Monthly Archives: June 2011

I Did It My Way!

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1 Corinthians 4:7
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
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Ever hear anyone claim they are a “self made man”, that no one helped them get where they are today, that they accomplished their success all on their own? What a silly, self centered idea. Their mother, even if she was a horrid one who abandoned them at birth, certainly could tell you she put some hard work, some “labor”, into their existence. After that someone fed them, changed their dirty diapers, tried to educate them. All along the way there have been those who have made their success possible.

And then there is God who gave them life, breath, a functioning body and brain. Without His gifts, which we so casually take for granted, this “self made man” would not, could not even exist.

This passage reminds us that though we certainly had to use what was given to us, the fact that we have anything is a gift from God. The fact that we could work, could think, could eat, could breathe, even that we were formed in our mother’s womb in the first place and were given life, it is all a gift from God and if our abilities and talents are a gift, then what room do we have to boast about what we were given?

What a great passage to kindle humility in each of us but also to develop a heart of gratitude.

Thank you Lord for allowing me to see the light of day, for giving me the health and life I have. We all have struggles and things aren’t always the way we would like them to be but we do have the presence of mind to at least think about it. Some have not even been given that gift to be able to recognize who or what or where they are. We have much to be grateful for. Let’s make this a day of gratitude … and humility.
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Matthew 23:12
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

How to Measure Church Growth

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1 Corinthians 3:3
You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
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Juan Carlos Ortiz pastored the fastest growing church in Argentina during a time of great church growth in that nation. His church was bursting at the seams but he tells how in a time of prayer he sensed the Lord telling him his church was not growing. Puzzled by this he tried to tell the Lord how many new people they were baptizing each week and how many more were coming today than a month ago.

He then sensed the Lord say, “Your church is not growing. It is just getting fat.”  As he thought about this he realized he was just building a huge spiritual nursery full of infants, not growing Christians.  The attendance was getting larger but the church, God’s people, were not growing.

While I believe in church growth – no one should be content with the size of his church as long as there is one unsaved person within reach of that church’s ministry – I also believe the Lord is concerned with growing the church, His people, into mature believers.

This passage tells us how God measures church growth and it has nothing to do with attendance, budgets or buildings. Jealousy and quarreling is a sign of infancy – no growth.  Our love for one another is the Biblical sign of church growth and, according to 1 Corinthians 13, is more important than our giftedness, our knowledge, our faith or even the sacrifices we may make for God.  Am I growing in my love for others?  If not, I may be getting fat but I am not growing more mature.

PRAYER: Lord, since your measure of church growth is the love I have, let me grow to be a mega-church in your kingdom – a person of mega-love.
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1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (my paraphrase)
If I have all the gifts of the Spirit, understand all about God and the Bible, have awesome faith, if I give my last dime to God or even die as a martyr but don’t have love, it’s all a big zero by God’s standards.

How To Find More Time

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Lately a lot more than usual has been going on in life and though I get up early to read a little Scripture it has been rushed and I haven’t taken time to “settle into” prayer. Without that time to just wait before the Lord, prayer is just me talking (not giving God a chance to respond when He has something to say).  And I have discovered, what God says to me is infinitely more important than what I say to Him. I am beginning to notice the spiritual addledness that comes from no listening time but, but it’s easy to think, “I just don’t have time.”

That’s when I received this post from my son Jonathan reminding me of something he has probably heard me preach 20 times. I thought it might be a good word to encourage you as it did me. I condensed it so I suggest you check out his blog: FakingCreativity.com

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You Aren’t Too Busy
by Jonathan Malm

I hate when people say they’re too busy. When you say that, you’re actually saying “I’m too busy for you!” You’re never actually too busy. If the President requested a conference with you, you’d find the time. The reason you’re “too busy” is that you have put a higher priority on other things.

