Are you OK Being a Loser?

Let's face it, the first item on our goal list is not to be the most unpopular person within our social environment.  I was watching a comedian one night, and he described himself as 15 degrees off from cool.  He said that you could take the "cool kids" and compare him with them, and he would be slightly awkward.  While the audience laughed, I think that at the same time, each one could relate to some degree.  We all want to be liked and accepted. We want to have friends and be considered people of influence within the community.  But when does that desire become too much?

1 John 2:15-17 says -  ¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

There is a disconnect between what the world wants and what God wants.  Sometimes, we get a little confused and our minds start to drift from the things of God to the things of the world.  We begin to think about how nice a newer car, a larger house, a more fashionable wardrobe, a more powerful job,or a fuller day planner would be.  Yet, in the end, none of these things will last.  However, the work that we do for the kingdom of God will make an eternal impact.

Think about the people who have made the biggest impact in your life. Was is because they were the most popular, had be best "stuff", or even had the charisma to impress you the most?  What was it about those people?  Chances are they were humble in nature, not given much credit for what they did, and you would not be able to pick them out in a crowd.  Or at least, it was not their popularity that made the impact on you.  Conversely, they most likely had the love of the Father in them and shared that love with you.

When we begin to focus more on how to increase what belongs to the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, or the pride of life rather than focusing on God, we are heading down the wrong path and need to turn our thinking quickly.  God knows his plans for us and when we look to him and trust him, they will work out as long as we seek him.  Then, wherever we are placed, it is God who is glorified.

The temptation is to have the world tell us how great we are, but when they do that, they do not see how great is our God.  To God Be The Glory!

*Disclaimer - I am not saying that God does not place people in high positions, because we see that in Scripture (a great example is Joseph).  However, our mindset should not be on getting to those position, but rather loving the Father.

Getting Rid of the Excuses Part One

Luke 9:62 - Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

In my last post, I wrote on laziness. God can do very little with a lazy person when it comes to building his kingdom. However, one who is just as useless is the one who continually makes excuses to God. In the next few posts, we are going to look at why we make excuses when it comes to serving the Lord.

In Luke 9:57-62, Jesus is call disciples to follow him. Their responses are, "I will follow you, but let me first...." One man was concerned with his provision, and one man was concerned with his familial duty. In essence, they saw something else as more important at that time than proclaiming the kingdom of God. While Jesus' words seen harsh in verse 62, if you imagine the word picture, it makes sense.

If a farmer is plowing a field, it is necessary that he plows straight rows. That way, the crops have enough room to grow and will not get intertwined with each other. In order to plow a field, one must hold the plow straight and look straight ahead. Otherwise, he will get off course. Knowing from experience (sorry little garden), when you look back while your hand is on the plow you begin to plow in the direction where your head is turned. The result is a messy garden and unfruitful labor. Applied spiritually though, we cannot follow Christ with our hands or our actions while our head and our hearts are still hung up on something that belongs to the world. If we do, we will simply be making excuses to either delay obedience or worse.

Jesus says that you cannot serve two masters. You will either love the one and hate the other or you will despise the one and love the other. If you have been making excuses lately about serving Christ to the fullest, I would like to ask you to examine the reason why. Could one of the reasons be that there is something else that has priority in your life? If so, ask God to begin to change your heart and help you prioritize your life around Him.

A Challenge to Discipleship

1 John 2:5-6 - By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says that he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walks.

It is a lot easier to say that we are in Christ than it is to show it. True discipleship consists of not simply stating that you love Jesus. That is easy to do for most. Rather, it is living as he lived. It is loving as he loved. It is serving as he served. These two verses seem simple enough at first glance: the proof that we abide in him is that we live like Jesus did. The word abide generally means to remain or stay, but here it is referring to an intimate, committed relationship with Jesus that is both personal and continuous (Smalley, 51). Logically, if there is a relationship that is that close and personal, then one would begin to take on those traits, especially when the nature of the relationship is to be one of mentor. Therefore, if someone claims to have this type of extensive fellowship with Jesus, but does not exemplify the traits that Jesus had, there is evidence that something is wrong with the claim.

If you are currently thinking to yourself that it is impossible to walk as Jesus did because he turned water into wine and walked on water and healed diseases and forgave sins, then you have not studied Jesus enough. We must get beyond our Sunday School knowledge of the stories of Jesus and see HOW he lived life, not simply what he did. Then, we are to do the same. When we abide in him, we are able to do much for the kingdom of God.

Over the next while, I am going to be posting about the life of Christ. I am very excited about studying who Jesus was on earth and falling more in love with him. I hope that in return I will love more like him. I hope you will join the journey with me and allow God to transform you as you become more like His Son.