With privilege comes responsibility

I believe with all of my heart that we don't understand how privileged we are. The privilege I am talking about is not living a super awesome life, I am talking about the privilege of us having access to so much knowledge about Jesus.

We take so much of that for granted because it's always there. We all have access to the Bible whenever we want. With the technology we have we can google bible verses about what ever topics we want. We can google questions that we might have. We have all the access we could ever dream of and we don't take advantage of it.

With the privilege we have, great responsibility comes with it.

"Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it." (Luke 10:23-24) 

We are so incredibly blessed to see what we see and hear what we hear. Think about that for second...

There are millions of people all over the world who aren't able to hear what we hear and see what we see.

We are so privileged, with knowledge of 2,000 years of church history, availability of the Bible in hundreds of languages and translations, and access to many excellent pastors and speakers.

We just let this knowledge sit around...

I didn't realize how much I took it for granted until I went to China. China is a closed country so that meant we weren't allowed to talk about our faith or even have our bibles with us. That killed me when I was there. At the end of our week in Los Angeles, we literally mailed our Bibles back home with the fear that we would get caught and kicked out of the country. Every part of me wanted to talk about my faith with the people that I was around, but I couldn't.

I remember having a conversion with our translator in Dali one of the mornings, and everything was about to go perfect. I felt like this was the divine moment where I was going to be able to witness to the translator and really share my faith.

We had built a solid relationship, the days prior and I knew the best way to bring up my faith was to start talking about my tattoos. Each of the three have a story and a purpose and by the time I talk about the tattoo on my achilles is when I can really share about my faith.

We had stopped for some reason, and my coach from the trip came up to me and had told me that our translator worked for the government and I had to be careful about what I was saying. This killed me because the translator was my friend and I wanted to see my friend someday..

After that moment, I knew that I would never take for granted again the great privilege that we have on a daily basis and how responsible I was going to be.

It's still hard to take full responsibility with the privilege we have, but we can definitely start to realize how privileged we are. That is my hope with this post. Never forget how blessed we are with the access and the knowledge we have.

No looking back

To live a life for Christ is a life where you don't look back. To me, it's living a life where you press on forward every single day. Nobody has lived a perfect life besides Jesus. We have all made mistakes, done and said things we shouldn't have, etc. There is no reason to ever look back at those things.

Yeah, we have all gone through a lot, but that doesn't matter in eternity does it? What matters is that we come to Christ and take up our cross daily.

Christ wants total dedication from us. It's time to be done with the excuses. Anything that is done with half-hearted commitment is not worth doing.

Whatever your priorities are on a daily basis, fully commit yourself to those things. Sometimes, you have to become disciplined in other areas of your life before you become disciplined in your relationship with Christ.

Let me say that again because I think it's important and encouraging. Sometimes, you have to become disciplined in other areas of your life before you become disciplined in your relationship with Christ.

God should always be your number one priority...don't get me wrong...but sometimes to build the relationship we long for with him, we learn from the habits we have built with some of our other priorities.

I would have never been this disciplined in my relationship with Christ if it wasn't for some of the injuries that I went through in basketball. Whenever I got hurt, the key to a speedy recovery was being disciplined with doing therapy before and after practice. Another basketball example is this...I wanted to be really good and the only reason I was good was because I outworked everyone. I worked out when nobody else wanted to, ran harder when nobody else wanted to, etc. I wasn't the most athletic or skilled, but my hard work and dedication got me where I wanted to go.

The discipline I learned from basketball lead to be having that sort of relationship with Christ.

Maybe that may be the way it is for you...whatever your number one priority in your life right now might lead you to a stronger relationship with Christ.

It's a fun way to think about it for those who are wondering what it takes to have that type of relationship with Christ.

Jesus replied, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62)

When I read that verse the first thing I thought of it tubbing. One of my favorite things to do in the summer is go tubbing on the lake. It's crazy how many times the boat driver looks back to see if the tube is still back there and everyone is safe...

