How did you learn how to ride a bike? Did it come easily? Did you fall several times before getting the hang of it? How did you learn how to roller skate? Did you skin your knees? I know I am dating myself. Few roller skate anymore. People learn how to roller blade these days and skate board. How did you learn? Did someone teach you? How did you learn how to cook? Did you fail along the way? Did someone guide you?
Three times in Matthew 6:5-7 Jesus uttered the phrase, "When you pray." I love prayer. I love to do it. I love to teach on it. I love to preach on prayer. I also love to write about prayer. I did so again this past Sunday. Then I received a text from someone that I have not been able to shake. The text went something like this, "How do we know how to pray?" There was more to the text but the basic gist asked the question of how does a person learn how to pray?
Preachers like myself are guilty of preaching and exhorting people to pray. What we often fail to do is to teach people how to pray. We just expect they will know how to pray. Often a person can pray and say everything they can think of in five or ten minutes. They have never been actually taught.
That text got me to thinking. How did I learn how to pray? Right off the bat I confess I am still learning how to pray. Prayer is so simple and so complex at the same time. So simple a child can do it. So complex a theologian can never fully explain all the facets of prayer.
My prayer life floundered during my high school years. As a new Christian I had no concept of praying with faith. Thinking back on those days all my prayers centered around football. I prayed for wins. I prayed for strength to beat my opponent. I prayed for a football scholarship. I never prayed over ten minutes for anything. I could not think of anything else to say.
God answered my prayer for a football scholarship at Howard Payne University. Unbeknownst to me, God had other plans for me on that campus than football or to study journalism. Just two months before arriving on campus God surprised me by calling me to preach. While standing in line at registration I heard two guys behind me talking about being Bible majors. That was the first time I even heard Howard Payne offered Bible classes. I deduced since God called me to preach I needed to change my major. It happened that quickly before I met with my advisor.
Part of becoming a freshman Bible major meant getting paired with an upperclassman as a mentor. God knew what I needed. He paired me with a guy named Richard Rozier. Richard was a senior. He had a wife and children. He also served as a pastor at a small church while finishing his studies. The first time Richard and I met he used that time to get to know me. The second time he invited me to come to a prayer meeting. I did not know what to expect. We met in the prayer room located behind the Bible building. All the others present were upperclassmen like Richard.
Before we prayed those guys started prostrating themselves on the floor. I had never seen anything like that. I knelt down. Then the prayer started. Prayers offered in faith, fervently, in tears and with travails like I had never heard in my life. I got caught up in it all. Time seemed to suspend. All that mattered in those moments is we entered God's presence and prayed our hearts out.
I could not believe it when the prayer meeting ended and nearly two hours had elapsed. God hooked me that day. From that day to this I have studied prayer. I have read about prayer and read the biographies of men and women who prayed mightily. I read, studied, reread and restudied Bible passages about prayer. Most of all I prayed.
Like a new colt standing on wobbly legs for the first time, prayer took on added significance to me though I prayed on wobbly knees. God used prayer giants to fuel the flames of prayer. People like Leonard Ravenhill who used to pray eight hours a day. E.M. Bounds who rose at 4:00 a.m. to pray. John Hyde who labored tirelessly in prayer for lost souls. George Mueller taught me to pray in faith believing God for the impossible. Evan Roberts taught me about being available to pray in the night watches and to pray for revival. There have been others. All of those men are dead now. God still used them to teach me through their writings and their lives.
My bookshelves are lined with dozens of volumes on prayer. It is by far my favorite of all topics to read, study, preach, teach and write on. I feel I know so little about it.
While a student at Howard Payne God had another teacher for me. A prayer giant named Don Miller. He used to conduct prayer conferences called Bible Based Praying. I attended that conference alone at a nearby church. I sat alone with pen and paper. I took copious notes filling page after page. I sat mesmerized by Mr. MIller's teachings and real life testimonies of how God answered prayer. Night after night I eagerly attended those meetings. I still have those notes. I refer to them from time to time.
Prayer has become my life. I am reminded I did not get here alone. I did not grow in prayer just because my pastor told me I needed to pray more. God used several people to teach me. Nothing grew my prayer life like praying itself. Over the years I learned to pray. Partly by studying His word. Partly by listening to others pray. Partly by praying in the secret place. Some I learned from reading and hearing sermons on prayer. He continues to teach me the ministry of intercession. Yahweh has ushered me into private worship encounters I cannot describe. He taught me to pray Scripture and to stand on His promises. He continues to teach me to pray with perseverance. I am learning to travail in prayer. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg. These are just the things above the surface. There is vastly more to discover beneath the surface.
I am addicted. Addicted to prayer. As freshman Bible major 33 years ago God enrolled me in the school of prayer. I have been an eager student on the front row to this day. Maybe the Lord will allow me to be a Richard Rozier for someone else teaching them to pray.
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Sweat
I just finished my daily work out. I pushed, pulled and contorted my body until the swea glistened and poured. It dripped down my arms and off my finger tips into little puddles on the floor. The more I worked the more the sweat oozed from my pores. At the end I sat in a chair winded, exhausted and dripping. Puddles formed from the sweat dripping from my arms and nose. Each puddle the testimony of the work put in.
That is not the point of this blog. My mind is not on the sweat from working or working out in the heat. My mind is on the soul sweat poured out from deep within when we pray. The kind of praying where you pray with all your might, all your faith and all your earnestness. The kind of soul sweat that is produced from travailing in prayer. In agony of soul with hard pressing the requests are petitioned to God.
Soul sweat praying is work. This is no casual stroll down a park path. This is hard, agonizing, intense labor likened to a woman giving birth. Only soul sweat praying is giving birth to miracles. It is trusting God to turn the impossible into reality. It is beiieving Yahweh to move the biggest mountains out of our way. It is travailing over the souls of the lost wayward. It is standing in the gap for an immoral nation to turn back in repentance. It is pleading with God to revive the dead bones of churches on the brink of death.
This kind of praying is taxing. It is laborious. It is determined relentless resolve to get a breakthrough. This is not the kind of praying found at the local prayer meeting where fifteen minutes will be used to take prayer requests and only thirty seconds to actually lift those requests up in prayer.
We need soul sweating followers of Jesus. We need congregations who put in soul sweat for their communities. We need pastors who'll give soul sweat for his flock. We need parents who'll will give soul sweat for their children. Teachers who'll give soul sweat for their students.
It is hard to find a prayer meeting these days. Many prayer meetings are disguised as fellowships. People gather to eat and socialize more then they gather to pray. Some gather to gossip in the form of prayer requests more than they intercede for others. Some prayer meetings are made up of empty cliches and vain repetition. Such people think they will will be heard for their many words. Some pray to please the listeners around them more than to gain the ear of God. None of the above is soul sweat praying.
Soul sweat praying begins with a burden. Something a person is convinced God wills to happen. Then the soul sweat begins. The asking. The believing. The standing in faith. The perseverance. The travail. The resolve to keep asking, to keep seeking and to keep knocking. When the people of God get to this point God intervenes. He works. He lifts burdens. He saves the lost. He brings the prodigals home. He revives the weary. He renews those about to quit. He convicts of sin. He calls others to pray. In this way Great Awakenings have been birthed. The glory of God followed.
Surely we need that again today. O Lord, please give this burden to pray with soul sweat. A real fervency and earnestness. Please produce perseverance in your people to keep praying no matter how the answer is delayed. In Jesus name, amen.
1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV)
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Matthew 7:7-8 (NKJV)
7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Luke 18:1 (NKJV)
1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,
James 5:16 (NKJV)
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
That is not the point of this blog. My mind is not on the sweat from working or working out in the heat. My mind is on the soul sweat poured out from deep within when we pray. The kind of praying where you pray with all your might, all your faith and all your earnestness. The kind of soul sweat that is produced from travailing in prayer. In agony of soul with hard pressing the requests are petitioned to God.
Soul sweat praying is work. This is no casual stroll down a park path. This is hard, agonizing, intense labor likened to a woman giving birth. Only soul sweat praying is giving birth to miracles. It is trusting God to turn the impossible into reality. It is beiieving Yahweh to move the biggest mountains out of our way. It is travailing over the souls of the lost wayward. It is standing in the gap for an immoral nation to turn back in repentance. It is pleading with God to revive the dead bones of churches on the brink of death.
This kind of praying is taxing. It is laborious. It is determined relentless resolve to get a breakthrough. This is not the kind of praying found at the local prayer meeting where fifteen minutes will be used to take prayer requests and only thirty seconds to actually lift those requests up in prayer.
We need soul sweating followers of Jesus. We need congregations who put in soul sweat for their communities. We need pastors who'll give soul sweat for his flock. We need parents who'll will give soul sweat for their children. Teachers who'll give soul sweat for their students.
It is hard to find a prayer meeting these days. Many prayer meetings are disguised as fellowships. People gather to eat and socialize more then they gather to pray. Some gather to gossip in the form of prayer requests more than they intercede for others. Some prayer meetings are made up of empty cliches and vain repetition. Such people think they will will be heard for their many words. Some pray to please the listeners around them more than to gain the ear of God. None of the above is soul sweat praying.
Soul sweat praying begins with a burden. Something a person is convinced God wills to happen. Then the soul sweat begins. The asking. The believing. The standing in faith. The perseverance. The travail. The resolve to keep asking, to keep seeking and to keep knocking. When the people of God get to this point God intervenes. He works. He lifts burdens. He saves the lost. He brings the prodigals home. He revives the weary. He renews those about to quit. He convicts of sin. He calls others to pray. In this way Great Awakenings have been birthed. The glory of God followed.
Surely we need that again today. O Lord, please give this burden to pray with soul sweat. A real fervency and earnestness. Please produce perseverance in your people to keep praying no matter how the answer is delayed. In Jesus name, amen.
1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV)
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Matthew 7:7-8 (NKJV)
7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Luke 18:1 (NKJV)
1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,
James 5:16 (NKJV)
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Monday, May 28, 2018
I Remember
They were young. Dreamers. Filled with energy and enthusiasm. They came from all over. Big cities and small towns. Some talked with a country twang and some talked with a northern accent. Some wore Dress clothes and others jeans and boots. They all showed up with one purpose. They became soldiers.
Weeks of getting up early, push ups, running, drills and lots of yelling followed. They were challenged mentally, emotionally, and physically. Some cried for home. Some bravely fought back the tears. The weeks passed slowly. The training proved harder than can put down on paper. Sweat flowed. Muscles burned and ached.
Then boot camp ended. An even harder reality set in. These new soldiers, many only teenagers, packed their gear. They loaded planes and ships to be transported to the war. Not just any war. The Second Great War. WWII. Some manned battleships and aircraft carriers. Some plunged the ocean depths in summaries. Some arrived at beach heads by boat. They stormed the beaches facing deadly gunfire as soon as they landing ramp lowered. Fear had to be pushed aside to press forward. Many fell that day. Some parachuted behind enemy lines.
A bloody seige followed. Soldiers died. Soldiers were wounded. Soldiers were maimed. The scars went deeper than flesh. The psyches were scarred as well. Still they had to fight for the cause of freedom. Soldiers lost friends. Troops lost their commanders and commanders lost many of their troops. Overnight wives became widows. Children lost parents. Parents lost children. They pressed forward. Over 37,000 ground forces were killed at D Day. Over 16,000 additional soldiers died in the Air Force. Today I remember.
Over 58,000 American military personnel died in the Vietnam war. If you count civilians over 2 million people died during that bloody conflict. There were also wars in Korea and Iraq in additional to the continuing war on terrorism.
And today America is supposed to remember. Memorial Day. What really happens is many Americans go to the lake, play golf, shop, grill, shop and go to the movies. Memorial Day has become the beginning of summer. A holiday. A day I choose to remember.
While I write this soldiers endure hardships. They patrol in harm's way continually. The fight fierce enemies bent on doing us harm. I do not take their sacrifice for granted. The freedoms my family enjoy were bought and defended with a steep price. Blood was spilt. Lives were sacrificed. Because of that I enjoy the freedom to write this blog. I worshipped with other believers yesterday. I taught and peached the Bible. I read it earlier today. I can travel across the country in freedom. My family prayerfully chose our careers. Those careers were not dictated to us by a government.
We have freedom but it did not come cheaply. Today I remember. Today I pause in the middle of my lush comfortable life and I choose to remember. The freedom I enjoy came at the price of many men and women dying.
Recently my family ate breakfast at a little cafe. An elderly gentleman walked in with what looked like his adult daughter. Brenda noticed the cap he wore. The cap identified that man as a Pearl Harbor survivor. On my way out I stopped by his table. I took my cap off and thanked him for his service and all he did for our country. Thousands died at Peral Harbor. Over 2,000 died and more than 1,000 were wounded. A tragic day. A day that still lives in the minds of millions. There are not many real life survivors left. They are aging and dying off.
I wanted that man to know I do not take His service for granted. I wanted him to know I appreciate his service. Nearly every Sunday my family eats with a former military man who served on a submarine. I want my boys to hear about the service of military men and women. I recall a long ago departed man who served in the Navy. His ship got hit by a torpedo. He actually floated in the Pacific Ocean before getting rescued. I remember.
God could have let me be born anywhere. He chose to plant me in the home of the brave and the land of the free. I am grateful for it. While the United Sates is not a perfect country it is a place I love living. To all past, present and future soldiers; THANK YOU. Today I remember.
Weeks of getting up early, push ups, running, drills and lots of yelling followed. They were challenged mentally, emotionally, and physically. Some cried for home. Some bravely fought back the tears. The weeks passed slowly. The training proved harder than can put down on paper. Sweat flowed. Muscles burned and ached.
Then boot camp ended. An even harder reality set in. These new soldiers, many only teenagers, packed their gear. They loaded planes and ships to be transported to the war. Not just any war. The Second Great War. WWII. Some manned battleships and aircraft carriers. Some plunged the ocean depths in summaries. Some arrived at beach heads by boat. They stormed the beaches facing deadly gunfire as soon as they landing ramp lowered. Fear had to be pushed aside to press forward. Many fell that day. Some parachuted behind enemy lines.
A bloody seige followed. Soldiers died. Soldiers were wounded. Soldiers were maimed. The scars went deeper than flesh. The psyches were scarred as well. Still they had to fight for the cause of freedom. Soldiers lost friends. Troops lost their commanders and commanders lost many of their troops. Overnight wives became widows. Children lost parents. Parents lost children. They pressed forward. Over 37,000 ground forces were killed at D Day. Over 16,000 additional soldiers died in the Air Force. Today I remember.
Over 58,000 American military personnel died in the Vietnam war. If you count civilians over 2 million people died during that bloody conflict. There were also wars in Korea and Iraq in additional to the continuing war on terrorism.
