The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

Isaiah 29:13

 

Good evening and welcome to day 12 of 50 days.

 

When  I was in high school I learned about a biblical principle called Death of a Vision.  Pastor Bill Gothard shared with us in his Basic Youth Conflicts seminar that time and time again in the bible we see that God gives a vision that must die before it ultimately is fulfilled.  While we may agree this makes for an exciting moving or play it also makes for a stressful and sometimes disappointing life.  God gives you an idea or a gift.  All seems well until the death event comes.  Your relationship went south or you had healing only to get sick again or you get a dream job only to find out that your new boss is a demon.  

 

Your faith in God must be bigger than the death of your vision.  I want to make sure you get what I’m saying.  Only a faith that is bigger than our problems will take us through the death of our vision to it’s final glorious realization.

 

Joseph dreams that he will be honored with others bowing to him.  But he is sold into slavery.  It looks like things are getting better when he gets thrown into prison.  It looks like things will get better when he gives the meaning of a dream to the kings butler but then he forgets about him for 2 years.  Finally God elevates him.  

 

Daniel went through a lion’s den.  The three hebrews went through the fire.  The shunamite woman prays for a son and receives him only for him to die.  But the prophet brought him back to life.

 

There are somethings you are believing God for but will not come to pass without some death.  Do you believe past the death that you see?

 

If not you can tell Jesus “Help thou mine unbelief!”

 

I don’t know why I’ve had to cry brought to my knees time and time again but I can promise you this.  Jesus specializes in resurrection!

 

This has been day 12 of 50 days of revelation.  I look forward to meeting you tomorrow!

Good night and hold on until your change comes!

I have so much joy from my secret weapon!

WORTHWHILE GOAL

Have you ever come to a point where you wonder what’s really important?  After reaching goals then what?  More goals?  And what about stuff that just didn’t work?  Am I suppose to just keep trying or move on to something else?  Good questions.  What’s been working for me is aligning my perpetual goals with what I value most, helping people.

Helping People

I’m amazed at how simple this can be and yet how powerful it can be.  Imagine if you got up today and your primary focus was helping to satisfy needs of other people.  What if you decided you would bring joy to others as your most important goal today?  Now I didn’t say please others.  I’m not suggesting in any sense that we should live our lives merely to do what other people want us to do.  Rather I’m suggesting we use our time, talents, and treasure to make our community a safer and happier place.

The Power Of A Smile

If you saw the picture at the beginning of this post you might notice that my daughter Maia and I are smiling.  When I look at the picture it makes me smile because of her exuberant smile.  A smile tends to inspire a smile.

In their paper, Paula Niedenthal and Adrienne Wood, social psychologists at the University of Wisconsin, and colleagues describe how people in social situations simulate others’ facial expressions to create emotional responses in themselves.  For example we see someone and they are frowning.  We for a very brief moment seek to match the expression to better understand how they are feeling.  And then we can decide an appropriate action. (To read more click here)

Your Secret Weapon

So when you enter any place where there are other people when you smile with love in your heart for them it has an effect even if they don’t realize it or don’t visibly imitate your facial gesture.

So how successful would you feel if you knew that by spreading your smiling sunshine you were having a serious impact on your surroundings?  Don’t worry about the millions of people you won’t encounter today.  Just focus on everyone you do.  Instead of feeling depressed by focusing on what your can’t change or what’s wrong why not take an action that does make things better?

Today I will be smiling at the people I meet.  I will pray for them in my heart as I smile.  And I predict that God will use my little secret weapon to make a little part of the world a better place.

Happy smiling!