New Year's Eve
The word "eve" is defined as the day leading up to an event. The event isn't here yet, but it will be tomorrow. Not much of value happens on "eve" days. They are usually spent imagining or dreaming of tomorrow. Then there is the word "post" that is used as a prefix to speak of what happened. Again, this is speaking of a time other than now. What you hoped for has already either been realized, or you are now in disappointment. I'm not a big "eve" or "post" guy. I like "now". I can get my hands around now. Now is still underway and still adjustable. Of course "eve" still promises a lot of hope if we are willing to use today to work on making tomorrow different in a more positive way. Rather than spending all of New Year's Eve in a kind of dreamy fog, why don't we take some time to make it a planning day for tomorrow. Tomorrow we get to see that fresh big "one" pop up on the calendar. Let's be ready for it! Hebrews 11: 1 tells us, "NOW faith is..." Faith is not "eve" and faith is not "post", faith is now.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Merry Christmas!
Christmas week. I love it! Have a wonderful week with family and loved ones and don't forget to maintain a heart of love and worship to Jesus who came to bring us out of bondage and into His marvelous light!
Luke 2:6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."
Christmas week. I love it! Have a wonderful week with family and loved ones and don't forget to maintain a heart of love and worship to Jesus who came to bring us out of bondage and into His marvelous light!
Luke 2:6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."
Monday, December 14, 2009
Being Called And Being Sent
I don't know many songs from the mid to late 1970's. I remember a lot from the 60's and many from the 80's but the 70's is pretty much a blank. Movies are much the same way. One day I was thinking about it and as I was pondering the blank spaces in my memory I realized why. I came back to the Lord in 1973, responded to the Call to ministry that same year and was immersed in God, revival, training and discipleship for the next few years.
You see, I was so much in the world that my worldview, my tastes and my process of thinking was totally a worldly mindset. It was months before I could even tell a real change was occurring in my attitudes. Romans tells us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by "the renewing of your mind." That was what was happening to me in the 70's and by the way, is still taking place. I had so much of the world in me that if I had just continued walking as I had been walking and thinking the way I had been thinking with the only change being ministry training and a new vocation, I would have been of no value to God.
In the life of every servant of Jesus, there must be this coming out of the world, a season of separation, before there can be an effective sending for Kingdom purposes. There must be a time of sanctification and then an immersion in the things of God in order to see true Kingdom fruit. Otherwise we will find ourselves in the church sending "clouds without rain". We are warned to avoid having "a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof". The sending without first before the drawing away for preparation produces this powerless religion in time.
All the great ones have had this experience. Jesus in the desert, Paul in Arabia, Moses in the wilderness, Joseph in the prison, Jacob at Bethel and the list goes on endlessly. Any person who tries to take a shortcut to ministry will end up in disaster while taking others with him.
What about you and me? If you find yourself already in a place of leadership and you know in your heart that you bypassed the "coming aside" for preparation, and I don't mean training alone. I mean a season of the emptying of you in order to be filled with Him. It's not too late. If asked, the Lord will take you through this process even while you are in a place of service. He does it all the time. Simply see it and pursue Him.
I don't know many songs from the mid to late 1970's. I remember a lot from the 60's and many from the 80's but the 70's is pretty much a blank. Movies are much the same way. One day I was thinking about it and as I was pondering the blank spaces in my memory I realized why. I came back to the Lord in 1973, responded to the Call to ministry that same year and was immersed in God, revival, training and discipleship for the next few years.
You see, I was so much in the world that my worldview, my tastes and my process of thinking was totally a worldly mindset. It was months before I could even tell a real change was occurring in my attitudes. Romans tells us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by "the renewing of your mind." That was what was happening to me in the 70's and by the way, is still taking place. I had so much of the world in me that if I had just continued walking as I had been walking and thinking the way I had been thinking with the only change being ministry training and a new vocation, I would have been of no value to God.
In the life of every servant of Jesus, there must be this coming out of the world, a season of separation, before there can be an effective sending for Kingdom purposes. There must be a time of sanctification and then an immersion in the things of God in order to see true Kingdom fruit. Otherwise we will find ourselves in the church sending "clouds without rain". We are warned to avoid having "a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof". The sending without first before the drawing away for preparation produces this powerless religion in time.
All the great ones have had this experience. Jesus in the desert, Paul in Arabia, Moses in the wilderness, Joseph in the prison, Jacob at Bethel and the list goes on endlessly. Any person who tries to take a shortcut to ministry will end up in disaster while taking others with him.
