Earl D. Ramacher said, “I become today, by what I do with what God gave me, what I will be in the life to come. Today is a day of becoming. Then will be a day of being what I have become.” This is a truth that followers of Jesus must keep foremost in their minds. It’s something typical Christians scarcely consider. What we do today has massive implications on how we will spend eternity. Much like the metaphor of a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world causes a Tsunami in another, our small actions today ultimately will shape and define our spiritual destiny.
Discipleship
Hard Questions
Kyle Idleman, author of the fantastic books “Not a Fan” and “Gods at War”, recently wrote of his experience with the persecuted church in Southeast Asia. When someone there is contemplating becoming a follower of Christ, they are asked some very difficult questions: “Are you willing to lose your job and home?”; “Are you willing to be beaten and thrown in jail because of your faith?”; “Are you willing to die for Jesus?” This is in stark contrast to how the Western Church leads people into the Kingdom. We ask them to raise their hand, pray a prayer, and maybe come to the front of the group; and we have the audacity to say these actions require great boldness!
Discipline for Life
Discipline for many is a dreaded word. For most it means doing something that at best is uncomfortable. Without a doubt, discipline means not doing something that would be easy, and doing something that is more difficult instead. We see discipline as engaging in a less enjoyable exercise instead of just doing what we want to do. Spiritual disciplines generally mean spending time or effort on God’s behalf rather than our own (although I would argue that anything we do that glorifies God is ultimately better for us anyway). Craig Groeschel gave a great definition of discipline in a recent message he preached. He said that, “Discipline is doing the right thing regardless of how you feel in the moment.”
Failing Miserably
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers”, he presents a concept that has been discussed at length in books, magazines, TV, and radio since its publication. Mr. Gladwell’s research showed that those obtaining mastery in their field had spent roughly 10,000 hours in preparation. In other words, a guitarist who has practiced for 10,000 hours or a speaker who had devoted 10,000 hours to honing his craft would be at the top of their game. Contrast this with a recent survey from the American Bible Society that found 41% of church-going people did not open their Bible a single time during the past week, and another 40% opened it only once or twice. The survey did not detail how many hours were spent in the Word by those opening it once or twice, but I think we can infer it was not many.
Your Life Word
For the past couple of years, at the beginning of the year, I’ve developed a theme phrase that has guided my life throughout the rest of the year. Two years ago my phrase was, “Consume less; contribute more”. That totally revolutionized the way I lived my life. Last year my phrase was, “Take action”. After doing some reading (“My One Word”” by Mike Ashcraft and “One Word That Will Change Your Life” by Jon Gordon) and listening to a sermon from Craig Groeschel, I decided to slim things down a bit this year and have a theme word instead of a theme phrase. In fact I took it a step further and came up with a theme word for my life, as well as one for the upcoming year.