God, do NOT bless my efforts!

How many times have we prayed and asked God to bless our efforts... well, no more!

We want God to look down from heaven, see what wonderful things we are doing for Him, and to bless what we are doing.

Today I was challenged to reconsider this common practise by my written mentor, Oswald Chambers, when he wrote: "Many a Christian worker has left Jesus Christ alone and gone into work from a sense of duty or from a sense of need arising out of his own particular dicernment."

This does not necessarily mean we are "sinning," but that WE are generating the spiritual activity ourselves. Though as we get busy and drift from God, sin certainly can result! Oswald referring to our Christian activity, "There is no sin in it, and no punishment attached to it; but when the soul realizes how he has hindered his understanding of Jesus Christ, and produced for himself perplexities and sorrows and difficulties, it is with shame and contrition he has to come back."

It sounded so spiritual, the old saying I latched onto as a kid: "God can't move a parked car." But in the end, this attitude of fast-paced service, diguised as a sense of urgency for the lost, is a deadly and unbiblical and has led many a sincere Christian worker to get going so fast and furious in their flurry of Christian work that they end up crashing due to a blind spot around a corner on the super service highway of spiritual achievement. What good is all your "work" if it takes you away from the very one you are supposedly serving so passionately?!? I know that I have been driven since a very young age to be "Busy for God" - and yet I am discovering that God is not in as big a hurry as I am.

God has been at work throughout the ages, and is quite capable of accomplishing His goals and purposes without me being all stressed out. I get so worked up over all that "needs to get done" when God says, "It's all done already, just walk with Me."

Mark chapter eleven, in the Message, records Jesus saying, "Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you." When we are stressed, we are ahead of God. And He doesn't hurry to catch up to us, I believe He often stops, and waits for us to notice we are alone, and to come back to Him, and then He will continue on with us at His pace. Jesus continued, (in the Message) "That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everyting, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything."

Oswald writes, "...get into the habit of steadily referring everything back to Him; instead of this we make our common-sense decisions and ask God to bless them."

My challenge to myself first and foremost is this: Do not ask God to bless anything. If it is of God, it is already blessed! To ask God to bless it, is to hint that it may not be of Him to start with, even if it is a good thing.

Think about it, if God has asked you to do a thing, how silly to ask Him to also bless it! It may border on an insult to Him. And if He hasn't asked you to do it, why would you want His blessing on it?

Instead, ask God what He would have you do, and then pray for the courage and strength and persistance to see it through despite any obstacles or resistance you may encounter as you obey. Now there is a prayer God can answer!

A prayer of grace

A kind and gracious friend gave me this prayer yesterday and it really ministered to me, so I am posting it here. It really expressed the difference between the forgiveness of men and that of God who forgives in actions not merely in words....


Thank You, my loving and sovereign God, that my failures and mistakes are part of the "all things" You work together for good... as well as my tensions and stresses, my hostile and anxious feelings, my regrets, my trips into shame and self-blame - and the specific things that trigger them.

I praise you that "all things," including these, can contribute to my spiritual growth and my experience of You... When my heart is overwhelmed, I'm more aware of my need to cry to You... to take refuge in You.. to rely on You.

I rejoice that these things keep reminding me to depend on You with all my heart... that they prompt me to trust in Your love, Your forgiveness, Your power, Your sufficiency, Your ability to overrule, and Your transforming presence within me.

Thank you for the ways that my shortcomings and failures bring pressure on me to open myself to You more fully, and the way they let You show me deep and hidden needs: griefs and hurts that I've never poured out before You, that I've never exposed to Your healing touch, and sins that I've never faced and acknowledged. How grateful I am for Your constant cleansing as I confess each sin You make me aware of, and then turn back to You as my Lord.

I praise You that I'm free from condemnation simply because Christ died for me and rose again... that it doesn't depend on how well I live.

I praise You for how You use my sins and failures to humble me, and for how this opens me to the inflow of Your grace - amazing grace, that enables me to hold my head high, not in pride but in humble gratitude for Your undeserved, unchanging love and total cleansing.

- Amen

A Doormat for Jesus?

We've all felt like a doormat from time to time, and it's not fun. People walking all over you unconcerned for your feelings, hardly noticing you, taking you for granted, etc. But what if God CALLS you to be a Doormat for Him?

