Be Creative!

In Genesis 1:26, during the account of creation, God said, “Let Us make man in Our Image and after Our likeness and let them have dominion…”  You and I have been created in the image of the Creator.  That means that we have the ability to create.  God has given us the privilege of participating in the creative process.

God created trees, we create furniture and houses.  God put iron and other metals in the rocks and we create cars and machinery.  God created animals like sheep and we create clothes using wool from the sheep.  So you see, you and I are supposed to be creative.

I believe that part of the reason for depression and hopelessness is that we live a routine life void of creativity.  As Christians, we cannot allow ourselves to fall into the mundane, mediocre life.  We need to take what has been deposited in us and use it creatively for God’s glory.  Now I know you might be saying to yourself, “I’m not creative, I don’t have any talent.”  Nothing could be further from the truth.

First of all, God has given everyone talent and creativity.  Remember, we are created in His image.  Secondly, we often don’t realize our talents because they come so easy to us we think anyone could do this.  Thirdly, we might have had past failures or made mistakes and because of this think our time has past.

Let’s look at these.  We all have talent.  Again, God created us that way. However, talent can be deceiving because it comes easy to us.  In our town, Kailua Kona, Hawaii, there is a lot of construction going on.  Homes and buildings are being built, roadways are being put in and new shopping complexes are popping up.  The men and women that work on these projects all have talent.  From the excavation to the interior design, talent is being used to create something.  So a heavy equipment operator might think anyone could do what he does, when in fact, his machine in the hands of someone without his talent could destroy instead of build.  Have you ever seen a room painted by someone who can’t paint? It’s horrible!  Have you eaten something cooked by someone who can’t cook?  Well you get the picture.  Yet if you were to ask a good painter or cook how hard it is to do what they do, they would probably reply, anyone could “learn” to do this.  Not anyone, it’s a talent.

When it comes to past failures or mistakes, they are, well in the past. Maybe this will help you see where I’m coming from. Today I ride a Harley Davidson motorcycle. I ride almost everyday.  Hmmmm life on two wheels.  But, I remember falling of my bicycle when I first started to ride one somewhere back in the early ’60s.  Then I remember crashing that bicycle into a parked car.  Then there was the crash when the baddest dog in the neighborhood chased me while I was delivering papers on my paper route on that bicycle.  There was a lot of strawberries over the years, lots of scrapes and bruises not ot mention, having to repair my bicycle. But…I didn’t stop riding because of failures in the past because they are in the past.  You get it? We don’t stop creating because we failed.  We keep going because that’s what we do.

When Adam sinned, God could have thought, I’ve failed.  But He didn’t go there.  He created the plan for a Savior to redeem mankind.  Even when He had had it with His creation and flooded the earth, He had a plan with Noah to save people.  God never stopped created ways out for us.  When Jesus came, it was God the Father’s plan in action.  Now, we are redeemed by Jesus’ blood.  Back in right standing with the Creator of the Universe, God Almighty.  We have the God the Holy Spirit leading us.  It’s time to be creative.  The world needs our talents to solve issues they cannot solve.  Let’s be like our Abba Father, our Dad, our God.

Be Creative!

Speak the Word, Declare It!

There is a very interesting account in the Bible in the book of Matthew the eighth chapter and it says this, “Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.”  And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” What makes this account so interesting is that Jesus marvelled at the faith of this centurion.

This centurion understood the principle of authority.  He understood that when you have authority, you declare it. The word declare means to: make know; to state clearly. He understood that because of his authority, he was able to declare commands and they would be carried out.  Jesus said that this was an example of great faith!  When you and I declare what the Word of God says, we exercise authority over situations and start the wheels turning on the solutions.

Before Jesus went home to heaven He gave us the power of attorney. That means He gave us authority over the devil and authority to speak the Word of God and see God work. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus told us to have “faith in God “(Mk. 11:22).  The word have is the Greek word echo which means to wear as a garment.  In other words, Jesus was telling us to “wear” the faith of God.  Put it on.

