He was born in a bed of straw in a tiny middle-eastern town to parents who had not yet been married on the day He was conceived. Shortly after His birth, His family was forced to flee the country amidst threats of genocide. By the age of 12, with His family now back home, He began making a name for Himself. By age 30, He began full-time work as a Religious Teacher. However, He was not just any Teacher. He was the Teacher that all the other Teachers despised. And why? For one, he was more popular. But more than that, He was arrogant. Proud. Too sure of Himself, and too sure of where He came from. He claimed to be special. He said He was with God in the beginning. He said He’d seen Heaven with His own two eyes, and was sent from Heaven. He said He was the only son of God, eternal. He said that death had no hold on Him. He said if His body was destroyed, He would rise again 3 days later. He said the highest place in Heaven was reserved for Him. He said the seat at the right hand of God was meant for Him. He said every knee, including yours and mine, would bow beneath Him. He said every tongue, including yours and mine, would confess His Lordship. He said there was only one way into Heaven, and that was through Him. He said Heaven only had one gate, and He was the gate. He said you have a problem and He is the solution. He said He loves you. He said He died on the cross for you. He said He would give you life. He said He’d open the gates of Heaven for you. He said He’d give you rest, give you peace, give you right standing with God.  He said He’d never leave you. He said He’d be with you always. He said He’d never lie to you. He said the words He spoke were life and truth.  He said He was Lord, Savior, Messiah, Redeemer, Jesus the Christ.

He said all He asks for in return is our hearts; that we trust and believe in Him and commit to follow Him for the rest of our lives.

What Will You Do?

Philippians 4:17 "Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that is increasing to YOUR account."

     Paul had a perspective in ministry that I is hard for me to relate to; I can honestly say I've always thought of making disciples as a process where I help others succeed as Christians and prepare them for the life to come, so that I can store up treasures for myself in Heaven.  In my obedience to Christ’s call on my life to make disciples, I am storing up a rich inheritance for eternity to come.  I guess I think of it like a savings account – as I act in faith and obedience, I am adding to my eternal bank account.  I don’t think that’s a completely unbiblical line of thought, as we are commanded by Jesus to store up treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-21); however, that’s not the whole picture, and not the entire heart of God.

     Although Paul was certainly motivated by “treasures in Heaven” (2 Timothy 4:8), there was something different about the way he viewed ministry.  Though he was motivated by Heaven, his goal was to make OTHERS GREAT IN HEAVEN, not just successful as Christians here on earth.  Paul looked at discipling as not only preparing people for the next life, but also as making THEM great in the life to come! He was concerned about THEIR treasure in Heaven more than his own!

     I can't honestly say I've ever had that perspective; not even close.  That's just crazy to me.  It requires impossible humility, and a totally different perspective than I am used to.  It changes the way I pray, the way I do ministry, the way I view people; it changes everything.  Paul desired for the people that he served and loved to be greater than him for ALL ETERNITY.  He was letting God know "reward these people!! Make THEM great in Heaven!! Count THEM as great!!"  And so often, even in my most selfless serving and sacrificial loving, I want people to succeed here so that I'll be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

   “The Christian Life” can very quickly become nothing more than a set of tasks that we perform and good habits we exercise.  But because the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,” we know that God’s primary goal is not to simply modify our behavior.  His goal is real love.  What I’ve been really challenged by lately is a simple question: “Why do I love Jesus?”  This is what I came up with…

   Because Jesus helped those who asked him for help.  He healed those who asked him to be healed.  He was endlessly loyal to 12 men who sometimes didn’t give a rip.  He was gracious to the humble and opposed to the proud.  He was pure, holy, intentional, and inclusive; he always made time for everyone.

   Because he turned over tables of men who disrespected his father, trampled on the name of his dad, who cheated and swindled and lied and stole in His name; and then he spoke where those men once stood and stole, and he taught them about His great love for them.  He healed people I would want nothing to do with.  He embraced a crowd of thousands and served them after one of his best friends in this world had been beheaded. BEHEADED!  Not imprisoned, not threatened, not beaten, not murdered; BEHEADED!

   Because he silently stood as people taunted him, screamed at him, degraded him, punched him in the face, spit on his face, called him a liar and a fake; and then he walked into the cross.  And then he stayed there when he didn’t have to and died for the sins of the whole world; not just my sins, but the sins of the whole world.  He died for the sins of Judas who had just betrayed him, for the sins of those scum of the earth guards who had just spit on his face, dressed him in a crown of thorns and hit him in the face, taunting him; yes, those men, those sins.  He died for those actions, he paid for those sins; and not years later, not after he had time to cool off, but moments later.  He died for those who hung him on that cross.  And he died for me who once made himself equal with God by claiming to have all I would ever need by my own strength, who spread lies to his sheep and lead others astray, and who still to this day cannot walk in obedience to even the simplest of God’s commands.

