Sitting Idle

Ecclesiastes: 11:4  Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

 

A short sentence that not only gives us good advice for our spiritual life, but our daily life as well. No one ever got anything done waiting for the “right” conditions. You can wait for a sign all day, but the fact is you might have spent so much time looking for “your” sign missed the sign that was given. When you drive down loop one in Austin, and you are looking for the Rollingwood exit, there is a good chance you will blow right past it. The sign does not say Rollingwood, it only gives the county road number.  As a result, you know where you are going, but you are looking for a sign instead of looking at what needs to be done, you miss the road, and now you are having to back track. Things like that trip us up every single day. How often do you set on the side lines waiting for the right time, or waiting for a sign that will show you the way. We have to go after what we want, and pay attention to all of the signs, not just one specific thing. I was meeting up with a friend the other day. It was at a restaurant that was set back off the road. I had parked in what I thought was a good place, it seemed like I would be visible. So I am standing around, waiting, assuming that my friend got held up in traffic. A piece of what turned out to be trash caught my eye, I though it looked cool , so I head over. I call my friend as I am looking at this trash, and ask where are you. His response, pulling in now, good thing you were standing there, I would have never seen this place. I thought I was in a good spot, but it turns out my little diversion was just what was needed, just when it was needed. Had I been focused on just the driveway, I would not have seen the trash, I would not have moved, I would still be sitting there, waiting for something to happen. The exact same thing happens in our relationships, and in our business dealings every day. Tunnel vision, kills the ability to see the big picture, it keeps us in our little box, and keeps us chained in place.

 

The same thing can be said about our spiritual journey. We get so focused on waiting for a sign, the we don’t move. We stay planted waiting for a billboard, while millions of pieces of “trash” are laying there, just waiting for us to notice. Could you imagine someone saying well I want to get more involved in the church, but I am going to wait until the Lord shows me the way, or maybe I am waiting to start going to Church until I see a clear sign showing me which church to go to. What if we were to all say, I will not speak to people about the Lord, until I am given a sign as to who exactly it is that I am supposed to speak to?!  We would never plant the seed, we would never harvest the crops, and we would miss out on the glory of the rain God provides, because it is not the “sign” we were looking for. Now I am not saying that God does not drop a clear sign onto us like a 20lb sledgehammer sometimes. He does. He has, and He will continue to do that. However we cannot stand by in idle waiting for the next one! It might not come for a while, and I can promise you that if you are going to be in the right place at the right time, you are going to have to take some steps in faith to get into position.  

 

Do not waste your time waiting for a sign, worse yet, do not waste your time waiting for the “right” sign. Move, plant, reap. Take a step in faith. You never know, that little piece of trash that caught your eye might just be the thing intended to get you where you need to be. You are easier to see when you are moving, you are more likely to see the sign if you are actively doing God’s work. You will live a life of wonder if you will live your life in full view, on the move, without tunnel vision.

 

 

God Bless,

 

Brian Thetford

 

The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22

 

The Workweek With Christ

 

It Ain't Over Till It's Over

Philippians 1:6  being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

 

 

 

This is a piece of Scripture that never grows old, it is just as important to remember this today, as it was yesterday, as it will be next year. In short, God is not done with you yet. We are works in progress right up until the Lord shows back up, or we draw our last earthly breath. I say it is important to remember, because we all fall into a rut from time to time. It might last a day, a week or a year….the length is typically dictated by you. We think “this is it”, “I have come as far as I can”, “I have grown as close to the Lord as I can” …my favorite….”I have done all the Lord has asked me to do”. These lies are meant to do one thing and one thing only, slow us down.  

