Where's the PASSION?

Hannah Montana is in town tonight. (in case you haven't heard)
The question that came up in our staff devotions today is this: "How is it that people go so extremely nuts over some 14 year old girl who sings on a stage, but won't dare tell their neighbor about the love that Jesus Christ has for them?"

Ever thought about that? It drives me absolutely nuts! Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate Hannah Montana. My daughter is going to the show. They're going to have a ton of fun! But it will be over in a couple of hours. We'll wake up tomorrow, and go back about our daily routine. In 5 years will we even remember it?

Our eternity, and that of our friends and neighbors is at stake. Why don't we get as excited about telling them about Jesus? I think it comes down to this: PASSION.

We get emotional about whatever we are passionate about. When it comes to Christ, we somehow muster up enough passion to sing a few well written worship songs on Sunday morning, and maybe even Wednesday night. But then we leave church behind and go and try to fill the void in our lives with the emotional highs we get from big shows and entertainment.

What will it take for Christians to become passionate about Jesus? I don't know. I do know this: where your treasure is there your heart is also. Where your treasure is, there is your passion. What are you passionate about? Do your neighbors know?

Living Consistently

I wanted to let you know about our next Wednesday night series. How many times have you 'tried' to live the Christian life--but failed miserably? We're supposed to have a quiet time, we're supposed to pray, we're supposed to worship. But when it comes down to it, those things never really seem to have any impact on 'real life.' You know the feeling?

And when it comes down to it, how do I really know for sure that all this Bible stuff is even true? These are normal questions, and normal feelings. The Christian life is full of ups and downs. The trick (if you want to call it a trick) is to learn how to live what you believe.

I hope you'll join us at Southbrook Church for the next four Wednesday nights as we look at these questions. We will look at the Bible and learn that we can know for sure that when we die we will meet Jesus face to face. We'll talk about the importance of personal devotional times. Prayer and worship are also very important. How do we take these practices and make them effective in our daily lives?

Come Wednesday night and find out...see you there!

Knowledge & Instruction

In our quest to build a solid foundation (our worldview which is based in doctrinal truth) we must accumulate knowledge. That's just the way it works. We do because we know. Knowledge comes through study and experience. It can be our own experiences or the experiences of others. What you believe is going to be partly rooted in what you know.

Knowledge – A good atheist spends time getting to know her beliefs. A good Mormon spends time learning about what they believe. In order to defend your beliefs, you have to know facts about your beliefs. Today it seems to be pretty common for people to claim that what they believe doesn’t have to agree with what we believe. What’s true for you may not be true for me. But that’s ok, we can agree to disagree. But in order to know what you believe, you have to know facts about what you believe.

As a Christ follower I can claim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died to take away my sin so that I could experience an eternal and personal relationship with the Creator of the universe. But if I have nothing to base that on, what’s the point? How do I even know it’s true? I have to read and study the Bible, the book that contains the claims of Christianity, so that I can build on the foundation of my doctrinal beliefs.

Reading and studying the Bible happens in several ways. Yesterday I wrote about personal devotion. That is a great way to begin to gather knowledge about what I believe. Church attendance, small group or Bible studies are important as well. The important thing is that you have some kind of systematic instruction in your life. This means consistency. This means orderly, not just a shot in the dark hope I learn something today approach.

Systematic Instruction – Having personal times of devotion is good, but is usually rather unstructured. It is important to pursue some kind of systematic instruction. Whether it be through schooling, or classes offered through a volunteer organization such as the local church. It is essential for followers of Jesus Christ to pursue a systematic study of God’s Word. We can learn a lot on our own. We can learn so much more from those who are gifted in the area of teaching.