In my last message, we discussed the importance of having a personal relationship (part 2) with God. Before that, we discussed the relationship God intended (part 1) for the people He created.

I said, “If we don’t grasp this concept of relationship and continually seek God we’ll miss the boat completely, so why bother?”.

What do I mean by missing the boat?

What I mean is missing out on eternal life and being separated from God for all eternity. Yes! that’s right, let me explain.

Matthew 7: 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

What does Jesus mean by difficult? John 3: 16 sounds easy, “whosoever believeth in him“, but it’s easier said than done.

Believe means trust. This is beyond a belief in your mind, it’s more of a trust from your heart and that’s what makes it difficult.

Then there’s this passage from the sermon on the mount:

Matthew 7: ²² On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ ²³ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

Did you catch that? “I never knew you“. These verses make it clear that the religious busybodies that do this and do that for God, without developing a relationship with Him lose out in the end.

Here is another example:

In the parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, Jesus ends with this:

Matthew 7: ¹² “But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!’

There it is again, “I don’t know you“. This doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t know they exist, it means that Jesus hasn’t heard from them enough to really know them. The bridesmaids were not prepared. A great part of being prepared is getting to know God, in fact, it’s the most important part.

Relationships go both ways

In any relationship, there is a give and take, and God wants to participate in a relationship with you. He wants you to trust in Him, ask Him for things and come to Him with all your cares and burdens. He wants to answer those prayers and give you hope and peace. If you only knew what He wants for you!

Think about a father that keeps inviting his children to visit him and all they do is stop by for an allowance. Maybe they run errands for him and prepare food for him, but then they leave. I can tell you now that dad’s not happy, he’s lonely and disappointed that his kids didn’t hang around and spend time with him. I’m a father, I know this.

Keeping it simple

Luke 10: ²⁵ One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”

²⁷ The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

²⁸ “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”

What does it mean to you to love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind?

For me, it means to love Him with every fiber of my being. To do all that I can to know about Him and listen to His voice.

If our primary focus is not on loving God then we’re being disobedient, regardless of what else we do.

I suggest that you spend more time on your relationship with the Lord than anything else you do. It’s your relationship with Him, not your rituals or Sunday morning attendance that will lead you to an eternity with Him.

If you have questions or concerns, feel free to leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you!

In my last post, “How Well Do You Know God? Part 1″, we discussed how God has always intended for man (men and women) to accept His invitation to know Him and become part of His family.

Acts 17: ³⁰ “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.

We also discussed how we can be very religious, as in reading the Bible every day, praying and going to church every week, yet not know God in a personal way. This reminds me of this passage…

John 5: ³⁹ “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! ⁴⁰ Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

Jesus is addressing the Pharisees, the religious leaders, telling them that they are simply being religious. Imagine that! They refused to come to Jesus and He was right there in front of them! The Scriptures don’t give eternal life, but they point to the One that does! This happens today. People worship the Bible when they make more of the Bible than what it is. If only their leaders could introduce them to Jesus!

The Bible is God’s Word, God’s message to us, but it’s not God.

Any spiritual knowledge we receive from the Bible comes from the Holy Spirit. Even atheists read the Bible, but they fail to acknowledge God’s existence.

Think of the Bible, it’s message, as a key, but the key only works when oiled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Door (John 10:9) and only the Key (Scriptures) with the Holy Spirit, can open the door.

Here’s a passage that makes this clear:

John 4: ²³ But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. ²⁴ For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

The Truth, of course, is the Bible, Knowledge of God, either written or audible and the Spirit is the Spirit of God. This is so simple yet cannot be overstated.

Romans 8: ¹⁵ So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.

You can make Christianity religious if you want.

Sure, make Christianity religious if you want, like so many others do. Say your daily prayers, go to church or mass every Sunday, and even read your Bible every day.

Just know if you do not know God personally, and are not seeking Him (as we’ve discussed) and placing your trust in Him, then you are either religious or in some strange social club.

Only when we have that relationship which allows God to bring true change to our hearts will we be attracting others to Christ through our actions and love. Knowing true change for ourselves and seeing God through others is what sets us on fire.

Do not miss out on this!

If we don’t grasp this concept of relationship and continually seek God we’ll miss the boat completely, so why bother? I’ll explain why you’ll miss the boat next time.

Jesus and His Father want you to know them and to love them with your whole heart.

Isaiah 29: 13 And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.

Doesn’t this sound like our church today?