 

We will never accomplish everything, because the list is never finished, tasks such as spread the Good News, Love God, Love your neighbor, there is no expiration date on them. There is not some point that we reach that we get to cross that off the list. We pull it off today, tomorrow is coming with the next sunrise, we have to do it again. AN amazing thing happens when we greet the sunrise with the list in hand, we change, we become different people, we become more like the Lord, and less like the worldly person we were. When we set our feet on the path of the Lord, when we strive to stay on that path for the entire day, you will not end the day the same as you were when you started it. God will have moved in your life, and He has continued His good work in you for the day.

 

We see people we think of as Godly, or righteous, or maybe even people who are just really fighting the good fight, and we think “I want to be like that, but I can’t”. “They were raised that way”. “They went to school”, “they had the advantages”, I don’t have that kind of time” Guess what? Each person that you see like that, started off where you are at now. In some cases they started off well behind you…..(I know I started off at the back of the pack….truth be told, I think the pack had a good head start!) The difference is that those people you see, they did not buy into the lie that they were done, or that they could not go any further. They are confident that God is going to continue His good works through them. That is what I want you to understand. We are nowhere near the finish line! God has amazing things in store for each of us, and He wants us to see those things daily….yes daily. Each day we choose to regress to where we were, stay where we are at, or move forward, even if it is only one small step, we move forward. We quit looking at where we are at, and start looking at where we need to be. Will you extend the love of Christ today? Will you offer up forgiveness, compassion, help, and time? Will you allow God to continue His good works in you today? He has started building a temple within you, will you allow the construction, or will you halt the construction? Be confident in knowing that what God starts, He sees through to the finish. It all comes down to the labor He is working with. Will we work as hard as His Son, or will we look to cut a deal like Judas? I will tell you the truth, the harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few, God is working in you, around you, and through you. You will not finish this day unchanged…..it ain’t over till it’s over.

 

 

 

God Bless,

 

Brian Thetford

 

The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22

 

The Workweek With Christ

 

I Will Not Be Moved

Psalm 62:6 He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defense; I shall not be moved.

 

You have to love these feel good verses! Doesn’t it sound great my rock, my salvation, my defense…..God is great indeed! I knew a guy that was always talking about how he ran his house. Make no mistake about it, it was HIS house. His wife did what he said to do, his kids never talked back, and carried out every instruction to the letter. TO hear this guy talk, what he said went, and there was no debate, no conversation, his word, and direction was law, right or wrong, he was the king. Funny thing though, I dropped him off from work one day, he invited me in, so in I went. While we were talking in the kitchen, his wife comes home. Now what I witnessed was not the iron fisted rule I had heard so much about…not by a long shot. Inside of the first five minutes she was home, his wife had him hopping! Take out the trash, the kids need to be picked up in the next half hour, and my favorite…..she wanted to know what HE was cooking for dinner!  What happened to the MAN of the house? Well, honestly he told people what he thought would make him look like he was expected to look, in reality things were a little different!

 

It is the same way with some of these verses sometimes. My rock, my salvation, my defense, I shall not be moved. These are not just feel good about God verses. They are declarations of how our relationship with God works. HE is my rock, this is not some pet rock that we keep in a box. We are talking a boulder. A rock so big that we can stand on the top, and weather any storm, and be safe from the flood waters, and the currents of this world. HE is my salvation. My deliverance, aid, victory, prosperity, health. This is not a word to be used lightly. Salvation is all in, it is not a sometimes, wishy washy word. It is a word that encompasses the very essence of our new life with the Lord. We are SAVED. He is my defense. He is our fortress, our protector, our shield form this worlds snares and traps. This verse finishes up with I shall not be moved. I will not sway, I will not waver, I will not change course, what you see today, you will see tomorrow. How I am right now, is how I am every day. This is the hardest part of this passage. We have to stay with the Lord. We cannot move. You move you come off the rock, you run and the victory has to chase you. Would you leave your fortress, to go outside while you were under attack? I would think not!

