Worry

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. (1 Peter 5:7 NLT)

Mature in The Lord

Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. (1 Corinthians 14:20 ESV)

Lord, don't let me forget

Today I was listening to something Brian McLaren video-blogged recently. I typically have nothing to do with Mr. McLaren - I believe some or most of his beliefs DO NOT match the word of God...he seems to embrace some form of universalism. But I was sent this link by someone and I wanted to check it out.

Like I said, I usually don't agree with McLaren but something he said today made me look inside myself. His main thought was "does the Holy Spirit not bring people to our churches because of our feelings of spiritual supremacy?" While I pray that is not true of our church today, it made me think...

I never want to forget all that God saved me from. The sins He freed me from as well as the hell He saved me out of. In a similar way, I want to always reach out to those who need Jesus - I want them to know I care and our church cares...no matter how broken they may be. "Lord, let me never forget and always reach out to those who need you."

I also can't change perceptions. I have loved people and stood for what Jesus says and still have had people say I am judgmental or unloving. In some of these cases the reason people are not becoming followers of Jesus is not because they are not loved, but because they don’t want to repent of their sin. Jesus said they hated Him and they will hate me, too. If I am going to be hated, I want to make sure it is because I am trying to be like Jesus, not because we’re being unlike Jesus.

Christ is Glorified

John Piper: "Christ is glorified in you when he is more precious to you than all that life can give or death can take."

God, Circumstances, and YOU

I have been thinking this week about the way circumstances affect how we see God and our belief system.

Earlier this week I was talking with a young man who was questioning God's existence based on some pretty lousy things he had seen people go through and things that he had gone through.

I was also thinking of another guy who would say he is a follower of Jesus, but, the truth is, he has seemed to follow Christ for a very long time...much of the rationale is in the amount of lousy things he has experienced. And he really experienced some lousy things in his life - infidelity, deaths in the family, significant change in income, as well as the other things in life that hit all of us. Pretty heavy stuff.

So here is the reality as I see it...and I am speaking as one who has had significant pain the last several years myself...God is either God or He is not.

We pursue Him because of WHO He is not just WHAT He has done. It is definitely easier to love God and pursue Him when we have money in the bank, our spouse is treating us well, we have no significant loss in our lives, etc.

But the truth is God is still God whether things are good whether we are going through pain.

I choose today to pursue Him...no matter the circumstance.