Marc Estes

How will you be remembered? If your body, ravaged and debilitated, gave up your spirit, would there be anything that remains of your efforts on earth? Could you be accurately portrayed by simple observation of your fruit? How many would stand at your memorial service and attribute their spiritual condition to the time and effort you poured into them? Have you laid a spiritual foundation for ministry that will endure long after your body fades away? Will history reflect your private prayer?

 
Last week in church my son, Kyle, was sitting next to me during worship. He was using a twisted paper clip to pick out pebbles from the tread of his shoe, and the Holy Spirit quickly reminded me of this book. I paused and looked around to see the spiritual posture of those surrounding me. Who was hungry? Who was bored? What was the spiritual climate of the service?
 

One row behind me stood a young blond-haired woman with both hands stretched out like she was grasping desperately for a life preserver, a river of mascara streaming down both cheeks. Something told me she had business to deal with God.
 

Looking back to Kyle, with the paper clip now lodged in his mouth, it occurred to me how many lives have been left fallow while others make the most of every moment. You can be sure the next time I see this young lady, I’ll encourage her to continue pursuing God.
 

I came to the realization that, in the end, when we look back over our lives, whatever we behold is completely of our own making. Finding your purpose and getting involved isn’t enough. Getting involved and even giving it all you’ve got isn’t enough. We have to realize the history with which we’ve been entrusted. So many still need to hear the good news, both during and after our lifetime. Our generation cannot be held responsible for what past generations have accomplished or neglected, but we will be held accountable with what we do today and in the generations to come.

 

This is why Jesus was so bent on pounding the “reproduction gene” into the lives of His people. He knew how critical it would be for every believer to leave a legacy long after they’re gone. In His great discourse about being on the vine (John 15), Jesus shared some of His most intimate thoughts regarding life’s purpose and the importance of using your purpose to extend His kingdom through the lives of others. He said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (John 15:16, TNIV). The entire chapter addresses the point that Christians are called to be fruitful, to find our purpose and fulfill it. Jesus made it clear that a tree (your life) is meant to be fruitful, bearing good fruit. In addition, He warned His disciples that non-fruit-bearing trees would be cut off. But His final point was that we should bear fruit “that will last.” It is vital that we understand that whatever Jesus invests into us, we are meant to pass on to others.

 

Make it your priority today to pass whatever God has deposited into you into the life of others.

How will you be remembered? If your body, ravaged and debilitated, gave up your spirit, would there be anything that remains of your efforts on earth? Could you be accurately portrayed by simple observation of your fruit? How many would stand at your memorial service and attribute their spiritual condition to the time and effort you poured into them? Have you laid a spiritual foundation for ministry that will endure long after your body fades away? Will history reflect your private prayer?
Last week in church my son, Kyle, was sitting next to me during worship. He was using a twisted paper clip to pick out pebbles from the tread of his shoe, and the Holy Spirit quickly reminded me of this book. I paused and looked around to see the spiritual posture of those surrounding me. Who was hungry? Who was bored? What was the spiritual climate of the service?
One row behind me stood a young blond-haired woman with both hands stretched out like she was grasping desperately for a life preserver, a river of mascara streaming down both cheeks. Something told me she had business to deal with God.
Looking back to Kyle, with the paper clip now lodged in his mouth, it occurred to me how many lives have been left fallow while others make the most of every moment. You can be sure the next time I see this young lady, I’ll encourage her to continue pursuing God.
I came to the realization that, in the end, when we look back over our lives, whatever we behold is completely of our own making. Finding your purpose and getting involved isn’t enough. Getting involved and even giving it all you’ve got isn’t enough. We have to realize the history with which we’ve been entrusted. So many still need to hear the good news, both during and after our lifetime. Our generation cannot be held responsible for what past generations have accomplished or neglected, but we will be held accountable with what we do today and in the generations to come.
This is why Jesus was so bent on pounding the “reproduction gene” into the lives of His people. He knew how critical it would be for every believer to leave a legacy long after they’re gone. In His great discourse about being on the vine (John 15), Jesus shared some of His most intimate thoughts regarding life’s purpose and the importance of using your purpose to extend His kingdom through the lives of others. He said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (John 15:16, TNIV). The entire chapter addresses the point that Christians are called to be fruitful, to find our purpose and fulfill it. Jesus made it clear that a tree (your life) is meant to be fruitful, bearing good fruit. In addition, He warned His disciples that non-fruit-bearing trees would be cut off. But His final point was that we should bear fruit “that will last.” It is vital that we understand that whatever Jesus invests into us, we are meant to pass on to others.  Make it your aim to make life count!

