I Urge You!

I get a sense that there are a lot of brothers and sisters who listening to the lie that they don’t have a purpose. They don’t have a place to work for God, a place to further the love of the Cross. Today I hope to debunk that myth! God showed me something small in his word that has huge implications!

³As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer

God uses Paul to tell Timothy that there is a purpose for where he is. He says, “As I URGED you…” It seems pretty important to me. This almost implies that Timothy wanted to give up. Maybe wanted to leave, quit. Maybe Timothy needed the reminder from his discipler that

He Has

Purpose

In Ephesus!

What I want you to see is that you and me have purpose right where we are. Maybe today you need to hear the Lord say to you again, “As I urged you before, Stay Where You Are so that you may complete the task I have always had for you.” God used this in my life and I gotta tell you, he has continued to blow me away. I just got a new job and I felt my purpose was to be the light in the darkness of the job. There are a lot of people that are not happy. Not because of the job, but because they haven’t tapped into Christ. They are the living dead. I feel called to help them become fully alive through the Blood of Christ. Guess what? He’s stirring the hearts of my co-workers!

At the end of the letter Paul, in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to tell him:

“²⁰Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge” 1Tim 6:20

Know today Brothers and Sisters that you have purpose. You have a part in the Kingdom. You’ve been entrusted. Will you stay in Ephesus today? Will you Guard your position? Will you seek after your role?

One Person!

So to tell you the truth I had this whole other idea for what my next post was going to be, but then God stepped in. If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. In this instance I’m glad he showed up. I watched a movie today at our church’s senior high youth group and was pretty blown away by something God showed me through it all. The movie, To Save A Life, helped me revisit an idea I had when I first became Christian: One Person Can Change Everything.

Think about it! We live in the year 2010. Even our year makes my point. We live in 2010 A.D. this abbreviation stands for the Latin "Anno Domini" which translates to “The Year of Our Lord.” Catch that? We are living in the 2010^th year of Our Lord! It’s called that because Jesus changed the face of history! It’s about this point of my argument where somebody will say, “Bryan, it’s easy for him. He’s Jesus. You know, FULL man and FULL God?!”

This is what I want to share with you: We share in that power that Christ has! The same spirit that lives in Jesus, lives in us! Not only that, but we can do everything AND MORE THAN what Christ did.

“¹²I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” JOHN 14:12

So here is the deal folks, if we are Christians (AKA Little-Christ’s) we are people who know that we can change everything in a Godly manor, when lead to by the Holy Spirit! It’s time to be those people!

If Only I Had Time

Just a Thought,

Again, I know this is random but I'm in another one of the moments in my life where I think: when did I start doing that in my mind! Let me explain. Have you ever SET ASIDE some time for God. I don't know like you decide to devote an hour of your day to God. Recently, I've noticed in my life that I set aside this time for him. I utilize this time very well, and I do it every day as planned. However, I began to realize that I might have followed it sometimes a little too strictly. Have you ever been praying, or in the mood of praying, and then look at your clock and go, "Man I've been praying for an hour now, I have stuff to do today and I need to rap this up!" I know I've done it before. But I noticed that I did it recently. To be honest I can't tell you why I did it, but I did.

So today I pondered this question and thought: When did I start to think that God follows a time frame that is created by me. If there is anything I've realized, is that God's timing is much better than mine. When I first got back into my faith, I used to pray until I felt God tell me to go about my life. I used to pray from anywhere from twenty minutes or for a few hours. In the long sessions it would most likely be because I couldn't figure out what my heart wanted me to pray for because my mind was in the way. that's' right it would take me an hour and a half focusing on my breathing and on God to get my mind clear and to say and pray for what my heart truly desired. Now, sometimes I'll have no idea what my heart wants and just pray the small prayers that the beauty pageant girls do, "God I want to pray for world peace and the betterment of the poor." don't get me wrong those prayers are needed to be said, but how did I get to this point where I would just set me intimate relationship with Christ aside, all cause I have other things to do in my life.

Tonight God really laid into me and said: I'm all about your journey with me, not about the outcome! and it's like more and more in my life when God gives me that glimpse of what's to come, I tell myself I can have it right now. This is a lie in and of itself. I mean I could get it, but I want to trust in God's timing cause its way more reliable than any plans I'll ever make. So as I write this is sit here and say to you, Father in heaven, I pray that you keep me patient and focused. For I want to revel in this journey, and be humbled by you daily, because I can wait for your outcome in my life. I can be your patient servant, Lord, because your plans have never ceased to amaze me!

