My letter

Paul was a man who knew how to lead, encourage, and discipline the body of Christ. The New Testament is full of letters he wrote to the body of believers every where. I have been wondering what He would write to the believer’s of today.

My challenge to you is to write and post a letter you would write to today’s believers like Paul. Here is a letter from heart.

To all the believers in the United States, the faithful in wanting to follow after Christ Jesus.

“May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ cause your hearts to over flow more and more for one another.”

I am so thankful when I think about how many believers are wrestling through an authentic and real relationship with Him. I am thankful for how many people I hear about who are pursuing intimacy more with him. I love hearing stories about how people are coming to know God more and making him known to others. I exhale when I hear about people experiencing real forgiveness and grace. God is real and has real forgiveness to be known.

I too often forget that Jesus came to this earth so that we might know new life of redemption and hope. Jesus surrendered his whole life to die for our sins. He died so that we might know different and better life than the world around us knows. Jesus addressed the darkness that fills the earth because of sin. We as believers know different. We know a God who is alive and desperately wanting a relationship with us forever.

When Jesus died, he prayed that we, as believers, would be one as he and the father are one. There is a lot of division going on in our culture. We lack community when life is meant to be shared and edified together. We are meant to be one body built up of many parts that work together to make Christ known. We know God, and our lives are meant to make him known.

I want to encourage you not to choose silence over standing up for your faith. Jesus stated that we all will have trouble, but with him there is different in how we know and deal with that trouble. Our lives will look and sound foolish to those who do not know God. Decisions we make should resemble our faith and beliefs. I guarantee that both your faith and beliefs will be challenged. Please remember that our times of hardship and darkness have an answer and a hope that look foreign to those who don’t know God. We do. Let’s choose to take steps to act like it.

Do not want what the world wants. Do not follow the ways that look like short cuts. Choose the hard, because the process is what builds character and dependence on God. Apart from him we can do nothing. Want a life that looks like integrity, forgiveness, and love. Be a person who is faithful and committed. These two characters are almost extinct in our culture. Be the different.

Speak up and fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. Make every effort to own your relationship with God not matter what the cost. Love no matter what, because unconditional love comes too often with a price tag.

There are so many options and distractions to silence God’s voice. There are a million messages that solicit and entice you to remove the deity from God. Our world is full of images and people to worship. None will ever satisfy or be enough compared to who God is.

As believers, believe different and live different. Surrender your life to him who saved it. Always want more of him and less of the tangible. Don’t choose the easy, because there is life and freedom to be known in the hard.

As believers, we know a real God and have the real answer for what the world is missing. Be the answer.

What do you have to say to our culture?

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