Making a Statement

Pray that these would be true in your life and in mine every day, and strive for them with everything you have.  It is worth the risk.

• The eternal, spiritual world is more real to me than the physical earth. (Jn 14:17, Rm 8:10, 1Co 2:13, Gal 3:14, Eph 6:12, Col 2:17)
• I have peace in my heart at all times, because I have been given victory in all things through the resurrection. (Ezk 37:26, Jn 16:33, Rm 5:1, 1Co 15:57, Eph 2:14, 2Th 3:16, 2Pe 1:2)
• The power of prayer is greater than any other force I will ever encounter. (Dt 4:7, Ezra 8:23, Ps 102:17, Jer 29:12, Mt 21:22, Mk 11:24, Js 5:16)
• I am more secure in the blood of Jesus Christ than I ever will be through my relationships, finances, or living conditions. (Mt 6:31-33, Rm 8:38-39, He 6:19, He 13:5, 1Pe 1:2-5)
• I would rather suffer so that the good news would go forth than be free of suffering and keep my faith to myself. (Acts 5:41, Php 1:12, 1Pe 4:13, 2Ti 1:8, 2Ti 2:8-10)
• The knowledge of Christ crucified is of greater value to me than any worldly wisdom I could ever attain. (Jn 17:3, 1Co 1:25, 1Co 2:2, 2Co 2:14, Php 3:8, Col 2:2)
• I live by a gospel that is not merely of words that must be taken on chance, but by a gospel of power that is active and real. (Rm 15:19, 1Co 1:17, 1Co 2:4, 1Th 1:5, 2Pe 1:16)
• My prosperity is given to me so that I might use it to share God’s message, and not so I can live well in this life. (1Ki 11:30-31, 1Ch 29:16, Mk 10:21, Acts 2:45-47, Rm 12:8, 2Co 9:11)
• I am still alive because God has anointed me with a purpose that is more important than any purpose I could ever adopt on this earth. (Acts 17:26-27, Acts 20:24, Rm 8:28, 2Co 1:21-22, Eph 1:18, Eph 2:10, 1Pe 2:9)
• The Way of Jesus is made known to everyone I know by my actions, my attitudes, and my conversations. (Mt 5:16, Jn 3:21, 1Th 1:5, 2Th 1:4-5, Ti 2:11-12, He 12:14)
• I live entirely free from guilt and shame, because while I remain in a physical body, Christ lives on my behalf in my spirit. (Rm 8:11, 2Co 3:17, Ga 2:20, Ga 5:1, He 10:22, 1Pe 2:6, 1Pe 3:18)
• My joy is constant and overflowing, because it is dependent not on my present circumstance but on my eternal Savior.  (Jn 17:13, Rm 14:17, Rm 15:13, 1Th 5:16-18, He 13:8, 1Pe 1:8)
• I will spend eternity sitting at the right hand of God as a co-heir with Jesus to the glory of the Father. (Rm 8:17, Rm 8:30, Ga 3:29, Eph 3:6, 2Th 1:12, 2Th 2:14, Ti 3:7, He 2:11)
• God has equipped me with gifts of the Spirit that are so supernatural and rooted in love that they leave the world awestruck and hungry for more. (Lk 11:13, Acts 2:4-7, 1Co 13:1-3, 1Co 14:12, He 2:3-4, 1Pe 2:12)
• I would both live and die for the most sinful person on the planet if it would unite them with Jesus. (Jn 13:35, Rm 5:6-8, 1Co 9:22, 1Co 10:33, Php 2:3, He 13:16)
• There is no worry or fear in my life, because the love of God provides, protects, and prevails for me in all situations. (Ps 23:4, Ps 44:3, Mt 6:31-33, 1Co 15:57, Php 4:19, 1Jn 4:18)
• I have no good in me of my own accord, but am made worthy to stand in the presence of the Lord Almighty by the blood of Jesus Christ. (Rm 5:8, Rm 5:19, Eph 2:8, 1Ti 1:15, He 10:10, 1Pe 3:18)  I am worth the King of the universe giving His life for, not because of anything I’ve done, but because He said I am!

