Responding To The Call

I will be posting highlights from a sermon I delivered last year titled "Responding to the Call".  Little did I know then, that what God gave me for a sermon would later turn into a book (in progress) and ministry reaching out to help Christians understand the process of growing in Christ. The next several blogs will contain some main skills that must not only be developed but sustained in order to be transformed into a believer taking responsibility for his or her faith. These blogs will only serve to help motivate the reader to begin or return to the discipline of maturing in Christ. This is not to act as an "all inclusive" treatment plan.  The process of diagnosing a disease is to begin assessing the cause and effect. Once this is accomplished, a prognosis can be made and treatment can begin. As with any marriage, a relationship with God requires communication, submission, and response to the invitation to grow closer. This outline serves to provide some scr...

Whether serving a job or God, commitment is a topic to reckon with. It is easy to say you will do something, but doing it is another. Many of us have good intentions, but usually end up serving ourselves instead of God. Not only that, but we get started into something using our own endurance, not God's.   How? We are responding out of the sense of duty (self centered) as opposed to a sense of love to God (surrendered).   A very important lesson I learned when becoming a firefighter-paramedic is that I had to surrender to the authority (control) of my officers and medical director. Well, when I take myself out of the equation (my desire to be in control) I gained a better perspective and understanding of the value of surrender . I had to admit that I did not know everything and that others who were in authority, usually because they had greater experience and knowledge, were to be respected.   I had to understand my place. Guess what, my authority, which I ...