Mike Fisk & Built with Grace

Jesus, My Go To Guy

February 14, 2012 in Uncategorized | Tags: faith, God, grace, Mark 4:41, mvp Jesus, protection, storms of life, trust | 6 comments

Now they were more afraid than ever and said to each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Mark 4:41 (CEV)

When you need to make the winning shot, or score the winning touchdown you look to your ‘go to guy’ the MVP, the one who seems to thrive on the excitement and tenseness of the situation. In most cases you don’t put the rookie into that situation. He doesn’t know the game, he lacks confidence, and he may choke under the pressure.

I remember watching a professional basketball game on TV one time. The underdog team had played its best game of the season and was within a point of tying the game with a few seconds left. They were playing the defending champions on their home court. As you can imagine, the crowd was going wild.

On the free throw line stood the home team’s rookie sensation. He was the one that had been keeping them in the game all night. As he prepared to make that shot to tie the game, a veteran player from the other team walked past him and slapped him on the back. The TV cameras just happened to zoom in at that moment and you could see the veteran smile and say “Don’t choke.”

That’s all it took. The rookie shot the ball, bounced the game-tying shot off the front of the rim, and it was rebounded by the veteran to end the game for the home town team! He listened to the words ‘don’t choke’ and focused so much on what was said he missed an easy shot to tie the game.

When you are in the midst of battle you don’t want someone who is going to choke. You want someone that you know will get the job done. There will be close games. There will be battles and struggles to contend with. But with your ‘go to guy’ in the game you know the outcome is more likely to end in your favor.

In life, my ‘go to guy’ is Jesus. Unlike a sporting event, I don’t go to him because he is my best hope; I go to him because he is my ONLY hope. Unlike a sporting event, putting Jesus on the line doesn’t give me a better chance of victory, it guarantees my victory.

The disciples were in the boat. It was dark. Most of them were fishermen and knew the dangers of the storm. Perhaps they’d even lost a friend or two at sea. As their terror mounted, Jesus slept. He knew the outcome. He wasn’t concerned.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, the storm I’m going through now has me more than a little worried. I’m scared! I can’t fight the battle ahead of me without your help. I need you in control of this situation. Empower me with your Spirit to rely on you for the outcome. I put all my hope and trust in your ability to work all things out to your good. Amen

Praying for Your Abuser

February 13, 2012 in Uncategorized | Tags: branding, forgiveness, God, grace, Jesus, love, Matthew 5:44, praying for abusers, the brand of a Christian | 6 comments

But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. Matthew 5:44 (CEV)

A big word in the marketing world today is branding. In simplified terms, branding is what identifies your company, product or group. It’s more than a logo or catchy phrase. Branding entails every aspect of your business from advertising and delivery of quality goods to maintenance and customer retention. In a sense you are your brand. When people see you, they think of your product and whether they like it or not.

For the Christ-follower, our brand is love. Not just love in a passionate sense. Not love for those who share common interests or theology. Not love based on the actions of those around us. On the contrary, Christ-centered love is a love for all of mankind regardless of their actions, their beliefs or their life circumstance (race, religious creed, lifestyle choices).

The Bible teaches that there are no limits to God’s love for us and, as a result, there should be no limits to our love for one other. This is a hard saying. It’s easy to love the ex-spouse when they work as a team to parent your children. It’s hard to love an ex-spouse who has left gaping wounds in your soul from physical or emotional abuse.

It’s easy to love an employer that takes risks to keep the company afloat by protecting your job; it’s hard to love an employer that makes cuts to keep the company alive by cutting you, and giving himself/herself a raise.

It’s easy to love people like Mother Theresa and others who have given or are giving their lives to make the lives of others better. It’s hard to love someone who fills mass graves with innocent women and children in the name of ethnic or political cleansing.

Hard as it is to love those who mistreat us, Jesus’ teaching goes a step further! Not only are we to love those who mistreat us, we are to pray for them. It’s easy to say, “I love my enemies” to those around us. But when we come to prayer, when we come before the one who sees our hearts, who knows our thoughts, who was there when the abuse occurred and allowed it to happen, our thoughts expose the nakedness of our empty words. You can say you love your enemies, but you can’t pray for them unless your love is genuine.

