Okay it's confession time. (gulp) I struggle with fairness issues, more specifically, un-fairness issues. Unfortunately its due to self-righteousness and that's not good. Here are some examples of my struggle.
a. I am on a busy and backed up section of highway and up ahead is an exit lane on the right that people are supposed to use for exiting but some rather inpatient people use it to pass as many cars as possible and then at the last minute they jump back onto the highway having passed a whole bunch of cars (mine included).
b. A referee/umpire makes an obviously bad call that ends up effecting the outcome of a game or contest and the team/individual who should have won, loses. Do nice guys finish last?
Thankfully I am so glad that God is not into fairness! Psalm 103:10 says "He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities." In Matthew 20:1-16 Jesus tells the parable of the landowner who hires workers to bring in the harvest, but because he is desperate to get the crops in he ends up paying them all the same no matter what time of the day he hired them. I used to say "that's not fair" and of course that's the point of the parable. Thank God that He is not fair because none of use deserves His grace, forgiveness and freedom, Instead "God demonstrated His love by sending His only Son to take our place while we were sinners and enemies of His." Romans 5:8.
Life is NOT fair and there are injustices that do need a voice and action and we should do our best not allow them, but let's also remember that there is this incredibly great gift that God offers to all of us that isn't fair and it is the craziest demonstration of love ever! None of us deserve what God makes available, but God offers it anyway!! Not fair - praise God!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Strategic Spiritual Growth
In reading the "Great Commission" found in Matthew 28:19-20 we know that we are to go and make disciples, baptize them and teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded. It's called discipleship, There are so many ideas on how to teach others everything that Jesus commanded. Pastors preach from pulpits, blog, write books and we've used Sunday School classes, classes and Life Groups. Jesus took 12 guys and for 3 years He prepared them for world and made history changers out of them! If this was Jesus method, why should we do anything differently?
Here is a simple plan -
1. Do you know everything that Jesus commanded? Get to know it, read the Gospels!
2. Do you know another follower of Jesus? Ask them if they know everything Jesus commanded. If they do then move on, but challenge them to grow up a new follower.
3. Do you know someone who has recently chosen to follow Christ? Then schedule time with them for a year to go through the Gospels so that they can know everything Jesus commanded. Then move onto another one person the very next year.
It's been said that if a gifted evangelist could lead 1,000 people a night across the line of faith it would take 10,000 years to win the world to Christ, but if one true disciple were to take one new convert and spend just one year and teach them all that Jesus commanded and than have that person do the same the next year and you move onto someone new the next year, it would only take 32 years for the world to be won to Christ; David Watson "Called and Committed". Now that is exponential!
Search your heart and get strategic about truly helping others to grow up in the Word of God and become an agent of transformation, when you do this your life will be marked by incredible and eternal purpose and it will be a life worth living!
Here is a simple plan -
1. Do you know everything that Jesus commanded? Get to know it, read the Gospels!
2. Do you know another follower of Jesus? Ask them if they know everything Jesus commanded. If they do then move on, but challenge them to grow up a new follower.
3. Do you know someone who has recently chosen to follow Christ? Then schedule time with them for a year to go through the Gospels so that they can know everything Jesus commanded. Then move onto another one person the very next year.
It's been said that if a gifted evangelist could lead 1,000 people a night across the line of faith it would take 10,000 years to win the world to Christ, but if one true disciple were to take one new convert and spend just one year and teach them all that Jesus commanded and than have that person do the same the next year and you move onto someone new the next year, it would only take 32 years for the world to be won to Christ; David Watson "Called and Committed". Now that is exponential!
Search your heart and get strategic about truly helping others to grow up in the Word of God and become an agent of transformation, when you do this your life will be marked by incredible and eternal purpose and it will be a life worth living!
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Refinishing
Today I started a refinishing project on an old piece of furniture that nearly got ruined. What's so fun is the process and hopefully the reward when it's all done. After I started scrapping off the stripper and the layers of paint that came with it I saw the original wood and I am really hoping that once it's sanded down smooth it will be restored and be a potential show piece. Okay, maybe not a show piece, but better than it was before I started.
