Building Obedience

What are the things you are currently building into your life? What habits and daily activities are apart of and developing? What aspects of your character are you focused on and aware of? All of us, are building something into our lives daily. What are you building into your life?

“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? 47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. 48 It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. 49 But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.” (Luke 6:46-49, NLT)

The main point of this text in Luke 6, in this teaching by Jesus, is this word called obedience. It's not enough to just hear the Word of God and call Him Lord...we must also obey the Word and do what He says. Obedience requires action on our part. Building obedience into our lives teakes work and effort.

So in order to be obedienct, we must first learn the basics. Do you remember the movie, Karate Kid from the 80's? The character in the movie, "Daniel-Son", became frustrated with the tasks he was asked to do. However he needed to learn the basics. (Watch a great clip of this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aYl7N0JPWs)

The verses in Luke 6 talk about the basics of building a home. Why would anyone build a house without a foundation? Perhaps to save time or to avoid the work. Maybe it is easier to just join others who have skipped the basics and have already built their home in the sandy areas? Maybe it's because they haven't heart about the potential of violent storms? Whatever the case may be, those with no real foundation, or weak foundations - those who skipped the most important, yet basic task of building the right foundation, will be sorry.

The foundation of your soul & mind is made up of what is most important to you.

Obeying God is like building a house on a strong, solid foundation. When life is calm, when it is easy, our foundations don't seem to matter. However, when problems come along, that is when what is most basic, and most important, the foundation - it is tested.

The foundation of your sould & mind is made up of what is most important to you. Don't become too busy to build into your life things that truly matter. We need to be sure that our life is build on the solid foundation of the Lord. Don't ever stop pursuing the most basic, important thing in life...and obedient relationship with God. Build up for yourself a solid foundation of knowing and trusting Jesus.

God is offering each of us amazing blessings from our obedience - but we must choose just that, obedience untio Him. All of us are building something...what are you building into your life?

Loving Your Enemies

Have you ever hated someone? Despised them? Have you ever been so mistreated & hurt by someone that you burn with anger against them and/or their actions? Most of us at some point in our lives could answer yes to any (or maybe even all) of these questions. Some of these people we struggle with are family members or co-workers, neighbors or even our friends.

The Jewish people despised the Roman Empire and the Roman authority in thier lives because of the oppression they felt. They were God, Yahweh's, people and the Romans treated them very poorly. When Jesus began his teaching ministry, one of the cultural problems of the day that he addressed was this very issue of hate and anger.

Jesus had a radicle message that was different than many other teachers of the day. Jesus told the people, God's people, to love these enemies.

But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. Do to others as you would like them to do to you. “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return. “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. (Luke 6:27-36, NLT)

And this message is still true for us today but it makes me ask the question: loving your enemies...what does this mean? As I read through this teaching of Jesus I see one concise truth: loving your enemeies means acting in their best interest. To pray for them...to help them. Jesus asks those who chose to follow to follow His example by loving our enemies. This teaching of Jesus was radical even then and for those of who choose to follow His example now, this teaching calls us to be radical in our love to those we have the hardest time loving.

It is through loving and praying for our enemies, we can overcome evil with good. It is the basic principle of "give what you want to get" really. Yet it is deeper than than that - for when we show love towards our enemie we will show that Jesus is Lord of our lives. But to do that, we have to be fully surrendered to God.

Verse 36 calls us to compassion. How do we show compassion? We can show it in character, holiness, maturity, and love.

Character: We cannot be perfect. But, we can try to be as much like Christ as possible. Often, since we know we won't ever be totally perfect we end up not trying as hard as we ought to be more like Christ. Our character needs to grow to be more like Christ and in doing so we take on the tremendous compassion Christ offered the world through His very life.

Holiness: We are to seperate ourselves from the worlds sinful values - this is what it means to pursue holiness and to be a true example of compassion. We are to be more devoted to God's desires than to our own. We are to carry out His love and compassion into the world - this is the manifestation of the holiness of God in our lives.

Maturity: We cannot achieve Christlike character and holiness all at once. It is a working in our lives. Much like compassion is a working in our lives. Much like loving our enemies is working in our lives as well. Normally, it just doesn't happen - but over time it takes root and gains momentum. We must grow toward marturity and wholeness.

Love: We can seek to love others as completely as God loves us. That is how we show compassion.

Christ calls all of us to excel in this area of becoming more like Him - of loving our enemies. Obviously their a need for this kind of action and living our world today. What do you want to experience in your life: the pain of hate and the seperation that is brings? Or, the fruit of working towards loving others and the blessing you get from your choice to be more like Christ to others, especially your enemies?

