Tag: Christian Blog

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Swimming with Jesus

Ever wonder what it would be like to go swimming with Jesus? Are you holding on to the side of the pool for safety? Maybe you can swim with Jesus, but only in the shallow end of the pool. You know, where the water is shallow enough to touch the bottom when things get rough. How many of us venture into deep water with only Jesus to protect us?

1 John 5:14, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."

Intimacy with Jesus takes the same courage and practice as swimming when we were children. When we were children, we relied on our parents or a swimming instructor to guide us through learning to swim. In the beginning, we spent most of our time either hanging onto the side of the pool or wading into the shallow end, where we knew we were safe. Only after much encouragement and practice did we even think about going to the deep end. But, unfortunately, the pool’s deep end did not provide the safety we needed.

Prayer is like swimming; we tend to cling to the edge and not let go. We want to trust in Jesus enough to set our worries aside, but we aren’t that sure. In time we feel more comfortable trusting Him with some things, but we want the security of taking control if it is not going how we want. If we are to mature in our prayer life, we must be able to swim in deep water and turn everything over to the one who loves us unconditionally. We must learn to trust Him even when we do not see His plan.

Hanging on to the Edge

1 John 5:15, "And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him."

When we first started to learn about Christ, we probably did not understand the power of prayer. Prayer was more about asking for what we needed and then hanging on until it arrived. We felt we lacked faith if it didn’t arrive or God didn’t hear us. We certainly didn’t live as though we thought God would answer our prayers. It was more of a fallback position than looking for an answer.

Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

We didn’t approach prayer confidently. Who were we to expect God to care? God is busy; surely,  other prayers are more important than mine. My need isn’t as great as other people’s needs. Satan doesn’t like us to pray. He will do what he can to get us to stop. If he can’t convince us that our need is too big for God to resolve, he will convince us our need is too small for God to care.

Psalm 18:6, "In my distress, I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple, he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears."

Wading In

James 1:6, " But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."

As we grow closer to God, we become emboldened, asking what is on our hearts without restraint. The problem is that we still don’t fully trust God to answer our prayers how we want them answered. Somehow, we have come to believe in answered prayer, but not that God’s answer is the best. We want to stay in shallow water where we can stand on our own if the need arises.

Mark 11:24, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

The shallow end is where most Christians spend their lives—praying but doubting the power of prayer. Because of this, they never see God’s hand in their life. It is a spiral that leads them to become more skeptical of prayer’s power. They find themselves standing in shallow water, thinking they can swim.

Swimming with Jesus

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

For the advanced open water diver, the Marriott Gold Coast in Australia has a private saltwater lagoon with an artificial reef visitors could use to prepare for diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Open-water divers are the ultimate swimmers. They are diving fifty to a hundred feet under the water, miles from shore, with only their scuba gear to sustain them. They are literally emersed in the experience, totally dependent.

That is the experience God wants for us when we pray. He wants continuous communication with an expectation that He will meet our needs. God wants us to be totally dependent on Him. Not so that He can control our lives, but so He can show us the power of His grace and compassion. God has a great life planned for each of us. God wants us to experience what He created in us.

Ephesians 6:18, " And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people."

Be a deep-water diver of prayer, swimming far from shore, deep under the surface, and completely secure in what God has in store for you.

Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
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A Sobering Thought

I was reminded of a sobering thought today. I was looking through old documents I had written to see if there was something that God would use to speak to me. But instead, I found an MP3 audio file from a few years ago. I very seldom record my thoughts. I used to, but I learned that God wanted me to write them out while they were fresh in my mind. I have a big file of Letters to Myself. So I listened to the recording to see what was so important that I recorded it.

Psalms 36:7, “How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.”

It is hard to describe the enormity of God’s love for us. The fact is he wants all of us to spend eternity with Him. God demonstrates this through His relentless passion for us by constantly pursuing us despite our condition. We can never become so degenerate or lowly that He will stop loving us.

1 John 4:9-10. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

In the Dark of the Night

I recorded that message at four o’clock in the morning on an IMED trip while in Kyrgyzstan. It started to be about Andrey. Andrey was a student looking to expand his small construction business. Andrey has spent time in a Russian prison. His relationship with God was of the tough love type. God loved him unconditionally, but God had rules, just like everyone. In Andrey’s life, anything that came easy wasn’t worth having. He had spent his life overcoming. There was something about that man I loved. But he dropped out of the program because he couldn’t understand why we had to know so much about him. His leaving deflated me because we could have done so much for him, and his testimony was incredible.

