Monday, September 30, 2013

What if we actually prayed with expectation?

I can think of a few seasons in my life where prayer has had with it this immense hope and joy.  The story of asking God for my wife years ago (before she was my wife that is) was one of me crying tears, and pleading with God to give Emily to me.  I had never taken part in such.  It was as though God had given me a desire and the faith to ask for Him to grant me what I was pleading.  He answered, in His perfect timing.  I was gripped the other day again by this sort of burden, as regards the efforts toward the gospel and church planting.  I felt compelled to ask God and ask Him boldly.  I want to have some benchmark to determine what I see Him doing.  So I and those with me are committing to 40 days of commitment to pray, and EXPECT God to do far beyond what we are asking (til Nov. 7th).  

I have had to go back lately to Scripture, to records others in the faith left for us, the stories of those around us, and our own personal lives.  I cannot help but notice a great theme in all this: for those who pray, pray expectantly, in much faith, and pray often, God sure seems to do some wonderfully amazing things.  We all believe this, we have all seen it in some capacity, but our own ability to believe it is anything applicable to us is still yet another story.  But I want to see if my story is any different than those I read of.  I want to see if God's faithfulness is seen similarly to any objective observer when we commit to such bold prayers.

I am not about to say that we will pray hard for 40 days and then cease such.  Hardly the case.  Rather, 40 days is but an initial time period within we will labor in prayer, and at the end assess just what God has done, and further determine how we pray. In fact, I am already committed thereafter to another 40 days.  In all this we are showing commitment to depend on God's grace and mercy in personal, family and corporate prayer so that in all our blessings the Giver will get the GLORY.  And in the process He will shape us into becoming more like Christ even as He aligns our will with His perfect will.  

So join with us.  I am excited, expectant, hopeful, joyful, and eager to pray in much faith (which He has given me to ask of HIM) for all that only HE CAN DO.  So pray with us, in particular for: 
1) souls to be won, 2) a place to meet, 3) provision, 4) laborers for this work, 5) a constant devotion to center all of who we are upon Christ.  In 40 days I am eager to see HIS work among souls, guiding us, providing for us, adding to our number, and to cause us all the more to exalt CHRIST.  


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

God's Sovereignty in the Pity of Others

"...she saw the child...she took pity on him..." - Exodus 2:6

These simple words of the story from an early day in Moses' life ring profoundly concerning the sovereignty of God.  The one who saw the child and took pity on Moses was none other than Pharaoh's daughter.  But why should she care in the least bit about yet another Hebrew baby?  Likely she has been close enough to the Hebrew people that she has seen their increasing numbers.  Surely she's heard of what her father decreed concerning the destruction of all the Hebrew baby boys.  But apparently she didn't fully agree with it.  At least during this moment in time, for this one baby, Moses.  

Make no mistake about it, God was the one who had designed and appointed Moses to be the one to deliver His people from the oppression, slavery, and polytheism of the Egyptians (Stephen in Acts 7 develops this).  God ultimately hand-selected Moses.  His training in the elite schools of Pharaoh's house would go to serve him well years later.  The leadership characteristics accrued from his position in Pharaoh's house would go to serve him well years later.  And even throughout Moses' life, God was growing in him a heart to save, protect, and eventually deliver his fellow Hebrews.  You can't help but see how considerable it was the way God positioned him.

But what if...?  What if this story never quite panned out?  What if Moses' basket was overtaken by the current of the Nile?  What if Pharaoh's daughter never saw Moses?  What if she only saw him and thought nothing of him?  And what if upon seeing him she was moved for a moment, but upon bringing the baby back to her father he wouldn't allow her to keep this baby?  

Of course we have to pause and reflect a bit to further appreciate the depths of the necessary details of this story.  We would rightly argue that God's sovereignty kept the basket upright.  We rightly argue that God's sovereignty made for certain that Pharaoh's daughter would turn at just the right time to see this floating basket.  We somehow though cross over these words, "she took pity on him," and think little of it.  

Let us make much of God in this.  He did not leave the story of this floating basket down the Nile River up to chance, but up to His sovereignty.  He did not leave the selection of Moses up to chance, as if to say, "Well, if he makes it, he's my guy," but up to His sovereignty.  And so too in a most necessary part of this story, the very pity of Pharaoh's daughter, we rightly conclude that it was God's work in her heart to cause her to pity him and save his life.  

