Jeff Johnston

I think it’s pretty safe to say that human beings have a difficulty of understanding spiritual things.

We are physical beings living in a physical dimension, with physical senses. Most of our daily choices are made following a physical response. Our belly is empty, and we eat. Our eyes are heavy, and we sleep. Our skin is shivering, and we ask our spouse to not sneak their hand in the shower and turn the handle to COLD.

Yet somewhere inside of our physical beings is a spiritual existence… one that is not mortal, but eternal. Our bodies pass away. Our spirits do not.

We are at somewhat of a disadvantage because it seems as though our spiritual senses are a lot less obvious than our physical ones, and we miss out on opportunities and moments to live and grow in this spiritual dimension. Because we’re not living in as much of a spiritual ‘awareness’, we’re prone to misperceive spiritual things, and end up with some distorted views of God and His nature.

No scripture captures this thought like Isaiah 53 does (in the Message version);

“Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.”

This is a prophetic description, and a realistic one, of how the world – of how WE – would have the ability to misunderstand Jesus. Scrawny. Looked down. Passed over. Unattractive. Scum.

More proof of this lies later in the passage, where it reads: ‘WE THOUGHT he brought it on himself…’  How true of us is this statement – that we would form a negative opinion about Jesus based on a lack of information, and even a negative experience of our own or someone we know.

I’ve heard the modern version of Isaiah 53 many times. God is remote. Distant. A cosmic kill-joy. Cruel (bad things happen to good people). Pluralistic and approachable in a hundred different ways. Unworthy of my attention or my devotion. Doesn’t this negative tone sound just like the prophecy in Isaiah 53?

There is hope. Of course, we would have to be willing to soften our stance and let go of the negative distortions we have towards God. But, if we’re open enough to do this, then something changes. We experience His love. We are captured by His grace. We realize how wrong we really were in the beginning, and that He is much more real and loving then we ever thought. We’re ready to go to that next place of surrender.

I hope He is OK with that. I hope that I could change. I hope that He is patient enough with me, as I work through my own distortions of Him, and walk in a new level of awareness to His amazing grace and magnificent love for me.

I hope that you hope so too.

JJ

Have you ever had a negative perception of someone else before? Ever had that imaginary discussion with them while they were simply going about their life, and doing whatever it is they do? It feels like they’re sandpaper to you – rubbing you the wrong way in every personal exchange, and grinding you down to your last nerve.

If you answered yes, then you are like the rest of us. You struggle at times with boxing someone in to some negative stereotypes, and they probably don’t ever have a fighting chance of getting out.

Staying on this thought begs another important question: Have you ever thought about the way others may perceive you? Have you ever wondered if there’s someone else in this world who is harboring negative feelings towards you because of something you did – or even worse – something they perceived you did?

Though we may be so quick to believe that we aren’t in the wrong, and defend our position vehemently, we have still offended. We would probably be mortified to learn of all the negative perceptions others are holding us in.  And this is a sobering thought to meditate on when we start thinking this way towards others.

I’ve realized that there are a couple major reasons why we end up in this ordeal of putting others into this ‘trap’. And they both trace back to a problem that is actually related more to our own existence that someone else’s.

The first issue is when we end up seeing ourselves SMALLER than we actually are – struggling with a shattered self confidence and a deflated ego.  We end up beating others down mentally and verbally to compensate for our own weaknesses.

The second issue is when we see ourselves BIGGER than we actually are – peaking in pride and floating along on an inflated ego. I’ve heard it said that anyone who’s wrapped up in themselves is a pretty small package. How true. In this condition, we tend to beat others down to agree with our own ego.

In both instances, others suffer – all because we haven’t got our own junk worked out. This is a sad story, indeed.

The scriptures speak towards this kind of thing in PHILLIPIANS 2:1-4;

“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

To consider others better than ourselves is a pretty tough order to fill. We spend our lives looking after ourselves. Our needs. Our desires. Our schedules. Our reputations. Our bodies. Our futures. We’re wired to look out for ‘numero uno’, and yet this upside-down kingdom kind of command is ringing out to us all – you are NOT first. Others are now first.

Not sure if it can get any clearer than that.

Many times, considering others just means getting to know their story. Their heart. Their background. Their hurts. Their needs. Once we’re aware of these things, we’re able to gain a whole new perspective, and a lot less likely to hold a negative, distorted perception of them in our hearts.

Go ahead. Put someone first. Do it today. I dare you.

JJ

Have you ever planted a seed with high hopes of it turning into something great? Something admirable? Something valuable?

