even though, yet…

No distrust made Abraham waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4.20–21)

Faith means taking and embracing God’s word as literally true. How do we become Christians? We take Jesus’ offer and promise to be completely, wholly, and literally true — redundancy for emphasis! How are we filled with the Holy Spirit? We believe Jesus’ promise that God would give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him to be completely, wholly, and literally true — again, redundancy for emphasis! How do we find victory over sin and temptation? How do we know there is life beyond death? How do we know that God’s justice will prevail? Faith takes and embraces God’s promises because we perceive that they are much more than “warm thoughts for anxious lives.” We trust them because we trust the faithfulness of God.

Faith is also a living thing that is strengthened in adversity. Richard Wurmbrand, whose faith endured fourteen years of isolation and torture in a communist prison after surviving a Holocaust death camp, said that faith could be expressed in two words: “though” and “yet.” Job was able to say, “Though He may slay me, yet will I hope in Him.” (Job 13.15) Can we truly say about your life and our relationship with God: “Though this may happen, yet I will trust Him?” Though my prayers seem unanswered, yet I will trust Him? Though I face huge disappointments, I will trust Him? Though I grieve, yet will I trust in Him?

If I am honest with God, myself, and you, the truth is that the persistence "the “yet” requires of me may slowly chip away at my expectancy. However, in time, I discovered that my expectancy was endangered because I was focusing on the “what” I believed for rather than the “Who” I was placing my faith in. Sometimes my “yet” comes easily — even triumphantly— other times it is expressed through grief, disappointment, anger, and feelings of futility. Common to all, my focus remains on the “Who,” not the “what.”

Faith, like hope and love, is not a momentary shot of spiritual adrenalin. Faith equips and encourages us to answer the call of Christ regardless of circumstances. It encourages us to trust in the veracity of His promises throughout our lifetime. Faith is the distinct attribute that allows His followers to remain focused on God’s future while living with integrity, compassion, assurance, and vision in the present. Abraham and Sarah’s “though” and “yet” were quite staggering when we consider that God promised them a son when Abraham was seventy–six years old and Sarah was sixty–six. They had to wait twenty–four years for God’s promise to come true!

Is there an “even-though……. yet-will-I-hope-in-Him” situation in your life that you need to (re)present to the Lord? There is no better time than now to do so….

on life…

Jesus said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear… strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” (Luke 12.22,31)

What is life? People have given some very depressing answers to this question over the years. Shakespeare wrote, “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Longfellow said that life was “but an empty dream,” Thomas Browne that it was “but the shadow of death,” and O’Henry that it was “made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles— sniffles predominating.” According to Samuel Butler, “Life is one long process of getting tired,” and Ernest Hemmingway, who was both rich and famous, wrote, “I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio when the batteries are dead.”

Contrast these views with what Jesus and one of His followers said about life. Take a moment to prayerfully reflect on these Jesus quotes concerning “life.”

• And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17.3)

• “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10.10)

• “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.” (John 11.25)

In the Greek New Testament, there are three words for “life".”

• Psychē: This is the word we get “psyche” from. It is our inner life… our “soul life,” as many want to say. This latter understanding is fair as long as we do not think this understanding teaches the soul's immortality. Psychē still remains bound by the limitations of the next word for “life” found in the New Testament.

• Bios: This is the word we get “biology” from. It refers to life with all its wonders and limitations posed by death.

• Zoē: This is the “life” Jesus speaks of and offers.

All creatures and species have bios. Brainwaves, heartbeats, senses. Bios has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Zoē, the life Jesus speaks of, is not part of the created biosphere. This life Jesus speaks of is not part of the created world; it is rooted in the coming one — the Kingdom of God. “Striving for His Kingdom” suggests that our lives can now experience the hints, foretastes, and glimpses of the world it was created in and created for. This is the life Jesus announces, extends to us, and fills us with. This is the life that the Holy Spirit testifies to with our spirit. This is the life that frees us from the tyranny of sin for the liberation of the Spirit. This is the life that enjoys fullness, joy, friendship, and community that geography, circumstance, and time cannot rob. This is the life that fully secures an identity rooted in love, acceptance, and forgiveness. This is the life that liberates us to be fully alive so we can be vulnerable, sacrificial, and courageous. This is the life Jesus secured by his cross and lavished us with by His resurrection. Even now, death must bow down to zoē, the world will vainly try to substitute it, and the devil will try to steal it. Their efforts will prove futile as we increasingly turn and press into this abundant life Jesus offers us and through us.