Romans 4:17 says that the type of faith that God has, “gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did”. So when you and I “wear” the God kind of faith, we are people  who under the authority given to us by Jesus, declare those things that do not exist as though they do.

We speak the solution, not the problem.  We speak to mountains, giants, storms, and anything that could bring fear and destruction into the lives of people and command them to line up to the Word of God.  When we declare God’s Word over situations, we see God do the impossible.

God is still the provider, He’s still the healer, He’s still the God who can do the impossible. There is nothing to big for our God to handle. But He needs us to declare the Word so others will know it is Him doing it.  “Just speak a Word and my servant will be healed” is a key to us.

Let’s speak to our economy, our family situations, our communities, our schools, everything that effects people, God’s greatest love. God loves people.  He sent Jesus, His only Son, for people.  We need to declare the Word so people will be set free.

Let’s declare the Word.  Let’s speak the Word only.  Let’s be people of faith that stand on the Word of God and make it known clearly. Great things are in store for us as we speak the Word and declare it!

By Faith

Four times in the Bible the words, “the just shall live by faith” appears.  This is not because God likes to hear Himself repeat something over and over again.  When something in the Bible is repeated often it tells me that there is a “key” here.  The key is this, Christians are faith people.  It’s in our DNA.  We can’t help it.  We really, truly, honestly believe that God exists and that He loves us and provides for us. That’s us.

You see the Bible tells us that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen“(Hebrews 11:1).  God is “not seen”.  So in order to believe that God exists, we need faith.  That’s the reason Hebrews 11:6 tells that without faith it’s impossible to please God.  You and I cannot even believe that there is a God without faith.

We are saved by God’s grace.  His unmerited favor.  We didn’t earn it, God gave it to us by His grace.  We didn’t work for it and He doesn’t owe it to us.  However, if you don’t live by faith, how can you believe in God’s grace?  You can’t!  You have to believe that God not only exists, He loves you so much that He saved you by His grace.  Saved by grace through faith.  The unseen becoming real through the evidence or proof of faith.  Do you see it?  It’s by faith.

Fear is gone by faith!  There’s an old song that says “because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives all fear is gone…” . Because Jesus lives, we can face tomorrow and all fear is gone.  But, how do we know Jesus lives? By faith! I’ve personally never seen Jesus in the flesh.  Never got to shake His hand, touch Him or eat with Him.  Yet I know He lives!  By faith.  Faith and fear don’t mix.  If you and I don’t live by faith, the alternative is fear.

Fear is a horrible thing.  The Bible tells us that fear causes torment.  Fear will paralyze you if you feed it.  Faith, on the other hand, causes you to become victorious.  It doesn’t look at circumstances it looks at the answers in the unseen realm and causes them to manifest in the seen.  By faith, you and I see solutions to problems.  By faith, we know that God will show Himself strong in every situation on our behalf.

You and I need to live by faith.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.  Are you in the Word daily?  If not, start.  Start building the faith foundation that will carry you through every obstacle that life brings.  Be faith filled and not fearful.  Come on let’s get started today to live a victorious life by faith!

It’s in the Unseen

In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul tells us this, “while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal”. He gives us a key to living a victorious life here.  We do not base our existence on the seen, we base it on the unseen.  Everything you and I need to make it through the good and bad times in life is in the unseen realm.

Here’s the challenge.  We live in the “seen” realm.  We are constantly seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting and touching the world around us.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of beautiful things to see, taste, hear, smell and touch.  Living in Hawaii confirms this.  The blue, and I mean really blue, Pacific Ocean is a sight to behold.  The smell of the flowers like gardenias and pikake and of course the smell of a barbecue are fantastic.  Tasting that barbecue is even better. Hearing someone really talented sing or play an instrument and touching the sand at the beach or taking the hand of a child or grandchild for me on a walk is life!

But… these five senses can also give us problems.  With them we are aware of all the negative things going on around us.  The economy, diseases, crime, storms, wars and rumors of war and the list goes on.  If we are not mindful of this or if our mind is full of this, we can lose all hope. That’s why Paul said we don’t look at the seen.  We don’t base our hope or our faith or our very lives on what is perceived by the senses, we base it on the unseen.

