Bigger Than Life

 What is the biggest thing you can think of? The Earth? The Milky Way galaxy? The universe? In Matthew 17:20, Jesus told His disciples that if they had the faith of a mustard, seed they could move a mountain. The cool thing here is that Jesus is using one of the smallest things they know of, a mustard seed, and contrasting it with the biggest thing in their world, a mountain. A mustard seed was smaller than a pebble, but it would grow to be a huge tree when planted. Where Jesus was at in Israel there were a lot of mountains, and to the first century people, a mountain was the biggest thing in their world. When Jesus said this, they imagined a pebble and a mountain.

It would be like today if Jesus was around He might say if you had the faith of a micro molecular cell, you could move the universe. Though that would be much more of a mouth-full than what he actually said. But you get the point; Jesus was saying that if you have enough faith in me, even if it isn’t a lot, you can move the biggest thing in the world. He was talking metaphorically here. It’s not like you’re really going to go up and move Mount Everest from its place. He’s saying that if you believe in Jesus, that even the mountains in your life can be moved with faith. This means that the bills piling up, that test you need to take, or that hard conversation that you need to have can be taken care of by faith in Christ. Faith means doing what Jesus says and believing that what he says is absolutely true. You can’t give only 50% of yourself to Jesus. When He calls someone He calls every bit of them. And He doesn’t promise it will be easy; but He promises He will be with you every step of the way, through the good and the bad. Are there mountains in your life that you need to give over to Jesus? All you need is a seed of faith.

Succesful Failures

Have you ever met someone who is successful? I mean really successful. One of my bosses at a previous job was successful. He was a lawyer and had a thriving practice that he built. He made a lot more money than I could ever dream of making, yet there was something wrong. He was so caught up in his life that he never really enjoyed it... Or at least that's how it appeared to me. He is presently on his third marriage, he is hardly home, and he is always stressed out. Don't get me wrong--he was one of the best bosses I have ever had, but at the same time I look at him and don't want However, I continue to see people who are successful and am increasingly convinced that we have been lied to. Money is not wrong and having it isn't wrong, but if that is what your life's goal is then I think it's time to reexamine your priorities.

Stephen Covey said "You can climb the ladder of success and realize it's leaning on the wrong wall." Success isn't about making money or having a good life. Success... True success is following God's call on your life. Ephesians 1:18 says "Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, which is the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints". And then again in Ephesians 4:1 Paul says "I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." God has a purpose and calling on your life, and you will only be happy when you follow Him wholly. If you succeed at the wrong thing, you fail. In what areas of your life are you seeking to be successful? Where should you be succeeding? God's call on your life may be for you to find success in business, or in acting, or even in plumbing. Whatever it is that God has called you to... You have to follow the calling, otherwise you may wake up one day and realize that your ladder is leaning on the wrong wall. In what manner will you choose to be successful?

Fast Food Jesus

         Imagine your going out to eat after church on Sunday and you decide to try BurgerPrince instead of your usual pick of Cindy's. Now imagine going into the restaurant and ordering your food and the cashier handing you a spatula, apron, and a burger patty and pointing you towards the kitchen. That would probably be the last time you went to that restaurant. Why? Because we like to be served, we enjoy being waited on, it's human nature. That's why we don't mind paying extra for big screen TV's, country clubs, first class airplane seating, luxury cars, and lawn motors that mow your lawn for you(don't believe me, check out http://www.robotlawnmower.ca/). Let's be honest, we like to be served and treated like kings and queens. Whole marketing campaigns and business organizations are built on that one fact. We know what we want and we want it fast.

