10 Things You Wish You Could Change About Your Life...

If I were to ask you right now, if there were ten things you could change about your life so far, maybe it's things about yourself, your situations, your path in life, etc., what might come to mind?

If we could look at that colander in the picture above and label each of those holes with a thing we wished we could change, I don't think it would be hard at all to give them those labels.

Consider a way of labeling them under these categories: infirmities, reproaches, needs, persecutions, and distresses. Now, those come from verse 9 of 2 Cor. 12:9-10), "And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Think about that.

WHAT MAKES A PERSON DELIGHT IN THEIR WEAKNESSES?! WHO IS SO ABSURD AS TO REJOICE IN THE THINGS THAT WE ALL WISH WE COULD CHANGE?!?! I'll tell you who--Christians who understand this area of life. It's so backwards that many pastors out there are still preaching that God wants us to be healthy and wealthy and comfortable because they simply don't get it. Do you? Let that question pierce you. Do you? Do you get it about how weakness is good?

"How could a loving God allow pain in the world?" Well, you'd have to go to Genesis when Adam and Eve sinned by eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, the one thing they were forbidden to do. God cursed the ground and caused pain in childbearing for women because of it...let me just post the verses here while I'm at it.

14 Then the LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children in anguish. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will dominate you.
17 And He said to Adam, "Because you listened to your wife's voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'Do not eat from it': The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust."
(Gen 3:14-19 HCSB)

The question, once more, is "How could a loving God allow pain into the world?" The answer, in question format, is this: "How could a loving God NOT allow pain into the world?" Why is that the answer? Because pain and weakness draw man to God, and if God didn't allow that to happen, man would really never seek God or see a need for Him. God could never let a fallen world walk scott-free in their sin without giving them pain to realize their need. I need God--it's as simple as that. Nothing exists without Him; nothing thrives without Him; He is where our hearts desire to place their worship, but sin blinds that and we worship and serve things created things like people that we think are better than ourselves, or money, or idealistic circumstances, etc.

So, back to that colander picture at the top. For every hole, imagine it to be a weakness of some sort--somewhere that you come up short. Failure to obey God, overwhelming situations, grief, hard times, financially stressful times, etc. Bad jobs, bad bosses, bad coworkers, bad relationships, fall-outs with friends or family, childhood emotional scars, pain. We're like the colander because we wish that we didn't have those holes--that we were complete and lacking in no area. That we had reached a utopia on all levels and that we had no imperfections.

You want to know something? In this fallen world, God shows Himself no better to the world than through those holes we wish weren't there. He shows His grace best in our losses. He shows His strength best where we fail. He ALWAYS magnifies His perfection through those imperfections. Have you prayed to be more like Him? Maybe He's been answering your prayers all along. When we think wrongly about the grace of God, we only expect blue skies and pure bliss. When we think rightly about grace, those imperfections become places of joy rather than pain. God never allowed problems and imperfections in to make us feel miserable and depressed--He allowed them in to continually draw us to Himself, because we need Him and we're nothing without Him.

If you've never trusted in Christ as your Savior, I want you to think about all that you wished you could change in your life and how much you fail yourself and others in any given week. Those failures and imperfections are there to draw you to God, but if you never see that, you'll only look to find ways to ignore those problems, get depressed about them, get angry about them, or try to find ways to work so hard that you'll eventually be perfect by your own power. It'll never happen.

God gave problems to men the minute man sinned so that man wouldn't think he was above his need for God. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," says Romans 3:23. Every human falls short of the glory of God--every human is greatly imperfect. You don't need better self-esteem; you need a better understanding of the way God made you. Grab those problems and make a trophy room out of them, because those are the things that magnify your need of God the best. When I'm weak, then I'm strong.

THE ROMANS ROAD

1. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom 3:23)
2. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:23)
3. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us! (Rom 5:8)
4. If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation.
(Rom 10:9-10)
5. Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 5:1)

Francis Chan video- "Balance Beam"

watch this, it's really challenging!

Our God is Greater-Chris Tomlin (great song)

Success on the Blood-Type Diet

The pictures above represent me from some different actual holidays this year. The picture of me (bald) with my daughter is taken on July 4, 2010. The picture of me in the black shirt/pink tie is from Easter (April 4). The picture of me with the green shirt on is St. Patrick's Day (March 17), all three dates from this year. I hope the pictures speak at least a little of what I'm going to talk about.

