A Reflection for 2011

If we are not careful, a year will pass away and a new year will begin without taking the time to realize how amazing it truly was.

• ·      This year, the Lord consistently was present and showed us that He is more powerful than any situation we might face
• ·      This year, the Lord allowed His favor to shine and open new doors
• ·      This year, the Lord gave us new obstacles to overcome, new moments of faith to grow
• ·      This year, while the world was distracted by what they might lose, the Lord was focused on whose heart He might win
• ·      This year, the Lord gave the world many opportunities to repent and surrender before His imminent return
• ·      This year, God healed the broken hearted, set the captive free, and gave hope to the hopeless

These are all things that I personally am a witness to in my own life and in those lives that surround me.

This year, I am thankful for my relationship with the Lord and His unwarranted, undeserved, and incomparable love He has for me.

This is the same love He has for you! 

May 2012 begin as a year of surrender to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It is the only way to find life.

John 14:6-7

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

A Disciplined Godly Life

This title has the potential to either cause you to stop reading this devotional or possibly challenge you to evaluate who you are and what you are doing. My true hope is that this devotional is more of an encouragement for you to live out a practical life that honors the Lord and the people that He has put around you.

For me, a Godly life begins at 5:30 AM. This does not mean it has to be this way for you, however, it is a crucial element to honoring the Lord in my life. When I get out of bed at 5:30 AM, I get into my running clothes, tie up my shoes, get my dog leashed and ready, and go for my morning run. This a Godly discipline that is crucial for my cholesterol count, but also gives me the time I need to think through my day and make decisions of who I am going to be. Then after my run, I sit on my patio and read the Bible or one of books that point me towards the Lord and who I am supposed to be. When I finish reading I take a few minutes to pray for those people that come to my mind and heart and ask the Lord to be in charge of my day.

This routine has helped me organize and discipline all of the other areas of my life. This life can truly be an amazing journey for those who turn over the control to the Lord. He not only has the ability to strengthen and guide you, but He also has an amazing way to give me a great joy that is purely and overflow of my time with Him.

I encourage you to find your routine, on a daily basis surrender to Him, and daily strive to find moment-by-moment ways to live a life of honor to the Lord. This means that what you do outside the four walls of the church is as crucial as what you do inside the church. The daily integrity of serving the Lord is and always will be the most important part of this life.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

A Witness To My Life

Looking over the years of this life brings many emotions all at once. It has been a life full of laughter, purpose, new adventures, God’s provision, at times pain and tears, miracles, hope, peace, and joy. I am not only thankful to the Lord for walking with me each step of my past but securing my tomorrow. He also gave me a precious gift that I will cherish for the rest of my days. He gave me a friend that will be a witness to my life. In truth, I can say that we have seen each other at our best and our worst.

The gift from the Lord is not just to have this friend in my life, but that He has given us the grace to weather the storms of this life arm in arm. This friend of mine has been walking with me for half of my life. She is not perfect and yet perfect for me. Melissa and I are coming up on 18 years of marriage this June.

Melissa,

Thank you for being a witness to my life. I love you girl. I have no idea what doors this graduation will open for us. However, I do know that it doesn’t matter as long as we are walking through that door together. Thank you for believing in the goals the Lord has placed on my heart.

Love,

Kristopher

At Rest...

At rest and pressing forward…

The Lord has continued to bring a deep rest to this heart of mine. The more I press into who He is and what He is doing in my life today, the less I need answers for yesterday. It is a wild concept to be at rest, though life is not slowing down or affording me to take my eyes off of the goals ahead. I am finding rest in what I will call simple trust. This simple trust is actually profound. It stems from the realization that I can only control who I am and I must allow the people around me room to breathe and learn. I will simply trust that the Lord will continue to guide my steps and faithfully protect me from the assault of the enemy when it comes. It is a natural response to be worried about explosions when you have walked through them. However, if one is not careful, the explosion of the past will dictate and control the future. This must not be, as there is too much life to live and too large a purpose to live for. Instead, it is better to simply trust that because of where I have walked, I am now wiser and though explosions may still be a part of this life, it won’t be caused because my eyes are shut to the dangers or the path that led to those atrocities.

Though I still look around and at times don’t understand…
And though some mornings the questions that loom are unanswerable…
And though at times all is too quiet and faint memories of war can be heard…
Instead of allowing these conundrums to control me…
I simply smile, trusting in this simple phrase…

My God is good.

And I am at rest once more…

Psalm 116:12
What shall I return to the LORD for all his goodness to me?

