Trust in the Slow Work

Excerpt from Ian Morgan Cron post:  One of the Greatest Prayers of All Time?

...

This is one of my favorites from the brilliant Jesuit, Fr Teilhard de Chardin. If you have a favorite prayer that “says clearly what you always felt clearly” share it.





Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We would like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet, it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability -
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually – let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time,
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming in you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

Vast Ocean of Glory

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

SILENCED BY GLORY
 
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.  Romans 3:19

            The radiance of God's glory is veiled even though so many of His children, including me, ask everyday, "Show me your glory today."  I've seen enough of it to change my heart but the amount I have seen is a grain of sand in the vast ocean of glory.  What happens when God shows His face and gives more than a small dose?  Apparently, silence.
            Job was silenced in his accusations when God became present and started asking him questions.
            Isaiah was silenced when He saw God in all of His glory.  Immediately, he pronounced himself unclean.
            Habakkuk tried to speak and nothing came out.
            John, as well as he knew Jesus, saw him in his glorified state and fell as dead at His feet.  Jesus had to touch him and bring life back to John's body.
            One day, all of us will stand before God.  We will see him in all of His glory.  It won't be the same as standing before human judges.  There, we are often acquitted, even though guilty.  Our judges are fallen and we grow cynical of earthly laws and their consequences when we are tempted to discount those in higher authority.
            The most eloquent will be silenced on the day they see God.  He who has been self-impressed, insistent that his good deeds outweigh his bad deeds and are enough to earn him a place in heaven, will tremble and lose his voice in the presence of holiness.  Even the most faithful of God's children will bow low in humility.  God is more glorious than any human description; more holy than flawed people can even conceive.
            As a fallen woman, I can not imagine what perfection is like.  For now, I see glimpses of Him and it stirs me to worship and defer my will to His.  Since I was created to worship and to love God, this is the most exhilarating experience I will ever know in this lifetime.  Any of Satan's counterfeits pale in comparison.

Let me see as much of Your glory as I can see and live.  Please, Lord. Amen

Simplicity of Dependence

Miscellanies post:  A Word to Profs, Preachers, and Writers

From the Letters of John Newton (Banner of Truth, 1869/2007), page 364:

I believe the liveliest grace and the most solid comfort are known among the Lord’s poor and undistinguished people. Every outward advantage has a tendency to nourish the pride of the human heart, and requires a proportional knowledge of the deceitful self and the evil of sin to counterbalance them. It is no less difficult to have great abilities than great riches without trusting in them. …

If I were qualified to search out the best Christian in the kingdom, I should not expect to find him either in a professor’s chair or in a pulpit. I should give the palm [prize] to that person who had the lowest thoughts of himself, and the most admiring and cordial thoughts of the Savior. And perhaps this person may be some bedridden old man or woman, or a pauper in a parish workhouse. But our regard to the Lord is not to be measured by our sensible feelings, by what we can say or write, but rather by the simplicity of our dependence, and the uniform tenor of our obedience to his will.

A History

Excerpt from Kevin DeYoung Grumblers in the Refining Fire

You have wearied the Lord with your words. (Malachi 2:17)

God’s people have a history of grumbling. Things were no different in Malachi’s day. In this fourth argument, the people voiced two main grumbles against God. “First, Lord, you’re treating the bad guys like the good guys. Second, you’re sitting in heaven doing nothing when you should come and judge the wicked.” They wanted the God of the ten plagues and Mt. Carmel to zap their enemies. It’s not that they were consumed with zeal for the Lord’s glory. They just wanted their problems to go away. So they grumbled.

We are grumblers too. We’re too busy, too bored, we don’t have enough money, we’re not appreciated, we don’t like our church, our sports teams stink, we don’t look good, don’t feel good, we’re too skinny, too fat, too short, too tall, our clothes are worn out, our car’s a lemon, we’re single and we wish were married, we’re married and we wish we had kids, we have kids and we wish we could be single again. We moan and murmur like a whiney two year old.

But God calls us to patience and longsuffering. And he calls us to confidence too. When we are assured that God is working all things according to his good purpose, we are freed to “do everything without grumbling or complaining” (Philippians 2:14).

...

So Gracious and Generous

But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I'm not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven't I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work didn't amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it.

1 Cor 15:10 [Message]

Life-Giving Explosion

Ray Ortlund post:  A kind of explosion of joy

“There has been a long tradition which sees the mission of the Church primarily as obedience to a command.  It has been customary to speak of ‘the missionary mandate.’  This way of putting the matter is certainly not without justification, and yet it seems to me that is misses the point.  It tends to make mission a burden rather than a joy, to make it part of the law rather than part of the gospel.  If one looks at the New Testament evidence one gets another impression.  Mission begins with a kind of explosion of joy.  The news that the rejected and crucified Jesus is alive is something that cannot possibly be suppressed.  It must be told.  Who could be silent about such a fact?  The mission of the Church in the pages of the New Testament is more like the fallout from a vast explosion, a radioactive fallout which is not lethal but life-giving.”

Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids, 1989), page 116.

The mission of the church is inseparable from the renewal of the church.

Lion's Den

Excerpts from Ed Stetzer:  Leadership Book Interview with Tom Harper

ES: You recently published Leading from the Lions' Den. Why another leadership book? How is it different from other books on the same subject?

TH: The business and leadership books that have impacted me the most actually teach concepts from the Bible. For example, the works of John Maxwell, Ken Blanchard, Jim Collins and others have sold in the tens of millions. I read Maxwell and Blanchard for years and never knew about their Christian backgrounds nor how heavily they drew from the Bible. Jim Collins' Level 5 Leader matches the description of Jesus in many ways. So I thought, why not go to the source and pull out more of this material and not be quiet about where it came from?

Several years ago I led a study on the book of Proverbs and probably learned more than the other guys in the group. The practical insights and bullet-point wisdom were astounding. As I looked through the rest of the Bible for similar insights, I was overwhelmed at the volume of practical information. There is so much in those ancient pages that is still waiting to be discovered! I want to open the eyes of leaders in the church and the marketplace to these riches.

ES: Why do you use the term "lions' den"?

TH: I call leadership a lions' den because many people watch leaders stumble, take hits, deal with conflict, deflect criticism, or fail, and they simply step away to watch what the leader will do. Sort of like spectators watching to see if you'll survive the gladiator pit.

We're all surrounded by challenging people and situations. Conflict, pain, arguing, lack of excellence and laziness often make the leader's job hard. Also, leaders deal with the stuff no one else wants to deal with - they must break up fights, absorb criticism, deflect cynicism, and feed people's hunger for fulfillment. And they must do it with the confident smile of a lion tamer.

The Bible offers all kinds of advice and examples on how to successfully lead while in the midst of the lions. Most people have heard of Daniel and the Lions' Den, so we chose to refer to it in the title. Plus, Daniel's trip to the den is a great example of leadership under fire.

ES: What is the most valuable leadership principle you are applying in your life currently to keep you on mission with God's kingdom?

TH: The chapter I wrote about Esther, which I call "Expect 50 Answers When You Ask Why," has helped me deal with daily chaos and unpredictability. Esther couldn't see God working in the moment, when the odds kept stacking against her. And yet at the end of the story, we see how the unmistakable hand of God had directed the people and circumstances that led the salvation of Esther and her family, not to mention her entire people. This long-range perspective helps me see how my life can be God's movement in this world, no matter what's going on around me right now.

Level 5

Excerpts from CT Good to Great's Leadership Model Looks Familiar to Christians

Good to Great has struck a nerve with Christian leaders, who have latched on to your concept of Level 5 Leadership. Were you surprised by what your results showed about leadership?

I am delighted that so many people in the Christian community resonate with the Level 5 concept. They probably feel tension between the brutal competitiveness of the outside world and their inner faith and being a type of person that the New Testament calls you to be. If you thought you had to be an anti-level 5 to be successful, but now you find this evidence that your instincts were right all along, that can be powerful.

I should point out that we were not looking for Level 5. This is very important. I really dislike leadership answers, I'm biased against them, and I didn't want to write about leadership. I certainly wasn't looking for leaders like this. Our findings were a complete shock, and to see that these were the distinguishing type of leaders was out of left field and remarkable.

