Best Laid Plans

We have moved into a New Year. We almost always exclaim how rough the previous one was, and wish that the new one will be better. That is one of our fundamental problems. We WISH rather than plan. We are taught, and know, that God works via plans. How can we do any less.

Louis Pasteur said: “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

If God works in plans, and chance usually breaks in the direction of those who are prepared, how then should we view this break from the past? Should we just set some random goals and act as though they are “resolutions” which usually means we do not accomplish them?

2008 was a water shed year for Covenant of the Cross. Many things happened that built strength and commitment from individuals, families and the church as a whole. The economic downturn did not destroy, the election did not transform, but the grace and presence of God did. People stepped forward that had been prepared for such a time. In all that we had Christ Community Church merge with us, we moved and sold our old building. Huge changes for people to make, but they were prepared. Prepared people thrive whatever their circumstances because they see the power that carries them is not their own, but the Spirit of God.

This past week we gave every attendee of Covenant of the Cross a Spiritual Health Assessment – a Spiritual Annual Physical if you would. We asked them to check their health based on our shared covenants and how we balance our lives. This tool coupled with a growth plan that they select for this next year. We have turned the corner as a people in planning and preparing for spiritual life. God is not content with us just living by happenstance. That powerful lesson is something that has transformed the view we have of life. The most enduring part of the lesson has been that EVERYTHING in our lives is spiritual – from how we deal with people to how we deal with our career to how we deal with our wallets.

From taking our spiritual temperature to creating a plan to become the people God desires us to be is a powerful lesson. Hebrew Scripture, the Christian Old Testament, shares these words: “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”

God will assist those who plan and focus on walking in that faith to succeed. We have often failed to see the hand of providence in the things that happen in our lives, but there is always a plan to redeem and renew. We must begin to live our lives and plans within the greater plan of God and we will find the abundance and deliverance that will change our lives.

In Jeremiah God says: “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This week I pray that you are making plans to access God’s plan for you. Find a place of Worship and people that will help you GROW into God’s plan.

Blessings,
Pastor Greg

Complete Commitment

There is a story told about Ivan the Great who ruled Russia as Czar in the 15th century. He was a warrior, a fighter, and a conqueror of kingdoms. Ivan was so busy doing battle that his advisers had to tell him he had to get married and have a family so that there would be an heir Ivan said “I want to do battle and to conquer more territory, you go find a wife for me.”
Ivan's men found a wife for him from the daughter of the king of Greece, a beautiful girl. They said to Ivan, “We found a wife for you, but there's one problem.” “What's that?” he asked.
“If you're going to marry her, you have to be Greek Orthodox,” they said. Ivan the Great said, “Well, if you think she'd make a good wife for me, that's no problem, I could be Greek Orthodox.”
The Greeks sent tutors to Russia to tutor Ivan and 500 of his elite soldiers, everyone a great warrior. The soldiers required tutoring because Ivan said, “If I'm going to be Greek Orthodox, they're going to be Greek Orthodox.”
They tutored all these men in the Greek Orthodox faith and finally Ivan and the soldiers went down to Greece for the wedding. Before the marriage they had to be baptized into the Greek Orthodox church. It was an incredible sight as thousands of people came to watch Ivan the Great and his 500 soldiers all wade into the water at one time to be baptized by immersion into their new church.
500 soldiers with full armor and 500 Greek Orthodox priests were standing in the blue water of the Mediterranean Sea for the baptism, when all of a sudden the king of Greece said, “We've got a problem.” The problem was that in the Greek Orthodox Church you could not be a warrior and a member of the church at the same time.
So they held a hastily-called diplomatic meeting in the water to ask, "How are we going to work this out?” They came up with a simple answer. Just before the priests immersed the soldiers, each man took out his sword, held it high above the water, and allowed the priest to baptize everything but his sword arm. Thus the saying “the unbaptized arm.”

The reality is that this shows that there was not a COMPLETE commitment to the faith in which they were being baptized. To be sure, few of us compromise faith by withholding a sword arm because we are warriors, but many withhold aspects of their lives because they do not view them as being part of God’s Dominion. For most people it is God’s call to not hold back in other areas. We hold back in our committing of time to God. We hold back from giving to God sacrificially in finances. We hold back from giving to God with our talents and skills.

This week I pray that you will seek to Baptize your entire life to the God that has loved you and been merciful to you. What step do you need to take as we begin this new year to see God’s loop of Redemption, Renewal and Rejoicing grow in your life?

Blessings,
Pastor Greg

Forgiveness

I've been thinking about the concept of forgiveness, throughout most of the day. It's a hard pill to swallow. There are always going to be people who do you wrong or make you mad. Are there different levels of this that warrant different kinds of grudges? I know that holding a grudge against someone is never healthy...nor does it align with Christ and His commandment of forgiveness.

I seldom agree with the mindset of "fake it 'till you make it." Sometimes though, you have to put that in your mind first, before you can be ok with embracing it for real.

There are people from my past who I've harbored animosity toward. I've written them off and a part of me has even languished over them, to a degree. My forgiveness is a work in progress. I think most cases of forgiveness are works in progress. Even when you think you've totally forgiven, you sometimes need to revisit and recognize where you are, as opposed to where you were.

There's someone who's been on my mind and my heart lately. I was very angry for a long time. Slowly, it turned into apathy. That's when it festers and grows in your soul.