While I write this soldiers endure hardships. They patrol in harm's way continually. The fight fierce enemies bent on doing us harm. I do not take their sacrifice for granted. The freedoms my family enjoy were bought and defended with a steep price. Blood was spilt. Lives were sacrificed. Because of that I enjoy the freedom to write this blog. I worshipped with other believers yesterday. I taught and peached the Bible. I read it earlier today. I can travel across the country in freedom. My family prayerfully chose our careers. Those careers were not dictated to us by a government.
We have freedom but it did not come cheaply. Today I remember. Today I pause in the middle of my lush comfortable life and I choose to remember. The freedom I enjoy came at the price of many men and women dying.
Recently my family ate breakfast at a little cafe. An elderly gentleman walked in with what looked like his adult daughter. Brenda noticed the cap he wore. The cap identified that man as a Pearl Harbor survivor. On my way out I stopped by his table. I took my cap off and thanked him for his service and all he did for our country. Thousands died at Peral Harbor. Over 2,000 died and more than 1,000 were wounded. A tragic day. A day that still lives in the minds of millions. There are not many real life survivors left. They are aging and dying off.
I wanted that man to know I do not take His service for granted. I wanted him to know I appreciate his service. Nearly every Sunday my family eats with a former military man who served on a submarine. I want my boys to hear about the service of military men and women. I recall a long ago departed man who served in the Navy. His ship got hit by a torpedo. He actually floated in the Pacific Ocean before getting rescued. I remember.
God could have let me be born anywhere. He chose to plant me in the home of the brave and the land of the free. I am grateful for it. While the United Sates is not a perfect country it is a place I love living. To all past, present and future soldiers; THANK YOU. Today I remember.
Sunday, May 20, 2018
The Traditions Of Men
Mark 7:1-9 (NKJV)
1 Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem.
2 Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?"
6 He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'
8 "For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men--the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."
9 He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
1 Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem.
2 Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.
3 For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.
4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?"
6 He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'
8 "For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men--the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."
9 He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
It is a sad truth that far too many churches have become legalistic, steeped in traditions, blind to the truth and teaching these traditions as if they are the commands of God. Following I am going to list several things many congregations would consider sacred. God has used some of these traditions. That does not mean they are His commands held on equal footing as the scriptures.
1. The 11:00 a.m. worship hour. This one is changing. Many worship gatherings are offered at different times. There are still a good many congregations who gather at 11:00 a.m. It is pretty widely known this tradition began when most people worked in agricultural related fields. They got up early to do their farm chores feeding animals and milking cows. This still gave them time to gather for worship. Yet that 11:00 a.m. worship hour is considered sacred by men even though the majority of our society do not work in agriculture related careers.
2. Sunday school. Many churches no longer use the term Sunday school. They have modernized it by calling it Life Groups, Small Groups, Journey Groups, and Bible Study. It would surprise most Christians to learn such classes were not held until around 1740. Even then there were no divided classes for different age groups. For a long time there was just one class offered for all age groups. Sunday school is another tradition of men. I am not saying it is a bad one. I am not saying God has not used it. I'm just calling it what it is. Some choose to forego Sunday school in favor of home groups. Sunday school is not a command of God. It is a tradition of men.
3. Sunday worship. Jewish people observed Saturday as their Sabbath. Sometime after Jesus resurrected a slow shift came. The Jewish Christians continued to worship on Saturday. Eventually a change occurred. Christians reasoned since God started creation and Jesus rose from the grave on what we know as Sunday they began to worship on Sunday. This was not always the case. Another tradition of men.
4. Youth groups. This is a relatively new tradition in the church as traditions go. The experiment of youth groups has happenedd for decades as opposed to centuries. If you look strictly at statistics the youth group has failed. Studies show that 70% of those involved in a youth group will drop out of any church after high school. What is worse is that out of that 70% who drop out 35% will never return to the church. Yet millions of dollars are spent on youth groups across the nation. There are Bible Studies, Disciple Now, Retreats, Youth Camps, Youth Conferences, and many other resources. I recently heard the sad tale of how several key leaders in one youth group were living in hypocrisy. They were involved in horrific sins in the shadows. Some will be quick to argue that many are saved as a result of youth ministry. I agree that is true. I am a product of that. I still preach youth camps and other youth events. This is still a tradition of men. I challenge you. Show me a youth group in the Bible. I am not saying God cannot use it. He did in my life. It is not a commandment. It is a tradition of men.
5. Order of worship. This always makes me laugh. Do we really think we can box God into an order of worship printed in a bulletin or worship guide? Some time ago I received an invitation to preach in a church. I sat on the front pew praying before the service started. The worship minister approached me. He filled me in on the order of worship. I commented, "How do you know? Are you sure? What if God chooses to show up and do something different?" I meant nothing by it. They were honest questions. He looked bewildered. When he wheeled to leave I heard him muttering under his breath, "How do you know? Are you sure?" Predictably he was not open. The service went on as planned and programmed. Predictably there was no great move of God that morning. You would not have found this pattern in the Acts church. There was freedom in those gatherings. They made room for spontaneity. They embraced the Holy Spirit to move freely in their meetings. This is sadly missing in many churches. Orders of worship are a tradition of men.
6. The sermon. Wait a minute I can hear many shouting. There has been preaching. I don't if it looked like what we do today. When did Jesus stand behind a pulpit? He stood on a beach, on a boat, on a mountain and taught people. Did He stand behind a pulpit? The pulpit is sacred. The sermon is sacred. He preached truth in what we know as the Sermon On The Mount found in Matthew 5-7. Did He allow for questions? Did the apostles? Did they stand to give an oratory? Was it formal and one sided? Was their preaching interactive, engaging and any less effective? Yet we will go to the mat defending the sermon. Preachers want to preach. One lady recently commented that she loves it when I get fired up preaching. She went on to day she grew up on preaching like that. I am flattered but at the end of the day all I care about is does God use it? Did that lady have an encounter with Yahweh? Did God use the message to bring her closer to Jesus? Sermons can be entertaining. Theatrical. A show. A place to display talent and oratory skills. God abhors this attitude. Is the sermon effective? Is there anything wrong with letting people give feedback and engaging them in the sermon? Does the preacher have to stay on the stage. That is a whole other tradition of men. I believe you would be hard pressed to find the modern day sermon in the book of Acts or in the life of Jesus.
7. Business meeting. Another tradition of men. People vote on the will of God for the church. I can think of two times Israel did this and both times they voted NOT TO DO God's will. They voted not to go into the promised land. They unanimously chose as a nation to have a king instead of trusting God their King. Both were not the will of God. Anytime a backslidden hypocritical church member can have an equal vote as the most godly person in the congregation something is wrong. Look through the scriptures. Do you see business meetings there? Sure there were meetings to make decisions and wrestle with doctrinal issues. These meetings were not business meetings in the sense we know them.
I have many others. These sacred traditions held so tightly they are taught like they are the commands of God. We had better be really careful in substituting any tradition of men trying to put it on the same ground as the commands of God.
To break up traditions or to call them what they are is dangerous. It shakes things up. It rocks the boat of the religious establishment. The religious establishment is suffocating the work of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is grieved and quenched. The power of God long ago departed many of our religious gatherings but does anyone notice?
There is so much more. God wants to do more in His church. He still transforms lives. New believers come in on fire and the flames are soon dowsed by apathetic tradition bound legalists. God help us to see truth and light. Help us to break free from traditions that bind us and keep us from all that Yahweh desires for us. May we hunger for His commands and not the traditions of men.
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Don't Lose Heart
Luke 18:1 (NKJV)
1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,
There are so many set backs and trials in life. Little children play and dream of the future. Very few find life like the fairly tales. Real life drama often tests a person in ways they never imagined when they were younger. Things like cancer, divorce, unemployment, chronic health deterioration, relational troubles and death.
The pain of life can hit so forcefully the temptation is to throw in the towel and not the answer the bell for the next round. Giving up is easier than fighting.
For the Christian there is prayer. Calling out to God for help. Beseeching Him for wisdom, strength and miraculous intervention. Only some times those prayers do not get answered. At least not in the way we wanted. We pray some more. Sometimes the burdens are so heavy and the pain so unrelenting we don't even know how to pray. Maybe those prayers are just tears and groaning. No words can be managed.
Even then it is possible for situations to take turns for the worse. It is possible to lose faith and lose heart. Everybody reading this could testify about unanswered prayers. Some of those prayers may have been lifted for a short season before you gave up. Some have prayed for years. You are desperate. You have nowhere else to turn. God is your only hope. No help came.
When those repeated prayers get denied over and over again it can wear on you psychologically. Doubts creep in. You start to wonder what difference all the praying makes. You can even rationalize that God is going to do what He is going to do and your prayers make little difference. In essence you lose heart.
It's a terrible thing when a person loses heart. When they give up. When courage collapses and faith is fumbled. You can see it often in the countenance of people. They look worn down. Wearied. Filled with anxiety. Heavy laden with sorrow. They view life through sad eyes. That sadness tints and distorts everything. You can hear it their voice. They lost heart. They have abandoned all hope. They are imprisoned in a dungeon of depression.
When people lose heart one of the possible outcomes is to also lose heart in God. Thoughts are entertained such as, "God, why don't you help? Why have You let me down? What am I doing wrong that You will not come to my aid? Do You even care?" Thoughts planted by the enemy to get us to lose all hope.
The temptation to quit praying all together abounds. If a person loses heart they will also most likely lose faith and lose hope. Jesus knew this temptation. That is why He spoke the parable in Luke 18. While I will not address the actual parable all we need to know is found in Luke 18:1.
We ought to always pray. If you have already lost heart that is one of the last things you want to hear. You may think you already tried God and prayer and they didn't work. For all the petitions you offered you can't identify any answers to those prayers. Hundreds and possibly thousands of hours of prayer and if you don't see any results, losing heart seems a logical outcome.
Why would Jesus want us to always pray and not lose heart? You may have prayed for a loved one to be healed but, they died. You may have soaked the carpet with your tears to preserve a marriage but, the divorce still happened. You may have supplicated hours on end for financial relief but, it never came. You could have prayed for success but, you failed instead. You may have prayed, sought, and knocked but the doors still remained close. Why would Jesus want you to keep praying when your praying produced no results. There is a point where the thing you prayed would not happen happens anyway and it is too late.
While our prayers may not bring the loved one back there is still life to live for those left behind. There are still things to believe God for. There are other battles to fight and win. Even in grief. There are still souls to be won, the kingdom of God to expand, ministry to be done to others grieving and God to know and to make known.
I am thinking of two widows. Both lost their husbands way too early. Both attended the same church. One lived in grief. Visiting in her home one day she wept and wept. She confessed she just could not get over his death. She loved her husband very deeply and they were very close. Grief gripped her like a vice. She could not move forward. She even dreamed about him at nights. She lived in sadness. She also became bitter. Negative. Sour.
There was another widow. She actually lost her husband much earlier than the first widow I mentioned above. She led an active life. She served faithfully at her church. She taught Sunday school. She led several other vital ministries not only in the church but in the community as well. She laughed. She had joy. I am convinced she lived with just as much grief as the first widow. She loved her husband just as much. She lived with the same sense of loss.
What made the difference? One lost heart and one didn't. One kept her eyes on the life in front of her. She continued to pray and trust God. The other could only look at life in the past. She could not move forward. One kept praying and seeking to build the kingdom of God. One eventually left that church and community and went back to where she came from with lost hope.
Keep praying. Pray through disappointments. Pray through adversity. Pray through grief. Pray through doubts. Pray through a broken heart. Pray through quitting. Pray through disappointment. Pray until victory. Pray until God calls you home. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER GIVE UP ON GOD. DON'T LOSE HEART. KEEP TRUSTING HIM. KEEP BELIEVING HIM. And whatever else you do, keep on praying.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NKJV)
17 pray without ceasing,
1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,
There are so many set backs and trials in life. Little children play and dream of the future. Very few find life like the fairly tales. Real life drama often tests a person in ways they never imagined when they were younger. Things like cancer, divorce, unemployment, chronic health deterioration, relational troubles and death.
The pain of life can hit so forcefully the temptation is to throw in the towel and not the answer the bell for the next round. Giving up is easier than fighting.
For the Christian there is prayer. Calling out to God for help. Beseeching Him for wisdom, strength and miraculous intervention. Only some times those prayers do not get answered. At least not in the way we wanted. We pray some more. Sometimes the burdens are so heavy and the pain so unrelenting we don't even know how to pray. Maybe those prayers are just tears and groaning. No words can be managed.
Even then it is possible for situations to take turns for the worse. It is possible to lose faith and lose heart. Everybody reading this could testify about unanswered prayers. Some of those prayers may have been lifted for a short season before you gave up. Some have prayed for years. You are desperate. You have nowhere else to turn. God is your only hope. No help came.
When those repeated prayers get denied over and over again it can wear on you psychologically. Doubts creep in. You start to wonder what difference all the praying makes. You can even rationalize that God is going to do what He is going to do and your prayers make little difference. In essence you lose heart.
It's a terrible thing when a person loses heart. When they give up. When courage collapses and faith is fumbled. You can see it often in the countenance of people. They look worn down. Wearied. Filled with anxiety. Heavy laden with sorrow. They view life through sad eyes. That sadness tints and distorts everything. You can hear it their voice. They lost heart. They have abandoned all hope. They are imprisoned in a dungeon of depression.
When people lose heart one of the possible outcomes is to also lose heart in God. Thoughts are entertained such as, "God, why don't you help? Why have You let me down? What am I doing wrong that You will not come to my aid? Do You even care?" Thoughts planted by the enemy to get us to lose all hope.
The temptation to quit praying all together abounds. If a person loses heart they will also most likely lose faith and lose hope. Jesus knew this temptation. That is why He spoke the parable in Luke 18. While I will not address the actual parable all we need to know is found in Luke 18:1.
We ought to always pray. If you have already lost heart that is one of the last things you want to hear. You may think you already tried God and prayer and they didn't work. For all the petitions you offered you can't identify any answers to those prayers. Hundreds and possibly thousands of hours of prayer and if you don't see any results, losing heart seems a logical outcome.
Why would Jesus want us to always pray and not lose heart? You may have prayed for a loved one to be healed but, they died. You may have soaked the carpet with your tears to preserve a marriage but, the divorce still happened. You may have supplicated hours on end for financial relief but, it never came. You could have prayed for success but, you failed instead. You may have prayed, sought, and knocked but the doors still remained close. Why would Jesus want you to keep praying when your praying produced no results. There is a point where the thing you prayed would not happen happens anyway and it is too late.
While our prayers may not bring the loved one back there is still life to live for those left behind. There are still things to believe God for. There are other battles to fight and win. Even in grief. There are still souls to be won, the kingdom of God to expand, ministry to be done to others grieving and God to know and to make known.
