commitment

Explaining God’s Will for Your Life

January 23, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

Love God, love others. That is the will of God for your life in four words. Our problem is not we don’t know God’s will for our lives, it’s that we lack the conviction to live it. For fun, I searched Amazon.com for books on God’s will for your life. The search came back with a staggering 3,000 results. Going with a conservative estimate of 40,0000 words per book, that’s over 120 million words written to help people discover God’s will for their lives.

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It makes me wonder how much money Christians spend trying to determine God’s will. Now you know it in just four words: Love God, love others. And that’s for free. You’re welcome. It gets even worse when you plug the same phrase into Google. That search yields over 224 million web pages discussing the topic.

The Cost of Following Christ

January 9, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

Wang Yi is the pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church in China. The Chinese government arrested Pastor Yi, along with his wife and over 100 members of the church, in December 2018 after a period of prolonged harassment of the church by the Chinese government. While the official charge was “Inciting subversion of state power,” in reality the government arrested them for following and proclaiming the truth and good news of Jesus. Such a charge carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

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After being later released, Yang’s wife and church members spoke of being tortured while under arrest. Police ransacked their homes and have kept them under close watch since their discharge. The release of Yang’s wife, Jiang, was conditional on posting bail and she lost considerable weight during her time being held in detention. She has been under house arrest with her young son for the past six months.

Sleepwalking

January 6, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

Did you ever wake up and realize you’ve been coasting through life? Suddenly, you recognize while you’ve been living, life has been passing you by. As followers of Christ, we should live soberly and with intention. Our time is limited, and when it runs out, those who have not chosen to surrender their lives to Jesus will be out of options. Their destiny will be eternal separation from God. They will spend eternity in Hell with the devil and his demons.

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We have the truth and a responsibility to share that truth. It has never been more important to break out of the malaise in which we’ve been living because time is shorter today than it was yesterday. If we don’t begin living with urgency, I promise we will one day face a horrific surprise as we discover we are out of time.

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Live in Love

December 5, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

One of the things I learned from Brother Lawrence’s wonderful little book, “The Practice of the Presence of God”, is that any action which is devoid of love is worth little in the Kingdom of God. Love is the very essence of who God is. When you subtract love from any situation you are left with Godlessness. Where God is, there is love.

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Paul wrote in his letter to the church of Corinth no matter what else we might possess, no matter what skills or talents we have, if we don’t have love, we have nothing (I Corinthians 13). No amount of anything equals anything without love. When we love, we honor God. When we don’t, we dishonor Him. It’s a simple formula. Every follower of Christ yearns to live a life that looks like Jesus. The surest way to accomplish this is to live in love every day.

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Take Up Your Cross

December 2, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

Jesus said whoever would follow Him had to deny themselves and take up their cross daily (Matthew 16:24). How many of us are doing this on a day to day basis? How many are willing to deny ourselves the comfort, security, and entertainment the world is telling us we deserve? Isn’t it true we want a version of Christianity that doesn’t involve the cross? We like the idea of being a Christian but dislike the sacrifice it requires.

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The notion of a loving God makes us feel comfortable, but His wrath makes us go another way. There is no victory without struggle, but we want our cake and to eat it too. We want all this world has to offer and a little Jesus on the side. This is not the life Jesus called us to live as His followers.

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