Put A “Joy” Sticker On It!

On By josephbarlowIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Why do little kids like to play with stickers? When my girls were younger, if the grocery clerk would give them stickers it wasn’t long before there were stickers everywhere. Maybe they are trying to improve their world? What is on the sticker appeals to them? They can change things by labeling them. Works for them. We’re supposed to ‘become like little children’. Maybe there’s some wisdom here?

In the Bible, James 1:2 ESV says:
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds

When you look in your refrigerator for something to eat you begin to see each item and you begin to categorize it, you’re taking inventory. Maybe you want something sweet and you see the eggs there, in your mind you may say ‘breakfast’ – ‘not sweet!’ – ‘not now!’ Then you find the key-lime pie! (I have some in my fridge right now.) In your mind, if you were to put some word stickers on that pie you might consider these: ‘happy’, ‘yes’, ‘delicious’, ‘tempting’, ‘diet!’, ‘vacation from diet’. There are many ways you might label that pie. Some might say, “I don’t have time to label anything! Where’s the fork?”

James said, in the Bible, to count it all joy when you run into all kinds of trials. Now if someone hands me $100 bill I can see in my mind, taking inventory and putting a ‘joy’ sticker on that. Or if someone served me that key-lime pie on a plate with a fork, I can put a ‘joy’ sticker on that! But, what if someone steps on your toe? OOOWWW!!! Some people yell as loud as they can, making it clear and plain to everyone around them that they are hurt and they want everyone to know it!

Proverbs 12:16 NIV says,” Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult.”

If something angers you or annoys you and you instantly lash out with a strong negative response it most often doesn’t do anyone any good, including yourself. Many times the complaint is a bigger problem than what they are complaining about. In turn complainers can become too much for people to handle.

Years ago I was talking to a mechanic (he obviously wasn’t a very good one) who couldn’t get a light to go off in a car so he broke the light with a screwdriver. He saw the light not going off as his problem, so he fixed his problem. When people complain a lot, they are like a red warning light telling you that something is wrong. The logical thing is to try to fix the problem that is causing the warning light to go off. But people aren’t always logical…some people just want to get rid of the warning light.

If you complain too much about things, you may end up lonely, because people just want to get away from you. We don’t want you to be lonely. God doesn’t want you to be lonely. Loneliness is the first thing in creation that God disapproved of. “It’s not good for man to be alone.”

When you see trials coming your way, any kind of trial, imagine putting a joy sticker on it. Label that thing “JOY!” In your mind call it “Joy”. Now you could, instead, call it “Mighty Problem That Has The Potential To Destroy Me” or “The Thing That Could Ruin My Life.” But if you name it that, then it has the power to become that. In your mind categorize it as a simple problem that you and God can overcome. Remember, it’s not a big deal! Call it Joy. When it comes to problems, remember this phrase: “It came to pass.” It didn’t come to stay.

If you call your problems “Joy” you are giving them way less power to overtake you.

So, today my advice is simple, see a problem? Put a joy sticker on it.

Have a great day!

God’s Sustaining Power

On By josephbarlowIn JournalLeave a comment

God has an amazing ability to keep us. When we endure so many trials and wonder how things are going to turn out, it’s amazing that His power is still there keeping us. He is so loving and faithful! Its not so much that He loves us, which He does, but He also wants to love others through us. For Him to do that, we need to survive and stay in place. In the Bible Paul calls us living stones; we are alive but we are put in place like a stone that’s used to build a wall. People being in the right position is a powerful thing.

This year Nancy & I will be pastoring for 10 years. We are still in position. We have had some wonderful times as pastors, but we have also had some very difficult times. Somehow God has been able to sustain us. He’s kept us alive. We haven’t missed a meal. We haven’t done everything right and there’s some things that we’d change if we could do it again, but God’s faithfulness is what deserves the real acknowledgement here. It’s God’s sustaining power. We would have been knocked out of this a long time ago, but God kept us here. He placed us here. He wants to love through us. His faithfulness to us is not just about His love for us. We’re confident of that. But His faithfulness and His sustaining power are also because God has a plan and a desire; He wants His representatives to be loving on His behalf. He wants those who will represent Him to be accurately in place.

