brianrushing.com

…regardless of our temperaments, we all must become initiators. The mark of a mature Christian is whether she or he chooses to be the “host” (the initiator) or the “guest” (the receiver) in relationships where being a host is most appropriate. There are, of course, times when those who are ordinarily hosts should be guests. The point is that the call to love those around us is in part a call to identify their needs. Once we have some understanding of their needs, we must find ways to meet them that are natural for us.
–Rebecca Pippert

We all have a role to play in sharing Christ with others. We can’t hide behind our personalities or temperaments and say “that’s just too uncomfortable for me.” Instead, as a mature Christian, I must step out of my comfort zone to choose to be the host/initiator so that I can be obedient to Christ’s command to share His good news. I must then identify the needs of my guest/receiver, and then strive to meet those needs in a Christlike way that comes naturally to me.

God, help me to be willing to step out of my comfort zone today to be an initiator in finding out what someone else needs. And help me to meet those needs in a compassionate, gracious, loving way.

I want to know God…

The question is not whether we are good at theology, or “balanced” in our approach to problems of Christian living. The question is, can we say, simply, honestly…that we have known God, and that because we have known God the unpleasantness we have had, or the pleasantness we have not had, through being Christians does not matter to us? If we really knew God, this is what we would be saying, and if we are not saying it, that is a sign that we need to face ourselves more sharply with the difference between knowing God and merely knowing about Him.
–J. I. Packer

I want to know God… personally, intimately, deeply… and not just know about Him.

Your private devotional life has the power to kill you like nothing else does. By “kill you,” I mean that it has the power to kill the “me-ism” that is inside you (and me) that will again and again cause you to be in the way of, rather than part of, whatever it is that God is doing at the moment. Private personal worship is an effective tool of grace in the hands of God to kill those things in you that must die in order that you be what you have been called to be and do what you have been appointed to do in your place of ministry.
–Paul David Tripp

This is the quote that I have placed at the top of my annual “Personal Worship Plan” to remind me to make sure I have a solid plan of action to kill the things in me that keep me from becoming the person God desires.

Again, here is a blank copy of that worship plan if you would like to use it yourself:
(Just click on this pdf image link to open or download the file.)

…rather than being a perfect portrait that assures people that the gospel is true, you and I are called to be windows through which people look and see the glory of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. It is our weakness that demonstrates both the essentiality and power of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only His ever-present and powerful grace could enable a person, who still needs to be transformed himself, to be used as an instrument of His transforming grace in the lives of others. This frees us from pretending that we are what we are not. It frees us from boasting about what we could never have produced on our own, and it frees the people we serve from putting us on a messianic pedestal that should be reserved for Jesus only. We must preach to ourselves a gospel of ongoing weakness and sufficient grace.
–Paul David Tripp

Yesterday, I commented that we must show people who Jesus is, but we must remember that we are not a perfect reflection. We are not messiahs. Only Jesus is. Therefore, get rid of all the dirt, grime, and filth that could make it difficult to see through you; become as clear a window as you possibly can so they can look through you to see Jesus.