I Am

There is one verse which gives me goosebumps every single time I read it or think about it. It is so powerful to me and sums of everything that is God. Maybe it is just me. This verse gives me a sense of awe and peace at the same moment. It is from the KJV in Exodus 3:14, “And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus Shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.”  In this verse, it is the five words “I Am That I Am” that touches my soul so deep.  I Am is so beyond my comprehension, so deep in meaning, but so simple of a statement. 

The God of the universe is beyond my mere human mind. I can’t grasp even a fraction of Him and His all-encompassing power and might. To me, when I think about this, I feel so very small in the universe, but I’m not at the same time. To know and imagine God created everything known and unknown to us, and yet still knows little ole me, puts things in perspective.  My life is but a whisper in the wind in eternity. I’m just a cog in the machine called life, but I’m still so important to Him. He knew me before I was in my mother’s womb. He knows me deeper than anyone else. He knows my weaknesses, my strengths. He knows what I struggle with and how I can thrive. He used this world to shape me into the man I am now and will continue to work my life until it is time for me to leave this world. 

As bad as I can be, He has never given up on me.  He spoke the universe into existence and yet knows my personal life and heart better than I do. Through it all, the pain, the suffering, the joys, and the peace I have and bounce between, He is here with me through each moment.  Sometimes, I don’t listen for Him and even refuse to hear Him.  He doesn’t let go of me.  As much as I sometimes pull away and push Him away, He holds me tight. Sometimes I lose trust in myself and when this happens, I lose trust in Him. He still doesn’t give up on me.  When I stop to ponder this in the loneliest of times in life, I am greatly amazed He, the Author of all, cares for me and my eternity. 

When I’m at my best, I at times forget He was there helping me and I take all the credit. When I’m at my worse is when I cry out to Him in the deepest parts of my heart and soul. I don’t feel worthy. Logically, I know thinking this way is a farce, but it still happens. It is in these deepest darkest times that God is holding me the most.  I love Him so much.  If I didn’t have Him in my life, I don’t know what I would do.  He sustains me. He lifts me up.  He brings those into my life that make a positive difference. My wife, my kids, and friends support me through God’s divine plan for me.  He gives me hope when I’m hopeless. He pulls me back onto the ledge when I’m hanging on by my fingertips. His amazing ways of Himself and using others, keep me going each day.

I fail a lot too. I mess up so much, but He is God and in His infinite love, He gave me mercy and grace through His Son.  Amazing. Unfathomable to me.  I don’t think I deserve His mercy and grace, but He does because I’m important to Him.  I can’t take a breath without His grace to keep me alive.  I let myself down a lot and feel I let Him down too.  He still loves me though and has never wavered in this.  When my heart is in the right place, but the rest of me isn’t, I can only be thankful for Him caring about me regardless of my shortcomings and failings.  He takes me back each time, never turning His back on me, never. I’m the one who turns my back and when I come back around, He is still there, never changing but always welcoming me. 

In 1^st John, the Bible tells us we can’t live in both the light and darkness at the same time. There is no grey area, no in between.  I can admit I am pulled by both. When I walk into darkness, I’m only to blame.  I don’t like it and I come back to God. And the cycle repeats.  I hate this about myself.  He still loves me though.  I can’t thank Him enough for giving me the strength to recognize the errs of my ways and the strength to come back to Him.  He won’t let me leave Him and I’m in awe of this because the Creator of everything is looking out for me and desiring me to be with Him in the light. God is the light I want in my life. He is my Father. My Good Father. He is I Am.  He still wants me with Him.

In the darkest moments in my life is when He manifests Himself the most to me.  No matter how ever changing my life is. No matter how chaotic things become. No matter how dark my sadness goes, God is never changing and I can hold on to this truth.  I am who I am, and God loves me for me being me.  Only God can lead me to Him. Only He can be the calm in my storms.  He is the foundation I can count on when nothing else seems right or stable.  He is real and He is good. 

Some of you out there feel or have felt the same way I do. For those of us who struggle (which should be all in one way or another), we have our Savior. He died for us.  He was the sacrifice for our sins, our shortcomings that separated us from Him. While in this world, we will struggle and we will never be perfect, even if we pretend to be so.  Be yourself, because God created each one of us. He doesn’t want us to pretend to be something we aren’t.  He wants us only to draw near to Him. Do this and the rest will fall into place. 

