Just recently received the following devotional from Zondervan and it hit me where I am at. Jim Cymbala makes a really good point here. Especially as we enter a time of year where our focus “we say” is on Christ and celebrating His coming to Earth. If we are really trying to follow God and reconnect with Him than shouldn’t we really look like him?

One of the greatest spiritual self-deceptions is the idea that we are living close to God even though we care little about the people around us. This simply does not square with 1 John 4:8: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” We can study the Bible as diligently as the Pharisees did; we can boast in our doctrinal statements; we can raise lots of money and build impressive church campuses. But if we are not loving others, including those who are unlike ourselves, we are ignoring the truth of 1 John 4:20, which says, “If we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen.” It’s as simple as that. (You Were Made For More)

Well, I’ve heard God calling me in an area of my life and I have been putting it off for far to long. I keep dreaming of what reconnectwithgod.org could be. I so desire to connect or reconnect people with God. But the sad thing is I’m making no effort with my own family to keep them connected with God.

I am hoping that will change starting tonight. I have just enacted a plan that I believe God has been calling me toward for the last few months.

Why did it take so long? you ask…

Two things – rationalization and pride. I keep waiting for the perfect moment to start. And it finally dawned on me that there is no perfect time. You just have to start. Hit the ground running and keep going.

Second, I was and still am scared to let my kids down. I fear the embarrassment or awkwardness that could result. What a stupid reason to put off such an important part of my job as father and head of the household. Is how I feel more important than the spiritual life of my kids? NO – sometimes I wonder why I think the way I do….

So starting tonight, I am embarking on The Purpose Driven Life for 40 days with my daughter and a scripture memorization challenge with my oldest son. I am doing this to sharpen them but to also keep me in the word and learning. Who better to keep you accountable than your kids? I guess you could call that putting my pride to good use… After all I don’t want to fail in front of my own kids…

Yeah, as I embark on this journey I plan to blog my thoughts here to share with whomever my want to read them.

My verse with Ryan:
then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. – Philippians 2:2

His verse:
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. – Philippians 1:27a

And with Megan – tonight we are reading the Introduction to The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Every three or four days we will be getting together to talk about what we are going through.

This should be really cool! Follow our progress here (hopefully)

2. An understanding of and belief in what God did on our behalf to redeem us as well as restore our relationship with Him

I could spend a lot more time studying and writing about who God is but I want to move on to the other three points of the Non-Negotiable of Following Jesus. God has done so much more for us and I hope to give an overview to some of the infinite number of things God has done on our behalf.

God Created Us…
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

It seems like a pretty obvious point. Of course, God created us. But how many times have we taken that obvious truth for granted?

God not only created us, but He created us in His image and likeness. Think about that… No other created thing, living or not living, is made in His image and likeness except for us. Only man and woman are created in such a way that they reflect who God is and what He is like.

The idea here is not that we physically look like God but that our soul, our essence, and our abilities all combine to gives us a better view of who God is. We create, we have emotions, we forgive, we desire mercy, and we demand justice – whether we like it or not, everything we do reflects God is some way.

Then next logical question would be, Why? Why did God create man and woman, when He already existed in perfect community and fellowship with the Son and Holy Spirit?

I believe that God created the humans so that He could share the perfect fellowship and community that He experiences with them. He did not need humans for any reason. He wanted to create a being that did more than just followed instructions. One that has the ability to choose to love and choose to live in relationship with God.

With that freedom of choice, comes the possibility of pain with wrong choices made. In the Garden of Eden, the first man and woman were faced with a choice to follow what God had said or to satisfy their desire to be more like God. With the deceptive assistance of a serpent, Adam and Eve made a choice that would effect the relationship between God and humans for a very long time.

God Pursues Us…
There are examples all throughout the Bible about how God continually pursues those He loves and has created. It is clear that the deep desire of God’s heart is to be in a relationship with the ones He created.

The nation of Israel is a good example of how, time and again, God would pursue them despite their continued rebellion and worshipping of other gods. Over hundreds of years, God continually brought the nation of Israel back to relationship with Himself but they would always fall away again.

Jesus, in His search for His 12 disciples, pursued them. “As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. (Mark 2:14)” In a culture where it was the students who normally sought out the teachers, Jesus handpicked the ones He wanted to follow him.

The key point is that God pursues us constantly. He works long and hard over the life of His created beings to enter into close fellowship and relationship with them. But ultimately, it is our choice whether we come near to Him (Come near to God and he will come near to you. – James 4:8a)or end up eternally separated from Him (For the wages of sin is death [eternal separation from God] – Romans 6:23a).

God Redeems Us…
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

Right from the first pages of the Bible, we begin to see God’s plan for the redemption of His people being revealed. A sacrifice would be needed in order to pay for the wrong choices (sins) of the created beings.

Adam and Eve’s sin revealed their nakedness to them and it was the sacrifice of an animal that allowed for that nakedness (shame) to be covered up. (Genesis 3:22)

God provided a lamb to replace the near sacrifice of Abraham’s son Isaac. (Genesis 22)

A lamb’s blood was used to protect the Israelites when the angel of death passed through Egypt and killed the first born. (Exodus 12:1-12)

The sacrificial system of the nation of Israel accounted for the atonement of sins through ritual sacrifices of various animals.

Ultimately, God’s plan led to Jesus. The Son of God come to earth with one main mission – To be the once for all sacrifice for the sins of the those God had created. The suffering, death and ultimate resurrection of Jesus is the culmination of God’s plan to restore the possibility of relationship directly with Himself.

All we need to do is believe and accept this gift of Grace that Jesus has present to us. We all sin. No one can argue with that. All of us, Jesus Followers or not, make wrong choices but that is where the eternal grace and forgiveness of Jesus comes in. It covers our sins, erases them from our record. It gives direct relational access to the God of the Universe who so deeply desires our fellowship.

God Guides Us…
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. – John 16:13

God is there for us.

He provides the Holy Spirit in our lives to help us with the day to day struggles of life on planet earth. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? (1 Corinthians 6:19)”

He provides us with His truth revealed in the Bible. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)”

He also provides the wise council of those who have gone before us. Whether it be, a pastor, a sermon heard, or a solid book written by a fellow Jesus follower. We can learn so much from those who have gone down this same road before us.

let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance – Proverbs 1:5

Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. – Proverbs 9:9

For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure. – Proverbs 11:14

The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice. – Proverbs 12:15

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. – Proverbs 15:22

Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. – Proverbs 19:20