How It Should Be

Tim DeGroot knows what’s up with this blog post.  Simple and right to the point.  This is what I long for every week…if this isn’t our heart about church, we’re probably not aiming for the right things!  Jesus said to make disciples of all nations…when was the last time you envisioned an entire country being reborn in Christ and living in obedience to God?  We are called to do everything we can to make “nations of salvations.”

Dream big…because God is bigger!

Necessities

I cannot tell you how excited I am for tonight. It’s our first 24-7 service of the new school year, and the leadership team has been praying so much for God to show up in an incredible way…I believe that God is going to answer that prayer!  When our ministry (which is EVERY effort you make to share the gospel and show the love of Christ, not just church-related jobs or groups) is supported by prayer and passion, it becomes unstoppable.

If you are involved in ministry and you are not constantly praying for God to bless what you are doing, you need to do one of two things:
1) START praying about your ministry, because you cannot do anything of significance without the Holy Spirit backing you up; and when you pray for God to move where you are investing your time, it shows Him that you really do care about it and believe that He can do anything and everything to make it succeed;
2) STOP doing it, because if God is not involved in your ministry you are wasting your time.

We have to constantly be in a place of helplessness and total reliance on God to come in power and change people’s hearts…you received the grace of God from God, not from another person—that doesn’t change with your ministry!  You never received the ability to give that…people only receive God’s grace from God.

If you are not passionate about your ministry, you need to do one of two things (this might sound familiar):
1) START praying for God to change your heart about what He has called and anointed you to do, and begin putting every effort you can into serving and building up the people you serve with.  God doesn’t ever want us to do things begrudgingly, but sometimes we have to press on through a lack of motivation and passion as an act of faithfulness to what God has chosen us for.  IF you are truly doing what God has called you to do, obligation will shortly become obsession when it is backed by a sincere pursuit of God’s heart.
2) STOP doing it, because the world has enough people who dirty God’s reputation by doing ministry half-heartedly and showing through their actions that the kingdom of God is not worth pursuing excellence for.  God has chosen you for a purpose, and if you are not seeking and fulfilling that purpose because you have planted yourself somewhere else, you are not only missing out on a life of meaning and fulfillment that only comes from serving God as He calls you, but you are also keeping those you are currently serving from meeting with God in the way that He desires, because He has chosen someone else to do what you’re doing with the passion that you don’t have.

Every single one of us has a purpose in the kingdom of God, and to fulfill that purpose we need to continually seek God’s blessing and direction, and constantly be evaluating where we’re at and comparing it to where God wants us to be.  When we are where God wants us and passionate about being there, miracles happen!

ONE Lesson #2: Sports and Math

The vision that God gives us for our ministry to others is so vital to the life of that ministry.  Without God’s dream for our lives placed in our hearts, we will always burn out and lose focus.  But WITH God’s calling, we cannot STOP being on fire for it!

However…just because God gives you a vision doesn’t mean He gave everyone that same vision.  And sometimes it is really easy to try and force your vision onto others, because you think it’s right and it’s what God wants.  But you can only know what God has called YOU to do, not anyone else.  And forcing your vision onto others results in them burning out and losing focus, because you are not God, and He is the only one that can inspire people beyond their imaginations.  If you want someone else to be sold out on your vision, you’ve got to rely on the wind of the Holy Spirit to spread the fire in your heart to others – it cannot ever be forced on someone.  As Brad Cooper said, “Vision is caught, not taught.”

With that being said, every single person that is involved in one particular ministry MUST be sold on the vision.  When two people are working together but have different goals, it will cause a split.  So many different ministries fall apart because not everyone is sold on one vision, and end up trying to steer it in multiple directions.  “The vision must be identical or it’s ‘double vision,’ which is the same as ‘division,’” Perry Noble said.  When we have double vision, we can’t see straight, depth perception is gone, focus is impossible, and nothing is accomplished.  When we have division, things simply keep getting smaller and smaller, and there are remainders (that in ministry end up being people who need God to speak through you) that we push off to the side.  If we want our ministry to succeed, we have to all be clearly seeing the same goals, be in agreement on how God wants us to get there, and be absolutely zeroed in on our purpose…and when that happens, God makes things bigger and BIGGER and BIGGER and instead of leaving people behind in our hurry to accomplish our own individual passions (see 2 Samuel 4:4 for a Scriptural example) God continually brings people to us so that they can see and be a part of the unifying power of Jesus.

