New Blog Site

Congrats, you have found my old blog site.  I have since moved to a new host.  Please click the link below to find my current blog.

http://scottstrand.blogspot.com/

Posted by strscoa on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:03
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New Blog Site

Congrats, you have found my old blog site.  I have since moved to a new host.  Please click the link below to find my current blog.

http://scottstrand.blogspot.com/

Posted by strscoa on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:01
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Esther - "For such a time as this..."

I don't know if God is trying to tell me something (or maybe i'm just a slow learner), but it seems that the last few years my studies and ponderings have come back to the idea of being used by or being of use to God.  This could be in the here and now, or maybe it has to do with leaving a legacy.

 Purpose in our life seems to be a big topic.  Rick Warren has written about it with his "Purpose Driven ..." books, John Eldredge in his book Wild at Heart talks about a man's purpose as being a cause to die for, loved ones to protect, and adventure to live and Erwin McManus in his book Uprising talks about how our ulitmate purpose is to serve.

 The quesitons we ask are what do you want from me God and what difference can I am in the world? 

 Let's look to Esther an orphan, a women, living in a forgein land as an exile, as our encourager and role model.

Posted by strscoa on Sat, 8 Dec 2007 08:32
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Been Missing For a While

I haven't been blogging for a while, but I am back to give it another go.

Posted by strscoa on Mon, 5 Nov 2007 15:48
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Esther

I have been reading and rereading the book of Esther in preporation to preaching in December.  This morning while I was pondering the end of chapter two (Esther 2:17-23) I was struck by how God was orchestrating the roles that Esther and Mordecai would play as this story on folds.  Esther was groomed for a very public yet dangerous role and Mordecia was placed into the annuals for saving the king.  An event that at the time he was not rewarded for, but as we will come to see played a role in the downfall of Haman.

As I reflect I see that there are times or seasons when we may be called to stand out front in the line of fire and there may be other times when we work behind the scenes to acomplish God's will.  It doesn't matter where we are standing, rahter that we are willing to stand.

 More to come....

Posted by on Mon, 5 Nov 2007 15:48
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God's Timing

Timing is everything, at least that is what I have heard.  Last week I was working through my personal life mandate worksheets and was jotting down some of my natural abilities.  Among them I listed the ability to build things and an analytical mind.  I then started to think about how these two things would, could, or should play out in who I am and what I am called to do.  I had a list of four or five, but the two listed previously were the ones that stuck in my mind.  Here is where I saw God’s timing in the matter.  The day after I created my list and started pondering these things I was at the Minnesota state fair.  This is not unusual for me since I seem to be drawn to the fair multiple times each year.  This year Habitat for Humanity had an exhibit their about the work they are doing with Thrivent financial to build home in the Twin Cities area.  As I was touring the exhibit, I felt God’s tug on me saying, you know how to build, you know how to serve so be about what I have created you to do.

The second instance was a couple of days after pondering these things, actually it would have been the next day, but I was at the fair and was unable to take the call.  A friend was having trouble with the layout of his blog.  By systematically working through the different sections we were able to determine the component that was bad, make the needed repairs and now his blog is functioning properly.  Again, I was wondering how one of my natural abilities would be used and God provided an answer.

As you think about how it is God has wired you, your natural abilities, and your acquired skills you may not know how they will be applied in service to God, all you need to do is listen and be willing to serve and the opportunities will present themselves.

Posted by strscoa on Thu, 7 Sep 2006 13:58
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Convergence

Convergence (noun) -  The process of coming together or the state of having come together toward a common point.[1]

As I near the end of my time in my FOAW group, convergence seems to be the word to describe the end product.  As I think about my personal life mandate, there are a number of pieces that are coming together to create this document.  These pieces include thinks like the way God created me (my strengths, personality [wiring], natural abilities, etc.) and those things I have learned along the way (skills, worldview, values, etc.).  Put all these things together in a pot, stir well, bring to a simmer, sample continually and over a life time you end up with me, the good, the bad, and the ugly (the last two just need a little more simmering, or perhaps a good boil).  When completed, my personal life mandate won’t make me a better person, though it will give me focus.  My personal life mandate won’t show me God’s perfect plan for my life, but it will help clarify where I can best serve Him and others.   My personal life mandate won’t be the end, rather it will by a blue print or guide as I continue as a sojourner on planet earth.

Posted by strscoa on Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:31
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How does prayer fit in to loving God?

Random thought here, “What happens when you have an argument with yourself about prayer?”  In my case God steps in and says, “Hey, (ok so this is my paraphrased interpretation) what is it you have been studying?  Hasn’t it been to love me with ALL your heart, mind, and soul?  Prayer is a key point in this relationship.”  Talk about conviction.  You see I have never been a prayer warrior.  For that matter, prayer has always taken second place to studying God’s word in my life.  Don’t get me wrong, prayer plays a role in the study of the Word, but the prayer I am talking about is sitting down and simply praying.

If I am a Christ follower then I need to spend time now only learning about God, but I need to spend time with God.  You see loving God fully is about our relationship with Him.  Psalm one tells us that the key to being a righteous person is in meditating on God’s word, but we also must spend time with God.  It is not an either/or rather it is a both/and. 

