Death by Suburb

Death By Suburb

Monday, May 30, 2016

Jeff Lampl

“ Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.”         Philippians 2:3 (NLT)

Parenting has become America’s #1 competitive sport!  When my son strikes out your son . . . .

  

I feel proud.   Why?  Because my son is an extension of myself.   If he succeeds, then I have succeeded.  I am validated.   His success is my success.   At least that’s what goes on in the recesses of the minds of most dads, some more explicitly than others.  

On the other hand, when your son strikes out my son, it’s really hard for me to be happy for him.  I have been humiliated.  Why?  Because as an extension of myself I experience failure.  I have to face my interior sense of not measuring up in my own life.  At least that’s what those who study such things tell us.  And I think they’re right.

Pride is competitive, always comparing.   As David Goetz points out in his great book, Death by Suburb, we suburbanites tend to keep a sharp eye out for those with bigger houses and cars and those with more stuff than we have.   We notice those who have “beaten us out” for that next rank on the ladder upward.    So we compete.   We work harder, spend less time at home so that we can prove ourselves socially and materially.    Our workaholism and busy-ness are markers of pride.    It’s hard to be humble in the suburbs.

Yet the suburbs humble us too.   There’s always someone whose children achieve more, who owns more, who’s more genial, liked more, is more giving, has a better reputation and whose cars have all the honor roll stickers. 

Antidote?   Step one, admit your pride.   This is no small step.   But don’t just give lip service to your pride, see it and continue to practice seeing it.  See it in the reasons you criticize others, in the reasons you want others to fail or get caught or to “get what’s coming” to them.   See it in your jealousy, in your false attempts at humility.   And then once you see it, FEEL IT.  Let it humiliate and hurt you.   Confession and heartfelt remorse, once experienced are a great first step, a step without which no progress in Christlike humility can be made.

Now you are ready for the next step.  Practice humbling yourself before your family, friends, subordinates, bosses and neighbors, and yes, enemies, considering each of them as better than yourself (Philippians 2:3)

“Lord help me to see reality, to see the pride which lurks behind so much of what ails me and which fuels so much of what destroys me.   Lord, humble me, for I can’t seem to do on my own.   Amen”

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Overwhelmed

Overwhelmed

Sunday, May 29, 2016
Jeff Lampl

The hard reality of life is that life is difficult.  Everyone suffers. . . . . 

“For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.  We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it.”    Philippians 1:29-30 (NLT)

God has deemed a world in which all suffer to be a world worth having created.  But why?

It seems to me that the Bible’s answer is that God allows suffering as a means of shaping us into a new kind of creature, a creature who learns to live a life that is all about God and others instead of a life that is all about self.  

This means that I must avoid pursuing a life that avoids suffering.  Simply put, gearing my efforts toward the avoidance of pain is a self-centered life.  But if we actually choose to suffer for the sake of others, to alleviate their pain, then we have entered the process of becoming a different kind of human being.   When we enter the pain of another for the sake of Christ, and for the sake of the other, we are now in fellowship not just with others, but with Christ Himself.  

You and I have been given “the privilege of  . . . suffering for Christ”.  Embracing the hard things, facing them with Christ, is our privilege, not our curse.

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Protecting your Soul while living the demands of the Suburbs

Protecting your Soul while living the demands of the Suburbs

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Jeff Lampl

You and I are citizens of the United States. We are Americans. When I used to travel. . . . 

with students to Germany for a month each year, it was obvious to everyone that I was an American. 

Read  Philippians 1: 27-28  (click on the passage and the scripture will appear)

The way I walked, thought, and, in the opinion of the Germans, my simplistic, naïve view of the world confirmed that I wasn’t ‘one of them’. 

Oh well.  I still did my best to be the best member of their school and local community I could be.  I also tried to be the best representative of America that I could be, unsuccessful as I think I probably was.  

