Today I am stepping across the line. I’m tired of waffling and I’m finished with wavering. I’ve made my choice; the verdict is in and my decision is irrevocable. I’m going God’s way. There is no turning back. I will live the rest of my life serving God’s purposes, with God’s people, on God’s planet, for God’s glory. I will use my life to celebrate his presence, cultivate his character, participate in his family, demonstrate his love, and communicate his Word.
Since my past has been forgiven, and I have a purpose for living and a home waiting in heaven, I refuse to waste any more time or energy on shallow living, petty thinking, trivial talking, thoughtless doing, useless regretting, hurtful resenting, or faithless worrying. Instead I will magnify God, grow to maturity, serve in ministry, and fulfill my mission in the membership of his family.
Because this life is preparation for the next, I will value worship over wealth, “we” over “me”, character over comfort, service over status, and people over possessions, position, and pleasure. I know what matters most and I will give it all I’ve got. I will do the best I can with what I have for Jesus Christ today. I won’t be captivated by culture, manipulated by critics, motivated by praise, frustrated by problems, debilitated by temptation, or intimidated by the devil. I’ll keep running my race with my eyes on the goal; not on the sidelines or on those running by me. When times get tough and I get tired, I won’t back up, back off, back down, back out, or backslide. I’ll just keep moving forward by God’s grace. I’m spirit-led, purpose-driven, and mission-focused so I can’t be bought. I will not be compromised, and I shall not quit until I finish the race.
I’m a trophy of God’s amazing grace so I will be gracious to everyone, grateful for every day, and generous with everything that God entrusts to me. I am a radical in the original sense of the word: rooted in Christ, rooted in love, and rooted in his Word.
I hereby declare my supreme allegiance to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I say this: However, whenever, wherever, and whatever you ask me to do, my answer is yes! I’m ready. Anytime. Anyway. Whatever it takes Lord; whatever it takes! I want to be used by you in such a way that on that final day I’ll hear you say, “Well done, good and faithful one. Come on in and let the eternal party begin!”
From Radicalis '10
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Dangers of Peephole Driving
As the recent winter approached, USA Today writer Larry Copeland wrote a story about the danger of "peephole" driving. Anyone who lives in the frozen north has likely been a peephole driver at some point. You're in a hurry to get to work on time, and when you walk out into the cold you find that your car is encased in a layer of snow and ice from an overnight storm. You start the car and turn up the heater. You get out your scraper and battle to chip out a clear space on your windshield. After a few minutes you have cleared away an opening the size of a large pepperoni pizza. You are now shivering and miserable, and you realize this will take 10 more minutes. So you move to the rear window and scrape off a narrower opening the size of a small sausage pizza with extra olives and do the same with the side windows. You throw caution to the frigid winds and get in the car and drive away.
Then it hits you: you can hardly see. You drive really slow and lean up close to the windshield and peer out your peephole and hope against hope that you don't run into anyone before the heater and defrosters melt more of the ice away from your windows. Worse yet, as you peer out your peephole, you notice that other drivers are peering out their peepholes!
Copeland's article ends with this warning from the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles: "Peephole driving is an invitation to disaster."
Peephole driving is an apt picture of what it's like to go through life with the limited vision that comes from limited understanding and wisdom—the kind of limitations that come from not knowing the Scriptures.
According to Acts 17:11. They "received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so."
How can you equip yourself for every good work without studying the Bible, when it is God's word that explains these good works (2 Tim. 3:16-17)? The Word seeks to provoke others to more love and good works (Heb. 10:24).
God is waiting for many to become doers of His word so He can begin to bless them, change them and give them His new nature (Gal. 4:19). He wants to give us His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Jesus came that you may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). If this is not true in your life now, it can be. Test what you read in the Bible by putting it into practice in your daily life. You will know the truth is the truth when you practice it toward others by serving them (John 3:21, 7:17; Matt. 23:11).
Prepared people must know and understand God's Word. They must know God's Will so they can do God's Will in their lives and not be foolish (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:17). They can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects and build godly character (good fruit) by making all their works or deeds acceptable before the Lord.
Don't live your life looking through a Peep-Hole.
