I could be that because of spending the day trying to recover from flu like symptoms all day today that I am in a weakened state of mind, but whatever the cause, I find myself in the middle of one of those “transparent” moments from which we pastor’s try to shield and protect ourselves. I’ve added a new section to my blog called “Taking Personal Inventory” where I simply ask a question for us to ponder about our own personal growth into Christian maturity. The questions were supposed to be for you…but, wow… I find that maybe the Holy Spirit intends them even more for me.
Taking personal inventory is an important part of our Spiritual formation. It seems like I am taking inventory every day. And sometimes my self inventory results show areas where I am lacking. I must confess that I find that there are moment when I can feel a little overwhelmed in the work of the Lord that I have been called to do. Don’t get me wrong…I'm thankful and I am privileged to hear so many people's stories, and I am blessed to be called to help others to grow in their relationship with Christ. I love it! But, there are times when I am overwhelmed, that I wish spiritual growth and formation was a little more neat and tidy. But, it’s not. We can’t just come to church Sunday morning and take a "Jesus pill" and be ready for the week to come.
Spiritual formation (or how we become more like Jesus) happens every moment of everyday. It happens as we wait in line at the grocery store and pray for patience. It happens when we choose to say "no" to the temptations that our flesh screams “yes” to. It happens when we serve others and no one takes notice. It happens when we hurt someone and ask forgiveness. And, it happens in the ways we fill our minds with God's transforming thoughts as we ponder a message from God through daily devotions, or some Christian blogger’s musings. I pray that In the Cool of the Day helps fill your mind with God’s transforming thoughts.
I love John Ortberg's quote: "God isn't a mass-producer He's a handcrafter." That is so true in my life. He is continually working on this project called John Vaughn, to turn me into the person He created me to be. I have no doubt there are times God would like to just give me a “Jesus Pill”…It certainly would make it go a lot easier for Him. But, I am thankful He does not get discouraged in His labor as He handcrafts me into the person that not only He created me to be, but the person I want to be. I do not share my thoughts in "In The Cool of the Day" because "I think you need this.” I share them because whether the thoughts are memories of a personal learning lesson, or simply musing and meditations on a Bible passage I have been reading…each of these have been amazing, life-giving, and motivating for me, and I hope that my transparent moments and personal inventory questions may be beneficial for you, too. So, how is God handcrafting you? What are the crafting tools He has been using in your life this week?
"Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another." Hebrews 10:24-25
Monday, April 18, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
SPIRITUAL FERVOR, ZEAL, AND URGENCY
Romans 12:11... “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”
I have found myself recently spending probably way too much time on analyzing and over-analyzing our Sunday morning services. I want our service to be a time where people can have a genuine encounter with the Spirit of God. We try to bring the elements of worship, prayer, and preaching into play in a way that will encourage that much needed encounter. It seems to me that church services should be both somber and joyous; there should be a time of reflection and a time of loving. But, what happens to all that preparation when we pastors forget the sense of urgency? What happens when we saunter up to the pulpit, and kill a little time with some chit-chat, casually meandering around as if there's no particular hurry in getting to the Word? I think we undercut what we believe. I think we send conflicting messages. We have no sense of urgency.
For example: A church could be well armed with a terrific pastor. The pews or chairs may be filled with sweet, genuine, loving people. Their doctrine may be on firm ground, their vision statement may be a work of literary art (though often a lie). But, services started off at varying times,…people are still filing in…stopping along their wandering way, with this-'n'-that amid general continuing buzz and conversation. And, once they have finally found their way to join in a time of 30 or forty minutes of worship, their morning is crowned by the pastor trying to find five ways to say the same thing, and then 10 minutes to close the sermon,… rowing back and forth, back and forth…like a boat unable to find the dock to tie up to. Not a bad morning,… far from it. But not urgent.