God bless you all.

Trying Times

We are living in trying times. Events wrapped up in evil are seemingly exponentially worse each week, sometimes each day.  These events can cause both excitement and anxiety.  I feel both. Yet, we must not forget that until the day of redemption comes, we still have to live our lives to the fullest for Christ while looking up and working through our daily problems, facing our own turmoil to survive in this world.

In John 16:33 (KJV) Jesus tells us, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."  Jesus knew we would face trying times, holistically as humanity, and as individuals.  He knows the world isn't our real home, but only a temporary waypoint on the way to eternity.  The world is fallen and yes, we are stuck in it for now, but we have hope of being saved from this planet when God calls us back home.  We cannot hurry this; nor can we do anything to change this. God works on His timeline and when what happens happens, then He will move to claim us from the world.

The world as a whole is going through spasms, as the unsaved and evil try to purge followers of Christ from existence, to extinguish our light- but again, Christ overcame the world. Even though we know this, we still struggle with battles to fight through.  The world is targeting each of us and uses our weaknesses and other pressures to distract us from our first love- Christ.  This can be challenging but... we can overcome and stay steadfast in our relationship with Jesus. 

Psalm 119: 134 (KJV), "Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts."

Followers of God have been oppressed by man for thousands of years.  It is the same today as it was yesteryears.  The pressure of oppression from man can cause followers of Jesus to turn from Him. Oppression is used by the world to keep us down, to turn us from God. Sin, temptations, idols, money, etc. are used as repressive forces to keep us from getting closer to Christ, and the things we face today are the same as those in the past, they just manifest themselves differently. Instead of Roman gods, we today have celebrities. We are tempted to seek the riches of these times like the past- we call them material things like expensive cars.  We are tempted by the harlots of today like pornography or other sensual enticements. Our forefathers faced the same turmoil we do today and because they overcame we can too.

We all face turmoil. Some more than others. Sometimes it is spread out and sometimes many barrage us at once.  Turmoil doesn’t go away. It seems to keep coming in some fashion or another, right? Maybe it is relationship problems with your spouse. Could it be finances? How about work- a mean boss? People treating you different because you are a Christian? Knowing we have these problems does not make them easier to face or deal with and the comfort of knowing this is all temporary in the scheme of eternity is difficult to grasp in the midst of our problems. 

Trials are just a way of life. We trust the Lord to take us from these problems one day soon, but what about the here and now?  How do we face the day and tomorrow (if it comes, of course)? Through the strength of God!

I won't go into much detail, but I face tribulations mostly from my health. My health is what it is. God in His grace and mercy keeps me going. When and if He heals me, He will at His good pleasure.  I used to be angry at Him, but I'm not anymore. I have good days and mostly bad days but what is constant in my life is God.  My health concerns may change in intensity and frequency, but God is the same today and will be the same tomorrow- loving and full of mercy and grace. I accept we live in a fallen world and with it some of us win the lottery of illness or something else, but God is still God. What I have learned over time is I can lean on God to get me through each and every day and His mercy is greater than my issues whether it be my health or whatever.

Again, we all face troubles. What I have observed, and through personal experience, is most of the disorder we have in our lives is self-inflicted.  We try to blame others, Satan, society, etc., but really- come on now- it is our own doing.  Satan didn't force you to buy the car you can't afford because you didn't want to be seen driving that junker.  The office coworker didn't force you to the hotel at lunch in secret. Yes, the temptation was presented, but you took the bait.  And now, you have chaos in your marriage and wallet is in the negative.  Satan or society can never make us do anything we do that is contrary to God. We do it. We have only ourselves to blame and we have to face the consequences of our own devices. 

I know, I know, we are Christians and are not supposed to accuse ourselves of failings, of the situations we find ourselves in.  But... remember, we are man, bound up in a fallen world and prone to sin, to do what is contrary to God. This is a battle fought every day. When we let our guard down, we are more likely to trip and fall on our face and blame our failings on something or someone else.  We only have the person in the mirror to look at for this.  If we don't recognize this, we can't learn, and if we can't learn from our mistakes, our relationship with Christ becomes stagnant at best or in jeopardy.

