71. New Year’s Resolutions (Part 2)
Resolutions really are us changing what we love and prioritize.
Here’s a good verse that takes that and uses an analogy of two masters:
MT 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
That’s cause we can’t magically split ourselves into two people and have one listen to the first master and the second self listen to the second master.
That would really come in handy for dudes since half the girls out there are always asking dudes to buy them useless stuff like birthday presents and $15 dollar salads – but then at the same time these girls ask them to spend more time with them. And last I checked, you can’t make the money to buy all that stuff by spending time with girls. I know this guy who tried that. The only thing he got was an ulcer.
We have finite bodies, with finite amounts of time and resources.
If you choose to sit down and watch TV, you inherently have chosen not to do other things like exercise, do devotions or build a giant robot.
At any particular point in time, you are inherently asking yourself, “What is my priority right now?”
I don’t want to say that if you sit down and watch TV for five minutes that your priority isn’t God. Maybe before that you evangelized to thirty people that day, built a church and sang nothing but Celine Dion songs.
If you write down all those priorities during the day you’ll see what your overall priority is – and more importantly – who you serve.
Does your priority list look like you serve yourself or God?
Try this…
Ask yourself, “What priorities does God want me to have? If God got a hold of my calendar and came up with a schedule for me, what would it look like?”
“If God were to write down my New Year’s Resolutions for me, what would be on that list?”
Right after you’re done reading this, take a couple minutes to jot down what you think God’s priorities for your life for this year are.
And no, $15 salads are not a priority.
MT 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
MT 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? [26] Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? [27] Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
MT 6:28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. [29] Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. [30] If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? [31] So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ [32] For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. [33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well
Take time to pray: Ask God for wisdom on what His priorities are for your life.
Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Love. A love for God so as to value what He values.
70. New Year’s Resolutions (Part 1): What’s the Right Reason to Start?
For Christians we of course can also think about resolutions we can make about our spiritual life like reading the Bible, or being committed to prayer, or finding your callings, or finding places of ministry.
This begs the question – why weren’t we doing these things before?
The reason we come up with resolutions is because we weren’t motivated enough to do those things in the first place. And it being a new calendar year isn’t this great magical reason to get started.
So what would be the right reason to get started?
If you weren’t doing devotions in the first place, why would you start now just because the calendar flipped?
What new year’s resolutions show us is what motivates us. And what motivates us?
Love.
Do you love double cheeseburgers more or your weight. Do you love having a nicer car more or being in debt. Do you love American Idol more or your dignity?
What do you love?
Your new year’s resolutions will give you a hint to that.
When we look at our resolutions, we really are saying that we want to fix the priorities of what we love.
And for Christians, what we really want to do is make sure that we love… what God loves.
God loves when we honor him by being good stewards of his money. God loves when we honor Him by taking care of the bodies he’s given us.
God loves when we display more of the fruit of the spirit by trying to have more self control when we try to quit smoking, spend less time on the internet, or eat less pork rinds.
The right motivation for us to change should be our love for God. It should be the basis to get started on our resolutions.
Maybe that’s why we fail so often at our resolutions… because we don’t see them as accountable to anyone other than ourselves. If our motivation for resolution is our love for God, then we’ve coupled our resolution with accountability to God. If we fail, it’s not just ourselves that we disappoint, but God as well.
So what do we do?
Whatever new year’s resolutions you come up with this year, make sure you tie it into your love for God because doing something like exercising more or less is useless unless your resolution is something that you think God loves AND you’re doing it out of love for God.
And hopefully God loves pork rinds because that’s what’s most of my new year’s resolutions involve.
Col 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord
Take time to Pray: Pray for a desire to love what God loves so it can help you with your resolutions.
Today’s Fruit of the Spirit to work on: Love.
76. True Meaning of Christmas? So What?
During this Christmas time it’s easy to say, “let’s remember the true meaning of Christmas.” It’s also easy to say, “I’m going to eat three pounds of pork rinds.” But some things are easier said than done.
Yeah yeah Conrad, the “true meaning” of Christmas is the gift of Christ and not material things like smartphones, TVs and handguns.
But so what? We know that. Great. Now what? What we do with that?
Christians go around thinking they know the true meaning of Christmas, but spend the Christmas shopping period acting like everyone else. Thinking stuff like, “Man, these other shoppers are idiots, this traffic sucks, that cashier looks like he just ate three pounds of pork rinds.”
The true meaning of Christmas isn’t knowing that it’s about Christ…
The true meaning of Christmas is living like Christ.
