Quality Time with Oswald: The Idol of Inspiration

If you are not familiar with the devotional journal My Utmost for His Highest you should be! I can honestly say that few books have impacted my walk with Christ like this book has. My Utmost is a collection of the thoughts and teachings of the Scotsman Oswald Chambers that his wife put together after his untimely death at age 43. Even though Chambers lived a century ago, you'd never know it because his insights are so dead-on.

I want to share the entry for April 25 from My Utmost in its entirety because Chambers simply puts it better than I can and there is no need to try to reproduce what he has already stated so compellingly:

"Be ready in season and out of season" (2 Timothy 4:2)

Many of us suffer from the unbalanced tendency to “be ready” only “out of season.” The season does not refer to time; it refers to us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.” In other words, we should “be ready” whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would never do anything. There are some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are spiritually feeble and weak, and they refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that our relationship is right with God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.

One of the worst traps a Christian worker can fall into is to become obsessed with his own exceptional moments of inspiration. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you tend to say, “Now that I’ve experienced this moment, I will always be like this for God.” No, you will not, and God will make sure of that. Those times are entirely the gift of God. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best for God, as during those exceptional times, you actually become an intolerable burden on Him. You will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously aware of His inspiration to you at all times. If you make a god out of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life, never to return until you are obedient in the work He has placed closest to you, and until you have learned not to be obsessed with those exceptional moments He has given you.

I have to confess that far too often I do not give God my very best because I don't feel "inspired" at that moment. Lord, help me to give my best work to You regardless of how I feel, knowing that if my work is based on whether or not I feel inspired, then I've made an idol out of inspiration.

For more information on Oswald Chambers or My Utmost for His Highest go to http://utmost.org/.

He Isn't Safe, but He Is Good, He' the King!

The other morning in my devotions I read the following from Psalm 130;

But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared. - Psalm 130:4

 

The wording of this verse jumped out at me because of the psalmist stating that God should be feared because He offers forgiveness. I thought, "What a strange idea! Why would I fear someone who has forgiven me?" This caused me to do a little research. What is the psalmist trying to say here?

 

Most of us don't live with a sense of sin because we don't live with a sense of God in our lives. Where there is no realization of God's presence, there will be no realization of sin's presence. However, when we truly come face-to-face with God and His presence in our life overwhelms us, we cannot help but notice our sin, and it strikes terror in our hearts, just as it did to Isaiah when he saw God in the temple (Isaiah 6).  Why? When we see God's holiness we will be gripped by a holy fear because we realize that the only just response of God to our sin is to destroy us, "Woe is me! For I am lost" (Isaiah 6:5).

 

However, in His mercy God has chosen not to destroy sinful man but to forgive. Through Jesus we have forgiveness of sin. That unimaginable act of mercy, when fully understood by the sinner, creates a sense of holy fear in their life. The inclination is to think that if one has been forgiven, the natural response would be gratitude or relief, but Scripture consistently teaches that the biblical response is fear! Why? When one has truly been forgiven, they have been accepted by God and He fully invades one's life. The closer we get to God, the closer we get to ultimate holiness, the greater our awareness of our sin grows. As our awareness of our sin grows in the presence of holiness we will be gripped by fear. Not a fear that paralyzes and disheartens, but a fear that motivates us to never fall back into the sin we have just been released from. One way to discern if salvation has come is to determine if you live with a growing awareness of your sinfulness and a fear, dread, and disgust of it.

 

Healthy fear is not a bad thing, because it causes us to avoid things that are dangerous. It is wise to have a healthy fear of fire, electricity, predators, poisonous snakes, radiation, etc. Our fear of them doesn't paralyze us, keep us from living life, but we are careful around them because they can destroy us. We should have the same fear of sin.

