Chrisitans, what are you doing with your life today?

Here's a quote from C. S. Lewis...

"Good an evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible."

Think about that really hard then think of how many times we've actually experienced this.

I've seen many who have fallen into this. I've seen young kids make one small, wrong decision in life and ends up in a really nasty pit. I actually started skipping school when I started going to community college...one day my friend decided that we were going to skip school just for one day...ended up missing half the semester. I realized how easy it was to skip school and still keep my grades up...until missing school turned into a really bad habit. I had to drop 2 of my classes that year because I knew I wasn't going to get out of the class with a passing grade. One bad decision = wasted semester = wasted money. But, that example is actually not that bad. Think of all the kids who got pregnant at the wrong time (not God's time). Think of all the time they would have to skip (growing up, being a teenager...10 years) to raise a child which most are not ready for that responsibility. Life, the teenage life, is literally over for them. For what? To look cool for your "friends"? To satisfy a worldly desire? Well, guess what? God knows all of that and he has a special plan just for you. Yes, even for pleasure. But you'll have to wait for HIS time. You have to or it just won't work out as great as God had planned it...and God's plans are super sweet. An example of God's sweet plan...

I got layed off from a job (normal for being in this industry) in the beginning of summer. I thought, cool...this is going to be a nice week to catch up with my World of Warcraft characters (online game), watch some movies and just relax. Well, the next day I received a call to go out to a job at the Bud plant in Fairfield. So that's where I worked for the whole summer and actually still dispatched there. That's a good thing...work is always a good thing. What I didn't like about it is the overtime work we had to do all summer. 10 hour days, 6 days a week for 4 months. Most of you will think that's a good thing...overtime money...lots of money. But I didn't want the money. There were many times that I wanted to just call-in because I was just tired from working so many hours but I knew that God gave this job for me and I need to be thankful that I have a job...thankful...can't take it for granted, so I worked all the days. I hated working so much...I missed a whole summer of Saturday morning hockey. But God had it all planned out. We found out mid-summer that we were going to have twins. Knowing this, we started looking for a bigger place. Well, this bigger place was actually bigger than we imagined. All the overtime work gave us enough money to save up for a down payment for an actual house. Trying to make this story short...we now have a house that is way bigger than our old duplex. All these, from making the small but right decision to go to work everyday. Little decision in the beginning of summer to having twins to having our own house. What a blessing! I never would've thought of having our own house by the end of this year...never even planned for anything this huge. This is the victory I never dreamed of.

Ah...so what's the point of all these? Do what God tells you to do today. Choose to follow God's plan today. You never know what He has planned for you. It might not make any sense at all right now but God's plan is always the greatest plan. Remember.

Papa Malabuyo

meaningless...what's your (follower of Christ) life like?

Christians, we've come a long way. God wakes us up every morning...we get ready for school, work, or whatever it is that we do everyday. We go through life throughout the week then what...we wake up Sunday morning to celebrate Jesus. Then back to the normal routine. We may even go to a mid-week Bible study...read and study God's word everyday, pray everyday...for what? To prepare us for Sunday morning? We play our instuments as part of the worship team on Sunday, lead Bible studies, serve in the different ministries, take our kids to church programs...and this is what Christianity is all about?

I don't know about you guys, but I see way too many of us doing this routine and we're satisfied with it...satisfied with our Christianity. What's wrong with that? We're living a good life, fellowshiping with believers, we're serving in the church...that's what God wants us to do, right? Of course, but does it end there? The problem with those routines is that we get satisfied and comfortable. Comfortable is not a bad thing but if that is it...if that's what our Christianity is all about, then it's a problem. The outcome of being comfortable is losing sight of what it's really all about. When we lose sight/focus on Jesus, we focus on other things...like the style of music. Do you really think that the music style you like is what they're going to play in Heaven? Really? It's just that I hear way too many of us, when looking for a church, that's the first thing we we look for in a church...style of music. Wow, that's our Christianity? Yeah, it sounds so obvious..."it shouldn't be like that." But, you know what...that's what it is when we lose focus. Another example...the pastor didn't go deep enough, read enough from the Bible, or too much, or he's too seeker friendly, or even this..."I didn't get anything from him." Is that why we go to church? To get more from God? To hear our style of music? To hear the message we want to hear? Sounds a bit selfish...but that's where most of us are...that is what our Christianity is looking like. Since when did God start calling us to go somewhere to be comfortable, to get what we want from the church, to be entertained?

When Nate and I finally got free from Castlewood, we looked at 2 churches (New Harbor and North Gate). North Gate was great, awesome worship songs, good sermon (don't remember what it was about...that's how good it is), and the people were very nice. New Harbor, well, it was a lot smaller than Norht gate and we saw that they could use some help with the music ministry. Then, we knew right away that New Harbor was where God wants us to be. We knew God had a place for us in that body. What's the point of this story? Jesus came to serve and not to be served...remember? Jesus was always serving. So why do we have this...mentality of...being entitled to be served? Why is it about us now? We have walked so far away from Jesus that we don't even include him when it comes to making decisions about life. We have walked so far away that we don't even see the opportunities he gives us everyday to serve others. All we see is "me." We go through our everyday lives without seeing God work in our lives. Yes, it's great to go to church and serve, help with the children minsitry, play and instument or sing as part of the worship team,...but what happened to the rest of the week? Can we really say we follow Jesus if that's all we're doing? What happened to following Jesus when we're at work? What about when we are in school? What about following Jesus as we go shopping or when we go out to eat? On our way home, when we see someone stuck on the freeway? How are we following Jesus when we see the homeless? Better yet, how are we following Jesus with our money? Look at the things we have...can we say that we used the resource God gave us for good? Or do we have the fancy-er car...the better sound system, better clothing, ...? Can you see what I'm getting at? It's the everyday things that we do, everyday decisions we have to make that really defines our Christianity. It's easy to be "Christian" within the church walls because we do it all the time and we got comfortable with it. You see, we can have all the knowledge about the Bible, we can have the greatest prayer life, best voice for singing worship songs...if we are not going to live it outside of the church walls, then what's the point? God wakes us up everyday...for what? So we can live out our lives and be ready for Sunday morning? I don't think so. God gives us life everyday...to serve Him everyday...by serving those around us everyday. If we miss this...if we forget this, then we forget the reason why Jesus came to die for us. Then our "follower of Jesus" life is...prety much, meaningless. Is that what our Christian life is like?

daniel m.