2020 - 20/20 Vision

As we near the end of 2019, I can’t help but reflect back on what an incredibly blessed year it has been for our family. Everyone has had really special things going on this year and I am so grateful to God for these blessings in all of our lives.

As we look ahead to 2020, the start of the year is always a great time to refocus on the things that are truly important to each of us. This year is quite unique in that is it 2020 - 20/20 vision. We will be the only generations in history that live through the year 2020 (God willing.) What a great opportunity to have that daily reminder this year to live with 20/20 vision, clarity and focus in our lives.

Helen Keller famously said, “The only thing that is worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

We probably all recognize that having a clear “vision” for our lives is important but it may be something that you haven’t put much thought into. I believe that without it, we run the risk living lives that might be somewhat reactive and ride the currents of culture. On the other hand, a clear vision helps provide clarity and focus for us as we seek God’s will each day.

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

1) Vision gives us a glimpse of “not what is, but what could be.”

Having a vision for our lives gives us an opportunity to dream and to create a roadmap for the direction that we want our lives to take. It has been said that “we are limited not by our abilities but by our vision.”

2) Vision for our tomorrows produces passion for today.

This doesn’t mean that we live for tomorrow or are constantly preoccupied with our future, but it gives us a passion that fuels and orders our steps for today.

3) Vision helps to keep us to keep moving when we encounter obstacles

Just because we have a clear vision for where we may be headed in life, it doesn’t mean that we won’t face challenges. However, the “clearer our vision,” the more committed that we will be to it as we persevere through them.

4) Vision provides clarity and focus.

This world creates a lot of “noise” that is easily distracting. It’s easy to get swept up in cultural waves that are widely accepted but may be inconsistent with our vision for ourselves and our families. We have to be willing to go against the current sometimes and the stronger our vision, the better our filter will be in weeding these things out.

5) A Christian worldview will shape and refine our vision during our lives.

C.S. Lewis frames this best with these words:

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I can see everything else.”

Take some time think about your vision for this year and beyond and write it down. Then ask yourself a couple of questions - Am I doing the right things today that will enable me to fulfill my vision for the future? What changes do I need to make to do so?

I wish each of you all of God’s blessings for 2020!

Happy New Year,

Big E

Gratitude - 2 of 2

Last week we focused on living a life of gratitude for what God has done for us. This week I want to focus on the importance of showing gratitude to others.

Ask yourself this question - Is showing gratitude towards others:

A. Something that comes naturally and you do it freely and often?

B. Something you do at times and you see the fruit of it but you really have to be intentional to make it happen?

C. Something that you give little thought to even though you may do it every now and then?

I’m sure that none of us would like to think of ourselves as an ungrateful person - but, being a grateful person requires that we willingly and regularly show gratitude to others.

This isn’t something that just comes naturally to me and I am still striving to get better at it. Fortunately, I have been blessed to have a great role model over the years from someone who does this so well - Julie. As you know, she is very gifted in the area of gratitude and encouragement. We have all been blessed to be on the receiving end of it from her. Being able to observe her do this so well has made a great impact in my life and inspires me to want to do the same for others.

Can you think of a time that someone showed you sincere gratitude for something that you have done for them? If you are like me, it is always a powerful experience to receive true gratitude from someone, even though we aren’t seeking it out.

Actively showing gratitude to others accomplishes many important things:

  1. It greatly blesses the recipient

  2. It is contagious. While we don’t do it for that reason, it is something that is noticed by others and passed on.

  3. It helps us not to live self-absorbed lives but instead keeps us thinking about others and aware of their need for affirmation and encouragement

  4. It reflects a heart of gratitude for our relationship with God

The truth is that there is no such thing as “a self-made man/woman.” There are many people that help us along the way. Who are some people in your life that you owe a debt of gratitude? Speak to them, write them a note or do something for them. it doesn’t always have to be something spectacular - just sincere. it will be real blessing to them and to you.

If it’s not already, let’s make gratitude a part of our daily lives.

