What Does a White Polar Bear Have To Do With Victory In Jesus?

In the message I delivered this past week in the 10:55am Contemporary Service, one of the concepts I taught on was being aware of the things that anger and/or attract you. Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount about anger and attraction gets to the heart of placing things in life above our relationship with GOD. And the cold hard truth is that when we allow something to consume and dominate our hearts and minds, we allow that thing(s) to become a god in our lives. The temptation to allow these angering and attracting people, places, and things to dominate us is very real, and we must claim victory over them.

I ran across an interesting story during my quiet time earlier this week about the time when Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian novelist, was a boy, he reportedly started The White Polar Bear Club with two of his friends. In order to become a member, you had to stand in the corner and for thirty consecutive minutes not think of a white polar bear.

Have you ever tried to intentionally not think about something? The more you think about not thinking about it, the more impossible it is to keep it out of your mind! Yet, this is how we handle temptation; when it comes, we try as hard as we can to not to think about it: If I just don't think about it, then I'll have victory over this temptation

Victory over temptation (anger and attraction) is attainable, my friends! As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15.57-58: "…thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." As you face all kinds of temptations, burdens, stresses, struggles, and strain, know you have already achieved victory in Jesus Christ! Pray to GOD, invite His Holy Spirit into your life, and know beyond the shadow of a doubt that GOD is for you and has a purpose for your life.

(This blog comes from the weekly email sent out from Cokes Chapel UMC.
It was inspired by Jon Walker's daily Grace Creates devotion from 2/16/11.)

Happy Groundhog Day!

I must confess, I always found Groundhog Day to be a little silly. Even the most expensive computers and highly trained meteorologists have a hard enough time knowing what the weather will do tomorrow, so I don’t put much stock in what a groundhog thinks will happen in a couple months. Regardless, Groundhog Day has taken on somewhat of a different meaning in our culture the last several years thanks to the 1993 Bill Murray movie. If you aren’t familiar, with the movie, it is about a weather man who is reluctantly sent to cover a story about a weather forecasting "rat" (as he calls it). This is his fourth year on the story, and he makes no effort to hide his frustration. On awaking the 'following' day he discovers that it's Groundhog Day again, and again, and again. First he uses this to his advantage before coming to the realization that he is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place, seeing the same people do the same thing EVERY day.

It might just be a humorous fictional movie, but there is a lesson in it for us. All the time we see people doing the same thing over, and over, and over again, reminding us of the old definition of insanity – repeating the same behaviors and expecting results. Some might think doing something new is impossible, but the Bible tells us that with GOD all things are possible (Matthew 19.26)! On this Groundhog Day, think about how you might be able to do something NEW for GOD thanks to the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Revelation 21.5 tells us that GOD makes all things new, so let Him begin today with you! Open up your heart to receive the Lord’s invitation to follow and believe!!!

(This blog was written for our church's weekly email)