Tag: Serve

God Is Watching

Today’s a new day! I have been a Christian for almost 50 years. Definitely not a perfect one, but striving to be a positive light in a dark world. During these almost 50 years, I have seen a lot of things come and go in the Church. But the past 8-10 years, I have seen something that is very troubling. I have witnessed many Christians, including leaders in the church allow their politics to become more of an identity marker than their faith. Some have agued they are interpreting their politics through the prism of scripture, with the former subordinate to the latter, but in fact scripture and biblical truths have often been twisted to fit their political agendas.

The problem is not Christians being involved in the political world. The problem is when Christians and leaders of the church allow politics to eclipse the gospel. That is damaging and dangerous to the church and those watching from a distance.

Whether we like it or not, the world is watching how Christians and churches deal with the issues of the day. Including politics. This election season, will Christians and the Church show love, respect, compassion and grace or will they choose a candidate or political party over the gospel? The world and God are watching. ~OC

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What Picture Are You Living?

Today’s a new day! There are people who don’t know Jesus who are watching those who claim to know Him and making assumptions about who Jesus is. There are people around us whose only picture of who Jesus is will be shaped by what we do and say. For better or worse. 

As followers of Jesus, we represent Him to those around us. What we do, what we say, tells others something about God. Good or bad. Following Jesus means that He actually expects us to love, serve and forgive others. Our actions good or bad can have eternal consequences.

I hope you will spend some time today reflecting on the magnitude of this amazing responsibility. ~OC

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Keep Showing Up

Today’s a new day! You may not have much to bring to the table right now. And that’s okay. Sometimes just showing up requires extraordinary strength and faith. You could find a million reasons to give up, but please don’t. In the wilderness, showing up is an act of worship, a step of obedience towards God and a firm no in the face of the enemy’s lies. ~OC

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Hope

Today’s a new day! I believe Hope is one of the most important tools in our toolbox. Hope is not based on our circumstances. No, it’s a firm conviction, a way of seeing the world. Hope is what carries us through difficult times. We know God is in control, regardless of what our struggles might lead us to believe. We trust suffering is temporary and that God will use even the worst of situations for good. Evil might have the first word (cancer, broken relationships, etc), but we boldly proclaim that God will have the final word.

Many times in the last twenty-one years, I’ve found encouragement in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

I may or may not regain my health. That’s in God’s hands. But as I continue to walk through this crazy beautiful health journey, I will hold on to God’s hope, love and grace. That’s more than enough for me. ~OC

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Prayer

Today’s a new day! Prayer has been a major part of my life. Especially, as I have walked through this crazy beautiful health journey. I have learned a lot about prayer during this time. I thought I would share a few things I have learned about prayer over the years.

I believe prayer is an act of listening to God, not just talking. Prayer begins with listening, or being still as the Psalmist says. Without this, I believe prayer can be downgraded to transactional communication.

Prayer was not designed to be transactional. Prayer is relational. I believe we must learn to listen to God before prayer will have the true meaning He desires for each of us to experience.

During this crazy beautiful health journey, I have learned a lot about just listening to God. Being still.

As I shared earlier, I believe prayer begins with listening. But it eventually becomes a way of life. I believe prayer is a divine attentiveness to the things of God in our everyday lives. It’s an increased awareness of God’s movement in the world. I believe this explains why Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17)

Over the years as I have learned to sit still and just listen to God, I have found peace in my health journey and in every area of my life. What a beautiful gift.

When prayer truly becomes a way of life, nothing happens by chance. No moment stands alone. Everything is connected. Good or bad, nothing is wasted. Every circumstance is an opportunity to see God, a realization of his movement in the world.

Prayer, the transformative kind, cannot be rushed. Short little pop up prayers are not wrong. God can use those prayers in powerful ways. There is also nothing wrong with scheduling a time for prayer. But I believe to truly experience God and the Spirit’s fruits (love, joy, peace, etc.), prayer must become something our day revolves around rather than something crammed into an already busy schedule.

I encourage everyone not to hurry through prayer. You just can’t. In America, everything is built on speed. We’re an on-demand, right this minute culture. And while there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, it’s toxic when we try to impose these cultural values onto prayer.

A few more thing I believe we sometimes miss about prayer.

Prayer is intensely personal and extremely intimate. When it comes to intimacy, how you approach it with God is how you approach it with everything in your life. If you struggle to find intimacy with God, it will impact intimacy with your spouse, family, friends, and everyone else you connect with in life.

Prayer shapes our capacity for relational intimacy. It’s hard to be intimate with another divinely-created person when you’re not intimate with the divine Creator.

My health issues continue to be a battle, but I strive to be still and listen to God throughout my day. By doing this, I feel more connected to God and I am more grateful for my life and relationships. I am also more concerned about the wellbeing of others. This journey is not all about me.

Coincidence? No. I believe my increased intimacy with God has given me a different lens in the way I look at people and the world.

So, as I continue to walk out this health journey, focused and intimate prayer will continue to be a major part of my life. I pray as you walk out your own journey, prayer will guide your steps and become a special and life changing time in your daily life. ~OC

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A Different View

Today’s a new day! I have several friends who do not like going to church, but they think Jesus is really cool. When Jesus was walking on earth, thousands of people flocked to hear him teach. He had something worth saying and his message was life changing. If you are a Christian how do you live? If a non-Christian spent the day with you, would they change the way they viewed Christians?

