Author Archives: oneminuteministry

Behind Closed Doors

Matthew 6:6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

I have too much going on God
My house is such a mess
There is no peace and quiet
I am always put to the test.

Life is always wide open
To work and play I must go
When would I ever have time
To draw near to you in the slow?

What do you mean shut the door
How could I put life on hold
I would have to learn to say no
To something else become cold.

My heart for you must become hot
I must burn with desire from within
I must seek in prayer and your Word
I must repent and flee from sin.

I must realize all that I have
Is a gift from the “Father of lights”
You can give or remove at will
No matter our effort or prideful might.

When I shut my door to the world
I show you how much I desire
I want to know more about you God
There is a longing within me on fire.

When I shut the door to others
I open the door of my heart
I close off all the distractions
I want this time to be set apart.

My time behind the closed door
Is my time dedicated to you
My time behind the closed door
Is where I pray about things to do.

When I open the door back up
When I go back out into the zoo
I am eager to see you reveal
What was secret between me and you.

Behind closed doors with God
Is a priceless gift from above
You begin to see how intimate
Your God shows you through love.

The Writing on the Wall

Matthew 6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Yesterday I began doing more work on my shop, and I came across 12/24/18 wrote on the wall where I was working. I showed it to the boys who wrote it, and we laughed it had been almost a year since I worked on the shop, almost to the day. I thought about that simple date, that window of time past, even up to right now. I am OK with being last on my to-do list, doing for others before myself, but life has gotten so busy this last year, and many things trouble me about it. The work side of my life was brutal in many ways, and the personal side of my life filled every hour that work didn’t. My time with God was lacking for 2019. I spent daily time with him almost daily, but only minutes and not the hours before daybreak I had become accustomed to. Just this week I passed by the church I preached at years ago, and that brought sweet memories of the quality time preparing a sermon; I miss that time with God.

I could fill this 1MM with my very personal list, my sin struggles, my anxieties, my heart for the lost, my desire to share my faith, my desire to see spiritual fruit, my…..wait, I had better stop before it becomes the list. What is the ONE thing I would tell you if you claimed to be a Christian? It would be in the form of a question, “How much time are you spending with God each day in prayer and his Word?” The answer to life is your answer to that question. You cannot remain the same person with the same struggles tomorrow, if you spend time with God today in prayer and his Word. Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. The power of God resides in the written word of God. When your heart desires the answers to life, that is God tugging at your soul. God is desiring to have an intimate relationship with you, one you will be amazed at how personal he can be when you seek him with all your heart, mind, body, and soul.

I just counted six Bibles here on my desk, six variations of God’s Word where I compare translations and commentaries. God has really been tugging at my heart this week, much of it regarding work and family, and seeing that year past, “the writing on the wall,” it hit home. May you hear my hearts plea, to join me with a renewed vigor, or a new desire, to seek God today, to find strength for tomorrow.

#50Somethings

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

By the time we have reached #50Something, we have passed our peak, (not that I can remember where it was), crested the mountaintop of life, and now are ascending down the other side. I know for me personally it has caused a true life reflection, seeing the results of decisions that have played out over time. A lot of them are painful, (Satan takes the ball and runs with them), but I see the joy in much of my life, and see God’s sovereign hand weaving the fabric of it. I would love to expand the questions, to let you know I share many of the same as you, but it becomes too personal, and this is not the place. We all at this stage of life are likely facing an inner struggle of some sorts, but some just may hide it better than others.

One thing I can be open about is the struggle with my mind. The fading sight and memory are always a topic of laughter, but the analytical abilities and understanding are troublesome to me. My profession is one of depth, much of the physics side I never claimed to truly understand, but it is evolving just like most of science and technology. There is a point in life when we come to say maybe we just won’t understand, and that is humbling in itself. In the familiar passage above, James is writing about understanding the trials and struggles of life. The passage is as broad as the sovereignty of God, and as deep or shallow as our faith in the one we call our God. Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When we are struggling, we all do some times, we typically get closer to God, or even run away and hide in many ways. God uses the trials of life to draw us closer to him, in ways we don’t understand. Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. God does not operate like we think he should, he does not many times do what we would in certain tough situations; he does not heal every time, he does not answer every prayer, he does not look at the current situation in time, because he sees the end game, he sees all of time and what he has designed for your entire life.

