Monthly Archives: August 2015

August 17, 2015 · 6:24 AM

The Secret To Success

I once heard someone say, “Those who fail to plan, can plan to fail.” It’s stuck with me through the years as I’ve made decisions in my life. I’m a spontaneous person at heart, but I understand the need to plan. I have friends who plan everything, but find it hard to be spontaneous. I think there can be a balance. I’ve learned to curb my spontaneity to quick events that aren’t life changing and to plan out things that have long term consequences. If you’re going to be successful in life, more often than not, it will come through planning and not through spontaneity.

Proverbs 4:26 tells us, “Plan carefully what you do, and whatever you do will turn out right.” (GNB) Solomon didn’t just tell us to plan here, he said to plan carefully. According to the Blue Letter Bible, the word he used for carefully means to weigh out. We need to look at the pros and cons of our decisions, determine what success looks like and which failures or losses will be acceptable to us. With any decisions in life, there will be gains and there will be losses. We just need to decide ahead of time if the trade-off will be worth it.

To improve your plan’s chances of success, share them with others who are wise. They will see things you don’t and provide you with different perspectives. They may also foresee road-blocks and outcomes you didn’t. Plus, they may catch the vision of your plans and work with you long term to help you accomplish them. Proverbs 15:22 tells us, “Get all the advice you can, and you will succeed; without it you will fail.” That seems pretty straightforward, but what happens when you fail?

I believe that a good portion of our growth comes from failure. At work, I tried to prove I had a better way to do a certain process. I was wrong. My boss then said, “It’s ok to fail as long as you fail forward.” He was trying to say, “You’re going to have failures in your life. You can either let them drag you back to where you started or you can let them lead you down a new path.” Your life will have failures in it, but it’s what you do after that matters. I like to tell people, “You only fail when you quit trying.”

Success in life is not hard to find – it’s hard to do. It requires planning and counseling from people who are wiser than you are or have different perspectives than you do. Remember earlier, I said you have to determine what success looks like. For each of us, that’s different. Success isn’t always name recognition or being famous. Success can be small so long as you accomplished what you set out to do with the help of God and those He placed around you. Plan carefully with them and watch God bring success to your life.

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August 14, 2015 · 6:49 AM

10 Life Verses

I recently asked my friends on Facebook if they had a single verse in the Bible they consider their “Life Verse”. I got a lot of responses. Here are a 10 of them.

  
1. Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Philippians 4:6-7 MSG

2.   But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy and acknowledge Him as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.

1 Peter 3:15 AMP

3.   Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:10-12 NLT

4.   But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:33 ESV

5.   Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident! Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9 GNB

6.   At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

Hebrews 12:11 MSG

7.   “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11 NLT

8.   Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember the Lord in everything you do, and he will show you the right way. Never let yourself think that you are wiser than you are; simply obey the Lord and refuse to do wrong.

Proverbs 3:5-7 GNB

9.   For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:18 ESV

10.   Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully!

Matthew 5:6 GNB

I hope you enjoyed these and possibly found a life verse for yourself if you didn’t have one. If you do have one and it’s not on this list, please share it in the comments.

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August 13, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Recovering Lost Dreams

When I was in high school, I felt like God called me to write. I interpreted that calling as God calling me to write a book. For years I waited for an agent to call me and to give me the opportunity to write a book. I wrote down some great ideas for books and even wrote outlines for them. Those outlines sat in a drawer collecting dust through the years while I waited. Finally, when I was in my mid-thirties, I asked God why I hadn’t been given the opportunity to write a book yet. He responded, “Why haven’t you done anything to make that happen?”

God gives each of us great dreams. Most of us, like myself, sit and wait expecting the dream to fulfill itself. Sadly many people go to their graves with unfulfilled dreams because they never did anything to accomplish that dream. God is able to accomplish the dream He gave you if you’re willing to put in the work. Jesus said, “If you’re faithful in the little things, I will make you faithful over many things.” We have to show Him we are willing to do the groundwork necessary to fulfill the dreams He gives us.

In Joshua 18, the Israelites had subdued the Promised Land, but hadn’t taken possession of it. Generations before, God had given Abraham the dream of having a nation with their own special land. Even though they had defeated those living in the land, the dream was still unfulfilled. In verse 3, Joshua spoke to the Israelites and said, “How long will you put off going to take the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?” (ESV) He was saying, “Why aren’t you doing anything to fulfill the dream?” They then went through the land, mapping it out, and dividing it up into sections so each tribe would receive their promise and fulfill the dream. 

God required them to get off their hands and do something to fulfill their dream. They had to get courage to leave their prison of Egypt. They had to walk through walls of water and wander in a desert for a while. After all of that, they had to go in and fight for their dream. It wasn’t handed to them. After winning the battles, they still had to carve it out and allot it so that each person could receive the promise of the dream that had been given so long ago.

