Walking With Jesus

Ambition

“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though He was God He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8 NLT)

Are you ambitious? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary ambition means: “eager desire for success, honor, or power.” There are some who frown on any ambition, but that seems counterintuitive to me. I want to be hugely successful in honoring Jesus and allowing His powerful life and love to flow in and through me to His fame, don’t you?

And, yes, of course, ambition is typically “me-focused,” and that’s the point: Who are you seeking to exalt in and through your ambition? If it’s only you, you are among all people most to be pitied. Why? It’s like a worm ambitiously seeking to be a human being. No matter what the worm does, thinks (can worms think? 😊) or desires it will never become a human being.

Photo by aku0131n akdau011f on Pexels.com

Vance K. Jackson wrote: “Many collapse under the weight and pressure of self-promotion and self-exaltation. But when God promotes, His promotion is sustainable.” Ambition is actually a gift of God, but like so many gifts God provides, we too often distort it and seek to make it beneficial simply to ourselves. The Apostle Paul referred to people like this in Philippians 1:17 when he wrote: “Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me.”

Think about that for a minute. Paul’s not speaking of those who are lost, who are enemies of God and the Church, he’s talking about people who bear the name of the Savior, who are speaking boldly the claims of Christ, yet are doing these wonderful things not for God’s glory and honor, but their own.

Paul didn’t say to not be ambitious, he simply pointed out that we need to check our motives when we do anything, even for the cause of Christ. Jesus’ goal was essentially to forget Himself, to nullify benefit for Himself in preference that everything He said and did, including the person He was becoming as God’s Son on earth – EVERYTHING would be to His Father’s honor and glory.

His ambitious goal was to make the Father known – to enable the invisible Spirit of the Father to become visible in and through His life. He wanted anyone who looked at Him to see the Father. And the wonderful thing about that is, He fulfilled His goal perfectly, so much so, that He passed on to us the honor and privilege of carrying on His legacy in and through our lives.

Jesus said in John 5:30: “I can do nothing on My own. I judge as God tells Me. Therefore, My judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent Me, not My own will.” Paul emphasizes that Jesus has passed the baton of submission to the Father’s will to us when he wrote in Romans 12:1: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living sacrifice – the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.”

So, what’s the bottom line? Essentially this – our life as a Jesus follower is not our own, it’s been bought and paid for by the blood of our Savior; therefore, to live our life as if it were our own, being driven or motivated by selfish ambition is on many levels the greatest denial of Jesus we can make with our life.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Imitator?

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 NLT)

Do you remember Gunsmoke? It was a TV program a long time ago that featured “Matt Dillon” as the Sheriff of Dodge City, Kansas in the 1870’s. At the beginning of each episode Matt Dillon would face off with a bad guy to see who would remain standing. Many times, I would put on my holster and “draw” against Matt Dillon. Of course, he didn’t stand a chance against my lightning speed (in my dreams 😊).

Not only did I want to outdraw Matt Dillon, but I also imagined what it would be like to be him, to live in the late 1800’s when all it took to keep peace in the city was a sheriff who could outdraw the bad guys. It seems we each have someone we admire and seek to imitate when we’re growing up.

Imitator “Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com”

Maybe it’s a parent, an uncle or aunt, a friend, or a celebrity, we just want to have a track to run on, a purpose for being alive, a validation for taking up space on the planet. Something I’ve learned as a Jesus follower – the only person God wants us to be is ourselves. If He’d wanted us to be anyone else, He would have created us to be them.

But in the process of being our best selves, He wants us to model our lives after Him. That’s why Paul reminded young Timothy to “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do…” But how do we do that? How do we imitate perfection? In Ephesians Paul writes directly to the point of what a child of God’s life should look like. Not only in terms of outward behavior, but also in how we think.

Anything we want to become begins in our mind, in our thoughts. Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right!” Do you desire to be an imitator of God? What might that look like for you? Paul specifically mentions that we should model God in how we love and speaks to the sacrificial love of Jesus. But he also speaks about more specific things such as sexual immorality, impurity, or greed.

