Read Matthew 13:44
It's that time of the year here in the Northeast when the seasons are beginning to change and the overnight chill factor is starting to have it's affects on all of us. And with this change in temperatures and even seasons of life it got me thinking about what the Bible calls and warns Christians about - being lukewarm.
The man in Matthew 13:44 is anything but lukewarm! He's excited about the reality, the treasure of finally understanding and finding the kingdom of heaven, the truth about God. He's so excited about His new life in the kingdom of God that he does a few things. First, he's celebrating. He's filled with this almost unexplainable joy. Next, he goes out and sells everything he owns. Friends, everything means everything. He's so excited that no material things matter any longer to him. He's found something that is invaluable. Finally, he goes and buys the field where he buried this treasure of the kingdom of God. Make no mistake this man would never be described as lukewarm.
How about us? I think if we're honest we'd assent intellectually that we have an amazing treasure in our relationship with God. But I'm not so sure we'd go out and sell everything we owned. Listen, the point is our enthusiasm and our lives are intended to be like this man's. We should be so excited about the truth of God we've found in our lives that it impacts everything.
Here's the deal, we will remain lukewarm in our faith if we are satisfied with being "godly enough" to get ourselves into heaven and see our lives as "good enough". God desires all of us to live lives that are red-hot for Him. Where everything else takes second place. This week I urge all of us to consider what it's going to take for us as individuals, those who claim to follow Christ, to truly live our whole lives fully devoted to Him.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Everything We Need
Read 2 Peter 1:3-13
Please don't read any further until you've read the suggested reading in 2 Peter 1:3-13.
Ok, now that you've done that, did you get it? God has given us everything we need. And don't miss this everything means everything we need for life and godliness. This is amazing but can be scary at the same time. You know why? Because of this truth, you and I are without excuse. What God calls us to, He equips us to. And He tells us there's not a thing He asks of us that we can not do when we're aligned with our Heavenly Father's plan.
Nothing this world throws at us has any power unless we allow it to have power. God tells us we can escape the corruption in the world that's caused by evil desires by receiving the gift of His promises and His power to abide and live in Him.
But then as a result Peter says add all these things to your faith (goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love). And with this command comes another promise - if you and I do this God says to us we will be effective and productive in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Sounds like a win-win situation for all of us. So let's be open to the commands of God knowing the promises of God are amazingly beneficial.
My challenge for all of us is this - when you read this passage again, place your name in the passage; make it personal. Read it and meditate on it, allowing God to speak His words directly into your heart so that you may live for Him. May God get the glory for giving us everything we need!
Please don't read any further until you've read the suggested reading in 2 Peter 1:3-13.
Ok, now that you've done that, did you get it? God has given us everything we need. And don't miss this everything means everything we need for life and godliness. This is amazing but can be scary at the same time. You know why? Because of this truth, you and I are without excuse. What God calls us to, He equips us to. And He tells us there's not a thing He asks of us that we can not do when we're aligned with our Heavenly Father's plan.
Nothing this world throws at us has any power unless we allow it to have power. God tells us we can escape the corruption in the world that's caused by evil desires by receiving the gift of His promises and His power to abide and live in Him.
But then as a result Peter says add all these things to your faith (goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love). And with this command comes another promise - if you and I do this God says to us we will be effective and productive in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Sounds like a win-win situation for all of us. So let's be open to the commands of God knowing the promises of God are amazingly beneficial.
My challenge for all of us is this - when you read this passage again, place your name in the passage; make it personal. Read it and meditate on it, allowing God to speak His words directly into your heart so that you may live for Him. May God get the glory for giving us everything we need!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
New Life
Read 2 Corinthians 5:17
It’s a simple passage with a simple message – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Yet there’s a deep message in this little verse.
I think too much. So when I read a small little passage like this my mind goes in all sorts of different directions. One thing I think about is all the different things that I’ve experienced that have been new in my life and how I reacted when they were new. When I bought my first car, got my first job, lived in my first apartment, first met my wife, first got married, bought our first house, first became a parent, bought our second house – the list goes on and on. But when I think about how I responded to the new things in my life there was a level of excitement and enthusiasm; a level of intrigue and interest that for some reason, over time begins to change. And the newness starts to wear off. Do you notice that in your experience?
The Bible is full of examples where we’re told God is making things new. He’s doing it all the time. And when we come into this right relationship with God, then we need to realize how important it is to keep reminding ourselves we’re supposed to live in the newness of our new lives in Christ because the old has gone.
