The Most Important Things

Communication with God is essential. God wants to communicate with us. It was His design, from creation, that He and man have a relationship and communicate with each other. God is the perfect communicator. He never miscommunicates. If there was a ever problem hearing God, the fault is squarely on us and our sin nature. We are the ones who hear what we want to hear, or disregard the voice of God entirely. Jesus says, “he who has (spiritual) ears to hear, let him hear.” This is God’s desire for us: that we hear what He is speaking to us. To do that we need some surgical work done in our life so that we can properly hear God.

In Hebrews 4:12 it reads, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” This verse has a lot of hidden meaning in the original greek. Much of it’s original description is based on surgical precision to remove, expose, and analyze our brain, bones, and heart. Throughout the New Testament we see that the word is likened to a sword. We are, as disciples of Christ, to wield this sword effectively. Jesus was the master of sword-wielding. Paul was a skilled swordsman, as well. Peter, well, he is easier to look at and draw examples of what most of us would do and have done with the word. So, let me give you 3 surgeries that will repair your hearing and help you to wield the sword more accurately.

Surgery #1: Brain Surgery

Mark 8:33 – “Get behind me Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Jesus just called Peter, Satan. He equated Peter’s human perspective to that of the guy who originated sin. The guy that introduced mankind to sin and it’s horrible effects on humanity. Why did He do that? Peter’s thoughts and intentions were not God’s. They were Peter’s. Jesus is looking for disciples who will accept and proclaim the mind of Christ. He is looking for our thoughts to be as close to His thoughts as we can. He wants our intentions to be His intentions, His intentions are: holiness, purity, salvation, discipleship, Kingdom, etc.

What happens when you don’t get your way? Or when you don’t agree with other believers? What about when God doesn’t answer a prayer or do something on your time table? Where are you thoughts and intentions then? Do you see things from a human point of view? Or can you still accept God’s thoughts and intentions?

The word of God in this first surgery is like a surgeon taking his scalpel and light to shine into the dark crevices of your brain. He is searching for cancerous tumors that need to be removed before they spread. He is looking to remove man’s thoughts and put His in their place.(Note: He’s not looking to lobotomize you, He doesn’t want mindless robots. He wants to remove the doubt, unbelief, and error.)

So, are you seeing things from a human point of view today? Or from God’s? Let God remove the wrong thoughts and intentions today!

Stay tuned for Surgery #2, Bone Marrow Transplant!

Nike didn’t invent that phrase and it’s not theirs to trademark. God’s the one who started it all. He created the earth and everything in it. He just did it. So, now it’s your turn. Act like God and just do it!

That’s right, stop procrastinating. Stop thinking about it. Stop caring what other people think. Just do it. Jesus picked up His cross, went ahead and did it. He lived a perfect, sinless life. He went through a brutal destruction of His body and then rose again! Paul, was totally blind and went to a strangers house. Scales fell of his eyes, then he went and preached the gospel to the world. He just did it. King David, a teenager, just went out and did it. He lopped the head off of a giant, against all odds and “wisdom.” You can do it, too. Don’t wait. Don’t fear. Don’t hesitate.

You could fail marvelously or you could succeed enormously. Either way, there’s only one way to find out…Just do it!

The righteous man fell 7x and picked himself up. That means he tried it 7x. Probably 7 more than you! Just do it already!

You must be fed up with your present situation, to change your future! Just do it. Get fed up with today and make tomorrow amazing. Lift your eyes and say, “if God is for me who can POSSIBLY be against me?” And then do it.

This little phrase has been rolling around in my spirit for a little while now, “willing to yield.” It comes from James 3:17. James is talking about the wisdom that comes from above or descends from heaven. He lists a number of different things that are important to remember. But James also drops “willing to yield” in there.

Probably most of our references to the word, “yield” come from our daily driving experiences. We see yield signs everywhere. Here, in Baton Rouge, it seems as if most driver’s ed courses skipped the definition of this sign. 99% of the drivers here in BR stop, when they see a yield sign. This ruins the flow of traffic and makes me want to yell, “it’s A YIELD SIGN!” (Full disclosure: I often yell, “it’s A YIELD SIGN, dear child loved by God!”)

