Tag: God

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God Doesn’t Deserve My Best

trophy gold“God doesn’t deserve my best,” is exactly what we say when we as “Christ Followers” decide to be consumers rather than contributors. I listened to a message by Perry Noble the other day from NewSpring’s Practical Atheist series. He referenced the verses where Cain and Abel present their offerings to the Lord and how Cain just gave some of his crops as  an offering to the Lord, while Abel gave his first and best lamb as an offering. While the main point of Perry’s usage of the Scripture was to point out that the tithe did not go away with the law since it was present 500+ years before the law was given, something different stood out to me.

I’ve practically grown up in church. I’ve been a ministry leader, staff, volunteer, and a plain ‘ol church attender. I’ve heard messages on giving and tithing several times in the past, but nothing has prepared me for the harsh reality that there are more Christians like Cain than there are like Abel in most churches. I remember hearing about Cain as a child in our Bible stories. He got a bad rap, I guess it stemmed mostly from him murdering Abel. But the more I think about it, there is more focus put on his being a murderer than there is his attitude that God did not deserve his best. I wonder if we  avoid that foundational truth because its our attitude too? I wonder if that’s why people church hop and get angry when the pastor preaches on giving and money? Could it be because their attitude is that God does not deserve their best?

This verse has never stuck out to me until I looked at it over the weekend, check it out…

“Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” Genesis 4:6-7

What was the right thing in this situation? Abel’s income came through being a shepherd. Cain’s income came through harvesting the land. Both brought an offering to the Lord, because the Lord had blessed them both with a profit and a means of living. The difference is, Abel brought his first and his best to God, Cain just brought a random selection, but it was definitely not his best. God’s response was that Cain would be accepted if he only did what was right. Cain knew what was right, but his attitude directed his actions. He did not feel God deserved his best, therefore he did not give God his best. The biggest part of this verse to me is where God points out, that sin is crouching at Cain’s door waiting to control him because he lacked the heart to put God first and to give him his best.

There are Christians all over the world who do this all the time. They won’t or they can’t give God their best because they are driving it, or living in it, or wearing it. There are Christians all over the world who want to tell the church what they want to consume from the church, but they refuse to contribute to the vision God has given the church.

Matthew 6:21 says, “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.“

I believe that is what God was telling Cain in Genesis. Watch out! Sin will control your desires when God does not deserve the first and best of your treasures.

Are there areas in your life or in the life of your family that sin has control of? It may start with your desire to be a consumer rather than a contributor and the attitude that God does not deserve your best!

Just a thought!

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If Your Scars Could Speak

cuttingscarsEveryone has scars.

Some are physical, while others are emotional and mental.

I have a scar in the bend of my right arm. I was around 5 years old and my mom had to stop by my grandma’s house, she told me to stay in the car while she quickly ran in. My sister had a better idea, I should get out of the car and call our friend Nikki (No, not my wife Nicki) to come to the fence, where we used to play and talk. I guess I figured by climbing the fence Nikki would hear me better, so I started to climb the fence to yell out her name, I got it out nice and loud one time, and then my foot slipped. This was an old school security fence with the two metal spikes sticking out of the top, not the modern day safety kind with the knots. My arm went right through the fence like a warm knife through butter. The next noise I made was a scream for my mom, she had to lift me off the fence, as I was dangling there from my arm. I don’t think I got a spanking for disobeying on that occasion, I guess my mom thought my lesson had been learned. My scar tells a story of how mom’s know what’s best for her children, and how children should obey their mom’s.

I have three scars from an emergency appendectomy. They tell numerous stories.

I wonder, if your physical, emotional, or mental scars could speak, what would they say?

Yesterday, at New Passion, we focused on how our life stories are intended to bring God glory. Everyone’s life story contains some type of wound. We tend to want to hide those elements of our story. We like to tell the good stuff, like when we met our significant other, or when our child was born, or we’ll tell about the time we landed that dream job.

However, I believe God wants our life story to tell of His story. One of the ways he does that is through our scars. Scars tell powerful stories. They tell an even more powerful story about God, if  we let it.

We cannot have a scar unless we first had a wound that has been healed.

God wants to heal our wounds (emotional, physical, mental) so that, our life story can tell his story. Even the difficult things in life that we experience are not about us, they are about God. 2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “…God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.” I believe one way we are able to reconcile people back to God is by not covering up our scars, but rather let them tell a story…the story of how God healed them. Have you ever considered, that the story of how God redeemed & healed you, may be the very help the next person needs who is carrying around the same wound you once carried? It may be that you are still walking around with open wounds, and you need God to heal you first?

Join the Conversation…What is a story your scar could tell?

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52 Days

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On Sunday we kicked off our 52 Day Campaign believing that we serve the same God that empowered Nehemiah and his workers to completely rebuild the wall around Jericho in 52 days. As a community of faith, we are learning that Jesus has called us out to be on mission to change the world. I believe if we are going to move with God, we must be willing to take Risks, Sacrifice personally, and Mobilize people to take this journey with us.

