Where can I find help?

Daniel 4:34a "At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored."  

The Bible is full of examples of people whom God has raised up from obscurity and exalted to great prosperity. David was a young shepherd boy whom God made a king. Job was a humble farmer when God prospered him with financial independence. Amos was promoted from a fig picker to being one of the great prophets of God. Daniel was lifted from a lowly servant in a boot camp in Babylon to becoming a national commander.

But the key to their success was that they never lost perspective in the process. All these men remembered who it was who raised them up… where their help came from. Now Nebuchadnezzar joins their ranks acknowledging that “the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes” (cf. 7:25).

No matter what position you may now have, no matter what possessions you may now own, no matter what relationships you may now have, no matter what your present skills and abilities are, and no matter how secure you may now feel in these things, you must know that you are always in complete dependence on God.

Our dependence on God defines our humble faith. You know I love ya, Don

The root of the problem ... PRIDE!

The root problem at the very core of all of our lives is pride. Now I know that’s nothing new. In fact, this problem first surfaced in the Garden of Eden. The problem with pride is that it robs us not only of a full and meaningful relationship with other people but, even more so, it robs us of a full and meaningful relationship with God.

A working definition of pride: Pride is simply our refusal to acknowledge God as we should. It is failing to realize fully that all of our abilities, achievements, possessions and relationships are not due ultimately to our sound judgment or superior wisdom, but to the gifts and grace of a sovereign God.

God has declared himself in Scripture as the active antagonist of the proud. God is adamantly opposed to those who set themselves up in proud self-sufficiency. Throughout Scripture we find the same theme repeatedly: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (cf. James 4:6). But I’m afraid that most of us today are unaware of our problem with pride. Daniel 4 offers three very basic steps in overcoming pride. A person can over come pride by taking the steps of knowing where your helps comes from, acknowledging God is greater, and recognizing that God is right. 

You know I love ya, Don 

Confidence counts!

Daniel 6:22 

“Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty”

Walking with God opens opportunities of confidence.

Godly confidence is the quality and state of being certain of our God. A Christ-Follower has every confidence of success that God will prevail and He will be proven holy, just, and loving. Believers in Jesus walk on solid ground...the circumstances may shake, but the ground they walk on is solid and unshakable.

Lack of Confidence is the the enemies largest weapon in the church today. The enemy defeats us before we even get out of bed with all the guilt we put on ourselves. We parade our failures and our problems across our minds eye...the confidence we gain in Jesus Christ is blotted out... as believers in Jesus, we are guaranteed that God's mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness.

Rather than letting the enemy steel our joy, we should be grateful for trials, failures, and short comings...it is the struggles of our life that God is most effective and the struggles are the places God can demonstrate the most grace.

The integrity we commit to in our walk with God doesn't take away our struggles...in fact our struggles build our confidence because of the demonstration of God's power in the struggle.

The American painter, John Sargent, once painted a panel of roses that was highly praised by critics. It was a small picture, but it approached perfection. Although offered a high price for it on many occasions, Sargent refused to sell it. He considered it his best work and was very proud of it. Whenever he was deeply discouraged and doubtful of his abilities as an artist, he would look at it and remind himself, "I painted that." Then his confidence and ability would come back to him.

You can take confidence in the TRUTH that Jesus Christ loves you and wants to know you on the personal level. I love this picture of this cat...she is living the confident life. In Jesus Christ, we also can look in our mirror and see a roaring lion.

How is your confidence these days?

Do you stand and preach the good news that Jesus is the Christ in the way you live your life?

Do you act as if He is the son of the living God in how you live life at work, at school, to your neighbors, in retirement and to anyone that comes in contact with you?

Do you demonstrate Godly confidence?

You know I love ya, Don

Rest, Resting, & Restful ... the rest of the story!

Following up on Monday's post...

At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants."Matthew 11:25

Another point to ponder and act upon in David Woods' sermon from last week is the above verse. David said,

"God is the determining factor in coming to salvation and finding rest for the soul! It is God who either reveals the truth of keeps it hidden. If you think you are wise and learned, the truth will be kept from your! Only the humble see it and get it. Jesus prayer is very clear about that. This is the reason of when Christians write to corporations whose CEO's endorse and support immoral and destructive legislation. Or when we write to Congress and plead for right choices on morality issues, they don't get it. This is why political correctness flourishes!

Truth is hidden from the arrogant, intellectual-pluralistic minded community! Only the humble who recognize their limitations will receive and submit to the truth of God! The truth of such arrogance and egotistical knowledge is turmoil, hurtful consequences, and living in a lifestyle that God will not bless.

Only the humble will understand and gratefully receive the invitation of Jesus!

The question for us today is, "How humble are we?" David was not talking about living ignorance or as my father-in-law would have said, "ignorance gone to seed." What David and this text is teaching us is rest comes in going to Jesus and living in humility. The heart of of God is revealed in the request of a humble petitioner.

