Remember!

In the middle of a trial in life or ministry it is so easy to forget God’s faithfulness to us in the past.  We, being human, don’t have the ability to see into the future and know how our trial will unfold and what the end result will be; however, God knows!  Not only does God know what the outcome will be, but He is there to help carry you through.

Take some time and think back over your life or ministry.  When were the times that you didn’t know how something was going to turn out but you saw God come through for you?  What are the key times that God has helped shape you and mold you into the person you are today?  What are the blessings God has given you throughout your life?

Paul writes in Philippians 4:6, that we should not be anxious about anything, but we should pray about everything to God.  He also includes the key element of thanksgiving. This is such a key component to our faith and prayer in the face of trials for 3 reasons: (1) Thanksgiving keeps us dwelling on the faithfulness of God in our lives; (2) Thanksgiving helps us to see our current situation with a more realistic perspective as we reflect on the entire span of our life; and (3) Thanksgiving allows us to see and help others who are less fortunate than ourselves, even in our current circumstances.

Taking the time to reflect on God’s faithfulness and praise Him for His track record in your life is of the utmost importance. Remembering what God has done will strengthen your faith, change your attitude to praise, and help you to keep taking one step forward at a time.  This is why God would often call the nation of Israel to remember what He had done for them (Deuteronomy 5:15, 15:15).

Remember God’s faithful track record!

Fear vs. Faith: Know God’s Promises

We all step into the world of the unknown, where we don’t know how the current situation we find ourselves in will turn out.  This can be small or monumental circumstances that happen in life.  Think about it… “If you are diagnosed with cancer, how will this turn out in the end? What will happen between now and the end?”  “If you lose your job, how will you pay for the bills and provide for your family?”  “If you lose a loved one, how will you get through this and what will the rest of your life look like as a result?”

In the midst of these times of the unknown we will have a battle of Fear vs. Faith, and we will either walk down the path of Fear and live in Anxiety, or we will walk down the path of Faith and live in Peace.

One of the keys to help you when facing fear and the world of the unknown is, “Knowing God’s Promises.” What makes faith different from wishful thinking is that faith is based on a promise that something will happen.  Our faith can be in God because in the Bible we learn who God is, and what he will do.  It is in God and in his promises that we can place our faith.

Here is a list of promises that are found in Scripture, which I would highly recommend learning and putting in your heart so that in the face of fear you can stand firm in faith knowing who God is and what he has promised.

1. God is our Shelter (Psalm 91)
2. God is our Refuge (Psalm 9:9)
3. God is our Shield (Psalm 18:30)
4. God is our Place of Safety (Proverbs 18:10)
5. God is our Shepherd (Psalm 23)
6. God is our Provider (Genesis 22:14)
7. God is our Healer (Exodus 15:26)
8. God is Gracious (Psalm 145:8)
9. God is Compassionate (Lamentations 3:22-23)
10. God is Loving (1 John 4:9-10)
11. God is Caring (1 Peter 5:7)
12. Jesus is our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14)
13. The Holy Spirit is a Counselor, Comforter (John 14:26)
14. The Holy Spirit Intercedes (Romans 8:26)
15. God will Never Leaver Nor Forsake (Joshua 1:5)
16. God will Come Near to Us (James 4:8)
17. God gives Peace (Philippians 4:7)

P.S. – There’s a lot more promises than this.  These are just a few to get you started!

P.P.S. – I preached at South Bay Church about this idea of Fear vs. Faith on November 28, 2010.  You can listen to the message on South Bay’s website.  (Click Here to Listen)

Investing in Marriage

Think about these two scenarios…

Scenario #1: When you were 25 you put $5,000 in a retirement account and said, “Well, I’m glad that’s taken care of so I don’t have to worry about my retirement,” and then you never made any additional investments in that retirement account.  You never made changes to your mutual funds, rebalanced your stock/bond ratio over the years, etc. By this action and lack of action you would be setting yourself up for a very disappointing retirement!  You may have more money than the original $5,000 you put in, but you would be way short for what you need to live off of.

Scenario #2: You opened up a retirement account with $5,000 at 25 and then put in $500 a month for the next 40-50 years, and you annually reviewed your retirement funds, portfolio, etc.  By this initial action and your continual actions you would be in much better shape and you would have income for your retirement years.

The difference between these two scenarios is in scenario #1 you make an initial investment and don’t do anything else, and in scenario #2 you make an initial investment and you keep investing and working at it.  In the long run scenario # 2 is the one that sets you up for success and long term stability.  You may say, “Thanks David for pointing out the obvious!”  But if this is so obvious, why do we treat our marriages in the same way as Scenario #1?  Why do so many people put an initial investment in their marriage and expect it to be a successful, long-term marriage with no continual investments?