Life is built on character, and character is built on decision. But decisions are based on values, and your values must be accepted by faith. Moses made his life-changing decision on the basis of values that other people thought were foolish, but God honored his faith (Hebrews 11:24-29). The Christian, YOU, can enjoy all that God gives if you live with eternity's values, HEAVEN, in view (1 Timothy 6:17).

So maybe to be more like Jesus and to grow in compassion for others you need to examine your view. What's your view like? Jesus assumed that anyone who live for eternal values would get in trouble with the worlds crowd. After all, He did refer to those who would follow Him as being salt and light. And sometimes salt stings and light exposes the depravity of sin.

So should we treat our enemies? We must love them of coarse - we must do good towards them, and pray for them. We must ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with His Presence so that we can respond to them with the holy compassion of God. Responding to people with love can only be done through the power of the Holy Spirit. "And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." (Romans 5:5, NLT) "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love..." (Galatians 5:22, NLT)


I heard it said before that "hatred only breeds more hatred." Are you controlled by the Holy Spirit or hatred? Do you express yourself positively when others are negative? Are you generous when others are selfish? It comes back to that basic principle that we must treat others as we would want to be treated.
 
Part of being a follower of Christ is to be like Him and to be compassionate. The important thing is that we become more like God in our character and that we look less like ourselves. This is the greatest reward anyone can receive. Far greaterd than riches, or even food, laughter or popularity. For those things will all be gone some time day, but the expressions of you faith and trust in Christ last forever.
 
Jesus taught those who felt oppressed to love their enemies and to be compassionate. Both are amazing opportunities for us too, to show the world who God is and this is a great way for us to be more like God Himself as we reflect His love and compassion to others.

Our Words

A friend once shared this with me: Everyone of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously.

The way we talk to people and the way we talk about people should do nothing but build up the hearts of others. I have heard and seen so many hurtful things happen because of the words people use.

"Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time!" (Proverbs 15:23, NLT) The right word at the right time - it is beautiful! Words are like that. They are powerful instruments for good or bad. We can use words in distractive ways, or we can use words to build and encourage.

And nothing I am writing is "new knowledge" to you but why then is it such a struggle for so many of us to speak words that give life? Why do some of us get so far off track that we are actually convinced that our sharp words "spoken in love" are justified?

"What this adds up to, then is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ's body we're all connected to each other, after all...watch the way you talk. Let nothing could or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift. Don't grieve God. Don't break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don't such a gift for granted. Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you." (Ephesians 4:25-32, MSG)

We live in a world where words are often weilded as weapons. And God has a plan, a deep desire, for you to use your words as a tool to build up the hearts of others. Imagine the Kingdom impact your words would have if what you believed and said was fully surrendered to will of God!?!

Some of us...
...need to cleanse our mouths and minds
...need to stop lying and twisting the truth
...need to start being intentional about encouraging others

But how? How do we do this? My friend answered this question for me once. He said, "Watch what God does, and then you go do it." We can't wait for others to change. We must change. We are commanded by the Lord to be like Him - not like this world. Our words and our actions reveal to the world our true beliefs, attitude and motives. Whatever is in your heart and mind will come out out in your speech and in your behavior - it won't stay hidden forever.

How do the words you use says you ware wanting to be more like Jesus? Our words are powerful.

Lord, I am aware that we may need to just pause before You now and ask for Your forgiveness for the ways in which we have used our words. Friendships, relationships, marriages and exchanges with others are hurting today because of the things we have said. I ask for Your forgiveness Father and I ask that You would fill each of us with Your Presence and that we would allow You to cleanse each of us and that we would desire to reflect Your heart to build others up. We confess our need for You now and we ask that You would use us to speak life-giving words to others today. In your Name we pray, Amen. 

Everyone of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously.

Judging Others

I am a firm believer that in life, we reap what we sow. We get back, what we've given. If we judge, we'll be judged. If we forgive, we will be forgiven. These thoughts have been rolling around in my mind for the past several days. 

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back." Then Jesus gave the following illustration: “Can one blind person lead another? Won’t they both fall into a ditch? Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher. “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye^[c] when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye." (Luke 6:37-42, NLT)

Our words and actions are powerful; take them seriously. When we judge people, we pick on them. Don't pick on people, don't jump on their failures or criticize their faults - unless I guess, you want the same treatment. Scripture is clear - we should not judge others. And not only are we not suppose to judge others, but we aren't suppose to let others fools us with lies and with their version of the truth. We must discern others motives, but allow God to judge their motives and their is a huge difference...


