Daily Life

Finish the Race

March 21, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

I think we all want to live a victorious life. No one sets out to be a loser. We all want to be winners. Since we’re going to be running the race of life every day, we may as well win. Otherwise, it seems like a tremendously futile endeavor. The apostle Paul said we all run the race to win, to earn the crown of victory (1 Corinthians 9:24).

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As long as we are running for Christ, there is nothing wrong with striving to win. We want our lives to be pleasing to Him. We want to live in such a way that will bring Him honor and glory, and in the process to further His mission and bring His Kingdom to earth as it is in Heaven.

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Not My Will, But Yours

March 18, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

The prayer of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane is powerful for us today. It’s easy to miss the simple power contained within this prayer because we are accustomed to reading it as part of the crucifixion story. Jesus prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup away from Me—nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42). It is the second half of the prayer on which I’d like to focus: “not my will, but yours be done.”

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A couple of years earlier, Jesus had taught His disciples to pray in a similar manner, when He prayed, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus prayed and instructed us to pray for God’s will to be done, regardless of what we face or what is swirling around us.

Building God’s Kingdom

March 14, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

In Haggai 1:4, God says, “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?” While we should certainly feel some conviction of this taken at face value, I think there is also a deeper application. Looking at the state of the typical Christian life today, we could paraphrase this into “Why are you building such a luxurious kingdom for yourself while neglecting My Kingdom?”

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There is no escape from the fact almost every one of us devotes far more time building our own “house” than we do building the Kingdom of God. This attitude permeates how we spend our time and our money. The culture in which we live demands we prioritize self before others and certainly before God.

Dead People

March 11, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

There’s a famous line from the 1999 movie, “The Sixth Sense”, where the little boy says, “I see dead people.” It was supposed to be creepy at the time, but now it is more comical (or perhaps that’s just my own twisted sense of humor!). The fact is, as Christ-followers, we should say “I see dead people” every time we walk into a gathering of believers.

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If our faith in Jesus is genuine it means we have given up everything. Indeed, we have died to ourselves. Jesus said if we would follow Him we must “take up our cross daily” (Luke 9:23). Nobody walks away from their cross alive. We are dead people.

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Only Jesus

March 7, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

There is but one answer to every problem, hurt, disease, or circumstance: only Jesus. He is either everything to you or He is nothing. Only Jesus can heal a broken heart or mend a wounded soul. Only Jesus can soothe the ache constantly gnawing inside. Despite this, few live as if it was only Jesus that mattered. He’s convenient or handy at times, but as far as our day to day lives are concerned, He tends to rather be just one more thing we’ve bolted on to our incredibly harried existence.

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I like how Frank Viola put it in his latest book, “Insurgence”. Frank writes, “Looking back, I discovered that Jesus was really just a supplement to my already busy life. Christ wasn’t the reason why I breathed. I was living for other things, even good things… but they weren’t my Lord Jesus.”

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