How will you be remembered? If your body, ravaged and debilitated, gave up your spirit, would there be anything that remains of your efforts on earth? Could you be accurately portrayed by simple observation of your fruit? How many would stand at your memorial service and attribute their spiritual condition to the time and effort you poured into them? Have you laid a spiritual foundation for ministry that will endure long after your body fades away? Will history reflect your private prayer?

 
Last week in church my son, Kyle, was sitting next to me during worship. He was using a twisted paper clip to pick out pebbles from the tread of his shoe, and the Holy Spirit quickly reminded me of this book. I paused and looked around to see the spiritual posture of those surrounding me. Who was hungry? Who was bored? What was the spiritual climate of the service?

 
One row behind me stood a young blond-haired woman with both hands stretched out like she was grasping desperately for a life preserver, a river of mascara streaming down both cheeks. Something told me she had business to deal with God.

 
Looking back to Kyle, with the paper clip now lodged in his mouth, it occurred to me how many lives have been left fallow while others make the most of every moment. You can be sure the next time I see this young lady, I’ll encourage her to continue pursuing God.

 
I came to the realization that, in the end, when we look back over our lives, whatever we behold is completely of our own making. Finding your purpose and getting involved isn’t enough. Getting involved and even giving it all you’ve got isn’t enough. We have to realize the history with which we’ve been entrusted. So many still need to hear the good news, both during and after our lifetime. Our generation cannot be held responsible for what past generations have accomplished or neglected, but we will be held accountable with what we do today and in the generations to come.

 
This is why Jesus was so bent on pounding the “reproduction gene” into the lives of His people. He knew how critical it would be for every believer to leave a legacy long after they’re gone. In His great discourse about being on the vine (John 15), Jesus shared some of His most intimate thoughts regarding life’s purpose and the importance of using your purpose to extend His kingdom through the lives of others. He said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (John 15:16, TNIV). The entire chapter addresses the point that Christians are called to be fruitful, to find our purpose and fulfill it. Jesus made it clear that a tree (your life) is meant to be fruitful, bearing good fruit. In addition, He warned His disciples that non-fruit-bearing trees would be cut off. But His final point was that we should bear fruit “that will last.” It is vital that we understand that whatever Jesus invests into us, we are meant to pass on to others.

 

Make it your aim today to make your life count for something. Find someone, and pour yourself into them. You won’t be disappointed.

There is purpose to our lives, greater purpose than happiness alone. Throughout our lifetime, God will allow or divinely place circumstances along our journey that will put us face to face with certain issues we are to resolve. How we respond to these trials is of the utmost importance. Charles Swindoll says, “I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.”

 

The Bible substantiates this point in 1 Peter 4:12: “Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner” (MSG).
 

 

Not all life experiences are meant to be bad. There are times (hopefully many) when God allows us to experience His goodness through His favor and blessings. Maybe you were mentored by a great man or woman of God, and that experience played a role in shaping you. Or you might have attended a great college or university, and that experience helped shape you into who you are today. Maybe you were raised in a wonderful family environment, founded upon a solid foundation of biblical morals and values. These are some of life’s most positive experiences. The bottom line is that God intends to use every life experience, whether good or bad, to shape you into a person that is fully able and prepared to fulfill their purpose. Over the years, I’ve developed a working definition life experiences: certain events or seasons that God directs or allows for you to acquire knowledge, character, and understanding that can be used to benefit you and others in future situations and ministry opportunities.
 

 

Day after day, we will face trials, tragedies, and triumphs that we can’t control. We can allow these circumstances to bury us or choose to step up and shake it off. The choice is ours for the taking.  I suggest we allow these life experiences to help us make sense of who we are and where we’re going.

 

These life experiences are only a part of our entire design and are intended to be the refining and strengthening agent of our other components. The previous four chapters have defined the four major components that are placed in our lives by our Creator. Passions, spiritual gifts, talent and abilities, and personal makeup are woven into the fabric of our lives. Life experiences are different in the sense that they are external factors that are placed in our lives by God to refine us. This refining process works to develop godly character in our lives as well as to place us in certain experiences that further shape us into a God-shaped vessel, perfectly crafted for our purpose. After a while, we begin to see that easy isn’t necessarily synonymous with good and difficult isn’t necessarily synonymous with bad. Sometimes the tough experiences have the greatest refining effect in our lives.