So how does this work?  In the book of Hebrews in the Bible chapter 11:1, it tells us that faith is the evidence of things not seen.  Evidence is proof.  So faith in God is proof that the unseen exists.  So how do we get faith?  Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  That word hearing is a word that means to keep hearing over and over again.  Now relax, that doesn’t mean you have to sit in front of a preacher 24/7. However it does mean that you and I need to be reading the Bible, meditating on what it says and building our faith with the Word. (the word meditate means to mutter to yourself and picture it happening to you, if you can worry, you can meditate)

When you do that, you start seeing that God has a lot of things going on in the unseen realm that will bring hope to every situation.  Your life starts transforming into something new and strong and full of hope and victory.  In my own life, I have found that when all I feed myself on is what me five senses can “catch”, like the news, I start to be depressed and lose hope.  But when I feed myself on what God is doing, an amazing thing happens.  I can’t explain how or when victory is coming, but I know it’s coming.  Why?  Cause I “see” it!  It’s in the unseen!

Let’s give God a chance to change our lives for the better.  Purpose today to spend some time reading His Word, the Bible.  Try turning of the news channels for a while and turning God on in your live.  I can guarantee that if you do so, God will bring hope into hopeless situations and your mindset will be reset.  Faith

Creative vs. Destructive

I am becoming more and more amazed at the type of movies coming out of Hollywood.  Some of my amazement is due to the fact that “special effects” are getting so good, it’s hard to distinguish between real shots and computer generated stuff.  It’s a far cry from what I grew up with.

I remember when the sci-fi cartoons on TV had spaceships flying and you could see the nylon lines holding the ship.  The name of that cartoon was “Space Angel“.  “My Favorite Martian” was another “advanced” type of special effects TV show.  Wow, it had great technological advancements.

Today see movies like “Transformers“, “Terminator” and even “Ice Age” in 3-D that takes you right into the picture.  Even television has stepped it up with the CSI’s (I wish I had their computer systems) and 24, major PDA’s and never a “dead zone” on their communications systems.  To say the least, times have changed.

However, there is something else that I am noticing coming from Tinsel Town.  The infatuation with the destruction of life as we know it and the “battle” between good and evil.  Even Harry Potter is having to fight the destruction of the world.  I took my grand kids to the movies recently and saw that most of the previews for the coming attractions had to do with some kind of destructive force destroying the world.  Then, to top it off, I get home only to find that there is a massive “Meteor” heading to earth to destroy life as we know it in a new series coming to your television set.  Spooky!!

Yep, there’s a lot of talk of destruction out there.  It can be so life-like people can get confused.  Remember the ad, “is it real or is it Memorex?”.  Too old, sorry ’bout that.  Well is it real or not? Is there a “National Treasury”, stuff happening in “2012″ or will someone come up with a “flux-capacitor” and take us back to a better economy to escape the doom?  Okay, maybe I’m being melodramatic but the truth is this, to escape “destruction” in life, the only way is to hook up with the Creator, God!

Yes it’s true!  God is Creative, not destructive.  He’s the answer to our problems. While we are being bombarded with destruction, God is creating new lives for anyone who will ask.  He sent Jesus into a world that was and is still, in chaos to make a way for us to live a creative, not destructive, life.  Wow, that’s Good News.  Instead of being consumed with hopelessness, we can be full of hope because the Creator of all things is in love with us.  Does that mean that life will be a piece of cake if we follow Jesus?  (That would be “Hollywood”).   Here’s what it means, Jesus can create the answer for life’s tough situations and goes with us so that we are not fighting the fight of life alone. He’s with us and He’s creative!  The Bible tells us that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6).  When it seems there is no way out of a situation, He creates one.

I know the movies are only that, movies.  But why is it that they deal with destruction instead of creation?  Probably cause it sells and in the end, the hero, whether it’s Harry Potter or Optimus Prime, wins.  I’m not against entertainment, but in my life, I really need the creativity of God working so I can come out on top.  And I think deep down we all want to win too.  Hollywood is great for their fiction, special effects, new ideas in film and off course an escape from reality. But…real creativity, real solutions and real peace of mind come from the creative One, God!  Check Him out He’s “playing” everywhere all the time!