 

In the book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy and Susan ask Mr. Beaver about Aslan. When the girls hear that Aslan isn't a man but a lion, they become scared and ask Mr. Beaver, "Then he isn't safe?" Mr. Beaver replies, "Safe? ... Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King". We must realize that our God isn't safe, but He is good. He's the King and we must approach Him with a holy, respectful fear.

 

 

 

He has forgiven us that we might fear Him, because fear of sin leads to life!

 

(Every year I use a different plan for reading through the Bible. This year I'm using a chronological plan for the Bible. This plan arranges the Bible so that you read passages in the order they were written historically, just a small variation from reading the Bible straight through. If you need a reading plan, LifeChurch has created a free app called YouVersion with literally dozens of plans to help you out. Check it out at www.youversion.com)

The Butterfly Effect

The term "Butterfly Effect" refers to the effects of a seemingly insignificant event in one place (i.e. a butterfly flapping its tiny wings) that results in a major, unexpected event somewhere very distant (i.e. a tsunami on the other side of the world). It is connected to some sort of theory that some guy much smarter than I came up with that I don't fully understand, but we can all appreciate how seemingly insignificant acts can have major, unintended results down the road.

This weekend I was at a student ministry conference listening to Scott Kindig, a pastor from Georgia whom I respect very much. He was talking about disciple-making and he said we often will make an impact 4, 5, or 6 generations away that we are never aware of. When he said that I immediately thought, "butterfly effect".

Christ has invited us to join Him in impacting our world. Sometimes we wonder how we could possibly impact the world, but the reality is that most "big" things start very, very small. Jesus turned the Roman world upside down not through military, or economic, or political means  but by investing into the lives of 12 guys (one of whom betrayed Him). When Jesus left the earth around A.D. 30 He had these 11 guys He'd prepared for leadership of about 120 people, and that was it. From a human perspective His mission was a failure. However, by the year A.D. 325 half the Roman world was Christian. How was such a remarkable change brought about? Jesus had made disciples (the 12), whom He told to make disciples (Mt. 28:19-20), who then made disciples whom they told to repeat the process (2 Tim. 2:2), until half the Roman Empire were disciples of Christ. This is the greatest "butterfly effect" of all time.

The thing that we have to understand is that every one of us who is a follower of Christ are connected in a chain that stretches two millennia from Jesus, through the Apostles all the way down to us. The commands that Jesus left His disciples to "Go into all the world and make disciples" still applies to us today. The question then is, "Are you making any disciples?" If not why?

Maybe you'd say, "I don't know how!" Fair enough. Disciple-making is a lost art in the North American church, but it is something that you can be trained to do very easily and very quickly. So that's not an excuse. If you don't know how, find someone who can teach you how and then take what they teach you and turn around and teach it to others who will teach it to others. In our church all of us pastors are discipling a group of guys with the expectation that they will be able to turn around and disciple someone else. Talk to your pastor and if he blows you off contact me and I'll help you find someone to disciple you.

You never know the impact that your simple obedience to Jesus' command to make disciples will have. If you want to make a difference, if you want to impact your world, if you want to change the course of history then start making disciples. Jesus only had 12 and changed history. Let's join in His mission and change our world!

Catch a Wave!

"Catch a wave and your settin' on top of the world!" - The Beach Boys

While reading My Utmost for His Highest the other morning, I read the following, "Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A person ready never needs to get ready - he is ready." Oswald Chambers was discussing the need for readiness in the life of a follower of Jesus. So often we fail to see God move in our lives because we have not readied ourselves for His movement.

Moses had been readying himself for 40 years when God appeared to him in the burning bush. He had spent those years of exile on the backside of nowhere preparing for the role of the leader of God's people. Now granted, he did not realize what God was doing in his life, but none the less, he was readying himself. If Moses had not been ready, he would not have noticed the bush when he walked by.

Now the Bible does not mention this, but using my holy imagination, I wonder if Moses had passed by a burning bush before, but had had not noticed it because he wasn't ready. Maybe he had passed by many burning bushes but not until the day that he was ready did he actually notice, "Hey, that bush is on fire but it isn't burning up!" Then in that moment when Moses' readiness met God's presence history was made.

