What is Your Vision?

We all have things that drive us. We all have goals and pursuits, morals and guidelines in our lives. The problem is that we rarely focus on them. We abstractly think about values such as "hard work" or "honor," but how often to we think practically about how we can apply them to our lives? How often do we ponder about what our personal and professional goals are, and then try to figure out how best to accomplish them?

It's similar to driving on vacation. Let's say I am going out of town and I hop in the car and head toward the beach. Where am I going? Based off of what I just said, I don't truly know. I just vaguely am headed to "the beach." Similarly, we often want "success" or "better relationships," but do not actually know where we are going with it.

What we need is a plan. If I were going to the beach, I wouldn't just go (although that may be fun once in a while!). Instead, I would plan to go to a certain beach and then plug it into my phone so I would know how to get there. For instance, if I were headed to Ormond Beach, Florida, I would start on I-75, then go to I-275, and so on until I ended up on Highway 1, headed south along the Atlantic coast. I have a desired location (Ormond Beach, FL) with direct steps to help me achieve that (directions, knowledge of gas stations and food along the way, etc.).

Our personal lives should have this kind of structure, as well. How will we ever improve and grow as a person and as a follower of Christ without some sort of plan. We may have a vague idea of where to go, but it is much harder to pull that off without a plan. This plan is what is known as a vision.

A vision is a plan, but more than just a stale plan. There are several other things that must coincide with our vision to make it more than a plan and help us live our lives based upon it:

• Passion: what excites you? If your vision doesn't excite you, you will never follow through. If I made a vision for myself based upon living a life that focused on math, it would be a pointless vision. I would never actually want to live a life that was focused on math. I hate it. I am not passionate about mathematics in any way, shape or form. Thus, our vision must reflect what we are passionate about.
• Motivation: what drives you? Often our passion ends up motivating us, but they are not the same in all cases. Where passion is what excites us about a vision, motivation is what makes us push harder into a vision. It may be providing for your family, growing as a person or honoring God, for example. Motivation is the thing that makes us get up and get to work when nothing else does.
• Direction: where are you headed? If you don't know where you are headed, you'll likely never get there. In order to develop a true vision, you must have some sort of heading to aim for. 

 What is your passion? What is your motivation? What is your direction? Before we can really dive into your specific vision, let's figure out these three things first. What excites and drives you, and where do these things make you want to head for? Where do you want to be in a week, a month, a year or more from now? What do you want to improve on and what is it that you want to accomplish?

Once you get these three things finished, you'll be better able to start figuring out your vision. The next step is to determine your overarching mission or purpose. That, my friends, is what we will explore next week.

*This post is heavily influenced by the teaching of Jason Cummins. Look him up. Dude is awesome.

Let's Just Worship

A worship guide for the new year (and the rest of our lives):

"Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary."

- Psalm 96:1-6, NIV

 

Isn't this a great passage? It has a lot to it, and I really just wanted to share this with you all today. Let's break it down, and I hope you follow each section, worshipping Him:

 

"Sing to the LORD a new song, sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise His name...": Oh, sing to the Lord! Sing with all your heart. May the whole planet, nay, the entire universe sing to Him who is seated above all! He is worth of all praise and glory and honor, forever and ever and ever! Praise His great name, the Name that is above all names!

 

"Proclaim his salvation day after day, declare His glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples...": The natural result of, or perhaps better called the continuation of, worshipping our Lord is the declaration of His splendor and majesty and power to the nations for all to hear. If we truly worship Him, it will spill over onto into a flowing river of praise from our lips, taking His name to the ends of the earth.

 

"For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens...": There is nothing on this planet or beyond this planet that is worthy of the praise that our God is due. Why? Because He made it all. He made light and dark and land and water and stars and moons and planets. He made birds and fish and plants and mammals and invertebrates and reptiles and amphibians. He made wood and metal and oil and combustion and paper and jewels. He made relationships and power and love and sex and passion and happiness. Everything you could ever make into an idol, anything that you could put over Him (idols don't have to be objects; they are ANYTHING we put over God) was made by Him or forbidden by Him. In fact, the very act of idolatry is sin.

