If your faith is boring, you aren't practicing the type of faith Jesus taught. In fact, you may have settled for a sorry substitute to the real thing - a "normal" life without risk, and without consequence. In this audio, I explore ways you can forge into faith "frontiers," pushing the limits of what you thought was possible, discovering the real mission and meaning God has for your life. Listen in:
The most widely studied sermon in history is, without doubt,
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.In it, he
sets forth what we could call his “kingdom constitution,” the new world order
(that should have been the order all along, until mankind messed it up).It serves as a blueprint for what life under
Christ’s rule should look like, and gives Christians a great place to begin
building character and determining priorities.
You have heard from the Sermon on the Mount before; many
“old sayings” in our culture are lifted directly from Matthew 5-7.
You walk into a group of new friends just in time to
overhear an “inside joke.”
Chances are, you’ll laugh cautiously, indexing your reaction
to what you see on the faces of the “insiders.” It would take a stoke of
uncharacteristic boldness (for most people) to blurt out, “I don’t get it. Explain it to me.”
And so we go on, not getting it.
It is possible that people walking into church feel the same
way about the Bible, or church customs?
In the days of Plato and Aristotle, chemistry appeared
to be a simple science. Philosophers postulated (understandably, given the absence of
microscopes), that the universe consisted of just four elements: water, earth,
fire, and air.
Later, as science became more sophisticated, the list of
“basics” began to grow.
“...the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have his way, come to share in the life of Christ... He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has—by what I call ‘good infection.' Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else. ” -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
I was recently impressed by a Christian song that simply admits to God:
“You're everything to me, more than a story, more than words on a page
of history.”
I often finding myself asking questions like: How could I actually say that Jesus, someone I've never physically met, is
“everything to me?” I mean, at one level faith in His ideals or what He represents could make sense - but faith to this extent?
"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your
bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he
will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too
much to ask?" (Rom. 12:1, NLT).
"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death." (1 John 3:14, NIV)
When we surrender ourselves to Jesus, He gives us the ability to love God and others. In fact, this is the most important evidence He is truly part of our lives. If people don't have genuine love, they probably are not Christians.
Reflecting on the activities of John the Baptist (Luke 3, Mark 1), I'm thinking he serves as a great example of what you and I should be striving for in life. Consider what John did:
Most people get the impression from churches that God is after your
wallet (as if He needed your money to keep His kingdom in the black).
Interestingly, the Apostle Paul teaches a principle in 2 Corinthians 8
that is simply this: God doesn't want your money unless He has you.
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