Did you know…

• The earth’s circumference at the equator is 24,901.55 miles?
• The earth’s circumference between the north and south poles is 24,859.82 miles?
• The earth’s population is around 7 billion?
• That 70% of all the earth’s surface is covered in water, and oceans hold 96.5% of all water?
• There are 196 countries in the world?

Though children absorb most of this information in their elementary school years, these facts still entice us to awe if reflected upon. We live on a massive planet comparative to our size, and most of it remains underdeveloped.

Yet, because of technology and modern advancements, the world stands at our fingertips. Transportation enables us to travel faster than ever; planes travel the width of the world in mere hours. Information transformed from dusty books standing on library shelves to keyboards and mouse clicks. What used to take people hours to research now requires but a click of a mouse before instantaneously appearing on a conveniently perched screen.

We’ve somehow found ourselves in a small world. Adventures transformed from physical endeavors to ones in cyberspace. We’re at once capable of doing more than our grandparents ever dreamed of, yet find ourselves bored and stagnant.
What happened? Have we become so disillusioned in our technological capabilities that we overlook eternal perspective?

I fear we have.

Technology, though fabulous (trust me, I’m the kind of girl who took a cordless curling iron to a camping trip on the beach), renders unfortunate side effects that dull our minds and stipend our hunger for the eternal.

Ancient peoples looked to gods because to explain earthly phenomenon. They believed rain to be a blessing and a drought to be a curse—both directed at them personally. A simple life required simple faith and simple belief.

Such belief fails miserably today. A modern world requires modern answers. Educated people require answers fitting within their educated perspectives. Or so we think.
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Religions evolve like technology; but the one who remains the same regardless of past, present and future is Jesus. Jesus alone answers the tribal native in the jungles of Brazil and the CEO of America’s fastest growing company. Jesus’ story reaches the ghettos of inner cities and the palaces of esteemed royalty.

Gravity. An enticing phenomenon no person avoids or escapes. Inventions like the airplane manipulate gravity to suit their purposes, but no invention (or life for that matter) operates without it. Like gravity, time exists as a inexplicable phenomenon in the realm of the intangible. Our lives abide by time regardless of the schedules we choose. Same with the concept of space. We maneuver items, buildings and rooms to suite our local space preferences, but space forces our hands to deal with allotted portions both locally and universally.

Gravity, time, and space exist outside our control and ability to create. Natural phenomenon such as these mystifies us and demands our adherence. They render us incapable of denying or defying them; if we try, we incur stupendous consequences (i.e. denying the existence of gravity amounts to serious pain if put to the test by stepping off a building).

Scientific laws and natural phenomenon find their origin in God. A catastrophic and random explosion of magically appearing molecules may produce some form of scientific mumbo jumbo, but not the birth of a meticulously orchestrated universe and earth. Only the God of the Bible exercises the creativity and power necessary to command our incomprehensible universe into existence while fashioning every molecule, atom and creature according to His distinct purposes.

To think otherwise belies both utter madness and futility in brain functioning, or spiritual blindness akin to lifeless senses.

Unfortunately, both stinted brain functioning and spiritual blindness prevent God from residing in His rightful place in our feeble hearts. We quickly suppress critical thinking and settle for existing in our own little worlds, expecting God to oblige our dimwitted perceptions of reality. Our actions and words “test” God as if He exists to serve us and merit our favor.

The moment creatures deceive themselves into thinking they equate with their Creator (and can therefore demand and manipulate His actions); they plunge forward to an inevitable disaster. We (created and fallible human beings) control nothing, including the little worlds we exist in! Yet in our pits of depravity we feel like we possess the right to demand actions from God—that we can manipulate Him into performing in ways pleasing to us.

Displaced perspectives serve as phenomenon themselves. Such perspectives cause hilarious laughter until we realize the sheer tragedy they incur when believed. Creation binds fallible creatures by stinting their perspectives. Aspects of creation fail to grasp the comprehensive reality outside themselves because perspectives form by first-hand experiences.

Minute creatures experience their immediate surroundings and little else of outside those influences. Even if we manage to look beyond our local situations, we act solely in roles of observation. We may draw conclusions about the functions of life and this universe based on what we observe, but we always land short of comprehensive truth because our observations originate from limited perspectives.