I am reminded of the unsuspecting nature of so many out there who are being used of God in a plethora of ways.  And as we continue to make efforts to make the name of Christ known in our community, at our work, where we play, even to see God plant Redemption Church, I am mindful that we are every bit relying not on chance, not on ourselves (though He does involve us), but most greatly upon the sovereignty of God.  He is the very One who for His own good purposes even causes those who are our enemies to show us pity.  That manifests just another dynamic perspective of His sovereign rule.  I look forward to watching God unveil the sovereign rule of His choosing in and among people believing and unbelieving to ultimately make the greatness of Christ known through us. 

Monday, September 16, 2013

Marketing: a Cheap Substitute for Making Disciples

Call me old-fashioned, I am not in the least bit offended.  I continually find it interesting (to put it gently) as to all the things going on in the church today that have little to nothing to do with the gospel.  Of course these who participate in a myriad of activities that have just become our common "church culture" seem to have a way of justifying a lot of it in the name of being relevant.  

I have had to look lately at the reality of what it is costing so many to plant churches around the country.  Granted the cost of living is a bit varied in these different corners of the country, but it strikes me as very wasteful to put the amounts of money some have toward "church planting."  I kid you not that I have recently seen beautiful presentations available online from various planters who indicate it will require even as high as $600,000 over three years to plant a church where God has positioned them.  Now I do not wish to overstate matters here.  Church planting should probably not be viewed as something we put no resources towards.  I speak personally of the difficulty it is to balance getting to know a community, ministering, casting vision, meeting new people, in addition to meeting the needs of my family.  I think God's people do well to take note and participate, knowing that no church planter is seeking to strike it rich, rather we just want to have time to do all the necessary things to which we sense we are called, and eventually there is a big breakdown of some or all of the above mentioned where a full-time or part-time job preoccupies time.  However, I am convinced it likely doesn't have to cost as much as we think either.  There needs to be a healthy tension in all this.  

A high part of the cost for many churches is their marketing strategy.  When did we think marketing was more effective than building relationships?  I am not denying it is wise to get the word out on who we are, but we are first called to be a mouth-piece for the gospel.  I do believe it can create a buzz and generate a following, but I do believe it is easy to start measuring success by the wrong standard (Sunday attendance).  I believe when the gospel is made known through our actions and supporting words some real powerful transformation takes place.  I am convinced that marketing at so many churches anymore is their effort to reach more Christians who are currently unhappy with the present flavor-of-the-month at the church body they are attending.  But we aren't called to that.

So it strikes me as exceptionally irreverent and borderline faithless when I hear of a church that for their first public service gives a new TV away (presumably to get more people to attend).  I am not so convinced this is good stewardship.  I am not so convinced this is a good precedent.  I am not so convinced this is any bit of what Paul had in mind of becoming all things to all people" (1 Cor 9).  I am convinced it is probably a fair way of getting a few more bodies in the seats.  Likely I will never have a TV to give away.  If I did I guess I hope we'd be the type of people who give it to someone who we meet who doesn't have one and has notable needs (don't hear me at all concluding that a TV is a need).  

I am increasingly convinced that our ability to engage in the Great Commission and see God establish new churches is every bit connected with our capacity to be relational, not marketable.  I am increasingly convinced that our boldness to put Jesus front and center with people as we listen, as we speak, and as we act will continually prove to be a display of God's great power at work, rather than our ability to superficially engage people with what appeals to their eyes, ears, and stomachs.  We can get people in the doors in a variety of ways, but since when did that become our goal?  We need first to open our own eyes and see the brilliance of Jesus.  Then we will finally see what will both now and forevermore satisfy the deepest longings within all humanity.  And then we need to let His beauty shine in and through all of who we are both on Sunday mornings, as well as the other 167 hours during the week. 

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Help Me With This Weight

"For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.  Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.  He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.  You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. "- 2 Cor. 1:8-11

Nobody likes to be real.  It isn't worth it to be real.  Being real exposes flaws about us, that we otherwise hidden from people. I care less about what people think of me though.  Because I care infinitely more about what you think of Christ, I'll suffer shame.  People would most definitely think less of me if they knew I didn't sleep well.  It is something I have struggled with for years.  I remember at an early age that my mind just turned over and over things once I laid down in bed, which has only continued into my adult life.  Often it postpones my ability to actually fall asleep.  Further, I have always woken up many times during the night.  Rarely do I get through a night of sleep and feel refreshed.  And I perpetually find my internal alarm clock going off at a consistent hour every morning.  Whether my body feels ready or not to get up, my mental clock rings too loud to shut everything off, or hit the proverbial snooze and so I get up much earlier than I want.  

