"Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus"

I have spent a great deal of time in the past few months meditating on a verse of Scripture that seems simple to interpret, but in reality is so difficult to consistently put into practice. In Colossians 3:17, Paul said, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Simple to interpret, difficult to apply. I think this verse, if lived out in the lives of those who are followers of Christ, has tremendous potential to impact not only our lives but the  lives we touch each day. Maybe the most difficult word in this verse is everything. Does everything really mean everything?

To many, the implications probably make everything more difficult. Maybe it comes down to our understanding of who God is. If our perception of God is of an overbearing taskmaster in the sky just waiting for us to mess things up so we can have another negative check placed beside our name in his scorebook used to keep us in line, then there is a great deal of pressure on us. Maybe you consider everything as packed with pressure and each day we live on this earth is lived under a holy microscope with no room for anything that could be considered to be a frivolous, non-eternity focused activity. I've lived this  way before, but think God is communicating something much more powerful, and even more encouraging in this passage.

Instead of constantly worrying if everything we do is actually meeting God's approval, what if everything we participated in had a higher purpose than just the enjoyment/beneift of the activity itself? I spent alot of time in the past worrying if the things I enjoyed actually "glorified" God. Could things I enjoy...sports, working out, hunting, fishing be activities I could do "in the name of the Lord" or were they just selfish diversions from what God called me to do? What I feel God has revealed to me in this passage is so encouraging I just wanted to share it. Hopefullly I'm not totally off-base.

Is God okay with the time we spend watching/participating in sports, working out, hunting, etc.? I think the answer is in our relationship (or lack of) with Him, and what we perceive our ultimate purpose in life to be. If the energy I put into my workouts is  purely focused on my health, appearance, or even the fear of getting old or fat (maybe the word fatter is more applicable, haha); then I can actually be consumed with working out for temporal, even selfish reasons. Same for sports, hunting, fishing, or anything else. If the joy/benefits derived out of the activity is the ultimate reason I spend my time/energy on it then it is ultimately an activity that will not please God and could even be self-focused and sinful. But, if having a healthy body to more effectively serve God with is the main focus of my fitness goals or if working out, sports, hunting, fishing increase my circle of influence and allows me to be more in tune with the world Christ seeks to reach through me, then I think God's ok with these activites (as long as I don't get too crazy with them and totally neglect my wife's honey-dos at the house, haha).

I don't expect these thoughts to connect with everyone. I'm sure some will say I'm wrong. But, for those of us who've committed our lives to following Christ and matured to a point in our relationship with Him that our service for our Savior is motivated out of a love for Him and a passion to see Him work through us and in the world instead of fear or compulsion, I hope this post resonates.

What difference will it make?

"What difference will it make?" is one of my favorite questions to ask. If I'm working out, if someone's offering me advice, if my wife has a long list of  "honey-dos" for me to do on a Saturday (haha...well sometimes the question doesn't really need to be asked!) But, I want to ask if the recognition of Easter... all the tremendous worship services we attended, the dramatic presentations of the Passion week, the pretty Easter eggs and the fancy new Easter clothes we all took pictures in today will make a difference in our lives/our culture in the days to come? I hate to come accross as someone who's not very into Easter, but I just wonder what God thinks of the extra attention we place on the cross, the tomb, and the resurrection during the Passion week. I won't even get into all the commercialization of Easter.  The challenge I issue for myself and for any other Christ follower who reads this is to live our lives excited about and motivated by the cross and the resurrection each day. Some may say that it's not possible to maintain a heightened passion for what Christ did through the cross and the resurrection, but if it's not possible to do so how do we reconcile this with our Savior who we say affected all of creationn and history by what He did over a 3 day period 2,000 years ago?

I hate to refer to myself as a "former athlete" but I guess in reality I am. Any team I've ever been a part of  required the team members to be "on top of their game" constantly. If you are committed to being  part of a winning team and desiring to not be a weak link or the reason your team struggled, you make sure you are in top shape and prepared mentally/physically to play every game. The key to winning in sports is to play each game as though it was the last game and the most important game you'd ever play. In sports, upsets take place, dynasties end, players lose their edge when the teams/players lose focus, lose their commitment to excellence, or consider certain games more or less important than others.

Does God desire us to be less focused on what Christ did through the cross and the resurrection on the other 51 weeks of the year? Maybe I'm too hard on myself and the Church, but I sense God revealing to me that the attention we've given Christ this week should be alot more consistent throughout the year. Is it impossible to spend as much energy/attention on the cross and the resurrection throughout the year as we did the past week? Probably so. But, I really wonder if what we say we believe about Christ and Easter would be more real to the culture we seek to see transformed by what we proclaim if we were more consistent in proclaiming and being passionate about it. We had great services, a great Easter production, plenty of people in our churches, but "What difference will it make" for the kingdom of God and in our lives in the days/weeks that follow?

Roughing up Jesus

Last night I played the part of a Roman soldier in a Easter production my church is doing. When a friend of mine asked me to do this, he told me I'd be a Roman soldier and later revealed that I'd actually be grabbing "Jesus", ripping his clothes off, jerking him around, and leading him off to be crucified. I almost said no. Even now, it's not easy to "get into character." Although I know I'm not transubstantially roughing Jesus up when I play this part, it's still difficult for me to get into 100%. Some may laugh at me, but I genuinely asked God as I went through dress rehearsal a few days ago and even as we did the first presentation last night, "Are you ok with me doing this? Am I in trouble?" I did finally get to sleep last night, but woke up with a thought that directed me to a passage of Scripture. I asked myself and maybe you'd like to ask yourself, "Are there times that I re-crucify Christ in my daily life? Do I beat his body with a rod, spit in his face, pluck out his beard, mock him, drive nails into his hands...re-crucify Him?" God led me to a passage of Scripture, Hebrews 10:26-29,  For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,  but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.  Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

As He so often does, God dealt with me through this passage in a way I didn't really see coming. I sensed He told me that my playing a part in an Easter program that ultimately brought glory and honor to Him wasn't going to forefeit my relationship or standing with him (whew, what a relief). What He's shown me is that I live and minister in a culture which has often rejected Him and what Christ did on the cross. God changed my burden of feeling uneasy about "roughing Jesus up" in an Easter program to a heavy burden over so many I interact with each day who may have "trampled underfoot the Son of God" by intentionally rejecting Him, what he has done for us through the cross and the resurrection, and refusing to repent and follow Him. If you read this and you've resisted/rejected Christ, look at the many crosses you'll see this Easter weekend as the ultimate expression of love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and God's only plan for our salvation. I may have roughed Jesus up while playing a part in a program, but I am burdened that so many I see each day continue to symbolically "rough him up" in the way they live and their rejection of Him. I pray that many will submit to Christ and the cross this Easter....maybe some reading this.