For those of you who know someone or maybe you have recently come into the faith we rejoice with you!  We would love to encourage you along in the journey, so just drop us an e-mail at kyle@divedeepministries.org and let us know. It is truly amazing to be part of God’s big plan.  As a new Christian things can be pretty scary at the beginning of the journey.  We as Christians usually guide a person to the journey and  then say have a great day. This is something in  need of change.

As someone new to the faith you may begin to see some things you need to change but aren’t sure how.  There is not a formula or a set of steps which will work for everyone, but we do know God can help us though anything.  The biggest thing to do is to begin pressing into God.  You can do this by getting involved with your local youth group or church but even that is not enough.  Begin to read the word every day even if it is just a little piece.  A good place to start is in 1st Corinthians or the other writings of Paul.  Paul does a great job of communicating what life should look like as a Christian.

There is a tendency sometimes for believers to think they need to “renew” their salvation like they would a parking meeter.  After you have accepted Jesus as your Savior you don’t have to recommit every time you hear the message of salvation.  God has saved you and you can’t get away from Him now.  Now we aren’t saying recommitting is a bad thing but do it out of God’s spirit prompts and not out of guilt or shame for doing something wrong.  Unless you turn your back on God there is no need to recommit and even when you mess up God always loves you.

Along the journey of faith there is always a possibility to start back into your old tendencies. When this happens God has given you grace and freedom from it all. You just have to ask Him to help and restore you.  There is no amount of stuff that can get you farther along in the journey.  Even following all the rules won’t bring you closer to God. The only way to draw closer to God is to press into His love.

As a new Christian know that sometimes life will be hard like we talked about a few weeks ago, but God promises never to leave us.  He is always present and wants a deep relationship with us. In this deeper relationship with God you begin to find the true meaning of life.  To live an unhindered  life with the God of the universe on your side is an amazing experience.  Begin now to trade the things of this world for things God would have for you.

There are hundreds of thousands of people who have not yet tasted true life and freedom in Christ Jesus.  Continue to seek them out and love them where they are.  Allow them to see you as different and pray God opens the door to sharing the best thing that has ever happened to any of us.  Live with them and not above them.  Love them through everything even when they don’t want to be.  Let’s begin to remix the typical Christian and discover new things God will have for us.

I’ll be taking a few weeks off from blogging myself to transition into some new beginnings for me, but we have some great things in store. We will have some cool people doing some guest blogging for us, and we will launch our new series ‘Remix’ in September. There are some pretty cool things we believe God wants to do with us and excited we get to do this together.

In all you do always remember to Dive Deep!

KC

Pride is when we decide that we are doing things the “right” way. It starts as a small thing like having pride about an accomplishment and believing that you did it all on your own. As you begin to allow this to grip you it roots itself deep in your soul and spreads throughout like a virus. When we are gripped by pride we feel like we have arrived. We are always the ones who are right. It becomes hard for us to communicate the gospel because when someone offers a different idea our pride lashes out and fights against showing God’s love. Even on the cross Christ was always about others not about himself. The root issue of pride is that we have an inward view and not an outward one.

In our state of pride we fall into the spirit of  judgment. We begin feeling as if we should be able to tell everyone else how to live according to our lives. Last we checked God is the only one who has the ability to judge people so why should we inflate ourselves to play God? In the movie Bruce Almighty the main character Bruce (played by Jim Carey) gets the chance to be God. He is given the ability to do everything that God can do and for a while it is fun. He feels like he is good enough (out of pride) to be God, but at the end there is a scene with God and Bruce that captures why we should not try to take God’s place in judging others. Bruce tells God that he doesn’t want the responsibility of Him, and God replies saying something along the lines of we all want God’s powers without the responsibility of them.

When we become judgmental and prideful we begin to assume the role of God. As Bruce figured out, playing God is not something that any of us could even begin to do correctly. We lose the grace that God has given us to pour out on others because we are so wrapped up in ourselves and can’t see past our own desires. Our mission is to love others, and we can’t do that with a judgmental spirit. God would have us to love others unconditionally and even when they don’t deserve it. He first forgave and offered grace to us. Let us not be like the man in the parable whose debt was forgiven and then demanded another debt be paid. Let us spread the message of love to all who are around us even if we don’t want to give it to them. Of course we will stumble. That’s where God grants us grace and mercy. Let us pass on what we have been given.

