Some Of The Candy From Last Year's Sweet Treat!

Our goal today is to learn how to make hunger and thirst for righteousness work! To make it work you have to walk backwards through the first three Beatitudes! You cannot hunger and thirst for the things of God, unless you surrender control.  You will not surrender control, until you face up to and are sorry for your sin.  You will not face up to and be sorry for your sin, until you die to self. It all begins with dying to self!

Life is not about me! That really is a hard pill to swallow!  Life is about ETERNITY WITH GOD and my getting prepared for it.  God gives us our lives so that we might have the opportunity to make a choice to have a relationship with Him that will last forever and always.  ”I” get in the way – way to much!  This is why it is so important that we learn to “die to self!”  If I stop and consider reality, then reality tells me that I am nothing without Jesus. If I am nothing without Him, then what am I with Him? When I learn to change my thinking, then my living will follow by understanding that me and my sin get in the way of God’s great plan.  When I start to grasp the cost of my sin, then I will be sorry for my sin and look for a way to gain victory over this thing that gets in the way of God’s amazing plan for my life.

I am a sinner! I don’t like to say that, but it is so freeing when I do, because it is the truth.  My sin gets in the way of God’s plan, so I/We/Somebody has got to do something about my sin.  This is why Jesus came – to pay the price that I could not.  God does not want to hold sin against you.  God wants to forgive sin and give you victory over it.  We cannot have victory without admission, confession and repentance!  Admit your sins – own up to them!  Confess them to God and ask for His forgiveness!  Repent – change your direction and give God the glory!  By the way this is what it means to MOURN in the Beatitudes!  When we come to this place of admission, then it should not be to far of a jump for us to come to the place of surrendering, giving up, letting go of control.

I get in the way! I have got to learn to do what God wants me to do and stop doing what He does not want me to do.  I need to be MEEK!  I seem to get this one reversed!  I don’t do what He wants and I do what He does not want.  I used to think that this meant that I needed to take my hands off of the steering wheel and let somebody else drive, but I think what it really means is that I need to listen to and follow the directions that I am given.  What good is a GPS if you are not going to listen to what the little man or woman tells you?  What good is God going to be able to do your life if you will not listen to and follow His directions?

You don’t have to be in control! You are never really  in control anyway!  Even when you think you are in control, it is just an illusion – because at any moment the next thing around the corner could be the thing that change’s everything!  Surrender control, not by throwing up your hands and doing nothing, but by listening for and responding to the still, small voice of God.  When you get to this place, you can’t help but to hunger and thirst for the righteous stuff of God!

Workers At Sweet Treat Alley - No that is not a mask Jim is wearing!

Have you ever been hungry? I mean – really hungry?  I mean so hungry that you can’t think about anything else?  The Bible says in Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.”

What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness? Before we talk about what it means, lets take a few moments to look at what it does not mean.  It is not about gratifying lust, accomplishing goals or satisfying ego.  Now stop for just a moment to realize and admit that this is exactly where we expend most of our energy on most days.  We have some lust that we are trying to gratify, some goal that we are trying to accomplish or an ego that we want to satisfy.  And the big problem is that day after day we give ourselves to the pursuit of gratification, accomplishment or satisfaction only to come up short and still looking for the something that is missing!  Come on and admit it – a lot of days we feel like a rat running on a spinning wheel inside of a wire cage!

God has something better! He wants to provide us with satisfaction, but it requires something on our part.  It requires that we be hungry and thirsty.  A hungry/thirsty person has an all-consuming passion for food and drink and that is it – nothing els matters!  A spiritually hungry person has an all-consuming passion for the right stuff of God and everything else is icing on the cake.  A spiritually hungry person is a person who has come to the realization that nothing else in life will do, if I don’t pursue God and His plan of blessing for my life.

What are you hungry and thirsty for today? Be honest with yourself and with God.  You may not be hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of God and that is okay if you will admit and do something about it.  If you are not really hungry and thirsty for the right stuff of God, then take some time to ask God to help you to get hungry and thirsty.  Seriously – take some time right now to ask God to help you to be hungry for more of Him.  Pray this prayer: “God help me to be hungry and thirsty for you!” Keep praying this prayer all day long!