I was struck with this thought this week as I am reading “The 5 Love Needs of Men & Women” by Gary & Barbara Rosberg.  Now this principle of always investing in your marriage I know, I try to do, and I tell others to practice it. Over my brief marriage to Kendall (a little over 3 years) I feel like I’ve done a pretty decent job working to learn to be a better husband for her, but every time I take steps to learn more (reading a book, listening to a message about marriage, reading my Bible, etc.) I realize just how much more I have to learn!  Once again as I was reading “The 5 Love Needs” I was filled with a new passion to love, cherish, and serve my wife.  I was filled with questions that I want to sit and talk with her about for hours, and as I was reading I was longing to be able to spend time with her and learn more about her.  All of this comes about because when I invest in my marriage continually it arouses my heart for her.  As we invest in learning more about marriage, our spouse’s needs, how to have God as the center of our marriage, etc. we gain the tools necessary to have a successful marriage, and this process brings us closer together and creates intimacy in the marriage.

There is an investing principle called “Dollar-Cost Averaging.”  This principle basically states that you continually invest in your retirement account on a monthly basis no matter what the market is doing.  Each month you put in the same amount at the same time, whether the market is up or down.  You just keep plugging away.  The reason for this is that over time if you averaged out the “dollar-cost average” of all the times you bought high or low, the odds are you are way ahead of those who tried to practice “market timing,” which is trying to play the market by putting money in when its most beneficial, or those who just dropped in a large lump sum.

Marriages that are the most successful over the long haul are those that invest small amounts every day, week, and month in their marriage. Whether things are going good or bad, or emotions are high or low, you keep plugging away at investing in your marriage.  Over time, if you invest consistently you will be far ahead of those who just make a large initial investment, and those who practice “relational timing” by only investing when needed or beneficial for them.  Keep investing regularly in your marriage and don’t ever stop!

Practical Ways to Invest In Your Marriage (There are many more ways than these):

• Pray together (meal times, bed times, mornings before leaving for work, etc. – even just 1-2 min as a start makes a difference)
• Share what you are learning about God and your relationship with him.
• Read marriage books together and discuss them.
• Go for a walk, get coffee, or go out on a date and just talk!
• Play together.  Have hobbies that you share with one another and learn about your spouse’s hobbies and interests.
• Attend a marriage conference or workshop.
• Seek out couples who have a solid marriage and try to learn from them.
• Develop a list of 10 questions that you don’t know about your spouse and then ask them (Ex: What are your spiritual gifts? What are your passions? What do I do for you that shows you I love you?)
• Go to a small group at church together.
• Serve together.

Leadership Principles for Church Leaders from “We Were Soldiers”

You don’t often think when watching a movie, “I wonder what leadership principles I can learn?”  But last night I was watching the movie “We Were Soldiers,” which stars Mel Gibson and is about the first ever Helicopter “Calvary.”  I found myself pausing the movie multiple times to write in my journal leadership principles.  Most of them came from Mel Gibson’s character Lt. Col. Hal Moore, the leader of the 7th Calvary.  Here are just a few of the principles I wrote down:

1. Leaders Go First and Get Done Last – Moore is addressing his officers and he tells them in order to inspire and lead their men they, as officers, must be the first ones to go where “the metal meets the meat!”  Also, as Moore is addressing the entire platoon before leaving for Vietnam he gives a speech promising, “I will be the first one to step foot onto the battle field and the last one to step foot off of the battle field.  I will leave no man behind.  Dead or alive…we will all come home.”  Who wouldn’t be willing to follow a leader who leads like this?
2. Replace Yourself – Moore has all of his men learn the job of the man above him in rank and teach his job to the man below him in rank because in battle if a leader is killed someone else must immediately be able to step into their position.
3. Take Care of Your People – Moore tells his officers “Take care of your men and teach them to take care of each other because when the battle starts – each other is all we’re gonna have!”

These are principles that can be applied to any leadership position but especially in the church.  Andy Wood, Lead Pastor at South Bay, challenged our church’s volunteer leaders this past month with the principle of leaders sacrificing first for God’s Kingdom.  Matthew 20:20-28 records an interaction with Jesus and his disciples about who will be able to sit by his right side in heaven.  Jesus closes out his interaction by saying, “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Jesus set an example for us as a servant leader.  He was willing to go first, sacrifice, and serve others.  We as leaders in the church must follow his example by becoming servant leaders, and realizing that by our willingness to go first and sacrifice we are able to lead others to sacrifice for God’s Kingdom.  You can’t take others where you haven’t been, and you don’t reproduce in people what you know but who you are!

That last two principles also apply in the church.  First, we must always be raising up new leaders in order to continue to reach more people with the Gospel.  Our ability to replace and reproduce ourselves will drastically affect the level of impact that we can have. Also, for the long term success of our church we must be replacing ourselves by training others because there will always come a day when we will no longer be present, whether God calls us to serve somewhere else or calls us home to heaven.  Our long term success and true results of our leadership will be measured by those who take the reins after us!

