Answering Why am I Here?

Problem with us today is not that we are perturbed waiting on the “Next Big Thing”.

The problem is that the “Big Thing” has happened but we looking for something else. 

A thing about us humans is that we are never satisfied. 

I have a new iPhone and I want the Apple Watch. I have a cookie but I want two. Well eight. I have a girlfriend, but I want her to give me more thrill in the relationship. I have a job, but I want high pay grade and a better office space. And a Ferrari. 

It’s like we are born with a void, a chasm inside our souls that never can be filled. Or that it can be filled but not with what we are filling it with. 

What happens when I kept my dog Sharp in a bird cage for a week. Well, he starts tearing everything inside the cage, barking at every two feet that passes by him, and poor him spinning in circles until he spills his water bowl and then falls into a “doggy depression”. 

He is a dog. While I had him in there to protect him from the poison that had been placed in the yard that would kill him, he wasn’t made to live in a bird cage. He was made to bark, frolic and run, and slobber my face with his wet licks. 

Maybe the problem in your life is not that you’ve grown tired barking at squirrels but that you are in the bird cage trying to squawk. 

We’ve have been pitched by books, speakers and speakers with books to live life on purpose, but how can I live a “purpose driven life” if I don’t know what my purpose in life is? 

Have you asked yourself yet: “Why am I here?” 

Even if you were made by a cosmic accident, what reason do you have to roll out of bed and make most of the day? 

I don’t know about you but it is bothersome to dress differently each day just to quiet the noise of bothersome people who noticed I wore the same pants twice. 

The one great thing about college is that your “Monday, Wednesday and Friday” class doesn’t know what you wore on “Tuesday and Thursday”. I did take this advantage. 

What is your reason for living today? 

Can I say that I don’t have the faith that I am an accident and therefore life is really meaningless. What meaning is there if your origin was meaningless? 

I grew up in church, and I never asked these questions, because theology just has this “God is” answers to my internal curiosity. 

It wasn’t until one day in high school that my art teacher kept me in class to finish a project. While we sat in silence, we attempted to break the sound barrier. Soon enough she asked me about my life and being a son of a pastor, religion instantaneously became a centerpiece in the conversation. 

She wasn’t rude but very perturbed. She was perturbed that most my answers to her questions was “because”. 

“Why are you living in Antigua?”

“Because my family were called to be missionaries” 

“How do you know you were called?” 

“Because God told my parents to leave America to serve here in Antigua.” 

I stood behind my answers until she asked me what I wanted to do with my life. 

I told her a pastor. She asked why and I told her because I always wanted to be pastor “because” my dad was a pastor and “because God called me”. 

She turned from me and  watched the sun beams glare from off the table. It seemed she was gathering energy from that beam, because she brought her eyes up and then gazed deeply into my eyes. She pierced into the window of my soul with her sharp blue eyes. 

Her wrinkled lips drew opened. Drawing a breath, she calmed the frightening silence but yet stirred what will be a tempest in my heart. 
“But what do you want to do?”
Her simple question complicated my life. I confidently knew what I want to do in life and still today I am still want to pastor. 

It’s wasnt what she said but what she meant by what she said. 

My high school art teacher struck an unsung cord in me, for the first time in my life, I challenged my beliefs. 
Let pause to say this: If you have beliefs and cannot challenge them, then they aren’t worth believing. 
Even the Bible says test what you hear. Her question wasn’t divine inspiration, but I did began testing my belief. 

I openly questioned the inconsistencies I saw in church. My pastor thought I was being defiant, but I recognized a frailty that did not match their convictions which they were persuading people to adhere to. 

I did ask myself that question “why am I here?” 

Last year in high school was complied with depression and apathy. My parents saw it best that I changed my geography for a little bit. 

A cruise is a good idea. Being clergy, I was sent to a Christian ship. But this ship carried a genre of Christian that most of us in the world have yet to encounter. 

Day one, my brother and I learned that ties and a tucked in shirts weren’t not the symbols of a righteous person. Love was the shirt men and women wore. 

