· This past week I saw the Christmas story in an entirely new light. We saw that at least five times Mary (the mother of Jesus) is called either “Blessed of God” or “Highly Favored” in the first chapter alone. And yet God didn’t take away her bumpy road as a result of having the coveted blessed moniker placed upon her. In fact, if anything, her future got a lot tougher once she was highly favored of God. So why is it we can only attach (so many of us) health, wealth, and prosperity to the idea of being blessed by God? Is there really no other sense of the word? Let me give an example, I would consider it an honor if I was chosen to be a Navy seal — but the truth is, I’m not very well positioned to have that honor bestowed upon me. I mean, I can swim fairly well, have a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do, and can hit more skeet than I miss with a shotgun, but that’s hardly Navy Seal material. In other words, I would have to get in shape to be chosen for position myself. Maybe this is where the confusion comes in for some believers. We know that salvation is free and there’s nothing we can do to earn it but, so I guess we consider everything else works the same. Think about this for a moment. Paul talks about being careful to remember that you can’t earn salvation in the book of Galatians. Be careful once you have it not to go back to thinking you have to work to keep it. Obviously this is needed — and this is true blessing. Being highly favored is not salvation. If it were, every single believer who truly trusted in Christ would also do incredible things for him. Truth is, the majority of “Christians” don’t do a lot of anything for the Lord. Most of them get their out of Hell free card” and live their life with that security and little else. And so I think this week’s study on what true blessing is probably threw a lot of people off. But we’ve baked in that now we are forever going to live the abundant life. So I encourage you, if you missed this last message to get the podcast here and then hold on for dear life.
· I absolutely love seeing all the college age young people joining the mission of Impact! And they aren’t your ordinary run-of-the-mill college kids (if such a mythical creature even exists). These 20 somethings are absolutely sold out for Christ! On fire! The kind that will no doubt make impact! Again, so glad to have them!
· If you missed yesterday—here’s 3 surefire ways to receive God’s blessing
1. Blessed are those who take risks for God. This has everything to do with faith and nothing to do with skydiving without a parachute.
2. Blessed are those who suffer well for his namesake. Not having a good attitude when getting a speeding ticket that we received because we were, well, speeding, but the kind of pain that the world often doles out to those trying to love them in Jesus’ name.
3. Blessed are those best positioned to receive a blessing. Not because of your religious resume, but because of our humble and meek reliance on the King of Kings and our commitment to making His name famous and advancing His agenda rather than our own.
· How you doing on reading through the Gospel of Luke? Remember just 10 or 15 minutes a day and you can get to this whole gospel read in a week. You’ll find this study much more enriching if you read through this on your own as well as hearing the messages on the weekend.
· VERY PUMPED about this coming weekend for several reasons but first and foremost because my favorite speaker on planet Earth is speaking — my wife, Michelle! Yes, she will be giving a very special Mother’s Day message so bring you and all the mom’s you know! There will also be something special just to honor moms—you won’t want to miss it!