by Sam | Jul 9, 2014 | Inspiration, Reflection
One of the buzzwords in the church today is community. And why wouldn’t it be? Who doesn’t love the idea of belonging to a group, having friends, and just doing life together? It seems to be only full of positives! Yet community will continue to only be a buzzword unless people learn to truly submit to one another in the name of Christ. Especially when it comes to discernment. In my own life there have been areas where I literally felt like God was telling me two different things. One day it seemed as if God was pulling me in one direction, and the next, the complete opposite. Was I going crazy? Does God constantly change His mind? What I’ve come to realize is that usually when I am emotionally invested in something, it is hard to be objective and to even hear from God without my own filter. This is where community is crucial. Proverbs (11:14, 15:22) emphasizes how in the multitude of counsel there is wisdom. Wisdom seeks out others. Pride says “I know better” and if it’s something personal, who would know better than me, right? Yet humility is being able to present something to others not just for prayer, not just for feedback, but for discernment as well. I’m all for hearing from God and being led by God no matter what popular opinion might be. I’m all for seeking God until you get an answer, but the truth is I don’t have a monopoly on hearing from Him. I need others to correct me, encourage me, affirm me in what I am hearing from Him, and...
by Sam | Apr 4, 2014 | Inspiration, Pursuitcast, Reflection
No one’s faith grows in isolation. Everyone needs community as well as pioneers, fathers, and mothers in the faith who have paved the way. They are the ones whose stories shape ours. One of those people in my life is Dr. Rob Reimer. He currently serves as the lead pastor of South Shore Community Church right outside of Boston, MA. He also teaches at Alliance Theological Seminary for both the M.Div program as well as the Doctorate program. And that’s where I first met him when I took one of his classes, and since then he has made a tremendous impact in my life. Last weekend I had the great honor and privilege of sitting down with him and interviewing him about revival. His life has been an excellent example to so many of what it means to live in the light and pursue after intimacy with God. He is someone I consider to be a true revivalist and an authentic teacher of the faith. Everything he teaches on and shares about comes straight from his own journey with Jesus. He speaks with authority because he has walked through everything himself. Just being around him stirs my soul for more of God. So when I sat down with him for the podcast, it was no different. The first question I asked him was how he defined revival, and he said it was the restoration and renewal of all things back to the way that God intended before sin entered the world. That means that when revival comes, the sick are healed, the oppressed are set free, the lost are found, the demonized...
by Sam | Mar 21, 2014 | Inspiration, Reflection
My favorite annual sporting event has to be March Madness. Although it pales in comparison to the World Cup and the Olympics, it is by far my favorite out of all the annual championships. It’s full of upsets, inspiration, and excitement (especially this year since you can win $1 billion!). Through the years nothing has pumped me up more for March Madness than “One Shining Moment” sung by the one and only, Luther Vandross. Just watch the video above. How can you not be motivated? I think it’s natural for every single one of us to want to have a shining moment of our own – to have a moment where everything just comes together. We might be the underdog, yet we’re able to come through in the clutch and overcome our challenges. However, what I’ve experienced in life is that the moments where we shine on the big stage are rare. Yet each day we are faced with small decisions to be faithful, to do what’s right, and just be the person God has intended us to be. I’d like to think while shining moments are few and far in between, defining moments are there every single day. Defining moments are those times that truly shape who we are and define who we will become. It’s usually those moments when we are alone and are away from the limelight. It has been said that character is who you are when no one is looking. Every day, there are plenty of opportunities for us to be discouraged, disheartened, and even distressed. We can be brought low by our circumstances, or...
by Sam | Mar 5, 2014 | Inspiration, Reflection
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you…” – James 4:8 There are many great promises in the Bible, and this is definitely one of them. When we draw near to God, He promises to draw near to us. Can you imagine that? The Great Pursuer Himself desires to be pursued; so He invites us to come as close as we want. As we enter into the season of Lent, we want to be a people who desires to seek God and draw near to Him above all else. Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. What is Lent you ask? Lent is part of the liturgical calendar that marks the beginning of 40 days (46 if you include Sundays) until Good Friday and Easter Sunday While Lent doesn’t appear in Scripture, it has been a practice of believers for centuries. Forty days is a significant number because that’s how many days Jesus spent in the desert in preparation before His ministry began. Traditionally people have taken this time to prepare themselves through prayer, fasting, self-denial, and repentance Often times Lent is all about what we give up and our efforts to keep our promises. Yet Lent is more than having self-control and giving something up for the sake of giving something up, nor is it to try and appease God. Religion is man’s attempt to try to control God; to make an unpredictable God predictable based on our behaviors. People do this out of fear… fear of punishment or circumstances or of “missing out”, but we celebrate Lent out of love and devotion. Devotion...
by James | Feb 21, 2014 | Inspiration, Reflection
“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” – Genesis 12:1 When I have looked at the heroes of the Bible, I have always read their stories in awe of the trust they had in God and what God was doing. It has always been easy to read stories like Abraham’s or Moses’ or Joseph’s forgetting that these people were human just like I am, and at the time they didn’t know the end of their story, just like I don’t know the end of mine. The past couple of years have brought me through a myriad of experiences, good and bad. I’ve been put into situations where I’ve had to trust God with everything, and more times than not, I’ve chosen to doubt. Instead of battling the temptation to doubt God’s plan for my life with peace, patience and self-control, I’ve often found myself dealing with my doubt with anxiety, restlessness, and to an extent, idolatry. In my shortsighted and self-dependent faith I had failed to grasp that God constantly uses a theme of displacement and a journey into the unknown . While in a culture where one’s identity and worth was heavily tied down to family and land, Abraham was asked at an older age to travel to a foreign land all for the sake of a promise he would just barely see the fruits of in his life. Even when Jesus calls His disciples, He doesn’t tell them exactly what they are in for, He doesn’t give them an...
by Josh | Jan 21, 2014 | Inspiration, Reflection
“The spiritual life cannot be made suburban. It is always frontier, and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed” -HOWARD MACEY “Safe? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” -C.S. LEWIS The past few months, I’ve been reading and processing John Eldredge’s book called Wild at Heart. A great book that has impacted the season of life that I am currently in. Though the primary audience for this book is Christian males, I believe it speaks to everyone (male or female) and how our faith is being lived out. I’ve been personally reflecting on my own faith and what it means to live as a Christian. There’s many different ways to answer and describe that question of course. But from what I’ve experienced and seen, a few general words to describe it would be: safe, comfortable, and settled. I think a lot of us resonate with those descriptions of our Christian lives but give two different reactions. One reaction is that we simply agree with the description because it’s true and are satisfied with the way things are. The second reaction is that we realize that it describes us so well yet we’re unsatisfied reading that description. We’re left wondering why our faith and life isn’t described as bold and fearless like the stories we read in the Bible. And if we’re honest with ourselves, we all feel like that there is something missing and yearn for something deeper in our Christian lives. I think this desire of wanting something more and deeper reveals that we have...
