Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus
The love of our God is beyond words. He created us out of His love and the desire to share it with others. He was and is totally self-sufficient, but He has so much love that He could not help but share it. From the beginning He has desired to collaborate with us in the creation of human history. He gave us everything we would ever need, yet if you are anything like me, you rarely take the time to contemplate how amazing is our God.
When you committed your life to Christ, this was a choice you determined to make. No one can do this for you; following Jesus is a personal commitment and a personal decision (Joshua 24:15). For many, this is the only choice they will make. In reality, we must choose repeatedly throughout our lives to follow Him. Being a disciple is not a one-and-done kind of deal.
We choose to commit our lives to Him, and then we must spend the rest of our lives choosing to follow Him because following Jesus is a choice we make every day (Luke 9:23). When the rubber meets the road, many choose to take the off-ramp. Making a one-time decision is easy; a lifetime commitment is something exponentially more.
Those who identify themselves as Christians no doubt would readily say that they trust in God. The American pledge of allegiance says, “In God we trust”. But I wonder how much most of us truly trust Him. I think more often than not, we hope that He is in control and that He will take care of us, but do we live our lives in a way that demonstrates our reliance on Him? If you’re like me, it seems we spend most of our time trying to control the circumstances around us and calling out to God when things start to get a little too deep. The truth is we are in over our heads every day that we live. We are out of control in a half-mad world, and we desperately need Him every moment of our lives.
What if Jesus treated us as we treated Him? Would we still be in love with Him? Would we be willing to sacrifice anything, much less everything, to follow someone who treated us as we treat Jesus? Relationships are two way streets, and our relationship with Christ often teeters dangerously close to dysfunctional.
Photo courtesy of Alex Bruda
Ours is a relationship that is heavily one-sided, yet He continues to love us still. Do you ever wonder why? [Read more…] about Relationship Check
I remember as a kid how daunting Psalm 119 was. Weighing in at an impressive 176 verses, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, so you knew it was going to take some time to work through it. Because of this, I remember avoiding it and focusing on the much shorter psalms that surrounded it. My mother, on the other hand, absolutely loved this Psalm. In fact she committed it to memory, which to me (even today) seemed somewhat unfathomable!
However, as I read through the Bible chronologically this year, today was the day that Psalm 119’s number came up. Actually, according to my reading plan, I was only required to read half of it. However, like a tall glass of Pepsi or a mouth watering chocolate chip cookie, you can’t stop half-way through and save the rest for later; you have to devour the whole thing. Psalm 119 is a beautiful reading filled with longing for God. I found myself praying that I would have half the desire of the author to seek after my Creator. [Read more…] about Psalm 119