2 Timothy 1:9, “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.”

I sometimes get off subject and have to serpentine my way back, I‘m told; here is the tie-in. In this recording, talking about Andrey made me think more about myself. I had built this narrative around my life that had to do with God loving me so much that He saved me so I could help others. I didn’t die in the Emergency Room because God had a plan for me. It was a plan to serve others and expand His Kingdom. Andrey taught me that it was a faults narrative. It wasn’t about High Tech Ministries, Champions for Life, International Mission Connection, or Roswell Day of Hope. All of that would have been just as effective without me.

The Sobering Thought

The sobering thought was this, had I died that night, I would have spent eternity separated from God. I would be in Hell. God could do everything I have done since then without me. He did not need me; I needed Him. I just didn’t realize it yet. It was several years before I fully understood that I needed Him. I spent the immediate years after getting my pacemaker lamenting my loss of invincibility. Before that night, I was bulletproof and invisible. There was nothing I could not achieve. Now I was battery operated.

1 John 3:1, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

Andrey reminded me that he survived a Russian prison so that he could be saved. He didn’t see himself as the next Martin Luther. Instead, he saw himself as a child of God trying to please his Father. As Christians, we sometimes become arrogant in our beliefs. We start to think that we are one of the critical gears in God’s machinery. We can’t seem to accept that we exist because He loves us. Sure, He wants us to spread the Gospel, but His primary motivation is love for us.

1 John 4:16, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

We all have an expiration date. Unfortunately, we don’t know when that is. Sharing God’s story is so that others may be saved before it is too late. We don’t know when that is. We don’t know when that is for ourselves, our family, co-workers, and friends. God can do everything you have accomplished and more without you. We can not change His plan, but we can decide to be part of it.

Ecclesiastes 9:1, “So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.”

Living is about getting to salvation and finding our way home and helping others find their way home. God loves us unconditionally; He wants to be with us for eternity. And that, folks, is a sobering thought.

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Seeking Faith Rather than Seeking Christ

Are we seeking faith rather than seeking Christ? This quote is a paraphrase from John Wesley concerning the mountaintop experience of many Christians. It was an interesting question. The connotation is that we don’t necessarily fully understand the implication of Christ’s Love for us; we only understand the security of what He does for us.

1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casts out fear because fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears is not perfect in Love."

INTRODUCTION

I listened to an interesting Podcast concerning the events at Asbury University this last week. In case you do not know, Asbury University, a private Christian school in Wilmore, Kentucky, had somewhat normal chapel services on March 9, 2023, which led to a non-stop multi-day religious experience. The University does not call it a revival, as they believe only history can determine if it is an actual revival. In the podcast, the commentators paraphrased Wesley, “Are we seeking faith rather than seeking Christ.” The question elicits deeper thinking concerning the emotional impact of the moment as opposed to the eternal impact of Christ’s Love.   

Faith is a misunderstood concept. You can have complete faith that someone is going to lie to you. They have a track record of doing it, and there is no reason to feel they will go against the trend in the given situation. Faith in something is nothing more than confidence that you can predict what will happen. Faith is confidence in the outcome. Christ’s unchanging nature gives us confidence in what He will do.

THE QUESTION

Are we seeking faith rather than seeking Christ? Christian faith should be a byproduct of understanding the depth of God’s Love for us. It is not faith in what God will do but in who God is. If we understand the depth of God’s Love for us, we have no concern for what He does for us. What He does will always be directly related to how much He loves us.

Love is not merely an attribute of God’s character but the essence of his being —

Sunday Adelaja

John Piper, in his book “God Is the Gospel” asked this question, “The critical question for our generation—and every generation—is this: If you could have Heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with Heaven, if Christ was not there?”

Who do you seek? Do you seek the experience of Christianity but not the joy of Christ’s Love? Christ offers us a lot. For those who call Him King, the reward is an eternity like nothing we have ever experienced. But would we still seek Christ without the promise of that experience? Do we crave heaven with or without Christ? Is the fear of losing heaven the driving emotion behind your faith?

But do you feel His Love? When you think of Christ, does it elicit an emotional response? When your prays are not answered as you had desired, do you bask in His Love? Do you really believe that despite who you are, what you continue to do, and how you treat Him, He loves you unconditionally? Do you believe He loves you no matter what you are going through?

John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

We are not just His creation; we are His friends.

