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

No trying. No hopefully. No maybe.

Let what you say simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil.

Matthew 5:37 (ESV)

With that in mind...

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)

Yes I will take a stand for you.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Proverbs 18:21 (ESV)

Yes I will be mindful of my words and know that I could potentially make or break someone.

As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.

1 Corinthians 15:48 (NASB)

Yes I will be a 'heavenly' being and much like Romans 8:6 have a mind set on that of the Spirit.

... We must to obey God rather than men.

Acts 5:29b (ESV)

Yes I will obey.

Something brought to my attention by my mother: If you want to lead a true Christian life, you're not going to have many close friends. You're not gonna be going on many dates. I thought about it some...

That's a risk I'm willing to take.

Fact: Jesus will not return until the gospel is preached to every people group.

I think we can all agree with that statement.

So why do we disobey? We're called to minister. From a human perspective, we only delay His return as we delay our obedience.

Question: Is it that hard to do what is right? Why do we wrestle with what's right?

Answer: There really isn't a true one, Just Do It.

Brace Yourself!

It has begun.

I'm ready to start dissecting God's word and get down to the nitty-gritty and actually apply what I'm gonna be learning and let it reflect through me.I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm really pumped. Let's take over one thought at a time.

Force people to want what you have. Let that change and newfound happiness be evident. No more negative talk on our generation. 2 Timothy 2:15. No one is going to look down on us. We ARE going to be the example.

We must encourage on a regular basis.

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17 (ESV)

We must hold each other accountable, like it or not.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Proverbs 27:6 (ESV)

Most importantly, ETC main mission, commit to learning and applying God's word.

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Psalms 119:11 (ESV)

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5 (ESV)

Let's take the first step.

Love you guys!

-Kaleb

P.S. A true leader, 1 Timothy 1:5-7.

Love Recklessly

Hey,

I'm Kaleb Sanders. Umm...I feel revival. Simply put. God is working in all of us and that energy is getting channeled to our homes, youth groups, and towns.

My hope and prayer is that this is an outlet for others to stay on a focused path wanting to learn of our God. That through this they CRAVE God's word as we do. They will need it like they need air, and through us they will see our unconditional love towards our God and will want that.

I feel it and its gonna be big, but more importantly it starts through us. And it starts by loving unconditionally. By learning and meditating on God's word...we will.

Save words like "amazing" and " awesome" for our God.

"Every Thought Captive..." 2 Corinthians 10:5