Do you find areas in your life where your focus has been off or where you’ve known what to do but just haven’t been consistent? Have you decided you want to bless others by sharing your life in person?  Have you only been giving 50% at work?  Are you living an ineffective life without passion?

Have You Been Challenged?

I’m hoping that my recent posts have challenged you.  I know they’ve challenged me.  And if they haven’t challenged you, I’d challenge you to go ahead and challenge me (that just sounds funny, doesn’t it).  I’d appreciate it.

If You’re Not Satisfied

So, let’s assume for a moment that we’re not satisfied with our lives.  That God has more for us than we’re living and that we want to step into what God has for us.  What should we do?

• Pray about it
  I can’t emphasize this enough.  If we want God’s very best, we must begin with our relationship with God.   We must first come to God to find out what he wants from us.  He might speak to us through the Bible.  Or through others.  But we have to first set our minds and hearts on hearing and obeying his will.
• Set some goals
  That’s right.  Faith is practical, so if we know what God wants from us and how he wants to work through us, it’s perfectly appropriate for us talk with him about some goals (there’s prayer again).  And then write them down and  work our little tails off – empowered by the Holy Spirit – to achieve those goals.
• Upset the apple cart
  Sometimes we need to do more than just set a goal.  Sometimes we need to create some tension.  Sometimes we need for our whole lives to be a little off-balance for a while so that we’re uncomfortable enough to transition from where we are to where we should be.
• What else?
  I don’t begin to think that I’ve made an exhaustive list.  What about your list?  What’s missing from mine?

Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman

Thanks for reading Are You Satisfied? from bdentzy!

• Take it out!
• There’s Too Much to Do
• Sidetracked Without Goals

Facebook is a pretty cool thing.  I’m on Facebook and I like it.  It’s great for sharing photos and stories and such.  And for keeping up with friends.  But does it make us better friends?

I don’t know

I’m talking to you – the “regular” people who use Facebook and email and Twitter to keep up with friends and family.  Not the people who are marketing their business or trying to network for their next sale.  Just the people who use it personally.

Do you think it makes you a better friend?

I mean, it’s great to catch up.  It’s super-easy to “like” a comment or status update.  You can use Facebook to begin to know people in a socially non-threatening way.  But does it make you a better friend?

I know there have been times that I’ve “liked” and commented away and felt really connected to my friends and family.  That is, until I’m asked a question about something that I “liked” or commented and I realize I can’t even remember the comment, much less the context.

How about you?

Has that ever happened to you?
Do you think Facebook makes you a better friend?
Have I been a good friend to you on or through or in spite of Facebook?

Photo credit: uros velickovic

Thanks for reading Does Facebook Make Us Better Friends from bdentzy!

• Get Connected
• Social Media and Ministry
• Guest Teaser – If Jim Planted a Church Today

It’s OK to have a plan – a strategy, if you will.  It’s even right to have a strategy.  But I think most people misunderstand strategy.  Football players understand strategy and so do generals in the army.

Do the rest of us understand strategy?

What Isn’t a Strategy?

A shortcut isn’t a strategy.  We think it’s a strategy because we’ve misunderstood what strategy is.  And most often, what we’re looking for is a shortcut – an inside track to success – rather than a strategy.

A quick Google search yields a number of people willing to sell you their social media “strategies” for success.  A similar search will find you any number of “secrets” that will make your life amazing, fulfilled, and all-together unbelievable.  We look for these magic pills to fix our marriages and make ourselves look slimmer without diets or working out.

Can you believe that we buy into that stuff?!

Maybe not all of it, but some of it.  And why?

We buy into it because we don’t understand what strategy is.  We go looking for what we think is a strategy but what we really want is a shortcut.  We want a magic pill that will make everything better and easy and cost only 3 easy payments of $39.95.  But the magic pill doesn’t exist.  And even if it did, the magic pill isn’t a strategy.

What is a Strategy?

A strategy is actually really simple (at its core).  It consists of four parts.

1. Objective - What is the overall vision of what you want to accomplish and when?
2. Assets - What and how much do you have that works in your favor?
3. Liabilities - What and how much works against you?
4. A Plan - With consideration of assets and liabilities, how will you accomplish your vision?

That’s it.  A strategy is nothing more than a plan that uses assets to overcome liabilities to achieve a goal.

Why is this Important?