One of the keys to praying for those who abuse you is to realize that loving someone doesn’t mean you condone their actions. Loving someone does not mean you trust someone. Loving someone does not mean you continue to put yourself in danger in the name of love.

Love for the abuser can’t come naturally; it must be empowered by supernatural means. Only by the Holy Spirit can we truly love and pray for those who have abused, or continue to abuse us or those we love. It comes from a realization that although they do hateful things, they, like us, are God’s creation, his masterpiece, and like it or not, God is not willing for any to perish but for all to experience the repentance and forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ.

God listens to our prayers as he examines our heart. He honors the honest prayers that admit our inability to pray the words we need to pray. He brings people into our lives who may be able to pray on our behalf for our abuser.

It’s a difficult command, but loving and praying for our enemies is not an option for the Christ-follower.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I confess to you that this passage of scripture is one the most difficult ones I wrestle with on a daily basis. There are people in my life who have hurt me, misunderstood me, lied about me and abused me. My soul is still bruised by their onslaught. But because I love you, and you love them, I’m committed to love them and pray for them. Empower me with your spirit to know that that looks like for my life, and pursue it in your name. Amen.

You are HELD in His Arms

February 12, 2012 in Uncategorized | Tags: Encouragement on the journey, God Hears us, grace, held in God's arms, Hope, hugs, protection, Psalm 10:17-18 | 4 comments

You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror. Psalm 10:17-18

There are times in our lives when we just need a hug. Not the hug that leads to passion, nor the hug that says ‘everything will be alright’. There are times when things won’t ever be the same again. There are times when passion is the furthest thing from our minds. Times when we just need the hug that says, “No matter what has happened between us in the past, no matter what happens in the future, I’m here for you to walk be your side. To give you my full attention, to encourage you on in life, to listen to your heart and protect your very soul from attack.”

That’s the message your Heavenly Father wants you to hear. There are plenty of people around that want you to think about the Judgment and wrath of God; that remind you of the consequences of a life lived for yourself and not for God; that will give you a whole checklist of things that you need to do/have/feel in order to win the attention of the God of the universe.

Make no mistake. He is a Holy God. There are consequences for our actions when we don’t repent and come to him for forgiveness. But your heavenly Father is not a God of vengeance or condemnation. Jesus himself reminds us that “I did not come into the world to condemn the world but to give the world life! (John 3:17)

To be held by your Father in Heaven doesn’t mean you will be free of trouble. To be held by your Father doesn’t mean pain and sorrow won’t come into your life. To be held by your Heavenly Father means that as you go through the trying times his arms will be around you. Walking hand in hand with God is a marvelous thing, but there are times when nothing but a hug will do. Nothing but being held in his arms will suffice.

To be held in the arms of our Father means He:

Hears us- We will never be ignored.

Encourages us- When the battle gets the toughest he is our number on cheerleader!

Listens to us- Hearing means to hear the word, but listening means he hears our heartfelt feelings.

Defends us- The father provided far more than economic gain. He was the one that mentored you. He was the only one that was educated. He was the one that gave you hope for the future.

The enemy of your soul wasn’t you to think you are in this alone. The voices deep within remind us of our failures, try to take away our hope. Your Father holds you in his arms so that when the attacks come you are safe in his protection and grace.

PRAYER: Father, there are so many times I feel alone. So many times it seems like the battle raging around me is more than I can take. My efforts to succeed, even in serving you, fall short. My past haunts me and my future scares me. Thank you for holding me in your arms. Amen.

Where is God During Troubling Times

February 11, 2012 in Uncategorized | Tags: Consequences, fear, God's absence, Jesus Christ, past sin, Psalm 10:1, troubling times, trust | Leave a comment

Why, LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? Psalm 10:1

It’s during the wilderness time of our lives that we expect God to be present. After all, doesn’t scripture say ‘He is an ever present help in times of trouble?” (Psalm 46:1-2) Aren’t we told we can hide in him? (Psalm 91:1-2)

Too often it seems like he is the one hiding. If we are honest, the times of trouble we go through aren’t nearly as hard to take as the feeling that in those times of trouble we struggle to see God’s face. “I could endure this trouble if I could see you!” we tell ourselves.

