B. Wang Photography

The steps throughout our day lead us to our purpose and toward our passion. Or at least that is what we hope…. But what happens if you don’t have a purpose or have a passion? What if you are still waiting to figure out what those two essential parts of life are? How long are you willing to wait and not start taking your steps with purpose?

There are many instantly gratifying answers to many of these questions: I don’t have enough time. I can’t do it. I’m not good enough. I don’t know how! But if I were to answer the question for myself, my reason for not knowing those above questions would be ME. We are called to be excellent in Christ in every parts of life. That includes with your school work, your job, your family and your passions.

In my life I have made up plenty of excuses of why I didn’t work on things I was passionate about or even make time to figure out exactly what I was passionate about. I busied myself to the point of exhaustion, and if I’m not careful that can still happen today. But a lot of that changed when I started studying scripture in terms of passions and the Lord’s plan for my life.

I feel as if I mention this verse of the blog on a consistent basis, but it’s a verse that I don’t want to forget and that I want you to remember. It’s straight forward, it’s written by the wisest King who ever lived and it’s a book I go to often when dealing with life’s decisions.

 ’The heart of a man plans his ways, but the Lord establishes his steps’ – Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)

I’ve learned that I’m responsible to make plans for my life, while at the same time being okay with the Lord establishing my steps elsewhere. He doesn’t always establish the steps as I would, but I’ve come to learn that His steps are much better than the ones I’ve planned.

Excuses….They’re like armpits, everyone has them and they all stink!” I remember when my 10th grade history teacher first told me this. It was right after I told him why I didn’t have my homework done. It wouldn’t be the last time I would hear this phrase. It is so easy to make excuses. Here’s a top ten list of excuses we use today:

10- I will when I’m older.

9- I’m not qualified enough to do that.

8-I had something come up.

7- I’m too tired.

6- I don’t have enough time.

5- I don’t have the resources.

4- God hasn’t given me an answer yet.

3- I didn’t know I was suppose to.

2- I’m not as bad as other people.

1- They already have enough people helping.

I heard another quote this past week, it went something like this “Excuses are Satan’s way of keeping you right where he wants you!” No more excuses. Let’s go get it done!

 Recently a young man approached me after I spoke at an event and said “I DONT BELIEVE IN GOD!” Expecting to get a rise out me this self proclaiming agnostic was shocked when I said, I don’t believe in god either, notice the lower case “g”. So I asked what he meant by god? Because in reality so many of us, even as Christains have so many misconceptions of who God is. And the god he described to me that day was not the god I believe in. So I went on to describe to Him the God of mercy, justice, and love I do believe. Now I’m not going to tell you that this self-proclaiming atheist was converted that day, but I am going to tell you I grabbed his attention, we entered into a discussion that made him think, and I think in the midst of it all he realized that perhaps he wasn’t an atheist. But to him, saying “I don’t believe in god.” Is alot easier than wrestling with all the junk in his life that we all desperately need forgiveness for. It’s a defense mechanism. So perhaps the next time you hear someone tell you that they don’t believe in god you can begin the conversation by asking them what god they don’t believe in. Because you just might have something in common! The majority of the time people have created God to be an idol/puppet-master/impersornal deity that is out for blood. And we all know that is not the god we believe in either. Go ask questions, listen, and respond with gentleness and respect.

B Wang

Lord,
Fear is an idol that I put before You on more occasions than not. I put this idol before You and I myself become idle. It has caused me to let the piercing arrows that Satan throws to get past my defenses. I have let me shield of faith down completely. I’ve let things get to me: exhaustion, doubt and lack of confidence. These are all things I have allowed myself to succumb to. These idols have made me idle. Lord, these are thoughts from a fool. I have the proper tools in place and I have the help. I just need to take care of things in a ways that is honoring to You. When that takes place I will be able to lead as You have called me.

This idol of fear has come through many sources and has me idle. I must be on the front lines to combat this Lord. The only way if for me to have faith in the shield of faith. I must fight back with the sword of the spirit and pad myself up with the breast plate of righteousness. I’m a leader and I do not need to bow down to these circumstances that seem overwhelming. I need to raise myself up out of this pit of despair that I have put myself in. Lord bring me strength as only You can. May I seek You for that energy that I crave. Create in me a clean heart Lord. Let what comes out of me be joy. Lord, may I return to You from my idleness as I leave my idols behind.