It seems to me that whether it is 60 minutes, 90 minutes, or 120 minutes,… our church services, as well as any words given in Christ's name should be urgent affairs. It was in Acts 6:15 that we saw that those listening to Stephen's blistering message of Jesus Christ…they saw in him the “face of an angel.” I don’t know exactly what that means, but I picture Stephen literally glowing with a reflection of God's glory. What we do know is that he was a perfect messenger,… who was clearly urgent in what he had to say, as if it were the last message he would ever give...which, in fact, it was.
Every confrontation we bring forward with the Word of God is a crisis point in someone‘s life. God's word is living, powerful, unimaginably sharp, and it judges. There are souls hanging in the balance, and lives that are at unknown crossroads. It could be the otherwise healthy looking man in our congregation who may be on the verge of a heart-attack. It could be a well veneered couple who is headed for divorce. It could be young person hovering at the brink of making a terrible decision. What we do on Sunday mornings is not teatime on the deck of some luxury cruiser! It ain't Oprah or Dr. Phil stuff! It's strategy-time, for soldiers under fire, in the midst of a war for the souls of lost people! There is an urgency to what we are called to do.
At the same time, that very urgency,… once it grabs a hold of us, can also work against us, to dampen our effectiveness. I have had occasion when someone said to me, "It just amazes me that you can think of things to say every week." I said, "The Bible is so rich that my problem is never thinking of things to say. My problem is knowing when to stop." That problem has been echoed on numerous occasions by well meaning (but, what do they know) critics who try to insinuate that I begin to lose people after 20 minutes. And, here all along, I thought my messages were so riveting and thought provoking, that the looks on the faces of the listeners was “Give me more” …instead of whining under their breath, ‘Another point?’”
This has always been my struggle. When I was first offered chances to teach or preach, I grabbed at such opportunities as if I'd never have another. Consequently, I would try to say everything in one sermon. Because…who knew? I just had so much to say…so much to give,…so few opportunities. I am sure there were occasion when I may have given one of those “My brain is full” sermons, but it was only due to my excess of passion and urgency. Maybe that is what led me to preaching in series more often. There is just so much to say and such urgency…It is better to give it in smaller more nourishing bites, rather than trying to stuff it all in on the buffet line. There is urgency! I don't know whether I'll ever have the opportunity to preach again. What if I left something out and there are those out there who will go to their grave, unforgiven, under-preached, and underdeveloped?
I suppose in the final analysis, that would really be God's concern, wouldn't it? He knows to a nanosecond how long we have left. He'll accomplish what He intends to accomplish through me, whether I labor over my own style, or my need to be thorough, or whatever it is that may drive me to excess urgency. All I need to maintain is the sense of urgency and a heart aflame with a zealous love for God as Paul writes in Romans 12:11... “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” Which may be easier said than done…but certainly merits both saying, and doing. What do you think?
I have found myself recently spending probably way too much time on analyzing and over-analyzing our Sunday morning services. I want our service to be a time where people can have a genuine encounter with the Spirit of God. We try to bring the elements of worship, prayer, and preaching into play in a way that will encourage that much needed encounter. It seems to me that church services should be both somber and joyous; there should be a time of reflection and a time of loving. But, what happens to all that preparation when we pastors forget the sense of urgency? What happens when we saunter up to the pulpit, and kill a little time with some chit-chat, casually meandering around as if there's no particular hurry in getting to the Word? I think we undercut what we believe. I think we send conflicting messages. We have no sense of urgency.
For example: A church could be well armed with a terrific pastor. The pews or chairs may be filled with sweet, genuine, loving people. Their doctrine may be on firm ground, their vision statement may be a work of literary art (though often a lie). But, services started off at varying times,…people are still filing in…stopping along their wandering way, with this-'n'-that amid general continuing buzz and conversation. And, once they have finally found their way to join in a time of 30 or forty minutes of worship, their morning is crowned by the pastor trying to find five ways to say the same thing, and then 10 minutes to close the sermon,… rowing back and forth, back and forth…like a boat unable to find the dock to tie up to. Not a bad morning,… far from it. But not urgent.