Maybe at #50Something we are becoming limited to some degree to simplify our lives by God’s design. Maybe he is trying to slow us down from life’s complications for the second half of our lives to be resting in the joy of abiding in him. Maybe at #50Something we should be reflecting on our lives, our faith, the level of our faith and his sovereign design of the first half. Mark 9:23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Maybe at #50Something we should just be trying to get closer to God through prayer and his Word, because we are about to truly get closer to God at the end of the second half.

Blessed breeds Thanksgiving

Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.

How can you be thankful, if you were not blessed first? Being blessed breeds the Thanksgiving, thankful to whomever you were blessed by. If you are thankful for your kiddos, you spouse played a major role in that. If you are thankful for your health, God played the lead in that, maybe with the aid of doctors expertise (which He gave them). If you are thankful for your toys, or the stuff this world measures worth by, I bet you are thankful to yourself, and that just feels kinda weird doesn’t it? That has the ring of an old late night skit, one of self-affirmation “I am good enough, I am smart enough, and dog-on it, people like me.” When you really start looking at being thankful to yourself, for all the things you have, that just gets weird, and a level of pride that condemns is building up in your life.

E v e r y t h i n g in your life is filtered through God’s sovereign hands. Like it or not, believe it or not, all the blessing in your life were designed or allowed in it by God. James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. It is a much deeper subject to go into God’s sovereignty of using bad gifts as good things, but even God can use bad things to do ultimately good work. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, his ways much greater than ours, and since he sees all of time the same, it is a complexity we cannot fathom, but one we can have hope and faith in.

As you spend today reflecting, start tracing back the origins of where you “gifts” came from. Let God stir your mind through humble realizations of how he has been working in your life. He has given me many gifts, taken many away to teach me lessons, but I trust my Father and his ways. I am most thankful for the Trinity, and all the work they do for all of us. I am thankful for my family and their hearts for God in a world that isn’t. I am thankful for the ministries God has given me, in seemingly every path of life. I am blessed to be called a child of God, and for that, am I thankful. (You can be too)

A Good Filter

Luke 22:31 And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.

What if God told you that? What if God told you that Satan was gonna sift you, press you, shake your world to see what falls out, what passes the test, what rises to the top? Sifting in it’s definition is about the removal of impurities, the pressing of something through a strainer to see what is strong enough to survive the test. The good can be what falls through the filter, or what survives the pressing and remains. Peter (Simon) was the most outspoken disciple, the loudest, proudest, gonna out-do everyone else in the group, the never will fail Jesus when others will…..yet Jesus said you won’t even admit you know me when asked. The commentaries are fascinating and deep in the context of this passage, but we must simply understand that sifting is part of the sanctification process of Christianity, of God’s ways of making us more like Christ, of how God removes the impurities in our lives to draw us ultimately closer to him.

There likely is not a Christian who understands this sifting in some degree. There is not a true Christian that has not experienced some pain since Salvation; prosperity gospels that preach differently do not produce the sifting of God, and therefore lead others to Hell. When I think of my testimony, of my continued sin struggles, of how I am unworthy, yet God gives more grace, I remember how God talked about Paul’s conversion. God took the “greatest sinner by his own words,” and used him to reach the world, yet he also suffered greatly along the way. Acts 9:16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” God was continually sifting Paul, removing the pride as Peter, and through the pain drew both of them to incredible ministries and heavenly work.

There is another avenue of sifting, a practical daily approach to living as a Christian. Do you filter your life through your faith? Do you question what you see, what you hear, how you respond, how you proclaim, how you live life in view of how God views your life? Do those around you know you are a Christian, or how do they view Christianity by the way the supposed Christian acts? If you realize you need to act more like a Christian, that conviction of sin is healthy. To make the change is simple; just pray and open God’s Word each day and read. That creates a filter that removes impurities, lets the good in you rise to the top, lets the world see Christ in you. Sifting doesn’t always have to hurt, but a good filter makes a better Christian.

Yesterday’s Breakfast?

John 9:25 He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

I had a birthday last week, one that I have dreaded for years. I turned 52, the age that my grandfather died, likely from the stress of owning business similar to the one I am in. My grandmother told me a lot about how the stress worked on him, the worry and anxieties that employees never understand. I find myself on a similar path, stressed to the breaking point, my analytical ability slipping, physical strength failing, and my every shrinking memory fading….father time is taking it’s toll on me. I always struggled with memory, even earlier in life. I could never retain what I read. I can be grabbed and moved by a book, but not recall it when I put it down. I truly have lived in the “present tense” for most of my life, an inner battle only few understand. Only by the grace of God has the last ten or so years found me reading more about God, and remembering it, by his Spirit that lives in me. When my memory fails, my Spirit recalls, right on time, every time.

