I couldn’t believe I had done it again – I bought Pepsi Max.  Not as good as Coke Zero, but it was on sale.  Here’s why I couldn’t believe it…

In July 2007 (I know because I journaled it) I was drinking the new Diet Pepsi Max as I was getting our VBS ready for our church in Toledo.  Through a period of about 2 weeks, I was EXTREMELY stressed and anxious on the inside.  No matter how much I prayed, the feeling got more and more intense.  I honestly thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown.

Then one day I felt like I needed to check how I felt while drinking Pepsi Max.  As I charted how I was feeling, I realized that this ultra caffeinated drink was wreaking havoc on the inside. It’s weird because no other pop does that to me.   As I cut myself off from this drink, I finally started gaining more control over my emotions.  But that was weird.

So, just this week I decided to give this drink another try, and yet again the same feelings of anxiety have crept up.

Am I trying to tell you to boycott Pepsi Max?  Maybe.  But I think more importantly I would say that SOMETIMES the issues we’re struggling with may be a physical thing and not a spiritual thing.  For me it was ridding myself of Pepsi Max.

Maybe for you it’s that you just need to get a good night’s sleep.  Or you need to drink more water and keep yourself hydrated.  Maybe it’s less time on my butt watching TV, and more time on the eliptical (ah, conviction – I’m so lazy sometimes).

Part of the Greatest Command is that we would love God with our mind and our strength, but too often we just minimize all our problems down to a heart and soul thing.  I want to love Him the best I can, and it involves ALL areas of the life He has given me.

I’m challenged today.
TJ

I had nothing really spiritual to say today, so I decided that I would pimp a web site that I’ve been using quite a bit lately.  It is called, “LaLa” (www.lala.com).

I’ve been using it for the last 3 months and really like it.  Here’s why:

• You can upload your mp3s up to the website, so your collection will be available anytime online.
• When you sign up, they give you 50 free web songs to download to your online collection.
• You can buy what they call a web album which you can listen to streaming at any time – for only $1.
• This can easily be used on an iPhone or iPod Touch, or even a computer with wireless internet access.
• They have new music every Friday being uploaded.
• You can still buy mp3s to download for 79 to 99 cents.

There’s many good things – so I encourage you to check it out.  That’s it.  Have a great day.

“It is better to be criticized by a wise person than to be praised by a fool.”  Ecclesiastes 7:5

I think the question is:  Who are you spending time talking with and learning from?  Am I spending most of my time with wise people or with foolish people?

It takes effort to spend time with wise people, and even then they’re not gonna sing your praises all the time.  From what I’ve found, the wise person who serves God will often challenge my paradigm and the way that I see things.  At first it might rub me wrong, but that’s what challenge is meant to do – get us uncomfortable so that we can change!

If I’m hanging with people that are always praising me – I need to get some more challenging friends.

I was just really challenged by this thought today.

Last night I gave a message on sin and its effects in REPO last night.  When I give messages like this I’ve seen basically the same responses before – you know, the basic things that teens struggle with.

However, last night as we opened up the chance to talk about where people are at – we found some deep and sad issues that students were struggling with.  It just made me so sad to hear some of their stories – and just praying harder for them than ever before.

But I realized last night and am realizing this morning that when God says he wants to heal us – he means he wants to heal EVERYTHING.  Not just the easy surface issues that we sometimes confess flippantly at the altar.  I thank God that the Holy Spirit worked in these students’ lives to the point that they felt God could help to heal that issue.  He is their healer!

It’s challenging me this morning to really think if there are things in me that I might need to deal with.  Stuff that’s below the surface but that I haven’t given to the Healer.  What about you?  Maybe God wants to do a deeper work of healing in your life today.  Let’s not hold back ANYTHING from His loving eyes and healing hands.

I’m just claiming this verse today, “But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.”  Malachi 4:2

Sometimes you just gotta stop feeling crappy, and start changing the temperature of the room.  That’s what a thermostat does.  You’ve heard the old leadership lesson – don’t be a thermometer (measuring the temperature of the room), be a thermostat (set the temperature).

It’s a great thought on paper, but not so easy when you actually have to do it.  I’m at a conference and was feeling kind of introspective (thermometer-y).  However, we got some time to go on our own and pray – and I was sitting there going – “God please speak to me.  I’m having a hard time hearing you.”  But then I felt really clearly like the charge to me was, “Go be a thermostat.  Be as friendly as you want people to be with you.  Care like you want others to care.  Encourage others.”