When we go out Christmas shopping, are we in a loving mood? Do we bring joy to the cashier? Do we rejoice in long lines and parking lot chaos?
When we get together with our families, are we the ones serving and cleaning up the mess with a smile on our face? Do we forgive our relatives for being jerks for the past three years?
It’s pointless to know that Christmas is about Christ if it doesn’t affect how we live.
So as we understand what Christmas is about, let us allow it to change how we act. How we interact with other people, how we interact with our family and how we view life.
Let us be Christ to others. And let us live life knowing about the amazing gift of salvation.
During this season, let’s not just remember what Christmas is about, let’s live it.
James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Take time to pray right now: Pray for help to live like Christ.
Today’s Fruit of the Spirit to work on: Whatever fruit you need according to the situation as you are shopping (love, patience, self-control)
75. What is Unexpected About Christmas?
The unexpected is at the core of Christmas. And it’s found in this verse…
Luke 2[10] But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. [11] Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. [12] This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Okay, so God, coming down to earth, in the form of a human, as the Savior of the world. Born to two nobodies, in some little town, not in a castle or palace, not even in a condo. But a stable, and His crib was a feeding trough.
Why?
Humans think backwards. We think power is how many people you have serving you. But it’s really the opposite, it’s how many people you are serving.
Matt 20[28] just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
PHP 2:7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
MK 9:35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
The whole reason for Christmas was so that Christ could “serve and give his life a ransom for many.”
Christ’s servanthood is an aspect we should focus on this Christmas time. This is how we can truly celebrate Christmas, by imitating Christ.
As you do your last minute shopping, as you get together with your family as you live your life – be a servant. Show humility. Minister.
And be the servant of all.
This Christmas, let’s not just talk Christmas, but let’s live Christmas by serving.
PHP 2:7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
PHP 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death–
even death on a cross!
PHP 2:9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
PHP 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
PHP 2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Take time to pray: Ask God for wisdom for ideas an opportunities to serve and minister.
Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness
What’s the Weirdest Thing You’ve Thanked God For Recently?
I’ve been sick for three days with a stomach virus, which meant I had diarrhea for three days straight.
Today, I caught myself thanking God that I was finally able to poop.
Weird, I know.
So what are some of the weird things you’ve thanked God for recently?
128. The Trinity (Part 1): So what’s the major difference between Christians and with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons?
[John Travolta in 'Battlefield Earth']
Two Jehovah Witnesses came to my door and were gone in under two minutes because I was able to coherently show my understanding of the difference between their view and Christianity. Well, it was either that or because I smelled like feet and beef.
What I’m going to talk about happens to be the main difference with Mormons – who also believe in the “Bible”.
Christianity believes in the Trinity. You know, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all God. The three-in-one. JW and Mormonism don’t believe that Christ is God, but rather a god.
JW have their own weird translation of the Bible, which messes things up.
The Mormons, however, add a sequel to the Bible – a kind of third testament. Making the Bible like a trilogy.
But instead of Part III being like Return of the Jedi – it’s more like if Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back were followed up by Battlefield Earth starring John Travolta.
By doing so, both Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormonism believe things apart from the real Word of God.
The main difference with Christianity is that both of these religions deny that Christ is God.
The JW Bible alters John 1:1 that talks about Christ from, “and the Word was God” to “and the Word was a god.”
Mormonism believes that God the Father was a man, became a god, had Jesus, who was a man, and then became a god.
In this case we are not worshipping the same God. The same goes for any other religion that doesn’t believe that Christ is God – such as Islam and Judaism.
Just because we may all may name the all powerful deity “God”, doesn’t mean we’re worshipping the same thing.
If my name was John Travolta – that doesn’t mean I also starred in the worst movie of all time (which of course is Battlefield Earth).
What is important is the substance of what we believe, not what we name it.
Yes the Trinity is a difficult concept to understand, but it is foundational to our beliefs and is what helps us define who Christ is… and therefore who God is.
What we believe shapes our worship. And worship is a crucial part to our relationship with God.
John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Genesis 1:26
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Take time to pray: Praise God for His attribute of existing in the Trinity – the Great Three-in-One.
99. Thanksgiving (Part 2): How Do I Turn Complaints into Thanks?
Just this morning I was complaining how our weiner dog, Brutus (pictured above), wouldn’t poop when I took him out. I was out walking around our yard and he’s just sniffing around, peeing on stuff… after he already peed. “C’mon, you already peed. Time for puppy poopies. Go puppy poopies.” But he wouldn’t go.
How will this exhilarating story turn out? Read the rest of the devotional to find out.
