Modeling

I love working in education.  Now don't get me wrong, there are days that I get frustrated with the woes of working in public education.  The pay is terrible, and the hours can be long.  Many times I have to take work home.  And there are always those students, that no matter what you do, just don't care.  However, each child that comes to me and says thank you, or comes back to visit after graduation just to visit me and ask for help outweighs all of the bad.

Now one of the best strategies that I have for teaching, and coaching, is modeling.  I try to model what I expect them to do.  If it is an assignment, I show them how to work out some examples.  If it is a concept, I give them a chance to create a real life example, or I make up one, to help them visualize.  When I coach, I get on the field and practice with them.  I show them exactly what I want them to do, and do it with them.  To me, this is the best way to learn.  Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a good lecture every once in a while.  But, the best way to learn is by experiencing it.

The same is true with Christianity.  The best way to share it, is to show it.

John 5:36
"But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me."

Here Christ was telling of His testimony, not by words that He had said, but by the works that He did.  That was the testimony of who He was.  As we strive to be more Christ-like, we have to model what we learn in the bible.  It is not just enough to quote scripture.  Anyone can do that, and learn it.  But it is the actual application of it to our daily lives that is the biggest witness to others.  Do they here us and see us live it?  There are a lot of people in this world that are playing church.  As Revelations 3 teaches us, they are lukewarm.  Neither cold nor hot.  They put on a good show to go to church, but do their actions away from church show the same life.  When we model the Christian faith, or live it outwardly, we show the world a true look at what Christianity really is.  And not what they see and hear from TV and some internet counterfeits.

So, the question today is, what are you modeling?  Because, what we model is what we truly believe in.

Thanks for reading, and I pray that God will bless you all!

What is My Job as a Christian?

This is a question that I feel that a lot of professing believers may not be clear on.  I have on occasion asked this question to those around me and that I have contact with, and they have a hard time coming up with an answer.  Some have said that their job was to go to church every Sunday morning.  And I think to myself, is that all?  What about Sunday and Wednesday night? (Or whatever other services there are in the week)  Along with this answer I hear a lot of things that are jobs of the church.  They say their job is to be an usher, sing in the choir, or teach a class.  Now, do not get me wrong, we are called to serve.  And all of these things are necessary.  But, how do these things truly separate us from the world?  I am sure that most religions have people that do the same sort of things in their religious meetings.  What makes us different?

What we need to do is come to an understanding of what it truly means to be a Christian.  It needs to be clear every hour of every day of who we are, not by just what acts people see us do once or twice a week.

Philippians 3:7-11
"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

One of the biggest things we have to do as a Christian is to show where our priorities lie.  As the Apostle Paul taught in this set of scriptures, he counted everything that he lost as rubbish.  Another word for that is dung or manure.  Paul was a wealthy man.  He was a Pharisee and a Roman citizen.   He gave up everything that he had and was to follow Christ.  And it did not phase him to do so.  Why did he do it?  So that he could "know Him."  How many times do we gladly offer to give up the things that mean the most to us in order to serve our Lord better.  So I would say that job number 1 is to sacrifice.  Jesus paid the greatest price when He died for us.  So what right do I have to put things that I want ahead of what He wants?  What right do I have to take time set aside to worship Him at church to enjoy some other fun activity with the ones that I love or are close friends with.  If they really mean that much to me, I would want them to join me in worship of the Lord.  And this is not just about church meetings.  This is in everyday life.  The marquee at my church read a couple of months ago "What gets more of your time Facebook or the Bible?"  So, do we sacrifice on a regular basis, in order to serve Him better?

John 15:5
"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."
  
This is a big one.  Job number 2 is to produce fruit.  What are we doing that shows our faith?  What is the evidence that we are who we say that we are?  Are we going out and sharing the gospel?  Are we loving our enemies?  Are we obeying His commands without regard to how we are seen by the world?  All of these are questions that I think that it is good to ask ourselves everyday.  It helps us to keep our focus on Christ.  There are a lot people that can talk about going to church and even quote scripture in a comfortable situation.  But are we actually living it everyday?  Are we looking for opportunities to serve and honor Christ at all times?  If we are, there will be evidence of it.

