Be Different

You don't have to fit in.

In fact, we, as Christians, are not supposed to fit in with the rest of the world. We are supposed to be different.

As Paul told the Romans, we are not to conform to the pattern of this world. What pattern? The pattern of sin. Immorality, idolatry, greed, envy, arrogance . . . It's a long list, and yes, it is a pattern. A well established, oft-repeating pattern.

One we are not to be part of.

We are supposed to be differnt.

For some, that's easy. Some people like to stand out, be different, get noticed. Others want to blend in with the scenery. Neither is inherently wrong--or right. What matters is doing the right thing for the right reason.

The Pharisees liked to be noticed. They went out of their way to be different with their clothes, their  mannerisms, their speech and even their prayers. The problem was their motivations. Arrogance. Greed. Idolatry.

They were different all right. For all the wrong reasons.

Then we have Peter who, usually, was the guy who stood out in a crowd. Loud, opinionated, and often impulsive, he didn't seem to mind being in the spotlight. Until it mattered. When it came time to stand up for what he believed at the trial of Jesus, Peter did everything he could to blend in. Even denying knowing Christ.

He gave in. He conformed. He tried not to be different.

Both of those are examples of the pattern of the world.

Be different like Paul was different.

In Acts 14, Paul healed a crippled man. The crowds saw what happened, decided Paul was a god, and tried to offer sacrifices to him. Now a guy could go far in a town who thought he was a god, but Paul didn't want to be different in that way, so he told them the truth. It wasn't him, but God who had performed the miracles.

Know what happened? The town turned on Paul and stoned him, then dragged him out of the city presumed dead. When Paul woke up, guess what he did--walked right back into the city.

That's different.

Another time, Paul was in jail for his faith. All he had to do to get out was to offer the official a bribe (Acts 24:26), a common practice. The pattern of the world.

Paul didn't. He remained in prison for two years, not because he didn't have access to a bribe, but because he chose not to conform.

Paul was different.

The pattern of the world is sin.

Don't follow it. We cannot and should not avoid being in the world, but we can certainly resist becoming like the world.

That's going to be our topic for the week. How to live in a sinful world without conforming to its sinful patterns.

May God bless us all this week, and give us the strength to resist the temptations we face every day.

Amen.

It's Time To Start Living

God is life.

Being a Christian isn't about giving up everything that makes life fun. It's not about following a bunch of rules, doing this and not doing that. That's government. That's not God.

Being a Christian, truly following Christ, is living life to it's fullest.

It's about finding hope in times of despair, strength in times of weakness, endurance in times of struggle.

God keeps His promises.

It's time to start believing what God has promised. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). God is my refuge and strength, my ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:10). God does love me; I shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).

The promises of God go on and on. He wants us to live those promises.

That is true life.

It's time.

 It's time to let go of the boundaries of this world and live as the new creations we have become. It's time to look beyond this life and realize there is oh-so-much-more to living than merely existing.

It's time to be alive. To hope in the Lord and renew our strength. To soar on wings like eagles. To run and not be weary. To walk and not be faint.

It's time to forfeit the old spirit of timidity, and accept the new spirit of power, love, and self-discipline given to us by God
 (2 Timothy 1:7).

It's time to start living.

Start By Doing

Faith without deeds is dead.

That's another quote from the straight-to-the-point book of James (James 2:26). The author's point in those two sections of Scripture is that just knowing is not enough. You have to do something about it.

In illustration, James paints the picture of someone who is cold and hungry. He then asks, "If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 1:16, 17).

His point is, recognizing a need and knowing what to do is worthless unless you actually do something.

Want to truly follow Christ?

Start by doing what He says. Going to church and reading the Bible are good things, but that doesn't make you a follower of Christ. Knowing about God doesn't make you a Christian. James had something to say about that, too (James 2:18, 19).

In Matthew 7:24-27, Christ says that anyone who hears His words and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Conversely, anyone who hears His words but does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

You can guess which house stood firm when the storms came.

Start by doing.

Don't think you should wait until you know the whole Bible before you begin to do what it says. You'll never get there. Start by doing what you know. Christ said the two commandments upon which everything else hinge are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40).

