A Great Book I Recommend

I just finished reading Erwin Lutzer’s book, Making The Best Of A Bad Decision. I honestly cannot remember a book like it, that deals in practical terms what to do when you realize you’ve made a bad decision. But who among us haven’t made a bad decision? That’s why I enjoyed the book so much – I’ve made a lot of bad decisions.

Lutzer starts the book by talking about the worst decision ever made – the decision made by Adam and Eve, which plunged our world into sin and made it possible for the rest of us to make bad decisions.

He then discusses such bad decisions as – choosing second best, marrying the wrong person, crossing a moral boundary, making a bad financial decision, being trapped in a job you hate, and hurting others by your actions.

He concludes with a chapter on how to made right decisions and the worst decisions anyone could ever make – which is to choose to reject God’s offer of forgiveness and eternal life through faith in Christ.

Perhaps the best chapter for me was the one on what to do when you’re hurt others. I have hurt plenty of other people in my time through stupid words or deeds, but what blessed me most was his insights on what to do when you’ve tried to get along and the other person refuses. What about those “loose end” relationships? His thoughts about the last judgement and how God will make all things right between believers in eternity is especially good.

I highly recommend this book, because every one of us have made a wrong decision in life at sometime, and even if you think you haven’t yet, hang on, you eventually will.

Dying To Self

The following article was first shared with me by a lady in one of my former churches who understood well the meaning of dying to self. She had a rare blood disorder which caused her to have to remain in bed 24/7. I would visit her regularly, and knew her to be a faithful prayer warrior. I pass this along to you for your consideration as we relect on our Savior’s words: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” – Luke 9:23 (NIV)

Dying To Self

When you are forgotten or neglected or purposely set at naught, and you sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ-that is dying to self.

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take all in patient loving silence-that is dying to self.

When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, or any annoyance, when you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it as Jesus endured it-that is dying to self.

When you are content with any food, any offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any attitude, any interruption by the will of God-that is dying to self.

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good works, or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown-that is dying to self.

When you see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances-that is dying to self.

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself, can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart-that is dying to self.

Author Unknown

Shallow Living From The Deeper Life

Through out my years as a pastor, I’ve heard people warn against the possibility of manipulating the work of the Holy Spirit. What they are usually referring to is that we must be careful not to try to orchestrate God’s working but, instead, allow God to move as He desires. I whole-heartedly agree. However, in my experience this type of thinking is too often a spiritual sounding excuse to justify laziness.

Early on in my ministry as a pastor, I was very much an adherent of the “deeper life” movement. I learned much during these years about the need to be filled and led by the Holy Spirit and about the need to guard against doing things in the power of “the flesh.” But I gave myself to this idea to such a degree that I got out of balance. I was so concerned about doing things in the power of the Spirit and avoiding doing things in the power of the flesh, that I often found myself doing nothing.

The correction I needed came to me through a book that I think every Christian ought to read, Real Evangelism, by Bailey Smith. In this book, Smith takes on the excuses Christians give for not trying to reach people for Christ. In a chapter, “Shallow Living From The Deeper Life,” Smith speaks of the fact that if one really wants to deny the flesh, then he should be willing to do the work necessary to reach out to people in the name of Jesus. He contends that to take time to visit with people about Jesus, to risk rejection from others because of your faith, or to put forth the energy necessary to carry out evangelistic events, is all contrary to our natural desire to codle and comfort the flesh. Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is to say “no” to the flesh, which wants us to simply be idle, and instead put forth the effort necessary to obey the Great Commission.

Paul tells us in Galatians 5:25, “let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Believe me, as I have learned more about what it means to walk in the Spirit, you will find yourself being very busy at times, because there is so much for us to do in partnership with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the last thing you will be when led by the Spirit is idle. Instead, you will be busy seeking to lift up Christ. After all, isn’t that what Jesus said would happen when we are empowered by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8)?

Besides, last time I checked, the Holy Spirit is the sovereign God of the universe. Which means that even if I tried to “manipulate the Spirit,” I will find that is impossible, for God will only do what He wants, no matter what I try.