He lists others, but his point as I understand it, isn’t to be so regimented in doing right things we forget to do them for the right reasons. I can live sexually pure, avoid “the very appearance of evil,” be generous, thoughtful, and kind, and do those things as a means of gaining favor with God so He’ll let me into His perfect heaven, and miss the point of why I should be doing them.

Imitating God isn’t the entrance “exam” for getting into heaven, it’s to render glory, honor, and praise to the King of kings and Lord of lords. It’s not about us, it’s about the One we’re seeking to imitate. The closer we’re able, by His Spirit and with His guidance and help, to conform our lives to the likeness of our Savior, to that extent we’ll be effective in pointing others to Him.

Ideally, the more I can imitate Jesus, the easier it will become for me to share His life and love with others, and the more believable my words will be because they will align more perfectly with the way I live my life. Is anyone going to become completely like Jesus? Yes, and no. Yes, absolutely, once we get to heaven, but no, never in this life.

Can we grow in His likeness? I pray we can, more every day! There are people I know and have known across the years who have enabled me to see Jesus more clearly for having spent time with them. My mentor, Jim Burchett, and his dear wife Carolyn were as much like Jesus to me as any person I’ve ever met. I have their picture in my office, and I thank God for their wholesome and godly influence in my life. They were the ones who, in the darkest night of my soul, opened their hearts and home to me and loved me through that season. I want to imitate them as I seek to love the people in my life to Jesus.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Our Vocations

“I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when He appears to set up His Kingdom: Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:1-2 NLT)

While the powerful message (above) was originally written to Paul’s young protégé Timothy, there is application for each of us who know and love our Savior Jesus. Regardless of our stage in life – young-old, male-female, executive-manual laborer, or retired – if we know and love Jesus we’re still in the “business” of helping people meet Jesus.

Tim Keller wrote: “Our vocations are one avenue for doing God’s work in the world.” I can’t pretend to know all he meant by that, but how it speaks to me is this: there’s never a time in our lives that God is not engineering circumstances to put us in contact with someone He wants us to point to Him.

If you look back over your life you’ll be amazed at the number of, what you thought to be, random occurrences when you met someone who made a lasting impact on your life. I think of several people I met while I worked in various jobs, while also pastoring a small church. In casual conversation we learn things about one another that cause things to “click” between us, and we end up being lifelong friends.

Would it be a surprise to you to know that God engineered the circumstances in your life to meet that “stranger” before the foundation of the earth was formed? Why would He do that? Because He loves you and He knew that there would be a contribution you each would make to one another’s life that would be beneficial in pointing each of you to Him.

Why is that important? Because we typically think of “witnessing” as some type of Gospel “presentation,” when in reality, we witness with our life in EVERY conversation, even if the name of Jesus is never mentioned. How so? Through our work ethic, our language, our attitude, our demeanor, our kindness, friendliness, openness, our willingness to work cooperatively with others, and on and on it goes.

At heart our true “vocation” is to be a child of God, the Lord just puts us in jobs to earn a living and give us a platform to honor, bless, and share Him with others. “Yeh,” you may be thinking, “but I don’t even like the people with whom I’m working, and they don’t like me.” Does that prevent you from doing and being any of the things I mentioned above? Do you not realize that we don’t have to like someone to be kind to them and to genuinely love them?

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:18: “Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.” If we’re patient and conscientious to do our very best at whatever work we do, it will open doors of opportunity to meet and get to know the people with whom we work.

“Witnessing” for Christ entails a whole lot more than speaking words about Jesus. Ideally, those opportunities will present themselves, but if someone doesn’t “believe” in you, they’re likely not going to put much stock in your words about Jesus.