Wait.  You may say somethings are not our fault but other’s evil like being discriminated against because of our faith or being marginalized by society- we become victims of evil actions. Whether we put ourselves in a predicament or the world is against us, we can rely on God's mercy, but this is another article.

Look, I can go on and on about turmoil and troubles and problems but really how do we deal with them? First and foremost, we must tune our hearts and ears to the voice of God.  That little voice in our hearts from God needs to be tuned and turned up as to be an overwhelming voice of thunder.  It is hard to the whisper of a trickling stream in the forest but it is easy to hear the roar of a raging river.  We need to attune and train ourselves to have God's voice rage in our hearts and minds so when faced with committing a sin or putting ourselves in not-so-good position, or find ourselves face-to-face with evil people, we can hear the guidance of God.  We just need to listen to His voice for truth. God will not send us astray. He will help us if we allow Him to- just wait, be patient and listen.

We are living in the last days of this known world. Trials and tribulations abound. Turmoil is present and evil surrounds us. The only constant hope we have is the promises of God. If we hold the course, we will reach our destination. Regardless of what is happening near us or thousands of miles away, God is still God and we are charged to be His ambassadors to others and introduce Christ to those who need Him. The world is using the chaos and troubles of the times to wear us down so we turn from our foundational beliefs. Don’t be fooled brothers and sisters.  Stay true to God, lay your worries upon Him, and do the works He wants you to do to further His Kingdom.  

Taking a Break?

Taking a break?

You ever feel like you need to take a break from life?  Life can be a challenge. It can be burdensome at times. It can be hell as well.  It’s not my faith that I need a break from- not even close. It’s the world I’m tired of.  Society’s goal of snuffing followers of Christ from the mainstream to the outskirts of society is wearing on me. It’s like battle fatigue and I’m worn out from it.  Yet, I’m pushing on as you all should as well. The enemy wants to wear us down. Satan wants to grind us so much with this world that our fatigue will lead to surrendering our faith- not a chance. The enemy is on our backs unrelentingly thrashing at us day and night. We can take it though. We can fight him.

Satan is trying to thrust his spear into our hearts and mind to get us to give up, if not to only take a rest from our battles with him. He is relentless in his efforts. We need to be even more relentless in our hearts and minds.  We know the outcome of the battle- Christ defeats him, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t casualties along the way for those whom can’t stand on their own or have never been told about Christ.

There is the holistic battle with evil that we fight against and there are the battles we face individually.  Individually, we each have our faults and weaknesses the enemy will attempt to capitalize on. He will poke and poke at us until we either shut him out or relent to his ways and give up. Some give up by stating that they just need a break from God. What!? I’m serious. I’ve thought of it before but the intervention of the Holy Spirit fixed that. People can reach a steep hill in their lives and instead of conquering the hill through persistence and hope, they take a break at the bottom of it and can be lured to walk back the way they came to find an easier way around that steep hill.  The easier way is the wrong way of course. Satan will deceive those in this mindset into believing there is an easier way in life, but it is all deception. He will twist and turn anything and everything to get people into believing his lies.  He’ll put thoughts in our mind to tell us it is impossible to continue our walk to the finish line, there is no hope for us or it is too hard to achieve- you get the point.

We all are human and fallible because of our condition with sin. We have weaknesses, doubts, fear, and as with everything else, we do need rest. God gave us rest on the seventh day of creation. So we may think we should get a rest from Satan every once in a while, right?  Wrong! Satan doesn’t take a day off. Satan’s workers of evil, spiritual and human, don’t take days off. Therefore since they never rest, we can never put our guard down. Will there be lulls in the battles with evil, and ebb and flow per say, as we fight? Yes, and we can take short breathers to catch our breath.  For those of you who have done sports and push yourself when you exercise know what I’m talking about. You push yourself to the limits and then when there is an opportunity for a small break, you savior it only to get back to pushing yourself just a little more.  This is how we are to fight evil. Push, push, and push and then push a little more each time and savior the small ebbs of battle to savior the rest.  Now, to be clear, I’m not neglecting the rest we always have in God. He affords rest to us at all times in his presence. We can of course dip our cups into the well of God’s rest, take and knee and drink, but the battle still rages on and we must jump back into it.  We are to never give up. We are never to take a break from our faith- that would be paramount to desertion.