Understanding our finiteness drastically impacts our relationships with God. Our stance before Him (totally dependent) remains the same regardless of our awareness of the posture. If we think of ourselves outside God’s sovereignty or refuse to accept His Lordship, we only deceive ourselves. We’re accountable to Him whether we own up to it or not. When Christ comes again He’ll illuminate everyone’s mind with His truth, but by then we’ve already chosen the object of our loyalty—Him or us.

Gideon struggled with understanding his posture before God. He arrogantly expected God to adhere to his perspective, not the other way around. Instead of taking God at His Word, his blatant distrust attempted to force God’s hand to cushion his feeble faith. Amazingly, God obliges…more than once.

Gideon said to God, “If You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken, behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken.” And it was so…Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let Your anger burn against me that I may speak once more; please let me make a test once more with the fleece, let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground.” God did so that night.
Judges 6:36-40

Rather than submitting to God’s sovereignty and encompassing power as Creator of the universe, Gideon shakes in his boots and pompously decides God must prove Himself. He fears his fellow creation instead of the Creator. This willingly displaced perspective resulted in short-sided (and utterly selfish) requests for God to step into his world and meet his demands.

We err similarly every day. Exercising trust in our physical senses rather than God-mandated truth pushes us deeper into faulty logic and stinted perspectives.

Though totally comprehension of God’s Gospel and His purposes elude us (and will continue doing so while living in the confines of this universe), He still desires us to pursue Him. He longs to align our perspectives with His, which only results through an intimate relationship with His Word.

Practicing truth and watching it manifest in our lives derives first from knowing it, and then from submitting to it on God’s terms. Let’s get over ourselves and let God arise to His rightful position as Savior and King in our lives. Strive to enter His presence and perspective, not appeal for Him to oblige our misguided and feeble minds.
 

People are people. Though thousands of years have come and gone since Adam and Eve, the nature of humanity remains the same. It amazes me how unique we each are, yet how similar the thread of humanity weaves into our nature. We’re predictable, can be categorized by different personality types, maintain similar preferences, and mirror sheep in our congregational followings.
The same yet different, which is precisely how God made us. Only He knows why.
He created us in His image and for His glory. One aspect of our lives expressing said image is our capacity for relationships. From birth on, relationships immerse us. We automatically belong to a mother and father, sometimes siblings, and we grow to find friends. Other relationships we encounter remain distant—between us and the store clerk, our bosses, coworkers, and clients. Relationships span as far as the horizon and impact every area of our lives.
One peculiarity we experience at some point in relationships is the “elephant-in-the-room” phenomena.  Far from fortunate, elephant-in-the-room situations stint our relationships and can extinguish authenticity quicker than birthday candles on a cake.
A relational “elephant” is any unresolved issue, problem, or behavior left unaddressed. If not confronted, it grows from a baby elephant (a minor issue) into a big elephant (a huge issue) laying a thick blanket of awkwardness in every conversation and interaction.
Honesty and humble confrontation prevent elephants-in-the-room effectively. However, sometimes the situation remains out of our control, and we’re left (because of status or other confine) working around the elephant.
Though surprising, Jesus encountered elephant-in-the-room situations. Of course, He (being God-incarnate and everything) picked up on elephants when everyone else remained ignorant. He perceived the hearts of individuals around Him. Definitely not a pleasant ability.
One such experience involved His relationship with Judas Iscariot—the disciple infamously known for betraying Him. Can you imagine the tension? Judas followed Jesus as His disciple (which meant student or personal apprentice far exceeding any practice of the sort today). He observed and participated in His ministry for dozens of months—witnessing miracles and listening to truth all in the context of being in Christ’s inner circle.
One can only imagine the elephant-in-the-room between those two. The other disciples most likely remained unaware of the beast, but Jesus and Judas knew, and it must have plagued them both mercilessly.
The tension climaxed at the Last Supper, the meal during which Judas would leave early to officiate the betrayal.
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His house had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and…began to wash the disciples’ feet.
John 13:1-5
Did you catch Jesus’ response to the elephant-in-the-room? Well aware that His time had come (He would soon die on the cross for the sins of humanity and rise again to be with the Father, ushering in a new era of His kingdom), He humbled Himself. He refused the address the elephant because He knew Gethsemane was coming, yet in His final moments with Judas, He performed the greatest act of humility known to man at the time—He washed His feet.
Jesus died for Judas. He died for his sins just as He died for yours and mine. The elephant wouldn’t get in the way of what He was called to do, and He refused to let it interfere. Sometimes we must do the same.
Though oftentimes it’s appropriate and commendable to clear the air and work to eliminate the tension, sometimes it’s unavoidable. If so, we must push on and fulfill the role God calls us to. We must not allow inconvenience or awkwardness stand in the way of His calling in our lives.
If we do our best to deal with a situation yet it remains unresolved, surrender it to God and pursue what He’s called you to regardless. Christ knew Judas’ heart. He knew what Judas was planning and what he would do. He knew all this from the beginning, but allowed it anyway. He never compromised God’s plan for His own comfort, even if it meant dealing with an elephant-in-the-room situation for months.
Relationships weave in and out of bad and good, rich and sour. God calls us to be at peace with all men to the best of our ability, yet without neglecting His purposes for our lives. If ever a discrepancy between the two arises, follow Jesus—humble yourself, and let God’s perspective and purposes reign as your own. Master the elephant; don’t let it master you.

