The Christian Life

Have you ever considered expressing the Christian life mathematically? I hadn’t either until I was sharing with my wife how often we get an incorrect view of our life in Christ. I told Debbie that often we think only of our part, and we forget that God has a part in this too.

Here is what came to Debbie when I told her that:

(Me + My Problems + My Solutions) + God = Christian Life

Now that pretty well explains how I was taught. I was taught that once I came to know Jesus as my Savior I needed to surrender to Him and obey Him. I was told all of what I was supposed to do but not given much hope of how this was supposed to happen.

Here is the other part Debbie came up with:

God(Me + My Problems) = Victory

That’s it! God influences me and God influences my problems to give me victory. It’s not all up to me! The truth is, I can’t do it on my own. I know because I’ve tried, failed, and gotten frustrated and depressed over how many times I’ve failed.

Dear friends, we were never supposed to life the Christian life on our own. We are told to live our new life in the power of the Holy Spirit. Look at what Philippians 1:6 says:

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

While it is true that our part is to surrender and obey as much as is humanly possible, we must also keep in mind that God has a part, and that is to fill us with the power of His Holy Spirit to enable us to do what in humanly impossible.

If you were raised as I was you may be skeptical. I don’t blame you. But just take a look at these verses and make then make up your own mind.

“and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

“For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” Ephesians 1:18-19

“that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,” Ephesians 3:16

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” Ephesians 3:20

“strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously” Colossians 1:11

“For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” Colossians 1:29

“for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction;” 1 Thessalonians 1:5

“For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

See my point? That’s why I had to conclude that I was missing something, and that’s why I began searching God’s word for what it was I was missing. I hope this challenges you to search too and discover the power of God to lead you to a victorious and abundant life in the power of Jesus.

Until next time,

Pastor Jim

Grow Them to Maturity

Dad’s, if your kids hate to eat their peas and carrots what do you do? Well, there is one thing I know and that is you don’t do is feed them a strict diet of peas and carrots until they grow to like them. Of course not! That would only make them hate you as well as the peas and carrots. You continue to introduce them to peas and carrots over time, hoping that they will get to the point where if they don’t like them they will at least get to where they will eat them because they learn that peas and carrots are good for them.

Why is it then, that we pastors keep on harping on the things our congregations don’t grasp? Our people don’t serve so we harp even more on their need to serve. Our people don’t give so we harp over and over on how they need to give. Our people don’t share their faith so we harp repeatedly on them about how they need to be sharing their faith. It’s no wonder people stop serving, and stop giving, and eventually stop coming to church all together.

We teach our children and help them grow and mature so that they will make the right choices. Once they become mature we expect them to eat what is good for them so that they stay healthy. We teach them the fundamentals and then we teach them more mature subjects until they get to where they can make mature decisions on their own.

Let’s do the same with our church family. Let’s stop harping about the same subjects that they don’t get and lets focus on helping them become mature. Let’s stop trying to change them and let’s start feeding them the food that the Holy Spirit can use to convict them of what they need to do. Let’s help them grow to maturity so that they can begin discovering things for themselves.

Remember, Jesus said He would grow His church. Let’s stop frustrating ourselves by attempting to do God’s work for Him and let’s relax and do what He told us to do, make disciples. If we’ll do that then lives will be changed, we will be a lot happier, God’s church will grow.

Grow them to maturity and make disciples.

Until next time…

Pastor Jim

Becoming a Leader

Your success as a leader depends on having these three people in your life

1. You need a mentor – an older person to give you guidance

2. You need a companion – a person who will listen and encourage you

3. You need an apprentice – a person you are training

The Mentor

A mentor teaches you faster than you can teach yourself. The stories, the guidance, the wisdom that they provide give you the benefit of understanding the world we live in before you actually live it. And the emotional support and reassurance that somebody who has "been there and done that" can offer to a greenhorn is invaluable as you navigate your way through new experiences.
One of the most beneficial steps you can take is to seek out mentors. It is no accident that Luke Skywalker needed his Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars series, that Daniel-san needed Mr. Miyagi in the classic Karate Kid movie series, or that Alexander the Great needed Aristotle as his teacher and mentor. Each of these mentors played a huge part in the success of their apprentice.
Every young hero (you) needs a master to learn from so that you can grow in knowledge, insight, understanding, and wisdom. You need the guidance of somebody with greater experience to act as a sounding board and sympathetic ear in those confusing and difficult times.
I urge you to seek out a mentor. Whether it’s an old boss, a more senior colleague, or simply and older person that you admire, develop those relationships that can make your growth and development richer, better-informed, and more successful.

The Companion

The companion is that person who knows you so well that he can read between the lines of what you say and hear what you aren’t saying.

Your companion must share your core values, those things that make you who you are, those values that you never want to compromise even when you are all alone and no one is watching.

This person must be of the same gender, close to your age, and have things in common with you. This person listens to you when you’re happy, when you’re sad, and when you’re angry.

This companion is more than just a friend. This companion is the person you can count on to come help you at 2:00 a.m. when you are working night shift and your car breaks down on the way home.

This is the person who cares so deeply about you and your success that he will give up his own convenience for your good.

The Apprentice

The apprentice is the person you are teaching, mentoring, and pouring your life into to help them in the same way your mentor is helping you.

We never really master a subject until we have taught that subject to another person. You need an apprentice for you sake as well as for his sake, so that as you help another person you yourself are mastering the subject.

As you teach another person the knowledge you have gained become clearer, you begin to see how that knowledge and shaped you, resulting in your successes or failures. In other words, that knowledge becomes wisdom as it moves from simply head-knowledge to heart-knowledge.

Until we begin teaching what we have learned and experienced our knowledge remains foggy and unclear. The lines never become defined so that we can explain why we believe what we believe, so that we ourselves cannot make full use of the knowledge we have gained over the years. But as we begin teaching another person we rethink our experiences and explain them through examples to where they move from our head to our heart, and the result is that we ourselves establish a firm basis for our own personal convictions and believes.

Until next time…

Jim

What do you think?

Recently I was challenged by someone telling me something to the effect that it is better to have church growth through multiplication than through addition. They mentioned the early church in Acts chapter 2 as the example.

Is that really true? An even better questions is this: are we supposed to be growing the church, or is that God’s job?

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said that He would build His church. In 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul write that God was the one who made the church grow.

In Acts 2:41, 4:4, 5:14, 6:1, 6:7, 9:31, 9:35, 9:42, 11:21, 11:24, 14:1, 14:21, 16:5, and 17:12 we find people were added, people believed, the church increased, the church grew in number, people turned to the Lord. It seems that in each case people were added. Nowhere do we find any mention of multiplication.

In Acts 4:31, 8:25, 11:19, 13:5, and 13:44 we find the disciples preaching the word. Actually, we don’t find them doing anything else.

So here is the real question: Are we attempting to do what Jesus said He would do? Are we attempting to grow the church, instead of letting Jesus grow the church? Are we coming up with our methods, (such as saying we prefer multiplication over addition) instead of simply following God’s methods?

Have we become ineffective and frustrated because we are attempting what our Lord never intended for us to do? Should we focus on preaching God’s truth and letting Him grow His church?

What do you think? I’d love to hear from you on this one.

Until next time,

Pastor Jim