Tag Archives: Jesus

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!

#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!

Christians Response to Homosexual Marriage Part 3

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(Refer to Part 1 and 2 for context)

How Christians address this issue comes back to who we are called to be as God’s people as revealed through his Word.

We can never talk about sex without talking about marriage. The Christian worldview requires God’s idea of marriage to be at the forefront of any discussion on sex, otherwise we undermine the moral credibility of the church and the bible we profess. According to a biblical worldview, sex makes sense only within the context of marriage.

R. Albert Mohler says, “Christians simply cannot talk about sex without talking about marriage. We are the people who have to talk about covenantal faithfulness because we serve the covenant making God.” (Pg114, Sex and the Supremacy of Christ)

Sex outside of marriage is an insult to God’s design and a display of human arrogance. When we become unsatisfied with God’s provision for us in marriage, human sinfulness is displayed in our demand for autonomy from God and in our rejection of God’s original purpose.

Marriage, between a man and a woman, becomes the touchstone for our understanding of why sexual sins, such as adultery, fornication (pre-marital sex), homosexuality, bestiality, pornography and any sexual expression outside of marriage is such inherently sinful. Marriage is intended to be a display of covenant, which points to the covenant God has with us. God will not allow his good gift of sex to be separated from the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman.

Because the bible puts marriage at the centre of human existence (Gen 2), a Christians response to the challenge of homosexual marriage must go back to marriage itself and to the gift of gender, demonstrating the rightness and perfection of marriage as a picture of God’s kingdom. The bible points humanity to the truth that the existence of just one faithful marriage demonstrates the deception of any other ordering for human sexuality.

(To be continued)

Grace!

Picking the Right People!

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The more people you lead, the more leaders you need. As the size of your ministry increases, the depth and maturity of your leaders needs to increase. What will make or break your team is the people you surround yourselves with.

Avoid becoming a clean up crew leader. Time is wasted when you spend time cleaning up a mess because of a poor choice of leaders. Pray for God’s wisdom to select the right people. I look for the 4 C’s:

  1. Character
  2. Calling
  3. Chemistry
  4. Competence

Do leadership with the bible in mind (a novel idea, I know). In Acts 1:24-25 the apostles prayed to God for a replacement for Judas Iscariot and 2 insights flow out of their prayer:

  1. God alone knows what’s in people’s hearts and we don’t (we don’t even know our own hearts)
  2. The apostles didn’t have enough wisdom on their own to make the right choice.

Follow Jesus example in Luke 6:12 who sought the Father in prayer for who the Father wanted on his ministry team. Seek God for whom he has called into your ministry.

Building momentum begins with picking the right people – Picture your team as a bus. Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus. This is tight but I’ve learnt it’s right. Sometimes you have the right people on the bus but in the wrong seats on the bus. Work out who should be on the bus before you work out whether you can actually accomplish the “what” with the people you have. Select difference makers, who are voices, not echoes. The right people are:

Connected to Jesus – This is primary for everyone on your team. As a disciple of Jesus, we find our identity in Christ, not in a role or position. Growing in Christ daily looks like staying centered in the Scriptures and worshipful prayer. It can also look like reading good books and staying connected to online resources that encourage you towards Christ. Our love for Jesus should exceed our love for everything else.

Connected to You – Ask yourself, ‘Is there chemistry with this person?’ Do they bring out the best in you and want to be around you? Remember, connection isn’t, ‘I want to be close to the leader to make myself feel more important.’ Connection to you is, ‘Allow my to travel with you and help you get to where you want to go’. You want contributors, not consumers.

Connected to the Vision – Choose people who are passionate about the direction you are heading in. “You want vision makers, not vision breakers” as Ps Brad House says. I’ve learnt never to invite people into your inner circle who have serious questions about your direction in the hope that they will get on board.

Connected to Others – Look for influencers who care more about others than they do for themselves. Connect with connectors because as Malcolm Gladwell says, “Connectors know people” and lots of them for that matter. Look for people with servant hearts who love people and make people feel important in their presence.

