God Is Pleased With Who He Made You

Have you ever struggled with self-image problems? Maybe you have an insecurity with your voice, or the way you look. Maybe you don’t like how thin your hair is, the color of your eyes or your dominant personality isn’t quite like your best friend’s mild soft spoken demeanor. Most of us, if we are honest do not like certain aspects about who we are; whether it is our personality, looks, race or financial status. The truth is God created you special and unique and He did not want you to be just like everyone else. This was a difficult lesson for me to learn. One day about 9 years ago, I was driving back to my parent’s house and God whispered in my heart, “I am pleased with who I made you.” I wondered why God would say such a thing to me because I thought I had a pretty good self-esteem. However, over the next several months and years, God began to expose so many areas of my life where I was not pleased with who God created me to be. One area in particular had to do with my voice. I was a late bloomer and my voice did not change until I was at least 16 years old. When I would talk on the phone, people would mistake me for a woman’s voice and I would get so frustrated. I even would try to lower my voice, but it did not work out very successfully. I hated talking in front of people because of my voice even though I was a gifted communicator. I constantly thought about it and wished I had a different voice. Even when my voiced changed to become much deeper, these insecurities still haunted me for years! When they tried to over take my mind, the Holy Spirit would remind me that He was pleased with who He made me! Little by little, I began to believe God and trust that He does not make junk.  The Bible says, “God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:26-27 Amplified Bible). I am made in the image of God. He formed me and knew me before I was born and knew the reason He created me. The Bible says, “Then the word of the Lord came to me [Jeremiah], saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’” (Jeremiah 1:4-5 Amplified Bible). This scripture is powerful because God is saying that before Jeremiah was born God knew him and approved of him. God had a unique calling on Jeremiah’s life and created his personality, looks, skills and talents to accomplish God’s plan for his life. What was true for Jeremiah is also true for us. God created you and me in His image and tailored all our traits that make us distinct and different from anyone else on earth! God does not make trashy stuff. When I finally started believing God at His word, I began having confidence in Him and began using the gifts and talents He gave me. I now am a public speaker that God is using to help people come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. If I would have continued to believe the lies of the devil about my voice, I might never have stepped into all that God desired of me. Will you start to believe that God created you unique and special and that He is pleased with who He made you? You are not an accident, but were handcrafted by the Creator of the universe. He loves you, believes in you, and wants you to understand your value and your worth in His eyes! He is pleased with who He made You.

God Wants You To Hear From Him - Are You Listening?

God has an amazing plan for your life, but sometimes we fail to hear His voice and follow him. Cory shares some very practical ways in which we as Christians can hear from God and live out our God-given Destiny!

God Wants You To Hear From Him - Are You Listening? Part 3
God Wants You To Hear From Him - Are You Listening? Part 4

Is Your Worship Real Worship To God?

I had the amazing privilege of worshiping God with thousands of other people at a Christian worship concert this past week. It was truly an amazing experience listening to everyone’s voices and watching people raise their hands to the Living God. It is so amazing that we can worship God with an outward expression. However, just because we worship God outwardly with voices raised and hands held high doesn’t mean our worship is pleasing to God. He wants so much more from His people. The Bible says in

Matthew 15:1-9, “Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.” Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”

Jesus was saying that the Pharisees put a higher regard for their religious rules rather than obeying God’s word and following His heart. God said through the prophet that they gave God lip service, but really did not have concern for what God thought was important! Again the Bible says in

Matthew 15:18-20a, “But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you.”

God looks at the heart and sees what man is really thinking and the motives behind the actions. We can put on a show for others and look spiritual on the outside, but God looks beyond appearance and knows our true intentions and the way we live our lives the other six days of the week.

For many years of my Christian life I gave God lip service, but my heart was far from His heart. I struggled with pornography, unforgiveness toward several people who had hurt me, lying, cheating, slander and talking bad about people behind their back, selfishness and insecurities.  The list could go on. I was a mess on the inside, but failed to realize that God was concerned with my very thoughts and my inner man.

