What happens to people who never hear the gospel

I Got Your Back

Being All In

Building Relationships

A person may ask what is the most important word in our lagauage.  A Romantic might whisper, ‘love’. A politician might bellow, ‘votes’. A banker may staunchly say, ‘money’.  Each one has a reason for their word, but I would venture to say the most important word in our language is ‘relationship’. Every one of us is in the school of relationships.

One of the biggest revelations in my life was when I realized how intentional I have to be in relationships.  Karen and I have four sons & daughter-in-laws and numerous grand children and I have come to understand how purposeful and intentional I have to be to build relationships with them.  I have found that I have to be intentional to get into their lives. If I do not, I will know them and I will intersect in life with them but I will not have the influence with them that I really desire.

A couple of summers ago the whole clan went to the beach. We staked out a nice place for the chairs and set up the umbrellas. Then some of us grabbed our boogie boards and out we headed to the water. It was so awesome for all of us to just enjoy the little swells, talking and chatting in the sun. We probably floated around out there about ten minutes when one of us looked up and said, ‘Where are the chairs and umbrellas?  We had floated down away from our site and it took forever to swim and paddle back to our stuff because the current was so strong against us. 

 I thought to myself, "Wow, this is a picture of my life isn’t it God"?  Because unless I’m intentional, the current of culture, of life, of the busyness of life, will carry me away from where I want to be.  It was nice to relax, but in reality, life doesn’t allow us to relax without some effect on us.  If I do nothing, I’m gone, I’m down stream, down the strand, I’ve drifted away from my site.  If I do nothing for a day or a week in my relationships, then I’ve drifted.  I’m not in the same place anymore. It takes consciously, intentionally choosing those relationships every day. That has been a big surprise yet also an amazing help once I figured it out. Now, I can put it into practice.  

If you want to have a better relationship with God you have to be intentional. If you want to get through to your wife, kids, husband, children, etc, you need to not just "be there", but be intentional and purposely get to know them.  Don’t try to tell them how to live, or how their music stinks or how to whatever......try to intentionally find what and who they are and then intentionally get to know them, build a relationship with them. Great relationships are based on effort - they don’t just happen. 

God has a purpose behind every problem.
He uses circumstances to develop our character.  In fact, he depends more on circumstances to make us like Jesus than he depends on our reading the Bible.  The reason is obvious:  You face circumstances twenty-four hours a day.
Jesus warned us that we would have problems in the world.  No one is immune to pain or insulated from suffering, and no one gets to skate through life problem-free.  Life is s a series of challenges.  Just about the time you deal with one quandray there is another one stepping right in there to take its place.  Not all of them are big, but all of them are significant in God's growth process for you.  Peter assures us that problems are normal, saying 'Don't be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this is no strange, unusual thing that is going to happen to you." 
God uses problems to draw you closer to himself. 
Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days-when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when your're out of options, when the pain is great-and you turn to God alone.  It is during suffering that we learn to pray our most authentic, heartfelt, honest-to-God prayers.  When we're in pain, we don't have the energy for superficial prayers. 
God could have kept Joseph out of jail, He could have kept Daniel out of the lion's den, He could have kept Jeremiah from being tossed into a slimy pit, and the apostle Paul from being shipwrecked three times.  God could have kept the three Hebrew young men from being thrown into the blazing furnace and to keep them from all of their calamities--But He didn't!  He let every one of those problems happen and every one of those persons was drawn closer to God as a result.
Problems force us to look to God and depend on him instead of ourselves. If you look at the world, you'll be distressed.  If you look within, you'll be depressed......But if you look at Christ, you'll be at rest! Your focus will determine your feelings.

Who Are You?

Rick Warren, of Saddleback Church, reminds all of us, ‘It’s Not About You.”  Rick tells us that the purpose of our life is far greater that our own personal fulfillment, our peace of mind, or even our happiness.  It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions.

The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years.   Why? The reason is because we usually begin at the wrong point-"ourselves".

We ask self-centered questions like.  "What do I want to be?"  "What should I do with my life?" "What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my future?"

But focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose.  The Bible says in Job 12:10 that, “It is God who directs the lives of His creatures; everyone’s life is in His power.”

Contrary to what many popular books, movies, and seminars tell you, you won’t discover your life’s meaning by looking within yourself. You’ve probably tried that already.  You didn’t create yourself, so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for!

Rick tells us of a time out in the woods when he got lost. He stopped for help at a campsite and they told him, “you can’t get there from here, you gotta start from the other side of the mountain.” In the same way, you cannot arrive at your life’s purpose by starting with a focus on yourself. You must begin with God, your Creator.  You exist only because God wills that you exist.   You were made by God and for God - and until you understand that, life will never make sense.  It is only in God that we discover our origin, identity, purpose, significance, and our destiny.  All other paths lead to a dead end.