UNMASKING MYSELF

Many years ago I read an article in a denominational newsletter that referred to "the Masking Disciples 2000 Leadership Team." While "Masking" was a typo and should have read "Making," it made me wonder if that isn't what we in the church might be doing sometimes.

We go out as good people doing good things in the community to make it a good place to live so that we can make good people feel good. That is masking, or covering up, what we really should be about. We are followers of Jesus Christ who are called by Christ to "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you." (Matthew 28:19-20a NLT)

What I need to be about is unmasking myself and letting the world know that the good that I do is because of my relationship with Jesus Christ, not because I'm a good person. Jesus said, " Let your light shine before [others] in such a way that they may see your good deeds and moral excellence, and [recognize and honor and] glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16 AMP)

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry

#6031

A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

Making a proactive decision about your church attendance can yield significant spiritual benefits. The Bible emphasizes the importance of Christians gathering together to support each other’s growth. Hebrews 10:25 encourages us, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.” Whether it’s a formal church service or an informal small-group meeting, gathering isn’t about adhering to a strict rule; it’s about embracing a vital opportunity for spiritual development. We never know when God might move powerfully in a gathering where two or three or more are gathered together in Christ’s name (Matthew 18:20), touching our hearts and transforming us from within. If we adopt a casual attitude and think, “It’s raining today, so I won’t go to my small group,” or “we’re on vacation, we don’t need to go to worship,” we risk missing out on God’s potential work in our lives.

I’ll admit that throughout my life I have attended numerous church services and small groups where it seemed nothing extraordinary was happening within me. However, I’ve also experienced moments in similar settings where my heart was profoundly changed, or as John Wesley testified “strangely warmed,” and my life was turned around. There’s no way to predict when God will choose to use a gathering of His people, the teaching of His Word, corporate worship, or personal testimonies to impact us uniquely and powerfully. Only by deciding in advance to consistently join with other Christians can we ensure we’re in the right place at the right time to receive God’s gifts of grace, guidance and growth. Now that’s a New Year’s Resolution worth making and keeping. 

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry

#6021

OUR DAY-TO-DAY LIVES

Then Jesus said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.”  (Luke 9:23 NIV)

The structure and the value system of our world have evolved outside of God’s promises for so long that it seems we are compelled to struggle against our very nature in order to follow Jesus. Like the high-board diver who must determine to overcome his reflexes each time he launches himself into the abyss, we must renew our decision for discipleship every single day. Then, also like the diver, we discover the cool, refreshing, life-giving waters and celebrate that what we have left behind is the dryness and dust.

The skewed priorities of the culture we inhabit run deep.  They are etched into the fabric of our decision–making processes and re-enforced through a thousand messages and object lessons every day.

The morality of faithlessness and instant gratification pushes on our decision-making processes every time we engage the world on its terms. From pop-up ads to song lyrics to posters on the subway walls; from selfish drivers to a boss who lacks integrity and expects compromises; from the allure of another drink to the indecent propositions of a co-worker. The world is broken and we live in it: end of story.

And so we dare not leave our faith at home or bottled up at church when we venture out. We dare not pretend that we can live the Christian life on our own. If Jesus had to say [to His Father], “Not what I want but what You want” (Matthew 26:39), then how much more do we need the power of God’s transforming presence in our day-to-day lives? 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”

A FORK IN THE ROAD

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”  (Joshua 24:15 NIV)

I’ve always laughed at Yogi Berra’s old dictum: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” However, it’s not very helpful in making significant decisions in life.

When we come to a fork in the road, where a decision on which way to go is required, it becomes a crucial moment in our lives and the life of the church. Crucial moment literally means "the moment of the cross." So when we face a fork in the road we need to take the path where the shadow of the cross falls, not where the culture is beating a path. I believe wholeheartedly that you'll not only see the shadow of the cross, you will see the fresh footprints of the Savior. 

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson

#5356

CHOOSING THE RIGHT COURSE

I have seen people make terrible decisions when they were drained, tired, discouraged, or afraid that they would never have made otherwise. Never try to choose the right course of action in the wrong frame of mind.

Wisdom may well have you wait to make a big decision until you’re rested. An anxious mind and an exhausted body will lead to a terrible decision nine times out of ten. Paul says, “The peace of God, which transcends all [human] understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). If I’m going to make a good decision, I need that peace, that encouragement of knowing I’m with God. 

-- John Ortberg in “All the Places to Go… How Will You Know?”

