LIFE Nuggets

The purpose of this blog is Essentially to Chronicle our personal faith journey and that of a place that we call LIFE House West. Why Life Nuggets? Because Nuggets bring to mind a sense of fun and enjoyment, show me a child who is sad when they get to eat chicken nuggets..... Things like life, and following Jesus should be fun and we want to explore those things in a light hearted and fun way, so please, enjoy...

Name:
Location: Hagerstown, Maryland, United States

30 years old, married, Father of four children (2 boys, 2 girls) 2 cats and 3 dogs (black lab, english bulldog, and pug)

Thursday, January 22, 2009

The Hidden Things

I thought it would be fun for this weeks LIFE Nugget to share a story form yesterday. i had some problems with my computer that required me to take it in for service. After spending the entire day dealing with the problem, and assuming that it was fixed, around 11 P.M. last night, I discovered that the same problem persisted.

Needless to say I was upset, like most people I don't have a great deal of time to waste and I work hard to be a good steward of my time. So this morning I contacted technical support again to attempt to solve the problem. I am happy to say that my issues have been solved, I think.

What was funny about the entire issue is that a little used program that I had added to my computer was causing the problem and causing my entire system so crash. It is funny how the small, hidden things in life can cause us to crash as well. If we are not careful, little things that we neglect can lead us to mistakes.

Do we take the necessary time to evaluate our lives and try to correct the little things?

The Bible gives us come wise counsel on this. The Song of Solomon 2:15 says that it is the little foxes that destroy the vine. We all have little foxes in our lives that keep us from becoming what God wants us to be. Why not take some time and see what the little foxes in your life are and remove them. It may keep your life from crashing.

Blessings

PJ

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Two Great Questions

I have been thinking a great deal recently about how Christians represent themselves in the world they live in. As of late I have been surrounded by people that are fine with Jesus, but when it comes to his followers, sadly, they are turned off. We either come across as far to judgmental, or condemnatory in our actions.

To be honest, while this is not news, it still saddens me. We are great at pointing the finger of accusation, but not so good ad extending a helping hand to our neighbor. We are great at arguing God's case (as if God needed a lawyer) but not so good at meeting people at their point of need. We expect people to come up to our level, but we never go down to theirs.

All our efforts have produced is a genuine hostility towards Christianity as a whole. It is tragic and I feel that now is the time to do something about it. I believe that it is time for sincere followers of Christ to rediscover the power of humility and service. Two concepts that have been lost in our church communities for many years.

Don't get me wrong, we are fine with service every now and then. We walk in humility when God challenges us on something in our personal lives, but humility and service in the world at large get tossed on the shelf. They never become part of our daily focus.

So here is the challenge. When you meet people and you eventually let them know that you are a follower of Christ, ask them the two great questions:

1. How may I pray for you
2. How may I serve

Then pray for those needs and serve where you are needed. Then you can begin demonstrate a Christ centered life.

Till next time.

LIFE Nuggets 2.0

Man, it has been a long time since I have sent out a new LIFE nugget. Life has been rather crazy and time has been somewhat scarce. So I thought it would be fun to reboot the blog and start over. So I proudly introduce LIFE Nuggets 2.0!

The idea behind this will be devotional thoughts or prayer focuses which you can access to make you think, pursue God with passion, and pray more. I hope that these will be a blessing to you as you use them. At any time feel free to comment and share ideas, stories, prayer requests, or anything else that you like.

I hope you enjoy LIFE Nuggets 2.0!