This has all been increasingly intensified by all my many insecurities.  My many insecurities are only further exposed amidst the uncertainties facing us attempting to get to know a community, build relationships, plant the gospel, and ultimately see God establish a new church.  I have never before felt so utterly inadequate.  I wonder about how I spend my time.  I wonder about my family.  I wonder about the distant future.  I wonder about what the next day will hold.  I wonder if I am at all effective in anything and bearing any fruit.  

Pretty much every night I am up for extended periods of the night, unable to sleep.  The other night I spent 2 hours up in the middle of the night working on a sermon, as my body would not and could not sleep.  Tonight at a time I should have been in bed I found myself taking a walk outside to look at the stars, and cry painful tears of fear, confusion, doubts, and faith in the mercy of God.  Indeed, I have had to feel the weight of what the next day may hold, what shortcomings I possess, what hardships in provision plague and continue to perplex me, what fruit I might be bearing, if indeed this is as God has designed.  

Of course, I find comfort.  Paul suffered with something great.  So great that even he "despaired of life."  Not entirely sure I have been there, but pretty confident I have been close, if not right there.  Indeed, I have felt this enormous burden upon me that could probably be equated similarly as "the sentence of death."  It sure isn't something so enjoyable, something so inviting, something so comforting.  No, this is painful and excruciating at that.  But I press on.  Why?  Because this is God's plan!  Yes, every bit is God's plan.  And it is all "to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead."  

And so I am reminded: 1) this battle I endure toward intentionally seeking to make Christ's greatness known is every bit a spiritual battle, 2) prayers even from others are a sort of healing balm applied to the sores all over those in battle.

So come bear this weight with me and "help us by prayer."  Pray me up.  I am overwhelmed.  Pray me up.  I am lonely.  Pray me up.  I have great provisional needs.  Pray me up.  I want to hope in Him.  Pray me up.  I want to make Christ known.  Pray for me.  I want to believe God's purpose for me in all this is to make me rely all the more on Him and not on myself. 

Friday, September 6, 2013

Sorry Jesus, I forgot the privelege it is to Make Disciples

For some of you this will be repetitious, but I didn't think I could, nor needed to reword this.  Not that it is perfection (hardly the case), but it is as clearly and concisely as I can articulate these matters.  Read on...again.

"God's design has been for every single disciple of Jesus to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples until the gospel spreads to all people." 

This quote (thank you David Platt) has been reverberating in my heart and mind in the past few weeks.  As I take inventory of this present journey and season of cultivation and laboring toward seeing God eventually establish Redemption Church (if He so delights to do so), I cannot help but note the great work He is doing in me to keep bringing me back to Christ.  I am finding that all my church traditions, my expectations, my hopes and dreams, are being consumed by this one desire to FOLLOW JESUS, and to call others to follow HIM.  I probably continue to sound like I have nothing new to say, and quite possibly I don't, but it is because the depths, lengths, heights...of Christ's greatness, authority, worth, beauty, holiness, grace, justice, wrath, consumes me.  

I have been so amazed at how my eyes are being opened to what it is to make disciples.  It is a non-ending labor of love.  I find myself constantly meeting with people, and no matter where they are at - Saved, Un-Saved, walking closely with Christ, or distant from Him, newly saved, or nearly saved, or long-time saved, I find my mission in this - pursue HIS glory by making disciples.  It is no longer an event of one day a week where I "do discipleship."  I spoke with one pastor yesterday who said he is challenging his people to be so in the lives of each other that they don't let more than a day pass without having some form of substantive contact with each other.  I resonate with that.  

All this to say - God is ever shifting my expectations.  I have yet to see much "fruit" by way of people.  But that is ok.  I will be faithful with those God places around me.  

I close with this - I got a call from a guy/gal I met about 2 months ago.  They notified me about a week and a half before their wedding that their pastor had something major come up and couldn't do it.  I was asked to do their wedding.  They requested no sermonette, but like a world-record fastest-ever wedding.  I said I would do it, but only if I could share a little sermonette.  It wasn't my way of aiming to draw attention to myself, but rather my way of drawing attention to Jesus.  I spent 7-10 minutes showing off the gospel and how a marriage reflects Christ.  In any case, it was evidence of HIS WORK in me.  So I continue to rejoice in this season, of confusion, pain, loneliness, joys, adventures, with great hope as we plant the gospel .

