My Credentials

There have been many times in the course of my career where I had to use my name and my reputation to help another person. When I put someone who was considered to be an underdog of sorts up for a promotion and my boss disagreed with me I had to put my stamp of approval with my name attached guaranteeing their success. I have also had to call in favors sometimes. There were times when one of my associates needed a transfer to another location and that other facility was not receiving any new associates into their building. I would have to talk to the manager and use my reputation and the rapport we shared to get that associate transferred. It is amazing what a person can do based on the name or reputation of someone else. Paul uses his name and relationship with Philemon to help Onesimus out.

Philemon truly did not have to receive Onesimus back into his house, regardless of what Paul asked. Paul knew this. When communicating to Philemon, Paul uses his relationship with Philemon to appeal to his heart, “So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.” Paul called in a favor. He sent Philemon home with his stamp of approval with his name attached to it. That is awesome considering who Paul was in the Christian community. But there is more to consider.

Jesus has done this for you and me. When we accepted Him into our lives, He put his stamp of approval on us. He gave us the power to use His name to get things accomplished in His will. When we consider the impact and power His name carries, it is truly amazing how much He loves us. I think of all the doors He has opened for me to preach and to share His message that He has placed in my heart it is truly awesome. I shouldn’t have been able to go to the places, I have been. I shouldn’t have been able to speak to the people I have had to the opportunity to minister to. The only reason I have been able to do those things is because of His name. His name and the calling He has placed on my life have become my credentials. How awesome, how blessed, how changed the world would be if we all displayed our credentials to get us to the places we need to be to do His will for our lives!

Father I thank you for the calling and the gifts you have place in me. I thank you for the opportunity to worship you with my life. Amen.

Forgiven Not Forgotten

I often find myself amazed by the grace that God has shown me in my short lifetime. There is so much that He has done for me that is totally and completely unmerited on my part. It is hard to imagine that He has done all that He has indeed done for me simply because He loves me and wants to be in communion with me. Like the story of the prodigal son, I was the one that was spiritually living with the pigs and wallowing in their pen. When my heart was moved to return to my father, He didn’t lecture me on my wrongs, but He received me into His house with a celebration.

The story of Philemon and Onesimus has grace as one of its themes. If it can be seen anywhere it can be seen in verse 16, “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother-especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.” In his letter to Philemon, Paul writes how great it is to be able to receive Onesimus back into his household. For he will not only be a trustworthy servant and someone Philemon can rely on, but he now is also a fellow brother in Christ. When we accept the grace of God in our lives we start to evidence a change in our life. We no longer are bound by the pressure of sin and death but rather we are set free through grace and life.

Grace is life lived through freedom. We celebrate and cherish this freedom because we have done nothing to deserve it. This celebration of grace turns into worship to the one who granted us this grace that we did not deserve. We realize just how powerful this grace is. The bible says that as we realize just how sinful we truly are, that the grace in our lives expands that much more to cover that sin. As we realize just how precious this grace is, how much we are loved, we realize just how much He is truly worthy of our praise and our worship.

A final thought on this verse. Philemon didn’t receive Onesimus into his household with a barrage of questions on his sin and his activities since he had been gone. Neither did the God who bestowed His grace on us challenge our worthiness of His love and mercy. In both instances the person giving the grace forgave, forgot and received the other person into the family. I imagine that the person who was being given grace was thankful for the forgiveness but never forgot what they had done before it was given. Not because they were bound by guilt but rather because they never wanted to forget just how precious the gift of grace was in their lives. When we have the opportunity to extend grace, let’s remember the forgive and forget principle shown to us by God. When we are the one who grace has been extended to, let’s remember the forgiven but never forget principle so we never forget the power of the gift given to us.

Father I thank you for the grace that you have extended to me though I did not deserve it. I pray that when I have the opportunity to extend grace I will do so, just as You did with no strings attached. Amen.

Road Blocks and Stumbling Blocks

It is amazing to think sometimes that God is sovereign over all things. We hit some roadblocks in life sometimes and we wonder how we will ever get passed them. We find things that trip us up and we stumble and we wonder if we can ever get back up again. Not so much can we get up, but do we want to get up. When I go through the roadblock times, when my walk with God is harder that it usually is, I will admit that I am glad sometimes. Glad not because I am walking through them, but because I know He will deliver me from them. I’m glad that the enemy has to take time out to attack me. To me that means I am a threat to him and to his plans. When I stumble though, it is so much harder to gain the ground that I lost in the stumble. It is so much harder to return to my joy. Partly because I feel stupid for being tripped up and partly because I know I have let myself and my God down. If He is sovereign over all things, does that mean that He knew I was going to fall? Is my stumble in His plan for me?

Paul states that when Philemon receives Onesimus back into his house, it will be forever. In order for Onesimus to reach this point though he had to walk through some heavy stuff. He had to steal from Philemon, and then he had to run away. Onesimus had to meet Paul and consequently meet Jesus Christ through Paul; thereby changing his life forever. Paul lets on that all of this had to occur in order for Onesimus to meet Christ and for Philemon to be able to receive him back into his house forever. It would seem then that God had a purpose in the walk the Onesimus had to take. Even in his sin, God was still sovereign in that He used it to draw Onesimus into His kingdom.

I won’t dare say that God has sin planned for me and that’s why I stumble. I will say, however, that even in my sin God is sovereign. He uses it to teach me lessons. He uses it to show me chinks in my armor. He uses it to teach me lessons I need to learn in order to be successful in the calling He has on my life. As easy as it could be to give up, as hard as it is sometimes to get up from a fall, I know that my Daddy has a plan for me and a lesson to teach me.

Father train me to see the stumbling blocks in my path before they trip me. I pray that You help me to be more like you and more able to carry the calling you have for me with each new day. Amen.

