Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus
There’s a wise adage that says, “What has your attention has you”. So the question is really obvious; what has your attention today? If our focus is anywhere other than on Jesus Christ, we are captured by something other than Him. Satan is a master of distraction. Since the dawn of time he has been parading a feast of temptation before our eyes (Genesis 3:1-6). He doesn’t care if you ever go his way; he’s content to just keep your eyes off of Jesus. We make it too easy for him.
Today is the last day of 2012. The beginning of a new year is always an exciting time for me, as it presents a clean slate and a fresh set of opportunities. I’m a goals fanatic and have found it useful to have a theme to guide my planning for each year. Last year’s theme was, “Consume Less, Contribute More.” This year I have selected, “Take Action”. As a follower of Christ, nothing could be more important. As James said, we must be doers of the word, not merely hearers (James 1:22-25). If we are going to grow in our faith, we must act on the things Jesus told us to do.
I was recently challenged by the question, “What does it mean to be made in God’s image” (Genesis 1:27)? If we truly were living as the beings we were created to be, how would God’s image manifest itself in our daily lives? I came up with a list of things that would be true in my life. It was an interesting and revealing exercise, making me very aware of where I may be missing the mark. Being made in the image of God should dictate our actions and have a profound influence on the way we treat others. Below is the list I came up with of what my life will look like when I am reflecting His image. I’ve turned these into a set of mantra’s I read each morning to set my attitude for the day.
Most Christians feel confident that when they die, they will then enter Heaven and find joy everlasting. This is, after all, what they believe they have been promised in Scripture. What they do between now and then is of little consequence to the final result. Once they accept Jesus into their hearts, they are then guaranteed a peaceful and secure eternity. Nothing they do – or don’t do for that matter – can disqualify them from their promised rest. I don’t know about you, but this seems like a strange plan for a God who desires nothing more than to be in relationship with us. There is an inconsistency in thinking we could say a prayer once and gain His eternal favor even though we ignore Him with the rest of our lives. How do we reconcile these things?
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.