Lessons from Candy Crush Saga

Like thousands of other people, I have recently become addicted to Candy Crush Saga. The premise of Candy Crush Saga is simple, you match pieces of candy on a grid to score points. As the levels increase, the difficulty increases. Most recently I have struggled to get past one level, failing time after time. This all got me thinking of how we can learn many lessons from this simple game in relation to our life and days on earth.

1. You only have so much life - use it wisely
In Candy Crush a person has a limited number of lives and each life must be used wisely. If these lives are wasted, a person must wait a given amount of time before receiving another life. This applies to our earthly life as well. We each only have one life to live and thus we should use our life wisely - to accomplish the purpose that we have been created for and to spend our time on the priorities that matter. 

2. Don't take the move that seems obvious and "feels right"
In Candy Crush there are a wide variety of moves that are available at any given time. Making the wrong move is irreversible and could cost you the entire game (a life). Therefore, it is often required to look over the entire board to look for available moves, to consider how a particular move might affect the future of your game. This is true in life as well. We are often faced with situations and decisions that need to be made. We should not take the first and most immediate choice available, instead we should stop and consider how this decision will affect our life and our future. 

3. Friends and family are necessary to our success
In Candy Crush you can ask friends and family members for additional lives, additional moves, and additional tickets to help you proceed throughout he various levels of the game. What is more, you can ask friends and family members for tips and tricks to help with particular levels that you find yourself stuck on. The same is true in life. A solid and dependable foundation of friends and family members - people that we know love us and will support us - are required. Friends and family members bring us inspiration and encouragement at our times of deepest need and desperation. Friends and family members can speak truth and life into us when we think we can't go any farther. 

4. A faithful "higher power" is a necessity
In Candy Crush pieces are dropped from the top of the game board, with little to no knowledge of what pieces might be coming next. (I often complain to my wife that the "man upstairs" is failing to drop the pieces I need). In each one of our lives we need help from The Almighty God, who cares for us, sustains us, and gives us everything that we need to carry on and to find victory in this life. 

Clinging to Worthless Idols

Currently we are walking through the book of Jonah during our Sunday morning worship services with the focus of "God's heart fro the lost". Last week we looked at chapter 2. One of the key verses from this chapter that speaks of God's heart for he lost is verse 8;

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.

Not only do we turn away from God's love for us, we also turn away from His grace and mercy for us. Likewise, when we cling to worthless idols we turn our love and attention away from God. In addition to this, we turn our love and attention from others that surround us.

What does it mean to "cling" to something? It does not simply mean that we turn our attention to it, it means that we choose to continually remain close and attached to this object. And, what is a "worthless idol"? It is any object of worship that is of little or no value. See, we all have "worthless idols" in our lives that we need to be free of. This passage does not speak to those worthless idols that have caught our attention, tempted us in some way, or even those worthless idols that we have worshiped from time to time. This passage speaks specifically about those worthless idols in our lives that have become so important to us that we have begun to cling to them, we have made the choice time after time to remain close to them and to remain attached to them.

And we have a choice - each and every one of us - to be free of these worthless idols. We have been given this choice - this opportunity - to be free of these worthless idols through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and through the power of His Holy Spirit - Christ's gift to us.

God's heart for the lost is a heart of salvation, a heart of redemption, a heart of forgiveness, a heart of compassion, and a heart of love. God's heart for you is crying out that you would be free from the worthless idols that have kept to prisoner for far too long.

Won't you do away with these worthless idols in your life and turn to The One who died to give you a new life and a new way to live? Won't you today cling to Jesus Christ?

Life Perspective

In Luke 6: 20-26 Jesus gives us a new - or different - perspective for how we are to live our lives on earth.

Looking at his disciples, he said: 

“Blessed are you who are poor,  for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.  Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. 

“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.  

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

We are blessed when we are poor, and pitied when we are rich.

We are blessed when we are hungry, and pitied when we are well fed.

We are blessed when we weep, and pitied when we laugh.

We are blessed when we are hated, and pitied when we are admired.

