Personal Environment: Building A Retreat!!

retreatGood Friday Morning Everyone!

So I left the house early yesterday morning and got home at 8:30pm… Emily had painted the walls and ceiling in the family room and everything was put back as if nothing had been touched. Very cool experience I must say… just like I walked out the door and came back in with a different color behind the pictures. She got rid of the BRIGHT yellow and went with a lighter, softer yellow. I love the colors she’s chosen for our house over the past year. It’s so HAPPY in here!

This reminds me of something I was taught at a business conference about 12 years ago. If you want to change your life, start by changing your environment! Eliminate the clutter… get some happy paint… hang inspirational art… play inspirational music… invite inspirational people. 

In a world filled with negativity, mediocrity, and dreamlessness… we have to take BOLD steps at securing our personal space. Our personal environment includes: our home, our bedroom, our office, our cars, our yard, and anywhere else we spend OUR TIME. Even though we can’t control what others do with their personal space, we CAN and SHOULD exercise authority over what we do with ours. We should make our space happy and inspirational. We should make it clean and uncluttered. We should create an environment that causes us to DREAM BIG and ACHIEVE BIG! One that gives us PEACE on stormy days!

Renovating your environment is not expensive! It does take a determined effort and an up front investment of TIME. It may require you coaching some of your friends and family about how to act in your PERSONAL ENVIRONMENT. You may have to post a few NO SMOKING SIGNS… or NO GOSSIPING, NO COMPLAINING, NO MOCKING, NO DESTRUCTIVE CONVERSATION… and whatever else you deem to be an environmental contaminant. This process will most definitely have you taking a few trips to the land fill. You might even have to start inviting a different crowd of guests. But in the end… you will have a space that CAUSES YOU TO LIVE LIKE YOU SHOULD!

In Psalms 101, the writer describes his commitment to carefully police his own personal environment. It’s a very aggressive 8 verses with such sayings as:

“I will lead a life of integrity in MY OWN HOME.”

“I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar.”

“I will reject perverse ideas and stay away from every evil.”

“I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors.”

“I will not endure conceit and pride.”

“I will not allow deceivers to serve me and liars will not be allowed to ENTER MY PRESENCE.”

Please don’t get confused my dear bloggers… I’m not calling on my readers to develop some kind of holier than thou disposition. Please don’t go about making the world feel like they are not clean enough merit your company. This blog is not meant to nullify love’s mandate to walk in humility and stoop down to serve the perishing. It is a call to build your very own PLACE of RETREAT… a place where you can REST and be REFRESHED every day of your life… an inner circle of prayerfully selected dear friends with similar standards and ambitions… so that you can go further, faster… and live and thrive to the utmost!

What a super blog this is today! Maybe you should consider reading it 3 or 4 times… until specific ideas come that bring about a glorious plan for your environmental renovation!

It’s my pleasure writing and interacting with each of you… I’m praying every morning that God will make this your season of blessings! Thanks for reading…

Love A Lonely Person Before Christmas

Emily teaching orphans to color with their first set of crayons... on our trip to India a few years ago.

Emily teaching orphans to color with their first set of crayons... on our trip to India a few years ago.

Happy Friday Friends… TGIF Again!

Jeremiah 31:1 “Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.”

Last night I had a very sad dream about a close friend. I woke up in such pain, my eyes were misting over as I contemplated its meaning. It was so real… so sad.

Oh how God cares about us! While reading in Jeremiah, this verse about Gods love came to life… I felt it swelling inside my heart. My eyes glazed over as I began to think about all the people I know who are suffering right now. The dream came back to me, now awake… it became like a vision… an outer body experience. I left my family room and started flying back over all my travels of the past few weeks. I could see myself talking to people at parties, running into people at the mall, interacting with people at church, chatting on the phone. I noticed all the pain coming from peoples hearts. I saw some of them holding back the tears. They were under so much pressure… feeling like nobody in all the world understood what they were enduring!

Throughout the course of the dream and the vision that followed, and the prayers I made to God afterwards… I came up with this message for you guys. I suppose that God is allowing me to experience HIS HEART this morning. He’s lending me his FEELINGS. For a brief moment, I’m seeing this world through his mind… and its overwhelming me! I can feel the pains of so many people right now… I’m hearing some of their prayers. And even though they each rise in the mornings to beautify their faces and cover over their feelings… I can see into their souls.

God says that he loves us with an everlasting love… and he draw us to himself with unfailing love. How does he do this? How does God reach out to people? How does he wrap his loving arms around hurting humans? He uses us as his representatives. He gives us his heart so that we can express his love! As long as we are self absorbed, we cant see the pains of others. And when our self obsessions are interrupted, we are freed to live a God kind of life! We are privileged to become Gods representatives to the people who need him right now!

This Christmas… break the trance of self obsession. Look around… look very carefully. See into the souls of your friends, family members, coworkers, neighbors, enemies, and everyone you bump into. Think about the lonely elders in your local nursing homes. Think about all the struggling people in your personal circle. Pray for them until a tear squeezes through the surface of your eyes and gently rolls down your compassionate cheeks. And then from this overwhelming sensation… ACT extravagantly! Make a very big difference for someone or a bunch of someones between now and the new year! Lend your ear, your time, your money, your baking skills, and anything else you can muster up to hand deliver a beautiful expression of Gods unfailing love. They are waiting for it… hoping for it… yearning for it! And you are the one to bring it to them right now, today or tomorrow… you will bring them new hope and a second wind!

Love you guys… have fun with this and please post your comments! See you here tomorrow! And hey… dont forget about church this Sunday at Destiny Family Center! Hope you can make it!