Acknowledgement

In Genesis 12:7, 8; 13:18 (Here at Bible Gateway), note the repetition:

• 7…he built an altar there to the Lord…
• 8…there he built an altar to the Lord…
• 3:18…there he built an altar to the Lord…

All of these were after the Lord had promised the land to Abram.  The last one was after he and Lot had gone their separate ways and the Lord reiterated His promise to Abram that He would give Abram the land.

It is striking to me that after the Lord promised him the land, on the journey toward what the Lord had promised, at each step, Abram built an altar.

It was an acknowledgement of the Lord’s promise, the Lord’s guidance, and Abram’s trust and dependence on the Lord.

There are projects that the Lord has given me that I may start well.  However, this passage reminds me that although the Lord may have assigned me that project, it is incumbent on me to walk in acknowledgement of both the source of the assignment and my dependence on Him to complete it.

Disciplined Freedom

From time to time I read Valley of Vision (VV) in my Quiet Time.  Typically, I will read an entry and then daily go back through it thought by thought.  It has been interesting to see how often what I have read in VV has aligned or is supported by what I read in the Word that day.

For example, some months back I read in the section entitled “Requests”,

O God, May I never be a blot or a blank in life, or make my liberty and occasion to the flesh. (p 274)

That Day I read Galatians 5:13 (here @ BibleGateway), which lead me to 2 Peter 2:18 (here @ BibleGateway).  The clear message of the word and the quote from VV is that while we are free in Him, we cannot allow our freedom to hurt others.  

In 1 Corinthians 8 (here @ BibleGateway), Paul, while affirming the freedom of the Corinthian believers to eat meat sacrificed to idols, because, in fact, they are false, at the same time reminds them that if a fellow believer struggles with that freedom, they should not exercise their freedom for the sake of their “weaker” brother.  He tells them to limit their freedom in order not to cause their brother to stumble.

Paul repeats this exhortation in Romans 14:15 (here @ BibleGateway).  In fact, this was the first passage that I applied to my life as a new believer.  I was in Pilot Training in the Air Force.  The Officer’s Club was the place to be after the flight line.  Drinking beer was part of that scene as was playing foosball.  One Sunday night at First Baptist, I was attending “training union” with some other young adults.  We were going through Romans 14 (here @ BibleGateway).  The topic came up that we probably shouldn’t be drinking because it might damage our testimony to those who were not believers.  I pointed out that verse 14 (here @ BibleGateway) clearly stated nothing wrong with anything.  The leader emphasized the last part of the verse.  That part is nearly identical to the argument in 1 Corinthians 8.

If someone thinks that believers should not drink and they saw me drinking, it could be that I either damaged their faith or else hindered them from coming to the Lord.  I pondered that for some time.  As a matter of fact, I stayed behind after the meeting and worked through it alone.  I decided then that I would no longer drink beer or other alcoholic beverages in order not to cause others to stumble.

I learned through that experience both the impact of application and the importance of voluntarily limiting my freedom to better serve those with whom I wanted to sustain ministry.

The Job of Every Believer

A while back something I was reading caused me to chase a theme through the New Testament.  

Here are the passages that came to mind:

• 1 Corinthians 12:7, 24 – 27 (here @ Bible Gateway)
• Romans 12:4 – 5 (here @ Bible Gateway)
• Ephesians 4:1 – 3, 11 – 16 (here @ Bible Gateway)
• Hebrews 3:13 – 15 (here @ Bible Gateway)
• Hebrews 10:23 – 25 (here @ Bible Gateway)

As you see the passages deal mostly with gifting of each member of the body of Christ.  It occurred to me, while working through this, that the purpose of each individual in the body is to build up the other members.  Based on Hebrews 10 (here @ Bible Gateway) that is an intentional and thoughtful enterprise. 

To the extent that we do not build one another up, not consider, not encourage, not strengthen, not challenge, not exhort, not call to walk worthy, to that extent we weaken not only the body, but we diminish ourselves.  By not building up a member in Christ, we are choosing to not activate that person’s gift thus depriving the body and us of their ministry.

The argument will be made that it is the domain of the elite, the pastors, the leadership of a body to build up the members.  But, that flies in the face of the Lord’s command in Matthew 28:18 – 20 (here @ Bible Gateway).