Paul said in 2 Corintians 12:15, "So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well."

Oswald Chambers writes today, "Paul said he knew how to be a "doormat" without resenting it, because the mainspring of hsi life was devotion to Jesus." Just before this he states a painful truth, even for us in ministry, "Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no ends of our own to serve."

Can ministry be our own end? If it is stressing us out and wearing us out, it probably is. Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. If our burden is heavy, we may be tossing extra stuff on our back that He hasn't put there.

We all have our "CAUSES" that we live for, and most always they are worthy and noble and spiritual and godly and GOOD, but consider Oswald's challenge, "The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, not fling it away, but deliberately lay my life out for Him and His interests in other people, not for a cause." My cause must only be fellowship with Jesus, and out of that will flow the ministy. I used to think ministry would draw me into fellowship with Jesus, but in reality it drove me away from Him!

My reading in the Message this morning brought it together:

Calling the crowd to join the disciples, he said, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the drivers seat: I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how.... Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?" (Mark 8)

Set aside the list of "TO DO's" and ask Jesus, what would YOU like me to do today. He may tell you to take a day off. He may tell you to skip e-mail for a day. He may tell you to call or write someone who isn't on your list. He ask you to take a walk and just be with Him for a bit, there is something He wants to show you. He may just want you to pause long enough to feel His unconditional love for you. Then he might say, "Now, get back to work, but never let it be about the work. It's about me."

And when you feel like a doormat, consider these words from Oswald yesterday, "When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from other can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake."

Go ahead, walk all over me... I'm walking with Jesus, so it's all good.

Am I a tool for God to use?

being confident of this, that he who began a good work
in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6

I have strived to be holy since I was a young boy. I never wanted to disappoint my Savior. So my life's passion was to serve Him and not disgrace Him.

To me, serving God was equal to loving God.

I was wrong.

So wrong.

To me, being holy was equal to loving God.

I was wrong again.

So wrong.

Holiness and Service are RESULTS of loving God, but they do not equal love for God.

Oswald Chambers writes today, "Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness. (!) Personal holiness focuses the eye on or own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend* Him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. We have to get rid of this notion, "Am I of any use?" and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a qestion of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abondoned to God, He works through us all the time."

I did not fear "offending" God, I knew that God loved me, but I was afraid of disappointing Him, and ultimately knew that I am a failure in so many ways, so I worked hard to make up for my short-coming by being of use to Him. If I fail to be the man of God I want to me, at least I could be a contributing player on God's Team! If I had a part in winning the Game, my loses off the field of Ministry would be made up for.

I am no longer concerned with being a tool in the hand of God. I am more interested in being the item He is working on. I've given up being a tool, and instead am letting the tools cut into me and shape me. It hurts... but I welcome it.

and if God uses me in the process somehow, that's up to Him.

but my desire is just to Walk with Him.

whether I "matter" or not to anyone else.

I don't need to be of USE, I just want to BE.

Are You Listening?

For those of you who know me personally, you might know that I am deaf in my left ear. Having 50% of the hearing capacity of others is the least of my troubles with this handicap. (In fact, is a blessing in children's ministry as the kids are only 50% as loud to me as they are to others in the room!) My biggest struggles are in directional hearing and in getting my attention in the first place.

God gave most people two ears in order for the brain to calculate the direction of the source of sound, and the shape of the ears warps the sound so that a sound directly behind is distinguished from a sound directly ahead, of which sound waves enter the brain at the exact same moment. All other sounds arrive separately to the brain, where you smart noggin' reassembles the sound into one while determining the direction of the source. Sounds great! But for me, I hear, but I have no idea where the sound is coming from. Yup, no stereo for me. The concept is like colors to a blind person. I can explain it, but have never truly experienced it. It also means when I hear things (such as a siren when driving!) I have to look around and locate the source visually. (FYI, contray to making me a dangerous person to ride with, studies have shown that people who are deaf in one ear are 80% less likely to get in an accident as they are much more observant drivers and actually use their mirrors constantly while driving.) Oh, the stories I can tell about being deaf in one ear, such as lunchtime in grade school where kids would call my name and duck to watch me looking all over the room for who said my name, oblivious to which direction to look.

