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work

Devotionals

Exercise Your Faith

by Abraham Kuruvilla
written by Abraham Kuruvilla

Talking of ants and not being a sluggard ….

Good news for those of us who decided—quite reluctantly—that we needed more exercise! Well, we do. But not in the way we thought we did: running like hamsters and generally behaving wildly, sweating and panting, in garments of “athleisure” (with fancy names like Lululemon, Lucy, Lorna Jane, Gap Body, and UnderArmor). Finally, good news for us who hated that kind of working out (though we did love looking like we were working out).

The prestigious journal Nature has come to our rescue with “An Exercise-Inducible Metabolite that Suppresses Feeding and Obesity,” published a couple of months ago by a group of researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, University of California Berkeley, and other centers in the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.

Basically, a hunger-pill is on the horizon!

Said lead author Prof. Yong Xu from Baylor:

Regular exercise has been proven to help weight loss, regulate appetite and improve the metabolic profile, especially for people who are overweight and obese. If we can understand the mechanism by which exercise triggers these benefits, then we are closer to helping many people improve their health.”

And Dr. Jonathan Long of Stanford, co-author, in a university press release:

We’re all generally aware that exercise is beneficial. It’s good for body weight and glucose control. But we wanted to take a look at that concept in more detail—we wanted to see if we could dissect exercise in terms of molecules and pathways.”

In other words, exercise is good stuff, but what exactly during exercise makes it good?

Instead …

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?
Run in such a way that you may win.
Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.
They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim;
box in such a way, as not beating the air;
but I discipline my body and make it my slave,
so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 9:24–27

 

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Sermons

How to Be a Christian at Work

by Jeff Jones
written by Jeff Jones

Let’s talk about sharing our faith at work. The big point of our series is that our work itself matters to God and is part of his creation and redemption mandate. It’s not that our job doesn’t really matter, except that it is a platform to share our faith. Our work itself is part of our divine calling and therefore doing it well glorifies God and represents him well to others. All that is true. It is also true that work provides maybe the best opportunity to impact other people spiritually because most of that happens through relationships and most of our relationships develop at work.

 

Whether you know Jesus or not, you are on a spiritual journey or you wouldn’t be here. We all have a story to tell and if we are compassionate at all would love for other people to know how they could know Jesus, find transformation and meaning in a relationship with him, and know real hope. If we are loving at all, we realize we can’t just keep this to ourselves, and many of us know that we are in fact commanded in the New Testament to actively share that good news with others. Most people who become Jesus followers do so through a relationship with someone who is already a Christian, which is probably your story. That’s significant when we talk about work because most people develop their friendships with people they work with every day. So, how can we develop relationships in a way that can help other people in their journey?

 

That can be a challenging question, because we have all probably experienced well-meaning Christians in the workplace that did more harm than good by coming on too strong. I recently read an article referred to me by a pastor buddy in Boston, written by a Jewish lady about an overly zealous Christian coworker, where she says, “He’s the nicest person in the world but has the unfortunate habit of using the workplace as a recruiting center. When he approached me to discuss religion, I mentioned that I was Jewish. Big mistake. His face lit up, and I came to find out that converting Jews was his personal mission. I couldn’t get up without finding a religious tract on my desk when I came back. After many attempts at conversion, I finally convinced him that I was happy with my religion and nothing he said would change it. He reluctantly moved on and now tries his hand with our clients.” She entitled her article, “Keep the Faith, but Keep it on your Side of the Cubicle.”

We don’t want to be that girl or that guy, which can lead us to another mistake—just going completely silent and dark about our faith in the workplace. We hide our light so to speak rather than letting it shine, and just hope something good happens anyway. This is especially tempting because we don’t want to violate boundaries in the workplace in such a way where we could get fired or where we are just seen as a problem. We can easily become paralyzed in the workplace as Christians and hide the most important part of our lives.

 

It’s a little like goldilocks, one porridge too hot and the other too cold. What would “just right” look like? The great news is that the New Testament talks about this quite a bit, how we as Christians can influence and live out our faith in attractive way everywhere we are in culture, including work. Collectively as a church, we are told to create irresistible influence by doing good, by being the most loving and inclusive people on the planet, that creates curiosity and interest in our message. Individually as Christians wherever God places us, we are compelled to do the same—to be people of irresistible influence, to live such attractive lives as transforming Jesus followers that others are drawn to us and to the good news that is transforming our lives.

 

A great friend and fellow leader here at Chase Oaks, Mike Hogan, terms this in such a helpful way as creating pull, not push. If we as Christians try to push people toward our faith, by being loud and pushy, insisting on our own rights, sharing even when people don’t want to hear what we have to say, become argumentative and disrespectful, then we shouldn’t be surprised when people recoil. If you push me, I’m either going to stand my ground or push back. Nobody likes to be pushed (play with this?). Creating pull is what the New Testament tells us to do and is way more effective. It is living our lives in such a way that draws people toward us, creates curiosity and interest in what we believe. The NT talks a lot about this, and once we understand that God has placed us where we are on purpose, to be a light, then we must ask, “How do I do that? How can I live around people at work in such a way that creates pull?”

 

We are going to start with Paul talking to Christians in 1 Thessalonians 4, where he lays it out so clearly:

 

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anyone.”

The first phrase is such a powerful one, “Make it your ambition.” For those of us who are goal-oriented, we perk up with a phrase like that. “Make it your ambition—” a good strong command, and I’m ready to do whatever is next. Coach, put me in the game, and tell me what to do. “Make it your ambition”—okay I’m ready. But what comes next sounds so deflating, “Make it your ambition…to lead a quiet life…” What? That sounds like non-ambition. Try super hard to do nothing. But it isn’t nothing. A quietly attractive life takes tremendous intentionality and restraint. It is also very powerful.

 

He is saying we don’t have to be loud and proud in the workplace with our faith. We shouldn’t be pushy and rude. Instead, we create pull by doing our work well and by living our daily lives in a way that creates respect.

 

Quality work and an attractive daily life. Let’s talk about doing our work well, the quality of our work first. We’ve already seen in this series that our work matters to God, and that ultimately, we work for him and are called therefore to do our work excellently because it honors him. We should be the best workers at work because of that, but also because of this—by doing so we win the respect of outsiders.

 

It should be that when a hiring manager finds out the person they hired is a Christian, they feel like they just won the lottery, that they would say quietly to another manager, “Hey, I know this may be inappropriate to consider faith in the workplace, but I just found out the person I hired last week is a Christian,” and that the other would say, “Oh man! No fair! You always get so lucky. Those people are the best!”

 

With all the difficulties in the workplace over the last few years, the new trend replacing the great recession is quiet quitting, where instead of leaving your job, you just do the bare minimum and quietly skate by and stay under the radar. That is not what Paul is advocating. He is advocating quietly knocking it out of the park, doing your work so well that it wins the respect of others.

This is also true of Christian businesses, of course. It’s like when people put a fish sticker on the back of the car, or a church sticker like we have for Chase Oaks, remember that when you are on the road. Don’t be a jerk, and don’t drive slow in the left lane. The left lane is called a passing lane, so if you aren’t passing then don’t be in that lane—especially with a fish sticker. Represent Jesus well if you put a fish or Christian bumper sticker on your car. That’s even more true for those who let others know that your business is a Christian one. When I had just graduated from college, I was spending time with some high school friends who were a few years older than me and had been working a career for a few years. One of those, Don, was telling a story how he had just hired painters to paint his house, and that he had chosen them because they were called “The Christian Painters.” This was before Google reviews, when we still used these things called phone books and you made choices by looking at the yellow pages. So many of you are giving me blank looks because you have no idea what I’m talking about. But that’s the way things were before the internet. He had chosen them out of the yellow pages because of the name. Someone else in the group, who was not a Christian, immediately blurted out, “Oh no! They call themselves Christian? They didn’t also have a fish on their ad, did they?” Don said, “They did! It’s part of why I chose them.” Everybody laughed, without even knowing what had happened, and that same guy, “Oh man, I hope it worked out, but you have to beware of the fish. Any time you see the fish, run away and choose somebody else.” Don then shared, “Well, I wish you would have told me that sooner, because the guy had a sob story and asked for most of the money up front, and I have never seen him again, and he isn’t answering his phone.” This was not a very compassionate group of friends, so laughter erupted even louder, as people kept saying, “Burned by the fish!” How sad is that! We should win people’s respect and win a hearing by being the best of workers and the best of businesses. We don’t just represent us. We represent Him.

 

The same is true when it comes to how we live our daily lives. Remember quality work and attractive daily lives—let’s talk about our daily lives around our coworkers. Our social media team just did a survey of what my dream job would be if it wasn’t doing what I already do, and I said a professional skier—to get paid to travel to the best ski destinations in the world. Not realistic, but dreams don’t have to be realistic, right? My brother-in-law is a sales rep for Salomon skis, which does mean that I get good deals on ski equipment. But my real goal is to be officially sponsored by Salomon, to be a brand ambassador. That’s not realistic either because I’m not very good, but I love the thought of it.

 

I am, however, a brand ambassador, and so are you if you are a Jesus follower. We represent Jesus, and how people experience us will determine in large part what they think about him. The NT actually gives us that job, as we just read. Our daily lives will either attract people to Jesus or distract them from Jesus. In Titus 2, Paul commanded the Thessalonians that they should live out their faith in the workplace in such a way that:

SLIDE______________________) Titus 2:10

“Then they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive in every way.”

 

Titus 2 is all about how we in all spheres of life with outsiders should realize that we are brand ambassadors, that what people experience from us will either attract or distract people from Jesus.

I was significantly impacted as a teenager reading the biography of Sheldon Van Auken, an atheist student at Oxford who came to know Jesus while in contact with professor C.S. Lewis and other Christians at the university who won him over through exemplary lives. In one of his journal entries early in that spiritual journey, he wrote:

 

“The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians – when they are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.[1]”

 

– Sheldon Van Auken

 

As a new believer with mostly non-believing friends in my high school, I realized my job to represent Jesus as best I could, because the way people experienced me would either make them more open or closed to all that he wanted for them. That is true for all of us, however we interact with people outside the faith—certainly those at work.

 

We should intentionally be the most loving, humble, respectful, compassionate, helpful, and gracious people at work because we represent the brand of Jesus. When we pull that off, it makes people curious in a good way about what makes us tick. Our daily lives can create pull.

 

And then what? Peter, talking to Christians living in Rome, tells us what will happen and what our responsibility is. Creating pull with an attractive life will create conversations and opportunities. He says,

 

 1 Peter 3:15-16

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

 

You and I are not on our own at work when it comes to spiritual impact. God is at work, pulling people toward himself, and wants to use you and me in the process. When we live lives that are compelling, as Jesus is transforming us, we will have opportunity to share our faith. That’s why we are told to always be prepared to give an answer when people wonder about the hope that we have.

 

Hope is a powerful thing. Hope gives us a why that others who don’t know Jesus do not have. Christian hope is what drives us forward, giving us the motivation to live differently by being the most loving people on the planet, to do our work well as unto the Lord, to be here for good people. So, when we love in ways that are remarkable or serve in ways that are sacrificial or work in ways that are above and beyond the normal or converse in ways that are remarkably respectful, don’t be surprised when people find all that surprising enough to become curious about what makes us tick or to come to us when they have spiritual questions.

 

That’s also true when we or others around us encounter the inevitable difficulties of life in a broken world. Our hope is not based in circumstances, but in the God above the circumstances, which is a surprising kind of hope. When we go through difficulties with hope in God, there is a strength even in our grief that is surprising to people who don’t have that hope. How can you keep going? How can you be so strong?

 

We create pull by quality work and attractive daily lives, enough that we need to be ready for those spiritual conversations to happen. That’s what Peter says, “Be ready!” But what does that mean? How can we be ready?

 

Let’s talk about being prepared and how we can share our faith when people want to hear about it or when people come to us in tough times for support. When someone says, “How can you always stay so positive in a work environment like this?” You could say something like, “Oh, I believe that God placed me here and that what we do really matters to make our world function the way that he intended, so even when work becomes difficult, it helps me to tap into that higher purpose.” Someone might say, “How can you keep treating customers, even rude ones, with such respect and patience?” You could say something like, “Oh, I believe every human is made in God’s image and worthy of respect always, and when people are at their worst, it’s an opportunity to show some love to someone who must be hurting in other areas of life.”

 

How about when people come to you in difficult times for support? Christians are still in our culture the go-to people when life gets hard, because we have a hope that is above circumstances. When conversations happen with people who are struggling, it’s perfectly okay to offer to pray for them. And if they wonder how you can be so strong, you can say someth8ng like, “Oh, I’m not strong. But fortunately, God is, and he is with me in all that I go through. Without him, I’d be a total basket case.”

 

That may open up more conversation and opportunity to invite someone to your small group where you find support, to invite them to take a step on their spiritual journey by joining you at church. Surveys of non-churched people consistently show that they would be open to going to church if someone they respected invited them…but hardly any of them have ever been invited. It’s how Philip, one of the twelve disciples, invited Nathaniel, a friend of his who would also become one of the twelve. Nathaniel was curious but had a lot of doubts and questions. Instead of debating him, Philip just said, “Come and see!” and brought him to Jesus. We design our church services to be come and see environments where we can easily invite those who don’t know Jesus yet and are curious. It’s one way they can encounter Jesus too.

