Enriching The Color of Your Faith

Go beyond the basic color scheme of faith.

² My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, ³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.(Colossians 2:1-3, NIV 2011 Edition)

When I was a kid, I used to draw sketches with my friends and find great pleasure in coloring different shapes and figures. We only had the small 8 count Crayola (or Rose Art - lol!) Colored Pencil kit but we made do with what we had. Of course you'd have your basic black, white, red, purple, brown, blue, green, yellow, and orange, the color scheme that let you color at least distinguish between people of different races but the complexity of the pieces were always limited because brown was brown and not mahogany... red was always red and not crimson... and purple was always purple, never lilac. We were pretty smart kids back then, and so it wasn't so much that we didn't know what we wanted to communicate, we just didn't have the complex tools to sketch and color what was in our minds and communicate it directly onto paper.

As I grew older, I stopped sketching as much but when I went back to the art back in college, I went for the large 50 count box of Crayolas. The greater selection of colors helped to create a picture that was very intentional and showed that I understood the message that I wanted to get across.

Studying God's word works the same way.

8-Count Christianity. When we're fresh in Christ or before we really dig into our word faithfully, we know a few key scriptures here and there to minister to ourselves and to others. We recite the same go-to scriptures that we've heard in church all along because we believe that it's a one sized fits all approach to any situation someone might face. These can get us by to some extent, and no doubt they are good scriptures to hold onto, but the Bible can relate to us - and we to it- in so many more ways.

50-Count Christianity. For the sake of illustration, some of the basic emotions in life are fear (black), anger (purple), peace (blue) and love (red) - among others. When you read the scriptures and read about the different men and women of the Bible, you see that they all experienced different levels of these emotions and communicated it to God and His people in different ways. Love as expressed by Solomon was very different than love as expressed by Jesus Christ. Peace for David looked different compared to the peace that Paul found in troubled times.

The beautiful thing about God's Word is that it is a living word and it was created to relate to YOU! The more you search, you'll find an answer to any problem that you might have. The scriptures go beyond the usual Sunday School verses that you've heard all along and reveal hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Are you living in a 50-count world with an 8-count pencil set?

March Madness

There's only one way to pick a winner.

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.(Philippians 4:6-7, NIV 2011 Edition)

It's that time of year again. Brackets have been filled out and busted up, underdogs are feeling like champions, and college-aged fans from everywhere are trading in trips to the beach to see their teams play on the hard court. Yep, March Madness is in full effect and no team knows whether or not it will live to play another game of basketball or not after each round. We've already seen a few surprising upsets and some incredible games that we'll remember for quite sometime. The madness surrounding it all - the ups and downs, the uncertainty, victory, defeat - reminds me of our daily lives.

Bracketology. Every day we are faced with decisions or situations that have more than one potential outcome yet we either have no control or are unsure of what's best. Some situations seem a bit more predictable like a 1 vs 16 seed match-up but other times we're faced with the sneaky 8 vs 9, where both options look enticing. So what do we do in either of those times? We pray and petition.

Picking a winner. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians that we should not be anxious about anything but, in gladness, we should turn our desires and prayers over to God. With the number of decisions we have to make and situations we're faced with on a daily basis we can't possibly pick the right option each time. Too much - stress, anxiety, hunger, anger, etc. - can throw us off our game. Instead we should just turn the decisions over to Him and seek his answer and response.

Let the games play out. Once we turn over our decisions to God, all we can do is let the games play out. The stronger our faith in Him, the greater level of peace we experience in letting Him choose a winner. Just like in the NCAA tournament, He may pick the option that we really don't want to win but if it's from Him then it's for our best. What we may see as a loss may really be for our gain. Whereas we see one decision at a time, God sees the full bracket - even things that we cannot see. If we peacefully and joyfully turn our decisions over to Him and let things play out, we're sure to be a winner at the end of the tourney.

