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GOD DOESN'T CARE ABOUT MOST OF THE DECISIONS YOU HAVE TO MAKE

He just doesn't. I know, I know, "but God cares about every aspect of our lives, no matter how small. If they are important to us, they are important to him." This is true, but I'm saying that God doesn't want you to go to college rather than get a job. God doesn't care if you accept that offer in New York or if you stay in your current position. God doesn't have a preferrence about whether or not you put your kid in public or private school. He wants you to enjoy the true freedom to choose.

One of the most beautiful things about us being created in God's image is free will. God wants us to know the joy of liberation. We are not bound to do exactly what God wants on every level. The truth is, He just wants us to whole-heartedly love and chase after a close reationship with Him. Everything else is truly up to us.

Now don't get me wrong. God does in fact care about things that are important to us. He just isn't going to be disappointed or happier with either choice. What we ought to do is ask God to prompt us with His Spirit and through the wise counsel of others as to what is the best option. Then make our decision and strive to serve God in whatever the outcome.

There are some pastors who would challenge this idea in that they were "called" to ministry. I too experienced a "call" that was clear. I know that God wants me to be serving Him in ministry as a "shepherd" to His people. But that experience only happend once in my life. I suppose it may happen more than just once in a lifetime, but I doubt it. Such a clear and specific prompting from God is something special, not something that happens every week.

So I'll challenge you to chase after God with reckless abandon, and not worry about how He feels about every choice you face. He really only concerned about the one choice, whether or not you are going to chase after Him.

NEVER READ A BIBLE VERSE

Ok, so I know it's Tuesday & I'm supposed to post every Monday. But yesterday was a holiday so...

Anyway, today my idea is to tell you to never read a Bible verse. The verses you see in the Bible were not written to be read individually. Each verse is part of a context that actually shapes it's meaning. The goal in studying scripture is to look for the author's intended meaning (AIM). You will have a difficult time interpreting the meaning with only one verse. If you are interested in a verse, read the verses and paragraphs before and after it. Look at the total context. Otherwise, I could manipulate specific individual verses to reach a conclusion that I want, not necessarily what God is trying to tell me. Read Matt. 27:5, then read Luke 10:37b, finally read John 13:27b. Put together, these verses could be interpreted to be telling the reader to hang himself, like Judas, right away. No verses are meant to be used individually.

Of course, pastors are most famous for hand picking a verse that fits their point, and often times they are correctly using a verse that if you read the context, you'd agree with it's usage and interpretation. But be aware that sometimes, us pastors will just pick a verse because it sounds the way we like for a specific point, and it really is a bad choice. The trick is for YOU to read the verse, AND the context surrounding it. So, I can justify saying that as a pastor, I think you should NEVER READ A BIBLE VERSE.

STOP GOING TO CHURCH!

...that is if you are a regular attender at a church. Of if you don't go to church at all, then just don't go to church. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God wants us to go to church. There are not commands telling us to go to church. There is no promises made to us if we would just go to church. Nothing.

All we know is that believers in Christ in the first days after he ascended into heaven began to meet together daily to listen to teachings and eat together. They would support each other financially as well as emotionally. What we refer to as the "early church" or the "first church" was a community of believers that tied their lives together with the common bond of acceptance of what Jesus had done for them. This is what we ought to do. This is being the church!

This is what we are commanded to do. We are to love God with all that we have and to love each other more than ourselves (Matt. 23:37-40).We are to continue to work out our faith with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). We should be providing for one another in every way.

We must stop going to church. We must BE the church. That's what God wants for us.