When my brother woke-up yesterday morning he told me about a dream he had. A first I did not think much about it other then that it was kind of funny, but as I thought more about it I realized it is a great way to put into perspective of how lazy we (including me) can be as Christians.
So here is the dream as he had told it to me:
My brother and I were both dressed as super heroe’s (he did not specify the super heroe’s), in fact we were super hero’s with powers! My brother and I were in enemies territory ready for battle. You would think the next part of this dream talks about a battle we fought but it does not! We actually were sitting playing a board game, in the middle of enemy territory! Kyle, my younger brother described the game as a combination of The Game of Life Twists and Turns and risk (a strategy game).
I think this dream is worth more then face value. Kyle (my younger brother) and I both had been given gifts and we were even in the place where we could use them, but instead of using the gifts we played around. We had an opportunity to make a difference, we had been given the “power” to do it but we just sat. It sounds stupid to think that two super hero’s would sit when they had the chance to fight. It sounds foolish to think that we may have been more worried about our own self comfort then actually doing what had been planned for us to do.
This sounds like us as Christians today! We are given the opportunity to fight for what we know is right but we don’t. God has given each of us gifts so why are we not using them? “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. (1 Corinthians 12:7)” We are to busy spending time on things we wan to do. We are afraid of a chance of having some discomfort as we step out and use the gifts the Holy Spirit has given us. So instead of healing people, instead of leading people, instead of teaching people, instead of serving people, instead of impacting the world, we sit back and play a game, the game of life.
What an empty life this is! We are to afraid to take risks for God, but we will take risks for our friends or boy friends. We will twist and turn our lives for other people but not for God. God created us on this earth and any life without him as the focal point will be empty, without hope, without salvation, without life. We are too prideful to carry out the humble acts God asks of us, so we ignore what God says. We may say we read the bible but we ignore the verses that encourage us to change something, to stop doing something, to obey God. Our eyes rewrite the bible as we read it, as we ignore some of the verses, subconsciously we write our own translation, I call this translation the NLME. Selfishness is keeping us from truly reading God’s word and following what it tells us. What is a servant (Servant: a person devoted to his master) who never obeys his master, could he even then be called a servant? Then what is a Christian (Christian: Christ Follower) who does not obey and follow Christ?
This dream Kyle had has truth in it. We as Christians are simply not following God to the extent we should be (myself included). It is time to put the game of life away and follow Gods callings for our lives. When God brings you somewhere do not ignore the purpose he brought you there for! Instead use the “power” he has given you. Fight for what you know is right until you have no more strength and even then God will give you the strength. Love boundlessly. Obey God no matter what the cost. Stop rolling the dice, hand your future over to God.
We were placed on this earth with a purpose and we cannot ignore our purpose to serve God. I like to think of it this way: A solar panel has no purpose without the sun, it is just a hunk of metal! We have no purpose without God, God gives our lives purpose. We must recognize this and respond. How will we change our lives today? Are we going to stop playing games? Or will we sit there, wasting away the few years of life we get to live on this earth?
Go ahead and comment on this article! Tell me what you think! If you don’t want to make a public response then send me an email at magicbymaddux@gmail.com
We are in enemy’s territory ready for battle, will we chose to fight? (The newest version of the game of life where you have to make more choices as to where you will go and what you will do.) and a popular strategy game called
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
The Coolest Kid in Town!
We all have the desire to be accepted, we all want to be "cool". If you have looked outside lately you will notice how obsessed people are with being "cool".
As humans we want to know that people like us, it is hard when we are not accepted into cliques. However how far can you go with wanting to be accepted, when do you cross the line?
I have talked to a couple of young boys (5-6th grade) one of them was bragging about how he has had girl friends for two years. Another boy wants one really bad even to the point where he is not willing to hang with some of his older friends when girls are around. These kids are so focused on fitting in, they want girl friends so they can be "cool", we all want to be "cool".
When we get so caught up in becoming cool we quickly loose focus of what God wants us to do. Many kids who become "cool" get very prideful because they are "cool". The fact is that to follow God and do many of the acts he will ask of us, we must be humble. If we get so caught up in what our friends think of us will we have the power to stand up and not watch that bad movie that all of our friends want us to watch?