Jesus was with his disciples who where questioning sin, and the results of it, in a very big way. They came across this blind man from birth, and they asked if he was blind as a result from his parents sin (a big question many people ask themselves). Jesus said no, he was born to draw glory to God. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. (ESV) Everyone knew he had been born blind, so everyone wanted to know how he was healed. Can you imagine what that was like to him, and even those he shared his testimony of Jesus healing him to? The religious of the day brought him and his family to “court” to get them to change his testimony. Likely a great work of God was happening through this man sharing his faith in Jesus, his testimony was threatening the Pharisees rules. This uneducated man preached to the preachers a powerful sermon of his faith in Jesus Christ! 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

This weekend at the last Trackside Church service, Dale told everyone we will always point them to seek God through prayer and his Word; that is our and any disciples mission, to urge the hearer to seek and find God themselves. You cannot spend time with God today and be the same person you were yesterday. You will be changed from the inside out as you pray and read God’s Word each day. You might even remember the perfect verse, at the perfect time, and have no idea where it came from; especially if you can’t remember breakfast yesterday.

What is gonna make today different?

Ecclesiastes 2:24 There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God. 25For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?

At this stage of my life, I have a fair amount of friends who have owned businesses for some time now. I was blessed by my dad starting our HVAC business almost 30 years ago for me, and I cannot begin to convey my gratitude to him for giving me something I did not deserve. Our business transitioned from a successful, American dream exponential growth, back down to wondering if we would bankrupt about 5-10 years ago. By God’s grace, we recovered, and now operate on a much smaller, much more focused on a faith based platform, operating as a ministry in a corrupt marketplace; to say it is a struggle wouldn’t break the surface. Many of my friends who operate their businesses with the same integrity, are battling uphill also against the marketplace. I could get rich by the worlds standards if I operated by them, throwing integrity to the wayside and pursuing sales at all cost.

It is likely that the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon (self labeled in the text “the preacher”), wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, a tough book to read for many, yet one of my favorites because it stirs the mind. The preacher pens openly of his struggles with all of life, of all his pursuits by the worldly standards, and the failures and vanity of them all. 14 I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. The preacher pursued all of life, every avenue measured by worldly standards, and found all of them lacking, failing to satisfy him. Above, early in this writing, he pens of how all of life is meaningless without God as our focus. Even to the lost, their hearts are always searching for something, yet not finding it. When God opens the door of their mind to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that hole in their heart is filled by the Holy Spirit. Their lives take on new meaning, and they see the opportunity of Heaven that awaits them.

Sadly many Christians stop there in their walk. They only pursue God on Sunday, maybe a prayer or two during the week, but they do not abide in Christ for each day. John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. Once you have been saved, you are continually being saved until you reach Heaven. You are to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” ( Philippians 2:12) This is where you focus on God each day, just as Solomon wrote about, looking for opportunities to share your faith, to grow your faith, to encourage others in their struggles, to flee from sin, to pursue God in prayer and his Word, to abide in Jesus Christ. Solomon closes Ecclesiastes with a simple word, from a complex book, the summary of it all. 12:When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man. What is gonna make today different? Your approach to it. Pursue God.

Love to All

Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 35 But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.

I was a pothead for over 20 years, not just getting stoned, but staying high all the time. One of my best friends told me at the time, “If you are high all the time, they will never know you are.” Brilliant… When God got ahold of my heart, I saw the err in my drug use. It slowed pretty quickly, and I haven’t smoked a joint in well over 10 years. I had never struggled with anxiety or depression, until I stopped getting high, and then Satan saw the door to torment me with them both. It is a battle now on a very high scale, and there are days that are hard to cope. Mental illness runs on both sides of my family, and I killed enough brain cells that now in my fifties I am feeling the effects of them all. My memory and analytical abilities are fading, but my heart for the deep things of God is growing. I want to know more.

Religion breeds condemnation, brings lofty attitudes that look down on society, builds up walls that those that are on the outside fear to climb. The religious become snobs, look down on sinners, point fingers and shout shameful things to those not sitting in church on Sunday. The religious gossip and scoff at those struggling, all while hiding their own sin behind lies and hard hearts. Without love, without compassion, you are nothing in God’s eyes. 1 Corinthians 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. Oh how so many of us Christians need to look in the mirror….

