True Hunger Games

A friend of mine once commented to me that he thought it would be easier to share Christ with a homeless drug addict than with someone who lived in a large home and had every daily physical need met. His rationale was based on the premise that one of those people will be more desperate for truth while the other will deceive themselves with the comfort of material things.

Spiritually malnourished people who ignore the sustenance of God & those who are unaware of their need for Him both end up dying of hunger. One group sees the truth and chooses to reject it while the other is blinded by ignorance. To be truly effective we have to recognize our own desperate desire for nourishment from Christ and then our mission shifts to bringing others the same revelation. God's illumination is necessary to reveal the need for Christ when we are trapped in sin, regret, insecurity, and discontent. Convincing a starving person that they have a deficiency of God's nourishment is the first step in the battle against spiritual emaciation. 

Back to the Future

We have hope for the future because we have evidence of what God has done in the past. We often neglect to remember this when we are consumed by the details of each day, but our forgetfulness doesn't change the truth. The reality of daily anxiety and what appear to be insurmountable dilemmas can make it difficult to trust God. Pausing to meditate on how He has already delivered us can provide the strength we need to push through. Revering God's work in our past and eagerly anticipating God's future rescue will culminate in our present worship.

Resolved (Part 2)

The potential for societal change is tremendous if men & women would resolve:

• To do all things with integrity--not just those that other people see
• (Men) To love & encourage our wives with genuine devotion and a desire to see her grow in Christ
• (Women) To love & support their husbands with respect and honest communication
• To parent our children for their benefit and not our convenience
• To model a life of prayer and devotion to God in studying His Word
• That our family will contribute to the benefit of the world around us through our finances, time, and abilities
• To faithfully partner with a church & actively engage in growing closer to Christ & serving others
• To not waste moments with my family, but to intentionally invest in them regardless of our current mood
• To not allow the prejudice of others to taint my view of the people God has put around me
• To be part of the solution for the poor, disadvantaged, forgotten & ignored peoples in our neighborhoods as well as around the globe
• To teach our children to stand for what is right even when it's hard
• To do all things with honoring Christ at the forefront of our ambition

Determined

I was listening to music this week and heard the lyric, "I have decided, I have resolved." It's not a new song, but the line stirred my thoughts.

What is the difference between the two? A decision doesn't necessarily carry conviction & can be easily changed. I decide to do a lot of things during the day that don't necessarily have a huge impact on my life.

When I resolve to do something however, it is usually the result of being fed up with a current circumstance or being so desirous of a positive outcome that I am willing to change. It involves hard work (even when I don't feel like it) and keeping my eyes focused on the prize ahead instead of temporary pleasures & relief along the way. 

Ugly Duckling

When you only hear the negative things that people say you start to believe that is who you are. As an adult it becomes further validation of the ugly things that were part of your childhood from family, bullies, schools, and friends. You begin to believe you can never be good enough, that you were a mistake, that you'll never measure up to (fill-in-the-blank). Your weaknesses become the things that people are quick to point out instead of your positive potential. Your past actions & attitudes threaten to overwhelm your personal estimation of worth. We fall victim to the lie of defining ourselves by what we have done and what has been done to us.

This is heavy stuff. It can derail the momentum of a changed life when we refuse to believe that we have value simply because we are sons & daughters of the King. The truth is that our past (and sometimes our present) is ugly. We don't need to run away from that truth. We find hope when we realize that God is in the business of transforming our ugliness into beauty. In fact, it's what He specializes in. His power over our sinful circumstances and His willingness to reach into the mess of who we are is what makes Him a Father like no other. He sees the inner potential of His creation and is able to compassionately complete our transformation. 

He makes beautiful things out of us. Thank you, Abba.

Shackled

As a Christian, I believe that we can desire to make changes in our lives, but permanent, life-giving adjustments only come through the power of the Holy Spirit. This inner strength for change and vision comes after repentance & baptism and is a promise from God. The depth and permanence of this life change however, can be inhibited by our own lack of faith and fear of letting God have control. Our lead pastor, Mike, was preaching a few weeks ago and talking about the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. His accurate statement was that Christians aren't being led by the power of the Holy Spirit because we won't cede the authority to Him. 

How pitiful is it that we beg God to remove the chains of sin & bondage from our lives and then we turn around and put them on the Holy Spirit? God did the hard work of setting us free from sin and we are afraid of letting Him work in the rest of our life so we bind Him up. We are afraid of where He might lead us, have become too comfortable in our old patterns and don't want to give them up, or simply think we can manage our lives better than God. The Holy Spirit is inclined to transform who we are and we negate that potential through our unwillingness

It's interesting how we seek freedom from the consequences of our decisions, but resist God's power to help us change the character that led us there in the first place.

Target Practice

You probably wouldn't consider yourself an expert marksman if you only occasionally hit the target. I guess you do have the alternative of shooting & then painting a target around it to make yourself feel like you accomplished something. It's like hunting with an automatic weapon--you can strafe the woods with gunfire and you will probably kill something in the deluge of bullets, but that doesn't make you a great hunter.

Do we act any differently in our personal lives? If we aren't intentionally aiming at something then we can't truly call it success if we happen to hit something positive. What targets (goals) are we aiming at in our lives? Are we specific in our marriages with building up our spouse and helping them become more fully developed in Christ? Do we know what we are praying for our children, and are we helping them to make the right decisions to get there? Are we cruising into & out of church each weekend and hoping something rubs off? Is our prayer life filled with wishes for general blessing and God "being there" for us or are we being bold enough to ask for specific direction and wisdom?

We won't necessarily fail 100% of the time if we don't specify what we are aiming for, but hitting a random target doesn't always bring victory either. Know what you're aiming at and work to make that a reality. The victories we celebrate along an intentional pathway are much sweeter when we manage to hit the target.