Vapor – pt. 2

Again, James 4:13-17.

(13) Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— (14) yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. (15) Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (16) As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (17) So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Those two underlined lines have made me think a lot lately.  My thoughts are not exactly what the verse says.  I’m not thinking about going to a town to trade and make a profit.  I am planting a church, so its not exactly the same.  But, verse 15 does apply to me in regard to planting a church and has really made me think a lot.

So, let’s say these verse say this: “Come now you who say, next month or year, let’s go to that town and plant a church.  Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills’ we will plant a church”…

That is how I have been thinking about these verses.  And I have been asking myself, over and over, are these just my plans, or am I truly saying, ‘If the Lord wills’.  So, let me say, If the Lord wills, Remedy Church will be a church plant in Rock Hill.  Please pray with me for Jesus to be glorified through Remedy Church.

Vapor

I have been thinking and meditating on this text for a little while:
James 4:13-17
(13) Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— (14) yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. (15) Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (16) As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (17) So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

I grew up riding the bus to school.  No one likes this.  No one.  Anyway, I would walk down to the bus stop in the freezing cold winter and wait for the bus.  To pass the time I would blow hot fog breath and watch it disappear.  You know what I’m talking about.  You did it too.  At most, it would last 3 seconds, then it was gone.
Interesting, this is how long God says our lives last.  That really puts it in perspective for me.
When I think about life this way, 2 things happen:
1.)  I am really awakened to just how short life is and that I don’t want to waste any of my time with stupid, trivial things that don’t matter in eternity.  I could provide a list here, but I fear that I would offend some of the things that you might hold dear, causing you to defend them because they are “fun”.  So I won’t.  I’ll just ask, do the things you engage in for the majority of your time matter for eternity?  If they don’t, why are you doing them?  (very tempted to make a list, but I’ll move on…)
2.)  I am really fearful because I am so selfish and easily distracted.  Why is it so easy to press into everything else besides Jesus?  I am fearful because I have to make myself think this way, or I will revert back to “cruise control” right away and just go through the motions of life.  Life lived for Christ should never be lived on cruise control.

more thoughts to come this text…there is so much in there…

Unexpected Diversity

So, I have been visiting churches for the past month or so.  It has been cool seeing different things every week.  I have liked and enjoyed something at every church.  I have also learned some things that are great ideas.  Today we went to Steele Creek Church.  It is probably the most diverse church I have ever been to.  I really liked it.  It gave me some real goals to work toward.  Also, getting to see that diversity can happen is encouraging.

Technology

Podcasts, blogs, twitter, facebook, emails, texts, etc…  Technology.  It really does make things easier.  There are a lot of great things about technology that I am very thankful for.  I love listening to podcasts.  Sermons, etc… are great to listen to on my iPod when I’m driving etc…  I enjoy reading blogs.  I’m writing on one now!  Texts make things so much faster on the phone if you just need something quick.  I don’t do twitter, but I get why someone would.  It’s just a personal line I have drawn in the sand.  If I do too many things, if I enjoy too much technology other things will suffer.
Here’s my point:  With my generation, we have grown so accustomed and enamored with technology, we are neglecting some of the most important things.
I’m not saying this:  Techonology is bad.  I think it is good, but with temperance.  We must learn to appreciate technology but balance the more important things in life.
When’s the last time you turned off the computer to read to your child?  When is the last time you took the earphones out of your ears to have a conversation with your spouse?  Do you spend more time blogging, emailing and facebooking than what you would spend in the Word and in prayer?
Temperance is important thing to practice.  The parents of the generation before us had to learn to pull their heads out of the TV, so they didn’t neglect their children and spouses, But for this generation, it is not just the TV, but the need to know “what someone is doing RIGHT NOW”.
Again, I’m not saying these things are bad.  They are only bad/wrong/sinful if you are neglecting Jesus, your family, your friends, other believers, and the lost.  If you have any time after that, then do as I am doing right now, and blog away.