 

Instead we should fear Him. A writer called the fear of God, "the convergence of awe, reverence, adoration, honor, worship, confidence, thankfulness, love, and yes, fear." All of that is what our reaction toward God should be. Anything less isn't up to par.

 

"Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary...": This is why we fear Him. Splendor and majesty and strength and glory surround Him; I don't think I have to expand. I don't even know if I can. Our Lord is so majestic and wonderful and powerful and glorious and beautiful and amazing that words simply do not do Him justice.

 

Just sing a song and worship. Just bow and lift up His name. That is the only fitting response.

Discipleship, Part Three: Personal Attention

So far in our discipleship mission, we have looked at the commitment and modeling to disciple. Today, we look at a third component: personal attention.

"So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears." -Acts 20:31, NIV

We are briefly going to look at two lessons from this verse, as applies to discipleship:

1. "Each of you": Paul was talking to the Ephesian elders in this verse, and he reminded them that for three years, he constantly warned every single one of them against people with false teaching. This idea of warning and caring for each one shows that he didn't see the Ephesian church as just a body of believers, but as individual lives. Each one of these elders had Paul's attention, and he explicitly warned them against these things that could damage their walk with Jesus. We do the same; we don't get to just lump our disciples together as a group, and only address them as a group. Our disciples require individual care from us. Everyone has different needs in their walk with Christ, and must be treated as individuals in that walk. Your disciples will not all be at the same place in their walk, with the same level of growth. Everyone takes an individual focus from their discipler. Give it to them.

2. "Night and day with tears": Paul didn't just warn each of them, but he warned them at all times of the day, and with plenty of emotion. He maintained this emotional, personal care at all times, no matter the time of day. Every person we disciple will need our compassion and care at different times, just as the Ephesian elders did. We must be willing to give anyone our personal attention at anytime, and earnestly mean it. If your disciple needs you, you must genuinely give them your attention, no matter when. This isn't about when discipleship is convenient for you; Paul didn't mention his office hours with the Ephesian elders here. He didn't say "I warned all of you every other Tuesday, from 5-6 and at an occasional lunch meeting." No, he warned them all the time, as he was always looking out for each of his people at all times, all the while holding a passion for them and their well-being. People don't cry unless they care at a deep level.

Everyone is different. They have different lives, different problems, different sin struggles, different walks with God and different needs. The biblical discipler gives each of them the individual, personal attention that reflects this variation in needs and people.

Discipleship, Part One: Commitment Pt. I [Paul's Heart]

I apologize. I originally intended to have this discipleship series up weekly. However, my school schedule this semester has prevented me from being able to do this like I wanted to. I will not put up a new calendar for this series, but I do plan to get these posts up every week. We'll see how that goes...

Ironically, the first aspect of discipleship we will be looking at here is commitment. Let's look at a passage from 1 Thessalonians, and pick it apart, finding how the apostle Paul & Co. carried out this aspect.

"For our exhortation didn’t come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive. Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but rather God, who examines our hearts. For we never used flattering speech, as you know, or had greedy motives —God is our witness— and we didn’t seek glory from people, either from you or from others. Although we could have been a burden as Christ’s apostles, instead we were gentle among you, as a nursing mother nurtures her own children. We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. For you remember our labor and hardship, brothers. Working night and day so that we would not burden any of you, we preached God’s gospel to you.You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers. As you know, like a father with his own children, we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the message about God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the message of God, which also works effectively in you believers." -1 Thessalonians 2:3-13, HCSB

This is a big chunk of Scripture, so we're gunna break it into a few parts. First we'll look at Paul's heart, and the next post will focus on going beyond a teacher.

