The power of "again"

Every trainer and coach knows the power of the word “Again.”

It tests you… increases your ability… pushes you to your limit.

Just when you think you are done… just when you think the set is over or practice is finished… they say it,…

“Again!”

For the one being coached or trained “again” means pain… sweat… exhaustion… frustration.

It can cause you to question the motives of the instructor.  It can get you to wish you never joined the team or decided to compete.

But you did.

You committed. 

The Worship Decision

“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him” Matt 2:11

Every day…  every moment… you are faced with the choice.

The choice of Who you respond to.

Because worship is a response…  a response to who someone is.

A response that inherently places you in a position of subjection, submission, humility… a response that declares whom you serve.

Praise, on the other hand, is a response to WHAT someone does.

Like cheering when a player scores a touchdown, a musician plays a song, or your wife puts an amazing meal on the table. (I especially cheer at the last one!)

When the wise men came and visited Jesus as a child the scripture does not say that they gave Him praise… but rather… they worshipped Him.

Living a Search Optimized Life

SEO is a term you may have heard. It stands for Search Engine Optimization.

The art and science of being found.

As far as websites go it is about a doing a few things well…

It is about keywords… words that best describe or define what is being looked for.

It is about the context…. Or… what else is happening on the site… Like products for sale… or advertisements…

It is about the quality of the content… about how much time seems to have been put in to it… how much of it actually relates to what the keywords are… about how one reinforces the other.

It is about who else is “linked” to you… who else is noticing… who else is talking about you and what you are saying… about what is being said about you.

So let me ask you this…

Are you living a Search Optimized Life?

Do you have keywords that people would use to define you?  Words that come to mind immediately when your name is spoken?

What does your life endorse or “advertise?”

How much of what you say is actually what you live?

Who are you connected with?  If people found the people who know you… would they send them your way? … and for what?

Which “searches” would you come up in?

Are they the ones you would want them to be?

Christ did not give His life for us to waste ours.

He wants to live through us.  He wants our life to be optimized in such a way that people can find Him in us.

He wants us to receive Him… to receive His Spirit so we can live…

A Spirit-filled fruitful life.

Tap in to the Vine… and you will bear fruit…

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control…” Gal 5:22-23

Those are some pretty good key words… wouldn’t you agree?

SDG

 

 

 

Be like the blind man...

“Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.” John 9:32

These were the words of the man who was born blind… but whom Jesus gave sight to.  (And I tend to think that when he said it, it was a little sarcastic… a little “right-back-at-ya”.)

I would imagine that over the years this man had heard the opposite quite a bit.  There must have been quite a few well-meaning people who felt they needed to be “realistic” with him…

“Listen, I’m sorry, but there is no precedent for your healing.  No one has ever received their sight when they were born blind!”

“This is just your cross to bear….”  “God doesn’t do that anymore.”

But you see… since he couldn’t see… he listened.

I can imagine him at Passover hearing to the stories.  In his world that was completely dark… he could see what others couldn’t.

“Wait!,” he may have thought…

Had anyone ever seen the sea part before?...  Or the Nile turn red?...

Or was anyone protected by a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of smoke during the day?...

Water flowing from a rock… Bread from heaven…?

Ever?