I wrote a previous article about what drives us in life in our decision making.  In the first article, I discussed that discovering what drives our choices is crucial and certainly worth our effort to better understand the causes and misconceptions about what drives us. My hope is to help us all evaluate what motivates us to make the best decisions and thus discover ways to fulfill God’s calling in our lives.

There is a lot of scripture that believers just pass over as poetic and sounding nice, yet God spoke these words for us to incorporate into our daily lives. One such passage is in John’s gospel were Jesus said he is the bread of life. So many in the body of Christ have taught that this is some metaphysical concept that human reasoning cannot explain or engage with so it becomes poetic theology.

Many professing Christians say they believe that scripture is the word of God and yet somehow they “Cherry-Pick” the scriptures they like and avoid the parts they don’t like. This attitude of rejecting certain scriptures and embracing others ends up twisting our concepts about God and ourselves and can make our Christian faith either powerless or, at the worst, a counterfeit faith.

Warranties are so important for things like cars and houses. Even medical policies we call insurance are a must because most of us couldn’t afford the out of pocket expenses if things go wrong or they break. Imagine people’s surprise when they get a repair bill for their car or a hospital bill and discover the policy they purchased in good faith doesn’t covering their problem. This happens either the policy was misrepresented by the sales person or we failed to read the fine print before purchasing. The same can happen with our expectation of what salvation is all about. We can be told one thing by pastors and teachers in the body of Christ only to discover when we die that we were told the wrong thing and we are not welcomed into God’s embrace.

I listened to a sermon recently on how easy it is to live from instinct rather than identity. As believers, all too often I think we live from our past brokenness rather than from who God says we are, and who we should become in him.

Somehow the body of Christ seems to think that if we are humble we should never desire or even confess the desire to be great. Why is this? Is it because we think or have been taught that to desire such a bold thing is sinful or carnal? 

As I started these series of articles on 1 Corinthians, both on my blog pages and on Facebook, my intention was to show what happens to the body of Christ, mainly the church, when it drifts from the biblical structure and purpose God intended for it to have. I also wanted to show, and will continue to do so in future writing on my daily Facebook post, just how easy that drift can happen whether it be a small local congregation or a mega church.

The church has learned all the tricks of the trade as far as marketing and fund raising, but few take the time or energy to help believers sort out their faith from a scriptural perspective. Doing that takes more time, patience and grit than just paying some people to make a slick Sunday presentation. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for theater lights, nice buildings and facilities, but those things don’t make mature believers.

I was recently asked to teach a group of pastors in Tanzania about what it means to know you’re calling and how to identify it. I have taught on Christian leadership for many years but have never been asked to teach specifically on an individuals calling. That being said, I dove into the subject and studied what the word had to say. Through these articles I will try to unpack what I have learned and identified about my own calling, which will hopefully help you discover your own.

This is the fourth article in a series on prayer.  I am attempting to explore the vast  insights the scripture gives us if we would only open the scriptures to find them.  The topic of prayer, based on my experience, has few believers practicing because of misguided teaching in the greater body of Christ. Believers say they understand prayer and yet practice it either infrequently or poorly. The subject of prayer deserves a lot more attention. Jesus said his house was to be called a house of prayer, not of preaching or worship, even though those are important items and functions in a healthy church. Real healthy prayer is the gateway into the presence and provision of God. If you have not read the first three articles please do so now so you can see the foundation points on my understanding on the importance and practice of prayer for each believer. Look at what the disciples ask Jesus one day about prayer and how to pray according to the will of God.