One Resolution!

This is it!  The end of another year.  So how has it been for you?  Are you any more organized at this point in time than you were at this time last year?  Have you lost the weight, reduced your debt, raised your grades, maintained a consistent devotional life?  And what about your spiritual walk?  Are you less angry, more forgiving, more tolerant and less critical now than you were a year ago?  Are you allowing Christ to change who you are at the very core?  We always have good intentions, but they always seem to get way-laid.   So how about this next year?  What will make it any different?  What will make things work this time?  Might I suggest that this year you only have one resolution?  Here’s what Paul resolved:  1 Corinthians 2:2  “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

What would happen if that were your one resolution?  What would happen if in knowing Christ, in beholding Him, you started to find your taste changing, your interests changing, and even your desires?  Do you think you would be different a year from now?  Do you think you might actually be able to deal with some of those things that have dogged your steps for years?  Knowing Jesus can change you way beyond just knowing about Him.  Because once you know Him, you will want to follow where He leads.  And He always leads you towards what is best for your eternal salvation.  So here, at the beginning of 2012, why don’t you make that resolution? 

Stop. Look. Listen

Have you noticed...or is it just me?  Life seems to be moving faster than ever.  And so much has happened in the past few months that it is almost too much to process.  Births, deaths, people moving, jobs drying up, the economy tanking...again.  So how does one deal with everything that life throws their way without totally losing their mind?  Here's what I've found to be helpful.

Step 1)  Stop.  In the middle of it all...just stop!  Psa. 46:10   says      “Be still, and know that I am God!"  But that isn't the end of the verse.  It goes on to say, "I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”  So here's the question:  When you stop, ask yourself if the way you are living your life right now is honoring God in front of the nations...or at least the people in your community.

Step 2)  Look.  Look to God in the middle of your stuff.  When David was being pursued by Saul and found himself hiding in a cave, he began crying out to God...but in the middle of his prayer he really nailed it down.  Here's what he said.
Psa. 142:0      A psalm of David, regarding his experience in the cave. A prayer.
Psa. 142:1         I cry out to the LORD;
         I plead for the LORD’s mercy.
2      I pour out my complaints before him
         and tell him all my troubles.
3      When I am overwhelmed,
         you alone know the way I should turn.
     Wherever I go,
         my enemies have set traps for me.
4      I look for someone to come and help me,
         but no one gives me a passing thought!
     No one will help me;
         no one cares a bit what happens to me.
5      Then I pray to you, O LORD.
         I say, “You are my place of refuge.
         You are all I really want in life.
6      Hear my cry,
         for I am very low.
     Rescue me from my persecutors,
         for they are too strong for me.
7      Bring me out of prison
         so I can thank you.
     The godly will crowd around me,
         for you are good to me.”

It wasn't long after this prayer that Saul had to go to the bathroom...and he chose David's cave without knowing it.  David could have done him in right there and then, but chose to continue to trust in God to deliver him instead of taking matters into his own hands.

Step 3)  Listen.  Again from the Psalms:
Psa. 85:8    I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying,
         for he speaks peace to his faithful people.
         But let them not return to their foolish ways.
9      Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
         so our land will be filled with his glory.
Psa. 85:10         Unfailing love and truth have met together.
         Righteousness and peace have kissed!

Did you catch that?  When you listen for God's voice, He speaks peace to His faithful people.  That's it. 

Stop.  Look.  and Listen.  It isn't just for railroad crossings.  It's for whenever you come to any crossroads in life and feel a bit overwhelmed.  It's for when you are moving so fast that life is zooming past and you feel out of control.  It's for when you need peace in your heart and the fear to be removed.  Stop, Look, and Listen  and find His peace today.

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like a Mustard Seed

Have you ever seen a mustard seed?  Tiny little thing.  You can barely see it.  In one place Jesus talked about a mustard seed faith.  But in Luke 13:18,19, Jesus said "What is the kingdom of God like?  What shall I compare it to?  It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden.  It grew and became like a tree, and the birds of the air perched in it's branches."

