I have been reading lately about how students view God and how their views don't differ much from the adult congregation. It makes me wonder alot about how students are understanding the Gospel but more importantly the beauty and supremacy of God.
I want to post some things that I have read recently in some research that enlightened me about how students view God today. These are from Christ-followers and non-Christians.
1) There is a God that exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
2) God wants people to be good, nice and fair to one another, as taught in the Bible and by most religions.
3) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when He is needed to resolve a problem.
5) Good people go to heaven when they die.
I was shocked and saddened. Is this what the next generation of the church is thinking? I have my work cut out for me. These students need Jesus and God has called me to share with them the beauty of who He is. But am I living in a way that reflects His supremacy in my life?
Jesus asked the disciples in Mark 8:27-30 "who am I to you?" and I think that I need to be reminded every day of the God who loves me and is cheering me on. You see I tend to put God in a box. I limit the power of His greatness by confining His authority in my life. As a leader, I know I must find myself just the opposite if I want to see students radically changed. I have to pursue God with a passion and understanding that He is wanting to give me more than I can ever imagine, more than I could ever experience on my own and a life full of His presence. I know that many times I view Jesus as someone who I admire and ignore but that's because I think that my ways are "higher than His." He needs to be the supreme authority of my life in order to see the lives of others changed.
So what would happen if we stopped limiting what God can do when it comes to our prayers? our personal quiet time? sharing grace to others? our ministries? Can we truly allow God to be the supreme authority in our lives without hesitation? I believe the answer is yes!
If that is the case then we should be ready to say these things:
1) In light of all Christ is, there is far more of Him to know than I've discovered.
2) Therefore, I must be passionate to know Him much more than I am.
3) I must draw near to Him with far more hope in Him than ever before.
4) God longs for the church to discover much more about His Son.
5) I must, therefore, proclaim Him to believers more fully than ever.
6) I must never fear praying or proclaiming His glory to much.
I have not achieved or arrived at any of this but I want my life to passionately reflect these things.
A
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Seeing the impossible become possible
My heart is overjoyed this morning because we added a new person to the faith family. No, we didn't have a baby or get another dog, but we had a student last night accept Christ. It amazes me to see God working in the lives of students. You can see that they are living out the Word of God. I am seeing more and more that I can't control who comes to know Christ. The Father draws men unto Himself and the Holy Spirit opens the eyes and hearts of students. Lord, knows it's not my preaching that draws students! But it is awesome to see students living out their faith and seeing the fruit from it.
Last night we talked about how "through our eyes all things are impossible but through the eyes of God all things are possible". Sounds profound doesn't it? Well, it came from the Father but anyhow, we talked about how we as Christ-followers forget that we have been given the Living Spirit of God once we accept salvation. The power of God dwells within us to go out and do the "impossible" things, through our eyes, that Christ is calling us to do. We looked at two stories in Luke 9:1-6;12-17 the first being when Jesus sent out the disciples with "power and authority" to heal and share about the Kingdom of God. They were given a taste of the Holy Spirit to do the work of the Kingdom. But when they came back they were faced with a moment of truth, a moment of trust, a moment where they lacked the faith in Jesus, a moment of impossibility.
You see we forget that God has empowered us to do some impossible things such as, when I say impossible I am referring to the way we look at things through our eyes. Here are some examples: sharing our faith, having a personal quiet time, removing activities that pull us away from the Father, leaving some friends to go and share your life with those who have none, and the list can go on and on. The problem is that we lack the faith when we understand and see these things in Scripture. The disciples were given power and authority to do amazing things but failed to realize that Jesus was the One they needed to put their trust in. Why?
We have heard the story about the feeding of the 5,000 people, actually it was more like 20,000 people but when Jesus told the disciples to "feed the people" they protested and said "that's impossible." After they had done amazing miracles for the Kingdom they say "that's impossible?" So my thinking is this: how many times when we hear the Word, see the Word, feel God moving us to change something about our lives that we actually jump up and do it or how many times do we sit back and say "that's impossible?" We are no different than the disciples were that day. We neglect the power and authority that Jesus gives us for a comfortable life. We look to other sources instead of the Father when we are faced with impossible life decisions such as Oprah, Dr. Phil, facebook, T.V. etc.