Being retired now I try to take advantage of every opportunity to be kind and engage people who come to my house to do service work. I know they’re on the clock and want to get finished with what they’re doing, but I can offer them a bottle of water or allow them to use my bathroom or give them an invitation card to come to my church. It’s no accident they’re there, so, if the Lord sent them, He may well want to draw them closer to Himself through our thoughtfulness, kindness, and invitation to church.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Problems?

“During those dark times, it was not safe to travel. Problems troubled the people of every land. Nation fought against nation, and city against city, for God was troubling them with every kind of problem. But as for you, be strong and courageous, for your work will be rewarded.” (2 Chronicles 15:5-7 NLT)

In the early years of King Asa’s reign over Israel he made a lot of positive changes, but it was not easy, and he was forced to face armies that were much larger and stronger than his. It occurred to me that the way he handled the massive odds stacked against him can guide us in the problems that entangle us from day to day.

The truth is, though Satan is a defeated foe, he can build a very strong case against us, so much so that we often feel defeated before we begin. So, how do we face our problems in a way that honors the Lord and enables us to stand strong against the enemy of our soul?

2 Chronicles 14:9-11 says: “Once an Ethiopian named Zerah attacked Judah with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots. They advanced to the town of Mareshah, so Asa deployed his armies of battle in the valley north of Mareshah. Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God. ‘O Lord, no one but You can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in You alone. It is in Your name that we have come against this vast horde. O Lord, You are our God; do not let mere men prevail against You!” Then verse 12 says: “So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians in the presence of Asa and the army of Judah, and the enemy fled.”

Don’t you love that! God is more powerful than any problem Satan can throw at us, we just need to make sure our theology is strong enough to defeat them. What do I mean? King Asa didn’t defeat his enemy with his army until he defeated them in prayer.

What’s our “knee jerk” response to many of our problems? What are the first words out of our mouths? “O God!” followed shortly thereafter with: “What am I going to do?” With emphasis on the I! Francis Chan wrote in the context of marriage: “Most marriage problems are not really marriage problems, they are God problems. They can be traced back to … a faulty understanding of Him. An accurate picture of God is vital to a healthy marriage.”

That’s true regardless of the origin of any problem. It can be money, children, work-related, physical, mental – whatever category it falls under, the source of the resources to overcome that problem must begin with God. Simply put, bad theology creates bad problems, because what we think about comes about. And what we think about impacts our attitude and our subsequent actions

If we’re so focused on the size of our problem that it morphs the size of our God, we’re defeated before we begin. A solution to our problems begins with a right understanding of who God is, and the only way to formulate a right understanding of God is to be grounded in His Word.

Justin Talbert wrote in a Family Life devotional, again, in the context of marriage: “As our knowledge of the real, biblical Jesus increases, so does our day-by-day holiness. And that directly impacts the life of our spouse―and our marriage altogether. This question, then, becomes imminently important: What are you doing today to fortify your theology, your accurate belief and practice of who God is? There’s more than we realize on the line!”

So, do YOU have a problem? What are YOU going to do about it?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

You Display God’s Splendor

“They will be called … a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.” (Isaiah 61:3)

*On the 15th of each month I devote a day to share with you a devotional by Sylvia Gunter. Please read these words slowly and attentively as you allow the Holy Spirit to speak through her to your heart. Blessings, Ed (used with permission)

Listen to the Word of God for you in Isaiah 61:3. “They will be called … a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 as he announced his purpose statement. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me to preach the gospel to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, to set captives free, to open blind eyes, to open prison doors, and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” That’s not the end of the sentence in Isaiah 61. Isaiah continues that He wants to make a holy exchange with you: His comfort for grief, His crown instead of ashes, His gladness for mourning, and His praise instead of despair. It continues, “You will be an oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord,” and the weight of the entire passage falls on the next words: “for the display of his splendor.”

Jesus came to earth to heal you, set you free, and restore you for a purpose: so that you will display His splendor. You live to show forth His glory; you are called to this. This defines you. God’s appointment in you is that people see, feel, and respond to the weight and strength of your life, as you live in the splendor, strength, and weight of the glory of Jesus.