In conclusion, make prayerful choices, not impulsively but taking your time. I was too impetuous in the early days of planting Activate Church and appointed people too soon. It’s a lot easier to appoint than to dis-appoint. Do your homework and don’t short-circuit the vision by recruiting people who decelerate the vision.

Grace!

Rethinking Christian Progress!

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The one thing the bible promises us regarding life in this world is that it will be hard and filled with trials, temptations and tribulations. Nowhere does the bible promise that we’ll have our best life now (as popularized by Joel Osteen). in 2 Timothy 3:12 Paul tells Timothy, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

This morning I tweeted an important phrase from pastor Tullian Tchividjian’s book Jesus + Nothing = Everything and it is the idea of an “over-realized eschatology”. I want to use this term to say, too many Christians live with an “over-realized eschatology” expecting  now on earth what God has promised only later for eternity. This causes us to live with unrealistic expectations for what we will and won’t face in this world.

In light of this how do we approach growth and progress in our faith?

The Gospel didn’t just ignite my faith but it’s the fuel that keeps it going and growing me everyday. The Gospel has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:13-14). Progress begins with understanding that in Christ, we’ve already been qualified, delivered, transferred, redeemed and forgiven. Working out your salvation with fear and trembling is focusing on working out what Christ has already given to us and worked into us by his will and for his pleasure.

Our natural instinct as believers is to almost exclusively measure Christian growth around behavioural improvement but the greater issue is what is behind the good or bad fruit of our behaviour? Bad behaviour happens when we fail to believe that everything we need, in Christ, we already have. On the other hand, good behaviour happens when we daily rest in and receive the finished work of Jesus in deeper and deeper ways, destroying any need to secure for ourselves anything beyond what Christ has already secured for us.

The hard work of growth we are called to is to believe again and again the gospel of God’s free justifying grace everyday and resting in what Christ has finished on our behalf. I think real spiritual progress happens when our natural understanding of progress is rooted out and it’s not about first behaving better but believing more fully what Jesus has already accomplished.

Gerhard Forde, in his work, Justification by Faith, once said, “It’s not our movement toward the goal but the movement of the goal on us” that helps us progress in the Christian life. Pastor Tullian (Pg173) says, “Sanctification involves God’s daily attack on our unbelief – our self-centered refusal to believe that God’s approval of us in Christ is full and final.”

When we stop narcissistically focusing on our need to get better, that is what it means to get better. The more we focus on our need to get better, the more neurotic and self-absorbed and worse we actually get. I have to admit that I’ve been too pre-occupied with myself for most of my life and my pre-occupation with my performance over Christ’s performance makes me increasingly self-centered and distant from God and others.

Christian progress is forgetting about yourself! So, aim for progress but remember what it isn’t, your personal improvement and moral progress. Progress is washing your hands of you and resting in Christ’s finished work for you, which will inevitably produce personal improvement and spiritual growth.

Grace! 

Jesus didn’t die for Gold Dust!

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Colossians 2:18-19 “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions (or about things he has seen), puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”

I personally think it is a joke that there is a brand of Christianity that is totally consumed with gold dust appearing on people’s palms and claiming it to be a manifestation of God’s presence. I wonder where people are really at when they get so excited about a feather falling from the ceiling and start declaring it’s the off cut of an angel’s wing. I hear reports of diamonds appearing in auditoriums and gold teeth appearing in people’s mouths and wonder incredulously at what Jesus thinks about all of this.

I’m not denying that this phenomena isn’t potentially supernatural (I personally have never witnessed it and yet I’ve been in some pretty crazy church services) but I have to ask, so what? I had a Christian tell me recently that they asked the pastor of a church they were visiting if such “miracles” (I use this very loosely) happened in his church and after the pastors response didn’t meet the individuals expectations, they declared, “Well I’m out of here and I’m going to a church where this stuff is happening.”