Second, as a leader in the church we must always be taking care of our people because they will take care of others based on our example! If you read Ephesians 6:10-18, Paul tells us to put on the armor of God because we’re at war.  Not against “flesh and blood” but against “the rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world.”  As Moore told his troops “when the battle starts – each other is all we’re gonna have,” we must realize the importance of us leading those in our churches to come together in unity and love for one another to accomplish the mission of reaching people with the life changing message of Jesus.  If we don’t model this and ingrain it in our people then we are setting our church up for division, strife, hurt, splits, failure, distractions from God’s mission, and ultimately, disgracing the name of Jesus by giving people the opportunity to blaspheme his name because of our actions.  We’re at war and we don’t need friendly fire in our churches!

Grander Vision Living

I recently read “Just Walk Across the Room” by Bill Hybels and constantly felt myself challenged, inspired, and passionate in the area of evangelism (sharing Jesus with others).  Some of you may have read Kendall’s review of the book on her blog, www.kendallhibiske.com.  Since she did a great job of reviewing the book I’m not going to write about the whole book, but just about one chapter that really made an impact on me.  Personally I think this chapter is worth buying the book for!

The chapter is entitled “Grander Vision Living.”  Hybels begins by recounting the story of Jesus calling Peter, James, and John to come follow him and he will make them fishers of men.  Bascially here are some guys who are doing quite well for themselves and they’re planning to take over the family business.  They’ve already been trained, got the boats, got the equipment, and things look as if these guys are pretty well set for life.  What happens though is Jesus shows up one day and everything changes.  Hybels paraphrases the discussion of Jesus with Peter, James, and John by writing, “‘Peter, James, John,’ Jesus said as he looked each of them in the eyes, ‘so far, you three have spent your days being fishermen. But what I’m inviting you to do – starting right here, right now – is to become fishers of men and women. Instead of investing your precious time and energy in catching six-inch fish, let’s go after the six-footers! I’m asking you to give up everything you have and everything you are for the sake of people’s souls. Come with me, and you’ll see what real living is all about!’” (p. 173)

Can you imagine what must have been going on in the their minds when Jesus is saying this to them?  What’s even more thought provoking for you is that “Jesus has been asking all sorts of people – fishermen and businessmen and housewives and teachers and preachers and lawyers and all the rest – this one question: Are you going to throw your one and only life into pursuing small fish, or will you risk tossing your nets out there in anticipation of catching the human-sized ones?” (p.174).

You see what we must ask ourselves as followers of Christ is, “What are we living for?”  Do we have a small vision for our life?  One that is focused on having a house, cars, boat, nice clothes, 2.5 kids, 2 cats, 1 dog, and 3 fish.  Now there is nothing wrong with having these things, but if our life’s aim and ambition is solely focused on ourselves, our stuff, and our time then we really need to spend some time in prayer re-prioritizing our life.  God has called us to be part of a vision that is so much larger than we could ever imagine.  He has called us all to live life with a grander vision focusing on helping people be radically saved and changed through the message of Jesus!  ”Just imagine what would happen in our churches if every real estate broker, carpenter, airline pilot, lawyer, homemaker, businessperson among us said, “I love my job because I’m in the people business. Yeah, my paystub is from XYZ Corporation, but my mission is from Christ. Because of that, I try to show Christ’s care for people by throwing open my arms to the lost and the found. To the black and the white. To the rich and the poor. To the young and the old, all the while asking the Holy Spirit what he wants me to say and what he wants me to do.” (p. 179).

When we as believers begin to live everyday of our lives in conjunction with the Holy Spirit to see others come to know the life changing power of the Gospel then we will be living our lives with a Grander Vision.  Just imagine how much of an impact living in this way could make on your family, your church, your workplace, your community, etc.  The local church is God’s plan for getting the message of the Gospel of Jesus out to a world that is dying and in need of him, and YOU are the church!  Its not the pastors responsibility to lead everyone to Christ, but it is every believer’s responsibility and it should be the driving vision for our life.

How is your evangelistic fervor?  When was the last time you prayed in the morning (and truly meant it), “God, today I yield my life to you, and I ask for opportunities to share your the love of Christ with someone today.”  Let’s live our lives with a kingdom (God’s Kingdom) focus seeking to “catch some six-footers” vs. living with a small vision “chasing some six-inchers.”

