Wellington Church of Christ

Like many, I am very relieved that the presidential election is over.  I’m not sure if I actually grow weary of politics in general, or rather, everything that goes along with them. But since there’s no way to separate the two, I’m just glad to have some political relief.

If you have put your faith in Jesus and it’s your desire to serve and follow Him, you are and will forever be called to a life of sacrifice.

Sacrifice should be a hallmark of the Christian life, but is that what you see when you observe Christians today?  Is a life of sacrifice what you see when you examine yourself?

This past week, I got to be around lots of preachers and other Christians at Harding University Inspire Lectureship. Being with other ministers and discussing ministry is incredibly encouraging. We’re not all slapping each other on the back and saying, “Way to go! Keep up the good work!”

There’s no New Testament person, excluding Jesus, that I admire more than the Apostle Paul. It’s truly amazing how much endurance and boldness that Paul exhibited throughout his ministry.

In all of the ways possible, it’s my desire to be like the Apostle Paul and do as he commands the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 11:1 when he says:

There are many calling cards of false teaching that can be easily identified if we know what to look for. 

However, if we don’t know what to look for, we can be easily manipulated, or at a minimum, confused.

Confused Christians are in danger of making horrible mistakes, with one of the worst being the drawing of false conclusions which will lead us into false beliefs, which will lead us to taking wrong actions.

It seems to me that in order to follow Jesus like I’m called to do, that a lot of the work I do isn’t physical work, but rather mental.

When I was very young, I didn’t really enjoy watching sports.  It wasn’t so much the watching of the sport that I didn’t enjoy, it was the sitting still for hours part that I couldn’t tolerate.

But I also hated not knowing what was going on when everyone was talking about the game the next day.  My predicament was solved by the ESPN highlight reels.

There are many motivations that can be observed in our lives that demonstrate why we do what we do.

For instance, let’s look at the law of the land.  If I don’t break the speed limit, it’s not because I love the law, it’s because I fear paying a speeding ticket.  If not for fear of the ticket, I would probably speed more than I do.

Over the years, I’ve heard or been a part of endless conversations about the relationship between grace, faith and works.

I don’t mean to oversimplify things or overcomplicate things in this never-ending discussion, but after so long, you have to come up with an explanation that you can live with.