“Potholes…” (by Mel McGuire)

My city government made a big deal recently about fixing one million potholes in the city streets. They even got around to fixing the potholes in the street on which I live. Potholes. THEY NEEDED TO PAVE THE ENTIRE STREET!!

Every time I drive home, I am reminded that someone took a lot of credit for repairing the several potholes on my street. I am also jarred by the fact that the street itself is in disrepair. While the absence of the potholes is better, the street is still a rough ride.

Of course God popped me upside my head (spiritually speaking of course) as He reminded me of the times I celebrated fixing the potholes in my cobblestone lifestyle. I suspect we have all done it. Made a big deal about one severe area we fixed, while ignoring the condition that led to the severity in the first place!

Here is the thing, if you pave the street, you have to fix the potholes anyway. It is easier and less time consuming to just fix the potholes, and leave the street as it is. While we appreciate you not cussing us out every other day in your new found salvation, we still have to deal with your overall “janky” attitude and negativity. You fixed a pothole.

When we get spiritually lazy, in the name of expediency, we fix potholes. We stop doing certain things, extreme or obvious things, like fighting, stealing, or fornication. But we still live on a rough street, so we keep fuming, plotting revenge, envying others, or watching risqué media. We need to bulldoze the street and repave it. We fix potholes.

I actually laughed when our mayor went public with the success story of fixing all those potholes. My street will still loosen a filling every now and again, and driving slowly just makes you seasick. I think God feels some kind of way when we celebrate an “easy fix” when He knows that what is needed may temporarily shut some stuff down.

Who wants the inconvenience of a street closure? The noise of large machinery and the time it takes to do the job right? WE DO!! Or we should. The same material needed to fix a pothole is what is needed to fix the street. Just more of it on a larger scale.

It takes more time, more planning, and certainly more sacrifice, but in the end, on a long term basis, it is worth it. Our salvation is eternal. Let’s fix the street of our life and not just fill in the potholes.

When people interact with us, they should not be jarred or become nauseous due to our imperfections. How many people plan their day trying to avoid us or limit their exposure to us? Take the time God needs to become whole in Him.

Our attitude about getting better is vital to us getting healed. So too our mindset about allowing the word of God to literally transform our lives. ALL OF IT, not just the potholes.

Confessing a sin is fixing a pothole. Repentance that leads to lifestyle change is repaving the street. Stop fixing potholes. God wants to you to live at the same address but with a brand new street. Put the shovel down and fire up that bulldozer!

“Sound Check…” (by Mel McGuire)

My pastor was teaching on the subject of using the platforms that God provides in our lives. During the message he touched on the subject of the importance of doing a “sound check” prior to a live performance.

I don’t recall everything he said about it because the Lord began poking me in my chest (gently of course) about the importance of sound checks in my life. As I listened to Him, I realized how many different times He had given me the opportunity to conduct a sound check. And consequently, how many times I may have misused said opportunity.

There are many reasons to do sound checks, but the main purpose is to make sure that what you are saying is being heard in the manner you intended. Ultimately, the sound check is not about you, but about the audience.

At a concert, for example, the artist comes out before the audience is seated and performs enough samples from their playlist to enable the sound engineer to fine tune the sound for that particular venue. There are no universal settings.

When all is said and done, the artist must trust the engineer. The artist can then be free to perform and let the engineer (the expert) monitor the sound, making adjustments as needed as the acoustics change due to a variety of factors, including the size of the audience.

As believers where we can miss our sound check is when we do not test our message prior to ministering. I am not talking about preaching per se, but then again, I am. I often will call someone who knows me, knows my God, and will run a few ideas or concepts by them before I stand and minister.

Just because something sounds good to you…doesn’t mean it will sound good to your audience! Do a sound check. Be open to some fine tuning in your delivery, your style, and your method. What might bring life to your friend can turn another into an adversary. Do a sound check. Be willing to change to allow the message to be received.

I have missed sound checks because I did not say what God told me to say, when He told me to say it, to whom He wanted me to say it to. I have been late for sound checks, leaving me to feel stressed and anxious about how to say something vital to someone else. Sound checks remind us that what we say to one, we cannot say to all.

A sound check is the one on one conversations we have with God, and with each other. Where we learn the better way to say or do something, so it brings forth life, not strife. Sound checks are when we learn we cannot threaten everyone with fire, brimstone, and eternal damnation…and expect their immediate conversion to the faith.

Sound checks are those times in prayer when we extrapolate conversations about difficult subjects we may not want to have…and God shows you how to say it, when to say it…He is the author of the message, let Him find tune it. Do a sound check.