The point of course is that if you are a believer you are a citizen heaven.   This is the very same heaven that will one day be merged with earth and will be your future home.   My task on earth is to maintain my citizenship in heaven, living out its expectations and joys in such a way that others seek citizenship in heaven as well.    I

Even more fundamentally I often ask myself if the life I am living now is one that will “fit” in the new eternal world to come?   How would you answer that question about your own life?

If you feel somehow disconnected from this world as your home, well, of course, you’re not home yet.  But you need to spend the time you have to practice living now as you will be living then.

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Avoiding Discouragement by Suburb

Avoiding Discouragement by Suburb.

How to prevent the demands of life from killing your Soul

Friday, May 27, 2016

Jeff Lampl

Sometimes discouragement becomes so profound that . . . .

Sometimes even the best of us experience a depression that leaves us with no desire left to continue on with life.   Sometimes it feels like no one cares, that nothing you do has any value to anyone, that the world would be just fine without you.  

Read Philippians 1:20-27   (click on the passage and the scripture will appear)

Maybe you’ve felt like your time here on earth is over, so why not just go to heaven now?   Paul’s answer was really good, I think.   He states that he must remain alive for the sake of others who need him.  

Someone needs you.  Those who need you might not be the people who hope will need you.   But there are so many people with so many needs, that it cannot be argued that you are needed to help someone.  

In times of despair, usually the last thing any of us want to do is to help someone else, yet, just picking yourself up and doing what you don’t feel like doing by going somewhere you are needed, you will find that you have taken a simple step toward a breath of freshness in your life.

The simple truth is that you were created to serve others.   We live in world of selfish, sinful people, including me and you.   That means life is and always will be hard.   But God is re-creating us into new kinds of people, those who live for others.   When that gets formed in us we come alive.  

Our greatest joy will always, always, always be found when our lives are used to meet the world’s need. 

To get to that point requires the hard first step of actually acting on that especially when we don’t feel like it.

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Philippians 1:15-19

Philippians 1:15-19

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Megann Graf

God can take anything and use it for good. . . .

Today’s scripture is Philippians 1:15-19 – (you can read it here)

We read that some people are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry.  I read in one commentary, that he was probably referring to the Judaizing teachers.  They did indeed preach that Christ was the Messiah, but they were still hung up on a lot of laws, particularly the ones that Paul, other apostles and even Jesus, broke.  They preached about Christ and about a religion, but they missed the relationship part. We also learn that many were indeed preaching with pure motives.  Ironically, Paul says that either way, as long as the message of Christ is being preached, that he will rejoice.  He will rejoice.  Even though he is sitting in a Roman prison. 

He will rejoice.  Even though he is being persecuted for the sake of Christ.  And he will rejoice, as long as Christ is being preached. 

He wasn’t going to get caught up on religion.  It’s a hard thing not to get caught up on.  There are a lot of things to debate.  There are a lot of people who preach religion and not necessarily a relationship with Jesus. 

We get caught up on feeling like someone else is doing God an injustice.  Maybe they’re preaching for wealth or fame.  Maybe we disagree with their theology. 

I realize some of this stuff matters, but I think Paul was trying to tell us to keep the bigger picture in mind. Even when others present a false picture or caricature of Jesus (which Paul elsewhere always seeks to correct), nevertheless God can and does use even that to make true believers.

I don’t believe any preacher, priest, rabbi, etc., is saving anyone.  If you are saved, it is because of Jesus Christ.  It is because HE has saved you.  And, He can work through every imperfect person who is preaching His gospel, whether his or her motives are pure or not.  The bigger picture has nothing to do with WHO is preaching the gospel.  The bigger picture is that YOU GET the gospel.  That it transforms you.  Whether you heard it in the most eloquent and sincere of ways, or whether it was just a small statement that made you think a little deeper about what you believe to be true about God.

