Do You Believe in God’s Goodness?

Do you struggle with believing in God’s goodness?

Maybe that question catches you off guard, or maybe you’re not even quite sure what I mean by it. Or maybe the question makes you uncomfortable and you don’t even want to think about it.

If it makes you uncomfortable, believe me, I understand. It makes me uncomfortable too. It’s almost like I’m questioning God, like I’m questioning the truthfulness of His word, or like I’m questioning His love. But when we hide from confronting the issues and being completely honest about something we stop our ability to move beyond that point. If you and I are going to grow then we must face the issues and resolve the conflicts that keep running through our minds.

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted anything in a while. It’s actually been over two weeks since I’ve posted anything. I’ve drafted a couple of items, but that’s as far as they got. You see, I’m struggling and I’m hurting. I’m feeling as thought I followed God’s directions and did what He asked, but then the outcome was a total flop. From my perspective it was a failure. Nothing came out like what I had prayed for and expected. Quite honestly, I feel like God let me down. It seems that He didn’t answer my prayers at all. I feel like I did what I was supposed to do, but then God didn’t do His part.

Don’t worry, I’ve already had this conversation with God, and He didn’t strike me dead for my gripping. And before you tell me that God is more concerned with my character than He is in my comfort, I know that. I’ve even preached that sermon to an entire church. That’s not my point. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is something deeper, lots deeper.

I realize that there were men in the Bible who felt the same way. I read about Job whom God Himself said was perfect and righteous, yet he questioned the goodness of God. I read about David whom God says was a man after His own heart, yet time and again he felt God had abandoned him and left him to fend for himself. I read about Elijah who called down fire from heaven, yet then feels God has let him down and left him all alone.

What I’m recognizing is that when we focus on self we take our eyes off of God and His goodness. After his trial Job recognized that he used to know about God but now he knew God. David always seems to return to the theme that he will refocus on God’s goodness and trust in what he knows is true, rather than focusing on the circumstances and what seems to be true. God had to remind Elijah that he didn’t have all the facts, and that in reality he was not alone at all.

I want to refocus on my Lord’s goodness. I want to refocus on the truth that my Heavenly Father loves me so much that He gave His Son Jesus to die for me. I want to refocus on the truth that my Lord never makes a mistake. I want to refocus on the truth that my God hurts over my pain, but that for my good He is going to let me go through the circumstances and learn the lessons that will help me grow and become better. I want to refocus on His promises that this will work out for my good, that God has my best interest at heart, and that He will not withhold any good thing from me.

How about you? Do you struggle like I do? If so, why don’t you drop me a note and I’ll pray for you as I pray for myself and my own struggles. God is growing us into becoming better. He does not want us to remain as we are, but He wants us to become mature so that we impact others for His kingdom.

Until next time,

Jim

Humans Playing God

I had a discussion today which still has me upset.

The person I was talking to said that China has a good law. After a woman has given birth to her second child she is operated on so that she can never have any more children.

I asked him why that was good. He told me it’s good because there are too many people in the world. I asked him where he got that information. His reply, “There are! (too many people)”

I then told him that were the entire world’s population moved to the state of Texas there would be room enough for everyone. He looked at me like I was nuts and said, “Come on! How do you figure that?” I replied, “It’s simple mathematics. Texas has enough land mass to house every person in the world without overcrowding.”

Sound strange? Perhaps you too are under the impression that planet earth is over populated and that some form of birth control is needed or people will die of because of overcrowding.

Please be noble. Don’t take my word for it. Look at the numbers:

Texas land mass, not including lakes and rivers, = 678,051 square kilometers. One square kilometer = 1,000,000 square meters. Therefore Texas land mass = 678,051,000,000 square meters.

According to the Wikapedia, the online encyclopedia, as of April 12, 2010 the world population is 6,814,200,000 people.

Divide Texas land mass by world’s population and you get area per human. Simple math says there is 99.5 square meters, or 1,071 square feet of Texas land mass for every person living on planet earth.

I concluded by saying this. “When you and I start taking on the role of God by deciding who can have children and who can’t, then we are getting into very dangerous territory.”

In Exodus 4:11 God Himself takes responsibility for the mute, deaf, and blind. We call those birth defects. God says He did it. Here is what God said to Moses. “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the LORD?” Exodus 4:11 (NLT)

So next time someone tells you the world is getting over populated ask them from where they are getting their facts and help set the record straight.

Let’s stop listening to nonsense. Let’s stop trying to play God. If you’re anything like me, it’s hard enough keeping myself on track, let alone trying to tell others how they need to run their lives.

Until next time,

Jim

Are You Noble?

Some people have told me that I’m a pessimist. That’s pretty funny because my wife says I’m an optimists. Since my wife has been at my side for 35 years I tend to think she knows me better then those who think I’m a pessimist.

Why do some see me as a pessimist? They tell me it’s because I’m always questioning what I’m told. Because I don’t take take things at face value. Perhaps I’ve been burned so many times that I’ve learned to look at the evidence before I accept something. I do question what I’m told, and then I may very likely go as far as questioning the evidence.

Some people say that because I’m a skeptic I don’t have any faith. Let me explain something. Faith IS NOT a leap in the dark, accepting something just because someone said it is so. Not only is that not faith, but that’s not even smart.

When people questioned Jesus about His claims He never condemned them for their skepticism. In fact, Jesus even agreed that if He was the only one who made claims about Himself then He should not be believed. He pointed out that they had the testimony of John the Baptist, the Old Testament, His Father, and the works that He did. Jewish law said that every word must be considered true if there were 2 or 3 witnesses. Jesus gave them more than that while He was alive, and after He had risen there were about 500 witnesses who had seen the risen Savior.

Taking a leap in the dark is not faith. I can’t find anyplace in the Bible where that is taught. Moses certainly didn’t do it when he went to free the people of Israel. Gideon didn’t do it when he was going to fight the Midianites. David didn’t do it when he went against Goliath. Peter didn’t do it when he walked on water.

In Acts 17:11 we read where the people of Berea were noble because “they searched the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” These Jews didn’t take what they were told at face value. They investigated and did their own research, and God says those men “noble”. Today there are some who would call those “noble” people skeptics and doubters.

Here is what happens when a noble person diligently researches what he or she is told. When they learn that what they have been told is true, they then 1) trust the person who told them that fact, and 2) they become unshakable in their beliefs. We see this with the apostles. Prior to Jesus rising from the dead they all fled and hid behind locked doors. But once they had seen the resurrected Jesus and the Holy Spirit came upon them they couldn’t be silenced, even when Herod killed James and Stephen was stoned to death.

Is it any wonder that people are confused when we talk about faith? Is it any wonder that people think Christ followers are somewhat nuts? We, the Christ followers talk about faith and we don’t even know what it is. We tell them they just have to believe, just accept it.

When I was teaching at the seminary in Sudan in February I told all of the students that they must not accept what I said as perfect truths. I am human and I make mistakes. I asked them to be noble and search what I told them to see if what I said lined up with God’s truth. I would ask you to do the same.

No, I am not a pessimist. I’m not even a skeptic. But I do what to be noble and make sure that I’m basing my life on God’s truth and not one what someone thinks, someone believes, or someone heard someone say one time.

Not long ago I heard a preacher say repeatedly during his message “I believe…” and then he would proceed with his statement. Actually, I couldn’t care less what he believes. There are those whose religion tells them to kill anyone who is not of their religious persuasion. They are taught that to die killing non-believers gives them a direct ticket to heaven. They believe this so much that they will kill themselves for those beliefs. We need to understand that our personal beliefs and convictions are flawed, imperfect, and prone to error. Don’t tell me what you believe! Tell my why you believe what you believe!

Andrew Murray wrote that it is the duty of the church leader to always direct the people back to God’s Word and to never let them simply accept what they were told. We need to remember that.

So be noble. Check it out against God’s perfect standard. Then dig down deep into the nourishment of God’s Word and let it transform you. Live up to your full potential and experience all that God has for you. Enjoy the thrill of experiencing the God of all creation using you to impact others for His kingdom. Live life to the fullest and have a greater thrill than anything you could ever imagine.

