To Capture for Christ

I don't know about you but I struggle with keeping my mind fully on Christ.  Every single day is a battle between doing what is right and true and living as the world lives.  My life is a constant battle between wanting to have a deeper relationship with Jesus and wanting to have a place in this world.  There are many times I struggle with living in this world yet not being of this world.  This is especially true when I am in constant contact with non or complacent Christians.  Sometimes my life verse is Romans 7:19 saying, "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."

I do not seem to struggle at all when I can be alone or with Christians who encourage me in my walk.  In my time alone, I often am listening to Christian music, sermon podcasts of many preachers whom I respect, or Christian scholar lectures.  I'm sure at this point most of your are saying I need to get a life but the constant influx of scriptures, interpretations of scriptures, and soul affirming music help to keep me centered in Christ.  I constantly crave these times of learning and worshipping Christ.  My soul needs it.  My soul needs Him.


The deepest passion of my heart is to follow Christ in every single aspect of my life.  I want my life to mirror what Peter is talking about in 1 Peter 1:13-16 saying, "Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,  but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,  since it is written,'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'"  When I spend most of my day immersed in Christ, I find that I can do fairly well of living this passage.  


The reality is that most of us are unable to live our lives constantly immersed in scriptural teaching, music, and prayer.  So how do we live for Jesus in those times where we are interacting directly with the world?  Paul says in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."  When we trust the Holy Spirit to lead our lives, we will notice that He is constantly working to renew our minds.  This verse does not imply that this will be an instant process though because the second part of the verse says you will go through testing to help you discern God perfect will for you.  


Philippians 4:8 helps us better understand what a renewed mind should look like saying, "brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."  In the process of striving to live Philippians 4:8, we also have to live 2 Corinthians 10:5b saying, "take every thought captive to obey Christ."  By learning to live fully in both of these verses, we begin to take strength when we are surrounded by the world.  


Though I still struggle greatly with living in these powerful verses daily, I can see the Lord continually drawing me closer to Him.  All of these verses ultimately point us to the idea presented in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."  Philippians 4:13 is the answer to finding complete contentment no matter what situation you find yourself in.  Each day I wake up, I strive to live this contentment in Christ.  Some days are better than others but as I continue to rely on Him, I know He will be faithful to draw me into a closer and more consistent daily walk for Him.


I hope these scriptures will help you to battle waywardness in your daily Christian walk.  I pray that you will memorize and tuck these verses deep in your heart as ammunition against the devil when he tries to pull you into the world's ways.  Take heart Christian for Jesus has overcome the world!  In Jesus you to can walk in strength and boldness daily.  


Blessings,


Greg


  My wife and I feel an intense calling on our lives for missions and full-time ministry.  We have created a fundraiser to help us overcome one hurtle to us being able to go to the mission field.  I pray that you will take a moment and check out this link.  I thank you for your consideration and ask that you seek the Lord's guidance in considering contributing to this fundraiser.  Thank you.

You Caring

  

Don't Relax in Your Faith

Today I had the day off because my wife and I both had doctor's appointments we needed to go to with only one car.  I also have to work this weekend so my boss wanted me to take the day off to break up the schedule so I wouldn't be working 10 days straight.  I am so thankful that I had a break today because my back had really tightened up last night and I needed a day to allow the muscles to let go and allow me to do my job to the best of my ability.

After my wife and I finished all of our doctors appointments, I decided to take a muscle relaxer to help encourage my back to return to normal.  I know that a muscle relaxer can make you drowsy but I was not prepared for how drowsy I would feel the rest of the day.  A couple hours after taking the pill I decided to take a nap but I did not want to wake up after taking it.  I felt an intense desire to sleep.  I literally had to force myself to get up and start moving.

The rest of my evening has been one long struggle to stay awake so that I can get normal sleep tonight.  I definitely do not believe I will be taking a muscle relaxer during the day again even if I am off work with no where to go.  I do not like the feeling of my energy being drained from me.  I also do not like having to focus to keep my attention on things.

