Thursday, January 31, 2008

Join - Philippians 3:17-21

Pastor Trent finished up his series on LIFE this past Sunday. We've been taking a walk through the third chapter of Philippians and looking at the way Paul "encourage" the church at Philippi to live the life.

Going to be honest with you, this last message in this series was a beating...Paul makes it very clear that you are one of two things: You are either an enemy of the cross or you are a citizen of heaven. As we approach life with a Christian worldview we can understand that statement to a certain extent. We look at this senario as: You are either on God's side in this thing or you are against him. Maybe we even simplify things more by using "Christian terminology" and say: You are either saved or lost. That makes sense right?

Time out though...a closer look at the Scriptures and understand the importance of keeping it all in context shows us that that is not the issue here. We are not talking about lost vs. saved. Paul is writing this letter to the church. He is confronting those who have placed their hope of eternity in this Jesus. The reality of the situation is that as "believer" we can still be enemies of the cross. We can still be the cause for someone to not get the full picture of Christ in us. The things of the world have become more important to us than the things of God.

Okay then, how do we make sure that we are living life as citizens of heaven? Paul gives instruction to that. According to Scripture we can 1.) follow the example set by others who understand their citizenship (vs. 17) and 2.) Live as though Jesus could come back to get you today (vs. 20-21).

This is not to just be dismissed as another message. To me this is something that required self evaluation, or as I use to call it when I was doing student ministry, "spiritual inventory". We have to ask ourselves the tough question:

Am I living my life as an enemy of the cross or as a citizen of heaven?

Just something to think about...





(this is how I felt after this message on Sunday. PS - I'm the dog...)

ZS

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Choke City?


Mav's out in the first round...Stars out in the first round (who cares I know)...Cowboys last year out in the first round...Rangers, maybe next year...Cowboys this year out in the first round (at least their first round)...

Have we really become choke city?

Go back a little further, Mav's up 2-0 on the Heat and a strangle hold on a 3-0 lead...again, choke. That one still hurts to think about.

I really don't have any solutions to the problems, I'm just sayin'...at this point Big D is becoming more and more Choke City, USA.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Our Hearts Don't Deserve Your Glory...

I've just been continually reminded lately of the goodness of our Creator. Why is it that He continues to open up His skies and rain down blessings on us? Not only have I seen this in my personal life and with my family but also with what he is doing at Gateway right now.
It's humbling to think that the God of everything cares so intimately about a group of people in Royse City, TX.
Incredible...we don't deserve such goodness...
ZS