Staying Strong When You Aren't

The bad news kept coming.  A friend is battling for their life, a low tire ended up meaning I needed two new tires at the cost of $400.00, my wife was having some health issues that were bothering me, a ministry that I am mentoring is having some relational difficulties and I am really tired from a month of strong travel and ministry.  I was not feeling particularly strong in my faith on Monday.  The last of the bad news came when I had to spend another $50.00 to get my car aligned.  Deb and I were in the alignment companies lobby when I stepped outside to make a phone call that I didn't want to make (my attitude told me I was not strong).  After the call, I stepped back into the lobby to find Debbie and three men talking about Jesus.  What should I do?  Should I put on a fake, 'christian' attitude?  Should I just sit down and ignore their discussion (rude)?  Should I politely listen and nod?  Should I pretend to make another call?

In times like these, we really don't feel strong and probably are not strong in our faith.  For all of us, our faith can take radical turns for better or worse when life goes in unpredictable ways.  These feelings can last for seconds or years.  If we let the curves of life control us, we will be mostly out of sorts much of the time.  Staying strong and consistent in our faith and lives is the best answer, even when things are rough.  A question many will ask at this point is how can we stay strong and focused?

Here are five helpful principles that I apply to my life to help me stay strong when I don't want to be strong;

1. Stay Faithful

Remain faithful when things are smooth so that you'll have plenty of reserves when things get rocky!  This is more of a prevention against the temptation to wallow in bad times.  Staying strongly engaged with Jesus through prayer, the Bible and in community with others is vital.  Jesus told us to 'remain' or 'abide in me' (John 15).  When these basic Biblical disciplines are maintained in ones life, it will serve as an anchor when the seas of life begin to swell.  Many believers choose to 'coast' when things are smooth only to drain them of their strength instead of building up reservoirs of faith that will need to be called upon at some point.

The years of 2009 and 2010 were really awful for my family and I.  My wife went through breast cancer (she has no evidence of disease today!) and our church community went through hell (no other word for it).  These two events happened simultaneously.  The only way I made it through with strength, grace and faith is by accessing the years of strength and provenness that I built up in my life. 

2. Embrace Realities

People who come to Jesus often think that everything (or most things) in their life should go smoothly.  Somehow this false doctrine has crept into the minds of saints especially in the Western church.  Many believe that if they read the Bible enough, pray enough, fast enough and do enough christian things that God is then obligated to takes the bumps out of life.  This is really bad theology.  You cannot come up with one person in the Scriptures whose life went smoothly.  When you add to your life the desire to live fully for God, well, the heat seems to be turned up a notch or more.  Quick cures never resolve deep damage that has been done to our souls.  Life is often laced with confusion, doubt, fear and a variety of struggles.  Believers need to know that God is good even when things are bad or confusing.  God is in control even when life seems to be out of control.  We would do well to embrace the realities that invade our lives and know that the path to life comes through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23).  Dan Allender puts it this way, "The obstacle to life is the conviction that God will damage us and destroy us.  The problem is that the path [to life] does involved His hurting us, but only in order to heal us." (italics are my addition).

Why not begin a journal and jot down a sentence or two a couple of times week.  Write down what you are feeling, and some of the prayers that you are bringing to God.  Be honest and transparent in your writing and you will probably see more and more realities being embraced by your soul.  Know that living spiritually strong lives is costly and will be challenged by your flesh, the world's values and the enemies lies.  The reality is that you are in a war and you are on the front line.  The war is for souls and an allegiance to Jesus.  Expect opposition when you choose to live for the King.

3. Believe the Truth.

For too many people, believing lies and doing little to dismiss them is the norm.  The truth is that people get comfortable beating themselves up, allowing excuses to keep them down and feeling like the whole world is against them.  When this cycle happens, selfishness sets in people begin to live out the lies about themselves that they willingly entertain.  Instead, we should believe the truth that God says about us.  Some of these truths are that He loves us, He created us in His image (and God said it was good), that we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, that Jesus will never leave us nor ever forsake us, that Jesus came to gives us life etc.

Jesus has taught us that the truth will set us free.  If you find you are one who dwells on negative things, find a friend and confide this habit and ask them to help you to begin the process of changing your thinking.  Find out together what the truth is that you should believe and dismiss the lies when they creep in.  Ecclesiastes teaches that 'two are better than one'.  Philippians 4:8-9 gives us some good things to dwell upon.

