Whats the main difference between spiritual giants and immature, thumb suckin, blanket draggin, snot nosed babes in Christ? You guessed it, CONSISTENCY! Ever wonder why your relationship with your wife is strugglin? Well I do, and its either because Im not walkin stride for stride with God or He is not the pivotal point in our marriage. She can be on fire and I could be on fire, but if we arent on fire as a couple then our logs are gonna get wet. Why are you fallin back into your old ways of partyin, or cussin, or chasin the tail? Cause you aint consistently spendin quality time with t he Lord. You wanna know your in Gods will, be blessed by Him, have peace, joy and contentment? Heres some things you could do to consistently deliver when God calls your number.
--- Pray without stopping, that means in the mornin, afternoon, evening and in between.
With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints Ephesians 6:18
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42
---Study Gods Word
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. Palm 1:2
---Surround yourself with Godly men that will hold you accountable.
He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. Proverbs 13:20
---Clean up the crap that goes into your ears and eyes. Movies, music....or anything else that is not pleasing to God. I promise, the less garbage you take in the less will come out.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your s piritual act of worship. Romans 12:1
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
Fellas, its real easy. Dont get bitter get better. Dont make excuses why you cant, step up and deliver. God doesnt want mediocrity or inconsistency. He wants to use men that are out on the lines every single day! Men that are willing to get cut wide open for the cause of Christ. I often wonder why of the 55 people on this list do only a handful ever comment? Maybe the nuggets are stale, maybe we got the wrong addresses or maybe you are just one of those guys that sit in the cut and let everyone else do the work. Do you know what its like to share and hear crickets? Let me speak for the other few men that step up and share their hearts. IT AINT EASY BEING TRANSPARENT! It aint easy bein a member of a 10,000 member church and seein the huge amount of need. It aint easy hearin folks say "round here 20% of the peolpe do 80% of the work." Sorry, just makes me wanna puke. God blesses us all with spiritual gifts, unfortunately I dont have the compassion gift.
Is bein consistant on the field, court, classroom, office, sales sheet or whatever field youre in more important than being consistant with your walk with Christ? Is your personal gain more important than His gain? Lets just end by sayin,20thats not where you really wanna be. Lets do some Kingdom building, not me building.
In His Grip right now,
Sam
---Clean up the crap that goes into your ears and eyes. Movies, music....or anything else that is not pleasing to God. I promise, the less garbage you take in the less will come out.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your s piritual act of worship. Romans 12:1
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
Fellas, its real easy. Dont get bitter get better. Dont make excuses why you cant, step up and deliver. God doesnt want mediocrity or inconsistency. He wants to use men that are out on the lines every single day! Men that are willing to get cut wide open for the cause of Christ. I often wonder why of the 55 people on this list do only a handful ever comment? Maybe the nuggets are stale, maybe we got the wrong addresses or maybe you are just one of those guys that sit in the cut and let everyone else do the work. Do you know what its like to share and hear crickets? Let me speak for the other few men that step up and share their hearts. IT AINT EASY BEING TRANSPARENT! It aint easy bein a member of a 10,000 member church and seein the huge amount of need. It aint easy hearin folks say "round here 20% of the peolpe do 80% of the work." Sorry, just makes me wanna puke. God blesses us all with spiritual gifts, unfortunately I dont have the compassion gift.
Is bein consistant on the field, court, classroom, office, sales sheet or whatever field youre in more important than being consistant with your walk with Christ? Is your personal gain more important than His gain? Lets just end by sayin,20thats not where you really wanna be. Lets do some Kingdom building, not me building.
In His Grip right now,
Sam
4 comments:
My initial reaction to this dynamite was to present a discussion on the things we are individually doing to be more consistent and to serve the Kingdom. I thought that we might actually present to the group our own personal fruit basket for everyone else to munch on. In other words, since we are not in one another's presence we could view each other's fruits by sharing what we are actually doing to further the Kingdom. However, with more thought I fear this would be a dangerous tight rope to venture out upon. I fear this initial idea is too inviting to our rivals, pride and envy. Therefore, I present this challenge in a new way that still requires participation and accountability. First, lets each examine ourselves as if we were going to give an account of our Kingdom service and then simply share what we learned from our self examination without an actual fruit basket on display. Good idea/bad idea? Sam through the challenge out there so who wants to play?
Father, guide us and direct us to take on this challenge in a way that will strengthen our relationship with You. Keep us humble and in service to one another and You our King. We love you and thank you for e-Fellowship. Thank you Jesus!
-TEvans
Would you mind if i got a common mans definition of exactly what the challenge is? I think I got it but I don't want to rant about the wrong thing. Basically, talk like everybody else i've ever met from Georgia....
Example for Adam "Layman" Wainwright: Currently God is revealing to me that the Christian walk isn't easy it takes relentless effort to produce fruit. Being content with what I did last week breads a lukewarm mentality that opens the door to the prospect of my heart being hardened. For example I am on a team with a guy who is 37 (still playing) and his heart is so caloused to christian music and pretty much the entire idea of Phil. 4:8. He is the leader of any clubhouse because he has a commanding presence (gift from God) and he doesn't understand how worldly he has become as he blends in with the non-believers. To make connections with people we don't need to talk like them, act like them, work like them, etc... We need to love on them unconditionaly and serve them like Jesus would. It may take a while to get them to open up or warm up but we can't chase the acceptance of men and God at the same time. We serve God period. I want to say something to this guy but I haven't been disciplined to pray about it. I have mentioned some things to him but non of it has been intentional enough to get somewhere. So today I am throwing this guy on my prayer list and I will let you all know what happens. I recently read a book called "Worldliness" by durham's main guy CJ Mahaney. It has charged me up about a couple things and it is worth the read, it is short and will give you a "cup check". I love what is happening here, nice work Sam and Terry. Who's next? Durham?
Sam, I feel our walks may be eerily similar. Sound like our baseball paths took a similar road, where talent takes you just so far then I forgot to take my Focus Factor pill for a few years and poof, career over. Then you start hitting me with the marriage walk and it gets even closer to home. I feel the same way sometimes. Either I am hot and she is cold in the Walk or vice versus and we just wave to each other as we swing to the other side.
All in all, this piece has broken me. I am not doing enough of any of the challenges listed. On the other side of this catch 22, even when we are 'on fire' we know in our hearts that we could be doing more. It is the daily grind just like everything else in life, which is why so many people walk around vapid on meds trying to get themselves happy in some way. We as christians have the greatest gift of all in this life and that is a light at the end of the tunnel. We know what is at the finish line. We have a goal. You can break down the human behavior we see everyday of putting up walls and people protecting themselves from feelings and harm because they are scared or nervous. No hope, or calm of what lies in the End Game.
I guess I could take this post as a kick in the butt or a pat on the back, but either way it is time to get right or get left.
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