What’s Next God?

^{2 Peter 1: 3-11}

³His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

 ⁵For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. ⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

 ¹⁰Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, ¹¹and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

simple enough….yet I think I’ll camp out here for awhile.

-c

Ever feel like you’ve “leveled out” in your spiritual life?  Like you’ve been running hard toward God then all of a sudden you just hit cruise control and start to coast.

I’ve been there for about a week and a  half now and I don’t like it.  I think I’ve figured out why though. Striving to honor God in every aspect of your life is EXAUSTING!  Maybe it’s just me but I feel like I’ve been 12 rounds Tyson.

I believe this is a natural process, it’s ok to take a breather every now and then but it can be too easy to become complacent.  This is a HUGE trap that probably 99% of Christ followers fall into…including me.

I hope you all are finding rhythm in your life, and ever pursuing your spiritual walk…even when you feel beat up.

-c

I had a pretty cool surprise (blessing) come my way today. Makes a person feel pretty good inside….kinda makes me think I need to blessing someone else. Maybe they need to feel good inside too….

-c

I was listening to Chuck Swindoll today and he made reference to a story about two ways people deal with warning signs.

This is not verbatim but rather my interpretation of the story….

Your driving in your car and a flashing red light begins to flash on your dashboard indicating there’s a problem under the hood. There are two ways you can deal with this warning light.

A: You can pull over, get out of your car, look under the hood and identify the problem…and fix it before proceeding.

OR

B: You can carry a small hammer in your glove box and when those warning lights start flashing…smash them with a hammer.

Putting the light out with a hammer will obviously stop the warning sign, but left attended you end up with a blown engine.

Let’s be honest, we’ve all smashed our share of warning lights…ain’t it about time we take a look under the hood?

Currently pulled over on the side of the road…

-c

…how about you?

  As part of my daily routine for work I spend a LOT of time sitting in my email corresponding with people.

One email that landed in my inbox this morning from a vendor had this tag line attached as part of the signature. “In the pursuit of excellence, there is no finish line.”

  Made me think about what we do on Sunday mornings as we try to put together entertaining, engaging and life changing services. There are a lot of people involved in that process who put a ton of work into it so that it all comes together on Sunday.

Hopefully, in the end creating an experience where people can encounter God.

Sometimes we may miss the mark, but the effort we put forth should not be anything less than the pursuit of excellence…if it is, then we’re cheating God…and I think we can all apply this truth at a personal level.

-c

In my last post I mentioned I work with the youth at our church, did I mention they are awesome?!?!

Anyway, this past week some of them performed the song “On my Own” by Barlow Girl.

Great Job Erin, Abby, Kody and Devin!

Here’s the video…(once playing you can double click the video to show it full screen).

-c