mission

Love and Free Will

June 18, 2015 by Tim Sherfy

Having been created with free will, we are free to choose, free to love, and free to serve. It was for these things we were created in the very image of God Himself. Free will has a dark side as well. Since we are free to choose we are also free to hate, to be selfish, and to reject the God who gave us life. We can – and usually do – pursue whatever we desire.

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There is no master blueprint for your life; that would violate the very notion of free will. God created you with everything you would need to live the incredible life He envisioned for you. It is us – you and me – who make the choices that send our lives off the rails.
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Urgency

June 15, 2015 by Tim Sherfy

It’s not common for people in decent health to think of death. Most of us feel invincible. We’re aware we’ll die someday, but it always seems as if that is a long way away. People who are focused on death generally are thought to have some sort of mental or emotional problem. The real problem is as long as we remain oblivious to the frailty of our life, we will be less apt to make every moment count.

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Assuming death is years or even decades away tends to make us less focused on doing what matters most in life right now. That leads to a life diametrically opposed to the one Jesus instructed us to live.
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Wonder and Delight

June 11, 2015 by Tim Sherfy

I was reading some of A.W. Tozer this week and came across this passage: “The God of the modern evangelical rarely astonishes anybody. He manages to stay pretty much within the constitution [of the church]. Never breaks over our bylaws. He’s a very well- behaved God and very denominational and very much one of us, and we ask Him to help us when we’re in trouble and look to Him to watch over us when we’re asleep.

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The God of the modern evangelical isn’t a God I could have much respect for. But when the Holy Ghost shows us God as He is we admire Him to the point of wonder and delight.” When was the last time you felt wonder and delight when you thought of God?
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Worry is for Tomorrow

June 4, 2015 by Tim Sherfy

Worrying is always about something in the future that may or may not happen. It’s never about what is going on right now. Perhaps that’s why Jesus told us not to worry (Matthew 6:25-34). He wants us to be focused on His mission, right here, and right now. When we look too far into the future, we miss the millions of moments and interactions that are going on around us right now.

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As Jesus said, none of us by worrying can add single year to our lives (Matthew 6:27). Notice, He didn’t instruct us not to plan. Planning is a good and responsible thing (Luke 14:28). But worrying isn’t planning.
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More of God and Less of Me

June 1, 2015 by Tim Sherfy

I’ve often heard Christians say that they want more of God and less of themselves. It’s a noble but misguided prayer. The goal is not to have more of God and less of us, but rather to have all of God and none of us. This is more than just semantics. For too long we’ve misrepresented what it means to surrender our lives to Jesus.

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When you surrender, you give up everything. Yet far more often than not, very little is surrendered to Jesus. We’ll make a few tweaks to our lifestyle, but significant and lasting change is rare. Following Jesus dictates a total surrender of our lives.
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