There are several parts of this passage that really point to Paul's heart toward the believers in Thessaloniki. Let's highlight a few:

-V. 3-6 says Paul and Friends were not "from error, or impurity or intent to deceive...." and had no "greedy motives...[or] seek glory from people." They obviously weren't committed to these believers for their own purpose. Instead, they were approved by God. They were on God's mission, and they made it clear that it was His mission that they focused on. We must remember to keep this central to our commitment; our commitment doesn't mean a thing if it isn't focused on God's purposes.

-V. 7-8 shows that they cared for the believers with a "motherly, deep love." That is the love we must show toward our disciples; a passionate, deep, internal love and care for their well-being.

-V. 9-10 talks of how they were being witnessed in all of their actions by their disciples. They, therefore, worked hard to have "devout, righteous, blameless conduct." This takes commitment, and we will focus more on this in a different post.

-V. 11-12 focuses in on their method of instruction: "like a father" and to "each one." Just as we disciple with a mother-like love, we disciple with a father-like instruction. Our love leads us to instruct with authority and clarity. We also instruct all disciples individually; no one is forgotten or passed over in instruction. We must have a heart for all of our disciples.

-Finally, v. 13 shows what must be the driving force behind all of our instruction and love and conduct: God's Word. We must always make God's Word the guide and reason behind our discipleship. After all, if we are doing God's purpose, we should probably listen to what He says.

Paul and the others clearly had a commitment to these believers. Next time, we will look at some more examples from Paul, showing how we must commit to more than just teaching our disciples.

For more on commitment, check out Discipleship, Part One: Commitment Pt. 2.
 

Names of God: Maker

Have you ever realized how intricate you are? Right now, look at your body for a second. Look at all the tiny lines on the top of your hands or the wide array of colors in the iris of your eyes (they may be blue, but look how many shades of blue!). Then feel your forearm while you move your fingers. Feel the muscles of your arm as they move your fingers. Watch the bones in the top of your hand as you more the fingers; it looks kinda cool, huh?

The human body has so many little intricate, awesome features, I could write all day about them. Each little part of your body has a function (except the appendix, as far as we know), and each little part has an important role in your life. And yet, each part was made specifically by God.

Each one of us is a creation of God's. Just like that artwork you did in second grade art class, you are one of God's creative masterpieces. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are His "masterpiece" or "creation."

Let's look specifically at a verse that refers to God in this Maker role, and think about what it means:

"Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker." -Psalm 95:6, HCSB

You see, the masterpiece doesn't rule the master. The Mona Lisa didn't tell Da Vinci what to do, and Michelangelo didn't worship the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In that same line of thinking, we shouldn't expect God to worship us. He is not a vending machine that we only mention when we need something. He is not just a "part of our lives." He is our Maker, and He demands all of our praise and all of our attention.

Everything we do, we should do for His glory. Ephesians 2:10 goes on to say that we are made "to do good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them." We're meant to be the hands and feet of God, doing His work all over the nation and world.

So, will you worship Him? Will you bow before our Maker, or will you be a rebellious creation that spits in the Creator's face and does your own thing?

Scar Tissue and Battle Wounds: When God Seems to Have Disappeared

Last week, I talked about how God is always with us, and how we are never alone. Yet, despite this, sometimes we still feel not just that we are alone, but that He has turned His back and done exactly what He said He wouldn't do in Joshua 1:9. Sometimes, we feel like God has dropped us off on a deserted island, and left us to fend for ourselves.

This is not an uncommon feeling. Even though we know that He loves us and saved us from our sins, and would never abandon us, we still feel this way. It's human nature. We are short-sighted and incapable of putting everything into perspective. Our problems we are having right now are always the "big one," the problem that's going to do us in. We won't ever recover from this one. We're forever doomed to sulk and weep, and it's all because God turned His back on us, right? I mean, He works for the good of His people, and this ain't good. Surely He has jumped ship!

No matter how spiritual you are, no matter how secure in your faith you are or how holy you think you are, you're going to have this feeling. I personally feel like this from time to time, and it is times like this where I cry out, "God, where are you?! I'm your child, heir and son. I'm saved by your grace, and I work for your good. Why won't you show me love?" This is why I love David.

