Have You Exchanged the Truth?

 "They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, & they worshipped & served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen." (Romans 1:25)

When I read this verse the other day, my first thought was that it describes our society well. It's easy to apply there.

But, it doesn't stop there. It's not just for the world out there.

If we take a couple of minutes to think about it, we can see where we've done this in our churches & in our own lives.

We've exchanged the truth of God's Word for a lie. The lie often just subtle enough that we don't even realize right away. Or, in a desire to make the gospel most comfortable, we downplay what it actually says about something. Or we take something out of the context it was written in to make it say what we want that it doesn't actually say.

We've worshipped created things rather than the Creator. We have celebrity pastors & worship leaders - & then we're shocked when they fail. We let preferences divide & we see ours as the right ones.

But, let's make this even a little bit more personal for a few minutes.

We do this in our own lives. We believe lies rather than the truth. Sometimes we've intentionally chosen to. And sometimes we got a little off course at the start & now we're really far off course.

We've worshipped created things. We worship money, material possessions, power, a specific body type, health, etc.

So, we're left with some challenging questions:

Are there places in your life where you've exchanged the truth of God for a lie - either knowingly or unknowingly?

Are you willing to turn from those lies & turn back to God's truth - even if the truth is hard?

Are there places in your life where you're worshipping created things rather than the Creator?

How can you turn back to worshipping the Creator?

Do You Rest?

Do you make time & space for rest in your calendar?

I'm not talking about time to sleep at night - although that's important & necessary.

I'm not talking about a few hours zoning out in front of show - although there's nothing inherently wrong with that sometimes.

I'm talking about making space in your life to really slow down. To disconnect from the work emails & messages. To really just be present in the moment that's right in front of you.

This is something God actually intended for us to do. In the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20, God says:

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour & do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, not your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens & the earth, the sea, & all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day & made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11)

Unfortunately, the religious leaders of early Israel had added a detailed list of what you could & could not do in the Sabbath to this. They made it about rules, while missing the heart of it.

But, you still see Jesus & His disciples practicing the principle of the Sabbath. Over & over in the gospels, we see Jesus taking time away from the crowds & demands.

But, in our always connected society, we've lost the ability to really rest. Even when we're not at work our phones have messages from work easily accessible. It's easy to just check it. And there's often an expectation that we will.

But, this isn't how we're meant to live. This isn't what God had in mind from the beginning of creation. The example God set & mandated for His people had a regular rhythm of rest.

The importance of rest has been emphasized for me in the last few months. I was forced into an extended season of rest. At first, I didn't know what to do with my phone being so quiet & so many of the apps I'd grown used to checking no longer being there. I didn't know how to fill my time.

But, I very quickly realized just how tired I was. I had been running so hard for so long that exhaustion had become my normal. I didn't know another way because it had been so long.

As I was forced to slow down, I had to learn to rest. In it, I learned to be fully present with those I was with. For the first time in a long time, I was truly & fully present when I was with my niece . . . & she noticed & commented on the difference. Even now, as I return to working, I'm realizing I need to figure out how to plan for regular rest in my life.

I don't believe we need to get caught up in specific things we can or cannot do on a specific day. That could lead to us missing the point as the religious leaders in Jesus' day had. But, we need to create regular times of rest in our lives. Times where we disconnect from the demands of life & do things we enjoy - that fill us up.

A number of year ago, I heard a pastor describe the concept of a Sabbath in two words. Those two words have kept coming back to mind for me recently. Neither word is about a specific day or length of time or any other rules. They're concepts that can help us to make the space for rest - whether it's an actual day, or an afternoon, or a morning, or a longer period of time.

Pray & Play

PRAY: A Sabbath is time set aside to connect with God. A conversation in prayer without the usual limits that every other day may bring.

PLAY: A Sabbath is time to do things that bring you joy - just because they're enjoyable to you. Things that fill you up.