Men like Alex from Uruguay who at the break down of our faithful ice cream machine, stilled the angry mob with a ray of unearthly compassion. The forecast of their faces turned with burning red to beaming as they clustered around him as he laughed, apologized and touched them with a warmth of sincerity. 

I lost my composure, because I never spectated such compassion all in one being at one moment. Besides mother of course, that’s a given. 

I grew up impressing people with my theology on Sunday morning then fighting with my siblings on Sunday night. I boarded that ship with the demand to be on the fore front of ministry. 

“I want to preach to the people” but they sent me to their little snack booth. I stood mystified in my little red uniformed shirt at Alex, because I had earlier yelled at some customers. 

He received the same harsh words and rude language that I received, but he responded differently. He didn’t fight for his right to be treated properly. He humbled himself and made the word “love” into an action. 

I cried in my cabin, beating my chest while I chanted “I want that. I want that. I want that.” 

He has something that I don’t see much on our planet. 

Could one posses something more pure than  religious piety and ceremonial ritual?

Is there something underneath the surface of human harmony that is deeper and more sincere than social tolerance? 

I realized for him to live this way he had some purpose to his life. I wish I can say that in my search to find his purpose I did so in a “piteous manner” (Christian way). 

I attempted to get him angry, make him stumble. I wore the devilish horns for a week, but he always maintained this gracious responsive manner. 

Then I threw down my hands and stopped “barking” and just watched him. 

I watched him play football (soccer) and when he was fouled though angry he reacted positively. I watched him converse with his friends, and he always seemed to me to be the central figure, because he lived in this constant loving way that drew people around him. 

I coveted his life and soon enough he started to answer my question. Providentially, he started to work more with me. There I saw his humanness. He did “sinned” like he lose his patience, and few days didn’t pull his share of the work, but what I didn’t see him was his gracious behavior. 

It came out in him saying, “John, I’m sorry”, and “John, you’re right”. I’m not trying to make him a deity but there was something internally differently about him. He was graciously kind enough to share it with me. 

It was Jesus. I worked for him the next month and saw he was just as human as I was but there was like two Persons living inside him. There was Alex and there was this Jesus. 

Jesus would come out of every time he apologized. He would come out every time work was hard, but there he would burst into a joyful rave and inspire us to push the day through. He would come out of his conversations where at the sound of his name, his eyes would expand with such delight and thrill like “this Guy is amazing John, I’m telling you”. 

Some nights, I stayed up under a light and read the books that talked about Jesus. The more I read the more I saw that this Man had some purpose that outlived His work and earthly life. A purpose that endured the rejection, the scorn and persecution. A purpose while he hung accused, sentenced, left to die, He could look at each person that unjustly kill Him and say “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”
I dived deeper into the Bible, and I saw that I was closer to the Truth than I thought but yet still far off. I realized that we all have a purpose but it isn’t found in ourselves. It’s found in God. 

He made us for us as His masterpiece, intended to live a life of doing good things he planned for us long ago (‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭10‬). He planned a life for me and you that wasn’t disastrous, but it had a future and a hope that was worth living (Jeremiah‬ ‭29‬:‭11‬). 
I realized my depression in high school that climaxed in not graduating was just a moment that did not define my life. I realized on that old rusty ship that I wasn’t made to be somebody but to know somebody. 
You can say Jesus is some kind of thought up idea to control society, but I say seek Him for yourself.

I had to listen to atheistic art teacher and question my beliefs enough to see the purpose to why I build my life around them. 
Maybe you can’t see yourself walking into a church building. Maybe that’s too much. 

But Jesus isn’t a steeple with a cross. He is a Person that relates to all our weaknesses, for He faced all the same hardships as we as humans face (Hebrews 4:16); yet He is also God Who made a life for you that outlives the useless pursuits of happiness in a life that on average ends at 75. 

And He is the purpose that filled the chasm of that Urguain man. 
What if today you gave in to my appeal and just looked for Jesus? 

What if you for one day diverted from your regular routine and charted a different course? A course that led into the presence of Jesus. 
Sounds wild. Maybe not yet. 

