It is time for me to start living for and serving Christ more intentionaly. I can just amble along and do all the 'right' things and try to cruise into heaven in neutral. I am not interested in doing that anymore. I want to stand with my face forward and my heart engaged and advance in His direction, as He leads, and in firm determination to accomplish His plans for me. I have many things to be sorry for in my life, but I am confident in my Lord that He as accepted my repentance and sees me as His disciple ready to do His work. I have a lot of unfinished work due to procrastination and laziness. Instead of trying to go back and pick up the broken pieces I am ready for God to do a new work in me. With that in mind, instead of celebrating Lent as a liturgical practice, I am devoting myself to moving in God's direction for the 40 days beginning on Wed 2/10 (Ash Wednesday) and continuing through Easter Sunday. In this blog post I will outline my intent for the next 40 days, my personal 40 Days of Intent. I will memorize and follow the admonition of Proverbs 4:25-27 (NLT)
Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.
So, all that being said, this is my plan and sometime between now and Wednesday will likely become my commitment before God.
1. I will do a ten-day Daniel Fast starting on Thursday morning Feb 11 and will break my fast on Sunday morning Feb 21st. That means I will, with the Lord's help eat no meat, no leavened bread, no sugar, no milk or dairy products including cheese, eggs and yogurt, no liquids other than water etc. I will eat vegetables, fruits, protein powder, oatmeal, tortillas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown rice and attempt to make them as palatable as possible. I may even try to eat tofu. Lots of good recipes in the Daniel Fast book
2. I will pray every day. One day a week will be at least one hour of prayer for my church. I will intercede for my church, at the church.
3. I will participate in my churches Ash Wednesday service. I will fully repent and accept Christ's forgiveness before accepting the sign of the cross in ash
4. I will find a way to be of service above and beyond anything I am doing now.
5. I will do the War Room Bible study, the Prayer Warrior Bible study. I will finish the Prayer Warrior book (Stormie Omartian) and read at least one other book on intercessory prayer.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Monday, November 30, 2015
Jesus in Bakersfield?
What if Jesus was sitting in your favorite chair and you were sitting on the couch right across from Him? Would you feel free to talk to Him or would you be intimidated by His presence? Would you just wish He wasn't there? Would you be so over ridden with guilt that you would not even be able to look Him in the eye? Or just maybe you would be really happy to see Him and couldn't wait to engage in stimulating conversation .
Hold that thought and we will return to that potential conversation later . In the meantime lets just think about what would he the response if Jesus came to Bakersfield and was reported by Channel 23 to be walking down Ming Ave by Valley Plaza. Would you jump in your car and drive too fast getting to Jesus, or would you stay put and wonder what in the world Jesus is doing in Bakersfield? l fear that many of us would not get too excited about getting to see Jesus. l fear we would he harboring guilt over unconquered sins and would not be comfortable face to face with the Savior.
If he did come and l went to see Him this is the Scenario that I envision.
I'm standing by a tree as the crowd following Jesus makes its way towards my position. l am still struggling with whether l want to greet Him personally, since I was dealing with some issues l wasn't comfortable talking to Jesus about. As Jesus gets closer l try to get the tree to hide me. Just as Jesus gets in front of me He stops and looks right at me. Chuck, don't hide behind the tree, You should go home because I am headed to your house. I of course am shocked. I say ok Jesus, my address:... Jesus says, really Chuck, l know exactly where you live and I will be there in two hours to talk to you.
In my next post l will try to imagine how that conversation might have gone.
Hold that thought and we will return to that potential conversation later . In the meantime lets just think about what would he the response if Jesus came to Bakersfield and was reported by Channel 23 to be walking down Ming Ave by Valley Plaza. Would you jump in your car and drive too fast getting to Jesus, or would you stay put and wonder what in the world Jesus is doing in Bakersfield? l fear that many of us would not get too excited about getting to see Jesus. l fear we would he harboring guilt over unconquered sins and would not be comfortable face to face with the Savior.
If he did come and l went to see Him this is the Scenario that I envision.
I'm standing by a tree as the crowd following Jesus makes its way towards my position. l am still struggling with whether l want to greet Him personally, since I was dealing with some issues l wasn't comfortable talking to Jesus about. As Jesus gets closer l try to get the tree to hide me. Just as Jesus gets in front of me He stops and looks right at me. Chuck, don't hide behind the tree, You should go home because I am headed to your house. I of course am shocked. I say ok Jesus, my address:... Jesus says, really Chuck, l know exactly where you live and I will be there in two hours to talk to you.
In my next post l will try to imagine how that conversation might have gone.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Being a disciple in Bakersfield
What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in Bakersfield California today? That is how I choose to be identified but what does it really mean? Being a disciple when Jesus was physically there with you was exciting for the ones who were called during His ministry on earth. They followed Him everywhere, could get a hug when they needed one and benefitted from face to face teaching.
