Embracing this life AS you but not FOR you

I love the song Hope for Now by City & Colour.  The lyrics refer to the deep fulfillment that we artists feel in dreaming that we could save somebody’s life through our art. As a musician I am deeply moved as I listen. One line in the song especially grabs & disturbs me:  “How can I instill such hope, but be left with none of my own?”

Life for a Jesus follower is not meant to be hopeless! It is full of hope and full of light. But, how does that really work?

You were designed by God to be a light in this life. But, the path to shining as that light may surprise you. I Corinthians 5:15 says:

“15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves

 but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

The “good news’ is that we don’t have to live for ourselves anymore! Living the way Jesus did means discovering the passionate life of loving service to God and everyone around us!

But, you can’t afford to confuse no longer living FOR yourself with not living AS yourself. Your hope is found in Jesus because he frees you to embrace this life AS yourself but not FOR yourself. God restoring you as a new creation through faith in Jesus is the first step to real life!

As Christians, we have entered the life that the whole world is thirsty for. We have been rescued by Jesus to embrace our true identity as true children of God. So, ask God to grant you the grace to live this day AS yourself FOR the One who lived, surrendered His life and was raised again for you.

 

 

This week @KV Youth

Wow! 2013 has arrived! School kicks back into gear this week! That means KV Youth is back in action too! MIDDLE SCHOOL YOUTH GROUP will be happening on Tuesday, Jan 15 and  AFTERMATH for HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS will start up on Friday, Jan 18. We have the SJ Youth Ministry Network Prayer Night happening this Sunday night and MERGE is kicking off on Wednesday, Jan 23. 

 
Here are the details:
THIS WEEK:
 
MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL:
SJ YOUTH NETWORK PRAYER NIGHT
Full Gospel Assembly, Saint John, 7:00 – 9:00 pm. Meet at Kings Valley Church at 6:30 if you need a drive. Please let Pastor Dan know if you are planning to attend.
COMING UP:
 
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Youth Group,Tuesday, Jan 15, 6:00 – 8:00 in the Youth Centre, games, small groups, Pastor Dan will be speaking
 
HIGH SCHOOL
AFTERMATH Friend/Games night, Friday, Jan 18, 7:00 – 8:30
COMING UP:
 
MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL:
MERGE kick off, WEDNESDAY, Jan 23, Rothesay Baptist Church, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Please note: There will be no Tuesday night MS YOUTH or Friday night AFTERMATH during the weeks of MERGE.

If you don’t know what you are doing…

These words from James 1 from “The Message” grabbed me and shook me this morning; “If you don’t know what you are doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it…” And there is more. I encourage you to read the whole chapter and listen for the Holy Spirit speaking to you.  I know it seems completely counterintuitive, but God actually loves to hear us admit that we don’t know what to do. When we are willing to throw ourselves on him and cry out that the only thing we really know to do is to trust him and depend on his agenda, we are actually getting somewhere.

A Jesus follower is someone who operates from a place of wisdom, honesty and gritty surrender to our real situation… We are completely lost unless we depend on the Father every moment of every day. Check your heart and ask yourself whether or not you actually believe God loves to help you. He does! And there is no moment like this one right now to cry out to Him for wisdom!

If you are new to my blogsite…

Danlamos.com is dedicated to helping people discover and live in their God given design. If you are new to my blog, I invite you to look back through some of my posts from the past few years and let me know what you think. Love to hear your comments and feedback. A simple way to sort back through some of my older posts is to choose by category or click on one of the tags in the list in the right column of this page.

Click on the following title for a sample of a post from 2012: 

Serving a Life Sentence – Telling My Story

Stoked for what is coming!

Wow! It is so fun to be part of Kings Valley Church! I am super pumped about the opportunity I have to help families love Jesus and live for the honour of his name. I am going to have fun posting here on this new blog. I hope you drop in often to check out what’s happening in this rambling, churning imagination of mine. My real desire is to stir you up for what is coming! The future of God’s kingdom is coming to meet us and it is gonna be amazing! Through knowing Jesus Christ and becoming sons and daughters of God we are going to be right in the thick of it.

Super proud of Pastor Brent and the team that he is pulling together! Don’t hold back if God is stirring you to roll up your sleeves and to get involved in taking KV Church into the future. There is lots to do for sure!

One of the cool things I am deeply involved in right now is overseeing KV Youth while we search for a new youth pastor. We need all hands on deck and lots of volunteer help to support this hugely important ministry. So, parents of students and other interested volunteers can get in touch with me and I will happily put you to work 🙂

Thanks for dropping in to danlamos.com and drop in often!

Peace,

Dan

“Followership” is the new “Leadership”

There is a fresh wind of hope and change blowing in our world right now. It is bringing with it the power to restore our lives and our communities to match God’s dreams for the world.

I felt it’s effect while reading “I Am A Follower” by Leonard Sweet a few weeks ago. I highly recommend it to you. Sweet calls us to be followers first and then “first followers”.

Most importantly, he reminds us that there is only one leader, Jesus Christ. The rest of us are called to follow.

The world doesn’t need strong leaders!

