“Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the ‘northeaster,’ swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind, so we gave way to it and were driven along.” Acts 27:14-15 (NIV)
Picture this. You’re cruising along in life. Life is good. A few minor issues here and there; but overall, no major problems. Then, wham! Something hard blindsides you. Maybe a lost job. Maybe a physical illness. Maybe a mid-life crisis. It could be a number of things that can threaten to capsize your life. Like a good captain, you fight the threat with everything in your power to survive.
That was me recently. Some unexpected struggles just slammed my life like a hurricane force wind. And I fought it with all my might. When I read this scripture, it pretty much slapped me in the face like the “northeaster.” I felt the Lord say to me, “I am making some changes in you, so just go along for the ride. Stop fighting.” While there are things in life worth fighting, God making changes in us is not one of them. Just quit fighting Him and let Him have His way.
“We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw cargo overboard.” Acts 27:18 (NIV)
Exactly. Through this recent storm I experienced, I felt like I had taken a severe and violent beating. My sanity, emotions, and salvation all had taken a brutal thrashing. And I began to have an “I don’t care” attitude.
But again, I was slapped with the scripture and God said, “I am throwing cargo and baggage in your life overboard during this storm.” I’m not exactly sure what He’s doing, but I do know that I need to allow Him to do His work. He knows exactly what cargo needs to sink to the bottom of the ocean and what needs to stay on the ship.
When God makes changes in our lives, it’s never easy. In fact, it can downright be painful. He may even throw some cargo overboard that we have grown accustomed to and don’t want to let go of. He truly knows best. He knows what will make us better and more like Him. We just need to trust Him by going along for the ride and let Him get rid of the baggage in our lives.
As Paul Harvey would say, “The rest of the story” in Acts 27 of Paul’s shipwreck, it says that everyone survived the storm without injury. And so will we. My question, though, is this: Can it be more like a squall than a full-fledged storm?
At work we use white-out. You know that fantastic white stuff that covers up our mistakes on paper. It does such a great job that you can even write over the top of it and no more mistake. But did you ever turn the paper over and look at the area where your mistake was? If you haven’t, try it. You’ll see that your mistake is still there. After all, it has only been covered over and hidden from sight, not removed!
White-out is useful for first drafts or personal papers, but you would hardly want to turn in a proposal or term paper with white marks all over it. You see while it is a good product, it leaves its mark on your paper and it’s visible even to an untrained eye.
It’s kind of like the animal sacrifices of Old Testament times. The blood of the animal was used to cover over the sin of the people. The sin was still there but not visible through the blood. That’s why God needed a better method of sin removal.
Enter Jesus; the Son of God. It was His desire to remove sin altogether. His method of removing sin was to allow Himself to get killed so that His blood could remove it completely. Doesn’t sound like a brilliant plan from a human stand point, but it was the only way God would allow and it also left its marks on Jesus that are visible to the untrained eye
Removal of sin is brilliant because the devil likes to look at the back of the paper of our lives and remind us of our sin. When it is completely gone, he can’t throw it in our face. God has forgiven our sin and if He doesn’t choose to acknowledge it, then what does the devil have?
I often contemplate this statement when everything in my life is falling apart. For instance, what was good about my brother being murdered? Or my wife's and my inability to have children?
How can I possibly believe that God is totally good when I constantly see injustices all around? It would be easy to blame God for bad things or believe that he is not good, but that would only prove that I have a small faith.
Job is a classic example of a guy who could have gone down the road of self pity or God denial. Instead, he accepted that God has a right to do as He pleases, regardless of whether we understand or like it.
Knowing this I have come to two conclusions:
1) We do not have the ability to chose what is good for all people, in all circumstances, at all times and
2) God does!
Just because we don't get what God is doing doesn't mean that God isn't good. Look at Job. God not only blessed his life; but even thousands of years after his death, he is still an example to us of faith in God.
This morning I woke up feeling less than……less than good, less than holy…less than humble…less than loving……less than worthy of God’s awesome blessings and faithfulness…less than worthy to be married to whom I am and to have 5 wonderful children and 2 beautiful grandchildren…less than worthy to work where I work and lead worship as I do………and so the theme goes with me these past few weeks…God, what’s wrong with me???
