REALfitness by Scott

The Lord has been working in my life a lot lately. I believe God is very much alive and therefore can communicate with us. I also believe the Bible is God’s Word and what He says in my spirit will never collide with what He says in His Word.

 

I’m a runner. I run 5 miles a day 6 days a week. During those morning runs I’ve been having some pretty good times of communication with the Lord. The other day I was asking for Him to reveal to me Himself, to fill in any blanks I have in my understanding of who He is. I know He is a loving, grace-filled and accepting God, I’ve experienced all those things.

 

On my return loop home, I heard this question in my head, "Did pharoah (of Moses day & the 10 plagues in Egypt) feel My wrath?" I love it when this happens because I know it is God directing my thinking. I wondered where the question came from and what it had to do with. I thought about it and realized the answer was NO.

 

God is eternal, therefore just like His love is eternal, His wrath must be eternal. If He is all powerful and spoke the world into existance, the 10 plagues where nothing compared to what He could do.

 

Then I began to sense what He could do. He gave me a mental picture of His thumb and forefinger with planet earth between them. He pinched and the earth turned into a dust cloud in the universe. The question came, "Is that the fullness of my wrath?" The answer to that was no as well.

 

I began to comprehend the only two places His wrath has ever been fully felt was Calvary and Hell. Mysteriously, Jesus felt the eternal wrath of His Father when He died for our sins. Hell is a place of divine wrath, therefore by nature has to be eternal.

 

My awareness of His awesome power and wrath that is always righteous, made verses in the Bible have more meaning to me. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." "Our God is a consuming fire." "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." I was always taught "fear" meant to reverance God. Now I believe "fear" means FEAR God!! Feel protected in His strength and power, secure in His love, but don’t trifle with Him because He is awesome and fearful in power. Ultimately, His wrath will comes to bear on all sin. Either at the cross, or forever in hell.

 

Scott

In growing healthy spiritually and emotionally, one clear indicator for me has been how I view other people. It is especially important how I view other people who are very similar to me in personality type. I’ve been reading and rereading Matthew 7 recently. This is the famous passage where Jesus is teaching on judging others. He gives the great counsel to "get the log out of your own eye first" then maybe you will be able to see clearly to help someone else get the "splinter" out of their eye.

 

It is interesting pondering that passage. The splinter and the log are made of the same material. What I’ve noticed in my life is how this teaching gets all turned around. Jesus seems to teach that the person judging others harshly has the same issue in their own life but in a much larger way. Having not dealt with my own issue, when I see the very same issue in you, it appears way bigger in you than it really is. My own issue causes your issue to be magnified to me.

 

Reality is my issue is way bigger than your issue! Recently, we had a guest at our home that is natured very similar to me. During that visit rather than judging the other person harshly it was obvious to me I was seeing my own reflection in that person. I was seeing my own flaws fleshed out right before my eyes. It was humbling. It forced me into the "log extraction mode." I’ve got a friend that always said, "if you spot it you got it." He meant when you see a glaring flaw in someone else it is because your own flaw magnifies theirs.

 

The road to spiritual and emotional health requires we spend 12 hours a day focusing on the greatness of God and our own development and 12 hours a day letting other people alone, allowing them to work their own program before God. Then when we’ve done the hard work, we can tell our own story and trust that God will use our humility and honesty to help others see their own "logs."

 

Scott

I’m discovering to be used by God has little to do with qualification. It has little to do with what experiences I’ve had in the past. It has nothing to do with what offices I hold now or have held in the past, that includes pastor, priest, monk, CEO, big shot, or even really big, big shot.

 

It has nothing to do with past accomplishments or recognitions, publications or connections to other important people. To be used by God requires only one thing. A present tense connection to Him. It requires I belong to Him, I’m in relationship with Him, so His life is flowing through my life. No more, no less. I may be used by Him today and not tomorrow. I may have been used by Him in the past but not today.

 

Forget the past with its failures and accomplishments and press forward, develop intimacy with Jesus Christ today, stay very close to Him and let His life live in you. Then without striving, you will be His and used by Him to accomplish what He wants.

 

Scott

Coming to grips with how great God is and how small i am as a human has caused me much deep thinking. One of the things that is hitting me lately is how critical I can be toward other "specks of dust" like me but who have struggles in areas I do not. I believe the Lord has given me a very good intuitive side and rather than always using it for His purposes I can use it to be hard on fellow strugglers.