Peter was the first to go tell the “outsiders” that God loved everybody. Peter was the first to go tell them that Jesus died on the Cross for everybody. There is nothing you have ever done that God will not forgive you for when you ask for forgiveness. There is nothing special about any Christian that cannot be freely given to you! Satan wants you to think that God will not forgive you, wants to torment your mind with evil thoughts and desires, wants to steal the joy you can have with the eternal hope of Heaven. Even on my worst days, days I just retreat to solitude, I still know this pain is temporary. Jesus loves me in all my struggles and failures, and I love you too.

Pull-up Bars

1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Every day I walk down the hall, I pass by the pull-up bar hanging from the door of my home office. The boys go through cycles of chin-ups, my aging shoulder injuries make this extremely hard, but I am hoping to try again at 52 for a revival for next race season. This will be my last hoora, my last attempt at the incredible demands of training to be better prepared to race for a championship in 2020. I have found myself called into a ministry this year I never envisioned, returning to what was once my god, to proclaim the One true God. I cannot discuss this calling at depth, because I am humbled to tears, seeing my testimony come full circle, God’s plan for my life, and even Satan’s attacks when others try to tear it down. The racing community is only understood by racers, the addict only understood by other addicts, the lost understood by the testimony of someone who was found.

I prayed this morning, and God led me to 1 Corinthians 7, much about marriage and remaining in the state you are in. Paul writes about how God can use you where you are currently at, how we are to think about what we are doing daily, and how others watch our every move. Paul continues to write about the freedom in Christ, and of how others even judged the Christians in what they ate; breaking the laws Moses had given earlier. 1 Corinthians 8:9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. Paul writes of how we must pursue self-control, how we must think of how others view Christ by the acts of the Christians. Oh, the depth of the sermons that lie in those passages. Paul continues in these chapters to write of a pattern of self-denial, one of how he is living his life for Christ, to be used by Christ, to be content in whatever state Christ has him in for that time. Paul lived the life we need to live. Paul understood hypocrisy, and his desire was to be true, lest his preaching be in vain to himself.

I have listened to many sermons this week on prayer, it is just how God works in my pursuit of him through podcasts and messages. I have been praying a lot for my own struggles, seeking God in his Word early again. I am hitting the pull-up bar, trying to get in better shape. I am seeking the prize, the one that does not perish, one I receive passing from this life into the eternal one. Matthew 25:21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ Will you seek to get in better shape with me?

Quit Rebelling Today

Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,

I will be the first person to tell you that I am tired, but also admit to not giving into that weakness. In my just over 50 years, I have always worked my tail off since my early youth, my family instilled a thing called work ethic into me, (sadly one that is missing in today’s society). I have always played hard too, and my body is feeling the effects of the work and play I have put it through. My mind is seemingly slipping to a degree, and the strains of anxiety and depression have it in a continual weakened state; but I will fight all these wearies until I die, until I enter unto rest with the Lord. I will continually seek at the spine of my life, a daily rest in the Lord. The spine of the book of Hebrews is one of rest, resting in our faith for this time, and the time to come. It is one about the failures of faith, about a rebellious generation, about God’s chosen people who hardened their hearts.

Life is hard, and many times it gets harder when you become a Christian. Prosperity preachers that teach of getting all the worldly blessings as Christians are leading many astray. Satan is the ruler of this world and blesses those whom are focused upon it. This life is for a time, a short time in the grandeur of eternity, and it is one that prepares you for where you will spend eternity. You only get this one life, this one chance, to determine Heaven or Hell for your soul forever. Those Jews that God rescued from slavery in Egypt, they saw his miracles for 40 years, hardened their hearts continually, and most died and went to Hell in their rebellion. 9 When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. 10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.

God may only knock on the door of your heart one time. God may pursue you for years in your rebellion against him. God loves you so much he came and died for your sins, but, there can be in his sovereignty, a point of time he turns his back, the scariest point in this life for you. Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting. You can be living in any level of rebellion, from a nonchalant attitude, to a false religious one, but your heart is in rebellion against a sacrificed life to the One true God. What if, today was that day that determined your eternity? What if you didn’t get to quit rebelling? What if your time is up, your plans failed, and you don’t get to come to God on your timetable? Those were my plans when I lived in rebellion; I thank God for his patience with, love for, and forgiveness of, me. He will do the exact same thing for you, today.