An Inconvenient Salvation
We recently had Missions Conference at our church, and four outstanding missionaries shared their burden and their vision for missions with our people. It was very well attended, the love offering for the missionary families was very generous, and in what seemed an all too short time, they were gone. I am left now with the memory of another year in which our people were challenged to think outside the walls of our church and gain a vision that will lead to a burden to do something, and do more to see souls saved. I wonder if anything will change. One of the missionaries spoke on this passage particularly: 2Corinthians 5:14 “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15 And that he died for...
No catchy title
Two unrelated things have struck me this week. First, I know that I am somewhat critical, cantankerous and often far less gracious than I should be. However, I thought I was making some progress until I read the “Having a curious reaction to the Prosperity Gospel” post at “Stuff Christians Like.” In essence, the post is about the reaction to an earlier post in which several commenters immediately went into negative reactions to the subject. Stop now, go and read it, it is pretty short. … Welcome back. It was nice, huh? The problem is that my first reaction was to agree with the negative folks. Crazy. All the work that God is doing in my life. The love that I am feeling around and through me and here I go bein’...
This one is for the parents
A buddy of mine gave me several Focus on the Family sermons and I have been listening to them during my commute. It was good and convicting to be reminded of my awesome responsibility to the three children that God has blessed my wife and I with. In one of the sermons, Dobson talks about how deeply burdened he is for the spiritual welfare of each of his children. Not boasting, he told that his wife and him had fasted one day each week for the lives of the children in which they pleaded that above all else, that God would grant them that their children would be among God’s saved people. I have struggled to have a decent prayer life, and still fall consistently short. With that said, I am in love the with idea of heaven and spending eternity with my...
Being Yourself
I hope I write well. I hope that I come across some what knowledgeable. I want to be one of those people…one of those people who is smart…one of those people that people come to, to confide in… one of those people you can look up too… but if I try to make myself into that person am I really being myself? I struggle with being honest. Am I being honest because I am honest or am I being honest because I should be? If I am just being honest because I should be does it mean I am an honest person? I feel like Christianity for me is sometimes just a charade. I look at the evil in my life and I don’t understand how people could believe me when I call myself a Christian (more importantly sometimes I even doubt it). Thankfully, my salvation...
Letting Go … by Accident
I haven’t often given God the chance to just do stuff for me. I’m good at the “Let go, let God” thing when I’m applying it to something that I have no control over anyway — like the illness of a family member or the actions of another person. But when it comes to my own problems and behavior, I hang on white-knuckled. For instance, I’ve been known to force myself to smile and start conversation with people I don’t know or have no reason to like, simply because I know I’m supposed to love them, and damn it, I’m going to love them if it kills me. I can’t let go and just let God change my feelings toward them. It’s my job to do that, my responsibility, my obligation as a Christian to follow that...