POWERLESS

I had a thought about step 1. Step one is we admitted we were powerless and that our lives have become unmanageable. First powerlessness in and of my self I am powerless over people, places, and things. The Bible tells me that when I became a Christ follower that the Holy spirit is in me. The same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. That is power! Imagine Jesus beaten three days dead. You seen Him hanging on the cross then taken down and placed in a grave. Then Imagine him coming back to life here is someone breathing in person standing right in front of you. You know without a doubt he was dead. Now here he is standing talking alive. Imagine being there with Him. You want to be with Him. You are with Him and its real He is alive. He is and He says all the power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. You don't want to be away from Him. Yet when we are powerless we are denying Him. We turn our back on Him and deny His power in our life to change us. So really we are not so much powerless as we are without Him. So to Have this power we need I need to be with Him not without Him. I think I can do it on my own then I am stuck in a rut of powerlessness and wonder why I cannot change what I am powerless over. I will continue in this state until I turn humbly to Him and be with Him then the power will come rushing in and I can overcome my powerlessness! He will let me continue in my mess until I realize I am without Him. Therefore producing the unmanageablty. Won't you turn to Him and be with Him and overcome your powerlessness!!
In Him Keith

All In

When I was first getting sober, I would have a problem and I would speak with my sponsor about it. He would say, "Keith, the problem you are having right now isn't the real problem." But then he might not say what the real problem was. He would allow me to come to my own conclusion of what the real problem was. If he had told me, I might not have bought into the solution to fix it. Most of the time I thought the problem was self-centeredness, which most definitely was part of the problem. But that stemmed from not going all in. You see, if you are not all in then you have reservations about all different kinds of things, most of them self focused. For example, what will they think or how can I get...    If you're all in then a lot of those issues don't exist, leaving you to feel God's peace. When I went all in I didn't even think those things, freeing my mind to focus on other stuff. Also, until I went all in I was consumed by these other self focused thoughts. When you are consumed by self focused thoughts it puts you at odds with God and others and invites many problems. So, 27 years later I finally get it. So, burn the ships. No going back. Go all in. No regrets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUc86gfzToU 


All in Him,
Keith

Imagine

Have you ever practice the presence of Jesus. While your praying or as your going through your day. Imagining Jesus is right there with you will change your life. It changes how you think about things it changes you attitude about things and helps you to be confident in your faith. He is there with you but sometimes I act like he not. What would happen if I acted like he is right there with me throughout the day. One way I practice this is by talking with Him acknowledging His Presence. Asking Him what He thinks I should do when a situation comes up. When I pray sometimes I reach out and try to touch the edge of his cloak like the lady in the story in Luke 8:43. It helps me to feel His closeness and makes my prayer more meaningful. When you know He is right there with you you don't have to worry at all. Just the fact that He is there with you overshadows problems and makes them disappear. I dare you to try it for 90 days and see if it doesn't change you whole outlook.
Pressing on into Him
Keith

THE MARRIAGE PARADOX

I've been thinking about the marriage paradox. I'm convinced that God loves paradoxes. “The last shall be first.” “Whoever wants to save his life must lose it.” “The meek shall inherit the earth.” And the marriage paradox seems to be one of the greatest of all. God said in Genesis that “the two shall become one.” When I married my husband, I stopped being an individual and became part of a whole. My identity is no longer in myself, it is in the union of the two of us. In fact, as a believer, I have two identities: I am a child of God and I am a wife to Keith. Neither of those are roles, they identify me. Yes, I have roles within those identities, but they don't change the fact that they define who I am.

We live in a world that would say I need to stop identifying as a wife and focus on my individuality. I have heard people talk about “losing themselves” in the midst of their marriage and motherhood. But by the very act of focusing on my individuality, I am actually losing my identity.

Here's the paradox. When I married my husband, we became one. That means that whatever affects him, affects me. And whatever affects me, affects him. If I spend my time criticizing him, tearing him down, and complaining about him all the time, I am, in fact, directly hurting myself. If I spend my time focused on building him up, encouraging his strengths, and praising the things he does, I am, by the very nature of our oneness, doing those things for myself. If I focus on the union rather than my individuality, I am actually strengthening who I am as an individual because the stronger he is, the stronger our union is, and the stronger I become. If I focus on myself and not him or our marriage, I am actually tearing down and destroying myself.

It's actually the same when it comes to my identity as a child of God. If I focus on God and my relationship with him, I become stronger. If I focus on myself instead of God I become weaker.

I once heard that the best definition of humility is not to consider yourself less, but to not consider yourself at all. That is my goal; to stop considering myself at all and instead focus on God, on my husband and children, and on others. I don't need to “work on me,” God will take care of that. I need to work on my relationships with God and others and forget about me altogether.

