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Miracles Always Follow Obedience

October 19, 2009 in Cross Point Church, God, Leadership with 39 Comments

Yesterday at Cross Point we launched a new series entitled Faith, Hope & Love. I really believe this is going to be an exciting season of spiritual growth for our community.

We looked at this idea that there is an unmistakable correlation between the miracles God did in history and the unusual commands He gave those who obeyed him. Over and over he asked His servants to do ridonkulous things in order to release His miraculous power.

In each case obedience was desired and required. Miracles always occur on the other side of obedience. That is where David kills Goliath. It’s where there the Israelites obtain the Promiseland. When Jesus told Peter to cast his net on the other side of the boat it was not the different side of the boat that produced the miracle. It was a matter of obedience. It was doing what Jesus said as ridiculous as it may have seemed in that moment.

-Noah had to build the ark for the coming flood in order to find safety.
-Abraham had to leave his familiar surroundings to discover a new dream.
-Moses had to stretch out his hands over the red sea to experience deliverance.
-Esther had to boldly go into the King’s presence before God rescued his people.
-The ten lepers had to make their way to the priest before they were healed.
-The blind man had to go wash in the pool before Jesus gave him sight.
-The four men had to open the roof to let their sick friend down at Jesus’ feet.
-Paul and Silas had to sing and pray while they were stuck in jail so that God could shake the building and give them hope in the midst of hopelessness.

Now I’m not saying that every time you’re obedient to God there will be a miracle. Many of you have been obedient and still no miracle. I can’t promise you that. What I can promise is if you’re ever going to see a miracle it will always come on the other side of obedience.

Where do you need to be obedient?

In your finances?

In your career?

In a step of faith?

In your parenting?

In your marriage?

It may not make sense to others, it may defy conventional wisdom, it may scare you to death but I hope and pray you’ll take that step of obedience. Who knows? Your miracle might be right around the corner.

The Ugly Truth About My Prayer Life

September 29, 2009 in God, Religion with 95 Comments

I’ll be the first to say I stink at prayer. I know, I know… you’re going to say “How can you stink at prayer, you’re a pastor?” I understand. I know it seems weird and trust me when I say I’m not proud of this fact.

Now I’m not saying I don’t pray or I don’t enjoy prayer. I’m not saying I don’t understand it or I need help understanding why we pray. I’m just saying I stink at prayer and my prayer life is not where I want it to be.

The painful thing is what my weak prayer life says about me. Here’s the ugly truth. My lack of prayer proves…

I underestimate the power of prayer and overestimate my own ability.

I’m not really as hungry for the intimacy with God I so regularly publicly declare as a desire of my heart.

While I would like to know God’s will for my life I’m clearly more committed to my will, my plans and my agenda.

I’ve bought into the illusion that there are more important things to do than spending time with the creator of the universe.

I’ve reduced prayer to a list of things I think I want or need and I currently don’t need to “use” God for anything.

So how’s your prayer life? What does your prayer life or lack of prayer life say about you?

Cookie Cutter Souls

September 23, 2009 in God, Leadership, Religion with 55 Comments

For far too long the church has had an unhealthy and unrealistic expectation that all people should be at the same place at the same time.

I love this quote from “When The Heart Waits” by Sue Monk Kidd,

“If all souls developed in cookie-cutter fashion, we would have spirituality by duplication rather than by waiting and transformation.”

In so many different ways we often communicate…

Everyone should be happy. (But at times even Jesus was sad.)

Everyone should be balanced. (But doesn’t God speak to us in our seasons of imbalance.)

Everyone should be serving. (But didn’t Jesus commend the woman who just sat at his feet.)

Everyone should relate to God in the same way. (But isn’t Scripture full of examples of different people relating to God in different ways.)

These expectations have done immense damage to the body of Christ.

We need to help people begin to understand that God can and will meet them in the midst of whatever season they may find themselves.

We need to help people begin to understand that God can and will work differently in your life than He has worked in my life.

I don’t have all the answers, I just know souls don’t develop in cookie-cutter fashion and churches were never intended to become factories which cranked out people who would be at the same place at the same time.

A Failure To Be Receptive And Grateful

September 10, 2009 in God, Religion with 49 Comments

I read something last night before bed that kept me up longer than I wanted to be up. I’m rereading parts of “The Shattered Lantern” by Ronald Rolheiser. He said…

The original sin of Adam and Eve, the prototype of all sin, is presented as a failure to be receptive and grateful.

