Think About It

As I was driving to worship services Sunday morning, I heard a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that I had never heard before. The title of the song is “His Strength Is Perfect”, but it was this lyric in the song that really got my attention, “I can do all things through Christ who give me strength. But sometimes a I wonder what He can do through me.”. I was quite familiar with the scriptural reference, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13), but it was the commentary that struck me. It is easy for believers to feel the confidence we have through Jesus, but have we ever given much thought to the value we bring to His cause? We can overcome a lot with the power of Jesus, but are we living the type of lives that reflect His wonders out into the world? It is great to feel the comfort and confidence we have by being a part of Christ’s church, but let’s never overlook our need to be active and alive. Jesus has the power to make a difference inside us...

Have you noticed how easy it is to make up excuses? Basically, if we don’t want to do something, we can always find a reason not to do it. Notice that I didn’t say a “good reason” because sometimes our excuses are nothing more than justifications we delude ourselves into believing. When I was growing up, I used to hear excuses defined as tissue paper lies. While that sounded good, I don’t know that I fully understood what it meant – but now I kind of get it. When I think of “tissue paper”, I typically think of three things: First, it makes things look better than they are … second, it is thin and not good for much else … finally, it is fragile – it can’t withstand much pressure. Excuses are similar to tissue paper in that they typically make our actions sound better than they really are, they are easy to see through and it doesn’t take much effort to rip them apart. There are some legitimate reasons we do what we do – especially when we fail, but all too often, the excuses we m...

At some point in our lives, most of us are going to fall on some hard times. While some of these struggles might be due to something that is beyond our control (due to things like natural catastrophes or a nationwide economic downturn), most of the time our struggles are due to our own actions. Interestingly, the Bible divides this even further by describing difficulties that are caused by a godly life centered in a worldly society and those that are caused by our own moral/legal problems. The Apostle Peter taught the early church, “If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.” (I Peter 4:15-16). In addition to being one of the few times the word “Christian” appears in the New Testament, it also explains one of the basic differences between human troubles – those caused because we are Christians and those caused when we don...

Have you noticed that the people with whom we need to be the most patient are the ones who irritate us the most? When I go back and re-read the previous statement, I realize I have a firm grasp of the obvious. Most people with whom we have patience, don’t typically need it – but there are some who test our limits (and our spirituality). The other day I was reminded of the need for patience when I read Ephesians 4:2, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (NIV). Paul’s admonition got me to thinking about why we need to express patience – here are a few reflections: 1. Some people require patience because they are under stress. Often, people are difficult because they are in a tough place in their lives. They don’t purposefully intend to irritate us, they do it because they are displaying a crisis response. 2. Some people require patience because they have emotional issues. A lot of people who are able to function in much of society ma...

During our time together yesterday, we took a look at Psalm 23 and saw the fact that God is willing to go with us wherever we go. We highlighted the confidence we can have when we can enter the valley of the shadow of death because God is with us. While this passage is inspiring and comforting, I think it reminds us of another aspect of our spiritual journey. What would happen if, in addition to God’s guiding hand, we teamed up to walk into the valley of the shadow of death with other believers? Rather than launching out on our journey alone, what if we walked into the dark and scary world with others? There have been a few times in my life when I have been called to go into dangerous situations, but one of the things that made it bearable (and doable) was when the “Calvary” showed up to go into the (literal) darkness with me. There is not only safety in numbers, there is also confidence in numbers. As I reflected on this, I got to thinking about the wisdom of God in creating ...

One of the all- time favorite passages in the Bible is Psalm 23. The 23rd Psalm is an encouraging passage for just about every aspect of life. Through the years, one of my favorite verses in this poem is v. 4, ”Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”. When I think about this passage, I imagine walking through a deep, dark valley filled with all kinds of evil and scary stuff. If I were to enter this valley on my own, I know that I would feel apprehensive at best and scared to death at worst. In fact, I might even be so afraid of what awaited me, I might not enter the valley. Yet, with the thought of the All-Powerful God walking through with me, not only am I willing to go, I am confident in the journey. In fact, my approach to traversing the valley is summed up in the confidence of Paul, “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31). We live in a world that is filled with...

I believe that one of the greatest challenges of Christianity is not being good enough. I think that, intellectually, we all know that we aren’t perfect, but when it comes to doing good deeds it is difficult to accept the fact that we can’t do it all. I know a lot of people who do a lot of good things, but they still struggle with the fact that they can’t help all the homeless, feed all the poor or save all the sinners. They invest so much into their efforts that, rather than seeing the good that they do, they focus on the failures. They just never feel accomplished. As I was thinking about this, I was reminded of a passage of Scripture that observers, “… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). I have been familiar with this passage for a long time and have often used it as a theological reality of the sinfulness of man, but I believe it speaks to many of us who just feel like we can’t do enough. Sure, we know that we fall short of perfection – we...