David, the second king of Israel, slayer of giants and "man after God's own heart," was a lot like me in His approach to troubles. We both are/were emotional guys that wear our feelings on our sleeves. When things are great, David would sing a song (unfortunately, I cannot sing very well) and dance for joy. He loved worshipping the Lord. But when the crap hit the fan, David broke down. He'd scream and cry out and rip his clothes and fast and yell out to God, wondering why God would leave His side. Let's look at David's anguish in the 22nd Psalm:

"My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning? My God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, by night, yet I have no rest...

Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You rescued them. They cried to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disgraced...

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by people. Everyone who sees me mocks me; they sneer and shake their heads...

Do not be far from me, because distress is near and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me...

They open their mouths against me— lions, mauling and roaring. I am poured out like water,and all my bones are disjointed; my heart is like wax, melting within me. My strength is dried up like baked clay; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.You put me into the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; a gang of evildoers has closed in on me...

But You, LORD, don’t be far away. My strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my life from the sword,my only life from the power of these dogs. Save me from the mouth of the lion!" -Psalm 22:1-2, 6-7, 11-16, 19-21a HCSB

These are the words of a broken, desperate man. Imagine mighty King David, no longer majestic, but crying. Imagine him screaming out to God. He feels like he is going to die, and that his end is near. He has been beaten, kicked and knocked down, and all the while, it feels like God is far, far away.

But guess what? God wasn't as far away as David thought. In fact, God was working for David's good all the while, as we see one of the quickest turnarounds in all of Scripture in the second half of verse 21. Check this out:

"You have rescued me
from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 I will proclaim Your name to my brothers;
I will praise You in the congregation.

23 You who fear Yahweh, praise Him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor Him!
All you descendants of Israel, revere Him!

24 For He has not despised or detested
the torment of the afflicted.
He did not hide His face from him
but listened when he cried to Him for help."

-Psalm 22:21b-24, HCSB

You. Have. Rescued. Me. Those are four beautiful words. God. Has. Rescued. Us. We are no longer beaten. We are not alone. In fact, we never were. God was fighting for and alongside us the whole time. We're gunna make it out of this. Even if there is a permanent scar (as fighters and warriors often have), that doesn't mean we lost. A scar shows we made it through. When we die, we will all have lots of scars. We may be getting beat up over and over again, but God will keep saving us.

Kevin DeYoung once said that "Christians often forget that life is a pilgrimage, and we think Heaven is on Earth. If we are looking for Heaven on Earth, we will be consistently miserable and disappointed. If we remember that life is more similar to a desert, however, we not only will be less disappointed by our troubles, but will actually find ourselves more happy" (roughly quoted by memory from Just Do Something).

Life's a desert pilgrimage. We are marching forward towards the Kingdom. Things will trip us up, things will knock us down. We will be jumped by bandits and collapse of exhaustion. But I urge you: keep fighting. God is by your side and in your corner. If our God is for us, than what could stand against? And trust me, He is for us.

What is Your Legacy?

In life, everyone leaves a legacy. Sometimes, it's a a legacy that everyone notices, good or bad. Michael Jordan's legacy is that he is the greatest basketball player in history. Thomas Edison's legacy is that he invented the modern light bulb. Harriet Tubman's legacy is that she led many slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad, often risking her life. Al Capone's legacy is that he was a mobster, and Osama Bin Laden's legacy is that he was a terrorist.

Some people don't have such impacting legacies. Everyday, many people die as little known, blue-collar workers that just had average lives and average deaths. In fact, most of us have and will have average legacies.

