Be Better For It

We lose track.

We lose track of time, we lose track of people, we lose track of life, we lose track of God. We get so caught up in ourselves and what we have going on, we miss what God has blessed us with.

Short and sweet version: We need to stop worrying about everything that is wrong with everything else and focus on everything that is right about everything God is doing in us and through us.

Not as short, but still sweet version: We put so much focus on fixing what is wrong around us and we miss everything that is right. I can say this because I constantly catch myself doing it. I have found I am focused more on what God has blessed me with rather than focusing on the God that blessed me to begin with.We lose track of how great God is, everything He is constantly blessing us with. If we took more time to realize how much we don’t deserve God’s love but how graciously He gives it, we would be better for it.

Be better for it.

What Looks Good…

Most people tend to be ok with the thing that “looks” good. Most people tend to go after what they think they want, instead of what God says they need. People have let society tell them what it thinks they need. People lose sight of what is around them because they are focused on themselves.

We forget that God has the last word. We need to, especially in America, become more aware of what God is saying. We need to stop living to build up ourselves, build up our church, build up our denomination, build up our religion, and build up the Kingdom of God. We are losing sight of the big picture. We, not God, are making the picture of life smaller and smaller. Many have acquired the mentality that life is about making their name known, making money in their name, doing things for themselves. We need to regain the mentality that everything we do is about God and His purpose for us. We need to see life, people, events, everything the way God intended for us to see them.

Proverbs 16:1-9

New Living Translation (NLT)

16 We can make our own plans,
but the Lord gives the right answer.

2 People may be pure in their own eyes,
but the Lord examines their motives.

3 Commit your actions to the Lord,
and your plans will succeed.

4 The Lord has made everything for his own purposes,
even the wicked for a day of disaster.

5 The Lord detests the proud;
they will surely be punished.

6 Unfailing love and faithfulness make atonement for sin.
By fearing the Lord, people avoid evil.

7 When people’s lives please the Lord,
even their enemies are at peace with them.

8 Better to have little, with godliness,
than to be rich and dishonest.

9 We can make our plans,
but the Lord determines our steps.

Why Aren’t You Dreaming Big?

Proverbs 13:19 NLT – It is pleasant to see dreams come true, but fools refuse to turn from evil to attain them.

To answer the main question, I think you have to hit a few other points. First, what are dreams? Second, what are YOUR dreams compared to God’s dreams for your life? Third, what is stopping you from dreaming outside the box?

What is a dream to begin with?
Dictionary version: A strongly desired goal or purpose.
My version: The desire to do, go, and chase something that is outside of your current standing. To go beyond your current limitations to reach a place with no limitations. To desire more.

What are YOUR dreams compared to God’s?
You have to find where your heart is being called. You have to open your eyes to God’s plan for your life and the dreams He has set in front of you. I don’t know if you know, but God dreams bigger and a lot more creative than we ever will. Now you know.

What is stopping you from dreaming?
Is what you’ve done, where you’ve been, your relationships, your thoughts, your job, just your life that is holding you back? Find the thing(s) that you think are stopping you from dreaming. There are so many things we let get in the way of dreaming. The one I have heard a thousand times… life. We let “life” hold us back from dreaming, when we should be dreaming about what we can do with the life we were given.

Dream bigger than you have ever dreamed. Start letting God take those dreams and make them even bigger. Make you dreams avaliable to God’s creativity, passion, love, and power and watch what happens. Let God set your heart on fire, and let your love and desire consume those around you. Dream to make a difference.

Dream Big

STOP DREAMING SMALL.

What are we doing dreamming small? What are we doing not dreaming at all?

We are becoming a society of lost dreamers, where few dream anymore, and most wait for the dreamers to tell them what to do, where to go , who to be. There are more people losing thier dreams every day. In turn, there are less and less dreamers.

We lose our dreams in this world. The world looks down on us, and we let it. We let this world push us around and tell us what we should and shouldn’t do, that a piece of paper, called a degree, that we pay thousands for will get us that “dream job” that we slave for. But for what? Money? We let the world and society tell us that we have to look and act a certain way to get where we want to go.

As christians, and christian churches, we dream to grow OUR church.
Here are some problems with that.
1. It is not our church to begin with, it’s God’s.
2. It is small scale thinking.

Instead of trying to grow our own personal churches, which aren’t ours to begin with, why are we not dreaming of growing the Kingdom?

Start dreaming, not about just growing the church, but about changing lives.

Check back in tomorrow for : Why Aren’t You Dreaming Big?

unstoppable

In a lot of what I write, I don’t want you to think I am writing to cast my judgement on things I’ve noticed. I hope you know that is not my intention what so ever. My intention is to get you to think about the way you live your life, the way you walk this earth, and and way you interact with the people around you. My intention is to get you to think about the way God is using you and working in your life.

Ok now the good stuff…

Why have we been overthinking the way we live our lives? We forget that God’s love for us in unstoppable. We forget that God is pursuing us. We forget how big our God is.

So why have WE made things so complicated? We put our human ways into a God centered action. We have put rules and regulations on a thing that God gave us with no restraints, love. We have thrown our selfishness into love. We have put limitations on our love for one another. We love the people that can love us back, and we only love the people that can benefit us.

Our view of love has been so distorted by society. We love the things that are easy to love, the beautiful things, the good things. Why do we not love the things that are hard to love, the not so pretty, the not so good?  We have let hatred creep in and harden our hearts for those around us. We sit back and complain about the world and the problems in it.