Stay hungry,

Big E

Gratitude - 1 of 2

As I sit in my favorite chair on our last day at Amelia, I can’t help but reflect back over the past week when we all had a chance to be together. Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time because it points us all to the things in our lives that we are truly grateful for. I have never felt more grateful that when we were all sitting together at the table on Thanksgiving Day and were sharing specific blessings in our lives. I will always remember the power of that moment - each of your faces and words. It was a time of sheer gratitude for me.

As Christians, gratitude is even more than just a moment or a day of thankfulness. It is our spiritual condition - our way of life. Gratitude isn’t just a feeling that we get when we feel really blessed, it is a condition that comes from the full awareness of our status as God’s adopted sons and daughters.

In I Thessalonians Paul gives us this instruction:

5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

In this short passage, he gives us three distinct commands:

  1. Rejoice always - Joy is the root word for rejoice. We will not alway be “happy” in this life because happiness is dependent upon happenings or circumstances - sometimes good, sometimes not. But, what Paul is saying is that we can rejoice always because joy is a condition that originates from our salvation and never leaves us. It is not based on good days or bad days but on being saved.

  2. Pray continuously - Simply, never hang up the phone

  3. Give thanks in all circumstances - Notice that is doesn’t say to give thanks “for” all circumstances but “in” all circumstances. That one word makes it quite different! We may not be thankful for certain circumstances in our lives but we can still find many things to be thankful for while we are going through them. We can pray and work to try to change the circumstances that we may not be thankful “for,” but in the midst of that, we are called to always give thanks.

I am thankful for each of you more than I can express.

Challenge this week: Make sure that others see the gratitude in your life. They may want to know why.

Stay hungry,

Big E

P.R.A.Y.E.R. - Results 2 of 2

As we come to our last blog in this series on prayer, we are going to continue our look at the results of prayer. Like last week, you’ll notice that we are focusing how prayer “impacts” us. One common theme among each of these is this:

Prayer is not always about trying to change or control our circumstances but it’s about knowing God better in order to face our circumstances.

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1.Prayer reorients us by giving us a different and higher perspective on this life. It’s like the difference from seeing things from the ground versus the view from the top of a peak - like from the Cross at JH. The higher elevation gives us a whole new perspective on what we can see in terms of oursleves in relation to God and everything else. This helps us move from living a day to day, temporal perspective to an eternal perspective.


2. Prayer truly has a cumulative effect. With consistent daily prayer, we are building an “ongoing and unending” line of communication with God.

1 Thess. 5:17 Pray without ceasing…

This makes us feel comfortable jumping into prayer at any time during the day and immediately feel close and dialed in to God. The more often that we talk with God, the more comfortable we will be in going to Him in any situation and at any time. It’s like we never hang up the phone.

3. Prayer turns our hearts to God and unites us with Him. There are so many things that compete for our hearts and attention but consistent prayer helps us approach all aspects of our lives from our relationship with Him.

Psalm 86:11-12 Give me an undivided heart… that I may praise you, Lord my God, with all of my heart

This produces a joy evident to those around us – peaceful, selfless and filled with fruits of the Spirit.

4. We create dependence on God through prayer. Culture pushes us to be “self-reliant and fully independent.” There are some aspects of that which are good but a life of dependence on God is largely created through prayer.

Pray like it all depends on Him, work like it all depends on you.

Stay hungry,

Big E




P.R.A.Y.E.R. - Results 1 of 2

When I prepare for writing this blog each week, I sometimes listen to a sermon or two for some additional thoughts on the topic. It’s usually pretty easy to find what I am looking for from one of my favorite pastors; however, it was interesting what I found this week when I did my standard internet search.

There was certainly no shortage of unfamiliar pastors giving sermons on the topic “results of prayer,” but I was surprised to see mostly a different take than I was looking for. Their primary focus seemed to be on “How to get the results that you are looking for from prayer.” I want to be careful what I say here because I am not trying to discredit the pastors that gave these sermons but It felt like it was mostly geared towards just helping you get certain outcomes from prayer.

There are definitely times that we are looking for and anticipating certain outcomes in prayer but I believe that the greatest blessing of prayer is the impact that prayer has on us.

Jeremiah 29:12-13 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find Me, when you search for Me with all of your heart.

Prayer turns our beliefs and theology into experience. It allows us to encounter God in the primary way that he choose for us to experience Him. Experiencing God through prayer was part of His design for us and it shapes our Christian character.