A good name is better than a good ointment, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad a heart may be happy. The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.
Ecclesiastes 7:1-4

Yes, Solomon needs a hug. He may suffer from a bit of depression, and probably qualifies for several rounds of counseling. But woven throughout his somber state exists truth—difficult, but necessary for wisdom and spiritual growth.

First, reputations trump goods. Mingle in a room with at least two other people and we inherently meander toward the person of better character and reputation. Any friendship matured beyond the realm of superficiality finds substance in the moral fiber of the other individual, not his/her stuff. True, riches and wealth attract people and may even create the allusion of friendship, but eventually someone richer, wiser, and more astute arrives on the scene and steals any affection away.

We relate to and interact with people based on their reputation. But we attribute intrinsic value and worth in relationships to the type of reputation and character of a particular individual. Character sustains relationships and serves as the fuel to keep them going. Depth of interpersonal connections reflects the profoundness and compatibility of the individuals. Once compromised, the relationship fractures and rehabilitation (if at all pursued) requires significant effort from then on.

Stuff produces infatuation, not sustainable relationships. Reputation and character trump worldly wealth and assets in the realm of worthwhile relationships.

With the brief backdrop of the vitality of character in our relationships, the Teacher declares the value of the day of death over the day of our birth. Anyone paying attention to the text pauses a moment at this point. The wisest man who ever lived, the man who received his wisdom straight from God Himself, asserts death’s worth over birth? Seems a bit odd.

Odd indeed. But at what point did truth begin mandating conventionality? Unfortunately, nowadays truth stands largely outside the realm of popularity. Solomon’s statement here exposes a trend that continues for generations on end.

The day of one’s death reigns over the day of birth for a couple of reasons. One, the endless treadmill cycle of mundane existence ends with death. Solomon touches on the continuous monotony of life several times throughout Ecclesiastes and reveals its only escape—looking beyond the sun and then finally getting there through death.

Second, death provides inexplicable liberation for those living beyond the sun. Christians wrestle with unnerving tension every day. We live in a fallen, broken, and fading world. The affects of sin (both internal and external) bind us and force us to depend on Christ’s sustaining grace for peace and joy amidst the abhorrence and mundaness of daily life.  We find ourselves trapped in a world leading nowhere, and we must counter it daily by investing in our eternal lives beyond the sun. Death frees us from the tension and releases us into unhindered glory—to bask in the majesty of our Maker and frolic about in the freedom we’ve tasted in bits on earth.

Our birth ushers us into a broken world where hurt serves as a baseline and goodness accents the path every once in a while. The day of death for a believer transfers us into full glory of His goodness, rid free from the broken fallibility of this world. Death consummates the relationships with Jesus Christ we entered into while on earth.

Though outside the realm of popular thought, death trumps birth in the life of a believer. Before we fall into depths of dejection and forlornness, we must acknowledge God’s intent for us to live in this world—fully aware of the tension we must live with. He uses everything—both evil and good—to accomplish His divine purposes, and faithfully provides us glimpses into our ordained eternity with Him along the way.

While living, Solomon advises the profit of entering houses of mourning rather than parties and orgies of pleasure. Already establishing Solomon needs a hug, we look beyond that fact to observe the truth of his words. Funerals hardly amount to desirable events on our social calendars. However, the wise strive to remain aware of the truths typically contemplated while attending them.