Well, I think it’s important so that we don’t get duped into thinking a shortcut is a strategy.  A shortcut – at best – is a tactic.

Your strategy might be “I will use shortcuts to achieve my goals” and that would be a strategy.  Not necessarily a great long-term strategy, but a strategy nonetheless.  And if that’s your strategy, head back to Google and search away for the “magic pill.”  Good luck.

I Have a Strategy

In my relationship with God I have a strategy.  It doesn’t involve buying anything and it’s surely not flashy or trendy or even complex.  But let’s use it to go through the process.

1. My overall vision is to be fully formed into the image of Christ and in perfect relationship with God and humanity.
2. My assets are God and the time and abilities he gives me.
3. My liabilities are me and what I think I can and can’t do.
4. My plan is REALLY simple.  Trust God and do the four things below.
   • The Bible – spend time in the Word to meet and learn about God
   • Prayer & Worship – spend time with God, listen, adore
   • Fellowship – spend time with God’s people
   • Service & Sharing – show and tell what God has done in your life

If I were to write it out, it would be something like “I will trust God to form me into his image by his great power and I will partner with him to overcome my weaknesses by investing my life in the Bible, in prayer and worship, in fellowship, and in service to others.”

Of course, you will notice that very little of my strategy relies on me – at best I “partner with” God.  That’s because my objective can only be accomplished through God’s power and my weakness.  So I have aligned my strategy to consider that.

Do You Have a Strategy?

What’s your life strategy?

Photo credit: The US Army

Thanks for reading What’s Your Life Strategy? from bdentzy!

• What’s Your Resloution?
• Small: Not Big?
• Changing My Media Diet

But I wonder, can God take my life?  Does God take our lives?

We’ve Already Lost our Lives

It seems to me that we traded away our lives when we entered into sin through Adam and Eve.  That our lives were taken from us in a bad trade.  That what we have because of sin isn’t really life.

Unless we give our lives to God.  Unless we trade our banal, death-bound non-life and trade it for the amazing life that we have in Jesus.  And if we have already given God our lives, can they really be taken from us?

What do you think?
Can our lives really be taken from us?
Can your life be taken from you?

Thanks for reading Can God Take Your Life? from bdentzy!

• Who Does God Love?
• What is Eternal Life?
• Do You Know How to Share?

Just a couple days ago, God spoke to me in a mundane part of my life.  I was at home and getting ready to go upstairs to get something (I don’t remember what that was any more).  As I got up and headed towards the stairs, Mischief – one of our cats – decided to race me.

But Mischief didn’t know where I was headed.  He headed out at top speed, knowing that he would win the race to the downstairs bathroom.  And, of course, he did win – sort of.  Except that I didn’t race him.

I Didn’t Get Sucked into His Race

I knew where I was headed and just kept going to my destination.  I let him win his little race with no competition.  After all, winning that race was of no value to me.  I had no need to win a race to a place I wasn’t headed.

It’s at that point that God spoke to me.  No, not the “audible voice” of God.  But the still small voice of the Holy Spirit that reminds us of Jesus’ teachings and that reminds us of Scripture.

Know Which Race

In that moment I realized that there are many races in life.  There are many destinations.  And, being a little competitive, I can easily get sucked into running the wrong race.  I can so easily end up chasing rainbows and goals and trying to be someone other than who I actually am.  In fact, chasing the wrong goals can even suck motivation out of our lives.

So it’s really important for me (for us) to know who I am and what race God has for me to run.  It’s important for me to know what it is to win that race and how to run the race.  Because (to steal a book title from John Ortberg), When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box (Amazon Link).

I Can Run Any Race

Sure, I can run any race I want to.  I can get caught up in the rat race.  I can grasp and claw at wealth and riches.  Or I can try to earn my salvation by giving everything away.  But I can’t win any of these races.  So there’s no point in running.

The only race I can win is the one God has for me.
And the only way I can win it is in and through him.

That goes for you, too.

The only race you can win is the one God has for you.
And the only way you can win it is in and through him.

Some Introspection

I wonder what races I’m running that are headed nowhere.
What about you?  Any races you’re running that you should stop?
What are you going to do about it?

Photo by: LSE Sports

Thanks for reading How to Win the Race from bdentzy!

• Enjoy the Little Things
• There’s Too Much to Do
• Where is Your Wealth?