I am thinking of two widows. Both lost their husbands way too early. Both attended the same church. One lived in grief. Visiting in her home one day she wept and wept. She confessed she just could not get over his death. She loved her husband very deeply and they were very close. Grief gripped her like a vice. She could not move forward. She even dreamed about him at nights. She lived in sadness. She also became bitter. Negative. Sour.
There was another widow. She actually lost her husband much earlier than the first widow I mentioned above. She led an active life. She served faithfully at her church. She taught Sunday school. She led several other vital ministries not only in the church but in the community as well. She laughed. She had joy. I am convinced she lived with just as much grief as the first widow. She loved her husband just as much. She lived with the same sense of loss.
What made the difference? One lost heart and one didn't. One kept her eyes on the life in front of her. She continued to pray and trust God. The other could only look at life in the past. She could not move forward. One kept praying and seeking to build the kingdom of God. One eventually left that church and community and went back to where she came from with lost hope.
Keep praying. Pray through disappointments. Pray through adversity. Pray through grief. Pray through doubts. Pray through a broken heart. Pray through quitting. Pray through disappointment. Pray until victory. Pray until God calls you home. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER GIVE UP ON GOD. DON'T LOSE HEART. KEEP TRUSTING HIM. KEEP BELIEVING HIM. And whatever else you do, keep on praying.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NKJV)
17 pray without ceasing,
Friday, May 18, 2018
Following In His Footsteps - Part 4
Luke 9:23 (Phillips NT)
23 Then he spoke to them all. "If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind me.
Most other translators interpret the last part of this verse as, "Follow Me."
That simple phrase has captured my heart for most of my Christian life. What does it look like for a man or woman to follow Jesus? What does it mean to keep close behind Jesus?
Churches are chock full of people chasing their own dreams and desires. I wonder how many have any intention to follow Jesus? We follow alright. We follow Jesus to our religious gatherings. We follow Him to service projects and short term mission trips. We follow Him to camps and revival meetings. We follow Him to Christian bookstores and conferences.
Can we honestly write our lives as a blank check to Jesus with our signature and say, "I will follow wherever You lead." In talking to a retired physician recently he said, "Christians are looking for the minimal they have to give or do for the Lord." I respect Dr. Eckert and his wife Nancy. They have faithfully served Jesus for decades. They are both in their eighties now but they still open their home every Sunday night for a Bible study. Brenda and I were privileged to sit in on many of those studies and stay as guests in their home.
Following Jesus has meant more than words to the Eckerts. Here is just a sampling of what following Jesus has meant over the years. After getting saved they relocated to be closer to their church family. They opened their home to new believers. At one point I think they had close to two dozen people living with them. They love people. They love with more than words. They love with their lives. Dr. Eckert opened a faith medical clinic in inner city Houston. He treated patients without regard to financial compensation for several years. He treated his patients spiritually as much as medically. They gave at least one home away at the Lord's instruction. Yes, you read that right. They gave their home away. They took many mission trips. And they are still following.
I think what has inspired me most about them is what they are doing now. Several years ago Jesus called them to uproot from Athens, TX and to go to Corpus Christi, TX where they have planted their lives and ministered to the body of Christ at large for the last several years. They did not have any relatives in Corpus Christi. No. They had the call of Jesus to follow Him there. They gave their house away and relocated. For the past several years they labored, prayed, and discipled the body of Christ in Corpus Christi. Brenda and I were privileged to meet them several months ago. We still stay in contact with them. Only God knows how much money they have given away over the years. The Eckerts have stayed close behind Jesus. They have followed. They continue to follow. They set the example for the rest of us.
Is there a willingness to follow Jesus in your life? It doesn't matter where He leads. If He is truly Lord in your life and mine, if He is truly Master, we should be willing to follow Him anywhere. We should live in relation to Him, ready to obey, to love, to give, to serve and to go.
One of the things I love about this last statement Jesus made in Luke 9:23 is that it is open ended. Before we commit to follow we want to know the end destination. Jesus does not acquiesce. He just says what He said to the disciples in the beginning, "Follow Me." "Stay close behind Me."
I don't know what that means for your life. I cannot even say I fully know what it means for Brenda and I. Following Jesus is an everyday journey. It is adventurous. It requires faith. It necessitates a closeness in our relationship with Jesus so we can discern and follow His leadership. It means surrender. Even when we get older. Jesus did not say, "Follow Me until you retire. Then sit back and take it easy until I call you home." Following Him means following Him all our days and everyday. It means living available to Him. It means staying close behind Him following in His steps. May He strengthen us and grant us courage to do this.
23 Then he spoke to them all. "If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind me.
Most other translators interpret the last part of this verse as, "Follow Me."
That simple phrase has captured my heart for most of my Christian life. What does it look like for a man or woman to follow Jesus? What does it mean to keep close behind Jesus?
Churches are chock full of people chasing their own dreams and desires. I wonder how many have any intention to follow Jesus? We follow alright. We follow Jesus to our religious gatherings. We follow Him to service projects and short term mission trips. We follow Him to camps and revival meetings. We follow Him to Christian bookstores and conferences.
Can we honestly write our lives as a blank check to Jesus with our signature and say, "I will follow wherever You lead." In talking to a retired physician recently he said, "Christians are looking for the minimal they have to give or do for the Lord." I respect Dr. Eckert and his wife Nancy. They have faithfully served Jesus for decades. They are both in their eighties now but they still open their home every Sunday night for a Bible study. Brenda and I were privileged to sit in on many of those studies and stay as guests in their home.
Following Jesus has meant more than words to the Eckerts. Here is just a sampling of what following Jesus has meant over the years. After getting saved they relocated to be closer to their church family. They opened their home to new believers. At one point I think they had close to two dozen people living with them. They love people. They love with more than words. They love with their lives. Dr. Eckert opened a faith medical clinic in inner city Houston. He treated patients without regard to financial compensation for several years. He treated his patients spiritually as much as medically. They gave at least one home away at the Lord's instruction. Yes, you read that right. They gave their home away. They took many mission trips. And they are still following.
I think what has inspired me most about them is what they are doing now. Several years ago Jesus called them to uproot from Athens, TX and to go to Corpus Christi, TX where they have planted their lives and ministered to the body of Christ at large for the last several years. They did not have any relatives in Corpus Christi. No. They had the call of Jesus to follow Him there. They gave their house away and relocated. For the past several years they labored, prayed, and discipled the body of Christ in Corpus Christi. Brenda and I were privileged to meet them several months ago. We still stay in contact with them. Only God knows how much money they have given away over the years. The Eckerts have stayed close behind Jesus. They have followed. They continue to follow. They set the example for the rest of us.
Is there a willingness to follow Jesus in your life? It doesn't matter where He leads. If He is truly Lord in your life and mine, if He is truly Master, we should be willing to follow Him anywhere. We should live in relation to Him, ready to obey, to love, to give, to serve and to go.
One of the things I love about this last statement Jesus made in Luke 9:23 is that it is open ended. Before we commit to follow we want to know the end destination. Jesus does not acquiesce. He just says what He said to the disciples in the beginning, "Follow Me." "Stay close behind Me."
I don't know what that means for your life. I cannot even say I fully know what it means for Brenda and I. Following Jesus is an everyday journey. It is adventurous. It requires faith. It necessitates a closeness in our relationship with Jesus so we can discern and follow His leadership. It means surrender. Even when we get older. Jesus did not say, "Follow Me until you retire. Then sit back and take it easy until I call you home." Following Him means following Him all our days and everyday. It means living available to Him. It means staying close behind Him following in His steps. May He strengthen us and grant us courage to do this.
Following In His Steps - Part 3
Luke 9:23 (Phillips NT)
23 Then he spoke to them all. "If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind me.
What does it mean to carry your cross everyday? Plain and simply for Jesus it meant suffering and death. At the very least taking up our cross means a willingness to suffer for His sake. That could mean dying to reputation, dying to earthly comforts, dying to a secure retirement and dying to personal ambition among other things. It can mean dying to the American dream. In extreme cases it can mean enduring torture and martyrdom.
Taking up our cross means a willingness to do these things every single day. Paul wrote that he had learned to be content in all circumstances. He wrote he knew how to abound and to suffer from lack. He knew what it meant to suffer from hunger, cold from the elements, loss of freedom in prison and torturous beatings.
In the United States there is little fear of Christians getting beat for their faith so far. That very well could change in the future. Christians are harassed. They are belittled and intimidated. In other parts of the world Christians suffer unimaginably. Taking up their cross means for them beatings, imprisonment, having gasoline thrown on them and then set on fire, having toe nails and fingernails ripped out, having their feet beaten and martyrdom. That is a reality for followers of Jesus in Syria, North Korea, Iran, China, Sudan and many other hostile countries in modern times.
In America people decorate their homes with crosses. They hang crosses from their rearview mirror in their vehicle. They wear crosses around their neck. They do lots of things but don't take up their cross daily. How many are willing to suffer for Jesus in building His kingdom? How many are wiling to risk looking a fool in order to obey Him? How many are willing to take the name of Jesus to the hard places on planet earth? How many are willing to risk everything for Jesus, even their very own lives? How many are willing to wear the harness of hardship in the name of Jesus?
I praise God there are many around the world doing this every single day. While in America, we sit at ease in Zion, many around the world serve Jesus at their own peril. Serving Him costs them something and they rejoice in their sufferings for the One who died and suffered for them on a cross. Their stories can be read in Fox's Book Of Martyrs and Voice Of The Martyrs. Such sufferers include Richard Wurmbrandt, Polycarp, Watchman Nee, Jim Elliott, Nate Saint and William Tyndale.
There were many of the apostles and nameless followers of Jesus we never hear about daily. they suffer and they die. Such brave soldiers of the cross own Bibles in hostile and restricted nations. If those Bibles are discovered they will be tortured for their faith and possibly murdered.
This is sobering. The cross has become a symbol of good luck for people nothing more than a good luck charm. The cross is so much more. It is the symbol of our salvation. It is a call to suffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew about suffering. Imprisoned and tortured he remained true to his fatih. Read what he wrote. “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
I can think of no better description of what it means to take up the cross daily.
23 Then he spoke to them all. "If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind me.
What does it mean to carry your cross everyday? Plain and simply for Jesus it meant suffering and death. At the very least taking up our cross means a willingness to suffer for His sake. That could mean dying to reputation, dying to earthly comforts, dying to a secure retirement and dying to personal ambition among other things. It can mean dying to the American dream. In extreme cases it can mean enduring torture and martyrdom.
Taking up our cross means a willingness to do these things every single day. Paul wrote that he had learned to be content in all circumstances. He wrote he knew how to abound and to suffer from lack. He knew what it meant to suffer from hunger, cold from the elements, loss of freedom in prison and torturous beatings.
In the United States there is little fear of Christians getting beat for their faith so far. That very well could change in the future. Christians are harassed. They are belittled and intimidated. In other parts of the world Christians suffer unimaginably. Taking up their cross means for them beatings, imprisonment, having gasoline thrown on them and then set on fire, having toe nails and fingernails ripped out, having their feet beaten and martyrdom. That is a reality for followers of Jesus in Syria, North Korea, Iran, China, Sudan and many other hostile countries in modern times.
In America people decorate their homes with crosses. They hang crosses from their rearview mirror in their vehicle. They wear crosses around their neck. They do lots of things but don't take up their cross daily. How many are willing to suffer for Jesus in building His kingdom? How many are wiling to risk looking a fool in order to obey Him? How many are willing to take the name of Jesus to the hard places on planet earth? How many are willing to risk everything for Jesus, even their very own lives? How many are willing to wear the harness of hardship in the name of Jesus?
I praise God there are many around the world doing this every single day. While in America, we sit at ease in Zion, many around the world serve Jesus at their own peril. Serving Him costs them something and they rejoice in their sufferings for the One who died and suffered for them on a cross. Their stories can be read in Fox's Book Of Martyrs and Voice Of The Martyrs. Such sufferers include Richard Wurmbrandt, Polycarp, Watchman Nee, Jim Elliott, Nate Saint and William Tyndale.
There were many of the apostles and nameless followers of Jesus we never hear about daily. they suffer and they die. Such brave soldiers of the cross own Bibles in hostile and restricted nations. If those Bibles are discovered they will be tortured for their faith and possibly murdered.
This is sobering. The cross has become a symbol of good luck for people nothing more than a good luck charm. The cross is so much more. It is the symbol of our salvation. It is a call to suffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew about suffering. Imprisoned and tortured he remained true to his fatih. Read what he wrote. “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
I can think of no better description of what it means to take up the cross daily.
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Following In His Footsteps - Part 2
Luke 9:23 (Phillips NT)
23 Then he spoke to them all. "If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind me.
The second part in this four part series is that we have to give up all rights to ourselves. Other translations will read, "let him deny himself."
We live in a selfish society. Some think the world revolves around them. I do not understand the fascination with social media. I exited the stage for a long time. I only care to use it for one thing. To get His word out to as many as possible. More people read these blogs when I post them than when I don't. So I use it for that purpose.
I do not understand the fascination with displaying life like an actor on a stage for the watching world to view. I do not understand the addiction of constantly posting where you eat and the constant taking of pictures. Especially selfies. All the purpose of getting "likes" or to generate comments. We are so self absorbed. The truth is much of what people post is a facade. It is not real life. It is an image to be portrayed. It is not real. Real life is hard. Real life is painful. Real life is filled with trials. Real followers of Jesus are more absorbed with Him than self.
Selfishness shows up in the way people spend their time and their money. Life is lived to pleased self for many more than to please Jesus. Selfishness trumps service. Selfishness exists in the church. Does it ever exist in the church. Power grabs. Manipulation to get an agenda passed. Constant battles for control. Selfishness.
A true follower of Jesus has to learn a hard truth. It is not about them. It is all about Jesus. A true follower must give up all rights to themselves. ALL RIGHTS. What does that mean? We become bondservants to Jesus. We are shackled to His will. We are in His service to do as He pleases. This is not typical of the American church goer.
We go to school where we want to go. We choose whatever profession suits us. We marry who we want to marry. We spend our money on what we want stockpiling more and more. We use our time how we want to use it. Self reigns supreme. The will of Jesus is not always sought. The call of Jesus to sacrifice is often avoided. His example to serve and not be served is rejected by the masses sitting in the pew. A friend recently told me out of the large church he serves only 37% serve in any capacity. Not even half.
Jesus demands to sit on the throne of our lives NOT SELF. He is Lord and King. We act like He exists to please and serve us. WRONG. We exist to please and serve Him! He gets to determine the course of our lives. He gets to pick where we live. He has earned the right to choose our profession. He has authority to set our path and ask us to conform. He calls the shots. He captains our ship. He pilots our plans.
