Month: August 2013

Categories
Jesus

Wanting Jesus To Grant My Three Wishes

Jesus says to ask, seek, and knock. He says that whatever I ask in His Name, I will receive.
Awesome! All I have to do is tell Him what I want from Him, throw in the phrase “In Jesus’ Name” at the end of the prayer, and God will give me whatever I’m asking for… right? a genie's lamp that might be used to grant three wishes

OK, maybe not. But then, what did Jesus mean? Does His statement have something to do with my motives? What if I am asking for the wrong things or with the wrong motives? What if my wishes are not His wishes?

According to Jesus, God is ready to give us even greater gifts than our earthly fathers. But the example Jesus gives is a son asking for a loaf of bread or a fish – for nourishing, healthy food. I don’t remember too many times when I asked for nourishing food. Instead, I was always asking for an extra serving of dessert!

When a child asks a parent for good, beneficial, healthy things, parents are quick to say “Yes.” On the other hand, when we continued to ask for the wrong things we’d get Dad’s furrowed brow, Mom’s long “sighs,” and a “No, I am not going to get that for you.” And while a temper tantrum on the floor of the grocery store might work on some parents, it certainly didn’t work on mine and it certainly won’t work on God.

So maybe the asking, seeking, and knocking in His Name is not a description of how to force Jesus to do our bidding like some genie in a bottle. Maybe it has to do with right motives. Maybe it has to do with our maturity and knowing what God wants, and therefore knowing what is good and healthy for us and for others.

As we grow in maturity in our relationship with God, He wants to have us talk to Him about mature things. Parents love to talk to their children, but they expect as they age to have more mature conversations. God wants us to talk to Him about all things, but it really pleases Him when we talk to Him about the things that are in His will – spiritually focused things. Praying for the things that break His heart.

What are some of the things that you think are most near & dear to His heart?
What are some of the spiritually-focused things that we ought to be praying to Him about?

Categories
Relationships

Killing Hypocrisy To Bring Honor To God

I see a lot of people growing in a lot of ways – financially, successfully in the business world, in their status and power, but the question is – are you growing in the Lord?

After writing a few things about hypocrisy, I came across this passage during my morning prayer and Bible reading time – Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things (Romans 2:1). Jesus is telling us to avoid the “do as I say, not as I do” lifestyle and words.

Just like the people of Jesus’ day, many of us might say – I would never be hypocritical. And yet:
We condemn murderers; while we still hold onto hate & anger.
We condemn adulterers; while we allow our eyes to wander and provide us with lustful thoughts.
We condemn liars; though we are not fully truthful with many others, including our spouses/kids.
We condemn the greedy; but we are not giving a minimum of 10% of our income to the Lord.
We condemn those who talk about us behind our backs by gossiping about them to others.
We condemn law breakers and criminals; while we ourselves pick and choose which laws we will follow (such as disobeying traffic laws and speed limits; violating copyright laws for illegal music and movies; finding ways to get around tax laws; etc.)
We complain about those who aren’t as “good” as us morally or who are not as religious as us; yet we are not spending any significant time with God in prayer or reading His Word.
We complain about how church leaders & other members are serving; though we are not willing to roll up our sleeves and serve.
We hear what church leaders are saying to us; but we still aren’t telling others about God and His gospel.

And because of all this, we stand in judgmental condemnation (which Jesus condemns), rather than loving reconciliation (which Jesus desires). And though you probably don’t do all of these things, maybe you see one or two in that list above that describes some habit you need to remove from your life.

Paul tells us the problem is this – “you, therefore…who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? … You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written (Romans 2:21-24).

So the problem with hypocrisy in Christians is that those who don’t know the Lord will see such inconsistency in our lives, that they will not hold God in high esteem. This is why it is important that we change these patterns. Instead of His Name being blasphemed, we need His name to be honored because of us. So Jesus tells us to . . . let your light shine before others in such a way that they see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father because of your consistent, honest, moral lifestyle.

Let’s be willing to look inward, to be honest with ourselves, and to root out any inconsistency and hypocrisy that might be in our lives. We need to work on killing hypocrisy – making sure our lives bring honor and praise to the name of God in all that we say and do.

Categories
Christian Living

Integrity Means Letting Your Yes Be Yes

I have enjoyed my blogging experience thus far. As much as anything, writing helps me process my thoughts and learn to be a better communicator. And I was working on a few different posts, but I couldn’t seem to pull any together for a fully cohesive post. So at the end of last week, I just posted a short snippet from one I had been working on. When I started posting to facebook and blogging a few months ago, I did this pretty often. But then it seems that I forgot how!

Because I do enjoy getting more complete thoughts put together before posting, I found myself not able to post as often… making my postings sporadic. So I’m planning to send out more snippets and brief thoughts in the future to keep my posting more regular. And I think that may be better anyway! Even in our own experience of wanting to change the conversations, maybe we shouldn’t worry so much about saying something exactly right as much as we should just go ahead and speak about Him and let our “snippets” have great impact over time.

So here is a brief thought on us having integrity, character, and consistency. Jesus tells us to be people of honesty and consistency. That our ‘yes’ should mean ‘yes’ and that our ‘no’ should mean ‘no.’ That our integrity should be at the highest level. But a problem exists for many of us. We have fallen into the trap, that it is OK to be inconsistent, as long as it benefits us. And that leads to our misunderstanding of God’s word, to our misapplying God’s truth, and down the path toward hypocritical attitudes and beliefs.