Leadership Lesson

The hardest role I have ever had to play in life is that of a leader. I have always had the qualities of a leader, but have not always wanted to be one. In my last secular job I was responsible for about 350 people in a building. The hardest thing to do was to get that many people on the same page, doing the same job, hoping to get the same results. I am by no means a small man, and I am not in the least bit shy or quiet. Quite honestly I know I can be intimidating at times. It would have been very easy for me to use my size, demeanor, voice and position to get what I wanted done. But that is not being a leader. That’s being someone with authority who has no leadership skills. I preferred to get people to do things because they wanted to do them; be it that they did them for themselves, for the company or because they respected me, I just wanted them to want to get it done. To me that is what leadership is—leading someone to the desired result not forcing them along the way. It always made me feel good when someone approached me telling me something was already done before I could request it of them. It made me feel even better when we had volunteers step up to fill the needs we had in our facility before I had to appoint people to the positions.

Paul felt the same way with Onesimus and Philemon. After he had decided to send Onesimus back to Philemon’s house, he tells Philemon that as much he wanted to keep Onesimus there to help him on Philemon’s behalf, he is sending him back because he doesn’t want Philemon to feel compelled to leave him there because it was Paul who was asking. Paul wants to give Philemon the opportunity to send Onesimus back to be of comfort and help to Paul while he is imprisoned. Paul had as great a stature in the church as any man, apart from Jesus, could ever have. He could have required it of Philemon; he could have lorded his position over him and made Philemon feel required to leave Onesimus with Paul. But he didn’t. Paul approached the situation delicately and with grace. He did not overstep his bounds and trample over Philemon’s rights or wishes.

How so many of us need to learn to tread lightly with the relationships that we are in with each other. We have come to expect things just because we expect them. Moreover we expect a person to react to our needs because it is us that has the need. We learn from Paul in the book of Philemon that we do a disservice to people when we compel them into making decisions emotionally. We do not allow them to receive their due blessing for the act because it did not originate in them and it may not be in their heart to do it. We need to be leaders and guide people to the answer. We should want to help them make the right decisions, with the right heart and not force them into doing something they don’t want to.

Father I thank You for Your lessons in leadership you provided in Your Son Jesus and through His training of the disciples. I pray that You continue to raise up the leaders we need in this generation. Amen.

Say "Yes" and Get to Work

Here is something that really touched me. It has echoed a sentiment that I have since I accepted the call of God on my life. Sometimes you get asked to do something you feel your are not ready to do or would rather not do. Knowing who called you or that it is part of the representation of Christ you just trust Him and jump in head first knowing He has a purpose and He will be glorified in our obedience. This is from a blog called "Raw Christianity." Here is the portion of the post that ministered to me.

"As for me, I’ve never helped lead a funeral in any way (and wasn’t planning to for a while). Much less one for the seven-year-old handicapped daughter of a single mother I just heard about in a village in Africa with a hundred village people I’ve never met, with three hours to think about it. But none of that matters. I would’ve preferred that someone else preach — someone closer to the family, someone who’s experienced African funerals, someone who knows the culture, someone who knows the people in the village, someone who speaks Lugandan — someone besides an adopting father visiting from America. But life and ministry is not about preference and comfort. Sometimes it’s not even about preparation. It’s about call and obedience. So what do you do? You say “Yes,” you pray, and then you stand and deliver."

You can find the whole post here. http://rawchristianity.wordpress.com/2007/04/14/gospel-and-shovel-a-village-funeral/
Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

Loving the Right Way

In the book of Philemon, Paul ministers to Onesimus who is on the run after stealing from his master. Paul shows him the Grace of Christ and has adopted him spiritually, calling him his son. He has a vested interest in Onesimus’ success in his walk with Christ. He has a vested interest in the change Onesimus has made in the way he lives his life. Eventually Paul writes a letter to Philemon telling him of the changes that Onesimus has undergone and lets him know that he is sending Onesimus back to his household in hopes that Philemon will receive back in as a favor to Paul. Paul tells Philemon in verse twelve that he is sending his “very heart.” That vested interest that Paul has in Onesimus’s life isn’t merely a concern for him, but it is a true love. Much like an earthly parent would have for their child, Paul felt love for Onesimus.

True discipleship manifests itself in the form of love. A true disciple of Christ will love the people the way Christ loved them and will desire to serve them the way He did. He will love the sinner into repentance and desire to see him free of the bondage that trips him up and enter into an eternal reconciliation to God. We are called to love the sinner not just out of their sin but into a relationship with Christ. We are called to love them into their own discipleship walk. Christ never held a person’s sin over their head when He asked them to do something. He didn’t get them to serve through their guilt. He got them to serve and to walk with Him because they loved Him. He loved them in their sin and loved them out of it. Then He loved them through their development into disciples.

When we see a new convert, do we see their sin or do we see the new creatures they have become? Do we see things that God has forgotten? Or do we love like He did and still does? If we don’t we should.

Father I pray that You would help me to love the way you me. Let me see your people and the people who need You the way You do. Amen.

Useful or Useless?

USELESS!!! What a horrible word. It is even more horrible when it is used as an adjective describing a person or a lifetime. How would you feel if someone called you useless? How much worse would it be if someone used that word to describe your life at your eulogy if you were to pass away? That is a horrible thought. It makes me cringe inside. No one wants to be known as being good for nothing. No one wants to be thought of as having no useful purpose here on earth. That is exactly what Paul says of Onesimus’ life before he came to know the saving grace of Christ.

Onesimus was useless to in two senses of the word. First when he stole from Philemon he was a servant in Philemon’s household and he ran away. If he was not in the house to do his job that he was assigned he was useless to Philemon because he was not performing his job. Secondly he was useless in the sense that he was not serving God. His soul had no purpose in that he was no working in the gifts and talents that he had been given spiritually.

