Missing Out

I heard of a story of a man that was considered the wealthiest person in the large town where he resided. He was successful in politics, and business, and had a large estate in the most exclusive "old money" part of town. The problem is that the man did not live there. Neither did he involve himself in politics, or business, or family life. He did not invest his money, nor help others with it.Instead, he was living life as a homeless drunk. Alcohol had consumed him due to a breakdown and depression in his life. I truly hurt for the man.
Did you know that we are the same as him? According to the Bible, we have access to many spiritual and physical blessings that we are not taking advantage of for one reason or another. Reasons like self ...pride, being afraid of change...being content. Or other things like addictions that harm us or attitudes that prevent growth. My challenge for all of us is to move back in to the provision and blessing of God, There is more for you than you have experienced. It's not about going to church on Sunday and being good. There is so,so much more. It's time to move home. Jory

Bitter Roots

Hebrews 12:14-16 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
14 Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness —without it no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and by it, defiling many.

Hebreos 12:14-16 (La Biblia de las Américas)
14Buscad la paz con todos y la santidad, sin la cual nadie verá al Señor.
15Mirad bien de que nadie deje de alcanzar la gracia de Dios; de que ninguna raíz de amargura, brotando, cause dificultades y por ella muchos sean contaminados;

Swahili New Testament (SNT)
14Tafuteni kwa bidii kuwa na amani na watu wote, na utaka tifu, ambao bila kuwa nao, hakuna mtu atakayemwona Bwana. 15Angalieni sana mtu ye yote asishindwe kupata neema ya Mungu, na muwe waangalifu pasizuke chuki ambayo, kama mmea wenye sumu, inaweza kukua ikaleta matatizo na kuwachafua wengi.

Hébreux 12:14-16 (Louis Segond)
14Recherchez la paix avec tous, et la sanctification, sans laquelle personne ne verra le Seigneur.
15Veillez à ce que nul ne se prive de la grâce de Dieu; à ce qu'aucune racine d'amertume, poussant des rejetons, ne produise du trouble, et que plusieurs n'en soient infectés;

It may seem odd to you that I placed a scripture verse at the beginning of the blog, and in different languages. I wanted to make sure that more people got this thought besides english speaking folks.
A few years back, I was in my lovely home in Ohio (go Buckeyes) when all of a sudden, my basement sprung a leak. Well, not a leak, per-se, more like a waterfall! When I located the source, it happened to be my main water line coming in from the well that fed from the underground spring. (can someone say....free water?) My guys and I sat out to repair the problem which required the three of us to remove a large shrub, and dig half the day down six or so feet to the entrance point of the home. It was hard work, but we finally made it. To our surprise, the cause of the problem was that a large root from the shrub that we removed had wrapped itself around the fresh water line, and cracked it in two, causing the damage. The root prevented us from having fresh water.

A root of bitterness, and unforgiveness works the same way. It will cut off the fresh wellspring of life preventing a flow of newness to come in to your house. My challenge for us today is to not allow bitter things to take root in our lives. If we do, it will just get worse. The longer you allow it to grow, the harder it will be to dig down in to the ground and get rid of it. Let the fresh water flow again in your life. Jory

Living for the moment

As My Family and I watched the Olympics, and observed some of our guys and gals recieving the gold medals that they had won, I used the time as an opportunity to reflect upon my life, as well as use it as a teaching moment for my kids. I reminded them that these atheletes were the best of the best, but that it did not happen overnight. I told them that the summer games only happened every four years, and that most of these people have dedicated their entire lives to live for this few days of competition. I heard on a radio broadcast a few weeks ago that the average gymnast spends over eighty thousand dollars to be trained! For these families, nothing else mattered. It was all about 2008. No activity, thought, trip, desire stood in the way of the one shot that they would have to make the team. Nothing!
My hearts desire is to have that level of desire for what God wants to do in my life! No other goal can compete. No award can take the place of the gold medal Christ has for me. Once I put this as my priority, I find many things that I do can be discarded to make room for what is important. Like Paul in the book of Phillipians, I am finding things that I now consider rubbish in order to press toward the prize. May I make the team, and finish well, and may I meet you there as well. Jory

Love at first sight?

