Self Sabotaging

Graduation from a school or program can inevitably bring on lots of planning for the future or thinking about where we have been.  Sometimes we sabotage ourselves, when we start new phases of our lives when we start thinking about it all.  By sabotaging I mean we set up little bombs to go off, like the enemy places in their fields to protect their property from invasion.  Our little bombs are thoughts that set off destruction in our lives.  They keep us from moving forward.  Here is a list of the top seven self-sabotaging habits by Kelly Robbins:

1. Feeling you have no value. This feeling often comes from low self-esteem and comparing yourself to others.
2. Focusing on what is not working or not right.
3. Procrastinating.
4. Not doing anything because you are stuck in fear.
5. Having no purpose.
6. Getting distracted or losing focus.
7. Not finishing what you start.

Do you ever see yourself doing that to yourself?  You don’t pick a certain college, because you feel you aren’t good enough.  You focus on your negative qualities and don’t think you can survive in the new job you want.  You procrastinate applying for college or that job.  You don’t know what you are supposed to be doing in life, so you stall out feeling you have no real purpose in life.  You let friends, work, or bad habits distract you from having a purpose or reaching goals.

The truth is that these kinds of personal weaknesses can actually be strengths for us.  We just have to let God work through them and show His power and might in our lives.  We have to let Him provide us with purpose and direction.  Read II Corinthians 12: 9-10.

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

He will take us in to our next phase of life, whether it be from High School Graduation to College or from a part-time job to a full-time career.  All we have to do is ask Jesus to show us our purpose in life and commit to following Him and He will show us our purpose and provide what we need to accomplish it.  The key is to deny self and let Christ live, then you will stop sabotaging yourself.

Music Video Weekend

We have updated our Favorite Music Video Page with this weekend’s music video pick(s).  This weekend we have a music video by Lincoln Brewster called, “The Power of Your Name”.  Do you want to change the World?  It starts with going beyond religion.  Be His hands and feet.

What is your favorite style of music or Christian group/band/artist? Be sure and check each weekend for the new song(s) we have added. We hope it ministers to you.

Salvation Rube Goldberg Style

Rube Goldberg was an inventor and cartoonist.  His cartoons ran nationwide in newspapers from 1915 to 1934.  They would feature inventions of complex devices to perform simple tasks.  This cartoon image features his invention for the “self-operating napkin”.  It requires 13 steps to actually get the napkin to wipe your face for you.  You see lots of copy cats of this concept in games like Mouse Trap and in movies like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  They even have Rube Goldberg Machine competitions each year for teams to compete in.  It is a fun concept and that is probably why this activity has survived for over a hundred years now.  Invention and creativity are second nature to humans.  Sometimes our ingenuity leads us in to creating complex ways to Heaven, too.

There are many cults and religious organizations out there that have created a variety of complex ways to get to Heaven.  The method of man’s salvation (way to God and Heaven) was really one thing that did not need to be invented or complicated by man.  God came up with a simple solution long before any religion was developed.  We see the first glimpse of the coming Savior in Genesis 3:15.

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

Sin had entered the world and God told Adam and Eve the consequences and the solution.  God brought the law to the Hebrew people to teach them that they were sinful and that they could not work their way to Heaven.  The Apostle Paul confirms this for us in Galatians 3:24 (Amplified Bible).

So that the Law served [to us Jews] as our trainer [our guardian, our guide to Christ, to lead us] until Christ [came], that we might be justified (declared righteous, put in right standing with God) by and through faith.

I Corinthians 15: 3-4  and Romans 10: 9-10 explain to us the simple method of salvation that was provided for us by God.

3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.

You don’t see the Apostle Paul mentioning any other mode of salvation other than believing in what Jesus did for us through His death on the cross and His resurrection.  He doesn’t mention keeping the law 100% of the time, eating certain foods, praying 3 hours every morning, chanting our way to our inner god, or doing good deeds.  God’s way of salvation is perfect and simple.  No man-made complicated inventions through man-made religions can help us to achieve eternity with God.  “The Gospel in Four Minutes” video sums up in a catchy way the simple message of God’s way of salvation.  The rapper mentions that most of the religions of the world have tried to fix the unbroken way of salvation.  About half way through the video he lists how we as humans decide not to accept perfection (God’s way of salvation) and create our own way through things like chanting, praying, and good deeds.