This is a very personal message and this whole concept of a relationship with the Creator of the universe can be overwhelming. I can only point, direct and lead people to God. The relationship part requires that one makes a conscious, deliberate effort to meet with and converse with the Lord daily.

If you struggle with this, then this is what I suggest: Make your prayers more relational. In prayer, talk to God as though He’s sitting across from you. Tell Him: “Father, I want to know you more. Please reveal yourself to me.“ and proceed to tell Him whatever’s on your mind.

Psalm 55: ²² Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

I’ll wrap up this mini-series next time that I hope will hit this message home.

Do you know God? One can know all about God, but not really know God. Just like someone famous. We can know all about them through media, but do we truly know them?

While I’ve been talking about a relationship with God for a few weeks now, I’ve been assuming that all my readers had a personal relationship with God. But one can be religious without truly knowing the Living God.

What does it mean to know God?

By the way, this topic is what separates all religions from what we understand on this blog. This is how to be a Christ follower, not a religious follower. There is no religion that enables people to be a “friend of God”.

Jesus did not come to start a religion…

He came to grow His family

I confess that I knew about God for most of my life, but I really didn’t know God personally until much later. It was as if God was a distant Father that was always away and never had time for me, but now I know that it was me that failed to reach out to Him.

James 4: ^8a Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

When I finally read His Word diligently, and sincerely sought Him, I discovered God in a way that I never realized. It was like He had this invitation to know Him extended to me all along, but I didn’t actually read the invitation until I finally “woke up”.

We are friends of Jesus

Check out this notable change in the relationship between Jesus and His disciples…

John 15: 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.

We are brothers of Jesus

After Jesus is resurrected…

John 20: 17b “…go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'”

We become friends with God as His disciples and we know from this verse in John 20 that Jesus means for us to relate to His God as our God and His Father as our Father.

These verses seem to cement this concept…

Mark 3: ³⁵ Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Hebrews 2: 11 So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.

Isn’t this amazing, how the Creator of all things desires us to be in His family? This was His intention from the beginning of time.

Our Father calls us His children

1 John 3: 1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.

Can you see that God gave us earthly families to remind and teach us about how we can relate to Him and His Son? But if we don’t read the Invitation He gave us (the Bible), we’d continue in ignorance of these things and remain estranged to Him, even if we do “believe”!

Do know God as your Father?

About prayer: When you come before God, think of yourself as God’s own son or daughter, because that’s who you are! He is there to listen to us and we can take great comfort in that.

My last message, part 1 regarding distractions, ended on a serious note. A topic of utmost importance, remember “There is only one thing worth being concerned about“? It is directly related to how distractions, innocent or not, can affect our walk with Jesus.

Here are two more examples of distractions,  with different outcomes…

King Saul was distracted by the enemy

1 Samuel 13: ⁸ Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn’t come. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away. ⁹ So he demanded, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!” And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself.

King Saul’s distraction was the enemy’s attack and seeing his men slip away. He allowed the enemy to pressure him into doing something in haste yet he was told to wait:

1 Samuel 10: 8 I will join you there to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. You must wait for seven days until I arrive and give you further instructions.”

What was the result?

1 Samuel 13: ¹³ “How foolish!” Samuel exclaimed. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you.

This was the beginning of the end for King Saul, he never recovered from this.

Peter focuses on the distractions

Matthew 14: 29 “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. 31 Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”

This distraction was the wind and waves. He was worried, just as King Saul was.

Can you relate? Not walking on water, of course, but being in circumstances that seem overwhelming and terrifying. I can’t think of a better illustration than Peter taking his eyes off Jesus and beginning to sink. This led him to cry out “Save me, Lord!”.  Do you see that God uses cares and worries to draw us closer to Him?

What does the Bible have to say?

This is my all time favorite verse for dealing with worries and concerns. Because if we can learn to give these matters over to the Lord quickly, the less distracting they’ll become. The fear can linger, so just keep praying and giving it over to the Lord. Meditate on this verse, memorize it, and it will serve you well.

Philippians 4: ⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

When you develop the daily habit of spending time with Jesus it’s easier to focus on Jesus. His Words are fresh in your mind and this will help you survive any storm you face.

Be in prayer. Stay in the Word. Join those that love Jesus.

“Dear Lord I praise your name. Thank you for being patient with me. I am easily distracted. Please forgive me for not focusing on you more. You are my Rock and my Provider, I will continue to serve and seek You. Please help keep my mind on you throughout the day. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

I have a confession…  Not only am I highly distracted but easily distracted. So there, I said it!