So, my question to you as I wrap this up: How can you make time to rest - time for Sabbath - a regular part of your life? What does it look like for you to spend time praying & playing regularly?

Stepping Out & Trusting God

 The other day as I sat outside a favourite coffee shop, I watched the window cleaners on the office building across the street. They were making the way down the building on ropes & harnesses.

I watched as they moved across the windows in a section & then moved a row lower. They did all of this with confidence they were secure & wouldn't fall as they moved.

As I watched for a few minutes, I felt like God was using it to say something to me. Those washing the windows were confident in the safety system they were using. They didn't keep checking or stay on the roof of the building because they weren't sure or because they were afraid. They knew the ropes & harness would hold them.

In that moment, God challenged me.

Will I step out in confidence in Him to hold me even when it's a step of faith?

Or as I going to allow fear to keep me back where it feels safer?

Somtimes God calls us to do something that feels like taking a step into the unknown. We have a choice of how we respond.

We can take that step of faith with confidence because of who we know God to be. And we can experience all that God has for us when we do.

Or we can stay where it feels safe & miss out on what God may have in store.

Are you willing to step out in faith when God asks you to trust Him?

God Meets Us Where We Are

 I was recently away for a few days at a cabin in an incredibly beautiful and peaceful place. It was good to just get away and be in creation without the usual demands of life.

The first morning, as I was sitting on the porch with my coffee and my journal, I head this bird squawking continually. It took me a while to realize where it was coming from and that the bird was squawking at me. Then I saw the bird's nest built on one of the lights on the porch. And that there were baby birds in the nest.

After a while the mama bird realized I wasn't going to do anything or move closer to them. She went back to work finding & bringing food to her babies. For the next couple hours I sat out there reading, writing, and sometimes just watching the nest.

Every time the mama returned to the nest with food, there would be all these baby bird beaks that would pop up, mouths open, expecting food. They were excited to see mama come back & anticipated something good & life-giving.

Later in the day, as I was reflecting on what I had watched, I had a question come to mind:

Do I have the same kind of anticipation as those baby birds when I come to meet with God? Do I expect Him to have something good & life-giving for me?

God meets us where we are & He brings us what we need. We simply have to be open to receiving what He has for us.

Seeing Something You Haven't Before in Scripture

 It's easy to become familiar with a part of a verse or passage in Scripture - especially when it speaks to something in your life at a time when you read it. We reference either the exact words or the concept regularly. This is a good thing, but it can also mean with miss things sometimes.

My attention recently turned to a verse that I'm quite familiar with. As I read the whole verse, I was actually a bit surprised to discover that two truths I often quote were in the same verse. And linking together gave a fuller understanding of both.

I know I've read this verse many times all together in the past, But, this time I noticed something I hadn't before. I love how there's always more to learn, even when we go back to a familiar passage.

Hebrews 13:5 says:

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you'."

In conversations about money and possessions the first half of the verse if often mentioned. We use it to remind ourselves that loving money is a problem. That we need to learn to be content with what we have.

We take comfort in the second half as a reminder that God never leaves. That He is always with us - no matter what we're going through.

All of that is good and true and helpful for our lives. As I read this verse recently, it was the word in between these two parts that caught my eye:

BECAUSE

That word links these together.

Because God is never going to leave us or forsake us, we can be content with what we have.

Because God is never going to leave us or forsake us, we don't need to love money.

We can be content with what we have because God is never going to leave us or forsake us.

We don't need to love money because God is never going to leave us or forsake us.

Yes, I know I said the same thing twice there. When we've separated two things for so long, I think we sometimes need the repetition to get it to sink in.

When the writer of Hebrews put the word "because" here, they did it intentionally and we need to take notice.

Content & Still Have a Longing for Something DIfferent?

 Can you live an enjoyable life while still having an unfulfilled longing for something?

Is it possible for those to coexist in one person's life?

