Chicken Wings

Posted on June 28, 2011 by James Gorton

Tuesday June 28, 2011

When I was about 5 years old my grandpa came for a visit from Powell, Wyoming and brought me a surprise. In this crate he brought were six banty chickens. I have no idea what my folks thought, but I know what I was thinking. They were so cute and cuddly. He and my dad proceeded to build a chicken coop and fence around the coop in our back yard. It was my responsibility to feed them each day and give them some water. My favorite chicken was named Sugar. Sugar and I had a love affair. I loved her and she loved me. I would come out and go into the chicken coop and get in a sitting position and she would come and hop in my lap. I would turn her over on her back and rub her stomach and she loved it. Over the course of time she had babies, but it was in the winter in Colorado and would freeze nightly. One morning I went out to chip the ice off the water bowl and I went into the chicken coop to see how the babies were doing. I couldn’t find them and got worried that something had happened to them. I looked all around and suddenly I heard a faint chirp from one of the little babies. They were all under Sugars wings nestled safe and warm by the mothers feathers.

I was reminded of this story when I read the passage in Psalms this morning where David says, “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”(Psalm 91:4 NIV). What a beautiful picture of God wanting to take us under his wings and cover us with security, warmth, comfort, rest, and safety. He is willing to provide for us His protection. It is our responsibility to move under His wing. Had Sugar’s babies decided to do their own thing, they would have died in the Colorado freezing night. When we move out of God’s protection, He can’t provide his power and wisdom and direction to the path we choose to go on. Jesus also used the mother chicken illustration in Matthew 23:37 where He says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How I wish I could have gathered you under my wings like a chicken gathers her chickens, but you were unwilling.”.

Today on our journey, we have the choice to go it alone, or find support under God’s wings.

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Silence, A Powerful Tool

Posted on June 27, 2011 by James Gorton

Monday June 27, 2011

Silence is a powerful tool. We begin to squirm when we are in the presence of company and there is a lull in the conversation, especially when we are with new friends and there is silence. We begin to fumble inside our minds to come up with questions that can break the silence. It is different when we are with friends that we have known for a long time and silence comes. What happens when we ask a question of someone and the response is silence. There have been times in counseling when I have asked a very hard question of a couple and silence occurs. I have learned to be silent with the best of people because I know that silence creates an uneasiness within an individual that forces then to begin to deal with the question that has been asked. I asked a couple one time who were very critical of one another to come up with one positive quality they appreciated in one another. There was silence for 4-5 minutes before they came up with one positive trait. During that silence, you could just see them become more and more uneasy with the silence. Silence is a powerful tool.

God uses silence with us when there is sin in our lives that we have not dealt with. In Psalms David reflects on the way God handles that situation when he says, “If I have iniquity (unconfessed sin) in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). If there are problems in my life that I have not taken care of with the Lord, he says that the Lord uses silence to get our attention so that we will deal with the sin and confess it to Him. A prime example of this is when the Israelites had experienced a tremendous victory in Jericho when the walls had fallen in and Jericho was completely destroyed. The problem arose when Achan took some articles of silver and gold that the Lord told the Israelites were strictly forbidden to take. The Lord told Joshua that he would not listen to the people or go with them until the problem was dealt with (Joshua 7:12). Unconfessed sin causes God to choose not to listen to us until we take care of that sin. He silences himself to us and will not hear anything we have to say. He will not listen. If He uses silence to get our attention, sometimes silence in our relationships can be beneficial to get the attention of our loved one and help them see what they have done to cause disconnection.

On this journey, if we want His direction and plan for our lives, it is essential that we make sure there is no unconfessed sin in our lives that hinder His plan from being revealed to us.

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Friendship Gone Sour

Posted on June 24, 2011 by James Gorton

Friday June 24, 2011

Friendships are wonderful. They bring support when you are going through the rials of life. They bring laughter to situations that need humor. Friendships bring a listening ear when we need to vent. Phone calls from a friend for nothing at all but just to say “hi” perk up our day and give our step an extra bounce. Advice from a friend for decisions we have to make can bring a sense of confidence that we are going in the right direction, or can change a bad choice into a better one. Friends tell us what we need to hear, not necesssarily what we want to hear. They bring light to our darkness. They bring comfort so that we can experience rest. True friendships are essential for life and health. That is why God said in the garden that it is not good for man to be alone. He realized even when man had not sinned that friendship was an essential element for being able to enjoy His creation.