Judgement is a choice. When we choose to not judge others it releases the love of God in our lives and enables us to help others, even those who hurt us. So before we judge others, we must judge ourselves. We shall be judged by our words and actions. We are being judged by our words and actions. Not only will God judge us at the end of our lives, but people are watching us, and judging us right now; and we receive from people exactly what we give. When we choose to not judge others it releases the love of God in our lives and we will receive from people, exactly what we give.


Judging others clouds of vision. We must see clearly to help others. Christians are obligated to help each other grow in grace. Don't judge and criticize in order for yourself to just look good. Jesus choose the symbol of the eye in Luke 6 because this is one of the most sensitive areas of the body. The picture of a man with a 2x4 stuck in his eye, trying to help someone else remove a speck of dust from their eye is ridiculous - it's crazy.


If we don't honestly face up to our own sins, and confess them, we blind ourselves and we'll never be able to truly help others grow in grace. If we are blind ourselves then we can't seen clearly enough to help others. And perhaps that is what this teaching in Luke 6 is all about - the reality that all of us have issues and all of has elements in our lives that are causing us to not see clearly. But instead of focusing on our own problems we want to point out the person in the room with a bigger problem and hope it is large enough that no one will notice yours.


What God has been teaching me is that we must exercise love and tenderness when we seek to help others.  Ephesians 4:15 says, "Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ..." Here is another truth to get: we can do more damage than a speck of something in the eye if we approach others with impatience and insensitivity. How we judge others and who we are must be honestly judged before the Lord. 


It's only after we have judged ourselves honestly before God, and have removed those things that blind us, then we can help others and properly judge their works. Scripture is clear - if we haven't take the time to be honest with ourselves before the Lord and if their even a speck of something in our lives, and we try to "help" others, we are the hypocrites. 

our adoption story + a beautiful surprise

We continue to see God using our friends and family in this journey that we are on and we are so grateful for everyone who has prayed for us & helped us over the past couple of weeks. Last Friday we took the birth mom we are adopting from to her court date because the state had taken her 1 year old & 2 year old girl. At court the state has their attorney, the children are appointed an attorney and the parents have an attorney as well. Court last Friday was about where the children would be placed.

We reviewed the CPS report with the mother on Friday and our hearts sank - none of us thought the placement hearing would go well. As the called the birth mom into court the attorney representing the girls came out and asked to speak with us. We were able to share with her that we had bonded with the girls, and that we had known the for a longer length of time then what was stated in the report. It was a quick conversation and we were asked to join them in the courtroom.

The attorney representing the birth mom asked that the kids be placed in our custody, the judged brought up the report that said we had only known the girls for a few days and that we didn't qualify as an extended non-related guardian - however, the girls attorney spoke up and agreed with the birth mom's attorney sharing how we had known them much longer than when the state took custody of the girls and that we should qualify as an extended non-related guardian. The attorney for the state then also agreed but noted we had not had our home assessed yet and the judge ordered the state to come inspect our home and said that pending we pass an inspection, that the girls should be placed with us. We were blown away at the girl's attorney and how she took a few moments to see who we are and her effort to do so changed everything!

Now, with the pending placement of these two amazing little girls came the panic of "what are we going to do with two little girls?!?" When someone is expecting a child, the usually have around 9 months to prepare what we had only a few days to do. And our friends and family came to the rescue helping us put together a room for the girls, a play room and getting all of the supplies we needed to have our lives invaded by two precious little girls. We got cribs & a changing table, car seats, diapers, clothes, food, etc. Family members near and far chipped in to help as well and a youth pastor friend of mine and his youth group did a diaper drive for us and are sending us diapers. We are so loved and these girls are so loved on already!

Today we had court again, and the judge was to make his final decision on placement of the girls. We had passed our initial home inspection and we had everything ready. We waited about 40 minutes at court this time and spent about 10 minutes in court. The judge reviewed our home assessment, the state's attorney, the girl's attorney and the birth mom's attorney again all agreed that the girls should be placed with us. We were excited, and by 2:00pm we had the girls home with us. We were so excited to bring them back to our home and to show them all of their toys and their amazing room. Both girls were so happy. When we picked them up at the agency, the older girl dropped everything when she saw Melanie and ran straight into her arms. One of the best things I have ever seen!

I know I already said this, but we are so loved by so many people and these girls are so loved on already! Everyone's generosity towards us and the girls has been overwhelming. The girl's mom, is our birth mom for the adoption we have started. The girls could be with us for about 6 months while their mom does her reunification process and she is due with the baby we are going to adopt in about 7 months from now. We will make sure the girl's mom has her weekly visits with her girls and we are truly hoping for the best for the mom and her girls. Later this month she will have another hearing where the judge will list out the services that will be provided for her as well at her steps she will need to complete to be reunified with the girls.

