Are You Straining Gnats?

Matthew 23:23-24 NLT “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!”

As I read this today, I was amazed to see that Jesus did in fact tell the people that they should tithe. This is something that so many people will argue is not in the New Testament and will fight you over I have found in the past. Funny, God set it up as a way for His children to be blessed, but unfortunately people have made it all about the money and not about the relational portion that bringing your tithe to God that is the more important aspect. But I am not here to debate tithing, it is the other part of this passage that grabbed my attention.

Jesus says to tithe, but no to neglect the more important things; justice, mercy and faith. So that got me to thinking, do I do that? I mean my wife and I bring our tithe every week to our local storehouse, but when I bring it to God have I missed the more important things too? I don’t want to be a Pharisee, that much is for sure, but perhaps that’s been happening and I haven’t even realized it.

How many people do you come into contact with in a day’s time? My bride and I started to watch the movie Forrest Gump last night and as the movie progressed and Forrest told his story to whoever would listen, or even those who ignored him I had the thought, “How many times do I miss an interesting person because I dismiss them out of hand because they are different, or maybe someone I don’t think can help me?”

Gandalf tells Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, “Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.” Now unlike Frodo who was wishing that Bilbo had killed Gollum when he had the chance, I think sometimes I have dismissed the very people that God intended to use to bless me. And I’ve probably been dismissed by someone that God wanted to bless by using me too.

This is an interesting thing to me too because I say I want God’s best in my life, but if I’m not willing to try and relate to everyone the same way, regardless of how they look, or act how can that be true? I mean God is no respecter of people why should we be? I’m sure that I will have to give this some more consideration in the days ahead.

I think I’ll begin to work on doing the more important things of showing justice, mercy and faith in my relationships in a much larger way now, and each time I drop that offering envelope in the bucket maybe it will help me remember to do that as well. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Are You Listening To The Rabble?

Look at this passage of Scripture found in Numbers 11:4 AMP, And the mixed multitude among them [the rabble who followed Israel from Egypt] began to lust greatly [for familiar and dainty food], and the Israelites wept again and said, Who will give us meat to eat? This leapt off of the page at me this morning, because I'm afraid that I too, have been swayed by the rabble in my own life from time to time.

I looked up the word rabble and it means, a disorganized or disorderly crowd of people : mob : the lowest class of people. I'm sure that you have run into these types of people before as well, they may be well meaning, but usually have a "Debbie Downer" type attitude. You know, the if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all kind of people.

In this story about the Israelites, two years has passed since they left Egypt and they had been eating manna for a while. It was as they listened to the rabble their attitude about life began to change. This is not to say they were not to blame, they still made the decision to complain, whine and cry. You will see this again and again in this story of the Children of Israel following Moses in the wilderness. I for one have tried to learn the lesson of "not complaining" from these stories, because I don't want to wander around for a long time not doing what I should be for the Kingdom.

My question this morning is who's voices are you listening to? Are you listening to what God says in His Word about you, or do you hear the rabble complaining? You can't stop the rabble from running their mouths, but what you do have the power to do is to stop your mind from believing what they say over what God says. If you hear, the economy is so bad, I don't know how we're going to make it. Don't believe that! The truth of God's Word is that it is He who supplies all our needs according the His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. If you hear someone say, it's the flu season, don't believe them and just agree, speak the Word which says that by Jesus's stripes you are healed.

We are the captains of our own destiny when it comes to what we believe and what we get from the Lord. He loves everyone the same, but not everyone gets the same things. This is not because He shows favoritism, He doesn't. He has hidden all of His promises in the Word for us to find and begin to walk in. He's hidden them for us, not from us but there is a catch, and that is that you have to find them. And when you do, and start walking in the truths that you find there, you will see how much easier it is to ignore the rabble and what all they are saying and truly find the blessing of the Lord in your life! Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Anticipation

This commercial for Heinz ketchup from my youth reminds me of where I am today. What do you do when you have to wait for something? I know that patience is a virtue, and it is something to be developed in my life, but I don't want to wait. How about you? Do you like waiting for something? What do you do when you have to wait? How do you handle it?

I've been waiting for something in my life to happen for about a week now, and truthfully the longer I wait the less likely it seems it's going to happen. Now, I know it will, but the longer I wait the more impatient I seem to be getting. I guess I'm like a kid waiting to open his presents on Christmas morning, I'm sitting there looking at those gifts but I've been told to wait until after we have breakfast to open them up. Cooking bacon and eggs never took so long.

And that is the crux of it right there, it's all in our perspective of how we see things. We perceive that it is taking a long time, even though it really isn't. Time doesn't stand still, no matter what we actually think. The children of Israel had to wait on Moses to come back down from the mountain, and the first time he went to speak with God they didn't do so well, and it cost them. So maybe a little anticipation is a good thing, letting it develop patience in my life can't be too bad a thing now can it? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Who Do You Serve?