If friendships are so important, how devastating it is when your true friends turn on you and become your enemy. David experienced this horrible delimma when he said, “If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers.” (Psalm 55:12-14 NIV). David experienced verbal insults from his friend as well as actions of rising up against him. How painful it must have been to have a close friend insult him with verbal insults. Have you ever experienced a friend, a close friend turn on you and have them insult you? I have and it’s like a knife being pushed into your belly. I think it’s the worst non physical pain I have ever had to experience (I’m not into blood as I will become woozy when anyone talks about their blood experience–I’m a pansy). But for David, not only did he have his close friend insult him verbally, but he took negative actions against David and tried to destroy him like an enemy would.

What would make a close friend turn on you and become your enemy? Jealousy has driven close friends to turn affirmations and support into destructive actions and insults. Changes in our lifestyle and our circumstances could be another factor in our friends turning on us. A more sobering factor could be our own problem of doing something wrong to our friend and not stepping up to the plate and admitting our wrong to them. Friendships are truly a precious gift we have and we need to work to cultivate our friendships in this world.

On this journey, count your blessings with the friends you have to walk with on His path for your life.

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Prayer For Today

Posted on June 23, 2011 by James Gorton

Thursday June 23, 2011

As I was reading in the Psalms this morning for my quiet time, I came across Psalms 51 and in particular versus 9-12 that I want to have as my theme in my interaction with the Lord. As you are reading this jlog this morning, I would encourage you to take these words and pray them to the Lord even as David did.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Psalm 51:9-12NIV)

Our sins need to be blotted out in order to see a pure and holy God. Pure hearts without blemishes are prepared to hear God’s word and understand His truth. It opens us up to become steady and steadfast. In this journey, is is imperative that we have God’s Spirit controlling and empowering us so that we are not resting on our own power, but on His power and we can’t be controlled by the Holy Spirit without a clean and pure heart. As we allow the Holy Spirit to control and empower us, be will see every situation with joy because we will see that every situation is an opportunity for God to work in and thru us. Lastly we need Him to sustain us so that we are not like a flash in the pan, but have longevity and sustainability. What a wonderful prayer that we can go to the Lord and experience today if we are willing to allow Him to work into our life.

David finishes this prayer with the result of what will happen when this prayer is working in my life and yours. He says, “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. (Psalm 51:13 NIV). The scriptures are not only for transformation to take place in my life, but when true changes take place in my life, I will become a transforming conduit for others to hear and become changed.

On this journey, it is essential that we are plugged into the right power source for strength and direction.

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Impatience

Posted on June 22, 2011 by James Gorton

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Carter and I were scheduled to come home from Colorado yesterday at 6:50 pm but when we got to the airport early, we found out that our flight had been bumped back 20 minutes at least.  Being at the airport 3 hours early and having to wait longer was not something that I was planning for, so I checked for an earlier flight and sure enough, there was a flight at 5 pm getting into Phoenix at 6 pm.  We put our names in for standby and we were the last ones chosen to fly standby.  When you get to come home early, I didn’t care that it was going to be a middle seat (I hate middle seats, side note).  We got off the plane and went to the baggage area to pick up our luggage and waited and waited.  Little did my brain register that no one would know that we were going to get on this plane and that our checked baggage would be routed into the plane we were scheduled to fly.  With my keen mind I realized this when the baggage rounder stopped and the sign said all bags had been delivered.  I was wanting to speed up my travel process, but there were some things that would take their natural course of getting there–our bags.  We came back 2 hours later and sure enough our bags were there.

