Don't Give Up

We have all experienced the unfairness of life. We may have been overlooked for a spot on the basketball team because we didn't have the right last name. Perhaps we were passed over for a job promotion because of our personality, or perhaps the girl of our dreams rejects us by telling us that she loves us like a brother. There is doubt that life is filled with periods of time when thing just don't go our way.

These periods of time can be very disheartening and cause us to want to give up. It is bad enough to watch the unfairness of life happen to other people. From rich people getting way with murder to the horrible deaths of young children it easy to become overwhelmed with evil in the world. Yet we can stand back and intellectually give an account for why these type of things happen and distance ourselves from them.

It is another story when the unfairness of life comes into our lives. Though we may not verbally say it we believe that because we are Christians God should shield us from the evil which exists in the world, but He doesn't (at least not in the way we want Him to). After faithfully following Jesus we shouldn't God reward our service by giving us the life that we want? When He doesn't we are tempted to throw in the towel and just do our own thing.

Christians through the centuries have struggled with this feeling. People have turned away from God because He did not come through the way they expected Him to. It made it seem that all that they did and all their prayers meant nothing. If God isn't going to come through for us why should we give Him our lives to Him?

For you who have children you know that you cannot give into their every whim. Why? Because they don't about the consequences of their action, they have limited knowledge of how their actions affect their future. While you are doing what is best for them they often think you are being unfair.

The same is true with our relationship with God. We have a very limited knowledge of the future and what God is doing in the world. This limited knowledge makes it seem that God is unfair when He doesn't come through in the way we want Him to. Sometimes we have to trust God will the right thing even though it makes no sense to us.

The early Christians struggled with wanting to give up too. The trusted God and followed Jesus, but for many of them life didn't get better, it actually got worse. They were expected to make bigger sacrifices while being opposed by friends, family, religious authorities, and governmental authorities. They thought God was unfair.

The unknown writer of Hebrews wrote:

For God is not unfair. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown you love to him by caring for other Christians, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep right on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and patience (6:10-12; NLT).

We will never fully understand everything that God does or why He allows certain things to happen to us, but as we continue to follow Jesus and love one another we begin to develop a better understanding of what God is doing. Not because we gain some special knowledge, but because we experience God working though us to restore His Creation.

Life Significance

So many of us have settled for a life of mere exsistence. Part of the reason is because we believe, as Christ Followers, that the point of Christianity is to make us moral. We live our lives trying to be "moral" in whatever situation we might find ourselves in. Life is about adding morality to the cycle of bill paying, work/school, church, and chores that we find ourselves doing every week, if not every day. Yet something seems to be missing.

The life God created for us to live is a life filled with meaning. The lack of meaning in our lives is the first indication that we have wandered away from God's plan for our lives. Being a Christ Follower isn't just about becoming better moral people, in fact that is not even the main concern, it is about trusting Jesus more than we trust ourselves. It is stepping to the edge of the unkown and trusting Jesus to do the right thing. Morality doesn't add meaning to our lives; following Jesus does.

Jeremiah 29:11 reads; "For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope" (NASB). God has a plan for our lives and this plan is designed to give our lives purpose. It is more than just facing life in a moral manner, but it is about God working through us to impact the world.

Yes, I am aware that how we live our lives, the moral standard that we live by, is very important and provides a contrast to how the rest of the world lives. My point isn't that morality isn't imporant, but that it isn't the main thing. Answer this question: By following Jesus will we be moral people? Morality is the natural outcome of a person seeking to follow Jesus. If we focus on morality we might miss Jesus, but if we follow Jesus we will find morality.

Purpose is not found in morality but is found in following Jesus. What Jesus asks us to do on the journey looks different for each of us, but the call He gives is always the same: "Come follow me." While following Him Jesus might have us teach a class, write a book, sing a song, wash feet, serve dinner, give money, build a house, go to another land, give our lives, or any number of combinations or other things. The purpose God has for us in following Jesus is always about Glorifying God, expanding His Kingdom, and loving people.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is found in Acts 20:24. "But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus--the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness and love" (NLT). The Apostle Paul discovered his life only had meaning when he was living out his purpose, doing what God has called us to do. If we giving our lives away to anything else besides what God has given to us we will always find our lives meaningless and insignificant. We were designed to live a life of meaning which we only find in following Jesus. Are following Him?