In Psalm 31:24, those in the faith are encouraged to be strong and courageous. Romans 12:12 admonishes us to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and always be praying.  Verse 12:12 brings about a good point of discussion. Patience is a lacking virtue in our times. Satan has used the world and society to keep us too busy. Because of this, we have lost our ability to be patient for things. We want things now, not later. Instant gratification is the name of the game.  Seems innocent enough but Satan uses this era of instantaneous information and fulfillment of our wants and needs in this world that we transfer this mentality to our spiritual lives. We have lost patience with our faith. In our society, when we face delays, we shift direction to find a quicker way to get a response to what we are looking for.  This mentality translates over to patience in tribulation by giving us an excuse of giving up easily.  Just as we want information and things right now, we too want tribulations to be resolved quickly. While we battle Satan, the battle may be drawn out deliberately because Satan knows that we want quick resolutions and if we can’t achieve them, we are more likely to give up and walk away from the fight.

We can’t give up. We can’t afford to walk away. Our souls and our eternal destination are at stake.  Walking away because it’s too hard or because we need a break is not the right mind set to have. Psalm 144:1 (KJV) tells, “Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.” When we feel like we need a break, when we feel like we can’t win or when winning seems like an impossible achievement, we need to remember that our lives are like being in overtime in a sporting competition- we’ve got to dig deep inside and hold onto that strength God has given us to keep going.

Notice that the verse says to teach, not to give. Some hold they will automatically receive the tools to fight without training. When taught we learn and with practice in conjunction with teaching, we refine and excel at the subject taught to us.  Not many people could be introduced to a calculus problem and be able to solve it on the first try. No, we need to be taught how to calculate the problem by going through the correct steps to reach the final solution to the problem. Same thing with fighting Satan. I’m not saying you won’t be able to fight right off the bat, but we need to tap into the strength of God and be patient when being taught by Him to refine our skills through prayer and study of the Bible.

If you keep the attitude of never giving up and never letting your guard down, you won’t feel like you need a break from the fight or from the faith.  God is our strength (Isaiah 40:31).  God is our power (Ephesians 1:19). He will never forsake us (John 6:37), nor will he place us in a situation that we cannot handle or cause us to lose faith in Him (1 John 5:4).  We can be successful in our battles. We can be the warrior God wants us to be. If we look at the short game, we can feel overwhelmed at what we will face. If we look at the long game, we know what the outcome is already- Satan is thrown into the lake of fire. He is defeated. He is squashed from our eternity with Christ.

What should we do then? Take a break from our faith because we feel tired of fighting for our faith in this awful world? No, I don’t suggest it.  Our faith and our eternity is more than our feeble need for rest because we are exhausted from evil tossed in front of us day after day. Not only are our souls are at stake, but others are as well.  If our loved ones see us step back in our walk with Christ, or if those that look up to us see us do this, we are giving them a bad example of having strength and hope in God. To some this is an undue pressure, but for me, I see it as an opportunity.

Showing strength and hope and not taking a break show the tenacity of our faith and walk with Christ. If you study the Bible, you know there are a plethora of examples of men, great and small, who held to their beliefs regardless of obstacles and continued on.  I know when I read of these people in the Book, I get energized and see my troubles and desire to just take a breather for a while very miniscule compare to the grand scheme and plans God has for me. This is the same for all of us. When things seem too tough or never ending, be assured taking a break from your faith is not going to solve any problems but will make them worse.  I don’t recall reading in the Bible anything that says to take a break from God. What would have happened with Job if he did that? What would have happened to the Israelis if Moses got tired of their rebellious attitude on the way to the Promised Land?  What if he gave up, threw his hands in the air and walked away to take a break from them?  I don’t want to know.

Don’t take a break from your faith. Hold fast to God. When exhausted from fighting against evil day in and day out, just remember all those in the history of our faith that didn’t give up, not even for a moment.  I’ll leave you with this from 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord (KJV).”

God Bless and be strong in the Lord.

John_lysaught@yahoo.com