While reading in 2 Chronicles the other day, I stumbled upon the legacy of a man that made me really think about my legacy. Let's look at it:

"Then Jehu looked for Ahaziah, and Jehu's soldiers captured him (he was hiding in Samaria). Then they brought him to Jehu, and they killed him. They buried him, for they said, 'He is the grandson of Jehoshaphat who sought the LORD with all his heart.' So the house of Ahaziah had no one to exercise power over the kingdom." -2 Chronicles 22:9, HCSB

Did you catch that? When referring to King Ahaziah of Judah at his funeral, they referred to him as the "grandson of Jehoshaphat who sought the LORD with all his heart." Wow! What a legacy Jehoshaphat had! This is not his funeral, but his grandson's. Ahaziah was a king, too. It's not as if Ahaziah had no legacy at all. Sure, he only reigned in Jerusalem for one year and was a sorry king that helped turn Judah away from God, but still. Jehoshaphat's reputation for loving and chasing after God was so strong, his legacy was so powerful, that he was mentioned at his grandson's funeral. In fact, it could be argued that the best thing said about Ahaziah at the funeral was that he was Jehoshaphat's grandson.

Isn't that something we should all strive for? To be known for generations to come as someone "who's sought the Lord with all our heart?" How amazing of a legacy that would be!

What is your legacy? Will you be remembered for your love for God, or do you have something else, something lesser, defining your legacy?

Go Crazy in Worship

How often have you been in church and felt like the worship service was stuffy? I know that I have: everyone is dressed up and still, repeating words off a screen or out of a book, without any real passion or heartfelt worship going on. While I am not innocent of this kind of "worship," it is something that troubles me deeply, and is blatantly unbiblical.

We have a God worthy of praise (Psalm 18:3), a God who deserves our utmost worship (Psalm 96:1-13), a God that is completely in charge of everything He made (Isaiah 40:28). He is the King of the Universe, the Lord of Lords, and has defeated both sin and death. Is not this kind of God one who is worthy and deserving of our worship? Doesn't He deserve everything we can throw at Him, all to exalt Him above everything?

King David got this concept in 2 Samuel 6:16. Let's look here:

"When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord..." -2 Samuel 6:16b, NIV

When the ark of the covenant was brought into Jerusalem for the first time, David was so pumped about Jesus that he was literally leaping and dancing in the streets praising God, much like a little kid on Christmas. He was so thrilled about God and His glory and that His throne was coming to the capital city that he couldn't contain himself.

Meanwhile, in the same verse, we see his wife Michal had a different attitude. The end of verse 16 says that "she despised him in her heart" when she saw him acting a fool for God. She didn't understand the idea of making yourself look like an idiot to show your love and passion for God. She was a restrained worshipper of God, and looked down on David for his actions.

Have you ever felt this way in worship? I feel like most of us probably have: we see that person raising their hands, dancing, etc. before God, and we act like they are being "holier than thou." While that may be the case, it could be that they are enjoying God to the fullest. They are simply pouring their heart out before God, and your are judging them for doing exactly what you should be doing.

We see later in chapter 6 that Michal and David have a chat about Dave's worship practices. Michal tells him that he is a "vulgar fellow," and pretty much tells him that he should get his act together. I mean, what would people think?! David is the king of Israel; he should be a reserved leader. But David tells her that he would continue to make a fool of himself for God, and that anyone with God's interests at heart would do the same.

Are you willing to act a fool for God and go all out in your praise and worship of Him? I challenge you this week in your service to actually read the words of the songs you are singing. Think about what you are saying in those songs, and then sing them like you mean it. I'm not saying you have to break dance down the center aisle; I'm saying we should all put some thought and heart into our worship. Let's quit being robotic towards our God, and get passionate.

Go All Out

I have recently been reading through the book Think Orange by Reggie Joiner. It's a pretty good book; I will give a final verdict on it when I finish. The book is about meshing the church and family together, to help kids learn the best that they can about God. A passage that gets a lot of attention in the book is Deuteronomy 6:4-9, which I happen to also have read recently in my quiet time in God's Word. I'll share the passage with you, and then we will look at it a bit and see how this applies to our lives.