You know I love ya, Don

Come to Jesus!

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30

David Woods preached on the above text Sunday. We are starting a new sermon series titled, "The Heart of Life." It is going to deal with topics such as exhaustion, aging, lust, and a few others. Sunday was the first and this text is the one David started with. The text was about sharing your heart's loaded life with Jesus is the way to finding rest. I wanted to share a very specific section of the sermon with you.

"Reading the verses leading up to this text today, there is a love of unrest going on around Jesus! His cousin, John the Baptist is in prison and is in there because he stood his ground on a moral and spiritual issue with King Herod. Jesus is also surrounded by a generation of people that he describes as whiners, complainers, and dissatisfied continually about somethings! Not that we sound like that today...in Matthew 11:17 it reads, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.' The adult generation, he says are acting like children! They were a generation of people that were never pleased, never content. The cities around the vicinity had witnessed the miracles of Jesus and were not convicted of their unholy ways, refusing to repent!

Around verse 25 of Matthew 11, it seems to me that Jesus takes a deep breath PAUSE as he observes the issues all around and prays thankfully to God! The essence of Jesus' prayer is that he is thankful that God set up life to operate by a system of humility! It is not the obstinate or the loud voices of demand that get it! It is not the knowledgeable and wise that get it. It is not the wealthy and famous that get it. The relationship with God is only through becoming humble. This is the only means Jesus is willing to come into a person's heart and reveal the heart of God to people.

And it is from this backdrop that Jesus offers this invitation to find rest from the maddening, dysfunctional lifestyle of the world and to come to Him for rest!

How David phrased these words spoke to me. The humility to live a life in Jesus is to be a humble person. I am thankful for the reminder!!! You know I love ya, Don

A Creative God looks inward!

"But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

I am coming off of a long weekend. It has been a good weekend, with a great deal of hard work and intensity. We have had three major performances of Fiddler on the Roof with the R.W. Theater group and a great typical morning worship services with Solid Ground. It has been fun. I am very blessed...as I look around I see that God has surrounded me with good people with some extreme talent.

I am also not worthy of such a life. It is very humbling to look around and see so many people willing to follow, work hard, and dedicate themselves for a single goal. The community event is different in that we primarily focus our talent on a program of entertainment. At church, our primary goal is to declare God's worth in our lives by worshiping Him. The reality is that even in our community setting, as Christ followers, we are striving to express ourselves in unity, love, affection and in a creative spirit. Thus, we are created in God's image..."creative."

The above scripture text comes to mind for me because I am not worthy to stand in front of such people and direct. Yet, God continues to bless and allow me the privilege and honor to teach, direct, conduct, and lead. I am humbled by such a blessing.

My prayer today, "Lord, may I never take advantage of the true nature of a humble heart that only comes from you. You are a great God filled with joy, creativity, power and grace. You make all things new and bring life to all that you make. I ask you to bring your desires in all that I do so that the world around me will see and know that you are God. I leave it in your hands and declare my faith, in Jesus Name, Amen."


Thank you for reading and listening in on my thoughts today. Please know that God is interested your heart as well. God does not look at the outward appearances or the height of a person. God looks at the heart and character of a person. My prayer is for you too. You know I love you - Don

Broken before Honor

The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men
brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. - Isaiah
2:11

"None of us are where we need to be, but, thank God, we are not
where we used to be. Don't look at what you are going through right
now; look at the person you are becoming. We are always in
the process of becoming like Christ."- Joyce Meyer.

Brokenness hurts, but the alternative is much worse. It states in Proverbs 18:12, "Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor." Today is the National Day of Prayer, I pray that I will be bendable, pliable, and malleable so that I will become more like Christ in order to HONOR the God that I love. I want to exalt Jesus Christ through my broken pride and healed submission to His AMAZING LOVE!

You know I love ya - Don

He loves me enough to lift me up!

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”- James 4:10

Humbling oneself before the Lord is not always easy. There are too many times I forget that God can blink stars into existence and breath planets out of orbit. He can calm the storms and shake the earth. He can see the parts of an atom and all of history in the same glance. He also loves me....He is a great God.

Then I come along and start to tell Him what should be done to correct a situation. A line I used in the sermon yesterday keeps popping up in my head, "Many times we pray for a removing job on our problems and God is looking for an improving job in our lives." Most of the time my lack of improving comes when I am not humble before God.

I am praising Him for the reality that as I humble myself, He lifts me up. So, today I am praying and asking God to continually remind me that as I humble myself, please continue to lift me up. I want to be so focused on Him, that all I will desire is to be humbled and lifted up.

Worship is declaring how much God is worth....may He always be worth it all and beyond in my life. Thanks for reading and don't forget I love ya - Don