te-na-cious

te-na-cious
Adjective: Not easily dispelled or discouraged; persisting in existence or in a course of action.

"And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ." - Acts 5:41

Tenacious...isn't that just an awesome word?  Are there tenacious followers of Christ out there?  Those who are not easily discouraged, that persist, that stay the course no matter the opposition.  Those who fight for the heart of their King Jesus.

Have you ever asked yourself, "What do I fight for?"  It is easy to give up, it is easy to be "soft" followers of Christ.  To be tenacious is hard, it takes effort, hard work, and underlying it all is commitment.  We must believe the words of Paul when he says, "To live is Christ and to die is gain," if we are to be tenacious.  This life will present many obstacles that will get us discouraged and many times we feel like giving up.  Many times we like to sulk, mope, and stay in a state of self pity.

When can only be tenacious, to not easily be discourage, and to persist when its all about Christ and His Kingdom and not about us.  Just as the apostles in Acts did not cease teaching and preaching no matter what obstacles they faced.  They were committed, determined, and sure of the eternal future with Christ and that was their goal.  There hope was in Christ, not their kids, not their job, not their financial security, and not their spouse.

Discouragement will come in all shapes and sizes.  From many little things to one big thing our plans, our hopes, and our dreams can come crashing down.  What will you do when these things happen?  Will you fight for your King?  Will you run and hide?  Be tenacious, fight the good fight, and stay the course because Jesus is worthy.

Born To Die

Why was Jesus born? During Christmas time I often try to reflect on this question. The answer I keep coming back to is that he was "born to die." While we celebrate the birth of Christ we must always remember the death of Christ. The cross doesn't happen without the birth but the birth without the cross is meaningless.

Death is the separation of spirit and soul from the body. Since God is spirit he had to be born and take on a body in order to die. The purpose of what we celebrate at Christmas is the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

What It Means To Be A Torchbearer

The other morning I woke up and God really challenged me with a thought.  Do I wake up each and every morning and aimlessly try to follow Jesus?  Am I throwing darts at a target but don't know where the target is?  I have been pondering and praying recently and after talking with Don we both know that we need to start writing and blogging more.

I went back to one of the first challenges Don ever gave me.  To come up with a Biblical name.  My name is "Torchbearer of Christ."  This name should encompass a personal mission for the glory of God.  I like the name but I never really put a lot of time or effort into daily living that out.  So now it is time to start.

A Torchbearer is one who leads or inspires others in working hard toward a valued goal.  In this case Christ is the goal, his glory, his kingdom, and deeper intimacy with our Savior is what we must work hard for.  As a torchbearer I must lead by example, encourage others, and press on toward the goal in spite of opposition (which is sure to come!).

With that being said I would like to invite you along this journey with me.  My goal is to blog a minimum of 3 days a week.  In blogging I want to help inspire you toward Christ and his kingdom.  I will be reading through the Bible this year so many of my thoughts may come from that.  I pray that you would take some time to develop a personal mission statement, to create a Biblical name, and live that out daily for the glory of God.

Eat, Drink, & Be Merry

Beliefs have consequences. For example, I could believe that the wall in front of me is not real and going running as fast as I can into it. Ouch would then be the proper response because my belief doesn’t change truth. Our beliefs have consequences in life but more importantly in eternity. What we choose to believe or not believe is more important than we think.

“I don’t like to think about that.” Have you ever heard that response from someone? This is because most people are trained not to think. They don’t want to wrestle with hard truth so they choose not to think about it. They begin to live in denial and convince themselves that life will be ok. These people tend to get angry when you try to push questions upon them because they cause feelings, fears, and hurts that they don’t want to deal with.

There is another school of thought that I would classify as “eat, drink, & be merry.” This group chooses to believe that they should “party like a rockstar” and enjoy the world as much as they can. Please know I am not condemning either one of these groups of people, I am just challenging their thinking and wanting them to understand their beliefs have consequences.

