The Little Things That Say I Love You

With Christmas morning just hours away, I find myself reflecting not only on the extravagance of God's grace that is reflected in the gift of His Son, but on the goodness of God that we see in His attention to the smallest details of our lives.

Tomorrow morning people all over the world, Christian and non-Christian, will open gifts given by their friends and relatives. Gifts are always displays of love to one degree or another. Often, the most precious gifts we receive are not the most expensive, but the ones that in some way communicate that the giver really knew our inmost desire. It is the gift that says "I love you enough to listen to your words, to watch your life, to know your true desires," that brings the greatest and most lasting joy to our hearts.

How many times do we hear of situations where a husband, sorry guys but we seem to do more of this than the ladies do, gets an elaborate gift for his wife, only to discover that it was not at all what she wanted? On the other hand, the husband who listens, who reads between the lines, who finds a way to communicate his care through a gift, will be richly rewarded-not that that is our motive!

When we think of the gift of God's own Son, sent to carry our sin, shame, sickness and poverty, of course we are overwhelmed by this act of love. It is an extraordinary thing for which we are eternally grateful. But what amazes me, maybe not more, but in a different way, are the many times each year that God brings something much smaller into my life that tells me that God Almighty is paying attention to, not just my needs, but my desires, my hopes, my dreams. He goes so far beyond what is necessary for salvation, He touches our lives the most intimate fashion.

So I pray that your Christmas is filled with joy; joy over your salvation, joy in the purpose that God has given to your life, joy in your family and friends, and yeah, joy in what you give and receive. But I hope that in 2011, all of us make a habit of frequently and purposefully recognizing ALL the gifts that our Father gives. Let's spend a lot of time bragging on Him, sharing His love, cherishing our interaction with Him.

Merry Christmas, and happy New Year.

Thanksgiving Is a Verb

I was thinking this morning about the whole idea of thanksgiving and what it means. I heard one of the guys in our congregation say that he and his wife take time every day with their kids to talk about what each one is thankful for. I thought that was fantastic. What a different outlook on life that will produce over the course of a couple of decades.

In our home growing up, as in many American families, Thanksgiving centered around a feast. There is nothing inherently wrong with that of course, and we did take a brief moment to say a prayer of thanks for all our blessings, but I was mostly focused on the food. I think that if we are not building a much stronger culture of gratitude than that into our children's lives, we are doing them a great disservice. Of course we were encouraged to be thankful at other times too, and we were reminded to "count our blessings" whenever we would complain about the lack of something, but in my estimation my own sense of gratitude needed to be deeper. It wasn't until God became very real in my life, And I began to grasp the enormity of the sacrifice that Jesus made for me, the depth of my own non-deservedness (that's a word 'cause I just used it), and the magnitude of Gods grace, that I really started to be grateful in life.

So, I was pondering a few questions this morning, and I thought some of you might want to ponder them with me:

What does thanksgiving, or thankfulness, really mean if there is no one specifically that you are thankful to? You could feel happy about some aspects of your life, or maybe even feel "blessed" knowing that some people don't have it as good as you do, but is that gratitude? Gratitude has to have an object, doesn't it?

Thanksgiving is not just a feeling, but an expression. Isn't it an expression of gratitude to someone that has shown us kindness, provided for us in some way, or somehow made our lives better? But many people around us say they do not believe in a personal God, so who exactly are they thankful to? If we believe that there is no one but ourselves that is responsible for the good things that we have or enjoy, then who are we saying thank you (did you see the word YOU in thank you?) to?

I guess you could be thankful to your parents, your friends, the society itself; but from where I sit, if you take God out of the picture, the giving of thanks for the blessings of life loses all its meaning. Sure, we are grateful to and for many people and things. But ultimately, all things are to Him, through Him, and for Him. I can be grateful because I have worked hard and carved out such a wonderful life for myself (even saying that makes me a little sick) but who provided me with the talents I possess, the resources I use, the very life in my bones? I feel very sad for people who are missing out on this aspect of life. Gratitude to God fills our lives with humility and peace.

No, thanksgiving is inherently personal, and must be directed toward someone, or it's not thanksgiving. And, it is extremely important that thanks actually be given, that is, expressed in word and deed rather than just thought about - thanksgiving is a verb. My family said grace, and maybe mentioned a few extra things on Thanksgiving Day, but I wish we had taken time to really discuss what we were grateful for, and to whom we were grateful. It is a wonderful and fulfilling thing to give thanks to God. This past Sunday we took the majority of our church service for people to stand up and talk about what they were thankful for. It was wonderfully encouraging for everyone.

So, I simply encourage you today to not only ponder what you are thankful for, but tell God about it, and tell others. And let's go far beyond this short season, and build a continual culture of thanksgiving into our hearts and homes.

Happy Thanksgiving (a verb)

Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3, NIV).

One day, as the crowds that followed Jesus grew, He called His twelve disciples apart for a bit of leadership training. Jesus knew that the only way He could make sure that this growing multitude was cared for was for Him to, in essence, multiply Himself by equipping His disciples to work with Him in His ministry. Most of what we typically call “The Sermon on The Mount” was a training session that Jesus gave to a small group of His closest followers.

The verse above is recorded in Matthew 5:3, and was one of Jesus’ opening remarks. For the modern Christian, this can be a difficult verse to understand. It sounds in English almost like Jesus is encouraging people to be spiritually poverty stricken–to go through life without spiritual growth, maturity, or resources.

But Jesus was speaking to a Jewish audience, and He spoke to them in Aramaic, not in English. As in every other culture on earth, the words that He used had a specific meaning within that culture. We have this same phenomenon in America and in the English language. For example, I might tell someone to Xerox a document or a picture. We all know that Xerox is actually the name of an American corporation. But I am not telling the person to contact Xerox, to locate the nearest Xerox office, or even to make a copy of the document only using a copier made by Xerox. What I am actually saying is that they should make a photocopy of something.

When the term Xerox first came into our language, it referred to a company. But over time languages evolve and take on specific meanings that the local speaker and hearer both know. To an outsider, a word or phrase might be confusing, but to an insider it makes perfect sense. Every language evolves over time like this. Thank God we have so many great resources at our disposal so that we can discover the deeper meanings of Bible passages like this one.

The people that Jesus was speaking to that day knew exactly what He was saying. Bible scholar William Barclay tells us that the word “poor” used in this passage was an Aramaic word that had gone through four stages of development. It started out simply meaning poor. It came to mean, because of being poor, lacking in influence or power. Then it began to mean that because a person lacked influence or power, they began to be downtrodden or oppressed by men of power. And finally it came to refer to a person who because they had no influence or power, and had no resources of their own to resist the oppressor, they put their entire trust in God alone.

It is also important to remember that the Beatitudes are written not as suggestions, but as declarations of absolute truth. In Matthew 5:3 Jesus is declaring that for the person who has come to grips with the fact that in their own natural selves they have no power or resources to overcome in the spiritual arena, and so have put their entire trust in God, the whole Kingdom of Heaven is at their disposal – WOW! What a great truth! This person who was bankrupt of power, ability, and options, now has the whole force of God’s Kingdom backing them.

