Boldness Found

Posted on November 12, 2013 by James Gorton

How would you like to be bold in your interactions with others?  Having no fear of the consequences for my boldness.  Being able to tell someone what you really think without the fear of losing a friendship or your place in life.  Some reading this jlog (jim’s log) would say, “No problem, I have boldness.”  Those in this category would have a tendency to stop reading and say this blog is not for me.  But wait a minute.  Are there other traits that you would like to have but don’t experience those traits on a consistent basis.  Do you manifest unwavering patience in every situation you meet with others?  Are you there when you say you are going to be and manifest the trait of dependability in all situations?  When someone criticizes you or puts you down or doesn’t meet up to your expectations, do you continue to demonstrate an unconditional love for them?  When circumstances of people around you get you in a conundrum to you consistently respond with  kindness.  If you find yourself lacking in any of these areas read on.

This jlog is rooted in the story of Peter, the intimate disciple of Jesus.  Peter was a fisherman before Jesus called him to follow Him and was with Him for three years.  You would think after seeing dead men and women rise from the dead, people healed of diseases, blind  receiving their sight, lame being able to walk again, and being able to walk on water yourself that you would have had a transformation in your own personal life.  Over a three-year period, great boldness would accompany any and all experiences in your life.  I would think that you could do anything including moving mountains at your spoken word.  Nothing would be impossible to carry out or do.

Unfortunately none of those experiences in Peter’s life built boldness when it came to answering a simple question, “Were you not one of the disciples with Jesus?”  On three different occasions over a short period, Peter answered the same way, “I don’t know Jesus!”  When push came to shove, Peter became weak and wouldn’t even tell a servant girl that he knew Jesus.  Have you ever been in a situation when you could have spoken up about your relationship about Jesus to someone else and you got weak knees and said nothing.  A guilt of silence in those situations comes over your whole body.  It may be an innocent encounter, or it could be a significant opportunity to give some truth to someone in need.  But you either deny your relationship with Christ, or are silent.  Welcome to Peter’s club.

Now here’s the rest of the story.  Peter is confronted with the same dilemma of someone asking him about Jesus after Christ died and rose again, but he gives a much different response.  He and John were speaking to the people and were seized by the temple guard and thrown in jail.  The next day they were brought before the religious leaders of the day and were asked, “By what power or what name did you do this?  Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them:  “Rulers and elders of the people!  If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed. . .It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.” (Acts 4:7-10)

Before Christ was crucified, Peter denied Christ three times to people who had no power to do anything to Peter.  After Christ died and rose again, Peter had all boldness to speak out to the leaders who did have the power to put him in prison.  The change.  It says that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit.  in Peter’s own power, he thought he could be strong enough not to deny Christ, but when push came to shove, he failed and denied Him three times.  It’s like Paul in Romans 7:15 saying that, “the good that I wish, I do not do but do the very thing that I hate.”  Peter filled with the Holy Spirit became bold when he needed to be bold.

The Holy Spirit indwelling and filling Peter caused the transformation of godly qualities to become manifest for Peter.  On this journey, plugging into the right power source is crucial for relational transformation for us.

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Dog and Mouse

Posted on November 6, 2013 by James Gorton

This last weekend Nadine and I went up to our cottage in Flagstaff and worked all day on winterizing it before the cold and snow comes.  What we found when we looked in our pantry was a mouse that had been caught in our trap that was set a couple of weeks earlier.  We had guessed that the mice were up to something as the peanuts were opened and the nuts taken out.  The plastic wrap around our spaghetti had been opened and a hole had been nibbled on the top of the vegetable oil container.  As we took the trap out to the trash barrel, our little Monty became interested.  Sometimes a picture is truly worth a 1000 words.

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Monty had obviously never seen or smelled a mouse and reacted quite differently than a cat would have.  He sniffed the mouse and then started backing off from it.  He wanted nothing to do with this little varmint.  He backed away from it twice before we threw the mouse in the trash can.

