Here’s the deal… My wife has informed me that I have too many blogs. So, as I transition into a new writing ministry – titled THE BOUVILLE DIARIST – I have decided to simply change the existing blog.

Please note that we are no longer located at encouragement316.wordpress.com. We have moved to http://www.bouvillediarist.wordpress.com. Please change your bookmarks.

And please visit often, follow, subscribe, and share! Most importantly, follow Christ and seek God first in life.

God bless

Chris

There is a reason I am not a tugboat captain. I don’t like the smell of fish. I am certain that too much time upon churning seas would make me hurl meals I thought were long digested. I don’t tie knots well. I am mechanically declined. And I can’t swim.

All of these are hurdles I could most likely overcome. Except for that part about casting my last three meals upon the choppy waters. However, there is one main barrier that keeps me from being a tugboat captain.

God didn’t create me to be a tugboat captain.

Now, if I have any readers out there who are tugboat captains, you have my everlasting admiration. And, rest assured, I am not after your job. But if you are one of those people who were created to live for the smell of the sea breezes and choking diesel engine fumes, then tugboat captain is the perfect vocation for you.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11, ESV). If you’re feeling like a fish out of water (to continue our maritime theme), like a tugboat captain with no ambition to sail – or tug – relax. God has a plan. For you.

Let me ask you: who are you? I don’t mean name, rank and serial number. Who are you? What do you do well and find deep satisfaction in doing? What puts the wind in your sails? (See there… more nautical references…) Seek God and ask Him how you can use these gifts – and, yes, God has gifted you in some way, whether you realize it or not – to further His Kingdom. Discover how you can use your abilities to bring Him glory and bless the community you are part of.

And watch God work wonders through you as you faithfully serve Him with all He has given you!

Here’s the deal… My wife has informed me that I have too many blogs. So, as I transition into a new writing ministry – titled THE BOUVILLE DIARIST – I have decided to simply change the existing blog.

Please note that we are no longer located at encouragement316.wordpress.com. We have moved to http://www.bouvillediarist.wordpress.com. Please change your bookmarks.

And please visit often, follow, subscribe, and share! Most importantly, follow Christ and seek God first in life.

God bless

Chris

There is a reason I am not a tugboat captain. I don’t like the smell of fish. I am certain that too much time upon churning seas would make me hurl meals I thought were long digested. I don’t tie knots well. I am mechanically declined. And I can’t swim.

All of these are hurdles I could most likely overcome. Except for that part about casting my last three meals upon the choppy waters. However, there is one main barrier that keeps me from being a tugboat captain.

God didn’t create me to be a tugboat captain.

Now, if I have any readers out there who are tugboat captains, you have my everlasting admiration. And, rest assured, I am not after your job. But if you are one of those people who were created to live for the smell of the sea breezes and choking diesel engine fumes, then tugboat captain is the perfect vocation for you.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11, ESV). If you’re feeling like a fish out of water (to continue our maritime theme), like a tugboat captain with no ambition to sail – or tug – relax. God has a plan. For you.

Let me ask you: who are you? I don’t mean name, rank and serial number. Who are you? What do you do well and find deep satisfaction in doing? What puts the wind in your sails? (See there… more nautical references…) Seek God and ask Him how you can use these gifts – and, yes, God has gifted you in some way, whether you realize it or not – to further His Kingdom. Discover how you can use your abilities to bring Him glory and bless the community you are part of.

And watch God work wonders through you as you faithfully serve Him with all He has given you!

I live a life surrounded by boxes – literally and metaphorically.  Here in my home office I have a closet stacked with boxes.  Each contains different items. Some have old bills and paperwork (my bank’s apparent aversion to paper has saved me the box of cancelled checks).  Some have artifacts and trinkets and snippets from my past.  Some have CDs, others old stereo wire and cables.  Each box is segmented and the contents segregated.

Life is like that as well.  In my mind, I have it all boxed up.  One box contains my work life.  Here in the front is my theological life – itself a huge box filled with many smaller boxes.  Over there is a big box of memories.  Way back in the dustiest corner sits another box… don’t open that one.  I won’t even go near it.  I can’t remember what’s in that box… it’s a bunch of stuff I either can’t understand or don’t want to.