This applies to every one of us doesn’t it? None of us have the power within our flesh to overcome even garden-variety sin, let alone deal with the sin nature that we inherited from Poppa Adam. But when we trust Jesus as Lord and Savior, the sin nature is removed, we become new creatures in Him, we are delivered from the control of sin, and we begin a process of growth that brings victory and liberty where sin is concerned.

And, it doesn’t stop there. In fact victory over sin is just the beginning. In Christ we enjoy real friendship with God, the Bible says that we have the mind of Christ and hold His thoughts and purposes in our hearts. In Christ there is peace that overcomes all kinds of fear. In Christ we have healing, joy, prosperity spirit, soul, and body, satisfaction in our work, purpose, hope, strength, and new life. We could go on and on compiling the list of things with which we who were once so impoverished are now equipped.

If we take the time to meditate on a verse like Matthew 5:3 until it becomes a personal revelation to us, we will never again approach any aspect of life from the viewpoint of being ill-equipped, without power or influence, or as people who are under the thumb of the oppressor. Instead we can begin to live each day with a view toward possibilities, instead of impossibilities.

Powerful, life-changing, and all yours when you simply stop depending on your own ability, or the resources that man can provide for you, and begin depending on Christ alone.

What Is The Good Life?

Let me ask you a question; how would you define “The Good Life?” All my life I have heard this phrase kicked around. As a culture, we believe that everyone deserves to have a shot at “The Good Life.” Parents want their children to have “The Good Life,” even if they themselves have not reached it. We debate public policy, elect and fire political representatives, relocate our families, and change careers, all in pursuit of “The Good Life.” Sometimes we call it “The American Dream.” Or is “The American Dream” just one part of “The Good Life?”

OK, Enough with the quotes and capital letters, I think you get the idea. There is really nothing wrong with wanting to live a long and satisfying life. Actually that is a part of what the Bible calls the blessing of God. There is nothing wrong with trying to create a society where every individual has an equal opportunity to succeed, as long as we don’t confuse that with trying to mandate equal outcomes in life for all people–to do that you invariably have to take away freedom. And certainly, all good parents want their children to have it better than they did. The real question is, in your own thinking, what constitutes “The Good Life” (yeah I know, but the quotes were really important right there).

Many people in our society would define “You Know What” in purely material or financial terms. Some would say that being financially well off is good, but would add being healthy to the mix. Some might point to holding a respected position in their community or company, some might think in terms of relationships, some in terms of happiness. While none of those things are wrong in and of themselves, I think they still miss the mark because they essentially leave God and His Kingdom out of the equation. I am convinced that not only do God and a growing relationship with Him have to be a part of a definition of the good life but, they are the central, indispensable, undisputable core of the good life.

The reality is that we are spiritual beings created in God’s image, and created with the need to know Him personally and intimately. We were literally designed to interact with God, to worship and glorify God, and to reflect His nature on earth. Only in that capacity do we find true joy and fulfillment. Most of the people who read this blog are Christians, and therefore probably find little to disagree with in that statement. But, what I have come to realize is that many of us are still viewing God and spiritual growth as add-ons to our lives, instead of these things being the core reasons for living.

Another way to look at this is, many Americans would in one way or another define the good life as comfort and satisfaction coupled with the avoidance of trouble, difficulty, and pain. We live our lives seeking to avoid anything that would challenge us, demand that we change our attitudes and lifestyle, produce conflict, or put us in a negative light in the eyes of our peers.

But, if we are really going to live our lives with God, spiritual growth, and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world, as our core motivating factors, we are NOT going to be able to be comfortable all the time. We will inevitably have to do some spiritual warfare; most of it revolving around the deep and dynamic changes that God wants to bring to our old ways of thinking and behaving. We will be confronted inwardly and outwardly with change. Much of our lives will be marked by self-sacrifice in terms of how we spend our time, energy and money. We will certainly not be able to play the political correctness game that is such a part of maintaining any sense of popularity in this society. At times our message, and we ourselves, will be rejected and possibly persecuted for our beliefs.

Now, along with those negatives, we will experience the blessing of God, the power of His presence, and the satisfaction that only comes through fulfilling His will in our lives. Yes we will be blessed beyond measure, and our lives will count for something eternal. This is good stuff, but maybe we need to rethink our definition of “The Good Life.” We must realize that some of the challenges we face are simply a part of the process of spiritual growth and living for God that we value so much. Therefore, are they not a part of “The Real Good Life?”

I want to live “The Good Life” as defined by Jesus Christ. And, I want what I do with my life to pave the way for future generations to find and live that good life better, faster, and more deeply than I do. How about you?

Purity, Power, Prayer, Praise

And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?”

Matthew 21:10-16, NKJV

Sometimes when we read this passage, we just see another confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders of His day. While it certainly was that, I believe that contained in these verses there is an important pattern for healthy, vibrant, life-giving, ministry that all of us can follow.

Now, as soon as I say “a pattern for ministry” some Christians stop reading because they don’t realize that they have a ministry, or don’t see themselves as “ministers.” But one of the primary messages of the New Testament is that Jesus has invited and commissioned all Christians to be a part of His ongoing work in the earth. God has a plan and a purpose in His heart for you. He has gifted you in a unique way so that you can hold a unique position is His family. Jesus’ intention is that every person who believes on Him will do the works that He did, and even greater works (John 14:12). He set it up so that every Christian can be saturated with His Holy Spirit, and bring His presence into their everyday world. So, this pattern is for every one of us.

In our passage from Matthew 21, the first thing we see is Jesus being welcomed into Jerusalem as Lord and King. Without going into a lot of detail here, just know that everything that was done that day communicated the message that a king was entering the city. For example, kings in that day often rode into town on a donkey. That may seem lowly to you and I, but not to that culture. In fact, the tradition was that a king going to war rode a horse, a king coming as an envoy or coming in peace, rode a donkey. By riding a donkey, Jesus showed himself to be The King of Peace. When a king rode into town, people shouted Hosanna, meaning “save now!” as a means of declaring the kings sovereignty over them. And, it was traditional for people to cover the road with their clothes and tree branches when a dignitary arrived.

The first step then for life-giving ministry is to welcome Jesus into our lives as Lord and King. That means that we consider ourselves subject to Him, we give up the right to run our own lives, and accept Him as Lord. When we make that commitment from our hearts, we are born again and begin a brand new life in God.

The next thing Jesus does is purify the temple by removing the things that were contaminating it and preventing it from fulfilling its God given role. There is a highly misunderstood word in the Scripture, that word is “holiness.” Most believers think that holiness is all about things that we do or don’t do. The word holy actually means to be separate, to be distinct, to be separated from something, and to something. When we give our lives to Jesus, we immediately become His unique, distinct, holy, people. We are separated from worldly purposes, and separated to God’s divine purpose for our lives. Sure, there are behaviors that change to reflect this new position more accurately, but the reason that holiness, or purity, is so important to God is that is puts us back in a position to fulfill His divine purpose for our lives.