Sometimes on this journey we get a humorous experience to lighten our day.  God’s creatures can do that at times.

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Characteristics of Humbleness: Part III

Posted on November 5, 2013 by James Gorton

Test yourself on the following questions.  How do you respond when someone criticizes you on something that you have done?  When someone accuses you wrongly, what is your reaction?  If someone slander’s you or someone close to you what do you say in return?

As I answered the questions above, I fall woefully short.  My natural tendency is to either defend my position if I think they are wrong, or my second response is to attack if they are right, but it hurts deeply (the truth sometimes does hurt).  The third characteristic of a humble person is someone who does not react to criticism, accusations, or slander.  No defensiveness.  No reaction.  No attack.  No negative response.  I find this characteristic the most disturbing of the three as I wrestle with this one the most.

Moses, a man of humbleness in the bible, exemplifies this trait.  A little backdrop.  Miriam was Moses older sister who had put Moses the baby in the reeds of the Nile and then told the Princess of Egypt, who found the child, that she would find someone to take the child and care for the child until he was older.  We later see Miriam being apart of the Israelite escape from Egypt.  In Numbers 12:1-2 we read, “Miriam and Aaron (Moses brother) began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.  ‘Has the Lord spoke only through Moses?’ they asked.  ‘Hasn’t he also spoken through us?’

Miriam, the spokesperson and Aaron her brother were challenging his leadership and criticized his marriage to his wife.  Moses had been away from his sister and brother for 40 years when he went into the wilderness.  They had no knowledge of his whereabouts and Moses shows up with this edict from God to lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt.  Mariam and Aaron say nothing about his wife for awhile, but their criticism of Moses marriage eventually comes out.  It says of Moses, “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” (Numbers 12:3)

Moses said nothing when the criticism began to come from his older sister.  But God came to Moses’ defense, “Listen to my words:  When there is a prophet among you, I the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.  But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.  With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord.  Why then were you too afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”  He did not resent the attack made upon him or attempt in any way to vindicate himself or take revenge.  He was silent and allowed the Lord to handle Mariam’s criticism of his choices.

When we are criticized, accused, or slandered, God wants us to be silent.  This is a hard solution to accept because we want to get our two cents in.  He says that He will fight our battles.  He will make the truth come forth.  When Jesus was criticized and accused on the cross, He was silent.  Jesus says in Matthew 5:11, “Blessed are you when others insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Peter seems to be reiterating the same message, “Do not repay evil for evil or insult for insult, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” (I Peter 3:9)  Peter goes on to say that we are to turn away from reactive actions and pursue peace.

When we are silent in the midst of being criticized, accused or slandered, it does two positive things.  First our silence doesn’t throw fuel on an already started fire and causes the fire to go out if there is not fuel we’re adding.  Secondly our silence can cause us to evaluate what is being said to see what God may be trying to tell us in the message we are hearing.  The only way we can do this is to see a God that is able to deal with the situation and trust in His power to control our actions and words.

On this journey a humble person is one who has three attributes and ultimately honors the Lord.  Take criticism as potentially allowed by God to make you better. Take it as testing what buttons are still active in your carnal nature.

 

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Characteristics of Humbleness: Part II

Posted on November 4, 2013 by James Gorton

Mistakes!  We (or at least those of us who are honest with ourselves) all make mistakes and some of us make more than our share.  Sometimes our mistakes are in secret where no one knows and we have the opportunity to cover them up before anyone can detect them. Other mistakes are out in the open for all to see.  These mistakes are embarrassing and humiliating and causes us to cringe in our skin.  Then there are mistakes that we think we are the only ones who know but over time the mistake is revealed by others and causes a time delayed embarrassment from us.

