Focus

It's been a while. Sorry about that.

I just finished reading Safely Home by Randy Alcorn. The book caused me to really reflect on what I learned while on a mission trip to Ghana, West Africa. My focus should be an eternal one and not a temporal one. Eternity is real. It's as real as the truth of Jesus Christ. If Eternity is real (and it is) we should be focused on living in this temporal world in a way that makes us realize that life isn't about yesterday, today or tomorrow in the worlds view which says, save money for the future, spend money now to buy what you want so you'll be happy, buy stuff...lots of stuff, do what ever you want to...nobody is watching and nobody cares. Just do what makes you happy. This is the lie of the world, it is the lie of Satan. To be focused on eternity we should live in this temporal world in a way that EVERYTHING we do brings glory to the one who has called us to salvation. Use my time, talents and resources (financial) to reach the lost, help the poor, build the church (the body of Christ, not pretty buildings). I'm going to spend more time focusing on my eternal destiny and not my temporal dwelling. As my pastor recently encouraged me...open your eyes, look around and repeat after me..."it's all going to burn".

Be like Jesus

I've been thinking a lot about what being a Christian really means. Is it showing up at a church every Sunday? Is it carrying a Bible every where you go, or maybe leaving your Bible in your car for people to see? Is it saying a prayer and being dunked in some water? Is it being able to remember all the book names of the Bible and John 3:16? Is it wearing nice clothes and having a nice hair cut, you know...the "Christian look"? Is it having a bookshelf full of various Bible translations, commentaries, concordances and other books written by Christians? Is it attending a Bible college and getting a degree? Is it about just doing what you see other Christians do because that makes you look more Christian? Is it being able to say a prayer out loud with lots of "lords" and "fathers" and "amens"? What is it?

O.k. - BIG DISCLAIMER here. This is my opinion based on the only source of truth that is trustworthy...the Bible.

A Christian is a person who has had a personal experience with Jesus Christ. A Christian is a person who has felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit in their heart, has asked Jesus Christ to forgive them of the things the Spirt has convicted them of, a.k.a SIN, and has a true desire to repent of those sins, that is to "reject them", "turn away from them", "change direction" in order to become more like Jesus. That's the goal - to be like Jesus. That's what I believe...it isn't just the initial step that makes you a Christian but it is also the process of having a desire to be more like Jesus, the perfect and sinless savior. This process has a big theological name called sanctification.

So how then are we to be like Jesus. Remember Michael Jordan? Yea, I'm old but Michael Jordan was a superstar NBA player and one of his sponsors, Gatorade, had a marketing campaign "Be like Mike" and it was hugely successful. All you had to do to be an NBA superstar like Michael Jordan was to buy their product. Well we know that just drinking some gatorade isn't going to make you an NBA superstar and being like Jesus is similar...you don't just say a prayer and look around to see what other "Christians" are doing to be like them. You have to read your Bible, pray for help and do your best with the help of the Holy Spirit to follow what Scripture teaches about being like Jesus.

Being like Jesus ain't for sissy's. I'm not talking about the Jesus most Americans think of...I'm talking about Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus that was homeless (Matthew 8:20), the Jesus that shamed the religious and political leaders of His day, the Jesus that said quit being concerned with how you look on the outside to people but rather be concerned about what your inside (your heart) looks like (Matthew 15:1-20), the Jesus that spoke truth and didn't care about being politically correct or hurting someones feelings (read your Bible), the Jesus that taught us to do things that are contrary to what our culture teaches us such as "be kind to your enemies" (Matthew 5:38-48), "give to/help the poor" but don't ask to be thanked or to do it for popularity or the praise of this world (Matthew 6:1-4); the Jesus that associated with the outcasts of society - the lame, the poor, the sick, those with leprosy, sinners, prostitutes, the blind, the oppressed (read your Bible) and at the end all he gets is false accusations, a mockery of a trial, spit on, severely beaten with whips and fists and then finally crucified - the most tormenting way of death the Romans could devise in that day. While being crucified he was ridiculed, mocked, humiliated and laughed at. See what I mean...it ain't for sissy's.

When you whole heartily reach a point in your life when you recognize what Jesus did for "YOU" there is nothing else you can do but ask for forgiveness and mercy and live for Him from that point on. This culture we live in and that we allow to impact our thinking and our life is not a good thing. In Romans 12:1-2 Paul tells us that when you consider what Jesus did for us we should offer ourselves as living sacrifices and no longer conform to the pattern of this world but to be transformed - that is to be like Jesus.

I can go on and on about this and there are multiple facets but rather than waste your time reading about this here go read your Bible and really think about what it is to be a Christian.

Check out the following video before you go.

