At what point in our relationship with God did we begin to shrink Him down into a more manageable size? Remember when you first came to know Christ and recognized what a beautiful, awesome and powerful Creator He was? Remember when you prayed bold prayers and fully expected to see them come to fruition? There was a time when you cast all your worries and concerns on Him and left them there because you knew God was far greater than any of your problems. But somewhere along the way we stopped believing all of that. Oh, we still say that we believe He is all powerful and capable of anything because that’s what Christians are supposed to say. Deep down though, I wonder if you still believe it to be true.
Daily Life
No Expiration Date
Expiration dates are a good thing. They keep us from eating food that is too old or taking medication that is no longer effective or perhaps even toxic. An expiration date provides a healthy guardrail to protect us from the ill effects of a product that has outlived its shelf life. While this is a good thing for certain products and foods, too many people apply an expiration date to their lives. They feel their time has passed and that God can no longer use them, or perhaps they missed their opportunity and have now done such awful things in their life that they could never be useful to God. Nothing could be further from the truth; we were not created with expiration dates, and any thoughts to the contrary are simply lies of the devil.
Who Needs Enemies?
I recently heard a talk by Christine Cain where she made the statement, “Why do we need the devil when we’ve got Christians?” It is very sad how true this remark actually is. While we are encouraged in the Bible to be a unified body of believers (John 17:11, Ephesians 4:1-3), the reality is that we have become anything but that; the modern church is a fragmented body of denominations marked by warring factions of worship styles, missional focuses, and political agendas. We no longer rally around the commands of Jesus, but rather flock to like-minded individuals or comfortable surroundings.
The Church in Sardis
I was studying the book of Revelation recently, and was reading the passage that contains the letter dictated to the church in Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6). As I read, I could not help but see the parallels between them and the current American church. I encourage you to take a moment to read the short passage above to provide context to this post.
Think on These Things, Part 2
In my previous post (see “Think on These Things, Part 1”) we discussed the importance of what we allowed into our minds. I’d like to continue that discussion today. If you recall, we focused our attention on Philippians 4:8, which says, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things.” (HCSB). So what does this look like as we apply it in our daily lives?