But the other downside of being deaf, is that you learn to filter out all unwanted noise and focus only on the sound you need, meaning that often in my life I've been confronted for ignoring people, or not returning a "hello" or being too wrapped up in myself to hear others. Perhaps you've seen the classic button, "I'm not deaf, I'm ignoring you?" Well, I'v ealways wanted to make one that says, "I'm not ignoring you, I'm deaf!" The reality is, I don't hear much unless I am focused on it, but as my parents learned (and my wife can attest) if I am focused, I can hear even whispers about me from the other room! (My poor parents thought they could discuss Christmas presents safely in another room.) :)

So how do I get around this? I have to tell people that if they want to talk to me and have me actually listening, they need to use my NAME first. Instead of, "Can you go get such and such, Karl" (to which I turn and say, "Yes?" and am confronted with their groan) they need to say, "Karl, can you go get such and such" and I will happily go get them such and such and a little of the other as well.

My point? (yes, there is always a point!)

I have discovered that I am spiritually deaf in one of my spiritual ears as well. And I see the results in the same two ways. First of all, hearing God's voice is a foreign concept to me - like colors to a blind man - I am told that God speaks to me, but I am learning what that means. Physically, to get a taste of stereo, I have to turn my head around to get a taste of the sounds coming from different places. I do have a Bose Surround Sound System in my basement theater, but I bought it for the volume, and so others who watch movies with me could enjoy the stereo. Spiritually, I tend to focus on volume too... even as I lead others to enjoy God's stereo. I want God to tell me many great things, to give me huge spiritual insights, to 'crank up' the volume of my spiritual life... but I am learning that I must develop the skill of hearing his still small voice, the subtle suggestions he wants to make throughout the day to me.

The other effect of my spiritual deafness is focus. I get so focused on all that I need to do, that I don't hear God speaking to me. He too, has to get my attention somehow... and oh, does He know how to do that! But ah, how much better it is when I give Him my attention first!

Little Samual said, "Speak, Lord, for your servant listens," (I Samuel 3:10) but only after God had to call him several times! I too have missed his voice many times. Not because I was sinking in the murkiness of sin, but because I was so busy serving him, trying to impress him with my work, that I rarely STOPPED to LISTEN to Him, and to say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant listens."

Oswald Chambers writes today, "The destiny of my spiritual life is such identification with Jesus Christ that I always hear God, and I know that God always hears me (John 11:41).
If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God, by the devotion of hearing all the time." Oh, how i want that! To not to spiritually deaf in one ear! He continues, "What hinders me from hearing is that I am taken up with other things..... I am devotyed to things, to service, to convictions, and God may say what He likes, but I do not hear him."

Wow. So devoted to GOOD things that I miss hearing what GOD wants to say to me? But I have lots of memories of times God spoke to me! I have had great times of prayer, and personal spiritual retreats where God spoke clearly to me, but Oswald nailed me with this final thought, "If I have not cultivated this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God's voice at certain times, at other times I am taken up with things - things which I say I must do, and I become deaf to Him."

Dear God, let me HEAR you today. Not during a profound moment in my quiet time, but throughout the day, let me hear your voice. Open my spiritual ears to your subtle nuggings to speak, call or email that certain person, say that word to those who cross my path, to notice that bit of your magesty in creation, to let that annoying little irritation go, to see that little thing I can do to bless my wife, or show love to my child, to forgive those who hurt me, to release that grudge, to respond with gentleness or kindness, to be honest when my instinct is to make myself look better, to be the hands and voice and feet of Jesus throughout my day. Nothing huge or dramatic may happen other than that at the end of the day, I can say I have walked with You, if only for one day. Then help me do the same tomorrow. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Are You Spiritually Exhausted?

Oswald Chambers highlight for today...

"Exhaustion means that the vital forces are worn right out. Spiritual exhaustion never comes through sin but only through service, (!), and whether or not you are exhauted will depend upon where you get your supplies."

Many people look at a person's sin and say, "that sin broke them," and miss that the brokenness came before the sin. It is not sin that breaks a person, it is self-powered service that breaks a worker of Jesus, and sin is the result. God desires to contrain us and empower us, but when we get so busy serving Him and neglect HIM we give up his retraining and are left to our own power and devices, which will fail us, be sure of that!