The truth is, we westerners have that Greek-inspired tendency to think in boxes.  To live in boxes.  (I’m being deeply philosophical here, so bear with me.)  We want to understand everything in life.  We need to know every step.  If we cannot logically deduce the outcome, we tend to shy away.  We break life up into its proper segments and box it up.  When we need to, we open the correct box and dig away at it’s contents, tending to ignore the other boxes stacked up in our lives.  After all, unless you are a pastor, who would open their theology box at work?  Or their dusty undealt-with box at church?

The problem is, we westerners are missing something very important.  Life was never meant to be so segmented.  Life should be life.  Not my church life.  Not my family life.  Not my work life.

Just life.

The more segregated and boxed up our lives are, the more rigid we become.  The more isolated we become.  The more box-centered we become.  It gets tough trying to maintain all those boxes. 

Theology is (in)famously boxed up.  There is a Protestant box.  There is a Catholic box.  Inside these boxes are boxes inside boxes inside boxes… Look inside the Protestant box and you’ll see boxes labeled Baptist, Methodist, AOG, Charismatic, Fundamentalist, Independent… Each box is carefully controlled and maintained and protected, lest the contents of another get mixed in.

However… the older I get, the more uselessness and harm I see in these boxes.  Maybe we should have a more eastern mindset.  Now… hold on.  I see many of you out there getting outraged at such an idea and scrounging through your theological boxes for a refutation.  Just hear me out…

To the eastern mindset, community trumps personal triumph.  The Bible is not about me.  It speaks to me, yes. But, most importantly, it speaks to us.  It is about God, it is not about us.  The more I unpack my old boxes the more I see that I have been trying to contain is not a theology or a belief system or some sort of “ism”. 

It is God Himself I have been trying to define.

To grasp.

To contain.

To box up.

Let’s get down to it: life is logical.  But the logic is one defined by God, not humans.  We try to compartmentalize things so we can gain some level of control over our lives, but, really, what control do we ultimately have?  Living out of these boxes impedes faith, because we believe in the contents of our boxes.  We lean on the theological conventions we have learned. 

If we want to see Truth, we have to step away from our boxes and see the Bible with fresh eyes.  Peel back the preconceived notions and see what Jesus is really saying.  It’s not about what sect of Christianity we cling to.  It isn’t a matter of predestination pitted against freewill (indeed, when one sees the matter for what it is, we quickly see that both co-exist harmoniously, which is why I am a firm and staunch Calminian).  It isn’t about KJV vs. NIV vs. ESV.  It isn’t about isolation vs. community (both have their important roles in our spiritual lives).

It is about this: seek first the kingdom of God (His will and ways) and His righteousness, and all these things (the stuff we need on this earth) will be added to you [Matthew 6:33].  Seek His word with open eyes, not a clouded view.  Consider how the mindset of the Jews wrote and read Scripture. 

By unpacking our boxes and seeing how all of life is interconnected, we gain great insight into the richness and Truth of our lives.  By studying God’s Word without bias (as much as possible), we see how gloriously radical – and radically freeing – following God really is!  Nobody finds freedom trapped inside a box.

Following Jesus is an amazing trip, and radical to any human philosophy or way of life.  If you don’t believe me, ask one of His apostles.  Better yet, ask a Pharisee – if you can get one to lift his head out of the box long enough to see the Truth.

For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him.  For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? – Ecclesiastes 8:6-7 (ESV)

 

Solomon… If ever there was a man who had it all, it was Solomon.  He sought God’s wisdom, and received it in great abundance.  He was blessed by God to be chosen to build the temple – an honor his father, David, had been denied. 

 

The Lord set Solomon in a high place indeed, as king of Israel.  And it is good to be king!  God not only blessed Solomon with great wisdom, but great earthly wealth as well.  His annual income in gold has been estimated at over $1,000,000,000 (yes, that’s billion with a “b”).  He received gold by the boatload (literally).  Do you remember the TV show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”?  Chump change compared to Solomon.

 

And women… One thousand of them.  700 wives and 300 concubines. And the Bible tells us Solomon loved all his wives.  (Men, go ask your wives what they think of that.  Better yet, don’t.)

 

Solomon had it all.  Right?

