Call to Courage

Healing The Wounded Heart - By Thomas Koester

"A wound where there are no tears is a wound that cannot be healed," wrote John Eldredge

A splinter under the skin, if left alone and ignored, will eventually fester to the point of infection. Your body rejects the foreign object no matter how small; the pain calls out for your attention. If you ignore it too long, you could end up in the emergency room.

How about your heart?

Why ignore the pain?

Your heart is more precious than a finger; you can live without a finger, but you can't live without your heart.

Sometimes we're strong in the wrong things and at the wrong times, but to be weak in the right things brings true courage.

If you are hurting, in pain, and are crushed in spirit, heart, and soul, you may be at the most significant turning point of your life. You may be dwelling with God in a high and protected place, but you must share your tears with God, or you'll be swallowed up in bitterness and left alone on earth.

Isaiah 57:15

"The high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, the Holy One, says this: I live in that high and holy place where those with contrite, humble spirits dwell; and I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts."

Psalm 51:17

"The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart."

Let God encounter your tears; after all, he is the Everlasting Father. Please share it with him as your sacrifice of pride. Come to him crushed, broken, betrayed, rejected, and despised. He's well acquainted with all of this and more. He allows it to touch your life, not to destroy you, but to draw you closer to himself so that you may be healed.

God wants to father you...

Trust and turn to God and surrender your rights to be offended, your anger for being abused, and your self-hatred for being molested, r***d, and violated. God specializes in hurting and wounded people, and he'd rather be with you than with Kings and Queens.

The moment you offer up to God your tears and pain, you are with him in spirit and truth.

Isaiah 42:3

"He will not break the bruised reed nor quench the dimly burning flame. He will encourage the fainthearted, those tempted to despair. He will see full justice given to all who have been wronged."

God won't exploit your bruises. He'll not s***f out your heart, even if it's barely lit and barely alive.

God desires to be your daddy...

Give it all over to God. If you do, he'll see that justice is served, and you can give your anger and revenge a proper burial.

Then, you'll knock down your walls of despair and make them into a dance floor, and you'll dance with your Abba, just as He's always wanted to.

Don't live with the pain. Time is not the Healer of all wounds; that's a lie.

God is the Healer of all wounds, and he's waiting to hear your cries directed towards him so that He may act.

Isaiah 30:19

"O my people in Jerusalem, you shall weep no more, for he will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. He will answer you."

Give it up to God. Let it drink in God's presence and love, and so be healed and restored.

Become healed in the name of Jesus!

He came to seek out the lost and broken, and there is no one he cannot save or heal.

This may be one of your greatest moments and your most significant turning point.

Your heart and soul are God's specialty. Don't ignore this opportunity -- don't let your heart become hardened again. Act now while your heart has softened.

Don't live with a wounded heart. Jesus is dying to heal you. Amen

Get In Spiritual Shape - By Thomas Koester

We become what we think. Matter of fact, the scriptures say:

"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Proverbs 3:27

If you want to be in shape and become the best you, then read God's Word as a letter to yourself, and wade into the depths of your heart for what God is saying there...

"...You are my son, and I am your God; I "reshape" those whom I truly love."

Let the voice and opinion of your True Father shape you rather than the dark voices and memories of your past.

It is more valuable to watch what you think than what you eat. Body shape is less important to your eternal state. Search the scriptures for your identity and rely on the Holy Spirit to enrich your heart and soul with God's Holy Word.

After all, Christ's likeness is the Father's goal for all those who love and obey him.

"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had." Philippians 2:5

"In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of people who are crooked and stubborn. Shine out among them like beacon lights..." Philippians 2:14-15

Your best shape is to act like Christ and to shine like a beacon of God's light and light up this dark world.

We're headed for difficult days ahead. Your spiritual shape will be tested. We don't have anymore time to waste on unimportant things.

Listen for the voice of God whispering in your heart his love for you. His passion will shape you from the inside out. Oh, and how dangerous for goodwill your true shape will be!

Beautifully Broken - By Thomas Koester

"that's where GOD does HIS best work!"

No, this is not a treatise on global warming or climate change or the negative impact of cow flatulence on our environment -- far from it!

This is about fleeing pretense and duplicity and becoming the real you. It's about breaking down the fake areas in our lives and being honest with ourselves and others.

Wholeness can only be achieved by utter and complete brokenness. This is a universal principle. This is also the opposite of what the world thinks.