I suspect that most people hear “God will bless you” as “God will make you rich.”  In fact I would go so far as to say that there are probably even some who tithe because we think God will make them rich (of course, you know better than that).

But that misses the point of a blessing.  A blessing is when God releases supernatural forces to work in your favor (I “borrowed” this from my pastor).  It is a gift from God.  It might be a something you’ve asked for and expected.  Or God might just totally blow your mind.  In fact, I bet God wants to totally blow your mind.

Oh, how we need God’s grace!  How we need his perspective when it comes to blessings.  I fear that we so often think of blessings only as financial or material.

Money Can’t Buy This

Today I was able to witness one of the biggest blessings I’ve seen in a while.  It’s not the kind of blessing that we normally think of, but a blessing none-the-less.  In fact, it might be a bigger, more substantial blessing than we would first think.  But it was definitely a blessing that money simply can’t buy.

A Prodigal Returns

Earlier today I was at Church.  I was with the fellowship of believers worshiping God and proclaiming his name.  And as part of that I was able to witness a baptism (not in the Pacific Ocean like the picture above).  Now, I think baptisms are always a really cool thing.  They are a space for God’s grace through obedience.  They are a place to meet God and to be transformed into his image.  But for many in our body, this wasn’t an ordinary baptism – it marked the return of a prodigal.

A young man in his 20′s who was raised in church.  Who has ministered and served.  He was a man we’ve known and loved and who spent a few years following his own path (boy, can I identify with that).  The son of parents who remained faithful and trusted God to work on their behalf and to hold their son secure (I can relate to that, too).

But, as with many of the things of God, it gets better.  He was baptized by his father – an amazing display of God’s grace and mercy and divine plan in our lives.

I’m sure that you’ll agree this is a huge blessing for this young man, his parents, our church, and for the kingdom of God.  It’s the kind of blessing that money can’t buy.  It’s the kind of blessing that can only come from the hand of God.  And I ask you – do you think his parents would ever trade their son’s eternity for a few extra dollars?

Let’s Reset Our Perspectives

Oh, how we need to remember this when we think of blessings.  How we need to remember the unfathomable blessing that is the gift of Jesus Christ on the cross – crucified, buried, and resurrected on the third day.  How awesome is the love of God towards us!  How we need to remember that he is always at work on our behalf, working all things together for good (Romans 8:28).

Let’s remember that God’s blessings are so much more than money or health.  God’s blessings are eternal and so far above what we can ask or even imagine.  Let’s open ourselves to receive all of God’s blessings in all of their various forms.  Let’s not just seek God’s blessings. Let’s seek God’s presence and with it, the grace to see the blessings that he pours out on us daily.

Be blessed.  And may God grant you (and me) the perspective to see the blessing.

Photo credit: mikebaird

Thanks for reading Blessings Are More than Money from bdentzy!

• Blessed Beyond Measure
• Three Reasons I Tithe
• The Way Back Machine

Our life in Christ isn’t static.  It’s dynamic.  It shifts and changes and grows.  It’s not a destination, it’s a journey.  And it’s a journey that’s meant to be shared.  Shared with God and shared with others.

In fact your journey – the ongoing story of your life with Christ – might be one of the most powerful things you have to offer.  One of the most irrefutable ways to share your faith.  It might just be a way that you can defeat the work of evil in the world (Revelation 12:11).

Why is Your Story Powerful?

• It’s YOUR story.
• It shows that God is interested in our lives.
• It demonstrates God’s faithfulness and grace.
• It’s an opportunity to share how you’ve lived so that others can live better than you have.

How Long Should I Wait?

You don’t have to wait to start sharing your story.  You don’t have to be an old man or woman.  You don’t have to be perfect (I sure haven’t arrived yet).  You don’t have to be nearing your death.

In fact, you don’t just have to share your story in the past tense.  You can share your life right now.  You can invite other people to be part of God’s ongoing work in your life.  And you can be involved in what he’s doing with them at the same time.

How Can I Share My Spiritual Journey?

Well, in some way’s that’s very personal.  And I believe God wants it to be very personal.  At the same time, there are a few VERY basic principles that will always apply.

1. Have a relationship with Jesus
2. Spend time with other people
3. Be authentic
4. Allow God to speak to you and change you
5. What else?

Thanks for reading Share Your Spiritual Journey from bdentzy!