The kind of leaders who took companies from good to great match up with the findings of the great leaders of the world religions. That gives it so much power. It would be one thing if I came from that point of view to begin with. But I didn't believe this would be true, and yet the evidence led us to it. In the big picture, it makes sense. You would hope that in some rational way that the universe works, the findings would map with the teachings of great world religions. But I see that now in retrospect. Therefore, as a result, I'm that much more influenced by the findings.

What are the typical barriers to becoming a Level 5 leader?

The question regarding Level 5 is, which side is harder for you? The humility or the will? The magic of Level 5 is the combination of the two, not just one or the other. One side is usually harder for people than the other. Sometimes it takes brutally hard decisions to be Level 5. What if Abraham Lincoln could not stomach the consequences of his being Level 5, which was to endure five years of the bloodiest conflict so that our nation could live? Would you do whatever is needed for the cause?

If your struggle is on humility side, have people track your questions-to-statements ratio. You should see that ratio go up over time. Another thing is to really practice the discipline of the window and the mirror. Give credit to people outside the window and look at the mirror when things go wrong. As for the will: when you come to a fork in the road, one side is about being comfortable, and the other is about the cause, or the mission, or the work. You know that the best thing for the cause is to go one way, but the more comfortable decision for you is to step right. The key is to try to keep increasing your tendency to step left.

Seeking God

Life Today | James Robison Weekly Commentary

When Praying, Listen
by James Robison

God has not only called me to preach, He has called me to prayer. It is important to note that Jesus commanded His disciples to preach, but He taught them to pray. The ministry God gave me was birthed and bathed in prayer and I am grateful that millions have heard the Gospel proclaimed and professed their faith in Christ.

But even while blessed in my ministry, I found myself out of the will of God. I was too busy preaching to spend necessary and important time in prayer. I once foolishly and almost arrogantly responded to a sincere woman’s question, “When you travel and preach so many places so many times a day, how do you have time to pray?” I looked at her and said, “I preach you pray!”

How sad. I had lost intimacy with God. I had unwittingly left my first love. I was burnt out, burned up and defeated. God in His grace broke my heart. I missed intimacy with Jesus. I am so grateful that 30 years ago the Lord accomplished a marvelous work of deliverance and fullness to restore me to my first love. Jesus made me a servant to others to ministers, missionaries, the church and the suffering around the world.

In the last two years, God has called me to meditate on His Word, research history and spend much time in prayer. When I pray, most of my time is spent primarily seeking to hear God’s heart. In my weekly commentaries and through the LIFE Today television program, I have been sharing the impressions, concerns and directions He has given me while praying. Hopefully you can hear God’s heart with supernatural enabling through what I share.

In this commentary and for the next few weeks, I will communicate the impressions and messages that come as I seek to know the mind of God. It will be up to you, along with me and other godly counselors I consult, to discern if what I hear is His heart and His word. I find what I hear consistent with scripture. If I could not, I would seriously question what I heard or thought I heard. Keep in mind, when we pray, we seek insight, instruction, wisdom and divine guidance related to every aspect of life. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice,” and I believe Him.

As I have prayed and listened, these are impressions that came to my mind:

I can be an answer and help others be an answer to Jesus’ prayers. It is important even imperative that we seek to become one with the Father’s heart just as Jesus was. Our Lord did not pray amiss. It is possible! As Christians we can be perfected in supernatural unity and heart harmony.
Love never fails, but is seldom fully received or freely released. Its eternal effect is not always revealed within our expected time frame. Last week the Spirit of God overwhelmed me as I sensed His joy over the possibility of believers coming together to put His arms around a suffering world.

During the past 12 months, God has made it very clear to me that our nation stumbles because the church slumbers. Our national freedom will be lost if Christians do not allow God in His power to set them free from the bondage of this present world and become light piercing the darkness and helping illuminate the way to restore freedom’s foundation. Only an act of God can give elected representatives the dedication, determination, tenacity and wisdom to hammer out the details necessary to correct national problems related to taxation, immigration, the economy, national security, social concerns, injustice and lawlessness.

Idolatry is the issue. Individually and nationally the first of the Ten Commandments is too freely cast aside. God is not first for many church goers, professing Christians or citizens of the United States, even as they carry money with “In God We Trust” written on it. All who hold to idols are fellowshipping with demons. Idolaters are jerked around like puppets on strings. Who is pulling the strings of your heart? Who is farming the field of your life?

Money is not our problem; the love of money is the problem. This leads to all manner of evil expressions and foolish trust in false gods. The fertile field of opportunity and freedom is not the problem. The farmer who does not understand that his own life is to be God’s cultivated field and His fruitful garden is the problem. We must give God the field of our lives and let Him root out any weeds that can hinder fruitfulness. God wants us to be rooted and grounded in love. He wants believers to be fruitful and multiply His blessings.

Government is not God and must never be presented as all-provident or foolishly perceived as such. Once God is not first and the primary pursuit of our heart, we will foolishly look to inappropriate sources and ineffective solutions. It is a crime to allow children to think anyone owes them a life or a living. There is not an affective charitable act on this planet apart from compassion in action hands out, not just hand-outs.

I will close with this clear and startling image: When I witnessed the rage and riots in Greece, God spoke to my heart very clearly: “What you see is a microcosm of what will happen here in the United States if we do not see a return to God and a spiritual awakening within the church. Businesses and corporations will be attacked and ransacked. Normal activity will be disrupted. Perceived luxury items (cars and houses) subject to damage. Anything giving the appearance of success or prosperity will be damaged. Darkness will prevail spiritually and energy sources will be short-circuited. Communication lines will be severed. All this organized by evil factions who are controlled by the powers of darkness and who are the enemies of liberating truth and true freedom.” God forbid that Islamic extremists should get their hands on nuclear weapons. The former Soviet threat pales in comparison with what these radicals desire to unleash on the United States and our allies.

Misguided media and manipulators of people will place blame on and accuse those who have dared to proclaim the truth as being a major cause of the riotous acts. People who are filled with love, compassion and truth will be blamed for the despicable acts perpetrated by those who seek to bring the United States and free nations under their control.

The only possibility of preventing such actions will be the love and power of God released through the people of faith. There will be no healthy redirection of this nation apart from God’s wisdom along with the influence and the bold witness of Spirit-filled God-loving Christians. The government and Marshall Law will not be adequate. God is the answer and His love expressed freely through His people is the only way to miss what will surely come our way apart from repentance and the return to truth and to the God of our fathers. Consider Nineveh! Repentance offers hope.

I have been sharing and will continue to share the impressions I have while praying and seeking God’s will with all my heart.  When you spend much time with someone and get to know them well, it’s amazing how clearly you hear and recognize their voice.  Because I do hear God’s heart, I am unable to hold back the release of the river of love, truth and concern that fills my heart to overflowing.

God has not just given me a sermon, He has given me a message. A sermon is often about something, but a message is to someone. A sermon is heard, but a message must be heeded. Sermons are preached. Messages are delivered. There is a difference. The latter demands a response and calls for immediate, appropriate action. As with hearing God, messages from Him will always be in perfect harmony with the Word of God.

The invitation of Jesus to come as little chicks to the shelter and shadow of His covering is the image I keep seeing and the clear word that I keep hearing. He offered this invitation while praying over Jerusalem and He could see clearly the coming desolation because God’s Word through the prophets had been spurned. If Christians will pray and listen and then stand boldly and fearlessly, faith and freedom will prevail. I am praying continually, “Oh Lord, let us hear and respond to Your invitation and not experience the desolation that can be avoided through your grace and our response to Your heart and Your Word.”

Radical Joy

Excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian post:  Suffering Does Not Rob You Of Joy - Idolatry Does

Job’s maintained his joy and perspective in a season of suffering because he held onto a robust theology of grace. Job knew that he was not entitled to anything he had—God held the title to everything. He knew that everything he had was on loan from God—he understood he was an owner of nothing and a steward of everything. So he was able to say, “I came with nothing from the womb; I go with nothing to the tomb. God gave me children freely then, He took them to himself again. At last I taste the bitter rod, my wise and ever blessed God” (John Piper). While he loved his health and children and reputation and wealth, he didn’t locate his identity in those things.

