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| Get Rooted, Part 1"When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path." - Matthew 13:19 Have you ever been hiking or mountain biking on a trail in the woods? All around you are trees, wildflowers, poison ivy, weeds, and pretty much any other kind of plant-life you can think of. But is anything growing on the trail? No way. The ground has been packed down so hard by all the hikers and bikers, there’s no chance of anything growing. Try as it might, the seed that falls on the trail just can’t take root and grow. Instead it just lays there until it’s been ground into dust or eaten up by birds. You know, sometimes our hearts can be like the hard-packed trail, can’t they? We’re so set in our ways and doing our own thing, we harden our hearts to the Word of God. When we do this, it makes it so easy for Satan to come in and steal the good seed and replace it with selfishness, apathy, and indifference. When this happens, we stop growing. Our spiritual lives become dry and withered and we stop being fruitful. Does this sound like a good thing to you? I hope not! Instead, our spiritual lives should be thriving – growing like crazy and producing fruit everywhere! Instead, we should be tight with Jesus, walking with Him everyday in everything we do. Instead, people should be able to look at us and see the love of Christ in all that we say and do. Okay, so let’s review: A dry, withered, and fruitless spiritual life vs. a thriving, fruitful, tight-with-Jesus spiritual life. Hmmmm… I don’t know about you, but I want the thriving, fruitful, tight-with-Jesus life. Don’t you? Don’t let your heart be like the hard-packed trail. Soften it so the seeds of God’s Word can take root and grow, producing a thriving, fruitful, and tight-with-Jesus spiritual life!
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| Loving OurselvesIt’s a commandment we all know pretty well: Love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40). The love your neighbor thing we get for the most part: We’re supposed to love and serve others and put them above ourselves. But what does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? This statement implies that in order for us to love others, we have to love ourselves too. What does it mean to love ourselves? Loving ourselves is not self-absorption, vanity and pride. It is recognizing that we were created in God’s image for His glory. It is realizing that we are beautiful, whole and righteous in the eyes of God. It is accepting who we are, trusting God doesn’t make any mistakes. It is receiving His love, grace, and mercy and living in freedom from the ugliness of sin, guilt, and shame. In his book Blue Like Jazz, author Donald Miller writes about when God showed him what it means to love ourselves, “…He was saying I would never talk to my neighbor the way I talked to myself, and that somehow I had come to believe it was wrong to kick other people around but it was okay to do it to myself. It was as if God had put me in a plane and flown me over myself so I could see how I was connected, all the neighborhoods that were falling apart because I would not let myself receive love from myself, from others, or from God…So I stopped. And I mean that. I stopped hating myself. It no longer felt right. It wasn’t manly or healthy, and I cut it out.” Students: I pray that you will learn to love yourselves. I pray that in learning to love yourselves, you will experience the life-changing fullness of God’s love and the love of others. And finally, I pray that your love for yourself will pour over into a love for God and for others that knows no bounds! | | |
| Finishing StrongAhhhhhh. The smell of spring is in the air, the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, and school’s about to end! This is the time of year that all students like yourself love, because the sweet freedom of summer is knocking at your door, asking you to come out and play. But alas! There is still a month of school left, and you cannot yet accept that invitation to play. There are still papers to write, projects to be completed, and final exams to take, so with great reluctance, you tell your faithful friend summer that you’ll have to take a raincheck on that play-date until school is out… Okay, so maybe this imaginary scenario sounds a bit cheesy, but there is truth to be found in this little tale. Here it is: In this last month of school, resolve to finish the year strong. Work hard and do your best to the very end. Don’t let spring fever and the dreaded Senioritis get the best of you; rather, follow the advice of the Apostle Paul when he wrote, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23-24) So students: As you finish your school year out, strive to honor God and bring glory to Him by doing your best in whatever you do, whether that is your homework, papers, projects, or finals. Finish strong! And with that, we’ll let the Apostle Paul have the last word: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17). | | |
| Boasting In The CrossLet’s be honest. It feels good to talk about ourselves. Because of our sinful nature, we tend to love letting others know how great and awesome we are. In other words, we like to brag about ourselves. As followers of Jesus however, we also know that boasting about ourselves is prideful and sinful. In many places throughout scripture, we are commanded to be humble, so we pray for humility and watch what we say about ourselves. So even as we strive to not boast about ourselves, let us not forget that there is one thing that we can boast about – the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! In Galatians 6:14, the Apostle Paul writes, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” As we celebrate the miracle of Easter this month, let us boast loudly about the work of Christ on the cross. Let us tell anyone we can about what Jesus has done for you and me. And while we boast about our Savior Jesus with our mouths, let us also boast about Him in how we live our lives each and every day, for as the old saying goes, “Our actions speak louder than our words.” Christian author Brennan Manning once said, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” With God’s strength, we can stop bragging about ourselves, but we should never stop boasting about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, both in our words and actions! | | |
| Some Words of Encouragement...Since March is the month we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I thought it would be cool to encourage you with one of St. Patrick’s most well-known prayers; but first, a history lesson: St. Patrick was a missionary who brought Christianity from Britain to Ireland in approximately 433 A.D. Because paganism was widely practiced throughout Ireland when he arrived there, St. Patrick knew that his mission would be difficult. In order to draw strength for the coming spiritual battle, legend tells us that St. Patrick wrote his most well-known prayer, which is called St. Patrick’s Breast-Plate. Below are some of my favorite parts of the prayer. Please read them and take encouragement, and then make these your prayer as well. …I bind to myself today the virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism, the virtue of His crucifixion with His burial, the virtue of His Resurrection and His Ascension, the virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day… …I bind to myself today God’s Power to guide me, God’s Might to uphold me, God’s Wisdom to teach me, God’s Ear to hear me, God’s Word to give me speech, God’s Hand to guide me, God’s Way to lie before me, God’s Shield to shelter me, God’s Host to secure me, against the snares of demons, against the seductions of vices, against the lusts of nature, against everyone who meditates injury to me, whether far or near, whether few or many… …Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left…Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me… | | |
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