What to Do When Shit Hits the Fan

There are so many stories in the Bible that reveal the weaknesses of humans.  But there are also inspiring stories that teach us steps we can learn to make better decisions when dropped in the middle of a belittling situation.

One of those stories is when David’s father sends him with lunch to his older brothers.  Anticipating a great reception, he collides with their disgust.  1 Sam. 17 tells us, “Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why did you come? and who did you leave those few sheep with?  I know your pride, and the naughtiness of your heart; for you came just to see the might of the battle.  And David said, What have I done? Is there not a cause?”

Imagine the energy and excitement of this kid only confronted with; Who Put You in Charge?  What are you doing here?  David could have reacted by taking up an offense by saying, You ungrateful pathetic piece of crap!  But after a reaction like that you feel like a piece of crap yourself.  It deepens further when you realize you missed a chance to encourage and rescue the cirisis.

Instead of reacting to the rejection, David follows the cause at hand and volunteers to turn the crisis into an opportunity.

The Real Questions to ask yourself to keep going in the right direction when you hit rock bottom is; What’s my Calling, What’s my Cause or Purpose?  What do I Care Most Deeply About inside?

I recently heard a pastor use three words of how to turn a conflict into an opportunity: Eclipse, Enough and Effort.  I wondered if David used these words to shift his attitude from being rejected by his brothers to allowing the Cause to change the outcome?  

Eclipse means when light from one source is blocked by another.  Reminds me of Jesus when He hit rock bottom.  He couldn’t get to the next dimension of His life until he killed the giant of the cross.  Heb. 12 says, “Jesus despised the shame of the cross but for the Joy set before him, He endured the cross.”  The rock bottom of Fear could have blocked His decision.  But looking down the road and seeing You and I, His Purpose Eclipsed the cross.  Victory for Jesus wasn’t at Calvary, but at Gethsemane.  His decision making shifted from saying, “Take this cup from Me”  to, “Not My Will but Thy will be done!”  

I meet many people who are driven by a cause, but will it block out the temptation to make small decisions by reacting or go big?  

Next word is Enough meaning fully capable and equipped to meet the demand.  In that place of significance is where decisions are made determined by the fact if you think, I am enough.  David tells Saul, “Here’s your armor back!  What God has place down inside of me is Enough!  I can hear his words right now, I Can Do This!  I don’t think he was impressed that much with his stone.  He may of thought, Maybe this will knock him down, but somehow God will help me kill him!  That’s one of the most critical life altering times we go through.  It comes down to knowing that what God has placed within you, establishes the position that you are enough, which changes everything.  

The next word is Effort meaning a vigorous and determined attempt to make a cause or idea become a reality.  David saw himself as Enough, and believed that God was empowering him to defeat fear and face the giant.   When we believe and take that first step of faith, energy is released and you put forth the Effort needed to get the job done.   

When shit hits the fan, it’s meant to make you feel like a piece of shit.  When David killed the Giant, the King within him took the place of the Kid.  If you have a Purpose that Eclipses your Crisis, and an Attitude that Inspires your thinking; then you’ll be energized to overcome and put forth the effort to do anything and everything to create a future filled with hope by the Glory of God.

Dr. Paul Morgan

WHO ARE YOU?

I Love Russell Wilson’s saying, “Why Not You!”  Is it possible where you live, that You are the one who will be called to be the “Warrior Fighting for Peace” as Erwin McManus suggests!

Just think with me a moment.  How many awkward situations have you found yourself in where being the lover demanded a fight?  Those times when there was that inner fight to forgive.  A fight to repent.  A fight to smile and give a hug.

In this world of division, yelling, accusing, finger pointing and small selfish one sided attitudes I suggest, “Why Not You be the Warrior of Peace!”

Takes a Fighter when slammed in a crisis conflict to think in Godly terms!  An open mind allowing Jesus thoughts to engage your heart and surrender to Listening being empowered to miraculously turn a hateful moment into an opportunity for love and peace?

Always thought of a Fighter as winning which is true.  But a True Fighter is aggressively pursued  by their heart to lay their life down and pay the price for Peace.  

With so many relational failures in all of our lives including mine, it’s time to acknowledge God’s provision and favor.  It’s time to seize moments that are normally destructive by leaning on the Spirit, watching those moments become divine.  

I suggest today with Russell, Why Not You?  You may be asking, Why?  Because it’s very possible that You are truly being called to be as Erwin suggests, The Way of The Warrior!