Mission Planning

Missions. People so often think of foreign countries when they think of missions. You know, the crazed family who leaves everything to go into the jungles of Africa, South America and Asia to lead the lost to Christ. But missions is so much more than just the foreign lands, it is also about your next door neighbor, your community, the orphans & widows, the homeless, the nursing home bound seasoned citizens, your own family and most importantly you. Missions is about being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to ALL who need Him. Missions is about humbling yourself and ridding yourself of your selfishness, me-centered life. Missions is about being on a mission...a mission of servanthood to the Glory of God. It can be the smallest thing, giving up a Saturday morning to go play with some kids who live in an apartment complex and don't know Jesus Christ or it can be giving your life to the Lord's call of going to live in a foreign land to be an example of Christ's love.

All that to say, that I covet your prayers. I am beginning the process of planning a short term mission trip to Ghana, West Africa sometime between May and July 2008. I've never planned a trip like this before and have a lot to learn. Please pray that I will have time to plan and study, that the communications with my partners in Ghana happen as needed (sometimes internet disruptions can occur), pray for the leading of the Holy Spirit in peoples lives to lead them to go on the short term trip and pray most importantly that all of the planning and getting ready for the journey will be God honoring in every way.

More to come.......

UltraMan

So now's the time to show your age. Anybody remember ULTRA MAN? I watched every episode in the early/mid 1970's when I lived in Alexandria, VA but then we moved and I lost touch. I found these clips on You Tube (You Tube is awesome!) and wanted to share with anyone who remembers. The clips are in Japanese and not English but it won't matter. The first clip was the opening when it came on T.V. I was amazed at remembering so much of it. Anyway, this is my light hearted post of the week. Have fun! Keep in mind that Jesus Christ is the ultimate Ultraman. He died and came back to life...now that's Ultra!

Borrowed from Starbucks

Sometimes I read something on the Starbuck's cups that I can agree with. The comment is from Art Turock and is aimed at sales people but is apropos to faith in Christ.

There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're
interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit.
When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, just results.

Let's commit to serving Christ for His glory and then relish the results!

Godly Success

Our American culture honors success. If you look around success seems to be measured by how many of something you have, how much what you have costs (higher cost items = higher success), how new what you have is, and the ability to have more than what you need. Successful people are both admired and envied by those less successful (because they don’t have all those somethings).

I’m worried and sickened that the same measure of cultural thinking is used to measure success in our churches today. How many people were in worship today…what was the offering today…hey pastor, that sure is some church (building) you’ve got there. Are we measuring success of our churches based on attendance, on the size of our building, on the amount our building cost to build, on the giving potential of the congregation, on the number of programs we offer, on the number of staff the church employs, on the type of coffee we can afford to serve, on the location of our facilities, etc., etc., I think you get the point. From my recent experiences it sure seems to be the case.

How does God determine the church’s success? What would he think about church leadership? What would he consider a healthy church? I cannot speak for God but I can review His word for clues. Let’s consider the following examples of healthy, successful churches:

The first Church, Acts 2:42 – People devoted to being taught, devoted to being together, devoted to eating with each other and devoted to prayer. They cared for one another’s needs, they increased in number not by folks jumping from one church to the next with better programs or newer prettier buildings but they grew in size as people came to faith in Christ and were saved.

Acts 8 – Successful churches will be persecuted for their faith and will preach the gospel no matter where they travel.

Acts 13 – The Church at Antioch – Successful churches understand their mission and believers will be called to go wherever to spread the good news. A successful church is a sending church (not just throwing money at missionaries but actually raising up men, women and children to be sent to the mission field). Oh yea, and they don’t cut their missions giving to make up short falls in other areas.

Romans 1: The Church in Rome – people will talk about the faith of a successful church.

Philippians 2 & 4: The Church at Philip was an obedient Church and a giving Church. Not only do they amply financially support themselves they also give generously to missions.

1st Thessalonians 1: Like the Church at Rome the faith in God that the Thessalonian Church had was so powerful that people all over the region were talking about it. A successful church performs good works produced by faith, they labor and serve prompted by love and they endure all manner of difficulties because their hope is not in cultural successes but their hope is in Jesus Christ.

1st Thessalonians 4: A successful Church like the Thessalonian Church isn’t living to please themselves or to please others but only to please God by living holy lives.

