I have this devotional that I like to use, it's Experiencing God Day by Day by Henry & Richard Blackaby. I absolutely love this thing because it's like a magic devotional--it always seems to speak directly about what's going on with me currently. I previously blogged about how discernment and discovering God's will are a major theme in my life right now. This devotional is one of the sources of that. I'm not saying it will speak so powerfully and directly to everyone, but it my case God is certainly using it as a megaphone for His voice.
Ephesians 5:15-16 admonishes us to make wise use of our time. While this is certainly good advice on any given day of the year, the fact that it was the topic of Sunday's devotional is another instance of my recurring themes these days. The portion which spoke most directly to me is: "Multitudes are dying each year without hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Investing your life wisely is critical to you and to those around you. Foolishly spending your time in sinful or wasteful pursuits can cost you and others dearly." While it's easy to see how time invested wisely benefits ourselves and others, it's much harder to discern the good not done by inactivity and inaction.
This struck a cord with me with regards to Wycliffe Bible Translators. As I've considered bible translation as a possible ministry, I am more and more convicted of the importance of bringing Scripture to people groups who don't have it in their native language. How important an investment of time is it for someone gifted in languages to use their abilities to do this? The more I consider it, the more the idea thrills me! And while this idea makes sense in and of itself, that doesn't mean that it's God's will for my life. Were Ann & I to become Wycliffe members, it would mean HUGE changes for our family. The more I think about this, the less it scares me. The more I continue to think about it, the more I feel willing to endure dramatic life changes in order to be a part of a team that brings Scripture to a people group who have never had it before.
So is this a call from God or a passing interest? As the saying goes I guess, "that's for God to know and me to find out."
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Video: How can I discover God's will for my life?
Again, how amazing is it that on the morning when I take time to blog about discerning God's will in my life, I come across this video on Facebook? God is simply amazing!! He's smashing me over the head with a hammer these days, making it clear to me that my spiritual job right now is to seek His will. :)
My Prayer Council
It's probably been a week since my last post and I know it's been a week since I spent some morning devotional time with God. Not surprisingly--though amazingly, for the Lord is so awesome and loving--today's devotional picked up where I left off with God last week.
Today's devotional was entitled "Daily Bread" and stressed our daily reliance on God and our trust in Him, one day at a time. The scripture quoted was Matthew 6:11: "Give us this day our daily bread." This isn't an echo, but a thunderous roar that connects with the last scripture I blogged about: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:34 ESV)
One of my greatest prayer needs these days is to make the time time daily to spend with God. I keep coming across quotes and references (on Facebook, books I'm reading, etc) that emphasize that the most important thing a man can do to lead his family is to spend daily time with God, seeking His will. I want this SO much but I struggle mightily to find the time to do this. With a four on, four off work schedule of 12 hour shifts I find that my working days are the hardest in which to find time for God. Then on my four days off I'm doing doing doing to catch up with all the worldly things I didn't have time for while working, yet I struggle to make time for Him in the busy-ness of my day.
So what do we do when we have to do something but can't do it ourselves? My children know this mantra well: we ask for help! So that's what I'm doing. I'm expanding this blog to include some folks that I'm asking to be my Prayer Council. No meetings of the council are necessary and there are no committees to join. All I'm asking is that you subscribe to this blog and pray for me and my family as we travel this journey. If you want to leave comments that's great but not required. If you're not interested in subscribing that's fine too. I'm simply reaching out to some folks in my life with whom I feel a connection and (I'm pretty sure) will be willing to pray for us.
I know you all have your own time to spend with God and your own worldly demands eating up your time. I've selected you because I admire your faith and trust in God and your dedication to prayer for daily needs.
Thank you in advance for entertaining my request. :)
Today's devotional was entitled "Daily Bread" and stressed our daily reliance on God and our trust in Him, one day at a time. The scripture quoted was Matthew 6:11: "Give us this day our daily bread." This isn't an echo, but a thunderous roar that connects with the last scripture I blogged about: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:34 ESV)
One of my greatest prayer needs these days is to make the time time daily to spend with God. I keep coming across quotes and references (on Facebook, books I'm reading, etc) that emphasize that the most important thing a man can do to lead his family is to spend daily time with God, seeking His will. I want this SO much but I struggle mightily to find the time to do this. With a four on, four off work schedule of 12 hour shifts I find that my working days are the hardest in which to find time for God. Then on my four days off I'm doing doing doing to catch up with all the worldly things I didn't have time for while working, yet I struggle to make time for Him in the busy-ness of my day.