His grace is enough……especially when I’m feeling less than…it took me about 10 minutes to realize that it was condemnation not conviction that I was feeling…and suddenly I said to the enemy of my soul……ah ha!“…I see your trickery to steal my joy and peace today!”
There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!I’ll never be good enough, holy enough, humble enough, worthy enough!PTL!That’s why I need Jesus!My righteousness is from You, Lord and You alone!Your mercies are new every morning and great is Thy Faithfulness!It’s only through the blood of Jesus that I’m worthy, it is only because of His sacrifice that I’ve been redeemed from the curse of the law and have been grafted into the blessings of Abraham.
God is so good……all the time……even in the midst of struggle in my own mind, He is there to help me realize there is nothing I can ever do to make Him love me more than He does right now and there is nothing I will ever do to make Him love me less than He does right now. His love endures forever and it’s everlasting!
It’s His GRACE!It’s so AMAZING!
“Amazing Grace…how sweet the sound…that saved a wretch like me……Amazing love…now flowing down……from hands and feet that were nailed to the tree…His grace flows down and covers me……wow……thank you, Lord……You cover me……
As Pastor Jim would say: “Wrap your mind around that!”
Pastor Heidi gave me a book not long ago entitled The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Randy is a young man dying from cancer. The book is basically all the things he wants people to know about life, death and how you live in between. In this book Pastor Heidi highlighted chapter nine; “A Skill Set Called Leadership” and proudly declared that this chapter identifies my strengths as a leader. Let me give you two paragraphs from this chapter:
“Think about it. If you see the TV show, Star Trek, you know that Kirk was not the smartest guy on the ship.” This was not a good start when I realized one of my staff members was comparing me to a fictional character on the Starship Enterprise called Captain Kirk. The paragraph continues: “Mr. Spock, his first officer was always the logical intellect on board. Dr. McCoy had all the medical knowledge available to mankind in the 2260’s. Scotty was the chief engineer, who had the technical know how to keep the ship running, even when it was under attack by aliens. So what was Kirk’s skill set? Why did he get to climb on board the Enterprise and run it? The answer: The skill set called ‘Leadership.’
“I learned so much by watching this guy in action. He was the distilled essence of the dynamic manager, a guy who knew how to delegate, had the passion to inspire, and looked good in what he wore to work. He never professed to have skills greater than his subordinates. He acknowledged that they knew what they were doing in their domains. But he established the vision, the tone. He was in charge of morale.” As I considered these skill sets that Captain Kirk possessed I began to consider where I stand in relation to these components of leadership:
·Do I think I am the smartest guy in the church?
·Do I know how to delegate effectively?
·Do I inspire passion to serve?
·Do I look professional?
·Do I recognize others who have skills greater than I?
·Do I acknowledge their area of expertise?
·Do I establish vision, set the tone and guard the morale of those who work with me?
These seven components of Leadership will go a long way to make us into a dynamic manager. A dynamic Leader!
I never thought I would want to be like Captain Kirk, not really a Star Trek fan, but when it comes to leadership, I am willing to learn from anyone I can.
One more thing I like about Captain Kirk’s Leadership; he didn’t believe in the “no win scenario.” This guy plays to win!
God bless you as you “boldly go where no one else has gone before,” or should I say: “Live long and prosper”…… OK That’s Enough!
As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”
Jesus was progressing in His ministry. He was drawing enormous crowds and had many followers. He had many who considered themselves disciples. Jesus began to teach some hard things. Teachings that seemed incredibly radical. Some of the disciples probably began to think, “This is a little much for me” or “this is too hard” or “this is a little weird to me.”The Bible says that those disciples “withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”
We have all met people who once have walked with Jesus. Somewhere along the line, they did not like what they were hearing or thought it was too hard or that serving Jesus was just too weird.
I admit there have been times in my walk with Jesus where life has been overwhelming. The things Jesus asks me to do seem to be too much or too hard. During those times, I feel like I’m such a fake.