We are being seriously deceived by our society in this area and it is affecting our marriages and our relationships, especially our relationship with God. I challenge you (and myself) to spend a month focusing on your spouse, if you have one, and your other relationships and practice not thinking of yourself at all. Then see if it doesn't change your life.
Keep pressing on !!
Susan

The Marriage Paradox

                                               

I've been thinking about the marriage paradox. I'm convinced that God loves paradoxes. “The last shall be first.” “Whoever wants to save his life must lose it.” “The meek shall inherit the earth.” And the marriage paradox seems to be one of the greatest of all. God said in Genesis that “the two shall become one.” When I married my husband, I stopped being an individual and became part of a whole. My identity is no longer in myself, it is in the union of the two of us. In fact, as a believer, I have two identities: I am a child of God and I am a wife to Keith. Neither of those are roles, they identify me. Yes, I have roles within those identities, but they don't change the fact that they define who I am.

We live in a world that would say I need to stop identifying as a wife and focus on my individuality. I have heard people talk about “losing themselves” in the midst of their marriage and motherhood. But by the very act of focusing on my individuality, I am actually losing my identity.

Here's the paradox. When I married my husband, we became one. That means that whatever affects him, affects me. And whatever affects me, affects him. If I spend my time criticizing him, tearing him down, and complaining about him all the time, I am, in fact, directly hurting myself. If I spend my time focused on building him up, encouraging his strengths, and praising the things he does, I am, by the very nature of our oneness, doing those things for myself. If I focus on the union rather than my individuality, I am actually strengthening who I am as an individual because the stronger he is, the stronger our union is, and the stronger I become. If I focus on myself and not him or our marriage, I am actually tearing down and destroying myself.

It's actually the same when it comes to my identity as a child of God. If I focus on God and my relationship with him, I become stronger. If I focus on myself instead of God I become weaker.

I once heard that the best definition of humility is not to consider yourself less, but to not consider yourself at all. That is my goal; to stop considering myself at all and instead focus on God, on my husband and children, and on others. I don't need to “work on me,” God will take care of that. I need to work on my relationships with God and others and forget about me altogether.

We are being seriously deceived by our society in this area and it is affecting our marriages and our relationships, especially our relationship with God. I challenge you (and myself) to spend a month focusing on your spouse, if you have one, and your other relationships and practice not thinking of yourself at all. Then see if it doesn't change your life.
Keep pressing on !!
Susan

                                     

The Chase

Some people may see this post and think I may be talking Nascar, tis the season. But when I think of The Chase I think about the drive I had when I was in my other life chasing the buzz. I was consumed by it and every choice I made revolved around it. Everything from who my friends were to where I lived and where I worked and every thing in between. All had a focus and a motive behind it; the buzz. Nothing stood in my way, no cost was too great. I mean think about it, you want me to give you my money, okay... how about my family, okay... how about... fill in the blank, I would give it all for the buzz. Now I'm not using and what got me sober is my relationship with God: a daily reprieve contingent on my spiritual condition. So the further I get away from my last buzz, the less is my drive for what got me sober in the first place. MY FRIENDS THIS SHOULDN'T BE! And can't be if I want to stay sober. I need to chase God like I chased the buzz. Does every decision I make revolve around God and how I can draw closer to Him? No. What if it did? What would my life look like? Can I ever know everything about the God that created this universe? I doubt it. Can I ever fully understand the dept of His love for me? I don't think so. I think I could chase God as hard as I chased the buzz and could not come to His end. So why do I back off?  How do I let myself become complacent? Am I so fulfilled that I don't seek or so content that I forget what got me here in the first place? Or am I so proud that he pulled away from me and I didn't notice because I backed off of the chase? I'm not sure. But I do know it's not to late to start the chase again. I encourage you to do the same. But really, this is for me!! Keep pressing on!!
Keith   

Unconditional Love

Not much is needed to start a relationship with God. A simple belief can change your world. I used to think that I had to clean myself up to come to God. You know, stop smoking and swearing, and that I had to be perfect for God to love me. The fact is God loves you right where you are. Those things that you think you have to change for Him to love you are not in the way. If you had to change all that before you came to God, that would be called conditional love. God loves unconditionally, meaning He couldn't love you more than He does right now. Whether you clean yourself up or not, He still loves you. It took me a long time to wrap my head around that. I still cannot grasp the fullness of His love for me. But I will tell you this, I'm glad for his ability to love unconditionally because I would have never come to know Him like I do without it.

Taking it to the street:
1) Ask God to show you how much He loves you,
2) every day for the next thirty days.

Pressing on!!
Keith