So for now Melanie is going to stay home with the girls full-time and I will be working from home a little bit more to help her as much as I can. We are 100% committed to adopting once the birth mom gives birth and she is committed to letting us adopt her next child. Because we have taken the girls, we have postponed doing a garage sale in September but we will be doing one in mid-October and we are looking for great things we can sell to help with the adoption in 7 months.

Thank you for your support & prayers. We feel so blessed by our family and friends who have encouraged and supported us through all of this.

the past five days - a quick update

We are so grateful for all of the support from our family and friends. Your calls, text messages & e-mails mean the world to us. Thank you. For the past 5 days we have had gone through some huge things and I’d like to briefly share what has been going on. On Saturday the birth mother contacted us, there was an issue with her current boyfriend and the police were involved. She and her two kids need to get to a safe place and Melanie took them to a relative’s home. Because of what happened with the boyfriend, the state began looking into the birth mom and CPS was investigating things with her and her current children. This caused the birth mom to panic and by Sunday afternoon she was too scared to enter a shelter for fear of losing her two children to CPS.

We offered to take her two kids temporarily and we had them with us Sunday and Monday nights. Late Tuesday afternoon CPS contacted us and the state wanted to take the girls into custody. We wanted to file for temporary guardianship but since the state was not involved and there was an open CPS case, we couldn’t do that. And, since we don’t have enough of a history with the birth mom, CPS was unwilling to place the girls with us as a temporary non-family member guardian. Eventually CPS served the birth mom & the father warrants for taking the girls and the birth mom was so broken over it all. She is a good person who does need help at this time and we are praying that the birth mom can get the help necessary to meet the states requirements so she can have her children back.

I cannot put into words how hard it was to drive those kids to the receiving home last night and give them over. We had only had the children in our home for a couple of days but we already started to see such a change in them. At this time, the birth mother still wants to place her unborn child with us. On Monday, Melanie attended a doctor’s appointment with her and we got a picture of the ultrasound. Our excitement over having a baby in March and raising the funds for the adoption are still very much are focus at this time.

We are going with the birth mom in a few days to her court date about her children. She would rather us adopt her current children as well than to have them going into foster care. We would appreciate your prayers at this time for both the birth mom, her kids and for us. Some may think we are crazy to be this involved – but we firmly believe these kids deserve a chance and a voice in all that is going on. And we are so grateful we had a small part to play in this part of their lives and we hoping and praying that we can continue to help these precious, young children, the birth mom and our future baby.

review of our first adoption fundraiser

This morning we set out with a goal to raise the entire retainer fee for the adoption attorney, the amount for that is $1,500. And, my 4pm this afternoon we had over $1,600 in donations from this fundraiser today - an amount we thought would take at least two days to raise, or longer. We do feel like this is a huge miracle and great step towards our goal of adopting.

We are so blessed and encouraged by everyone's generosity. We had people give towards this fundraiser today that we don't even know that well, and one person who gave today, we don't even know her! God has provided in such an amazing way for this first step in our adoption journey. We are so very grateful for everything - and for everyone - and even before this day, we already had so many family members and friends step up to help us as we start out. We are so thankful for everything and everyone!

So what's next? We hope to have a large garage sale in mid-September. If you have anything you'd like to donate will you contact us? You can e-mail either myself (Nick) or my wife (Melanie) and we can set something up. (Click on one of our names to contact us.) Getting the retainer fee for the attorney is now accomplished & relocating the birth mom back to Sacramento is also done and we could not have done it without everyones prayers, encouragement & support. Our future fundraisers will help us cover the additional costs of our attorney (and that will be between $2,000-$3,000) and we will need to raise another $4,500 to help cover the cost associated with the state and its fees for adopting a child and being licensed to do so. And there there will several other things we will have to do and pay for during this adoption as we are connected to the birth mother and want to help and her family out as they start fresh in Sacramento again. The adoption could easily end up costing over $15,000 and with my role in ministry, fundraising is going to be our ticket to adoption. So, we still have a ways to go and you will always be able to donate through this blog.

And please keep praying! Specifically - our birth mom and her family need a place to live. We have less than 24 hours to help them find a place. And they have been looking as well, but we need your help - if you have any leads or ideas, please contact myself or Melanie right away (links to our e-mails are in the above paragraph) and please keep praying for this! I would love nothing more than by this time tomorrow to share with you how the Lord continued to work and provide for housing for this birth mom and her family. Please keep praying and again, thank you for your encouragement & support. We are overwhelmed by everyone's love and generosity towards us!