In This New Year Continue To Live In Jesus

Happy New Year! It has arrived. Do you feel any different today? Other than feeling a bit tired from staying up so late, probably not. But here it is, a brand new year and this is the first page of your story in this year. But the thing is, it's not a new book, only a new chapter. This year will only build on what has already been written.

That's the thing, we always seem to be looking for the "new" in our lives. I want to put before you the thought that we should not seek the "new" but instead the strengthening of the current. This is of course assuming that you are already living through Jesus. Too often we want to move on to something new before we have finished where we are and often where we are leads us naturally into a greater form of where we are. There is something to be said about consistency in our relationship with Jesus.

Be honest, the times when we have grown weak is when we have set aside the constant. We fail to understand that Jesus has given us everything we need; we only need to mature in it. It's like a child riding a bicycle. He learns all the basic skills on that very first day but he will increase, mature, perfect those skills. We shouldn't be looking for new experiences in Jesus but a deepening of the present ones.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6-7)

This is an awesome desire for 2013: To continue to live in Jesus. I think most of us long to get back to the first days we came alive in Jesus, to have that passion for the Name once more, but now with a greater maturity of understanding. Our problem is that the years take a toll on us. We forget the principles, the practices, the practical living in Jesus and we allow the stresses and strains of life to bring caution to our living. But living in Jesus has nothing to do with caution.

Don't look to new experiences but instead look to the rooting and being built up in Jesus. Take what you have been given and make more out of it. Go deeper, higher and wider; enrich your experience with Jesus; see vibrant colours added to your already fantastic testimony. Instead of new, expect increase. Seek increase. Live each day with expectation. Looking for the deepening in each moment.

It's not new faith that you need but a strengthening of the faith you have already been given. Stop trying to live your life with Jesus through other people. I love biographies but Jesus and I are busy writing my own and I want it to be brilliant with his glory. This means I must live. I must take risks in faith, if we can even call it risk. It means I need to take Jesus at his word and explore this thing called faith, throw myself with great abandon into his loving embrace. Not just talk about it but live it. Live that love that never fails. Love without thought of self. Allowing God to pour out his blessings to others through me. Making this a year of faith strengthening.

Let's not let go of the old chapters in the hope of starting a new story. God has allowed us to have the testimony of our past for a reason. Don't shut the door on the things God has done but instead be thankful for everything; for desert times and moments of plenty. See the story as God is telling it and be thankful for all things and you will discover a greater richness of praise exuding from every fibre of your being. Make every day a day of thanksgiving and you will soon discover that the complaints of your lips are replaced with the praises to our King.

Realize that God has already given you everything you need, now you have to live it for his glory. Don't set aside what you have been given for the desire for something new, instead look for a deepening of what already exists. Write a new chapter but in context of the previous ones. And above all else, continue to live in Jesus. Continue friends and do it will all your passion. Make sure you are doing more than living for Jesus; live through Jesus and this year will be like no other.

2013: A Year Of The Encourager

As I read through various blogs and facebook pages I see many people are hoping to have a good new year. It is natural for us to desire to have a better year than what we just experienced, desiring peace and prosperity. But I want to challenge you on something as we stare into the dark abyss of this mysterious brand new year. I challenge you to be determined not to look to what you desire in the new year but instead to desire to make it a good year for other people. I challenge you to be an encourager this year.

It's easy to get caught up in the dramas of our own life. It's easy to focus on our desires and our needs. It's easy to lose sight of what is important to Jesus and thus important to us. So I am challenging you to take the more difficult path this year. Take the path that shows your trust in our Father to look after your needs, set aside yourself, and concentrate on what is important to Jesus, which is people. One of the most powerful and lacking ministries in the Kingdom is that of the encourager, yet it doesn't take much; just a few words will do it:

For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. (Colossians 2:5)

We spend a lot of time complaining about people but what if we were to put that energy into lifting people up. Paul pointed out two strong aspects of the Colossian church; they were a people who were orderly and they were firm in their faith. Imagine how those words must have impacted that church. Imagine the next time they faced opposition how those words would have encouraged them to remain strong. Imagine how those words prevented some of the weaker Christians from giving up. Now imagine what your words could do.