So what do we do when we have to do something but can't do it ourselves? My children know this mantra well: we ask for help! So that's what I'm doing. I'm expanding this blog to include some folks that I'm asking to be my Prayer Council. No meetings of the council are necessary and there are no committees to join. All I'm asking is that you subscribe to this blog and pray for me and my family as we travel this journey. If you want to leave comments that's great but not required. If you're not interested in subscribing that's fine too. I'm simply reaching out to some folks in my life with whom I feel a connection and (I'm pretty sure) will be willing to pray for us.
I know you all have your own time to spend with God and your own worldly demands eating up your time. I've selected you because I admire your faith and trust in God and your dedication to prayer for daily needs.
Thank you in advance for entertaining my request. :)
Sunday, August 12, 2012
What God is Teaching Me
While doing an assignment in The New Joy of Discovery in Bible Study by Oletta Wald (a book assigned for our NT and OT survey classes) I was able to articulate what God's up to in my life these days. The assignment was to apply Discovery skills to Matthew 6:25-34. My "summarized finding" was this: "worry and the inability to see our value from God's perspective is a result of a lack of faith; put aside the world for the Kingdom." The Application & Actualization phase challenged the student to complete this statement: If I really took Jesus' teaching in this passage seriously, the difference it would make in my life is . . . . While I'm one of those folks that tends to blow off these application steps in a book in lieu of devouring more text, I sat back and thought about this one a bit. I've always been a worrier, so I couldn't pretend that this application wouldn't apply to me.
I have realized recently that I am gaining a greater sense of peace about God being in charge of and aware of all the bad stuff that goes on here on the Big Blue Marble and in my life specifically. I first became aware of this truth on a personal level when my position as a Training Officer was eliminated by budget cuts and I was sent back to work in the jail. This meant giving up my own office and a flex schedule to work four days on, four days off, two months on days, two months on nights. This meant I would only be able to attend church part time (four Sundays on, four Sundays off) and would not have the flexibility I previously had to adjust my work schedule to accommodate important meetings, functions, etc. As I growled, griped and gnashed my teeth about this imposition on my schedule and my ability to serve anytime I was needed, it occurred to me out of the blue that God was already aware of this. My new work schedule was not going to ruin God's plans for my life, even though this is how I initially felt.
Did I truly feel that God was currently hard at work in my life, drawing me into and preparing me for future ministry? Yes. Could any human plan, circumstance or change of work schedule thwart the plans of God? Of course not. Did I need to exert extraordinary amounts of human effort in order to overcome worldly circumstances so that God's plans wouldn't be ruined by them? Again, of course not. Given all this, WHAT WAS I SO UPSET ABOUT THEN? (There is the issue of not being able to watch college football every Saturday due to my rotating work schedule, but I've come to agree with Him that that's not part of His plan for my ministry).
At Manfest 2012 I was able to spend some quiet time alone with God. I came away from that with an awareness of just how much effort I've spent throughout my life making sure my plans turn out well. The fact that I'm a control freak means that I probably spend more time and effort than most in this regard. This life-long habit didn't abate once I became a Christian, I simply turned my efforts toward making sure God's plans for my life were able to be realized. It wasn't until some worldly circumstance which I couldn't "fix" by my own effort came along that I realized that I'd been fooling myself all along. Part of giving your life over to God and His plans involves giving up human effort to make them come to fruition. It also involves giving up self reliance and, through faith and trust in Him, relying on Him to guide us into the plans He has for us.
So what's my take-away from the assignment mentioned at the beginning of this post? It wasn't until God allowed "negative" circumstances into my life over which I had no control that I realized that my peace needs to come from my firm belief that He's aware of and not the least bit worried about the things that worry me. And why isn't He worried? Because He knows that it's His diving will--and not my human efforts--that will make His plan for my life come to fruition.
I have realized recently that I am gaining a greater sense of peace about God being in charge of and aware of all the bad stuff that goes on here on the Big Blue Marble and in my life specifically. I first became aware of this truth on a personal level when my position as a Training Officer was eliminated by budget cuts and I was sent back to work in the jail. This meant giving up my own office and a flex schedule to work four days on, four days off, two months on days, two months on nights. This meant I would only be able to attend church part time (four Sundays on, four Sundays off) and would not have the flexibility I previously had to adjust my work schedule to accommodate important meetings, functions, etc. As I growled, griped and gnashed my teeth about this imposition on my schedule and my ability to serve anytime I was needed, it occurred to me out of the blue that God was already aware of this. My new work schedule was not going to ruin God's plans for my life, even though this is how I initially felt.