My point is this – we have new life. Let’s live each day with this in mind. Let’s live each day knowing God has made a change in us that only He could make. And He’s continuing to change us into the image of His son. This is the best life we could ever hope for. Not that we get all the things this world has to offer, but that we get to have a right relationship with the creator of all things! Friends, new life is amazing. It’s amazing because our sins are forgiven and we get to have a relationship with God. That is enough!
If you look around, in the lives of others and sometimes it’s even true in our own lives, too often and sadly this isn’t enough if we’re being honest. God wants us to understand something – new life is the best life this life has to offer. And it’s all possible when we are in Christ. Be in Christ this week. Take time to be with Him and live in relationship with Him. He’s waiting for us everyday to be with Him. To me that is amazing!! May it be amazing to you as well!! God Bless you this week.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Crazy Love
READ Revelation 2:1-7 Psalm 19:1-4
To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid “big” sins – is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?
Francois Fenelon, The Seeking Heart
This quote begins the preface of Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love. I was challenged by a friend and fellow Hoper to read this book recently. It’s a book that speaks to the heart of our faith and speaks to the heart of the state of the church in America today. What seems to be happening in the church today is a drifting away from our first love.
Ever been in love? Remember the time you spent getting to know your first love? How you couldn’t spend enough time being together, talking on the phone, walking together, and just spending as much time being with one another? And if you couldn’t spend time with one another how you’d be thinking of each other all the time? Remember that? It’s a time we want to bottle up and never forget so we can experience it over and over again.
But time, it’s a funny thing. It changes our priorities and how we enjoy our circumstances. Over time we get familiar with one another and over time we get maybe too comfortable with one another so we start to drift away from loving as we once did.
Have you noticed this can be true in our relationship with God? God wants us to be crazy in love with Him. Enjoying every moment with Him, thinking about Him by just remembering Him as our first love. Revelation 2 speaks about a church that is being warned not to forget their first love. And it’s not just the church in Ephesus this happens with. It happens with us as well.
This week let’s break free from the status quo. Let’s get hungry for a faith that says we’re madly in love with God. Chan writes – “God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn’t working harder at a list of do’s and don’ts – it’s falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, you’ll never be the same. Because when you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.”
To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid “big” sins – is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?
Francois Fenelon, The Seeking Heart
This quote begins the preface of Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love. I was challenged by a friend and fellow Hoper to read this book recently. It’s a book that speaks to the heart of our faith and speaks to the heart of the state of the church in America today. What seems to be happening in the church today is a drifting away from our first love.
Ever been in love? Remember the time you spent getting to know your first love? How you couldn’t spend enough time being together, talking on the phone, walking together, and just spending as much time being with one another? And if you couldn’t spend time with one another how you’d be thinking of each other all the time? Remember that? It’s a time we want to bottle up and never forget so we can experience it over and over again.
But time, it’s a funny thing. It changes our priorities and how we enjoy our circumstances. Over time we get familiar with one another and over time we get maybe too comfortable with one another so we start to drift away from loving as we once did.
Have you noticed this can be true in our relationship with God? God wants us to be crazy in love with Him. Enjoying every moment with Him, thinking about Him by just remembering Him as our first love. Revelation 2 speaks about a church that is being warned not to forget their first love. And it’s not just the church in Ephesus this happens with. It happens with us as well.
This week let’s break free from the status quo. Let’s get hungry for a faith that says we’re madly in love with God. Chan writes – “God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn’t working harder at a list of do’s and don’ts – it’s falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, you’ll never be the same. Because when you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.”
Sunday, September 20, 2009
All or nothing
READ Philippians 3:10-11
It’s been said that people are different. No surprise there – right?! There’s all sorts of categories of people but the two I want to mention this week are those who fall into one of two mindsets: those who have an either/or mindset or a both/and mindset.
Either/or’s are about options. They like keeping their options open and don’t prefer the both and approach. The both/and’s are about wanting it all. They really don’t like making choices so instead they go with a both/and approach. All of us have a tendency, a preference toward one or the other. Our tendency may be slight or it may be strong one way or the other. But we all have our preferences when presented with different situations and circumstances.
When I read the Philippians 3:10-11 passage, I think of these two mindsets. Some of us would prefer the either/or approach vs. the both/and. And to be honest I’d much rather the either/or approach to this one verse. However, God doesn’t give us that option. His word isn’t intended to be a pick and choose approach. Pick what you like and choose to dismiss what you don’t like. Instead His word is both/and; it's an all or nothing approach. Here’s how this plays out with this passage.