I remember when I was in high school; I went to a Christian school and took a trigonometry class. I had to do well in it because I had a very good GPA and I did not want it to go down. We graded our own homework assignments much of the time and being the spiritual giant I was, I cheated on several of my assignments to get a better grade. Now, at the time, I tried to convince myself that I meant to put the right answer and reasoned through why it was acceptable for me to cheat. However, deep in my heart I knew it was wrong. Then I would go and worship God on Sunday morning or in chapel and let everyone know I was a great Christian man. One day at school, the trigonometry teacher taught a devotion for our whole class and he talked about how a young man cheated in his class several years earlier. God did a deep work in the young man and he felt a conviction from the Holy Spirit to go back to the teacher and ask for forgiveness for what he had done. Well, the Holy Spirit convicted me for months and months afterwards, but I refused to obey God for fear of not getting a good grade. Years went by and God finally softened my heart to His leading in college. Every time I came home from school, God would remind me to go back to this teacher and ask for forgiveness for cheating in his class. I finally mustard up enough courage to obey God and go make it right. I went into the school and had lunch with my younger brother and afterward ran into my old trigonometry teacher. I told him what God was doing in my life and how He kept asking me to come to him and ask for forgiveness for cheating in his class. My old teacher said, “You are totally forgiven and God can forgive any sin.” I went away from the school on cloud nine because I walked in obedience to God and made things right with my teacher! When I got back to my car, there was a song on the radio that said, “How good it is to be forgiven of your sin.” I began praising and worshiping God and I knew that my worship was acceptable and honoring to Him because I was willing to do what He asked of me. A heart that is open to His leading is a heart that truly worships God. The Bible says in

Isaiah 1:16-19, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes! Cease to do evil, Learn to do right! Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;”

When we do the things that are pleasing to Him and not just follow a bunch of religious rules, we bring pleasure to His heart and our righteousness will break forth like the morning! As we learn God’s ways and walk in obedience to Him, He will lead our lives down such a rewarding path. Is God tugging at your heart? Are there areas of your life that He wants you to deal with? It could be unforgiveness toward a loved one or friend, an unhealthy sexual lifestyle, gossip and slander toward an individual or church. Maybe it is spending more time with Him, helping your neighbor across the street or stepping out to go on a missions trip? You might be in a place where I was for many years; going through the motions, but not really connected to God. In humility ask God to forgive you for your past indifference and to help you live a life fully devoted to Him. My prayer is that you obey the convictions of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to guide you to a place of victory. True worshipers of God honor and please Him and do not just give Him lip service. Take it from me. When you do it God’s way, life is truly worth living!

My Second Published Article by The Good News

Have you ever wondered if God could forgive you of your past mistakes or somehow turn your failures around and use them for good?  Do you feel like you are washed up and beyond God's grace to repair and restore your life?  Read my second published article for the Good News newspaper: Broken But Not Destroyed.  Once you click on the link, my article is on page 17 of the newspaper.

Broken But Not Destroyed

A Healing Hand

I had been given a significant leadership role at a certain church I attended and over time, felt like God was asking me to move on from there. My role at this church was an administrative/ logistical position which involved overseeing setup and teardown for Sunday services and special events and making sure volunteers got plugged into the right ministry area. It was great.  However, as time went on, I felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit to take steps toward the dream God had put in my heart, which was communicating the challenges God has brought me through to help set His people free.  This desire would not leave me, but kept growing.  Then this Bible passage jumped off the pages at me,

Acts 6:1-4 (New International Version) “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.’”

