RESISTANCE

Resistance, now that’s a word we don’t like.  But it is a part of life.  The natural tendency is for this world to fall apart and move from order to disorder.  In order for us not to fall apart with it, we must learn how to resist those things that are bad for us and draw near to what is good for us. For example, we resist the urge to eat fast food all day long every day and draw near to a healthier diet, we resist going into debt and draw near to saving, we resist colds by drawing near to vitamin c and washing our hands, we resist certain people in life that are not good for us and draw near to those who encourage us.  Resistance.  That’s one of the keys to healthy lifestyle, stable mind, and even temperament.  But resistance hurts, and takes effort.  There are two truths about resistance when applied to the human body; one, it hurts and two, the more resistance we apply the stronger we get.

Why is it that all the muscle men at the gym are so strong?  They apply more resistance to their workout which in return tears down the muscles more, causing them pain, but the result (companied by the proper diet) is an explosion of muscle growth.  It just is what it is.  To become stronger I must add more resistance at the gym which means a more exhausting workout.

That’s life; resistance makes us stronger in all areas.  But in most areas, when we resist something bad, we must draw near to something good in order not to fill the void with something else equally as detrimental to you.

Scripture shows us that we to must take this principle of resisting what is bad for us and drawing near to what is good, and apply it to our relationship with Jesus.

James 4:7-8 says, “Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands you sinner and purify your heart you double minded.”

To resist the devil is to draw near to God.  What does that look like, how is it done? 

Prayer.  When we pray, we are drawing near to God and turning our backs on Satan.

 Rejoice Always.  I find it hard in my life to fall to temptation when I am rejoicing in God and singing to him. 

Mentally and verbally tell Satan no.  Sometimes we are so encompassed by our struggle or temptation that we just need to yell no.  We make a stand and actively fight off Satan.  We push away from him, and immediately afterwards turn to God and say, “Yes, Jesus I want you.”

Keep your guard. We need to keep our eyes peeled for those areas in life were we have been ambushed by the enemy and do preventative measures to resist him.  For example, if you know that turning on the television at 11:00pm triggers you to stumble, then don’t do it, go read a book or go to bed.  We keep our guard up when we are actively looking for where we may get ambushed.

Resistance is a tough thing to do.  But when we draw near to God, we will resist the devil. Today, right now, where you are, practice it.  Rejoice in the Lord right now, be ready to say no and scream it if you have to, and mark the areas that you need to guard yourself.  And as you draw closer to God, He will draw closer to you.

 

Childlike Part 2

I want to give you two people that seem completely opposite yet have much in common.

1. A three year old who walks fearlessly throughout the house; climbing on everything he shouldn’t, seeking adventure, seeking excitement, seeking life.  This child has no care in the world.  He just lives.  Then one day as he is climbing on top of the dining room table he falls.  In fear and pain he throws his arms in the air and yells for mommy as tears roll down his face.

2.  A 76 year old man who had fallen in love with the Lord in his mid 30’s.  Life is slowing him down, as each step he takes shoots pain into his lower back.  His mind is a bit loose, but still working.  He walks into the doctor’s office to get the results of a random blood test taken a week earlier.  He is informed that he has a rare form of cancer and is not expected to survive beyond 4 weeks due to its aggressive nature.  In fear and pain, he sits down, takes a deep breath and mumbles the words, “Lord you give and you take away, blessed be your name”.

What do the two have in common?  They both are childlike in their faith.

The first is born with a nature to trust his mom or dad for the bare essentials in life.  He trusts, as a toddler, that mom and dad want what is best for him and will take care of his needs.  He trusts that if he is injured or afraid, all he has to do is throw up his arms and call out for mom or dad and they will be right there by his side taking care of his every need.

The older gentleman, after coming to Christ, had to re-learn what it meant to trust whole heartedly in someone outside of himself.  He had to learn that he was not in control of his life, and that he needed God to guide him through the mess.  After growing and maturing in the Lord, he has come to a childlike faith again, in which he can withstand devastating news, such as a life threatening diagnosis.

Those are two scenarios, but in between those two scenarios is life.  The baby grows up, and realizes that this world is scary.  That it takes work to feed yourself and provide for your bare necessities, and, child becomes aware to the fact that life is fleeting and is fragile, any day could be his last.  This fear turns into anxiety and stress.  Stress that keeps him up at night with his mind spinning.  Stress that causes him to do some unthinkable things to get by in life.

Then one day, this child learns of Jesus, and learns that his stress and anxiety are all a byproduct of his sin nature and that there is a God who cares and a God who can deliver him from this anxiety.  He learns that there is someone he can trust in again and that he was not designed to live this life alone.

As he embraces God, through a relationship with Jesus, peace slowly enters in again.  Life doesn’t necessarily turn around (as each new year holds it’s new problems) but his perspective on life begins to change as he learns to trust again.

This is how we are to live life, as a child who throws his hands up in the air with the complete confidence that our God will reach down from above and uphold us.  Isaiah tells us not to fear for God will uphold us with his righteous right hand.

In those moments of complete disparity, how does one rely on God like a child?

Let’s let Philippians 4:6-7 teach us.

“…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The key to becoming childlike again is to do childlike things.  Ask God for help.  Simple, right?  It is that simple.  We don’t need a Bible degree or be on the VBS committee of the church to have direct access to God’s unfailing love, we need a relationship with Jesus that starts with believing in him.

So maybe you are filled with stress, and anxiety.  Ultimately that is rooted in adult like fear.  Go back to your childlike ways, and throw your hands up and cry out for your Father!  He will catch you.

 

Childlike Part 1

Remember those days when you were fearless?  For some of you, that could have been early in life, maybe before the age of 3. Others of you held onto your bravery well into your teen years.  No matter how long you hang on, one thing is for certain, the insecurities of this world always catch up with us.

I had four brothers and we were not afraid of much.  I remember being about 8 years old and the 5 of us lined up on our roof.  We all had one plastic grocery bag in our hands, and, like smoke jumpers, we would hurl ourselves off the roof with the full expectation that our recyclable grocery bags would bare our young bodies as gravity pulled us downward.  We were wrong, so we tried it again, this time with two bags, and again with three bags, and again, and again. 

Today, when I get the nerve to get on my roof (a step ladder scares me at times, let alone getting on my roof), I’ll still jump down, but only in sheer necessity (Like when the ladder falls over as I scurry to get on the roof).  Typically I get on my belly as I dangle one leg over the edge, then the next, frantically searching for the top step of my much too short 6 foot ladder.  When I get back on the ground, I am at peace again because the fear of falling off the roof or ladder is over.  That is a far cry from 20 years ago when I would have done anything to get on the roof of my house just to jump off it.