Do you remember the old saying "things are not always what they seem"? It is very true. I on more than a few occasions have gone to a vending machine and pushed the button for a certain soda, and received something totally different. Lynne and I were driving down the road the other day, and saw a nice Jeep for sale, and was boasting a low price. It looked good initially, but upon closer inspection, and a different view of the Jeep that we did not see from the road, we discovered the reason for the low price. The whole left side was caved in! Seems that the Jeep had a date with a tree in the woods, and it did not go too well. A few thoughts that I pondered about that moment.
1. You get what you pay for. Usually if you want quality, it will cost you. Excellence is expensive. I can buy a $10 watch that works, or I can order a $160k watch that takes 2 years to build by hand just for me. In our spiritual life, it is the same. Pay the price for excellence with God. You cannot have a "Billy Graham" life with a "Billy Bob" prayer life. (sorry Billy Bob)
2.Look harder, get a new perspective. It pays to get a new angle on things. Look at stuff differently. Look closer in to a matter. Chances are, if you do, you will see things in a different way, and new information will be found. Spiritually... we need God's perspective on stuff rather than using our human eyes and intelligence. We also need Godly counsel from other people. My wife has kept me out of some dingers with her "woman's perspective" on things. More later. Be blessed. Jory Hire

Working On it!

Remember my last post? Well.... I am trying to get our podcast going, but am having some issues. Yes...I have asked for help, but not of our great minds have figured it out yet. Once I am up, it will glorious. Thanks for your patience. Jory

OS...PS...APPLE What??

As many of my friends know, I am not that great of a computer wiz. I am certainly what most would call an "end user". If it is working, I am good. If not, call my brother, even son....not me. But it does not take rocket science to figure this one out.

In an attempt to do some upgrades (yes...on my own. don't tell my wife) I started downloading some software that I thought would be useful. That is when I got this wonderful pop-up icon that stated..."warning...this program is not compatable with your operating system. The continuation of this download could cause problems with your computer." Now, I heeded that advise, because it made sense. But how many of you have had this happen and still downloaded the software, later to regret it?

In our spiritual lives, we try to do the same. You see the Bible states that if we are in Christ (those who accept the message of the bible and live according to it's teachings, believing on Jesus) you are a new creature. Ergo, we have a new operating system! So, what happens when you try to use the old operating system? One word....CRASH. Don't act so surprised when you are having a "slow down" or a malfunction when you have incompatable software running. You cannot act or live like the world or your old self and get away with it. We must do a system check and clean out our hard drive. Optimize your faith by filtering everything through the Word of God. Do not download stuff that opens your i.p. adress to all kinds of viruses and incompatabilities. If you are operating with the old system (a life of sin and seperation from God) UPGRADE NOW! you were not designed to operate like you do. Do not try to patch things up. God wants to give you a whole new system. Think on these things. Jory

A record harvest In your life

I was speaking to a friend the other day who told me an amazing story that I would like to share with you. He was speaking to a farmer who let him know a bit about farming. Most of us think that the hard work is bringing in the harvest. Not the case though. The hard work is all of the prep time, getting the soil right, and choosing the right seed. You will not have a great harvest, if you do not have great prep work or average seed. The farmer told him that he and his family decided that they would plant their whole farm with corn last year. The also decided to go ahead and spend the extra cost in buying a really expensive seed and see what happened. Come harvest, they brought in four times as much corn as the yeild before! That also meant four times as much profit!
The question for us today...me included is "what kind of seeds are we planting in our lives ?" Do we expect fantastic result yet use cheap seed, and limited prep time on the "soil " of our lives? An ancient text once read "what ever a man sows, that he will also reap." Do you think that this applies to our physical lives, marriage etc. as well as spiritually, or is this just about corn? Let me know your thoughts. Pastor Jory Hire