So what I have settled on is that I seek to look to the Spirit, learn from the Spirit, love by the Spirit, and live by the Spirit, trusting that if I am right with God, His Spirit will put things on my heart that He wants me to do and then I seek to obey. I would encourage you to also seek to learn to “keep in step with the Spirit,” and be prepared to “get busy for Jesus!”

Getting In God’s Way

I am presently reading a book by Erwin Lutzer entitled, “Making The Best Of A Bad Decision.” It is a wonderful book which presses home the fact that God specializes in taking the life resulting from a wrong decision, and turning it into a life that is blessed by Him.

The fact is that while we often make mistakes that we think condemn us to missing out on God’s best, the Bible never speaks of God having in mind anything for us that is less than His best. His will is described in Romans 12:2, for example, as “good, acceptable, and perfect.” God does not have a plan that is “kind of good, sort of acceptable, and less than perfect.”

God’s will is “plan A all the way.” We are either in His will or out of His will. And as we are willing  surrender our lives to Him, God can take even our bad decisions that have forever changed the circumstances of our life, and make them fit into His purposes. But we must be willing to fully surrender our lives to Him in order for that to happen. Remember that before Paul’s description of God’s “good, acceptable and perfect will,” in Romans 12:2, he gives us the admonition in Romans 12:1 to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.”

Lutzer shares the following poem, which very effectively drives home this point:

“As children bring their broken toys,
With tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God,
Because He was my friend.

But then instead of leaving Him,
In peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help,
With ways that were my own.

At last I snatched them back and cried,
“How can you be so slow?”
“My child,” He said, “What could I do?
You never did let go?”

As long as we are unwilling to take our hands off our life and leave it completely with God, we will be forever getting in His way and preventing us from knowing His best. But as we get out of the way and allow God to have His way, He can take even the broken pieces of our lives and make them into someting beautiful.

A Poem About Our Profession

Came across a great poem that speaks to the difference between what many think being a Christian means and what it really means. Wanted to share it. Be blessed.

When I say “I’m a Christian” I’m not shouting “I’m clean livin.”
I’m whispering “I was lost. Now I’m found and forgiven.”

“When I say “I’m a Christian” I don’t speak of this with pride.
I’m confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

“When I say “I’m a Christian” I’m not trying to be strong.
I profess that I’m weak and need his strength to carry on.

“When I say “I’m a Christian” I’m not bragging of success.
I’m admitting that I’ve failed and need God to clean my mess.

“When I say “I’m a Christian” I’m not claiming to be perfect.
My flaws are far too visible but, God believes I’m worth it.

“When I say “I’m a Christian” I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches so I call upon His name.

“When I say “I’m a Christian” I’m not holier than thou.
I’m just a simple sinner who received God’s grace somehow.

The Purpose of the Picture

We just said good-bye to the last members of our small group to leave our home tonight. We had a great time together. In our discussion, we spoke of friendships and about how some friends are great to encourage and support, while other friendships can be draining and depleating.

As we talked, I gave my “there are two kinds of people” speech. My kids know this speech well. So well in fact, that before each of our kids left the house, they could tell when I was going to launch into the speech and would head me off by saying, “I know dad, there are two kinds of people . . .”

In essence, the speech has to do with the idea that there are people in life who pull you up and there are people in life who can pull you down. You need to make sure that the majority of your relationships, indeed, your closest relationships, are with people who pull you up and make you a better person.

Now, as Christians, it is also our call to reach out to others in the effort to pull them up, by being a positive influence on them. But you must be careful that the effort to help pull them up is an effort they cooperate with, or else those you are trying to “pull up” could very well be a negative influence on you and pull you down.

The idea of cooperating with someone who is seeking to pull you up is the picture Paul uses when speaking of the spiritual growth of the Christian in Philippians 3:12 – “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Paul says that through faith in Christ, and my entering into a personal saving relationship with Him, Christ has taken hold of us; and by virtue of His power, He is pulling us up. But if we likewise “take hold of Him,” He can more effectively and easily pull us up to the level He is calling us to as we mature in our relationship with Him.