Reality has a funny way of revealing itself to us.  The dangers in life are always there, but we are born blind to them.  Some of us, our eyes are opened to the insecurities of this world much sooner than others, but we all have to face them one day.  We all must pack our bags and fly (or scoot) away from the nest and find our own feet, raise and provide for our own family; face troubles, disease and death on our own. 

We go from jumping off roofs to “there’s no way I am climbing that ladder”.  From cutting the neighbors grass in order to buy the necessities of an 8 year olds life, skittles, to not sleeping at night because you don’t know how you will pay your next electric bill. From walking triumphantly into your fourth grade class with your first broken arm to “what’s that mole on my neck?”  That’s life and I don’t blame you for it.   But there is a benefit to approaching life and approaching God as a child.

Read this interaction Jesus (God) had with some children in Mark 10:1-16

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them (Why did Jesus rebuke his disciples?  Ultimately, it is because the disciples’ fear got in the way of them.  The disciples feared that Jesus would be annoyed by being bombarded with a bunch of elementary kids.  The disciples of God were afraid that Jesus had better things to do than to play with kids.  They were afraid of what others would think of them and their cause if they took time to interact with the children.  But the kids, they weren’t afraid at all.  All the kids could see was that Jesus was a cool dude who did awesome stuff [possibly even pulling a shekel out of the ear] and some undoubtedly knew that he had come from God.  They didn’t logically think about how busy Jesus was, or that he might have more important things to do, they just ran up to him, screaming in excitement like a child who hasn’t seen his grandpa in months.) But when Jesus saw it (the disciples rebuking the parents for bringing their kids), he was indignant (angry) and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

God rebuked the fears of the disciples because their fears had no substance to them.  They were thinking too much about the consequences of these children coming to Jesus instead of allowing the kids to come and letting Jesus minister to them as he wanted to.

Our fears will keep us from drawing close to Jesus.  Like when Peter (walking on that water, suddenly realizing the dangers around him) began to sink away from Jesus, we too, when faced with the troubles of this world, have two choices.  To lock in on Jesus and move towards him, or stare at the waves of life and fret, sinking farther from Jesus.  Thank God, He was the one who reached out and grabbed Peter and not the other way around.  Peter was beyond himself to grab a hold of Jesus. 

Is that where you are at today?  Do you feel as if you are sinking?  Cry out for help.  Your God is walking on the waters with you, and He will grab you.

Come back tomorrow to learn how we can become childlike again in our thinking, but for today, maybe we just need to acknowledge the things we do fear in life and offer them to God, telling him we don’t know what to do with them. 

We are All Out

My wife and I recently had a wonderful opportunity to go on a double date with some good friends.  Our

date consisted of a dinner out and a movie.

It was one of those nights that God wanted to teach me a lesson.  It started at the restaurant when I ordered a half chicken for an entrée, “We are all out of our chicken sir”, replied the waiter.  I was really looking forward to chicken, but no problem, surely they would have the chicken wrap I wanted since it was a different type of chicken.  So I ordered, and to my satisfaction, the waiter took my order down and apologized again for not having the half chicken I wanted.  Seconds later the waiter emerged from the kitchen and came to our table, “Sir, I know I told you we had the chicken wrap but I was just informed that we are all out of that too.”  Ok, no problem, default to the cheeseburger.

After we finished the meal, we headed to the movies where I was looking forward to some sugar drenched candy.  After buying the tickets, my wife left me the privilege of picking out the candy.  I got her M&M’s and ordered myself skittles. “Sir, I am sorry, we are all out of skittles.” replied the young man behind the counter.   Three times, one night, wow, no chicken, no chicken wrap, and now no skittles.  This just wasn’t my night.  I got a good laugh out of it, but later it got me thinking.  Both of these venues had plenty to offer me, but it was hard to be content with what they had to offer when I only focused on what they didn’t have.

What is contentment?  Contentment is a feeling of peaceful satisfaction.  That is not a feeling easily arrived at in a world that constantly lets us down. In Philippians 4, Paul shows us that it is possible to be content in every situation in. 

Verse 11-12 “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”

What did Paul learn?  How did a man who faced hunger, persecution, loneliness, rejection, and need find peaceful satisfaction In the midst of life threatening challenges? 

Well let’s back up just a hair and find out.  Verses 6-7 says, “do not be anxious about anything, (contentment cannot be found in a spirit of anxiety, there is nothing peaceful about being anxious, therefore for you to be content, anxiety must be absent)  but in everything (all situations, even when they have no chicken or skittles) by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving (thanksgiving focuses on what you have and not what you do not have) let your requests be made known to God. (We can lay our requests before the Lord but only when those requests are buffered by us already seeing and be thankful for what we do have.  In fact, if we remain focused on what we have, our requests become very minimal, if anything at all.  If we find ourselves praying long prayers about our needs and wants, we have probably wandered from a peaceful satisfaction to an anxious state that is looking for relief) ⁷ And the peace of God (contentment), which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

You can truly be content in all circumstances.  But it requires that you first be thankful for what you do have and not focus on what you don’t have.  Then, true contentment in life can begin to be found.  Even in those life changing circumstances like a cancer diagnosis or job demotion, or death of a child.  In the toughest moments of life, we can look to what we have, ask for what we need, and have contentment in the situation.

Delegation

My wife will often times give my 15 month old daughter something to carry while she is holding her.  My daughter never refuses to carry something for mommy.  For example, when mom hands her her car keys to carry, without fail, my daughter’s concealed dimples are exposed as she smiles with excitement.

Lately, when my daughter is handed something to carry she tries to pass the item off to me.  Seeing that my hands are empty and hers are now full, triggers a thought in her developing mind that goes something like this, “Daddy is perfectly able to carry something; I will delegate carrying mommy’s car keys to him.” 

Just recently, after taking the car keys, or whatever item my daughter had just told me to carry, I got to thinking, “This is backwards, I should be delegating work to my daughter, not the other way around.”  (For the record, she will be mowing the yard by time she is 4).

Let’s use our imagination just for a minute and picture the scene in the cosmos between god the Father and God the Son when the Father revealed His will concerning creation to His Son (understanding that we have to guard our imagination with the Word of God to keep it from developing errors about God).  The foundations of the world have not been laid yet, the earth and it’s fullness is a distant reality.  The Father turns to his Son and says, “Son, I have a job for you to do, we are going to create mankind.  These people that we will create will turn their backs on us, spit at us, worship fake gods that they create, and stir my wrath against them.  At times I will want to destroy them and wipe them off the face of the earth.  But we are going to love them in return.  In fact we are going to love them so much, that I am going to need you to give up your life as a sacrifice for them so that I can live with some of these people that we will create for the rest of eternity.”  If the conversation went anything like that, then here is the Son’s (Jesus’) response in John 6:38, 40 to the wicked people discussed before hand, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me… For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

What love is that!  Jesus didn’t try to take this horrendous task of carrying the sins of the world on his back and place them on us.   He didn’t try to delegate the task his Father gave him to the very people who deserve to carry this burden.  He simply said, ok I’ll do it.  And anyone of these wicked people that looks to me and believes in me I will save from their sins.  The reality is we deserve to carry the burden of our punishment.  But God, our creator, delegated that task unto himself.

