Expectation (cont)

"What does God expect from you?"

That was the question of the day yesterday. Now for the background to the question and the ongoing debate that has ensued since then.

I was in a conversation with my dear friend William Claeys. In the midst of the conversation he asked me the question, "What does God expect from you?" I continued to, then, take a deep breath as I thought of all of God's huge expectations that I felt He had for me.

I began to respond to William with all of these thoughts, dreams, ideas, "callings," etc. when he interrupted me and gave me the answer. Nothing.

William went on to say that God does not expect anything from us. I'm gonna stop right there and get your comments on this one. I'd love to get a great discussion going. William, if you read this then you are more than welcome to join/start the discussion yourself.

So, what do you think. "What does God expect from you?"

Expectations

I was asked a question a few days ago. I will now ask you the same question.

"What does God expect from you?"

Think about it for the day and come back tomorrow to see what this person said to me and listen to my thoughts on the subject.

"What does God expect from you?"

Apologies

For anyone that's been following this blog at all (again, all 4 of you maybe) then I am sorry for the lack of posts. I dropped my MacBook (which is always a smart thing to do) and was getting the cover and one of the ports repaired. I'm not gonna promise the fixing of old posts and the beginning of new ones tomorrow, but they should be back, up and running by the end of the week.

Thank you,

And sorry

Weak Christianity: Prayer

I think that this idea of "weak Christianity" first becomes apparent in our prayer life. I think too often we don't pray enough, if at all. Most Christians I know will say they are going to pray and rarely do. Some of those, if they do pray that is, will just give a "serviceable" prayer at best. 

I don't think that's the kind of relationship God wants to have with us. It think He wants us to give Him our all in our prayer time. Spend a little more time with Him. Pray for the impossible. Pray for His will. Find out His will. Pray that God would change our situations, circumstances, and our lives. He wants to be a part of us. He wants to live in us and through us. But we need to be praying.

Prayer is not some crazy weird thing we can't understand. It's here. It's at our fingertips. I have always said and will continue to say that God is always a whisper away. It's true. And God doesn't want to be our last resort, but our first. Don't rely on Him once you have relied on yourself and everything else.

It's time to stop being weak in our Christianity. If we are "Christians" then we need to be praying. But not praying because we have to. Praying because it's relationship with our Creator and Giver of all things. Praying because we believe He can true do anything and everything and He cares and loves us enough to take control of our situations and make everything work.

Weak Christianity

I believe that today our biggest problem in the church is simply this: weak Christianity.

"The biggest cause of athiesm in the world today is Christians who acknowledge with their lips but not with their lives." Kinda sorta quote from DC Talk's "What If I Stumble?"

I've said it before and I'll say it again now. One of the subjects in life that I will always get extremely fiery about revolves around weak Christianity. I am one of those people some times. That's what makes me even more fiery. 

I think it is a shame that we see so many Christians that know so little or, more importantly, pray so little. We serve an all-powerful God who wants to help. All we have to do is ask. So why don't we. We serve all all-powerful God so why don't we act like it? Too many Christians walk around with their head down, scared, confused, powerless, hopeless, and helpless. Just walk into some of our churches in American and look around. Have a few conversations.

Now, I'm not saying churches are bad or that all churches are like this. But some are. We are called to be the light of the world right? But we are too afraid to let our light shine. We are too afraid that someone else might find out. 

I'm not talking about hyperspirituality. I'm talking about weak living. I'm talking about not living like Christ. I'm talking about a lack of understand and boldness.

We have stopped asking and praying and expecting the impossible. Instead we stick with the comfortable and with what's been done before.

So, for the next few posts I want to talk about weak Christianity.

Admittedly, this is a bit biased and may not be the most objective, or even theological set of posts. Feel free to leave your comments. I guess you can say its iron sharpening iron via the internet.

Here are the posts that will be coming up.

Weak Christianity

1) Weak Prayer

2) Weak Living

3) Weak Faith

Weak Leadership

1) Weak Challenges

2) Weak Expectations

3) Weak Teaching

I know...I know

I know, I'm a horrible person. I haven't posted anything for a few days. I'm sorry. I kinda decided to take a nice little break.

That said, who watched my boys (Iowa Hawkeyes) on Saturday?!

Yeah, so they didn't play too fantastically. But I will take my hat off to those UNI Panthers. They put up a good fight. They played well on all sides of the ball. Honestly, I hope you guys win the FCS this year.

But two block field goals back to back within 7 seconds?

Unbelievable. I love this time of year. College football is the best. And what a great start to the season. I lost my voice and almost had a heart attack. Then it all happened again on the second field goal block. I was shaking, sweating, and I loved every second of it!!!!!

Go Hawks!!

Rollercoaster

In most big transitions in life one can expect of a lot of changes. That's why it's called a transition. There is one thing that anyone entering a transition can expect - a rollercoaster.

Expect an down/up/down/up of emotions. Things will go well one day and horrible the next week. Then there will be a month of awesomeness and then another month where nothing goes your way and you'll want out for good. 

