Religion

Not my will

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“….not my will, but Yours, be done.” Luke 22:42

Jesus prayed it. Jesus lived it. Many times in Scripture He talked about how important what the Father wanted was to Him:

  •  “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” John 5:30
  • “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”  John 6:38
  • “Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” John 5:19
  • “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.” John 12:49

This same thing is what He taught us to pray: “ So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Luke 11:2

It was important to Jesus. We would all, as Christians, say that it is important to us as well.   Because God wills some pretty amazing stuff – salvation, healing, deliverance, and more. And we say, “Your will be done Lord! Amen!” But there’s that other part of Luke 22:42 that maybe we don’t find so exciting – NOT MY WILL.

We are very happy to fit the will of God in between our will, of course as long as it doesn’t squeeze us too tight. But to exclude our will entirely? Deny our own rights and desires and wishes and wants and pleasures and comforts and conveniences and entertainments? Surely that isn’t what it means.

That is exactly what it means.

It isn’t – my will + His will

It isn’t – His will most of the time

It is- His will regardless of my will

“….not my will, but Yours, be done.” What glory there must be in the life surrendered to this.

 

Report for duty

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No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.  2 Timothy 2:4

The soldier who is actively engaged in combat thinks only of the battle.  It is life or death, not only for himself, but for his fellow soldiers and the land he is fighting for.  There is much at stake, so his life is focused, disciplined and courageous.  There is a great loyalty that motivates him.  There is a cause greater than himself, and he has given himself fully to it.  His whole life has been so ordered that he might be most useful and available to those he is serving.

It is a good analogy for us….the picture of a soldier.  Because we too, as followers of Jesus, deal with life and death realities.  Lives are depending upon us.  God has chosen to use His church to reach the world with the gospel….there is no backup plan.  And should we fail to accommodate our lives to the progression of this heavenly kingdom on earth, many…..so very many, will neither hear, nor avail themselves of God’s great gift of grace through Jesus Christ.

It is good to go to church, but it is not enough to simply sit on a pew.  We must be the church.

It is good to pray, but it is not enough to say reverent words.  We must move heaven with our prayers.

It is good to worship, but it is not enough to sing our songs.  We must encounter the heart of God.

Otherwise we will not go and they will not hear.

Many things will present themselves as obstacles: the cares and troubles of this life….. the emotional disruptions we face due to the irritations, hurts and offenses caused by others….. our own fears, inadequacies and weaknesses..… but what do any of these have to do with the gospel?  The mission has not changed.

It is time to report for duty.  Our Commander-in-Chief has given the command.  Our weapons are unstoppable and victory is assured.  Sitting on the sidelines of the conflict has never been a place of safety, child of God.  Engage the heart of God….and then engage in the warfare.

Live after Five Outreach – Friday May, 2015

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There were two women who passed by us on the sidewalk several times Friday afternoon. What caught my attention about them was how entirely they were trying to look like men. I prayed a simple prayer in my heart for them, that God would reveal Himself to them and help them to understand who He is and who they are.  A little while later they were passing by on the sidewalk again and this time one of them headed directly for me. I braced myself, expecting her to angrily confront me concerning what Christians believe about homosexuality. But instead she asked me where I went to church. I told her and she said she thought she had seen me before and we discovered that we had gone to the same church more than 10 years ago.  She told me how she had walked with Jesus for twenty years, being very zealous for Him, until her godly husband died, leaving her in a place of sorrow and confusion.  And then she confessed “ after he died, I went down a path that I knew I shouldn’t have gone down”.   With tears she said God had been dealing with her heart. I only had a few brief moments to offer her some encouragement to return to Jesus. Still crying she said “thank you for what you’re doing”, hugged me and walked away down the sidewalk.   I hadn’t given her a gospel tract. I hadn’t even preached the gospel to her.  But just standing on the sidewalk for Jesus was all God needed in that moment to speak to a precious soul that had strayed away.

Local Outreach – March 27, 2015

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Yesterday afternoon we did our first outreach at an LSU baseball game. It’s a great opportunity to put the gospel message into the hands of many people in a short period of time, which we are always glad to do. But we are very watchful for opportunities to speak to people. Yesterday a precious young lady, a high school senior, stopped to talk to Charles for a few minutes. I could hear bits and pieces of their conversation from where I was standing and was very disturbed to hear that her family had been asked to leave their church after her mother was divorced. They hadn’t really been involved in church since then. She walked off shortly afterwards, but passed by us again later that afternoon. I stopped her to tell her how sorry I was that her family had been treated that way, that I was also divorced but had found forgiveness in Jesus and love from His people. It broke my heart to think of her and her mom feeling thrown away by God because of how they had been treated by church people. God forbid that we should be the reason people don’t find their way to Him. It matters how we treat people.