I've heard so many people express a feeling that they won't really be happy or content or joyful until a certain thing happens or they achieve a certain thing. Except, once they get there, the goal changes and they're still not happy or content or joyful.

Many of these conversations come with other single adults in the church. Or, with people who make assumptions about what life is like as a single Christian adult or about what someone else feels.

And it's something I've wrestled with in my own life. Is it possible to create a life that I love and am content with, while still longing for marriage and a family of my own one day? Can I really live like this, even if the longing if never fulfilled?

It took me a while to get to this point, but I believe the answer is yes. In fact, I think it's something we have to learn to do.

It doesn't mean we'll always do it perfectly, or that we won't have days where it feels impossible to do so. But we can do it and learn to keep doing it better.

While I'm single, I can have a job I love and find fulfilling. I can have great relationships and community with people . I can be involved in things at church that I enjoy and feel called to by God.

And, at the same time, I can long for something different.

While I relate this specifically to being single right now, it can apply to all of us as Christians. We can live lives fully engaged in what God calls us to do, all while we long for God's Kingdom to be fully established on earth. It's not always easy, but we have to learn to live in this tension.

When it Feels Like Your Prayer Isn't Being Answered

 Have you ever prayed for God to move in a situation only to feel like God didn't answer?

Have you ever asked God to heal someone and it seems like that healing doesn't come?

I'd say we can probably all answer yes to these questions. And answering yes, sometimes makes it hard to be bold enough to ask for anything else in our prayers.

But, what if I told you that God has answered those prayers you've prayed. 

How do you react to that? Does it bring you relief? Or do you have a list of situations where you're sure God didn't answer come immediately to mind?

If you can, put those objections to the side for a few minutes. Ask yourself these questions:

When I prayed, did I ask for God to work His will or did I pray that He would do exactly what I wanted, the way I wanted Him to do it?

Did I look for God to answer only exactly the way I thought He would? Or did I ask for evidence of Him at work?

This doesn't mean we don't pray bold prayers. It doesn't mean we don't ask God to heal people. But, we also keep ourselves open to God answering in ways we didn't expect.

We have a discussion about this at a Bible study I'm part of recently. We'd all had times when we prayed for God to do something only He could do and it felt like He hadn't answered. But, when we really started talking about at least some of the those times, we could see that God did work. It just didn't look exactly like we thought it should.

So, what happens then? How do we reconcile this with what Scripture says?

Jesus tells us to ask and He says that He will respond.

Matthew 7:7-11 says:

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks the door will be opened.

Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will you Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!"

It would be easy to read these verses and decide that God just gives us what we ask for exactly how we want it. And, while we often wouldn't say it out loud, we think this way and it's what leads to the disappointment when we feel like our prayers aren't being answered.

But, when we make that assumption, we miss something about what Jesus is saying here - something important.

Jesus is saying that the gifts God gives are good - often better than we imagine.

But, when we've decided how the answer to our prayer should look, we may miss out on how God is answering it - in His much better way. God's much better way may look different than what we would consider an answer. And we can miss it if we're only looking for a specific answer.

A few years ago, in a podcast I was listening to, I heard someone say, "God always answers our prayers for healing." They paused here for effect... and I got annoyed. They went on to say, "Sometimes that healing comes on earth and sometimes it doesn't come until the person needing healing is in heaven." We don't like that idea. We want the healing now. We want the family member, friend, restored. We don't want to lose them. But, there's truth to that. Healing on earth may not look like we expect, but it will be God's better plan.

I've been wrestling with this a lot recently. I have a few prayers that I have been praying for a while - some for a year, some for years longer than that - and it doesn't seem like God is answering them. But, when I became intentional about looking for how God might be working in ways I didn't expect, I began to see things I didn't see before. I saw how God was working. I may not see the results I want, but I can trust God that He is working. And that gives me boldness to keep praying those prayers.

So, where do you need to let go of your picture of what an answer to your prayer should look like and instead look for the ways God might be moving instead?