Oswald warns today, "Be careful that you get your supply, or before long you will be utterly exhausted." I am sad proof that a worker for Jesus can go a very long time "holding it all together" with human effort, even if motivated by ministry and a sincere desire to please God, but the longer you rely on your own strength and abilities; the more you find yourself propping up, the harder and further you will fall when you loose your grip.

I envision myself as a man who built a dam and was standing in front of it holding it back, while at the same time adding to the water, even installing hoses that poured more water in, under finally the dam I built and filled finally burst, and took me away in the flow. Now downstream a bit, and the water having subsided some, am looking instead for a natural lake on whose shore I can just enjoy what God has created.

Oswald asks, "Has the way in which you have been serving God betrayed you into exhaustion?"

Later he boldly states, "You have no right to say - 'O Lord, I am so exhasted.' " This doesn't mean you will never be busy or feel tired, in fact, he says, "He saved and sanctified you in order to exhaust you (!). Be exhausted for God, but remember that your supply comes from Him."

If you are exhausted today... take some time TODAY to get with God and refill on Him.

And, if you are concerned with some water that is leaking out of the dam... Let it go. Allow God to bring the water level down to His level. Don't try to hold it back. Don't plug the leaks. God cares more about your ministry than you do, and HE will supply exactly what you need, and what you don't get, you probably didn't need.

I beg you, don't live exhausted. It isn't worth it, for you, or for those who love you.

A Matter of Life and Death

Just wanted to post here a great article just received from my friend Roger Fields from Kidz Blitz. (I have added the bold)

Christianity is not about good and evil, but about life and death. Jesus did not come to make us good but to make us alive. The difference between a believer and a non-believer is not that the believer does good things and the non-believer does bad things. The prime difference is that the believer is alive and the non-believer is dead. The Bible is explicit about this from the get-go.

Adam and Eve were to eat from the Tree of Life and abstain from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God wanted them to have life, not merely an ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Adam and Eve thought being smart about good and evil was more important than life from God. They were wrong then and we still make the same mistake today. Adam and Eve died the SAME DAY they ate from the wrong tree, even though they lived physically for many more years. Take a peek at Genesis 2:17.

Consequently, we are not bad people in need of goodness. We are dead people in need of life. Jesus did not come to give us an example. He came to give life. I don’t need an example; I need life. (I was amazed to read this the same day as my last post about WWJD)

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10 NKJV)

The question is not “what WOULD Jesus do?” The question is “What DID Jesus do?” God didn’t make you good when Christ came into your life. He made you alive.

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
(Ephesians 2:1 NKJV)

Your eternal life does not start when you get to Heaven. It starts when you receive Jesus. It then continues at a higher level when you get to Heaven.

And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. (1 John 5:11 NKJV)

If you have the Son of God you already have life. If you do not have the Son of God you do not have life. That means you are dead.

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:12 NKJV)

Didn’t God write the Bible to help us know right from wrong? Not primarily. He wrote the Bible to help us know how we can be certain that we have eternal life.

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, (1 John 5:13 NKJV)

That’s why the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 21 includes two groups of people: those whose names are in the Book of Life and those whose names are not in the Book of Life. Those not in the Book of Life will be judged by their works. Hint: nobody does well before God if they have to make it to Heaven based on doing good and avoiding evil. The secret is to get your name in the book, not your works in the books.

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. (Revelation 20:12 NKJV)

How can dead people stand? They were physically alive but spiritually dead. They were spiritually dead because they never received Jesus. They were depending on the good they did to earn them entrance to heaven.

And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15 NKJV)

The “I have done some good things in my life” approach does not work out well. The reason is because there is no life in it. The little secret is that sometimes dead people manage to do good things and alive people manage to do bad things. That is why it is called the “Book of Life” and not the “Book of Good Stuff You Do for God.”

Children’s ministry is more than presenting values that cut between right and wrong. It is about offering, explaining, and illustrating the life that comes from faith in what Jesus did for them through the cross and resurrection.

I am not content with kids merely learning how to be good. I want them to be alive in God. I want them to know they are alive in God. In simple ways as they trek through their day, I want them to experience God’s life within them. And the amazing thing is that when they (and we) experience the energy of being alive in God: some goodness will burst out when least expected.