4.  Be Selfless

When people are not feeling strong in their faith, the last thing usually on their mind is being selfless and others centered.  When we are not feeling strong the temptation is often to become self-absorbed in our own world (entertainment, work, sleep, rest, complaining etc.).  Being self-absorbed will only serve to take you down a few more notches in your spiritual vitality.  The Scriptures teach us to treat others as more important than ourselves (Philippians 2).  When we aim to be others centered, we find meaning or purpose outside of our selves.  The giving of our self in being others centered actually breathes new life into our spiritual lungs. 

Be bold and start with a small step like a phone call, an e-mail of encouragement, a text or a short cup of coffee with a friend.  Ask God who could use some encouragement and then serve it up!  Ask about how they are doing and reserve your story to when they ask and then be brief.  I know you'll find that Jesus will fill your soul and strengthen your weak knees.

5.  Christ is our Life

I saved the best for last :-)  Over the past couple of years, I have had to make a conscious decision to believe that God is good all of the time.  Life often doesn't make sense.  It is in times like these that I find I must remind myself and be reminded by others about all that Christ has done.  My wonderful wife often reminds me with statements like, "Which of God's provisions have not been adequate?"  In 2 Timothy Paul says that "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13).  The next verse says, "Remind them of these things...".  In Colossians 3:4 Paul tells us that Christ is our life, He is our true identity.  Our faith and journey is all because, and all about Jesus.  He is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12).  The more intimate and trusting we become with Christ, the more He will become our life. 

Stay faithful, embrace realities, believe the truth, be selfless and allow for Christ to really be your life!  What if every believer engaged life's challenges with these concepts?  How would the world be different?  Christ is our leaning post, the only one who can keep us strong when we don't feel like we are.  Christ is before all things and in Him all things hold together (Col. 1:17).  You can be strong through Christ, even when things are really hard.  That is what the world is desperate to see, the strength of God flowing through people and being different enough to make a difference.

I would love to hear your thoughts if you would like to share them.

Does God Care About the Grind of Life?

Are we to feel spiritual in our everyday work?  How can we worship God when our lives are so mundane?  What value is there in the everyday/week/month/year grind of life?  How can we see our jobs as more than a paycheck?

Do those questions ring a bell of familiarity within you?  Many cannot see their vocational life nor their routine life as spiritual in nature.  I want to assure you that your job is certainly a spiritual experience and can be used to worship God in powerful ways.  It is also true that God loves us to worship Him when we are bored and feel that our lives are simply a pattern of repeated steps.  The mundane pattern of life is actually the bulk of most people's experience.  It simply makes sense that God knew this and desired for us to engage and worship Him with largest part of our existence.

Colossians 3:23 says this, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men..."  Notice this verse says that 'whatever you do'.  God loves zookeepers, animators and molecular biologists.  God sees value and beauty in each vocation.  God also loves call center workers, dancers and financial planners.  The point is that whatever vocation we choose in life, we should know that God wants to be honored (worshiped) as we work and in our vocations. 

The Colossians passage teaches us that our work or vocation is to be done as if Jesus were our boss and standing right next to us.  We are to our work 'heartily' or 'energetically'.  The word used for working heartily is a command.  This adds to the truth that our work/vocation is blessed by God not matter what our work is.  

We are told in Colossians 3:17 that "...whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."  Here we find that not only our vocation is involved but everything we do...whatever we do is holy and should be done in the name of the Lord.

But what about when life becomes repeated steps of getting up, going to work, coming home, cleaning house or yard, watching T.V. and going to bed?  May I suggest that you begin by thanking God and then go through the routine of your day offering up shout outs to God or small thoughts of adoration to Him or even short bursts of requests and even complaints.  Take notice of the small things in life like the good taste of Iced Tea or the convenience of communication today or how about that your feet don't hurt (assuming they don't :-).  

No matter how rugged, smooth or powerful or boring your life may seem, God is interested.  God is interested in helping you through the issues and to use you and develop you through them.  God wants you to bring more joy, color, fullness, wholeness and faith to the people you touch.  God has created you specifically for what you do so that you can bring a deep blessing up on the world in small and large ways.  

As a believer, everything you do is spiritual because the Holy Spirit lives in you.  Everything you do is holy, because God resides in you.  You are important, your life is important and your vocation is important so do everything as you would if you were serving Jesus...because you are!

I'm So Proud of You!

"Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf.  I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction."  2 Corinthians 7:4

The world needs what you are giving away!  We live in a broken world that seems to continue to be dismantled by many different forces.  The heartache of life seems overwhelming and even suffocating at times.  The world may be broken, but you and I have the tools to help bring restoration to her people.

