Being Expectant

"Everyday of your life should be filled with expectancy and expectancy should never be based on what seems probable."

--Rob Ellis

Expect much and think big!

Being Favored

"Being favored is an act of investment."

--Rob Ellis

Having been infinitely invested into by those who believed in me my entire life, returning the favor to others is essential. In fact, the way to be favored is to show favor to others. Let's show favor to others. Favor breeds favor. It's an act of investment, an act of love.

Being in the Kingdom of God

"The Kingdom of God is a result of a Godly act."

--Rob Ellis

My brother, Rob, spoke these words a few Sundays ago and they have resonated very deeply. Being results-focused and action-oriented, I have not been able to get them out of my head.

A lot is spoken about the Kingdom of God. But it is simply God's way of doing things. The Kingdom of God is action that produces results. We are in the Kingdom of God by our actions.

Christ prayed, "thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We are the beings through which the Kingdom of God is forever established on the earth.

Considering our homes, work environments, schools, places of worship, neighborhoods, etc., it is our actions that establish the Kingdom of God, God's way of doing things, in our various surroundings.

The Kingdom of God has come and is forever established through our daily actions unassociated with guilt but embraced by love and settled by His word in heaven.

Being Happy II

"A happy person is a blessed person and a blessed person is a happy person."

--Rob Ellis

The two are inextricably bound.

Being Robert Ellis

The Seeds of Blessing III: Appropriating the Blessing

Obedience is not a bad word, even though we have made it such. Our obedience should come from understanding the love of God which is reflected in "line upon line and precept upon precept" in Scripture. There are blessings in obedience. But we must be both "willing and obedient." Scripture tells us in Isaiah 1:19, "If you are willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land." This simply means that your willingness and obedience will bring prosperity. Willingness and obedience is how we appropriate the seeds of blessing.

But many of us do not want to submit to anything or anyone. Submission, however, is not an oppressive force. It's a powerful mutual force to obtain a goal; it's cooperative. The Apostle Peter tells us "all" in 1 Peter 5:5 to "be submissive to one another and be clothed in humility." Many of us will not succeed because we will not submit to one another and humble ourselves at home or work; yet, we want our homes to be peaceful and we want to get a promotion at work. We must learn to submit one to another in love.

God is love.

Being Concerned About Others

In his sermon this morning, Rob, said something that struck me deeply. His message today was on loss, from losing a loved one to losing your job to losing a pet to anything others might consider trivial.

To these he simply said:

"God is concerned about whatever we're concerned about."

As God is concerned about what concerns us, wouldn't our world be so much better if we were concerned about each other?