It is important that as youth you attend and serve at a local church, however, we want you to be rebels against the man-made complex ideas that might infiltrate the church.  Make sure the church you attend preaches the pure gospel of God that the Apostle Paul taught.

Invisible or Visible?

When I was a kid I grew up on old “B” movies.  These were the lower budget movies that were usually shown as the second movie in a double feature presentation at the theatre.  A lot of sci-fi and westerns were “B” movies.  They usually would have sequels where the main star or character would return.  One character that I loved to watch was the invisible man.  They made many invisible man movies.  Claude Rains played that part several times.  I loved the idea of someone becoming invisible and the things they could do when they were invisible.  Over the last few decades I have continued to enjoy invisible man movies like “Memoirs of an Invisible Man” with Chevy Chase or the TV Series, “Quicksilver” in the 90s.  There have also been some invisible woman and invisible mom movies over the years.

In our teen years we tend to play out the invisible or visible game in our own lives.  There are days at school we wish were invisible and we try to hide from others.  We try to hide behind our clothes or haircuts.  We are afraid to show our true selves to others our age at school.  So we dress in a way that will make us acceptable to others. Our “look” makes us invisible to those around us.  Especially if we are Christian we sometimes want to be invisible.  Our beliefs about Jesus, God, the Bible, and our belonging to a particular church can make us outcasts amongst those we spend the whole day with.  Who wants to be an outcast?  No one.  So we let our faith become invisible.

We also play the invisible game with our families.  Sometimes our parents are too old fashioned or too un-cool to let our friends see us with them.  So we try to make them invisible too.  We ask them to drop us off two blocks from the school or our friend’s house.  We run in to a friend at the Mall while shopping with our Mom and they say, “Is that your Mom?” and we respond, “Oh that’s no one.” and then we change the subject with our friends.  We start viewing our Moms without even knowing it as an object, not a Mom.  We may not even know it is happening.  We run through the house and ask the woman standing at the kitchen sink, “Can you wash my clothes?”  Then we run on out.  We don’t stop to give her a kiss or say “Thank you”.  We let our Moms become our alarm clock.  They wake up first in the morning and we sleep in.  They come in and wake us up and getting us ready for school.  We yell at them about waking us up.  As we get ourselves together we drag ourselves through the house and ask our Moms for money for lunch and what time it is.  We run out.  We just made our Moms invisible again.

I challenge you this week to not make your Moms invisible.  You need to actually stop and see them.  Recognize that they are not an object to help you get through your day.  They are not the maid, the alarm clock, or the servant.  They are your Mom.  They are the one who gave you life and loves you very much.  They are the ones that want the best for you and try to give you what you need.  Make your Mom visible and let her know you see her.  Bring joy to your mom this week, not just on Mothers Day.  This would be what we would call “honoring your mother”.  And guess what, that has a perk (blessing or promise) from God, “¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ²“Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— ³“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:1-3).  You will have a better life.  What more could you ask?

Are You the Tortoise or the Hare?

Most of us as children learned the Aesop Fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”.  If you don’t quite remember it, you can read it here:

The Hare and the Tortoise

A hare one day made himself merry over the slow pace of the tortoise, vainly boasting of his own great speed in running. The tortoise smiled at the hare and replied, “Let us try a race.  We shall run from here to the pond and the fox out yonder shall be the judge.” The hare agreed and away they started together.  True to his boasting the hare was out of sight in a moment. The tortoise jogged along with a slow, steady pace, straight towards end of the course.  Full of sport, the hare first outran the tortoise, then intentionally fell behind chuckling at the tortoise all the while.

Having come nearly to the goal, the hare began to nibble at the young plants.  After a while, the day being warm, he lay down for a nap, saying:  “The tortoise is behind me now.  If he should go by, I can easily enough catch up.” When the hare awoke, the tortoise was not in sight.  Running as fast as he could, the hare found the fox congratulating the tortoise at the finish line.

The Aesop Fables were used to teach moral lessons.  This one can be looked at several different ways. The main moral lesson of this story that has been taught, is the one about persistence, and consistency are the keys to success.  The hare in this story was over confident of his own skills.  Yes, he was the faster creature, but he laid down and took a nap.  Whereas the slow tortoise, just kept plugging along persistently and made it to the finish line.

