Still Talking About You

In Ezekiel 37:24 God says "My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd."  In this prophesy God makes reference to David.  Now it's been about 400 years since David died, and God is still talking about him, talking about him like he's still alive.  He didn't say "My old long gone servant, uh, what was his name?"  He said "My servant, David."  God is the God of the living, and with Christ in you, well you are set to live and not die.  Now David wasn't perfect, he made his share of mistakes, but 400 years after he lived God is still talking about him, and we are still talking about him today.  Will that be you?  What David?  Well, the key phrase is "servant".  David served God.   God said, be King, and David said, okay.  Sometimes we think we have to get our life all perfect in order to serve God.  But like David God has called you royalty, a royal priest hood.  Do you believe him?  Let that belief turn in to service today.  Serve God, mark the whole world in a way so that long after you are gone everyone is still talking about it.  Do I think you can?  Well, Yeah!

What's it to You?

So what's going on with Jimmy?  or How come Tom get's all that cool stuff and I don't.  Where's my share?  It's not fair?  Sherry seems to get everything she prays for and I still got nothing?   So Jesus has risen from the dead and he's visiting with Peter and John.  Well Jesus gives Peter some instructions about his future, and tells him about some rough stuff coming too, and so Peter points to John and asks Jesus "Lord, what about him?"  You know the question.  He's saying.. "Me... what about that John guy, what about him?"  So Jesus answers "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you.  You must follow me."  So Jesus is saying not to compare yourself with others, but to concern yourself with you, and what God has given you to do.  He's kinda saying to Peter, hey, mind your own business.  Sometimes we see someone elses life and we may be tempted to make comparisons, asking questions, why not me?  Why them?  This doesn't seem fair.  So Jesus is saying, Hey, trust me, I know what I'm doing, just follow me.  Comparisons with others, what they have, or don't have, these things are superficial, keep your eyes fixed on the goal, follow Christ.

Where'd He Go?

So the days are a bit crazy lately.  And we might ask, well, where's Jesus?  When's he coming?  In Luke 17:22 Jesus said "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.  Men will tell you 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!'  Do not go running off after them."  You see once you have Jesus in you, you don’t have to run around trying to find him.  Someone says, "Oh I found Jesus over here, or over there", Instead God wants us planted somewhere, like a tree is planted.  We don't need to race around to find Jesus when He’s already found you.  Just before this, Jesus said "the kingdom of God is within you."  And if you know Christ, then He is in you.  Now then, he likes to go to His fathers house, so take him to your church, and hang out a bit, serve, and have some fun.  And if someone says "Hey, Jesus is over here," you can say, "sure He is, but He's over here too, cause He's Jesus, and He can be in all of us."  And if you don’t know Christ, well ask Him to be Lord of your life today, then get planted in a good church.

Become the Cereal

So Jesus asks his disciples in Mark 9, "What were you arguing about?"  Well, they didn't want to answer, because they had been arguing about who was greatest.  Ever done that; argue about something that just didn't really matter.  I mean, even if you win an argument, what did you win except to make someone else feel bad about themselves.  Well Jesus tells them, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."  Being the first isn't about beating everyone down, or winning the argument.  Jesus is saying the best leader is the one who works hard at giving the most.  The best leader is the one who lives to serve others.  He didn't say it was wrong to want to be first, instead he knows that we are built to want to win the race, to strive hard, to train hard, to persevere.  He was telling us how to be first by giving us a starting point, and it starts with self sacrifice; you have to desire for others to win.  Ah yes, this is how Jesus did it, and the greatest servant of all became the king of Kings.  The last finished first.  If you want to be on the box of cereal, well you must first become the cereal.. or something like that.

Seedorama

Just hold a single seed in your hand, and in your hand you hold infinity.  A tree seed can produce a tree, which then can produce a bunch more trees.  In a single tree seed is a whole forest.  There is infinite potential in a seed, but not planted, that seed is just potential..  So in Luke 8 Jesus says "The seed is the word of God."  There is infinite potential in God's word, but in order for that potential to be realized it must be planted, planted in your heart.  Just one seed from God can produce a forest of God in your life.  That seed will reproduce and grow a harvest of seeds in your heart, an overflowing burlap heart bag of seed, a would be seed of scripturefest, a crowded party bash bible seedorama, You'll have a prehistoric bible speaking seedzilla in your heart ready for anything that may come.  And out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, so if you got all this seed in your heart, well now you start talking God stuff, and people and circumstances around you start changing, all because you got a little seed in you.  Start today, go get some bible seed, and get to planting

Sins Remaining Power

Sin is powerful, right?  Well, Jesus nailed sin to the cross and killed it's power.  Okay, so if the power of sin is defeated, we should know what those powers used to be.  Well sin used to have the power to condemn us.    It used to have the power to separate us from God and God's stuff, like it got us kicked out of that really cool garden where everything was perfect.  But it can't do that anymore.  It had the power of death, but that has been defeated too.  So why not just have a sin fest then.  Well, because you Love God.  But also, sin can still make your life worse because you reap what you sow.  Speed and you might get a ticket.  One of the Hebrew words for sin means thorn.  Ever have a splinter.  It's a distraction.  Think about it, doing drugs is a distraction from your purpose, it takes up your time, your health, and your money.  So why does Satan want you distracted?  Well, because he knows just how powerful you can be.  So if he can distract you from actually doing what God has created you for, he can keep you from making an impact on this world. You can change the world.  So now sins only power is the power you give it.  No more distractions!

Great Friend

King Saul had a son named Jonathan.  So Jonathan is supposed to be the next king, but instead David is chosen by God to be king.  So now you would think Jonathan would be mad at David, or even try and bump him off.  But Jonathan was friends with David.  In fact, Jonathan saves David's life, and warns him of his Dads plot to kill him.  Jonathan gives us the picture of what a good friend looks like. He wanted David to win.  A good friend wants you to win.  So how about your friends?  I believe we choose our friends.  Now we should love all, but who are you going to let be your best friends?  Are they helping you win, do they push you to do what's right?  Doing the wrong thing usually comes natural, so having a friend help us go the right way is going to be important.  Do you have a Jonathan in your life?  It's your friends, this is your life, and if you want to win... well, choose wisely.  And better still, become a Jonathan to someone else.  Be the better friend, the one who supports, encourages, accepts, forgives, and loves.  Find a friend and become a friend like Jonathan was for David.

Runny Nose of Shame

You ever get a runny nose.  It's frustrating.  It's a sign you have a cold.   Romans 3:20 "No one will be declared righteous by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin"  So a sign that we are still struggling with the law, that is, we are attempting to be righteous by our own hard work, is that we are sin conscious.  It's a runny nose of our Christianity. We become acutely aware of our own sin, and everyone else.  It becomes all you see.  Everything is a sin.  It's like Old McDonald's Sin Farm.  With a sin sin here and a sin sin there, ya know, everywhere a sin sin.  God has shown us a better way, a seed He has planted in us called forgiveness.   You see the power of sin is defeated when I stop staring at it so much, but instead I keep my eyes fixed on Jesus.  Then I'm no longer worried so much about what everyone else is doing wrong.  Instead I have love and forgiveness for others operating in me as Christ lives in me.  Grace then becomes my teacher of right living, and I live out my life serving God in confidence that I am worthy because of Christ.  And you are too.