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Building A Dream Life

We Don’t Have to be Perfect to be Used by God

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Even the People in Jesus’ Family Weren’t Perfect

When we think about Christmas, we often think about memories with our family…some good and some maybe not so much. Regardless of your memories, family is a part of who we are. Who our family is shouldn’t determine the decisions we make. We have control over our choices.

As we continue through the Advent study of the family story of Jesus and His roots, we come to the story of Jacob . Jacob is a part of Jesus’ family and a good example of not being perfect.

Let’s take a look at Jacob’s part in the family of Jesus.

Jacob’s strong will started early, while he was still in his mother’s womb. (Genesis 25:22-26) He and his brother Esau were at odds from that point on, and it continued for years.

Jacob cheated his older brother out of his inheritance by trading a bowl of stew for his birthright. (Genesis 25:27-34) Then, Jacob lies to his father to close the deal. (Genesis 27:1-29) This certainly doesn’t sound anything at all like a perfect family.

On top of this, Jacob’s mother Rebekah instigated and helped orchestrate the whole deal. (Genesis 27:5-17) This family sounds like it’s a long way from perfect.

Afterwards, Esau is furious with his brother and vowed to kill him. Rebekah became aware of what Esau was planning and sent Jacob away to her brother Laban’s. (Genesis 27:41-45)

As Jacob was on his way to Laban’s, he spent a night near Bethel where he had a dream about a stairway going up to heaven.

Suddenly the Lord was standing on it and saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will become like the dust of the earth; you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. Every family of earth will be blessed because of you and your descendants. I am with you now, I will protect you everywhere you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done everything that I have promised you.” (Genesis 28:13-15)

This was a changing point in Jacob’s life.

Now the tables get turned and Jacob has to reap some of what he has sown.

He meets Laban’s daughter, Rachel, and falls in love with her. Jacob agrees to work for Laban for seven years in exchange for Rachel’s hand in marriage. Then Laban pulls a fast one on Jacob and switches Leah, the other sister, for Rachel. Jacob then has to work another seven years for Rachel. (Genesis 29: 16-30)

After working for Laban for years, Jacob decides to go back home. He’s concerned about Esau and the threat he had made to kill him, so he sent messengers ahead to offer Esau some compensation for stealing his birthright.

The messengers came back telling Jacob that Esau was sending four hundred men. Now Jacob is convinced that Esau is going to follow through on his threat. Then Jacob prayed. (Genesis 32:1-12)

Jacob got up during the night and decided to take his wives, servants, sons, and everything he owns across the river. Then he goes away to be by himself.

While he’s alone, he wrestles with a man until dawn. When the man determined that he couldn’t defeat Jacob, he grabbed Jacob’s leg and threw his hip out of joint. They continued to wrestle until the man said, “Let go of me! It’s almost daylight.”

Jacob held on until the man blessed him. The man told Jacob, “From now on, your name will no longer be Jacob. You will be called Israel, because you have wrestled with God and with men, and you have won.” But Jacob was left with a limp that reminded him of his struggle. (Genesis 32:22-32)

We’ve all wrestled with God about different things and have been left with our own limps.

Jacob was just one of the imperfect members of Jesus’ family. We are all imperfect and come from families that are imperfect. No one other than Jesus is perfect.

If we aren’t careful, we can get hung up on our imperfections and convince ourselves that God can’t use us. He can and will use us if we let Him.

Just like God used the imperfect Jacob to do great things. He will do the same for you and me. It’s up to us to let Him.

Our Family Trees Start at the Roots

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And Some of the Branches May Not Be the Best

Every one of us has a family and every family has a story. Each of these stories is different. Some are comedies, some are fairy tales, some are mysteries, some are fantasies, and some are horror stories.

I’m fortunate to have an amazing family. Is isn’t perfect…no, but none are.

We all have memories of family…both good and bad. We are a combination of who God made us to be and our life experiences.

