Tag Archives: Christianity

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #3 – A Son And An Eternal Brother

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Week 3 of 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness - A Son and Eternal Brother

In week 3 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks to God for a son and an eternal brother.

Marriage by the law gained me someone as dear as a son to me, my nephew, Devin Mabry, the son of my sister-in-law Gloria Harris.

Marriage to Christ by faith through the covenant of His blood has gained me a beloved and eternal brother, because Devin is now the son of God, the Father of our Lord and elder brother Jesus Christ.

He was just baptized.

Another brother, Jimmy Gant, said during a gathering, that the only thing you can take from this life to heaven is your loved ones.

I cannot express the deep gladness I have in knowing I will have someone so dear to me as Devin Mabry in this life and in the one to come.

Such joy is in my heart, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

Welcome, brother Devin.

I’m grateful.

#52WoG

How Will It Handle The Storm?

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Not too long ago, Melissa and I bought a house.

We looked for a while and at many houses.

Then we found it.

We were drawn to it by its curb appeal, the large windows, and the high ceilings.

We were so enamored by the way it looked that we didn’t notice (or at least, didn’t want to notice) the obvious red flags -the very things that made it beautiful: the large windows, the high ceilings, but most notably, the fifteen year old A/C unit in a thirteen year old house.

And now, here we are, on one of the coldest days on record, in a house that is seemingly impossible to get warm.

The temperatures are in single digits. It’s too cold for the heating pump, in what we’ve since learned is in an air conditioner unit that is too small for our house, to efficiently operate.

The heat runs non-stop to the point that the fan fails.

The auxiliary heat kicks in but is struggling to warm the house because, yet again, it is underpowered for our square footage.

So, here we are, in a beautiful house, miserable and freezing.

I’m talking about life.

We pursue the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. We set our hopes and hearts on the superficial, things that will ultimately fail and leave us exposed to the cruel and bitter elements.

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: “and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: “and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
—Matthew 7:24-27

We go about life, picking and choosing what we will do and what we will believe based on what seems good to us.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”
—Proverbs 14:12

We give heed to and prop up the rich and famous as our guides, scratching and clawing after fame and wealth thinking it will make us happy.

“But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
—James 1:14-17

But something that suffering in a beautiful house that failed to protect me from the cold has taught me is, there’s a much better question to ask about my heart’s pursuits than “Will it make me happy?”

The better question is: “How well well it handle the storm?”

I’ve faced some soul crushing challenges in my life, I’m dealing with one now, but what I can say wholeheartedly is, since believing and following Jesus, I’ve never been left out in the cold. I have been able to carry on, to be at peace and have joy inside regardless of the storm raging outside.

“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”
—2 Corinthians 4:8-10

And, beyond this life, there’s a storm that’s coming. Scripture refers to it as The Great And Terrible Day.

Despite the grim and blood-curdling horrors of human history, the destruction and suffering of the full outpouring of God’s wrath against unrighteousness, the evil that corrupts His creation —everything that ails us, will be unimaginable.

The question is, how will what you’ve set your heart on handle that storm?

Find sure shelter for this life and beyond it.

Believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved!

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress;

My God, in Him I will trust.'”
—Psalm 91:1-2

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
The righteous run to it and are safe.”
—Proverbs 18:10

Prayer For My Offender Heals Me Too

Imagine bringing Jesus someone’s sickness of the body the way we accuse and think about someone’s sickness of the heart.

Me: Lord, they’re blind, they can’t walk, they’re sick.

Jesus: I can heal them.

Me: Lord, they’re selfish, unloving and petty.

Jesus: I can heal them.

And, that’s all a heart after His wants.

“For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.”
—Luke 9:56

That is why our Lord tells us to pray rather than condemn.

“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you”
—Matthew 5:44

Because, prayer for my offender aligns my heart with His.

“that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
—Matthew 5:45,48

Prayer for my offender guards my heart from the demonic attack that the evil one is attempting to bring through the offense of another.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
—Philippians 4:6-7

And prayer for my offender protects my heart from the root of bitterness the enemy is trying to implant.

“Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.”
—Proverbs 4:23

“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;”
—Hebrews 12:14-15

Prayer changes the trajectory of a thought.

It not only fosters patience, long-suffering and kindness for another (fruit of the Spirit).

It heals me too.

Motivation

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Motivation

This is about motivation.

Lately, there have been some days where it has been harder to get up than others.

It reminds me of a time when I was completely without motivation, when I had little desire to do anything and it felt like I had to lift the weight of the world just to get out of bed each day.

Then a switch flipped for me.