 

This verse is not just a “feel good verse” It is a declaration, it is a battle cry, it is a resounding resolution shouted for the world to hear. I SHALL NOT BE MOVED.  Do not be like my friend who will profess one thing, then act another. Do not read this verse, then go about your day as if you are not a new creation in Christ. Let the true meaning of this verse sink down into your marrow, let it fill your soul. He is my rock, my salvation,; he is my defense; I shall not be moved. Live it today, and every day to come. Live it like the victor that you are. Display it for the world to see. Let them know, you will not be moved.

 

 

God Bless,

 

Brian Thetford

 

The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22

 

The Workweek With Christ

 

Open Wide

Psalm 81:10  I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

 

 

Open your mouth, and I will fill it…..that sounds like fairly easy instructions to follow, however a quick look around, and it is easy to see that easy instructions are not always easy to follow instructions! In this passage we are reminded How God brought His people out of Egypt. That was a huge task, a task only the LORD could pull off. Yet as soon as  His people get out on their own, do they open their mouths wide, and bask in the blessings of the LORD? Nope! Most of them open their complaint line, and instead of thanking the LORD for their freedom, they moan, groan and complain, about what they don’t have. Fast forward, and we see God speak to the Prophets, here again, a few turn to the Lord, but most just open up the complaint department again. The Christ comes, many more people turn, but many more instead of opening their mouths for the blessings, only loosen their tongues, and complain through a mouth barely open enough to get the words out.  As usual we typically get in the way of ourselves.

 

What if I were to tell you that I would stuff your mouth with thousand dollar bills, as much as you could hold, so you would have to open wide. How wide so you think your mouth would be? I know I would be trying to unhinge it just to get a few more in there! I am sure that most would agree with that idea! I mean come on, we are talking about thousand dollar bills! Do you think you would stop and think about how dirty that money would be? There is no telling where those bills have been, in the trash, under plates, maybe on the floor of a crack house or two. There is filth covering them, yet we would all be in line begging to be loaded up!

 

Yet here we have God, telling us, “open wide your mouth, and I will fill it” there is no dirt, no filth, yet when it comes time to open our mouths, we only open wide enough to get the spoon in! We look like children taking that nasty pink anti biotic ! We know we need it, we know it will help, but for some reason we only complain. I have to believe it has to do with the way we have been trained. The world does not care much for compassion, it does not care much about forgiveness, and the world is always running short on love. We are taught that these things are only for those that are closest to us. It is that wrong-headed thinking that keeps our mouths shut when we stand before the LORD. You see, if we are to have ourselves filled with what God has to offer, we must break this worldly cycle of me first. God tells us to open our mouths, and He will fill it, and He does. HE fills it with Hope, Peace, Love, Forgiveness, Compassion, and Strength. It is out of these things that the success you are searching for will come, and it is because of these things that the success you realize will last. It is with these things, that you will prepare in this life for the next.

 

The Lord is not an ATM, although to hear some Preachers talk today you might think so! He does reward, and He does bless, but the Lords blessings typically come in work clothes, and it will take some effort to be successful. Think of Christ.  Talk about a work ethic! HE took the gifts that were given to Him by His Father, and He changed the world forever. If God was not willing to give His own Son a free pass, I am willing to bet that we will not get one either. The gift of salvation is free for the taking, but the successful opportunities will take some effort. Open wide your mouth, the King of kings is offering you as much blessing as you can hold, and then some.

 

 

God Bless,

 

Brian Thetford

 

The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22

 

The Workweek With Christ

 

No Do Overs

Galatians 6: 9  Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 

 

Let us not become weary in doing good. YUCK right? Really, don’t we all think that just a little when we hear that. That is one of those things that is much easier to say than it is to do. Don’t get me wrong here we all do good most of the time. Some more than others, but most of the time we all do good. But to not grow weary…..what does the even mean….right? Why would we ever grow weary? Oh yeah, because doing good take a lot of effort some days…..because doing good sometimes means that we pass ourselves over for the promotion, and give it to the guy that deserves it, doing good means we step up and take the blame, even though someone else has already been queued up to take the fall. Sometimes doing good means that things will not work out as well for us, and quite honestly, it is pretty easy to grow weary of taking the hit you deserve, or missing an opportunity that you don’t.

