What does it take to the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time)? Today Jesus answers that questions for us and what you’ll see is that His answer is the exact opposite of what we’re trained to believe today. The world teaches us to be great we must be self-serving and self-promoting; but Jesus says the exact opposite: my greatness is connected to my serving others.
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Time for a Reality Check
Reality checks – where would we be without them? We all get a little ahead of ourselves sometimes and need someone or something to bring us back down to earth. One such reality check happened to me during the summer after I finished 8th grade and was preparing for high school.
Up through that year, I had been playing football in my local town youth league. I loved playing football and not too toot my own horn, but I think I was pretty good (toot toot). There were three teams in each weight class – an “A” team and two “C” teams. The “A” team was comprised of the top 30-40 players in each weight class and the rest of the kids were divided equally amongst the two “C” teams.
Read MoreWhat on EARTH Am I Here For? (sermon video)
Special thanks to my good friend, Matthew Weybrecht, for the guest appearance at The Well yesterday. Matthew spoke about a topic that many people struggle with: what on EARTH are we here for?
Is the goal of life just heaven? Is this all just a tryout for eternity? Or is there a purpose to life here on earth?
Check out the video above and find out for yourself.
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If Today Was Your Last Day...
The following guest post is written by Youssef Iskander - a high school student living just outside Toronto, Canada. Despite being young in age, Youssef presents a profound viewpoint on the recent bombing that took place at a Coptic church in Cairo. Very wise for an 11th grader! If you too are interested in guest posting on my blog, please visit my Guest Post guidelines for more info.
This past Sunday, multiple people were killed as part of an attack on the St. Peter Church in St. Mark's Cathedral in Egypt. I don't know exact number of casualties as many are still in hospitals and their life still at risk.
Why is this relevant to us?
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Orthodox Afterlife: How One Afterlife Experience Changed My Life
One afterlife experience by a contemporary Egyptian Christian monk altered my life and allowed me to regain an eternal perspective on living. Formerly, as I busied myself satisfying my sinful desires, I knew God existed, but He was not relevant. Yet, as I heard my mom read to me the monk’s afterlife experience (translating it from Arabic to English), I imagined myself in his place having to face the repercussions of my decisions in life. It was then that my heart and mind flooded with the feeling expressed by the wise Solomon: “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed,all is vanity and grasping for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14).
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A Foretaste of Heaven
I don't know about you, but if there's one thing I long for it's this: the biggest, fattest hug from God and for Him to look us deep in the eye and say "Well done – welcome home, my daughter (or son)!" I don’t know about you, but I can imagine myself crying oceans on that day.
Every time I think about it, it makes me feel kind of sad that we actually have to live life with all its hardships to get there, but I found myself thinking: Why not live heaven on earth?
I came across recently that says "God is not where heaven is, heaven is where God is."
And that made me think...
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Why Should I WANT to Be With God?
Many people argue that they don't need God, that they are perfectly happy without Him. Those same people usually think that all God cares about are rules and having us obey them. We (Christians) often respond to by saying that God doesn't care about rules, but instead He cares about a relationship. He doesn't want us to be good; He just wants US! He wants ME! He wants YOU! He wants to be with us and us with Him. That is the “will of God” that people so often search for.
But the question I ask is this: why should I want to be with God? (I know this sounds like a basic question, but humor me here).
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Home is Where the Heart Is
Ready for my answer? In my previous post, I posed the question “why does God care so much about having a home on earth?”
Whether it was the Garden of Eden, or the tabernacle of Moses, or the temple of Solomon… God placed a lot of emphasis on having a physical building/place where His people would gather and worship Him. Why is that? Why would a spiritual God care so much about a physical building?
Why? Because our God is an INCARNATIONAL GOD.
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The ReBirthday Reward (or is it a gift?)
We recently asked our college Sunday school class where they think they would go if they died today and why. All of them, 100%, said they would go to hell because they're not worthy of heaven.
There's something very wrong here that made me want to fire myself from any kind of church teaching that I've done in the past 10 years. I shared a discussion of this incident in a post on my blog. Thousands of views later, it seems clear that there's a real issue here.
It’s been said that half-truths are more dangerous than lies...and we've been victims of a terrible half-truth, "We are not worthy of salvation." But there’s gotta be more to the story.
Read MoreI Am the Way (I AM Part 5)
We wrapped up the I AM series yesterday with a final message on Jesus' most politically incorrect statement ever:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)
How could Jesus say such a statement? Doesn't He know that it's offensive to say that your religion is better than someone else's? And isn't this somewhat arrogant - to believe that your way is the ONLY WAY to heaven?
Are You Ready to See the Judge?
When I was a child, I used to love getting asked the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I loved it because the answer to that question was never the same. Like most kids, I was constantly changing my mind about what I wanted to be one day (and believe me, I still haven’t figured it out what I’m going to be when all is said and done).
But I remember that there was a long period where I really wanted to be a lawyer. That was my dream. Coincidentally, this happened to be right around the time of A FEW GOOD MEN – the Hollywood hit starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson. Man I loved that movie!
(even more coincidental was the fact that I also wanted to be an Navy pilot after seeing TOP GUN – the original Tom Cruise classic – where Maverick and Goose stole all of our hearts. “I feel the need…for speed. Whoa!” What can I say. We all have our little quirks. Mine is Tom Cruise movies. Judge not, lest ye be judged.)
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Are You Getting Ready for the Wedding?
Weddings, weddings, weddings. This summer has been full of weddings. Whether it’s actual weddings that I’ve attended or future weddings that I am helping couples prepare for, the subject of weddings has been the topic of conversation for much of this summer.
Of course everyone loves to rejoice and celebrate weddings with family and friends, but I think we’d all agree on this: it’s a lot more fun to attend a wedding than to prepare for one. Preparing is hard work – as I’m sure that all of the brides (and mothers of the brides) could attest to. There’s so much to keep track of and coordinate and stay on top of. In the end, it’s all worth it – but there’s no doubt that it isn't easy.
What about your wedding? Are you ready for it? Are you working to get ready? Did you realize that it’s coming up soon?
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Dreams, Dreams, Dreams
Nothing’s better than dreams. Not the kind of dreams that come when we’re asleep (even though those are great too). No, I’m talking about the kind of dreams we have when we’re fully awake – the dreams about what we want our lives to look like and where we’re headed.
Some dream of graduating Harvard Law school one day, while others dream of discovering the cure for cancer. Some dream of making it on Broadway, while others dream of making it to the NBA.
Dreams dreams dreams. We all have dreams. And let’s be honest. WE LOVE OUR DREAMS! A life without a dream isn’t much is it? Dreams are what keep us going. They push us to fight through obstacles and barriers. Without them, life can be boring and quite difficult. Agree?
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Are You Sure About That?
“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:1-3
We’ve all been therefore haven’t we? Thinking that we’re so right about something only to be smacked in the face with the reality that a) we’re far from being right and b) we’re actually more wrong than we’ve ever been before! It’s not the “being wrong” that surprises us, but it’s the shock that I could be “so wrong” all the while thinking and acting as if I am “so right.”
That’s where the disciples found themselves today. They are walking down the road discussing a question that seems to have come up quite often with them, “which one of us will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” [It looks like they inherited the competitive gene as well :) ].
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The Life We Were Meant to Live
“Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father… But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:21-24
Those were the words Jesus spoke to the Samaritan Woman thousands of years ago. They were also the words that were not coincidentally read this past Sunday in church – just one day after we learned about the death of the Pope and Patriarch of the Coptic church, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III.
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