Preparation - It's often painful but well worth it!

Do you remember the spoiled girl in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory who wanted the goose that laid the golden eggs?  Veruca Salt was her name and I can still hear her yelling, "I want it NOW!"  Then there is this obnoxious commercial for a company that pays people a lump sum (much smaller of course than what they are entitled) for a settlement they would have received over time.  Person after person yells, "It's my money and I want it NOW!"  Cell phones, text messaging, satellite radio, Ipods, and WIFI have bred a generation of Americans who have the desire for immediate gratification.  We want it now.  The problem is that we don't necessarily want to do the hard work necessary to achieve much of what God really wants for our lives.  

I was at breakfast this morning with my ministry partner (doing church) when a really powerful analogy come to us. As many of you know, I am heading to SW Colorado to hunt Elk in September.  I am 46, live near sea level, and up until November of 2009 was a wee bit overweight.  I hadn't shot my bow in a few years and couldn't  keep a group of three arrows within 2 feet of each other at 40 yards to save my life.  I got winded when I gave my 50lb eight year old son a piggy back ride up the steps to his room and I wasn't at all prepared to carry a 50 lb. backpack up hill and hunt Elk with a bow at an elevation of 11,000 feet.  Sure it would be really great if I could fly out there, strap on the backpack, run up the mountain, chase a big bull elk, shoot with the accuracy of Robin Hood, an all the while feel like I was lying at the poolside in a fine resort.  But guess what?  This boy was unprepared. So what to do?

I needed to loose about 20 lbs., get in shape cardiovascularly, tune my bow, practice my shooting from different distances and different angles.  I needed some new equipment. I filled my pack with 55 lbs. of weights, strapped it on, and walked for miles and trotted up and down the nearby ski hill.  It was miserable.  I was hot, tired, sore, and stiff.  I had to spend time on the treadmill, in the gym, and in the backyard with the bow.  I had to break in a new pair of boots walking for miles on humid 90+ degree days while my family swam at the neighbor's pool.  You can't just go from ground level to the top of the mountain without preparation.  I think you get the idea.  

In the same way, I think, we as Christians want to have all the benefits, be fed spiritually, be lifted up emotionally, and find forgiveness but aren't willing to do the hard work, endure the suffering, or sacrifice the time we set aside for fun and pleasure in order to be all and do all the Lord has called us to do.  I know this for a fact because I do the same!  I want to be spiritually mature, strong in my faith, morally solid, and bold in my proclamation of Christ but I am not always ready to do what it it takes for that to happen.  Prayer, time in the Word, gathering with brothers and sisters to worship, enduring ridicule or loss of "friends" because of a boldness to speak the Name of Jesus.  Many of us are willing to invest an hour or to a week and maybe a few minutes each day to talk to God but there is no way we will see the summit of what God wants for our lives if we live this kind of Christian life.

We often think that immediately after Paul encountered the risen Christ he was all ready to do the work God set him apart to do.  We often see his powerful ministry in a condensed, Reader's Digest way.  Sure he was excited and filled with the Spirit and proclaimed Christ from the outset but his ministry did not happen overnight and without pain.  Galatians chapters 1 and 2 tell us that he went to Arabia for three years before he met Peter and James then another fourteen years passed before he returned to Jerusalem. Paul was stoned, beaten, flogged, and endured much suffering as I have pointed out in other posts but he also just plain spent time with the Father.  He knew the Word.  My son reminded me this week of a verse that is SO important and reminds us of our need for preparation, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." (Psalm 119:11)  How do I keep myself from sinning?  Hiding God's word in my heart.  How do I do that without being in God's Word.

The last component of this isn't what we do but what God has to do in us.  Sometimes it's just time, plain and simple.  We just aren't ready yet.  We can't run until we walk.  We can't chew meat until we have teeth.  We can't write a novel if we haven't learned to read.  God sometimes just has to bring us through some stuff, strengthen us, build our faith through suffering, teach us some things about him and about ourselves, and prune of some dead useless things from us before we can climb higher up the mountain.

Peace in Christ,

David

Exhausted? Three Keys for Running to Win in Life

Are you tired?  Does it feel like you’ve “hit the wall” in life and can’t go on?  Does it feel like your faith and your spiritual energy is completely depleted?  If you’re in a place like this now or have been before read on.

The vision is still clear in my mind.  It was the Boston Marathon, I think sometime in the 70’s, and a female runner is nearing the finish line when her legs start to wobble, her path is no longer straight but swerves to the left then to the right, and she’s looking disoriented.  It appears that she has little control of her own body.  Then she loses control not just of her voluntary muscles but also of her bowels and her bladder.  It’s a pitiful site.  She falls and tries to get up.  After a race of twenty-six miles (over 140,000 feet) he is now less than a couple hundred feet from the finish line unable to go on.  She has “hit the wall”.  Two runners slow down, pick her up, and carry her across the finish line; not pretty but she finished and she receives the medal (and probably some serious medical attention).

A number of years ago I trained for a 25k race (about 15.5 miles) and I remember hot, spring days when, after eleven or twelve miles, I felt I couldn’t go any further.  I pushed myself but never really to “the wall”.  My mind quit before my body really did.  It is the same when lifting weights, you get to that rep. that you think is your very last when the trainer gets in your face and yells, “Don’t you quit on me!” and somehow you pump out one or two more reps.  Our endurance is not just physical it’s emotional.  Actually it’s not just physical and emotionally but it’s spiritual.  This is especially true in the race we run as disciples of Jesus Christ.