Your age doesn’t matter, and your successes or failures are irrelevant. For us to live in God’s Kingdom and bring it to our time and place, we must daily surrender our lives (bios) to this life (zoē). It is never too late to turn our bios lives over to the Lord anew… to give Him areas that defeat us so that we may experience and be inspired by his zoe life today.  

How beautiful are the lives that embrace His gift of zoē!

on prejudice…

“The LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7, NRSV).

Green hair can convict a man of many things… About 27 years ago, when my oldest daughter entered her first year in middle school, I found myself driving the morning student carpool. That’s how I met Danny – he was my first stop. Danny was a normal 6th-grade boy in every way for his time, except this— he had perfectly groomed, luminescent green hair. As we approached the house, my daughter shrieked, “O my gosh, look at his hair!” I did not want to appear riled (or “uncool”), so I nonchalantly and sanctimoniously responded, “Let’s remember that God judges everyone by who they are on the inside, not by appearance or accomplishment.” “But Dad, green hair?!” she quickly implored. Again, I tried to maintain my composure, “Well, I’ll admit green hair is a little harder for us to see through than brown, red, blonde, or black, but let’s give him a break.” She simply sighed, “Green hair…”

After I dropped the kids off, I found myself considering whether I wanted my daughter to have a friendship with a boy who chose to color his hair green. I quickly realized that this was not the issue. The real issue was whether I wanted to have a relationship with a boy who had green hair. At that point, I sensed the Holy Spirit challenging me, “Mark, how can you expect me to love people through you when you are prejudiced about something as trivial as green hair?”

Jesus used green hair to teach me that prejudice subtly masquerades itself within me. Sometimes, it manifests itself as indifference (“I don’t care what color hair he has.”); at other times, it pridefully appears as tolerance (“If he wants to have green hair, that is his decision.”); and it may even appeal to Scripture for even-tempered wisdom! However, common to all is irrational suspicion, unfounded predetermination, and an unwillingness to relate with and care for a person or people. Can there be any sentiment further from the heart of God?

The apostle Paul writes:

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view… God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses [or green hair] against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:16, 18-20)

The sin of prejudice is incompatible with God’s call and ministry of reconciliation. Paul understood this and overcame his culturally condoned racism for Gentiles. When God loves, He does not care about skin color, ethnicity, gender, lifestyle choices, fashion, age, political perspectives, social status, vocation, academic degrees, worldview— or green hair! Therefore, I resolved on that day, neither will I… and I have been trying hard ever since!

a watershed issue…

"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword… See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her--but now murderers! Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water. Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them… Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"  (Isaiah 1:18-23; 6.8)

The judge of Municipal Court, Number One, in the city of San Diego scrutinized the faces of the twenty-four perspective jurors assembled in his courtroom. While the judge asked questions to determine who to impanel for this case, I took the opportunity to record our responses. (The “lay-sociologist” within me could not pass up this opportune moment to be a participant-observer of this random sample selected by a computer!) Let me review the demographics of our group:

• 13 women and 11 men comprised this jury pool

• Our ages ranged from the middle 20’s to 68 (one person’s boast!)

• Every corner of the county was represented

• The ethnic composition of the group was 1 Philippine, 2 African Americans, and the rest Caucasian

• 20 of the 24 had at least an undergraduate degree.

• 3 have never been married; 4 are single (marital status unknown); 8 are unmarried parents; 2 are widowed; and 7 are currently married.

• No juror is receiving welfare assistance of any kind. Four jurors recently retired. Current occupations include lawyer, epidemiologist, engineer, stockbroker, inventor, filmmaker, homemaker, office manager, mergers and acquisitions executive, INS agent, store manager, administrative assistant, workers' compensation claims investigator, teacher, and graphic designer.

