If you've never heard that Gospel or you Gospel sucks feel free to jump in with us in discovering King Jesus and how He is moving on the earth.
Theres a mantra of being hard, or gritty in culture thats magnified. Often built by great qualities of hard work, tenacity, drive. If you have been around sports or any type of motivational nike type product you have been subjected to it. And theres nothing wrong with it.
Would you be open to challenging it? Or maybe identifying how it is impacting your life today? Maybe another way to phrase it, is did Jesus ever compete? If so, did He straight wreck doods...
My days of settling this last few weeks are marked by seemingly unending hours of discovering how to fix/install/maintain things that I have acquired in the purchasing of the house. From AC, to pool, to small engine mower, to leaks. All of which consist of this internal drive of needing to solve the issue, work hard, figure it out etc. Great intention, until you step back and look at yourself. Stressed, sharp, feeling like I should, angry at blocked attempts...
turns out my kids have no desire to be around that...
does anyone really?
My desire is to do it with them...to train them...but that grit doesn't produce a lot of gentleness in me, or clarity of thought. Fantastic traits if you are looking at winning a championship...but does a singular focus on Jesus produce a hard grit that nobody wants to be around?
Dont think so. I was out walking my dog this morning before the crew awoke listening to Luke. It was Luke 8-14ish...and there were several parables that struck me. Jesus confronting the pharisee's with the story of the samaritan helping the beaten man on the side of the road. I heard Jesus consistently talking of generosity - and felt Holy Spirit convict me.
Not just financial generosity, but generosity of my soul, or energy. Am I not only producing a life my kids want to be around, but am I offering generosity to them in that? In the form of kindness, courage, this is sense that they can. Or are they walking on eggshells around me? One has a primary goal of the task, the other the primary goal of people.
I think its the difference of being hard and soft. And I think Jesus embraces those same qualities of grit, but His goals are not Himself. Rather God the father, and the free distribution of Himself to those in front of Him.
What if the AC unit is not my goal, but the person in front of me while the AC is the context.
Or maybe at work, hitting those marks this week are not the end goal. Being generous with your co-workers while tending to those work metrics are the goal of the Kingdom.
Think about it, #readurbible
The Kingdom is different, Jesus' burdens are indeed light...
#getdatbread
I’ll drop some pics of the house later
Be vigorous and aware of your connection to heaven
#readirbible
Mark 4 on tap for my soul
Reading proverbs 17.3 this morning. My hearts motives will get put out before the Lord to be judged...someday? Sure sure we will all stand before a judgement seat - in the meantime we exist in the today.
Just how much do we really want our motives to be seen and known? To a degree, we can add some churchy language to situations in our lives and make everything seem dandy - try and manage or control the externals around us so that people around us have the idea that we have great lives. And we will all see just how long we can hold that up...
But really whats the driver in your soul. And how will that end? Is it monies? health? reputation? Trying to work out the grind of life so that I feel secure, satisfying my internal need for whatever the thing is.
A free heart has no need for external validation, no need to be proven, it experiences the fire of life and is out on display come what may. Its proof of trust in a God that is in control.
Check proverbs 17.3
Then check out Phil 2. ...
a pretty good indicator of your thoughts and attitudes getting the day going.
That first thing, first word could be to a family member, a text, an email, a co worker, the coffee barista...irregardless take a moment and look at it.
Most of us, myself included have some sort of routine greeting informed by our experiences, culture, friends around us - its generally trite, creating minimal connection, and continues us on our day.
My invitation is to spend that moment with intention and allow Hebrews 3:1-14 to guide you. That first word could be so much more...
The author is giving a recount of the Israelites allowing their hardness to be. He runs the hardening through the redemption of hope in Christ, and then challenges us to understand we are no different than the Israelites apart from Christ.
And then verse 13...the solid therefore. take a moment and read it.
The exhortation is not a trite you can do it, but a calling of the reminder of the hope in the Cross, the person of Jesus, the ...
