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Archive for September, 2014

Fix Your Gaze

Posted in Uncategorized on September 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I think God may be trying to tell me something.  I posted yesterday about the importance of realizing how easy it is to drift away from God and the things we hold true.  You can read that post here.

So this morning during my time of silence and reading, I was reading through the story of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10.  One of the practices I try to use often is Lectio Divina or Prayerful Reading.  With this practice, you work through just a few verses and read them through looking for a word or phrase that stands out to you and then spend some time meditating on whatever that might be.

As I read the story, Luke tells us that Cornelius was not a Jew but was a God-fearer and prayed continuously (a habit we could all adopt).  During a time of prayer, an angel appeared to him and at his appearance, Cornelius “fixed his gaze” on the angel.  That is the concept that has continued to stick in my mind.  He fixed his gaze – his eyes were glued, his mouth was open and he was completely captivated.  The house could have collapsed around him and he would not have noticed because his full attention was locked on the visitor.

If we want to stop the drift – we have to learn to have that kind of focus.  We have to give God our complete and undivided attention.  When we do, we will experience God in a way never before possible.

Fix your gaze today!

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So Easy To Drift

Posted in Formation, Hope, Motivational on September 16, 2014| 1 Comment »

This past Sunday, I preached from a passage in Hebrews 2.  The writer gave an emphatic suggestion that as believers we have to pay attention to our relationship with Jesus.  Verse 1 tells us that if we don’t pay attention, we will drift away from the things we know to be true.  I don’t know about you, but I have found this to be overwhelmingly true in my life over and over again.

For those of you who do not know me, I am a type A person.  I have a To Do List for everything.  In fact, I have been accused of having a To Do List to remind me of what needs to go on my To Do List.  I like checking things off my list and the sense of accomplishment that brings on the days when I actually get to do that.  If I just described you – HIGH FIVE!  There is nothing wrong with being like this.

However, in my drive to accomplish, it is very easy to take my focus off what is really important.  Instead of concentrating on the bigger picture and the overarching calling that is on my life, I get pulled into the minutia that is my day.  It’s subtle.  It’s all but imperceptible – but little by little I drift.  I get busy and push time in silence to the back burner.  It tell myself, “That is what I’ll do when I get home tonight.”  The problem is, there is always one more thing on the To Do List that I could do – one more article I could read – one more call I could make.  So what happens is I fall into bed at an indecent hour and begin thinking about all the things I have to do tomorrow – never once stopping to think about the fact that I served Jesus all day but rarely had a conversation with him.

A day can turn into a week and before long, we look up and we have drifted to a place that we had no intention of being and we really don’t even know how we got here.

Well, today – – I stop drifting.  Today, I focus on what matters.  Today, I anchor my thoughts and actions to the one who called me to this in the first place.

Join me and stop the drift.

Be blessed today!

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