The apostle Paul says, I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. So far so good right? I mean we want to know Christ, that's a good thing; and we want to understand the power of His resurrection, another good thing. But then comes the tough part, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings. Anybody want that? This is where it gets dicey for us. We don't really want to experience this type of community with Christ where we share in His sufferings, where we experience the rejection and humiliation, pain and suffering like our Lord did. So why did Paul say this? I mean, it is an odd desire don't you think?I'd say it is. However, Paul understood something about knowing Jesus that allowed Him to experience an amazing relationship with His savior. Paul knew he was going to experience suffering for Christ's sake in his life (Acts 9:16). And he learned Jesus' teachings included John 15:20 - they will persecute you because of me. And Matthew 5:10-12 where Jesus said Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. We're told all throughout scripture that suffering is to be expected if we're following Christ.
So why is sharing in His sufferings something Paul desired? I think it's because he also knew the last part of Matthew 5:10-12 where Jesus said, rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Listen, our faith is about following the example of Christ. Living and loving as He lived and loved. When we do this, some people in this world will respond favorably and some will not. So that will result in some suffering. But if it's for His purposes and His plan then we are to live with this attitude toward suffering - bring it on! Because all of us can handle anything that comes our way when God is with us (1 Corinthians 13). May God be our strength, our peace and our hope!!
It’s been said that people are different. No surprise there – right?! There’s all sorts of categories of people but the two I want to mention this week are those who fall into one of two mindsets: those who have an either/or mindset or a both/and mindset.
Either/or’s are about options. They like keeping their options open and don’t prefer the both and approach. The both/and’s are about wanting it all. They really don’t like making choices so instead they go with a both/and approach. All of us have a tendency, a preference toward one or the other. Our tendency may be slight or it may be strong one way or the other. But we all have our preferences when presented with different situations and circumstances.
When I read the Philippians 3:10-11 passage, I think of these two mindsets. Some of us would prefer the either/or approach vs. the both/and. And to be honest I’d much rather the either/or approach to this one verse. However, God doesn’t give us that option. His word isn’t intended to be a pick and choose approach. Pick what you like and choose to dismiss what you don’t like. Instead His word is both/and; it's an all or nothing approach. Here’s how this plays out with this passage.
The apostle Paul says, I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. So far so good right? I mean we want to know Christ, that's a good thing; and we want to understand the power of His resurrection, another good thing. But then comes the tough part, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings. Anybody want that? This is where it gets dicey for us. We don't really want to experience this type of community with Christ where we share in His sufferings, where we experience the rejection and humiliation, pain and suffering like our Lord did. So why did Paul say this? I mean, it is an odd desire don't you think?I'd say it is. However, Paul understood something about knowing Jesus that allowed Him to experience an amazing relationship with His savior. Paul knew he was going to experience suffering for Christ's sake in his life (Acts 9:16). And he learned Jesus' teachings included John 15:20 - they will persecute you because of me. And Matthew 5:10-12 where Jesus said Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. We're told all throughout scripture that suffering is to be expected if we're following Christ.
So why is sharing in His sufferings something Paul desired? I think it's because he also knew the last part of Matthew 5:10-12 where Jesus said, rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Listen, our faith is about following the example of Christ. Living and loving as He lived and loved. When we do this, some people in this world will respond favorably and some will not. So that will result in some suffering. But if it's for His purposes and His plan then we are to live with this attitude toward suffering - bring it on! Because all of us can handle anything that comes our way when God is with us (1 Corinthians 13). May God be our strength, our peace and our hope!!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Only One
READ Deuteronomy 6
There are Bible verses and musical lyrics that attribute the following truth to God – there’s no one like our God, no one at all. He’s the Only One. Glance through any part of scripture and I dare to say this truth is evident throughout all of God’s inspired word.
Read Deuteronomy 6 and you’ll see that Moses wrote about the Lord our God being the one. He writes that our God is a jealous God and that there’s a choice every one of us has when it comes to understanding who God is and what He wants from us. No where does the Bible tell us that anyone even comes close to comparing to His immeasurable and unconditional love for His children. He’s driven to do whatever it takes to make Himself known as the one and only God.
Yet for many reasons, people still decide to go against wisdom and decide they know better than God. They decide their ways are higher than His ways, so they choose to follow their own path instead of God’s.
