Ever been in one of those services where the message is just hitting you between the eyes? Last week my friend who is also a missionary was sharing a message that was doing that to me.
I believe God has given us stuff to enjoy, but sometimes I think that stuff becomes like a virus that takes over. Materialism is one of those sins we just kind of overlook (along with gluttony but let’s overlook that one…moving on). I have often heard it is not how much we posses but what posses us that matters…it is a great line and very true (Materialism penetrates all economic levels). It still seems hard to overlook that we have an insatiable desire for wealth and stuff.
PBS did a show called Affluenza.
-They said that the average American shops six hours a week
-by age 20 we have seen one million commercials
-recently more Americans declared bankruptcy then graduate
-90% of divorces, arguments about money play a primary role. (Treasure Principle-p. 52 Randy Alcott)
We are strapped in debt and it is no wonder our priorities seem to slowly suck the passion for God out of us. So when he shared the story of a youth service in Sudan where they were challenging the group in missions. They were casting the vision of raising money to send a team to share the Gospel to a Muslim village. He told of how little money they had over there and yet the challenge to give went out and one of the leaders came to the front took off his shoes and said “these have to be worth at least $8 if sold.” Then others came forward offering belts, shirts, jackets, going home selling furniture, etc. They indeed gave enough to send a team. That is passion for the kingdom of God… that’s generosity!
I was reading in the book of Acts 19:18-20 where the awe of God began to move on the people and it says “And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. 19 Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
One studied that and found that it was equivalent to perhaps six million dollars in today’s economy. The depth of transformation in the lives of the early Christians was most evident in the level of surrender of money and possessions.
Lord help us to do the same…
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
An Action that can change your Reactions, Feelings, and Relationships
If there was one action that could change my feelings and my relationships that one action simply put would be to love. Lots of times I hear people say “I’m not feeling it,” or “I am not in love with them anymore.” The only problem with that is that love is not a feeling, it is a commitment. Jesus told His disciples to love as I have loved you…stay committed to love. If those disciples would have been our disciples we probably would have dumped them or given them the right boot of fellowship. Jesus demonstrates commitment by choosing to love even when it’s hard
George Crane, newspaper columnist and minister, tells of a wife who was full of hatred toward her husband. She came into his office saying, “I not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even.” She went on “before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has hurt me.”
Crane suggested an ingenious plan: “Go home and act as if you really love your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you’ve convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb. Tell him that you’re getting a divorce. That will really hurt him.”
With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, “Beautiful! Beautiful! Will he ever be surprised?”
And she did it with enthusiasm, Acting “as if she loved him” for 2 months, she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, sharing.
When she didn’t return, Crane called her. “Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?”
“Divorce!” she asked “Never! I discovered I really do love him.” (Leadership, 1983)
Her actions had changed her feelings. Motions resulted in emotion. Feelings won’t come back by doing nothing. Those feelings will never return until you start acting in a loving way.
1 Corinthians 13:8 simply says “Love never fails.” Think of the word never…he says choosing to love will work 100% of the time. How many products can give you that kind of guarantee? If you are finding it hard to love… I encourage you to reach out for His grace. He resists the proud, but He will give grace to the humble. As you lean on His power and not your own, He will help you to love even when it is so incredibly difficult.
George Crane, newspaper columnist and minister, tells of a wife who was full of hatred toward her husband. She came into his office saying, “I not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even.” She went on “before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has hurt me.”
Crane suggested an ingenious plan: “Go home and act as if you really love your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Praise him for every decent trait. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Spare no efforts to please him, to enjoy him. Make him believe you love him. After you’ve convinced him of your undying love and that you cannot live without him, then drop the bomb. Tell him that you’re getting a divorce. That will really hurt him.”
With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, “Beautiful! Beautiful! Will he ever be surprised?”
And she did it with enthusiasm, Acting “as if she loved him” for 2 months, she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, sharing.