It is a little different today here in Bakersfield. For reasons understood only to Father God I was born in 1946, not 20 A.D..So I don't have the benefit of that physical, one-on-one contact that Peter, John and the others enjoyed. Jesus understood that long before I was selected to be here in Bakersfield in 2016. So in Acts 1:8 he told the disciples (those who were there with Him and all disciples for ages to come) ,"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
The Merriam-Webster dictionary says that a disciple is "one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another." So if I understand correctly, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ today I must accept the teachings of Jesus and then do everything I can to spread that message utilizing the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. That is the challenge and the mission should I choose to accept it. If only it were that easy for me. Stay tuned.
Friday, November 27, 2015
I don't want to be a Christian in name only. I have no interest in merely going to church because it is acceptable. I don't want to force myself to pray just because it is expected. When I decide to give money or food to the homeless guy at the mall I want to give out of genuine compassion, not because it is the 'Christian' thing to do.
There is nothing I have done on my own to deserve the title "disciple of Jesus Christ", yet that is exactly what I want to be. Jesus Christ traveled around the ancient Holy Land for three years establishing His identity as the Son of God, the Messiah and the Savior who was sent to repair the broken relationship between man and Creator God. Why would I not want to follow Him?
Because it requires commitment, that's why. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ involves giving up our pride and submitting our self to the service of the rejected, abused, tortured, killed and risen Son of God. Following Christ means that I totally surrender my desires to the will of God. It means I may have to make a decision to put myself into an uncomfortable situation in order to truly minister to a needy soul.
I can do this because I realize that the man who walked the earth teaching about our need of God, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind and raising the dead was not just a man at all. He was totally human and at the same time was totally God. He felt hunger, sleeplessness and pain but never sinned. He trod in sandals across the rocky countryside while at the same time slipping gently into the souls of those who accepted His message.
That is someone truly worth following. I want to learn to communicate for effectively with Him, worship Him with integrity, and serve Him faithfully. I choose to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
There is nothing I have done on my own to deserve the title "disciple of Jesus Christ", yet that is exactly what I want to be. Jesus Christ traveled around the ancient Holy Land for three years establishing His identity as the Son of God, the Messiah and the Savior who was sent to repair the broken relationship between man and Creator God. Why would I not want to follow Him?
Because it requires commitment, that's why. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ involves giving up our pride and submitting our self to the service of the rejected, abused, tortured, killed and risen Son of God. Following Christ means that I totally surrender my desires to the will of God. It means I may have to make a decision to put myself into an uncomfortable situation in order to truly minister to a needy soul.
I can do this because I realize that the man who walked the earth teaching about our need of God, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind and raising the dead was not just a man at all. He was totally human and at the same time was totally God. He felt hunger, sleeplessness and pain but never sinned. He trod in sandals across the rocky countryside while at the same time slipping gently into the souls of those who accepted His message.
That is someone truly worth following. I want to learn to communicate for effectively with Him, worship Him with integrity, and serve Him faithfully. I choose to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Oklahoma challenges
I want to lose a bit of weight. Currently at about 178 I want to be at 165. That means I need to lose 13 lbs or so. How will I do this? Pray, eat better, work out. Sounds easy, let's see if I can figure this out.
I am writing this as I am on the Amtrak train heading back to California after a few days visiting family in Oklahoma. I had a great time just being there but there were two extra's that I hadn't expected. Most importantly I went to my daughters church on Sunday (two services) and again on Wednesday to a Bible study where we talked about how to counter the current culture. I was also blessed to have some really good spiritual discussions with my daughter and son-in-law. In these discussions I was made aware that I really need to pray about what I am going to do about ministering within my purpose. I have a lot to say about that but I will save it for another post, since this one is about eating.
So, what did I learn about eating. Not a lot that was new, but what I did learn is that it takes a lot of determination to eat well.
The problem for me has never been not knowing what not to eat and what I should eat. I have always been able to plan my eating, the problem is eating according to my plan! While in Oklahoma I was able to do three things: 1. Observe my daughters family struggle with the same problem. 2. Have good discussions about what it means to eat well. 3. Participate in some really good, clean meals.
I learned from watching Lisa and Stephen that all the knowledge and good intentions to 'do it right' are useless if we continue to yield to the temptations of foods that are essentially destructive. Things such as simple sugars, white flour products, carbohydrates devoid of any thing that is truly clean and healthy. I am not going to call them out, but I will tattle on myself. Apple pie (4 pcs), ice cream (two helpings), cookies (three), white flour hamburger bun, apple fritter, croissant - you get the idea, I am not here to beat myself up too much.
Stephen has undertaken a challenge with his brother to eat clean and lose weight. So we talked a lot about what it means to eat clean. We discovered that this was not really rocket science. Don't eat sugars and carbs that are essentially empty calories with detrimental effects on your body. That means no candy, cookies, cakes, pies etc. Try to eliminate as much gluten from your diet as possible, especially of the white flour variety. Don't drink soda pop, sugared or diet varieties,, simply not good for you. Don't fry foods in oil. You get the idea.
As far as do's - healthy fats, healthy oils, chicken, turkey, lean red meats, lots of vegetables, preferably roasted or steamed, whole grain bread products in moderation, a moderate amount of fruit (still has sugar). Drink water for the most part.
