Pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine sent me a 3 minute mp3 of Francis Chan speaking on 1 John 2:6, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”  I was instantly challenged by this short clip and committed to listening to it every day for 30 days as a way of meditating on this one verse.  The audio clip is below as well as an excerpt from an article by Chan conveying the same thoughts.

Audio File

As Christians in America, we often complain about how antagonistic people are toward Christ. Personally, I’m not sure that Americans are really rejecting Christ. Maybe they just haven’t seen Him.

Try to be COMPLETELY honest with yourself right now. Is the following true of you?

You passionately love Jesus, but you don’t really want to be like Him. You admire His humility, but you don’t want to be THAT humble. You think it’s beautiful that He washed the feet of the disciples, but that’s not exactly the direction your life is headed. You’re thankful He was spit upon and abused, but you would never let that happen to you. You praise Him for loving you enough to suffer during His whole time on earth, but you’re going to do everything within your power to make sure you enjoy your time down here.

In short: You think He’s a great Savior, but not a great role model.

Full Article

Came across this article today from October 1.  It highlights the findings of a recent study.

This week, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released the results of a nationwide poll that measured how knowledgeable Americans are when it comes to religion. The poll found that compared to other faith groups, atheists and agnostics knew most about the Bible, church history, world religions and religion in public life. Protestants trailed in religious knowledge behind not only atheists but also Jews and Mormons. – Full Article

The article relates the words of a Texas pastor who sees this study as a wake-up call to the Western church.  It speaks of the need to go beyond the attractional sermons and messages that have Biblical “sound bites” and to work on Biblical growth and spiritual growth that leads to Life Transformation.

How is your Biblical knowledge?  Does it matter?  Share your thoughts?

This quote from Matt Hammitt, lead singer of Sanctus Real, is where I am wrestling today.  (Watch the first video from my last post “The Story Behind Lead Me” to hear it from Matt himself.)

…the challenge for me in the song, and hopefully for other men as well is…every time I hear it, every time I sing it I have to ask myself, What kind of man am I? Not yesterday, not tomorrow, what kind of man am I today? Have I invested in my family emotionally, spiritually the way that God has called me to reach out to them.

What kind of man am I today?  It is a challenging question to respond to on it’s own.  Yet, the aspect of Matt’s quote that I am most struck by is, “…the way God has called me to reach out to them.”  This  centers the preceding question on Christ and what He has called me to as a husband, a daddy, and a man.  I need this perspective daily.  The perspective that what it means to be a man, a husband, and a father is found in Christ.

My mind and the culture I live in create a disconnect between my role as a man and my relationship with Jesus Christ, my role as a husband and my role as the bride of Christ, my role as daddy and my role as a son of the Most High.  But it’s only in the latter roles that the former find their identity, their purpose, and their strength to be lived.  I want to be a man, a husband, and a daddy that lives in the strength of Christ.

A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
~Ephesians 6:10 NLT

This past week my wife shot me an email with a link to the Sanctus Real website.  The home page of the website has the following two videos: the first is the story behind the song Lead Me; the second is the video for the song Lead Me.  As I listened to the story behind the song I was broken.  The message is strong and clear.  It’s a cry to the Lord to be led by Jesus in being a husband and a father.

…it’s the cry of a wife to be loved by her husband.  The cry of kids to be loved by their dad.  And the prayer of a daddy and a husband to be loved by God…and the most important and most difficult task of building my home on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ.
~Matt Hammitt, Sanctus Real lead vocalist, guitar

Take the time to watch the story behind the song. Then watch the song and let the Holy Spirit speak to you. It is a powerful message; a powerful cry to the Lord. It is the anthem of my prayer life right now.

The Story Behind “Lead Me” – Sanctus Real from BrightBulb Entertainment on Vimeo.

I want you Jesus, to lead me as a husband and a daddy!
~Jay

Prayer is about connecting with God.  Connecting with our creator.  It is where we pour out our soul to the one who created it.  The one who knows how to handle it.  The only real one who can handle it.  And more importantly, it’s where we hear Him Speak.  There are far too many followers of Christ in this world who have no idea how to hear from the Lord.  It blows my mind.  What are we doing if we are not listening to the Holy Spirit?  Listening to God?  This is what prayer is!

Yes, it is pouring out our souls, our hearts to our Creator.  But it is so much more.  It is where we are filled up as well.  It is where our Creator pours back into our soul.  To pray to the Lord all of our concerns without taking the time to listen for His response is to engage in a one way conversation.  Prayer is meant to be a two way conversation.  The problem is, many of us are not listening.  Many don’t know how to listen.  Still more don’t even know they are supposed to be listening.

Prayer is both telling and being told, unloading and being reloaded, emptying out and filling up.  When we are only engaging in a one-way conversation we miss out on a lot.  We are missing out on hearing the voice of God; hearing the Lord is vital to our relationship with Him.  I wish everyone would spend more time listening for the voice of God in their lives – starting with me.  Beginning this week, I am setting aside more time in my schedule for prayer, especially listening prayer.