Speak Up!

So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you'll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you're already doing this; just keep on doing it. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Here is a simple verse that I think we do well to live out! We are encouraged here to speak encouraging words to each other. Words that build up hope. Words that make someones day!

Text Messages, Facebook, and Twitter are all great ways we communicate these days, and great ways to stay connected to others. But I want to encourage you today with something I am trying to do more of, and that is to keep your relationships real!

Maybe someone in your life needs to hear from you today. Not just a text, but actually hear your voice.

Do it. Pick up the phone. Get in your car and go see them. And speak life, and hope, and build them up. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 18:21 that "..words kill and words give life..."

Let's speak up--with words that give life!

Counter Culture

“So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2

As I have been reading my Bible lately and studying the teaching Jesus gave in Matthew 5, I have been reminded how counter culture Jesus actually was. If you dig into your Bible and study it for yourself, you'll quickly discover that Jesus was intense! He was clearly different than everyone else.

He teaches us to love our enemies and bless those who persecute us! Counter culture!

He tells us we need to forgive others over and over again! Counter culture!

He encourages us to cut off our hand or pluck out our eye if it causes us to sin! Counter culture for sure!

Been offended? Hurt? Misunderstood? Talked about? Why not imitate Jesus, be counter culture, and bless those who have done wrong to you!

Finding it hard to forgive someone? Why not take a good look in the mirror, think about all the times you've asked God to forgive you for messing up, and then go ahead and extend that same mercy to the person who needs it from you!

Keep falling into sin and can't seem to pass the test? Why not "cut off" the thing that is tripping you up! Maybe you need to starting hanging around with a different group of friends, or perhaps you need to cancel your internet subscription, and take an extreme measure for purity!

Being a Christian isn't about going to church and doing good things. It's about living Romans 12:1-2---Living counter culture!

Forget It!

Philippians 3:13-14

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Sometimes the biggest hinderance in our pursuit of God is the stuff that's behind us-the past. Maybe you've been through some really difficult situations in your life. Circumstances that have been really painful and tough. Disappointment, rejection, failure, hurt, abuse.....and the list goes on and on.

I want to encourage you this week to grab this verse, and keep running! Nobody is perfect and nobody has it all figured out. We all have stuff we've gone through or are going through right now.

What's crucial is that we forget the stuff that is behind us and keep going!

Chin up! Great things are ahead!