Fighting Fire with Bigger and Better Fire

24 07 2010

“A gift given in secret soothes anger, and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great wrath.”
–Proverbs 21:14

I find myself too frequently trying to disarm sin without arming myself with righteousness.  I don’t know where I get this idea from.  It’s certainly not promoted in the Bible, which tells us to be properly equipped.  And it’s certainly not in any movie or book I’ve seen…no one goes into battle without a plan.  But attempting to fight off temptation without drawing upon the Spirit of the Lord is just that.

Solomon doesn’t say “Let the anger cool, and swallow it.”  He doesn’t say “Hide your malicious thoughts and ignore your evil desires.”  He doesn’t say “Give into your anger, and your journey to the dark side will be complete.“  He says to counter anger with humble generosity.  Because the truth is, you can step out of darkness without stepping into the light.  You cannot live the life Jesus has called you into simply by avoiding hell—you have to enter into heaven, too.  Fighting off temptation without stepping into righteousness is the best way to stay lukewarm.  So don’t fight the enemy with your weapons…fight with God’s weapons.

Fight greed with generosity.  Give.
Fight selfishness with selflessness.  Serve.
Fight pride with humility.  Honor.
Fight despair with praise.  Thank.
Fight hard feelings with forgiveness.  Forgive.
Fight apathy with action.  Go.
Fight with love, not with morality.  Don’t just seek to neutralize…seek to vitalize.

A defense of obligation is just an offense of jealousy or guilt in disguise.  Christianity isn’t about avoiding Satan—it’s about encountering God!  We will gain ground and grow in strength when we begin to counter darkness, instead of merely blocking it.

And never give into the dark side.


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Categories : discipleship, revelation

Sent Out (Part 3)

21 07 2010

“He allowed them to wear sandals but not to take a change of clothes.  ‘Wherever you go,’ He said, ‘stay in the same house until you leave town.’”
-Mark 6:9-10

  1. You’ve got to be humble.  Jesus didn’t give His disciples the opportunity to assume they were entitled to anything…not even an extra set of clothes!  Humility is vital because it is the container in which our dependence upon God is kept.  Pride is one of the enemy’s most effective weapons…not because it’s more powerful, but because it’s more subtle.  The moment you become proud of the assignment given to you, or of the gifts God by His grace decides to bestow, Satan has a wide-open door to walk through and sabotage all that God has laid before you.  It’s easy to be humble and dependent on the Lord when it’s something you don’t have, or something you’re not good at…but when it comes to something as normal and within reach as having clothes, we’re rarely on guard.  Jesus showed His disciples how important humility is to be an effective vessel of the Holy Spirit with this command.  We’ve got to go to great lengths to protect our humility—because when we do, Jesus sends us out to do miraculous things!
  2. You’ve got to be dedicated and committed. Why was it important for the disciples to stay in one house the whole time they were ministering to a city?  Because dedication incubates revelation (Ps 46:10).  The call God places on your life needs to be nurtured and protected, and if you never stay in one place, you lose the ability to steward what the Father has given you because you have no solid ground to sow it into.  Jesus was emphasizing the importance of relationships and working together with others to bring heaven to earth.  It is only through unity that we will become strong!  Jesus also wanted to make sure that His disciples were maintaining integrity.  Being constantly on the move keeps the depth of one’s heart at a distance…but it is from the deep of our hearts that the eternal life of God flows!  By commanding His disciples to stay in one house, Jesus ensured that they would be held accountable for everything they were doing at all times—both empowering their testimony and guiding their journey.

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Separatists

2 07 2010

“Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of sufferings.”
-1 Peter 5:9

One of the enemy’s strongest tools is separation, or loneliness.  He deceives people into thinking that their sin has cut them off from God, the church, and even their closest friends.  He tries to tell them that there is no one to help…no one who CAN help.  And these lies often motivate people to separate themselves…while they were NOT alone when the devil told them that they were, they make themselves alone because they believe the lie.

Satan must be fought with love, unity, and community. And it is vital that we understand that community is not just being around people.  Community is the communication of unity.  And when we lose communication with God that we are His people and He is our God, or with our friends that we are with them and they with us, we provide the enemy with a way into our hearts.  Remember that we are not alone; we have not been and cannot be cut off because of the grace of God by the blood of Jesus; that others are fighting and winning the same battles we are because they serve the same God we do; and that God knows, understands, and provides!

Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:22-23, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  Not only does community defeat the purposes of the enemy, but it lets the world know that Jesus is King, and His grace and peace trump every hand the world could ever play.  So challenge yourself over the next few days to communicate unity to those around you…and present the gospel in word AND power!


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Who am I?

29 06 2010

I was going to write about why I haven’t written recently, but I found that to be somewhat ironic and significantly insignificant.  Facts; I haven’t written recently, and I’m going to try to change that.  That’s all anyone needs to really know (myself included).

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.”
-James 1:22-25

There is an identity crisis epidemic in God’s church, because too many people are good at KNOWING and terrible at GOING.  I was in Barnes and Noble the other day, looking through the “Christian Inspiration” books (which I find to be a strange name for a section without any Bibles in it), and was astonished at how many books there are that are basically scripture-flavored self-help books.  Even in Christianity, there is obviously an incredible amount of insecurity and uncertainty that people are trying to keep at bay with these books.  And the funniest/worst part about it is that 99% of these books say the same things.  Which makes me think a few things:

  1. No one remembers what they read
  2. No one believes what they read
  3. No one follows through with what they read

I don’t think the first one is true.  I’m really forgetful about a lot of things, but I highly doubt every person forgets every part of every book they’ve read.  So it’s not an issue of knowledge.  And I don’t think the second one is true either…as evidenced by how MANY books there are about the same things, people clearly want these things to be true.  And as evidenced by how many NEW books keep being written about the same things, people don’t think it’s worthless information, or a trick or hoax.  So it’s not an issue of belief.

Of all the people in the world, Christians ought to be the most joyful, the most peaceful, the most hopeful, the most confident, the most secure — because we have a joy that is eternal, a peace that is unimaginable, a hope that is promised, a confidence that does not fade, and a security that lasts forever.  So why are there so many books outside of the Bible that try to guide us into these things?  Why is there such an identity crisis?

Because too often we collect knowledge without gaining experience.  Too often we know what God desires of us, but we want an easier way.  Too often we’re afraid of trading our preferences, free time, money, and habits for the work of the kingdom of God.  And so we read the Word and hear our pastors’ sermons and go to our Bible studies — looking in the mirror, as James says — and walk away already having forgotten who we are in Jesus.  Knowing of God’s promises and living in God’s promises are two vastly different things.  Knowing and believing aren’t enough to keep you inside God’s protection, provision, and power (James 2:19).  But when we do what we know, our ideologies become realities, and Christ’s freedom is poured out, and all the things we’ve heard but haven’t seen become the lens by which we see everything else.


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Sent Out (Part 2)

29 03 2010

“Calling the twelve to Him, He sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.  These were His instructions: ‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.’”
-Mark 6:7-8

When Jesus sent His disciples out to do ministry on their own for the first time, he sent them with a lot of guidance that we should probably learn from, too.  A couple things from these verses that we need to be mindful of if we want to be as effective as the disciples were:

  1. You can’t do it alone.  Jesus had twelve disciples, but He paired them off…sometimes it may seem to us that God’s way of doing things will take more time, or will be more complicated, or just simply won’t be as effective as what we have in mind.  The disciples could have seemingly covered a lot more ground and done a lot more ministry if they had gone individually, but Jesus cut their numbers in half so that they wouldn’t be alone.  One of the biggest lies we can buy into is that the more spread out we are, the more we are able to accomplish.  Jesus knew otherwise.  He knew that the disciples would need each other; they would need encouragement, and they would need accountability, and they would need each other to fully invoke the presence of God.  Pride simultaneously convinces us that we are capable, and makes us entirely incapable.  God is King.  And sometimes we need to stop trying to be, and allow others to come alongside us so that we can accomplish things that are bigger than ourselves!
  2. You have to trust God to provide. God is waiting to fill us with His dreams and place His provision in our hands, but in order to receive we must first make room.  You will not have room for God’s kingdom in your life if your kingdom never gets smaller.  As Bill Johnson has said, “the further you go with God, the less you can take with you.”  Jesus didn’t want His disciples to take anything with them, NOT because He wanted them to have little, but because He wanted them to put all their trust in the Father so that He could provide for their needs.  Our dependence and trust in God is directly tied to our impact on the world, and if we do not need God for anything, we won’t know God for anything either.  But as soon as we make room in our hearts and put ourselves in positions of dependence, the Holy Spirit fills our hearts with holiness and our Father reaches from heaven to prove His faithfulness to those who love Him!