 

No, it is not always like that. Often doing good comes pretty easy, the easy compliment, the extra time (but it is not really extra you were not doing anything anyway) standing up for what is right…oh yeah, that one is not always easy. The skipping out on what you want to do, because someone needs you….oh sorry, that one is not easy either! Opening the door for others, there, that is an easy one! Then there is always giving that extra cash that you don’t HAVE to have, but you could really blow on something cool…oh sorry another hard one. Ok I think you see where I am going. Today when we talk about doing good, it typically stays at the superficial point. Opening doors, being nice, giving something that you did not want anyway. We gee people do that, and think, “oh. Man. Those are good people”. When we see people giving more than most, giving time they do not really have to give, putting others first, standing up for what is right. We don’t think they are doing good…no, we think, “MAN those people are doing GREAT things. Sadly, we have blurred the lies between doing good, and being nice. Being nice is a great thing, but it is not what we are really talking about when we say doing good. Doing good, is being nice in work clothes. Doing good means you are putting forth the effort to make a difference, you are putting yourself, your faith, your God out for all the world to see, and you stand on that Rock, and shout to the world doing less than goods is no longer acceptable. It is not a sometimes thing, or an I don’t feel like it today thing. It is all time, all access, filled with the love of the Lord endeavor. Sound tiring? Sound daunting? Sound painful? It is, and there is not a person who will not feel weary once the undertaking begins.

 

If it is so hard, if it is so tiresome then why do it? First and foremost we do it for the Lord. If He can hang on a cross, then defeat death, I am fairly sure that we can endure the undertaking of doing good…..but look at what the scripture tells us. At the proper time we will reap a harvest…….if we do not give up. I hear this quoted, and it seems that the last part gets left off a lot. Hey, do good, and you will reap a harvest. Sounds like a plan! However it leaves off the important part….IF YOU DON’T GIVE UP. You have to persevere. You have to push through the hardship, you have to push your ego down, and set yourself to the side sometimes. You have to drive this life like it is the only one you will get, because guess what? IT IS! No do overs, no re takes, no replays, no take backs, or fingers crossed. This is an all in hand. So we push to do good. When our egos are bruised and humbled, we push on doing good. When we are tired form a long day at work, and don’t want to go help in the community, or in our church, we push through doing good. When life kicks our teeth in and we feel like we don’t deserve it, we keep on doing good. We do this because we know that God has been working for the good in our lives, and He has pushed through for us. We fight the weariness because we know that there will be a harvest at the proper time. What we work for today, will be repaid double at the time of harvest.  What we don’t do is lay down and give up. That is exactly what the devil is hoping for. He is hoping that you will lay down, and give up. You know what comes next then right? You give up, and then you give in. You give in to the hate that comes when things do not go your way. You give in to the selfishness that tries to creep in at the end of the day. You give in to all of the things you were just fighting so hard to conquer with good.

 

There is little doubt that we will all get weary, we will feel like taking care of our wants, before other’s needs. We know that doing good, takes more work than just being nice. I do not know about you, but I do not care where nice guys finish. I will be with the good guys. They always finish first, because they are always the last. hanging at the back, rounding up the stragglers, helping the ones who need it, pulling those behind them, and pushing those in front of them. You can’t miss them. They are tired to the bone, but there is still the smile on their face, and a spark of the Lord in their eye. If you want to be first, then be last.

 

 

 

God Bless,

 

Brian Thetford

 

The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22

 

The Workweek With Christ

 

Who Is In Your Boat?