When God started loving us from the beginning, we were not pretty, and we were not good. Imagine the world if people started loving one another the way God loves us. Love gives people hope. We have the ability to bring the hope and love of God to this earth on a daily basis.

God would still be God, with or without us. He doesn’t need us, He WANTS us. How awesome is that? The God of all creation wants to love us.

In the words of my dad, “When is the last time you did something for someone who could give you nothing in return?” 

Stop Trying to Save the Church…

“Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it..” – Matthew 16:18

We are so focused on doing everything to save our individual churches. We are so focused on the church falling apart around us. We are so focused on people going to church. We are so focused on making the church look good.

The church doesn’t need it. You need to BE the church.

God’s plan for His church is much greater than ours. He will do with His church exactly what needs to be done. His power is beyond our wildest dreams.

“The problem with the American Church is simple…too many ‘converts’ and not enough disciples! #takeupyourcross” – Tommy McMahan

It is easy for us to sit back and say things like “Oh, the church is falling apart.” or “What can I do?”.

It is hard for us to get out of our comfortable bubbles, and be the church. Especially without saying anything, and just being the example.

Why do you think people turn away from church? What are your thoughts?

The Normal Exception

I follow a blog by a worship leader named Carlos Whittaker. It’s some good stuff, so if you haven’t heard of him, now you have. But the reason I love reading what he writes, is because it’s real.

I’ve said it before, but people are searching for real in a world that is full of fake. I’m sure I’m not the first to say that, and I don’t think I’ll be the last. Anyway, Carlos recently had a post titled ” Judging Sin, Pissing Of Baby Mamas, And A Bad Case Of PlankEye”. He set the hook on one particular person in particular, to judge, and then that person went further than needed. But that’s people, right?

So as I finished up reading this post, I started thinking. And it’s not exactly where he took his post, but that’s where it started.

So here is my thought…

Why has this world gotten to the point to where good, honest, true Christians are so hard to find, and have become the “exception”. Why is it that “normal” has become families falling apart, people not helping each other, selfishness over running our nation?

I wish it was normal to be the exception, and the exception normal.

We have to become uncomfortable with ourselves and become comfortable with others.

You Do You

It is crazy to me how much we, as humans, have lost touch with one another. Not in the fact that we can’t figure out what is going on in the world around us, but that we choose not to.

What most people forget is that they aren’t pefect, and that sin is sin. Especially as Christians, we tend to point out the faults in this world without recognizing our own (plank in your eye, spec in your brothers).

Guess what, you will not be judged when you get to Heaven according to how other people acted, that simple.

I do it all the time, I compare my “level” of sin to someone else’s sin, and that isn’t how it works.

This world would be a much better place if everyone, instead of trying to fix everyone around them, just fixed themselves.

When you see that someone needs to work out physically, you don’t run for them to lose weight, you don’t lift weights for them to get stong, you don’t do crunches for them to get abs, they  have to do it themsleves.

It is the same way spiritually. We must make oursleves spiritually fit with God being our personal trainer. Sounds cheesy, but thats how it is. Except it is free, not $50+ an hour.

Let God work on others, you just work on you.

To Touch, And Be Touched

 

We don’t like to get to close to people. We like our little bubble and get upset when people creep their way into OUR bubble.

Guess what, that’s when we lose our connection with people. We make it about us, instead of making it about them.

We forget how important it is for people to feel our presence, and especially to feel God’s presence. There are people in this world who have never been touched by that presence. There are people who society has deemed as untouchable.

When Jesus healed the leper in Matthew 8, JESUS TOUCHED HIM. He made an effort to touch the man who had not been touched by the world. He made an effort to connect with the man who no one would even go near. He made an effort to break down His personal bubble and reach out for the one in need. He knew what the man was looking for.

So where do we fit in with that? There isn’t anybody walking down the street with leprosy, but there are people everywhere who are hurting, and sick, and beaten down, and who the world has thrown away, who are longing to be touched by God, who are longing to be touched by His spirit, who are longing for acceptance from another person. That is where we fit in.

I challenge you, as you go through your week, touch someone’s life who is hurting, who doesn’t have it all together, who doesn’t feel like they are important or needed.

relentless

 

Why does the church become so divided, when we want the same thing? Why do we become selfish, when we have the same desires?

I believe at the root of ourselves, we all want at least a little good. I believe we want to grow the Kingdom of Heaven, we just don’t always know how.

We become selfish and think we know everything. When will we get tired of that? Not tired of that with others, but with ourselves.

Selfishness is definitely not found in only the church, it is everywhere. It is human nature to be selfish, and it starts as early as when we were babies, when we wouldn’t share a toy.

Guess what, IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU, AND ITS NOT ABOUT ME. It is about every person out there that is looking for something more.

We all, especially myself, tend to think we know everything about everything, but let me assure you, none of us do, none of us.

Lately I have been one to complain, to get aggravated because I have had to work more, agitated because something wasn’t done the way I wanted it done, fed up because I was tired. It has come to a point to where I didn’t even realize it until I took a step back, and saw what I was doing, without even meaning to.

We have to make our lives a relentless pursuit after what God has for us. We have to surrender ourselves for His purpose.  We have to abandon our selfishness, and abandon our own desires, and make it more about people.

“Be relentless and then you’ll break through.” – Julie Brown