In the end, it is our personal relationship with Jesus Christ that matters.  In the end, all that matters is that you come to know Christ.  But, when you look at those around you, you realize that they matter too.   That is why it’s important to share the gospel with them.  Whether you think you do it well or not, you’re not the one who will save them.  It doesn’t matter so much how well you tell them about Christ, but just that you DO tell them about Christ.  Christ is enough…  To fill in the gaps, to make more out of less.  Christ is enough.  We all need to hear that, know that, and believe.

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Keeping the Suburbs from Killing your Soul

Keeping the Suburbs from Killing your Soul

May 25, 2016
Jeff Lampl

When we are depressed and discouraged it’s normal to feel hopeless . . . .

that nothing good will ever result from the circumstances we find ourselves in. 

Read Philippians 1:12-14  (click on the passage and the scripture will appear)

The problem with being stuck in the middle of our problems is that with that in an overwhelmed state or in our depression we can’t see reality.  

Just as on an overcast day the sun is still shining, but we can’t see it, in the same way it is true that in our discouragement we can’t see the bigger reality of what God is doing above the cloud of my overwhelmed, stuck, hopeless feelings.  

Reality is SO MUCH BIGGER than what I can see at any given moment.  Just as Paul noted that his imprisonment, intended to squelch the spread of the gospel, instead actually furthered it.   God is at work and using even the worst circumstances to bring about the best circumstances.

Do you believe this?  Really believe this? 

In my experience as a spoiled member of an instant gratification generation, it is hard to believe this when things are bad.  What to do?  What I do is choose to believe it.  I actually tell myself that God is making good out of this, whatever “this” I am facing.   It takes practice, but as it takes hold, I have discovered for myself at least that God’s peace actually does become available in such a way that I (not always) experience the “peace that passes understanding”.

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How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul

How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul

Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Jeff Lampl

One way to avoid “death by Suburb” is to pray, in particular to pray not for. . . . .

yourself but for others.

Read Philippians 1:9-11 (click on the passage and the scripture will appear)

Sometimes the best thing to when we are feeling down, depressed and hopeless is take the focus off ourselves and to focus on others.  

A very important way to do this is through prayer.  It’s an odd thing but it’s front and center in Jesus’s teaching.  When we “die to ourselves” and put others ahead of ourselves we are blessed.   When we lose our lives for Christ’s sake, we find our lives.   In praying for others we put both Christ and others ahead of our feelings and needs.  In doing so we have opened a door for God to enter into us with his healing.

Job, a man who had terrible things happen to him, found himself delivered from them and his life restored to something better than he could have dreamed.   How did this happen?

 “When Job prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes. In fact, the LORD gave him twice as much as before!”    Job 42:10 (NLT)

Click the link above and pray for your friends the prayer that Paul prayed for the believers in Philippi.

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Avoiding Death by Suburb

Avoiding Death by Suburb

May 23, 2016
Jeff Lampl

How can I keep the suburbs from killing my Soul?

Read Philippians 1:1-8    (click on the passage and the scripture will appear)

You're not in prison as Paul was when he wrote the words you just read, but you're probably overwhelmed with little if any time to think or rest. It's up early, get stuff done, handle work, family, chores, collapse in bed and then do it all over again tomorrow. That's your prison. You need what Paul had, time. You need to take it. Be ruthless about it.

So, yes, you need time.   But for what?  “Time for myself” is overrated I think.  Paul found time for others, to think about and then express his gratitude for them, his love for them and his faith that God was at work in their lives.   How much of your week is spent in thinking about and speaking to others in this way?

Perhaps we could get up a little earlier, eat more slowly, walk more slowly so that you can notice people, talk to them and even listen to what they say. Reflect on those conversations and thank God for those people, even the difficult ones. Verse 6 tells us that God has started a work not only in your but also in the people in your life. Believe that and believe God will complete that work.

When you have some moments to rest, don't spend them all on your cell phone, facebook, or TV. Practice fasting from those things at least part of each day. Find just two minutes of silence and solitude to be with God sometime during your day. Don't expect your time with God to feel spiritual. Just do it and God will be there. Practice being where you are, all there, with whomever you encounter.   Using today’s verse write a simple hand-written note to someone who needs God inspired encouragement. 

