Go Outside!

My mom was always trying to get me to go outside. Her reasoning was persuasive: sitting in front of the television all day was bad for my eyes; think of all the fresh air and sunshine; all my friends were outside, so why wasn't I outside. The list could go on and on, so eventually, I went outside. I think that maybe she just wanted a few minutes of peace and quiet in the house, but even if that was true, outside was better. There were adventures, discoveries, and more that I would have missed curled up on the couch. Outside was better.


Often we can find ourselves becoming very comfortable inside the church. Truthfully, it is a great place to be! We find hope, comfort and encouragement there. It is important, however, to understand the purpose of the hope, comfort and encouragement. We don't come to church to stay inside; we come to church to be equipped to go outside. Jesus' Great Commission to his disciples was to "Go."


Matthew 28:19–20 (NIV84)

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.


Come to church to get equipped, then go outside. It's really exciting what God is doing out there!

It's Always Today

I love Hebrews 3:13a. It says, "But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is called "Today." It makes me smile, because when you think about it, we are being exhorted to encourage one another everyday....since it is actually always today. Tomorrow never comes, because once the clock turns to midnight and one milli-second (or whatever is a smaller unit than that), it isn't tomorrow....it's today. It's another one of those 'keep on keepin' on' passages. Barnabas is one of my favorite Biblical characters...we are told his name means Encourager.


I can remember telling my kids, 'tomorrow, we'll...' do such and such. So then when that day came, they asked, 'is this tomorrow?' That was a hard one to answer...."Well, it's actually today"..."But you said we'd do this tomorrow, and now we're doing it--so isn't this tomorrow?" Try to explain to a four-year old that yesterday today was tomorrow, but now it's today, and tomorrow is tomorrow.... It laughingly makes my brain spin even now!

But this instruction isn't confusing....as a matter of fact, it's very straightforward -

Encourage one another TODAY!