CEO

     One of the first messages I heard after we started going to Life-Givers Ministries Pastor Paul came out with this. Are you a CEO christian? I thought in my head CEO christian? What could that be. Well let me let you in on the fun.

C       Christmas
E        Easter
O       Other Holiday  (special occasions)

     So many Christians today are members of a church but the only time that you see them is exactly then. The bad part is when you talk to these people they always have a reason for not coming on a regular basis. I actually put them in the same boat as people that only come on sunday mornigngs. So how can we lead people to Christ if we are not being fed or around other Christians to keep us going and learning like we are suppose to? So are you a CEO? If you said yes think of the reason and if you cant resolve it talk to someone that can. Everyone has had points in there lives where we hit a wall, we as Christians need to look past that (or who) and keep striving to be Christ-like no matter the circumstances.  If you said no, are you really invested in your Church? I dont mean you come on Sunday's and special occasions. I mean do you support were your Church is going? Do you help out when need be? Are you invested whole heartedly in the Church as a whole?
     These are the questions that you need to ask yourself and talk to someone if you need to. We as the Church need to take more pride in who we are and what we are here to do instead of concentrating on everything else!!!!

Keeping God's temple clean.

     As many things in the Bible this saying can have a couple of meanings. It can refer to the temple that is built or the temple that is ourselves. In Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus came to the temple and drove out everything that was not suppose to be going on. This is the exact thing that we are suppose to do with our lives! This was not the first time that Jesus did this in the Bible. Three years earlier he drove merchants out for the same reason. (John 2:13-17) In both cases Jesus was mad at the merchants for their blatant misuse of the temple of God. Even though they were selling cattle, sheep and doves for sacrifice it was just not the right place for that to be happening. So just like the temple in Jerusalem we all have a church but we also have ourselves. Yes we are a temple for the lord!! So this also begs the question does your temple need cleaning?
      You can only do so much for the physical temple so lets talk about the temple you can get right, yourself. Your body is exactly that a temple for the Holy Spirit who you have received through God himself. The Holy Spirit gives us power and strength so that we can deal with the power of sin that is in our lives. See no matter how hard we try no physical structure can hold the great overpowering awesomeness of God only the body can. When we talk about a temple it is not the physical structure but the all the people in it coming together. When we all come together and follow like we are suppose to anything is possible and God will not let anything destroy us. (1 Corinthians 3:17) As a temple for the lord it needs to be used in service to God. We need to renew our mind and make our lives a living sacrifice in service to our lord.  We all have been there, set our sites on the world based things instead of putting all that we have into what we are suppose to do, what the lord has called us to do. See we are all inherently sinful, ever wanted that new TV? car? house? video game? All these things distract us from what we are suppose to do and that is to serve God with everything that we can and if we don't keep our lives in the right direction we won't mature into what God has planned. (Luke 8:14)
    So is your temple clean? Are you doing what God has called you to do? Or are you like most of us and need a little spring cleaning? Well this has been made very straight forward from this little book we call the Bible. Just like Jesus cleaned the temples he can also clean our temple today. See first we have to clean from the inside out. If you don't do it this way you will not last amongst the worldly pleasures. You can clean anything from the outside but if the inside is not clean it will eventually come out. (Matthew 23:25-26) He died for our sins that his blood would clean and purify us so that we can walk in the light like he does.  For the christian we can do this through obedience and faith that when we do his will he will come to us and love us. (John 14:21) For non-Christians this starts with baptism which unites us with him. (Romans 6:3-4) This is the cleansing that all of us needs. Think of it just like changing clothes, all of your sins were in your old clothes and you put on the new clean never been touched clothes. (Galatians 3:26-27) We must repent of our sins and pray that the Lord just take our lives for his service. With Christ backing us up anything is possible where before we were held back by the world. There are no boundaries and endless power even when you don't think you can go any farther he will be that assistance that we need.
    We depend on Christ for our cleansing but we just can't sit there and wait for stuff to happen we have to cleanse ourselves by going to him. With that being said and we feel like we are cleansed we need to keep moving towards the light that is him. every time we trip up we get on our knees and pray, ask for forgiveness and get going again. None of us will ever be perfect because there was only one that was, but we can always strive to be like him!!
    So in conclusion is your temple clean? Does it embody what Christ would want in a follower? Is it a rock in where he might stand that he might speak through you to the people around you? Have you allowed the pleasures of this life to get you off track to what God has called you to do?  The awesome thing is if you do need a little cleaning Jesus is the only on who can provide this to you and will also provide you the will and power to keep going after you are cleaned up. I challenge you today not just to clean your temple and keep going with your normal routine. That you fill your lives with prayer and godliness so you will stay on the straight and narrow on the road that God called you on.
   

