Monthly Archives: December 2012

December 10, 2012 · 7:40 AM

Living by Faith

I grew up in a family with a modest income. Early on as a child I learned what it was like to live by faith. I watched as God supplied our needs daily. When we needed a car, someone gave us one. When we needed food, someone brought us food. When we needed money to pay the bills, someone gave money. Each time a need presented itself, God spoke to someone to provide for it. I know there was a lot more that was provided for than I ever saw, but what I did see, showed me that God was our provider.

Now, as an adult, I can appreciate more what God did for us through others. I understand the stress that living by faith can bring. I also understand the depth of faith you get when you solely rely on God. Growing up, I would pray that God would someday allow me to be on the giving end to where I could help provide for others in need. God has definitely answered that prayer and continues to answer it.

Somewhere along the way, my mind started equating being poor with living by faith. I’ve learned that when you don’t have much, you have a greater opportunity to live by faith. When all you have is a prayer, you don’t have a choice except to trust God. That doesn’t mean that when God blesses us monetarily we can’t live by faith though. It just becomes more difficult to. We begin to trust in our abilities and in the blessing rather than the Provider.

In Mark 10:17-27, there is a story of a man who approaches Jesus and asks what he needs to do to get to Heaven. Jesus lists off the Ten Commandments and the guy’s face lights up. “I’ve done that ever since I was a kid”, he replied. Jesus said, “But there is one thing you haven’t done. Go sell everything you have, give it to the poor and come follow me.” The man’s countenance fell as he walked away unwilling to commit to that.

That young man was trusting in his possessions rather than the One who provided them to him. I believe if he had truly been living by faith, he wouldn’t have had a problem giving them up. It comes down to perspective. Do you believe that what you have is yours or God’s? Did your hard work pay for what you have or did God use your job to provide for you and you purchased those things with His money? I was always taught that what I own is not mine. It is God’s. I am merely a steward over what He has given me.

When you learn to see things this way, God will allow you to be on the blessing end of living by faith. In order for the poor who are living by faith to have their needs met, there needs to be people who have more than enough to live by faith. While God can and has used the wealth of the wicked to be laid up for the righteous, why should we pass up the blessing of giving and allow others to take care of those in need? No matter where we fall on the scale of living by faith, one principle remains: Give and it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over and poured into your lap.

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December 6, 2012 · 9:11 AM

A World Changing Prayer

Have you ever prayed a prayer that changed the course of your life? I have. I was in church earlier this year. The service was closing and the guest preacher was praying for people in the altar area. I didn’t feel a need to go forward, so I prayed where I was sitting. I simply said, “God, I’m ready when you are. Use my life for your purpose. I’m tired of running. Amen.” As soon as I said “amen” the preacher spoke what God had already revealed to me and then asked for that person to come to the front.

Less than a year later, things in my life are still changing. I see every day things that are lining up to put me where He promised He would take me. It’s overwhelming sometimes when I sit and think of everything that has happened since that prayer and is happening right now. One of the first things berthed out of that prayer was this blog. More than anything, this blog is an act of obedience to God. Obedience is an act of worship to God and shows Him you are able to be faithful.

I was thinking this morning of others who have had life changing prayers. I imagine David out in a pasture watching sheep, singing psalms to God and just saying, “God, I’ll be who you want me to be and do what you want me to do. Even if it is watching these sheep for the rest of my life.” He became king. I can see Mary thrilled with her engagement to Joseph and praying, “Do with my life what you will, Lord. I am your servant.” She became the mother of Jesus.

What God looks for is a heart that is willing to obey Him whether He makes you a king in His kingdom or a caretaker. We all want to be great in His kingdom, but He said the least would be the greatest. Doing what He calls you to do is what makes you great in His eyes. Peter was told to feed His sheep. Seems menial, but He was faithful in it and became the head of the church. Greatness is not achieved by doing great things. It is achieved by doing the little things you are called to do when you’re called to do them.

Many of us want to change the world, but I’ve found is that being obedient often changes the world of one person. That one person then changes the world of someone else and the ripple effect takes over. Do you know who Albert McMakin is? He is the guy who was obedient and invited Billy Graham to a revival where he became a Christian. Since that time, Billy has lead over 3 million people to Christ and numerous other ministries have been launched where countless have been helped.

It all started with a small act of obedience and a person who said, “God, I want to do what you want me to do.” That small act of obedience for Albert has been world changing. What is it that God is asking you to be obedient to? Have you prayed and offered God a life of obedience? If not, I encourage you to do so. It will change the course of your life and be world changing.