This is the true meaning of your life. Jesus said to His Father in John 17:22, “I have given them the glory that you gave me.” That glory of Jesus is who you are. Your life is shining His light, the manifold wisdom of God in you. You are on a journey further into that identity, legitimacy, freedom, and confident hope. It is true of you now, and it is becoming more true of you.

God says in Psalm 8:5 that He crowned you with glory (splendor), honor, and majesty that is unique to you. Shine your unique testimony to the greatness of God. Christ died to bring out the richness of your life as you show forth His radiance. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” You are blessed as you receive the light of Jesus shining in you to shine out of you, so that His beauty and truth will touch and warm the spirit of others.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that the god of this age has a strategy: to blind your mind to keep you from seeing the light of the glory of Christ. Satan is trying to put out your light. He battles to stop you from displaying Jesus in all His glory.

God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in you to give you the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). God in you is bigger than any assault to deaden your heart and your desire, to shut down the glory in your life, to keep you from affirming the splendor that is your inheritance.

Your splendor is seen in the small details of your life … a hug, a smile, a card you write, a phone call, a kindness. God put you right where you are, in the family, in the marriage, in the valley of decision where you are. He placed you there to let His splendor be seen, to shine the light of His glory through you.

In your Father you have something deep, beautiful, authentic, and powerful for yourself and others. God created you for this very time in your life. It is never too late to accomplish the purpose for which God created you. Your times are in God’s hands. Jesus is at work in you to fill your place in pleasing His heart and to fill the place in the world He designed for you to display Him in the blessing of His presence and strength.

God is doing something in you that is wonderful and unique, something that bonds you to Him with everlasting cords of love.

Be blessed in the name of Jesus who is the Splendor revealed in you (Ps. 145:5).

Click here to learn more and order. An archive of past devotionals is available at www.thefathersbusiness.com

Apathy and Passion

“Then His disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: ‘Passion for God’s house will consume Me.’” (John 2:17 NLT)

Passion is a multidimensional issue. There are those in our world today who are very passionate about evil, and it’s no wonder. Satan is extremely motivated to take as many people to hell with him as possible. Yet, we can never lose sight of the passion of the Lord Jesus, who relentlessly chased evil to the Cross to open a way to God that not even Satan can close.

The word translated “Passion” in the verse above is the Greek word “zelos” (dzay’-los) and is the word from which comes our English word “zeal.” It speaks to the fierceness with which ideas and their resultant behavior grip our lives and seem to force us to move in a given direction.

We see it in sports, in politics, in demonic habits, and yes, in religion, as evidenced in what’s taking place in Israel as I write. We should love and serve Jesus with passion, with holy zeal, but not to the extreme that we hurt people in the process. Our love and passion for Jesus should translate into compassionate concern and caring, coupled with appropriate efforts to point those in our spheres of influence to eternal life that is found only in Jesus.

Unfortunately, in our efforts to please the Lord we tend to lean in one of two opposite directions: we can become obnoxious in our desire to make Christ known or, on the other hand, we can become apathetic, believing “surely, someone else will tell my friends and loved ones about Jesus.”

So, where’s the balance? Is there a middle lane on which we can travel as earnest and sincere Jesus followers? For me it’s a daily battle. There are days I could lay around all day and accomplish nothing of eternal value if I let myself, but as Pastor Craig Groeschel wrote: “Apathy makes excuses. Passion finds a way.” So, the question then becomes: “How passionate am I for Jesus?”

It’s hard to imagine how we got this way, but our world is coming apart at the seams. People aren’t getting better, but worse. The innumerable ways people invent to do evil can be very discouraging and there’s a part of each of us that wants to give up and just let everyone fend for themselves. Then I read Isaiah 59 and it was as if the Lord spoke to me with a neon sign!