• 4 Things You Can do Every Day to Improve Your Spiritual Effectiveness
• Do You Know How to Share?
• God Saves the Best for Now

You see, as a friend of mine – Martina, who blogs here – pointed out, the post was one-sided.  And it was one-sided on purpose.  The point of the post was that sin has no place in our lives, which is true.

However, as Martina pointed out in her comment, there are a number of God-relationship metaphors provided for us in Scripture – sons & daughters, lovers, servants, and so on.  And, as she astutely pointed out, when we use the word “slave” it means something very specific to us.

A Person With No Choice

When we think of a slave, we think of a person who was taken against his or her will and enslaved.  A person captured.  A person controlled and completely lacking in rights.  A person who is not even considered a person.

That, I think, very accurately describes how we lived when we were slaves to sin (or how we live if we are still slaves to sin).  We don’t have a choice.  It doesn’t really matter what we do – the end is the same.  We die.

But that’s not the end of this story.  Jesus gives us a choice.

Jesus Gives us a Choice

He says “Come to me, you who are weak and carry heavy loads, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  He gives us the choice to trade out our slavery to sin for the dignity of a new life as sons and daughters of God.

He takes the image of slave and converts it to “bond-servant.”  You see, a bond-servant had a choice.  A bond-servant chooses whom he or she will serve.  We are given the choice to serve sin or righteousness.

We are made right with God – sons and daughters of God.  That is true.  But we still choose whether we will be slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness.  Whether we will do what sin requires of us, which leads to death (Romans 6:1-23).  Or whether we will do what righteousness requires of us, which leads to victorious eternal life.

Here’s the Question

Are you a child of God?  Have you been made right with him?
Are you living as a slave to sin or as a slave to righteousness?

Thanks for reading Slave by Choice from bdentzy!

• Are You a Slave?
• What is Eternal Life?
• Get it all Done

Image by bdentzy via Flickr

I have to tell you, I think weddings totally rock!  There’s such excitement and anticipation.  There are all kinds of people showing up and sharing their lives – sometimes even family and friends from other countries.  It’s just a powerful thing.

A few days ago I was at a wedding.  Actually, to be more specific, I was in a wedding.  It was a blessed event and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Weddings Remind Me

Weddings remind me of things.  They remind me of the value of marriage.  They remind me of the vows I took with my wife.  They remind me that there’s something special about marriage – that it’s ordained by God and is one of the ways that the Holy Spirit forms us into the image of Jesus.

Weddings speak to me of how humanity was created in the image of God.  Of how God created us for relationship.  Of how God commanded dominion of the earth.  Weddings are a cool thing!

But there is always one part of the wedding that just totally messes me up.

The Entry of the Bride

Yes, that’s it.  When the bride enters, all beautiful and glowing, and everybody stands up in her honor.

In all honesty, tears well up in my eyes every time because I’m overcome by beauty, memories, and hopes.

• The beauty and purity of the moment
• The memory of my own bride walking down the aisle
• The vision of the Bride of Christ entering the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, spotless, beautiful, complete
• The hope of our new life, fully complete in relationship with God

The Wedding is an Event

I’m not at all confused that the wedding is an event that starts a life we must live daily.  It is a glorious, blessed, God-ordained event and it starts a new life that can be even more glorious and blessed than the wedding.

A new life where two become one.  Where God forms us into the likeness of his Son through the power of the Holy Spirit.  A life where we are able to experience intimacy, to extend and to receive grace, and to love unashamedly.

Let’s live marriages worthy of our weddings!  And let’s live lives worthy of our future with Christ in eternity!

Thanks for reading Why I Love Weddings from bdentzy!

• Spouses Be Good to Each Other
• God Saves the Best for Now
• Christ is Always With Us

Image by UW Digital Collections via Flickr

Technology is a cool thing.  I almost can’t imagine what my life would be like if I didn’t have a cell phone, email, Facebook, Twitter, and the ability to telecommute.

I’m Blessed

I am very blessed that I live where and when I do.  I’m happy about it.  In fact, I still want an iPad, even though they’re $500 or more.  And I want an Android phone even though it’ll cost me $30 more per month just for a data plan.

But there’s something I can’t do through technology.  I can’t actually show up over technology.  I can’t have fondue on Facebook.  I can’t actually hug somebody or shake a hand.

Why Show Up?

So why show up?  If we can do lots of stuff electronically, why bother to hop in the car (or on a bicycle) and burn the calories to show up?