Now being ready does not insure that God will speak to us, but NOT being ready absolutely insures that God will NOT speak! It's like surfing. I've never surfed but I know that in order to surf you've got to be ready. They way you ready yourself is going to the beach, getting in the water, getting on your board and paddling out to where the waves come in. Now there will be days when you do all your prep and no waves come. But if you are going to catch a wave, you've got to be in the water, on your board and in position. If you wait until you see the wave before you start getting ready, it's too late. By the time you get in the water, get on your board and paddle out the wave is long gone.

I wonder how many waves of the Spirit the Father has sent our direction that we've missed because we've been preoccupied up on the beach when we should have been ready on our board out in the surf. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd really like to be riding waves instead of missing them. So let me encourage you to do whatever you need to do to be ready for the "surprise visits of God".

Surf's up Big Kahuna, grab your board!

Full of Grace & Truth

One of the biggest challenges for Christians living in a sinful and increasingly hostile culture is how do we display both grace and truth. Some may ask, what do you mean "display both grace and truth", or why is it important to "display both grace and truth"? Well, displaying both grace and truth means that we live with the tension of being a people of grace and a people of truth. The tendency for most Christians throughout history has been to tilt toward one extreme or the other.

Fundamentalist Christians tend to emphasize truth over grace, defending biblical truth but in a harsh and unloving manner. Liberal Christians emphasize grace above truth, displaying love for all people but never confronting them with the truth about their sin. If Christ's church is going to live out this tension of being full of grace and full of truth, a good place to look is Jesus Himself. John 1:14 tells us, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus when He came was full of both grace and truth. He did not tilt toward grace over truth, or truth over grace, He displayed both, fully.

An example of Jesus showing grace and truth is found in John 4 where He interacts with a woman at a well. Jesus did several things that took this woman by surprise. First, He, a Jew, spoke to her, a Samaritan. Jesus broke down racial/ethnic barriers that kept her from the love of the Father. Second, He, a man, spoke to her, a woman. Jesus broke down cultural/societal barriers that kept her from the love of the Father. Third, He, a moral "insider", spoke to her, a moral "outsider". Jesus broke down religious/moral barriers that kept her from the love of the Father. Jesus demonstrated incredible grace toward this woman, however, He did not do so at the expense of the truth.

Jesus loved her too much to turn a blind eye to the fact that she was living in sin. She had been married five times and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. Jesus did not tiptoe around the issue of her sin, but in grace and truth confronted her and in the process transformed her life. Here is the secret, when grace and truth are fully displayed in tandem, they produce amazing transformation in the lives of those that come into contact with them. How can we change our broken, sinful, hurting and dysfunctional world? By being a people full of grace and truth.

So how can you be a person full of grace AND full of truth?

1. Don't call for a boycott of every company that expresses views that are contrary to Christian values. The world knows what we are against, it's time that they know what we are for. In the book Unchristian, one of the common conceptions of Christians in the world is that we are too political and judgmental. We always seem to be mad at someone or some group. I'm not saying that we have to give up our right to speak out, but maybe we should find a more productive way to do that. It should be obvious to even casual observers that our boycotts haven't really been effective in changing anyone's mind. Instead of calling people out for their sin, let's reach out to them in love and THEN have conversations about truth.

2. Don't tiptoe around sin in the lives of those we know. The opposite extreme is that we often ignore the 800 lb. gorilla in the room. Many of us are in close relationships with people that we care deeply about, and yet we've never talked to them about destructive, sinful behaviors in their lives. We think that we are ignoring their sin because "love is blind" or "love covers a multitude of sins". In reality, we are more concerned with keeping their approval and favor than we are in being truthful with them, because the truth is often uncomfortable. I'm not saying we need to slam people for their sin, but neither can we simply ignore it. If we truly love someone, we will honestly discuss with them the consequences of their sin and not turn a blind eye.

