What Is Your Will In Christ?

As we come to face the new year, many are looking back - chronicling the events of the year past. But for followers of Christ, looking back is only profitable when it produces something positive toward the year ahead. Father God isn't a backward looking Lord, but a positive and forward looking God of hope, newness and creativity. Memory Lane might be a preoccupation for some, but disciples of Christ have the best reasons to avoid that detour and stay focused on the road ahead. Those reasons are at least as numerous as all of God's promises. Life in the world has its troubles and its difficulties and regardless of what might be said by some, Jesus never promised that we'd have everything we wanted or that life would be easy. Anyone promoting anything to the contrary should be checked against the reality of scripture and they might be someone to avoid. John 16:33 (NLT) "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many tria

I could easily find myself wrapped up in traditions at Christmas time. All of the excitement of finding the right gifts, decorating a tree and the house lead to a building anticipation and mark the coming of a renewed celebration. But what is it that I choose to celebrate? I could point to many Christmases past and remember them fondly, once again savoring the spirit, reliving the joys and the excitement of moments shared. In this Christmas present, I could find genuine reasons to be merry in spirit while surrounded by children and grandchildren, making the most of precious time together and I certainly will. But if I celebrate the traditions of Christmas, if I find anything in the present more occupying, hold anything in my heart more dear, or let it overshadow the very thing I claim to celebrate in the commemoration of one particular event, I've settled for nothing less than a celebration of mere humanity. The very word Christmas comes from the term Mass of Christ - a celeb

I caught a glimpse in the longing eyes of a stranger. It was the gentleness in the heavy gaze that I felt locked on me as I hurriedly passed him by on my own determined mission. With shabby shoes and long worn out clothes, the man looked hard worn himself, but he had a peaceful calmness about him that conflicted with my immediate first impression...  He could have been a man once caught in a whirlwind by life's unending challenge. He might have once been someone just like me, but instead of fighting to get up just one more time, was too beaten down, weak and tired to fight his way forward yet again and gave up the fight when life once again rolled him over. Maybe it was a loss - a love, a spouse, a child, a friend or even brother that brought him down one last time. I couldn't know. Or maybe it was the decaying culminations of an addiction that started from a simple but desperate need just to cope in his daily struggles - just a little help, trying to get by. It might h

If we were to set aside any and all of our "Christmas" activities and thoughts for a moment... and imagined being present on that very day when Christ entered the world in the form of a man-child, what was it like - that very day that we strive to celebrate? There were no decorated trees with packages under them, no ribbons, no bows. There was no Santa in red or reindeer with shiny noses. There weren't any elves or animated snowmen with top hats and there wasn't even a single strand of electric lights. What a desolate scene that first Christmas must have been.                                                  No!... Oh human imagine with me with deep thought, what wondrous adornment, what decoration our God provided that mere man in his greatest achievements of wonder would fail miserably to replicate... In the glory of the night sky - a vacuum for man's marvel in itself, a star far more attractive than all the others stood brightly to mark the very locati

There's an aura around the greatness of God that I cannot touch with words to adequately relate. If you've truly spent any time in His presence, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. But if you haven't, then you're missing out on the most precious thing this life has to offer - and exactly what we were created to enjoy... If you consider that everything in the nature of the world around us, this planet, all of the others and the wonders of the heavens beyond were all created by God, then you begin to touch on His massive ability to create. But then focusing on the complexities of just one of the tiniest fragments of near creation around us, say a leaf, or a bug, contained within nature, explodes manifold any sense of the scope of one's imagination to contain the full measure of God's own imagination and creative ability. One human being can't possibly contain a full accounting of the knowledge of what He has done that we could learn of. The h

"7 Sing out your thanks to the LORD; sing praises to our God with a harp. 8 He covers the heavens with clouds, provides rain for the earth, and makes the grass grow in mountain pastures.9 He gives food to the wild animals and feeds the young ravens when they cry. 10 He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. 11 No, the LORD’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love."  Psalm 147:7-11 (NLT)  Thanksgiving Day is rapidly approaching and it's made me think of some memories I gained as a child. I realize that there may be a number of different ways and reasons that people in the world might approach the holiday that we refer to as Thanksgiving and some who don't at all. But for me, it's a sacred day, one set aside personally with reverent and humbled gratitude... Growing up, the Thanksgiving holiday was always my mother's favorite which puzzled me as a kid. Why not Christmas with all that it rep