There is such a huge wave of needy people and God’s heart’s desire is to envelope all of them with His love, His wisdom, His healing…all of His goodness. He must have people in place who will allow His love to come through. There are so many that are so hungry and needy for His love. He must have us in place.

He is the mortar that holds the living stones in place. When God gives you an assignment He wants you to stay there. The Devil will provide many opportunities for you to give up that assignment. But God will also provide His sustaining power. So many things pass before your eyes; so many problems that make staying in place look impossible. But staying in place is exactly what God wants us to do. His faithfulness is here to see you through, to help you and to keep you in place. If we focus on the problems then their chance of overcoming you increases. If you focus on God then His promise of surviving and thriving are yours.

Now when trials and storms come, remember that they don’t last. We don’t live in a constant storm. There are times of peace, hopefully sustained periods of peace. If you’re living in a constant storm, you may consider whether you are in God’s will or not, or you may consider that you might be missing a piece of wisdom for the way you are doing things. If you turn down a one way street going the wrong direction, you will face continuous opposition until you turn around. God has a place of peace for you; a place of productivity, of meaningful service, of significance and plenty.

Let God position you. Be faithful to Him. Let His faithfulness sustain you.

Sin Is The Wrong Answer To Your Problem

On By josephbarlowIn Encouragement, Journal, Ministry, MissionsLeave a comment

Here it comes again. That same old temptation is back to try to take you down, to pull you away from God, to fill you with depression, condemnation and especially a guilty conscience. Remember, as I heard a preacher say years ago, ‘Sin is not the problem. Sin is the answer. But it’s the wrong answer.’ You see you may have an itch and you want to scratch it, but you need to see if your answer to that itch is God’s answer. Or else you may be falling into a trap.

Satan doesn’t parade answers to your itch in front of you to help you. He doesn’t tempt you because he likes you. He’s trying to kill you.

In John 14:30 Jesus said about Satan, ‘he has nothing in Me.’ You could say it another way, ‘He’s got no hooks in me.’ He tries but he is not successful in tempting me. There is nothing left in me to tempt me with.

1Peter 4:1 “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin”.

Can you imagine being done with temptation? Being in a place where Satan has no hooks in you? Being literally unresponsive to the temptations paraded before you to get you to fall? Can you imagine that? Most likely your flesh can’t imagine that. Your flesh still wants to have its own way. But this verse in 1Peter 4 says that he who has suffered in the flesh is ceased from sin. Does that mean if you’ve been persecuted with bodily harm for the Gospel that you have an immunity to being tempted? It could mean that. (Stick with me, I’ll unpack that.)

So there are two kinds of suffering in the flesh to discuss then: there’s the persecution where someone has received bodily harm and there’s the kind where we cause our own flesh to suffer through fasting, denying the flesh its appetite. Paul talks about putting the flesh under. He talks about beating it and making it his slave.

We can be ruled by the demands of the flesh, the itch that screams at us, the desire that tries to pull us off. Or we can rule over the flesh, put it under, make it obey us. But fleeing something is not as good as pursuing something. Often times when trying to avoid temptation people try to ‘turn off the darkness’ instead of ‘turning on the light’.

What do you desire? If its godly, pursue it. If its not godly, not only should you not pursue it but you should change your desires. Set your heart on something good instead of something negative. Most often you will pursue what you desire. If you pursue godly desires, temptation is nowhere in sight. Instead of turning off the darkness, turn on the light of good, godly desires. Set your affections on things that God wants. Desire them, and desire them strongly. Now pursue them. That’s turning on the light.

Temptation

On By josephbarlowIn Family, TeachingLeave a comment

Matthew 26 (KJV):

40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

A friend of mine writes books about family matters, one of his quotes is ‘peer pressure is only as strong as family identity is weak.’ (Gary Ezzo)

Peer pressure is an external emotional pressure that works to get you to conform to a certain line of thinking or behavior. It’s pack mentality; go with the crowd. The bigger the crowd, the stronger the influence. Gravely, negative behavior has come about in kids from great families because peer pressure won.

