13 Meanwhile, the messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him, “Look, all the prophets are promising victory for the king. Be sure that you agree with them and promise success.”
14 But Micaiah replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, I will say only what the Lord tells me to say.”
- I Kings 22

Micaiah was in a tough position.  Everyone was telling him what to prophesy.  They were telling him what to say that God says.  His reply told of his amazing character - “I will only say what the Lord tells me to say.”

I want to live like that.  I want to say what God says.  No more and no less.  Regardless of what anyone else is saying, I want to speak what he speaks.  Often, I speak too much.  He would probably have me speak less. Other times I speak very little, he would have me say more.  At times, my content is way off.  I am speaking what Scot thinks, not what God is telling me to say.

Speaking what he tells me to say means that I must listen. Like a parent telling a kid “Go tell Uncle Bob what  you did yesterday,”  God is speaking to me.  He is speaking to all of us.  I want to listen and tell.

Am I listening?  How?  Am I so busy that I don’t stop and listen?
Am I speaking?  I know I am, but am I speaking he words of God?

What about you?

photo by Brooke Anderson

Like I mentioned Sunday at exchange, I do my daily Life Journaling in the computer.  The benefits:

• I can read what I type (I can rarely read what I write ;>).
• It is searchable
• It can be backed up
• I am a faster typer than writer

Shawn also Life Journals on the computer and put together a sweet tutorial here.

However you do it, whenever you do it - just do it.  Devour.  Digest.  Disperse.

photo by DeclamTM

Singing cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart
is like taking someone’s coat in cold weather or pouring vinegar in a wound. - Proverbs 25:20

We sing cheerful songs. We celebrate the things that God has done. God is good all the time, and we sing about that. But, what about the guy whose wife just left him? What about the woman who just found out she had a lump. What about the kid who is living with struggles to fit in? What about that person who carries a heart of pain? By how I lead, do I sometimes say “Just sing a happy song and it will all be OK.”

Sunday night a guy I knew from high school showed up at church. His life was crashing. His wife and he were separated and he was incredibly lonely. He was broken. He knew he had made a mess of things. His heart was heavy. Anybody could see that. He had no use for happy-clappy songs. We talked for a bit after the worship gathering. He is not ready to make a commitment to Christ. More than anything I wanted to sweep him into a community that would connect and love him and show him Christ. At a critical life-changing moment, he came to the church. He is looking for connection and answers. Will we be able to offer what he needs? My hope is that we will. My fear is that we will not.

But we do have some great happy songs.

photo by: darren copley

 1 These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience) - Judges 3

God had left some trouble for Israel.  Why?  So that they would toughen up. So that they would gain some skills.  They had no experience and needed some.  They would fight in the future. They needed to be ready. As it were, they were inexperienced.

Maybe there are things in life that come our way just to teach us a lesson.  Mr. Miage had Daniel(son) wash the car, paint the fence, and sand the deck.  All preparation for a battle.  At the time it seemed crazy.  Unfair.  Like nonsense.  Training often seems like that.  However, at go time, the opponent took a kick to the head and Daniel was champion.  He learned how to fight in previous (and seemingly stupid) experiences.

Maybe some of the tough things that God is sending your way is neither punishment nor just the way life is. Maybe it is preparation for a future time.  Do not waste the experience.  Learn from it.  The skills that you are developing now may be critical later.

14 When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley.But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the town. 15 Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten. 16 Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town. 17 There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase after the Israelites, and the town was left wide open.  - Joshua 8

The King of Ai was about to get wiped out.  His entire city and all it’s people would die.  By the end of the day the King would be executed.  Why?  Among other things he was lured away from the town and left it unprotected.  He was lead away from the very thing that he was in charge of protecting. Both the King and the land he was to protect would be destroyed.

There are things that I have to protect:

My devotions
My time with Steph
My time with Madison and Mariah
My time with myself
My health
Exchange

Pretty much in that order.  I can’t walk away and leave them unprotected.  I have to say no to other things in order to not leave them wide open.  I should make no excuses for protecting my time in these areas.  Otherwise I am walking away from them and leaving them wide open.

What is your list?  What are the things that you are supposed to protect? What are you leaving wide open?

Don’t feel bad about protecting what you need to protect. Saying "no" may be the best thing you can do in order to protect your time.  Just yesterday a good friend called me and asked if I would join a group of college students for a Q and A on Christianity.  The meeting is today.  It is a fantastic opportunity to engage with non-Christians.  It is the cause and heartbeat of Christ.  I thanked my friend, but declined the meeting.  How could I do such a thing?  Easy; it would leave other areas of my life unprotected.  I just finished a killer week preparing for and leading our Easter gatherings.  Monday, I had a long day with an Elders meeting lasting well into the evening.  I was in danger of leaving my family time unprotected.  By saying no, I was able to stay at my post and not leave things unprotected.  It was easy to say no; I know my priorities.  Will I go and do a Q and A with my friend another time?  You bet.  It was just the wrong time.

When you say yes, to something, you say no to something else.  Saying no may be the most spiritual thing you can do today.

Let me encourage you to a discipline today.  Make a list of what you are to protect.  When decisions come along, lay them against the list.  God has given you leadership over little kingdoms of your life.  Do not be led away from the very thing that you are assigned to protect. 

photo by freeparking

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil
- Gen 3:4-5

We had it good.  Were able to walk in the garden; naked.  With a hot wife.  Were able to name the animals.  God was close by.  The best of all - we had no idea what evil was. We didn’t know what it was like to hurt someone or be hurt. We didn’t know about hate, dishonesty, murder, molestation, anger, depression, stress, worry, misunderstandings, bitterness, loneliness.  We knew nothing but good.  Evil?  What is that?

