Posts Tagged ‘Jesus’

Are You Satisfied?

July 30th, 2010

Are you satisfied with your life?  Is it all that you want it to be?  Do you think it’s all that God would have it to be?  Is your life smaller than your ability to live it?

Do you find areas in your life where your focus has been off or where you’ve known what to do but just haven’t been consistent? Have you decided you want to bless others by sharing your life in person?  Have you only been giving 50% at work?  Are you living an ineffective life without passion?

Have You Been Challenged?

I’m hoping that my recent posts have challenged you.  I know they’ve challenged me.  And if they haven’t challenged you, I’d challenge you to go ahead and challenge me (that just sounds funny, doesn’t it).  I’d appreciate it.

If You’re Not Satisfied

So, let’s assume for a moment that we’re not satisfied with our lives.  That God has more for us than we’re living and that we want to step into what God has for us.  What should we do?

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Can God Take Your Life?

July 27th, 2010

I was thinking about this the other day.  I hear people talk about those who have died as though their lives were taken from them.  I think sometimes people are even mad at God for “taking” a life.

But I wonder, can God take my life?  Does God take our lives?

We’ve Already Lost our Lives

It seems to me that we traded away our lives when we entered into sin through Adam and Eve.  That our lives were taken from us in a bad trade.  That what we have because of sin isn’t really life.

Unless we give our lives to God.  Unless we trade our banal, death-bound non-life and trade it for the amazing life that we have in Jesus.  And if we have already given God our lives, can they really be taken from us?

What do you think?
Can our lives really be taken from us?
Can your life be taken from you?

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Share Your Spiritual Journey

July 23rd, 2010

Our life in Christ isn’t static.  It’s dynamic.  It shifts and changes and grows.  It’s not a destination, it’s a journey.  And it’s a journey that’s meant to be shared.  Shared with God and shared with others.

In fact your journey – the ongoing story of your life with Christ – might be one of the most powerful things you have to offer.  One of the most irrefutable ways to share your faith.  It might just be a way that you can defeat the work of evil in the world (Revelation 12:11).

Why is Your Story Powerful?

  • It’s YOUR story.
  • It shows that God is interested in our lives.
  • It demonstrates God’s faithfulness and grace.
  • It’s an opportunity to share how you’ve lived so that others can live better than you have.

How Long Should I Wait?

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Slave by Choice

July 22nd, 2010

I’ve waited too long to post this.  It’s a follow up to Are You a Slave? – a post that I wrote a couple of weeks ago.  And it’s a much-needed follow-up.

You see, as a friend of mine – Martina, who blogs here – pointed out, the post was one-sided.  And it was one-sided on purpose.  The point of the post was that sin has no place in our lives, which is true.

However, as Martina pointed out in her comment, there are a number of God-relationship metaphors provided for us in Scripture – sons & daughters, lovers, servants, and so on.  And, as she astutely pointed out, when we use the word “slave” it means something very specific to us.

A Person With No Choice

When we think of a slave, we think of a person who was taken against his or her will and enslaved.  A person captured.  A person controlled and completely lacking in rights.  A person who is not even considered a person.

That, I think, very accurately describes how we lived when we were slaves to sin (or how we live if we are still slaves to sin).  We don’t have a choice.  It doesn’t really matter what we do – the end is the same.  We die.

But that’s not the end of this story.  Jesus gives us a choice.

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The Gospel of Sin Management

July 13th, 2010
Stop sign plus silhouette

Image via Wikipedia

One of the things I so love about the Church – the body of Christ – is that our God speaks to us through our brothers and sisters.  God often uses our relationships to make us think.  To speak a rebuke or to extend grace.  Or just to help us understand him better.

That happened to me yesterday.  I was deeply troubled about something I read in a report by the Barna Group and wrote a post about it.  In short, I was troubled because it seems that we – the Church – are not living and sharing our faith like we used to.  Man, that still bothers me.

Widening My Perspective

And I think I outlined a few good reasons this might be.  But then Steve Grossman (@stevegrossman), a friend of mine, just totally blew the lid off of my perspective as he responded back to me in a comment.

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We’re Not Telling People About Jesus

July 12th, 2010
Discussion on the Merits of Bows vs. Knots

Image by chefranden via Flickr

Can you believe that we’re not telling people about Jesus?  At least not like we (the Church) used to.  I know that I was surprised and saddened as I learned about this from a recent Barna Report.

If you read the report, you’ll find that it was focused specifically on teens.  And you might think that gives us “adults” a pass on this.  After all, we’re not under the microscope.  That’s just not right.

We are under the microscope.  Sure, teens are influenced heavily by our culture.  But they’re also influenced by family, peer groups, and subculture.  If our teens are failing to live their faith, it’s our fault.  We have failed.  And we need God’s help to fix it.

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Find God’s Best in the Little Things

July 10th, 2010
2007 05 07 113
Image by .erin. via Flickr

If we’ll keep our eyes and hearts open, we’ll always find God‘s very best for us right now.  But sometimes I think we miss what God has for us now because we’re holding out for something big.  Yet we are surrounded all of the time by blessing if we’ll just recognize who God is and what he does for us.

A Schema

In many ways, our life of faith is like wading in the ocean.  If we consider the ocean for a minute, we find many parallels to life and faith.

For example, the ocean reminds us of our utter frailty because of its great power.  It speaks to us of seasons (or tides).  It’s an image of being surrounded and supported and occasionally overcome.  We can understand our lives saturated by the awesome presence of God.  We can understand ourselves as surrounded by God and wading in blessing.  Is it any wonder that Jesus told us to “consider the lilies” (Luke 12:27)?!

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God Saves the Best for Now

July 3rd, 2010
"Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is...
Image by bdentzy via Flickr

Sometimes God interrupts our lives.  Sometimes when it seems like everything is going well and sometimes when everything seems to be going poorly.  It’s at those moments that we are reminded that God has the very best for us.  At those moments we realize that God saves the best for now.

That is exactly what happened when Jesus attended a wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11).

Wedding at Cana

You probably already know this story.

Jesus and his disciples were attending a wedding where the wine ran out before the party did.  Jesus’s mother asked that he intervene and he did – turning water into wine.  When the servants took a little of the wine to the one who was in charge of the banquet, he was so impressed that he remarked to the bridegroom, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” (John 2:10 – emphasis added)

The passage says “saved the best till now,” not “saved the best for last.”

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Don’t Settle

June 29th, 2010
Dirty water spilling out of a large glass carb...

Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes when things don’t work out or when our way seems confusing, it can be tempting to take matters into our own hands.  To say (to ourselves), “God’s forgotten me,” or, “I guess this is the best I can get,” or, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.”  In short, it can be tempting to settle – to take less than what God has for us.

Don’t Settle

It’s not worth it.  God’s plan and provision for our lives is always worth the wait.  It’s always good.  It’s always better.

A Proverb

A few years ago I was going through a dry patch in relationships.  I’d just gotten out of one destructive relationship and I was looking around to find pretty much anything I could.  Thank God my mother had the wisdom to coin a proverb for me.

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Sometimes Things Just Don’t Work Out

June 28th, 2010
Sometimes Things Just Don’t Work Out is a guest post by Aaron Shaver (@shaversrazor), who blogs at aaronshaver.com.  I’ve known Aaron for several years and I think you’ll enjoy what he has to say.  Aaron a youth minister, an actor, a new father, and is really passionate about Jesus.  He and his Elaina wife live in Nashville, TN along with their new son.

Sometimes Things Just Don’t Work Out

Lately, I’ve found most of my day is spent wondering what’s coming next. My wife and I are often fielding our own questions about finances and career choices over the dinner table. And, we see in our own life a lot of uncertainty that may be familiar to many folks during hard economic times.

It’s hard to know –I mean REALLY KNOW – what to do in every life-choice we come across.

  • Do we save for a new car or trade in now for what we can get?
  • Should one of the parents stay at home and take care of the kids?
  • Should I take that new job or go back to school?

Not to mention all the less life altering, though just as tough, choices that bombard us day in and day out.

As Christians, I feel like we are sometimes led to believe that all our tough life-choices simply need to be called in to God and He’ll call back with an unmistakable holy baritone voice (ala Liam Neeson/James Earl Jones) and tell you exactly which choice to make and paint a road map to get you there with as little fuss as possible.

I just don’t think God works this way.

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