Distractions

I have been distracted from writing this week, which has been a good thing for me, it has meant a lack of new content for you.  This next week I will have new stuff for your to read and hopeful to encourage you.  Thanks for reading Paul's Ponderings.

Sunday Quote: God Is Present

"It is so important to notice that both Abram and in Jesus' disciples, there is no sign of 'rebellion,' except with Judas (John 17:12).  There is sin in other areas of their lives, but one does not see an attitude of wanting to do the wrong thing.  They may fail, but not out of rebellion or hardness of heart.  They had to learn the hard way often, but God was present to forgive, guide, and encourage.  They always responded in loving faith and continued obedience." ~ Henry Blackaby, Created to Be God's Friend, p. 20

Where do the days go?

It is has been a couple of days since I last posted and I am not going to get a pondering done today, but I did want to let my loyal readers that I have not forgotten you.  I will be back with some new stuff tomorrow so you can stop by then.

God's Help and God's Expectation

{Ephesians 4:20-24; ESV}
But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

When it comes to following Jesus we need to remember two important truths.  The first truth is that we are unable to be faithful on our own.  Salvation begins and ends with God.  He is the one who took the initiative to save us and we can be confident that He will finish what He started.  Part of the way He is bringing transformation and life into our lives right now is through the work of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is God guiding our lives towards faith and maturity.  We must always remember that God does for us what we are unable to do for ourselves.

The second truth we need to remember is that God has certain expectations for our lives.  We are intended to reflect God’s love into this world, and therefore God provides us with commands and wisdom in His Word so that we can know the right way to live.  In the passage from Ephesians quoted above we see that we are to take off the old way of living, the way the world lives, and adopt a new way of living, the way of Jesus.  What we need to notice here is that Paul says this taking off and putting on is something that we must do.  God will help us in this process, that is why the gift of the Holy Spirit is such a wonderful blessing, but we have to make the choice to renounce the way of the world and submit to the way of Christ.  God will not do for us what He expects us to do for ourselves.

Take a moment and consider what author Dallas Willard wrote:

“The vitality and power of Christianity is lost when we fail to integrate our bodies into its practice by intelligent, conscious, choice and steadfast intent.  It is with our bodies we receive the new life that comes as we enter his Kingdom...If we are to participate in the reign of God, it can only be by our actions.  And our actions are physical—we live only in the process of our bodies.  To withhold our bodies from religion is to exclude religion from our lives.  Our life is a bodily life, even though that life is one that can be fulfilled solely in union with God” (The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 31).

I know this seems rather obvious, but I think the story of our lives show that we don’t do it.  We say we believe in Christ, but we haven’t allowed that reality to influence our behavior.  God expects us to align our lives with what we say we believe.  In other words our belief needs to influence our lives.  After wall that is what faith is all about.

You and I need to trust in God for our salvation.  The reason why we can find security in our salvation is because it depends on what God has done in Jesus Christ and not in what we have done, which would put our salvation on very shaky grounds.  Yet, that trust we have in God for salvation needs to begin to be seen in the way we live our lives, and that involves the choices that we make. These choices manifest themselves into action and through our actions we bring God’s love and His rule into this world.  We need both trust and choice in our lives to experience God transforming power in our lives.

People of Love

"But the others looked in the face of Aslan and loved him, though some of them were frightened at the same time. And all these came in at the Door, in on Aslan's right." ~ C.S. Lewis; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle

One of the undeniable truths of life is love has to be chosen. We cannot be made to love someone. Force does not inspire love in a other person. Love only appears when a person chooses, by their own free will, to love the other person.