Pride to me is like a cage, we get trapped in it. The funny thing about this cage is the door is unlocked and we can come out whenever we want. However we get so stuck in our pride that we instead stand in the cage and brag to the person outside. "doesn't it look nice in here." "Look at how awesome it is top be 'cool'." "Come on just watch the movie, are you too nerdy to see it?" Do you hear what kids, teens and even adults are being told? The world presents this cage as if it were the greatest thing ever, but what is so great about being to prideful to obey God?
Another thing that is a problem when it comes to people being "cool" is that we often separate ourselves from certain people. Why? I think you know the answer to this one. "He is fat." "He is ugly." "He is way too much of a nerd." "She is too goofy." "She is too short." "He is too short." You see what I mean? When we are trying to be "cool" we look at others and decide who we want to hang out with according to who we think the rest of the world will accept as being your friends. I mean we don't want to be thrown out of the "cool" category by hanging out with a weirdo.
Let me tell you something my Pastor said up at a winter camp. These labels people are given, you are given does not mean a thing! Because you know what God says, you know what our savior says, YOU ARE LOVED! You may be over weight, but YOU ARE LOVED! You may be weird, but YOU ARE LOVED!
Have you started to understand through this article how stupid sounding this whole "cool" thing really is? Trying to be cool tends to pull us away from focusing on God, on our future, on our life in heaven. What does it matter if we are considered "cool" here? We are only going to be on this earth for a little while, then we get to live with a God who loves us.
So am I saying it is bad to try to look good? Am I saying that it is bad to fit in a little? I am not saying fitting in is a sin. You just have to keep focusing on God and make sure the world is not pulling you down. By all means look good, but don't let being "cool" cause you to dress inappropriately!
I hope this helped you have a new way to look at being "cool" and I would love it if you would comment on this to let me know what you thought. I would love to know if you think I was wrong at any point and please feel free to tell me about being cool from your perspective.
Click the Comment Button Below! If your perspective on being "cool" won't fit as a comment please feel free to email me at magicbymaddux@gmail.com
Thanks,
Brandon Maddux
As humans we want to know that people like us, it is hard when we are not accepted into cliques. However how far can you go with wanting to be accepted, when do you cross the line?
I have talked to a couple of young boys (5-6th grade) one of them was bragging about how he has had girl friends for two years. Another boy wants one really bad even to the point where he is not willing to hang with some of his older friends when girls are around. These kids are so focused on fitting in, they want girl friends so they can be "cool", we all want to be "cool".
When we get so caught up in becoming cool we quickly loose focus of what God wants us to do. Many kids who become "cool" get very prideful because they are "cool". The fact is that to follow God and do many of the acts he will ask of us, we must be humble. If we get so caught up in what our friends think of us will we have the power to stand up and not watch that bad movie that all of our friends want us to watch?
Pride to me is like a cage, we get trapped in it. The funny thing about this cage is the door is unlocked and we can come out whenever we want. However we get so stuck in our pride that we instead stand in the cage and brag to the person outside. "doesn't it look nice in here." "Look at how awesome it is top be 'cool'." "Come on just watch the movie, are you too nerdy to see it?" Do you hear what kids, teens and even adults are being told? The world presents this cage as if it were the greatest thing ever, but what is so great about being to prideful to obey God?
Another thing that is a problem when it comes to people being "cool" is that we often separate ourselves from certain people. Why? I think you know the answer to this one. "He is fat." "He is ugly." "He is way too much of a nerd." "She is too goofy." "She is too short." "He is too short." You see what I mean? When we are trying to be "cool" we look at others and decide who we want to hang out with according to who we think the rest of the world will accept as being your friends. I mean we don't want to be thrown out of the "cool" category by hanging out with a weirdo.
Let me tell you something my Pastor said up at a winter camp. These labels people are given, you are given does not mean a thing! Because you know what God says, you know what our savior says, YOU ARE LOVED! You may be over weight, but YOU ARE LOVED! You may be weird, but YOU ARE LOVED!
Have you started to understand through this article how stupid sounding this whole "cool" thing really is? Trying to be cool tends to pull us away from focusing on God, on our future, on our life in heaven. What does it matter if we are considered "cool" here? We are only going to be on this earth for a little while, then we get to live with a God who loves us.
