Author: Scott

God‘s plans for us are good. Even in this world of uncertainty, God‘s plans for us are good. Sometimes people question: If God’s plans are good, then why does God allow bad things to happen? Think about the last few years. The virus. Think about how Covid ravaged the world. You might even know someone who lost a battle against this virus. I do. It was devastating to our family. Think about how much life has changed during this time. And how quickly all of that happened. Almost overnight.

We’re living in an unprecedented time. We have seen diseases, natural disasters, and countries, even continents at war. But those were all generally isolated to certain areas. This virus was global. Some argue that it still is. Either way, life will never be the same as it was prior to 2020. How we interact with one another will never be the same. How we work, play, travel, everything, will never be the same. We are still adjusting to a new normal. 

But there’s still the question: Why does God allow bad things to happen? Unfortunately, we live in a world where bad things happen. It’s a part of life. This virus is an example. People want to argue back-and-forth about how it came about. But that’s besides the point. It’s a bad thing that happened. Terrible thing. But as bad as it is, I have seen a lot of good come out of it. I have seen unity that wasn’t there before. I have seen people strive to serve others more than they did before. And more importantly, I have seen people turn to God more than they have before. Now don’t get me wrong. We have a long way to go. But there are definitely glimpses of hope that only come from God. And that’s how I answer the question. Bad things happen, so people will turn to God who is the only true source of hope. So let’s fix our minds on God. Let’s thirst for his love. If we do this, we will see the hope that I’m talking about.

God created heaven and earth. And, God created everything on it. So we can conclude that God created us. And we were created to to bring glory to God. Not to ourselves. Not to others. Not to anyone. Our purpose is to bring glory to God. One way we can do that is by serving others. 

We are to live intentionally striving to serve our Lord and Savior. That might sound impossible. Or we can question how we can do that if we are not a pastor. Or if we’re not on staff at church. Or don’t work in the missions field. Our day-to-day lives (Careers, education, families, etc.) might not be Christ centered. That’s most likely true for majority of us. But, that’s what we are called to do: “Go and make disciples.”

So now…let’s think about our lives. Our purpose. And let’s determine how it aligns with what we’re called to do. I’m certain we can all find ways to better fulfill our heavenly purpose. I truly believe that if we take inventory of what we have in our lives, we can find ways to fulfill this purpose. If you struggle with this, I suggest you pray for guidance and wisdom. And I promise you that God will show you what he wants you to do. I know I’ve challenged us with this repeatedly recently. That’s because I’m challenging myself. We’re in this together. So let’s work together with the same end goal. To show God’s glory to the world.

When I was first saved years ago, I had no idea what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I thought being a Christian meant that I would go to church, pray over meals, listen to the right music, and have fellowship with other Christians. I tried to copy other people who I thought were “good” Christians. To the point that I was even saying what they were saying. I didn’t realize that Jesus wanted me to know him. Not just know who he was, or is, or will be. But to really know him. Did you go through this? Are you now? You’re not alone if so.

As our walks in our faith progress, we begin to learn more that our foundation should be built on Jesus. I don’t just mean the foundation of our faith. I’m talking about the foundations of our lives. Our entire lives. Everything we stand for. Everything we work for. Everything we live for. Everything! When we strive to get to that point, our mission switches from one of self desire to one of serving Jesus. Serving Jesus by serving others.

Our Lord and Savior is the perfect example of what serving others looks like. If you want to be like anyone, it should be Jesus. I love the story about the final night. The night that he bent down to wash feet. Ohhhh what a lesson he was teaching. To truly serve others, we must lower ourselves below them. We must be humble enough to lift them above us. He didn’t wash feet, to simply wash feet. He lowered himself, lifting them up, all with the purpose of teaching them how to truly serve other people. All the while, knowing that tremendous suffering was coming his way. Wow! Let’s copy that. Let’s lower ourselves and lift others up. Through love. And let’s all remember this…God loves us. Always has. Always will.

