At the time this article is being published, it is the day after Easter. Easter is my favorite day of the year, and arguably should be so for all followers of Jesus. Certainly Christmas is important. If Christ had never been born, He could never have died, and therefore never have risen again to defeat death and save us all. But the last part – rising again and defeating death – is the entire reason we follow Him. Plenty of important and influential men have been born throughout history. Some have even died standing up for that which they believed. But only one ever rose from the dead.
Ephesians
Impact Your World
How can I serve God best today? It’s a question each of us should ask at the beginning of each day. The way we frame our days determines how we live our lives. If we wait for life to just happen to us, we will constantly be in a reactionary mode, and this is not the optimal way to live. Reacting results in circumstances dictating our own actions. A better way to live is to proactively and intentionally influence what circumstances will actually occur in our life. Remember the old saying that the best defense is a good offense? That sports analogy works well in life. We want to make our lives happen rather than wait for things to happen to us. As followers of Jesus, the absolute best way we can do this is to determine ahead of time how we will impact our world for Christ each day.
Your Life Script
Whose life are you living? Are you engaged in the things that allow you to utilize the gifts God has given to you? Do you seek to glorify Him even when it means looking foolish in the eyes of your family and friends? Too few of us live like this. Instead we live out our days blending in with the culture while looking for any opening we can find to get ahead. Rather than living as God planned for us to live, we cave to the pressures of life and seek comfort in alternative solutions. As a result, we end up living from a script written by someone other than our Creator.
The No Excuses Disciple
I think Christians are better at rationalizing than any other people on earth. It’s easy for us to come up with explanations and excuses why we aren’t living the life God created us to live. We wait to “feel led” and diligently “seek our calling”. We’ll do about anything to avoid doing what Jesus told us to do. If the time we spent running away from our mission was employed actually working for the mission, we might just have completed it by now. Unfortunately the comforts and the cares of this life keep us from selling out and going all in for Christ.
Doers of the Word
We live in a time where we have an unprecedented amount of knowledge available at our fingertips. Never before in the history of man have we had so many resources on hand from which to learn and study. The internet has leveled the playing field in many ways, providing rich content to people and countries that have been locked out of information sharing in the past. We can stream video of church services from around the globe anytime day or night. Podcasts make listening to sermons possible while we jog or drive. Hundreds of books are released each year containing fresh perspectives and spiritual insights. If you ever wanted to learn about Jesus, you certainly are now without excuse.