So the question that I am asking is this: If you could do one thing that is impossible in your eyes and allow God to show you that it is possible through Him, what would it be?
Maybe we need to stop looking at the impossibilities and start trusting in God to make things possible in our lives.
Three things:
Last night we talked about how "through our eyes all things are impossible but through the eyes of God all things are possible". Sounds profound doesn't it? Well, it came from the Father but anyhow, we talked about how we as Christ-followers forget that we have been given the Living Spirit of God once we accept salvation. The power of God dwells within us to go out and do the "impossible" things, through our eyes, that Christ is calling us to do. We looked at two stories in Luke 9:1-6;12-17 the first being when Jesus sent out the disciples with "power and authority" to heal and share about the Kingdom of God. They were given a taste of the Holy Spirit to do the work of the Kingdom. But when they came back they were faced with a moment of truth, a moment of trust, a moment where they lacked the faith in Jesus, a moment of impossibility.
You see we forget that God has empowered us to do some impossible things such as, when I say impossible I am referring to the way we look at things through our eyes. Here are some examples: sharing our faith, having a personal quiet time, removing activities that pull us away from the Father, leaving some friends to go and share your life with those who have none, and the list can go on and on. The problem is that we lack the faith when we understand and see these things in Scripture. The disciples were given power and authority to do amazing things but failed to realize that Jesus was the One they needed to put their trust in. Why?
We have heard the story about the feeding of the 5,000 people, actually it was more like 20,000 people but when Jesus told the disciples to "feed the people" they protested and said "that's impossible." After they had done amazing miracles for the Kingdom they say "that's impossible?" So my thinking is this: how many times when we hear the Word, see the Word, feel God moving us to change something about our lives that we actually jump up and do it or how many times do we sit back and say "that's impossible?" We are no different than the disciples were that day. We neglect the power and authority that Jesus gives us for a comfortable life. We look to other sources instead of the Father when we are faced with impossible life decisions such as Oprah, Dr. Phil, facebook, T.V. etc.
So the question that I am asking is this: If you could do one thing that is impossible in your eyes and allow God to show you that it is possible through Him, what would it be?
Maybe we need to stop looking at the impossibilities and start trusting in God to make things possible in our lives.
Three things:
1) We have been given the power and authority to do great things for Christ
· 2 Cor. 5:5 and John 16:12-15 (Holy Spirit)
· “Feed them”
2) When God calls us, don’t’ focus on the impossible because God beckons us to make everything possible for His glory
· Romans 8:1-2 and Phil. 4:13
· “feeding of the 5,000 really 20,000 people”
· Salvation is impossible through our own power; God made it (possible) through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (impossible in our eyes)
3) Christ calls us to work alongside Him using whatever resources are available to magnify His goodness and power.
Luke 9:11-12 "Jesus was doing miracles and teaching about the Kingdom when the disciples returned"
· 2 Cor. 3:16-18
· “5 loaves of bread and 2 fish”
A
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Splinters from logs
Love doesn't judge; love doesn't condemn; love forgives and love gives.
I find myself evaluating my lifestyle today because I don't want to be a hypocrite. I am seeing alot of facebook replies that are talking about "this person said this or that" or "I hate you because you did 'xyz'"
I realized that I have made this mistake before. I rarely use the word "hate" but I might as well use it when people "tick" me off. But I was reminded this morning about how Jesus looked at this issue. Reading from Luke 6:37-42 I was quickly reminded about how I should respond.