We lose our rights to ourselves. I can feel some balking at such a hard stance. This is not on the menu in the sermon or "talk" from the pastor in a great many churches. Cake and cookie doctrine of how "Jesus can enhance your life," and "Steps to your best life" substitute for the call to denounce self.
Jesus demands all. All of us. He requires our entire life. He requires the denouncing of self. What we want is not important in comparison to what He wants. Now you may read this and reject all of it because it sounds barbaric. It sounds like slavery.
Don't forget one thing. A slave received very little from the master. We may be bondservants to Jesus but we benefit. We are forgiven, redeemed, rescued, adopted, loved and bought with the blood of Jesus. He does not treat us like a slave owner. He loves us. He created us. He designed us with purpose. If we ever grasp that truth we will have no problem giving up all rights to our lives. It might look like we are losing. The truth is we are gaining. In losing ourselves we are winning the battle over self. We find a higher more nobler purpose for living. To please Jesus. To serve others. I like the way John stated it.
He must increase and I must decrease. John 3:30 NASU
Let's get real for a moment. Self does not die easily. Self will fight and struggle to the very end. Self will not go quietly into the good night. To truly follow Jesus self has to die. Self has to be renounced. Self has to be given a fatal blow from Jesus mighty hand. It requires surrender. It requires laying life down on the altar of God as a sacrifice.
Are we still wanting to follow in Jesus footsteps. Let us deal with self and give up our rights before we press on to part 3.
23 Then he spoke to them all. "If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind me.
The second part in this four part series is that we have to give up all rights to ourselves. Other translations will read, "let him deny himself."
We live in a selfish society. Some think the world revolves around them. I do not understand the fascination with social media. I exited the stage for a long time. I only care to use it for one thing. To get His word out to as many as possible. More people read these blogs when I post them than when I don't. So I use it for that purpose.
I do not understand the fascination with displaying life like an actor on a stage for the watching world to view. I do not understand the addiction of constantly posting where you eat and the constant taking of pictures. Especially selfies. All the purpose of getting "likes" or to generate comments. We are so self absorbed. The truth is much of what people post is a facade. It is not real life. It is an image to be portrayed. It is not real. Real life is hard. Real life is painful. Real life is filled with trials. Real followers of Jesus are more absorbed with Him than self.
Selfishness shows up in the way people spend their time and their money. Life is lived to pleased self for many more than to please Jesus. Selfishness trumps service. Selfishness exists in the church. Does it ever exist in the church. Power grabs. Manipulation to get an agenda passed. Constant battles for control. Selfishness.
A true follower of Jesus has to learn a hard truth. It is not about them. It is all about Jesus. A true follower must give up all rights to themselves. ALL RIGHTS. What does that mean? We become bondservants to Jesus. We are shackled to His will. We are in His service to do as He pleases. This is not typical of the American church goer.
We go to school where we want to go. We choose whatever profession suits us. We marry who we want to marry. We spend our money on what we want stockpiling more and more. We use our time how we want to use it. Self reigns supreme. The will of Jesus is not always sought. The call of Jesus to sacrifice is often avoided. His example to serve and not be served is rejected by the masses sitting in the pew. A friend recently told me out of the large church he serves only 37% serve in any capacity. Not even half.
Jesus demands to sit on the throne of our lives NOT SELF. He is Lord and King. We act like He exists to please and serve us. WRONG. We exist to please and serve Him! He gets to determine the course of our lives. He gets to pick where we live. He has earned the right to choose our profession. He has authority to set our path and ask us to conform. He calls the shots. He captains our ship. He pilots our plans.
We lose our rights to ourselves. I can feel some balking at such a hard stance. This is not on the menu in the sermon or "talk" from the pastor in a great many churches. Cake and cookie doctrine of how "Jesus can enhance your life," and "Steps to your best life" substitute for the call to denounce self.
Jesus demands all. All of us. He requires our entire life. He requires the denouncing of self. What we want is not important in comparison to what He wants. Now you may read this and reject all of it because it sounds barbaric. It sounds like slavery.
Don't forget one thing. A slave received very little from the master. We may be bondservants to Jesus but we benefit. We are forgiven, redeemed, rescued, adopted, loved and bought with the blood of Jesus. He does not treat us like a slave owner. He loves us. He created us. He designed us with purpose. If we ever grasp that truth we will have no problem giving up all rights to our lives. It might look like we are losing. The truth is we are gaining. In losing ourselves we are winning the battle over self. We find a higher more nobler purpose for living. To please Jesus. To serve others. I like the way John stated it.
He must increase and I must decrease. John 3:30 NASU
Let's get real for a moment. Self does not die easily. Self will fight and struggle to the very end. Self will not go quietly into the good night. To truly follow Jesus self has to die. Self has to be renounced. Self has to be given a fatal blow from Jesus mighty hand. It requires surrender. It requires laying life down on the altar of God as a sacrifice.
Are we still wanting to follow in Jesus footsteps. Let us deal with self and give up our rights before we press on to part 3.
Following His Footsteps Part 1
Have you ever had the same verse show up over and over again? I am sure you have. Maybe in the span of a few days, weeks or months. I have had that happen for the past seven years! It happened again this week. Once someone quoted it to me. Twice I read it in morning devotions. The same truth in different Gospel accounts. Once in Matthew and in Luke.
When the same truth returns over and over again during the span of seven years that gets my attention. Of course during that span I have prayed as to the meaning. I have sought to obey it. I have meditated on it. I now share that with you.
I am going to share the verse out of a translation I rarely use. The person who quoted this verse to me earlier in the week used a different translation. I liked it.
Luke 9:23 (Phillips NT)
23 Then he spoke to them all. "If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind me.
This will be the first in a four part series. I want to start today with one simple word. It is the word want. "If anyone WANTS to follow in my footsteps."
Other translations use the word desire instead of want. It starts right here. Do we want to follow in Jesus' footsteps? Do we desire to come after Him? Before we can dive deeper into this truth we must address our wants and desires.
If we do not have the want to or desire to get behind Jesus we will not care much for the rest of the truth. So where are our wants and desires? What is it we long and wish for?
As for me, I know I have made a mess out of my life many times. When I've sat in the captain chair over my life I typically go astray. One of the things I not only want, but also need, is for Jesus to take the lead. That is my desire. To get out of His way and fall in step behind Him like troops marching behind their commanding officer.
I want that. I desire that. I need that. There have been many other instances when I set my eyes on a destination and then tried to convince Jesus to go along with me or I just broke ranks and went out on my own. This has never worked well.
Our wanting and desiring should be for Him to lead. On our lists of wants and desires where does this fall for all of us? Is this a priority? Is it important? Is it even on our radar?
It seems fewer and fewer have any want to let Him lead. There is little desire to come after Him. If this does not change in the church will continue to be impotent. Members will be lukewarm. Devotion will be tepid at best. Worship will be half-hearted. Hypocrisy will abound. Evangelism will nearly go extinct.
I want to want to follow in His footsteps. I want you to want to follow in His footsteps. I want all of us to have a greater wanting to do this. An ever increasing desire to go in the same direction of Jesus. Ultimately I know, we can't just will to want to Him lead. We may will to do so for a season. Emotions will fade. Resolve with ebb. Want will wane. If it is left up to us we will fail.
If Jesus pours fuel on the flame of our wanting and desiring it can actually increase. That wanting and desiring can endure through all seasons of life. It can span a lifetime. I hope that is what we all want. A lifetime of wanting and desiring to follow in Jesus' footsteps. Continually revived by the good work of Jesus in our hearts, minds, and will. The ever increasing want and desire to not just let Him lead but, to also follow in His footsteps.
When the same truth returns over and over again during the span of seven years that gets my attention. Of course during that span I have prayed as to the meaning. I have sought to obey it. I have meditated on it. I now share that with you.
I am going to share the verse out of a translation I rarely use. The person who quoted this verse to me earlier in the week used a different translation. I liked it.
Luke 9:23 (Phillips NT)
23 Then he spoke to them all. "If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, carry his cross every day and keep close behind me.
This will be the first in a four part series. I want to start today with one simple word. It is the word want. "If anyone WANTS to follow in my footsteps."
Other translations use the word desire instead of want. It starts right here. Do we want to follow in Jesus' footsteps? Do we desire to come after Him? Before we can dive deeper into this truth we must address our wants and desires.
If we do not have the want to or desire to get behind Jesus we will not care much for the rest of the truth. So where are our wants and desires? What is it we long and wish for?
As for me, I know I have made a mess out of my life many times. When I've sat in the captain chair over my life I typically go astray. One of the things I not only want, but also need, is for Jesus to take the lead. That is my desire. To get out of His way and fall in step behind Him like troops marching behind their commanding officer.
I want that. I desire that. I need that. There have been many other instances when I set my eyes on a destination and then tried to convince Jesus to go along with me or I just broke ranks and went out on my own. This has never worked well.
Our wanting and desiring should be for Him to lead. On our lists of wants and desires where does this fall for all of us? Is this a priority? Is it important? Is it even on our radar?
It seems fewer and fewer have any want to let Him lead. There is little desire to come after Him. If this does not change in the church will continue to be impotent. Members will be lukewarm. Devotion will be tepid at best. Worship will be half-hearted. Hypocrisy will abound. Evangelism will nearly go extinct.
I want to want to follow in His footsteps. I want you to want to follow in His footsteps. I want all of us to have a greater wanting to do this. An ever increasing desire to go in the same direction of Jesus. Ultimately I know, we can't just will to want to Him lead. We may will to do so for a season. Emotions will fade. Resolve with ebb. Want will wane. If it is left up to us we will fail.
If Jesus pours fuel on the flame of our wanting and desiring it can actually increase. That wanting and desiring can endure through all seasons of life. It can span a lifetime. I hope that is what we all want. A lifetime of wanting and desiring to follow in Jesus' footsteps. Continually revived by the good work of Jesus in our hearts, minds, and will. The ever increasing want and desire to not just let Him lead but, to also follow in His footsteps.
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Wanted: Hard Followers
This is not the day for half steppers. Tip toers. Casual crawlers. Couch potatoes. Soft strollers. Recreational joggers. Pew sitters. Lukewarm worshipers. God wants hard followers. Determined, committed, conditioned, resolved, competitive, sprinters and marathoners.
God's starter gun goes off with the dawning of each new day. You will run toward something. What are you chasing? God wants hard followers coming after Him. He wants God chasers. People in perpetual pursuit of Him. He wants sprinters to race toward Him with all their might. He wants marathoners who will stay the course and not give up too quickly. This is both a sprint and a marathon. We are to give maximum sprint effort and yet pace ourselves for a lifetime of following hard.
David followed hard. He set the example as did Paul.
Psalm 63:8 (KJV)
8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
God's starter gun goes off with the dawning of each new day. You will run toward something. What are you chasing? God wants hard followers coming after Him. He wants God chasers. People in perpetual pursuit of Him. He wants sprinters to race toward Him with all their might. He wants marathoners who will stay the course and not give up too quickly. This is both a sprint and a marathon. We are to give maximum sprint effort and yet pace ourselves for a lifetime of following hard.
David followed hard. He set the example as did Paul.
Psalm 63:8 (KJV)
8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
Psalm 63:8 (NKJV)
8 My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.
Psalm 63:8 (ESV)
8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
Psalm 63:8 (MLB)
8 My soul follows close behind Thee; Thy right hand upholds me.
As you are probably aware by now this is the verse I got the title for this new blog. It is a new course in my life. A real ambition to go hard after God and Jesus daily. The title Follow Hard comes straight out of this verse. I like all the translations but my favorite for this verse is the KJV.
Do you want to follow hard? Do you desire to follow close behind? Do you seek for your soul to cling to God? The church needs hard followers. Devoted disciples. Worshipful warriors. Will you be counted in that number? It will take more than will power. It will take a genuine work of Yahweh in your heart until you desire to follow hard after Him more than any other pursuit in life. Follow hard faithful ones. Follow hard.
Looking For And Expecting
Who is your favorite Bible character? I bet you said Jesus. After Him which character has God used to help you on your journey? Abraham? Sarah? Joseph? Moses? Deborah? Joshua? Ruth? Elijah? Esther? David? Mary? Paul? I bet you have a favorite. Your favorite may not have even been in my list.
One of the things I love about studying the Bible is all the new things discovered through each journey. There are so many prominent characters who get a great deal of attention. What about all the minor characters in the Bible? They may not have played major roles but they certainly played a part in God's plans.
I came across one such character today. A guy named Simeon. He is described as a just, devout man with the Holy Spirit upon him. In fact, in the few verses that reference him in Luke 2:25-32 the Holy Spirit is mentioned several times in connection with him.
The Holy Spirit revealed something to Simeon. That means the Spirit uncovered and disclosed a truth to Simeon. He would not die until he saw the Messiah with his physical eyes. So Simeon waited. He prayed and waited. He worshiped and waited. We do not know exactly how long he waited. The word waited means "to look for, to expect."
I know there are many of you waiting. Waiting for God to do something. Waiting for His promise to be fulfilled. Israel waited on the Messiah for centuries. Simeon may have waited decades. As a rule most do not like waiting periods. We don't like sitting in waiting rooms. We don't like waiting in lines. We don't like waiting on signal lights or slow traffic. We don't like waiting on God. He forces us to wait on Him often. He has a plan and time schedule. Often it is much different than our own.
One day while Simeon waited he received a prompting from the Holy Spirit. I am not sure what form that prompting took. What I do know is the prompting stirred him to go to the temple. I am sure he had been to the temple hundreds and hundreds of times. On many of those occasions I suspect everything went business as usual. Nothing exciting. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not this day. God had something totally different in mind.
On that day, at that hour, in that very moment some parents walked into the temple bringing their first born child. Not just any child. They brought Jesus. The long awaited Messiah entered the temple for the first time. Somehow Simeon knew Jesus was Messiah. In what must have been a bewildering scene for Joseph and Mary, Simeon grabbed up Jesus in His arms and prayed. He blessed Joesph and Mary and prophesied to Mary. Jesus's parents were amazed at all of this.
I love a part of Simeon's prayer.
Luke 2:29-30 (NKJV)
29 "Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation.
What Simeon waited for, looked for and so long expected finally came. He thanked God for keeping His word. Simeon did indeed see the Messiah with his own eyes. I am sure many doubted him before this day and many after this day as well. Most of the people that day missed it.No, they missed Him. They missed Messiah. In fact, many Jews missed the coming of Messiah for 33 years. They never recognized Jesus as the "Anointed One." No matter how many miracles He did many Jews rejected Him. Some still do.
Not Simeon. He heard a clear word through the Holy Spirit. He waited in faith. He received a clear prompting to go to the temple on a certain day at a certain time. A divine appointment followed.