For example, due to our lack of consistently living out the Bible, we have reversed a proper understanding of the “do not judge” passages in the Bible. A problem our neighbors and co-workers can have with Christians, is our harsh judgment toward others. Jesus had harsh judgment for only one group – the rigid religious leaders who had no compassion for others. But for those who were sinners without any real relationship to God, Jesus held out compassion and love, hoping to move them closer to God.

hammerGod calls us to “judge” the habitually sinful behavior of our fellow Christian brothers and sisters. He tells us to do this so that we can sharpen one another and hold each other accountable. But God tells us to hold out love to those without faith to help them desire to come into our loving family. Our problem is that we flip these two and get them reversed.

And so not only do we judge the wrong group… too often, we not only want to judge, we want to condemn.
Are you swinging the hammer of condemnation toward those who need love?
Are you staying silent toward your fellow Christian brothers and sisters who need you to keep sharpening them?
Let’s flip it back to the biblical model, the model of Jesus!

Sharpen your Christian family with love, leading them toward more God-honoring behavior..
Hold out compassion and love to all others, leading them toward the kindness and salvation of God.
And don’t get the two mixed up!

Categories
Christian Living

The Hypocrites Motto

“Do what I say, not what I do.” The motto of a hypocrite, perhaps?

“I don’t go to church because there are so many hypocrites there.” You’ve heard it said. Maybe you’ve even said it. Maybe you still feel that way today. It has been said that “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable” (Brennan Manning).

The thing that bothers those neighbors of mine and the reason your coworkers make these types of comments… is that they see people who they know go to church every Sunday use the roughest, foulest language throughout the week; who leer at the opposite sex and make inappropriate comments about them later; who treat their spouse and kids poorly; who badmouth the boss behind his back; and who find sneaky ways to get around the rules and laws – of the workplace, of the school district, of the tax payments. They look at the attitudes, habits, & lifestyle of many Christians and think – “they don’t seem to be anything like the Jesus I’ve heard about.”

Cause most all of the folks around you know a little bit about Jesus, even if they aren’t a follower of Him.
At the very least, they know that He was about love. And they know that anyone who claims to follow Him should also be about love. They know that those who say they believe in God should live a consistent life that is faithful to the lifestyle that Jesus lived.

But too often, they see something different.

Does your life match up with your words? Let’s keep striving toward consistency – being people of the highest integrity and character.

Categories
Serving Others

The Workplace Pastor

I’m gonna spend one more day on this idea of us as workplace pastors, since I think it is so very important. It is necessary that we begin believing that we are called of God to be the chaplains of our offices and companies.

Many people want to feel used by God, but haven’t been freed to understand that their place of employment is the mission field that God has sent them into. It might seem a bit strange, but think about if a missionary or pastor was hired for your office/company – what would they do to meet the spiritual needs of the people there? Pray with people, reach out to them during crises, talk to them about God? What if God has placed you in your office for that specific role? In fact, I think that is EXACTLY what God has done. Let me remind you that after Jesus’ death, the veil of the Temple was torn. No longer does God reside in a building built by human hands where we have to come to Him in one location on earth, but rather He now dwells within each Christian, so that His church is to leave the one location and take Him outside the church building to people everywhere.a church building symbolizing the fact that we need to leave the building and become a workplace pastor

“[We feel] incomplete inside the church walls – we want to be equipped by our church to find kingdom significance and purpose where we interact with culture, outside the church walls…. I’ve come to understand that there are millions of us who feel disconnected from our true purpose at work. Maybe you’ve had feelings at times that are similar. You sense your job or career has something critically important to do with God’s bigger story, and yet no one seems to be there to help you understand how it really works and why it is so biblical.” Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever felt that God wanted to use you, but weren’t quite sure how? Well, the workplace is where you spend a large portion of your day, and He wants to use you there!

“God has placed us into that workplace for a specific purpose. Paul explains that this task is not to be done just on Sunday or a few times a week, but this is a 24/7 ‘all-the-time’ assignment from God.”

“[Too many of us believe that] the pastor, the missionary, and the church staff workers are chosen, gifted, and paid to do the professional ministry…. [We] do not realize that we will come into contact with and influence more people in one day in the workplace than the “professionals” will encounter in a week or even a full month…. Yes, YOU are in full-time ministry for Jesus Christ, but you get your income from your employment in the workplace and not from your church. What a bargain for God’s kingdom work! We are paid by the secular world’s system yet are placed there in strategic positions for His purposes.”

This is the mindset that we must take. Why is this mindset so important? Why does God want us to represent Him in our workplaces to our co-workers who do not know Him? Because “Most of them will not seek out our churches, but every day they are at the next desk to us in the marketplace.” So you have to begin seeing yourself as the pastor there – praying for each person, looking for ways to speak God’s love into their lives.

Look for opportunities to speak God’s life and love into the lives of the people around you at work today. Some of them are hurting and need an encouraging word. Some of them are experiencing crisis and need your prayers. Find ways to meet their spiritual needs as their workplace pastor.

How have you seen people you know be effective in the role of “workplace pastor”?

(Businessman Kent Humphreys wrote a small book titled Christ at Work Opening Doors about us being on mission in our places of employment. The quotes above are from his book.)