Empowering Points for Living with Chinua Hawk and Pastor Jessie Butler
Today’s Lesson: The Time Machine
So I was thinking to myself, if I could go back in time what year would I go back to and what advice would I give myself? I think it would probably be the year 1983. I was eight then and had just begun to get a little chubby. I would try and find out what triggered this whole thing and try and find the solution.
Then again maybe I’d pick 1990 the year I started high school. I think I’d tell myself to let go a bit and have more fun; stop being so afraid of getting involved. Maybe I’d tell myself to take the football coach up on his offer to play instead of saying no because I was too lazy to stay after school for practice and was afraid of looking stupid out on the field because I didn’t know anything about the sport. I guess I’ve always had a fear of trying really anything outside of my comfort zone.
Since there is no such thing as a “time machine” I have to be a little more creative about this thing. Suppose it’s ten years from now and I had the chance to come back to myself where I am today, what would I tell me? This is tricky and scary because now I have to get real about my situation. Where will I be in ten years if I continue on my present course?
I would first tell myself:
Stop living off of your past accomplishments. No one but you cares. It’s time to move on.
Work harder today than you did yesterday.
Use your time more efficiently. Like my mother used to tell me “Those people on the television already have theirs, you need to get yours and stop watching them.”
Stop complaining. No body cares!
Plan your work and work your plan. Stay consistent.
Mediocre work breeds mediocre success.
Last and most important. Seek God First! Only what you do for Christ will last.
That’s just a small list of what I’d tell myself. What would you say to yourself?
Notes from Pastor Jessie
“Faults are Fixable Don’t Backup: Sow, Reap, and Break.”
One of the greatest text in the Bible is Hosea 10:12, where God through His prophet Hosea says to Israel (during the time when there was a destructive and divisive infestation of Spiritual Adultery), “Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”
The message for us is, no matter what we have done, or have not done, whether we have measured our accomplishments as great or small, or whether or not we have pleased God, ourselves or others, God ‘s love is unconditional, eternal and transforming. God loves us enough to both remind us of the consequences of our actions while whispering with His still small voice, to not backup in our yesterday because he has made provisions for our faults to be fixed.
You can stop living off your past accomplishments if you focus on the same three charges God gave His beloved Israel. Sow, Reap, and Break.
If you take ownership of theses three charges your tomorrow will in no way look like your yesterday.
So, first of all to stop living off your past accomplishments, “Sow for yourselves righteousness”. What does that mean? Do what is right! Dig into a relationship with God. When you dig into a relationship with God, you will not get caught up in self. What you have done. Did you do it or was it God’s loving power in and over your life? Thank God for your past success and look to Him for all your future possibilities.
Whatever faults you have or whatever you did not do in the past can’t be changed- God is not dwelling on your past, why are you? Don’t you know that the rerun of your past is a tool of your enemy? Not only is he walking to and fro seeing whom he might devour, he will play a movie of your life to depress and stress you. So, “Sow for yourselves righteousness”. How do you sow righteousness for yourself? The answer is what Israel forgot during the time of Hosea- faith. Your faith is the seed, and righteousness is the fruit! If you dig in with God, righteousness is produced. When you are living as the righteousness of God through your faith your focus will not be on what you have or have not accomplished but on God’s power to fix your faults and move your forward.
Secondly, fixing faults requires that each person, “Reap in mercy”
You can work harder, use your time wisely, and as someone has said, “plan your work and work your plan”, but it will all be for naught unless you reap in mercy.
Only God’s mercy, His pity and His compassionate love is the power to bring about a change in our actions, attitudes and accomplishments. Don’t misunderstand me, use the time God has given you wisely, but even time is not yours. You are in God’s timing because of reaping in mercy. As you work hard in God’s timing lean on and depend on God’s mercy. Faults are fixable when we are in the mercy of our compassionate and loving God.
Thirdly, what ever faults you or I might have, God is teaching us they are fixable, not because we stop complaining, but if we stop talking about being mediocre and take decisive action that will transform our life into the righteousness of God experiencing the mercy of God as we move forward. Again, all we need to do is take ownership of God’s Word to Israel and, “Break up your fallow ground”.
To stop our complaints, God is saying identify your problem. It’s your soil. It is a fallow ground. If you life is uncultivated, idle, unfertilized, barren, empty and seedless, then your soil will be non productive. You are to break up your soil, cultivate it, fertilize it, get your life ready for seed planting, so that you can look forward to harvest time. God’s plan is for you to harvest righteousness! Right living now and right living forever is God’s plan for your life.
You don’t need a time machine. You don’t need an instant replay of your life. You don’t need to dwell on what you did or did not do. “Faults are Fixable: Don’t Backup Sow, Reap, and Break. Why? Why? Why? Pastor Jessie says, “Preparation and Activation Destroys Desperation”.
Please join us again next week for our Empowering Points for Living