A verse to share?

If you don't know what the title of this blog is referring to, read the post right before this.

We're keeping this one up another week and hoping to get more of you to respond with scripture that inspires, challenges, encourages, maybe even exposes our need for Christ. I've all ready written the current two on post it notes and have them hanging in different places in my house...it's amazing how that small act has caught me in the midst of daily activity and prompted me to reflect on the things of Christ and my own life. Try it...you'll see what I'm talking about.

At the end of the day, there is nothing that we could write for you on this blog or that you could read that is more life changing than the scriptures penned by God himself.

Ephesians 2:8-10: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Were you challenged too?

Jim's message this past weekend was a very challenging one. But not in that beat-you-up-for-all-you-aren't kind of way. No, his message was challenging because it did something that is very seldom done in our culture these days - it required us to take personal responsibility - to stop making excuses and playing the blame game with our spiritual growth and to step up and OWN our growth in Christ. If you were hoping to pursue a 'comfortable' life with Christ - you were severely disappointed after hearing the message!

I heard a few things this weekend that I've really been chewing on. Here's one of them:

"The goal of growing spiritually is to have head knowledge that leads to heart trust which will produce order and shape our world."

Got me thinking - if I too applied even a fraction of what I all ready 'know' to my life...if I really allowed it to penetrate my heart...how might God use that 'knowledge' to shape my world in ways He's just waiting for me to allow? Hmmm...

Have you been able to prayerfully reflect on scripture and how it applies to your life this week as Jim challenged us to do? Do you have a verse that's been challenging you? encouraging you? inspiring you? How about posting it in the comments section - just the verse - so we can all meditate on it and see how God might speak to our lives through His word.

Here's mine...

Jeremiah 32:17 (New International Version)

¹⁷ "Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you."

an ugly picture

At this year’s Leadership Summit, founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, Bill Hybels, wrapped up one of the sessions by saying these words:

“If we lead without Christ, oh what an ugly picture.”

I immediately drew an analogy to our team.

If we lead without Christ from the stage,

oh what an ugly picture.

If we sing without Christ, oh what an ugly picture.

If we play our instruments without Christ,

oh what an ugly picture.

If we mix front of house and internet services

without Christ, oh what an ugly picture.

If we video without Christ, oh what an ugly picture.

If we present dramatic elements without Christ,

oh what an ugly picture.

If we address lighting and stage design elements

without Christ, oh what an ugly picture.

If we busy doing all we do without Christ in our lives, oh what an ugly picture.

If we have cut ourselves off from the Holy Spirit, His indwelling, His counsel, oh what an ugly picture.

What is the “ugly picture”?

It is the picture of withered, brown grass blown across an unswept sidewalk. It is the picture of cut, discarded limbs from a pruned bush. It is the picture of dried, cracked ground where once grew flowers.

It is the picture of a child of God spinning like a child’s toy, trying to serve without an inflowing Source from which to draw life, creativity, love, compassion, a servant’s heart, insight, courage, stamina, and determination.

It is a picture of uselessness.

And I don’t want to be useless. I do not want to be marginal. I want to be alive. To be transformed. To be a sharpened tool. To be energized by being at the center of all that God is doing so that I might have joy taking part in it.

Philippians 2:13 says this: It is God who produces in you the desires and actions that please Him. (God’s Word translation)

It is our proximity that allows us to experience God’s work in our lives, learning what pleases Him, hearing His promptings, bearing His message.

Stay close.

R

Are we brave enough?

"What do you have?  Give it to me."

That's what Jesus said to the disciples before he fed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish.  He didn't tell the disciples to give him what was NEEDED to accomplish this inconceivable task, but instead Jesus asked the disciples for what they HAD and to trust him to do the miracle.  In essence Jesus said, 'Give it over, get out of my way and let me be God!'

This illustration was used by Gary Haugen in his message this past weekend and it got me thinking - What am I 'giving' God?  Am I holding anything back?  Waiting to get better?  Am I being selective with what I give?  Am I being selfish with what I'm willing to release back to God?  Am I assuming what I have isn't enough?

Jesus is asking for me to give him what I have...right now, at this minute, as incomplete and broken as it and I might be.  Give myself to Jesus and let him do the miracle.

Seems so simple doesn't it?  Then what's holding us back?

Gary challenged us to consider what it could mean for our lives if we believed it when we heard God say,

'Follow me beyond what you can control, beyond where your own strength and ability will take you, beyond what is affirmed by the crowd and you will experience me, and my power and my love in a way that you cannot possibly imagine.'    

Guess what?  Those words aren't just a 'nice idea' - those words are a promise. 

Are we brave enough to believe them?