Christian Life Church - Blog

Pessimist or Optimist

8/25/2017

Are you a pessimist or an optimist? If you generally trend toward pessimism, your internal conversations are usually negative or unhappy. Whereas an optimist's internal conversation are positive or happy. Many studies theorize a pessimist or optimist is from birth. Because a Christian is born again, believers now can take the genetic profile of the spirit instead of the earthly body. But it is easier written than done in the real world, unless you have truly transformed you mind. We could use the scripture about renewing our mind but today's scripture comes from Revelations 21:4, “And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more nor mourning nor crying nor pain; they will be no more, because the former things have passed away." We have such a hope in the future. Why be pessimistic about today or tomorrow?

God bless you and keep you as you go and do life
Tony Lee

Destinations or Purpose

8/23/2017

Do you find yourself desiring a destination of achievement? If you are single it might be when you get married. Or if you are married, when you have children. Maybe you have children and you can't wait for them to walk and talk. Then you hope that they will move out, get married, and have grandchildren. Finally, you wait expectantly for them to bring the grandchildren over so you can spend time with them. People are always looking for the next destination. In all this trying to get somewhere, we miss the opportunities of now. God wants us to be like the puppy chasing the car. Because the puppy does not feel like a failure every time it misses the car, it continues to have fun chasing the car. Running to catch a destination, we miss the fun of our purpose. Today's encouraging word expresses God's desire to see us run after His purpose. Philippians 2:13, “For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.”

God bless you and keep you as you go and do life
Tony Lee

Life pushing you down?

8/21/2017

“When Life pushes you down, get back up again.” A very famous saying that most don't realize is easier said than done. Life won't actually push us down, but Satan will use things life brings to knock us down. As you grow smarter, you grow dumber. When you are born, you are only scared of loud noises and falling, then you learn the rest. As a kid, you will try things that will hurt you, run into a wall, bother a wasp, and in my personal experience, climb a dresser with glass on it. In most cases, it will be painful, but it won't become a fear. When the dresser fell, the glass shattered everywhere before I hit the ground. I had to get the glass removed at the hospital while being awake. Now when I shatter a glass, I clean it up instead of being too terrified to touch it. As we grow older and smarter, we get scared that life will knock us down, or knock us down again in the same way. What if the roller coaster derails and injures me? What if the ball breaks my nose again? But we must trust in God to take care of us in these temporary pains. We forget our pain when it is gone, but we remember how we loved it when it left. Today's encouraging word comes from Matthew 4:24 “News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them.” When Life knocks you down, get back up, and hit it with what it hit you with.

God bless you and keep you as you go and do life

Tony Mathias

Opportunities

8/18/2017

Napoleon Hill, who was probably the first motivational speaker, once encouraged his audience with this saying, “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” Opportunities come sometime in small packages. If we wait for the big opportunity, many times we miss the small most significant opportunities. Do not miss an opportunity because of its size. Make the most of any chance that God had placed in your path. Naturally, the big opportunities catch our attention better, but the small opportunities usually lead down a path we never imagined possible. Today's Bible verse encourages us with the truth God has a plan and puts opportunities in our path to make our life better. Psalm 25:12-13, “The LORD shows his faithful followers the way they should live. They experience his favor; their descendants inherit the land.” Let the Holy Spirit lead you into opportunities for favor and changing your family's legacy.

“We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work,” quipped Thomas Edison. Previously, fear was discussed as the reason we miss opportunities, but we need to look at blood, sweat, and tears also. Opportunities mean a change in energy effort. We all are comfortable with our daily routine. When our routine is jeopardized by opportunities sometimes it is just easier to ignore them. The encouraging word today is found in Galatians 6:9-10, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” Be energetic today and grab an opportunity when it presents itself, knowing God abundantly blesses those who rise out of their comfort zones.

