How Do You Measure Up?

How Do You Measure up?


So often in this life we are judged on our abilities to achieve greatness, on pushing our skills to their max to be the best, dominating the competition, and crushing those who are inferior to us. Now please do not mistake that opener as an opposition to healthy competition. I am not only for it, it is essential in this life that we live!! However, I am referring to the countless people wandering this earth who feel as though they can never measure up, or who may in fact have fallen short of expectations of others in their life. These thoughts can become debilitating and hinder ones ability to discover what God may will in their lives. God's ways are not the worlds ways, and God's standards of success are not the world's standards of success. He plays by a different set of rules. His rules. And He wants to use you this day for His good and pleasing will to be done. So do you think you are worthy of such a calling? If your answer is NO WAY, then think again...


Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."  1 Corinthians 2:26-31


You see, God wants to use you, at your worst, not measuring up to what the world sees as potential, to work for Him. Why? Because it is through those who may not measure up, that He achieves what He seeks most, HIS GLORY!!! I am sure there were much more qualified people to free the Israelites from Egypt, than Moses. Or much stronger, courageous men than a child, David, to face Goliath. And I am sure that there were much more educated and qualified people in which He could have built His church, instead of fishermen and a tax collector! But He chose these individuals so that they would bring Him glory, and they would boast on His power fulfilling them. He chose them because they would seek Him for their ability to accomplish that which He asks.


So, this day, if you are wondering if you will ever amount to much in this life, or why God would ever choose you, think again! You are looked upon by the most loving eyes imaginable, and seen with such potential, chosen, qualified, and redeemed to do the will of God. So if you belong to Him today, stop trying to measure up to a fallen world, and seek God's will for your life, be on the ready for what He is going to do, and then boast about Him to all the world!!


If you do not yet belong to Him, He is waiting, He has chosen you too, qualified you, desires to know you, and to reconnect you to Him through His son who died for you...all you have to do is seek Him!

Are you on a Mission?

Sound's Simple Enough


As I begin to work on this weeks sermon, I am stumped. I am stumped because of the scripture God has placed in front of my eyes. It is found in Philippians 2:14-15...Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe...

As Paul writes these words, I sit grumpy, and in a place of frustration and despair. It is exactly where the enemy of God would like me to stay! Why? The obvious reason is because if I remain in this grumpy place, it distracts me from my work, my relationships with my wife and kids, and my co-workers. But there is another issue at play here. That is, it distracts me from my mission on this earth. You see as a Christian I am called to do one very important thing above all else. Make Jesus famous. That is why we are here, first and foremost. When things don't go our way, or things begin to spiral into a frustrated frenzy, Jesus' name is last on our agenda. Our actions and attitudes do anything but make His name the name above all names. The enemy knows this. It is his greatest tool.

The bottom line is this. We have to look back at verse 13 to understand why we fail so miserably in our will. "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." Did you catch that? It is God working through you, helping us work out our salvation through His strength and His power. The only question that leaves us with is this. Do you have the power of God residing in you? If you belong to Him then the answer is yes according to Colossians 3:3 "for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

As I continue to work through this convicting passage, and as I struggle for my own desires and will to be accomplished on this day, I pray that God will continue to do a work in me, as He chisels away at my self, in order that the world may see His glory shine like stars!!! Would you join me in making this your daily prayer as well?

A Black Eye for Christianity...

What are we doing?

As I read the latest news reports from this small church in Gainesville, and their attempt to thwart the Islamic movement by burning a book, I wonder how we got to this place? There is no question that Christians in general find themselves struggling with a lukewarm attitude about their faith. When we think of how much God truly loves us and what He sacrificed to reconcile us to Him, and then we respond with an indifferent attitude to worshipping Him, it saddens me. But the answer to lukewarmness is not standing on a street corner screaming at young women walking into a clinic, or burning books of other religions. That is not passion, that is lunacy, and it is cowardice. Real courage would be to get down and dirty in people's lives, hear their cries and show them the love that God shows us. To show grace, humility and love to someone teaches them who Jesus is. To scream at them in condemnation, just pushes people further away.

If we truly believe what we read in the Scriptures, I believe Jesus would show up at this rally to burn the Koran and ask, "OK, you who are perfect, who are truly following Me and living according to My will, and are without a need for repentance, light the match!"

You see, there are people in this world who hate us, and want our beliefs and faith to die. That is not new, nor front page news. And there are times where we must take up arms to defend the innocent, and to help maintain the liberties endowed us by our Creator. But it is the power of the Holy Spirit to convict and convert people to an understanding and belief in Jesus Christ. Our job is to make the name of Jesus Christ, the name that is above all names, and show the world what it He is all about!!! There are so many men and women living this day, in the muslim community, following in the example of Paul and the first Christian pioneers, loving and spreading the Gospel to a world that does not understand the concept of Grace. Perhaps we should be returning to the words of God, and truly seeking His direction, and then start living it out!

It is within the constitutional right of this church, to burn the Koran, on Saturday. But that doesn't make it OK. Sometimes, even though we are given liberties to take action, our efforts can cause pain and hardship for others. Please join me in praying for our troops and civilians living in areas where this news will bring violence and possibly death to them, and also prayer for this small church, that they will truly seek God's will in how to best move forward "spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8b