Beautifully Uncomfortable

I like being comfortable. I enjoy the finer comforts of life, but where does it lead me? The more comfortable I am, the more I want to stay where I am at, and for me that means I will probably fall asleep. It is the same for situations and circumstances in my life: the more comfortable I am in them, the more I want to just stay where I am. In other words, comfort does not promote action or movement, it promotes the opposite: inactivity, or for me sleep.

Nowhere in Scripture can you find God’s promise that we will be comfortable while we are here on earth. What God does promise is that He will comfort us in times of trouble or distress. This is probably why God is most felt when we need Him the most.

So for those looking for God to show up and move in their lives, one should look for what promotes movement. Quite often, the promotion of movement and activity is being uncomfortable. So let’s cut to the chase: comfort promotes inactivity, and uncomfortable promotes activity. Inactive and still can lead to stagnant, so why then pursue comfort? Discomfort then is what promotes movement and change, so why would we not pursue being uncomfortable?

Satan doesn’t have to convince us to do bad things, all he really needs us to do is to get comfortable, and bad things will happen. We need to change our view of comfort: when uncomfortable or discomfort is viewed not as a tool of the enemy, but a beautiful opportunity to create movement, it becomes nothing short of godly.

Be beautifully uncomfortable this week.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

Nothing More

What is your number one priority? Your career/income? Your health? Your family? Yourself? God? Don’t just answer “God” because you know it is the right answer, think about it: God knows your heart and everything you do, so you are not telling Him anything He doesn’t already know. So what is it?

All to often we think a life of faith means one can only love God and nothing else, and that is just plain wrong. This kind of thinking limits who God wants to be in our lives. Some feel that if we can’t do it completely perfect, then why bother to try at all. We talk ourselves into giving nothing because someday we will give Him all we have - as soon as we’re done using what we need, that is. In other words, as soon as we complete what we need to complete first, then we will make God our number one priority.

This is incorrect logic. God does not work our way, on our calendar: in other words, serve us. He is God. God expects us to love lots of stuff and lots of people: we were created with emotions just for this purpose. Knowing we were also created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), we must then understand that God has emotions as well. God created us to love, and to love passionately, but there is a priority He asked us to maintain: Love God most (Mark 12:30).

God needs to be our number one priority, not over everything else, but in everything. This means God is asking to be first in your career, your finances, your family, and in you. So God is not asking us to love Him and nothing else, God is asking us to love Him first in everything. This is why we sometimes wonder where God is at in certain areas and times in our lives: we expect the God who made us to make us His number one priority.

You want God to make you His priority, then you have to make Him yours first.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

Invite Much?

Including others and being included feels good. Most people have a desire to fulfill an internal need to belong. I do not believe that we are supposed to pursue this internal desire on our own. I believe that we are to both seek to belong as well as play a part in helping others feel like they belong as well, don't you? Why then, do we all too often invite someone to church, and then think that we are done with our part?

I know for the longest time, this was me. My part was to invite people to church, and even tell them where and when they should go. I was good at it, and I am sure more than a few people found their way to church, but I started to wonder: is this really all I am supposed to do?

We are all called by God to God, but we are not just called to make us feel better, we are called for God as well. To do what? Let's look at this verse, because Jesus told us exactly what He expects us to do:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." Matthew 28:19(a) ESV

Make disciples? Another word for disciple is learner or follower of Jesus the Christ. Jesus did not say attenders, or believers, or even converts, He said disciples. So I had to consider my part in the church again: was I just supposed to ask? No way.

What Jesus did not do is tell us exactly the programatic, structured, churchy way we had to do this, He just said do it. That "Just do it" slogan could really catch on, don't ya think? So I started wondering what else should I be doing in this process, and came to a very simple conclusion: more. I keep on inviting people to church, but now I write their name down in a journal, pray that God will move them to come, and then look for them each Sunday.

I know that Jesus is the only way to God and eternal life, but I also know that there is no limit to the ways to get to Jesus. The church is a gathering place of His disciples, sharing how God is working, what He is doing, and encouraging one another to stay the course. So what if I am, or you are, God's chosen tool to help get them connected or re-connected to Him?

You might have invited them, but it doesn't stop there. If someone comes to church because you invited them, maybe God wants you to show them what being connected to God looks like before they will consider it for themselves...what if? Now we are at church not for what we can get, but looking for how God will use us next.

Get it?!

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

The Best of the Best

The best is the best, and when it comes to what we want, this is our standard, right? We don't really go to look for the best deal and settle for the first deal we find. We need to compare, consider, and decide. We need options. We want to be in charge of the choice, because if we have to live with the choice we make, we do not want to regret it. Do you ever feel like we approach God kinda the same way, by telling God what we need Him to do for us?

Do you ever find yourself looking to God for options? We find ourselves in a situation of our own doing, but we somehow feel that God should help us get out of it? So we tell Him how He can help us. I know I do, and I am quick to realize that the arm I am trying to twist or wrestle with to get what I believe I need, is the arm of God. When I think about it that way, I have to reconsider my chances of winning, and reconsider my approach to God.

A lot of people have gotten to the place where they think God is as real in their lives as they want Him to be, but that is incorrect. God is as real in our lives as we let Him be. We don't get to choose whether or not God is real, just whether or not we will believe in Him. So when seeking the best for ourselves, we need to consider where everything comes from: the source. Look at this verse:

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:17 ESV

God offers us everything He has so we can experience everything He offers, but there is a catch: we need to make some room, and that takes sacrifice. To get something of value, we must give up something we value. God does not offer us a fantasy solution, He offers us a real solution. He offers us Jesus: simple, perfect, and a sinless sacrifice for all of humanity. Jesus, the only perfect way to get to a perfect God. The only One who said what He was going to do and is still doing exactly what He said. Why does this truth seem so hard to believe for some? Why do so many people look to anything and everything else first before they look to God? Know something funny? Thinking that we will ever find the perfect anything outside of Jesus...now THAT'S a fantasy!

God does not change, has never broken a promise, and never offered wrong directions. So then if it's good, it's from God, must also mean that if it is from God, then it is good. So now our job does not become where do we find the best, that is from God. Our job is to see whether or not it is from God. Where do we look to see if something is from God? We look to His Word: the Bible. Now no longer do we need to search for where to find the best, we need only look to God's Word for the directions to it.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat