Everyone loves to hear a good story. The problem is we don’t think our stories are that good. I have talked to people all around the world and found that we all have the same problem. Unless you’re an extrovert, people struggle with sharing Christ! The truth is, even extroverts struggle with sharing their faith. Why? Because deep down we all know we are flawed. We have problems in life. We don’t have it all together and never will and this intimidates us.
When I was a young boy I dreamed and played “Army” with my friends. As young boys we played such games because we had heroes with character traits that we admired. John Wayne was one of the people that we looked up to as a “man’s man”. He portrayed courage in the face of fear and valor when the battle was raging.
As we approach the holiday celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I thought it would be healthy to remind myself and others about just how important it is to cultivate a thankful heart. I can certainly get wrapped up in the spiritual war that is going on in our country. I constantly need to be reminded of the words of the apostle Paul when he states clearly that we don’t just wrestle with natural things, like politics and general nastiness, but we wrestle with all the evil and wickedness of a Satanic agenda. That agenda is eradicating the peace of God and promoting hatred and distrust. That can not happen. A spirit of thankfulness is what will miraculously bring forth growth and victory!
As we approach the holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas, it is very easy to get caught up in the busyness that comes with this time of year. It is easy to lose focus and fail to be really thankful for all of the blessings that God has brought into our lives. Ironically, we can become ungrateful due to all the preparations and responsibilities that the holidays can bring.
I started this series, “What Kind of Christian Are You?”, because I think many Christians believe that God has a very loose standard regarding who he embraces as his adopted child. I believe God has a greater standard and greater aspirations for us!
In my last article I posed the question, “Are we saints or sinners?”. My point was that the apostle Paul in particular taught that prior to coming to Christ for redemption we were sinners who habitually lived for ourselves at God’s expense. However, after coming to Christ and being forgiven of our sins we are “Classified” by God as saints, not because we are now perfect but because we keep “Short Accounts” and refuse to live as we once did. It is all about transformation!
This is the third article on what it means to be fruitful and how many people are more interested in just looking good. This is partially because being fruitful is hard work and people are normally looking for the easiest way around things. If you haven’t read the first two articles on the same subject I would encourage you to do so before reading this one.
In my last post on being fruitful or just looking good we talked about the law of God in “Sowing & Reaping” and how God established rewards for working hard. In our current cultural climate, man continues to try to push away the idea of God setting the rules of the universe by citing all the technological advancement. No matter what man tries to create to prove he is in charge, everything in our world is interconnected and shows the fingerprint of our creator.
When I was growing up keys were very important. Keys to your car, your house etc. Today we have “Key-fobs” that send an electronic signal to many of our devices. Our garage doors have them so you don’t have to get out of your car. My front door has a keypad that I punch in a code to enter and I can even open it for someone at the front door when I’m out-of-town from my iPhone. With Sue’s car she doesn’t even have to pull the key-fob out of her pocket because it unlocks the car by “sensing her presence”. The side mirror even moves out and welcomes her arrival. Keys, whether electronic or mechanical, are incredibly important.