No matter what our family story is, we have the power to write our own chapter.

We all come from someone, somewhere, and something…a people, a place, and a story. So does Jesus.

Currently we are going through an Advent study, Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus at church. Pastor Lisa’s message on Sunday was tied to the study.

The heart and mission of Jesus is better understood by exploring the roots that grew into Jesus’s life. The roots of Jesus are his family tree and its characters, the land of Israel – its towns and terrain, and the incredible faith-story of God’s covenant people, the Jews.

In Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus, there is the rediscovery that Jesus — born naturally of a mother from a family line herself, and nurtured by a father who knew the names of his family many generations into the past (Matthew 1:1–17) — comes from the family vine of the great King David, the son of Jesse, and from a long line of faithful men and women.

Both Jesus’ genealogical ancestry and His faith heritage take us on a journey through the stories of saints and sinners woven into the family line of the Son of God.

Yes, you read that right, there were both saints and sinners in Jesus’ family tree.

Just because our family trees have some bad branches doesn’t mean that we must be bad. We can choose what kind of branch we will be.

In Matthew 1:6, we see that Jesse was the father of David the king of the Jews. In Isaiah 11:1-3, we read that a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse.

Have you ever seen a live tree cut down and just the stump is left? If you have then you know how new trees can sprout up from that stump. Often many more than just one tree. This growing and spreading of trees is the same in families.

The importance of family is evident with the popularity of people searching for their family ancestry. This desire to know who and where we come from is a part of who we are.

A tree is a great way to represent the growing and spreading of families with the relationships through a tree and branches.

If we go back far enough in our family tree, we will end up at the beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. There were times throughout history when the tree was cut down and sprouted again.

We need to celebrate our history and grow into the branch that we were meant to be.

What is the Rest of the Story?

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Isn’t This What We All Want to Know?

“What is the rest of the story?” is a question that we all should ask more often. Too many times we make assumptions based on partial or misleading information. We see or hear something and let our mind run wild with its first thought.

The Rest of the Story was a daily radio program hosted by Paul Harvey. It consisted of stories presented as little-known or forgotten facts on a variety of subjects with some key element of the story (usually the name of some well-known person) being held back until the end. The broadcasts concluded with a variation on the tag line, “And now you know…the rest of the story.”

I remember listening to this program growing up, many times while driving a tractor or combine in the field. The messages in these “rest of the story” broadcasts were enlightening and informative.

Presumption is a big part of the division.

In Acts 28:17-28 Paul was speaking to the Jewish leaders telling them that he had, “done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, I’m a prisoner from Jerusalem. They handed me over to the Romans, who intended to release me after they examined me, because they couldn’t find any reason for putting me to death. When the Jews objected, I was forced to appeal to Caesar. Don’t think I appealed to Caesar because I had any reason to bring charges against my nation. This is why I asked to see you and speak with you: it’s because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

They responded, “We haven’t received any letters about you from Judea, nor have any of our brothers come and reported or said anything bad about you.But we think it’s important to hear what you think, for we know that people everywhere are speaking against this faction.”

On the day scheduled for this purpose, many people came to the place where he was staying. From morning until evening, he explained and testified concerning God’s kingdom and tried to convince them about Jesus through appealing to the Law from Moses and the Prophets. Some were persuaded by what he said, but others refused to believe. They disagreed with each other and were starting to leave when Paul made one more statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke correctly when he said to your ancestors through Isaiah the prophet” …

You will hear, but not understand; you will see but not recognize what you are seeing.

The Jewish leaders were confused. Some had issues with Jesus and His followers, they were making presumptions.

As Christians, we need to ask questions and listen to the answers while weighing everything against Scripture.

The story doesn’t end with Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus’ story goes on through us sharing His message though our lives.

This is the “rest of the story”.

Seeing that we’re in the Holiday season, I thought I would share one of my favorite Paul Harvey Christmas messages, The Man and the Birds.

Here is a link to over 600 Rest of the Story episodes.

