Something keeps you moving. It gets you out of bed in the mornings. It narrates your hopes and dreams. It defines your values and informs your motives in all you do and say. It’s often invisible or subconscious, and at times can act as a puppet master or a judge.
Call it your Alpha, or your First Life. Some people call it “Lord,” “boss,” or “Prime Mover.”
Regardless of the name, the good part is that you can decide who or what your Alpha is.
Meanwhile, despite what you may be reading in the latest edition of the Not-My-Home News, you have been included in a cosmic Master Plan for all time. God has His own Alpha, and invites you to enter into that experience with Him.
“He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Colossians 1:18).
“He Himself,” of course, refers to Jesus Christ. And because He is the first to rise from the dead and remain alive (to this very day), Paul says He is our First Life… our Alpha. [click to continue…]
Surrender to the lordship and authority of Christ isn’t the goal of the Christian life.
It’s the means to the goal.
And that’s the problem, because in many Evangelical circles we’ve made surrender the target. In our audience-spectator-based worship services, we sing songs, give money, enjoy some fellowship, and hear a passionate call, all around the same theme – Jesus is Lord, and wants to be Lord of your life. Then we appeal to non-believers to surrender in faith to His Lordship for salvation, and to believers to surrender to His Lordship for sanctification.
Okay. Now what? [click to continue…]
(Cool Things I’ve Heard Somebody Pray, #4)
Back in the day I was meeting with our church elders and we were talking about some pretty heavy circumstances somebody was going through. I don’t remember the details, but I remember what Michael prayed. It totally changed my perspective about the circumstances, and served as a reminder of where to go to recharge my faith.
I thought maybe you could use a similar reminder.
As he prayed over the situation, Michael said, “There’s no vacancy on Your throne.”
What a tender reminder that if the only thing missing is unlimited power and authority, that job’s been taken, and the chair’s still occupied.
The Throne
Thrones are seats of authority, and when it comes to this one, this is no game. When the monarch is on his or her throne, both symbolically and practically, they’re saying, “Let’s get down to business… and it’s my business.” [click to continue…]
