Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Louie Giglio, from his book,  Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table .   (p. 45). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That is so very true. He quietly sits down. Louie says, "You might not recognize him when he first sits down. The Devil doesn’t arrive with a brightly flashing neon pitchfork. He doesn’t sit down with a growl and threaten to gouge out your eyes. No. At first, it’s simply another person seated next to you, helping himself to your brownie, wondering aloud which water glass is his, inadvertently wiping his mouth with your napkin. "It takes only a second. The unwelcome visitor sits down so swiftly and casually it’s hard to discern his true character. He often appears to be on your side at the start. He promises you relief from your troubles. Second Corinthians 11:14 describes how Satan 'masquerades as an angel of light,' which means that the Devil rarely comes to the table showing h...

A thought by Louie Giglio, from his book,  Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table .   (p. 41). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And it can happen so fast. Louie says, " The Enemy only needs the tiniest crack. A sliver of opportunity. The smallest window of doubt or uncertainty. Just like that, the Devil is sitting at your table, beginning to win the battle for your mind." He goes on, "We’ve come to accept the Enemy sitting at our table as normal. That’s a big problem. We give him permission anytime we say things like, 'Oh, that’s just the way it is these days. Anxiety is just part of the equation. We’re all anxious, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Life’s just so chaotic today. Of course we’re all strangled by worry. Look at any news feed. Why wouldn’t I be afraid?' "In the same way, we accept the false narrative about our lives that we aren’t worth much to God . . . or anybody else, f...

A thought by Louie Giglio, from his book,  Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table .   (p. 24). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes He does and it's a good thing. Louie says, "Sure, you can lie down on rocky ground if you want to. You can lie down in the heat and the dust. But Jesus says, Lie down in green pastures. Get some rest. Stop trying to manage all the outcomes. Take a break in the midst of the craziness of your day and acknowledge that I’m a Good Shepherd and I have your best interest at heart. By the way, while you’re resting, go ahead and eat some green grass. Allow Me to nourish your soul. That’s how I operate. I love you and take care of you, and any directive that I give you will be for your own benefit." He goes on, "See, when God refers to us as sheep, it’s a reflection of how we are wired, although it’s not necessarily a compliment. Sheep need leadership. God’s not saying that we’re cut...

A thought by Louie Giglio, from his book,  Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table .   (p. 17). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)   That is what we also need. Louie says, "I look at Paul and Silas; at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and at all the people throughout Scripture who encountered times of intense trouble yet went bigger with their faith, and I marvel. The prophet Habakkuk stated it clearly when he cried out:  Fig tree " ' Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no grain, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty, I will still be joyful and glad, because the LORD God is my savior.' (Habakkuk 3:17–18 GNT)" He goes on, "The last two lines indicate huge faith. And did you notice the two phrases repeated three times in Habakkuk’s prayer?  " Even though . . . I will . . . ...

A thought by Louie Giglio, from his book, Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table .   (p. 5). Thomas Nelson, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Now that is an interesting thought. Louie says, " The Enemy had taken a seat at my table, and I was allowing myself to listen to a killer. Right there in my driveway, I determined to take back my table. The Devil would have to flee." He goes on, "In the days that followed, my mind was riveted on those nine words. As negative thoughts would enter my mind, I’d say to myself, Don’t give the Enemy a seat. Don’t entertain his ideas. These thoughts are not from a good and trustworthy Shepherd. Move on. "Soon after, I was led to study Psalm 23—a text that has comforted and steadied God’s people through the ages as they have navigated troubled waters. Now I was seeing it through fresh eyes. Especially the line that reads, 'You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies...

A thought by T. D. Jakes, from his book,  Don't Drop the Mic  (p. 39). FaithWorks, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Fear can be horrible but we must never let it stop us! But I'm afraid! T. D. says, " Fear of failing, fear of succeeding, fear of what others will think, fear of what your mama will think, fear of making a fool of yourself, fear of being misunderstood, criticized, and taken out of context—as with any area of personal growth, fear is likely to be part of the equation. When it comes to communicating, however, fear is but one variable among many, not the limitation that prevents you from being heard by those around you. "Owning your fear is the first step in facing it, and facing it to overcoming it." He goes on, "I’m often amazed that people rank speaking in public near the top of their list of worst fears. Known by the clinical word glossophobia , fear of public speaking terrifies some people more than ...

