June 4, 2010
How well do you Know God?
Last night at Collide we had a great discussion about knowing God. We had asked, “On a scale of 1-10 (1 being very little and 10 being very well), how well would you say you know God?”
Think about how well or lack thereof you know God. As you think about knowing God, I want to challenge you to set up parameters for knowing God. One might say they know God as an 8 or 9 because they have ready the Bible and live by it. Another might say God is infinite so I only know God as a 2.
Consider 1 John 2:3-5
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
The reality of “knowing God” is this…. How well do I Obey God?
In His Mighty Grip,
Mark
http://marksalazar.org
December 2, 2009
Go fly a kite!
Go fly a kite! Yes I know it sounds bad, even wrong. But for reals, some of you need to go fly a kite! I did today. With a busy schedule and lots to do with alot coming up in the next few weeks with church, family and holidays I took the time today to go fly a kite with Shadrach, my 3 1/2 year old boy. (Check out the pic below)
Go fly a kite!
I think it is so easy to get caught up in being busy with our “to do” list and work that we neglect out families. Live opposite of the world. You are always going to cheat someone of your time. Do not cheat your family. If you do, you will lose them. I cannot tell you of how many families I know that are broken up or are going to be broken up because they need to “go fly a kite” !!!
Men….. love your wife! I believe one of the best ways we can model Christ’s love for us is to love our wife. Love her, cherish her, open doors for her, hook her up with flower (or gift certificate to happy nails… know her love language). etc. Your kids will see what you do and do the same. Shadrach likes to pick up little yellow flowers and give them to his mom… it is so cute and thoughtful.
Parents…. take time during your busy schedules and do something fun with your kids. It was so fun flying a kite today with Shadrach. I was reminded today how much that little guy looks up to me. I was reminded that I need to love on him so much more. He needs me to see show him how to do things in life and then to give him a chance at doing them.
Your kids will do what you do, not what you say!
Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1
Good or bad, your kids do look up to you, they will even copy you. Let us be imitators of Christ for our kids! And lastly….GO FLY A KITE!
In His Mighty Grip,
Mark
November 24, 2009
Dead to Sin?
Do you ever wonder why it is so hard sometimes as a Christian to “be” a Christian. Well you might be asking, “what do you mean by Christian?” I think a person who says they are a Christian is a person who follows Christ with their actions! The word Christian means “little Christ” or “follower of Christ.” Now are we going to be perfect? No, but should we strive to be? Yes. So if you are seeking to follow Christ or are trying to be a little Christ this is for you!
We all go though different seasons of life; things are going great, super tired, financially impossible, worn out emotionally, etc. Despite what season you are going through I think we can fall into a funk of going through the motions spiritually. Yesterday I had a devotions that I put a bookmark in that I wanted to go back to. It was Romans 6:11. It says,
“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
It really spoke to my heart in a fresh way. I asked myself, ”Do I consider myself dead to sin and alive in Christ?” I think that there are so many times we read the bible just to read but forget to ask God, “WHAT ABOUT ME? HOW AM I DOING? SEARCH ME GOD? SHOW ME WHERE I AM AT!”
I know that I have been forgiven and that my sins gone. But I do think that we need to remember to consider ourselves through our daily living living in seeking to follow Christ to remember that we are dead to sin and Alive in Christ!. I feel encouraged today knowing that, remembering that so that I may be ALIVE.
2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Romans 6:2
So how do we get tripped up into being tired, depressed or just flat out forget about God? I think it it because we forget we are dead to sin. As I was encouraged today, I want to encourage you to remember what Christ has done for you daily. Wake up thanking God for the life he has given you. Thank Him for the Cross, thank Him for your salvation, thank Him that you are forgiven and free, thank Him for your family, thank Him for His goodness, Thank Him!
24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24
Live to righteousness today! He paid the price for our sins! By His wounds we have been healed! Be dead to sin today. Let us not go back to any former ways but let us press on and go forward and live out our salvation.
In His Mighty Grip,
Mark
http://marksalazar.org
November 12, 2009
Are You Free?
Tonight my wife and I were reading Galatians 5 together and a few things really stood out.
You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Galatians 5:7
How sad is that? Hey you were off to a great start but something happened, something hindered you. Did you know that God has a plan for our lives that are full of promise, blessing, a future and a hope? Sometimes we are in process to some of those things but we never finish to the end. Something hinders us. What are things that keep you and I from obeying the truth? Is it our insecurities? Past failures? Lack of Faith? Trust? Whatever it may have been, start over today and keep running!
It is amazing to think that you and I can live victoriously in Christ because He has set us FREE! He has given us liberty to walk in the Spirit. I had a conversation with a person a while ago about the freedom we have in Christ. We had talked about being free in Christ and what it meant. What it does not mean is this: because I am a Christian and Christ has set me free, then I can choose to do whatever I want. That is abusing the grace of God and this person is not truly free. You can always do whatever you want but that is not how Christ wants us to live. If we continue to make decisions with that mindset we then live in the flesh.
