Tag: examples

Categories
Daily Post

Weekend of Champions

Everyone wants to be a Champion.

This weekend in my house there were several Mario Kart tournaments.  Andrew was schooling his grandparents in the finer arts of racing, while his grandmother was just figuring out how to turn the Wii Wheel. That didn’t seem to deter her however, as she hung in there, putting around the course in 12th at her own speed, undeterred by the constant heckles of “push 2”, “you need to go faster” and “here comes Andrew to lap you again”.

Then there was that Super Bowl.  Mr. Manning throws an “pick 6”, interception for a touchdown, to lose the game. Disappointing, to say the least. Do you think that makes him any less of a winner?Any less then of one of the greatest players ever to play.

Oh and then there were the commercials.  Disappointing.  But we know, the marketers will be back again next year with another brand of humor and attempts to keep us glued to the set.  (Also, here is the link to the Tebow Ad – what was the big deal?)

And then there is us.  We continue to battle and fight and race.  Sometimes we lose ( read sin), sometimes we throw an INT ( that’s interception for you non football fans out there, also read mistake), sometimes our words just don’t have the impact they are meant to have.  Does that make us a failure? Does that diminish who we are in God’s eyes?  Even though we think it does, it doesn’t.  He love is unfailing and our hope keeps us going:

Hebrews 10:23-24 (New International Version)

23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

And we keep on fighting.

Hebrews 10:39 (New International Version)

39But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

Don’t shrink back, even in the the face of mistakes – keep on fighting.

Categories
Daily Post

Happy Groundhog Day 2010

Wow, January is gone. I could not believe that yesterday was the first of February and that today is Groundhog Day!

Wow, January is gone. I could not believe that yesterday was the first of February and that today is Groundhog Day! ( ok that was a bad joke, I will not do that again.)

But really, can you believe 1/12 of 2010 is gone, and I am still writing the date as 20010. So, How are those resolutions going?  Are you changing yourself?  It was interesting how much I heard about casting resolutions away before they were even created back around the New Year.  It seems that we are conditioned that things will stay the same.  Is not expected that things can change.   However, we don’t expect that with our children?  We expect them to grow and mature and change, but at some point, somewhere in our life, we agree ( give up) and the expectations for change diminish.

With that mindset, it was interesting this weekend to hear one of my friends talk about some new believers, who are adults.  She was expressing how awesome and inspiring it was to “watch them change and grow” right before her eyes!

Take a look at 1 Corinthians 4:16

16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

We are given a chance each day to change and grow.  I think we should start to expect change – each day.  Look at this verse I shared with Tennessee Jed(keep praying for him) yesterday from Galations 4:19

I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

Paul expected change in the Galatians.  I expect to see change in Tennessee Jed, as painful as it will be.  And I attempt each day to renew myself and expect some change.

How about you, Will you reset you expectations and reaffirm those resolutions.  In this short month, set some attainable goal(s) and go for it.  On this Groundhog Day, come out of your hole, take one look at your shadow and then change the season!

Categories
Daily Post

Not Good Enough?

I have a friend, that we will call Tennessee Jed.  ( This is not his real name, and it is not a reference to my real friend Pittsfield Jed, whom I refer to often) Anyway, I have a friend, and lets call him Tennessee Jed.  Tennessee Jed has been struggling.  He has had some hardships in his life, but mostly, his is struggling spiritually.  He feels that he is “Not Good Enough”, and that he can never be “good enough”.   He finds that his struggles with not doing what he may really wants to do, or being who he wants to be make him worthless.  So worthless, that God would not ever care to look his way.   Some one has convinced him he is not in a so called chosen predestined group of followers, and he does not have any way to salvation.  He thinks that he is  so worthless, that his friends don’t even need to look his way.

He is a broken man, and I write about him today for two reasons:

If you can and you care to, please lift Tennessee Jed’s name up in prayer.

Second, maybe you struggle with the same thing.  TJ (Tennessee Jed), thinks he has to do something to earn God’s love, and the love of others.  His was brought up with a errant view of grace and mercy.  Sometimes we find ourselves in that same place – wanting to work and prove that we are worthy.  Its just doesn’t work that way.  Mercy and grace are  free gifts, and those gifts move us to work and impact others.

If you find yourself there, check out this from Ephesians 2.  Yes, sorry this is long, but as I started reading it this morning, it was so motivating, that I just could not cut it down.  I have highlighted key parts for you speed readers.

Ephesians 2

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

11Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)— 12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

“He himself is our peace”  He is the way me escape the beat-down that we give ourselves.  If you find yourself in Tennessee Jed’s position, remember, you are right, you would never be good enough, except that grace and mercy are free gifts for everyone.  Take it. And find peace,  and become good enough for God.

What do you think?  I would love your comments.

DISCLAIMER: The is  a true story.  The names are changed to protect the innocent. And this is not a "I have a friend, but I mean me" story.
Categories
Daily Post

Blackberry, Beatles and bLove

Have you noticed these new Blackberry commercials with the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” song as the primary theme?  I have found myself stopping and staring at the television whenever they are playing.  I am still not sure what in the world it has to do with a mobile device, but they are a little bit inspiring.  They almost make me want to go and exchange Amy’s RAZR for a Blackberry Curve. ( however, I think Amy’s likes texting on a numeric keypad, its makes her happy).

Anyway, although the ads pull me in with the little storylines, I can’t figure out what this has to do with a phone.   But it has always interested me that John Lennon was able to capture the essence of Christian thinking in this song, and popularize it in a way that Christians never have been able to!  All we need is Love.

Paul tells us its the greatest thing in 1 Corinthians 13

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

and John reminds us about the greatness of Love in 1 John 4

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

Sometimes its a hard thing – especially for the men among us, but Love is all you need, it should be the backbone of the way we treat each other.  So today go ahead and sing this song.  Love is all we need.  And then – apply it to you life.  Will you live that way as well?

Categories
Daily Post

Falling Down

“Yard Sale”, my skiing companion yelled, as my ski went one direction and I went the other.   That’s how my night started.  Yes, I fell forward, I spun, I lost skis, I fell backward, and I think I actually fell in ways, I did not know you could fall.  And there I was, later, in the evening, with my body in a pile of snow at the edge of the trail, and my skis tied up the the deep snow and the branches of the small tree I had almost hit, thinking how in the world I am going to make it down this mountain.   It was that fall, which was actually on the third or fourth run at this particular trail, that I decided that I would get myself back up, cast aside what was really holding me back and go.  What was holding me back – fear.  Fear of the exact thing that I was doing – falling! 

On the last run of the night, I made it from the top to the bottom without falling – even taking a slightly harder trail to the bottom.  YES, I shouted as I hit poles with my companion at the bottom of the run.  I had overcome, I had cast fear aside, I had gained confidence in the skills I had been given, and I was actually really skiing ( vs just making it down alive!)

Our lives are like that.  We fear.  We fall.  We think we are not good enough.  We think we don’t have the skills to do what we should or what we want.  We lie in the deep snow caught up in trees and give up ( read sin and dispair).  However, we have something that should prop us up and should give us the gumption to get back up and get in there.   Life is meant to be lived in the fray, and we should be in there, not worried about our own inadequacies.

I mean check this out in Romans 7.

24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Yes, we can yell that out on any day – what a wretched man that I am, WHO CAN SAVE ME!

Just a few verses down, we see the answer in Romans 8

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

We are free, we can get out and live it.  We can get up and overcome.  I did! Hey, I can now say I am a skier ( with some asterisks, but still a skier).  Get up! Get out of the snow, point those skis and go man!  GO!