#4881

THE CORE TO WISDOM

If you want wisdom, don’t try to obtain it all by yourself. Get wise counsel. Get around people whose character you trust, who have good judgement, who love you, and who care about your well-being. Tell them, “I have this decision to make. Speak into my life.” Very often God speaks wisdom into us through somebody else.

Solomon, the icon of wisdom in the Old Testament, wrote Proverbs 12:15: “The way of fools seems right to them.” Why? Because they’re fools. That’s part of what it means to be a fool, and there is a fool in all of us. There is a fool in me. There is a fool in you.

“The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” A coachable spirit is core to wisdom. We all need this. 

-- Adapted from John Ortberg in “All the Places to Go… How Will You Know?”

#4876

PRE-DECISIONS

“Each person should do as he has decided in his heart...”  (2 Corinthians 9:7a)

The most important decisions you make are pre-decisions.  Pre-decisions are the decisions you make before you have to make the decision.  And they help you make the right decision when you have to make a tough decision.  If you don’t make pre-decisions, you’ll end up making lots of bad decisions because you’ll cave in to your circumstances instead of sticking to your convictions.

-- Mark Batterson in “PRIMAL: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity”


#4597

MEDITATING ON GOD’S WORD

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on His law day and night.”  (Psalm 1:1-2 NIV)

When you let your thoughts wander, what do you think about? If you will cultivate the habit of thinking about God and His Word and prayerfully expressing your thoughts to Him, you will find that the most ordinary activities of your life are permeated by the presence of God. You will discover how His Word is relevant to your actions, your decisions, your problems. 

-- Jerry Bridges, from an article entitled “Staying Faithful Through the Years: How Can You Keep Walking with God Throughout Your Life?” in “Discipleship Journal," No. 58


#4444

CHARGE!

The inability to do nothing! Isn’t that the standard Jesus set?

He single-handedly turned the temple upside down and inside out by turning over tables and tossing out money changers. He confronted the Pharisees’ hypocrisy. He exorcised an evil spirit from a man possessed by demons. And He stopped a funeral procession in its tracks by raising a boy from the dead.

Jesus was anything but passive. He was the epitome of passion… So regardless of personality type, His followers ought to be the most passionate people on the planet. Going all in means defying religious protocol for the sake of God-ordained passions -- like the most famous party crasher of all time did, the prostitute who broke open her bottle of perfume to anoint  Jesus’ feet.

When will we realize that indecision is a decision? When will we come to terms with the fact that inaction is an action?

The church was never meant to be a noun. And when it turns into a noun it becomes a turn-off. The church was meant to be a verb, an action verb.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus gave the command to charge! And He’s never sounded the retreat. 

-- Mark Batterson in “All In”


#4409

TRUSTING IN GOD

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.”  (Proverbs 3:5,6 NRSV)

The Rev. Eric Folkerth tells the story about a Navy pilot in the Gulf War with Iraq... He was flying a mission on the very first night of the war, and his mission was to fly deep into Iraqi territory. Just as he crossed into Iraq, something all pilots fear happened: his instruments showed a missile was heading toward him. So, he maneuvered to get out of the way. Unfortunately, his maneuver sent him into a tailspin, and totally disoriented his senses. He had the sense that he was falling hard toward the left, and that to correct this, he needed to make a hard right turn. But, just before doing this maneuver, he looked down at his instruments. And his instruments showed he should do the exact opposite. His own inner ear and sense of balance told him one thing. His instruments told him another. He had to make a decision, and he only had split seconds.

He decided to trust the instruments. He remembered he'd been told that that's what he should do in flight school, and that his own sense of up and down could get disoriented. So, he banked back to the left, instead of to the right. And, sure enough, it brought him out of the tailspin.

In life, when things are going badly and we are in a tailspin, we have a tendency to trust in our own insights, or perceptions, of the situation. We try to get out of it our own way. But that will often bring on the necessity of a search and rescue mission. Instead, we need to trust the "instruments" of God's Word. He has placed before us the way we should go. We simply need to trust Him, acknowledge His perfect way, and He will guide us back to the right pathway. Enjoy the flight, but trust in the Lord's instruments.