The turning point was anger.

One day I lost a lunch break just trying to decide what to eat. I wasted an entire hour brooding over what I had a taste for. There was this unhealthy obsession about what meal would please me the most. I would later realize that what I was really doing was looking for how food could provide enough good to makeup for how bad I was feeling elsewhere in my life, the sadness about my failures, about not measuring up, about not getting ahead, about my marriage…

In the beginning food was a salve. It could make me feel better for a little while. But it’s effect was diminishing to a point where the grief was too great for any amount of titillating tastes, perfect textures, soothing chewing or sheer volume of food to overcome.

On that lunch break I came to terms with the reality that food could not fill the hole in my heart.

Food could not make my life good.

And the Sisyphean task of getting up each morning was my subconscious realization that I was trapped in a cycle of futility. I was being compelled to spend great amounts of time and effort to do things that did not profit me.

I was enslaved.

That infuriated me.

This was my motivation.

I hated the idea of something having that kind of power over me.

The next day, I started eating the same kind of Subway sandwich every day to take thinking about what I was going to eat out of the equation.

The next month, I started and completed the P90X program that my wife bought me, twice.

Six months after that, I started going to the gym and have maintained that routine since then – for 15 years now at the time this was written.

But, it wasn’t a straight line. There were periods of relapse because there was flaws in my motivation. And, I have since realized that it’s easy to trade one tyrant for another.

There was a period that I became religious about what I ate and going to the gym. I still struggle with that to some extent, but I have embraced this truth:

Going to the gym and eating healthy cannot fill the hole in my heart.

Going to the gym and eating healthy cannot make my life good.

“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not profitable.

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”
—1 Corinthians 6:12

There’s a near infinite number of things you can insert in that sentence, “X cannot fill the hole in my heart. X cannot make my life good.” Sex, food, alcohol, money, success, friends, children, church…

But, I have found the One who can fill the hole in my heart. I have found the One who can make my life good.

My experience is that whatever is truly good, is always so -it’s good all the time and for everyone everywhere it is experienced (it’s good even for those who are not the primary participants but are affected by it’s secondhand downstream effects).

Good is alive, life giving, growing, unable to be contained, overflowing the deep expanses of my heart.

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
—James 1:16-17

I have also found that anger is not a sufficient or sustainable source of motivation. Whatever is burning at the heart of that fire, whatever is fueling that anger will be eventually spent.

This is true for a lot of sources of motivation. I once got a full scholarship because I was motivated (pride, stubbornness) by someone telling me I couldn’t. It was sufficient motivation to get me to school but was not enough to get me through school or through the challenges life presented me at the time.

But, “love never fails…”
—1 Corinthians 13:8

My encounter with the love of God expressed in the person of Jesus Christ changed everything. It is changing everything.

I was utterly enslaved, hurting others and being hurt, ignorant of my bondage and without strength to do anything about it.

But since I met Jesus and the Holy Spirit has revealed Him as Lord, I am being set free.

Bit by bit, He’s marching through every corner of my heart, winning territory and tearing down strongholds, the lies, that block the life-giving love of God from shining on and through me.

It’s so good.

My appreciation of His love for me and consequently my love for Him, and you grows every day.

Now my motivation is to make Jesus King.

I am angry about the devastation that I see sin causes and I want people set free from the tyranny of the evil one and the lies of this world.

But above all, I am loved by God, I love Him and I want others to share this wonderful love that I’ve found. Or said more accurately, this wonderful Love that found me.

I want a world where Jesus reigns and He does what He’s doing for me as King.

He alone is worthy to rule.

I am His soldier to this end.

As a soldier, sometimes, when you’re in the trenches and you’ve been there for so long, your motivation can wane, you can forget the mission and lose sight of what you’re there for. I’m peeling potatoes, but I’m not actually peeling potatoes. Whatever job I’m doing is in support of the war effort -a war that ends with Jesus crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords, where there is no rule that rivals His and He returns all things to God that He may be all in all.

This is why I get up every morning. This is what I use everything at my disposal to achieve: my money, my home, my job, my relationships, my marriage, my life.

This is my motivation: to make Jesus King because I love Him. He is excellent and He rules well.

“Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.

For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

For ‘He has put all things under His feet.’

But when He says ‘all things are put under Him,’ it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted.

Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”
—1 Corinthians 15:24-28

Amen.

How My Children And Minecraft Taught Me The Only Thing That Matters

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - How My Children And Minecraft Taught Me The Only Thing That Matters

My children have taught me so much.

One of the greatest lessons of my life that I’m still learning came from playing with them a computer game called Minecraft.