The apostles started getting bogged down with the day to day needs of the people, which in turn, interrupted sharing the word of God. To keep this from happening they chose other qualified leaders to meet the hospitality needs so they could spend their time and energy teaching. God showed me that He wanted me to share the Word of God with people and let go of my current responsibilities because they were keeping me from doing God’s will for my life. I approached the pastor and told him what I believed God was asking me to do and he didn’t agree with how I was handling the situation. Misunderstanding happened and both the pastor and I were hurt as well as many people from the church. It was a difficult situation. I ended up moving in the direction I believed God asked me to go and many great doors of opportunity started to open. It was neat to see the hand of God working. The whole next year, I experience a couple circumstances that resembled the situation I went through from my previous church, except I was in the same position that my old pastor was in. I experienced such hurt and pain from some individuals that left my current church. They once were really involved and then for some reason disagreed with the way we did things and the next thing you know they left the church and tried to take many people with them. They talked behind our backs and said nasty things that were not completely true…half truths. For the first time, I realized that I was not the only one that was hurt when I left my previous church. My old pastor and many people from his church were hurt too, but I failed to see they were hurting because I saw through my own lens. It was not an accurate depiction of the truth. It was distorted and I only saw from my vantage point. God allowed me to experience a similar situation from my old pastor’s perspective so that I could understand how he felt when I left his church. I told my side of the story to others and it was not completely accurate. I am thankful that God in His infinite wisdom allowed me to go through these trials so that I could have compassion on hurting people and learn to show mercy. After all, God extended it to me! The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:8 (Amplified Bible), “Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and [a]disregards the offenses of others]. I no longer was upset with him, but actually wanted him to succeed and be all that God wanted him to be. I extended a hand of mercy because I realized he was not perfect just like I was not perfect. God put on my heart to write my old pastor a letter apologizing for how I handled the situation. Admitting I was wrong and accepting personal responsibility for my actions brought a bridge of reconciliation for the future. If we can look beyond offenses and see the good in people just think of how different our world would look. Let’s give people the benefit of the doubt and not be so judgmental or critical of them. Give them room to make some mistakes! The Bible is filled with imperfect people doing extraordinary things for God.

Can you admit when you are wrong? Do you find yourself upset with a loved one, a coworker, spouse or a friend for a suffered wrong? Ask God to help you see from His perspective instead of yours. Your point of view just might need some tweaking!  I am grateful He brought balance to my viewpoint because I can now offer a healing hand of wisdom and show compassion for others who face similar circumstances. 

Can You Submit And Let God Promote You?

Several years ago, I was asked to lead a post-college singles ministry at a church I attended.  I was so grateful for the opportunity because it had been in my heart for several years prior to this, but God had not opened the door until the perfect time.  It was also in my heart to lead the college age ministry, but I was not asked to do this.  So, I led the post-college singles ministry with all my might.  It was going great.  People were getting involved and several individuals connected with the vision I had for the ministry.  One particular person and I really gelled together.  We had met many times and he embraced this ministry and wanted to pour his life into it.  I was so excited.  In one of the discussions we had, he told me how old he was and it surprised me because he was actually college age and not post-college age.  This meant he should really be in the collage age ministry and not the post college ministry even though he believed in what I was doing.  Well, I felt a conviction from God to tell the college age pastor about this.  I really wrestled with it because I felt like I had invested so much time and energy into this person and I knew I risked losing him to another ministry.  However, I could not shake this inner conviction from God.  I eventually went to the college pastor and discussed the situation and he told me that this person could come to my stuff as long as he came to all the college age functions.  I was upset, but I knew that real submission to authority happens when I disagreed with something, but come under the authority structure of that particular church.  In humility and real faith, I gave the situation to God and I told my buddy the scoop.  He didn’t take it the way I thought he would and for some reason left the church and I never heard from him again.  I was disappointed on one level, but grateful I obeyed God and did the right thing.  One week later, the college pastor told me to come into the church office and he basically said he had too much on his plate.  He was leading youth, the worship team and the college ministry at church and it began to overwhelm him.  He asked if I wanted to take over the college ministry and combine the two ministries into one.  I totally was blown away at how God gave me the desires in my heart when I submitted to the way He wanted me to do it.  I learned a huge lesson that day.  Obedience to God and learning to come under authority is key to helping me step into my destiny! 