What We All Need As Christians

What do we all need as Christians?

What is it that should mark our lives as Christians?

"For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory." (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12)

These are Paul's words in his letter to the church at Thessalonica. 

As I read those words, I was struck by one particular phrase in them.

Live lives worthy of God

This is a hard call. It's so much more than just praying a prayer to ask Jesus int your heart. This is actually about allowing Jesus to change your life.

The only way to live a life worthy of God is the be constantly growing and maturing in our relationship with Jesus. This is what allows for and causes the transformation that means we're living lives worthy of God. Discipleship is what this is about.

Discipleship is not a word we use regularly today. So, what do I mean by it?

When I use the word discipleship, I'm talking about the process of growing in our faith. About moving us from the point of salvation to being transformed. 

Some of this process happens as we spend time on our own in Scripture and in prayer. But, there's also a community aspect to it.

We learn from those who have gone before us. We encourage, comfort, and push one another along. This kind of discipleship comes out of relationship with people, not just be being an anonymous person in a crowd on a weekend. In Thessalonians 2:11, Paul uses the example of a father with his children to illustrate what this looks like.

I think we too often miss this part. We focus on salvation and miss the discipleship that must follow. It makes sense in lots of ways. Salvations are easy to count, to measure, to track. Discipleship is much harder to measure. But, if there is no discipleship after salvation, we've forgotten a big part of what being a Christian means.

Discipleship is where ongoing transformation takes place.

Discipleship is where we learn what God's Word says.

Discipleship is where we learn obedience to what God's Word says, even when it's hard.

Discipleship is the way we begin to live a life worthy.

So, how are you doing at discipleship? Both having people and places where you are disciple, and places where you're discipling others?

It doesn't have to be some sort of formal class or relationship for it to happen. But, we all need to have people who are further along in this Christian life than us who are pouring into us and we need to have people coming along behind us who we are pouring into.

If we're going to thrive and have an impact on a culture that is increasingly hostile to our beliefs, then I believe we must return discipleship to its rightful place in the church. As I read and study Paul's letters to the early church, I see again and again, his call to grow beyond that place of salvation. It's what we all need.

Living Social Justice

So, if we're supposed to be involved in social justice, as I wrote last week, what does it look like for us?

How do we actually make it a part of what we do?

How do we do it well?

In many ways, I think this is a bigger problem than we realize. Unfortunately, we haven't always done this well in the church. And in our struggle to figure out how to do it, we've actually done harm - mostly unintentionally.

I think our struggle to figure it out and do it is actually the reason why it might seem easier to try to avoid social justice and try to separate it from what we preach.

But, I also think the fact that it's so difficult at times is exactly why we need to be intentional about being hands on with it. We can't try to separate it from the gospel or leave it for professionals. We need to be involved ourselves.

I also wonder if part of our struggle with how to do as that we often think it has to start with changing to laws of our society. And that seems impossible or overwhelming, so we don't try. Or, we don't like how people have tried to do just that in the past and don't want to be associated with that, so we do our best to avoid those associations.

But, what if that wasn't where we were supposed to start?

What if we have it backwards from how we're supposed to be doing it?

What if it was supposed to start with us in the trenches doing the work, being involved with people?

I'm not saying we should be quiet and not say anything. I'm not saying that there aren't issues where we need to make our voices heard. But, I do think our voices will be better heard and considered if our actions reflect what we're saying. When we're living what we talk about, our voices are ones that people can't ignore as easily.

So, it has to start with our daily lives, with our interactions with people. We start with loving people - all people. We love even those who are living lifestyles that we disagree with. We earn the right to speak about those things, by loving people first.

Where can we make a difference for people as we go about our daily lives?

I believe that if we claim to be Christians, then we need to be involved in these issues, just as Jesus was. And Jesus' example in the gospels is one of loving people and caring for them even when His society saw them as other. We start with the people in our paths and put that love in action as we interact with them.