Prayer doesn’t just reorder our lives, it reorders our “loves”

The more exposure we have to God, the more we begin to understand His heart, His loves, His priorities - and then they become ours. That’s when our “loves” change from mostly worldly things to be more in line with His. They are not just reordered but “rightly ordered.”

Extended exposure to the sun changes our skin color - extended exposure to God changes everything.

That is the impact of prayer.

Stay hungry,

Big E

P.R.A.Y.E.R. - Empowered

While I was preparing this week for the “E” in P.R.A.Y.E.R., I ran across another acronym that is fantastic and “spot on” for the topic in this blog:

P.R.A.Y.E.R. - Prayer Releases All of Your Eternal Resources

I could just “drop the mic” and end it right here (ha) but, I can’t resist the opportunity to elaborate on this further. As clever as this is, it still begs the question of “what are the eternal resources of prayer?”

Well, going back to my “less clever” acronym, the E in P.R.A.Y.E.R is “Empowered.” More specifically, through prayer we are “empowered by the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 8:26 helps us to understand what this means:

8:26 In the same way, the Holy Spirit helps us where we are weak. We do not know how to pray or what we should pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays to God for us with sounds that cannot be put into words

The Holy Spirit is our helper and Jesus tells us this in the Gospel of John.

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things…

Knowing that the Holy Spirit is going to help us pray should be very encouraging to us. We are all going to struggle with prayer sometimes but the greatest teacher that we could ever have lives within us. We don’t have to go looking for a tutor and make an appointment.

How does the Spirit help us pray?

  1. He leads us into God’s presence

  2. He helps us know what to pray for - The Holy Spirit prompts us to pray in the direction that God wants to take us.

  3. By praying for us - as it says above in Romans 8:26 the Holy Spirit prays to God for us with sounds that cannot be put into words

  4. By giving us a proper perspective on prayer:

Prayer is not about bringing God into our world with a shopping list, it is a way of God bringing us into His world so that we can be exposed to His heart and mind and become part of His eternal purposes.

Stay hungry,

Big E

P.R.A.Y.E.R. - Yield

The word “yield” has two distinctly different meanings. It can be used in the context of growing or producing something - like a tree yielding fruit. But, it can also be used in terms of giving way, submitting or surrendering to something else. What is interesting is that prayer is strongly connected to each of these two completely different meanings.

Like the sign above, today we are going to focus on the “giving way and surrendering” aspects of prayer.

Like the sign above, today we are going to focus on the “giving way and surrendering” aspects of prayer.

There are many things that we can chose to yield or surrender to - culture, opinions of others, selfish desires etc… We all have these choices to make.

The apostle John said in John 3:30 “He must increase but I must decrease.”

Translation - I do not know you God like I should because I keep getting in the way. I must learn to yield to you.

One of the key ways that we learn how to “yield” to God is through prayer. In prayer we are recognizing Him for who He is (Creator, Savior and Lord) and ourselves for who we are - sinners in need of a Savior and Lord. The Savior part is easy - everyone wants a Savior. It’s the “Lord” part that we struggle with. Recognizing Him as Lord requires that we submit to something other than our own desires.

Prayer helps us resist trying to battle God for control. Through prayer we seek His heart and desires for our lives and, ultimately, our will yields to His will. As we grow closer to Him, prayer becomes our oxygen - our lifeline that connects us to God.

Prayer is not merely a way to get things from God but the way to get more of God himself.

Less of us - more of Him.

Stay Hungry,

Big E


P.R.A.Y.E.R. - Act: 2 of 2

How many times do you think that you have recited the Lord’s Prayer in your life? For me it would be many hundreds or even a thousand times. Most of those times I have probably mindlessly said the words without giving much thought to the purpose of the prayer itself.

Most Christians know it by heart quite well but what many don’t realize is that the most significant thing about the prayer is that Jesus used it to teach us how to pray. Jesus said the prayer twice in the Bible - a shorter version in Luke when one of his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray and the full version that we are accustomed to in the Sermon on the Mount. Both times he was teaching his audience how to pray. So the main purpose of the Lord’s Prayer is not just something for us to mindlessly say in a corporate prayer setting but to use as a perfect model in our own daily prayers.