I want to encourage those of you who really want to experience the fullness of God in your lives to embrace purity. We don’t even have to define purity, we just need to be continually aware of who we are and whose we are. We need to remember that we are God’s people, and that our lives, our thoughts, our activities, all belong to Him. Our lives and beliefs are not to be a mixture of God’s ways and the world’s ways, but increasingly a pure reflection of God’s nature. Jesus has freed us from contaminants that do nothing but hinder the expression of God’s life through us – let Him work this out in you on a daily basis.

After Jesus purifies the temple, it once again takes up its role as a house of prayer. In the same way, pure devotion to God empowers our prayer life. When we get free from the clutter of worldly thinking, it becomes easy to hear what God is saying, know His heart for people, and pray those things out with passion and power.

Once the temple was restored to its original purpose of being a place of worship and prayer, God’s power began to flow easily, and the lame and the blind were healed. God always wants to make people whole again. He wants to restore them spirit, soul, and body. And, God’s intention has always been to bring His restorative power to earth through His church. We are the people, you and I, that God wants to use today. Please don’t exclude yourself from this just because it feels a little foreign to you now. Read the New Testament and watch what Jesus does through average everyday people. He hasn’t changed, and His plan hasn’t changed. If you and I do not bring the life of God to the people around us, who will?

I can almost hear what happened next. As God began to manifest Himself in the temple courts by healing the sick, delivering those bound by demons, and restoring hope to the hopeless, pure, heartfelt, joyous, praise began to swell through the crowd. The children were running around praising God, and shouting “hosanna,” literally “Save Now!” This whole display of free-flowing joy and adoration made the religionists mad–it still does.

Many people are comfortable with a contained, quiet, religious ritual. But they get very nervous when radical praise, and manifestations of God’s power begin to happen. I’m sorry they feel that way, but I believe we need a lot more of it. Jesus wants to make Himself known in Gunnison, Colorado, and around the world. I encourage you to make a strong commitment to His purifying work in your life. Embrace the fact that your life belongs to God, and allow Him to take on the journey you were created for. Welcome the King daily, allow Him to show you His heart for the people around you. Bring His presence to your work-place, your family, your community. Let Jesus bring healing and restoration through you. Then, let’s all rejoice together in Him and in all that He is doing.

ANACONDA CHRISTIANITY

Yesterday morning during my personal prayer time, I felt specifically led to pray for people who were weary, and faint-hearted. The picture that I got was of believers who were experiencing a spiritual (more accurately a soulish) fatigue that was cumulative. In other words, this was not a fatigue that came from just one bad day, or even a difficult week. This fatigue was deep-seated, and it developed over an extended period of exertion and depletion of resources.

As I continued to pray, I felt led to refresh myself in a few ideas from the Word. I am not going to go into all of that today, but if you want to do what I did, you can look up the verses (in this case I mostly looked up New Testament verses) that contain the words, weary, faint, fainthearted, rest, and refreshing.

In the New Testament, the word “weary” actually refers to a beating that brings physical exhaustion and disability. When we get tired, we sometimes say, “I’m beat.” This word is used to describe the aftermath of hard labor or toil that produces nothing. It is filled with anxiety and hopelessness that results in collapse. The end result is that instead of being joyful, strong, and full of vision, the believer can lose courage, lose heart, and give up.

Jesus of course addresses this very thing in Matthew 11:28-30. He invites us to come to Him when we are weary, heavy-laden, and overburdened, and He promises that as we take His yoke (enter into His work alongside Him instead of charting our own course) and learn of Him (let Him retrain us in thought, attitude, and action) He will give us rest.

Interestingly, the word “rest” does not mean to cease from work. A lot of Christians hold to a theology that says, “if something isn’t going well, I need to just lay it down, get out of the way, and let God do all the work.” Vine’s dictionary says “rest” does not mean to rest from labor, but to rest in labor. In other words, rest is found in a place of faith that co-labors with God and always gives Him the lead. We should not stop pressing forward, or wrestling in prayer, or resisting the devil, or working hard to repair a relationship, or working hard at the job that God has given us. But we should do all of that “yoked together” with Jesus. In other words, listen carefully to His instructions, walk close to Him, put more dependence on, and effort into, knowing Him than into doing.

There is a lot that we could say about this, but I want to wrap it up with just one more thought. Jesus says that we need to “learn of Him.” That does not mean to learn about Him, but to allow Him to train us in very personal and practical terms. We need to position ourselves DAILY at His side and press in to know Him more.

As I was praying through that, the Lord reminded me that we Christians are in what the Bible describes as an endurance race. One thing endurance racers have to do is eat well and eat regularly. It is essential that they maintain both their energy level and their hydration level. If they don’t, even the very top athletes will literally collapse on the racecourse. The Lord gave me a picture, and I will share it with you. He showed me a big snake, like an anaconda, that had just finished a huge meal. You have all seen the videos. A snake like that will eat something huge, like a goat, then not eat again for weeks.

Unfortunately, a lot of believers today do the same thing. Once a month or so, whenever it doesn’t interfere with the “important” things in their lives, they gorge themselves on God for a day or two. They come to church, dust off the Bible, maybe hang with some Christian friends. Then they don’t eat again for a month or six weeks. God has not called us to be anaconda Christians. We are to feed on Him daily, or several times a day, many times in small but very nutritious meals.

Any pastor can tell you that the anaconda Christians find themselves in continuous crisis, feeling weary, feeling left out, and disconnected. I have actually had someone come to me in state of depression because after being out of church for 10 weeks she felt “disconnected from the body.” I explained in my compassionate way that the reason she felt that way was because SHE WAS disconnected from the body! I love to help.

If we accept Jesus’ invitation; come to Him, be yoked to Him, learn of Him, feed consistently on Him, He WILL give us rest and new strength. No rest? Then in that area, we can be sure that we are not yoked to Him and feeding on Him. It is an easy remedy, and we can start today.

GOD'S PRINCIPLES ARE UNSINKABLE

We were standing knee deep in water. That wouldn’t really be so bad, but the water was in a boat that was lying on its side. That might not be that big a deal either, but the boat was lying on its side in the middle of a narrow, granite-lined canyon, the wind was howling like a teenager who just had her texting privileges taken away, and it was getting dark. At least the constant lightning was helping with the darkness problem.

Sailing in Colorado can be challenging. I have always been one for air-sports, and the current one is sailing. The only problem is that sailing in mountain lakes means dealing with mountain weather. Mountain weather means you might have perfect conditions for a while, then dead calm, then thunder, lightning, and gale force winds. You just never know. On the evening in question, we had all of the above.

My friend Rusty and I had enjoyed an hour and a half of perfect conditions and wonderful sailing. Then a huge storm cell began to approach the lake from the mountains to the south. We turned back toward the dock, which also happened to be toward the storm, at this point, but that is when we entered a half hour of dead calm. We knew it wouldn’t last and that we were in for a very strong headwind. Sure enough, when it arrived conditions went from calm to somewhere around 40 mph in a minute or so.