Yield, according to the US DOT, means to proceed with caution. Not stop! In a spiritual context, willing to yield can easily be applied with the same definition. Wisdom that comes from above allows us to willingly proceed with caution, where necessary. It doesn’t mean that we stop moving forward or that we proceed cautiously everywhere. It means that when the Holy Spirit prompts us once (or more times as is often the case) that we willingly respond to Him and proceed with caution. It means that we are so submitted to His Lordship that we are prepared to move at the pace He defines. That pace can be fast and full of faith, it can also be proceeding with caution and walking by faith, not by sight.

Is there an area in your life where the Holy Spirit is prompting you to proceed with caution? Are you willing to yield?

I was reading the Gospel of Matthew the other day. I came across this verse: “You [Peter] are a dangerous trap to Me [Jesus]. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.” I thought that was an interesting statement. Jesus was telling Peter that his point of view was a “dangerous trap.” But it wasn’t just Peter’s point of view, it was that his point of view was seeing things “merely” from a human perspective.

To paraphrase, Jesus was saying this to Peter: “Your human perspective of Me, the Will of God and the task at hand; is a dangerous trap. Stop thinking that way and start thinking like God.” This, of course, begs the question: how are you thinking today? Are you seeing life merely from a human point of view? Or are you setting your mind on things above? We must get out of the dangerous trap of thinking naturally and humanistic. Life is eternal and where you spend that eternity depends on how you think here on earth.

Make a deliberate effort today to think eternally and from God’s perspective. God’s perspective on everything can be found in His Word. So, if you want to know what God thinks so you can think that way…read the bible. It’s as easy as that. Stay away from the dangerous trap of earthly thinking, think like God.

Quick! I have to finish this blog before Jeremy Lin fades from the limelight! In the last blog we introduced the concept of the Mega Trend and it’s first problem: everyone wants to be or create a mega trend. For part 2, we’re discussing problem #2 which is…

Mega trends will increase is size and amount, but decrease in length. (As we can already tell this train is coming to a stop, FAST!) This is a problem because, in an already short-term world, this focuses everyone on the minute term. No longer do we even look or hear about something for months, we hear about it and see it everywhere for weeks and then it vanishes; like the Tebow mega trend. (No doubt the Tebow mega trend will come back in full force come this fall, as long as he wins.) This type of thinking, minute trending, will only increase as we near the end times. They will increase because everything will speed up. (The devil is going to get angrier and unleash his wrath in a more dedicated and faster paced strategy to draw more people to him.)  Fashion fads have become grossly overhyped and change faster than people can adapt. Now it’s moving into sports and eventually this will make it’s way into church.

Once mega trends really hit the church it will be a fad to be contended with. We see this on a minor scale right now with conference trends. We tweet and Facebook like crazy to get a conference to be a trend. But then it’s gone. Hopefully, the speakers are imparting more than a mega trend to the conference attenders.

How do we combat this? Focus on eternity. Focus on the Holy Spirit. He’s the one who leads us where He is going, not where the fads are going. Don’t create a fad, make disciples that last for eternity.

Whew. Barely made that mega trend. Now, onto the next one!

You really can’t escape it right now. It doesn’t matter where you are or what’s going on. If you are connected to society in the slightest way, you will have heard those names before. Tebow was a massive trend for months during the football season. ESPN devoted hours of time talking about him and what he’s going to do next. Christians from all over would talk about him as the one who will change our nation. People all over the USA would simply tweet, “TEBOW!” after everything he did. But that was a month ago. We have moved onto another star, Jeremy Lin and his Linsanity. ESPN is devoting hours of time talking about him. Christians, again, are talking about how HE’S the one who is going to change our nation. And after everything he does, people simply tweet, “LINSANITY!” So, the mega trends roll on.

Let me say this, I like Tebow and Lin. They play sports, they inspire people, they love Jesus. That’s a great combo. But what I am more interested in talking about is the MEGA TREND. This is a trend that snowballs into critical mass so quickly that nobody can hide from it. Thanks to the proliferation and synergy of social and broadcast media, a trend can pop up and dominate everything, everywhere for a moment in time. This creates a Mega Trend. The problem with a mega trend is two fold: 1) Because of the mass exposure, everyone wants to be (or create) a mega trend. 2) Mega Trends will increase in size and amount, but decrease in length.