LIVING WITH THE ANSWER

You have to live with your answer. You can lie to yourself but not to God. We live in a material world filled with measurements and agendas. None of us have ever experienced altruistic Love. It is not natural for man to love that way. Everything is up for sale. We barter and trade affection like shares of stock. We judge others feeling toward us by what they are willing to do for us and us for them.

Romans 8:35-37, "Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake, we are killed all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

The God of the universe, who spoke it into existence, sent His son to die for you. He didn’t just die for you; that would have been too simple. Instead, he was humiliated, tortured, and hung alive on a tree with spikes through His hands and feet. He is God; He didn’t need to do any of that. He created us and could have easily destroyed us and started over. But He didn’t. He kept pursuing us.

Romans 5:8, "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Our faith should not be in what God can do but in how much He loves us. In Love, He will do everything possible to ensure you spend eternity with Him. It is not about how perfect heaven is but about who will be there, the only entity in existence that can and will love you the way you desire to be loved.

Do you need the image of eternity in the Garden of Eden with all of your loved ones who have passed before, perfect weather, agile strong bodies, and peace and goodwill to motivate you toward Godliness, or is spending eternity with your creator, worshiping at His feet enough? Is it about what He provides more than who He is?

This verse describes God’s Love toward us that we should try to emulate toward others.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, "Love is patient and kind; Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

Do not strive to spend eternity in heaven; strive to spend eternity with the God who loves you unconditionally.

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Faith with Absolute Assurance

Faith is the assurance of things we hope for but have not received. Our faith in Christ is grounded in His promise to us through Abraham. We believe because we can see the impact on our lives today that encourages us about our future. It does not mean today is puppy dogs and unicorns, but it does mean that today is leading to a better tomorrow.

John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Whenever I face a critical issue, I return to a simple truth; “Do I believe what I say I believe?”. Everything is condensed down to this one critical question. When I distill an issue down to the root cause, it always boils down to this; do I trust that Christ is who I say He is, and do I believe He cares the way He says He does?

RELIGIOSITY

Let me give you a real-life example from several years ago. I knew someone who owed me money. They asked me to do some work for them, I did it, they acknowledged that I did it, and their client was satisfied with the work. I asked several times over the next year about getting paid without a resolution. He is a professing Christian. He has plenty of money, so he shouldn’t be concerned. Now I am a huge commitment type of guy. I believe you say what you will do, then you do it. It’s not the money; it is the principle of the matter.

My first thought goes right to righteous indignation:
Proverbs 3:27, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to act.”

I am owed; you, as a Christian, have an obligation to pay me. So, I start to build my argument. I start remembering bible verses that condemn him and justify me. I pray for the right (passive-aggressive) approach to make him feel guilty if he does not pay. It stopped being about money some time ago. It is now religiosity. I own the high ground. God is on my side.

There are a few things I should think about first:
Proverbs 16:2, “All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.”
Proverbs 20:22, “Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the Lord, and he will avenge you.”
Proverbs 27:19, “As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.”

What started as a quest to right a wrong has turned into a vendetta. My motivation turned selfish. It is not about getting my wages but proving my religious superiority. It has turned to punish him for not being as good as me. I stopped trying to let God work through this and started dictating the terms.

FAITHFULNESS

Living by faith requires a different approach. When we decide to follow Christ, we commit to allowing Him to lead. This commitment requires a certain level of trust. I believe Christ does not want us to suffer needlessly or without kingdom impact. Therefore, if we must suffer, there is a purpose in the suffering, and that purpose will positively impact His kingdom here on earth.

The next question that comes to mind is, at what cost? Who wins and who loses, and by how much? Does evil prosper? The ultimate answer to those questions is in Revelations.

Revelation 20:10, “And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

And who does this apply to?

1 John 3:8, “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”

There is an actual price to be paid by those who reject Christ. We must be assured that God will do what He said He would do.

APPLICATION

When we have been wronged, what should we do? The first thing we should all do when faced with a dilemma is to pray for guidance. It is through prayer that we gain assurance that our faith is rewarded. There are too many permutations of grievances to suggest a one-size-fits-all solution. But, the starting point is always the same. Prayer

It is also essential to determine where our ego is during this time. Is the grievance material or emotional? Is the wrong subjective or objective? Do I believe God has my best interest in mind, even if I don’t get what I want? Am I advancing my kingdom or His? What do I believe about Christ’s dominion over the world? These are the critical questions, not our perception of right and wrong. God will handle right and wrong.