Deep conversations of life’s most philosophically challenging truths rarely surface at parties. Friends, laughter, food and drink usually produce happiness and freedom from somber contemplations. Funerals, on the other hand, accomplish the opposite by forcing us to ponder tough realities of our finiteness and mortality.

Our character develops far more profoundly during life’s valleys than mountaintops. A wise man once said, “Valleys develop our character; mountaintops reveal the character developed.” As depressing as it may seem, keeping our minds “in the house of mourning” rewards the development of our character and wisdom far beyond “the house of pleasure” ever could.

Is Solomon advocating our existence in a constant depressive state? Not exactly. Though admittedly tired of this world’s empty promises, he challenges us once again to look beyond the sun; and if ever given a choice, choose to ponder the eternal instead of mindless numbness of pleasure here.
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God created us for eternity with Him. Don’t get sidetracked by the empty pursuits of this world. Man cannot escape death, and we benefit from pondering our own mortality from time to time. Let your intellectual and spiritual endeavors thrive in accordance with God’s truth and eternal glory. Enter into His truth, and let His glory shine in life, death and everything in between.
 

Regardless of personal opinions regarding war, we all owe our deep respect and gratitude to the soldiers who serve our country. They fight, defend, protect, and secure us—accomplishing everything within their power to ensure our freedom and safety. The minds and experience of our military leadership astound anyone who lends an ear, and their selfless dedication to our country too often goes unnoticed.
God blesses America far beyond our ability to comprehend, and each individual experiencing the freedom within our country should ardently pray for those He installed as our leaders. Even if we vehemently disagree with our leaders or find ourselves disgusted with the politics that rampage our government, God charges us to pray. No leader reaches heights of power without God’s permission, and He challenges us to trust Him and storm His throne on behalf of all our leaders—brilliant or not.
Obviously, beseeching God on behalf of our leaders comes easier when they make decisions we agree with. But what if they draw lines in the sand that make us squirm? Average citizens aren’t privy to the information our leaders sift through when making decisions, and sometimes, we find ourselves pleasantly surprised in hindsight when a decision turns out for the best. (Though, these moments admittedly occur less seldom as time progresses).
Unlike America, ancient Israel operated in a theocracy—meaning God alone served as their King and government. He installed prophets and judges to enforce His laws and serve as His hands and feet (police officers, if you will) among the people. Ultimately, any human leadership readily acknowledged their submission to God’s authority.
Once such leader, ordained by God to serve as a prophet and leader among His people grew from a childhood of ministry service and thrived in the calling God placed on his life. Samuel remained faithful to God and humbled himself before God’s authority and leadership even when he reached prominence among the people of Israel. He endured several years of Israel’s rebellion on several occasions, yet also witnessed their desperate returns to God.
One such return followed a brutalizing defeat at the hand of the Philistine army. After 20 years of suffering its effects, Israel returned to God and began following Samuel’s ordained leadership over them. When life seemed peachy, chaos loomed around the corner. The Philistines once again formed their troops around Israel with intent to attack, and Israel threw themselves at the mercy of God’s feet via Samuel.
Imagine the scenario for a moment. Grave enemies surrounded Israel and slowly inched in to their territory. Israel existed without significant military or leadership, just recently recommitting themselves to the Lord. Training eluded them, and unpreparedness punctuated every aspect of their leadership and functionality as a people. In the midst of political and social destitution, they find themselves an easy target for a greatly feared enemy posing to launch their arrow of death. Israel easily could’ve coined the “freak out” market with this one.
Instead, they turn to God by pleading with Samuel to pray and intercede with God on their behalf. Samuel obliges, and we enter into a ridiculous scene.
Normal people would franticly prepare for attack running around, embracing loved ones, hiding in the most creative of places—all in a last-ditch effort to survive. Not Israel. Instead, they attend a church service. They worship God and focus intently on Him, supporting Samuel as their liaison all the way. The louder the Philistines pound their chests, the more adamant Israel grows in their steadfastness. They choose to invest in the weapon of faith over traditional weapons of war.
To the world, this approach amounts to utter foolishness and senselessness. No rational bunch of human beings sing praises and worship God when the enemy places an enormous bulls eye on their backs!  The military elite of our country would hardly substantiate this as a viable course of action. But God once again reveals how His truth and this sinful world diametrically oppose one another.
Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel. The men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them down as far as below Beth-car…so the Philistines were subdued and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
1 Samuel 7:10-11, 13
God rewards the feeble faith of His people by shattering worldly categories. Israel contributed nothing to this victory. God immersed the Philistine army with confusion and forced them into positions as sitting ducks before the ill-equipped and broken Israel. All glory belongs to God, and only in Him did Israel find victory.
Samuel remained faithful, and God used him to draw Israel back to faith. When a test of faith arrived, Israel passed by clinging to God and His sovereign leadership rather than worthless means of personal protection. The account challenges us on several fronts, yet one shining with distinct sheen causes us to ponder the object of our trust.
The natural five senses God designed us with get us far, but only in this world. When we surrender to Christ, we gain another sense—one that renders us with spiritual gifts, abilities, and insights. He endows us with His perception, if only we’ll choose to embrace it.
Israel embraced God’s sense over their own. Whose sense do you abide in every day? Let God’s Word challenge you to shatter the fallible categories we so quickly place Him in and awake to the realization of His divine sovereignty and purpose in our lives. Only His sense matters. Tune into His, even if it means surrendering your own.