God bless you and keep as you go and do life
Tony Lee

Prophecy

8/17/2017

Spent the week with Thomas Gaddam, who is the leader of a large ministry in India that we support. The founding pastor of Christian Life Church explicitly prophesied India would be a nation touched by the congregation. Now it is 30 years later. We have helped build at least 3 church buildings, helped many young women/men get college education, supported orphans/widows, rescued girls out of sex trafficking, and been part of spreading the gospel to villages where Jesus had never been preached before. The opportunity to do all this was caused because Thomas took a nudge from God to call me, and I took a chance to accept a new brother. Commonly, our fears propel us to shrink from places of risk. But what if you said yes to what God has for you in life and got out of your comfort zone? God can move around the world when His people listen to His promptings. Today's encouraging word is found in 2 Peter 1:21 “For no prophecy was ever brought about through human initiative, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

God bless you and keep you as you go and do life
Tony Lee

Doing what you say

8/15/2017

How many pints in a quart? If you have been taught in our school system, you would say 2 pints equal 1 quart. But there is another form of measurement, it says 1 pint of example equals 1 quart of advice. In this measurement system, what you do in life far out does what you say. Mysteriously, people imagine their words perform greater than their actions (just look at our politics.) Believers, who are fantastically redeemed, live what they speak. The problem comes when our walk and talk does not line up. We all have areas of “hypocrisy.” The process of holiness, setting ourself apart for God's purpose, brings our walk and talk into at least the same area code. As we mature and fall deeper in love with God, our walk and talk live in the same neighborhood if not the same house. Believe in the process of holiness proclaimed in today's encouraging word from Ephesians 1:4 “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.”

God bless you and keep you as you go and do life
Tony Lee

Reflection ratio

8/14/2017

Have you been reflecting as Braeden wrote about last week? The hardest part of reflection is knowing what to reflect about. Clearly to reflect, we do not want to dwell on just the negative, otherwise we will begin to fall into self-pity. If we only reflect on the good, then we will not work out our mistakes. So what is the best ratio? The best ratio found in my studies is 3 to 1, which is 3 good to every 1 negative. Anymore either way and we begin to unbalance our mind and emotions. For example, we might reflect 3 times today on how we succeeded in our purpose and calling, while 1 time we might have missed an opportunity. But reflecting on 3 missed and only 1 successful opportunity will mess you up. Today's encouraging word comes from Psalms 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.”

God bless you and keep you as you go and do life
Tony Lee

Peace in trouble

8/12/2017

Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit's indwelling. Jesus proclaimed that He would give us peace not as the world gives peace. According to the worldly system, peace dwells only in the absence of conflict. Thankfully, Jesus' peace gives us confidence in the midst of conflict because in this world there is never an absence of conflict. Our confidence primarily results from our hope in our eternal future. The eternal future is based upon God's love. 1 John 4:17 is today's encouraging word, “And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.” God does not lie, so we can trust and be confident in Him and His Word.

God bless you and keep you as you go and do life
Tony Lee

Hardship

8/11/2017

“People avoid those things that give them pause... but that struggle and hardship is what builds character and builds strength and resilience,” exhorted Commander Rorke Denver, who was a US Navy Seal. Many in Christianity have lost the zeal to fight through the hard times. Wishfully, we have believed if God is for us then life should be easy. Nowhere in the Bible is that the case. Jesus earnestly desired for deliverance from the cross, but it was not God's plan. If God would not make it easy on His own son, what makes us think it would be different for us? This note is suppose to encourage you, so let's get to the encouraging word. 1 John 5:5-6, “Now who is the one overcoming the world, except the one believing that Jesus is the Son of God? And Jesus Christ was revealed as God's Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross--not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with his testimony.” God expects – no commands us to overcome thereby showing Jesus is God's Son which He sent to save the world. You can do it! Be an overcomer today building character, strength, and resilience through your belief in Jesus.

God bless you and keep you as you go and do life
Tony Lee

Thoughts from a Husband

8/10/2017

What does it mean to be a Christian husband? Ephesians 5:25 says, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her". So all we have to do is love just like Jesus? No problem! We see "gave himself up for her" and think, "I could die for my wife. Step in front of a bullet or run into a burning building? Sure, I could do that!" And you probably could. The problem comes with how very much more Jesus gave up to love His church, His bride. So the first thing Jesus gave up was his rights as God. If your job, church position, PTA, or membership in the Justice League is interfering with your relationship with your wife, something has to give and it can't be your marriage. All you have to do to be a Christian husband is love your wife with the same perfect sacrifice that Jesus showed us all! Men, I don't like any of the above. I like comfort, not sacrifice, and I like me just the way I am! I love my wife though, and I trust Jesus, so I guess I have to try. The bad news? I will fail to match that example. The good news? If I honestly try to live sacrificially for my wife, we will both draw much closer to Him.

Taken with permission from Chris Jones' facebook post (sorry Chris if I cut it to much)

God bless you and keep you as you go and do life
Tony Lee