I want to share with you three things that will help you carry on and finish the race; one is your responsibility, one falls on those who love you, and one belongs to God.

Your part:

The Apostle Paul wrote these words in the ninth chapter of 1 Corinthians, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the game goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it a slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Paul made two points here that we need to see.  The first is that you can’t run a real race if you don’t train.  Paul didn’t just say training but “strict training”.  It’s the difference between the guy jogging a mile a week in cut-off jeans, dangling a cigarette from his mouth and the one putting in five to twelve miles a day for three months.  If you’re not in the Word and truly spending time with the Father you will not be ready to run.  You get what you put into it and when you get to a big hill if you have filled yourself with Spiritual protein (the Word of God) you will get up the hill but if not, the hill may be insurmountable.

Paul also gave us a word on focus.  We have to run with direction.  If we run in circles we get nowhere and if we punch aimlessly into the air we won’t hit our target.  What is our direction?  We have two choices: God’s or ours.  If we seek to do God’s will every day, ask for his direction, and then yield to the prompting of the Holy Spirit we will run a good race to the finish line, otherwise we will get lost.

The Part for those who love you:

In Exodus chapter 17 we read of the battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites.  Joshua and his men battled the Amalekites while Moses stood at the top of the hill.  The Word says, “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.”  The problem was that this battle lasted until sunset and Moses’ arms grew weary.  He just couldn’t hold them up any longer.  But help was near, “When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it.  Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady until sunset.”  How awesome!!  His friends held his hands up when he couldn’t do it himself.  I will tell you that if you are trying to run this race alone you’re missing out.  Look to people who are in Christ for support.  Seek out a brother or sister who can hold your arms up when you grow weary or pick you up a hundred feet from the finish line and carry you over.

God’s Part:

I could quote most of the Bible for this one but here is the deal.  God created you and he loves you.  If you are walking outside of God’s grace and are walking in rebellion to him you will never finish the race let alone win the prize.  Seek God, trust in Christ, and grab hold of these promises:

You can do “all things through Him who gives you strength”

His “Grace is sufficient for you”

Those “who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Your part, their part, His part.  If you’re tired my friend start with your part, lean on your fiends, and cling to the God who spoke the stars into existence with just a word from his mouth.

Peace,

David

Do I have that Kind of Faith? I Don't Know....

It was Christmas morning 1980.  I was seventeen years old but I remember it in HD with surround sound.  I vividly remember each agonizing step of the basement stairs that my mother crawled down to reach the Christmas tree. I recall the rest of my family standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up while my little sisters cried.  I was pleading with my mother to let me carry her down the steps and end the pain but she resiliently and somewhat angrily said, "No!  I can do it!"  There were thirteen steps and it took about half an hour but she made it to the bottom, sat there, and cried.  That was the last Christmas we spent with her.  The cancer that started in her lungs had spread to her bones, her eye, and her brain. She was a strong woman and I admire her courage and her fortitude.  There came a day however when she became weary and gave up.

What if I had to suffer this kind of pain not in the grip of cancer but for the Gospel of Jesus Christ; could I keep moving?  It seems like a daunting proposition.

I look back at martyred followers of Jesus Christ, from those in the New Testament to those on foreign mission fields today and wonder how they had the strength to carry on until the end.  Paul reminded us of the struggles he endured for the Gospel:

"Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches."

Paul was eventually beheaded in Rome.

Sanctus, in the first century, suffered for the Gospel:

"He suffered many torments devised by men. When these men could do no more, they fastened hot plates of brass to the most tender parts of his body. He withstood all the suffering, but his body was one continued wound, mangled and shrivelled, that had entirely lost the form of man to the external eye. Again, he passed through the tortures. These included the strokes of the scourge, the draggings and lacerations from the beasts, other tortures demanded by the audience, and the iron chair upon which his body was roasted. Other tortures followed until he died."

We live a pretty cozy Christianity these days.  We worry about silly things and argue about silly thing but what if Jesus asked us to walk a road like Sanctus or Paul.  What would we do?  What kind of faith did these men have to endure the pain, fight the fear, and not deny the Lord Jesus?  Was it a weekend faith?  Was it a faith that was spoken of or one that was lived out?  Where did it come from and how can I have that kind of faith?  I want that kind of faith.  It scares me to even ask for it because it seems like an invitation to suffering.  I don't want to suffer.  Who does?  But I think that one day as we stand before the Lord (the Bible says to whom every knee shall bow) we will understand what our lives really looked like.  We'll see clearly what our priorities were, what our aspirations were, what our desires were, and how much we truly walked with Christ.  So while Paul spent his days fearing for his life in spreading the Gospel and Sanctus' was dragged through the streets I wonder what it looks like when we bicker over which hymns we're going to sing or what color the sanctuary carpet is going to be.  I wonder what it looks like when we spend more time in church than on the streets.  I wonder what it looks like when we Jesus is a bracelet we wear and not a God we worship.  I wonder. 

Today I am a little weary and I have never been flogged, shipwrecked, or stoned. Today I pray for courage, for strength, for humility, for endurance, and for a Word from God.  I pray that God gives me a fresh filling of his Spirit so that I can do what he wants and not what I want.  The Word tells me that with God we can do anything, and if God is for us who can be against us, and all things together work for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.  I'm glad.  So today I trust that God will lead us all the way to the finish line with just as much strength as we need.  

I'm not sure if I wrote this today for you or for me. . . maybe both.

Peace and faith,

David