Maybe you’re a fanatic of dark green lawns that carry carpet-like qualities, and you’re anticipating the grass seed you’ve recently laid down to come up and provoke your neighbours to jealousy. Maybe you planted vegetable seeds (indoors) back in February and you’re excited about the bumper crop that will come out of your efforts. Maybe you love Chia pets, and have fond memories of developing many great specimens of their kind!

Regardless of how it all looks, when we invest our time and efforts into planting a seed, we hope for a great result to come from it.

On the other hand, when that seed fails, it leaves us disappointed.  We are fully aware that there could have been so much ‘fruit’ that could have come out of it.

But nothing ever did, and we lament all that lost potential.

In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus shared a story with the crowds about the farmer sowing his seeds along the path, on the rocks, among the thorns, and in the good soil.  I’m sure that the farmer had a lot of epxectations for those plantings.

But three out of four of them failed.  And the failures came as a result of the poor conditions of the locations of the plantings. This rings true to the fact that it’s usually not an issue of the seed being sterile or useless – it’s about the environment it is placed in.

In Part II of this entry, I will dive into Matthew 13, and talk a little more about those environments, and how they negatively affected, or even robbed those seeds of their potential. Through that, my heart is that the Lord would have something powerful to reveal to each one of us about the seeds He desires to bring to maturity in us!

What do YOU think are some of the prohibiting factors that prevent God’s best from coming to fruition in our lives?

JJ

In Numbers chapter 13, we read a powerful example of God’s people selling themselves short – a character trait that seems to be just as prevalent today as it has ever been. Here’s a short excerpt from that passage to get the ball rolling on this:

“And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.  We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

To give you a really quick synopsis of what’s going on here, I’ll let you know that Moses had sent 12 spies into Canaan to scope out the land they were called to possess. The cities. The people. The land. The fruit. After 40 days of looking around, they came back with their report that you saw above.

The people are too strong for us. The cities are too fortified for us. Our opposition is too big. We are too small. We are not able. Then they said something I want to key in on:

“we SEEMED like grasshoppers in our own eyes…”

Their negative thinking led to a bad report, and their bad report BECAME THEIR REALITY. It challenged their identity in God, and it changed what they believed His destiny for their lives was. All because their enemy SEEMED a lot bigger than they did.

Have you ever fallen prey to the enemy’s spell of ’seeming like’ something you actually aren’t? Seeming a lot smaller than you really were? A lot less significant? A lot less worthy? A lot less capable? This is exactly where the enemy of our souls wants us to exist. Fear. Doubt. Trepidation. A defeated spirit.

And it’s all lies too.

JOHN 8:44 tells us “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

That’s right. His native language is lies, and he is the father (creator) of such things.

Proverbs tells us something powerful about all of this in chapter 27 – “As a man thinks in his heart… SO IS HE”.  In other words, the view in which we see ourselves, will eventually become our reality.  If we think we are small, we will live small. If we think we are defeated, then we are defeated.

Biblically speaking, right thinking leads to right living, and it all begins with the perceptions we have of ourselves.

In one sense, we are the architects of our own lives, and we are responsible to protect the beautiful creations of God we truly are by demolishing every thought that sets itself up against the truth of God in us (2 Cor 10:5).

Let’s do this with every distorted thought we have of ourselves, and release the greatness of God inside of us.

JJ

I asked myself a funny question this week:

What was life like B.G. (BEFORE GOOGLE)?

I was thinking about this, because it seems as though Google has become a regular part of our everyday lives.  Some might argue that Facebook could boast of the same accomplishments, but I feel that Google plays a much more useful role than Facebook.

This week alone it helped me change headlight, find directions to a hockey arena my summer league plays at, make plans for a job fair our church is looking at hosting for our community, discover generally accepted vacation policies and even find a picture of an angry garden gnome.  All happened quite quickly too – fetching me something like 9,370,000 results in 0.27 seconds!

When everyone else is burning time surfing around Facebook, here are a few cool tips you might not have known about the big functionality of the little Google search box:

1. Get Weather updates. You can get weather reports by typing: ‘weather’ and then the Canadian postal code (NO hyphens) or USA zip code in question. Example: weather L8E6G1.

2. Track flight status. Enter the airline and flight number into the Google search box and get back the arrival and departure times right inside Google’s search results.

3. Convert currency, temperature, metrics and more. Google’s powerful built-in converter calculator can help you out whether you’re cooking dinner, traveling abroad, or building a PC. Find out how many teaspoons are in a quarter cup (quarter cup in teaspoons) or how many seconds there are in a year (seconds in a year) or how many Canadian dollars there are to five dollars (5 USD in CAD). For the geekier set, bits in kilobytes (155473 bytes in kilobytes) is also pretty useful.