Think about your beliefs. Think about the consequences to your beliefs. What is your philosophy on life? religion? truth? God? Are you ok with that? Are you ok with the consequences to your belief? My prayer for you is that you will understand truth, that just because you want to believe a certain way it doesn’t change the truth of Scripture. God’s Word is proven true over and over again. Hell is a real consequence of beliefs outside of Jesus Christ. However, Heaven and more importantly eternity with Jesus is a consequence to belief in Christ.

“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” - Romans 10:9

Further Reading: Romans 10, John 3

The Off The Wall Race

I am super excited about our fundraiser for 2012. If you are a fan of the TV show "Amazing Race" you will love "The Off The Wall Race." Starting in January we will be taking applications for teams of two to participate this summer in "The Off The Wall Race." The race will take place over two days and will have many prizes for those involved while raising money to support Off The Wall Ministry. Check back soon or contact me if you want to be kept in the loop for this exciting fundraiser.

Limitless Magnitude

“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” - John 21:25

We have all heard the phrase, “You can’t put God in a box.” We say this to reaffirm the power of God. The question is do we believe this? As humans, we often try to limit God which causes us to lose the fear of the LORD (Proverbs 1:7). How quickly we forget everything the LORD has done in our lives. In life things happen that breed lies into our minds that make us start to question God. This typically happens because we have unbiblical expectations of God. In our minds we start to create boundaries for God and begin to not believe that he is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

Are you a purposeful person? We are designed to crave fulfilling a purpose. Often times though, we search far and wide to find our purpose but end up empty. That is why when we find our purpose and meaning in Jesus Christ everything changes. As we see in John 21:25 Jesus was on a mission. Throughout the book of John he constantly states his purpose is to do the will of the Father. He didn’t waste time, everything he did had a purpose and everything he said was purposeful.

Have you ever thought about the limitless magnitude of Jesus Christ? The size or extent of the Jesus’s life is limitless and it continues to multiply today. You can’t contain Jesus, he reaches the unreachable, he touches the untouchable. That is our God, our King, our Savior. Jesus continues to do things. Each and every day you walk through this world our God is at work in the lives of people. Not everything may be written down in books but it is written on hearts.

Today I encourage you to taste and see that the LORD is good (Psalm 34:8). Remember your personal experiences with Christ and watch and see Jesus working in the lives of people. Write down what you see, try to record what you see Jesus doing and you will start to see the limitless magnitude of God.

Further Reading: John 21, Psalm 34, Ephesians 3:14-21, Proverbs 1:1-7

Character Counts

“But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.” - Daniel 1:8

Is developing Biblical, Christ honoring character important to you? Not only is it just important, is it the primary goal in your life? Are you willing to allow the Holy Spirit to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ? As I see Christians in all facets of life I notice many times that our character is not of great concern, we tend to think selfishly and walking with Godly character doesn’t become all that import to us. This is a problem and is why many “Christians” are walking around acting like children.

We recently completed a two week tour to 5 different states exhorting our brothers and sisters in Christ to seize the summer, to allow Jesus to seize your heart so you can help others meet him. Having 16 people traveling together you quickly find out who is focused on God and who is focused on themselves. We were all guilty at times of taking our eyes off of Jesus and onto ourselves. We did a poor job of purposing in our hearts to walk with Godly character, to bring God glory through our character. Through it all we learned a lot, grew a lot, and God used the tour in a mighty way to impact people.

We must understand there is a high cost of bad character. People pay for the sins and bad character of those before them. As the people of God, living with the character and mind of Christ must be of utmost importance. Manipulation, bitterness, gossip, slander, jealousy, anger, conceit, and much more we read about in the Scriptures are evidences of bad character. My prayer for myself and for you is that we would search our hearts, that we would ask God to remove it, to purpose in our hearts to have Christ centered character at all costs. Hard choices are part of what it takes to develop good character. Daniel and his friends felt the pressure to conform, their names were changed to the names of cult gods against their will. Through all the difficult trials they were able to stand in the character of Christ.

