How to get the MOST out of your Devotions!

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Tuesday I did a video interview with Dr Allan Meyer (CEO Careforce Life Keys) and towards the end of the interview I asked him about his devotional life. I have often asked this question of several leaders, as an individuals devotional life is of a real interest to me.

Whilst I know that my own performance doesn’t earn me any brownie points with God, I do have a deep desire and conviction that spending time with Jesus on a daily basis is fundamental to everything called LIFE.

Allan gave an interesting insight into his own journey with devotions and identified the need for an upgrade in his current devotional life. He commented on the seasons of intensified prayer that lasted 7 years post a visit to Yonggi Cho’s praying church in Seoul, Korea. He reflected on the impact of his son’s poor life choices on his devotional life and how it was brought to a standstill by his anger and confusion with his sons behaviour. He reflected on the SOAP method of devotions (Journalling through Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer). Allan’s response to my question was very revealing and very helpful.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

It’s unique – How you connect with God will be different to how others connect with God. While, I think, there are some fundamental keys to knowing God better, we are all wired up in different ways and will express our worship and love for God accordingly.

It’s seasonal – How you engage with God in one season might be different to how you connect with him in another season. Rather than building a tradition that is inflexible, build a lifestyle of intimacy that reflects what God is doing in you in each season of your life.

It requires a daily appointment – You can connect with God anywhere at anytime but I have observed and found for myself that If I schedule it in my diary, it is far more likely to happen than if I simply hope or wish for it to happen. For me I get up early each morning, because I am more of an morning person and I spend a couple of hours meeting with God.

It could look something like the following – Reading through a daily bible reading plan or a book of the bible, praying what’s on your heart, prayer walking, worshipping God while listening to music, watching or listening to a sermon podcast, reading a book that compliments your bible reading, viewing blogs and articles that point you toward Jesus, meditating on one verse of the bible for an extended period of time and then sitting in silence and allowing God to speak to you out of it… The possibilities are endless, however, I would suggest that the foundation of whatever you do is built on a daily dose of Scripture and prayer.

It will occasionally need an upgrade – Anything we do can become stale if we don’t continually pay attention to it. What served you well last year, might not serve you well this year. Don’t be content to go through the motions but refresh your devotional life and ask God to give you an upgrade in your intimacy with him.

It must focus on Jesus – The hero of the story is Jesus. Anything that brings you closer to Jesus and connects your heart to his and refocuses your mind on him is worthy of pursuing. The Holy Spirit guides us into the way, the truth and the life of Jesus.

Grace!

God’s Goal isn’t your Happiness!

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I recently did a video interview with Dr Allan Meyer (CEO Careforce Life Keys) and I asked him a question about some of the critical issues facing the western church at the present time. In his excellent response, he reflected on the current focus of many Christians and much preaching being the goal of an individuals personal happiness, rather than following Jesus Christ.

As I have reflected on this many times in my own preaching ministry, I think about Jesus’ words in John 10:10 “The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that you may have life and have it in all of its’ fulness.” Unfortunately, some of us have wrongly mis-interpreted this verse through our western context and concluded that God’s goal for us is our happiness, which surely must mean, health, wealth and prosperity… Ah, NOT!

As I read the Scriptures, I don’t find the emphasis of my personal comfort being consistent with the biblical account of Jesus’ life or the Apostle Paul’s life or any of the other apostle’s life, for that matter, as is recorded in the New Testament. Money, success and well-being are all gifts from God and should be stewarded accordingly but God’s goal for me isn’t the obtaining of these things, alone. Me becoming more and more like him is his goal and this can be accomplished through a variety of circumstances and dare I say it, is often accomplished rather well through suffering.

The joy of the Lord is my strength but God’s joy is available whatever I am facing or going through, not just when things are going my way. As preachers, our goal should be to be faithful to the text and expose what the text is simply declaring in the most compelling way possible, not to proselytize people to a mirage of false hope.  As pastors, our goal should be to lead people into Christ-likeness and a biblically based worldview that equips them to grow in spiritual maturity and gospel grace, not to encourage growth in spiritual immaturity.

Churches that promise happiness and bliss to their congregation alone, if they follow Jesus and perform for him are setting people up for massive disillusionment. Following Jesus in the real world does fill me with joy but sometimes I do face circumstances that are quite the opposite of happy. When a close family member of mine attempted suicide in 2001, I wasn’t happy. When I didn’t get the outcome I was hoping for as a budding athlete, I didn’t feel warm, happy fuzzies. When I get criticized and ostracized by others for my faith in Jesus and commitment to my calling, I don’t necessarily feel happy but my joy in Christ remains intact.

What’s your goal in life? If happiness is your goal, then you will live a misdirected and self-pre-occupied life but if God’s goal of Christ-likeness and knowing him is your goal then you will live life on purpose. Refuse to settle for anything less.

Grace! (Video Interview will be uploaded very soon)

Weekly Wrap Up!

