In Awe

Genesis 28
10-12 Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it.

13-15 Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you."

16-17 Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, "God is in this place—truly. And I didn't even know it!" He was terrified. He whispered in awe, "Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God's House. This is the Gate of Heaven."

Have you ever ask God to show up to a certain place or come to you at a certain time? Have you ever done that? You know, "ask God to show up". I do it all the time. There is so much to Genesis 28 but I want to focus on one thing and one thing only. Is God showing up for us? How do we know, do we just trust He does? Man, these are some great questions, don’t you think?
I was excited to write about this today, mostly because I have been here more times than I would care to omit. The text says it all in verses 16 and 17. Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, "God is in this place—truly. And I didn't even know it!" He was terrified. He whispered in awe, "Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God's House. This is the Gate of Heaven."

I have been in awe before of God’s Holiness, His awesome power, seeing Him work right before my eyes. Whether waking up, praying or sitting in a car, whispering "Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. God has shown me His power and is where I am. It great to hear people pray and even to say "God, will you come to us, will you come in this place to help us, come and be with us. I have no problem at all with this so please don’t read into this. What I am say is more times than not, we "wake up" and say "God is in this place—truly. And I didn't even know it!"

Do you know where God is? The Holy Spirit? Where is He in your life? This my friend is "Incredible. Wonderful and Holy.

George Beasley

Fenced In

2 Corinthians 6
11-13Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

Do you ever feel like the world is just not big enough? You know, like you are cramped up in a small place, getting no where in life. I have ask myself in recent times "is this it, is this what I was made for, is there any more for me to do God?

I may have told you that I was challenged to go to Bible study on Sunday morning, so I went. As I sat there I was reminded on how small I have made my world. Gene reminded us of how many times we use the personal pronoun "I" in a sentence. I was also reminded and challenged to get into God’s word more. We do tend to get into a pattern and then the pattern gets less and less in size and before we know it we have made our world so small that we can’t even function in it ourselves. This I have found to be a very dangerous place to be. The decisions we make while at this point are usually bad and nothing good comes out of them.

In the preceding verses of Chapter 6, Paul is talking about all the things in life we do and ends it up with "having nothing but having it all. Then falls into verses 11-13. This is where I want to write today. I have been accused of late of being to long in my writing but as I have learned and some of you know there are those who are not as brief as me. I am smiling now. I guess I could have written on 1-10 to start with and then moved into 11-13 but not today.

I want to talk to you about living openly and expansively as Paul has described here. To live a wide-open life, full of all that God has for you. How can we do this? How can we live a life that is wide-open and spacious, not fenced in?

Paul answers that question with one statement "The smallness you feel comes from within you.
What we feel is who we are. At any given moment in life, if we feel small we are small, if we feel big we are big, if we feel sad we are sad, if we feel happy we are happy. It all starts within. Here is the question for us today. Who is within us? Is it the Holy Spirit? Is there evidence of this?

I have built my own fence and if not broken down in time, life gets smaller and smaller. God has great plans for all those who know Him. We must depend on the Holy Spirit of God to direct us.

It is the Holy Spirt who lives in us. I was reminded of this yesterday as I was praying.

The point I am making today is the world is much bigger than we think, your world is much bigger than you think. As Pastor Jeff told me one time "God is only bound by His word, you cant’ put God in a box. These words are so true. The sad reality is most of our Christian culture or religions have put God into this tiny box that fits their world which becomes our world. We have fenced God in and made all these rules and regulations that really don’t apply in life, we have not only bound God, but have bound Him by our words.

Can this be broken, can this fence be torn down? Yes, of course it can, I am living proof of that. It starts with you understanding God and His word. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

George Beasley

It's What I Want

Today seems to be one of those days. Just not sure what to write. Do I edit an old story? Do I write a new one? What to do? This is my third story this morning. I sent this one out to you all a few weeks ago. None the less, it is relevant for me today. It kind of falls into the story I wrote yesterday on love. It deals with the emotions. I guess after rereading this and the story from yesterday I would ask one thing. Who is driving your life, what is guiding or directing your emotions? Have you truly giving everything to God?

Jonah 4
3"So, God, if you won't kill them, kill me! I'm better off dead!"

4God said, "What do you have to be angry about?"

5But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.

6God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.

7-8But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah's head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: "I'm better off dead!"

9Then God said to Jonah, "What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?"
Jonah said, "Plenty of right. It's made me angry enough to die!"

10-11God said, "What's this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can't I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don't yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?"

I have deleted and rewritten and am trying to get this just right. This book is about so much of life that it’s just not funny. It deals with all of the human emotions. Jonah is happy, Jonah is sad, Jonah is angry, Jonah is mad. On and on we could go. There is a great kingdom principle here in these last verses and I don’t want to miss it. So for the sake of being to long in this story I may split it up into a few parts.