Finally, imagine a person who is important to you saying this with conviction. . . . .

“There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.”   Philippians 1:6 (MSG)

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Who was Timothy?

Who was Timothy?

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Jeff Lampl

“Fan into flame the gift of God that is in you”  2 Timothy 1:6

Everyone needs help.  The Apostle Paul was no exception.  Take a few moments to read about Paul’s co-author of Philippians, Timothy.   Notice Paul’s love and encouragement of, faith in, and joy from knowing his friend and helper, Timothy.   Christianity is not so much about points of doctrine as it is about relationships:  relationship with God and relationship with others.  How might the following passage reflect one or more of your relationships?

 “This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life he has promised through faith in Christ Jesus.

² I am writing to Timothy, my dear son.

May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.

³ Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. ⁴ I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.

⁵ I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. ⁶ This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. ⁷ For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

⁸ So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. ⁹ For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. ¹⁰ And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. ¹¹ And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.

¹² That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him^[a] until the day of his return.

¹³ Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me—a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to                                                                                                    2 Timothy 1:1-14  (New Living Translation)


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Overwhelmed 2

Preparation for this Sunday, Part 2

Friday, May 20, 2016

Jeff Lampl

Death by Suburb: How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul  is a wonderful book I read years ago and I highly recommend it to you.   It’s written by a Christian suburbanite who discovered ironically, that life in the highly Christian suburbs in which he lived actually worked against his living for God.

It is for this reason, helping you to live for God while living the rat race of trying to keep up with all the demands of suburban life, that we will begin a six week study on the book of Philippians.  Wednesday’s blog introduced you to the author Philippians, a man named Paul.  If you missed it you can read it here.   The second part of the introduction to the short book of Philippians follows

Paul’s life was difficult.  He was arrested several times and spent years of his life in prison, many of them battling discouragement, abandonment by friends, wondering where his next meal would come from, and being persecuted by those who wanted to see him fail.   In fact Paul writes this letter from prison.

Yet in this letter to a small group of believers in Philippi Paul writes as if he is full of joy. How can that be? How could it be that he wrote what is known as the New Testament "Epistle of joy" while languishing in a prison in Rome, Caesarea or Ephesus?

Most of us who are reading this introduction have not done time in prison.  Instead most of us are living the kind of life that Paul had been pursuing prior to his encounter with Jesus.  He was successful as a prosecuting attorney and legal scholar and was climbing the ladder.  Yet even the most apparently successful people face discouragement, let downs from friends, dashed hopes, shattered dreams and the day to day drudgery of the same old, same old, attempting to get things done, and never finding the rest we think we deserve.

So, how do we handle demanding bosses, unrealistic expectations from spouses and family members, expenses that surpass income, demands that exceed our energy, and the discouragement of not being able to be what others want us to be?

Our study in Philippians will have much to teach us about those very things.

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Believe

Believe

May 19, 2016

Megann Graf

Psalm 25:1   In You, Lord my God, I put my trust.

We’ve spent the last 30 weeks going through a sermon series called Believe.  We have spent time thinking about what we believe, and why.  We’ve spent time on what we should do with that belief.  And we concluded with the kind of person we should become because of our belief.  While I’ll be the first to admit that it seemed a bit long going through this series, I think it really did walk us through the purpose of our Christians lives, and it revealed all the things we should continue to study, ponder, and think more on as we continue our journey on this earth.

This week, I found myself back on a focus of Prayer.  While I feel like I pray a lot, this week, I was not praying alone.  God kept opening door after door for me to pray with others.  It wasn’t something I had set out to do, or planned, it just seemed to happen.  It made me realize, that there are so many ebbs and flows to this Christian walk.  This “Think. Act. Be.” mentality is nothing more than working through our Christian walk here on earth. 

THINK

There will be times when I have to go back and think about what I believe and why.  At times this will challenge me and at times this will comfort me.   