"4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." -Deuteronomy 6:4-9, NKJV

Let's start at the beginning. Verse 4 says "the LORD our God, the LORD is one!" Observe that LORD is in all caps; Moses (the author of Deuteronomy) isn't screaming the word "Lord" at us. No, the word is in all caps to show that this use of the word "Lord" is in the Hebrew word "Yahweh." The word "Yahweh" is the Hebrew word for "personal God." He is in everything: our lives, their lives, everything. He exists, and is all over the place. Now, we see that Moses is saying that this personal, deeply-entwined-in-our-lives God is one. He is the only God. There is no other. This distinction and reminder to Israel (Moses's audience in this speech) is for a specific purpose: to remind them that God is everywhere, and involved in everything. The fact that He is so deep within everything in the world makes Him kind of a big deal. In fact, He's the biggest deal ever. Moses wants this idea of God first to preface everything that he would say next. This applies to us, too. As we look at the next verses, let's remember that God is everywhere, and He is the only God.

Ok, so now Moses has established that God is the only God, and He's all over the place. I think I made that clear above. So then Moses says, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." Ok, so once we remember how awesome God is, Moses says to love this awesome God with all of our heart, soul and strength. I could go further into the Hebrew meanings of those three entities, but I'll sum it up by saying that Moses is saying to love God with your entire being. Every. Little. Bit. Of. You.

These words may sound familiar to any of you who have grown up in church, or been in church really at all. Jesus would repeat this statement in His ministry, saying that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our being (Matt. 22:37). So, if the Savior of the world says that this is the greatest commandment, then it must be important, right? Eternally so.

Observe that Jesus called it the greatest "commandment." A command is something you must follow, right? We are being ordered to love God. That's not an idea Jesus introduced; look at the verse above from Moses. It states "you shall..." By saying that we shall do anything, it means that it is to be a certainty that it occurs. This is a huge, ginormous statement!

We have a God, who is personal, within our lives and everyone and everything else's lives, who is in control of the entire universe. This very same God is commanding that we love Him; in fact, it is His biggest command. The most important thing, if we can't get anything else right, is that we love Him. Ladies and gentlemen, please don't miss this. We are ordered to love God with all of our being. This is our ordered task.

Ok, Bryan, you may say. I get that the all-over, amazing God has commanded me to love Him with my entire being. But what does this look like? Glad you asked. Moses has the answer as we look further into this passage.

"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Moses says that if we love God, these are the things that we shall do when loving God. We will keep those words in our hearts, memorizing them and applying them to everything. We will teach our children to love God(the part Think Orange focuses on). We will talk about our love for God when we sit in our house. We will talk about our love for God when we are out and about. We will talk about our love for God as we laying down to go to sleep. We will talk about our love for God as we get up in the morning. We will make the love of our God known by every aspect of our life. It will be so obvious that we love God that we might as well have "I LOVE GOD" written on our hands and heads and on our doors and the gates of our house.

Every single part of your life is to scream "I LOVE GOD!" People are to look at you, and see how much you love Him. Everywhere we go, we are to talk about the God that created the world, the God that we have rebelled against, the God that didn't smite us all the first time we sinned, the God that sent His Son (and Himself) to die both for His glory and our salvation from our rebellion. The God that defeated death and rose again. The God that is everywhere, at all times. The God that will reign from a throne, and all will bow before Him.

Do you love this God? Is it obvious in everything you do? Do people look at you and say, "Wow, they love God!" or do they see just another person that disobeys the greatest commandment we have been given?

At the Bottom of Your Receipt

I work at Kroger, as I may have mentioned on here before. It can be a joyful experience at times; others, it's a nightmare. The public can drive a man to madness, it's true. And as a member of the retail business, I am assigned a number of seemingly meaningless tasks that I must perform when bagging groceries, running a cash register, or working the customer service desk. One such task is the pushing of the Kroger 1-2-3 Rewards Mastercard.

