L.I.V.E

FREEEEEEDOOOOOM

The last words of Sir William Wallace in the movie “Brave-heart”. William  was a Scottish commoner who spent his life fighting for the freedom of Scotland. Before William Wallace is executed he is given a chance to confess his wrong doing against the king. The princess lets him know that if he doesn’t confess he will die. William Wallace then says ” Every man dies not every man lives.  There is so much truth in that statement, there are so many people out there that are just existing. They have no hope, no joy and are living with no purpose….. The bible gives us four components that will help us truly live..

LOVE

INVEST

VICTORIOUS ATTITUDE

ENDURE

The Foundation is LOVE     Love Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the Lord YOUR God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Now today we have completely distorted this word…..Not only do we distort we have misplaced our love..Deuteronomy 6:5   Tells us a little more about what love should look like… 

1)     The placement of where our love should be.       The Lord

b.     The verse reminds us that we are to Love THE Lord. Letting us know that there is only one who is worthy of our love

    He did not say love A Lord 

     Love an Idol of your choice

   Love the Deity that provides the most benefit to your life .

       Love the Lord, tells us that our Love should be directed to one and only one, and that is Jesus Christ the Lord

2)     The love is personal (YOUR GOD)      There is a personal knowledge required.  You are unable to Love the Lord if you don’t know him .The verse tells us that you are to Love the Lord YOUR God,,,,, Not the God that your mother believes in. Not the God that you have heard about all your life, not the God that the Preacher believes in….   Your relationship with God is not dependent on anyone Else’s knowledge of God….It is your relationship….

3)     How to love God

    Everything, the whole thing, All that you are, all that you are going to be ……..   

  All Your heart   

\   ALL your soul 

      ALL your strength 

 So entering into 2008 if you truly want to LIVE…YOU MUST LOVE THE LORD          

 Entering into 2008 will you Love the Lord your God with all of your heart mind and soul 

 Invest in others          

 1 Corinthians 4:16           Therefore I urge you to IMITATE me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy my son whom I love who is faithful in the Lord He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which  agrees with what I teach every where in every church..  

Paul is speaking to the Corinthian church, who he loved and spent time with  He reminds them of the life that he lived before them One that was Christ focused One that exemplified what a Christian should look like Paul lived a disciplined life before the Corinthian church He loved the Lord Paul was so confident that he was living an obedient life in Christ that he says “Imitate me”A pretty bold statement  Paul wants the Corinthian church to remember the life he lived before them…..So what does Paul do…

He sends Timothy

Paul was an investor He could so confidently send Timothy in his stead, because Paul invested in Timothy He spent Time with Timothy He showed Timothy how to live a godly life He showed Timothy how to share the gospel, live the gospel and be apart of the ministry of the gospel. 

 Who are you investing in?????What Paul did with Timothy is what is required of all of us?Its called making disciples.. 

Christ last words on His earthly ministry were  “Go therefore and make disciples” It is required of each and everyone one to invest in someone else. It doesn’t require a Masters in Divinity to invest in some Take what you know and have learned in Christ and impart t to someone else But know the best way to make a disciple is to LIVE Christ in front of someone.. There is a verse in the book of Judges that reminds us of the importance of this         Judges 2:10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. A whole generation went with out the knowledge of the Lord. Why Simply because the Older generation did not invest, show the ways of the Lord….. What will be said of you this year…. Will you invest so that another generation can know the ways of the Lord or will you be like the Israelites and  forget of Gods ways?

  Entering into 2008 will you make a commitment to invest in just one person  

Victorious Attitude

           We must first define the term. Because I know that we don’t truly understand living Victorious…I think that we miss understand what it means to live victoriously. Here in America we think that a Victorious life is one that is always on top. One that is always the winner, Always finical well off A victorious life in America is one that always goes your way….Yet that is not the picture that we are given in the bible…         

Philippians 4: 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.     

The key to living a Victorious life is learning to be content. Learning to be Victorious means being content whether you have much or you have nothing, Victorious life means being content…..

 Some times we focus so much on the things that go wrong Or the things that we don’t have That we forget the blessings that we have Entering into 2008 will you make a commitment to have a Victorious attitude  

Endure 

 Anything worth living for is worth dying for..  

The 12 disciples  Matthew- Was slayin with a swordMark- Was dragged through the city by horsesLuke – Was hanged for his faithJohn – was put in a Calderon of Boiling OilPeter – Was Crucified in an inverted positionJames the Greater – was beheadedJames the lesser – was beaten to deathBartholomew- was flayed alivePaul – was beheadedBarnabas – was stoned to deathNotice the only one that was not martyred was Judas who betrayed Christ. 

