Steve to Earth - Encouraging you the way I like to be encouraged.

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May Christ’s mission and your mission be the same

May you recognize your unique mission in this life. May it be clearly visible … fully understood … easy to grasp. May you pursue that mission with all your talents … all your energy … and all your resources.

May wisdom be your friend … a constant companion. May time be your servant … and you its master.

May your well be replenished … your battery recharged. May your cup overflow.

May you give to others as Jesus gives to you. May you extend grace and compassion to those He brings your way with the same generous portions that you receive from Him. May you love as He loves.

May all of your decisions join together in perfect harmony to create a Christ-honoring life that ends in a confident … successful … triumphant … “It is finished!”

May Christ’s mission and your mission be the same. May He accomplish His mission in you and through you as you share His soul-saving story with the world.

~s

May even your “downs” be “ups” in Him

May Jesus be your Best Friend when you don’t want a best friend. May He be your gentle, quiet companion when you want nothing but to retreat into your dark and lonely cave.

May He attend to your every need when you don’t have the energy or desire to attend to your own. May His grace abound when you need it most.

May He be willing … waiting … watching … for you … to come back home when your heart chooses to wander. May His kindness lead you to repentance … just as it was designed to do.

May the depth and the strength of your faith in Him make this blessing an unnecessary … meaningless … exercise of unneeded words.

May even your “downs” be “ups” in Him.

~s

Lead me gently back to You

God of my heart –

There was a time when You were grieved that You had made man on the earth, and Your heart was filled with pain.

I love Your heart. Your heart is perfect, and yet I know at times I fill Your heart with pain. I turn my eyes away from Jesus, and I look at the pleasures of this world … and I am enticed … and I hurt You … and I hurt me … and I hurt … and Your perfect heart hurts because of me.

I don’t want to hurt You, Lord. You never hurt me.

Lead me gently back to You. Discipline me, Lord. Correct me, but please correct me in Your mercy … and not in Your wrath … for I would be destroyed.

I am not destroyed because of Your steadfast love.

I have sinned against You and You only, and I am ashamed. Refine me, Father. Make me holy so that Your heart will delight in me the way my heart delights in You.

I love You, and I am praying through Your perfect Son, Jesus. Amen.

~s

May your pain connect you to His pain

May you learn from your pain. May it connect you to Jesus through paths that sunny days and cheerful moments never tread.

When you are rejected by those you need love from the most, may it be called to your remembrance that “a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin and in his own house.”

When you’ve given all you can give, and it’s still not enough, and it’s still not good enough, may you remember the pressing crowds … filled with endless needs … who sought Him from morning till night.

When the whole world is talking, and all you need is someone to listen, may you remember the moonlight on the mountain … and may you steal away to that quiet place above the noise of this world where our Father yearns to hear every burden … every care … every primal cry that bubbles up from your broken heart.

When the smiles to your face turn to whispers behind your back, may you feel that cold kiss of betrayal in the garden.

When those whom you thought were friends leave you helpless and vulnerable in the presence of your enemies, may you feel His loneliness as the disciples flee in fear.

When you are wrongfully accused by those who have committed the transgression, may you hear the angry mob cry, “Crucify!”

When you are underqualified … overqualified … and disqualified … may you recall that nothing … absolutely nothing … can separate you from His love.

When the critics and fault-finders work overtime to expose and exploit the chinks in your armor in efforts to hide their own glaring inadequacies, may His truths reassure you that your struggle is not against flesh and blood.

When those who have the power to build you up choose rather to tear you down, may you humble yourself in His presence, and may He lift you up … higher than any power on this planet can lift you.

When those with sin are jockeying to be the first to throw a stone at you, may He silence your accusers and set you free.

When the whole world is against you, may you remember that they were against Him first. Jesus has been where you are. He’s there right now … His wounded hand resting firmly yet gently on your shoulder … His heart beating next to yours. He’s hurting with you because He understands what it means to hurt in this world.

May your pain connect you to His pain. May it help you to appreciate Jesus like you’ve never appreciated Him before. May it help you take your eyes off of yourself and teach you to hurt with Him.

~s

May our Father create in you a beautiful garden

May our Father … the Gardener … come to you in the cool of the day. May He see your potential … all that you can become … and may His vision of you become a reality. May He lovingly remove the weeds, the hardpan and the rubble. May He amend and cultivate the tired and weary soil of your heart … replacing the compaction and the lifeless clods with a generous infusion of His life-giving blessings … perfectly blended to create a holy and healthy plot of ground … pliable, workable and receptive to the seeds and seedlings that He has anticipated planting there.

May the roots of His planting sink deeply into the reaches of your heart … gathering every spiritual nourishment and the living water that so generously flows when the One Who first dreamed of gardens delights in tending yours. May His resources supply abundant growth to every plant … annual and perennial … large and small … that graces your humble borders.

May His strength be the rock that lies before you … deflecting the heavy rains and the hail. May His love surround your tender growth like a blanket … nurturing each growing talent and gift … and suppressing the germination of every unholy thought … every careless word … and every destructive deed. In His grace, may He skillfully and judiciously pinch and prune each wayward branch and every unruly stem … till they grow strong and hang heavy with abundant, sweet fruit.

May you brighten your little corner of the world and bring great joy to the One Who thought of you … designed you … and daily brings out the very best in you. May you finally understand your purpose. May you rejoice as you feel the value you’ve always dreamed of. May you find your esteem in His smile of satisfaction … His nod of approval … His continual care. May our Father create in you a beautiful garden … where a beautiful garden has never grown before.

~s

Teach me Your song

Powerful God –

I need You. I need You more than the air that I breathe and the food that I eat. I could possess every great thing, but without You, it would all be nothing. Every day … every moment … every breath is a gift from You. Every fiber of my being is sustained by You.