Leadership Training

The training of leaders is a continual source of research, effort, and courses.  In 1 Samuel 16:1, 7, 13 (here @ Bible Gateway), we find Samuel replacing the failed leader, Saul, with his hand-picked replacement, David.

Samuel was directed buy God to go to Jessie’s domicile and to review Jessie’s sons, one of them was to be king.  Samuel was told not to look at their appearance or stature, it was the heart that the Lord was after.

Thinking through this it seems that the selection of David as king was not for David’s benefit, it was for the Lord’s purpose.  We tend to view position personally.  That is a position is mine.  That does not seem to be the case in the Lord’s economy, a position is for the Lord, for His glory.

The Lord’s standards are different than ours, mine, or the world’s.  It is not about education.  It is not about leadership traits as taught by the business schools.  It is about heart.

Anointing David in the presence of his brothers, set up a similar dynamic as that which Joseph faced.

It may be that the sibling were used to shape David as king.

Regardless, one thing that is clear, God does not follow good leadership theory in choosing the leaders of His people.

Models of Prayer

Do you struggle with prayer?  I do.  I have been helped by studying the prayers in the Bible.  That started with Paul as I shared some time ago, as I shared here.

There are also prayers in the Old Testament.  Psalms, of course, are full of great examples.  There are others as well.  While I will not attempt to catalog them here, there is one which I have found really helpful in praying for those who have chosen to serve the body as leaders.

Ruth 2:12 – Its worth the time to read so:

“May the LORD reward your work,
and your wages be full from the LORD, the God of Israel,
under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.” 

The content of Boaz’s blessing on Ruth, seems to me to be a great model of prayer for those who serve.  I would especially pray this for those who are laboring in situations that are challenging and or personally dangerous.

Subtle Snares

Gideon was a judge of Israel, the fifth mentioned in the book of Judges (here @ Bible Gateway).  The Lord led him to save Israel against Midian with 300 men.  We looked at that a couple of days ago.

Read through Judges 8:22 – 27 (here @ Bible Gateway).  There is an interesting lesson here.  Gideon was asked to lead Israel.  He was a hero.  He had earned the people’s allegiance.  But when asked he refused.  Instead he asked for one gold earring from each.  That resulted in Gideon having about 70 pounds of gold.  In todays dollars that works out to be about 1.7 million.

Gideon brings the gold back and makes a 70-pound ephod which is the part of the priestly garment that is over the robe.  He places it in his home town and it becomes an idol that Israel and Gideon worship.

There is a lesson here.

Success and devotion to the Lord does not insure finishing well.  Things we do to honor Him may become, like it did for Gideon, a snare for us.  We can become focused on those things rather than the Lord.  For instance:

• Worship – Our worship, or how we do it, becomes the focus, not the Lord.
• Bible – The knowledge of or about the Scriptures becomes the end not the means of knowing Him.
• Religion – We work hard as pleasing what we think is God rather than living in His grace.
• Service – Our service to Him, be it missions, teaching, serving, whatever our gift or what He has equipped us to do becomes the end, our focus and not Him.

There are probably other ways we can get off track, those are just a few.  Gideon’s means of remembering his defeat of Midian became his god.  We have to guard daily against making what we do well for Him a similar thing for us.

Overwhelmed

Have you ever felt overwhelmed, helpless, and useless?  Faced with a circumstance that, regardless of any effort, looked insurmountable?

Read Judges 6:11 – 12 (here @ Bible Gateway).

If you look at the context, the Midianites were treating Israel like their corner grocery store.  They were coming in at harvest and taking everything they saw.  Judges 6:5 (here @ Bible Gateway) compares them to a plague of locusts.

In the midst of this the angel of the lord finds Gideon – now Gideon was hiding in a wine press beating out wheat.  I do not have any experience with growing and harvesting wheat, nor have I ever been involved in the making of wine.  That being said, I am relatively certain that a wine press is not a normal wheat harvesting implement, nor is beating out wheat a regular task in the making of wine.  The text backs this up.  Gideon was hiding what he was doing so the Midianites would not get the wheat.

It is in this context that the angel of the Lord addresses Gideon as a valiant warrior.

He’s hiding in a wine press to beat out wheat so the bad guys won’t get it – hiding, valiant warrior – the math doesn’t seem to work.

