How Your Life Must Also Be Your Mission
October 31, 2012 
            

        “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news    of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness . . . Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."     Matthew 9:35-38  

 

Janitors or cafeteria workers employed by Wycliffe Bible Translators in Orlando, when asked what they do for a living, answer “we translate the Bible”.    

Similarly I think you and I, when asked what we do for a living, should be able to say to ourselves, “I seek to connect others to Jesus”.    I can do this as a carpenter, parent, coach, secretary, scientist, or business person.   You and I can do this by simply having eyes for people.   We can notice the others in our environment.   We can care.   We can initiate interactions and when spoken to we can listen, really listen.  And we can pray. 

Once, when Jesus was touched, he felt power go out of him.   We I care about another, listen, and pray, the power of God that resides within me goes out to the other and begins it’s transforming work . . . .simply because you connected, you became a conductor of God’s healing Spirit.    This very simple action is powerful but rare.  

This week do with a few what is rare.   Seek to care, listen to, and pray for the others God puts in your path. 

“Care, Listen, and pray” Lord lead me beyond myself this week to exactly that.   Amen”

Giving to God

 



From the early days of the Old Testament, God’s people observed the practice of giving some portion of the best of what they had to God. In the beginning, the practice was to burn these offerings completely, saving no portion of the offering for food for themselves or others. This was a way of saying, “God, I give this to you, and it’s all yours.” In later times, the people would bring their offerings to the priests and offer them to God for the work of the temple and the priesthood.

A gift offered to God was called the first fruits or the tithe, and it equaled one-tenth of one’s flocks or crops or income. Abraham was the first to give a tithe or tenth. After victory in battle, Abraham took ten percent of the spoils of war and gave them to the priest-king Melchizedek for God’s glory (Genesis 14:17-24). Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, whose name also was Israel, made a covenant with God that included giving one-tenth of all he had to God.

In the time of Moses, the tithe was codified in the law. God claimed one-tenth of the best the people had. Before giving to the poor and taking care of themselves, they were to bring one-tenth of their first fruits to God.

Leviticus 27:30 says, “All tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the Lord’s; they are holy to the Lord.” Whether it was produce of the ground of the offspring of the flocks, the first tenth was holy to the Lord.

As Christians who live under the new covenant, we know that we are not bound by the law of Moses. Rather, we look to it as a guide. What, then, does God expect of us today regarding the tithe? Most Christians agree that the tithe is still a good guideline for our lives, and one that is pleasing to God.

(I’ll explore the idea of tithing further in my next post.)

(adapted from Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity)

Four Spiritual Action Steps  

     Determine what % of your gross income you currently give God.
     Find a way to increase that percentage.  Discuss this with your family.
     As you do, note your feelings, thoughts and attitudes.  What do you notice?
     Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, 9:6-15

As you do each of the above, the Lord will be revealing things to you about Himself and yourself!.  What are you discovering?  

The Kingdom
October 26, 2012



                                                                                  Luke 4:38-44(NIV)  

Pop  Quiz             What topic did Jesus talk about and teach far and away
                              more often than any other topic?  

Answer                 See verse 43  

Jesus’ one theme in his up to three years of ministry was The Kingdom of God.   What does that mean?

First, this Kingdom has a King.   Even though each of us feels like we live in our own little worlds, we don’t.  We actually live in God’s Kingdom ruled by God Himself.

So, what is his Kingdom like?   It is that place that remains after Jesus has performed what we call a miracle, but from His perspective is a Kingdom building exercise where he takes on more step toward“ setting the world to rights”, free from evil, sickness and sin”.    He begins to “fix” the broken world we live in.   He heals the sick, he confronts evil, he casts out demonic powers and he “threatens” the religious elitists who are in power.   He calls them hypocrites and tells them that God will bring them down if they don’t repent.

Jesus heals because he loves people.   But more than that that Jesus’ miracles are signs, foretastes, mini-pictures of the day that Heaven comes to earth in the great merger/marriage which will produce the New Creation.