The world since the fall of man has always been heading in a very wrong direction. That’s why the pathway to hell is wide and the pathway to heaven is narrow. But it’s also the reason we, as Jesus followers, should determine that as long as our lungs have breath, we will share Jesus with whomever will listen.

Please don’t be discouraged as you read about or listen to all the things going on, even in our own neighborhoods. Neither should you bury your head in the sand, but in God’s holy Word. Drench your spirit with the passionate words of our Savior, the words of the writers of the Bible across the centuries, determined to make a difference in their generation.

And above all else, spend time sitting, kneeling, walking – in whatever manner works best for you – in the presence of your heavenly Father and listen carefully as He guides you into passionately giving every ounce of your being in service to Him.

I’m reminded of the poem by C. T. Studd that includes the lines: “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be, If the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Just As I Am!

“Then Jesus said, ‘Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28 NLT)

*I read this on one of my friend’s Facebook posts and couldn’t resist sharing with you. I hope it speaks to you, especially if you’re burdened with the thought of your own uselessness to God. I assure you, God will use you, if you’ll let Him! Blessings, Ed 😊

On September 22, 1871, an elderly British lady, 82 years young, was ushered into her heavenly reward. Earlier in her life, in 1835, her frustration at being an invalid left her feeling useless and questioning her very salvation. What she did next would echo through history.

As a young woman, Charlotte Elliot was not sure of her relationship with Christ, not sure of how to be saved, even though she had been raised a minister’s daughter, and the probing question of a Swiss evangelist, “Are you at peace with God?”, would not leave her mind. When she saw the evangelist a few weeks later, she mentioned that she could not shake his question. But, she protested, what could she possibly bring to God? When he replied that she need not bring anything but herself, she gladly accepted Christ.

Some twelve years later, in 1835, crippled by illness and constant fatigue, she felt saddened by her inability to help a local church’s cause. Remembering her conversion, she took out pen and paper and wrote a poem to encourage others who felt perhaps they too had nothing to give. . .

“Just As I Am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, Oh, Lamb of God, I come…”

Her poem was published and she was inundated with requests for it. She was gladdened to discover later that some copies were being sold to raise money for the very cause she felt helpless to assist!

After her death, thousands of letters were found in her home, written by people whose lives had been transformed by her words.

Her song has been translated into hundreds of languages, published in more than 1600 hymnals, and has reached billions around the world, and continues to bring people to Christ even today.

Sixty years later, on this date, in 1931, a 31-year-old man riding in the sidecar of his brother’s motorcycle in England finally came to the end of his internal struggle against whether Christ was indeed the Son of God. He finally knew in his soul that indeed Jesus was just who He said He was! He realized that God calls us to Him “just as we are”.

When C.S. Lewis stepped out of the sidecar, he was a new man, saved by grace!

Ninety-nine years after Charlotte Elliott penned her words, and 3 years after Lewis’ conversion, the 16-year-old son of a dairy farmer listened intently as he heard the message of salvation preached at a revival service in Charlotte, NC. When the song, “Just As I Am,” was sung at the end, young Billy Graham went forward to accept Christ.

Twenty years later, Billy Graham had become a successful evangelist and was invited to speak at Cambridge University in England. His nervousness over the event nearly led him to cancel it. But he was introduced to a kind man named C.S. Lewis who encouraged him to disregard the critics who had spoken out against him, and to continue with the revival.

Rev. Graham went on to speak to an overflow crowd of 2,000 each night of the revival, and when he returned to England in 1989, he addressed a crowd of 80,000 at England’s Wimbley Stadium! As always, he closed the event with the same song that brought him to Christ, “Just As I Am.”

Never think you have “nothing” to bring to Jesus! That is exactly what He wants you to bring… nothing! He wants you, just you, as you are! He can take frustration like Charlotte Elliot’s, skepticism like Lewis’, and nervousness like Billy Graham’s, and reach the world through you!

“Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”

*Please come to Him today – Just As You Are!