This should open our eyes to the way we live today - perhaps we are a bit too selfish or spoiled in what we expect or what we think we deserve. Likewise, this should open our eyes to how we react to the way God answers our every need - being poor, hungry, and hated is an opportunity for us to express joy and store up for ourselves more treasure in our eternal home. 

Internal Error

This "Internal Error" message appeared on my computer this evening. Although I was a bit aggravated and confused, it occurs to me that it is also quite a convenience. 

What if my computer were to continue on without such a message? Chances are the "error" would continue on internally until in infected and affected many of the other programs on my computer and eventually ruined the hard drive and the entire computer.  

All of this made me think; what if we each had a message, such as this, that appeared when we had an "internal error" in our lives? 

When an internal error was made known to us we would then have the option to continue on and, perhaps, behave in unexpected ways or restart to avoid these side effects. Or, we we would have the chance to fix the error for the future. 

If  not addressed, the errors that occur internally in our lives will infect and affect many of the other areas of our lives. And, over time, these internal errors become eternal errors that are irreversible. 

What "Internal Errors" are you facing at the moment that need to be addressed?

What steps do you need to take immediately to restart and fix the error for the future?

Leaving and Cleaving

There are two principles in marriage that I talk about to couples before their wedding day and before they are married; “leaving” and “cleaving”

In the book of Genesis, God tells Adam and Eve – the first husband and wife – God says; “a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife.” A husband is called to leave his old life – all of the things in which he used to find comfort and security in – to leave them behind.  A husband is called to be united with his wife – to cleave to her in the highs and lows of life, in richer and in poorer, in sickness and in health. Out of pure love and devotion, in faithfulness and commitment

In your relationship with Jesus Christ, which do you struggle with more – leaving or cleaving?

LEAVING: Do you struggle to leave behind the sin of your past? To leave behind the things in which you used to find comfort and security in? To leave behind the things that you have grown to love?

Some have really worked at leaving their sins and their sinful life behind. They have focused on these sins and said – never again! They have waged a war on these sins in your life. And, then they find that it hasn’t worked, and somehow this sin has grown even larger.

The only way to combat sin is to fall in love with something else!

Many struggle to leave behind the sin of your past because they also struggle to cleave to Jesus.

CLEAVING: Do you struggle to stay united with Jesus? To stick with Him through the highs and lows of life? To trust Him in richer and in poorer? To depend upon Him sickness and in health?

Some believers they know about Jesus but they don’t know Jesus. Some “followers” have no idea what they are following. Some Christians don’t even enjoy being with Christ.

There is so much more to a life in Jesus Christ than salvation. We are invited to follow Jesus out of pure love and devotion. We are urged to live in Jesus, being faithful and committed.

Where I Stand on the Homosexual Lifestyle

I know where I stand on homosexuality. I know what the Scriptures say about the homosexual lifestyle. I understand what the Scripture has to say about homosexuality, that it is a sin and that, like all sin, it is wrong and those that continue to practice this lifestyle will be judged for their sin.

Yet, as I have said in the past, I don't understand why so many followers of Christ have decided to paint homosexuals as the worst of the worst, the most sinful of the sinners. As I said to a man almost a month ago, we all face a struggle with sin and although you may not struggle with the sin of homosexuality, you should not condemn others who do. You see, just as I do with people that struggle with greed, lust, deceit, and so many other sinful lifestyles, I feel sorry for those dealing in the homosexual lifestyle. Why? Because they are caught in a bondage with sin that they are being told is not sin, is not bondage, is not wrong at all.

There is a lot of ignorance in our country today, on one side is the ignorance of the homosexual community; ignorant to the fact that it is wrong and demands correction, on the other side is the ignorance of the judgemental Christian community; ignorant to the fact that we are not to judge but to live a life of love and light, portraying Jesus Christ. So many tend to point to this lifestyle as that which is ruining our culture and our children when the truth of the matter is that there are many things ruining our future, and much of it has already been accepted into our churches and our homes.