Your Glory Abounds,

Me

Austin Mann

As I spend nearly 340 days a year with High School and College students I constantly get asked, “How do I know what God wants me to do?” or “What is His Will for my life?” It’s as if they want some crystal ball, or magic 8 ball to tell them what to do next. But God doesn’t operate that way. If He did He would be eliminating opportunities for us to trust Him and walk by faith. However, there are definitely ways we can cloudy up our future, or at the same time make it more clear. Let’s look at three verses that point us in the right direction to living out God’s will for our lives. (more…)

New Life

There comes a time when you have to make a decision on the path that you want to set out before you. One path leads to death and the other path leads to life. One path leads to a hollow life filled with emptiness and the other path leads to a new and fulfilling life. At times we might be confused about the certain path that we are on, we might think that we are walking in a manner worthy of the calling of Christ. But if you take a hard look at the steps that you have established in your life, you might realize that your faith has taken the look of this tree. Though there is the look of life, it is mixed with the look of death. That is a deadly mix that the bible calls lukewarm. Look at what Revelation has to say about the lifestyle of those that are lukewarm:

 ’I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth’
- Revelation 3:15-16

Just as this tree eventually branched out from the death that crippled it’s growth, so you might need to branch out from what cripples your growth. There is so much life to be lived, yet we are so easily crippled by ourselves and held back from living a life worthy to be called a follower of Christ. We must learn to deny ourselves:

‘And he said to all,   “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’
- Luke 9:23

Break away from your past and from a life of being lukewarm! The time is now to live your life for the fullest! Make the change!

Can you imagine seeing someone who has been turned into a pillar of salt? I’ve always been amazed by the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and the way it was destroyed. I wish it would become a Hollywood film. I think it would be so cool to catch a glimpse of the way this all went down. Genesis 19 gives us a pretty good idea of how God feels towards unrepentant disobedient hearts. In the midst of a city that is completely engulfed by sin God calls Lot to leave, to no longer live in the midst of sin, and not only did he tell him to run, but he also told him “don’t look back“. As to say I don’t even want you to see the sin you were surrounded by. Flee, sprint, take-off, and do whatever it takes to get away with your family! I imagine Lot never ran faster than this in his life. he probably could’ve given Usain Bolt a run for his money. He must of been so filled with adrenaline. And then tragedy strikes Lot. His wife looks back. What was she thinking? Instantly she is turned into a pillar of salt. Could you imagine how many pillar of human salts would be frozen around this world if we were punished for looking back at the sin we once lived in? It reminds me of all the statues in Narnia.

Earlier this week I was diving into the Gospel of Luke, and today I was reading chapter 17 and verse 32 jumped out at me like never before. “Remember Lot’s wife!” That’s all it says. A three word verse, but perhaps one of the most powerful 3-word verses in the Bible. I could just hear Jesus’ voice escalating as He said this. As if to say don’t return to your sin, don’t try to hold on to the life you once lived in the flesh. In other words, it’s not worth it! Don’t long for the life you lived before Christ took over, don’t journey back to the destruction where the enemy is waiting to destroy your soul. Move forward, advance, even if it’s only step by step, crawl, but whatever you do…….Don’t Look Back! Keep moving forward, keep growing, keep praying, keep reading, keep dying to self.

New Creation - B. Wang

I feel that a picture is worth a thousand words. I don’t know if you would agree, but as I was hiking a few weekends ago I came across a tree that I feel everyone can relate to. When I say everyone I’m speaking of myself especially. As you look at the picture you can tell that both death and life is represented within the foundation of the tree. I see this as a daily picture of the sin in our lives as we continually fight the battle of good and evil. The problem is that our hearts are trapped in the middle of this until we give it over completely to the Lord. This tree represents my heart as I’ve confessed my need for him as it mentions in Romans:

‘because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.’
(Romans 10:9-10 ESV)

Now the issue is of the new life and how my heart will be transformed from my past. It is this process that takes time and takes determination as my heart is renewed daily through scripture and prayer. It’s a process that as many begin to tackle they will encounter parts of their hearts that are hardened as the new life grows to overtake it. As your encounter this new creation take heart in the following and let it be your prayer.

‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’
(2nd Corinthians 5:17 ESV)

This is what we look more into next week as we relate this verse to the picture you see of this tree. The old has passed away, but behold what is growing!

WWJD? What would Jesus do? We all remember the cliche’ bracelets that encouraged everyone to live more like Christ. My favorite response to someone wearing those bracelets one time was, “He would do everything opposite of me.” It’s not that those bracelets served as some force-field against the enemy and sin, but more as a reminder for all to strive to be more like Christ. Not perfect. We won’t ever achieve perfection this side of heaven.

A student asked me the other day if Jesus was on earth today would he Twitter. The question was more of an attempt to convict me for twittering. A few months ago I was engaged in a discussion with a good friend of mine who stop twittering because it had a sense of narcissism to him. I understood his point, if we tweet with a heart that is motivated by everyone needing to know who we are and what we’re are doing it can be completely self-centered. But I suppose if Jesus did tweet it would be tweets filled with forgiveness, repentance, love, Scripture and hope. I don’t think He would tweet things like, “Laughing my head off, Peter just fell out of the boat and screamed like a girl.” But I think the amazing think to consider here is not whether Jesus would tweet or not, but to realize that Jesus has communicated a powerful message that has spread throughout the world more than any other message, and He did it without twitter, facebook, youtube, or blogs. I’m pretty confident that if Jesus did tweet he wouldn’t check to see how many followers he had everyday, not that you do that or anything.

I think Paul would be more apt to twitter than Jesus, but Jesus would really have no need to twitter, everything He needed to say and communicate has been on the best-seller’s list year after year. So I don’t think the question should be, “Would Jesus twitter?” but rather, “What is MY motive for Twittering?