A Word for Christian Leaders

"Ministry is tough and the devil hates the church and hates Christians. It is no different than with Jesus, now the devil persecuted the church, His body. The devil's tactic is the same; strike the shepherd and scatter the sheep."

I wrote these words after hearing the testimony of a very famous Christian leader. They had been in a ministry family and were well known world wide. At one point they were very successful and everything was going good. Through a series of events they lost their ministry assets and even the ministry itself. The pressure was so great it even threatened to end their marriage. Thankfully God is faithful and they are together today and still have a ministry and are moving forward together. 

It is a sobering reality when you hear these types of testimonies from successful and influential people. Success and influence come with a fight. I believe the more significant of a work we do the greater the battle gets. I realize in many ways my ministry is built on the victories others won. I am very blessed to start my ministry where others have done so much. Having said that I can tell you that as I have risen in the ranks of church leadership that it isn't easier but harder. The struggles are greater and the challenges are more numerous. 

The comfort I find in all this is that as I have progressed in life and ministry so has my faith. The Bible tells us that we go from faith to faith, strength to strength, glory to glory. Any time there is a repeat of a statement in the Bible it is for emphasis. The beginning of our faith is great. In fact we get saved through it. As we grow in our knowledge and experience with God we get stronger and stronger. 

Be encouraged that God is growing you up. You are not where you used to be. The battles you face today are preparing you for greater things in the future. As you grow stronger you will be able to handle more. Jesus said that if we are faithful in the little things we will be put over much. We all want that growth but don't want the discipline and the fight to get there. Stay faithful and fight the good fight of faith and you will see the faithfulness of God and have a testimony to tell. 

Undying and Incorruptible

"Ephesians 6:24 in the Amplified Bible says "Grace be to all those who love the Lord with an undying and incorruptible love." Our love must grow by the grace of God to be able to be like His love for us. Undying, it cannot be quenched by deep waters, blown out by the mighty winds or put out for lack of oxygen. It also will be incorruptible. It will never be tainted or grow weak or tarnished. It cannot be perverted or grow less brilliant in its quality."

The greatest love stories of our day do not compare with the lavish love God has poured out on us. We look at His expression of love and the triumph of love and cannot be anything but humbled and driven to love God back. How could we not?  

Here we see in this passage that the grace of God is given to those who love the Lord with a certain kind of love; undying and incorruptible. It seems that in our human ability this is impossible. With God though all things are possible. 

When we truly have been saved we are forever grateful. A grateful and forgiven heart is one that is not easily swayed. Our love for God will be undying because we have been saved from sin and Hell and our only response is love. 

When we truly have been saved we won't be corrupted by this world. The things that try to get us off track will be nonsense to us. Our focus will be our God. Nothing can take our gaze away from Him nor can we be tarnished in our thinking towards Him. 

When we love like this then grace will be given. Gods ability will be upon us. The power to succeed in life will be granted. We all need that. It starts with love, His love, and then our love to Him. 

Please share any comments below. 

Day 353 - Again and Again

"It was just like last year with a few changes."

I have talked a lot on this blog about how our year seems to repeat itself on the same day doing the same thing. I have also talked about the traditions of our lives and how the routines can actually be helpful.

Today I want to focus on the changes that need to happen. Even with a cyclic year and the routines and traditions we have to change. God wants to grow our lives and growth means change. 

Think about it this way; if you encountered the same series of events but kept your natural time and aging process the scenarios you face would be different. Why? Because you are different. As you grow older your physical body would respond to the same challenges in different ways. 

Now get yourself back into reality. When you approach the times and seasons of life each day, week, month and year you are different. Not just physically but also mentally and spiritually. Hopefully we have learned something over the course of the year and don't repeat the mistakes of the past. I don't want to be the same man I was last year nor do I want to be the same Christian I was last year. I want to be better!

In order for that to happen I have to change. I have to allow the growth that God produces through trial and hardship to take me to new levels. I have to learn the lessons and not forget. I have to walk in the Spirit and allow the life of Christ to make me into His image. I have to pray and let God do His work in and through me. 

When we come to repetitive times and seasons we have to look at them with the fresh eyes of how we will respond this time around. Christmas is one week away. Did you have a good Christmas last year? How can you make it better? Did you have a bad Christmas last year? What can you do this year to fix that?  

Change is necessary and wonderful. All our lives we will be growing. I guess you could say "If it ain't broke, don't fix it; but see if you can make it better."

What do you see that hinders change and growth? How can we promote growth?