Join me back here tomorrow and we will take a look at three steps that we must take to hunger and thirst for righteousness!  We can do this!

Daddy And Gracie Last Year At Sweet Treat Alley!

It’s easy to say that you are a Christian! If everybody was a Christian that says they were a Christian, then this world would be a very different place!  I believe that this world can be and should be different!  And this is why we have to stop playing games and get real!

Jesus challenges is in Matthew 5:1-12 to be different from the rest of the world. He challenges us to be:  ”Poor In Spirit” – this is humility that flows out of the realization that we are nothing without Jesus.  ”Mournful” – this is sorrow for my sin because I realize that my sin gets in the way of everything good that God has for me and this world that I live in.  ”Meek” – This is the gentle practice of allowing the Holy Spirit to control the power of God that flows to and through me.  Power without control is very damaging!

We can do this! You and I can move out of the natural and into the supernatural.  We need to take a vital step and it flows right out of the next Beatitude.  Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled! We will take some time this week on this blog to try and grow our hunger and thirst for the things of God.  I hope to see you back on this page tomorrow.  Until then, enjoy the journey and keep it real!

Sweet Treat Alley Is Just Around The Corner!

I love Fridays! Friday is the day that I use for catch up.  Friday is typically the day that I use to do anything that I needed to do during the week that I did not get done.  It is also the day that I take a final major look-over at what God has for us on Sunday.  This Sunday we are going to continue to work our way through Matthew 5:1-12 (The Beatitudes!)  We will be looking at “Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled!”

I am about to be as up front with you as I possibly can be. As I look at what God has for us this coming Sunday, I just want to say:  If you are not serious about being a Christ Follower, then you may not want to be at Northwood on Sunday.  If you have anything in your life that is getting in the way of your being a Christ Follower and you are not willing to face it and deal with it, then you may want to stay at home or go somewhere else.  It will not be a pleasant day for people who are playing a game that they call Christianity.

If you are serious about your relationship with Christ and if you are ready to follow Him in a greater way than you ever have before, then you will want to be at one of our two campuses on Sunday morning. If you come hungry and thirsty, then you will have the opportunity to leave satisfied and filled.

Remember to read through Matthew 5:1-12.  Take some time to think about what it means in your life to “hunger and thirst for righteousness.”  And join me on Sunday morning for an awesome and incredible time with the God who loves you more than you could ever begin to dream or imagine.

Riding A Bike Used To Be A Problem - Not Anymore!

You Gotta Problem? All God’s children got problems!  What’s your problem?  Take a look at your life!  Right now – in this moment – what is your problem?  Be honest!  It does not do you any good to lie to yourself about it.  Reality says that you are in a problem, coming out of a problem or headed into a problem.

If you are honest with yourself, you will find that your problem is going to fall into one of two categories: You have something that you need to get out of your life or you have something that you need to get into your life! And it is very possible that you have something that you need to get out to make room for what you need to get in.

This is why you need a plan! A plan can be a very good thing.  You just have to make sure that your plan includes God.  In fact – our plan should always honor and glorify God.  Whatever your plan, make sure that it honors God and that it brings glory to His name.  Another important thing about a plan is to make God’s plan our plan.  If you can figure out God’s plan and make His plan your plan, then you have a plan that you can do something with and that can do something with you!

God’s Gotta Plan! One of our biggest problems is we fail to stick with the plan.  Most of us know the plan and we know that if we will stick with the plan, there will be blessing and victory, but we have a hard time.  Our biggest problem is “Follow Through!”  We know what we need to do and we just fail to do it on a consistent basis.  You can’t walk without taking steps and you can’t accomplish God’s plan for victory and blessing if you are not willing for follow through.

God Rewards Faithfulness! When I am faithful – God will take me to where I could never take myself.  God has a good place that He wants to take you.  God wants to take your bad and use it for good.  Let God in.  Follow His lead and go to a place that you never could go without Him!

To help you do something with this, I encourage you to take a few moments to be very honest with yourself and God about the following three questions: 1.  What is the challenge in front of you?  2.  What are your options?  3.  What does God want you to do about it?  Now DO IT!