The Importance of Obedience to God in Leadership: A Lesson from Moses

Moses is one the most influential and important leaders in the entire Bible.  He is the one that was chosen by God to deliver the nation of Israel out of Egypt and to the promised land.  Moses is the very one who spoke face-to-face with God (Exodus 33:11) and he is the one who God allowed to see his glory (Exodus 33:19-23), yet he was not allowed to enter into the promised land because of his one act of disobedience to God (Deuteronomy 32:48-52).  When you go back and read about his disobedience you realize that it doesn’t even seem like that big of a deal – he hit the rock with a stick instead of talking to it to get water to come out of it (Numbers 20:1-13).  If this happened in a church today people might say, “Man Pastor lost his temper,” but they wouldn’t be calling together a committee to fire him over something like this.  It’s not like Moses had a moral failing or he mishandled the church’s finances!  But what God says to Moses is, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Numbers 20:12).

The lesson to learn in leadership is this: We can place a cap on the effectiveness and potential leadership we have in the kingdom of God by our disobedience. Moses was unable to lead the people into the promised land, not because he was too old or the task was above his leadership ability, but because of his disobedience to God.  God placed a cap on his leadership because of his sin.  It burdens my heart to think that I could not rise to my full potential in ministry by allowing sin in my life.  I may not fall into a gross moral sin, but even the small things that keep God from blessing me and using me to make an impact in his kingdom.  The importance of obedience is of the crucial for leaders in the church because the very holiness of God demands it!  By our position as leaders we have influence over people’s lives and we can either point them more to Christ or pull them away from him by our actions, words, and obedience/disobedience to God.

Here are several questions for you to consider as a leader:

1)  Is there anything in my life right now that is not honoring to God and preventing me from having the greatest kingdom impact possible?

2)  Am I spending time in the Word of God consistently and hiding it in my heart so that I don’t sin against God?  Am I daily asking God to search my heart and my life to point out even the smallest of sins?

3)  What are the areas in my life that I need to keep a close watch on?  These are the areas that I am most susceptible to giving into temptation.  How can I set myself up to not give into these temptations?

4)  Am I treating God as holy before others?

Is it terrifying to be in the hands of God?

I was struck with this question and thought today as I was reading my Bible.  On my reading plan I am currently reading from Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, and Acts.  I read Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and was struck with the absolute power and holiness of God.  In these verses God declares to Israel the curses they will face for disobedience to Him and if they turn from His Laws.  It is a truly gut checking experience to read these passages and realize how terrifying it can be to make God angry!  Hebrews 10:31 says, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”  The author of Hebrews says this in response to those who continue in sin because for them there is nothing left to face except for judgement.

This is not the most comforting message and is not always the most popular.  We don’t like to think of God as having wrath and being angry.  Thats what are parents are supposed to do when we come home after curfew on a school night, but not God.  Many times we think that God is all love and wouldn’t ever hurt a fly!  At least that is the way that we often live and act even if our words express something different.  However, the Bible is very clear that God’s wrath will be poured out on those who disobey him and live in sin.  Sin can not be in His prescence and because He is just, and His justice is true justice, there must be punishment for sin.  It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God when you are facing His wrath.

This puts us in a bit of a predicament.  Now we stand before God facing wrath and destruction and there is nothing we can do to escape it.  This is where our need for Jesus comes into play.  You see there is nothing that we can do, no works of compassion, no amount of money we can give, nothing!  But God sent Jesus, His Son, to face death for your sin so that by faith in Him you can be forgiven and now find comfort in the hands of God.  You see for those in sin and not trusting in Jesus it is truly terrifying to face God, but for those who are trusting in Jesus the Bible says, “God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba (Aramaic for Father), Father” (Galatians 4:6).

My Bible reading today didn’t stop in Deuteronomy where you clearly see the wrath of God to be poured out on sin and disobedience, but I read Acts 8:26-40, which is the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch.  I will not recount the whole story here but encourage you to read it.  As a result of this passage I read Isaiah 52 & 53 because Philip shares the news of Jesus with the Eunuch from this passage of Scripture.  As I read Isaiah it was impressed upon my heart what Jesus went through and the wrath that He faced on my behalf, so that my sin before God would be forgiven.  Here are a few excerpts that describe what Jesus went through for you and I:

Isaiah 52:14 – “His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness.”
53:3-5 – “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considerd him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our trangressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
53:6b – “and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
53:8b – “For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.”
53:10 – “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.”
53:12b – “For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Jesus faced the wrath of God for us and he took upon himself our punishment.  This is why we need him, and here at the cross we see the great love, grace, and mercy of God poured out on us through Jesus.  ”For God so loved the world that He gave, His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  By placing our faith in Jesus our sins are forgiven and “we are new creations, the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

*Are you still facing God’s wrath because you have never known his love by placing your faith in Jesus?

*If you are a follower of Jesus do you still maintain a reverence for God and obey his commands?  The Bible warns us about disobedience and declares that God’s name is “glorious and awesome” (Deuteronomy 28:58), and as a result we “stand in awe of God” (Ecclesiastes 5:7b).