LAST POINT

The last point is that there are times when we must take advantage of the authority God has established over man to help with worldly issues that broken man can not adequately address. We have laws and governing authorities for that purpose. These are tools for Him to use to help us. They are not tools he has created so that we can punish those we dislike or disagree with.

Romans 13:1-2, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”

Trials will come. That is part of being human in a fallen world. How we face those trials will determine our impact on His kingdom for Him. Our assurance of victory comes through our faith in the victor. We can win the battle but lose the war.

James 5:11, “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”
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Impact

Does your life have the impact that you want it to have? Of course, everyone has an impact, but is yours what you expect?

According to the ancient Greeks, there are three components to a lasting impact. They are 1) logos; what you say; 2) Pathos; how you make the other person feel; and 3) ethos; the way you live. If we are going to have a positive impact on the world, we need to do it with a sense of completeness. We can not approach change with duplicity. We can not want others to be what we are not prepared to be. To impact the world for Christ, we must present a total package. The latest social issue, media sensations, or worldly crises cannot influence us.

That is a big ask. We live in a post-modern world where sensation and bias rule. The next shiny object influences us. Trendsetters and newsmakers surround us. Truth is subjective. Honesty is overrated. Much of the ground we stand on is quicksand, ever-moving, ever-changing, and ever-morphing into a new reality. Values etched in stone a few years ago seem outdated and anti-social today.

Ephesians 4:14, “So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

How can we be light in a dark world? Follow the Greeks.

Logos

Ephesians 4:25 “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”

Remember that each of us is a part of something bigger than all of us. Like wavelets expanding out across the pond, what each of us does influences others. This is true not only of our actions but the actions of those around us. We are all on the same blue orb spinning through space. The more people are driven to please Christ, the better we all are.

That is the short-term incentive to speak the truth. If nothing else, we make this place more livable. The eternal impact is far greater, but for non-believers, hard to imagine. We can not shy away from the truth because it dramatically impacts us, individually and corporately.

The credibility in our words is demonstrated through consistency. We can not speak the Gospel in some aspects of our lives while retreating from the Gospel in other aspects. We can not only demonstrate the truth of our words by applying them to others, especially in situations in which we will not find ourselves. At the same time, we ignore the application of the Gospel to our shortcomings. Hypocrisy is contagious.  

2 Timothy 2:15, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Courage is an act of overcoming, not overpowering.

Pathos

Ephesians 4:15 “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”

Compassion, what a powerful word and act. The ability to show compassion starts with confidence in who we are. We are children of God. And being such, we have overcome the world. We know it is not us who overcame the world, but Christ in us. We can afford compassion. Compassion is not from us but through us. The same God that showed compassion in us would use us to show compassion to others if we let Him.

One of my favorite quotes:

“At the end of the day, people won’t remember what you said or did; they will remember how you made them feel.” ― Maya Angelou

I remind myself of this often. I can have the best intentions in the world but deliver them with arrogance or disparagement, and I have lost. My message will be buried in ill feelings and resentment. I have to reflect the love of Christ to present the love of Christ.

Ethos

1 John 3:18 “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Living out the Word in your daily life is the most challenging and effective evangelism you will engage in. Living your life according to Scripture adds credibility to your words and impacts people you will never talk with. If you proclaim to be a Christian, people will watch how you live your life to see if it is different. They will want to know if that difference produces positive results.

The pinnacle of sarcasm when parenting is telling your child, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Your friend, co-workers, and family are not children and shouldn’t be treated as children. Don’t hide behind the Christian badge of forgiveness unless you are prepared to extend it to others. Follow the adage – be the change you want to see.

1 Peter 3:10, “For Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.”

Impact

You must add ingredients, stir them thoroughly, and bake them when making a cake. It doesn’t matter what type of cake; the steps are the same. The same is true for sharing the Gospel. It doesn’t make any difference whom you will engage with or their condition; the steps are the same. So, study the Bible, pray for direction, and persevere. In all of this, walk the talk with compassion.

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Does God think I’m a fool?

Does God think I’m a fool? On the one hand, that question seems arrogant because being a fool is no small matter. Being called a fool is more than saying I’m uneducated or uninformed; it is saying I lack common sense. It is saying that more information would not save me from my folly. On the other hand, is it possible that God may think of me as a fool? How did I get here? A couple of weeks ago, I referenced a parable in Luke (Luke 12:13-21) to make a point concerning storing up treasures here on earth. I couldn’t get the parable out of my mind because it made several points that haunted me.

