Have you ever known someone who has gone on a mission trip
who came back talking about how long the worship services went? I’ve heard of worship services ranging
from four hours to the whole day on Sunday.
When I was a younger Christian in college, I even got to
experience some of those hours long worship sessions with some of my closest
friends. We used to meet out in an
old barn loft and just worship Jesus and pray, every night, for hours.
How do you sustain this kind of marathon worship? The truth is it’s because people in
third world countries and college kids just don’t have much else to do.
And therein lies our problem. The typical American Christian has their proverbial plate
filled with French fry football, mashed potato movies, whole-wheat work, sugar-coated shopping, and not much room left over for the Bread of Life. But without Jesus we’re starving.
The Christmas season is infamously busy. There’s a lot to do over the next 20
days, but don’t let the cares of the season choke out the life of Christ within
you. And certainly don’t add to
your already too full plate, when you should be scraping some of the fillers
off.
Be sure that you don’t just make room for Christ this
Christmas; fill your life with Him. He’ll help you through the holidays much better than going
at it without Him anyway.
Featured Non-Profit
This December with every post till Christmas, I'm featuring
a non-profit worthy of support. You can see a complete list here.
Today’s non-profit is 24-7 Prayer.
One of the greatest aspects of the 24-7 Prayer group is that
they see prayer as mission. In
other words, prayer is a catalyst for mission. Whenever you approach the throne of God, He will inevitably
share His heart and a message for someone with you, and you will be directed to
share it accordingly. They have
prayer/mission groups all over the world in some of the most needed of areas,
where most Christians would never even go because they wouldn’t want to be
associated with the people there, like the island of Ibiza.
They serve the Church as a catalyst to spark movements and
communities of Christ-centered, mission-minded prayer, network with people in
like-minded movements and communities to encourage and equip each other for
prayer, mission and justice, provide resources on 24-7 Prayer and the building
of praying communities, and gather and train emerging leaders to be catalysts
for 24-7 Prayer, mission and justice.
You can give via their U.S. website: 24-7 Prayer US
or via their international website: 24-7
Prayer International.
Watch the video below to get a glimpse of this ministry’s
work in the name of Jesus Christ:
4 comments:
Wow.I guess what you're saying is we supersize Jesus right off the tray.
Nice post. Sad truth. Must share. And consider what needs to leave my own plate...sometimes it looks good but if it squeezes intimacy with Him out, it's just junk food. Thanks, Stephen!
(had to re-comment as some keys did not come through- I must type to fast or lightly!)
Awesome wisdom here, Stephen, especially this: "don’t let the cares of the season choke out the life of Christ within you."
Amen to that.
And I love your idea of featuring a non-profit a day here!
Love all of your visuals, but love this especially, "Be sure that you don’t just make room for Christ this Christmas; fill your life with Him." I'm trying! But all that other "stuff" creeps up, sometimes without warning! Thanks for the reminder.
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