Later that night we were on Third Street and within a few minutes of getting there a college student stopped to talk when I handed him a gospel tract. He had been raised to believe in God but had strayed away from any interest in Him. At LSU he had listened to the people who came to preach at Free Speech Alley, wanting to know truth, but very turned off by the manner in which the preachers dealt with people, even when they only wanted to ask them questions. Even though he did not disagree with their message, he wanted no part of something that was presented in such a way that it seemed so angry and hateful. He and his girlfriend had been talking about spiritual things….. they are seeking and wide open to Jesus right now. And being pushed away by people who claim to represent Him. It matters how we treat people.

Born again believers…..we represent Jesus Christ on this earth. It matters how we treat people.

Choosing the Eternal

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2 Corinthians 4:18 “while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Colossians 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”

The tendency of humans to place too much importance on the things which affect their senses and feelings has been a problem from the beginning. When Eve looked at the fruit on the tree of knowledge she considered not the command of the eternal God but “that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise…” It appealed to her senses and in that moment she valued that temporal momentary gratification more than the eternal benefits of obedience. And the whole world has suffered for it.

It can be easy for us as believers to avoid those things that are clearly sinful. However, there are many things in this world that are not evil in and of themselves, but they are merely temporal. We can give time and attention to them without it necessarily being a matter of sin…except that it takes our focus from the eternal things and dulls the spiritual senses. Daily we are faced with choices….the temporal or the eternal. This material world so often casts a shadow over our life…a veil over our mind. And so we live in a fog, unable to see those things which are truly important. Meanwhile a world perishes without Jesus. The cost of temporal living is far too high.

Wrapped in grace

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Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

It is upon a throne of grace that we will find our Savior. Never winking at our sin, always at work to deliver us from every remaining vestige of it’s outworking in our lives, yet He sympathizes with our weaknesses because He understands what it is to be one of us. He knows how temptation buffets us from every direction. And to this throne He has invited us to confidently come, for it is from here that He dispenses mercy and grace for His children who so desperately need His help.

He offers “grace to help.” An interesting word here – “help”. It means “a rope or chain for frapping a vessel.” Frapping a vessel is what happened in Acts 27:17 when they “used cables to undergird the ship”. The cables were wrapped around the ship and were intended to keep it from being broken apart during the violence of the storm. This is what grace is in our lives.

Grace is defined as the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life. It is God’s divine influence surrounding us, wrapping tightly around us just as those cables are wrapped around the ship, that holds us together in the midst of even the most life-shaking storms.

Through the blood of Christ, access has been granted to this throne of grace any day, any time, for any need. Come boldly. Come often. And be amazed at all that is made freely available to us through such a great High Priest.

Stories from the streets – May 16-17, 2014

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Live after Five – May 16, 2014

After handing out tracts for a while, I sat down for a few minutes to pray and rest. A man passing by made a comment about the loud music and I saw this as an excellent opportunity to tell him that I wasn’t there for the music, but to tell people about Jesus. At first his face twisted in anger and he began to walk off. But I called out after him and asked him to tell me why that made him so angry. And surprisingly, he did. He had been in church for 30 years. When his marriage ended, he felt judged and rejected by the church. So 10 years ago he walked away….from church, from salvation, from Jesus. There was a hardness to his face as he said “I know what the book says and I’m not gonna do it and I’m not gonna be a hypocrite about it.” Throughout our conversation he was polite but there seemed to be a boiling anger just beneath the surface. I asked him if he understood what his decision to walk away from Jesus meant in terms of eternal consequences. He said he knew he was going to hell but he wasn’t worried about that right now. But I know there will be a day when it will matter to him more than anything. He wouldn’t give me his name but God knows who he is. Please pray that he would come to repentance and faith in Christ and that his heart would be healed from the wounds of the past.

 

Third Street Outreach – May 16, 2014

Last night on Third Street I talked to a man named Lee. He introduced himself as a Christian wanna-be. He said that he wanted to be a Christian but just could not do what Jesus required. I asked what things he was talking about and he responded that he couldn’t sell everything he had and give it away to follow Jesus. Somehow in his mind, he was convinced that the only way to be a Christian was to own nothing. I shared verse after verse from the Bible with him , but he refused to accept what was plainly stated in the word of God. When I finished talking to Lee I leaned up against a building and took a few minutes to pray for him. Looking up at the patches of beautiful night sky that I could see between the downtown buildings, my heart filled with great joy as I thanked The Lord for grace. Wonderful grace! What peace it brings to know that it is all of grace. Please pray that Lee would realize that his own works will never be enough and that only the work of Jesus on the cross is sufficient to save.