So there we were, my 21-year-old crewman and I, with the boat pinned down by the wind on its port side and rapidly drifting toward the rocks. I kept telling him, in the calmest voice I could manage, “She’ll come back up, just wait, she’ll come back up.” I knew in my mind, and was grasping to believe in my heart, that this was actually true. The reason that I could make this confident confession is that this boat is designed to right itself from ANY gust of wind. I knew that under our feet (well actually at that point out beside us, but it is supposed to be under our feet) a 500-pound keel hangs about 4 feet below the hull. So, even if the boat gets pushed over so far that the mast hits the water, once the sails spill the wind, or the wind drops just a little, it will come back up–at least, that’s what all the books say.

But in the gathering, lightning shattered gloom, with the screaming wind, and that gray granite so close, I wondered if the books were right. We only had two choices–wait for the boat’s design characteristics to put it back on its feet and try to sail away from the cliff, or give up, jump overboard, and swim for the other side of the lake. We waited. The wind subsided just a bit, and she came up. That experience gave us much more confidence to go through the same scenario five or six more times in the next fifteen minutes. Then the wind dropped just enough for us to make the run to safety.

Good story, but what’s the point? God’s principles work the same way. Our God did not just create life in the sense that He made living beings. He did make living beings, but He designed and created the actual idea and scope of life. He created the physical world and the laws that govern it. He created relationship and the rules that make it work. He created every thing, every emotion, every physical interaction between elements – He created it all. And, He created the Great Spiritual Principles that are always at work in and around the universe. He didn’t just make seeds, He made the principle of seedtime and harvest that make seeds work, He didn’t just create us with a capacity to believe, He released faith itself from the depths of His being–faith that accesses the divine flow of grace, favor, and every provision. He created purpose, and compassion, and love, and curiosity. He created life.

My point is that sometimes you just have to stand there with the wind howling and things looking bleak, knowing that you are standing on some unsinkable principles. We are all going to go through some storms in life, and as for me and my house, we want to be standing on the unsinkable principles of God when they hit. We decided long ago that we would do everything we could to, having given our lives to Christ, to follow Him, to learn His ways, and to allow His Spirit to transform the very way we think, so that our lives will be built on those unsinkable truths of His Word.

When Rusty and I got back to the dock that night I was shaken, and shaking. I won’t mind at all if I never get into conditions like that again. But we did get back for two reasons: because the designer of this old boat knew what he was doing, and because we stood our ground on what we knew to be true. We even learned some things along the way, and we are ready to go out again–weather permitting. When we go out, the same design elements that kept us afloat that night will be right along with us.

Now, if someone would just explain to me why my wife still refuses to go sailing with me, I would appreciate it.

I CAN'T TYPE

I can’t type. I know, for a guy who spends a minimum of 6 hours a day on a computer, that is kind of strange. Don’t get me wrong, I can form words using a keyboard. In fact, I am actually creating this very article using a keyboard. But I can’t TYPE, not really type, as in put your fingers on the home keys and use all ten digits. Nope. I have learned over the years to hunt and peck along pretty well, and make just a few mistakes. I have developed my own style that uses between four and eight fingers, but always elicits a laugh from a genuine typist. Due to the wonders of spell checker, auto correct, and instant grammar check, I get along OK, but I can’t type.

There is no good excuse for my lack of typing ability, although I can tell you exactly how it came about. I took typing in my senior year of high school. Now remember, this was in the mid 1970’s when we did not have any personal computers. We didn’t grow up with a keyboard in front of us so not everyone learned to type at the age of 18 months. But typing sounded like an easy class to fill out my schedule so I signed up. The class was fine, and under normal circumstances I would have actually learned to type in that class. But alas, I was sabotaged. It turned out that I was the only senior boy in a class of about 60 sophomore and junior girls. Even the female teacher was barely out of college – probably 22. There was one other boy, a lowly sophomore, who only served to show forth my great maturity and desirability to all those girls – or so I dreamed. If you think that in a situation like that the senior boy is going to pay any attention to typing, you don’t understand young males – no excuses – just fact. Typing was my favorite class of all time, except, somehow I didn’t learn to type–must have been the teacher’s fault.

So, here I am, shall we say “a number of years” later, and I still can’t type. But a major portion of my ministry consists of communicating the Gospel through the written word. Articles, newsletters, sermon notes, email, Facebook, text messages, web sites, blogs – it is all done with a keyboard. So instead of taking the time to learn to type, I hobble along with my self-taught method. Over the years, I could probably have saved hundreds of hours of time spent fixing errors, not to mention extended the life span of those wonderful people that God has called to edit my writing (thank you Colleen, Jen, and Michelle) had I simply learned the correct method in the first place.

The point is that we do the same thing in so many areas of life. For whatever reason we fail to learn a basic principle of Godly living. Maybe we don’t know how to make relationships work long-term because our families were a mess and we didn’t learn the Bible. Or, we don’t learn how to give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. We don’t know how to get angry, and then work through to genuine forgiveness. We have never been taught how to consistently honor God first in every area of life. We don’t know how to seek God’s face from a place of confidence, because we were taught that God is still mad at us about our sin. We live in guilt, shame, condemnation and fear, because we never knew any other way to do it.

But we live on, so we develop our own little systems for trying to protect ourselves, and cope with our handicaps. At best these systems hide our problems from others, at worst they magnify the problem until it destroys our lives. The good news is that Jesus is The Great Renovator. When the Bible tells us to submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will lift us up, it means what it says. When Paul writes “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1, 2, NIV), he means that God will day by day remove our old habits and tendencies and replace them with ones that are filled with His life.

I know that I could learn to type right if I put my mind to it. But I have been doing it this way for 30+ years. Breaking these habits and building new ones feels intimidating. But where our spiritual and emotional life is concerned, God is a master at teaching old dogs new tricks. He works from the inside out, and literally transforms us. Don’t ever think that you are too old, or too far gone, or have been struggling with something for too long. The only “too's” that matter in this realm are that God is too awesome, too merciful, and too committed to you to allow you to fail.

You don’t even have to identify all the problems, just form one single habit and live it out faithfully every day. That one habit is, seek Him first and early. If you will do that, and respond in a positive way to what He shows you, transformation is inevitable.

Now to re-read this and fix all the mistakes….

GOOD FRUIT TAKES TIME

Jesus also said, “Here is another illustration of what the Kingdom of God is like: A farmer planted seeds in a field, and then he went on with his other activities. As the days went by, the seeds sprouted and grew without the farmer’s help, because the earth produces crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle.”

(Mark 4:26-29, NLT)

Jesus often used the illustration of growing crops, or producing fruit, to teach us how God’s Kingdom principles work in our lives. I think He did this for two reasons: the first is simply because he was speaking to people who were very familiar with the principles of farming, but I believe He also used these particular illustrations because they are so appropriate. Instant success, instant maturity, and instant fulfillment–these are ideas that our culture is enamored with, but that I am personally convinced are a fantasy. I am convinced that anything of real value, real lasting strength, anything that will accurately and consistently show forth God’s glory on this earth, will take time to develop, and will grow in stages. A healthy, fruitful, plant will be a plant that is deeply rooted, consistently tended, and well watered over time. The same is true for a Godly life.