Two questions were significant to me. The first, “Have you ever been the victim of a crime? If so, what was the crime?” and the second, “Do you have a family member or friend who has been convicted of a crime? If so, please explain the circumstances to this court…” The answers to these questions stunned me… Every member of the jury pool had been victimized once by crime, 75% had been victimized twice, and 60% three times. The crimes included assault, theft, rape, and murder. 75% had a relative or friend who had been convicted of a crime. These crimes included theft, drugs, racketeering, murder, and fraud. There in Municipal Court, Number One, in the City of San Diego (“America’s Finest City”), I heard a litany of brokenness, destruction, and sorrow as we told our stories. It was a funeral dirge sung for a society that is literally killing itself.

Scripture teaches us that street violence, estranged relationships, injustice, economic decay, and loss of civic leadership are the by-products of people who rebel against God. The sole remedy is repentance, not legislative change or an austere federal budget. Our problem is spiritual… The spiritual, contrary to popular perception, is not the realm of the irrelevant or the mystical. Reality, as we perceive it, is embedded in a spiritual foundation. It is axiomatic that any society is at risk when its foundation has corroded — or perhaps, was never really there to begin with.. King Solomon observed in his day, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint….” (Proverbs 29.18; see Romans 1.18-32)

I am convinced that a watershed issue facing followers of Jesus Christ today will be our response to the decay and despair around us. Christians are people who recognize that the person and power of Jesus Christ are the only viable hope for our city, nation, and world. “But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?” (Romans 10:14) Are you ready to answer like Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me!” If so, then there is no better day to start than today!

we must see differently…

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2Corinthians 5.16,17).

Following the close of a worship service, a college student raced up to me and said, “I want to become a Christian— can you tell me how?” After we finished praying, I was overtaken by the reality that this young man was created anew in my sight, and I couldn't see it. My eyes witnessed the birth of my children, but my vision could not penetrate into that realm where this dramatic birth was taking place. I remember hearing a man reflect upon his new birth, saying, “I’m in a new world— everything’s new: my eyes, my home, my wife, my job is new! It makes the Bible new and friends and all mankind and love and spiritual things and Sunday and the church and God Himself!”

 Since Jesus makes us new creations, we need to relate to Christians as they are in Christ, not as they are in the world. “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.” Some can only see Jesus as He was in the world— a carpenter’s son, or itinerant preacher— but when we are a new creation, we see Him as the Son of God. When we look at other followers of Jesus Christ, we should see them first and foremost as our brothers and sisters in Christ. So often, we relate to people as they are in the world: she’s a professor, he’s a student, and so on. But it’s who they are in Christ that matters.

We also need to relate to non-Christians not simply as they are but as who they could be in Christ. Consider the apostles… Jesus picked the oddest bunch of disciples you could ever imagine! They may have been skilled fishermen, extortionate tax collectors, or passionate zealots. But no one would have seen them as heralds of God’s coming Kingdom or the foundational leaders of Christ’s Church. Let’s be honest. We’d have gone out and hand-picked some well-connected, vigorous, attractive, spiritually minded master communicators.  

Nevertheless, Jesus perceived what this strange assortment of people could become in Him— and that’s how we need to see people. C. S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory) described it best when he observed: 

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long, we are, to some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities; it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked with a mere mortal… It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit— immortal horrors or everlasting splendors…”

“For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16.7)

We must see differently… Lord, give us eyes to see in others what you see…

unique, uncomfortable, and compelling…

When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts 8.15,16)

Lately, I have been reflecting on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit— frequently described as the “shy member” of the Trinity. His purpose is to be “another Jesus” and to execute the purposes of God (Father and Son) in the Church and in the world (see John 14.16ff; 15.26f; 16.4-15). The story of the Samaritan Christians (see Acts 8.4-25) is worth reading and reflecting upon. I believe this passage is still a unique, uncomfortable and compelling scenario for us today.

It is unique because it depicts the spreading of the gospel, for the first time, from Jews to non-Jews. Only a duplication of the phenomena which the apostles experienced could authenticate that God was calling and accepting Samaritans! For a Jew of the first century this was unthinkable!

It is uncomfortable because it upsets our neatly ordered theologies which attempt to always locate the filling of the Holy Spirit with conversion. It would seem that the Samaritans were true believers (Acts 8.5, 8, 16), but they had not yet been filled with the Holy Spirit.

