validity

Ever have someone give you advise that they themselves didn’t follow?

In high school I had this guy in my class take me home a few times in his van. Now I admit that I have driven in some strange ways. My very first job was at Dairy Queen (I love those ice cream cakes!) and my shift usually started at 5 so I would get home from school and get a few things done but I had to have dinner on the go. Sometimes I would steer with my knees and be driving a stick shift while eating spaghetti on my way to work. Not the safest way to drive I admit. Well my buddy who took he home he would drive with his knees. In fact one time he got in an accident because he was peeling an orange and driving with his knees!!!

Now if he were to tell me to not drive a certain way I certainly wouldn’t listen to him. He doesn’t practice what he preaches. In Matthew 23 Jesus said this regarding the religious leaders / pharisees.

¹Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ²“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.³So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

Our words don’t have any validity if we don’t do what we are telling others to do. This past weekend Christ revealed to me to live with more boldness and to freely share with people how Jesus is changing me. If I didn’t know Jesus and someone was telling me how awesome Jesus is and how He changed their life yet I didn’t see it, why on earth would I listen to them!? No one in their right mind takes advise from someone who doesn’t do what they preach. How can you sell Christ to someone if you aren’t totally committed to Him?

Don’t tell others how bad their marriage is when your marriage is failing. Quit telling that person how wrong they are when you are talking about them behind their back. Give some validity to your message. We are commissioned to spread the message of Jesus in Matthew 28… it’s a non negotiable for someone committed to Christ. Continue to pursue Jesus daily to give validity to your life in Jesus. People will ignore you and yes they are watching you to see if you are the real deal. We have to understand that the message of Jesus is awesome and it’s too awesome to just tell someone about and not be passionate about Christ ourselves.

My prayer and cry is to validate the work of Jesus in my life to others, and I hope it’s yours as well.

Dare 2 Share

This past weekend me and 13 of my friends went to an event called Dare to Share. It was in Columbus. It’s an event designed to equip teens to share their faith in Jesus with their friends and the people in their life.

It had an impact on me to see teens sharing their faith boldly with their friends and complete strangers. Wow!  We have the greatest message in the world and it is the gospel of Christ. We would be fools to keep it to ourselves.

Friday night we talked about hell and how we need to get hell out of our lives. We do that by committing our lives to Jesus. He offers us forgiveness. The scary thing about hell isn’t just about torture, it’s about being separated from Jesus and all that is good.

This weekend definitely made an impact on the teens.

Anonymous

There is a right way to deal with conflict and Jesus teaches us about that.

I know there are people in your life that drive you crazy and then you need someone to talk to about that person… when you do that it’s gossip. I don’t care if it’s a ‘prayer request’.  I’ve experienced quite a few people that come to me and talk to me about their problems. I understand you need someone to listen to… I understand you can’t bottle up those feelings and you need wisdom from a friend, but when you use names you paint a negative picture of a person in my eyes.

In Matthew 18 Jesus says this: ¹⁵“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

Okay, someone has done something wrong to you and it’s not fair so you go talk about this person to everyone and say, “I can’t believe _ _ _ _ _ _ did this to me. They are always doing this and I can’t take it anymore.”  Notice Jesus says this… ‘Go and show him his fault just between the two of you.’ Don’t go telling everyone else, that’s gossip.

I recently had a conversation with someone and I was very tempted to talk about it with other people but I didn’t. I just talked to them, no one else. It was no one else’s business. I even started about the conversation by reading that very verse because I wanted to communicate with them that I was doing this God’s way.

I know there are times when you need some wisdom from a friend on how to properly handle a situation. You can talk about it with someone just don’t say any names.  Keep the person you are talking about anonymous. Don’t even say, “So there’s this person that I live with that’s my brother and the other day they did this to me and I need some advice.”  Okay, make it very non obvious when you talk about a problem you have with someone. “Hey Greg, I need some help with a situation.  I have this friend and they did… “.