What a humbling picture of God’s love.  Why would we want to carry the burden of our sin any further when Jesus was sent here to do that very thing?  It’s so backwards in our finite minds.  Think about for a second, you can actually delegate the punishment that you deserve to Jesus, who didn’t deserve it, and he will gladly take it.  This is why he says, “Look on me and believe in me and you will have eternal life…” 

I guess it’s so hard to give Jesus all of my sins because ultimately, I feel bad because my sins are so many. They are a lot for someone to carry, and I want to try to help carry them, I am the one guilty of breaking God’s law anyways.  But Jesus is God, he can handle them, and not only that, he has abolished them.  

Today, where you are, take a moment and look to Jesus, giving him the sins of your heart, and be free of that burden.  It was his delight to carry them, and he wants to because he loves you.

Whatever Your Hands Find to Do...Do

Discerning the will of God can be paralyzing at times.  Should I do this, or should I do that?  Is this God’s will or is that God’s will?  I used to ask that question about a 100 times a day.  Before long, I was doing a lot less in life in fear that I was not in-line with God’s will. 

Do you know what I mean?  You long to love God through obedience and therefore you want to know his will for you in every nook and cranny of life.  Does Scripture speak to this?  Yes it does.  Let me show you three places where God gives you the liberty to live your life in confidence that He will guide your steps.

1 Samuel 10:7 (Saul has just been anointed king.  God is about to give Saul a new heart and The Holy Spirit will soon rush on him.  Here is Samuel’s command to Saul.)  “Now when these signs meet you, do what your hands find to do, for God is with you.”  Now that is liberating.  Do what your hands find to do, because God is with you.  You can say that too, because you have also been given the Holy Spirit as a Child of God. 

Ecclesiastes 9:10a reiterates this exhortation:  “Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might…”

Solomon doesn’t just say to do it, rather jump all in and do it with all your might!  To do something with all your might means you must erase all doubt that it isn’t a part of God’s will and move forward in faith that God will guide you through it.  Proverbs speaks to this a bit further.

Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”  With a verse like that backing me, I am free to plan my day, my weeks, my months, and my years because I have complete confidence that God will direct my steps.  If my hands find something to do then I will confidently trust that God will either guide me through it, away from it, or teach me by it.

Next time you face that fork in the road, in faith, do what your hands find to do (or want to do). Trust that God is with you and is guiding you through the decision because the Holy Spirit is at work in you.

Just Because I Can

My daughter is learning how to walk.  She is starting to master standing, but is still a bit bashful when it comes to walking.  I love to see her stand without holding on to things, a sense of daddy pride rushes over me as I watch her grow.

But just because she knows how to stand doesn’t mean she always should.

She got a shiny red wagon for Christmas this year and loves to go on wagon rides around the block as she inquisitively takes in the things to see.  Every once in a while I will turn back to look at her to see her standing, barely holding on to the protective side rail.  I tell her, for her safety, she has to sit down before we can move on.

You see just because she can stand doesn’t mean she always should.

Likewise, Paul reminds us of our Christian liberty in Romans 14.  Romans 14 shows us the relationship between a mature Christian and a young Christian.  The issue at hand was eating food.  The mature Christians saw it permissible to eat all foods, while the younger Christians were feeling guilty about eating certain meats.  The Lord has granted us many freedoms in Christ that we can enjoy.  For example: a glass of wine, country music, and eating meat just to name a few. 

But just because we can enjoy these Christian liberties doesn’t mean we always should.  Paul gives us two reasons we should not indulge in these areas:

1. We should abstain from certain activities if we do not have the appropriate measure of faith to perform them.  Romans 14:23b says, “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”  If you are forcing yourself to drink a glass of wine, and are feeling guilty about it, then it’s best that you don’t drink that glass of wine because it isn’t coming from faith.

2. As the first, we should refrain from these liberties if it causes our brother or sister in Christ to stumble.  Romans 14:15 says, “For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.  By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ has died.”  Sometimes my activities can tempt someone else to sin.  Therefore it is better to deny my flesh in order to love my brother or sister, than to enjoy these liberties and tempt them to sin.

Next time you are sitting alone enjoying the chill of the evening air, sipping your glass of white wine while listening to some classical country music on your front porch, you can thank God for giving you the freedom to enjoy such pleasures in faith. (Sounds nice, I think I will pour me a tall glass of A&W Root Beer while I listen to Brad Paisley tonight). 

The Rescue Before the Cleanup

It is heartbreaking to turn on the news right now and see the images of the small towns in Oklahoma that have been decimated due to the mile wide tornado that carved a path of destruction through the landscape.
The city blocks that use to bustle with life have now been transformed into desolation and death.

Can I ask you a thought provoking question?   How would you feel if I came in to that area the hour after the disaster took place with a front end loader and started cleaning up the wreck?  Think with me for a minute.  Would I do more harm or good if I was running over houses, with a front end loader, that had yet to be searched for people who may have been trapped under the debris in order to start the cleanup?

I believe the answer lies in the report of one Oklahoma news reporter. “The rescue efforts have to be completed before the cleanup can begin”, he said as he surveyed the damage.  This news reporter showed me that there is something more important than cleaning up the mess in order for the city to appear normal again. More important are the lives of individuals that are buried beneath the rubble that need to be rescued.

Yes, it is a mess and will need to be cleaned up, but nothing is more important than searching what is not visible to rescue lives and recover the perished right now. Once the rescue mission is complete, then the focus can shift to cleanup and putting appearances back in order.

The sequence of events following the tragedy in Oklahoma can be an example of yours and my heart.  The problem with our hearts is only visible by what is seen on the surface of our lives.  Our hearts are a wreck and need to be rescued by Jesus.  God is not interested in the cleanup crew to come into your life and clean up the bad behavior that lies on the surface in order to make you look good.  Rather, God is interested in your heart.  Read these powerful words from Jesus about the condition of the Pharisees’ hearts.

Matthew 23:27-28 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
God is concerned with rescuing your heart before polishing your behavior.   If your behavior was cleaned up without your heart being rescued first, then you are burying dead bones of your soul beneath the surface.

The same principle applies to us as we carry God’s love to one another. We to must be more concerned about the rescue efforts of the hearts (which means being ok with chaotic lives) of those around us, instead of cleaning up the behaviors that lie on the surface.  If we focus on the cleanup before the rescue, we will ultimately bury the dead bones of a person beneath the modified behaviors that are cleaned up on the surface, without ever truly rescuing them.

