The first ministry we undertake...

To minister is to meet a need.  When we speak of someone being in the ministry we actually are not using the best description. 

Why?

Because we can all meet a need.  Even if it is just one need.  In fact, we all partake in the ministry.  And we have to before we can do anything else for Christ.

What is that ministry?...

Singing.

Listen up!

I love the Lord.  I love the way He gently corrects me.  I even love the way He corrects me not-so-gently.

I’ve learned that the staff and the rod can comfort.  They stand for protection and correction.

Protection is easy to find comfort in…

Correction, not so much.

But still, I need His correction.  And the thought that He would care enough to invest the time in me to make sure that I am not getting too far off course… that is comforting.

He corrected me the other night.  I was thanking Him for not being silent.  I was praising Him for allowing me to hear His voice.

I said, “Dad! I want to hear you more!”

And He answered,…

“I want you to start listening.”

Ouch.  Again.  It seems there is more wrong with me than I would care to admit.

But I am so glad He said it.  I need to start listening. 

Listen:  to act on what is heard

God wants us to act on His Word.  When we hear Him… whether in that still small voice,  through the pages of scripture, or from the pulpit… ACT on it.

We must first hear.  But believing requires action.  It is acting in according with… your confession… what you have heard.

Listening then is an active thing.

I hear my wife.  But do I always listen?  No… unfortunately.  And that is dishonoring to her.  That hinders my prayer.  I don’t always act on what I have heard.  But I need to.

And I need to act on what I have heard from God… so I can hear more.

To hear more… listen!

Lord,

Thank You for opening up what it means to listen.  Thank You for being so patient with me.  Give me ears to hear but hands and feet to listen!

In Jesus’ Name

SDG

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

The Beatitudes. A famous list of “blessed are the” statements.  We first read them in Matthew 5. 

I like to think of them as the “Be Attitudes.”  Have the attitude to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek…  and you will get all of the “for they’s.”

But in order to understand these statements, we need to define exactly what it means to be these things.

And we will start with “meek” because it is so commonly misunderstood…

Position vs Presence

I struggle with this a lot.  I desire to be deeply consumed by the presence of God but then find myself thinking more on where I am than where He is.

Where I am is a position.  It is a finite space.  When I try to attain a position within the Body of Christ… I fight for a spot.

When I asked the Lord what position He would have me be in He said this,…

For the “young” men…

If we ever start a conversation with, “I’ve been a Christian for … years.”  SHAME on us! 

It is not the length of time we have been with the Lord… it is how much of us has died to Him.

It is not how long we have known Him… it is how deeply we know Him.

Do not despise thy youth.  Do not give in to the enemy who doesn't want to set things “in order” but rather “in an order.” 

The enemy doesn’t want the church to be the “living” organism; he wants it to be a rigid “put-your-time-in” organization.

Preacher Pain

There may be no greater argument for a loving God than the existence of pain, suffering, sorrow and, yes, evil.  When we are faced with the seemingly insurmountable wall of this problem of pain we can stand secure that, though the skeptic (and even, possibly, our own conscience) may challenge that a loving God would never let these things happen, they point directly to the One who created us.

And no, He is not a tyrant or a sadist.  It is not that He joys in our sorrow or our suffering. 

That would not be a loving God. 

How tall are you?

I am what some may call “vertically challenged.”  But that is okay.  I over it… or should I say under it.

I actually found away around it.  I found a way to be instantly as tall as I can be.

It is so obvious… I don’t know how I missed it….

What defines you?

We eat big.  Ask anyone who knows us.  Even some that don’t.  My wife knows how to put out an amazing meal and always pays attention to the little details.

You might say we are known for it.  You might say it is our custom.

Custom and costume come from the same meaning.  It is what people see.  It is your character.  It defines you.

What was Jesus’ custom?...

“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.”  Luke 4:16

“And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God”. Luke 6:12

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was defined to things to all those who saw Him.

He was in the Word and He prayed.

He prayed with such power that…

“And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1

They could have asked anything… and they asked to be taught to pray.  

It resonated with them so much that these two things were their top priority…

“The apostles said, But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:4

Prayer and the Word of God.  They were Jesus’ priorities.  They were the priorities of those closest to Him, who saw everything He did while He was hear.

Shouldn’t they be ours?

 “For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” 1 Tim 4:5

SDG

Opening the doors of heaven

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, [and] into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, [and] bless his name.” Psalm 100:4

I love this verse.  It puts such a powerful perspective on how thanking our Lord and praising His name brings us closer to Him.

Is He all-present?  Absolutely.

Then why do we need to enter into His gates?  If He is everywhere, and always hears us… why do we need to even approach His courts?

Cluttered ceilings

If you want to get an idea of the effect my prayers have had this week do the following:  Go to the party store and buy as many helium balloons as you can; go home and stand in your foyer, or kitchen, or whatever; let go of all of the balloons.

Now… what you are looking at, with all of those balloons making it just to the ceiling and no further…

those are my prayers.  Why?...

God doesn’t owe you anything

“I don’t owe you anything.”