If we are going to be successful in God’s eyes, if our desire is at the end to hear Him say “well done good and faithful servant” then we had better become leaders that lead our congregations to be like the Churches listed above. We need to quit looking inward and look outward. We need to reward the Lord’s servants by encouragement and comforting. We need to lead the Church away from cultural success – bigger, prettier church buildings filled with programs, rock concert equipment, non-offensive sermons, and entertainment minded worship services. We need to lead the Church to live their faith outside of a church building, to love the fellowship of believers, to raise up missionaries, to give generously to people in need, to live lives that only please God and no one else, and devoting themselves to prayer and to being prepared for persecution. That’s God’s mark of success. I want to be a member of that Church! You can keep you’re pretty new buildings and all that other stuff. I don’t want it!

Baby Got Bible

This is a much better version than the secular version...it's too funny...word!

Exercise

Yea, so I'm 41, I'm bald and I'm overweight. I can't do anything about the first two but the last one I'm going to attempt to do something about. I actually ran a little bit (a very little bit) yesterday for the first time in years. I hated going to do it, hated the doing of it, but I was refreshed and felt great afterwards. Today I got suckered into playing softball...haven't done that since I was 19. I actually hit the ball and scored the winning run. Not too shabby for an old, bald, fat man!

Not only am I exercising my body but also my mind. I'm spending time reading the Bible and some commentaries, specifically in 1st Thessalonians. It's good stuff for my thoughts.

Lastly I'm exercising my faith. I'm trusting God for direction in my life, for my purpose and my future. I'm not sure where he will take me but I trust Him.

So exercise is a three part process...one without the other two just won't do!

Obey

In my quiet time this morning I read Deuteronomy Chapter 11. In this chapter God commands the Israelites to “love the lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul”. Simple. To love God and serve him with my whole heart requires a bending of my will (what I want) to His will (what I need). I’ve heard this saying all of my life, “what I want is not always what I need and what I need isn’t always what I want”. I need God thus I must obey.

I suddenly remember an old church hymn, Trust and obey.

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He
sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Refrain
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in
Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly
drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide
while we trust and obey.
Refrain

Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth
richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is
blessed if we trust and obey.
Refrain

But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the
altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for
them who will trust and obey.
Refrain

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we’ll walk by
His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Refrain

The truth of scripture (Deut. 11, John 17, Romans 6) is that if when we
obey God promises his strength, blessings, protection from evil, unity in faith
and purpose, and to lead us into righteousness.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

Uh, Huh Christianity

O.k. I know I've been using YouTube way too much on my last posts but I continue to find things on there that make me muse and are worthy of sharing with you. The latest is about Revival. I've been praying for revival in my community and in the Church for a while now. I will continue to pray until it happens.

The following YouTube post is a little lengthy but give it time....it will cause you think, pray and if you are like me it will give you hope for revival. At about the 16th minute you'll see why I titled this post as Uh, Huh Christianity. Are you an Uh, huh Christian?

Has 20 years really passed since Shine Jesus shine was contemporary?

Check out this video. When I first heard music like this in the Church I was stunned. Gone were the days of using our Hymnals with a piano and organ. This was radical stuff. Of course today we sing some really rockin' worship music that makes this sound like your Grandparents music but it really touched me as I began my journey with Christ. Enjoy!

Newsboys - He Reigns

This is one of my all time favorite songs. I listened to it a lot as I served the Lord in Ghana. Listen to the words, recognize that God Reigns on ALL the Earth and be blessed!

Praise

Psalm 117

Praise the Lord all you nations; extol him, all you
peoples.

For Great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of
the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord.

I’ve been thinking a lot about praise. Do I praise my kids enough, do I praise my coworkers enough, and do I praise my spouse enough? More importantly do I praise God enough? I know the answer…it’s a rhetorical question.

There are over 130 instances in the Bible where praise is mentioned. Praise is defined as “to express a favorable judgment of”; to glorify especially by the attribution of perfections; expression of approval, commendation or admiration.”

Scripture commands us to praise God with our lips and our actions, hmmm. When I visited Ghana I noticed a huge difference between Christians there and here in America. In Ghana they recognized their dependence on God. In America we depend on ourselves, our government, our economy and everyone but God. In Ghana it was common place to hear someone say “Praise God” or “Praise the Lord” or “Thank you Jesus” when they received something of worth. Their first response was to praise God, not the deliverer of the thing of worth but the GIVER of the thing of worth. Because they depend on God they praise him.

So maybe the question is, do I depend on God, have I totally given everything to Him, am I totally sold out for Him and if so won’t the result of that be praise? I want to Praise God more. Scripture commands it.

Praise God for my salvation! Praise God for my family! Praise God for my employers! Praise God for my Church! Praise God for the men and women that give their lives toward full time low pay ministry! Praise God for the men, women and children that have heard the voice of God and have left everything in obedience to serve Him on the mission field! Praise God for people that put reaching people for Christ ahead of their financial gain! Praise God for forgiving me every time I mess up (and it’s frequent)! Praise God because He is God!

