Mark 3: 16- These are the twelve he chose: Simon (whom he named Peter),
So honestly, I read this verse and I had to ask Pastor Ty if I was on the right verse for this Blog.
On the surface, it seems not very interesting. But as in all scripture that is God-breathed, the Spirit enlightens us when we ask him to.
I want to focus on this idea of choosing. One thing Jesus (God) is not passive, he acts on his surroundings, and he does not let the surroundings shape him. The first habit Stephen Covey talks about is being proactive in his book “7 Habits of highly effective people”.
Passiveness is a killer of all things good. In fact, it has been said evil triumphs when good men do nothing!! We must engage in the struggle of spiritual warfare or we will lose. We must be active in pursuing God or we will become ineffective and unproductive in our walk with Christ. We must not get distracted and keep first things first- keep our focus on what God has called us into, as pastor Ty would say we must not forget God!!!
What has God called us into maybe you say? Well first if you are married God calls us to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it. If you are a dad, God has given you stewardship over your children. What kind of legacy with your family progressing day by day? If you are single, he has called you into a close relationship with yourself to prepare you for future challenges.
You will never have public victory until you have private victory. How’s your walk with Jesus and is this becoming a victory with your family or future family if you are single?
God has given us a great gift in our ability to choose. We are not victims; the kingdom of God is a matter of power not talk (1 Cor 4:20). I hear this all the time from people – I just don’t have time, I am just so busy… uh huh. Well, we all have the same amount of time in a day, and how we CHOOSE how to spend it is up to us. Trade some good things in for great things. Be working towards eternal things instead of all this temporal stuff, it's time to take responsibility for the time God has given us and choose to pursue our walk with Christ and start having Godly influence on our family and others.
So our Godly disciplines are a place to start-
We can choose to read/meditate on our Bibles daily, or several times per week
We can choose to pray daily for a softer heart one like Jesus who is gentle and humble, to be more like Jesus, to give us the wisdom to lead, pray for our loved ones, and pray for our leaders.
We can choose fellowship with other holy spirit-filled people – especially those who are proven wise- I say proven wise because this needs to be proven out. The main deception Satan uses is false teaching (spiritual or otherwise, like our false teaching of the culture), which can lead to downright error at a minimum distraction in your life. Remember James 3:1, not many of us should become formal teachers only if we have been called and gifted by God.
Upward Men Fellowship- we meet Mondays at 6:30 at New Song Church (shameless plug) is a great place to make this happen.
We can choose accountability to help us maintain our focus- again Upward Men is great for that.
We can choose or not to be under great teaching at New Song Church and attend regularly.
We can choose to be repentant and pursue humility – destroying our pride which may be the root of all evil, in my opinion.
We can choose to add to our faith all these virtues/character qualities mentioned in 2 Peter ch 1- especially love – the royal law of God- but these come in cooperation with our other disciplines in the Holy Spirit – not just self-will, which will always fail sooner or later.
I find in this day and age, making a commitment to men is like kryptonite. Avoiding it at all costs- big mistake. Without commitment it will not happen – insanity is just doing the same thing and expecting different results. Pastor Steve used to say nothing changes until something changes, simple but powerfully true. If you just change 1 thing in your life start by choosing commitment.
Commitment to regular attendance to church service and Upward Men. This will eventually lead to other disciplines as well.
These disciplines, motivated by loving Jesus not just checking a box on the to-do list, will transform you and give you God's power in your life – the ability to have true joy no matter what the circumstances. It makes way for the Holy Spirit to move on you in your life. If you find your love for Jesus waning ask him to renew or instill love for him. Sometimes it's like doing it, even though you don’t feel like it, but after the choice is made you feel its effect and the love of it starts to develop. Sometimes that is how we have to love others as well – we make the choice not just the feelings- feelings tend to come after the investment.
Our heart lies where our treasure is, choose to make something valuable (like a person) and invest in it and you will feel for them over time.
Not many guarantees in life my dad used to say- except death and taxes. But I have a total guarantee for you – there is a God, his name is Jesus and he loves you no matter what you have done and wants to fill you with his Holy Spirit- to give you the power of the Kingdom of God. If you ask him to be Lord of your life and commit to these disciplines by “choice”- over time you will be changed and all the good the Father wants to lavish on you will be yours in Christ…. Amen
Footnote: this blog was written by Mark Stouder – my cell is 360- 815-6437. If you have any questions or longings to have a better walk with Christ (which leads to a fulfilled life) – text me- I would love a chance to have a conversation!!
This is fantastic Mark!