Hi!
God is giving me a new challenge, and even though I am still processing it I thought it would bless you to hear about it and be challenged as well. The challenge is to live a directed life, living with a sense of purpose.
As I see it, it is really easy to get sucked into our daily lives with little in the way of purpose directing our overall direction. In general, we are doing good if our daily lives are disciplined and there is some degree of ministry in our lives. The problem with all this is that we will tend to dream small within this framework and not really branch out and follow any real dreams God might have for us.
I'd like to say that I know what dreams God has for me, but truthfully I don't. I could see myself writing for a living, but I sense that for that to succeed, I would need some life experiences to give me a foundation to write from. I really am not sure how to get this foundation correctly. All of this is somewhat foreign to me anyways- up until recently I thought I was going to be programming for a long time. It seems to me that God has other plans for me in the next several years. Now I just need to know where to begin! So I write this post not feeling confident how to move forward, except realizing that change is needed, even while not knowing what change that is.
I think the key for me is praying for a plan. Taking time to think about what God might lead me into is key as well. I might need to fast also- I have found fasting in the past to be an effective weapon to help you hear from God. At least I have a starting place- I want to write about the Christian life and I think I might be gifted enough to succeed. Hopefully you have an idea of what you would like to do with your life.
My prayer for you is that you would begin to look at your life carefully and the goals you set. Are you becoming the person you want to be? Are you impacting the world the way you hoped to? Is your life the way you want it to be? These are questions I am asking myself, and because I don't like the answers I am getting, I am starting to rethink my strategy. Please think on these things as well. God has great things in store for us if only we would reach for them!
Your companion in Christ,
Sean
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Life Satisfaction
One challenge that meets me every so often is the challenge of being content with what I have where I am. I see this challenge in particular when someone I know graduates from college with better grades than I got or when I watch someone I know get married. I am sure you have experienced it too.
When it comes down to it though, I can take solace in one truth- every day I get to experience the presense of God. Every day I get to receive his love, as long as I choose to. I am going to be in heaven! You must understand something. In a sense, heaven isn't just for when you die. You were meant to delight yourself in God every day, which in some lesser sense is experiencing heaven right here on earth. When I remember the love God has shown me, and I feel his kindness with me, it brings tears to my eyes. I realize that I have found what is most important in my life, someone who doesn't care how immaculate my grades were in college or critisizing me for still being single. The love of my life really just loves to be with me, and ultimately getting to know this love takes away any envy I might have of others. Why should I envy others when I know the love of God? It would make no sense.
My prayer for you is that your relationship with God would be all you would really need to be satisfied with life. God can be everything you need, and in knowing him you can experience heaven every day. Delight yourself in the Lord every day and discover what it really means to be satisfied!
Your companion in Christ,
Sean
When it comes down to it though, I can take solace in one truth- every day I get to experience the presense of God. Every day I get to receive his love, as long as I choose to. I am going to be in heaven! You must understand something. In a sense, heaven isn't just for when you die. You were meant to delight yourself in God every day, which in some lesser sense is experiencing heaven right here on earth. When I remember the love God has shown me, and I feel his kindness with me, it brings tears to my eyes. I realize that I have found what is most important in my life, someone who doesn't care how immaculate my grades were in college or critisizing me for still being single. The love of my life really just loves to be with me, and ultimately getting to know this love takes away any envy I might have of others. Why should I envy others when I know the love of God? It would make no sense.
My prayer for you is that your relationship with God would be all you would really need to be satisfied with life. God can be everything you need, and in knowing him you can experience heaven every day. Delight yourself in the Lord every day and discover what it really means to be satisfied!
Your companion in Christ,
Sean
Monday, May 01, 2006
Be God's Friend
On this occasion I am going after the attitude that God is your critic, always wanting more.
You must understand that there is a spiritual reality that says everything we do is to be lived out of relationship. The truth is, God doesn't need our help. If God wanted to, he could either do it himself or send an angel to do it or even send someone else. What God really wants is to get close to us. How close you are to God is the true measuring rod of how successful you really are. You could be doing lots of stuff and calling it ministry and all the time becoming more and more distant from God. It was for this reason that Jesus said "I never knew you" in Matthew 7:23.
When we get close to God, and experience his kindness, it begins to redefine who we are. This redefinition is the work God must do in our hearts in order for us to truly be effective in ministry. Discovery of grace is crucial to spiritual development. Without discovering grace, we will be prone to a works oriented religion and believe God is never satisfied. You need to know grace for yourself, but the way to grace is through admitting your need and weakness before God and others.
Let me put it to you this way. Outside of writing here, there isn't a ton of ministry in my life. I have multiple close friends and I hang out with a teenager once a week who doesn't have a dad and play Netrunner and talk. From a purely quantitative perspective I am not much to speak of. Unfortunately, due to my disabilities, I think this might be my max for the time being. I am doing good to be taking care of myself, and admitting my own weakness has been hard. And yet it is the fact that I have come to grips with grace, really knowing the love of God, that has helped me accept where I am, and let me live at peace with the fact that I probably don't live up to other people's standards about "what I ought to be doing". Please hear me out- grace means that we live out of relationship with God and let him set the expectations for our lives. There are times when I wish I could be more like someone else, who is doing more. I am glad though, that God gave me this weakness or I might not have been so profoundly impacted by grace, so completely transformed by the love of God.
My prayer for you today is that you might discover the depths of the love of God. That you might admit to yourself, to God, and to others your own weakness and come to realize how great the grace of God really is. He really is the kindest person you will ever meet, and he really does accept us for who we are, regardless of faults. Let God's love touch you and change you today!
Your companion in Christ,
Sean
You must understand that there is a spiritual reality that says everything we do is to be lived out of relationship. The truth is, God doesn't need our help. If God wanted to, he could either do it himself or send an angel to do it or even send someone else. What God really wants is to get close to us. How close you are to God is the true measuring rod of how successful you really are. You could be doing lots of stuff and calling it ministry and all the time becoming more and more distant from God. It was for this reason that Jesus said "I never knew you" in Matthew 7:23.
When we get close to God, and experience his kindness, it begins to redefine who we are. This redefinition is the work God must do in our hearts in order for us to truly be effective in ministry. Discovery of grace is crucial to spiritual development. Without discovering grace, we will be prone to a works oriented religion and believe God is never satisfied. You need to know grace for yourself, but the way to grace is through admitting your need and weakness before God and others.
Let me put it to you this way. Outside of writing here, there isn't a ton of ministry in my life. I have multiple close friends and I hang out with a teenager once a week who doesn't have a dad and play Netrunner and talk. From a purely quantitative perspective I am not much to speak of. Unfortunately, due to my disabilities, I think this might be my max for the time being. I am doing good to be taking care of myself, and admitting my own weakness has been hard. And yet it is the fact that I have come to grips with grace, really knowing the love of God, that has helped me accept where I am, and let me live at peace with the fact that I probably don't live up to other people's standards about "what I ought to be doing". Please hear me out- grace means that we live out of relationship with God and let him set the expectations for our lives. There are times when I wish I could be more like someone else, who is doing more. I am glad though, that God gave me this weakness or I might not have been so profoundly impacted by grace, so completely transformed by the love of God.
My prayer for you today is that you might discover the depths of the love of God. That you might admit to yourself, to God, and to others your own weakness and come to realize how great the grace of God really is. He really is the kindest person you will ever meet, and he really does accept us for who we are, regardless of faults. Let God's love touch you and change you today!
Your companion in Christ,
Sean
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