THE FIGHT

Have you ever noticed that every single movie has some kind of conflict? There is always something that has to be overcome, a problem that must be solved. You would think with all of the problems in life, we would want to be entertained by something that doesn't have any conflict, but when a TV show or movie comes out without conflict, it crashes and burns because it doesn't hold our interest.

The more I think about it, we have been created with conflict in our hearts and minds. This is a Biblical concept as well. Think of all the verses about spiritual warfare, or how Satan is a prowling lion seeking whom he may devour. It's funny, none of those verses attempt to convince us of the conflict. Their aim is to prepare us for the conflict.

High up on the list of my favorite movies is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm going to nerd out a bit, so hang in there with me.

In Lord of the Rings, this hobbit named Frodo kind of stumbles upon a ring of power, and it turns out that said ring contains all the power of all evil. Frodo and 8 companions set out to destroy the ring in the fires of Mount Doom. It takes them three movies to get there, and they face unmeasurable difficulties. Literally everything in their entire world is set against them. Their chances are beyond slim. Throughout all of the movies, you see them press through, and even though the darkness around them seems to never let them through, you know that in the end they will destroy the ring. The trilogy ends with the ring being destroyed, and good triumphing over evil.

Even though there are few doubts that they will complete their quest, this story manages to inspire such hope. This hope doesn't come from a happy little trip without difficulty, but from a journey that seemed impossible. The conflict is more than they could ever bear, but they don't give up.

We are in such a conflict today. Whichever aspect you look at it from, the people around us that we struggle with, the sins that seem to ensnare us, or the spiritual battle that we know we are in, we are in such conflict that it should blow our minds.

However, Jesus Christ has already won the fight. When He died on the cross and rose again on the third day, He defeated death. He defeated Satan, and He robbed sin of all its power over us.

If you're a Christian, you are on the winning side. Satan is going down swinging, but God has the victory by a long shot.

Being in conflict gets tiring, it gets hard. There are always going to be moments where it seems impossible, and you want to give up. Don't forget that the God we serve, the God who we have an intimate relationship with, He has already taken the victory. Live in that victory.

I'll leave you with a few words from Lord of the Rings. Frodo is at the point of giving up, and Samwise encourages him with these words.

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. Because they were holding on to something... There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."

Let our apathy bring You fame?

In the song, "Burning Ones" by Jesus Culture, there is a line that has stuck out to me since the first time I heard the song. "let our passion bring You fame."

When I think about it, Christians are the people who have the most reason in the whole world to be passionate. We have more of a reason to be stoked because of the Gospel.

Jesus has come and with His death He paid the debt that we owed, but He has risen from the dead!

There is no other religion that can say that they serve a loving God who has conquered death. Beyond that, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us, giving us strength. No other religion on the face of the planet has a God who reaches down to His people to save them. We are accepted before God because of our faith, and that is the biggest game changer out there.

A lot of people look to the book of Acts and wonder why the things from that book aren't happening today. This could be attributed to many causes, but I believe that a portion of the difference is our attitude toward God and His Word. The church in the book of Acts saw Jesus die and rise from the dead. That changed everything. They realized that they had personal, intimate relationship with the God of the universe, and they realized the power in that. This realization got them so excited that they HAD to tell the people around them. At one point, they are arrested and they tell the Pharisees that they couldn't not share about what Jesus had done.

I think today, we are aware of the intimate relationship, and the power that Jesus has, but we have dismissed the importance of it. We can't take our next breath without God letting us. So that means that if you're still breathing, God has you here on purpose. He has you here to further His kingdom.

We pray for revival in our cities and streets, but that revival isn't going to come until we get passionate about God, and we get passionate about His Kingdom.

If you see yourself getting apathetic, or are stuck in that rut, focus on the fact that our Savior is risen. We serve a King who is very much alive. Death has been conquered, not so we could be apathetic, but so we could join Christ in that new life. That new life is full of passion, and joy, and love in Christ.

God has big plans for you. You can walk in them, or you can keep being "okay where you are" and miss seeing God move in HUGE ways... your choice.

doors

Two years ago I was about to start my final semester of college. I can remember watching everyone get jobs lined up, and before I was even moved in, it seemed like everyone knew what they were doing. I however, didn't. I had a few cheesy sounding answers to what I was going to do after I graduated. My two favorites were that I was going to be a Christian, and that I was going to follow Jesus. At the time, I had said these somewhat sarcastically. However, since then I've seen the wisdom that I didn't even recognize in that.

As Christians, our calling is to live by faith, and not by sight. That means that even when things don't make sense and we can't see the road ahead of us, we keep following Jesus.

Two weeks before I graduated, I found out about an opportunity to intern with the church that I now work at. It wasn't until the week after I graduated that I knew for certain I was coming here. I had never heard of Wilmington, North Carolina before in my life, but two weeks after graduation, I was driving down the coast to walk through this door God had opened.