That was the answer I got from the Lord when I was in prayer… asking for quite a big list of things. 

My default response was to agree with Him and say, “I know Lord… I am not worthy… Your grace is sufficient… You blood was enough…”

And as I was rambling through my list of theologically correct declarations of the Word of God, the Glory and the Lifter of my head gently put His hand beneath my chin, raised it, and smiling said…

When “if” turns to “if not”

“Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” John 11:21

“Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”  John 11:32

You know… I don’t want to seem harsh on the sisters here, but… His name is Jehovah-Shammah, “The Lord is There.” 

So, they were wrong.  He was there… and Lazarus did die.  But Jesus was so patient, as He always is.  He didn’t correct them.  He didn’t use the opportunity to teach them sound doctrine… though He could have.

He didn’t get offended or roll His eyes.

He simply answered, “Thy brother shall rise again.” (v.23)

He knew what they really wanted.  He knew that they were angry with Him.  After all, they were His close friends.  They confessed that He was the Son of God (v. 27), but were they acting according to that confession?

I know a group of men who did…

For a purpose

Have you ever wanted to be a part of something bigger than yourself?  Have you ever thought about fighting for a cause, or standing for something?  Have you ever wanted to know that your life has purpose?

You are not alone.  But you are not without hope.  And you are most certainly not here for nothing.  You are not an accident.

You have a purpose…

For Casey… Thank you.

I don’t have cancer.  I haven’t had to fight that battle.  I wonder if it is because the Lord knows that it would be too great a battle for me.  

He reserves these difficult battles for the greatest of His warriors.

And Casey was one of those warriors.  And he fought a great fight.  And something inside me tells me that He fought it for the same reason Christ came… for others.

Why else would he hang on for so long?  When it seemed that his time was up… many times… Casey refused to receive it.  He stayed the course.  He did it for those whose prayers were always rising up for him.

What a tremendous burden it must have been to be the hope of so many.  What strength he demonstrated.  What faith!

I wonder how many times the Spirit came to him as asked, “Now?” And Casey said, “Not yet.”  

What love!

One time, when I was at the church on a Monday night and had moved to the front to worship Casey came up to me and said, “I want to be where you are.”

He had no idea how much I wanted to be where he was.  In a place of such determination.  In a place of such faith.  In a place of such power.

The burden to pray for Casey had been removed from my heart on Thursday of last week.  

I don’t know how long Casey battled cancer… but I can be certain of this… the fight took more out of the devil than it ever did out of him.

Heaven received a great man of faith on Friday, April 15^th, 2011.  

A man whose faith drove me to be desperate for God. 

And I just want to say thank you.

Thank You Casey.  The life you lived gave me hope.

Until we meet in glory…

SDG,

Mike  

Not even the smell of smoke

Have you ever spent some time in a car that is owned by someone who smokes?  If you are like me, and have asthma… you have to either burn your clothes or wash them three times.  Smoke gets into your clothing so easily.  And it is hard to come out. 

But not always.

“And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.” Daniel 3:27

We are often called to walk through the fire.  Maybe it is a job, or a relationship.  Maybe it is the loss of a loved one, or news from the doctor.  Whatever it is… it can get hot.  And we may feel like we are alone.

But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego… the men who came out of a raging furnace without even the smell of smoke on them… they knew how to deal with the fire…

They just walked into it. We might think that they had great faith… but this wasn’t a matter of faith.  It was a matter of discipline, a matter of devotion, a matter of conviction.

Take a look and see what they say….

In the middle

“Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Psalm 1:1-2

When we think of meditating we might get a picture of someone sitting on the floor with their legs crossed, the wrists on their knees, and the tips of their thumbs and forefingers touching as they chant, “Ooohmmm.”  But I would like to paint another picture.

And it is a picture of a place, not a practice.

Seventy times seven… keep on forgiving.

 “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”  Matthew 18:21-22

When I was a young lad… and phrases like “young lad” were not all that odd… I remember asking my mother about this particular passage.  Taking it quite literally I asked if I this was how many times I needed to forgive people. 

Her response was that it represented a number that could not be counted.  Odd, though… it actually equals 490.  I could do the math as easily then as I can now.  And it didn’t sit right.  But, being raised to respect my parents, I didn’t argue.

Eventually, I revisited this same question, but this time I asked the Lord what it meant.

His answer made a lot more sense…

"Cogito ergo sum"

“I think, therefore I am.” – Rene Descarte

You may have heard this phrase before.  And you may have an opinion on it.  But I would like to propose a new understanding.  One that glorifies God.  One that gives us insight into His character and ours.

And so… let us see what it is to think…

More on “possession” vs “oppression”

Spiritual oppression, which is a tactic of the enemy in spiritual warfare, plagues believers.  As I have mentioned in a past post (Spiritual Oppression, Jan 10,2011) I was one of them. 

Christians can be oppressed.  But we can also be release… for God is with us.

In the last post I talked about the conversation that becomes oppression.  What I would like to talk about now is the words that the Bible uses for these two devices of the devil.

My rainbow is brown

I showed up after an interview for a job at my wife’s work.  The day before I had a full beard.  But this day, however, I was clean shaven.