A couple of things jump out to me from this story. First, we need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit to communicate with us. Yahweh communicated through the Holy Spirit. He gave Simeon a promise. What if Simeon had not received the prompting, or had ignored the prompting, to go to the temple? What if he resisted or rationalized it away? What if he dismissed it? He would've missed what he had been waiting for so long. Don't let that happen to you. Follow His promptings. Obey His leadings. You never know when He will give what you have so long waited for. Stay in tune with the Spirit of God.
I also am encouraged that God's waiting periods do not last forever. There is a scheduled moment when He fulfills the promise, brings breakthrough, opens the door, overcomes the obstacle and moves the mountain. Let that encourage us to wait in faith. To keep expecting for God to show up and keep expecting Him to work powerfully any day. So, keep looking for Him and expecting Him to work in your situation.
One of the things I love about studying the Bible is all the new things discovered through each journey. There are so many prominent characters who get a great deal of attention. What about all the minor characters in the Bible? They may not have played major roles but they certainly played a part in God's plans.
I came across one such character today. A guy named Simeon. He is described as a just, devout man with the Holy Spirit upon him. In fact, in the few verses that reference him in Luke 2:25-32 the Holy Spirit is mentioned several times in connection with him.
The Holy Spirit revealed something to Simeon. That means the Spirit uncovered and disclosed a truth to Simeon. He would not die until he saw the Messiah with his physical eyes. So Simeon waited. He prayed and waited. He worshiped and waited. We do not know exactly how long he waited. The word waited means "to look for, to expect."
I know there are many of you waiting. Waiting for God to do something. Waiting for His promise to be fulfilled. Israel waited on the Messiah for centuries. Simeon may have waited decades. As a rule most do not like waiting periods. We don't like sitting in waiting rooms. We don't like waiting in lines. We don't like waiting on signal lights or slow traffic. We don't like waiting on God. He forces us to wait on Him often. He has a plan and time schedule. Often it is much different than our own.
One day while Simeon waited he received a prompting from the Holy Spirit. I am not sure what form that prompting took. What I do know is the prompting stirred him to go to the temple. I am sure he had been to the temple hundreds and hundreds of times. On many of those occasions I suspect everything went business as usual. Nothing exciting. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not this day. God had something totally different in mind.
On that day, at that hour, in that very moment some parents walked into the temple bringing their first born child. Not just any child. They brought Jesus. The long awaited Messiah entered the temple for the first time. Somehow Simeon knew Jesus was Messiah. In what must have been a bewildering scene for Joseph and Mary, Simeon grabbed up Jesus in His arms and prayed. He blessed Joesph and Mary and prophesied to Mary. Jesus's parents were amazed at all of this.
I love a part of Simeon's prayer.
Luke 2:29-30 (NKJV)
29 "Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation.
What Simeon waited for, looked for and so long expected finally came. He thanked God for keeping His word. Simeon did indeed see the Messiah with his own eyes. I am sure many doubted him before this day and many after this day as well. Most of the people that day missed it.No, they missed Him. They missed Messiah. In fact, many Jews missed the coming of Messiah for 33 years. They never recognized Jesus as the "Anointed One." No matter how many miracles He did many Jews rejected Him. Some still do.
Not Simeon. He heard a clear word through the Holy Spirit. He waited in faith. He received a clear prompting to go to the temple on a certain day at a certain time. A divine appointment followed.
A couple of things jump out to me from this story. First, we need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit to communicate with us. Yahweh communicated through the Holy Spirit. He gave Simeon a promise. What if Simeon had not received the prompting, or had ignored the prompting, to go to the temple? What if he resisted or rationalized it away? What if he dismissed it? He would've missed what he had been waiting for so long. Don't let that happen to you. Follow His promptings. Obey His leadings. You never know when He will give what you have so long waited for. Stay in tune with the Spirit of God.
I also am encouraged that God's waiting periods do not last forever. There is a scheduled moment when He fulfills the promise, brings breakthrough, opens the door, overcomes the obstacle and moves the mountain. Let that encourage us to wait in faith. To keep expecting for God to show up and keep expecting Him to work powerfully any day. So, keep looking for Him and expecting Him to work in your situation.
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Who Am I
Who am I Yahweh my Lord,
A servant largely ignored,
One You have passed by,
One who makes You sigh,
Or a follower loving You,
Pressing for a closer view,
Hungry and thirsty for more,
Contented to praise and adore,
Lingering with You for a while,
Overflowing until we both smile,
Laying prostrate before Your feet,
In fellowship delightfully sweet,
Who am I Jehovah my Master,
Faithful or a horrible disaster,
A prodigal prone to wander away,
One who pleases You each day,
A sinner lavished in Your grace,
Given over to seeking Your face,
A hypocrite bound in pretense,
With no excuses - no defense,
A preacher with heart ablaze,
One just going through a phase,
Who am I Jesus my Savior,
A seeker longing to savor,
The magnificence of You,
Pressing for a closer view,
I am Yours to do as You please,
Your will whether hard or ease.
A servant largely ignored,
One You have passed by,
One who makes You sigh,
Or a follower loving You,
Pressing for a closer view,
Hungry and thirsty for more,
Contented to praise and adore,
Lingering with You for a while,
Overflowing until we both smile,
Laying prostrate before Your feet,
In fellowship delightfully sweet,
Who am I Jehovah my Master,
Faithful or a horrible disaster,
A prodigal prone to wander away,
One who pleases You each day,
A sinner lavished in Your grace,
Given over to seeking Your face,
A hypocrite bound in pretense,
With no excuses - no defense,
A preacher with heart ablaze,
One just going through a phase,
Who am I Jesus my Savior,
A seeker longing to savor,
The magnificence of You,
Pressing for a closer view,
I am Yours to do as You please,
Your will whether hard or ease.
Full Of God
I just got off the phone with a friend. We have not talked in awhile. He is man's kind of man. A rancher. A guy God brought into my life early in my ministry days working with students. That was close to 28 years ago. We are close. We live hours apart but stay in contact with one another.
Early in our conversation he told me about what God is teaching him. Then the phone went silent for several seconds. At first I thought we lost our connection. A sniffle on the other end and I knew my friend cried. He tried to get the words out several times but could not. Finally he managed his testimony.
God called him to give up something recently. A sacrifice. Something most people have no issue with whatsoever. God required my friend lay it down. He obeyed. God blessed. Through tears he said, "I am so full of God I don't know if I can take anymore." He went on to testify about hearing God more clearly than he ever has. He talked about new doors God is opening for him in the agriculture field to minister and speak truth. He told me about waking up in the middle of the night in communion with Yahweh. During his work he testified about communion with Him. He spoke of eating his breakfast listening to worship music and melting into tears at the table alone.
I could sense the tender heart God has given Him. He testified of giving God his "yes." He testified of a willingness to follow Jesus. NO matter where that leads. This fires me up so much. It fuels renewed passion for me to go harder after Yahweh than ever.
His testimony inspires me. It makes me want to follow harder. To press into Him closer, Him meaning Yahweh. It makes me more determined to push away the distractions. It makes me yearn to be full of God.
What about you? Are you satisfied? Are you contented to segment your life between God and other responsibilities? Is it attractive to have a relationship with Yahweh so deep and intimate that you fellowship with Him all day each day? Is there any desire to be full of Him instead of full of the things of this world.
I think of the chorus to the old hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in light of His glory and grace." My friend is experiencing that right now.
Does that allure? Does it appeal? To give focus and desire directed to Jesus. To want to be nearer to Him. To gaze with the eyes of your heart through the pages of scripture to know Him. To get better acquainted. To continually learn more and experience omore of HIM? To grow in the knowledge of Him. To want Him more than anything on this earth. Is there a desire to be full of Jesus. Full of Yahweh. If not why not? What are you giving yourself to? What are you full of?
If we would look closer beholding Him we would find the distractions of this earth start losing their attractiveness. We would say no to the lesser and yes to the greater. O God, please remove the distractions. Empty the clutter inside and fill us with more of You. More and more of You. In Jesus name, amen.
Psalm 63:8 (NKJV)
8 My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.
Early in our conversation he told me about what God is teaching him. Then the phone went silent for several seconds. At first I thought we lost our connection. A sniffle on the other end and I knew my friend cried. He tried to get the words out several times but could not. Finally he managed his testimony.
God called him to give up something recently. A sacrifice. Something most people have no issue with whatsoever. God required my friend lay it down. He obeyed. God blessed. Through tears he said, "I am so full of God I don't know if I can take anymore." He went on to testify about hearing God more clearly than he ever has. He talked about new doors God is opening for him in the agriculture field to minister and speak truth. He told me about waking up in the middle of the night in communion with Yahweh. During his work he testified about communion with Him. He spoke of eating his breakfast listening to worship music and melting into tears at the table alone.
I could sense the tender heart God has given Him. He testified of giving God his "yes." He testified of a willingness to follow Jesus. NO matter where that leads. This fires me up so much. It fuels renewed passion for me to go harder after Yahweh than ever.
His testimony inspires me. It makes me want to follow harder. To press into Him closer, Him meaning Yahweh. It makes me more determined to push away the distractions. It makes me yearn to be full of God.
What about you? Are you satisfied? Are you contented to segment your life between God and other responsibilities? Is it attractive to have a relationship with Yahweh so deep and intimate that you fellowship with Him all day each day? Is there any desire to be full of Him instead of full of the things of this world.
I think of the chorus to the old hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in light of His glory and grace." My friend is experiencing that right now.
Does that allure? Does it appeal? To give focus and desire directed to Jesus. To want to be nearer to Him. To gaze with the eyes of your heart through the pages of scripture to know Him. To get better acquainted. To continually learn more and experience omore of HIM? To grow in the knowledge of Him. To want Him more than anything on this earth. Is there a desire to be full of Jesus. Full of Yahweh. If not why not? What are you giving yourself to? What are you full of?
If we would look closer beholding Him we would find the distractions of this earth start losing their attractiveness. We would say no to the lesser and yes to the greater. O God, please remove the distractions. Empty the clutter inside and fill us with more of You. More and more of You. In Jesus name, amen.
Psalm 63:8 (NKJV)
8 My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me.
Bro
He stands a little taller than me. His hair has greyed over the years. He often does his office work at Target where he builds relationships with the workers. He is one year and one day younger than me. Wherever He goes he is the life of the party. His personality is large. His heart is larger. When he enters a room people are drawn to him. He is gregarious, outgoing, an extrovert, friendly and loving. He is an encourager. He embraces religious as well as irreligious people.
Over the years he has been one my biggest supporters. When we are together we laugh, at times cry, and bear each other's burdens. He is more than a friend. I just call him Bro.
God has gifted Eric Adcock in ways that amaze me. I watch him with people. He has that rare ability to make people feel important. All people. Race doesn't matter. Economic status is not important. Sordid pasts do not trip him. He loves people. Whether it be a senior adult, a waitress, a parent, mechanic or a middle school student he loves them. He is one of the most loving people I've ever known. He models the love of Jesus to people. He is compassionate. He is merciful. He extends grace. He forgives. He is always open to loving and embracing new people. None more than to his wife and three sons.
I watched him honor his parents in their old age. He ministered to them. He helped them. He made time for them even when his job had him living in another city. He made his parents a priority. He made memories with them and brought his sons to share in those memories as often as possible.
He is a gifted and talented musician. What he can do on a guitar and the sound he gets from that instrument awe me. I have seen that same sense of awe on the faces of people all over the state. We often joke about what the two of us could have done in our early ministries if he had played the guitar back then.
I watched him lead worship in a traditional church singing hymns and southern gospel recently. Those people loved him. I could not help at times to sit back in admiration of my Bro. He could just as easily lead worship at any church as he works with students. We didn't just sing that day. He didn't just play his guitar and sing. He brought us to the throne of God in worship. We felt the presence of God in a powerful way.
I have seen him do this with senior adults. I have seen him do with teenagers. I have also witnessed him be God's vessel of music with children. God gifted Eric. In ways I will never fully fathom and in ways I can only admire he is gifted. Gifted in ministering to people. Gifted in music. Popular. Loved.
None of it goes to his head. He is humble. He is also a servant. Willing to do the little jobs, the undignified jobs. The jobs some ministers think are beneath them. He models Jesus in servanthood.
He doesn't just play music. He feels music. He brings out the soul of the music. His sensitivity to the Spirt in worship meetings sets the table for the deliverance of God's word. Hundreds of times I have been privileged to preach after he led the worship. Those are memories I do not take for granted. We have seen God move in profound ways.
Eric is also generous. He is quick to reach in his pocket to bless others. To buy a meal. To help a teenager. To give to a single parent. To help a guy down on his luck on the side of the road. He doesn't judge. He loves giving. He loves to bless others. He did this when I met him in college. He still does it today.
Some do not take Eric seriously. They think he is silly. Too loud. Too fun. Too unconventional. I see genius all over him. I watch from a distance at how he works, plans, leads, teaches, inspires and again mostly how he loves. We have shared deep conversations late nights in hotel rooms. I know him. He has deep thoughts. He has a deep walk with God. He is profound ideas for ministry if people listen. He will not push those ideas on people. He can contentedly sit in the background. He has much to offer.
He has been wounded. He doesn't talk about it a lot. He has shared that pain with me from time to time. The pain oozes out in worship at times. Especially the pain of losing his parents and brother. He has known the sting of criticism. He has seen the ugly side of church. He has known rejection. He has not let it get him down. He keeps loving and keeps smiling anyway.
He has remained faithful. I have seen him in lean seasons. I have seen him in seasons of abundance. He has stayed the course. Neither failure or success have moved him off course. He's still my Bro.
I count the gift of his friendship, or Broship, as one of God's greatest gifts in my life. He has encouraged me through the darkest seasons. He has counseled me during those times I doubted. He has built me up each time I have failed. He believes in me. He encourages me. For reasons I will never understand he loves me. At times I am about as easy to love and get close to as a porcupine. He perseveres. He worked his way into my heart. He did not give up on me even when I gave up on myself many times. He prays for me. He accepts me. He comforts me. He makes me laugh. He is not afraid to speak hard truth to me. He has given me so many ministry opportunities. I love him.
All I can say is I thank you Jesus for Eric Adcock. More than a friend. My Bro. I am blessed to know Him. I am more blessed to have been accepted into his inner circle. Even more blessed on top because of all the other people he has introduced me to over the years. I love him. I thank God for him. I pray God continue to use him with others as He has done with me.
Over the years he has been one my biggest supporters. When we are together we laugh, at times cry, and bear each other's burdens. He is more than a friend. I just call him Bro.