 

In the end, it all had him.  All this wealth, all these women, all this earthly pleasure seems to have lulled and dulled the wisest man who ever lived into a somnambulist.

 

A sleepwalker.

 

And the results were dire.  Among Solomon’s wives were women from other nations who worshipped other gods.  This included the daughter of Pharoah – a fact that, considering their understanding of the Exodus, should have rung loud alarm bells to Solomon that something was amiss in his life.  “And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 11:3b-4, ESV).

 

Now, here is the part that should put a cold chill down your spine:

⁹ And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice ¹⁰ and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. ¹¹ Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. ¹² Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. ¹³ However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”

¹⁴ And the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon…

 

I’m no genius.  But even I know that, when you’ve stirred up God’s wrath to the point that He rises up an enemy against you, this isn’t going to be pretty. 

 

Or comfortable.

 

Indeed, Solomon’s folly led to Israel’s downfall.  He led his people to destruction.

 

Here is my point:  Today is a great day to stop a moment and take stock of your life. 

 

Today.

 

Now.

 

None of us knows how many days we have on this earth.  Don’t spend them in a fog, sleepwalking through life, so engrossed in the details and minutae of work and home and school and kids and soccer schedules and bills to pay and football and trivial stuff that God gets shuffled to the background.  We are called to seek God and His will and His path for our lives first and foremost.  Nothing is more important.

 

Nothing is more important.

 

Nothing.

 

One day all this world will be gone.

 

Don’t let the junk of this life weigh you down.  Let nothing come between you and the Lord.  “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9, ESV).

 

As Solomon wrote, after the wages of his sin had begun rolling in, “The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good” (Ecclesiastes 9:17-18, ESV).

 

 

The heart of man plans his way, but The Lord establishes his steps. – Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)

I am truly getting a deeper sense if just have debilitating perfectionism can be. I realize that, without a solid plan and some assurance of success, it is really really – really – difficult to launch and see to fruition any project.

Really.

Most mornings I get out of bed and head downstairs for my morning jolt of caffeine. As I descend the stairs in the predawn dark, I try to be conscious of where the landing is. Like the old saying goes, be careful of that last step. It’s a dooooozy!

Most mornings I succeed in not overshooting (or underestimating) that last step. I have been known to step out one step too soon with painful, noisy and humbling results. Yesterday my foot blindly landed on a very disgusting little gift our dog created – evidently not more than a few minutes prior to my unpleasant discovery.

Life is like this. We are walking in the dark, unsure of what is just ahead of us. We may think we know. We may feel very sure of what will come next. We have planned every step meticulously. We have counted each footfall as we go downstairs in the dark.

What we didn’t count for was what the dog did in our path.

When we step in the unexpected, we can yell and bark and be disgusted and shame the dog. Or we can stop, clean up the mess, wash our feet and continue.

Life should come with these instructions: plan loosely. Proceed. Mess up. Clean up. Learn. Apply. Repeat.

You don’t have to know the outcome. God has that covered: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares The Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11, ESV).

Don’t let uncertainty lull you into inactivity. Go. Do. Trust God. Remember: perfection is way out of our pay grade.

(C) 2014 by Chris Courtney. All rights reserved. Please feel free to share this piece of encouragement with anybody who you feel would be blessed by it.

Follow Chris at http://www.bouvillediarist.wordpress.com

Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.  I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war! – Psalm 120:6-7 (ESV)

Being a Christian in this world isn’t always easy.  Talking about your faith, and your Savior, can be even tougher.

I recently watched Billy Graham’s My Hope, his latest (and, presumably, last) message.  In it, the comment was made – and it’s a comment I’ve heard before and I’m sure you have to – that people are generally ok when one mentions God.  But, the minute you bring Jesus into the conversation… suddenly your talk has become offensive.

You see, it is one thing to talk of God in abstract terms.  Most people can accept that there must be a Higher Power Who created the world and the universe and all nature around us.  Even scientists acknowledge the existence of “intelligent design” (hence an Intelligent Designer).

But, once Jesus enters the conversation, things change.  The grand professions and ideas and theories of who this nebulous “God” must be now has a face.  A voice.  Flesh and bone.

And when one looks at Jesus and says, “Hey!  My God doesn’t look like that”, let the trouble begin.