The great thing about Jesus, which is different for us in our relationships with those we might try to reach out to is that even when we do not cooperate with Him in His work in our lives, we cannot pull Him down, He will eventually pull us up into His presence, where we will be completely like Him for all eternity. Which makes Jesus the best friend of all.

And that is the purpose of the picture.

Phone Calls

This morning I received two phone calls.

The first was from our youngest grandson, Jaxon. He called me at 6 a.m. (7 a.m. Texas time) to tell me that today was going to be his first day at kindergarten. I encouraged him by saying how proud I was of him, how I was sure he would make many new friends, and that I knew he would have fun. Then, after telling me that his older brother, Beaux, wasn’t very excited about returning to school, only to have Beaux deny that as I overheard him in the background, Jaxon asked if I would pray for him (I must admit, I also overheard his mother telling him to ask me). Of course, I gladly agreed and had prayer with him right then and there over the phone. Then, with a “Thanks, Pa” he hung up.

The second call was from a friend who has been going through some difficult days, but has been seeing God bring him through them in wonderful ways. He shared with me about some opportunities for ministry that God was providing and then remarked that it was all due to a prayer he had prayed. He had told God that if He would provide for him to be able to afford to participate and the door opened up, he would go. Well, he has already participated in one opportunity and it looks like he will be participating in yet another.

I related to him about how several years ago, when I first began my ministry as a pastor, I had asked God to never allow me to preach on a truth that I had not learned first hand. Several times since, I have made note of experiences that God has brought me through that have prepared me to preach on a particular truth, and have remembered praying that prayer.

God does answer prayer. And just like he has answered my prayer for me and my friend’s prayer for him; and just as He will answer the prayer Jaxon and I prayed about his going to kindergarten, He will answer your prayers, too. So go ahead, phone it in!

10 Things That “Bug” Me

I’ve been thinking lately about certain things that just “bug” me. Things like . . .

1. People who do not know how to shake hands. They give you the “wet fish” or the “limb wrist” or the “no thumb.”  Come on, people, GET A GRIP!

2. People who puts those posts on Facebook designed to guilt you into copying and reposting. You know, posts like, “I know that 99% of you won’t repost this, but if you have any convictions, if you have any guts, if you are a patriotic American, if you are really saved , , ,”

3. People who don’t go to church who are always whining about how “judgemental” people in the church are toward them, all the while never seeming to realize how judgemental they are toward those who are in the church.

4. People who, despite not having any training, or experience, or commitment, or anything invested, or any sense of divine call, nevertheless feeling they are qualified to tell pastors how to do their job.

5. People who always see the glass as half empty or even emptier.

6. Lazy pastors.

7. People who talk to everyone about you without ever coming to talk to you.

8. People who say they believe in the inspiration of the Bible, but only really believe it when it comes to the parts they like.

9. People who would prefer to “curse the darkness” rather then “light a candle.”

10. The belief on the part of some in the church today that we can reach more people if we “dumb down” the truth of God’s Word in an effort to not “offend.” Only God’s truth can change lives. What good is it to have a crowd, if there is no change?

Some Thoughts On A Recent Trip Down Memory Lane

One of the things that has happened while I have been away with Donna these last few days is that someone from my home town of Jal, New Mexico, has started a Facebook page called, “You Know You’re From Jal, New Mexico when . . .” I must admit, I have had a lot of fun on that page over the last several days.

Former classmates and others older and some younger than me have all chimed in on a variety of memories. I have been really blessed by this wonderful trip down memory lane. I have had a couple of thoughts as a result.

1. When we reflect on the past, we tend to focus on good memories. One former classmate posted about how we viewed each other as “equal” and didn’t worry about who had money, etc., etc. Others were in full agreement. And while I appreciate the point being made about the innocence of youth, the fact is there were kids who were ridiculed because they were “different.” We spoke of certian kids as being “weird” or as having “germs” so you’d better not touch them, otherwise, you’d have to pass along their “germs” to someone else saying, “You’ve got _____________ germs!” Their were some who were bullied and some who were bullies. There was a lot of cruelty back in my childhood from parents to kids, teachers to students,kids to adults, and kids to kids.