Choose you this day who you will serve. This is something that I think about often. Who do you serve? Maybe you say that you don't serve anyone, but if you were to be totally honest you would have to say that you do. Even if you don't serve anyone else, you serve yourself. We all serve someone, some are better at it than others. I mean you've had poor service in a restaurant haven't you? There are just some people who are more predisposed to serving that others.

It's really funny because in the Kingdom of God we are encouraged to serve one another. Jesus actually told the disciples that in order to become first in the Kingdom you had to serve everyone else. He even said that He didn't come to be served, but to serve. Serving is a prerequisite in the Kingdom of God. He expects that we are going to serve, but do we do that willingly?

Every day we have choices to make. Some of them are simple and others are more complex, but we choose and nobody can choose for us. In order to really serve someone well, you have to make the choice to do so. And in order for your choice to matter, you have to do it willingly. We've all been there, you need to serve someone at work say and you do what is expected of you, but you grumble and complain the whole time you are doing it. That is not really serving. Serving the way that it is supposed to be done is doing what is required of you, and having a great attitude while you're doing it.

I think the main thing to bring with you when you serve is the knowledge that even if this is something that you would rather not be doing at the moment, you go ahead and do whatever is required of you to the best of your ability and place your own desires and wants on the back burner. A little delayed gratification never hurt anyone, yet I know from my own life that my flesh sure tries to tell me that it does.

Life is busy, we have things pulling us from a thousand different directions, but if we will choose to serve our fellow man, God will see to it that we are promoted at the right time and in the right place. His plan for our lives is so much greater than we could ever imagine, and if we will walk the way He tells us to in Scripture and serve those around us, He will see to it that we have everything that we need. That's just how we do it in the Kingdom of God.

Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

What Are You Preparing For This Year?

It's the beginning of another new year, things are already moving quickly as we approach the second week of 2012, and I'm encouraged to think about what I'd like to see in my life and that of my family this year. We were told by our pastor on the first Sunday of the new year that resolutions are not a bad thing, because even in Scripture we are encouraged to write our vision for our life down and make it plain so that we can run with it.

This basically is about setting goals for your life, and this is something that I have not been really good at, but am wanting to change for this year. There are things that I want to do this year, but if I don't get them on paper and look at them from time to time I will once again be at the end of the year looking back wishing that I had done more.

There is nothing wrong with planning, I think where most people miss it is that they think they have to plan things that they can actually do, not just dream about things that may look impossible. I love how Jesus said that God is a God of the impossible. When things look to me as if there is no possible way, Jesus says to me, "Don't try to do this in your own power, with man things are impossible, but with God all things are possible."

All things are possible with God, let that sink in. I mean if you knew that you could not fail in the things that you wanted to do, what things would you do? Would you risk anything, or try something that perhaps before you thought unattainable? I know that for this year, I want to write another book. But if I don't write down the steps to getting there, I'll just have a pipe dream instead of a reality.

What things do you want to do with your life this year? Dare to dream, ask God to reveal to you some things that He wants you to do, and then find something that there is no possible way you could do in your own power and believe God to help you with that. He is the God of impossibility after all, and more importantly, He wants to help you.

I don't know about you, but I'm going to begin to dream today of things that I have not considered a possibility before, and put my faith in God's ability and not my own. Because when I put faith in my own abilities, that's when I fail. Thank You Jesus for inspiring me through my pastor and friends to reach out for more in 2012. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Another First For Me To Enjoy!

There are a myriad of things to remember in raising children; their first words, first steps and the time they shot out the living room window with a bb gun, "But mom, the first time I shot it it didn't break!" Today is another one of those firsts for my family, my oldest child leaves the nest for a very extended period of time.

Micah is leaving the country to go and live for a year studying worship leadership at the Hillsong College in Sydney, Australia. To say that I woke up today with mixed emotions is an understatement for sure. I am both sad and extremely excited, sad that I will not have my son living in my house for another year, and excited because the boy that leaves my home will return as a man.

Getting him ready for this trip has caused our house to be in an uproar, washing clothes, getting electronic gadgets prepared, remembering to get all of the paperwork in order. It's exhausting, more so for my bride as she has done most of the work, which I know you ladies will say is typical, and that's okay because it is.

It is at this point that I begin to wonder and question if I have really done everything that I need to do as a father to prepare my son to face the world. I'm sure that I have missed something, but I was encouraged yesterday on my way to work with this thought from the Holy Spirit, "David, I gave you My Son, won't you give me yours?" And even though it saddens me to see him leave, I know that My Father has Micah in the palm of His hands and will be there for him even when I can't.

Sending Micah off like this is exciting for me because I know what he is about to experience. Not from Hillsong and all that God has for him there, but in the natural. That thing of being on your own, making decisions (some right and some wrong) that will effect your life a lot, and being forced to do it on your own because your parents (and the safety and security that they have been for you since you were born) aren't there with you. It is both scary and exciting, and there is something in experiencing that which makes you grow into a man.