Setting the Stage

Let’s set the stage for this spiritual dilemma. I am on the far-right side of the bell-shaped curve of life expectancy. Up to this point, I have beat the odds of average life expectancy. On top of that, for the most part, I am still healthy. God has blessed me with provisions that are meeting my needs for now. But I know my needs will change; how much and how soon is a guess. All of us are in the same dilemma today. No matter what age we find ourselves, God is meeting our essential needs today, but life is subject to change. What that change will entail is different for all of us. God is meeting your essential needs today because you are reading this. Being able to read this online connotates a certain level of prosperity; you are above the basic level on the Maslow hierarchy of needs.

Luke 12:27-30, “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. The pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows you need them.”

Back to the rich guy.

For the sake of time, I will paraphrase the parable. If you choose, you can follow the link above and read it. Jesus spoke to a crowd of people, probably in Judea, about a year before His crucifixion. He told the story of a rich man that had a great harvest. The harvest was so big that the man didn’t have room to store it all. So he decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones to have security in the coming years. Then, he could “Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”

God rebukes the rich man by saying, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” God says, “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

On the surface, this seems relatively straightforward, do not rely on material possessions for your salvation and future security. But we live in a material world. All of us need a certain level of materialism to survive. I believe that God is not opposed to wealth. I say this because people of every social standing need to hear the Gospel and who is better equipped to spread the Good News than peers? No matter our status in life, each of us has a specific target market for spreading the Gospel. So, we need the entire spectrum of humanity to reach the entire spectrum of humanity.

Lessons from a Fool

Two key phrases clarify this passage for me. The first is at the beginning. Jesus starts the parable by saying, “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.” Notice that Jesus didn’t credit the rich man for the harvest. He credits the ground. The first key to foolishness is to whom you give credit. The rich man was a fool because he treated the abundant harvest as his. Just as all other things like knowledge, experience, and talent are gifts from God, so was the harvest. Everything the rich man had was not of his effort but through grace from God.

Luke 12:15, “Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

The second key phrase is when the rich man explains what he will do with the harvest proceeds. He said, “Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” The harvest was of God and should be used for God. So the second key to foolishness is what do you do with what God provides? Whatever position you find yourself in, it is God’s providence that it should be used for God.

Back to my Dilemma

My dilemma is your dilemma. Years ago, when I was with the prison ministry, I talked with a man on death row. I asked him what it was like to know the specific time and place of his death. His answer surprised me. Again, I will paraphrase it; the state will not allow me to die before the court-appointed time. It would be seen as escaping justice. So I can plan my last days. But, on the other hand, you do not know if you will live long enough to cross the parking lot today.

We are all rich men. Our harvest is different for each of us. It is not what we have but how we use it that will determine if we are seen as fools. Does God think I am a fool? I should hope not, but the opportunity is there. If I do not give Him credit for the good in my life and I do not use that good for His kingdom, then I am.

My future is uncertain, but my path is clear. Just as the ground yielded an abundant harvest for the rich man, so will it yield the same for me.

Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.”

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Struggle

I struggle with a great many things when it comes to following Christ. I struggle with my ability to obey, my competence to do God’s will, and my sin. This morning it is my sin. Not a specific sin, just the abundance of sin in my life. The little nagging failures to demonstrate God to others.

Romans 3:10, “As it is written, “Not even one person is righteous.”

Odd things wake me in the middle of the night. Why is it that I struggle with the same things over and over? It started me wondering about the characters in the Bible of their daily struggles. God doesn’t tell us much about that. We know that Moses was a murderer and David dealt with lust, but we don’t know about their daily struggles.

1 John 1:8, “If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and we’re not being truthful to ourselves.”

SIN IS NOT PROGRESSIVE

James 2:10, “And the person who keeps every law of God but makes one little slip is just as guilty as the person who has broken every law there is.”

The place I gravitate to is that sin is not progressive; it doesn’t get better or worse; it just is or isn’t. There is no sliding scale. God doesn’t try to provide a standard other than Himself. We all fall short. Did Solomon write Proverbs because he was constantly irritated at the folly of those around him? Did he feel superior to them at times? Were Proverbs his passive-aggressive vent? Did Moses struggle with the leadership responsibilities and the Israelites’ constant whining? Was He short-tempered and impatient? David loved his son, but did his son also cause him grief? Was he impatient with his demands? It is easy to read between the lines that Paul was not an easy guy to get along with. He saw life as black and white. Although God gave him the gift of compassion, I don’t think he received the gift of patience.

Romans 7:19-20, “When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. Now, if I am doing what I don’t want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp.”