David was anointed to be king of Israel by the Prophet Samuel, but served for many years under the current King Saul, who was jealous of him.  Saul’s jealousy caused him to want to bring great harm to David and eventually David fled from Saul into the wilderness for many years.  On two different occasions, David could have killed Saul but said this:

“He (David) said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the LORD” (1 Samuel 24:6).

David knew that authority came from God and that God would ultimately vindicate him from Saul.  David did not try and take things into his own hands, but entrusted the situation to God and allowed God to work on his behalf.  Ultimately, God dealt with Saul and David became King.  It was in God’s timing and God’s way.  How often do we try and get what we want when life does not go the way we think it should.  It happens all the time in church life and relationships.  We try to manipulate others to get our way or we try to override authority that God has put in place and justify our actions.  Do you find yourself in a situation like this?  Learn from David.  He did not go around criticizing Saul, but spoke well of him, even when Saul was mistreating him.  When Saul was killed in battle, David was grieved over him.  The Bible says in 2 Samuel 1:11-12 (NIV), “Then David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore them. They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.”  David’s response showed that he did not have any ill will toward Saul, but chose to forgive him.  He did not let offense or unforgiveness creep in and poison his heart and lead him to do wrong things in God’s sight.  Love covers a multitude of sin.  The Bible says, “Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it” Ephesians 4:29 (Amplified Bible).  When we learn to entrust people to God and live in obedience to God’s ways, we can get promoted into all the good things God has for us.  But, if we take matters into our own hands and refuse to learn to do things God’s way, we will live far below God’s best.  I had to learn to not gossip about the way I thought things should be when I came into disagreement with leadership or others.  I learned that God is big enough to change the hearts of men in my favor if that is really His plan.  And He did!  Can you trust Him too?  Can you submit and let God promote you? 

White As Snow

A couple of weeks ago, it was my responsibility to put out direction signs for my church’s Sunday morning service.  It had just snowed the night before and I was driving to put the signs in the correct locations when God dropped something into my heart.  I happened to be admiring all the freshly fallen snow that had completely covered the ground and God whispered in the silence of the moment, “I have covered all your mistakes and failures and see you as white as snow.”  The Bible says in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. In essence, God was saying, because I had placed my trust and confidence in Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross, God sees me as if I had never sinned.  God has covered my mistakes with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Jesus lived a sinless life on earth and died a horrible death on a cross to take the place of the consequences of my sin.  Then He rose from the dead conquering the power sin had over my life.  The Bible says, “Well then, as one man's trespass [one man's false step and falling away led] to condemnation for all men, so one Man's act of righteousness [leads] to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all men.  For just as by one man's disobedience (failing to hear, [a]heedlessness, and carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man's obedience the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him).  But then Law came in, [only] to expand and increase the trespass [making it more apparent and exciting opposition]. But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God's unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded, so that, [just] as sin has reigned in death, [so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord” Romans 5:18-21 (Amplified Bible).  I cannot earn a right relationship with God nor can I be good enough.  I simply need to believe that Jesus’ death and resurrection paid the price for my sin and allowed me to come near a Holy God and experience His presence, love and acceptance! 

Again the Bible says, “For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]” Hebrews 4:15-16 (Amplified Bible). 

Do you find yourself struggling to forgive yourself for past mistakes?  Or are you having trouble letting go of an offense of someone that has hurt you?  Maybe you believe that God could forgive someone else, but you have made one too many mistakes to enter into God’s presence and feel His loving arms of acceptance.  When you place your trust in Jesus Christ, God takes away your sin as far as the east is from the west and looks at you as if you were white as snow!  You can come boldly to Him in prayer because of what He did for you.  Receive His forgiveness.  As you experience His unconditional love, extend it to others who do not deserve it either.  I pray that God will give you the strength and power to overcome any obstacle in the way of His best for your life and that you truly understand your worth and value to God.  He paid a huge price to set you free.  Will you invite Jesus into your life and experience freedom from sin and a right relationship with God?  Will you BELIEVE that what He did for you is enough?  Will you walk it out?