Time to Be Creative!

There’s an old saying that goes something like this, “Necessity is the mother of invention“.  What does that mean?  Simply this, when something needs to be done, people find a way to do it.  Where do we get the ability to create solutions for problems?  From the Creator Himself, God. So for us who believe in Jesus, it’s time to be creative!

The world has a bunch of problems.  Life is getting more complex.  There are many issues facing the human race.  The economy is bad worldwide.  There are diseases that are new everyday.  The family is facing new obstacles to being together. Poverty seems to be on the rise with many forced into homelessness.  If you look at all these things, it’s very easy to get depressed and worst of all live a life of fear.  It’s not time to be fearful, it’s time for the people of God to be creative.

All throughout the Bible, whenever major catastrophes were happening, the people of God were the one’s with the creative ideas.  Whether it was Joseph, stocking up for famine, or David eliminating a giant, or Esther saving her people from extinction, God’s people had the creative ideas.

Here’s what gets me.  All of the examples I just mentioned happened before Jesus came.  We like to look at those examples because we can relate with there shortcomings and identify with there lack of perfectness.  But the Bible tells us that Jesus is our example.  So look at what He did because He tells us we will do those things and greater if we believe.

He calmed storms. Healed the sick. Delivered the oppressed and possessed. He went about doing good and destroying the works of the devil.  When they needed food, He fed five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes. When there was death, He bought life to the situation (remember Lazarus?). The blind saw and the crippled walked when He was around.  He gave us eternal life and made us righteous. He created life more abundantly in us.

Notice I said He made us righteous.  Religion tells us that we need to constantly be aware that we are not worthy.  How can we create when we don’t think we are worthy?  The Bible tells us that God has made us righteous in Jesus. (1 Cor. 5:21). It tells us that we are no longer slaves to sin but to righteousness. (Romans chapter 6).  When you and I received Jesus, the Bible tells us that salvation comes from confession of Jesus as Lord and with the heart we believe unto righteousness. (Romans 10:10). So get that “not worthy” issue out of the way. We need to have answers for today’s problems and that requires us to be righteousness conscious and not unworthy sin conscious. (Note: read the book of Romans, it’s the book of New Testament theology, in other words it tells us what Jesus did for us). Let’s go on.

God has placed in us the ability to be creative.  We have God’s wisdom.  We have the mind of Christ that is a sound mind.  We have the answers for the challenges our world is facing.  We are the ones with the direct connection to God.  Let’s not give up and lose hope like the rest of the world.  Let’s stand up and be the answer to the uncertainty facing us.  Let’s be solutions!  Let’s take our position and make our footprints in the sands of time.  It’s time.  Time to be creative!

Lessons Learned

Wow, what a whirlwind tour! My wife and I just got back to Hawaii after spending time in Japan and the Philippines. We were there to minister to leaders in both places and learned a lot in the process.

It’s funny how things work out in life. No matter what, we learn the best when we help others. In today’s world, many are just worrying about themselves. The economy, diseases, government changes and other things cause many to become paralyzed. Many are turning inward instead of outward. The truth is however, that we learn and get answers as we help others.

Here’s what I learned on our trip. First stop, Japan. We spent time in Asakusa with our couple there, the Reynolds. We were there to encourage them and the team they work with at Tokyo Hope Chapel. We had a great time building relationships with the people there. In times past, we went there to “perform”  thinking that because of the infatuation with Hawaiian things, such as music and hula, we would be able to make a difference there. However on this trip, we spent time with a small group, Christian and non Christian, to build relationships. We made friends with the church team , some hula dancers, some people in Fujisawa (Hawaii town) and even got to meet with a corporate hotel executive. The result was amazing!

