Purpose

Press On – VOTD.06.18.18

So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 1 Corinthians 9:26

There’s a difference between acknowledging a doctrine that says that God is All-Powerful and living a victorious Christian life that expresses and demonstrates how All-Powerful God really is. In the same way, there’s a difference between running on a treadmill and going nowhere and running in a race to win the prize (Phil 3:14). Paul tells us in today’s verse to, “Run in such a way that you may win”.

The implication here is that we can run in such a way as to not win…we can go through the motions. We can ‘just get it over with’. Or we can run to win.

There’s a story of a man who approached a laborer who was laying bricks and asked him, “What are you doing?”
The laborer said, “Can’t you see I’m laying bricks?”
The man then walked over to another bricklayer and asked, “What are you doing?” And the workman answered, “I’m building a cathedral.” 

Both were physically doing the same thing, but the first laborer was occupied with the present task, and the other was concerned with the ultimate goal. I’m told that this is a true story. But as I look around me it’s easy to identify people serving God who resemble both of the workers.  It’s easy to become encumbered by the urgent, entangled in the web of our own faithlessness. (more…)

Continue ReadingPress On – VOTD.06.18.18

Waiting on God’s Promises pt 2 – VOTD.03.13.18

Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing him who has called us by name and invited us to come to him through a glorious manifestation of his goodness. 2 Peter 1:3

Last time we looked at how we rediscover and realign ourselves to God’s promises when the waiting gets long. First we looked dwelling on His loving commitment to keep fulfilling in us all that He promises. Second, we talked about keeping our agreement with God’s promises active and practical rather letting them fade into the theoretical and abstract.

One final way we can keep refreshing God’s promises in our lives and realign ourselves to them:

3) Declare our partnership with God. Declaration allows us to affirm our passion and re-calibrate our thinking to align with His. Once we know the specific promise God wants to bring into our daily reality, we can be quick to declare our agreement and commitment to partnering with Him to see that promise become reality.

It works like this: “Jesus has given me everything that pertains to life and godliness to become all that He promises.” AND “Because I have this promise from Jesus, I will see the promise fulfilled.” This isn’t presumption. We have Jesus’ promise and what we’re doing is aligning our mind, will, and emotions with that promise. (more…)

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Waiting on God’s Promises – VOTD.03.12.18

The One who began this glorious work  in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!  Philippians 1:6

A common question when considering the promises of God is, “Why haven’t my promises come to pass yet?” What does it mean when the gap only seems to widen between promise we’ve received and promise fulfilled? And what do we do with the time in between?

Often, when we find ourselves waiting for God to fulfill some promise He’s given, it means that God is creating a new level of partnership and fellowship with us – and you and I are invited to join Him. He’s making us able to receive the fulfillment of the promise – capable of handling the responsibility that goes along with any of the gifts that He gives us.

And sometimes when we find ourselves waiting a long time for God to fulfill His promises, we become distracted from those promises. We remember them, but we’ve stopped actively agreeing and aligning our hearts with God’s intention. When we do that, we step out of the place of agreement that He has for us and lose some of the and fullness that is needed to walk out His promises.

So how do we rediscover and realign with God’s gifts of promise?
1) Hear the unchanging commitment of God in His promises. Dwell on His loving commitment to keep fulfilling in us all that He promises, just as today’s verse promises us. (more…)

Continue ReadingWaiting on God’s Promises – VOTD.03.12.18

Removing the Arrows Life Sticks in Us – VOTD.01.16.18

<same as last time> But this one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. Philippians 3:13-15

Last time we looked at living every day of our lives instead of reacting and existing and wondering where the time went. Today, I want to look at how Paul tells us how he lives every day to the fullest: He does this in 3 thoughts:

1. Forget Yesterday; Don’t Stop
“Forgetting what is behind” – That is hard to do. Yet life is less than what it can be if we keep carrying around all of our yesterdays. Even if our past is stellar, it weighs us down. Paul isn’t telling us to press the ‘Delete’ button on the past from the tablet of our minds (and there’s no ‘Undo’ button in life). He meant that the past is not a place to stop—it’s a place to build upon.

Paul didn’t let his past failures or successes obstruct his present running of God’s race set before him. Like it says in Hebrews 12:1 …let us let go of everything that hinders, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

The literal translation, when it tells us to ‘let go of everything that hinders,’ is “get rid of every arrow tip stuck in us.” The implication is carrying an arrow tip inside, a wound that weighs us down and keeps us from running our race with freedom.

We’ve been in spiritual battles. Let go of the wounds. The race is now. Forget Yesterday.

2. Live Today with Eyes Fixed on Jesus
“This is the day the Lord has made, therefore be glad in it” (Ps 118:24). Live today. It is a gift from the God who loves us. Live it to the fullest. How do we live today? Hebrews tells us that we can “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” by “fixing our eyes on Jesus.”