For now, let our prayers come forth for those families tragically affected by the recent tornadoes and let it serve as a reminder to us that lives are more important than the mess we see on the surface.

The Interview

Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Today is your big day!  After turning in hundreds of applications, one job opportunity finally seems promising.  After two phone interviews you are now ready to meet the big boss.  He seems intrigued by you and wants to meet you personally to see if you are a fit for his company.  As you sit in the waiting you room, you contemplate how much you and your family need this job.  You have been out of a job for eight months now.  Your unemployment benefits do not pay the bills, and you have depleted your savings account.  You need this job, your family is counting on it.

The administrative assistant tells you that the boss will be out momentarily.  Her words begin to stir an assortment of emotions in you.  You begin to get nervous.  Your legs begin to twitch, you can’t stop picking at your nails, and you are beginning to doubt yourself as a rush of insecurities flood your mind.  Questions flood your mind like, “Will he like me?  Will I say the right thing?  How do I introduce myself?  What if I sound stupid?  Am I dressed right?”. The more you think about the interview, the more nervous you get.  You have got to get control of yourself if this interview will go well, but you can’t.  

Then Isaiah 41:10 pops into your mind.  It was a verse you read just that morning. “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  Just saying those words begin to escort peace back into your life.  You repeat the verse again, and again.  Each time feeling your heart rate slow down more and more, and confidence come back into your mind.  Before long, you have the words that God promised Israel 2700 years ago embedded into your soul.  They have anchored you and you have found a peace in the midst of this decisive circumstance.

How wonderful are those words! God has your back. He will uphold you! He will be with you. You do not need to fear! Whatever situation you face today, remember those words, and let God’s strength empower you to live confidently as you face life (or the boss).

The Church as a Body, Not a Business

Romans 12:4-5, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another."

Why does Paul compare the church to a body?   Why didn't Paul compare the church to a business?  Paul was a small business owner himself.   He was very familiar with the business world as a tent maker.  So why didn't Paul say, "For as in one business we have many employees, and the employees do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one business in Christ".
Paul chooses to use the word body instead of business because body parts work together much differently than employees of a business work together.  Let me give you a few differences between the two:

1. The body works in harmony when one of the parts fail to restore that body part back to health.  In a business, employees are tempted to utilize the failure of a co-worker for personal gain.

2. All body parts are equally valuable.  For example, my body responds the same when I stub my toe and when I hit my head, because when there is pain, regardless of where it is located in my body, my other body parts jump in with care and comfort.  On the other hand, employees are not equal in a business.  A janitor could take short term disability and the business may never know it.  But when the CFO has to take short term disability, the entire business may suffer.

3. The body is comprised of all Christ-centered churches that have the same mission and is one under the headship of Christ.  Contrary to that, a business may have many franchises that have a similar mission but strive to keep their local franchise open with disregard to other franchises around the globe.
In order for Paul to rightly represent the church as God intended it to be seen, he has to use the analogy of a body.

It is sad to see more and more churches operate like a business instead of a body.  Don't get me wrong, I
am not against fancy church names, slogans, and awesome church branding, that is, unless it is to promote your own personal kingdom and not the Kingdom of God.  Today's church culture is becoming littered with churches that belittle other churches in order to promote their own growth....Phrases like, "We aren't your grandma's church" are becoming more offensive to me because grandma's church is part of the body and is discipiling grandma to become more like Christ.  The body should protect the different body parts, not belittle them in order for personal gain.

Much too often today, we have franchised the local church, promoting "my church" because it is better than "that church down the street", all along, building our personal kingdom instead of seeing God's church as a global church; under one head, operating with one mission, with all of its parts (you, me and all other children of God) being part of the same body. When we aim to build only our local church that we attend or lead, we run the risk of making disciples of us and not of God.  Our goal can become to train people to follow our methods, our vision, and to do church our way, instead of equipping people to go out in the world to make disciples no matter where God may lead them to ultimately worship. The church's mission is to make disciples that make disciples, but some churches have made disciples who ultimately just serve the church.  The mission field is not inside the church (although there is a harvest to be reaped inside of the church), but out in the world.  Therefore the church's goal is to launch Christians out into this world (Jesus specifically told his disciples to go and make disciples, get out in the world and get to work) to save the lost.  The church's goal should not be to make disciples who only serve their local church.

God Answers

Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

The first part of that verse can be hard to believe at times.  Will God really answer us? Does He listen to the outpouring of our hearts and respond to them, all of them?  Sometimes I'll call a friend up and that friend has a chose to answer my phone call or not.  Sometimes he is too busy to answer and other times he sees its me and lets it go to voice mail.  But, God, will you really answer every time?

In Jeremiah 33, The Lord promises to rebuild Judah to its former glory.  But the state Judah was in at the time was a complete wreck.  Their houses were destroyed, health was failing, and the economy shot.  Basically, they were at rock bottom as a nation.  In this chapter God promises, in the midst of their pain, to restore them.  But there is one thing you need to remember, God did not answer them from a megaphone.  God did not tell them that he would restore them to health and prosperity through a message in the clouds, rather, he answered them through the prophet Jeremiah.

Take a guess as to where Jeremiah was when he heard God's voice?  That's right, locked up.  The nation of Judah didn't want to hear what Jeremiah had to say, they wanted to hear what God had to say.  The problem was, God was speaking to them through Jeremiah.

You see, God was answering them, but they missed his voice by silencing the one thing they had in which God was using to talk to them, a prophet.

In my life, I often times miss God's voice through the simple answers found in His word, in fellowship with other believers, at my church, or in my spirit because I want to God to answer me in a miraculous way.  Next time you are on your knees praying to God, expect Him to answer. But listen keenly for Him in the often missed areas stated above - and start by opening His Word, the Bible.

Jump In

1 Peter 2:16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God.

After an Elder meeting one evening, the Worship Pastor of Midtown Church and me (the Pastor) decided to shoot the breeze and reminisce while playing some basketball.  He reminded me of something he and I did about five years ago.  I’m glad he reminded me of this specific escapade; it was one that I had long forgotten.

 We were out in what was called the "compound" of our city.  This is a place where in the 1980's a massive home building project was abandoned, leaving nothing behind except paved streets.  While out in the compound we came up on a canal about 75 feet wide.  On the other side of the canal was a wildlife preserve called Three Forks Marsh.  I told him about how the other side of the canal was a great place to hike to see an awesome array of different wildlife.  I don't remember what brought us to do what we did next, but before I knew it, we were in our skivvies (wow, spell check actually recognized that word) holding our clothes above our heads, swimming the murky canal, not caring about what type of creatures were in the water with us.  We simply wanted to get to the other side to do some hiking. A couple hours after hiking, we jumped back into the canal, piled in the truck sopping wet and muddy and called it a day.