Have you ever been where vs 3 is "I'm better off dead!" You don’t have to tell me, just be honest. It just you and God right now. Have you ever said this to God. The giver of life the very one who can grant you that request. This is a sad place to be but it can also be a growing place.

I love what God says to Jonah "What do you have to be angry about?" This is what God will ask you when you are at the point of no hope, a point of not being able to see past the horizon in life.
What do we have to be angry about? We are here for one purpose, no matter how complex we like to make our lives and how busy we make ourselves the cause of Christ is why we are here.
In verse 5 we can see a great example of how we react when we don’t get what we want. The text says "He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together..Try and follow me here as this is where it gets a little deeper. While he was pouting about not getting what he wanted and not what God wanted, look at what it says right after "he sat down and sulked. "He put together". You can call it a play on words, not theologically correct, reading into the text but one thing you can’t deny, he did it himself. He went out on his own into a bearing land, he walked away from God, he tried to do all of this against God. The whole time talking to God.

The point is simple. God had one simple request and I believe that same request is for us today. Go and preach the gospel! Just Go! Just do it! Why is that so hard for us to understand. We try so hard to make things so complex. Have we made the cause so complex that we can’t move? Have we just diluted the gospel so much that the message is not heard?

This story is one of truth, it makes us really take a good look at ourselves and what we are doing in life. Have we built this shelter around us and are we just sitting back to see what God will do? Or are we at the point "you know what, God! I am angry at you. It’s okay to be here but don’t camp here. Ask God, he will answer you just like he did Jonah.

George Beasley

A Life of Love

Ephesians 5
1-2Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

There are some things in life that we just can’t fake. In the end "love" really has no boundaries. I’m not sure how many times I’ve read these verses but today they seem to really hold me where I need to be. As I look around in our world, where is this love. I don’t want to come across judgmental in any way but just want to express to you all what I am seeing.

Where is this love that has no boundaries? Where is the love of giving oneself up for others? I’m just not sure. In recent months we have talked so much about love. The love that Christ has for us, the love that we have for Him, the love we have for our children, the love we have for our mates. Our culture has taught us that love is just another human emotion, we can turn it on and off. I am quick to say "I’m not sure about that now.

In the past I would have fought you on this. I will agree that love is the greatest of human emotions but how can we just say "I do or I don’t. I have been taught in my Christian walk that I have to love even when I don’t feel like loving, to always give this. It is true that we have to learn to love some things but in recent times I have seen people that I love. I do not know them, I have never met them, I have never spoken to them but I love them. Explain this, I ask myself.
I guess to start I will say to love with an unconditional heart it will be that of the Holy Spirit, a love that pours out even when you don’t feel like loving. A love that never ends, a love that can cross all boundaries, a love that is not judgmental, a love that doesn’t look at circumstances but at the person. I do not see this love as a human emotion but one of the Spirit of the living God. The Holy Spirit that lives in every Christian.

This being true, then why can’t we all love with this kind of love? I guess I will now say and introduce the world to us all. To learn to love as Christ did, then we will have to observe Him and how He reacted. I love the verses above, especially this, "mostly what God does is love you.

I will end by saying that it is the Holy Spirit in us that loves this way, a way that we can not explain at all apart from the word of God. The word says "Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. Let’s be extravagant with our love, to keep company with God is an awesome thing, talk to Him and learn this life of love.

I am not really sure of the point I am trying to make or even if there is a point. I guess what I’m saying is "life is so short and our time here is at an unpredictable end, so love, love everyone you meet, love your children, love your spouse, love your neighbor, love all those God puts in your path but more than anything in life love God and allow the Holy Spirit to love through you, this is a gift. Love the life God has given you.

George Beasley

Burring the Foxes

This story is one that has many memories tied to it. It was written two months after I joined the ministry, May 2005. Many excuses have risen since that time, many foxes buried. John and I skied the other day and it reminded me of this story. As with all of the stories I’ve written, I feel a need to edit them some. This one was in need of a verse. I have been going through some things lately and as always going to the word seems to direct me just the right way. This week I was challenged on "why are you not _______? I had no excuse, only to realize that God led me to these verses in Ephesians this morning and this has helped me answer the question I was asked. They match this story perfectly and more than that they match my life right now.

Ephesians
1-3In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

4-6You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.

7-13But that doesn't mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift.

This will be the first weekly update I have ever titled. You will find out towards the end why it’s titled. Keep in mind these are not scripted and never looked for but are from my heart and reflections of what God has done in my life this week or brought to memory something that needed to be put into words as this is a continual healing process for me.

