Category: Journal

Who Defines You

On By josephbarlowIn Family, JournalLeave a comment

When I was in high school, my younger brother and I were in the same math class. He was smarter than me in that topic and more motivated. I didn’t have a problem with being in the same class with my younger brother. It never bothered me. I had my own strengths and was happy that he had his. One of my strengths was guitar playing.

In our Catholic high school we had all school masses (basically a worship service) on some regular basis. As a guitar player, I joined the team to lead the singing. Sometimes I would do a special song right after communion for the whole school. On one particular day, I sang a somewhat popular song and the student body responded very favorably; they loved it. On my way to math class right after the mass I was congratulated and complimented frequently by my peers. It was a great feeling being appreciated.

When I sat down in class, my brother was sitting right behind me, then it happened: a pretty girl in the class came up to us, turned to my brother and asked “What’s it like to have a brother who’s wonderful?”  I was very angered by her question. Although I didn’t show it, I was livid. Didn’t she understand what she was doing? Didn’t she understand the place she was putting my brother into? I wasn’t concerned for me. I was concerned for him. She was placing him into what I’ll refer to as negative space. She was highlighting the space I was in and making it clear that he dwelt in the opposite space of me – the negative space.

I never discussed with my brother how this affected him. I’ve never brought it up until this writing. I hope he didn’t let this become a defining moment for him. That would be sad to let someone else’s limited perspective define you. Choosing the negative space as your identity isn’t about you. It’s about the other person. If you do this, you and the world will never find out who you are.

If you live in the shadow of someone, or think you do, don’t let yourself be defined by what you are not. Don’t take the negative space and say “that must be who I am.” No! You are a unique and awesome individual not to be defined by someone else, but by who God made you to be. Discover your own characteristics.

If you define yourself by negative space, then you take the definition of that other person and choose the opposite and say “that must be who I am.” So if I play guitar, my brother then would have to reject playing guitar, whether or not he had an innate talent or skill. If I chose Christ he then would have to reject Christ to maintain his identity. If I am straight he must choose to be gay to maintain his identity.

Can you see how faulty and tragic this can be? I believe this happens all over the world and throughout the human race over and over. We must give people the freedom to be who they are, and the affirmation of that as valuable.

Maturity Is Worth It

On By josephbarlowIn JournalLeave a comment
Many people face situations that, to them, seem insurmountable. What they are facing is beyond them and their ability to solve.
Yet I often see people facing problems that I can see the potential in them to solve or overcome. They just haven’t come to maturity yet. I can see that when they mature they could solve the problem easily. But they can’t seem to see that for themselves.
When an area of weakness, immaturity or ineptness comes to light in someone’s life there are various responses:
Some are hopeless. They see the problem and give up before even trying to mature. They don’t believe they could ever change for the better.
Some are condemned. They just see themselves as guilty and rejected so, again, they don’t try.
Some are challenged. They see their weakness and have a self-will that says, ‘I don’t accept that! I can change that.’ These people move into action to bring about change within themselves.
Some just forgive themselves. They see that they have a weakness, but decide to just accept that they are that way instead of changing for the better. Sometimes, we forgive ourselves too much which causes us to be deaf to the pleas for us to mature.
I want to encourage you to see that coming to maturity in various areas of your life is worth the effort. When you mature, it diminishes the size of problems in how you see them.
So my encouragement to you today is simple:
Grow Up!

Processing Your Morning Thoughts

On By josephbarlowIn JournalLeave a comment

Last night before I went to sleep I sat down with my laptop and spent some time journaling, talking to God. I write down what I want to say to him, then I listen to hear what he wants to say to me. I write it down so that I can read it, discern it, keep a record of it, let it strengthen me, encourage me and comfort me. So last night was really sweet; the Lord was speaking some pretty neat things and personal approval and affirmation. I felt so good about my relationship with Him. So I went to sleep peaceful, happy, very contented. It’s easy to sleep good after all that.

When I woke up this morning my first thought was unsure, I wondered, ‘How am I doing?’ I was presented with an opportunity to pursue getting out of condemnation. ‘I must be guilty about something!???’ But then I remembered that God is not mad at me. I remembered where we left off last night.

I remembered.

Condemning thoughts are not from God. He may convict you about something He wants to teach you and have you change in behavior or direction. But he won’t tell you you’re no good, hopeless or helpless. He won’t put you in a mental state of being unaccepted. He is a gatherer. He wants to gather people close to Himself. He wants to cleanse them of all guilt so there is nothing hindering a free flowing relationship. He loves you.