ACT

This will also change throughout my journey.  There will be times when prayer, like I’m experiencing now, will take on emphasis.  But, that doesn’t mean prayer is all I do.  I have to acknowledge all the other “actions” that are important to my spiritual growth.  Giving room for some to take priority for a season, but aware that many are needed for me to grow.

BECOME

This is the outcome of my beliefs and my faithfulness to act on them.  If some of these are difficult, maybe it’s not them I should be focusing on, perhaps it is an action of worship, or surrender, or sharing my faith, that will be able to change my attitude of anger to love or from sorrow to joy.

For me, this week is prayer.  I love how it was written in the Believe book, 

“We serve a God who is not threatened by our questions and doubts.  We don’t have to put on a false persona to please him.  He permits us to be honest about our fears, our feelings of isolation and our disappointments.  When we rehearse our story before him, we see his personal involvement in our lives.”

Psalm 66:16-20

Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me.  I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue.  If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my prayer.  Praise be to God who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me.

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Overwhelmed

Beginning Sunday May 22

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Jeff Lampl

Do you ever feel overwhelmed, even imprisoned, by the hyperactivity . . .  . 

hyper-pressure, and hyper-busyness of your suburban life? You're not alone and God has help available!

On Sunday, May 22, we begin a six week series studying the book of Philippians, which will show us how to live for God while living with the pressures of suburban life.

The author of Philippians was a man named Paul, who had been on the fast track to money, power and success in law and government. On a mission as prosecuting attorney to rid his district of a Jesus cult considered disruptive to the society he was tasked with protecting, he actually had a first-hand encounter with the very same Jesus he thought had been executed. Jesus actually appeared to him and spoke to him. Suffice it today, that encounter changed his career path.

A great way to prepare for this Sunday’s message is to read Paul’s own description of his encounter with Jesus.  You can read three different accounts of it in Acts 9, Acts 22:1-22 and Galatians 1:1-2:3

He then spent the next 35 years of his life supporting himself as a tent maker so that he could travel from city to city telling people that this Jesus is not only alive but is actually now ruling the world from Heaven.  Those travels are recorded in the book of Acts beginning with chapter 13.

How then did Paul live for Christ with the enormous pressures surrounding him for the last 35 years of his life?  How would he have us live?  On Sunday we will begin to find out.

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Humility

Humility

Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Jeff Lampl

“Humble yourself before the Lord and he will lift you up when the time is right”  1 Peter 5:6.

We are told to humble ourselves.   Here’s how I’ve learned to do it. . . . .

First, it is important to place ourselves “under” people.  We are told to treat others as “better than ourselves” (Philippians 2:3).    For me the most difficult way to do this, and perhaps the most important, is to listen, to be “all there” when anyone is speaking to me.   Sometimes I find myself evaluating conversations, thinking of some as more important than others.  But I don’t think I’m very good at evaluating correctly.   Too often I evaluate conversations, based on how valuable the person is to my purposes rather than on how important that person is to God, and how important my attentiveness is to that person.   It may be that my ear is the only ear that will truly ‘hear’ them when they desperately need to be heard.

Second it is important to be attentive to my pride.  Each time I become defensive, or find myself criticizing another, or find myself gloating that I was right about something or become overly impressed or depressed about a teaching I have given, I know that behind those emotions is pride, the desire to think of myself highly in comparison to others.   Behind pride is the need to be “better than”.   Each time I find that in myself I can be sure that I am being acted on, not by God, but by the devil.    I have even found myself becoming proud of humble, which of course mean that whatever humility actually existed disappeared the moment I noticed it.  The moment I think I am becoming humble is the very moment at which I can be sure that I am proud.

There is good news and, of course, it is the Good News which is the Gospel.   Each time I recognize my sin, my pride, my selfishness and rather than dismissing it, instead admit it, I am at that moment in a place where God can take His rightful place in my will, heart and mind.  Perhaps our place of humility is found in the two profound clauses in this summary of the Gospel. “I am more sinful/prideful/selfish than I can ever know, AND I am more loved than I can ever imagine”.  