Keep praying
expecting
hoping
BECAUSE OF CHRIST

Monday, September 2, 2013

Slow Down - God is in No Hurry

There is no need to hurry in ministry.  Ultimately our hurried demeanor is not beneficial to our own well-being, nor those to whom we minister.  I am increasingly convinced amidst this journey toward seeing God use us to plant the gospel and establish a newly formed church from all these efforts, His and ours.  However, there is nothing to be gained by hurrying in all this.  Let me state though that there is no part of me that for a moment believes in being slothful amidst intentional ministry and church planting efforts.  That is not at all what I am talking about.  

Often times our own hurriedness is nothing more than our own insecurities birthing an unrealistic and unnecessary urgency.  We somehow assume that the faster we are "established" the more validated our calling actually is.  I feel immensely bad for the Apostle Paul then, if indeed this is the standard.  He took considerable time to do nothing that he even felt burdened to share in the extended time before his ministry began (Gal. 1:15-18).  We might even think that Paul would have benefited more people, advanced the gospel further by taking less time on vacation in Arabia.  Yet, somehow we are o.k. with Paul taking such years to grow apart from such hands-on ministry, but the standard for us is different.  

And consider Jesus: His "established" and noteworthy ministry consumed the last three years of His life.  If I didn't know any better I might assume Jesus really didn't care about the sick.  I might assume Jesus really didn't care about the poor.  I might assume that Jesus really didn't care much about sin.  I might even assume that Jesus didn't care about the eternal souls of men, women, boys, and girls during those first thirty years of His life.  But nothing could be further from the truth. 

Increasingly it is my understanding of God's sovereign rule that encourages me to believe He is in no hurry.  A few things I have had to reflect on lately that encourage me as such.  

First of all, consider creation.  God spent six days (whether literal or figurative I do not know) to complete creation.  Why six days?  Was there something He needed to learn?  No.  Was there more time He needed to create what He did?  No.  Was there some limiting factor in His way that only time might remove?  No.  He could have done it all in one moment, with one word, or with no words.  He could have just thought it all into existence.  But He took six days because He wanted to do it that way, and in doing so He shows us that He was in no big hurry.  And after that He rested, even though His creation was not without an ultimate purpose. 

Secondly, with stories like that of Paul, God indeed had phenomenal purpose behind the season before Paul was so visible.  We don't have to know what that was.  Surely though there was some character development, some skills that were developed.  Likely some relationships that were being built.  Further examples throughout Scripture would equally indicate there are seasons of less visibility and as we see it (less) effective ministry, even after seasons of immense ministry and fruitful ministry.  In all this, God has a purpose and a plan.  We'd do well to hold loosely to our purposes, plans, and thoughts on what and when it is to be "established." 

Thirdly, God has a plan, but that plan is for an appointed time.  Look at Jesus for a moment.  Since the time of Moses, some 1500 years passed before Christ came on the scene.  From the time of David, some 1000 years passed before Christ came on the scene.  From the time of Isaiah some 700 years passed before Christ came on the scene.  In all of history there never was, nor will ever be another like Jesus.  Only He ever was and ever is able to save sinners.  And all throughout history mankind has been stricken with the fallen nature whose wickedness manifests itself in hopelessness, pain, and enmity with God.  How obscure the message of forgiveness and grace if only ever through slaughtered lambs.  How opaque the understanding of relationship with God if one needs to be proselytized to this Jewish faith.  How obtuse hearers would be to belief in One who is to come.  But when Jesus came He made sense of all the many things that were otherwise obscure, opaque, and obtuse.  So why the wait God?  Why so many years?  Because God had a plan.  A perfect plan.  Because God's sovereignty rules over all time and history.  And He will not for a moment lose one person who He has chosen to be saved.  Hurrying is not in God's language.  It is not in His plan.  It is a human concept that has no place with the Sovereign.  

Let these rich words convince you if still you think otherwise-
"...when we were children, [we] were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.  But WHEN THE FULLNESS OF TIME HAD COME, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." (emphasis mine)

There is ever purpose in all the seasons, in all our waiting, because the Sovereign Lord rules.  Let us ever trust that the seasons in which we find ourselves are not so hurried that we forget God's sovereign rule in and over all things.  He has a plan, let it run its full course.  He has the power, so let Him show it in time.  He has many things He is working out that run concurrent, and be amazed when you later on see the fuller picture of this and are able to marvel at Him all the more.