How would your life look?

So often, Christians talk about what Christians (and non-Christians) should do.  They rename themselves (Christ-followers), they put labels on things (using the words 'believers' or 'saved'), but do they really follow what they proclaim to believe?  That's what a lot of non-Christians ask.  If you believe a certain way, shouldn't your life reflect it?  YES!  A RESOUNDING YES!  It's hard.  But let me ask you, if you're on a diet, does your life reflect that?  It should!  But sometimes it doesn't, sometimes you fall off the log.  There's a lot of things people proclaim to believe or take part in or be passionate about, but sometimes our lives don't reflect that.  There is ALWAYS someone watching you.  Whether it's your spouse, your parents/siblings, neighbors, kids, etc. 

Last night, in my small group, we talked about one particular passage.  Let me put it here for you:

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives.  Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.  The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants.  And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.  These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.  But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.  Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  There is no law against these things!
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.  Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.
Galatians 5: 16-26

I know that's a lot to read.  But basically it's telling us what we should stay away from and what our lives should reflect instead.  Do Christians sometimes fall off the wagon and participate in the former?  Yes.  We are all sinners and sometimes it happens.  This is the reason Jesus died for us, for our sins, we are all born with a sinful nature.  Just because we have accepted Christ and what He did for us does not give us a "get out of jail free" card.  When we die, we will all be judged by God.  And we'll pay for those sins that we participated in.

My point of writing this was to address the latter.  My point is that our lives should look DIFFERENT.  People looking in to our lives, co-workers, un-saved friends (BECAUSE WE SHOULD ALL HAVE THEM!!), church friends, family members, should be able to tell right off that we live our lives differently.  Last night we discussed The lives of the Greeks and Romans, they were a polytheistic culture, they worshiped many Gods (as many people do today, money, jobs, family, etc.) and were VERY devoted to that.  If they angered the Gods, maybe a monsoon would come and wipe out all their crops and homes, they sacrificed to them on a daily basis.  We should also sacrifice to God.  We don't burn stuff (or animals/people) anymore, but we should sacrifice our time to spend time in the word, we should sacrifice our money in the name of Christ to help others find Him.

Does you life look different? 

Thanks, if you made it through all of that.  It's just on my heart.

This last weekend Chuck and I went shooting with a friend from the hospital, Kendra.  We took Aaron along and had a great time, especially Aaron because Kendra made Muddy Buddies and he LOVES Muddy Buddies.  I hope I never have to defend myself, I only shot 1 out of 3... 

Aaron's preparing for the future...

Mmmmmmm...Muddy Buddies

He didn't want to share

And this morning he was checking out the weekly deals at Safeway.  He wants strawberries.

So, I guess we need to go get those (NOT, they're so expensive!!).