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Archives For August 2012

Before You Run, Tie Your Shoes

admin —  August 30, 2012 — 1 Comment

There is so much talk about growing in faith. There is a desire to go deeper in the truths of God. We all yearn to discover that secret that has been hidden for ages that is the key to unlock our happiness, joy, peace, fulfillment, and success. We strive to discover that secret recipe that will enable us to accomplish all God would have us accomplish.

Want the big secret? Consider the following . . .

John Wooden of UCLA is considered the greatest college basketball coach of all time. His teams won 10 NCAA championship teams in 12 years during the 1960s and 1970s. Imagine being a new recruit of the Wizard of Westwood and showing up for your first practice. You can’t wait to learn the Wizard’s secret recipe and formula for success. What great knowledge would the Coach soon impart upon you that would transform you into an All-American? Jim Collins, in Good to Great, writes what that experience looked like:

The coach comes out and opens the first moments of practice in a quiet voice, “We will begin by learning how to tie our shoes.” You look over to a couple of famous seniors, All‐Americans who’ve already won national championships, thinking this must be some kind of freshman initiation. But no, the seniors calmly begin taking off their shoes and preparing for the shoe‐tying lesson. “First, put your socks, slowly with care, over your toes,” says the coach. The seniors diligently follow instructions. “Now, move your socks up here…and here…smooth out all the wrinkles…nice and tight…take your time,” the coach intones his lesson, like some sort of far‐out Zen master teaching you how to make tea as a path to higher enlightenment. “Then lace your shoes from the bottom, carefully, slowly, getting each pass nice and tight…snug! snug! snug! snug!” After the lesson, you ask one of the All‐American seniors what that was all about, and he says, “Get a blister in a big game, and you’re gonna suffer. Shoes come untied in a close game…well, that just never happens here.” One year later, you come to practice, having helped create yet another national championship, noting the surprised looks on the freshmen’s faces when the coach announces, “We will begin by learning how to tie our shoes.”

I have shared before that sometimes the last thing we need is another Bible Study. We think that we are going to discover the golden nugget we have been searching for in the next Bible study we participate in, the next book we read, or the next sermon we listen to. We are looking to run the “triangle offense” when we are not well versed yet in tying our shoes (see 1 Corinthians 3:2). But sometimes we just need to go back and relearn what we learned when we were just preschoolers in the faith. Growing deeper is not about learning new truths as much as it is about rehearsing old truths.

There is an old story that is told about a pastor who was teaching some young children. He asked the children “what is furry, climbs in trees, and likes to eat nuts?” After not getting an initial response he coaxed them further by sharing, “it has a big bushy tail and is usually brown or grey.”

Finally, one boy cautiously raised his hand. The pastor called upon him and the boy spoke up. “It sounds like a squirrel, but I know the answer is Jesus.”

That we would have the faith of a child! That we would look to Jesus for the answer to recognize that Jesus is the answer. Revelation 2:4-5 invites us to go back to our first love of Jesus. It is to go back to the basics. It is to relearn to tie our shoes. We cannot rehearse the fundamental truth of Jesus enough. Need him! Know him! Love him! Serve him! Live for him!

Don’t look for a new truth. Rediscover the Ancient Truth!

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Running from Commitment

admin —  August 23, 2012 — Leave a comment

I want to start off this weekly email and say congratulations to Pastor Harold and June Hein. Tomorrow is their 60th wedding anniversary. Wow! What a blessing. The first week in September also marks 60 years since Pastor Hein was ordained. We are so thankful for this couple and the blessing they are to our Lord of Life family. They are such a great example of commitment which was exactly what I wanted to talk about in this week’s email.

If there is nothing worth dying for, there is nothing worth living for. Commitment is a necessary part of becoming all that God wants us to become. Most people will skip out on commitment when it gets hard. As a result they go from one shallow experience to the next, never accomplishing anything significant in life.