This last one is the kind of mistake that Moses made when he was younger.  “One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people (Jewish) were and watched them at their hard labor.  He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.  Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.  The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting.  He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”  The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?  Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”  Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known” (Exodus 2:11-14)

Moses made a mistake and tried to cover it up.  When he was found out, fear gripped him and he ran.  He ran for 40 years and thought about what he had done.  Have you ever made a mistake and that mistake haunted you for years?  For 40 years?  Whether it is one where everyone knew about, or was made in secret, guilt over the mistake haunts your mind and thoughts for years.  I have made one of those kind of mistakes and thoughts of “being put out to pasture” or “being put up on the shelf” invade your daily or weekly thoughts.  I can truly imagine what Moses was thinking when he said to the Lord, “Who am I” in a negative context.

The second characteristic of a humble person is that God gives second chances.  Humbleness opens up the opportunity to have a second chance.  A do over.  A re-make.  A fresh start. A remodel.  God came to Moses and knew what he had done in the past.  He saw his humble attitude over the years and wanted to give him a second chance.  We think that a mistake is a stigma, and that it is final to take us out of the race of life.  But it’s not.  Mistakes are environments to school us in humility.  There is a difference between a mistake and failure.

Mistakes can be categorized  by an illustration of my son learning how to walk.  He gets up, takes his first step and trips on a coffee table leg.  If he looks at the situation and thinks, I will never be good and walking and crawls the rest of his life, he has failed at walking.  But if he looks at the situation, learns from it, and gets up and takes more and more steps, he has made a mistake.  Mistakes are trip-ups in life  we learn from and move forward.  Failure is where we have given up.

On this journey, there will be second chances for those who are humble as we learn from our mistakes and get back in the race.  Maybe today is the time to take that next step forward.  As one person said, “The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake.”

 

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Characteristics of a Humble Person: Part I

Posted on November 1, 2013 by James Gorton

Humbleness doesn’t just happen in a person’s life, but is carved out by years of experiences that mold a person’s perspective on life.  Moses was such a person in the bible as he initially felt powerful when in the ranks of the Egyptians until he took solving conflict into his own hands and killed an Egyptian soldier who was beating an Israelite slave.  When found out he ran away and began herding sheep for the next 40 years.  When God came to him in a burning bush and wanted him to lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt, a very humble man emerged in his conversation with the Lord. (Exodus)

When you follow the life of Moses, you begin to see characteristics of humbleness.  One of the first traits of a humble person is the trait of being broken.  “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?. . .Pardon your servant, Lord.  I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant.  I am slow of speech and tongue.” (Exodus 3:11, 4:10)  He had gotten to the place in his life where his confidence had eroded away and when he looked at his skills and abilities, he came up far short of the task at hand.  A broken man is the first necessary trait for being humble.  A broken spirit recognizes faults quickly and is easily convicted of wrongs that have been committed.  The conscience of a humble person is very soft and moldable.

Jesus told his disciples a parable relating to this issue of a broken spirit (Luke 18:9-14).  He begins by talking about two people who prayed to God.  The first man was a Pharisee, a Jewish religious leader, who prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”  The Pharisee was comparing himself with the lower life’s of the world, those that had greater sins than himself.  He was using self-righteous terms to justify himself.  In our society, we often compare ourselves with either people who have more than we do or people who have less.  If we do the former, a common outcome is insecurity and poor self-esteem issues.  If we do the latter (compare ourselves with lower class) we find ourselves becoming self-righteous and puffed up which is what the Pharisee did.

The second man in Jesus’ parable was the tax collector who stood at a distance and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  (Luke 18:13)  The tax collector was totally broken because he compared himself not to the Pharisee, but to the Lord.  Whenever we compare ourselves to the Lord, the immediate response is going to be a contrite and broken heart because we see our sin and unworthiness to come and have communion with a holy God

Jesus finishes the parable by saying, “I tell you that this man (tax collector) rather than the other, went home justified before God.  For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)  A person who is broken will look only  to God for comparison, and will not be reactionary in their interaction with others, easily bent and moldable in the hands of the Master.