End of parable.  Say what?  What in the world is Jesus trying to say here?  The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed?  I don't get it.  So here are some questions to consider for this week's sermon:


How is the kingdom of God like a mustard seed?  Is the size of the seed significant?  How much does it grow?  And if the kingdom of God is supposed to be inside of you, can you see any evidence that it is growing inside of you?  Do you think this parable has anything to do with God's kingdom growth plan?  Why or why not?

Leave me your comments or questions and we will try to address them in this week's message. If you can't be at the GCA Church this week, you can still hear the sermon next week on iTunes or at the GCA Church Website: http://gcachurch.org.

Pastor Don

Ponderings on Priorities, Projects and People

Lately life has been coming fast and furious at me.  A meeting here, a seminar there, and my 35th alumni homecoming (THAT was fun...but exhausting) Then there are mission trips to be planned, baptisms to conduct and board meetings to chair.  Not to mention all of the people who need a listening ear.  And last week we had a slew of tornadoes that took down quite a few church members trees and that resulted in a few days of chainsaw ministry.  Not to mention the regular everyday stuff of life--oh--and let's not forget TAXES!  (Yes I did procrastinate, thank-you, because of all of this other stuff.)

Point being, it seems as if there is always something to do or someone wanting a piece of my time or energy.  And that's all good.  But it is also wearisome.  Most days I'm up to the task, but some days I just want to hide and do nothing.  I want to simply pull the covers over my head and wish the world to go away.  But I don't because I know I would be further behind.


So yesterday, I'm in my truck driving back from an action-packed, fast-moving seminar up in the Scenic City on how to manage multiple priorities, projects and deadlines, and I'm thinking about how I have a lot of work to do to be up to the incredible efficiency levels of many others in the class, and then it hits me:  Maybe I'm not supposed to manage multiple priorities, projects and deadlines all the time.  Maybe not even much of the time.  As a matter of fact, maybe it isn't God's intent that I manage them at all, especially if it means I devalue people.

Yet I do it too often.  I get so intent on priorities, projects and deadlines that sometimes I push people right out of my picture.  I begin to see them as annoying interruptions to my day or something that simply sidetracks or delays me from being "really productive". 

And so I pondered what it means to be "productive", especially in my line of work as a pastor--but really, for any child of God.  And my pondering brought me to this:  Anytime I begin to see people as nothing more than interruptions to my productivity, I have already begun to be less than Christ-like, which is actually counterproductive to sharing the gospel.  Jesus came to die for people.  Not multiple priorities, projects or deadlines.

The work will always be there.  The projects never cease.  As soon as I finish one, another stands in line waiting for attention.  But Jesus said that His work was "to do the will of the One who sent me." If I'm a Christian...or Christ-follower, then isn't that my true work as well?  How is it that I've fallen for anything less than doing the will of the One who sent me?  But here I am trying to struggle against the many competing priorities, projects and deadlines that seem to always loom large on the horizon of my life.

So maybe I have to deal with them.  But maybe, in God's economy, I need to make sure that they never surpass people in their importance to me.  Jesus came to seek and to save people.  I must do no less. 

What about you?

David Phelps - No More Night

 

As I sat and listened to David Phelps singing No More Night, I was transported deep in my soul to that day when we will be carried away to heaven to finally meet Jesus. I let my heart go with the song and found myself temporarily lifted from the darkness of this old world and imagining what that will be like. No more night, no more pain, no more tears or crying again. No more death, no more darkness. Instead we will live in the light of the risen Lamb. We will be singing praises for eternity and falling more and more in love with Jesus as eternity rolls.

But I wonder, what keeps us from living there now? I know we can't be literally in heaven, of course, but what keeps us from living with Jesus and falling more and more in love with Him as time rolls on? What keeps us satisfied with the darkness of this dismal place? What makes us think that this old world is so much better that we don't even want to go to heaven?

We do have some good days here. Some beautiful days. And as spring begins to return to the Southland where I live, the days are getting longer and prettier. The birds seem to be singing a little more and trees are starting to bud. The daffodils have already begun to stick their heads up through the soil and open their faces to the sky. And I have to admit--it's gorgeous. But as beautiful as it is, there are still friends, this week, who have lost parents, children, and still others who have been diagnosed with cancer. Is that what keeps me so enamored of this world? Not hardly.

