How do you serve?

How do YOU serve?

Let’s look at a different perspective of service.  We always talk about what we should do and the gifts that we are given and how they apply to the church, we discuss what we can do to serve better, we talk about the church serving in the community, and so on.  Well, it’s coming the time of the year that we make an abundance of commitments or none.  Those who commit will often over commit and then those who don’t commit will often feel remorseful.  But what else do the Scriptures say about service?  I am going to write a couple articles out of Deuteronomy and if you are following along with this column, perhaps you would like to read over the book a time or two so you are familiar with the text.

Deuteronomy 28:47-49 speaks to the “cause and effect” of serving the Lord.  It reads, “ Because you did not serve the Lord your God with Joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.  The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand…”

Pay close attention to the bold lettering here.  For the abundance of everything.  I hear heartache, anger, disappointment and righteous indignation here. 

1)      Because you did not serve…who?  “The Lord your God” (awesome in power, wearing a crown of Forgiveness, Provider, Creator, humble yourselves in the presence of..)

2)      Because you did not serve….how?  With joy and  gladness of heart.  Ladies, that means up in the morning with a smile and a song in your heart….a song of praise…simple phrases…(one glad morning when this life is over,….how great is our God, sing with me, how great is our God…..He’s got the whole world in His hands…and so on) and glad that you have one more morning to share with your children, your husband, your sisters and brothers.  Glad you have laundry to do, glad for the abundant beauty of the morning, joyful to have food for lunch, joyful to have floors to vacuum, a bounce in your step as you head to a job God provided for you. Husbands, glad you have one more day with your families, one more day to share your knowledge and skills, one more day to love those around you, one more day to teach your children how to pray and depend of God.

a.      He promises to meet all our needs.    Luke 12: 29-31 “And do not seek what you should eat and what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.  BUT seek first, the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.”  TV is not a need.  Little Debbie’s are not a need.  Hair dye is not a need.  Mani Pedi’s are not a need. Movie rentals are not a need.  Cigarettes are not a need.

3)      Because you did not serve….what? He will send nations against you.  The list is things we are seeing an increase of in this country.  Thirst, hunger, nakedness, and need of everything.  We have slowly created a society that expects to be handed everything rather than a community that seeks the kingdom of God and FEARS Him.  A community that is not tolerant but demands a level of performance and behavior from its members.  We have allowed a government to eliminate religious rights and freedoms piece by piece until only a crumb of the founding Father’s foundation is remaining and in such small part that it is barely recognizable.  We wonder?  We wonder why?  Because we do not serve.  Because we do not serve with joy and gladness of heart.  Because we do not seek His kingdom FIRST. 

One that note, we will continue this look next week and look at what is going on today that was foretold in Deuteronomy.  This book is called the Living Word of God because it is applicable for every generation.  Every family.  Every nation.

How to Train for a Race

The Race of Faith

What does it take for us to successfully run the race of faith?  Is it a ever-mounting list of jobs and responsibilities?  Is it public perception of us?  Think about a race.  Before you can run a race, you need to train for the race.  You cannot just walk out of your living room and start a 5K race and expect to win if you haven't trained a minute for it!  Training builds muscle, tones the body, strengthens the bones, increases the efficiency of the heart and lungs and builds endurance. Training builds you up and increases both your abilities and your confidence as you push yourself to new limits.  Often times an athlete trains either alone or with just the trainer.  The trainers job is to point out weaknesses and areas that need improvement and push you further than you've gone before until FINALLY!....you are ready to run the race.

Hebrews 12:1-2 reads, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Hebrews 11 is renowned for being the "Faith Chapter" and it truly outlines the lives and reasons and footsteps of many who have gone ahead but chapter 12 is encouraging us as we run the race.  Note that the author does not talk about the past prophets in a past tense.  He is currently surrounding the believer with this cloud of witnesses.  Imagine yourself surrounded with Sarah, Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Joshua, David, Samson, and so on.  As you go through a tough time and your training gets tougher and the race gets a little longer, or steeper, or hotter, these folks are witnessing your race and cheering you on from the sidelines!  We are told to lay aside EVERY weight.  How can you run with speed and agility if you are carrying weights?  Won't that wear you down faster?  Won't it exhaust you quicker and perhaps make you wince and complain or even change you focus from the race to the burden of the weights?  Hmmmm...interesting.  The reference extends to the sin that ensnares us which carries the same power as the burden of a weight but the picture is different because the sin is ensnaring us which gives a picture of a vine wrapping around the runners feet and legs and which will finally cause that individual to fall and run no more.

