People are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods, God is looking for better people.
–E. M. Bounds
Don’t focus on how to “do” Christianity better, instead strive to become a better person by becoming more like Christ.
Remember the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the character traits we are to develop in our lives.
The beginning and the end of all Christian leadership is to give your life for others.
Thinking about martyrdom can be an escape unless we realize that real martyrdom means a witness that starts with the willingness to cry with those who cry, laugh with those who laugh, and to make one’s own painful and joyful experiences available as sources of clarification and understanding.
–Henri Nouwen
There are times we feel that we would be willing to die for Christ, if it came down to that. But are we living for Him? Truly dying for Christ is a daily activity that occurs throughout life as we make ourselves available to His every desire – to cry with those who need comforting, to celebrate with those who have great news, to be transparent and available to others in whatever way they need. Are you willing to be a daily martyr for Him?
Regarding the idea of being a leaking bucket…
I, for one, am not a self-replenishing spring. My bucket leaks, even when it is not pouring.
–John Piper
This is why I have to have Jesus continue filling me up daily, because my bucket leaks. So even I fill up on Sunday through worship, if I fail to spend time with God on Monday, then my bucket does not stay full. Spend time with Him today, but don’t let that be all the time you have with Him throughout the week.
Because your bucket leaks too.
Is belief in Christ foolish or sane?
…in a quiet hour a strange thought struck me like a still thunderbolt. There had suddenly come into my mind another explanation. Suppose we heard of an unknown man spoken of by many men. Suppose we were puzzled to hear that some men said he was too tall and some too short; some objected to his fatness, some lamented his leanness; some thought him too dark, and some too fair. One explanation would be that he might be an odd shape. But there is another explanation:
He might be the right shape.
Outrageously tall men might feel him to be short. Very short men might feel him to be tall. Old bucks who are growing stout might consider him insufficiently filled out; old beaus who were growing thin might feel that he expanded beyond the narrow lines of elegance. Perhaps Swedes (who have pale hair) called him a dark man, while dark men considered him distinctly blonde.
Perhaps this extraordinary thing is really the ordinary thing; at least the normal thing, the center.
Perhaps, after all, it is Christianity that is sane and all its critics that are mad.
–G. K. Chesterton
Insulated Western Christianity is waking from the dreamworld that being a Christian is normal or safe. More and more, true Christianity is becoming what it was as the beginning: foolish and dangerous.
–John Piper
When will we choose to live foolishly and dangerously for Jesus? Are you ready? Are you willing?
Make it your prayer today that God would show you how to live radically for Him, in a way that doesn’t make sense to the rest of the world, in a way that flies in the face of what is safe, comfortable, and secure. Pray that He would do great and amazing things through you and your family as you live in full, radical obedience to Him.