What about you and me? If you find yourself already in a place of leadership and you know in your heart that you bypassed the "coming aside" for preparation, and I don't mean training alone. I mean a season of the emptying of you in order to be filled with Him. It's not too late. If asked, the Lord will take you through this process even while you are in a place of service. He does it all the time. Simply see it and pursue Him.
Monday, December 7, 2009
After The Fact
When people tell you that hindsight is 20/20, understand that behind that statement are many, many mistakes. It is through mistakes that we learn, hopefully, and gain wisdom for future success. All great discoveries stand upon the shoulders of countless failures. When you see a person who can do, what to you is a difficult task, it is because they have failed at it until they finally got it right.
I have this bad habit of starting a new project and being so excited that I often forget to read the instructions that accompany the new materials. I just want to get the job done so badly that I can't take the time to do the proper preparation work. Recently I was rebuilding an old bike rack. I needed to attach some new rubber guards on the metal to protect the bikes from the metal. I had some Gorilla Glue on my shelf. I had previously used it on a small job. Now I would tackle this larger job. I had grease on my hands from another job I was doing the same afternoon. The glue worked fantastic. It was the best I had ever used! Then I came to the part where I would clean my hands. I scrubbed, and scrubbed, used chemicals and did all I knew to do and guess what? I had greasy, dirty looking hands with a Gorilla Glue permanent coating! Then, after the fact, I went and found the instructions that I had cast aside and it said, "don't make contact with hands. Make sure you wear gloves when using this product". UUUuuuggghhhh!!!!! I did it again!!!
I will never use glue without gloves again. The pain of this experience was now steamed into my brain. Sounds pretty silly. Yet, Christians do it all the time with much more serious matters than having dirty hands for a few days. They launch headlong into everything from major business decisions to marriage without every consulting the Scripture or counsel to see if there is direction or confirmation regarding their situation. Most of the counseling I did as a Pastor dealt with just this topic. People would come to me for help "after the fact". Often people would get into situations that resulted in bondage that would take years from which to get free. It is such a waste because if they had sought the counsel of God's Word first they could have prevented the crisis. Preventative maintenance is much better than repair. It's a great thing to be able to tell people now, "don't use Gorilla Glue without gloves"! However, I would much rather have read the instructions and never had to learn the lesson the way I did. There are a lot of people out there who wish the same thing but in much more serious matters.
The good news? God is the the "mess fixin'" business! You can still see God work for you even when you made the mess. Like me, you might have to walk through some embarrassment for a time, but a new day will come and redemption is in your future!
When people tell you that hindsight is 20/20, understand that behind that statement are many, many mistakes. It is through mistakes that we learn, hopefully, and gain wisdom for future success. All great discoveries stand upon the shoulders of countless failures. When you see a person who can do, what to you is a difficult task, it is because they have failed at it until they finally got it right.
I have this bad habit of starting a new project and being so excited that I often forget to read the instructions that accompany the new materials. I just want to get the job done so badly that I can't take the time to do the proper preparation work. Recently I was rebuilding an old bike rack. I needed to attach some new rubber guards on the metal to protect the bikes from the metal. I had some Gorilla Glue on my shelf. I had previously used it on a small job. Now I would tackle this larger job. I had grease on my hands from another job I was doing the same afternoon. The glue worked fantastic. It was the best I had ever used! Then I came to the part where I would clean my hands. I scrubbed, and scrubbed, used chemicals and did all I knew to do and guess what? I had greasy, dirty looking hands with a Gorilla Glue permanent coating! Then, after the fact, I went and found the instructions that I had cast aside and it said, "don't make contact with hands. Make sure you wear gloves when using this product". UUUuuuggghhhh!!!!! I did it again!!!
I will never use glue without gloves again. The pain of this experience was now steamed into my brain. Sounds pretty silly. Yet, Christians do it all the time with much more serious matters than having dirty hands for a few days. They launch headlong into everything from major business decisions to marriage without every consulting the Scripture or counsel to see if there is direction or confirmation regarding their situation. Most of the counseling I did as a Pastor dealt with just this topic. People would come to me for help "after the fact". Often people would get into situations that resulted in bondage that would take years from which to get free. It is such a waste because if they had sought the counsel of God's Word first they could have prevented the crisis. Preventative maintenance is much better than repair. It's a great thing to be able to tell people now, "don't use Gorilla Glue without gloves"! However, I would much rather have read the instructions and never had to learn the lesson the way I did. There are a lot of people out there who wish the same thing but in much more serious matters.
The good news? God is the the "mess fixin'" business! You can still see God work for you even when you made the mess. Like me, you might have to walk through some embarrassment for a time, but a new day will come and redemption is in your future!
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