So how do you run successfully?  Keep your eyes focused on Jesus.  As the coach, Jesus will guide and give pointers and encouragement along the way.  At times He will rebuke us as we make mistakes, too.   Jesus is noted here as the author and finisher of our faith.  An author comes up with an idea, makes notes, jots down some thoughts, and then begins writing.  The writing is written and rewritten until the final product echos the original thought or idea.  Then, as the son of a carpenter, Christ is the finisher of our faith.  He puts the final touches on and sands out the blemishes, carves the proper curves and nails together the different parts to complete the project.  None of the actions of either the author or finisher are "speaking into perfection" but rather actions of elimination, reinforcement, alteration, etc. so that change brings along the finished product.  Jesus was our example on the cross as He did not focus His eyes or mind on the physical suffering of the cross and the rejection He suffered from both man and His heavenly Father but rather, He focused on the prize.  He saw the eternal life and the crown and the seat at the right hand of God the Father.  He saw what the end result was and knew He had to travel that path the receive the prize.  He is our example.  He is our ultimate trend setter.  Those are the footsteps we are to follow in and whatever trials, judgement and criticism we receive, it will never be to the extent of what our Lord suffered for us.

Go in Faith and run your race with steady footsteps.  Put down your weights and continue with your eyes focused on the perfect example Christ set for us while listening to His encouraging words.

A call to repentance

I heard someone speaking the other day about the economic condition in America and how it correlates to other things going on in the world and then the secular theories and psychological theories that an unsaved world sees going hand in hand with the trends and habits of the current society.  One of the things mentioned was the increasing number of single mothers and how that group is getting continually younger every year.  This trend is considered a sign of economic collapse.

Why would it be considered a sign of economic collapse?  A single mother struggles to provide food, shelter, love, a family structure, a secure environment, and a financial future of some kind.  In a God ordained structure, the family unit is comprised of two adults leading, grooming, supporting, loving, encouraging, and procreating.  In this rapid acceleration of sexual immorality we see a single family unit struggling to survive and many times, not succeeding very well.

In the book Hosea, chapter 4:1-3 God is talking to Israel but this applies to todays world as well.  It applies as a warning.  "Hear the word of the Lord, Your children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land:  'There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land.  By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, They break all restraint.  With bloodshed upon bloodshed.  Therefore the land will mourn; And everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea will be taken away."  Do the actions described here sound anything like what you see on the news and hear around the water cooler?  Do the Facebook posts you read and the drama you observe have any assimilation to this description?  Does our legal system embrace truth, mercy or at the very least knowledge of God?  I think not.  The lack of restraint in relationships now is absurd.  People walk away from a relationship and trade in out of discomfort, impatience, selfishness and convenience rather than staying together and learning the art of communication, submission, restraint and compromise.  Two become one....when you take two different colors of Playdoh and squish them together, it takes work to get them to meld together.  They are never going to be one color or the other but eventually, after much kneading and rolling and contorting, become a whole other color.  That is what marriage is like.  Even if you take and try to separate those colors again, they will always have remnants of the other color in them.  They will never be what they were originally.

We have forgotten how we came to be on this earth.  God is loosing His patience, I believe and is quietly making His presence known.  The weather becomes more extreme, man becomes bolder in their interference and blatant disregard for God and we are seeing things happening that we will not be able to control.  We are but a speck in the universe and our existence is less than a moment in time.  Share this with people you know who are not paying attention.  God is walking away from us and the church is quietly observing this retreat.  We are looking at society and embracing the sin as well as the sinner instead of standing up for what is biblical and what is true.  Can we reverse the motion of the world?  Perhaps not but more so, perhaps we can take a stand and bring in a flush of new souls to the gates of heaven rather than watching the march of souls into Hell's lake of fire.