This is my fourth season skiing. I am a late starter but been around water most of my life. I have been a believer since 1988. Lisa and I were saved during a Wednesday night service, how unusual is that. I should have known then God had something very unusual in mind for us in our service for Him. To be quite honest my skiing has lead me on this journey. It seems God has given me something each week to tie skiing in with our Christian walk since accepting His call to IHW. I have tried to not write but it just has got to be.

This week has been no different. The title is a tribute to the person that this analogy came from. His name is John. He is the very one that God put me in touch with when we first started to ski on a course.

I want you to think about something, all you water skiers! What is the one thing we all talk about or tell stories about, either while warming up or I sometimes wait until we get on the back of the boat to talk about. Their I am putting on my ski, talking as usual and out "they" come. What are "they". Have you traced the steps or your routine. I want you to really think about this before I tell you. What do we do before we get in the water, sometimes we wait until after the first pass, drop at the other end, and out "they" come. Sometimes like last week we wait until we make some of the ugliest runs and have some of the very worst skiing in history. We climb back in the boat shaking our head and here "they" come. Have you figured out what I am talking about yet? It’s those excuses. John shared with me the mother of all excuses. It is without doubt the best I had ever heard. You will not guess what the man said!

He falls into telling me about this dead fox near his house. I don’t think he really knew what to do with it. He said he grab the shovel and started digging the hole to bury the fox, he said he even dug little holes for the legs. I can see this hole and more than that I can see the old dead fox standing in the hole, upright and covered up. I think this is how the story went. The point being his skiing may not be good today because he had to bury the fox. He had to dig the hole. I have heard many excuses, the wind, rain, snow, boat wake, not my handle, ran 10 miles this morning, rode 25 miles to get over here on my bike, broke my ribs. You all have a list and know what I am talking about.

Do you see the relation here with our Christian walk. When God gives us a task to do, to serve Him in some other way than perfect conditions we start to make excuses, at least I do. Don’t feel bad, Moses did to, "who am I Lord" he said. This weekend it was the wind for me, before I left the dock, I had the excuse ready. If I don’t ski well today it’s because of the wind! Guess what, with that attitude I didn’t ski well. I had to fight for everything I got today. Was it the wind. NO!! It was my attitude towards the course that was set before me. When God puts the course in front of us we always seem to rush to make excuses why we can’t do it that way. Excuses are very powerful. Sometimes they are helpful because they lead us to where God wants us, they help direct our path and are part of our decision process, we can learn from our excuses. Notice this is not the same as a mistake, we make excuses in order not to make the so called mistakes.

The conditions are not always going to be perfect. I am so convinced this is why God can only show us small parts of His course for our life. We would start making excuses of why we could not do it that way. Not only was this real for me this week but I had a tough question to ask and to answer. It was one of those questions that we try to stay away from because we really don’t’ know the answer and try to say "does it really matter". But somebody gave real good advice "George, you need to find this answer for yourself, don’t ask man, don’t rely on what you were taught, seek God out and ask, go to the word. I had made every excuse not to, "didn’t matter, we can just do things a different way. Something just drove me on and kept saying "what ever you do, "no excuses and no compromises. What ever the out come!

God blessed me this week by giving me an answer to my question. It really does not matter what the question was. The point is how I got to the answer. How many excuses did God have to go through with me to get to the answer. You guys have been skiing way longer than me so I know your excuse bank is rich. How about our Christian walk, how rich is our spiritual excuse bank? How often does God want to do something and we just make a quick withdraw! No, can’t do that, because ______? You fill in the blank. Let’s go this week and try hard to do what God has ask us to do without excuse.

Don’t feel bad when we make an excuse or bury a fox, we are just human you know, it is our nature and will always be a part of our thought process. We love to bury foxes. Does this mean we have to say yes to every little thing someone ask us. NO! It all goes back to what we all have talked about in the past months. Ask GOD! Ask about the big things and the little things. A reason is different from an excuse, it is a different thought process. This week I want to encourage us all to not make too many withdraws and to ease up on the deposits in our excuse banks.

George Beasley

True Colors

Written in October of 2006 in the mist of what would come to be one of the greatest trials and test of my life. Would I stay or would I give up all that I had been blessed with for the past two years. This is what I had been waiting for my entire Christian life and now God wanted me to move on! I later came to realize that I had no decision in the matter at all, it was all of God. As Pastor Danny says "it’s His providential will George. For me, I don’t really understand but I am learning and have a great peace in knowing that God's plan will go forward. He may reveal His reasons for moving me one day, either way I can stand on these verses as truth. I had to add the following verse to the story.

