Change is possible

My sport psychology teacher told our class a couple weeks ago, “people may change their behavior for a time, but in the end they’ll always go back to who they really are. Real change isn’t possible.”

What a depressing thought. If that were true then there is no hope or reason for living. Thieves couldn’t stop stealing, drug addicts could never break the habit and prostitutes wouldn’t stop answering to their pimp. They might stop for a time but then they’d fall right back into the addiction, habits and patterns eventually no matter how badly they want to.

The thing is, there is hope. Lives can be altered not just for a brief moment but also for eternity. Change, real life-change is possible.

It’s where the change comes from that makes the difference. My teacher was right about one thing: we might make behavior modifications and change the way we live our lives, you know, clean things up. We promise God we’ll do better, we’ll stop partying, stop cussing, stop sleeping around, stop doing whatever it is we feel guilty about, but in the end, if left to our own, we’ll go right back to the way we’ve always done things.

We might look clean for a little while, we read our Bible more, go to church, try the whole talking-to-God thing, but it’s never enough.

God has to make the change. And the good news is that He specializes in life changes.

When we get frustrated enough with our lives and the depressing cycle of sin and the emptiness it always brings all we have to do is turn to God. Repent and believe is the Lord’s cry for each of us. All we have to do is look at the bloody and beautiful cross to see His Son’s agonizing death and realize the extent of His plea for our souls. He wants our hearts. He wants to make them new.

“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.” –Ezekiel 36:26-27

When we repent of our sins and believe what God said He takes our hearts of stone that were hardened from birth to His truths, His love and His presence, and replaces it with a living, breathing heart of flesh. He makes what is dead to Him and softens it where we can now experience His life and relentless love and when that happens everything changes.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.” -2 Corinthians 5:17

So, I respectfully disagree with my teacher. Change is possible. Lives can be forever transformed and hope is always present. All we have to do is repent and believe; God does the changing.

  “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plentiful redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” –Psalm 130:7-8

Oh, how He loves us

"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows..." -Isaiah 53:4

Not to sound redundant, but He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows!

That's good news. He has carried them so we don't have to - the pain we're feeling He's already taken upon Himself so we don't have to buckle under the pressure of trying to bear it ourselves. What a sweet and loving Father!

So I’ll [stand]

How often things don’t go the way I planned in my head. I mean, there I am with this perfectly realistic scenario in my head and all too soon I'm looking to God with questions of why my scenario didn’t play out the way I intended.

My life has been full of this cycle – from dreaming about shooting in the Olympics to training for the Olympics to the painful realization that my shoulder was messed up and I couldn’t shoot without pain and my competitive rifle career was over, to looking to God for answers – I mean, I thought the Olympics was His plan for me all along. After all, didn’t He realize how many lives I could reach with the Gospel if I made it to the world’s stage?

It sounds corny and dumb, but I believed all of that.

Even last weekend my plans and God’s plans had another head-on collision, but only one stood in the end.

I was in Louisville with the Murray State basketball team for the NCAA Tournament. The Racers had won their first game against Colorado State and the day before they were going to play Marquette, two huge upsets hit the world of college basketball: Mizzou and Duke both lost. Mizzou was in our bracket and, had everything gone the way most people envisioned, would have been the next “big” opponent for Murray State had both teams won.

Confidence pulsated through me when Mizzou fell. I just knew that was the Lord going before the Racers and making smooth their path, in my opinion, He had already placed them in the best possible bracket so I knew Murray State was going to best Marquette and we would be on our way to Phoenix in a few short days.

Once we arrived in Phoenix we would play Missouri then either Louisville or Michigan State in the Elite Eight, and of course beat them, then move on to the Final Four. I could see it all happening in my head.

I firmly believed this (at least the part where we beat Marquette) up until the last three minutes of the game Saturday when Marquette pulled away from the Racers and God, again, showed me His plans were not my plans and His ways were not my ways.

That lesson never gets any easier.

However, when things don’t go the way we planned, wanted or imagined we can take great hope in knowing it didn’t take God by surprise.

“Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” –Isaiah 46:8-10

He is sovereign over our lives and we can take great comfort in knowing that He doesn’t have a plan B.

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” –Proverbs 19:21

“The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.” –Psalm 33:10-11

He frustrates our plans because He wants our heart, our dependence and the glory He deserves. If everything went as we planned we would have no need for God and we would get the glory for our lives staying as right as rain. But we do need Him and He loves us too much not to show us that need.

The great news is that because He and His glorious plans (that work everything to the good of those who trust in Him, even if it doesn’t feel like it) stand, so can we.

“Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.” –Jude 24-25

I want a love like...

There are lots of things I love.

Warm patches of sunshine

Coffee and conversation

Journaling

Murray State Basketball

Cooking

Blue ink pens

Africa

Finding shapes in the clouds

Baseball

The Olympics

Lists

Little black babies

… and adventures, just to name a few.

But what is real love?

The culture I’m surrounded by tells me love is when a guy finds you attractive enough to get in bed with you or if he makes a girl’s heart flutter and her stomach swirl with anticipation and longing then that must be love.

The movies tell us love is when a guy rescues the damsel in distress or pushes through her stubbornness to rescue her from herself and the fear she is holding on to. Take this quote for instance, “All a girl needs is one guy to prove to her they’re not all the same.”

There are other movies that tell you a guy loves you if he won’t suck your blood even if he is desperately drawn to it.

Wow.

Then there are the sappy songs (that I catch myself humming along with) talking about someone taking your breath away, making you feel like you were living a teenage dream and making you want to say OMG.

There is also the sweet song about wanting a love like Johnny and June, but that’s not the kind of love I want.

I want a love like Christ and the church.

After Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden they were separated from God and, as a consequence, so was every man and woman after them. (That means us.) But God, in His brilliant planning, sent His perfect Son to absorb His wrath so we could have freedom from the chains of sin, insecurity and fear.

His love sent Him to the cross. His love, when we repent and believe in Him and His atoning blood, cancels our sin. His love redeems us from Adam’s fall and our sin-filled nature. His love gives us a friendship with the Creator of the Universe. His love makes dead people live. His love lights up the sky and lights up our hearts.

His love is my motivation for life.

“And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.” –Colossians 1:21-22

It’s not some cheap love that can be thrown away or something that fades when the infatuation and emotions die down, it’s a genuine, living, breathing, eternal love. It's beautiful, relentless and furious, stretching to the highest mountain and reaching into the furthest depths of the sea. It's a love that will never let you down.

Before you watch the Superbowl...

In honor of today's Superbowl featuring the New York Giants and Tom Brady's New England Patriots I wanted to share this video.

For the longest time I thought Mr. Brady was an obnoxious, egocentric jerk, but this video changed my perceptions completely and broke my heart. I actually cried the first time I watched this. Please watch.

There is so much more to life than sports, sex, money and fame. Those things will never satisfy, as the Superbowl Champion so aptly put.

Only Jesus Christ can satisfy the soul. Only in His presence can real and lasting joy and pleasure be experienced.

"You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." -Psalm 16:11

 So as you enjoy today's Superbowl, may this video cause you to look at the game with new eyes.

If you're longing for something more, it's Jesus. Investigate His Word and dare Him to change you- He will.

My Prayer

Here Am I, Send Me

by Matt Papa

Lord, here am I, won't You send me to

The broken and the weak

To the desperate and forgotten, Lord

I'm giving You everything

All my selfish plans, my greedy hands

My hope in the American dream

Lord I give my life, lay down my pride

I'm giving You everything, God,

'''Here am I send me

I’ll follow wherever You lead

I will tell the world that Jesus is the way

Send me Lord here I am

I offer my dreams my plans

I will give my life a living sacrifice

Lord here I am'''

I can see You Lord upon Your throne

You're high and You're lifted up

All the angels singing “Holy, Holy”

I'm broken and undone

Now an angel comes to touch my lips

Says You're sins are all taken away

Jesus paid the price, yeah He gave His life

So Father hear Your people say

'''Here am I send me

I’ll follow wherever You lead

I will tell the world that Jesus is the way

Send me Lord here I am

I offer my dreams my plans

I will give my life a living sacrifice

Lord here I am'''

Whom shall I send?

Who will go for us?

Whom shall I send?

'''Here am I send me

I’ll follow wherever You lead

I will tell the world that Jesus is the way

Send me Lord here I am

I offer my dreams my plans

I will give my life a living sacrifice

Lord here I am'''

Top-10 Worst Bible Names for 2012

For those of you considering naming your future child after a Biblical character, here are a few names I suggest staying away from for the sake of your child's emotional security (and your ability to pronounce their name):

1. Nebuchadnezzar

2. Ahasuerus

3. Shealtiel

4. Amminadab

5. Methuselah

(Seriously. Can you imagine your poor baby kindergartner learning to write these names?)

6. Jidlaph

7. Jehoshaphat

8. Mahalaleel (this might be my favorite)

9. Hazarmoveth (that's a good one too)

10. Arpachshad

There are so many more options, but you get the picture- God has a sense of humor. 

Remember to laugh. God is the author of joy.