Working on me

Overwhelmed! Ever felt that way? There have been times in my life when I felt overwhelmed by problems and circumstances, things in life that were happening at such a rapid pace that I did not know what to do. I understand that kind of feeling. But the overwhelmed I am talking about is when you look at your life and see the things that you want to change and it feels and looks overwhelming. Several weeks ago I walked into the garage with the intention of cleaning it out and putting everything in its place. As I opened the door I stood there and begin to think about where I was going to put everything and how I wanted the garage to look when I was finished. As I continued to look at it I became overwhelmed, needless to say the garage does not look any better now than it did then.

The problem is I have found myself in that same situation in several areas of my life. As I stand at the door of my life and look at where I would like everything and try to imagine it everything in its place it can be overwhelming. I look in one corner and see the man that I want to be Honest, full of integrity, loyal, loving to God and others, and many more things. But what I see seems to be so far from that. Then I look in the other corner and see the husband and the father I want to be, available, loving, good listener, and again many more things. And once again I seem to be falling short. As I scan the garage I see the corner of my life that seems to take most of my time and energy, I see the pastor I want to be, loving, merciful, full of grace, studious, prayerful, a good leader, visionary and more, and once again I fall short. And last but not least I look at my own relationship with God and see where I would like to be and where I really am.

I look at all of that and at times it becomes overwhelming. In fact I struggle at times with just walking away and leaving everything how it is because I am not sure where to start. Do I start being a better man, do I start being a better husband and father or do I start being a better pastor? And then once I figure that out, what now? How do I become better at any of those things?

I think in some ways we are all like this we all look at our lives and see things that we would like to change and yet when we see how much needs changing it is like looking a Mt. Everest from the base of the Mt.

What I am learning is this. It is only by God's grace that 1) I recognize that I need to change and 2) that I will have the ability to change.

Philippians 2:13 ".....for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His great pleasure."

What that means to me is that God is working in me giving me the will, or the want to, to work for His pleasure. The very fact that I want to be better means God is working this scripture in my life. I now need to stop focusing on what I have to do and start focusing on the grace that He has given me to change. I believe that it is God's pleasure for me to be a better man, husband, father and pastor. I get overwhelmed when I feel like I have to do it on my own. When I feel like it is all on me. The fact of the matter is that God is working on me to make me like Jesus, and in the process of making me like Jesus I will be better at all the things I fall short in now.

If I only focus on what I am not and where I fall short I will never grow but if I can look at what God says about me, if I can see myself like He sees me, it will inspire me to become what He already says I am.

When you get overwhelmed the trick is not to walk away, the trick is to remember what God is doing in your life. And that God is working on you. The theological term is sanctification...it basically means that I am in the process of being made like Christ.

So next time I am overwhelmed I need to "...Look to God the author and finisher of my faith."

Pastor Tim

Fairness

Wow, I did not realize how long it has been since I have been on here. I am going to try and put some thoughts down before I walk into service.

I was talking with someone the other day and in the course of the conversation they made the remark, "That is not Fair!" The remark was made in response to the way I handled a situation. It was clear that this person thought things should have been handled in a different manner. At the time I tried my best to explain my logic to them and I am not sure if I helped the situation or not. I walked away and as I so often do I began to think of all the things I could have said or should have said. While thinking about it I began to think about grace.

I have come to the realization that I really don't want fairness in my life. Sure I want to see others "get what is coming" when they hurt me or someone I love. Sure I feel the need for revenge, sure I at times become mean in my pursuit of justice. But when it comes to me and my faults and failures why can't everyone see that I am just human and that, although I am saved, I am still being perfected and as the old Sunday School song says, "He's still working on me."

The fact is when I feel the need for revenge and justice what has just happened is that I have forgotten the grace and forgiveness I have been given. The question that I am learning to ask myself is, "Where is "fairness" in the gospel?" When I look at the gospel I see something that is unfair, it is so unfair that at times it is hard to really believe it and grasp it. You see the gospel tells me that God came in flesh and became my substitute. The Bible says that "He that knew no sin became sin..." What is fair about that? what is fair about a man, a God-man, taking my place because I could not atone for myself?

That same scripture goes on to say, not only did he become sin for me but He became my sin, "so that I might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus." Not only did He become my sin but He gave me His righteousness. Again I ask, What is fair about that?

I really don't want fairness, because if God was fair I would be in serious trouble. What I need to remember is that because God has not been fair with me, I in turn need to be unfair to others. I think that is at the heart of learning to love like Christ loves. Can I be unfair with them?

I once heard someone say, "It is not fair that because one man sinned along time ago I am born a sinner....." My response, "It is not fair that because one man died along time ago that I am made righteous."

There is much more that I could post on this thought But I really must get ready for service.

Until The Whole World Hears,

Pastor Tim