Rewriting your future

Want to know what your future will be like?  There may be a way to answer that which doesn’t involve time travel or horoscopes (don’t get me started on that one).  What’s more, there may be a way to actually help determine what your future will look like.

It’s been said, “Show me your friends, and I’ll tell you where you’ll be in ten years.”  The assumption is that our future is being written by today’s decisions and actions.  Which is quite true.  Think about your present reality.  How much of that was shaped by your decisions and actions 5, 10, or 20 years ago?  (Scary thought, right?)

As it turns out, there is a powerful tool available to help us live in such a way NOW that we’ll have a preferred FUTURE when we get there.  It’s a collection of the best life-skills ever assembled, and it’s found in the pages of the Bible.  It’s a little book called Proverbs.  And it’s a book we’re going to be exploring during the month of August, in a series called, “Got Wisdom?”  You’d be hard pressed to find a more practical collection of sayings anywhere on the planet!

So to help us get the most out of this book, I’m asking our entire church to join me in reading through the entire book of Proverbs as we go through August.  And the cool part is this: there are 31 days in August, and 31 chapters in Proverbs.  So it’s as simple as opening your Bible (or your Bible app ), checking to see which day it currently is, and reading the 25 or so short proverbs in that chapter.  You can do this.  We can all do this.

When you read, you’ll start to discover some interesting things. 

• You’ll find one or two individual proverbs that jump out at you that day. 
• You’ll find yourself sharing some of these gems of wisdom with others.  (We’ll have a web site where you can do that if you’d like.) 
• And as you apply some of these proverbs, you’ll actually get wisdom.  Which will not only affect your present life, but your future.  You’ll literally start to rewrite your future. 

If you can think of a better way to invest 10 minutes a day for the month of August, I’d like to hear about it.  So will you join us in this journey?  Will you rewrite your future over the next 31 days?  I hope so.  We’ll start on Monday, August 1^st.  

-Pastor Mark 

P.S. Feel free to post your comments and thoughts in the space below as you begin this incredible summer journey.

Tame Jesus?

The picture of Jesus that we often carry around in our head is that of the golden haired, soft-spoken, gentle guy who would never say or do anything to offend anyone.  He’s the Jesus who makes us feel all warm and safe.  He’s the Jesus who leaves us in our comfort zone.  He’s the tame Jesus.

Then there’s the Jesus that actually walked around on the planet.  This is the Jesus who says things like,

• If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. 
• Anyone who doesn’t hate his own father and mother cannot be my disciple.
• The first will be last and the last will be first.
• What good does it do to gain the whole world and lose your soul?
• Anyone who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of heaven.

With these kinds of statements, Jesus forced people to sit up, listen, and choose.  He offended their sensitivities and their beliefs.  He messed with their worldview.  He threatened the stability of their religious beliefs.  And he frightened people who thought they knew exactly who God was.  In short, he was about as far from tame as you can get. 

Which Jesus are you familiar with?  The tame, safe Jesus?  Or the real, life-changing Jesus?  I hope you can join us for the continuation of our series, “SERIOUSLY?”  Each Sunday we’re exploring what Jesus meant by his outrageous statements.  And we’re learning what it means to follow the real Jesus.  To borrow a phrase from C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, where the children asked if Aslan, the lion, was safe: “Safe, of course he’s not safe.  But he’s good.”

Is your God-signal getting faint?

Chances are you’re one of the millions of people who’ve come to use and appreciate the Global Positioning Satellite system, known as GPS.  It’s a wonderful way to determine where you are, and help you get where you’re going.  Who doesn’t love that!  But a recent news story tells of a potentially serious problem with your GPS device. 

 

It seems that a company wants to install a nationwide network of cellular towers that might interfere with the faint radio signals coming from the GPS satellites.  If that happens, your trusty GPS device would be unable to “hear” the faint GPS signal from outer space, because it would be drowned out by the much stronger cellular signal from nearby. 

So why am I telling you this?  Because our lives are also guided by a type of GPS.  It’s the faint signals we receive from God.  Signals that inform us where we are, who we are, and which direction to go next.  But those faint signals can often get drowned out by the strong signals around us.  Signals that tell us we’re only as valuable as our looks, or our friends, or our portfolio.  Signals that tell us that God is distant, or uncaring, or angry.  Signals that tell us we should follow the crowd, and leave our values behind. 

When that happens, we can find ourselves lost, confused, and headed in the wrong direction.  So how do we keep it from happening?  How do we ensure that the signals from God don’t get drowned out?  Here are four suggestions:

1. Move closer to God’s signal.  It’s a simple as ten minutes of solitude spent listening to God.  It’s like prayer without a to-do list for God.  Just listening to him.  Which at first will be hard, but over time will grow easier.  You’ll find yourself moving closer to God.  The closer you get to the source of a signal, the stronger it becomes. 
2. Install a filter.  An electronic device uses a filter to sift through the competing signals and reject the ones you don’t need.  God’s word often works like a filter.  Anything that doesn’t match with what God has said about himself, or about you, gets rejected.  Five minutes a day reading God’s word could be a gigantic step forward in receiving the signals you need from God.
3. Look around.  If you’re driving and you suspect your GPS isn’t doing its job, look at your surroundings.  Sometimes a visual check will do wonders for navigation.  In your spiritual journey, look around.  Is your life where you want it to be?  Do you like the things you see around you?  Is your interior life headed in the right direction? 
4. Ask for directions.  Sometimes the best way to confirm where you are and where you’re headed is to roll down the window and ask for an outside opinion.  Find a spiritual friend (see the podcast from June 19, 2011 for details), and ask them where they think you are.  Or if they see you moving in a healthy direction.  Very often God can speak through spiritual friends…but we have to ask. 

The signals from God are consistent, but rarely overpowering.  They can get lost in the crowded, noisy lives we lead.  So this week, if your signal from God is not clear, try one of the steps above to get back on track, and to reconnect with the God who made you. 

-Pastor Mark