Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Living Life on Purpose Series: Living the Transformation

Some of you are facing some incredible temptations right now. You feel yourself being pulled to conform, to go along with the way your friends are leading you. Don’t give in! Unfortunately, some have internalized the world’s values and fashions so much that people don’t even recognize it anymore. It’s like walking into a dark theater in the middle of the day. When you first go in, everything is really dark. But after a while, you can see normally, that is, until you walk back outside. If you spend enough time conforming to the world, you become so accustomed to the darkness that you think it’s now normal.

Stop being conformed and start being transformed. The word “transformed” refers to an inner change. When we put on Christ and wear his face, we find our lives transformed into his likeness. 2 Corinthians 3:18: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Living Life on Purpose Series: Get Your Drink On!

Perhaps things are falling apart. You’ve tried the starting over bit — over and over and over—and you’ve come to realize it’s just a futile attempt at making yourself feel better for a while. You’ve lost all hope in any real new beginning.

Today is a new day. Jesus is offering you what He offered the woman at the well—a new creation, living water. Go on. Drink it.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Living Life on Purpose Series: Being An Ambassador

When we make that decision to give ourselves wholeheartedly to Christ, and He begins that work of recreation in us, we become His ambassadors! We aren’t treated like the naughty boy who apologizes and is then allowed back in the classroom, but in a lonely corner separated from his friends. No, instead we are entrusted with the message of reconciliation. Suddenly our lives have a larger purpose than just earning enough to live comfortably.

When we meet Jesus as our personal Messiah, then our lives are filled with a deeper purpose, then we become His ambassadors, then we are entrusted with the message of reconciliation.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Living Life on Purpose Series: New Beginning

After too many disappointments, hopelessness can happen to anyone. After a while, you may begin to feel that there just isn’t a new beginning for you.  To hope again is scary. If we begin to hope again, we can be disappointed again. If we try to start over once more, we might just fail once more.  But however scary it might be to think of making a new start, that is exactly what the Bible is promising: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”