Maybe this whole time God has been Someone behind the door at the end of the hall that you only knew as much as you can see through the little keyhole. 
Maybe you just needed an opportunity such as this and be invited to open the door and see Him fuller. 

Maybe it will be end of how you live life and what you call freedom. But what if losing yourself you found a greater gain? 
A purpose that fulfills you. Someone that completes you. A life that satisfies you. 
A book in the Bible says: 
“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (Psalms‬ ‭34‬:‭8‬ NKJV)
Give God a chance to give you His promise to completely satisfy you. 
He has promised to direct to a life that will bring meaning and joy to you. 
“You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalms‬ ‭16‬:‭11‬ NKJV)
If Jesus does exist as God that makes Him the source of life and pretty everything. And if that’s our conclusion doesn’t that make Him the source of all pleasure? 
And if He is the Source of all pleasure, what meaning is there for us to be content with a life that is short of this experience?

Your purpose in life includes a plan that will satisfy you. 

And you know what? If you really look for it, I think you will find the “Next Big Thing”. 

Seeking Jesus for the first time, read the Gospel of Mark. Meet a Man that wasn’t just a Man. 

Seeking Him again? I invite you to read the book of Philippians. Encounter a joy that cannot be robbed by bad days, a joy found in being with Jesus. 

Looking for Elsewhere

 Elsewhere is a place for hearts that can never find a belonging. They are always wandering, looking for somewhere that will give them a sense of security. But they will never find it, because what they are really looking for is not out there. 

Driven with this restlessness, a son leaves home. He demanded his share of his father’s inheritance that was coming to him when his father died. Taking his share of his father’s wealth, the son ventures out for elsewhere. 

“And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.” (‭Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭13‬ NKJV)

Relocated, the son enjoys some wild living, he exhausts everything he has on things he didn’t need, on people who didn’t like him, on places he shouldn’t be, with aspirations he will never find in any of them. 

See the thing is, belonging is never where you are. Geography doesn’t give meaning to anyone. It’s not where you are that fulfills you, it’s who you’re with. 

So happens after the son has wasted all his money, that a famine swept in, and he began to starve. He looked for elsewhere to meet his need but he only met rejection. 

Desperation persuaded him to feed pigs which was the epitome of desperation in this ancient culture. He was so hungry that he even craved the slop of the pigs, but not even that would anyone give him.

Sometimes you need to lose what you have to appreciate the value of it. 

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” (‭Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭17‬ NKJV)

The son came to his senses and realized his problem was that he was discontented. Everything he needed was at home. 

Somewhere to belong is an ache many of us struggle with. It cries from inside us and we feel it needs to be answered. But it’s lie. It’s just a shade of being discontented with what has become too normal to cope with. It’s an insecurity that my present circumstances will not give me fulfillment. Relocation is a bad thing if it serves a means to escape a feeling of discontentment. 

Feeling that he didn’t deserve the right to be part of the family anymore, he decides to ask his father to take him as a slave. 

“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” (‭Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭20‬ NKJV)

While he contemplated, his father caught sight of him and with his heart pounding, he ran to his son. He lost nights of rest, he spent days with his eyes over the horizon, looking for his child to come home. 

In his culture, it was improper and bad for old men to run, but this father didn’t care. He wasn’t a whole since his son left. He lost a part of himself that if it return, he was not going to let anything keep him from getting it back. 

He ran on air until the father broke his son’s standing, throwing him into his chest. His son muffled his speech inside his father, but his father wasn’t listening. 

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.” Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭22-24‬ NKJV)

The son returned home finding all that he recklessly looked for was right under his nose. The son like many of us was ungrateful. He imagined love, acceptance and joy would be among a different group of warm bodies. But true love was right around him, waiting for him and merry when he got home. 

Sometimes, to have what you want, you have to want what you have. 

Elsewhere is somewhere that takes you anywhere because it’s nowhere. 

Where you need to be and where you actually want to be is around those you do love you. Being human sometimes causes us to disregard that. But where you belong sometimes is who you are with. 