1. “[The] coolest technology in the world can’t replace looking someone in the eye, shaking their hand, grabbing an impromptu coffee or drink or handing someone your business card as a sign of interest.” (via DoubleShot Creative)
2. TV and movies are cool.  But watching somebody else bring a character to life isn’t as cool as watching it in person – in real time.
3. Concerts are better than CDs, even if the sound isn’t as good.
4. More of our communication is non-verbal than verbal (or written).  So we say more when we’re together, even if we talk less.
5. We’re more likely to change and grow because real change happens in person.  Cultural change is always personal change.
6. It helps us know each other better. (via WebWorkerDaily)
7. Laughter is contagious and compassion is personal.
8. Being with somebody else helps us focus our attention.
9. Our children learn how to live by watching what we do.
10. God’s love for us was made personal in and through Jesus of Nazareth.

More ideas?

I’m sure there are more reasons we should get together in person.

Do you think it’s important to get together?
What are you going to do about it?

Thanks for reading Life Happens in Person from bdentzy!

• Changing My Media Diet
• Does Facebook Make Us Better Friends
• Effects of a Media Diet Change

Image by bdentzy via Flickr

I wonder if part of the reason we – the Church – don’t share our faith more is because we’re not connected.  I don’t mean that we don’t have cell phones and don’t check our email every 8.36 seconds.  I mean that our lives aren’t connected.

Sure, we think we’re connected.  We share information about our lives.  But we don’t share our lives.

We share pictures and thoughts and quotes.  But we don’t get in the car.  We don’t go to concerts with friends.  We don’t hang out at the park.  At least not like we used to.

Instead, we hole up in our homes – our fortresses of solitude – where we have information and entertainment piped in.  Where we nuke our TV dinners and write blogs in the middle of the night (“like I’m doing now”, types Bryan ruefully).

A Personal Proverb

This is one I made up.  You can’t have fondue on Facebook.

You just can’t.

Let’s Make a Change

It’s OK to keep up with your friends and to share photos and stuff.  But let’s make sure we’re sharing our lives.

• Attend worship services
• Go to ballgames (suggested by Patty Both on Facebook)
• Take friends to concerts
• Go to a park to walk your dog
• Grill out with the neighbors
• Have an outdoor movie night (suggested by Mark Entzminger)
• Invite me over for fondue

What am I missing?
Give me some ideas.  I need ‘em too!

Thanks for reading Get Connected from bdentzy!

• Does Facebook Make Us Better Friends
• Life Happens in Person
• Social Media and Ministry

Image via Wikipedia

One of the things I so love about the Church – the body of Christ – is that our God speaks to us through our brothers and sisters.  God often uses our relationships to make us think.  To speak a rebuke or to extend grace.  Or just to help us understand him better.

That happened to me yesterday.  I was deeply troubled about something I read in a report by the Barna Group and wrote a post about it.  In short, I was troubled because it seems that we – the Church – are not living and sharing our faith like we used to.  Man, that still bothers me.

Widening My Perspective

And I think I outlined a few good reasons this might be.  But then Steve Grossman (@stevegrossman), a friend of mine, just totally blew the lid off of my perspective as he responded back to me in a comment.

I had been coming at my understanding based on a the perspective of Fear of Man and whether we really believe the Gospel.  That may shed a little light on where I need to grow.  But Steve’s answer was just so full of grace and truth, that I’d like to just quote him here.

Probably because I’m reading Dallas Willard‘s The Divine Conspiracy, but my answer to why is that we’ve been deceived into accepting the Gospel of “Sin Management” instead of heaven on earth and kingdom of God LIFE. So instead of living and therefore preaching the good news of power/passion/joy/purpose infused life, all we have is a list of don’t dos. And that is no good news at all.

(emphasis and links added)

The gospel of “Sin Management” which is really no gospel  That’s HUGE.  And it’s often what we try to sell our culture rather than the kingdom of God on earth.  What a flip!

Making it Practical

And then, Karen Byrne (@karenbyrne), who I’ve never met in person, but who blogs here, responded with several practical ideas for how to engage our culture and impact the lives of the generation coming behind us.  I’m going to list just a few of her suggestions.

• Use life as an opportunity to show how God is moving
• Be real – [people] can see right through our masks
• Pray, and pray, and pray

What about You?