I can tell you that I still don’t have a book deal and that’s ok. I’m doing the work necessary for God to do His part. I’m closer than I was all of those years of doing nothing. I’m being faithful in the little things first while I wait for God to make me faithful over many. What about you? What dream has God given you that is sitting in a drawer somewhere collecting dust? It’s time to open the drawer, to dust it off and to start doing the little things necessary to bring it about. For me, it was starting this blog. For you, it might be taking a class, going to a seminar, emailing someone in that field about how they started or letting others know you’re interested in doing it. They’ll help to keep you accountable.

When you do your part, God will do His. It may not happen immediately, but it will happen. Get off your hands, as the Message Bible puts it, and take that first step.

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August 12, 2015 · 7:12 AM

Show Your Progress (Video)

Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress.
I Timothy 4:15 (NLT)

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August 11, 2015 · 6:55 AM

Grace, Mercy And Peace

I was speaking to someone recently about the old computer operating system DOS. I remember as a kid learning how to write programs for DOS. We were taught to increase each command line by 10 so if you needed to add a line of programming later, you had the room. Another thing they taught us is the phrase, “If this, then that.” It was a way to tell the computer if the user does this, then I want you to skip to another line and run the program from there. It was all about cause and consequence. 

The Bible is full of “if this, then that” type phrases. In John 15:7 Jesus said, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you then you can ask whatever you will.” II Chronicles 7:14, “If my people will humble themselves and pray…, then I will hear from Heaven and heal their land.” These are just a couple of examples. God puts conditions on many promises that require an action on our part first in order to activate them just like in the old DOS programming. If we don’t do the first part, then the next part is skipped.

Another conditional promise is found in II John 1:3. It says, “Grace, mercy and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ – the Son of the Father – will continue to be with us who live in truth and love. (NLT)” If we will continue to live in truth and love we will receive grace, mercy and peace. Grace is God’s unmerited favor which affords joy, delight and pleasure according to the Blue Letter Bible. The favor of God alone is enough, but John added in through his use of the word grace that we would also get joy, delight and pleasure by living in truth and love.

Next, he said we would get mercy. One of the definitions of mercy is to have the providence of God. That means that God will order your steps and guide your future. He won’t just let you wander. Your life will be filled with purpose which leads to the last promise of peace. When we live in love and truth, we will also get peace in our hearts, our minds and our lives. That includes peace with others. We will be someone who gets along with others and doesn’t have to carry the weight of stressful relationships because there’s no peace between you. God wants to give us these three blessings if we will simply live in truth and love.

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August 10, 2015 · 5:18 AM

The Smell Test

Guys are famous for wearing clothes that pass the smell test. To get dressed, they will grab clothes off the floor, or wherever else they’re laying, smell them and then wear them if they don’t stink too badly. The clothes can smell some, just not too much. When clothes get too stinky, they go in another pile. This cycle continues until they either buy new clothes or are forced to do laundry because they’re broke and out of clothes.

To some of you, this sounds sick. But to many guys, this is a way of life. Now imagine if a guy had a closet full of new clothes and started putting on the clothes from the floor that passed the stink test. It’s one thing to be out of clean clothes, but if you had clean clothes and you still put on your old ones, people would start to question you. This is the illustration Paul used in Colossians 3 for Christians who go back to their old way of life.

In verses 9-11, Paul was referring to how you lived before you became a Christian when he said, “It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom made by the Creator, with His label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. (MSG)” You’ve been given a new way of life since you accepted Christ and a new wardrobe. It doesn’t make sense to live like you used to.

We shouldn’t be sniffing around our old way of life to see if it doesn’t stink too badly when we’ve got tailor made clothes freshly made for us hanging in the closet. When we left that old life for the life Christ gives, we need to leave that wardrobe behind. Even if it doesn’t stink too badly, it’s still not the clothes that God made for us to wear. That wardrobe consists of compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength discipline, being even tempered, and quick to forgive according to verses 13-14. With these clothes on, we’ll look and live like disciples of Christ.   

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August 7, 2015 · 6:33 AM

God My Defender

  

1. You must defend my innocence, O God, since no one else will stand up for me.

Job 17:3 NLT

2.   The Lord is my strong defender; he is the one who has saved me. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will sing about his greatness.

Exodus 15:2 GNB

3.   DELIVER ME from my enemies, O my God; defend and protect me from those who rise up against me.

Psalm 59:1 AMP

4.   Declare me innocent, O God! Defend me against these ungodly people. Rescue me from these unjust liars.

Psalms 43:1 NLT

5.   My God is my protection, and with him I am safe. He protects me like a shield; he defends me and keeps me safe. He is my savior; he protects me and saves me from violence.