If we were to look at either of those two contexts of the word, how many of us today would be considered useless? Are we performing the job we have been called to do for Christ? Are we running from something that we should be doing? Have we accepted a job and are just failing at accomplishing it? To Onesimus’ benefit he ran into Paul and was changed by the saving grace of God. Some of us have been saved but we are not fulfilling the calling that we have been called to walk in.

Onesimus’ name means “useful.” How appropriate considering the change he underwent when he met Paul. The good news is that we have been called useful too. We have been called a “vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.” (2Tim 2:21) We have been redeemed from ourselves and consecrated to God through His Son for the work he has ordained for us to accomplish.

Father let me always be a blessing to You and to Your kingdom, fulfilling what you have purposed for my life to accomplish. Amen.

3 Points in Philemon

Today in my study of Philemon three main points stuck out in verses 8-10. It seems that when we read simply for the sake of reading that we often miss the substance of what we are reading. I can’t tell you how frustrated I used to be when someone at church would lead a bible study and go verse by verse. To me not every verse had a important point to offer. But as I have done this study and have taken time to meditate on each verse, I find that each one does have something to offer. If I meditate on it long enough and ask God to show me the function of the verse, it pops out to me—sometimes slowly and other times like a flash. Do yourself a favor—read to learn and to see the point, don’t just read to get through it.

The first point my friend Phil offers is that when we approach someone to get them to do something that should be doing we have two ways of approaching them. The first being using our authority and position to demand that they do what they need to be doing. Our position and title sometimes grants us that liberty. I know it did for me in the secular world. I had the responsibility of getting things done and my title allowed me to demand that people get their jobs done to my satisfaction. Paul tells Philemon that he has every right to demand that he take Onesimus back into his house, but he doesn’t do that. Paul asked Philemon to take Onesimus back as a favor to him, he did not demand. By doing this Paul most likely cut off Philemon’s pride before it even had the chance to show its head. He approached the situation with tenderness and grace. He gave himself the opportunity to explain to Philemon why it was the right thing to do before Philemon would have quit listening if he would have went about demanding that it be done. It is the same for us today in the discipleship process. When we find someone who isn’t living the way they should be, we have the opportunity to be overbearing and completely risk them tuning us out completely. We also have the opportunity of approaching the situation with grace and love, using our authority with wisdom to get them to see why their way of living isn’t beneficial to them.

The next point Paul shows us is that we should not be afraid to use our situations and circumstances to the benefit of the situation. Paul explains to Philemon that he should not cast off what he was asking of him simply because he was an old man or in prison. Paul uses his prisoner status to his benefit explaining that he was in prison for the sake of the gospel. Paul is using his circumstances to build a connection to Philemon to gain a heartfelt response from him. When we find that we have a connection with someone that we are trying to influence with the gospel, we should not be afraid to try and use it either; that connection that we draw from might be the difference of the person being reached or not.

The last point hat Paul makes in these verses is one of responsibility. Paul refers to Onesimus as his son. He also takes on a father son relationship with Philemon. He cares for Onesimus as a son since he helped bring him to the saving grace of Christ. This point really meant something to me because it is an issue that is close to my heart. For so long I have been concerned with what happens after a person is saved in a church or a big revival of sorts. To me too many new Christians are not properly cared for after they are born again. They are left almost to fend for themselves and are not discipled properly. We should learn from Paul and care for the people that we lead to Christ enough to see that they are properly developed in to disciples of Christ that are equipped to fend for themselves and bring more people to the saving grace of Christ. We should think of them as our children and raise them up spiritually much like we would our own children physically.

Father I ask lord that you continue to show me how to move in grace and in servanthood. Show me how to use my authority to reach people and not turn them away from the grace you have to offer them. Amen

American Idol Discipleship

Tonight on American Idol--the TV auto tuned there, I wasn't watching it on purpose :) -- Martina McBride was the special guest performer. She sang a song from her new album. There were a couple of lines that really hit a chord in my heart. "Life isn't always good, and when I pray it doesn't always turn out the way I think it should, but I do it anyway." That is such a profound statement. Just because things don't turn out the way I want them to when I pray doesn't mean that I should stop praying. When we approach the Throne Room of God we need to approach Him with double fisted intentions when we bring our petitions before Him. In the first fist we need to have our prayers and our requests. We need to tell God what is on our heart and what we think we need to be successful in the situation. Telling Him what we think we need isn't overstepping our bounds, it is letting Him know what is on our hearts and what is concerning us. In the second fist we need to have only 4 words--"YOUR WILL BE DONE." We need to give God the things that are on heart but we also need to be content with the fact that He may or may not act in the way we want Him to. He knows our best interest and He sees everything far beyond our sight. How He moves is the best way to deal with all that concerns us. Having faith means trusting God to move the way He sees fit as best to accomplish His will and purpose. Just because He doesn't move the way we want Him to when we pray, doesn't mean we stop praying. Who would have thought that I would have gotten ministered to by a guest on American Idol? Way to go Martina. God IS great!! Be Blessed and Be a Blessing! Mike.

Full Time Faith

Faith is alive. Or should I say that when it is alive we can see it. We can see it alive and working in those who have it. It shows through that person in their actions and their words. Most commonly when faith is working in people, just like the Word of God, it shows itself as love for other people and their lives. Paul thanks Philemon and tells him that he has blessed his heart because of how he heard Philemon was showing love for the fellow Christians. When we share that faith that is alive and well in us we are actually accomplishing two things. First we are blessing and encouraging those that we are sharing our faith with. Second and probably the best part is that we are blessing ourselves. As we share our faith we come to know the completeness of all that is available through Christ. Verse seven in the book of Philemon tells Philemon that Paul is blessed and refreshed at the news of what he is doing for the body of Christ by blessing and refreshing them with his faith. When we read that we can know that Philemon was filled with the word of God and was like a spring of living water to those that he was surrounded by.

