Tag: church

Stay Connected

unpluggedWe have all heard the saying “it’s not about what you know but who you know.”  There is more that happens in and around us based on the connections that we have with others.  The idea of being “an island unto myself” is something that none of us were meant to be.  Who we are comes from what is allowed to be encouraged within us by the relationships we have around us.  It was Paul who wrote “Do not let anyone fool you. Bad people can make those who want to live good become bad. ” I Corinthians 15:33 NLV  We actually become like the people we hang around with.

“Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone. ” – Margaret J. Wheatley

So when it comes to our walk with God why is that so many of us try to do it ourselves.  It is something we are all guilty of.  Statistics released by George Barna show that the average American pastor spends 7 min a day in prayer and the average Christian about 1 min per day.  And we wonder why we struggle so hard to become what we know we are supposed to be becoming and the world around us thinks we are just a bunch of hypocrites who spout off rules for life that we don’t even follow ourselves.

All this work invested into becoming and Jesus stated that we would become if we follow Him.  Matthew 4:19 AMP And He said to them, “Follow Me [as My disciples, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk], and I will make you fishers of men.”  We strive and struggle and work and miss out on the most important connection we have with our Father in heaven.  There was a reason Jesus spent so many hours in communion with His Father.  It was because He knew that His source for all He was to become was that connection.

It’s like we have a power cord attached to us, and that cord needs to be plugged in to a power source.  And when we desire to follow our path and do what we desire, or do what God wants but in our way and on our schedule we come unplugged.  And we instantly lose our ability to become what God designed and desires us to be.  Jesus said to stay connected to Him and the fruit would take care of itself.  Fruit is a result of being connected, not of us striving and struggling to be something.

John 15:5-6 MSG “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.“  It is up to us to decide whether we will bear fruit or not.  If we maintain the connection a harvest is a sure thing.  Or we can continue to fight it out on our own convinced that we can do it ourselves.  The truth is we become because of relationship.  Will we plug in?

get plugged in

Transformed? pt.3

good evilOne day Jesus and His disciples were traveling and after a long day of travel and ministry they began to look for a place to rest.  It was getting close to the time where He was going to be betrayed and crucified and He was on His way to Jerusalem.  So He sent some people on ahead to the next town to find a place to stay.  The town was in Samaria and when the Samaritans heard He was traveling to Jerusalem they refused to let Him stay.  James and John, two of Jesus disciples were outraged at being treated this way and responded by asking Jesus “James and John, His followers, saw this. They said, “Lord, do You want us to speak so fire will come down from heaven and burn them up as Elijah did?”  Jesus turned and spoke sharp words to them. (*He said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you have.  The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives. He came to save them from the punishment of sin.” They went on their way to another town.)”  Luke 9:54-56 NLV

You do not know what kind of spirit you have.   It is something that we as Christians need to ask ourselves.  There are three kinds of spirit at work on us.  We have the will to choose to do things our own way and follow ourselves.  God is constantly calling to us and we have the choice to follow Him.  And there is the devil who as long as we are not following God doesn’t have to do much with us.  We need to choose which one we follow.

Most of us as Christians follow ourselves and we don’t see transformation in our lives.  It is up to us whom we follow.  Paul wrote a lot on this topic, but specifically in Galatians 5.  He wrote similar to Jesus and said we have to decide which spirit we will have or follow.  And the one we chose to follow would be evidenced by our lives.  And this isn’t a choice we can make passively, because both sides are battling each other.  “I say this to you: Let the Holy Spirit lead you in each step. Then you will not please your sinful old selves.  The things our old selves want to do are against what the Holy Spirit wants. The Holy Spirit does not agree with what our sinful old selves want. These two are against each other. So you cannot do what you want to do. ”  Galatians 5:16-17 NLV   By default we follow ourselves and do what we want to do.  If we don’t choose to follow God we choose to follow ourselves.  We need to decide and act on that decision.

Paul wrote that the evidence of following ourselves is “The things your sinful old self wants to do are: sex sins, sinful desires, wild living,  worshiping false gods, witchcraft, hating, fighting, being jealous, being angry, arguing, dividing into little groups and thinking the other groups are wrong, false teaching,  wanting something someone else has, killing other people, using strong drink, wild parties, and all things like these.”  and the result of them is “I told you before and I am telling you again that those who do these things will have no place in the holy nation of God.”  Galatians 5:19-21 NLV  This sounds just like the world we all live in, and unfortunately most of the churches we attend.

But transformed lives can be ours to live.  We don’t have to live life like everyone else.  And a transformed life is the best message we can offer the world around us.  One of the best times for evangelism is in the first few months after someone chooses to follow Christ and their friends can actually see the transformations happening.  And life with God isn’t supposed to be simply about talking to people,  it was meant to be about flowing with God and in His power.  “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” 1 Corinthians 4:20 NLT

When we choose to let God lead our lives can be transformed because the evidence of our choice is transformation.  Paul continued to tell us “But the fruit that comes from having the Holy Spirit in our lives is: love, joy, peace, not giving up, being kind, being good, having faith, 23 being gentle, and being the boss over our own desires.” Galatians 5:22-23 NLV  This is a great contrast to living life our way.  Jesus demonstrated this life for us and invites us to do the same.  We need to evaluate the fruit in our lives and decide which spirit we will be of.  The choice is up to us, but the rewards can be huge.

who-you-follow-makes-a-difference“If the Holy Spirit is living in us, let us be led by Him in all things.” Galatians 5:25 NLV

Worship? pt-4

Worship in truth pt.2

Worship1Do we really worship?  It has been a question I have asked myself many times.  Especially when I read Jesus’ comments in Matthew 15:8-9 NLV “These people show respect to Me with their mouth, but their heart is far from Me.   Their worship of Me is worth nothing.”  When I worship I never want God to say that it has been worthless.  And yet I feel that much of what we do in churches today is worthless in God’s eyes.  We call it worship but our lives are lived for ourselves.

I once heard someone define praise as the fast songs we sing, and worship was the slow songs.  But I knew it had to be more than that.  Worship cannot just be a song we sing.  And God is actively looking for people who will worship Him.  “But the time is coming–indeed it’s here now–when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.  For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”  John 4:23-24 NLT

Last post I shared that worshiping in truth meant that we need to see God for who He really is and not for who we want Him to be.  We have been trying to force God into our understanding for a very long time.  One of the reasons Jesus wasn’t accepted by many of the Jews and the Pharisees and religious leaders was that He didn’t come as they expected or wanted Him to.  Even as Jesus was about to be taken into heaven after being raised from the dead the disciples were still trying.  They said “So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”  They we still trying to fit God into their expectations after all they had seen and experienced living and walking with Jesus and seeing Him raised.

We need to let God be God, and worship Him as He is not for who we think He should be.  But worshiping in truth also means that our words and our lives should be in agreement.  We cannot sing “let your glory fall in this room, and let it go forth from here to the nations” if we are unwilling to get a passport and be ready to travel.  Worshiping in truth means that the words we say and sing relate to the life we live every day.

To many people stand in churches and sing words that they never think about.  It is just what Christians do.  We live in a time where Christians are not Christians.  We are “Christian Atheists” to borrow from Craig Groeschel.  We talk like God exists, and live like He doesn’t.  It is important that we change this.  For our worship to be true it must come from our hearts, and not be just words we  say.  It must come from a live that is spent living out daily the words we sing and say.  This is the kind of worship God is actively seeking.  He isn’t looking for perfection, just integrity. 

The profession of our lips needs to be demonstrated in the way we talk and live.  And our lives need to show a dependence on and a submission to the God we say we serve.  Otherwise our worship is without value.