It's Still All About Relationship

We are all wired differently and of course that's a great thing. Some people are thinkers, others are inventors, engineers, artists, athletes, writers and relational. I was certified years ago as a DISC Personality Profile Facilitator and loved helping people and teams identify strengths, here is a simple view! D for Doer/dominant; I for Influence/people person; S for Steady/loyal and C for Compliance/correctness. There are also many ways to learn, reading, watching, listening, doing and mentoring. When it comes to discipling others in the ways of living the life of a Jesus follower all of these are needed but the one item that is MOST NEEDED is the Mentoring/Relational method. Jesus spent 3 years with 12 men who were willing and teachable and the world has never been the same. Who are we to think that reading the latest greatest book, blog or magazine is better than a real person? Doing is great but if you don't know what you are doing then failure is an option, and no one likes to fail. Listening is a great way to learn as well and there are so many great podcasts we can access at anytime from the very best teachers in the world, but unfortunately you can't take that teacher with you during your day. The best method of discipleship is still the tried and true method of on-going relationship. Even if you've never had this experience for yourself, you can still be that person for someone else. If you have been a follower for a long time, it's never too late to have someone do some nuturing/iron sharpening so that you can still become all that God desires for you as you follow, obey and reproduce. I encourage you to take some steps that are quite do-able. 1. Identify some people of the same gender whose faith you look up to. 2. Pray and ask God to lead you to the person you'd most love to be mentored by. 3. Go ask the person and be specific about what you are asking. 4. If they say yes, set up a time to begin meeting and decide a time frame, a curriculum/study to go through and discuss what it is that you need or they think you need to become a strong, God confident and producing re-producer for the rest of your life. It doesn't matters if you are relational or not, the reality is you have something to offer to others and you have needs certain others can provide. It's still all about relationship!

Mentors

Our church has just kicked off the 2012 theme "The Year of Discipleship", I am pretty stoked about it because I am one of those fortunate ones who was formally and informally "discipled", or if you prefer "Mentored". I am so incredibly grateful for the men and women who poured into me, the list is long and I am deeper because of it. One of my catch phrases this year is - "Deep and Wide". What I mean by that is we want to help people go much more deep in their knowledge and handling of God's word and we want them to go wide with this knowledge as they obey the word of God which will impact others and the world.
What about you? Are there people you can point to who spent time with you to grow you up in God? If not, it's never too late and if you have been a follower of God for any length of time, then it's time to get busy and make a difference in someone else's life. Another phrase I will be using is Looking UP for people who are wiser and more knowledgeable than you, Looking Around for those at about the same place who can be Iron Sharpeners and are willing to be with you in the midst. Finally, Looking Below for those younger in the Lord than you who could use whatever you know and help them grow deeper.
Since discipleship is going to be on-going,life long journey let me ask you who is more deep than you, who can help you grow deeper? Come on, who is it, write their name(s) down and get ready to contact them. And while we are at it, who are some people in the same place as you who can be an Iron Sharpener? And finally who can you bring up who is younger than you? They need you! Write these names down, start praying for them and enter into a grow deep and wide relationship.

Not Fair!

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!

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!

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!

Getting Out of Stuck Mode

We all have areas of strength and weakness, and periodically it is a good thing to assess progress! We need to evaluate in order to grow! Being a learner is critical for you and I to become all that God desires, if we are not growing and learning than we are in stuck mode. Prayer is one of my strength areas but I've felt stuck for awhile, that is until I started reading "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson, wow, what a book! I can't hardly put it down! So in one of my shortest posts of all time I have a simple question for you.

What area's of strength are you cruising/maintaining/stuck? Come on you know what I am talking about and equally important, what will you do about it? You and I cannot afford to stay stuck, so our options are;

a. Read a book.
b. Read an article.
c. Find an expert and learn from them.
d. Take a class.
e. Search Websites.

But don't sit still!!! Be all you can be!

Thoughts in the Midst of a 21 Day Fast

Why do people fast? For health reasons, to lose weight, or for spiritual reasons, Right now I am finished with the second week of a 21 day fast. I am doing a "Daniel Fast" which means no caffeine, no meat, no dairy, no tea, sugars, nothing artificial. I am basically eating veggies and fruit and drinking water. Can I say it's been easy in many ways, partly because my wife is doing a GREAT job of buying and preparing foods that are tasty! Secondly, I have done all of my other fasts without food, and some by eating smoothies. Fasting is not about some sort of "rabbit's foot" or rubbing a magic lamp so God will bless me. It's about drawing closer to God and doing away with distractions and spending lots of time in prayer. Frankly things around me (others lives) have really become very hard. People are ending up in the hospital, people losing their jobs, marriages that are struggling and family situations of others at near breaking point. It is causing me to be more prayerful that's for sure. I am believing God for some very specific things but they are not about me but about Him. That's right, I so want God to receive the Glory and Honor and Praise for anything that happens because of this time. Our entire Staff fasted together for 10 days and our Senior Pastor did a 21 day fast before we all started. A couple other staff people are still fasting for the full 21 like I am. The best and least that happens is that we all draw closer to God than when we started. That God may do something significant for our church and others would be a total blessing. I really hope that when I am done I hunger and thirst more for God than I do a glass of iced tea, or a hot cup of Mocha, or a steak. After fasting completely from food for 40 days, the first temptation the devil tried to get Jesus to give in to was food. "tell this rock to turn into bread". Jesus wanted to eat I am sure of that, but Jesus' reply was scripture, "man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Doing the will of His Father was more fulfilling than filling his belly! Can the same be said of us? I realize through this time how much certain foods had me addicted and since my body is to be a holy temple of God I need to make sure pure and healthy foods go in.
What about you? What are you willing to do in order to hunger and thirst after God more than you are doing today? Is there something more important? That's an idol. Could you give up watching the Superbowl if it meant you could use that time instead on your knees listening to Him and drawing closer to Him? I pray that true follower of God's (not just believer's of His) would be willing to abandon anything in order to draw closer to God. James 4:8.