Christian Living

God’s Desire for Children

2 Thessalonians 1:11 desires that our God will make you the kind of children He wants to have.images

God is on mission to conform us into the image of His First Born Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God seeks to develop a family identity that exhibits a commonality in character and a singleness of focus while allowing individuality in function.

God is not interested in us becoming all that we can be despite what the guy on TV says. God has recorded in His book that He desires us to become all that He created us for, all that He wants for doing His will and glorifying His Name on the earth.

God had in mind a host of works, a particular function for which each of us was uniquely designed to accomplish as part of the greater orchestra of His Church in order to manifest more clearly across the world the wonder and glory of our Father Who is the Creator and Sustainer of all life from all time everywhere.

Our goal should not be to become what we want to be but to become what He wants us to be. (more…)

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October 20, 2014
Christian Living

Gaining Wisdom

Proverbs 1:7 instructs how a man becomes wise? The first step is to trust and reverence the Lord!image

Everyone wants wisdom. At least everyone wants to make the right decisions! There is a difference.

We make hundreds of decisions daily but the big ones cause us anxiety because failure to get it right can lead to serious financial loss and personal unhappiness. The root desire for wanting wisdom in this instance is selfish; we want to be happy, we want to be successful and we don’t want pain or suffering.

This is not why God gives wisdom.

The first step toward gaining wisdom is to trust and reverence the Lord.

Wisdom is given so we might know God and how to please Him in everything we do. (more…)

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October 16, 2014
1 Thessalonians / Christian Living

The Importance of Coaching

1 Thessalonians 1:6 observes you became our followers and the Lord’s.image

People need examples, coaches, models, mentors for understanding practically how to live certain principles or objectives. When the Apostle Paul would invest in someone he would invite them to follow him as he followed Jesus. The Lord Jesus, God in the flesh, invited men to follow Him as He taught and modeled how He wanted people to live if they were going to please God.

Inviting others to join us through imitation places a great deal of responsibility upon us for doing the right thing. Perhaps this is why we have diminished this methodology for developing people in recent years.

A couple of premises have to be established for this relationship to work. (more…)

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October 15, 2014
Christian Living / Judgement

Being a Good Person

Psalm 146:8 proclaims the Lord loves good men.image

If you’ve ever watched the movie Saving Private Ryan you are no doubt moved by his powerful question to his wife, ‘was their sacrifice worth it.’

Nearly every man wants to know that he is good, that he has done good with his life. It is only after repeated bad decisions as a husband or father or business man does our conscience become seared, we lose hope, and surrender to the despair of failure.

The Good News from God is that He loves good men and every day is a new opportunity to be redeemed and begin anew. God forgives the past of the repentant and invites us into an eternal future of hope and glory.

But here’s the deal. God is the definer of good. (more…)

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October 14, 2014
evangelism / Judgement / work

Getting Paid for our Work

Colossians 3:24 reminds us that it is the Lord Christ Who is going to pay you, giving you your full portion of all He owns. He isimages the one you are really working for.

Work is inherent to our existence. If a man will not work neither should he eat, at least not for free from the church doles – we have the government to take care of that!

In all seriousness, it is work that determines a man’s wealth in a free society. And wealth determines a person’s comfort and opportunities.

Work in itself is good and not evil though many have been taught otherwise. God made man then set him to work in His pristine environment that guaranteed success. It was through the rebellion that work suffered a curse and therefore became inherently more difficult by yielding thistles and thorns in addition to good crops instead of just good fruit as God designed.

The real problem with work is the propensity to define ourselves by the results of our work and to use the fruit of our work for our own pleasures and wants. (more…)

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October 13, 2014