God has gifted Eric Adcock in ways that amaze me. I watch him with people. He has that rare ability to make people feel important. All people. Race doesn't matter. Economic status is not important. Sordid pasts do not trip him. He loves people. Whether it be a senior adult, a waitress, a parent, mechanic or a middle school student he loves them. He is one of the most loving people I've ever known. He models the love of Jesus to people. He is compassionate. He is merciful. He extends grace. He forgives. He is always open to loving and embracing new people. None more than to his wife and three sons.
I watched him honor his parents in their old age. He ministered to them. He helped them. He made time for them even when his job had him living in another city. He made his parents a priority. He made memories with them and brought his sons to share in those memories as often as possible.
He is a gifted and talented musician. What he can do on a guitar and the sound he gets from that instrument awe me. I have seen that same sense of awe on the faces of people all over the state. We often joke about what the two of us could have done in our early ministries if he had played the guitar back then.
I watched him lead worship in a traditional church singing hymns and southern gospel recently. Those people loved him. I could not help at times to sit back in admiration of my Bro. He could just as easily lead worship at any church as he works with students. We didn't just sing that day. He didn't just play his guitar and sing. He brought us to the throne of God in worship. We felt the presence of God in a powerful way.
I have seen him do this with senior adults. I have seen him do with teenagers. I have also witnessed him be God's vessel of music with children. God gifted Eric. In ways I will never fully fathom and in ways I can only admire he is gifted. Gifted in ministering to people. Gifted in music. Popular. Loved.
None of it goes to his head. He is humble. He is also a servant. Willing to do the little jobs, the undignified jobs. The jobs some ministers think are beneath them. He models Jesus in servanthood.
He doesn't just play music. He feels music. He brings out the soul of the music. His sensitivity to the Spirt in worship meetings sets the table for the deliverance of God's word. Hundreds of times I have been privileged to preach after he led the worship. Those are memories I do not take for granted. We have seen God move in profound ways.
Eric is also generous. He is quick to reach in his pocket to bless others. To buy a meal. To help a teenager. To give to a single parent. To help a guy down on his luck on the side of the road. He doesn't judge. He loves giving. He loves to bless others. He did this when I met him in college. He still does it today.
Some do not take Eric seriously. They think he is silly. Too loud. Too fun. Too unconventional. I see genius all over him. I watch from a distance at how he works, plans, leads, teaches, inspires and again mostly how he loves. We have shared deep conversations late nights in hotel rooms. I know him. He has deep thoughts. He has a deep walk with God. He is profound ideas for ministry if people listen. He will not push those ideas on people. He can contentedly sit in the background. He has much to offer.
He has been wounded. He doesn't talk about it a lot. He has shared that pain with me from time to time. The pain oozes out in worship at times. Especially the pain of losing his parents and brother. He has known the sting of criticism. He has seen the ugly side of church. He has known rejection. He has not let it get him down. He keeps loving and keeps smiling anyway.
He has remained faithful. I have seen him in lean seasons. I have seen him in seasons of abundance. He has stayed the course. Neither failure or success have moved him off course. He's still my Bro.
I count the gift of his friendship, or Broship, as one of God's greatest gifts in my life. He has encouraged me through the darkest seasons. He has counseled me during those times I doubted. He has built me up each time I have failed. He believes in me. He encourages me. For reasons I will never understand he loves me. At times I am about as easy to love and get close to as a porcupine. He perseveres. He worked his way into my heart. He did not give up on me even when I gave up on myself many times. He prays for me. He accepts me. He comforts me. He makes me laugh. He is not afraid to speak hard truth to me. He has given me so many ministry opportunities. I love him.
All I can say is I thank you Jesus for Eric Adcock. More than a friend. My Bro. I am blessed to know Him. I am more blessed to have been accepted into his inner circle. Even more blessed on top because of all the other people he has introduced me to over the years. I love him. I thank God for him. I pray God continue to use him with others as He has done with me.
Confident Praying
Matthew 17:14-21 (NKJV)
14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying,
15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.
16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him."
17 Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me."
18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"
20 So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
Jesus rebuked the disciples for unbelief. Then He built them up telling them what just a little faith could accomplish. What is faith? The writer of Hebrews describes it this way;
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
What does the word faith mean? It means "confidence, assurance, trust, hope." Let's investigate this a little further.
Do we have confidence in God? I mean bonafide confidence in Him. In every situation. In every season. In everything. Now that it easy to affirm. It is easy to say. It is even easy to write. Is it true in our souls? Living with confidence and praying in confidence is much harder. When push comes to shove do we really have confidence? To put it another way, do we have genuine faith? Unbelief and doubt are always trying to barge their way in crippling our confidence.
Meditating on these questions this morning I asked myself, "How do I get this confidence?" Immediately I thought of a scripture.
1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV)
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Confidence comes from praying what God wants us to pray. It comes from praying in His will. It comes from praying in ways He wants to answer. One of the key factors in prayer is to determine what God wills to be done. This is the foundation of praying. What does God will? What does He desire? What has He purposed to do?
If we can pray with confidence this will lead to assurance. We will have a peace. Our minds and emotions will be quieted. It will lead to a persuasion, even a conviction, that God is going to answer. We base this on the confidence that we are praying His will. This assurance is a building block on the foundation of confidently praying His will. What next?
If we pray confidently in God's will and with assurance trust will follow. No matter what is before us we will trust Him. We'll believe Him. We'll believe what He says and what He wills. Like a child leaping off the edge of a pool into the waiting arms of his or her father, fear will be overcome. That child looks only at their father and jump trusting He will catch them. It is not different for the child of God jumping off faith edges into the sure arms of our Father.
On top is hope. On that firm foundation of God's will that leads us to pray confidently. On top of the building block of assurance. On top of the building block of trust. Will sit the roof of hope. You could also describe hope as confident expectation.
We can actually pray confidently expecting God to answer. We can show a watching world the tangible evidence of our faith. One day soon I will show you. I will show you provision like we have never known. I will show you ministry results God wills glorify Him. All because of God's will and confident praying.
Today I carry those burdens. Soon they will birth before our eyes into infant miracles. God will be glorified and I will have an even larger platform to testify. I expect them. Stay tuned.
14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying,
15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.
16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him."
17 Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me."
18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"
20 So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
Jesus rebuked the disciples for unbelief. Then He built them up telling them what just a little faith could accomplish. What is faith? The writer of Hebrews describes it this way;
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
What does the word faith mean? It means "confidence, assurance, trust, hope." Let's investigate this a little further.
Do we have confidence in God? I mean bonafide confidence in Him. In every situation. In every season. In everything. Now that it easy to affirm. It is easy to say. It is even easy to write. Is it true in our souls? Living with confidence and praying in confidence is much harder. When push comes to shove do we really have confidence? To put it another way, do we have genuine faith? Unbelief and doubt are always trying to barge their way in crippling our confidence.
Meditating on these questions this morning I asked myself, "How do I get this confidence?" Immediately I thought of a scripture.
1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV)
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Confidence comes from praying what God wants us to pray. It comes from praying in His will. It comes from praying in ways He wants to answer. One of the key factors in prayer is to determine what God wills to be done. This is the foundation of praying. What does God will? What does He desire? What has He purposed to do?
If we can pray with confidence this will lead to assurance. We will have a peace. Our minds and emotions will be quieted. It will lead to a persuasion, even a conviction, that God is going to answer. We base this on the confidence that we are praying His will. This assurance is a building block on the foundation of confidently praying His will. What next?
If we pray confidently in God's will and with assurance trust will follow. No matter what is before us we will trust Him. We'll believe Him. We'll believe what He says and what He wills. Like a child leaping off the edge of a pool into the waiting arms of his or her father, fear will be overcome. That child looks only at their father and jump trusting He will catch them. It is not different for the child of God jumping off faith edges into the sure arms of our Father.
On top is hope. On that firm foundation of God's will that leads us to pray confidently. On top of the building block of assurance. On top of the building block of trust. Will sit the roof of hope. You could also describe hope as confident expectation.
We can actually pray confidently expecting God to answer. We can show a watching world the tangible evidence of our faith. One day soon I will show you. I will show you provision like we have never known. I will show you ministry results God wills glorify Him. All because of God's will and confident praying.
Today I carry those burdens. Soon they will birth before our eyes into infant miracles. God will be glorified and I will have an even larger platform to testify. I expect them. Stay tuned.
Jackhammer Word
In my devotion today God hit hard. The pounding of His word on my heart felt like a jackhammer breaking up the fallow ground. He showed me a blindspot. An area where I fell into sin. It really caught me unaware. Like a blindspot when driving in a vehicle I could not see what crept beside me and snaked its way into me.
It has been a long time since God used His word so powerfully to produce brokenness and conviction in me. Much of my prayer time I spent in repentance. With sorrow I looked at the consequences of this blindspot sin. It not only impacted me but my family also. None of us were even aware of it.
Satan is crafty. I will give him that. Many times we sin overtly. We choose the path of rebellion. We willfully disobey God and violate His commands. There are other times when the change inside us is so subtle we do not even notice it. Like an airplane that gets one half of one degree off course. If the course is not altered it will not get to its intended destination. Neither can we if a blindspot takes root in our hearts and minds. We will drift further and further away from God's intended purpose.
I am thankful for two scriptures that help in this area.
Philippians 1:6 (NKJV)
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
It has been a long time since God used His word so powerfully to produce brokenness and conviction in me. Much of my prayer time I spent in repentance. With sorrow I looked at the consequences of this blindspot sin. It not only impacted me but my family also. None of us were even aware of it.
Satan is crafty. I will give him that. Many times we sin overtly. We choose the path of rebellion. We willfully disobey God and violate His commands. There are other times when the change inside us is so subtle we do not even notice it. Like an airplane that gets one half of one degree off course. If the course is not altered it will not get to its intended destination. Neither can we if a blindspot takes root in our hearts and minds. We will drift further and further away from God's intended purpose.
I am thankful for two scriptures that help in this area.
Philippians 1:6 (NKJV)
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
God is not finished with any of us. He will continue His good work perfecting us until the day we meet Jesus face to face. He will convict. He will rebuke. He will chastise. He will remind. He will not give up on His own. I need that and I bet you do too. We can get off course so easily. Satan never ceases trying to trip us. He never ceases enticing us away from communion with our Creator like he did with Adam and Eve. When we stumble God will draw us back. He will pick us up. He will bind our wounds. He will also correct us.
The second verse. Jeremiah 23:29 (NKJV)
29 "Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
The word of God burns the conscience. It singes the sinful spots. It is also like a hammer. I would say a jackhammer. Like a jackhammer breaks rocks into small pieces so does the word of God to our hearts. That is why it is so imperative that we stay soaked in the scriptures. We must not forsake the study of God's most sacred book. His word is truth. Today that word hit like a jackhammer. I needed it.
There is no use hiding it any longer. What sin did God convict me of this morning? You might find it shocking. I am ashamed to admit it and embarrassed to share it publicly. My blindspot sin.....UNBELIEF.
Matthew 17:14-21 (NKJV)
14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying,
15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.
16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him."
17 Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me."
18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"
20 So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
The word unbelief means to "to rebel and to disobey." Unbelief is rebellion and disobedience. We are commanded over and over again to believe. To trust God. To have faith. When we fail to do this it is rebellion. It is flat out disobedience. It is offensive to God. It is sin.
The prefix "un" mean the absence or the lack of something. In my case it has been the absence and lack of faith. I cannot tell you how hard this hit this morning. I have prayed. Man have I prayed. Hours and hours of praying. Especially over the last several years. Some of those prayers have lasted over six years. No visible results. This has frustrated me. While I still laid those mountains before the Lord prayerfully I know at some point my unbelief won over. I quit praying in faith. I quit trusting and believing.
Unbelief is sin. Doubt is sin. God called me on it this morning. I have preached on faith. I have written often on faith. I have taken faith steps. I just have not always believed. In other words I have not always prayed with confidence in God to answer. I have not always been assured He would come through. I have not always trusted Him.
I am ashamed to admit it. The trials wore me down. Somewhere, I cannot identify the exact moment, I lost heart. I could worship in prayer. I could pray for others. Unbelief paralyzed my own praying for personal needs in our family. God's word hammered me this morning.
Now on the other side of that experience I have hope again. I repented. I prayed differently this morning after the jackhammer of His word. I prayed about the eight most prominent mountains in our lives. I prayed with faith today. I prayed with confidence.
O God, please keep bringing the jackhammer of your word to your children. It may be painful and cause us a great deal of brokenness. I like what awaits on the other side. Thank you for not giving up on us. Thank you for always working in our hearts. Thank you for the jackhammer of your word that breaks into pieces. In Jesus name, amen.
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Staggered On The Sand
I walk out of my hotel room before the sunrise. I walk across the two lane highway onto a narrow path. Ahead of me I hear the pounding of the waves against the surf. A few steps later I see the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico on the shores of Panama City, FL.
Coming down the stairs I dig my bare feet into the sand. I feel the coolness of the sand from the night breezes between my toes. I pause to feel the gulf winds blow briskly against my skin. I've been here before. Multiple times before. The breee isn't cold. Not hot. Just right. I look out over the water and watch the the rhythmic swells grow into waves cresting before crashing against the beach and turning into a white foam. Then they bow before withdrawing back into the deep.
I feel very small here in God's presence. I feel insignificant. An inferior in the Presence of the Superior. Scriptures crest and crash across the shores of my mind in rapid succession reminding me of the greatness of God. I am humbled thinking He created all that I see by a spoken word. I find it hard to fully grasp His power. He staggers me on the sand.
I find a place to sit. To pray. To reflect. To meditate. To commune with my God, Yahweh, Adonai, Jehovah and Jesus. The only sounds are the waves, the wind and the squawking of sea gulls looking for a meal. Soon I am lost in prayer. Worshipful praise pours from my heart. Then I meditate on a scripture.
Psalm 139:17-18 (NKJV)
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.
Coming down the stairs I dig my bare feet into the sand. I feel the coolness of the sand from the night breezes between my toes. I pause to feel the gulf winds blow briskly against my skin. I've been here before. Multiple times before. The breee isn't cold. Not hot. Just right. I look out over the water and watch the the rhythmic swells grow into waves cresting before crashing against the beach and turning into a white foam. Then they bow before withdrawing back into the deep.
I feel very small here in God's presence. I feel insignificant. An inferior in the Presence of the Superior. Scriptures crest and crash across the shores of my mind in rapid succession reminding me of the greatness of God. I am humbled thinking He created all that I see by a spoken word. I find it hard to fully grasp His power. He staggers me on the sand.
I find a place to sit. To pray. To reflect. To meditate. To commune with my God, Yahweh, Adonai, Jehovah and Jesus. The only sounds are the waves, the wind and the squawking of sea gulls looking for a meal. Soon I am lost in prayer. Worshipful praise pours from my heart. Then I meditate on a scripture.
Psalm 139:17-18 (NKJV)
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.