Decision by Decision

As I walked out of my room this morning I was greeted by a man child with a deeper voice than mine, who had shaving cream on his face, preparing to meet his high school world. I had to stop and take a double take. My brain was incapable of computing how it is that my son had grown up so fast before my eyes. He is an amazing young man, but he is as tall as I am, driving, and dreaming of a future of college, career, marriage, and one day children of his own. All of these dreams of his do not include me in his life on a daily basis. When did this happen?

I believe this happened day by day and decision by decision. Just yesterday, I was approached with a dilemma of being at my youngest son’s basketball game or in a meeting that was important and was part of my responsibilities. I am happy to say that the wise decision was made and I will be at my son’s basketball game. As I evaluate my life and look at the places where I cannot be replaced, there are very few. No one can have the relationship with my God for me, be a husband to my wife for me, the father to my children for me, or build the relationship with my friends and family for me. If I am not careful, decisions will be made to be at those meetings, run those events, and give away those precious moments that can never be recaptured.

At this point in my life it is with clarity that I can see how quickly a couple of years will go by and my children will have grown and be off and running on their own journey. I pray with all of my heart that the Lord will give me the wisdom to say yes to the right things, as it pertains to the precious time given to me. I hope to walk forward with my eyes wide open and capture every moment given to me with those people in my life that I cherish.

This is a good scripture reminding us to keep our focus on what is right and allowing the Lord to take care of the other needs in our life.

Matthew 6:19-33

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Greatness

What does it really mean when we say, “God is great!”

Does it mean that He has somehow decided to listen to us and do things according to our opinion? Does it mean that we silly humans have stopped hurting each other and ourselves? Does it mean that we have finally attained everything that we think we should somehow have or deserve?

OR does it mean that we have surrendered our opinions and admitted that we are short sighted and myopic in our views?

OR does it mean we have decided to not allow the roller coaster called life and life situations to dictate our faith in God?

OR does it mean we have come to the conclusion that we need to walk in thankfulness instead of deservedness?

It is only when we purpose to disconnect from the things of this world and put focus on who and what God promises to, will we be able to stand firm in the face of adversity. God is an amazing and mighty God with our without our approval. He is the one who spoke this earth into existence and is the one who intersected our lives with hope, peace, and joy.

How long will we choose to allow this world and the people in it to decide our worth and what goals we should run after? God has called us worthy and has an amazing journey in store for those who call Him Lord. I am challenged today to lay aside my own ideas of what this life should look like and allow the Lord to redefine my motives, my goals, and my ultimate destination.

Saying God is great means that He is big enough and awesome enough to lead and guide me. Saying God is great means that I don’t have to be anything but His child.

Deuteronomy 3:23-24
At that time I pleaded with the LORD: “Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do?

It is 5:30 AM

It is 5:30 AM and I am sitting here thinking about the more important things of this life. The Lord is my #1 thought this morning. He has walked with me since I have been a child teaching me how to best navigate this life. He has stood by me when I have walked down wrong paths and embraced sin and temptation- loving me, healing me, and placing my feet back on the path of truth. He has also placed a barrier around me of peace when the nuclear warheads have attempted to blow up my life. In truth, the scars are very real from some of those bombs that have went off, but as the destruction was set in motion, so was the Holy Spirit’s guiding, leading, and healing touch. As with anyone who lives through life trauma and the dying of something, there are questions that may never be answered, but where I am sitting now, I am thankful for the presence of the Lord. One of the greatest things that has happened in my life in these last years is the ability to find God’s fingerprints where He is working, and at times even get to see Him in action. Today, as I think of my life that is filled with the joy of marriage, children, friends, a purposeful ministry, and a fulfilling job- I am at peace.

Thank you Lord for being the faithful and consistent healer and life giver for my life and family.

I am not sure where this devotional finds you this morning. You may be in the midst of suffering the consequences from your own personal life decisions, possibly facing the ramifications from someone else’s decisions, or at a time of peace from the worries of this world. Whichever situation you are in- be encouraged! Your Lord and Maker is actively present in your life and longs to be invited to draw near into your situation. He has jumped through all of the hoops, built the bridges, and created the paths for you to be able to have a life giving relationship with Him. All you need to do is choose to sit at His feet and surrender.

In Joshua 4, the Bible tells us of a time that Joshua was leading His people across the Jordan and the Lord went before them and made a way for them to walk on dry ground. Though it may seem impossible that God would move in your life like this, He can, and He will. Take the first step to seeing a miracle and turn to Him. He has an amazing way of taking care of His children.


Dear Lord,
It is time for me to start my day and I choose once again to ask the Lord to go before me and guide my day. Please be with my wife and my boys. We need you to be present and active in each of our lives.

Amen