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I recently heard a tragic story about a man that had everything he needed, yet failed to realize it was within his reach. Sadly,  many Christians live their lives this way, missing the entire reason for the existence.

 

There was a man named Edgar who lived most of his life on the streets of Brooklyn. Poor old Edgar spent his days rummaging through trash cans behind restaurants, hoping to score a few scraps for a meal. He gathered aluminum cans and plastic bottles to recycle for a few cents and panhandled for strangers’ compassion as a way to make ends meet. Sometimes he’d use the day’s “proceeds” to buy a can of dog food … a cheaper meal than other items on grocery store shelves. At night Edgar would make his way back to the basement of a condemned building where there was no running water or electricity, just a few gutter rats that had become his only friends. This was the place he called home, where he would lay his head on the cold concrete floor and fall asleep, only to begin the hopeless process again the next day.

 

One cold winter night, Edgar froze to death in his lonely abode. After a few days, city workers found his body and, after digging through his personal belongings, located the addresses of his two grown children who lived in upstate New York.

 

The funeral was short and simple. Few people attended, few tears were shed. Afterward, the man’s children stopped by to pick up Edgar’s his few belongings: some clothes, a pocketknife, a hat, one glove … and a box containing a large rock, given as a gift by an anonymous person, that Edgar has used to prop the door open to his cold, urban cavern. So intrigued with the uniqueness of this rock, his children took it to a geologist friend, who pointed out to their utter amazement that this was one of the largest uncut diamonds ever discovered … worth a staggering $12 million!

 

Edgar lived a hard life struggling to survive out on the streets; then one day he disappeared without ever knowing that the rock he kicked up against the door every day was the key to changing his life forever. Within his reach was a special gift that would have changed everything. Imagine how his life might have changed if he had recognized his doorstop for what it truly was and discovered its worth.

 

One of the most important truths we can seek to understand is the value and proper use of some very special gifts given to us by God to accompish extraordinary exploits. These are know as spiritual gifts which are instrumental in directing us toward fulfilling our purpose and becoming who God created us to be. A spiritual gift is a divine attribute given to someone by the Holy Spirit at conversion according to God’s grace, which is to be used for building up the body of Christ and ministering to others.

 

In other words, the moment you decided to give your life to Christ, He placed within you specific gifts with the intention that you would use them to make your life count … serving others, building up the local church, and reaching your world for Christ, specifically. He wants you to use your spiritual gifts all the time! Ignoring them may result in constant frustration, lack of spiritual fulfillment, and a crippled destiny.

 

Let’s make it our aim to use all that God has given us to be all He intended us to be. Don’t become a “spiritual Edgar.” In closing, if you are wanting to better understand what your spiritual gifts are, click here to take your spritual gifts test now.

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The other night while in line at a convenient store, I noticed a small framed elderly man with literally a stack of lottery tickets. He stood there at the coffee counter frantically using a coin to scrape off the masking from each ticket in hopes of finding a winner. After I had finished paying for my groceries, I walked up to him and exclaimed, “ I’ve got the winning ticket”! He replied, “You do?”  I told him that I had it and I was giving it to him!  At that moment he looked up at me and I gave him a tract on how he could go to Heaven. I shared that my winning ticket was forth much more than all his tickets combined, for mine would show him how he could go to Heaven for all eternity.  He smiled and nodded in agreement as he received the winning ticket.

 

It never ceases to amaze me how we as mere humans are always drawn to strike it rich. Whether it be from a lottery ticket or some get rich quick scheme, people are constantly investing their time, talents, and energies to gain more and more hay, wood, and stubble.

 

Yet Jesus said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33).”  That old man well into the winter of his years was perhaps still seeking to build his own kingdom, and yet he was just one heartbeat away from eternity. 

 

We as Christians have a golden opportunity to share the winning ticket with multitudes of people who we run into each and every day of our lives. We can tell them that there is One who loves them. His name is Jesus, and that he has paid the price for everything wrong they have ever done.

 

submitted by Craig Fasler

I was walking along the beach early this morning in San Diego enjoying the morning breeze coming off of the pounding surf. Once again I was taken back by God’s incredible creation, and all of His splendour. As I was enjoying the moment with Him, He reminded me again of something that supersedes His creation, and that is His unfailing love.

