Robbing Quality from the LORD

Stating the obvious; people desire relationships.  Do not most people want to be liked, acknowledged, recognized and even respected?  We seek relationships at home, at school, work, church, and even more so on social media.  We may even find ourselves justifying our value by the number of so called friends or followers we have.  We count our tweets, re-tweets, favored tweets, likes, re-shares, followers, friends, favored’s, and so on.  We are so focused on quantity and being quantified, that we have neglected quality. 

Society has come to this place where we have robbed relationships of quality.  Without quality, what you have is nothing more than superficial, non-dependable, unreliable, broken connections.   You may think you have gained the world in popularity by counting numbers, but in fact you have robbed your soul of one of its greatest desires.  We want to be connected to others.  Friends will unfriend, followers will quit following, re-tweets will be forgotten, favoreds will be filled away, pretty much all the quantity and quantifying will amount to nothing more than empty shallow meaningless numbers. 

Have you ever been in a crowd and yet still felt totally alone?  I have.  In robbing ourselves and cheating others of quality communication, we have created gatherings of two, three, and even mass multitudes of physical and digital congregations of lonely people.    

Although people will come and go in life, there is one who will never leave you or forsake you, He wants to be your friend forever and He will always favor you.  His name is Jesus.  He desires your friendship, following, favoring, re-tweets, re-shares and so much more.  He gave everything just so He could become a friend of yours.  He desires quality. 

Have you robbed yourself of the greatest relationship this world has ever known?  Have you chosen not to have Jesus Christ as your friend?  Even worse, are you a Christian who is robbing your savior of quality communication? Have you chosen to rob the one who gave it all so that you could follow Him?

This may be a stretch for some, but here it is.  In Matthew chapter 21 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling, He overturned all the tables and ran them all off.   He was angered because the temple was being dishonored for monetary gain.  Right after, Jesus said “My house will be called a house of prayer, and you have turned it into a den of robbers.”  In 1 Corinthians 6:19 we are told that our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit.  Now, if our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit and Jesus himself said in Mathew 21 that His temple is a house of prayer, then are we not robbing Jesus Christ of a quality relationship if we choose not to communicate with Him? 

I cannot help but believe that we are obviously called to a quality relationship with Jesus Christ.  In order to have quality we must communicate and interact intentionally, purposefully, and routinely.   If not, then you are forming nothing more than an empty religious gathering.  Although you may call yourself a Christian, attend church regularly and even share your religion, you will still feel lonely.  Quality, that is what makes it all real.  I challenge you to make your relationship with Christ all about quality each and every day. 

 

 

May my life be the proof and evidence of Christ’s love!

Encouragment is LIke Adrenalin and Endorphins for Your Faith:

Trying to live the life of a Christian can be discouraging. I know it often feels like an uphill battle. In spite of this, we have comfort in knowing that our savior Jesus Christ has proclaimed that the battle is already won. He understands discouragement and he has called us to encourage one another daily. Sadly, most of us fail at encouraging others making our battle appear to be uphill.

I always knew the Christian life could, would and will be discouraging. Being a youth pastor can feel even more discouraging at most times. Satan likes to get in your head and attempt to convince you that you are failing the great commission and your efforts are futile. He wants you to feel all alone. The people you hope would encourage you do not say a word. If they do, it is usually some form of criticism.

I was talking to my grandpa the other day on his 93 birthday! He went on to tell me how proud he was of me. I told him "Grandpa, I miss you and wish I had time to come see you." He said, "You keep doing what you are doing and if you make a difference in one person's life it is all worth it, besides our day will come when we will have plenty of time to see each other." He went on to tell me how proud he was of me with the work I have been doing for the LORD. Just like clockwork he always finishes by saying, "Who knows, you may become the next Billy Graham." That is encouragement my friends.

I am going to be honest, I need encouragement in my walk of faith and I need it in the ministry that God has called me. Encouragement is like the adrenalin I need to keep running and fighting when I feel tired and worn. It is like the endorphin that takes away the pain of discouragement. Encouragement spurs people on like nothing else. I am sure you have heard the saying "a pill a day keeps the doctor away." A little dose of encouragement a day keeps satan at bay.

Yesterday, I was in that place of discouragement. Repeatedly I just kept saying to satan, "get behind me, shut up, you do not have in mind the things of God." He would throw back at me "If you had in mind the things of God people would notice and say so." I just kept assuring him that I did have in mind the things of God and I was not backing down. After that, throughout the day I began to get encouraged. Randomly I started getting messages on facebook, twitter and google+ about how much my life has encouraged people. People I do not even know personally.

Those little words of encouragement built a raging fire within me. I know that if a fire is not kept stoked and even little bits of kindling are not added, then it will die down. Spiritually it is the same thing. We need to be stoked and kindled and one easy way is encouragement. May I challenge you to be an encourager? Encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ at home and abroad. Do not ever forget the ones god has blessed you with as pastors and leaders. Being a shepherd is a tough calling and probably the most discouraging of all.

Encouragement can and will build unquenchable fires. Be an encourager for Christ! And let us spur one another on. In doing so we will put satan behind us so that we can keep in focus and in mind the things of God.

 

 

the picture is of my son, my grandpa, and me!

Hebrews 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

May my life be the proof and evidence of Christ's love!