One of My Favorite Songs...(w/ Music Video)

 

This has become one of my favorite songs, and it should remind us all of our worship to God and our responsibility to share Him with our neighbors and the nations.

 

Though most of you who read this blog aren't from the big NYC (as the ones shown in the video), I ask that as you listen and watch that you think of the people you pass everyday in the store. Think of the ones that you work beside. Think of the ones that you sit next to in class. Then think about the fact that God is sending you to them as a missionary. He is sending you to them as light and hope.

 

 

4 Parts of Effective Focus

Focus is important. What we focus on helps make us into who we are.

 

Here are 4 parts of the Christian walk that we need focus on to be effective members of the body of Christ.

 

 

 

1. Love Jesus:

"And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength."

Deut. 6:5

 

It all starts with us responding to His love with our love. Falling deeper and deeper in love with Jesus is what our entire Christian life is to come from. Without love from God and an increasing love for God, we will surely be a hotter mess than we already are.

 

 

2. Share Jesus:

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere--in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria,

and to the ends of the earth."

Acts 1:8

 

When you fall in love, you can't keep it to yourself. When Taylor and I got engaged last September, I wanted to tell everyone. We ought to feel the same way when we experience God's love for us. How could we ever keep a love that saves a secret. We must focus on sharing Jesus and His love with our community and our world.

 

3. Make Disciples of Jesus:

"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

Matthew 28:19

 

A love that saves is a love that changes. Focus on making an investment in the lives of others in order to see Jesus change them and make them more like Him. In the process, He'll be changing you too.

 

 

4. Celebrate Jesus Together:

"And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near"

Hebrews 10:25

 

A love that saves and changes ties those who have been saved and changed together. Focus on hanging out with other followers of Jesus to encourage each other and make much of Jesus. Don't get bogged down with routine. Just focus on Jesus and grow together. It's that simple.

 

 

See the common factor in all of these?

 

Jesus.

 

Focus on Jesus. He is Life, and our source for being who He has created and saved us to be. It's...

 

ALL ABOUT JESUS!



Done.

Done:

 

A word used to describe steaks and finished races.

 

Church, when it comes to mediocrity and complacency, this word ought to describe us.

 

 

I must confess, I have battled these two things over the past few weeks. I have battled them in me, and around me. They need to be battled, and it is only through God's grace that they are and will be defeated.

 

We must believe Jesus when He said, "It is finished." We must take Him at His word. He is honest. We can trust that what He says is true. So then, why don't we believe Him, or at least live like we do? Why do we continue to allow the sin that Jesus defeated on the cross to take hold in our lives?

 

Church, it is time for us to be done with this mess. The writer of Hebrews wrote...

 

 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us."

Heb 12:1 (NLT)

 

Hear that? Strip off. Cast aside. We need to be done with the things, especially sin, that trip us up. They need to be finished. They need to die.

 

God has given us a race to run. We are to run it with passion. We are to run it with perseverance and endurance. We are to run it with urgency. Church, we are called to be much more than a building and much more than a Sunday meeting. We are called to be holy and set apart. We are called to be salt and light. We are called to be missionaries to a world on its way to hell. Those are things that require more than religion and routine. Those things require an intimate relationship with Christ that goes beyond attending bible study or putting something about Jesus on facebook. Start by placing your faith in Christ, and fininsh by being done with anything that gets in the way of that.

 

 

Amigos

Amigos: Spanish word for friends. (From the Springs-Spanish-English Dictionary)


It's good to have some solid amigos. Friends that you can just hangout with. Friends that you eat with. Friends that you can call when you need them. Friends that you trust. Friends who are reliable. Friends who care. It's good to have some solid friends.

These are 2 of my friends from Brasil that I met 2 years ago.
 

Have any enemies? Anyone that you don't get along with? Anyone that hates you? Anyone that you just cannot stand? Maybe the very sight of this person makes you sick. Maybe when they walk in, you walk out.


This morning I sat and talked over some of the bible with a student. We're both reading through Romans. This whole thing of friends came up. When you read Romans, you have to ask yourself questions like, "Am I a friend of God?"

The first 3 chapters of Romans talks about how all men are sinful. We are that way by nature. We see that God hates sin, and cannot be in relationship with it. Where does that put us? Well, the bible teaches that we are born as enemies of God.

This is scary. This is terrifying. When we realize how jacked up we are, and how bad God hates that, we realize that we are in the deep in end of a pool called God's wrath.

But, then we got to Romans 5:11...

"So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. "

Romans 5:11 (NLT)

 

 

We were enemies of God. We had rebelled against Him, and He had turned away from us. There was a disconnect. A good, holy God cannot team up with sin. BUT, Jesus stepped in. Jesus laid down His life on the cross so that we could walk across as if He was a bridge to the Father. We, sinners, have been made friends with God! Not because of something we did, but because of what Jesus did.

 

What's your relationship with God like today? Is it tense? Is it awkward? Is it silent? Does it even exist? Or, is it one that is full of life? Is it one based on your trust and faith in Him and His grace to you? Do you sit and talk or do you walk by and wave? The truth is that we all have a relationship with God. But, we are either enemies or friends. Does your relationship with God feel distant and cold? Or, are you and God family? Ask yourself these tough questions. Maybe you were friends, but things have grown old. Come back. He is waiting to walk closely with you again.

 

Live out of thankfulness for this new relationship today. Let His grace flow through you. Live like a friend of God.

 



This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Romans 1:17 (NLT)

 



You Choose: Example or Excuse

It is easy to make excuses. I am a major mess-up, so I know all about them. They're easy to make when we sin. Others are easy to blame when things go sour. Its easy to expect much of people, but take no responsibility for/on ourselves.

 

I'm young and dumb. I come from a broken home. I grew up in a house where drug abuse and addiction played a big part. I have struggled to read. I go on stuttering rampages. I am not the coolest. I am a little ragtag. My pockets aren't usually full. I'm just all-around very good at making messes.

 

Those are some of the daily excuses that I battle, and my heart would usually love to use them. But, God says...

 

 

"NO!"

 

I'm chosen, blessed, adopted, forgiven, redeemed, and accepted by the one, true, living God of all creation. That gives a thumbs down to all excuses. That erases any ugly past, and any skeletons in your closet. His presence in us makes up for our stutters and stumbles. His grace empowers us to be more that young, dumb, and inexperienced. So, RISE UP. Rise up over your excuses. Rise up over your past. Rise up over your imperfections. Rise up over your surroundings. RISE UP! Christ did! And, haven't we been united with in His death and His resurrection? Rise up!

 

I believe that the Timothy of the bible had excuses. I believe Timothy had those who would look down upon him for his age and lack of experience. Why else would his mentor, Apostle Paul, say to him...

 

"Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity."

1 Tim 4:12 (NLT)

 

What will you be? Just another pile of excuses that point back to a broken and wasted life, or an example that leads others into the footprints of Christ? Will you continue to allow your downfalls to keep you down? Or, will you rise up in your new identity found in Christ Jesus? You are no longer to be an excuse. I believe those died on the cross too. Be an example today. The world needs Jesus. He has chosen you to show them His great love.