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Sent Out (Part 1)

25 03 2010

In Mark 6, Jesus sends His disciples out to do ministry on their own.  It’s the first time they’ve been released from His side to bring the love of God into the world.  This is what Christ calls each and every one of His disciples—including you, and me—to do.  But Jesus is very specific with His disciples about how to do things…and it’s not because He wants to make things difficult, or just wants to make rules because He’s God and people HAVE to follow them.  It’s because He was equipping His disciples to make the biggest impact possible!  And if we want to make the biggest impact possible in our world…our time…our generation…we should take a few moments to learn from His advice!

Before Jesus even sends the disciples out, there are two things we should be mindful of:

  1. The disciples had spent a LOT of time with Jesus first. They had seen many miracles, heard many parables, and learned from  many teachings.  They had basically lived with the guy who preached the sermon on the mount, and who was constantly saying to them things like “Why are you so afraid?  Do you still have no faith?”  He was constantly challenging them and encouraging them.  This is SO important, and rightly the first thing to mention, because you cannot go in the name of Jesus if you do not have the heart of Jesus.  Demons and sicknesses were subject to the name of Jesus…but it was because the disciples were too!  Until we have truly founded our lives on the truths of the gospel and have matured beyond spiritual infancy (He 5:12-14), we won’t be sent out like the twelve were.
  2. The disciples were commissioned to initiate, not just appreciate. When Jesus sent His disciples out, a shift of perspective happened.  They weren’t part of the crowd anymore.  They weren’t the observers.  They became the teachers, and the prophets, and the healers, and the servants, to everyone else.  They became the DOERS instead of the WATCHERS.  And if we are going to bring the kingdom of God into the world we have to commit ourselves to the cause.  You cannot wait for someone else to lead the way…you have to be willing to blaze trails yourself (after all, we were not given spirits of timidity…2Ti 1:7).  When Jesus told Peter that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church, He meant that the church was going to invade—not the other way around!  We’ve got to trust in the Lord and unashamedly parade the gospel of Jesus Christ into the darkest corners of the world.

More on the way…


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Growing Up

19 03 2010

The Bible talks a lot about growing.  The church grew, the gospel grew, believers’ faith grew, and God made (and still makes!) things grow.  Even science tells us that healthy things grow.  One of the best questions you can ask yourself is, “Am I GROWING in the things that are most important to me?“

We have become arrogant the moment we stop seeking growth.  By ignoring growth and progress, we are essentially saying that we have reached the pinnacle and have no need for anything more (which was the claim of the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3, which God wanted to spit out of His mouth because of how “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked” they were).  If you are not progressing you are most likely regressing…there is no middle ground.

But we must also be on guard from putting too much emphasis on progress and not enough emphasis on purpose.  We have to know WHY we are growing before we can best answer HOW to grow in the greatest way.  And if we fail to remember the purpose of what we’re doing, no amount of progress will ever be satisfactory…because we are so focused on the mileage gauge that we miss the fuel gauge, and the pit crew waiting to fix things up, and we may even miss the finish line.  If you never ask yourself why you’re doing something, you’ll end up doing a lot of things for no reason at all.

We cannot allow our progress to overshadow our purpose.  Progress may be the gas pedal, but purpose is the gas, and if we never return to the “why” of something, the “how” becomes empty and irrelevant.


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Why Are You Thinking These Things?

5 02 2010

“Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, ‘Why are you thinking these things?’”
-Mark 2:8

Jesus knows what you are thinking in your heart—and that inspires me to have better motivation for doing things.  It is far too easy to allow ourselves to be deceived by our own actions into thinking that we are living the Way of Jesus while our motives are infecting all those actions with impurity.  Motive can be redemption for poor results, and condemnation for good results.  So I’m praying that the people of God would live by hearts that have been sanctified, and not simply disguised.  My dream of that kind of people looks something like this:

  • People laboring for God because they want to make Him happy, and not because they want to make other Christians happy.
  • People praying because they want to know God, and not because they want to use Him.
  • People trusting God with their money because they want more of Him in their life, and not because they want more money in their life.
  • People seeking miracles so that God will be glorified, and not so that they will be satisfied.
  • People who serve “the least of these” because they see opportunity, and not because they feel guilty.
  • People who give things up because God is enough, and not because they want better replacements.
  • People who love because He first loved us, and not because they’re trying to earn the love of others.
  • People who are at peace because they know God’s in control, and not because they’ve created control for themselves and are camped in comfort.
  • People who share the gospel because they want the world to know Jesus, and not because they want the world to know them.
  • People who forgive because they want to free others with grace and mercy, and not because they want to imprison others with guilt and debt.

