Faith like a child

As I sat there tears started to fall down. Not tears of sadness but tears of joy. I was at the Good Friday service at my church and I was watching fifteen of my brothers and sisters in Christ come and give their testimony and be baptized.  I heard what God had been doing in their lives over the past few years. How He had broken the chains of addiction and brought them to repentance. However, this is not what brought the tears of joy to my eyes. It was the younger children that came up and proclaimed in front of the whole church what they believed. Because of Christ's work on the cross and His resurrection they are now righteous in His sight. Some of them had such excitement in their eyes as they were giving their testimony. They get it! They are not confused by different doctrines are theologies, but they understand God's love for them. How often do we get so caught up in the different aspects of what we believe that we lose our focus on Christ? Tomorrow is Easter, the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us remember what has been done for us and because of that let us live to bring Him glory. Have a great Easter.

Devotions and Bible Studies

How often do we go into a church setting like a Sunday morning service or a college group with the expectation of getting a spiritual high?  A high that will make us feel good, convict us a tiny bit, and overall leave us with a feeling of satisfaction and general happiness. Then we leave and basically forget all that we heard. We continue on with our week almost in a spiritual low looking forward to the next service. Do we get involved in several ministries so we have these "highs" throughout the week? If our only times of prayer, study, and worship only happen in a corporate setting we are missing out on the most rewarding one on one times with our Savior. He loves when we come and spend time just being in His presence and learning from Him. We need to be filled daily with the Word through our devotions and prayer. Corporate meetings serve as a catalyst for studying throughout the week. Do our daily devotions stem off what we have heard or are they not connected at all? When we do this our devotions will grow deeper and the messages that we hear throughout the week will impact us for more than thirty minuets. Here is how I think we should approach church meetings/Bible studies.

Before:

• Prayer for the Spirit to work in our hearts and give the speaker the words to say.
• Remember the previous week's teaching and the lessons learned.
• Thanksgiving for what God has done since then.

During:

• Praising God for who He is and what He has done for us.
• Focus our mind completely on the teaching.
• Write down key points, application, and references to look up later.

After:

• Prayer for God's working during  the following week.
• Discussion with others about the message and service.
• Prayer for the church body.

There is one more area I want to address that goes along with all of this. We should apply this to the conferences and retreats we go to.  Personally when I have gone to different conferences or retreats I hear so many good things, but a few weeks later I can't really remember what they were and they have not done much for my personal growth. The reason for this is because after the conference we go back into our daily routine and forget about it. Invest follow up time to go over what you learned.


I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:16-19 

Dating the Church

A few weeks ago I listened to a sermon by Joshua Harris titled "Married to the Church." It was one of the best messages I have heard on commitment to the local church. We have a serious problem today. Christians are no longer committing to the local body. The church is the place where we will grow and we are encouraged. If we are not committed then we are missing out on a critical portion of our Christian walk.


Joshua Harris writes "I want to see my generation get a hold of God's purpose and plan for the local church, too.  We live in an increasingly fragmented and isolated world, and this has influenced the way we approach our relationship with God. We often see faith as a solo pursuit. Many young adults in particular have given up on the church. If they do attend, it isn't something that they invest themselves in passionately.  I believe the church is the most exciting thing to be a part of on the planet. It's the privilege of every Christian in every generation to play a small part in this very big and very awesome story God is writing."

If you would like to listen to the message click here.  

Joshua Harris also wrote a book on the subject titled "Dating the Church." I have not read it yet but it is going on my reading list.  Here is a quick preview.

Are you committed to the church or are you dating it?

The Gospel

This video does a great job of explaining the gospel. I think too many times we over complicate it. It is not something that is hard to grasp, but it continues to amaze me the more I reflect on it.  "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21. 

Content

Are you content with where you are?  Or do you have a "greener pastures" mentality? What I mean by that is, do you always think that in order to be happy you just have to get that new job, new car, etc.  It is easy to get into this mindset where we think one more thing will make us truly happy.  We live in cultural that is always telling us to not be content with where we are. From commercials to billboards we are told what will make us happy.  Basically our culture is telling us that we need to pursue our happiness at whatever the cost. However, this does not line up with we should be doing according to the Bible.

Phil 4:10-12 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

1 Timothy 6:7-9 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

Hebrews 13:4 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

 Does this mean we are just supposed to forget about ever being happy and just go through life like Eeyore? I don't think so. I believe that when we learn to be content with where we are in life we will then be the happiest. We will stop believing that one more thing will make us happy and we will realize that happiness is where we are right now. When we do this we will be happy in the good times and the bad times. Just as Paul said "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation." Stop thinking that a girlfriend/boyfriend, new computer, new car, new job, or anything else will finally make you happy and be content with where you are.

Disturb us, Lord

"When people get comfortable they forget about God."  This is a quote I heard a few weeks ago at a Life and Justice conference. How true that is sometimes. At Ignite (a college group at my church) this week we had a couple who are going to go over seas as missionaries in two months. They shared with us about the work that they were going to be doing over there. They also challenged us to view the people around us in our daily lives the same way that they are going to be viewing the people in the foreign country. We need to have the same heart for the lost that we interact with everyday as we do for the lost in a far away country. The missionaries shared a poem with us that is extremely powerful. Here it is.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.


Disturb us, Lord, when

With the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.


Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wider seas

Where storms will show your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.


We ask You to push back

The horizons of our hopes;

And to push into the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.

      attributed - sir francis drake -1577

Grace

Today I would like to take a look at grace. I do not think we will ever be able to fully grasp God’s grace for us. Let’s take a look in Romans.

Romans 5:20 -6:14

“The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

It is easy to talk or sing about God’s grace, but does it impact our lives? Do you believe that every time you sin God does not get angry at you but instead gives you unending grace? This should blow your mind every time you think about it. I want to conclude with one of my favorite quotes about grace.

"The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope — at the very same time. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin."
— Timothy Keller

Amazing grace how sweet the sound…