Over the past few weeks and months, we have been enjoying many small stories in our organic churches and our corporate gathering times.  Any one of these stories would seem insignificant.  When you hear about one person helping a single mom fix some things around her house you may smile at the nice jester and quickly forget about it.  But what happens if that becomes the normal way of responding to situations (James 2:14-17)?  What happens if a whole neighborhood takes on a positive, godly perspective of helping others (think Zac and Melissa Robinson in Youngtown).  I believe the fragrance of Christ begins to swell the nostrils of people and puts a smile on their faces.

I am seeing this type of love flow from your hands and lips all around.  When strangers visit a widow in the hospital, the smell of Christ begins to waft in the hallways.  When an older man chooses to spend time with a teenager, teaching the teen about a skill, the aroma of Jesus gets a little stronger.  When people get involved with helping others move in the hot Phoenix summer heat, the refreshment of Jesus begins to roll.  When young men choose to become serious in their pursuit of Jesus by not only reading their Bibles but applying what they learn, the presence of Jesus becomes more and more tangible.

For these and many other reasons, I want to say that I am very proud of you as a community of Christ followers.  Of course we are imperfect with many flaws and weaknesses.  We have much to learn.  The difference is that Christ is in our midst and we are each straining to listen to Him and follow His instructions.  This causes our gatherings to be sweeter and something to look forward to.

I am seeing dozens of people in our community being transformed.  I am seeing dozens of people in our community live out the integrity of Jesus.  I am seeing the miracle of men and women, boys and girls become more and more like Jesus and I am very proud of each of you.

Together we are making a strong difference in our communities, workplaces and neighborhoods.  Keep up the grand work you are doing for Jesus.  I believe He is smiling and enjoying watching you walk out your faith (3 John 4).

Looking Out for Each Other

“Am I my brother’s keeper?”  This rhetorical question from Cain (who had just killed his brother) to God is a hint of how sin will usually point us in the opposite direction God desires.  Cain was trying to push off any responsibility for caring for his brother.  In the simplest of terms, Cain was selfish and self-absorbed.  Selfishness is certainly the opposite of what God intended (love).  We were created in God’s image and in part, this means that we were created to be in community, in relationships, deep relationships.  This imitates the communal relationship of the Trinity.  In the western culture today, faith is often viewed as being personal.  This makes sense in the west and especially in the USA because independence, individual freedom and consumerism (what is in it for me) are some of the highest touted values.  This all must be changed and we ought to begin looking out for each other, especially in our spiritual lives.

Now what I am not talking about is being in each others business and details of life unless invited.  What I am talking about is a strong love and concern for each other with an eye towards encouraging each other to be more and more like Jesus.  The book of Hebrews has a bunch of good things to say about this topic.  Let’s take a peek at Hebrews 3:12-14

12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.

What I learn from this verse is that everyone of us is daily tempted to be slowly moved from a soft moldable heart to a hardened heart.  I learn from this that we alone are not adequate to protect our hearts from the danger of hardening.  We need to be encouraged ‘daily’ so we are not deceived and so that we finish the race with confidence. 

12 So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs. 13 Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong.  Hebrews 12:12-13

In this passage we are urged to have a strong ‘constitution’, that is, a strong persevering spirit that doesn’t take their eyes off of the prize (Jesus) or give up.  The reason for not giving up is to help our fellow strugglers to not stumble and to become strong.  This is an ‘others centered’ perspective and it indicates that again, we need each other.

The world is full of challenges.  The Devil seeks to devour and destroy.  Our flesh is always raging against the Spirit.  We certainly do need each other but what might this look like? 

Philippians 2 gives us some good insights.  We should treat others as more important than ourselves.  This may include regular phone calls of encouragement, being honest with a few about our temptations, having regular conversations about where life may be eroding our faith, spend time together laughing, dreaming and invigorating one another to live life in large ways for Christ. 

I think one thing we all need is to act courageously and lovingly to develop conversations with people beyond the surface issues of life.  We should be ready to take risks in our relationships because we truly love them and want the best for them.  Doing what is right is always worth the risk...love requires it.

I would love to hear how you would suggest we live out these principles?

Are You Bilingual?