One of the most important elements in any growth process is the element of rootedness. In order for any tree to be strong, healthy, and fruitful, it must have a good root system. A root system serves to keep a tree upright during a storm. It connects the tree with the necessary food and water supplies. And in many cases, new growth actually comes up out of the root system. A weak root system means a weak and stunted tree. A poor root system in our lives, means that our potential will be stunted. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that is systematically cutting off the roots that once made it strong.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6, 7, NIV).

The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, (Psalms 92:12-14, NKJV).

These are just two of many scriptures that emphasize the idea of being rooted. A rooted life is a life with established foundations that are never abandoned. A rooted person stands in timeless truths and is not moved by the changing winds of popular culture and Christian fads. A rooted believer consistently feeds on, and draws strength from, the Word and the Spirit of God. This person is not easily deceived, discouraged, or dislodged–they make steady progress and produce lasting fruit.

I say all of this today to make one main point. While there are certainly times in life when God moves us physically, or when relationships change, our culture has developed the devastating habit of seeing change as THE solution to any perceived discomfort. We have elevated personal comfort and happiness to an unrealistic at best, and often idolatrous, level in our lives. Too often if a job situation becomes uncomfortable, or we don’t see the progress that we had hoped in the timeframe that we wanted, we abandon that job and look for another. If our spouse is not “fulfilling our needs” in the way we had anticipated, we abandon that marriage and look for another. If life becomes difficult, people will leave homes, jobs, spouses, and even children, thinking that change is the solution.

Aside from the wreckage of homes, lives, and the general economy that this mindset is causing, there is a deep and personal tragedy to all of this. When we don’t learn the lesson of staying rooted, sticking it out through difficult times, digging around the struggling tree one more time in an effort to see it grow healthy and strong (see Luke 13:6-9), we miss the blessing of genuine fruitfulness. Real fruit is the result of steady, healthy, living over the long term. It can’t be rushed and there is no shortcut. But fruit is the source of true fulfillment. There is nothing more satisfying in this life than to be at a place where you begin to reap the harvest after years of cultivating, sowing, and tending a crop. I think this should be the experience of parents, and grandparents. This is the reward of the CEO who did not quit when others bailed out. This is the joy of the older married couple who stuck it out through some very difficult years. This is the pleasure of a father as he watches his grown children make quality decisions.

Fruit – it isn’t fast, it isn’t magic, it is often hard work. Fruit is good not only for eating, but it is full of good seed for planting. Fruit is both the end of one life cycle and the promise of the next. Jesus said that those who make their permanent homes in Him, and allow His word to make its permanent home in them, will produce much fruit, and fruit that will last. Stay steady in God. Don’t be too quick to move in the face of difficulty. Pray, seek God, many times He will say, “stay, fight, stand, be patient.” The reward will be genuine fruit that lasts.

HIS MISSION–OUR MISSION

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

(Luke 4:14-21, NIV)

In these verses, Jesus quotes a prophecy that Isaiah had made hundreds of years before Jesus was born. This prophecy described the mission of the Messiah on earth. On this day, Jesus stood in the synagogue in his home town and declared that He was here to fulfill a role that only the long awaited Messiah could fulfill. Everyone understood exactly what He was saying, and exactly who He was claiming to be.

At first, people spoke well of him, and thought his words were pleasant and gracious. But it didn’t take long for people to realize that if these words were true, then some kind of response would be required of them. If Jesus really was the Messiah, then they would need to begin to treat him like he was the Messiah. That would mean trusting him, following his words, submitting their lives to his leadership. As this revelation came, the crowd turned from saying nice things about Jesus to running him out of town. But this negative response from the people of Nazareth did nothing to change who Jesus was and is, or what his mission was and is. Jesus went right on teaching, and healing, and setting people free.

Not much has changed. Jesus is still going about the earth teaching, and healing, and setting people free. Some people accept him, and in doing so receive the freedom and life that he comes to bring, and others reject him. But either way, Jesus continues to be who he is and do what he does. But now he lives and moves through his church–through his people on earth. His mission has become our mission. We are his hands, his feet, and his heart to our world today. He has sent the Holy Spirit to live in his people and bring his life, love, and power to a hopeless and hurting world.

Never underestimate what Jesus wants to do in you and through you today. We don’t have to figure out how to fix all the world’s problems, we just need to connect with Jesus in a vital, living way each day, then make ourselves available to be used by him. He will bring you to people and places that need him, and he will use you to release his life in a very tangible way. Our part is just to plunge into our relationship with him, and then to share the fruit of that relationship with others. As we do, the good news will be preached, prisoners will go free, and the favor of God will be seen. What an amazing life this is! Live it with all your heart.

WORD OF GOD, OR WORD OF MAN?

1 Thessalonians 2:13, NIV - And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me, is the fact that God has given us so much freedom of choice. It is just not in His nature to try to control our every thought and action, even though He certainly has the power and authority to do so. God loves a worshipping heart that has chosen of its own freewill to be a worshipping heart. God loves to walk and talk with people who have freely chosen to walk and talk with Him. God is into relationship, and real relationship requires freedom to choose it or reject it.

In Paul’s first Letter to the church in Thessalonica, he made the statement that you see at the top of this page. He was very excited about this particular group of believers because they had accepted the Word of God as the Word of God. I know how he felt. There is nothing more exciting than seeing a person’s whole life be slowly but steadily transformed from the inside out by the work of Christ in their hearts. Mean people become loving people, frightened people become bold people, stingy people become generous people, and it goes on and on.

Earlier I this letter, Paul says this, “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 1:4-6, NIV). Paul highlights the fact that as soon as his team began to minister in Thessalonica, they saw immediate, tangible, results in the lives of the people. He says that the Gospel came with power, with evidence of the Holy Spirit, and with conviction. Conviction is that inward work of the Spirit and the Word, that tells us that God wants to bring change to our hearts, minds, and actions.

How we choose to approach God’s Word has everything to do with how much power, conviction, life, and transformation we actually experience from it. Many, many people today choose to view God’s Word a simply one opinion among many, one option on the table, something that men have conjured up that can be taken or left. As postmodernism and its relativist worldview continue to grip our culture, more and more people give God’s Word the same level of authority that they give to the words of human beings. We often exalt our own personal opinion about a given subject over what the Scripture clearly says–how arrogant!

If we don’t grant the Word of God the authority it deserves, we will never experience anything like the full measure of its power in our lives. It’s our choice. To what, or to whom, do we grant the ultimate authority to speak into our lives? When you hear the Word of God taught, spoken, prophesied, do you say, “yes Lord,” or “I don’t think so?” When you read your Bible, do you take the time to be quiet and allow the Holy Spirit to speak the Word into your life? Again, the choice is ours every day. Word of God, or word of man–you make the call.

IS GOD "THE GOD OF THE LAST MINUTE?"

