You’ve One Life
I really like to listen to Switchfoot whenever I'm on the verge of becoming inspired to do something.
It's odd, sometimes I want to do something so great, and other times I don't.
But listening to a song tonight by Switchfoot, I was really compelled to write this sentence, or lyric, somewhere. So I went to facebook and quoted it.
No response.
The song, Faust, Midas, and Myself, talks about how we let certain things creep up into our lives that end up becoming something that we may only dream up of having.
But this sentence jumped out at me.
What direction, death or action? Life begins at the intersection, what direction now?
Death or action.
As a believer in God, I strive to be someone who walks the walk, and talks the talk. It's not easy. But if I don't put actions to the words that I proclaim, then I'm basically as good as someone who's dead.
At the intersection of death and action comes a decision.
What will you decide, and have you unknowingly made a poor decision in being dead and have lived a life that screams death, and not action?
Do something.
His Law is Love
I really like to listen to Christmas music, sometimes way before Christmas, like, I'm talking July. That's not a bad thing, right? Well I hope not. See, the thing I like about Christmas music is not that it takes me back to the good days of sledding down a mountain, nor do I like Christmas music because it reminds me of a time where there is no school, but, what I really like about Christmas music is that a lot of it is based on Christ. I understand that "Christ" in the Christmas makes my previous sentence sound dumb and pretty self-explanatory, but have you ever taken time to actually read aloud and meditate on those oh so familiar hymns, especially the song "O Holy Night"?
As I was listening to the version of "O Holy Night" from Dustin Kensrue's Album, "This Good Night Is Still Everywhere", I went ahead and looked up the lyrics behind the song, although I didn't need them to sing along in my mind, but rather, I wanted to take a second look at what the lyrics were. As I was following along in the song, I ran across these words:
Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and his gospel is peace.
In the New Testament, Jesus was asked by one of the Pharisees, "Of all the commandments (which totaled to 613), which one is the most important?" Jesus responded to the Pharisee by saying "Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
In the midst of the Pharisee attempting to corner Jesus into admitting that Jesus' way of viewing the Law was unorthodox in having to name the greatest commandment, he ended up shocking the Pharisee by summing up the 613 laws in stating that the Law is nothing more than Love for God and others. In the end, the passage in Mark 12 states that Jesus told the Pharisee that he was "not too far from the kingdom of God." The Pharisee understood what it meant to Love, but he needed only to Love and obey God in order to enter into the Kingdom of God.
May we be reminded by this Christmas song that Jesus has called us to fulfill the Law through Love. Too many times, even during the Christmas season, we forget to love. May you be encouraged to Love, just as Christ has loved you, because His Law is Love.
Don’t Mind Me
There is a certain passage in the Bible that talks about how we are supposed to live the Christian life. For those raised in the church or for those who attend a Christian University/College, these words are all too familiar, the words of Christ in Luke 10:26-28:
"26And He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" 27And he answered "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." 28And He said to him, "You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE."
Here we have the story of a Lawyer asking Jesus how he must inherit eternal life, but I feel that the Holy Spirit wants believers to get more out this verse than just love your neighbor with your heart, soul, and strength. Christ tells the Lawyer to use his all his mind.
We as Christians, me included, are the most unintelligent people in America today. Because of this unintelligence (which includes a lack of understanding of Sound Doctrine, correct Theology, Non-hollow and captive Philosophy, no understanding of religions other than Christianity, and countless more) we have become Christians with no passion. We don't tell others about Christ because we are afraid of what questions they may ask to counter our attempt at spreading the Gospel. We have failed to Love the Lord our God through using our minds. And we wonder why our culture has become more infatuated with sex, money, and fame rather than with Christ.
The whole idea of using our minds as a means to Love God was embraced by Paul, who reasoned with Jews and Gentiles in the synagogues (Acts 17:16-17), by Daniel, who was chosen by Nebuchadnezzar because he showed intelligence in every branch of wisdom (Daniel 1:4), and by countless others who used their God-given brain to reason, debate, argue, and persuade with Love.
How have we become so dull when it comes to using our minds to Love God? Have we let laziness sleep with Christianity? Have we abandoned the study of the Logic of God (theology)? Doctrine? Has the Church been led astray by moral relativism? Have we abandoned the utmost call on our lives to Love God with our mind?
We cannot share the Love of Christ because we fail to Love God with our mind. We become awkward believers because we don't know about any other culture other than the sub-culture that we are in. We become a hindrance to other believers willing to grow. Pastors become lazy in the pulpit and focus more on using their speech techniques than on using their minds.
I urge you to become aware with the world around you, ask God for wisdom and knowledge, get out of your Christian sub-culture, and leap over hurdles of fear when attempting to Love God with all of your mind.
Love the lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Remain
There have been times in my life where I have felt that God was nowhere in sight, and I was doomed to fall out of his grasp.
These past couple of weeks I have seen God's faithfulness in my life. He has met my needs where I seemingly could not find a solution to my problems.
I want to stress to you the importance of remaining in God during the tough times. I would say that this past summer was a tough time in my life because of my lack of growth and slow descent towards materialism.
Remaining in God is essential in the life of a believer. The act of choosing to satisfy your desires with that of God's is the ultimate decision one must make daily if spiritual growth is to be achieved.
I am living proof that Christ has remained faithful to me and that I have exhausted myself in remaining in Him at the lowest times of my walk with Christ. Ultimately, when we are at the lowest points of our walk with Christ, God becomes more visible because we cannot trust anything outside of Him, whether it be material things or relationships with others. I urge you, whether you are constantly finding joy in God or you are finding contentment in material, visible things, gaze upon the face of Christ and understand that he has always remained with you no matter the circumstance.
We cannot break the grasp of Love that God has on our soul once we accept Christ into our hearts and begin a relationship with the tri-une God, the immovable mover, and the lover of our souls. May you be encouraged to know that many believers struggle with the visible, material, earthly desires and issues of our time, but Christ is there to spur us on towards joy through living in accordance with God's pleasing and perfect will.
"we consider blessed those who remained steadfast ... you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful." -James 5:11