Your actions communicate a message. What message do they speak to the people who “hear” your life? Do they speak a message of impatience? Do your actions speak a message of busyness or perhaps of being harried and hurried? Do your actions communicate a message of superiority and/or of condescension? I want to examine briefly the reality that our lives speak constantly to the people around us and the fact that perhaps the message we are speaking with our lives far outweighs the message we are speaking with our lips and our words.Continue reading “Communicating love”
How do you treat people?
Here is the measure of my life: how do I treat people?
I always know because of my conscience and especially because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit if I have treated people poorly.
Furthermore I find myself evaluating my religion and yes even considering the nature of other people’s religion based on how we treat people. If someone says “I am a Christian” or “We had such a great worship service” or “God is real to me and important in my life” but then treats their neighbor with impatience, anger and retributive words and actions I begin to wonder how “real” their religion is.Continue reading “How do you treat people?”
Essential Teamwork – We need each other
We need each other. We are better together
Six essentials of teamwork
- We are incomplete, insufficient and ineffective alone – “I can’t do it alone”
- There is synergy in coming together – “I need your help. We need each other”
- Lack of unity often represents differences in personality, preference and philosophy – “I disagree, here’s why. What do you think? How can we make this work?”
- To be unified we must align ourselves with a single mission – “What is our mission? How does __________ fit with our mission?”
- To be unified we must let go of non-essentials, compromise and collaborate – “What will bring the greatest good to our team and our organization?”
- How we interact with and treat each other will either build or destroy trust, encourage or discourage each other and either advance or hinder both our unity and our mission – “Thank you for being a part of this team. How can I serve you?”
Also one extra: Forgiveness and grace have to be our modus operandi in light of the many mistakes and miscommunications that most assuredly will take place when many different people are involved.
A life of trust
Each and every day of our lives we face opportunities in which we can either affirm our faith in God to freely give us all things that are needed or to choose doubt, worry and fear.
It begins as soon as we wake up. If you are anything like me, once that alarm sounds, it is a very few moments (seconds even?) before I think to myself “What am I doing today? What is on my calendar for today?” And right after I pose this question to myself and the flood of planned events enters into my mind I am immediately presented with the opportunity to trust or doubt. Will I grab hold of faith in God that He will supply all of my strength, wisdom, patience and perseverance to accomplish the tasks? Or will I grab hold of the seeds of doubt that say: “There isn’t enough time”, “It’s just too hard” or “I just don’t have what it takes”?
And then through the course of the day, so goes the inner conversation. Can I do it? Is God able? Is it possible? Every situation, every conversation, every event of the day carries with it the same opportunity. This opportunity is for God’s character to shine through us, or for our own self to take over. If God’s character shines through us, our choices will be to honor Him, trust Him, point to Him, cling to His promises and rest in His embrace. Furthermore if we choose to trust we will walk through life with peace, inner contentment and an assurance of His love and provision. If on the other hand, we allow our own finite and insufficient self to shine through, the result will be constant fear, anger, doubt, falling short, and otherwise making a mess of life. If we only look at the past or the present difficulties without clinging to faith in Jesus Christ, we will be overcome by hopelessness, frustration, stress and despair.
So today, this week, will you choose to trust Him? Or will you live according to your own limitations? Will you choose to walk according to His promises and His Holy Spirit? Or will you just “wing it” and “make the best of it”? The way that you and I can truly live a life of trust is to commit everything to the Lord, to pray each day and all day, and to read His word carefully, diligently and with faith, believing.
My prayer is that you live a life of trust, asking for and receiving the fullness of the blessing of the Holy Spirit, who provides everything we need for life and godliness. When you do, the impossible will happen, miracles will come to pass, and you will be full of a peace, joy and love that words cannot explain!
Eternal Implications
What you do and what you say today can have eternal implications. Maybe in your life, maybe in someone else’s.
Have you ever considered the weight of our lives? So often we think about how the events, circumstances, relationships and feelings that swirl in our lives effect and affect us, but what about how our lives intersect, influence and impact other people’s lives?
It is easy for us to see when other people’s choices cause us difficulty and pain. We are quick to label things as “offensive”, “rude”, “selfish” or “foolish”. We are especially quick to put these labels on other people’s behaviors, but what about our own? Are we as quick to consider our own behaviors? Continue reading “Eternal Implications”
What the world needs now
It’s that time again. You know, when men and women begin to politic and proclaim what they believe about something, because they are certain that their particular political convictions are the hope of America. The rhetoric, the campaigning, the promises, the slogans. All of this and more has begun as the presidential hopefuls seek to sway the opinions and therefore votes of the people in order to get into office, presumably to make us a “better nation” and “help us move forward” and whatever other promise of hope they brand along the way.
But I am here today to tell you that what the world needs now, what America needs now is not another politician or political promise. We don’t need another piece of legislation or a better judicial ruling. What we need is Jesus. We need to have an encounter with God. We need to see God and begin once again to know the fear of the Lord. We need to recognize Him as Sovereign and humbly bow before Him in repentance and confession and plead for His grace and mercy in our desperate time of need!Continue reading “What the world needs now”
Discouragement and defeat? Or more than conquerors?
Doubt.
Fear.
Accusation.
Loneliness.
Being misunderstood.
Being maligned and slandered.
Forgotten.
Forsaken.
Worry.
All of these are the waves of defeat and the fiery darts of the enemy that are leveled at God’s children everywhere.
Mondays seem to be full of these crashing waves.
But then again so do other days. Especially those days when we are tired. And those days that are full. And those conversations that aren’t especially “seasoned with salt”.
I want to share with you that the victory truly is yours in Christ Jesus!! Continue reading “Discouragement and defeat? Or more than conquerors?”
God rescues and delivers those who believe and ask. Have you let Him?
The power of words
“You are ugly.” – “You are beautiful.” – “There is hope.” – “All is lost.” – “I love you.” – “It is finished.”
These are all words. These words mean something. Indeed all words mean something. What we say (and how we say it) has the power to bring hope and meaning to people’s lives. Our words also have power to tear down, discourage, misdirect and malign.
What do you do with your words? Continue reading “The power of words”
We get to choose
No matter what you do today, the fact is that it you had a choice in it.
It’s true.
Every day, every moment, we get to choose. And we do choose.
You might object and say, “No, I didn’t get to choose whether or not this or that happened to me” and that may be true, but you do get to choose how you react to the things that come your way.
There are numerous things that we don’t choose about our lives. But there are innumerable things that we do choose.
The shirt you have on today. The meal you have for breakfast. The alarm you set and the time you got up this morning (oh and by the way, these might not be the same thing) you got to choose. The expression on your face, the people you call, the things that you do today, the words that you speak, yes, even the things you avoid: these are all things that you have chosen.
There is beauty in this. But there is also responsibility.
What will you do with your choices? Continue reading “We get to choose”
Pastor Michael Johnson 