Did I truly feel that God was currently hard at work in my life, drawing me into and preparing me for future ministry? Yes. Could any human plan, circumstance or change of work schedule thwart the plans of God? Of course not. Did I need to exert extraordinary amounts of human effort in order to overcome worldly circumstances so that God's plans wouldn't be ruined by them? Again, of course not. Given all this, WHAT WAS I SO UPSET ABOUT THEN? (There is the issue of not being able to watch college football every Saturday due to my rotating work schedule, but I've come to agree with Him that that's not part of His plan for my ministry).
At Manfest 2012 I was able to spend some quiet time alone with God. I came away from that with an awareness of just how much effort I've spent throughout my life making sure my plans turn out well. The fact that I'm a control freak means that I probably spend more time and effort than most in this regard. This life-long habit didn't abate once I became a Christian, I simply turned my efforts toward making sure God's plans for my life were able to be realized. It wasn't until some worldly circumstance which I couldn't "fix" by my own effort came along that I realized that I'd been fooling myself all along. Part of giving your life over to God and His plans involves giving up human effort to make them come to fruition. It also involves giving up self reliance and, through faith and trust in Him, relying on Him to guide us into the plans He has for us.
So what's my take-away from the assignment mentioned at the beginning of this post? It wasn't until God allowed "negative" circumstances into my life over which I had no control that I realized that my peace needs to come from my firm belief that He's aware of and not the least bit worried about the things that worry me. And why isn't He worried? Because He knows that it's His diving will--and not my human efforts--that will make His plan for my life come to fruition.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
(Jeremiah 29:11 ESV)
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
(Matthew 6:34 ESV)
(Matthew 6:34 ESV)
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Dec. 27 - Looking forward, looking back
The end of the old year, the beginning of the new: that season when we take time to look back with the eyes of hindsight and look forward with the eyes of hope. Looking back, I see a year that in many ways is like most of my years spent here in Oregon: a life passively lived, reacting to events as they come along. I have again been busier than I'd like to be, bemoaned my lack of quiet time, hoped for change without doing anything to make it happen. The greatest lesson learned this year is the need for intentionality in my life and my family's life.
One of my favorite saying is "if nothing changes, then nothing changes." I was quick to grasp the irony and truth in this statement when I first heard it, and easily applied it to situations I've seen in the lives of others. I have been negligent in applying it to my own life, however, despite seeing its obvious need for application. That's about to change.
I was convicted by the following passages from Dennis Bickers' "The Healthy Small Church":
Without a vision, a church will usually spend its time responding to situations rather than proactively shaping its future. Church leadership will be reduced to constantly fighting fires in the church while never finding time to lead its people in ministry.
. . . most families don't have a vision for their family. They usually prefer to live day-to-day unless something unusual occurs. Very seldom will a family sit down and write out their dreams for the coming year.
While I haven't been one to sit down and write out goals or dreams, I have always been intentional with what I wanted to do and where I wanted that to take me. This is true of my life until I moved to Oregon, got married and started family life. I didn't consciously give up living my life intentionally, but I certainly shifted from living for myself to now having to include a family in my plans. This was a HUGE change for me, certainly a challenging one, and I would not have made it to this point without my wonderful wife Ann teaching me how to do family.
As a Christian husband and father, I am charged with being the spiritual leader of my family. I have to answer to God for this, so, no pressure. ;-) Ann has been a wonderful encouragement to me on this, but like other areas of life, I talked about plans but never implemented them, complained about having no time but did nothing to change it. Thanks to being a student at Pacific Evangelical School of Ministry, I now have someone to mentor me in my Christian walk. It is a relief to finally have some accountability, because without it I don't get much done.
My mentoring program requires me to evaluate spiritual disciplines in my life and formulate a plan for enhancing them. This has come along at the exact same time when I realized that I need to intentionally schedule study time during the week or I'm not going to get my assignments for school done on time. After years of floundering around, so many things are coming together all at the same time. Being the tech-loving guy I am, it's ironic that I've reverted to a printout of a weekly calendar to solve my scheduling issues. But, if it works, I'll take it!