After reminding me of that story, he really got me thinking with what he said next.  He said, "Greg, the church needs more men to lead the church.  Men that are willing to get in their underwear, swim a canal full of snakes and alligators to experience adventure."  He continued, "Men need men to follow.  And men need manly men to follow, because those are the men that free them to be who God created them to be.  Those are the men that you want to be with and live life along side, men who have found their freedom in Christ to live as men while falling in love with a Savior. I would have never thought that one day you would be my Pastor and we would be starting and leading a church together, especially after doing crazy stuff like that together."

When we look into Scripture who do we see God using?  We see a crazy old man named Noah who decides, by the direction of God, to build a massively large boat on dry land with no way to move it.  We see a guy named Moses who kills a man with his bare hands for picking on one of his relatives, and then takes off to live in the wilderness in fear of his life.  We see a guy named Gideon, who, with 300 men and completely terrified, stands against an army that was so vast the Camels of that army were as the sand on the seashore.  We see a guy named Samson (need I say more) who could tear a bear apart with his bare hands or catch like a bazillion foxes and tie them together at their tails (I can't even catch a lizard).  We also see the second king of Israel as a boy who would kill bears and lions with his staff and sling shot to save sheep.

Then we see God come in the form of a man, call 12 ordinary men to begin his church.  He chose a cussing sailor to be the one to build his church upon, and after his first sermon, 3,000 people were saved.

For me, it’s freeing to know that God can use men like these and someone like me, and like you, just the way we are, to build His church.

Guys, the only thing standing between you and the exhilarating life of freedom in which God has intended you to live is a muddy canal full of snakes and alligators.  I know it is kind of scary, but why not jump in!  You never know what God is leading you to on the other side and who will jump in with you.

Love Without Hypocrisy

Romans 12:9 has one simple exhortation, "Let love be genuine".  Duh!  That was my first reaction when I read it.  Then I thought, "Why would Paul need to remind us to let our love be genuine?".  After putting aside my initial reaction, it was shown to me that our love can appear to be genuine on the surface, but in reality, it is dead in our hearts.  We can appear to love people, but that love can be fake.  The New English Translation of the Bible translates that word genuine as "without hypocrisy".  Here is why.  The Greek word for "genuine" is anupokritos.  Do you see the word hypocrisy buried in there?  Anu means without and pokritos means hypocrisy.  The literal translation of that verse is "Let love be without hypocrisy".

So what's the deal, really?  If I can fake it, why not?    Why do I have to genuinely love people?

There are two critical reasons why we must strive to love genuinely or without hypocrisy:

1.  Hypocrisy makes enemies of the church instead of disciples of Christ.

Matthew 23:13-14  But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

2. Hypocrisy is contagious among believers, especially in the church.

Galatians 2:11-14 But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas (Peter) before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

In order to love genuinely, I have to first be genuinely loved.  I need someone to demonstrate that love to me.  I need to know what it looks like and how it works. And I can't find it in its perfection in anyone but Christ. Christ is that demonstration of genuine love that we all can live by. Therefore, let love be genuine.

Follow Me

I was taking my gummy vitamins this morning and I noticed something on the label that gave me a good laugh.  My gummy vitamin company actually wants me to follow them and like them on Facebook.  So I did, then I un-followed them.  I thought to myself, "Why would someone want to stay up to date with their vitamin company?".  That makes no sense to me.  The only reason I would consider following them on Facebook is to be the first to know if there is a new flavor of vitamins coming out.

You and I love to follow people who have their stuff together.  We love to be pulled in the draft of the most recent blogs, news posts, celebrity updates, and be the first to learn of the new techy devices.  There are a few reasons why I believe we love to follow people:

1.  We admire these people because they have something to offer us.  My gummy vitamins offer me vitamins that I can tolerate.

2. We love to be on the forefront of the latest news.  This way, we feel important when we can rush status updates to the top of our news feeds, or shoot text messages labeled, "Did you know..." to those around us that we find our acceptance from.

3.  These people give us something to aim for in life.  Someone to be like, to imitate.

But don't think facebook started this "follow me" syndrome.  Throughout all time, people have been following others.  Biblically speaking, Lot followed Abram, Israelites followed Moses, then Joshua.  Later, they wanted a King to follow.  But there came one man, who asked 12 ordinary individuals to follow him.  His name was Jesus.

These men were like you and me.  Working hard in life, some raising families, others running businesses, and one day, someone popped up in their life. Someone they may have never known before stumbled across their path and said, "Come and follow me..."

This man was Jesus.  Jesus wasn't like you and me, aiming for the most followers.  His agenda wasn't to have the largest crowd. Rather, he wanted to invest into a small handful of individuals who were willing to learn from him and willing to live for him.  Individuals who wanted to live for a greater purpose, people like you and me.

Why do you follow Jesus?  Is he another thing you just belong to?  Is he just another page like on your Facebook account, or another book in your bookcase?  Or do you follow him because there is nothing, NOTHING else this world can offer that gives you hope, that gives you purpose?

As for me and my house, we will not follow my vitamin company, rather, we will follow and serve the Lord!

Running on E

I am one of those manly men, you know, "living life on the edge" type of guys.  Another word I can think of to describe me is DANGEROUS!  Probably the most manly thing I do week after week is let my gas light come on in my truck, and then push it to the very last mile to see if I will run out of gas.  For some reason, there is a small adrenaline rush when that light comes on and the gauge is under the red line and I am on the interstate with no exit in sight. What is propelling that adrenaline rush is something totally different.  My mind is freaking out wondering where the next gas station is, my hands are sweating as they grip the wheel, my emotions are a wreck as I stress the situation, and my spirit is calling me stupid for pushing my truck too far. (I told you I was a man).  At times, I will break out into sweats running my truck on the very last drops of gasoline, praying that I make it to the next gas station. But, when I pull into that gas station and shut the truck off at the pump, a peace floods my life that I did not have before.  I get in my truck, see my gauge register at the full mark, and I can go back to driving my truck without frantically wondering if I am going to run out of gas.                                                                                                                                                                                                         One thing I love to do is drive my truck.  When the gas gauge reads empty, that love turns into work.  It becomes a burden to drive my truck until the gauge reads full again.  Most of us love to live life, but that love can become work when our understanding of how God accepts us is broken.                                                                     
                                                                                                                                                                  In Matthew, Jesus tells us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.  That those who are weary and heavy laden should come to him and that they would find rest.  This rest is not a physical rest primarily (all though it can result in that), but a holistic rest.                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                                  
True rest begins in one's beliefs.  If I believe what the pharisees believed, that I must earn or maintain my relationship with God by upholding His laws, then I will find no rest.  My emotions will be riddled with constant guilt, my body will physically be working hard to do better, my mind will be in a constant state of questioning my thoughts and deeds, and my spirit will not rest because it is longing to do more and more to increase it's favor in the Lord's sight.                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                              

Jesus says that this isn't the way to find rest.  The way to real rest is through Him.  Come to him, have a relationship with him and rest easy.  You can find real rest only when God looks upon you and sees his son.  Your sins are forgiven, day after day; night after night.  And therefore, through faith in Jesus Christ (which isn't work, but a new set of beliefs that you hope in), you are favored in God's sight.  That is why Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are tired and I will give you rest", because he has done the work for us.            