As the people of God we need to be like Philemon. He was filled with the word of God and was practicing his faith. Not only was he practicing his faith but he was sharing it with those around him that needed it. For those that he was not sharing with, they could see his faith alive and well in him through his actions and his words. Our witness to people isn’t always seen, sometimes it is heard. We never know when a person is listening and what they are going to hear come from our mouths. If we find ourselves having conversations quietly or in discreet places because we don’t want some people to hear what we are saying then most likely we need to re-examine what we are saying and how it would represent Christ. If our witness is seen not directly but rather through our interaction with others, what impression would we be giving to those looking? Would Christ be well represented in our actions and in the interactions we have with others?

If we are to call ourselves Christians, then we need represent Christ well. We need to be the springs of living water that draws people to drink all the time, not just when we think people are watching or listening.

Father let me be a full time representative of what You have done for me and my life. Let be a spring of living water that draws people to you and your saving grace. Let me be a blessing and not a cursing. Amen.

A Rose By Any Other Name...

We have all heard it before. Basically meaning that no matter what you call the flower it still remains the same—a rose. In Biblical times they placed a higher emphasis on names and the meanings behind them. A person’s name, in essence, defined their character. Their name did not serve as a title or as a means of communication with them, but rather their name was them, it was their definition.

We have seen several name changes in the bible. Abram to Abraham. Saul to Paul. Jacob to Israel. Simon to Peter. Each of the name changes are significant to their characters and sometimes tied to a change in their nature or their future. They are descriptors of those that bear the name.

The biggest name in the book of Philemon is Onesimus. By big I do not mean simply in size or number of characters, I mean to reference what the name means. In the Greek his names means “useful or profitable.” Looking at the story of Onesimus it is parallel with the story of any person living in the life of sin who experiences a change in their nature and now serves God. Onesimus was a servant in the house of Philemon and stole from his master. From there he went on the run to try and escape from his sin against Philemon. He therefore became useless to Philemon both in service (not being there in the house to perform his duties) and in terms of his integrity (being a thief). Onesimus met Paul along the way during the time he was running from the house of Philemon. Paul shared the Gospel and led Onesimus to repentance. After his conversion, Paul decided to send Onesimus back to Philemon to serve in his household once again. Because of his repentance and his soon return to his master’s House Onesimus became “useful” to his master once again.

Aren’t we like Onesimus? Stealing the gifts that God has blessed us with and trying to run from Him to escape? We eventually run so hard and so fast that we end up running into God himself. Instead of punishing us, He forgives us and invites us home again. He rescues us from our useless, sinful life. He changes our lives and existence into something useful again.

I find it ironic that my name means “one who is like the Lord.” It’s ironic to me because for so long that was nowhere near a good descriptor for me; it did not define my character at all. That is not to say that it is a perfect match for me now, after all I still work on changing my sinful nature into a nature that is worthy of the meaning of my name. I work towards being more like Him everyday. It is a process. A Journey.

Father I thank You for welcoming me home when I tried to run from You. I pray that my life will continue to honor You and I pray that my life looks more like the life You have called me to with each passing day. Amen.

Believing 2 Ways

Starting my day today, I heard something awesome on the radio. The radio host said, "Here's something to think about, man says "show me and I will believe." God says, "Believe and I will show you." "

That is an amazing thought to me. We often look to God to give us signs to make sure we are doing the right things in our lives. We want to make sure that we really heard Him say the things He told us to do. We know what we are capable of and it's not always what He is asking us to do. He is asking us to some things that require us stepping out of our comfort zones and into our uncharted territory. We are asking Him to confirm what He has already asked us to do. When He is asking us simply to have faith in Him and His purpose for our lives.

That is what discipleship is all about. Stepping out of the boat and onto the water because He has told us to. Going where we never thought we would go and doing the things we never thought we could do, because He has told us to. Believe in Him and His purpose and His calling on your life and He will show you just how strong He can be in your weakness and vulnerability.

Promoted to Slave

The mere mention of slavery now in our times brings about a flood of feelings, emotions and opinions. Slavery in our country is a blemish that we have long sought to hide or to work to clean up from our reputation. Being a prisoner is no less positive or encouraging. Having to do what you are told to, when and how you are told to. Having all privileges stripped from you and essentially having no rights of your own as an individual. Neither being a slave or a prisoner are descriptors I would have ever wanted to use for myself—until I met Paul.

Now I can’t actually say that I have met Paul (I am talking about the Paul the Apostle). But I have read a lot of what he has had to say. I believe when he wrote his letters to the beginning churches in biblical times that he was truly speaking from his heart (which was full of God and a god granted changed nature). Paul was a regular man who had a great testimony and allowed God to use him for great things. He was an apostle of Christ and did amazing things in terms of edifying, teaching, and discipling. By all accounts and purposes he had earned the right to point this out to us in the opening of his letters. But that was not his nature. In the book of Philemon you can’t get past the first six words of the book with out stopping to say “Wow!” Instead of listing his credentials to establish himself and qualify his words he opens by saying “Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus.” Wow! Instead of lifting himself up, he tells of his servitude to one that he knows is greater than he. He could have called himself the ambassador of the Gospel or of Christ, after all he was commissioned by Christ. But instead he refers to himself as a prisoner to Christ and to all that He has taught. Some might say that Paul was simply referring to the fact that he was in prison because he was preaching the gospel. That is true. But I believe that he was also referencing the fact that he was imprisoned to the gospel. He was only imprisoned for teaching the gospel because the gospel was in him to teach. It had become the driving force behind his existence.