So am I saying it is bad to try to look good? Am I saying that it is bad to fit in a little? I am not saying fitting in is a sin. You just have to keep focusing on God and make sure the world is not pulling you down. By all means look good, but don't let being "cool" cause you to dress inappropriately!
I hope this helped you have a new way to look at being "cool" and I would love it if you would comment on this to let me know what you thought. I would love to know if you think I was wrong at any point and please feel free to tell me about being cool from your perspective.
Click the Comment Button Below! If your perspective on being "cool" won't fit as a comment please feel free to email me at magicbymaddux@gmail.com
Thanks,
Brandon Maddux
Be Pruned
What... Drink Prune Juice? Uhhh... No, trim the bad things out of your life.
I was trimming the dead roses off of our rose bushes and realized how hard it can be and how long it can take to trim the roses out of the bush. This is a lot like when we are trying to clean up our life and live a better life for Christ. It is not easy! It could take a long time to get over your old addictions and completely trim out the "bad" roses. Along the way we might get a thorn or two in our hands, we will get persecuted for living a life for God.
We need to start trimming up our lives, pruning them, becoming more like Christ. Think of how beautiful a rose bush looks after it is all trimmed up, after the roses are gone. Our lives could be like that, they could be better if we would take the time to get rid of the junk in our lives. Yeah you might miss a thing or two so you won't be perfect, but think what better lives we could live for Christ if we really did put some focus on pruning.
My encouragement is to take action steps today that will help you prune your life. Make your life look like a beautiful rose bush. I am going to make a bigger attempt to read the bible daily as my action step so I learn how my life should look. If we know how we should be we will know what we should be getting rid of and don't worry the bible will tell you plenty of things you can get rid of from your life.
I hope this post was ecouraging to you, please comment on it and let me know what you think.
I was trimming the dead roses off of our rose bushes and realized how hard it can be and how long it can take to trim the roses out of the bush. This is a lot like when we are trying to clean up our life and live a better life for Christ. It is not easy! It could take a long time to get over your old addictions and completely trim out the "bad" roses. Along the way we might get a thorn or two in our hands, we will get persecuted for living a life for God.
We need to start trimming up our lives, pruning them, becoming more like Christ. Think of how beautiful a rose bush looks after it is all trimmed up, after the roses are gone. Our lives could be like that, they could be better if we would take the time to get rid of the junk in our lives. Yeah you might miss a thing or two so you won't be perfect, but think what better lives we could live for Christ if we really did put some focus on pruning.
My encouragement is to take action steps today that will help you prune your life. Make your life look like a beautiful rose bush. I am going to make a bigger attempt to read the bible daily as my action step so I learn how my life should look. If we know how we should be we will know what we should be getting rid of and don't worry the bible will tell you plenty of things you can get rid of from your life.
I hope this post was ecouraging to you, please comment on it and let me know what you think.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
My First Post
So what is this blog all about? This is going to be my personal blog where I post about what I see happening in the world, the ideas I have that I want to share, and what God is teaching me. This blog is going to be awesome!
This Blog is called Don't Let Us because it is my request to not let us get caught up in the things in this world. Who is us? Everyone is us! Don't let others get caught up in this world, help them focus on God.
EDIT (10/28/08): I changed the name of the blog because I thought people would not look and read a blog called don't let us as likely as they would a blog called Ambassador For God. Let me know what you think about the name change by commenting below
On every post, unless I ask other wise, I encourage you to comment on what I said and state your own opinion on that subject. Feel free to reply to what other users have said. However if I find any comments that are very argumentative I will remove them.
So what do you think about my idea for this blog? What would you like me to be posting about? Leave a comment or feel free to email me at my personal email: magicbymaddux@gmail.com
This Blog is called Don't Let Us because it is my request to not let us get caught up in the things in this world. Who is us? Everyone is us! Don't let others get caught up in this world, help them focus on God.
EDIT (10/28/08): I changed the name of the blog because I thought people would not look and read a blog called don't let us as likely as they would a blog called Ambassador For God. Let me know what you think about the name change by commenting below
On every post, unless I ask other wise, I encourage you to comment on what I said and state your own opinion on that subject. Feel free to reply to what other users have said. However if I find any comments that are very argumentative I will remove them.
So what do you think about my idea for this blog? What would you like me to be posting about? Leave a comment or feel free to email me at my personal email: magicbymaddux@gmail.com
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