Some people believe that the Church is a place that is only for people who are good enough. Nothing could be further from the truth. The faith lived out by Jesus was one that was taken up by people who were the wrong sort according to the religious people of the day. They did not have it all together. People came to Jesus with their imperfections and some turned to him and called on him for forgiveness and he forgave them and he led them in a new life. Jesus never sent anyone away who was imperfect and he never sent people away who didn’t agree with him or who didn’t want to follow his teaching. One of his disciples Peter, cut off the ear of one of the people who had come to arrest Jesus (John 18:10), Peter also denied knowing Jesus three times (Mark 14:66-72). In Matthew 16:18, Jesus shares these powerful words, “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” In Peter we see the worst and best of the Christian faith, but Jesus loved him and still chose to work with and through him.

Where some Christians go wrong is that they try to portray themselves as perfect rather than the truth which is that we are all broken and thankfully have been forgiven. That as Christians, we are all on a journey of change. I’ve heard it said that: God loves us as we are, but he also loves us too much to leave us that way.

When we make the choice to follow Jesus we are born again, spiritually beginning a new life. The Bible also talks about us reflecting the glory of God as he changes us (2 Corinthians 3:18). The apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament talks about a battle going on in every Christian between the Spirit (God in us) and our sinful nature (Romans 7:9). Who will we listen to? Will we live for ourselves only or do we want to live for God?

I pray every Christian will walk securely in God’s love, acceptance, forgiveness, grace and all of His beautiful gifts. I pray as God’s children, we will be guided by the Holy Spirit living in us to keep on striving to become more like Jesus. ~OC

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New Normal

Today’s a new day! As I continue to walk through this crazy beautiful health journey, my life has been filled with many new normals. During all of the new normals, I have learned a new normal does not mean that God has thrown away His plan for me. A new normal does not mean that I am less than anyone else. A new normal has made me the person I am today.

When I decided to embrace the truth of the new normals in my life, I experienced a beautiful freedom. I can still live a full life in this broken body even on days I wish I could return it. I started focusing on what I had and what I could still do.

With this broken, but blessed body:

I can still live and lead an intentional, meaningful life.

I can still worship God in all I do.

I can still love and serve others.

I can still cherish time with my family and friends.

I can still cultivate new and old meaningful friendships.

I can still grow and bloom right where God has me planted.

Sometimes when we walk through the storms of life, we may feel that God isn’t there. Well friend, I have some great news for you. He is. Keep walking in that truth. ~OC

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Gift of Grace Part 3

Today’s a new day! Grace is simultaneously a call to rest and a call to action. There is nothing more freeing than knowing that we have contributed nothing to our salvation. It means we can do nothing to mess it up. Praise God that it is “by grace we have been saved through faith”—and that even this faith is a “gift of God” so that there is no room for boasting (Ephesians 2:8-9). Praise God that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of Christ” (Romans 8:39). Indeed, we fix our eyes on Jesus as the “founder and the perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2), knowing He will be faithful to complete the work He has started in us (Phil 1:6). Our trust is in who God is and in what He has done on our behalf. What a sweet joy to rest in that truth. But resting in that truth is not a call to sit on the bench. No, in light of the fact that our standing in Christ is sure, we are called to get to work. No sooner does Paul tell us that we are saved by grace through faith does he tell us that we were “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). Even after telling us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author of Hebrews goes on to tell us to “strive . . . for holiness” (Hebrews 12:14). When we experience the amazing grace of God, we cannot just check out and wait for Jesus to come back. No, we called to be the first fruits of a coming kingdom, showing all creation what the restored image of God looks like (James 1:18; Romans 8:18-23, 29-30). “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And this newness isn’t just “not sinning”; rather, this newness is marked by a zeal to advance Christ’s kingdom (2 Corinthians 5:20). Never shortchange the power of grace. As believers, we have a responsibility to share the transforming gift of grace with a lost and hurting world. even as it is transforming us. ~OC

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The Gift of Grace Part 1

Today’s a new day! The beautiful gift of Grace is not freedom to sin; rather, grace is freedom from sin. Jesus did not die for our sins so we could continue to live in them. No, He died for our sins so that we could go and sin no more. Will we always deal with sin in our lives? Absolutely. Does our struggle with sin separate us from the love of Christ? Absolutely not. But our attitude as one truly saved by grace should not be to continue wallowing in the very behavior that Jesus died to deliver us from. Rather, a person redeemed by the love of Jesus will strive to trust in the work He did on the Cross and desire to become more like Him each day. When the Apostle Paul explained salvation by grace, he anticipated the replies of those who would seek to abuse it. That’s why he asked, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2). The Apostle John shared this warning, “No one who abides in [Jesus] keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him” (1 John 3:6). Jesus Himself warned that we “will recognize [people] by their fruits” (Matthew 7:20). As believers in Christ, we must not offer the world a cheap grace that allows us to proclaim devotion to Jesus with our lips while having a love affair with sin on the side. Our daily lives should reflect a real and life changing encounter with Jesus. That is what a broken and unbelieving world is looking to experience. Do our lives reflect the love, forgiveness, hope, grace and freedom of Jesus? The world is watching and wanting to experience that true freedom and grace. ~OC

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My Home in Heaven

Today’s a new day! This body and world are just temporary. Life is but a vapor. I will not let the struggles in life become my identity. My God-given purpose in life is to love and serve. Not to hate or judge. My home is in Heaven. I am just passing through on my way home. ~OC

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