Hope Part 2

It was for freedom that Christ set us free...

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Hope Part 1

In a time of such uncertainty it's nice to have my hope not in an economy, or a country, but in a relationship. Jesus! My relationship with him gives me peace, gives me joy, and of course...

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New Clothes

I heard a quote the other day that has wrecked my world...

Clothe yourself in the compassion of God.

Think about that for a second or two... This little phrase has changed the way I look at people. It's hard to see anyone as a force of evil or an object or even a competition. People are people and WE ALL have been created by God. When I clothe myself in compassion I begin to see a person through God's eyes. A story begins to form about who they are and why they are the way they are. God begins to show me that they to are human and that He loves them as much as He loves me... AND that He forgives them.
When I'm clothed in compassion it sure is hard to onto any bitterness towards another person because I realize that they make mistakes just like me. And if I would like a second chance to redeem myself, shouldn't the person that I have the bitterness towards get that SAME KIND of chance as well?
I could go on, but you get the point...

Clothe yourself in the compassion of GOD.

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Welcome Back

I know, I know. I started this thing in April and it's like 7 months later and this is my third entry. With me this thing is a process. My wife is the master blogger. I am just a novice, but if I'm to get better, I must write. So I'll get better.

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I'm not entitled

The other day, my four year old son Kale had just gotten up from a nap and was hungry. My wife Jill was coming over to where we were sitting with a banana for him. Before she gave Kale the banana, Jill asked him if she could have a bite. With all the macho-ness he could muster, Kale said, "NO momma, it's mine!"
Now how could it be his? I'm the one who made the money to buy the banana. Jill is the one who went shopping for it and picked it out. It's not his. However, for a four year old (who has lacked for nothing), Kale felt a certain amount of entitlement to the banana. He felt it was his, he was hungry, and no one was going to have any of it. The only thing that made it his was when Jill handed it to him and he took it.
This little episode got me thinking about how I act when God asks me to give back 10% of my finances. Really all the money I earn comes from God. Everything I have is from God, He created it, it's His. and God gladly gives this stuff to me and all He's asking for in return is a bite. And a lot of the time I've acted like my son... "It's MINE!"
Needless to say I was convicted...
And I have Joyfully been giving God His bite ever since. After all, it's His anyway.

By the way, Kale also gladly gave Jill a bite of the banana a little later...
That's my boy.

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Answers?

As a leader and a pastor I recognize that I have people looking to me for answers... How do you want this? What are we going to do about that? You get the idea. When I have my Pastor Hat on I want to be able to give people an answer to everything. Even to the hard questions like, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" I don't necessarily know the answer to the question, but I try to give an answer anyway.
I think I do this out of fear of losing credibility with the one asking the question. What I fail to see is that most people are looking for an honest answer, and I have to get comfortable with the fact that I don't know everything. And so to some of the questions that are asked, I simply must learn to say (I'm being honest here)... I don't know.
This blog will be my outlet for thoughts, things I see, and hopefully a store-house of lessons learned and nuggets of wisdom.
I know I won't have all the answers to everything in my lifetime, but maybe I can discover a few answers to the tough questions.

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