When I first became a Christian and entered the world of church, I quickly understood that ‘Church People’ had some code language that I needed to learn. Phrases like Hallelujah, praise the Lord, Spiritual gifts, Foyer, Charismatic, Calvinism, Arminianism, “washed in the blood of the lamb”, “die to the flesh”, “become a living sacrifice”, “step out in faith” and “grieve the Holy Spirit”, along with others. I also had to learn how to pray, out loud! I noticed there were certain acronyms that I needed to learn as well; PTL (Praise the Lord) was a common tag that people wold say after good news was reported. I also remember PBPGIFWMY (Please be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet) - some of my friends wore a pin with this acronym hoping someone would ask them what it meant. Then there is the famous, WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelets and finally IXOYE which stands for Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior (from the Greek language).

Here is a short video that illustrates Christianese...

During times I spent with my ‘church family’, I would employ these code words and acronyms along with praying with really nice sounding words and other clever phrases. As I began to grow in my faith and became fluent in my new language of “Christianese”, I began using this new language at work or at the store or in conversations with my friends only to find them not understanding what I meant. I was looked at sort of weird and a little off; “What has happened to Ed?” is what I imagined they thought. I quickly learned that “Christianese” was only to used at church or around my church friends and not anywhere else.

Here is another short video illustrating a bilingual Christian...

I had become bilingual and it wasn’t good. I used one language when at church and a whole different language everywhere else. I became so good at this bad habit that I had forgotten how to speak to my friends and co-workers about the love of my life (Jesus) without using “Christianese”. This lead me to simply stop speaking about my faith in and love for Jesus for a period of time. I somehow learned that my faith life is to be separate from my normal life - this is a dichotomy that Jesus nor the Scriptures ever intended to be true.

I’m not certain we should be bilingual when it comes to spiritual issues, but if we are, we should learn to be fluent in the normal language of our culture. We should learn to take spiritual truths and communicate them everyday and in every place. There are way too many followers of Jesus who have ‘bought’ the politically correct idea of the separation of church and everything public (State, work, leisure etc). How can we be lights to the world if we forget we are followers of Jesus while at work or at the store or car shopping?

We need some strong conversations on how to be normal and in love with Jesus at the same time while we work, rest and play. We can be lights at work with our attitudes (Phil. 4:8), kind words that are free from gossip (Eph. 4:29) and by being others centered (Phil. 2:3-5). Our words ought to be following the promptings of the Holy Spirit (Luke 21:12-15) and full of encouragement, integrity and truth. Our love for people should be genuine and our hearts should always be calling out to Jesus to bring our co-workers and friends to a Biblical understanding of who Jesus is actually.

If we would rely on the Holy Spirit to lead our thoughts, actions and conversations throughout our lives, we’ll find natural doors being opened daily to communicate one or more portions of Jesus’ good news. This is the purpose of Jesus’ coming. This is the purpose of our lives interacting with those not yet following Jesus - the purpose is to offer them the good news in their own language and in their own context as the Spirit leads us. So let’s become fluent in the truth of Christ, communicated to the world we live in, as lead by the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Growth & Personal Responsibility - Part 2

For way too many Christians today, life gets in the way of faith.  When this happens, spiritual growth is rare.  We run from home to the gym to school to work to practice and then to meetings and finally, to bed only to get up the next day and do it all over again with minor tweaks.  Part of this challenge is that we live in a world that considers and even demonstrates faith as one option in life that is rarely exercised.  We are fed a view of success in life and it usually doesn't include commitment to faith as vital.  What this view of success does include is a hefty dose of 'me'.   

So many followers of Jesus are trying to cram their already full lives with faith and there is little to no room available.  As the guilt of not being 'spiritual' enters our lives we sprinkle in a couple hours a month of sitting in rooms with nice music and words from the Bible to stir up our spiritual selves.  We desperately crave for something deeper but we cannot figure out how to squeeze any more time out of our life so we can have more of Christ.  We make attempts at increasing our spiritual selves by signing up for daily one verse pop-ups on our computer screens or we read 'Our Daily Bread' while we do our daily duty in the bathroom.  We may turn on a radio station that plays music with Jesus lyrics and feel the soothing of our souls.  All of these things are good, yet we know they are not enough.  These may appease our conscience for a while, but the hunger, the hunger born from the Holy Spirit stirs us for a more active and/or deeper faith in the creature and lover of our souls.  This battle rages in part because Christ is one aspect of our life instead of being our life!  

If we begin thinking about faith as one part of who we are, we will never find enough room or time for a healthy amount of Jesus.  We must begin by seeing ourselves first as followers of Jesus.  After all, we are said to be aliens and strangers (1 Peter 2:11) on the earth.  This world is not our home.  When we begin by seeing ourselves as children of God and our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), our perspective can change.  When Christ who is our life (Colossians 3:4) is central, we can then begin to fit life into our faith.  When Christ is central, we can choose to submit our time, money, energy, priorities etc. to Him and let His Word and principles dictate how we ought to live.  When life on earth is our priority, life will dictate if and when we have time for faith and that foundation is out of sync with Jesus' principles (Matthew 7).