 

You should also be prepared to share with someone how they can begin a relationship with God because of what Jesus did. He came here to take away the guilt of our sin by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead. He wants to not only forgive us but to be in a relationship with us that changes our lives. He invites us into a relationship with him that transforms us from the inside out. I think the best way to about that is to share your story of how you began a relationship with Jesus and the difference it has made in your life. It is not so threatening to share your story, because it is your story. You aren’t saying, “I’m right and you are wrong in what you believe.” You are simply saying, “This is what has happened to me, and why I’m so thankful to have found connection with God through Jesus, because it has made all the difference.” This fall we are doing Chase Oaks Road Shows at each campus, where a traveling group of facilitators will be showing up for a couple of weeks to offer classes designed to give us more confidence and skill in life, including this one. One of the topics will be how to share your story in an effective way.

That’s so important. You may have heard a quote by an ancient saint, Francis of Assisi, that says,

“Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.”

– Saint Frances of Assisi

 

Even if you haven’t heard it, it sounds really good. There are two problems with the quote though. One, he never said it. And two, it’s not true. Yes, just as Paul has instructed us and we’ve shared in this sermon, respectable lives are the most important witness of the reality of Jesus. But that doesn’t mean that words don’t matter. At some point, words are necessary to help someone understand what Jesus is offering them. Like Paul said in Romans,

Romans 10:13-14

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?”

 

How will they know if they don’t hear? How can they hear if we don’t use words? So be prepared to tell your story, like a before and after story, and if you aren’t, then the roadshow is designed to equip you to do so.

Our work itself matters to God, and therefore we should do it well in a way that glorifies him and helps others flourish. Our work also, because we spend so much time there, is usually our most strategic place to represent Jesus in such a way that we can help others know about him. So, let’s go back to work with this thought in mind, that we are there to win the respect of others, to love people with no strings attached and do our work well and treat people with respect, so much so that it creates spiritual pull. Imagine how exciting it would be to help someone in their spiritual journey, wherever you are at in your own. Imagine what it would be like to help lead one or two or ten others around you to a relationship with Jesus and sharing that journey with them? Imagine if all of us Chase Oakers, about 10,000 or so, started doing work the way we have talked about it in this series, how with that critical mass we could actually lift the whole experience of work for others?

Let’s ask God to help us be his people in the workplace in a way that can make a real difference. Let’s do our work well, live increasingly attractive lives as he is transforming us, and always be ready to share our story and the reason for our hope when people want to hear about it or come to us for perspective. He will help us do that, because he will always empower us to do what he commands us to do.

[1] Sheldon Van Auken, A Severe Mercy

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Devotionals

Learn from the Ant

by Drew Anderson
written by Drew Anderson

Go to the ant, O sluggard,
Observe her ways and be wise,
Which, having no chief,
Officer or ruler,
Prepares her food in the summer
And gathers her provision in the harvest.
Proverbs 6:6-8

My wife and I have three lovely daughters. Over the years we have found success and failure in our parenting journey. In many ways, parenting is like gardening. We cultivate, but we don’t change. We plant, but we don’t grow. We harvest, but we don’t ripen. Moreover, each day…each week…each year…each season, we have the opportunity to learn, to adjust, and to recalibrate our parenting ethos and strategy. It’s not necessarily a systematic planning, but is more of an overflow of our own faith-journey and walk of sanctification as parents and Christians ourselves.

One of the ways we’ve adapted our parenting strategy is through word pictures.

Word pictures have been useful throughout the ages to inspire, to connect, and to cause to feel a principle or an idea in ways that prose simply cannot. What’s incredible is that God’s Word is full of timeless word pictures that convey meaning, as well as echo into our minds and hearts deep truths of everyday life. These truths are often shrouded or hidden unless drawn to the surface with word pictures.

We get this idea when we hear things like, “I’m as hungry as a hippo.” We all know that hippos are huge, which usually leads us to then assume that when they’re hungry, they’re really hungry! Compare this idea with trying to convey the same urgency of hunger by simply saying, “I’m hungry.” In this second case, we may know the person is hungry, but it doesn’t carry the same weight or urgency of the hunger as the hippo word picture does.

How has this applied to our lives?

I’ve used word pictures in own parenting journey that has proven powerful in the lives of my children, and one in particular.

The story goes something like this…

A parenting principle we are trying to instill in our three daughters is self-discipline. This is most vividly seen in whether or not they make their bed.

One day, as we were discussing the Proverb of the day after breakfast I shared the story of the ant from Proverbs 6 with my girls…I repeated it several times and watched as it began to sink in. They received it well…they were inspired by this little critter of creation…and they adapted their morning habits to reflect the inspiration of the ant. We know they’re doing well with self-discipline by simply observing whether or not their bed has been made in the morning.

Well, while they still struggle with making their bed everyday, we are finding they (and one in particular) do it more often and without as many reminders after sharing the story of the ant.

How Does This Apply To Us Today?

  1. Consider the inspiration of the ant…
    • Work is part of living.
    • Self-disciplined and deliberate work is part of being an effective (doing the right things) worker.
    • Self-discipline is wired into each of God’s creatures, and we have the privilege of imaging God as we live and walk in its tenor.
  2. Look for word pictures used in Scripture to apply to your everyday life.
    • God has given us myriad examples of everyday living in His Scriptures to teach and inspire us to live according to His will.
    • Take the time to meditate upon those and how you might apply them to your own lives.
  3. Look for truths in creation to inspire you to live according to God’s Word.
    • While I write this post, I’m sitting in NW Arkansas on a family vacation with friends. After having a delightful time of devotion in God’s Word and observing my surroundings, I was inspired by God’s creation and decided to write this story.
    • Everyday we are surrounded by God’s creation living out its design…do we have eyes to see and ears to hear?
    • When we align ourselves with God’s design in our lives, we live according to His will and walk in His good pleasure.

May we all learn from the ant…self-discipline…and be inspired to walk according to the will of God!

 

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Articles

How Does God Want You to Work?

by John Beeson
written by John Beeson

How are we supposed to do our work “as unto the Lord?” I’d like to give some Bible tips for students, stay at home moms and dads, those who don’t like their job, those who love their job, and retirees.

For students:

Even though you’re not paid, you do have a job right now. You do have dominion. That dominion is being a student and taking care of your home with your parents. Don’t neglect your job. There isn’t an opt-in age for dominion, meaning we can all contribute, no matter how old we are. For the youngest, that might just mean helping to put away toys and empty the dishwasher. Even a toddler has dominion and is called to exercise it faithfully. For older students, lean into your dominion. Take more, not less responsibility at home. If you have a part time job, great! Treat it like it’s your career.

No matter what your task is, you are ultimately working for God, not your parents.

Paul says in Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

Cleaning your room? That’s dominion. Do it for the Lord! Picking up dog poop? Dominion. Do it for the Lord! The dishes? That’s your dominion. Own it. Do it for the Lord! Schoolwork? Dominion. Do it for the Lord!

“But what about my career (future)?” you might ask. Often, the advice that is given to students is to follow your dreams and passions. That is half-true. If those dreams and passions are good and holy, it is very likely that God is calling you to exercise dominion in that area in some way in your life.[i] If you love art, develop as an artist. If you love football, be the best football player you can be.

Even more so, find passion in whatever you do. Passion is a terrible master, but a good servant. Steward well the education God is calling you to have dominion over. Expand what those areas of dominion look like in your life. It’s likely that one of those areas become your paid vocation one day.  

God often calls us to paid vocations that are secondary areas of passion. For example, you might be gifted and have a passion for acting or for art, therefore God probably has an area he is going to call you into to exercise that dominion as an adult. In fact, often adults stop enjoying art and athletics. We shouldn’t! Those are areas God calls us to steward, even when we’re not getting a pay check for them. After all, we’re going to be using those gifts in eternity.

However, statistically speaking, it’s a lot more likely that you’ll be paid to be a nurse or an engineer than an artist or an athlete. And that’s okay. Keep developing the gifts God has given you and keep an open mind about what God might have your paid vocation. God develops perseverance and holiness in us as we serve a need for dominion on this earth.

For stay at home moms and dads:

What I have to say to you is very simple: you are absolutely doing dominion. Regardless of a paycheck, what you are doing is work. You are doing some of the hardest, most meaningful work there is: parenting. From the bottom of my heart, thank you! Thank you for doing one of the hardest and most unthanked job in the world. Thank you!

For those who struggle with their job:

First, be encouraged. Know that just by working, you are fulfilling God’s good purpose in your life. Continue working hard. Paul exhorts the church at Thessalonica this way: “For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.”[ii]

God calls us to work, even when we don’t enjoy it. Blessed are those who work faithfully even when it is hard!

Second, find your purpose in what you are doing. I know firsthand that it can be difficult to see God’s productive purposes in your work. There are, of course, some jobs, that Christians just shouldn’t do, because they don’t serve a redeemable purpose. However, a vast majority of jobs serve a meaningful and God-honoring purpose.

It was hard to go to work when I was a Detention Officer. It is a thankless, hard, and dangerous job. Even then, I found that it has a holy purpose. More than protecting the public from inmates, your first job as a Detention Officer is to protect inmates from other inmates. As a Christian, we are called to treat every inmate as one who bears the image of God. We are called to respect and even love every human being. That truth anchored my purpose in my time as a Detention Officer.

For those who love their job:

I’m so grateful that I can now be counted in this group. Yet danger still lurks for us.

Friends, you were made to work, but you are more than your work. Your identity is as a child of Christ. Christ has done the work for us. On the cross, Christ proclaimed “It is finished!” Those words speak to the finality of our salvation, yes, but even more than that; it speaks also to the work God will use us to do.

Paul says these words of hope about not only our salvation, but our work in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Is work part of our call? Absolutely. But grace comes first, work is actually God’s grace to us. You are, first and foremost, a child of God. Purchased by the blood of Jesus, adopted by him. That is not a result of anything you’ve done. And the works too are prepared beforehand by God for us and given to us as a grace of God to walk into.

Get your identity right. You are a child, not an indentured servant paying back your master. He has freely given you the gift of your adoption. Don’t be anxious. Don’t work as the world works. 

For those who are retired:

Just because you’ve hit 65 doesn’t mean that God’s intention for you to have dominion has expired. While retirement can be a great and beautiful thing, it can also be deadly. Recent studies show that those over 65 spend nearly twice as much time in front of a screen than those under 50.[iii] There is nothing wrong with TV, but we need a purpose bigger than our TV’s. What is your purpose right now? What is your plan for today?

One of the most significant engines of ministry at New Life are retirees who know exactly what their purpose is, and, in turn, pour themselves out in the good works that God has prepared beforehand for them. God calls you to partner with him and find a place where he is working and where your gifts lie.

Finish strong. Live out God’s purpose for your dominion. This is the time to pour out your wisdom, not slouch into the sunset. 

For everyone:

God has made us for dominion.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

When the world looks at Christians, they should be astonished to find that Christians are the hardest working, most cheerful workers there are. We are called to embody the values of the companies we work for, we are called to go the extra mile and wow every employer.

God has made us for work: let us work as he has called us with the passion we can bring with us.

www.thebeehive.live. Used by permission.

[i] Mike Rowe from “Dirty Jobs” has some great things to say about this. His TED talk is here: https://www.ted.com/talks/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobs#t-572671

[ii] 2 Thessalonians 3:11-12

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How Do You Balance Work and Home?

by Carey Nieuwhof
written by Carey Nieuwhof

Balancing work and family can be tricky. Here’s Carey Nieuwhof’s article on how to re-prioritize and win at home and at work.

How’s it going at home…really?

 

Here’s what I’ve come to believe.

Ultimately, everything rides on how you lead at home. 

The stakes are high.

Lead well at home, and you will inevitably become a better leader in your ministry or organization.

The difficult issues you work through in your marriage and parenting will make you a wiser, stronger leader organizationally.

The discipline of loving someone for a lifetime will help you love the people you serve and work with through their ups and downs. Working through the issues at home actually makes the issues at work easier.

Leadership at home is more difficult than leadership organizationally for most people.  Because respect is earned at home, and no one is interested in your title or corner office, you have to lead with love. It’s the only thing that works long term.

Lead poorly at home, and the consequences will play out in several ways in your leadership:

You may win in ministry but lose the heart and affection of your family. Most of us have met leaders whose family is still together but deeply resents the leader’s organization.

Your leadership in ministry might be permanently stunted as unresolved character issues leak from home into your organizational leadership. Your flaws tend to eventually impact everything you lead and touch.

You might lose it all – the collapse of your family might lead to the collapse of your ministry and leadership.  How many times have we seen an affair, an addiction, or other moral failures take out a leader whose gifting outweighed his character?

See what’s at stake?

Even though so much ultimately rides on how you lead at home, you will be tempted (as I am) to resist leading well at home.

In fact, many people pour all their skill development into leading at work and will let the home front slide.

I know in seasons I’ve done that.

But here’s the truth. If you’re winning at work but losing at home, you’re losing.

Why?

Here are three reasons winning at work is easier than winning at home.

1. RESPECT IS OFTEN EASIER TO GET AT WORK THAN IT IS AT HOME.

Men, in particular, crave respect. So it’s easy to skip home, work harder and become even more ‘celebrated’ in your field.