By understanding each component of the prayer, it makes it much easier for us to adopt His pattern for prayer as our own.

  1. Praise “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name,” - This is where prayer should always begin. Praising God with a grateful heart and recognizing Him for who He is.

  2. Praying for what’s on His heart and for His work “thy kingdom come, they will be done,” We pray for His work in this world. This requires us to seek out what His desires are for His kingdom and our role in it.

  3. Requests “give us this day our daily bread,” We ask God boldly and specifically for what is on our hearts and what our desires are.

  4. Repentance “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We confess our sins and ask for forgiveness for them while also making sure that we are forgiving of others.

  5. Protection “do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil” We ask for protection from evil and strength in the weak spots in our lives where we struggle.

We are all guilty of solely making prayer a “help line” or a “request line.” It should definitely include those things but it is intended to be so much more. Adopting this pattern of prayer that Jesus gave us will dynamically change our prayer lives for the better. Try it this week and see.

Stay hungry,

Big E

P.R.A.Y.E.R. - Act: 1 of 2

True or False - The act of prayer for a Christian is something that should automatically come easy to us.

False - Prayer is not easy. But, remember this:

Nothing that we have ever accomplished that is “great” in our lives is also easy. Greatness doesn’t come easy in anything.

Why can it be so difficult? There can be a lot of reasons but to start with - prayer is not natural for us. It is something that has to be learned just like when a child is learning to speak or when an adult wants to learn another language. It takes effort, struggle and perseverance.

So then, how can we make our prayer lives better or even great? Part of the answer lies in the process of moving from “duty to delight.” In other words, it’s escaping from looking at prayer as a “duty” that all good Christians have to do and instead getting to experience the “delight” of prayer.

The process can be challenging but it is most certainly worth the effort. It begins with praying in a dutiful and disciplined way with intentionality and perseverance until it becomes a delight. That is why it is so important to have a time, a place and a plan. A disciplined approach to prayer will result in prayer becoming a delight in your life. It will become something that you depend on each day and don’t want to miss out on (like ice cream, ha).

You will know that you are making progress when you will feel incomplete the days that you don’t have quality prayer time. Like life, it may not always feel great because this is a journey and not a destination, but you will be maturing in your faith and growing closer to Him.

God speaks to us in many ways - though scripture, the Holy Spirit, creation and His people. Don’t miss the opportunity to speak back to Him.

Prayer is the continuation of a conversation that God started with you. Answer Him.

Stay hungry,

Big E

P.R.A.Y.E.R - Reveals

Our prayer lives both reveal things to us and about us. It has been said that “our prayer lives are a test of our spiritual maturity.” That might be somewhat intimidating for us to hear because we all struggle with our prayer life at different times and in different ways. However, I don’t want this blog to be discouraging but rather help us understand what our prayer lives reveal to us.

1. Prayer reveals our view of God - what we believe about who God is.

Do we see God as Santa Claus who is there to give us want we want or maybe the Maytag repairman who sits by the phone ready to help us if we call on him with a problem to solve?

God is the ultimate giver who has given us the ultimate gift and he is also there for us with his wisdom to prevent and solve problems for us - but He is so much more than that as our Savior and Lord. Spending quality time in prayer helps us understand who God is just like spending time with others helps us understand who they are.

2. Prayer reveals to us the heart and mind of God.

The clearer our understanding of who God really is, the better our prayer life will be.

“What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” A.W. Tozer

3. Prayer reveals our priorities in life.

We are all guilty of simply wanting to control our environment with our prayer life. Sometimes our prayers are nothing more than the American Dream (health, wealth and happiness) with a little Jesus mixed in. There isn’t anything wrong with praying for those things but is that the full extent of what we pray for?

Do we love what God loves? Do we know what He loves? Do we know what He would want us to pray for? These are great questions to think about.

4. Prayer reveals how we see ourselves in relationship to God.

Prayer leads to self-knowledge that cannot be achieved in any other way. In prayer, we are exposed to God’s holiness and, as a result, we are better able to see ourselves as we truly are - sinners in need of a savior. This keeps us humble and dependent on Him.