   Because Jesus was perfect; and he walked the walk.  Because the days of his life are the greatest display of God’s holiness and perfection, of God’s character, and of everything I am not.  He loved God above anything else without a shadow of a doubt.  He took a stand for God and nothing and no one else; he represented God alone, and brought nothing of his own plans or agenda.  Everything he did was an extension of God. Because his love for God was unshakeable; his love for others was inseparable. He was a bold speaker of the truth and he always said what needed to be said. 

   Jesus was incredible, indescribable, worthy.  Do you know him?  Do you love him?  Why?  Who is he and what has he done?

“Therefore repent and turn back, that your sins may be wiped out so that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

Acts 3:19

            I was really encouraged by this verse the other day.  I think in a lot of ways, my life and my heart have been on autopilot for quite some time.  The two biggest things that result from me cruising through life on autopilot are that (1), small areas of well-entrenched sin are able to exist in my life with very little resistance or discomfort, and (2), I can start to think of myself more highly than I ought, and become convinced that I’ve got my life under control, I know what I’m doing, I know where I’m going, and I know how to get there.

            Small areas of sin in my life can be so difficult to overcome.  I know there are attitudes I’ve embraced, habits I’ve formed, or bitternesses I’ve maintained that the Lord wants to deal with and root out; but over time, if I allow those things to go unchecked, or if I allow myself to justify those attitudes and behaviors, I develop a sense of comfort with these things.  Though I may have had a sensitive conscience towards bitterness in the beginning, or towards slander and gossip, over time, if I allow those things to be a consistent part of my life, I find a way to become comfortable with them.  It’s as though I sear my own conscience.  In this way, I desperately need a soft, repentant heart so that God may wipe out, or annihilate the sin in my life.  And this is for my good, that I may experience seasons of refreshing in the presence of the Lord.  Ever feel burned out?  Sometimes what we need most is a soft, repentant, teachable spirit, and to turn back and remember where we came from, so God can deal with our sin and we can experience seasons of refreshing in His presence.

            In terms of feeling like I’ve got life by the tail, and this place figured out, the biggest reason it is destructive is that I stop operating on faith, and start operating according to my own agenda.  When that happens, I can have such a hard time stooping low, being humble before the Lord, and walking humbly alongside brothers and sisters.  It’s actually a pretty miserable place to be; I don’t think anyone enjoys being proud.  But if I’m convinced in my heart that I’ve got things under control, or that I know what I’m doing, it’s incredible how quickly I lose the soft, teachable, repentant spirit I first came to the Lord with.  I look really fondly on the days when everything was new, when I had no idea what life had in store, but I was just excited to spend it with the Lord, and I was more than happy to give him the reigns and let him lead the way.  I don’t want those days to always be in the rear view mirror.

Have you ever gotten to a church service and heard the first few minutes of the message and thought "Yes! Praise the Lord!  This will be perfect for the young believers here!"  I know I have.  And in many ways, I think it's a good thing; it's a good thing when we are aware of the needs of the flock, and aware of the needs of those around us (Jesus' last instructions to Peter in John 21 were to take care of and feed his Sheep; Proverbs 27:23 says "Be sure to know the condition of your flocks...").

Yet often times, as a result of that mindset, I stop listening with the intention of seeing the need for growth in my own life, I don't take an honest look at my own life, and even when I do listen, I do so under the assumption this is really for somebody else.  And to be honest, I am most vulnerable when the verse shared or the message given relates to an area of my life that I have down better than most of the people around me.  It's as though I experience the same complex I had as a non-believer ('I'm a pretty good person, because I'm nicer and more moral than most of the people I know').  Yet I forget that God's example, and God's standards, are infinitely higher than myself or those around me; I have never seen a perfect example of faithfulness in prayer, so even if I'm more faithful than any person on this planet, there is still room for me to grow.  And believe it or not, God is going to communicate the ways I can grow through imperfect people.

I believe the biggest reason I don't grow is because I don't listen.  When other people share verses or advice, or when pastors give a message, the truth is that often in my heart I'm only listening so I'm able to respond, carry on a conversation, or contribute in bible study.  But the reality is that verses people share, the messages pastors give, the thoughts others share -- it is a reproof from God for my life!  And I need to have ears that listen as if it's a reproof; yet often times I forget that this is one of the most important ways God communicates to us, and one of the most important ways God is able to sharpen and grow us.  As it says in Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another," but that doesn't happen accidentally.

This sobering passage in Matthew 13 challenges me greatly, when Jesus says, "¹³This is why I speak to them in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.' ¹⁴In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.' ¹⁵For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them."

If I don't begin to take steps in this area, and learn to listen intently as though the Lord himself is speaking reproof into my life, I am afraid I will experience what Solomon warned against in Proverbs 3, "¹¹At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent. ¹²You will say, "How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction! ¹³I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors."

This is my great fear.  That I will be always assuming they are talking to somebody else, or sharing a verse for someone else's sake, or talking just to talk; and I won't humbly take an honest look at myself and see how really, it's me who needs the reproof, who needs the correction.  Yet we have great hope and a great promise in Proverbs 10:17 "He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray."  If I want to be a light to others, I've got to learn to listen very well.