Too Strong to Be Stopped!

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights He fasted and became very hungry.” (Matthew 4:1-2 NLT)

How did Jesus become so strong in His faith? You may be thinking: “Duh! He was God!” Yes, He was and is, but He was also 100% man – human being. So? He had the capacity to fail in His walk with His heavenly Father the same as you and I do. He was tempted more severely than any of us, yet, stood strong. But how? How did He maintain His strength to defeat the power of Satan even in light of His severe physical, mental, and emotional weakness?

The two primary means through which the Lord Jesus became strong and maintained His spiritual strength, so much so He was able to pay the full penalty for our every sin, freeing us from the bondage of our sin and shame, were His testing and His pain.

The writer of the Hebrew letter wrote in 4:15: “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin.” Why did God allow His only Son to be tormented and tested by temptation? For the same reason He allows us to be tempted. For the same reason athletes practice and train – to enable us to be the best we can be, strong in battle, and quick to recognize our areas of weakness.

After 40 days without eating, where would you suppose Jesus would be weak? Certainly, weak physically, but literally starving with hunger. So, where did Satan tempt Him first? “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Satan’s obvious goal wasn’t simply to test Jesus’ physical endurance, but to cause Him to question who He was, thus, seeking to discredit why He was even born. That’s why testing is such a huge issue for you and me. If Satan can get us to focus on ourselves and our needs, we’ll quickly forget the Kingdom of God and our critical role in fulfilling our purpose in being a child of God.

That’s why pride and arrogance are such effective tools in Satan’s capable hands. When we’re so full of ourselves we can’t see past the end of our nose, he’s crippled our usefulness to the Lord in serving the needs of others. If Jesus had lost sight of who He was, He would have failed His mission before it began.

But testing is only part of the battle. Notice how hard Satan pressured Jesus at the beginning of His ministry and at the end. Remember the agony and anguish Jesus suffered in the garden shortly before His betrayal? In Matthew 26:38 Jesus said to Peter, James, and John: “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.” Then what was His prayer? “Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from Me.”

What would have been the outcome if Jesus had stopped His prayer there? His mission would have been thwarted and we’d still be hopelessly lost in our sin. But gratefully, His prayer continued: “Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine.”

The only way you and I will ever become enough like Jesus to be too strong to be stopped in our life for Him is if we stop whining when we’re tempted and in the midst of our pain and suffering. Pain and suffering are our friends because they build our character and strengthen our resolve to be all in for Jesus. To give in to our weakness and pain is to abort the mission God called us to fulfill – to be Him in our families and in the lives of others in our spheres of influence.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Darkness and Light

“For when you see Me, you are seeing the One who sent Me. I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in Me will no longer remain in the dark.” (John 12:45-46 NLT)

Knowing there is a Light and walking in that Light are two very different things. Knowing about Jesus and hanging out with Him and His people is not the same as putting your trust in Him.

You’ve likely heard of the Great Blondin, who walked across Niagara Falls on a tight rope. The story is told that his manager asked the crowd: “Who believes the Great Blondin can push a wheelbarrow across the rope?” And the crowd erupted with enthusiastic applause and affirmation. Then he asked: “Who will be first to climb in?” And the crowd was silent.

Until our belief becomes personal it won’t become impactful. It’s easy to cheer for that which costs us nothing. It takes little effort to recognize and affirm the Light, the challenge is to make the decision to walk out of the crowd and climb into the wheelbarrow; to walk out of the darkness into the light of the only One who can change us and enable us to become the person God always envisioned we could become.

Light isn’t simply the absence of darkness, it’s the presence of opportunity to see and understand things – about ourselves, about Jesus, about the Bible, about life, and about a million others things that remain entombed in the darkness of our heart and mind until we allow the light of Christ to illuminate and inform us.