Mark 6: 50-51  ….Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 

 

 

We all know this story. It is the account of Jesus walking out to meet the Disciples in their boat. Oh did I mention that Jesus was walking on water to get there. No matter what account you read, they all have the same things in common. The Disciples were in a boat on a lake, and the winds, were getting the best of them. They were struggling, Jesus saw it, and He went out to help. Of course Jesus shows up, climbs in the boat, and the wind dies down, and they were completely amazed.   Huh, imagine that, Jesus gets in the boat and the wind dies down. Funny how that happens. Here we have a group of guys, they are good Christian(well, they are not called Christian yet) men, they are following the Lord, they are changing their lives, and helping to change others….Yet here we see them, being tossed around on a lake like a cork…..they did not have Christ with them!

 

So I have to ask, who did you take in your boat this morning as you launched out into the day? Who will you give a ride to toady? Who will be in your boat on your trip back home? Most of us will leave by ourselves, we will pick up a few people, and drop them off throughout the day, and when the day is over, we will turn the boat in the direction of the house and set out for home. Throughout the day we will typically run through storms, showers, and on the good days…bright sunshine…..but who is with us? Have we left without taking the One passenger that will get us home safely? The One passenger that will calm the storms of life? Too many people today want to be the Captain of their ship. They set out alone, and return alone. They leave Christ back at the house tucked neatly in whatever box they use, only to dust Him off on Sundays, then return Him back to His box.

 

As I am sure you will agree, Christ is too big to try and stuff into a box. He is the one person you want in your boat of life every day, not just as a passenger, but step up to the plate, and let Him Captain your ship.  Why? The last part of this scripture sums it up. They were completely amazed. We are not that different form the Disciples. We are all human. These guys ran with Christ every day, and every night, and yet time and time again when Christ showed up, when He did what only He can do, it is recorded that they were always amazed. The KJV reads that “they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure.” This was not the first time that Christ had stepped in and brought them peace. Yet they were amazed. It would be safe to say that they lived in a constant state of amazement! That is why we make sure we have Christ in our boat. SO we too can live in a state of amazement. Think you are good? Christ is better. Think you are strong? Christ is stronger. Think you are un-sinkable? I can promise you, without Christ you are not.

 

When you set out to sail today, make sure and take Christ with you. Give Him the rudder, and let Him direct your steps. The bright sunny days will be brighter, the dark stormy days will be shorter, and with Christ at you side you will see beauty through it all, you will be sheltered during the storms, and your joy will be complete. You too will understand what it means to be sore amazed in yourself beyond measure. You will find that fear will have no hold on you. For with Christ as your Captain, the roughest of seas are smooth sailing.

 

 

 

God Bless,

 

Brian Thetford

 

The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22

 

The Workweek With Christ

 

Who Do You Trust?

Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

 

 

I work for a pretty cool guy. One of the things that really amazes me about him, is his ability to see much further down the road than I can…..or further than most people here for that matter. Even he cannot see far enough, and as he will tell you himself, that is why he works with a partner. That partner would be the Lord.  There comes a time in everyone’s life, in every decision that we make, that we have to turn it over to the Lord. Even the best of the best, that can see things that others can’t, still cannot see enough. We can try to think how others will act, but it is just a guess. We can try to plan out a path to take, but that path will depend on others doing, and acting like you need them to act, and all too often God’s plans for others will not coincide with your plans for them.

 