Paul

The Way of the Warrior

For the last couple months I have spent one evening a week with seven of the most amazing young men who happen to be world changers.  I named "The Young Guns!"
Together we have gone through the book "The Way of the Warrior" by Erwin McManus.
The story is told of the 300 Spartans from Greece who have been sent by the Spartan King to go and hold off the Persian army at the mountain pass of Thermopylae long enough for them to prepare for battle.
At this confrontation, Xerxes, son of Persia yells across to Leonidas, "Throw down their weapons!"  Leonidas yells back, "Come and get them!"  Xerxes yells back, "If I have all of my archers shoot at once, the sun will go out!"  Leonidas yells back, "Well then, we will fight you in the dark!"
Many think of a warrior as one who dominates with strength and power.  But "The Way of the Warrior" has taught us there is a greater quest - to encounter for the first time, true inner peace.  Erwin says, "The battle is fierce.  It rages around us and inside us.  Sometimes the greatest enemies, the greatest challenges we face are within.  By following the Code of the Warrior, freedom awaits, along with your most powerful future."
May Our Heavenly Father's presence come to you today and engage your hearts and minds as we continue to follow the Ways of Jesus.

Paul

Give First!

It’s an adventure to discover if the promise is true; Whatever you lost serving Me, I will give back 100 fold!
In walking out each step of our journey, it’s hard not to get caught up choosing between following your fears or your faith.
If faith, it requires removing some roadblocks.  Coming to a place of forgiving someone might be one of the roadblocks to escape the trap of becoming a victim.  Another could be repenting of any bitterness and asking forgiveness for any misunderstanding you may have caused or insensitive actions hurting someone out of ignorance or malice.  For sure there are many other keys to unlock any opportunity hidden within any one of our crisis.
Choosing to walk out our faith might not always prove to be the quickest resolution especially if there is times of waiting that seem way to long.  But eventually a Word will come from heaven, Be It Done Unto You!
Remembering and accepting the fact that the heart of the king is in the hands of God brings hope.  Have you ever experienced God causing people to bless you that didn’t even like you?  In looking into the rear view mirror, experience tells us that the Lord always remembers us!
I used to think the hardest test of faith was to give up something I don’t have.  But I think the real test is giving up something You have.
Remember Hannah’s prayer, If You give me a Son I will give him back to You.  But later when she returns back home after giving up her son, she realizes she’s right back where she started.  But not really.  A broader perspective has enlarged her understanding.
It’s easy to miss what the story is about.  Hannah’s was about God opening up her womb and entering a new realm of existence in unlocking the secret of giving first.
Samuel wasn’t the blessing but the test!  God says first things first!  First give the then it will be given back to you pressed down and running over.
The hope is that one-day we really learn that our faith is taking us through a test to form a new habit or behavior pattern to always first give back what has been given.  Then the fullness of a miracle comes with overflow!
Truth teaches us that we have nothing that God hasn’t given first.
Imagine entering a contest with God to see who will out give the other?
So keep giving and God will give back to You 100 fold.

Paul

What If

What If it didn’t take a lifetime to stop putting an opinion upon a pedestal of small thinking?  What If you discovered that if you’re not careful, who you are becoming is killing who you are?  

Gregory Boyle stated, If you read the Acts of the Apostles, it doesn’t say that people “prayed in tongues” but were suddenly able to hear those around them speaking “in their own native language.”  It is, as Marcus Borg points out, “the reversal of Babel,” when languages get confused and division, rivalries, and misunderstanding become commonplace: it’s the polar opposite of kinship, but it’s also the beginning of something: an amazing possibility of reunification.  Somehow the highest praise of God is not in speaking unintelligibly but, rather, in speaking a language of inclusion where barriers are dismantled, circles are widened, and no one is left outside.

I grew up in a very opinionated conservative home with comments and judgments at every dinner table.  Opposing any of those common attitudes was considered rebellious and condemned.  I never felt I was rebellious or determined to resist and create havoc.  I always strived to listen and learn.  But I did have an inner fight that grew and developed everyday of my life to create connection.  Through observing people I respected and loved to be around, I began to imagine what I’d dream of being.  Through those times I definitely discovered more things I never wanted to repeat.  I don’t know if I came up with the saying or heard it somewhere, but this statement became a driving force in my life: “You’ll turn out to be what you hate if you don’t commit your whole self to becoming what you dream of.”

I then discovered that it took just as much energy not being something as becoming.  This is when Jesus began to engage my thinking with creative imaginative inspiration.  I realized He didn’t waste time telling people what not to be, but what to become. I could easily follow that.  In this discovery I became aware of the question of how do I know what someone could become.

I had a best friend in high school that had a very abusive father who told me everyday how much he hated him.  Seven years following graduation, I saw him with his wife and two children.  I watched him interact with his wife and children the exact same way his father interacted and treated him in high school.  I was shocked for him, but more importantly realized I was being called to step into the light of becoming rather than repeating.

Is it possible to measure all that has been stolen through our smallness of opinions, prejudice, or the influence of neglect, hurt or ignorance? It’s hard to be Big when Little has you by the throat!

