Your Story
I heard an interesting sermon Sunday. The main premise was what story is your life telling? If your life was a movie what is the grand finale your building to? The scripture reading was the parable of the sower and I have this fear that based on my goals I am the seed thrown in with the thorns. I need the Word of Truth to take root in my life and flourish. I need to rely on God to take care of me more then my savings account or my 401k. Am I alone here?
In the world
I’m searching for balance. Believe it or not, it seems to be much harder than you’d think, because it is admittedly so subjective. In living the Christian life I see extremes. Here are some themes I see as extreme: 1. Liberty in Christ without responsibility. The thinking goes along the lines of “I’m saved so I can do whatever I want. You cannot judge me. Only God can judge me.” There is no accountability there, and no responsibility. 2. Saved and Separated and out of touch. This is the more conservative side of Christianity where the saved take defensive positions within church walls and have no contact with the lost. They see the world as it truly is, a desperate and sinful place, but fail to see their place in...
The rich young man test
In Matthew 19:16-22, there is a great, yet pretty terrifying interaction between Christ and a rich, young man. In it, the young man asks God what he must do to be saved. Jesus lists several portions of the law, including ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ The young ruler boldly says that he has kept these, which Jesus doesn’t challenge (wow!). Beyond that, Jesus calls the rich young man to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. And with that the rich young man walked away dejected. I have been thinking about this a lot the last couple weeks. I think that materialism is one of the chief challenges to the church in the US. Given that, I have really been struggling through how I would respond if Jesus showed up at my work today...
Humility – the prerequisite of grace offered and received.
As I ended up my talk at the Men’s Bible Study almost a week ago, the progression of a study on pride naturally lends itself to a study on humility. Suddenly, there was a conclusion staring me in the face, that pride must be sacrificed if anything good is ever to come out of or into my life. Because Christ humbled Himself, the greatest good of salvation was made available to me. Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the...
P R I D E – it's all about "I"
Out of all the top sins in my life, I don’t think pride would have made my top 3 or even 7. Yet in the six (yea, seven) things God hates, “A proud look” makes the first on His list. (Proverbs 6: 16-17) In the New Testament, pride shows up again as one of three on a list as “the pride of life”. I John 2:16 Ever notice that the Bible also makes some very emphatic and exclusive statements and conclusions about pride? “Only by pride cometh contention: . . . ” Proverbs 13:10 and “Pride goeth before destruction, . . .” Proverbs 16:18 If God takes the issue of pride so seriously, why don’t I? The only answer I could come up with: my pride. As I began to delve into my own research to be able to teach...
It's All About Me
It hit me today that everything America is selling me is to induce pride in me. I need a great job, so I can make a lot of money, so I can buy the nice car and build up the nice nest egg, all so I can improve my status, look better in front of others and rely only on myself. Check out what John says. John 3:22-30 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for John had not yet been put in prison). 25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across...