God's Kingdom

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.

live in love,love,humility,God's Kingdom,commitment,discipleship,I Corinthians 13,love chapter,Matthew 25:36-41,sheep and goats,Kingdom of God

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.

[Read more…] about Live in Love

Creating New Habits

November 14, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

Andy Stanley mentioned in a recent sermon, “Every habit begins with a first time.” It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? While obvious, I think it houses some profound truth. If every habit does indeed begin with the first time, then we must be ever diligent about what “first times” we are allowing to occur in our lives. I believe this is one reason why Paul encouraged us to take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

creating new habits,Andy Stanley,discipline,habits,God's Kingdom,Kingdom of God,2 Corinthians 10:3-5,take every thought captive

If we don’t, we begin to create thought patterns that become more and more difficult to change as time goes by.But it’s not just our thoughts. Every action we take and every word we speak for the first time begins creating new habits. If we aren’t intentional about our thoughts, words, and actions, we will be creating new habits we don’t want to have.

[Read more…] about Creating New Habits

Radical Obedience

November 11, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

I’ve been mulling over the phrase “radical obedience” in my mind of late. Radical means far-reaching or thorough. That describes the type of obedience I long to have with Jesus. In fact, I would say it is the type of obedience demanded by Christ and required of all those who claim Him to be their Lord. Radical obedience is thorough. It is far-reaching. What it is not occasional or situational. Too many follow Jesus when it is convenient or expedient. When push comes to shove, their obedience wanes.

radical obedience,radical,obedience,David Platt,priorities,commitment,discipleship,God's Kingdom,Matthew 7:18-23,depart from Me,John 14:15,keep my commandments,Luke 14:25-27,take up your cross,Matthew 12:30,for me or against me

This type of obedience, which is no obedience at all, runs rampant through our churches and results in an abundance of nominal Christians. Practicing radical obedience should be the rule, not the exception. It is sad the opposite is reality today.

[Read more…] about Radical Obedience

Urgent Enough

November 4, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

Something with which I have been struggling is whether I am living my life urgent enough. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older or because I’m gaining more clarity on my mission here on earth, but I have a constant suspicion my life is not being lived urgent enough. The fact is our lives are finite. They are going to end. Most of us probably do not have as much time remaining as we think we do. I know this because few of us think about the end of our lives in a meaningful way.

As long as we are healthy, we tend to always think there will be a tomorrow, next week, and next year. Those who learn they only have weeks or months to live tend to live their lives differently; they live with an urgency about them. The rest of us? We take life as it comes, always planning for a tomorrow that may never arrive.

[Read more…] about Urgent Enough

His Own Image

October 28, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

A.W. Tozer once wrote, “Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image.” It seems we spend much of our lives doing this. We speak of our love for Jesus with our mouth, but our lives don’t look much like His. It’s as if we need to define who we mean when we say the name of Jesus.

Do we mean the beautiful, holy, and blameless Son of God, or do we mean the person we’ve created who happens to look suspiciously like ourselves and the model citizen of our society? God’s Word teaches Jesus is the same today as He has always been and will always be (Hebrews 13:8). If we intend to follow Christ, we must follow Him as He is, not who we are making Him to be.

[Read more…] about His Own Image