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A Morning View By the Wood Stove

So, many of you are reading this with a tad bit of a hangover.
Some of you are going to sleep the morning away. 
Today is the beginning of unrealistic resolutions that we try to keep. 
Probably all of us are dancing to see 2020 go away and 2021 begin. 
What I have to say today may not boost your optimism in the New Year.

Friends, nothing is just going to be different. 
I am speaking with the voice of a 59 year old man who has recently been 2 X 4'd because he has been comfortable with and has had amazing experiences in his walk with God. But this man has built his house on the sand. Oh, absolutely it is Godly sand deeply piled on the Rock, which is even more dangerous because I believed I was alright. God has been faithful to me and like the rest of you I have not been as faithful to God as I desire to become. 

First, I am alright and in some ways I have never been better. Please do not focus on my honesty and vulnerability. Focus on you. Second, I have a new understanding of what John Wesley means when he asked "How is your soul." I have a close friend and confident who absolutely runs from that question. I particularly am not fond of spilling my sins and struggles either, but I would not be where I am on January 1, 2021 without being vulnerable to trusting friends and accountable to God. 

People tell me when they read my morning view that they can generally figure out what is going on in my life. I will tell you no, no you cannot unless you are deep inside of me. What I will tell you is you may have a general understanding of the surface of my emotions, but you cannot understand without relationship with me, if I allow you in. I tell you this because alcohol and other ways we use to escape reality are temporary. Sleeping your life away and filling your life with avoidance is a form of sin. Unrealistic resolutions create an unrealistic sense of security. Hoping a new year number makes a difference, frankly is foolish. 

What does make a difference? All my life I have desired a deep agape relationship of God I have observed in others. All my life I have fallen short, put my hope and trust in temporary fixes and even yielded to sin because it temporarily filled empty spaces and made me "happy." I have been "saved." I have had some powerful God initiated Holy Spirit times in my life and lived in the emotion of such experiences. People tell me how wonderful I am and how I am an amazing pastor and friend and deep inside I know I am nothing in my sin, but God does use damaged goods for the redemption of his sheep. I appreciate and honestly need the recognition, but I do not deserve it. ALL glory I am given belongs to God. 

I have never totally surrendered to God, until recently. Honestly it was surrender or die a slow, lonely death. I am beginning to build a new house on The Solid Rock foundation. I want to share the good news of real hope and relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I want you to understand than with you allow yourself to wallow in sin you live a sin-filled life. When you choose to live in a God-filled life, your life becomes filled with God. 

You all have choices to make. You all have your house to build. You all have the opportunity to choose life. Please choose to connect your soul to God's unfailing love.

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” - Matthew 7:24-27 NLT


Peace,

PB


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