Our goal is to see a 52% increase in our overall attendance at church by Easter Sunday. You may ask, “Why are you worried about increasing attendance?” Well, I am happy to answer. By increasing our attendance by 52% that gives us concrete evidence that we are fulfilling one of our goals as a church, to reach people. That’s 52% more people that we have the opportunity of leading to a passionate relationship with Jesus, its 52% more people to partner with us in this movement of God to see the hungry fed, the needy clothed, and the brokenhearted loved. It’s 52% more people who can discover the passions God has placed in their heart in order to serve mankind, locally and globally. 52% may very well be a challenge to us, but it is mere simplicity to God. In New Passion’s first 5 months we’ve seen God grow our community by 100% – I’m trusting Him for an additional 52% by Easter.

Hey New Passion! Are you with me? In the next 52 days, let’s find ways that we can Risk, Sacrifice, and Mobilize in order to fulfill the mission Christ has called us on. Join the Social Media revolution! Grab the main picture (right click & “save picture as”) and place it on your blog or facebook photo albums, or grab the photo below (right click & “save picture as”) and replace your Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace avatar with it. If you are on Twitter, tweet how God is using you to Risk, Sacrifice, and Mobilize and tag it with #52Days, so we can all check out what God is doing in your life!  What can you do to live out Jesus’ mission this week?

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Trying to Find Air to Breathe Again

I downloaded the new Flyleaf Album, Memento Mori from Amazon the other day.

I absolutely love the second song on the Album “Again” – Its a very powerful song.

I love the chorus…it says,

Here you are down on your knees again
trying to find air to breathe again
Only surrender will help you now
I love you please see and believe again

I think it just hits home and probably will to many people because how many times in life do we find that we’ve exhausted all of our own power to live out this life, and the only way we can continue to move forward is to surrender totally to God?

This song is sung by Lacy Mosley with such passion it almost makes you feel as if you are the one on your knees before God trying to find your next breathe to go on. Check out the song below and then Join the Conversation…Do you ever attempt to live out this life under your own power, only to find yourself trying to find the air to breathe again? Or, am I the only one?

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Throw Me in the Lab and Make Me an Experiment

lab-equipmentI often want to have all of the answers. Its not always fun walking by this thing we call faith. The more I walk in faith the more I realize that it is by walking in faith that it increases and I learn how to live in it more regularly. It still doesn’t make it easy. I posted about my desire at times for a flashlight HERE last week. Without faith to fully trust God, I wonder how deep our Christianity really goes? Today, I was reading some more of Oswald Chambers and was really inspired by what he wrote…

Getting There
June 13

“. . . come, follow Me” Luke 18:22

Where our individual desire dies and sanctified surrender lives. One of the greatest hindrances in coming to Jesus is the excuse of our own individual temperament. We make our temperament and our natural desires barriers to coming to Jesus. Yet the first thing we realize when we do come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatsoever to our natural desires. We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours. There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself (see Romans 12:1). If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you- and His experiments always succeed. The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this amazing Well, which is a continual Source of original life. The Spirit of God is a Well of water springing up perpetually fresh. A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus. Never try to make your experience a principle for others, but allow God to be as creative and original with others as He is with you.

If you abandon everything to Jesus, and come when He says, “Come,” then He will continue to say, “Come,” through you. You will go out into the world reproducing the echo of Christ’s “Come.” That is the result in every soul who has abandoned all and come to Jesus.

Have I come to Him? Will I come now?

Two things stood out to me on this devotional:

  1. “Yet the first thing we realize when we do come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatsoever to our natural desires. We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours.” – Talk about TOTAL surrender. Jesus pays no attention to our natural desires. Does this mean that there is nothing about our humanity that can make a difference in the spiritual realm? Don’t get me wrong. I totally believe that God uses us, humans, flesh and blood, to make a difference and to advance his kingdom. However, I believe that without the power of God, we are powerless. I love where Chambers says, “You cannot dedicate what is not yours.” – I believe he is telling us that it is through these gifts that God has given to us that we are given the power to advance his Kingdom, not through our own physical or mental capacities. I wonder how effective I could be for Christ, if I would just stop (trying to figure things out in my own intellect & doing things in my own power) and fully surrender to His idea for my life?
  2. “If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you- and His experiments always succeed.” – I am posting the definition of Experiment for my readers, but I didn’t need it to grasp what was being said right off. This is awesome! EXPERIMENT = A test, trial, or tentative procedure; an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown.– If we totally surrender our lives; our abilities, our intellect, our wills…God will throw us in his lab and make us his  personal experiment. He will make us into an instrument to do something that is totally new, totally unknown, totally unique. I see men and women all over the world that God is using in tremendous ways, and a part of me envies them. I don’t envy them to be known or famous, but I envy what God uses them to do, the changes they inspire, the effect they have. I want God to throw me in his lab and make me his personal experiment. How about you? What’s your thoughts?