God is the only being from which we can hide nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

He knows us completely. Does that scare us or excite us? Probably a little of both if you are like me. Prayer gives us the opportunity to know Him better but, as the scripture above says, we won’t have a complete knowledge of Him in this life. I’m sure that it will be worth the wait.

Stay hungry,

Big E

P.R.A.Y.E.R. - Purpose

I have to admit that doing a 7 part series on prayer is a daunting task. I feel very inadequate to take this on but yet I have come to recognize how truly important the issue of prayer is in our spiritual journey. Recognizing the importance of prayer is a significant step that we must all take because it is only then that we will pursue it with the intentionality that is required. I would imagine that few people are ever truly satisfied with their prayer life so we can all paddle together in the same boat.

What is the Purpose of prayer?

Prayer is how we treat God - as God.

This is true in a couple of key aspects. First, prayer is unique to our relationship with God. We don’t experience prayer in any other relationship that we have. Also, prayer is the sole method that God chose for us to be able to communicate with him. He communicates with us in a number of ways (including prayer) but prayer is really our only method of communicating with Him. We can talk about God, learn about God, and enjoy the fruits of a relationship with God but the only way that we can directly communicate with God is through prayer. Thus, prayer is truly treating God - as God.

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Another key purpose of prayer is that a healthy prayer life gives us a “spiritual mooring” for our lives. A boat that is “moored” means that it is tied to something or anchored. if it wasn’t moored, then it would just drift aimlessly in the sea riding the currents of the moment. Prayer provides a “mooring” that anchors us back to God each time we come to Him in prayer and keeps us from being adrift. As we pursue the goal of a life filled with continual prayer, we should never lose our mooring.

Lastly, prayer reorients us by taking us to a higher elevation. When we go on a hike, all that we are able to see is what is immediately around us until we reach a peak and then we are able to see where we are in relation to everything else.

In the same way, prayer brings us perspective as it helps us to see ourselves in the context of life’s bigger eternal story

As you think about your prayer life, remember that it is how God chose for us to come to Him, stay close to Him and help us see our lives through His eyes.

Stay hungry for Him,

Big E

P.R.A.Y.E.R. - Part 1 of 7

Over the next couple of months we are going to focus on the topic of prayer. After the intro today, we are going to go through 6 key components of prayer contained in the acronym P.R.A.Y.E.R.

One of the more impactful books that I have read is Tim Keller’s book simply entitled Prayer. It is quite a thick book and I remember when I bought it thinking - how could there possibly be this much on “prayer” to write about? Well, that probably revealed more about me than I would like to admit. Ha.

The truth is that everyone struggles in their prayer life from time to time. I found a list of the 12 most common reasons why people say that their prayer lives aren’t what they should be:

1.We don’t think that we have time to pray

2.We don’t think that it is important or makes a difference

3. No one ever taught me how - feels awkward

4. You’re mad at God

5. You’re afraid of God – His will vs. your will for your life

6. Don’t want to admit to God what we really want

7. So many things to pray for, don’t know where to start   

8. A recurring or past sin that haunts our life

9. Feels too passive - would rather “do” something 

10. Don’t need anything 

11. We forget

12. Fall asleep or mind wanders away

Any of these sound familiar? I suspect that every Christian would connect with at least a few of these.

Well, the good news is that our prayer lives can dramatically improve and the result of that will be a deeper walk with the Lord. Like anything else in life, it requires us to be more intentional but it is most certainly with reach.

A consistent prayer life begins with a time, a place and a plan. That is certainly not to say that you can’t and shouldn’t pray at different times and different places throughout the day/week but we should all have our “go to” times/places for the core of our prayer lives. Without this, we simply won’t we consistent. It’s only when we get to the point that we view this “appointment” with God as our most important one of the day - that we can truly transform our prayer life.

In terms of a plan, I believe that having a written daily plan in your phone/Bible is the only way to really cover all the areas that you want to pray about over the course of the week. I learned this 15-20 years ago and have found it to be spot on. While I pray for you daily, each of you know that I have a special day I specifically pray for you. Along with this, I have a list of 3-4 other things written down to focus on each day. This is so much better than trying to rattle though your head all of the things that you know that you should be praying about. You can always add to or modify your list but it will help tremendously with keeping some organization to your prayer life.