Have you embraced the “gospel of sin management?”
Do you have any practical ideas for engaging people and the culture for Jesus?
How does God use your fellowship with other believers to change you?

Thanks for reading The Gospel of Sin Management from bdentzy!

• How Can Spouses be Good to Each Other?
• Dialogue With God – Guy Appéré
• 4 Things You Can do Every Day to Improve Your Spiritual Effectiveness

Image by chefranden via Flickr

Can you believe that we’re not telling people about Jesus?  At least not like we (the Church) used to.  I know that I was surprised and saddened as I learned about this from a recent Barna Report.

If you read the report, you’ll find that it was focused specifically on teens.  And you might think that gives us “adults” a pass on this.  After all, we’re not under the microscope.  That’s just not right.

We are under the microscope.  Sure, teens are influenced heavily by our culture.  But they’re also influenced by family, peer groups, and subculture.  If our teens are failing to live their faith, it’s our fault.  We have failed.  And we need God’s help to fix it.

Point the Finger at Me

I suppose I should have expected this shift.  I know that I don’t share my faith as much I ought.  I sure don’t share my faith as much as my parents and grandparents did.  Man, I ought to be exploding with joy over what God has done in my life.

I mean, if I really believe what I say I believe, I can’t imagine that I’d fail to tell anybody about it.  After all, God has made a way for me to be right with him!  That’s unbelievable to me!

How about you?  Do you share your faith?

Why Aren’t We Telling People About Jesus?

There are many possible reasons that we don’t tell people about Jesus:

• We don’t really believe it ourselves
• We’ve been so indoctrinated by our culture that we believe it’s bad to tell people the truth
• We don’t believe (or don’t care) that people actually do die and go to hell
• We’re afraid to be attacked for our beliefs
• We haven’t been discipled
• We’ve never thought about how we might tell people about Jesus
• We’re not interacting with non-believers

Do any of these apply to you?

We Need God’s Help

It’s clear.  We’ve messed some stuff up.  And there’s no way we can fix it.  So let’s ask God for his help.  Let’s purpose to let him use us to form the lives of our children and the culture in which they live.

Let’s pray for guidance and strength.  Let’s look for opportunities to open our churches, homes, and lives to those around us who don’t know Jesus.  Let’s strengthen our resolve to stand firm regardless of the cost.

Let’s purpose to glorify God with our whole lives – all of our passion and strength and mind.  He deserves the glory!  He’s done GREAT things!

What do you think?

Are you living and sharing your faith?
Are you passing your beliefs and lifestyle to your children?
What can you change to be part of the solution?

Thanks for reading We’re Not Telling People About Jesus from bdentzy!

• Raise Your Children to Follow Jesus
• Are There Treasures in Your Baggage?
• The Gospel of Sin Management

If we’ll keep our eyes and hearts open, we’ll always find God‘s very best for us right now.  But sometimes I think we miss what God has for us now because we’re holding out for something big.  Yet we are surrounded all of the time by blessing if we’ll just recognize who God is and what he does for us.

A Schema

In many ways, our life of faith is like wading in the ocean.  If we consider the ocean for a minute, we find many parallels to life and faith.

For example, the ocean reminds us of our utter frailty because of its great power.  It speaks to us of seasons (or tides).  It’s an image of being surrounded and supported and occasionally overcome.  We can understand our lives saturated by the awesome presence of God.  We can understand ourselves as surrounded by God and wading in blessing.  Is it any wonder that Jesus told us to “consider the lilies” (Luke 12:27)?!

I’ll Get to the Point

God has big blessings for us.  And its good and right to wait on them.  To be focused.

But if we’re too focused on the future – on the “big thing” – we can miss what God has for us right now.  You see, if we spend our time waiting on a big blessing and block everything else out, we can miss what God has for us right now.

Let’s return for a moment to the image of an ocean.  If I’m standing in the ocean and I want to enjoy a big wave, that’s fine.  But if I’m so focused on that “big wave,” I might miss all of the little waves that constantly surround me.  I might miss all the medium-sized waves that come somewhat regularly.  In fact, I might even bypass the big wave if I think it ought to be bigger.  And all because I’m focused on waiting for that big wave.

So it is with our lives.  We are constantly surrounded by God’s presence and his many blessings.  And it’s OK to be waiting for a big blessing.  But let’s not miss what God is doing for us today – and every day – because we’re “holding out” for something better.

