War, Lifestyle, and Intentionality Living

Yesterday morning I went on a run and listened to a great piece of a sermon, by John Piper. This will probably ruffle some feathers, he said, "I hear so many Christians murmuring about their imperfections, and their failures, and their addictions, and their short comings, and I see so little war..... murmur, murmur, murmur..... Why am I this way? MAKE WAR!" This is so true. I hear these excuses all the time, and no one ever makes a true effort to fight back. We have so many tools; scripture, church, friends, family, most importantly the Holy Spirit. This same morning I came back and read Romans 8. I really dug into it and pulled so much useful information out of it. How their is no condemnation because of Christ and that we are all set free, God only condemns sin. Everyone basically knows that. But your lifestyle is what really reflects what is in your heart. If you are constantly sinning, then your mind is set on sin, and it is not set on the Holy Spirit. If you are living in sin you cannot please God, Romans 8:8. Yes, we have a sinful nature, but we can be helped by God if we ask the Spirit to help us. We can't do this alone. We cannot battle and fight evil and sin without help. The Spirit will give you life on earth and help counsel you when you are weak and need His help. This once again does not mean that you will not suffer, but it does mean that you can conquer over evil. God subjected us to frustration so that He could liberate us from bondage and decay. If you have all of this, then their should be no excuses, you will not need to murmur. Your lifestyle will look more and more like Christs. This then all rolled over into last nights talk (conveniently). They talked about how we should be living. In that, our one goal and purpose is to shine the light of Jesus before others to give God the Glory. If you are not doing this, you need to think good and hard why not. If you are not shining his light, why is that? God really doesn't need us, He chooses us, and we need to bring God Glory. 3 ways to live intentionally. 1. To bring Glory to God, we do this by living intentionally, with a purpose. 2. Live as who you are. God created you to be you, in His image. To be real and authentic, not fake or as the world calls you to be. 3. Take risks and really trust God. In doing this, it shows where your relationship with Him really is. Please pray that I can live this way. With no excuses, that I will make war, and that Gods light will shine through me.

Serving Him,

Daniel