“Lord, may I become more like Jesus.   May it be so that I become so aware of you and of others that I have no need to seek humility, rather in my attentiveness to you, to others and to the tasks you give me, pride finds itself blocked from its insidious entry into my heart.  Yet when it does find its way in, Lord, let see it, painful as that may be, let me admit it and accept your forgiveness and your love.   Amen”

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Pentecost Sunday - Humility

Pentecost Sunday

Humility

Sunday, May 15, 2016
Jeff Lampl

Today is the final Sunday of our 30 week series, BELIEVE.  Today is also Pentecost Sunday.  On that day in Jerusalem, humbled believers who needed God’s help received it, God’s actual presence within them.    

Psalm 51 provides the preparation needed to receive that help.  It gives us the words we need to find that place where God’s help is actually available to us and is empowering for us. . . . Those who are able to mouth the words of this psalm with sincerity are on the path to overcoming whatever obstacle is in their path.

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    so that sinners will turn back to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
    you who are God my Savior,
    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
¹⁵ Open my lips, Lord,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is^[b] a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart
    you, God, will not despise.

¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion,
    to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
    in burnt offerings offered whole;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

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Believe Review Part 3

BELIEVE  Review  Part 3

May 13, 2016
Jeff Lampl

In part three of BELIEVE (we called it PEELED), we learned the following 10 things about what God wants me to Become.

1.    We are to become loving.   Love is not a feeling, it is an act of the will, especially when I don’t feel like it.   God is training believers to engage in actions that are directed to highest and best for others, regardless of the degree of difficulty and regardless of whether or not we feel like it.   Feelings follow actions.   This will inevitable result in sacrifice and suffering, yet that is part and parcel of the joyful, higher life offered to us by God.   (1 John 4:10-12)

2.    We are to become joyful.  Joy is not happiness, nor is it something that comes and goes, as do amusement and despair.  Rather joy is a state of being that sees, beyond all circumstances, that God is at work and that He is reworking even the worst of things for good.   We are to choose joy and as well do intentionally it will, over time, become a permanent state of being.   This state of being is contagious. (John 15:11)

3.    We are to become peaceful.   Like joy, peace is a state of being.   It is a state of trust that all is well in God’s good world.   It is the inner sense that I am very, very small and God is very big, and that He’s “got this”, whatever problem “this” might be.   It is the state, regardless of my fears, that God is working things out according to my best interest, even and especially when it doesn’t “feel” like it.   In doing so we create a sense of God’s peace in others. (Phil 4:6-7)

4.    We are to be self-controlled.   God uses the everyday temptations of normal life and uses them to train us to say “no” to the things that separate us from Him, and yes to the things that connect us to him.   This means “missing out” on what others binge on and regret, and entering in to things most people devalue yet unknowingly crave, things like silence and solitude and mental and physical heath and purposeful work, all of which are found in time with and relationship with God. (Titus 2:11-13)

5.    We are to be people who live in a hope that cannot be quenched.  Not, “I hope so”, but with calmly inner peaceful conviction, I am simply certain that I have a joyful are with God, and that everyone I know is being attended to by God to bring them to a secure and eternal future with God.   Therefore my hope for another is never quenched.  God gives up on no one.  (Heb 6:19-20)

6.    We are to become patient.   This means that life is about a whole lot more than me.  Impatience, my insistence that the world revolved around me, recedes  and patience, the knowledge that what God want’s done won’t be hindered by “those others who slow me down”.   I am learning to be “all there” in whatever circumstance I’m in know that God wants me to view others as valued children of God, not as hindrances to my agenda.  (Prov 14:29)

7.    We are to be kind.   In a world of criticism, blame, complaint, irritability and impatience, I am to treat each person at each moment with kindness, with a smile that says, you matter more to me (and God) that whatever inconvenience I am experiencing.   In doing so the believer “shines like a star in the universe” (1 Thessalonians 5:15)

