Tag: understanding

Don’t Complicate Things

Don’t Complicate Things
In speaking to the teens on Tuesday Night we have been in Colossians 2 and this will be our 3rd week on the following passage. Colossians 2:6-7 i want us this time to look at in the message.

6-7 My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

i like this rendering because it is straightforward. He doesn’t mince any words, getting right to the heart of the matter. i don’t feel i need to add much to this accept that he isn’t saying we shouldn’t continue to learn and grow…but what he is saying is that we need to take the knowledge that we do have and begin to live it out in our daily lives. We know what it means to love someone…we don’t need much study on that Luke 6:31-34

Jesus said, “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.”

Let’s not make it more complicated than we need to.

Die and Live

Die and Live

Colossians 2:6-9 CEB

“So live in Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way as you received Him. Be rooted and built up in Him, be established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught. See to it that nobody enslaves you with philosophy and foolish deception, which conform to the human traditions and the way the world thinks and acts rather than Christ. All the fullness of deity lives in Christ’s body.”

We are to die and live in Christ. The letter to the Colossians is a great educator to this fact.  Even as much as we are all individuals and our lives are starkly different from each other; our circumstances and history, our influences and struggles, these all differ…it is still true that in the eyes of Christ we are the same. In that He loves us, died for us and calls us to live in Him.

Therefore, although we are different we are all on the same journey and have the ability to speak life into each others lives.  We are the same even with all of our differences. Lets us all have the mind of Christ. Rooted and built up in Him.

You are loved,

cj

Only a Man

Only a Man

There is a part in the telling of Jesus ministry that catches my eye every time i read it. This account is found in Matthew 9:35-38 and reads thusly:
35 Jesus traveled among all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, announcing the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. 36 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The size of the harvest is bigger than you can imagine, but there are few workers. 38  Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers for his harvest.”

Jesus saw the people and had compassion. His heart was broken for their helpless, and troubled spirits. His desire for them was that they would become part of the harvest. That they would give their hearts to Him completely. His heart is for us too. His desire is for us to be more than a part of the harvest but to be workers in the field. Taking the good news to the world that is wandering, troubled and helpless. To shepherd them to the Great Shepherd.

This song by Jonny Lang is one of my favorites (listen to it here). It is the song of a man who finds himself helpless but returning to Jesus. That is our story too…let us have compassion on those around us…let our heart break for what breaks the heart of the Lord and be workers in a vast field where the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

You are loved,

cj

The Art of Not Understanding

The Art of Not Understanding

It is hard to understand sometimes, what you ask?  Life.  That is pretty much a no brainer right?  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that life doesn’t always make sense.  In fact kids will say it all the time, “That doesn’t make any sense!”  And, they are usually 100% correct but we try to pacify them with things like, “You’ll understand when you get older” or my personal favorite, “You don’t need to understand.”  On the contrary helping people to understand, the art of not understanding is vital to civilization.  Life, isn’t always fair.  Let’s look at a story in Scripture about “talents”; We find it in Matthew 25:14-30.

Here is the story in a nutshell; The master of the house is setting out on a Journey.  He gives to three of his servants some money.  To one he gives 5 talents or basically 5 sacks of gold or silver. To another he gives two talents and to a third he gives one.  He gave to each of them according to their ability.  Let me pause here to make a point, Jesus is telling this story, and it is good and profound.  But, it doesn’t seem to make sense now does it? i mean why the difference in amounts?  i get that it is based on ability but even if one has a lesser ability shouldn’t he at least have equal chance? Meaning equal opportunity with equal resources?

These questions stump a lot of people.  We live in a world that has struggled with this idea and have made attempts to make things “fair” for all.  Time and time again these efforts have fallen short, for various reasons.  Life just isn’t fair, and that doesn’t make sense therefore, we as an intelligent species attempt to correct it.  i mean why not, shouldn’t life be fair?  This is going to be a two part series, this week i want to focus on the first part of this story told by Jesus.  The master gave to his servants, according to their abilities.  Did you catch that? Their ability.  We all have various abilities and we receive based on those abilities.

Shouldn’t we all have the same ability, the same chance, the same resources?  Why are some abilities worth more than other abilities?  What was Jesus trying to teach his disciples with this story?  i think the lesson is multifaceted.  1.  Not all abilities are worth the same however, all people are worth the same.  2.  Opportunities are earned.  3.  Abilities are another form of diversity.

We should spend less time worrying about fairness and spend more time finding out where we fit in.  How does our diversity help society better itself?  You see one seeks its own, the other shares;  One maintains status quo, the other expands its horizons; One hides, the other explores.  Jesus is looking for those that will share, expand, and explore.  The take away, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness….we won’t always understand but we always have opportunity to share, expand and explore life.

You are loved,

cj