           It can be scary when you see this attitude transferred to the church. I can't tell you how many times I have heard someone complaining about the sermon, the music, the media clip, the technical difficulties, what he said, what she said, etc. But I can count on my fingers (probably only on one hand) how many times someone has come to me and asked how can they serve in church. Jesus made it very clear that following him was not going to be a trivial pursuit. In fact, Jesus said "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."(Luke 9:23) Being a Christian was never promised to be easy. We're here to bring people to God and to serve each other. Problems within churches would decrease drastically if we would switch our mindset from how can I be served to how can I serve. You know God put us here to be sponges of sermons, teaching, and love. However, sponges were never meant to retain everything that they take in. We were never meant to keep this to ourselves. We are supposed to give it out. We love because Christ loves us. We forgive because Christ forgave us. We serve others because Christ came to us as a suffering servant. If we continue to have an attitude of how can I be served each Sunday, then we will continually leave unsatisfied. What is the church? It is a body of believers who display uncanny amounts of love due to their unity in Christ. Anything short of that is a distortion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't be a fast food Christian. Get in the kitchen and serve. 

Giving Up

I used to wrestle and the one thing I remember most about it is the workouts and how hard coach made us practice. It isn't the matches I won that I remember, or even really the matches I lost (though I remember those much clearer than the ones I won). It's the hard work during practices that I remember. I don't really know why, but I think it's because those workouts were influential in who I am today. Well, it wasn't the workouts so much as the way coach made us push ourselves past where we thought we were as a wrestler. The only reason I was good at wrestling is because I was able to push myself beyond exhaustion... beyond what I thought were my limits.

I think this applies to us spiritually too. There scriptures often use the analogy of sports to apply to our spiritual lives. In Galatians 2:2, Paul says that he is running a race that is not in vain. In Hebrews 12:1, Paul says to set aside anything that holds you down and to run the race of endurance. In 1 Corinthians 9:26, Paul says that he runs with purpose and not in vain. In 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul says to fight the good fight. But in Ephesians 6:13, Paul says to stand. Not run or fight, just stand. How come the sudden switch from these seemingly active actions to a passive action? Paul is saying that at that point of exhaustion in your spiritual life, where you have done everything to stand firm in what you believe, just stand. We may think that this is naive of Paul to say that after you have done everything to stand. We may be frustrated when we read that Paul says when you feel like giving up and just falling down and quitting- just keep going. Does he not know how hard it is to have your beliefs attacked, or to have your life falling apart at the seams, or to be so exhausted to the point of not wanting to get up in the morning? Does he not know what it is like to be laid off, or hurt by someone you love, or to be addicted to something that you just can't quit? The only conclusion I could come to is that he did know all of this, you can see that by looking at his life, he lost everything for Christ, but what kept him going, what kept him standing wasn't what he knew but who he knew. The only thing that kept Paul in the race, that kept Paul standing up for Christ was Christ himself. And that is the only way you will be able to stand even in the midst of everything the enemy and life throws at you. Will you stand for the one who died for you?

Somewhere Along the Way

Last week I was at a restaurant with a couple good friends and we witnessed a kid about 6 years old slam himself down on the seat at a table next to us and angrily fold his arms in defiance. He did it in such a way that he believed his dad was going to be sorry he didn't get him that toy he wanted at the register. His dad calmly sat down at the next open table and said "Ok I'm gonna eat over here without you". The kid quickly moved to his dad's table and started eating his food, still angry. At first I chuckled to myself and kept eating my food, but later it struck me. How many times do we act like this? I cannot tell you how many times I have heard adults say to one another that they deserve to be happy, that they deserve to buy a bigger home, a nicer car, or a 53" flat screen TV. In fact, I have said these same things. But the hard truth of the matter is that we don't deserve any of these things.

I've noticed that many Christians have the "I deserve it" attitude. How did we get here? Somewhere along the way, we forgot our place before God. We forgot that we have done nothing to obtain grace. We don't deserve God's grace (that's why it's called "grace"). We don't deserve a flat screen TV. Men, you don't deserve season tickets. Ladies, you don't deserve chocolate. The only thing that we truly deserve is hell. I don't know about you, but I'm incredibly thankful that God hasn't given me what I deserve. According to Romans 8, God made us co-heirs with Christ. That's the complete opposite of giving us what we deserve! I hope that I can live my life as a reflection of the gift I have received. I hope that we can become increasingly aware of all that we don't deserve so that we can give Him the glory.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved.  -Ephesians 2:4-6