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson


#4136

BECOMING EXCELLENT CHOOSERS

Choosing comes from the core of who we are. When we truly choose, we have no one to blame and nowhere to hide.  Choosing thrills us. Choosing scares us. Choosing is central to personhood…

God wants us to choose well. That may be why, when we look at the Bible, there is no chapter devoted to “How to know God’s will for your life.” Often when we are faced with a real-life choice, the Bible seems no more helpful than Yogi Berra’s old dictum: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Paul doesn’t write about “six steps to determine if he’s the one” or “five ways to discern God’s job for you.”

What we do see are statements like this: “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.” (James 1:5, NRSV)

Or “This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best.” (Philippians 1:9-10)

God wants us to be excellent choosers…

If I’m facing a choice and I want to find God’s will for my life, I don’t begin by asking which choice is God’s will for my life. I need to begin by asking for wisdom.

-- John Ortberg in “All the Places to Go: How Will You Know?”

#4096

A DEFINING DECISION

On February 19, 1519, the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes set sail for Mexico with an entourage of 11 ships, 13 horses, 110 sailors, and 553 soldiers. The indigenous population upon his arrival was approximately five million. From a purely mathematical standpoint, the odds were stacked against him by a ratio of 7,541 to 1. Two previous expeditions had failed to even establish a settlement in the New World, yet Cortes conquered much of the South American continent.


What Cortes is reported to have done after landing is an epic tale of mythic proportions. He issued an order that turned the mission into an all-or-nothing proposition: "Burn the ships!" As his crew watched their fleet of ships burn and sink, they came to terms with the fact that retreat was not an option. And if you can compartmentalize the moral conundrum of colonization, there is a lesson to be learned. Nine times out of ten, failure is resorting to Plan B when Plan A gets too risky, too costly, too difficult. That's why most people are living their Plan B. They didn't burn the ships. Plan A people don't have a Plan B. It's Plan A or bust. They would rather crash and burn going after their God-ordained dreams than succeed at something else.


There are moments in life when we need to burn the ships to our past. We do so by making a defining decision that will eliminate the possibility of sailing back to the old world we left behind. You burn the ships name "Past Failure" and "Past Success." You burn the ship named "Bad Habit." You burn the ship named "Regret." You burn the ship named "Guilt." You burn the ship named "My Old Way of Life."


-- Mark Batterson in All In




#3725

STEPPING OUT IN FAITH

I don't know about you, but I want God to reveal the second step before I take the first step in faith. But I've discovered that if I don't take the first step, God generally won't reveal the next step. We've got to be obedient to the measure of revelation God has given us if we want more of it. And that's why we get stuck spiritually. We want more revelation before we obey more, but God wants more obedience before He reveals more.

Most of us will only follow Christ to the point of precedence -- the place where we have been before. But no further. We're afraid of doing what we've never done because it's unfamiliar territory. So we leave unclaimed the new gifts, new annointings, and new dreams that God wants to give us.

If you want to do something new, you cannot keep doing what you've always done. You've got to push past the fear of the unknown. You've got to do something different.

-- Mark Batterson in All In

#3720

CHOICES BECOME PART OF HISTORY

"…Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."  (Joshua 24:15)

What are your choices? Whom are your choices for? Not just for yourself. Choose now whom you will serve, and that choice is going to affect the next generation, and the next generation, and the next. Choice never affects just one person alone. It goes on and on and the effect goes out into geography and history. You are part of history and your choices become part of history.

-- Edith Schaeffer

#3676

DECISIONS THAT DIRECT OUR FAITH

I suspect that very few Christians make a conscious effort to depart from God. Some do no doubt get their feelings hurt over some issue or something in their life and sadly make a choice to abandon their faith, but I would think that is not the normal departure. No, I believe that for most people it is an unconscious and slow process of one compromise after the other until we (hopefully) realize we have lost the grip in our faith…

We… must be careful to review our walk with the Lord and be on guard for any signs of slipping. The Lord gives each of us free will and free choice. It is our responsibility to ground ourselves in the Word of God and therefore make decisions that bolster our faith. When we allow "only a little leaven" we find that very soon the whole batch of dough is corrupted. A little wander here and little drift there and soon we find ourselves completely off course. Take note of the "things" that make a Christian strong and practice them over and over.

-- Pastor Gary Stone


#3591

HELPING OTHERS GROW

For years my “bucket list” included enrolling in the Master Gardener program supported by Purdue University in my home state of Indiana. Not until I paid my registration fee, bought the necessary tools, and attended my first meeting did I learn the depth of the curriculum.

