What Ship Are You On?

Aren’t cruises the best! Five star dining, amazing buffets, great entertainment, full relaxation, and your every need met. Cruises allow us to enjoy ourselves, be catered to and experience those blissful, carefree moments. Did I mention the food yet?
There is a myriad of enticing options out there, all of which can provide us with ultimate comfort and indulgence.
What is scary and harmful is when this ‘philosophy of comfort’ makes its way into the church. When we think of the church as a cruise ship we stop doing what Christ called us to do: Serve.
The Church should look more like a battleship. Everyone working together, participating, getting each others backs, all working toward the same goal! Scripture is abundantly clear. We’re the Body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12, Eph. 4) We all play a role. As followers of Christ and as a part of His Body, the Church, it is our biblical mandate to serve so that the Body of Christ may be built up.
So, what ship are you on? WHERE are you serving? Where are you allowing God to use you to build up The Body?

The sooner we can shift our paradigm from the “cruise ship” mentality to a “battleship” mentality, the sooner we begin to become the church Jesus intended us to be.

McDevo's

For those of you who attended Bedside Baptist last Sunday and enjoyed the Charger game while we were worshipping God, I thought I would leave you with a "Cliff Notes" version of what we talked about in the HSM. I would hate for you to miss out on this! So here ya go...

Don't settle for the fast food devotional life.

You know you've done it. We've all been super hungry and instead of taking time to prepare a healthy meal for ourselves or wait for mom to prepare her nutritious casserole, we pull into the drive-thru, order and eat as fast as we can just so we won't feel the pain of starvation any longer. Are you feeling me?
Well, we all know there are healthier alternatives, right?

"But doesn't a Big Mac have lettuce? That's healthy, isn't it?"-Me

Truth is, we do the same thing when it comes to our spiritual appetites. We're hungry for a taste of God but lack the discipline it takes to cook something up from His Word. I'm guilty of this. I've caught myself reading A verse or throwing out a "shout out" to Jesus somewhere in between waking up and falling asleep. And then I'll feel discouraged, easily angered, and frustrated and I'll wonder why. Hmmm...

I'm convinced that if my devotional life is ever gonna grow, I'm gonna have to feed it the nutrition that only an unhurried time with God can provide. How about you?

People Disappoint Me

Do you ever have those moments where everyone disappoints you? Those times where it seems like there's a secret allegiance of people who have decided that it was their goal for their day to ruin yours? I don't know about you but I've definitely have felt this a lot.

If I'm really honest with myself, I know why. I can see exactly what's going on. What I know is that as soon as I stop seeking God and looking to Him to fill me, I've outsourced that need to those around me. Let me unwrap this.

We all have deep, inner needs, right? (Just say yes.)

We all crave meaning, joy, and fulfillment, don't we? (Well, I do!)

As soon as I stop looking to God to meet my needs, I place that responsibility in the laps of the people in my life.

No wonder I find myself over and over again being bummed out by the people I love.

No wonder I get left hanging...

No wonder I feel hurt by the littlest things.

I've placed an impossible task in the hands of limited people. That doesn't sound too fair! We will never be fully satisfied if we are placing the role of God in the hands of other people.

Let God be God and let people be people.