Ephesians 3 (The Message)
20-21God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

I went to bed late last night and got up late this morning. Not for any other reason than God was on my mind and I was doing some praying. I got up praying the same thing I went to bed praying. Then I started to study this morning. I realized a couple of things that I just had to share. One was in James, verses 2-4, something that has happened many times this year, and us now knowing that the test that have come and continue to come forced our faith life into the open. I started to smile when I read this, just because it also says "it shows our true colors". As I thought back a about half way through the season and then later into the season you all saw my true colors. You were able to see what makes me laugh, what makes me cry. You were able to watch my faith being tested. Not just me alone but many on this team.

I also saw some true colors. I can hear you asking, wonder if he liked what he saw? It really doesn't matter if I liked it or not, just because I now rejoice in the test to see growth in all of us.
I did learn this year to "ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought". Can we really get a grip on that?

Are we really in love with God? I have been reading a great deal on our relationship with God and will share it with you later but this is a great starting point. What does it mean to love God? How do we know? I went around for years after being saved thinking, can I love God as much as I love ???? You fill in the blank. Person or things? Then as you may know my trip to St Louis the love of Christ was revealed to me through His Spirit. This was the start of my eyes being open to God and His love. So today I can say I love God, more than anything in this world.
So I can pray and ask boldly, believingly, knowing that God will give what He has for us, and lead as He leads us. So much more here.....talk to you all later.

James
2-4Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

5-8If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

12Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

Looking back now, what have I learned? To trust God. His plan for your life was set into place before the world came to be. YOU CAN’T MESS IT UP!

Your flesh will tell you every lie in the book and the devil is so crafty in making things look as they really should not. The devil wants to encourage us to fail and to be defeated, he wants us to live a life of trouble and a thought of abandonment. I know this first hand as many of you do.

Read James, verse 5-8 again when you need some help and then stand on these verses.

Ephesians 3 (The Message)
20-21God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Do you really believe? Can He really do "anything? The answer for me is without question "YES. How do I truly know "because as I went through this with God and He moved me from where I really had no intention of moving. I no longer ask "why, but am content with thanking God knowing it’s all in His plan. I fought this for months but God worked within my spirit just like the verse says, not pushing me. He has truly given me more than I could have ever imagined or guessed or requested in my wildest dreams!

George Beasley

Lessons Learned

Written to our team in September of 2005 it still holds a special place in my heart. As I read it this morning I was reminded once again how busy we can get, and how consumed we get in our own little world.

I heard this story at a lunch meeting the other day and the person talking was going off about what ticked him off. As he started in he said the following ticked him off, see if you can relate.

What tics me off is going to the drive thru and getting some dumb head who can't take my order and get it right the first time, that tics me off, or while driving thru the Wal-mart parking lot and getting behind some women who won't get out of my way fast enough, that tics me off, or the old lady and old man in the Wal-mart pushing a cart standing in the way right in the middle of the isle, wont move out of my way! I'm in a hurry, don't they know that!! That tics me off. You know what else tics me off he said "that homeless man on the side of the street holding up a sign wanting money!! GET A JOB!! he said real loud, that just tics me off!!
At this point and I am sure all of you are here, what kind of person is this talking? Is it me? Let me finish the story now.

He said lets pray and bless the time we have together.

His prayer was something like this!

Lord forgive me for being who I am. Forgive me for thinking I was better than the person at the drive thru, forgive me because that girl could be working her way thru college, or getting ready to go on a missions trip. Forgive me Lord for thinking bad when I got behind that woman in the Wal-mart parking lot, she could have just finished a second shift job and on her way to a third job to support her family with no husband, Oh God forgive me!! Forgive me Lord for not just going the other way and saying hello to the old man and woman in the Wal-mart isle, they could have just gotten the news that one of them has terminal cancer, Oh God Forgive Me!!, Forgive me Lord for thinking I am better than the street man, who is at his lowest point in life, him not knowing where his next meal is coming from, not knowing if he is even going to eat. OH GOD FORGIVE ME!! I am no better than any of these, by your grace it could be me!!
As I heard this mans testimony I thought of this and have thought of this all weekend. Think about it next time you are at the drive thru, or behind someone that won't go as fast as you want to.

Life is so short and we (I) spend way to much time thinking on what tics us off rather than how can I be what God wants us to be. But by the grace of God I am where I am. Blessed beyond what I should be but none the less blessed. Lets slow down a bit and really look at how blessed we are.

This weekend is just sinking in, I was so busy I didn't notice some things I should have. I didn't slow down and let God show me some things he really wanted to. I am thinking back to a conversation I had with someone. They said "see that guy over there, he is really connected with you, get a change talk to him". Well, it slipped away, no time I said in my heart. God forgive me for not taking the time to see, to look and to feel the need of others.

George Beasley