It seems to me that whether it is 60 minutes, 90 minutes, or 120 minutes,… our church services, as well as any words given in Christ's name should be urgent affairs. It was in Acts 6:15 that we saw that those listening to Stephen's blistering message of Jesus Christ…they saw in him the “face of an angel.” I don’t know exactly what that means, but I picture Stephen literally glowing with a reflection of God's glory. What we do know is that he was a perfect messenger,… who was clearly urgent in what he had to say, as if it were the last message he would ever give...which, in fact, it was.
Every confrontation we bring forward with the Word of God is a crisis point in someone‘s life. God's word is living, powerful, unimaginably sharp, and it judges. There are souls hanging in the balance, and lives that are at unknown crossroads. It could be the otherwise healthy looking man in our congregation who may be on the verge of a heart-attack. It could be a well veneered couple who is headed for divorce. It could be young person hovering at the brink of making a terrible decision. What we do on Sunday mornings is not teatime on the deck of some luxury cruiser! It ain't Oprah or Dr. Phil stuff! It's strategy-time, for soldiers under fire, in the midst of a war for the souls of lost people! There is an urgency to what we are called to do.
At the same time, that very urgency,… once it grabs a hold of us, can also work against us, to dampen our effectiveness. I have had occasion when someone said to me, "It just amazes me that you can think of things to say every week." I said, "The Bible is so rich that my problem is never thinking of things to say. My problem is knowing when to stop." That problem has been echoed on numerous occasions by well meaning (but, what do they know) critics who try to insinuate that I begin to lose people after 20 minutes. And, here all along, I thought my messages were so riveting and thought provoking, that the looks on the faces of the listeners was “Give me more” …instead of whining under their breath, ‘Another point?’”
This has always been my struggle. When I was first offered chances to teach or preach, I grabbed at such opportunities as if I'd never have another. Consequently, I would try to say everything in one sermon. Because…who knew? I just had so much to say…so much to give,…so few opportunities. I am sure there were occasion when I may have given one of those “My brain is full” sermons, but it was only due to my excess of passion and urgency. Maybe that is what led me to preaching in series more often. There is just so much to say and such urgency…It is better to give it in smaller more nourishing bites, rather than trying to stuff it all in on the buffet line. There is urgency! I don't know whether I'll ever have the opportunity to preach again. What if I left something out and there are those out there who will go to their grave, unforgiven, under-preached, and underdeveloped?
I suppose in the final analysis, that would really be God's concern, wouldn't it? He knows to a nanosecond how long we have left. He'll accomplish what He intends to accomplish through me, whether I labor over my own style, or my need to be thorough, or whatever it is that may drive me to excess urgency. All I need to maintain is the sense of urgency and a heart aflame with a zealous love for God as Paul writes in Romans 12:11... “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” Which may be easier said than done…but certainly merits both saying, and doing. What do you think?
Monday, April 11, 2011
Hmmm....WHERE DID I LAY MY BIBLE?
This is something to make you go....hmm...where is my Bible? Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?
- What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
- What if we flipped through it several times a day?
- What if we used it as our app for all our life questions?
- What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
- What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
- What if we used it’s GPS to keep us on the right path?
- What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
- What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
- What if we used it when we traveled?
- What if we used it in case of emergency?
Friday, April 8, 2011
YOU'RE GOD'S WORK OF ART, JOHN...DON'T FORGET IT!
"As [a man] thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
Have you have ever found yourself in a deep hole of discouragement where everything seems so dark and overwhelming that your mind begins to play tricks on you? While I would like to portray myself as one who is confident and has it all together, I have to confess I have found myself in those potholes of life all too often…even most recently. Having just immerged from the darkness of one of those holes, I look back and wonder… why was it is so easy to believe the lies in my mind about who I am, rather than God's truth? Surely it is not because I was not sure what God's truth is. And, where in the world do those lies come from anyway?
Well, it all began in the Garden. After six days of creation, God looked at all He made, and He said, "It is good." But, then something went terribly wrong! The enemy of our souls crept into God's perfect world and deceived His image bearers with lies. And, even though God's redemptive plan has restored what the serpent destroyed in the Garden,… the enemy continues to tell us lies even today. He tells us that we are worthless failures who are not good enough,…we’re not smart enough,…we are powerless,… there is no way we are competent enough to succeed. And, that my friends… is simply NOT THE TRUTH!