In fact, “Followership” is becoming the new “Leadership”.

This morning I was stunned to read these passionate words from Jesus as he unrolled God’s blueprints for the people of his day:

“Anyone who believes in Me is not placing his faith in Me, but in the One who sent me here. If one sees Me, he sees the One who sent Me. I am here to bring light in this world freeing everyone who believes in Me from the darkness that blinds him. If anyone listening to My teachings chooses to ignore them, so be it: I have come to liberate the world, not to judge it. However, those who reject my teachings will be judged; in the last day my words will be their judge because I am not speaking of My own volition and from My own authority. The Father who has sent Me has commanded Me what to say and speak. I know His command is eternal life, so every word I utter originates in Him.”

Wow! Jesus’ identity was as a follower. His words had the power to bring eternal life and to bring things back into sync with God because of His followership.

“Jesus followers” identify themselves the same way. We understand that we are not leaders! We are first followers sent into our communities by the Father armed with His life and message.

The last thing we need is a new breed of leader to arise! What we really need are Fearless Followers!!

Answering my Own Question… What will keep us from destroying eternity?

A few days ago I posted a question on facebook and twitter; “Input wanted… For all who believe in the age to come or an afterlife: What do you think will keep me/us from destroying it?”.

In other words, Given the way we as people created by God with the freedom to choose how we will interact and engage with each other and creation in this time have managed to make such a mess of many things and at the same time have managed to work with our Creator and do some beautiful things… What will govern us in the age to come/eternity/afterlife?

I think I will take a shot at answering my own question:

Our hope in the age to come or the afterlife or eternity (although we are living in eternity now) will be the same as our hope now.

Jesus Christ now reigns as King in every realm that exists. It is hard to recognize it in the world we walk around in every day and yet he demonstrated in his way of life, his teachings, his victory over the dominion of darkness on the cross and his empty grave that God’s kingdom is actually in control and much more involved in our lives than we would imagine.

 

The key in these times is for those of us who make up the Church to follow him in this same journey. The Church is present in the world to testify that Jesus actually is King of all. The Holy Spirit is here with us affirming and empowering the presence of His sovereign authority over creation through us. This was always God’s plan and always will be.

The challenge for us though is to grapple with how that authority is exercised. In fact we will always face that same challenge for all eternity. It is a kingdom of love and since God is love, there is no other law or system that can or should govern us.

In the gospel of Matthew beginning in chapter 5, Jesus explains what will govern us and all of creation now and forever. So, it seems to me that a big part of understanding what will rescue us from repeating the disobedience, sin and destruction of this life in the age to come is found in living in the authority of His kingdom of love now.

 

New Eyes

I have a friend that told me that the best thing she brought back from a compassion/ministry trip to China was “new eyes”. When she told me that, I grinned and nodded my head like I knew what she meant. But… I really didn’t.  I figured she had a great time and her hipster way of expressing it was that she came home with “new eyes”.

But, I listened to a guy named Skye Jethani talk this morning about the way Jesus saw the world completely different than everyone else. You can view his message if you click here  His theory is that the way we see the world comes before the way we act in our world. If we see it as scary and threatening than we will want to attack. But if see it as a place where we don’t need to be afraid, than all of Jesus’ teachings make sense. His teachings only make sense if we can see the world that He saw.  I hope you take 15 or 20 minutes to check out Skye’s message!!

I think I get what “new eyes” means now!

Maybe I found mine.. 🙂

Thirsty??

There is something I know about myself. I have learned that whatever I am thirsty for I am going to find a way to satisfy it!

If I feel empty or restless or anxious or bored, it doesn’t take much persuasion for my will to blaze with passion to make my self feel better.

God made me that way.

It is pointless for me to fight it because what I really want I will get or I will self destruct trying!

So, when I hear Jesus call to me with love and desire to go deep with Him I know that He is speaking to my thirst… my hunger…

He always wants me to come to Him when my desire for more is unquenchable. I have an open door with Him to come when I am thirsty and He will give me living water to drink! That’s crazy! It is the most incredible experience in life to drink what He has to offer.

There is more though… He also unlocks something in me that becomes an explosion of life to everyone around me. It’s called His kingdom and His plan to restore the world is supposed to flow from me… and you…

Thirsty??

Dull ache in my heart

This morning I was reading the book of Acts. This description of the very first church grabbed me…

“There was an intense sense of togetherness among all who believed”. Acts 2:44

As I read those words, I am aware of an old familiar ache in my heart.

What if this is what it is all about? What if the kingdom of God is all about “togetherness”?

What if sin is really anything that violates or threatens or infects or breaks our togetherness with each other and with God?

I offer this prayer for us who “believe” today:

Father God, I ache for togetherness. 

I admit that this ache motivates me to behave in strange ways often… many times in 

destructive ways. But I am hungry, actually ravenous for togetherness. 

There are amazing moments when I indulge my hunger in positive ways toward others. 

But most of the time deep connection with other believers eludes me… and I slip into despondency again…

I believe that Jesus laid down His life for all of us to be deeply connected in and through Him.

Please do a miracle with us and restore an intense sense of togetherness in your family.

Amen