 

3. Develop relationships with people who are far from God. You really want to a person full of grace and truth? Then you must allow God to put you in places where you will have to exercise both, simultaneously. Nowhere will force you to exhibit both in your life better than in developing friendships with people who are far from God. One problem that we have as Christians is that we live in our little Christian enclaves, listening to our Christian music, watching our Christian movies, hanging out with fellow Christians and we have no contact with those outside the faith. How can we impact a lost world if we don't know anyone who's lost? When we start to befriend people who don't know Jesus it will change our perspective. It's one thing to be against "those people" who espouse views we don't agree with, it's something entirely different when it's our friend "Tommy" who espouses views we don't like. It's easy to slam the impersonal "those people", it's not so easy to slam your friend. Grace and truth can only operate in a relationship built on love and concern.

 

4. Be okay with the reality that church becomes a much messier place when we choose to be full of grace and truth. People who have lives that are not all together will be drawn to a church that displays both grace and truth. Life transformation is a messy business and I suspect one reason we don't see very much of it happening in our churches is that most churches aren't willing to put up with the mess. Raising babies is a messy business. They spit up on themselves, and you (especially if you're wearing a clean shirt). They mess their diapers (especially if you're getting ready to leave the house). They throw their peas (especially if you just mopped). We know going into it that they're a lot of work, but we also know the pay off is worth it. Likewise, we need to have a similar perspective when it comes to seeing the lives of those far from God transformed through the power of grace and truth.

The price of being a people full of grace and truth is high for us. The price of NOT being a people full of grace and truth is higher for the world!

Everybody Needs an Ebenezer

A few days ago I read a tweet that said, in effect, "Many of us write in a journal, but not many of us read our journals." When I saw that, it hit a nerve with me because I was taught a long time ago the discipline of keeping a journal, but I don't regularly go back and read it. It dawned on me that the reason I need to be journaling isn't so I can record my brilliant spiritual insights for future generations (which are few and far between by the way). It is so I can go back and be reminded of how God has worked in my life.

So this morning I took some time and went back and started reading the journal I'm currently using. I started this particular journal at the end of January last year. As I started reading, I was a bit surprised. I forgot what a spiritual funk I was in last winter and early spring. I had a couple of thoughts pop in my head. One was, "Man I was really in a bad place spiritually!", and the other was, "Am I really that big of a baby?" I confess that there was a lot of complaining, and "woe is me", and "I'm such a loser" in those pages. There was also a lot of praise and thanks for how God was working and transforming my life.

Reading those pages helped me to realize that in the last year, God has been extremely faithful in my life. I knew that He was faithful, but here, literally in "black and white", I had evidence of how God had brought me through a very low point in my life spiritually. I saw how His mercy and grace had carried me when I was ready to give up. I hope it doesn't shock you to know that pastors get discouraged, and disillusioned, and distracted by life. There are times when we keep smiling in church, but in private we want to quit. I know many Christians feel the same way at times, but that's where the journal comes in handy. It reminds of God's faithfulness in the past and it serves as a promise of God's faithfulness in the future.

In the Old Testament the Israelites had a practice of setting up a large stone  as a monument to help remind them of God's faithfulness to them. This was called an "Ebenezer". Now, this has nothing to do with Dickens or Scrooge, but everything to do with God's faithfulness. Ebenezer comes from two Hebrew words, eben which means "stone", and ezer which means "help", literally "stone of help". 1 Samuel 7:12 is an example of this practice, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, 'Till now the Lord has helped us.'" Samuel set up this Ebenezer following God's incredible delivery of the people of Israel from an attack by the Philistines, to serve as a reminder of what God had done. We do the same thing in our culture. We set up statues and pillars and obelisks to commerate great battles or important historical events. We do this because we tend to quickly forget the past and we need to be constantly reminded.

An example of an "Ebenezer" from Scotland.