Here there were a ton of things to be thankful for, but I got so focused on one thing that I lost sight of everything else.
I got fixated on one little tiny speck – losing sight of the larger picture.
I could be thankful to God for Brutus, for having a nice yard he can poop in, or for having the finances to take care of a pet.
I could have enjoyed the extra time out in the yard, but I was focused on poop. Or lack thereof.
Last time I talked about how we love to complain and that we need to be more thankful. Not just some random feeling of appreciation that our lives aren’t as bad as other peoples, but a active thanks towards God.
But how do we change our complaints into thanks?
First we have to understand that God has blessed us with all sorts of stuff like pets, families, vehicles, harmonicas, shampoo, indoor plumbing, laxatives, and Rocky IV.
And the complaints we have are somehow based off these blessings. And boy how we like to complain, even about the dumbest stuff.
So realizing that we love to complain, let’s try to turn that around.
Try to catch yourself when you complain and turn it into thanksgiving of some kind.
ARG! I hit the red light. God, thank you for this car.
DUDE! I hit traffic on my way to work. God, thank you for my job.
UGH! I have to repair my stove. God thank you that I have a stove in the first place.
I hate waking up this early in the morning. God, thank you for my school/job/church (whatever you’re waking up for).
Dang it! That was the last donut. God, thank you for a miracles of doughnuts and that Dunkin’ Donuts has a drive through.
DARN IT! Apollo Creed just got killed by Ivan Drago in Rocky 4. God, thank you that coming up are four musical montages in a row with inspirational 80′s rock songs with titles like, “There’s No Easy Way Out”, “Burning Heart”, and “Hearts on Fire”. And who could ever forget the incredible motivational song entitled, “Training Montage” (note: that’s for real).
Take your complaint and set it right. Don’t get fixated on the speck (or in my case, the poop) – losing sight of the larger picture – which is God’s graciousness and love…lest we take his blessings and throw it back in His face.
And yes, Brutus did poop.
And I was very thankful.
1TH 5:16 Be joyful always; [17] pray continually; [18] give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Take time to pray: Ask God to help you focus on the larger picture, His love, rather than the speck.
98. Thanksgiving (Part 1): Yeah, Don’t Complain. Now What?
One thing that’s always never sat right with me is when people tell others to stop complaining and to be thankful because there are those who are worse off. Like, “Kids, be thankful for your green beans because there are starving kids in Africa who would love to have those beans.” Yeah, as if anyone wants green beans.
The thing wrong with this kind of thankfulness is answered when we ask, “what are we actually thankful for?”
If we had to bring up the kids in Africa to convince our kids to be thankful, then we basically end up being thankful that there are people who are worse off than us.
If those people didn’t exist, then neither would our reason to be thankful. The root of our thankfulness becomes the starvation of others.
And if we’re thankful due to the fact that there are those worse off than us, then why can’t we just look the opposite way and look at those better off than us?
“You should be thankful for your toy because there are poor kids who don’t have toys.” But then what about those rich kids who have more toys than me?
So what can be used to inspire thankfulness also inspires complaints.
There’s a reason for this.
There’s two major elements missing from this equation: Who are we supposed to be thankful to? And why?
Thankful, to Who?
Obviously we are supposed to be thankful to God, but we take Him out of the equation when we make it about others being worse off than us.
Now I’m not talking about not complaining about or enjoying what we have. I can refrain from complaints and enjoy a taco and at the same time not thank the one who made it.
Our thankfulness has to start with God. Without any comparison to others.
If we did compare ourselves to others, our prayers would sound like, “God, thank you that I’m not as poor as those kids in Africa. And thank you that I’m not like George Lucas when he made the Star Wars Prequels.”
We should be thankful that God provided us with the green beans, not because others don’t have them.
Thankful, Why?
God also has reasons He’s blessed you with what you have or don’t have. And those reason are good (Romans 8:28).
His purpose isn’t to make sure we have tons of stuff or that our lives are problem free.
His purpose is to have a better relationship with us. Because He loves us.
Sometimes it means not being as rich as we’d like, or having a sickness, or something else we’d consider ‘bad’, because God has a larger purpose.
Knowing that, we can be thankful that God made us the way we are, in any situation, because He loves us and has a plan for us.
Then we can truly live out the verse:
1TH 5:[18] give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
So if we are trying to get ourselves or someone else to stop complaining, let’s try not to compare ourselves to those less fortunate because it just takes our focus off of God, who should be the source and recipient of our thankfulness.