Prayer has at least two components, attitude and action.  Our attitude can be modeled after Paul’s statement in 1 Thessalonians where we are told to “pray continually.”  It is about our attitude.  In the same section we are told to “be joyful always” and to “give thanks in all circumstances.”  You see it is about our attitude, giving all to God, loving God fully, loving God with all our heart, mind, and soul.  In a similar way, the action of praying is physically removing our self from the world around us to develop our relationship with God.  This is what Jesus did.  Numerous times in the gospel stories we see Jesus withdrawing to pray, to spend time with his father. 

So how is your prayer life?  We are not all called to be prayer warriors, but we are all called to love God fully.  Another measure of this is taking a look at our prayer life.  Do you have an attitude of praying continually?  Do you take time regularly to withdraw and spend time in prayer?  To love God with all our heart, mind, and soul we need to spend time with Him in prayer.

Posted by strscoa on Fri, 7 Jul 2006 08:28
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Measuring Love

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart…” (Matt 22:34a).  There are two Old Testament verse jump to mind as I think of ways to measure or gauge how I am doing in the area of loving with “all my heart.”  The first is Proverbs 3: 5-6 which says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understand, acknowledge him in all you do and He will make your path straight.”  Like loving God, we are to trust wholly in the Lord also.  So how is your trust level?  As our prosperity increase there seems to be a corresponding decrease in our trust in God and acknowledgement of God in our daily lives.  It seems that trust in God fully and loving God wholly should be pushing us into an ever deepening relationship with God.  The second verse is in the next chapter of Proverbs.  Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our heart, for out of it comes the wellspring of life.  We need to protect our heart from those things that would interfere with trusting and loving God.  How often are we robbed by the little things?  For me, it is spending time in the morning reading the comics rather than reading my Bible.  Or worse justifying starting work a little early instead of taking by quiet time.  You see I am doing it for God, right?

 

So how is your trust issue with God?  Do you acknowledge him in all you do?  Does this then help you love God a little more?  Are you being drawn into a deeper more intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father?  Are you guarding that relationship?  How about the guarding of the heart so the relationship can continue to grow?

Posted by strscoa on Sat, 24 Jun 2006 22:29
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The Measure of Love

It is interesting, when I preached on this subject a few weeks ago I gave a challenge at the end of the message for the people to assess the percentage of their loving God with all their heart, soul, and mind.  From the text we are to love God with “all” our heart, soul, and mind.  If my math is correct that comes out to be 100%.  But how is it we measure these things?  What does loving God with all our heart look like?  What does loving God with all our mind look like?  What does it look like to love God with all our soul?  What does it look like to love our neighbor as our self?  In a men’s group that I am a part of (see the Focus of a Warrior section of the blog) we have been challenged to describe what our values look like, how they are played out in our life.  By doing this we have the ability to test, measure, or assess how we are doing with regards to living out the given value.  This is the direction I am headed with this topic.  Over the next few weeks I will be putting forward ideas on what each of these “lovings” look like in my life so that I will have a gauge with which to measure my progress in the area of “loving God” and “loving my neighbor.”

Posted by strscoa on Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:33
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How God Shapes Us

Is it nature or nurture that makes us who we are?  I would say both.  God has created us unique individuals wired to be who we are.  Some are introverts while others are extraverts.  Some have the gift of gab while others are more reflective in their conversations.  I think the key is to realize how it is God has created you and use that to glorify Him. In 1 Corinthians (1 Corinthians 12:12-26) Paul uses the analogy of the body to describe the community of believers.  One is not better or worse than the other, but in fact all are important.  That's nature in a nutshell.

Not only are we a product of how God created us, but we are also a product of the experiences that we have gone through in life.  God can and does use our experiences to mold us into the women and men He wants us to be.  Because of our nature and our nurture, we become unique individuals that God can then use for specific roles in kingdom work.

 

Posted by strscoa on Thu, 15 Jun 2006 08:04
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A Little More Context

We are at a point where Jesus' earthly ministry is winding down.  Jesus has entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, to the shouts of the masses.  He has gone into the Temple and driven out the money changes and the merchants. Now Jesus is in a series of confrontations with the religious leaders of the day, the chief priests, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  Each group is working to trap Jesus, to disgrace Him in front of the crowds, but Jesus is aware of their plans and turns their words against them.  First it is the chief priests and elders questioning Jesus' authority.  They failed.  The Pharisees then gave it a shot.  Just like the Sadducees, they failed.  The Sadducees then gave it one more try with the same results.  This leads us to the passage we will be looking at.  The Pharisees seeing that the Sadducees had again failed, take one more stab at trying to trip Jesus up.  As we work through Matthew 22:34-40 we will see how they did.

Posted by strscoa on Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:43
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Reflections on Life

This begins a journey of reflection on God's calling on my life.  For the next nine months or so I will be reflecting, evaluation, and wrestling with God about His call on my life.  Some of those struggles will be shared here as a way of encouraging others who want to be what God has called them to be.

Posted by strscoa on Tue, 24 Jan 2006 16:47
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A little Context

Posted by strscoa on Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:31
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The Greatest Commandment

Jesus, while he as ministering to the crowds was ask a question by the Jewish leader (they were trying to trick him).  They asked, "What is the greatest commandment?"  Jesus, without missing a beat answered, "Love God with all your heart, sooul, and mind," and then He added "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Matt 22:37-40 (NIV) What does it mean to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind?  What about the neighbor part?  Another question posed to Jesus was "Who is my neighbor?"  It is these and other questions that will be explored in this blog.

Posted by strscoa on Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:30
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