Then it hits you: you can hardly see. You drive really slow and lean up close to the windshield and peer out your peephole and hope against hope that you don't run into anyone before the heater and defrosters melt more of the ice away from your windows. Worse yet, as you peer out your peephole, you notice that other drivers are peering out their peepholes!
Copeland's article ends with this warning from the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles: "Peephole driving is an invitation to disaster."
Peephole driving is an apt picture of what it's like to go through life with the limited vision that comes from limited understanding and wisdom—the kind of limitations that come from not knowing the Scriptures.
According to Acts 17:11. They "received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so."
How can you equip yourself for every good work without studying the Bible, when it is God's word that explains these good works (2 Tim. 3:16-17)? The Word seeks to provoke others to more love and good works (Heb. 10:24).
God is waiting for many to become doers of His word so He can begin to bless them, change them and give them His new nature (Gal. 4:19). He wants to give us His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Jesus came that you may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). If this is not true in your life now, it can be. Test what you read in the Bible by putting it into practice in your daily life. You will know the truth is the truth when you practice it toward others by serving them (John 3:21, 7:17; Matt. 23:11).
Prepared people must know and understand God's Word. They must know God's Will so they can do God's Will in their lives and not be foolish (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:17). They can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects and build godly character (good fruit) by making all their works or deeds acceptable before the Lord.
Don't live your life looking through a Peep-Hole.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Don't take Yes for an Answer
One of my inspirations is Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci ranks as one of the most curious and creative minds in history. Born on April 15, 1452, Leonardo dreamed of things never before imagined: a flying machine, a parachute, an extendable ladder, the bicycle, an adjustable monkey wrench, hydraulic jacks, a water-powered alarm clock, and for all of you concert lovers, the world’s first revolving stage. One biographer called him “the most curious man who ever lived.” But my favorite description of da Vinci? “He wouldn’t take yes for an answer..”
I love that approach to life. If you approach every person, every challenge, every situation with humble curiosity, it transforms them into learning opportunities. The outcome is no longer seen as success or failure, good or bad, positive or negative. The only measuring stick is this: what did you learn from it? Honestly, that mindset has helped me get through some difficult challenges. When I’m going through a tough time emotionally or relationally or spiritually, I figure I’m getting an education in those ares. When it gets really tough, I think of it as graduate work. Call it a Jedi mind trick. Call it a state of denial. All I know is this: that mindset has resulted in an experimental approach to life and ministry. I’m less afraid of failing, because I know it’s the best form of education. I’m less focused on getting out of situations and more focused on what I can get out of those situations. I’m less concerned with what I’m experiencing and more concerned with what I’m learning. Everyone and everything become part of my education. God redeems them and uses them to shape me into the person He wants me to become. And the learning process never ends.
God has created us with the capacity to keep learning until the day we die. And that isn’t something we should take for granted. The average brain is only the size of a softball and weighs approximately three pounds, yet neurologists estimate that we have the capacity to learn something new every second of every minute of every hour of every day for the next three hundred million years. Awesome, isn’t it? But it’s more than that. It’s also an awesome responsibility. Learning isn’t a luxury; it’s a stewardship issue.
It’s impossible to pinpoint what percentage of our minds we use, but there is untapped potential in all of us. Your imagination is capable of far more than you imagine, if I can say it that way. Yet somewhere along the way, most of us stop living out of imagination and start living out of memory. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. And that is the day we stop living and start dying. Why? Because we stop learning.
The word disciple comes from a Greek root that means “learner.” By definition, a disciple is someone who never stops learning. A true disciple makes the most of the 100 billion brain cells God has put on loan to him. A true disciple loves more because she knows more. A true disciple is consumed with holy curiosity that doesn’t take yes for an answer. The disciple keeps seeking and asking and knocking. And the quest is never over because the questions never end.
Leonardo da Vinci carried a notebook with him wherever he went. It’s estimated by some that da Vinci left fourteen thousand pages of notes to Francesco Melzi in his will. Nearly seven thousand pages still exist, and in case you care, Bill Gates purchased eighteen pages for $30.8 million in 1994. Da Vinci’s napkin scribbles ranged from botany to anatomy to philosophy to painting. And one of the things that made them remarkable is the fact that most of them were written using a technique called mirror writing. He wrote in reverse so the text could be read only when reflected in a mirror. But here is what truly inspired me. In the final days leading up to his death on May 2, 1519, Leonardo apologized to God and to man “for leaving so much undone.” He had done so much, but he felt like there was so much left to do. He had learned so much, but he felt like there was so much more to learn. And he was determined to keep learning until the day he died. So even on his deathbed, Leonardo was observing and describing, in scientific detail, the nature and symptoms of his illness.