This serious business involved much more than trading tips on where to plant perennials or how to eradicate beetles. To earn my “badge” as a Master Gardener, I would have to study the contents of a thick 3-ring binder, agree to apply my new knowledge not just to my own backyard but also to a public green space, and abide by the group’s mission statement. The wording of the latter surprised me. The statement didn’t ask me to help others grow plants; instead, it asked me to “help others grow.” …

As followers of Christ we study God’s Word and apply it in our everyday lives. But our responsibility doesn’t stop there. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we assume an obligation to pass our faith on to others. We accept as our mission the charge “to help others grow.”

-- Holly G. Miller in The Upper Room Disciplines 2013: A Book of Daily Devotions. Copyright © 2012 by Upper Room Books. All rights reserved. Used by permission.


#3531

MAKE THE CHOICE

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord… Choose this day whom you will serve,… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  (Joshua 24:14-15)

In St. Louis, Missouri, there is a railroad switchyard.  One particular switch there begins with just the thinnest piece of steel to direct a train away from one main track to another.  If you were to follow those two tracks, however, you would find that one ends in San Francisco and the other ends in New York, two very different destinations, all because of one tiny switch in a switchyard in the middle of the country!

Here is where God's Word comes in, it directs us to a very different destination than this world offers, but we can't stay on the right track unless we make the choice to switch the track from this world to eternity.  What's your destination?

-- Quoted by Dr. Anthony E. Loveless in And Who Will Follow


#3486

THE AUDIENCE OF ONE

The One, of course, is God. And His demand of you is your absolute best, your utmost integrity. He calls you to apply His commands in all your decisions and interactions.

In a perfect world, this kind of excellence would always be recognized and amply compensated. It would earn you the highest respect from your colleagues and coworkers. It would anchor your job security and even promise you steady promotion through the ranks. But even when it doesn't -- even when it seems like no one is noticing -- there is no satisfaction like knowing that God can say of you, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21).

The next time you start to feel unappreciated, undervalued, and overlooked, take your feelings of inferiority to the Lord in prayer. Let Him be the One with the last word on how valuable you are. When you're pleasing Him, you're doing your job.

-- Joe Gibbs, from his blog GamePlanForLife.com


#3323

LET GOD BE YOUR GUIDE

"Nevertheless I am continually with You. You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory."  (Psalm 73:23-24)

I am sure everyone reading this is facing or has recently faced a major decision in their life. Why is it that we seem to have so much difficulty making decisions? The answer is quite simple, but the solution is often a difficult one for us to accept and follow. The reason it is so hard for us to decide upon things is that we try to do it all on our own without proper guidance. None of us would dare go on a jungle safari without a proper guide to lead us to our destination, yet we face a jungle of decisions every day and try to make it on our own.

The wonderful reality is that we do indeed have a guide who is there to help us with even the smallest of decisions. In today's Scripture, the Psalmist tells us that God has us by our right hand and that He will guide us with His counsel. What better guide could we ask for than the omnipotent, omniscient creator of the universe? God is always there with the right answer and the proper direction for us to follow, and all we have to do is ask. But that is where it gets so difficult for most of us. We have become so self-reliant that we think we can handle all of these things on our own.

I for one have come to realize that I cannot make it on my own, or even with the help of my wife and family. Not until we give our decisions over to God can we be truly confident that we have made or will make the right decision. God has promised to never forsake or leave us, and that He will always provide for our needs. We need only to look to Him to guide us along life's journey.

So don't try to tame the jungle on your own. Let God be your guide.

-- Chad Janey


#3264

A POINT OF DECISION

Faith is a verb. It's active and not passive. It's something you do. Decision making is a faith-building activity. You use your muscles of faith. Faithful decision making requires… letting go of security. You cannot move in faith and hold onto the past at the same time. You have to move forward…

A great illustration of God's plan is a trapeze artist. They swing out holding onto a trapeze bar, and then they let go in order to grab hold of another trapeze bar that swings them to the other side. But, at one point, they're not holding on to any bar. They're suspended in air for a split second.

Have you ever been there in a career, where you're leaving one job for another and nothing's in between? You're 180 feet above the ground with no net below and holding onto nothing.

But if you don't let go and grab onto the vision God wants you to have, you swing back. Only you don't swing all the way back; instead, you swing back lower and lower until you're finally stopped, hanging there in the air. And there's only one way out: down!

That's why God brings you to a point of decision, so your faith will build as you swing toward the dream God has given you.

-- Rick Warren, excerpted from the Purpose Driven Connection Daily Devotional


#3195