So now I'm being intentional about how I spend my time because I've got some important irons in the fire and I intend to be committed to them. In addition to enhancing my spiritual disciplines and dedicating specific blocks of time to school work, I'm doing a Bible-in-a-year reading plan with my family. While in the past I would have been stressed-out about having to keep multiple commitments, I'm actually excited about this because I feel like I've got a plan in place that is going to help me be successful and people to help keep me accountable in meeting my commitments.
I feel the Spirit hard at work in me, which is huge for a guy who's been spiritually tone deaf all his life. God is good and I am grateful.
One of my favorite saying is "if nothing changes, then nothing changes." I was quick to grasp the irony and truth in this statement when I first heard it, and easily applied it to situations I've seen in the lives of others. I have been negligent in applying it to my own life, however, despite seeing its obvious need for application. That's about to change.
I was convicted by the following passages from Dennis Bickers' "The Healthy Small Church":
Without a vision, a church will usually spend its time responding to situations rather than proactively shaping its future. Church leadership will be reduced to constantly fighting fires in the church while never finding time to lead its people in ministry.
. . . most families don't have a vision for their family. They usually prefer to live day-to-day unless something unusual occurs. Very seldom will a family sit down and write out their dreams for the coming year.
While I haven't been one to sit down and write out goals or dreams, I have always been intentional with what I wanted to do and where I wanted that to take me. This is true of my life until I moved to Oregon, got married and started family life. I didn't consciously give up living my life intentionally, but I certainly shifted from living for myself to now having to include a family in my plans. This was a HUGE change for me, certainly a challenging one, and I would not have made it to this point without my wonderful wife Ann teaching me how to do family.
As a Christian husband and father, I am charged with being the spiritual leader of my family. I have to answer to God for this, so, no pressure. ;-) Ann has been a wonderful encouragement to me on this, but like other areas of life, I talked about plans but never implemented them, complained about having no time but did nothing to change it. Thanks to being a student at Pacific Evangelical School of Ministry, I now have someone to mentor me in my Christian walk. It is a relief to finally have some accountability, because without it I don't get much done.
My mentoring program requires me to evaluate spiritual disciplines in my life and formulate a plan for enhancing them. This has come along at the exact same time when I realized that I need to intentionally schedule study time during the week or I'm not going to get my assignments for school done on time. After years of floundering around, so many things are coming together all at the same time. Being the tech-loving guy I am, it's ironic that I've reverted to a printout of a weekly calendar to solve my scheduling issues. But, if it works, I'll take it!
So now I'm being intentional about how I spend my time because I've got some important irons in the fire and I intend to be committed to them. In addition to enhancing my spiritual disciplines and dedicating specific blocks of time to school work, I'm doing a Bible-in-a-year reading plan with my family. While in the past I would have been stressed-out about having to keep multiple commitments, I'm actually excited about this because I feel like I've got a plan in place that is going to help me be successful and people to help keep me accountable in meeting my commitments.
I feel the Spirit hard at work in me, which is huge for a guy who's been spiritually tone deaf all his life. God is good and I am grateful.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Nov 30 - By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain . . . —1 Corinthians 15:10
We say things such as, “Oh, I shouldn’t claim to be sanctified; I’m not a saint.” But to say that before God means, “No, Lord, it is impossible for You to save and sanctify me; there are opportunities I have not had and so many imperfections in my brain and body; no, Lord, it isn’t possible.” That may sound wonderfully humble to others, but before God it is an attitude of defiance.
Oddly enough, today’s Utmost and my devotional from In Touch Ministries nearly match. In Touch’s message was that we need to see ourselves as saints, not as the sinners we were. Yes, we still sin, but we are now sanctified by God’s grace (1 Corinthians 1:2) and we need to live in that, not in memories of our past sinfulness. As Chambers rightly points out, finding that line between humility and saintliness can sometimes be difficult.
The solution to this identity crisis is to change the way we think about ourselves. If we don’t, we’ll rely on how we feel, and Satan will bombard us with reminders of our failures and sins.
