Crossroads '15 Part 2

I think I really appreciated our speaker Daryl Smith because he was an earnestly passionate man looking to preach the truth while doing it with love and humor. A lot of what he said really resonated, because in truth, he asked a lot of tough questions or brought up some things that I don't often think about. Especially in the modern culture that we live in now. Here are a few of the stray thoughts I was left with:

Night 1

-The Will of God is not always comfortable or convenient, but it is correct. That's often a hard truth to accept but it suggests that there is a cost to discipleship. There is most definitely a sacrifice that we take on following Christ, but it is the correct one.
-Also, our modern world often believes in a cosmos that works without God, but we don't want to think like the world. They want to remove chaos but without God in the picture. Because the world says if it makes sense it must be God's will. It's almost like the world, by way of Satan, is trying to feed us this lie so that we make God into our own image. He does what we want. He never crosses our will, but then again if we look back, the will of God is not always comfortable or convenient. It's not always easy, and that's very counter-intuitive to the society we live in.
-We are called to serve the Lord out of brokenness. We are meant to hold onto the promise and not the plan, because that's all we need. The plans may change for our life, but certainly not the promise. That will never pass away. In trying to push towards that, faith causes us to move forward and fear paralyzes us.

Morning 1

-We have received a call from Christ and the truth is that Jesus would never call us anywhere that he hasn't already been. A Biblical call never calls us to a place or a position. Instead we are called to follow a person and that person is Jesus Christ. Our identity is meant to be in Him and Him alone.
That means if we are looking to get married someday our lives must be Christ-centered and not wife-centered or children-centered.
-There's a problem when we're not even going to entertain what Christ might be saying, and there are a lot of people do that including me. It seems like we must never completely write something off or disregard it completely, because God can lead us places or do things in our lives that we could have never imagined.Because, again, the will of God leads us to people.
-There was a cost but Christ has given us restoration and not condemnation.
-Beyond just being a believer we are then called to be followers of Christ as well. God calls you be Christian who is (enter vocation or major here). If we follow Christ the substance of the person we are reaching out to matters. Not their ethnicity. And we don't choose who we go to. He sends us.
-A net in our lives is anything that prohibits us from following Christ wholeheartedly.
-The question is: Are we willing to forsake profession, parents, and possessions?

Night 2

Luke 14.26

-We want to be a God pleaser rather than a people pleaser, and that means living with eternal perspective. Who are we going to follow? Are we going to take on the temporal or the eternal frame of mind? The latter means dying to ourselves each and everyday.
-It's when we are out of our comfort zone that God is then allowed space to work in our lives.
-The truth is souls are at stake right now. Christ didn't die so much to make me happy, but to transform me and make me whole. That's His vision for all of creation and that should be our's as well. If we look at our life, the dash (-) between the start date and the end date is important. Because that has major significance when our life actually begins. Life is not from birth to the grave, but from grave to eternity. That is true eternal perspective and this view is honestly mind-boggling to think about.

Morning 2

-We need to listen to only one voice and that's God's voice in our lives. We are bond servants of Christ called to be a blessing. We received grace so that we might be sent out. And we will never become a witness unless we first become a minister. God delivers His people and then sends them back out.
-Acts 26. 12-29
-An unregenerated person is a hopeless person and there are a lot of hopeless people who need the good news of the Gospel.
-He is God Almighty not God Somebody
-It's dangerous if we become so intellectual that we out think God and His word.If it's new revelation it ain't necessarily true revelation. The Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ pure and simple.
-Lastly are we undercover Christians? Once again it should not be radical Christianity, but instead it should be normal. That's our vision for the world.

Big Idea: Pushing back against the American Dream, letting the Lord lead us, living with eternal perspective, and ministering to the lost people all around us. All of this is for His Glory!