He wants you close to Him.

So when you wake up in the morning get control of your thoughts. Stay convinced of the fact that God actually likes you. He wants you close to Him. He wants you to know that Jesus’ forgiveness of your sins is all you need to come close to Him without any guilt.

We’ve got to learn to relax in this state of being forgiven and accepted by God and let ourselves get to know Him.

This has been His desire from the start.

So when you wake up in the morning choose your thoughts wisely. Let them tend toward peace, acceptance, forgiveness and union with God. He’s not mad at you. He loves you. Have a good day with Him.

Negativity

On By josephbarlowIn JournalLeave a comment

Negativity can be poisonous. It creates an environment where fresh new ideas are afraid to come out. They run for their lives. They won’t dare show themselves in a negative environment. Fresh, creative ideas need a friendly atmosphere where there is acceptance, consideration and hopeful thinking.

If you don’t believe things could get better why would you accept something that might promise some improvement?

Strong criticism shuts everybody up except for those who are willing to be quite vocal with their negative talk. It’s more of the same. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Say it’s bad and it’s getting worse and voila! Surprise, surprise! Look what happens: things get worse.

Negativity is like gravity. It always pulls you down. Well, some may say it helps you keep your feet on the ground. If you really want to submit to gravity, why stand on your feet at all? Why not just lay down?

Negativity pulls you down. Resist the gravity. Stand up. Climb up. Jump up. Get up. Lift up. Speak up. Shout it. Give resistance to gravity. Resist negativity.

Can You Fly Too?

On By josephbarlowIn Family, JournalLeave a comment

How long have I wondered what it would be like to fly? I have had dreams in which I could jump really high. Just any time I wanted I could jump up and get something or jump up and look at something, as high as I wanted. But the process has happened in my dreams so many times that I have had those weird moments when I’m awake when I wonder if it’s really true. Could I really jump as high as I want? Is it just a dream? Or has God been trying to train me for something? I sometimes feel like the processes I’ve experienced in repetitive dreams have been the Lord trying to lay some new roadwork in my thinking.

Many years ago I had a dream that I was jogging/running down a sidewalk when I just decided to jump up and float on the same path just two or three feet above the sidewalk. So I did. I was still going the same pace, I was just floating. I was able to stay aloft as long as I wanted. Now remember this was a dream.

Years ago my son, Mark, had been hearing me tell these stories at the dinner table or at our family meetings and he didn’t seem to grasp the fact that these were dreams I had been talking about. At our old church one day I was called upon to close the service in prayer. After I finished the prayer and dismissed the people Mark came running up to me very excitedly and said “Dad, wait! Show them how you can fly!” I had described my dreams so vividly that he perceived them as reality. That’s not altogether a bad thing. He still has that heart of simple faith.

In one of my dreams I was teaching a class where there was a platform in the front of the room. So, (remember ‘in my dream’) I wanted to demonstrate to the class how I could fly. I stood up on the platform and jumped off, simply floating like a balloon, gently to the back of the classroom. As I came to the back wall I had lost most of my altitude and I was almost to the floor. So, I pushed off the back wall, pushing myself up a little bit so I could return to the front of the class. I came back to the front of the class and at will I just landed. End of dream. It’s amazing how much rest there is in this state of flying or floating – that speaks of the rest of faith.

Another time (in my dreams) I was running and then floating above a sidewalk and there was a right angle coming up in the sidewalk so I wondered if I would be able to turn right while I was floating/flying. When I got to the turn I easily made it without effort and continued on. This flying thing is fun. It’s adventurous. It’s stretching my paradigms. It’s giving me some new thought processes.

I was speaking with a friend, who could be considered a prophetess, (this is real life now, not a dream) and shared the dreams with her. She looked shocked when I told her these things. She said excitedly, “Do you know what this means?” I said, “No, I’ve just been enjoying them.” She said, “God is trying to tell you that whatever you set out to do, nothing will be impossible for you. You can do anything you want to do.” So, I was pretty excited about that, but if you know the Word of God, you know that she didn’t give me anything that wasn’t already written in there to all believers. Yet I knew these dreams were from God. He was purposefully giving them to me so I would wake up in this area of faith – not for flying but for faith.

God desires to bring His Word and His truth into our lives and that they be so real, so encouraging, so believable that you can walk in what He says without doubting.

