purpose

Not My Will, But Yours

March 18, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

The prayer of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane is powerful for us today. It’s easy to miss the simple power contained within this prayer because we are accustomed to reading it as part of the crucifixion story. Jesus prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup away from Me—nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42). It is the second half of the prayer on which I’d like to focus: “not my will, but yours be done.”

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A couple of years earlier, Jesus had taught His disciples to pray in a similar manner, when He prayed, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus prayed and instructed us to pray for God’s will to be done, regardless of what we face or what is swirling around us.

Building God’s Kingdom

March 14, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

In Haggai 1:4, God says, “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?” While we should certainly feel some conviction of this taken at face value, I think there is also a deeper application. Looking at the state of the typical Christian life today, we could paraphrase this into “Why are you building such a luxurious kingdom for yourself while neglecting My Kingdom?”

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There is no escape from the fact almost every one of us devotes far more time building our own “house” than we do building the Kingdom of God. This attitude permeates how we spend our time and our money. The culture in which we live demands we prioritize self before others and certainly before God.

Dead People

March 11, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

There’s a famous line from the 1999 movie, “The Sixth Sense”, where the little boy says, “I see dead people.” It was supposed to be creepy at the time, but now it is more comical (or perhaps that’s just my own twisted sense of humor!). The fact is, as Christ-followers, we should say “I see dead people” every time we walk into a gathering of believers.

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If our faith in Jesus is genuine it means we have given up everything. Indeed, we have died to ourselves. Jesus said if we would follow Him we must “take up our cross daily” (Luke 9:23). Nobody walks away from their cross alive. We are dead people.

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Deep and Wide

February 28, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

Evan Esar once said, “You can’t do anything about the length of your life. But you can do something about its width and depth.” I like that. None of us know how many days we have remaining. It’s not our call. But what we do with each of those days is within our hands. Every day we choose to pass the time or impact it. In and of itself, there is nothing remarkable about a long life. At best, it’s interesting. But a life lived well is something truly remarkable.

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I want to live a life rich in width and depth. The length doesn’t matter so much to me. Like Paul, I can say if I live, I’ll live for Christ, but if I die, I’ll be with Him (Philippians 1:21). I have a lot to look forward to. Delaying that sweet reward isn’t exactly in my best interest.

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A Purposeful Life

February 25, 2019 by Tim Sherfy

God designed this world to be a place of peace and harmony. Satan has hijacked that plan, and after generations of compounding sin, the world today is quite often a frustrating, discouraging, and painful place to live. It’s easy to get caught up in the swirl of war, disease, distrust, and evil around us. While we want to live for Christ, sometimes the path gets dark and we lose our way.

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Our dreams of making a difference fade and far from living a purposeful life, we find ourselves drifting, pulled along by an invisible flow pervading our existence. And tomorrow it all begins again. How do we break out of the cycle and begin to live our lives on purpose and in step with God’s design?

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