This clearly shows that if the foundation of your identity is your things—the thing that makes me who I am is this position, these relationships, having this name, having this  money, and so on—then suffering will be pulling you away from the uttermost foundations of your joy, and that will make you mad, bitter, and sad. But if your identity is anchored in Christ, so that you are able to say, “Everything I need I already possess in Him”, then suffering drives you deeper into your source of joy. Suffering, in other words, shows us where we are locating our identity. Suffering reveals what we’re building our life on and what we’re depending on to make life worth living.

This means that suffering itself does not rob you of joy—idolatry does. If you’re suffering and you’re angry, bitter, and joyless it means you’ve idolized–and felt entitled to–whatever it is you’re losing. Entitlement and self-pity stem from our belief that we deserve more than what we’re getting–love, attention, respect, approval. The gospel, however, frees us to revel in our expendability! The gospel alone provides us with the foundation to maintain radical joy in remarkable loss. Joylessness and bitterness in the crucible of pain happens when we lose something (or think we deserve something) that we’ve held onto more tightly than God.

Same Core Message?

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post:  Multifaith and the Global Faith Forum, Part 2

Let's take a closer look at the four world religions that represent approximately 75 percent of the world's population. (Recent population surveys indicate that there are 2.1 billion Christians, 1.5 billion Muslims, 900 million Hindus and 376 million Buddhists in the world). Do these religions actually have the same basic core message?

Most Americans think they do. In a study of about 1500 adults, who have not been to church, synagogue, or mosque for anything other than a wedding, holiday or funeral, they expressed the views of many. Among unchurched adults, 58% of younger adults (ages 18-29) believe "the God of the Bible is no different from other gods found in world religions" as compared to 67% among older adults (30 years and older) who believe the same. But, does that make sense? If it did, it would be the basis for interfaith cooperation. But, if it is not, we must consider a different approach.

Let's start with the most basic message of each religion--the definition of "God." If all the world's religions are at their core the same, certainly they would at least be able to agree on the definition of God. So, what does each religion teach about God?

Within the various streams of Hindu thought, there are multiple answers to the question, "Who or what is god?" Hindus can believe that there is one god, 330 million gods, or no god at all. The Vedas, the most ancient of Hindu Scriptures which are accepted by most Hindus as normative, teach that "Atman is Brahman," or "the soul is god" meaning that all that is is god--god is in each of us and each of us is part of god. This belief is reflected in the common greeting "Namaste" which has been interpreted to mean the god within me recognizes and greets the god within you."

In his apologetic for the Buddhist faith, Ven S. Dhammika, a Buddhist and the author of several popular books on Buddhism, writes, "Do Buddhists believe in god? No, we do not. There are several reasons for this. The Buddha, like modern sociologists and psychologists, believed that religious ideas and especially the god idea have their origin in fear. The Buddha says: "Gripped by fear men go to the sacred mountains, sacred groves, sacred trees and shrines" (http://www.buddhanet.net/ans73.htm). So, for an Orthodox Buddhist, the concept of any god at all is considered to be a negative superstition.

What about in Islam? According to the sacred scriptures of Islam, the Quran, in sura 112 ayat 1 through 4 we read, "Say: He is Allah, The One and Only. Allah, the Eternal, Absolute. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him." This is further explained in a primer for Muslim children as follows:

Allah (SWT) is absolute, and free from all defects and has no partner. He exists from eternity and shall remain eternal. All are dependent on Him, but He is independent of all. He is father to none, nor has he any son (Islamic Reader Book 2, p.10).

Christians believe that there is one God who is the creator of the world. He is a personal God, meaning he is not a force, or idea, but a conscious, free and moral being. And he is not only a personal God, but a God of providence who is involved in day-to-day affairs of his creation. He is a moral God who expects ethical behavior from each of us. He expects His followers to live out their belief by loving Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Second only to that is the command to love their neighbor as they love themselves. God, while being One in essence, reveals Himself in three persons--Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So, according to the four largest world religions God does not exist, God is one with creation and takes on millions of forms, God is one, and God is trinity--One God in Three Persons.

If we cannot even agree on the basic definition of "God" and his character, how can we say that all religions teach the same thing? Pretending that we all believe the same thing does not foster dialogue, but, in fact, prohibits it.

Steep

Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.

Matthew 6:33 [Message]

Faithful Presence

Post at DG by Michael Johnson:  Faithful Presence Amid "Continuous Partial Attention"

At this very moment, you’re multi-tasking:

1. you’re likely at work, home, or at a “third space”;
2. have multiple windows open on your screen;
3. are listening to music;
4. are reading another blog post;
5. are talking to/thinking about someone;
6. reading or writing an e-mail;
7. are blinking;
8. have a pulse.

Okay, scratch the last two. (And lest you surmise I suffer from the “I’m okay, you’re not okay” malady, ironically I’m multi-tasking even as I compose this blog post.)

So let’s pause now—really, right now—stop all multi-tasking: turn off your cell phone, don’t check e-mail, take a break from anything media related, and slowly work your way through this quotation from James Davison Hunter:

The very nature of modern life is its fragmentation and segmentation into multiple constellations of experience, knowledge, and relationships with each constellation grounded in a specific social and institutional realm of a person’s life. Under such conditions, we experience a fragmentation of consciousness—what someone has recently called, “continous partial attention.” This fragmentation is often reinforced by a world of hyperkinetic activity marked by unrelenting interruption and distraction. On the one hand, such conditions foster a technical mastery that prizes speed and agility, and facility with multiple tasks—for example, using e-mail, I-M, the cell phone, the iPod, all the while eating lunch, holding a conversation, or listening to a lecture. But on the other hand, these very same conditions undermine our capacity for silence, depth of thinking, and focused attention. In other words, the context of contemporary life, by its very nature, cultivates a kind of absence in the experience of “being elsewhere.” Faithful presence resists such conditions and the frame of mind it cultivates. (To Change the World, 252)

So what’s the corrective to this “fragmentation of consciousness?” Become lifelong card-carrying Luddite members to the Neil Postman Fan Club? Do we even need a corrective? Just how will we cultivate a theology (and lifestyle) of a distinctively Christian “faithful presence?”

Think about it and give it prayerful consideration, and stay tuned for Hunter’s answer.

God's Presence

Miscellanies post:  Godliness

Some reference books are so valuable they should read be read from cover to cover annually. In this category I would place the Collected Writings of John Murray (Banner of Truth, 1976–1982). On just about every page the reader will find gems like this one (1:183):

Godliness is God-consciousness, an all-pervasive sense of God’s presence. It will mean that never do we think, or speak, or act, without the undergirding sense of God’s presence, of his judgement, of our relation to him and his relation to us, of our responsibility to him and dependence upon him.

Everything in the Name of the Lord

What's Best Next post:  Bonhoeffer on Work and Prayer

From Life Together:

After the first morning hour, the Christian’s day until evening belongs to work. “People go out to their work and to their labor until the evening” (Ps 104:23). . . . Praying and working are two different things. Prayer should not be hindered by work, but neither should work be hindered by prayer. Just as it was God’s will that human beings should work six days and rest and celebrate before the face of God on the seventh, so it is also God’s will that every day should be marked for the Christian both by prayer and work. Prayer also requires its own time. But the longest part of the day belongs to work. The inseparable unity of both will only become clear when work and prayer each receives its undivided due. Without the burden and labor of the day, prayer is not prayer; and without prayer, work is not work. Only the Christian knows that. Thus it is precisely in the clear distinction between them that their oneness becomes apparent. . . .

The  unity of prayer and work, the unity of the day, is found because finding [God] behind the day’s work is what Paul means by his admonition to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). The prayer of the Christian reaches, therefore, beyond the time allocated to it and extends into the midst of the work. It surrounds the whole day, and in so doing, it does not hinder the work; it promotes work, affirms work, gives work great significance and joyfulness. Thus every word, every deed, every piece of work of the Christian becomes a prayer. . . . “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:17).

Goal

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ Devotional

FERTILE SOIL FOR GROWTH
 
1 Timothy 1:5
The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith


Perhaps the greatest service performed by trials and tribulations in our lives is to reveal wrong goals. It's during these times of pressure that your emotions raise their warning flags signaling blocked goals, uncertain goals, and impossible goals which are based on our desires instead of God's goal of proven character.