And you see – this is totally biblical because it says in Proverbs 11:25, “Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”  So good.  I’m more awake tonight than before.  I’ve been refreshed by God and the company of others.

I just got done reading Bono’s guest article in the NY Times (here).  His thoughts were compelling, but as I finished reading the article I had another thought…

I wonder how often Bono checks the comments on the article.

Honestly, I don’t even know if he does.  Who would have time to listen to every Joe Schmo from Schenectady, NY?  Bono is a busy man, meeting with people who can make the difference when it comes to poverty.  He is in the meetings that are changing the aid we give to people who are dying of prevenatble diseases.  Difference makers listen well, but don’t let that drive their action or change their minds when they’ve found truth.

I think many of us write for an audience response, and become pretty lousy, boring writers in the process.  But what if we wrote because the ideas, thoughts, prayers, and quotes that we had just couldn’t stay contained inside of us?  What if we wrote because there is a message that must get out to people regardless of their response?

If I’m relying on comments or feedback to drive me, then I have worthless thoughts that should be kept stored in the basement of my soul.  But if what’s inside of me must come out, regardless of the way people respond to me – then that may be an idea or Truth that can change the world.

What do you do when you feel like God is frantically writing new things into your heart, mind, and journal?  I’m so freakin’ excited about what He’s doing inside of me, I feel like I could explode.

However excitement doesn’t always translate into action.  There have been times where I’ve been so excited about God working in my life, then a week later having no excitement at all.  I was a like a kid so excited about going to Cedar Point, but not jumping on the bus that’s gonna take me there.

Faith and excitement give us the drive to do great things for God, but action happens when you make the not so glamourous choices of visiting a student at their home, praying at the time you’ve committed to God, or serving your co-workers even though they frustrate you.

Dynamite is powerful because the right ingredients are packed into a simple stick of dynamite.  In exciting times, I need to make sure I’m packing the stick of dynamite with God’s ingredients, and not just hoping I’ll explode.

Here is something I shared with our student disciples last night about why I (and probably you) need to spend time with God daily…

Why should we set aside time daily to pray?

Relationship – because God is our greatest love – we must set aside time for Him.  No good relationship happens on the go.  Deut 4:24 – God is jealous.  Nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:39)

Reflection

• To repent – of even small sins the Holy Spirit can point out.  (1 Jn 1:9)
• To not repeat – “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”        Einstein

Repair Hurts – people that have hurt us, we need to forgive and repair those hurts so when we see them the next day – we have forgiveness in our hearts instead of bitterness (Eph. 4:26)

Revision – Ex: English teacher’s red pen.  Correct mistakes and lesser ideas to write a better story.

• We need fresh perspective on our next day to live God’s way. (Prov. 29:18)
• We waste time more than God wants us to.

WE NEED JESUS MORE.  WE’RE NOT GOD – WE NEED HIM DAILY!  NOW LET’S STOP TALKING ABOUT IT AND START DOING IT.

Ok, now I’ve read this passage a lot, but I never realized how much this passage in Ephesians hinges on Ephesians 5:18 where it says:  “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life.  INSTEAD LET THE HOLY SPIRIT FILL AND CONTROL YOU.”

What’s crazy is how Paul goes on to show us 10 gifts that come from being filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit.

“Then you will…” (v.19)

• Sing and make music to God (v.19)
• Give thanks (v.20)
• Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (v.21)
• Wives will submit to husbands as they do to the Lord (v.22-24)
• Husbands will loves wives like Christ loves the Church (v.25-33)
• Children will obey their parents (6:1-3)
• Parents will not exasperate their children (6:4)
• Workers will obey their bosses (6:5-8) – please forgive my modernization.
• Bosses will treat their workers right (6:9) – same here.
• We will be strong in the Lord’s mighty power to stand firm against the Devil (6:10-20)

Do you see how being filled and controlled by God’s Holy Spirit can literally revolutionize life and relationship? We ALL need this and shouldn’t settle for anything less.

“The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men.  He does not come on machinery, but on men.  He does not anoint plans, but men – men of prayer.” ~ EM Bounds, ‘Power Thru Prayer’

Why am I so egotistical as to think that my plans will work when I have spent so little time talking to God in the process?  At times I find myself so double-minded because I didn’t take the proper time before a project or sermon to commit it to the Lord and ask for His direction.

I need to start neglecting my Macbook, instead of neglecting prayer.  I need to start pushing the plans back, instead of pushing prayer back.  I need to stop relying on proven principles and start relying on the proven power of God.

I’m just a broken down machine who needs to rely on the Holy Spirit more now than ever.

” Many are the plans in a human heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21

” Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3