To be an encourager is to be a person who understands God's grace. If all you can see in a person is what they do wrong then you do not understand grace. If all you can do is pull a person down and see no value in lifting them up then you do not understand grace. If you can't find two things about a person that are worthy of your praise then you are in need of a refresher course of God's grace. An encourager understands what our Father has done for us through Jesus Christ. An encourager is able to apply that same grace to everyone around them. An encourager sees past the failings to the things God is doing.

We need a lot more encouragers in the Body of Christ. We need people who lift others up, who remind others what God is doing, who remind others who they are in Jesus. We need people who can speak the right words into people's lives, words that inspire, encourage, and cause people to keep on keeping on. Encouragers are selfless, setting aside their own needs to speak into the lives of others. They give of themselves in the same way that Jesus has given to us.

Stop chasing after the things that the world chases after and instead seek the things of the Kingdom in 2013. Make others the priority. Put their needs above your own. Trust the Father to look after you, set aside your complaining spirit, let the words of your mouth only be things worthy of the name of Jesus, things that bring life and not death. Focus on this in 2013 and it will be the most incredible year of your life. Our greatest desire is to be used by God so set your heart on being an encourager and watch what God does. May your 2013 be a wonderfully blessed year as you grow strong in your service to the King.

Changing Priorities For The New Year

Two days away from a new year. How are your resolutions shaping up? We all know that nothing magical happens between the 31st and the 1st but there is a sense of change, or at least the potential for change. There is not a filtering system where everything gets left behind in the old year so we can start over in the new but there are some decisions we can make to be a different person in the new year.

You aren't going to be shocked that I would suggest that it has to start with Jesus. Well, not so much Jesus as it is our attitude in our relationship with Jesus. Everything hinges on that relationship. It is Jesus who changes us so any real change we want to see happen is only going to take place when we welcome those changes.

Personally I know that I have to make other people my greater focus, but that can only happen if I am walking even closer with Jesus. I can clear my agenda to make more time for people. I can change my daily routine to give others greater priority. I can change my financial target so I am investing in people. I can do all this but it won't last if Jesus' love is not my motivation and the only way this becomes my motivation is if it is the foundation of my life. I know for a fact that the greatest thing in my life, in the world, in the universe is the Father's love. But knowing it and allowing that to shape me are two different things.

I will share with you my prayers and desires for myself for this new year:

1. Greater intimacy with Jesus and acting upon that intimacy, allowing it to shape my life so the following can happen
2. Greater intimacy with my wife and acting upon that intimacy
3. Greater intimacy with my family and acting upon that intimacy
4. Greater intimacy with friends and acting upon that intimacy
5. Greater intimacy with strangers and acting upon that intimacy

What I mean by "acting upon that intimacy" is to go beyond words, allowing it to shape the direction of my days, my agenda, purpose and actions. The love of Jesus must be seen in me through my relationship with other people. If all love does is cause me to sing and write I do not know as I aught to know because the love of Jesus compels us to take action. If it doesn't, we do not have the intimate relationship we need to have with Jesus.

My plan of action is simple but will take discipline :

1. Change my agenda to have more time with Jesus, the Word, prayer and worship.
2. Change my attitude so I am back to praying without ceasing, acting upon the presence of God, talking to and remaining open to Jesus throughout my day.
3. Change my agenda to have more time with people. If I want to love like Jesus then I have to have the same priority for people as Jesus did. People are not an interruption to my agenda, they are the purpose for it.

Sounds simple but if you knew what my days look like and the kind of rut I have fallen into you will know exactly what kind of challenge this is for me. But I have no choice. Our days here are growing shorter and we need to get our priorities in order. It is not about what we get from Jesus because we have already received everything. Our focus must be others, loving in Jesus' name. There are so many who are perishing and they have no idea what destruction they are heading toward. I want to be the tool Jesus uses to save them from that destruction. I must make myself more available for him to use.

So, it begins with Jesus. I hope that is where your plans for change begin as well. It's not bad if you have decided you want to exercise more, eat better, read more or whatever improvements you want to see in yourself but I encourage you to consider the eternal matters first. We have been left here for a purpose and that purpose should shape everything in this new year. May the Lord guide you and bless you in your thoughts for 2013.