Respect at work often comes from your accomplishments and sometimes your position.

At home, it comes from your character.

No one at home is impressed by your resume, your sales, your growth or your war stories. Which makes it easier to keep working.

 

2. AT HOME, THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM WHO YOU REALLY ARE. 

People at home see you as you really are — in your weaknesses, in your most vulnerable moments. They see you uncut.

Many leaders prefer the edited version of themselves, but our families never get that.

Because at home there is no escape from who you really are, some leaders are tempted to escape from home (back to the office, to friends or to some time-consuming hobby).

3. THE WINS AT HOME ARE LONG TERM WINS

You can get quick fixes to problems at work. At home, you are primarily working on things that take a lifetime to achieve.

Great marriages are measured in decades and ultimately in fractions of a century. The relationship with our kids last throughout our lives. God is working on our character over a lifetime, not just in Q3.  You can change your job. You can get a promotion. But our family relationships are forever. That makes them much harder, but so much more worthwhile.

I realize this post doesn’t resolve the tension. It raises it.

But maybe for some of us, that’s where we need to leave it for now.

Sometimes when I think about what’s at stake and why I resist, it ups my motivation to change. My next post will outline several ways leaders can lead better at home.

But in the meantime, let’s leave it there.

And let’s think and pray about what’s at stake.

Stop Losing At Home. Start Winning At Home And At Work.

www.careynieuwhof.com. Used by permission. 


 

 

 

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Why Train Your Child to Do Chores?

by Jane Sandwood
written by Jane Sandwood

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 KJV

In America, 82% of adults said that they grew up doing chores. But why is it that only 28% of people said that they give their own children chores to do? One reason is that many children do a lot of extracurricular activities after school. Another reason why fewer children are doing chores is because parents may be reluctant to give their children responsibilities. However, learning to do household chores is essential to a child’s upbringing. Research by the University of Michigan has found that children who do chores have a sense of belonging. Chores actually improve their self-confidence and give them a sense of pride. So how do we get children to look at chores in a new way?

DON’T USE CHORES AS PUNISHMENT!

If you use chores as punishment then it reinforces the idea that they are daily activities that bring no pleasure. Instead, as your children get older, use household tasks to praise their ability to contribute to the daily running of your home. This way they will feel like a valued member of the household – they have some grown-up responsibilities too. Your children can take pride in the skills that they have learned. Start when they are little – for instance, children as young as six can help to wash and dry the dishes, or empty the dishwasher. However, you wouldn’t let a five-year-old do the ironing – it simply wouldn’t be safe or appropriate. A twelve-year-old should be perfectly capable of ironing some t-shirts though.

You are teaching them life skills

It is your responsibility as a parent to prepare your children for the world ahead of them. When sparrows have chicks, they show their little ones how to find food. In the same way, we need to show our children how to cook, clean and look after ourselves, by caring about the environment that we live in. Children go to school to learn academic studies, but their education doesn’t stop there. The practical skills are down to you – your should aim for your children to be able to leave home and fend for themselves. When you are giving your child a job to do, don’t think of it as a chore. Think of it as teaching them something of value – skills for the future. 

Give chores a new name

Chores need to be re-labeled. They are not arduous tasks that nobody wants to do. They are household activities that everyone needs to learn in order to function as a grown adult. These tasks are also a way of showing children that they need to do a few jobs, in order to get time to do the things they enjoy more, such as playing football or watching T.V. An adult goes to work to earn money, then at the end of the day we are rewarded with free time. Asking children to help with simple household tasks, before allowing them to get on with other things, is just instilling a good work ethic. So give chores a new name in your house. Call it “helping time,” or “home jobs.” Just don’t make it sound like a drag.

Giving your children tasks to help around the house is essential as they are growing up. By learning these skills, they can move into the adult world, being able to look after themselves properly.

www.momschoiceawards.com

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How God Wants You to Work

by John Beeson
written by John Beeson

Today, I would like to get practical by offering biblical wisdom regarding work for a few specific groups of people. Those groups are students, stay at home moms and dads, those who don’t like their job, those who love their job, and retirees.

For students:

Even though you’re not paid, you do have a job right now. You do have dominion. That dominion is being a student and taking care of your home with your parents. Don’t neglect your job. There isn’t an opt-in age for dominion, meaning we can all contribute, no matter how old we are. For the youngest, that might just mean helping to put away toys and empty the dishwasher. Even a toddler has dominion and is called to exercise it faithfully. For older students, lean into your dominion. Take more, not less responsibility at home. If you have a part time job, great! Treat it like it’s your career.

No matter what your task is, you are ultimately working for God, not your parents.

Paul says in Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

Cleaning your room? That’s dominion. Do it for the Lord! Picking up dog poop? Dominion. Do it for the Lord! The dishes? That’s your dominion. Own it. Do it for the Lord! Schoolwork? Dominion. Do it for the Lord!

“But what about my career (future)?” you might ask. Often, the advice that is given to students is to follow your dreams and passions. That is half-true. If those dreams and passions are good and holy, it is very likely that God is calling you to exercise dominion in that area in some way in your life.[i] If you love art, develop as an artist. If you love football, be the best football player you can be.

Even more so, find passion in whatever you do. Passion is a terrible master, but a good servant. Steward well the education God is calling you to have dominion over. Expand what those areas of dominion look like in your life. It’s likely that one of those areas become your paid vocation one day.  

God often calls us to paid vocations that are secondary areas of passion. For example, you might be gifted and have a passion for acting or for art, therefore God probably has an area he is going to call you into to exercise that dominion as an adult. In fact, often adults stop enjoying art and athletics. We shouldn’t! Those are areas God calls us to steward, even when we’re not getting a pay check for them. After all, we’re going to be using those gifts in eternity.

However, statistically speaking, it’s a lot more likely that you’ll be paid to be a nurse or an engineer than an artist or an athlete. And that’s okay. Keep developing the gifts God has given you and keep an open mind about what God might have your paid vocation. God develops perseverance and holiness in us as we serve a need for dominion on this earth.

For stay at home moms and dads:

What I have to say to you is very simple: you are absolutely doing dominion. Regardless of a paycheck, what you are doing is work. You are doing some of the hardest, most meaningful work there is: parenting. From the bottom of my heart, thank you! Thank you for doing one of the hardest and most unthanked job in the world. Thank you!

For those who struggle with their job:

First, be encouraged. Know that just by working, you are fulfilling God’s good purpose in your life. Continue working hard. Paul exhorts the church at Thessalonica this way: “For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.”[ii]

God calls us to work, even when we don’t enjoy it. Blessed are those who work faithfully even when it is hard!

Second, find your purpose in what you are doing. I know firsthand that it can be difficult to see God’s productive purposes in your work. There are, of course, some jobs, that Christians just shouldn’t do, because they don’t serve a redeemable purpose. However, a vast majority of jobs serve a meaningful and God-honoring purpose.

It was hard to go to work when I was a Detention Officer. It is a thankless, hard, and dangerous job. Even then, I found that it has a holy purpose. More than protecting the public from inmates, your first job as a Detention Officer is to protect inmates from other inmates. As a Christian, we are called to treat every inmate as one who bears the image of God. We are called to respect and even love every human being. That truth anchored my purpose in my time as a Detention Officer.

For those who love their job:

I’m so grateful that I can now be counted in this group. Yet danger still lurks for us.

Friends, you were made to work, but you are more than your work. Your identity is as a child of Christ. Christ has done the work for us. On the cross, Christ proclaimed “It is finished!” Those words speak to the finality of our salvation, yes, but even more than that; it speaks also to the work God will use us to do.

Paul says these words of hope about not only our salvation, but our work in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Is work part of our call? Absolutely. But grace comes first, work is actually God’s grace to us. You are, first and foremost, a child of God. Purchased by the blood of Jesus, adopted by him. That is not a result of anything you’ve done. And the works too are prepared beforehand by God for us and given to us as a grace of God to walk into.

Get your identity right. You are a child, not an indentured servant paying back your master. He has freely given you the gift of your adoption. Don’t be anxious. Don’t work as the world works.

 

For those who are retired:

Just because you’ve hit 65 doesn’t mean that God’s intention for you to have dominion has expired. While retirement can be a great and beautiful thing, it can also be deadly. Recent studies show that those over 65 spend nearly twice as much time in front of a screen than those under 50.[iii] There is nothing wrong with TV, but we need a purpose bigger than our TV’s. What is your purpose right now? What is your plan for today?

One of the most significant engines of ministry at New Life are retirees who know exactly what their purpose is, and, in turn, pour themselves out in the good works that God has prepared beforehand for them. God calls you to partner with him and find a place where he is working and where your gifts lie.

Finish strong. Live out God’s purpose for your dominion. This is the time to pour out your wisdom, not slouch into the sunset.

 

For everyone:

God has made us for dominion.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

When the world looks at Christians, they should be astonished to find that Christians are the hardest working, most cheerful workers there are. We are called to embody the values of the companies we work for, we are called to go the extra mile and wow every employer.

God has made us for work: let us work as he has called us with the passion we can bring with us.

www.thebeehive.live. 

 

 

 

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Urgent or Important? How Will You Know?

by Jon Acuff
written by Jon Acuff

More than likely, you’ve spent most of your life choosing to do more than is possible and beating yourself up for not being able to keep up.

 

“I should be able to handle all of this. Yes, I’ve added a new goal to my life that I care about. Yes, I’m trying to put a new daily action into an already crowded calendar, but I should be able to handle it all. Yes, I moved to Atlanta to take care of my ill father-in-law, but I should be able to carry on like nothing has changed.”

I work with an organization called Brightpeak and we see people approach their personal finances with the same “must do everything” attitude. Young couples think that in order to be financially responsible they have to measure every penny, predict every possible issue, work 17 side hustles and know exactly how much they’re spending on celery. They think they can and should be able to do it all when it comes to their money.

You know deep down you can’t accomplish everything, but there’s still a part of you, a part run by shame, that thinks you’re one or two apps away from doing it all. This is why chronic starters are always reading books about time management. Perhaps if we sliced the day just a little differently or combined an audiobook with the treadmill while also flossing, we could manage to get it all done.

Our attempts to do too much feel noble and honorable. Look at us, tirelessly working toward burnout, reducing the quality of everything because we insisted we can do everything. We can share that approach with honor on Instagram. That’s the grind. That’s the hustle.

We often do this because we’ve rolled forward some bad habit we learned in high school. You could pull off an all-nighter when the final product was a ten-page essay on the effects of trade restrictions during the Civil War. It’s a little harder to cram for something like your quarterly sales numbers or your weight. Eating a week’s worth of kale in a single night because you’re trying to get back on track with a diet is a bad plan.

At some point this catches up with you. You miss a flight and the whole fragile system falls apart. A soccer practice runs late and the plan collapses. One meeting takes too long and that dominoes into the rest of your day. A rotund family of groundhogs moves into your yard because the height of the grass provides tactical ground cover from neighboring red-tailed hawks.

Something fails, and in that moment we feel shame.

We don’t pull grace out of our pocket and cut ourselves slack. No, on the contrary, most people quit right there. Not just the extra thing that proved to be too much—we give up on the whole goal.

That’s the truly terrible part of trying too much. You don’t just drop the bonus item and carry on with your goal. You drop every ball you’re juggling when one gets out of sync.

When you can’t do it all and you won’t be able to, you feel ashamed and give up.

Or you pick a strategy and decide in advance what things you’re going to bomb.

When you choose in advance what those things will be, you remove the sting of shame. The surprise effect of shame pointing out something you’re bad at is removed. Instead of reacting in shock at some ball you’ve dropped, you get to say, “Oh, that ball I put down on purpose before the game even started? Thanks for noticing!”

It will feel uncomfortable at first, it always does. But the long term benefits are worth the short term pain.

What’s a practical example of this principle at work? Well, every November, churches should sit their staffs down and pick which things they won’t focus on in December. We tend to act like December is a month just like May, even though the truth is that Christmas is the Super Bowl for most churches. It’s your busiest season.

What if instead of burning out staff, you asked each member to name five things they wouldn’t work on until January? What if you asked them to choose five things they’d bomb until the rush was over of Christmas?

Can you imagine what that would do to morale?

You can’t do everything.

I don’t care how productive you are or how efficient. Some things are going to fall through the cracks.

Use strategy and pick those things ahead of time.

Strategy always beats shame.

www.acuff.me. Used by permission. 

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Why Is Your Work Never Done?

by Carey Nieuwhof
written by Carey Nieuwhof

Ever feel like your work is never finished?

You can’t quite stop working at home. You wake up most mornings feeling like you’re just stepping back onto the treadmill that never stops.

On rare occasions, you think you’re done (at least for now), but then you head out for dinner or take a walk only to start thinking about all the different ways you could have tackled the situation at work. Suddenly you’re not ‘off’ anymore.

Even on vacation, you don’t really feel free. Work is on your mind, even when you’re a thousand miles away from it.

More and more leaders feel like their work is never done.

The challenge, of course, is that the more you feel like your work is never finished, the closer you edge to feeling finished.

Why is that?

Well, there are a number of factors at work.

This is a far greater problem for people today than it ever was for our parents or grandparents. Things have changed radically since the 60s and even since the 90s.

Some of the factors at work are beyond your control: to fight them is like fighting gravity.

