Monday, April 8, 2013

I have changed locations Please update any bookmarks

I have changed the web location for my blog,  please update  any bookmarks.  The new location is:  thechurchofhardknocks.com
Thanks,
Steve

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Am I a Schizophrenic?... Or am I?

  Today we are going to take a brief glimpse at what may first look like spiritual schizophrenia. 
 In John 17:21 Jesus prays, "That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me."
  There is so much in this verse, lets start to look at it and see how far we get.  For you math majors... J+F=F+J (Jesus in the Father=the Father in Jesus) and  F+J+DR=U+J+F  (Father in Jesus and His Death and Resurrection=You in Jesus in the Father)  Jesus in the Father and the Father in Jesus...  Argg! Mind melting! Brain freeze! Overload! Overload! What?  How is that even possible?  I don't know or even can come close to understanding it (that's the reason for the brain overload).  However, there is more.  Remember the verse: "...my Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him"?  So, not only are you in Jesus and the Father, but the Father and Jesus are in you!  But wait, there is more... the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all there (F+J+HS+U)!  Four of you, all in the same space!  What chance does the old man or the devil have?  That is where the problem may be.  Are you as much in Them as They are in you (or vice versa or versa vise)?  I have found that the more I pursue after Him, the more He is pursuing me!  There is a verse in James that puts it this way:  Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.  Being double minded is a limiter in the kingdom of God.  There is a blessing in being single minded, and that blessing is the opportunity to draw near to the Father that lets Him pursue after you!  Is it manifesting yourself in His presence or Him into yours (He in you, you in Him)? I am not sure which is best, so lets go for both!  Look again at John 17:21.  After we get the whole me in Him and Him in me manifesting... "that the world may believe that You have sent Me."  It is relationship evangelism, but it is because the world will see God in me and because I can not hold all of Him, He will leak out upon others that I come in contact with.  In the book of Acts the religious hierarchy of the day noted this of the the disciples: "That they had been with Jesus" or (because of the whole F+J+DR=J+F+U) that the disciples had been with the Father.  Oh my!
  So how do you do this whole F+J+U=U+J+F thing?  I am not going to tell you!  You need to explore it yourself.  I will tell you that it may take an investment in time, you'll probably have to go beyond where you currently are, learning to worship Him more and maybe even learning to be still and letting Him minister to you personally.  Go and draw nigh unto Him for your own sake and see what happens!


If you want an email alert to my latest blog posts, please email me at smbutler@outlook.com  or any other way you contact me and give me your email address.  You'll stay up to date and  just maybe get a smile on your face and Jesus stronger in your heart. There is also an email button on the right side of my blog for contacting me.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Tales from the Woods 3 AKA Scared Spitless and other Bodily Dysfunctions

In past blogs I have talked of my youthful dislike of suspense and yes, I still avoid scarey movies.  Is it nurture or nature?  I am not sure.  Some of my kids were/are the same way.
  When our family would watch a movie (as opposed to a stillie) as soon as a little suspense happened, the key word being-- little, we would see one or more of them leave the room, with little heads peering around the corner when they deemed it safe enough to come back.  As a boy, I would go to Boys Brigade at our local church.  It would often end in the dark, leaving me to run home down uninhabited streets.  These were not your normal streets, they were dark, very dark  (to the point of hardly being able to see the road or the woods that were on either side) and there were hands that were reaching out to grab me at anytime.  The worst, however, were the people that would chase me with the axes!  When people say "Don't run towards the light!", don't believe them.  Our little porch light was the only thing that saved me... and did so more than once.  Don't ask me how I know, I just do.  Thank God it never burned out at the wrong time.
Does growing up in a calm and peaceful home make people avoid dramatic situations?  I don't know.   You can still startle me, by jumping out from behind a vehicle in the extreme dark and yelling, sometimes done by a certain wife (I'll try not to take a swing at the mad attacking beast but, no guarantees).
  Ever been out for a walk in the woods or deer hunting, being as quiet as you can, only to have a rabbit or pheasant jump up or take flight right at you feet?  Most of the time you'll lose a few heart beats or sometimes a pint or two. You are deer hunting after all,  so I am not sure why all other game needs to wait till I am ready to step on them to move.  Maybe they are just taunting me.  One day I had a long and uneventful excursion (except almost getting lost in the middle of a swampish environment in the U.P. with only taverns and long empty stretches of roads around, nobody in the bars, mind you) and was a little later than normal getting back to camp.  It was pitch dark (just a side question or two: who pitches dark anyway? You can pitch a ball, pitch an idea, even pitch a tent but dark? Is this the only instance of us using the word pitch in regard to oil anymore?) Anyway, I even couldn't see a hand in front of my face, given the circumstances if I could see it, it probably would have had an axe in it. All I could see was just at my feet and maybe a foot or two beyond.  Bears, wolves, wolverines, skunks, porcupines (oh my)... you never knew what was right around the corner (possibly the ax murderer that chased me as a kid). Was I on the right path? Was I going the right direction on the "right path"?  It couldn't be worse... I guess there could have been two axe murderers after me.  Actually, the fact is, it wasn't what was ahead... but to my right about 20-30 feet away...  Suddenly before I realized what happened, my skin left my body as I eagerly tried to catch up and catch it!  Boots? No they were left far behind!   (They say the largest organ in the body is your skin, even being so large it was nearly impossible to grab, seeing it had a good head start on the rest of me.  If it had been my liver, heart or any other of the smaller organs, I for sure wouldn't have had a chance of catching them.)  As it turned out it was just a deer HOOTING!/HUFFING!  IN MY EAR!  Well it did seem so anyway.   Here is what I heard except my deer was a lot louder and scarier!

