Tag: Living

Posted on

Chasing Daylight Chapter 5 Thoughts (Part1)

Photobucket

Here’s what stood out to me from Chapter 5 of Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus…

  • Divine moments require us to move from the invisible to the visible so that the invisible can become visible.
  • Its about volunteering when God is asking, “Who will go on my behalf?”
  • It is so much easier to choose to be invisible. Oh, there are other words for ‘invisible’ – average, mediocre, normal, compliant, predictable, safe – and the list could go on and on.
  • The most important decisions of our lives will require us to forsake invisibility and risk becoming visible. Whenever you choose to seize divine moments, you move from invisibility to visibility.
Posted on

Thoughts on Chapter 3 of Chasing Daylight (Part 1)

Photobucket

Here are some quotes and thoughts from Chapter 3 of Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus that stood out to me or spoke to me: Please share in the discussion!

The Chapter is about Uncertainty, and how as we move with God, we will face uncertainties. I am about a quarter of the way through the chapter and it’s really good!

  • We have no control over when we die or how we die. We must instead take responsibility for what we do have control over – how we choose to live.
  • Our wealth and abundance of human resources have positioned us to accept a paradigm that provision precedes vision. This has been the foundation of building no-risk faith. This is a tragedy when a part of the adventure is the discovery that vision always precedes provision.
  • If you wait for guarantees, the only thing that will be guaranteed is that you will miss endless divine opportunities – that you can know for certain.
  • [On Uncertain Faith] “By faith Abraham, when called [by God] to go to a place where he would later receive an inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8
  • Faith is all about character, trusting in the character of God, being certain in who God is and following Him into the unknown.
  • One of the wonders of uncertainty is that it is the environment in which God invites us to be creative.
  • First-dimension faith is about trusting the character of God – and transforming your character.
  • Much of first-dimension faith is about doing the right thing regardless of the circumstances or consequences. It is about having the faith that God will be with you when you do what is right.
Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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”