Turn the complaints into thanks… by focusing on God and His larger purpose in our lives.
1TH 5:16 Be joyful always; [17] pray continually; [18] give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Joy. Be joyful in all the blessings God has given you.
Take time to pray: Thank God for using the situations in your life to draw you closer to Him.
127. But What If I’m Not Good at Anything?
I got this great question in reply to figuring one’s calling, [How can you figure out your calling] “if you aren’t good at anything?”
To answer this we first have to define what tells us what our callings are, and these are:
Gifts, Talents and Resources.
And included in your Resources are personality traits. And this is a good place to begin because our personalities are a little bit easier to figure out than if we’re talented at accounting, nursing or offshore drilling.
Maybe we don’t know our personality strengths, but we do know our weaknesses – and that’s actually a great place to start.
What we can do is figuring what we suck at and find its opposite.
For example, I’m very non-confrontational, which makes me totally suck by allowing problems to go too long, confronting repairmen about weird charges, or allowing tenants to be late on their rent by like three weeks.
But that same ‘weakness’ can be a strength because sometimes a non-confrontational person is needed because maybe a family member just needed a bit of grace and time to get over something and you can be the person they’ll turn to since you didn’t confront them every other day.
Another example is I’m not emotional and for some reason I always unintentionally look grumpy, which makes me terrible where a softer personality is needed like with children, the grief stricken, teenage girls, etc. But others prefer a direct approach. So if someone needs a kick in the pants and wants someone to be blunt with them – then I’m your guy.
Take a look at this detailed diagram.
There’s always an opposite of a trait you have. You just have to find the good part of it and match it up with the right person and situation.
Remember, ministry is about relationships. And relationships are about people. And people are different. Which means God needs certain types of people to minister to certain types of people.
God will be able to use you where I would fail.
There’s things we all have in common… we all have relationships (family, work, neighbors, school, church, whatever) and we also have a common calling to minister.
So even if we haven’t figured out some specific callings like “God wants you to be an accountant for 72.4 months”, God has still given us all general callings.
And general callings are a great place to start because it can have an immediate impact – you just have to wait till the next time you run into another person.
Hope that helps.
If anyone has any further questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
General Calling: Matthew 28:19-20
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
97. I Had the Best Intentions But I Messed Up – Now What?
Maybe you made a decision at work, school or in your family that had a negative result.
You really had the best of intentions, but things still didn’t turn out the way you wanted. And really not because of some intentional sin, in fact, you were trying to do what was right.
But now you feel guilty for making the wrong decision and bringing hardship on yourself and others.
At least if it was a sin, you could ask God for forgiveness.
Can you really ask forgiveness for using the wrong marketing strategy at work? Or for wanting to have family devotions at 7pm vs 9pm, when at 9pm the kids ended up being too tired? Or for buying your wife the wrong gift.
There can be a few reasons why things didn’t turn out.
Some of it could be simply you can’t control how other people are going to react. Sometimes we don’t have enough wisdom or talent. Some of it could be elements completely out of your control.
After the fact, with our hindsight we can pick apart everything we should have done differently… which can make us feel guilty.
I really like using the Peter walking on the water example. It was only when Peter took his eyes of of Christ and focused on the waves did he start to sink.
That’s us too. When we focus on what we should have done – it takes our eyes off of Christ and we start to sink spiritually and emotionally.
Guilt can keep our eyes off of Christ.
But Christ is the one in charge. Our mistakes aren’t going to somehow thwart His plans.
It’s not like God can’t accomplish His plans because of our mistakes.
God is still going to complete His work. Yes, our mistakes have consequences, but only up to a point.
It’s not like we can make enough mistakes to prevent the book of Revelation from coming to pass. God is still sovereign. And guess what, He can use our mistakes for our good.
Why did God promise,
RO 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
If God can use our mistakes that means he has a higher goal in mind than for us to say that perfect thing to a family member, or make the perfect decision on how to deal with a situation. And specifically for you, that goal is to grow you spiritually.
So what do we do?
In humility, we have to accept our limitations. We need to ask forgiveness for focusing our eyes on what we should have done which prevents us from focusing our eyes where they should be – on Christ’s love and sovereignty. Then we need to praise Him for that love and sovereignty because we understand that…
Despite our limitations – God still sovereignly chooses to use us… because He loves us.
MT 14:25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. [26] When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
MT 14:27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
MT 14:28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
MT 14:29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. [30] But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
MT 14:31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
Take time to pray: Praise God for His sovereignty and love. Ask forgiveness for focusing on your mistakes rather than Him.
Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Peace.
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