It’s this type of vain and wasteful pursuit that the Apostle Paul is writing about in the book of Colossians. The bible points us to what the BIG Idea of the church, ministry and life is all about – Jesus. The hero of the bible is Jesus. The emphasis of the bible is Jesus and anything ( and I mean anything) that takes us away from the preeminence of Jesus and the centrepiece of our faith, being the gospel, is completely and utterly pointless.

When Jesus’ flesh was hanging off his back, and nails were hammered into his hands and feet, a crown of thorns pierced his head and a spear was thrust into his side, I don’t think he had gold dust, feathers and diamonds in mind. The bible records that he felt utterly forsaken, as he took on the sins of you and I, even though he did nothing to deserve death and we did nothing to deserve his grace and eternal life. Jesus died for souls, not supernatural phenomena.

If you are a phenomena chaser, stop it, repent and reconnect back to the Head. If you ever hear of such phenomena happening, don’t get carried away but be humbled by Jesus tortured body on the cross and remember that his death and resurrection is ‘cosmically’ more important than chasing the latest miracle.

(By the way, if a diamond does appear in front of you the next time you’re in church, take it to the jewellers and cash it and go feed the poor.)

Grace! 

What is Mission?

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Apart from being totally overwhelmed at the birth of my first child, Chelsea (now 8yrs old) I was taken back by the thought of the Son of God being born exactly like my baby 2,000 years ago. Jesus Christ was sent by the Father as a missionary to humanity. Jesus incarnated himself (literally became ‘meat’) and contextualized his entire life with the culture of his day. There is no religion that gives any revelation of God like the bible gives of Jesus. Jesus is the only God that identifies with his creation to the point of death. Jesus’ mission was a covenant of grace, forgiveness, atonement and eternal life for those who would believe.

Just as Jesus was sent to us, Christ has now sent us (Church) into the world on mission to preach the gospel and make disciples of Jesus (Matt 28:18-20, Mark 16:15). The Gospel cannot be heard if Christians don’t go and preach it in word and deed (Rom 10:14-15). We have been sent out with a message of truth, faith, love, repentance and forgiveness of sins.

The power of the Gospel is the same today as it was 2,000 years ago (Rom 1:16), so why aren’t we seeing the same results, particularly in western countries, as in the book of Acts? I love the church but I want to share with you a few reasons why:

  • Some of the church is too slow to go to the culture and preach the gospel
  • Some of the church is too self-focused rather than others focused
  • Some of the church is apathetic about the reality of hell (Shows up in our preaching and apathy)
  • Some of the church doesn’t take the bible seriously enough
  • Some of the church has drifted away from passionate love for Jesus

We must know, understand and pursue the mission of Jesus.  For more insight on mission read John 1:1-18 and Mark Driscoll’s book titled, “The Radical Reformission”.

Grace!

How Jesus responded to Fame!

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Matthew 14:1 “At that time Herod the tetrarch about the fame of Jesus…” Matthew 12:15-16 “Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known.”

In my devotions this morning I came across these two passages of Scripture and was fascinated by the fact that while Jesus had obvious fame and notoriety in his generation (and still has today) because of his preaching and miracles, he went to great lengths to keep it all under wraps.

Throughout the gospels we read that Jesus was constantly asking his disciples or those to whom he was ministering to not to tell anyone about his ministry, and yet it seemed like Jesus ministry just kept getting bigger. He even had family members telling him to go to Jerusalem and do his works out in the open and not in obscure places, if he wanted to be known… How wrong they were about Jesus motives…

Even though Jesus had many people following his ministry and his name even being heard amongst the elite of the day (King Herod), I’m fascinated that he did all he could to keep a low profile, to enable him to go about the Father’s business in the times and seasons alloted to him.

Jesus lived his life on purpose and if twitter and Facebook had been around, I’m sure he would have avoided boasting of the last great miracle he performed (“Just opened another blind man’s eyes… I had to give him another round of prayer cause his eyesight was still blurry after the first one…” In 70 characters or less).