Light Unto My Feet

Psalm 119:105 Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

I climbed into my attic yesterday  without a flashlight, fumbling my way through the rafters, trying not to fall through the ceiling.  As I was up there, I tried to run a new duct line for my ac unit (something I have never done before and will never do again) in the dark. I was regretting my lazy decision not to bring a light.  It made the entire job so much more stressful, and to boot, I had to do the job multiple times because I couldn't see if I had the duct sealed right.  I wonder why I attempt to do jobs without the proper lighting?  It doesn't make sense, especially in an attic.

We too have a choice to pick up a light to carry us through the darkness of this world.  Just like my attic, this world is a complicated place.  We try to navigate life's problems without falling through the cracks, hopelessly trying to stay off of rock bottom, much like  someone trying to navigate the rafters that are spaced awkwardly apart in a dark hot attic without a light.  Before long, you will fall through, that is, unless you can see where you are going.

The Word of God, the Bible, sheds light onto our paths.  It gives us a peace of mind as we encounter various trials in this life.  The questions is, do you choose to pick it up?  Do you choose to read it?  I know, I know, it's not the easiest read.  I was reading it this morning and fell asleep (I was dreaming that I fell through the rafters and shook violently and woke up and continued reading).  Give it a try.  Start in the book of John and read about who Jesus was.  And ask God to shed light onto your path. 

And I have learned my lesson, next time I go into the attic, I am bringing my Bible!

Carry Your Weight!

 Romans 12:4-6a For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them:

Can I play out to you a ridiculous situation?  I'd rather tell you up front that this is ridiculous just in case you thought it actually happened.

My right foot told my right hand pinky (my dominant pinky, I had them both fight once and this one won) that he was tired of carrying his dead weight around.  The more my right foot bickered at the pinky for not carrying his weight, the more the left foot began to think and started chiming in on how he was tired of doing all of the work too.  To add insult upon injury, the mouth jumped in and said it was fed up that the pinky wasn't speaking for itself.  Before long the entire body was pressing the pinky to do more, instead of just hang there.  All along, the non-dominant pinky just curled up and hid in hopes that it would not be next.

Pretty absurd huh?   My pinky is a very specific body part designed to do one thing...and honestly I can't tell you what that one thing is.  But, if I was to lose my pinky today, I bet you I would find out real quick how important it was.

It's just as absurd when the body of Christ does the same thing.  Why do we look at each other and tell each other in the church that, "you need to do more evangelism, or discipleship, or you should serve more, or be more generous".   (sorry, did I touch a nerve) If you are part of the body of Christ, meaning Jesus Christ is your head,your authority in life, then you have a role that God has given you to help the church's mission to make disciples.  Your role maybe preaching or teaching, serving or some other role.  Either way, keep doing what your doing, find success in the eyes of Christ, because he is one you are serving.  And in the words of my good friend, "choose to be a failure in the sight of everyone else so you can succeed in the role that Christ gave you."

BTW, I do not endorse consumerism in the church (in case you thought I did because I am cutting some slack to those who I have seen get rung by others in the church for having a behind the scenes role in the church).  Meaning, if you are using the line, "God has not gifted me with much, so I will just show up and take from the body", then you are not utilizing your role in the body (ouch another nerve...I'll let up) and are abusing the grace God has given you by not walking in faith.  You are part of the body, jump in and help.  Be it inside the church, in your neighborhoods, at your work, in your family, you're needed, your not dead weight.

How far is the East from the West?

Psalm 103:11-12

¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

How far is the east from the west?  How high are the heavens above the earth?  These are two questions that we will never comprehend the answers to.  Why?  Because an infinite God has designed the universe in a way that reflects his glory and goodness to his creation.
Think about it this way.  If I give you directions to head to Wal-Mart.  I would say head east on this road, then head west on another road.  All I can do is point you in the direction of east and west because no matter where you stand on this earth you haven't gotten any closer to the east or the west; you will always stand in the balance of the two.  The east and the west are infinitely apart since they have no final end to them.

So to is the distance between you, if you fear the Lord and your sins.  You will never find your sins because they have been abolished by Jesus Christ.  Your sins have been removed from yourself and will never be re-united to you in order to condemn you. The same is true with God's love for you.  No matter where you stand morally, if you fear the Lord and have given your life to Him, then you have only begun to taste the measure of His love for you.  His love is infinite, there is no measuring device that can grasp the size of his love.

There is an interesting twist in all of this.  The distance between us and our sin is directly tied to how much we believe God loves us.  The more our sin condemns us by us living in the memory of our sins the less of God's love we can experience.  When we hold on to the guilt of our sins by dwelling on what we have done, we are not living in the truth of Psalm 103:12 and we feel as if He loves us less.  We tell our self, "How could God love me for what I did?" And so belittle his love for us because we have not released our sins through his forgiveness.

We must know that the Lord has separated us from our sins in order to live in the fullness of His love for us.

As you head to Wal-Mart next time, think about Psalm 103:11-12.  When you get there, think of how you are not an inch closer to the east or the west, and how you are also not an inch closer to your sins that God has forgiven you of.

When God Stands in our Way

Have you ever set out to do something that you thought was right but met obstacle after obstacle along the way?  Be it trying to secure a loan for a car purchase, applying for school, turning in job application after job application  or simply walking to your freezer to get a bowl of ice cream and by the end of it you have a stubbed toe, a broken glass bowl, and ice cream all over the floor?  Some tasks in life seem simply impossible.

When this happens to me, I will at times push harder and harder to climb over these pesty obstacles just to find out in the end that God was protecting me from something or that He had other plans for me.  Read the story below of a stubborn individual who is a lot like me and you.  It comes from the Bible, Numbers 22:22-35.  To give you the background of whats going on, Balak, the king of Moab is terrified that Israel is going to wipe them off the face of the earth.  So he calls a seer of God named Balaam and offers this guy some mad cash in order to curse Israel.  Balaam wanted the dough but knew he could only speak God's words.    Now we pick up at verse 22.


So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. 

22 But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 And the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road. 24 Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. 25 And when the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So he struck her again. 26 Then the angel of the LORD went ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. 28 Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” 29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” 30 And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.” 
31 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. 32 And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.” 34 Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.” 35 And the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak. 


