Romans 8:16-39

first fruits

I have been reading through 1 Cornithians and this week as I studied chapter 16. I came across a verse that struck me. Maybe because it is summer or our culture, but it hurt me as I thought about God when I read these verses.
vs 2 says on the first day of every week, each one of you shoudl set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up so when i come no collections will need to be made.
God wants our first fruits at the begining of the week, before we know what might happen that week, before we can talk ourself out of it, and before we can say no.
One thing i have learned is God always provides, always. It may not be what I wanted but he alwasy provides, so why do we struggle so much giving him our first.
What is stopping you from giving God your first fruits?

priorities

Where do yuor prioirties lay?
Where do you spend all your time?
Take a moment this week and reflect on your day, week, month look at where you spend most fo your time. Maybe it is time to say no to a good thing before you burn yourself out. Even Christ took time to go away and recharge, why don't we?
Here are 4 areas to keep balance in your life, i only wish i had learned this at a younger age.

Worship - make time to have a spiritual disciplines as a part og your life.
Work- balance work, do yuo best, but know whwen to say no
Play - don't feel guilty to have fun take a moment and have some fun
Rest- make tiem in your life to rest, recharge

These are 4 areas of your life if you can balance it will save you headaches down the road.

entrenched

I recently starting reading forgotten God by Francis Chan with our guys small group. Wow what a challenging book. it makes Crazy Love seem like baby food.
The more I read this book I am convinced we have so quenched the Spirit in our lives. We have gotten so use to the American way of life comfort and get whatever we want, that why in the world would we need God to provide. Let alone why would the Spirit need to work in our lives, we have all that we want. We have become entrenched into the world ever so slowly, that we did not even realize it was happening.

We justify ever way of life and comfort and neglect the Spirit and will of God.WHY? Because in my opinion we do not want to hear what God has to say, not really. We do not really want to obey him and give him OUR WHOLE LIFE. We are scared to where he might call us, what he might ask us to do, or what we might have to give up.

We have bought into the lie that a good Christians give 10%, goes to church a couple times a week and serves when it suits. In the meantime we pursue the career, house, cars, family, and toys and never ask God what he would have for us.
God wants our whole life and he wants to direct us by the Spirit in what He would have each of us do, but many of us do not want that in return, we want to serve God on our terms. As long as it does not interfere with our lives and hobbies.
I am more convinced today more than ever that the path is narrow and many will miss the point. Do not assume you are the good soil.
What is God asking of you, what is he calling you to. A friend of mine Adam Lehman wrote recently' would we still work for the church if we were not paid? interesting question yet a true one, we should serve God out of love and wanting to disciple not because of a pay check. Our early brothers and sisters did not get paid. they work there jobs and there evening hobbies were being the church not doing church.

So stop asking for God's will or his Spirit to lead you unless you mean it. If you are not willing to let go and do whatever he asks of you. Stop pretending and stop asking please. This is not a game. This is eternity we are talking about and God's plan, so lets stop pretending either we are in or out. God does not want this half sold out Christianity we have been giving him.We will mess up, it will be hard, but he promise to provide for us and help us through it and I promise the reward is better than any toy we can buy on this earth. So lets start living like we actually believe that.

In this together

our purpose

So I have figured out the purpose of life and it is very simple. we send so much time and money in the United states listening to the best leaders and speakers, so we can be the best. Well the purpose of our life is a  simple thing we can find in scriptures.

It is found in Matthew 25:23 Jesus is telling the parable of the talents and when the master returns home he tells the servant " well done good and faithful servant". In case you did not know we are the servants and God's is the master who has returned after being away. We have been intrusted with talents and our job is to simply use them to further the kingdom. Our goal in life is to hear God say WELL DONE, that is it that is our goal.
It is so simple yet we let the distractions of the world get us off course all the time.

Our main purpose and goal is to simply here well done good and faithful servant. I told you it was simple, no the simple part is stating our goal. the hard part is living out our life so to obtain that goal. To obtain this goal we have to become people who are obsessed with God. we need to daily eat from his table, what do i mean by table? His spirit, the word, prayer, guidance from those wiser, decernment, and many other ways to deny our earthly fleash and tune into our spirtual needs.

God wants all or nothing he tells in revelations3:15 if we are lukewarm he will spit us out. you know that is the only time in scripture the word spit is used. This is an all or nothing job we have and the goal is to hear well done. I don't know about you , but there is nothing I dream of more than to hear out Maker say well done. Then and only then will my life actually be complete.

the Kingdom of Heaven

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it , he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought the field..... Matthew 13:44

I love this parable, this man found the ultimate gift. We live in a world that tells us what we need all the time and what will make us happy. All of that is a fleshly happiness, a happiness that will waste away, rust, and fade.
This man found the kingdom of heaven and sold everything he had, so that he could keep it. He was sold out so to speak, but honestly he gave up everything of the world so he could hang on to the one thing that mattered most.

We have the truth and know the way to the kingdom of heaven, but very few of us have this attitude. Not many Americans give up everything, so we can hold on to the one thing that matters. In fact quite the opposite is true; we hold on to the world and justify why it is okay. We have many false idols we ALL worship, if we are honest with ourselves.
Amazingly as I am typing the song just came on by Toby Mac Lose My Soul. The chorus echoes this " I don't want to gain the whole world and lose my soul"

I know I don't! Do you?

Our lives should look different we should be looking for what we can give up, so we can hang on to the kingdom of heaven. Ephesians 2:10 says we are God's workmanship, it is kinds of like this. We are this little Lego project, we keep trying to build our lives and add the pieces we want. God has the directions and knows what pieces we need, we just need to let him build us into the masterpiece he intended.

We all have stuff we need to get rid of. What do you need to get rid of today, so you can hang on to the Kingdom of Heaven?

In this together

Wow it has been a long time since I last wrote anything. my life has been a roller coaster ride this year, but I have learned a lot.
February was dominated by our mission trip to Honduras and Micah ending up in the hospital during the trip.
James chapter 1 was a great source of strength through that whole trial.
I can not believe it is already April man time flies.
I am going to try to blog once a week starting from now on.