Jesus responded to the opportunities before him according to his mission from his Father. If being given a platform to more people would extend the mission of the Father, then Jesus would use it accordingly but I don’t read him seeking fame. In fact, he did the opposite, he avoided it.

How Jesus’ example challenges us today? I wish I could say, that all of my motives for social media and ministry have been pure but unfortunately, lurking deep within have been some very prideful and selfish agenda’s. I’ve since repented of them, however, Jesus’ example forces us to re-examine the goals we are aiming for in our lives and what we are seeking after as being worthy of our joy and contentment.

If God’s grace extends to you fame and notoriety, this much I know, it isn’t for you, cause you were never built to handle it. It could only be for the glory of Jesus and the extension of his mission on planet earth. If fame and notoriety doesn’t come your way, rejoice that your name is written down in the book of life and get on with the mission God’s put before you.

Grace!

Pressure Shift!

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The word SHIFT means to change from one position to another or to move from where you are to where you need to be. Life and leadership requires shifts of all kinds at various moments in our journey if we are going to continue to grow and influence others toward a preferable future. One of the shifts I have personally had to embrace that I want to pass onto you is:

A PRESSURE shift from the comfortable to the chaotic

When I wasn’t leading people in the context of local church ministry, my life was less chaotic and more comfortable and yet when I answered the call of God to lead and preach, the pressure increased radically. It’s in response to the possibility of stress that people often back away from the call of God but keep in mind the only place where there is no stress in life is the cemetery. Life, let alone ministry is full of chaotic activity, especially, when you are seeking to live in the centre of God’s purpose for you.

The first thing that signals a transition into growing pains is an increase of pressure applied to your life. Life Pressure is the amount of force applied to such things as your schedule, relationships, work and finances. When going through a pressure shift, you will feel overwhelmed by what is being expected of you and as a result you will have a tendency to go to emotional extremes. When you feel like your spiritual insides are going to explode you will generally respond in 1 of 2 ways:

  1. Push harder, or
  2. Sideline yourself
Either option isn’t going to help you grow. I encourage you to go contrary to what you think should do and work a little less but spend more time with God to receive the spiritual energy you need to sustain the output required of you in your current capacity. Leadership, be it in the family or work context demands an increasing of capacity to keep growing.
Insight!

The Disciple Making Church

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The BIG idea of why the church exists is found in Matthew 28:18-20. The church exists at the core to make disciples of Jesus. You must be convinced that disciple making is for everyone, and not just a few elite people who have the gifting and passion for it.

Why is making disciples so important? Jesus has commanded us to disciple and Jesus has modeled to us what disciple making looks like. The early church lived and breathed it and unless the church makes disciple making the main agenda, world evangelization won’t take place.

It’s not enough for the church to have an overseas mission program and neglect mission at home base. Weak mission at home weakens mission thrust in foreign lands. When the local church prioritizes disciple making, Christians become healthy and start to reproduce more disciples.

Technically, every Christian is a disciple of Jesus and called to make disciples. God expects every believer to be a mature, reproducing disciple. Disciple making isn’t an even, it’s a process and a lifestyle. Jesus Christ is our chief example of disciple making. Jesus wasn’t random in his ministry. He had a plan, priorities and goals. So important was the mission to Jesus that he made 5 Great Commission declarations throughout his ministry. If it’s worth saying once, it’s worth saying over and over again.

There were 4 key statements in the Gospels that help us focus in on the disciple making process in the life of the local church:

  1. Come and see = Invite people to activities that introduce them to Christ and the church.
  2. Come and follow me = Show people how to follow Christ and do it with them in a life group.
  3. Come and be with me = Train disciples to lead others and let them do it themselves
  4. Remain in me and Go and make disciples = Send disciples out to make more disciples
In order for this process to work every believer must shift their focus outward, rather than inward. The more we keep focused on our own little worlds, the more dysfunctional we become but the more outward focused we are, the more healthy we become.
Insight!