Write down your prayer plan today and decide when and where you want to have your daily appointment with God.

Stay hungry,

Big E

Is Good - Good Enough? Part 2 of 2

In Part 1 we established that it is not “our good” but “Christ’s good” that we get to rely on for our salvation. So then, what role does “our good” play in our lives?

This is an area that I have struggled with at different times in my life. Trying to earn our own salvation can be a very frustrating place to be because you never feel like you are doing enough. You always think you need to do more to really please God. It wasn’t until I truly understood the following truth that I was able to fully overcome that faulty mentality:

Our works and the pursuit of a righteous life are not requirements for our salvation, they are the evidence of our salvation.

James 2 address this so well in verses 14-18

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

This passage tells us that a true saving faith produces works/deeds/action. This encompasses not just serving others, but also our desire to be obedient and pursue holiness.

One can have works without faith but we can’t have faith without works.

Faith comes first and then works follow as evidence of a true saving faith.

Stay hungry,

Big E

Is Good - Good Enough? Part 1 of 2

Since it is football season, I can’t resist the temptation to use a quote from my favorite college football coach - quite a “Smart” guy. Ha.

When asked about his team’s recent performance, he responded:

It was good, but good is not going to be good enough.”

Those words really struck me. I can certainly see where they might be effective for motivating a football team to reach higher heights, but what if those words were directed towards us with regard to how well we are living our lives? Sort of like a “how are we doing so far?” grade. That might get kind of interesting…

We do live in a performance based society - school, sports, work etc… Accordingly, we are accustomed “keeping score” in these areas of our lives and this certainly isn’t a bad thing. It becomes a good motivator as we try to reach the best version of ourselves.

Some religions are performance based as well - the better person that you are, the better chance you have to fare well in the life beyond. In the Christian faith, the Bible powerfully speaks directly to the issue of “performance:”

Romans 3:10-12 There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Ouch. So much for feeling good about ourselves by how great of a person that we think we might be. Truly digesting what this passage is saying is a very humbling experience but also very important as we mature in our walk with the Lord.

Gratefully, our Christian faith is not based on our “performance” in this life. A critical truth that we must all remember is this:

God doesn’t love us because we are good, He loves us because He is good.

By putting our faith in Christ, we receive the “imputed righteousness” of Christ. This theological term means that, as believers, we are granted the holiness and righteousness of Christ. This is in spite of the fact that “none are good,” as pointed out in the verses from Romans above. Simply put, His righteousness becomes our righteousness and we are blessed with this amazing gift so that don’t have to stand on our own record.

Is our good, good enough? No. But His is and that is the power of the Gospel.

Stay hungry,

Big E

Finding our Identity in Christ - Part 3 of 3

We have addressed how our identities are formed as well as how they are shaped by the voices that we listen to. In today’s blog I want to discuss how an “identity in Christ” is lived out.

Scripture tells us that when we become believers - we aren’t just different but we have actually become a new creation:

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

What the Apostle Paul is telling us here is that we have not just decided to change whatever identity we used to have, but we have received a whole new one by being “in Christ.” We aren’t just reformed, rehabilitated or re-educated - we are re-created in Christ. It has fundamentally changed who we are. As such, we are now we are equipped with the Holy Spirit and are called to “walk in Him.”

Colossians 2:6-7 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith…

So what does it look like for us to be firmly rooted, built up and established in our faith?

Being firmly rooted means that we have our “durable core” identity in Christ. This new identity defines who we are and it travels with us throughout all of our roles and responsibilities in this life. We will still have our temptations and struggles but our core is now rooted in Christ.

Being built up is the process of sanctification that we all go through. The root word “sanctify” means to be “set apart.” Sanctification means that we have been set apart and the Holy Spirit is working in our lives to conform us to the image of Christ. This is a lifelong journey for each of us.

Being established in our faith is the process of maturing as Christians. Some translations use the word strengthened in our faith. As we grow closer to Him, we become more confident and assured in our beliefs and in our effectiveness in serving Him and others.