In Romans 6:18 Paul says that we were freed from sin and have now become slaves to righteousness. In the 22nd verse of that chapter he again says that we were freed from sin and made slaves to God. He didn’t say that we had been given this tremendous calling and high position in the body of Christ but rather he puts us at the lowest spot possible—a slave. When a man who truly deserved all the accolades that people could have bestowed on him calls himself a prisoner and a slave to God, why is that there are so many that look for a title we haven’t earned? Why is it that we have to be placed in service where we feel comfortable and where we feel we will excel? A slave has no choice what he will do or what he will be made to accomplish. A prisoner doesn’t have the choice to order up his meals or to lounge around by the pool. Why is it then that if we are truly disciples of Christ that we feel we have the luxury to order up our gifts or tell God how we think they should be used? Being a disciple entails sacrificing who we are, who we want to be, what we have, and where we want to go in life so that we can take on the identity Christ has for us so that we may accomplish His will and purpose for our lives. His will.

We are all a lot of different things to a lot of different people in our lives. But I challenge you, if you are not a whole hearted slave to Christ and prisoner of the gospel, then make that your aim in life.

Father I place my will into your submission and my life into you will. Lord point out the things in my life that I still need to reconcile to this commitment I have made before You. Amen

My New Friend Phil

I just completed a study in the book of Philemon. Wow! Who knew?! This is a tremendous book of wisdom and teaching. It is only 1 chapter long and only 25 verses. Again, who knew?! Think of discipleship teaching books. When I think of these books right away the gospels come to the front of my mind because they detail Jesus’ teachings. Others that quickly come to mind are the Acts, Ephesians, the Corinthians; but not Philemon. I think the size of the book is something that lends to it being overlooked quite a bit. I have read through it before but have never really studied on it and meditated on the words and the lessons it contains. Wow! What a disservice I had done to myself. This was an amazing study. I did the study through Setting Captives Free ministry site http://www.settingcaptivesfree. The ministry is one that helps people break the bondages from addictions and unhealthy lifestyles but they also offer bible studies in their follow-up courses resources page that aren’t necessarily tied to their freedom ministries. It was such an amazing study that I am going to go through the 13 days again to see what else I can glean from this amazing book of the Bible. I will post my thoughts on each day and portion of the study here much like I did with the beatitudes. I encourage any one who reads this to visit the site and do the study (or another one!) they are really good. Here’s to continued discipleship!

We Are What We ...

Proverbs 15:4 (NKJV)
4A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Proverbs 15:4 (NLT)
4Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

Proverbs 15:4 (TMNT)
4Kind words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim.

We are what we eat. This is a very true principle. After all how can one expect to be any healthier than the items he is fueling his body with? If all a person ate was greasy hamburgers, soon he would find himself dealing with the consequences of filling his body with those hamburgers: elevated blood pressure, clogged arteries, weight gain, etc.

This principle is also truth about what comes out of our mouths though. There should be a another saying, “we are what we speak.” What comes out of our mouth is not only a way how people will come to know us, but it is also a manner of being able to tell where we are spiritually in our lives. The mouth speaks from the heart. What is on the inside of our heart comes out through the mouth in the form of our words. The new king james version says that a wholesome tongue is a tree of life. Not only is that person possessing the wholesome tongue able to bless others with his words but is also indicative of the righteousness of his spirit in that it can support and maintain life spiritually. A wholesome tongue speaks life because that is what is on the inside. A person possessing the wholesome tongue often is the person we seek out when we need an aptly spoken word at just the right time.

On the other hand if a person doesn’t have the kind of spirit that is conducive to life on the inside, that too will show through his words. The bible says that those kind of words break the spirit and hurt and maim it. Those are the kind of people that look for the right time to get in the next verbal jab or have a hard time seeing the positive in any kind of situation. Well not everyone is at this extreme think about your daily life and the interactions you have with people. How do you react when you get cut off on the road? Do you offer blessing or cursing with your mouth? What about when your boss gives you a heap of work and an unrealistic deadline? Are you speaking the positive or are you the first to point out the hopelessness of the situation? I would venture to say that we all have some work to do in this area of our spiritual walk. The best way to make sure that life is coming from your mouth is to make sure that you are filling yourself with life through the word of God any way you can get it. That’s important when we think about the fact that we are Christ’s ambassadors wherever we go. People look at our lives not only through the context of our actions but also through the context of what we say. After all we are what we speak.

Spiritual Dialysis

There has been a lot of discussion in my house around the topic of dialysis. My mother was on dialysis during the time she was sick and in the hospital. Her body recovered from the illness she had in her body and her kidneys began functioning again to a certain extent. The idea of her having to go back on dialysis has always been a part of prognosis. Not so much because she is still sick but because the damage her kidneys sustained while she was sick was possibly too great for her kidneys to make a complete recovery (so the doctors say—but we stand in faith on what the Word of God says). The topic of dialysis is also around me because my best friend’s mother has made the choice to go on dialysis. This has been a long and embattled process. Her kidneys have not functioned well for a long time on their own; due to this failure she will need dialysis to help remove the toxins from her body. Essentially when your kidneys do not function properly the toxins that we ingest and that the body creates just accumulate in the body instead of being filtered out of the blood. Without functioning kidneys, the body simply poisons itself slowly until it can no longer function properly.

Dialysis is the process of circumventing the kidneys and artificially filtering and cleansing the blood. Through this process the blood is cleansed and returned to the body. Once the blood is cleaned and it can be returned to the body so it can function normally and wholly. This process of cleansing and the removing of impurities from the sustainer of life is not limited to the physical body—it is also a process that we must undergo on a spiritual level. This spiritual dialysis starts when we make the decision to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and continues as we actively become disciples of His teaching.

