Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Lesson from the Shrewd Manager
"…while Christians often suffer opportunities of doing good to pass unimproved; are less steady, firm, and anxious about eternal things, and thus show less wisdom. Alas! this is too true; and we cannot but reflect here how different the world would be if all Christians were as anxious, and diligent, and prudent in religious matters as others are in worldly things.”
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
"Make straight paths for your feet" (Hebrews 12:13a)
So practical and important. Seek wisdom and plan to put yourself in only situations that do not lead you into temptation, but rather away from stumbling, away from extremes. The straight and narrow is the path that we are not only supposed to follow, but the path we are to create. It isn’t just following rules, but being wise, intentional, prayerful. Knowing what can tempt us, or cause us to lose focus of what is important, namely our walk with God and our relationships with our neighbors. All this can only be done by the grace of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit. All glory to God.
I wrote the above as I was waiting for my flight back to MN. I utterly failed at doing this this summer. This year is like a new beginning, but it really isn’t. I grew a lot last year, went downhill this summer, and am now turning my path straight. Every day is new, but we always bring with us a past. Some mistakes we try to forget, and the rest we learn from. Ideally I wish I could take the lesson, and forget the mistake, but the nice thing is that I don’t have to forget the mistake for it to go away. I am cleansed by the blood of Christ, made clean again. I can only continue on through His grace and mercy. So last year at NWC I grew because I was in an awesome environment. This year the same will surely happen all according to God’s plan, but additionally I will purposefully seek to abide in Christ daily through reading and prayer, so that even when a storm brews and I’m not in my bubble, I will still have God as my fortress.
This is my plan so that my paths will be straight. There will be struggles that I cannot account for ahead of time, but God is in control, so I need not worry. I am not at all worthy for these positions of leadership that I have this year, but I was never worthy of anything to begin with. It is due only to God’s love that I am saved, and it is His will that I seek, His gift of letting me share in His ministry. Thank you Lord for loving me.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Just because we are no longer under the law, doesn't mean we should ignore it.
Deuteronomy 6:5-9 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Repent and be heard!
God will not listen to prayers if we hold up sin. (Psalm 66:18)
How many Christians don’t know this, not necessarily this verse, but the principal that we need to be fleeing from sin, repenting and turning to God? A heart that cherishes sin will not be in attune with God.