I had met Pastor Clay and his daughter in a coffee shop in California, but apart from them, I didn't know a single person here. It was the biggest leap of faith I've ever taken.

One of the quotes that has made it onto the wall in my office says "A ship in a harbor is safe, but this is not what a ship is built for."

This quote is a fantastic reminder that we weren't created to live safe lives, where only expected things happen. We've been given the opportunity to live the wildest, most fulfilling adventure that we could ever have.

That adventure is the daily pursuit of Christ, and the doors that we will walk through in following His lead.

I believe that God will open doors in your life. It might not be today, or tomorrow even,  but if you are faithfully seeking and obeying Jesus, you'll know when He opens the door.

While its scary, and seems crazy to go through those doors sometimes, if God is opening the door, its always worth going through.

During that final semester, my prayer throughout wasn't big and fancy, it was simple. I just kept praying, "God, I'll go wherever You want me to go, as long as You open the door."

He opened the door, and I walked through it, even though it was difficult. Today I can look back on the time since I've moved to Wilmington, and I don't regret a moment of it.

Ask God to open doors in your life, and ask Him to give you the strength to walk through them. He will.

Just Ask.

My verse for the year is Ephesians 3:20. It says, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”

I love this verse. I actually put it on my wall in my office, to remind me.

I like this verse a lot because it says that God is able to do a heck lot more than we could even imagine, and more than we could ever ask. Not just abundantly more, but far more abundantly. God gives a super abundance beyond what we ask or think.

This has really gotten me thinking. If God promises that He can do more than we could ever ask, why aren’t we asking bigger things? Now let me clarify; I am not saying that if we ask God to provide a car, He will provide a Ferrari. Jesus said that if we ask according to His will, God will give, because God knows how to give good gifts.

If our hearts are aligned with God’s will, He’ll give us whatever we ask for.

Take the example from Mark 1. There is a leprous man that hears of this guy Jesus, who can heal people. He gets this idea in his head that maybe; just maybe Jesus could heal him too. So he comes up to Jesus and kneels down in front of Him.

Quick pause in the story – In Israel at this time, leprosy was considered the result of a major sin. People didn’t go near lepers. It was totally against everything to be in contact with them, to the point that people would throw rocks at them to keep them far away.

When this leper kneels in front of Jesus, it’s most likely already the closest he’s been to another person since he became a leper. He’s hoping and praying, trusting that Jesus can heal him.

Go check out the story for yourself in Mark 1. Jesus doesn’t just heal the guy. Jesus reaches down and touches him. This guy gets healed, and Jesus gives him what was probably the first physical contact he has had with anyone in years.

Wow, talk about going beyond what we could ever ask or imagine. That is huge.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Scripture promises that. If Jesus is still the same today as He was that day when He healed that leprous man, what is stopping us from asking big things of Him?

Is it doubt? Do we not think He can do it? Or is it fear? Maybe He won’t do it.

I think of the song, “God of This City” where it says, “Greater things have yet to come in this city.”

I believe that with all my heart. There is revival ahead of us, but that doesn’t happen without God’s people on their knees before Him.

This year I want to ask big things of our big God. If they are in His will, I am promised that He will do them. If they aren’t in His will, I don’t want them to happen anyway.

Will you join me?

Do You Favorite or Retweet?

As the world of Twitter has become more and more popular, the terms “favorite” and “retweet” have become common among us. To favorite something means to declare that you like it, while to retweet something means having the post duplicated to your own profile for people to see.

I saw a tweet a few days ago where someone posted that they didn’t want favorites, but they wanted to be retweeted. This got me thinking a little bit. What does Jesus ask of us? Jesus didn’t ask His followers to favorite his message.

Jesus was preaching good news, the best news ever. Jesus preached that anyone could come to God, exactly how they were, and when they put their faith in what He did on the cross, they would receive grace, and forgiveness. Mankind can be joined into a relationship with God through faith in Christ’s death and resurrection. That is huge, exciting news.

A message like this is certainly worth favoriting.

But as Christians, we’re not called to favorite this message.

We’re called to retweet this message.

Throughout Scripture it’s shown to us that we’re supposed to grow more and more to become like Jesus. Our lives are supposed to be retweets of His life.

“But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”’ – 1 Peter 1:15-16 (ESV)

This word “holy” carries the idea of being set apart, being different, or being called to a different standard. We’ve been called to reflect Christ.

Be careful in how you think about this. It’s easy to favorite Jesus. We talk about how awesome Jesus is, and we sing songs to Him at church. However, it’s not a difficult task to favorite Jesus without retweeting Him. We can like Jesus, we can think Jesus is great, but if who Jesus is doesn’t change who we are, it’s pointless.

Don’t fall into the ever growing category of people in the world today who favorite Jesus and stop there.

Be holy as God has called you to be holy. Be different. Live by the higher calling which God has for you.

Let your life retweet Jesus.