Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may be able to determine what God's will is -- what is proper, pleasing, and perfect. - Rom. 12:2

When we fulfill the calling that has so clearly been placed on our lives by Jesus Christ Himself, we will see miracles. We will see the kingdom of God advance in power and in might. We will see things be made right again. We will see order come where there was confusion, we will see health where there was sickness. We will see freedom where there was bondage. We will see hope where there was despair. We will see life where there was death.

Don’t settle for less.  Live for the best.  Michael.

“As he thinks in his heart, so he is.”

Proverbs 23:7 NKJV

To listen to our vocabulary you’d think we are the victims of our thoughts.  “Don’t talk to me,” we say.  “I’m in a bad mood.”  As if a mood were a place to which we were assigned (“I can’t call you.  I’m in Bosnia.”) rather than an emotion we permit.

Or we say, “Don’t mess with her.  She has a bad disposition.”  Is a disposition something we “have”?  Like a cold or the flu?  Are we the victims of the emotional bacteria of the season?  Or do we have a choice?

Paul says we do: “We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

Do you hear some battlefield jargon in that passage—“capture every thought,” “make it give up” and “obey Christ”?  You get the impression that we are the soldiers and the thoughts are the enemies.  Our assignment is to protect the boat and refuse entrance to trashy thoughts.  The minute they appear…we go into action.  “This heart belongs to God,” we declare, “and you aren’t getting on board.”

Think twice today.  Michael

The bottom line of everything in our lives should be to glorify God. We should seek that glory constantly. 1 Cor. 10:31 (NRSV) So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

Creation itself is for God's glory: Psa. 19:1 (NIV) For the director of music. A psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

We are to thank God, in order to glorify Him. 2 Cor. 4:15 (NRSV) Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

We are to be hospitable, to bring God glory. Rom 15:7 (NRSV) Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

The difficulties we face, are to be for the glory of God.

John 9:1-3 (NRSV) As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.

"Our" successes should bring God glory, also, for we could not accomplish them without Him. Exo 14:17 (NIV) I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The bottom line is: Our lives, our walk, should be glorifying God constantly.

5:6 While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6

      Christ died because he would die; other men admitted to the dignity of martyrdom are willing to die, but they die by the torments of the executioners; they cannot bid their souls go out and say, “Now I will die.” And this was Christ’s case: It was not only, “I lay down my life for my sheep” [John 10:15], but he says also, “No man can take away my soul; and I have power to lay it down” [10:18]. And, de facto, he did lay it down — he did die before the torments could have extorted his soul from him.

Many crucified men lived many days on a cross. The thieves were alive long after Christ was dead, and therefore Pilate wondered that he was already dead (Mark 15:44). His soul did not leave his body by force, but because he would, and when he would, and how he would. . . . Christ did not die naturally, nor violently, as all others do, but only voluntarily.

In this life, our Lord chooses the right time for us as he did for himself.  Trust His timing.  Michael

Allen Johnson, a conservative evangelical Christian living in the mountains of West Virginia, is an environmental activist and cofounder of Christians for the Mountains, a group of people who have demonstrated against coal companies and participated in Rainbow Family gatherings.

Allen hopes that environmental stewardship will quickly become a unifying issue for Christians across the nation. “God has called all of us seriously,” he says, “and we should agree on one thing: to take care of his earth.”

Allen’s passion for environmentalism began in 1993 while visiting Haiti with a Christian Peacemaker team. He saw desperate farmers cutting down grapefruit trees to make a cash crop of charcoal. “I just started sobbing,” he says. “It really hit me that impoverishment is so closely tied to environmental destruction.”

Since that day, Johnson has been a pioneer in a growing movement called “Eco-Christianity.” His biggest challenge has been convincing other Christians to join him in the fight instead of labeling him a “New Age wing nut” or a liberal. “My identity is not as an environmentalist,” says Johnson. “It’s as a Christian. Because I am Christian, I should be involved with social justice — the poor, the needy. Environmentalism is one thing in my circle, but it’s not my center.”

Tending to this world is what He told us to do.  Let’s do it.   Michael

"After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him." Luke 5:27-28

How we struggle to live our Christian lives! Some banter about the right doctrine or the right church. Others argue how we should worship or what version we read. But Jesus took a very simple approach to our discipleship. Just follow Him! Listen to His words. Consider His message and ways. Ask yourself always, "What would Jesus do?"

Christian faith is not complex just demanding. It is looking to Jesus each hour and chatting with Him along the way. It is completing the statement, "Jesus and I talked about that." Talk to Him. Often. Michael.