We’re all familiar with the tale of Snow White. A story of pride, beauty, jealously, friendship, and love. One of the most intriguing aspects of the story finds itself in an inanimate object—the mirror on the wall. This mirror, far from stagnate, revealed to its onlooker who the most beautiful person in the land was at any given time. Of course, only contestants for the title would dare voice such an inquiry; and the pride of one self-admirer set the dark plot of the story in motion.
Unfortunately, mirrors spark similar dark reactions today. Though not in magical form, we use mirrors for one purpose—to check and enhance our appearance.
People spend hours each week looking into a mirror, which adds up to days—even weeks—over a period of a year. All that time dedicated to our outward appearance, which reveals more about our character than we’d like to admit.
Now before getting carried away, society ranks personal hygiene rather high, and rightly so. After all, who wants to bump shoulders with an individual reeking of BO in the supermarket? Yet, Americans tend to trade basic standards of hygiene and professionalism for over-the-top expenditures and lavish items designed to enhance appearance.
Is this such a terrible choice? Perhaps not if you can afford the luxury. However, if we’re spending more time in front of a mirror than we are allowing the Word to serve as a mirror to our hearts, we’ve crossed a line.
James says,
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. 
James 1:23-25
Baring some kind of brain malfunction, if we notice something askew in our appearance after looking in a mirror, we do something about it. We quickly pick the piece of food out from between our teeth, we pat down that puff of hair refusing to cooperate, and we remove the toilet paper stuck on our stiletto.
Observation + Action = Change
James hones in on this point brilliantly. If we claim Christ as our Savior, do the church thing, and crack our Bibles open every once in a while for a brief glance, but don’t live out His truth, we don’t change! Observing truth without acting on it leaves us dull and lifeless! Just as it makes no sense to look in a mirror and not pull the piece of spinach out from our teeth; it makes no sense to go through the motions without putting them to action.
The goal of being a disciple of Christ is to grow more and more into His image and glorify Him every step of the way. It’s to become practically who we are positionally in the Gospel. This only happens when we fix our gaze upon God, His truth, and His ways. The more we look to Him, the greater our yearning for action will be, and the more He’ll transform us into His glorious image.
Gaze into Him! Let His Word be the mirror you spend the most time in! What mirror do you need to trade in today?

“While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.” Leonardo da Vinci

Leo delves out a stinger here. So much of our lives are consumed by how to live—what we’re supposed to do, what we think is expected of us, what we need to do to make others think highly of us, and the accomplishment of our bucket lists.

The underlying goals in all life’s activities, though, are purpose, contentment and fulfillment. These dreams fuel the sweat, tears, long hours, and mind-numbing energy of our pursuits. We yearn to live fully and attempt every conceivable path we can to do so.

Regrettably, many of us reach the end of our lives on top of mountains of regrets anyway. We wish we would’ve loved more, forgiven quicker, invested in lives more than mutual funds, and used our time for others instead of ourselves. Standing on the brink of death, we wish we would’ve known more the God we’re about to meet face to face.

Leo’s statement (regardless of intention) reveals how believers attain true life in Christ—by learning how to die. God and His Gospel totally contradict the ways of this world. This world promotes this life as highest priority and utmost importance. The Gospel shouts eternity with Jesus as over and beyond anything imaginable in this world.