God created the world, and stocked the seas with marine life, and He filled the skies with winged creatures. He ignited the stars in the night sky and placed the sun to light the day and the moon to illumine the darkness of night…and He did all of it with words… "And God said..." and it came to be. God spoke and what was not became what is. "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth" (Psalm 33:6).
When God created man in His own image, He gave us that same powerful tool….words. He didn't entrust words to monkeys, zebras, or elephants. He gave words to man. And, He saw to it that our words would also have creative potential. The Bible tells us that "death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21 NASB). Our words impact our children, our wife (or husband), our friends, and they impact the world. But some of the most powerful words we speak are the ones that no one hears...the words we speak to ourselves. We can speak life to ourselves and we can speak death to ourselves. A considerable amount of our words are spoken or thought to ourselves. Most of this self-talk is harmless, like…“What will I have for dinner?” Or, “Where did I put my car keys?” But, some of our word to ourselves are very destructive.
When we say, "I'm so stupid!" Or, "I'm such an idiot!" Or "I'm never going to be good enough!"…It can create destructive thought patterns that can paralyze a person into inactivity. It can put you in a place where you don’t know how to take the first step to crawl out of the pothole. And, I fear that these negative self-perceptions repeated over a period of time will brand themselves into our minds and eventually become our reality. If you repeat a lie enough times,… you may begin to believe it, and the lie becomes your reality...even though it is a false reality. "As [a man] thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
When we look into God's incredible love letter to us…our Bible, we discover the truth. God does love you (Colossians 3:12 ). We are told we have an entire cloud of witnesses cheering for us (Hebrews 12:1). I am told that “I am God's masterpiece...His work of art!” (Ephesians 2:10) His Word tells me that I am good enough because Christ lives in me (John 14:20). WOW!!!…I am a chosen, holy, dearly loved child of God! That's the truth! Because that’s the way God sees us!
I believe that God has no greater joy than to know that His children are walking in the truth. And, when we are walking in the truth, the lies of the devil are exposed. We can recognize the lie,…we can reject the lie,…and we can replace the lie with truth. And, that is when we can we be all that God has created us to be, and do all that God has created us to do. We can experience the abundant life that He planned all along!
I know God has great plans for all of us-His Word promises that He does. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). But many of us are not experiencing the abundant life because we don't know…or sometimes forget who we are. But, God wants us to see exactly who we are, what we have, and where we are as a child of God. It is the key to living the victorious Christian life.
I am thankful for people around me who love me and care for me when I fall into a pothole,…friends who will come along side and help me to start seeing the truth again. They help me hear God say... "You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
Let’s speak the truth about ourselves TO ourselves. Let's see ourselves as God sees us.
Have you have ever found yourself in a deep hole of discouragement where everything seems so dark and overwhelming that your mind begins to play tricks on you? While I would like to portray myself as one who is confident and has it all together, I have to confess I have found myself in those potholes of life all too often…even most recently. Having just immerged from the darkness of one of those holes, I look back and wonder… why was it is so easy to believe the lies in my mind about who I am, rather than God's truth? Surely it is not because I was not sure what God's truth is. And, where in the world do those lies come from anyway?
Well, it all began in the Garden. After six days of creation, God looked at all He made, and He said, "It is good." But, then something went terribly wrong! The enemy of our souls crept into God's perfect world and deceived His image bearers with lies. And, even though God's redemptive plan has restored what the serpent destroyed in the Garden,… the enemy continues to tell us lies even today. He tells us that we are worthless failures who are not good enough,…we’re not smart enough,…we are powerless,… there is no way we are competent enough to succeed. And, that my friends… is simply NOT THE TRUTH!
God created the world, and stocked the seas with marine life, and He filled the skies with winged creatures. He ignited the stars in the night sky and placed the sun to light the day and the moon to illumine the darkness of night…and He did all of it with words… "And God said..." and it came to be. God spoke and what was not became what is. "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth" (Psalm 33:6).