But there’s one thing you can change, and it’s the #1 reason your work is never done.

First the reasons why it’s so difficult, which are the factors you can’t really change because they’re cultural, not personal.

The more you feel like your work is never finished, the closer you edge to feeling finished.

Flex Hours

Flex hours were supposed to liberate people from the tyranny of 8 to 4 or 9 to 5. And some extend, they did.

A defined start and finish time to work left a lot of office workers feeling like they lived in an arbitrary prison. After all, why should a responsible employee have to sit behind a desk or cubicle when they could be at their child’s school play and get their work done earlier or later?

It all makes perfect sense.

Except that when there’s no clean start and clean finish to work, there’s no clean start or clean finish to work. Everything gets lost in the messy mud of “did I really do enough?”

There’s definitely a group of people who take advantage of flex hours to cheat their employers. But I suspect there’s an even larger group of responsible people who end up doing more because there are no longer any clear boundaries.

Flexible hours really means many people just work more hours.

Your Work Isn’t Tangible

If you work at an auto plant or even at Starbucks, there’s a tangibility to work that almost no one in an office, firm or church experiences.

You start your shift and produce X number of SUV steering wheels or Frappuccinos, and you’re done. Five hours after your shift ends nobody’s thinking, “I wonder if I should be installing more steering wheels right now.”

The challenge with knowledge workers (pretty much all office, ministry workers and a growing number of entrepreneurs) is that nobody’s quite sure how to measure what we do, including us.

Sure, you can measure bank balances, attendance, customer acquisition, growth rates and the like. But how do you really measure what you do in a day?

It’s harder to find a sense of accomplishment when you met with someone for an hour and there was no defined outcome.

Maybe you should have a dozen more meetings like that. Or maybe none. Who knows?

If you’re a preacher or writer like me, who knows whether what you did accomplished anything? Sure, over the long haul you’ll see results, but every sermon could be ‘better’ and every article could be more polished or have stronger ideas.

It’s just so intangible.

The intangibility of ministry creates a tangible angst in many leaders.

More than a few people compensate by looking for other wins in their lives that are measurable. That’s why I love cutting my lawn and cleaning my car. There’s a before and after. The results are clear.

At work, they’re never that clear.

As a result, you feel like you’re never done.

The Mission Is Endless

Adding to the sense of never being done many of us experience is the size of the mission facing us.

In church, there are always more people to reach. Even if your church is the largest in town, most of your town doesn’t attend church and the majority of those people likely don’t have a growing relationship with Christ.

In business, there are always more opportunities.  Even if your company is on a 30% growth curve, somebody down the road is experiencing 10x growth. And there are 7 billion people on the planet anyway to reach anyway, right?

A lot of us have an endless mission. There’s just always more.

The problem with having ‘more’ as a standard is that more has no end point.

You never feel done because, well, you aren’t.

Your Work Lives In Your Pocket

Previous generations have lived with intangible work and an endless mission. Arguably they handled it better than we’re handling it.

Why? Well, one reason is they never carried phones.

Your challenge is your work lives in your pocket. You carry it with you wherever you go. Even on vacation.

As a result, you feel like your work is never finished.

When you check the time or the weather forecast, you can’t help but notice the eighteen unread emails that have piled up in the last hour.

Co-workers text you at dinner. Friends ping you while you’re watching the game.

Add a laptop into the mix, and you’re never off when you’re off.

The line between work and home isn’t just blurred, it’s gone.

Thanks to phones and laptops, the line between work and home isn’t just blurred, it’s gone.

The #1 Reason You Feel Like Your Work Is Never Finished

All of the reasons listed above are huge factors in how we feel day to day and why the struggle is real.

But none of them is the key reason you feel like you’re never done.

You know what is?

It’s this: You feel like you’re work is never finished because you don’t have a strategy.

What you need is a strategy to figure out how to handle the pressures of flex hours, intangible work, an endless mission and your constantly buzzing phone.

After all, none of us can go back to 1974 when no one had a phone and office hours were office hours. And probably many of us won’t work at an auto plant or in retail where there are clear lines.

As a result, self-leadership has become critical. Most of us have no idea how to lead ourselves.

If someone asked you right now What’s you strategy for handling the constant pressure of work, what would your answer be?

Most leaders I know would have no answer.

Frankly, I didn’t either until ten years ago.

Self-leadership has become critical, and most of us have no idea how to lead ourselves.

www.careynieuwhof.com. Used by permission.

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Five Reasons Why Control Freaks Rarely Lead Large Churches or Organizations

by Carey Nieuwhof
written by Carey Nieuwhof

So you’re a bit of a control freak. And you’re a leader.

That’s not surprising.

People who like control seem to have a natural ability to get into leadership positions. Or sometimes they create positions, start things and build their own organizations.

For years, I resisted the control freak label.

I wasn’t a control freak. I was…

  • Passionate.
  • Detail oriented (of course, only very selectively about the things for which I had the most passion).
  • Good at what I did (okay, you don’t say that one out loud…but control freaks, you know what happens when you delegate to other people who just can’t get the job done, right?).

Control freaks, after all, usually get things done.

Our church grew rapidly when I was in my undiagnosed control freak days. So you would think, well, the sky’s the limit, right?

Wrong.

There’s a lid that comes with your control freak tendencies.

In fact, control freaks rarely lead large churches or organizations.

I hear the pushback already. You’ve heard that some leaders of large churches or organizations are control freaks.

Well, that may the case. But they’ve learned to put those tendencies in a box. They’ve self-regulated. They’ve forced themselves to stop controlling everything (especially people) so that their mission can thrive.

Being highly controlling and highly effective are mutually exclusive.

If you insist on controlling everything, you will eventually hit a wall in which the size of your church or organization shrinks back to the size of your personal span of care. Until you let go.

In other words, if you want to limit your church’s growth, attempt to control everything.

Jesus didn’t model control freakishness very well for those of us who want to follow in his footsteps.

He only ministered for three years, building into some questionable characters he called disciples. He poured his life into them, and then left the planet and put them in charge.

A number of years ago I finally admitted I have a problem (only after about 1,282 other people had gently hinted that I might). And I began to let go.

Don’t get me wrong, the impulses still surface from time to time. But over the years it’s gotten so much better. Fortunately for all of us, I learned.

But over the years it’s gotten so much better. Fortunately for all of us, learned behavior has a wonderful way of compensating for bad impulses that no leader should act on.

Here are 5 insights that help me remember that controlling everything means you will eventually end up leading nothing significant.

 1. Control Is Often A Substitute For A Lack Of Clear Strategy Or Alignment

Poor leaders substitute control for clarity.

Here’s why. If you don’t know with absolute clarity what your organization is, where it’s going and how it’s going to get there (in other words, if you’re fuzzy about your mission, vision and strategy), you can never truly align a team. And as a result, you will always want to control it.

You will default to control because, in the absence of clarity, you worry that leaders will take your church or organization to places you don’t believe it should go. And the truth is, they will. Because you haven’t been clear.

In so many cases, the real reason you can’t ‘trust’ people of even stellar character is not because they aren’t trustworthy, it’s because you haven’t stated the mission, vision and strategy clearly enough that it’s repeatable and reproducible for anybody other than you. In the absence of clarity, well-intentioned team members end up going rogue, not because they’re trying to be disloyal, but because you never clearly defined the destination.

Healthy people usually only run in the wrong direction when their leader never made it clear what the right direction is.

The more clarity you have as a leader, the less you will feel a need to control anything.

2. Control Rarely Delegates

One of the reasons many leaders becoming controlling is because they gave the job to someone else and, well, that person just didn’t do a good job.

So is it that they didn’t do a good job, or is it that you didn’t set them up to win?

The more you control, the less you will delegate. The less you delegate, the fewer leaders you will raise up. The fewer leaders you raise up, the weaker your church becomes.

It’s a domino effect.

The clearer you are, the better you train others, the more razor-sharp your strategy is, the more your team will scale, grow and begin to truly advance.

When you grow your team, you grow your mission.

3. Your Need To Control And The Size Of Your Organization Are Inversely Proportional

Of all the reasons, this one haunts me most. Your need to control and the size of your organization are inversely proportional.

The more controlling you are, the smaller your church will be.

We grew to about 500 before I really had to come to terms with my desire to know everything and be involved in everything.

Now, we see almost triple that number join our church in person and online every weekend, and far more than that call our church home.  In addition, the blog, podcasts, and books I write are all deeply supported by an exceptional team of highly skilled people.

If everything needs to flow through you, you will not only bottleneck your organization, you’ll kill your mission. The more you can release (around a crystal clear mission, vision, and strategy), the more it has a chance to finally grow.

4. Control Repels Great Leaders

If you want great leaders to flee your organization, control them. They’ll leave.

If you want to attract great leaders, release them with a clear mission, vision, and strategy (and give them input to shape it). As long as you micromanage everything, you will only have do-ers in your organization, not leaders.

Enough said.

5. The More You Let Go, The Stronger Your Church Will Be

There was a day where I initiated and led almost everything our church did.

Then as we grew the team and the mission, there was a season where I was involved in virtually everything our church did.

That morphed into a season in which I was aware of everything our church did.

Then, as more leaders were raised up, we moved into a season where I wasn’t even aware of everything that was happening. I couldn’t be. It would have slowed everyone down. But again, there was no worry attached to the lack of knowledge. I was still responsible as the leader, but because a capable, empowered, aligned team was in place, they could take new ground without my involvement or even blessing.

It’s a strange feeling as a leader to not know everything that’s happening. But it’s also a tremendous sign of progress. It’s not that you don’t care. You care passionately. But you’ve released a team to do what God has called them to do.

Last year we moved into a new building. I always joke that I’m the worst tour guide because people ask me many questions to which I simply have to answer, “I don’t know.” My job was to raise vision, raise money and steer the overall scope and mission of the project, but everything else was left to our team.

I’ve learned this in leadership: the more I get out of the way, the stronger our team and organization get.

Sure, you play a role as a senior leader, but you shouldn’t play every role

In the meantime, what about you? What are you learning about control?  

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Fight, divorce and depression with couple on sofa for conflict, therapy and mental health or marriage counseling. Sad, anxiety and stress with man and woman in living room for fail, crisis and angry
Articles

Surefire Ways to Diffuse Volatile Relationships!

by Chet Weld
written by Chet Weld

Have you ever been in a volatile relationship? The word “volatile” means “liable to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.” You may be sitting next to a terrorist: not the radical kind, just the dysfunctional, abusive kind! Your child may be a “holy terror,” holding your happy home hostage. Your co-worker may use inflammatory words, creating a hostile work environment. You may be in a turbulent, abusive marriage. You never know when you enter your front door if you will face an emotional explosion. 

How do you identify a volatile person in a relationship?  

  • Unpredictable behavior
  • Highly-charged words
  • Impulsive decisions
  • Mercurial moods
  • Controlling others

You can diffuse a volatile situation.

Dr. Chet Weld, marriage counselor relates: “I specialize in marriage counseling. Couples often come to me thinking the hostility they hold is irreconcilable. Of course, each partner is hurting, and they’ve not asked for help in such a long time that negative marriage patterns seem immovable. Fortunately, they’re usually not immovable at all!”   

You can diffuse the bomb and repair the damage.

Here are some guidelines to re-build trust and stability in a volatile relationship:  

  • Do not allow yourself to feel like a victim.
  • Ask yourself, “What trauma is being triggered or ‘re-stimulated?”  Take responsibility for letting the trauma be triggered.
  • Recognize your own inner conflict.
  • Own your own individual issue.
  • Learn new communication and other skills in order to stop old patterns.
  • Give up on the idea that your partner or friend can meet any unmet needs of childhood.
  • If there is drug or alcohol abuse, this issue needs to be solved prior to resolving relationship issues.
  • Admit your fears beneath your anger.
  • Learn to self-soothe.
  • Admit that your partner or friend can help with large matters such as the death of a parent, but cannot usually help with smaller, every day concerns.
  • Accept that you are each imperfect.
  • Tell each other your good intentions.
  • Look at the impact of your family-of-origin on your own reactions.
  • Avoid blame, withdrawal, resentful compliance, whining.
  • Avoid long explanations and justifications.  Just say “ouch” or “I’m getting defensive.”
  • Ask, “What would you like to hear right now?”
  • Soothe the pain rapidly – “I am sorry I hurt you.”
  • Take turns as speaker or listener.  Ask each other questions.  Postpone persuasion. 
  • Dialogue must replace the four horsemen that lead to relational suicide.
  • Spend more time on solvable problems than on perpetual ones.
  • Talk about each other’s dreams.

Dr. Weld encourages healthy dialogue. 

“Here are good some good topics of discussion to help you talk to your fiery friend or spouse in “normal tones” about understanding them and resolving conflict.  Of course, it’s important for each of you to take turns listening and talking.  Sometimes 10-20 minutes apiece – without interruption – is what’s required.”  

  • What do you feel about this issue?
  • What do you believe about it?
  • What’s the story behind it?  
  • Can you relate to the other person’s background in some way? 
  • What do you need, as illustrated by this issue?
  • Tell me why this is so important to you?
  • What would be your ideal dream?
  • Is there a fear in not having the dream?
  • Is there a deeper purpose or goal inside of either of you?

