Richard H. Wendland

God let me teach myself....

.....and It would have been a whole lot easier if I would of just listened. 
    When I was 18, the summer after I graduated high school, I disappeared from almost everyone I knew.  Don't ask me why, I guess I was out to find myself, whatever.  I remember when I finally talked to my dad he said something that sticks with me to this day.  He said, "I just hate when I see you make some of the same mistakes I did.  I wish I could have made them so that my kids wouldn't have to.  The hardest part of being a parent is sitting back and watching.  But sometimes you (I) have to learn things the hard way."
    I'm 30 years old now and God just reminded me what my dad said a long time ago.  Sometimes you (I) have to learn things the hard way.
    When I moved to the valley, I came down here with big plans to start a business, get rich, and live the good life.  God had other plans.  I started to notice "signs" that maybe I wasn't pursuing my purpose.  Don't get me wrong, I wasn't rejecting God, I just wasn't listening.  I was praying and and believed God was going to bless my plans.  It never occurred to me that God had already predetermined my plans.  Not only that, but my right to make my plans was thrown out the window when Jesus Christi suffered a agonizing death to save my soul.  Funny thing is this, why wouldn't I want to seek Gods purpose for me?  He made me, he knows what I'm good for.  Imagine if you built a car and it decided it was going to be a plane.  It wouldn't work.   OK, I know that's silly but so is making plans for yourself.  I saw a quote in an amazing book I'm reading.  (More about that on my next post.)   "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans"  -John Chancellor
    Anyway, back to my point.  So I went ahead with my plans as I insisted and things went pretty good for a little while.  But without getting into my personal details, it quit going so well. 
    Now I find myself going back to an old job that I thought "I could just never do again."  Funny thing is,  this old job happens to expose me to a whole lot of different people each and every day.  It even happens to mean I'll be working along with a lot of good people that are mostly un-churched.  Now I don't know abou't you, but once I put together the obvious I realized the oportunity sitting in my lap.  I had to look past my desires (financial health, and building an Empire) and focus on God's desires. (my spiritual health, and buiding the Kingdome of God)
    Dear lord, why didn't you just  tell me????  J/k  Remember telling your parents that??  As much as it hurts, I love when I realize I've been wrong or that I've made a mistake.  It means that God got my attention, and therefore I've become a better man.  AMEN

When God puts us in "Time Out".

   I am still alive. I haven't posted anything on here in over two weeks.  I'm sorry to admit, I haven't really been feeling very inspired lately.  I severely sprained my ankle a couple weeks ago and I guess it affected my spirit.  It makes sense, I suppose.  After all, I just felt so useless and incapable of taking care of things, which has led to other problems with our business.  Problems with business means financial struggles and so forth. 
   I've come to the conclusion that God has me in a sort of "Time Out".  Truth be told, I was getting a little to comfortable with level of spirituality.  Over the last few years my relationship with God has grown so much, along with the blessings.  I guess I got a little lax and put myself on "cruise control". 
    My very wise pastor (with poor taste in football teams  j/k) once told me that God will give us a constant tension in order to keep us from drifting out of the spirit.  Where I made a big mistake though, is when things got bad I tried to rack my brain and figure out how to make things better.  Somewhere in my gloominess I forgot some of the very principles that I tend to preach to others all the time. 
    Why would I try to figure things out for myself.  I wasn't even able to figure out half the things that have gotten me this far in life.  As a matter of fact I know from experience how destructive I can be to my own life when I try to manage it myself.  I made that mistake for a long time before surrendering my life to God.  It never got me very far then, and I don't know why I would think it would be any different now.
    I know that if I "Let go & let God" things will get back to normal in no time.  If they don't, than it's for a reason far greater than myself.  AMEN

Too Close For Comfort

    Well it's been about a week and a half since I've posted.  It seems like only a few days.  I've been so busy getting back on track from "Hurricane Dolly".

    I've heard a lot of people say, and I definitely agree, it was too close for comfort.  I personally had a very large fully grown tree come uprooted and fall into my yard.  The wild thing is, it fell the only direction that wouldn't cause any harm. Praise God!!! 

    I was thinking about the past week and couldn't help but wonder, how many people prayed a little more last week than they normally do?   How many groups of people got together to help each other prepare or recover from the storm? 

    I don't have to use "Dolly" to make this point.  Look at 911, or Katrina, or many other times in history.  One thing I'm learning in my  spirituality is this...Too close for comfort, is just right for God.   

    At Cornerstone's services this weekend we saw a video that told about Christians in other countries.  They take monumental risks to worship their God.  We take our rights to worship for granted and therefore, we don't worship like we should.  Americans spend more time protesting their right to gay marriage than we do taking advantage of our already given right to worship and praise our God.

    So next time finances are tight, or things aren't going in the most convenient direction, ask yourself.."Is this bringing me back on track with God?  Is this happening, not because God is punishing me, but just maybe I needed it to get back on track with whats really important.  Maybe it took some tough circumstances to get you to turn to God and not try to just "handle it yourself". 

