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Showing posts from November, 2009

All or Nothing

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” -Jesus (Matt 10:39) This verse above follows some of the hardest verses when asked about discipleship. In these set of verses Jesus uses the illustration that a true follower of Christ puts everything behind himself except Jesus. Your family, your friends, your loves, your desires, your dreams and your goals, all are secondary to Him. Jesus commands nothing but the ultimate. He demands we pledge Him everything. Then after we give everything, He asks us to take up our cross and follow. The cross we bear are things we may not want to do, but for His Kingdom’s sake, we do it. We do it with out complaint, with out sorrow, without a nagging attitude, we do it with our whole heart and mind in it. Though this seems tough, and though it does not seem fair, Jesus gives us a glimmer of hope, that if we loose our life for Him, we will find it. Working for a church I always hear about how much someo

You SUCK!

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” 2 Cor. 7:10 I like this, it’s the politically correct way of saying, YOU SUCKED! YOU WERE TERRIBLE, YOU WERE LOSERS. I like it. Paul here explains that sometimes it is good to make people sad, not in an evil malicious way, but if done in a caring, Godly, and holy way, God brings you to sorrow it is good! I mean it is good. Prior to this in his previous letter to the Corinthians, Paul at some points of his letters basically tells them “hey you are doing terrible. You guys are not following, you are bickering, you guys suck!” But int his case, it swings the Corinthians to action. They become more keen to the areas that God needs them to be sharp in. Since they were offended and hurt they were able to have their eyes open. They were able to see what is good and what is not so good. They were able to see where they thought there were righteous, but were so wrong to beg

Action and Reaction

“But by the grace of God I am what I am , and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary , I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but God’s grace with me.” 1 Cor. 15:10 Paul here in one sentence shows us how to work with God in our lives. Yes work with God, not God work for us. Paul also talks about how grace is good, but he shows us that though you may be saved by grace, and God may be moving in your life, it is important that you just don’t let His grace sit there. While you are saved by His grace but that you are moved to action, and moved to take His grace and impact the world around you. God’s grace isn’t supposed to be just a one time thing but a starting point for your life to move. Paul’s lesson here is quite unique. I am quite frequently a Christian of stillness. I sit rather than move. I am a slouch. I rest in the past and not moved to move. But here Paul refreshes me and says that God’s grace should move us, it should compel us, it should b