When she didn’t return, Crane called her. “Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?”
“Divorce!” she asked “Never! I discovered I really do love him.” (Leadership, 1983)
Her actions had changed her feelings. Motions resulted in emotion. Feelings won’t come back by doing nothing. Those feelings will never return until you start acting in a loving way.
1 Corinthians 13:8 simply says “Love never fails.” Think of the word never…he says choosing to love will work 100% of the time. How many products can give you that kind of guarantee? If you are finding it hard to love… I encourage you to reach out for His grace. He resists the proud, but He will give grace to the humble. As you lean on His power and not your own, He will help you to love even when it is so incredibly difficult.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Talking About You
I want to be known for being a selfish jerk.
I want to be known as a quiet, introverted, shy person that no one is let in to my world.
I want to be forgotten.
I want to be remembered for being greedy and ruthless.
I want to be remembered for being lazy.
Obviously no one wants to leave these kinds of legacy. We want to know that somehow our lives mattered, we made the world a better place, we made a difference. The question is how? It is an important question because I don’t know many that get a do over in life.
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever.”(Isaiah 40:8)
If you are going to leave a great and godly legacy, you have got to build godly convictions. I grimace at my hair style in high school, the clothes I wore back in the day, and why did we have that orange carpet anyways. Things change…God’s Word never does....cliché however it was true hundreds of years ago and it will be true thousands of years from now. This is what conviction is all about; they are core values that are unchanging and eternal. It is a strong belief that shows up in the way we act.
The problem is too many have what Craig Groeschel calls preferences and not convictions. He describes a preference as a strong desire that you will compromise when the cost becomes too high. It goes like this…
I prefer to be a virgin when I get married until the peer pressure is too much and the moment is just right and then I give away my preference.
I prefer to be generous until I see that new car and then you got to look out for number one.
I prefer to be generous, but it's not the way I always live.
Maybe you would say I prefer to go to church but football season starts next week. Church or football? You can't have both, you've got to make a choice. Football often wins out.
You prefer to be a tither until money gets tight.
You prefer family time; you want that to be important but people demands, work demands, etc.
We want these things but we give them up when the going gets tough.
To leave a great and godly legacy let’s attach convictions to God’s Word that cause us to live it out (James 1:22).
I like the way The Message says Jesus words in Matthew 7:26, “But if you just use My words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach.” You don’t really believe something unless you live it out.
Often are convictions are misguided. Kids know that parents will flex on most things…but don’t move the remote control….
More concerned with the appearance of our kids then their character.
Who cares about commitment, you better not change the church service style.
We are giving off a message we don't want to leave because we have wrong convictions. A godly legacy is going to be directly tied to the convictions we are demonstrating. Remember there will be a day everyone will be gathered together and they will be talking about you, only you won’t be there…what will they say? Will there be awkward silence, a forced niceness to mask what was really true, or a pouring forth of gratitude for your life and the difference you made?
I want to be known as a quiet, introverted, shy person that no one is let in to my world.
I want to be forgotten.
I want to be remembered for being greedy and ruthless.
I want to be remembered for being lazy.
Obviously no one wants to leave these kinds of legacy. We want to know that somehow our lives mattered, we made the world a better place, we made a difference. The question is how? It is an important question because I don’t know many that get a do over in life.
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever.”(Isaiah 40:8)
If you are going to leave a great and godly legacy, you have got to build godly convictions. I grimace at my hair style in high school, the clothes I wore back in the day, and why did we have that orange carpet anyways. Things change…God’s Word never does....cliché however it was true hundreds of years ago and it will be true thousands of years from now. This is what conviction is all about; they are core values that are unchanging and eternal. It is a strong belief that shows up in the way we act.
The problem is too many have what Craig Groeschel calls preferences and not convictions. He describes a preference as a strong desire that you will compromise when the cost becomes too high. It goes like this…
I prefer to be a virgin when I get married until the peer pressure is too much and the moment is just right and then I give away my preference.
