Tag: inspiration

Come as you are,

Come as you are, just don’t stay that way.

So I’ve been sitting on this one for a while now and just now found the time to write it out.

In our lives we are defined by where we come from and the things that we have done, either by others or it is how we define ourselves.  But when we look at what God calls us to, it is to leave our old selves, leave our pasts behind us, and follow Him as a new person.  We go to God broken and weighed down by our guilt and shame, but we leave different.  We leave walking closer to God, walking whole and new, without the burdens and hurts.

We find ourselves though holding on, we only know ourselves as the person with this problem or that vice.  It’s hard to let go and change.  It’s hard to admin that you have faults…  What is someone else going to think…  Will people still like me if I change…  These are the questions that go through our heads.  But you have to change, you have to come as you are but leave different.

It is the leaving different part, living different, being different part that is the challenge.  The latest series at our church has been on cleaning out your soul and doing all of these things above.  But one point that our pastor made this past weekend was that so many of us, “put on our church face,” we have things that we hide in our lives that we don’t want others to know about, that continually hold us back from being the person God wants us to be.  But it is also putting on this “church face” this act, that make so many people think of Christians as hypocrites.

So I pray that you will leave different and stay different.  Think about what you can do that will show those around you that your different.  What can you do that will show God to those around you and what sets you apart?

by corymcglone

Manual Focus

Retina Reflex SLR

So many times in life we lose our focus.  We need to adjust our lives back into focus, and get back in touch with what matters.

I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking through this post, and reflecting on the start of this year and what the new year means and the new beginnings that it brings.  It is when we take our eyes off of what is most important, that we lose focus and lose our way.  When you look through the Bible, you find many stories of true Bible heroes, that lost their focus, lost their way, and then eventually came back to the life God had called them to.

The first three that come to Samson, David, and Peter. Samson, lost his focus, blinded by the lies of Delilah and feeling that he could go about things on his own, was blinded literally by his enemies.  But with his last breaths, he prayed, that God would bless him with power one last time, and defeated more Philistines in that moment as he crashed the temple.  David, lost his focus to lust for Bathsheba, lost a child, and lost his way.  But in the end learned from his mistakes, and changed.  And the story of Peter walking on the water is to me the prime example of having, losing, and regaining focus, in a very short amount of time.  As soon as Peter stepped out of the boat and had his eyes focused on Jesus he was walking along just fine.  But it is the exact moment that he took his eyes off of Jesus, and looking at everything that was around him, he began to sink.

It is the times that we take our eyes off of what God has for us, and focus in on the chaos around us, that we begin to drown in life.  We get so caught up in the stuff, that goes on day in and day out, that we forget the blessings that are right in front of us.  We have to regain our focus on our families and on what God has for us.  It is the minor adjustments that you wouldn’t think about that make the biggest changes in life.  We must make sure that we are looking to God, and being fully focused on what He has for us.

by corymcglone

Senseless….

I know that this may not make a lot of sense, and this post is so scattered.  But I just need to vent this….

This is the season that for many of us, is a joyous fun time.  We get together with family, we take small trips, we remember all that we have to be thankful for, we remember all of our blessings.  But as I sit here writing this, the father of a Kindergartner, and the Husband of a teacher, my heart is breaking for the families that have lost their children today.

This year in multiple senseless acts, too many people have lost fathers, mothers, children, friends.  I cannot even begin to imagine, the grief that these families are feeling as we come into the holidays.  Over the next few days, many people are going to try and link these acts to how the person was raised, or gun control, or the music they listened to, or a myriad, of other psychological things.  No matter what it gets linked to, the only thing that remains that there are now empty holes in too many homes.

Tonight across America, I know that there are parents holding their kids tighter, hugging them longer, grieving for those other families.  Also across America, many people are heading to churches to pray for those families, and to seek God in these times.  It is my hope and prayer, that for many of us we take this sobering experience, and realign our priorities.  Don’t let this be the one time this week, that you snuggled up with your kids and read a story, or had a “sleep-over.”  Don’t let this be the one time that you put away the cell phone, stepped away from email.  We need to examine what matters in our lives.

Life is way to short, spend what time you have with the ones you love.  And as we go into the Christmas holiday, remember what Christmas is really about.  It’s about God’s gift to us, His love for us, His Son.  Spread Love, spread Joy, spread Hope.  Remember, that no matter what we may feel or what the world may tell us, God is with us, even when it seems he isn’t, he is there.

God, I don’t understand why these things happen.  I just know, that these families need you right now.  Please send you Holy Spirit around them.  Be their comfort, Be their hope, bring them piece.  Help them as they go through these trying times, You are the Rock, and the Shelter.  You are our stronghold, Father, I praise your name through everything.  Amen.

by corymcglone