We all have to deal with them and they challenge the best of us. That is distractions. This week I want to look at what is causing us to be distracted and what we really need to focus on.

Do you remember this verse from last week’s message, “Are You Being Challenged?”. The parable of the sower is a great passage that illustrates how distractions can inhibit our spiritual growth:

Matthew 13: 22 The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. 

What is distracting us and taking our eyes off Christ? 

Here is a list of some “popular” distractions: TV, radio, friends, family, Internet, neighbors, activities, and video games.

Here is another list of distractions that work in a different way: lack of employment, poor health, money (both lack of and lust of), legal issues, lust, appetite, etc.

Even ministry can be a distraction

I can’t list everything, just keep in mind that anything that is taking our focus off Christ is a distraction, even ministry. 

Not all of these activities are “bad”, of course, but they can all distract us from loving God. 

Consider this example of a distraction:

 Luke 10: 38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. 40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” 41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

We can see here that the distraction is making dinner (serving/ministering). Of course, Martha is saying that Mary is distracted by Jesus “my sister just sits here while I do all the work?”. It’s easy to allow the world guilt us into doing work, but Jesus makes it clear what’s most important.

Focus on what Jesus tells Martha… 

Luke 10: 42: “There is only one thing worth being concerned about“. 

Just think about this… a lot. Consider that Jesus is the One that tells us “Don’t worry” (Matthew 6:34) and we also read “Don’t worry about anything” (Philippians 4: 6) 

And here He’s telling us “There is only one thing worth being concerned about“, which is spending time in the presence of the Lord. This is something we cannot afford to lose sight of. This is the essence of our walk with Him. The time we spend sitting at His feet, “listening to what He teaches“, is how we get to know Him. This is how He knows us!

 Luke 10: 42 “only one thing is necessary” (NASB )

My point here is this: We all get distracted, that is unavoidable. Distractions happen. We, men and women of God, cannot afford to neglect the one thing that is needed. We must spend time at the Lord’s feet.

Be in prayer. Stay in the Word. Join those that love Jesus.

Did you commit last week, referring to the last post? Committing to Jesus makes all the difference when challenged.

When God challenges you, you will either draw closer to Him or stray further away. God is testing you and how you respond makes all the difference. Read carefully to understand your role in this.

If you committed yet feel like a failure, relax. Loving God and making it a daily practice is not that easy and some days are downright challenging. What’s amazing is that I can go to bed at night feeling down, exhausted and frustrated yet I cast my cares on God. Then somehow, some way, tomorrow is a new day. God has a way of picking me up and changing my perspective on things. He miraculously gives me a new attitude. I’ve come to realize that this is a process. Growth does not happen overnight and growth will not occur unless we are challenged.

Consider this passage…

Luke 13: ²³ Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” He replied, ²⁴ “Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. ²⁵ When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

Who ever said the Christian life was easy?

Although this is a simple message:

John 3: ¹⁶ “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

It does not mean it’s easy, this is why Jesus also says:

John 15: ⁵ “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.

The key is to remain in Christ.

Remaining/abiding in Christ requires us to be proactive which will bring adversity.

The parable of the sower is a great passage that illustrates how life’s daily challenges can inhibit our spiritual growth:

Matt. 13: ²² The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.

This is the example of the person who strays. They are allowing worldly concerns (worries, wealth, lust, etc.) to come between them and Jesus.

Contrast that verse with this:

^{Matt. 13: 23} The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

Let me be clear, being in good soil is reading with Word, being in prayer and in close fellowship with other believers frequently. These are the activities that will keep you in Christ. Learn this and you’ll stay in good soil.

For those greatly challenged…

Rom. 5: ³ We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. ⁴ And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. ⁵ And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

This is why it is essential to make time for God each day. Prayer, reading the Word, and regularly spending time with other committed believers is essential to “abiding in Him”.

For resources that may help you in this endeavor of remaining in Christ, visit TheBibleTeam.com.

Does this change your perspective on being challenged?

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

First I’d like to give credit to author, speaker, blogger, and a mentor of mine, Frank Viola. He has been instrumental in getting me started with this blog. Thank you, Frank!

Recently I read one of his blog posts titled “You Can’t Love Christ and Despise His Bride”

He cites three reasons to make his point and the message really hit home with me. I can relate to people that say they love God yet never want to go to church.

Churches can be difficult and “going to church” is not always as pleasant as it should be. The problem isn’t always the church we go to, however, sometimes it’s our heart.

