John Mayer (is in my top 5 favorite artists, I’m not sure who the other 4 are, but he’s definitely in there) has a song on his Continuum album, entitled “Belief.” It’s been one of my favorite songs off that album since the first time I heard it, a couple years ago. The very first lines are:
“Is there anyone who ever remembers
changing their mind from the paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls
ever breaking rank at all
for something someone yelled real loud one time?”
I love this line because they are real questions, that make you step back and think about how you are getting across your message of what you believe in.
Frank Decker is an awesome man, with an awesome heart. He loves God, he loves telling people about God, and he has done so all over the world, as a missionary. He’s the Cluster Group Pastor at The Vine, and is also the Vice-President of Mission Operations at The Mission Society (sidenote: where my wife now works!). A few Sundays ago, Frank was preaching at The Vine, and said so many things that have just taken over my thoughts since that day, but one of the things that really hit me was this, “It’s not a bumper sticker, a tract, or a mini-sermon to someone over lunch…the best witness for Christ is a life that is experiencing transformation.”
I love how these quotes come two very different people, speaking with different motives, but are saying a lot of the same thing! I can paint signs, yell at people, put bumper stickers on my car, hand out tracts, and preach mini-sermons all day long…but unless people see me living those beliefs, no one will care! The way I can think to sum it up is this: “people will listen to your beliefs, when they see you living your beliefs!”
The best way for me to “preach” to people in my life, and tell them who God is, and what God is all about, is to live the life that God calls us to live. The only way to live the life that God calls us to live, is to live a life that is being transformed by the Holy Spirit. A life transformed by the Spirit of God, should be different than the life we lived before, and different than the lives of those who do not have the Spirit of God living inside them. If we live like this, people will see it. It will be evident that there is a power stronger than us, living inside us, because we’ll be living with renewed minds, and transformed hearts.
John Mayer believes music is important to life, it’s easy to see that in his lyrics, and the work he puts into making an album. Frank Decker believes that God is the ultimate source of life, love, and hope, it’s easy to see he believes that, by looking at his life and the way he lives. Now I don’t have this all figured out, and I don’t claim to, that’s why it’s important to note that my life is being transformed…it’s a continual process. But hopefully people know what I believe, because of the transformation that’s taking place. So here’s the challenge: what does your life say about what you believe?
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