That's simple enough. Sure, there's a whole lot more depth to look into, but that's certainly a good place to start.

Understand everything begins with Christ. Follow Him. Learn about Him. Then do what you have learned.

You are well on your way to a new life.

Start Following By Learning

Some times it pays to read the directions.

Did you know some people actually read a car manual before they need to figure out where those infernal engineers hid the jack and tire-iron?

There are other people who, believe it or not, follow the step-by-step directions provided with pre-fab furniture.

The pay-off? They're not trying to page through their manual by flashlight in the pouring rain when they get a flat tire. They don't have to pry Part C from Part D after they glued them together upside down.

Sometimes it pays to read the directions.

 Like God's Word.

If we are going to start following Christ, we have to learn about Him. One of the primary ways to do that is to read the Bible.

In my last blog, I said the Bible is like a blueprint for our lives. Let's say an architect draws up a set of plans for a house, but the builder never looks at them. Sure, the guy might be able to build a house. It might even be sturdy and beautiful. But is it going to be what the buyer wanted? Probably not.


You might be able to succeed in life and even be a good person all on your own. That's not all that God wants. He doesn't just want what's good for you; He wants what is best. To get that, you have to follow His blueprint.

That means knowing what it looks like.

It's time to start learning.

You don't have to be a Biblical scholar to be a follower of Christ. At least I hope not, because I'm sure not. You do, however, need to know what the Bible says.

Take 10, 20, 30 minutes a day and start reading. Or get an audio version of the Bible and listen to it in your car, or on your Ipod as you work out. If the only time you get any privacy is when you are in the bathroom, then read there!

It doesn't matter when or where . . .

Just get started.

Open the Bible and read. If you don't know where to begin, look in the Table of Contents and find the book of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, and start there. The Book of Proverbs is full of everyday useful guidance. The Book of Psalms is full of encouragement.

The whole Bible is chock-full of stuff you need to know to get what God wants for you: The best.  The sooner you start, the less back-tracking you'll have to do later.


The next step is applying what you read. That's what we'll talk about tomorrow!

Start By Following

Jesus wants us to follow Him.

It really is that simple.  Do you know how He recruited His first disciples? He said, "Come, follow me."

That's how He called to two fishermen brothers, Andrew and Simon (who is also called Peter), in Matthew 4:19. Verses 21 and 22 tell of the calling of two other brothers, John and James. Though how Jesus called them is not recorded, what the text does say is that they dropped everything and, you guessed it, followed Him. In Matthew 9:9, Jesus recruits Matthew with the same message.

 I bet Jesus called every one of His disciples with the same simple phrase: Follow me. 

That's the same way He calls to us.

We're not any different from those first disciples. They didn't know who Jesus was, or what He expected from them. They had to learn, and the best way for Jesus to teach them was to show them. He didn't expect them to be perfect before they joined Him, or even after. They were just a bunch of guys, like you and me, out there doing the best they could, making mistakes along the way.

When Jesus calls us to follow Him, He doesn't expect us to be perfect. He knows we're not. What He wants is for us to follow the example He left for us. 

How?

It's pretty simple, really. Kind of like following a blueprint to build a house. The architect isn't right there telling you what to do. He leaves instructions for you to follow that are clear enough to get the job done. He's not there to tell you what exact board to use, or which exact brick to place in the wall. He trusts you to make those decisions, and as long as they fall within the guidelines he provided, everything will work out just fine.


The same is true when we follow Christ. The Bible isn't a step-by-step guide for anything. It's a blueprint of how we are supposed to live our lives. We get, and have to make a lot of the choices on our own. A follower of Jesus makes those decisions based on whether or not they fit into the blueprint God left us.

That means you have to know the blueprints.

And that's where we'll pick up tomorrow.

It All Starts With Christ

Anything new is stressful.

The idea of new can be intimidating. Whether it's a new job, a new home, a new school, a new relationship, or anything else, new means different. Different means change. Change means stress. I don't like stress, so I don't like change. I think most people are like that.

Even relatively minor ventures, like visiting a new destination, arouses some degree of unease within me. I don't know exactly where I'm going, how to get there, or what I'll find when I arrive. The farther away I travel from what I know, the more anxious I become.