My mind contemplates the sandy beaches in Panama City, FL. As far as I can see in either direction I see endless sandy shores. Then it dawns on me. These are just the beaches in Panama City. These beaches go on for hundreds of miles all down the state of FL. Then I think eastward. The Gulf of Mexico borders Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. I think of all the shores from Padre Island all the way back to where I sit. I look down and take a handful of cool sand. On closer examination I see individuals grains. Thousands of granules just in my hand. Slowly I let the sand sift through my fingers and again I am staggered. God's thoughts toward me are more numerous than the sands. Not just the sands in my hand. I think of all the sand on all the beaches on all the oceans around the world. I cannot take in such a thought. Again I'm staggered. I cannot take in the sum of all the precious thoughts God thinks toward me and all of His other children.
It dawns on me that the passage does not limit those thoughts to just the sand on beaches. He just says sand. My mind drifts toward all the sandy deserts. Again I am staggered by His love and vastness. I"m awed by His continual thoughts toward me. More than I can count. Infinitely more. I repent for trying to shrink Him down to fit me. He cannot be shrunk.
Isaiah 66:1 (NKJV)
1 Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?
I see God in a way I've never seen Him. I see He is bigger than my mind can conceive. Such thoughts are too great for me. The beach I sit on is nothing more than a child's sandbox to Him. Yet He chooses to love me, to relate to me, to communicate with me and to accept me as well as all His followers. He chose to redeem me. He still chooses to use me for His purpose to share His word. I am staggered on the sandy shores of the Gulf of Mexico this morning.
John 3:30 (NKJV)
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
I do not not know how much time has passed. I got lost in my encounter with God. Slowly I become aware of the wind, waves, and sea gulls again. I notice some out walking. A few early risers have made their way out to the beach this morning sitting to enjoy a morning devotion.
I am staggered still. In a few hours I will preach. How can I ever communicate what God has just done in me and revealed to me?
A Fresh Word
There are a couple of phrases I've read in my Bible over and over again. "The word of the Lord came. Thus says the LORD."
You can find these phrases in the lives of Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Micha, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Haggai and others. God gave each of these fresh words to share with His people. Often the words were hard and words calling for repentance.
How did they receive these words? There were times when leaders came to the prophets and asked if there was a word from the LORD. Often the prophets responded they would ask. Then they would go off alone and seek God for a fresh word. Sometimes those words came immediately. Other times they sought for days on end before the word came.
Take the average preacher who preaches three times a week each year. Now I realize this has changed. Many preachers only preach once or twice a week. In the past preachers preached Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday nights. In a half a dozen year span H.A. Ironside preached over 6,000 times in the early 1900's. That meant preaching over 1,000 times a year.
I have a friend who has pastored the same church for 23 years. He not only preached three times a week for all those years. He also taught a Sunday school class during that time. He has ministered the word of God 4,784 times there. That does not include funerals or outside events. My pastor served my home church faithfully for 34 years. He preached over 5,000 messages there. Today he still serves as interim pastor in different churches. In his seventies he still preaches the word of God.
Here is the question for all preachers. Can we say those messages we preach were fresh words from God. Are current sermons fresh words from God? I am not referring to sitting in some prayer trance for days on end to get something new. We have revelation from God in the scriptures and we are commanded to share that truth. Even so, do we rush off to the commentaries and copy what they wrote or preached about the same passage? Do we study diligently or take short cuts through other people's sermons. A practice I abhor.
A friend of mine used to pray for me before preaching. That prayer echoes in my mind this morning, "Lord I pray that you preach the message to Matt before he ever preaches it to us." I think he wanted me to preach a fresh word burning in my heart and not something that did not touch my soul first.
Fresh words require prayer. They require meditation. They may also require time in commentaries for insights. That is a far cry from finding someone else' sermon and preaching it because it takes less effort. Preaching does take effort. Anointed preaching takes much time alone with God in prayer. It takes digging beneath the surface of a text.
This past Wednesday night God gave me a fresh word. I will not share it here. Suffice to say that word touched me first. The insights gained were all directed at me. I saw things in that passage I had never seen before. In the past 30 years of preaching I am sure I taught on that passage at least a dozen times. The first time was when my pastor let me preach in my home church the summer after my senior year. I was scared out of my mind and nearly backed out. The wise words of a friend helped me not to back out.
The message I shared Wednesday did not resemble the one I preached back in the Sumer of 1985. This latest version burned in my heart like lava about to erupt from a volcano. God preached it to me before I shared it with the people. He revealed things I never discovered before. One lady commented afterward, "I enjoyed that. You were fired up. I like it when you are fired up." I was fired up because preached that word afresh to me first.
Don't the people of God need fresh words from God? Don't we preachers also need fresh words from God? They still come if we are willing to wait on the Lord and do our due diligence. A fresh word is needed today.
You can find these phrases in the lives of Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Micha, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Haggai and others. God gave each of these fresh words to share with His people. Often the words were hard and words calling for repentance.
How did they receive these words? There were times when leaders came to the prophets and asked if there was a word from the LORD. Often the prophets responded they would ask. Then they would go off alone and seek God for a fresh word. Sometimes those words came immediately. Other times they sought for days on end before the word came.
Take the average preacher who preaches three times a week each year. Now I realize this has changed. Many preachers only preach once or twice a week. In the past preachers preached Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday nights. In a half a dozen year span H.A. Ironside preached over 6,000 times in the early 1900's. That meant preaching over 1,000 times a year.
I have a friend who has pastored the same church for 23 years. He not only preached three times a week for all those years. He also taught a Sunday school class during that time. He has ministered the word of God 4,784 times there. That does not include funerals or outside events. My pastor served my home church faithfully for 34 years. He preached over 5,000 messages there. Today he still serves as interim pastor in different churches. In his seventies he still preaches the word of God.
Here is the question for all preachers. Can we say those messages we preach were fresh words from God. Are current sermons fresh words from God? I am not referring to sitting in some prayer trance for days on end to get something new. We have revelation from God in the scriptures and we are commanded to share that truth. Even so, do we rush off to the commentaries and copy what they wrote or preached about the same passage? Do we study diligently or take short cuts through other people's sermons. A practice I abhor.
A friend of mine used to pray for me before preaching. That prayer echoes in my mind this morning, "Lord I pray that you preach the message to Matt before he ever preaches it to us." I think he wanted me to preach a fresh word burning in my heart and not something that did not touch my soul first.
Fresh words require prayer. They require meditation. They may also require time in commentaries for insights. That is a far cry from finding someone else' sermon and preaching it because it takes less effort. Preaching does take effort. Anointed preaching takes much time alone with God in prayer. It takes digging beneath the surface of a text.
This past Wednesday night God gave me a fresh word. I will not share it here. Suffice to say that word touched me first. The insights gained were all directed at me. I saw things in that passage I had never seen before. In the past 30 years of preaching I am sure I taught on that passage at least a dozen times. The first time was when my pastor let me preach in my home church the summer after my senior year. I was scared out of my mind and nearly backed out. The wise words of a friend helped me not to back out.
The message I shared Wednesday did not resemble the one I preached back in the Sumer of 1985. This latest version burned in my heart like lava about to erupt from a volcano. God preached it to me before I shared it with the people. He revealed things I never discovered before. One lady commented afterward, "I enjoyed that. You were fired up. I like it when you are fired up." I was fired up because preached that word afresh to me first.
Don't the people of God need fresh words from God? Don't we preachers also need fresh words from God? They still come if we are willing to wait on the Lord and do our due diligence. A fresh word is needed today.
Friday, May 11, 2018
Searching And Finding
It happens once in awhile that a person refuses to settle for the rituals of stale religion. Such people want to encounter the living God. They long to be in His presence. They refuse to quietly settle for anything less. Such people can shake up the status quo in local churches. They refuse to accept the dead functions of a religion steeped in tradition but often void of the power and presence of God.
If you find yourself in such a situation I hope you will keep reading. My challenge would be to never settle. Never accept the status quo of empty religious rituals. Yahweh created you for much more than that. You were created for worship. You were created to relate to Him. You were created to know Him. This is adventurous. This is the noblest pursuit. This is the only quest that quenches the internal thirst.
Yahweh longs to reveal Himself to those who seek Him and long for Him.
Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV)
13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
The word search means to "examine deeply." With every fiber of imagination, investigation and examination we have the opportunity to get to know God. The temporal becoming better acquainted with the Eternal. Mortal gaining knowledge of the Immortal. Creation gaining understanding of the Creator.
The constant pursuit. The endless examining the Bible and nature of God. The pilgrimage to higher ground in Him. The climb to the summit of God that requires great effort but also offers great reward in new revelation.
To live this way is to live out of step with the religious age who are content to sing a few songs and hear a talk but not to encounter God. To encounter God means conviction, humbling, reverence, confession, repentance, renewal, reviving, surrender, prayer, love, praise and many other things. This may not happen within the one hour time constraints and programing of a typical worship service in a mainstream church. The leaders will not know what to do if you refuse to leave because has not released you and still works in you longer after the formal service ended.
Do you want to find Yahweh? He wants to be found. He makes Himself accessible to the serous seeker. Do you want Him? Will you continue your search for Him. If you do and don't give up HE will let you find Him. There are no words to describe what happens then. It is something you will have to experience for yourself. SEARCH UNTIL YOU FIND HIM.
If you find yourself in such a situation I hope you will keep reading. My challenge would be to never settle. Never accept the status quo of empty religious rituals. Yahweh created you for much more than that. You were created for worship. You were created to relate to Him. You were created to know Him. This is adventurous. This is the noblest pursuit. This is the only quest that quenches the internal thirst.
Yahweh longs to reveal Himself to those who seek Him and long for Him.
Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV)
13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
The word search means to "examine deeply." With every fiber of imagination, investigation and examination we have the opportunity to get to know God. The temporal becoming better acquainted with the Eternal. Mortal gaining knowledge of the Immortal. Creation gaining understanding of the Creator.
The constant pursuit. The endless examining the Bible and nature of God. The pilgrimage to higher ground in Him. The climb to the summit of God that requires great effort but also offers great reward in new revelation.
To live this way is to live out of step with the religious age who are content to sing a few songs and hear a talk but not to encounter God. To encounter God means conviction, humbling, reverence, confession, repentance, renewal, reviving, surrender, prayer, love, praise and many other things. This may not happen within the one hour time constraints and programing of a typical worship service in a mainstream church. The leaders will not know what to do if you refuse to leave because has not released you and still works in you longer after the formal service ended.
Do you want to find Yahweh? He wants to be found. He makes Himself accessible to the serous seeker. Do you want Him? Will you continue your search for Him. If you do and don't give up HE will let you find Him. There are no words to describe what happens then. It is something you will have to experience for yourself. SEARCH UNTIL YOU FIND HIM.
Death
You would think people would be more aware of our own mortality. Still people act like they are taken by surprise when death comes to loved ones, celebrities and even ourselves. Death comes for everyone. The young and the old. The rich and the poor. The white skinned and the dark skinned. People of every nation face this same reality.
At funeral homes another widow and widower show up to grieve the loss of her husband or his wife. Parents do the same thing for their children. Untimely. Unbearable. Still it happens often. Most of the time we are able to keep death at arm's length. On rare occasion it may touch a loved one or a friend. On a few occasions death comes for those closest to us.
The grief hurts so badly it nearly doubles a person over in anguish. The sorrow is so deep a person can feel it. The tears flow but the pain is not easily healed. Some people never really recover from the death of a child, spouse, parent or friend. They live out the rest of their days with a hole in their heart. They learn to cope but they never get over death.
You would think since death is such a certainty people would give more time to thinking about it. You would people would prepare for it and prepare their loved ones for it. The whole thing is overwhelming. The shock of the death itself. The pressure of making funeral or memorial arrangements. Trying to bravely talk to the well wishers and concerned.
After all this passes the real hardship sets in. The real grief is battled for weeks, months and years on end. The smallest thing can bring back memories of the departed. A face in the crowd can remind of the deceased. So can a song on the radio or an old movie.
Hebrews 9:27 (NKJV)
27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
At funeral homes another widow and widower show up to grieve the loss of her husband or his wife. Parents do the same thing for their children. Untimely. Unbearable. Still it happens often. Most of the time we are able to keep death at arm's length. On rare occasion it may touch a loved one or a friend. On a few occasions death comes for those closest to us.
The grief hurts so badly it nearly doubles a person over in anguish. The sorrow is so deep a person can feel it. The tears flow but the pain is not easily healed. Some people never really recover from the death of a child, spouse, parent or friend. They live out the rest of their days with a hole in their heart. They learn to cope but they never get over death.
You would think since death is such a certainty people would give more time to thinking about it. You would people would prepare for it and prepare their loved ones for it. The whole thing is overwhelming. The shock of the death itself. The pressure of making funeral or memorial arrangements. Trying to bravely talk to the well wishers and concerned.
After all this passes the real hardship sets in. The real grief is battled for weeks, months and years on end. The smallest thing can bring back memories of the departed. A face in the crowd can remind of the deceased. So can a song on the radio or an old movie.
Hebrews 9:27 (NKJV)
27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
There is a day appointed for us to die. A day set on the calendar. An ordained time. That is not the end. It really is just the beginning. For then eternity begins. Either eternal bliss or eternal doom all hinging on one single thing. Our relationship with Jesus. In judgment those who placed their faith in Jesus for salvation shall enter into a fuller revelation and joy than they could never have imagined. On the other hand, there will be eternal suffering and agony for those who never placed their faith in Jesus for salvation.
I've thought about my death. Not any time in the near future I hope. I have thought about the memorial. I know the songs. IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL. I LONG FOR THE DAY. KNOWING YOU. THE STAND. I also know the text I want preached. My favorite verse of all. Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
I want the focus on Jesus. I also want rejoicing for as D.L. Moody said right before his death, "Soon you will read D.L. Moody died. Don't believe a word of it. I will be more alive then than ever." True. True.
May we live with our end in mind. Like C.T. Studd said, "Tis only one life to live and t'will soon be past. Only what is done for Christ will last."
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
The Uncomfortable And Undesirable
The day unfolded like any other day. Another day to grind. To work the same old boring routine. A day like hundreds of other days. Get up. Go to work. Fulfill the job requirements. Then repeat the same cycle daily. Monotonous.
You know the kind of day I'm referring to. You have endured many such days. Whether a salaried employee or an hourly wage earner you know the monotony of the same old routines. It is tempting to cast a longing eye at greener pastures. To find a change of pace. Something new. Something more exciting.
On this very ordinary day something extraordinary happened. Some might call it bizarre. It could definitely be classified as unusual. Right in the middle of an otherwise mundane day something astounding happened. You would not believe it if I told you. The whole scene seemed like something out of a book.