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December 4, 2012 · 7:56 AM

Want to Trade?

I grew up going to a Wednesday night scouting program through my church. We earned badges, learned how to set up a campsite and went camping. There were competition camp outs with the section and district that I enjoyed. Every four years there would be a national camp out where people from all over would attend. There were people from all over who attended.

At the national camp out, each district brings hat pins with them and trades them with kids from other parts of the US and world. Just like anything that is traded, some pins become popular and more difficult to get and others are less popular which no one wants. Every where you go, people are stopping you to see what pins you have. They are hoping to make a trade. Without any good pins, it’s hard to make a trade with anyone.

There was a man not far from where I was camping who set up a table outside his tent. He had a towel stretched out with pins from all over the world on it. There were Russian military pins, pins from European countries, pins from national monuments and pins that blinked. His collection was amazing. Word spread to everyone where he was set up. I walked over to look at his collection. It truly was amazing. He had been collecting for years.

As I stood in line to see, I got close enough to hear what was going on. Each boy that walked up to the table heard him ask, “Which one is your favorite?” The boys would think long and hard then point to their favorite. He’d tell them the story of how he got it and then he’d ask another question. He’d ask, “Which pin do you have that you like the least?” The boys were quick to point out which one they didn’t like. He then asked, “Would you like to trade that one for your favorite?” It didn’t take very long for each kid to jump on that trade.

It got me to thinking of how each of us have things, habits and flaws in our lives that we don’t like. We can all point to our mistakes and say, “I wish I could trade that for something better.” What I’ve learned about God is just that. He takes our worst and gives us His best. Galatians 5 mentions the flaws we have: immorality, impurity, indecency, selfishness, envy and the like. Then it tells us what God gives in exchange: love, joy, gladness, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

I’m not sure why we hang on to some of those old habits when you look at the list of what God wants to trade. Letting go of those is hard for us somehow. Accepting something so much better is somehow more difficult. We know the trade is completely in our favor and I think that makes us feel guilty or unworthy to accept it. Romans says that not one of us is worthy, but God showed us His love by sending His Son to die for us while we were still sinners.

What do you have to trade today? What have you been holding onto that you want to let go? Make the trade. Tell Him what you want that He has and what you want to trade for it. He’ll gladly do it and you’ll be better off for it.

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December 3, 2012 · 8:07 AM

Liaisons for the Lost

If you knew someone famous and your friends knew it, would you give in to their pleas for you to introduce them? Most of us probably wouldn’t. We don’t want to jeopardize our friendship with the famous person in order to satisfy our friend’s desire. I wonder how many of us fail to introduce our friends to Jesus. We won’t introduce them for the opposite reason though. We don’t want to jeopardize our friendship with them instead of being concerned with our relationship with Jesus.

In Mark chapter two, four friends take another friend to see Jesus. When they arrive, the place where Jesus is speaking is full. There are so many people that they are spilling out into the street and these four guys can’t even get near the door. They are desperate for their friend who is paralyzed to see Jesus. They take him up to the roof of the place where Jesus was speaking and then start digging until they’ve created a hole big enough to lower their friend through.

When Jesus sees the faith of the friends, He speaks to the man who was lowered down and forgives his sins. Jesus was more concerned about healing him spiritually than he was physically. I don’t even know if is friends were thinking he needed a spiritual healing. I’m sure they were just looking for a physical healing. A physical healing is pointless without a spiritual healing first though. A physical healing is temporary, but a spiritual healing is eternal.

A friend of mine spoke to me yesterday about being a liaison for Jesus. When he mentioned it, I though of this story. These men were liaisons and made sure their friend was placed In front of Jesus. They didn’t care what else was going on, what Jesus was doing or whose house they were tearing the roof off of. They just knew that their friend needed help and Jesus was the one who could heal.

Each of us have people in our lives that need to be taken to Jesus for healing whether it’s physical, spiritual or both. What are we doing about it? Are we just mentioning our friend in passing? Do we get to the door, see it’s full and go back home? Or do we find a way to get on a roof, dig through all the layers of things that separate us from Jesus and make a way to get in front of Him? It was always those people who got more than they hoped for.

The woman with the issue of blood couldn’t get to Jesus. She wasn’t big enough or strong enough to push through the crowd to get to Him. Instead she got on her hands and knees and crawled through the dirt and muck so that she could at least touch the hem of His garment. Where’s that kind of tenacity in our prayer lives today? Where’s that kind of determination to see people healed and forgiven? I know I need to have more of it. I think when we get that kind of fire in us, we’ll start to make the difference we were called to make.

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