It would be too easy to look at the two types of dialysis (hemodialysis-blood and peritoneal-water) and compare them on a spiritual level to biblical principals of cleansing. Instead I want to look at dialysis through more of a disciple’s eye. When we decide to become disciples of Christ we decide to adopt a lifestyle that is not our own. It is a lifestyle that is dedicated to living according to the teachings of Christ and putting all things we consider to be ourselves to death as often as we need to throughout the day to be successful in that endeavor. Much like the person undergoing dialysis we, as disciples need to learn to circumvent the things in our life that haven’t been working and are slowly poisoning us. For many of us these are the things that, again as disciples, we are going to be called to leave behind on our discipleship walk. These could be the things that are nearest and dearest to our hearts (like some of the foods renal patients are required to give up for life’s sake) but that are slowly poisoning us and are keeping us from moving in the full potential that God has for our lives.

The filter that we as disciples of Christ need to use for spiritual dialysis is the Holy Spirit and the word of god. If the things in our lives aren’t congruent with the teachings of Christ or don’t support what the holy spirit is trying to do in our lives then it is time to filter it out of our lives to get spiritually healthy again. I’ve talked to several dialysis patients. None of them have said that they enjoy the process. None of them have said that it feels good. They all have said they know they need to go through it to live. We need to go through the spiritual kind to live as disciple as well.

Altar Calls and Discipleship

Over and over the need for sacrifice comes up when I talk or think about sacrifice. It seems like there is so much that we need to sacrifice in order to become disciples of Christ. I can see how the thought of taking a discipleship walk could seem daunting to some when there is so much required of us. When I think of the alter calls that are given in some of the churches I have been in throughout my life, I can’t ever remember anything being said of what it costs to be a disciple. I remember the topic of change coming up and the saving Grace of God being brought up, but never anything of sacrifice. Come to think of it, I have never heard discipleship come up during an alter call. The leaders have only called the people up who wanted to give their life to Christ but have never told them what it entailed. Thinking on those altar calls it would seem that God is doing all the work and our work is finished when we walk up to the front of the church. Our actions get celebrated and we get to be a new number on the souls-saved-board and another Christian has been born. When will the church become less interested in the numbers on the souls-saved-board and more interested in the amount of productive disciples they are raising up? I was never taught that it was possible to be a Christian without being a disciple. I thought being a disciple was a quality of the life I was living in the eyes of the church and not an actual position that still needed to be filled in the kingdom of God today. I may be just ranting and raving because I see the lethargic state of the body of Christ today when there is so much work to do and it is being placed all on so few laborers. It is such a disservice to the Christians that we are converting to not allow them to experience the fullness of what Christ has to offer our lives when we decide to become disciples of His teachings and principles. Father God let your body be overcome with a fresh touch of your Spirit. Refresh those that are laboring for you and draw those who need to accept the call you have placed on their lives into service for your glory. Let a hunger and thirst for your presence and your will being done in their lives be incessant until they are sitting in your presence and moving in your will. Amen.

New Beginnings

This is a year of blessing for the people of God; regardless of what place in their life they are coming from. They might be experiencing feast or famine in any area of their life, but this is still the year of blessing. The people of God are going to experience a new level of discipleship in their walk with Christ. As they begin to turn their whole lives over to Him in a show of sacrifice—as they begin to seek the face of God and not just His hand they will experience a new level of blessing, joy and anointing in their lives that they could never even imagine. As with anything though we are going to try and find a thousand reasons why this shouldn’t apply to or we shouldn’t be included in this portion of blessing. There are so many things that we have done both intentionally and unintentionally that should exclude us from this time of blessing. There are so many more worthy than us out there that actually deserve it.

Spiritually why would god take someone like me and bless me? Why would he pour out his spirit and anointing on me? When someone asks me a question like that I absolutely love it because it gives me an opportunity to show them their worth in gods own words. In a few verses in Isaiah 43 God tells us not to be burdened by our past. He says to quit going over and over the events that shame us and hold us back so they continually hold us in bondage. He reminds us that He alone is God and that he was the one that split the sea to deliver his people and made waters flow in the dry desert for His people. He tells us to be ready because he is doing something new. In that passage he asks us if we can see this new work yet? If we cant get past what we did in the past or our reasoning as to why we should not be included in this new outpouring of the spirit then chances are we cant see it. God tells us that he is doing this for his people because they are His people. A people created specially designed for his praise. A god who has forgiven me; completely written off all debt that I have had to sin and keeps no record of what he paid on my behalf. Makes ways for me where there are no ways possible and provides for me where there are no provisions attainable. A god who wants to include me in a new outpouring of his spirit because he considers me to be a part of his chosen people who is specially designed for the praise of his glory. What more could we be looking for?

The year may have not started out great for all of us. In know personally in my own family I have seen the inside of hospital more than I would have liked to. I have felt the financial crunch a lot harder than I have in quite a long time. Still I can know that this is the year of blessing. To see only the things that tell me otherwise and contradict the word of the lord is to lose my faith or allow it to be controlled by what I see and what the circumstances say. That is not the way that faith works; faith is believing in the things that you cannot see—things that appear not as though they were. If God speaks a word into the lives of his people then he is going to be faithful to bring that word into fruition. To see the circumstances that are not the way they should be for a year of blessing is not cause to be heavy hearted or to lose faith in that which god has promised me. It is a time to celebrate the faithfulness of god and his sovereignty over all things. It is a time to celebrate the season of blessing that the lord has promised regardless of what circumstances I am facing.