It is compelling, because I continually meet Christians who are aware of barrenness and ineffectiveness in their lives— in contrast to the New Testament pattern where the disciples, though few in number, turned their world upside down.

There are three important things to observe about this incident. First, being filled with the Holy Spirit is not the same as conversion. While we tend to either equate the two or make them concurrent experiences, in practice it often does not occur until later. We certainly understand new birth in Christ to be the work of the Holy Spirit but it does not exclude the necessity for subsequent fillings by the Spirit of God to empower and inspire us for the work of His ministry.

Second, when the Holy Spirit fills a Christian there is clear, unmistakable, evidence. The criteria of the Spirit’s filling are new vitality, freedom, giftedness, and fruitfulness— not whether a woman or man stands or falls or shakes or cries.

Third, this filling is for the empowering of the believer to manifest Kingdom realities that glorify God, herald the good news of God’s Kingdom, and demonstrate Jesus’ redemptive presence. When Jesus is not glorified, then spiritual experiences decay until they become pretentious and self-aggrandizing— they may garner much attention but in reality they bear little fruit. If we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit in this special way, we may have to drop our prejudices, presumptions, and our agendas.

When I was serving in a different denomination, a pastor once told me: “There are two things I did not want to do— raise his hands in worship and to shout, “Praise the Lord!” These were the very things he did when the Holy Spirit filled him. Be careful! Do not let control, pride nor vain presumptions, which errantly systematize the Holy Spirit’s “behavior,” to become stumbling-blocks which hinder God’s desire to fill and empower you with the Holy Spirit.

Finally, let me close by celebrating the pastoral impact of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Christians who are filled with the Holy Spirit have an unshakable assurance of the Father’s love, forgiveness, and acceptance. D. Martin Lloyd Jones, in his book, Joy Unspeakable, (a collection of messages about the baptism of the Holy Spirit) writes:

“When Christians are baptized by the Holy Spirit, they have a sense of power and the presence of God that they have never known before —and this is the greatest possible form of assurance…

A man and his little child [are] walking down the road and they are walking hand in hand, and the child knows that he is the child of his father [this God and the Christian], and he knows that his father loves him, and he rejoices in that, and he is happy in it. There is no uncertainty about it all, but suddenly the father, moved by some impulse, takes hold of the child, picks him up, fondles him in his arms, kisses him, embraces him, and showers his love upon him, and then he puts him down again and they go  walking on their way.”

That’s it! The child knew before that his father loved him, and he knew that he was his child. But oh! the loving embrace, this extra outpouring of love, this unusual manifestation of it—that is the kind of thing. The Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God” (pp. 95-97)

How we need more leaders who will preach and testify to the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit!

Until next week…

who can tell the wind where to blow?

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Revelation 2.7)

Lately, I have been reflecting on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit— frequently described as the “shy member” of the Trinity. His purpose is to be “another Jesus” and to execute the purposes of God (Father and Son) in the Church and in the world (see John 14.16ff; 15.26f; 16.4-15).

The Spirit is distinct from the Church. Nowhere in the New Testament is He called the "Spirit of the Church." No church or individual can possess or own Him any more than she can own the air she breathes. He must own us. Someone has observed, “If you think of Him as an influence, you'll be anxious to have more of it, but if you think of Him as a person, you will desire that He may have more of you.”

In the first and second centuries a group of people called the Montanists experienced great blessings of the Holy Spirit, but they went wrong when they claimed to embody the Holy Spirit. They dismissed other Christians as carnal and shallow and refused to allow their teachings to be subject to the testing of Scripture. Consequently, the Church and the Montanists had nothing to do with each other except to indict each other with aspersions of heresy and demonic influence. As we seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit, let us learn a very practical lesson from history: we must beware not to write off those who do not have the same spiritual experience as we do nor to discredit the empowering of the Holy Spirit because of the attitudes, errors or excesses, we see in some individuals or churches. Scripture is clear: every congregation — every Christian— needs the life support system of the Holy Spirit to live abundantly and with complete joy (see John 10.10; 15.11; 16.21f). The true life we hunger for cannot be experienced without Him!

Since He is not tied to the Church, no single congregation, individual, group, or denomination can monopolize Him.

