Is the Time Right?

"Do not wait: the time will never be 'just right'. Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along."— Napoleon Hill 

Solomon put it this way: "If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done." (Ecclesiastes 11:4 TLB)

There will always be an excuse 'not to.' There will always be a nay-sayer who will try to convince you that the timing isn't right. There will always be a critic who will ridicule you should you dare begin. 

Here's the truth: The timing is ALWAYS right to do what's right! 

NOW is the right time to take your next step in your faith-walk with the Lord. 
NOW is the right time to begin taking care of the body God has blessed you with (don't buy into the idea that you should wait 'til January. Lots of people have heart attacks in November/December--you don't want to be one of them.) 

NOW is the right time to reconcile that strained relationship with a family member.

NOW is the right time to pursue your dream job.

NOW is the right time to take the next step in becoming the person you were designed to become!

The Empty Chair

A few weeks ago, I challenged our congregation to take responsibility for an empty chair; that is, to make a commitment to the Lord to be active in seeking to reach someone who is not currently in church and bringing them into our fellowship.  Many stood, stating they were going to take that responsibility.

Jesus is all about filling the empty chairs.  In his parable of the great banquet, Jesus ends the story with, "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so my house will be full.'" (Luke 14:23)

If you were one of those who stood up on that day, I want to help you out.  One thing I've learned is that for commitments like this to work, they need some kind of a deadline.  Otherwise, we never get around to them.  It's not that we were being less than honest when we stood.  The truth is, we had every intention to fulfill our commitment; however, without a deadline, our best intentions get put off.  For this reason, I want to give you a deadline.  Someone once said that a goal without a deadline is only a wish.

The weekend of November 2 & 3 is "TIME CHANGE" weekend.  It's the good one... the one where we get to set our clocks BACK AN HOUR and get an extra hour sleep.  It's a great day to invite your friends and family because they have one less excuse that day than any other day of the year!  I want to encourage you to pray and work between now and SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, to have somebody sitting in your chair.

Together, we can make NOVEMBER 3 a fantastic day and gain some serious momentum as we head into the Holiday Season and turn our sites toward 2014!

Leaving the Wasteland

"For I am about to do something new.  See, I have already begun!  Do you not see it?  I will make a pathway through the wilderness.  I will create rivers in the dry wasteland."  (Isaiah 43:19, NLT)

At times we all look at our lives and see nothing but a dessert.  There doesn't seem to be any life any where.  Perhaps you are in a desert right now.

• You feel stuck in a career that's going nowhere.  
• You've been unemployed for a while and all you keep getting are dead ends as you search for a job.
• Your marriage seems dead.  A relationship that was once vibrant and alive has dried up and you wonder why you are even staying together.
• The town you live in is just dead.  There doesn't seem to be any life in it at all.  Every day you see the same old people doing the same old things.
• Your church seems to be just going through the motions.

When we find ourselves in the desert, we are tempted to jump ship.  Our solution for a boring, going-no-where job is to find another one.  If a marriage is dead, many simply trade in their current spouse for another one.  If our church isn't all we think it could be, we jump to yet another one.  Other people just settle.  They accept the desert as their lot in life and suffer through the hot, scorching, arid atmosphere of a life going no where fast.

We need to understand that in the midst of our desert experiences, God is already working.  He is working, on our behalf right now to turn the desert places into an oasis.  If we try to handle it our way, we will most likely find ourselves walking in circles through the desert, just like the Hebrews did with Moses for 40 years.  We change jobs, but stay in the desert.  We trade spouses, but still we are in the desert.  We hop from church to church and find the same desert in every one of them.

Jesus promised to be living water to all who trust Him.  "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'" (John 7:37-38)

As you look to Jesus and find him in the desert places of our lives, we experience his powerful ability to take what was dry and dead and bring it to life.  He is at work right now in you and in your surroundings.  He is preparing you for something new and fresh.  Look to him and stand in faith.  There is a river flowing right where you are!

Stressed?

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the LORD always, for the LORD GOD is the eternal Rock (Isaiah 26:3-4, NLT)

Here's a fact of life that nobody can deny: life is stressful.  Here's something we all need to come to grips with: stress is not going away.  It's part of life, and nowhere in Scripture does God promise us that life will be easy.  In fact, He tells us just the opposite!  Psalm 34:19 states, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous..."

The word  "affliction", in it's original language, was used to describe an Assyrian form of torture where a person would be tied to a stake, then have huge rocks piled up against them until the weight of the rocks eventually suffocated or crushed them to death.  That's an accurate picture of stress.  We can handle one or two huge rocks.  That deadline at work or that issue between you and your spouse, standing alone, isn't the end of the world.  You can work through it and overcome it.  BUT... when everything else starts piling up: the complaint from your best customer, the email from your boss, the car needs repair, your son now has a drivers license, and it's once again time to go to the dentist... now you feel crushed and suffocated.