“You shaved your beard,” she said to me.

“Yeah.  I figured I better shave it before the interview to make a good impression.”

Her answer to this is seared into my memory forever…

When God gives us a heads up

If you have ever wondered if prayer is a conversation… I have a story to tell you.

We have a Siberian husky.  She is a great dog.  And she loves to walk.  I would venture to argue that out of the 365 nights available to walk in a year she gets a walk at least 355 of those nights.  And I have the great pleasure of being the one to walk her.

One of the things that the Lord has put it on my heart is that when I go on these walks that it should be a time of prayer.

Part of that prayer is to lift up a group of men that He has put on my heart.  And, honestly, I typically just pray their names without getting into too much detail.

On one Friday night, while going through the list of men I came to one gentleman and prayed my usual prayer, “For (so-and-so), and his family.”  But then, without thinking about it I added, “that You hold Him as You roll him over.”  I thought nothing of it and continued down the list of men.

But what happened at church on Sunday blew my mind…

Some practical advice…

Here are some practical tips that I have learned the hard way…

Never leave the Crisco® container near the vanilla cake icing. (They don’t taste the same)

Keep the can of Easy-off® oven cleaner far from the PAM® non-stick cooking spray. (Burgers don’t come off of the pan too easily when you cook them with oven cleaner)

And whatever you do… NEVER, EVER leave the Clorox® wipes near the TUCKS® pads. (Please don’t ask… butt I will say this… not good.)

From a spiritual perspective I would make sure that I don’t leave the…

Confessing to maturity and holiness

Maturity is the acceptance of responsibility: Nothing less, nothing more.  Maturity can come with age, but it doesn’t have to.  And, what’s more important to recognize is that age doesn’t always produce maturity, and it certainly doesn’t equal maturity.

In order to pray effectively you must confess your sins.  In order to confess your sins you must take responsibility for them. 

Therefore, maturity is the first step toward confession. 

And confession is the first step toward Christ. 

Maturity and confession go hand in hand.  Confession holds a negative connotation.  But it need not be so.  Confession is simply stating what is true. 

Except the Lord lay the bricks

Except the Lord lay the bricks

          The wall will surely crumble

Except we walk in His steps

          Our feet will surely stumble

For we are just weak men

          And helpless in the fight

Like wandering little children

          Lost in the night

But we are also vessels

The Lord is always present.

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matt 18:20

We had discussed this in a previous post “When God doesn’t show up” but it is worth repeating now because we can go deeper.

We think it is talking about Christians being together.  But do we forget that…

“… when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,” Hebrews 6:13

Read Matt again and see that Jesus is swearing on Himself, on His name, that He is in the midst of them.  Whether they know it, acknowledge it, or care… He is there.

For His name is...

Proof for the existence of God

While from time to time it changes… were I asked right now what I see as the best evidence for the existence of God… I would say, “evil.”

Why?

Because I don’t care who you are or where you are from… I don’t care what faith you have… or what religion you were brought up in…

Man: Good or Bad?

I’ll be honest with you.  I used to believe that man was basically good but that it was his circumstances and life situations that made him do bad things.  Then I read something that someone said that made me think twice about that.  It went like this, “There is none good but God.”  Jesus said it.  So being a Christian I have to look at that and say, “He said it so it must be true.”  But it isn’t a blind acceptance.  There is proof for those who would seek it.  But we have to first define what we mean when we ask the question, “Is man inherintly good or inherintly evil.” 

Because I'm older... I know better.

There is a verse in the bible that a friend, an older man, said to me trying to get me to be quiet and listen to him, to agree with him.  It was 1 Peter 5:5, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder….” 

Unfortunately he stopped there.  He didn’t continue with the rest of the verse, “…Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” 

I do believe that there doesn’t seem to be enough respect of the generations.  That is everywhere, not just in the Christian community.  But something I notice is that older Christian men are less humble than they ought to be. 

Common Christian pitfall..

“Let no man think more of himself than he should.”

First of all, we quote too many bible verses.  No, just kidding.  I just want you to be in a light mood while we discuss this so if you want me to wait while you go and poor yourself a cup of coffee than I will. 

What are those things that Christians on a whole easily slip into?  Well I think the first thing above all else is that we become to prideful about our Christianity.  We could never grow too proud of Jesus but we tend to think that we are the cream of the crop, the picks of the litter.  When if fact we are supposed to be the most humble of all, the servants.  “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty look before a fall.”  It is the devil’s biggest gun, our pride.  He can trick us with it even if we are looking for it.  Once I was talking to a friend about things, actually things about the church.

A healing prayer

I have seen great things happen when this prayer has been prayed.  When we fully receive the truth of "The LORD who heals you"... we are astounded by His work.

Power of a blessing

To bless means “to speak well of.”  When we bless the name of the Lord we speak well of it, we give Him the honor and the praise.  We make His name known. For the name of the Lord is greatly to be praised. 

And a blessing is powerful.  A blessing is “to continually speak well of.”  It is as though what is said abides.  Why is that important?