Monday, February 26, 2018

Bravery

My daughter is incredibly brave. I mean, life-threatening brave. The highest slide, the fastest car ride, there is absolutely nothing she will not do.

As long as daddy is holding her.

Without daddy, forget it. She won't even watch a new TV show or try a new food. But the second she knows I will do it with her, watch out.

What if we had that attitude with our Heavenly Father? What do you think we would be brave enough to accomplish...?

T

Monday, February 19, 2018

Sifting For Jesus

The other night our daughter asked me to help her find a few of her Disney toys. Of course, the ones she wanted were about an inch high and were in a huge tub of other toys. So I did the only thing I could; I started sifting.

At first I found three toys. But I kept going, after all I had no idea how many of these toys were in there. And after a few more minutes of sifting I found two more. So I kept going, and as I continued sifting I kept finding more and more toys. After about ten minutes we have a whole handful of tiny little toys.

But as I was doing this I thought about how sifting through a toy bin is like finding Jesus. It takes continual concentrated searching for Him. Sometimes we get frustrated because He's hard to see. Sometimes we find a little bit and are satisfied and stop. But to really, really find Jesus it takes sifting through a toy bin over and over and over.

Many people know the "I know the plans I have for you" verse in Jeremiah, but do you know what comes after it? In Jeremiah 29:13 God says If we look for Him wholeheartedly we will find Him. That's not a casual "stumble upon" Jesus. We need to actually focus and search for Jesus to find Him.

In this Lenten season, as we give up or take on things may we use that time and that effort to search for God wholeheartedly. If we continue, even as we grow a little closer to God we press on for more, we may be surprised how little we know about Jesus, and how much He wants to love us.

T

Monday, February 12, 2018

Why Do We Always Give Something Up?

Lent begins this week. On Valentine's Day (which seems kind of fitting). So here's my question. Why do we always give something up?

Seriously, I had someone ask what Lent was this week and before I could answer a student chimed in, "It's where you give stuff up." They seemed to have forgotten why you give something up, to replace that thing/time/whatever it is with Jesus.

Instead, I have a novel idea for this year. Why not try doing something different? I will serve someone each day. I will read a little more of God's Word each day. I will do something that will help me grow closer to God each day, or even better, do something that will help someone else grow closer to God each day.

Because really, has giving up chocolate for a few weeks helped your faith? (for those of you to whom it has, great! For me, not so much...)

T

Monday, February 05, 2018

Could You Answer?

Yesterday before the Superbowl I had a student ask to meet with me and interview me for a class. She asked me what I believe, why I believe it, how it affects my ministry, things like that.

Here's my question: Could you answer that? These are all scary questions that I had no preparation for. But I answered them in part because I push students all the time to think about what they believe and why, and I can't ask them to do that if I'm not constantly doing it myself.

I Peter 3:15 says, "If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it." The truth is, rarely are people going to bring up in conversation, "Hey, why do you believe in Jesus? Think about it and get back to me in two weeks." We should be ready to talk about our faith at the drop of a hat.

So, can you answer those questions? If you're looking for help in defining your answer maybe it's time to join a Bible Study and start talking with other disciples of Christ.

T