The Cross… Before The Crown

Matthew 27:31-32 “And when they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe and put His own clothes on Him and led Him away to crucify Him. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry His cross.”

As Jesus trudged up Calvary, exhausted from His brutal torture, a man in the crowd of onlookers, Simon of Cyrene, was enlisted to carry Jesus’ cross. Simon is, in a sense… us. As believers, we have been called out of the crowd of curious onlookers and made cross bearers.

How Do I Read God’s Word Everyday?

I have been through the importance of reading your Word everyday, how it is beneficial, but what about how? Often times, people look at the Bible and have no idea where to begin. I do not blame them; I was there! I spent most of my time looking at the index for things I was struggling with and looking up those verses. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. However, I decided that God called me to read the Bible in its entirety, and glory to God I finished the entire Bible about a week ago.

Mean What You Say

Do you lie when you worship? When I reflect back at the countless times I’ve been a part of a worship service and when I consider the countless numbers of songs I’ve sang and words I have said, if I’m honest, I’ve lied to God. People are most susceptible to this half-hearted worship when songs are more focused on the believer rather than the One whom they believe in. “Me” centered songs are songs that are not so much focused on God, but on how we feel or what we want to do for God.

Why Won’t God Just Take Me?

1 Peter 5:6-7 “So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in His good time He will honor you. Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about what happens to you.”

I’ve been reading a great book on the strength of prayer called 90 Minutes in Heaven. It was written by John Piper and it describes what took place when he got hit head-on by a big rig trucker. His body was literally crushed and was pronounced dead on the scene by emergency personnel. Another pastor happened to get caught up in the traffic jam and decided to see if anyone involved needed prayer. The emergency personnel told him that the driver in John’s car was already dead. In spite of being told this, he strongly felt God leading him to pray for John even though he was already dead.

The Hard Path and Narrow Gate

“For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” – Matthew 7:14

Jesus wasn’t playing around when He said this. He didn’t say something complicated to understand that needed to be examined or put under the microscope. It’s really simple. If your life is very easy and you’re not facing any challenges or tests then you are probably not saved. What?! That’s preposterous! I thought Jesus was my life enhancer that came to hook me up dog? Yet, again and again Jesus warns us that the Christian life will not be easy, and never more clearly than with those words in Matthew 7.

Pleasing Our Savior

Mark Twain once said, “People say when they get to heaven, they’ll fly around from cloud to cloud playing a harp; but I don’t see too many people trying to learn how to fly or too many taking harp lessons to get ready for the event.”

Many believers say they want to serve God, help others by showing true love, and obey His Word, but how many are reading the Bible so that they can know how to do all of these things?

Is All Really Good?

Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Have you ever had one of those times where you tell yourself that it just couldn’t get any worse? Or maybe you’ve had more than just one of them. No matter the situation, the last thing you want to hear from anyone is that God has it all under control. I don’t know about you, but I have had a few times that I have felt that even if God, Himself, came down and spoke directly to me I would have questioned if He really did have it under control. It is especially at times like that that I realize why God doesn’t let me make decisions my way all the time.

It’s A Wonderful Life

What would the world look like if you weren’t a part of it? Whose life would be radically different without you? There have been many movies made over the years that have shown people how the lives of others would be impacted had they never been born. I think most notably we can all name “It’s A Wonderful Life” as one of those movies.

The main character had a complete attitude shift after being shown how his ENTIRE town would be different had he never been born. He was really unaware of the impact he had had on the lives of those around him.

The Purpose of Serving

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” – Luke 19:10

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” – Matthew 28:16-20

Preach Anything That Will Grow Your Church

The Bible clearly shows us that the church should be one body, unified as the bride of Christ. The purpose of the Church is to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). We are called to be doers of the Word, to slave and suffer for Christ (James 1:22). We are called to be active in our faith, moving to the call of the Holy Spirit which Jesus gave to us when He ascended into Heaven. When we are in Christ, laboring for Christ will be the joy of our lives. Helping lead people to Christ should be our mandate, everything we’re about. There is only one way to accomplish this (not many). The only way to do this is to read and understand God’s instructions through prayer for help on how this all should work.