Minecraft is like a digital version of the toy building blocks I grew up with as a kid called Legos. But, rather than building an object as you would with Legos, in Minecraft an entire world is generated on the computer that you can build and exist within.

It was a place you could both explore and shape to your vision with resources made available from within the game: wood, stone, metals, gems, crops, animals, etc.. You were only limited by your ambition, your imagination and your computer’s computational power.

We built grand houses and whole villages. We went on adventures spanning great distances across different biomes (green forests, snowy mountains, sandy beaches). We even built machines that automated processes such as harvesting animals into food. We explored and mined vast, dangerous caves to stock our chests with materials and priceless treasure to expand our builds or to use in our next adventure.

Among the heights of items sought after were enchanted diamond tools, weapons and armor. These items were coveted because if you had them, you could practically get anything else. I never achieved this feat, but my much more skilled boys did. It took exorbitant amounts of time, exploration, and great risk to collect all the items required.

We spent hours, sometimes days or weeks building or learning to build our Minecraft world. We even had our own private hosted server (before Microsoft Realms was available) called Blockhaven.

Today, we don’t know where any of that stuff is. The server has been shutdown. The great houses, territories, troves of diamonds, lapis lazuli, ender pearls, the wonderful inventions we worked so hard and invested real time (even real tears were shed) to achieve are all gone. Even many of the memories have faded away. But, the things that remain are the relationships we built and the closeness we developed. They are forever.

Therein is the lesson.

What we learn, what we do, what we achieve, what we build only matters to the extent of what it builds in and establishes with others.

What we build in and establish with others makes everything matter, whether we’re a potato peeler or a Nobel prize winning nuclear physicist. Without it, nothing matters whether we’re a potato peeler or a Nobel prize winning nuclear physicist.

One day, this server that we exist in will be shutdown.

Consider 2 Peter 3:11‭-‬12,

“Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?”

And, Hebrews 12:27,

“Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.”

But, for those in Christ, we focus on what cannot be shaken —the eternal.

“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.””
—2 Corinthians 4:18

What is eternal? What cannot be shaken? What can survive the fervent, purifying fire of the coming day of God?

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
—John 17:3

What is eternal, what cannot be shaken, what can survive the fervent, purifying fire of the day of God? Life —to be of the same kind of fire as the coming fire of the day of God, us being set ablaze by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ.

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
—John 1:4

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”
—1 John 4:17

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”
—Hebrews 12:28‭-‬29

The time you get to work does not matter,
That report does not matter,
That money does not matter,
That elite, grand achievement does not matter,
That world changing discovery or breakthrough does not matter in or of itself.
It only matters to the extent of how its done or how its used to build in and establishes with others something eternal.

This is why it is written in Colossians 3:23,
“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men”

Today, I implore us to believe Jesus so we can truly see what matters: what we build in and establish with others; the only thing that is eternal —relationships and closeness developed in Christ.

What Do You Do?

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - What Do You Do?

My job title doesn’t sound too shabby. Actually, I’m honored to do what I do professionally.

But, I’ve always found the question, “What do you do?” off-putting.

I hate it actually, and I’ve never really understood why, until now.

Ask a flower, or any living thing what it does and the answer is simple and profound, “It passes on life.”

When people ask this question, it’s largely a product of the plastic, manufactured system of this world.

And, when people ask, “What do you do?”, it’s though they’re sitting back waiting to calculate how much respect to give you as though your value is being assessed on the Dow Jones.

The question is essentially asking “What thing do you produce that might be of value to me according to this world’s value system?”

But, we’re not machines on a production line, we’re persons —we’re living things.

And, as with all living things, we’re part of a delicate ecosystem. Something that seems small and insignificant, such as the seemingly benign phytoplankton or the understated honey bee, would spell utter disaster for the entire world if they were loss.

God speaks of us as members of a body, a living thing, having placed each one of us purposefully, as He pleases:

“But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”
—1 Corinthians 12:18

And,

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
—1 Corinthians 12:20-22

So, we are not machines to produce dumb things to be sold and traded, but we are persons, living things created for a purpose: to pass on life.

And, what is life?

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
—John 17:3

So, the measure of my success is not in the things I produce.

Jesus said,

“Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
—Luke 12:15

But rather, the measure of my success is in the fruit I produce, life being passed along to others.

And to be clear, Christ is the vine. I am just a branch and can do nothing without Him.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
—John 15:4

So, when I’m asked “What do you do?”, I will respond with the answer to the better question, “How are you passing on life?”

And, my answer will be a description of however Jesus is producing beautiful life in me in that season, and how I’m sharing it.