Draw two concentric circles.  What are the issues you can’t give up?  Write these down in middle.   Outside circle: What you’re flexible about.  

Recommended reading:

The Dance of Anger, by Harriet Lerner 

The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, by John M. Gottman and Nan Silver 

Boundaries in Marriage, by Henry Cloud, John Townsend, John Sims Townsend

Also included: Dr. Ellyn Bader, Dr. Julie Gottman’s research at the Milton Erickson Conference, April 2, 2011. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ask Roger

Biblical Grounds for Divorce: My View

by Roger Barrier
written by Roger Barrier

In order to lend some credibility to my comments, you may need to know that I’ve counseled married, remarried, cohabitating and divorced couples and individuals for over forty years. Nothing surprises me anymore. Of the hundreds of letters that I receive to Ask Roger, almost one-half of them deal with marriage issues.

  

While the issues in marriage, and in cohabitating, remain much the same, I’m not the same. When I first began pastoring (at age 20) the rules for divorce were clear. First, adultery was always grounds for divorce (Matthew 5:31-21). Second, a Christian married to an unbeliever may get a divorce if the unbeliever wants to get out of the marriage (1 Corinthians 7:12-16).

 

In those days it was easy for me to apply the rules. People either obeyed them or they didn’t. If they didn’t they weren’t really welcome in our fellowship.

 

I look back with sadness. A lot of people in broken marriages turned to the church for help and comfort and all we had to offer were two rules.

 

The more contact I’ve had with those divorced and divorcing, and with people who needed to get out of miserable, dangerous, abusive and broken marriages the more my heart aches. Too many situations simply don’t fit the rules.

 

Let me give you an example of a letter that I recently received from a woman with two daughters. She is tragically trapped in a marriage sham but feels is obligated to keep married because God will punish her if she divorces the miserable dead beat.

 

Dear Roger,

I am 23 years old,and i got married when i was 19. i been married 5 years now. i got 2 kids… as of right now my husband is pass out .he was drunk and he came home and pick a fight and when i told him i just want to sleep he punch me and grab my hair ans says i don’t care about him just because i didn’t want to talk to him…i really don’t know what to do.. i love my two daughter so much..i don’t want them to be grow up and see that they don’t have their parent toghter..Please Pray for me and my daughters…today is sunday i suppose to go to the church, but i can’t my eyes can’t open cause i been crying all night..Please help me pray for me and my daughter….

 

Today, I try to interpret the Bible’s teachings on divorce–and there are many–as a selection of godly principles. With this approach, I find the Scriptures full of help which provides much truth to work with in helping hurting people.

 

No two marriages are alike. Each needs individual attention. Any decision to divorce — or to recommend it — comes only after a careful consideration of a multitude of factors. Prayer and seeking God’s will in every situation is essential.

 

1. Adultery is always grounds for divorce (Matthew 5:31-32).

 

2. A Christian may divorce a non-Christian if the non-Christian wants to divorce (1 Corinthians 7:12-16).

 

3. Physical abuse, and in many cases emotional, cruel and/or mental abuse may mean that it is time to consider abandoning the marriage (Malachi 2:16).

 

“God hates divorce; but, He also hates a man covering himself with violence” (Malachi 2:16). The term in Malachi 2:16, comes from a Hebrew word that can also mean, “covering his wife with violence.”

 

I advise any woman who has been hit by her husband to consider getting as far away from him as soon as possible — and never to look back–divorce or otherwise. Continued belittling and mental and emotional badgering fits under the “violence” umbrella. Notice that this principle holds true if the roles are reversed and the wife is the one instigating the violence.

 

By the way, can you imagine that a quick way to break your marriage vows is to hit the one that you promised to love.

 

4. The husband who consistently refuses to live up his responsibility of loving his wife as Jesus loved the church, may, in some cases, have violated his marriage vows and made the marriage contract null and void (Ephesians 5:25-33).

 

Paul taught that the marriage vows made by a husband include loving and sacrificing for his wife as Jesus loved and sacrificed His life for His church. According to the vows laid out in the Bible, the husband is to invest his life in loving his wife and caring for her needs even before he takes care of his own. He is responsible to make her into the best woman she can possibly be. He is to watch over her and protect her from “evil things”. He is responsible for his wife’s spiritual development so that one day she may be pure and holy as she comes into the presence of Christ.

 

Based on years of observation, many husbands walked out on their wives long ago—even while they both lived under the same roof.

 

5. The wife who undermines and/or disrespects her loving husband, may, in some cases, have violated her marriage vows and made the marriage contract null and void (Ephesians 5:22-24).

 

As you read the Ephesians five passage, notice that while the husband is commanded to love his wife, his wife is never asked to love him. She is to obey and respect him; but she’s never told to love him. Many have trouble with a wife being told to obey and respect her husband. It doesn’t seem right or fair.

 

Let me tell you what I see going on here. Women whose husbands are fulfilling their roles of loving and sacrificing their lives for them don’t have to be told to love their husbands. Loving men like that comes naturally. It is easy to love and respect some one who has your best interests at heart.

 

6. The husband who refuses to get a job in order to meet the needs of his family is worse than an unbelieving non-Christian (1 Timothy 5:8). He has forfeited his role as a husband and violated his marriage vows.

 

Of course, there are times when few/no jobs are available. This is different from the husband who refuses to work. In this case, the wedding vows are not broken by the failure to make a living.

 

7. God never intended for people who are divorced without Biblical grounds to remain single forever (Genesis 2:18 and Matthew 5:32; 19:8-9).

 

Jesus said that it is a wrong to marry someone who has been divorced who did not have the proper grounds for divorce. In the same way, it is not right for a person who is divorced without biblical grounds to remarry.

 

However, the overriding principle here comes from before the Fall when God says to Adam, “It is not good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). It is my opinion that after an appropriate amount of time, and after seasons of brokenness, humility, confession and repentance, God is still intends for marriage to be the first defense against loneliness.

 

8. If you have proper grounds for a divorce, then you have proper grounds to remarry (1 Corinthians 7:15, 39).

 

9. If your previous partner has remarried, reconciliation is impossible. There is freedom to remarry.

 

10. In certain cases it is God’s will to remain unmarried (1 Corinthians 7:10-11).

 

11. When a marriage is irrevocably marred and broken it may well be time for both parties to consider simply picking up the pieces and starting over again (John 8:1-12).

 

Remember how Jesus gave a second chance to the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-12). He helped her to pick up the pieces of her broken life and start over again.

 

Jesus is still in the business of helping people pick up the pieces of their broken lives so that their best days are ahead!

 

So, Let’s Practice.

 

I have repeated below some of the marriage and cohabitation questions I have recently received at Ask Roger. Take a few moments, just for fun, and think about how you might handle each one. Some are easy. Others are inscrutably difficult.

 

“What if I am married to a person with an incurable personality disorder that I never should have married in the first place, whose aberrant behavior is destroying our family? Is it OK for me to get a divorce?”

 

“What if I can handle my spouse’s angry and belittling verbal abuse—but I see my children being mentally and emotionally destroyed before my very eyes?”

 

“What if my husband puts a gun in my mouth and threatens to shoot me?”

 

“What if I don’t love my spouse anymore?”

 

I’ve heard Christians say, “Well, I don’t love him anymore.” Not loving someone has never been grounds for divorce. The Bible says that we are to love our wives/husbands. If you can’t do that, then love her/him as your neighbor. If you can’t love her/him as a neighbor, then, love your enemy.

 

“What if my spouse is involved in illegal/criminal behavior (gambling, drugs, gun running, etc) which could get us all in trouble?”

 

 “My husband divorced me for another and I’m really praying that God will break them up and bring him back to me.”

 

“One month after i got married to the father of my two youngest children i found out he was having an affair.… He moved another women into his home….after about six months of rejection i filed for divorce. Our divorce will be final in man’s eyes. my question is in references to Matthew 19: 3-11 can i re-marry? will i commit adultery? will any future marriage be cursed? did i do the right thing?

 

“When I became a Christian I learned that I had no biblical grounds for my divorce. In order to make things right should I divorce my new wife in order to return to the old one?”

 

“In our culture polygamy is both allowed and encouraged. The missionary told me that the Bible says that we are to have only one wife and family. I have three wives and nineteen children. Is he right? If I choose one, the others will be put on the street to starve with no support. What should I do?”

 

“I have been taught in my church that it is okay to leave someone abusing you, etc. And being separated-But it is not okay to get divorced and marry someone else (unless widowed).”

 

“If God doesn’t recognize divorce, and marriage is a covenant, how can someone get remarried?”

 

“I’m told if your first spouse is alive, you are committing adultery if you remarry.”

 

“Is it OK to have sex with my ex?”

 

“My boyfriend likes looking at porn more than he likes having sex with me. What should I do?”

 

“I married my then spouse for all the wrong reasons. I thought things would change after the marriage, but they got worse. My then spouse confessed he didn’t believe in god and he brought all types of evils into our family. After many failed attempts to get him to join a church or get counseling I decided it only be wise to leave him. My concern is on remarrying, we were married in a court building, not on biblical grounds. So am I able to remarry if I cleanse myself, repent for those sins?”

 

When I talk to high school and college kids on the subject of marriage I ask them to raise their hands if they intend to get married some day. Most all hands go up. Then I ask how many have actually seen the type of marriage they would like to have? A few hands raise. Not many.

 

Then, I encourage them to look at everyone else in the group; one of every two persons in the room will be divorced at least once. I have never yet married anyone who intended to be in the divorced group—but half of all people tragically end up there any way.

 

A failed marriage is an awful thing. The ripples of pain flow outward in ever widening circles just as a stone tossed into the middle of a quiet pond sends ripples out in all directions.

 

So, make having a successful marriage a top priority in your life. You want to be in your rocking chair, rocking on the front porch some day in retirement with your very best friend—the love of your life. That will be sweet.

 

 

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Articles

Pay Attention to Detail: Or Else!

by Don McMinn
written by Don McMinn

Sometimes, when I consider what tremendous consequences come from small things, I am tempted to think…there are no small things. — Barton

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred when it broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of seven crew members. Disintegration began after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster failed at liftoff. The O-ring failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it sealed, allowing pressurized burning gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB aft field joint attachment hardware and external fuel tank.

Details are important.

  • Disastrous things can happen when we neglect details — Challenger disaster.
  • Great artists are obsessed with details — Ernest Hemingway wrote 47 endings to A Farewell to Arms.
  • The health of personal relationships often hinges on small courtesies — a friend called me last week to ask about a project I’m working on; I was so pleased that he remembered.
  • When writing, details are essential. There’s a difference between “I’m going to eat, Mom” and “I’m going to eat Mom.”

Charles Eames, the famous American architect and furniture designer, once said, “The details are not the details. They make the design.” Everything is composed of details so every detail is important.

I used to pride myself on my disregard for details, thinking that I was a “big picture” guy who was too concerned with macro issues to worry about micro ones. I was wrong. Being detail-oriented and maintaining a broad view are not mutually exclusive. We can and should do both.

A friend of mine, who was the personal assistant to Mr. Carl Sewell, a successful luxury car dealer in Dallas, told me an interesting story. One day my friend heard Mr. Sewell talking on the phone with the president of General Motors about global issues affecting the automobile industry: financial markets, the price of oil, the impact of China on American automakers, etc. When Mr. Sewell finished the call, he straightaway walked to the parts department and asked, “Have we received the bumper for Ms. Johnson’s Escalade?” Mr. Sewell constantly and successfully negotiated both minutia and massive issues.

Often, big doors swing on small hinges. The space vehicle Mariner 1, destined for Mars, suddenly veered off course and into oblivion. A single hyphen was inadvertently left out of the data fed into its guidance system and that was the cause of its regrettable fate.

[Since we’re talking about details, here’s a detailed description of the error: The error occurred when a symbol was being transcribed by hand in the specification for the guidance program. The writer missed the superscript bar which meant “the nth smoothed value of the time derivative of a radius R”. Since the smoothing function indicated by the bar was left out of the specification for the program, the implementation treated normal minor variations of velocity as if they were serious, causing spurious corrections that sent the rocket off course.]

Pay attention to details.

Question: What are you thoughts about this topic? You can leave a comment byclicking here.

Summary
What? – Details are important.
So what? – Be detail-oriented. Sweat the small stuff.
Now what? – Analyze yourself. Do you pay attention to details? Become more adept at this. Remember that “close enough” rarely is.

Leaders – Organizational excellence depends on being obsessed with details. Is this part of your organization’s culture?

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closeup of a gay couple holding hands, patterned as the rainbow flag
Articles

Churches: How Do We Address Same-Sex Marriage?

by Russell Moore
written by Russell Moore

If the church doesn’t read the signs of the times, we will be right where we evangelicals were after Roe v. Wade—caught flat-footed and unprepared. Thankfully, the Catholics were there to supply an ethical framework and a sense of justice until some evangelicals—such as Francis Schaeffer and Jerry Falwell—emerged to rally for the lives of the unborn and their mothers.

So what should we do? Well, precisely what we should have done before and after Roe. We should recognize where the courts and the culture are, and we should work for justice. That means not simply assuming that most people agree with us on marriage. We must articulate, both in and out of the church, why marriage matters, and why its definition isn’t infinitely elastic.