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 58). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes He does. Daniel says, " This is a deep-flowing joy, based in a reality beyond any circumstances we find ourselves in. Let that marinate for a second! We can have an inner state that is incredibly, joyfully out of keeping with even the most difficult situations we face. This isn’t denying trouble in our lives; it’s triumphing over it." He continues, "I want to share with you a great definition of joy I learned from an amazing theology teacher called the Sunday school classroom. Many of our kids know this definition, but so often we forget it as adults. "Joy can be broken down into three parts: Jesus, Others, and Yourself." He goes on, "This shows us the order that leads to real joy. And it’s as crazy as all these countercultural ways that God loves to work in us. With that definition in...

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 56). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes, He can. Daniel says, " That redemption leads to an outcome we would never expect. He’s always in the business of resurrecting and redeeming even the small details of our lives. And what we experience of God’s comfort now is just a foretaste, a precursor of Jesus’s return, when he will set everything right." He goes on, "The key for us is to make sure we don’t let our hearts get hard in the midst of all the brokenness we see, experience, and endure. It can be incredibly overwhelming! And don’t get me wrong, Jesus never condemns us for struggling. He knows we are human. He promises to pour the water of his Spirit over the hard places of our hearts and renew us when we simply invite him to do so. "Now, here’s where this gets really fun. As we suffer and as we mourn, God comforts us, and the fruit ...

  A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 53). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) It really can. Daniel says, " If you think about it, the greatest tragedy in history was the cross of Jesus Christ. And God also leveraged Jesus’s finished work on the cross to become the greatest triumph in history. "Although the disciples wept at the death of Jesus, their joy was unspeakable at his resurrection. But for the disciples, their joy hinged on accepting the fact that Jesus was who he said he was when he appeared to them after his resurrection." He goes on, "Some of us are still living in the tragedies we’ve experienced and are unwilling to receive the comfort of Jesus. I lived that way for a long time. When my mother passed away, I was in that spot. I didn’t understand, and her death felt wrong in every possible way. But what I didn’t realize was that God was seeking to do a restorati...

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 51). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And I like that. Looking sad. Daniel says,   "Thankfully, God’s plan doesn’t stop with mourning. He’s not interested in us walking around sad and grief-stricken all the time. He’s not trying to lead us into lives of despair and misery. The blessing Jesus promises for those who mourn is that they will be comforted." He continues, "If you’re like me, you might be a little confused right now, because if our poverty leads to mourning, and mourning leads to comfort, what exactly is the point? "Here’s a truth bomb for you: we love the outcome, but God loves the process. You see, Jesus is revealing part of God’s ongoing plan of redemption for the world—that even in our present reality, God is beginning to leverage the brokenness of the world and bring beauty from ashes, joy from sadness. His ongoing re...

  A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 48). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes it is! Daniel says, " My parents told me about the days not long after the first images of the Vietnam War popped up on TV sets. The images of bodies and violence coming back home were so provocative that they created an almost instantaneous anti-war movement in America. It’s one thing to have a war at a distance; it’s another to see it in your living room." He goes on, "Fast-forward about fifty years, and the amount of violence the average American sees in a day from news and entertainment sources is so intense that we don’t even bat an eye at it anymore. Not to mention we have smartphones in our pockets 24/7 with those images. It’s as if we’re so used to the fact that everything’s jacked up that we hardly register it anymore. It doesn’t increase our heart rate even a little bit. That’s a prob...

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 38). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Maybe someone came to your mind. Daniels asks, " Why don’t you love them? Maybe they have hurt you and you think they don’t care about others the way you do. Maybe they don’t live lives that honor God. Maybe you can’t fathom how they could vote the way they did. Or you can’t believe they would watch that movie. Or that they would go to church only once per month. Or they would be attracted to that person. And the list goes on." He goes on, "When we start to look at the people we struggle to love with poverty of spirit, we realize the problem isn’t them; the problem is us. My problem is me. Your problem is you. The issue is in the posture of our hearts, because when we forget where we’ve come from, we lose the ability to meet people where they are. "Humility teaches us we’re all the same, just with ...

