Month: April 2023

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Quick Hit: Lost Souls Are Waiting on You and I

If you trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, congratulations! You are Heaven-bound!

Don’t forget, though, that there’s a lot more for us to do. There are a whole bunch of people that are not blessed the same way we are. While I’m thrilled that we’ll get a chance to chat in Heaven even if we never meet in this life, now’s not the time to take our feet off the gas pedals. This lifetime is the only opportunity we get to make an eternal difference in someone else’s life.

The obvious question is “well what am I supposed to do?” The short answer is that I don’t know the specifics for your life, but in general terms: seek God’s will for your life. Believe me, He’ll call you to serve somehow if you’re actively seeking. For some it’s being Jesus’ hands and feet by volunteering in a soup kitchen or somewhere you’re desperately needed. For others it’s evangelism either right here at home or somewhere far away.

It’s easy to see how those things serve the Lord, but what if you feel you’re not good at anything like that? Well then do the thing you’re good at, and do it to the glory of God. If you’re good at baking pies, bake pies. If you’re amazing at cutting grass, cut grass. Know engines like the back of your hand? Keep working on ‘em. Even if you don’t see how it serves God, be faithful in the little things and trust Him. Over time your role in the grand scheme will become clearer.

The Body of Christ is like a giant puzzle, with each Believer contributing a piece to the overall picture. None of us know what the picture’s supposed to look like when it’s finished, but you don’t add much to the picture by not pursuing your calling. We’re ministry partners that are still waiting to learn how our individual ministries tie together. If and when we get a chance to catch up in Heaven, let’s make that topic a must-discuss point.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. -Romans 12:4-5

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When the Wind Blows, is it Good or bad?

I’d guess that I was probably 8 or 9 years old when I got my first kite. It was an orange diamond-shaped kite that had a blue dinosaur on it. I didn’t really know how to use it, but I had seen kites in cartoons and seen something about Benjamin Franklin flying one in a thunderstorm or something, so I knew what kites were supposed to do. I just didn’t know how to launch one.

There was another kid in the neighborhood, I’ll call him Billy. He was a little older than me, so he had a little better idea of what needed to happen. One breezy day we went to a nearby area that didn’t have many trees, and he was able to get the kite aloft.

Once it was up in the air he kept letting out more and more string, and the kite went higher and higher. It caught more wind, and its tails fluttered in the breeze. Every now and then it would start to dive, but giving a tug on the string helped turn it back skyward.

Eventually it got so high I wondered how much higher it could possibly go. The string that came with the kite was on a roll, like a smaller, sturdier version of the cardboard at the center of a roll of toilet paper. It turns out Billy let out almost all the string; with so little left, it came unraveled and the last of it slipped off the roll. My kite blew away.

I figured that was the end of that. I was pretty bummed that my kite was gone. Billy said he was going to go look for it, but I wasn’t real hopeful. After seeing the way that thing had danced around the sky, it seemed the wind may as well have carried it to the next state. Sure enough though, he tracked it down, wound up all the string, and brought it back to me.

Kites, as it turns out, soar when they’re securely tethered to the ground and fighting against the wind. A kite’s shape is designed to lift it higher when it meets resistance. Once that anchor is lost or there’s suddenly a lot of slack in the line, it has no way to resist the wind and loses its ability to create lift, then falls lifelessly to the ground.

To all you Christ-followers out there: you live in a dangerous time. The free ride is over. America was founded as a nation that embraced Christianity, but those days are gone. People that dislike Christianity are more proficient at attacking it than Christians are at defending it. Although Christianity might represent the biggest slice of the nation’s remaining religious demographic, that slice’s voice is drowned out by culture, influencers, and other messages that run counter to it. To be a Christian and take a stand for the principles Christ taught, you have to, without doubt, stand against the wind.

You can choose to keep a low profile if you want. Keeping with the kite metaphor you can stay low, not letting a lot of string out and thus not getting high enough to really let a lot of people see you taking a stand. If you start taking too much heat you can introduce some slack, going with the flow and falling back to a lower profile where you blend in better and get seen by fewer attackers.

Or you can realize the full potential of the way you were designed: to rise higher when the wind blows against you. There will be ups and downs, no doubt, and the tension on the string will sometimes seem like it can’t possibly get any worse, but I’d urge you not to be the one to prevent yourself from soaring. Instead of self-limiting, let the one holding the string be the one to determine how high you’re allowed to go. He knows what’s coming, what He’ll equip you to handle, and what the wind’s going to do. Why not see how high He’ll let you go?

God, I know some of the Bible stories of how You used men and women of faith. That was so long ago and seems like it’s not how You work anymore. Help me remember You’re the God who doesn’t change, and that You still reward great faith. Help me stand for You and not be afraid, no matter what the wind is doing. In Your name I ask, Amen.

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Quick Hit: It’s Time To Unlock Your Potential

You are a mighty spiritual warrior in training.

Did you know that? A lot of people seem to think that Christians are supposed to be pushovers or doormats. That’s categorically false. We’re supposed to stand apart from the culture, and that’s something that often takes great courage and fortitude.

You probably don’t often feel like a mighty warrior, though. Of course there are giants of the faith, and you might wonder how you can even be mentioned in the same breath as some of them.

Listen to me. If you’re not yet at the end of your Christian walk, God can still do plenty in and through you. He wants you for who you are, not who you ought to be. Yet He looks at you and sees not who you are now, but what you can become.

The world is dark and getting darker. Let the light of Christ shine in your life, whatever that looks like in your circumstances. We need you. Other Christians need you. Unbelievers need you. You may have some thoughts right now about how you can do that in your own life. God equipped you with certain talents or interests, and He did that for a reason. Follow through, and let God use you.

There’s a song that was very popular a few years back. It was about a guy that saw some of the hurt and injustice of the world, and he cried out “God, why don’t you do something?”

God said “I did. I created you.”

It might be true that you’re not a giant of the faith…yet. But it doesn’t take a giant to start with doing some of the little things that need to get done.

Matthew West “Do Something” music video.