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For the past few weeks I have been meditating on the parable of the Prodigal Son. For those that are unfamiliar with the story, it's about a son who asks his father for his inheritance now - then moves to a city, squanders the money away, ends up working on a pig farm and starving.... then after all of that decides that it's best to go home and work as a servant for his Dad because the servants at his own home are treated better than he's currently being treated.

If this were to be told today, the story would be about a person who moved out on their own, got a really good job, was living a comfortable life and decided that church or the fellowship of believers weren't important to their spiritual well being because they're "comfortable."

Instead of feeding pigs, they might be involved with drinking too much, sexual immorality,  or any other number of things that we do that we are ashamed to talk about with those that are closest to us.

The fascinating part of the story to me is that the son recognizes that his Dad will always take him back. That is the nature of God. The thing that I wrestled with is - why does it take us so long to see this?

Regardless of where we are or what we have done, God is waiting with open arms for us to repent!

Take action today and ask yourself how far you are from home, and whether or not you need to return to a pure relationship with God. He's waiting!

Spiritual or Spare Ritual?

Every Sunday, millions of Christians leave the comfort of their home to gather with other believers to worship. The fact that we can do this freely in the Western world is nothing to be taken lightly especially since there are many places in the rest of the world where the church is still persecuted.

The challenge is to prevent this from becoming a meaningless ritual that we perform that we either take for granted or treat casually.

When Jesus met the woman at the well they had a conversation... it appears as though she views worship as the "ritual" - the when and the where.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. John 4:20

Jesus' reply gets to the heart of the matter:

 But the hour is coming, and is here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship hum. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:23-24 

In no way am I implying that you should not go to church. On the contrary... Christianity in Action is realizing that we are the church, and it's not about a ritual, or a time or a place. We should always be worshiping God in spirit and in truth.

Let's spend some time this week meditating on our relationship with God and allow Him to show us whether we have gotten complacent and our relationship has been reduced to a check box, or whether we are truly worshiping God as we should in all aspects of our life.

Don't rock the boat!

"Don't rock the boat" is a metaphor that is used to say "don't do anything that will jeopardize your safety."

In our lives, most of us have the tendency to stay where it's comfortable. We don't like to risk things. Even if it's a situation that we don't like, if it's familiar, we tend to stay there. I think that's why some of us have friends that we know are toxic, or we still go to familiar places that we visited before we were saved.

"Don't rock the boat!"

"Go with the flow"

"It isn't that bad, is it?"

These are all things that we tell ourselves just to get by sometimes... but... what if God is calling us to get out of the boat?

When Jesus began his ministry there were two brothers... I won't tell you the story, I'll let you read it for yourself:

And going on a little father, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. - Mark 1:19-20

James and John had a family fishing business that provided them a reasonable amount of safety. They were doing well enough to have hired servants that worked with them! But when they heard the voice of Jesus, they immediately left everything to chase after God.

I don't think this passage is saying quit your job today, but I think this passage is asking us if we have this place of safety that we are relying on that is preventing us from hearing the voice of God and moving into action when He calls us!

Let's spend the day listening to the voice of God, and answering the call when He asks us to get out of the boat! This may look like different things to different people. He could be asking you to take the kids to a different park today because there's someone there that needs to hear from Him...

Selah

The Walking Dead

Right now, zombie movies and television shows are very popular. Zombie are essentially dead people who don't know that they are dead. Their animated corpses wander around aimlessly with one goal in mind. EAT. FEED. The problem is that they consume and consume and they are never satisfied!

This is what life is without Christ. As Christians, we see the walking dead around us every day. We see people who are dead inside, but try to fill their lives with alcohol, sex, relationships, going to the gym, work... the list goes on.

They try the same thing over and over expecting happiness, but it just doesn't happen!

Ephesians 2:1-9 explains it this way:

 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a]and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[b]4 But[c] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

In every zombie movie I've seen, the "survivors" are in one of two different camps:

• those doing what it takes to survive
• those working on a cure

Christians doing what it takes to survive are missing out on great adventures that God has in store. We have the cure to life and were even commissioned to take this cure that we call the gospel and share it with the world!