You have composed my life, and what You have done is very good. Thank You for filling my life with song … with Your song. You are the Great Composer … the Author of song … the Creator of music. What a wonderful gift.

I love to sing. The composing of songs for Your glory and praise will never end because Your song never ends. Teach me Your song, my Father and Teacher. Fill my heart with Your words and Your melody, and tune my lips for praise.

I love to sing of You. I love to sing to You. Please hear the song and the cry of my heart because every song I sing, I sing of You. I love You with my whole heart. I lift these words through Jesus. Amen.

~s

Be it unto me according to Your Word

To the One Who sees and loves my heart –

I am amazed at how You work. As I read Your Word, I am thrilled that You use ordinary people to work Your will and Your way, for I am very ordinary … very sinful. However, You are bigger … and greater … than my sin.

I know that I don’t have to earn the right to be included in Your plan with fancy abilities. I just have to be available … wholly available.

Here I am, Lord! Mold me. Shape me. Use me for the glory of Your holy name. Be it unto me according to Your Word, oh Lord. I trust You with my life … with my future … with my eternity.

You have prepared a feast for me in the midst of my enemies. You have given me life. I give my life back to You. Only You can make it beautiful. Lord, make me like You. I’m praying through Your risen Son, Jesus. Amen.

~s

May Jesus be the end of your winter

May spring bloom vibrantly in your heart. May hope light your world with her warmest, clearest light. May the seeds of temptation, frustration and weariness find the soil of your heart too rich … too healthy … too full of life to support their greedy roots and toxic fruits.

May Jesus be the end of your winter … your first daffodil of spring … your daily resurrection. May He roll away every stone that would hide you in darkness … and entomb you in fear. May His pure, unselfish love dawn in your heart … dispelling the shadows from your soul and filling you with unquenchable life. May His love become your love. May His life become your life.

May your conduct and your conversation … in every encounter … and every exchange … today … and every day … resurrect hope in those our Father brings your way … a hope that surpasses the beauty of even the most resplendent spring garden.

~s

A little road trip for my soul

Take three vacation days … a road trip … a workshop in Oklahoma … Christ-like speakers sharing their faith … thousands of voices lifted in praise … smiles … hugs … handshakes … cold temperatures outside … a rekindled fire in my soul … rich encouragement to strengthen my relationship with Jesus … put it all together … and what do you get? A better Steve. Here’s just a little of what I learned.

» Salvation is about my becoming who I was created to be. Salvation is about my being transformed into the image of Christ.

» When I learn to listen, I will hear the culture all around me asking questions that the Gospel can answer.

» It’s not words that move the current culture. It’s images. I’ve got to give them the Jesus images. I’ve got to give them the Biblical images. I’ve got to give them the right images because they are living and dying from all the wrong images.

» The Man who died on the cross didn’t call me to live in safety. He called me to trust Him even when living for Him becomes dangerous.

» It’s a bigger mistake to treat wheat like weeds than to treat weeds like wheat. God will settle things in the end. In the meantime, treat everyone like wheat. Don’t assume that people who don’t reflect God’s glory aren’t interested in being wheat or in being in a relationship with Jesus. I don’t want God to look at me at the Judgment and say, “You pulled up My wheat.” (Matthew 13:24-30).

» When people are invisible or unimportant to me, I’m looking at the world … and at people … in the wrong way. Though both are important, it matters more how I treat those that I have power over than how I treat those who have power over me.

» Sometimes I am afraid to love the world the way God loves the world because I don’t want to get my heart broken … not understanding that out of my broken heart, God will raise up a new heart … a whole heart.

» I know Jesus wants the lost at church. The question is, do I?

» As a disciple of Jesus, I consume to live rather than living to consume.

» Experiences that people are increasingly coveting and needing are experiences of relationship. We have a whole economic system that is increasingly based on relationships. It’s all about the relationship. God didn’t send me more principles. He sent me a person. God didn’t send me a statement. He sent me a Savior. He didn’t send me more rules and regulations. He sent me a Redeemer who is Christ the Lord. I have exactly what this culture needs … what it is hungry for. I have been called to teach the Gospel in this culture at this time. Whether I like the culture or not is irrelevant.

» People aren’t the problem. Sin is.

~s

Growing closer to Jesus in Tulsa

I love vacation days … learning … and being encouraged to strengthen my relationship with Jesus. I really love it when those three things come together as they did last week. I spent three days at a workshop in Oklahoma, and the following is a just a sprinkling of teachings I heard that made a lasting impression on my heart.

» Salvation isn’t just about solving my spiritual legal problems and getting to Heaven. It’s about learning to live like Jesus here and now.

» Jesus was faithful to His Father while being in sync with the prevailing culture of His time. To truly be like Jesus, I need to do the same.

» If I am struggling with temptation and sin, and I have God in my life, imagine how much those who do not have God are struggling.

» Jesus put me here to heal hurts. If hurting people don’t break my heart, something’s wrong.

» Life is hard. Hard is normal. If courage required the absence of difficulties, none of us would live boldly.

» Every day that I’m alive is a special occasion.

» People repeatedly reject a message of good news if they don’t trust the messenger.

» Being real is not denying my struggles and my weaknesses but owning them and learning how to deal with them. Real church is a place where being me is okay as I struggle to become like Him. It’s a place where I admit who I am while I am on the way to who I am going to become.

» I can impress people from a distance, but I can only have a positive influence on them up close.

» Weakness creates unity, compassion and interdependence in the body of Christ. Arrogance creates competition.

» God has incredible dreams and plans for people that they’ve never heard of. I have to create an environment where those dreams can come true.

» My sin is what’s keeping the church from being what it’s supposed to be.

~s

 

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