Thank you Lord for these dreams. Thank  you for training me in these dreams to believe you, to believe your Word that all things are possible to those who believe.

He wants to stretch all of us. He wants to grow us. He wants to put things into our hearts that will make our futures more satisfying, happy, fruitful. I’m loving this life. I really love the Lord.

Does this kind of talk make you wish you had experiences like this? I hope so. I write these things only to share with you and hopefully induce in you a hunger to know God. Seek Him. Draw near to Him. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. To show you who He is. The Word of God says that He is no respecter of persons, meaning He doesn’t like me more than you.

If He will reveal Himself to me, ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Open the Word, and seek Him out. Listen to good preaching/teaching that reveals His goodness. You were created to hunger for this. When this hunger gets satisfied it is almost base, in the sense that it feeds a core instinctual need. God made you so He could fit inside. You are His hiding place. Let Him dwell in you. Let Him love you. Let Him train you for great things in your future. God bless you my friend.

Rest

On By josephbarlowIn JournalLeave a comment

Did you know it takes patience to rest?

I’m on a sabbatical right now and when you are used to doing, doing, doing then rest is not an easy process to yield to.

Resting is a process.

It allows your body, mind and soul to do things that couldn’t happen while you were so busy.

Activity inhibits some critical processes. Rest is not really rest in the truest form, it’s simply a change of processes.

Constant activity requires your body to stay in a constant state of defensiveness so that you can continue uninterrupted in your constant busyness. But this constant state of defense requires that other processes be reduced in their priority. Some never happen. Some healing processes never happen when we stay busy.

Rest is where you tell your body, “I’m going to slow down now and give you time to catch up, heal, regroup, re-assess, regenerate, reinvigorate.” There’s so much work that needs to be done inside us. If we think it’s unimportant we will never give time to it. Rest is more important than we know.

Did you know it takes faith to rest?

I know there is a God.

I know that I am not Him.

I know He’s bigger than me, more capable, more loving.

I know that He knows that I need rest.

So within His creation, His system, He has made room for me to rest, time for me to take a break.

When I rest I must trust Him for all the things that I was relying on myself for.

I must rest. He is good. He will take care of all those things. I need not worry. I need not fear. God is good. Good night! Time to rest.

Transition: By Natalie Barlow

On By josephbarlowIn Family, Father, Journal, TeachingLeave a comment

You know that feeling when you’re at the top of a roller coaster? You’ve gone up the steep incline, you see the exhilarating drop that is about to come, you’re nervous, excited, scared out of your mind, ecstatic, and peace seems like it’s completely out of your reach. It’s transition time. Yeah, that’s pretty much where life has been at lately… moving out of the home 3 months ago, getting engaged 2 months ago, most of the girls that I’ve mentored have gone off to college, so God has begun to bring new ones, my family is on a Sabbatical from ministry for the first time ever, I’m running the church with the rest of the team while they’re gone, and my brother just moved to California today. I feel so many things right now. Some good, some not so good. It’s not a common occurrence for me to just feel emotions but I know it’s a healthy time to do so. So here’s my processing. 

I miss my family. It’s finally been setting in that I’m an adult, living away from home, times with the family are no longer consistent, goodbyes have become more difficult and it’s really rough when I think about the fact that I won’t get to be a part of the daily life at home, watching my siblings grow up, and hearing and seeing every ridiculous and adorable thing that they do. Yet at the same time, I know I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I love living on my own. Times with the family are now more intentional and “full”. My roommates are wonderful, no crazy stories here! I’m so blessed by each one of them… they are a true gift from God and I love doing life with them.

I’m so thankful to have the greatest fiancé in the world. For real, I know I talk about him a lot, but I will never fully be able to express the love and appreciation that I have for Danny. I’m so blessed to do life alongside this man, he challenges me, cares for me, he knows me. They say to be loved is to be known. I have never felt more known by somebody in my entire life, and yet loved so fully. Last night I finally let the tears flow, this week has been full of a lot of heavy things and big changes with my family and friends, and as I cried, he sat there and chose to just “be” with me. And after my face was swollen and I had used about 20 tissues, he then encouraged me in who I was, in the season I’m in, I think he saw that I was fearing the drop on this roller coaster, that I was looking at all the scary things that could happen, yet, he grabbed my hand, told me that we’re in this together, and showed me that this new season is good, that it’s okay to face reality, it’s a big change, but none of these changes are bad…they’re actually some of the most wonderful things that could happen! I began to realize that peace isn’t out of my reach.