Let’s enjoy God now! Let’s glorify him in the land of the living!  Let’s delight in him in the big blessings and the little blessings.  In the lean times and the prosperous times.  After all, he is always worthy of our praise and adoration.

To God be the glory, great things he has done!

Thanks for reading Find God’s Best in the Little Things from bdentzy!

• Christ is Always With Us
• Blessings Are More than Money
• God Saves the Best for Now

I wonder how often I miss God’s very best for me because I’m worried.

• Worried about what other people might think of me.
• Worried about how I should look like a better Christian.
• Worried about whether I’m living my life faithfully.
• Worried about what I should write in this blog.
• Worried about doing my very best.

Of course, not all of these are bad.  The problem is more of whether I take my worries to God.  Or whether my worries push God to the edges of my life.

How about you?

What do you worry about?
How do you maintain your perspective?

Thanks for reading Missing God’s Very Best Because of Worry from bdentzy!

• Find God’s Best in the Little Things
• How Well do You Maintain Relationships?
• Purpose 1

We most certainly ought to offer God our very best.  But sometimes we forget the most important part of our relationship with God.  God.

The very foundation of our relationship with God is God.  He is the source of our hope.  The source of our joy.  It is God who works in us as he wills to do his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).

It is God alone who works in us.  God makes us beautiful.  God makes us whole.

Take joy in that.  Receive hope and energy from the Holy Spirit when you feel to drained to go on.  Persevere!

Know that God is able to do all that he wills!

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Thanks for reading Beautiful Things from bdentzy!

• The Very Best
• Jesus is the Center
• There’s Too Much to Do

True freedom is never independence from God.  Rather, it is total faith in and dependence on God.

As we go through this weekend celebrating freedom, let’s not forget the source of true freedom and peace.  May we always live in gratitude of what God has done and the high cost that was paid for our freedom.  And may we always live in the hope of true peace, eternal life, and freedom.

And may God bless us, every one.

Thanks for reading Happy Freedom Day from bdentzy!

• Christ is Always With Us
• The Very Best
• What is Eternal Life?

Sometimes God interrupts our lives.  Sometimes when it seems like everything is going well and sometimes when everything seems to be going poorly.  It’s at those moments that we are reminded that God has the very best for us.  At those moments we realize that God saves the best for now.

That is exactly what happened when Jesus attended a wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11).

Wedding at Cana

You probably already know this story.

Jesus and his disciples were attending a wedding where the wine ran out before the party did.  Jesus’s mother asked that he intervene and he did – turning water into wine.  When the servants took a little of the wine to the one who was in charge of the banquet, he was so impressed that he remarked to the bridegroom, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” (John 2:10 – emphasis added)

The passage says “saved the best till now,” not “saved the best for last.”

God’s Best is NOW

God’s best for us is always what he has for us now.  But before you write me off, let me explain.

We live in a destination-based or goal-based society.  We’re always looking to the future or the past.  We’re focused on where we have been or where we want to be rather than enjoying the journey.

We’re always straining and stretching and grasping for what is to come .  Or trying to recreate the past.  And we have a tendency to view God and his blessings that way.  We think that God’s best is yet to come or have already passed.

Partially True

In a sense, that is true – there is more to come and God has already done great things.  But that is God’s best for then, not God’s best for now.  God’s best for now is exactly what he has for us now.  Not what he did for us before or has for us later.  NOW!

• If God reminds us of what he’s done before – that memory is what he has for us now.
• If God reveals to us what he has in store in the future – that revelation is what he has for us now.
• If God tells us to wait – waiting is what is God’s best for us right now.
• If God tells us to move forward – moving forward is God’s best for us right now.

How Can We Know God’s Best?

Well, first, knowing God is knowing God’s best.  God’s best for us is ALWAYS himself.  That’s the foundation.  But sometimes things don’t seem as clear, so here are a few questions we can ask ourselves:

• Am I able to enjoy this with God right now?
• Does this line up with the Bible?
• Does this give me strength to persevere?
• Does this improve my relationship with God?
• Does this weaken my relationship with God?
• Does this give God glory?
• Does this increase my faith?

How About You?

Do you believe God has his very best for you right now?
How do you determine what is God’s best?

Thanks for reading God Saves the Best for Now from bdentzy!