Perhaps it isn't so much that I am so much in love with this world as it is that I am afraid of the unknown. Yet, Jesus came to make the unknown known. He came so that we could see Him and learn what the Father is like. He came so that we could learn to trust Him and also trust His promises to us. What was it He said in John 14? Don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it weren't so, don't you think I would have told you? I'm going to prepare a place for you--and if I go, I will come again to get you and to take you where I am."

So maybe I'm afraid of the unknown because I don't really know and trust Jesus. Maybe it stays unknown because HE stays unknown by me. Which would only mean that as I come to know Jesus more and more, I will trust Him more and more and therefore I will trust His promises to me more and more--which makes the unknown known. Suddenly I know perfect Love and perfect Love casts out all fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of suffering. Fear of death. And when I know and trust Jesus, the promises spring to life and I can let my soul sing with conviction, like David Phelps, about a day that is coming where there will be no more night.

May you know Jesus more and more so that you will never have to fear the unknown again. Let Him make it known to you--and you will look forward to that day where there is no more pain, no more tears, no more death, no more cancer, no more darkness--just the Light of the Risen Lamb!

The Great Struggle

As a pastor, as well as husband, father, uncle, brother, cousin, nephew, etc...no matter what role I play, I always figured the older I got the easier life would be.  There would be more money, less temptations, easier decisions and less struggles than I had in my teens, twenties and even thirties.  But I'm finding that it isn't really easier, just different.  Those things that once tempted me in my youth don't offer the same appeal, (partly because I'm now smarter having learned from painful experiences, and partly because they take too much energy) yet, it would seem that the devil always puts forth something that is enticing no matter what age I become.

I strive to be a decent person, a kind person and a positive person, but that isn't what God is looking for.  He's looking simply for a friend.  He's looking for someone who is totally yielded to Him, someone He can live out His life in.  Unfortunately, as long as I seek to retain control over me, I will be unable to see Him living in and through me, because He can't.  And therein lies the struggle, no matter what age.

I've been reading the Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, and they have an interesting concept in there.  Their premise is that the reason so many Christians have such a hard time succeeding at being followers of Christ is because they fail at this struggle.  And the reason they fail at this struggle is because they are trying to live the Christian life from the perspective of the wrong tree.

In the Garden of Eden there were two trees.  One was the Tree of Life.  If Adam and Eve ate from this tree, life would flow through them and they could continue to live for eternity.  But there was another tree: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.   God desired that they should only know good.  They were created knowing nothing of evil.  But Satan convinced them that if they wanted to be like God, they should eat of this tree, because then their eyes would be open and they would know both good and evil.  Since they had no idea what evil was, we can only presume that what really caught their attention was wanting to be like God.  They suddenly felt as if God were holding out on them and they desired to find out what it was.  They wanted to be in control of their own knowledge.

Up to that point, all they had to do was eat from the Tree of Life and it was effortless to live.  The life-giving quality of the fruit coursed through their veins and sustained their very lives.  When Jesus was here, He showed us the way to life.  "I am THE Way, THE Truth and THE LIFE.  No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)   He also said,  "I am the bread that gives life! No one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty." (John 6:35)  And in John 15:5 He said, " I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me."

Do you see it?  The great struggle is not resisting sin or fighting off secular humanist or atheists or even trying to be good.  It's about partaking of the Bread of Life- Jesus- and allowing His life to course through your veins.  The reason we fail so often in the Christian Life is because we are trying to serve Christ from the other Tree--the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Notice there is still good there.  And it is often out of our knowledge of the Good that we seek to serve.  It is often from our wanting to retain control of how we do things and when we do things instead of letting Jesus simply live and reign in us that we are overcome by our own weaknesses.  The Struggle then, is to choose to let go of my way and choose to simply stay connected to the right Tree.  Let Jesus be your Tree of Life.  Partake of Him often, and let Him live out His life within you, and you will find that the struggle, the temptations, the burnout, the discouragement and the desire to quit will melt away.

But there will always be The Great Struggle.  Only your choice will make the difference.  Which Tree will you choose to live by?