We cannot
tame Him,
coax Him,
coerce Him,
bargain with Him,
flatter Him,
order Him,
or manipulate Him.

All we can do is
ask Him,
yield to Him, and
surrender before Him.

He will not fit into our well-ordered systems or methodologies. How He works in one situation will not be merely duplicated in another. As Jesus said, “He is like the wind, and no one can tell the wind where to blow.” (John 3.8) — all we can do is hoist our sails!

May I ask you, dear reader, to take a moment right now to pray for a fresh empowering of God’s Holy Spirit in your life— that you might intimately know God’s love, power, peace, and courage at work within you. This next week, I will be praying for a fresh reception of the Holy Spirit throughout our Western District… would you join me?

authentic spirituality…

Matthew 11.18-19; 13.55     “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’'; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!…’  Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?”

God wants us to be whole people, not religious people. The sheer normality of authentic spirituality has recently struck me. Jesus, the only perfect man who ever lived on this earth, was so “normal” that most of His relations, friends, and neighbors could not possibly believe that He was the Messiah. He was not “religious enough” for that! He was simply the son of the local carpenter, a perceived glutton, drunkard, and friend of sinners.

How easily we fall into the trap of thinking that the truly spiritual person has some special aura of holiness or mystique about her, which keeps her separate from the more ordinary, wholesome things of life! How urgently do we need to rediscover God as Creator and Redeemer? God is my Maker. When God created the human creature, He made us in His image, sealed it by breathing His Holy Spirit upon us, and intended us to be in a personal and devoted relationship with Him. Instead, we have maligned the image, quenched the Spirit, and forsaken the relationship. When God calls a person to follow Jesus, He makes us a new creation, fills us with the Holy Spirit, and reconciles our relationship with him. In short, His mission is to make us truly human— in the image of His Son.

It is part of the ancient and continuing Gnostic heresy that spirituality means denying or trying to escape from our humanity's bodily or natural aspects by concentrating wholly on the realm of the spirit. Gnostic influence may be perceived wherever “spiritual” is elevated above “material” or “physical;” “being” is seen as superior to its counterpart “doing;” “spirit” as the preferred alternative to “flesh,” and “mystical insight” above “knowledge/wisdom.”

Christian theology, like the Jewish theology that preceded it, is an embodied—an incarnational—theology. Authentic spirituality does not climb Jacob’s ladder toward heaven so that we can be more godlike—this is a sanctified revision of the “Garden variety sin”—eat the fruit; God knows you will be like Him.

Authentic spirituality is to follow Jesus and become wholistically human! One look at Jesus's life reveals the intense humanity of authentic spirituality. Jesus is a carpenter’s son; He eats and drinks with sinners; He laughs and weeps. He teaches, tells stories, observes the seasons, prays, worships, and experiences love, joy, strength, friendship, weakness, and sorrow. How refreshing to realize that God has created us and redeemed us to be authentically human.

Let’s endeavor to foster an authentic spirituality that is intentional and fully human.

the leader as teacher…

NOTE: I have returned from my trip. However, with the recent Fourth of July holiday, I have one more devotional from a distinguished leader in the Foursquare denomination to share with you. My “pen” will return on July 19… and you might (rightfully) prefer their reflections to mine!

This week’s devotional comes from the pen of Pastor Jeff Roper. Jeff is the Foursquare Global Area Director, resourcing global workers in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. If that didn’t keep him busy enough, he is working on his Ph.D. and recently completed his first book, Following Wisdom, Leading Wisely: Proverbs as Ancient Wisdom for Today's Leader.

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When God called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, Moses pleaded, “My Lord, I’ve never been able to speak well, not yesterday, not the day before, and certainly not now since you’ve been talking to your servant. I have a slow mouth and a thick tongue” (Exod 4:10, CEB). I suppose forty years of tending sheep in an isolated desert doesn’t do much for building your vocabulary or cultivating eloquence. Moses entered his calling with a profound sense of unworthiness due to his inarticulate speech, yet when he reached the end of his leadership, we see a different man. Moses knows his time as leader is ending. He appointed Joshua as his successor. It would be Joshua, not Moses, who would lead the people across the Jordan into the Promised Land. Moses had achieved everything he was destined to achieve. There would be no more battles to fight or miracles to perform and no more prayers to offer.