I believe we are all created to dream, imagine and pave the way of greatness for each other to discover peace, grace, love, joy, and wholeness.  There is a lot of hope left to tap!  As grace expands our existence, we can seize opportunity out of the mud of smallness!

Take a moment to look away from your ideas and opinions long enough to discover what is being stolen.  What If you pursue one another with the thought of what could be!  What If you were created with the capacity to know what someone could become mainly because of the transformation of your own story?

How many sides of any given subject is really worthy of broken relationships, and lonely empty holidays?

What If you could put your finger on one thing that has been stolen from you while protecting and defending an ideology?  Could you believe change is even possible?  I’m not sure repenting and asking for forgiveness is enough? Is there any space you must travel where value is placed upon one another more than the notions that divide you?

What If, your Christ-like self became the bridge to a surprising future of connection, understanding, and the capacity to dream big enough to cause God to smile?

Have any traits of your past that you hated become the blindness stealing away the future you have dreamed of?  Feel invited today to step into the light of Jesus that makes you bigger than self.

Paul

Hey, I'm Over Here

Having just finished Easter week, I’m intrigued with the story of the ladies going to the tomb and finding Jesus is gone.  Two Angels sitting on a rock asking them the question, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?  Don’t you remember that He said He would rise on the third day?”  

These women who followed Jesus had watched the compassion and miracles He preformed on a daily basis.  They heard His teachings of this New Kingdom that would be ushered in.  Overwhelmed with grief of what life suddenly became, they went back to the tomb for comfort, but He wasn’t there!  They forgot what He had said!

Jesus tried to prepare them well for this place that would come, when He would rise from the dead providing a pathway to enter this new place for the Holy Spirit to be in them, but they forgot.  

In agony, many times we go back to the place where our lives were transformed by Jesus, but like these women, we go back only to find an empty tomb.

This story makes me think how easy it is in our life’s journey to go back where we experienced Jesus.  How it changed the way we live life making that place familiar.  But in all honesty, as I look back with emotion to those precious markers where I built a monument; the return was never the same.  That place at first was so alive, but ended up dead.  Seems to be the story of religion always going back to where they left Him.  That place leaves a person with staggering emotions and overwhelming disappointment.

If you are in a stuck place that is dead, it’s important you hear Jesus say, “Hey, I’m over here!”  Why?  Easter is about moving forward out of the past into a New Day of awakening, and being made fully alive in the Holy Spirit where divine moments express this New Kingdom has come on earth as it is in heaven.  

I pray that your steps go forward with energy, direction, sensitivity and victory.

Paul

2018

2018 will be the Year of Hope if you follow your heart.  In spite of conspiracy theorists, choose your future.  Have the courage to Never allow fear to put your Dreams to sleep.  Save nothing for the next life, Go for Broke.  When problems crowd into your pathway, don’t allow anything to slow you down.  People may remind you of your past weaknesses, mistakes and failures; so set your past on fire!  Never let hard times or pain cause you to doubt the gifts and inspirations God has given you.  As each opportunity presents itself, Refuse to lag or stay behind.  Step out in faith making the impossible possible.

Never stop until heaven says It’s Finished!

Here Comes the Son!

Struggle With a Loving God Concept

I hate getting caught up in the emotions of not being sure what to say to anyone who is wrestling with abuse and hurt while asking the question, “How could a loving God cause or allow rape, violence and evil?”  In dealing with these kind of questions, I face the problem that I’m not a theologian, but a true follower of Jesus.  In spite of that the wrestling continues.

I do know that when Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God’s simple instructions; that choice made it where we are all born into a fallen world.  Not just fallen but completely fallen where we are all unable to fix it or run to a God waiting in a deistic far away throne.  Jesus said, "no one can come to Me unless Father draws them to Me!"  

With this in mind, it's great to know that God didn’t just send His Son halfway to build a halfway house, requiring me to come other half.  But because He is Rich in Grace and Mercy, He sent His Son all the way becoming completely human.  And in the process became homeless with no place to lay His head.  It wasn't until the Day of Pentecost, that He came home to all those who believed!   

It's very important we don't forget that in this fallen world, there are two kingdoms at war against each other.  In the process, we get to choose which kingdom we will join with in battle.  When evil occurs, it’s not the Kingdom of God causing it.  It’s the Kingdom of this World along with imperfect people.  God’s sovereignty doesn’t prevent us from living in an evil fallen world by taking us to a place where we pretend it doesn’t exist.  But He rescues, restores, transforms and redeems things that have been stolen or lost.  We become testimonies of Grace and Mercy invading and engaging our many mistakes, choices and acts of evil with the Holy Spirit in love and power.  

