The Right Comparisons
This is a devotional I received from a friend from At His Feet. Whom God Uses It’s quite an intimidating list. if you think about it. Abraham the man of faith Moses the lawgiver David, a man after God’s own heart Elijah the prophet Peter the rock Paul the evangelist Heroes of our faith. God’s anointed. Role models we can never live up to. Or so we think. It is profoundly encouraging that the great examples of faith and godliness in the Bible are not really the superhuman spiritual giants we’ve traditionally made them out to be. If they were, few of us would be eligible for God’s service. We just can’t relate to their spiritual stature. Lets take another look at that list. Abraham the liar (Gen 12:13) and the impatient one...
Prone to Distraction
i⋅dol /ˈaɪdl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ahyd-l] Show IPA –noun 1. an image or other material object representing a deity to which religious worship is addressed. 2. Bible. a. an image of a deity other than God. b. the deity itself. 3. any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion: Madame Curie had been her childhood idol. wor⋅ship /ˈwɜrʃɪp/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [wur-ship] Show IPA noun, verb, -shiped, -ship⋅ing or (especially British) -shipped, -ship⋅ping. –noun 1. reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred. 2. formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage: They attended worship this morning. 3. adoring reverence or regard: excessive...
What would stop if you died?
So we had a great church retreat over the weekend, and the overall message was both well done and impactful. The largest point that I took away was in the form of a question. The question was, “How would the advancement of the Kingdom of God be hindered if you weren’t alive?” The wording isn’t exactly right, but the thought is there. Before really going into it, yes, God is sovereign and His plans will not be foiled, but we need to understand that the Devil is a force to be reckoned with. Maybe that will push theological objections out of the way for now. So with that all said, I think it is a great point. We are called to big things for God even if we don’t know if it will succeed. Living safe lives were we risk little is just not what God would have...
Re-Entering the Struggle
I’m tired. Tired of running, wrestling, controlling, maintaining, and most of all acting like I’m not doing any of the previous. I entered the battle with one of my struggles about a year ago and slowly allowed myself to slip back into busyness and apathy. Now that I stand to some degree on the edge of the battle I find myself scared. Scared to re-engage because I know the amount of time and energy it takes for me to step back out on the field. I know I’m not called to stand here and watch, I think there are already plenty of Christian spectators and I know that I don’t want to be one… but I’m tired. To some degree I have forgotten how to fight well and it scares me to think about how long I will be fighting.
The power of will?
So you want to stop smoking. A great way to stop any trait you don’t want to do is to realize the steps that make you end up there and stop before you go down that road. It seems to work rather well its easier to kill the desire the earlier in the process you catch it. The only problem that I have with this is the lack of God in the equation. All of the things we try to fill our life with wont make us feel fulfilled and taking away one vice and not filling the void it leaves with God (and no I don’t know what that looks like) only leads to more vices in other areas getting bumped up. It’s a vicious cycle. Once one idol or trait is removed another one moves in to takes it place. Example: Is eating a lot a good thing to do to help you to quit...
What will it take to make your local church a family?
I feel like the Church (at least in the US) has broken away from the family atmosphere and has moved to a place that looks just like the secular culture outside it. Broken up by demographics, race, age, family size, parenting styles and in some cases geography. We are so busy with our lives that investing time into relationships in which our similarities are not obvious from the get go just doesn’t happen. The church becomes a dysfunctional group of clicks and people start noticing a lack of fellowship, gee imagine that.