Galatians 5:19-21 says,
“19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Now if you truly are free, then you live for Christ and others ahead of yourself. Freedom costs! It may not cost you or I anything but it costs somebody something sometime and someplace. For Christians it cost Jesus Christ everything over 2000 years ago on a Cross. Because it is no longer I who lives but Christ in me, I live in that freedom. I live freely saved by grace. If I am free then I live in the Spirit, not the flesh.
Look here at what Galatians 5:22-26 says…
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Let me encourage you today to let go of the flesh and live in the Spirit! When you live in the sprit you are going to bear the fruit of the Spirit. If you go read Matthew chapter 7 you will see a theme repeating itself that I will outline for you.
* narrow gate is difficult but lead to life, wide gate is broad and leads to destruction
* good fruit, bad fruit
* house built on rock, house built on sand
There is so much to discuss on Matthew 7. Read it and lets discuss it together!
Until next time, let go and let God. Be FREE and walk in the Spirit!
In His Mighty Grip,
Mark
November 11, 2009
NEW FAMILY PICS!!!
Kristi’s best friend Jackie aka Jax is an awesome photographer who took some pics of our family. Check them out… more to come!
http://www.jackiewonders.com/blog/2009/11/10/mark-kristi-shad-moriah-just-because/
November 4, 2009
Trials :)
So the plan for today was to have a really productive day. I had a “to do list” and was off to a great start. Ok, so now it’s lunch time and I need a car wash…. Costco! $1.50 for a jumbo hot dog & a soda and $7.95 car wash. As I am about to enter the car wash I got a phone call so I pulled over and took the call. ”POP!” My radiator cracked in my Jeep and it started smoking and leaking coolant like crazy. I used to like my Jeep up until the last few months it has been acting up on me, plus we had a motor on one of the windows go out.
What did I do?
I honestly laughed and praised God for the fact that I do have a car to break down on me. I thought of this verse in James…
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:1-3
A moment of frustration was calmed by God’s Word as I was reminded to have JOY! This trial is such a small outward circumstance. There are so many other things going on in my life as well as in the lives of others that are so much bigger than this. God is bigger than all these trials. How will we respond to them? God will allow us to be tested so that we prevail and draw closer to Him because He wants to build us up! Satan will tempt you so that you will fail and feel separated form God.
God will test so that you prevail, Satan will tempt so that you fail.
Thank makes me think of John 10:10…. “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Lastly, when my radiator cracked on me today I realized that God is in total control. He knew that I had a lot to get done. He knew that this would happen to me today. Maybe God just wanted to get my attention so that this small trial could build me up. As I was thinking and meditating on the Word I thought of Philippians 4:4 which says, ” Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”
Are you going through a trial right now? if so, REJOICE! Again I say REJOICE! In this life we live today we are always walking into a storm, in the middle of a storm or coming out of a storm. God is good ALL the time!
In His Mighty Grip,
Mark
October 31, 2009
Taste and see The Lord is good
I was reading Galatians with my wife tonight and God really spoke to my heart. I want to share a few things with you. Please pray and read these few verses out of the book of Galatians.
6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:6-8
As I read this I noticed that Paul marveled at people who walked away from Jesus so soon. It is sad to see the same thing happening today. People so badly want to follow Jesus because they understand that He is The Way, The Truth and The Life. People hear the gospel and they know that’s what’s been missing in their lives. I can go on and on. When the message is over, people make decisions or recommitments to follow Jesus. But it lasts only for awhile.
Before I was saved in November of 1998, there was a point in my life where I used to go to church every Sunday and hear the gospel preached. I would pray the sinner’s prayer and ask Christ to come into my heart almost on a weekly basis. But then I would leave church and go back to doing my own thing. Friends let me tell you that there was a spiritual war going on for my soul! God was competing with the things of this world and for me it was mainly baseball and girls. Now you can throw in other distractions such as there is a lot to do here in San Diego where the weather in 75 degrees 90% of the year, but there was a war going on. The bible says in John 10:10 “ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
It wasn’t until I surrendered everything over to Christ that I began to see my life change. As soon as I got saved in November 1998, I got plugged into a church and got discipled. I knew that I needed a foundation. I knew that for years God was trying to get me to stand up, go forward and get discipled. But I chickened out and never experienced God’s greatness in my life.
The Bible says in Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” You cannot experience God and walk away. Once you have tasted and seen His goodness you will never walk away. Let me encourage you if you are going through a time of doubt, give God all of you. What do you have to lose? Give God a chance. Taste and see that The LORD is good! Try it!!! I double dog dare you!!!
Here is a forty day challenge:
- Go to a Bible teaching Church every Sunday
- Pray everyday (as you pray ask God questions and journal)
- Read a chapter of John everyday
- Go to a Bible study once a week
- Whatever church you are going to, do 1 community service project with them such as feeding the homeless
In His Mighty Grip,
Mark
