I came across this on Facebook here and thought it was excellent:
By Keith Ferrin - Founder and President, True Success Coaching - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. Colossians 3: 23-24
It seems you can’t pick up a business book or magazine these days without reading something about “work-life balance.” Everything I read about a balanced life sounds really good. The problem is, I have a hard time actually doing it.
In fact, whenever I bring up the concept with someone, I can almost predict the eye roll followed by the heavy sigh. I have come to believe the reason for this is because God doesn’t call us to a “balanced” life but rather an “integrated” life.
The primary metric for measuring a balanced life is time. If I spend this much time at work versus spending this much with my family, serving my community or worshiping at church, my life will be balanced.
Alternatively, the primary metric for measuring an integrated life is lordship. So, instead of determining how much time I am spending here or there, the real question becomes, Is Jesus Christ the Lord of every aspect of my life?
It is wholly possible to live a balanced life yet not give Christ lordship over a certain area or areas of our life. Jesus wants to be Lord of everything—our work, family, friendships, leisure time and worship. The bottom line is that a balanced life can still be compartmentalized, but an integrated life cannot.
Paul begins the second half of his letter to the Ephesians with these words: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Ephesians 4:1). Here are just some of the areas of life he then goes on to discuss:
• Relationships
• Attitudes
• Reconciliation
• Our calling
• Service to the church
• Maturity
• Our minds
• Sexuality
• Honesty
• Work
• Our attitude toward money
• Our willingness to forgive others
• Our relationships with nonbelievers
• Wisdom
• Purity
• Marriage
• Our duties as parents
• Our relationships with bosses and employees
• Prayer
• Unity
• Our encouragement of one another in our calling
Now that’s an integrated life!
Quite honestly, integration is harder than balance. But it’s what we’re called to do, and it leads to a sense of purpose and fulfillment that only comes from placing ourselves daily—in the center of God’s will. Integration requires examining our lives to see where we need to give Jesus His rightful place as Lord, discovering what we need to do in order to be obedient to His calling and executing those action steps, and conducting a regular evaluation that covers all areas of our lives.
Living an integrated life is a journey, not a task. There is no deadline. There is no chart or graph, just a constant prayer running through our minds: “Jesus, this day and every day, I give You Your rightful place as Lord of everything I am and do. When this day ends, may You be smiling. Amen.”
From Devotional Ventures, © 2007 by Corey Cleek
Published by Regal Books.
Grace and Peace
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Man And The Birds
I originally heard a version of this from Chuck Smith on the radio. This version is credited to Paul Harvey, here:
http://www.tyny.com/christmasstory.html
The man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn't make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn't swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man.
"I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, "but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd feel like a hypocrite. That he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service.
Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound...Then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud...At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.
Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them...He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms...Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn.
And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me...That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.
"If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe, warm...to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear and understand." At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells - Adeste Fidelis - listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.
http://www.tyny.com/christmasstory.html
The man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn't make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn't swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man.
"I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, "but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd feel like a hypocrite. That he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service.
Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound...Then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud...At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.
Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them...He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms...Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn.
And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me...That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.
"If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe, warm...to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear and understand." At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells - Adeste Fidelis - listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Do You Hate?
Do you hate? How about this for my brothers and sisters -- as a Christian, do you hate?
You should.
Not just anything mind you, but you should hate your sin.
I remember the days before I came to know Jesus Christ. I practiced sin. I enjoyed sin. I was proud of my sin. I loved it. I loved frittering away my time every night engaging in mindless gaming until 2 in the morning. I enjoyed downloading and watching filth from the Internet. I practically worshiped the sports car I drove and selfishly spent way too much money on.
And deep inside I was hollow and empty and dead, unknowingly searching for satisfaction in all the wrong places. Nothing in this world can ever satisfy, and I had in my heart fear, anger, jealousy, worry, greed, lust, and a host of other feelings that are unpleasant and lead to ruin.
Then I came to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. He completely transformed my heart -- and he did it in one night. Seriously. Once I came to realize the truth of the Word of God and begged him to save me, he did, and it was in such a powerful way there is no doubt that it was completely of God. Its like a switch was flipped in my heart and mind. One day I was a child of wrath enslaved to sin, and the next I was free and wanted nothing to do with it.
Don't get me wrong, the desire to follow Christ was there, but I have willfully sinned against God since that day also -- in some of the same ways as my old nature reveled in. But it was different. Instead of loving it, I hated it. I felt awful for slapping my Lord and Savior in the face and making a mockery of his sacrifice on the cross. Praise God for that kind of sorrow and hatred, for it was further evidence of the new life in my that is undeniable.