I'm going to break from my norm here today with just a brief telling of a diet I have been strictly following for the last 3.5 months. It is called the "Blood-Type Diet" and if you're interested, you can find the books pretty cheap on Amazon.com, "Eat Right For Your Type", "Live Right For Your Type," and other books under the author Peter D'Adamo.

You will find a lot of interesting information, but you do need to be discerning with your reading. The books are filled with popular psychology and an evolutionistic world view, deductions that D'Adamo makes based upon his findings. Being a Christian, I have a very different take on his findings, though for those alone, you will find this very helpful.

You'll need to figure out your blood type for this diet, which isn't too hard--just call your doctor to find out what's on file, or order a blood-type test online for about $10. Your blood type is really important to know, more than you might think. Your blood creates antigens that can either work with or against the foods that you take into your system. The diet is plain and simple for the most part--there are foods that are beneficial for your blood type (they work like medicine); there are foods that simply act as food, and are ok to eat (just don't go crazy pigging out); and there are foods that are to be avoided which can cause your specific blood type problems.

My allergies have improved greatly since I started this diet; just today I hit the -30 lb mark in following this diet; I have greater energy, far less hunger, and a sense of fullness has returned (vs. eating until I was stuffed). The weight will slowly but consistently come off on this diet, though there may be some significantly long periods of plateau, but not to worry, this is due to your body resetting the glands and hormones within. Though you may feel like it's not working at times, it is, it's just changing inside, too.

I prayed many times to God to help me to find something that would work and that I could stick to. I guarantee you that if you follow your protocol, you will see lasting results (but don't expect 50 lbs to be lost in a month!).

If you have tried lots of different diets but only to your eventual burning out, consider this diet. You will have to learn to not eat whatever you want, but believe it or not, we generally only eat 25 different food items as it is!

My wife and I are both on this diet, and have been on it together for about three months. How did we make the transition? One of the biggest things was to go through our cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer and to get rid of all foods that neither of us could have. My wife is a type B, I am a type 0--and as far as I know, most kids are one of the two parent's blood types, usually one of the two winning out in their cases. Both of our kids are type B's. So my wife has lots of dairy products, meat, has to cut out wheat (though there's a brand called Ezekiel bread that's very much the same, more expensive, but we can both have it), corn, pork products, certain beans, some vegetables, no chicken.

You might be reading this and thinking, "there's no way." Well, it might seem hard, but the blood type diet will make sense as it supports some of those people who find success on the Atkins diet, or a raw foods or vegetarian/vegan diet, or the absolutely balanced approach. Blood types are very relevant to the success of these diets to certain individuals.

I follow this diet and do eat plenty of meat, fruit, vegetables, nuts, beans, olive oil, etc., and it really isn't bad at all. The thing about the blood type diet, too, is that it is a stepping in to a lifelong change, because you can't change your blood, and you can't really change how your blood reacts to certain foods. If you can make the change lifelong, weight and immunity and many avoidable health concerns could definitely be issues you tackle well. I can only imagine what one year on this diet will do--as Dr. D'Adamo puts it, it takes about a year to heal your body from perhaps years of lectin damage, lectins being the things found in foods that either assimilate with or attack your system (different bad lectins can attack different areas of your body, such as joint pain, weight gain, cognitive function, sinuses and allergies, etc.) I will mention that I still have some issues with my sinuses when I sleep at night, and I'm wondering if this is a reaction to some chemical in my bedding fabric.

Nevertheless, I have read this book fairly through, and have pretty much memorized my list of foods both good, neutral, and bad and stick to it fairly well. I will say, too, that when I do eat something that's an avoid food, I always, always, ALWAYS pay for it--it's pretty incredible. If you know your blood type, and just want to look at the lists, you can go to:

http://www.dadamo.com/typebase4/typeindexer.htm

It's much easier just to get the book--think about it, there's a lot of science to this diet, not simply hype. You will definitely become a healthy individual if you follow the prescriptions given!

P.S. This diet is probably more do-able, too, because you will learn why certain foods don't work with you, and I can't tell you how much that has helped when I've felt like caving. Even at that, following the diet will quickly draw you away from your past cravings. I fasted one day recently and found it way easier to do from taking a day off this diet than when I fasted and ate like I normally did. Did you know that if your blood type doesn't tolerate standard wheat products, it can inhibit the sensor that tells your brain you are full? I never "pig out" like I did before--this isn't a food deprivation diet(you don't have to count calories here), but it is a particular-foods deprivation diet, ok? Hope this helps and if you have any questions, just ask!