We found out that the Japanese people are starving for relationships. They want to “hang out” but don’t even know how to do that because of their “work” culture. The people there are warm, loving people that really enjoy having fun. I have never heard so much laughter without alcohol in Japan. God is into building relationship. Instead of living in a building, He lives in us. Is it any wonder that inside everyone, there is a desire to have meaningful, life-giving, fun relationships. Everywhere we visited, we made friends that I believe will be friends for life. In addition, two of the girls that hung out with us, were able to start their relationship with Jesus. Lesson learned, everybody needs somebody!

Second stop, La Union, Philippines. We landed in Manila on a muggy, stormy night and it was totally crazy. If you have been to both countries, Tokyo and Manila are very, very, very, very different. Did I mention they are different? The airports are different. At Narita, everything is organized. Stand in line here, park here, train here, be here….. At Manila, everyone is every where all the time. We stood there watching and trying to figure out the “system” and realized we had no clue how it worked. Lesson learned, life has a flow and even if you can’t figure it out, flow! Haha!

When we got to La Union, I did leadership sessions with church leaders, Bible college students and youth. There were three schools and five churches there. I didn’t expect that many people at the “house”. Yep, we met at the home we were staying at. And guess what? They wanted most of all, relationship! There culture is relational and yet they wanted relationship.

The students were amazed that they could “hang” with us. They never do that with church leaders. The pastors wanted to be able to talk story other than church business. The older pastors enjoyed getting to know the young people and swapping ideas.  Filipinos too are a fun-loving people. They enjoy life even though their living situations are very tough. Money is not easily obtained. The average pastor makes $25 a month, yet they love life. Lesson learned? Happiness is not contingent upon wealth. Now a side note, we are believing that by changing the mindset of the next generation that will change in the Philippines. In fact, that’s what we taught them and they are excited because there is hope for the future.

I am thankful for this trip. I learned a lot even though I spent most of the time giving out at sessions, meetings, luncheons. The lessons learned will help me be better at what I do in life. The relationships I’ve made are awesome. I now have family in Japan and the Philippines. Only God can do that and it’s marvelous in our eyes.

Let’s not live life sheltered. There is a lot to see and learn, even in your own home town if you’ll take a chance and build new relationships. Let’s get out there and learn some new lessons! Life is good because God is good!  And Christianity is a relationship so lesson learned, let’s build relationships.

Atmosphere of Change

Why does God put such a great emphasis on faith?  Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without it we cannot please God.  We have to have faith to even believe that God exists.  We cannot contact Him with our five senses so faith is the substance and evidence that God exists and that He rewards us as we seek Him.

But there is another reason we operate in faith.  Faith creates an atmosphere of change.  Currently, I’m in the nation of Japan.  Japan is an interesting place.  On one hand, it leads the world in technology and on the other hand it has a culture that dates far back in time.  It can be a difficult place to bring change to, especially if it has to do with their belief system.

What I have been observing is this, if the Church does not operate in faith, it will not have the power to create an atmosphere of change.  Without faith, circumstance becomes overwhelming and defeat becomes eminent.  So, our purpose here is to encourage and build faith in our people to help them be able to create that atmosphere of change.

So how does that work for an individual?  Faith creates the atmosphere necessary to make the changes that will cause us to be able to complete our God-given assignment.  Everyone of us has an assignment.  We all have God-given abilities that are specifically designed to make us who we are. We all have a passion for certain things that really become our reason for being.  All of these things were placed in us by God so that we can play our part in the building of His kingdom.  It’s how we are able to help others.

In order for us to keep going, we need faith.  We need to be able to see beyond the seen, hear beyond what’s audible and walk where no one else has dared to go.  When you and I do this, we actually create an atmosphere of change and this causes those around us to change also.

It’s time to build your faith.  This is done by meditating on the Word of God.  Read the Bible daily, pray without ceasing and continue to get closer in your relationship with Jesus.  This will cause faith to grow and in turn give you that atmosphere changing ability to impact your world.  Let’s live with significance and create that atmosphere of change.

Make the Best Out of It

Have you’ve ever had a day that started out rough?  Today was one of those days.  A great friend of mine, someone that took the initiative to serve and served well in our church and in my personal life, went home to be with the Lord.  He suffered a heart attack at our morning prayer meeting. To say the least, it was a shocker!