My journal serves as an Ebenezer in my life. I was incredibly encouraged after reading my journal this morning to see how God has brought me through hardships. How I have grown in my faith over the last year. How I have seen the Lord bring me victory over doubts and discouragements. These reminders of His past faithfulness help me believe fully in His future work on my behalf.

So the question is, "Do you have any Ebenezers set up in your life?" If you are not keeping a journal or at least jotting down things to remember how God has worked in your life, I strongly encourage you to do so. Part of being humans is facing discouragement, getting down, going through times of struggle and hardship. In fact, part of the message that Paul and Barnabas preached on their first missionary journey was, "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). Therefore, expect hard times to come, but when they do, remind yourself, "God has been faithful before, He will be faithful again and He will bring me through this." Then pull out your "Ebenezer" and remind yourself of His past faithfulness.

Now granted, sometimes it is unpleasant to remember the past. We all have things we'd like to forget. But remembering how bad things were and seeing that you made it through with God's grace is an incredibly encouraging thing. It helps you see that there really is nothing that God can't overcome in your life. The philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (you'd never guess my undergrad was in history). There is much truth in that. Life is cyclical and what has been will be again, "there is no new thing under the sun" (Ecclesiates 1:9). So when we can remind ourselves of what God has done in the past, we are armed to face what will come in the future. Remember, God holds everything in His hands; past, present, and future.

So do you have an Ebenezer?

Martyrs in Mexico

As many of you know, a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a week in the Mexican states of Puebla and Tlaxcala. The reason I was there was because the Missouri Baptist Convention under the leadership of Rick Hedger has developed a partnership with the Puebla and Tlaxcala Regional Baptist Convetion. The PTRBC is led by Pastor Sergio Rebollar who served as our host. I loved getting to know Sergio and his wonderful family.

Liz, Sergio, Danny (our interpreter in Tehuacan) and Kenneth.

Sergio laid out a vision for the PTRBC in 2009 that he called Campaña 20:20 (Campaign 20:20). The vision is to see 10,000 baptisms, to start 100 new works, and to see 50 of those new works organized as churches by the year 2020. When Rick heard about Sergio's vision for the PTRBC he felt God was calling Missouri Baptists into a partnership with our brothers and sisters in Puebla and Tlaxcala.

The pastors at Canaan felt God calling us to be a part of the partnership in Puebla, so I traveled to Puebla with Rick to see and pray about where specifically God would have Canaan partner. Over the course of the week I got to meet about 40 amazing pastors and church leaders from nearly 20 churches and missions. But the thing that most struck me and took me by surprise was the number of our Christian brothers and sisters that I met who knew someone who had been martyred for their faith.

 

I thought to myself, "Really, people are being killed for their faith in Christ in Mexico!!! I thought Mexico was a Christian country, sure it's Catholic, but they're Christians too, aren't they?"

 

What I came to discover is that there is a very thin veneer of Catholicism in Mexico that merely covers the native, indigenous religion that existed there before the coming of the Spaniards in the 16th century. Only a small percentage of the people are true, evangelical Christians who understand the gospel. Most people are very closed to the gospel and do not want to hear.

 

An example of people that I met who had lost someone that they knew as a martyr was Pastor "Bob".



Pastor "Bob" on the left and Pastor Mario, our interpreter.



"Bob" pastors in a village near the city of Puebla (Puebla is the name of the state and its largest city, which is also the capital of the state). "Bob's" grandfather had been a municipal president (mayor) and had come to faith in Christ. He began carrying a big Bible under his arm everywhere that he went. The people in the town did not like that he had become a Christian and they were afraid that he would start interfering in their lives (i.e. making them go to church, closing the bars, etc.) so they gathered a mob, and attacked and killed "Bob's" grandfather. They drug his body to the zocalo (town square) and then put a big rock over it out of fear that he would rise from the dead.

