a higher standard

One of my favorite things about being fortunate enough to travel a lot up to this point in my life is all the unique places I have gotten to stay. I am not just talking about the amazing locations, but specifically the hotels. I have been on trips tp fancy resorts and I have also been on trips where we stayed in rooms that didn't have screens on windows or air conditioning. 

What I found is that the type of place I stayed in directly correlated to the standard that I was holding myself to. At the nice resorts I kept everything clean and organized and made sure everything was left even better than when I got there. At the not as nice places, I often didn't care as much. I didn't keep my bags as organized and if I made a mess I didn't worry about it as much. 

As believers, we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. A standard that is worthy of the Good News about Christ! 

"Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together for the faith, which is the Good News." (Philippians 1:27)

Conducting yourselves in a manner that is worthy of the Good News is like staying in the nice places. (there is nothing wrong with places that aren't fancy, just the example I am giving)  As believers we are the love God and love others above ALL else! We are also called to serve God and others. We are to live by the fruits of the Spirit. There is a manner we should be holding ourselves to. I know Satan has his agenda too. He is trying to deceive us and tempt us into thinking that it's okay to not live as Christ calls us, it's okay to every once in a while step out of line...and those are just his games. 

We are dirty rotten sinners, we are going to sin, but above all else we must conduct ourselves in a manner that is worthy of the Good News. 

your superpower

When I was younger (I say that as if I am old) I loved any and every movie on the Disney channel. One of my favorite movies that I remember watching was Sky High. I won't give the full movie review, but essentially this was a high school where every kid had a super power. I thought the kids were so cool because of everything that they could do. 

Realistically, we don't have superpowers like those kids, we can't become invisible, have super speed, or fly, although I wish we could! But we do have one superpower. I have it. You have it. We all have it.

We have the superpower of choice. 

We get to make our own decisions! 

We get to choose whether or not we are going to be joyful today, or have a bad attitude. 

We get to choose whether or not to serve and love on people today, or focus on ourselves.

We get to choose what we believe in, we get to choose what we watch on TV, we get to choose what music we listen to, we get to choose whether or not you get up to go to church on Sunday, we get to choose!!

We have a superpower greater than anything we could ever imagine.

Take advantage of it today! Choose to serve, love, and glorify God! 

Requesting with joy

Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy. (Philippians 1:4)

Joy: a feeling of great pleasure and happiness

When Paul made requests to God through prayer he always did it with joy. He didn’t make requests because he was desperate, he didn’t make requests when he was upset, he always did with joy! I find that super encouraging. 

I also feel convicted because I feel like a lot of the times when I pray about something, I don’t do it with joy. No wonder I am missing out on so much fulfillment when I pray. It makes sense. I believe that joyfulness requires a certain amount of positive energy. Energy is contagious right? It absolutely is! Imagine how encouraging it might be to other believers and nonbelievers to always bring our requests before God with joy. 

Think about the last person you told you would pray for them or the situation they were facing. You hear it and see it everywhere. You most likely said in a sympathetic voice: I will be praying for you. I most likely would guarantee that’s just how it always is! I do it all the time without even being aware. 

Let’s make requests to God with joy! Let’s be joyful and have it be contagious to others. Joy creates a get to mentality rather than a have to mentality. 

armor of God

From the moment we open our eyes and wake up every morning until the moment we close them and try to go to sleep, we are at battle. We have a challenge every day to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. 

Now this battle isn't against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in the dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. 

To me, this sounds like and feels like a battle that I want to be fully prepared for with a full set of armor. A battle like this I would never want to not be prepared for or think I was going to be prepared for it if I just put on some of the armor. 

We are to put on EVERY piece of the armor. We need a belt, shoes, a shield, a helmet, and a sword. 

The awesome part about the armor of God is that all these pieces of armor have significant meaning.