2. There are, though, despite what I said above, several things about which we can come together and celebrate as we reminisce. Things like growing up in a town where no one felt they had to lock their doors. Growing up in a time when, as many of the participants on this site observed, our parents knew what we had done wrong before we even got back home. There were people who were kind and events that were pleasant and fun. All these things are worth celebrating.

3. As we have shared on this site, several memories about my childhood have come to mind about which I am ashamed. Oh, I shared about skinny dipping in the Jal lake, but there have been other things that I almost shared, but thought twice about and chose not to. And no, I am not going to share those things here. When I was tempted to post those shameful memories, I was reminded (by the Holy Spirit, I believe) of Ephesians 5:12 – “For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.”

All this traveling down memory lane has brought me to the following conclusions:

1. I want to be remembered as a person who truly demonstrated God’s love and whose acquaintance made people feel better, not worse, about themselves.

2. I want to live more “in the moment” and celebrate the present blessings of my life and the people who are blessings in my life.

3. I want to live in such a way as to minimize things about my life of which I would be ashamed if they were posted on a Facebook page for all the world to see..

Pushing When We Should Be Preparing

I am in Austin, Texas as I write this. My wife, Donna, is attending a teacher conference and I came along for the ride.

Yesterday, while traveling on I35, we found ourselves in the middle of “rush hour” traffic. As things slowed down to a crawl on the freeway, we noticed a lady who had been stopped by a police officer, apparently for trying to get around the slow-moving traffic by driving on the shoulder of the road. That got me thinking.

The Bible says that there is wisdom in discerning the times. Paul tells us to make the most of the time we have (see Ephesians 5:15-17). It is interesting to me that when it comes to driving in the “big city,” we have designated the time of between 5:00 to 6:00 pm as “rush hour.” In other words, you can expect that you will not be getting anywhere in a hurry if you find yourself, as we did, on the freeway during that time.  I find it ironic, by the way, that we call this time on the freeway when things move so slowly, “rush” hour.

Anyway, it occurred to me, that there are times when, spiritually speaking, when we are in the middle of “rush hour.” At such times, we need to accept that things are not going to move very fast, and rather than worrying about getting somewhere in a hurry, we simply need to prepare for when the eventual opportunity arrives for us to move forward.

Too often, I am like the lady who was pulled over. Not accurately discerning the time, I push forward, usually forcing things and getting into trouble. Instead, like Donna and I did when we realized it was “rush hour,” we need to relax, and prepare for the next opportunity God will eventually bring to us to move forward, just as certainly as we eventually reached our exit off the interstate to get where we were headed. We made sure, for example, that we were in the proper lane of traffic and ready for our exit when we came to it. If we hadn’t focused on preparing, the exit would have arrived and we could have  found ourselves in the wrong lane, unable to get over in time to get where we needed to be.

Often, the reason we find ourselves in the wrong lane when the opportunity to exit and move forward to our eventual God-ordained goal arrives is because we are so focused on pushing forward against the slow-moving traffic, looking for the “daylight” that will allow us to get ahead of everyone else. We think we are making progress toward our goal, but in actuality, we are putting ourselves out of position for the opportunity God will eventually provide (the exit) for us to truly move forward toward our goal.

This is often not only a problem for me personally, but it is a real challenge for me as a leader. As a pastor of a local church, it seems I often find I’m stuck in “rush hour” traffic, where things aren’t moving fast enough.

But there’s no need to worry. Instead, we must be discerning. When it is time to push forward, do so, but when it is time to prepare for the next opportunity to push forward, do that. Both are equally important; and both will result in eventually reaching the goal God has in mind for you. Just focus on allowing the Lord to reveal the time or season you are in. It will help you make sure you aren’t pushing when you should be preparing.