I wonder how many people we casually cross paths with every day. And of those people, I wonder how many of them don’t know Jesus. And of those who don’t know Jesus, I wonder what it would take for us to create a relationship with them. And of those with whom we create a relationship, I wonder how many of them we would eventually be able to tell our story of Jesus. I would like to share just a couple of thoughts this week along these lines…

Life touches life. A person’s life is best changed through another’s life touching them in a significant way. The opportunity to touch someone’s life will come through a variety of ways: crisis, joy, need, fun, business, and vacation. Those are just several ways God brings people across our paths. The key is availability; we must be willing to enter into someone’s life story. We must be prayerfully looking for God-given opportunities to get involved in people’s lives.

Tell them the story of Jesus. The reason we look for God-given opportunities is so that we can build a relational bridge that will lead us to sharing with them how Jesus changed our life. The key to this is intentionality. We must be intentional about the direction of our relationships. Those who are in Christ will naturally want others to be in Christ. Gospel centered people created gospel partners. We’ve found the secret to a joyful life, and it is for the purpose of sharing this joyful life with others that we make friends out of strangers.

We live our lives for the purpose of interjecting our life into someone else’s for the sake of the gospel. We are not haphazardly stumbling through life. We are looking for those moments when God sovereignly places someone across our path so that we can begin a great adventure with them. And this adventure will prayerfully lead them to the cross where their life will never be the same.

Grace & Peace,

Father’s Day should be a great day for families! I realize that with our current culture in which we are immersed and with the onslaught of Satan’s constant attacks against the family, this may not be the case for some reading this. The fabric of many families has been ripped to shreds, but it doesn’t mean we need to lose hope. No, we have all the reason in the world to hope and celebrate Father’s Day. You may be scratching your heads and asking, “How so, Scott?”

There is comfort and encouragement for all who have been saved no matter the sate of fatherhood in our lives. You see, when we turned to God in real faith we were immediately adopted into a heavenly home and were given a new Father who is God Almighty. He is worthy of honoring and celebrating on this Father’s Day! If we think about it, isn’t every Sunday Father’s Day? Follow my logic if you will…

We sing His praises and thank Him for being faithful to us. A believer’s worship is Father-focused, not self-focused. Our worship is audible and visible: we sing, we pray, we speak and we obey. We do all of this for the glory of God.

We bring gifts to Him every week. I’ve never been in a Sunday service when an offering has not been taken. Christians freely and joyfully give. It is not under compulsion or the treat of expulsion that we give, we give because our heavenly Father has given so much to us. Our giving is a response to the generosity of God.

We regularly eat a meal with Him. Granted, it is not a typical Sunday meal, and it is one that He has paid for in full (No, wait, that’s what father’s do on Father’s Day when they go out to eat with their family!). However, the Lord’s Supper is completely different because it remembers the great sacrificial price God paid to rescue us from sin and rebellion. Nonetheless it is a meal that is totally focused on our heavenly Father and His Son, our Brother, Jesus Christ.

So let’s celebrate our earthly fathers this Sunday, and let’s especially give honor and praise to our heavenly Father every week!

Happy Father’s Day,

How do you approach prayer? What attitude is evident when you pray? What are your motives when you pray? What desires, passions, sorrows, joys, and emotions are present when you pray? Prayer is talking to God who has already started the conversation with us. Prayer is an act of obedience toward a loving heavenly Father who spoke first.

I think too often we approach prayer casually, conveniently, cavalierly, selfishly or only as an emergency when we can’t figure things out on our own. We don’t treat our conversations with God as a beautiful time of fellowshipping with and talking to our intimate Father who is in heaven. Prayer should never be an add on or a tag to the end of something (dinner, our day, a close call, etc.). Prayer should be part of the warp and woof of our daily lives.

Let’s look at Jesus as an example of how to approach prayer…

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

He got up, He got away and He got down to business. Jesus didn’t want the noise, the pressing needs or the clamoring crowds of the day to steal His time of talking with the Father. He was very intentional about prayer, and His followers should do the same.

Take time to meditate on what Mark observed about Jesus and ask the Lord to challenge your prayer life. The way we approach prayer says a whole lot about how serious we believe God can handle things in our lives. It reveals our trust in God.

Grace & Peace,