Until next time,

Jim

The Proverbs Project

Dear Reader,

While serving on the staff of Brownsville Community Fellowship, the senior pastor, Kenny Lewis, had each of the staff undertake a study of the book of Proverbs. That study became known as “The Proverbs Project”.

Pastor Kenny began the project by pointing out to us the purpose of the proverbs. In Proverbs 1:1-6 we read, “These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel. Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles.” Proverbs 1:1-6 (NLT)

Each Wednesday afternoon we would meet as a team and go over what we had learned, sharing key observations. Often Pastor Kenny would ask us to dig deeper, to give him more. He emphasized that we must not simply settle for the easy observations, but that we needed to become disciplined and dig deeper, essentials keys to gaining understanding and insight.

That study was a extremely helpful to me. It was during that time that I learned to be gentle instead of harsh, loving instead of demanding, encouraging rather than judgmental, a motivator and encourager instead of critic.

I discovered there are three areas in our lives.

1. Things I know about myself and need to work on. Keeping my word, being on punctual, doing what I say I’ll do would all fit into this category. I see these things and can work on them without much help from others. I called these “Things of the Mind”.

2. Things I don’t know about myself but others see. This may be my critical spirit, my cutting and hurtful words, and my facial expression which show my disapproval more than any words I speak. These are the areas where I need an accountability partner to gently tell me that I’m hurting others. I called these “Things of the Heart”.

3. Things that I don’t know about myself and others don’t know about me either. This may show up as sudden or explosive anger, or unexplained days of depression and foul moods. These were by far the most difficult to discover and address, but they can stop me dead in my tracks. For me, this was coming to grips with the buried pain of never having dealt with the death of my mother when I was 14 years old. I called these “Things of the Soul”.

I have learned that we men become master pretenders. When we have something in our lives that hurts, we try to ignore it. But we still find it occasionally bothering us, so we hide it in a closet in our mind and pretend it’s not there. But even then it still pops up, so we lock that mental closet door and paint over the door. But then the outline of the door shows through the paint, so we move a bookshelf in front of the closet door to hide the outline. By this time we have convinced ourselves we have adequately dealt with the hurt and pain, but we haven’t. Like a dead corpse it rots and stinks up our lives.

I recall asking people to come tell me when I was acting poorly. I told them I wasn’t simply giving them permission to tell me I was being a jerk, but to please come to me and to help me become a better person. I even went back and asked each of my children for their forgiveness for having exploded at them and been such a poor example.

The Proverbs Project changed my life. I will always be grateful to Pastor Kenny for making that assignment to the BCF staff.

Do you want to become wise, gain insight, and gain understanding? Get a couple of others and undertake a Proverbs Project. If you’d like, send me an e-mail and I’ll be glad to send you my study notes from one of the chapters as a study outline.

I pray God helps you reach your full potential, and that you experience the abundant life Jesus came to give you.

Pressing forward,

Jim

Recommended Reading

For those of you who are serious about getting out of the monotony and boredom of mediocrity, here are a couple of books that were helpful to me.

1. The Barbarian Way, by Erwin Raphael McManus

2. Discover Your Destiny, by Bill and Kathy Peel

3. I like most of what Erwin McManus writes. Two other books I can recommend are: Wide Awake: The Future is Waiting Within You and Seizing Your Divine Moment: Dare to Live a Life of Adventure.

Another great book by McManus is his book geared toward the church, An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had In Mind.

May God bless you as your pursue going from boredom to a life of adventure.

Discovering God’s Plan for Your Life

First, God’s plan for your life is exciting. Deep down inside you there is a dream. Occasionally that dream rises to the surface, only to be seen as impossible, scary, or perhaps even terrifying. Look with me at some Bible characters.

Noah: Something deep inside Noah told him that there was more to life than simply living for pleasure. He had deep inside him a dream to become someone different. God put that dream there and Noah nurtured that dream, resulting in him living a righteous lifestyle and becoming God’s man. God steps onto the scene and tells Noah to build a huge boat. Noah obeys and saves the human race.