We see people skip from marriage to marriage, church to church, and job to job. They keep chasing in the next new adventure looking for what was missing in the previous experience. But what is missing cannot be found in the new adventure. It can only be found within themselves. It is commitment!

There are many factors that work against commitment.

  • Resistance. There will come a time when we will meet resistance and push back. Rather than fight, we will lay down our boxing gloves and run the other direction.
  • Novelty. There is always something new, something that is shinier, sleeker, or speedier. The novelty is enticing. It draws us away from our old and outdated and uninspiring routines.
  • Distraction and Restlessness. A beautiful day. An exciting adventure novel. The prospect of golf or fishing. A trip to the mall. The possibilities are endless. They all distract us from sitting down and doing the hard work to fulfill our commitment.
  • Lack of fulfillment. Commitment is not always exciting. There are season where it is dry, dull, and boring. It feels unfulfilling because it feels like I am only being poured out, but there is nothing being poured into me. Commitment is not always about going out in a blaze of glory on the battle field to be saluted for your bravery and sacrifice. More often commitment looks like the tired parent getting up for yet another feeding in the middle of the night. It is sitting down at the computer to do the work to meet the deadline. It is continuing to pour into the marriage when not experiencing love in return. Commitment is not always exciting, but it is rewarding. There are seasons and years that seem unfulfilling, but this time is often necessary for God to empty us of ourselves, so that in the end he might fill us with more of himself.
  • Pride. Pride keeps us from doing the right thing. It is uncomfortable to humble ourselves to ask for help. We would rather fail on our commitment than ask for the help we need.
  • Messy Relationships. It is easier to break ties and make new friends than it is to do the hard work of repairing the old. I shared a few weeks back how people are messy. When things get messy, we will wipe our hands and move on. We will let someone else deal with the mess. But we loose out. When we abandon relationships that we think are too messy to deal with, we never experience the deep and enduring relationships Jesus invites us into.

Commitment is tough. But commitment is worth it. Jeff Goins writes: “There is a profound spiritual value in making commitments. By moving to a more committed lifestyle, you learn how to be a friend, meet a deadline, follow through on a task, and push through a challenge. Commitments help us become better people.”

I know that there are some commitments you have dropped the ball on. That’s ok. Today can be the day to make a new start. The only way to fail is to quit. What commitment is God calling you back to? Is it making a commitment to a relationship? A spiritual discipline? A fitness activity? A Church? A ministry? A job? A mission trip? A calling? A responsibility? A Savior?

It’s never too late. Embrace the struggle. Discover the reward. Well done good and faithful servant!

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Adding Relevance to Your Prayers

admin —  August 16, 2012 — 5 Comments

When we learned to pray we learned to ask God to bless mommy, daddy, brothers and sisters, grandparents, friends, teachers, and any other people we could think of. It was the first step in learning to pray. But as we mature, the content of our prayers mature as well.

Over the years I have asked God to bless me and others. I cannot begin to count how many times I have made this petition. But I will confess that more often than not I have prayed this prayer because I did not know exactly what to pray. I didn’t know how I wanted God to bless, so I left it up to God to determine. I am thankful for the promise in Romans 8:26 where it says God helps us in our weakness. He tells us when we don’t know what to pray the Holy Spirit will intercede with groans that words cannot express.

What does it mean to bless? It is a sort of vague and ambiguous request. It is a prayer prayed out of weakness. It is lacking in boldness and courage. It is short-sighted to all God wants to do for us.

I would challenge you to never again ask God to simply bless. I would challenge you that God desires more specific and focused prayers from us. He doesn’t want us to simply ask for blessing. He wants us to define what that blessing looks like. And I will share with you six reasons I believe this to be true.

1) It demonstrates faith. I wonder if we are reluctant to be bold in our requests before God because we doubt his ability to deliver. God is honored with bold prayers. Don’t be fearful of asking for too much or for the wrong thing. God will tell you “no” when he needs to tell you no. Remember God is the ruler over all and he possesses everything. Nothing is impossible with him.