There is a lesson here somewhere.  Sometimes we are in a hurry to speed up life, but God has a different time table.  In Psalm 40:1-2  David experienced a life where he had times of trials and struggles wanting the plan to speed up.  What he realized is that patience was the key to a changed perspective.  “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”   I was wanting to get home and get settled in, unpack my bags, and get ready for the work week.  God had other plans.  He provided some time for us to go get a bite to eat.  He gave us time to get home and get Carter over to a friend’s house to stay the night (Carter had been gone for 2 weeks and was chomping at the bit to get with his friends}.  His plans are right and true.  His plans sometimes cut into our plans and timeframes which create conflict and stress.  There may be times of frustration or tears when His plans and our plans conflict.  Waiting patiently and opening our eyes to His perspective can change our emotions and our stress level.  It is our choice to look at whats happening in our lives at any particular moment that opens the door to experiencing patience in the midst of life.

On this journey, there will be times when we are called upon to slow down and wait patiently for His plan to emerge.

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New Life Emerging

Posted on June 21, 2011 by James Gorton

Tuesday June 21, 2011

Yesterday, I was relating the experiences of our family time in the Colorado Rockies. What I didn’t tell you involved some wonderful pictures that you might enjoy of my home state.

The Platte River meandering thru the canyons of the rockies formed a beautiful picture and place to ponder God’s creation.

The last picture is of a turkey with her babies.  There were about 8-10 babies, but in the picture you see the mother and two of her babies right in front of the mother.

All of these pictures are indications of God bringing new life to His Creation.  New life can only be experienced as we slow down and begin to smell and see new life in front of us.

On this journey, there will be plenty of opportunities to experience emerging new life, if only we open our senses to it.

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Death and Life

Posted on June 20, 2011 by James Gorton

Monday June 20, 2011

I have been in Colorado, my old stomping ground with my family for the weekend and will be heading back tomorrow. We had the privilege of going up into the mountains of Colorado to experience the beauty of the white-capped Colorado Rockies. We took a picnic and found a lake to park by and eat some delicious sandwiches made my sister and my mother.

During our trip we came across a burned out part of the forest that was the largest fire in Colorado history. The Hayman Fire began to burn June 8, 2002 and wasn’t contained until July 12, 2002. It was a very sad experience as we drove thru miles and miles of burned out forest that exposed the canyons and jagged rocks and steep hills. It seemed surreal to see blackened ponderosa pine, aspen, douglas fir, and Colorado blue spruce. On the surface, the landscape looked dead and like you might find on the surface of the moon. Everything was dead at first glance. But as you looked closer, you began to see new growth starting to emerge from the burned out timbers. In fact, the fire of forest opened up new seed pods from the trees that began to germinate after the water from the snow encircled the seeds. Death from one tree began to open up life for another.

Doesn’t it remind you of something that the Lord did. His death on the cross opened the door for us to experience new life. In the same way, death needs to happen in our lives in order for new life to emerge. We need to recognize our sin and our wrongs in our life in order for God to wash away our sin so the new life and new perspectives can come forth. Our lives can be like the burned out vistas of the Hayman fire of 2002, or we can choose to die to our sinful nature and begin to experience new life in our risen Savior.

On our journey with Him today, we have the opportunity to allow God to burn away the old areas of our lives so that new growth and new perspectives for our relationships and our jobs and our lives can emerge. Choose to die so that you might live.

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Family Ties

Posted on June 18, 2011 by James Gorton

Saturday June 18, 2011

On Thursday morning, I got on a plane to Colorado to pick up my son Carter who was finishing lacrosse camp at Air Force Academy and spend the weekend with my family. I had lined up a mid size car from Priceline to be picked up at the Denver Airport. I asked the reservation attendant if the location to pick up the car was at the airport and two times they said yes. When I got to the rental site, they didn’t have me in the system and after looking at my confirmation number, they had me picking up the car in downtown Denver, 50 miles from the airport. They were all sold out of the car I wanted, but had a brand new suburban for rent. I didn’t want to go back to the airport and try to find another car, so I signed for the suburban gas guzzler and headed off to Seibert, my hometown to see my mom and my son.