Abraham: He obeys God and leaves his home country. But during the journey he gets scared for his life, so scared that he lies about his wife being his sister. He does this not once but twice. It’s a grand thought of being the man through whom God will bless all the nations, but becoming that man is scary. God comes through, gives Abraham the son of promise and all the nations of the earth are blessed as Jacob becomes the ancestor of the Lord Jesus.

Joseph: Proud and arrogant, Joseph is sold into slavery where it appears his dreams of becoming a man of influence will never materialize. However, Joseph decides he will not give up on God and continues to live his life with eternal goals. God comes through, gives Pharaoh a dream, Joseph interprets the dream, and Joseph ends up the 2nd most important man in Egypt, and thereby saving the nation of Israel from extinction.

Moses: God tells him to go deliver the people of Israel. Remember that Moses had already had that desire and tried, only to end up running for his life. Now Moses is terrified of going back and he tries every excuse he can think of to get out of it. God’s plan for Moses was so huge it terrified Moses, and without God’s help it was entirely impossible.

Gideon: Scared and frustrated, God’s angel shows up while Gideon is hiding and tells him that God wants to use him to free his people from their enemies. Gideon knows all the stories of how God has shown up before, but is so frustrated at God allowing them to be in the predicament they are in that he questions the angel if God is even remembers them. He is so scared of his first assignment that he does it at night. He lives through that and God gives him the next assignment. He desperately needs to know that God is really going to come through so he puts out a fleece asking God to make the fleece wet and the ground dry. When God comes through he is still scared and asks God to reverse the test the next night. God comes through for him again. Gideon is now good to go, even when God whittles his poorly equipped army down from 32,000 to 300, against a well equipped army of 135,000. Then when 15,000 get away Gideon is still ready to obey God. He pursued those 15,000 and defeated them with his army of 300.

I could go on with stories of David, Elijah, Samson, and others. But I think these are sufficient to make the point. While God does not call all of us to become national leaders, God does give each of us a dream. That longing, that desire, that dream that is deep inside us is God’s plan for our life. The problem is that we see that dream as impossible so we never nurture the dream. That dream is supposed to be impossible for us to accomplish on our own. That’s the point. It is so huge that the only way it can ever become a reality is if God shows up in our life and does it. Look again at all the examples I’ve listed, and think back to other similar stories in the Bible. We are not supposed to be able to do it apart from God. We were never designed to live our lives apart from God’s power. Our very design screams for God, so much so that when people don’t know the true God they make up images and idols as their gods and then they pray to those deaf and mute idols.

In Matthew 14 we read about Jesus walking on water and coming to the disciples who are in a boat. This takes place someone between 3 and 6 in the morning, meaning that the disciples have been working to cross the lake for around 9 to 12 hours. I’m guessing they are pretty tired by now. When the disciples see Jesus they scream out in fear. When Jesus tells them it is He, Peter boldly tells Jesus that he would like for Jesus to issue the command for him to walk to Jesus on the water. Peter knew that all that was needed is for Jesus to give the command and he would be able to walk on water. Jesus gives the command and Peter steps out of the boat and walks on water. Did you ever wonder what must have been going through the minds of those 11 other men in the boat? Why didn’t any of them them jump up and say, “Me too! Me too!” Why? Perhaps it' was because they knew that men can’t walk on water. Men are supposed to ride in boats. Peter knew that too, but it didn’t stop him. I think Peter had a dream. He wanted to experience more than what ordinary men experience. He wanted to go the extra distance, even if it meant being terrified half to death and stepping out of the boat. Living that dream drove Peter to attempt, and accomplish, the impossible feat of walking on water.

What do you dream of doing? What would you attempt if Jesus were standing right next to you, holding your hand, and telling you that you cannot fail? Wait! Don’t let that thought go! Hang on to it. Who cares if it’s ridiculous and impossible? Walking on water was impossible and ridiculous for Peter, but he did it just the same. God wants to show up in your life and in my life.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we cannot please God unless we trust Him. God wants to bring us to the point where we stop trusting ourselves and begin trusting Him. He wants to show up in our lives. Jesus said “It shall be done to you according to your faith” (Matthew 9:29 NASBU) Is it any wonder that our lives are ordinary, boring, and frustrating, when our Designer created us to live our lives by faith and in His power, yet we go about living our lives based on what we can do without His power?