As I was thinking and praying and thinking again on my way to the hospital, I thought of how this guy made the best out of everything.  He was always smiling even when he had to pull weeds at my home that had it’s roots on the other end of the planet. He smiled even when stuff at church or at his job didn’t work out right.  He just made the best out of it.

Now I know from hearing stories about the past that this was not always the case.  There was a time in his life when he could not see the good things in front of him.  In fact, many say that he really changed over the last few years.  What caused that change?

It was simply this, he turned his life over to the God that makes the best out of our lives.  He got hope where there had not been any hope previously.  He saw things where in past he was “blinded” to them.  There was a change because God makes the best out everything.

When Jesus enters into our lives, He makes the best out of it.  We can walk with confidence, knowing that He will cause us to win and not fail.  We don’t have to be in bondage to past failures and we are not condemned any more. My friend’s life was a living example of the change that takes place when Jesus makes the best out it.

I am definitely going to miss my friend, Bruce Ochmann.  I’ll miss his smile, his serving and yes, even his ability to make a yard look awesome.  But most of all, I will miss the friend who made the best out of it, no matter what “it” was.  He served the God Who makes the best out of it.  And now he’s with that God spending eternity with the Best of It All. Let’s be like that and make the best out of it no matter what.

A Hui Hou Bruce

Fear or Faith

We live in a world of uncertainty.  We aren’t sure of the future and even experts don’t really know how to predict the outcome.  The financial world is crazy.  New diseases keep cropping up.  The smarter we get, the worse it seems.  In short, life can really be frightening.  If we are not careful, our lives can be ruled by fear.

The Bible tells us that fear torments.  (See 1 John 4:8)  Have you ever had fear that torments you? I have.  Back in the day, life was different.  Dad worked and mom stayed home to take care of the children.  In many families that is no longer the case.  Anyway, my mom was probably the biggest influence in my life in it’s early stages.  That was awesome except for one small detail.  My mom had a lot of fear and that transferred to me.  Oh, she wasn’t crazy with fear, but she had enough of it for me to “catch” it.

One of the fears she had was that of flying.  Subsequently, I caught it.  Let me tell you, fear of flying when you live in Hawaii can really torment you.  You cannot go anywhere without flying. Of course you could take a boat, but then there’s the fear of sinking.  So what do you do?  Well, you can become a hermit and stay in just one place or you can face your dears with faith and overcome them.

I chose to face my fears.  It didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen.  Now I fly all over the world and it seems as though I’m constantly on a plane.  I have had to do this with everything that I feared.  So how do you do this?  Fear has to be replaced by faith.  Faith comes from the Word of God.  We have to renew our minds to what the Word says.

So how do we do that?  The Bible tells us to meditate on the Word.  Psalm 1 tells us that by doing that we will prosper.  3 John tells us that we prosper and are in good health as our soul prospers.  We can live in fear or faith.  We need to chose faith.  So, what we are constantly thinking about and picturing in our minds and imagining about ourselves, determines how we live.  When I operated in fear, I always thought of plane crashes and mechanical failure and unbearable turbulence.  I would picture these things and think about them and worry, worry, worry.  Now in faith, I’m thinking about the things I will see and be able to do once I arrive.  I’m looking forward to being with friends and family and being able to see vision come to pass.  Fear or Faith.  It makes a difference.

Are you afraid of the economic woes?  Or are you excited to see what new ideas God is given you to make a difference in these hard times? Fear or Faith.  Are you praying in fear, hoping and wishing that God will do something, anything?  Or are you praying confident that God answers prayer and all will be well with you?  Fear or Faith.  Are you afraid of the various kinds of diseases that are entering the atmosphere, worrying that it’ll show up in your home?  Or are you standing on God’s Word in faith believing that He told the truth when He said none of these things will come to your dwelling, it will not touch you.

Hey, we need to have Faith in these times.  Not fear! Meditate on what God says and not CNN.  Let’s stand and see what faith in God can do. Fear or Faith, it’s time to choose.