I have no reason to believe that the characters in the Bible didn’t struggle the same as us. So why didn’t God provide us with these examples so that we could feel better about our struggles? I would guess it is because we should never stop struggling; we shouldn’t feel better. There is only one standard, and we all fall short.

SALVATION IS NOT WHITEWASH

When we accept Christ as our savior, do we see it as our get-out-of-jail-free card? The analogy that came to my head was citizenship. Some people study hard for citizenship so they can pass the test. But, once they pass the test and take the oath, do they see citizenship the same way? Do they treasure it, or do they start to feel entitled? Once salvation is ours, does it become a right? Our sins are forgiven yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We are made white as snow. Should that not give us a level of comfort?

My guess is no, it should not. On the contrary, I believe it makes us struggle more because we now know that our sin is unacceptable to God. We now know that things normalized in the world are unacceptable to God. This is a good thing.  Even with our salvation, we will stand before the Judgement Throne of Christ to account for how we lived our lives once we accepted Christ as our savior. God will want an accounting for the rants on social media, our discussion concerning politics, and our impatience with others who think differently than ourselves. This is about something other than being right; it is about doing right.

Lamentations 3:22, “his compassion never ends. It is only the Lord’s mercies that have kept us from complete destruction.”

REDEMPTION IS REAL

I would suspect that the day you stop struggling with sin is that day you need to start worrying. Sin is always with us; it never takes a holiday. No matter how hard we try, there will be something. That nagging sin is a constant reminder that we need Christ. It is a portal to God’s love, compassion, and understanding of our condition. So, as we fight sin, we cling to Christ.

Romans 8:1, “So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus.”

I want comfort and to know it is all right, but it isn’t. That is good news. The more I struggle with my shortcomings, the more I talk to God. The more I am disgusted with my behavior, the more I demonstrate that I care. The only standard is God Himself, and we will not achieve that this side of Heaven. To struggle is to gain.

I remember that the God of the universe that has forgiven all my sins is the same God that reminds me of His love through the ultimate sacrifice of His son. A God that would do that for a man as undeserving as myself is a God of infinite compassion.

Isaiah 30:18, “Yet the Lord still waits for you to come to him so he can show you his love; he will conquer you to bless you, just as he said, for the Lord is faithful to his promises. Blessed are all those who wait for him to help them.”

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Enter the New Year

Enter the New Year. It is the Chinese year of the rabbit, which is appropriate. As we enter the new year, time is fleeting. We must make the most of this new year before it’s gone.

So, as we enter this new year, I wanted to tell you a story that might help you set your objectives. It’s my story. Like David, Moses, and many other characters in the Bible, my life has had its bumps and bruises. But also it has a lesson. It starts with the first question I had to answer; “who am I?”. That was a tough question for me to answer. A lot of clichés’ came to mind. I also gravitated toward things that sounded grandiose but weren’t true. My true mission in life wasn’t admirable, but finding it and articulating it opened my eyes to what has happened. Writing this is cathartic.

Proverbs 1:8-9, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.”

THE STORY

Who am I? I am the only son of a high-achieving “greatest generation” father. My mission in life was to be like him but better. I tried to achieve my mission by outworking everyone around me. My dad had one college degree; I have three. He worked full-time through college, and so did I, three times. I studied for every meeting and every engagement like it was a final exam. I had to be the smartest guy in the room. No one could be on my team if they didn’t have my work ethic.

THE JOURNEY

I tried to be this person by emulating my father. My father was a successful engineer; He was President of the City Council in my city and President of the School Board when I graduated from High School; his signature is on my High School Diploma.

He was well-liked, had a good sense of humor, and was a man of high character, brilliant and unassuming He could multiply two eight-digit numbers in his head to entertain my friends. I loved and idolized my father.

Romans 4:4, “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.”

I was driven to succeed in everything I tried. I was raised to believe that you didn’t appreciate anything you didn’t work for. This drive manifested itself in anger and frustration. I didn’t feel I ever measured up. My father seemed so natural at it, and it seemed so unnatural to me. I was constantly pressing. Although it did drive me to a high level of success, it didn’t provide any satisfaction in that success. It created relationship problems in almost every aspect of my life.  My life and ambition controlled me. I was a slave to whom I thought I must be. My ego and pride painted over all my insecurities.

“To love yourself is to know that your past does not change your worth.”

THE AWAKENING

I was divorced at a young age. I was running 10 miles every day to help deal with the stress. By the age of 30, I had to have a pacemaker. Caffeine and stress short-circuited my heart’s electrical system. Success was killing me; I knew I couldn’t keep this up; I either had to abandon my mission in life or find a better way.  