May I suggest you have enough time in the day to do everything you want to do? If you were willing to drop other things, you would have the time. By shifting your priorities you can make time for what’s important to you. Here are a few reasons you might be “too busy”:

  • Perfectionism – I spend valuable time on insignificant projects.
  • Media – Try dropping media for a day. You’ll find the time again.
  • Squeaky Wheels – If you’re greasing the wrong vehicle you’re wasting your time.

So why are you “too busy”. What needs to be re-prioritized in your life? You have enough time to be creative. You have enough time to be awesome at what matters to you. Give yourself, and others, the time. Creativity is found in love, not in tasks.
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Thanks for the good word, Jonathan.
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Ecclesiastes 8:3-6
Do not be in a hurry to leave the king’s presence. … Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter …

Could You Give God a Dollar?

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Deuteronomy 6:11-12
… when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
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A businessman was speaking at a lunch telling how at a low point in his life, before he became a Christian, he only had one dollar to his name. In desperation he cried out to God and gave his last dollar in the offering. After that his business turned around and now he was a wealthy man. He was challenging the men to trust God, to give all they had to God so He could bless them too. “All the blessings in my life, “he said, ” are because I gave my last dollar to God.” A cynic in the back of the crowd yelled, “I dare you to do it again.”

Could you give your last dollar to God? Probably. After all, one dollar isn’t going to make much difference. It won’t pay off the credit card debts. It won’t pay the mortgage. If it is all you had for food it wouldn’t even keep you alive much longer. While it sounds dramatic, in reality it doesn’t take much generosity or courage to give your last dollar away, especially when you are already at a point of desperation.

The Lord warns us here that when we are enjoying abundant blessings from Him, when we “eat and are satisfied”, it is easy to forget the source of our provisions – it is easy to “forget the Lord”. When you are “fat and happy” don’t forget to turn to Him just as you do when you are hurting.
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Psalm 103:2
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—

Fight the Night Away

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Ephesians 4:26, 27
“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
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Early in my marriage I was told this passage means my wife and I should never go to bed angry with each other. Doing so would allow the anger to “ferment” into bitterness (and give the devil a foothold in our lives). We sure didn’t want to do that so we stayed up many nights fussing and squabbling till we were both exhausted and couldn’t even remember what we were so mad about – but we were still mad and the sun had gone down (and sometimes was ready to come up again).

Eventually I decided that couldn’t possibly be what that passage was saying – mainly because staying up till we resolved the problem was turning out to be stupid advice. We usually didn’t come to any resolution, it got worse as the night dragged on and now we were going to be tired and cranky the next day also.  I didn’t know what that passage meant but I knew it couldn’t mean “fight the night away”.

I am embarrassed to say we were thirty years into our marriage before I realized the simple truth this passage was conveying. I can’t stop the sun from going down and I discovered I couldn’t always resolve the differences with my wife before it did go down but I could do one thing – I could forgive, forget it and move on before the sun went down.

After all, forgiveness, like love, is a decision, not a feeling. I could decide to forgive, drop the matter and move on. I didn’t have to find the magical, mysterious solution to our disagreement. I didn’t have to help my wife realize how right I was and how far off base she was.  I didn’t have to restore any “warm fuzzy” feelings. I just had to decide I was not going to carry this anger with me into the night. If need be, we could return to the issue the next day, after some sleep and perhaps with a fresh perspective and insight. As a wise eight year old girl put it when she was asked the secret to happiness, “Sometimes you just need to take a nap and get over it.”

So don’t let the sun go down while you are still fuming. Forgive, take a nap and get over it. Tomorrow will be a new day.
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James 1:19, 20 (NIV)
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

 

I AM so special

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1 Corinthians 1:27-30
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, …
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Wow! I need to regularly be reminded of this.

1. I am in Christ because of God. Not because of me.

2. His choosing me doesn’t indicate I am special. In fact, it indicates the opposite since he chooses the foolish, the weak, the lowly, the despised. So I fit at least one, if not all, of those categories.

