Understanding more of the Father's love

Here at Subsplash, we are all about sharing what we've been learning from God and how we can expand his Kingdom. For me, I've been learning more and more about God's love having been a dad for a little over a year now. When I first became a father, people kept asking me the big question; “How has this changed your life?”. Often times the question would come with a joke about sleep or maybe asking me if I better understood the love of God as a father. At first, I didn’t quite know how to answer the question. There is so much amazing emotion wrapped up in meeting your child for the first time. It’s just different than anything else on earth and I had nothing to compare it to.

As I began to reflect over the first few days and weeks of parenthood, this new reality began to reveal new truths about love, family, and God. How could this little person change everything and open new depths of my heart and soul? I’ve now been a father for about one year and it just keeps getting better. I would do anything for this little guy and I’m wired to protect him, serve him, comfort him, and give him my best each day. After being a dad for a while I thought to myself, what if I  laid out all the things I do as a parent, but removed the fact that it was for my son? I mean, what if you just made a list of all the things we do as parents and gave the details of  who we do it for, but remove the fact that it is for our child? What would that look like? Every day I have to take care of a miniature person who doesn’t speak my language, eats my food, relies on me to change his diapers several times a day, takes up my wife’s precious time and my monetary resources, can’t move and thus relies on me to carry him and then when he can move he goes where I do not want him to go, and who spits up on me at random times. If someone told me that some guy who fit that description was going to live with me, I would not have been too pumped. However, since it is my son, I don’t mind one bit and love him fully, despite the seemingly troubling additions to my life. How cool is that? A child brings so much incredible joy to your life and love just pours out toward them.

All this got me thinking, is this just a fraction of the love that God feels toward us? I believe that God loves each one of us more than I love my son, which is a whole lot. Now, if God loves us to such an incredible level and in turn wants us to not only love him but to love others, what would it look like if we started treating one another with a portion of the love we show to our children? Can you imagine the impact that would have? If I saw my son on the side of the street I would stop to help no matter what, but how often am I willing to stop and help others in need? Maybe it’s a reflection of my own selfishness, but I want and need to strive to love more. After all, there’s clearly a better way and it involves loving others as I would love myself, or in this case, love my son. And through it all I must remember that first God loved me and he gave his only son as a sacrifice that I may live! Now that is incredible. So yes, being a father has changed my life and I’m now even more thankful for the love shown to me by the God of the Universe.

How are You Spreading Jesus' Name?

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It’s easy to be a consumer. It’s easy to be selfish. No one’s perfect, right?

As a Christian it’s all too easy to take our Lord and Savior for granted. Finding new life in Christ has filled my heart with joy that I can share. Jesus laid down his life for me and it changed everything. It's so incredible that I get to be in relationship with the maker of the universe who loves me, forgives me, and walks with me every moment of my life. But, none the less, it's easy to find myself pursuing my own self interest before the Lord’s. We are called by the great commission to share the Lord’s name to the ends of the Earth. When’s the last time that you really took this to heart?

“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation.” - Mark 16:15

Evangelizing can be uncomfortable. Being a child of Christ means that there are going to be people that dislike you (and your lifestyle). You can’t worship the Lord and also worship the world. If a question with a friend leads to awkwardness, what's the worst that could happen? Awkward moments certainly won't kill you, but sometimes it's harder to live for Christ than to deny him. God puts us in people’s lives for a reason. If breaking through possible rejection to honor Jesus leads to them finding life in Christ, that's absolutely worth it. Ultimately, we need to be Spirit-led and be open to see what Jesus sees.

What are some simple ways you can incorporate this commission into your everyday life? First off, you can pray about it. Pray that the Lord will give you the opportunity to share his good name with fellow Christians and unbelievers alike. This takes a little bit of courage, but that's simply another opportunity where the Lord will provide.

The next step you can take is to practice, practice, practice! Step out of your comfort zone and put yourself in front of people that might benefit from your insight and your witness. Whether it’s by sharing some scripture that resonated with you, some praises you have for the Lord, or anything Gospel related, don’t be afraid to share!

“And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” - Luke 12:8-12

So invite your neighbor to church, engage with a stranger on the bus, or just be available to answer questions for troubled minds. If you find your joy and delight in the Lord, wouldn’t you want everyone to have that same opportunity?

Faith and Reason: Ligonier Goes Mobile

R.C. Sproul was a freshman in college buying Lucky cigarettes from a vending machine when God decided to change his life. Behind him sat the captain of the college football team, who would proceed to share with Sproul the wisdom of the word of God. After a three hour conversation, Sproul was struck by the verse Ecclesiates 11:13.

In an interview with Christianity Today, Sproul stated that, “I just feel certain I’m the only person in church history that was converted by that verse. God just took that verse and struck my soul with it. I saw myself as a log that was rotting in the woods. And I was going nowhere.” That day, God transformed his life and Sproul began an incredible journey of faithful ministry. Over the course of the next forty years, Sproul would found Ligonier Ministries, the Reformed Bible College, author over 60 books and serve as a faithful minister on the radio and to his church.

At Subsplash, we love talking about technology and how it can help the church spread the Gospel. More specifically, we get excited about building apps for Bible-believing, Jesus-loving, God-fearing ministries. But for us, the completion of the Ligonier app is something special. Scrolling through years of content and articles that dissect complex doctrine and theology has brought us to a humble realization that our iPhone apps are small in comparison to the work of Christ through his faithful servants. The Ligonier app is simply a showcase of the amazing wisdom of God as explained by great teachers like R.C. Sproul, C.J. Mahaney, Alistair Begg, D.A. Carson, Ligon Duncan, and Ravi Zacharias. This app provides a daily Bible devotion, the ability to listen or watch Renewing Your Mind daily broadcast, free articles, and other resources grouped by topic, teacher, scripture or type. We hope that you are strengthened and encouraged by this new free resource.

Easter, Rick Warren, The Jonas Brothers, Angel Stadium…all Live on the iPhone

How did you celebrate Christ’s resurrection this year? Easter Sunday is always a great time to share about Jesus with family members and friends who might not usually hear about God’s unfailing grace. This year, Saddleback Church hosted their service at Angel Stadium and the Jonas Brothers sang the worship! The awesome opportunity to hear Rick Warren and worship with the Jonas Brothers was a huge hit and tickets were sold out weeks in advance. However, this year the Saddleback Church iPhone app made watching this event live more easily accessible through live streaming to iPhones and iPods across the globe.

Churches like Saddleback aren’t the only types of churches who can benefit from this technology. The Church App has been used by traditional ministries like John MacArthur’s Grace to You and more local community churches like The Church of South Las Vegas and Watermark Community Church. iPhone technology can help maximize the impact of any church or ministry that desires to share the Truth of Jesus to a mobile audience.

Here are some screenshots taken from the Saddleback iPhone app during Easter services at Angel Stadium.