I could not paraphrase that story, you had to of read it for yourself.  Balaam has an intelligent argument with his donkey (you call it what you want, I am calling it his donkey) and lost.  The donkey spoke some sense into Balaam because it had a perspective on the situation that Balaam didn't.  The issue was that Balaam saw the donkey as his adversary and began to beat it, when the donkey was only trying to protect Balaam.

I wish I could laugh at Balaam and say that has never has happened to me.  I can say I have never had a conversation with a donkey, at least one that was coherent, I mumbled my way through it.  I bet you never had one either.  But let me ask you this, what are you currently pushing hard to do in life that is being met with obstacle after obstacle.  Why do you mumble under your breath, "God, why can't you just make this easier"?  Have you ever considered that there is an angel of the Lord standing in the way of you and your goal.  Who knows, maybe God is protecting you from something you cannot see, or he has another purpose for you.  But sometime it means that you have to trust those donkeys in life in order to know what God really wants for you.

Sally

If you missed yesterday's post you can read it here to understand the context of this post.

http://www.midtownchurchfl.blogspot.com/2013/05/my-list.html

Matthew 28:16-20

 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Who is on your list?  Who has God placed in your life that needs to hear a message of hope and grace?  Maybe your list is short, or maybe it is long.  Those of you with a long list find some value in the number of names on your list which motivates you to reach them.  Those of you with a short list, maybe only one name, might have a harder time mobilizing yourself to the work God has called you to.

We read something like the above passage and feel as if we have to make disciples...plural (have a long list).  Let me remind you that in the context of this verse, Jesus was not commanding each disciple to make disciples (plural), rather to make disciples collectively.  More interesting than that, was the emotional state of the disciples during this command to go and make disciples?  Verse 17 said some worshiped and some doubted.  They were doubting their mission, their friend who called himself Jesus and God, and what to do next.  At the core of their doubt was a lack of hope.  Hope that their mission, what they gave their life up for (some of them gave everything to follow Jesus) would have no success   Think about it.  These men saw their leader get slaughtered by the very people they were being sent to.   They knew they would be next if they were to take up his cause.  Therefore how could they ever make a difference if they would just be killed off.  Of course some doubted, I probably would have too.  I'd be thinking that my old way of living was working just fine, risk free and comfortable, before Jesus came into my life.  

Notice what Jesus didn't do.  Jesus didn't try to fix their doubt, he didn't say, "YOU NEED TO HAVE FAITH before you go." Rather he ministered to them by saying, "Go...I will be with you.  Take your doubt with you and work it out as you see me use you to change the eternities of people."

On your list you may have only one person, and possibly a person similar to Sally who is spiritually bankrupt, with no apparent desire to turn to Christ.  In your mind you have sized her up and realized that she is a project, a big project.  Maybe you have gone so far as to say, she is without hope.  And maybe, just maybe, you are like me and you have some doubts that she would ever want to know Jesus.

The Sallies of this world need men and women who doubt to bring the message of hope.  Why?  Because they get to see you as raw as you come.  They get to witness you, another human, struggling, but  holding onto a Savior.  They get a glimmer into your world as they see your doubts stir up tears, anger, bitterness, and they get a wonderful chance to see those emotions worked out in a relationship with Christ (by the way, the same emotions that I have and everyone else has).  I have so many people tell me I wear my emotions on my sleeve (ugh...why do people have to call me out, that is is so frustrating...there I go again).  So be it, why would I want to hide the ugly and only show the good.  It causes people to think higher of me than they ought and naturally puts some relational space between me and them.

Sally doesn't want a person who is nicely groomed to hand her a spiritual track as if they have it all figured out.  Sally wants to see someone who is in the trenches with her, someone who is honest with her and with themselves.  When that happens, I believe people then allow you into their private lives because they begin to trust you.

Don't stress about your doubts.  Hand them over to God and go.  You will be presently surprised at what the Lord can do through your weaknesses.

BTW, changing your facebook status to read, "Why are there so many stupid drivers out there." Is not being real with your emotions.  Rather, acknowledging your failures and shortcomings to others for them to see you vulnerable is much harder to do, but much more real.  (I am one of those stupid drivers).

My List

An owner of a well respected Insurance Company called his top 3 agents to a lunch meeting.

“I am so proud of each one of you” he said smiling as they waited on their entrees to show up.   “I feel as if you three run this insurance company and make it thrive.   I am so proud to call you my agents!  I have something I need to entrust to you and I know you will do the right thing with it.  I have three envelopes here, one for each of you.  Inside each envelope is a list with names and contact information on potential big money clients.  I need you to do whatever you can to get their business.  These are going to be highly profitable clients if we can get them to buy our insurance.  Your incentive is this, I will boost your commission on each one of these that you seal a deal on by 10%”

He distributed the envelopes to the three men; they finished their meals and parted ways.  

Later that afternoon, the men eagerly tore into their envelopes to begin calculating their future bonuses.  One man looked at his list and saw he was given 10 possible clients.  Among them were some large restaurant owners, a local car dealership, a wealthy CFO of a hospital, and other reputable men.  He knew that he would have a large return on his money so he went straight to work on getting their business.  He set up lunch meetings, reserved seats at the local baseball game, and mailed hand written letters to all of them thanking them for their service to the community in their field of work.  The second man did the same thing.  He looked at his list and saw five names.  These names were of five wealthy reputable individuals.  This agent also went straight to work, investing into these future clients.  The third man, without knowing what the other two agents list said, opened his envelope in eager expectation.  As he looked at his envelope, his countenance dropped as he saw the name of only one person, Sally.  This agent knew Sally and was rather disappointed because Sally was his neighbor who had recently lost her husband due to old age, and spent everything they had to bury him.  He knew Sally’s poor financial estate because he had a conversation about life insurance with her several years ago when she initially moved in.

As the three men left for work that day, the one agent with the one name overheard the two other agents comparing names a dollar amounts.  When they inquired of the one agent about his list, he lied to them, making up the names of several individuals, and a bogus compensation amount in order to save face.  

This agent became very angry at his boss who gave him the one name and thought to himself, “Why didn’t my boss trust me with more?  This isn’t fair?  I got only one name, and to boot, this is someone that is not even worth my time.”  With that, he took his list and set it on the rather large stack of papers on his desk and went back to his other work, this time feeling bitter at his boss, forgetting the boss’s compliments of him earlier that day at lunch.

This is a modern day story of the 3 managers given the different number of talents in Matthew 25:14-30 (you should read that version of the story, it’s much better than mine; it came from God!)

Did the owner value the one agent any less because he gave him only 1 name?    No, the agent with the 1 name was valued the same as the other two agents.  In our world today, we equate the amount of trust someone gives us with the amount of value someone has for us.  This is because we live in a fallen world and judge people by their outward appearances and performances.