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Jesus' words in Luke 22:42 (NLT) Far too often we have a tendency to approach the Lord with an agenda - a list of things, or maybe just a thing that we desire from Him, when all that is required to find the perfect answers to our needs... is obedient worship.  Jesus Himself, pointed this out in Matthew 6 (NLT) 31“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need." (emphasis mine) Take Joshua for example, - the leader that the Lord appointed to lead the children of Israel after Moses' time was finished. He faced a huge responsibility in leading the Israelites. The mantle of leadin

If we follow Christ, we're not called to be victims of delusion wandering aimlessly through a meaningless span of time, but rather clear minded and victorious soldiers of Christ's own calling - following a path that He charted and illuminated for us. If we follow Him, we fall not... because He stands in victory, we faint not... because He raised to life... and we live in eternal promise... because He lives forever. He's made both the truth and the path available to us and we're now made accountable for our response. In truth, only laziness or foolishness could be our answer for failing to follow Him when He calls us to account for it.  But what is the truth and what path do we follow? How does one navigate a sure and certain course to the destination that God intended for us from the beginning when He created us?  We were created for one purpose and our accounting of how we served that purpose will be reconciled against that of our Creator in the end. Our only hope

Let's face it,... we're not perfect.  As followers of Christ, we may be criticized for our faults by others who make the false assumption that we're suddenly supposed to be perfect because of our profession of faith in Christ. But don't let the false expectations of others who would mock you derail your growth or breed guilt and condemnation in your heart... We all have a past and we all occasionally wrestle with finding ourselves falling short of who we ideally wish we could emulate perfectly - Jesus. But in truth, the renewing of our minds is a transformation, an ongoing process that will continue until our time here expires. Our repentance for those occasional missteps and Christ's provision of grace leave us free of the guilt and condemnation we would otherwise be subject to. So take heart. Look up and smile with a heart full of gratitude for what the Lord's doing in you! The path of transformation - becoming more like Christ, is an individual journe

As followers of Christ, we have a map - scripture, and a trail of divine footsteps to use to get where we're going. But if any part of scripture is taken fractionally, the context and true understanding of it can become fractured along with it or completely lost. Scholars have sectioned our bibles into chapters and verses, labeling them accordingly. But it's important to remember that in some cases, particularly in regard to some of the letters and writings of the Apostles, what was written was actually one continuous writing effort. What makes this important is the fact that the complete essence of thought that a particular writer was trying to convey can become broken if not followed past some of the scholarly breaks installed by the well meaning and otherwise useful efforts of others before us.  It's certainly true of something Peter was trying to tell us in 1st Peter.   Some of what our brothers in Christ have attempted to teach us in scripture became the essential b

The sudden impact both shocked and jolted me. I couldn't imagine in that instant what had just happened... I was entering a parking lot with narrow isles - you know the kind. As I came in near dusk, I turned as sharply as I could into an open space, but immediately realized that it wasn't sharp enough. Realizing that I was at an angle in the space, I looked in both directions to make sure the coast was clear and put my pickup in reverse to straighten up in the space. Just as I started to move another pickup moving quickly on my left, turned the corner to go behind me. I put on the brake and came to a quick stop to let him go by. After he passed, I again looked both ways and realized that another pickup was approaching from my right to pass right behind me. I pulled more forward to allow him more room to pass behind me and started looking again to see if the coast was clear. This time it was a pedestrian approaching again from my right. Being the courteous kind, I let him

Thinking about getting married?                                  ...There's a lot to think about. As a follower of Christ considering the prospect of making that holy, lifelong covenant before Him, think about the order of your priorities and how they compare with Father God's. What would He say as your Father? Would He approve? Would He be able to bless your choices and priorities? If you care at all about your future path, you'd better to be able to say yes... We make a lot of decisions and choices in life, but few are more core with the potential to have lifelong impact than the decision to join together as one with another human being. One of the quickest ways to create serious challenges for ourselves is to bind ourselves to someone that doesn't share our convictions and beliefs about Christ. There's nothing more core and central to our existence as our belief in our Father God and Christ His son. After all, that whole issue of faith in Christ and true