Be grateful. 

Still long way off for some of you, there is a God Who’s heart is pounding, waiting for you to come to Him (or even come back to Him). He is anxious for to hear your voice, to feel your presence, to know you are His. There is no distance to His love for long ago He said: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” (‭Jeremiah‬ ‭31‬:‭3‬ NKJV). He won’t relent until He has you. He will wait until the sun sits under the sky and when it rises again for you to find Him. 

Let God love you. 

God’s Pleasure: He Wants You

  We aspire to answer the question: am I wanted? Too often our heart strings are racing to be  entangled with whatever hope of someone possibly loving us. We relish at any attention we’re given, either negative or postive, because we are captivated by the thought that someone desires us. 

The long fall back to earth happens at the reality we attained less of our sense of self worth. Wounds cut deep to realize someone we assume cared about us only acted in such a way for their own selfish gain. 

Trust is hard earned today. Honestly, why should we blame anyone for keeping such a guard? We can’t see sincerity in face value as much anymore.

But as cliché as it sounds: God wants us…for us

“Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:5, 6 NKJV)

God determined beforehand by Jesus Christ to adopt you. He decided that when at your coming to Him to be saved from all wrong that would destroy you, He was going to bring you into His family. And he did for the praise of the glory: He did it because He was pleased to do it. 

Being belonged to God is something that makes Him happy! 

How unfathomable is that? It’s inconceivable enough that God would want to save us in the first place.

It was justice for the terrorist Osama Bin Laden to die, because of he was responsible for the death of countless thousands that are still piling today. What scares me is that God sees it justice by sending everyone to Hell. 

God commanded: The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. (Ezekiel 18:20 NKJV)

That means that the person who sins will die. Sin is whenever you displease God. You displease God when you lie and you displease God for not thanking Him for life. Both are sin. It feels harsh but God made man to make Him happy. Not vice versa. 

He will be individually responsible for his wickedness against God and be punished. Romans 3:10 declares that there is none good. We have all missed the mark. 

The justice of a righteous God demands punishment for every crime against His precepts. The sentence God placed for our disobedience to His precepts is death.

At the shooting of Osama Bin Laden, could we imagine someone taking the bullet for him. No! We all wanted to see him die. He deserved to lose his life for taking so many others’ lives away. 

God is not a man. He looks at wrong differently from us. He doesn’t measure wrong. He sees a toddler throwing the pacifier across the room as bad as a terrorist planning to drive two planes into two skyscrapers to kill people. I lost an uncle at 9/11. He sees every wrong inexcusable and worthy of punishment.  

All that is within me cried for the head of Bin Laden, but at the same place when I first disobeyed God, all heaven cried for my death.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (Ephesians 2:4, 5 NKJV)

God loved us so much that while we were dead because of our wrong, He gave us life through Christ. God wanted us. And how much: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 NKJV)

Its overwhelming to imagine all that it took for God to bring us to state of being clear of wrong. Christ became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Every nasty thing, every secret fault, every evil deed, every selfish motive- Christ became that so you could literally have a clean slate.

I have cried at this fact of Christ dying to save me from death because of my sin and to give me a right standing with God. What also causes my eyes to become teary is to see that God didn’t just saved me from sin but He also adopted me. He made me a part of His family.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: (John 1:12 NKJV)

All who believe Christ, God decided to give them the right to be His children! We are born into this family not by human passions or plans that can later be regretted by a parent who has lost concern for his offspring. 

We are born into God’s family by God’s choice. This is what God wanted to do. According Ephesians 1:6 (see top), it gave Him great pleasure to do it.

Just allow your mind to entangle itself around the idea that God loved you at your worst and saved you with His best (the cost of Your Son) and then poured out His love on you by making you a part of His family. I leave you with a story that has impressed me gravely to understand God’s extravagant love.