8.    We are to be faithful.   Though it is true that none of us can ever achieve perfect faithfulness to God, it is also true that God exhibits perfect faithfulness to us.  This is the starting point for the Christian.   As I grow in the knowledge that I am loved and not condemned, that I can trust God’s faithfulness to me in Jesus Christ, I also grow in trust and therefore I am willing to risk trusting, faithful actions that display a growing, living, acted out faith in God.
(Proverbs 3:3,4)

9.    I am to grown in gentleness.    Because God is gentle, believers are to be gentle.   As believers we don’t have to “force fit” anything.   We can speak the truth that people need to hear, but volume and forcefulness are not the same thing as effectiveness.   Loving, gentle, kind, genuine, truthful care for others is heard and received whereas impatient, forcefulness is not. (Philippians 4:5)

10. I am to grow in humility.  We are told humble ourselves before God and He will lift us up.   We are also told that when any of us feels humble we can be quite sure that pride has overtaken us.  Nor is humility thinking less of yourself in self-deprecating ways, rather actual humility is not thinking about yourself at all.  (Philippians 2:3,4)

Note:   You can read Believe Part 1 summary here and Believe Part 2 Summary here.

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Gentleness

GENTLENESS

May 12, 2016
Megann Graf

Have you been turning your eyes this week?  I came across this quote and
thought it went so perfectly with what I said on Sunday. 

“Whatever we look at, is what we become.”

Are we becoming more like Jesus?  Am I becoming more like Jesus?  Well, last night, no.  I wasn’t really turning my eyes too well.  By the hour before the kids bedtime, I had just whipped the dinner plates OFF the table, because my kids were goofing off, and an hour seems like plenty of time to eat a piece of chicken and some veggies.  So, mom had had it.  “I’m still hungry,” I heard.  To which they heard, “too bad. . . .you’ve had an hour, you wasted it.  Tough luck.”  (The model mother of gentleness, I know!)   I said for the thousandth time to “go brush your teeth.”  (Which, really, shouldn’t this just be a given now?  Does it really need to be said?)  I was tired, my husband was tired, but informed me he still had to get more work done, so he went up in his office to finish something for work.  (Nice excuse, crazy wife = work to be done! J)   I was definitely focused on my surroundings, which were a mess. . . .figuratively AND literally!  My eyes were only seeing a mess, and so, I too was becoming, what I like to call, a hot mess.  Not pretty. 

So, day 1 after my message on gentleness, I was feeling like a failure and hypocrite.  But, then I went downstairs.  Took a breath.  Drank some tea. Looked at the mess around me with new eyes.  A house that is lived in.  A house where activities happen.  Dance bags are out, tennis rackets left on the floor, and food that wasn’t eaten.  We are blessed to do and have all those things.  And, I knew that I had to turn my eyes on Jesus.  I had to see him, so that I could see my kids from His eyes.   I had to see Him so I could see my husband through His eyes.  I had to turn my eyes so I could stop feeling overwhelmed in my own home, and change that mindset to living in freedom. 

So, what are you looking at this week?  A co-worker who has the job you want?  A neighbor who has the perfect home?  A friend whose kids are much more behaved than yours?  I bet you if you looked hard enough at all of them, you’d see their mess too.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t really afford to be any more of a mess than I already am, so it seems beneficial for me, to turn my eyes somewhere else.  I want to look to Jesus.  I want HIS peace in my life.  I want to become a little more like Him each day, so that I can become someone better each day.   This fruit of the Spirit stuff is hard.  They say most things worth fighting for usually are.  So, maybe that saying “just keep swimming” should be changed to “just turn your eyes, just turn your eyes.”  Seems like less work than swimming anyways.  And, if I get tired and worn, and look to the One who loves me greater than I can imagine, He’ll be holding on to me.  All I have to do is look and I’ll see He’s been there all along. 

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