It always strikes me how we seem to naturally correlate faith and feelings. Some people become very emotional during corporate worship or prayer, reinforcing the connection between faith and feeling. Similarly, who hasn’t heard a believer talk about the warm, tingly feeling they felt all over the minute they accepted Christ and were in-filled with the Holy Spirit? It was the lack of such feelings that kept me skeptical about faith for years—every one of my efforst to "ask Jesus into my heart" were met with silence, not tingling. When I finally heard someone say “faith is not an emotion, it’s a choice” a huge puzzle piece fell into place for me. I don’t have trouble choosing Christ; if I’m still right with Him despite the lack of a physical sensation when I chose Him, then I’m good with that. I can’t say that I necessarily feel “born again” or that I feel that I’m “a new creature.” I pretty-much feel the same as I always did. My choices, however, have changed as a result of choosing to follow Christ. While it would be nice to experience some warm, fuzzy feeling every time I make a choice pleasing to Him, it’s critical to know that the lack of such a feeling is not an indicator of lack of faith or that “I did it wrong.” Had I known this years ago I probably would have become a Christian much sooner.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Nov 2 - If you love Me, keep My commandments —John 14:15
Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him.
Obedience. This is my biggest issue with my boys: it's not so much what they do that upsets me, it's their disobedience to what they've been told. Their "crimes" are pretty petty in the big picture: sneaking candy, watching TV without permission, sneaking games on the computer, etc. But while those issues are trivial, the consistent disobedience behind them is not--THAT is what wears me down year after year with no end in sight. When I consider all the disobedience God has to put up with . . . now there's an example of divine patience!! And am I the obedient son that I should be? Far from it. This again is one of those short, simple phrases that Jesus uses which sounds easy but carries a whole world of weight behind it. Obedience sounds great and seems simple till we actually try it.
That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . .” (Luke 9:23).
He should have said "IF you know what's good for you . . . you'll obey me!" That takes us all the way back to Eden, doesn't it? And then, several thousand years later, the Son comes along telling us the exact same thing that His Father did; should that be a clue that we should take notice and obey?!?! If you wanted to be pessimistic, you might say that nothing's changed since the creation: God's still asking us to obey and we're still ignoring Him. Again, I am amazed at His patience: I can't put up with my own two while He has to contend with everyone He's ever created!
The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.
One of my favorite sayings (which I came up with myself) is: authority is not imposed from the top down, it is granted from the bottom up. I can lead all I want, but if nobody follows me . . . then am I really leading? I can tell my children what I want them to do but if they refuse to do it, am I really parenting them? We can continue to lock up criminals over and over again but if they refuse to obey the civil authorities and stop breaking laws, are we really exercising any authority over them or just punishing them after the fact? All this is true of our human experience down here on earth with each other, but not true of our relationship with God. He does have top-down authority and He's given us the choice to recognize it or not; a choice that bears eternal ramifications. We can be our own little petty gods down here and think that we don't have to answer to anyone for it. This will be true until it's not, and then it's too late.
Obedience. This is my biggest issue with my boys: it's not so much what they do that upsets me, it's their disobedience to what they've been told. Their "crimes" are pretty petty in the big picture: sneaking candy, watching TV without permission, sneaking games on the computer, etc. But while those issues are trivial, the consistent disobedience behind them is not--THAT is what wears me down year after year with no end in sight. When I consider all the disobedience God has to put up with . . . now there's an example of divine patience!! And am I the obedient son that I should be? Far from it. This again is one of those short, simple phrases that Jesus uses which sounds easy but carries a whole world of weight behind it. Obedience sounds great and seems simple till we actually try it.
That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . .” (Luke 9:23).
He should have said "IF you know what's good for you . . . you'll obey me!" That takes us all the way back to Eden, doesn't it? And then, several thousand years later, the Son comes along telling us the exact same thing that His Father did; should that be a clue that we should take notice and obey?!?! If you wanted to be pessimistic, you might say that nothing's changed since the creation: God's still asking us to obey and we're still ignoring Him. Again, I am amazed at His patience: I can't put up with my own two while He has to contend with everyone He's ever created!
The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.
One of my favorite sayings (which I came up with myself) is: authority is not imposed from the top down, it is granted from the bottom up. I can lead all I want, but if nobody follows me . . . then am I really leading? I can tell my children what I want them to do but if they refuse to do it, am I really parenting them? We can continue to lock up criminals over and over again but if they refuse to obey the civil authorities and stop breaking laws, are we really exercising any authority over them or just punishing them after the fact? All this is true of our human experience down here on earth with each other, but not true of our relationship with God. He does have top-down authority and He's given us the choice to recognize it or not; a choice that bears eternal ramifications. We can be our own little petty gods down here and think that we don't have to answer to anyone for it. This will be true until it's not, and then it's too late.
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