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 35). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And we need to see this. I can't believe they would do that. Daniel says, "Pharisees in the church today are those who at some point gave their lives to Jesus and want to follow the Word but have lost God’s heart for people. They’ve forgotten where they came from—or never really knew it in the first place. Instead of saying, 'I need Jesus,' they start to look at other people and say, 'They need Jesus. I can’t believe someone would do that.'" He goes on, "If this is you, be careful. Whenever we find ourselves in the 'I can’t believe they…' party, we’ve walked away from poverty of spirit. We may be in Christ, but we’re missing out on the beautiful life and sabotaging our own happiness. "We live in a day where people who don’t know Jesus don’t feel much love from people who ...

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 33). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Our ashes Being humble is so important to God. He rewards it. Daniel earlier said, " What God sees as beautiful is somebody willing to say, 'I bring nothing to my relationship with God except my own brokenness and sinfulness.' That feels kind of depressing to acknowledge, doesn’t it?" He goes on, "Jesus drives smack-dab, head-on into a massive collision with our culture. The famous preacher Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said about being poor in spirit, 'It means a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-assurance and of self-reliance. It means a consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God.' "In his book Mere Christianity , C. S. Lewis put it this way:     "Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call 'humble' ...

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 28). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And if we are really honest, we know that to be the truth. A complicated relationship. Daniel says, " We complicate our relationships, our work environments, our pursuits in life. And then we try to fix the people around us, or we get extra introspective and stare inward at our own motives, hoping to simplify." He goes on,"Like when we have interactions that strike us as a bit odd, and we didn’t get the responses we expected. For many of us, before we know it, we are down the rabbit hole about how they must feel something negative about us. And that thing gets big in our heads really quick. We begin apologizing. Or worse, we get frustrated with them. Oftentimes, they haven’t had one thought about us. They are busy thinking through their own stuff. But in our complications, we make mountains out of molehi...

  A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 21). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) That is very interesting. Daniel says, " Both are not explanations of what we do but of who we are . Both explain the unique qualities of what it means to be given the gift of life in Jesus." A peach tree. He goes on, "Think about a fruit tree. Fruit is born in its own time, simply because of the tree it stems from. Jesus said we will know a tree by its fruit. He also said God is glorified by us bearing fruit, and that is impossible unless we abide in him. "In other words, fruit can’t produce itself. Its growth is a by-product of its ability to find its life from the tree itself. This is exactly what Jesus told us in John 15:4. So when you put the Beatitudes together with the fruit of the Spirit, you find that, as a pairing, they give us an absolutely stunning view of what a beautiful life is mad...

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 19). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Putting your faith and trust in Jesus is the way to a beautiful life. So what does he mean by that? Faith and trust leads to beauty! Daniel says, " And here’s a key to life as a follower of Jesus: it’s not just believing in Jesus one time when you commit to him; it’s about following him every day as well. It’s about walking with him. "See, too many of us have this idea that when you’re born, you’re born and that’s it. It’s a great thing to be born, but what’s next? If you never interact with your parents again, will you grow? It won’t happen, right? And it’s the same way with Jesus. You put your faith and trust in him one time. That’s salvation. But then the adventure begins: you follow him every single day so that you grow." He goes on, "If we want to experience the crazy happy life God intends for...

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book,  Crazy Happy   (p. 10). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) So much beauty to see! Daniel explains, " We don’t want beauty in an abstract sense, floating out there in the ether, something intangible that we appreciate but can’t quite grasp. We want to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it and become part of it. As we behold Jesus and the beauty of what God has done for us, we don’t just see it from a distance; we find ourselves yearning for true oneness with Jesus." He continues, "Everyone is on a unique step of his or her journey. Some of us arrived here with serious issues, questions, and doubts about Jesus, while others of us have been following Jesus with great excitement. No matter what our personal view of Jesus is, he is still the most important and controversial person in the history of humanity. E...

A thought by Daniel Fusco, from his book, Crazy Happy   (p. 8). The Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And that is something we want to see, isn't it? Daniel says, " What I’ve discovered is this: plain and simple, the only reason you and I are so dissatisfied with our lives is because we don’t see them as beautiful. You think I’m making this up, but I’m not. Not seeing our lives as beautiful holds us back from the happiness and satisfaction we’re meant to experience." He goes on, "I learned this in the great philosophy classroom of the college party. (Bear with me. It’s worth it.) Party after party did nothing to satisfy my thirst for happiness and meaning in life. I was the guy who handled vibe control for parties all over the city. I made sure they were the best anyone ever went to. But I remember sitting on my dorm bed one night, saying, 'This is supposed to be fun, but it’s not fun anymore.'...