    Remember, nothing your ever going to go through could ever be worse than letting your relationship with your heavenly father dissipate.  AMEN

Visioneers

    My wife and I decided a while back to open our home up to a brand new C-Team.  At that time I had just finished reading a book called Visioneering, by Andy Stanley.  Pastor Loui had recommended this book and I can never thank him enough.  So naturally, being recently inspired by this book I decided to use it as the namesake for the new C-Team. 
    Since deciding to get this thing started I've been running it through my head, over and over again.  What is it that I have to offer as a C-Team/Spiritual leader.  The answer to that question came to me today in the strangest of way.  I was watching the most "guy-friendly chick flick" of all time, Jerry Maguire.
    At the end, Jerry's Hero, Dicky Fox makes a statement  in which he says:

    "Hey, I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I've failed as much as I've succeeded.  But, I love my wife, and I love my life, and I wish you my kind of success."

Simply Brilliant, if you ask me.   No, I'm not a pastor, or any kind of expert on life.  My past doesn't exactly qualify me as a saint.  However, I've learned a lot in life from making a lot of mistakes.  (I'll talk more about that another time)  My point is this,  Just like Dicky, by the time my life is over I'll probably fail at just as many things as I succeed at.  But I do love my wife, my son,  and through the grace of Gods love, I love my life as I've never dreamed of before. 
    What more could I hope to teach others than  that kind of happiness.  When you really boil it all down, that's what it all comes down to.  That's really what God wants from us more than anything else,  To find happiness and fulfillment in our lives and family through our relationship with him and living our lives for his glory.  AMEN!!!

Wasted Breath??? Hopefully Not.

    Unfortunately I've had a recent experience that is all to common with people these days.  I have a friend, that I hadn't talked to in a while, stop by today.  He used to work with me and would always tell me about his problems.  The primary issue was his finances.  I talked to him about his relationship with God (he is Catholic) and showed him Malachi 3:8-12.  Of course this went on for more than just one brief conversation.  There were hours of friendly counseling and advice given.
    Today he came by talking about the same problems.  Before he even got started, I stopped him and asked if he had been active with the church.  He said he hadn't been since the last time I took him to Cornerstone. (over 2 months ago) "But I've prayed a lot." he said.  I gave that no response and went on to tell him my assumption that he probably hadn't tithed either.  A fair assumption considering he hadn't even taken the time to go to church.  I was right, he hadn't. 
    It was at this point that I leaned back and told him, " Look man, I care about you and would love to help you, but until you do what I already told you, this conversation is over."   
    It's just amazing to me how this is the typical way of thinking with people who say they believe in Christianity.  What's even worse is the discouragement that comes to those of us who spent the hours trying to help this person.  We can easily feel as if we've wasted our breath.
    We can't allow ourselves to feel that way.  We have to remember that, as with all prayers and request, God answers in his way and on his time.  Not Ours.  We need to remember that "wasted breath" turns into "planted seeds."
    I know that my friend will figure it out on God's time.  I taught him to fish, he just needs to pick up the pole and start using it.  We all know God has a way of making us hungry until we'll pick up the pole. AMEN

Fatherhood

  We had Timmy's 3 month portraits taken the other day.

 

    It's been amazing watching him grow.  He's only 3 months old and he's already changed so much.  It's even more amazing to me now  that I have a son, that Abraham was willing to sacrifice Issac to honor God.  What an amazing testament of faith.  I only pray that God will continue to grow in me so that I may be able to represent a fraction of the faith that was shown by the prophets of the old testament.
    God has been pouring into my heart over the last couple years and the intensity only gets stronger.  It's becoming more and more obvious to me that he has some serious plans for myself and all those I currently surround myself with.  It wasn't that long ago that I was ashamed of who I was and where I was in life.  Now I'm very happy, and wouldn't trade my life with anyone.  OK, Maybe Tony Romo, but even then I'd prefer Veronica over Jessica. LOL 
    All joking aside, most of my life change has come into being over the last year and 1/2.  Just to make sure your seeing what I'm saying here, I'm gonna spell it out.  I accomplished more in 1 1/2 years, than I was able to in the 28 1/2 that preceded it.  I found the easy button, and just want to share it with the world.
    However long I have left to live, after seeing what God can do in a year and a half, I can't wait to see what he can do with the rest of my life.
    Forgive me for just rambling on.  But that is what a blog is for, isn't it?  I just have a lot to share, and look forward to getting it all out of my mind and putting it down somewhere that, perhaps, it can do someone else some good.  AMEN
 

First Blog

    Ok, so everyday I spend a good amount of time going to the blogs I love to read (see: my favorite blogs) and it got me inspired to start blogging my own thoughts, ideas, ramblings, etc. 
    I'm currently going through some pretty amazing stuff in my journey with Christ and it would be foolish not to start recording it now.  I am convicted that God has me, along with my friends and family, on the brink of some amazing things.  I know me and how scatterbrained I am, so if I wait until later to write everything down, I know I'll leave out too much and many of the important lessons along the way will be lost in the mix of everything.  This way, by "blogging" I have a regular updated account of my life that hopefully my son will be able to read one day and learn at least some things through my mistakes and won't have to make them all himself.  I hope that by doing this, I might also be able to inspire and influence others by sharing my stories and giving examples of how God has brought incredible change into my life. 
    So to anyone out there who may be reading. These are simply my thoughts and ramblings, take from it whatever you'd like.  I, however, will be the first to tell you.....I am no professional counselor, I'm not a pastor, not a prophet, nor do I claim to be an expert on anything.  I am just a Christian man on a spiritual journey.  And now, your just an internet connection away from joining me for the ride.  AMEN.