It talks in the Bible about how God gives us a peace that passes all understanding. The truth is, that’s what I need right now. There’s uncertainty, there’s sadness, there’s joy, there’s fear, there’s heaviness, there’s A LOT of change, and it’s easy to think I have to carry all of this, but when I take a step back and look at it all, I see that His plans are good and they’re not supposed to weigh me down. All those negative things I feel are just feelings. They don’t define truth. They don’t define my life. It’s okay for me to identify that they’re there, but the minute that I step into letting fear control me, is the minute that I resist the peace that He has for me…and that’s all I truly want right now, so why hold on to fear? Why hold on to doubt and uncertainty when I could let go of those things and grab on to peace?! The peace that passes all understanding, it’s mine, and I choose to operate in this peace that allows me to throw my hands in the air, smile and laugh and enjoy the ride. Bring on that drop, I’m ready for this roller coaster!

Jealous Perspectives

On By josephbarlowIn Journal, TeachingLeave a comment

SO, YOU’VE HEARD THE SAYING, “THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE.” SO, HERE’S MY QUESTION: IS THAT TRUE OR FALSE? IS THE GRASS ALWAYS GREENER OVER THERE? MY ANSWER MIGHT SURPRISE YOU, BUT HOPEFULLY IT WILL GIVE US ALL SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.

THE ANSWER IS: TRUE! THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE.

IF YOU’RE LOOKING DOWN AT GRASS YOU SEE GRASS WITH DIRT AROUND IT. YOU’RE SEEING FROM A PERSPECTIVE WHERE THE BLADE IS NOT GETTING ITS BEST SHOWING. HOWEVER IF YOU CHANGE THE ANGLE AT WHICH YOU ARE VIEWING THE GRASS, PERHAPS FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE, YOU’LL NOTICE THAT YOU DON’T SEE MUCH DIRT AND YOU SEE THE FULL SIDE OF THE BLADE OF GRASS. THINGS ARE DEFINITELY GREENER FROM THIS ANGLE. NOW IF YOU WALK OVER AND STAND ON THE GREENER GRASS YOU WERE LOOKING AT, THEN LOOK BACK AT WHERE YOU WERE STANDING BEFORE, NOW THAT GRASS LOOKS GREENER. IT’S ALL A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE. YOU MAY BE JEALOUS OF SOMEONE, BUT YOU MIGHT NOT BE IF YOU COULD SEE THE DIRT IN THEIR LIFE THAT THEY PUT UP WITH DAILY. YOU WERE GIVEN THE PERSPECTIVE YOU HAVE SO YOU CAN CHANGE THINGS THAT NEED TO BE CHANGED, NOT SO YOU COULD BE JEALOUS OF SOMEONE YOU THINK IS BETTER OFF THAN YOU.

Lead Strong

On By josephbarlowIn Encouragement, Journal, Teaching, Word From GodLeave a comment

Not everything you do is supposed to be met with rave reviews. You are called to listen to my voice and move forward with what I say. So hear me Son. You are obeying me. You are listening to me and seeking my will. You have found favor in my eyes. Continue with boldness. Don’t let what people say drag you down. You are mine. I am yours. Continue with the plan I’ve given you and don’t back down. Let the others conform to what I’ve given you, as the leader. I will test them through it. Son, I’m with you. Fear not. Be bold, confident, knowing that all of heaven is backing you up. And we are not weak. March forward right over the Devil’s forces. My power is manifest.

Be God’s Mouthpiece

On By josephbarlowIn Encouragement, Journal, TeachingLeave a comment
Son, be at peace.
 
Allow my river to flow from your heart. Allow the words to be formed in your mouth that will be life and peace. Words that will be authority and bring structure and order. Shall you not be an oracle? You shall. This is your destiny. I must have a mouthpiece in the earth. The words must flow from my Spirit to your spirit, from your mouth to the ears of those who must hear. Its not only humans who must hear you speak, there are spirits, angelic and demonic who must hear your words. They must hear the sound that they’ve heard for ages past. The same sound, the same authority they’ve heard in heaven. They know and have heard that voice. They recognize the sound of faith as it comes forth into the earth. They have heard it much and they know the change it brings. They respect it. They must bow to it. Son be my mouthpiece. Speak what my Spirit gives you to speak. Speak. Speak. Speak!