How do we handle stress without being overwhelmed? Interestingly, God is often described in Scripture as "the Rock."  Here in Isaiah, He is "the eternal Rock."  Think about it.  Afflictions are rocks, but God is the BIG ROCK.  If we stand on the BIG ROCK we will not be crushed by the little rocks!  It doesn't mean that the little rocks of stress are not there, but that our perspective has changed.

Psalm 34:19 doesn't end with "Many are the afflictions of the righteous."  It goes on to state, "But the LORD delivers him out of them all."  This happens as we learn to focus on the BIG ROCK and trust Him to uphold us through whatever stress we are currently having to endure.

Let Isaiah 26:3-4 be God's promise to you today.  Whatever you are facing, ask yourself, "Is it bigger than God?"  If it isn't, then focus your attention on Him and what he says about your situation.  As you fix your mind on Him, you'll see the BIG ROCK get even bigger and the little rocks will become like mere pebbles.

Mondays

Mondays are foggy for me.  I think it has something to do with the spiritual, emotional, relational, and even physical intensity that goes into most Sundays.  In any case, most Mondays I wake up and check my pulse to make sure I'm alive and then spend most of the morning trying to find my brain.  I know a lot of pastors who take Mondays off.  I would do the same, but I don't want to feel this way on my day off.

On Mondays I find myself reviewing Sundays: what I said, what I should have said, and what I wish I hadn't have said.  I remember who was at church... and who wasn't... and wonder what's the deal.  I think through conversations I had both before and after the worship service.  I think through the Small Group we lead on Sunday nights and wonder if it's really making a difference.  Mondays are a gut-check for me as we look at numbers, both attendance and giving.  Are we going in the right direction?  Are we going to make it?  Do I have any idea what I'm doing?

It's kind of weird.  Deep inside, we know it's not about us... but on Mondays, if we're not careful, it's all about us.  That's why spending time with God is really helpful.  This morning, in my Bible reading time, this verse was part of my day:

"My old self has been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So I live in this earthly body by trusting the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20 (NLT)

What a faith builder!!!

God has called me (and all of us) to do one simple thing: die to self.  He has not called us to improve ourselves or try harder to please Him.  He knows we can't.  The reason so many of us find ourselves stuck and frustrated with the Christian life is because we have bought into the lie that we have to work in order to earn God's favor.  The inevitable conclusion we come to with this is this: we can't.  It won't work.

Most Mondays I wake up with this gnawing frustration of what could have been done better, as if I could control any of it.  This verse of Scripture reminds me that it's not about me.  It's not about my abilities, strengths, weaknesses, or desires.  All God asks me to do is die, let it go and trust Him to do His work.

When I stand in myself, all I see are inadequacies.  When I die to myself, those inadequacies die as well.  When I trust Jesus to live in me and through me... He has no inadequacies.  None!  And I think (because I did find my brain this morning) that one thing He wants me to learn this Monday morning is that as long as we allow Him to live through us... that's all we have to do.

With that in mind, the Monday fog is clearing away and I'm planning on having a victorious day!  Hope you have one as well!

Making the Team--part two

An elite high school athlete can expect to receive scholarship offers from many different colleges.  As coaches are courting these blue-chip recruits, they will seek to persuade them to join their program by sharing the benefits their school has to offer.

For example, Alabama, who has won three of the last four College Football National Championships, will sell this as a benefit.  "Join our program, and you will compete and win championships on an annual basis."  Other schools will show the number of players they have put in the NFL and use that to convince the recruit that should he join their team, he will have a greater chance of one day playing in the pros.  Other benefits that colleges will point out to recruits might include playing time, attendance at home games, and television appearances.  Since the vast majority of college football players will never play in the NFL, schools also tout their academic standards.

Joining God's team also comes with benefits.  These aren't temporary benefits but eternal benefits that are priceless.  What do I receive when I join God's team?

1. Forgiveness from My Past.

Every one of us has a past that is riddled with our share of mistakes, blunders, miss-ups, and bad decisions.  Paul put it this way, "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard" (Rom. 3:23 NLT).  The result of this is a life that is broken.  The only one who can put it back together is God, and He promises us this as a benefit for trusting His Son, Jesus: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23 NLT)

2. New Life for Today.

When we give our lives to Christ, and join His team, He offers us a life worth living today.  Eternal life begins the moment we trust Him!  We are not "on hold" waiting until we die to experience all He has for us.  In fact, Jesus Himself put it this way, "A thief is only their to steal and kill and destroy.  I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of" (John 10:10 MSG).