2) It reveals your heart, priorities, and future. When you pray specific prayers, you have to put some thought to it. It shows where your mind has focused its attention. You will wrestle with what is important to you. The things we are praying about today point us to our future. God knows the bigger your prayers, the bigger challenges he will be able to trust you with.

3) Praying specific prayers keeps your prayer life relevant. Specific prayers keep it real. You are praying about what matters. You are praying about your hopes and your dreams. You will be praying about the challenges you face in your daily life along with the mission God has put before you. Vague prayers easily lose their connection and application to our lives. We end up giving up on prayer because our prayers do not seem to have bearing on our experience.

4) Specific prayer gives God the opportunity to answer. How do you know God has answered a prayer when you ask him to bless you? What exactly does that look like? When you pray a specific prayer you can say, “Yes, God answered that prayer.” Or you can say, “No, God has not answered that prayer.” The answer, or lack of answer, will be clear. God wants to answer your prayers if you ask him. Consider James 4:2: “You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.”

5) When God answers it builds faith in your heart. You see God come through in small ways, you will start to believe him for bigger and better things. But if you do not see the answers to the prayer because you did not give God the opportunity to answer, you will miss that faith building opportunity.

6) Specific prayers give God the glory. That is what it is about. He is worthy of all praise. He answers our prayers for his glory. When you pray a specific prayer you give God a target to shoot for and when he hits the bullseye, people will cheer. He is giving you the opportunity to be a platform from which he makes his love, mercy, and grace known. He desires we be bold and specific with our prayers for him to reveal his might.

I offer to you a challenge. The challenge is to write out 3 specific prayers you are praying right now. Put God to the test. See what he will do. Keep them in a journal, notebook, or on your computer. Pray these prayers every day for the next 30 days.

Share these prayers with others. Share them with your spouse. Share them with your small group. Share them with me. Add your prayers in the comments section. I will leave mine there for you to pray for me. I would appreciate it very much.

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We are in the People Business

admin —  August 9, 2012 — 5 Comments

No doubt, you are a busy person. Everything from work, to family, to church, and beyond. I look at my to-do list and I notice there are many things to check off. I have many tasks to complete. But in the busyness of all we can easily forget what it is all about.

We are in the people business! This is especially true in the church. It seems obvious. Of course we are in the people business! But it is so easy to make it about the tasks. We make it about planning a great worship. We make it about leading a great Bible Study. We make it about filling a need with volunteers. We make it about having all the right policies and procedures in place. It becomes very easy to forget why we do what we do. It is about people. It is about their relationship with the Lord. People matter to God and because people matter to God they matter to us.

There are people who are broken, people who face great challenges in their lives, people who need hope, people who need to know they’re here to make a difference, people who are wandering aimlessly through life, people who are filled with bitterness, people who are filled with rage, people who are struggling with their children, people who are struggling with their marriages, people who are struggling with finances, people struggling with depression, people who need Jesus. The need is all around us. But sometimes we get so focused on the task at hand we fail to look up and see that need.

It is easier to focus on a task than a person. A task is is clean, cut, and dried. A task is not messy. A task can be left behind at the end of the work day. When the task is complete our work is done. There is great satisfaction to check the task off of our to-do list.

People on the other hand are messy. Have you ever noticed they don’t all think like you? They have their own quirks and personalities. They have their hang ups and hold ups. They have ways of putting up barriers that make them difficult to work with. They always seem to be a work in progress. It is tough work.

We tend to ask safe questions when we are around others. We ask, “how are you?” We expect the response to be something like “good” or “fine” or “ok”. We really don’t want them to say something negative because then we are going to be inconvenienced to listen their story. We may end up having to pray with them or go help them. It is a place we would rather not go.

