Finding a common ground

"When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessing." (1 Corinthians 9:22-23)

One of my favorite things about Paul was the sacrifices that he was willing to make to spread the Good News. He sacrificed everything, and he found common ground with everyone. Life changed more for everyone in the past 2 years than ever before. To find common ground is extremely difficult. 

Right side, left side, mask, no mask, vaccine, no vaccine...to name a few. These things have caused more division than they ever should have. This post isn't about these things, it's just an example on how truly difficult it is to find common ground and see eye to eye with everyone. 

Paul was willing to do this though. He was willing to do whatever it took. His one mission was to spread the Good News and share in its blessing. His mission wasn't selfishly motivated like most peoples are today. He was focused on one mission.

What sticks out to me the most in these couple verses is that Paul writes that he was willing to do everything he could to save some...to save some...He knew he wasn't going to save everyone but he was willing to do whatever it took to save some. 

For me, I think I often hold back because I want to be able to help everyone and understand that's hard. What I say and what I do isn't going to encourage everyone, but it might encourage some. When I try to find common ground with people, it'll mean a lot to some people, but probably not all. 

My encouragement to you is exactly what Paul is saying. Do everything you can to save some. It doesn't have to be everyone! Just some..

where ya at

I remember when I was really little, my grandma would always tell me that I had ants in my pants. I was a good kid, but couldn't sit still. I would play with one toy, and then I was ready for something else. It was a vicious cycle. Whenever my grandma would tell me about the "ants in my pants" I'd always help me slow down.

I think we all have a lot of that in our systems. The society that we live in causes us to live and feel that way. Nothing ever feels like this is where we are supposed to me. There is always a next step, there is always something new, there is always an upgrade. 

Now I am not saying these things are all bad. It's good and healthy for us to continually adapt and evolve throughout our lives. Where some red flags come up is when we become so fixated on where we think we should be next, we don't enjoy where we are at right now. 

I'll use myself as an example for this. I have been in training with my new job for eight weeks now. That's a long time! If I was just worried about what's next, I wouldn't ever get anything out of training. I would show up to work everyday with just a surface level mentality...A surface level mentality might work for some, but you can't have deep meaningful relationships with people when it's surface level. You also don't have an impact with a surface level mentality. 

"Each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you, and remain as you were when God first called you." (1 Corinthians 7:17)

When I read that verse earlier this morning it was the perfect reminder for me and gave me a fresh new perspective on everything. Where you are at right now, is where God wants you. You might be living an amazing life working your dream job. You might have a terrible job where you aren't happy and bad things seem to keep happening. Both places...are where God has you right now. 

This life isn't meant to be sunshine and rainbows all the time. God has an amazing plan for all of us. What gets me through the difficult times is understanding that God is faithful and never fails. Every rough patch I have ever been in, was because I needed to be there and rely on God to get me through it. Over and over again. 

Remain where you are at right now. Take full advantage of every opportunity. Trust in God and have an open heart and mind. Where you are right now probably isn't where you'll be forever. Let's do this together! 

lofty words and impressive wisdom

I am going to be honest, I have been a believer for 19 years now and I know for sure that one person has came to Christ because the Holy Spirit gave me the words to say to him. That's a lot of years and days for only one person...I don't want that to sound negative either! One of things I struggle with all the time is fighting the internal battle in my mind trying to decide what I should and shouldn't say. 

I try to make it way more complicated than it needs to be. I think we all do really. There is almost an unnecessary and unfair pressure that we put on ourselves. It's like we feel like we need to use lofty words and impressive wisdom.

I was greatly encourage by Paul again tonight while reading further on this topic..

When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn't use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God's secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness-timid and trebling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians  2:1-5)

How encouraging is this?! 

It's something we all need to hear. Paul forgot everything except Jesus Christ when he was preaching the good news. I want to feel that way. I long to be able to witness to someone and forget everything. I don't want to care what people think about me, I don't want to care whether or not I am saying the right thing, I want to only have Jesus Christ on my mind. 

When we do that, and rely on the Holy Spirit, amazing things are going to happen!! My encouragement to you tonight is to keep it simple. Keep only Jesus on your mind and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus pace

I am nut for motivational leaders, speakers, and authors. Especially those who are believers! One of my favorite people that I listen to is David Nurse. Something he talks about in nearly every podcasts I hear him on is about having a Jesus pace about our lives. 

Jesus wasn't in a rush when he walked the earth...he walked from city to city, town to town, and village to village. He took is time, he was patient, and never hurried. It's such an admirable attribute that Jesus had that I often overlook.

Seriously think about your life though, what percentage of your days are you in a hurry? It's up there for me! We are in a hurry driving to work, waiting for a meeting to finish, driving home from work, etc. There is always something that we can be doing. 

Hurry causes disruption and destruction. One of the things I have started to do is just reminding myself to pause and take a deep breath. That helps me sit back and take everything in. If I didn't do that, I think I would go crazy and not realize all the blessings around me.

There is a book I would highly recommend about hurry called: The ruthless elimination of hurry and it's been the best book I have read all summer. 

I was reading the end of Romans this evening and something that stuck out to me was that Paul's visit was delayed to the Romans because he was taking his time preaching the good news. Preaching the good news took precedence over everything in Paul's life. Enough to delay a visit! 