Some of you can relate to that agent.  You look around and you see so many people with so much more  ability than you who have acquired a large pile of stuff and a great reputation because they are good at what they do.  Yet you may have a hard time reading and learning, your attention span doesn’t span more than 5 minutes, and the natural skill sets that you have are limited, to say the least. 

When we compare our self to others we can become frustrated with God and wonder why he has trusted us with so little.  In return, we conclude that he loves us less than those other people and we become depressed or angry about that.  The ultimate outcome is, we begin to live for our self, because our view of how much God values us is broken and we try to find our own value through our self, giving our self what we want because we think we deserve it.  When we focus on what we want, we often times forget about what the Sallies of our world need, Jesus.

God doesn’t look upon your abilities and casts value upon you based on what you can or cannot do.  Rather, God looks to see if your heart is holy because you love his son, Jesus Christ.  If so, then God has given you an envelope with a list inside.  Your list might be short, but this is not because you are not valued, rather it may be a test to see how much you value God.

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Ram Set or Hammer

I walked in on three guys at my church building a wall (which I alluded to in the previous post) in one of our rooms.  After I finished laughing at them (hey, they laugh at me all the time) I inquired why they were using a Ram Set instead of a typical hammer and nails, or drill and screws to construct this wall.  Their answer was what I expected from three men.  But before I get to that, let me tell you what a Ram Set is.

A Ram Set is a tool that is loaded with a.22 caliber bullet (more like a blank) in a chamber and a nail in the tip of the barrel.  It is designed to be hit with a hammer, which fires the round, and then shoots the nail out of the Ram Set.  Basically, this is a gun that shoots nails.  The gun was designed to be used when you need to drive a nail into concrete.  So when these guys were using this to nail 2x4's together I laughed, because it was overkill.  To give you an idea of how much overkill it was, one of the 2x4's exploded and sent wooden shrapnel  into the face of one of the workers.  He was bleeding but was having a blast (pun intended).

Here is how they answered me, "Why would we use anything else when we have this much power at your finger tips".  Good answer!  How could I argue with that.  Guys will be guys, and it's best to let them be guys instead of trying to cage that up inside of them (the church needs more manly men anyways, I just hope my insurance agent isn't reading this)

Christian, you have been given a Ram Set, but often times we use a hammer to live life.  God has provided us with a spirit of power that is brought to us by His Spirit.  But so often, we choose to live out of our own strength and at the end of the day we are exhausted, trying to do things for God, trying to earn his merit, trying to change the world, instead of living out each moment in the faith provided to us by the Holy Spirit

Just this week I have been feeling condemned as if I was not doing enough as a young pastor for my church. I have been feeling like I need to do more, but I honestly have nothing left to give.  I called an old pastor friend up and he shot me (pun intended) straight, he said, "Greg, you have to be willing to fail and be a failure in your sight and the sight of others in order to succeed greatly in the area(s) in which God has called you."  WOW!  Talk about powerful.  I am letting people down left and right because they have expectations on me (good Godly expectations) that I cannot fulfill.  But when I try to fulfill them, which I have solely to please them, I am living out of my power, aiming to please people, (friends, family, strangers) and not God.  But when I am OK at failing in the sight of men, I am free to succeed in the areas in which God has truly called me.

You begin to live in divine power when you choose not to let this world or your peers dictate who you are going to be and what you are going to do, but rather when you choose to be whom God called you to be and do what God has called you to do regardless of your reputation and self image.

2 Timothy 1:7 says for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Notice it says power, love, and self control.  Not reckless power that mows people over, but power that enables us to love people, and power that is controlled by that love.

Last point then I have to get back to what I was doing.  I had dinner with a friend last night and we were talking about life.  This gentlemen looked at me and said, "Greg, just shoot the breeze, it is only me and you here"(we were at a restaurant  but I knew what he meant).  Thank God someone allowed me to be human!  5 minutes later, a lady walked up and said, "I overheard what you were saying and I have some advice to give you..." Well, even when we live in an environment where we think we are safe and free to be who we are without being judged, there is always someone watching us and forming opinions that seem to find their way back to us and try to hold us in our self condemnation.

Thanks for reading! Back to shopping for a Ram Set on Amazon, I got plans to build a killer bird feeder (no pun intended this time).

BTW....My check engine light just came on again, ugh.   http://www.midtownchurchfl.blogspot.com/2013/05/its-all-his.html

Think Highly

Romans 12:3 says, "For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned."

Let me ask you a question.  Think about it for a moment before you answer.  According to the verse above, are you to think highly of yourself?

The answer is yes!  Why yes?  I only need one reason to think highly of myself and that is because Jesus Christ thought so highly of me that He died for me.  If I am that valuable in his sight (so valuable that God himself would die for me), then I should be that valuable in my sight.

But!  There is a but here and it is critical, Paul says, don't think higher of yourself than you ought.  Paul's own words say to think highly of yourself, but not higher than you ought.

There is a fine line between pride and humbly seeing your abilities with sober judgment.  The Lord has gifted each of us with a measure of grace and a measure of faith.  (Romans 1:5, Romans 12:3, Ephesians 4:7)  The grace of God enables us to faithfully be obedient to Him and to use our abilities for good.  Therefore, when I take the glory for accomplishing anything in this life (When I say [maybe not verbally but mentally] look at me instead of look at God) I have crossed the line of thinking to highly of myself.

Let me give you an example of what it means to think higher of yourself than you ought.

Recently, at Midtown Church, I had a few volunteers build a wall in a room to make a closet.  These guys worked for 14 hours in one day to get it done! If I came in with a paint brush and painted the wall, then preached about the wall I built and all the time I spent on it and how you should be follow my servanthood example, I am speaking of myself higher than I ought.  Instead, all I did was finish the wall while the brunt of the work was done beforehand by someone else.  (FYI, I didn't do anything on the wall, so don't follow my example)  This same principle applies to us when we take the glory for accomplishing any good work in our life.  Rather, that glory belongs to God because GOd has prepaed us beforehand to do these good works (Ephesians 2:10).

I am not saying that we utter the phrase, "Praise be to God" after every little compliment we get, rather in our hearts and in our minds we recognize that the sovereign Lord has gifted us and therefore I can boldly say thank you when someone has a genuine compliment, and in my heart praise the Lord for His work in me (although these compliments do create awesome opportunities to spread the gospel).

Last thing, Paul says don't THINK highly of yourself.  He doesn't say, don't SPEAK highly of yourself.  If we have right thinking we will have right speaking.  So it is not just a matter of what you say about yourself but what you think about yourself.

So think highly of yourself!  But, keep it in perspective with the fact that God has enabled you to do some pretty awesome things!

Learn more here:

http://www.midtownchurchfl.org/ego-mtc147/


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