Normally on Mondays I try to rest in the morning hours and eventually get into the office in the afternoon to clean things up from the weekend and lay out plans for the week to come. Well this morning was quite different. It was an early start this morning getting to the office at 7:45 a.m. and working like a mad man to get a lot of my churchy duties done or layed out for our staff to do. It was a necessary plan today because once 11:30 a.m. got here I was going to be down and on pain meds for at least the next 48 hours. That's right I said pain meds and down. So right about now you are maybe starting to put the title of this blog together in your mind but if not, let me help reveal the secret. Today all wisdom was taken from me by a guy named Dr. Rossen. Dr. Rossen is my oral surgeon and he for a small fee (sarcasm) removed my wisdom teeth today. Now you know I am on pain meds and feeling quite high if I am writing my blog six hours after a little oral surgery but that is exactly the situation I find myself in. So right before they started the process I asked the Dr. if I could have my teeth. He's like, "Why?" To which I said, "Hey, I am a Pastor, and I am always looking for visuals to use in a sermon or even ideas for sermons or message series. So here is one of my spiritual applications from my most dreaded and amazing day:
Sometimes pain that you are experiencing in life requires a greater pain to be get relief. Sometimes that which is causing us pain and we think is going to spiritually kill us requires a possible very painful removal of it in our lives before we can get final relief. Sometimes removal of things such as relationships, habits or addictions can really be painful but once those things are removed we then can rise to the level God has called to live in. I think one of the most dangerous things in the church today is people who want to try to serve God without removing the HELL from their lives first. It's as though we've bought into this thought that everyone deserves a CROWN just for showing up, singing a few songs, putting an offering in the basket when it passes by and even saying a prayer or two. However, when I read the WORD, I can't find that kind of teaching. CROWNS are only given to those willing to pay the price...removing those things in our lives that don't look like Christ...and sometimes that is very painful. Simply said, "You cannot have a CROWN until you pick up a CROSS." Stop asking, "How much HELL can I have in my life and still go to HEAVEN and ask, what do I need to do to be more like Christ." Just know when you ask the latter question...God is going to start cutting away and pulling things out of your life. But here is the beauty in the pain, once you get through the surgery and the pain that goes along with it, you come through on the other side looking more like God.
My challenge, "Don't choose to live with the constant pain from a Godless life." Pay the price, have the surgery and go through pain of removal to finally live in God's peace and really be a candidate for a CROWN."
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