So how does this all play out in our lives with having our identity in Christ? Our faith defines us and influences everything we do, how we do it and how we view this life. It’s not just an “add-on” or a part of who we are, it comes to the forefront of every aspect of our lives. We aren’t just a father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, worker or student who happens to be a Christian. We are a Christian father, a Christian mother, a Christian husband or wife, a Christian worker or student etc…

This should be apparent to those around us. Others should be able to see this difference in us by how we live our lives.

We aren’t perfect, but we are changed.

Stay hungry,

Big E

Finding our Identity in Christ - Part 2 of 3

One of the things that greatly shapes our identity are the voices that we listen to. There are many voices that speak to us - the voice of Christ, the voices of our culture, the voices of others and the voice of self-doubt. Some of these voices can be conflicting and create confusion, fear and anxiety in our lives. While we don’t always have control over the voices that speak to us, we do get to choose which ones that we actually listen to.

In John 10 Jesus tells the parable of The Good Shepherd where Jesus is the shepherd and we are his sheep.

John 10: 2-5 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

There are several great lessons for us to take away from this passage:

  1. Like the sheep, we must learn to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd over all of the other voices that speak to us. Many of these other voices are in conflict with the voice of Christ like the deceptions of our culture and the opinions (real or perceived) of others. The better that we know His voice, the easier it is to distinguish it above the others.

  2. We must also learn to run away from the wrong voices that create fear, anxiety and confusion. To do this we have to “control our intake” - Who/what voices are we listening to that create anxiety and fear in our lives? Our intake contributes heavily to the voices that we ultimately listen to and give weight to.

  3. As sheep always do, we have to stay close to the Shepherd so that we can hear and recognize His voice among all of the other ones calling out to us. As the scripture above says “he calls his own sheep by name.” He knows us intimately and will never leave us or forsake us but it is our responsibility to seek him in our lives daily.

Psalm 95 6-7 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice…

As I write this, I am reminded of the low ropes exercise at JH Ranch where you are blindfolded and are supposed to be guided up a hill by only listening to the voice of your father. But then, other voices come in and try to confuse you. That is a great picture of our lives on a daily basis. Many voices speaking to us - to whom shall we listen?

“The voices that you listen to on the inside, will be reflected in the lives that you live on the outside.”

Let’s choose wisely,

Big E

Finding our Identity in Christ - Part 1 of 3

Our identity is basically a combination of how we define ourselves to others, along with who others would say that we are. Another way to think about our identity is our “self-worth.” We each have a separate sense of “self” and a sense of “worth.”

Our self is the “durable core” of who we are in all of the various roles that we have in our lives - husband, wife, parent, student, worker, friend etc… That “self” travels with us in all of our roles and defines the core of who we really are.

Our sense of worth is what makes us feel significant and confident of our value as a person. The combination of our sense of self and worth make up our identity.

We attempt to form our identities in one of two ways. First, we may try to create one ourselves and project it outwardly for the world to accept. This approach is very common today because current culture embraces radical individualism. There is complete freedom to be whomever one wants to be. All of this freedom is not necessarily bad but it can go to a bad place --- especially if we attempt to create our own core identity. Let’s look at a few reasons why:

1. It would be an untrustworthy identity – Our feelings & desires cannot always be trusted - they often conflict with who we want to be and who we are. We have good and pure desires and we have impure and selfish desires marked by greed, jealousy etc..…

2. It would be a changing and unstable identity – It wouldn’t be a “durable core” that stays with you all of the time. It’s always evolving as you move through life from your teens, to 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s. School, career, relationships, physical features all change over time so an identity that is tied to any of those is unstable.

3. It’s an illusion – We attempt to create an illusion that we want everyone else to see. This identity is not based on the feelings and desires that you always have but those that you want to show others.

4. It’s a huge burden to have to create and manage an identity – You have to create a persona and a dream and then go live up to it and try to prove who you are. Social media fuels this with the added pressure of “status anxiety” by trying to create the ideal identity for everyone to see and approve of.

•5. It requires relativism for us to feel good about our own identity. It’s not enough that we feel good about what we have created but also how it measures up to others. My illusion vs. your illusion.