3. His choosing me isn’t really even about me, but it is to shame the wise, the strong, etc. It is like a super baseball star who agrees to play using a broom handle instead of a bat and a dish rag for a glove just to show off that he can beat the guys who think they are hot with all their great equipment.  You and I are the broom handles and dish rags God is using just to show how awesome He is.

God is saying to the world, that values wisdom, strength and honor, “Watch what I can do with this nobody – this nothing, this often disobedient, dull to hear, goof up. I will accomplish great things through even him.”

So ultimately His choosing of me was not because I am so great or so special (despite what modern theology may tell you) but because He is so great and so special. He chooses us to bring glory to HIS name.

To a proud person that might be insulting but it actually brings relief to me. My bringing glory to God is not about me doing it all right, never messing up, never making a mistake (as wonderful as that would be) but it is about Him. The responsibility to bring honor to His name in my life rests squarely on HIS big shoulders. I am encouraged by that.
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Psalm 115:1 (NIV)
Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

 

Banking on the Bible

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I am in Berlin, Germany today spending time with a couple who are missionaries with Commission To Every Nation (www.CTEN.org). Why missionaries in Germany? After all, this is the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation and there are churches in every town. Germany is also the birthplace of liberal theology and, believe it or not, some of the people they are reaching are seminary students who do not believe the Bible.

Does that sound astounding that you would go to seminary and not believe the Bible? Weirder still is that some seminaries teach that you cannot fully trust the Bible. After all, it has stories about fish eating people, guys rising into the clouds, a person turns into salt, blind people seeing and deaf people hearing – nice little tales but not really meant to be believed.

Satan’s first attack has always been against God’s Word – “Did God really say …?”. That is why cults always have their own versions of the Bible (i.e. JW, Mormons, Biblical Universalists) or their own supplemental material that you have to read to “really understand” the Bible.

If we cannot fully trust God’s Word then we have nothing to stand on, our entire understanding of God is just conjecture. We can know there is a God because of the complexity of nature and the order we see in the universe but is He friendly and involved or angry and distant. The only way we can know Him is that He has chosen to tell us about Himself. Take away the Bible and your guess is as good as mine, which is only as good as anyone else’s. Without the Bible as our authority, throwing young women as sacrifices into volcanoes to please this unknown God is as legitimate as loving your neighbor as yourself.

What a treasure of infinite worth we have in the Bible. A God we can only know if He chooses to reveal Himself to us has, in its pages, pulled back a curtain to allow us to peek into eternity and catch a glimpse of Him. We can know what pleases Him and what displeases Him only because He reveals it to us. We can know how to find peace with Him  only because He reveals it to us. Most importantly, we can know what path leads to eternal life and what path leads to death because He has revealed it to us. Take away the Bible and we are all just guessing and when it comes to something as crucial as our eternal destiny, I do not want to be just guessing.

Everybody is betting on something.  Muslims are betting that Allah will have mercy.  Hindus are betting on their good works. Atheists are betting there is no God.  I’ll put my hope in what the Bible says.  It has been proven over and over again to be dependable.
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2 Peter 1:20-21 (NIV)
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

5/26/2011

Are your prayers not answered?

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Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. [12] I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
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Paul says contentment is something he learned. It is not our natural tendency to be content. We always want more, bigger, better, the new and improved – thinking that will bring us contentment. I could be happy if I ….. had a nicer car, was married, lived in a different place, had different parents, had a better job, on and on it goes. The eye of man is never satisfied (Proverbs 27:20).

Paul says what he learned is a secret but he then gives a clue to the secret. If he can be content in all circumstances obviously contentment does not come from outside us, the circumstances that surround us. He then reveals the source of his contentment – learning to draw his strength from the Lord.

His ability to be content does not come from his own strength, from positive confessions or from a positive mental attitude rather his strength, ability to remain content even in hunger and want, is a gift from the Lord. The Lord could have given him food but chose instead to give him strength to be content without food. The Lord could have provided all he needed but chose instead to give Paul strength to learn contentment even in need. Apparently God saw greater value in learning contentment than in having a full belly, accumulating character rather than accumulating stuff.