I like what Jerry Maguire said in his moment of a breakthrough:

"...Two nights later in Miami at our corporate conference, a breakthrough. Breakdown? Breakthrough. It was the oddest, most unexpected thing. I began writing what they call a Mission Statement for my company. You know -- a Mission Statement -- a suggestion for the future. What started out as one page became twenty-five.

Suddenly I was my father's son. I was remembering the simple pleasures of this job, how I ended up here out of law school, the way a stadium sounds when one of my players performs well on the field... And suddenly it was all pretty clear. The answer was fewer clients. Caring for them, caring for ourselves, and the games too. Starting our lives, really. Hey, I'll be the first to admit it. What I was writing was somewhat "touchy-feely." I didn't care. I had lost the ability to bu****it. It was the me I'd always wanted to be." - The Movie "Jerry Maguire"

You see a breakthrough, I mean the kind of breakthrough we know we really need, is always preceded by a breakdown. And, when we lose... no, rather when we refuse to bu****it ourselves and others, we'll become the person that we've always wanted to be.

You're divinely purposed to become a living act of God's love and glory. You can't become what your Creator has intended until you surrender your own mess. That is, your constant self-effort to holding the broken pieces of your life together. Living in fear and dread that your secret life will be exposed at any moment to a live audience.

Living life on constant defense and acting co-dependently, or as a self-enabler, justifying the actions of your false self at the expense of your true self. This is the definition of what I'm referring to as a "mess."

You cannot become assembled in body, mind, and spirit, all the while holding everything together. You are robbing yourself of the very strength and energy you need by wasting it on supporting your falseness and phony facade. Stop being driven by voices inside your head, echoing the curses from your mother or father, or from the other significant persons in your life.

These curses are the voices of "false coaches," driving you to repeat a cycle of self-destruction and family dysfunction. These curses are carcinogenic to your desire for wholeness and wellness. They are the cancerous agents eating away at the divine purpose for which God has created you.

“Gloria Dei est vivens homo," wrote Saint Irenaeus, which means:

"The glory of God is a living man."

The glory of God is you fully living, and not your daily self-destruction and learned dysfunction.

In the human body, you cannot build muscle without first tearing down the muscle you have. Tearing down the muscle requires a determination to submit to the pain and deny yourself comfort. Likewise, you must have a willing determination to submit your very life and comforts to God.

James says it this way:

4-6 "You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.”

7-10 So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet." James 4:6-10 (MSG)

Pride is self-destruction, low esteem, self-loathing and such, is what's been behind your self-effort of "holding it all together." This is why pride always precedes a profound fall. There is nothing good in this kind of a fall because it's always a fall from grace and not towards it.

Do you want God's grace? Become truly humble. Oh yes, it is painful to stop your self-salvation and accept the Truth and act on it. But the light, which will come flooding into your darkness, will bring the wholeness and wellness you've been searching for.

The problem with bu****it is that it is not a respecter of persons, race, religion, or age... it flows from all of us.

"Men love darkness, rather than light," this is true. But you cannot become the man or woman you were meant to become all the while remaining in darkness. Just as painful as it is to build muscle, is it painful at first to step out from darkness into God's marvelous light!

The gain from the pain of coming into the light is worth the life of wholeness and holiness.

Did you know that embracing your brokenness, rather than hiding it will cause collateral beauty?

There may be a divine and strategic purpose behind your brokenness that when shared with others may cause a chain reaction of hope and healing in you and in them.

At this very moment, you're standing at a crossroad -- at a turning point; your next decision can create a paradigm shift of unprecedented emotional and spiritual change.

"The Lord said to his people...

“'You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. Ask where the old, reliable paths are. Ask where the path is that leads to blessing and follow it. If you do, you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not follow it!'” Jeremiah 6:16 (NET)

Stop hanging out with the "We will not follow it" crowd!

You no longer belong to the crowd who refuse to follow the right path.

Stop staring at the crossroad in front of you and follow the right path. Stop saving yourself and fall into the grace, mercy, and love of God, and you will become the man or woman you've always wanted to be. After all, God put the desire to be his love and glory in you so that you may be fully living, fully alive to a world content with dying and taking you with it.

A breakdown is always before a breakthrough. God is waiting if you are willing. Open up to God, or find a trusted friend to help lead you to God's grace.

God can turn the ugliness of your brokenness into something beautiful!

May I be honest and a bit crass?
..It is my prayer that you'll lose your ability to "bu****it!" - Amen