The passage talks about using a certain measure. I came to the conclusion that this has two approaches: 1) the measure or standard is something set by me or 2) the measure or standard is set by Christ. Many times, I like to set the standard because I want to "get back" or "say my thoughts" about something someone said or did to me. But, I quickly realized that whatever my measure is, whatever my standard, either my self-righteousness or the standard that Christ shows, will be returned to me. Maybe not today or tomorrow but sometime soon. I think like most of us, we choose the first standard.
It's like this: I am a Christ-follower. I can't lead people, if I am blinded by my own self-righteousness. It's like Jesus said, "a blind man can't lead a blind man." I look at my life as a leader, pastor, husband, etc. and understand that I can't lead any of these areas if I, myself, am blinded by my own self-righteousness. I mean who are we to lead others or give council or show love, if we can't lead ourselves?
That's where the whole log in the eye comes from. How can we as Christ-followers tell others how to live if the splinters from the logs in our eyes are causing others pain and they turn away from Jesus? We can't. I think this is why Jesus was telling this to his disciples. You can't lead others or see others accept my forgiveness if you can't see your wrongs first. It reminds me of Romans 3:10-18 when it says that "no man is righteous; not even one." For many of us, we think that just because of our titles and prestige, we have the authority over others. We have been doing this longer than others. Wrong! We are in the same boat whether we have Christ or not. I am not righteous, far from it. So what would happen if more Christ-followers removed the logs from their eyes and healed the wounds that the splinters have caused in the lives of others?
We must first allow the only person that can fix us, fix us and that person is Jesus. Secondly, we must be forgiven of our wrongs before forgiveness can be received by others. So let's stop the self-righteousness, admit when we are wrong, show love the way that love was shown to us and make the standard of our lives the standard which Christ gave us: "love the Lord with all you heart, soul and mind and love you neighbor as yourself." ok?
A
I find myself evaluating my lifestyle today because I don't want to be a hypocrite. I am seeing alot of facebook replies that are talking about "this person said this or that" or "I hate you because you did 'xyz'"
I realized that I have made this mistake before. I rarely use the word "hate" but I might as well use it when people "tick" me off. But I was reminded this morning about how Jesus looked at this issue. Reading from Luke 6:37-42 I was quickly reminded about how I should respond.
The passage talks about using a certain measure. I came to the conclusion that this has two approaches: 1) the measure or standard is something set by me or 2) the measure or standard is set by Christ. Many times, I like to set the standard because I want to "get back" or "say my thoughts" about something someone said or did to me. But, I quickly realized that whatever my measure is, whatever my standard, either my self-righteousness or the standard that Christ shows, will be returned to me. Maybe not today or tomorrow but sometime soon. I think like most of us, we choose the first standard.
It's like this: I am a Christ-follower. I can't lead people, if I am blinded by my own self-righteousness. It's like Jesus said, "a blind man can't lead a blind man." I look at my life as a leader, pastor, husband, etc. and understand that I can't lead any of these areas if I, myself, am blinded by my own self-righteousness. I mean who are we to lead others or give council or show love, if we can't lead ourselves?
That's where the whole log in the eye comes from. How can we as Christ-followers tell others how to live if the splinters from the logs in our eyes are causing others pain and they turn away from Jesus? We can't. I think this is why Jesus was telling this to his disciples. You can't lead others or see others accept my forgiveness if you can't see your wrongs first. It reminds me of Romans 3:10-18 when it says that "no man is righteous; not even one." For many of us, we think that just because of our titles and prestige, we have the authority over others. We have been doing this longer than others. Wrong! We are in the same boat whether we have Christ or not. I am not righteous, far from it. So what would happen if more Christ-followers removed the logs from their eyes and healed the wounds that the splinters have caused in the lives of others?
We must first allow the only person that can fix us, fix us and that person is Jesus. Secondly, we must be forgiven of our wrongs before forgiveness can be received by others. So let's stop the self-righteousness, admit when we are wrong, show love the way that love was shown to us and make the standard of our lives the standard which Christ gave us: "love the Lord with all you heart, soul and mind and love you neighbor as yourself." ok?
A
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