There is a song on the radio called “Shattered” by a secular group. When I heard the song for the first time, I was going through a season of struggle. I think all of us who walk with God have those times in the wilderness where we feel alone, don’t know where we are headed, or even if we want to go where we are headed. That is where I was. After hearing this song I read the above Scripture, and God really broke through to me, strengthened and encouraged me!
The song reminds me of some of David’s psalms in which he really wrestled with God and his faith. Some of the lines in the song are: “I’m good with out you,” “Give me a break, let me make my own patterns,” “Over the line, can’t define what I’m after,” “Taking my time but it’s time that I’m wasting.” When we struggle sometimes we think that we know what’s best for ourselves and we want to make our own decisions, especially when we think God has failed us in some way or is moving too slowly. We think we can do a better job.As I have wrestled with God and wondered, “Where are you taking me? When can these things that I desire so strongly happen? When can I stop feeling like such a freak?” It always comes back to what Simon Peter says in response to Jesus when He asked him if he wanted to leave also, “To Whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
In the song “Shattered,” there is the phrase: “Push me back to you, it’s always back to you.” I have found no matter what I have done or what I have thought or how angry I have been, it always comes back to Jesus. It’s always back to Him. Where else would I go? There are things that have enticed me, and I have wanted to travel down that road; However, there is this overwhelming sense of love and purpose that God confronts me with and it is always back to Him. As the song says, I always turn the car around. I give it up. It’s always back to Him, because I am not good without Him. I am miserable without Him. No one has loved me or cared for me or believed in me like Jesus has. I don’t care who the next president is or if the economy tanks or if the dreams that I think are so great don’t occur. I just want to follow Him because I know that He is the only One with my best interests at heart, and He is the One who knows best how I should spend my life. So over the past few weeks, I have turned the car around and driven right back to Jesus. And maybe some of you reading this also need to begin to think about turning the car around and driving right back to Jesus!
As Jimmy and I were discussing his message for Sunday morning awhile back, he mentioned the phrase from the Gospels, “fishers of men.” He talked about our responsibility as believers to “fish,” as Jesus called it, for men. I commented how God is using me to fish for minnows – small men and women - through the ministry of the daycare. We both laughed.
Just like Jesus taught His disciples to fish for men, we are learning how to fish for minnows. Our daycare/preschool serves as an important link between the church and the public school system. We also serve as a secondary parent figure for those who need child care. We pray for and believe that in the years to come many children, or minnows, will identify HCC as their church family simply because they were part of the Children’s Academy.
Our staff prays with these children before snacks and when they are hurting or troubled. They also share Biblical values to help the children get along with classmates and others. While the church fulfills its mission of fishing for men, let’s not forget to fish for minnows.
Sometimes in church life someone else puts accurate words to something you have always believed, maybe even practiced, but didn’t really have the terminology that best describes what you believe. For me such is the case with the term “leveraging our strengths.” Over the years I have believed in this strategy or philosophy that, simply stated, involves discovering what we are best at and then making the most out of it. (Sometimes it is hard to put the things you believe into words.) There are so many advantages in “making the most” out of the things you are good at and probably enjoy doing. Advantages like: enthusiasm, excellence, self-esteem and the satisfaction that comes from serving God and His people.
In today’s church culture there is great pressure, on us as leaders, to provide every ministry that our community needs. As if we are the only church in town! This pressure tends to push most of us to become something other than what God intended, the same can be said for the church family as well. This is a good time to point out that what we are best at today, as leaders and as a church, changes as we grow personally and as God grows His church corporately.
Of course, each of us must be good at loving, caring, and developing people. The leverage comes when we evaluate how we are good at loving, caring, and developing God’s people. Once the how is determined we truly have something we can “make the most out of.” This releases us to focus less on providing every ministry under the sun and to focus more on how we best love, care, and develop God’s people. Working with the tools we use best creates energy, passion, momentum and the end result is usually more satisfying.
Give it some thought, and let me know how you best love, care and develop God’s people. We, the pastoral staff, will find a way to partner with you to leverage those strengths for greater fun, greater fruitfulness and greater fulfillment.
