commitment

Suburban Christianity

December 29, 2014 by Tim Sherfy

image © arinahabich – Fotolia

Part of the fallout from modern Christianity confusing following Christ with pursuing the American dream is the rise of ‘Suburban Christianity’. This is the expression of our faith that is steeped in the illusion of serving others while really hiding behind a veil of safety and selfishness. Having spent the past ten years living in suburbia, I have found myself leaning into this mentality from time to time. We convince ourselves that we are the part of the body that supplies the funds for those working closer to the real problems. I am not disputing there may be some truth in that way of thinking, but at the same time we must be careful to not use that as an excuse to remain sheltered in our safe, comfortable, and predictable worlds.

Live Your Life as Jesus Would Live Your Life

December 15, 2014 by Tim Sherfy

flesh,hugh halter,commitment,mission,purpose,Jesus,incarnation,indwelling spirit,power of God,love of God

image © Benjamin Haas – Fotolia.com

“Jesus teaches you to live your life as He would live your life.” This is a quote from the book, “Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth”, by Hugh Halter. When I read that, I was struck by how at once the statement is so simple, yet the implications are enormous. How would Jesus live my life if He were me? What if, instead of using the miracle of the virgin birth 2,000 years ago, the way God chose to reveal Himself to the world was through my life? How would I live? What would I do? In what ways would my life be different? What if He chose to use your life?

Are You Comfortable In This World?

December 8, 2014 by Tim Sherfy

a.w. tozer,tozer,mission,comfort,discipleship,Matthew 25:31-46,Mark 12:28-31,James 1:27,Isaiah 58:6-7,Matthew 28:18-19,John 17:6-19,Matthew 10:22

Photo Credit: Stefan Poppelaars Automotive Photography via Compfight cc

I continue to be inspired by A.W. Tozer. Recently as I was studying some of his material, I read where wrote, “If you are a Christian and you are comfortably ‘at home’ in Chicago or Toronto, in Iowa or Alberta or any other address on planet earth, the signs are evident that you are in spiritual trouble. The spiritual equation reads like this: The greater your contentment with your daily circumstances in this world, the greater your defection from the ranks of God’s pilgrims en route to a city whose architect and builder is God Himself!” These are words that should cut us to the core. We have taken our eyes off of our Creator and have focused instead on material possessions and comfort. Do we think this course will end well?

The Good Samaritan

December 4, 2014 by Tim Sherfy

good samaritan,Luke 10:25-37,love,obedience

Photo Credit: sbhland via Compfight cc

I was recently driving on a Sunday afternoon when I noticed a car stopped on the opposite side of the road with its hazard lights on. An older woman was in the driver’s seat, looking not overly concerned. As the vehicle was a newer BMW convertible and my quick glance at the driver told me she was well dressed, I assumed she was Realtor and had simply pulled over to check her directions. I allowed that rationalization to satisfy the pull I was feeling to turn around and see if she needed assistance. As I have done an embarrassingly number of times in my life, I reasoned that since I know next to nothing about the workings of automobiles, I would be of little help anyway.

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This is Not How We’re Supposed to Live

November 10, 2014 by Tim Sherfy

commitment,discipleship,american dream,mission,kingdom of god,Matthew 7:22

There’s something that’s been eating away at my soul. I’ve written about it in one form or the other in the past but never seem to effectively articulate it, which is a very hard thing for a writer to accept. Here it is, as simply as I can put it. We’ve got a couple generations (at least) of people who call themselves Christians but live nothing like Jesus Christ. With apologies to my international readers, I’m going to be speaking from an American perspective, because that is the only context with which I have current first-hand knowledge. My suspicion is that all Western countries suffer from the same malady of malaise. We have sworn allegiance to Jesus but live for ourselves.