“Behold, I am making all things new,”  said Jesus in Revelation 21:5

Notice vs. 42.   If we follow Jesus we would do well to see this inward/outward rhythm in his life.   He moves from exhausting ministry to empowering prayer in silence and solitude and back again. 

“Lord, forgive me for living as if you are not king and as if someone else is running the world.   Help me to see every healing, every escape from danger, every good thing on planet earth, every act of grace as having come directly from your powerful, healing, rectifying and reconciling hand.  Amen”  

Jesus and Evil Spirits
October 24, 2012 
        

Then Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice,

"Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!"

"Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!"

           Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring
            him. ³⁶ All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching?
           With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!" ³⁷ And
           the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.  Luke 4:31-37(NIV)  

 

When the Rabbis taught they supported every statement with quotations. They always said, "There is a saying that . . ." "Rabbi so and so said that ..." They always appealed to authority. When the prophets spoke, they said, "Thus saith the Lord." Theirs was a delegated authority. When Jesus spoke, he said, "I say to you." Jesus didn’t do either.   He acted as if He was God! 

This is astonishing.    It meant that Jesus was either a megalomaniac or that he really was speaking as “authority” incarnate.   Jesus was speaking as God Himself which forces those who heard him 2,000 years ago and those of us who hear him today to make a decision:   is he God, or is he megalomaniacally crazy, or was he just lying?

As for me I have concluded after much study that demonic powers do exist in the world and that they can wreak havoc in individual persons and in societies.  I also believe that modern medicine and even some aspects of modern psychology offer certain forms of relief from some manifestations of evil.   However, in order to be truly free, in order for a full cure to take hold, in order to experience the fullness of  life in God, one must go to the one and only cure from the darkness of demonic powers, and that is the Light.

Jesus still drives out demons.    In fact demonic powers of darkness cannot survive in the presence of God.   So how does one get “delivered”?   The place to start and the place to finish are the same place.   Be where Jesus is.  And where you find him in the Bible is two places:   in worship and in serving wherever there is a need.   

Finally, just ask.   List your “demons”. Confess them.   Then ask Jesus to set you free.   It may hurt and it may take time and you will need friends.   But if you ask believing and don’t quit, you will meet the healing power of Jesus.

“Lord, you are the great physician, the great healer, the Creator of the universe, the Sustainer of all that is and you are also a Father who loves me.   Lord I give you my hurts, hang ups, all my demons and ask you to heal me.   Amen”

Good News to One is not Good News to All



 “Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. ¹⁷ The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Then he rolled up the scroll, . .sat down . . . and he began by  . . "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.

 But others asked, "Isn't this Joseph's son?" Jesus said to them, ". . . there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian."

The people in the synagogue were furious when they heard Jesus (affirming the non Jewish Naaman over his own people) ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.                                         Luke 4:16-30  

 

What is good news to one is often not good news to another.   To those who were poor, or were prisoners or blind or oppressed, Jesus’ coming was great news.   To those who had something to lose, Jesus’ coming was bad news.  

In the Nazareth Synagogue the community leaders rightly noticed that when they tried to put him in his place Jesus came back at them comparing them to the “too proud for God” Israelites in Elijah’s day who were too hard hearted for God do any good work in them.  So they tried to get rid of him.   But they couldn’t.  

Throughout history there have always been Christians who have tried to free themselves from the Jesus of the Bible in order to preserve their own status quo in life.   How long did it take for Jesus to be heard on the issue of slavery?  

In what area of life are you and I prone to “push aside” the Jesus of the Bible in favor of maintaining a life that doesn’t want to be changed?

Lord, it must have been quite a scene.  All the religious leaders loving Jesus words of comfort for the poor, but hating his words of challenge to the comfortable.   Lord it seems you have come to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.    Yet both are expressions of your love.  Amen”

                                       Everything Belongs to God



In a previous post, I wrote about cultivating spiritual growth, and subsequently, generosity. As the Holy Spirit continues to work in our lives, we will notice changes in our attitudes and beliefs about giving, such as:

• We think less about ourselves and more about others.
• When we see the needs of others, we wonder, If I don’t do something, who will?
• We discover that we find more joy in doing things for other people and for God than we ever did in doing things for ourselves.

