Daily Crosses Lift Easier With Faith

July 28, 2013 by Phil Larson

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23

The Cross of Your LIfe:
The going home celebration of a friend of a few decades reminded me of the fragilility of life on this side of heaven. It is full of laughs and tears and comings and goings. None of us are guaranteed the next hour of breathing. None of us are guaranteed the next hour of financial prosperity. None of us are guaranteed the next hour of health. My friend lived with joy and endurance and love and all who knew her are stronger for it.
By faith, we embrace life with all of the uncertainty and instability.
By faith, we believe in a God that promises to never leave us or forsake us.
By faith, we hope in the glory of which we cannot see, but which changes us moment by moment.
By faith, we look to life and life more abundantly.
By faith, we are certain that He will see us through to completion.
By faith, we grasp the confidence that He is greater than any issue of the world.
By faith, we tackle issue after issue after issue.
But, there are no guarantees.
The cross of your life may include some time struggling through illness or disaster.
The cross of your life may include some days of uncertain financial footing.
The cross of your life may include some betrayals and unstable friends and family.
The cross of your life may include temptations to which you fall.
But, there are sure promises and continual blessings.
By promise, we understand that He owns this world and can move resource to our need at just the right momemt.
By promise, we hold to the faith of the Son of God, who loves us and gave Himself for us.
By promise, we have wisdom in Christ.
By promise, we are complete in Him.
By promise, we know those that follow Him will lack for no good thing.
By promise, we depend on His constant intercession.
By promise, we are filled with inestimable treasure of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.
By faith in the promises of a Living God we live with and through our crosses stronger for each moment and more like Him. And that is life. Live it. My friend did and all of us who knew her are stronger for it.

Prayer: Father, when I started this morning life looked glum. I have to be honest with You.

In Your promises, I find life is a joy.

In Your love, I find life is happiness.

In Your support, I find life is enchanting.

Take me though this day with all the crosses to bear and let life be more abundant.

Meet Jesus: Clear Thoughts Matthew 5:27

July 25, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 5: 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

One of the greatest thought battles of the male is with lust. Jesus is fully aware of that thought battle. He is conscious of the struggle men face. He doesn’t excuse it away. Connecting with Jesus is connecting with a commitment to clear, controlled thought-life.

With what appears to be such a strict edict, is there hope for men and women? Yes, the thought is not just directed to men, it is directed to all. Is there hope?

Like any struggle, Jesus is giving us tips to stopping damage before it goes to full fruit. The key is to stop thoughts before they develop into action. He isn’t telling us that a quick temptation is like full blown sexual contact. He is telling us, “Don’t go there. Get control of your thoughts before they develop further than a fleeting idea.”

ACT! Thoughts wandering? Try speaking blessing over a person instead of contemplating their sexual attraction. Change the focus of your mind. Give your mind something else to think about. See the person as a person not an objective.

PRAY! Father, our hearts can be so distracted. So many times we find ourselves struggling to stay faithful and content with the lives in which we are blessed. You call us to not covet other’s goods and spouses and conditions. Keep envy far from us. Keep jealousy away from our door. Keep coveting out of our mind. Clear our hearts, God. We need Your help. You give us clear and clean thoughts to guide us. Help us to focus on the good and gentle and kind in life and be content with our condition.

Life Can Be Frightening, Friend.

July 20, 2013 by Phil Larson

But then, God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of love and power and a sound, well-disciplined mind. The Father dispenses right knowledge and wisdom and equipage to get your life lived with a smile and a dance in your step. He does. Really, He does.

It is frightening to face life without a loving Father’s protection and insight. This morning as I prayed for my friends, my guideline was the book of Ephesians. Yes, I read through the entire letter and prayed. It usually takes about an hour these days, sometimes two hours or more. Martin Luther, the great reformation leader, and others are quoted as saying, “I had so much to do today, I had to start with 3 hours of prayer.” I get it. There is no time to waste. Every minute has to count and prayer puts the power in the punch.

It is frightening to look into tomorrow and realize the threats and opportunities to fail and opportunities to succeed. Failure and success are not distant partners. Each brings an element of pain and cleanup. Each creates a next step that has to be addressed. Plan for success and handle the failure.