Day 220 - The Time For Growth

"I met with one of our young leaders and talked about the book "Nehemiah and the Dynamics of Effective Leadership". We had a good talk and I look forward to what this will end up being in the future."

When I went on missions trips overseas our training camp was in the middle of a cornfield. When we drove into the camp they would stop the bus in the middle of one of the cornfields and have someone run out into the middle of the field. They would turn around and look back at the bus and all the students on the bus would be staring back at them wondering what was going on. You could only see the person from their shoulders up. They would run back on the bus without a word and we would drive into the camp. 

For the next two weeks we would learn about missions and what our purpose was. We would study, pray, practice, run drills and train for what we would be encountering when we traveled to our destinations all over the world. 

When we left the training camp they would stop the bus at the same location in the corn field and the same person would run out into the field. This time they would disappear into the corn. It would be well over their head. At that point our team leader would explain that in just two weeks we had grown. If we were to stand at the corn field and watch the plants we would not have seen the growth. Stepping away and coming back however showed the growth. 

When I look at the last year and the discipleship and mentoring that took place with that young leader I see tremendous growth. The questions he asks and the places his thinking is going shows that he is moving up. 

You may have thought that you plateaued in your growth. First of all you have to remember that most healthy growth is slow growth. If the plant gets too top heavy and the roots and trunk can't support the weight of the growth it will eventually fall over. Slow growth is healthy and sustainable. If the root and trunk are strong then the branches can be heavy with fruit. 

Second remember that not all growth is visible.  I heard of a type of bamboo that would grow only a few inches above ground for the first five years. The underground growth was tremendous over those five years and on the sixth year it would shoot up many feet. Your growth may be deep under the surface in the depths of your heart. You are getting stronger so that eventually what is visible will shoot up. 

How do you see seasons of growth? How can we be patient while the process of growth takes place?

Day 177 - My Baby Is All Growed Up

"I walked the kids to class. My youngest moved up into the big kids class. I felt a bit helpless like I was letting my baby walk in the street."

Letting go is always tough. I was so thankful that my nephew was in the class and saw my son that day. At least there was some familiarity. It is tough as a parent to release your children to learn and grow. I wish I could deep freeze my kids at certain ages. 

I wonder if God is like that with us. Probably not because He is all knowing and declares the end from the beginning. But I do know that in God's wisdom He does release us. To learn and grow. One of the pictures of God in the Bible is that of an eagle stirring the nest. It does this so that the young Eagles will be uncomfortable and get out to fly. 

In life we are going to encounter those uncomfortable moments but we have to trust that God knows what He is doing. He will lead us and when we follow after His way we will soar like the eagle. 

How did you (or are you)deal with the stages of your children growing up? How do we trust God to get out of the nest?

Day 130 - Continuous Improvement

"We are learning how to handle stress."

At every level and in every season of life there will be stress. The stress may vary and differ in intensity with each new level and in those seasons. That means we have to be life long learners. 

I have found a few ways to handle stress in any situation I find myself in. The first is to cast your cares. God cares for you and knows what you're going through. He is also able to handle it. 

Second is to commit your way to the Lord. The word picture for commit in the Old Testament is that of a camel kneeling down with a heavy burden and rolling it off his back on to the ground. In this scenario we are the camel and God is the ground. It is nothing for God to take on any weight we struggle to carry. When we are weak He is strong. 

Finally continue to learn, grow, get stronger and develop your trust in God. We don't have all the answers and we most certainly cannot handle everything life throws at us. That is why God is with us all the time. We can make it when He is with us. 

If we get these basics down then we can continuously improve our life. We most certainly will be less stressed too!

Are there unique trials or pressures you have seen in different seasons of life? What else could be added to my ways of handling stress that you have seen work? 

Day 100 - Growing Forward

"Thank God for spiritual progress! Not only in people but in me! I don't want to ever stay the same. May I grow and may my prayers grow with me."

This is an appropriate entry for the 100th Thoughts From Last Year post.

I started this blog for a lot of reasons. Little did I know God had His own reasons. I am amazed that after only 100 days of this blog that thousands of people from dozens of nations spread over 6 continents would have visited and read my little thoughts.

Even with all that it is not the end of what God is doing. He is doing something in me. I am growing through this process of writing and sharing these flashes of inspiration from last year. I see how history really does repeat itself. I see that hindsight really is 20/20. I see that if we don't deal with an issue the right way that the issue will come back to deal with us. I also see how God is in and through every part of our lives.

God often takes what we do and makes more out of it. That is growth!

When you look back on last year until now how have you grown?