What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. -James 4:14

A while back, Erwin McManus had the opportunity to interview Larry King. He asked him a profound question, “Larry, you’re the master of asking questions. What questions should we be asking you?” Larry responded, “You should be asking me how I am doing with my mortality.”

That’s my question to you. How are you doing with your mortality?

If you don’t believe in God, how are you doing know that one day, you’re going to pass away and have no clue what is going to happen?

If you believe in God, how are you doing knowing that life is short and you only get one chance to do something great for Him?

How are you prioritizing your life?

What do you want to accomplish in this short amount of time we have?

Do the people you love know by what you’re doing with your life that they’re the most important?

Are you becoming the person you want to be? Are you living life on and with purpose?

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” -Fred Allen

Just how are you doing with your mortality?

Thoughts?

13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. -Acts 4:13-14

In 2009, I got the privilege to go to the Catalyst West Coast Conference. Erwin McManus spoke at several of the sessions I attended and he spoke about a concept he called the 3 spaces of influence.He was talking about how so often, we as Christians want to evangelize to the world, but we only stay in the 1st Space of Influence.

If we’re really going to make an impact for the Kingdom we need to be earning the right to influence people in the second and third spaces of influence as well as raising people up who earn that influence as well. Here are the 3 spaces defined:

1st Space – Minimal Influence. We earn the right to speak to Christians that come to our churches or our immediate circle of influence. Usually we end up influencing only Christians, and not very many of them. We all start in this space with everyone, but if we’ll live our lives for God and do what He puts in our hearts, we’ll be able to move onto the other two spaces of influence.

2nd Space – Earned Influence - You get to influence people in this space because of what you’ve done in the world. Maybe you’ve built a large church, wrote an interesting book, started a business that was a big success, etc. Because of what you’ve done, people respect you and are willing to listen to you.

3rd Space – World Influence - These are people that because of who they are and what they’ve done, they have a platform to influence the world. An example would be Michael Jordan. If Michael Jordan was speaking at a convention in your city, you would go just to hear him. You wouldn’t care what he was speaking on, he’s Michael Jordan, because of what he’s done, he’s earned influence & the right to speak into your life. Christian examples: Billy Graham, Rick Warren, John Maxwell, Mother Theresa, John Wooden.

The questions I’ve been asking myself, and that I’ll ask you is:

What are you doing with your life that is earning or will earn you influence in the 2nd and 3rd space?

Do people outside of the Christian bubble take note of what God has and is doing in your life?

Everyday, we should ask ourselves, what am I doing with my life that will enable me to expand the Kingdom of God? That will help me spread the Word? That will gain me influence with the world?

Ask God those questions, and He’ll put something in your heart, that if you’ll do it, He’ll open up doors for you to influence people in the 2nd and 3rd spaces!

Thoughts?

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.” -Galatians 6:1

I heard Erwin McManus say once that all too often we read the Bible as though we’re always the protagonist, but never the antagonist.  We’re David as he fights Goliath, but not when he committed adultery,  we’re Moses leading Israel out of Egypt, but not when he killed an Egyptian, we’re Peter when he walked on water, but not when Jesus rebuked him!

When we have this outlook in life, it’s easy to slip into a mindset of thinking we’re doing all the good we read about, and aren’t even close to doing the bad. This mindset is dangerous. It hardens our hearts to God’s correction, gets us into pride, isolate us from people, and leaves us vulnerable. We can actually get to the place where we think we’re invincible and never in danger of falling.

When we always view ourselves as the protagonist, we’ll never build the character we need to sustain what God’s called us to, and ultimately, we’ll fall.

We need to recognize that we’re all just one choice away from becoming the antagonist.

If we’re humble enough to recognize this, we’ll start to read God’s Word and other books with a whole new perspective. We’ll start to ask ourselves questions like: Why did these people make poor decisions? Am I displaying similar attitudes or making similar decisions to these men that got them into trouble? Am I actually living out the Word of God that I’m reading?

Always strive to be the protagonist, but don’t be naive enough to believe that you’re incapable of being the antagonist. Ask God for the wisdom and grace to get in the Word and evaluate where you stand on every issue, how you can improve, and what attitudes of your heart you need to change.

Thoughts?