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Spend Your Time Wisely

February 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Jesus spent three years training twelve men to live, and breathe what he taught them.  He never wrote a book, he never tweeted what he was doing, and he did not spend one second on facebook.  Two thousand years later we use his birth to demarcate our western timeline.  We are changed by Christ and his teaching those few people, and them teaching a few people all of which took place for over three hundred years until the Roman Empire took over the church as we know it.

My point is this. We have all the books we need to read.  Let’s start building relationships and really pouring our lives into those we come into contact with.

Who are you really pouring your life into?

Are you focusing on the few, or the many?

Are you trying to teach success, or how to truly live?

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Living A Life Of Prayer

February 9, 2011 By 6 Comments

Did You Remember To Pray Today?

Prayer is the center of the Christian life.  Through out history there are stories of Christians that prayed fervently several times each day, and some even constantly;  never-ceasing.

Many times we look at these as if they are just stories, or as if these people were super human and could not do things like that today. I know I have led a start and stop kind of prayer life compared to them.

The good news and the bad news are the same. These people were and are real, and these are not just stories. I say it that way so we understand that we can pray like the many famous Christians that came before us because they were human, and struggled with life just like we do today.

In The Practice of the Presence of God Brother Lawrence talks about always being in connection with God and not ceasing in our prayers. He talks of taking time and really practicing to stay in Gods presence as much as possible.

You can live a life of prayer even in today’s society. We only need to be willing to do it.

It’ All In Our Habits

We think we don’t have enough time or we are not versed well enough in prayer, but those are quite possibly not all together true. Most of what we do in our daily lives are habits. Think for a minute. Have you ever said, “I forgot to pray today,” or “I forgot to read my bible”? We forget because we have not made prayer or bible study habits in our lives.

We don’t remember to pray because we are not in the habit of praying.

So how do we remember to pray? First we need to discover what prayer really is. Prayer is a conversation between us and God. Nothing more nothing less. Prayer isn’t a magic incantation that we can say to get something done. It is us talking to God, then listening to him talk to us.

Having A Conversation

If we are going to talk to God how do we start. Look at it this way. If you are trying to learn about a person you just met how would you do that. The best way is to just start talking and listening and Jesus gave us the model.

5 When you pray, don’t be like those show-offs who love to stand up and pray in the meeting places and on the street corners. They do this just to look good. I can assure you that they already have their reward.

6 When you pray, go into a room alone and close the door. Pray to your Father in private. He knows what is done in private, and he will reward you.

7 When you pray, don’t talk on and on as people do who don’t know God. They think God likes to hear long prayers. 8 Don’t be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask.

9 You should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
help us to honor
your name.

10 Come and set up
your kingdom,
so that everyone on earth
will obey you,
as you are obeyed
in heaven.

11 Give us our food for today.

12 Forgive us for doing wrong,
as we forgive others.

13 Keep us from being tempted
and protect us from evil. (Mathew 6:5-13 CEV)

We take so much time to do other things, let’s start taking time while we are doing those to just have a conversation with God.

 

Image used under cc2.0 license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/aronki/

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There Is Always A Price To Pay

February 8, 2011 By 4 Comments

No matter what we do in life someone has to pay for it.  Yes, even our free school system is not free.  Our taxes pay for schools and public services.  Our income is taxed to pay for the federal government.   What we bring home pays for our house and utilities.  Everything we do has a price.  When I was younger I did not think I needed an education.  I joined the military and believed that I was going to get by there without much hassle, but my military career only lasted four years.  Six years after I left the military I reentered college at 31 years old and finished my degree at 35.  John Maxwell said,

“Everything has a price.  You can either pay now or you can pay later, but you will pay.”

This fact became very real to me as I  read through the book of Leviticus in the bible.  God laid out a system to show the Israelites that every thing they did had to be paid for.  Every time they fell short of Gods standard, they had to offer a sacrifice to make up for that sin.  Much of my life has been spent not wanting to believe that what I do has consequences. I know now with looming Dr’s visits that I am going to pay some sort of price that remains to be seen, but I will pay for my stupidity.

Romans 6:23 summarizes Leviticus saying, “Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death.”  Everything we do has a price.  Whether it is hard-drinking, womanizing, premarital sex, porn, theft, or just arguing with your kids;  every thing has a price.  I thank God that everything also has been paid for in the death of Jesus.  Jesus paid for our sin on the cross.  The last part of Romans 6:23 says, “But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.” No matter how bad we have been, no matter how much we have fallen short of God’s ultimate standard, Jesus will stand between us and God and say I have paid for that in full.

Scripture taken from The Message

Image used under cc2.0 license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharpstick/

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Celebrating Lent As An Evangelical

February 3, 2011 By 2 Comments

Celebrating Lent as an Evangelical can be awkward but also eye-opening.  It can be awkward because most of the people you know will think you are weird or trying to earn God’s favor.  It can be eye-opening because you can learn what really has a hold on your life, and how far you are from putting Christ first.

My family observed lent for the first time in 2008.  We gave up television and video games and spent much more time praying and studying the bible together. We fast for six days taking Saturday or Sunday off because there are actually 46 days in the seven weeks from Ash Wednesday to Easter.

Wikipedia says,

Lent in the Western Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Conventionally, it is described as being forty days long, though different denominations calculate the forty days differently. The forty days represent the time that, according to the Bible, Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by Satan.

Why Celebrate Lent?

While it is not required that we celebrate Lent as Christians, and yes we can take forty days and fast any time we want.  For me doing it during this time helps prepare for Easter and the celebration of Christ rising again.  For many of us abstaining from anything could be a big breakthrough in our faith because we over indulge so much in American Christian society.

What Do You Need To Do?

The simplest answer is find something that has become a habit at least or a sin at worst in your life and give it up (fast from it) for the weeks between Ash Wednesday and Holy Week (February 22nd – April 7th 2012).  Use the time you would have spent eating, watching television, or playing video games to get closer to God through prayer and bible study.

Don’t make it a law.  We like the idea of taking one day off because it helps put what we are doing in perspective.  We are not doing it to earn God’s favor, but to use the time we would spend doing other things to get closer in our relationship with Jesus.

I hopes this helps, and If you do Celebrate Lent and an Evangelical leave a message in the comments below

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