Can you see it?

Each person who follows Christ is given a Spiritual gift which is given by God through His Spirit for the purpose of building up the kingdom of God and extending the gospel. I believe that my strongest and primary gift is the gift of leadership. Honestly, I believe my spiritual gifts are very disproportionate. But this has given me such a passion to know more and grow in this leadership gift. One of the things that I've notice about people who have this spiritual gift see the world differently. When others see barriers leaders see bridges. When others see opposition leaders see opportunity. Leaders are typically optimistic in nature and are oriented towards vision and action. I believe one of the uniqe components of our journey to the Bay Area is that God gives me as the leader of South Bay Church the blessing of seeing things before they come into existence. He places the vision in my heart and then it moves into the hearts of our team and they begin to see it. So this morning as I was reading the bible and praying I was just rejoicing as I think of all the lives that will be changed in the coming months and years. I thought about the first time we baptize people at South Bay Church and was just thanking God for the people who will be the very first at South Bay who decide to follow Christ. I think of all the people who 12 months from now who will be eternally changed with the gospel. I think of the joy that will come as we see God establish a church from nothing in just a few months. I can see it! Can you? Ask God to help you see it today. Ask Him to show you the world and His kingdom as he sees it. Ask Him to help you be driven by a hot vision that comes from the depths of your soul. Ask Him to help you see the big picture as you serve. Ask Him to break your heart for all the people who need the hope of the gospel. Ask Him to give you vision. He will. He will move you from ordinary mundane living to the joy of his kingdom purposes and redemption of the world. He wants your life to be for more than just now. He wants you to be for something great! Something way beyond what you could ever ask or imagine. He wants to do immeasurably more than you could ever ask or imagine with your life. Are you willing to ask Him to help you believe that today?

Too Familiar To Believe

Mark 6:5-6
"And because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief."

When I read this verse last week I was troubled. Why did Jesus heal in some situations and not others? Why at other points did he heal all the sick in towns, and then in this story he didn't perform any miracles? This verse explains that it was due to the unbelief of the people. So I asked the question, "Why didn't these people believe what Jesus said. Why were they so obtuse and dense? As i was thinking about this question i was reminded of the beginning of the chapter which says, "Then they scoffed, 'He's just a carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us." In other words, they were too familiar to believe.

This seems so counterintuitive. Doesn't it seem like the more familiar you are with God the more you would trust him? The more familiar you become the more he would impact your life? The problem is that the people in this story had the wrong kind of knowledge. They knew about the Christ, yet their knowledge did not go past a intellectual understanding of his character.

The knowledge of God that leads to a changed life is experiential knowledge. Experiential knowledge leads to a grateful heart and passionate desire to follow the living God. When one is truly captivated by the character and depth Christ's mercy he cannot help but be changed. When the majesty and beauty of his love begins to become apparent to us, we then can live the life he wants us to live.

I am often saddened by the apathy in my own life, when I fail to recognize the magnitude of God's love and grace for those who believe. I desire for my heart to be tendered by a "personal knowledge" of God that leads to continued change in my life. May i not be the people in this story who said, "he's just a carpenter." May I be captivated by his majesty and beauty.