I prefer to be generous until I see that new car and then you got to look out for number one.
I prefer to be generous, but it's not the way I always live.
Maybe you would say I prefer to go to church but football season starts next week. Church or football? You can't have both, you've got to make a choice. Football often wins out.
You prefer to be a tither until money gets tight.
You prefer family time; you want that to be important but people demands, work demands, etc.
We want these things but we give them up when the going gets tough.
To leave a great and godly legacy let’s attach convictions to God’s Word that cause us to live it out (James 1:22).
I like the way The Message says Jesus words in Matthew 7:26, “But if you just use My words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach.” You don’t really believe something unless you live it out.
Often are convictions are misguided. Kids know that parents will flex on most things…but don’t move the remote control….
More concerned with the appearance of our kids then their character.
Who cares about commitment, you better not change the church service style.
We are giving off a message we don't want to leave because we have wrong convictions. A godly legacy is going to be directly tied to the convictions we are demonstrating. Remember there will be a day everyone will be gathered together and they will be talking about you, only you won’t be there…what will they say? Will there be awkward silence, a forced niceness to mask what was really true, or a pouring forth of gratitude for your life and the difference you made?
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Lots of Facebook Friends, Few Real Relationships
Why are people so committed to growing their stuff, their money, their careers, and settling for average, shallow, even vanilla relationships? Having thousands of Facebook friends does not mean you excel in relationships. I can’t think of a better example of where many are at then John and Kate Gosselin whose shows intro always concluded with “we are in together, it is our life.” So why do we struggle to love others and grow high quality, deep relationships that can stand through time and challenges?
Honestly it isn’t always the big things that cause the biggest problems, sometimes it is the simplest things that cause the greatest annoyance and friction like:
-toothpaste tube squeezed incorrectly
-towels left on the floor
-hair clogging sinks or showers
-checks that did not get logged in the register
-claiming total control of the TV remote
-junk left in the car
-empty salt shakers
-milk container put back in the fridge that are empty
It is a dumb list but have you ever found yourself fussing at one another?
If we had 30 days to live, our priority would definitely be on building a lot more bridges then walls. There is only one place Jesus gives us a new command when he says in John 13:34-35, “I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.”(John 13:34-35)
I look at that and say what is new about it? Love one another is an Old Testament concept. The difference here is that it isn’t loving how “I want to be loved,” or “how I think you should love,” it is “love as I (Jesus) have loved you.” It is new in its level of sacrifice and other centered focus. The early church of Acts took it very seriously; they were radical in their response to love completely.
So why are we hanging out in the valley rather than climbing the summit by loving completely? There are many roadblocks but one of the biggest ones is misunderstandings. Things were going so smoothly then what happened? Opposites seem to attract, but then most of the time they attack (Kerry Shook). You reached out to help; they thought you were being nosy. You figured you would always understand each other, and now you are in separate corners of the ring. You must realize that differences of opinion are natural and inevitable parts of every relationship. We can’t read other people’s minds, no matter how much alike we may be. We’re all human, so miscommunication and misinterpretations are inevitable. It can spell the death of a relationship.
The roadblocks of selfishness are also just as large a hurdle to overcome. It is human nature to want to meet our own needs before we meet the needs of others. It creates a huge obstacle….my children in small issues parity life as adults. As we have had to set up systems in who gets the front seat in the car, what chair they get for supper, and who gets to play the video game at what time. Me-first attitude is an easy thought pattern to get into that creates a wall to love completely.
Perhaps the largest barricades to overcome are the offenses we have built up in our heart. All of us at one time or another have been hurt by someone’s comments, been cheated, or wronged. It is easy to build a wall. Proverbs tells us “A brother offended is harder to win then a walled city.” It can poison relationships forever. We must learn to channel our anger in the right way or we will find ourselves embittered and hard.