People say, "My marriage is hopeless," then "solve" the problem by changing partners. But if you think your first marriage is hopeless, be aware that second marriages are failing at a far higher rate. Others feel their jobs are hopeless. So they change jobs, only to discover that the new job is just as hopeless. People tend to look for quick-fix solutions to difficult situations. But God's plan is for you to hang in there and grow up.

Is there an easier way to being God's person than through enduring tribulations? Believe me: I've been looking for one. But I must honestly say that it has been the dark, difficult times of testing in my life which have brought me to where I am today. I thank God for the occasional mountaintop experiences, but the fertile soil for growth is always down in the valleys of tribulation, not on the mountaintops. Paul says, "The goal of our instruction is love" (1 Timothy 1:5). Notice that if you make that your goal, then the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy (instead of depression), peace (instead of anxiety), and patience (instead of anger)(Galatians 5:22, 23).

How would you give hope to a woman whose husband just left? "Oh, we will win him back," you say. Great desire; wrong goal. Trying to manipulate that husband or the circumstance is probably why he left in the first place. It is better to say to the woman, "If you haven't committed yourself to be the wife and mother God has called you to be, would you now?" According to Romans 5:3-5, our hope lies in the proven character that come through perseverance.

Prayer: Father, enable me today to persevere through the trials of life and thereby develop strong character and hope. 

 

Annoyance

Ray Ortlund post:  Hello Goodbye

“I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.”  The Beatles.

Opposites do not attract.  They annoy.  Which is good for us.  Annoyance alerts us to spikes of demandingness we hadn’t noticed in ourselves before.  It is good for us, stretching and humbling and maturing, to find a win-win path forward rather than a winner-take-all defeat of the other.  Where in the gospel are we taught to win?  Doesn’t 1 Corinthians 6:7 confront us with the unanswerable “Why not rather suffer wrong?”  This is the mind of Christ, clearly displayed at the cross.

Unless the conflict is a matter of gospel truth, as it was in Galatians 2:11-21, when Peter’s cowardice threatened to nullify the grace of God, the conflict’s intensity can be moderated by Ephesians 5:21: “. . . submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Submitting is fitting in, no one demanding to get it all his own way, no one withdrawing in sullenness, but everyone moving closer and bending around to make it work.  Submitting is taking the risk that I might not get as big a slice of the pie as I think I deserve, and being okay with that, because it will probably turn out that way — or it will feel as though it’s turning out that way.  Above all else, submitting is revering Christ above Self: “. . . out of reverence for Christ.”

It turns Hello Goodbye into Hello Hello.

Amazing Truth

Miscellanies post:  God Is For Me

I treasure the for me/for us phrases in Psalm 56:9/Romans 8:31. It is a majestic thought that the holy God of the universe can be for me/for us. It is a divine reality so startling that we can only explain this favor as a gift of grace. It should drive from us all vain thoughts of spiritual superiority.

In my reading over the years I’ve gathered a small collection of quotes to help me meditate on this amazing truth. Here are three examples:

John Piper, sermon, “God Did Not Spare His Own Son,” August 18, 2002:

O how precious are those two words, “for us” [Rom. 8:31]. There are no more fearful words in the universe than the words, “God is against us.” … We live forever with God against us or with God for us. And all who are in Christ may say with almost unspeakable joy, “God is for us.” He is on our side.

Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/2 728:

What can and should and must be done by the man to whom the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth has stopped down from his eternal and inaccessible majesty in inconceivable goodness and overflowing majesty to take man to Himself by taking his place and bearing his curse and burden? What can and should and must be done by the man to whom it is given in the quickening power of the Holy Spirit to accept the fact that God is for him in this way? What remains for the Christian to do? What is his part? Or rather, what is he allowed and commissioned and commanded to do? Since this is the case, and he knows it, in what consists his Christian freedom? There can obviously be only one answer to this question. This is the simple and unequivocal answer that he must accept and receive the One who comes to him and that which is given in and by Him; that he must be content in unconditional and childlike confidence to hold to the fact that God is for him; that he must acknowledge and recognize and confess this; that he must place himself on this ground and walk on it without hesitation or vacillation; that he must be satisfied and rejoice and constantly return to the fact that he may be undeservedly but quite indisputably be the child of God.

C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, evening of July 13:

It is impossible for any human speech to express the full meaning of this delightful phrase, “God is for me” [Ps 56:9]. He was “for us” before the worlds were made; he was “for us,” or he would not have given his well-beloved son; he was “for us” when he smote the Only-begotten, and laid the full weight of his wrath upon him—he was “for us,” though he was against him; he was “for us,” when we were ruined in the fall—he loved us notwithstanding all; he was “for us,” when we were rebels against him, and with a high hand were bidding him defiance; he was “for us,” or he would not have brought us humbly to seek his face. He has been “for us” in many struggles; we have been summoned to encounter hosts of dangers; we have been assailed by temptations from without and within—how could we have remained unharmed to this hour if he had not been “for us”?

He is “for us,” with all the infinity of his being; with all the omnipotence of his love; with all the infallibility of his wisdom; arrayed in all his divine attributes, he is “for us,”—eternally and immutably “for us”; “for us” when yon blue skies shall be rolled up like a worn out vesture; “for us” throughout eternity. And because he is “for us,” the voice of prayer will always ensure his help. “When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies be turned back.” This is no uncertain hope, but a well grounded assurance—“this I know.” I will direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up for the answer, assured that it will come, and that mine enemies shall be defeated, “for God is for me.” O believer, how happy art thou with the King of kings on thy side! How safe with such a Protector! How sure thy cause pleaded by such an Advocate! If God be for thee, who can be against thee?

Wrong Conclusion

Pastor Steven Furtick post:  Grapes and Giants

We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large…we can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are. All the people we saw there are of great size.
Numbers 13:27-28


The Israelites had finally reached the Promised Land. But it wasn’t what everybody thought it would be.

There was a reward. But there was also opposition.

There were grapes. But there were also giants.

So they came to the conclusion that this couldn’t what God was calling them to do. This couldn’t be God’s will, because God’s will had to be easier than this.

We tend to think the same way. Many people consider opposition a sign that they must not be in the will of God. We think the Promised Land is where the blessings are going to be. Being in God’s will is where life is supposed to be easy. Therefore, battle, opposition, struggle, and enemies must be a sign that we aren’t in the right place.

But apparently a sign of God’s will is not the ease with which you obtain it. Apparently the very sign of the Promised Land is giants. Conflict. Opposition.

In other words, being in God’s will doesn’t guarantee a tension-free job. Or a conflict-free marriage. Or a trouble-free life. In fact, the very presence of tension, conflict, and trouble could be a sign that you’re right where you need to be.

You might be thinking that you’re not in God’s will right now. You’re going through all this fighting and it shouldn’t be like this. It must mean you’re in the wrong place.

Not necessarily. It might mean that you’re in exactly the right place. I doubt Satan is going to put up a fight to keep you from doing what you shouldn’t be doing. What if you changed your perspective and saw what you’re facing as a sign that you’re exactly where God wants you to be, because giants live in the Promised Land?

That doesn’t make it easy. But remember:

There was opposition for the Israelites. But there was also a reward.

There were giants. But there were also grapes.

A sign of God’s will isn’t just the opposition you’re facing. It’s also the fact that with God you can actually overcome it. And the reward that you will get for sticking it out will far outshine any opposition that you’re facing.

Extravagant Mercy

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

BAD NEWS - GOOD NEWS
 
"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God."  Romans 3:10-11

I can not be fully moved by the Gospel and the power of the cross until I admit to myself that I am not good at the core of me.  Left to myself, I would not even want God.  My desire to come to Jesus was fueled by a gift of grace, something I couldn't conjure up on my own.  It's hard to admit that I would be capable of any sin.  Instead, I want to make one horizontal comparison after another.  "But God, I didn't do what that person did."