I believe this is a key truth we need to know in order to understand the things we experience in life. Trials and temptations provide us with an opportunity to choose God over everything else. Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Life wrote:

"On the path to spiritual maturity, even temptation becomes a stepping-stone rather than a stumbling block when you realize that it is just as much as occasion to do the right thing as it is to do the wrong thing. Temptation simply provides the choice"(p. 201).

It is through continually choosing God that our love for Him grows and our relationship with Him is strengthened. If God never allowed temptation and hardship in our lives we would never have the opportunity to choose Him over the things of this world. God allows such things in our lives so we have the opportunity to pursue our greatest desire in life, a relationship with our Creator.

What God is looking for is not people of a certain moral ethic, but people who love Him more than anything in the world. One of the problems I had with Christianity when I was younger was how "good" people could go to hell. There are people in the world who give of their time and money to help people in need. They are good moral people and solid citizens, but they don’t have a relationship with God. It bothered me to think that such people could spend an eternity without God. That is when I began to realize the central commandment of Christianity is love. What makes us people fit for heaven is not obeying a bunch of rules on earth, but loving God and loving people. It is our choice to love which gets us ready to spend an eternity with God.

The Apostle Paul wrote this in 1 Corinthians 13:

If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn't love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn't love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever (vv. 1-3; NLT).

One of the truths Paul conveys here is that our lives, and even Christianity, find their value in our love. Our love first for God which flows into our love for others. Ultimately what should set Christians apart from the world is our love for God. Putting God first in our lives and loving Him above all things will make us different from the world around us.

When we love God we will act differently. Jesus said, "If you love me, obey my commandments" (John 14:15; NLT). Our behavior and our obedience to Jesus is an indication of our love for Him. We cannot love the One who has given us so much and continue to choose a life of sin. Jesus also said; "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33; NASB). When we choose to love God our priorities change. We begin to realize there is a bigger picture and our life is longer than our time on earth. Loving God means we will seek His kingdom and we will put our lives to doing His will.

We are made ready for heaven and an eternity with God by choosing to love God over everything else. God wants people who have set Him as the King, Father, Lord, and Savior of their lives. God created us to choose Him over everything else. It is God's great desire that He has a relationship with us, but we have to choose to be a part of it.

Sunday Quote: Living in the Presence

"The world is perishing for a lack of the knowledge of God and the church is famishing for want of His Presence.  The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter into the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us.  This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged.  This would burn away the impurities from our lives as the bugs and fungi were burned away by the fire that dwelt in the bush." ~ A. W. Tozer; The Pursuit of God, p. 20

A Life that Shines

In his book The Rise of Christianity Rodney Stark wrote:

“Let me state my thesis: Central doctrines of Christianity prompted and sustained attractive, liberating, and effective social relations and organizations.

“I believe that it was the religion’s particular doctrines that permitted Christianity to be among the most sweeping and successful revitalization movements in history. And it was the way these doctrines took on actual flesh, the way they directed organizational actions and individual behavior, that led to the rise of Christianity” (p. 211).

The implication of what Stark says is that the best evidence for the Christian faith is the conduct of Christians. When the followers of Jesus Christ make the doctrines come alive by the way they live, then much of the talking of Christianity’s critics will be silenced. Peter wrote about this reality in 1 Peter; For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people (1 Peter 2:15; ESV).

The key here is that we are to live counter-cultural lives. The Church in the United States has been good at speaking against the culture, but we have not been very good at actually living differently. We can say that we oppose gay marriage, but we also have to consider what our marriages say about God’s ideal for marriage. Opposition to recreational drugs is a good thing since they destroy so many lives, but what are we doing to alleviate the pain that drives people to these addictions? Being lights in this dark world is not just about taking the right stands, but more importantly it is about doing the right things.

We are expected to be shine in the darkness, just as the apostle Paul expected the Christians in Philippi to stand out for good in their wicked culture:

Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain (Philippians 2:14-16; ESV).