Humbleness comes from a broken and contrite heart.  In your journey this day as I am seeking to do, come to God with a contrite and broken spirit and allow Him to guide and direct your steps.

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Humbleness, The Lost Trait

Posted on October 31, 2013 by James Gorton

We live in a “Me first” generation.  The television advertisements boast of the “You deserve” mentality.  From cars to spas.  The focus of our society is to make sure that you take care of yourself first.  Don’t get me wrong.  There is nothing wrong of caring for yourself and taking time to re-energize your batteries.  Jesus Himself would often go into the desert by himself to pray and re-energize himself.  He even said when pushed to identify the great commandments identified the second greatest commandment as loving others as you love yourself.  I am not talking about caring for yourself, but recognizing that there is a greater power in life than ourselves.  Jesus said that the greatest commandment we need to follow is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Luke 10:27)  It involves the priority of putting Him first and then loving others as you love yourself.

Those of you who come from the older generation like myself will probably remember the old saying, “Keep them humble”. We grew up with little or no affirmation from our fathers because they thought that if you affirm your children they would become prideful.  They went too far and caused a lot of people with poor self value issues.  Unfortunately we have gone in the opposite direction and created a generation of entitlement.

There was a king named Belshazzar in the book of Daniel who exemplified this me first mentality.  He had no concept of giving honor to the God of the universe and lived his life as such.  Daniel is given the responsibility to speak into Belshazzar’s life when he said, “But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. (Daniel 5:22, 23 NIV)

I see in this passage a set of priorities that God intends for us to set in our own personal life.  It starts out with putting God as the numero Uno in our life.  The top Dog.  The Master.  The beginning and the end.  The Lord.  Only then can we begin to operate in a humble state because we recognize that all that we have and all that we are comes from the Creator of all life.  What is sobering about this passage is that Daniel confronted Belshazzar and said that even though Belshazzar knew all of this, he was not living it out in his daily life.

The question that all of us have to answer each day is whether or not our lives, our actions, and our attitudes exemplify God being given honor in and through us.  This journey for us is a journey of humbleness and recognition for the One who deserves our allegiance.

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Quail

Posted on October 30, 2013 by James Gorton

It seems to me that all of us have different aspects of God’s creation that we are drawn to.  For Nadine, it’s different kinds of flowers and in particular, pansies and Mexican roses.  For others it’s sunsets, or sunrises.  For others it’s rock formations.  It could be different kinds of architecture.  Large animals.  Mountain trails.  Ocean beaches.  Wilderness experiences.  Cloud formations.  It may vary depending on where we are and what we are doing.

About 2 months ago when Nadine was up north and I was in the valley, I looked out of the sliding glass door and saw one of my favorite creations of God.  A family of quail.

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It was a momma and 7 chicks eating seeds in our grass.  I just looked out the window and was amazed at the wonder of 7 little baby quail at peace with their mother, knowing that she was protecting them so they didn’t have to worry.  Then I looked a little closer and saw the father up on Carter’s lacrosse goal.

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A mother and father working together as they together raised their family.

If we only open our eyes to His Creation we can learn so much about how He wants us to live and operate in what He has created.  On this journey as we open our eyes, many truths can come forth for us to learn and grow.

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Generational Passages

Posted on October 29, 2013 by James Gorton

I got a surprise call from my mother last Sunday.  She doesn’t usually call me especially on Sunday in the late afternoon.  She came from the old school where long distance telephone calls cost $1.00/minute.  When she is on the phone, she begins getting nervous when the phone call goes too long even though the cost of the phone call costs us nothing, old habits are hard to break.