We must—like the pro-life movement has done—seek not only to engage our base, those who already agree with us, but to persuade others who don’t. That doesn’t mean less talk about marriage and sexuality but more—and not just in sound bytes and slogans but in a robust theology of why sexual complementarity and the one-flesh union are rooted in the mystery of the gospel (Eph. 5:22-33).

We must—also like the pro-life movement—understand the importance of a Supreme Court that won’t will into existence constitutional planks by force of its own will. That requires a persuasive public witness, and a long-term as well as a short-term strategy. That means fighting—as we are doing—for the Court not to invalidate state definitions of marriage and for the culture to recognize that a state that can force people to participate in what they believe to be sin is a state that is too big for the common good.

Above all, we must prepare people for what the future holds, when Christian beliefs about marriage and sexuality aren’t part of the cultural consensus but are seen to be strange and freakish and even subversive. If our people assume that everything goes back to normal with the right President and a quick constitutional amendment, they are not being equipped for a world that views evangelical Protestants and traditional Roman Catholics and Orthodox Jews and others as bigots or freaks.

Jesus told us we would have hard times. He never promised us a prosperity gospel. He said we would face opposition, but he said he would be with us. If we are going to be faithful to his gospel, we must preach repentance—even when that repentance is culturally unwelcome. And we must preach that any sinner can be forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. That means courage and that means kindness. Sexual revolutionaries will hate the repentance. Buffoonish heretics, who want only to vent paranoia and rally their troops, will hate the kindness. So be it.

Our churches must be ready to call out the revisionists who wish to do away with a Christian sexual ethic. And we must be ready to call out those who tell us that acknowledging the signs of the times is forbidden, and we should just keep doing what we’ve been doing. An issue this culturally powerful cannot be addressed by a halfway-gospel or by talk-radio sloganeering.

The marriage revolution around us means we must do a better job articulating a theology of marriage to our people, as well as a theology of suffering and marginalization. It means we must do a better job articulating to those on the outside why children need both a Mom and a Dad, not just “parents,” and why marriage isn’t simply a matter of court decree. It means we must start teaching our children about marriage “from the beginning” as male and female when they’re in Sunday school. It means we may have to decide if and when the day will come in which we will refuse to sign the state’s marriage licenses.

Long term the prospects for marriage are good. Sexual revolutions always disappoint, and God has designed marriage, biblically defined, to be resilient. But, short term, the culture of marriage is dark indeed. That’s why we have a gospel that is the power of God.

This post originally appeared at Moore to the Point.

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Articles

The Pathology of False Teachers

by John MacArthur
written by John MacArthur

Throughout history, deadly epidemics have ravaged mankind. In the fourteenth century, the infamous Black Death (an outbreak of bubonic plague) killed millions in Europe. Cholera, diphtheria, malaria, and other sicknesses have ravaged towns and cities. Our generation has witnessed the rapid spread of the fatal disease Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). More deadly than any of those diseases, however, is the plague of false teaching that has afflicted the church throughout its history. While illness may kill the body, false teaching damns the soul.

Like AIDS and the plague, false teaching has a definite, observable pathology—the elements of abnormality that characterize a disease. Scientists study the pathology of a disease to better equip themselves to recognize it and to combat it.

Every leader in the church should be a spiritual pathologist, able to discern deviations from spiritual health. Only then will he be equipped to diagnose the deadly disease of false teaching, and to do what is necessary to check its spread among his people. Paul warned of the subtle danger of satanic lies, describing their purveyors as

false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. (2 Corinthians 11:13–15)

It takes careful discernment to see that the light is really darkness. Paul taught Timothy how to diagnose satanic darkness masquerading as divine light. Here’s how he described the key symptoms that identify those infected with the spiritual disease of false teaching:

If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. (1 Timothy 6:3-5)

The first symptom of false teachers is what they affirm. A false teacher “advocates a different doctrine.” False teaching may take many forms. It may deny God’s existence, or teach error about His nature and attributes. It may deny the Trinity. Error about Christ’s Person and work is also common in false systems. Those who deny His virgin birth, sinless perfection, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, or future return show signs of a dangerous infection. False teachers also teach error about the nature, Person, and work of the Holy Spirit. Yet another strain of the disease of false teaching denies the authenticity, inspiration, authority, or inerrancy of Scripture.

At the same time, another mark of false teachers is what they deny. Their teaching not only affirms error, but also “does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 6:3). False teachers are not in agreement with spiritually wholesome and beneficial words. That believers need to pay attention to sound, healthy teaching is repeatedly emphasized in the Pastoral Epistles (cf. 1 Timothy 1:10; 2 Timothy 1:13; Titus 1:9; 2:1).

False teachers are not committed to Scripture. They may speak of Jesus and the Father, but the heart of their ministry will not be the Word of God. They will either add to it, take away from it, interpret it in some heretical fashion, add other “revelations” to it, or deny it altogether.

A third symptom of false teachers is their rejection of “the doctrine conforming to godliness” (1 Timothy 6:3). The ultimate test of any teaching is whether it produces godliness. Teaching not based on Scripture will result in an unholy life. Instead of godliness, the loves of false teachers will be characterized by sin (cf. 2 Peter 2:10-22; Jude 4, 8-16).

The attitude of false teachers can be summed up in one word: pride. It takes an immense ego to place oneself as judge of the Bible. Such egotism blatantly usurps the place of God. “Conceited” (1 Timothy 6:4) is from tupho?, and it implies arrogance, an inevitable mark of false teachers. To set up one’s own teaching as superior to the Word of God is the epitome of arrogance. False teachers have an overinflated sense of their own importance, not hesitating to rebel against God and His Word. That merely confirms, however, that they are infected with a deadly spiritual disease.

False teachers are also exposed through their mentality. Although a false teacher may be filled with pride over his supposed knowledge, Paul says that in reality “he . . . understands nothing” (1 Timothy 6:4). All of his imagined intelligence, pretended scholarship, and supposed deeper insights amounts to mere foolishness to God (Romans 1:22; 1 Corinthians 2:9–16). Lacking insight into spiritual truth, his wisdom “is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic” (James 3:15). Those who know and believe the Word of God have far more insight into spiritual reality than the most educated heretic.

Instead of focusing on the truth, false teachers have “a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words” (1 Timothy 6:4). They indulge in pseudointellectual theorizing rather than in productive study of and submission to God’s Word.

False teaching also fails in its inability to produce unity (1 Timothy 6:4-5). The word battles of false teachers result in chaos and confusion. “Envy” is the inward discontent with the advantages or popularity enjoyed by others. It results in “strife,” which often manifests itself in the “abusive language” of slander and insult. The net result of false teaching is “constant friction.” False teachers constantly rub each other the wrong way. That helps spread their spiritual disease, much as sheep might rub together and infect each other. False teaching can never produce unity. Only the truth unifies.

The external cause of false teaching is satanic deception (cf. 1 Timothy 4:1). The internal cause, however, is the depraved or unregenerate mind of the false teacher. “The mind set on the flesh,” writes Paul, “is hostile toward God” (Romans 8:7). Such a mind does not function normally in the spiritual realm; it does not react normally to truth. Being natural men, false teachers cannot understand the things of God, which seem foolish to them (1 Corinthians 2:14). As a result, “God gives them over to a depraved mind” (Romans 1:28; cf. Ephesians 2:1–3; 4:17–19).

The spiritual condition of false teachers is critical; they are in a state of apostasy. “Deprived” (1 Timothy 6:5) indicates that someone or something pulled them away from the truth. That does not imply they were saved, but that they had contact with the truth. Like those described in Hebrews 6:4–6, they were thoroughly exposed to the truth, but rejected it.

Unfortunately, their prognosis is not hopeful. Their spiritual condition is terminal. Those who are deprived of the truth are headed for judgment. Hebrews 6:6 solemnly warns of such men that “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame.” Peter says that they bring “swift destruction upon themselves” (2 Peter 2:1). The severest hell will be reserved for those who, having been exposed to the truth, turned away from it (cf. Hebrews 10:26–31).

Finally, false teachers have a simple motivation: money. They “suppose that godliness” (1 Timothy 6:5, used sarcastically of their false piety) will bring them such gain. Unlike Paul, they cannot say, “I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothes” (Acts 20:33). Put simply, they are not “free from the love of money” (1 Timothy 3:3).

The pathology of false teachers is clear. They deny the truth, and their teaching does not produce godly living. They are arrogant and ignorant of spiritual truth. They spend their time in foolish speculations that lead only to chaos and division. Having forsaken the truth, they face eternal destruction. And they serve money, not God. The church must take extreme care not to allow these men to spread their deadly disease. The resulting epidemic would be tragic.

(Adapted from The Macarthur New Testament Commentary: 1 Timothy.)

 Copyright 2014, Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission. John MacArthur. gty.org. Read the blog HERE.

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Ask Roger

Giving Up on God? I Almost Did…

by Roger Barrier
written by Roger Barrier

Dear Roger,

Have you ever given up on God?

 

Dear Jay,

Yes, three weeks ago, for the first and only time in my life. It only lasted about ten minutes and I was shocked at myself. But, for a moment, I gave up on Him. I had just received news that one of my daughter’s esophagus was spasming backwards (backward mobility). She was throwing up everything she ate. Her vomiting had not let up for the past several days. Another medical procedure was the only fix.

 

“OK, God, I’ve had enough. When are you going to stop pouring it on!? If you can’t take better care of us than that, why should bother following You? I quit!”

 

I imagine that most all Christians have felt like this at one time or another. I want to give a little context to my outburst and then share some thoughts on how to survive the onslaught of doubt when times are tough.

 

(By the way, if you’re struggling with God’s care—or lack thereof—read Psalm 73 and see from how Asaph handled the same problem.)

 

I suppose you could say that our family has had its share of physical problems. To put my feelings in context, let me give you a short litany of physical ails. I was sitting on the hospital bed when I was thirteen. The surgeon entered the room and said, “I asked your parents not to tell you, but we made a mistake. There is nothing wrong with your heart. When I cut inside I couldn’t find a find the hole. I held your heart right in my hand. You have a perfect heart; so, I put it back in and sewed you up. I am sorry.” For the next fifty years, because of the scar tissue from that mistaken surgery, I struggled with an electrically malfunctioning heart. I have been in and out of hospitals and on all sorts of heart medicines for years. Finally, while literally beating itself to death, the surgeons cut all the electrical pathways in my poorly beating heart, and now, only my pacemaker, whom I’ve endearingly named, “Repeat,” keeps me alive.

I had to stop preaching. The passion of my life.

Now simply, I’ve had three knee surgeries. My colon removed because of ulcerative colitis. A brain chemistry, mood issue called cyclothymia causes my brain to operate way too fast and then plunges me into clinical depression. Thank God for Celexa and Lamictal.

Julie has suffered all her adult life with manic symptoms. She finally had to leave work for a period of time until her meds got balanced. She suffered greatly. What an awful time that was for us all. Thank God for Dr. Griffin.

Our first daughter, Jessie, died in our arms.

Our second daughter has had the hardest time of all. She was shot in a drive-by shooting when she was thirteen. Her malfunctioning thyroid has resulted in untold health issues. She has suffered through life-threatening pulmonary problems. She has an auto-immune deficiency which, along with her pulmonary issues, leaves her in and out of the hospital. All it takes is the common cold to throw her once again into pneumonia. Last January, I stood outside the hospital room as her doctor told me that there was a good chance she would not survive until morning. In his words, “she may become a statistic tonight.”

Our third daughter had 18 gall stones when she was a teenager. Imagine that! Gall bladder surgery followed. Finally, life altering bipolar symptoms are well balanced—after a decade of struggle.

So, when my son-in-law called to tell us that her esophagus was swallowing backwards, and that she needed another surgical procedure to fix it, I’d had enough. “If you can’t do better than this, I’m through!”

My God-rejecting moment didn’t last long—only about ten minutes. However, my outburst got my attention! In rapid succession I thought of Genesis three, Romans 8:28, Philippians 4:10-13, and Polycarp. These produced restoration and peace.

I began where I often begin when troubles arise for others and me. The Genesis 1-3 passage details the reasons we have problems, sickness, and death in our world: sin and disobedience. Jesus told us that “in the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). One day Jesus will retake the title deed to the earth—and all will be well. Until then, we are all exposed to the pains of suffering, sin and death. Just deal with it.

 

Next, a life-guiding principle came to mind: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son …” (Romans 8:28-29). As I imagined was God’s poor care of my family and me, I had to admit that the Father was using this misery to mold all in my family to be more like Jesus.

 

Then, I thought of how I always handle difficult times. Just like Paul handled his: “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13). I’ve turned often to this passage. I turned to it once again. “OK, Lord,” I said, “I open my heart for Jesus Christ to pour in the grace and power I need to thrive well in this situation.” He did.

 

Finally my thoughts turned to Polycarp. I think of him often. Polycarp was a pupil of the apostle John who lived from 70 to 155 A.D. He bridged the gap between the Biblical apostles and the early church fathers. Polycarp wrote numerous letters to the church at Philippi encouraging the members to remain strong in their faith and to flee materialism. Polycarp served as the bishop of the church at Smyrna. He fought strenuously against early church heretics.

Polycarp’s greatest contribution to Christianity may be his well documented martyrdom. During a time of intense persecution on the western coast of modern-day Turkey, Polycarp was arrested on the charge of being a Christian. Christianity was viewed as a politically dangerous cult whose rapid growth needed to be stopped.