According to Paul we shine by the way we live. You and I will influence people more deeply by how we live than we will by what we say. That is why faithful living is such a powerful testimony of God’s work in the world.

Faithful living begins with what we believe. Paul says that we are to hold fast to the word of life. This requires that we keep God’s Word in front of us as much as possible. As Christ Followers we need to be intentional about daily reading the Bible. Yet we also need more than reading. We also need to be committed to studying the Bible. Study needs to take two forms in our lives. We need personal study as we study the Bible on our own through the help of books, podcasts, and different Bible Study methods. We also need group study. Learning in a community of faith, to be challenged and encouraged by the thoughts and reflections of other Christians is vitally important to our walk of faith. To Bible reading and Bible study we need to add meditation. Meditation is the act of reflecting, pondering, or thinking about a portion of Scripture. It is process that makes God’s truth a part of our lives, and thus becoming an influence in how we live.

To shine brightly requires that we don’t demand our rights. A life of faith is not about me first. Paul urged the Philippians to do all things without grumbling or questioning, because we are to live humble lives, putting others before ourselves. The way of the world looks to use other people for our own gain, which leaves a trail of wounded and broken people in our wake. While the world tells us to “look out for #1”; Paul tells us that the way of Jesus is the way of humility. In verses 5-11 of chapter Paul tells us that we are to follow the example of Jesus, the example of love and humility. Jesus came, not so He could use people for His advantage, but to serve people and save the world. By putting others first and helping those in need the follower of Jesus is set apart from the world.

We are to live blameless and innocent lives. That is the choice Paul is urging the Philippians, and by extension us, to make. The reality is that there are other choices that we can make. We can declare Christ as Savior and Lord and live like the world, but that wouldn’t make us lights because we are not standing in contrast to anything. We can declare Christ as Savior and live strange lives, like pulling out of society and living in a bomb shelter; that might make us odd, but it wouldn’t make us lights. We shine brightly in this world when we declare Christ as Lord and then align our lives to His will. It is the act of living according to Jesus’ will that sets us apart and makes us lights.

Living differently from the world isn’t going to happen by accident. Without making a decision to be different we will be pulled along by the current of our culture and end up being like everyone else. Therefore we need to make the choice to live differently from the world, not the choice to be strange, but the choice to follow the example of Christ in loving and humble service as we take the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness into the world. We are called to be the lights of the world. It is time to flip the switch and start shining.

A True Worshipper

Psalm 15

Holy and Loving God,

Open my eyes to Your wonders, to You love, and to Your grace. Help me to realize how wonderful and perfect You really are, and that all my attempts to worship You fall short of giving You the glory that You truly deserve.

I come to You to plead for mercy and for forgiveness. Guide me in the paths of righteousness and teach me what it means to truly trust You. Mold me into a true worshipper, so that You will be pleased, not only with the praise of my lips, but also with the song of my life.

God, look on the desires of my heart and the direction of my life and accept my sacrifice of praise. I want to be a true worshipper of You.

In Christ Jesus' name I pray, amen.

We are to be Holy

One of the words that we use at church is the word holy. It is one of those words that appears in the Scriptures, but I am not really sure we understand what it means. To be honest, I don’t know if many preachers know what it means, and therefore they never really take the time to offer a definition for the word. I got this simple definition from my brother and I think it explains holiness, what it means to be holy, very well. Simply put holiness is to be set apart from the ordinary.

We proclaim that God is holy because as the Creator He is set apart from the Creation. As our Lord and Savior He is set apart from sin and the ruling authorities of the world. I would even say that holiness is the key characteristic of God. From holiness flows all the other attributes which are essential to living a Christian life: Love, mercy, integrity, etc. Since we are created in God’s image He expects us, especially those who follow Christ Jesus, to be holy.

The is what the apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter about being holy:

So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:13-16; NLT).

To live holy lives means that we have to be set apart from the ordinary. This means that we can no longer just live like everyone else, instead we have intentionally follow Jesus. It means that we no longer seek to live life based on our desires and our will, but that we seek to live life according to the will of Jesus. To do this there are three elements that are required in our lives.