During a meal they shared, just before Jesus was arrested and brought to trial, Jesus revealed to Peter that in the next few hours, Peter would betray Him.  He explained that, when pressured, Peter would deny even knowing Him.  Peter's face fell at the news.  I can't help but wonder if he thought, "What?!  I'm capable of that?"  That was the bad news.  But what followed was the good news for any of us who are fixated on how much we are bent to sin.  Jesus said to Peter, "Don't be worried and upset."  There was mercy before the betrayal.

A few weeks ago, I had a short time to spend with a 13-year-old boy who is in trouble with the authorities for stealing.  He is on the verge of going into permanent juvenile detention.  He attended a day of my teaching while under house arrest and I saw him soak in the message.  During a break, He came to talk with me about his life.

I asked him point blank.  "Why are you stealing?"

"Because I want the kids in school to be impressed by what I have.  How do I stop?"

"You have to treasure Jesus more than you treasure the payoff you get from stealing."  I explained that the only way that would happen was to meditate on the Word of God and fall in love with Christ.  The payoff of being loved by Jesus would far outweigh the reward of how he felt when he held stolen goods in his hands.

As I think about this young kid, orphaned, trying to survive by grabbing what he can in this world, I realize that I am faced with similar choices as I am inclined to run from the truth of who I really am without the power of Christ in my life.

1.) I can live trying to pretend that I am better than I am but then I take the cross lightly. 

 2.) I can live overwhelmed by my sin, hate myself for failing, but then think that the cross is not for someone bad like me.

3.) I can embrace the bad news that, left to myself, I would not seek Christ.  But His extravagant mercy reaches out to save me and entirely change my nature.  The Gospel is for me, still, every day.  

Bad news ~ I am a sinner.  Good news ~ I am His, daily changed by His grace.

There aren't enough ways to praise You for what You do for me everyday. I boast in You.  Amen

Obedient Trust

Another (see yesterday) excerpt from Ed Stetzer post: Book Interview:  Jon Walker on Costly Grace

ES: You say that following Jesus requires an "obedient trust." That is such a specific phrase. What do you mean by it? Can you give a biblical illustration?

JW: In many ways, the word "faith" has lost its meaning. We speak of faith, but often what we mean is something abstract and fanciful. In writing Costly Grace, I wanted the reader to understand the biblical essence of the word. Faith is not only trusting Jesus, it also means we are obedient to Jesus. We line up with the will of God and that shows we love God. We do what Jesus tells us to do and that shows we trust him. It is a loving, obedient trust.

Bonhoeffer says this means our faith must be concrete. We show Jesus we trust him by being obedient to what he tells us to do. And by being obedient, we learn that we can trust him more.

When Jesus walked on the water, Peter verbally expressed faith that Jesus could empower him to walk on the water also. But his faith didn't become real until he stepped out of the boat. That's when it became a concrete faith, when he climbed out of the boat in obedience to the call of Jesus. When he put his foot on the water and it didn't sink, he learned he could trust Jesus. That made it easier to be obedient with the next step, where he, again, learned Jesus was good for his promises.

ES: Peter learned to trust Jesus by being obedient to Jesus. His faith, in essence, was 'obedient trust.' Jesus always brings us to a choice - do you believe me or not? Will you trust me in this circumstance or not?

JW: Of course, Peter eventually sank beneath the waves, but that is because he let fear overtake his faith. Another choice we often have is, will you submit to your fear or to your faith in Jesus? Many of us are still sitting in the boat saying we have faith, but that means we will never learn we can trust Jesus. We only learn to trust him by being obedient to him.

ES: Why are grace and truth inseparable? How can we tell if we're trying to separate one from the other?

JW: The apostle John tells us that Jesus is full of grace and truth and, now that we have the life of Christ present in our lives, we are full of grace and truth (John 1:14-16). Jesus holds them together in us just as they are held together in him.

Legalists try to separate truth from grace and so they begin to see grace as a license to sin. Grace sounds like heresy to them.

On the other hand, those who are unrestrained by grace (licentious) try to separate grace from truth and so they begin to see truth a 'law'. Truth sounds like legalism if we are abusing grace.

In Jesus, grace is always truthful and truth is forever gracious. There is no way to have the fullness of grace and truth apart from Him. He didn't come to show us ways of grace and truth or give us definitions of grace and truth. He came to be all the grace and all the truth we will ever need and to freely offer both to us in the gift of Himself.

If I am full of grace, there is no excuse for legalism in my life (Matthew 23:4; Matthew 11:28-30). If I am full of truth, there is no excuse for 'cheap grace' (unrestraint, licentiousness) in my life (Matthew 5:17-20; John 8:11).

The only reason to live as a legalist or to abuse grace is unbelief in the adequacy of Jesus. Legalism and 'cheap grace' both show a lack of faith. We live faithlessly because we do not trust Jesus.

ES: Why must we bear the sins of others? Doesn't Christ do that for us?

JW: The way we become like Jesus is through suffering and rejection. Jesus became the Christ because he was rejected and suffered, and for us to become his disciples - to become like Christ - we must share in his rejection, suffering, and crucifixion.

Bonhoeffer says, "God is a God who bears." The Son of God wrapped himself in our flesh and then carried the cross, even as he carried our sins, straight up a hill called Golgotha. Because we are his disciples, we are called to bear the burdens of others, including their sins.

This doesn't mean we create righteousness in others - although our witness may ignite a desire for righteousness, which will lead them to Jesus. Rather it means we must bear a cost for someone else's sin.

For instance, if a father is caught up in pornography, his sin will cost others. It will cost his wife, it will cost his children, it will cost his friendships, it will cost the women he meets because he will no longer see them as daughters of God, and it costs those who are part of the pornographic images, essentially encouraging them in their sin. It can cost physically, monetarily, relationally, but there is a huge price spiritually.

We must bear his sin and that means we don't blame or become bitter, but rather we invest in his life. We help him to get out of his bondage and into an obedient trust of Jesus. Bonhoeffer says this is "precisely what it means to be a Christian."

This is how God brings out the life of Christ planted in us by the Holy Spirit and it enables us to take the deep regrets and loss in our lives, those past and present, and view them as God's way of acquainting us with the grief, heartache, and sorrow Jesus experienced on his way to the cross. In this way, Paul says, the death of Christ is at work in us so that the life of Christ can be at work in others (2 Corinthians 4:12).

Constant Presence

Excerpts from Ed Stetzer post:  Book Interview:  Jon Walker On Costly Grace

...

Now Jon Walker has written Costly Grace: A Contemporary View of Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship. Jon is the editor of Rick Warren's Daily Hope devotionals and the founding editor of the Ministry Toolbox. He served on staff at Saddleback Church and Purpose Driven Ministries.

...


ES: Bonhoeffer says the Church does certain things that make Jesus seem insignificant. What are those and do you think they are present in the Church today?

JW: First, Bonhoeffer says the Church has reduced the gospel to a set of burdensome rules, the antithesis of the easy yoke we should find in Jesus. We've loaded the gospel down with so many extra-biblical routines and regulations-- 'a real Christian ought to, has to, must do' -- that it is difficult for anyone to find the real Jesus.

We make our legal lists and that makes us legalists. But that teaches people they have to work their way up to God's standard of righteousness, which challenges the very Word of God, who is the crucified and resurrected Jesus. When we keep insisting that, through our behaviors and our attitudes, we can match godly standards of righteousness, we dismiss the Incarnation and suggest Jesus is insignificant to our hope for heaven?

Second, Bonhoeffer says the Church uses the doctrine of grace as an excuse for shallow discipleship and for a pervasive acceptance of sin in the Body of Christ. We've taken "I am a sinner saved by grace" and turned it into "I can sin because of grace." This allows us to be satisfied with discipleship as mere Bible study. Jesus appears insignificant because he doesn't seem to have the power or authority to really change our lives.

These two approaches are as prevalent now as they were in 1937, when Bonhoeffer wrote, "The Cost of Discipleship." In either case, a burdensome religion or a presumptive attitude on grace, we end up practicing a religion far removed from the intimate relationship God requires we have with Jesus Christ. The essence of discipleship is to know Jesus at a level of intimacy that can only be sustained by his constant presence in our lives.

ES: You say that following Jesus requires an "obedient trust." That is such a specific phrase. What do you mean by it? Can you give a biblical illustration?