The year may not have started out great for all of the people of God in January. Or maybe you know someone who is just coming to Christ and the year hasn’t been that great for them either. Maybe it just wasn’t circumstances out of your control that has made the year a rough start,maybe you cause some of the roughness yourself. Each day is an opportunity for a new beginning with Christ. Each new day is a new opportunity to enter into the promises that he has for your life. What a better time to realize this than the Easter season. Just as Christ rose from the grave to give a new beginning reconciled to the father, he is doing the same thing today. You have the opportunity to rise above your circumstances to faith in the one that gives new beginnings and take part in the season of blessing he has ordained for his people.

Will You Follow or Walk Away?

I love God with all my heart. I love him with all that I am and with all that I could ever hope to be. I read that now and it is amazing that I am able to be able to say that. I have always been a believer and have always loved God. I would say that the main difference between me then and now is that now I look for ways to honor him. Look for ways to worship him with my life and everything in it. I am on an active pursuit of his presence every waking moment of my day and I hope to meet him in my sleeping time. Having said all of that it is hard for me to imagine myself telling him no or walking away from the discipleship walk I have decided to take with him. Even though I have confessed my dedication to him and to his will for my life, doesn’t mean that I still don’t have the choice. I have chosen to walk the discipleship walk with Christ I was not forced to.

God is a respecter of my free will and has never intruded on that. It seems strange to think that as big and sovereign as god is that he still leaves me with my free will even when it comes to the plan that he has for my life. To understand the discipleship walk is to know that it is full of uncertainty. I never know what I will be asked to do, where I will be asked to go, or what I will be asked to say. Being a disciple is being willing though to accept that. The process involves me resigning my life as I have laid it out and adopting the plan that God has for my life as my own. Undoubtedly the discipleship walk, by its unknown nature, is going to filled with times when I think I am being asked to that is beyond my capabilities. Beyond that I can imagine that there are times when I am going to be asked to do something that is not necessarily beyond my capabilities but beyond my desires. Even at this point god doesn’t raise his mighty hand and force me into submission. He allows me the freedom of will I possess.

Loving God the way that I do, I couldn’t ever imagine turning on him and telling him that I was done walking with him as a disciple, even in the face of being asked to undertake tasks that are beyond my desires. I am not allowed the luxury of picking and choosing how I will serve him. Discipleship is an all or nothing calling. It is an all or nothing decision. Accepting the call of discipleship is actually accepting a call to death; not death in the literal sense but in a more spiritual and figurative sense. I am sacrificing all that I know as me to live life adopting the teachings of Christ. Once god has called us and we have answered that call, we can never be the same. We have had a portion of his will revealed to us for our lives. Once we have known this truth and vision for our lives it is left to us to continue living in this newly revealed purpose. To do so is to continue to accept the role we have undertaken as disciples. That is not to say that the revealed plan for our lives as disciples will be at all easy. Even some of the original disciples from the time that Jesus was on the earth couldn’t handle what was being asked of them. In john 6:66 it says that some turned from him and walked away from their commitments to be disciples because they didn’t understand all that it entailed.

God is calling his people to be disciples of his teaching and to move in the purpose he has for their lives. Once he has revealed this purpose to you or even once he has called you to discipleship, it is then that you have a choice to make. Will you be a disciple or a deserter?

Who Is At Your Table?

Mark 2:15 - Mark 2:16 (NLT) 15That night Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to be his dinner guests, along with his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners. (There were many people of this kind among the crowds that followed Jesus.) 16But when some of the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with people like that, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”

When we accept Christ into our lives, we are accepted into his family. We are accepted into a royal priesthood and become joint heirs with Christ in the kingdom of God. When we do this oftentimes we look to separate ourselves from the lifestyle that we used to live before Christ. We don’t want to associate ourselves with anything that can identify us to the previous life that we were rescued from. In most instances this is the best thing to do. To be associated in a lifestyle that you want to leave after you have decided to change is asking to be tripped back up into that life. Some people though take this separation too far and see those that are not saved as unworthy of our attention or our time.
We all have salt in our kitchens. We use salt when we need to add some flavor to a bland dish or to enhance the flavor of another. Salt is salty no matter what. If it weren’t salty then it would not serve its purpose. If we add it to water which has no flavor then we notice the saltiness more because it is adding a flavor where there was none before. If we add it to a stew that has tons of different flavors it is not the main flavor but rather a compliment to the ones that are already there. If we turn on a light in the night we can see the difference it makes in the room because it illuminates the things we could not see in the dark. If we turn that same light on at noon, it is still on but we can’t see it because it is in an environment that is already bright. We are called to be the salt and the light of the earth. If we reserve our time for only those who are saved like we are and share the same beliefs in salvation that we do then we are neglecting what we have been called to do. We become the light burning in the daytime and the salt lost in an abundance of other flavors.
While Jesus walked here on the earth he did not reject or ignore those who were forsaken by the religious leaders. He chose to fellowship with the scum of society. When the pious religious leaders tried to call him on it he replied, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call sinners, not those who think they are already good enough” (v.17). While our friends in church and the people around us who are already in the kingdom need our fellowship, it is the one who don’t know Christ as their savior that our light was made to shine for. With so much division in the Christian society right now over the hot topics in the news, we need to remember that we are called to live in this world but not be of it. We are called to love the sinner not the sin. We should follow in the footsteps of Jesus who wasn’t afraid to be seen with the less favorable people in society. Not because he wanted to be a part of the lifestyle they were leading but because he wanted them to share what he had. Don’t be afraid to let your light shine in the places where it is needed. If you reached out into your sphere of influence tomorrow for a guest list to a dinner party, who would be at your table?

An Amazing Thought

I found this on a blog called Raw Christianity by Gunner Gundersen. Here is the link to the whole posting http://rawchristianity.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/signing-your-life-away/. I am posting the part that really ministered to me. Be Blessed! Mike.

