Prayer for Today

Lord Jesus, may people see more of You and less of me. Guard me from the stunts, the shows, and the subtle statements that would attract attention to myself. Instead, may You be seen, honored, and lifted up through my choices today. Apart from You I have and am nothing. With You and because of You I have everything. Thankyou! Amen.

Hope Happenings

The University is now working with the local school district to provide public school teachers with a Masters of Education with a concentration in "Gifted and Talented Education" (GATE). This pilot program has the potential to expand to other school districts in southern California and we are delighted to extend our support of the public school system.

Now Available

“Even when we were dead in our transgressions,
God made us alive together with Christ.”
~ Ephesians 2:5

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Look At Me

The now-infamous “balloon boy” incident over the skies of Colorado on October 15, seems likely to have been just a dramatic attention-seeking stunt by the Heene family. They created a media (and emergency services) frenzy over the horrific possibility that their 6-year-old son Falcon lay hidden away in a homemade flying-saucer helium balloon racing out of control thousands of feet above the ground.

According to the sheriff's department, they perpetrated the hoax simply to generate publicity. Such gratuitous self-promotion is shocking.

Yet, we do the same thing, just on a lesser scale. Far too often we want to attract attention rather than deflect it.

We drop hints about our titles, awards, achievements, successes, and even our spiritual disciplines. We may gently flaunt our biblical knowledge or carefully craft a reputation for service, intended to evoke gratitude from those we help or tell.

In short, we nurture a “look at me” Christianity.

Some of us are shameless in it, while others are subtle. But in the process of becoming “respectable sinners” – honorable in the eyes of those around us, and honored by them – we forget that “we were dead in our transgressions.” According to the apostle Paul, the drug pusher, the pimp, the pastor, and the parishioner share a common death. And dead bodies have no meaningful distinction or attraction.

Yet, the Paul goes on to declare that “God made us alive together with Christ.” We don’t raise ourselves … and we don’t live apart from Christ.

Our glory stories ought not distract people from Jesus, but they often do. The accounts of fabulous turn-arounds and miraculous changes can too easily leave people marveling at us rather than Him.

Our testimonies tantalize our listeners briefly because of what He has done but mostly because of what we have become.

This “look at me” Christianity subtly distracts others from Jesus. Only as we reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ Jesus (and because of Christ and for Christ) will we become less like the Heenes and more like Him. What do you reckon?

In HOPE –

David