Ask, Seek, Knock

Matthew 7:7-8  Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; Knock and the door will be open to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be open.

NEVER I repeat NEVER take this scripture out of context.  God is not offering free genie wishes here.  It seems like we are so apt to tell God what we want and expect it to be given.  With that mindset, you will only be discouraged, defeated and done with God. 

Ask; have you ever stopped to think that God already knows your needs.  He already has in His hand what he wants you to have? All you have to do is ask for it.  "Dear LORD, I want to receive what you have for me." 

Seek;  This isn't a game of hide and seek.  Life can be distracting with all the hurts and hardships we face. In the  midst of our trials we tend to quit looking for God because we think He has left us.  The truth is, He is right there with us.  We have just allowed our struggles to blind us.  Seek Him daily, you will find him.

Knock;  God is not home sleeping.  And He certainly isn't hidden behind a closed door.  What He is saying is this; pursue a personal relationship with me.  Come join me, I will let you in.

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!

Even a Good Cheesecake Won't Last

A few years ago while I was in Nicaragua on a mission trip, I met a very wealthy American businessman.  I was ordering coffee in the local coffee shop when a voice behind me said, "hey, you are an American."  I turned around and there stood a very distinguished well-dressed older man.  After we introduced ourselves to one another, he then asked why I was in Nicaragua.  I proceeded to explain that I was on a mission trip and asked if he was a Christian.  He politely replied, "I am not a religious person, but I do respect you and I do believe in God."  I then went on to explain the purpose of the mission trip I was a part of. 

I shared how I was with RHEMA (Ron Herrod Evangelical Missions Association.  RHEMA trains men to become pastors and assists them in establishing churches.  The mission team comes and provides street ministry, social ministry, prison outreach, school outreach, medical missions, crusades, church services and other ministry related services.  I explained how RHEMA comes not only to provide immediate assistance, but ultimately leave something that will last.  RHEMA's goal is to train pastors, plant churches, and reach the lost for Christ.

After sharing the man responded, 'You are giving a lot of yourselves obviously. I like how you are not just coming and going, but you are leaving these people with something that will last."  I said, "yes sir, what good we would have accomplished if all we did was temporary?"  He replied, "I have done a lot of good in my life time, I even use to own a cheesecake factory and I gave away a lot of cheesecakes in my time."  I smiled and said, "Even a good cheese cake won't last long." 

I then asked if I could share the gospel with him and sadly, he said, "No thank you."  I proceeded with my story of the mission trip I was on and then quickly went on to share how I shared the gospel with the people of Nicaragua.  Yes, he heard the gospel anyway.  I just had to be creative about it.  When I was finished he told me; "I have never heard about God that way before, I think I get it now.  I need to really think about this."  I asked if he wanted to accept Christ as LORD and Savior.  He said; "Not right now, I really need to think about it.  But what you shared makes so much sense."

 

Matthew 6:20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

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