What Does Being “All In” Mean?

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Be Careful to Not Confuse it With Having it All Together

“Close but no cigar” is a saying that is used when someone falls short of their goal or successful outcome and thus gets no reward. It is believed to come from the 1920s when public fairs and events would give out actual cigars as prizes.

Compared to modern-day carnivals, most of the entertainment back then was centered around adults. As you can probably visualize, when someone was shy of winning the prize, the game attendant would probably say, “Close, but no cigar.”

A game similar to carnival games is the popular game Cornhole. This is a lawn game, once known as “sack toss”, in which players or teams take turns throwing fabric bean bags at a raised, angled board with a hole in its far end. The goal of the game is to score points by either landing a bag on the board (one point) or putting a bag through the hole (three points).

So when the bags are tossed and land on the board but don’t go in the hole, it’s “close, but no cigar”.

There are a lot of situations in life that are “close, but no cigar.” Like being an “almost Christian”.

As Pastor Lisa has been taking us through the book of Acts, we’ve seen how Paul has become an “all in” Christian. He’s willing to be mistreated, whipped, and imprisoned for standing up for his beliefs.

In this Sunday’s Scripture, Acts 26:24-32, Paul is speaking before Festus and Agripa defending himself and telling his story. Festus accuses Paul of being mad. But Agripa was a Jewish King, and Paul says to Festus “King Agrippa knows about these things, and I have been speaking openly to him. I’m certain that none of these things have escaped his attention. This didn’t happen secretly or in some out-of-the-way place. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”

Agripa was caught in the middle between his worldly power as a king and Christ. He was not “all in”. Like Agripa there were a lot of Sadducees and Pharisees that were having trouble believing in Christ. They were almost Christians, not “all in” Christians.

The world today is full of almost Christians, not “all in” Christians.

Being a Christian requires us to be “all in”

This is more than just doing the right things. Even the demons believe that Jesus is who He said He is, but they aren’t Christians. Being a Christian is more than just believing.

God tells us in Revelation 3:15-16, to not be lukewarm or He will spit us out of His mouth. He wants us to be “all in”.

Being and “all in” Christian, is constantly being in contact with Jesus through prayer and reading the Bible.

Being an “all in” Christian doesn’t mean that we have it all together. Too often, people who aren’t Christians think you have to be perfect to be Christian. This isn’t the case. Christians are like everybody else, except that we have a relationship with Christ.

What Does Eating an Elephant One Bite at a Time Mean?

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Eating Something That Big Takes Real Determination

Most of us have heard the saying, “Eat an elephant one bite at a time.” At first glance, this phrase seems a little far out there for those of us in the middle of the United States. It’s not like there’s a lot of elephants around to eat.

This phrase is used when referring to how we can accomplish a large daunting goal through a series of smaller tasks.

A normal serving size of meat is between a half pound and three quarters of a pound. As we all have different sized mouths, it’s hard to know exactly how many bites are in a serving, but 10-15 bites are considered a good serving. In Africa the forest elephants are normally between 5,000 – 6,000 pounds of meat. (Thank you Skyler)

This means to eat an average-sized elephant it will take around…154,000 bites.

We are all faced with large, overwhelming undertakings, some bigger than others. Sonia shared a story about a large endeavor in the children’s message. She told me about a bicycle padlock that her brother had when they were kids. The problem was…nobody in the family knew the combination.

She said there were 10,000 options to finding the right combination with a four number padlock. She started in and after 4500 tries she got it. This was a pretty big elephant and a lot of bites.

This was some real determination.

The key to accomplishing any big task is determination and taking the first step.

This is what Paul was doing in Acts as he continually went from town to town sharing God’s message. It was a big and dangerous undertaking, but he was determined to eat the next bite.