Indeed if anyone has reason for justice it was Adele. At a genocide in Rwanda, Adele lost her husband. She saw as attackers came and flay his body with a machete. She saw as they slit his throat. As her husband fell to the ground that was a pool of his own blood, the pastor cried out to God to forgive his attackers. These men turned on Adele. They sliced her face deeply. Everyday a mirror shows her great scar. Adele was left among dead bleeding from her face, back and her wrist at the cuts of machetes. Three years it took her to recover. For many it would take a lifetime to even to consider forgiveness. Not Adele.

“I could be a bitter, angry, resentful old woman, but I’m not going to do that.”

Adele started going to the prisoners and mothered the very men who had attack her village. One day Adele met Luis. She met him prostrated before her, kissing her feet and crying bitterly. Adele examined the trembling man and saw that Luis was the man that had killed her beloved husband and the man that marked her face. A man’s love draws its limits at such a woeful event, but Adele was filled richly with a love we saw earlier in God.

Luis asked, “Adele, would you forgive me?”

Adele bent over as the Father did from the clouds of heaven and pulled Luis up as God did from our place of unwantedness. She looked into Luis’ eyes and said, “Luis, I forgive you.”

The story could end there, but it doesn’t. Luis was released for good behavior, but he entered society unwanted. Then entered Adele. Adele found Luis and she saw these words, “Luis, you come and I will adopt you as my son.”

How much does God love you? Enough so that He made death so that it would be difficult for you to remain in wrong. Enough that He made a way for you to escape punishment by the cost of His dear Son. Enough so that He decided to make you His child when you ask for His forgiveness. And it was His great pleasure.

You are wanted.

Loving Beyond

Loved people always love. 

We love “because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Foreign to our idea of love is God’s way of loving people. 

God wants us as loved people to always love others. 

On a mountain, Christ rallies His new band of followers. In front of a large, restless crowd who have jumbled together to hear this Nazarene, Jesus addresses Who we refer to as the disciples, giving them a different way to love: 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust”. (Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭43-45‬ NKJV)

Contrary to the tradition of loving your neighbors and hating your enemies, the love Christ prescribed to His disciples was to be transcendent of maltreatment from others and consistent even to wicked people. 

Familiar with the law, the disciples were very much challenged not to avenge themselves against their adversaries but to act as children from the Father that shows compassion on the just and the unjust unlike. 

This brand of love the Father exhibits doesn’t show any bias. Christ called His followers to love as people belonged to God Who supplies sunlight and rain to the good and evil. 

This love of God intends for us is to bring our best to even people who only gives us their worst. We respond in love regardless of how people treat us. 

You love beyond the love of others, because you are a part of a family who loves extravagantly. 

Being in a family includes unique traits. As a Bell, we talk with our hands. We all do it. It doesn’t matter who is in front of us, our hands are part of the conversation. There are like extensions of the lips. 

Being children of God, it’s part of the profile to love beyond commonality. Because our Father is love. 

We reflect the love of the Father that sees everyone important despite their criminal record or attitude at the stoplight. We love, because it’s part of being in the family of God. 

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (‭I John‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬ NKJV)

Live a life of love. 

When Love Costs You Everything

In a true act of love, you bring something very special to offer – yourself.

A bus driver from China demonstrated an act of true love when he didn’t look out for himself but for the good of his passengers. He was traveling down the highway like he did everyday. On this routined route sat the driver behind the wheel quiet and collected. Suddenly, a piece of metal from a vehicle from the other side of the road smashed the windscreen and struck the bus driver. Such injury would excuse excitement, but not Wu Bin.

Wu the bus driver, in extreme pain, calmly brought the bus to a halt. He put on the emergency lights on and opened the down. Himself he could not save, but his passengers he could.

Wu rose from his seat painfully. Passengers describe his face being pale and sweaty. Wu professionally told everyone to call the police and to safely evacuate the bus. Wu then passed out. Three days later, Wu died from that metal debris that had caused a liver rupture and several rib fractures.

Seldom do we think less of ourselves for the concern of others. Wu wasn’t concern for his own good, but for the good of his passengers. By 1 Corinthians 13:5 we realize that “love does not seek its own.” Love is not out for a recompense for its acts from its beneficiaries. If so, it would be hard to say that salvation by Christ is a free gift.