2 Samuel 22:3 GNB

6.   MAY THE Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high and defend you.

Psalm 20:1 AMP

7.   Don’t rob the poor just because you can, or exploit the needy in court. For the LORD is their defender. He will ruin anyone who ruins them.

Proverbs 22:22-23 NLT

8.   The Lord is your mighty defender, perfect and just in all his ways; Your God is faithful and true; he does what is right and fair.

Deuteronomy 32:4 GNB

9.   For He will give His angels especial charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways of obedience and service.

Psalm 91:11 AMP

10.   Come with great power, O God, and rescue me! Defend me with your might. Listen to my prayer, O God. Pay attention to my plea.

Psalms 54:1-2 NLT

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August 6, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Love The Sinner.

One of the questions I’m often asked is, “How can I love the sinner and hate the sin?” I’m not sure where this saying originated or how it became the theme among so many Christians. When sin is a part of how a person defines themselves, how can you separate the two? I don’t think you can. The easiest and best thing you can do is to drop the “hate the sin” part and focus on loving the sinner. Before you get all crazy, I didn’t say we don’t call sin “sin”. I said we need to quit focusing on the hate of it so much when it’s attached to a person’s identity.

We have examples of Jesus and Paul who spent their lives ministering to the people who were unworthy of God’s love in the eyes of the religious leaders. People said to Jesus, “If you knew what manner of person she was, you wouldn’t let her touch you.” They also said, “If you were really a prophet, you would know how bad of a sinner that is that you’re talking to.” Jesus didn’t spend nearly as much time hating the sin as He did on loving the sinner. He got up close and personal with those who needed Him most. His response was, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor. It’s the sick.” If the sick wouldn’t come to the hospital, He went to them.

In I Corinthians 9:19-22 Paul spoke of how he loved the sinner in order to bring them to salvation. He wrote, “Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. (MSG)” In his love for them, he entered their world. He didn’t force them to come to his. I think that’s key for us. Harvesters don’t sit in the farm house waiting for the harvest to bring itself to them. They have to go into the field if they want to reap. 

The most important thing he said was, “I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings on Christ.” If we are going to go into their world, it’s not to camp out and stay. Jesus always went back to the disciples and also to the mountains to pray. When you give yourself away, as love requires, you’ll need to get refilled from other believers and the Father. You’ll need to keep your bearings on Christ so that He remains your moral compass instead of political correctness. If we lose our way, how will they ever find theirs? We must remain grounded in prayer and God’s Word while we serve those involved in sins that are attached to their identities.

In my conversations with people involved in sins like this, they’re turned off by the “Love the sinner, hate the sin” moniker. They just want to be loved and accepted as a person instead of labeled and separated. The only way you can love someone is to get to know them. You can’t know someone if you’re constantly put off by their sin. You can’t know someone if you don’t spend time getting to know them as a human or a person. If you’re going to truly love the sinner, go to them, befriend them, live like Christ in front of them and don’t compromise the truth of God’s Word. When we do that, our churches will start growing and will become the hospital for the spiritually wounded.

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August 5, 2015 · 5:15 AM

God’s Handiwork

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.

Psalm 19:1-2 (NLT)

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August 4, 2015 · 5:15 AM

Childish Thinking

I’ve had a lot of different types of jobs in my years. In each one, I got paid according to the amount of work I put into them. The harder or longer I worked, the more I got paid. Out of all my jobs, none of them paid me for doing nothing. For each one, I’ve had to submit a time sheet to prove I worked those hours. At the end of the pay period, I received a check that was equal to the agreed upon terms of my pay. Those pay checks weren’t gifts, they were an exchange for my hours of service.

All of our lives that’s how it’s been. We work and we get something for it. I think that’s why it’s hard for so many of us to accept that salvation is a free gift and nothing we could earn. We live with a “You get what you earn” mentality and we bring that into our faith. With that line of thinking comes thought that if I work hard enough, I can achieve a better or more full salvation. It’s hard to accept when we look at it like adults, but Jesus said unless you become like children, you cannot enter the Kingdom.

My child doesn’t have the ability to work to get what he wants. He simply asks and I give things to him because I love him. I think God approaches us the same way. There’s nothing we could ever do to afford salvation so He gives it to us freely if we ask for it. That’s how He chooses to bless us. He wants to give it away to us for free instead of making us earn it. Looking at it that way helps us to be in the proper father / child mindset for our relationship.

Romans 4:5 puts it this way, “But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. (NLT)” We could never earn enough in our life time to pay what Jesus did for our salvation. It’s a free gift to His children. Since He paid the price for us, the least we can do is live for Him. We just have to do it with the understanding that the works aren’t buying our salvation, they’re proving our faith and faith is what God counts as righteousness. 

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