In Acts 20:17-24 he told the people in Ephesus, “You know everything I did during the time I was with you when I first came to Asia. Some of the Jews plotted against me and caused me a lot of sorrow and trouble. But I served the Lord and was humble. When I preached in public or taught in your homes, I didn’t hold back from telling anything that would help you. I told Jews and Gentiles to turn to God and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

I don’t know what will happen to me in Jerusalem, but I must obey God’s Spirit and go there. In every city I visit, I am told by the Holy Spirit that I will be put in jail and will be in trouble in Jerusalem. But I don’t care what happens to me, as long as I finish the work the Lord Jesus gave me to do. And this work is to tell the good news about God’s gift of undeserved grace.”

Like Paul we all have a purpose. It may not be preaching like Paul’s but is just as important. It may be the way we treat co-workers and customers; it may be in raising our children; it may be community service. Whatever it is that we’ve been put here to do…

We need to stay the course and keep eating the elephant one bite after another. Start chewing.

How Can I be Sure That I’m Doing What I’m Supposed to?

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Wouldn’t it be Great if Everything Was Simple and Easy?

It can be hard to figure out if what we’re doing is what we’re supposed to do. Is this the job I’m supposed to have? Is this the direction in life I’m supposed to head? Is this the business I’m supposed to start?

These questions and ones like them can be hard to answer. We struggle with questions like these and many more.

We often second guess ourselves whether we’re making the right decisions.

As we’ve been going through the Book of Acts, there have been multiple times that Jesus’ followers have been questioned, tried, beaten and more. This could be enough to cause them to question if what they were doing is what they were supposed to be doing.

In Acts 18:5-6, the people Paul had been preaching to, turned against him. Then again in verses 12-13, some of the church leaders grab Paul, take him before the governor of Achaia, and accuse him of “trying to make people worship God in a way against our Law!”

If you were in Paul’s shoes, you’d probably be questioning your decisions. But in verses 9-10, Paul receives a message from God in a dream. God tells him to “keep preaching and don’t stop.”

We need clarity of direction like Paul.

Currently our book club is reading Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. As I’m reading it, I’m amazed at his search for his purpose and willingness to stay the course. This isn’t to say that it was crystal clear or without detours and corrections.

Like Paul, the one thing that Bonhoeffer did was to continually focus on God’s calling in his life. This clarity came through reading and studying the Scripture and prayer.

Both men received pressure from friends and people around them to take different and less dangerous paths. Both may have veered but would recenter.

How do we know if what we’re doing is what we’re supposed to be doing?

I received an email recently from Christian business coach, speaker, and author Niccie Kliegl that I think does a great job of explaining how to determine clarity of direction. She shares Matthew 12:22-32 where Jesus heals a blind man by casting out a demon. The Pharisees start accusing Him of using the power of Beelzebul to do this.

Jesus responded by saying, “Any kingdom where people fight each other will end up ruined. And a town or family that fights will soon destroy itself. So, if Satan fights against himself, how can his kingdom last?… If you are not on my side, you are against me.” 

The two points she makes are…

  1. The Devil won’t attack his own work. If you’re doing what he wants he won’t be attacking what you’re doing. He won’t be working against himself. So, if you’re facing difficulties and struggles…this should tell you that what you’re doing is God inspired.
  2. The Enemy always attacks God’s work. When you’re doing what God has called you to do you will face opposition. If everything is going smoothly it’s a sure sign that you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.

On the surface it can seem a little backward. Shouldn’t things be simple and easy if we’re doing the right thing? We need to remember that we live in a fallen world and that’s what Satan wants us to think.

Embrace the difficulties and keep pushing forward.

How Do We Fill the God Shaped Hole in Our Lives?

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That’s Easy…We put God in it

I loved doing jigsaw puzzles growing up (and still do for that matter). I remember when getting near the end of a puzzle the level of excitement would begin to ramp up. In the accelerated push to get it finished more people would get involved. In the rush, often a piece would get lost.

If you’ve ever done a jigsaw puzzle, you know how frustrating it is to get to the last piece…and you can’t find it anywhere. This is the same frustration we experience when feeling that something is missing in our lives.