When God created man in His own image, He gave us that same powerful tool….words. He didn't entrust words to monkeys, zebras, or elephants. He gave words to man. And, He saw to it that our words would also have creative potential. The Bible tells us that "death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21 NASB). Our words impact our children, our wife (or husband), our friends, and they impact the world. But some of the most powerful words we speak are the ones that no one hears...the words we speak to ourselves. We can speak life to ourselves and we can speak death to ourselves. A considerable amount of our words are spoken or thought to ourselves. Most of this self-talk is harmless, like…“What will I have for dinner?” Or, “Where did I put my car keys?” But, some of our word to ourselves are very destructive.
When we say, "I'm so stupid!" Or, "I'm such an idiot!" Or "I'm never going to be good enough!"…It can create destructive thought patterns that can paralyze a person into inactivity. It can put you in a place where you don’t know how to take the first step to crawl out of the pothole. And, I fear that these negative self-perceptions repeated over a period of time will brand themselves into our minds and eventually become our reality. If you repeat a lie enough times,… you may begin to believe it, and the lie becomes your reality...even though it is a false reality. "As [a man] thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
When we look into God's incredible love letter to us…our Bible, we discover the truth. God does love you (Colossians 3:12 ). We are told we have an entire cloud of witnesses cheering for us (Hebrews 12:1). I am told that “I am God's masterpiece...His work of art!” (Ephesians 2:10) His Word tells me that I am good enough because Christ lives in me (John 14:20). WOW!!!…I am a chosen, holy, dearly loved child of God! That's the truth! Because that’s the way God sees us!
I believe that God has no greater joy than to know that His children are walking in the truth. And, when we are walking in the truth, the lies of the devil are exposed. We can recognize the lie,…we can reject the lie,…and we can replace the lie with truth. And, that is when we can we be all that God has created us to be, and do all that God has created us to do. We can experience the abundant life that He planned all along!
I know God has great plans for all of us-His Word promises that He does. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). But many of us are not experiencing the abundant life because we don't know…or sometimes forget who we are. But, God wants us to see exactly who we are, what we have, and where we are as a child of God. It is the key to living the victorious Christian life.
I am thankful for people around me who love me and care for me when I fall into a pothole,…friends who will come along side and help me to start seeing the truth again. They help me hear God say... "You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
Let’s speak the truth about ourselves TO ourselves. Let's see ourselves as God sees us.
Monday, April 4, 2011
GOD WILL FORGIVE AND FORGET
"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." (Psalm 32:1)
When I was a little boy, I had an incredibly amazing ability to get in trouble, especially with my mother. In the summers when I was out of school, and mom was at work, I found that trouble had a way of finding me as I searched for ways to entertain myself. Ashley, Illinois, was a tiny little town, and other than exploring up and down the two sets of railroad tracks that crossed through town, or climbing the water tower to do some fine artistic work for all to see…Ashley was pretty tough place to find suitable entertainment for a young boy like me.
One fine summer day at age 13, I was particularly creative in my day’s entertainment. We had a single shot .22 caliber rifle in the house (I’m still not certain where it came from or why we had it) and, I thought it might be a good day for some target practice. I already knew I couldn’t go out into the yard and shoot at the black birds up in the trees, because our neighbors always got a bit hostile when they saw me outside with a rifle and heard bullets ricocheting off the branches (I personally think they were overreacting.)
So, being the creative boy that I was…I decided that while sitting in mom’s chair inside the house in the living room, and with the front door open, I had a clear shot at the wooden Railroad Crossing sign at the corner of our yard. The “O” in Crossing, would be a great target. Over the next 10 minutes, six carefully aimed shots rang out from somewhere in Ashley (after all, no one could really PROVE where they came from.) I rose from my sniper’s perch in the living room and prepared to check out my marksmanship. You can imagine the stunned look on my face to see that I had not thought to open the screen door, and there were six bullet holes in the wire screen! (I have never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.)
