Obviously lately the news (in America anyway) has been filled with an unusual number of celebrity deaths. Strip away all of the idol worship or even pop culture each one was a part of and who died?

A television sidekick who, for thirty years, was famous for how he said just two words. Both men are now gone from this world, relegated to memories and dust.

A beauty pin-up who symbolized for her generation the same things others had already symbolized for theirs. A different face, a different body, but nothing new. However long she is remembered in this world, it will always descend to the lowest common denominator that she was famous for the fact that millions of men burned with lust at her image, heaping on themselves the due wrath of God in the process. Legally and frankly, her fame and legacy are of “aiding and abetting” in the breaking of God’s laws.

An entertainer for this generation around the world who heaped up all this world’s treasures, reveled Herrod-like, in the praise of his followers, who, at last, died frail, broken and broke.

A man people loved for the way he induced them to buy ’stuff’, hawking wares as wonders, detergents as desirous, and putty as promises. A man who, perhaps more than all his products, sold himself.

My point is not in castigating these people. My point is only to hold them up for recent examples, to suggest a thumbnail sketch of four human beings’ paths in how they chose to spend their lives, so that I can ask you the question I started off with:

WHAT ARE YOU LIVING FOR?

If we are not living for the Lord Jesus Christ, if we are not living to get others to run and fall prostrate at His Omnipotent and pierced feet, we are wasting our lives. Wasting them. All our plans, all our portfolios, all of it will come to be like sand in our mouths and dust in our eyes apart from doing it for His Kingdom.

DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE!!!!

Posted: June 30th, 2009 under Challenge, Potpourri, Testimony.
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Has anyone ever told you this is what you signed up for?

Slaves for Christ – John MacArthur from I’ll Be Honest on Vimeo.

Posted: June 27th, 2009 under Challenge, Learning & Growing.
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Well, as I write this it is 3:07am (ET) and everything is quiet.  Often I don’t sleep through the night.  It’s not that I’m troubled (thankfully) I just tend to think even when I sleep.  So I’ll wake up thinking about something(s) and then I’ll go read, research, write or just spend time with the Lord while all is still and there are no demands on my time.  Now is one of those times.

I don’t reflect on every day or week or month as it ends.  Before the Lord saved me I was very “Type-A” and had a checklist to grade myself on my productivity.  It was rooted in a lot of self-help fodder and an intense desire to take control of my life, to swear off any notion of God.  After the Lord saved me all that stopped; albeit not without turning into some sort of self-imposed legalism first.

Occasionally it is good to pause to reflect.  Often in the United States we are too bombarded with commitments and media to be able to quietly do so, but it is a godly endeavor to make time for it.  In a way, God calls us to reflect every day, in prayer, as we think over our day and ask forgiveness for sins committed.

Without belaboring the point or placing around your neck a legalistic list for perpetual use, let me give just a few questions to help you enter in to a time of reflection, if even for a few moments.  To think much on Him is life, to think much on ourselves–failiings or successes–is death.  Hopefully these will have you think more on God and less on yourself.

• Can you say you walked with Jesus this week?
• What did He show you of Himself?  of you?  of things and people around you?
• When did you tell others about a blessing from Him?  When did you tell others how great He is?
• What did you learn about God, or re-learn about Him, this week?
• Have you loved others as He has loved you?

Keep throwing away everything…for His glory!

Posted: June 27th, 2009 under Challenge, Devotions, Learning & Growing, Potpourri.
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PRINCIPLE #5 – THANK AND PRAISE THE LORD

Why?
a) He’s Worthy.  He’s WORTHY!!
b) As though what you are asking is already done.
- Psalm 66:20 – “Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, Nor His mercy from me!”
- Matt 6:13b – “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
- Heb 10:19-23 (v22, with “a true heart”) – “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
- Heb 12:18,19,22-24 – “For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest…But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

CONCLUSION – WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

1. Don’t forget these Principles.
2. Inspect your prayer life:
a) What are you doing “well”?
b) What could you “improve”?
- i.e.: I get up early everyday (Good) but I can’t concentrate (Needs Improvement)
c) Where do you need to repent?

When God is calling you to repent, remember:
1) Remember God’s nature, His various attributes
2) In solitude and sincerity pour out your heart before Him and repent: admit your helplessness (we are all helpless, that’s why God gets the glory)
3) Commit to “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” EVERYDAY!

Posted: June 23rd, 2009 under Devotions, Prayer, Scripture.
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PRINCIPLE #4 – POUR OUT YOUR HEART

- Psalm 62:5-8 (emphasis on v8)
- What does He not already know?  You won’t surprise Him in your confession.  Don’t be like Adam and Eve and hide yourself in fig leaves or excuses.
- Get it ALL out!  The Holy Spirit will help you.
- Intercession for others also happens here as He reminds you of others to pray for.
- Pauses/breaks are OK as you grow your “prayer muscles”!  The Lord is patient.
- Pray intelligently, respectfully, reverently.  As to a King, yet to a friend.
- Do not be cavalier with the Lord of Glory!  You don’t have to pray in “King James” English, but have respect is the point.

Posted: June 23rd, 2009 under Devotions, Prayer, Scripture.
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PRINCIPLE #3 – MAKE SURE YOUR HEART IS CLEAN AND PREPARED

a) With the Lord – Mark 1:3b – “Prepare the way of the Lord” – like a Presidential Advance Team, or what they would do for ancient kings, prepare the way before the Lord–prepare your heart to fellowship with your Creator.  (deal with sin, get serious, etc.)
b) With your wife – 1 Peter 3:7 – Imagine going to spend time with your earthly father-in-law if you are mistreating or angry at his daughter!
c) With everyone else – Matt 5:23, 24

Posted: June 22nd, 2009 under Devotions, Prayer, Scripture.
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