Thinking like God

When you wake up in the morning...what drives you? What gives you purpose? Perhaps the alarm clock screaming at you pushes you to get out of your horizontal coma? Or maybe the realization that your job is waiting for you (and will happen even without you).

But how often do we wake up and think like God?

Peter had a stirring conversation with Jesus which went like this: From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:21-23)

Jesus has explained to Peter that God was sending Jesus to the cross to suffer, but Peter, couldn't comprehend this idea....NO WAY! This isn't going to happen, says Peter....but immediately, Jesus puts Peter in his place, "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

Ouch, just when you think Peter would be understanding the great and sacrificial call on Peter's life, then he thinks about his own needs, about what he can see (no way, I don't want my friend, leader & mentor to suffer). I can surely relate to Peter.

Too often I see a situation and see things through what I can predict can happen. I see a difficulty in relationships through the predictable and safe, rather than the wild and miraculous....which God is all about doing!
So, a quick thought for today, what would your day or week look like if you thought and believed more about God's plans than yours? What would your perspective be if you had faith God was still able to do immeasurably more than you can ask or imagine?

Serve somebody

Bob Dylan writes a great song called, “You gotta serve somebody.” The lyrics go like this: You may be an ambassador to England or France, You may like to gamble, you might like to dance You may be the heavyweight champion of the world. But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed. You're gonna have to serve somebody, It may be the devil or it may be the Lord. But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

All of us as humans serve someone or something….like it or not – that’s just what we do. So when Jesus shows up and tells his followers – to stop aiming for a position of honor, but look for opportunities to serve and be humble, how did they react? How do we react?

For sure it’s one thing to say that we are willing to have a savior who forgives our sins; however, it is more of a challenge to realize that we have a new master & king who calls us to trust and obey him every day of our life.

Jesus says in Luke 14:11, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” This verse speaks of a way to help and serve others rather than thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to.

Even more we must wrestle with the thought that being a servant to God is a much better choice than being a servant to our own selfishness and tendency to be a people pleaser. Galatians 1:10 says, Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

What a radical shift from being lured into trying to get the approval of our friends, family, co-workers and rather choosing the desire to serve Christ. Every day we will be faced with the opportunity to go along with slander, gossip, greed, pride, rather than realizing that our identity comes from what Christ has done for us.

Ponder this quote about the Love of Jesus for us… Rebecca Manley Pippert says “whatever controls us really is our god.” By contrast, Jesus’ ownership of our lives is not a control that manipulates us or takes away our dignity...He governs our lives the right way: by being who he is without compromise and by insisting we become all that we are meant to be. And he tells us this can occur only through following him, obeying him and maintaining a living, passionate kinship to him....God created us for himself. If we are living with any center other than Jesus, we will be living incompletely....[H]e is the only one in the universe who can control us without destroying us. No one will ever love you like Jesus.”

Will you believe that Jesus can be the best master to serve?

Learning more about discipleship

Who is your teacher? Now if you are reading this and you are out of school, you may be wondering where I'm going with this question; however, over the course of our life, regardless of how long we live, we will have many teachers. Some teachers will have formal positions, such as our teachers in school, whereas others may be a bit less accredited but may have even more influence.

Remember the class clown in Grade 5, he taught us a lot about how to attract attention and keep the teacher close to insanity! Or there is the friend who stood beside us when we were struggling and taught us about compassion and care.

When Jesus walked up to people he invited them into a life of learning. A life of being an apprentice under the King of Heaven & Earth! Jesus gave the opportunity (and still does) to anyone to be a learner under the greatest person who ever lived this earth. Even today when he invites us into a relationship with Him, we have a choice whether we want Jesus to be the most influential teacher in our life.

Jesus teaches the students of his to be people who do now say, "Not my will but "your will be done." (Matthew 6:10). So which teacher will we follow and listen to today? Jesus offers us so much good instruction of how to live, but are we willing to listen and live it out?

Following & actually leading

Check out this crazy and awesome video that teaches so much about every type of leadership (& following) whether you are leading at church, home, work or at your place of rest.
I would love to hear some comments...do the principles in this video resonate with you?