“Ant-Man…” (by Mel McGuire)

I am writing this before I see this film. I have every intention of seeing it, (I tend to enjoy all the Marvel Comics movies), but this concept just spoke to me, so I am going to be obedient and not wait.

Based on the trailer and limited knowledge I have of the character, when he puts on the suit…he shrinks in stature but increases in strength. That PREACHED to me right there!

John the Baptist said, “I must decrease, for He must increase”. Paul said, “When I am weak, He is strong”, and “in my weakness his strength is perfected.”

The whole concept of becoming smaller in order to be stronger and more powerful is a good one for us Christians to grasp and embrace as if our lives depended on it.

Before honor comes humility and he that humbles himself under the mighty hand of God will be exalted in due time.

It would seem the Ant Man suit allows him to shrink in size, which would make obstacles and enemies seem even larger, but he gains enough strength and power to overcome them…but only when he is small.

But not small in his own eyes…for while in the suit, he KNOWS he possesses a greater power than he does on his own in his own strength!

Now I don’t know how the suit works, don’t really care. I don’t know how long he can remain small and strong…I may learn that in the movie…but I do know that when he is little, he can do big things!

When we as believers, allow the power of the Holy Spirit to flow through us, we can do great and mighty things for God! But we have to minimize our ego, our opinion, our wisdom, experience, and ability. The power is in the suit! The spirit man has the power!

To be clothed in humility is to recognize, like Ant Man, that sometimes… you need help to overcome your adversaries. And that help is available when you humble yourself and ask.

It would also seem that even when in the suit, there are enemies that operate at the same level…but victory for the ants come when they work and fight together!

The bible refers to the ant several times and usually it is a positive reference. How they work together and can do great things as a group as opposed to operating as individuals. How they prepare for lean times during times of plenty. Ants are powerful!

I will probably write more after seeing the film, but I had to get this out now. Humble yourself. Be little while at the same time allowing God to be big in you. Stay in your suit and let the power of God flow! Be like Ant Man…small and mighty!

The spiritual battle for souls rages on…time to suit up, get small, and get busy fighting!

“Indominus…” (by Mel McGuire)

The dinosaur “star” of the film Jurassic World is a hybrid creation called Indominus Rex. It was designed to be “bigger, louder, with more teeth.” She was bred to be an attraction at an amusement park. But there is something about that name.

“Indominus” is Latin for “untamable”. You name something untamable all the while fully expecting to be able to control it. Okay.

At one point in the film, the “asset” (as they call it) gets loose and they have to decide whether to kill it, or merely contain it. Well, they have a team called the “Asset Containment Unit”, and once the manager points out that they have $26 billion invested in this asset…let’s not kill it.

I was instantly reminded of the things God tells us to crucify, like our flesh and some of our fleshly habits. Habits that have become a creation of our own making, habits that we think we can control. Until we can’t. God says crucify it…we say, “hold on, let’s take a look at this from an investment standpoint”.

For years I collected music, and had quite an extensive (and expensive) library of records (literally records, as in albums and cassette tapes). When it became clear I needed to change my taste in music, God’s direction was clear: Crucify it.

But I had so much money invested in my collection! I thought about selling them, giving them away (God loves a cheerful giver, right?), until finally I agreed and just destroyed them.

But other things I chose not to kill right away. In the film, they initially try to use non-lethal methods to contain that which by definition is untamable. How many things have we given new life to after God has directed us to crucify it?

We rationalize and justify…we make excuses and come up with reasons why it’s not so bad. Until the carnage of our lives leaves no further room for discussion. The only question that remains is, will we be still be able to stop it before it destroys us?

Jealousy, anger, pride, vengeance, lust, selfishness…all things we need to eliminate from our life and our lifestyle. But we have invested so much time and energy in some of these destructive things…how can we just kill it now?

How can we hold our tongue or tame our opinions when for so long we have trained them to be like Indominus Rex? A creation of our own making? A hybrid of attitudes and attributes designed to make us bigger, louder, and with more teeth?

God teaches us to deny our flesh, to bring our thoughts under the obedience of Christ and his word. It can be done. We have seen success in some areas and we can be successful in every area…if we follow the same process.

Be honest about the things you think you can control, but are truly indominus. Starve them, while feeding the godly attributes you want to display. The bible says if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

A creature is one who owes his existence, and success, to another. That is us! New creatures in Christ! We now have God’s DNA, and possess everything we need to live a life of godliness. So crucify the old man and let the new man live in you!