If there is any gain in love, it is in the joy of seeing someone else benefit by us giving of ourselves.

A real outworking of love is found in 1 John 3:16: “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

Christ showed us the picture of true love. Paul was right when he said in Romans 5:7 that “scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.”

Seldom would someone disagree that Jesus was not just any man. Christ said: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:13 NKJV).” He did practice what He preached when He bore our sins on the cross so that we may live forever.

I saw a quote on Facebook by Not Today Coalition which said: “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.”

Wu became a hero by simply stopping a bus and calming his passengers. Actions speak louder than words. Let us live with a concern for others.

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (I John 3:18 NKJV)”

Desiring God vs Dating

There is such a great wealth in being content with desiring God. It is futile to live to culminate earthly treasures that will ultimately sift through our fingers when we leave earth at death.

And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. (I Timothy 6:8 NKJV)

So what about romance? There is nothing under this profile of contentment in 1 Timothy 6 that talks about being content with being single!

After all, wasn’t God who said, “It is not good that man should be alone.” (Genesis 2:18 NKJV)?

God did said that. In fact, Proverbs 18:22 says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord.”

So what’s the problem, John? I find a wife: it makes God happy, and He even blesses me with His favor.

I interrupt the eharmony chat room only on this ground: Is she/he the upmost pursuit to win your greatest interest? In other words, is she the center of your drive through life?

If so, you might need to evaluate.

Check this out. You’ve decided to follow the Son. I mean that’s why you’re reading this blog right?…right?

Then what does this verse convey to you?

If then you were raised with Christ [dead to sin and now alive in Christ as this new creation] seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1 NKJV)

Seek Heaven’s treasures: golden streets, big mansions, loved ones and crowns. No. Seek those things which are above: where Christ is. The things we glean from above is the outcome as we set on eyes on Jesus. The focus is Christ. He is our life.

Read what follows verse three:

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3 NKJV)

This new life we have been rebirthed in is inside Christ. So we set [our] mind on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2 NKJV) because Christ is literally our life now.

I’m all for relationships! I just want you to see that Christ is crazy about you.

You know enough that in any romantic relationship, you need to give your everything for that person. Christ gave Himself for you that He might redeem you from sin. And it goes on. Read Ephesians 1 and see some great blessings of God you have in Christ!

He is jealous over you (Ex 34:14). In my opinion, I wouldn’t venture in a relationship, if you’re cheating on your first love!

Being content in God is great wealth in itself. Romance should never steal your heart from loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5 NKJV)

Enjoy relationships but enjoy God more.

Prize the Moment!

How can we live everyday and not be moved by the awesome fact that, those who are in Christ, possess an immediate, intimate, inspiring, lively relationship with Almighty God?

When Martha had Jesus all to herself, she busied herself! How can you entertain the God in Man at your home and be distracted with serving?!

Jesus diverted her back to what was important: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41, 42 NKJV)

Martha’s sister, Mary, seized the moment to be at the feet of Jesus. While I’m sure whatever Martha was preoccupied with was important, being alone to enjoy Christ is an advantageous privilege in itself.

Serving God is vital; but don’t let that work supersede your relationship with Christ. He is a Treasure to be prized!

Eph 2:8> Joy of Grace!

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, “(Ephesians 2:8 NKJV)

Don’t forget your roots!

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…”(Romans 8:1 NKJV)

You are justified by God’s grace. God had not “dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.” (Psalms 103:10 NKJV)

Rather, He gave freely His Son Jesus to pay the wages of sin. The gift of God is eternal life (Rom 3:23)!

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7 NKJV)

You are redeemed. “…He made us accepted in the Beloved”. (Ephesians 1:6 NKJV)

Take pride in it. Brag about it. Facebook!

Let Jesus know your joy too:

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You. (Psalms 5:11 NKJV)

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There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. (I John 4:18 NKJV)

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Thank Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for your selfless effort to unite a nation by our character and not by our color. I have a white dad and a black mom, so I would not technically be alive if it you weren’t for you.

I look forward to personally thanking you someday up there….