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book of the week

I read an interesting book this week titled, “The pastor as scholar and the scholar as pastor”. It’s co-authored by John Piper and Don Carson. The book has grown out of a conference on the subject many years ago held in Chicago. It’s broken up into two parts and written as a testimonial and personal reflection on the topic from the two authors. It particularly interests me because of the current emphasis on pragmatics in pastoral leadership and the de-emphasizing of the theological and scholarly responsibility of the pastor. This book responds to this issue.

quote of the week

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in a tent with a mosquito.” Unknown

moment of the week

My wife and I deciding to embrace a radical relocation that would ensure we would save a lot of money so we can purchase our own property in 12 months time. Eyes on the goal.

news of the week

Special guest speaker Sy Rogers confirmed to speak at Activate Church Friday 30th march to Sunday 1st April. Very excited.

#1 Command in the Bible!

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Recently, my family needed to relocate to a new house and to say that the whole process has been filled with anxiety is an understatement. Anxiety is a big part of our culture because we live in a fallen world.

Time Magazine took a whole edition in 2002 to help people “Understand Anxiety” and the stats suggest that 50% of Australians have anxiety related problems and anxiety is among the top ten leading causes of disease burden in Australia.

Anxiety is anticipating the future in the worst possible way and freaking out about it. Many of us wear ourselves out worrying about impending doom that rarely happens. Anxiety is closely connected to fear which has been described as False Expectation Appearing Real. In reality, 90% of what we worry about never happens. The root meaning for the word ‘worry’ means to strangle. Worry strangles the life out of you emotionally, spiritually and physically. The biblical word ‘anxious’ in Philippians 4:6-7 means to be torn apart. It’s what happens when our thoughts and feelings pull us in different directions.

Rather than only embracing the secular view of treatment in the natural, read your bible for God’s view on responding to fear, worry and anxiety. Whilst the Great Commandment sums up the law and the prophets, “Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Matt 22:37-40), there is another commandment that is repeated from Genesis to Revelation.

God repeatedly says to us, “Fear Not, for I am with you.” Fear in the mind leads to anxiety in the body. Jesus says, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” From Adam to us we are invited and commanded to fear not. Not because we have the capacity in ourselves but because God is with us.

Who is it that you fear? Who is it that you are seeking approval from? What is it that you are worrying about right now? What intimidates you? Jesus last words before ascending to the Father are, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:18-20)

Pastors, you can feel like you are doing ministry on your own and that God has forgotten about you. Parent, you can be all anxious and worried about what is happening with your kids. Whoever you are and whatever you are facing, fear not because God is with you!

Grace!

Being a Pastor is Complex!

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After reflecting on my growing up years as a pastor’s kid and now with 12 years of pastoral ministry experience myself, I have concluded that being called to pastor a local church is incredibly complex. Mind you, this is not a new revelation but the reality of this truth keeps on hitting home regularly.

There are so many variables at work in pastoring a church. The local church is a volunteer based organism filled with people from a multitude of backgrounds and perspectives, all with their own unique wrestles and challenges. As a pastor you can’t make people do anything, and yet God has entrusted you with the responsibility to shepherd, feed and lead people into the full stature and image of Christ, who often don’t want to go where God is calling them because of the pull of the sinful nature. At the same time you don’t have the leverage of $ to assert your authority and when you do ask for people to give faithfully to the creator of the universe, it’s met with all sorts of skepticism and suspicion. You are expected to change the world and everyone in it with limited practical resources at hand and when anyone has one of life’s deep questions to ask, of course, the pastor is going to be able to answer it perfectly because they have spent the last 25 years studying just to answer that one question.

As a result of all this complexity, my dependence on God is growing daily and I know that God has asked me to plant and lead a church, as much for my own sanctification, as for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. I know more than I did 12 years ago but I need God more each day than ever before.

Planting a church from scratch adds to the complexity. I never wanted to plant a church but in God’s sovereignty he called me to this work and it has been both a privilege and a painful experience to answer that call. Over the last, nearly 6 years we have seen Activate grow from 13 people meeting together in a lounge room to now over 400 people connecting with our wider church community every week, complete with a much larger budget, a 400 seat auditorium, offices, meeting rooms, guest lounge, kids city facilities, cafe, and op shop as well as extensive missional activity in the wider community, including feeding the homeless, life groups, activate academy, gender based ministries and the list goes on.

Pastors deal with all sorts of expectations from people, from God and from themselves. Some of these expectations are real and some are simply perceived. At times you feel like you have to be all things to all people from counsellor to fund-raiser to wedding planner to professional mourner to career advisor to worship leader to administrator to teacher to evangelist to wise sage to mentor to business guru to everybody’s best friend and the complexity compounds. Coupled with this are the personal issues in your own heart you wrestle with daily and the dreams and desires you have for your own personal future.

How should we respond to this? So glad you asked.

Begin with the Bible, not your feelings! Passages like 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, Ephesians 4:11-16, 2 Timothy 4:1-8, Hebrews 12:1-3, 1 Peter 5:1-4, Matthew 20:20-28, Philippians 2:1-11 are foundational to a biblical understanding of the pastor’s role and vision for local church ministry.