Are you acting like your father?

As Christians we try to do the right thing but more times than we might want the flesh makes our mind up about it. We can not let our flesh get in the way of doing what GOD wants! It is very clear in the bible of what we are and aren't to do.
  If someone is doing something wrong to you do not resist them, just take which they did and do good to them. (Mat 5:39-42) Usually when a problem comes from another Christian we can normally shrug it off but when it comes from an enemy it is a lot harder.
Not only are we suppose to love our enemy, if they are down we help them up. If they need food or water we are not suppose to hesitate but act. (Prov 25:21-22). On top of doing these things we are suppose to pray for them, and I don't mean you just pray about them but pray for them, their families and salvation. 
   As always with a world based response the first thing we want to do is either something against that person or not to help the person.  Instead we need to do all we can to help that person. In Mat 5:45 he says that he send the rain out on the righteous and unrighteous. As Christians when it rains in our lives we have at least one person that we can go to and talk but who do our enemy have? Do you think your enemy would rather go to you if you are acting like Christ or the world. What a better time to talk about the word than with someone who has done you wrong but sees you doing the right thing.
  So I challenge you today, from the smallest of things to the rain that will pour down on each one of our lives which one are you. Are you acting like your father wants you to or does the world have a better grip than you thought it had?
  Does the things that happen in your life provoke a world based response or a GOD based response?

Tests

You know we all have our own sets of test in life. Your test might take everything out of you but would be easy for me and vise versa. On thing that is always true is no matter how hard it gets and when it doesnt seem like you can go any farther just remember that GOD doesn't put anything on you that you can not handle. It might seem hard but there is a definate reason that you are going through this. He does everything for a reason even if at the time we don't realize it. It may not be easy but it is needed for your walk with him.

Settle?

The question I would like to pose is do you settle? Do you settle for something you do during the day that takes away from your prayer time? Do you play a video game that takes you away from reading the Bible with your family? Does your job keep you from going to church? We all have settled for something and possible that we are currently settling for everything listed above right now. So why do you settle? Is is because you have fun playing the video game? Watching tv is too easy when it is right before dinner time instead of reading the Bible?  Is is too convinent that you like your job and it would be too hard to find another one? You know it is hard whether we are strong in Christ or not to step out and do what is right when it goes against everything we have been taught or brought up to do. A little verse that always comes to mind when I think about this is Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
So after reading this what are you going to change to step out on faith and start on the path that God laid out for you? Have you been putting something off that has been laid on your heart but isn't convinent with your personal life so you put it on the back burner? We all have at some point but now is the time to change all of that, take that which he has laid out for you and just do it!!!!

Prayer

So do you want to change something in your life?  Want to help someone? You know even if that person does't want themselves you can help them with a little thing called prayer.  Prayer is a wonderful thing cause it allows you to have that one on one time with God with no interference. Most people pray when something goes bad or they need something. What I would like to challenge is pray everyday, make time in your day to have that one on one time with God. If you don't feel comfortable because you don't know what to say or don't sound like everyone else when they pray let me let you in on a little secret. There isn't any format to a prayer. You make it what it is, this is YOUR personal time talking with God so don't let that hold you back.

What would your title be?

So recently a very liked man was in the front page of our paper for his passing from this life. In the editorial they went into how he basically changed each one of our lives through technology. No doubt because while I am writing this blog I am listening to music through one of those great devices. What I would like to ask you is what would your title be? Would it be more that a paragraph? Would you like what was said about you? Would it say anything about your beliefs? Now take a minute and think about what you think yours would read then think what did I really do? Did you affect anyone lives in a good way besides your own? So with that said lets go through some really basic questions. Are you reading your Bible? What about Church? Have you spoke to anyone about Christ? Are you living the life and I mean really living the life. What are you really willing to give up to follow him? Are you listening and when I say listening that means when you hear stuff that you don't know do you have enough faith to just go with it and not save it for another day? So now that I have you thinking here is the question.... What would your title be?.... Think about it for a minute then ask yourself what do I have to do to get there?