Let's put Christianity in action and let's cure the walking dead!

What are you looking for?

Almost everyone that I know is looking for something: acceptance from friends, a promotion at work, the love of their life, to loose weight, retirement, vacation... the list goes on forever.

For most of these people, these things consume their day. They are absolutely preoccupied with this never ending quest. The problem is, they are never satisfied when they get what they are looking for. There is always something else around the corner that is pushing them towards the next thing!

To me, this begs the question: what will make you happy? What will give you peace?

Peace is a concept that has been lost in our day. It's turned into a tag line, or a greeting, or something that people do to look cool.

The Bible uses the word "shalom" for peace. Shalom not only means peace, but it's this kind of peace that comes through completeness. The big question is where does this completeness come from?

In the book of Hosea, God asks Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman. This unfaithful woman symbolizes how the relationship between Israel and God had become. Israel had left their first love and were seeking after other gods in an attempt to find peace and happiness.

The following is said about Hosea's wife:

She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them.Then she shall say, "I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now."

His wife would continually try to find happiness - shalom - and never find it! She was seeking after the wrong thing. In the New Testament, Jesus shares the same idea but slightly differently. He says:

Therefore do not be anxious, saying "What shall we ear?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

Imagine how your life would change if you chased God instead of chasing things? God understands what your needs are, but if you seek Him first ask for His strength and guidance how would your world change?

My challenge to you is to take a few days and put this in action and see if your peace... your shalom increases.

 

Who is calling you?

I use to love watching the classic Batman series when I came home from school. There was something comforting about knowing that when there was a need, Commissioner Gordon could pick up the Batphone and let Batman know that there was a mission... there was something that needed to be addressed that only he could handle.

On the other side of the phone, the person that answered was always expecting to hear the voice of Commissioner Gordon. On the rare occasions when  someone else, like Batgirl, there was surprise, because they new the voice of who they were expecting and that there was a need.

Really in Christianity it is no different. 

We all have missions in life that God wants us to accomplish. Whether it's praying for a person or a situation, sharing the gospel with someone or meeting a need that someone may have, God is always reaching out to His people to achieve His goals.

One of the things that has perplexed me about the post-modern church is that a lot of people have stopped answering the phone! There is this idea that going to church is enough, or participating in church activities is enough. There's this idea that those that are called into the ministry or the mission field are the ones that are supposed to act.

The idea that we don't have to jump into action because we haven't been called is a false notion. We are all called. That's why I love reading the first line of most of the books penned by the Apostle Paul. For example, in the book of Galatians, he says:

Paul, an apostle - not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead... Galatians 1:1

Like Paul, we are all called, not by man but by Jesus Christ, whose final words before ascending to heaven were:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Matt 28:18-19

We know this wasn't just the mission of the disciples. If it were, neither you nor I would believe because there are no direct disciples of Jesus today and His message is still changing lives.

Here is today's call to action: Think about the Christians in your life who have made an impact that weren't Pastors, Ministers, or missionaries. There are probably quite a few. Let's act and become a part of that number!

It's Game Time!

The one thing that everyone likes about basketball is how fast paced it is. People love to see the break away plays, the ale-oop, the monster dunk or the well placed fade away jumper. As a matter of fact, that's the way many of us face life... run and gun and hope for the best!

The thing that fascinates me about basketball is that when the game is on the line, they will run set plays. When they need to score, they have a game plan.

Christianity has a game plan too. When Jesus left His last words, what we call The Great Commission, was to go to all nations, teaching them and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. However, when it comes  to living out that mission, we adopt the run and gun offense.

Today, I would like to talk about "Out-of-Bounds Play #1" - remember why.

Colossians 1:9-14 says:

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

We need to remember that we were once "out of bounds" - we were sinners and now we have redemption and forgiveness of our sins. For this reason, we need to continually be filled with the knowledge of His will and bear fruit.

I pray that you remember that we were once slaves to sin, but God has set us free and that we listen to His voice and take advantage of the opportunity to share this with others!