This card is a credit card offered to Kroger Plus members after they have shopped at their friendly Kroger store a certain, and unknown, number of times. A prompt will pop up on the screen of the cashier's keyboard, reminding the cashier to prompt the customer about this offer. Information about the card is on the bottom of the customer's receipt. There are two ways to present this information:

-Option A: Excited. Passionate. On fire. "By the way, customer, you happen to qualify for a new Kroger 1-2-3 Rewards Mastercard. In addition to having your Kroger card on the back, this card will help you out with your shopping. It allows for an additional five cents off of each gallon when filling up at our Kroger fuel station, which we all need now that gas prices are going up and up, huh? Also, in addition to your normal savings, you can save even more money at Kroger. After accumulating a certain number of points, you will be sent cash voucher checks with rebates of five, ten, even twenty dollars to use in store. After you collect a few of these, which takes very little time, you can bring them into the store and use them to save money on your groceries. Any more information is available at the bottom of your receipt, including how to easily sign up for this card. Thank you for shopping with us here at Kroger, and we hope to see you again."

-Option B: Listless. Uncaring. Forced. "Hey, there's some info about a Kroger Mastercard at the bottom of your receipt. If you're interested, and I'm sure you aren't, it's down there. Thanks."

This forked road of options is one that all cashiers must come to multiple times a shift: do we care enough about this card and this company to legitimatelly try to sell this card, or will we halfway do it? Usually, the latter option is the preferred method of attack. It's easier. It shows less devotion, but more devotion would be weird; who wants to be a Kroger freak? Unfortunately, this very attitude is often carried over to our feelings and methods of sharing God's truth with others.

Think about it: we as Christians typically will take the easy road out when it comes to sharing His Gospel with others. Sometimes that means saying as little as possible to make our conscience feel like we "shared the Gospel." Sometimes it means saying nothing. This is a troubling attitude that many, if not all, Christians must face at some point. Do we really care about His message? Are we too worried about saving face and not being a "God freak" to say anything? Not to mention, it takes work to share! We have to find a way to express our faith in a conversation, make it creative enough to resonate with the person, and find a way to not go overboard. I'm tired thinking about it. Does God really expect us to try as hard as we can to spread His good news?

After Christ drove out demons from him, a man in Luke 8 went crazy for Christ:

"And off he went, proclaiming throughout the town all that Jesus had done for him." -Luke 8:39b, HCSB

This kind of reaction was not uncommon of people who Christ touched. Often times, Christ even had to make sure they didn't tell people what He had done, just so a riot or something wouldn't begin. The disciples of Christ took things even further in Acts:

Pretty soon after Christ's death and resurrection, the local religious leaders in Jerusalem made it illegal to speak of the good news of Christ. This did not deter the disciples; it only made them go stronger. Peter and John were arrested after "provoking the people" with the word of Christ. In the time before they got arrested, many people came to know Christ (Acts 4:4). In Acts 13, we see that the disciples were facing persecution in Antioch (Ant-E-ock) and yet they still shared the Gospel until they were run out of town. So then, in chapter 14, we see them going to Iconium (have fun saying that) and getting run out of town for speaking "in such a way that a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed (Acts 14:1)."

You see, the early Christians were completely enthralled in Christ. He was their life. Everything they did revolved around him. Look at the early church as described in Acts 4:32, where it says "they held everything in common." Clearly, this isn't saying that they have literally everything in common: Peter was a fisherman redneck, and Matthew was a number-cruncher. Guarantee they didn't have the same interests in pastimes. Yet, they had everything in common because Christ was their everything. Everything in their world revolved around Christ and His mission for their lives. If everything in your life revolves around Christ, you have everything in common with another who is equalled as obsessed with Christ. This is a level of passion I desire to obtain. That's the kind of Christ follower I wish so badly to be, and I would venture to say that should be how you want to be, also.

Are you so passionate about Christ that you refuse to take the easy way out of His plan for your life? Are you willing to talk to anyone about the greatness of the Savior of the world, or will you talk about Him as if he were nothing to you? Do you genuinely care about the advancement of the Gospel, or do you genuinely care about the advancement of your coolness?