Would Jesus ask you, “why are you thinking these things?” even though you were there with Him, hearing all He was saying and seeing all He was doing? You have to let God mold your motive before you’ll be able to act with integrity and produce fruit that’s healthy and nourishing instead of rotten on the inside!


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Being and Doing

2 02 2010

“‘Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act.’”
-Ezra 10:4

The Israelites vowed to be with Ezra…and for Ezra, it was time to get up and DO.

Sometimes life is risky, uncomfortable, surprising, wearisome, unclear, heavy, confusing, stressful, or emotional.  And it’s easy to overlook what other people are going through when you’re going through things yourself.  It seems to be too much work to involve yourself too deeply in the  lives of others.  You don’t have enough time to get what YOU need to get done, let alone helping someone else.  There is an emotional demand in partnering with the life of someone else.

But it’s time to stop overlooking.  It’s time to be with someone.

Be with them in their struggles.  Be with them in their victories.  Be with them in their questions and their answers.  We are called to love one another in humility…and humility is thinking less of yourself and making much of others.  You can’t solve the problem for them, but you can encourage them to arise, and to have courage, and to act.  You don’t have to put your life on hold and ignore everything that’s happening on your end of things.  But if you lead by example in being with someone and encouraging them to do what only they can do, not only will you bless their lives with the kindness and faithfulness of Christ, you’ll have at least one person who knows exactly what to do when you need someone with you!

Sometimes life is difficult, overwhelming, dangerous, scary, fast, exhausting, relentless, uncertain, or unexpected.  And it’s easy to come up with excuses for not doing what you know needs to be done.  There are some things that have been on your to-do list for weeks.  There are some things you’ve been doubting for no real, good reason.  There are some things that God has been burdening you with that you’ve been trying to ignore.

But it’s time to stop making excuses.  It’s time to get up and DO.

Do what you know you should have done awhile ago.  Do what has been keeping you up at night.  Do what you are called to do, even if no one else is doing it.  No one can live your life for you.  What is on your heart is your responsibility.  You don’t have to do it alone—the Lord is faithful to those who are zealous for His will—but you do have to do it.  Our God is a God of victory, and of hope, and of provision, and of redemption.  We have NO REASON to not go ALL OUT for HIS GLORY.


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No, Can Do

29 01 2010

Jesus is our Savior. Not just when we are raised to new life, but continually.  He saves us and protects us as we walk through life.  But He does not save and protect us from many of the things that seem to worry us most…when we get too focused on what lies before our eyes, we overlook what lies before our hearts—and it is what lies before our hearts that we really need saving and protection from.  You do not need rescue from a financial situation as much as you need rescue from insecurity.  You do not need saving from joblessness as much as you need saving from meaninglessness.  You do not need protection from pain as much as you need protection from misery.

Anxiety over what may happen TO you is a sign of what hasn’t happened IN you. Jesus does save us…but not from adversity—He saves us from abandonment.  He saves us from loneliness.  He saves us from insecurity.  He saves us from a state of spiritual emptiness.  He sustains us with everlasting love, rescues us with infinite grace, empowers us with unending joy, and restores us with prevailing peace.  He calms the storms within our hearts so that we can face the storms before our eyes, and point to His supremacy while we’re doing it!

But a lot of these truths are difficult to grasp when we don’t let Him prove them to us.  Though you may be raised to new life in Christ, sometimes we still live by the limitations of our old life, fighting against His guidance when we’re led toward something that we think we can’t handle.  But you cannot allow your past defeat to limit your future battles.  Everything that is over your head is still under His feet.  And until you really own the victory of Jesus for yourself, until you claim it and go forward in His promises, none of those truths will ever become a reality for you.

God cannot teach you to trust Him if you never let Him take you to the doorstep of your greatest fears.  You won’t believe He is with you always if you refuse to go where you would otherwise feel alone.  And until you step out of the boat, you won’t really believe that you can walk on water.  Your “No can do…” will turn into God’s “No, CAN do!” when you live by His love rather than your lack.

He may still take you through hard times…but He will always be with you in them.  Don’t despise the hardships God has ordained to minister to you!  Let go of what you can do and trust in what He can do.  He knows where you are, and what you’re feeling, and how impossible it is to make it out…

But Jesus is the incarnation of the impossible, and that doesn’t phase Him one bit.

He’s got it under control.


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