God never called you to be the Messiah! This job has already been covered by Jesus. You haven’t been asked to die on a cross to reconcile man back to God. Jesus was and his work is now finished. This truth helps you keep the burden of responsibility in check.

God is Sovereign! This grand truth helps me sleep at night when I end a day with doubts, uncertainties and loose ends. I believe that God’s sovereignty are the bookends of life and ministry and as a result, I stay mildly sane. I planted, we are all watering but God gives the growth.

Do what God has called you to do, not what everyone else expects you to do! You will lose the plot if you try to be all things to all people to gain their approval and favor. Enough said.

Enjoy the journey, not just the outcome! Pastors love results. We get a spiritual high when the dashboard comes in and all the stats are heading north but are you enjoying the journey or just enduring it?

Create a healthy release valve! Exercise, friends, movies, dates nights, hobbies and holidays are all important aspects of life that need to be incorporated within your weekly, monthly and annual rhythm.

Keep loving God and people! Ministry is about connecting people to Jesus and Jesus to people. Don’t get distracted from the main thing – the GOSPEL works!

Grace!

Perseverance of the Saints!

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“Why should you wake up believing in the morning?”

John Piper

On a regular basis I meet up with my dad in one of my favorite places in Melbourne, Lygon St, Carlton and discuss God, life and ministry. He reflected back to me recently, how as a pastor preaching every Sunday to a full congregation, he would ask himself, “What makes these people keep turning up? Why do they keep listening? And why do I keep turning up to preach the bible to them?”

Challenging questions that require more than surface level answers. I want to offer some brief, and hopefully biblical answers to them.  Paul said in Philippians 3:12, “Christ Jesus has made me his own.” To be saved is to be owned by Christ through his saving work on the cross. We can only make knowing Christ our own, cause Christ has first made us his own. Jesus said to his Father in John 17:12 “While I was with them (speaking of the disciples), I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction (Judas), that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

A key question I ask of this passage is, would the Father present to his Son a gift that would not last? The disciples by covenant belonged to the Son. Jesus keeps all whom the Father gives to him. In John 11:41-42 we read of Jesus interceding and he says, “Father I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” Jesus always gets his prayers answered and Jesus intercessory ministry keeps us safe and secure.

John 16:1 “I have said all these things to you, to keep you from falling away from me.”

A Theology of Salvation.

Romans 8:29 ‘Those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.” 

 

  1. Justification (past) is a free gift from God and is about our right standing with God. To be justified means to be declared righteous and no longer guilty of sin because of Christ’s death on the cross, my sin has been removed and God’s wrath appeased. Jesus has become my substitutionary atonement.
  2. Sanctification (present) is about the continuing process of salvation. It speaks of consecration to God and being set apart. Sanctification is challenging and exhausting, where the believer works out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 3:12-13) as a direct result of what God has already worked into the believer through justification and regeneration (new birth).
  3. Glorification (future) is effortless because God will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by his power (Phil 3:21). Glorification is the final step in receiving the gift of eternal life, whereby, we are morally and spiritually perfected and completely transformed.

A real Christian perseveres in their present sanctification, not as an exercise of their will but as a provision of God’s grace at work in them. A real Christian perseveres because they have been justified, regenerated, adopted by God and they are going to be glorified.

I believe that the bible teaches that all who are justified will win the fight of faith. Believers will persevere in faith and never surrender to the enemy of their souls because of the grace of God at work in them. This perseverance is the promise of the new covenant, obtained by the blood of Christ, and worked in us by God himself, yet not as to diminish, but only to empower and encourage, our vigilance; so that we may say in the end, “I have fought the good fight, but it was not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

Romans 8:30 “Those whom he justified he also glorified.”

 

John 10:27-28 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

 

Philippians 1:6 “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Ron Hanko says, “Believers are not preserved from falling, but from falling away; not from temptation, but from being destroyed by temptation; not from sin, but from the sin unto death. Due entirely to their own weakness and sinfulness, believers can and do fall into temptation and sin. But Psalm 37:24 assures us, ‘Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with his hand.”

Grace!

Weekly Wrap Up

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book of the week

Sex and the Supremacy of Christ is not just another book on sex but it lifts our gaze to consider the God who made us sexual creatures for his glory. In a world where sex has become an idol and cheap, this book reflects on the bible’s teaching of such topics as sex and the single, homosexual marriage, restoring the sexually broken and sex, romance the glory of Christ. The editors John Piper and Justin Taylor have brought together several contributers for this project and the content within it has definitely sharpened my thinking on the topic. 

quote of the week

Anonymous comment to my blog post ‘Jesus didn’t die for gold dust’, “To unbelievers, gold dust is bull dust.”

news of the week

Activate’s creative director Sam Jervis is launching his debut album, “Heart Aflame” on Saturday May 26, 2012 at Activate Church. Tickets will be available in the near future. I’ll provide a link in the coming weeks.

moment of the week

I was sick earlier in the week but the highlight would have been discipling a new Christian on Thursday night. He is like a sponge, hungry to devour every bit of information and insight he can. It’s refreshing to find someone so eager to grow in Christ. His potential is huge.

Grace!