As I've wrestled with this, I've realized just how important it is that we all begin with the little things. For me, it can become too easy to think I'm off the hook because of where I work. But, nothing could be further from the truth. I may work where this is part of our every day life, but if I'm not living it in all of my life, I'm missing out on what intends for me, and my voice is silenced.

Who are the people on periphery of your everyday life that society, or your upbringing, or your thinking has taught you to see as other?

How can you change you interactions with that person now?

Coming Alongside What God is Already Doing

I've been thinking about what I would write for this post all day. I've started and not finished a few posts the last few days. Usually I try to write things ahead of time, but that just didn't seem to be happening this time. So, I've been wondering what my post for this week, for today, would look like. 

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be available to God for Him to use for His purposes. What it looks like for us to let God use us.

I often read Scripture - especially in Acts - and see the things God did through the people of the early church and wonder why it seems so far from my own experience. Acts is full of stories of the way that God was changing people's lives.

What is it that was different about them? Why do those stories sometimes seem so far from my own experience?

If God did all those things in Acts, then He can still do them today. So, why do they not seem to happen now - except in mostly far-off places?

I know those things do still happen. There are stories of this . . . and not all in far-ff places. It happens where I am too. But, I know I often miss them, or I hear the stories of them without seeing anything like them in my own life.

As I've reflected on this the last few months, I've started to wonder if the reason we feel like this is missing is because we're too busy to see the opportunities and be available. We're too busy to be stopped by the person we see on the street, or in the grocery store. 

Or maybe our hearts have become hard to what we see. We no longer see the people, we just see the problem that we don't want to get involved with.

We can easily come up with a ton of excuses why we're not the one to be used in that situation, with that person. But, as I was reminded tonight by a speaker I was listening to, when God is involved He removes all our excuses.

If we're going to see God do those amazing things we read of in Scripture, we have to have hearts that are soft enough to see people. We have to be willing to have our plans interrupted. So we can join in what God is up to. Not for the stories we can tell, but so we can be available to be used in what God was up to already.

For the last few months I've been praying differently. Rather than praying for God to do something big, I've been praying that He would give me the ability to see what He is already up to and how I can join in that moment. It's a prayer of being willing to be interrupted in my plans for the day, to have a heart that is soft enough to break for what I see as I go about my day. 

I don't have any stories of spectacular things God has done. But, I do know that something has been different in how I go through my day, in how I see the people that come across my path. I may not know what happens as a result of my obedience, but that's not even what this is about.

As I was reminded again tonight, it's about being available to come alongside what God is already doing. And, I think that begins with prayer. It starts with us asking God to interrupt our days and soften our hearts. And then we respond to what we see.

How I Want to Live

These words are a recent addition to my wall. In all honesty, probably a bit of an impulse buy when I saw them. But, they jumped out at me when I saw them.

Simple words. Simple things to live by. But, powerful in the kind of life that would be lived by someone the choice to live this way.

I've known someone who I would say has lived by these words. I know the power of that kind of a life. Her life impacted people in powerful ways because she lived this way most of the time.

Think Deeply

This is about taking time to really reflect and ponder what is happening in our lives. It's about more than just running through life without a second thought. We have to stop and take time to think about things - about life, what we're doing, what's happening around us and in our lives.

Speak Gently

This is all about how we communicate with people. When we speak gently, we communicate the value of the other person in the conversation. We still communicate our thoughts and opinions, but what matters is how we do it.

Love Much

Doing this means we might get hurt. We're putting ourselves out there - making ourselves vulnerable. But, loving much also has rewards. It's how we develop relationship with people.

Laugh a Lot

Laughter changes so much for it. We need it. We need to find things in life that we can laugh about.

Work Hard

Work is not a curse. God created. We need to work at what we've been called to do. And working hard at it brings honour to God.

Give Freely

Be generous with what you have. Time. Energy. Possessions. When we hoard what we have, it corrupts. When we're generous and willing to share what we have it changes everything.

