Christ Daily

Today, at church, our Pastor went over four key things to living the fullest life, without regret, and 100% for God.  I just wanted to do a quick post about those four things.

1. Give the First Day of your Week to God – Attending church on Sunday, being in fellowship with other Christians, worshiping together, being a part of a body!
2. Give the First Hour of your Day to God – Even if it’s just 20 minutes, spend time in prayer and in word every day.  If you do this at the beginning of your day, I swear, it makes things go so much smoother for the remainder.
3. Give the first 10% of your income to God – This isn’t just a nice thing to do.  It’s an actual commandment.  It’s all his anyway – he only wants 10% of it back, as an act of faith.  Test him!  Malachi says to ‘Test God!’  He WILL provide.  Don’t say ‘Oh, I don’t know where my money is going’ or ‘I want to MAKE SURE it’s going to a proper place’ or ‘If I want to donate to God’s Kingdom, I’ll give to charity or something’ because you’re missing the point.  It’s not YOUR MONEY to begin with.  Don’t hang on to it like it is.
4. Finally, Give God the first say in every decision you make.  Ever little thing.  ’God, does this music I’m listening to honor you?’  ’God, do these clothes honor you?’  ’God, does this website honor you?’  A common misconception in many super-Christian’s lives is that secular = dishonoring God.  This is not true.  Just because something doesn’t scream ‘JESUS JESUS JESUS’ doesn’t mean it’s dishonoring God.  We’re gifted with a conscious to know when we’re doing something that’s dishonoring to God.  We keep our mind pure, our hands clean, and our minds on Him – no better way to live.

Thanks for reading!  See, while you’re doing your Acts of Random Kindness if you can keep these four keys as well.  They’re extremely important in the life of a Christ follower.

written by Matt \\ tags: Bible, Christ, Christianity, church, Fellowship, Friendship, Jesus, life, Love, People

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
Matthew 16:24, KJV

Last night, I was at a Tenth Avenue North concert (which was amazing, by the way), and the lead singer was speaking for the moment between a song set, and he mentioned that verse in Matthew that says for us to ‘Deny Ourselves.’  He talked a bit about that, and I loved what he, Mike Donehey, said about it.

We hear ‘deny ourselves’ and a lot of the time, we think about giving up what we think is fun, entertaining, or things that make us happy for God.  For some reason, a lot of Christians have the mindset ‘God wants us to be miserable… for him!’  This is not the case at all!  Did you really think a God that loves you wants you to be miserable?

I think we can all agree – sin is tempting.  Haha.  We think it looks so good – it’s so tempting.  That’s why it’s called temptation.  It looks so good.  Lovely.  Harmless.  Pleasurable.  How else could The Enemy get us to disobey our God?  It looks like ‘This will not hurt me,’ or ‘Oh, this is harmless.’

We THINK these things, but we know the truth – we know these are bad, awful things that God hates.  Real happiness, real love, real pleasure, real joy does not come from sin.  It comes from God.

‘You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.’
Psalms 16:11

When Jesus say ‘Deny Ourselves’ he does NOT want us to be miserable or unhappy.  Just the opposite.  He wants us to live the BEST life possible.  We KNOW this is the best life possible, too – God obviously did.  He sent Jesus to DIE for THIS LIFE you’ve been gifted with.

When Jesus says ‘Deny yourself,’ he means for us to deny ourselves of the things we THINK look attractive, but what he and we know are wrong.  Stealing something that does not belong to you.  Sex and pornography.  Lying to cover up something.  All these things looks like good ideas on the outside.  ’If I steal this, I’ll have something without paying for it!’  ’Sex feels so great!’  ’If I lie, then so-n-so won’t know what I did – I’m off that hook!’  But we know, from the bible, what these things cause.  It does not end up good.  Sin leads to death and a miserable life – exactly the opposite of what Jesus wants.

So next time you want a Cheeseburger, eat a Cheeseburger – you don’t have to deny yourself.  Next time you’re sleepy, take a nap – you don’t have to stay awake ‘For Jesus’ sake!’