Only Jesus can give our lives purpose. He is the One who created you and me in the womb. He is the One who birthed us as individuals and we will only find our purpose in Him (Jer 29:7). He is the source of abundant life, and the goal of living.

3. Trust Tomorrow into God’s Hands
Trust Tomorrow – there is victory here. “Take therefore no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow will take thought for the things of itself” (Matt 6:34). Refuse to worry about tomorrow. Refuse to count on tomorrow. Instead we need to trust our tomorrows to God.
(more…)

Continue ReadingRemoving the Arrows Life Sticks in Us – VOTD.01.16.18

Living Every Day of our Lives – VOTD.01.15.18

But this one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. Philippians 3:13-15

How many days of 2017 did you and I really live? How many days did we live out, rather than exist through? Or did we wander the corridors of the unchangeable past? How many days did we live within, rather than obsessing over tomorrow’s potential problems?

Or maybe it’s just pace. We can live fully alive, aware, and appreciative of all the moments we are experiencing, or at frantic pace, or glued to our phones, tablets, or TVs?

Don’t get me wrong, we can’t be 100% present all the time. Life in our world doesn’t allow very many people that luxury. But all the same, it’s easy to get distracted and lose days and weeks without coming up for air…without taking a fresh look at living…and we end up reacting rather than living.

Especially in the Christian faith that has historically championed discipline and duty, we can get so spun in on the tasks at hand that we lose track of what really matters. Family, friends…doing things that are rewarding, something fun – something fully today.

The Apostle Paul had found the key to living today. For all the ways he could commend himself, he knew his value was not in his past achievements. For all the ways he could obsess over his past failures, he didn’t do that, either. Considering his bleak future, he could have obsessed on that. And as for his present circumstances, he wrote today’s verses from a miserable jail cell.

Yet Paul seemed to live every day to its fullest. “My heart overflows with joy …” He writes in the following chapter, “for I have learned to be satisfied in any circumstance. I know what it means to lack, and I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation …I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Phil 4:10-13). (more…)

Continue ReadingLiving Every Day of our Lives – VOTD.01.15.18

Resurrection and Life – VOTD.04.11.17

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.  John 11:25,26

Last time, we talked about the Passover, and how through Jesus’ blood covering our guilt and shame, we each are made right with God. But what brings us into the fullness of what Jesus accomplished for us in His shed blood and His resurrection? Only one force—the resurrection power of life—zoe in the Greek. It’s the same word as Spirit.

God’s reveals His purpose for Jesus’ shedding His blood: “For this purpose the Son of God was revealed, that He would destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8).

This is the purpose Jesus demonstrated throughout His ministry. He overcame the works of the devil throughout His ministry. He did all that He did (teaching, miracles, conversations, …everything)—all by the power of the Spirit (zoe, life). However, it was His shedding His blood on the cross that actually destroyed those works.

Jesus covered the guilt and shame of humanity when by the power of the Spirit, zoe, life, He reached into the enemy’s realm and overcame death in death’s power. At that moment, our sin and shame were not only covered, like the blood of the Lamb covered the doorposts back in the time of Moses, but by the Spirit, zoe, life, the penalty of our sin (death) was taken on Himself and was and carried out on Him in our behalf.

Jesus conquered death and hell for each of us. God’s purpose in sending Jesus had been accomplished. “…he shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who were held in slavery by death.” (Heb 2:14,15). This resurrection power comes directly out of the heart of God—His love for each of us (Jn 3:16). (more…)

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Vision, Farsighted and Perceptive – VOTD.03.21.17

Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, so that anyone can see it as they pass by. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it seems slow in coming, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.  Habakkuk 2:2,3

Some reading this series so far might think I’m leading up to setting goals and vision statements and so forth. Not at all. That ground has been well trodden over the past many years. When I speak of visions and purpose, I’m talking about something God gives us. A destination and a goal. Something ‘God lays on our hearts’ and gives us a passion for.

God gave King David a passion when he wrote his famous lines: “One thing I ask from the Lord” (Ps 27) and it’s often in the spiritual realm but not always. Nehemiah’s vision was to build a wall. What makes our visions Godly is that they come from God, Himself.

Godly vision consists of a farsightedness and perceptiveness that come from Him. Farsightedness vision allows us to know what is ahead like a telescope. It connects us to the future God has prepared for us. Foresight is the part of a God-given vision that can ‘taste’ the future and gives us the motivation to press on toward the goal God has placed before us (Phil 3:14). (more…)

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Vision, Purpose, Goals – VOTD.03.20.17

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.  Ephesians 1:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish.  Proverbs 29:18

Vision is the bridge between our present and our future. Without it we perish, figuratively at least…Perhaps emotionally and even physically, too. When we’re without vision we spend our lives avoiding instead of engaging…avoiding risk, avoiding bother, avoiding discomfort.

That makes sense: If we’re not going anywhere, why deal with obstacles and irritations others face in order to get somewhere? (more…)

Continue ReadingVision, Purpose, Goals – VOTD.03.20.17