I couldn’t abandon who I thought I was, so I turned to the Bible for advice. I turned to the Bible because I remember it from my childhood days attending church. Going to church still wasn’t in the plan; I was a self-made man. The Bible proved to be an owner’s manual on how to live—changing my approach to working with people significantly reduced my stress. Knowing that I was part of a plan that could not fail gave me confidence, even when things didn’t go well. I started to relax but still lacked purpose.

Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

I decided I needed help from people who understood the Bible better than me, so I started attending church.

CLARITY OF PURPOSE

That was when I received my aha moment; it was the tangent point that changed the direction of my life. I was given a cassette tape of a one-person play called “The BEMA.” It was about what you have done for Christ since you met Him. I realized that life had never been about me. It had always been about others. My legacy was not in what I achieved to elevate myself in life but in what I was doing to help others elevate themselves. I found purpose with meaning.

The pressure was gone. The drive is still there, but it is focused on results that do not belong to me. Kingdom gain is the measure; material gain may or may not follow. My goal was to be obedient to Christ when He called.

I quit corporate America and started a couple of companies operating on Christian principles. I held Bible Study once a week in my business to show my commitment to Christ and hold myself accountable to my employees for living up to that commitment. In retirement, I now work with several Christian-based missions using the skills and resources developed in me by God through life experiences. Anger is long gone. I am at peace with the person God made me. And, I want for nothing materially that I do not have or can’t obtain. God is good.

THE LESSON

“Don’t let your past dictate who you are. Let it be the lesson that strengthens the person you will become.”

As we enter the New Year, answering the question of who you are, will open your eyes to what drives you. You might find that the wrong standard drives you. I didn’t realize my dad’s impact on my life until my sisters pointed it out. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen until I was over 60. I was driven by an aberration. I know my father would never have wanted that for me. But I didn’t know it was happening. Christ entered my life and fixed a problem I didn’t know I had. I could not have written my story this way ten years ago. Ten years ago, I still saw myself as Don Quixote saving the fair maiden. Like the fictional Don Quixote, I was tilting at windmills.

Psalm 103:13, “Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.”

God has made us incredible creatures capable of amazing things. But when we try to control who we are or want to be, the wheels come off. Sometimes this control is subconscious. Give it to God. Why? God is good all the time.

Psalm 20:4, “May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”

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The New Beginning

Every January first, we think, “This is the new beginning.” It is the start of a new year. It is a chance to change, erase last year’s mistakes and start afresh. We have just celebrated the birth of Christ, the new beginning.

Isaiah 9:2, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”

Howard Hunter

My sister had this taped to the back of her Christmas card to me:

“This Christmas, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage Youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again.” – Howard H. Hunter.

That is quite a bucket list for 2023. ( download it here) There are so many items on the list that I must attend to. So many, not so many wrongs that need righting, as neglects that need attention. Great people in my life that make my life worthwhile that I treat as common. I celebrate their special occasions, but every day I treat them as a constant. I forget that life is fleeting. Bad things happen to good people. I can not count on having a tomorrow to tell them how much they mean to me.

James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

Gifts

There are so many good gifts that God has bestowed on me that have just become part of me. I have lived with them so long that I treat them as inseparable from my existence. They are not seen as gifts but as attributes. I somehow own them. That must change.

In 2023 I need to stop treating God’s gifts to me, whether it be people or things, as some privilege or status I have earned. Everything I have or ever will have is a gift from God. It is mine only to expand His kingdom here on earth. I should show gratitude for all of it every day. Tomorrow may never come.

James 4:13-24, “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”  Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow? What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”  As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.  If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is a sin for them.”

New Beginning

The new beginning I seek is to live my life as if it was a gift from God. This includes the bad things that happen to me. Not that God would ever visit evil on me, but it happens, and God is there if I call upon Him. Christ has made me a new person. I need to start living my life like I believe that is true. Can I do all the things on Howard Hunter’s list? To be honest, I doubt it. But I can try.

The key to doing good is not the act itself but to whom you give the glory. What person do they see when I do what God has asked of me? Is it me, or is it the image of God? Are they drawn to me, or are they drawn to the person who made me new?

Matthew 6:2, ‘So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

If I believe that everything I am, is a gift from God to serve His kingdom, I will be content with the outcome.

Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Benediction

Every day is a new beginning. I wish you the very best this coming year. I pray that come December 31, 2023, you will look back on this year and see your progress. Perfection isn’t ours to obtain. It is only for us to use what we have been given to do what we can.

Hebrews 13:20-21, “Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

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Sharing the Gospel at Christmas

Sharing the Gospel at Christmas

Sharing the Gospel at Christmas is at the top of the Christmas to-do list for most Christians. It is the ideal time both because of the season and the company. We celebrate Christmas with those we love. Many of those people need to hear the Gospel.

Presentation

Sharing the Gospel at Christmas can be daunting when celebrating with non-believing relatives and friends. Conventional Christian wisdom says we start with God as the creator of all things; we then talk about the garden, man’s fall, and Christ’s salvation. This is a complicated conversation to glide into between courses at the table. But Christmas seems to be the perfect time for this.

Romans 10:14-15, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them, and how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Alternatively, we could grab everyone’s attention by telling the story of Christmas. We can start with Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection, then end with our reconciliation. Again, this might be a bit awkward to an audience that didn’t come for a performance. So how do we use this opportunity to spread the good word?

Philippians 2:7, “rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”

There might be a more straightforward approach. But first, we need to recognize the players. The author of the story is God. He chooses the people for salvation (Thessalonians 1:4). The author of our salvation is Christ. He is the only one who can save (Thessalonians 1:10). There is our role; we communicate the Gospel through our words and actions (Thessalonians 1:5). There is the Holy Spirit that empowers us; it gives us the gift of effective communication (Thessalonians 1:5). And finally, there is the person you are talking to; they must be open to the message and respond to it (Thessalonians 1:6).

Matthew 20:16, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

This model is repeated throughout the Bible, not just with Paul and Thessalonians; Philip evangelized with the Ethiopian is another example. We must remember our role in evangelism; communicate the Gospel through words and actions. We cannot and should not try to orchestrate the roles of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, or others. This is the first rule to having a great Christmas with family and friends. We must accept our role versus God’s and be willing to do our part when called upon.

Adaptation

Not everyone is the same. We all have our go-to personality. Some are cognitive thinkers who want facts, evidence, and discussion. Others are Intuitive thinkers who need emotions and feelings. Then there is the concrete-relational thinker who needs practical application. Based on what personality testing you have been trained on, there are even more subdivisions of personality traits. The point is that one size does not fit all. The path to salvation has many turns and twists. This is where we have to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us. This is where I involve everyday evangelism, adapting our story to fit the needs of the person I am talking with to demonstrate Christ’s story of salvation.

I know the experiences of my life better than I know the Gospel. No one can defend the facts of my life better than I. I am an undisputed authority on how God changed me.

Realization

Because I was raised in a farming community, I like the visual that the agricultural parable provides. First, there is preparing the ground; then there is planting, followed by nurturing, and finally, the harvest. Evangelism involves in all four phases. God attracts people to Himself by preparing their hearts. We may be part of this process through the way we both model salvation and communicate it. But the ground is still barren. Next, the seed of the Gospel is planted. It may take some time before it starts to germinate. The Lodgepole Pine uses fire to germinate. That is the reasons forests come back after a great fire. Some people are this way. It takes a great fire in their life to germinate the seed of the Gospel.

Matthew 17:3-8, “Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where they did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no roots. Other seeds fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still, other seeds fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.”

Then comes nurturing the word. The word has taken hold, but what type of soil? Part of our evangelistic ministry is to nurture the seeds planted by others. Do we model the Gospel? Christmas can be chaotic, noisy, disappointing, exciting, and crazy good all at the same time. This confluence can and will create opportunity. What we say and do under stress is one of the most significant tests of our faith. It is also one of the best evangelistic tools.   This is a time to nurture the non-believer, showing them the way.

Titus 1:9, “Their belief in the truth that they have been taught must be strong and steadfast so that they will be able to teach it to others and show those who disagree with them where they are wrong.”

Harvest

The harvest. Who does not love the harvest? It is a time of celebration and renewal. Very few of us truly get to see a harvest. We spend far more time working the field than harvesting. If you are privileged to be involved in the harvest, remember that someone else did a lot of the hard work.

If I could give one piece of advice regarding sharing the Gospel at Christmas, enjoy yourself. Let God do His magic through you. Understand that you are not the savior of their soul. God owns the process you are part of. He has been gracious enough to include you in His plan for another. You can’t screw it up because it isn’t your plan.

Do your part but let God do the heavy lifting.

Luke 1:37, “For every promise from God shall surely come true.”

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