CALLING ORDINARY SAINTS

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God -- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’”  (1 Corinthians 1:26-31 NIV)

The church and the world need saints. They need saints more than they need more canny politicians, more brilliant scientific discoveries, more grossly overpaid executives and [professional athletes], more clever entertainers and talk-show hosts. Are there any on the horizon…, either of the extraordinary or the ordinary kind? I think there are. Maybe I should say that there are saints "aborning" by God's grace. [Douglas Steere described "saints" as] those whose lives have been irradiated by God's grace, who seek not to be safe but to be faithful, who have learned how to get along in adversity, who are joyful, who are dream-filled, and, above all, who are prayerful. That is what the church and the world need most. It begins with you.

-- E. Glenn Hinson in “Spiritual Preparation for Christian Leadership”

#5452

DON’T STOP DREAMING

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!”  (Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV)

Our date of death is not the date etched on our tombstone.  The day we stop dreaming is the day we start dying.  When imagination is sacrificed on the altar of logic, God is robbed of the glory that rightfully belongs to Him.  In fact, the death of a dream is often a subtle form of idolatry.  We lose faith in the God who gave us the big dream and settle for a small dream that we can accomplish without His help.  We go after dreams that don't require divine intervention.  We go after dreams that don't require prayer.  And the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all our right brain can imagine is supplanted by a god -- lowercase g -- who fits within the logical constraints of our left brain.

Nothing honors God more than a big dream that is way beyond our ability to accomplish.  Why?  Because there is no way we can take credit for it.  And nothing is better for our spiritual development than a big dream because it keeps us on our knees in raw dependence on God.  Drawing prayer circles around our dreams isn't just a mechanism whereby we accomplish great things for God; it's a mechanism whereby God accomplishes great things in us.

-- Mark Batterson in “The Circle Maker”

#5405

NO HIGHER CALLING

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  (Galatians 2:20 NLT)

“I have come to see clearly that life is more than self. It is more than doing what I want, striving for what will benefit me, dreaming of all I can be. Life is all about my relationship with God. There is no higher calling, no loftier dream, and no greater goal than to live, breathe, and be poured out for Jesus Christ." (Jamie in Brother Andrew's "The Calling”)

-- Brother Andrew in “The Narrow Road: Stories of Those Who Walk This Road Together”

#4347

ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED

“The moment you began praying, a command was given.”  (Daniel 9:23)


This one revelation has the power to change your perspective on prayer.  It will inspire you to dream big, pray hard, and think long.  The answer is given long before it is revealed.  It’s not unlike the Jericho miracle when God said He had already given them the city, past tense.  Do you realize that the victory has already been won?  We’re still waiting for its future tense revelation, but the victory has already been won by means of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It is finished.  This isn’t just when God made good on grace; it is when God made good on every promise.  Every single one is yes in Christ.  Past tense.  Present tense.  Future tense.  The full revelation won’t happen until His return, the return that Daniel prophesied, but the victory has already been won, once and for all, for all time.


-- Mark Batterson in The Circle Maker




#3682

PRAYER AND IMAGINATION

As we age, either imagination overtakes memory or memory overtakes imagination.  Imagination is the road less taken, but it is the pathway of prayer.  Prayer and imagination are directly proportional: the more you pray the bigger your imagination becomes because the Holy Spirit supersizes it with God-sized dreams.  One litmus test of spiritual maturity is whether your dreams are getting bigger or smaller.  The older you get, the more faith you should have because you've experienced more of God's faithfulness.  And it is God's faithfulness that increases our faith and enlarges our dreams.

There is certainly nothing wrong with an occasional stroll down memory lane, but God wants you to keep dreaming until the day you die.  You're never too old to go after the dreams God has put in your heart.  And for the record, you're never too young either.  Age is never a valid excuse …

If you keep praying, you'll keep dreaming, and conversely, if you keep dreaming, you'll keep praying.  Dreaming is a form of praying, and praying is a form of dreaming.  The more you pray the bigger your dreams will become.  And the bigger your dreams become the more you will have to pray.  In that process of drawing ever-enlarging prayer circles, the sphere of God's glory is expanded.

-- Mark Batterson in The Circle Maker

#3649

A COMPELLING VISION

Professor John Kotter, now retired from Harvard Business School, noted that two of the most important tasks of any leader are to cast a compelling vision for the future and then to motivate and inspire people to pursue it. That vision has to be a clear and compelling picture of where we want to go, our preferred picture of the future. Moses led the slaves out of Egypt, but that was not enough. Very quickly they grumbled and began to go back to Egypt where there were leeks and cucumbers to eat. It was at least safe there; the wilderness was hard. Moses had to constantly remind them of the vision. He said, “We’re marching to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey, where we can worship freely, where we can love, where we can practice justice, where we can live in harmony."