What is your daily mission? When you wake up, what is your purpose? Where are you going in life? When you are a Christian, Jesus should be your focus and your passion. So each day, your mission and purpose should be to serve him. No matter what it is you do in life. Serving him should be the focus.

God has equipped you with the tools and talents to fulfill your mission. He will show you what it is if you let him. If you ask him. If you pray to him seeking wisdom. He will show you.  If you don’t let God direct you, you will not have a clear sense of what it is you are called to do. Maybe it’s time to use the blessings you have received to better serve others. If you do, think of the testimony that you will have. 

You might question what blessings you have. I think if you look around, you will see them. Doesn’t have to be money. Doesn’t have to be a big house or lots of toys. Your blessings may include those. And that’s fine. But your blessings may also be recovering from an illness. Having a loving family. Overcoming some type of struggles. Addiction. Anxiety. Depression. Etc. We all have different types of blessings if we truly look for them. Then we can turn those into our mission to serve others. Our testimony may be exactly what someone needs to hear or see. May be exactly what shows them who Jesus is. May be exactly what leads them to salvation. How awesome would that be! So ask, “What is your mission?”

Today’s devotion is challenging. Maybe even a little convicting. Or a lot convicting. That’s because sometimes God wants us out of our comfort zone. Stay with me, and we will get to the point. Part of a Bible study that we were doing was talking about us becoming dull. Talking about us not growing in our faith. And that’s not good. We have faith. We are believers. We pray. We go to church. We sing praise music. We bless our meals. And more. But, when was the last time you did something out of your comfort zone? 

Is there someone that you know that does not know Jesus? I’m sure there is. Probably a family member. Or a close friend. Maybe someone you work with. When was the last time you talked with them about God? About salvation? Have you ever prayed over them? Have you ever prayed with them? Or has it been a while? Let’s go deeper. I bet there are some of us who have never prayed over someone that struggling to find God. Who have never prayed with someone who doesn’t know God. I’m sure you get where I’m going with us. 

We are called to make disciples. We were saved out of faith. And it doesn’t stop there. Now…it’s our job to share the love of Jesus with others. I’m not saying you need to go stand on the corner and preach. I’m not saying you need to go door-to-door and preach. What I am saying is, look for opportunities that God is putting in your path. They are there. It may not be comfortable. But that is fine. Share scripture. Start a Bible study at work. Or maybe a prayer group. Play praise music in the background. Post on social media. Ask God to show you a way to serve others. You can find something. You can be the vessel to show the light to others that don’t know him. You might be “the” person who can lead someone to salvation. Think of that family member. That friend. That coworker. That person who doesn’t know Jesus. you might be the only person to ever share with them. Wow! Let that sink in for a minute. And…let’s remember this as well: Sharing Jesus with others, helps keep us from becoming dull. Sharing Jesus with others might be what lights their fires. How awesome would that be!

Ever catch yourself just going, going, going? Moving from one thing to the next without even thinking about it? Just doing it? Sometimes our lives get so busy, we can feel like we’re not doing something correctly if we’re not busy. We can be so caught up in what we are doing, we forget “why” we are doing it. And in this world, that’s easy to do. With our families, jobs, children sports, church, etc., etc., etc. At the end of the day, we remember what we did. But have totally forgotten what the goal or purpose was. Is this you? Does this sound familiar? Fear not! You are not alone.

Maybe it’s time for us to intentionally carve out parts of our day to be with God. To be in his presence. To take time and deliberately be still if only for a few moments. Our relationship with him should be priority one. It should be our main focus. It’s easy to lose sight of that in this busy world. But that’s the truth. It should be our focus. When it is, then we will realize and understand the purpose of why we are doing what we are doing. We will keep our eyes on the end goal. Not on the process alone.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we know that we can find a spot for Jesus in everything that we are doing. Whatever it is that has our attention throughout the day, there is room for him. It may take us some time to try to pinpoint it. But it’s there. There’s always room for him. Actually, it should be the other way around. We should find a way to put “what” we are doing into what God has planned for us. Not fitting him into our lives. That’s the wrong way. We need to put our lives in him. Every aspect of our lives. Keeping him the focus. We can find the rest we need. We can be recharged in his presence. Then we can move forward, doing his work, serving others, all the while having Jesus lead us. And that is awesome.