In thinking about my dilemma I had a choice of where I put my perspective. I could focus on all the money that I am going to spend on the rental car in terms of gas, taxes, and daily costs of the suburban. That was in fact the perspective I had driving on the two-hour ride. The perspective quickly changed as I drove into the driveway. I was greeted with a big hug from Carter and then from my 92+ year old, sharp as a tack, in shape, master bridge playing mother. All thoughts of the money I would be spending evaporated as we interacted and caught up on what had been happening in our lives. This perspective further intensified as we drove to Colorado Springs and connected with my sister and her husband, along with her son, daugher, and kids. I was immersed in wonderful conversation and with kids who wanted to see their Uncle Jim.

When is all said and done on this earth, the only thing that will be left is relationships–our relationship with God and our relationship with others. That’s why when Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He responded by saying two. “He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Luke 10:27). It is easy to get our minds onto stuff and problems that pull our minds away from the most important things in life–relationships.

On your journey this summer, don’t forget to keep your focus on the real things of life. I’ve got to go. Carter just plopped down on the bed and is hungry and wants me to fix him a couple of sunny-side up eggs. Enjoy the journey.

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Unforgiven Sin

Posted on June 17, 2011 by James Gorton

Friday June 17, 2011

You have heard  the definition of assume.  Break  it down into its letters and you will find the definition.  Assumptions in relationships are deadly because most assumptions in relationships have some sort of distortion in them.  I would say that in relationships a great percentage of assumptions are flat wrong.  But there is one assumption that I have when anyone comes into my office.  It is the assumption that everyone that walks into my office is flawed like I am.  We all make mistakes.  We all have times when we say wrong things or have unhealthy attitudes or act inappropriately.  It’s not that we are all flawed that is the problem.  The problem happens when we don’t admit it.

In Psalms 32:3-5 David addresses this problem and it’s effect on ourselves and on others.  “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.    For day and night your hand was heavy on me;  my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.    Then I admitted my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.   I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’.    And you forgave the guilt of my sins.”.   Unconfessed sin has a huge impact ourselves and on our relationship with the Lord.  Unconfessed sin causes heaviness to happen inside our bodies.  The psalmist indicates that unconfessed sin can cause physical ailments within our bodies with aches and pains and a real heaviness.  That heaviness could be defined in today’s society as depression or stress.

To confess our sin is to experience cleansing from the Lord and be relieved of the heaviness of the guilt of unconfessed sin.  On our journey today when God convicts us of sin in our lives, take the time to confess it to the Lord so that we don’t carry unnecessary baggage with us.

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A Guide For Spiritual Health

Posted on June 16, 2011 by James Gorton

Thursday June 16, 2011

As I began to write this jlog, I looked and saw that this is the 100th post since I started in late February. It has been a true joy to take what I am learning in the bible and log my thoughts of the most amazing reading that one could ever ponder–the bible.

Well this morning, I was reading again in Psalms and came across a passage that I had memorized years ago. It is found in Psalms 25:4-7 and says, “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.”. As I looked at this passage, I saw three distinct teaching methods that are critical for the learning process to become ingrained in a student. The first tool of learning is showing a student what you want them to learn. It is the tool of being an example by your lifestyle. Two thousand years ago, God sent His only Son on this earth to show us by example what we were supposed to do. Jesus lead by example for his disciples to see and then to follow.

The second teaching tool is cognitive learning. He says to teach me your paths. We not only need to learn by example, but we need to learn by gaining knowledge as to what God’s paths are so that we can follow them. There are various places in scripture where we are encouraged to meditate on God’s word day and night (Psalms 1; Deuteronomy 6). Knowledge opens up the door to make right decisions.

The third aspect of teaching is to guide us in the truth. This tool involves encouraging and redirecting someone who is moving out and needs to be encouraged that their steps are in the right direction. It also can involve redirecting them to more healthier choices and actions. Its giving direction to someone who is already moving out for the Lord.

David, who wrote this Psalm is pleading with the Lord not to remember his sins of his youth, but to remember him because of His goodness. In this process of learning, we are going to make mistakes, but as we see others by example and learn by meditating on His word and then move out, tranformtion will take place in our lives.

On this journey, become a life long learner by incorporating these three teaching tools in your own personal life.

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