Praise God for Weakness...

(2Co 12:6-10 HCSB)
6 For if I want to boast, I will not be a fool, because I will be telling the truth. But I will spare you, so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me,
7 especially because of the extraordinary revelations. Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so I would not exalt myself.
8 Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away from me.
9 But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may reside in me.
10 So because of Christ, I am pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in catastrophes, in persecutions, and in pressures. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

"I Need Thee Every Hour" by Annie S. Hawks (the hymn)

1. I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
no tender voice like thine can peace afford.
Refrain:
I need thee, O I need thee;
every hour I need thee;
O bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee.

2. I need thee every hour; stay thou nearby;
temptations lose their power when thou art nigh.
(Refrain)

3. I need thee every hour, in joy or pain;
come quickly and abide, or life is vain.
(Refrain)

4. I need thee every hour; teach me thy will;
and thy rich promises in me fulfill.
(Refrain)

5. I need thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me thine indeed, thou blessed Son.
(Refrain)


I am so inadequate in and of myself...thank you, God. Were I to live this life forever, I would be destined for eternal failure apart from you. Thank you for my weaknesses, my failures, my short-comings, my times of distress and hopelessness. With every circumstance that I find myself inadequate in, you brand into me once again my ever-present need for Your hand to guide me through life and keep me standing. Make me ever aware that victory is yours and accomplishments are yours and righteousness is yours, not mine. I need Thee every hour, most precious Lord. Every hour.

(P.S. At the bottom of this page, you'll notice the song player. I do have the song "I Need Thee Every Hour" on the list by Jars of Clay if you want to listen to it, if it isn't playing already!)

When Truth Resounds in the Heart

Thinking about truth and its effect on my heart, my mind began to think about cymbals. Ever heard a cymbal crash? Most people have, and when the drum stick strikes the cymbal without anything to impede the cymbal's response, it is a resounding sound. If you were to hold your hand on that cymbal, it would be a simple "tink" sound--the sound just stops at the striking of the cymbal.

What kind of Christian are you? It's a fair question, and I think you could find out a lot about yourself in regards to your spiritual health by how much the truth affects you. The truth, of course, is God's word, and any derivative of it (i.e. music of truth, challenges of truth, devotions of truth, etc., all being inspired by the truth which is God's word).

How does your heart respond to the beautiful words of Jesus? Do you sing from the soul when you sing to God, or just from the diaphragm, (maybe just muffled tones)? Do you find yourself just breaking out in praise in the depths of who you are when you realize God's love for you? From my own experience, when I am not walking rightly with God, my heart is like the muted cymbal. Truth strikes boldly and all I do is go, "tink." When I get out of the way and just live as God wants me to, I find that the truth strikes just as boldly but my heart responds vibrantly.

I want to be more and more vibrant as the years pass by, don't you? I want to be able to hear any solid sermon and instead of being critical or falling asleep, I just want to resound with the truth. I want to sing with great understanding of a God who is above all and is worthy of all praise. I want to boldly step out and touch the hurting and lost with this vibrancy. You who are reading this, is this you? Do you want this? Cry out to Jesus from your heart today, just ask Him to help you in becoming someone who vibrantly resounds with His truth. This is where lasting joy is to be found, my friend. Not some happy moment that relies on appeasing circumstances to keep the mood. I'm talking about leaving the sunny days and stepping into life's storms and still having the same upbeat outlook.

Let me give you one challenge, too, that may be something to think about. For about the last three weeks, I've been reading one whole book of the Bible a day (pretty much just the New Testament for now). Most of the epistles would take maybe an hour at best to go through. Consider trying this, you would be amazed at what you would find and how you'd see so many connections and the flow of thought. You'd also start seeing why what was written was written when you know what the audience was going through at the time--you'd be amazed at the timeliness of God's message and the relevancy of it not only to them, but to you, too.

Today, ask God to help you obey, to be found living out life as He'd have you do it, and to resound with truth in ways perhaps you haven't done in years--maybe never. There is nothing more sweet to the soul than when truth resounds in the heart.

(Phi 3:7-14 HCSB)
7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.
8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness from God based on faith.
10 My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead,
14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.