• Why I Love Weddings
• Find God’s Best in the Little Things
• Don’t Settle

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There’s a flip side to when we don’t settle.  We get the very best.

Think about it for a moment.  If we don’t take “second best” or maybe even “fifth best,” we get the very best.  Every time.  It’s like math – it just works out that way.

We fill our lives with “second best”

Any time we start trying to fill our lives, we end up getting short-changed.  Any time we grasp or pursue or try to take for ourselves, we lose out.  It’s just how it is because only God has the very best for us.

If we want God’s best, we need to take a look at our lives and see if we’re filling them with things other than God.  Other than his plans.  Ask ourselves, “Are we leaving space for God to move.”

Because if we’re not, we can’t have the very best.  We’re full of all the other stuff.

God has the very best for you.

There are millions of things we can fill our lives with.  There are so many things we can pursue and serve.  But none of these compare with what God has for us.  None of them even begin to compare.

Think about it for a second – if the all-knowing, all-mighty creator of all that is seen and unseen has a plan for you or has “stuff” in mind for you, what makes you (or me) think you (or I) can do better?!

REALLY!

We can’t possibly do better.  We don’t know enough.  We don’t have enough power.  And we just don’t understand.

• We will never be more effective than when God makes us effective.
• We will never be more satisfied than when God satisfies us.
• We will never be more joyful than when God is our joy.

God is the very best for you.

We can see in the Bible that God enjoys giving good gifts to us (Matthew 7:11, Luke 11:13).  But there’s more than just that.  More than any “stuff” that God could give us, he alone is the prize.

He’s the very definition of all that is good and beautiful and desirable.  He’s the source and foundation and sustainer of all that has been created.  He’s the lover and redeemer of our souls.  He’s the giver of life.  He’s the rock of ages.  He’s the source of all power and all life and all wisdom and all creativity.  He’s the fullness of all that could ever be.

And sometimes he creates space in our lives by taking “stuff” away – even stuff that he gave us – so that we can have the real prize.  The prize of eternal life, of God alone.

Let’s hold out for God’s very best.

Let’s refuse to settle.
Let’s keep our eyes out for what God has for us.
Let’s keep our focus – our attention – on God alone.
Let’s do the things that improve our relationship with God.
Let’s keep our expectations high.

Let’s see what God can do!

Thanks for reading The Very Best from bdentzy!

• Christ is Always With Us
• Effects of a Media Diet Change
• Are You Satisfied?

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Sometimes when things don’t work out or when our way seems confusing, it can be tempting to take matters into our own hands.  To say (to ourselves), “God’s forgotten me,” or, “I guess this is the best I can get,” or, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.”  In short, it can be tempting to settle – to take less than what God has for us.

Don’t Settle

It’s not worth it.  God’s plan and provision for our lives is always worth the wait.  It’s always good.  It’s always better.

A Proverb

A few years ago I was going through a dry patch in relationships.  I’d just gotten out of one destructive relationship and I was looking around to find pretty much anything I could.  Thank God my mother had the wisdom to coin a proverb for me.

If you’ve been in a desert for a while, even a mud puddle looks refreshing.
– My Mom

Think about that for a second.  If you’ve ever been caught in the time between God’s promise and his provision, you know what I’m talking about.  Even the writer of the Proverbs in the Bible knew what I’m talking about.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12

Don’t Settle

If you’re in that place – the space between promise and provision (the land of the “nitty gritty“).  If you’re unsure of what you should do next.  If you don’t know what to do.  Don’t settle.  Wait on God.

That puddle won’t refresh you.
What’s in that cesspool might kill you.
That puddle might make you sick.
What looks like an oasis might be a mirage.

Wait on God.

My Results

I can tell you that for several years I did my best to avoid puddles and cesspools.  I waited on God.  I argued with God.  But I didn’t take what wasn’t mine and I didn’t settle for less than what God had for me.  I waited on God.

And I can tell you that the wife that God had for me is far better than what I could have hoped for.  Better than anybody else I could have found.  More than I could have stolen or asked for.  She rocks!

But I wouldn’t have her as my wife today if I had settled.

How about you?

The context of my story is relationship but we all settle in so many ways.  How about you?

Have you settled for less than God’s best?
Do you need to remind yourself of what God has for you?
Do you have a story to tell?

Thanks for reading Don’t Settle from bdentzy!

• Share Your Spiritual Journey
• God Saves the Best for Now
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