I wrote all that just to write this -- we are exhorted in scripture to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith. In other words, we should look at our own lives and figure out if we're doing a good job following Christ or not. One way to do that is to look at our attitude toward our willful sin. Do we pretend it doesn't exist? Do we rename it? Do we excuse it? Do we ignore it? Or, knowing what it cost to be free from it, do we absolutely hate it?
Grace and Peace friends
You should.
Not just anything mind you, but you should hate your sin.
I remember the days before I came to know Jesus Christ. I practiced sin. I enjoyed sin. I was proud of my sin. I loved it. I loved frittering away my time every night engaging in mindless gaming until 2 in the morning. I enjoyed downloading and watching filth from the Internet. I practically worshiped the sports car I drove and selfishly spent way too much money on.
And deep inside I was hollow and empty and dead, unknowingly searching for satisfaction in all the wrong places. Nothing in this world can ever satisfy, and I had in my heart fear, anger, jealousy, worry, greed, lust, and a host of other feelings that are unpleasant and lead to ruin.
Then I came to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. He completely transformed my heart -- and he did it in one night. Seriously. Once I came to realize the truth of the Word of God and begged him to save me, he did, and it was in such a powerful way there is no doubt that it was completely of God. Its like a switch was flipped in my heart and mind. One day I was a child of wrath enslaved to sin, and the next I was free and wanted nothing to do with it.
Don't get me wrong, the desire to follow Christ was there, but I have willfully sinned against God since that day also -- in some of the same ways as my old nature reveled in. But it was different. Instead of loving it, I hated it. I felt awful for slapping my Lord and Savior in the face and making a mockery of his sacrifice on the cross. Praise God for that kind of sorrow and hatred, for it was further evidence of the new life in my that is undeniable.
I wrote all that just to write this -- we are exhorted in scripture to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith. In other words, we should look at our own lives and figure out if we're doing a good job following Christ or not. One way to do that is to look at our attitude toward our willful sin. Do we pretend it doesn't exist? Do we rename it? Do we excuse it? Do we ignore it? Or, knowing what it cost to be free from it, do we absolutely hate it?
Grace and Peace friends
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Spiritual Switzerland
When it comes to the things of God, you can't be Switzerland. You have to take sides -- in more ways than one.
One way is in the answer you give to the question of "Who is this Jesus anyway?"
You can choose to be with the allied forces by acknowledging that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, fully God and fully man, come to earth to live among us and die on a cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, thus ushering in the start of God's spiritual kingdom here on earth.
Or you can choose to be with axis forces by claiming that Jesus is just a "carpenter who talked a lot", a philosopher, a good example (but still only a man), a prophet and nothing more, or even a legend. That's a sad choice because its a wrong choice.
But choosing not to decide to answer the question at all is still making a choice. In a song called "Free Will" by the band Rush there is a line that goes "if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice" and that is absolutely true. Not choosing still leaves you in the hand-basket along with everyone else who rejects the savior of the world.
No, to inherit eternal life, you must choose to acknowledge who you are before God acknowledge who Jesus is, repent of your sins, and accept his free gift of salvation. When you really and truly do that he will be a new heart in you that only wants to please him. In short, as the Bible says, you must be born again.
Another way you take sides in how you walk Jesus once your are born again of the spirit of God.
You're either moving closer to God in your walk or further away. You can't stand still, you can't tread water. Its one way or the other way.
We who are believers should constantly check ourselves, check our actions, check the motives behind them, and see if we are growing in faith and moving closer to God or not.
Its like being caught up in a fast moving current of water. If you try to stand still, you'll just get swept up by the current and moved far away from where you are. And so it is with following Christ -- we can either actively check ourselves and take measures to keep moving forward on the road to life or we can get swept away by the cares of the world, or carried away by false doctrines that center around a false Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, test yourselves often to see what the evidence in your life says about your walk with the LORD. Others, please throw your very lives to Jesus and ask him to transform you from the inside out -- he is this only one who brings lasting joy!
Grace and Pace
One way is in the answer you give to the question of "Who is this Jesus anyway?"
You can choose to be with the allied forces by acknowledging that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, fully God and fully man, come to earth to live among us and die on a cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, thus ushering in the start of God's spiritual kingdom here on earth.