Gideon does turn out to be a valiant warrior.  But, he wasn’t at the moment – or perhaps the better way to say that is that he was not functioning as he was designed.  Perhaps the Lord views us through the lens of Ephesians 2:10 (here @ Bible Gateway).  We are made to do His work.  We are His workmanship to accomplish what He wants.  So, He sees us how He made us.

So, when confronted with the overwhelming, perhaps our best course of action is to seek the Lord as Gideon did and tackle the overwhelming in His strength.

Stamina

More frequently in the past couple of years I find myself tired during the day.  I am used to working 12+ hours a day.  Sometimes late into the evening.  I find that I cannot do that as much.  I can’t tell if this is normal for being old and decrepit or an oncoming symptom of the cancer.  They say getting tired faster is one of the things that will happen.

It appears that the Lord is setting up three trips to serve men in three different African nations this year.  A couple of them are close to back to back and those two are close to a vacation trip with my wife that is also overseas.  When I look at the schedule I wonder if I am going to have the stamina to make that work.

In reality sometimes I am struggling to get through the schedule here.

Last week part of my reading was Matthew 11:28 – 30 (here @ Bible Gateway).  The Lord tells us there – you know the passage – that His yoke is easy.  He got tired though.  Look at John 4:6 (here @ Bible Gateway).  Processing this, I was drawn to Isaiah 40:28 – 31 (here @ Bible Gateway), Colossians 3:1 – 4 (here @ Bible Gateway), and Romans 6:8 (here @ Bible Gateway).

The thing I have known is that He is our life.  He is our strength.  John 15:5 (here @ Bible Gateway) tells us that we cannot do anything apart from Him – that theme shows up at least 12 times in John.  What I need to do is learn to live in His strength.  To function in Him.  I suspect that more often than not, I am possibly doing the right thing in my own strength.

As I write this 2 Corinthians 12:9 – 10 (here @ Bible Gateway) leaps to mind.  I have to function in Him, in that way it is only He who gets credit.  So in a real sense I am looking forward to learning how to serve – the Lord just brought 1 Peter 4:10 – 11 (here @ Bible Gateway) to mind – “by the strength which God supplies.”

This is going to be a great adventure.

Speaking At Our Church

For the past several days I have been preparing to speak at our church.  That is one of the reasons that there has not been a new post.

You may want to watch this.  I am covering 2 Timothy 3:10 – 4:8 (here @ Bible Gateway).  Some of this has been written about here.  But this puts most of it together.  Click here to hear and watch the message.

Look forward to any comments you may have.

What’s Your Job Description?

When you are asked what you do, how do you respond?  I am a consultant…  I am a salesman...  I am in IT…  I am a doctor...  I am a lawyer…

The apostles were a special group.  They were described by Peter in Acts 1:21 – 22 (here @ Bible Gateway), as men who accompanied them all the time they were with Jesus.  Peter may not have been entirely correct with that as Paul did not fit that definition, Jesus came to him directly after the resurrection and ascension.  Regardless they were special and few.

How did they view themselves?  Was the title apostle quick on their lips?  Based on the picture we have of Peter in the Scripture, he would be one that we might think would use that title first.  Check 2 Peter 1:1 (here @ Bible Gateway).  That is not the term, or job description, with which he leads, rather he calls himself a bond-servant.

Paul uses the same designation in Romans 1:1 (here @ Bible Gateway); Philippians 1:1 (here @ Bible Gateway); and Titus 1:1 (here @ Bible Gateway).  James echoes Peter and Paul in James 1:1 (here @ Bible Gateway).

Look at Deuteronomy 15:16 – 17 (here @ Bible Gateway).  There we have the law of the bond-servant.  It is voluntary, it is a lifelong commitment, it is based on the love of the servant for the master, and the reality that the master is very good to the servant.

These men, two of which are designated apostles lead with bond-servant to describe their “job descriptions”.

We are told to imitate them.  So that should raise several questions for us:

• Why do I do what I do in my church?
• Why do I share Christ with people?
• Why do I study His Word?
• Why do I join in fellowship with other men?

There are probably more but those are enough to get going.

