living for eternity today
Ever feel like your family is a tad on the dysfunctional side? People just not get along the way they should? Have that one strange uncle who is way out in left field somewhere? Well there’s a story in the Bible about a family who is exactly like that.
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Now many of you know that I’m a pastor of a church in central Ohio and many of you know that means I’m a pretty big fan of Jesus and the Bible. But lately I’ve realized that while I’m a big follower of Jesus there’s just something about the cross that doesn’t sit well with me. I’m not alone either. As a matter of fact, one of the biggest names in the New Testament didn’t like the cross either.
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Have you ever heard a statement or read an advertisement or listened to someone speak and think that you got the point pretty solidly, only to realize you had it all wrong? I recently had this experience with an old leadership adage. Have you ever heard the saying leaders are readers? Well at face value it sounds like to be a good leader, one has to read a lot of books. And that’s exactly what I had always thought.
Continue readingWhen I was younger I used to watch WWF wrestling. Now if you watch it you probably know it better by WWE wrestling but it’s all the same. The idea behind the whole thing was intriguing to me. Grown men and women running around in a boxing ring. Throwing stuff at each other. Trying to look like they were hurting each other without ever really doing any harm. It was pretty interesting to say the least.
But WWF isn’t the only kind of wrestling out there. We wrestle in a lot of other ways as well. We wrestle with our thoughts and our relationships. We wrestle with things don’t quite go our way. We wrestle with loved ones and even with friends. And honestly right now, we’re living in a world that’s wrestling with just about everything!
Politics is nothing more than a verbal WWF match anymore. We try to hurt one another and do as much harm as possible. It’s so disheartening to see where we’ve fallen as a society. We’d rather wrestle with one another and struggle than take the high road and love one another.
Hate is easy. Love is work. We’ve become so lazy we’d rather take the easy road and just hate one another.
This week we talked about a man in the Bible who wrestled with everyone he could only to realize that it wasn’t helping. Take a few minutes and listen as we unpack not only the damages of being a wrestler but also the way to change your behavior and make a positive impact.
I have to admit something right here. I have a problem living in the here and now. I tend to be a mile ahead and around the corner. I try to see what’s coming. I try to plan for what could be. I try to think about things before they happen. Some days that philosophy works really well. But other times it keeps me from seeing things that are happening right in front of me.
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One of the most powerful passages in the book of Matthew comes in chapter 16. It’s the passage where Jesus asks the disciples who the people said he was. Their opinions varied from John the Baptist to Elijah to even Jeremiah. But the opinions of the world weren’t the ones Jesus was really after. He wanted their opinion, which is why he reworded the question the second time to ask who they thought he was.
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The Bible is full of pretty uplifting and cool stories. There are things about good morals and great ethical behavior. There are stories about how we should love one another and how God cares for us in our times of weakness. But if you dig just a little below the surface of the fun stories, you’ll find the ones that really don’t sound all that right.
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I recently read an article about the challenges that the current world climate is presenting to many of us in the world. The article was more specifically targeting churches and pastors but some of the principles carry across just about any situation. Here are some of my thoughts and take-aways.
Continue readingOk so I’m just going to throw this out there. We’re pretty wishy washy at times. I mean come on. We throw in the towel when life gets rough. Someone disagrees with us and we think the world is over. Friendships are thrown away because someone has a different opinion than we do. It’s pretty annoying how pathetic we are sometimes. And by we, I do mean me too!
But there’s a story in the bible about a woman who was anything but wishy washy. She was anything but weak. She had conviction in her heart and knew full well where she needed to be and with whom she needed to spend time.
Her daughter was sick and no one else could help her. She tried everything she could to help her daughter but nothing was working. So in a last ditch effort she finds Jesus. He for sure will help. Right?
Not at first! Jesus ignores her. Keeps walking away. Tells her he didn’t come to help her. Then pretty much calls her a dog! What in the world is happening here?!
If you have about 25 mins, give the following a listen. It’s an explanation of this story then an application to our lives. I hope it proves helpful and meaningful to you.
As a pastor I have to frequently evaluate what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how we’re doing it. The idea is to make sure we’re on track and that we’re being as effective as we possibly can be. But one thing I’ve realized over and over again is that we make life too hard. We have made the gospel far too difficult and have complicated the faith scenario immensely.
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