Justin Knowles

Hello Everyone

Starting this week I am going to be moving all of my post over to a Wordpress blog. It is way easier, I can make it super clean, and it has everything i need over there. So, If you want to still follow my posts, head on over to:

http://www.justinknowlesblog.com

Looking forward to seeing you over there!

Justin

Have you ever heard that expression, the are “on fire for God.”? It is a common saying and it describes someone who is fully engaged with Jesus and doing things that give God praise in their actions or words. You can by just how they act, that they are Christian and seem to be like the expression says, “on fire.”

 Our relationship with God is very similar to how we would tend and take care of a campfire.

 Think about it. The only way that a fire goes out is if you put it out yourself, or if you leave the fire unattended and eventually the fire will die out because it is no longer getting fed anything to burn. A fire will keep on going and burning as long as it is given something to consume.

 God’s on fire love for us will always be there, it is just if we choose to add kindling to that fire to make it grow. The only thing that would make our relationship with God not grow is because we ourselves put out that fire, we disregard God for who He is, or, we are the ones who are not constantly feeding that fire of relationship with God. It is us not spending or making time with him, us making the choice not to read His Word, us not adding to the relationship in anyway and not feeding the fire of this relationship and like a campfire, it will die out and we will grow cold because we stepped away from it. There is nothing else to consume because we have pulled away.

 We need to constantly be feeding that fire. We need to allow God to consume us, we need to give ourselves to God daily and be open for Him to move in our lives daily. If we want to be that person “on fire for God” like we always see, we are the ones who are responsible for feeding that fire. We are the ones who move away from Him, God is constant, He does not move. We are always either moving towards God or away from God.

 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20).

Acts 4:13

¹³ When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Peter and John just got done doing a miracle and people were amazed. People were blown away and noted that these men, ordinary, non-schooled men, idiots to the world because they were just fishermen once before, had been with Jesus, and Jesus used them to change the world and perform this miracle. People took note of them because they had been in love with Jesus.

These men were “idiots” of their day. They didn’t meet up to the religious elite because they didn’t go to school for it. But it never mattered. They just lived for Jesus and obeyed, and God used them.

God is looking to use idiots. The “not good enough”. And I am glad… because I am one of them. I’m an idiot, I promise you that. Gos is in the habit of using people who are idiot enough to follow Him no matter what the case, that the answer is, “Yes Lord! Now what will you have me do.” And then they do just do it. 

People will look at you according to the world’s expectations and qualifications, and judge you off of that. Jesus can and will use you no matter what condition you come in as long as you are willing to obey.

Craig Groeshel said, “You are not who others say you are. You are who God says you are. And He says you are His!” It doesn’t matter what anyone else tells you you are just as long as you know who God says you are. God uses everyone and anyone, no matter the past or future, just as long as we are willing to be so passionately following Jesus that the world thinks of us as idiots. 

Is anything impossible for our God? 

It does not matter who you are, what you have done, whether you think you are capable or not, God loves to use idiots to move in big ways. I’m glad I am an idiot. I’m glad i realize that I have messed up, done stupid things in the past but know God can still use me in a huge way.

Same goes for you! Be an idiot. We all are, and let God use you and define you.

Galatians 6:14

¹⁴ May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which^[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

What a reminder this is.Today’s world is all about self-gratification and self-promotion. It reminds me of the funny line from Will Ferrel’s movie Anchor Man. “Hey everyone! Come see how good I look!” Funny, but it is true. We are so focused on promoting our own cause that we lose sight of the CAUSE of life: Jesus. I’m not to lie, I fall into it too, but we need to be careful when we do this because we have to remember it is not about us. It’s not able you.

It’s rather what we do through Christ. Let us boast in that. Let us show others not what we do but what God has done in us. 

Such a great reminder. It’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s about Jesus.

As I am sitting here at Starbucks, I have noticed that there is a light fixture that I have never noticed. There is also a picture on the wall that I have never noticed either. I also noticed the tile on the floor in which I never noticed the design. Does all of this matter? Yes, because I never noticed these things. Why? Because every time I am here I am rushing to finish something and doing work. Always in a rush to get things done.

We are a slave to time and productivity. Hurry and distraction are nothing new in our culture today. The clock is our ruler. Did you know that monks were the ones that created the clock? They believed that working hard and praying where two most ways to serve God. They invented the clock so that they can manage there work time and prayer time even better.  What a good invention for a great reason, too bad we have made it a joke.

Read Mark 6, Jesus takes time out of the morning to slow down from traveling and spend some time with his Father. Before going out, traveling from town to town, he slowed down. We have made the clock a joke, our master and are slaves to it. We live our lives by it and we miss so many things because of our “need” for productivity in a short amount of time. We need to take a break sometimes, we need to break away, slow down, and just notice what is around us and appreciate it. We can then see God’s work around us and notice what he has for us today, now. 

Today I noticed some things that I never noticed before at Starbucks because I slowed down, took a break from my work, spent time in the Word, and actually noticed things that were right in front of me.

I wonder how many things from God we miss because we are so “busy”. We need to learn to slow down and notice things. Especially when it comes to noticing what God has right in front of us right now, today.