As I was in the process of scrapping I started thinking how this is what God does in our lives. We were created for relationship with Him but our choices, the world we were born into and other things ended up bringing out our ugliness and covered our beauty. The Bible, the work of the Holy Spirit and fellow followers of God can act as the chemicals and tools needed to peel back the gunk so our true beauty can be shown, most people shun this process.
In Genesis we read the account of creation. Each day God created something very unique and at the end of the day He said it was good. However when He finished creating man He said was was VERY good! Creation took 6 days and what we discover all over the world is amazing. Plants that are incedibly beautiful, bright tropical fish, mountain peaks that rise out of the earth toward the skies and canyons that are much more than grand! You get the idea, if not check out tomorrow's sunrise or sunset! Humans need more than 6 days for creation, we need 9 months to be formed. Psalm 139 shares a word picture of God knitting us in our Mother's womb, it says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. That God takes 9 months with each of us and only needed 6 days for glorious creation says alot about how special we are!
No back to the stripping off the paint of the antique furniture. The process I am in right now is smelly, not easy, time consuming and it may rub my fingers a little raw, but I am keeping my sights on the end product for when I can brush some light stain over the natural grain of the wood and it's original beauty will be seen.
I am not sure what gunk is covering your inner beauty, it could be doubt in yourself or that others placed there when you were young, it could have been a wound from the past that you have hung onto even though you wished you wouldn't. It could be shame, fear, an incident that you think can't be overcome, a really poor decision you regret or a failure you can't seem to let go of. Why not do the hard work of stripping away these coats of ugliness so your true beauty can be seen and you can live a life of freedom and beauty? It starts with a prayer of admitting you aren't who you want to be or could be, a prayer of surrender to let God do what He wants. Next, make a list of wrongs that you have done or that have been done to you, deal with them in a healthy way and move on. Believe the best in yourself and in others and get rid of the everyday cynic in you and take the high road. He makes all things new, the old is gone and the new has come and it's just a prayer and some stripping and sanding away!
As I was in the process of scrapping I started thinking how this is what God does in our lives. We were created for relationship with Him but our choices, the world we were born into and other things ended up bringing out our ugliness and covered our beauty. The Bible, the work of the Holy Spirit and fellow followers of God can act as the chemicals and tools needed to peel back the gunk so our true beauty can be shown, most people shun this process.
In Genesis we read the account of creation. Each day God created something very unique and at the end of the day He said it was good. However when He finished creating man He said was was VERY good! Creation took 6 days and what we discover all over the world is amazing. Plants that are incedibly beautiful, bright tropical fish, mountain peaks that rise out of the earth toward the skies and canyons that are much more than grand! You get the idea, if not check out tomorrow's sunrise or sunset! Humans need more than 6 days for creation, we need 9 months to be formed. Psalm 139 shares a word picture of God knitting us in our Mother's womb, it says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. That God takes 9 months with each of us and only needed 6 days for glorious creation says alot about how special we are!
No back to the stripping off the paint of the antique furniture. The process I am in right now is smelly, not easy, time consuming and it may rub my fingers a little raw, but I am keeping my sights on the end product for when I can brush some light stain over the natural grain of the wood and it's original beauty will be seen.
I am not sure what gunk is covering your inner beauty, it could be doubt in yourself or that others placed there when you were young, it could have been a wound from the past that you have hung onto even though you wished you wouldn't. It could be shame, fear, an incident that you think can't be overcome, a really poor decision you regret or a failure you can't seem to let go of. Why not do the hard work of stripping away these coats of ugliness so your true beauty can be seen and you can live a life of freedom and beauty? It starts with a prayer of admitting you aren't who you want to be or could be, a prayer of surrender to let God do what He wants. Next, make a list of wrongs that you have done or that have been done to you, deal with them in a healthy way and move on. Believe the best in yourself and in others and get rid of the everyday cynic in you and take the high road. He makes all things new, the old is gone and the new has come and it's just a prayer and some stripping and sanding away!
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