You see, one cannot truly look upon Jesus without facing some absolute truths.  One thing Jesus never did was equivocate.  He walked this earth speaking truth and a lot of folks didn’t like it.  His truth wrecked their ideas and ideals.  “It’s the way we’ve always done it” was no longer an acceptable answer.

He faced sinners where they were and turned their lives around (and upside down).

He faced the religiously rigid and exposed their hypocrisy.

He faced the world and spoke truth.  “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’” (John 8:31-32, ESV).  The world does not stand for truth.  Nor can it stand against it. 

And when the sinful world is confronted by the pure, undefiled Truth, all the dirty ick of this world – the shameful acts, the selfish ambition, the painful consequences of sin – are exposed, laid bare to those who choose to see through the eyes of Truth. 

And the world gets offended, because it’s money tables get up-ended.  The human ideals are discredited.  The notion of sliding truth (“what’s true for me may not be true for you”) solidifies and becomes absolute (and absolutely definable).  Truth leads to life, not an imitation thereof.  The world’s ways – sin – lead only to death.

And if you are looking for Truth, look no farther than Jesus Christ.  God’s Truth – the only absolute Truth there is – is right there in His Word.  Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10, ESV). 

Take heart.  If you face opposition in your stand for Christ, you are not alone.  Don’t be afraid to introduce Jesus into the conversation.  Be bold for God!  Remember… when you proclaim the Truth of Jesus Christ to the world, you have the full backing of Truth behind you.  Let the scoffers scoff and the mockers mock.  Sometimes people will hear what Jesus has to say.  And sometimes you just have to walk away, shaking the dust from your sandals as you go.

© 2013 by Chris Courtney.  All rights reserved.  Please feel free to share this message with anyone who might be blessed by it.  Please visit https://bouvillediarist.wordpress.com/ for more encouragement.

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” – Romans 12:12 (ESV)

Everyone has junk in their lives – junk that threatens to drag us down.  Maybe your marriage is on the rocks or your kid is on your nerves.  Maybe you dread facing the job on Monday mornings.  Maybe your finances are causing you worry, or your health, or someone else’s health… You name it.  We all face difficulties.

But… have you ever noticed there are some people who just seem perpetually peppy?  Life never gets them down.  They are unflappable, despite circumstances.  Their hair could be on fire and, after extinguishing the flames and bandaging the burns, they would say, “Oh well, I was going bald anyway.”

Then there are some of us who get worked up at the littlest things.  Our nerves teeter on a knife’s edge.  A simple request at the dinner table to please pass the asparagus could elicit an undeserved response such as, “Give me this!  Give me that!  You always want something from me!”  (Of course, let’s be fair.  It’s asparagus.  Asparagus will put anyone in a foul mood.)

If you are finding yourself in a continual, repeated pattern of upset or anger or worry or anxiety or just feeling blue, consider this: maybe it is time for a priority adjustment.  Maybe the job / career is too important to you.  Maybe the discontent with your station in life is too strong.  Maybe your trying to hard to please someone else.  Maybe you need to stop trying to control every little facet of your life through micromanagement.  Maybe you just need to relax and trust God.

I write these things because I’ve been there.  I’ve had the time in my life when my wife didn’t know which husband she was going to get when I got home from work: the happy one or the one who was angry at the entire world.  (Mind you, I never had the asparagus scenario play out at our dinner table.  You’d never find the asparagus close enough to me to need to pass it.)

Listen, I am a human being.  I struggle with perfectionism and acceptance.  I goof up, make mistakes and kick myself for miles afterward.  I worry too much, which causes me to think too little, which leads to anxiety which, when it goes unchecked, can be the on ramp to a very, very long trip.

I understand.  I know.  That’s why I write what I write.  I don’t want you getting on that road.

I want you to be joyful.  I want you to be peaceful.  I want you to be happy.

Yes, I said happy.  Don’t let anyone tell you happiness is a useless pursuit.

And, trust me, I understand all too well that sometimes the issues we face are the result of a brain that just doesn’t produce the serotonin it should, meaning one may need medicine.  Not every malady is the result of Satan winning a battle against you.  We live in an imperfect, fallen world.  Accept that and stop giving the devil so much credit.