Sometimes the truth hurts. Have you ever heard that before? I know I have. And, sometimes the truth has hurt. For sure. Especially when it’s had me rethink how I have done things. Or when I found out the hard way that I was wrong. Either way, although I didn’t like hearing it, it was good for me to be held accountable. It’s good for us all.

As we go through this life, we are going to make mistakes. Sometimes our best efforts still result in making mistakes. Success does not come easily all the time. Sometimes at all. I’m a firm believer that we can learn from our mistakes. That we can learn from our “failures”. That we can learn from being held accountable by those around us who love us. And if we do learn from them, we can become stronger. Sharper! Iron sharpens iron!

Whenever a dull blade is sharpened, not only is it more sharp, it is shiny and beautiful. And whenever someone tries to sharpen us, it might hurt some, but we will also become more beautiful. We will shine. Like a transformation. We can be transformed for Christ. We can be more sharp for Christ. Therefore, we can better serve others for Christ. But that requires us to open our hearts to the accountability that others hold us to. And that will help us make our hearts pure. And that is awesome!

Brandon Chew is one of our board members/volunteers. He served in the United States Marine Corps. Brandon has given the message at a couple of our events. This is definitely something out of his comfort zone. But God was telling him to do this. And if God is convicting you of something, he’s not going to quit until you do it. So Brandon prayed over what he was going to say. And he did it. We could tell he was a little bit anxious and nervous. But regardless, what he had to say was spot on because it came right out of the Bible. He quoted many verses. With the whole point of his message being that we can overcome fear if we have Jesus in our life. That we can overcome anything if we have Jesus in our life. Sometimes the ending is not what we hope or wish for. But we can get through it, with Jesus in our life. 

As he was talking, he mentioned that all the answers to life’s questions are in the Bible. Because the Bible is the Word of God. And the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Have you ever been struggling with something and opened up the Bible right to a verse that speaks to you? Or how about reading a parable or a Bible story that has motivated you to do something? 

The Bible is not simply a collection of people’s thoughts. It is our template to life. It has instructed people for hundreds and hundreds of years. It gives us the tools we need to live according to God‘s will. A simple way of looking at it is this: The Bible is the instruction manual to our lives. As we read it more, we realize that God‘s word is alive. But to hear him, we must first turn our hearts and our minds to God. We must accept him into our hearts. Remember he loves you. He knows your thoughts. He longs for you to love him and experience what he has for you. The Bible will direct you. But you must first call on Jesus, our Lord and Savior, and let him lead you. And if you do this, I can promise you…you will feel the peace like never before. A love like never before. A hope like never before.

This time of year, many of those that I know, including myself, head out early in the mornings to deer blinds. To try to get set up before the deer start to move for the day. There’s a Bible verse that is very fitting for what we are talking about here. John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” And I find that very fitting due to the blind being pitch black before the sun comes up. Very dark.

As the morning is going to come alive, the light from the sun is going to brighten the area that we are hunting. Makes me think about this, Jesus is the light in our lives. And that includes in times of darkness in our lives. No matter how hard things are, how difficult things become, how “dark” our lives become, Jesus is there. The love that he has for us, brings a light into our lives that no darkness can black out. 

What he brings to our lives is a light and love that we will never comprehend. It is beyond our comprehension. What he brings into our lives is a peace and hope that we will never comprehend. It’s beyond our comprehension. What he brings into our lives is a promise for eternity that we will only be able to understand when we get there. It’s beyond our comprehension here on earth. So no matter how dark things become, his light will prevail. It cannot be extinguished by outside forces. No matter how hard things become, his peace will prevail. His love will prevail. Because once he is in us, he will stay as long as we allow him. It’s up to us to ask him in. When we do that, he’ll be on our hearts forever.