Then we witness one of the great moments of personal transformation. It is what Moses did next that bears the mark of greatness: Moses, the liberator, miracle worker, and lawgiver, becomes “Moses, our teacher.” For the final month of his life, Moses stood before the people and delivered the series of addresses we know as the book of Deuteronomy. The Hebrew title is Devarim, literally “words.” He meticulously retraced the people’s past and foresaw their future. He taught the people to see themselves as those on whom God had set his love, a chosen people consecrated by the very hand of God. He taught them that their existence bore witness to a transcendent purpose, they testify to something beyond themselves. A glimpse into his prayer, encapsulated in Deuteronomy 32:1–2, reveals his yearning:

Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God!

Moses the tongue-tied is now Moses the teacher. This transformative event reshapes our understanding of leadership itself. Moses demonstrates that the highest form of leadership takes place when the leader becomes a teacher, when the leader realizes that true greatness is not in what they do, but rather in what they help others do. Moses knew that his greatest achievements would not last forever. The people he had rescued would one day suffer exile and persecution again. The next time, though, they would not have a Moses to do miracles. However, through his words, he planted a strength in their souls that would sustain and renew them like rain renews the tender grass.

When leaders become teachers, they wield the power to change lives, for “the teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death” (Prov 13:14). Teachers are the architects of the future, and if you want to make lasting change, you too must do like Moses and become a teacher. The leader as teacher uses influence, not power, spiritual and intellectual authority, rather than coercive force, to empower others and shape the future. This is the ultimate power of wise leaders, and it is a power conveyed through words.

Is there any greater accolade than hearing someone say, “You taught me”? To hear one say, “I learned the ways of God from you,” or “Your life taught me how to live.” This is higher praise than any award or monument can bestow. Teaching may include preaching, lectures, and lessons, but it is far more than these. It includes mentoring, coaching, instructing, and guiding; these pursuits shape the heart and mind. For the leader who has walked the path of wisdom and embodied the righteous character of the wise, their entire life becomes a university. The sage becomes the classroom, the textbook, and the living example of wisdom encased in a human life. This is the highest form of teaching, for while we teach what we know, we reproduce what we are.

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 Adapted from Jeff’s new book, Following Wisdom, Leading Wisely: Proverbs as Ancient Wisdom for Today’s Leader(Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2024). Available wherever you buy your books.

i prayed; it didn’t work… did i not have enough faith?

NOTE: I am out of town 11 June - 7 July, so I thought I would use this opportunity to invite some of the leaders I have the opportunity to serve with to write a guest devotional. My “pen” will return on 12 July… and you might (rightfully) prefer their reflections to mine!

This week’s devotional comes from the pen of Pastor Karen Mauricio. Karen is a pastor at The Church On the Way in Van Nuys, CA. She currently serves, along with her husband, as Young Adults Pastors. She also works with young families and serves as the art director in the creative department. In addition (if all that were not enough), she sits on the Western District Advisory Council of The Foursquare Church, providing counsel as we endeavor to serve the churches of our district well.

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 I grew up thinking that if I had enough faith, I could tell a mountain to move, and it would move... like, literally move. From one location to another. I remember going on road trips with my parents when I was younger, and when we passed by mountains, I would start to declare in my tiny little mind, full of faith, that those mountains would get up and move. If you’re expecting me to share an earth-shattering testimony of a volcano in Guatemala packing up its bags and moving across the country,… you’d be wrong. That never happened. Hear my heart; I still believe that a metaphorical or literal mountain can be moved if God commands it to move. As I grew older, the problem remained the same: I prayed and declared my expectations. The more I prayed for specific things to happen, the more discouraged, disappointed and doubtful I became. My theology about who God was and what He could do was correct but incomplete. I had grabbed hold of the all-powerful characteristic of God, but I had yet to understand His sovereignty.

With this, my mind would drift to two conclusions: Either I didn’t have enough faith, or God didn’t hear me. Have you ever had these thoughts? Maybe you had a thought like that five minutes before reading this. If you’re anything like me and have wrestled through these things, this short devotional is for you.