Abraham Lincoln once said, "Every man...is responsible for his own face."  Each follower of Jesus must fight against the seduction of our culture to put life first and to fit Christ in.  Life can be cruel and will often work hard to keep little to no time for the things of Christ.  Christ, on the other hand, is full of mercy and grace and desires us to have a life that is full of meaning and fruit.  Christ will always help us to sort our priorities to help us be the best people possible for the community He has placed us.  Each person must choose if their life will be centered around life or Christ.  Every person should take personal responsibility to think deeply and choose wisely.

I would lie to hear you insights.

Get out there and cast some seeds.

Spiritual Growth and Personal Responsibility

I joined the wrestling team my first year in high school.  The night before one of my first wrestling matches, our coach had us weigh in to see if would make our weight class the next day.  I was wrestling at the 148 lbs. class and when I stepped on the scale, it came it at 149.0.  The coach instructed me “...to not let anything pass my lips until after weigh-ins tomorrow.’  Those are pretty clear instructions.  That was at 6pm and weigh-ins were at 3pm the next day.  I fought hard to follow my coaches instructions but after thinking about eating for several hours, I determined that a couple of oranges and water wouldn’t hurt. I felt so much better after eating those oranges.  I did not let anything (else) pass my lips.  At 2:15pm or so, the coach had us weigh in ‘unofficially’, he didn’t want any surprises at the ‘official’ weigh-ins at 3pm.  I stepped on the scale and it read 148.5 lbs.  I was over weight by .5 pounds the coach was not happy.  The consequence was that I could not wrestle that day.  All of the hard work I had put in to win my position was for naught that day.  I clearly knew what it took to be successful and choose to do something different, something that I wanted to do.   I not only was not able to compete that day, I also let down my team, I lost some of my coaches confidence in me and I lost the opportunity to gain some valuable wrestling experience.  Personal responsibility is always necessary for growth whether it is sports or our spiritual lives.

When people see others who are getting spiritually fit, they feel a deep desire to be on that same path.  A maturing spiritual life is attractive, consistent and powerful.  It is good to want to grow spiritually and it is something every believer should be doing throughout their whole life.  We must always remember we are in a marathon, not a sprint.  When people see people maturing spiritually, they often want to know what they need to do to grow likewise.

The Apostle Peter wrote two letters to people who were dispersed from their homelands because they believed in Jesus Christ and let others know it.  They were persecuted and going through difficult times.  In his second letter, Peter briefly outlines in the first chapter some principles and truths that we should think deeply upon (meditate) regarding how to grow spiritually.  Here are those very important verses.

2 Peter 1:5-10
5 So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. 6 Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. 7 Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop these virtues are blind or, at least, very shortsighted. They have already forgotten that God has cleansed them from their old life of sin. 10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Doing this, you will never stumble or fall away.

Notice that Peter is instructing every believer (including me and you) to ‘make every effort to apply the benefits...’ (v. 5).   This requires personal responsibility, internal motivation and a focus that is solidly upon becoming more like Jesus.  Peter ends his list of character traits and principles by promising us that if we do them, ‘...we will never stumble or fall away.’ (v. 10)!

Recently I met with a person who commented how much she appreciated my emphasis on multiplication of disciples instead of adding people to attend.  This person recognized this as true and necessary for the church to thrive and expand.  After those nice words, I asked her if she was applying the truth of multiplication that she so appreciated?  Her answer was ‘Not yet.’, but appreciated the challenge.  Multiplying disciples is only as good of an idea as it is implemented by each individual (me and you).

The easiest, most reproducible and proven tool that I have found to help people grow spiritually are Life Transformation Groups (LTG’s).  Making disciples is both easy (anyone can do an LTG) and hard (searching for other desperate people and being faithful to the process takes discipline and perseverance).  What is needed is for women and men to take their growing spiritually seriously and make every effort to do it.  The world needs you and I to be as serious as possible about our faith.

So the bottom line of my thoughts today is that you and I are responsible for our spiritual growth and for giving it away to others.  Are we making ‘every effort‘ to grow?  Are we choosing to search for people interested in knowing Jesus better and handing off what we know to them?  If we are not, when will it be a good time to begin? 

I would love to hear your thoughts.