealt with the issues that had hurt him so many years ago.  He told me that he had made it right with God and was not mad at the church anymore.  I really feel like my conversation with him about four years ago started something in him that progressed to the point of him coming to grips with the pain that he went through as a child and knowing that being mad at God was not the answer to the peace he was looking for in life.  The other amazing thing was that his intention tonight was only to walk over and tell me this information about him going to church and that he had made it right with God.  This was encouraging to me in that my eye situation was used to get me off my fat butt and go tell someone about my relationship with Jesus and for it to start something good in his life and change his eternal destination forever.  I know that it was not just about me talking to my neighbor that changed him, but it was about God using me in the middle of my crap to change a guy who I will now see in heaven and who has made peace with a painful past.  What are you doing today to change the world around you?  Please don’t do what I did and wait for a rotten eyeball to do the things that God is asking you to do. If you dont have a relationship with him then please send me an email and we can talk.  pbrian7@yahoo.com
I can now say that this is the most fun I have had in my walk with God and helping to change people’s lives for the better.  It really isn’t me sharing with people about what I think is wrong with their lives or what they believe, it is talking about the peace I have found in Christ and the purpose beyond my life that is changing the world I live in forever for the glory of God.