Jump Start. . . Your Connection To God

Have you ever gone to your car, opened the door, put your key into the ignition, turned the key and. . . NehNehNehNehNehNothing. You try again . . . and . . . Nothing. It had plenty of power the last time you drove it. It didn't even hesitate the last time you turned the key. But now for some reason, some failed level of maintenance, has now placed your power source in a faulty position. What do you do? You pull out cables and you connect those cables to a different power source, usually the battery of a different vehicle, and you JUMP START your car.

Sometimes our connection with God seems to be disconnected. Sometimes it seems that we have no power source in our relationship. Why is that? Just as in your car, more than likely a disconnect takes place when some necessary maintenance has been neglected. Jesus says that His burden is light and His yoke is easy and yet many times it doesn't seem that way. The reason is because we're trying to live our Christian lives without the source of power. Relationship with Christ has always been about vertical connection. We've got to connect to Jesus Christ, the source of power in our life, if we are to be a strong, fulfilled, growing, effective Christian. Otherwise at best, we're simply turning the ignition and there's nothing happening. The car looks good on the outside. The engine has the ability to run. But without the source of power, it's nothing more than a beautiful machine in the driveway. BUT You were created to thrive. So it's time for a JUMP START. It's time to reconnect to the source of power.

How do we connect to God? I mean He's God! What possible way can we be connected to Him? I am convinced that there is really only one way to connect with God and that is through communication with Him.

Communication with God all begins with prayer. Do you take time to talk with God every day? When you do, do you just recite your needs to Him OR do you actually give Him a chance to have a conversation? If, when you spend time in prayer, you give Him a chance to talk back, He will. Maybe it's through His Word. Maybe it's through His Spirit. Maybe it's through a prompting of things to do. Whatever it is, if you will talk to Him and let Him talk back you will suddenly discover your relationship with Him has gone to a whole new level.

Another way that we connect with God is through praise and worship. They are not equivalent but they are dependant upon one another. Worship is a lifestyle. It's a decision to show forth the value of Jesus Christ in my life. And because worship Him, not for what He's done but because of who He is, it causes me to have outward expressions of praise and thanksgiving to God. When we sing wonderful songs of praise to Him, I feel compelled to lift my hands in worship to God. Sometimes I feel compelled to express my joy with tears. Sometimes I've even compelled to dance before the Lord. I don't do any of those things to bring recognition to me but rather to show forth the praises of HIM who called me out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Amazingly when my connection is right with God and I am linked to the source of spiritual power, Jesus Christ, my relationships around me seem to work better as well. Similarly to your car, when the battery is not functioning properly none of the electrical system seems to work as well. Lights, Radio, dash board gauges, everything just seems to be in crisis mode. BUT when the power source is properly connected, everything works like it's supposed to. The same is true in my life. When I am vertically connected (between me and God), my horizontal connections (between me and others) all seem to work properly. But when I'm in need of a JUMP START, I usually find deficiencies in my relationships with others as well.

Take the challenge today - it's time to JUMP START your relationship with Jesus Christ. Maybe you should make a goal of spending 15 minutes a day trying to share with God and allowing Him to share with you in a time of prayer. Also - the next time you are in a Church Service, don't be afraid to express yourself in worship. Do something you wouldn't normally do to let God know that He is more valuable to you than anything else - including what others might think. You'd be surprise at the surge of power you will receive AND I'm convinced that it won't be long before you're no longer just a pretty machine on the showroom floor. Instead you are in the fast lane with your pedal to the floor MOVING FORWARD into the great things that HE has prepared for you.

Until Next Time - God bless you as you JUMP START your relationship with Him! -- RP

Light Your World!

A few years back, we were having one of those spring thunderstorms that rattles the windows of your house and makes your walls feel like they are about to come down. You know the ones where the thunder crashes and the lightening strikes and the dogs and cats go running under the couch or the bed. I remember we went to bed, tucked our son in and turned off all the lights. But at about 2 am, we lost electricity at our home. We discovered at that moment that there is a major difference between turning off the lights and being in the dark. Without the electricity, there was no night lights, no digital readouts on the alarm clocks, no flashing lights on the answering machine. . . it was completely dark. And then to top it off, my son lets out a blood curdling scream that to this day, just thinking about it, makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDYYYYYYYYYYYY -- it's dark in here." "No kidding, you're supposed to be asleep." But of course as every dad would do in that situation, after discovering that the flashlights are all just dead battery cases, I struck a match, lit a candle and like a knight on a white horse, I strode into my son's bedroom and with one solitary flame, I fought off the evil darkness. But of course 10 minutes later the light came back on and I was no longer needed --- all you parents out there can appreciate that.