And it all changed in an instant.  God had protected us from knowing what he already knew.  There were things that he knew and that he had to keep from us for our own good.  Why did we think we had to know everything?

More times than not, Steph and I will be having a semi-private conversation.  I say "semi-private" because we are around my daughters, maybe riding in the car.

Madison will usually jump in,  "What are you talking about?" 

We always reply "Nothing.  It is not important for you to know."

"But I want to know."

Isn’t that just like us?  We always want to know.  We want to know everything about everything.  When it comes to God, we want to know it all.  Truth is, knowing it all sometimes gets us in trouble.  We have to trust that God is revealing to us exactly what we need to know, when we need to know it.  We didn’t need to know about good and evil, but we just had to know, and have been paying for it ever since.

God, I trust you, I get frustrated sometimes, but I trust you.  I want to know things.  I want to know a lot of things.  Sometimes it seems that you are very quite.  I don’t like that, but I wonder if I would like the knowing even less.  Thanks for protecting me from what I do not need to know.

35 When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”
37 “You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”
38 “Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.
39 Then Jesus told him,“I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”
40 Some Pharisee’s who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”
41 “If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.  - John 9 (NLT)

Jesus had just healed a blind man and had caused quite a stir.  The Pharisee were furious with him, the man’s parents were wimps, and the crowd was likely just watching and keeping their mouth shut.  Only this kid had the guts to tell it like it was:  he didn’t know much but knew that he was once blind and can now see.  He would come to see that Jesus was the son of God.

In this context Jesus again states his purpose.
1.  To give sight to the blind
2.  To judge the blinded (the "religious" -  those who  think they can see).

He came for the non-believer and the religious.  But, what about those who were God-centered people who had it all together?  Those who were neither blind nor hypocrites?He did not come for them.  He did not come for sold out church folk.  That is a hard one to swallow. 

A note to those who are Christ-centered people.  Those who would show marks of devotion through prayer, study, giving, and serving - God does not exist for us.  His passion is not to get us- he already has us.  Does he love us?  Yes.  Does he want the best for us?  Absolutely.  Does he want to bless us?  You bet.  But we are not his target.  We are not his passionate focus.  His focus is for those who have no idea who he is, and those who think they know but are mistaken.  But, but, what about us?  What about the God-centered people who do all that he asks? 

He has for us a great adventure.

He invites us to be part of his cause.  He invites us to join the millions throughout history who have served the heart of God by focusing on the blind and the blinded.  What could be better than that?

———-

photo by violator3

He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.
- John 7:18

I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me
- John 8:28

Here Jesus is making claims about himself to others. They are accusing him and some are looking for a way to arrest and kill him. Jesus states the source and purpose of his teaching.

His source: he speaks not on his own, but only what the Father has taught him.

His purpose: He works for the honor of the Father and no one else.

I speak. Too much. I have to make sure that I am not speaking my own thoughts. Otherwise I might honor myself. The glory may come to me. Or worse, I might screw up his reputation. I have to speak what the Father is teaching me. That way, he gets the honor. He gets to choose the content, the context, and the clock (the right time).

On my own, I can do none of this well. When I speak what the Father is teaching me, I am becoming a mouthpiece for the creator of the universe. He gets the glory. He gets lifted up. Others come to know him.

Let’s face it. We are simple creatures. We can all too easily mess things up. Beyond that, we don’t have the insight to speak into people’s lives on our own. However, when we allow ourselves to be taught by God, he uses us in the right place at the right time, teaching the right things, and kingdom things begin to happen. The air becomes thin.

We often want the results without the prep work. Step #1 is to allow ourselves to be taught by the creator. Pray like it is a holy conversation. Get in the Word each day. God is wanting to use us, but he must be teaching us. It’s time to get busy knowing the Father.

photo by duchamp

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.  - Heb 3:13

Sin is deceitful.  It lies to me.  Makes me think that I will be better off.  Fills a void that I have.  It encourages me and makes me feel important.  Could it really be that a simple act of encouragement could knock the legs out from under sin?

Imagine a church that is so encouraging that sin gets beat down hard.  Imagine a city where encouragement reigns and darkness is suppressed. Imagine a world where the wealthy are encouraged and the poor are encouraged.  

Shouldn’t the church be the most encouraging place on the planet?

Maybe it is time for a revolution of encouragement.

Who will you encourage today?

———

Photo by More than Corn Here.

Then Jesus went over to their synagogue, where he noticed a man with a deformed hand. The Pharisees asked Jesus, “Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?” (They were hoping he would say yes, so they could bring charges against him.)
And he answered, “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would.  And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.”  - Mt 12:9-12

This is a great example of how Jesus would answer questions in order to teach a point.  He would use a story. 

Pastor Wayne Cordeiro is a master at teaching through story.  In trying to explain a concept or answer a question, instead of giving a vanilla answer, he would use a story.

What does using a story do?

1. Cements the concept in the mind of the hearer, making it easier to recall.
2. Increases the chance that the story will be told again.
3. Grabs the emotions.
4. Clarifies the answer

I still remember several of the stories that Wayne used as he answered questions and taught in the Leadership Practicums.  Take into account that I have a terrible memory, and you can see the power of a story. 

Next time you need to teach something or answer a question, use a quick story.  You may be surprised at the results.