As God’s children what are we to do when we see our friends and family making these choices that come with devastating consequences? We’re to love them; love them by praying for them. Take our concerns before the throne of God, to our King of Kings and let Him hear our requests on behalf of our loved ones. We’re to let God know that we want to be used by Him to make a difference in the eternities of those we know and love. And we’re to trust that God will work through us to give everyone we care about an opportunity to come to know this great God of ours.
And in the meantime, may all of us represent the Only One who can save us so that we may spend our eternity with Him in the heavenly realm. May the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be pleasing in His sight always!
There are Bible verses and musical lyrics that attribute the following truth to God – there’s no one like our God, no one at all. He’s the Only One. Glance through any part of scripture and I dare to say this truth is evident throughout all of God’s inspired word.
Read Deuteronomy 6 and you’ll see that Moses wrote about the Lord our God being the one. He writes that our God is a jealous God and that there’s a choice every one of us has when it comes to understanding who God is and what He wants from us. No where does the Bible tell us that anyone even comes close to comparing to His immeasurable and unconditional love for His children. He’s driven to do whatever it takes to make Himself known as the one and only God.
Yet for many reasons, people still decide to go against wisdom and decide they know better than God. They decide their ways are higher than His ways, so they choose to follow their own path instead of God’s.
As God’s children what are we to do when we see our friends and family making these choices that come with devastating consequences? We’re to love them; love them by praying for them. Take our concerns before the throne of God, to our King of Kings and let Him hear our requests on behalf of our loved ones. We’re to let God know that we want to be used by Him to make a difference in the eternities of those we know and love. And we’re to trust that God will work through us to give everyone we care about an opportunity to come to know this great God of ours.
And in the meantime, may all of us represent the Only One who can save us so that we may spend our eternity with Him in the heavenly realm. May the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be pleasing in His sight always!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Shortcuts?
READ Mark 12:29-31
Someone used this analogy and I liked it – in High School CliffsNotes were an ever-present reality. These notes were supposed to be a tool, a study guide to help students with reading a novel or play. While it’s true these helps could actually be beneficial in understanding difficult passages, nothing could replace a firsthand reading of the complete work. To read the CliffsNotes in lieu of reading the book or play would be like reading a recipe for apple pie instead of tasting the real thing. Shortcuts leave us shortchanged.
The same is true in our spiritual walk. We can try all the shortcuts but our results will leave us with nothing but a bunch of frustrations and disappointments. Listen, it’s easy to think of a whole list of other examples where shortcuts don’t work. So what’s the solution? Doing what’s necessary, doing the preparation needed to be ready when life storms come our way. I’m not going to give a long list of what to do so we can be sure we’re not left shortchanged. But what I will say is what’s important is we must always remember our priorities. Jesus said when asked about the greatest commandment, was that life’s all about love: Loving God and Loving Others, there is no commandment greater. Our capacity to love is aided when we realize it’s the power of the Holy Spirit living in us and through us that allows us to overflow with the love God has given us. We love because He first loved us. Understand these truths, live these truths and the rest is history as they say. May God’s love flow through you so that you’ll never again be shortchanged.
Someone used this analogy and I liked it – in High School CliffsNotes were an ever-present reality. These notes were supposed to be a tool, a study guide to help students with reading a novel or play. While it’s true these helps could actually be beneficial in understanding difficult passages, nothing could replace a firsthand reading of the complete work. To read the CliffsNotes in lieu of reading the book or play would be like reading a recipe for apple pie instead of tasting the real thing. Shortcuts leave us shortchanged.
The same is true in our spiritual walk. We can try all the shortcuts but our results will leave us with nothing but a bunch of frustrations and disappointments. Listen, it’s easy to think of a whole list of other examples where shortcuts don’t work. So what’s the solution? Doing what’s necessary, doing the preparation needed to be ready when life storms come our way. I’m not going to give a long list of what to do so we can be sure we’re not left shortchanged. But what I will say is what’s important is we must always remember our priorities. Jesus said when asked about the greatest commandment, was that life’s all about love: Loving God and Loving Others, there is no commandment greater. Our capacity to love is aided when we realize it’s the power of the Holy Spirit living in us and through us that allows us to overflow with the love God has given us. We love because He first loved us. Understand these truths, live these truths and the rest is history as they say. May God’s love flow through you so that you’ll never again be shortchanged.
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