We (Journey Church) just concluded a study of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12).  It ends with "blessed are you when you are persecuted...".  As I was studying for our House Church meeting this week, I read Hebrews 10-12 and was convicted and challenged.  I was reading to answer the question "How do we endure persecution?".  Here is what I learned (Hebrews 10:32-12:29)...

1.  Stand your ground.  Like you did when you were first convinced Jesus was Lord!
2.  Be confident.  Let your confidence be found in Christ.
3.  Do God's will.
4.  Live by faith.
5.  Believe!
6.  Throw off everything that hinders and all sin.
7.  Run with perseverance the race that is before you.  Not someone elses race.  Not wishing for a different race to run.  Your race.  The one God created you to run.
8.  Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
9.  Remind yourself of what He (Jesus) endured and how He persevered.
10. Endure hardship.  Treat it as discipline from God.
11. Be thankful.
12. Worship God.

In case I get to feeling sorry for myself, God gave me a list of people to refer to (Hebrews 11):  Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jospeh, Moses' parents, Moses, the Hebrew people, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. 

So when I complain and feel sorry for myself because I am over weight as a result of my overeating and now have to diet and exercise, I can compare that to being sawn in two, beaten, starved, chased, killed, tortured.  What the heck do I have to complain about?  What priviledge, what excess God has lavished on me.  How can I complain about a little discomfort when I talk about my faith (and I use that term loosely in light of the company God has asked me to keep)?

I have more than I need.  More than I can consume.  What is preventing me from being the disciple of Jesus Christ I am called to be.  Shame on me!  Shame on my immaturity!  Shame on my lack of discipline!  Shame on my puny faith!  To paraphrase Hebrews 12:12 (with Job 38:2-3 in my rearview mirror)... Stand up like a man!  Act like a disciple of Jesus Christ!  You are the son of the King.  A member of the Kingdom of Heaven.   God is God.  He loves me.  Act like it!

So, bring it on.  Whatever it is, bring it on.  Let all Hell loose.  It doesn't matter.  GOD IS GOD!  I am his adopted son.  God is for me.  What can separate me from His love? (Romans 8:31-39)  NOTHING!  Now get out there and live the Kingdom!

I have to thank my friend John Snook for this post.  He opened my eyes to a passage I had read a number of times in Proverbs.  But first...

How do you steer a stationary object?

When I was a kid, I used to sit in the car and turn the steering wheel.  I pretended I was going somewhere.  I'd turn to the wheel to the left and make a screeching noise.  I'd turn it to the right and pretend I was sliding.  All of course in my mind because the car was sitting in the garage and going no where.

Take a moment to read Proverbs 3:6.  "In all your ways acknowledge God and He will direct your path."

In order for God to "steer" or direct you, you must be on your way somewhere.  It is as we are on our way that we can choose to acknowledge God's control, God's plans, God's priorities, God's agenda in the where and the why of our going.  When we do that, God promises to direct us.

In James 2 (verses 14-26), faith and action are linked together.  It is in the doing that we prove (to ourselves and those watching) what we have faith in.

Do you love Jesus?  John tells us obedience is the evidence.
Do you believe you can't out give God?  Your giving to the church and others will be the evidence.
Do you believe God's Word is the road map for your life?  Your frequent reference to it will be the evidence.
Do you believe prayer changes things?  Your turning to it as a first resort with be the evidence.
Is Jesus Lord of your life?  Our acting out his command to love one another will be proof.

Do you want to know God's will for your life?  Start doing something He would approve of.  Try something you think God would ask you to do.  Act out what you find in His Word.  It is in our "way", our going, our doing, our course of living life that God is able to move and use us as well as our being visible to those around us.   Praying for God's direction and will without getting out and going is like steering a car in the garage.  You can pretend, but you are going no where.

On Sunday, February 21st, I was introduced to Journey Church as the latest member of the Pastoral staff.  I am honored and excited to serve in this capacity.  I have no qualifications (externally) for this position but take hope in three things...

