Shine

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV)

I really enjoy this passage.

SHINE.

Simply put. Let God shine through us everyday in all that we do. In the school hallways, the locker room, the band hall, at the community wal-mart. What better way to put 1 Peter 3:15 into action.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

-Ghandi

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16 (The Message)

Goals

How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

Galatians 3:3 (NLT)

What's your goal in life?

How would you answer. Quite frankly I think we live in a very contradicting age. We believe in God and everything he is, so why do we live in such a corrupt society?

Two goals I was able to conjure up between the World and Christians.

The World's Goal: Personal Plesure.

Our culture is obsessed with entertainment, famous people, sports, money, sex, cars, drugs, power, and anything else that will give us great personal pleasure.

The Christian's Goal: Love God and enjoy him forever.

Two words.

Love and enjoy.

What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?Don't be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself. Before you know it the Son of Man will arrive with all the splendor of his Father, accompanied by an army of angels. You'll get everything you have coming to you, a personal gift.

Matthew 16:26-27 (The Message)

Lumberjacks

School is less than a two weeks away!

I can't believe it. Our faith is fixing to be put to the ultimate test. We'll be even more exposed to the world because we'll be in it everyday. Unlike summer you're usually chilling with your normal Christian friends and your schedule pretty much plays itself by ear.

But when school hits you become one of the most occupied human beings ever. You'll have football, cheer, band, clubs, etc. and you still will manage to barely squeeze in you're quiet time and if you're lucky, you living the Christian lifestyle will hopefully get someone to ask you about you're faith during the school year.

Dealing with the world is like chopping wood. It's hard work, it takes time and concentration and in the end you never get as far as you thought you would. Our 'axes' are dull. We do less and less with the same swing and effort. We play slave to a to-do list that is outta this world and puts in a constant frenzy. We still go to church but we're slowly but surely losing time in our quiet time to where it completely is non-existant.

But as you look at your other fellow believers, they seem to have 'the secret' to not being stressed out, and it seems as though they're getting more accomplished.

You wanna know the secret?

Its in the bible...we're probably just to busy to take time to notice it.

The Secret is...

Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.

Psalms 37:7 (NLT)

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalms 46:10 (ASV)

As often as possible Jesus withdrew to out-of-the-way places for prayer.

Luke 5:16 (The Message)

Be still...

Wait patiently...

Withdraw...

That's they secret you see everyone doing. They've simply decided to obey God, and not miss the forest for the trees. They sharpen the axe and are able to go through life the way God planned.

FYI: God's plan is 9761312488294315467 times better than anything we could conjure up.

-Kaleb

With or Without.

Ephesians 2:1-22

I recently did a bible study over this passage and realized even more so that Christ is one of the better decisions I've ever made. But the whole passage describes how we were with and without Christ.

Without Christ, we(are)

• Doomed, dead, disobedient (v. 1)
• Worldly, and we obeyed the devil (v. 2)
• Followed our evil nature (v. 3)
• Outsiders, and live off works of the flesh (v. 11)
• Godless, Hopeless, Christless, and ignorant (v. 12)
• Far from Jesus (v. 13)
• Hostile (v. 16)

All of that can be tied down with one word in verse 12...

Hopeless

But because of God's love, we're are mad alive in our once dead selves.

With Christ, we(are/have):

• Raised from the dead, and seated in heaven. (v. 6)

Its good to know that we're not gonna spend all eternity in dirt, and we already have our seats reserved in heaven.

• Examples to others. (v. 7)

1 Corinthians 1:11

• Near Jesus. (v. 13)
• Peace and are united as one people. (v. 14
• Reconciliation (v.15)
• Holy Temples. (v. 21)

I don't if its just me, but that sounds a little more promising than leading a hopeless life without Christ. Does this mean we're gonna be perfect? Of course not...unless you're Jesus in disguise.

This is just another one of those passages that just reminds you of how lucky you are to be in the gargantuan family of God. Which is good.

-Kaleb

Short and Sweet

People don't care what you know until they know you care. In order to show people that compassion of Christ, we must first start by letting the Holy Spirit change us from the inside out.

I know we're always on the lookout to make sure that we don't commit the "big" sins- otherwise we might be a poor testimony to those outside the faith. So we go to the right social events, see R rated movies on the other side of town. We're so focused on the way our 'testimony' looks.

Don't over-do your faith!

Do not super-size your spirituality.

"Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

Matthew 23:11-12 (The Message)

Servants don't show off.

God Problems

Do you ever have late night God epiphanies?

As humans I think we all have one basic problem with God: He's God and we're not.

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

-Leo Tolstoy

That could kinda be applied to the "God Problem"

We want to change God. We want to change his mind, change how he treats us, and change his authority over us. We're convinced we're so much wiser and than that of God. Bottom line is that God's never gonna change.

I find myself asking 'Why isn't He listening to me?' when in reality its me not listening to him. I can't take 'coaching' for lack of better words. And it seems like God never wants to follow my plans. Our selfish human nature. When i was thinking about this a song by Jeff Johnson, 'Ruin Me', started playing. If that's not God then i don't know what is. Jesus understands your reluctance to let God take control. That's what he was talking about when he said, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." (Luke 9:24 NIV)

God not only knows our individual futures, he creates it. That was mind-blowing for me. Its obvious, but yet when you go back and think about little things like that...

We need, myself included, to become more Spiritually Mature. Turn our problems into opportunities. We have an independent mindset thanks to our culture, and ironically the basis of our faith is on that of dependence. Dependence on God. Independence is overrated.

Don't try to change God.

Go with the flow.

Lots of love!

Kaleb

Why Not?

Our generation has been known for lots...mainly negative. Its been known to push the envelope. Why can't we start pushing the envelope...for God?

In Ezekiel 14:123-14 it talks of 'God's Righteous Three'. The Radical Generation. Noah, Daniel, and Job.

Noah: Did what's right, specifically God's will, when everyone thought he was crazy.

Daniel: As we have seen David had his faults, but God knew his heart. He knew that David loved Him and would do whatever He asked him to do.

Job: Never gave up when times were tough.

It sounds like we could learn a lot from this generation. Because I'm 90% sure we can all relate in one way or another.

1 Corinthians 15:58- "With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort." (The Message)

-Kaleb