How many times have you heard someone say something like, “God always comes through, but usually at the very last minute.” I have even heard it said that, “God is the God of the last minute.” I think that whenever we start to define the nature of God, it is important to ask ourselves a few questions, such as: Where does that idea come from? Is this a Biblical idea, or just another doctrine that has been derived from human experience and personal opinions about God?

There are many common misunderstandings about the nature of God that have become entrenched in the Christian community over the years. These ideas have been repeated and repeated to the point that they have become traditional doctrines that, if believed and acted upon, can make the actual truth, the Word of God, of no effect in our lives.

What we believe about God’s character will color our relationship with Him. It is very important that we get our understanding of what God is really like from His Word. God’s Word is what God has revealed about Himself. Why would we allow our limited understanding, drawn from our natural experiences in life, to dictate our understanding of God, when we have His Word to draw from? God has revealed Himself to us in the Bible, sent His Son as the perfect expression of His nature, and sent His Spirit to live in us and coach us through the experiences of life. We can know what God is like.

So is God the God of the last minute? We will take this subject up tomorrow morning at RMCM. Come to church, bring your Bible, and let’s dig in together.

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

April. Warm sun, soft fluffy clouds, grass turning green, puppies playing in the yard, flowers popping out, barefoot children dreaming of summer just around the corner, put away the snow shovel, get out the BBQ…. NOT SO MUCH! At least not in Gunnison, Colorado.

One of the things that I have had to get used to here in Central Colorado, is the fact that April is almost always an absolutely hideous month weather-wise. March is actually pretty pleasant for the most part. It warms up, it is pretty sunny, the snow melts out of the valley, and things look good. But come April, it snows a lot, the wind howls, and the skies are gray. You get enough of a taste of Spring in March to really start to crave the warm weather, then wham–April comes in like a lion, and often goes out like, well, a lion!

For the first few years that we lived here this whole thing bothered me a lot. But I discovered a simple solution to April, one that has made it quite tolerable for me. This same solution seems to work when applied to many areas of life that could otherwise bring disappointment or discouragement. I have found that God will give me this same instruction most of the time when I am griping about, I mean praying over, an ongoing problem with either a person or a situation. Want to know what the magic key is? Here it is; when I gripe, most of the time my loving Heavenly Father tells me to “change my expectations.”

But wait, I didn’t go into prayer to have the Lord talk to me about my expectations. I wanted Him to either fix the problem by changing the situation, making it go away, turning a person’s heart a different direction, or showing me what steps to take to fix the problem. But no, almost without fail, He addresses my attitude, and specifically my expectations of the person or thing that I am seeing as a problem. You know what else I have discovered? It works. Most of the time, if I continue to seek Him, He will show me where my expectations have gotten off track.

Often, especially when dealing with people, I find that I have begun to expect something of them that they are simply not able to do at this point in their lives. Most of the time, I didn’t ever consciously decide to expect a person to act a certain way, or take a certain responsibility, expectations just sneak up on me. This is not to say that there are not appropriate standards by which all of us should treat one another, or that we shouldn’t have expectations of each other. But we have to remember that we are all works in progress. Galatians 6:5 in the Amplified Bible says that, “each of us have to bear our own little load of oppressive faults.” That just means that I know that I disappoint plenty of people with my shortcomings, and if I am going to live with and love people, then I will be disappointed from time to time too. Many times, the only reason that I feel disappointment is because my expectations were out of line in the first place.

So the Lord will show me how to change my expectations and in doing so to find peace again with both God and man. Once this is done, life is good, and I can once again enjoy people and things for what they are, and enjoy the process of growth in all things. And as for April, once in a while it surprises me. But on days like last Monday, when the snow is flying sideways outside my window, I know that April snow does make for beautiful July flowers in the mountains. I know that this extended winter is what makes our summers so sweet. April is what April is, and I have learned to appreciate it for its own special little set of blessings.

THE SAME NEW LIFE!

Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him….]

Ephesians 2:5 Amplified Bible

As we come together this month to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the defeat of sin and death, and the birth of the church, we must try to grasp the personal and inclusive nature of the work that Jesus completed on the cross. I think that sometimes, when we think about the cross, the grave, even the resurrection, we think of ancient events with which we have no personal contact. But see, we were actually there! The Son of God knew us, and planned for us, before the time of creation. When He died on that cross, he had us in mind, and held us in His heart. The Scripture says that it was for the joy that was set before Him that He endured the cross. That joy was the knowledge that His suffering was temporary, but His relationship with us would be eternal.

The Bible tells us that when He died on that cross, “Our old un-renewed self was nailed to the cross with Him… so that we might no longer be slaves to sin (Romans 6:6).” Do you ever think of yourself in those terms? I do. Especially when I am wrestling with some particular temptation toward sin, I will remind myself that the “old man” my old self, was nailed to the cross with Him. Since that old man is dead and gone, how can he still define who I am and what I do? At those times I remember that I have been born again into a new life. I am a new person, and I no longer have a nature that is permeated with sin. I just need to let that new person that Christ has created begin to live out through the members of my body. Sin no longer has the right or power to dominate our lives, because we now have the same, new, resurrection life that Jesus has!

The Scripture goes on to say that we were “buried with Him” through water baptism, so that just as He was raised to life by the glorious power of the Father, we too can live and behave in newness of life (Romans 6:4). Think of it–we CAN live in newness of life. The person that we used to be, the person that was dominated by worldly thinking and desires, died on the cross in Jesus Christ, and a brand new person rose to new life in Jesus Christ. Living a Godly life is easy when you know who you really are in Him. You don’t have to try to force new behavior out, you just live from the real you.

The best that any religion can possibly do is to give us a moral framework to try to emulate. Christianity however, is not a religion. It is a new life lived in a vital and continuous relationship with Jesus. It is us living in Him, and Him living in us. We do not have to “try” to live like Him, we can actually live in, from, and through Him. This is great news for me, because apart from Him I’m a mess–just ask my wife, she’ll tell you. Sure, I still blow it pretty frequently even now that I live in Him. But a lot of the time, when I am able to grasp the fact that I can rest in His ability, draw my strength from Him, follow His leading, I find that I can actually live beyond my own natural abilities and be the person He created me to be. You can too.

The Bible says that this new life includes something for our physical bodies too. Jesus, the Scripture says, took a terrible beating on his back. The Romans whipped him before He went to the cross. He endured that particular aspect of His suffering so that He could provide physical healing for our bodies (Isaiah 53:4, 5; 1 Peter 2:24; Matthew 8:17). God has always been a healer. In fact, in the Old Testament He referred to himself by names that meant, “God Your Healer,” and “The Rapid Stitcher.” Jesus healed people throughout His ministry, and He still does. No need to try to convince Him that we deserve to be healed for some reason; no need to try to strike a good works bargain in exchange for healing, He has already made it available for us just because He loves us. We just need to receive it by faith–awesome!

So we have a lot to celebrate in this season. Jesus has provided for us spirit, soul, body, financially, and relationally. Easter is one day each year when we pause to truly consider the magnificent implications of the resurrection. But for the Christian, every day is Resurrection Day. Enjoy your salvation today, and share it with a friend.