I plan to praise God more, not just here on my blog but every where to everyone.

Lord you are my all-in-all, my purpose for existing, my hope for eternity. You are perfect, loving, strong, resolute and faithful. I will praise you to the nations; I will extol you in my life.

Boasting

The Word is sufficient and all my thoughts are worthless. What makes you proud? Your family, job, spouse, house, the Braves, the Falcons, your college sports teams? What are you proud of? Did you know that everyone who spends time with you can tell? If you are with someone long enough you’ll know what they are proud of because at some point they’ll boast about it. I do, you do, we all do. So what do you boast about? You should only be boasting of one thing.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 - "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong
man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who
boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord,
who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I
delight," declares the Lord.

Tragedy

A couple of weeks ago America experienced an “unimaginable” tragedy. One single person shot and murdered 32 innocent people. America was abhorred. You couldn’t escape the hours and hours of news coverage of this terrible occurrence on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

But this isn’t the tragedy I want you to know about. The tragedy in my humble opinion is that America reacted this way when only 32 people were killed. It isn’t my intent to belittle the loss of 32 people. It saddens me to be sure but relatively speaking it was a small number compared with the rest of the world. All over the world in any given day hundreds if not thousands of people die in the most brutal and senseless ways. Uganda, Sudan, Iraq and Darfur are the places we “know” that it exists. In these places men, women and children (not just teens and young adults but small children) are slaughtered in the most horrific of ways, sometimes tortured. Where is America’s day long media attention to these atrocities?

The tragedy is that our news media devoted itself to covering “the story” for 32 people while barely giving a five second or less blip on the screen about the number of lives being lost in the same senseless way all around the world. The tragedy is that this appears to say to the world “we’re better than everyone else”. It appears that we deserve more attention when something of this magnitude happens to us. Check out the following videos but be warned...some of it is graphic and you will be touched!

Joy

Do you ever feel bummed out? I do from time to time. I’ve often wondered why. I’ve been reading the book of Romans in my quiet time recently and camped out this morning in chapter 5. I may be reading chapter 5 for a while. It is so rich with truth and theology and joy!

As I pondered my current feelings I was led to a passage in Mark where Jesus is teaching the Disciples about the stages of faith. He teaches them the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:3-9). In verses 4:13-20 he explains the parable to them. For many weeks I’ve felt like the “seed that fell among thorns” in that I have allowed the worries of life, deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things to come in and choke out my faith leaving me unfruitful. I’ve been so preoccupied with my perceived “problems” that I’ve lost sight of what should bring me joy.

Romans 5:2-3 says …and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not
only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering
produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Let that sink in a moment. We should rejoice, be full of joy because of wealth, health, social status, our great family’s, our spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, new car, new house, retirement portfolio, our church, our pastor, our nation, our customers, our successes, the sports team we cheer for, our children’s extracurricular activity or our education level. NO! That is not what brings us joy or should make us rejoice! We have joy in the hope of the glory of God. Only God’s glory is everlasting. Only God’s glory will cause us to live forever. Only God’s glory is worthy of our attention and our hope. Not the other things. The other things are what Christ taught will choke out our witness of His glory and make us unfruitful.

Well, I know what I need to let go of and cling to so that I’m a fruitful follower of Christ. How about you? What’s causing you to feel bummed out that you need to let go of and let God deal with?

Compassion

I’ve been preparing for our small group study. We will be studying Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The whole letter speaks to me at various levels but Colossians 3:12 really snagged me.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

I could write a lengthy summary of this verse but I don’t want to lose you. The thing that really spoke to me is “compassion” and this idea of “clothing yourself”. What does it mean? Well, clothe is a verb which means it requires action. Webster defines clothe as “to cover with” or “to provide with”. Paul is saying to us, cover yourself with compassion. Just as you would dress yourself you are to take action and be compassionate. It is something you do, not something you are.

So what then is compassion?

Webster defines compassion as “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress
together with a desire to alleviate it”.

Wow, that means we don’t just sit around and feel sorry for the unsaved, for the poor, for widows, for orphans or for any other ungodly injustice. We do something about it.

And there is the problem. It’s the doing! As believers we have received the greatest gift of all; grace.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith
– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no
one can boast”. But James 2:19 & 20 points out “…Show me your faith
without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do…You foolish man, do you
want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?”

We are saved by faith alone but it is not a faith that is alone. Faith leads to deeds (works). Compassion isn’t what we feel, it’s what we do. Believer, who will you show compassion today? I implore you to do something with your faith. Don’t keep it to yourself. That’s called greed. We all need to break out of our worldly cocoon and act.