When I heard this story I told Sergio, "Christians in America don't know about things like this. We only think that people are dying for Christ in China and India and in Muslim countries." He responded, "No, it is going on here."

Now before you panic and say, "There's no way me or my kids are going to Mexico!", understand that violence usually occurs in small, remote villages, not in the cities where we will be. Also, the violence is usually directed against individuals who are going to stay long term and are going to be ongoing sources of irritation to the community. Our friends in Puebla know where it's safe for us to go and where it's not. But we need to be in prayer for those Mexican pastors who are risking their lives to go into these remote villages where Christ is not known.

One such pastor is Pastor "Ralph". "Ralph" serves in a mountain village. He had been an alcoholic when Christ saved him, however, he did not give up his alcohol and drugs at first. Then he was in a serious accident and the doctors told him he'd never walk again. At that point "Ralph" gave his life completely to the Lord and committed to live only for Christ's sake. Miraculously, seven months later he was walking again.

The mountains of Puebla.

He went to a mountain village and began sharing the gospel. He gathered a small congregation but he faced great persecution from the village. "Ralph" has been beaten five times and a sixth time the village tried to bribe him to leave, but he would not. Finally a Christian woman was appointed to the city council and she heard of "Ralph's" story and how he came out of alcoholism. She recommended that the town start sending it's alcoholics and wife beaters (both endemic in many villages) to "Ralph". He had such success with them that the village finally came to accept him and his church.

Martyrdom is not merely something that happens in the 10/40 Window (an area that stretches across North Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia).

The 10/40 Window was created by missiologists to describe the part of the globe most resistant to the gospel. It is called the "10/40 Window" because the area extends from 10˚ to 40˚ north latitude.

It is occuring in many places around the world, including Mexico.

What can you do?

1. Pray for our Christian brothers and sisters in Mexico: Many are facing persecution for their faith. Although few of them are actually being killed for their faith, many face varying degrees of opposition. Many believers have been disowned by their families for their decision to follow Christ. Pray that they, "not grow weary of doing good, for in due season [they] will reap, if [they] do not give up" (Gal. 6:9).

Our Christian brothers and sister at Iglesia Bautista "Pueblo de Dios" praying.

2. Pray for Mexican missionary pastors: Many pastors in Mexico are burdened to take the gospel into villages where the gospel is not known. They are literally risking their lives in order to be obedient to the gospel, but their love for Christ and for the lost compels them to risk the danger. Pray for divine power and wisdom for these pastors and pray that they will find favor in the eyes of the people they are seeking to reach. Pray that the Enemy will be bound and his influence will be broken. Pray that even if they are required to lay down their lives, these pastors will be faithful to the end. We must face the reality that the Great Commission will not be completed without blood, tears and much hardship.

3. Pray for the unreached peoples of Mexico: Many in Mexico are very resistant to the gospel. Pray that the Spirit would move and break up the fallow ground, that is the hard and resistant hearts of many Mexicans. Satan's hold over the Mexican people must be broken before their eyes can be opened to their need for a Savior. Paul reminds us that, "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12) and that "the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds" (2 Cor. 10:4). Through prayer we can intercede on behalf of the lost in Mexico and do battle with the enemy.

4. Go and serve alongside our Christian brothers and sisters in Mexico: I met many believers in Mexico who were discouraged and weary from the struggles of serving Christ in a hostile culture. We do not go to serve in Mexico because they are desperate for our help. They can and have been making it on their own, that is without help from norte americanos (Americans). We go because we love Christ, we love His people and we love the lost. It is hard to hug a neck or whisper an encouraging word from a thousand miles away. It is hard to show love to someone who doesn't know Christ from a distance. Love requires proximity and proximity requires us to go.

What is Christ stirring in your heart? How will you respond to the needs in Mexico? I encourage you to be obedient to whatever you sense the Lord leading you to do. Start with prayer and then see what happens next.

¡Orar por Puebla! - Pray for Puebla!