It’s easy at times in our lives to be discouraged but there’s a great reason for hope in this life. There are all kinds of statistics that cause great fear in the lives of the people of the church. In North America roughly 4000 churches close each and every year, while only 1000 new ones start. That’s a crazy statistic that appears as if the church is failing miserably in the world today. Continue reading
Tag: Jesus (Page 60 of 68)
It seems like our lives are getting busier and busier. No matter how fast you move, it’s just hard to keep up much less get ahead at all. It’s coming up on vacation season and you know what that means right? You have to work twice as hard to prepare to be gone. Then you’ll have to work double again when you return just to catch up. End of school programs are filling the calendar. Sports leagues are gearing up for summer play. Dance recitals, play practice, summer programs at church. And these are all of the extras! None of this has anything to do with getting dinner on the table at night, keeping up with household chores, getting things done around the outside of your house so you can enjoy the backyard. Then you start feeling guilty because you didn’t find time the last few days to get in that run or workout. Time just seems to be slipping by you and you can’t do a thing about it!
Ok. Now that your heart is racing and you feel like you are in way over your head. STOP! Just breathe. I know that sounds like a super simple thing to do. But humor me for a minute and just sit still for 2 minutes and focus on your breathing. Breathing is an extremely easy way to reset the body’s anxiety meter. When we’re stressed and just running like crazy, breathing can help us regain focus.
So often in our lives we completely forget to breathe. Don’t get me wrong here, we breathe. The point is we just don’t focus on that breathing. It just happens. Thank goodness! If I had to think about my breathing all the time, I’m pretty sure I’d be a lifeless ball of dust! Breathing was the one thing that God did to bring us to life. When God breathed into us, we came alive. Again in the New Testament Jesus breathed on his disciples after his resurrection. The point of this breathing was pretty significant if you know the history.
You see in the original languages of the bible, the word for breath is the same as the word for wind and spirit. So when Jesus breathed on them, he blew his spirit on them. Same thing happened in creation when God knelt down in the dust of the Garden of Eden and breathed (spirited) humanity. One more time we see this happen in the bible. In the book of Acts is record of an event call Pentecost. Pentecost was when God breathed, spirited on Jesus’ disciples and in turn on us as well.
When we take a moment and pause to just breathe, we allow ourselves to regain focus. When we focus on our breathing, we focus on the times when God has gone out of his way to make sure we had everything we needed for our daily lives. Listen to the song, slow your breathing, calm yourself, and trust that God has it all in his control.
Yesterday was a pretty big day in the church. If you’re a Jesus follower, then hopefully you heard mention of something called Pentecost yesterday. The long and short of Pentecost is that it was the time when God gave us his Holy Spirit. The disciples were in a house when a breeze blew through the home and a fire appeared on their heads. They then began to tell everyone what they believed about Jesus in many different languages. It’s a pretty cool account! Check it out in Acts. Continue reading
Sometimes life deals us some pretty hard hits. We wonder why does this kind of thing happen to me. We ask where did God go in the midst of my pain! We yell at God and wonder how he could let something like this happen to me. When some devastations hit our lives, we feel as if we’ll never be the same. It’s like our heart just stops… Continue reading
Some days we just need to be reminded of the amazing things that surround us. It’s so easy to overlook the good stuff. It’s easy to take things for granted. It’s way too easy to get so caught up in the everyday things of life that we forget the stuff that really matters. This morning we want to slow things down a bit and be reminded of the reason why we do things we do as followers of Jesus. Continue reading
Yesterday in worship a little guy from our congregation wanted to sing a song. He’s done it before. Most of the songs he sings fall on the easy side. But yesterday he wanted to sing this song about sisters and brothers. It’s a great song and he did an amazing job. The message of the song is simple – let’s put away some of the differences and start living as sisters and brothers. Let’s start showing the world that we, as Christians are part of a family – a family of God. Continue reading
About a year ago we introduced the concept of Christian Neighboring to the congregation I serve. It was a lot of fun, and we were able to make impact in people’s lives as a result. The goal of Christian Neighboring is not to add numbers to the local church. As a matter of fact we don’t really talk all that much about church attendance or membership. The focus is on Jesus and knowing him. Continue reading
It was a Wednesday morning. I arrived at church a little early to put some finishing touches on a bible study that I had prepared for the ladies at church. We were reading through the book of Romans. It’s a rich book. The thoughts and teachings in this book are some of the heaviest in the entire new testament of the Bible. But they were not unfamiliar teachings to me. I had read these words more times that I can even count. I’ve preached messages on these words. I’ve translated them from their original language to english to help me get a better grasp on their context and meaning. Continue reading
It’s so easy to get caught up in the rat race of this life. We’re always trying to get ahead. We strive to do our best. We want to get ahead. We work for the raise. We show up early to work and often stay late. We do everything our boss wants just to get on her good side. We live in a performance based world. Continue reading
This is Easter week which means there’s a new life in the air. The cool crisp air feels great as it inflates our lungs. The sun rises and shines a little brighter these days. It’s staying lighter longer which is great! This is the time of year when creation starts to wake up from its winter slumber. Continue reading