This is a piercing illustration of the call of discipleship. Discipleship is a call to die. It is not a call to live or a call to follow or even a call to suffer. It is a call to die. And when you answer that call, you cross the point of no return. You step over the line in the sand. You forsake everything and you embrace death because you believe so fiercely and so joyfully in something greater than your life.Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). Esther said, “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16).If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ and a soldier following His orders, you have already died. You have already decided that your life is no longer your own, that your interests are not only subservient but nonexistent, and that your personal ambitions are meaningless. Life is no longer about your comforts or your desires or your preferences or your methods or your insights or your dreams. Your life is not yours anymore. Remember, you’re dead. Therefore, you should not be surprised when you are called to die twenty different times a day in order to fulfill His cause and follow His calling. Death shouldn’t hurt or bother someone who’s already dead. I don’t think the signers of the Declaration of Independence would’ve been surprised if they had been captured by the British and hung together on fifty-six gallows along the streets of Boston.In the next hour you will face many moment-by-moment decisions, and what you choose to think or feel or say or do in each of those moments will reflect whether you are still living in you or whether Christ is living in you. I cannot help but think that if we truly believed that we have died with Christ and have been raised up with Christ, we wouldn’t flinch in the face of sacrifice or wallow in the swamp of self-pity or be impressed with our own battle-weariness.You already signed your life away. You already died. Now live like it.

In Good Company

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12)

This teaching wasn’t as uplifting as the rest. The others told us how to become good followers of what He was teaching us. They told us how to work towards becoming true disciples of Christ. Though the previous teachings asked a lot of us as individuals and were by no means easy to undertake, they were not so difficult that any one person could not choose to work towards accomplishing the goal of getting our insides to match up with outward reflections.If one was to go back and look at the principles that Jesus taught on in the previous verses, one would find that they are very noble principles that lead a person to not be hypocritical but real in all facets of one’s life, especially spiritually because the focus is on a transformation that occurs on the spiritual level. Recognizing our spiritual poverty and also recognizing Christ as the only one who can eradicate that poverty. Realizing that there needs to be a sacrifice and a death to what we want and seek after what Jesus wants for our lives. Craving righteousness just as we would crave food or drink to satisfy some of our most basic needs and taking that craving using it as a driving force behind our hunt for that righteousness. Becoming merciful in such a hard hearted and merciless world and seeking to unify the people in our world in the common cause of discipleship. Most important it seems to become pure in heart and pushing aside hypocrisy and two-faced motives. These are not bad things to want for one’s self. These are all characteristics we should seek after whole heartedly. Which is why the last teaching of Jesus in the beatitudes was almost disheartening to me.This final beatitude isn’t about how to be a better disciple, it is about what will happen when you begin to make that transition and become successful in doing so. It is a statement of preparation for what will happen as the world begins to see that transformation taking place in a life that it once held captive. You no longer fit into the society that you had been a member of for so long. You become someone whose goals and desires and priorities have changed from that of the norm of society. You are no longer focused on taking care of you and what people think of you and how they respond to your existence. None of that matters to you anymore—and for that the world will hate you. The people that have loved you and embraced you into their lives will be the first to recognize your change and will be the first to persecute you. They will say horrible things about and slander your good name. It is such a horrible response to a good thing happening in your life. That is the disheartening part to me. People not recognizing the good that is in my life and them treating me differently because I am not self centered anymore but rather have chosen a different focus for my life. I guess therein lays the test.Knowing the world will not receive us for rejecting the accepted priority balance in life, knowing that all facets of our character will be ostracized, knowing that the ones closest to us may be the ones hurting us the most and still choosing to seek after Jesus and follow His teachings. At that point what we have worked for will have paid off; Jesus says our rewards will be great in heaven. The persecution is to be taken as a sign of our successful transformational process. It is to be seen as a sign that we are on a right track in the right direction. To say that I have chosen a discipleship walk with Jesus and not be persecuted is what I should be concerned with, if not outright worried about. Jesus mentions that the prophets that came before us endured the same persecution. That places us in good company.

Father I thank you for persecution, may I accept it as a badge of honor to be persecuted for my beliefs and devotion to You and Your kingdom’s work. Amen.

Making Peace

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

I would venture to say that there is one in every circle of friends. You know the person that cannot stand for anyone in the group to not get along with each other. They are the person that wants everyone to be happy at all times in all activities. I was never that person. I always had an opinion and I did not really concern myself with the fact that it might differ with one of my closest friends. If it was on the matter of an activity, I did not have a problem leaving the group to do my own thing if they were going to be participating in something that I did not enjoy. I don’t think that Jesus was talking about that kind of peacemaker or peacekeeper in this teaching.The kind of peacemaker that Jesus was talking about here was the kind of person that would follow in His example. When we accepted Jesus into our hearts as the Lord and Savior of our lives, we also accepted the peace that He made on our behalf with the Father. Jesus died to pay the price we could never afford for our sins and iniquities so that we could be reconciled back to God. He opened the communication relationship between us and God so that we could once again be in fellowship.As recipients of this peace, we also need to be peacemakers. There is no way that we could do the same thing Jesus did, in terms of His death and resurrection, and have the same results He did, that is not what I am trying to imply. We can, however, introduce people around us to the individual who can reconcile them back to the Father and restore the fellowship that does not exist until that reconciliation has taken place. We can lead people into the knowledge that there is indeed a lacking in their lives if they do not have this fellowship with God. In doing this we then become peacemakers, as Jesus talks about in this verse. When we help people realize there is a need for fellowship with the Father, and then help lead them to the source of reconciliation we are helping to unite the Body of Christ in the same activity: pursuit of the changed life that only God can provide.

Father, I thank you for your Son who reconciled our fellowship together. Help me to see the ones who need you and need that same reconciliation to you. Use me to be the peacemaker in their life if you so will. Amen.