When I sought friends,
The Lord said, "seek ME first."
When I sought community,
The Lord said, "seek ME first."
When I sought healing,
The Lord said, "seek ME first."
When I sought calling,
The Lord said, "seek ME first."
When I sought riches,
The Lord said, "seek ME first."
When I sought
consolation,
identity,
security,
respect,
safety,
pleasure,
purpose,
success,
affirmation,
The Lord said, "bless ME, praise ME, boast in ME, magnify ME, exalt ME . . . seek ME."
I sought the Lord, and HE answered me, and He delivered me, and He is near.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Stop Talking About Change
When change is needed in our life and God graciously steps in to facilitate it we are in danger. The danger lies in our desire to talk about what happened. We too often want talk about what God has done rather than live out what He has done. In Luke 5:14 Jesus changed a man in a dramatic and powerful way. Yet Jesus told him not to talk to others about what had happened. Instead Jesus told him to go and follow through with the normal process that was put in place by God for change. The living out of the change process was more important than talking about the change itself.
Yet we would rather talk. Talk is easier. Talk allows us to shape and spin things. Actions on the other hand are difficult and often require sacrifice. Actions cannot be manipulated, especially over the long haul.
Jesus told this man, “Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.” Luke 5:15 The Message
We want to focus on an encounter with God and tell others how cool it was. God says let your actions speak to what I have already done within you. Larry Crabb says it this way, “Any experience – no matter how stirring or apparently God-related – that fails to release us a little bit more from the bonds of self-sufficiency, fails to reach beneath our deepest and most painful wounds and expose our resolve to relieve our pain at any cost to others, and fails to supply power to please God and advance His kingdom at any cost to ourselves is counterfeit.” Conversations-Volume 6:1
In other words, you will know you are changed when you stop talking about and you start doing stuff that proves that change has happened. Let’s stop talking and start living changed lives.
Yet we would rather talk. Talk is easier. Talk allows us to shape and spin things. Actions on the other hand are difficult and often require sacrifice. Actions cannot be manipulated, especially over the long haul.
Jesus told this man, “Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.” Luke 5:15 The Message
We want to focus on an encounter with God and tell others how cool it was. God says let your actions speak to what I have already done within you. Larry Crabb says it this way, “Any experience – no matter how stirring or apparently God-related – that fails to release us a little bit more from the bonds of self-sufficiency, fails to reach beneath our deepest and most painful wounds and expose our resolve to relieve our pain at any cost to others, and fails to supply power to please God and advance His kingdom at any cost to ourselves is counterfeit.” Conversations-Volume 6:1
In other words, you will know you are changed when you stop talking about and you start doing stuff that proves that change has happened. Let’s stop talking and start living changed lives.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
That's Crazy
I don’t understand. This does not make sense. I find myself saying these things from time to time as I live life. Often these thoughts come in relationship to something that happened or something God did or did not do. Just yesterday as I was fellowshipping with God I ran across an incident that raised these same thoughts. In Luke 5:11 the fishing business of Peter, James and John had a breakthrough. The financial and business success that they had worked years to achieve was finally happening. Their years of hard work were finally paying off. The financial windfall they could see coming was dizzying. Yet what they did next baffles me. I find my self saying, "I don’t understand, that does not make sense." Their next move was not expansion, franchising, an IPO or a sale to a bigger company. No they decided to turn their back on their biggest day and all the blessings it would bring them to follow Jesus. They just left it all on the shore and went off with a man they barely knew. I don’t understand. That just does not make sense. At least sell the business and make a handsome profit while things are up. After all they could have tithed from that great windfall and blessed Jesus' ministry.
Instead they just choose to leave it all on the shore. They profited nothing from their big business breakthrough. How foolish that seems. Yet there is something to be said for a call, and a vision, and a friendship that would lead someone to do something so ununderstandable. Wow, what if I let Christ capture my heart in such a way that nothing else mattered as much as simply following him. What if I really sought Him first above all else? That might not make sense, but it just might turn my world, my community and my family upside down. Maybe I don’t need to understand. Perhaps it does not need to make sense. What if I just laid it all down on the beach and followed Him? That might be the most amazing thing of all. Just think about it.
Instead they just choose to leave it all on the shore. They profited nothing from their big business breakthrough. How foolish that seems. Yet there is something to be said for a call, and a vision, and a friendship that would lead someone to do something so ununderstandable. Wow, what if I let Christ capture my heart in such a way that nothing else mattered as much as simply following him. What if I really sought Him first above all else? That might not make sense, but it just might turn my world, my community and my family upside down. Maybe I don’t need to understand. Perhaps it does not need to make sense. What if I just laid it all down on the beach and followed Him? That might be the most amazing thing of all. Just think about it.
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