JW: In many ways, the word "faith" has lost its meaning. We speak of faith, but often what we mean is something abstract and fanciful. In writing Costly Grace, I wanted the reader to understand the biblical essence of the word. Faith is not only trusting Jesus, it also means we are obedient to Jesus. We line up with the will of God and that shows we love God. We do what Jesus tells us to do and that shows we trust him. It is a loving, obedient trust.

Bonhoeffer says this means our faith must be concrete. We show Jesus we trust him by being obedient to what he tells us to do. And by being obedient, we learn that we can trust him more.

When Jesus walked on the water, Peter verbally expressed faith that Jesus could empower him to walk on the water also. But his faith didn't become real until he stepped out of the boat. That's when it became a concrete faith, when he climbed out of the boat in obedience to the call of Jesus. When he put his foot on the water and it didn't sink, he learned he could trust Jesus. That made it easier to be obedient with the next step, where he, again, learned Jesus was good for his promises.

Gospel Gives

Excerpt from Tullian Tchividjian post:  How To Avoid Christless Christianity

Mike gave me a copy of a new book that he edited and published through Modern Reformation entitled Justified: Modern Reformation Essays on the Doctrine of Justification. I was flipping through it last night and was super impressed by what I read.  At the end of the book Mike outlines six-core beliefs that define the mission of Modern Reformation and the White Horse Inn (his weekly radio broadcast). While all of the six beliefs are foundational, I was struck by the gripping clarity of belief number two on the importance of Gospel-centered preaching. Everything he writes here not only defines my theology of preaching but is, in my opinion, the only type of preaching that will rescue the church from Christless Christianity. He writes:

Scripture is of no use to us if we read it merely as a handbook for daily living without recognizing that its principle purpose is to reveal Jesus Christ and his gospel for the salvation of sinners. All Scripture coalesces in Christ, anticipated in the OT and appearing in the flesh in the NT. In Scripture, God issues commands and threatens judgment for transgressors as well as direction for the lives of his people. Yet the greatest treasure buried in the Scriptures is the good news of the promised Messiah. Everything in the Bible that tells us what to do is “law”, and everything in the Bible that tells us what God has done in Christ to save us is “gospel.” Much like medieval piety, the emphasis in much Christian teaching today is on what we are to do without adequate grounding in the good news of what God has done for us in Christ. “What would Jesus do?” becomes more important than “What has Jesus done?” The gospel, however, is not just something we needed at conversion so we can spend the rest of our Christian life obsessed with performance; it is something we need every day–the only source of our sanctification as well as our justification. The law guides, but only the gospel gives. We are declared righteous–justified–not by anything that happens within us or done by us, but solely by God’s act of crediting us with Christ’s perfect righteousness through faith alone.

Helping Others

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ Devotional

HELPING OTHERS FIND FREEDOM  

2 Timothy 2:24-26

The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will  

The main qualification for helping others find freedom is not an unusual giftedness or calling. It is godly character and the ability to teach. The instructions in the epistles for helping others find freedom in Christ are best summarized in 2 Timothy 2:24-26. It requires that the Lord's bond servant be mature in character as expressed by love for people and evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit. It is also important that we are able to communicate the truth so the captive can be set free.

The classic picture of deliverance is to bring in an expert who will call up the demon, determine its name and rank, then cast it out. This would make the deliverer the expert who gets his information from the demon. I believe there is a better way. I believe the deliverer is Christ. We don't have to send for Him; He already came.

As the Lord's bond servants, we shouldn't believe anything a demon says. We must seek to get our information from the Holy spirit who will lead us into all truth.

We can't assume responsibility for someone else, but we can serve as the Lord's instrument to effect their freedom. It is every individual's responsibility to resist the devil, put on the armor of God, confess, forgive, renounce sin, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. But according to 2 Timothy 2:24-26, by the grace of God we can help them.

Furthermore, this passage requires that we be absolutely dependent on God, because He alone can grant repentance and set the captive free. I always start any attempt at helping others by declaring my total dependence on God my Father.

Prayer: Lord, make me Your bond servant that I may help others find their freedom in Christ. 

 

Far More Abundantly

Ray Ortlund's post:  God's ability to bless

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think . . . .”  Ephesians 3:20

“Not above some things that we ask, but all.  Not above some of our dimmer conceptions, our lower thoughts, but above all that we think.  Now just put together all that you have ever asked for.  Heap it up, and then pile upon the top thereof all that you have ever thought of concerning the riches of divine grace.  What a mountain! . . . High as this pyramid of prayers and contemplations may be piled, God’s ability to bless is higher still.”

C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), III:419.

Gospel-Men

Tullian Tchividjian post:  Monday Morning Letter To The Elders And Deacons

Brothers,

As I was thinking about you and praying for our church this morning, God renewed my conviction to be resolute in demanding that our men (and specifically our Elders and Deacons) understand and embody the life-giving power of the Gospel in their daily lives. The best way to tell how well the Gospel is gaining traction in a local church is the kind of men it produces. So here are some questions I asked myself this morning before God and I’m asking you to do the same:

Do you rejoice in position, power, accomplishments, entitlement, control, degrees, knowledge, status, authority, numbers, and rank? Or do you rejoice in service, mercy, sacrifice, pastoral care, love, prayer, prudence, grace, relationships, and repentance? Are you proud or humble? Do you put others before yourself? Do you find your daily security and significance in your own accomplishments or in Christ’s accomplishment for you? Do you seek first place or last place? Do you boast on yourself or on Christ? Do you talk about yourself a lot? Are you prone to envy and do you get defensive easily? Do you weep with those who weep? Do you love people and look for opportunities to serve and shepherd them? Do you revel in self-confidence or self-sacrifice? Do you have people in your life that you confess specific instances of sin? Do the people in your life find it easy to correct you? 


I know these are tough questions to ask yourself but honest answers to these questions will tell you how well you grasp the Gospel and how qualified you are to lead this church. The Bible demands that we be Gospel-men. And since his security and significance is in Christ, a real Gospel-man is not afraid of questions like this.

Furthermore, we all have blind spots. So I charge you to ask your wives and children to answer these questions about you. If that charge makes you feel uncomfortable than it’s a sure sign that you need to grow in your grasp of the gospel–like I do! As I said yesterday to the whole church: your spiritual health is my greatest goal and responsibility.


Please know that I love you all, am learning and growing with you, and am deeply grateful for you.

In Christ Alone,
Tullian

Refocusing on Jesus and His Mission

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post:  Kick-Starting the Plateaued and Declining Church:  Cultivating a Heart for the People and Place

In researching and writing Comeback Churches, we were encouraged to find that the leaders we surveyed rated spiritual factors very high. In fact, think about how profound and simple this is--the highest rated single factor overall was renewed belief in Jesus Christ and the mission of the church. When asked what spurred the revitalization process, comeback leaders said that it was refocusing on Jesus Christ and His mission for the church.

How do you refocus on Jesus? Fall in love with Him again (Rev. 1:4-7, 2:4-5). Basically, pursue the Great Commandment. What is His mission for the church that He purchased with His own blood? Make disciples of every tongue, tribe, nation, and people on the face of the earth to the glory of God the Father. Sorry, we're getting a little carried away here. Let's get refocused on the specific point.

How did Nehemiah end up back in Jerusalem leading a revitalization movement among God's people? It would be easy to think that Nehemiah was just focused on rebuilding a physical structure, the wall. While that was one of the tasks at hand, his real job was mobilizing a demoralized people. That's the only way the wall was going to get rebuilt.

So, how did he get there? It started with a simple question to one of his brothers and some men from Judah -- "I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem" (Neh. 1:2, NASB). Notice, his first real concern was the people, then he also asked about the city -- the people and the place. Too many pastors (and church planters too for that matter) want to pastor a different people and in a different place than the one God gives them. Love the people and the place God sends you.

Pay attention to the morale of the people and why they are where they are, and why they are the way they are. And, pay attention to the state of the community and its people. Ask questions and listen to people inside and outside of the congregation. Listen to the answer that Nehemiah gets to his question and his response:

They said to me, "The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire." When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. I said, "I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven . . . I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You. . ." (Neh. 1:3-6, NASB)

Through passionate and intentional prayer, Nehemiah cultivated a heart for the people and the place that God was preparing to send him.