Deny yourself of the things that make your life miserable and that make you unhappy.  Jesus loves you, and wants to see you smile.

So smile.  Jesus loves you.

Thanks for Reading,
Lots of Love,
-Matt

written by Matt \\ tags: Bible, Christ, Deny Yourself, God, Jesus, Love, Matthew, Music, Psalms, salvation, Sin, Story

There are two types of people in this world – the type that, when something bad happens to them, they say ‘It could always get worse!’ and the type that say ‘It could always get better…’

What type are you?  When life gives you lemons, do you make lemonade, or do you rub it in your wounds and pout about?  The worst time to pout about when things aren’t going your way, is when people want EVERYONE to know they’re having a bad day, too.  Always sighing, being irritable on purpose, or leaving intentionally depressing MySpace/Facebook/Whatever statuses – anything for attention.  Really, all complaining is is a form of selfishness.

What does the bible say about this?

³ Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. ⁴ Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.  ⁵ You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.  Philippians 2:3-5

¹¹ Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. ¹² I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.  Philippians 4:11-12

“⁹ Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is standing at the door!”  James 5:9

…plus many, many more verses on this very subject.  Friends – I urge you to stop complaining, and get over yourself!  To live in Christ is to die to the self and to sin.  If you’re still at the center of YOUR life, then you’re not living for Jesus.

Here’s some more bits of scripture on Complaining and Whining:
Exodus 15:24
1 Peter 5:7
Proverbs 19:3

Thanks for reading,
-Matt

written by Matt \\ tags: Bible, Christ, church, Complaining, God, Help, Jesus, Letting Go, life, Selfishness, Sin, stress, Struggle, Whining, Who God Is

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has praised the contributions of American Muslims at a dinner to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Obama joined Cabinet secretaries, ambassadors and members of Congress to pay tribute to what he called “a great religion and its commitment to justice and progress.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/01/obama-calls-islam-great-religion-ramadan-dinner/

Islam may be a “great” religion. But guess what – it’s WRONG. No offense, but it’s wrong. Plain and simple. The Lord is the way, the truth, and the light, and He is the only way, truth, and the light.

“You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

- Exodus 20:3-6

Today, public schools in America teach practically every religion to students except Christianity, and that’s because it teaches it’s the only acceptable religion – and that’s exactly the case.

Sorry, Mr. President, but you’re wrong.

written by Josh \\ tags: Christ, God, idols, Islam, Obama, Religion, salvation, schools

Here’s a quick post I’ve been thinking about doing for a while.  Not to take the place of the Predestination one and the Sheltered Kids one I mentioned, but something real quick to leave you with before the weekend.

Do you think you have what’s called ‘Forgivness Syndrome?’  That’s when you KNOW that your sins have been forgiven and paid for, so you think ‘Hey – I’m forgiven!  I can do whatever I want now!’

Even to a lesser extent, you think ‘I know this is wrong… but the temptation is too great… I’ll give in this one time.  I’m already forgiven, aren’t I?’

Today, in the bible, we’re going back to Romans.

¹ Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? ² Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

I know a lot of us, myself included begin to think ‘I know this is wrong, but I’m forgiven.’  This, according to the bible – to God – is wrong.  I think we get into the mindset that ‘Sin is something the God doesn’t want me to do’ rather then ‘Sin is evil by nature.’  Which it is; sin, in it’s very essence, is rebellion against God, who is the greatest good, and therefore, moving away from that is going towards evil.

It’s simply critical that we understand that Jesus DIED so you wouldn’t have to pay your debt; he did not die so you could continue to add to it.  It’s like someone paying your bail when you’re in jail, and you go right back out and commit more and more crimes.  That’s wrong, and some people are going to take advantage of God’s continuious forgivness, but we must not take it for granted.

Thanks for reading,
Lots of Love,
-Matt

written by Matt \\ tags: Christ, Forgiveness, Forgiveness Syndrome, Jesus, Questions, Romans, Sin, Struggle