Day 20: 50 Days of Passion

Have you ever had anyone call out your faith? They are looking for anything they can do to disprove that your faith is real. Are they doing this out of spite? Out of jealously? Or are they looking for an excuse not believe? We need to be strong in our faith as to be a witness to those around you.

 

“This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practising the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.”

1 John 1:5-10 NLT

 

When it comes to being Jesus to those around us let me tell you something that you might already know. If you are a Christian expect those around you to be watching you, they will be looking to see if your version of Christianity is as ‘hypocritical’ as they have thought all along.  We are being watched, judged on our actions, words and lifestyle.

 

That is actually a good thing, I know it is hard to believe but it is. We can become powerful witnesses of our faith if we work at showing the light that we follow. No, we don’t have to be perfect, and yes we will do things that contradict our faith, but it is in those moments the way we deal or handle it is how we will be seen.

 

In this section of 1 John, I read it saying your not perfect, but that’s okay, Jesus is there to help you get through it, to grow towards the life he has for us. I don’t think those around us watching us are expecting perfection. They want to see someone real, experience something real. We can be that with Jesus, we can show that we are just normal people saved by grace.

 

How we live our lives will reflect who we are in Christ as well. We need to be mindful of what we are doing, because our actions and words can help or hinder our witness. The bible has boundaries we should look at maintaining, and I am not going to go into them that is your responsibility to ask God through the bible. These boundaries are not to keep us from having a ‘good’ time or from experiencing life, God gave us these boundaries to keep the evil out of our lives. If we commit to staying inside the boundaries we will start to recognize sin more easily, and it makes it easier to avoid.

 

Today I challenge you to be a light for your faith, be real and don’t just put on a show that will eventually crumble at the first sign of trouble. Invite someone to church to experience what you believe. Share your faith.

 

Jesus, forgive give me for my sins, cleanse me anew today. Let me be a light to my coworkers, my friends, my family and to anyone I come in contact with either in person or online. Jesus let me be real in my faith, I want to reach others and share your love and mercy. They matter to you so they matter to me. Amen

 

 

Day 34: 50 Days of Impact

We all love a good movie where the hero sacrifices himself for the greater good. There are tears for the ones we know will never come back alive, or there is twangs of hope that they may return unscathed from the point of death.

What is amazing is that we have that very story in our lives if we know it or not. Jesus sacrificed himself for the greater good of mankind. He died so that might be free from sin. He also returned not unscathed though, his scars remained as a remined of what he has done for you. Yet many hear this and think that can’t be true, or that’s not for me.

 

“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

John 15:12-13 NLT

 

“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Romans 10:9 NLT

 

 

Would you be willing to lay down your life for a friend? Jesus did for you. And he did it for your friends and family, the strangers you meet everyday, your coworkers and your enemy. He died so that we might live amazing lives sharing to other what he came to earth to do. The even more amazing part is he rose from the dead and invites us into a relationship with him. No other religion leader is alive, so they can’t have a relationship with their followers. That is what makes Christianity so real, it is also what makes it so offensive because it is the truth, and the truth can be scary.

 

If we could see ourselves the way God sees us in our sin we would crumble and hide in shame. I think that is what a lot of people do when they start thinking about God and Jesus. They run from their true selves and try to mask what they really are. For all the good things they do, the feel if they just continue in their good ways that they will earn heaven. No, they may not say it out loud, but how many times have you heard “but I’m a good person.”

 

If you haven’t noticed yet I have been focusing for awhile now on the mission. We need to be better at reaching the lost people for Jesus, or for bare minimum inviting them to church. At the men’s ministry I lead, I made a board that reads ” if they matter to God they should matter to us” and on it I asked the men to start writing names of people they want to see come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. This visual list of names not only puts them out in the open it shows us that we know many many people that need Jesus and we have a huge impact on their lives. I told the men that I want us to start taking names off the wall as we reach them and they make commitments to follow Christ. As we add names we need to be removing some too. I am excited to see God work though about prayers and these men.

 

So today I ask you, do you value those around you to lay down your life for them. Is their fate and eternity priority for you, or do you care that one day they will be burning in hell? If it does then you need to do something, the benefits of reaching them outweigh the cost it may take. Stop storing up treasures on earth, let’s start storing up treasures in heaven. I would rather someone thanking me in heaven for telling them about Jesus then someone in hell wishing I had.

 

Jesus, we are called to share your love. I am not sure exactly how we come to this point where it has become taboo to us your name. People are offended and almost angry when the name of Jesus comes up on social media. But when you get them one on one, away from the veil of a computer, and open up to them sharing your love, something starts to happen. I ask Holy Spirit you will give us opportunities today to do just that, sharing the love of Christ. Encourage us, rekindle our fire and excitement in sharing our faith. We are free because of your love and free people can free people. Let them matter to us as we know they matter to you. Amen.

 

 

 

Day 31: 50 Days of Change

“If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.”‭‭1 John‬ ‭1:8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Only one man can ever claim the title of having no sin. We have been infected with this sin since the beginning of humanity in the garden. The moment Adam and Eve made the choice to eat what was forbidden they changed the way we live forever. Adam and Eve were patient zero. We no because of this are born into sin, in which there is no earthly cure. Most sin effects the heart, but we sometimes focus on the sin that affects others as more dangerous.

Some would say that sin is just a buzz word we created somewhere along the way to explain immorality. If we can put a name on it then it can be contained, fixed, studied. Others will ignore it completely say that there is no God, so sin is just some imaginary thing with no value to us. 

But for those who live with the truth that Jesus born sinless, lived a sinless life, then died and took in all past present and future sins this becomes life to us. We trust what Jesus did is enough to free us from the infection and bondage of sin. We are not immune to the effects and allure of sin, it still attracts us, calls to us. To live a life after accepting Jesus without sinning is not impossible but more improbable. We can go days, weeks or months, yet our earthly flesh will fail. It is in those moments where we decide to ignore the sin or deal with it head on and move on. 

For those who don’t know Jesus, and are living in a life of sin, they just don’t understand. Living in the darkness for so long they don’t know any better. They have a skewed interpretation of wrong and right, they could act just like you, they could be a member of your church. Sin envelops them and doesn’t want to let go, it has a home there and doesn’t want to give it up.

So how then can we reach those who don’t know Jesus? How then do we reveal to them that the life they are living is a cheap imitation and that there is light in the darkness? We need to be the light to them. We need to love them, pray for them, be Jesus to them. But how do we do that? Prayer, getting out of the church and being good neighbors, opening your lips and speaking to them. Genuinely love them. Ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom. You who are free from the grasp of sin need to show others life with out sin.

Got a story about this? Would love to hear how your life was changed, or you were able to show someone else the light of Jesus.

Father, I pray for wisdom and strength to be the light you call me to be. I don’t want to make anymore excuses as to why I am not sharing your love with others. Guide my heart, let me push past all that is holding me back. Let my life be an example. I want to see those around me as you see them, alone and in need of a realtionship with the creator God.  They matter and are loved by you Jesus, so they matter and needed to be loved by me. Amen