Let me set the backdrop. The central character is a good guy. By every respects a good family man. A devout man. Also a responsible man earning his keep to take care of his family. He did not have a power job. In fact his assignment would be looked at as insignificant. On this day he was about to be offered a promotion. A high profile job with high risk and high reward. The job offer would mean catapulting from obscurity into a prominent leadership position.
Upon closer examination the job candidate found the job offer both uncomfortable and undesirable. I am not making this up. it really happened. A guy in a dead end job got the offer of a lifetime. When the job assignment was explained along with the requirements he wanted nothing to do with it.
There is even more backdrop. The headhunters for this job were spiritual. They were people of deep faith and prayer. They prayed for a long time for the right candidate to fill the position. Longer than many wanted to wait. They waited for the CEO to make the final call.
Here is the part where the mundane turned into something extraordinary. Guess who made the job offer? The person assigned to make the job offer was none other than....wait for it. The ANGEL OF THE LORD. I told you would not believe it. He showed up to Moses on the backside of the desert with a message and job offer from his boss for Moses. The job offer was to be the deliverer for the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.
Not comfortable. Not desirable. Why do so many people think the will of God always leads to comfortable assignments in desirable places? Yahweh chooses people for uncomfortable assignments in dangerous and undesirable places. Somebody has to volunteer in the inner city. Somebody has to go love the unlovable. Somebody has to accept the call of God to foster parent. Somebody must take the gospel to foreign countries. Somebody has to minister to special needs people. Somebody has to work in the nursery. Somebody has to do the grunt jobs behind the scenes unnoticed. Somebody has to serve the ungrateful and disgruntled. Someone has pastor in the backwoods. Someone has to turn struggling businesses around. God needed a deliverer. He heard four centuries worth of prayers. He chose a murderer named Moses.
Moses made excuses. Yahweh assured He would be with Moses each step of the way. Moses wanted to back out. God did not budge. Eventually Moses surrendered. He trusted Yahweh and stepped into his destiny. Moses is now considered a hero of the faith. He almost missed all of it because the revealed will of God looked uncomfortable and undesirable.
Consider all that Moses would have missed out on if He had rejected the uncomfortable and undesirable will of God? Moses had a front row seat to see some of the greatest miracles God ever did in history. The 10 plagues. The parting of the Red Sea. The Commandments of God. Manna. Water out of a rock.
It all started with God's invitation to the uncomfortable and undesirable. What is Yahweh inviting you to do for Him? What uncomfortable and undesirable place is He calling you? How will you respond? A great adventure awaits if you have faith and courage to accept God's impossible missions.
Exodus 3:1-14 (NKJV)
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
3 Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn."
4 So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am."
5 Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."
6 Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
7 And the LORD said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
12 So He said, "I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."
13 Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?"
14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.' "
You know the kind of day I'm referring to. You have endured many such days. Whether a salaried employee or an hourly wage earner you know the monotony of the same old routines. It is tempting to cast a longing eye at greener pastures. To find a change of pace. Something new. Something more exciting.
On this very ordinary day something extraordinary happened. Some might call it bizarre. It could definitely be classified as unusual. Right in the middle of an otherwise mundane day something astounding happened. You would not believe it if I told you. The whole scene seemed like something out of a book.
Let me set the backdrop. The central character is a good guy. By every respects a good family man. A devout man. Also a responsible man earning his keep to take care of his family. He did not have a power job. In fact his assignment would be looked at as insignificant. On this day he was about to be offered a promotion. A high profile job with high risk and high reward. The job offer would mean catapulting from obscurity into a prominent leadership position.
Upon closer examination the job candidate found the job offer both uncomfortable and undesirable. I am not making this up. it really happened. A guy in a dead end job got the offer of a lifetime. When the job assignment was explained along with the requirements he wanted nothing to do with it.
There is even more backdrop. The headhunters for this job were spiritual. They were people of deep faith and prayer. They prayed for a long time for the right candidate to fill the position. Longer than many wanted to wait. They waited for the CEO to make the final call.
Here is the part where the mundane turned into something extraordinary. Guess who made the job offer? The person assigned to make the job offer was none other than....wait for it. The ANGEL OF THE LORD. I told you would not believe it. He showed up to Moses on the backside of the desert with a message and job offer from his boss for Moses. The job offer was to be the deliverer for the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.
Not comfortable. Not desirable. Why do so many people think the will of God always leads to comfortable assignments in desirable places? Yahweh chooses people for uncomfortable assignments in dangerous and undesirable places. Somebody has to volunteer in the inner city. Somebody has to go love the unlovable. Somebody has to accept the call of God to foster parent. Somebody must take the gospel to foreign countries. Somebody has to minister to special needs people. Somebody has to work in the nursery. Somebody has to do the grunt jobs behind the scenes unnoticed. Somebody has to serve the ungrateful and disgruntled. Someone has pastor in the backwoods. Someone has to turn struggling businesses around. God needed a deliverer. He heard four centuries worth of prayers. He chose a murderer named Moses.
Moses made excuses. Yahweh assured He would be with Moses each step of the way. Moses wanted to back out. God did not budge. Eventually Moses surrendered. He trusted Yahweh and stepped into his destiny. Moses is now considered a hero of the faith. He almost missed all of it because the revealed will of God looked uncomfortable and undesirable.
Consider all that Moses would have missed out on if He had rejected the uncomfortable and undesirable will of God? Moses had a front row seat to see some of the greatest miracles God ever did in history. The 10 plagues. The parting of the Red Sea. The Commandments of God. Manna. Water out of a rock.
It all started with God's invitation to the uncomfortable and undesirable. What is Yahweh inviting you to do for Him? What uncomfortable and undesirable place is He calling you? How will you respond? A great adventure awaits if you have faith and courage to accept God's impossible missions.
Exodus 3:1-14 (NKJV)
1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
3 Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn."
4 So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am."
5 Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."
6 Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
7 And the LORD said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
12 So He said, "I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."
13 Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?"
14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.' "
The Secret Place
Matthew 6:6 (NKJV)
6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
it
Exactly 11 paces from my bed sits a wooden roll top desk in a little office space. This room is the reason I bought this house. It has always been a dream of mine to have some office space in my home. This is not just an office. It is my secret place. The place where I meet with God each day. The place where He encounters me. Nobody sees me in this place. Just my Father who sees and hears what is done in secret. It's just my Father and me in blessed communion. This is a sacred place. Surrounded by thousands of books and this little desk I find solace, strength, comfort, compassion and many other things as I seek God.
I fear the secret places in people's lives have been lost. There is so much noise. So much activity. So many distractions. People are so hurried and harassed. So stressed. So busy. Somehow in the midst of all that the secret place has lost its allure. It requires effort to pray. It requires much more to learn to pray well and to connect with Yahweh consistently.
I like something I read from A.W. Tozer. "Retire from the world each day to some private spot, even if it be the bedroom. Stay in the secret place till the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart and a sense of God's presence envelops you. Listen for the inward Voice till you learn to recognize it."
* Tozer On Worship And Entertainment, p. 45, Christian Publications Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.
I fear fewer and fewer are retiring from the world each day to meet with God. I know we live in busy times. People have always been busy. Tozer was a busy man. He pastored the same church in Chicago for over 30 years. He wrote books and articles tirelessly. He also was highly sought after to preach conferences. In all my readings about Tozer and reading Tozer himself the thing that I take away is Tozer was a man who sought God and a man of prayer. He practiced what He preached. He often lay on the floor of his office in prayer for hours. He made that office his secret place.
If you desire to seek God you will have to learn to do so privately and not just in the pubic settings. How is your private time with Him? Do you have private devotions? Do you encounter Him in those devotions? Does He get the best time of your day? I am not against devotional books. I am against thinking a person can really get to know God in a pithy five to ten minute devotion half heartedly read because of all the other things needing to be done. Please hear this. TIME IN THE SECRET PLACE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TIME. NOTHING USURPS THAT TIME. IT MUST BECOME THE HIGHEST PRIORITY.
When a person gets into the secret place that time need not be hurried. As Tozer wrote, "Stay in the secret place until the surrounding noises begin to fade." What noises? Television, social media, work, bills, spouse, children and even church.
I find when I enter the secret place my mind often does not want to slow down and focus. It starts whirling with ideas, messages, books to read and so on. What I have found helpful over the past year is listening to soft piano music through my headphones. It relaxes me. I am not distracted by any words and it helps usher me into God's glorious presence. Such times are sweet to my soul. In those moments time flies. I'm enriched, fueled for the day and inspired to write, preach, teach and serve.
I hope you have a secret place. I hope you habitually encounter Jehovah in that place. I hope you are continually growing and maturing. Out of those encounters I hope you are a blessing to those people you come in contact with throughout your day. May we all grow to love the secret place.
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
My First Lady
I met Brenda Ortiz in college. To say I was smitten would be an understatement. Her beauty captivated me. I did not work up the courage to even talk to her until half way through the semester. Even then I needed help from my roommate Eric. He had a class with Brenda. He found out about her asking questions. The more he learned the more he relayed that information to me. The more I learned the more I wanted to get to know her.
When she jogged around the campus at night I would sit in strategic places to watch her. I don't think she ever noticed me or gave me a second thought. I don't have a lot going for me but I am persistent. I resolved I would not only meet her but take her on a date. One day Eric and I waited for her to come to the cafeteria for lunch. When she set her tray down to get her drink we moved in. When she returned her once empty table had new occupants. I positioned myself right next to her. I wonder what she must have thought. I told you I am persistent.
I am also inquisitive. We made small talk. Somehow I got her to go on a study date with me to the park. She actually brought books. I brought my imagination. She never did get to open those books. I asked her question after question in rapid fire succession. The first question I asked was if she was saved. She blew me away with her testimony and her love for Jesus. I loved her right then. We both came from broken homes. We both were the oldest siblings. She studied business. I think she felt bewildered when I told her my studies were in Bible courses to become a preacher.
That study date led to walks around the campus at night. Talking. Getting to know one another. Laughing. Eventually we began praying and studying the Bible together. I had no doubts I wanted to spend the rest of my life with that woman.
Before that God had some maturing and pruning He needed to do in me. That season was painful and part of that pruning meant removing Brenda from my life. For one solid year. During that season I fell in love with Jesus. I no longer idolized her. I never thought she would ever come back. God had other plans. Surprisingly we reconnected at our graduation, though she had finished her course work a semester earlier. She returned to receive her diploma. Then totally unexpectedly she returned to my life.
We dated. I proposed at a Howard Payne University homecoming football game. She stood when she heard her name over the sound system asking her to please stand at the end of the third quarter. Nervously I waited. I had already asked her mother's blessing. I waiting clutching the ring in my pocket. The announcer read my proposal. She stood stunned and silent. I stood with the ring. She finally said yes after she got over the initial shock. She slipped on the ring, we kissed and I high fived my friends. We wed eight months later.
We have moved all over Texas in ministry. We now have four boys, three in college. This morning I held her in my arms praying before the alarm sounded. I thanked God for her. I thanked God for blessing me beyond comprehension with Brenda to share my life. She is loving. Compassionate. Organized. A great money manager. A servant. A follower of Jesus. A worshiper of Jesus. A woman of faith and courage. Tough. Faithful. Kind. Willing to follow Jesus and me anywhere if she believes God has called. I always say churches have never minded when I told them we were leaving but they always hate losing Brenda.
We are nearing our 27th wedding anniversary. I love her more today than I did back when I first got to know her. I held her in my arms today firmly. I smelled her hair. I captured the moment. I do not want to take her for granted. I massaged her head and listened to her sleeping. A priceless moment in my memory.
Later on this evening we will tag team dinner and rush out the door for Turner's 7 on 7 games. Last night we watched Tucker getting his senior pictures taken. I stayed up late listening to Tanner talk about football at Wayland Baptist University where he plays. Taylor will come home this weekend. I love all four of them. Loved following their dreams and pursuits. They can never take the place of my First Lady. Maybe the Lord will bless us with another 27 years.
When she jogged around the campus at night I would sit in strategic places to watch her. I don't think she ever noticed me or gave me a second thought. I don't have a lot going for me but I am persistent. I resolved I would not only meet her but take her on a date. One day Eric and I waited for her to come to the cafeteria for lunch. When she set her tray down to get her drink we moved in. When she returned her once empty table had new occupants. I positioned myself right next to her. I wonder what she must have thought. I told you I am persistent.
I am also inquisitive. We made small talk. Somehow I got her to go on a study date with me to the park. She actually brought books. I brought my imagination. She never did get to open those books. I asked her question after question in rapid fire succession. The first question I asked was if she was saved. She blew me away with her testimony and her love for Jesus. I loved her right then. We both came from broken homes. We both were the oldest siblings. She studied business. I think she felt bewildered when I told her my studies were in Bible courses to become a preacher.
That study date led to walks around the campus at night. Talking. Getting to know one another. Laughing. Eventually we began praying and studying the Bible together. I had no doubts I wanted to spend the rest of my life with that woman.
Before that God had some maturing and pruning He needed to do in me. That season was painful and part of that pruning meant removing Brenda from my life. For one solid year. During that season I fell in love with Jesus. I no longer idolized her. I never thought she would ever come back. God had other plans. Surprisingly we reconnected at our graduation, though she had finished her course work a semester earlier. She returned to receive her diploma. Then totally unexpectedly she returned to my life.
We dated. I proposed at a Howard Payne University homecoming football game. She stood when she heard her name over the sound system asking her to please stand at the end of the third quarter. Nervously I waited. I had already asked her mother's blessing. I waiting clutching the ring in my pocket. The announcer read my proposal. She stood stunned and silent. I stood with the ring. She finally said yes after she got over the initial shock. She slipped on the ring, we kissed and I high fived my friends. We wed eight months later.
We have moved all over Texas in ministry. We now have four boys, three in college. This morning I held her in my arms praying before the alarm sounded. I thanked God for her. I thanked God for blessing me beyond comprehension with Brenda to share my life. She is loving. Compassionate. Organized. A great money manager. A servant. A follower of Jesus. A worshiper of Jesus. A woman of faith and courage. Tough. Faithful. Kind. Willing to follow Jesus and me anywhere if she believes God has called. I always say churches have never minded when I told them we were leaving but they always hate losing Brenda.
We are nearing our 27th wedding anniversary. I love her more today than I did back when I first got to know her. I held her in my arms today firmly. I smelled her hair. I captured the moment. I do not want to take her for granted. I massaged her head and listened to her sleeping. A priceless moment in my memory.
Later on this evening we will tag team dinner and rush out the door for Turner's 7 on 7 games. Last night we watched Tucker getting his senior pictures taken. I stayed up late listening to Tanner talk about football at Wayland Baptist University where he plays. Taylor will come home this weekend. I love all four of them. Loved following their dreams and pursuits. They can never take the place of my First Lady. Maybe the Lord will bless us with another 27 years.
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