What does this "more and better" life look like?  For one thing, it is a life with PURPOSE.  Jesus gives us something to live for.  We realize that we are not a cosmic accident, but that God has a reason for our being here.  It also means a life with POWER.  As the Holy Spirit fills and indwells us, we realize that we have all we need to conquer old, debilitating habits and accomplish what God has for us.

3. Hope for the Future.

Many people are depressed about the future.  They worry over what it may hold.  But when we join God's team, we live with an assurance: "For I know the plans I have for you, "declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11).  This includes both the next few years of our future on earth and eternity in heaven.

Making the Team--part one

I'm not a Clemson fan.  I don't hate Clemson.  I'm just not a fan.  It doesn't bother me when they win (well... it bothered me a lot on August 31).  I don't lose any sleep over it when they lose.  I grew up in Georgia, and I cheer for the team in Athens.  Some things don't change and that's one of them for me.  The Dawgs are my team.

Having said that, there is a tradition in Clemson football that means an awful lot to the Tiger faithful and has become known as "The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football."  Many of you know what I'm talking about.  It's when the team clad in orange (hopefully it's orange because those purple jerseys are just plain out ugly) gather at the top of the hill that leads into the stadium, rub their hands across "Howard's Rock" and then storm down the hill, ready to take on their opponent of the afternoon.

Not just anybody can run down the hill.  Fans don't get to run down the hill.  The Marching Band doesn't get to march down the hill.  The opposing team certainly doesn't get to run down the hill.  The only people allowed to run down the hill into "Death Valley" are the players.  You've got to make the team in order to rub the rock and run down the hill.

Only a very small percentage of would-be football players have the chance to play major college football.  Out of the thousands of young men playing Pop Warner, Middle School, and High School football... all with aspirations of playing for their favorite college team one day... only a select few will ever have that opportunity.  On average, college football teams, like Clemson, offer 20-25 scholarships per year.  In order to qualify for an offer, a potential player must be skilled enough, strong enough, fast enough, big enough, and agile enough to garner an offer.  Academic records are verified, and many drop through the cracks because of a low grade point average.  The bottom-line is, more players don't make the team than do.

If it is so difficult to make a football team, is it even possible to make God's team?  If major colleges only offer a few, highly-skilled elite athletes; who would a perfect, holy God be willing to offer the chance to join His team?

Interestingly, although none of us qualifies to make His team, God makes an offer to any of us who will sign up!  Jesus makes a plain-stated offer to all of us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).  This is remarkable!  The God of this universe makes an offer to all who will join Him!

Major college football teams offer young men whom they deem as worthy.  God makes an offer to us, because to Him, we are worth it.  Although most of us will never have the opportunity to play football, or any sport, at a major level, every one of us has a standing offer from God to join His team.

Shifting Gears--Part 3

Shifting Gears--part 3

When The Lord tells us something three times, it must really be important.  Notice the Lord's command to Joshua: "Be strong and courageous... Be strong and very courageous... Be strong and courageous..." (Joshua 1:6,7, & 9)

Fear is our enemy's greatest weapon against us.  Fear paralyzes us and keeps us from experiencing our God-given destiny.  If we are going to become people who accomplish all that God has for us to accomplish and live the abundant life Jesus promised, we must make a shift from living according to our fears to living according to our faith.  It is as we make the first two shifts mentioned in previous posts that this shift begins to take place.

Fear is the result of looking back instead of looking forward.  Focusing on past failures and mistakes will paralyze us and keep us from ever attempting anything.

Fear is also the result of focusing on seen reality rather than the unseen reality of God's presence and promises.  When we focus on what we see happening around us, our response will be F.E.A.R.: Forget Everything And Run.  However, when our focus is on The Lord--His presence, His promises, and His Word to us--F.E.A.R. takes on a totally different meaning.  It becomes this: Focus Energy and Accept Responsibility.  In other words, fear is transformed into faith.

Fear is not from The Lord.  2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."

God has a plan for the rest of your life.  No matter what has taken place in your past, He can turn it all around from this point forward.  In fact, if He were to pull the curtain back and show you His plan for the rest of your life, and how your life will turn out if you follow it, everyone one of us would take it.  However, if God showed it all to us beforehand, there would be no need for faith.  Faith is stepping out and trusting that His plan is the best plan.

Shifting Gears, part two

Shifting Gears--part two

Shift from SEEN Reality to UNSEEN Reality

We live in two worlds. The natural realm and the spiritual realm exist side by side.  Our tendency is to be much more aware of the natural because it is what we see.

In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul tells us, "For we fix our eyes not on what is seen,  but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

If Joshua and the nation of Israel were going to cross the Jordan River and claim their Promised Land, they were going to have to shift from focusing on the natural realm to truly trusting the Lord, even though they could not see the spiritual realm.

There are three unseen realities that the Lord assured Joshua with, and we need to grasp each of these if we are going to continually move forward and claim new ground in our walk with Christ.