WWJD? Not so fast...

W.W.J.D. - We've all heard it before... What Would Jesus Do?

I'd like to challenge the conventional thinking regarding WWJD as someone who has tried to do WWJD and failed many times.

Lets back up a step... the goal of the Christian life is not to do what Jesus would do... it is to become LIKE Jesus (and as a result do what He would do). The process of becomeing like Jesus is called Sanctification.

Oswald Chambers writes, "Are we prepared for what sanctification will cost? It will cost an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense broadening of all our interests in God. Sancification means intense concentration on God's point of view."

It is a focus on character not actions. It is a focus on focus not what I DO.

Oswald continues, "Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the disposition that ruled Jesus so that the disposition that ruled Him will rule us. Are we prepared for what that will cost? It will cost everything that is not of God in us."

SEE THE DIFFERENCE? It is not what Jesus DID we should be focused on, but the disposition that ruled Him.

Finally, he concludes, "The one and only characteristic of Holy Ghost in a man is a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, and freedom from everything that is unlike Him."

SEE? It is not about DOING what Jesus would do. The Christian life is more than just trying to "be like" Jesus or "doing" what we think Jesus would do... All that requires human thought and effort and will - (which we will always eventually fail at!) and besides, that is not what Jesus was like or what He did. He just was in fellowship with the Father. Period. All He "did" or "was like" simply flowed out of being in close relationship with the Father. That is all we need!

Not WWJD.... But WAJW
(Walk As Jesus Walked) In fellowship with the Father.

Do do not ask yourself, "What Would Jesus Do?" Instead, activiely and agressively strive to walk in fellowship with God and HE will transform your actions as you walk in relationship with Him. The effort to "do what Jesus would do" fades and instead the effort is only in building the relationship with God. As you walk with Jesus He will take care of your actions.

If any man...

"If any man..." - these familiar words of Christ are the beginning of His invitation to JOIN HIM... but to join Him in what?

"If any man FOLLOW..." As a young boy I answered the Call of Jesus to follow Him into Service. For me, "If any man follow me" and "If any man serve me" were one and the same.

But they are not.

But didn't he say to follow Him so He could make you a "fisher of men?" Not so fast.

Service for Jesus is NOT my life's end, as I once thought it to be - it is the product or result of following, but it IS not following. Following is fellowship with the one you are following, and in that fellowship comes obedience, and out of that obedience, and only out of that obedience, comes service. Service that does not flow out of fellowship and obedience, may be 'good service' but may not be what He is asking me to do!

Oswald Chambers writes, "Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ." While I and anyone who may be reading this would certainly agree with that statement, it was the next sentence that nearly fell me out of my chair:

"The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him."

I would have thought that sin, worldiness, and any of a list of vices would be the biggest competitor to devotion to Christ, and so I fought those daily and found comfort in my victories... I never considered that my hyper-insane-drive to SERVE HIM might turn out to be a competitor to devotion and fellowship with Him!

Oswald continues, "The ONE AIM of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, not a call to do something for Him." Again, I would have said my one aim to love God (as evidenced by my service to Him) or sanctification... (becoming more like Him... trying to 'be good') But the purpose of my creation was not to merely love or to be good, it was to discover an intimate relationship with my Creator. Yet, I have been so busy and exhausted serving Him, that I never had time to simply enjoy Him.

Oswald concludes, "Are we being more devoted to service than to Jesus Christ?" I know I was. And it about killed me. Elsewhere, OC writes, "As workers for God, we have to learn to make room for God." It is rradically ironic that our lives can become so full of ministry for God, that God can get crowded out. We try to impress God with all we do for Him, and He is asking only for us. God has shown me, acutely, that he wants nothing I can do for Him. He only wants me. Through that relationship, he will use me for His purposes in the Kingdom, but His first purpose is simply me - to teach me how to walk with Him in daily intimate fellowship, for THAT is what we were saved for in the first place... not that we might get busy serving Him. It was the loss of personal fellowship with our Creator that the Cross fixed, not a need to work. It is so painfully clear now. I finally understand why all I have accomplished I consider now rubbish, to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ.

Jesus never said, "Come, Serve Me." He said, "Come, Follow Me."