Wanted: Worshippers

"The Father seeks worshippers." -John 4:23
That verse is so simple, but also so challenging. Am I the type of worshipper that God seeks? Do I have the right stuff? What parts of my life do I not offer to God as worship?
Here's what I came up with for our lives, and I think these are simple areas of life that are often easily overlooked. Out free time and our social life. Kind of weird to think of offering our free time and our social life to God. But here's what we usually do with our free time and our time with my friends. We usually do what I want to do. It's always about me. I watch what tv shows I want to watch. I go to resteraunts I want to eat at. I see movies I want to see. But this is what challenged me.
What could we be doing that would honor God and bring worship to Him? Here's what I came up with.
1. Spend more time with God. If we have enough time to watch an entire four hour football game on Saturday and Sunday and Monday, then we're not spending enough time studying God's word or praying. That's twelve hours in three days that we waste just to know who won. Think of how much better we would know God if we spent that time with Him.
2. Spend time investing in peole. It may sound strange or silly, but what is it that God wants us to do while we're hanging out with our friends? That doesn't mean, should we go to Longhorn's or Ruby Tuesday's for dinner, but how can I invest in people while we're together? How can I speak the truth of God to them. It must be done with a purpose and with love. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17
Obviously there are many more areas of our lives that we could be holding onto for ourselves. But these are two areas that are simply overlooked to often. God wants us to offer all of ourselves to Him, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem to us.

You were MADE for THIS!

I heard the most amazing message this week while at catalyst. Francis Chan was talking about all these times in scripture when some one was "set apart," or even "set apart from birth" for a specific purpose. The major point Francis was trying to get across is that God created you and I for a specific purpose, and no one else can fulfill that purpose. God created us for a specific reason.
Isn't that amazing!? God created me to do something that no one else can do. If anyone else tried being Travis, it just wouldn't work. If I'm supposed to go to Africa for missions, then God could do some amazing things through me. But if someone else went and did the same thing, it would be totally different.
But I started thinking about what this means for my life. Things have changed a whole lot for Desi and I over the past few months, and there are no signs of it slowing down. So what does this knowledge that God has something specific that He wants to do through my life mean for me while God has Desi and I where we are? Well, if gives my life incredible purpose. It gives me a reason to get up everyday and enjoy doing God's will.
But do you also see how plain stupid it is no to seek God's will? Think of what you could be cutting the Kingdom short of. If I don't pursue God's purpose for my life it would be like those IBM commercials. I just saw one where this guys walks into a conference room and all the furniture is pushed against the wall, and all these people are laying down on yoga mats in the floor. The guy who walked in says, "What are you doing?" Someone responds, "Ideating." "What's that?" he asks. "Coming up with new ideas," someone responds. "Why don't you just call it that." "Cause it's more than that," a woman explains, "we have to rethink the way we do things. Processes. Organization. Procedures." "How?" he questions. A pause. "We haven't ideated that yet," someone says. "Good lick with that," he says and walks out. Then it pops up on the screen, STOP TALKING. START DOING. That is exactly what I'm talking about. If we don't seek to realize God's plan for us we are no better than those people who sit around on the floor "ideating." Enough ideating, not doing anything to be a part of forcefully advancing God's Kingdom. It's time to START DOING. Start pursuing God's purpose for my life. So that I won't be responsible for cutting short the Kingdom of God and missing out on the great joy that can be mine.