It was so nice to hear from her and her main topic of conversation was whether I had watched the Denver Broncos play the Washington Redskins (Denver won).  Yes she is a Denver Bronco fan like myself.  I grew up rooting for Floyd Little and John Elway.  There were many years of pain and loss in the Super Bowl, but John Elway came through two years in a row and do we Bronco fans gloat over those wins.  My mom explained that they were behind for three-quarters and she almost turned the TV off because as she said, “I don’t like to watch them lose.”  I guess I take after my mom in that respect because when my team is losing, I have a tendency to turn the TV to another channel.  I guess you could call me a “fair weather fan” as my wife appropriately labels me.  She by the way is a Bronco fan but one of those rabid fans.

I got my passion from my grandma Gorton who at 90 knew every player on the team and watched them fervently.  She never got to see them go to the Super Bowl here on the earth, but I know she watches them up in heaven.  My daughter in Chicago was (and maybe still is) a rooter for the Broncos, but she has disturbed me with Chicago Bears talk and jerseys that are foreign to Colorado fans.

Well about 2 weeks ago, I got the following picture of my new grandson Keaton.   If you look closely you will see that my youngest daughter Victoria is carrying on the generational tradition in our family.  And the legacy lives on.

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It’s healthy to carry on generational traditions that are passed from one set of family members to the next generation.  This truth refers to a football team, but how much greater it would be to carry on the truth that is found in the bible about our Lord to the generations that are coming up to take our place.  Moses said, “Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the door frames on your houses and on your gates.” (Deut 6:4-9).

In the same way that we become passionate for a football team that weaves its way through at least 5 generations, God wants us to be passionate for His word and to talk about Him to our children when we walk along with them and when we tuck them into bed, and when they are lying on our bed and when we wake up in the morning.  As someone has once said, we are one generation away from Christianity becoming extinct.  If we don’t carry the message to our children, the next generation will become void of God’s truth.

Today on your journey, take some time to read His word and pass it along to those you come in contact with.

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Unbelieving Family

Posted on October 28, 2013 by James Gorton

Have you ever experienced a lack of support from your family or friends for something what was really important to you?  It may be a promotional that you received and no one came to support you.  It may have been a graduation that you invested large amounts of time and energy and no one from your family came.  It could have been a glorious celebration of your marriage, or the birth of a new baby and no one in your family was there to support you or believed in you.

We all need to be supported through life and have those whom we love be there by our side when something significant happens to us, whether good or bad.  But the reality of life is that some of us have experienced just the opposite when it comes to family support and the need to be trusted and believed.  When we are getting married, they are not there.  When we have birthed a baby, they are absent.  When we graduate from high school, or college, or graduate school, they are nowhere to be found.

There may be many reasons for this absence, but very few reasons are good ones.  God said of Adam in the beginning of the bible that it was not good for Adam to be alone and made a helpmate for him so that he would have support throughout his life.  The unhealthy reasons for absence of family members and friends could involve being jealous of your accomplishments or additions.  It may involve that family member putting his or her needs above yours and choosing to be selfish and self-centered in their decision-making processes.

There is a passage in the bible that spotlights this issue of not being supported or believed.  Jesus found himself in the beginning of his ministry with family members on the side of jealousy and unbelief.  “Jesus’ brothers said to him, ‘Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do.  No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret.  Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”  For even his own brothers did not believe in Him.” (John 7:3-5)  It looks as if his real brothers saw him as wanting to be in the spotlight of public life.  It seemed from this passage that they were sarcastically telling Him to become more present in the society.  But they didn’t believe in Him or who He was.  Jesus felt the rejection of His own family members for who He was or what He came to do.

As you continue to read this passage, His families disbelief or lack of support didn’t deter Him from His purpose on this earth.  There may be people that are very close to you who don’t believe in you and have little or no support to offer you.  The challenge when in this situation is to clarify and solidify our purpose in life and continue to take one step and then the next step and the next.  Be encouraged that as Jesus experience this lack of support from His family, there were people around him that did believe in Him and especially Our Heavenly Father.

As you walk on this journey, remember that Jesus Himself said, “And be aware that I am with you always, even to the end of this age.” (Matthew 28:20)

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New post Monday

Posted on October 26, 2013 by James Gorton

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