For Me to Live is Christ...

        I attended Passion 2014 this year in Atlanta, Georgia and during that time I knew that my life was on a rapid track towards change. For the previous eight years of my life I have been in the United States Army. During that time I have spent time in South Carolina, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and Florida. Sometimes living in those places for a significant amount of time or just training there for a few weeks. During those eight years I discovered that God wanted me not to be one person but another. During that time I discovered through prayer that God has a plan for me and I have almost no understanding of the significance of it. While at the Passion 2014 conference I realized that although my family and I had a wonderful security blanket for the past eight years of our lives God was going to provide something better in the near future.
        I am nearing the end of my transition period with the Army and I have yet to find a job in the ministry. However, I have learned that I can hear God speaking through those around me in my life. One of those people is my mother-in-law. She sat me down this week while on a trip to Georgia during Spring Break and had a real discussion with me about why I went to seminary in the first place, what my motivations were, and never to give up on my passions. Then my wife also jumped in and encouraged me to take a different route. I think she might be right on this one. Just as a sidebar I can count on my right hand the amount of times I have been right versus the amount of times she has been right. Then finally I heard God speak through my Father-in-law. He has been a music minister for decades and just pushed me not to give up on what God has called me to do with my life. However, that door might not be open yet.
         Anyone who knows me will tell you I have a problem with humility. One of my issues is that because I think I have great experience I am right about having great experience. What I have learned from family this week is that I might be very wrong about this and that I need to go before God in a humbler way about what he wants for me.
         Philippians 1:21 tells us "For me to live is Christ. To die is gain.".  For me to live a life like Christ is to be humble. This is something I have trouble doing on a daily basis. I grew up in a house where I was praised constantly for athletic talent that has now faded because of multiple knee surgeries. I personally absorbed that praise and since childhood have always been overconfident, cocky and arrogant about my abilities to do anything. A few weeks ago I preached at my grandmothers funeral and delivered what my parents, relatives and visitors told me was a great message. However, I couldn't help but feel humbled and a little proud afterwards. This feeling of pride was the wrong feeling when I finished delivering my sermon. I should have been completely humbled by the fact that I was asked to speak at her funeral and that God would allow me a sinner of such great magnitude the right to preach His word. Christ was humble when he reached out to those he knew needed to hear God's message. Christ humbly submitted to being tortured for our sins. Christ also took on our sins as a sacrifice for us all. So, even as one who teaches God's Word I should never be proud in doing so. Rather, I should be humble when presenting the gospel to those who are saved or unsaved.
           We as christians cannot let the salvation we have received make us feel as if we are an elitist society. If we do we become nothing more than Pharisees. We should approach the unbeliever as humble, loving, and understanding of where they are in life. If we do this I am convinced God will use the Holy Spirit to work through us and them. If we fail to do this we cannot reach those who do not believe because they will see us as no different than themselves. So in conclusion we must die to ourselves and allow Christ and the Holy Spirit to work through us for the betterment of His kingdom.

God Bless