Stick to Your Calling

"Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God.... Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." (2 Timothy 1:6,9)

Are you doing what God called you to do?

If you haven't ever thought about it before, that may sound like an odd question to you. You may be tempted to shrug it off and say, "Oh, I'm not really called to do anything. I'm not a pastor or a teacher or a minister of any kind...I guess I'm just what you might call a little finger on the Body of Christ."

You're a Jewel!

The Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown.     Zechariah 9:16 

The Bible gives us this unusual detail about the construction of the Lord's temple. "In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built." (I Kings 6:7). An unbelievable amount of scraping, hammering, chiseling had to be done on those mighty rocks that were used in the construction. But it was all done out of view and out of earshot of the temple site.

It's a little like the way God "dresses" us, fitting us for heaven. The apostle Peter reminds us that you and I are living stones, and we are being mined in the quarry of earth, a place of noise, chiseling, and clouds of dust. God is using our sufferings and afflictions to hone and shape us so we might fit perfectly into heaven's landscape, where there is "no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool." Where there is no suffering. No tears, pain, sorrow, or death. 

You Are a Work in Progress

by Rick Warren

“This will continue until we are ... mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him.” (Ephesians 4:13 CEV)

Becoming like Christ is a long, slow process of growth. Spiritual maturity is neither instant nor automatic; it is a gradual, progressive development that will take the rest of your life.

Referring to this process, Paul said, “This will continue until we are ... mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him” (Ephesians 4:13 CEV).

You are a work in progress. Your spiritual transformation in developing the character of Jesus will take the rest of your life, and even then it won’t be completed here on Earth. It will only be finished when you get to Heaven or when Jesus returns.

What Makes a Kid Unique? by Orange Leaders

by Bre Hallberg 

Did you know that the fittest kids in America are graduating from Naperville high schools? According to the book Spark by John J. Ratey and Eric Hagerman, this is not a random result, but an intentional health fitness model that requires students to exercise every morning within their target heart rate.

And not only are they the fittest kids, but upon graduating high school these kids are given both a diploma and a 14-page document that explains their physical goals, their accomplishments and what they need to do in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle as an adult.