Through these truths, we begin to embrace the larger spiritual realization and theological foundation for generosity:

Life is a gift, and everything belongs to God.

God says it this way in the Book of Leviticus: “The land is mine . . . you are but aliens and tenants” (25:23). Isn’t that interesting? We are tenants on God’s land. We are managers of God’s resources—both the natural resources of our planet and the things that we have.

In the Book of Genesis, God created Adam and Eve, put them in the midst of the garden, and said, “Now, be fruitful and multiply and oversee this planet. It’s mine, and I’m asking you to take care of it on my behalf” (Genesis 1:28, my paraphrase). We are stewards of the blessings of God, and our goal is to determine what God wants us to do with the resources we have at our disposal.

Obviously, many of our resources go to take care of our needs. Certainly God expects us to have shelter and to eat and to take care of our children. So, a large portion of what we have is to be used for those things. God also wants us to enjoy our lives, not to live in poverty. Nevertheless, God expects us to do more than focus only on ourselves.

So the Scriptures teach us that we are to help the poor and give to those in need; and when we do, we are blessed. The Scriptures also teach us that we are to return a portion of our livelihood to God.

(adapted from Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity)

Four Spiritual Action Steps

Determine what % of your gross income you currently give God.
Find a way to increase that percentage. Discuss this with your family.
As you do, note your feelings, thoughts and attitudes. What do you notice?
Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, 9:6-15

As you do each of the above, the Lord will be revealing things to you about Himself and yourself! What are you discovering?

       

Water to Wine
October 19, 2012



 

Remember that each of the four Gospel writers write their stories not as a modern journalist with objective distance.  Instead they write with lots of symbolism, meaning and purpose behind each thing they record.   Here there are 6 stone water jars.  The number six symbolizes imperfection.  Also the amount of wine that would have amounted to was far more than anyone could drink.  John is saying in this first miracle that Jesus can take any imperfection turn it into something far more wonderful than we can imagine.   

The Greeks had stories and legends like this written about their gods.  It is as if John is saying, the reality to which your legends have pointed is actually here!  Jesus is actually doing the things that you only dreamed that your gods could do.    Stop majoring on the things that point to God.  Instead you can now meet God himself.   He’s come to you.  You need not aspire to him.  

If you do put your trust and faith in Jesus, you’ll be amazing beyond anything you can imagine. You life will be like the water.  Over time it will be turned into the best wine.  But it will take time.   

It occurs to me that this miracle tells us exactly what Jesus wants to do with each of us.   But the way he does it in each of us is over time, including a lot of trampling of the grapes!  

Can you tell stories about how Jesus has turned you, an imperfect creation, in some way shape or form into a little bit of wine?  

Lord, far too often I focus on the trampling of the “grapes of my life”.   They feel more like grapes of wrath rather than the production of good wine.   Help me Lord to know that everything that happens to me in this life is being used by you create out of me “good
wine” which can be used for the sake of others.  Amen”    

     October 17, 2012     

      "Jesus said, "I AM the Messiah!"

      Just then his disciples came back.They were shocked to find him talking to a woman . . .
      (she) ran back to the village, telling everyone, 'Come and see' . . . Meanwhile, the
      disciples were urging Jesus, 'Rabbi, eat something.'

     But Jesus replied, 'I have a kind of food you know nothing about.'. . . .'My nourishment
     comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. . . . wake up
     and look around.  The fields are already ripe for harvest. . .and the fruit. . .is people
     brought to eternal life.  What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike . . . .I
     sent you to harvest. . . .'"     John 4:26-38 

    When Jesus said “I have food you know nothing about”, I think I know a little bit about
    what he was talking about.   When he said, “my food is doing the will of God”, I get it.  