Or you can choose to be with axis forces by claiming that Jesus is just a "carpenter who talked a lot", a philosopher, a good example (but still only a man), a prophet and nothing more, or even a legend. That's a sad choice because its a wrong choice.
But choosing not to decide to answer the question at all is still making a choice. In a song called "Free Will" by the band Rush there is a line that goes "if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice" and that is absolutely true. Not choosing still leaves you in the hand-basket along with everyone else who rejects the savior of the world.
No, to inherit eternal life, you must choose to acknowledge who you are before God acknowledge who Jesus is, repent of your sins, and accept his free gift of salvation. When you really and truly do that he will be a new heart in you that only wants to please him. In short, as the Bible says, you must be born again.
Another way you take sides in how you walk Jesus once your are born again of the spirit of God.
You're either moving closer to God in your walk or further away. You can't stand still, you can't tread water. Its one way or the other way.
We who are believers should constantly check ourselves, check our actions, check the motives behind them, and see if we are growing in faith and moving closer to God or not.
Its like being caught up in a fast moving current of water. If you try to stand still, you'll just get swept up by the current and moved far away from where you are. And so it is with following Christ -- we can either actively check ourselves and take measures to keep moving forward on the road to life or we can get swept away by the cares of the world, or carried away by false doctrines that center around a false Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, test yourselves often to see what the evidence in your life says about your walk with the LORD. Others, please throw your very lives to Jesus and ask him to transform you from the inside out -- he is this only one who brings lasting joy!
Grace and Pace
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Get Off The Evolutionary Fence
In Genesis 1, the Bible has recorded the account of creation. There are those who claim to not believe in God and say that the universe came from nothing, life came from non-life, and we evolved from very simple organisms into the menagerie of plants and animals we see today. Really I think that's a load of hogwash that's not supported by the evidence, and that it takes more faith to believe it than to believe the simple Biblical account. The simplest logical pieces of evidence are the appearance of diverse life suddenly in the fossil record, no record of transitional lifeforms, and the problem of irreducible complexity (i.e. certain cells cannot possibly have evolved from something simpler because there is no way they would be able to function).
The fact that the universe and life were created seems pretty straightforward to me as a believer. It also seems that those non-believers who hold to a evolution really don't have a leg to stand on and just don't want to admit a world exists where there is a greater power than them -- I'd wager because that means accountability to that greater power.
But there is another, more puzzling, camp. Those believers who want to compromise with the evolutionary scientists. "Maybe God used evolution to bring life to this earth." I thought this myself a long time ago before I actually came to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ -- in a time when I claimed to believe in God, but i didn't really know him at all. Let's get this straight. there is NO compromise. We're here via creation by God Almighty or we're here through evolution, period.
Why?
Well first of all there is the problem of sin and death. If we evolved from something simpler over a huge amount of time, there would be all kinds of death going on in the perfect world God created over millions of years. Now if there was no death until sin entered the world and corrupted creation, and sin didn't enter the world until the fall of man, we've got a big problem on our hands.
But there's an even bigger problem for the one trying to accommodate both creation and evolution. The Bible teaches we have an immortal soul, making us unique, special creations of God. I like the way C.S. Lewis put it actually -- "You don't have a soul. You ARE a soul. You have a body." And the body is just a tent we have for now. It will get old. It will die. We will live on. Those in Christ will be like him in the age to come.
Even if you could evolve from simple life into more and more complex life in the physical sense, you can't evolve from a creature with no soul to one with a soul. We must choose a side -- you can't have it both ways. To accommodate evolution denies the truth of scripture. To believe the Bible demands a rejection of evolutionary theory. Period.
Know that we are more than physical beings. More than really smart animals. We are first and foremost spiritual beings, with a deep longing inside to be reconnected with our creator, and that reconnection only comes through knowing and loving the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and Peace
The fact that the universe and life were created seems pretty straightforward to me as a believer. It also seems that those non-believers who hold to a evolution really don't have a leg to stand on and just don't want to admit a world exists where there is a greater power than them -- I'd wager because that means accountability to that greater power.
But there is another, more puzzling, camp. Those believers who want to compromise with the evolutionary scientists. "Maybe God used evolution to bring life to this earth." I thought this myself a long time ago before I actually came to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ -- in a time when I claimed to believe in God, but i didn't really know him at all. Let's get this straight. there is NO compromise. We're here via creation by God Almighty or we're here through evolution, period.
Why?