Imagine getting ready to leave for vacation, having everything planned, and then just going a couple days later because we were preaching the good news to people. Unfortunately that goes against how we are wired! It makes me cringe thinking about the hassle that would cause. 

Let's start to live with Jesus pace. Now I am not saying go all out, with the demands on some of our lives, that's really really hard. But start to do it a little bit. When I was wrapping up work this afternoon, one of the team leads stopped by the office to talk, and I could've left right away, but I decided to spend time talking with the team lead about our lives rather than just being in a hurry. I didn't preach the good news to her, but I would like to think that it meant a lot that I spent time asking questions about her and her husband, and getting to know her better. 

Jesus pace is something we can apply in so many parts of our lives. 

What's the big hurry anyways? I always get a kick out of when someone blows past me on the highway. Even when I am speeding, someone just vrooms past me! It's so dangerous sometimes. Then 30 seconds later, I get to the same stop sign and that car is in the same place I am. Like what's the point?

I believe that by incorporating Jesus pace into our lives, everything that we do will become more meaningful because we are taking our time and being intentional. When we take our time, we are more aware of all that God is doing in our lives. 

personal accounts

I believe that one of the most negative instances that plays serious roles in our lives in speaking negatively. That's a very broad topic that I could definitely write about, but I want to narrow it down to talking negatively about other people. 

I don't know what it is about our brains and minds that triggers us to think this way, but whenever I am around someone who is speaking negatively about someone else, I immediately think the same thing about the person they are talking about before I even meet them...

This happens all the time! I hear all these negative things about someone and then I meet them and no matter how much they seem to prove that point wrong, it's hard to look past it. 

If you're reading this and are like "ya that's never happened to me" I want to meet all these make believe people in your life because it's impossible. 

Speaking negatively is kinda like running over a nail with your car...and then a couple more nails...then a whole bunch. When you first run over the nail, your tire will loose air slowly, but as your run over more, it's almost difficult and expensive to fix. 

When we start talking negatively about someone, we have to stop before it gets out of hand. 

Check these verses out: "Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. So let's stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble or fall. (Romans 13:12-13)

We are going to give God a personal account to God. You, me, everyone. 

When I give my personal account to God, the LAST thing I want to go through is to tell him about all the people I have talked negatively about my entire life. I can't even imagine how hard that would be. Condemning others is the complete opposite of loving one another. 

Let's love one another. Let's humbly prepare for the account we will give God someday. Let us always have that in the back of our minds because it's real and it's going to happen. 

true encouragement runs deep

Jacob...

Two years ago, when I was really working hard to save up money for an engagement ring for my wife I was working two jobs. My second job was working at a local smoothie business and I really enjoyed it! Anyways, one of the guys I was fortunate enough to work with there was named Jacob. Jacob and I probably didn't have any more than 5 shifts together and I enjoyed it when we did. We hadn't seen each other for well over a year and last night I ran into him at Target. 

One of the first things that Jacob told me was how encouraged he was by what I write on my blog. He told me that he appreciated the time, thought, and effort I put into writing it and that he gets excited to read it..

I think in that moment when he was encouraging me, my heart was about beating out of my chest because that meant so much to me. It was one of the most thoughtful and encouraging things anyone has said to me about what I write. It was genuine and he meant it. 

Why do I share this? I don't share it to brag or boast about someone encouraging me. I share it because true encouragement runs deep! I believe we have became professional fake encouragers. He could've just said "Hey Luke, I really enjoy your blog." Yes, that would've been nice, but that doesn't even come close to having the same meaning as what he actually told me. 

Next time you encourage someone, and I hope it's today, attach something else to the encouragement. Be truly genuine. Don't be afraid to sound weird by letting your feelings out. 

I would also encourage you to encourage in person! A text, direct message, or email is super nice, but saying something to someones face is extremely powerful.

My interaction with Jacob last night really got me excited to write more posts and get back after with my writing. Let's encourage others today. 

Saul: my chosen instrument

I believe that way too often we let our past dictate the role that God plays in our lives. It’s easy to look back at who we were before we became believers and think about how much we sinned and cringe about the things we said and did. 

Even if we believe with all our hearts that we are made a new creation through Christ, those doubts often don’t leave. It might be like an accidental tattoo for some, there really is no getting rid of it. 

I think about my past, there was never anything crazy that I was doing that was causing me to live a life completely removed from Christ. I just always put things before my relationship with God. 

I was greatly encouraged this morning reading the story about Saul’s conversion. Saul was the ultimate persecutor against Jesus and believers.  He was having believers killed, and he was going door to door having believers thrown into prison. He was a bad dude and really had no remorse for what he was doing.

I won’t summarize the entire story of Saul, but essentially one day he has his crew were walking to Damascus and out of nowhere a light from heaven shone down and Saul fell to his feet. A voice from heaven spoke to him and he was made blind for three entire days! Jesus then sent someone to heal his eyes and when he could see again, he got baptized and immediately started preaching! 

Because so many people saw how Saul persecuted so many believers, his story was almost unbelievable and because of God using Saul, there were more believers than ever! 

Here is what the Lord said: “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.” (Acts 9:15-16)

I share this with you this morning because we are God’s chosen instruments. We are sinners saved by the grace of God. Don’t let your past play a role in discouraging you, let it encourage you because the work God is forever doing in your heart is something more powerful and greater than we will ever be able to fully understand.