I’m an Opportunist

First off, check out my friend Tim DeGroot’s new blog here. He has taught me so much and I am blessed to be able to serve with him in ministry, and I have no doubt that you will benefit from what he has to say.

Second:
I have prayed so much in my life for God to give me opportunities to serve Him, and to share the gospel, and to make a difference, etc.  I pray for God to give me opportunities a lot.  And while we do need God to provide us with opportunities (because otherwise none would come to us), we also need to remember that we cannot do anything with those opportunities unless God moves.

So I think that more often than asking God to give US opportunities, we need to do everything we can to give HIM opportunities.  Because if God doesn’t move, nothing significant will ever happen.  Ever.  And we need to continually give God room to move if we want what we’re doing to be significant.  Miracles do not happen if risk is not involved.  And while waiting for God’s direction is INCREDIBLY important, if we know what God’s heart is about something, we can’t wait for God to move before we do.  Sometimes we have to prove our faithfulness by giving the Spirit room to work, instead of making Him push you out of the way.

Note: We ALWAYS know what God’s heart is about the lost.  He wants us to be fishers of men, to go and make disciples of all nations, and to unapologetically preach the good news to all who listen.  We never have an excuse to avoid doing this!

We need to give God opportunities to move so that something eternal can happen, instead of asking Him to give us opportunities to do something that without Him is worthless anyway!

Too Young to Understand

I have been praying that the church would be under divine protection from the distorted holiday season we’ve entered into; so much of what America celebrates conflicts with what I read in the Bible.  It seems that we have come to celebrate exactly what Jesus came to free us from…

I am told more and more frequently that my ideas on materialism, giving, the poor, Americanism, the modern church, and what the gospel is meant to be are impractical, misinterpreted, unrealistic, and other such discouragements. Yet I am convinced that I still do not have near the innocent, childlike faith that God’s people should have. I have prayed, I have searched scripture, and I do not find any instance in which the people who are completely in love with God lived practical, realistic lives. Very little of the gospel makes sense to me (by sense I mean by the world’s standards: what I have been taught by other people, “common sense” and the regular workings of modern American society and such) but the more I devote myself to following the way of Christ and the less I cling to everything the world says is wise, the more I discover a cfonunsig, SURPRISING, and unnaturally Exquisite joy about everything I do. If someone cannot believe in this God they cannot see, they should try living as He commands, and they will undoubtedly begin to see Him – not with their eyes, but with something else. There is another way of “seeing” inside us all, but it is so often unrecognized because we fail to open our “eyes.” I do not have clear and explicit explanations and descriptions of this, but I do not need to; all I need to do is live so that people actually believe I am “seeing” something they are not, and in doing so make this “sight” something irresistible.

The church is here to bless a world with Christ’s love that does not deserve it, and to show that the way of Jesus truly is most desirable. We are not after results (though we rejoice when there are), we are after a love that transcends all wisdom and knowledge. We are after a world of peace, a world that reflects heaven. We are not here to preach and prove and explain where and how and why the lost are wrong. We are the church of the living God, and we are here as models – small, not-quite-built-to-scale examples made out of scraps and broken bits and pieces – of the immeasurable love (and grace and mercy and forgiveness and joy and so on) of the resurrected Jesus Christ, who taught things so very backwards from the ways of the world that it seems like total nonsense. It sometimes is even offensive, how foolish the cross is. But to see things we have never seen, we must do things we have never done. And seeing as how Jesus’ life is the only life that has ever truly been different from ours, being without sin, I can find no other way to approach my Savior than to live a life that will be called impractical, misinterpreted, unrealistic, and other such encouragements.

Oh, what the scandalous grace of God can do to a man...