Matthew 28:19-20
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." 

Job number 3 is to witness.  If we truly believe that Christ is who He says He is, then we should have the desire to share the gospel with others.  We should feel the need to go out and share the message of Christ whenever possible.  He did not say to go and get lost people and bring them to the church so the preacher could do.  He said to go and make disciples.  I think that part of this is almost foreign in some churches today.  I have talked to many people who believe that church is for the lost.  And I always respond then why do you go?  You see it is what my English teacher friends call an oxymoron.  There is this stigma that many people are lead to believe that it is all up to the pastor to do it and there is no support for that way of thinking in scripture whatsoever.  The pastor's job is to shepherd the flock.  The flock being the body of Christ, those that believe.  He is the one that is to make sure that we are getting taught the necessary tools to go out and witness.  It is our job to take what we learn at church and apply it to our lives, and to share with others that are lost.  Once that lost person comes to the point that Christ calls them because of the revelation of Himself to them, and they respond, then we bring them to church so they can learn as well.  Bottom line, it is up to us to do the witnessing.  Both by our words and our actions.

These are our main jobs.  This is what we have been called to do.  Many times it is uncomfortable and even scary.  But if Christ truly is our Lord, it will be worth it.  Nothing on this earth can compare to the glory of sitting at the feet of God in heaven when our time is up. We must be willing to sacrifice and even suffer in order to be truly His.

Thanks for reading, and I pray that God will bless you all this week! 

Am I On the Right Path?

This is a question that I find myself asking a lot while on my walk with Christ on this earth. Am I choosing the right way? Am I following God's will for my life? Am I trying to do things on my own? Sometimes I find that I go through life without considering what God would have me do in situations that come up. As I think about it now, it is like playing the game risk. Do I make moves on my own that may hold serious consequences if I am wrong, or do I place my trust in God for Him to guide me on the right path? Do I look for the advice of others, and give that equal value to what the scripture says? It seems like there are always going to be things that will pull us from our walk and get us off course. This reminds me of a set of scriptures from 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy 4:2-5
"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

How do I make sure I am on the right path? I need to stop, wait, and be ready. The first thing we should do is stop where we are. If you can not honestly say that what you are doing is pleasing in the sight of God, then it stands to reason that you might not be in the will of God. And this is a path that does not need to be traveled on. Because danger awaits us in the form of sin.

Genesis 4:7
"If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

Secondly we must wait on God to act, and show us the right path. Too many times we place our trust in other people. And usually the ones that say what we want to hear as described in 2 Timothy 4. We want our ears tickled. We want to believe what we are doing aside from God is justified. And we continue down the wrong path.

Lastly, we must be ready when God says move. The best way to be ready is constant devotion to the Word of God. Because by this, we draw nearer to God, and it is easier for us to hear God lead us on the right path.

Psalm 119:105
"Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path."

And when He speaks, we must go. It may not be the path that we think is right. It may be something that we really do not want to do. But, we need to realize that God looks at everything by the big picture. We see things just where we are.

I heard the story of a pilot who on many occasions flew from Charlotte to Wilmington in the course of a year. On one such trip, the air traffic controller gave the pilot a new course. Feeling that the course was incorrect, the pilot started to move back to the course that was familiar. Within seconds the air traffic controller radioed and asked why the pilot was changing course. The pilot explained that they felt they should be on a different course. The air traffic controller replied that if the pilot did change course, his small one seat air plane would crash into a 747.

So the question again, are we on the right path?

Thanks for reading, and God Bless you all this week!

How Do I Measure Up?

In my devotion entitled "What am I worth" last week, I expounded on what I felt my worth was as an individual in the sight of God. At the end of the devotion, I asked the question about how we are to look at ourselves and what kind of difference are we going to make. This week I want to continue on that train of thought to look at how I measure up to God's standards.