It’s interesting to me that darkness cannot stand in the presence of the sun. We may close our eyes or retreat to a dark place that blocks the light, but we can never destroy or eliminate the light. The light of Christ’s life is like that. We may close our mind to the Truth which He is – not just what He taught – but our spiritual blindness will never extinguish His presence, not only from the world, but even from ourselves.

There is an eternal relationship between light and darkness, not only figuratively, but literally. God has always existed. He is eternally present; thus, His light has become evident in everything He has created, including you and me. There exists in each of us the capacity to shine as light or darkness; good or evil; love or hate.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.“ Even on our best days, in those moments of seeming greatest clarity, we can still do, say, and think things that are completely contrary to who God made us to become.

We have a dark side that only the illumination of the love of Christ can dispel. And the irony is, unless and until the Holy Spirit resides in us and enables us to “tame” that dark side we are hopelessly lost and helpless to defeat it on our own. In our desperation we often turn to judging and criticizing others as a means of making ourselves look and feel better, but as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said so well: “Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.”

Are you walking in the Light of Christ’s life and love today? It never ceases to amaze me that Jesus died when I was at my worst, when I was helpless and hopeless to find my way out of the darkness of my own soul. One of the many values of the light of God’s Holy Spirit abiding in us and working through us as His son or daughter, is His relentless effort to show us the parts of our heart and mind that are still enshrouded in darkness. It’s a difficult journey to walk in the light, but one that will pay eternal dividends.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Peace and Purity

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-12 NLT)

The role of the local church is clearly defined in Scripture, but because it’s governed by human beings, there are often conflicts that threaten its health. Two key elements must be present for any church body to be healthy and effective – peace and purity.

Peace doesn’t necessarily equate with everyone being on the same page, theologically, methodologically, or even philosophically, it mostly depends on how people perceive what is happening in the church and why. What does that mean? It means that if the leadership Is following Christ’s mandate, and is open and honest about the direction they’re seeking to lead the church, most of the time the people will follow their leadership.

The church of which I’m a part in this season of my life does an outstanding job of keeping people informed and giving us an open door to speak with the leaders about anything on our mind. They’re as Scripturally devoted and Spirit led as any pastoral team I’ve ever known. They are transparent and honest about every aspect of the budget; where the money is going and why; every direction in which they’re leading the church and why; and most importantly, they’re transparent about their own dependence upon Jesus and their need for our prayers and support.

Is it a perfect church? It is in my heart and mind, but I’m sure there are people who have issues with the way some things are done. But having seen a lot of church leaders’ function in a lot of churches, I praise God every day for the gift of my church. And just so you know, I’m not on staff and receive no compensation from the church except the joy of being a member.

So, a couple of questions – first, how do you preserve the peace of the church? And second, how do you preserve the purity of the church? Matthew Henry speaks to these issues when he wrote: “The way to preserve the peace of the church is to preserve the purity of it.”

So, let’s look briefly at how to preserve the purity of the church. In my opinion, purity has to be rooted in Jesus and led by the Holy Spirit. How is that accomplished corporately? Primarily through prayer – individually, as each member holds the church as a body up to the Lord each day. Those in leadership bring the Body together specifically to pray for the guidance of the Spirit in leading the pastors and other leaders in the ways they should go – individually and corporately.

My responsibility as a part of this specific church family is to pray for them every day. We have several pastors who lead ministries in and through our church. I’m trying to learn their names so I can pray for them and their families by name every morning. Why do I do that? Because without the guidance of the Holy Spirit none of them can do anything of eternal value.

One of the pastors with whom I’m close asked me to pray for his purity, which I do every day, not only for his, but for each of the pastors. Why? Because for anyone to lead others in the ways of the Lord without purity of heart, mind, soul, and body is to be limited in their effectiveness. That’s why purity is so key to peace, not only in the church as a whole, but in our individual lives.

To seek to walk closely with the Lord while harboring wicked, evil, or impure thoughts, attitudes, or behaviors is to cripple our effectiveness in not only being at peace ourselves, but in helping others maintain any semblance of peace and purity.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