Jesus taught a similar lesson in one of his parables about persistency in Luke 18: 2-8:

^“2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

In this story, Jesus shows that an evil man gave in to the requests of a poor persistent widow.  He then reminds the people that are listening to Him, that God who is good and just will take care of those who persistently call on Him to meet their needs.  He also tells them. in a round about way. that this persistency requires faith and that He believes that not much of this faith will be found on earth when He comes back.

The point to Aesop’s Fable and to Jesus’ Parable is “Are you faithful and persistent in your requests to God?”  When you have a need or a concern, do you persistently go to God in prayer or do you casually mention it to God in a quick 2 second prayer? You need to talk these things out with God.  You need to consistently and persistently go to God in faith and wait for Him to answer.  You must also do this knowing that God is all-knowing and all-wise.  You must understand that He will give you the best answer to your prayer request.  Might not be an answer that you were hoping for, but it will really be the best answer for you.  God loves you and only wants the best for you.  So remain faithful and keep asking.  Be like the Tortoise or like the poor widow who sought justice.  Don’t Give Up!

Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Time?

I re-watched “Tuck Everlasting” the other day.  It was a movie from 2002 based on a book from 1975.  The story as summarized by Wikipedia, “The book explores the concept of immortality and the reasons why it might not be as desirable as it appears to be.”  Most of us wish we had more time to get everything done.  Life would be less stressful.  We could have enough time to enjoy travel and leisure activities.  We could have enough time to do hobbies or accomplish a major life goal.  The story also brings to light the fact that there are people who just are afraid of dying and could avoid that pain or the pain that it causes their loved ones.  The Tuck family about a hundred years before had accidentally drunk from some special water at the base of an old tree.  They soon discovered that they could never get hurt, age or die.  They traveled the world, fought wars, and seen loved ones die.  A teenage girl stumbles upon the teenage boy drinking from the tree as she explores through the forest outside her home.  This brought a great dilemma to the family.  Do they risk telling the girl the truth about the water?  All those years they had been hiding their knowledge about the tree to protect others, because they knew the turmoil it would bring to an individual’s life and to the world.  They finally realize she can be trusted and they tell her their story.  She is then faced with several decisions.  Will she keep it to herself or share it with the world?  Will she drink from the water to gain eternal life and spend it with her new young love?  Will she chose to move on with her life and leave the Tuck family?  The father takes her aside and shares the wisdom he has learned about living a physical eternal life.  The truth was that more time to live doesn’t bring an abundant life.  It didn’t bring peace.  It brought running, hiding and sorrow.  Each Tuck family member was forever stuck with that state they were in when they drank the water the first time.  They would never change or mature.  They could never successfully grow close to a mortal being.  They carried the burden of keeping a secret that could forever change the world for the worse if the secret got out.  They were living the opposite of an abundant life.

Many of us do the same thing with our lives.  We think we are living an abundant life.  We spend our time keeping too busy or playing too much.  We spend all our resources to keep up with the Joneses.  We waste our natural resources found in this Earth that God has given us as if it will never run out.  We stockpile our belongings as if we never have enough.  We constantly spend our time and money trying to keep up with the latest styles and fads.  This is not the abundant life God intended when He placed us in His perfect Garden.  This problem began in the Garden of Eden.  God fixed the problem and gave us the opportunity back to have an abundant life through Jesus dying and resurrecting.  Read John 10: 9-11.

9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Just as Adam and Eve let the snake slither in to their lives and deceive them, we have done the same.  They lost the abundant life God created them for.  He stole it from them.  Through their loss we came in to being and were able to regain the abundant life they lost through acceptance of what Christ did for us. The true abundant life comes through a right spiritual relationship with God.  The abundant life comes through listening to and obeying God.  The abundant life is more than the physical resources we can use and obtain.  The abundant life Christ brings comes with peace, joy and everything He knows that we need.

As the Tuck family discovered time does not bring the abundant life, we too need to discover that we will only have the abundant life if Christ is our center of life.

Music Video Weekend

We have updated our Favorite Music Video Page with this weekend’s music video pick(s).  This weekend we have a song video by Tim Timmons called, “Starts With Me”.  Do you want to change the World?  It starts with you on your knees.  Great new song. Be blessed!

What is your favorite style of music or Christian group/band/artist? Be sure and check each weekend for the new song(s) we have added. We hope it ministers to you.