Prepare Now for the Battle to Come

Has the church shown its readiness for economic hard times?

That was the question being considered by Jorge Claudio in this post on Ed Stetzer's blog.

Below are my comment and prayer regarding that post:

Jorge,

Great observation!

I think I heard this from John Piper first. The church should ALWAYS be living with a "wartime" mentality. Not spending as fast as we get (or faster for that matter) but store for the long battles.

May we (especially myself) see the lifestyles we are forced to live in the lean times and strive to find a lifestyle that will sustain us and, by God's grace, others through every battle (short or long) for the sake of Jesus' name.

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts.

In Christ,
Matt Taylor

What do you think the church (as a whole and/or as individuals) needs to do to be prepared for the battles to come?

Farming the Fruit of the Spirit

Since the fall, farming has taken the sweat from the brow of man. We may not all be farmers now but we all know the effort we put in to bring food to the table. The fruits of our labor take great effort to get. But what about the fruit of the Spirit? Does that take effort to get?

I contend that it does. Paul told the Philippians and us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It is going to take effort to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. But thanks be to God that he is right there to help us! Paul continues by saying that it is God who is working in us.

Let's fight to display the fruits of the Spirit. We can praise God now for the desire within us and later when he brings forth fruit for the glory of his name.

Focused Fighting - Bible Reading

In my last post I spoke about fighting distraction and how this is for God's glory. It pierced my heart. Focus is such an important part of the good fight. There is so much that is vying for out attention. So where do we start?

We start with Bible reading. Focused Bible reading will start our minds on the path of spiritual thinking. It can reveal distractions in our hearts and need in the battle for joy. It will give us a place of refuge through out the day. It will keep us focused in the quiet and calm in the chaos.

Focus today on God's word written for your instruction and joy.

Faithful Focus

If you are like me you get distracted. SQUIRREL!! With sound bites and flashing lights everywhere there is plenty to be distracted by. Is this just an inconvenience or is there something deeper?

As I meditated on my own tendencies to drifting I thought about my calling. God calling me from death to life. That life has a focus. It has a drive. Anything that takes my eyes off that focus is antithetical to that focus. What is that focus? To bring glory to my Father who is in heaven!

The task at hand is where my Father desires me to give him that glory. So, if I am drifting off, even to good thoughts, I am taking away from the task at hand. Thus I am not putting all my effort into my focus.

Here is where I'm tempted to make excuses. But I refuse! May God work in my weakness to bring himself glory by showing himself strong through me. Do ALL to the glory of God. Not at the same time but each task in its time.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Holy and Acceptable? Who is?

This great question came into my mind as I meditated on the thoughts in this post. My heart was then provoked to make this comment:

There is a great balance in the life of the Christian. Jesus paid it all and all to him I owe. Yet sometimes we fall into believing that offering our bodies as living sacrifices will at some point pay God back. In this we imply that the holiness and acceptability of this sacrifice is within us.

May we be alert to all notions that rob Jesus of his glory. Our holiness is an alien holiness which comes from the only sacrifice that is holy in and of itself, Jesus.

Our end is to bring glory to God not to ourselves.

I Can See!

Until we know the darkness of blindness we will never know the joy of the blind man who receives his sight! The wonder of what he is seeing will always be foreign to we who have taken for granted the gift of sight. Yet there are many out there who don't even know that they are blind. This is the plight of the sinner. Always he will have blindness he is unaware of. Even for those who receive the grace of sight in this age it is a dim sight. Not until we stand before the face of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will we finally know what it is like to say, "I can see!"

If you want sight from Jesus you need to look in the mirror. Check out this mirror.

Close Your Eyes and Imagine

Imagine all is well. The economy is good. The government fulfills only its purpose. Neighbors laugh together at rotating neighborhood picnics. What's missing? Is there anything better? Wait where is Jesus? If you are like me, it is easy to get caught in a vision of "peace and tranquility." If we settle for this we are falling for yet another of Satan's lies. Jared Wilson does a great job in this post of articulating this common American problem.

Let's remember. It's all about Jesus not "peace and tranquility."