Jesus made it clear that we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). The Bible also states that darkness cannot coincide with light (I John 1:5; John 8:12; John 12:46; 1 Thessalonians 5:5). We can’t fill our lives with darkness and expect the presence of God to be evident within us. We spend too much time pursuing our desires and counting on God to bail us out when things don’t go our way. If you’ve been following Jesus for any amount of time, you realize it doesn’t work that way. As creatures of freewill, we have the ability to limit the power and presence of God in our lives. The more we fill our lives with sin and things not of God, the less room we have for Him.
John
Getting What You Deserve
A phrase I’ve grown weary of hearing over the years is, “you deserve it.” It permeates the advertising world as well as our everyday speech. We tell colleagues they deserve their recent promotion or our friends that they deserve some time away. Commercials try to convince us that we deserve a new car or the latest electronic gadgetry. As followers of Jesus, I hope you recognize that what we deserve is an eternity separated from our Creator. We deserve nothing in this life because we have all squandered what God has entrusted to us. To be frank, we deserve Hell. I think that’s why we spend so much time trying to be comfortable and secure. We know what we deserve and yet do everything in our power to keep from thinking about it.
God’s Power in Us
Pastor Steven Furtick was describing a member of his congregation, Tonia Bendickson, when he said, “If it’s necessary and it’s never been done before, she seems to assume that’s because God intends for her to do it.” What an amazing thing to have said about you. How many of us react exactly opposite of the way Tonia does? We see a difficulty and give up before even trying to overcome it. We see a perceived impossibility and believe it instead of trusting God to do what others say cannot be done. Tonia has the proper attitude, the one all followers of Christ should have. She looks at situations through the eyes of Jesus rather than trusting in her own fallible vision.
Why Are You a Christian?
Why do you follow Jesus? Is it because you are looking to have your physical or material needs met? A large number of Christians only pray in times of need. As long as things are cruising smoothly along, they have little time for prayer and even less time to actually pursue the mission of Christ. Jesus is just something that sounded good at some point in their lives, but that was a long time ago. Now He is not much more than a convenient source of help when problems arise. Living this way is sacrificing your future for some very short lived pleasures today.
Feed My Sheep
If you grew up in church or have been studying the Bible for awhile now, you are probably familiar with the conversation Jesus and Peter had in John 21:15-19. This took place after Jesus had risen from the dead, and He was hanging out with His disciples on the beach. After eating breakfast together, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Peter got a little offended that Jesus kept asking him the same question, probably assuming Jesus wasn’t buying his answer. Most Bible teachers say the three questions corresponded to Peter denying Jesus three times after Jesus had been arrested. Perhaps that’s true, but I think there’s more to be gleaned from this story.