WHAT CAN POSSIBLY KEEP YOU DOWN?

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

(Philippians 4:13, NKJV).

All of us have days, and even seasons, where it seems like we just can’t move forward. Usually we know that God has spoken some thing to us, that there are specific things that He has called us to do, or that He has begun to do in us, but we just don’t feel like we are making any progress.

Life can throw seemingly impossible hurdles into our paths. “Friends” can be the first to remind us of the impossibility of what we are believing for. Relatives seem to have an unending supply of failure stories that apply to our situation. But deep in our hearts, we know that God has spoken, and that if God has indeed spoken, then if we don’t quit, His Word will come to pass.

Those are the days when I like to remember Philippians 3:13. We can do all things through Him, because we are not trying to do all things in our own strength, but in His. If God has said it (and by the way, there is no room for presumption and assumption here – we need to know that we are hearing God’s instructions clearly) then He will bring it to pass.

Today I just want to give you a very simple encouragement – do not give up on the dream that God has placed in your heart. Don’t quit in your struggle against carnality and sin. Don’t give up even if you fall over and over. Our failures do not reduce Jesus’ victory, or the power of His Spirit. God and His Word are powerful, and lasting freedom is on its way. Don’t settle for less than the best that the Lord has shown you. Find new encouragement today in the only true source of encouragement – the Lord Himself. Don’t get too focused on the issue, the dream, the failure, or the success. Keep your heart fixed on the Lord and He will renew your strength day by day. Life is not defined by accomplishing a certain set of tasks, it is about living in and for the Lord consistently.

So I will leave you with this final encouragement from the Apostle Paul, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17, NKJV).

PRAYER CAMP

I wonder why we think that Christians should know instinctively how to have a good prayer life. You know, there isn’t much evidence for that assumption, even Jesus’ own disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. Most of us are not satisfied with our prayer life. Most of us sense that we can have deeper intimacy with the Lord, be able to hear His voice better, and certainly we would like to see a great flow of power and life in our prayer life. Yet, we don’t approach prayer as something to be learned.

Someone might say, “But prayer is nothing more than communication with God. Why should that be something I need to learn?” I can tell you, after working with people for the last couple of decades, that to assume that we are all natural-born communicators is a huge mistake. Most married couples benefit greatly from a study of good communication skills. If we have this much difficulty communicating with another human being whose eyes we can see, and voice we can hear with the natural ear, why would we assume that two-way communication with God, who is a spirit, would be more natural to us?

Besides, prayer is much more than just two-way communication with God. Certainly that is the foundation of all life-giving prayer, but much of Christian prayer consists of the declaration, or proclamation, of the things that God is revealing to us. In other words, we are seeking to hear or see what is on God’s heart at a particular moment in time, and then to speak that out over our homes, churches, nation or world.

Then, we have to take into account the fact that some prayer is personal and individual, but Jesus made it clear that there is an increased power to prayer when a group of believers prays together in agreement. Knowing this, we need to learn, not only how to develop a strong individual prayer life, but how to harmonize together with others in prayer. All I can say is thank God for the Holy Spirit who is our personal coach, and teaches us to pray.

To that end, we are going to begin to study and practice prayer during our Wednesday night Bible Study. We are going to approach this subject as “Prayer Camp.” We are going to take one or two nuggets of truth about prayer each week. We will study these truths, discuss our various understandings of them, and then “practice” prayer. Our goal will be to coach one another into a more satisfying, effective, and powerful prayer life. I hope you will join us at 7pm on Wednesday evenings for Prayer Camp.

DIVINE COMPASSION

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. (Matthew 14:14, NIV)

Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him. (Matthew 20:34, NIV).

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” (Mark 1:41, NIV).

Have you even noticed the connection between the times when the Bible says that Jesus was “moved with compassion,” and the dynamic flow of God’s healing or delivering power? The word translated “compassion” in all of these verses means much more than feeling pity for someone’s condition. This term is very descriptive and powerful. It speaks of a deep yearning that comes up from the center of your being. Biblical compassion is more than an emotion. What Jesus was feeling was the deep, insatiable, almost overpowering, desire to set a person free from their affliction. This kind of compassion always moves a person to action, and that action releases the power of God on the scene.

Certainly in our modern language, we use the term compassion to describe what we feel when we see people in various kinds of distress. You might feel compassion for the needy, the downtrodden, those who are hungry or in need of medical attention. All of that is fine, but today I want to direct your attention to another kind of compassion–a compassion that flows through you right from the heart of God.

I believe that the same flow of compassion that preceded many of the miracles of Jesus, flows through His disciples today. After all, Jesus said that those who believe in Him would do the same works that He does, and even greater works. I think it’s important for us to stay sensitive to the flow of, for lack of a better term, God-compassion, that rises up within us. This compassion may arise in a time of prayer, and lead you to pray for people and situations that you may or may not even know about personally. This compassion may rise up and lead you to lay hands on a desperately ill person and see them recover. Compassion may lead you to give beyond your limits, or simply share a word of encouragement.

Whatever the case, if you will respond to this compassionate flow you will become a conduit for the life of God. Some of the most powerful times of ministry that Karen and I have ever experienced have been preceded by this sense of God’s yearning toward an individual. I haven’t always even known exactly what the Lord wanted to do, but there was no mistaking what He was feeling toward that person. In every case, if I have been obedient to do what God showed me to do in that moment, I got to be a part of something truly miraculous.

Let’s let our prayer lives be led by His compassion. Let’s go into each day asking the Lord who He wants to touch through us today. Then simply keep your eyes on Jesus, and stay sensitive to His instructions. You will be amazed at what He wants to do through you.

YOU ARE ON GOD'S MIND

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV).

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).

This verse from Jeremiah has been on my mind all day. I posted these two translations because they handle the word translated “thoughts” or “plans” differently. The verse can be accurately translated either way, and some translations use both words together. God is thinking thoughts toward us, and those thoughts include plans, designs, or dreams that He holds in His heart for us.

No matter how long I do this, no matter how much I study the Bible and attempt to communicate it to people, I never cease to be amazed by this very thing–God has us on His mind. He thinks about us, dreams about our success, our peace, and our prosperity in all areas of life. That, my friends, is amazing.

Some people may tell you, or at least imply, that God is busily planning your demise. These folks think that because every one of us is imperfect to say the least, God is contemplating the best way to punish us and snuff us out. I’ve got news for you. If God wanted us snuffed out, we would long since have been snuffed. This verse says that God’s plans are to prosper us, and not to harm us. Doesn’t He know that we have messed up big time? Yeah, He is aware of that fact, but He already took all of our sin upon Himself through His Son so that we could be forgiven, our lives redeemed and restored, and so that we could be reconciled to Him (2 Corinthians 5:18, 19). He loves you that much.

People that think that God is planning our destruction have missed some vital information about His true nature. Furthermore, they have underestimated the power of what Jesus did at the cross. I am not criticizing these folks; they have simply not understood the true meaning of the Gospel–the good news. The truth is that God loves you dearly and He has a great plan for your life. All that is left is for us to accept what God says about Himself as the truth, and to begin to interact with Him on a daily basis. He will gladly show us Himself, His plans, and bring those plans to pass in our lives. You are on God’s mind, and that’s a good thing!

THE POWER OF WORSHIP

Recently, we have been taking some extra time to fast and pray, and to seek God about His vision for Rocky Mountain Christian Ministries in 2010. One of the things that I have personally enjoyed the most, is having the opportunity to spend a little extra quality time worshipping the Lord. Some of the most satisfying times that I have in my Christian walk come when I make the space in my life for times of personal worship.

Take this morning for instance. I had ended up with several hours to kill while our Subaru was having some warranty work done. I had several options for how I spent that time. Since I had to bring the car to the front range for this work, there is always a long list of things that I need to do or buy while I am in “The Big City.” Anyone who lives in Gunnison, or another small town, will know what I mean. Trips to the city can be hectic to say the least. But since we are in this time of prayer and fasting, I had decided to use these hours to worship, pray, and generally soak in God’s presence and His Word.

As soon as I dropped the car off and got back to my room, I started thinking about all the people I needed to contact, the things I needed to do, and the places I really should go. My mind was instantly crammed with the same kind of busyness that yours is every time you decide to give the Lord some extra time. But this time I stood my ground. I first made a little list of the “urgent” things that I needed to do later today. I find that making such a list allows my busy brain to let it go. Then, I just put on a little worship music and started in. It is always amazing to me how fast you can become aware of the presence of God once you decide to set other things aside and just focus on Him.

I find that there are very few things as cleansing and satisfying as spending time worshipping God. If you are looking for a way to increase your ability to hear God’s voice, to quiet your troubled mind, receive a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, receive healing for your body or soul, or to simply regain your sense of direction, look no further than spending time worshipping the Lord.

I believe that worship is one of the most powerful experiences that is available to us as believers. Just the fact that God has made Himself so available to us, that you and I can have a tangible, genuine, personal, interaction with Almighty God at any time of the day or night, is amazing! The fact that the blood of Jesus has already opened the way for us to come into our Father’s presence is a wonderful truth. And, the fact that God Himself is seeking people that will simply worship Him in Spirit and in truth tells us that He really wants to share this experience with us.

I think it is important to remember that worship is not complicated. In fact, worship is not so much an action as it is a heart attitude that can be expressed through a number of different activities. The most common act of worship is simply setting your heart and mind on the Lord, and then letting your adoration of Him flow out of your mouth. This is often done through song, but certainly doesn’t have to be done that way.

Most of the time we begin the process by thanking God for who He is and what He has done. It seems that a natural progression then takes place leading us from thanksgiving into praise. Praise usually takes the form of bragging about God’s greatness out loud. Through thanksgiving and praise, we adjust, or sharpen, our focus until God fills our field of view. That is the point where we usually become acutely aware of His presence. We suddenly realize that God is right there with us and has been the whole time. At this point, we are often overwhelmed by a sense of His greatness and goodness.

I think that one of the most common misunderstandings about worship is that it somehow attracts God to us like a shark to blood in the water, or a preacher to doughnuts. This really isn’t true. In all things it is important to remember that our actions do not move God; God has already moved toward humanity in Christ - He is always on, and always available. When thanksgiving and praise move our hearts to the place where we become aware of His presence, the natural response of the human heart is a sense of awe accompanied by a bowing of the heart and the knee - this is worship.

So, I encourage you to make the space in your life for times of worship. You can begin by taking advantage of the times that we gather for worship as a church. At RMCM, we incorporate worship into almost every one of our meetings. In addition to our weekend services, and our Wednesday night service, we have special evenings of worship that are available to you. Beyond church gatherings, I would suggest that you make time for individual worship, or gather with your family and friends. We are believers. We are worshippers. In 2010, let’s build an even stronger culture of worship into our personal lives, our homes, and our church.

WHY FASTING AND PRAYER?

Frequently in Scripture, we find fasting and prayer together. For example, we know that prior to starting His earthly ministry, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting, and presumably seeking His Father’s face. In Daniel chapter 9, when Daniel wanted to better understand the meaning of Jeremiah’s prophecy, he sought God through prayer and fasting. In Acts 13, the whole church at Antioch was “worshipping the Lord and fasting.’ It was during this time of fasting and seeking the Lord that the Holy Spirit commanded the church to separate Paul and Barnabas to the work to which He had called them.

It is very clear that throughout biblical history, times of prayer and fasting have been extremely important to finding and fulfilling the will of God, both on an individual basis and corporately. But this is where we sometimes get confused about WHY fasting is so important. If we see these biblical examples, and begin to think that God answered prayer, or revealed truth, because of the great sacrifice that these saints made, we miss the point entirely. If we think that our pain and suffering is what gets God’s attention, we immediately shift the focus from God to us, and move into a legalistic approach to fasting.

While it is true that fasting is a good means of humbling ourselves before the Lord, and in that way opening our hearts to hear His voice, that is a very different idea from thinking that our pain catches His attention and moves Him toward us. We believers must be careful to approach every spiritual practice from a solidly New Testament perspective. That means that we never forget that the blood of Christ, and His blood alone, has already opened the way for us to have clear and open relationship with our Father God. Now then, we approach God on the basis of what Christ did at the cross, but we realize that our flesh, our desires, and our busyness, can often hinder our perception of what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to us. For that reason, we set aside some special times to tell the flesh that it doesn’t get to run our every waking moment. We tell our bodies, that although they are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and therefore important and sacred, they are not top dog in our lives. Our bodies are not evil, they are redeemed by the work of Christ, but they have not yet experienced the fullness of that work as they will in the resurrection.

So let your fasting experience bring a sense of humility to your heart. Let your hunger be an opportunity to resist the impulses of the flesh, and seek God with all your might. Use this time to soak in the Word, and the presence of God. You will come out healthier, stronger, and more spiritually sensitive.

Fasting

At RMCM, we are taking this first full week of the year as a time of fasting and prayer. We are doing this as a means of consecrating this first portion of the year to the Lord, and also as a way to seek Him for His vision for us in 2010. Here are a couple of thoughts on fasting that I hope will help you have a great week of seeking God.

Fasting is not something that Christians do as a sacrifice to get God’s attention, His favor, or His blessing. Favor and blessing are provided for the believer by the blood of Jesus, and appropriated by the believer through faith.

Fasting does not move God; God has already moved toward us in Christ. Fasting moves us–it humbles us, and puts us in a position to more clearly hear what God is saying to us.

Fasting demonstrates the fact that we live by the Spirit and by faith, not by the flesh. When we fast, we set food, and other distractions aside, not just for the sake of setting them aside, but in order to clear the way for some quality time with God.

Over the course of the week, we will be sharing a few ideas about fasting, as well as some keys to effective fasting. I hope all of you are off to a good start in setting this first full week of the year aside to God.

Karen and I would be very interested in your thoughts and experiences during this week. Drop us an email, and let us know how it is going.

Pastor John