Im here in Iowa staying with my friend Mitch and his family. Mitch is the new pastor of the satellite campus of Heritage Wesleyan Church of Rock Island, IL. It was awesome to come here and be able to relax for a few days after the stress of the past couple months. Then I saw myself getting far too used to the laying around, and I had to get myself back in check. Whether one is a believer, not a believer, an enemy or anything else, it is my job to serve them in any way I can. In the last 2 months I learned that I have a desire to serve others. I want to always be on my feet looking for ways to serve others, so I appologized to Mitch and his wife Ann and started to help with anything that I could around the house. At times serving may mean that I have to suffer or give up my time, sleep, energy, or money, but through God's strength I pray that I can delight in suffering. A KBM speaker, Adrian Despres, says in one of his sermons that, Jesus died for you, so you can suffer for him." I think that he makes a good point. He goes on to say that if you love Jesus then you will be passionate about it. One of the definitions of Passion from dictionary.com is Passion- the suffering of Jesus at the crucifixion. "Whoa," is what I said when I read that. Do we have that kind of passion for Christ? If so, this should flow out of our lives in every possible way. I pray that I can have that kind of passion for Christ, like he had for me. The problem is that we let things get in the way of that. Whether it be things we struggle with, fear or shame of what others think of us, or just lack of knowledge. Whatever it may be, we need to step up and start living righteous lives for Christ. When we get scared to stand up for our faith, picture Jesus on the cross lifting his body up to take another breath and let it remind ourselves that we have no idea what suffering is. But Jesus knew what it was like before he was crucified, during, and after. When my walk gets lazy or when I worry about what others are going to think about me, I have to picture Jesus and it gives me what I need to press on. God puts opportunities in front of us everyday. There is always a chance for us to share our faith. Whether it is through our service, our attitude, or our words. I do not want to put myself in the category that so many other Christians have put themselves. The category of being a hypocrite. Naturally, all of us are going to be hypocrites in some way or another, but we can practice what we preach. When we are labeled Christians, we are watched like a hawk by others. Some of them are believers, some of them are not, some are curious, and still some are not. But if we can allow those people to have an experience with Christ by allowing Christ to show his love to them through us, then what? That might be "the straw that breaks the camel's back" for some of them. The walls might be broken down because of that very experience. But if they see a Christian that is doing, saying, or condoning something that is clearly not Christ-like, then that could build a wall that is going to make it that much harder to reach them. Personally, I don't ever want to be a legalistic person. Jesus died for us so we wouldn't have to live under the law, but under his grace. But we do have to constantly be aware of what we are saying and doing in our everyday lives. Also the things that others don't see can affect us too. Those "secret sins" that no one sees need to be stopped as well. Because God always sees them and they hinder us from growing closer to God and keeps us from experiencing everything that He has to offer us. So if you want to make a difference in the world we live in today, then be PASSIONATE about what Christ did for us and return the favor. Until we meet again...
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