Well first of all there is the problem of sin and death. If we evolved from something simpler over a huge amount of time, there would be all kinds of death going on in the perfect world God created over millions of years. Now if there was no death until sin entered the world and corrupted creation, and sin didn't enter the world until the fall of man, we've got a big problem on our hands.
But there's an even bigger problem for the one trying to accommodate both creation and evolution. The Bible teaches we have an immortal soul, making us unique, special creations of God. I like the way C.S. Lewis put it actually -- "You don't have a soul. You ARE a soul. You have a body." And the body is just a tent we have for now. It will get old. It will die. We will live on. Those in Christ will be like him in the age to come.
Even if you could evolve from simple life into more and more complex life in the physical sense, you can't evolve from a creature with no soul to one with a soul. We must choose a side -- you can't have it both ways. To accommodate evolution denies the truth of scripture. To believe the Bible demands a rejection of evolutionary theory. Period.
Know that we are more than physical beings. More than really smart animals. We are first and foremost spiritual beings, with a deep longing inside to be reconnected with our creator, and that reconnection only comes through knowing and loving the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and Peace
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Our Lord Jesus Christ
There's a phrase Paul used often in his letters, roughly "grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." I want to focus on that last part, OUR Lord Jesus Christ, because its kind of important. In fact it is of the utmost importance, as it goes along with the question of "who is this?" referring to Jesus Christ -- a key question to answer during our time here under the sun.
I heard someone preach on this some time ago and intended to write about it, but largely forgot until prompted further today by the Spirit after having encountered some Jehovah's Witnesses earlier in the day and having ample free time on my hands before I go to bed.
There are many people who claim some knowledge of Jesus Christ. There are many, not as much, who claim to follow Jesus Christ. But there is a difference between the Jesus some follow and the real Jesus. We need to be following the real Jesus, not some imaginary one, so let's review some facts about who Jesus Christ is NOT.
The Lord Jesus Christ is not a created being, Satan's brother, Michael the archangel, just a teacher, just a philosopher, just a spiritual being without a physical body, just a prophet, and so on. The Lord Jesus Christ is not some hippie type dude preaching only peace and love to all, and whatever that means to you is okay. The Lord Jesus Christ did not avoid death on the cross -- but he didn't stay dead either.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, fully God and fully man -- the God-man if you will. He is the only one that can make the perfect justice of God and the perfect mercy of God make any sense -- God himself taking on the form of a man, suffering, and dying on the cross to take our place as a payment for sins, and rising again on the third day. He is the only one that bridges the gap between man and God the Father. No one other than God in the flesh could accomplish such a feat.
If this doesn't describe the Jesus you follow, then you are following a false Jesus. The Bible says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and we are warned about false Christs and false gospels. For those in Christ, any attention to these Jesus imposters lead us away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Make sure that you follow the Jesus who loved us so much he gave up his glory in heaven to come to earth, dwell among us, and suffer and die for us. This is the Jesus we know when we say "OUR Lord Jesus Christ."
Grace and peace
I heard someone preach on this some time ago and intended to write about it, but largely forgot until prompted further today by the Spirit after having encountered some Jehovah's Witnesses earlier in the day and having ample free time on my hands before I go to bed.
There are many people who claim some knowledge of Jesus Christ. There are many, not as much, who claim to follow Jesus Christ. But there is a difference between the Jesus some follow and the real Jesus. We need to be following the real Jesus, not some imaginary one, so let's review some facts about who Jesus Christ is NOT.
The Lord Jesus Christ is not a created being, Satan's brother, Michael the archangel, just a teacher, just a philosopher, just a spiritual being without a physical body, just a prophet, and so on. The Lord Jesus Christ is not some hippie type dude preaching only peace and love to all, and whatever that means to you is okay. The Lord Jesus Christ did not avoid death on the cross -- but he didn't stay dead either.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, fully God and fully man -- the God-man if you will. He is the only one that can make the perfect justice of God and the perfect mercy of God make any sense -- God himself taking on the form of a man, suffering, and dying on the cross to take our place as a payment for sins, and rising again on the third day. He is the only one that bridges the gap between man and God the Father. No one other than God in the flesh could accomplish such a feat.
If this doesn't describe the Jesus you follow, then you are following a false Jesus. The Bible says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and we are warned about false Christs and false gospels. For those in Christ, any attention to these Jesus imposters lead us away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Make sure that you follow the Jesus who loved us so much he gave up his glory in heaven to come to earth, dwell among us, and suffer and die for us. This is the Jesus we know when we say "OUR Lord Jesus Christ."
Grace and peace
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