It's NOT About YOU (or me!)

If there is one thing I have learned from years of being a worship leader-----IT'S NOT ABOUT ME!!! This can be a very hard thing to sink into our human minds. We love to be the center of attention--to think that when God moves strongly in a service it must be because we must be such an "anointed" worship leader. We love for people to tell us that we are so talented and awesome, and it's ok to accept compliments.....BUT-we have to be careful to not let these things go to our heads. This is not only in worship or singing, this is in anything we do for the Lord. We have to be careful that we are doing things for the edification of Christ....not the edification of me.....as Kay Warren so beautifully puts it "the kingdom of me must fall". We must become less and Christ must become more. So, the things that you are doing for God--are they out of a pure heart? Are they out of love for the King? Or, are they out of love for one's self? Out of desire for people to notice what you do and compliment you on these things so that you look like the "good Christian" is supposed to look?

Examine your heart, examine your motives. Are you pushing open doors so that you can be seen? Are you serving in areas you really don't like but do it anyway because it's noticed and people think it's a good thing? Remember, it's NOT about you.....let everything you do be to further the kingdom of God....let it be done for glory to Him, not glory to self......

just a thought....

Orange Trees!

I was on my way to the post office to drop off some mail and noticed what used to be a very lovely orange grove. However, right now it’s not so lovely. Weeds are overtaking all of the trees. What started with one little piece of growth has now grown up, around, and in the trees. They can hardly survive because they’re being choked out; not getting enough air or nutrients. They’re not producing fruit, they can’t—they have hardly any life left in them, how can they produce something else?

Isn’t this how it is with sin and us? What starts as just one little compromise, one little sin becomes bigger and bigger until it overtakes us, sometimes it overtakes our whole life. That one curse word, that one drink, that one little peek at porn on the internet, that one little ounce of unforgiveness (I’m talking to myself here too) and before we know what happens, it grabs us and begins to grow. We begin to separate ourselves from God (because we know we’re wrong) so we’re not getting our nutrients, our “life” from our provider. We’re being choked out and we’re not producing fruit in our lives either.

We have to be so careful to not allow that kind of "stuff" into our lives or our hearts. We have to immediately take every thought captive and focus on pure things, good things. We have to run to the life giver Himself, allow Him to plow up our weeds, give us some life, and then we can go back out and produce some fruit for His glory and His kingdom….