Entering into 2008 will you make a commitment to endure for Christ

Love the Lord your God

Invest in others

Victorious Attitude  

Endure   

ALL MEN DIE NOT ALL MEN TRULY LIVE, WILL YOU LIVE THIS YEAR……….

SCARS

When I was a young boy my body use to be covered with scars. Scars from crashes on my bike and skate board, scars from falling out of trees, (that one hurt), scars from sports. I think the testosterone in me really likes the scars, they are manly. Each scar tells a story of a battle or adventure that was survived..

I think as followers of Christ we should have more scars, scars that remind us of the battle that  we are in with Christ.  I was reading Mark 14, where Christ deals with a major scar of the battle, the scar of Betrayal. Judas betrays Christ for a couple of bucks…

We must first remind ourselves of two things betrayal can only occur between friends, not people that are acquaintances, or people you pass by in life. Betrayal can only occur with  people that you have a connection with, a friendship, a bond of trust has been developed..

Unlike you and I Christ knew he was going to be betrayed by Jesus, yet he still loved him, still walked with him, still ate with was still willing to connect with him. Now many might say that Christ did that just to fulfill prophecy, but in saying that you negate the humanity of Christ. Christ gives us the example of how to connect and love the lost world. He calls us to be in the world not of the world, which means we must be willing to like Christ did, connect with the lost world and love it with the love of Christ….

Are you willing to connect and love one that is nothing like, you the one that has nothing to offer you on the outside, the one that commits the sin that you detest the most. Christ connected and loved the lost world…

Will you…..

Why have a Relationship with God

In the past two weeks I have had a handful of people come into my life and talk about having a relationship with God. In both conversations the people spoke of the time when they didn’t have a relationship with God and why, then compared it to their current connection with God.

As I was reflecting on these conversations I realized that the two people had spoke of two different reasons that they had come to Christ. The first one spoke mostly of the fear of going to Hell, and how that drove them to a relationship with Jesus Christ. The second spoke of Christ love. When they found out that a perfect God loved them so much that  he was willing to die for them, that drove them to a relationship with Christ.

Why come to Jesus. What is the reason to come and have a relationship with Jesus…

The bible says that all men who do not come to Jesus are already condemned….Heading to HELL (FACT)

The bible also says that God so LOVED the world that He gave his only Son??? (FACT)

 My question is why come to Jesus???

Do we come to Jesus to avoid going to Hell? Is it fear of punishment

Or do we come to Jesus based on His Love? We are compelled to have a relationship because he first loved us.

Or are we unable to separate the two ????

What do you think????????? 

I am the Church

When you talk about the church, what are the first things that you think of?

Worship, music, fellowship and an occasional service? Maybe you think of the actual building in which all of this occurs? What about those people who are “Un-churched” what do they think of? Uncomfortable Pews, unrealistic preacher and a repeated request for money? Both trains of thought could use some guidance. There is a reason that the un-churched wont step into the facility…. Its because so many of us are just as confused on what the Church is. We focus so much on the facilities for both good and bad, the building is nothing more then a tool used to help assimilate fellowship and community.That is why Christ made the church “Mobile”. 

The “church” is the person that follows Jesus. The church is seen in the life that has been changed by the presence of God, not seen in the beautiful  building..

If we understand that this is what the church is, we must ask ourselves; What does the man or woman that does not know God see in the church….

 What does the life I live before the lost world say about the church??????

What will the church in you look like in 2008?

Intersection where faith and life meet

Have you ever questioned the reality of your faith?

Imagine if you would a conversation with a stranger off of the street. After covering the basic intro sport weather, the market place. An open door about your faith, your religion the thing that you truly think defines you comes up…And you share with the person what you believe, who and what you put your faith. You put a smile on your face thinking that you were owe so eloquent in your presentation of who your Faith is in…….

Then you are asked…………..Prove it…

And your jaw drops.. What you don’t believe me..

Know really this is what I believe

Again you are asked…..Prove it..

Not always the easiest question to answer…….

The bible tells us that we need to live our lives in the intersection……

The intersection of Faith and Action..

In James 2:14-26 this conversation takes place…… One person says they have Faith, but no need for Action or works…Another says they have their works but need no faith….

The reality of our faith is found in the intersection of Faith and Actions…

Faith without the corresponding actions is dead…..

Do you live in the intersection?????

This Bog is about living in the intersection of Life…..