Puppies and Christians
We have two dogs and one cat, at least we used to. Our cat is a tuxedo cat named Oreo, but she will also answer (or at least look at you) if you call her cat, Satan's bride or psycho. Our female dog is a Shepherd/Husky mix and our male dog is a black lab. Last year our dogs decided to not follow our house rules and the boy dog went into the girls room alone with the female............yeah. So we ended up with a litter of nine puppies. Here I would like to give a shout out to my nephew for watching them while we were on vacation for about two weeks. (Pausing while you chuckle...go ahead...we did.) This last week, after another episode of not obeying the rules (again) we were blessed with a litter of 10 puppies.
Here are a few lessons I have learned from puppies about Christians while I have spent time watching and playing with the fur-balls.
1. Like puppies, Christians need to dog pile. We need each other. That is one HUGE reason the writer of Hebrews said to come together as a church.
2. Like puppies, Christians need to play with one another. It can't always be about volunteering. We need time to chill-ax, hang out and have fun...together.
3. Like puppies, Christians need time around those older than them (spiritually and physically) so they know how to live as a Christians. Titus 2 anyone?
4. Like puppies, Christians need to get to the milk of the word often. Yes, we also need the meat, however; we should never move past the basics. 1 Peter 2:1-3
5. Like puppies, Christians nee to grow. You cannot stay a Christian puppy forever. Eventually you need to grow up. Too many don't. Puppies are cute when they are puppies. When a person has been saved 10-20-30-40-50 years and still acts like a newborn child, they need a come to Jesus moment with one who loves them.
OK, enough for now. If you have any more that you can think of, please leave a comment below. Oh, and if you were wondering....
Popular posts from this blog
Now Is The Time To Stand For Truth
Our world is full of accusations, allegations, condemnations, retaliations, polarization, victimization, and the list goes on and on. What are we, as believers in Jesus Christ our God and Savior, supposed to do with all of these things? How do we respond biblically? The answer is simple, but it is not easy. We stand for biblical truth. Let me give you three ways that are just the tip of the iceberg, but help us on our way to living out biblical truth. 1. We stand on the rock, Jesus Christ. The believer cannot stand alone, nor even without the help of Jesus. Peter and Paul both remind us what the prophet states about Jesus by declaring, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” (Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:8 NASB) When those we look up to as models fail and fall we must look past them to Jesus Christ the Lord who is the only One in whom we will never be disappointed. Every other person will fail an
Preached At, Not Taught To
How many times have you wished that your kids had a full relationship with God? Working in youth ministry for close to two decades I cannot count the times where teens or collegians are told to develop spiritual disciplines in their lives. They are told that these habits will deepen their walk with the Lord and help them to rely on Him while building their faith. Yet that is where it stops. It is as if we tell each generation, you get a good relationship with God. When the push back of "Why?" comes the response is often no more than a spiritual "Because I said so." We cannot expect teens/college kids to do the spiritual disciplines we have preached, but not taught. 1. "Because I said so" does not work How many times have you used that with your children. I remember growing up I thought to myself, "That's dumb. I will never say that to my kids." I do not remember the first time I used it on my little ones (at the time) but I know
When Life is Hard
There are difficult things in life to understand, many of which, let's face it, we don't. There are some who, at times, act like they understand. For example, when the grandchild explains to the grandparent about all that is needed to beat the video game, talks about the hidden stages, and uses characters by name. The grandparent nods, mutters mmmhmmm and ok, but has no clue what is going on. You know, moments like those. Yeah, sometimes life is hard to understand. What happens when you don't know which way to go, what is happening, or why it is happening to you. How can you explain your life, your faith? What if you have trouble understanding it all. 1. Live on mercy As Christians, we can live on one of three levels. We can return evil for good, which is the satanic level. We can return good for good and evil for evil, which is the human level. Or, we can return good for evil, which is the divine level. Jesus is the perfect example of this latter approach (
Comments
Post a Comment