The silly thing is that we do this in our faith too. We are always looking back...why? Christ isn't going to leave us? He's not going to ever fail us? Why are we looking back when we know that we are going to have a relationship with him for all of eternity?

I don't really understand why we do that..

Jesus wants total dedication from us. We cannot pick and choose among Jesus' ideas and follow him selectively; we have to accept the cross along with the crown. We must be willing to abandon everything else that has given us security - without looking back.

With our focus on Jesus, we should allow nothing to distract us from following him.

I encourage you to not look back and to allow nothing to distract you. Have complete faith in what God is doing in your lives. Sometimes it might not make much sense, but I can assure you, he is at work, and is planning something more wonderful and spectacular for your life than you could ever imagine.

Desperate faith

I believe we don’t take our faith as seriously as we should. I believe that the way we treat our faith is often like we are just part of the crowd. We look at others who have faith and we want to have faith just like them. We don’t authenticate it, we don’t make it our own, it’s not as desperate as it should be.

In Luke 8, a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, fought her way through a large crowd, came up behind Jesus, and touched his cloak.

Immediately she was healed. 

So many people were at the house, and it was virtually impossible to get through the multitude...but one woman, the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, fought her way desperately through the crowd in order to touch Jesus. 

Imagine what this must have looked like...I’ve been in large crowds before and in large crowds pretty much everybody is a follower. Everyone is doing the same thing so why not do what everybody else is doing? 

This is what I fear our faith has turned into. We just want to be like everyone else and we don’t want to make things our own...

What do we have to be embarrassed of? I feel like that’s what holds us back sometimes. The woman was bleeding for twelve years, and she knew that she was going to do whatever she had to in order to get to Jesus. She had desperate faith.

What a difference there is between the crowds that are curious about Jesus and the few who reach out and touch him! Today, many people are vaguely familiar with Jesus, not anything in their lives is changed or battered by this passing acquaintance.

It’s only faith that releases God’s healing power. Are you just curious about God, or do you reach out to him in faith, knowing that his mercy will bring healing to your body, soul, and spirit. 

Jesus is King

Jesus is King and I am not talking about Kanye’s fire album here.

Do you ever feel like you are limited? Like you can’t do some of the things you want to do...know the answers to questions you have...etc.

I feel limited all the time. There are so many things that I want to be able to accomplish that I know I haven’t been able to do yet. I also know that there is nothing that I can do on my own strength and power.

There is a reason why we are limited.

We are limited because God wants to show that He is the King who is like no other.

If there were no limits on our thinking, creativity, and imagination, Jesus wouldn’t be King. We would all be kings and queens and everybody would have a super crazy ego.

Everything that we do is limited because God wants us to understand that Jesus is King and we need to rely on him for everything.

I hope that if you ever get discouraged about your limited understanding that you no longer feel discouraged. I encourage you to use your weakness as strengthens and your weaknesses as a tool for understanding the power of Christ.

Everything can be a win-win if you have the right mindset.

When we do understand something thank God for allowing you too. When we don’t understand, we rely on God and that increases our faith and understanding in Him.

Imagine what your life would look like with that mindset...

Pray more seriously

I can read my bible for 30 minutes but can’t pray for 5. I spend 40 minutes writing these post but can’t pray for 5 minutes. I spend 20 minutes journaling but can’t pray for 5 minutes...are you catching what I am throwing at you?

I am not very good at taking prayer seriously. I don’t know why that is. I have a crazy amount of faith but that shouldn’t be an excuse not to pray. I’ve prayed and have had God answer my prayers and I’m not still good at making it a top priority.

I come across stories all the time in the Bible where Jesus prayed and I always am so encouraged when I read them.

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles. (Luke 6:12-13)

The gospel writers note that before every important event in Jesus’ life, he would take time to go off by himself and pray. The time Jesus was preparing to choose his inner circle, the 12 disciples.

All of our decisions should be grounded in prayer.