Amos 7:7-8
"Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. The LORD said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold I am about to put a plumb line In the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer."

It may be hard for some people to remember what a plumb line is. Back in the day, (a little before my time) someone building a house would use a plumb line to make sure the wall is standing up straight, and not leaning. They would attach a weight to a string and lower it from the top of the wall at a certain distance from the top of the wall. They would then look at the distance from the weight to the wall and determine how much adjusting they would have to do to the wall to make it straight. Now a days, we have replaced the plumb line with the level, which uses bubbles in a tube to make sure something is standing up straight. In the analogy above, God tells to prophet Amos that he was going to measure His people, and not continue to spare those that did not measure up. He was going to deal with them for their disobedience to His commandments.

If God were to put a plumb line on us, would He find that we measure up to His standards? I am sure that we would not. For none of us are good enough on our own to present ourselves righteous before God. There are many people today that have the idea of what my pastor likes to call "easy believeism". This is where people think that all they have to do is say that they believe in God and that is enough. But, that is not accurate with what the bible teaches.

Romans 10:9-11
"that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

Jesus as Lord. Lord meaning your master. This means that you choose to follow Him and all that He teaches. If we truly believe He is who He says He is, we will obey what He teaches and commands. Satan believes in God. He knows for a fact that Christ rose from the grave. He knows the bible better than any of us. Does that mean he will get into heaven?

John 14:15
"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."

Luke 6:46
"“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?"

So what can we do to help us measure up? Be faithful to Him. On our own we are nothing. But, if we devote our lives to Him, if we strive daily to look for ways to serve Him, these are the things that God looks at for us. What have we done with the gift that His Son gave? If we look at ourselves on a daily basis on how we measure up, it will help us to grow. We would be forced to face our sins and short comings and deal with them. All of this will help us to grow closer to God. Can we ever be perfect? No, but that is no excuse for not trying.

Thanks, and God Bless You All this week!

What am I worth?

I have always felt self reflection necessary to Christian growth. To take time to examine ourselves, to see if we are being true to our Lord. If we find an area in which we struggle, then we can focus on changing that to something that we are strong in. 1 Corinthians 11:28 reads "But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup." Now this verse is found in the teaching of observing the Lord's Supper, and should be done before taking of the Lord's supper because of the warning given in the context of the verse. However, we should not limit ourselves to this practice around the time of Lord's Supper at church. It should be a daily process. If we only look at what needs fixing every once in a while, we might be missing something all together.

In my self reflections lately, I have been asking the question, 'Am I doing all that I am supposed to?' And 'How does God see me when He looks at me?' The answer that I come up with was not too good. Was I as a person worth the price that Christ had to pay on the cross. It is hard sometimes to view ourselves in this light, and honestly I found myself fighting back the tears. Am I as a person, worth anything to God? Does He need me? Of course He doesn't. There is nothing good enough about myself on my own that is good enough for God. However, the amazing part is that He loves me anyway. He gave His life for me. Not because I deserve it, or because I think I am entitled to it. But, just because He loves me.

We need to live life in the thought of how can we make His sacrifice pay back dividends. Christ invested a lot in us. How much do we return the favor. I can only imagine what it was like to hang on a cross and forgive me for all the times I was going to fail. He thought about me! So what am doing? Am I trying my best to serve Him? Let's be honest. It is easier to be a Christian in the US than it is elsewhere in this world. People are dying in other countries because of what they believe. They are paying the ultimate price for their beliefs, while we sit all comfortable and cozy here. So, what can I do different that will make a difference here? These are questions that I encourage you to asks yourselves on a daily basis. Imagine what a change we could see in our spiritual lives if the first thing on our minds when we get up, is how can I best serve my Savior today, or how can I do better in serving my Savior today. Because it is not about me anymore, it is about Him.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless You all this week!