faith – Page 8 – Ramblings of a Christian Father

While you were on the Mountain top…

How many times have you been on top of the mountain, only to continue on and feel that you have fallen back down the mountain hitting every single large boulder on the way down? Just when you think you have everything figured out, something happens that you have to step back and figure out what just happened.

Matthew 17:2-4 ²As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. ³Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.⁴Peter exclaimed, “Lord, it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want, I’ll make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

So many times we dwell in the moment. We have great experiences, we want the experiences to last, we want to stay in the glory of that moment. But you can only stay in that moment for so long, then life catches up with you. You have to come back down the mountain at some point and keep living. And it is when we get back into real life, facing the real world, and all the of issues that come at us, that our faith is tested. It always seems that the closer we get to God, the stronger the attacks are against us. As we are spending time on the mountain top, it always seems that the enemy is building up forces along the road down the mountain.

“If the Devil, can’t make you bad, He’ll make you busy.”

“If the Devil can’t break you, He’ll break something around you”

When I think about the above statements, I keep thinking about the movie “UP”. In the opening scenes of the movie, you see Carl and Ellie, with a change jar that they keep trying to fill to make their way to Paradise Falls. As they get a decent amount into jar, Carl breaks his leg, they have a tire blow out, and they have a tree fall on the house, and then they have to break the jar and use all the money they had saved.

It is these kind of setbacks that cause many to loose faith. It is in these times that our faith gets tested, and that we have to remember to rejoice and thank God no matter what is going on. As you come down the mountain, it feels that you are going into a valley, but you will always come up out of that valley. If you look through the Bible, you can see many references to battles in valleys. One of my favorite references is from 2 Chronicles 20. King Jehoshaphat called for all of his subjects to pray and fast, then as they go into battle, he sends the singers first and as they start singing God shows that He is very much in control as the enemies all turned on each other. But my favorite part of this story, is that it took 3 days to come out of the valley with all of the spoils of the battle.

No matter what happens in life, remember that it is only for a moment, even if that moment seems to go on for a really long time. Just because things aren’t working out for you the way you want, keep in mind that God may have different plans that what we can see coming up. We never know what is in the valley, or what lies ahead, but proceed with an open mind and open heart for what God has for us. No matter how hard you get hit, no matter the struggles you are going through, keep relying on God, and things will eventually work out.

July 1, 2012 by corymcglone

History doesn’t make the man, The man makes history…

2 Corinthians 5:16-19— ¹⁶Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. ¹⁷Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. ¹⁸Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

So many times in today’s world we hear about people’s past and that’s why they do the things that they do today. We get sometimes are trapped in the stigma that what our parents were, that’s what we will be. Or that one mistake in our past labels us for our entire future. We get so caught up in the past, and what we came from, that we let it become us. If someone comes from an abusive home, they will become an abuser, or always look for abusive relationships. If someone comes from a poverty-stricken family, they will never get out of that situation. But it is then that we have to overcome, we have to strive to do better, we have to reach for a better life

I was lucky growing up, unlike so many people of my generation, my parents are still together after all these years. I had great parents that always taught me the value of hard work, and the importance of family. So no I didn’t come from a broken home, I didn’t have an abusive father, I didn’t have to deal with a lot of things that many deal with today. So no I can’t talk first hand to these situations, maybe my outlook would be different on this subject, but I know that there are people who overcome the demons of their past.

No matter what is in your past, it is not your past that makes you. Take the things from your past and let them shape you. The things of your past should help you make decisions, they should help you teach others and try to lead them in a better way. Take your old mistakes and learn from them, take the dark things of your past and find ways to not go down those roads again, learn from others mistakes, and try not to repeat them.

Take the past, put it behind you, learn from it, don’t dwell in it, use it to teach others, and go forward making your own history not shaped by your past.

May 22, 2012 by corymcglone

Persistent stubborn dedication or Insanity

“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
― Albert Einstein

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
–Garth Brooks Unanswered Prayers

Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.” But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; [m]but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.
— Matthew 15:21-27

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on passion. After really thinking about it, I started to see how your passion for something could get you called insane, or have people praise you for your dedication to whatever it is. This past week I really felt God leading me into this post about how we pray for things and how we display our faith, passion, and even our work ethic.

It’s been a few crazy weeks around the house with Easter, birthdays, work trips, vacation, and the many other things that are just part of daily life. So when I felt God placing this message on me I took some extra time to pray and look at my own faith and prayer life. As a family we pray EVERY night before the munchkin goes to sleep and then we will all say at least one thing that we are thankful for from the day we just had. But every night, as we are praying the munchkin will have to insert her request to Jesus, and it is the same every night, for her to have a baby brother or baby sister, and she will also pray for people that we had said were sick weeks ago, even if we have forgotten they were sick, she makes sure that we tell Jesus to be with them.

But the are things that we as Christians, find ourselves constantly asking God for: wisdom and guidance in career decisions and all decisions in general, healing, financial help/guidance. But at some point even the most dedicated Christians will fall victim to fear and doubt, but it is here that we must remember that God’s timing is not the same as ours. Just when we think that we have things all figured out, God shows us that he is still in control. So even when it seems like our prays are nor being heard, we know that God hears the voices of all of his children.

Along with the verse I have quoted above , another prime example of how God feels about us in found in Matthew 7:7-11—

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

It’s spelled out clearly, that when we go to God and just ask, if it is his will for us, he will grant that request. There are times, many times, that the things we ask for are not the best things for us. I mean honestly think about it as a parent, if you kid is asking for Ice cream for dinner, you are going to say no. In the same way, we may not see how our request will hurt us in the long run, but God will eventually give us something else and we forget about what we were originally looking for, or we see that is was actually a better alternative to what we had been praying so hard for.

So while many people will look at our faith as partial insanity, we pray for the same things all the time and get the same results, but we expect something different. This is where we must insure that our faith is strong enough to remember and trus that our heavenly father still knows what is best for us. God wants us to trust him, to pursue him daily, and to be devoted to him in our daily lives. It is this stubborn blind passionate devotion that sets us apart as Christians. While many do not understand why we believe what we do, we know what God can, will, and has done for each of us in our lives.

So take time to think about the way that you pray, what you have been praying for, and also the things that God has done for you in the past. Look for the other solution to your problems, because sometimes we are so focused on what we want, we don’t see the answer God is placing directly in front of us.

April 29, 2012April 29, 2012 by corymcglone

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