I confess that I used to be like that. I’d call myself a Christian, yet I didn’t make much effort to find a church, much less go to one. That didn’t work out very well because I kept myself isolated from the very people that I needed to spend time with. This was detrimental to my spiritual health.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Proverbs 16:25 (ESV)

Frank hit it on the head when he said: “Knowing Jesus Christ will eventually lead a person to desire the ekklesia in their experience.”

This is exactly what I discovered first hand.

What changed my heart and what gave me a better attitude was seeking Jesus and digging into the Word of God like I never have before. He led me to know how to love Him in return and I haven’t been the same since. As a result of my God-given repentance and yielding to His will, He gave me a heart for the Church (the Body of Christ) that I hadn’t had before. A true desire to be in fellowship with others that have a genuine love for Jesus. Now I’m no longer isolated and I spend much time with the Church.

Not all churches are the same, however, so seek Jesus and the Holy Spirit to lead you back to His family, a group of people that will love you just as Jesus does, although don’t expect a “perfect” place because, as you know we all fall short.

If you say you love Jesus but are not spending time with His Body I encourage you to seek Jesus for yourself, read His word diligently and ask Him to help you find others that will love you and encourage you to grow in Him.

I’ll leave you with this:

1 John 4: ²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?

As I consider the account of Jesus on the cross, between the two thieves, I can’t help but think that Jesus missed an incredible opportunity by not witnessing to the other thief. You know, the one that was not repentant? Didn’t He have all the reasons to convert him, especially when he was about die?

A verse that I read many times before was brought to my attention changed my view of Jesus and my relationship with God entirely when I finally understood it:

John 14: 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.

Whoa, when I finally understood that Jesus did not say anything that He was not told to, that blew me away. Apparently, Jesus was not supposed to say anything to the other thief. Of course, He did talk to the popular thief, the one who pleaded in Luke 23 “42 … “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” Jesus hears his plea and assures him in the next verse: “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

We cannot ask ourselves WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) because the decision we have to make is what is God telling us. 

With the woman at the well, it was a different story. Jewish men did not even associate with Samaritan women, yet Jesus initiated that conversation: John 4:7 “Please give me a drink.”

What Jesus did was rely on the Father:

John 5: 19 So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

And verse  30 

“I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.”

So we clearly cannot base our decisions solely on what Jesus did when He walked the earth, but what God is telling us to do or say today. Of course, there is much to learn and model from reading about our Master, but if we are to imitate Christ as Paul suggests in 1 Cor 11: And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. then we should seek and submit to the Father’s will as Christ did: Luke 5: 16 But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. 

Prayer and knowledge of God’s Word are keys to knowing the Father’s will. Consider the famous prayer in Gethsemane:

Matt. 26: 39 He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

This show’s Jesus humanity and that He sought God during this time of crisis to seek God’s will and of course soon after this He allows Himself to be taken captive, clearly the will of the Father, but not what the disciples had in mind.

I’ll leave you with this verse:

John 15: 5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

Are you remaining in Him?

Have you ever been asked by God to do something out of your comfort zone? Have you ever thought that the Lord might want you to do something but didn’t have the courage? Maybe you don’t think that God still talks to people. Maybe you never think about it.

I believe that God still talks to us, He just uses different ways. I think He can use people, the Word, circumstances and an occasional whisper from the Holy Spirit. Consider this verse:

“The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.” Acts 8: 29

How do you think Philip heard the Holy Spirit? I don’t think it was audibly, but a gentle “nudge” that led him to strike up the conversation with the Ethiopian eunuch.

Read these verses from Mark 11:

¹ … Jesus sent two of them on ahead. ² “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it soon.’”

⁴ The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside the front door. ⁵ As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it. ⁷ Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it, and he sat on it.

This is about as strange as Jesus telling Peter to take the first fish he catches, take the money from its mouth to pay the temple tax. (Matt. 17:27)

I wonder how the two disciples felt as they were walking up to the tied donkey with bystanders hanging out nearby. Do you think they were just a bit nervous or out of their comfort zone? Maybe after three years of seeing strange things and learning that every day was a new adventure with their fearless Leader they had no qualms about it. I don’t know.

What’s great about this is that I’ve learned that Jesus gave clear instructions and told them what to say in case they were confronted. When they did what they were told and said what they were told to say, they were successful.

Knowing that God never changes…

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” – Hebrews 13: 8

we can be certain that when He gives us something to do, He will most certainly tell us what to say when we are confronted and we will be successful as well, just as this passage reads.

I hope this message blesses your day. 🙂