Why can't they see?

Why can't they see?

Last week we talked about walking before you run.  This week, let's talk about our walk a little. 

When we become saved, asking our heavenly Father to forgive us our sins, cover us in grace, and invite Jesus to live in our hearts, we are separating ourselves from the world.  This separation happens as a course of lineage.  Like a prince here on earth is separate from the "common" people, so a child of God is made different than the rest of the world.  If you are a Christian and other people in your house are not Christians, you know exactly what I mean.  It can be frustrating to be the only one on that island, too.  Especially when you desire that those who are closest to you make the same choice and you are so very excited about the gifts that are freely given and the eternal life that is  promised.  And so we pray for them and ask the Holy Spirit to intervene and cry out to God and ask Him to soften their hearts and open their eyes.  But why do they not see?

I Corinthians 2:12-16 "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who us from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.  These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.  For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?  But we have the mind of Christ."

I love that it is explained here that words are not how we speak, necessarily, but that the Holy Spirit challenges us to compare spiritual things to spiritual things.  This is how you know if something is true to the Word.  The Holy Spirit will allow you the wisdom of God to see what is right and true because as a child of God you have been given the mind of Christ.  It also answers the "why" question about how a non-believer will say that what we believe is crazy or doesn't make sense.  Also applicable here, the application of choosing a pastor or leader for your church.  People can put on a good act with the right training and someone who has attended seminary has the training and tools to "act the part".  It is imperative that the body of Christ come together in prayer and seek the Holy Spirits' guidance in selecting a leader in the church.  Compare spiritual things to spiritual things.  Did you know that, on average, seminaries are full of more non-Christians than Christians?  I mention this only because someone who is raised in the church can talk the talk but when you compare them side-by-side to someone who is truly saved, the passion of the Holy Spirit shines through because the unsaved, churched person cannot know the things of God.  

I encourage you to pray for those around you and make prayerful decisions for those who will lead you. Be examples of what Christs' influence on your life can be and draw off the patience of the Holy Spirit when dealing with those around you who do not understand.

How to Choose a Leader

Leadership

The position of leadership can take many forms.  There are Sunday School teachers, hall monitors, instructors, head tellers, department heads, police officers, lead surgeons, head detective, union reps, and the list goes on.  We are a people of titles and classification and the Scriptures speaks to us about respecting our leaders and obeying our masters whether they are saved or unsaved and doing it to the glory of God. (I Timothy 6:1-2) But what makes the position of leadership in the church any different from any other position in the world?

Choosing the Leaders

Paul writes to Timothy about the qualifications of overseers and starts out with an old saying, " If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good thing."  He is very specific as to the qualifications of a bishop and his position in the community as well as the church.  I Tim 3:2 states "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate (patient), sober-minded, of good behaviour, hospitable, able to teach; not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.  Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil."

Paul goes on to talk about Deacons in the church and how they need to be reverent and not gossips, greedy, or drinkers and "holding on to the mystery of the faith with clear conscience".  I just love that phrasing.  The mystery of the faith.  It almost gives the same precious preservation as the relationship of a man and woman to be husband and wife and preserving that intimacy until after the vows are spoken.  He also makes a point to say that they need to first be tested and THEN let them serve.

Making the Choice

It takes a strong person of character to stand up against a whole church when you believe a choice or action to be wrong.  The people who hold the church accountable cannot be embarrassed or wavering.  They must be strong and they must be sure to have Scripture to back up their words.  It is not something that is based on gut feeling but rather on the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.  We are responsible for choosing the right people as well as ensuring that our churches are strong, defensible, godly places where the world has no place except on their knees.  I implore you to take the stand and make a difference in your communities by holding your leaders to a standard that will glorify God and not just make the world "comfortable".  Put people in place that allow the Holy Spirit to work and convict and curl toes.