Often in life we try to fill the hole where the missing piece belongs with things like drugs, work, love, alcohol, perfection, etc. Not all of these are bad. Some are actually good, but when we try to force one of them into the hole where the missing piece belongs, things just don’t fit.

Finding the missing piece and putting it in makes the picture complete.

In Acts 17:16-34 Paul was in Athens, a city full of idols. The people worshipped all types of different things. One of the idols had an alter with the words, “To an unknown god”. Paul pointed out that they were worshipping so many things that they didn’t even know what they were worshipping.

Like the people in Athens, we tend to worship too many wrong things.

Paul went on to tell them about the unknown God. “This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn’t live in temples built by human hands. He doesn’t need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. From one person God made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be. God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn’t far from any of us, and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are.”

We naturally have a feeling of being incomplete or inadequate, and this leads to looking for that missing piece. The problem is that if we don’t know what the piece is or make the effort to look for it…then we’ll never find it.

The hole in our lives can only be filled with the one and only piece that fits it. Finding God and putting Him in the empty spot makes our lives complete.

What Does Being a Light in a Dark World Look Like?

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It Can be as Simple as a Candle Lit on a Dark Night

If you watch the news, follow social media, or talk to any other living person, it’s hard to not be overcome with the darkness in the world today. This foreboding feeling of darkness can be depressing. Darkness is nothing new, but there certainly seems to be a lot of it going on currently.

When things are darkest is when we need to let our light shine.

What does it mean to let your light shine?

If you’ve ever spent any time in or around a church you’ve probably heard about letting your light shine. This is a common topic throughout the Bible. I quickly counted over forty verses referring to light in the darkness.

In the beginning God said, “Let there be light.” (Genesis 1:3-5) God led the Israelites in the desert with a light. (Exodus 13:21-22)

It’s interesting how the whole light in the darkness example makes such perfect sense.

One of the examples of the impact light has on darkness is a candle in a dark place. The small flame on that little candle makes a huge difference in the dark. And then if you use the first candle to light another one, the two small flames are pushing the darkness back. The more we use our candle to light other candles the brighter things get.

We share our light by living our lives using God’s word as our blueprint.

The sharing of this light can come through holding a door open for someone, giving someone encouragement, being honest and supportive when people need direction, or serving others through how we act and live.

As we’ve been going through Acts, we’ve seen Saul be struck blind by a “Bright Light” and then he turned his life around and began sharing that light with others. In Acts 13:47 Paul shares that he was “placed here as a light…”

Let’s be a light in the darkness to those around us.

This light doesn’t have to be big. It can be a small flickering candle lighting other candles around us.

Better Communication Often Leads to a Shift in Our Thinking

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It’s Really Not That Hard…It Just Requires a Change of Perspective

I’ve written about communication more times than probably any other topic. This is because I think it is as big or bigger than any other issue out there.

Miscommunication or no communication is due mostly to the fact that we get stuck in our own heads. It only makes sense that we would view things from our own perspective. Add to this that we’re all so busy that we rarely slow down long enough to listen and think.

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about how tricky communication can be (link to 9/27 post) and how a word like wonky can have multiple meanings. If I hadn’t asked some questions and done some research, I would never have realized there were other meanings beyond my own perspective.

I needed a paradigm shift.

A paradigm is a pattern, a model, or representation of the mental image you have in your mind. I first became aware of the term “paradigm shift” through a story in Steven Covey’s book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

“I was on a subway in a very large metropolitan city. It was Sunday morning, quiet, sedate. When a bunch of young kids came running into the subway car and their father followed. He sat near me and the kids went crazy on that subway, running up and down, turning people’s papers aside, just raucous and rude. I’m sitting there thinking, ‘I can’t believe this, their father does nothing!’

After a few minutes…, ‘Sir, do you think you could control your children a little? They are very upsetting to people.’

