EXPECTATIONS...

Have you ever had a week where your expectations were not met? This week has been a week where it seems that every expectation that I had on Monday was not met on Tuesday. It's funny that when my expectations are not met, my response is telling of my heart.

When expectations are not met I can tend to only focus on me. I begin to get irritable with the kids, snap at my wife and forget that I am to serve. As I saw this happening I continued to tell myself..."look what happened to me." Ultimately I realized it was a lack of trust in God. It is easy to trust through difficult times when we "see" Him working...meeting our expectation but, when we don't see Him working, watch out.

It was a challenge to me to give everything to God...which most difficult of all is my expectations.

5 States in Nine Days

The past week my family and I have covered 5 states in 9 days. We went from Ohio to Indiana to Illinois to Iowa to Nebraska. That is a lot of time spent by the family in the car. We returned to my sisters for Easter. What a great time to remember and celebrate the God we serve.

As I thought through our travels, I remembered the distance Christ traveled. From heaven to earth to the cross. He did this for you and me. The next time you travel and experience culture shock...remember the distance Christ traveled for you.

Gone Fishing

In the midst of preparing for teaching Sunday, can't wait too see everyone in Lafayette, IN, I began to daydream. I was reading the passage where the disciples went back to fishing. As I looked at the snow falling outside, I wished I was at the lake fishing (not ice fishing either).

In this passage, Christ asked Peter "do you love me more than these." As I began to think about the question, was it referering to the disciples. Do you love me more than the other disciples? I don't think so, God never asked us to compare ourselves to others, but rather to his standard.

I believe he was refering to the idea of "do you love me more than fish". Don't right me off yet, I believe that the fish laying there represent the secerity of Peter. Christ had died in two chapters previous, he no longer lived every waking moment with Christ. He now was alone and returned to fishing.

How often when faced with tough circumstanes do we turn to comforts of life rather than to serving Christ and others.

Christ asks, "DO YOU LOVE ME MORE THAN THESES"

Others Are Watching

Yesterday during the morning worship service, their was a family sitting at the table in front of us. During one of the worship songs, his grandfather raised his hands in praise to our God. As the grandson watched, he imitated the actions of his grandfather. As I watched the boy imitated every move that the loving grandfather made. I have no idea what is going on in the life of that grandfather, but the grandson was watching ever action.

I wondered if my life of worship is being imitated by those around me. As I go through life, the joys the heartache, the relationships and the circumstances, how will I respond? If others watched me, would they know how to respond in praise and honor to God.

Remember, those around us are watching. LIVE OUT LOUD.

Culturally Relevant

The term "culturally relevant" is a term that has been used and abused in today's church. I believe when properly understood it is seen in the life of Christ. Think about this. What culture did Christ leave? What culture did Christ come to? Did Christ continue to use the culture of heaven?

As you think about these questions, also think about how Christ leveraged the culture that he came to. His goal was Biblical Transformation (see last post) but He accomplished that within the culture of Israel. Let's model our lives after Christ, understand that we must go to, communicate with and serve the culture that is in front of us.

Biblically Transformational

One of the values that drive my life is seeing people biblically transformed. To some this may be an understood concept but for me it took years to grasp. I grew up in a religious environment which understood the transformation aspect. The emphasis was placed on the behavior. The person who was mature in Christ was the one who looked the part. It was behavior modification with a religous twist.
Then one day I realized that the one's who "looked" the part often struggled with the same heart issues as those who did not "look" the part. Ephesians 4 tells of this process.
It says "to my initial suprise" that believers can live just as those who are far from God. It didn't say in their actions, but in their thinking. It was at this point that I realized that biblical transformation is a changing of the heart and mind.
The verse then goes on to say that the completion of the transformation is the action.
Let's make sure we understand that a heart change produces a behavior change. We need to make sure we address the heart. That's where biblical transformation takes place.

Values

Each of us have driving factors that act us to cause the way we act. In the past I have been forced to be able to articulate those values that drive me. As I began to put these together some time ago, I came to the realization that these are based on one of two things, myself or the word of God. As I began to evaluate these in my life the conclusion I came to is this, if they are not drawn from and driven by the word of God, they should not drive me. I want to encourage you, what are the values that drive you in your daily life. Are they drawn from the word of God or are they merely self made? I will post over the next few weeks on the values the drive me personally and how I have drawn them from the bible.