I find it amazing how we can make something that is so naturally about people to be not about people. We make Church be about religious routines of worshipping, praying, reading our Bibles but forget all about the aspect of doing life together and serving the least of these. When we talk about stepping out of our comfort zone, this is where it is at. We are comfortable keeping our relationship with God confined arenas we can control. But when we start to expand the relationship we have with him beyond our own lives and into the lives of other we lose our sense of control. We don’t know how others will respond, so this is where we walk by faith.

It is not just about connecting with God. It is connecting with others and connecting others with Jesus. It’s messy work. Are you ready to get messy?

Here is a challenge for you. Find a person in the next week and ask them how they are doing. Ask them to share with you what is going on in their life. Ask them about their feelings. Ask them about their relationship with God. And listen! Don’t preach to them or at them. Encourage them and let them open up their heart. Recognize this might take time, concentration, and effort. Recognize that it may take you to a place you did not plan on going or even really want to go. But know that God will be leading the way and you will be on your way to discovering the heart of Jesus.

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Your Lifesong

admin —  August 2, 2012 — Leave a comment

What is the song you sing? Is it a love song? A dance song? Gospel? Jazz? Classical? Or maybe you are just singing the blues?

You carry a song on your heart. There is a song that comes from deep within your soul. It breaths passion into your life and directs your every step.

In Isaiah 12:2 it says, “The Lord is my strength and my song.” It is my prayer that the song of my heart would be the song of the Lord. That he would be the one who soothes my soul with his sweet melodies. That the soundtrack of my life would not be found on iTunes, but that it would be “Jesus Tunes.” I pray that my dance would not be to a different beat, but that I would dance to his beat.

The song of your life is written from your daily conversations and experiences. It is shown through what you talk about. Basically it comes from what you are passionate about, what you pay attention to, and what you live for. This is all about having Jesus at the forefront of your mind, at the tip of your tongue, and the center of your activities. Do you find yourself often talking about Jesus? Is his name a name you mention frequently? Or is his name a name relegated to be used on Sunday morning for an hour and once that worship is over it is never to be mentioned again until the next week? Is your daily conversation salted with the name Jesus?

I know I am compulsive about many things. I am compulsive about the Cubs. I get notifications on my phone to let me know if the Chicago Cubs win or loose. I am compulsive about all things Apple. I read each day about the latest developments in the world of iThings. And I can’t miss out with what is happening in the world of Facebook and Twitter. But as compulsive as I am about these things, I pray that I would be even more compulsive about Jesus my Lord and Savior. He is my everything. He is my all in all. I am nothing without him.

My prayer is that my relationship with him is anything but routine and that I would be OCD about Jesus. That I could not get enough of him in my Bible. That I cannot get enough of him in worship. That I cannot get enough of him in prayer. That I cannot get enough of him by doing his work and serving others.

But too often I settle for the routine. I settle for my morning devotion, Sunday morning worship, mealtime and bedtime prayer, and a service project every so often. I leave satisfied from these things thinking I got my Jesus fix. It is easy for me to give my heart, soul, and everything to Jesus on Sunday morning only to leave him be until next week.

I pray that I would never be satisfied or get enough of him. That I would long after him as the deer pants for the water (see Psalm 42:1). As passionate as I am about so many other things in my life, my passion for Jesus would be unrivaled. That I would eat, sleep, dream, and breath Jesus. Not church! Not religion! Not worship music! Not theology! Not mission projects! J-E-S-U-S! That he would be exalted in my life.

This is my prayer for our church. That we would exude Jesus. Our conversation in the lobby on Sunday morning may be about the Bears, about the weather, about our kids, about the morning’s worship, but may we always be talking Jesus. Our board meetings may be about finances, about procedures and policies, about communication, but may we always be seeking Jesus.

So what is the tune you are singing? What is the beat that you are dancing to? Jesus wants you to hear his sweet, sweet harmony! He wants his song to be your song!

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