Good news we can overcome all that to love as Christ loved us, by beginning to learn to accept one another. Romans 15:7-8 (NCV) “Christ accepted you, so you should accept each other, which will bring glory to God.” The word accept has the idea of “strong action toward us” God literally came to us and took hold of us while we were yet sinners. By that act of acceptance, he released grace in us and it transforms us, bringing glory to God.
Acceptance by its very meaning means stop trying to change someone and start cherishing them. I can honestly say I spent my first years of marriage trying to change my wife and I can now say it was 100% ineffective. I can’t recommend it. We are not God nor are we the Holy Spirit; and when we try to be, we just don’t do a very good job at it. I have noticed the more I accept the differences, the more I am able to connect with those closest to me. Plus the greater the connection, the greater room we give God to work because we get out of the way.
So how about beginning right now from the heart ask God to help you truly accept those closest to you.
Honestly it isn’t always the big things that cause the biggest problems, sometimes it is the simplest things that cause the greatest annoyance and friction like:
-toothpaste tube squeezed incorrectly
-towels left on the floor
-hair clogging sinks or showers
-checks that did not get logged in the register
-claiming total control of the TV remote
-junk left in the car
-empty salt shakers
-milk container put back in the fridge that are empty
It is a dumb list but have you ever found yourself fussing at one another?
If we had 30 days to live, our priority would definitely be on building a lot more bridges then walls. There is only one place Jesus gives us a new command when he says in John 13:34-35, “I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.”(John 13:34-35)
I look at that and say what is new about it? Love one another is an Old Testament concept. The difference here is that it isn’t loving how “I want to be loved,” or “how I think you should love,” it is “love as I (Jesus) have loved you.” It is new in its level of sacrifice and other centered focus. The early church of Acts took it very seriously; they were radical in their response to love completely.
So why are we hanging out in the valley rather than climbing the summit by loving completely? There are many roadblocks but one of the biggest ones is misunderstandings. Things were going so smoothly then what happened? Opposites seem to attract, but then most of the time they attack (Kerry Shook). You reached out to help; they thought you were being nosy. You figured you would always understand each other, and now you are in separate corners of the ring. You must realize that differences of opinion are natural and inevitable parts of every relationship. We can’t read other people’s minds, no matter how much alike we may be. We’re all human, so miscommunication and misinterpretations are inevitable. It can spell the death of a relationship.
The roadblocks of selfishness are also just as large a hurdle to overcome. It is human nature to want to meet our own needs before we meet the needs of others. It creates a huge obstacle….my children in small issues parity life as adults. As we have had to set up systems in who gets the front seat in the car, what chair they get for supper, and who gets to play the video game at what time. Me-first attitude is an easy thought pattern to get into that creates a wall to love completely.
Perhaps the largest barricades to overcome are the offenses we have built up in our heart. All of us at one time or another have been hurt by someone’s comments, been cheated, or wronged. It is easy to build a wall. Proverbs tells us “A brother offended is harder to win then a walled city.” It can poison relationships forever. We must learn to channel our anger in the right way or we will find ourselves embittered and hard.
Good news we can overcome all that to love as Christ loved us, by beginning to learn to accept one another. Romans 15:7-8 (NCV) “Christ accepted you, so you should accept each other, which will bring glory to God.” The word accept has the idea of “strong action toward us” God literally came to us and took hold of us while we were yet sinners. By that act of acceptance, he released grace in us and it transforms us, bringing glory to God.
Acceptance by its very meaning means stop trying to change someone and start cherishing them. I can honestly say I spent my first years of marriage trying to change my wife and I can now say it was 100% ineffective. I can’t recommend it. We are not God nor are we the Holy Spirit; and when we try to be, we just don’t do a very good job at it. I have noticed the more I accept the differences, the more I am able to connect with those closest to me. Plus the greater the connection, the greater room we give God to work because we get out of the way.
So how about beginning right now from the heart ask God to help you truly accept those closest to you.
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