It's like the butterfly in it's cocoon; if it is helped out of the cocoon and not allowed to struggle to free itself, then the process which causes the butterfly's wings to develop and get strong enough to allow flight is hindered and the butterfly can never become what it was created to be. In the same way, if Micah's mother and I don't let him go and experience all that this will be for him, he will never grow and develop into who God wants him to be. It is hard to watch the butterfly struggle, but so very important.

I will be sad today and maybe even the days to come as we process all that is going on in our family with Micah gone and await the news of his arrival and all. But the coolest thing about God is that He was not caught unaware about this time in our lives. If there is one thing that I have learned from God in the past several years, it is that He is right here in the midst of my family's lives in every area. He encouraged me with this thought, "This plan for Micah was Mine before the foundation of the world. I did not leave you and the family out of My plan. I will be there right with you, Cheryl and April while he is gone." That encourages me that God thinks about how we will miss Micah and that He has a plan for that too. What a great God we serve!

So today is another first for me, yet even though there might be a little sadness with it, I know that there is greatness in Micah's life to come, and that will make it all worth it! Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

You Of Little Faith

As I read this passage this morning, the Holy Spirit highlighted something I'd like to share with you, check it out. Matthew 14:25-33: "Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them (the disciples who were in a boat), walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," he said. The Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "you of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

What the Holy Spirit showed me today was that when Jesus and Peter got back into the boat that the disciples worshiped Jesus and said, "Truly you are the Son of God." But Jesus didn't walk on the water as the Son of God, He did that as the son of man. I mean, did the disciples forget that Peter too walked on the water? They didn't worship him, yet until doubt entered the picture Peter was also walking on the water.

I find so many things interesting in the story, and a person could preach dozens of messages of encouragement from it, yet today what I was shown was the humanity of Jesus once again in action. How have I missed this all these years as a Christian? I used to see this as one more time that Jesus was proving who He was. But He wasn't doing that. I mean this time He didn't refer to Himself as the son of man, but usually when He did some act and people would revel in it, He would always reaffirm that He was the son of man, and not the son of God.

I think it would do us all well to go through the stories of Jesus in the Bible, and read them paying close attention to Jesus as man, not Jesus as God. John Eldredge wrote an excellent book called, "Beautiful Outlaw" which covers this very thing, and I would highly recommend that you get a copy of it.

There is no doubt that Jesus is God, that is not in dispute, but the very thing that He came to Earth to teach us was how to have a relationship with God, and He did that as a man. I heard it said one time that Adam (the man) lost all of it for us, and in order to get it all back, Jesus had to come (as a man) to make things right, and if all the miracles and things that Jesus did, He did as God instead of as man, then he cheated.

Worship Jesus as God, but admire what He did as a man. The reason He did those things, was to show you and I that we could do them too! What an honor for Him to think enough of us to come and show us how we could walk with God in such a powerful and intimate way. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

2012 A New Year...Just What Does That Mean?

Well another year has come and gone. It seems that when I was younger there was a whole lot more excitement at the prospect of getting to see another year come in. This year was spent with my bride in bed not feeling well, and me on Facebook farting around and playing Farkle. This may actually make us officially old coots.

As I sit at my computer this morning, drinking coffee and going through my morning rituals, I looked out the front window to see a beautiful dawn. I thought to myself, I've got to blog on the first day of 2012 and began to think about the various things that I might expound about in an effort to help others as well as myself. And I came up with nothing, nada, zilch.

A new year can be exciting, but it can also be filled with dread. I think that this year I'm going to go with exciting because truthfully, it's more fun. The Felts family has some pretty cool stuff on our horizon this year. In less than two weeks my oldest child Micah will board an airplane for the distant land of Australia. He will be attending Hillsong School of Worship for a year. This brings me great pride in him, but also will be a new thing for us as he will officially be an adult and out of our house.

This summer my daughter April will spend working with futureVision Ministries and leading people to the Lord. While this is a great thing, and I am excited for her to begin the journey that God has laid out before her, I will miss my little girl this summer. Which leaves just Cheryl and me living in a house just the two of us. Now while this will allow me a little freedom to live in or out of clothes as I see fit, it will be an adjustment for the both of us. This will be the first time in almost 20 years that we have been alone without children in the house. (Pray for Cheryl please.)

I did accomplish something that has been on my bucket list in 2011 by writing and publishing my first book. A 280 page book designed to be a transparent look into who David Felts is, and hopefully which will help you come to find out things about yourself as well. If you don't own a copy you can order one here. (And yes, that is a shameless plug for my book, but I want to sell a lot of them you know.)

In 2012 I am planning on a new book that a musician friend and I will collaborate on. Right now I think it will be a devotional type book with music accompaniment. This book will come with it's very own music cd too. I'm excited to begin this project, and will blog more about the process later.

Oh, and one of the most exciting things I'm looking forward to in 2012, The Hobbit in theaters. Okay, so I'm a geek I know it, what are you looking forward to? All in all, I am excited about the prospect of once again having a new year and all that it holds with it. Change is on the horizon for the Felts family, big change, but we will embrace all of them with the Lord Jesus's help and see where it brings us this time next year. Strength and honor!