 

Psalm 36:5-7 says, “Your unfailing love, O Lord is a vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is your unfailing love, O God!”

 

Maybe today you are needing to know that there is someone who loves you; someone who cares. His unfaililng love is within your reach right now. Be encouraged today, He loves you…and ALWAYS will!

I love the title of the article already! Sounds like a line in a rap song? Maybe not, but it does sound liberating, promising, enticing; but is it even possible? For those that have lived a life under the cloud of inferiority, it sounds like another one of those, ‘too good to be true’ offer. If you are already drawn in to this distant possibility, if you are honest with yourself and need a breakthrough, this word is for you today.

 

To begin, relax…you are not alone in this struggle. Many Christians today suffer from the same nagging problem. It is one of the enemies most popular, age-old tricks of making us feel like we are less than we are. He knows that if he can get your eyes off of who you really are, you will never be able to accomplish all you were intended to do. It is in this process that we make to critical errors.

 

The first mistake we make is looking at others around us as the mearsuring rod for our own lives. In the purest sense this is not a bad thing as it is inbred into us to look for those that we respect and try to emulate their great Christ-like character qualities. The apostle Paul even encourage us in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” However, there is a fine line between looking up to someone and wishing to be someone. This is one mistake that can cause years of insecurity and confusion. Settle it now, you were never intended to be anyone else but you! Be excited you are you! Don’t try to be someone else and sell yourself short. Learn from those around you and apply important life principles to your life, but don’t try to become them.

 

The second mistake made is that we look at our own weaknesses, mistakes and shortcomings. We convince ourselves that we are not good enough for the plans God has for our lives. None of us will ever measure up to God’s perfect standard, so relax! That is where Christ comes in…phew! Don’t get me wrong, I am always looking at ways to improve myself, but I am not going to beat myself up in the process. The deeper issue is that it is not me that is going to do great things for God anyways, but He who lives in me. Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.” My strength is not in me, but in Him, in me. I am a high school drop out, and realized early on in my Christian walk, “without Him, I CAN DO NOTHING.” It is apparent that my only hope of ever doing anything significant would be found in the one that has made me significant.

 

Moses made this same mistake repeatedly. I can just hear his arguments with the Lord in his early days of ministry, “I’m not a good speaker… I’m clumsy with my words… you’ve got the wrong guy… get someone else!” His focus was on his weaknesses and not God’s strengths. Thankfully, God replies to his statements of inferiority with a simple,  yet riveting statement that should jolt us all towards breaking free from inferiority, “‘Who makes mouths? Who makes people so they can speak or not speak, hear or not hear, see or not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, and do as I have told you. I will help you speak well, and I will tell you what to say.”

 

“Yes sir!” Moses received his wake up call and the rest was history. My encouragement for you today is to let this simple thought for the day be your wake up call. Like Moses, and like me, you will never overcome your inferiority by focusing on others or yourself. Focus on the God that made you, the God who saved you and filled you, and the One who has positioned you for greatness. In doing so, you will be free just being you. Make your aim today, break free from inferioirity!

I found myself crawling out of bed early this morning (thanks to the 4:45am wake up call of the birds outside my window) with an urge to take a long walk. This isn’t a usual practice for me, so I knew there was something beyond my own desires to remain buff driving the thought. I put on my brand new Nike’s (sorry for the endorsement), and strolled out into the beautiful sunrise. It was about 65 degrees, partly cloudy, mild breeze, smell of flowers, birds singing…no noise, no cell phone, no emails, no appointments and absolutely no pressure!

 

The Lord’s quiet voice came in a subtle way and reminded me of the words of David in Psalm 39, “…remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath. We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth for someone else to spend. And so Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.”

 

In His own gentle way he asked me the question that I already knew the answer, “What will you do today that will be of eternal value?” I didn’t want to respond, because it meant changing my schedule and mindset around to insure that I didn’t waste a minute of the precious time He was alloting me today. However, I gave in, He won and I am glad He did. Life just seems to always come at us so quick and if we aren’t careful, we can get entrenched in the proverbial rat race that produces nothing but stess, fatigue and temporal pleasures.

 

How about you? What have you done today of eternal significance? Your life, like mine is but a breath. Our time is brief and our days are numbered. Part of your days is already spent and its too late to change, but you can change the rest of your day. Stop… pause… take a deep breath… close your eyes… and pray a daring prayer right now, “Lord, what do you want me to do today?” You may not like the answer, but I guarantee you will love the results.