God « echoes of redemption

Posts Tagged 'God'

invested

Published August 27, 2008 Ancient Near East , Life 3 Comments
Tags: Ancient Near East, God, Life

A few months ago I got to teach the Parable of the Talents to some leaders at our church. Here are some of the applications we talked about:

People who love the Master, invest what He gives them.
Laziness is nothing more than unfaithfulness in Christ’s Kingdom.
It is fully expected in Christ’s Kingdom that if you are given something, you will fully invest it.
Don’t believe the lie that your dreams are ungodly because they don’t involve “ministry.”

Did you know that even the servant with one talent received over $220,000 at today’s minimum wage? Sometimes what we are given adds up to so much more than we know until we invest it.

How about you? Are you fully investing what God has given you? Is there an area you are neglecting what God has entrusted you with so you can dream about what you’ll do when He entrusts you with more? How have you seen God take what you’ve invested and multiply it?

looking at heaven

Published August 4, 2008 Scripture 3 Comments
Tags: God, Heaven, Scripture

Typically in Christianity today, we don’t spend a lot of time talking about Heaven. A while back, our team was attempting to describe Heaven for a project we were working on. Overall, the Bible does not give very much information on what Heaven looks like, but it does give us a pretty cool glance. As I researched, I found acouple interesting things:

Your name is written in Heaven (Luke 10:20).
Heaven is a place of worship (Revelation 4:8-11).
There are no tears or pain in Heaven (Revelation 21:4).
Everything is new in Heaven (Revelation 21:5a).
There are mountains in Heaven (Revelation 21:10a).
There is a river, as clear as crystal, that brings life (Revelation 22:1).
The Tree of Life is now in Heaven (Revelation 22:2).

I have to admit, I’m excited about the mountains. What do you look forward to?

questions for today

Published July 25, 2008 Church , Leadership , Life , Worship 0 Comments
Tags: balance, God, Ministry, sabbath

I over-stretched myself during this last season in ministry. I’m sure at some point I’ll have a story to tell, but right now it’s all about getting back on mission and creating a sustainable, healthy, spiritually rich lifestyle.

A while back I posted some thoughts from the Isn’t She Beautiful conference at Mars Hill. In reviewing them, I found some thoughts I’m working through right now:

What is sustainable?
What are my rhythms and patterns?
The Eucharist is about the past of decent, while our culture is about the path of ascent. (1 Corinthians 9:19)
Who is Christ to you? Your journey is absolute.
You need a day to take care of yourself. (Luke 5:15)
Maybe we should make the instrument of measurement “less” instead of “more.” Less poverty. Less insecurity.
What are the things you have to get out or you’ll combust?