If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, you have hope – not just for heaven but here and now.  That doesn’t mean your circumstances will improve. They may.  And they may not.  What it does mean is that God will strengthen you for whatever you face, and whatever you face has not the last word.  You have hope in Christ because, ultimately, you will be saved!  It’s like the song says: sometimes the Lord calms the storm, and sometimes He calms His child.

This is why we need to be patient in tribulation.  God will use the lousiest, most down and difficult times in our lives to build us up, as well as those around us.  When people see you calmly facing a hard time – no matter how uncomfortable it is – and we give God the glory for our peace, know He will rescue as at just the right time… well, that gives others hope in Christ as well.  It takes what some may consider the abstract idea of faith in Jesus and turns it into concrete, undeniable reality.

However, as I said, it can be tough.  That is why we need to be constant in prayer.  We are commanded to “pray without “(1 Thessalonians 5:17).  That means to always be in an attitude of prayer, ever-mindful of God’s constant loving presence and ready to pray at the drop of a hat.  It means keeping our minds focused squarely on God through Jesus Christ.  It means truly resting in the Lord, knowing He can handle any situation.

That means the results are not ours to worry about.  The only judgment that matters is that of God alone.

That means you can leave the troubles at work when you go home at night.  In fact, you don’t have to carry the troubles around at work, in the car, at home, at church… You have the Lord! 

So, tonight I want to encourage you to look at your life.  What’s bugging you?  Is there something eating away at you?  What’s worrying you, or frustrating you, or just plain making you mad?  What is robbing you of your peace?  Give your cares to God.  Trust the Lord with every minute outcome of your life.  Face life with the joy, peace and confidence that comes only from faith in Jesus, from relinquishing control and keeping your eyes on Christ at all times.

Tonight, change direction.  Correct course.  Adjust your priorities so that you “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), knowing He will take care of your needs.

Sleep well, dear friends.  Be filled with joy and peace in Christ.  And rest easy in the strength of the Lord.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

– Romans 8:31 (ESV)

One day in 1740, the Anglican pastor (and later founder of Methodism) John Wesley stood before his congregants in a chapel in Bristol, England.  He delivered his simply titled “Sermon 128,” better known today as “Free Grace.” Using Romans 8:32 as his text, Wesley wonderfully proclaimed: "(The) assurance of faith which these enjoy excludes all doubt and fear, It excludes all kinds of doubt and fear concerning their future perseverance; though it is not properly, as was said before, an assurance of what is future, but only of what now is."

That is a pretty audacious statement to make.  We are expected, as believers who have the assurance of faith, to not be bothered by anything past, present, or future.  No worry.  No doubt.  It is a claim one cannot make without understanding the verse before Wesley’s base passage for this sermon.

If God is for us, who can be against us?  If one digs into the Greek words in this verse, we find what Paul is saying here is this: if God – Who Is high above us and far beyond our grasp – loves us so much as to stand for us, who can make a charge against us that will stick?

Look at Jesus.  His trials before the Jewish and Roman leaders was a kangaroo court.  He was unjustly tried, punished and executed – with great haste and no true sense of fairness.  The enemies of Jesus passed a guilty judgment against Him.

But God had the final word in the matter.  Three days after His death, Jesus Christ put pay to all of His promises, and all the Old Testament Scripture that was penned before – and pointed toward – Him. 

My point is this: the judgment of others does not matter. 

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:37-39 (ESV)

God has the final say, not your enemies.  God loves you, you are His child, and His love for you is never ending.  Do not let those who oppose you get in your way of doing what God has called you to do.  Do not let fear or worry or doubt cloud your vision or block your path.  Here is the great thing about fear: faith is its Achilles Heel.  If you stand up in faith and stare fear in the face, it will back down.  True authority is rooted in God, and His will and ways and Word.

Faith turns fear into soft butter.  So, today, whatever you are facing, don’t be swayed by the enemy.  Don’t let doubt creep in.  Do not weary in well doing.  Stand up straight and strong in faith on the mighty Word of the Lord.  Hold fast to your conviction that God is GOD and He has a plan and there is nothing – absolutely nothing – that will thwart that plan.

And remember that you are part of that plan.  Cling to God.  Let Him fight the battle.  You just need to stand strong and stay faithful.  The LORD is your strength, and when we are weak, He is strong!