Second Stage Ministries

Are you anxious? Stressed? Worried? Uneasy? Nervous? Overwhelmed? What a silly group of questions. I know I can be. I know you can be. Did you know that Jesus was a little stressed? He had the weight of the entire world on His shoulders. Talk about a stressing moment. We read about that moment in Jesus' life in the Gospels of Mark and Luke: “And being in anguish , he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’”- Luke 22:44 + Mark 14:34a NIV Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him (John 18:4). He knew of the pain to come and it was weighing heavy on Him. He was greatly overwhelmed. He was human after all. While Jesus was under this great pressure, He had His eyes up and He went and prayed to God: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” - Luke 22:42 NIV Now God didn't take away the pain that Jesus w...

“...where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.... Psalm 121:1-2 NIV The topic of this post will be found in the following verses from Matthew: “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” - Matthew 18:21-22 NKJV Peter is trying to figure out how much forgiveness is too much. He figured that forgiving someone seven times would be more than enough. But Jesus quickly turns Peter’s thoughts of forgiveness upside down when He responds with 490 times. Peter’s jaw probably hit the dirt after hearing this astronomical number that came for the mouth of Jesus. 490 times! Wow! Peter probably even said to Jesus “You’re joking right?” or “You can’t be serious!” I can bet that Jesus just looked at his strong-willed disciple and said “Oh, you bet I’m serious! Just watch!” But this got me to...

“...where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.... Psalm 121:1-2 NIV Self-control is hard isn’t it? I often find myself self-control problems have a lot to do with my temper. I would like to say that I have gotten better with matter, but that would be a lie. When I think about this I am often reminded of Moses and one of his bouts with anger. In the book of Numbers, we once again see Israel has their complaining shoes on again and they are stuck in the past - again. They just can’t seem to get their head out of Egypt. “Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” - Numbers 20:4-5 NIV So Moses not knowing what to do any more with these people (this is probably his hands up moment) goes to God for some direction. Good choice. This is what God t...

“...where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.... Psalm 121:1-2 NIV When I think about gentleness and the example that Jesus gave us - I think of Jesus and the children and how He welcomed them with love and gentleness. “Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, ‘ Let the little children come to me , and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’ When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.” - Matthew 19:13-15 NIV Now I know what Jesus was saying here, but that is not what I am after in this post. I am after the how Jesus did what He did. When Jesus addressed the disciples who had been all over the people and the children about leaving Jesus alone - He addresses them with a sternness in His voice. He was pretty much telling them to cool it and take a breath. I picture, Jesus then welcomed the childr...

“...where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.... Psalm 121:1-2 NIV God’s faithfulness. Do you see it in your life? Do you see where God is right there with you and has never left your side? Sometimes, I will admit, I lose sight of it and wonder where God is and why He left me hanging. Why He’s not there when I need him the most? I sometimes get like Israel. When Israel got in trouble they often whined and blamed God for their misfortune. But if could be honest they sometimes put themselves in the predicaments they were often in. But right from the start - right after He took them out of Egypt - God showed His faithfulness to them. When I need to remember that God is faithful, I am reminded of this part of their journey. After being freed from slavery and Egypt, on the other said of the Red Sea, the people of Israel began to complain about their situation. “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said ...

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth..... fixing our eyes on Jesus..." Psalm 121:1-2  + Hebrews 12:2  NIV Sometimes you just can’t plan for things. Sometimes it’s awesome the way things work out. When God gave me this “Eyes Up” series idea - I had no idea what He it as up to. The only thing that I knew is that God dropped this thought into my brain and it was my choice to use it or not. The verses that this series is based on - Psalm 121:1-2 and Hebrews 12:2 - had been on my mind for a month or so. I wanted to write a post on Psalm 121:1-2. But as I got to dwelling on the verses and really thinking about them - God slowly began to reveal not just a single post, but instead a series of posts looking at some things in life that we truly need help with because we can’t do them right without God. So I started mapping out the series and the different things that we could look t...

“...where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.... Psalm 121:1-2 NIV As we continue in this series of posts, we are to kindness and I believe that this is one of the easiest to see in Jesus and find help. Jesus didn’t care who it was, what had done, what they were doing, or where they had come from. Jesus was kind - period. Jesus modeled the ultimate kindness. We see this throughout His ministry. Here a few examples: In John 4, we see Jesus go through Samaria in order to meet the woman at the well. The woman goes to the well to draw water. She's going at a time when she could be alone and away from people. She has been outcasted by the people of the town because of the mistakes that she has made in the past. So you can imagine her surprise when she gets to the well and finds Jesus sitting there. But she gets something different from Jesus that she had not gotten in a while - kindness, compassion and love. Jesus does bring forth her mistakes but He d...

“...where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.... Psalm 121:1-2 NIV Ahhhh..... patience. That’s it. That’s all I have for this post. Anyone suffer from a lack of patience? I know I do and that is why I find it hard to give advice on the topic. This is why I’m not giving advice. I’m going to let God do that. I want to draw you attention to Exodus 14 for this week’s post. Moses has already been summoned by God to go back to Egypt and free the Israelites from Pharaoh. After much talking, plagues and stubbornness - Pharaoh lets the Israelites go. Moses leads them out of Egypt and they get as far as the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Pharaoh has changed his mind and is in hot pursuit of them. The people begin to grumble at Moses because of their situation. They said things like: “They said to Moses, ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egy...

“...where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.... Psalm 121:1-2 NIV There are just some things that we need help with and that is just a fact. So in this series of posts we are looking at a few of those kind of things and trying change our focus to the One that can give us true help with these things. We have been focusing in on Psalm 121:1-2 for this “Eyes Up” refocus. The psalmist realized that there is really only one true source of help and refocused attention to that source. The topic of today’s post is one that is really only found in Jesus. Peace. What is that anymore? Look around you, turn on the news or scroll Facebook/Twitter and you will see there is really no such thing as peace anymore. People are constantly at each other because of their opinions and refusing to accept one another’s views and move on with life. There is chaos in the line at Walmart because someone cut in line and instead of just letting them have the spot - a verbal fight brea...