It is frightening to go it alone. Living alongside the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is a fearsome task. He really does get things done. Boy, am I glad I don’t work in the kingdom alone. It would be hell. Yes, I believe hell on earth is trying to do the work of living without family and friends and partners in work and ministry and life. When I make a list of co-laborers, I never get to the end. There are thousands. What a blessing.

It is frightening to trust my own hand. Friend, never trust yourself to get it done. When you stretch out with God, you will find yourself in situations that are impossible. They take impossible strength, impossible faith, impossible love, and impossible energy. He has a ready supply of all four.

My prayer for friends.

Father take the hand of my friend and bring impossible strength, impossible faith, impossible love, and impossible energy into the path. As You walk with my friend enable with everything necessary to live abundantly, faithfully, and effectively. Let life be changed. Let fear be put into the street. Let faith shine so bright those around my friend will lose fear and find faith.

Other’s Need – God’s Supply – Your Hand and Heart

Remember to pray for the Community Transformation Initiative and all those that are helping and joining. After taking a few months of prep and collaboration, you would not believe the demands of the next six weeks at the Community Transformation Initiative. We are actively engaged in East OKC, North OKC, Stillwater, Del City, St. Louis, Matamoros, Mexico, and online around the world. Every one of these engagements results in life change. Our goal for 2013 was to impact 1000 families face to face. In the last 30 days, we’ve exceeded 300 and expect to pass that goal in the next six weeks. Much of this is 1-1.In the next six weeks, we will be presenting live for over 60 hours. The average pastor will present 10 hours in the same period. Much of our presentation will be bilingual and all of it will occur outside my personal cultural background. The average pastor/leader never does either of these because they are ten times more exhausting than staying within your personal culture zone or niche. The Community Transformation Initiative is not called to be average. Our aim is transformation.

Our commitment and high level schedule:

General Ministerial Conference – Dallas July 24-26

East Zion Men’s Leadership – July 26th 7pm

Telemundo Radio 33.1 – July 27th Interview on Matamoros outreach 2:30pm to 3pm

Rewrite – Mentoring – Life Church July 31st

Fearless Weekend – Tabitha Baptist East OKC Aug 2,3,4

Fearless Weekend – Regrese de Clase – CAREVI – Matamoros, Mex Aug 8-12

Watch DOG Launch – Back to School – Tulakes NW OKCAug 16

Watch DOG Launch – Epperly Heights – Del City – date tba

Outreach Planters Training – OKC Aug 23-25

Schools of Prayer – West OKC – Aug 7, Sept 4

Dad’s University – Online Fall Semester Aug 20-end of term

Champion Fathers Luncheon and Tourney – SW OKC Sept 16th

Total cost to get this done – $20,000. On hand funds $1500. Faith Commitments $5000. God’s Challenge To Be Met: $13,500

How to support.. <==click it

Impossible faith will see it to completion.

Impossible love will keep us motivated.

Impossible strength will bring us to perform.

Impossible energy will make this fun.

Meet Jesus: Dignity Matthew 5:21

July 10, 2013 by Phil Larson

www,examiner.com

Matthew 5: 21″You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Dignity is a key concept in Christ. Jesus did not assault the dignity of any human. There were times He directly challenged people to righteousness. He had no problem calling people to account for hidden agendas and false fronts. He did not attack the person as a person. He never called anyone a fool or an idiot or stupid or any such attack. That standard stands for us.

Interesting is the way Jesus looks at one of the ‘ten commandments’. There is a level beyond the surface to which He takes us. It is the heart intent that is most important. It is the beginning of the action in the depth of the heart that Jesus looks to identify. Lusting leads to adultery. Anger and contempt leads to murder. Stop the action at the point of the seed in the heart. That’s His message.

ACT! Look for any bad seeds in your heart. Take a few moments to sift through your thoughts over the last few days. If you have a mate, is there another besides your mate that has taken time in your thoughts in the wrong direction? Have you been unduly angered and contemptuous with someone? Are you miffed at God over something You think He should have done for you? Have you railed at a government official? Now is the time to uproot the seed before it germinates.

