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live with passion

NOTE: most of this post first appeared in March of 2007 but continues to speak truth.


Push me.  Drive me.  Give me something to live for.


That is what lots of church people expect from their leaders.  Yet God has not called your church or mine to meet all the needs and not even to feed you spiritual.  God calls us to help people learn to eat spiritually, to love God and to chase after Him.

I am greatly challenged by Mark Batterson of National Community Church in DC.  His book In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day is an in-depth look at vision and gives clarity to people looking to God and who desire to be part of a purpose driven adventure that only God could put together.

In that book Batterson gave us what he called the Manifesto:

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.  Set God-sized goals.  Pursue God-ordained passions.  Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention.  Keep asking questions.  Keep making mistakes.  Keep seeking God.  Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution.  Stop repeating the past and start creating the future.  Stop playing it safe and start taking risks.  Expand your horizons.  Accumulate experiences.  Enjoy the journey.  Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can.  Live like today is the first day and last day of your life.  Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God.  Burn sinful bridges.  Blaze a new trail.  Criticize by creating.  Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks.  Don't try to be who you're not.  Be yourself.  Laugh at yourself.  Quit holding out.  Quit holding back.  Quit running away.  Chase the lion.

It is time for living with passion, vision and confidence and with God in those things to be our ultimate goal, desire, reach and so much more. Yet we keep slipping, or choosing to back up.  Is that true of you?  As in the story of Jonah he ran from God and was not willing to do what God asked and missed out on some pretty big things.  Listen up, we miss loads of good stuff, God’s best for us, when we don't drop it all to be with God.

Galatians 4:9 nasb
But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?

Honestly, it makes me sick to see people willing to give up big things for what seems comfortable and easy.  God doesn't call us to comfort and ease.  He calls us to win the world to Jesus.  Yeah, we have to work and care for our families, but it is all tied together.


Quit living like life has no purpose or that the only purpose is to race toward death, just to get to heaven!  Find out what your passion is and start living.

Psalm 37:34 The Message
Wait passionately for God, don't leave the path. He'll give you your place in the sun while you watch the wicked lose it.

Blaze the trail.  You may be the first one in your family.

Quit holding back.  The adventure awaits as we trust God!
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