twisted without consent

No matter how many times you go to the gym, you’ll never look good enough.

You’ll never find someone who will love you.

You can study all you want, but you’ll never succeed.

Lies. They have of way of entering our head, vacationing there, and inviting their friends over to hang out and drive you crazy.

How many times have you heard a form of one of these lies? You can be on the happy train and all of a sudden, you’re derailed to depressionville all because you let one lie get the best of you. Here’s your solution: don’t. No if’s or buts because really, it’s that easy.

A few Sundays ago, my pastor posed the question –who told you those things?  Negativity is a powerful thing because it can automatically flip your world upside down. We underestimate its ability. So when these lies come at us, we unexpectedly give it permission to enter. 

We’ve been told these things time and time again so it has to be true. But it doesn’t. We’re stronger than we believe.  The next time a lie starts to slither its way into your thoughts, remember who you are. 

-B

who’s your sponsor?

This morning, my pastor mentioned the word endorsement during his message and it really got me thinking (my mind wandered for about 30 seconds, but I managed to refocus my attention to the message).

Now, we always hear about people being sponsored by companies. Whether we hear it from celebrities, watch an athlete in a commercial, a sports team in our community, or our job.  No matter what, some people depend on endorsement deals to thrive in their career. If you watched the recent Olympics (if you didn’t, you have a lot of catching up to do), then you saw several companies branded on the athletes’ gear. The question is, have we ever thought of God as being our sponsor?  We may not always agree with how he wants us to endorse Him, but He knows what He’s doing. 

Weren’t we created for the sole purpose of distributing the gospel to the world? Yes it can be difficult, but it’s not impossible.  In Romans 1:16– “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who who believes…” – you can almost feel Paul’s desire to share the word.  Just think about it.  We have a sponsor who loves us unconditionally.  The only contract we have to sign is accepting Him into our lives.  No small print involved.  When an endorsement deal is signed, a person or company can become millionaires within a short span of time if it’s successful.  But the difference between our spiritual endorsement and earthly endorsement is that we’ve been commanded to share the love of God.  If you ask me, this is the best endorsement deal anyone can be a part of.

-B

breath of life

I don’t know what ‘s up with this week, but I’ve consistently been hearing about the notion of “breathing life.” Last night, I was listening to a message on the internet from Pastor Tyson Coughlin in North Carolina.  He was discussing how we’ve become so engrossed in today’s materialistic culture that we aren’t paying attention to the message being said to us.  But one of the things that really took me by surprise was when he said, “the word breath means to give up what’s inside.”  And then he went further in depth with this when he related it to the creation of man.  He described how “God gave up what was inside of Him, and breathed it into us.” At first, the magnitude of this statement didn’t sink in.  Then, he reiterated it and that’s when it hit me.  Jesus gave up what was inside of Him in order to give us LIFE.   He sacrificed his breath so that we could  LIVE.  I don’t know if that hit you as hard as it did me, but I hope it makes you rethink how you’re using the life you’ve been given to share the love of Christ.  I know I haven’t been doing everything I could, so I’m just as guilty.

Another thing that had my mind going crazy was when I watched the music video for the song “Grace Amazing” by Jimmy Needham.  Each of his songs is beautifully written, but this one had the concept of breathing life.  One verse of the song says, “You breathe life into me.  Now I finally feel my dead heart beating.”  Basically, he’s saying that we aren’t alive until Christ breathes life into us.  We may think we’re living, but unless Christ lives in us, we’re just walking vessels.  Every vessel needs a captain to direct our lives and that captain is Jesus.  I hope this doesn’t come across the wrong way but the truth shouldn’t be sugarcoated.  Knowing that He’s willing to give up something as precious as a breath so that someone as undeserving as me can be given life, is powerful within itself.

-B