Be Kind

This is all about how we treat people. Kindness goes a long way - especially in our culture where kindness often seems to be missing.


I would add one thing to this list: Listen Carefully.

Listening - really listening - is becoming a lost art in our society. But, when we learn to listen carefully and well to people it changes everything.


The person I knew who lived this well, is gone from this life now. But, her impact lives on because she lived this way when I knew her. Seeing this hanging on my wall is a reminder of how I want to live my life.

Thinking About Sabbath

Fall often feels like it brings with it a return a full schedule. All the usual programs and lessons begin in our communities. Ministries start up again at church. A return to school for some.

It can seem like a calendar that had space in it over the summer is quickly filled up completely again. This feels good for a while, but often feels overwhelming in not too long, as we look at a calendar with barely enough time to run from one thing to the next. We begin to miss the days when we didn't have to hurry out the door, the time spent camping, the blank spaces on our calendars.

And, I think we miss it because that's what we were created for. We weren't created to always be running with overflowing calendars, and to always be connected to everyone through our phones. We miss the blank spaces in our calendars, the quiet times, because we were created to need them.

As my summer drew to a close, it seemed I was hearing a lot about the importance of Sabbath in our lives, about our need for it. A sermon at church and a couple books I picked up for other reasons were all about it.

It's not something I've heard a lot about over the years. Even though it's one of the Ten Commandments we seem to like to ignore this one. And, it's never been one I was much inclined to really look at.

My association with what Sabbath was about for a long time came from another family in our neighbourhood growing up. They had kids the same age as my sisters and I, and many similar family values, so we spent a lot of time playing with them - except on their Sabbath. It's not that they weren't allowed to play with us that day, but more that their list of things they weren't allowed to do on their Sabbath was so long there was very little of our usual activities and games we could play. For a long time that heavily influenced my thoughts and attitudes about Sabbath.

But, my those have changed and been challenged recently as I've heard more about it. In the past, I could give you the theological arguement about why Sabbath was important, but I had no interest in it and didn't see the need for it in my own life. I didn't want a day full of rules about what I could and couldn't do.

But, I've realized lately that's not what it's about at all. It's not about rules. That's not why God put the Sabbath in His Ten Commandments. It's about the space we need in our lives- for rest, for fun, for listening to God, for taking the break from the usual demands of our lives.

So, maybe it's time for me to look at Sabbath differently. Time for me to reconsider it for my own life. And maybe it's that time for you as well.

I don't know yet what this looks like in my life, but I'm quickly realizing I have to plan for it. Creating the space won't just happen. I'm much better at filling up all the spaces on my calendar, rather than leaving the blank spaces alone.

What about you? Do you need to create a Sabbath in your life?

Whether it's a day a week, a half a day, or even a few hours, we all have to start somewhere with it, and see where it goes from there.

What does it need to look like for you?

We're all different, so what a Sabbath looks like isn't something we can dictate for another person.

What would bring rest and fun for you? What would it look like for you to disconnect for that time from the usual demands of life?
How can you create space to really hear from God in that time?

We're all going to answer these questions differently. That's why we can't make Sabbath all about rules - about things you can or cannot do. What answers these questions for one of us, might not be the answer for another person. The important part is that we make the time.

In our busy, hyper-connected world maybe we need to take the fourth commandment a little more seriously than we have been.

It's All by Grace

Am I good enough? What do I need to do to be good enough for God to love me? How can I earn God's love?

God has been continuing to take me back to the basics of what being a follower of His is all about. And this weekend was no exception. I was at a retreat with a group of ladies from my church. Our theme for the weekend was Delighting in God's grace.

When you get right down to it, following God is all about His grace. His love for us is all about the grace He has shown to us. There is nothing we can do to be good enough for Him to love us - He just loves us.

"See what great love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1)

The love that God lavishes on us, is a gift from Him. We can't do anything to earn it. And we can't do anything to make Him stop loving us.