See what I mean, nothing earth shaking there, just common sense. Now, I have already admitted to some of my not so proud moments of poor food choices. However, Lisa fixed some really good meals. Here are some highlights. From the grill, two racks of beautiful pork ribs - which disappeared in one meal. And the kids ate very little of them - I'm just sayin', there were some great bone piles generated. From the oven, roasted brussel sprouts with onions and bacon, roasted asparagus, sweet potato chips. I can't wait to get home and try some of this stuff on my lovely Debbie.
Also from the grill she did boneless, skinless chicken thighs which we had for two different dinners plus a couple of lunches and a couple of snacks (for me!)
So, two days on the train. I brought some healthy snacks but my meals will be in the dining car where choices are limited. I will make the best of it and then start when I get home to see if I can make better choices, be healthier and maybe lose some weight in the process.
I am writing this as I am on the Amtrak train heading back to California after a few days visiting family in Oklahoma. I had a great time just being there but there were two extra's that I hadn't expected. Most importantly I went to my daughters church on Sunday (two services) and again on Wednesday to a Bible study where we talked about how to counter the current culture. I was also blessed to have some really good spiritual discussions with my daughter and son-in-law. In these discussions I was made aware that I really need to pray about what I am going to do about ministering within my purpose. I have a lot to say about that but I will save it for another post, since this one is about eating.
So, what did I learn about eating. Not a lot that was new, but what I did learn is that it takes a lot of determination to eat well.
The problem for me has never been not knowing what not to eat and what I should eat. I have always been able to plan my eating, the problem is eating according to my plan! While in Oklahoma I was able to do three things: 1. Observe my daughters family struggle with the same problem. 2. Have good discussions about what it means to eat well. 3. Participate in some really good, clean meals.
I learned from watching Lisa and Stephen that all the knowledge and good intentions to 'do it right' are useless if we continue to yield to the temptations of foods that are essentially destructive. Things such as simple sugars, white flour products, carbohydrates devoid of any thing that is truly clean and healthy. I am not going to call them out, but I will tattle on myself. Apple pie (4 pcs), ice cream (two helpings), cookies (three), white flour hamburger bun, apple fritter, croissant - you get the idea, I am not here to beat myself up too much.
Stephen has undertaken a challenge with his brother to eat clean and lose weight. So we talked a lot about what it means to eat clean. We discovered that this was not really rocket science. Don't eat sugars and carbs that are essentially empty calories with detrimental effects on your body. That means no candy, cookies, cakes, pies etc. Try to eliminate as much gluten from your diet as possible, especially of the white flour variety. Don't drink soda pop, sugared or diet varieties,, simply not good for you. Don't fry foods in oil. You get the idea.
As far as do's - healthy fats, healthy oils, chicken, turkey, lean red meats, lots of vegetables, preferably roasted or steamed, whole grain bread products in moderation, a moderate amount of fruit (still has sugar). Drink water for the most part.
See what I mean, nothing earth shaking there, just common sense. Now, I have already admitted to some of my not so proud moments of poor food choices. However, Lisa fixed some really good meals. Here are some highlights. From the grill, two racks of beautiful pork ribs - which disappeared in one meal. And the kids ate very little of them - I'm just sayin', there were some great bone piles generated. From the oven, roasted brussel sprouts with onions and bacon, roasted asparagus, sweet potato chips. I can't wait to get home and try some of this stuff on my lovely Debbie.
So, two days on the train. I brought some healthy snacks but my meals will be in the dining car where choices are limited. I will make the best of it and then start when I get home to see if I can make better choices, be healthier and maybe lose some weight in the process.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Finding my inner leader Part 3
In this series of posts I have been exploring my desire to be a leader in my church in the area of prayer. I have determined that if I am going to be the leader that is required I must first become a strong prayer warrior myself. So that is what, under God's direction, I will do.
I see three steps that I must take in order to become a prayer leader:
First - examine my own life and make sure I am in step with the Spirit in all areas
Secondly - read and study, learn from other prayer leaders
Thirdly - pray for God's guidance and direction
Recently I saw the movie War Room, an inspiring story about the power of prayer and the importance of prayer warriors. I was so moved that I picked up the book and Bible study that are based on the movie. As good a place to start as any I'm thinking.
As I begin moving towards this ministry, I don't want to neglect the other two areas of ministry I feel led towards - fitness/health and personal ministry. For now I will focus my attention on prayer and that will be reflected in my blog posts. Now and then I will share some thoughts on a fitness/health ministry or personal ministry as God leads.
I see three steps that I must take in order to become a prayer leader:
First - examine my own life and make sure I am in step with the Spirit in all areas
Secondly - read and study, learn from other prayer leaders
Thirdly - pray for God's guidance and direction
Recently I saw the movie War Room, an inspiring story about the power of prayer and the importance of prayer warriors. I was so moved that I picked up the book and Bible study that are based on the movie. As good a place to start as any I'm thinking.
As I begin moving towards this ministry, I don't want to neglect the other two areas of ministry I feel led towards - fitness/health and personal ministry. For now I will focus my attention on prayer and that will be reflected in my blog posts. Now and then I will share some thoughts on a fitness/health ministry or personal ministry as God leads.
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