Discarding the Aged

There are Christian organizations of which I am aware, that have jettisoned their older staff to make room for younger staff to move into leadership.  As a consultant in business I have seen businesses run into the ground by the sons and daughters of the founders.  There are exceptions, certainly.  One local company had each of the children of the founders paired with an older mentor as they took the reins.  That business is thriving in a very competitive environment.

One of the men I admire, called last week.  He is approaching 80.  He shared with me his wonder and excitement that he is now learning more about the Lord both in quantity and quality than he has in his life.

I am experiencing similar richness.

I think it is for both of us a result of many years in the Word seasoned by multiple attendant struggles.  When we read or study a passage, we are seeing and experiencing the Lord through the lens of years and years of extended time in the Word through a lifetime of struggle.

At some point, all of us must step aside to allow those with more physical energy to assume their place in leadership.  In doing so we need to ensure that those who are stepping in have been under the influence and equipped by one who has walked the same path they will walk.  Those who are stepping in would be well advised to hang on tightly to those who went before, to honor and continue to seek their wisdom honed by experience.  One cannot be 60 when one is 30.

Isn’t this the pattern of Scripture?  Isn’t that what Paul exhorted Timothy to do in 2 Timothy 2:2?

Problem Solving 101

Problems are a fact of life.  Either in our personal life, our business, or our communities of faith.  In 1 Chronicles 19:8, 10, 13, the writer outlines how David dealt with a significant problem.  David’s approach seems to set for us a good example of how to deal with difficult problems.

There seem to be three steps to David’s plan.

1. David sent his best people to deal with the issue – he sent his best general, Joab, and his mighty men.


2. David did not micro manage the problem – he let his best people deal with the issue based on their experience and gifts.  They dealt with the problem by:
1. Subdividing the issue into manageable or rational parcels.
2. Assigning the best people to deal with that subset.


3. All, David, Joab, and the mighty men were strong and courageous in dealing with the challenge.
1. They were not focused on getting glory for themselves.
2. They were focused on:
1. Getting glory for the Lord
2. Protecting the People

This seems like an approach that will work for many of the problems we face in our personal, business, and communities of faith.

Hard Painful Lessons

Some time ago I was nearly praying constantly for a group of people.  They were facing a difficult situation, decision, and I was deeply concerned about their choices and welfare.

In the process of working through this with them I approached some of the members of the group for an update on their progress toward a solution.  The people I asked questioned my motives for asking.  It seemed that they thought I was going to use that information against the group.

Their response both shocked and hurt, hurt deeply.

I found my zeal to pray for the group and the difficulties they were facing impacted.  It was if the air had been let out of my passion to pray for them.  When I turned to pray for them the questioning of my motives laid like a pall over my halting intercession.

A few months later I was reminded of Christ’s interaction with His disciples in John 13:1 – 4.  The context and reality of what Jesus was facing there is stunning.  He knows what is about to transpire.  He knows that those whose feet He is about to wash are going to betray and abandon Him.  With that certain knowledge He gets up, girds Himself, and engages in menial service to those who in a few short hours will fail Him.

I was filleted.

The desperate weakness of my heart was in full display.  The group was not responding to me in any form that would even remotely compare to the disciples abandonment and betrayal of Christ, yet my feeble prayers for them were hindered.  I was and still am ashamed of the shallowness of heart revealed.

I would love to report that I have fully repented of the weakness of both my faith and the practice thereof, but that would be disingenuous.  My prayer increased.  But there were still vestiges of my poor reaction to their rebuff.

I am so grateful, so completely overcome with gratitude that our Lord does not respond to us the way I respond to others attitudes and actions toward me.  It has become one of my prayers that I become more like Him.  Like John said in John 3:30, it is a must for me, He must increase, I must decrease.  My only hope is for His life to fill and overwhelm mine.

Another All In

I was challenged the other day by something I read in 2 Kings 3:7.  Look at the passage.  Jehoram asks Jehoshaphat for help against Moab.  Jehoshaphat’s response is a model of how we should be as servants of one another is it not?

• I will go up
• I am as you are
• My people are your people
• My horses are your horses

Total commitment.  Total support.  Jehoshaphat was “all in” in his support of Jehoram.

When I accept an assignment, I need to accept it as from the Lord.  Probably would be a great idea to pray and make sure that the Lord wants me to engage, but when and if that is the case, Jehoshaphat’s attitude and commitment should be my model.