Jesus stepped into this world and inaugurated the most profound plan of redemption ever contemplated. With excruciating agony He bore the punishment that we deserve because of our sin. Though His death alone do we access life, because only in His death can we live free from the bondage of our entangling sin.

The struggle ensues when we fail to realize that the Gospel and the sin that poisons this world are incompatible with each other. When Gospel-redeemed children willingly drink the poison of sin the world offers, we slap Christ in the face by refusing to live in His sacrificial death. He reaches down with the antidote at His fingertips yearning for us to grab it; we turn it down and heighten disgrace by consuming more poison.

Paul discusses this tension in Romans 8:12-14:
So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for it you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
How, then, do we live in Christ? By dying to this world. Our goal is not to find purpose in this life, but to rediscover the true, pulse-giving purpose Christ offers in His. Christ didn’t just make the sacrifice and leave it to ourselves to figure it out from there. He gives us the Holy Spirit, who leads us into truth and resuscitates us daily with eternal life.

Eternal life bleeds through our physical lives when we live under the weight of Christ’s Gospel. Genuine purpose and fulfillment only appear when our eyes focus on Him. Our charge is straightforward yet so easily missed—to submit to the Spirit as He puts our sin to death, thereby breathing His eternal life into us once again.

It’s all Him. Jesus paid the price and accomplished eternal life for us. We experience true life by learning how to die—surrendering daily to Him so He can inject the antidote of life into our poisoned bodies of sin. It helps if we immerse ourselves in His Gospel everyday—to dive into the truth of what He’s done so we don’t erroneously try reinvent it for ourselves.

The more we die to our sin, the more alive we become in Christ. Choose carefully what you put to death in this life. It’s either the flesh or the Spirit, walking dead or thriving life. Let Him redefine your reality of life—He’ll blow you away, guaranteed!

Reality TV reveals the most egregious pitfalls of humanity. We waste hours of our lives watching programs that arguably decrease the amount of brain cells in our otherwise functioning brains. Some of us watch shows dedicated to stalking rich families as they engage in outrageous drama, while others stare with gruesome curiosity at scenes within a home whose owner is a hoarder.

Of course, reality TV isn’t the only form of debilitating nonsense available on TV or in media at large. Soap operas, gossip magazines, various forms of music and talk shows hypnotize us with their warped perceptions of reality just the same.

One box-like electronic device sitting in homes enslaves families and transforms minds into waste dumps. Magazines lying casually on tables reach into our minds and captivate them with the material being advertised. Music flowing throughout a room or car wraps itself around our thoughts and injects the content into our perspectives and worldviews.

Media is powerful. It at once sucks us in, repulses us, informs us, twists our perspectives, encourages us, enrages us, and draws out every emotion conceivable. Most of the time, this remains an unseen process. Our reactions to media aren’t often conscious; we simply find ourselves as bait being pulled through murky waters.

Before we get too carried away, media is not inherently immoral. Some outlets are, to be sure, but others remain morally neutral (like sports), and a small few actually dedicate themselves to spiritual growth and maturity.

Engaging in media does not ban us to hell. God doesn’t hate us or think we’re less spiritual if we watch TV, nor are we condemned for listening to rap music or dancing. (King David danced all the time by the way, but that’s another topic for another time.)

Though powerful, media itself is neutral. Our job is to discern how best to engage it.

Exercising our Christian faith is like walking up a downward escalator. As bona fide sinners and justified saints, we wrestle with the Romans 7 tension of walking in accordance with the Gospel while tripping over potholes and boulders thrown at us from the enemy. We often act like we don’t want to, and then don’t act the way we want to. We get confused, disoriented, turned-round and thrown up-side down.

The only way to remain in Christ (and consequently run from sin) is to abide in Christ via the Gospel. That means immersing ourselves daily in His truth and saturating our minds with His plans and purposes.

Media plays a huge role in our conquests of faith. More often than not, it proves to be an agent distracting us from the Gospel. Instead of contemplating on the truths of Scripture, we squander our time by filling our minds with worthless information, empty plot lines, and transparent worldly promises.

Our lives are short. We receive very little time on earth to engage and thrive in faith. We’re given one chance to learn about the greatest display of love and grace this world has ever known (the Gospel), and one designated amount of time to respond to it. Responses range in size and form, including our rest and work, fun and discipline, freedom and discernment.

