living for eternity today
The phrase greatest of all time is a pretty strong statement. We all strive to be the best. No one wants to be the least or the loser or the worst in a pack. No one wants to fail at something. We all like to have some form of success in our lives. But what does the greatest really look like?
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.
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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Some times the greatest lessons are learned from those who do things wrong. I am a firm believer in the power of truthfulness and honesty. I also believe wholeheartedly that you can learn from both successes and failures. In this week’s message we take a few minutes to learn some pretty powerful messages from life’s failing moments.
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The story in the Bible of Jesus walking on water is definitely one of those fun stories. I mean what kid doesn’t want to have some sort of super power like flying or even walking on water? This week we took time to dissect this account and show there several lessons embedded in this familiar narrative.
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I don’t know about you but it seems the more I know the more I realize I really don’t know all that much after all! I learn one thing and it has a tendency to undo something else I learned at another point in my life. Especially in today’s world when I learn about the things going on in our world and then the message changes, it’s just a swirling mess of noise anymore. So where do we start? How do we know what’s real and what’s not?
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Where did he go! The promise was clear. I will never leave you. But sometimes in life is sure seems as if he’s gone. It seems as if he’s left us to fend for ourselves. It seems the pain is too much to bear and the hurt is just more than we can handle. Where was Jesus when I needed him most?
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