PRAY! Father, I’ve got to admit. There are times I am really upset with people acting out of my pattern. Yes, Father, I have my ways. Help me to not be so quick to call them right and others wrong. Help me to see the person separately from the action. Help me to protect the dignity of each human as precious. Help me to look at others as Your creation with an intention for good. Though they may be demonstrating wrongly, help me to look beyond at potential and design. Let me call out goodness for the lives of others in the midst of pain and problems. Help me to be like You.

Meet Jesus: Served Matthew 4:9

March 29, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 4:9: And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10: Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11: Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Angels minister to Jesus, and so should we minister to Jesus with our worship. In Paul’s letter to the Romans he talks of a reasonable or rational service and worship done with presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. This is our pleasure and our part. Our worship of Jesus is to serve Him, to present ourselves totally to His selection for our life. Satan had it backwards. He forgot who was to serve whom.

Josue was determined to follow God this day. Lately, he had been wandering from his relationship with Christ. Over and over events just did not seem to go his way. Something he had read before was now stirring in him. There was something about praising God in everything. He was ready to try it. He was ready to try anything that would restore the warmth of the love of Jesus back in him. As he lifted his voice in the quiet of his room late that night, something broke. He began to weep. He began to praise God out loud. He began to know again the reassurance of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

ACT! Where does Jesus need your active worship? Take action this week on worshipping with real action where He needs you to serve another in the kingdom.

PRAY! Father, Jesus is the center of my worshipful services. Help me connect with the right actions for which You created me. I was created in Jesus for good works of worship done unto You. Enable me, Father, to find those works for which You created me and act on them.

Meet Jesus: Double Jeopardy Matthew 4:8

March 28, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

Willingly, Jesus goes with the Devil to a high mountain. This is the second time. Here is Jesus isolated away from everyone except the Devil. He is willingly taken into a place of testing and trial. Going once was enough. Now, He goes with this pure evil creature a second time. It is isolation. He is one on one with the strength of evil.

The Devil has no authority over Jesus. This is a choice of Jesus, Himself. He is proving to us and to the Devil and to the entire world that will read this for centuries, that He is able to resist evil to the uttermost on behalf of mankind. Amazing!

There are times God asks us to go the extra mile into exhaustion. Think of how exhausting it must have been to put up with pure evil stretching against you. There are times He asks us to do that. We want to rest. We want to quit for a season. We want to lay down and cry in our pity. God calls us to continue. God calls us to do it again. Jesus gave the example to follow.

It was late for Michael. Three times this week, he had stayed up late. Each time a friend called and wanted to talk. Then he would pray for an hour or more after the phone call. The alarm in the morning was barely enough to cause him to wake. He wondered how long he could keep doing this. Wouldn’t that friend get to a point of surrender to Christ soon? Must he talk to him every night? He knew that was God’s plan. He knew it was the right thing to do. He knew he was the one person between Jack and a decision for Christ. How long?

Meet Jesus: Lord of Take Back Matthew 4:6

March 27, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 4:6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. :7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Satan had trouble with meeting Jesus. His intent was to trick him and cause Him to slip. He met his match. He met the Lord, God.

Meeting Jesus means meeting the Lord, God. His is able and willing to deal with any situation. He is Lord.

Stuff trys to put us down. Stuff trys to break our spirit. Stuff trys to rob our joy. Jesus is joy. His kingdom is righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit.

With success after success, lately, Prince had defeat after defeat. No one wanted to work with him. They were envious and defeatist. Somewhere from deep inside, he summoned up some joy. “Good gracious”, he declared aloud. “If no one will walk with me, then I will walk alone. They can follow, can’t they?” Those thoughts seemed good. His smile came back. He took charge of his life again. He began to work out issues and others joined with him. Sometimes you just have to rob the joy back to get going again.

ACT! Bow to the Lord. Give up. Meet Him on terms of surrender.

PRAY! Father, I give myself to the Lord, Jesus. He is Lord. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. I surrender to His love and mercy and Lordship. I surrender to His joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.

Phil’s Other Home

Meet Jesus: Taken Matthew 4:5

March 26, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 4:5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

The fact that Jesus would allow himself to be taken anywhere by the devil astounds me. What was going through His mind at those moments? Here he was, led by His own Holy Spirit, to spend time with evil. Here he was entering the beginning of His public ministry dealing with a defeatist devil. Our present thinkers tell us to feel good and be happy and then minister. Our present ideologies point to pleasure as the entry to ministry. Jesus allowed himself to be taken into the presence of evil itself. This was His entry point into public ministry. He allowed testing. He presented himself for inspection. He was taken.