“Anesthesia…” (by Mel McGuire)

A profound message motivated me to consider reconstructive surgery recently. I did not want to change my appearance by removing or enhancing some physical attribute, nor did I need to repair some broken or injured body part and restore its proper functionality.

I was motivated to undergo reconstructive surgery of my inner man, a spiritual refreshing, tightening, lifting up, and general makeover. But even in this type of process, like a physical surgery, I will need an anesthesia.

The biblical example provided was the potter and the clay. The point was that the clay sits on the potter’s wheel and the potter reworks the clay into the vessel he wants it to be. Like reconstructive surgery, the potter sometimes must remove pieces that no longer fit his image or are not needed for the finished product.

Other times the potter must take from one part of the clay and add it to another area, to strengthen, and reinforce. These alterations may ultimately change the shape and capacity of the vessel, but they are the potter’s choice to make.

Through it all, the clay sits and allows the potter to work. For the clay, it is a seemingly unending cycle of spinning, and being reshaped through various methods at the hands of the potter.

The anesthesia becomes important to me because I am not inanimate like that clay. I have feelings, opinions, ideas, and even an agenda that must be de-sensitized to the need for surgery. But like the clay, I will not change on my own. I need the potter’s touch.

Anesthesia is temporary. It is designed to shield you from the pain and processes of surgery, which can be forceful and unpleasant. But successful surgeries also bring about healing, another process that can be painful.

I often choose the anesthesia of food, sleep, television, or other benign forms of escape, that temporarily shields me from the symptoms requiring surgery, but do not require me to actually undergo that painful process. While I may escape the pain, I do not change, or heal.

God has provided an anesthesia, namely His presence, which allows me to be temporarily shielded from the painful process of spiritual surgery, and then helps in the healing process as well.

When I worship, when I pray, when I read His word, or fellowship with other believers, I can spend that time in His presence and allow Him to cut away some stuff, add some stuff, or just reshape some stuff in me. It allows me to respond to my need to change, and to heal.

His presence shields me from the pain, the forceful, unpleasant processes that bring about change from the inside out. For it can render me like the clay, willing to be still and allow Him to mold me as He sees fit.

His presence reigns over my feelings, opinions, and agenda, acting as the anesthesia that allows me to become what He desires, a vessel fit for the master’s use.

“Merge…” (By Mel McGuire)

We have been learning at church about transitions, specifically about change. Transition is a good thing, and change is good because it represents growth.

As we grow from “glory to glory” we should be changing into something closer to the image of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We should merge with his nature, character, and identity.

One of the images used to convey the necessity of transition is the idea of switching from one freeway to another. The transition road, that space of freeway in between the two freeways, is the time we are focused on.

What goes on during the transition, what is happening as we prepare to merge? Well, on a freeway, the first thing is that you must recognize that you have to get off of one freeway to get onto another.

There are signs indicating a change is coming up. You have to merge, usually to the right, slow down, and prepare to change directions.

Once you are on the transition road, you have the opportunity to slow down and prepare to rejoin the adjoining freeway which is headed in a new direction.

You must take heed of the speed and the level of congestion on the new freeway and plan to find a space where you can safely merge and then go with the “new flow”. Once on the transition, you really have no reason to think about the road you are leaving behind.

Transitions by design require you to pay attention to your speed and the signage tells you that your lane will end and you must merge with the traffic already on the path you are joining.

You are required to match your speed with theirs so that you are not a disrupting force as you merge. There are a few spiritual parallels here we should not ignore.

Are you recognizing the signs in your life that it is time to change freeways? Are you no longer making progress or realizing you are heading in the wrong direction? Have the methods that brought you success in the past coming up short? Are you left unsatisfied even when doing all you know to do? It is probably time to merge.

God has a new direction, some new traffic you must move among, and a new direction you must travel to get to the places He wants you to get to. From glory to glory.

During this season of transition, you need to slow down, look ahead and prepare to merge into the next thing He has for you.

Merging safely requires humility. You have to acknowledge that you are entering a new place and the old methods may need some adjusting.

You may have to pray more often, pray more purposefully, study the word instead of just reading it, worship a little longer, and be still a little longer. Pay attention to the people who have been on this path before you…and merge.

Forget about those people and situations who stayed on your prior freeway. Focus on the traffic and scenery of the new direction, knowing they bring you closer to your final destination.

Whether God moved you because of congestion or simply because it was time for a new direction.

If you take time to merge correctly, you will blend in and begin progressing towards your final destiny. Closer to God, more like Jesus, and going with His flow.

Your lane is running out, prepare to merge…