I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
An Abundance of Blessing
Do you pray for God to bless you? We probably spend most of our time in prayer, asking for God to bless things in our life or asking God for something we need. And we should. Jesus even tells us we should.
We know that all good things come from God. That means that we don't truly own anything we possess. It's all a gift from God and ultimately should be used for Him. Our money, talents, and resources are opportunities to give back to God and others.
2 Corinthians 9:8 says that God is able to abundantly bless those who are generous in using their time and resources to do good things for others. This verse isn't saying that God will bless us unconditionally. The two verses before this one, in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7, talk about how we should be cheerful givers in everything we do.
Paul is saying that God blesses us—not so we might have comfortable lives—but so that we would be selfless in giving back to God and others.
There are many ways we can give back to God and others. We can start by regularly tithing to our local church, which is an investment in the kingdom work God is doing through local believers. We can give generously to those who are in financial need. We can also be generous with our time, talents, resources, and anything else we can use to serve God and others.
Next time you pray for God to bless you, take some time first to think about how you are helping others. If giving feels more like an obligation and not like an opportunity, consider how you can take steps to change that perspective and give regularly. And then—watch how God honors your joyful generosity.
A Unifying Mission
Almost every successful company or group in history has shared something in common: they all had a unifying mission.
Missions are critical in not only aligning objectives, but also unifying a large group of people toward one purpose.
As Christians, we all share the same mission. We are unified in following Christ. We're saved by His blood (Romans 5:9) and we're all called to make disciples in His name (Matthew 28:19).
And yet, even among Christians, there is so much division and disunity.
Part of the division comes from our lack of clarity and commitment to the mission that is defined in Scripture. And to make it worse, we are sinful people, and sin naturally causes division in our lives and relationships.
But, the Psalmist in Psalm 133:1 reflects on how good it is when the people of God live together in unity. There is something powerful that happens among Christians when we are unified.
Unity is not putting away our differences, because there would be no need to be ...