The Promises of God: The Lord gave Joshua some powerful promises in Joshua 1:1-9.  He promised Joshua, "I will give you every place where you set your foot"... "No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life"... "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you"... "I will never leave you or forsake you."  In order for these promises to be activated in Joshua's life, he was going to have to believe them and live in accordance with them.  How would he know that every place his foot tread would become property of Israel until he started walking?  How would he know that no foe would be able to stand against him until he engaged in battle?

If we are going to live victorious lives, we are going to have to live with our thinking, attitudes, and actions firmly rooted in the promises God has given us as His people... in spite of the circumstances.  The truth is, we would all live differently if we REALLY BELIEVED God's promises to us.

The Presence of God: Several times in this passage, the Lord assures Joshua that He was going to be with him.  We are given this same assurance.  The problem for us is that we can't see God.  No one has seen God.  How can we know He's really there?  A shift must take place, where we have more assurance in the unseen reality of God's presence than we do in what we see happening around us.

It's alarming to me how many people worry and complain.  For some, facebook should really be called gripebook.  It's sad how many people, who claim to know Jesus, live their lives so overwhelmed by their circumstances.  Like the disciples in the boat with Jesus during the storm, they are more sure of the waves ability to destroy them than the Lord's desire and authority to deliver them.  Here's a question we all must ask ourselves: Do I really believe God is with me?  And if so, am I living like it?

The Principles of God: In verses 7-8, God told Joshua to be careful to obey everything that had been written down in God's Law.  Joshua was told to meditate on God's principles day and not.  He was also told that this was the pathway to success in everything.

Have you ever noticed that there is a lot of stuff in the Bible that doesn't make sense?  Have you ever noticed that many of God's principles are counter-intuitive?  They seem to be the exact opposite of what our response to seen reality should be.  For instance, we are told in the Word to turn the other cheek, bless those who curse us, and freely give our hard-earned money away without expecting anything in return.  That makes no sense.  However, if we are going to live in victory, we must determine up-front that God knows what He's talking about and that we are going to trust Him and walk in obedience.

There will always be a battle between seen and unseen reality.  Every day seems to throw something at us that tempts us to react in a natural way, because deep down we're not sure God will handle it for us.  The victorious believer is one who learns to look up instead of looking down or around.  

Shifting Gears--part one

Shifting Gears

On Saturday, June 1, my family loaded up the Explorer and headed out for a week of vacation fun with all of my wife's relatives.  Yes, I was going to spend a week surrounded by my in-laws!  Our trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama was going to take about seven and a half hours, according to the GPS on my iPhone.  We left Anderson, and were making great time, until we got inside the I-285 perimeter around Atlanta.  About a mile inside the perimeter, traffic came to a sudden stop.  It was about 11:30.  Our plan was to get through Atlanta before stopping for lunch.  Suddenly, though, the four of us were stuck in the middle of five lanes of southbound traffic log-jam. As if it were going to help, I began changing lanes, hoping that this would some how spring us loose and get us moving again.  Nothing helped, though.  Evidently road workers had decided to use our vacation travel day to shut off three lanes of traffic in order to dig a two-foot wide trench on I-85, as two hours of snail-paced crawling finally came to an end.

We've all been stuck in traffic.  Also, we've all found ourselves stuck in life.  The truth is, life has a tendency to do that.  When Joshua became the leader of the People of Israel, they had been stuck for forty years.  However, God had a plan to get His people moving again.  In Joshua 1:1-9, we find three "shifts" that we need to make in order to get our lives out of the spiritual log-jam we may be in and to get moving again.

1. Shift from Looking Backward to Looking Forward.

After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, "Moses my servant is dead.  Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give them--to the Israelites.  Joshua 1:1-2

For forty years, Moses had led the Israelites.  He was the only leader they had ever known and yet he wasn't able to move them from the Wilderness to the Promised Land.  Joshua had to have thought to himself, "If Moses couldn't accomplish this, how in the world can I?"  

In order to move the people across the Jordan River, Joshua was going to have to make a shift from looking backward, and dwelling on the past, to looking forward and seizing God's plan for their future.  This was no small shift, as the past has a strong pull.

Each of us is influenced by our past.  Many are controlled by their past.  Whether it is their high expectations that were never realized, great accomplishments that they still glory in, or dismal failures that still haunt them, many people are so caught up in their yesterdays that they have no motivation to deal with today.

Every person has a past... and that past will paralyze them if they let.  At the same time, every person has a future... a future that will free them if they will focus their attention on it and begin moving in that direction.

Here's the good news for today.  God has a plan for the rest of your life, and His plan is a good plan.  It is a powerful plan that is not chained to all the mistakes you've made in your past.  Because of Jesus, our past does not have to dictate our future.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11