Isn't it amazing at how bright one solitary flame can be in the midst of the darkness? Our world is filled with darkness right now. Moral failure by leaders - darkness. Economic collapse - darkness. Constant threat of terrorist attack - darkness. Divorce rate at an all time high - darkness. Stress and fear driving people to heart attacks and suicide - darkness. And yet we know from scripture that Jesus prophesied that all these things must come before He would return -- "As it was in the days of Noah. . ." and "As it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah . . . so shall it be. . ." when the Son of Man returns. And so we it sit at a time of unprecedented darkness AND YET we sit at a time of unprecedented opportunity. Because Jesus also said that we "are the light of the world." When it's at its darkest, the light is most effective. You may feel insignificant. You may feel that it's too dark to matter. But when it's darkest, your little candle, your little light, can force back the darkness and bring hope to our world.

And so today - my simple encouragement is this - Go light your world. Yes, I know it's dark. There are people everywhere with greater needs than ever before. It's up to you and eye to bring hope to the hopeless, the bring healing to the hurting, to bring help to the helpless, to bring liberty to those who are bound, and yes to bring light to those who are in the dark. The darkness is EVERYWHERE --- and we who know Jesus Christ, need to step out into the darkness and bring the light.

There's an old Sunday School song - maybe you know it. It says, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine." One verse says, "Hide it under a bushel - OH NO - I'm gonna let it shine." Another says, "Won't let Satan blow it out - I'm gonna let it shine." One thing I know - it only takes a small spark to begin a great blaze. Why don't we make up our mind to let our light shine, to not hide it, and if we'll do our part to shine in the darkness, Satan or nobody else will be able to ever put out the blaze that will have begun. It's time to SHINE!

Until next time - make a difference in your world by letting your simple light to shine. You don't have to do anything supernatural - you just need to be who God created you to be and His love and His light will shine through! God bless you all - thank for reading. I'm ready to fight off the darkness - How about you? --- RP

Connected -- Are you really plugged into God?

Today, as I looked at my Facebook page, I realized that I am "connected" to a lot of people. I have nearly 800 "friends" and almost 240 blog followers . . . and yet there are a lot of times that I feel completely alone. Do you find it ironic that we are more "connected" as a society than we've ever been and yet many would admit that they struggle with feelings of loneliness? I mean we have e-mail, cell phones, home phones, work phones, e-mail on the phone, social networking sites, ichat, instant messaging, text messaging, blogs, video chats, etc. I've been amazed recently by my son's new Xbox system. He can play games on his system which is wirelessly connected to our internet service against people from all over the country. Not only can he play with them, but he now has a head set that the internet connection allows him to talk with his friends who he's playing with over the internet. I walk in and he's playing a game while talking with his friends who are playing the same game and are being represented by characters on my television screen. We are truly living in a connected world. Why then do we feel alone?

As connected as we are, we still need intimate interactions with others to feel complete. It's not enough to just get emails and text messages to feel like we belong. Rather, we need to be involved in the lives of others to shun the feelings of isolation. God created man and He understood our needs for connections - after all, His observation of Adam caused Him to realize that "It is not good that man is alone. . ." And thus He created woman, and all the men are so glad that He did.

Spiritually we are desperate for connection as well. Some people go through learning about God, hearing good messages, knowing all the stories, reading good books, listening to songs about God, even telling others about God. But at the end of the day, spiritual completeness occurs only when we are connected to God. We need intimate connection with God to discover how great He wants to be in our lives. The Bible tells us that He "will never leave us nor forsake us", so we know that God is always there. And yet there are moments that we wonder where He is. Where does the break down occur? It occurs, not because He's not there, but rather because we are not tuned in and are not aware of His presence.

Whenever I feel disconnected from God, I don't have to look very far to discover where the break down has occurred. Without fail, my lack of connection can always be rectified by working on my communication with God. When I focus on my prayer life, enjoy my time in praise and lose myself in worship, I soon will discover that the severed connection is fixed. That's why it's so important that we spend time in prayer everyday. That why our lives must be lived in worship of Jesus Christ. That why, with every opportunity, we must express ourselves in praise to our Great God. There's nothing like being connected to God.

We can have every possible connecting device but if we aren't intimately connected to those closest to us, we feel alone. Similarly we can know everything there is to know about Jesus, but if we don't maintain intimate connection with Jesus Christ, spiritually we will feel isolated, and we will not experience growth. It's time to place our focus on those things that matter most - maintaining our connection to God through prayer, praise and worship. Let's live a life of connection -- with God and with our fellow man -- and we will experience spritual growth and we will feel socially complete. Until next time - let's get connected! -- Love all of you -- RP