I know this sounds strange, but I want to die the same way. I don’t want to die from the same illness. But I do want to learn something new the day I die. Why? Because I can. And because I believe that learning glorifies God when it’s done for the right reasons. And that reason is to know more so that you can love more.
So go ahead and live as if you’ll die tomorrow. But keep learning as if you’ll live forever.
After all, you will.
Mark Batterson is the pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC. His new book, PRIMAL: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, comes out December 22nd. Check-out his blog at www.evotional.com.
I love that approach to life. If you approach every person, every challenge, every situation with humble curiosity, it transforms them into learning opportunities. The outcome is no longer seen as success or failure, good or bad, positive or negative. The only measuring stick is this: what did you learn from it? Honestly, that mindset has helped me get through some difficult challenges. When I’m going through a tough time emotionally or relationally or spiritually, I figure I’m getting an education in those ares. When it gets really tough, I think of it as graduate work. Call it a Jedi mind trick. Call it a state of denial. All I know is this: that mindset has resulted in an experimental approach to life and ministry. I’m less afraid of failing, because I know it’s the best form of education. I’m less focused on getting out of situations and more focused on what I can get out of those situations. I’m less concerned with what I’m experiencing and more concerned with what I’m learning. Everyone and everything become part of my education. God redeems them and uses them to shape me into the person He wants me to become. And the learning process never ends.
God has created us with the capacity to keep learning until the day we die. And that isn’t something we should take for granted. The average brain is only the size of a softball and weighs approximately three pounds, yet neurologists estimate that we have the capacity to learn something new every second of every minute of every hour of every day for the next three hundred million years. Awesome, isn’t it? But it’s more than that. It’s also an awesome responsibility. Learning isn’t a luxury; it’s a stewardship issue.
It’s impossible to pinpoint what percentage of our minds we use, but there is untapped potential in all of us. Your imagination is capable of far more than you imagine, if I can say it that way. Yet somewhere along the way, most of us stop living out of imagination and start living out of memory. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. And that is the day we stop living and start dying. Why? Because we stop learning.
The word disciple comes from a Greek root that means “learner.” By definition, a disciple is someone who never stops learning. A true disciple makes the most of the 100 billion brain cells God has put on loan to him. A true disciple loves more because she knows more. A true disciple is consumed with holy curiosity that doesn’t take yes for an answer. The disciple keeps seeking and asking and knocking. And the quest is never over because the questions never end.
Leonardo da Vinci carried a notebook with him wherever he went. It’s estimated by some that da Vinci left fourteen thousand pages of notes to Francesco Melzi in his will. Nearly seven thousand pages still exist, and in case you care, Bill Gates purchased eighteen pages for $30.8 million in 1994. Da Vinci’s napkin scribbles ranged from botany to anatomy to philosophy to painting. And one of the things that made them remarkable is the fact that most of them were written using a technique called mirror writing. He wrote in reverse so the text could be read only when reflected in a mirror. But here is what truly inspired me. In the final days leading up to his death on May 2, 1519, Leonardo apologized to God and to man “for leaving so much undone.” He had done so much, but he felt like there was so much left to do. He had learned so much, but he felt like there was so much more to learn. And he was determined to keep learning until the day he died. So even on his deathbed, Leonardo was observing and describing, in scientific detail, the nature and symptoms of his illness.
I know this sounds strange, but I want to die the same way. I don’t want to die from the same illness. But I do want to learn something new the day I die. Why? Because I can. And because I believe that learning glorifies God when it’s done for the right reasons. And that reason is to know more so that you can love more.
So go ahead and live as if you’ll die tomorrow. But keep learning as if you’ll live forever.
After all, you will.
Mark Batterson is the pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC. His new book, PRIMAL: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, comes out December 22nd. Check-out his blog at www.evotional.com.
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