Just think about it for a second. God creates Adam and Eve and places them in the garden where they are surrounded by unmistakable beauty and all the goodness of life. They are experiencing the fullness of life, the way it was intended to be and are promised it will continue…under one condition. Just don’t eat the fruit of a certain tree.

However, we all know they would eventually fail to receive life as a gift and instead try to seize it as if it were owed to them.

When I think of my own life and the sin that often creeps in, it usually begins with my failure to see life as a gift.

My lust.
My pride.
My anger.
My lack of forgiveness.

It’s all the overflow of a heart which begins to believe that something is “owed” to me.

I’m wondering how different today would be for each one of us if we seek to go through this day today viewing our life, our circumstances, our relationships and yes, even our hardships and challenges as gifts. As opportunities to be the men or women God has created us to be.

Today I seek to be receptive and grateful.

Mindlessly Moving Through Life

September 4, 2009 in Friends, God, Relationships with 51 Comments

Mindlessly doing things because all our friends do them is pretty much 90 percent of what society does. Sad, but true.

If you don’t believe me here’s a case in point.

Crocs

I mean what other reason could you give for wearing these things?

I was reading an interesting article last night about how our eating habits are formed by those we eat with most often. The article was pointing to a principle I’ve found true most of my life. My physical habits, spiritual methods and thought patterns are often influenced by the people I hang out with more than I would like to admit.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by this, 1 Corinthian 15:33 says “Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character.”

Not exactly sure how I balance this with personal evangelism and the time I spend with people in my life whose lives are not where they should be. However, I think the warning is simple. Be very careful who you allow into the inner circle of your life and whatever you do don’t just mindlessly adopt the thoughts, actions, and patterns of the people around you.

Are the people in your “inner circle” helping guide you to become the person God designed you to be?

Measuring Spiritual Formation

August 17, 2009 in God, Leadership, Religion with 41 Comments

We’ve found a lot of different ways to measure spiritual formation over the years.

-church attendance
-clean language
-dressing the part
-paying for indulgences
-memorizing Scripture
-serving in the church

There is obviously nothing inherently wrong with any of these things in and of themselves. A matter of fact some of them may be foundational for spiritual formation, but not the way in which we should measure it. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of believing one can somehow measure their spiritual maturity by checking off how many of the “do’s” have been performed and how many of the “don’ts” have been avoided. However, real spiritual formation isn’t evaluated by how well we perform a list of tasks on a check-off list. Jesus said…

John 13:35 35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Matthew 22: 36″Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In other words Jesus said, spiritual maturity is measured in the context of relationships.  Are you interested in how you’re doing at having Christ formed in your life?  Then take at look at how you’re loving God and loving people.

Taking Off The Bandages

August 4, 2009 in Church Leadership, God with 50 Comments

God taught me a lot of things during my summer study break most of which I’m keeping to myself right now. I really wanted to spend some time with God this summer which was really “our time” and not an opportunity for me to find new gems to write or speak about.

However, during my God time this summer I learned a lot about my authentic self. Truth be known, I probably learned more about the layers I’ve added over my authentic self to create a false self.

Thomas Merton wrote:
I…love to clothe this false self…and I wind experiences around myself with pleasures and glory like bandages in order to make myself visible to myself and to the world, as I were an invisible body that could only become visible when something visible covered its surface. But there is no substance under the things with which I am clothed. I am hollow…And when they are gone there will be nothing left of me but my own nakedness and emptiness and hollowness (New Seeds of Contemplation).

And it’s that nakedness which drives us to keep trying to dress up our false self with possessions, performance, popularity and all the many things this world tries to tell us we need. I’ve been working hard to take apart in small pieces my false self and allow my true self in Christ to emerge. It’s been easier said than done! My desire to please people and the expectations people love to have of me have created a pretty thick web of bandages.

Two of the most important things I’ve done this summer to help find who God has called me to be in Christ are….

*Silence and Solitude- I’m still trying to find ways to escape the distractions and noise that continues to bombard my life and simply add to the confusion of who I truly am.

*Trusted Relationships- These are not fans who tell us what we want to hear or critics who are speaking out of their own personal pain but true, trusted friends. People who can give me honest feedback about what they see God is doing in my life. People who can tell me when they see inconsistencies between how I’m acting and who God has called me to be.

While these two things (solitude and relationships)  may seem to contradict each other they really don’t.  It was Deitrich Bonhoeffer who said “Let the person who cannot be alone beware of community. Let the person who is not in community beware of being alone.” We all have to find this balance.

Do you guys struggle with this stuff? What are you doing about it?

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