‘Oh yeah.’ He lifted his head as if to come to an awareness of what was happening. ‘Yeah, I don’t know. I just guess I should. We just left the hospital. Their mother died just about an hour ago and I guess they don’t know how to take it and frankly I don’t either.’”

Can you say paradigm shift?

In Acts 10:9-15, Peter was up on a roof at noon praying and was getting very hungry. While the food was being prepared, he fell asleep and had a vision. He saw heaven open, and something came down like a huge sheet held up by its four corners. In it were all kinds of animals, reptiles, and birds. A voice said to him, “Peter, get up! Kill these and eat them.” But Peter said, “Lord, I can’t do that! I’ve never eaten anything that is unclean and not fit to eat. The voice spoke to him again, “When God says that something can be used for food, don’t say it isn’t fit to eat.”

Peter had to shift his thinking from what he had been taught and what he had always believed to be right. He pushed back and God told him three times. It’s more important to listen to what God tells us than what man tells us.

Peter just had a paradigm shift.

We need to be careful to not get too stuck in our own heads and be open to what God is telling us. At the same time, we need to be careful not to take everything we’re told by people at face value. We need to weigh it against what God says.

Like Peter, we need to be willing to shift our thinking if it’s from God. Acts 10:34-48

Life is Full of Interruptions, What is the Best Way to Handle Them?

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By Being Clear on What Your Priorities Are and Being Prepared

An interruption is the act of causing a break in the continuity or uniformity of an activity by saying or doing something.

Growing up, I remember watching TV or listening to the radio and hearing the phrase “We interrupt this program”. This was a common phrase used to indicate an emergency broadcast or a breaking news event.

The phrase was first used in the United States in the 1960’s as part of the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), which was established to provide an expeditious method of communicating with the American public in the event of war, threat of war, or a national crisis.

For me personally these announcements never caused me to worry. Sure, I would stop and pay attention, but it was more about listening to the information rather than panic. I remember when the attacks happened on 9/11 and people went to gas stations to fill up any kind of container they could.

If the world was coming to an end…a gallon of gas in a milk jug wasn’t a very good plan.

As Jesus’ followers began to spread the good news, the religious leaders would interrupt them trying to stop them. The followers didn’t stop. The more the followers shared, the more the religious leaders interrupted. These leaders liked the way things had been and didn’t want anything to change.

Then Saul was interrupted and struck blind with a flash of light.

We need to be careful not to get stuck in our ways or we might get smacked upside the head with a board. We need to be clear about who we are and Whose we are.

Philip was preaching in Samaria telling the people about Jesus and the people were eager for more teaching and to witness more miracles. Many people with evil spirits were healed, and the spirits went out of them. Several paralyzed and lame people were also healed. Everyone in that city was glad because of what was happening. (Act 8:4-8)

Sounds like things were going well for Philip and what he was doing. It would have been easy to stay there and continue.

But Philip was interrupted.

Philip was told by God’s angel to go into the desert on the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza…and he went.

There Philip saw an Ethiopian official riding in a chariot. The Spirit told Philip to catch up to the chariot…so he did.

The Ethiopian was heading home after he had been worshipping in Jerusalem and Philip heard him reading from the book of Isaiah. Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading. (Acts 8:26-30)

The Ethiopian said, “Not unless someone helps me.” Philip helped him understand and the Ethiopian asked to be baptized. They stopped the chariot at some water and when they came up out of the water after the baptism, the Lord’s Spirit took Philip away. (Acts 8:31-40)

Talk about an interruption!

Too often we get stuck in a routine activity. Doing that same thing we’ve always done, the way we’ve always done it. It may even be a good thing like what Philip was doing in Samaria. We just need to be open to God’s interruptions and be willing to act on them.

We’ve all had those things that tug on us to do something that isn’t a part of our plan or that we aren’t comfortable doing. Often, these are God’s way of interrupting us.

It’s His way of letting us know His plans.

We just need to embrace the interruption…and do it.