I’m doing it now.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
—John 15:7‭-‬8

Prayer

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Prayer

Prayer is not talking in the air.

Prayer is spiritual.

Prayer is companionship with God

through communication,

“to open into each other” (etymology),

mediated by Jesus (as matter is to sound -without it nothing carries. He is The Way.)

and facilitated by the Holy Spirit (as language is to sound -without it no information is transferred. He is the Spirit of Truth).

God shares,

I share,

to be understood and to understand.

Prayer is sharing that builds on each other and illuminates the hearts.

The purpose is to be clear, to have no darkness at all -the truth in love removing every offense (anything that would cause me or another to stumble – lies block love), to be made one, so that I can walk according to His light, so that His light might shine through me.

“God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
—1 John 1:5

To this end, with full expectation,

I pray.

I speak to be seen.

I listen to see.

Because of Christ, God hears me.

Because of Christ, God is a Father to me and so speaks.

“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name…”
—Matthew 6:9

The Father’s speech is the pressing of the keys of the kingdom in our heart.

“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
—Matthew 16:19

The more we consume His Word -the person of Christ, the more we work with a full key-board when we pray and the closer, and consequently (God’s love burns away sin), the more clear we become

for His glory.

#prayer #definitions #heartdictionary #heartwords #perfectourlove

Complaining Is Evil

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Complaining Is Evil

Complaining is evil. It is thought and speech in service to the evil one.

Complaining weakens the hearer (I can even weaken myself from my own internal dialogue)

directing attention and energy

away from God

and to my dissatisfaction or displeasure.

Complaining is contempt for the reality I’m faced with while cowering from the responsibility to make it better.

Complaining shirks that responsibility and shifts it to another, often in the form of blame.

Complaining denies my duty to glorify God (by keeping Him central, maintaining attention on His goodness) and abandons my responsibility to represent the goodness of His kingdom order in every situation that I face.

“Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as [it is] in heaven.”
—Matthew 6:10, Luke 11:2

Complaining is cowardice.

And, no coward will be counted among the children of God.

“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
—Revelation 21:8

Believe Jesus. Repent and be saved.

#heartwords #heartdictionary

Complaining Is Weak

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Complaining Is Weak

God wants to glorify Himself through me.

But, the Spirit has revealed weakness in me that is not in Christ

that He must burn away

so that I am able to reflect His glory.

The Holy Spirit said to me, “You have a problem with complaining.”

It’s a weakness that hinders my use for God’s glory. I repent.

Something I do a lot in my internal dialogue is express contempt for a situation I’m facing and always saying what I don’t want to do.

Jesus never did that.

“Not My will, but Yours, be done.” —Luke 22:42

Jesus did not complain, even as He was being crucified.

“He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.”
—Isaiah 53:7

“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
—Philippians 2:8

He was not deterred by the difficulty of the situation.

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.”
—John 12:27

He did not try to shift the burden to another in the form of blame.

He didn’t concern Himself with who’s fault it was.

Jesus did not cower. He came. He confronted.

He committed Himself to the work of reconciliation. He focused on God and directed our attention to the kingdom of God and His righteousness and He set His hand to the task of bringing everything, all of creation back into God’s kingdom order, at any cost.

He put His hand to the plow and never looked back.

This is the man I want to be. This is the man I’m becoming, who God is making me.

He’s burning away the flesh, to reveal Christ that’s being formed in me, bit by bit.

I thank God for His love that both comforts my heart and burns away sin.

I confess my sin and submit to His scalpel.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” —1 John 1:9

I trust Him. He is faithful. He will finish the work.

“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete [it] until the day of Jesus Christ;” —Philippians 1:6

The work God is doing in me isn’t flashy, but it’s miraculous.

May God be glorified.

#GodsLoveBurns #perfectourlove

God’s Love Burns

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - God's Love Burns

We gush about the blessings and kindness of God’s love, but what about the change His love demands and causes?

Our God is a consuming fire.

His love burns.

It both warms the heart and burns aways sin.

If I’m not experiencing both, I’m not experiencing God’s love.

****

It would probably be better said, “His love ‘ignites’ the heart and burns away sin”, because we were completely dead before, we had nothing to warm.

It was for reason of our common understanding of the expression that I chose “warm the heart” as in the pleasant warmth often associated with being loved.

But His love is not just pleasant, it’s transformative. It creates new life in us and eviscerates the darkness of our former selves.

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
—John 1:4-5

****

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

“Little children, LET NO ONE DECEIVE YOU. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
—1 John 3:1-2, 7-9