Problem #1: Everyone wants to be or create a mega trend. This pushes our desire (right or wrong) to be seen, to an all-time high. We already see people who have no character being thrust into the national spotlight and becoming a blaze of shame (think politicians to “reality stars”). Before, 15 minutes of fame came from getting TV exposure and that was the only outlet. Now you can become a mega trend through youtube, Facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. The worst part being: you may not intend on becoming a trend. But the people who want, so badly, to become a trend will get increasingly bold and that will lead to all sorts of debauchery. The sad part is that many christians will be swept up in this mentality, thinking that it will lead to a greater voice in the nation. It won’t. It will be as effective as a candle in tornado. Blown out as fast as it can be seen. Here’s a good example. I don’t know how many people have re-posted that video on Facebook, but it’s staggering. The craziest part is how many people who posted it, or liked it who (according to Facebook) are not really living a religious life or discipled life. That is a mega trend! The results of a mega trend are nil. They have no lasting effect. It’s just a massive snowball of confusion, catchphrases and images that leaves everyone craving a new mega trend.

By the time you finish reading this post, Linsanity will have faded and another mega trend will have risen up. In the meantime, stay focused on Jesus. He’s the author of the short-term and the long-term. Stay tuned for the OTHER PROBLEM WITH MEGA TRENDS…

I heard a quote the other day about “successful people.” The quote was actually based off an older report about the most successful people in America. The report said that the primary quality of the most successful people in America was: change. Or more specifically the ability to adapt, adopt and move with change. I don’t think that’s just a coincidence. I think that’s an ability that every disciple of Jesus needs to work on honing. In fact, the word disciple means learner, somebody who is continually learning. If you are constantly learning, you are constantly changing/becoming better.

It was the Pharisees who could not adapt to Jesus’ teaching. It was the Pharisees and unchangeable people whom Jesus spoke of when He said, “new wine cannot go into old wineskins.” New teaching/learning cannot go into the impudent or rebellious. The interesting thing about the report mentioned earlier was that only 5% had that “ability” to change. That means there are a lot of stubborn people in the world. I don’t want to be stubborn, I want to be a learner. I don’t want to be a Pharisee, I want to be a disciple.

Be willing to change to today. Yield to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Yield to your mentor or someone in authority. We don’t have it all figured out, so roll with it. Be someone who can change and changes others.

“Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.” Acts 16:25

We are all prisoners. Whether we are enslaved to sin and unrighteousness or we are prisoners of the Lord and His righteousness. We are all bound to something. Through Jesus’ work on the cross and His resurrection, I have chosen to be bound to Him. I am His captive and I am captivated by Him.

Other people are listening and watching your life and mine. It’s with this knowledge that I go through life choosing to pray and sing and glorify God. I know that somewhere down the line another “prisoner” will see me glorifying God in a tribulation or in a blessing. They’ll see God’s miraculous hand rescue me or provide for me. And then they, and their whole household, will be saved.

So, fellow prisoner, make a choice today to pray and sing to God knowing that the other prisoners are listening.

Do work that matters. What does that mean? To each person it will be different. To me, since I am working for God as a disciple of Jesus, work that matters is work that builds the kingdom. Work that matters is work that pleases God. If you read Luke 12, you will see what kind of work matters to God. Here’s a couple samples:

Verse 14, “Life is not measured by how much you own.”

Verse 21, “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”

Verse 33, “Store up treasure in heaven…And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes.”

Verse 42, “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them.”

So, do work that matters…to God. That kind of work matters for eternity. Don’t just talk about it, do it. Do work that matters.

The other night I found myself thinking, after a particularly powerful service, that it [the service] was old school. I thought, “yea that was good and old school!” Only moments later did I catch myself recounting Jesus words about “old school” or rather “old vs. new.” More about that later.

It’s interesting to me to note that whenever we refer to a powerful or charismatic service that we typically rely on the phrase, “old school” or “classic” or “old time revival.” We rarely say, things along the line of, “that service was brand new” or “fresh.” Every now and again we talk about the “next level,” but that’s not a new thing so much as it is a replacement thing. No, our typical verbiage is about the “old.” Jesus had something to say about this in Luke 5:39, He says, “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”

We typically prefer the “old” for 2 reasons:

1. The old is familiar. We have experienced it already and we can relate to it. It’s far easier to remember what HAS happened than imagine what CAN happen.
2. The old is “better.” From what I have heard, old wine is typically less potent in flavor than the new. So, it’s something that is more palatable than the new wine. The new wine is sharp and biting. The old wine is smooth and mature.