If we are ever going to the abundant life Jesus promised us we must learn to let go of our way of living and step out in faith to experience God’s way of living. Is that scary? I’ll be the first to tell you that it is absolutely terrifying, and yet it is the most thrilling and exciting thing I’ve ever done. I have never experience anything so absolutely thrilling as seeing God show up in my life to do what I only dreamed of doing.

So, are you willing to let go of mediocrity and let God thrill you beyond your wildest dreams?

Why Did Jesus Die?

Sadly, many people see Jesus’ death as nothing more than God providing them with a free ticket to heaven.

If that’s what you think then forgive me for bursting your bubble, but Jesus did not die so that you and I could have a free ticket to heaven! Jesus’ death was much more than that!

While it is true that Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection did give us a free ticket to heaven, that is what takes place place after this life. How about what He did for us while we are still alive? How about the part where Jesus said He came to give us an abundant and fulfilling life?

If you and I are only looking at what happens after we die then we are missing the entire aspect of what God designed us to accomplish with our life!

Wake up! God put us here on earth for a purpose!

Part of what Jesus did when He died, was buried, and came back from the dead was to free us from the power of sin over our life so that we can accomplish the purpose for which God put us here on this planet called Earth.

Within each of us is a dream to accomplish something with our lives. We each have a deep desire to do something significant that will bring purpose, fulfillment, and satisfaction. But that purpose cannot be accomplished without the power of God in our lives, and we cannot have the power of God in our lives as long as we are under the power and control of Satan.

Read Romans 6. Jesus came to set us free from the power of sin so that we can live a new life which is controlled by the Spirit of God. Only when we are freed from Satan’s control and are controlled by the Spirit of God can we discover the power to accomplish our purpose for being on this earth.

And when we discover God’s purpose for us it will be scary! God’s purpose for you and me is BIG! He has BIG plans for you and me. God’s creativity has no limits, and His power has no limits! He wants us to learn to trust Him and learn to let His power flow through us so that we will accomplish huge things for His glory and for His praise.

Look at what God did through Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Samson, Samuel, David, Elijah, and others. Simple people who would never have amounted to anything apart from God working in their lives. But with the power of God they accomplished feats that we are still talking about.

Want to do something significant with your life? Discover God’s purpose and God’s plan for you!

That is what Easter is all about!

What is You Mission?

Jim Collins, the famous and well respected author of Good to Great says this: “The question of mission has become even more important as our world becomes increasingly disruptive and turbulent.”

Collins makes a great point. So let me ask you a question. What is your mission? What were you designed to do?

Each human has unique fingerprints, DNA, voice pattern, etc. There are no duplicates. You and I were designed for a specific purpose and function. What is it?

When engineers design something they always have an end purpose in mind for what they are designing, meaning that they design a product to perform a specific function.

Years ago I worked for a company which made semiconductors, and my job was to write the test programs to for the testers we built to test the devices. Each tester we built and each test program we wrote was specifically designed and written for a particular family of semiconductor. We always had an end objective before we ever started building a tester or writing a program.

What did you Designer create you to do?

Sadly, many people wander through life frustrated and confused as they look for the answer to that question. They try one thing, do it some degree of success, but then lose their enthusiasm for that and wander on to something else. Then they dabble in something else for a while, have some degree of success there, but then again they lose their enthusiasm for that and abandon that. Eventually they settle for a job that simply pays the bills so they can buy food and pay the rent, and they live their lives wishing they could find something really significant to do with their lives.

Why is that? The answer is surprisingly simple. They never settled into doing what their Designer created them to do.

Only when you and I are doing what our Designer created us to do will we find fulfillment, happiness, and satisfaction in life. We may have some degree of success at other things, but we will end up frustrated and bored.

Collins is right. In these increasingly disruptive and turbulent times it is more important than ever that we find our purpose and mission in life.

So what’s your mission? If you don’t know then what are you doing to discover it? Maybe you’re frustrated and looking for answers. If so then drop me a note. Perhaps some of what I’ve learned along the way can help you.