Operation Christmas Child

Follow Jesus Faithfully and Courageously

Excerpt from Ian Morgan Cron post:  "I Don't Get It.  What Do You Do For A Living?"

...

Finally, I curate a program called Conversations in Courage and Faith, which I developed at Christ Episcopal Church in Greenwich, CT. This program was inspired by one of my heroes, Thomas Merton, who began his 1967 Advent-Christmas Letter with the words, “The times are difficult. They call for courage and faith.” 

(Those two sentences kill me me every time I read them.)

The mission of the program reads: “Conversations on Courage and Faith is a program that seeks to provide environments, lectures, artistic performances and spiritual experiences that will inspire and equip people to live Christianly in our postmodern world. Our hope is to stimulate generative conversation about what it means to follow Jesus faithfully and courageously in our daily lives.” 

...

Take Next Step

Steven Furtick post:  The next rep

When I see people who are really great at exercising or training for sports, a lot of times I wonder how they push through. I hate exercising. I do it, but only because I have to. I’m always barely getting reps done. But then I see some people who push themselves to crazy limits. What’s the difference?

I asked someone one time how he did it and he said, “I just focus on the next rep versus thinking how many more I’ve got to do.”

In other words, doing twelve reps of an insane weight can be overwhelming. It can cripple some people from even trying, or make them give up in the middle. But by focusing on having enough strength for the next rep, you can keep going and have the strength to finish.

I think the same principle applies to our faith. Being strong in the Lord is sometimes about just doing the next rep. Focusing on the next decision. Taking the next step. Making the next sacrifice.

That’s how you grow strong in the Lord.

You don’t have to have faith for the biggest decision of your life you’re going to make two years from now. You have to have faith for the smaller decision you’re making today.

You don’t have to have the faith to finish what God has called you to do right now. Or even to take the next ten steps. Just the faith to take the immediate step in front of you.

You don’t have to have faith to sell every possession you have right now. Just the faith to do as you have been commanded and give 10% of what God has given you.

And as you do these things, your faith will be strengthened to the point where you will be able to make the biggest decision of your life. To the point where you will be able to finish. To the point where you will be able to sacrifice everything if called to.

Matthew 6:34 tells us “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

And for this reason each has enough to have faith for.

God doesn’t expect you to be as strong today as you’re going to be years from now. Or even days from now. And you shouldn’t either. Have faith for what God is giving you today. Focus on your next decision. Take your next step. Make your next sacrifice.

Do your next rep.

Compelled by Love of God and Neighbor

Excerpts from Chuck Colson writing at CT:  We Must Not Despair

The evidence is clear: Many Christians have grown weary of the culture wars. Compared with prior years, Christians have little visible presence in this season's election campaign, and certainly younger evangelicals see the conservative religious agenda as strident and often offensive. What's more, prominent Christian leaders are telling us to take a sabbatical from politics—a seductively appealing message for so many fatigued by our 30-year-long uphill struggle.

...

There was a time when Christianity's positive influence on society was applauded. U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, a strong civil libertarian, stated in the 1952 Zorach v. Clauson case: "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being …. When the state encourages religious instruction or cooperates with religious authorities … it follows the best of our traditions. For it then respects the religious nature of our people and accommodates the public service to their spiritual needs."

Scarcely a decade later, the Supreme Court, in an astonishing reversal, declared in Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington v. Schempp (1963) that prayer and Bible reading in public schools were to be outlawed—and thus opened Pandora's Box. In case after case, justices decided against the traditional values of our country, culminating in 1973 with Roe v. Wade, when the Court ruled that killing human life at its earliest stages was now a constitutionally protected practice—leading to an unbroken string of such cases since.

...

Today is no different. As other Christian leaders and I wrote in the Manhattan Declaration, "Because the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband and wife, and the freedom of conscience and religion are foundational principles of justice and the common good, we are compelled by our Christian faith to speak and act in their defense."

On each of these fronts, the forces of secularism have assaulted foundational principles necessary for true human flourishing and the preservation of moral order.We defend them not for parochial interests but for the good of society.

...

Supremely Esteemed

God is supremely esteemed. His center holds.
   Zion brims over with all that is just and right.
God keeps your days stable and secure—
   salvation, wisdom, and knowledge in surplus,
   and best of all, Zion's treasure, Fear-of-God. [Message]

The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high;
   he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
and he will be the stability of your times,
   abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
   the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.   [ESV]

Isaiah 33:5-6

Power to Change the World

Life Today Devotional

The Butterfly Effect
by Andy Andrews

In 1963, Edward Lorenz presented a hypothesis to the New York Academy of Science. His theory, stated simply, was that:

A butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air – eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet.

Lorenz and his ideas were literally laughed out of the conference. What he had proposed was ridiculous. It was preposterous. But it was fascinating!

Therefore, because of the ideas charm and intrigue, the so-called “butterfly effect” became a staple of science fiction, remaining for decades a combination of myth and legend spread only by comic books and bad movies.

So imagine the scientific community’s shock and surprise when, more than 30 years after the possibility was introduced, physics professors working from colleges and universities worldwide came to the conclusion that the butterfly effect was authentic, accurate and viable.

Soon after, it was accorded the status of a “law.” Now known as The Law of Sensitive Dependence Upon Initial Conditions, this principle has proven to be a force encompassing more than mere butterfly wings. Science has shown the butterfly effect to engage with the first movement of any form of matter – including people.

On Friday, April 2, 2004, ABC News honored a man who, at that time, was 91 years old. The news program was running a regular segment called “Person of the Week.” Usually the honoree’s accomplishments are listed in advance and by the time the name is announced, most folks have already guessed the identity of that week’s recipient. In this instance, however, the pronouncement left many viewers puzzled.

“And so…our Person of the Week is…” the anchorman finally said, “Norman Borlaug!”

One can only imagine the frowns. Who? Who did he say? Norman…what was the last name?

Yet, despite our unfamiliarity, Norman Borlaug is a man who is personally responsible for drastically and dramatically changing the world in which we live. You see, in the early 1940s, Norman Borlaug hybridized high-yield, disease-resistant corn and wheat for arid climates. From the dust bowl of Western Africa to our own desert Southwest, from South and Central America to the plains of Siberia, across Europe and Asia, Borlaug’s specific seed product flourished and regenerated where no seed had ever thrived before. Through the years, it has now been calculated that Norman Borlaug’s work saved more than two billion lives from famine.

Actually, it was never reported, but the anchorman was misinformed. It was not Norman Borlaug who saved the two billion people, though very few caught the mistake. It was Henry Wallace.

Henry Wallace was the Vice President of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt. Over his four terms, Roosevelt had three different Vice Presidents and the second man to serve was Henry Wallace.

Wallace was the former Secretary of Agriculture who, after his one term as Vice President, was dumped from the ticket in favor of Truman. While Wallace was Vice President, however, he used the power of that office to create a station in Mexico whose sole purpose was to hybridize corn and wheat for arid climates. He hired a young man named Norman Borlaug to run it.

So Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Prize. And Norman Borlaug was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. But considering the connection, it was really Henry Wallace that saved two billion people!

Or was it George Washington Carver? You remember Carver, don’t you? The peanut?
But here’s something that very few people know: When Carver was 19 years old and a student at Iowa State University, he had a Dairy Sciences professor who, on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, would allow his six-year-old boy to go on “botanical expeditions” with the brilliant student.

It was George Washington Carver who took that boy and instilled in him a love for plants and a vision for what they could do for humanity. It was George Washington Carver who pointed six-year-old Henry Wallace’s life in a specific direction – long before he ever became Vice President of the United States.

It’s amazing to contemplate, isn’t it?

George Washington Carver flapping his butterfly wings with the peanut. There are currently 266 things he developed from the peanut that we still use today. He flapped his wings with the sweet potato. There are 88 things Carver originated from the sweet potato that we still use today. And while no one was even looking, George Washington Carver flapped his wings a couple of times with a six-year-old boy. And just happened to save the lives of more than two billion people…and counting.