If you are going through a time when it seems God has turned a deaf ear to your prayers – you seem to always come up short, in need, perhaps a little hungry – God has not abandoned you. Rather He is doing a greater work, giving you what He considers a more precious gift, building character and virtue in you.

Embrace Him. Draw from His strength. Learn the secret He shared with Paul and is now letting you in on also. Every great man or woman of God has gone through exactly what you are going though – “the dark night of the soul”. It is part of the potter’s process to conform you to His image.
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1 Timothy 6:5-8 (NIV)
… men of corrupt mind think … that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Tears or laughter for the lost?

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Based on Philippians 3:18 I said in an earlier post that our attitude toward those who are perishing should be one of tears. But what of David who asked God to “break the teeth of the wicked” or even the Lord who “laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.” (Psalm 37:13) Contradiction? Am I to cry over the lost or rejoice that they will get what is coming to them. If God laughs at the wicked, it looks like He is pretty happy to know they will get “burned” one of these days

Yet, we know God takes “no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” (Ezekiel 33:11). But it says He laughs at the wicked knowing their day will come. Is God schizophrenic? Is this a contradiction in the Bible?

No, it is easily understood when we realize that the Old Testament often provides physical pictures for us to illustrate spiritual truths. A physical lamb illustrated Jesus, the spiritual lamb of God. The bronze serpent lifted up that brought healing to those who looked on it speaks of Jesus becoming sin for us on the cross to provide healing for all who will look to Him (Numbers 21:8). The OT is filled with physical illustrations of spiritual truths.

In the NT our battle is not against flesh and blood. Your enemy is not that nasty boss or your atheist neighbors. Our battle, our enemy, is against spiritual forces. It is still proper for us to pray, “break the teeth of the wicked” when we understand we are talking about the spiritual forces of wickedness, not the human vessels they use to accomplish their wickedness. Yes, God laughs at Satan’s attempts to thwart His will for God knows Satan’s “day is coming”.

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, neither should we. But we can rejoice that the teeth of the roaring lion, Satan, have been broken and that Satan will one day be cast into the pit to never again tempt mankind into rebellion against God.
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Ephesians 6:12 (NIV)
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

SIT UP STRAIGHT, PLEASE!

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WEEKEND THOUGHTS: A little departure from the normal comments on Scripture:

Jana and I recently flew on Swiss Air and, while the crew were very friendly, their in-flight magazine was not so warm.  The final article in the magazine was entitled, in all capital letters, bold text and complete with exclamation point, “SIT UP STRAIGHT, PLEASE!”

The title and the emphatic all caps and exclamation point piqued my attention. As I glanced at the first paragraph, I couldn’t believe it.  The article was scolding passengers like little children.  What a difference between Swiss culture and US culture!  Let me share some actual quotes and see if it is just me or if you agree this is a little weird.

“When the crew welcomes you aboard, make a point of greeting them back: they are, after all, your bosses for the next couple of hours.”

“Sit down carefully and switch off your mobile phone.  Only a total slave to their existence needs to chat away with friends till the very last moment.”

“Sit up straight! Aircraft seats are just not built for lounging in.”
NOTE: Yes, the exclamation point is in the original text.

“Listen attentively to the crew’s safety presentation without yawning like some mileage billionaire. Buckle up before being asked to.”

“Stay in the same mode until you’ve reached cruising altitude.  You may now doze if you wish. Or read. Or working a little is OK.  But, remember where you are.”

The last sentence of the article, again complete with exclamation point, “Have a good flight!”

Achtung! Yes, sir! I will have a good flight as ordered.  Are you sure I can get permission to do a little work now sir, if I am careful to remember where I am and if I sit up straight the entire time? I only hope my flying on your airline today did not in some way inconvenience you.  If it did, please beat me with my cell phone.

Wow!  Can you imagine how such an article would be received in the US?  Am I just nuts or is this over the top?