The challenge we face with media is one of balance and purpose. Is our time with media held in proper balance to the rest of our lives? Do we find ourselves engaging more with it than we do with our families and/or with God?

Are we being purposeful with media or are we letting it define our purpose? Are we diligently discerning the media outlets we fancy? Or do we watch, listen, and read whatever we want whenever we want without a critical view?

The under girding question in our relationships with media is this:

Is media a means through which we worship or an end in which God is ignored?

It can’t be both. As Paul states in Romans 8, “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”

All media should be used to zoom in our focus to Christ, not divert our attention to the peripheral vision of our perishing world. Ask Him to shift your focus to Christ first using any method available—even media. Let Him be the end we pursue, and media remain a means through which it’s accomplished.

No vaccine in the world prevents cultures from the infestation of fads and trends. They’re everywhere and people fall prey to them all the time. From over-the-top children toys to the latest and greatest miracle diet, fads consume us with a compulsion to ride their wave. Unfortunately, many wipe out.
One particular fad of late that’s manifested into a culture all its own is the one of going organic. Health nuts immerge from all walks of life to stake their claim in the organic trend and make it their purpose in every aspect of life.
Living a healthy lifestyle is an admirable goal. But many find themselves riding the wave of all things earth far beyond healthy boundaries appropriate for their lives. Like everything else in life, we need to balance the scales—to exercise our God-endowed stewardship while keeping it in proper perspective with His Word and Gospel.
It’s no accident that we’re physical beings. Our physicality did not arise from the curse of the Fall, nor are our physical bodies designed to keep our spirits enslaved until we die. God created us multi-dimensional—spiritual AND physical.
Because of the fall, Scripture shows us that our physical bodies will not be accompanying us into eternity with Jesus. When Jesus returns we will receive new glorified bodies and exist without pain or suffering, without tears or hurt for eternity.
For now, we live knowing that “our outer man is decaying.” We will die, and we experience the effects of a broken world physically every day. So what are we to do? Be reckless and gorge on whatever physical pleasures we desire?
As Paul would say, “By no means!”
Physical and spiritual cannot be separated. If we suffer an emotional tragedy, it will manifest itself spiritually, relationally, and physically in our lives. Same with physical turmoil and/or sin. Paul gives an example in 1 Corinthians 6 regarding a man sleeping with a prostitute. That physical sin deeply affects the man’s spiritual relationship with God. Thus, we can sin against our own body by allowing our body to fall into sin.
What we do with our bodies matters. God cares about our physical selves, and our relationships with Him are impacted by the physical choices we make. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us why…
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
No building or establishment can hold God or contain His presence, but in the Temple God designated a physical location where He would be represented among His people. With the inauguration of the Gospel through Jesus Christ, the Temple veil tore symbolizing the breaking down of physical barriers to God in Christ. Don’t miss this. With the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, God chooses now to dwell in us—to take up residence within our hearts and lives.
That does not mean God becomes some strange adage to our bodies. We don’t receive a “God-organ” that produces spiritual chemicals of truth that take over our minds and cause us to do His will.
God’s residence DOES, however, provide us with unhindered access to His presence. We can communicate with Him constantly and have access to His power and holiness without obstruction.
When Paul says that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that we have been bought with a price, he means exactly that. God chooses to reside in us through Christ. When we surrender to Christ as our Savior, we are no longer our own. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross purchases us from our bondage of sin and frees us into His future.
This purchase is not limited to our spirits—our bodies are redeemed as well! Physical suffering may not cease, but through all our suffering (physical or not) we’re being redeemed. Exercising diligent stewardship of our physical bodies partners with the Gospel being manifested in our lives.
Once we embrace the Gospel our role is to go deeper into it. Our growth as disciples of Christ is marked by our transforming into His image. In other words, His holiness manifests itself organically in our lives. We organically become practically (in our lives and relationships) who we are positionally (in our legal standings with God).
Our bodies may not glow with His radiant beauty, but our disposition will. The freedom we possess in Christ will absolutely display itself in our physical demeanor and presence. The process is organic. If our inner man is being renewed day by day, it will reveal itself through our physical beings. Not necessarily with immaculate health, but absolutely in our presence because it's HIS presence seen through us.
None of this will happen, though, if we aren’t faithful stewards with the bodies He’s given us. The Gospel isn’t a fad; it’s LIFE. Going organic in the Gospel means letting it radically transform us into the image of Jesus—beginning with our hearts and letting it manifest itself through our physical presence. Go organic by surrendering to His Gospel physically as well as spiritually. It’s the only way to live a life of substance--a life pleasing and in submission to our Sovereign Lord.