Amidst an angry mob, the Roman proconsul took pity on the gentle old man and urged Polycarp to proclaim, “Caesar is Lord” and he would let him go free. Polycarp responded, “Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and He never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” He was burned alive at the stake.

I committed my life to Christ when I was seven. I have way too much invested to turn my back on Him now.

 

Sincerely,

Roger

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Articles

What to Do When You Let God Down

by Max Lucado
written by Max Lucado

“Later, Jesus showed himself to his followers again—this time at Lake Galilee. This is how he showed himself: Some of the followers were together: Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the two sons of Zebedee, and two other followers. Simon Peter said, “I am going out to fish.”

 

The others said, “We will go with you. “So they went out and got into the boat. They fished that night but caught nothing.

Early the next morning Jesus stood on the shore, but the followers did not know it was Jesus. Then he said to them, “Friends, did you catch any fish?”

They answered, “No.”

He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. “So they did, and they caught so many fish they could not pull the net back into the boat.

The follower whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” When Peter heard him say this, he wrapped his coat around himself (Peter had taken his clothes off) Then he jumped into the water. The other followers went to shore in the boat, dragging the net fill of fish. They were not very far from shore, only about a hundred yards. When the followers stepped out of the boat and onto the shore, they saw afire of hot coals. There were fish on the fire, and there was bread.

Then Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”

Simon Peter went into the boat and pulled the net to the shore. It was full of big fish, one hundred fifty-three in all, but even though there were so many, the net did not tear.
John 21:1-11

The sun was in the water before Peter noticed it—a wavy circle of gold on the surface of the sea. A fisherman is usually the first to spot the sun rising over the crest of the hills. It means his night of labor is finally over.

But not for this fisherman. Though the light reflected on the lake, the darkness lingered in Peter’s heart. The wind chilled, but he didn’t feel it. His friends slept soundly, but he didn’t care. The nets at his feet were empty, the sea had been a miser, but Peter wasn’t thinking about that.

His thoughts were far from the Sea of Galilee. His mind was in Jerusalem, reliving an anguished night. As the boat rocked, his memories raced:
the clanking of the Roman guard
the flash of a sword and the duck of a head
a touch for Malchus
a rebuke for Peter
soldiers leading Jesus away

“What was I thinking?” Peter mumbled to himself as he stared at the bottom of the boat. Why did I run?

Peter had run; he had turned his back on his dearest friend and run. We don’t know where. Peter may not have known where. He found a hole, a hut, an abandoned shed—he found a place to hide and he hid.

He had bragged, “Everyone else may stumble . . . but I will not” (Man. 26:33). Yet he did. Peter did what he swore he wouldn’t do. He had tumbled face first into the pit of his own fears. And there he sat. All he could hear was his hollow promise. Everyone else may stumble but I will not. Everyone else . . . I will not. I will not. I will not. A war raged within the fisherman.

At that moment the instinct to survive collided with his allegiance to Christ, and for just a moment allegiance won. Peter stood and stepped out of hiding and followed the noise till he saw the torch-lit jury in the courtyard of Caiaphas.

He stopped near a fire and warmed his hands. The fire sparked with irony. The night had been cold. The fire was hot. But Peter was neither. He was lukewarm.

“Peter followed at a distance” Luke described (22:54 NIV).

He was loyal . . . from a distance. That night he went close enough to see, but not close enough to be seen. The problem was, Peter was seen. Other people near the fire recognized him. “You were with him,” they had challenged. “You were with the Nazarene.” Three times people said it, and each time Peter denied it. And each time Jesus heard it.

Please understand that the main character in this drama of denial is not Peter, but Jesus. Jesus, who knows the hearts of all people, knew the denial of his friend. Three times the salt of Peter’s betrayal stung the wounds of the Messiah.

How do I know Jesus knew? Because of what he did. “Then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter” (Luke 22:6 1 NW). ‘When the rooster crowed, Jesus turned. His eyes searched for Peter and they found him. At that moment there were no soldiers, no accusers, no priests. At that predawn moment in Jerusalem there were only two people—Jesus and Peter.

Peter would never forget that look. Though Jesus’ face was already bloody and bruised, his eyes were firm and focused. They were a scalpel, laying bare Peter’s heart. Though the look had lasted only a moment, it lasted forever.

And now, days later on the Sea of Galilee, the look still seared. It wasn’t the resurrection that occupied his thoughts. It wasn’t the empty tomb. It wasn’t the defeat of death. It was the eyes of Jesus seeing his failure. Peter knew them well. He’d seen them before. In fact he’d seen them on this very lake.

This wasn’t the first night that Peter had spent on the Sea of Galilee. After all, he was a fisherman. He, like the others, worked at night. He knew the fish would feed near the surface during the cool of the night and return to the deep during the day. No, this wasn’t the first night Peter had spent on the Sea of Galilee. Nor was it the first night he had caught nothing.

There was that time years before . .

Most mornings Peter and his partners would sell their fish, repair their nets, and head home to rest with a bag of money and a feeling of satisfaction. This particular morning there was no money. There was no satisfaction. They had worked all through the night but had nothing to show for it except weary backs and worn nets.

And, what’s worse, everyone knew it. Every morning the shore would become a market as the villagers came to buy their fish, but that day there were no fish.

Jesus was there that morning, teaching. As the people pressed there was little room for him to stand, so he asked Peter if his boat could be a platform. Peter agreed, maybe thinking the boat might as well be put to some good use.

Peter listens as Jesus teaches. It’s good to hear something other than the slapping of waves. When Jesus finishes with the crowd, he turns to Peter. He has another request. He wants to go fishing. “Take the boat into deep water, and put your nets in the water to catch some fish” (Luke 5:4).

Peter groans. The last thing he wants to do is fish. The boat is clean. The nets are ready to dry. The sun is up and he is tired. It’s time to go home. Besides, everyone is watching. They’ve already seen him come back empty-handed once. And, what’s more, what does Jesus know about fishing? So Peter speaks, “Master, we worked hard all night trying to catch fish” (v. 5).

Mark the weariness in the words.

“We worked hard.” Scraping the hull. Carrying the nets. Pulling the oars. Throwing the nets high into the moonlit sky. Listening as they slap on the surface of the water.

“All night.” The sky had gone from burnt orange to midnight black to morning gold. The hours had passed as slowly as the fleets of clouds before the moon. The fishermen’s conversation had stilled and their shoulders ached.
‘While the village slept, the men worked. All . . . night . . . long.

“Trying to catch fish.” The night’s events had been rhythmic: net swung and tossed high till it spread itself against the sky. Then wait. Let it sink. Pull it in. Do it again. Throw. Pull. Throw. Pull. Throw. Pull. Every toss had been a prayer. But every drag of the empty net had come back unanswered. Even the net sighed as the men pulled it out and prepared to throw it again.

For twelve hours they’d fished. And now . . . now Jesus is wanting to fish some more? And not just off the shore, but in the deep?

Peter sees his friends shrug their shoulders. He looks at the people on the beach watching him. He doesn’t know what to do. Jesus may know a lot about a lot, but Peter knows about fishing. Peter knows when to work and when to quit. He knows there is a time to go on and a time to get out.

Common sense said it was time to get out. Logic said cut your losses and go home. Experience said pack it up and get some rest. But Jesus said, “We can try again if you want.”

The most difficult journey is back to the place where you failed.

Jesus knows that. That’s why he volunteers to go along. “The first outing was solo; this time I’ll be with you. Try it again, this time with me on board.”

And Peter reluctantly agrees to try again. “But you say to put the nets in the water, so I will” (Luke 5:5). It didn’t make any sense, but he’d been around this Nazarene enough to know that his presence made a difference. That wedding in Cana? That sick child of the royal ruler? It’s as if Jesus carried his own deck to the table.

So the oars dip again and the boat goes out. The anchor is set and the nets fly once more.

Peter watches as the net sinks, and he waits. He waits until the net spreads as far as his rope allows. The fishermen are quiet. Peter is quiet. Jesus is quiet. Suddenly the rope yanks. The net, heavy with fish, almost pulls Peter overboard.

“John, James!” he yells. “Come quick!”

Soon the boats are so full of fish that the port side rim dips close to the surface. Peter, ankle deep in flopping silver, turns to look at Jesus, only to find that Jesus is looking at him.

That’s when he realizes who Jesus is.

What an odd place to meet God—on a fishing boat on a small sea in a remote country! But such is the practice of the God who comes into our world. Such is the encounter experienced by those who are willing to try again . . .
with him.

Peter’s life was never again the same after that catch.

He had turned his back on the sea to follow the Messiah. He had left the boats thinking he’d never return. But now he’s back. Full circle. Same sea. Same boat. Maybe even the same spot.

But this isn’t the same Peter. Three years of living with the Messiah have changed him. He’s seen too much. Too many walking crippled, vacated graves, too many hours hearing his words. He’s not the same Peter. It’s the same Galilee, but a different fisherman.

Why did he return? What brought him back to Galilee after the crucifixion? Despair? Some think so—I don’t. Hope dies hard for a man who has known Jesus. I think that’s what Peter has. That’s what brought him back. Hope. A bizarre hope that on the sea where he knew him first, he would know him again.

So Peter is in the boat, on the lake. Once again he’s fished all night. Once again the sea has surrendered nothing.

His thoughts are interrupted by a shout from the shore. “Catch any fish?” Peter and John look up. Probably a villager. “No!” they yell. “Try the other side!” the voice yells back. John looks at Peter. ‘What harm? So out sails the net. Peter wraps the rope around his wrist to wait.

But there is no wait. The rope pulls taut and the net catches. Peter sets his weight against the side of the boat and begins to bring in the net; reaching down, pulling up, reaching down, pulling up. He’s so intense with the task, he misses the message.

John doesn’t. The moment is déjà vu. This has happened before. The long night. The empty net. The call to cast again. Fish flapping on the floor of the boat. Wait a minute. He lifts his eyes to the man on the shore. “It’s him,” he whispers.

Then louder, “It’s Jesus.”

Then shouting, “It’s the Lord, Peter. It’s the Lord!”

Peter turns and looks. Jesus has come. Not just Jesus the teacher, but Jesus the death-defeater, Jesus the king . . .Jesus the victor over darkness. Jesus the God of heaven and earth is on the shore . . . and he’s building a fire.

Peter plunges into the water, swims to the shore, and stumbles out wet and shivering and stands in front of the friend he betrayed. Jesus has prepared a bed of coals. Both are aware of the last time Peter had stood near a fire. Peter had failed God, but God had come to him.

For one of the few times in his life, Peter is silent. What words would suffice? The moment is too holy for words. God is offering breakfast to the friend who betrayed him. And Peter is once again finding grace at Galilee.

What do you say at a moment like this?

What do you say at a moment such as this?

It’s just you and God. You and God both know what you did. And neither one of you is proud of it. What do you do?

You might consider doing what Peter did. Stand in God’s presence. Stand in his sight. Stand still and wait. Sometimes that’s all a soul can do. Too repentant to speak, but too hopeful to leave—we just stand.

Stand amazed.

He has come back.

He invites you to try again. This time, with him.

Full title: Galilean Grace: When You Let God Down.

www.maxlucado.com. Used by permission.

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Sermons

Ruth: Stop Praying, Start Doing

by Chris Brown
written by Chris Brown

We learn much about life from watching impoverished widow Ruth come to the fields of her kinsman Boaz. First of all, God has answers that we don’t know about. Faithfulness will always be noticed and rewarded. It’s easier to steer a moving car than a parked car. How you work says more about your Christian walk than how you worship.

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Ask Roger

What Does the Bible Say about Acupuncture?

by Roger Barrier
written by Roger Barrier

Dear Roger,

 

What does the Bible say about acupuncture?

Sincerely, K

 

Dear K,

 

I believe that the Bible is completely silent on the subject.

 

However, my studies regarding the electrical and neuronal pathways of the human body lead me to believe that acupuncture may have some physical healing efficacy.

 

I think that many Christians wonder whether or not acupuncture has some sort of divine component that would best be left alone and even avoided. We will discuss that idea in a moment.

 

To understand the possible spiritual implications of acupuncture means that we must understand the concept of “Qi” (also spelled chi or ch’i). In traditional Chinese culture, Qi is the life force or energy flow in every living creature. Qi is often compared to the Western ideas of energeia or élan vital (vitalism), as well as the yogic notions of prana and pranayama. The literal translation of “qi” is air, breath, or gas. Qi is comparable to the Greek word, pneuma, which means wind, breath, or air. From a Chinese perspective, Qi would be analogous to the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians.

 

We might imagine that Qi is the wind in the sails that drives a ship. We can’t see the wind but we can see its results in moving the ship along in its journey.

 

Balanced and free-flowing Qi results in good health, while stagnant or imbalanced Qi leads to disease. The purpose of both acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine is to restore balanced and free-flowing Qi.

 

Acupuncture is the practice of inserting thin needles into specific body points to improve health and well-being. There is much discussion among acupuncturists revolving around the number and location of the various energy points. As I understand the procedure, care is taken to find the moving, positive Qi and place the needles accordingly.

 

Does acupuncture work? Medical research demonstrates that acupuncture can reduce nausea and vomiting after surgery and chemotherapy. It can also relieve pain.