Bonus Coverage: Israel Houghton ft. Fred Hammond - Surprises

Reaping God's Harvest vs. Our Own

God's Abundant Harvest Never Runs Out Or Goes Bad

^"19-21It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.   This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.

 ^22-23But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely." (Galatians 5:19-23, The Message)

The topic I want to discuss today is discerning between the fruit of the flesh vs. God's Harvest. The text here speaks for itself but I want to highlight a few key points that were revealed to me while meditating over this scripture.

Reaping what we sow. No matter how you live life, you are constantly sowing seeds into your life that will one day flourish into visible, inescapable fruit. Without God, we can still do a very good job of sowing seeds but they are seeds of the destructive type and the fruit is just as bitter. Notice in the passage that fruit of the flesh include things like loveless sex [premarital for sure but even in marriages], emotional baggage, a constant rush from one thing to another looking for our next high or shot of happiness, consumption of everything but satisfaction in nothing, and an impotence - or inability - to love or be loved. These fruits do not add to our lives and in fact they weigh us down tremendously.  When we take life on our own shoulders, we find that we get weighed down mightily by not only the sheer burden but the hollow temptations of it all.

The scriptures emphatically tell us that this is not the life that God has willed for His believers. If anything in your life is producing this kind of effect, either the thing itself is bad or our attitude towards it should be renewed with a Christ-like mindset.

God's Harvest. When we live a life for God, we find that it's not so much about the fruit we sow but the fruit God gives as a gift. Notice the difference between the fruit of the flesh where all we pour into it is all we get. God's harvest goes beyond what we pour into it and is more reward than anything. What kind of fruit does God give us for obedient living? Affection for others, being excited about life(!!), peace, faith, loyalty, and the ability to see the good and the God in all others. There really isn't a way to get these things through the fruit of the flesh and pursuing fleshly fruit will leave you empty and depleted. God's harvest is plentiful and unending. The more we follow Him, the more we find that He gives us fruit in ABUNDANCE!

Take some time to develop a mental checklist. If you find that different areas in your life are void of God's fruit then it's a clear sign that He's not being allowed to sow in that area. There is not one circumstance in life where God wants you to reap flesh fruit. Even in our lowest moments, we should be seeking Him so that our obedience is met with His harvest of peace. In times when we would get angry, we should be seeking Him for His abundant compassion and ability to forgive.

Allow Him into even those areas where we revert to our fleshly desires and tendencies, serve Him as He requires, and be ready to reap the abundance!

Fire Power!

"⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, " (1 Peter 1:6-8; NIV 2010 Edition).

This past Saturday I was meeting up with some friends for a dinner party. I had all day to get ready...and I took advantage of every minute. Clothes ironed by 9am, car cleaned/washed by 2pm, and I even had time to relax and take care of some errands. Everything was going on schedule until this:

Brush fires in the state of Maryland.

Now I don't know the science behind brush fires because I missed that episode of The Magic School Bus, but it got me thinking...

How does God use fire?

In the natural sense, I found this out about wildfires:

Wildfires consume vegetation that would otherwise become overgrown, creating ideal conditions for a catastrophic wildfire. Wildfires allow more open spaces for new and different kinds of vegetation to grow and receive sunlight. This, in turn, provides fresh nutrients and shelter for forest plants and animals. Wildfires also keep our forests healthy by consuming harmful insects and diseases.(From Here)

If you've ever experienced a fire in your life, you know that that is exactly what happens.

God uses fire, or trials, in our lives to not only add but to subtract. Trials show us what has become overgrown and what needs to be scaled back or even killed. Trials also add by deepening our faith and allowing us more creative ways to give God glory. Like Paul says in the scripture above, the value of our faith is even greater than gold. Our faith is the catalyst that takes a bad situation and turns it around for God's glory. There is a change that happens - a transformation - that happens only because of God's testing us by fire. When it's all over and the dust has settled, you've become a new person. And sometimes this is a new person you would not have been if you let things overgrow in your life that needed pruning or removing.

Thank God for the fire in our lives!