Tag: mission

Where Your Faith Rests

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I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Galatians 2:20 NIV

Your life as a Jesus follower is not about what you are capable of doing, it’s about what Jesus is capable of doing through you.

Your body is His to use, your mind is His to fill, your heart is His to heal.

His mission is your mission, His vision is your vision, His power is your power.

This life is no longer yours, it is His life lived through you.

I have learned that Jesus will take all the life you are “able” to give Him and live through it.

My friend, surrender all you can today, then all you can tomorrow.

Jesus will receive it with joyous love.

He will embrace it with strong arms of grace.

He will take you to places of faith you couldn’t have even imagined the first moment that you surrendered your life and chose to live by faith in the Son of God.

You have more life now than you did then.

Today is a good day to surrender all the life you have to Jesus… again.

Unless you have never done this, in that case, today is the perfect day to surrender your whole life to Jesus for the first time.

Are you living by faith in the Son of God or faith in yourself?

What do you have to surrender?

How does the Son of God want to live through you today?

How I Now Live

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I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Galatians 2:20 NIV

Your life as a Jesus follower is not about what you are capable of doing, it’s about what Jesus is capable of doing through you.

Your body is His to use, your mind is His to fill, your heart is His to heal.

His mission is your mission, His vision is your vision, His power is your power.

This life is no longer yours, it is His life lived through you.

I have learned that Jesus will take all the life you are “able” to give Him and live through it.

My friend, surrender all you can today, then all you can tomorrow.

Jesus will receive it with joyous love.

He will embrace it with strong arms of grace.

He will take you to places of faith you couldn’t have even imagined the first moment that you surrendered your life and chose to live by faith in the Son of God.

You have more life now than you did then.

Today is a good day to surrender all the life you have to Jesus… again.

Unless you have never done this, in that case, today is the perfect day to surrender your whole life Jesus for the first time.

Are you living by faith in the Son of God or faith in yourself?

What do you have to surrender?

How does the Son of God want to live through you today?

Live By Faith

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I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20 NIV

What does it mean to live by faith? It means making decisions on how to live based on where God has called you to go, not where you have been before.

It’s faith because you haven’t seen it yet but Jesus has.

It’s faith because you are living in something different than you ever have before: you are living by faith in the Son of God instead of living by faith in yourself.

Your life as a Jesus follower is not about what you are capable of doing, it’s about what Jesus is capable of doing through you.

Your body is His to use, your mind is His to fill, your heart is His to heal.

His mission is your mission, His vision is your vision, His power is your power.

This life is no longer yours, it is His life lived through you.

I have learned that Jesus will take all the life you are “able” to give Him and live through it.

Then as you follow Him, trust Him, grow in Him, you discover that there is more of your “life” that you need to surrender to Him so He can fully live through it and so on.

My friend, surrender all you can today, then all you can tomorrow.

Jesus will receive it with joyous love.

He will embrace it with strong arms of grace.

He will take you to places of faith you couldn’t have even imagined the first moment that you surrendered your life and chose to live by faith in the Son of God.

You have more life now than you did then.

Today is a good day to surrender all the life you have to Jesus… again.

Unless you have never done this, in that case, today is the perfect day to surrender your whole life Jesus for the first time.

Are you living by faith in the Son of God or faith in yourself?

What do you have to surrender?

How does the Son of God want to live through you today?

 

 

 

 

Image-bearer

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Look at what you have in your hands.

Look at the vision in your heart.

Gaze intently, not at your own reflection, but at the One you have been created to reflect.

God’s original plan was that you be His image-bearer.

The representation of His loving hands, compassionate heart, and powerful words in the world.

You are made to be a vessel that brings heaven to earth, interrupts the downward spiral of anxiety with the upward flow of faith, and intervenes in lost lives to help them find the way home.

This was the original plan sideswiped by sin, waylaid by fear, tempted to deny by the whisperer of destructive lies.

You are created to be an image-bearer.  Jesus died for you to restore you to it.

With Christ, you are restored, redeemed, repurposed, and recreated in His love to walk free in God’s original plan for your life.

“He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  Ephesians 2:10 NLT

Look closer at what you have in your hands.

Look deeper at the vision in your heart.

The world needs to see Jesus uniquely expressed through you today.

The Day After the Resurrection

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On the Monday after Easter when we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, I like to take a moment to think about how it must have been for Him.   What was it like for Him to see the sunrise in a resurrected body, through resurrected eyes?

Eyes that held ancient eternity and recent humanity.

In a body that bore the sin of the world and conquered death.

Now He would walk on the road and walk thru walls.

His work on the cross was finished but His relationship revolution with humanity had just begun.

He showed His disciples His nail-scarred hands. He walked and talked with them on the road to Emmaus.

He fixed breakfast on the beach and ate with them.

His earthly mission was finished but the co-mission through His followers was just beginning.

“Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20 MSG

Q. What happened after the Resurrection?

A. The Great Commission

Go and let nothing stop you.

Not I

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There is a moment in your walk with God when you realize that possessing the land is going to be hard work.

And then there is a bigger moment when you realize that all your hard work cannot do what only God can do: set people free, love them relentlessly, deliver them consistently, fill them with His Spirit and His Love.

“Haven’t I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others?

Even then, my work didn’t amount to all that much.

It was God giving me the work to do,

God giving me the energy to do it.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:10-11‬ ‭MSG

Yet, not I but the grace of God within me….

It is a sweet moment.
A defining moment.

The moment you realize that the work of God doesn’t depend on you but that you get to join in the work of God by depending on Him more and more.

It isn’t about you. You are a part of a family, a part of the mission, a part of a vision born in heaven and lived on earth.

“So whether you heard it from me or from those others, it’s all the same: We spoke God’s truth and you entrusted your lives.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:10-11‬ ‭MSG‬‬

Love people grace-full-y, speak God’s truth and then let Him do the heavy lifting of changing people’s lives.

All That Hinders 

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“let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”

Hebrews 12:1b NIV

There is a sense of joy heard in the invitation to throw off all that hinders and run. Like a child running in the field or the dog escaping out of the gate. To run free with faith unhindered and feet untangled in the mission God has created you for.

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews paints the faces and hearts of those who served God with great passion and unflinching faithfulness. Those who suffered, risked, obeyed and followed through in faith.

They are seated in the heavenly grandstands, cheering you on.

Telling you to throw off everything that hinders and run the race God has called you to run.

To hold nothing back.

To let go of fear and embrace the call of God on your life, trusting him to empower you to do it.

Running fast and free is not accomplished by focusing on what is holding you back but by focusing on where you are going.

Turn your face to the finish line and run free.

What is holding you back from running free?

What can you do today to drop it?