 

No one understands how acupuncture works. But, I figure that sense it has been around for 2,000 years, there may be some validity to it. Some researchers conjecture that it aids in the body’s pain-killing chemicals. Others suggest that acupuncture may help release chemicals that regulate blood pressure and flow.

 

Since the human body is an electro-magnetic entity, it is not far beyond the realm of reason to think that acupuncture really does tap into the body’s electro-magnetic energy which affects every cell in the body. Everything that occurs in the human body is powered by chemical reactions which produce electrical and therefore magnetic waves as well—in other words, energy! For example, magnets are best fashioned from iron—and the blood is filled with iron. The electrical and magnetic forces in the body interact in a myriad of ways. These intersections may help to explain the “energy centers” sought out by acupuncturists in their work.

 

Now for the religious questions: Does acupuncture have a spiritual component? If I turn to acupuncture to help relieve some physical aliment, is there a possibility that I am getting involved with, or under the influence of, some Near or Far Eastern god or spirit?

 

I believe that the answer to this question is a resounding, “no.” Acupuncture was developed in the context of Taoism during the 4th century B.C.. While Taoism is considered to be a sort of religious/philosophical system, it is basically atheistic. While there is no doubt that many Eastern Religions are profoundly intertwined with the occult world, Taoism is not one of them.

 

I hope this gives some help.

 

Love, Roger

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Articles

Gabriel’s Story

by Max Lucado
written by Max Lucado

“Gabriel.” Just the sound of my King’s voice stirred my heart. I left my post at the entryway and stepped into the throne room. To my left was the desk on which sat the Book of Life. Ahead of me was the throne of Almighty God. I entered the circle of unceasing Light, folded my wings before me to cover my face, and knelt before Him. “Yes, my Lord?”

“You have served the kingdom well. You are a noble messenger. Never have you flinched in duty. Never have you flagged in zeal.”

I bowed my head, basking in the words. “Whatever You ask, I’ll do a thousand times over, my King,” I promised.

“Of that, I have no doubt, dear messenger.” His voice assumed a solemnity I’d never heard Him use. “But your greatest work lies ahead of you. Your next assignment is to carry a gift to Earth. Behold.”

I lifted my eyes to see a necklace—a clear vial on a golden chain—dangling from His extended hand.

My Father spoke earnestly, “Though empty, this vial will soon contain My greatest gift.” …Handing me the necklace, He explained, “This vial will contain the essence of Myself; a Seed to be placed in the womb of a young girl. Her name is Mary. She lives among My chosen people. The fruit of the Seed is the Son of God. Take it to her.”

“But how will I know her?” I asked.

“Don’t worry. You will.”

I could not comprehend God’s plan, but my understanding was not essential. My obedience was. I lowered my head, and He draped the chain around my neck. Amazingly, the vial was no longer empty. It glowed with Light. “Jesus. Tell her to call My Son Jesus.”

The Father whispered to me. I heard Him as if at my side. “Go, Gabriel: go and tell Mary.”

On a wave of worship I flew, this time alone. I circled through the clouds and over the ground. Below me was the city where Mary was born. The Father was right; I knew her in an instant. Her heart had no shadow. Her soul was as pure
as any I’ve seen.

I made the final descent. “Mary.” I kept my voice low so as not to startle her.

She turned but saw nothing. Then I realized I was invisible to her. I waved my wings before my body and incarnated. She covered her face at the Light and shrank into the protection of the doorway.

“Don’t be afraid,” I urged.

The minute I spoke, she looked up toward the sky. Again I was amazed.

I praised my Father for His wisdom. Her heart is so flawless, so willing. “Greetings. God be with you.”

Her eyes widened, and she turned as if to run. “Mary, you have nothing to fear. You have found favor with God. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call His name Jesus. He will be great. He will be called the Son of the
Highest. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; He will rule Jacob’s house forever—no end, ever, to His kingdom.”

Though she was listening, she was puzzled. “But how? I’ve never slept with a man.”

Before I spoke I looked up into the heavens. The Father was standing, giving me His blessing.

I continued, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest hover over you; therefore, the child you bring to birth will be called Holy, Son of God. Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.”

Mary looked at me, then up into the sky. For a long time she gazed into the blueness, so long that I, too, looked up. Did she see the angels? Did the heavens open? I do not know. But I do know when I looked back at her, she was smiling.

“Yes, I see it all now: I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say.”

As she spoke, a Light appeared in her womb.

The King walked over and reached for the book. He turned it toward Lucifer and commanded, “Come, Deceiver, read the name of the One who will call your bluff. Read the name of the One who will storm your gates.” Satan rose slowly off his haunches. Like a wary wolf, he walked a wide circle toward the desk until he stood before the volume and read the word:

“Immanuel?” he muttered to himself, then spoke in a tone of disbelief. “God with us?” For the first time the hooded head turned squarely toward the face of the Father. “No. Not even You would do that. Not even You would go so far.”

“You’ve never believed me, Satan.”

“But Immanuel? The plan is bizarre! You don’t know what it’s like on Earth! You don’t know how dark I’ve made it. It’s putrid. It’s evil. It’s…”

“IT IS MINE,” proclaimed the King. “AND I WILL RECLAIM WHAT IS MINE. I WILL BECOME FLESH. I WILL FEEL WHAT MY CREATURES FEEL. I WILL SEE WHAT THEY SEE.”

“But what of their sin?”

“I will bring mercy.”

“What of their death?”

“I will give life.”

Satan stood speechless.

God spoke, “I love my children. Love does not take away the beloved’s freedom. But love takes away fear. And Immanuel will leave behind a tribe of fearless children. They will not fear you or your hell.”

Satan stepped back at the thought. His retort was childish. “Th-th-they will too!”

“I will take away all sin. I will take away death. Without sin and without death, you have no power.”

Around and around in a circle Satan paced, clenching and unclenching his wiry fingers. When he finally stopped, he asked a question that even I was thinking. “Why? Why would You do this?”

The Father’s voice was deep and soft. “Because I love them.”

We were a wreath of Light around the stable, a necklace of diamonds around the structure. Every angel had been called from his post for the coming, even Michael. None doubted God would, but no know how He could, fulfill his promise.

I’ve heated the water!”

“No need to yell, Joseph I hear you fine.”

Mary would have heard had Joseph whispered. The stable was even smaller than Joseph had imagined but the innkeeper was right- it was clean. I started to clear out the sheep and cow, but Michael stopped me. “The Father wants all of creation to witness the moment.”

Mary cried out and gripped Joseph’s arm with one hand and a feed trough with the other. The thrust in her abdomen lifted her back, and she leaned forward.

“Is it time?” Joseph asked.

She shot back a glance, and he had his answer.

Within moments the Awaited One was born. I was privileged to have a position close to the couple, only a step behind Michael. We both gazed into the wrinkled face of the infant. Joseph had placed hay in a feed trough, giving Jesus his first bed.

All of God was in the infant. Light encircled His face and radiated from His tiny hands. The very glory I had witnessed in His throne room now burst through His skin.

I felt we should sing but did not know what. We had no song. We had no verse. We had never seen the sight of God in a baby. When God had made a star, our words had roared. When He had delivered His servants, our tongues had flown with praise. Before His throne, our songs never ended. But what do you sing to God in a feed trough?

In that moment a wonderful thing happened. As we looked at the baby Jesus, the darkness lifted. Not the darkness of the night, but the darkness of the mystery. Heaven’s enlightenment engulfed the legions.

Our minds were filled with the Truth we had never before known. We became aware for the first time of the Father’s plan to rescue those who bear His name.

These passages excerpted from:
AN ANGEL’S STORY
© Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002, 2004
Max Lucado

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Articles

A Word from Goody Two-Shoes

by Julie Barrier
written by Julie Barrier

Why should we attend church? We all have our reasons. My gleaming Sunday School perfect attendance pin was the pride of my charm bracelet collection. My third-grade year, it was my all-consuming desire to win the pin. Practically perfect, the blue and silver shield had “perfect attendance” emblazoned upon the front like a banner from heaven. In order to receive the coveted award, I not only had to show up every Sunday on time without fail, I had to read the weekly Sunday School lesson and bring my offering envelope.

On the Sunday before Labor Day, Mrs. Brumit marched Randy Phelps to the front of the classroom and announced he had won the coveted prize-the perfect attendance pin. He proudly stuck out his chest and Mrs. Brumit penned his award from Jesus to his freshly washed IZOD polo shirt. Applauding wildly, I had a revelation from the Almighty. When I looked at Randy’s bespectacled face, for one brief shining moment I thought I saw a halo encircling his blonde buzz cut. I determined that morning that the next year I would stand before God, the angels, and the cheering crowd sporting that silver emblem on my gingham dress.

But “perfect attendance” wasn’t an easy feat to perform. Three Sundays in November I hacked and sneezed all over Sandy French because I wasn’t going to let the asian flu keep me from my trophy. In April I puked twice in church after eating too many donut holes before the lesson started-or was I sick? I can’t be sure. After my breakfast preceded me, everyone looked a little green around the gills. Debbie McCoy and Vicky Palmer contracted the virulent strain of intestinal flu I so graciously shared with the class. Undaunted, I came week after week after week after week……

Twice I almost lost the competition because of an errant offering envelope. One windy March Sunday, it fell out of my pocket when I hopped out of the Pontiac and onto the pavement. Sweet Mrs. Bentley saw the little white square under the car and returned it to me in the nick of time. The second envelope fiasco came the Saturday night I decided to hide it in my Bible between Nahum and Habakkuk. I hoped the fiery minor prophets would hold it fast until I arrived at class. When Sunday School started, I frantically thumbed through the Bible pages hoping to locate my nickel for Jesus. Where did it go? I scoured all of the “ah” prophets: Isaiah, Hosea, Ezra, Jeremiah, Jonah, Nehemiah, Zephaniah and Zechariah.. My tithe envelope was nowhere to be found. Suddenly I recalled a Lucky Strike commercial from the night before. The book had something to do with tobacco-no, it was Habakkuk. I found Habakkuk and placed my envelope in the offering plate and breathed a sigh of relief. After twelve months of hard work, I reached my lofty goal and wore my heavenly treasure, my Baptist banner, with pride.

God was not interested in my “goody two-shoes” to-do’s. My obsession with pleasing God through works, receiving accolades from my Bible-toting buddies, was flawed. God first and foremost wants us to worship Him because He is delightful and He delights in us. David’s words in Psalm 122:1: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go up to the house of the Lord.” David loved worshipping God. He loved it so much that he danced in the streets in front of the Ark of God. In this verse from Psalm 122, David reminds us that worshipping God is just plain fun. We revel in His presence, remember His goodness, we receive His forgiveness and we connect with His people. Go to church because you love God and He loves you. Forget the brownie points.

 

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Articles

The Profile of a Worshipper

by Don McMinn
written by Don McMinn

“He whose walk is blameless will minister to me” (Psalm 101:6). 

God is not just seeing worship. He’s seeking worshipers (John 4). Otherwise, we could just listen to praise music on our iPods, put it on continuous play, and be done with it. God would be appeased and we could do our own thing. But it’s not that simple. God is looking for worshipers – people. 

And, of course, He’s more interested in the condition of our hearts than the position of our hands and in the choices of our volition than in the beauty of our voices. Yes, God enjoys our singing, clapping, and kneeling, but it does no good to bend the knee before God if we have not first bent our hearts. 

A pastor who serves in the Midwest had a dream. He had been praying about the spiritual worship of his church. He received a very cogent answer which showed the difference between going through the motions of worship and really getting in touch with God. 

“I was sitting in my usual place – in the church auditorium, on the platform in the chancel area. The organist was playing the prelude to an empty auditorium. Soon, the back doors of the auditorium swung open and my parishioners began to enter the auditorium. From a distance, everyone looked normal – the ladies were wearing their stylish clothes, and the men were dressed in pin-striped suits, heavy-starched shirts, and designer ties. Everyone looked happy, as usual, and there was the normal exchange of courtesies. When asked ‘How are you doing?’ everyone responses, as usual, ‘Just fine, and how are you?’ 

“But as they came closer, I noticed that something was wrong. Their skin was emaciated and drawn, their bodies were weak and feeble. It looked like all the vitality and nutrients had been sucked from their bodies. The sanctuary was soon filled with well-dressed, mannerly people with decrepit bodies. 

“The worship service began and everyone proceeded to work through the order of worship – singing the hymns and choruses, prating when called upon, giving when the plates were passed, reciting the responsive readings – everything, as usual. 

“I asked the Lord the meaning of this peculiar dream. The Lord said, ‘I am letting you see the spiritual condition of the people. Instead of seeing their outward appearance, you are observing the condition of their spirits. On the outside, they are prepared to play church, but on the inside, they are not ready for worship. Those who worship Me must worship Me in spirit and in truth.'” 

It is important that we prepare for worship. What we do during corporate worship, regardless of what form our liturgy takes, is irrelevant if we have not adequately and properly prepared for the worship experience. Many cymbals are crashed, hands raised, chords tuned, poems eloquently spoken, and memorized prayers recited in the name of worship, but they are received as dissonance and muddled syllables by the Almighty if our spirits are not right. 

“The acceptability of any act of worship is determined by the acceptability of the worshiper.” – Ron Dunn

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