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” 1 Peter 2:1-2

Further Reading: Daniel 1, 1 Peter 2

The Great Concern

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” - Matthew 6:33

A concern for someone or something can occupy our minds but a great concern seems to consume the totally of our thinking and emotions. What occupies and consumes your mind? Are you filled with anxiety? worry? A great concern places utmost importance of someone or something, it consumes our heart and mind. Does the kingdom of God concern you?

The kingdom of God must be our primary concern. Our lives fall apart and fill with worry, anxiety, depression, and hopelessness when Jesus Christ, his glory, and his kingdom is not our Great Concern. Having a great concern for the kingdom of God and his righteousness doesn’t just happen. It is something we must seek, it must be a primary concern and of utmost importance. How much time, money, and energy do you put into the kingdom of God? Are you worrying about or seeking the details? If so realize the Bible gives us a perspective shift. No matter what situation or circumstance we must have the kingdom of God first, THEN all these things will be added to you.

When we place Jesus first, when he is our great concern it takes the focus off of ourselves. It allows us to walk in humility, to place others first, and it allows God to work out the details that often compete with Jesus to be our great concern.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” - Matthew 6:34

Further Reading: Matthew 6

Primary Concern

“Saul was afraid of David because the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. And David had success in all his undertakings, for the LORD was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.” - 1 Samuel 18:12-16

What is your primary concern? What constantly occupies your mind? As you read through the book of 1 Samuel you see Saul become self focused. His primary concern becomes himself, his power, his authority, his welfare. This causes Saul to do some outrageous stuff. He destroys part of his own kingdom just to try to kill David. Saul’s primary concern was not the Lord’s honor or the people’s welfare but it was himself.

Saul clearly saw that the LORD was with David yet he still chose to fight a losing battle. He was destroying himself and his people and didn’t seem to care. He was blinded and miserable because it was all about him. He didn’t want to give up his kingship to David, he was holding onto it with all he had. I wonder if at this point in time he remembered how the LORD used Samuel to call Saul as king. How it was the LORD who made him king. Now the LORD was calling David to be king and Saul didn’t want to give it up so he took matters into his own hands.

We have a lot to learn from Saul. Let us not make the same mistake. What are you holding on so tightly that you need to “let go and let God?” Is your primary concern on God and his purposes and people? If not, ask him to help you. When we are so concerned about trivial worldly things our lives tend to be a mess. Today ask God to shift your focus to Jesus, to be reminded of the cross and to follow him wherever he leads.

Further Reading: 1 Samuel 18-24

The Ultimate Thing

“It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you - for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God - lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from the face of the earth.” - Deuteronomy 6:13-15

What is your ultimate thing? Your ultimate thing can take many forms and can be know by many names. It is your source of joy, it is what you live your life striving to please or achieve. It in essence controls you and the scary part is sometimes you don’t even realize it does.

Sorrow and despair are similar but there is a big difference between them and that is hope. Hopelessness is deeply saddening. Have you ever seen hopeless people? There is no joy, there is no life in them. There whole world is crushed and they have no were to turn or to look. This is what life is like without Jesus Christ. Apart from Christ you will ultimately enter a state of hopelessness after trying to find the ultimate thing outside of Jesus. You will eventually reach a point of despair.

You see, when you lose what you have placed as the ultimate thing in your life which is the source of your meaning or hope there is no where to turn. What you have put your faith in (if it is outside of Jesus) will always eventually let you down and leave you hopeless. Are you building your entire life on an incomplete joy of this world? You have a choice, stop! Put your hope in Jesus Christ, make Him your ultimate source of meaning and hope. You will still have sorrow but you have the Holy Spirit of God to console you and there will always be hope in Christ Jesus.

“And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” - Exodus 20:1-4

Further Reading: Deuteronomy 6 & Exodus 20