The easiest way to not fall into a spirit outside of God is to constantly dive into the Word and God’s love. If we know God’s word we will begin to see that there are things we may do that are different for us than others. God gives us a set of universal lines to follow for those of us that call Christ our Lord. He offers the Ten Commandments as our guidelines for living. One thing that many Christ followers think is that if we shouldn’t do it then the non-Christians shouldn’t either. God’s rules apply to us, and we can’t expect those in darkness to act like the Light. Even within ourselves God has given us some things He feels will best benefit us. If it’s not written in black and white within the Bible God grants us free will to determine what we believe He would want of us.

There are millions of people living in the dark and we have been given the challenge  to reach those people. There is a God-sized agenda we are responsible for and it is much larger than our pride or judgmental spirit. Our Savior came into this world not to condemn but to save it. Over the next week we urge you to search in your heart where the virus of pride may be resting and begin to work through that area of your life. Let us give grace and mercy to those who we don’t think deserve it. Give forgiveness when we feel like we can’t. Be about this cause that is greater than anything we can ever do. Let’s go be who Christ called us to be. Be the Light in the darkness!

Dive Deep,

KC

The “turn or burn” approach takes the path that we all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. This statement is quite true. Although this approach has truth in it you can attract more bees with honey than with tar. After hearing this message people are made to feel like God is angry at them and if they don’t accept Christ they will burn in hell for eternity. The whole concept of hell has been skewed by cartoons of a red horned devil with a pitch fork. Hell as a place is not the bad part of not believing in Christ, but it is eternal separation from God and being enslaved to the most evil person that will hurt our souls more than any physical torture could ever hurt.

In the “come and live” approach we begin to invite people into a life that is much better than they have right now. We know that Christ loves each and every one of us and never wants to see us to live a life away from Him. The thought of someone going to hell because they did not believe in Him as their Savior pains Him. When we suffer the Bible says that He suffers with us. Instead of using that suffering to pull people to Christ God wants us to share the love and grace that he has poured out on us to everyone. God does not send people to hell.  He does not want nor wish for that to happen. He wishes for all that he created to be in eternal fellowship with Him.

To fully understand how to share the “come and live” Gospel with others we must understand as a community what it means for us to be loved unconditionally. In everything that we have done Christ loves us. In our shame, our guilt, our successes, and everything that we will ever do Christ’s love is endless. If we want to look at what love is we have to turn to 1st Cor. 13:4 which says:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

This verse is used in alot of different instances, but it truly is the most perfect form of love that we can find. Christ wants us to love everyone like this so our message should not be one that goes against this.

“Come and Live” is an approach that inspires us and allows us to use the love that God has given us. While we know what the ultimate reality is everyone wants to know what it is like to be loved. If we have been shown the ultimate love,it would make sense that we would share it with everyone no matter who they are.

Over the next week continue to pray for those who are lost. Begin to show love to those around you, and ask God to show you more love so that you can give it away. Look for others that are wanting to reach out to those that are lost and join them in this. Let us become a community that loves on everyone no matter who they are. God loves us, and sharing the message of salvation is the ultimate expression of that love. We have to do it in a way that is pleasing to God.

Dive Deep,

KC

When you begin to really process that number, it can be a little bit overwhelming. That is a lot of people, and in the midst of that we can begin to feel like we are just one in a million. Numbers tend to dictate much of what we do. We have become about how many friends we have, how much money we have, how much stuff we own and the like. It seems in all of this we lose sight of the only number that matters. That number is 1.

Compared to the population of the world 1 seems very insignificant, but it actually holds more weight in reality. You can do many things with the number 1. It takes 1 person to begin to dream of new things and purse them, 1 person to lead a group of people to accomplish a goal, 1 person to create this amazing world we live in and 1 Savior to die for 1 person.

We tend to get stuck sometimes on the amount of people that are important to God. Sometimes we feel like God is happy when we share His message with just a few of them. It’s hard for us to grasp, but God cares about all of the people on this world on an individual level. Jesus Christ came to die for all 6,792,467,727 people.  We should never try to hold back what we believe and be willing to reach people.

If Jesus Christ came to die for each of us, then why should we keep that gift silent from the rest of the world? Jesus did not die for a everyone to allow us to not share the gift of eternal life with the people around us. We as Christians, true followers of Jesus, hold the responsibility of sharing the message of Christ with the world! We have been given a gift that is meant to be shared not to be held inside of us.

There are many ways to share this message with the world, some more effective than others. One thing is clear throughout the bible and that is Jesus’ message of love. When we are sharing this means that we should not be preaching something that goes against this. This includes messages that breed fear into new believers and make others want to come to Christ for fire insurance. Christ never took that approach and we really don’t know what it will be like. Instead of teaching about something we don’t understand, let us begin to teach of the love of God.