 

Bus Station – May 17, 2014

Today at the bus station I met Justin. He has traveled all over the country working as a contractor, but when he got to Baton Rouge last week he found out that he couldn’t work without a TWIC card. Now he finds himself without a place to stay and was forced to pawn the few belongings he brought with him in order to pay for a bed in the local homeless shelter. He has been brought for a moment to a place in life he never thought he would be and it has humbled him. Earlier in his life he had made a profession of faith in Christ but admitted that he had strayed away from that. As we talked he seemed to understand that there was nothing random in the seeming randomness of somebody coming up to him to talk about Jesus at this particular point in his life. Please pray that Justin would respond to God’s call to come to a place of full commitment of his life to Christ.

As I was driving home from the bus station, I passed an Islamic mosque and a Buddhist temple. And it was yet another reminder, on this beautiful sunshiny day, of how much darkness, confusion and deception there is in our city. They will live and die in that darkness unless we bring them the light of the gospel. It is their only hope.

Life unchained

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I don’t want to live this life
Within the box of social norms
Conforming to this world’s definition of success
I’m not interested in moderation or balance
But my heart leaps at the thought of charging ahead
Full speed into the purposes of God
Extreme life, unchained and unrestrained
By thoughts of reputation
Concerned only for God’s expectation
No way I’ll burn out
But I yearn to be filled up
with the fire of His presence
My heart has been captured
Set ablaze
As I set my gaze upon this Lord of glory
Nothing else matters
Pressing in until I press through
Stirred up to take hold
Pursuing the One who has pursued me
Reaching upward…to touch heaven

Rend your heart

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Oh, that You would rend the heavens!
That You would come down!
That the mountains might shake at Your presence— Isaiah 64:1

“Now, therefore,” says the LORD,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”

So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm. Joel 2:12-13

Several years ago I heard a woman tell of a dream she had. In the dream there was a large group of believers who were worshipping God. And they were calling out to Him “Oh Lord, rend the heavens and come down!” And the reply came back from heaven “Rend your heart and not your garments.” And the people would cry “Rend the heavens and come down” and heaven would answer “Rend your heart and not your garments.”

The rending (or tearing) of garments was an expression of grief common in that day. It was an outward expression of the intense emotion of the heart. But just like many things, it frequently became nothing more than a ritual, void of any real anguish of heart.

We are very good at rending our garments. On any given Sunday morning, in the intensity of a moment of worship when we feel very moved by the music, we cry out to Him. We tell Him how much we need His Presence, how desperate we are for Him. And then five minutes later we are discussing what our restaurant options are for lunch. The garment has been rent….but the heart remains intact.

I absolutely love the joy that I have as a follower of Jesus. But at some point we are going to all have to admit that even in the midst of all of our smiles and laughter, we do not experience His presence like we know is possible. Maybe one day soon we will no longer be satisfied with just rending our garments, but we will let our hearts be truly rent before Him, no longer willing to pretend that the superficiality of our walk with God is abundantly satisfying. And maybe then He will rend the heavens and come down.

Don’t accept the enemy’s substitute

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“Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Isaiah 36:16-17

The king of Assyria had already conquered the fortified cities of Judah. Now this great army is approaching Jerusalem. The enemy, who began by threatening, now tries another tactic. He attempts to convince the people that what he has to offer them is just as good as what they have now. His promise to them is that if they will just agree to his terms of surrender, they can continue in the lifestyle they currently enjoy in their own land until he comes to take them away to a foreign land where they will still enjoy the same things.

War is difficult. War is costly. War is inconvenient. Surrender without really losing anything doesn’t sound so bad….

Except that this land which is like your land, isn’t your land. Nothing in this land belongs to you. And what the enemy has failed to mention is that there will be no freedom for you there.

The enemy is an expert in counterfeit. Our nation is filled with a counterfeit gospel that sounds good. It speaks of Jesus and faith and spiritual things. But there is no altar, there is no repentance, there is no holiness. This false gospel knows nothing of obedience, a consecrated life, or a life of prayer. And those who surrender themselves to such a message might enjoy some benefit of spiritual things, but they possess nothing. Christ is not their life but merely an accessory. They live in the kingdom of this world which has been altered to resemble the kingdom of God….but it isn’t. We have been warned that this would happen.

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Colossians 2:8

It is so much easier to redefine sin than to wrestle in prayer until a besetting sin is overcome. It is easier to be moral than holy. It is easier to simply enjoy a Sunday sermon than to get in the altar and die to everything of the self life. It’s easier to be religious than to engage in the warfare of this spiritual life.

Because war is difficult. War is costly. War is inconvenient. And thus many surrender to a false gospel that doesn’t cost them anything. But there will never be any freedom there.

Hold fast, people of God, to the true gospel of Jesus Christ! It is a glorious message of life and power! It is the only hope this world will ever have. For the sake of those who do not yet know, and for the honor of the Lord Jesus, we must not compromise the message. Ever!