    In the Bible, rewards are not external things like trophies or pay raises for doing
    something really well.   Trophies, pay raises end up in the attic and the money runs out.   
    BUT the rewards that are intrinsic to the action never run out.   The true rewards of loving
    someone else are had within the act of loving.   The true rewards of doing something well
    are in the doing the thing well.

     For me the reward of being a harvester, someone who helps others to come to Christ as
     their Lord and Savior, are in the harvesting.   When I see another person come alive in
     Christ, I gain nothing material but everything spiritual.   Can you imagine how thrilled

     Jesus must have been to see what happened in Samaria?     

     “What joy awaits both the planter and harvester alike”.  What joy awaits both God and
     you. if you are willing to reach out to those far from God so that they can come to know
     him.  

      In what ways are you reaching out to others as a harvester for Jesus?  

     “Lord, forgive me for ignoring your call to invite others into your kingdom.   I’ve found it
     much too easy to be consumed with myself instead others whom you yearn to see in
     your forever family.   This week I will invite someone, or pray for someone, or listen to
     someone.   Prompt me Lord out of my debilitating complacency which all too often masks
     itself as busy-ness.   Amen”

                                                  A Risky Power 
                                                                         October 16, 2012

 John (the disciple, not John “the baptizer”) tells us how the “church” began to form.   It happened initially through simple, simple relationship connections and invitation.   Two young men (one of whom was John himself which is why have this story) were curious about Jesus so Jesus invited them hang out with him.   It must have been a good day because the other young man, Andrew nvited his brother Peter to join them.   Philip and Nathaniel follow.     

We read phrases like, “come and see” and “follow me”.   After all these years of being a Christian I am finding the Christian life to be both much simpler and much harder.    

The “simpler” part is that I can’t think of a better practical definition of the Christian Life than
"following Jesus”.    Jesus started off by simply inviting others to spend time with him.    

But it’s not simple, is it?   It has a cost.   It costs time and who has time for another person in your life, right?  It is also a risk.   What if your hanging out with someone has the obvious motive behind it of converting that person to Christianity and “getting them saved”?  No one wants to be your “salvation project”.  There is also the further risk that revealing your faith to another person will cost you status and acceptance and respect among colleagues who do not respect your faith position.   Sometimes it can even cost you your job.   This danger will only increase.  

Risk is unavoidable.   One thing we can do is to befriend others simply with the desire to love and serve, regardless of the outcome of their faith.   That way our time with them is not tied to “results”.   In terms of risk in the workplace, well that’s hard.   How to be a bridge for unbelieving colleagues to the gospel requires a lot of discernment and, yes, risk.   I suspect that risk will increase with each passing year.  

“Lord please help me to be an Andrew.   Help me to be lovingly and respectfully exuberant  about the life you have given me to live and about the possibility that exists for others to have it to.  Help me to live a life that opens others to you because they notice your love for them through me.  Amen”

 

 

 

         

Created to Give; Tempted to Keep

 



God created each of us with the willingness to give—to God and to others. We’re hard-wired to be givers; we need to be generous. Yet there are two “voices” that war against our God-given impulse toward generosity, tempting us to keep or hoard what we have.

1. Fear

The voice of fear says, “If you give, there may not be enough left over for you.” We are afraid to be generous because we are afraid of what might happen to us. What if we don’t have enough to fill the gas tank or buy groceries or pay the bills?

This voice may have been particularly loud and convincing during the last couple of years, as many of us have been unemployed and watched property values decline. I have friends and family members who have endured financial hardship lately.

But I must implore you to not give fear the power to eliminate generosity from your life. Fear, along with a misplaced idea about the true source of our security, can keep us from being generous and lead us to hoard what we have. Yet the truth is that hoarding offers us no real security in this world.

2. Self-gratification

The voice of self-gratification says, “If you give, you won’t have enough money to buy the stuff you need to make you happy.”