If we are going to live holy lives the very first element that must be present in our lives is self-control. Without self-control we will go with the flow of our desires which come to us through our flesh. We will lust, covet, hate, steal, lie, and curse. Instead of loving and respecting others we will put ourselves first. A life without self-control is a life that is lived without boundaries. The person does whatever he/she pleases.

Not only do we need self-control, but we also need to have hope. If there is no hope beyond what we experience in this life then it becomes very easy to justify satisfying our immediate desires. Even the apostle Paul wrote; And if we have hope in Christ only for the life, we are the most miserable people in the world (1 Corinthians 15:19; NLT). Yet when we have, an expectant assurance of things to come, we are able to put of temporary gratification and wait for the exceedingly wonderful blessings that God has in store for His children.

The third element that is essential to our holiness is being part of the Family of God. If we are not part of a fellowship and we are out doing our own thing then it really wouldn’t matter how we lived. Yet because we are part of the Family of God and name Christian associates us, not only with other Christians, but also with God Himself then our actions become very important. We need to realize that our actions are a reflection of not only the Church, but also of God. In the fellowship of the Church we are to find the instruction, the encouragement, the accountability, and the love we need to live holy lives. That is why being part of a local group of believers is so important in our walk with Christ Jesus.
People who have put their trust in Christ Jesus have been set apart from the ordinary, we have been made holy by Christ’s blood. As Christians we need to remember that because of Jesus we have been set apart from sin. The blood of Jesus has made it possible for us to be separated from the sin that has dominated our lives.

Not only are we separated from sin, but we have also been separated from the world for a special purpose. Christians are God’s special instruments to call a lost world back to Him. To be holy means we have a special calling, a purpose, in our lives.

Holiness is serious business. Until we commit ourselves to living a holy life we will miss out on the wonderful life God has planned for us. The road to the full life God has created for us is found through holiness.

There is Danger in Living Alone

Not only has God said that being alone is not good there are also some negative effects of loneliness and the lack of companionship.  In a very real sense being alone can be dangerous. According to a recent study there seems to be a link between living alone and developing dementia later on in life.  A lonely life is difficult life to live.

Solomon wrote about the negative consequences when he wrote about the meaning of life in the book of Ecclesiastes. He recognized some of the dangers associated with being alone.

Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? This also is vanity and an unhappy business. 

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.  (Ecclesiastes 4:7-12, ESV)

There are three negative consequences Solomon points out in this passage.

Life alone is futile
The example that Solomon uses is a man who slaves away working and building up an estate but has no one to share it with.  Why should he deprive himself pleasure of life if he cannot share the fruits of his hard work with people he loves?  A life of no family and no friends leads to a meaningless existence.  It might be fun for a while not to have to answer to others, but sooner or later the brevity of life reminds us that all the things in the world are meaningless without somebody to share them with. The futile life is a lonely life.

Life alone is helpless
When we are all by ourselves there is no one we can rely on to help us out, we are alone.  Who can we call on to help move?  Who do we trust enough to be our business partner? To whom can we turn to for help?  When we are alone we cannot accomplish as much as when we are with people, the return on our work is terrible.  We may be sitting at the top of the heap, but it is requiring more and more effort that we don’t have to stay there.  The solitary life is a lonely life.

Life alone is weak
Great teams are made of individuals working together.  I have watched many teams, particularly basketball teams, who had one great superstar but no one else.  The superstar may score 63 points, but because there is no teamwork the team is defeated.  We can be strong and tough and able to do a lot on our own, but by ourselves we will sooner or later be defeated by life.  There is no way we can make it through life without the encouragement and help of other people.  The lack of companionship will lead to the greatest defeats of our life.

God created us to be social creatures.  We need other people in our lives.  Companionship infuses our lives with meaning, help, and strength.  Without those components life is very difficult to live and we will wonder point of it all is.  The danger of loneliness is that we will ultimately give up on life.

