Rossome Thoughts Has Been Relocated!

Frankly, I’ve been meaning to do this for some time.  I purchased the domain RossomeThoughts.com awhile back and simply haven’t taken the time to transfer the site.

Well the time is NOW!

So what does this mean to you, the reader?  Not much actually.  The site will look a bit different and I’ll be able to tweak it as time goes on, but all the content and comments have remained.  However, if you subscribed to this blog via e-mail or rss feed, you’ll need to do that again.  It’s super simply and you’ll figure it out in about 4.3 seconds on you’re on the new site.

So this will be the last post here.  Head on over to RossomeThoughts.com and check the place out.  If you like it, go ahead and comment or subscribe.  I always appreciate hearing from people who actually like to read this stuff!

See you on the other side!

Asking God

*Note: This post was written by both Travis and Jennette*
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John 14:13-14
¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

This scripture seems pretty straightforward.   Kind of the general “ask an ye shall receive” thing, right?.  But I think if we were honest we would admit that we have asked for things and haven’t seen God do anything.  So what’s the deal?  God isn’t a liar, so is the problem based in what we are asking?  I mean, what do we have a right to ask for anyway?  Are there things we’ve been given permission to ask of God?

Here’s a thought: What if we had the actual “legal” ground to “appeal” to God for certain things?

Abraham did on behalf of Sodom.  He negotiated for God to spare the Sodomites.  He started his “negotiation” with God at 50 righteous people.  In the end, he talked God down to 10.  So in the end, after Abraham’s appeal, God said that He wouldn’t annihilate Sodom if there were just 10 righteous people.  Not bad!

Moses appealed to God on behalf of Miriam when she was struck with leprosy.  Miriam was speaking critically against Moses and publically judging him.  God didn’t exactly approve of her actions.  Yet Moses himself went to God and asked if He would heal her and God amazingly said yes.

What gave these men the right to appeal to God once He had already declared His intentions?

These men aren’t the only examples of such boldness; there are many other examples in the bible.  These saints had spectacular gumption to go before God and ask for things that appeared to be against what His will was.   And they asked these things during Old Testament times, where the Law was the best chance for holiness and right standing with God.  Don’t we, as those under the New Covenant, have even more of a right to go to God with an even greater confidence? We have the privilege of walking in a new level of holiness because of what Jesus did on the cross for us.  Jesus took the entire curse upon himself so we could have life that allowed us to live above the Law.

As part of this new life in Christ shouldn’t we experience the benefit of God’s promises?

So I think it’s safe to say that because of what Jesus did on the cross we now have the “legal right” to ask for any and all of the promises of the bible.  In fact, I’m confident that His character invites us to.  I mean, come on; don’t you think deep down inside that God has much more to say “yes” to in our lives than to say “no” to?  We don’t give God enough credit.  He wants to say yes more often than we ask.

So why not ask?

Thoughts From A US Marine’s Dad

Many of you know that my son, Ethan Grant Finney, just graduated from 12 weeks of the most grueling and challenging experiences anyone can go through – Marine Corps Boot camp.  It’s been exhilarating to be around the excitement for the past few days as mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandmothers, cousins, etc have gathered from all across the country to the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego, CA to see their brand new Marine.  These people know how to be excited!

I can’t say I blame anyone.  They haven’t seen these boys…er…men in months and they miss them.  One morning they were picking up their laundry and making them dinner and the next he’s just gone.  They didn’t know what what was happening on that base and if their letters were actually getting to them (which we later found was a bit sketchy.)

However, these men were busy accomplishing something that they will never forget.  They are now part of brotherhood that they will be a part of for the rest of their lives.  They truly are “the few” and they have every right to be “proud.”  But they couldn’t be concerned with their home lives.

They didn’t have time to worry about what was happening at home – they were training for combat.

They didn’t have time to check the latest current events – they were learning how best to take out an enemy.

They didn’t need the distractions of the world – they had a mission to complete.

I can’t help but see a paralel for my Christian walk.  Can you see it?

How often do I let the cares of this world get in the way of my training?  My mission?

Now I’m obviously not proposing that we all leave our families behind for months at a time in order to go out into the mission field and win the lost.  I’m simply talking about the distractions.  What are the things that get in the way of how God is training me to be the best warrior for His Kingdom?

Some of these things were what I was warring against during my 21 Day Challenge.  But both of us know that when you limit one distraction, another rears its ugly head.  And now that the challenge is over, I can feel those familiar desires for the things I gave up all coming back again.

It really is a battle.

1 Peter 5:8
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

We have a real enemy that wants to take us out.  And if he can’t do that, he wants to make us ineffective.  Many have allowed him to do just that.

So now for the hard questions that I feel need to be asked.

– What effect are you having on the Kingdom?
– When was the last time you saw the Kingdom advancing as a result of the Lord’s work in and through you?
– Are there distractions in your life that have created in you an endorsement for  marginal Christianity?

I am the first to wince when I read these questions.  But perhaps by asking them, we’re taking the first step towards walking like Paul, our firm yet kindly spiritual “drill instructor”, calls us to in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. ²⁷ No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Healing? An Honest Confession

There are so many verses on healing.  Jesus was pretty darn good at it, wasn’t he?  I mean everywhere he went, people were getting healed right and left.  So much so that he was practically mobbed every time he would go into a new town.  People wanted a touch.

But what about the ones he didn’t heal?

This has always been troubling to me.  The tension between God’s will and my will.  On the one hand, my will is for my wife to be healed completely and for this time in our lives to be something we look back both in amazement at how the Lord walked with us trough the tough time and relief that its over and a new season has begun.  (I mean, doesn’t that sound really spiritual?  I mean, come on, God??!!)  However, God see it from a completely different perspective.  He isn’t bound by our three dimensions.  He’s outside of time and He can look at the much larger picture of our lives.