The idea of creating our own identity clearly has a lot of flaws. The other way to form an identity would be to “receive” one from somewhere outside of ourselves and adopt it as our own.

Ephesians helps us determine the right path:

Ephesians 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

As Christians, our identities are to be “received” - not “achieved.” We receive the name of Christ in calling ourselves Christians and “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” There is no pressure in having to create something that we have to try to live up to every day. An identity in Christ is stable, unchanging, not an illusion and can always to be trusted. Doesn’t that sound like a better than trying to do it ourselves?

Stay hungry,

Big E

The Cost of Freedom - Part 4 of 4

I’m sure that you can tell by now that Christian freedom is something that I place a lot of value in and have put some thought into. I believe that once we fully grasp these truths about the costs and benefits of the true freedom that the Christian life provides, our lives will be richer and more impactful. For our last look at this subject, we are going to address the most important aspect of Christian freedom of all - our freedom from sin.

As believers, we know that God sent his son Jesus to die for us. He became the sacrifice for our sins and we no longer have to follow the rituals and customs under Old Testament law for forgiveness. We are free of having to keep the law in order to earn our salvation. We now have a new covenant with God as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross. True Christian’s with a “saving faith” are covered under God’s grace for all of our sins - past, present and future. As a result, we have salvation and eternal life with God for the sacrifice that was made on our behalf. That is the cost and benefit of our freedom from sin.

In light of the above, there are a couple of key questions that I want to address:

Since we have freedom from sin, what should our attitude be toward sin? Should we even worry sin at all?

I believe that one simple concept, along with the scripture below, helps put this matter in the right perspective:

The Christian life is freedom from sin - not freedom to sin.

Yes, we are still going to fall short and sin - and yes, we are forgiven by God’s grace for our sins. In spite of that, it doesn’t mean that we should ever get comfortable having sin in our lives. There are many reasons why but first and foremost is because God hates sin and our hearts should be aligned with His so that we hate it as well.

There are many warnings about getting comfortable with sin in scripture:

Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature: rather, serve one another in love.

1 Peter 2:16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants for God.

In these passages we are being instructed not to use our freedom from sin as freedom to sin but to serve/love God and each other - the two greatest commandments. A saving faith will condition our hearts in such a way that we have a desire to be obedient and to please God.

Stay hungry,

Big E

The Cost of Freedom - Part 3 of 4

There is a great double irony in the Christian faith involving the freedom that we have been discussing. Most people that stay away from the faith do so because they don’t want to give up certain “freedoms” that they want in their lives. They want to do what they want to do and when they want to do it. What they don’t realize is that some of those same things that they don’t want to give up actually lead them to bondage - addictions, idols, opinions of others, endless pursuit of pleasure etc... On the other hand - the Christian life, which is perceived to require lots of restrictions, actually leads us to freedom.

Here is the basic premise behind how that works:

  • True freedom is not living with no boundaries, it’s living with the right boundaries.

This isn’t just true as it relates to our faith; it’s true in every area of our lives - our health, relationships and finances to name a few. If we don’t have boundaries/restrictions with our diet and discipline in taking care of our bodies, we are not going to be happy with the result. The same is true in relationships. Boundaries have to be established and honored to develop “true relational freedom” that is based on trust and respect instead of doubt, envy and fear. Lastly, if we don’t have well established restrictions on how we handle the financial blessings that God gives us, we will not enjoy financial freedom but instead find ourselves in bondage to debt and materialism.

These examples show how a lack of boundaries and disciplines can lead you to a bad place in each of these important areas of our lives. It’s equally true with our spiritual lives. This is most important area of all and a lack of boundaries there ultimately leads us to all sorts of sin. Alternatively, look at what it says in Psalms about the results of obedience:

Psalm 119:44-45 I will always obey your law forever and ever, I will walk about in freedom for I have sought out your precepts.

The word precept is defined as “a general rule intended to regulate behavior or thought.” This verse provides us with the answer of how to obtain true freedom in Christ - by seeking out and following the precepts of God and being obedient.

In order to do this it requires that we have certain boundaries and disciplines in our lives. A wise wise man once said:

The personal disciplines that you form, will end up forming you.

Stay hungry,

Big E