Rules to Live By.....Rule #3

Rule # 3 - Letting Go Is Your Decision!

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

~Ephesians 4:31-32

If we are to truly let go of what weighs us down:

· “Get rid of all…” - Decide whether clinging to the burden is worth it. If not, dump it.

· “Be Kind” - Being angry and hurt is easy. Change that by deciding to be kind.

· “Forgiving” - Ask yourself, ‘what all has God through Christ forgiven in me?’ Forgiveness IS possible. It isn’t easy. But having that weight lifted will greatly help the healing process. 

If a truck parks on your foot, can your foot heal with the truck still on your foot? Yet we want to keep the very thing(s) that are hurting us keep right on hurting us.  Let them go and begin to heal!

Rules For Living.....Rule #2

Rule # 2 - BIBOMO

"But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you.
    O Israel, the one who formed you says,
“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
    I have called you by name; you are mine.
When you go through deep waters,
    I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
    you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
    you will not be burned up;
    the flames will not consume you."

~Isaiah 42:1-2

God tells us:

· “Do not be afraid” - God is bigger than whatever we are dealing with.

· “I have called you by name” - God loves you enough to know your name!

· “You are mine” - God loves you so much that He claims you as His own.

· “I will be with you” - no matter what we may have done, experienced, endured...God is with us. Whatever we are facing, God is with us.  Whatever we will face, God is with us.

Rules for Living....Rule #1

Over the next few days we'll be looking at 4 rules to live by.

Rule #1 - You Can’t Run A Race Looking Backward

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.  ~ Philippians 3:13-14

Three things stick out in this verse:

· “Forgetting the past” - learn from it and let it stay in the past!

· “Looking forward to what lies ahead” - Hope lies forward!

· “Press On” - Keep going! Don’t Give Up!

²⁵ Look straight ahead,
    and fix your eyes on what lies before you.
²⁶ Mark out a straight path for your feet;
    stay on the safe path.
²⁷ Don’t get sidetracked;
    keep your feet from following evil.

~ Proverbs 4:25-27

 

Why Do We Try SO Hard To Impress Others?

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

Philippians 2:3-4 

 

I'm not a fan of people who seek to impress.  This includes name droppers, fashion hounds, titles, how many letters you add after your name, how "prestigious" your education or home or car or salary or job.  If you cannot simply be honest and yourself, you don't impress me. And to be honest, I'm not here to impress you either. 

 

 

I am who I am, warts, moles, faults, quirks, eccentricities and all.

 

But the mission given me by God is to help others.  To do this, I must rely on some pretty unimpressive things: my education (I was never a good student), my experiences (if it could be done wrong, chances are I did it), life learning (mistakes are harsh teachers).  And to top it all off, if I may quote Popeye the Sailor Man, "I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam."

 

Who you see is who you get.  I am curious, inquisitive, contemplative, I seek to learn, I seek to see things differently, I seek to help in unusual ways.  In short, I'm not here to impress....God put me here to help.  

Picture It.....!

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Philippians 1:6 

 

I had dreams.  I had BIG dreams.  Dreams you wouldn't believe and couldn't imagine how on in the world they could possibly be feasible.  You see, I dreamed of being a giant who was the greatest baseball player ever.  It's amazing what we dream of becoming when we are children.  But when did we stop dreaming big dreams?  When did we lose the "big" part of our dreams?  God never has lost the BIG in His plans for us!  As a matter of fact, He has already planned out to get us to the point we need to be at just the right time we need to arrive.  God is awesome like that!

And here's a personal note:  Regardless how many times or how bad your past doesn't alter God's plans for you.

It Ain't Easy......Is It?

Hatred stirs up quarrels,
    but love makes up for all offenses.

Proverbs 10:12 

It's all around us every single day.  If you read, hear or watch the news, it's pounded into us with the force of a pile driver into our very way of thinking.  "It you disagree with someone, HATE them until THEY change!"  We are a society of lots of HATE groups each seeking their own interests while degrading the interests of others.  We have groups that HATE us so much that they believe theirs is the ONLY way to live. As a matter of fact, we seem to love to hate each other, yet we disguise it all as "love."

I have friends from a wide variety of different perspectives, yet even though we may disagree on many topics, love still holds us together.  You see, HATE is not the opposite of LOVE and LOVE is not the opposite of HATE.  Why?  Because they are both extremely powerful emotions!  The opposite of LOVE and HATE is this thing called APATHY (don't care).  As a matter of fact, the worst thing you can tell another human being is "I don't care."  Why?  Because you have just devalued them to the point of irrelevance. 

One of the first lessons I learned early in ministry is that not everyone is going to like me.  Some will even hate me, and try to run me off.  But God's love is stronger than any love and stronger than any hatred and even stronger than any apathy.  Darkness cannot hide even the smallest light, so too will love not be covered by hatred.

Remember what Jesus said when He was asked which commandment was the greatest? "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.'"  Watching the actions of some of these special interest groups....they don't like anyone (including themselves).

Friends

Become wise by walking with the wise;
    hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces.

Proverbs 13:20

When I was younger, I usually found myself hanging out with the crowd my parents told me to stay away from.  Why?  Because they accepted me and it was easy.  However, because of those friends, I found myself in trouble more than I care to admit.  I will say most of the trouble was due to "guilt by association" while some of it was my own direct involvement.  I found myself complaining all the time about everything. Why? Because my friends did.  I found myself thinking we were outcasts. Why? Because my friends did.  I began thinking my school work was a waste of time. Why? My friends did too.

As I grew older, and somewhat wiser, I learned the valuable lesson that we become who we hang around with.  When I got to Carson-Newman, the classes were fairly small and friendships were easier to make, and I soon found myself involved with friends who had similar passions and interests as I did.  We spent time together inspiring each other and the expectation was that we would grow!  Some of the best times I had in college were spent in a coffee shop with my friends and we ran lines for the next production we were to perform.  Sounds like I was a nerdy geek, and I still am to a point.

Be careful with whom you hang out, for you will become like them!