Found as a Man

Have you ever considered what it must have been like for God...the Almighty, Creator of the universe, Alpha and Omega, ...to come to earth in human form? To separate from His heavenly being to become a man? To live in a place where perfection is the status quo and not the goal.  To live where sin never exists, hatred and jealousy are extinct and then to come to earth as an infant and be born in a stable, to an unwed mother, into - essentially - a blended family where his father, Joseph, would hopefully love Him as his own child though He was not.  To be "different" from the beginning.  Did He grow for nine months with the essence of God in the womb or did that not happen until Christ emerged from the womb.  Was He wise from the very beginning? He never sinned so He must have been the easiest child to raise in that family and I am sure amazed His mother.  The two mothers, Mary and Elizabeth, what did they think about these two children who were so very different from the rest of the children?  John the Baptist is said to have lived in the desert as a child (Luke 1:80) until he appeared publicly to Israel.  These mothers knew they had special men who were destined only for service to God and were God sent, God indwelled and for Christ, God Himself!  Amazing.

Philipians 2:5-11 is Paul talking to the church at Philippi about being like-minded with Christ and emulating Him. He states that Christ, "who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped."  How humble a perspective that is that Christ, who is God, realizes His inequality with God in human form. "..but made  himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." He knew He was God's Son but also knew, in that human form that He was set apart from His heavenly Father.  What a separation that must have been mentally for Jesus Christ as He came from God, was God and yet was in human form a Son, in a submissive position.  Paul goes on to say "And being found in appearance as a man," which I find interesting as it is almost like He woke up and found Himself in human form one day.  I can imagine that, in that infant form He woke up and looked at His hands and feet and moved around a little like newborns do and thought to Himself,  "huh!  so this is what it feels like to be an infant!"  I wonder if He was a little surprised by the limits of the infant body and the process of growing and actually being inside the body that is changing, developing, maturing.

Fat Man Laughing

I know it has been a minute since my last post.  I have been busy with life...I am sure you all know how that goes!  Recently, I have been reading Paul's letters.  Specifically Corinthians and Timothy.  I am concerned about our complacency in the church family.  I am concerned about what we are considering acceptable and what we are tolerating.  There is no reference or command for us to tolerate anything in the church and we are warned against complacency because it makes the church weak.  Complacency is a place of contentment with where you are and a sense of self-sufficiency that lacks a need for growth or instruction.  The church, the body of Christ, is largely complacent as we all sit smugly by like fat, rich leaders of a starving nation.  We find ourselves about the need for more instruction and overly confident in our strengths, laughing and jovial, arms crossed across a belly jiggling with smug laughter.  What happened to the hungry, humble, hard-working church?

Do we feel no need for further instruction?  Longing for a shepherd or father who will take us and not only guide and instruct us, but who will hold us accountable and be desiring to be held accountable as well.Why do we sit obligatorily in our cushioned seats every Sunday with coffee and snack, thankful for the reprieve of a work day but with a lack of humility and submission that is now considered "old school" church?  Do we think we are everything God wants us to be?  Are our churches bringing joy to the Father?

My mother has the gift of prophecy....and not to the point that she can forecast the future in a crystal ball or tell you the exact date of the end of the world, but she has the responsibility of holding people accountable and calling out false prophets and false teachers in the church.  Her life has been, at times, very lonely.  She has not been favored among women because she has no tolerance, a highly sensitive Spirit, and a willing heart to act on the communication and wisdom revealed to her by the Holy Spirit.  I have found the prodding of the Holy Spirit asking me to hold my church accountable.  I am also being held accountable.  My spirit is not content to sit by and be the "fat man laughing" but I am rather uneasy in the reckless contentment I am finding in the many churches we have attended in search of a "family" where we feel content.

Are we finding more people in our church who are laboring in the gospel or are we finding less?  And of those people, how many are our leaders?  I Timothy 5:17  "Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine."  Verse 21 says to the church body, "I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.  Do not lay your hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people's sins; keep yourself pure."

I am being called to call out the actions that should not be acceptable.  I will not be a popular member of my church but I will respond to the cry of the Holy Spirit within me.  I Timothy 6:20-21  "O timothy!  Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge- by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith."