Sitting in the Dark
I awoke yesterday morning to a tumultuous thunderstorm rumbling through the area where I was staying for my annual prayer retreat. The thunder was so loud at times I thought the skies would be split wide open. The foundation of the house shook, the window panes rattled, and the rain pummeled the walls and roof.
I got out of bed and cooked an early breakfast before settling in for prayer and devotions. I was lost in fellowship with the Lord when the lights began to flicker and eventually they dimmed completely when the electricity went out. It was early in the morning with barely any natural light piercing the darkness complicated by the overcast skies from the storm outside. I found myself sitting in the dark for a couple of hours.
It was too dark to read even when sitting near the windows. I picked up my copy of our church membership roll and made my way to a couch located near three large windows. I strained to read each name through the shadows. My only option was to pray. I could not even see to write in my prayer journal so I nestled myself on the couch and name by name and family by family I began to intercede on their behalves.
Before long I had prayed through the list and was thanking God for the darkness and the stillness of that moment. I thanked the Lord for the retreat that had been made available for me to retreat to. I thanked God for the moisture on the land to replenish the earth. I was grateful for the coolness of the day leaving the temperature inside the cabin comfortable without the air conditioning or ceiling fans working. I thanked the Lord for the special people He has put into my life over the years. I enjoyed sweet communion with the Lord during those hours in the dark.
I am not sure how long I was in that prayer time. Time became irrelevant as I sat in the dimness with the Lord. Outside the storm raged on with ferocity. Inside I experienced a tranquility of the soul that defies description. Outside there was dangerous lightening, thunder, rain, and wind. Inside there was the awesome presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the peace that goes beyond comprehension. It was a beautiful time.
As I write this I have returned from my retreat and am sitting at my desk in Paradise, TX. When I think back on that time my heart has become burdened that millions are sitting in the dark spiritually. They have no hope. No direction. No peace. No future. They have no refuge from the storms that rage around them. These are people who have either rejected the hope of Jesus Christ or who have never heard of the hope He offers.
Millions are trapped in the domain of darkness and cannot figure out why they can’t find peace no matter how hard they search or to what extremes they are willing to go to find it. The truth is they are looking in all the wrong places. Life continues to pound these people as they sit in spiritual darkness. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world, he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” [Jn 8:12]
Multitudes upon multitudes sit in darkness, they walk in darkness, and they live in darkness. Life does not work for them. They pursue happiness which continually eludes them. Solomon experienced this first hand when he wrote, “All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.”[Eccl 2:10-11]
When the electricity went out I was in a two bedroom rustic cabin nestled among the trees. Yet, not far from where I was staying was a very large five bedroom and three bath house. When the lights went out, we were all sitting in the dark regardless of economic status, luxurious accommodations, or primitive lodging. So it is with people spiritually. Riches, fame, power, do not offer true direction in life more than those who dwell in poverty, obscurity, or the weak.
Jesus Christ is the light of the world. All of the world. He alone can give life meaning if we are willing to follow Him. There is the catch. People begin to squirm when challenged to follow Christ. Many do not know want to go where He is leading. Following Christ is more about a lifestyle than a destination. He wants all of our days surrendered to Him and His purposes. That may appear frightening but the truth is it is liberating. Just like I did not fear the storm while I remained in the safety and shelter of that cabin, neither do I fear the storms of life because Jesus Christ is able to illuminate even the darkest hour or circumstance with hope when His refuge is sought.
Jesus said He was the light of the world. That means your world too. He is available for comfort, strength, security, peace, and shelter in your world right now regardless of what you are going through. He is light even in the middle of cancer, divorce, death, stress, financial set backs, and when you feel like you are drowning in a sea of despair. Run to the Light. Warm up in His glow. Embrace His direction as He illuminates the path and your next steps.
Following Jesus means letting Him go first and falling in behind Him to accompany Him wherever He goes. How many have fumbled through life hoping they are making the right choices about whom they marry, where they work, what house they live in, how to raise their children, how to manage their money, and how to plan for the future. It can all seem like a big gamble and throw in the tumult of daily trials and everything can seem disorienting. That is because living life apart from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is like a person groping in the pitch black darkness trying to find their way through a forest. They might make a little progress but they will fall, be tripped up, stumble, and scraped along the way and could very easily get disoriented and remain lost and unable to find their way. Jesus is our light to navigate our way through the forests, over the mountains, across the oceans, and from the beginning to the end of deserts in this life.
In Him we have the Light of Life. In Him we have the reason of mind and the power of understanding at our finger tips. He is our advantage for He knows the way. He is the author and perfector of our faith. [Heb 12:2] I may have sat in the dark for a couple of hours yesterday morning but I do not have sit in spiritual darkness because He has been, continues to be, and forever will be my Light of life.
If you have never started a personal relationship with Him, why not start today. You don’t have to have a magic formula or fanciful prayers to do this. Just cry out to Him for help and rescue while you sit in the domain of darkness. He will come to our rescue and bring you into the Kingdom of His marvelous light. [Col 1:13-14]
Friday, May 16, 2008
Send Me
Send Me
[Is 6:8] Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I send me!”
As I write this I am enjoying the second day of my annual prayer retreat. The solitude has been refreshing as well as the time to read, pray, and meditate. It seems God is exploding vision in my heart and mind while I am here which is both good and also frightening.
He has dreams and purposes He wants accomplished and during my time here He is inviting me to join Him in those dreams and purposes. They are HUGE! They are bigger than anything I have ever dreamed for my own life. As I sit at this lap top computer trying to compile my thoughts, I am awestruck by His invitation. My initial response is much like Moses’ response in Exodus three. “Who am I?” [Ex 3:11]
If you look back over my life you will find it very ordinary. I made average grades all through my years in school in the Lufkin Independent School District as well as during my time at Howard Payne University. I was never a part of any distinguished organization for academic excellence. I was an average kid who admittedly did not take school very seriously through High School or college. I did not complete a seminary degree despite three attempts at it. I often found myself bored in class and got lost in day dreams about ministry.
My ministry track record has been far from stellar. I know the Lord has used me but there have been plenty of failures and flops along the way. I have traveled many laps around the road less traveled strewn with bumps, bruises, and brokenness. I have dreamt large dreams but at the same time have seldom realized them no matter how hard I prayed or labored.
When God gave me the invitation to come to Paradise, TX I really did not have any idea what He had in store. Now, three years later I am staggered and wobbly kneed by His invitation to step out further in faith and believe Him for impossible dreams. He has invited me to believe for visions that would take a lifetime to see fulfilled. After my initial response of who am I, I am now thinking through the scriptures of the ordinary people God used in extraordinary ways. Joshua, David, Elijah, Peter, and John, just to mention a very few from the scriptures.
Just like me, many of you feel like ordinary nobodies without special talents or abilities. If you listen closely though, you might just hear Him inviting you to join Him in some kingdom venture that is larger than you and your abilities. Your response and my response to those invitations will determine the trajectory of our lives. Will we live out our days dutifully as good church men and good church women or will be believe God for what the experts say cannot be done? Will we dutifully fulfill our church obligations and leave a nice tidy legacy after we are gone or will be make ourselves available to God for His own purposes and live to promote His glory? These are some of the most crucial questions of our lives.
Churches are filled with people who have rejected God’s invitation and shrunk back in fear and unbelief. I am not saying that God’s invitation will always be easy, make sense, and lead to more comfort and security. What I am saying is that God is looking for people who were created to join Him in eternal plans and do works that give life meaning and intention. We were not created to take up space for seven or eight decades and then fade from the scene having done nothing with our lives to gives God glory. We were put here to labor for God and join Him in exploits that defy imagination.
For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared before hand so that we would walk in them. [Eph 2:10] Before you and I were even born God had plans for us. We were created with purpose but those purposes can be daunting. There are good works which we are supposed to accomplish through God’s help for the glory of His name. It is up to us to accept God’s invitation and by faith to believe Him for those good works. Sometimes those purposes create raw fear that paralyzes us with unbelief and leaves us frozen in our tracks. Will faith triumph fear and you and I do what we were born to do for Him.
One of those things for me is to write. It is a calling from God. Just like I was born to breathe I was also born to write. God is inviting me to believe Him for a greater impact on this writing ministry. Whether it is through the avenue of a blog, through our church and No Compromise Ministries newsletters, or through books, God has created me to do the good work of writing for Him. I was born to do this. Two of the things I do that make me feel most alive is writing and preaching for Him. Here comes the faith part. Do I believe God can and will take these writings and books and use them for His purposes not only in Paradise, Wise County, and even across our own state and nation? God is challenging me to believe Him to distribute my books and writings around the world. I found myself praying for those books to sell and be distributed not by the thousands or tens of thousands, but by the hundreds of thousands and even millions. As soon as I write that the next thing that comes across my mind is “Who am I?”
It is the sin of unbelief. It is the enemy trying to keep me living beneath God’s intended destiny for me. I am reminded of what Paul wrote in First Corinthians, For consider your calling, brethren, that there was not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no many may boast before God. [I Cor 1:26-29] The issue is not who am I but who is the God who wills this to happen and invites me to join Him.
Yes, who are we to be used of God. We are nobodies. We are weak, base, not wise, foolish, but we have been chosen by Him and invited to join Him for the purpose of His glory.
Your invitation will be different than mine. You are not all called to preach or to write. You are not all called to teach Sunday School, or hop on a plane to serve as a missionary. All are not called to ministries of prominence but that does not mean that you are not called to ministries of eternal impact, influence, and significance.
You can sit around the rest of your life hearing God’s invitation and shrinking back in fear and live a life of unbelief and lack of destiny. I do not think that type of life will be a rewarding one. I am challenging you to push through the tissue paper thin walls of fear and cry out to God with your most sincere prayer, “HERE AM I. SEND ME!” You don’t even have to know what all that means at this time. You must come to the point where you are available to God to do anything, anywhere, at anytime, for any determined length of time. It’s total surrender.
I know for many that is a down right terrifying proposition. Saying yes to God with no strings attached may sound frightening but if you believe that God is going to call you to join Him in something you were born to do and probably already long to do down deep, what is there to be scared of? God responded to all of Moses’ excuses by simply saying, “I AM WHO I AM…!” [Ex 3:14] There is nothing you will ever need to join God’s invitation that He is not sufficient to provide. Courage. Strength. Provision. Open doors. Wisdom. You can go on and on. My challenge is to scream this short prayer in your soul and then wait on God, “HERE AM I. SEND ME!” It will be a thrilling ride.
[Is 6:8] Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I send me!”
As I write this I am enjoying the second day of my annual prayer retreat. The solitude has been refreshing as well as the time to read, pray, and meditate. It seems God is exploding vision in my heart and mind while I am here which is both good and also frightening.
He has dreams and purposes He wants accomplished and during my time here He is inviting me to join Him in those dreams and purposes. They are HUGE! They are bigger than anything I have ever dreamed for my own life. As I sit at this lap top computer trying to compile my thoughts, I am awestruck by His invitation. My initial response is much like Moses’ response in Exodus three. “Who am I?” [Ex 3:11]
If you look back over my life you will find it very ordinary. I made average grades all through my years in school in the Lufkin Independent School District as well as during my time at Howard Payne University. I was never a part of any distinguished organization for academic excellence. I was an average kid who admittedly did not take school very seriously through High School or college. I did not complete a seminary degree despite three attempts at it. I often found myself bored in class and got lost in day dreams about ministry.
My ministry track record has been far from stellar. I know the Lord has used me but there have been plenty of failures and flops along the way. I have traveled many laps around the road less traveled strewn with bumps, bruises, and brokenness. I have dreamt large dreams but at the same time have seldom realized them no matter how hard I prayed or labored.
When God gave me the invitation to come to Paradise, TX I really did not have any idea what He had in store. Now, three years later I am staggered and wobbly kneed by His invitation to step out further in faith and believe Him for impossible dreams. He has invited me to believe for visions that would take a lifetime to see fulfilled. After my initial response of who am I, I am now thinking through the scriptures of the ordinary people God used in extraordinary ways. Joshua, David, Elijah, Peter, and John, just to mention a very few from the scriptures.
Just like me, many of you feel like ordinary nobodies without special talents or abilities. If you listen closely though, you might just hear Him inviting you to join Him in some kingdom venture that is larger than you and your abilities. Your response and my response to those invitations will determine the trajectory of our lives. Will we live out our days dutifully as good church men and good church women or will be believe God for what the experts say cannot be done? Will we dutifully fulfill our church obligations and leave a nice tidy legacy after we are gone or will be make ourselves available to God for His own purposes and live to promote His glory? These are some of the most crucial questions of our lives.
Churches are filled with people who have rejected God’s invitation and shrunk back in fear and unbelief. I am not saying that God’s invitation will always be easy, make sense, and lead to more comfort and security. What I am saying is that God is looking for people who were created to join Him in eternal plans and do works that give life meaning and intention. We were not created to take up space for seven or eight decades and then fade from the scene having done nothing with our lives to gives God glory. We were put here to labor for God and join Him in exploits that defy imagination.
For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared before hand so that we would walk in them. [Eph 2:10] Before you and I were even born God had plans for us. We were created with purpose but those purposes can be daunting. There are good works which we are supposed to accomplish through God’s help for the glory of His name. It is up to us to accept God’s invitation and by faith to believe Him for those good works. Sometimes those purposes create raw fear that paralyzes us with unbelief and leaves us frozen in our tracks. Will faith triumph fear and you and I do what we were born to do for Him.
One of those things for me is to write. It is a calling from God. Just like I was born to breathe I was also born to write. God is inviting me to believe Him for a greater impact on this writing ministry. Whether it is through the avenue of a blog, through our church and No Compromise Ministries newsletters, or through books, God has created me to do the good work of writing for Him. I was born to do this. Two of the things I do that make me feel most alive is writing and preaching for Him. Here comes the faith part. Do I believe God can and will take these writings and books and use them for His purposes not only in Paradise, Wise County, and even across our own state and nation? God is challenging me to believe Him to distribute my books and writings around the world. I found myself praying for those books to sell and be distributed not by the thousands or tens of thousands, but by the hundreds of thousands and even millions. As soon as I write that the next thing that comes across my mind is “Who am I?”
It is the sin of unbelief. It is the enemy trying to keep me living beneath God’s intended destiny for me. I am reminded of what Paul wrote in First Corinthians, For consider your calling, brethren, that there was not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no many may boast before God. [I Cor 1:26-29] The issue is not who am I but who is the God who wills this to happen and invites me to join Him.
Yes, who are we to be used of God. We are nobodies. We are weak, base, not wise, foolish, but we have been chosen by Him and invited to join Him for the purpose of His glory.
Your invitation will be different than mine. You are not all called to preach or to write. You are not all called to teach Sunday School, or hop on a plane to serve as a missionary. All are not called to ministries of prominence but that does not mean that you are not called to ministries of eternal impact, influence, and significance.
You can sit around the rest of your life hearing God’s invitation and shrinking back in fear and live a life of unbelief and lack of destiny. I do not think that type of life will be a rewarding one. I am challenging you to push through the tissue paper thin walls of fear and cry out to God with your most sincere prayer, “HERE AM I. SEND ME!” You don’t even have to know what all that means at this time. You must come to the point where you are available to God to do anything, anywhere, at anytime, for any determined length of time. It’s total surrender.
I know for many that is a down right terrifying proposition. Saying yes to God with no strings attached may sound frightening but if you believe that God is going to call you to join Him in something you were born to do and probably already long to do down deep, what is there to be scared of? God responded to all of Moses’ excuses by simply saying, “I AM WHO I AM…!” [Ex 3:14] There is nothing you will ever need to join God’s invitation that He is not sufficient to provide. Courage. Strength. Provision. Open doors. Wisdom. You can go on and on. My challenge is to scream this short prayer in your soul and then wait on God, “HERE AM I. SEND ME!” It will be a thrilling ride.
Eagle's Rest
Eagle’s RestYet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. [Is 30:31] To say that life is busy is an understatement. People work longer hours, with more technology than ever but we seem to have less time at our disposal. When was the last time you woke up with nothing on your calendar for the day? I bet is has been awhile for many of you. Add to that our families and their varied activities. Kids are not only involved in sports today, often they are involved in multiple sports in multiple leagues at the same time. Dinner is often eaten in the car on the way to a game or practice. Life becomes a series of coordinating who is playing what sport on what night in what town. Sit down dinners at home are almost extinct. You could add all the activities from church, school, and communities to those and soon you would be exhausted from simply reading your own to do list, not to mention putting forth the effort to attend every meeting, take care of each responsibility that has been entrusted to you, and trying to work hard to earn a little extra money to get ahead. Most of time can you guess what suffers the most? It is our souls. Our souls become hurried, rushed, drained, depleted, and dried up. When this happens we are of little use to God or to the people He puts in our paths. How many today reading this would be honest and confess, my soul is empty, withered, and weary? I don’t why we allow it to happen but when we get busy, busier than God intended, why are we tempted to eliminate our times of waiting for the Lord in solitude and silence? One of the meanings of the word “wait” in [Is 40:31] is to linger. I love that. Instead of lingering with the Lord we convince ourselves we can do life without Him or with less time with Him and we end up crashing and burning under the stresses of life emotionally, physically, and at times even morally as we just want to find some relief from all the pressure and seek it in the wrong places. If we would stop and refocus by lingering with the Lord we would benefit in at least three ways. First we would gain new strength. Notice Isaiah says we would gain new strength not old strength. I know many driven people who can will themselves to past fatigue to get up and battle through another day. They push through exhaustion day after day physically but sooner or later it catches up. Old strength can wear out. Old strength fades as we get older and as our bodies begin break down. Immune systems fail, heart disease can develop, anxieties increase, and instead of finding new strength we only find weakness and frailty. There are days when all of our old strength is depleted and there is nothing left. The word strength can mean “hardiness, vigor, or force.” Does God have the ability renew our vigor from day to day if we linger with Him? Absolutely. Not only can He do that but He can make our days more efficient as we lay them before Him. He can continually supply us with new hardiness and vigor for the battles of each day. He can enable us to accomplish more and be more productive with Him as we linger daily than we could be in a week of living life in our own power. He has the ability to renew our creative strength and we solve problems both at home and at work. He can bless us with the renewed strength to weather the emotional, financial, and other storms that can suddenly blow into our lives helping us to stand steadfast. A second benefit of waiting on the Lord is our being able to mount up on the wings of eagles. What does that mean? We know eagles are birds who love solitude. We also know eagles soar. In my own life I have experienced time and time again over more than two decades that my times of lingering with the Lord privately have helped me to soar over extremely difficult and trying times. God has lifted me above the physical realm and taken me into spiritual realm to give me His perspective on my problems and trials. Spiritually soaring has helped me to take the long view of life and ministry and to realize that things that seem like such a big deal today will soon be forgotten in the shadows of tomorrow. I need God’s point of view continually pounded into my soul so I do not lose heart and want to quit. If we could stop long enough and linger with Him until He helps us soar above our problems and our pains, we might not lose hope and give in to despair. Why is it so hard for us to slow down in order for Him to let us mount up on the wings of eagles? We do not understand what we are forsaking during these times. Spending time lingering with the Lord should not be a duty but a delight. We have been blinded to the benefits and deceived into the bondage of stress, sickness, burdens, depression, and despair. God wants to deliver us from all of that and grant us victory and freedom like an eagle soaring through the breeze. A third advantage we will gain as we wait on the Lord is spiritual endurance. There are times in life that it seems we have to run. Life is busy, the demands are great, and pace of life is fast. During these times if we will make waiting on the Lord a priority He will helps us run and not get tired. He will develop the endurance and stamina needed not only to run but keep running until we finish. Just like it takes training for a runner to develop endurance it also takes spiritual training to run the race of life and not get tired and quit when the going gets tough. Spiritual tenacity can be developed as we patiently tarry with the Lord day in and day out. There are also seasons of life when the pace slows to a leisurely walk and do not become weary. I have just come out of the season of running and am enjoying a few days of walking. I am ironically enjoying a prayer retreat at a place called Eagle’s Rest Retreat. It is one of the most special spots on the whole planet for me. During my time here I am enjoying a leisure strolls with the Lord. I have filled my time with reading, praying, meditating, and writing. I stayed up late last night reading and slept in late before I enjoyed my time of waiting on the Lord. Moment by moment and hour by hour I am being renewed, rejuvenated, reinvigorated, and revived for the ministry God has entrusted to me. I know when I return home it will be time to run again but I can run when God is equipping and enabling me to do the work. I can keep up the pace He has set for my life because we have put in the training as I have waited on Him day after day. I’ve already had a peak at what awaits me when I get back. Meetings. Mission projects. Preaching. Teaching. A Mission Trip. More writing. Family. Expansion projects. Most importantly of all, more mornings of waiting on the Lord and lingering with the Lord.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I Miss My Time with You
I Miss My Time With You
Saturday I rode my bike for forty-six miles and came home exhausted only to have Tanner want to play some catch in the front yard. He wanted to work on his pitching so I dutifully agreed to be a good father and take my weary bones in the front yard to play catch. Taylor wanted me to take him to the weight room to work out after dinner (he had asked me earlier in the day and I was hoping he would forget) and again out of sheer duty and wanting to have quality time with one of my children I took him to the weight room.
I had no trouble sleeping Saturday night. It seems I fell fast asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. I was at my office by 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning and except for leaving for lunch for about an hour and a half, I was at the church with a series of meetings and normal worship services until after 8:30 p.m. It was a long but richly rewarding day.
Yesterday I began my day early and then made a trip to Fort Worth for a lady having hip replacement surgery. It was after that surgery that I began to hit a wall physically. I was exhausted. I went to an out of the way restaurant hoping to find a quiet corner to read and write in my journal but before I knew it I was surrounded by throngs of people. The drive home was a challenge because I was so sleepy. I kept praying that the ominous clouds would produce rain so I would not have to coach the boys in baseball that night. No such luck. The game went on as scheduled and as I was getting ready to go to it I received a phone call from a church member telling me about some misfortune some of other members had fallen upon which required my immediate attention. I dropped the boys off at the ball park after talking to our other coach and sped away to do ministry. When that was over I arrived back at the park just before the opening pitch.
Our team got hammered and the whole game I kept looking at my watch thinking how tired I was and wishing I could fast forward time. Usually I can push myself physically for several days but sooner or later it catches up with me and I hit a wall. When that happens I know I need sleep. Last night I went to bed early and had no intentions of getting up early. I intended to sleep in.
I woke up at 4:00 a.m. The thought crossed my mind that I should get up and seek the Lord but my flesh reminded me of how tired I was and how busy I had been over the past several weeks. Sleeping in one morning would not be the end of the world. So I comforted myself with those thoughts and drifted back to sleep. I am not sure what woke me up the second time but when my eyes opened I was looking at the window next to our bed. Again I entertained the thought of getting up to pray but my flesh opposed this idea.
What happened next really grabbed my attention. Before I can relate that experience we need to go back in time. Over fifteen years ago a friend of my made a cassette tape of several different Christian songs. One of the songs he included on that tape that moved me more than the others was a song sung by Larnelle Harris entitled I Miss My Time with You. The lyrics to that song are as follows:
There He was just waiting in our old familiar place,
And empty spot beside Him, where once I used to wait,
To be filled with strength and wisdom for the battles of the day,
I would have passed Him by again if I didn’t hear Him say,
(chorus) I miss my time with you, those moments together,
I need to be with you each day and it hurts me when you say,
You’re too busy – busy trying to serve me
But how can you serve me when your spirit’s empty
There’s a longing in my heart wanting more than just a part of you
It’s true – I MISS MY TIME WITH YOU.
So this morning at a little before 5:00 a.m., I was looking out the window thinking about going back to sleep when suddenly the words flashed across the screen of my mind, “I miss my time with you, those moments together, …” I could not believe it. It was rewinding over and over until I drug my weary frame from the bed and slipped on some clothes, grabbed my keys, and drove to the church, where I sat in the secret place of my office to seek the Lord. There is nothing more important I do on any given day than to spend that time with the Father. It was a blessing He woke me up and He reminded me of the words of that song. Suddenly sleep did not seem that important in light of the time He wanted to spend with me.
“In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went to a secluded place and was praying there.” [Mark 1:35] If Jesus had to have His time with the Father how much more do you and I need our time with the Father as well? How many times have you and I walked by that old familiar place where we have so often met with the Lord and because of our busyness, and in my case my busyness for Him as a pastor, we did not take time to sit with Him? We can do nothing of eternal significance apart from Him. NOTHING! I am not sure we really believe that because we sure do not prioritize our time with Him first and foremost. “I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit for apart from Me you can do nothing.” [Jn 15:5]
I am so thankful for men like Eli Bernard, who led me to faith in the Lord and discipled me and Lynn Sasser who taught us how to have a quiet time way back at youth camp at the Pineywoods Baptist Encampment in East Texas when I was a teenager. These two men have no idea how the Lord used them in my life. Since 1985 I have sought to make time with God a regular and integral part of my life. I am so thrilled with how the Lord has worked deep in my heart and revealed truth to me over the years. Without a doubt the most profound encounters I have had with the Lord have almost always happened when I arose early, departed from the crowds, and sought Him while isolated and engulfed in silence. Those sacred moments have defined the man that I am and they are continuing to define the man God is growing me to be to match His ever increasing kingdom assignments.
Does God miss His time with you? When was the last time you met with Him? Do you have an old familiar meeting spot? Has God been waiting for you there in vain as of late? When was the last time you made your time with Him a priority? This morning, last night, a few days ago, last week, well over a month, or even longer. Our time with the Lord is the most vital part of our relationship with Him. In those sacred moments He does things in us, for us, and through us that cannot be explained. He becomes more real, His voice is clearer, and our hearts are transformed in His presence. His shaping, crafting, and molding may be hard for us to notice in the beginning but soon we are made into a vessel of honor for His good pleasure to be used as He sees fit. Don’t miss out on your time with God. Don’t let Him say He misses His time with you.
I’m so glad the Lord reminded me of that song this morning. I have been singing it in my heart throughout the day. I am so glad I had my early morning season of prayer and meditation on the scriptures. I am so glad He took the initiative to wake me up because no matter how much I love Him and long to be with Him, He loves me more and longs to commune with me more. That is a mind boggling concept. HE LONGS TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU AND ME! What do we have to offer God that really needs? He does not need my fellowship. He does not need my talents or gifts. I have nothing to offer but He chooses to spend time with me anyway.
If Sovereign God, who is continually busy, accomplishing His purposes, expanding His kingdom, moving mountains, listening to and answering prayers, administrating the affairs of this world, watching over and protecting His own, and ministering to the hurts of the wounded, if He has time to spend with us, what excuse do we have? NONE. Whatever it takes spend time with Him today.
Saturday I rode my bike for forty-six miles and came home exhausted only to have Tanner want to play some catch in the front yard. He wanted to work on his pitching so I dutifully agreed to be a good father and take my weary bones in the front yard to play catch. Taylor wanted me to take him to the weight room to work out after dinner (he had asked me earlier in the day and I was hoping he would forget) and again out of sheer duty and wanting to have quality time with one of my children I took him to the weight room.
I had no trouble sleeping Saturday night. It seems I fell fast asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. I was at my office by 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning and except for leaving for lunch for about an hour and a half, I was at the church with a series of meetings and normal worship services until after 8:30 p.m. It was a long but richly rewarding day.
Yesterday I began my day early and then made a trip to Fort Worth for a lady having hip replacement surgery. It was after that surgery that I began to hit a wall physically. I was exhausted. I went to an out of the way restaurant hoping to find a quiet corner to read and write in my journal but before I knew it I was surrounded by throngs of people. The drive home was a challenge because I was so sleepy. I kept praying that the ominous clouds would produce rain so I would not have to coach the boys in baseball that night. No such luck. The game went on as scheduled and as I was getting ready to go to it I received a phone call from a church member telling me about some misfortune some of other members had fallen upon which required my immediate attention. I dropped the boys off at the ball park after talking to our other coach and sped away to do ministry. When that was over I arrived back at the park just before the opening pitch.
Our team got hammered and the whole game I kept looking at my watch thinking how tired I was and wishing I could fast forward time. Usually I can push myself physically for several days but sooner or later it catches up with me and I hit a wall. When that happens I know I need sleep. Last night I went to bed early and had no intentions of getting up early. I intended to sleep in.
I woke up at 4:00 a.m. The thought crossed my mind that I should get up and seek the Lord but my flesh reminded me of how tired I was and how busy I had been over the past several weeks. Sleeping in one morning would not be the end of the world. So I comforted myself with those thoughts and drifted back to sleep. I am not sure what woke me up the second time but when my eyes opened I was looking at the window next to our bed. Again I entertained the thought of getting up to pray but my flesh opposed this idea.
What happened next really grabbed my attention. Before I can relate that experience we need to go back in time. Over fifteen years ago a friend of my made a cassette tape of several different Christian songs. One of the songs he included on that tape that moved me more than the others was a song sung by Larnelle Harris entitled I Miss My Time with You. The lyrics to that song are as follows:
There He was just waiting in our old familiar place,
And empty spot beside Him, where once I used to wait,
To be filled with strength and wisdom for the battles of the day,
I would have passed Him by again if I didn’t hear Him say,
(chorus) I miss my time with you, those moments together,
I need to be with you each day and it hurts me when you say,
You’re too busy – busy trying to serve me
But how can you serve me when your spirit’s empty
There’s a longing in my heart wanting more than just a part of you
It’s true – I MISS MY TIME WITH YOU.
So this morning at a little before 5:00 a.m., I was looking out the window thinking about going back to sleep when suddenly the words flashed across the screen of my mind, “I miss my time with you, those moments together, …” I could not believe it. It was rewinding over and over until I drug my weary frame from the bed and slipped on some clothes, grabbed my keys, and drove to the church, where I sat in the secret place of my office to seek the Lord. There is nothing more important I do on any given day than to spend that time with the Father. It was a blessing He woke me up and He reminded me of the words of that song. Suddenly sleep did not seem that important in light of the time He wanted to spend with me.
“In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went to a secluded place and was praying there.” [Mark 1:35] If Jesus had to have His time with the Father how much more do you and I need our time with the Father as well? How many times have you and I walked by that old familiar place where we have so often met with the Lord and because of our busyness, and in my case my busyness for Him as a pastor, we did not take time to sit with Him? We can do nothing of eternal significance apart from Him. NOTHING! I am not sure we really believe that because we sure do not prioritize our time with Him first and foremost. “I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit for apart from Me you can do nothing.” [Jn 15:5]
I am so thankful for men like Eli Bernard, who led me to faith in the Lord and discipled me and Lynn Sasser who taught us how to have a quiet time way back at youth camp at the Pineywoods Baptist Encampment in East Texas when I was a teenager. These two men have no idea how the Lord used them in my life. Since 1985 I have sought to make time with God a regular and integral part of my life. I am so thrilled with how the Lord has worked deep in my heart and revealed truth to me over the years. Without a doubt the most profound encounters I have had with the Lord have almost always happened when I arose early, departed from the crowds, and sought Him while isolated and engulfed in silence. Those sacred moments have defined the man that I am and they are continuing to define the man God is growing me to be to match His ever increasing kingdom assignments.
Does God miss His time with you? When was the last time you met with Him? Do you have an old familiar meeting spot? Has God been waiting for you there in vain as of late? When was the last time you made your time with Him a priority? This morning, last night, a few days ago, last week, well over a month, or even longer. Our time with the Lord is the most vital part of our relationship with Him. In those sacred moments He does things in us, for us, and through us that cannot be explained. He becomes more real, His voice is clearer, and our hearts are transformed in His presence. His shaping, crafting, and molding may be hard for us to notice in the beginning but soon we are made into a vessel of honor for His good pleasure to be used as He sees fit. Don’t miss out on your time with God. Don’t let Him say He misses His time with you.
I’m so glad the Lord reminded me of that song this morning. I have been singing it in my heart throughout the day. I am so glad I had my early morning season of prayer and meditation on the scriptures. I am so glad He took the initiative to wake me up because no matter how much I love Him and long to be with Him, He loves me more and longs to commune with me more. That is a mind boggling concept. HE LONGS TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU AND ME! What do we have to offer God that really needs? He does not need my fellowship. He does not need my talents or gifts. I have nothing to offer but He chooses to spend time with me anyway.
If Sovereign God, who is continually busy, accomplishing His purposes, expanding His kingdom, moving mountains, listening to and answering prayers, administrating the affairs of this world, watching over and protecting His own, and ministering to the hurts of the wounded, if He has time to spend with us, what excuse do we have? NONE. Whatever it takes spend time with Him today.
Listening to God
Listening to God
[I Samuel 3:1-11]
I was sitting before the Lord in prayer in my office asking for direction about an upcoming board meeting I was having for No Compromise Ministries in Lufkin, TX. I wanted a detailed agenda for the board meeting to maximize our time together. As I was sitting before the Lord, He spoke. Not audibly. Not loudly. Yet, His voice was unmistakably clear and the message was easy to understand. He simply said, “Go to East Texas and listen.”
The looks on the board of directors faces at the board meeting were somewhat puzzled when I asked them if the Lord was giving any of them a word or message to speak. I sat back and listened. At first, there were awkward glances and deafening silence. This lasted for well over a minute with no one speaking until one lady spoke up and said, “Matt, this really does not apply so much to No Compromise Ministries but the Lord is telling me to tell you, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer.”
The word was startling as I remembered three years ago God giving me that exact same message. “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”[Is 56:7] The meeting continued but before we broke up to leave that lady reiterated that message to me, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”
It was a real delight to get to spend that night in my favorite prayer retreat cabin located outside of Palestine, TX. I have made pilgrimage to this cabin for prayer and writing retreats (see my message on Sanctuary with God to see how special this place has been in my spiritual journey) for the past ten years. Normally, I spend anywhere to three to five days soaking up the presence of God. On this trip, I only had the late night and until lunch the next morning to bask in the presence of the Lord in that prayer haven before I had to drive back to Paradise.
I went to bed late Thursday night after the board meeting exhausted from the near six hours of driving I had done that day. I awoke refreshed the next morning and eager to have some time with the Lord in my private cabin refuge (actually it is not my cabin but a friend of mine manages the retreat and ranch and allows me access to it from time to time with his boss’ approval.)
I read scripture from the book of Acts and was just starting my prayer time when again I heard the voice of the Lord. Now at this point, many of you might begin to think that I am being mystical saying I heard the voice of the Lord. If you have never heard Him speak to you privately, I will have a hard time explaining what I am talking about. Suffice it to say His voice was not audible but a deep impression in my spirit. From this point on I will just say the Lord spoke to me. His message to me was, “When I told you to listen I was not just talking about the board meeting. I have some things I want to speak to you.”
Pause in the story. I don’t know about you but I can’t say I normally do a very good job of getting into God’s presence and listening. I am usually mumbling on with all my requests and desires and by the time I have laid them at His feet, I’m either too tired to listen or in too big a hurry to move on to the next item on my daily agenda.
I think most of us fall into that same category as well. Each of us would say we believe that the Lord continues to speak to us, yet when was the last time you lingered in the audience of God just to listen? It requires great mental discipline to sit still and take note of whatever message the Lord wants to communicate. That’s what is so exciting, though. The God of this universe desires to speak to you personally about your future, about His love, and about His will. That’s one of the things that continually motivates me to read the word of God. I believe He has specific messages for me in those readings. I also believe that He does and desires to speak to us through the voice of the Holy Spirit. This has been unsettling to me over the years because many many times I thought I had a clear word from the Lord through the Holy Spirit and what I heard never came to pass. This caused me to doubt for several years my ability to hear from God in any other way than through reading His word. I became way out of balance.
One Friday night a little over a year ago, I was driving to a church to preach the last service of a week long revival. While driving around the loop in Odessa, TX I heard from the Lord. While driving around that loop on that overcast night and wet night, I had one of those special times with the Lord you never forget. God spoke some very specific things that night I still have not forgotten but none of those things came true. It really caused me to doubt my ability to discern the voice of God. So, in defense, I quit listening to the Lord speak to me except through His word.
Samuel as a young boy was given a crash course in listening to the voice of the Lord. We learn from the first verse of our passage, words from the Lord, were rare in those days. There was much wickedness in Israel starting in the house of the spiritual leadership. Eli’s sons were wicked and he knew it, but he did not remove his boys from their priestly duties though their behavior disqualified them from service. God just quit speaking to the prophets during this time.
Early in the wee hours of the morning, as the boy Samuel lay sleeping, the Lord called out to him. The voice was clear enough that Samuel thought Eli was calling out to him and so he arose and went to Eli. Eli told Samuel that he had not called him. This same thing happened a second time. The Bible tells us at this point, “Now, Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him.”[I Sam 3:7]
What can we learn from this verse? I think three things. One, to clearly hear from God you must know God. A lost person will not be able to hear God clearly until he or she has bowed before Christ and trusted Him for salvation. Second, you will not be able to distinguish the voice of God if you do not know Him well. I have friends who call me from time to time, because we have spent so much time together I am immediately able to identify their voice. If you spend precious moments in the presence of God you too will be able to distinguish His voice from all other voices clamoring for your attention. I believe there is a third thing we can learn from this verse. The scripture says, “… nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him.” God will speak when He is ready to speak and He will reveal His message when He is ready to reveal it. We won’t have to have invented a message or manufacture a “word from the Lord”. He will reveal it clearly and specifically when He is ready. That is exactly what God did with Samuel.
Eli discerned that the Lord was speaking to Samuel and counseled Samuel to respond to the call of God by saying, “Speak for your servant is listening.” [I Sam 3:10]
God spoke in a powerful way. It was not an easy message for a prophet in training to hear right off the bat, but the message was clearly heard; Eli’s house would be judged because of the known iniquity of his sons and Eli did not rebuke them. The message went on to communicate that there would be no forgiveness or atonement for their sins.
Can you imagine hearing a word from the Lord that hard as a child and having to deliver it to a spiritual mentor such as Eli was to Samuel. Yet, Samuel obeyed.
I wish listening to the Lord was easier and formulated at times. Yet, I know my times lingering in His company transforms my life. I am different when I come out of such times. This has been a long message but I want to conclude with three personal stories about hearing the voice of the Lord.
Several years ago, I was leading a college retreat in which I scheduled each person during that weekend to get away from the rest of the group to spend one solid hour in prayer and listening to God. We were at the Pineywoods Baptist Encampment, outside of Groveton, TX where I had surrendered my life to preach in 1985 while attending a youth camp. Pineywoods is holy ground for me. I found a secluded place in the woods and began asking the Lord if I would ever get to preach in the tabernacle of that campground. His voice was clear, “I will let you preach here sooner than you think.” I ended up preaching two camps there during the two consecutive summers following that college retreat.
Another time I was invited to attend a revival service and went down during the invitation to seek God. What God spoke to me that night stunned me. He simply said, “The world will be your pulpit.” He gave me that word over ten years ago. I have often doubted that word, but while at that prayer cabin in Palestine this past week, God had something more to say to me about that. I am not at liberty to share everything the Lord spoke to me that morning but I will share what He allows me to share.
At first, I sat at the dining room table in that prayer cabin thinking I would start reading scripture until God revealed His message to me. Doing that just didn’t seem right. So I got up and went to a lounge chair and sat back trying to clear my mind and sit before the Lord to listen. I was in that chair battling random thoughts racing through my mind that I knew originated from me. I kept uttering the same prayer Samuel did, “Lord, please speak for your servant is listening.” Suddenly, He began to speak. Clearly! I got up and hurried back to my journal at the dining table so I could record everything He was speaking to me. For the next several minutes I was mesmerized by the presence and voice of God Himself. I have never heard a longer sustained message and more personal message than I did while sitting at that dining room table. Here is the only part I have freedom to share with you, “If you lead my people pray I will grant you power like you have never known and I will honor my word to you years ago, ‘The world shall be your pulpit.’”
I called Brenda and talked to her after my time with the Lord and three hours away in the wee hours of the morning the Lord had also spoken clearly to her from the scriptures and much of what she heard was the same message God had spoken to me.
I know you are busy and life spins by fast. I urge you to devote time to listening to the Lord. Pray the same prayer Samuel prayed and I prayed in that cabin yesterday morning, “Father, speak for your servant is listening.” Wait on Him. When He is ready to reveal His heart and plans it will be like the flood gates opening. Keep listening and obey whatever He says.
[I Samuel 3:1-11]
I was sitting before the Lord in prayer in my office asking for direction about an upcoming board meeting I was having for No Compromise Ministries in Lufkin, TX. I wanted a detailed agenda for the board meeting to maximize our time together. As I was sitting before the Lord, He spoke. Not audibly. Not loudly. Yet, His voice was unmistakably clear and the message was easy to understand. He simply said, “Go to East Texas and listen.”
The looks on the board of directors faces at the board meeting were somewhat puzzled when I asked them if the Lord was giving any of them a word or message to speak. I sat back and listened. At first, there were awkward glances and deafening silence. This lasted for well over a minute with no one speaking until one lady spoke up and said, “Matt, this really does not apply so much to No Compromise Ministries but the Lord is telling me to tell you, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer.”
The word was startling as I remembered three years ago God giving me that exact same message. “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”[Is 56:7] The meeting continued but before we broke up to leave that lady reiterated that message to me, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”
It was a real delight to get to spend that night in my favorite prayer retreat cabin located outside of Palestine, TX. I have made pilgrimage to this cabin for prayer and writing retreats (see my message on Sanctuary with God to see how special this place has been in my spiritual journey) for the past ten years. Normally, I spend anywhere to three to five days soaking up the presence of God. On this trip, I only had the late night and until lunch the next morning to bask in the presence of the Lord in that prayer haven before I had to drive back to Paradise.
I went to bed late Thursday night after the board meeting exhausted from the near six hours of driving I had done that day. I awoke refreshed the next morning and eager to have some time with the Lord in my private cabin refuge (actually it is not my cabin but a friend of mine manages the retreat and ranch and allows me access to it from time to time with his boss’ approval.)
I read scripture from the book of Acts and was just starting my prayer time when again I heard the voice of the Lord. Now at this point, many of you might begin to think that I am being mystical saying I heard the voice of the Lord. If you have never heard Him speak to you privately, I will have a hard time explaining what I am talking about. Suffice it to say His voice was not audible but a deep impression in my spirit. From this point on I will just say the Lord spoke to me. His message to me was, “When I told you to listen I was not just talking about the board meeting. I have some things I want to speak to you.”
Pause in the story. I don’t know about you but I can’t say I normally do a very good job of getting into God’s presence and listening. I am usually mumbling on with all my requests and desires and by the time I have laid them at His feet, I’m either too tired to listen or in too big a hurry to move on to the next item on my daily agenda.
I think most of us fall into that same category as well. Each of us would say we believe that the Lord continues to speak to us, yet when was the last time you lingered in the audience of God just to listen? It requires great mental discipline to sit still and take note of whatever message the Lord wants to communicate. That’s what is so exciting, though. The God of this universe desires to speak to you personally about your future, about His love, and about His will. That’s one of the things that continually motivates me to read the word of God. I believe He has specific messages for me in those readings. I also believe that He does and desires to speak to us through the voice of the Holy Spirit. This has been unsettling to me over the years because many many times I thought I had a clear word from the Lord through the Holy Spirit and what I heard never came to pass. This caused me to doubt for several years my ability to hear from God in any other way than through reading His word. I became way out of balance.
One Friday night a little over a year ago, I was driving to a church to preach the last service of a week long revival. While driving around the loop in Odessa, TX I heard from the Lord. While driving around that loop on that overcast night and wet night, I had one of those special times with the Lord you never forget. God spoke some very specific things that night I still have not forgotten but none of those things came true. It really caused me to doubt my ability to discern the voice of God. So, in defense, I quit listening to the Lord speak to me except through His word.
Samuel as a young boy was given a crash course in listening to the voice of the Lord. We learn from the first verse of our passage, words from the Lord, were rare in those days. There was much wickedness in Israel starting in the house of the spiritual leadership. Eli’s sons were wicked and he knew it, but he did not remove his boys from their priestly duties though their behavior disqualified them from service. God just quit speaking to the prophets during this time.
Early in the wee hours of the morning, as the boy Samuel lay sleeping, the Lord called out to him. The voice was clear enough that Samuel thought Eli was calling out to him and so he arose and went to Eli. Eli told Samuel that he had not called him. This same thing happened a second time. The Bible tells us at this point, “Now, Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him.”[I Sam 3:7]
What can we learn from this verse? I think three things. One, to clearly hear from God you must know God. A lost person will not be able to hear God clearly until he or she has bowed before Christ and trusted Him for salvation. Second, you will not be able to distinguish the voice of God if you do not know Him well. I have friends who call me from time to time, because we have spent so much time together I am immediately able to identify their voice. If you spend precious moments in the presence of God you too will be able to distinguish His voice from all other voices clamoring for your attention. I believe there is a third thing we can learn from this verse. The scripture says, “… nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him.” God will speak when He is ready to speak and He will reveal His message when He is ready to reveal it. We won’t have to have invented a message or manufacture a “word from the Lord”. He will reveal it clearly and specifically when He is ready. That is exactly what God did with Samuel.
Eli discerned that the Lord was speaking to Samuel and counseled Samuel to respond to the call of God by saying, “Speak for your servant is listening.” [I Sam 3:10]
God spoke in a powerful way. It was not an easy message for a prophet in training to hear right off the bat, but the message was clearly heard; Eli’s house would be judged because of the known iniquity of his sons and Eli did not rebuke them. The message went on to communicate that there would be no forgiveness or atonement for their sins.
Can you imagine hearing a word from the Lord that hard as a child and having to deliver it to a spiritual mentor such as Eli was to Samuel. Yet, Samuel obeyed.
I wish listening to the Lord was easier and formulated at times. Yet, I know my times lingering in His company transforms my life. I am different when I come out of such times. This has been a long message but I want to conclude with three personal stories about hearing the voice of the Lord.
Several years ago, I was leading a college retreat in which I scheduled each person during that weekend to get away from the rest of the group to spend one solid hour in prayer and listening to God. We were at the Pineywoods Baptist Encampment, outside of Groveton, TX where I had surrendered my life to preach in 1985 while attending a youth camp. Pineywoods is holy ground for me. I found a secluded place in the woods and began asking the Lord if I would ever get to preach in the tabernacle of that campground. His voice was clear, “I will let you preach here sooner than you think.” I ended up preaching two camps there during the two consecutive summers following that college retreat.
Another time I was invited to attend a revival service and went down during the invitation to seek God. What God spoke to me that night stunned me. He simply said, “The world will be your pulpit.” He gave me that word over ten years ago. I have often doubted that word, but while at that prayer cabin in Palestine this past week, God had something more to say to me about that. I am not at liberty to share everything the Lord spoke to me that morning but I will share what He allows me to share.
At first, I sat at the dining room table in that prayer cabin thinking I would start reading scripture until God revealed His message to me. Doing that just didn’t seem right. So I got up and went to a lounge chair and sat back trying to clear my mind and sit before the Lord to listen. I was in that chair battling random thoughts racing through my mind that I knew originated from me. I kept uttering the same prayer Samuel did, “Lord, please speak for your servant is listening.” Suddenly, He began to speak. Clearly! I got up and hurried back to my journal at the dining table so I could record everything He was speaking to me. For the next several minutes I was mesmerized by the presence and voice of God Himself. I have never heard a longer sustained message and more personal message than I did while sitting at that dining room table. Here is the only part I have freedom to share with you, “If you lead my people pray I will grant you power like you have never known and I will honor my word to you years ago, ‘The world shall be your pulpit.’”
I called Brenda and talked to her after my time with the Lord and three hours away in the wee hours of the morning the Lord had also spoken clearly to her from the scriptures and much of what she heard was the same message God had spoken to me.
I know you are busy and life spins by fast. I urge you to devote time to listening to the Lord. Pray the same prayer Samuel prayed and I prayed in that cabin yesterday morning, “Father, speak for your servant is listening.” Wait on Him. When He is ready to reveal His heart and plans it will be like the flood gates opening. Keep listening and obey whatever He says.
Waiting
Waiting
Have you ever given much thought to how much time we spend waiting? We wait on the alarm clock in the mornings. We wait for the meeting to start. Children wait for birthdays and Christmas to roll around. We wait for our spouses or friends so we can get on the road. We wait for our vacation to roll around and we wait to get to our desired destination. We wait at the drive through. We wait in line at the supermarket. We wait in lines at the amusement park for a thirty second ride.
How many times have you found yourself waiting on God for something? They say patience is a virtue but it has never really been mine. Because patience does not come easy for me guess what God has continually orchestrated in my life? You guessed it. I was given continual opportunities to learn patience by waiting on Him.
The frustrating thing about this is that what seems like forever to us as we wait on Him to speak or intervene may only be seconds or minutes with God. One day is a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day with God. [II Pet 3:8] Time seems to drag by so slowly when you are waiting.
Last week I had to drive over to Fort Worth. When I came to I-35 from Highway 287 I hit a traffic jam. It took me thirty minutes to drive about three or four miles. Everything in me wanted to GO and I could tell I was not alone. We crept along at less than ten miles per hour. I thought we would never get moving again.
That’s how it feels at times when you are waiting on God. Everything seems to come to a grinding halt and we find ourselves staring at our watches wanting time to speed up so we can get on with our lives. Think about it. Right now there are people waiting to get married. They may not even be dating but they cannot get wait to get married. There are on the other hand people who have been married and suffered through fights, affairs, abuse, and neglect and they cannot wait to be divorced. There are people with money jingling in their pockets that cannot wait to spend it while there are others who are dirt poor and can hardly wait to the next pay day in order to make ends meet. Students wait on the bell to ring to release them from the prison of class while prison inmates eagerly wait for the next class to begin to help pass the time while incarcerated.
Waiting and learning patience seems to have a great deal more to do with perspective than it does with our circumstances. In this life there are no shortage of circumstances that try our patience and force us to find ways to pass the time while we wait on the Lord. The Psalmist wrote in [Ps 37:34] Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it. [Ps 40:1-2] is also good medicine for the soul. I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
Of all the verses on the waiting on the Lord in the Bible I think my favorite two are found in [Ps 27:13-14] I would have despaired (or quit and given up) unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.
I remember preaching these two verses at FBC Brock after they lost their pastor. The church was in a good deal of turmoil which also mirrored the turmoil in my heart as not being able to find God’s appointed church for Brenda and I. My great friend Eric Adcock served as the youth minister in that church and had invited me to come preach months before. As we drove up from East Texas I kept sensing I was to preach about waiting on the Lord as well as believing the goodness of the Lord. In mind I began to entertain the thought of possibly serving as the pastor of that church. I had been waiting and now as a church they were waiting on the Lord to provide them with a new pastor as well. Little did I know about that same time in a town about forty five minutes away they were in the beginning stages of going through an intentional interim pastor to heal some wounds and to prepare for the future. Brock never asked for my resume and I was forced to learn to keep on waiting patiently.
Now, that I can see from the perspective of hindsight I am so glad the Lord had me wait because He was preserving me for FBC Paradise. At times during that waiting period I grew extremely impatient and thought I would never see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. During that waiting period, God build enduring trust in my soul. It was a painful and often I fought every lesson kicking and screaming but now I can see God was at work in my life during the waiting period preparing me for my destiny.
When the Lord is forcing us to patiently tarry with Him, we think He is not doing anything on our behalf. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is building character in us during those seasons. We want the character but want to skip the process. It doesn’t work that way. There are things that can only be built in us through the painful process of refining and the stripping of dross from our lives. It hurts and cuts us deeply but during this waiting period God is actually working for our good.
Many people give up in the waiting period. Their faith wanes and they grow impatient and take matters into their own hands which never honors God and often leads to devastation. Courage is lost and resilient strength fades. How many times have you and I been right there. The Psalmist tells us to do just the opposite. In our times of waiting we are be strong. That word means be alert and steadfastly minded. If we are to be steadfastly minded we must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. [II Cor 10:5] In doing this we do not give into the thoughts of despair and gloom planted by Satan. We refuse to dwell on thoughts that breed unbelief and doubt. We resolutely determine to be steadfast in our belief that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. The word goodness means; the best, beauty, and welfare. When we steadfastly set our minds on the belief that God is going to bring something beautiful and bring His best to us even if we have to wait on it, doesn’t that give hope?
In God preserving me to serve as the pastor of FBC Paradise I can testify that God gave me His best and I have seen His beauty all over this congregation and community. But it takes courage to believe that. It takes guts to look at circumstances and not give into defeat when you have been praying and praying, waiting and waiting, trusting and trusting and nothing seems to change. The word courage means to be obstinate and to fortify. That is what should be happening as we wait on the Lord. We should become obstinate that what we have been trusting God for will come to pass in His time and according to His purpose.
This was all brought home to me in a very real way yesterday. As many of you know I feel a deep sense of call to write as I do to preach. I believe it is a calling God instilled in my heart even before He called me to preach. Over the years I dabbled at writing but about twelve years ago I took that calling seriously. I wrote and published a book entitled Only Believe. I wrote it out of my real life experiences and the Lord used it to touch many people. A couple of years later I wrote another book Life on the Altar. It was a much harder book than the first one but people seemed to be challenged by it. In both cases I had asked God for the money to publish the books and God supplied the money.
Not long after writing Life on the Altar I busied myself with starting a new church and did not have the time or the inspiration to write another book. During this period the Lord began birthing the thought of another book with a title; Behold the Faithfulness of God. I worked at it off and on and eventually completed a manuscript only to lose the disk. Later I tried to rewrite it but gave it part way in because I did not feel God’s inspiration on it. Several years later I started work on that same book for the third time. While I wrote I prayed. I prayed and prayed that the Lord would open the door to publish that book as well. I asked the Lord to do however He wanted. I actually sent the completed manuscript to two different publishers. No doors opened. I made pleas in my No Compromise Ministries newsletter for help to publish the book but there was only one response to that appeal for $500 in eight years. I waited and wrote other things while begging the Lord to publish that book. One month turned into six and six months into a year and a year into two and so forth. All that time I was waiting and at one point I lost heart. I quit writing and thought my books would not be published until after I was dead and gone.
One day a few weeks ago I became obstinate in my faith and looked at that mountain that stood in the way of my getting the book published. The Lord challenged me to do something. First, I was to give all the profits from the sales of that book to our church building fund. Secondly, I was to ask the church to believe with me for $10,000 to publish the book. I spoke to the mountain and obeyed the Lord in a Sunday morning service. I was encouraged to find that someone began giving $150 here and $125 there over the next several weeks.
While waiting I became even more resolute in my faith and steadfast in my belief that God wanted my book in print. I spoke to my mountain and asked that it be moved. Yesterday, the Lord allowed me to see His goodness in the land of the living. I received an email from our church treasurer telling me that someone had been giving to publish that book over the course of several weeks as I mentioned above. The total of those gifts was $925. The email went on to read that someone had made an anonymous gift of $9,000 to publish that book. I was stunned. All I could think was the long years of waiting on the Lord was finally over.
God was not finished though. Less than an hour later a lady dropped by my office and wrote out a check for the amount of $525 to No Compromise Ministries which will be used to publish the books. In one day the Lord gave $10,500 to make that long awaited dream a reality.
I write this to encourage you to keep waiting obstinately on the Lord in your circumstances. He will come through in time. You may have to wait and wait for a long time but He will come through. Take courage and be of good strength and believe that you will see His goodness in the land of the living as you wait.
Have you ever given much thought to how much time we spend waiting? We wait on the alarm clock in the mornings. We wait for the meeting to start. Children wait for birthdays and Christmas to roll around. We wait for our spouses or friends so we can get on the road. We wait for our vacation to roll around and we wait to get to our desired destination. We wait at the drive through. We wait in line at the supermarket. We wait in lines at the amusement park for a thirty second ride.
How many times have you found yourself waiting on God for something? They say patience is a virtue but it has never really been mine. Because patience does not come easy for me guess what God has continually orchestrated in my life? You guessed it. I was given continual opportunities to learn patience by waiting on Him.
The frustrating thing about this is that what seems like forever to us as we wait on Him to speak or intervene may only be seconds or minutes with God. One day is a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day with God. [II Pet 3:8] Time seems to drag by so slowly when you are waiting.
Last week I had to drive over to Fort Worth. When I came to I-35 from Highway 287 I hit a traffic jam. It took me thirty minutes to drive about three or four miles. Everything in me wanted to GO and I could tell I was not alone. We crept along at less than ten miles per hour. I thought we would never get moving again.
That’s how it feels at times when you are waiting on God. Everything seems to come to a grinding halt and we find ourselves staring at our watches wanting time to speed up so we can get on with our lives. Think about it. Right now there are people waiting to get married. They may not even be dating but they cannot get wait to get married. There are on the other hand people who have been married and suffered through fights, affairs, abuse, and neglect and they cannot wait to be divorced. There are people with money jingling in their pockets that cannot wait to spend it while there are others who are dirt poor and can hardly wait to the next pay day in order to make ends meet. Students wait on the bell to ring to release them from the prison of class while prison inmates eagerly wait for the next class to begin to help pass the time while incarcerated.
Waiting and learning patience seems to have a great deal more to do with perspective than it does with our circumstances. In this life there are no shortage of circumstances that try our patience and force us to find ways to pass the time while we wait on the Lord. The Psalmist wrote in [Ps 37:34] Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it. [Ps 40:1-2] is also good medicine for the soul. I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
Of all the verses on the waiting on the Lord in the Bible I think my favorite two are found in [Ps 27:13-14] I would have despaired (or quit and given up) unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.
I remember preaching these two verses at FBC Brock after they lost their pastor. The church was in a good deal of turmoil which also mirrored the turmoil in my heart as not being able to find God’s appointed church for Brenda and I. My great friend Eric Adcock served as the youth minister in that church and had invited me to come preach months before. As we drove up from East Texas I kept sensing I was to preach about waiting on the Lord as well as believing the goodness of the Lord. In mind I began to entertain the thought of possibly serving as the pastor of that church. I had been waiting and now as a church they were waiting on the Lord to provide them with a new pastor as well. Little did I know about that same time in a town about forty five minutes away they were in the beginning stages of going through an intentional interim pastor to heal some wounds and to prepare for the future. Brock never asked for my resume and I was forced to learn to keep on waiting patiently.
Now, that I can see from the perspective of hindsight I am so glad the Lord had me wait because He was preserving me for FBC Paradise. At times during that waiting period I grew extremely impatient and thought I would never see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. During that waiting period, God build enduring trust in my soul. It was a painful and often I fought every lesson kicking and screaming but now I can see God was at work in my life during the waiting period preparing me for my destiny.
When the Lord is forcing us to patiently tarry with Him, we think He is not doing anything on our behalf. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is building character in us during those seasons. We want the character but want to skip the process. It doesn’t work that way. There are things that can only be built in us through the painful process of refining and the stripping of dross from our lives. It hurts and cuts us deeply but during this waiting period God is actually working for our good.
Many people give up in the waiting period. Their faith wanes and they grow impatient and take matters into their own hands which never honors God and often leads to devastation. Courage is lost and resilient strength fades. How many times have you and I been right there. The Psalmist tells us to do just the opposite. In our times of waiting we are be strong. That word means be alert and steadfastly minded. If we are to be steadfastly minded we must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. [II Cor 10:5] In doing this we do not give into the thoughts of despair and gloom planted by Satan. We refuse to dwell on thoughts that breed unbelief and doubt. We resolutely determine to be steadfast in our belief that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. The word goodness means; the best, beauty, and welfare. When we steadfastly set our minds on the belief that God is going to bring something beautiful and bring His best to us even if we have to wait on it, doesn’t that give hope?
In God preserving me to serve as the pastor of FBC Paradise I can testify that God gave me His best and I have seen His beauty all over this congregation and community. But it takes courage to believe that. It takes guts to look at circumstances and not give into defeat when you have been praying and praying, waiting and waiting, trusting and trusting and nothing seems to change. The word courage means to be obstinate and to fortify. That is what should be happening as we wait on the Lord. We should become obstinate that what we have been trusting God for will come to pass in His time and according to His purpose.
This was all brought home to me in a very real way yesterday. As many of you know I feel a deep sense of call to write as I do to preach. I believe it is a calling God instilled in my heart even before He called me to preach. Over the years I dabbled at writing but about twelve years ago I took that calling seriously. I wrote and published a book entitled Only Believe. I wrote it out of my real life experiences and the Lord used it to touch many people. A couple of years later I wrote another book Life on the Altar. It was a much harder book than the first one but people seemed to be challenged by it. In both cases I had asked God for the money to publish the books and God supplied the money.
Not long after writing Life on the Altar I busied myself with starting a new church and did not have the time or the inspiration to write another book. During this period the Lord began birthing the thought of another book with a title; Behold the Faithfulness of God. I worked at it off and on and eventually completed a manuscript only to lose the disk. Later I tried to rewrite it but gave it part way in because I did not feel God’s inspiration on it. Several years later I started work on that same book for the third time. While I wrote I prayed. I prayed and prayed that the Lord would open the door to publish that book as well. I asked the Lord to do however He wanted. I actually sent the completed manuscript to two different publishers. No doors opened. I made pleas in my No Compromise Ministries newsletter for help to publish the book but there was only one response to that appeal for $500 in eight years. I waited and wrote other things while begging the Lord to publish that book. One month turned into six and six months into a year and a year into two and so forth. All that time I was waiting and at one point I lost heart. I quit writing and thought my books would not be published until after I was dead and gone.
One day a few weeks ago I became obstinate in my faith and looked at that mountain that stood in the way of my getting the book published. The Lord challenged me to do something. First, I was to give all the profits from the sales of that book to our church building fund. Secondly, I was to ask the church to believe with me for $10,000 to publish the book. I spoke to the mountain and obeyed the Lord in a Sunday morning service. I was encouraged to find that someone began giving $150 here and $125 there over the next several weeks.
While waiting I became even more resolute in my faith and steadfast in my belief that God wanted my book in print. I spoke to my mountain and asked that it be moved. Yesterday, the Lord allowed me to see His goodness in the land of the living. I received an email from our church treasurer telling me that someone had been giving to publish that book over the course of several weeks as I mentioned above. The total of those gifts was $925. The email went on to read that someone had made an anonymous gift of $9,000 to publish that book. I was stunned. All I could think was the long years of waiting on the Lord was finally over.
God was not finished though. Less than an hour later a lady dropped by my office and wrote out a check for the amount of $525 to No Compromise Ministries which will be used to publish the books. In one day the Lord gave $10,500 to make that long awaited dream a reality.
I write this to encourage you to keep waiting obstinately on the Lord in your circumstances. He will come through in time. You may have to wait and wait for a long time but He will come through. Take courage and be of good strength and believe that you will see His goodness in the land of the living as you wait.
Going for the Jugular
“Going for the Jugular”
I just left the hospital where I was ministering to the wife of one of our deacons while she was having knee surgery. While she was having the surgery, the deacon and I sat in the waiting room visiting when another man came and sat at the table next to ours. Before long, he has bulldozed his way into our conversation and not long after that, he began to dominate the discussion. He talked non-stop barely taking time to breathe in between his bountiful bantering about nothing. He changed topics like the wind changes direction.
During the one sided conversation, Mr. “Motor Mouth” as I shall refer to him in the rest of this message learned that I was a pastor. His casual comment to me was, “I’m not a church going man.” As soon has he said that, he was off to something mumbling about something else without giving me a chance to respond.
During his talk, I was reminded of the scripture I had read earlier that morning in Luke 8:1-2. The thought that really grabbed my spirit was how aggressive Jesus was in ministry. He was on the offensive, going from city to city, preaching, teaching, healing, forgiving. The longer I meditated on that thought, the steeper contrast I saw in my life and the lives of most Christians who are not aggressive or on the offensive in expanding the kingdom of God. Jesus told the church to “go” in [Matt 28:19-20] when the message from the church today is “come”. During my meditation and prayers I determined that I wanted to be more aggressive in the spread of the gospel and in ministry.
So while sitting in this waiting room, I found myself praying for an opportunity to witness to Mr. “Motor Mouth”. He kept vomiting an endless litany of his opinions and musings and I kept praying for an open door under my breath. I felt like a lion stalking a prey. I began thinking about going for the spiritual jugular of this man and even found myself looking at his neck and preparing to pounce. I asked the Lord for just a second of an open door and the Lord faithfully opened one.
The deacon was called to the front desk to get an update about his wife. Mr. “Motor Mouth” was just finishing a story about the first funeral he had even attended as a boy and he remembered walking through the cemetery and the seeing the freshly dug grave of an infant who had the same birth day he did. Pause for breath and I POUNCED!
Before he could utter another word I asked him how old he was. He responded he was 63. I then went for the spiritual jugular by asking him where he would spend eternity. I had him back pedaling and sunk my spiritual fangs in deeper presenting the gospel. He told me he was saved and had taken care of that and would die happy and was sure he would be heaven. (This was very surprising considering the fact that he admitted he was a racists and was proud of it along with mixed profanity in his dialogues repeatedly.)
Instead of letting him off the hook, I clamped my lion like jaws for a stronger grip in with one last phrase. I told that man that I would have never known he was a Christian by the way he had talked to me. I reiterated that I would never had known he knew Jesus. As I was finishing that statement the deacon returned and just like that, my opportunity to share Christ was gone. Before I knew it, we were all scattered in different directions. Mr. Motor Mouth to see his wife back in recovery from surgery, and the deacon to his wife and me to the other side of Ft. Worth for another hospital visit after a quick lunch.
So I find myself writing these thoughts over a burrito lunch after leaving the hospital. I am pumped on the inside knowing that on this day I was aggressive and on the offensive in spreading the gospel of Jesus but deeply saddened that the man I talked to either is saved and far far from God or living with a false sense of spiritual security. Still I had obeyed Christ and was aggressive in my witness. I was aggressive like Jesus. Read the words of Jesus and see if you do not discover the same truth I came away earlier this morning. “And he said, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” [Mark 16:15] “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” [Acts 1:8] “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” [Rom 1:14-16] “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!” [Is 6:8]
Over and over again all throughout scripture God is continually urging us to advance and offensively attack the kingdom of darkness. What does the church do in response. We sit back in comfort and hope that perhaps some spiritual needy soul will stumble into one of our pews and hear (all to often powerless) preaching and respond to the love of God.
God mandates for us to be on the attack. There are spiritual needy souls all around us at school, work, in business, on the kids ball teams, and even in hospital waiting rooms. Oh that we would forever be transformed into the likeness of Christ ever seeking to advance the kingdom of God in every city, village, and with as many people as the Lord gives us opportunity. The opportunities are there but in our spiritual apathy, we rarely see them and even more rarely go for the spiritual jugular in people.
Recently I was sitting in a room with a couple dozen teenagers teaching God’s word. I asked them to characterize most Christians they knew at their schools. Here are the top three characteristics they came up with. 1. Christians are in the minority. 2. Christians are silent. 3. Christians are intimidated and afraid. Do those same characteristics not define many of us who attend church services week after week as we sit in our minority huddles, silent and scared of the pagan world outside our stained glass windows?
Jesus was a minority and yet he started a spiritual revolution that continues to this day involving millions. He was not silent nor intimidated. Neither was Peter in Acts, James, or Paul. Neither are thousands of missionaries serving on the front lines today like marines warring for the lost souls of “closed” nations. Neither are countless pastors who stand in the pulpit to proclaim Christ as well as speaking truth to individuals up and down the main streets of our societies. There are multitudes of students who daily go for the jugulars of their classmates and teammates. The gospel is being advanced but the question is are YOU being a part of this aggressive movement. Are you stalking your lost prey in prayerful hopes of sinking the gospel into their jugulars and ultimately their hearts. This is a work of grace only done by a powerful God, and yet He allows us to play a role.
What about you? Are you continually side stepping divine appointments in passive attempts not to offend anyone. Being vocal about Christ does not mean you preach down to people and being aggressive does not mean doing so with condemnation. Love of Christ and dread of hell means we are mandated to go for the jugulars of family and friends far from God out of a sense of compassion. Jesus was aggressive but He was also filled with compassion for people.
Time is short. We must refuse to live in silence or to be intimidated into retreat any longer. The gospel must be advanced one heart at a time and one life at a time. This timeless revolutionary message must be advanced tenaciously, aggressively, and passionately. Our enemy never ceases tempting, deceiving, stealing, destroying, and killing as many souls as he can. Therefore, we must never cease going for the spiritual jugulars of as many as we can. Go ahead! As you put this message down and go about your daily affairs, look at the necks of people and be reminded of every divine appointment the Lord brings your way. Let God work through you and then give Him the glory for what happens next.
I just left the hospital where I was ministering to the wife of one of our deacons while she was having knee surgery. While she was having the surgery, the deacon and I sat in the waiting room visiting when another man came and sat at the table next to ours. Before long, he has bulldozed his way into our conversation and not long after that, he began to dominate the discussion. He talked non-stop barely taking time to breathe in between his bountiful bantering about nothing. He changed topics like the wind changes direction.
During the one sided conversation, Mr. “Motor Mouth” as I shall refer to him in the rest of this message learned that I was a pastor. His casual comment to me was, “I’m not a church going man.” As soon has he said that, he was off to something mumbling about something else without giving me a chance to respond.
During his talk, I was reminded of the scripture I had read earlier that morning in Luke 8:1-2. The thought that really grabbed my spirit was how aggressive Jesus was in ministry. He was on the offensive, going from city to city, preaching, teaching, healing, forgiving. The longer I meditated on that thought, the steeper contrast I saw in my life and the lives of most Christians who are not aggressive or on the offensive in expanding the kingdom of God. Jesus told the church to “go” in [Matt 28:19-20] when the message from the church today is “come”. During my meditation and prayers I determined that I wanted to be more aggressive in the spread of the gospel and in ministry.
So while sitting in this waiting room, I found myself praying for an opportunity to witness to Mr. “Motor Mouth”. He kept vomiting an endless litany of his opinions and musings and I kept praying for an open door under my breath. I felt like a lion stalking a prey. I began thinking about going for the spiritual jugular of this man and even found myself looking at his neck and preparing to pounce. I asked the Lord for just a second of an open door and the Lord faithfully opened one.
The deacon was called to the front desk to get an update about his wife. Mr. “Motor Mouth” was just finishing a story about the first funeral he had even attended as a boy and he remembered walking through the cemetery and the seeing the freshly dug grave of an infant who had the same birth day he did. Pause for breath and I POUNCED!
Before he could utter another word I asked him how old he was. He responded he was 63. I then went for the spiritual jugular by asking him where he would spend eternity. I had him back pedaling and sunk my spiritual fangs in deeper presenting the gospel. He told me he was saved and had taken care of that and would die happy and was sure he would be heaven. (This was very surprising considering the fact that he admitted he was a racists and was proud of it along with mixed profanity in his dialogues repeatedly.)
Instead of letting him off the hook, I clamped my lion like jaws for a stronger grip in with one last phrase. I told that man that I would have never known he was a Christian by the way he had talked to me. I reiterated that I would never had known he knew Jesus. As I was finishing that statement the deacon returned and just like that, my opportunity to share Christ was gone. Before I knew it, we were all scattered in different directions. Mr. Motor Mouth to see his wife back in recovery from surgery, and the deacon to his wife and me to the other side of Ft. Worth for another hospital visit after a quick lunch.
So I find myself writing these thoughts over a burrito lunch after leaving the hospital. I am pumped on the inside knowing that on this day I was aggressive and on the offensive in spreading the gospel of Jesus but deeply saddened that the man I talked to either is saved and far far from God or living with a false sense of spiritual security. Still I had obeyed Christ and was aggressive in my witness. I was aggressive like Jesus. Read the words of Jesus and see if you do not discover the same truth I came away earlier this morning. “And he said, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” [Mark 16:15] “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” [Acts 1:8] “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” [Rom 1:14-16] “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!” [Is 6:8]
Over and over again all throughout scripture God is continually urging us to advance and offensively attack the kingdom of darkness. What does the church do in response. We sit back in comfort and hope that perhaps some spiritual needy soul will stumble into one of our pews and hear (all to often powerless) preaching and respond to the love of God.
God mandates for us to be on the attack. There are spiritual needy souls all around us at school, work, in business, on the kids ball teams, and even in hospital waiting rooms. Oh that we would forever be transformed into the likeness of Christ ever seeking to advance the kingdom of God in every city, village, and with as many people as the Lord gives us opportunity. The opportunities are there but in our spiritual apathy, we rarely see them and even more rarely go for the spiritual jugular in people.
Recently I was sitting in a room with a couple dozen teenagers teaching God’s word. I asked them to characterize most Christians they knew at their schools. Here are the top three characteristics they came up with. 1. Christians are in the minority. 2. Christians are silent. 3. Christians are intimidated and afraid. Do those same characteristics not define many of us who attend church services week after week as we sit in our minority huddles, silent and scared of the pagan world outside our stained glass windows?
Jesus was a minority and yet he started a spiritual revolution that continues to this day involving millions. He was not silent nor intimidated. Neither was Peter in Acts, James, or Paul. Neither are thousands of missionaries serving on the front lines today like marines warring for the lost souls of “closed” nations. Neither are countless pastors who stand in the pulpit to proclaim Christ as well as speaking truth to individuals up and down the main streets of our societies. There are multitudes of students who daily go for the jugulars of their classmates and teammates. The gospel is being advanced but the question is are YOU being a part of this aggressive movement. Are you stalking your lost prey in prayerful hopes of sinking the gospel into their jugulars and ultimately their hearts. This is a work of grace only done by a powerful God, and yet He allows us to play a role.
What about you? Are you continually side stepping divine appointments in passive attempts not to offend anyone. Being vocal about Christ does not mean you preach down to people and being aggressive does not mean doing so with condemnation. Love of Christ and dread of hell means we are mandated to go for the jugulars of family and friends far from God out of a sense of compassion. Jesus was aggressive but He was also filled with compassion for people.
Time is short. We must refuse to live in silence or to be intimidated into retreat any longer. The gospel must be advanced one heart at a time and one life at a time. This timeless revolutionary message must be advanced tenaciously, aggressively, and passionately. Our enemy never ceases tempting, deceiving, stealing, destroying, and killing as many souls as he can. Therefore, we must never cease going for the spiritual jugulars of as many as we can. Go ahead! As you put this message down and go about your daily affairs, look at the necks of people and be reminded of every divine appointment the Lord brings your way. Let God work through you and then give Him the glory for what happens next.
Little Prayer Cabin
Little Prayer Cabin
I have spoken of it often and written about it as well. There is a small two bedroom cabin I often retreat to pray and soak in the scriptures to find spiritual renewal. After all these years I finally have some pictures of this place. You will be able to tell how isolated it is from hustle and bustle of life. What you will not be able to see from those pictures is the powerful presence of God in that tiny rustic cabin located far off the beaten path. Neither will those pictures be able to encapsulate the innumerable encounters I have with God and the life transformation that has ensued from those encounters.
It has been one of the great blessings of my life that the Lord has allowed me to have access to that cabin through a friend who manages the place for over a dozen years. At times I have gone inside those doors and slept for days from shear mental, spiritual, and emotional exhaustion. At other times I have spent my time reading book after book for spiritual refreshment. I have prayed hours on end seeking God’s will in different areas of ministry. I have sat before the Lord to listen to Him without feeling rushed or hurried to get to some other appointment. His voice has been sweet in that “prayer cabin” nestled among the pine trees. I have prayer walked miles around that property allowing the dust to kick up around my feet and the dust of sin and frustrations to exit my soul at the same time. I have read untold chapters of scriptures during my stays in that place. I have written several books seated at the dining room table surrounded by windows in that country cottage. It has become an old familiar home away from home. I know every inch of that place. I have a certain chair for reading. I sleep in the same bed and eat the same dining table chair.
Why has this place become so special to me? Why do enjoy my get a ways there so much? If God is omnipresent, why do I sense His presence so powerfully in that rustic wood framed house? Is that place any more holy than any other place on this planet? Or is my fondness of that place really nothing more than opportunity to meet with my Lord unhurried, with time to linger and take casual walks with Him.
When I’m in the prayer cabin it is like time stands still except for the fact that from time to time I look at my watch and am reminded how precious few hours I have left there before I have to return to reality. I can soak in God like a sponge and then when I go back home the Lord can squeeze Himself out to me to meet the ministry demands all of me.
I have two thoughts to wrap this up. First, taking these retreats is not only necessary but beneficial for the believer. How many ever take the time to do it. Jesus made this a regular habit of His life and ministry. [Luke 1:35] Early in the morning while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place and was praying there. Don’t you need to depart from the throngs of people from time to time and find a lonely place where you can commune with God? That cabin has been a lonely place for me for a long long time. But the truth is I don’t get go there every day or even every month. I am fortunate to make it to that place two or three times in a year. So what do I do the rest of the time. I get up early and meet with God in the lonely place of my living room. I shut the door to my office and meet God in the lonely place of my study to linger with Him. Some times I have to depart my office and meet with Him in the lonely place of a restaurant or find a lonely dirty road to take a “prayer walk.” This habit was a regular part of Jesus’ routine. [Luke 5:16] But He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness to pray.
If Jesus made the time and had the need to “slip away” or to “depart to a lonely place” what about you and me. Life, family, work, and ministry can all do a slow drain on our souls. Those people who make slipping away and departing to a lonely place a regular part of their routines are the ones who have the most sincere and genuine faith.
My second thought is though retreating from demands of life is a great blessing and results in spiritual renewal, we can’t live forever on these retreats. This is illustrated in [Luke 9:28-41]. Jesus takes Peter, John, and James up with Him on one His prayer retreats and they actually see Christ manifested in all of His glory before them. Peter is blown away and says, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles one for You, and one for Moses, and for Elijah…”
Yet only a few verses later the scriptures tell us they came down from the mountain and were immediately met with a distraught father looking for help for his son. Going up on the mountains to retreat with God is great but the one of the purposes for doing that is to come back down from the mountain for ministry.
I love that prayer cabin more than I can put into words and I always look forward to my retreats there. The honest truth is that though I love that place I do not want to live there. My ministry is in Paradise, TX and Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada. I retreat to be filled so I can come back and be effective in ministry. I look forward to my next trip to the prayer cabin but I also look forward to coming back and ministering to people in the power of the Spirit.
Chapter Eleven
Walking a Long Dirt Road
I recently found myself isolated walking down a lonely dirt road to just get away from the crowds. It was a week where I was given the privilege of preaching eight different times in one week. It was also a week where my study time was continually interrupted by something or someone at various times throughout the week. Two times my children awoke at 5:00 a.m. which distracted my normal quiet times before the Lord. It was a challenging and exhausting week and that slow deliberate prayer walk down that lonely dirt road was refreshing to my soul in ways I could never put onto paper.
To make this walk I had to deliberately leave the company of several men I love dearly who had gathered on a scenic 1,500 acre ranch for a men’s retreat. I had to make that walk alone if my soul was going to be of any benefit to them for the weekend. Those first steps were awkward spiritually as I tried to pray but could hear the conversation and laughter of the other men. Soon I turned a corner both physically as I left sight of the home we were staying in also turned a corner spiritually. As soon as I was totally alone I felt myself exhaling the pressure of a busy week and inhaling the intoxicating presence of God. I walked through a wooded area and headed for the lake. While walking along the shore line of the lake I felt my heart relax and I began to spiritually breathe in tranquility.
The refreshing presence of God on those walks cannot be measured or described with words. Our vocabularies are too restricted to speak of such experiences. Suffice it to say I know just a little of how Adam and Eve must have felt before they sinned as they walked with God in the garden. How they must have relished those walks with God in the garden. Instructions could have been given, love expressed, joy experienced, and the delight of being in perfect communion with the creator defies description. Their sin changed that. Instead of wanting to walk with God after they ate the forbidden fruit they actually began to flee from God and try to hide from His presence. [Gen 3:8-10] That is what I think we do. We don’t walk those lonely dirt roads with God because we know He knows our sin. He knows the secret parts of our lives that no-one else knows and we want to keep them hidden. We unconsciously think if we stay away from His presence we can hide our flaws, moral mishaps, and spiritual blunders from His all seeing eyes. God already knows the truth and wants us to confess the truth in our innermost beings. [Ps 51:6]
There is another story of a man who walked with God found in Genesis. Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. [Gen 5:24] I imagine Enoch daily, sauntering down long dirt roads talking with God. The nature of those talks could have been expressions of love and adoration, confession of sin, pleas for help in impossible circumstances, and just enjoying the presence and the reality of God day in and day out. Just as Enoch enjoyed walking the Lord I believe the Lord enjoyed walking with Enoch. Daily jaunts together became Enoch’s life-long habit. God must have loved those walks far more than we can imagine because one day He just decided to take Enoch to Heaven. No death. No pain. Just eternal bliss and greater intimacy with the Father Enoch had been pursuing to know while walking with Him on those roads for years.
It is kind of like the saying a friend of mine has. He says he imagines as he walks with the Lord that one day the Lord will say to him, “Son, we’re closer to my house than to yours. Why don’t you just come home with me?” God just wanted Enoch all for himself and took Him to Heaven. Enoch is only one of two persons to experience something like that, Elijah being the other.
I want to learn what it really means to walk with God in a way that not only refreshes my life but blesses the Father as well. I want to learn to slow down long enough to meander down the dirt roads of life in delightful conversation and communion with my Father. I know when I try to hide in the bushes from God’s presence my soul shrivels and my faith fades. Some of the most meaningful spiritual experiences I have ever had included walking alone in the mountains, on the beach, out in the woods, down dusty country roads, and out in pastures. There is something very therapeutic and invigorating about walking with God.
I am under no pretenses that I am in any like Enoch. I have not learned the art of cultivating that kind of walk with the Lord. I do enjoy my walks with Him however and hope to ever be cultivating and refining my walks with Him. I encourage you to do the same. Find some isolated dusty trail or road and just go for a walk with God. Pour your soul out to Him and listen to what He has to say to you. I guarantee you will come away from that experience both refreshed and recharged for the demands of relentlessly busy.
I have spoken of it often and written about it as well. There is a small two bedroom cabin I often retreat to pray and soak in the scriptures to find spiritual renewal. After all these years I finally have some pictures of this place. You will be able to tell how isolated it is from hustle and bustle of life. What you will not be able to see from those pictures is the powerful presence of God in that tiny rustic cabin located far off the beaten path. Neither will those pictures be able to encapsulate the innumerable encounters I have with God and the life transformation that has ensued from those encounters.
It has been one of the great blessings of my life that the Lord has allowed me to have access to that cabin through a friend who manages the place for over a dozen years. At times I have gone inside those doors and slept for days from shear mental, spiritual, and emotional exhaustion. At other times I have spent my time reading book after book for spiritual refreshment. I have prayed hours on end seeking God’s will in different areas of ministry. I have sat before the Lord to listen to Him without feeling rushed or hurried to get to some other appointment. His voice has been sweet in that “prayer cabin” nestled among the pine trees. I have prayer walked miles around that property allowing the dust to kick up around my feet and the dust of sin and frustrations to exit my soul at the same time. I have read untold chapters of scriptures during my stays in that place. I have written several books seated at the dining room table surrounded by windows in that country cottage. It has become an old familiar home away from home. I know every inch of that place. I have a certain chair for reading. I sleep in the same bed and eat the same dining table chair.
Why has this place become so special to me? Why do enjoy my get a ways there so much? If God is omnipresent, why do I sense His presence so powerfully in that rustic wood framed house? Is that place any more holy than any other place on this planet? Or is my fondness of that place really nothing more than opportunity to meet with my Lord unhurried, with time to linger and take casual walks with Him.
When I’m in the prayer cabin it is like time stands still except for the fact that from time to time I look at my watch and am reminded how precious few hours I have left there before I have to return to reality. I can soak in God like a sponge and then when I go back home the Lord can squeeze Himself out to me to meet the ministry demands all of me.
I have two thoughts to wrap this up. First, taking these retreats is not only necessary but beneficial for the believer. How many ever take the time to do it. Jesus made this a regular habit of His life and ministry. [Luke 1:35] Early in the morning while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place and was praying there. Don’t you need to depart from the throngs of people from time to time and find a lonely place where you can commune with God? That cabin has been a lonely place for me for a long long time. But the truth is I don’t get go there every day or even every month. I am fortunate to make it to that place two or three times in a year. So what do I do the rest of the time. I get up early and meet with God in the lonely place of my living room. I shut the door to my office and meet God in the lonely place of my study to linger with Him. Some times I have to depart my office and meet with Him in the lonely place of a restaurant or find a lonely dirty road to take a “prayer walk.” This habit was a regular part of Jesus’ routine. [Luke 5:16] But He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness to pray.
If Jesus made the time and had the need to “slip away” or to “depart to a lonely place” what about you and me. Life, family, work, and ministry can all do a slow drain on our souls. Those people who make slipping away and departing to a lonely place a regular part of their routines are the ones who have the most sincere and genuine faith.
My second thought is though retreating from demands of life is a great blessing and results in spiritual renewal, we can’t live forever on these retreats. This is illustrated in [Luke 9:28-41]. Jesus takes Peter, John, and James up with Him on one His prayer retreats and they actually see Christ manifested in all of His glory before them. Peter is blown away and says, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles one for You, and one for Moses, and for Elijah…”
Yet only a few verses later the scriptures tell us they came down from the mountain and were immediately met with a distraught father looking for help for his son. Going up on the mountains to retreat with God is great but the one of the purposes for doing that is to come back down from the mountain for ministry.
I love that prayer cabin more than I can put into words and I always look forward to my retreats there. The honest truth is that though I love that place I do not want to live there. My ministry is in Paradise, TX and Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada. I retreat to be filled so I can come back and be effective in ministry. I look forward to my next trip to the prayer cabin but I also look forward to coming back and ministering to people in the power of the Spirit.
Chapter Eleven
Walking a Long Dirt Road
I recently found myself isolated walking down a lonely dirt road to just get away from the crowds. It was a week where I was given the privilege of preaching eight different times in one week. It was also a week where my study time was continually interrupted by something or someone at various times throughout the week. Two times my children awoke at 5:00 a.m. which distracted my normal quiet times before the Lord. It was a challenging and exhausting week and that slow deliberate prayer walk down that lonely dirt road was refreshing to my soul in ways I could never put onto paper.
To make this walk I had to deliberately leave the company of several men I love dearly who had gathered on a scenic 1,500 acre ranch for a men’s retreat. I had to make that walk alone if my soul was going to be of any benefit to them for the weekend. Those first steps were awkward spiritually as I tried to pray but could hear the conversation and laughter of the other men. Soon I turned a corner both physically as I left sight of the home we were staying in also turned a corner spiritually. As soon as I was totally alone I felt myself exhaling the pressure of a busy week and inhaling the intoxicating presence of God. I walked through a wooded area and headed for the lake. While walking along the shore line of the lake I felt my heart relax and I began to spiritually breathe in tranquility.
The refreshing presence of God on those walks cannot be measured or described with words. Our vocabularies are too restricted to speak of such experiences. Suffice it to say I know just a little of how Adam and Eve must have felt before they sinned as they walked with God in the garden. How they must have relished those walks with God in the garden. Instructions could have been given, love expressed, joy experienced, and the delight of being in perfect communion with the creator defies description. Their sin changed that. Instead of wanting to walk with God after they ate the forbidden fruit they actually began to flee from God and try to hide from His presence. [Gen 3:8-10] That is what I think we do. We don’t walk those lonely dirt roads with God because we know He knows our sin. He knows the secret parts of our lives that no-one else knows and we want to keep them hidden. We unconsciously think if we stay away from His presence we can hide our flaws, moral mishaps, and spiritual blunders from His all seeing eyes. God already knows the truth and wants us to confess the truth in our innermost beings. [Ps 51:6]
There is another story of a man who walked with God found in Genesis. Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. [Gen 5:24] I imagine Enoch daily, sauntering down long dirt roads talking with God. The nature of those talks could have been expressions of love and adoration, confession of sin, pleas for help in impossible circumstances, and just enjoying the presence and the reality of God day in and day out. Just as Enoch enjoyed walking the Lord I believe the Lord enjoyed walking with Enoch. Daily jaunts together became Enoch’s life-long habit. God must have loved those walks far more than we can imagine because one day He just decided to take Enoch to Heaven. No death. No pain. Just eternal bliss and greater intimacy with the Father Enoch had been pursuing to know while walking with Him on those roads for years.
It is kind of like the saying a friend of mine has. He says he imagines as he walks with the Lord that one day the Lord will say to him, “Son, we’re closer to my house than to yours. Why don’t you just come home with me?” God just wanted Enoch all for himself and took Him to Heaven. Enoch is only one of two persons to experience something like that, Elijah being the other.
I want to learn what it really means to walk with God in a way that not only refreshes my life but blesses the Father as well. I want to learn to slow down long enough to meander down the dirt roads of life in delightful conversation and communion with my Father. I know when I try to hide in the bushes from God’s presence my soul shrivels and my faith fades. Some of the most meaningful spiritual experiences I have ever had included walking alone in the mountains, on the beach, out in the woods, down dusty country roads, and out in pastures. There is something very therapeutic and invigorating about walking with God.
I am under no pretenses that I am in any like Enoch. I have not learned the art of cultivating that kind of walk with the Lord. I do enjoy my walks with Him however and hope to ever be cultivating and refining my walks with Him. I encourage you to do the same. Find some isolated dusty trail or road and just go for a walk with God. Pour your soul out to Him and listen to what He has to say to you. I guarantee you will come away from that experience both refreshed and recharged for the demands of relentlessly busy.
Dreaming Large
“Dreaming Large”
What a glorious day! After eight months of the busiest ministry of my pastoral ministry, I loaded up my truck today with my computer, books, and headed to my favorite prayer cabin located outside Palestine, TX.
My goals while here are huge. I am determined to finish writing a book entitled Behold the Faithfulness of God along with penning some other short meditations. I have several books I would like to read and some goals I would like to pray through for and get clarity on for FBC Paradise. In addition, I will be preaching a youth revival for the FBC Palestine during the evening for the next four days.
While driving down highway 287 South this morning I was listening to a preaching tape from Bruce Wilkinson. The longer I listened the more my faith soared and I felt the Lord surging HUGE dreams in my heart. I am no stranger to dreams. As a student from elementary all the way through college, I often stared through the windows and dreamed big dreams from the Lord. I dreamed about things I would do, the woman I would marry, if I would have kids, my future ministry, and goals I wanted to accomplish.
In those days I confess guilt of dreaming my dreams. Often I would sit and ponder dreams I wanted to accomplish and ask God to bless them. Twelve years in the school of brokenness and repeated lessons is humiliation have finally brought me to a place where my dreams are finally God’s dreams. These dreams are bigger than anything I could ever accomplish on my own. God dreams big dreams. Dreams that give Him great glory. Dreams that are beyond natural ability. God’s dreams are large and those dreams have begun to settle in my heart.
My first reaction was one of fear. “Lord, I can’t do that. I can’t manage that dream or conceive of such a dream.” Driving in my truck sanctuary the Lord pounded His dream in my heart and reminded me that He would be the one accomplishing the dream and not me. He continued to reiterate that saying I couldn’t do it put all the focus on me and not Him. So prayerfully I surrendered to His dream no matter how many people doubt. Driving in my truck sanctuary the Lord pounded that His dream in my heart and reminded me that He would be the one accomplishing dream and not me. He continued to reiterate that saying I couldn’t do it put all the focus on me and not Him. So prayerfully I surrendered to His dream no matter how many people doubt. I took the training wheels of ministry off and set out to fully rely on Him and to go as far and fast with Him as He allows. The end result will leave our church and community breathless.
It was not easy for me to join God in this dream. I recall all the times I have dreamed and planned and stepped out on faith only to fall on my face. Again I would get up and then fall on face again. Before long I became more hesitant to step out and to believe the large dreams.
Eight months when we were called to pastor the FBC of Paradise, I had no dream nor any long term vision. This continued for several months. I prayed. I sought. I listened but the vision did not come. I waited but God’s dream remained hidden. Recently, God took the blinders off and allowed me to see the future in part. I was stunned. Then, I began to see that future being realized right before me and [Eph 3:20] became a reality. For the first time in my entire ministry I began seeing God doing “exceedingly and abundantly more than I could ask or imagine.”
All of this has only intensified over the past couple of days. Dreaming God’s large dream and pursuing that dream will be a life long quest. This past Wednesday night I found myself prostrate in our sanctuary pleading with God to give me thirty years as the pastor of FBC. I will be seventy years old then. I have asked God in essence to allow me three decades in pursuit of His dream for our church and my life. This will most likely take up all my active years in serving as a pastor. Yet, what better pursuit than to pursue the large dream of God? What better way to give God all the glory?
What about you? As you sit and read this, what large dream is God planting in your heart? Do you believe Him for it? Do you really believe He has something for you that will stretch you and require more faith than you have ever had? Nothing is impossible with Him. Will you surrender and cross the point of no return as you follow this dream and prayerfully serve to see it become a reality?
God is looking for available servants who will trust Him for large dreams. He is looking for hearts who are willing to believe for what most will say can never be done but God is more than capable of making His dream come true.
God’s dream planted in my heart is about four times the size of the dreams I used to dream. Today I challenge to you sit before the Lord and allow Him to plant a God sized dream in your heart. Write it down. Make it very plain and then pursue that dream with God with caution thrown to the wind. “Then the Lord answered me and said, ‘Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.” [Hab 2:2-3]
What a glorious day! After eight months of the busiest ministry of my pastoral ministry, I loaded up my truck today with my computer, books, and headed to my favorite prayer cabin located outside Palestine, TX.
My goals while here are huge. I am determined to finish writing a book entitled Behold the Faithfulness of God along with penning some other short meditations. I have several books I would like to read and some goals I would like to pray through for and get clarity on for FBC Paradise. In addition, I will be preaching a youth revival for the FBC Palestine during the evening for the next four days.
While driving down highway 287 South this morning I was listening to a preaching tape from Bruce Wilkinson. The longer I listened the more my faith soared and I felt the Lord surging HUGE dreams in my heart. I am no stranger to dreams. As a student from elementary all the way through college, I often stared through the windows and dreamed big dreams from the Lord. I dreamed about things I would do, the woman I would marry, if I would have kids, my future ministry, and goals I wanted to accomplish.
In those days I confess guilt of dreaming my dreams. Often I would sit and ponder dreams I wanted to accomplish and ask God to bless them. Twelve years in the school of brokenness and repeated lessons is humiliation have finally brought me to a place where my dreams are finally God’s dreams. These dreams are bigger than anything I could ever accomplish on my own. God dreams big dreams. Dreams that give Him great glory. Dreams that are beyond natural ability. God’s dreams are large and those dreams have begun to settle in my heart.
My first reaction was one of fear. “Lord, I can’t do that. I can’t manage that dream or conceive of such a dream.” Driving in my truck sanctuary the Lord pounded His dream in my heart and reminded me that He would be the one accomplishing the dream and not me. He continued to reiterate that saying I couldn’t do it put all the focus on me and not Him. So prayerfully I surrendered to His dream no matter how many people doubt. Driving in my truck sanctuary the Lord pounded that His dream in my heart and reminded me that He would be the one accomplishing dream and not me. He continued to reiterate that saying I couldn’t do it put all the focus on me and not Him. So prayerfully I surrendered to His dream no matter how many people doubt. I took the training wheels of ministry off and set out to fully rely on Him and to go as far and fast with Him as He allows. The end result will leave our church and community breathless.
It was not easy for me to join God in this dream. I recall all the times I have dreamed and planned and stepped out on faith only to fall on my face. Again I would get up and then fall on face again. Before long I became more hesitant to step out and to believe the large dreams.
Eight months when we were called to pastor the FBC of Paradise, I had no dream nor any long term vision. This continued for several months. I prayed. I sought. I listened but the vision did not come. I waited but God’s dream remained hidden. Recently, God took the blinders off and allowed me to see the future in part. I was stunned. Then, I began to see that future being realized right before me and [Eph 3:20] became a reality. For the first time in my entire ministry I began seeing God doing “exceedingly and abundantly more than I could ask or imagine.”
All of this has only intensified over the past couple of days. Dreaming God’s large dream and pursuing that dream will be a life long quest. This past Wednesday night I found myself prostrate in our sanctuary pleading with God to give me thirty years as the pastor of FBC. I will be seventy years old then. I have asked God in essence to allow me three decades in pursuit of His dream for our church and my life. This will most likely take up all my active years in serving as a pastor. Yet, what better pursuit than to pursue the large dream of God? What better way to give God all the glory?
What about you? As you sit and read this, what large dream is God planting in your heart? Do you believe Him for it? Do you really believe He has something for you that will stretch you and require more faith than you have ever had? Nothing is impossible with Him. Will you surrender and cross the point of no return as you follow this dream and prayerfully serve to see it become a reality?
God is looking for available servants who will trust Him for large dreams. He is looking for hearts who are willing to believe for what most will say can never be done but God is more than capable of making His dream come true.
God’s dream planted in my heart is about four times the size of the dreams I used to dream. Today I challenge to you sit before the Lord and allow Him to plant a God sized dream in your heart. Write it down. Make it very plain and then pursue that dream with God with caution thrown to the wind. “Then the Lord answered me and said, ‘Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.” [Hab 2:2-3]
Dogged Determination
Dogged Determination
[Acts 5:40-42]
Dogged: obstinately determined
Determined: decided, resolute
Dogged determined people thrill us and inspire us. How many times were we moved by the dogged determination of Michael Jordan to win at any costs, to over come huge deficits in the fourth quarter, games of elimination in the playoffs, or the clock in those last seconds getting off the game winning shot at the buzzer? Many of you will remember the obstinately resolute will of Emmit Smith playing in a playoff game against the New York Giants with a separated shoulder and still gobbling yards to help the Dallas Cowboys gain the victory a few years ago. Who can forget the determined face and words of President George W. Bush after 9-11 while standing at ground zero in New York City?
Obstinate resolution is a good thing. We are motivated to take a stand when we remember the lives of Rosa Parks who refused to give her seat on the bus during the civil rights movement. We are enthralled to relive the speeches of the late Dr. Martin Luther King who fought for racial equality until he was tragically assassinated.
Why is dogged determination celebrated in most every venue of life except in the Christian church? Why have so many Christians become so disconnected with those resolute warriors of the past who refused to be intimidated, silenced, or suppressed but instead preached boldly, resisted peer pressure, faced persecutions and even certain death without flinching, and turned the world upside down? [Acts 17:6] We need obstinately resolute men in the pulpit who refuse to bow to the pressures of this age to tickle the ears and attract crowds rather than to make disciples. We need fearless men in the pulpits who will go for the jugulars of the lost masses who are being lulled to sleep and eternal damnation from self help sermons and harmless sermonettes without the fangs of the gospel attached to grip a soul and bring them to repentance.
We need dogged determined parents who will fight for the souls of their children in prayer, family devotions, and the avoidance of every appearance of evil, especially with television and the internet. We need grand parents who will resolve to pass on a Christ-like legacy to their grandchildren. We need dogged determined teenagers who will defy their rebellious generation and champion the cause of Christ even when it means standing alone.
We need dogged determined church planters to go to the hard places of this world and plant churches to give a gospel witness where there is not one currently. We must have dogged determined missionaries who will forsake the comforts of life in the States to run toward risk to the far corners of this world where the whisper of Jesus’ name has never been heard. We need them to resolutely stay the course like the great William Carey did, battling many obstacles along with personal and family trials. He stayed the course.
We need brilliant theologians to brave the prevailing watered down doctrinal winds of the day and teach and write to defend truth, even when it costs job security. We need humble teaches rather than puffed up and prideful professors who professing to be wise have made themselves fools, forsaking the Holy Scriptures in light of higher criticism.
As children of God, we have inherited a legacy of faith passed down for generations of people who were dogged in their determination to advance the kingdom of God. Just look at our text. These apostles were severely beaten, with backs bloodied and bruised, threatened not to continue their preaching and teaching, knowing these were not idle threats, and yet they rejoiced. That word seems strangely out of context with these verses. How does one rejoice when the flesh of his back has been laid open and the sinews of muscles are exposed and battered by heavy handed soldiers? How do you find courage and strength to walk away when released when the clothing on your back begins to stick to the blood drying from your wounds? How do you find vigor to rejoice and renewed determination to stay the course and when more of the same awaits? How do you worship when your wounds scream in agonizing pain? How do you resolve to keep right on doing what you were warned not to do?
These apostles, walked away from the blood splattered street where they were beaten, in worship and with dogged determination to continue their mission – spread the name of Christ. In fact, every day, in the synagogues and up down the streets of Jerusalem, they went from house to house kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. [Acts 5:42]
This mentality is contrasted today with casual church members who are easily deterred by ball tournaments, leisure days at the lake, sleeping in, and yard work in lieu of church attendance, spreading the love of Jesus with co-workers and friends, and mission involvement.
How many dogged determined Christians do you know? How many sit in your Bible Study classes? One? A dozen? How many fill the choir loft? How many dogged determined people do you have show up for visitation night?
Dogged determination is celebrated is many areas of society but not held in high esteem for the church. I was tested earlier this year with my oldest son’s football team. Because of scheduling conflicts they asked for a show of hands of people who were not in favor of practicing on Wednesday nights. My hand was the only one up among dozens of parents. Mind you, many of the parents were Christians and active in their churches (at least on Sunday mornings). When we were to play the championship game later on in the season, rumors surfaced that the game was going to be played on Sunday. Not in an arrogant way but determined to preserve that day as a holy day unto the Lord, I had to tell the coach under no circumstances would be play on Sunday.
Many of you who read this will say that is not dogged determination, that is being rigid, inflexible and narrow minded. I query, is God still not worthy of a day devoted to worship of Him? One day out of six other days? Does the infinite value and exceeding weight of His presence not deserve time to be preached, sung, meditated, and taught. Is God not worth ten percent of our money at least, leaving us with an ample ten percent to live on? Is God not worth a few hours devoted to worship and listening to Him on Sundays while ball games are left to the other days of the week? Many of you can remember when stores were not even opened on Sundays. Sundays were days of worship and enjoying the company of friends. My how things have changed. Would the apostles have accepted or resisted these changes. Would they have accepted this in stride and had a lackadaisical attitude about preserving one day of the week for God. They fought for every day of the week. [Acts 2:42, 5:42] I am challenged and inspired to be more for God by reading about these men.
The other morning I shared the story of these men with my boys in our family devotion. I asked them what they would do if their backs were beaten and they were commanded not preach Jesus anymore. Taylor, age 10 said, “I would keep on doing it.” Tanner, age 7 responded, “I would keep preaching.” Tucker, age 6 shouted, “I would keep doing it.” How I pray they would see that dogged determination in their daddy as well and not watch me wimping out when the heat comes. I pray I would be a dogged determined pastor, author, and disciple. I pray you are as well. May our resolute obstinate hearts ever beat to make a difference for our King.
[Acts 5:40-42]
Dogged: obstinately determined
Determined: decided, resolute
Dogged determined people thrill us and inspire us. How many times were we moved by the dogged determination of Michael Jordan to win at any costs, to over come huge deficits in the fourth quarter, games of elimination in the playoffs, or the clock in those last seconds getting off the game winning shot at the buzzer? Many of you will remember the obstinately resolute will of Emmit Smith playing in a playoff game against the New York Giants with a separated shoulder and still gobbling yards to help the Dallas Cowboys gain the victory a few years ago. Who can forget the determined face and words of President George W. Bush after 9-11 while standing at ground zero in New York City?
Obstinate resolution is a good thing. We are motivated to take a stand when we remember the lives of Rosa Parks who refused to give her seat on the bus during the civil rights movement. We are enthralled to relive the speeches of the late Dr. Martin Luther King who fought for racial equality until he was tragically assassinated.
Why is dogged determination celebrated in most every venue of life except in the Christian church? Why have so many Christians become so disconnected with those resolute warriors of the past who refused to be intimidated, silenced, or suppressed but instead preached boldly, resisted peer pressure, faced persecutions and even certain death without flinching, and turned the world upside down? [Acts 17:6] We need obstinately resolute men in the pulpit who refuse to bow to the pressures of this age to tickle the ears and attract crowds rather than to make disciples. We need fearless men in the pulpits who will go for the jugulars of the lost masses who are being lulled to sleep and eternal damnation from self help sermons and harmless sermonettes without the fangs of the gospel attached to grip a soul and bring them to repentance.
We need dogged determined parents who will fight for the souls of their children in prayer, family devotions, and the avoidance of every appearance of evil, especially with television and the internet. We need grand parents who will resolve to pass on a Christ-like legacy to their grandchildren. We need dogged determined teenagers who will defy their rebellious generation and champion the cause of Christ even when it means standing alone.
We need dogged determined church planters to go to the hard places of this world and plant churches to give a gospel witness where there is not one currently. We must have dogged determined missionaries who will forsake the comforts of life in the States to run toward risk to the far corners of this world where the whisper of Jesus’ name has never been heard. We need them to resolutely stay the course like the great William Carey did, battling many obstacles along with personal and family trials. He stayed the course.
We need brilliant theologians to brave the prevailing watered down doctrinal winds of the day and teach and write to defend truth, even when it costs job security. We need humble teaches rather than puffed up and prideful professors who professing to be wise have made themselves fools, forsaking the Holy Scriptures in light of higher criticism.
As children of God, we have inherited a legacy of faith passed down for generations of people who were dogged in their determination to advance the kingdom of God. Just look at our text. These apostles were severely beaten, with backs bloodied and bruised, threatened not to continue their preaching and teaching, knowing these were not idle threats, and yet they rejoiced. That word seems strangely out of context with these verses. How does one rejoice when the flesh of his back has been laid open and the sinews of muscles are exposed and battered by heavy handed soldiers? How do you find courage and strength to walk away when released when the clothing on your back begins to stick to the blood drying from your wounds? How do you find vigor to rejoice and renewed determination to stay the course and when more of the same awaits? How do you worship when your wounds scream in agonizing pain? How do you resolve to keep right on doing what you were warned not to do?
These apostles, walked away from the blood splattered street where they were beaten, in worship and with dogged determination to continue their mission – spread the name of Christ. In fact, every day, in the synagogues and up down the streets of Jerusalem, they went from house to house kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. [Acts 5:42]
This mentality is contrasted today with casual church members who are easily deterred by ball tournaments, leisure days at the lake, sleeping in, and yard work in lieu of church attendance, spreading the love of Jesus with co-workers and friends, and mission involvement.
How many dogged determined Christians do you know? How many sit in your Bible Study classes? One? A dozen? How many fill the choir loft? How many dogged determined people do you have show up for visitation night?
Dogged determination is celebrated is many areas of society but not held in high esteem for the church. I was tested earlier this year with my oldest son’s football team. Because of scheduling conflicts they asked for a show of hands of people who were not in favor of practicing on Wednesday nights. My hand was the only one up among dozens of parents. Mind you, many of the parents were Christians and active in their churches (at least on Sunday mornings). When we were to play the championship game later on in the season, rumors surfaced that the game was going to be played on Sunday. Not in an arrogant way but determined to preserve that day as a holy day unto the Lord, I had to tell the coach under no circumstances would be play on Sunday.
Many of you who read this will say that is not dogged determination, that is being rigid, inflexible and narrow minded. I query, is God still not worthy of a day devoted to worship of Him? One day out of six other days? Does the infinite value and exceeding weight of His presence not deserve time to be preached, sung, meditated, and taught. Is God not worth ten percent of our money at least, leaving us with an ample ten percent to live on? Is God not worth a few hours devoted to worship and listening to Him on Sundays while ball games are left to the other days of the week? Many of you can remember when stores were not even opened on Sundays. Sundays were days of worship and enjoying the company of friends. My how things have changed. Would the apostles have accepted or resisted these changes. Would they have accepted this in stride and had a lackadaisical attitude about preserving one day of the week for God. They fought for every day of the week. [Acts 2:42, 5:42] I am challenged and inspired to be more for God by reading about these men.
The other morning I shared the story of these men with my boys in our family devotion. I asked them what they would do if their backs were beaten and they were commanded not preach Jesus anymore. Taylor, age 10 said, “I would keep on doing it.” Tanner, age 7 responded, “I would keep preaching.” Tucker, age 6 shouted, “I would keep doing it.” How I pray they would see that dogged determination in their daddy as well and not watch me wimping out when the heat comes. I pray I would be a dogged determined pastor, author, and disciple. I pray you are as well. May our resolute obstinate hearts ever beat to make a difference for our King.
Family Devotions
Family Devotions
I was tired when I went to bed last night and was very surprised when I awoke somewhere between 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. I rolled out of bed and found some warm clothing to keep the chill off while I made my way to my easy chair with my Bible in hand to continue my journey of a lifetime in reading scripture. I read through Ezekiel and was just beginning to dig into Daniel when I heard the alarm clock go off in our bedroom. I knew then I had about fifteen more precious minutes with the Lord before I needed to start breakfast and wake the boys. I read on with great interest and expectation.
I ended reading about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their confidence in God despite threats of the king and possible execution left them undaunted. Their boldness was an inspiration for me to preach the truth no matter what. Hurriedly I started the eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, and biscuits, while arousing the boys for another day in Paradise (we actually live in a town called Paradise, TX).
The boys needed help in finding clothing, each needed a hug and a “Good morning!” Turner and I even did the “wake up dance” which we made up on the spot. The plates were made and we sat down to eat. I took Brenda’s breakfast to her in the bedroom where she was still getting to ready and was just about to jump into the shower and shave to get myself ready to head to the office. Normally by this time, I have between fifteen and ten minutes to get ready. It is a rush. And then it dawned on me, I had not had a family devotion. I did the mental juggling act of determining if I had the time to squeeze a devotion in and still have time to get ready and be at the office by 8:00 a.m. I knew there was not time, but standing in my bedroom and looking into the living room I saw my precious boys and knew it is what God wanted me to do.
I forsook the shower and gathered them around me and sat in my chair to tell them the exciting story of these faithful three Hebrews who refused to bow even if it meant death. I challenged our boys to stand for God even when others around them are bowing and even it means physical harm. The oldest two said that they wanted to stand even if it meant death because they would go to Heaven anyway. How proud I was of them and how contented I felt after we prayed and they left for school. I was ten minutes late in getting to the office, but I will do nothing more valuable all day long than invest spiritually into the lives of those boys. I know it will not be easy for them in the days ahead having a “preacher” father. So continually I challenge them to remember everything Jesus has done for them and to compare that with what the world has to offer.
[Ps 78:5-7] “For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.”
Who sets the tone spiritually in your home? God desires it to be the fathers but many homes do not have husbands and fathers. What then? The mother, grandmother or whomever must step up to the plate and offer family devotions. How will our children ever learn the testimonies of God and His nature if we entrust all their spiritual education to the church? There is so much of God to learn and the church cannot teach all of it alone. Our homes must be primary source of spiritual education and the church will reinforce these truths week after week. My boys and your children need the consistent diet of scripture both inside and outside church.
Having family devotions does several things. First, it helps set the spiritual tone of a household. It affirms to little impressionable minds that the Bible is filled with truth not just to be heard and studied at church but in everyday life. God is preeminent in the universe and should also be in our homes. Second, this time together bonds our hearts and gives strength for the battles of the day. My oldest son was recently picked on because of a number of television shows he is not allowed to watch. Instead of being angry about that, he stood for truth among his tormentors and told them that his daddy loved him and would only hinder him from watching shows that were not good for him. He is only ten and the persecution and the peer pressure will only intensify as he grows older. What will give him the backbone to stand? I pray it will the examples he sees and hears about in the Bible over and over again. Third, this pattern begins to affirm the habit of children learning to have quiet times or devotional times on their own as they grow older. How many of you parents even know if your children have devotional times? If they are not having them, what are you going to do about that? Of course, all of this presupposes that as a parent you are having regular quiet times with the Lord. If family devotions were made a priority, love for God would increase, service for God would intensify, and the rule and reign of Christ would control our lives.
I challenge you to commit to the Lord and to your family to begin having some sort of family devotions. I have a youth minister friend who became convicted that his son was not spending any time with the Lord and so they committed to have a devotional time together. He told me later how meaningful and special that time was for the two of them. I found myself in a pastor’s house early one morning and discovered them reading the book of Romans together and having prayer before beginning their day. What a sweet scene that was. Some do it at night before everyone goes to bed. Others like the morning better. The time is not that important. The important thing is just to do it. Set aside time to get your family into the word of God TOGETHER and pray.
I confess that I have been very inconsistent over the years with this time. I usually do ours in the morning and if we are running behind schedule it easy to get crowded out and neglected. Do we not want to teach our families over and over again to put their confidence in God? Do we not want to reiterate the importance of not forgetting the works God does and has done and will continue to do?
I did not grow up with that blessing or privilege. I often think of the joy of my children growing up and getting married and seeing them sitting down with their families to open the word.
A few years ago Brenda found a painting of a father sitting on a couch surrounded by his children reading the Bible. In the background of the painting are scenes from the Bible alive and being acted out. Brenda told me she bought that picture because it reminded her of me. What a challenge that has been to me to fight for family devotions. Now, I look at that picture and think about grandchildren unborn and unknown to me but already conceived in the mind and heart of God. I picture my boys, Taylor, Tanner, Tucker, and Turner one day gathering their little ones to sit around them as they open the word of God and remind their children to put their confidence in God as they recount the many miracles they saw as a boy and the faithful God their grandfather has served and loved for so long.
Committing to family devotions is not easy but it is worthy of the fight for time. We must carve this time out of our day at all costs. What could be more lasting and precious to the heart of any parent than to see their children grow up and remain faithful in their devotion and service to God in the midst of a pagan and wicked society? May God help us to fight for the minds and hearts of our children.
Father,
I pray for each one reading this to have the fire of desire well up in their souls to lead and train their families spiritually. I pray you would give them discipline and remembrance to spend time as a family in your word. Lord, I pray for those impressionable minds and hearts of little boys and girls and ask you to fill them with you and with great confidence in you as they grow older. How I pray this would start a chain reaction to last through the ages. Lord, without your help in managing our time and continually challenging us to do this, we will fail. I thank you for giving us the strength and discipline to succeed. In Jesus name, Amen.
I was tired when I went to bed last night and was very surprised when I awoke somewhere between 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. I rolled out of bed and found some warm clothing to keep the chill off while I made my way to my easy chair with my Bible in hand to continue my journey of a lifetime in reading scripture. I read through Ezekiel and was just beginning to dig into Daniel when I heard the alarm clock go off in our bedroom. I knew then I had about fifteen more precious minutes with the Lord before I needed to start breakfast and wake the boys. I read on with great interest and expectation.
I ended reading about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their confidence in God despite threats of the king and possible execution left them undaunted. Their boldness was an inspiration for me to preach the truth no matter what. Hurriedly I started the eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, and biscuits, while arousing the boys for another day in Paradise (we actually live in a town called Paradise, TX).
The boys needed help in finding clothing, each needed a hug and a “Good morning!” Turner and I even did the “wake up dance” which we made up on the spot. The plates were made and we sat down to eat. I took Brenda’s breakfast to her in the bedroom where she was still getting to ready and was just about to jump into the shower and shave to get myself ready to head to the office. Normally by this time, I have between fifteen and ten minutes to get ready. It is a rush. And then it dawned on me, I had not had a family devotion. I did the mental juggling act of determining if I had the time to squeeze a devotion in and still have time to get ready and be at the office by 8:00 a.m. I knew there was not time, but standing in my bedroom and looking into the living room I saw my precious boys and knew it is what God wanted me to do.
I forsook the shower and gathered them around me and sat in my chair to tell them the exciting story of these faithful three Hebrews who refused to bow even if it meant death. I challenged our boys to stand for God even when others around them are bowing and even it means physical harm. The oldest two said that they wanted to stand even if it meant death because they would go to Heaven anyway. How proud I was of them and how contented I felt after we prayed and they left for school. I was ten minutes late in getting to the office, but I will do nothing more valuable all day long than invest spiritually into the lives of those boys. I know it will not be easy for them in the days ahead having a “preacher” father. So continually I challenge them to remember everything Jesus has done for them and to compare that with what the world has to offer.
[Ps 78:5-7] “For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.”
Who sets the tone spiritually in your home? God desires it to be the fathers but many homes do not have husbands and fathers. What then? The mother, grandmother or whomever must step up to the plate and offer family devotions. How will our children ever learn the testimonies of God and His nature if we entrust all their spiritual education to the church? There is so much of God to learn and the church cannot teach all of it alone. Our homes must be primary source of spiritual education and the church will reinforce these truths week after week. My boys and your children need the consistent diet of scripture both inside and outside church.
Having family devotions does several things. First, it helps set the spiritual tone of a household. It affirms to little impressionable minds that the Bible is filled with truth not just to be heard and studied at church but in everyday life. God is preeminent in the universe and should also be in our homes. Second, this time together bonds our hearts and gives strength for the battles of the day. My oldest son was recently picked on because of a number of television shows he is not allowed to watch. Instead of being angry about that, he stood for truth among his tormentors and told them that his daddy loved him and would only hinder him from watching shows that were not good for him. He is only ten and the persecution and the peer pressure will only intensify as he grows older. What will give him the backbone to stand? I pray it will the examples he sees and hears about in the Bible over and over again. Third, this pattern begins to affirm the habit of children learning to have quiet times or devotional times on their own as they grow older. How many of you parents even know if your children have devotional times? If they are not having them, what are you going to do about that? Of course, all of this presupposes that as a parent you are having regular quiet times with the Lord. If family devotions were made a priority, love for God would increase, service for God would intensify, and the rule and reign of Christ would control our lives.
I challenge you to commit to the Lord and to your family to begin having some sort of family devotions. I have a youth minister friend who became convicted that his son was not spending any time with the Lord and so they committed to have a devotional time together. He told me later how meaningful and special that time was for the two of them. I found myself in a pastor’s house early one morning and discovered them reading the book of Romans together and having prayer before beginning their day. What a sweet scene that was. Some do it at night before everyone goes to bed. Others like the morning better. The time is not that important. The important thing is just to do it. Set aside time to get your family into the word of God TOGETHER and pray.
I confess that I have been very inconsistent over the years with this time. I usually do ours in the morning and if we are running behind schedule it easy to get crowded out and neglected. Do we not want to teach our families over and over again to put their confidence in God? Do we not want to reiterate the importance of not forgetting the works God does and has done and will continue to do?
I did not grow up with that blessing or privilege. I often think of the joy of my children growing up and getting married and seeing them sitting down with their families to open the word.
A few years ago Brenda found a painting of a father sitting on a couch surrounded by his children reading the Bible. In the background of the painting are scenes from the Bible alive and being acted out. Brenda told me she bought that picture because it reminded her of me. What a challenge that has been to me to fight for family devotions. Now, I look at that picture and think about grandchildren unborn and unknown to me but already conceived in the mind and heart of God. I picture my boys, Taylor, Tanner, Tucker, and Turner one day gathering their little ones to sit around them as they open the word of God and remind their children to put their confidence in God as they recount the many miracles they saw as a boy and the faithful God their grandfather has served and loved for so long.
Committing to family devotions is not easy but it is worthy of the fight for time. We must carve this time out of our day at all costs. What could be more lasting and precious to the heart of any parent than to see their children grow up and remain faithful in their devotion and service to God in the midst of a pagan and wicked society? May God help us to fight for the minds and hearts of our children.
Father,
I pray for each one reading this to have the fire of desire well up in their souls to lead and train their families spiritually. I pray you would give them discipline and remembrance to spend time as a family in your word. Lord, I pray for those impressionable minds and hearts of little boys and girls and ask you to fill them with you and with great confidence in you as they grow older. How I pray this would start a chain reaction to last through the ages. Lord, without your help in managing our time and continually challenging us to do this, we will fail. I thank you for giving us the strength and discipline to succeed. In Jesus name, Amen.
Fighting Hypocrisy
Fighting Hypocrisy
One of the meanings of hypocrisy is to be an actor or pretender. It is tragic that our churches are filled with so many people acting more spiritual on Sundays than they are the rest of the week. Sin is consuming the house of God. There is very little difference in the way people live who are without Christ than those people who faithfully attend church week after week. The moral lines have been blurred by the world and the church but not by God or His word!
My heart is pained and grieved to know the things so called Christians get wrapped up in. Adultery, fornication, pornography, drug addictions, lying, cheating, and every other sin known to man. When will it stop? When will the church start holding other Christians accountable for their actions outside church? How long will wickedness be tolerated in the leadership of our congregations as we bury our heads in the sand and pretend that we don’t know anything.
When hypocrisy is tolerated in the church, it discredits and undermines all we are doing. The lost world cannot hear the truth we are preaching due to the lies they see in pretender’s lives. Where is integrity in the church? Where is accountability? Do these things matter anymore? They matter to God and therefore should matter to the rest of us.
Jesus had some harsh words for people living in hypocrisy. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are filled with robbery and self indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it will become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s and all uncleanness. Even so, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” [Matt 23:25-28]
Jesus was calling those people to repentance and integrity. Shall we not do the same? It is not a fun task confronting people in their sin but James also addresses this issue. “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” [James 5:19-20]
To do that takes courage. It takes courage to hold someone accountable for the way they are living their life. If you do the confronting, you had better have your own life in order or you will have no authority whatsoever. It is easier to pretend like nothing happened. Yet, our Christ is shamed by what many people see in the lives of Christians and the reputation of His church is harmed. This is a very serious matter. So serious in fact, that the Lord at times has taken drastic measures. In some instances people have been expelled from church until there was genuine repentance. [I Cor 5:1-5] At other times the Lord actually took people to Heaven [I Jn 5:16-17]
Hypocrisy is not to be continually tolerated in the house of God. Now, let me say, none of us is perfect. I am not talking about the person who blows it every now and then. I am referring to the pretender who knowingly, willingly, and rebelliously continues in a sinful lifestyle while maintaining an act at church. This kind of hypocrisy must be opposed at all costs. There are some things laid out in scripture on how this could take place.
First, if someone is a true child of God and living in blatant hypocrisy, the chastisement and discipline of the Lord will be on this person. [Heb 12:5-6]
Because of God’s great love for His children, He will chastise and discipline. If a person does not experience nor acknowledge this chastisement from the hand of the Lord it very well may be that they are lost and not legitimate children of God saved through a relationship with Jesus Christ. The end result of this chastisement from the Lord is to bring fruit of righteousness and repentance in the child of God and salvation to the one who is without Christ.
Second, how can true Christians watch our brothers and sisters in Christ fall away and do nothing about it? If you love someone, you must get involved and confront, love, speak truth, pray. Love motivates and compels people to take action. I would not knowingly watch my child run into harm’s way and do nothing.
We live on a major highway. All day and all night, rock and gravel eighteen wheel trucks zoom past my house with the only thing separating them from my front yard being a chain link fence. If I were sitting on my front porch one day watching my children play and a ball bounced over the fence and one my sons went out the gate and onto the highway and into oncoming traffic to retrieve the ball and I sat by idly not saying a word and watching my son be demolished, what kind of father would I be? In the same vein, what kind of friends, or church family are we to sit back in silence and say nothing or do nothing when we see loved ones straying into sin? Love demands action.
We need active believers who will contend for the faith and who are willing to stand for truth even if that means standing alone. Believe me. It may very well may come to that. No one may stand with you. You may be labeled as “holier than thou”, “judgmental” and “condemning” but is truth and are the people we love in our lives worth fighting for? Is Jesus Christ worthy fighting for and opposing hypocrisy at every turn? Is the church worth contending for? If not, what are we doing? We are wasting our time and mindlessly going through religious repetition. No wonder the lost world does not take us seriously because we do not take the truth of God’s word seriously. We must stand and fight hypocrisy.
Some time ago I set an appointment with a brother in Christ for one reason. He was living in sin and God called me to confront him in love and yet in truth about his life. We sat over eggs for breakfast in a secluded restaurant with my asking penetrating question after question until he admitted his lifestyle was not honoring to God. I challenged him to repent and get back on track. Yet, I also looked this young man in the eyes and told him I loved him and wanted to be there for him.
During the course of our conversation he told me how other Christians had mostly abandoned him. He told me how he was isolated and talked about but rarely talked to. What a lesson for us to learn. Wayward and hypocritical Christians need confrontation and tough love, not isolation and rumors.
I urge you with all my might to stand for truth and to fight hypocrisy. Let our churches become filled with real people serving a real God and giving real service and worship back to Him. I’ll see you on the battle lines.
One of the meanings of hypocrisy is to be an actor or pretender. It is tragic that our churches are filled with so many people acting more spiritual on Sundays than they are the rest of the week. Sin is consuming the house of God. There is very little difference in the way people live who are without Christ than those people who faithfully attend church week after week. The moral lines have been blurred by the world and the church but not by God or His word!
My heart is pained and grieved to know the things so called Christians get wrapped up in. Adultery, fornication, pornography, drug addictions, lying, cheating, and every other sin known to man. When will it stop? When will the church start holding other Christians accountable for their actions outside church? How long will wickedness be tolerated in the leadership of our congregations as we bury our heads in the sand and pretend that we don’t know anything.
When hypocrisy is tolerated in the church, it discredits and undermines all we are doing. The lost world cannot hear the truth we are preaching due to the lies they see in pretender’s lives. Where is integrity in the church? Where is accountability? Do these things matter anymore? They matter to God and therefore should matter to the rest of us.
Jesus had some harsh words for people living in hypocrisy. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are filled with robbery and self indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it will become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s and all uncleanness. Even so, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” [Matt 23:25-28]
Jesus was calling those people to repentance and integrity. Shall we not do the same? It is not a fun task confronting people in their sin but James also addresses this issue. “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” [James 5:19-20]
To do that takes courage. It takes courage to hold someone accountable for the way they are living their life. If you do the confronting, you had better have your own life in order or you will have no authority whatsoever. It is easier to pretend like nothing happened. Yet, our Christ is shamed by what many people see in the lives of Christians and the reputation of His church is harmed. This is a very serious matter. So serious in fact, that the Lord at times has taken drastic measures. In some instances people have been expelled from church until there was genuine repentance. [I Cor 5:1-5] At other times the Lord actually took people to Heaven [I Jn 5:16-17]
Hypocrisy is not to be continually tolerated in the house of God. Now, let me say, none of us is perfect. I am not talking about the person who blows it every now and then. I am referring to the pretender who knowingly, willingly, and rebelliously continues in a sinful lifestyle while maintaining an act at church. This kind of hypocrisy must be opposed at all costs. There are some things laid out in scripture on how this could take place.
First, if someone is a true child of God and living in blatant hypocrisy, the chastisement and discipline of the Lord will be on this person. [Heb 12:5-6]
Because of God’s great love for His children, He will chastise and discipline. If a person does not experience nor acknowledge this chastisement from the hand of the Lord it very well may be that they are lost and not legitimate children of God saved through a relationship with Jesus Christ. The end result of this chastisement from the Lord is to bring fruit of righteousness and repentance in the child of God and salvation to the one who is without Christ.
Second, how can true Christians watch our brothers and sisters in Christ fall away and do nothing about it? If you love someone, you must get involved and confront, love, speak truth, pray. Love motivates and compels people to take action. I would not knowingly watch my child run into harm’s way and do nothing.
We live on a major highway. All day and all night, rock and gravel eighteen wheel trucks zoom past my house with the only thing separating them from my front yard being a chain link fence. If I were sitting on my front porch one day watching my children play and a ball bounced over the fence and one my sons went out the gate and onto the highway and into oncoming traffic to retrieve the ball and I sat by idly not saying a word and watching my son be demolished, what kind of father would I be? In the same vein, what kind of friends, or church family are we to sit back in silence and say nothing or do nothing when we see loved ones straying into sin? Love demands action.
We need active believers who will contend for the faith and who are willing to stand for truth even if that means standing alone. Believe me. It may very well may come to that. No one may stand with you. You may be labeled as “holier than thou”, “judgmental” and “condemning” but is truth and are the people we love in our lives worth fighting for? Is Jesus Christ worthy fighting for and opposing hypocrisy at every turn? Is the church worth contending for? If not, what are we doing? We are wasting our time and mindlessly going through religious repetition. No wonder the lost world does not take us seriously because we do not take the truth of God’s word seriously. We must stand and fight hypocrisy.
Some time ago I set an appointment with a brother in Christ for one reason. He was living in sin and God called me to confront him in love and yet in truth about his life. We sat over eggs for breakfast in a secluded restaurant with my asking penetrating question after question until he admitted his lifestyle was not honoring to God. I challenged him to repent and get back on track. Yet, I also looked this young man in the eyes and told him I loved him and wanted to be there for him.
During the course of our conversation he told me how other Christians had mostly abandoned him. He told me how he was isolated and talked about but rarely talked to. What a lesson for us to learn. Wayward and hypocritical Christians need confrontation and tough love, not isolation and rumors.
I urge you with all my might to stand for truth and to fight hypocrisy. Let our churches become filled with real people serving a real God and giving real service and worship back to Him. I’ll see you on the battle lines.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Watchmen on the Walls
Watchmen on the Walls
[Is 62:7-8] On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
There is a lot of talk about wanting revival but little talk about the prayer necessary to give birth to a Sovereign move of the Holy Spirit. We can write about revival, read about the great revivals from our past, plan and organize revival meetings, but the one thing far too many of us seem unwilling to do is to give ourselves whole heartedly to be watchmen and watchwomen on the walls of our cities crying out to God for help.
I am grateful that there is and has always been a remnant of God’s people who have heeded God’s call to be watchmen. God appoints such people. He sets them in every city and deposits them in churches of all denominations. These are people who understand the grave responsibility of being intercessors for their cities and communities. The word “watchmen” means “to guard, to protect, and to have charge of.”
Through fervent intercessions God has established people to guard their communities in prayer. The natural question arises, whom are they guarding against. Our enemy is Satan. Jesus identifies Satan’s mission in [Jn 10:10] “The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” Souls are both deceived into eternal damnation and destroyed. Lives are torn apart by the wicked schemes of the Prince of Darkness. He has declared war on the churches of every town and municipality.
Tragically in many places the church has fallen asleep on their watch while the enemy continued to advance and wreak carnage on sleepy little towns and throughout great metropolitan areas. The morale climate changed while the watchmen drifted off to sleep totally unaware of the devastation taking place on their watch. God has given the church a charge to protect and to fight for our towns in prayer. We must take back ground lost the enemy through believing prayer. It is our duty as believers to protect our children, teenagers, singles, families, and our congregations through constantly entreating the Lord for help.
Isaiah says of those watchmen that they all day and all night did not keep silent. The word “silent” means to hold the peace, to be quiet, to be hushed, and to be inactive. We need churches filled with warriors of the faith who will take their post in prayer whether night or day and continually offer up requests and petitions. We must never allow our appeals to Heaven be hushed nor the prayer watch ministries in our congregations to become inactive. We cannot give into our flesh who does not want to pay the price to stand guard over our cities. When Jesus called the disciples to pray with Him and to keep watch in [Matt 26] He found them sleeping. “And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘So, you men could not keep watch for one hour. Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” [Matt 26:40-41] After going away to pray by Himself the disciples did not heed His instructions. When Jesus returned He found them sleeping again. [Matt 26:43] “And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.”
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The church has far too long taken the path of least resistance. Prayer is work. Intercessory prayer is even harder work. You are literally going to war in the heavens and it is draining, demanding, and the flesh hates that. The flesh wants to do what is easy, convenient, and comforting. Our flesh would rather sleep than supplicate. Our flesh would rather nap than to prayerfully navigate the course for both the saved and unsaved in our own backyards.
Night and day there are some churches that continually stand guard over their territory in prayer. These are the ones who have learned to pray in shifts and not let.
eir be a breach in the walls. Like Paul, they have learned to pray without ceasing. [I Thess 5:17] In fact [Is 62:7] reads, “…all day and all night they will never keep silent.” The word “never” means there will be prayer going on continually and perpetually.
One form those prayers can take is the continual reminder to the Lord of the days in the past when He worked mightily. I am talking about days like on Mount Carmel when the Lord humbled a whole nation at His display of power in [I Kings 18:36-39]. God brought everyone to their knees in humility and reverence after Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple in [II Chron 7:1-3]. His radiance, splendor, and weighty presence drenched the temple so fully no one could enter. In Acts thousands upon thousands were being saved in response to the corporate prayer gatherings of that fledgling force.
Like Gideon we can look at the spiritual devastation of our land and say, “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hands of Midian.” [Judges 6:13]
The Lord has not abandoned us. Quite to the contrary it is we who have abandoned Him in prayer. We have not continually and perpetually sought His help. We have put our trust in the chariots of ingenuity and in the horses of our own resources while forsaking trust in God for aid. [Ps 20:7] Where are the all the miracles? They are at the fingertips of God waiting to be pleaded for by watchmen and watchwomen who refuse to be satisfied with living in an age of miracle drought. There are appointed intercessors on the walls of this nation and globe who continually remind the Lord of our need and of His precious promises. Where are the revivals we have read about in the pages of history? Revival will never come to a church content to live without it and satisfied with the status quo.
Where are the prayer gatherings in your city? Are their prayer watches taking place or have the watchmen given into the flesh and their eyes have fallen heavy with slumber? Isaiah exhorts us that those intercessors are to take no rest for themselves nor give God any rest. The word “rest” means to cease, pause, or grow silent. Praying to guard our communities and congregations is not easy. In fact, it is inconvenient and will cost us in time, energy, and may even cost us sleep. There are places in this world where the saints gather all night to seek the Lord. They still have to get up and go to work he next day but somehow God gets them through and they heed His command to take no rest for themselves and to give Him no rest either. They listen and surrender to the calling and desire of the Spirit and resist the flesh that is weak and too easily wants to quit.
What’s the point of all this praying? It is pray and watch until God establishes our cities as a reference point for His praise and His glory on the earth. We pray and watch so that when people hear of our towns and our churches they immediately think of our great God and give Him public thanks and adoration for the work He not only has done but continues to do. His renown, His fame, must be the true desire of our souls. [Is 26:8]
What is happening on your watch? Is God wining the victory or has the enemy gained more territory? Are the watchmen at their posts on the walls interceding on behalf your city or have they drifted off into dull spiritual slumber? Are the watchmen gaining breakthrough on the enemy’s strongholds? I have said it before and I will say it again. I do not apologize for calling the church to corporate prayer no matter how inconvenient it is. We make time for everything else under the sun. I say it is high time we make time to pound the doors of heaven for our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in Christ in our churches, and our sister churches around us. May we pray until God makes your town and my town of Paradise, TX a praise on the earth.
[Is 62:7-8] On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
There is a lot of talk about wanting revival but little talk about the prayer necessary to give birth to a Sovereign move of the Holy Spirit. We can write about revival, read about the great revivals from our past, plan and organize revival meetings, but the one thing far too many of us seem unwilling to do is to give ourselves whole heartedly to be watchmen and watchwomen on the walls of our cities crying out to God for help.
I am grateful that there is and has always been a remnant of God’s people who have heeded God’s call to be watchmen. God appoints such people. He sets them in every city and deposits them in churches of all denominations. These are people who understand the grave responsibility of being intercessors for their cities and communities. The word “watchmen” means “to guard, to protect, and to have charge of.”
Through fervent intercessions God has established people to guard their communities in prayer. The natural question arises, whom are they guarding against. Our enemy is Satan. Jesus identifies Satan’s mission in [Jn 10:10] “The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” Souls are both deceived into eternal damnation and destroyed. Lives are torn apart by the wicked schemes of the Prince of Darkness. He has declared war on the churches of every town and municipality.
Tragically in many places the church has fallen asleep on their watch while the enemy continued to advance and wreak carnage on sleepy little towns and throughout great metropolitan areas. The morale climate changed while the watchmen drifted off to sleep totally unaware of the devastation taking place on their watch. God has given the church a charge to protect and to fight for our towns in prayer. We must take back ground lost the enemy through believing prayer. It is our duty as believers to protect our children, teenagers, singles, families, and our congregations through constantly entreating the Lord for help.
Isaiah says of those watchmen that they all day and all night did not keep silent. The word “silent” means to hold the peace, to be quiet, to be hushed, and to be inactive. We need churches filled with warriors of the faith who will take their post in prayer whether night or day and continually offer up requests and petitions. We must never allow our appeals to Heaven be hushed nor the prayer watch ministries in our congregations to become inactive. We cannot give into our flesh who does not want to pay the price to stand guard over our cities. When Jesus called the disciples to pray with Him and to keep watch in [Matt 26] He found them sleeping. “And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘So, you men could not keep watch for one hour. Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” [Matt 26:40-41] After going away to pray by Himself the disciples did not heed His instructions. When Jesus returned He found them sleeping again. [Matt 26:43] “And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.”
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The church has far too long taken the path of least resistance. Prayer is work. Intercessory prayer is even harder work. You are literally going to war in the heavens and it is draining, demanding, and the flesh hates that. The flesh wants to do what is easy, convenient, and comforting. Our flesh would rather sleep than supplicate. Our flesh would rather nap than to prayerfully navigate the course for both the saved and unsaved in our own backyards.
Night and day there are some churches that continually stand guard over their territory in prayer. These are the ones who have learned to pray in shifts and not let.
eir be a breach in the walls. Like Paul, they have learned to pray without ceasing. [I Thess 5:17] In fact [Is 62:7] reads, “…all day and all night they will never keep silent.” The word “never” means there will be prayer going on continually and perpetually.
One form those prayers can take is the continual reminder to the Lord of the days in the past when He worked mightily. I am talking about days like on Mount Carmel when the Lord humbled a whole nation at His display of power in [I Kings 18:36-39]. God brought everyone to their knees in humility and reverence after Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple in [II Chron 7:1-3]. His radiance, splendor, and weighty presence drenched the temple so fully no one could enter. In Acts thousands upon thousands were being saved in response to the corporate prayer gatherings of that fledgling force.
Like Gideon we can look at the spiritual devastation of our land and say, “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hands of Midian.” [Judges 6:13]
The Lord has not abandoned us. Quite to the contrary it is we who have abandoned Him in prayer. We have not continually and perpetually sought His help. We have put our trust in the chariots of ingenuity and in the horses of our own resources while forsaking trust in God for aid. [Ps 20:7] Where are the all the miracles? They are at the fingertips of God waiting to be pleaded for by watchmen and watchwomen who refuse to be satisfied with living in an age of miracle drought. There are appointed intercessors on the walls of this nation and globe who continually remind the Lord of our need and of His precious promises. Where are the revivals we have read about in the pages of history? Revival will never come to a church content to live without it and satisfied with the status quo.
Where are the prayer gatherings in your city? Are their prayer watches taking place or have the watchmen given into the flesh and their eyes have fallen heavy with slumber? Isaiah exhorts us that those intercessors are to take no rest for themselves nor give God any rest. The word “rest” means to cease, pause, or grow silent. Praying to guard our communities and congregations is not easy. In fact, it is inconvenient and will cost us in time, energy, and may even cost us sleep. There are places in this world where the saints gather all night to seek the Lord. They still have to get up and go to work he next day but somehow God gets them through and they heed His command to take no rest for themselves and to give Him no rest either. They listen and surrender to the calling and desire of the Spirit and resist the flesh that is weak and too easily wants to quit.
What’s the point of all this praying? It is pray and watch until God establishes our cities as a reference point for His praise and His glory on the earth. We pray and watch so that when people hear of our towns and our churches they immediately think of our great God and give Him public thanks and adoration for the work He not only has done but continues to do. His renown, His fame, must be the true desire of our souls. [Is 26:8]
What is happening on your watch? Is God wining the victory or has the enemy gained more territory? Are the watchmen at their posts on the walls interceding on behalf your city or have they drifted off into dull spiritual slumber? Are the watchmen gaining breakthrough on the enemy’s strongholds? I have said it before and I will say it again. I do not apologize for calling the church to corporate prayer no matter how inconvenient it is. We make time for everything else under the sun. I say it is high time we make time to pound the doors of heaven for our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in Christ in our churches, and our sister churches around us. May we pray until God makes your town and my town of Paradise, TX a praise on the earth.
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