4. Shipment tracking. You can Google tracking numbers for UPS, FedEx, and others just by entering the number (e.g. 1Z14662R0340419XXX). This avoids going through the log in and hassle of the individual shipping company site.

5. Get movie showing times in your local area. Just type in “movie times’ and your Canadian postal code (NO hyphens), or USA zip code. VOILA!

6. What time is it anywhere in the world? Ask Google. Enter simply enter ‘time’ and the name of the city to get the local time in big cities around the world.

Nothing much life-changing… but just a few fun tips today!

JJ

OK, so I came across this crazy contest… and wanted to share it with you:

Someone over at www.tenandwin.com is rattled over the fact that Americans can easily name 10 celebrities, 10 sports teams – even 10 beers, but there’s a collective “DUH” when those same people are asked to cite the Ten Commandments.

To bring some positive change, he and his wife decided to do “something a little crazy.” They are taking $20,000 of their own money and giving it away as a prize to the first person who, on Monday, October 26, answers his random telephone calls and can recite the Ten Commandments – in order – in 20 seconds or less.

Watch for how it all goes down and the heart behind it here:

There’s a verse that’s been on my heart today:

Habakkuk 3:2 – ‘LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known…’

So I went into some old journals… pouring over writings of my own hand and heart from over 10 years ago.  Writings from the beginnings of my marriage. The beginnings of my call to ministry. Victories. Defeats. Mountain tops. Valleys. Encouraged. Discouraged. A lot of ups and some downs too.

But one thing remained constant – God’s faithfulness.

I was never abandoned. Never buried. Never destroyed. Emotionally, I might have felt that way – but I never turned out that way.

I am SO encouraged today. I have heard again of His fame. I stand in awe of His deeds.

Now I pray – renew them. In my day LORD… in my time, make them known.

JJ.

INTERRUPTIONS.

When they come into our lives, we usually don’t like it much.

An unexpected traffic jam on the way to the office. A meaningful conversation cut short by something mundane. A cell phone rings in the theatre or church sanctuary, and your focus is broken. A beggar standing at the intersection asks you to dig into your pockets for change before the light turns green. A last minute task keeps you from leaving work on time.

Interruptions disrupt our plans, and upset our routines. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and are unwelcome events that we quickly brush off as an inconvenience. We are bothered and annoyed when things don’t go our way. When life throws us a curve ball, we pout and complain. I’ve recently thrown myself a few all out self-pity parties when MY way was not going to be THE way.

Yet, I wonder how many of the“irritating” interruptions that flash into our lives could actually be opportunities that God is placing before us to exist in a new level of His purpose and blessing. I know it’s hard to embrace these interruptions, but consider this – everything happens for a reason… even when that reason is still unknown to us.

Think about how many times in the Scriptures where God was behind the unexpected interruptions that invaded people‘s lives. Mary’s wedding plans crashed by her ‘immaculate’ conception. Saul’s journey to persecute Christians in Damascus was ended early by an encounter with Jesus. Even Jesus Himself performed many miracles after His agenda was officially ‘interrupted’ by the loud-mouthed blind, beggars and other needy people.

I think there is something to be gained when we change our own perspective, and open ourselves up a little more to the divine ‘interruptions’ that come our way. When we let go of our tight-fisted clench of how WE think our daily lives should unfold, we are more apt to see things as God wants us to, and respond accordingly.

Though we (hopefully) may never encounter some of the major interruptions we see in the scriptures, I still believe there are many other meaningful ones lurking out there for us to discover in our daily lives. Opportunities to serve or help someone in need. Catching a glimpse into the profound heart of God. Hearing His voice that’s speaking towards a need for us to change the way we live.

But if we shun these interruptions, we lose out on the gems that are hidden within. Like a Saviour being born. Like a mighty Apostle parading the Gospel everywhere he can. Like Blind Bartimaeus receiving his sight.

What gems are lying in wait within our distractions today?

JJ

:: I DON’T KNOW ::

It strikes me how much we say things like:

‘I don’t know what…’
‘I don’t know how…’
‘I don’t know when…’

What I find ironic is that we tend to say this most when we actually DO know what, how, when – but are most reluctant to actually do such things.

Over the last 11 years of full-time ministry, what I’ve seen most is that we say things like “I just don’t know what to do about it”, when actually, we just don’t want to do something about it.

It’s not actually a matter of us not ‘knowing’, but rather not ‘wanting’. Not wanting to be free. Not wanting to forgive. Not wanting to change. Not wanting to do the hard thing.

Have you ever been in this position before?  Maybe you’re facing something like this now…

I would love to hear from some of you out there, and your thoughts on why it’s so hard to do the tough thing.

JJ