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Day 20: Bless

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Today I had the honor and privilege of teaching a workshop at First United Methodist Church in Georgetow, TX entitled, “Facebook 101: Being a 21st Century Disciple.” It was an amazing experience of fellow brother and sisters in Christ coming together and learning about what Facebook is and why it matters to how we connect with the world, and largely how we can use this technology to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Some of you will come to this blog, methodork.com from a post that I have put on Facebook. We live in a very fast-paced world where everything is happens at light speed. As disciples I believe a large part of all of our call is to connect to world and to God. I believe that we are the bridge that connects people to God, and Jesus living within us helps us to bridge this gap. It is only by His love and grace that we are able to make this happen, it’s not about us, it’s completely and utterly about Jesus’ love and grace that bridges this gap.

Facebook is a tool that helps us to do that.

Just like any other tool in this world it can be used for good or not so good, but we as Disciples when we committed to follow Christ, committed to be His servants of connecting. We committed to using this tool and everything in our lives for His glory alone. Facebook is just one way to do this, but it is clear from the Great Commission that we have a job to do.

So, I challenge you today. How are you connecting? Is it for your glory or for Jesus’ glory? How can we differently use Facebook and all social media for that matter as a tool that we use to point the world to Christ?

Almighty God,

Help us to recognize the calling that you have placed on all our lives to point the world to your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to use the tools in our lives to share of the Love and Grace of Jesus Christ. In your Son’s Holy and Precious name we pray.

Amen.

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Leaving and Thirsting

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Day 18: Leaving

(“The Simple Truth Bible: Daily Devotions for Students, page 3)

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Day 19: Thirst

Both of these pictures for me lead to same end, leaving what God has done and thirsting for more and more of His awesome swagger! God says to the Israelites in the book of Isaiah very confidently that they have seen nothing yet, there is this swagger about God that makes me smile, but not a swagger like we would think or even expect.

God loves us.

To the most massive possible level, so massive that the word massive dwarfs in comparison to the how big it truly is.

Think of the most massive thing that you can.

For me its the surpassing galaxies that God created. The millions and millions of galaxies in our universe that He made. My mind cannot comprehend the size of this PART of creation. It’s just a part of it.

Amazing.

So, today know that today blessings are

New.

Fresh.

Alive.

And tomorrow it will start again.

So we leave and we thirst for more.

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Day 17: Prophet

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(John the Baptist, from the Action Bible by Sergio Cariello)

Find the Action Bible by clicking here.

John the Baptizer, a prophet of the Lord. He is most commonly known for the many baptisms he did at the Jordan River, one of which was baptizing our Lord Jesus Christ, even though he protested saying:

I need to be baptized by you, yet you come to me? Jesus answered, “Allow me to be baptized now. This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.”

So he baptized Jesus. John was also known to be the man that said “prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight.” To put it simply in all of John’s preaching I believe he was simply pointing towards what the Risen Christ would be and do for all time. John is one of my favorite prophets in the bible for this reason alone because I believe that most disciples do that the biggest accomplishment I can achieve in life is by effectively living my life in such a way that people are pointed to Christ.

To put it simply: “It’s not about us. It’s just not.”

I praise God everyday that it’s not about us, but about Him and everything that He has done for the world, and when we commit to live our lives for Him and his love and grace we actively commit to not point to ourselves and what we have done, but point directly to the Risen Christ for not just what He did, but for what He continues to do everyday that we are on this earth!

So I ask you to take a moment sometime today and think about what your life would be like if Christ had not died for you and me. What would our life look like? Take this moment to be thankful for all the blessings that God rains down upon us, but at the same time think about the many ways that we can point to Christ and why that matters to the world.

Father God,

Rain your love down upon us and help the world to see your Son through your disciples in the world. May they see you and your love and grace and not ourselves. In Jesus’ Name.

Amen.

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Day 16: Earth

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(Community Prayer Garden at St. Philip’s United Methodist Church)

There are times when I really enjoy sitting in the Prayer Garden here at St. Philips, where I serve as Director of Student Ministries. It is so peaceful to in creation. Another one of my favorite pictures is one that I took early one sunday morning and it captures creation as well.

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God help us to take a moment everyday and just recognize how masterful your creation is. 

Over and over God says through His word that we are the crown of His creation.

The Crown.

Think about that for a moment.

Lately God has been impressing upon me that creation is an ongoing process. God is continually actively participating in creation. Flowers continue to bloom, grass continues to grow, but I really think its more than that. When Christ died for our sins on the cross we all died with him and we ceased to live but Christ lived within us. He created in us new life and everyday that we wake up and enjoy life we are being created in that new image and new life that is in Jesus Christ.

This is where it gets really cool.

God invites us into a creation partnership.

God comes alongside us and as we actively live in his grace and represent him as His disciples we are creating and planting the seeds of the new life in Jesus Christ in people lives with the help of our Lord and Savior that weaves it all together.

God is so cool.

Thanks be to God.

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Day 15: Hear

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11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand at the mountain before the Lord. The Lord is passing by.” A very strong wind tore through the mountains and broke apart the stones before the Lord. But the Lord wasn’t in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake. But the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake, there was a fire. But the Lord wasn’t in the fire. After the fire, there was a sound. Thin. Quiet. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his coat. He went out and stood at the cave’s entrance. A voice came to him and said, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

 

We live in a very loud world.

So sometimes I feel like that we expect that God’s voice should match the loudness of our world, but it doesn’t does it? There are two words that come to mind when I think of noise and God’s voice.

“Listen” and “Hear”

I think sometimes we think that we listen to God’s voice, but to really hear it can be a completely different thing. You can listen all day long, but to actually hear something is something that I believe is more. When something is heard there is this implication that it has been received (whether good or bad) it has been received nonetheless.

In this verse from 1 Kings we find the prophet Elijah that heard God’s voice and responded. “God said to Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful noise comes and elijah thinks its God, but its not. Then another loud noise comes, not God. Then another and its still not God.

And then after the fire there was a sound, but it thin and it was quiet

And Elijah heard it. 

What he hears is God asking a question: Why are you here, Elijah?

What is God asking you tonight? 

Are you listening?

Did you hear it?

I believe that God is always telling us something, the question is whether we truly heard what he was saying.

God I pray that we would truly hear you for what you are truly saying. Open our ears, hearts, minds, and very souls to you God so that we can hear you and go and represent in as your disciples. In Jesus’ Name we pray.

Amen.