Sometimes our current circumstances, or thinking or deceptions or even the blindness of our own perceptions limit us or overwhelm us and the next problem  or "startling"  that comes can set us off.  Losing bits and pieces of our sanity or minds (not to mention bodily fluids). "This Christianity stuff doesn't work!" or "I can't do this anymore!"  or "I'll never measure up!" or "I've had it up to HERE!" But...  You wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You: because he trusts in You. Where is your mind located?  What anchors your thinking? What do you dwell on? (the majority of your thoughts).  Is it on the problem or the problem solver?

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

In Relation to What?

  Relationships are funny things and never the same.  They move and shift; you might even say relationships evolve.  The parent/child relationship is a good example, starting with the parent being totally essential and wanted by the child, gradually shifting in the mid to late teens, where parents are sometimes rejected, ignored and viewed as unnecessary.  Sometimes, late in the parent's life the dependance can become totally reversed.
   Some relationships are dealt with and adjusted daily, others are for short periods (like at work where people come and go).  Other jobs require a lot of intensive interaction -- like a doctor dealing with an ongoing or intense malady or a construction worker that does a couple-month long project in your home and leaves or others that last for years and develop into long term relationships.  Male/female relationships can be intense and intimate, only to end in bitterness and betrayal.  We all have friends (really acquaintances) in clubs and churches that require little to no maintenance, because you may only see them an hour or two a week or month.   I cringe when I hear of couples that separate with one leaving to move to another state for work, or missionaries where one is gone for months to years at a time. 
  Maintenance is a key component to any relationship.  It is checking and keeping feelings, thoughts and emotions in check, shifting with the ebb and flow of each others changes and challenges.  If you are in an intimate relationship and have not changed and adjusted yourself, chances are that relationship is not as intimate as it used to be and possibly it doesn't exist anymore.  Change is inevitable, get used to it.
   We are designed to have a relationship with our God.  It is to be a growing and ongoing thing that evolves and changes.  All too often that relationship is stifled or dormant and is basically the same as it was from inception.
  Jesus put it this way, "... and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."
  A disciple then asked,  "How will you manifest yourself to us?"
  Jesus answered, "If a man love me, he will keep my words, my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."
  Here is the SMB translation of these verses,  "When somebody starts to pay attention to My words: to remember, think about and even do them, it shows they love me and I will reveal more of Myself to him and We, all three of Us, will love him and will come and make him Our residence (become intimate roommates with him)."
  What is your relationship frequency level?  Yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly or even more frequently?  Too often the verse in Revelation that says "Look and see, I stand at the door and knock"  is interpreted as Jesus trying to get into the unbelievers heart, but it actually is addressed to believers, even believers that He has made HIS home with and He has become locked out of!  Has He become locked out because of neglect? wrong choices? or maybe someone has changed the locks!

Friday, March 1, 2013

I Believe, I Think...

My friend Dan Erickson has been writing the ABCs of faith, here is one of his posts on believing.
"B--Believe: Most of us know we need to believe in God.  Too often we confuse thinking or feeling that God exists with believing He exists. To believe in something is to put your trust in it completely.  If I believe that Ford trucks are the best out there, I don't buy a Chevy... I buy a Ford because I BELIEVE in them, not just that they exist.  Real, saving belief completely trusts in God and the finished work of His Son Jesus on the cross as a satisfaction for our sins. Real belief puts all our eggs in one basket, so to speak. A BELIEVER is one who trusts so strongly that the result is obedience."

Thinking or feeling that something may be true is different than believing it.  Believing calls for an action.  Have you ever had a thought or feeling that something bad was going to happen, but went ahead with the trip or whatever anyway?  I have and it turned out fine.  When you believe it, you change your plans!  I have done this also.  I have had construction jobs that I "felt" something was not right with the person I was about to do the work for and it worked out fine.  Then other times I have refused jobs because of a "strong conviction" that something was wrong, to find out later the next person who did the job was sorry he took the job.  Believing calls for action.
  What is it that you believe?  Are you acting on it or are you just acting? 