Christ has given us the gift of mercy and grace from our past sins. He has given us life, true life! So many people are living, but have yet to really live. One of the most effective ideas about sharing this gift comes from the magician Penn Jillette. After a show a man came up to him and started a conversation with him about his show. The man really showed interest in Penn’s acts and after a while handed him a Bible. He told the Penn that he was concerned about his eternal salvation. In the video that Penn posted about this conversation, he said:

““How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?”

You can view the whole video by going to this youtube link. We would encourage you to take a few moments to watch this to grasp the whole idea that he is talking about.

Over the next few weeks we want to invite you to discover a new way to share your faith with others and some common pitfalls we all end up in. We can do much on our own with God, but we can reach so many more people when we unite for a common purpose.

This week we challenge you to search your heart and spend some time praying for those who you know do not know the Lord. Be sincere in your prayers and earnestly desire for their salvation. If you don’t know someone, then we suggest looking for people who you may know or have mutual friends with and begin to pray about them. Lets go change a nation!

Dive Deep,

KC

Something that is evident throughout the Bible is we as a people were created for community. Starting with Adam and throughout generations of our Christian history there are examples that we were made to do life with others. Christ presented this with the calling of the 12 disciples. When you really think about it, Jesus was God in the flesh and He didn’t need people around Him to complete what the Father had set forth. He was showing us that we all need to be in a community of believers. If we were made for community, it would make sense that we would worship with other believers as well.

Just as we are stronger as a group, worship can be stronger within a group than by yourself. Although that does not mean we can go without private worship. When we worship with a group it may be easier for someone to connect with their Father or step out and experience God because the people around them make them feel comfortable. It also provides a since of community and you actually see other believers pressing into the same God that you worship. When I get the opportunity to watch a worship service while serving in an area of ministry, there is something that makes a deeper connection when you listen to a few hundred voices joining together in praise to the Lord of Lords.

Being in a worship community is very important in our spiritual development, but we should not neglect the act of private worship either. Sometimes worship in a large setting can become routine or even a little bit clique because we begin to just go through the motions of worship. It is in this time that our private worship becomes extremely important in the development of our community worship. We can only change from the inside out, not the outside in. When we begin to go through the motions we think that what we are doing outwardly will become what we are inwardly. Instead we become like the Pharisees that looked good on the outside and horrible on the inside in the area of worship. We lose the connection we once had because we are no longer sowing what is good for us.

Private worship builds self discipline within us and gives us a greater understanding of our Father. This can come in may different forms like prayer and quiet time or maybe having your own personal worship service in your bedroom. Whatever is the pathway for you, we encourage you to pursue that in your private life so that you may benefit in your outward life. Just to clarify, you should be worshiping because you love our God and not because you receive something in return. Worship was never meant to be self beneficial but a way of being obedient and praising our Creator King. After all, God gives us 24/7/365, the least we can give him is some set aside time of private worship and even that should not be enough for us.

One of my favorite worship songs is a song by Hillsong.  It is called “Desert Song” and one of the verse says:

And this is my prayer in the fire
In weakness or trial or pain
There is a faith proved
Of more worth than gold
So refine me Lord through the flames

It captures one of the hardest examples of life that we can go through, but it is in that time that we need a worship community around us. We need people to lift us up and help us along the faith journey. It is in times that this song talks about that we will begin to reap in public what we sow in private.

Mathew West in his song “The Motions” not only gives us a good summary to what we have been talking about over the past weeks but also encouragement in our private pursuit of worship. The lyrics to the song say:

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions

This should be enough to encourage us to pursue private worship time and encourage us to have a deeper appreciation of our worship in community. We would encourage you to pursue both of these things with a hunger that can not be satisfied. Our prayer for you is that you will never have enough of God and continue to dive into his amazing deep waters.

Next week we will be launching into a new series called “Sea of Faces”. The ministry team has been praying for great things to happen by God’s hand over this next season and we would ask that you would join us in this prayer. Over the next series, we will be looking at the reality of our world feeling like a sea of faces. We live in a world that is lost, and we are the ones that God has put here on earth to reach those far from His arms. He sent His son to die for everyone and our mission is to share that with the world no matter what differences we may have. We are much stronger as a community, and we want you and your friends to be a part of this. Look for our new post next week and some pretty cool things that we will be doing over the summer to help with our mission of reaching those who are lost.

Dive Deep,

KC