 

Over the years I’ve noticed a couple categories of people I have been extremely judgmental towards. I’ve chosen not to mention who those groups are here because it would serve no purpose. This morning in a reading by Oswald Chambers in "My Utmost for His Highest," my heart was cut. He said, seeing someone struggle is not to be used as a reason to criticize but basically a call for prayer and interceeding on their behalf.

 

Knowing I can have a relationship with the great I AM, and coming to terms that "i am not," has helped me to see that all of us "i am nots" are to encourage each other, pray for each other and support each other in our quest to know and be like I AM. The gap between the great I AM and me is so very much greater than the gap between any other person and me there is never a place for feelings of superiority, only a call for humility and prayer.

 

Scott

I’ve been reading a great book, I added it to my "life-changing read" section here. i am not but i know I AM. It all started when our youth pastor preached one of the best messages I’ve ever heard. I asked him where he got his ideas and he gave me the name of this book.

 

The premise basically is God is really, really big. Planet earth is like one small speck of dust in a vast universe He created. I am like a smaller speck of dust on that ball of dust. I would look to God like what I see looking through a microscope at some little cell or microscopic organism. He is really really big and I am really really small.

 

Human history is HIStory and He will write us into the script if we want to know and serve Him. Our involvement one way or the other will not knock His plan off track or make it work. It will be accomplished with or without us. The key is this, this great big God loves me and is willing to include me in His story. I’m beginning to see what an honor the lowliest place in His story would be. I want a script written in for me to have a supporting role. Anyway, I’m just having my eyes opened to some amazing things and I’ll write more as I see it.

 

Scott

In earlier times in my life being alone was not fun. I remember as a little boy, probably about 10 or 11 being left home alone in the evening a few times. I remember being so scared I got a pellet gun I had and held it in case someone tried to get me. Later being alone meant opportunity to sin. After I became a Christian in my early twenties being alone became a huge time of struggle. The struggle was the war between what I felt I ought to do when alone and other desires common to man that called to me very strongly.

 

I’ve had a lot of healing in my life and being alone now is something that has become very enjoyable to me. I don’t want to be alone all the time, but I enjoy a few days now and then. It is an opportunity for me to say yes to the Lord, to enjoy reading, to see what kind of thoughts rise in my mind and be able to respond in a good way. Someone said, one sign of emotional health is how you act when you are alone. One of my good friends says, when he is alone he is alone with a crazy man! I want to keep growing so when I’m alone, I’m alone with a man at peace with God and himself.

 

God uses being alone. He will raise any pain left in my life. He will show me how settled my insides are. He will show me Himself in ways He generally doesn’t show when life is rushing forward. Being alone is a great opportunity to determine how healthy I am at the present.

 

Scott

 

 

On a recent jog the image of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsamane came to mind. In that battle He faced I believe is the pattern for us winning the battles we face.

 

Here it is, New Year’s resolution time. Since I’m writing on January 3rd, many already blew their resolutions for this year! For years I wished my will could be stronger so I could just be like Superman on the inside. I wished my will would be like iron so when put in a testing situation I could just muscle up my willpower and turn away. Wouldn’t that be great. Probably the number 1 resolution every year is to start exercising and dropping a few pounds. We have great intentions but then those late night cravings come. The thick burger shows on the tv screen and we just can’t take it. We find ourselves foraging in the cupboards and vow to do better tomorrow, so much for the iron will.

 

Jesus model is different. He faced his fears and his humanity. He anguished over what was in front of Him. He didn’t deny the battle that loomed large in front of Him. He didn’t deny He’d rather not fight that battle. "If there is any other way that would be alright with me," He prayed. Why not admit like He did the battle is fierce? Lord, I’m out of control. I love to. . . but it is killing me (fill in the blank).

 

Now watch this in Jesus Model, "I’d rather not face the cross but, NOT MY WILL but YOURS be done." Jesus didn’t muster up His will to be stronger. He didn’t berate Himself for having human feelings of inadequacy, He simply surrendered to His Father’s Will. "I can’t do it, He can do it, I’ll let Him."

 

Here is how to surrender. Whatever the thing you battle the most, think about how readily you surrender to that thing. Your Creator, your Heavenly Father wants at least that same level of surrender to Him. Use that flawed surrender to your pet habit to teach you about true surrender to the Father. He desires at least that level of surrender to start. Hope this helps.

 

Scott