What do yours look like?

We all have busy lives filled with all sorts of things to do, activities, work, our families, our children, and the things we personally want to do.  More often than not, this fills our schedule to the brim.  Oh, and let’s not forget some of us go to church on Sunday.  I mean our week is packed and who has time for anything else right?  Let me explain about the white boards of life concept.  Imagine, if you will, there is a huge whiteboard.  Imagine if you were to sit in a room in your home and look at a wall, let’s say its 10’x15’, now let’s make some categories so we can organize ourselves.  So, on the left we will have family affairs, in the middle we will have work, and on the right we will have personal.  So, we have broken up this big whiteboard into three sections.  Now start filling in the categories, after a little while your whiteboard will be filled with so many tasks and plans, work related things, family events, and don’t forget all the things we like to do for ourselves.  I mean we are busy people, things to do, people to see, and places to go.  Now let us make another whiteboard this whiteboard will be smaller maybe like 2’x3’ and the heading at the top will read My Ministry.  You see this whiteboard will consist of what you do for the Lord (and going to church does not count).  For some, the board will be filled, but for most maybe 1 or 2 items.

You see the Bible says in James 1:22-25:

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵ But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

Jesus also left us with this in Matthew 28:16-20:

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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.”

He also calls us to be obedient he says in John 3:36:

“And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

You see what happens is, we are here living in this world that’s very busy, busy with raising children, running businesses, paying bills, and trying to get.  Yes, the world is all about me, me, me, and what can I get.  We as Christians are supposed to be in it, but not of it like is says in Romans 12:2: 

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

John 15:19:  

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 18:36:

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

1 John 2:15:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

John 17:14:

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

1 John 2:15-17: 

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

John 17:16:  

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Colossians 3:2:  

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

John 8:23:

He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

James 4:4:

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Ephesians 6:12:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

1 John 5:19:  

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Philippians 3:20-21:  

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

John 15:18-19:  

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

1 John 2:17:  

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Philippians 3:20:   

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 John 4:5:  

They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

You see God has plenty to say about being in the world and that’s why some of our whiteboards are out of balance, the work and personal usually triumph the board.  So, I encourage you all today to bring some balance, let’s level out the scale and let us be those warriors for Christ.  We can do this by reduction and elimination, less of us and more of Him, balance my friends, less world and more Kingdom and at a minimum have the boards the same size.  Start adding to your kingdom business board and let that outweigh all others.  Get your family involved so you can all do it together.

Have a passion to love, the number one commandment out there is to Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.  We do that by mimicking Jesus.  He came to spread His message of love, peace, and hope.  He has a plan of salvation and God has a plan and purpose for all His children.  If we can start to deny our fleshly desires, then we too, like Christ, can fulfill the Great Commission.

We have to become kingdom minded and the way we do that is by, in some ways, disconnecting from the world’s asks.  The world wants our white boards filled, filled so much that we don’t have time for Jesus and what He wants for us.  We are not merely just supposed to say a prayer and go to church, the Christian life is so much more.  We can see that through Jesus and His disciples walk.  Let us become more like them and that will start with a decrease in us and our wants.

I leave you with this, I know life can be busy and sometimes it looks like life has us going in a certain pattern, but the “whiteboards of life” can hopefully shed some light into the balance or imbalance that your life may have and with some prayer and hope we can all start to become more doers and start separating from the pulls of this world.  So we to can walk as Christ walked with a purpose and for a reason.

Shalom Shalom