Thank you to GiniMiniGi, for the use of her beautiful sunflower image.
Along with the new blog theme, I wanted to give my blog a new header to update the overall look of the blog. This morning, while cleaning the kitchen, I usually listen to archive sermons from my church, and the particularly sermon I was listening today was about experiencing God.
The X-wing fighter has sunk, and only the tip of its nose shows above the lake’s surface.
LUKE: Oh, no. We’ll never get it out now.
Yoda stamps his foot in irritation.
YODA: So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say?
Luke looks uncertainly out at the ship.
LUKE: Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally different.
YODA: No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.
LUKE: (focusing, quietly) All right, I’ll give it a try.
YODA: No! Try not. Do. Or do not!! There is no try….
22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. (Mark 11:22-24, New King James Version)
Can’t read the bible?
Don’t have time to read the bible?
No time to go to church?
Don’t have a church to go to?
What’s with the excuses? Come on…we live in the 21st Century; You can do it! I know you can! Our Father in Heaven knows you can!
Being a follower of Christ; It is a vibrant and challenging faith that challenges us to get out of comfort zones and experience an active life that calls us to be involved with the world around us and participants not bystanders.
For the month of October, the topic of my pastor’s sermon, has been:
John 14:12-14
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
For Him, there are greater things that all of us can do; We all have something that we can contribute and the key is not saying “Why” or “What” but “How”. Take “Why” and “What” out of your vocabulary and instead of saying “Why can I?” or “What can I”, say instead, “How can I”.
The only thing that is stopping us from trying, is…well….us.
We either do…or we do not..there is no try. (Uhm…yes…I’m BIT of a Star Wars fan)
LUKE: (panting heavily) I can’t. It’s too big.
YODA: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm? Mmmm.
Yoda turns toward the X-wing fighter. With his eyes closed and his head bowed, he raises his arm and points at the ship. Soon, the fighter rises out of the water and moves majestically toward the shore. Yoda guides the fighter carefully down toward the beach. Luke stares in astonishment.
LUKE: I don’t…I don’t believe it.
YODA: That is why you fail.
20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. (Matthew 17:20, New King James Version)
22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. (Mark 11:22-24, New King James Version)
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
(Hebrews 11:1-2, New King James Version)
22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. (Mark 11:22-24, New King James Version)
We are presented with a choice.
We could sit on the sidelines and just go to church every Sunday, or we can challenge ourselves to say, “I want more than this” and pick up our bibles, and get to know God better and pursue Him!
Or we could be like Luke…and just let ourselves be stuck where we are…
What happens on Sunflower Faith?