I don’t have to tell you that we live in a culture that prizes abundance of possessions and pleasurable experiences above all else. We are convinced that a new car or a bigger house will make us happy. Giving away our money means that we won’t have enough to buy the latest and greatest electronic toy or take a lavish vacation. We don’t want to “miss out” or deprive ourselves, so our self-gratifying tendencies cause us to clutch our money tightly.

So, how do we defeat the voices of fear and self-gratification?

In a sense, they are defeated the moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Although we still may wrestle with the voices from time to time, we are able to silence them more readily and effectively the more we grow in Christ.

And the more we grow in Christ, the more generous we become. One of the ways we can cultivate spiritual growth, and subsequently grow in generosity, is to realize that our entire lives belong to the Lord. Here’s a simple prayer I use that helps me commit all of my life to Christ:

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rand me with whom thou wilt;
Put me to doing, put me to suffering;
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
Exalted for thee or brought low for thee;
Let me be full, let me be empty;
Let me have all things, let me have nothing;
I freely and heartily yield all things to they pleasure and disposal. . . . Amen.

—“A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition” in The United Methodist Hymnal

(adapted from Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity)

Four Spiritual Action Steps

     Determine what % of your gross income you currently give God.
     Find a way to increase that percentage.  Discuss this with your family.
     As you do, note your feelings, thoughts and attitudes.  What do you notice?
     Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, 9:6-15

As you do each of the above, the Lord will be revealing things to you about Himself and yourself!  What are you discovering?  

The Temptation to Compromise  
October 12, 2012

       

        Now Satan, the tempter, says, “compromise”!!   Stop setting your standard so high!   Don’t be
       such a nit-picker.   Adjust to the realities of the world and you’ll be just fine.  In fact you’ll
       succeed! 

       Have you ever tried to advance in your world by retreating from God, to try to change the world
       by becoming like the world?

       Jesus was certain that we can never defeat evil by compromising with evil. He laid down the
       uncompromising nature of the Christian faith. Christianity cannot stoop to the level of the
       world; it must lift the world to its own level. Nothing less will do.  

       It’s the old question.   Are a thermometer which measures how much of the world  you reflect. 
       Or are you a thermostat which sets the spiritual temperature of your immediate world?

       So Jesus made his decision. He decided that he must never “bribe” others to win them over. 
       He decided that the way of impressing others was not for him.  He decided that there could be
       no compromise in the way he lived his life.   Those choices inevitably meant the Cross--but
       Christianity proclaims Easter, a final victory that those who bribe, impress, and compromise may
       never see.  

       “Lord, thank you so much for reminding us of Satan’s ways, for the reminder that Satan is an
       “angel of light” looking good at first, but who’s ways seek to lead us into the pit of Hell.  Amen”

 The Temptation to Impress  
October 10, 2012

     The temptation to win over people by impressing them wears off quickly.  Why?  Every parent
     knows that the more you impress your children with thrills, experiences, flash gifts, the less
     impressed they are with each new things.  Same with adults.  We get dulled by the "more." This
     year's sensation is next year's commonplace.  Jesus knew all this which is why he wouldn't
     major in miracles to convince people to follow him.

     He also knew that the way to "prove God" is not to test Him.  God never suggests using his power
     to put ourselves into a threatening situation expecting his miraculous rescue.  Missionaries did
     not risk their lives expecting to be saved, rather they expected those they reached to be saved. 
     In that way we do take risks for God, not for our own prestige but for the sake of God.  But a faith
     that depends on signs and wonders is not faith.  A faith that cannot believe without them is not
     faith.  It is doubt looking for proof in the wrong places.

     Do you seek the signs of God or God himself?  Do you seek to serve others in power of the spirit
     or do you petition God to serve you?  do you look for signs to prove to you that God is in this or
     in that, or do you trust, and discern and believe and walk in faith?

 

     "Lord, I will choose this day to simply trust your being at work in my world today.  I will act on
     this trust but refusing to blame, manipulate through words, bending of the truth, shortcuts or
     anything else that would come from my attempts to get what I want in some other way other
     than trusting you. Amen”