When you don’t keep someone anonymous it does put a bad impression of that person in my mind. So do what Christ taught us to do if you have an issue with someone… talk it out with them face to face, just the two of you.  It’s the best way to do it, I can vouch for that!  I’ll make sure I always deal with conflict in the light of Matthew 18. So if you do need to talk with somebody for wisdom, DON’T USE A NAME!

Come

What an incredible weekend. We had 6 people answer Christ’s call to ‘Come.’  In Matthew 14 Jesus is walking on the water.

²⁸“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹“Come,” he said.

Jesus never tells us to do something if we couldn’t do it. That is seriously ridiculous for someone to walk on water, yet Jesus said come. We can’t live the life of Jesus without Him. It’s impossible. Jesus reassures us that we can do what He calls us to do. He knows the potential we have, we just have to trust Jesus and come to Him.

I saw a young lady this weekend give her life to Jesus! Wow! I’m so pumped about it. I love to see people cross from death to life [John 5:24].

I preached Saturday night and Sunday morning. On Sunday morning after an incredible service, I realized that I basically skipped a whole passage of verses. I felt terrible. We were reading Matthew 14:22-33 and I didn’t read verses 25-29. I made reference to them but I didn’t read them. Hopefully people caught the gist of it. It is my desire to preach God’s Word. So verses 28-29 is what I wanted to focus on. Peter never does anything without first acknowledging that it’s Jesus. Once he knows it’s Jesus He goes right to Him. He trust’s Jesus. Even in my ignorance, Jesus still speaks to hearts. Jesus doesn’t depend on us to get it right, He is Lord and He will accomplish what He desires [Isaiah 55:11]. I just want to be used by Him and I’m so thankful He did use me.

Affirmation

The quality I love about Jesus is His affirmation. He always affirms His call in your life. He doesn’t call you for no apparent reason, He doesn’t do it to make you feel ’special’. He has a plan for you. God affirms that in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

I just thought of life as a big game of king of the hill. You ever play that? The only way I will play that game is if I’m playing with a bunch of kindergarten kids, because otherwise I am going to get rocked. Anyway, you make it to the top but when you are up there everyone is trying to take you down. Our enemy, the devil, sees us at the top and throws all he has at us to take us down. When you have a high in life (I’m not talking about getting ’stoned’ or drugged, just to make that clear) you can expect a low after that. Well I had one of those moments this week.

For me, there is no greater feeling than to be used by Jesus. When I am being used I feel affirmation to my calling. What is my calling? I know that Jesus has called me to teach other’s about how to live for Him (and to model that in my own life by living what I preach) and use my gifts to give Him glory. I recognize that my gifts are nothing if I don’t use them for Him. One of my favorite verses dealing with a call in a person’s life is Proverbs 16:3. “Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed.”

So we just had our teen service last night and it was sweet. We had 2 new people, and 3 others that haven’t been there in a long time. Sometimes I don’t even understand why the teens come. I’m just amazed. I want them hungry for Jesus. I just had one of those nights that I felt like I wasn’t connecting with them… maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t. I wanted to show them the potential God sees in them. We had one cool thing happen that night, I had my good friend Jon play the guitar. I’m super proud of him. It’s not easy to get up in front of people and I’m just super proud of him for doing that. God is going to use him in a big way.

So I just had one of those nights… and I just had this feeling of I blew it. Well I received a call later on from 2 wonderful people who were asking me about something in the sermon on Sunday… a passage of scripture and a few other questions regarding the Bible. I don’t think they know what that did to me. It just totally blew me away. Jesus just affirmed to me that He is using me. Some days I feel like I’m not good enough and I can’t do what I do and Jesus affirms His love and His calling in my life.

I can’t afford to listen to the lies and the ugly thoughts the enemy throws at me. Jesus use me!!! That’s my cry tonight… It brought energy to me. Trust me, Jesus affirms His calling in your life. When you feel like giving up and your not good enough (and we are never ‘good enough’) Jesus chooses to call you to use you. Hang in there! I’ll leave ya with some encouragement: II Corinthians 4:8- We are Hard Pressed on every side, But Not Crushed!