If you want an email alert to my latest blog postings, please email me at smbutler@outlook.com  or any other way you contact me and give me your email address.  You'll stay up to date and  just maybe get a smile on your face and Jesus stronger in your heart. There is also an email button on the right side of my blog for contacting me.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Tales from the Woods 2

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan (from this point on referred to as the U.P. or just U P or even 'the place with nothing but trees and bars' and not the southern type of bar that has 4 legs and cantankerous, especially when with cubs) is a wonderful place to hunt.  The woods are full of trees, trees and more trees.  Sometimes you will see rabbits, wolves, squirrels, mice and even an occasional porcupine.  Deer? No, not really all that common, they usually stay out of the woods, where the hunters are, and run up, down and across the roads hoping to either find that elusive tender piece of browse or see how many motorists they can get to soil their pants as they play Dodge Car each night.  The U P has annually been near the top in numbers of deer road kills in the US, which is something considering no one lives there.  There must therefore be a definite lack of teaching going on.  I am not sure who is teaching the finer points of Dodge Car, they must be tenured though, because I have never seen any improvement in the road kill numbers.  You say "Steve, Steve, deer aren't that smart! They could never learn."  What they have paid attention to while being taught has served them pretty well. It seems that they may have ADD (Academic Deer Disorder) which prevents them from learning new tricks. Some have ADHD (Academic Deer Hunter Disorder). These deer are usually pretty easy to spot as they are the ones that take rides in the back of pickups or tied down on the trunk of cars. If you think deer aren't all that smart, I would like to see you put on a brown fur coat and a put of big set of antlers on your head and go out each day during hunting season and not get shot! 
  Many "believers" also have ADHD  (Another Damn Hearing Disorder).  Some of you are balking right now unable to get passed the "D" word.  "Its swearing!" No its not! Swearing involves taking an oath.  "Its cussing!"  All I am going to say for now is either get over it or forgive me (I just reread my Hypocrisy of Words 1,2&3  posts and can see another one coming).
Jesus often put it this way,  "He that has ears to hear...", if you don't have ears to hear, it may well damn you. Selah   (stop, think and ponder for awhile)
James 1:19  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
Along with the ADHD that many have, they also have the "Yeah But Disorder" (YBD).  They didn't really want to hear and they were quick with their YBD response, "Yeah,but..." (when someone does this they generally have just dismissed everything that was just said and are about to show you their right way). You really can never learn if you if you are slow to hear but quick to respond.  A ponderer is a good student and learner.  Be a ponderer and not a deer.

Friday, February 22, 2013

To be or not to be (feeling Shakespearean)

 In my last post I wrote a  line.
 It is on your palms.
 It is sometimes in TV shows.
 Sometimes used in rescues.
 It is a life line.

 There are areas in our life that we have no control over.  Your height (unless you decide to lop yourself off at the knees).
 Your eye color (unless you get them tattooed).
 Who your parents or kids are.
 Where you were born.
 To a great part what other people do.
 But there is one thing that you do have control over and that is YOU!
 The line I wrote was "Life will be as boring as you allow it to be."
 If you are grumpy, Misery will be your companion.
 If you are a liar, Deception will be your best friend.
 If you are an optimist, good things are around the corner.
 Etc.

  If there are areas you want changed, do it!  A lot of your life is determined with the small attitudes that you have learned to live with.  Small adjustments can make a big difference.  Capturing that thought, before it influences your future actions can make a big difference.  Learn small actions and/attitudes to make your way pleasant.
"But I can't change them, I've tried."
 Then, this is where the Father can and will come and help you.  As I learned to sit still and live with His precious presence around me, anger fell off me and joy came.  I went through bouts of laughter and I am sure I looked quite insane to some, but it made a eternal change in me. (In His presence is fulness of joy and that is a lot!  You talk about a real LOL!).  Many never realize the scope of the verse that says " it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" and all that goes with it.  Don't sell your Father short or underestimate  His love and what He is willing to do for you.  If, as another verse says, He gave us His Son shall he not ALSO freely give us all things?
 Don't get me wrong, if I chose to, I could go back and embrace anger.  I could do it and get a whole lot worse by my decisions.  Life is one BIG choice after another.  What small choices you make each day start to add up to a much larger sum (attitudesxattitudes+choicesxchoices=yourlife).  How you will react to situations... will you forgive or choose bitterness or murder, those are big decisions that will set you and others down a path that will make you and others make more choices.  The answers are in the Father.  "I lay out before you life and death.  Please for your own good choose life"