Because of His great love for us, we experience deliverance and healing empowering us with brand new descriptions of Christ in us filling us with hope and glory!  With this power we have the honor and privilege to bring hope and glory to others caught in the same traps we have been set free from.  Praise be to Jesus who suffered homelessness and ended up within us!

May this difficult conversation continue!

Paul

What's Chasing You?

John 8:36, So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

I was thinking this morning, what is the difference between being Free and being Free Indeed?

So, the Children of Israel are freed from Egypt but looking over their shoulders because Pharaoh is chasing them to the Red Sea.  They were Free but on the run!

The Red Sea parts, they cross looking back, and here comes Pharaoh!  In the mean time, God tells Moses to speak to the Sea.  He speaks and it closes with the drowning of Pharaoh and all his army!

Can you see the picture?  The sea calms with no sign of Pharaoh, and people began to sing!  Miriam, Aaron's sister, grabs a tambourine and begins to dance!  Why?  Because they discover the difference between being Free and Free Indeed!

No more looking over their shoulders.  Didn't know what was ahead but no more on the run!  No longer chased by the enemy!  Brings clarity to these words; Those that the Son declares Free are Free Indeed!

Seems many times like we can't win without a struggle!  Comes down to the question of, What's chasing you?  What needs to drown in the Red Sea?  The Children of Israel were Free from Egypt but Egypt was still in them. 

Obviously there's a journey from Free to Free Indeed.  Remember the journey to not to become perfect but Free Indeed!  Can't win without making mistakes!  But soon what used to get to us doesn't get to us anymore!  

We keep learning and growing because we are not just Free but on our way to Free Indeed!  That's why Jesus came!  Whom the Son sets Free is Free Indeed!

May Blessings Rain upon You in this hard Pilgrimage of Life to being Free Indeed!

Paul

Instinct

I’ve never heard preachers refer to the voice of the Holy Spirit as instinct until some of my favorite recently.  Hearing this has caused me to realize, many times this is the way God speaks to me.  An amazing lady prayed for me a couple years ago and told me that God showed her that my heart and mind were married so that I could hear Him.  At first I thought my mind was too busy for it to become the vehicle to hear God’s voice.  But now I believe, because I hear Him many times a day.  It’s not out loud, but it’s Instinct.  A thought will pop into my mind, “See that man over there?  Go encourage him!”  OK!  As I encourage, the man tears up realizing he is experiencing a miracle from the God who loves and adores him.  This man also knows that no person alone could come up with something so profound.  That’s why I believe.  It works and it’s Fun!

In Matt. 25, Jesus tells the story of the Master who went on a trip and before leaving he gives one man $5,000, and the second man $2,000 and the third $1,000.  When he returns he discovers that the first two men invested their money wisely and doubled what was given.  But the third man buried his out of fear that the Master would punish him if he lost it.  The Master rewarded the first two by making them partners with Him to rule over much.  The third is basically told to go to hell saying, “It’s criminal to play it safe,” and gives his money to the one who took the greatest risk.

I’ve noticed that successful people seem to have just as much fear as people who are cautious and hesitant.  The difference between the two is what you do with your fear.  You can allow your instinct to override your fear, or bury the opportunity. 

What are you doing with your fear?  The energy of fear can either fuel and push you to excellence, or tempt you to drum up excuses and miss the moment. 

I love when the master says, “Enter into Joy, Come Share your Master’s happiness!”

Have you become boring, dull and flat line from fear?  The wrong response to fear produces; anxiety, stress and bad health.  I believe the Holy Spirit is telling you to allow your fear to drive you to instinct.  The Holy Spirit is the one who gives instinct.  It’s not spooky!  It’s real and available because you are so loved by Father!  On the Day of Pentecost, you were left the Holy Spirit to dwell within you, empowering you to create wonder and miraculous surprises!  I hear many times a week the Holy Spirit saying, “This is the Moment, Jump on it!”

 

Jesus saw ten lepers and told them to go show themselves to the priest. On the way, one of them noticed he was healed, and had instinct.  He turned around and went back to thank Jesus.  He thanks Him and Jesus asks, “Where are the other 9?”  Seems that not only obedience is measured, but also instinct!

You have the opportunity to follow instinct, which will lead you into the next dimension of increase!  Trust your instincts because God wants to open up the windows of heaven, and pour out blessings you won't have room enough to receive or contain.  Blessing will flow into your life because you stop hesitating and questioning instinct!  Step into this arena. 

In this present culture, I meet many who have a huge amount of information but no instinct.  Instinct is that inner push of the Holy Spirit to understand the power of this moment!

All ten lepers were healed but the 1 was made whole!!  The nine followed the path and the 1 followed his instinct. 

Instinct to increase!

May you by faith follow your instincts and create change!

paul