That is why we have to trust in the Lord, not ourselves, or in others. We believe in the Lord, and that the Lord will work in those around us, not for our benefit, but for the execution of His plan. AS we all know, that means sometimes we get the short end of the stick, other times unbelievably, they work out just how we want them to. The danger that comes from leaning on our understanding, is that we begin not to rely just on ourselves, but we start looking for people here to follow. Those people might not always  be what they appear, their plans might not be what they present them to be. I watched a movie last night, I can’t recall the name. It was a “b” movie, but it was a period piece, and I am a sucker for anything from the 13^th and 14^th century.  Part of the show centered around a young man who was leading a large group of children to Jerusalem so that they might pray for peace. The only adult among them was a priest that was helping guide the young leader. Towards the end of the show it is revealed that the priest is really just collecting children so that he might get them to the coast, and sell them to slave traders. Not exactly what the crusade of peace was supposed to be accomplishing. It got me to thinking, isn’t that how the devil works? He depends on us to place our faith and trust into something or someone other than the Lord. Then the devil manipulates the situation. Now the good that you thought you were doing, has turned into a trap of the devil. You are in neck deep before you even realize it….if you are lucky enough to realize it at all. When we trust in others to give us what only God can, we will always be disappointed, and taken advantage of. It is when these things happen that you often hear the phrase why do bad things happen to good people. I have a painful truth to share, one that I and many others have had to learn the hard way. Good people are not always God people. I am quite certain that even the devil can present himself as good for a short time, if it advanced his wicked agenda.

 

That is why it is written repeatedly in the Bible, trust in the Lord. The Lord is not a liar, He does not deceive, He does not manipulate you. He will set your feet on the path that will lead you home, He will guide you, and He will protect you. Oh I know I hear a lot of people ask the question “how do I know if it is God’s plan” “how do I know if this is what God has planned for me” “how do I know if I am making the right choice” those are tough questions for sure, but we can get a pretty good answer to those questions, by asking a couple more. Does it serve God, or does it serve me? If it is something that serves to benefit you more than God, you can bet that you might want to pray a little more. Moses, David, Joseph, Joshua, Paul, these were great men, who accomplished great things, and they accomplished them by trusting in God. They promoted God in their life, not themselves. AS a result, God promoted them.

 

Just like that priest in the movie I mentioned. The young boy placed his faith in the priest, now, there were signs, decisions made, directions taken, commands given, (all in the name of God of course) that gave an outsider the ability to see that the priest was serving himself, not God. Yet the priest was smart, he inflated the boys ego. As a result, the boy would pick up on things, yet it was hard to break away, because who does not want to be important? Who does not want to feel special? These are the tactics of evil. There are many people out there, I am sure you know of a few, that are serving themselves, yet pretending they are serving God. God is not into the your self-promotion business, He is in the business of salvation. The Lord leads to eternity, self-promotion leads to death.

 

Our own understanding tends to be short sighted, and as much as we hate to admit it, our own understanding tends to lean towards just being good, not being Christ like. It goes back to feeling special, feeling important, feeling needed, feeling loved……feeling “cool”  The purest form of these things can only come from the Lord…..and guess what? You already have them. Think you are not important? God has chosen you, He has known you before you were formed, and it is His greatest hope that you complete His plan. Think you are not special? There is not another person like you, you are unique. No one else can do what you are capable of. Every hurt, sorrow, joy, and triumph has molded you into what you are today, and you have a special viewpoint that is a little different than anyone else. God uses that, if you will let Him. Think you are not loved? How about someone loving you so much, not a group of people, not an entire world, but you, just you are loved so much, that He sent His Son so that you might live for eternity with Him. These are things you can trust in. It is because of these truths, that we can trust in the Lord only. Your Mom, your Dad, your spouse, no one can love you as much, as deeply, and as unconditionally as the Lord. Why then would we place our trust, and faith in anything or anyone above the Lord? Trust the Lord, and you will see His blessings multiply, trust in man, and you will be disappointed. Trust in yourself alone, and you will fall short.

 

Who will you trust in? Will you trust the people, and things that puff you up? Will you trust in the things and the people that only want to elevate you or themselves? Will you choose to trust in the Lord, the rock, our anchor in the storms of life? Only One will save you, only One will sustain you, only One will bless you, not only in this life, but in the life to come. You are going to have to serve somebody. It might be the devil, or it might be the Lord, but we all serve. Who you trust, will make all of the difference.

 

 

God Bless,

 

Brian Thetford

 

The Ridge Fellowship

 

Psalm22

 

The Workweek With Christ