Panic began to creep in my being. This definitely qualified for one of my mom’s famous whuppin’s! My mind began to think of what should I do…just confess and throw myself on mom’s mercy…or, try to cover it up. I brilliantly chose the second option. With tooth picks and tweezers, I carefully moved each broken wire of the screen back (sort of) into place, thinking that she wouldn’t notice it for years,…maybe even after I had grown up and moved away.
When mom came home…it was as if she had a GPS tuned into the front screen door. She looked at the mangled wires in the screen and asked me if there was something I wanted to tell her. I replied, " No mom, you would be mad at me…I would rather pray to God about it, because God will forgive me and forget about it.”
Even at 13 years old, I knew one of the greatest salvation benefits of all, the reality of sins forgiven. "We who received the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior enjoy freedom from the eternal condemnation of our sins." (Romans 8:1) …"and we can also have daily forgiveness and cleansing" (1 John 1:9).
Oh, while I may have impressed mom by invoking God's forgiveness....I still got the whuppin’…which was well deserved, I might add. And, I recognize I likely would have done much better with the confession and mercy thing. But, the spirit lesson in all this is that when we acknowledge our guilt with true repentance, God stands ready to forgive because of what His Son Jesus Christ did on the cross…even bullet holes in the screen door.
When I was a little boy, I had an incredibly amazing ability to get in trouble, especially with my mother. In the summers when I was out of school, and mom was at work, I found that trouble had a way of finding me as I searched for ways to entertain myself. Ashley, Illinois, was a tiny little town, and other than exploring up and down the two sets of railroad tracks that crossed through town, or climbing the water tower to do some fine artistic work for all to see…Ashley was pretty tough place to find suitable entertainment for a young boy like me.
One fine summer day at age 13, I was particularly creative in my day’s entertainment. We had a single shot .22 caliber rifle in the house (I’m still not certain where it came from or why we had it) and, I thought it might be a good day for some target practice. I already knew I couldn’t go out into the yard and shoot at the black birds up in the trees, because our neighbors always got a bit hostile when they saw me outside with a rifle and heard bullets ricocheting off the branches (I personally think they were overreacting.)
So, being the creative boy that I was…I decided that while sitting in mom’s chair inside the house in the living room, and with the front door open, I had a clear shot at the wooden Railroad Crossing sign at the corner of our yard. The “O” in Crossing, would be a great target. Over the next 10 minutes, six carefully aimed shots rang out from somewhere in Ashley (after all, no one could really PROVE where they came from.) I rose from my sniper’s perch in the living room and prepared to check out my marksmanship. You can imagine the stunned look on my face to see that I had not thought to open the screen door, and there were six bullet holes in the wire screen! (I have never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.)
Panic began to creep in my being. This definitely qualified for one of my mom’s famous whuppin’s! My mind began to think of what should I do…just confess and throw myself on mom’s mercy…or, try to cover it up. I brilliantly chose the second option. With tooth picks and tweezers, I carefully moved each broken wire of the screen back (sort of) into place, thinking that she wouldn’t notice it for years,…maybe even after I had grown up and moved away.
When mom came home…it was as if she had a GPS tuned into the front screen door. She looked at the mangled wires in the screen and asked me if there was something I wanted to tell her. I replied, " No mom, you would be mad at me…I would rather pray to God about it, because God will forgive me and forget about it.”
Even at 13 years old, I knew one of the greatest salvation benefits of all, the reality of sins forgiven. "We who received the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior enjoy freedom from the eternal condemnation of our sins." (Romans 8:1) …"and we can also have daily forgiveness and cleansing" (1 John 1:9).
Oh, while I may have impressed mom by invoking God's forgiveness....I still got the whuppin’…which was well deserved, I might add. And, I recognize I likely would have done much better with the confession and mercy thing. But, the spirit lesson in all this is that when we acknowledge our guilt with true repentance, God stands ready to forgive because of what His Son Jesus Christ did on the cross…even bullet holes in the screen door.
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