Point to Ponder: A lonely life is difficult life to live.
Passage to Remember: Ecclesiastes 4:7-12
Question to Consider: What difficulties has loneliness brought into your life?

Alone with God

{Matthew 6:5-6; ESV} 

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

One of the temptations that we face in living the new life we have in Christ Jesus is to settle for a life of religion.  This is easy to do because religion feels “spiritual” because its purpose is to connect us to God.  Yet, religion is an attempt to short cut process of true transformation.

One of the ways we will know that we have a problem in our relationship with God is when our “spiritual” life is done entirely in public, for the show of others.  We won’t use our private time to connect to God, but we will use public moments to appear “spiritual” or “religious” in order to impress certain people.  For me those people have been my family.  Who has it been for you?

Way back in 1895 a pastor by the name of Andrew Murray wrote:

If you are not willing to sacrifice time to get alone with him, and to give him time every day to work in you, and to keep up the link of connection between you and himself, he cannot give you that blessing of his unbroken fellowship.  Jesus Christ asks you to live in close communion with him.  Let every heart say: “O, Christ, it is this I long for, it is this I choose.” And he will gladly give it to you. (Humility and Absolute Surrender, emphasis added, p. 157).

I think Andrew Murray hits on one of the common experiences we all have as we follow Christ Jesus: being selfish with our time.  The older we get the less time we seem to have, and yet we seem to find the time to watch movies, hang out with friends, and go to the mall.  What gets sacrificed is our relationship with Christ, and thus our connection to our source of transforming new life shut off.

The most important choice we can make each and every day is the choice to put aside good things and spend time with God through prayer, reading, worship, and meditation.  God longs to give us life, but we have to ask for it.

The Ball is in Our Court

{Colossians 3:1-4; ESV}

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 

The apostle Paul is pulling together two very important ideas.  The first is that we have new life in Christ.  The Apostle writes; If then you have been raised with Christ. The resurrection of Jesus guarantees life to all those who have trusted in Him.  This is so essential to get: Christ’s death and resurrection makes it possible for us to be transformed.  It has nothing to do with what we have done.

The second idea is that Paul expects us to seek the things that are above and to set your minds on things that are above.  These are choices and actions that God expects us to make.  He has given us new life in Christ, but for us to experience that life there are certain things we must do.

I think Christian scholar Dallas Willard hits upon this truth when he wrote:

Everyone must be active in the process of their salvation and  transformation to Christlikeness. This is an inescapable fact.  But the initiative in the process is always God’s, and we would in fact do nothing without his initiative.  However, that initiative is not something we are waiting upon.  The ball is, as it were, in our court. God has invaded human history and reality.  Jesus Christ has died on our behalf, is risen, and is now supervising events on earth toward an end that he will certainly bring to pass, to the glory of God.  The issue  now concerns what we will do (The Renovation of the Heart, emphasis added, p. 82).

Think of it this way.  In the United States you have been given the opportunity to receive an education.  This opportunity has been provided to you through the taxpayers, through school districts, and through teachers; but for that education to really payoff there is work you must do, and the quality of your education is really an indication of the work that you have put into it.

We have new life in Christ, but the extent we experience that new life depends on our choices and actions. The ball is in your court, what are you going to do with it?

Sunday Quote: Face Our Problems

"When you ignore problems, you relinquish a place of truth.  When you ignore obstacles, you communicate a lack of confidence that God can overcome obstacles that have debilitated or even paralyzed God's people.  Identifying the clear problems is not expressing pessimism or negativity.  It is not judgmentalism or condemnation. It is standing to face whatever Goliaths stand before God's people and speaking with confidence about a future gained after Goliath's defeat.  Identifying the clear problems is the beginning point of spiritual warfare in leadership.  It gives the spiritual leader an opportunity to call God's people to prayer and usher in the promises of God, promises of a future and a hope." ~ Erwin McManus; An Unstoppable Force, p. 191