"V" for Victory

Victories in life seem so important. Think of the last genuine victory you experienced. Was it your favorite team winning its championship, or simply a bidding war online? Victory is a big deal on this earth, we seek it in just about every area of our lives and will do just about anything to achieve it.

Yet our victories are so shorted lived, most don’t last past the locker room celebration or through to the next day. Sure we revel in them, we flash “V” signs for victory sing “We are the champions of the world” but honestly the sun sets on our greatest victories and we dawn to a new season of seeking another victory of similar or same.

That is what makes the victory that Jesus Christ won over death and sin so amazing. Its potent power lasts even to this day! As the third day rolled into view God’s power was not just revealed in the ability to raise a body from death (already did that with Lazzy boy), but it is displayed in the complete victory. 2000 years ago Jesus conquered death and that victory lasts to this very day and beyond. It means that you and I can rest in that His victory NEVER EXPIRES. The stone that rolled away was the icon of a “no expiration date on that can of goodies.

Regardless of how your life is going today, remember that the cause you have surrendered your life to wins in the end. A loss today is still victory in Christ tomorrow. President Woodrow Wilson once said “I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose!”

“You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.” (Psalm 18:35)

Single Engine Flying

Surrendering can be one of the most difficult things to do in life. It’s the release of control the removal of our hand from the stick that steers our lives.

Growing up I had the privilege of learning to fly single engine airplanes. My father is a pilot and loves just about everything about airplanes. Naturally, he taught me how to fly at a very young age. The memory of my first take-off is still very vivid. Sitting at the end of this very long dirt road, my dad roared the 145 horsepower, six-cylinder, air-cooled engine and hit the brakes hard. You always test the engine on the ground before you take off. Better to know of problems there than in the air.

He lets go of the breaks not unlike he had done hundreds of times before, but this time was different, I WAS AT THE CONTROLS! Left on the rudder, right again—trying to stay on the runway as we pick up speed. 60...70….80 miles per hour. Yoke is pulled back, the throttle is maxed, the flaps are all the way down and we start to leave the earth. Then I panic and start to pull to far back on the yoke.

-Time out, you see a proper take off needs just the right amount of lift and the pilot does not yank back on the yoke all the way, it takes balance and adjustments. Pulling too far back will cause the plane to stall and it will slam into the ground at 100 miles per hour, Time in.-

Now, my dad is fighting my paniced, rigored muscles clamped to the yoke. He is trying to keep us in a steady climb while all I want to do is pull back on the stick or push forward to far and nose it into the ground. I have to let go or we just might die.

Usually that is the same thing with Jesus in our lives, surrender is the hardest thing to do, but if we don’t we will die and be seperated from real life. I encourage you to surrender to whatever God is asking of you today, give Him the yoke.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

DodgeBall, Submission and Life!

SUBMISSION! Wow what a nasty word. The definition of it means to be compliant or humble. To truly submit, you must yield to the authority and control of another. Sure it’s an ugly word in our so-called liberated society, but we all still do it. It does not matter your role in life we all are submitted in some form or another. Yet often our memories of submission are negative and recall pain of being stepped on. Thus we rebel against the ideas and lose it’s benefits.

I am certain most of us had a childhood moment of standing in line waiting to be picked by the opposite teams. Whether it was kickball, dodge-ball or football we submitted to the authority of the team captain. Boy it stunk to be picked last, almost like; “well since I have to even out the teams you can play”, a embarrassing situation. Or what about the war of the roses: where man tries to control the women and tell her what to do because “he’s the man” or the woman constantly belittles her husband because “she knows better”. Someone has to give in at sometime and when they do often another negative experience occurs.

What if I told you that submission is actually positive, life-giving? What if submission never has to be negative? Because of one person, Jesus Christ, taking all the negative impact of submission and what is left over is only the benefits. The rub comes in where we have to submit to Him. And not just us, but for it to truly work our spouses, our kids, our companies, our governments all need to submit to His authority. We have to leave the results, the justice, the final curtain call up to Him. To gain His benefits of we have to submit our goals, our dreams, our jobs, our families our bad choices, our good choices, our finances, our schooling, our marriages, our relationships, everything needs to be offered to Him. When we genuinely do this, we surrender the outcome to His will and as a result we don’t have to worry about it. Yet, the same evil in us and this world that twists submission makes us unable to accomplish it. We need something greater than us to help us

C.S. Lewis said “…we now need God’s help in order to do something which God, in His own nature, never does at all—to surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die….You and I can go through this process only if God does it in us….”

(Psalm 73:26) “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Body by Jake?

What’s the latest “total gym” item you bought? Was it the total gym, or something by a guy named Jake? Often those exercise machines are used once if we are lucky and placed in storage. Ever wonder why their big selling points are “Easy to store! It just folds under your bed.” That’s because that is where most of it’s time will be spent.

Why do we do that in our physical life and in our emotional search for belonging we keep running on these machines? Each week our papers are packed with them, commercials on TV beckon to them and our society worships them. King Solomon learned this long before treadmill machines existed.

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

Wisdom is meaningless, pleasures are meaningless, recklessness is meaningless, labor is meaningless, advancement is meaningless, riches are meaningless, each one of them come to an end leaving a hole. The only thing that brings life to a person is Christ. Remember that when style, success, and status pull on you to sacrifice your self-worth to them. Only in Christ do all these things become meaningful.

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)