So maybe it should have been George Washington Carver – Person of the Week! Or the farmer from Diamond, Missouri?

His name was Moses and he lived in a slave state, but he didn’t believe in slavery. This made him a target for psychopaths like Quantrill’s Raiders who terrorized the area by destroying property by burning and killing. And sure enough, one cold January night, Quantrill’s Raiders rode through Moses’ farm. The outlaws burned the barn, shot several people, and dragged off a woman named Mary Washington who refused to let go of her infant son, George.

Now, Mary Washington was a friend of Moses’ wife, Susan. Though distraught, Susan promptly set to work writing messages and contacting nearby farms. She got word through neighbors and towns and two days later managed to secure a meeting for Moses with the bandits.

Susan looked on anxiously as her husband rode off on a black horse. His destination was a crossroad in Kansas several hours to the north. There, at the appointed time, in the middle of the night, Moses met up with four of Quantrill’s Raiders. They were on horseback, carrying torches, and had flour sacks tied over their heads with holes cut out for their eyes. There, the farmer traded the only horse they had left on their farm for what the outlaws threw him in a dirty burlap bag.

As the bandits thundered off on their horses, Moses fell to his knees and there, alone on that dark winter night, the farmer pulled from the bag a cold, naked, almost-dead baby boy. Quickly he jerked open his own coat and his shirt and placed the child next to his skin. Covering him with his own clothes and relying on the warmth from his own body, the man turned and walked that baby home.

Moses walked through the night and into the next morning to get the child to Susan. There, they committed to that tiny human being – and to each other – that they would care for him. They promised the boy an education to honor his mother, Mary, who they knew was already dead. That night, they gave the baby their own name…and that is how Moses and Susan Carver came to raise that little baby, George Washington.

So when you think about it, maybe it was the farmer from Diamond, Missouri, who saved the two billion people. Or was it his wife who was responsible? Certainly it was Susan who organized the effort – it was she who demanded immediate action.

Unless…

Is there an ending to this story? Exactly who was it that saved the two billion lives? Is there a specific person to whom we could point? How many lives would we need to examine in order to determine whose action saved two billion people – a number that continues to increase every minute?

And how far forward would we need to go in your life to show the difference you make?

There are generations yet unborn whose very lives will be shifted and shaped by the moves you make and the actions you take today. And tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.

Every single thing you do matters.

You have been created as one of a kind. On the planet Earth, there has never been one like you and there never will be again. Your spirit, your thoughts and feelings, your ability to reason and act all exist in no one else. The rarities that make you special are no mere accident or quirk of fate. You have been created in order that you might make a difference.

You have within you the power to change the world.

Know that your actions cannot be hoarded, saved for later, or used selectively. By your hand, millions – billions – of lives will be altered, caught up in a chain of events begun by you this day. The very beating of your heart has meaning and purpose. Your actions have value far greater than silver or gold.

Your life and what you do with it today matters forever.



Adapted from The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters by Andy Andrews, © 2009 Simple Truths LLC

Power of Presence

Excerpt from Justin Taylor:  One Year Later:  An Interview with Matt Chandler: 

Last November—November 26, 2009, the morning of Thanksgiving to be exact—Matt Chandler’s life changed forever.


Here’s how the Associated Press profile described it:

Thanksgiving morning, a normal morning at the Chandler home.

The coffee brews itself. Matt wakes up, pours himself a cup, black and strong like always, and sits on the couch. He feeds 6-month-old Norah from a bottle. Burps her. Puts her in her bouncy seat.

The next thing Chandler knows, he is lying in a hospital bed.

What Chandler does not remember is that he suffered a seizure and collapsed in front of the fireplace, rattling the pokers. He does not remember biting through his tongue.

He does not remember his wife, Lauren, shielding the kids as he shook on the floor. Or, later, ripping the IV out of his arm and punching a medic in the face.

During the ambulance ride, Lauren, 29, looks back from the passenger seat at her husband in restraints.

He is looking at her but through her.

The doctors discovered a mass on the frontal lobe of his brain and planned for surgery.

...


Matt has graciously agreed to answer a few questions, reflecting on the past year. I encourage you to read it not merely for an update or for information, but as a means of stirring you up to pray for our dear brother. (You can receive health updates from Matt here.)

If you could go back and have a conversation with yourself on the evening of November 24, 2009, what would you have said to prepare Matt Chandler for the year ahead?

I think I would hug myself and just say, “He’s prepared you.”

What role has your theology played in sustaining you throughout this year? 

I’m not sure how men and women without a strong view of God’s sovereignty and authority over all things handle things like this.

There were at least 3 meetings with my doctors early on where I felt like I got punched in the soul. In those moments when I was discombobulated and things felt like they were spinning out of control, my theology and the Spirit were there to remind me that “He is good and He does good”—to remind me that God has a plan for His glory and my joy that He is working. I was reminded that this cancer wasn’t punitive but somehow redemptive (Romans 8).

It sounds like the Lord not only prepared you personally for suffering, but also enabled you to prepare the people at your church by teaching them about the theology of suffering?

When I arrived at The Village 8 years ago, we started growing with young men and women almost immediately. (I was 28 at the time, and I’ve heard you tend to draw those a decade behind you and a decade ahead of you.) The average age back in those days at The Village was in the early 20s. If there was a funeral or I had to run to the hospital, it wasn’t because an 80-year-old died or was sick. It was a baby that went down for a nap and didn’t get up, a young husband who went fishing and drowned not coming home to his wife and 3-month-old son, and on and on I could go.

I learned that, at least at The Village, there was no real understanding of what was going on in suffering. The theology most people had been taught was erroneous. They felt lost and confused. Over the next few years I would return to the subject of suffering at least monthly trying to weave it in as often as I could. Although most people would rather not hear about the subject, everyone is going to experience it. Therefore, I desperately wanted to help shepherd the men and women of The Village through what is a reality in a fallen world.

In the weeks and months leading up to Thanksgiving I was still doing this, mentioning the reality of cancer in my sermon on Sunday, November 22 and reminding the men and women at Southern Seminary on November 12th out of Hebrews 11 that sometimes we are faithful and do exactly what God wants us to do and we get mauled by lions and overrun by armies. It was a drum on which I was constantly beating and continue to beat. The great mercy of God in it all was that while I was purposefully preparing God’s people, He was purposefully preparing me.

What about the role of your friends in helping you during this painful time?

I have always deeply desired to be an honest man who said it when I struggled, stumbled and worried. I longed to be a man with real friends—friends who knew me at my worst and loved me. I woke up in the hospital on that Thanksgiving morning with no memory of what happened to me. When I came to, it was my wife and two of the pastors of The Village in whom I have confided, by whom I have been rebuked and corrected, and with whom I have prayed, cried, laughed, and vacationed, standing there with tears in their eyes.

Over the next 3 months they were constantly by my side, driving me to radiation treatments, bringing me meals, praying for me, celebrating with me when radiation was over, going to MRIs and doctor’s appointments with Lauren and me. They were steadfast in their love for me despite the workload they all had to bear with my absence for those 6 weeks. When I was afraid, they reminded me of His promises; when I was angry, they reminded me of His goodness. It truly has been a group effort.

For those who are walking with others who are suffering, what are some of the dumb things to avoid doing and saying?


I’ll stay away from the “what are dumb things people do/say” question. I think people can get a little weirded out by pain, suffering, and death. They don’t know what to do so they end up saying things that are hurtful to people who have experienced loss.

What do you wish people understood more about how to relate to those who suffer?

I wish people understood the power of presence. Just people being there to pray with us, encourage us, and support us was extremely life-giving (once I recovered from surgery).

How can we be praying for you and your family?

I am 10 months in to 18 months of chemo, and the treatments are starting to wear down my stomach and intestines. I am cramping up quite a bit, even after the round is over. I still have at least 8 months left and am hoping that it doesn’t get worse.

I asked in the first email I sent out after the seizure that people would pray for the salvation of my children, and whatever happened that they wouldn’t grow embittered to the Lord. My oldest Audrey has asked God to reign and rule her life a month ago and we’ve been celebrating ever since.

I’d ask for the continued prayers of salvation and sustaining grace on my family’s life and continued death to the cancerous cells that once ravaged my brain!