​Underdogs. Little excites us more than watching an underdog rise to the top from impossible circumstances. Hearing success stories of disadvantaged individuals rise in the business world, athletics, Hollywood, and academia quickens our pulse and leaves us cheering them on. We can’t help it. We adore rooting for David in his conquest over Goliath.
Our love for the underdog originates largely in our identification with them. Most people aren’t born into privilege and astounding wealth, so when we see fellow comrades rise to the top it’s as if we’re right there with them. The impossible becomes possible and our sense of connection with them imputes their excitement to us.
Samuel is a great underdog of the Old Testament. Life dealt him a harsh stack of cards. His mother dedicated him to the Lord at a young age, which meant leaving his family and living at the tabernacle with a priest and his family. Priests in that day were priests by blood. Samuel didn’t fit in. Priests exercised specific responsibilities as ministers to the Lord; Samuel was their errand boy.
To make matters worse, the priests Samuel lived with left much to be desired in their persons. Eli’s sons were particularly of the scoundrel kind—taking advantage of God’s offerings, sleeping with tabernacle prostitutes, and a host of other gross sins. Their guilt before God transferred to Eli when Eli refused to rebuke them or take action against their behavior. Not only did Samuel not fit in, he had no role model to aspire to—no mentor to guide him in the ways of God or any other moral platitude.
Nothing about Samuel’s life inspired any thought of possible success. Like so many of us, meager existence and survival seemed to be his only destiny.
But God had other plans. He always does.
One night God decided to make His presence known to Samuel. In a familiar story, God calls Samuel twice before Eli realizes it’s God and tells him to answer if He called again. Samuel obeys and finds himself communicating with the God of eternity.
In a twist of events, the words spoken weren’t ones of butterflies and roses. Instead, God pronounces a prophecy of judgment on Eli and his sons for their unrelenting sin. Great. The first and only time God speaks to Samuel is to condemn the only family he really knows to doom and disaster!
Such a prophecy was unexpected and undesired. Little did Samuel know this prophecy would be the inaugural word to begin his calling as a prophet. A mere errand boy living among a family that wasn’t blood and didn’t care had just been ordained by God as His prophet to the people of Israel.
Thus Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail. All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, because the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
1 Samuel 3:19-21
From that point on life would never be the same and it all began in a blink of an eye.
Many of us resonate with Samuel more than we realize. We may never reach fame like Samuel or live in dazzling lights of popularity, but each of us is endowed with a specific calling from God. We may not receive it in a vision or face-to-face, but it’s no less real and tangible in our lives.
How do we discover our calling? The answer is two-part:
He already told us. 
In cosmic terms, we are well-equipped to know and live out His calling for our lives because it’s found in His Gospel recorded in His Word. We’re the underdogs in God’s story—the ones who never had a chance, yet through His incredible grace and unbelievable sacrifice we find ourselves immersed in His mercy and empowered with His might. For reasons still mysterious today, He chose us to carry out the plan of redemption Jesus inaugurated with His first coming. Our role now is to get intimate with the Gospel and pour ourselves into its truth daily. We’re to become practically who we already are positionally in Jesus.
Not discovered; revealed. 
Any and every specific calling on our lives (like the Gospel) isn’t discovered by us, but revealed to us. Just as we have no part in the Gospel other than the reason we need it in the first place (sin) so we aren’t capable of discovering the specific role of divinity He’s orchestrating in our lives. Like Samuel, we’re to live in accordance with what He has revealed in Scripture (a.k.a. the Gospel) and let Him reveal more when He deems necessary.
Ironically, when our eyes are fastened to our Heavenly Daddy, we won’t really care about the specifics of His call in our lives. His glory radiating in and through our lives becomes an organic reaction, not a controlled manipulation.
We’re underdogs rising into His glory by the fuel of His grace. Samuel didn’t manipulate circumstances to hear God’s call on his life, he merely lived by the truth he knew and left the rest to God. Let’s mirror that posture. Let’s concentrate on what He’s DONE and let Him work out the DOING. Let Him be the mastermind behind your underdog story.