I write this because, as many of you know, this is my life right now. Every week is different. The month of August for me has been great but this last week hasn't been too great. I know that there will be times still to come that will be as hard, if not harder, than July was for me. But one thing I know is that despite of this emotional rollercoaster riding I will get through it.

Expect the rollercoaster. Not just in transition but in life. It will make everything easier. And DON'T quit. Make a rule for yourself in quitting. Do not quit until you have decided to quit for over 2 months. If for 2 months you still want to quit then go for it. But do not let your temporary emotions make the decision for you.

A rollercoaster lies before you. Enjoy the ride and remember that you are on a rollercoaster and there will be both ups and downs.

Focus on This (Care) pt 7

And last but certainly not least in our LOVE series: Care.

Honestly, if we are loving people then this is a no-brainer. Care about them. Care about their needs, wants, desires, and dreams. We can give and we can serve, but if we don't about those that we are giving to and serving then there is no point to those actions.

In order to love others we have to care about them and care for them.

Focus on This (Serve) pt 6

We are still talking about focusing on what matters most. So, according to Jesus, what matters most? Love God, love people.

Another way to show that we love people is to serve them. 

Wow, there are so many ways that we overlook in serving people! Help out a shelter for the homeless, the hurting, the needy, the broken. Serve your neighbors (literal neighbors) by raking their yard, moving their lawn, taking out their trash. Serve in your church by doing something, especially if nobody even notices. Serve your family by being their and loving them. Spend time with those that are close and help when they don't even ask.

Jesus came to earth to serve us and in that act Jesus changed the world radically. Just love on people and serve them in every way and possibility.

Now, I know my initial thought is: "What if people start to take advantage of me?" Well, Jesus was crucified. Let's take from his example. 

I'm not saying we necessarily have to go out and die for everyone but let's do something more that what we are doing now. It is so easy to become selfish and self-centered these days. Just love people and serve them in any possible way you can.

Focus on This (Give) pt 5

The second part of this explanation of the greatest commandment says to love people.

So that means that we have to look at how to love people.

Now, I have a great friend who would say right now that we are just supposed to love people. Plain and simple. I completely agree. And the next three things that we will talk about are simply the byproduct of loving people. See, the truth is, we can do these three things and still not love people. We'll only be fooling ourselves and everyone else around us, but not God.

So in loving people on of these things that will happen when we love people is we will give. Give our money. Give our time. Give our resources, our talents, and make sacrifices in our giving.

Really, the big two are giving our money and our time. The two things that we hold most precious and dear to ourselves are those two things. So if you want to love people then give them your time and give them your money. Start an organization for the homeless. Sponsor a child in India. Do something to fight a disease or illness that is effecting someone near to you.

The Jewish people were/are huge into social justice. It was beat into their brains that in order to serve God you must serve people. Give to a beggar on the street corner. Adopt a child in need. Become foster parents. Just love people and give them whatever you can. It doesn't have to be as drastic as some of the things just listed. It can be small. It can be really small. The size of your gift of giving isn't what matters. It is your heart. Love people.

Focus on This (Obey) pt 4

Jesus said to love God and that's what we need to do. A third way for us to do this is to obey Him. 

Look, it's simple. God orchestrated 66 books in what we now know as the Bible with instructions and examples. This was not done without purpose. It is directions for us to OBEY! God speaks to us for a reason and that's not just for His own pleasure. If God didn't want us to obey Him then He wouldn't ask anything of us. Then our faith would be the equivalent of many other religions - convenient. Love requires obedience. 

In my life this is a huge area where I have lacked in the past and it continues in the present. I'm not gonna sit here and type this stupid blog and pretend that I'm obedient. I'm not. But I want to be and I'm trying to be. I realize that the more obedient I am the more that I feel close to God and the more I feel blessed by God.

Here's the trick though: Obey God, not man. Now what I mean by this is I believe that God is speaking to each and every one of us in an individual way. Obey THAT voice and find THAT voice. Too often all of these other people tell us what we should and should not do. Well, that's fine and dandy and it is very truth that God can speak to us through others but learn God's voice for yourself and follow it and OBEY it.

If you love God then you must obey Him. It's pretty much that simple.

Focus on This (Worship) pt 3

The second way that we need to show our love for God is to worship God.

We throw this word around a lot. I'm going to narrow it to something a little smaller in the context of loving God. Worship is a verb. It is something you do. DC Talk had a song called "Luv is a verb." Well, worship is a verb. It is something that we act out.

So we must act on our love for God to show that we love Him. Faith without works is dead, according to James that is, so worship without action is dead - that's what Matt said.

We need to not just act out our love for God in times of song "worship." But, I do think that is a great time to exercise our passion for God. But we need to act out our worship in church, in work, in play, with friends, at a barbecues. If you know me you know that I most certainly don't mean we have to wear WWJD bracelets everywhere and blast worship music day and night wherever we are. And we DEFINITELY don't have to write on poster boards how much  we love Jesus. But we do need to find a way to express our love Jesus in a way that is meaningful to God.