Archive - July, 2008

Everyone Has Value

July 10, 2008 in love, mission, people with 2 Comments

Do ever get mad at people? DUH! Stupid question isn’t it? We all do. Do you ever just look at people, and see the way that they do something, or hear the things that they say, or witness the way that they act towards other people and think that they are just stupid? A lot of that is plain old personality stuff. My wife and I are guilty at times of asking ourselves if we are the only normal people left on the earth. We usually end up reminding ourselves that someone else thinks that we are weird. Personality differences are what make this world interesting. I am often guilty of treating people how they treat me. Or I treat them according to the value they have to me. I am so glad that God does not think or act like me.

I think as Christ-followers, we tend to get this holier-than-thou attitude that makes us think that no one should sin, and that we are better than other people. But let’s face it, people without Christ are going to act like people without Christ. And that is not a statement of arrogance from a Christ follower, like we are better. It should be a statement that gives us a longing in our heart to reach out and love people so that they can know that God loves them, that God is interested in them, and interested in their lives.

Many Christ-followers have forgotten this truth as they have dealt with people, and consequently, people who are outside of the church have been driven away from Christ and the church. We need to remember one thing:

Everybody you lay your eyes on is somebody for who Christ died.

No matter who it is. You are surrounded by people today of immeasurable value. You interact with people every day and in every area of your life that are of immeasurable worth to God.

There are people outside the walls of your church that have been mistreated and bumped around by the Church. We, as Christians, have gotten into our little Churchianity sub-culture, and have only viewed those that are just like us as being valuable. And that is so not like Jesus. That is so unlike what He did as He walked this earth.

1 John 4: says, “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

God says here, “If I can love you, and you know how wicked you are (you know the thoughts you think, you know the things you have done) than certainly, you can love other people as well. You ought to love them because I paid a high price for them!

No matter who it is, everyone you meet is someone for which your heavenly Father sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for. You are surrounded by people today of immeasurable value. You interact with people every day and in every area of your life that are of immeasurable worth to God.

How do you treat someone who has that much worth and value?

You love them, because God has loved us.

What do people around us need? They need to know that they matter to God. How do they learn that? By the way that we love them. Let’s treat people as if they are of incredible value to God. And they are… in fact, they are of so much value that God allowed His Son to die for them. All of them!

Freedom

July 4, 2008 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

Today is a day where most of us in America will have an extra day off of work, and will spend time with the family at the lake, playing ball or just lazing around the house. I think it is a great day to do any of that, but let’s not forget that we have the freedom to do these things because of men and women that never did. They fought and bled and died so that we could have the country that we live in. Blood was shed for our freedom. Mark Batterson has a great post on his blog today about his. Head over and read it, and have a great day today!

Resisting or Embracing Change?

July 1, 2008 in change, joy with 11 Comments

I stumbled across a quote a couple weeks ago at Jonathan Herron’s blog that just keeps playing itself in my mind. Here is the quote, and the author of it:

“The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday.”
- R.T. Kendall, pastor of Westminster Chapel

Is saddens me (and ticks me off at the same time) to know that there are people who think that God stopped allowing His kids to be creative in 1950, 1960 or 1970. That somehow God looked down in 1970 and said, “Ahh, they have arrived. This is the ultimate Christian experience, and it should remain like this from now until Jesus comes.”

Can you imagine that? Can you understand that? If so, try and explain it to me if you would, because I sure can’t understand it. So many people are so used to their “Churchianity” that they forget that life is all about Christ, not their version of the Bible, their preference of music or their style of dress. Jesus said that we have the opportunity to live an abundant life that comes from living for Him. I think it is time we get our eyes off of what used to be and start focusing on what should be.

I am glad that things change. Not just change for change sake. But I like air conditioning, and riding to church in a car as opposed to a horse. I like many of the changes that we see in the church today. Are all changes good? No.

As you read the Bible, you do not find God doing the same thing over and over again as He dealt with His people. You do not see Jesus doing the same miracles over and over again. He did things different. Sometimes in a radical way. A way that ticked the religious leaders off. I think that is cool and sad at the same time. Cool because Jesus was certain that God was not working the same way He did with Moses and Abraham and others in the Old Testament. It is sad because Jesus told these so-called religious leaders that by holding on to their traditions and preaching those traditions the same as being God’s law, they had made the Word of God of no affect. That is what scares me about churches today. They are so in tune to tradition, that the Word of God has no affect when it is actually preached. God, please do not let me ever get to that point!

God changed His methods. Jesus changed His methods. But the message was always the same. God loves us, and wants a relationship with us. That message will never change, nor should it.