Tag: Life

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Coming Soon to a Blog Near You

Its been a crazy and busy last few days. Things are slowing down and I will be getting back to some regular blogging by this afternoon.

  • I will be posting my closing thoughts on Chapter 2 of Chasing Daylight.
  • Starting my thoughts on Chapter 3
  • Within the next few days I should be posting my article for simply youth ministry “Infusing Passion” I want it to release on their newsletter and website first, so I do not take away from what they are trying to do. I am excited about the article and hope that it will make for some great dialog. I had to keep it short for them and I really wanted to add to it, so I may do that on here.
  • All of this coming soon…
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Living Delusional

In Chapter 2 of Chasing Daylight, Erwin McManus writes about a conversation with his friend Joe White.

Joe has been diagnosed with terminal cancer…(In the conversation) He was clear that today might be the last day he had to live. I could live under the delusion that today is just one day of many still to come. The gift of his cancer was the value of today.

I’ve heard it asked several times, what would you do if you had 30 days to live? 30 days to live still gives enough time to procrastinate. What would you do if you knew that today could be the last day that you lived?

What could we do as a community of believers if we approached everyday as if it were our last one? What could we do as individuals, if that was our focus? Would we fix that broken relationship? Share Christ with that lost family member or friend? Would we set out to fulfill that dream that we never took the initiative to conquer? Would we spend a little more quality time with our family? Would we (fill in the blank) ________________?

How much further could the mission of Christ be furthered if we simply lived like this was our last day to live? Would we truly choose to live or would we choose to sit back and exist for one more day? There are some dreams that I want to see happen, things God has spoken to me about that I want to obey Him on, but I have been sitting back and waiting for “the right timing” to do it, but what if I sit back too long? Could my delusion of another day lead me away from seeing those things ever accomplished?

How about you? Are you living with the delusion of another day? Or, are you living today as if it very well could be your last day? If you are reading this, you have been gifted the value of a day, what are we going to do with that gift?

I close with this challenge from Erwin…I think it sums this up pretty nicely:

Wake Up! Get out of bed. God wants to change the world through your life if you’ll just do something.

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What Fuels You?

An excerpt from Chasing Daylight, chapter 2, “Initiative”

Until our bodies turn to dust, there will always be a voice crying out within us to move from existence to life…The possibilities that await us in each moment are fueled by the potential God has placed within us…It is about the kind of life you live as a result of the person you are becoming. The challenges you are willing to face will rise in proportion to the character you are willing to develop. With the depth of godly character comes an intensity of godly passion.

It is in this process of transformation that we find the fuel to engage with confidence the opportunities placed before us…For some strange reason many sincere followers of Christ have come to think that their passions are always in conflict with God’s purpose.

“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4) When you draw near to God, God infuses passion…When we delight in God we become anything but apathetic. In fact, we become intensely passionate. These desires of our hearts are born out of the heart of God…The more passionate you are, the more proactive you will tend to be (even if you boldly do the wrong thing!).

“The more passionate you are, the more proactive you will tend to be…” Wow! If that does not sum up a lot of things. If I were to apply that one statement to Christians alone, it may help pinpoint why some people do not get plugged into ministry in order to serve others in the body. It very well could be that they don’t get plugged in because of a heart issue…they may not be passionate about God, other people, or the ministry they are being asked to do. I’ve seen it first hand, if someone is passionate they are going to be committed, no passion…no commitment.

Green Freaks…are proactive about the environment.
Nascar Freaks…are proactive about watching cars drive in circles.
Animal Freaks…are proactive about saving the minks.
Jesus Freaks…are proactive about sharing the love of Christ.

What is fueling you? What makes you want to get involved with whatever it is that you are involved with?

It could be in the “Spiritual” world or the “Secular” world, but chances are, if you are proactive about it…you have a passion, a love, a longing for it. If you are not active with anything…you are just existing…not living, that’s apathy! Motivation for me is to be proactive in growing in my journey with Christ, as I grow, He will give me the desires that I need to be passionate about, and with passion I can act, therefore I can live.

If you are not living, chances are you’re not growing. What’s holding you back? God wants to remove those barriers and replace them with passion.

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A Long Day, But Worth It…

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Yesterday about 10:00 a.m. I checked my email and saw that Shane’s granddad is sick in the hospital. If you are a prayer, please pray for him and Shane’s family…even though you may not know them. This is a difficult and trying time for them.

I had less than 8 hours to prepare a message for the teenagers, because Shane was scheduled to speak. I also had a full days worth of work at the office. I had nothing to speak on except what was on my heart and mind. As I have been posting on here, I have been reading “Chasing Daylight.” I am still in chapter 2 and did not get a chance to read any further yesterday, but I ran with a story from the Bible that Erwin referenced in the book. Rahab.

I called the message, Choose to Live, because that is what Rahab did. She chose to live. She had made many bad choices in her life, she was a practicing prostitute at the time God sent an opportunity for her to choose. She could have chosen to do nothing, because after all, what kind of life did she have to salvage? She could have chosen to live as she had always lived, but she didn’t…she chose to do good and to take a new path, a path pleasing to God. As a result…she chose life…she created a whole new future…things were different!

Well, things are different in 2 students lives today. I challenged all of the students to do 1 of 2 things:
#1 if they were a Christ Follower, but were living their life walking backwards into their future being paralyzed by the choices they have made in their past, to turn around walk head first into their future and choose the way of life when God brings them the next opportunity. (I revealed to them that they cannot see opportunities from God if they are walking backwards!)
#2 I challenged those who were not Christ Followers to choose life, the life of Christ. I told them just like Rahab, it did not matter where they were in their life or even what “wrong” choices they made that day, Jesus wanted to love them and to forgive them…Well 2 students made a choice for life, and they asked Jesus to be the Lord of their life.

Please pray for Shane and his family, as well as these 2 students who are starting a new journey to be a Christ follower.

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Living in the Neutral Zone

PhotobucketAs I started chapter 2 of Chasing Daylight, I was bombarded with some thoughts on living in neutral. I have read several blog posts lately concerning the church and Christians being involved with the issues that the world faces, but it was chapter 2 that brought it all to a head tonight.

I’ve read this section before in Erwin’s “Seizing Your Divine Moment” book before it was republished as “Chasing Daylight.” I never finished reading that book, so I re-read it in this one.

Here is the quote that stood out the most to me, I will post the others at a later time, but for now this one will do…“We have put so much emphasis on avoiding evil that we have become virtually blind to the endless opportunities for doing good.”

So when was the last time you stopped on the side of the road and helped that individual change their tire? Helped the elderly person unload their grocery bags or lift a heavy box into their car? When was the last time you walked all the way back into the retail store to tell the customer service desk that someone left their lights on? Sent a check for $20 to buy mosquito nets? Sponsored a child to make sure they would eat this month and get an education?

PhotobucketOpportunities to do good are all around us, but we have been so seasoned to avoid evil that we have allowed ourselves to live in the neutral zone. In capture the flag, the neutral zone is the inactive place to be in the game, no one could send you to prison, everything comes to a stop.
Life happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We can idly sit by and do nothing…or as Erwin says in his book, we can do something.

Is it the great sin of the church that we have become so apathetic, so idle? James said, when we know to do good and we don’t do it…it’s sin! So, does that mean that in all of our effort to avoid evil, we position ourselves into a place where we still sin, if we move into the neutral zone? After all, its not evil to not help the elderly person put the box into their car, but if we know that it is an act of goodness and we turn the other way to avoid the situation, do we then in essence sin? Continue reading “Living in the Neutral Zone”