A family must create or discern its own identity and develops its own ‘family pressure’. If there is buy-in by most or all of the members then a sufficient offset to peer pressure exists. It’s really a battle between two different mindsets- the family vs. the peer crowd. It’s two different crowds. It’s two different directions. It’s two different sets of values.

If a child spends more time with their friends than with their family the influence of their friends will be strengthened. If they spend more time with their family, then they will find family values and ideas to be more acceptable.

You have to believe in the set of values you follow. It helps if you are around others who also believe in those same values so you can successfully live out those values in your life.

Jesus said to watch and pray so that you won’t fall into temptation. Can you see how you will be stronger against temptation if you spend time with God in prayer? You will be influenced with His values, His desires, His ways. As you get to know Him better the influence and ways of the world become more and more distasteful. Temptation loses its strength. The more time you spend with God in prayer the stronger you will be against temptation. As a matter of fact, temptation becomes a non-issue.

Resisting temptation is easy if you are strongly identified with Jesus. If you identify with being part of God’s family then you know who you are.

Do you know how much I’m tempted to do drugs right now? Zero! Not at all. I’m not around drugs. I don’t hang out with people who are doing drugs, I have no desire for the high that drugs produce. I’m quite happy without them. So there is the freedom from temptation because of the proximity to the temptation.

But when I was in high school, I used to take my guitar and go out behind the school on the other side of a hill and play my guitar for all the kids who were getting high. I never saw them doing the drugs I could just always see that glassy look in their eyes and I noticed their altered state of mind. I was around them a lot. Apparently my guitar playing was quite impressive when they were high. But I can tell you quite honestly that in all that time I was never once tempted to partake in their drugs. I knew who I was, I was regularly reading my Bible, I was constantly praying. I was aware of God’s presence. I also knew who my family was and what they stood for. Actually in my family we used to make fun of people who had to use alcohol or drugs to have a good time. To be quite honest in my young mind, an image had formed through family conversations to the effect that joy was for higher life forms and lower life forms had to use drugs and alcohol to partake of joy. Because of this mindset, right or wrong, I never envied the people who were getting high. I just enjoyed playing guitar for them, because they seemed to enjoy it as well.

So, I want to encourage you that temptation may be quite helpful to you in that it exposes where you may have a weak philosophy about something. Maybe you don’t believe something as deeply as you should. The Devil looks for open doors not solid walls. So go revisit what you believe in the area you are being tempted in. Go find out why you believe what you believe. You might need to fortify something. You might need to strengthen your beliefs so that you’ll be stronger.

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.

Getting To Jesus

On By josephbarlowIn TeachingLeave a comment

He climbed a tree. He was short of stature. He wasn’t a tall man, but he was hungry. The life he’d been living had its perks but peace wasn’t one of them. Taking & cheating are soul-diminishing practices but it can make the bank balance go up. If you’re hungry for money and pursue it you should pray you won’t be successful. The leanness of soul that it will produce in you is actually painful.

That’s where this man was. He was a taker. A cheat. Full of himself and his own greed, but who was this new fellow? His life was a constant outflow. He was just giving. Compare a drain to a fountain. That would be Zacchaeus and Jesus. Jesus just overflowed and people were attracted to him. Zach was always on the take and people fled from him. It’s a lonely life being on the take. There is no one to enjoy all of your ill-gotten gains with. Oh he was rich alright, but not in things that would satisfy his soul.

Now he was hungry. He saw Jesus. Heard about how He operated. Was intent again on getting what He wanted. He wanted to see Jesus. So he climbed the tree to have his way. But this day he got more than he bargained for.

The Giver came right up to the tree that Zacchaeus had climbed, he looked right at the Taker and said, “Zacchaeus come down from there for I’m going to eat at your house today.” Have you ever told someone that you are going to eat at their house? I’ve never been so bold. Now Jesus was not asking. He was telling the taker that He was taking from HIM today. Now this was more than he had bargained for. The Taker was being taken by the Giver!

So Jesus goes to Zacchaeus’ house for dinner and Zacchaeus is so excited that he repents and decides to give back all the things he had taken. Some even four-fold. Jesus said to him, “This day salvation has come to this house!”

Now how did the Giver bring salvation to the taker? By getting him started in the giving process.

Well, my friend, what is your title? Are you a giver or a taker?