As I sit here still in my muscle relaxer stupor, I can't help but think about how my walk with Jesus feels like this sometimes.  Sometimes I struggle to stay close with Jesus.  I feel like I have no strength to walk in Him.  I feel like my mind focuses on everything but Him.  Have you ever been there?  Has the distraction of work, school, holidays, family, friends, tv, and music caused you to struggle in your walk with Christ?  Have you ever considered that maybe like my muscle relaxers these things are used by the devil to lull you away from a passionate walk with Jesus?

Unlike the muscle relaxer, the devil only has power over us when we give it to him.  We allow ourselves to walk off the narrow path.  We allow ourselves to be distracted by the many things of this world.  We take our eyes off Jesus.  The devil cannot make us do any of these things.  As followers of Jesus, the devil has no power over us.  James 1:13-14 says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire."


We allow ourselves to be pulled away from Christ.  We allow the devil to have power over us.  1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."  As I had mentioned in my blog yesterday, we already know that we can do all things through Christ in Philippians 4:13.  The power we have against the devil is fully shown through John 16:33 where Jesus tells the disciples, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."  


So if you are sleepily struggling in your faith, take heart because Jesus can help deliver you from any struggle you are facing.  He is strong enough to deal with any situation you find yourself in.  He is strong enough to overcome the devil's hold on you.  Just completely trust and lean upon Him (Proverbs 3:5).  Put your complete faith and assurance in Him and He will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:6).  


Blessings,


Greg

Intolerant Tolerance

In listening to a sermon by David Platt, he spoke on tolerance and got me thinking about the ways of this world today.  I find it interesting that we live in a culture today that champions the idea of tolerance of all religions and yet is intolerant of intolerant religions like evangelical Christianity.  We live in a culture that does not believe in spiritual absolute truths and yet lives by absolute truths daily such as 2+2=4 and the law of gravity.  Does it not seem convenient for the world to make all spiritual truth equal?  This would never work in the realm of science.  If I decided to walk off a bridge because I didn't believe in the law of gravity, I would still fall to my death anyways.  Though this is true of science beliefs the world says that it is not also true of spiritual beliefs.  The problem is that, if in fact Christianity is true, then all other religions really are going to hell without Jesus whether they believe their spiritual beliefs are true our not.  If there is not absolute spiritual truth and we all have to be tolerant of everybody else's beliefs, then none of us has to feel conviction of sin or anything contrary to what we want to believe.  I find it ironic that this world, especially the modern college campus, champions the idea of religious tolerance so loudly and yet seek so passionately to destroy the claims of Christianity.  How can supposed tolerant people be so intolerant.  

In a sermon I was listening to by David Platt  called The Gospel and Homosexuality where he said this about tolerance in our world in all context, "We have created the idea, the belief that every idea in the world is equally right, equally true.  so to disagree with some one is intolerant but the reality is tolerance in and of itself implies disagreement.  If you and I agree on every single thing, I don't tolerate you.  I don't tolerate your beliefs if I agree with all of them.  If you believe that Jesus is the Lord of the universe then I don't tolerate you for that. On the other hand, if you deny that Jesus even exist then, yes, I would passionately disagree with you but it is at that point that I would tolerate you."  Our world has so confused the meaning of words such as tolerance that we all feel we are bad for standing up for our beliefs.  We have come to believe it is wrong to believe in absolute truth.  Many of us have become to scared to proclaim Jesus as the way and the truth and the life because it is infringing on other people's truth.  

We have to be so careful not to be drawn in by the ideas of this world.  If we allow ourselves to not proclaim Jesus due to fear of being viewed as intolerant then we are quietly allowing people to go to hell.  Jesus was not afraid of absolute truth and he was not afraid to challenge those who spoke against His Father.  We have to stand up for our beliefs and proclaim them with boldness and compassion.  We can no longer allow this world to keep our mouths shut or allow this world to scare us into their view on tolerance.  We must be the salt and light to the world and trust that Jesus' truth will ring in the hearts of the people around us.  Stand tall for Christ brothers and sisters and stand for absolute truth in Christ this moment.  

Blessings,

Greg