1.  God can speak through Rocks and Donkeys, He can probably use me.
In Numbers 22 (v.21-33 - v28), God opens the mouth of a donkey to communicate with a hard headed man.  In Luke 19, Jesus tells the religious leaders that the stone would cry out if people were told to hold their tongue.  If God can use donkeys and rocks, I may be usable as well.

2.  He is the Shepherd.  I just have be smart enough to be an obedient "sheep dog".  He says "go", I go.

Pray I am as good and as usable as rocks, donkeys, and sheep dogs in God's hands and thanks to Denny and Journey for the opportunity to be used.

Proverbs starts...
 "The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles."
 
A "conondrum" is a puzzle, a riddle.  The particular conondrum that has captured me is time.

There are 60 minutes in an hour.  Never 59.  Never 64.  60.  Given this "fact" there are 1440 minutes in a day, 10,080 in a week, 524,160 in a year, and 38,263,680 minutes from the time you are born until you turn 73.  No matter what you do, there will never be more.  You cannot manufacture time.

Here's the conondrum, we must "make" time.

This phrase doesn't speak to the manufacturing of minutes nor does it have anything to do with rotation of planets.  It does speak to priorities and motives.  "Making time" is establishing that there are some activities for which we will set aside this most valuable resource (time) realizing we will never get those minutes back. 

More than money, more than talent, more than any other resource, our use of time reveals our awareness of and our priorities in this life.  I can make more money.  I can learn new skills.  I will never have more than 60 minutes in an hour.

God gives us all the time we need to do all that He asks of us.  For us to say, "we don't have time" is to call God a liar or to confess we have the wrong priorities or simply that we aren't very good stewards of this most precious resource.  Take your pick.  :-)

Our challenge as disciples is to discipline and educate ourselves so that we do those things that God requires of us first, before any and everything else.  In Matthew 6 we are promised that when we seek first the Kingdom of Heaven all that we require will follow.  Get our priorities straight and everything fits together.

Solving the puzzle of time is a matter of setting Godly priorities and determining to do those things first.  It is the "enduring" (see James 1) of being human to make ourselves do what we by nature don't want to do.  It is the process of being perfected.

My prayer for all of us, myself included, is that we would take every minute captive and use it in a way that fits God's priorities, brings honor to His name, and allows Him to delight in us.

Luke 5:36-39

KN paraphrase...
You don't patch old clothes with fabric from a new garment... You ruin both.  You don't put new wine into old wine skins.  It will burst ruining the skin and the wine.  Old wine is good.


This parable of Jesus' was told just after being questioned by the religious establishment as to why He and his disciples did things differently than those who had come before them (fasting)... different from those similar to them (John the Baptist) and different from those unlike them (Pharisees).  I puzzled over this parable in prayer and wanted to share what I came away with.

There is one Gospel.  There is one God.  There is one Word.  There is one way to God. 
There are multiple approaches to worship and service.

This parable implies that new methods are for new works.  It is a mistake to take a tradition and try to "modernize it" or change its mission.  It is what it is and it came into being for a reason.  God raises up and God tears down.  I am not speaking about doctrine nor obedience to God.  If a tradition errors in these areas, God's Word tells us, as brothers, to set about restoring them in a spirit of meekness (Galatians 6).

I am referring to the "work" and "personality" of a tradition.  I watched fellowship after fellowship fracture over the singing of hymns or choruses.  This is new wine in an old wine skin.  I have seen believers torn from their fellowship because of a change in "emotional" nature of worship or because of a change to the work being performed by a church or because a pastor was "fired".  These are attempts to patch an old garment with new fabric.

This isn't to say that every growing of the church through the division of a fellowship is bad.  Since the church is organic and grows, it will continue to multiply.  Since God is god, and calls whom He will to the whatever work He wills, the fellowships and ministries will continue to change and emerge.

The fundamental difference is who leads the change...God or man.  There is value in traditional approaches.  The "old wine" is good.  There is a need for new to replace what is gone or what is no longer usable.  These are issues for God to decide and for us to be obedient in responding to.  As such it is critical for church leaders (pastors included) to be sure of their motives and of who is calling them change or who is calling them to stay the same.  In either case, to not follow God is a mistake.