Those struggles of our heart, the painful wandering in the wilderness of our souls are the true test of our trust in God and our belief in the hope we have through Christ. If God were to carry us through every trial and make our journey effortless; if he were to keep us from all pain and suffering and show us the easy way to traverse the rocky path of life; if he were to protect us from all pain, then from where would we learn to be strong. Troubling times are the skeleton, the muscles of life that give us strength to carry on.

Somewhere along the line we’ve gotten the mistaken idea that if God is a God of love, then pain will be absent from our lives, but this is never found in scripture. On earth, during this life we should not be surprised when trouble comes, we should be expecting it.

Sometimes we have to admit that the trials we endure are the consequences of past sin. We are forgiven to be sure, but the consequences of that sin can last a lifetime. Sometimes those consequences are natural results of our choices. Sometimes those consequences are the result of critical and judgmental people who refuse to allow us to forget our past. Either way, the consequences of our past can keep us from seeing the Father.

Times of trouble can be lessons of grace as well. Paul prayed three times for some unknown thorn to be removed from his life. The answer? My grace is sufficient. Were we to be trouble free, we might naturally assume that we are in control of our destiny, that we are able to make our way on our own strength. Grace reminds us that we need God. Times of trouble remind us that we need grace.

Times of trouble come at the hands of evil men as well. People who call themselves messengers of God can be the worst. They put the label of their religion on everything they do, but there is no grace. There is no understanding. There is no compassion. We are misjudged, misunderstood and mistreated. Sometimes for our past (which was forgiven) sometimes for our stand for God.

There may be other reasons you can think of for why this ‘time of trouble’ has come into your life. It may be to teach you some lesson on life, or to strengthen you for the future. Whatever the case, when you can’t see the Father you can know two things. One, he is not far away. Two, he has good reason to allow you this ‘time of trouble’. Use it to grow more closely to him or it will be used by the enemy to pull you away.

PRAYER: Father, I don’t understand you. I confess that openly. It’s especially hard to understand you during those times when I feel like I need you the most and can’t find

No Longer at this Address

February 10, 2012 in Uncategorized | Tags: anger, Ephesians 2:5-6, fear, grace, guilt, Jesus Christ, New address, shame, worry | Leave a comment

“that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:5-6 NLT

A few years ago I changed my cell phone provider and as a result got a new phone number. For a short time after that (and still on occasion) I’d get phone calls from people looking for someone else. I’d tell them that this was my number and I wasn’t the person they were looking for. That person, who ever it was, was no longer at this ‘address’.

That’s what grace is like. As we try to grow closer to Christ, old acquaintances will try to contact us.

Old friend worry will dial our number when the boss tells us that the company will be downsizing and your hours will be cut.

Lust will pop up on the phone screen of your life when things at home get a little to stressful and you begin to wonder if the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence.

You’ll hear the familiar voice of anger as you find the porn magazine under your son’s bed.

Doubt will ask for you to come to the phone when the prayers you prayed so fervently aren’t answered the way you’d hoped.

Fear will text you when the doctor calls and, rather than give you the results over the phone, asks you to come into the office.

Shame and guilt? Oh, they still have your number too. They’ll call at any hour of the day or night, waking you up to remind you of your past or question how you can talk about God with this ‘monkey’ hidden on your back.

Grace tells us that we can respond to each of these old friends by saying, “Sorry. I don’t live there anymore.” Before Christ we lived side by side with all of these old friends. Now that Jesus is in our lives we are changed, we’re new people, we live at I M Forgiven and we no longer need to take calls from the old life.

When the old friends call don’t give them a moment of your time. The shame and guilt you once carried can be placed on the back of a Savior who died to free you from that baggage. The anger, lust, worry and fear can be put out on the curb for garbage pick-up. You have no more use for it.

There’s nothing you can do to free yourself of these enemies of your soul. But that’s okay, Jesus already did that for you 2000 years ago on the cross. Today he sits at the right hand of creator God to be an advocate for us in our struggle. Because of Jesus you no longer live at that old address!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus the old life isn’t willing to let me go very easily. I still struggle on a daily basis with at least one of the old ‘friends’ from my past. Empower me by your Spirit to live free of their harassment. Because of you I’m a new person at a new address and they have no more hold on me. Thank you! Amen.