I'm beginning my process of forgiveness. I cried a little. It felt good a lot. I felt renewed. Through my forgiveness, I'm beginning my path to redeeming what had begun to fester and grow malignant.

Unforgiveness is not me. It never was growing up and I don't want it to become that, now that I'm grown.

Failing Forward

We have seen some Fabulous Failures these years. I am amazed at the way we like to watch a train wreck and the attendant tragedy and loss of faith that occurs. Whether we are talking Britney Spears or some Preacher on TV we seem to glory in another person’s agony, pain and failure. I think we like it because it takes our attention off our own failures.

I confess that the other day I watched the Britney special and had to feel sorry for her. She is trapped in a place where no matter what happens in her life it is in a tighter glass bowl than any person should have to withstand. If 50 cars a day followed you everywhere you would have a lot of stuff in the news as well. We have the luxury that our whole lives are not on the news/gossip channels.

The Fabulous Failures of Jimmy Swaggart and John Hagee are two TV Preachers that had very different outcomes of their failures. Oh, they both preach, but one has a restored reputation and one is still seen as a shell of who they could and would have been. John Hagee has gone through redemption and has renewed his sense of holy obligation for the family of God. While he has failed he learned from that failure and has moved forward. That is what we have to do if we are to become new creations in God.

So then how do we become a different person? Paul says that this is the method : So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: “Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

We can be renewed by our failures - if we use them as learning tools that can inform and transform the thoughts and habits we have. Paul is speaking of the way that God seeks our maturing and building up so that we can become the fullness of who we were designed to be. That will never occur if we sit in victimization, hurt, or entitlement. God has a great plan to turn those times that we fail into a new and powerful promise of the future.

This week will you join me in learning and renewing yourself in the failures that you have seen? Will you join me in renewing your mind with the greatness that God can teach you? If so, move forward and quit looking back with regret rather than lenses of the lessons.

Blessings,
Pastor Greg

Redemption

We rush around this world looking for to make the most of every possible moment. We cannot seem to sit in a moment of silence. We seem to think that we have to be always engaged and running or we are not productive. We want the future and we want it NOW. We are a people preoccupied with getting to the promise rather than enjoying the journey.

We are told that: “So, my dear friends, since this is what you have to look forward to, do your very best to be found living at your best, in purity and peace. Interpret our Master's patient restraint for what it is: salvation.”

Paul is speaking to people that want to rush God’s presence and force God to act in ways that they want. Yet, God is withholding so that what they do not understand can be accomplished. He is telling folks to quit rushing God because God will arrive at the correct time in our history to make the most effective impact. Paul understands that it is easy to say that they are trusting God when in fact they are trying to manipulate God to their way of thinking.

I was listening to someone the other day talking about trusting God to help them in their situation, yet they were so busy being worried about the fact that their reserves were not where they wanted them to be. In short, they said they trusted God, but trusted Bank of America more – since BoA could tell them how much the HAD rather than how their needs could be met otherwise. You see it is easy to say we trust God, when we really are trusting something else – namely the fiat or temporal rather than the hem of healing that will provide far more than we had ever imagined.

I do not think that we can easily dismiss the need for people to be reassured of their well being and also see a glimpse of God’s ability to redeem even our worst mistakes and failures. We can only pray that our worst fears can be allayed and removed from our minds and hearts. We need redemption more than we need blessing. We need redemption that translates into the future and promise that will transform us from the fear and failures that we have embraced to become the success and sensations that we were created to become.

This week embrace the promise of redemption so that you may become the promise of God in this place and this time.

Blessings,
Pastor Greg

The Three Rs

There is a Sacred Loop that runs through life. The current series is Redeem, Renew and Rejoice. We have often lost track of the sacred themes because we do not want to have a repeating cycle. Yet we all repeat cycles – the question is if the cycles we repeat lead us to better places – if so they are part of the three Rs above, otherwise they need to be removed from our lives (and yes that includes some people as well).

For many Christians we are entering the First Season of a Liturgical Year (a three R Cycle). It is one that is filled with expectation and preparation for the birth of the Savior. It is a way of celebrating life and possibility and needs to be done on a continual basis so that we are reminded and energized for the journey of life and faith. The season of Advent for us mixes expectation, joy, purity and proclaiming in a way that heralds the birth in both physical and spiritual forms.

Advent is important. It reminds us to expect to be Redeemed and Renewed in our lives. It reminds us that we are called to Rejoice in ALL things because they can lead to a renewing of the cycle. It reminds us that our expectations drive the actions we take that often determine what we do in fact get in return. However, God is in the exceeding Redemptive Loop business.

Patricia Neal tells us what God does for us in the relationship: “A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.”

If we are indeed made in the image of God we need to find ways to see our lives in the Redeeming, Renewing and Rejoicing Cycle. We need to find ways to make our actions part of that same loop. How can we learn to be redemptive rather than retributive in our thoughts, and actions? If we are created in God’s image, AND if we have entered into a relationship with God we are called to be messengers and managers of this loop that we find in our own lives. While God is at some level a master, he is also a partner in the work we do on this world. There can be no redemption for tomorrow without renewal occurring and without rejoicing starting now.

So, This week do not just rejoice if the Titans win, but rather find ways to see yourself in the ever moving Three R Loop of God!