The Old Testament outlines God's Law that the Israelites were to live by. The rules and sacrifices that were a required part of life as one of God's people.

When Jesus came, He fulfilled the Law completely - He was the perfect sacrifice for sin. And that perfect sacrifice for our sin is offered to us by God as a gift. There's nothing we can do to earn it. We just need to accept the gift that comes by grace.

But, that is more difficult than it sounds. Our human nature likes the rules and things we have to do to earn God's love and grace. We make rules and requirements of what we should do and what we should avoid. 

In the process of that, we forget about God's grace. We miss His grace. And we struggle with feeling good enough for God to love us. Except that we don't have to try to be good enough to be loved. God doesn't ask us to be good enough - He just asks us to accept His gift of grace.

What is the Message we Should be Living?

There is value in returning to the basics of what we say we believe and live. God has been continuing to take me back to that. A few days ago, I wrote about what our lives should be all about – that they should be all about God’s glory and God’s fame. He does His work in our lives to point to Himself, not to make us great. (You can read that post here).

The question I’ve been pondering lately since then is: What is the message I should be sharing with the world around me? And what does it look like to do that?

Whether it’s in the words we say or the things we choose to do or not do, our lives and our words are preaching  message to the world around us. What is that message? The one I’m currently sharing with the world? And does it line up with the one I should be sharing as someone who claims to be a follower of Christ?

Paul talks about the message that we should be sharing many times in his letters to the early church in various cities.

“. . . but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians 1:23)

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who dies for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-18)

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:7-10)

As I dig into God’s Word to find an answer to my question, it comes back to one thing – the core message is Christ crucified and risen. And through that, forgiveness of sin – God’s grace that allows us to enter His presence.

Whatever I’m doing, whatever I’m saying, it should all be pointing back to the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection. This doesn’t change just because I’m not someone gifted in evangelism or called to preach from a pulpit. In my ever day life, I should be living and speaking this to the people around me. That is the message that my life should be all about.

Back to the Basics

What is the core of everything our lives should be about as followers of Christ? What should our lives be all about?

I've been pondering this question a lot lately. As a person who loves to wrestle with the lard truths and the passages of Scripture that can sometimes be challenging to understand, it can be easy for me to miss what my life should really be all about. Wrestling these Scriptures out is a good thing - a necessary thing. But it becomes a problem if it's all I do.

Sometimes, I need to, we all need to go back to the basics and remind ourselves of what that is.

In Luke 4, Jesus quoted words from the prophet Isaiah and stated that day they were fulfilled in their hearing (Luke 4:16-21). As I look back in Isaiah to the passage Jesus read, it becomes clear that the basics are all about Jesus.

     "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
          because the Lord has anointed me
          to proclaim good news to the poor.
     He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
          to proclaim freedom for the captives
          and release from darkness for the prisoners,
     to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour
          and the day of vengeance for our God,
     to comfort all who mourn,
          and provide for those who grieve in Zion -
     to bestow on them a crown of beauty
          instead of ashes,
     the oil of joy
          instead of mourning,
     and a garment of praise
          instead of a spirit of despair.
     They will be called oaks of righteousness,
          a planting of the Lord
          for the display of His splendor.
     They will rebuild the ancient ruins
          and restore the places long devastated;
     they will renew ruined cities
          that have been devastated for generations."
                                                                (Isaiah 61:1-4)

Jesus began His ministry by declaring He had come to do exactly these things.

These verses in Isaiah also give us a reason why Jesus came to do these things. Verse 3 tells us that we "will be call oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor." It's the last phrase that is important here.

Everything God does in our lives is about His glory and renown. About it making His name great.

When we get back to the basics of what our lives as followers of Christ should be all about, this is what it comes back to. It's all about making God's fame and glory known. Whatever we say and do has to be all about making God known and for His glory. If we start there, then we're starting in the right place.