The bigger the change, the higher the stress.

Going someplace new causes me some degree of angst, but I can usually take that in stride. Bigger changes, however, are another matter. Some of the biggest changes in my life involved getting married, moving to a new home, starting a new job, and having children. Each of those involved a lot of new, a lot of different, a lot of change.

If you remember, to me change means stress. Bigger changes bring more stress. My natural defense, and I believe it is a common one, is to avoid change, especially big ones. That's not always wrong, but it certainly isn't always right, either. Life would be pretty dull without change. In fact, change is inherent to the definition of life. It's not only unavoidable, it's absolutely essential.

So what do we do about it?

For me, one of the hardest parts of change is getting started. When faced with the choice of going someplace new, the first, and often hardest, choice I have to make is whether or not to go. I have to decide whether the pay off when I get there will be worth the stress of enduring the unknown. Once I make that single decision, every one that follows is minor in comparison. Choosing a route to get to Branson was nothing compared to deciding whether or not to go in the first place. Agree?

My point is, the way to deal with the stress of something new is to make a decision. Whatever it is, either you are, or you are not. You're going to go to that new place, or you're not. Take that new job, or don't. Color your hair purple, or leave it alone. Whatever choice you face, the hardest part of new is making the decision to do it or not.

The same is true with faith.

Some people are intimidated by the idea of accepting faith in Jesus Christ, or truly changing their lives and following Him, for the same reason we all fear change. It's new. It's different. We don't know exactly how to get there, or what we'll find when we do. As with all things new, the hardest part is getting started, or even knowing where to start.

It all starts with Christ.

The verse at the top of this post is from the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, but it's a good place to start. Jesus is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End of all things. That is certainly true of our Christian faith. It all starts with Him.

 In the first book of the New Testament, Matthew 22:37, 38 we read these words of Jesus, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment."

That's where you start.

 Love God. Not just a little, but fully. Sure, there's a lot to that, but once you make the decision to do it, everything else will come. That first step is the hardest, but you'll never regret it.

As the week goes on, we'll talk more about taking those first steps with God, but right now you know how to get started.

What are you waiting for?

The Old Has Gone, The New Has Come!

A new year.

Another year has passed, quickly for some, painfully slow for others. Whatever the past year held, both joys and sorrows, it is done. Never can it be reclaimed, nor should we try. What's done is done. The old year has gone, a new one has come.

So it is can be with us.

We can be made new.

I want to speak to those of you who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. If you already have, read on to be reminded of the fantastic changes Christ has made in your life.

If you have not accepted Christ, have not believed that He is the only way to get to heaven, let me ask you this: Is there anything about yourself you'd like to change? Are there any mistakes you've made that you wish could just go away, be forgotten forever? Do you ever wish you could simply start over?

You can.

With God, nothing is impossible.

This thought is found throughout the Bible, but I want to point you to the book of Matthew, chapter 19. If you start reading in verse 16, you see the story of a rich young man who came to Jesus, asking how to be saved. The problem is, he was in love with money. After their conversation, the man walks away, disheartened by Jesus' words, because he didn't want to give up what he had.

That's the lesson most often pointed out in church, but that's not the whole story.

After the man leaves, Jesus explains to His followers how hard it is for a rich man to get into heaven. Now the disciples were pretty dense sometimes (like us), but they understood that rich is a relative term, and started to panic. If it is harder for a rich man to get to heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, they ask, "Who then can be saved."

Christ's answer speaks to us all. He says, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

We can all start over.

You see, the point is more than just, it's hard for the rich to get to heaven. The point is it is impossible for anyone to get to heaven on their own, through the ways of man. But with God, all things are possible. For the rich and the poor, the good and the bad, you, me, and everyone else.

Everybody can start over. Everybody can be given a clean slate and made into a new creation.

Today could be your day.

If we go back to the book of 2 Corinthians and go down a few verses from the one on the picture above, we come to Chapter 6 verse 2 which says:  I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

You see, this could be your day.

The old could all pass away, and the new come for you. Today.

Are you ready to be made new?