Belt: of truth

Shoes: of peace, so that we are fully prepared

Shield: of faith, to stop the fiery arrows of the devil

Helmet: of salvation

Sword: of the Spirit, which is the word of God

Every morning, we have to put on EVERY piece of armor. It's not going to do any good if you put on everything and forget your sword...or if you forget your shield, etc. We must put on every piece. The good news? The battle has been won, we just have to continue to stand firm. 

work with enthusiasm

Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. (Ecclesiastes 6:7)

Enthusiasm: intense and eager enjoyment, interest, or approval.

How many of you work with enthusiasm? To me I believe that when you view all you do as an opportunity, you are going to have enthusiasm, because who doesn't get excited when there is an opportunity in front of you?

Every commute to work, every 8am meeting, every call, email, letter, sweat, hard labor, easy labor, treating co-workers with love is an OPPORTUNITY. All of it. We get to do these things daily! We get to have jobs where we can provide for ourselves and for our families. We are so blessed to wake up today and embrace the opportunity ahead with enthusiasm. 

One of the best ways to give God glory and to be thankful is to have enthusiasm in all that we do. Whether you are the CEO of a company, a general manager, assistant general manager, janitor, delivery driver, or secretary, you can all be enthusiastic for the work you do. You don't have to make tons of money to work with excitement for God. 

Just try being enthusiastic in all you do today! Get excited about the day ahead. The enemy will try to throw you off and kill that energy, so you are going to have to be ready for battle. Let's conquer today! 

Making the most

Make the most out of every opportunity in these evil days. (Ephesians 5:15)

My wife, (Rachel) is the perfect example of this. If you know her really well, or have ever had any interaction with her before she most likely made you feel loved and cared for because she made the most out of that opportunity. 

Every time we host someone together, whether it's in our apartment or a family get together back home in Ligonier, she goes all out. She makes sure everything is picture perfect. She puts some pizzazz in ALL that she does! 

A couple weeks ago we hosted my family in our apartment for the afternoon, and you should've seen the fruit plate and veggie tray she put together. It was unbelievable. I think we had every fruit from the grocery store, and the best looking veggies. If you would've taken a couple pictures it could've ended up in a magazine!  It was something I never even would've thought about! I think I was just planning on getting some chips and cheese and crackers. 

Making the most of every opportunity is not my strongest attribute, so I am thankful that Rach does this better than anyone that I know. 

I could go on and on about Rach but just wanted to make today's post brief. Make the most of every opportunity you have today. Make the most of every interaction you have with your family, co-workers, and even random people you might see out and about. If you're trying to get a little extra work done before the beautiful weekend, do it! If you want to call or text and old friend you haven't spoken with in a couple months, do it! 

I know for me whenever I make the most of every opportunity I feel so much better about myself and know that I am living in such a way that God would be pleased with. 

I honestly believe that when we are on earth making the most of every opportunity, God is in heaven smiling. 

Imitators of God

It's natural for children to imitate their parents Children often have their paren't nature, their behavior and their actions. You can be around a child and you can see their parents in the way they walk, the way they talk and the things they do.

While that is true in our earthy families, it is equally true in our heavenly families. Like beloved children, who are near the parent, learning, observing and growing, we are brought near to our Heavenly Father so that we might learn His ways and become more like Him.

"Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God." (Ephesians 5:1-2)

You can't imitate a person if you don't know anything about them, so we must learn all we can about the Lord from His word. We must put into practice everything we know about Him. We are to do the things we see Him doing, and we are to avoid the things He avoids. We are to be like God in every respect.

In reality though, God is commanding us to do something that is impossible within ourselves. Left up to us, we could never be imitators of God. We simply cannot imitate God through our own power.

While we can't be holy on our own, as redeemed children of God, we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to live like Him, act like Him, walk like Him, and talk like HIm. 

Being an "imitator" of God means we must imitate His "love." After all, the Bible tells us God is love. His very nature is defined by His live. Everything He does, He does it out of love. As Children of God, we are to imitate and walk in love.

I hope as you step out into the real world today that you are ready to imitate God through the power of the Holy Spirt! A simple prayer you can pray throughout the day is: Make me more like you today in all my thoughts, decisions and actions.