I get that.

Really, I do.  But everything in me wants this to be over.  And everything in me keeps coming back to all of those verses about agreeing on anything and it “will be done” and that faith the size of a mustard seed can “move a mountain.”  And in my times of weakness (or maybe honesty?) I question the Lord.

I ask why isn’t it done like He said?  I ask why hasn’t this mountain been moved?  Its times like this when I question my faith.  “Is it me, Lord?  Am I the one getting in the way of the healing you desire to bring?  Oh, Lord, if I could just muster up some more faith!  I believe but help my unbelief!”

And then He speaks.  Even now as I write this, He speaks.

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

and

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Remember, God isn’t bound by time.  He’s not like us.  That’s the lesson we must learn.

Numbers: 23:19
¹⁹ God is not human, that he should lie, 
   not a human being, that he should change his mind. 
Does he speak and then not act? 
   Does he promise and not fulfill?

You see, to Him, it’s already done.  To Him, the mountain has already been moved.

“Yes, Lord.  I believe.”

Forgiveness – Who, Me?

I’ve honestly never had a huge problem with forgiveness.  I suppose it’s mainly because I’ve never been in a position where I was sinned against in a major way.  And for that, I’m very grateful.

I know that for others, this issue can be and is often a very real and very painful reality of the Christian faith.  This blog post is in no way trying to diminish that – in fact, I think you’ll soon see that we all deal with this issue on different levels.

Lately I’ve been considering that maybe I have held onto things.  Perhaps I’m not as “holy” in this area as I thought.  Perhaps I need to learn this lesson of forgiveness myself.  Let me explain…

A while back I felt a friend had made a decision to warrant me being upset at him.  I know he didn’t feel he had done anything wrong, but in my mind, I just KNEW he had.  I couldn’t believe he could be so blind and not see what he was doing.  In fact, it affected many others – not just me.

So what did I do?  Well I did what a friend should, of course – I told him he was wrong!  However, as I reflect, I don’t think I told him that it actually hurt me.  In fact, I don’t even think I realized how much it DID hurt me.  I just kept my sharing limited to how it affected everyone else.

In retrospect, I think that in “championing the cause of others,” I was able to mask my unforgiveness.  After all, wasn’t I there on behalf of the other people that didn’t have as privileged a place in my friend’s life to voice their pain to him?  He needed to know how they felt, right?!

So I met him for lunch and told him.  He listened and politely stated his case.  He, too, was saddened that I felt the way I did, but it didn’t change his decision.  In his mind, he was doing what was best for his family.  In the end, we agreed to disagree and went our separate ways.

After that initial (three hour) exchange, our relationship wasn’t the same.  We’d comment on each other’s Facebook accounts and occasionally chat or e-mail, but the frequency was less and less.  I found myself trying to find other avenues when I had a question that my friend could have easily answered.  I even found myself resenting him when I encountered an issue he could have helped me with.

And that leads me to today.  I realize now that I haven’t forgiven him.  I haven’t let him “off the hook” for “what he did to me.”  I’m just content to subtly punish him with my ninja-like passive aggressive skills.

Wow.  And here I thought I was good in this area.  Time to look in the mirror a bit deeper, I guess.

And call my friend to schedule another lunch.

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What about you?  Anybody you need to call and get together with?

Frustration

There are certainly a lot of things we can be frustrated with in this life.   There’s that idiot driver that cuts me off.  There’s the waiter that hates his job and makes sure I know it.  There’s the government, the public school system and the U.S. postal service.  All of these things can be really frustrating.  And I think we’ve all got plenty more examples we could share.

But are these things the source of our frustration?

Our immediate answer, of course, is yes.  If that guy hadn’t been driving in such an idiotic way, then my blood pressure wouldn’t have risen to heart attack levels as I imagined his car driving off the road and smashing into a tree.  It’s HIS fault I feel this way.

But is it?

Did he hold a gun to your head and tell you to get angry?  Did he force you to think about his untimely (albeit morbidly pleasing) demise?  Well the answer is, of course, no.

But we don’t like that answer.  That answer causes us to turn the spotlight inward.

Patience is a virtue.  Longsuffering is a fruit of the Spirit.  Graciousness is learned over time.  Oh, brother…you really had to pull the God card, Travis?  Well then here’s an easy one – frustration is an emotion.  Pure and simple.

So obvious truth here is that our emotions follow where our mind is headed.  Case in point: the scary movie.  We know there’s a person about to jump out and scare us (cue creepy music) and we know that person is just an actor and that we’re sitting safe and sound inside a movie theatre, but we allow our minds to be immersed into the story.  So when said bad guy says, “boo,” we say “ahh!”  Our emotions follow where our mind leads us.

So what’s the answer then?  We need to focus our mind on things that will allow our emotions to go to a “good” place.

Col 3:2
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

So the next time you’re behind the guy that actually stops in the merge lane, try thinking about heaven.  Try thinking about how amazing it will be to one day stand before the presence of the Holy One.  Then take that time to worship and praise Him.

I guarantee you won’t be merging in frustration.

What have you feared that turned out to be much easier than you expected?

If we’re honest, we’ll admit that this is an excellent question.  One we should ask more often.  The fact is that fear constantly stops us.  It stops us from achieving our dreams.  It stops us from asking the question.  It stops us from trying that new technique. It stops us from trying, from fighting, from pressing in when things are pressing back.  In the end, fear wants to stop us from being everything we were created to be.

So as a source of encouragement to yourself and others, answer this question:

What have you feared that turned out to be much easier than you expected?.

The reality is that once we’re on the other side of the thing we once feared and we see it for what it really is, it’s inevitably easier than we thought it would be.  Isn’t it?