It takes time to pray and I know first hand I need to be willing to take a significant amount of time to pray...I pray 2-3 times/day but none of those prayers are long at all. Prayer is the one way we are able to directly communicate to God. I don’t know about you but I want to talk to God as much as I can.

The times in my life where I have taken prayer more seriously is when I have felt the closest to God. My encouragement for you to ground your decisions and your lives in prayers.

Watch God work and watch your relationship with him skyrocket when you make prayer a top priority.

A miraculous catch

Most of the time when God performs a miraculous thing in your life, it's because you might have listened and did what you felt led to do...

Since it's Friday morning, I will try my very best to keep this short and sweet. 

There is a story in Luke 5 where Jesus provides a miraculous catch of Fish. Most people have probably heard this story before...Jesus tells Simon and the fisherman to cast their nets in deep water, they do it, and they catch so many fish that the two boats nearly sink...

What happens before that I hadn't noticed until this morning...

He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. (Luke 5:3)

Before the miraculous catch of fish, Jesus got into the boats and taught not only Simon, but also the people. They didn't have a miraculous catch out of happenstance. Jesus was personable and was teaching them what to do...they just had to do it.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." (Luke 5:4-5)

There are things that we learn everyday from the word of God...and God wants us to do what we learn so we reap the harvest and get to experience his love and fulfillment. 

Jesus taught Simon...told him what do to...of course Simon was a little doubtful at first...but he remembered that if Jesus told him to do something...he better do it...and look what happened. 

Whatever you situation might be today. Live a life that is obedient to the word of God and I promise you will not have any regrets. 

A call to right living

There are three things I am going to talk about from this post and I want you to take those three things and just run with it and try to implement them into your lives as quickly as possible.

In Luke 3, John the Baptist is giving a message that is preparing people for the way for Jesus. 

"A voice of one calling in the wilderness,

'Prepare the way for the Lord,

make straight paths for him.

Every valley shall be filled in,

every mountain and hill made low.

The crooked roads shall become straight, 

the rough ways smooth.

And all people will see God's salvation.'" (Luke 3:4-6)

"John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luke 3:7-9)

John had little to no time to address comforting messages to those who lived carless or selfish lives - he was calling the people to right living as he prepared the way for their Messiah.

It's like a kid learning how to ride a bike without training wheels vs. a kid who learns with...

It takes way longer for the kid to learn how to ride without training wheels...some people are like that in the way that they live their lives. Hopefully they get where they want to go, but they don't want any help so it's going to take longer for them. Maybe they learn someday, maybe they don't.

A kid with training wheels can learn almost instantly because he is being helped. The kid still might crash a couple times, but will learn way faster because of the training wheels. 

I feel like this example relates perfectly to what John the Baptist is saying. We don't have the time to help the people who don't want help. Although they need our prayer and help the most...Maybe it's more important to help the people who are on the right track to better prepare the way for the Messiah. 

John gives us us three ways that we can better prepare for the Messiah, and I believe we can tie these three things into our lives so that not only are we prepared, but also the way for the Messiah. I would take a fair guess and say that God will return quicker when everything is prepared for Him. 

Three ways to be better prepared:

1. share what you have with those who need it

2. whatever your job is, do it well and with fairness

3. be content with what you're earning

I encourage you to take those three things and run with them. Share what you have, do your jobs well, and be content with what you're earning. Think about how much happier you will be as a person when you begin to do those things on a daily basis. 

Let's be honest, most of us have more than what we need...

We might not do our jobs well because we don't enjoy it...

We are greedy and always want to earn more money...

My challenge it to simple share, do everything you do well, and be happy with what you have. Be thankful for the job you have. I don't care if it's something you might not enjoy. It's your job and you have it right now for a reason. There are people all over the world who would do anything to have a job like you. Be content with your income. Sure, it might not be as much as you want or you think you deserve but it's something. 

Just like John the Baptist called people to right living, I am also calling anyone who reads this to right living as well...