In Wonder and Awe,
Bryan

The Authority of Our King

I’ve been reading through the Gospel of Matthew recently, and came across a story that I normally would just flip right past. In Matthew 8:5-13 there is a story that talks about a Roman Centurion that has a servant who has recently been paralyzed. He come to Jesus and asks him to heal his servant. Jesus then asks if he should go and heal the man and the Centurion replies, “8The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

That argument sound a little strange to you? I read it like three times and finally it hit me! The Centurion knew the power of Christ in a way that some Jesus’ other followers didn’t even see. His argument was simple. He as a Centurion knew what it was like to have authority. That when he says something, it’s done, without question. It doesn’t matter if he is in the presence of his servants, it’s done. He said the Jesus, “I know what it’s like to have authority and I know that you have authority over this sickness. I’m not worthy to have you at my home, but I know if you simply speak the healing into action, I know that it will listen to your command!”

How does Jesus react? Matthew 8:10 says, “ ¹⁰When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” Jesus was Astonished! Here he had been preaching in his own land and a man not of Jewish decent came to him and had faith that God would work through him!

So today I challenge you to something. When you are in a rough point, a place of confusion, or even a time of sickness; I ask you try to have the faith of this man. He was a man that this world would have seen as Godly, but he was a man who knew who Jesus was and the Authority he had!

Time To Pay Attention!

I like to browse between some blogs that are done by successful leaders in the church around the US. I came across this very in your face blog by Coach Shef of Atlanta, Georgia. It is so true and I feel it is worth sharing with you!

http://www.coachshef.com/awkward-conversations/#more-1627

Please check this put and I would recommend if you are a youth leader, or maybe even youth yourself, that you would check back at his blog when you have free time! He blogs every day and has very insightful truths. God bless and hope you like it!

Staying Afloat!

So this week I heard an interesting way to look at a story of Jesus in the Gospels. I can’t help but think about the weight of what this person told me. The Apostles and Jesus are out on a boat going from one shore to the next and in the middle of this journey the run into an obstacle. The Gospels say that they are on the water in the midst of a huge storm. We know this because two of the gospels, account that they were taking on water while this was going on. Through this whole storm Jesus is sleeping in the inner parts of the boat. The twelve disciples are afraid for their lives, so they do what any Christian would do. They wake Jesus and tell him what is going on, and they ask what they are to do. Jesus without hesitation gets up and commands the storm to calm. Just as the earth did in the times of creation, it calmed and listen to the Word of God, now in the flesh of Jesus. This is the new thought to the story; Jesus seems almost puzzled that the twelve even asked him to wake up!

Matthew 8:26
26He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

Mark 4:39-40
39He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

Luke 8:24-25
24The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!" He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25"Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples.

Now most people think that the Apostles did just what they were supposed to. They were in trouble, and in their dismay they had faith that Jesus would know how to fix it. But why does Jesus show in all these stories that they have no faith? It’s like Jesus is confused by their fear. How is it that Jesus is sleeping during the time of the storm and when he awakes, he speaks and the storm ends? I think that Christ was perplexed because if the Apostles had full faith in him, they could have calmed the storm in Jesus name. There are times in our life where we ask, “Jesus please give me the strength to overcome the temptation I’m going through.” And shortly after we fail, we come to Jesus and say, “Master, we're going to drown! (Luke’s version) He steps in and calms the situation and tells us, “Don’t you understand? I gave the Strength to get though that struggle. Or, I gave you the wisdom to know what path to take. Or even, I’ve given you the power in my name to calm this storm!” then He speaks softly and says,” I did what you asked, you have the skills to make it to the other side, but you never put those skills into action!”

You see, in the midst of our problems, in the middle of our turmoil, Jesus equips us. He leads us to what is good and just. But sometimes we don’t use the skills he gives us. Sometimes we simply do something different, like panic in the storm, instead of trusting him at his word and through Christ, calming the storm. It’s about time we are people of the Lord with great faith—which only comes through Christ as well—that through Jesus’ name, we do mighty things for the Kingdom of God!