A compelling vision unifies us. It excites us, it leads people to a willingness to sacrifice, and imbues them with a sense of purpose.

-- U.M. Pastor Adam Hamilton in his message at the 2013 Inaugural Prayer Service


#3588

EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…" (Ephesians 3:20 WEB)

Is there such a thing as an "impossible dream"?  One small-minded man living in the nineteenth century believed so.  When asked if he thought it would be possible for men to fly in the air like birds, he responded skeptically, "Flight is strictly reserved for the angels, and I beg you not to repeat your suggestion lest you be guilty of blasphemy!"  Ironically, the man was Milton Wright, father of Orville and Wilbur -- two men who dreamed big dreams.  Only thirty years later near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they made their first flight in a heavier-than-air machine, the prototype for modern airplanes.  They proved that impossible dreams can come true.

The apostle Paul wanted Christians to believe that the impossible is possible with God.  He wanted them to understand that impossible prayers can come true through the ability of a God who can do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think.  Go ahead, dream big dreams, then pray impossible prayers.  God can make them soar!

-- Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose in Pathway to God's Treasure: Ephesians


#3541

FULFILLING GOD-GIVEN DREAMS

Remember, people don't build statues to the critics, only to those who withstand the criticism to accomplish their God-given dreams.

The first American steamboat took thirty-two hours to go from New York to Albany. People mocked. The horse and buggy passed the early motorcar as if it were standing still. (It usually was.) People mocked. The first electric light bulb was so dim people had to use a gas lamp to see it. They mocked. The first airplane came down fifty-nine seconds after it left the ground. People mocked. But where would we be today without those inventions? The critic is soon forgotten. The person of action is remembered.

In fulfilling God-given dreams and goals, people will discourage you and criticize you and ridicule you. That's a fact. 

-- Rick Ezell in Strengthening the Pastor's Soul


#3150

BOLD PRAYERS

Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers. God isn't offended by your biggest dreams and boldest prayers. He is offended by anything less. If your prayers aren't impossible to you, they are insulting to God. Why? Because they don't require divine intervention. But ask God to part the Red Sea or make the sun stand still or float an iron axhead, and God is moved to omnipotent action.

There is nothing God loves more than keeping promises, answering prayers, performing miracles, and fulfilling dreams. That is who He is. That is what He does. The bigger the circle we draw, the better, because God gets more glory. The greatest moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and divine omnipotence intersect -- and they intersect when we draw a circle around the impossible situations in our lives and invite God to intervene.

-- Mark Batterson in The Circle Maker


Note: As you may know, most of the quotes I share through SOUND BITES come from my own reading. Today's quote comes from an author (note the Author's Blog to the right) I have shared before, but from a brand new book called The Circle Maker. Using the true legend of Honi the circle maker, who prayer-walked his way around devastating drought in the first-century BC Israel until the rains came, Batterson encourages us to identify the dreams and future miracles we need to draw circles around to find our answers from God.



#2909

RESTORING SOULS

The city dump caught the attention of a young black woman named Mary McLeod Bethune in 1904. Mary didn't see just a dump, she saw a way to fulfill her dream that, with God's help, she could teach illiterate black women to read and write. She shared her dream, and others came alongside her to help build a shack on the desolate place. They built desks from wooden crates and used blackberry juice for ink.

If you wander among the tall buildings, classrooms, and dormitories of [the United Methodist related] Bethune-Cookman University, you will find a headstone that commemorates where Mrs. Bethune's body was laid to rest at the age of seventy-nine. The inscription on the stone tells her story: "She has given her best so that others might live a more abundant life."

It takes a unique personality to see ruins and dream of restoration… God saw our desolate lives and was delighted to send our Deliverer to restore our souls. He gave His Son so that we, who were dead, might live.

-- Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose in Pathway to God's Treasure: Ephesians


#2863

WAITING TO BE BORN

Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.

-- Dr. Dale Turner


#2622

UNEXPECTED SUCCESS

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

-- Henry David Thoreau


#2591

MAKING AN IMPACT

A few weeks ago I met Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales, so I decided to read Me, Myself, and Bob. The book documents the rise and fall of VeggieTales. After VeggieTales declared bankruptcy and the dream fell apart, Phil did some soul searching. And in the book he shares some honest thoughts and questions. Let me share one question and one thought [from his book].

Here’s the question: “What do you love more, your dream or God?”

Here’s the thought: “At long last, after a lifetime of striving, God was enough. Not God and impact or God and ministry. Just God.”

Alright, I lied. Here’s one more thought. “The impact God has planned for us doesn’t occur when we’re pursuing impact. It occurs when we’re pursuing God.”

-- Mark Batterson


#2255