Pushed to the max, Jim was about to pop. This was supposed to be his year to get the big promotion. It began with pain. Employees were livid with some decisions he had made. Every emotion in him was twisted. He had worked night and day and given himself totally on behalf of these. They turned on him. The year before, he had handled the torrents of accusations from a disturbed man. The threats had been against these very employees that now turned on him. For defending them, he now stood their accusations of being unfair and inequitable. Was this how to start his big year?

He resigned himself to stand through the accusations. He remembered that the name, Satan, really meant Accuser. He remembered, Jesus had stood testing before His big year. Surely, he could allow the Healer to live in and through him in this critical time. “Father, forgive them”, he whispered, “They don’t know what they are doing.”

ACT! Testing is never fun. When God has something big, He can allow life and, yes, even the devil a place to sort out our intentions and grace living. Is there a place of testing in your life? Is God preparing you, stabilizing you for the next big thing? Submit to the test. Let it prove you out. Don’t fight. Let God fight for you. Take time to pray Psalm 35 and see what happens.

PRAY! Father, I am not my own defense. When life and the enemy rise against me as a flood, You be the boat of my salvation. Carry me away from that which is too strong for me. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies. Cause in me conviction to repent of those weaknesses in me that could have led to this situation. Cause holiness to well up in me. Cause me to crucify any flesh that needs changed. Let these troubles be a directional that causes me to become closer to You in thought and word and deed. Cause me to be more like You than ever before. Then, in the next big thing, I will be able. I will be founded. I will be strengthened to do that to which You have called me. I surrender myself to be taken.

Meet Jesus: The Word Matthew 4:3

March 26, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. :4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

As Jesus answered, He simultaneously declared His existence. Meeting Jesus means meeting the very living expression of God’s word. John tells us “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” It is not the bread of this world that meets our need, but the living bread of life, Jesus that will give us strength in the deserts of life.

Words are important to growth. So many times how we present a word or phrase to someone else means everything in the world for the next step in our relationship. A friend struggled with a key relationship. There was just an accusatory bend to every conversation with a new friend. After looking for solutions and probing for what was wrong, we were surprised. It seems in the first meeting with the other person, this friend acted before he spoke. The speaking was important to the other person. They had harbored an offense from the first action wanting words to come first. Getting through that misunderstanding was tough and touchy, but they are doing better. It has taken words to find the problem and begin healing it. Words count. The word of Jesus in us can heal.

ACT! Are you dry and hungry in an area? Spend time talking to Jesus about it today. He is the bread, the word of God that brings strength.

PRAY! Father, bring the bread of life, Jesus, into my dryness, into my hunger. Apply the word of life, Jesus, to my need that I might stay strong in Your strength, not my own.

Meet Jesus: Human Matthew 4:2

March 25, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 4: 2: And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

There is a fallacy in meeting Jesus that bears great correction. At times we approach Him as if He had some special advantage while He lived in that body born of Mary. Jesus was fully human. He got really hungry. He dealt with conflicting emotions. He lived as a human equipped with the Spirit of God even as He asks us to live.

In being human, Jesus sanctified humanity. He made it okay to be fully human. He made it a good thing to be all the human we could be, to live up to our human potential – with God. Remember, while being fully human, He was fully God. Our task is to work on being fully human, with God.

Being fully human, for us means being full of mistakes. Being fully human, means being able to correct those mistakes. Today I had a great opportunity to change my mistakes. A co-worker was upset with me about my actions. I had presumed what I did was okay with him instead of asking. It was okay. If I asked. Not asking was presumptive. It was inconsiderate. By repenting and asking, my mistake was changed to okay. He gave me that grace. It was good. Jesus helped me be human.

ACT! Think of your most human moment this week. Thank God for making you a human.

PRAY! Father, thanks for making me a human like Jesus. It must be really special to you, this human thing. You sent Your own Son to be one, just to make it special. Wow! I really don’t deserve it, but I really appreciate it. Thanks.