Let me address the unbelief part for a second; there are many examples in the Bible where Jesus couldn’t do miracles because of people’s unbelief (Mathew 13:58, Mark 6:5-6), and there are others that, despite people’s unbelief, He did miracles. He multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish to feed five thousand even though His disciples didn’t think they had enough (John 6:9-14). Despite unbelief, God gave a son to the Shunamite woman even after she said, “O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that” (2 Kings 4:16-17) to the prophet who gave her a promise from God that she would be able to conceive.

Catch this—God did miraculous things, despite unbelief, in the lives of people who recognized who He was. They might have doubted what, how, or when, but they knew Him. On the other hand, He could not do anything for those who didn’t believe in Him.

God is not going to “not fulfill” a promise He has made to you because of your circumstantial/temporary unbelief. He loves you and HE WILL do what He said He would do (2 Timothy 2:13). With that in mind, the real problem is when we doubt who He is. The right place to put our faith is in God’s character and not in what we expect Him to do. In His presence, rather than His presents.

Now, let me address the part surrounding expectations –

Here is the problem with praying our expectations; expectations include our opinion on what, how or when. Expectations don’t leave much room for God’s sovereignty, so we have a hard time when our prayers are “unanswered.” We believe God is all-powerful, but we know how that should look. That way of thinking puts too much pressure on us, gives us an unrealistic sense of power, and often leads to disappointment. When the specific things we are asking for don’t happen the way we expect them to, it often leads us to question our faith or God’s love toward us.

Believing that anything is possible is correct; Jesus taught that in Mark 9:23. When we say “anything,” though, I believe it literally means anything—what we think should happen or anything else that our minds don’t even fathom.

A healthy heart posture is a place where God’s character is trusted in its entirety, where “all powerful” and “sovereign” have the same weight… a place where we pray with expectancy rather than expectations, knowing that God will move powerfully and that the outcome will be great because we invited His will into our lives.

Does this mean I have little faith in thinking this way? Absolutely not. I am more confident now than ever before that I love and serve a God who is all-powerful and sovereign. My trust in Him is beyond my expectations and desires. I trust Him more than I trust my own understanding of things. I pray with strong faith and trust in His character. I know that He will move when I cry out to Him, and I am certain that the outcome will be even better than my wildest imagination, whether I understand it or not. Our God is both all-powerful and sovereign.

the paradoxes of pastoring…

NOTE: I am out of town 11 June - 7 July, so I thought I would use this opportunity to invite some of the leaders I have the opportunity to serve with to write a guest devotional. My “pen” will return on 12 July… and you might (rightfully) prefer their reflections to mine!

This week’s devotional comes from the pen of Pastor Ron Flores: Ron and his wife, Portia, co-pastor Meadows Fellowship in Las Vegas. Before entering pastoral ministry, Ron spent ten years playing professional baseball, with the majority of his career in the Oakland Athletics organization. He has a passion for loving people well through laughter and tacos. In his spare time, Ron is pursuing his Masters in Strategic Leadership from Life Pacific University.

If you’re like me, you got into ministry because you love Jesus and have a heart for people. And like you, I take Paul’s call to church leaders seriously to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:11-2). Having grown up a PK, I went into ministry with (what I thought were) eyes wide open. My dad’s life lesson was always, “Count the cost and then pay the price.” I knew what I had to do. And I knew what people expected of me as a lead pastor.

I need to be an:

- Inspiring leader
and
- Excellent communicator

But as ministry often entails, I quickly found out that I also need to toe the invisible line:

- Raise funds but don’t talk about money.
- Be clear in your leadership but don’t hold anyone accountable.
- Draw crowds but don’t be about the numbers.
- Lead by example but don’t be legalistic.

Also, apparently I need to:

- Get the worship just right,
- Crack the code of small group dynamics,
- Lead my staff and ministry leaders to ultimate life fulfillment,
- Make sure I work out daily and sabbath weekly.

Also, in my spare time I need to:

- Master the Greek and Hebrew (even though I got a C in High School English)
- Be a social media guru
- Tech-savvy
- Miracle-worker (literally)
- Conflict resolution specialist
- Financial wizard
- Compassionate counselor- Community impactor
- Creator of catchy slogans and sermon titles
- Building expander
- End-times expert
- Trend spotter/pop-culture referencer
- Attract the younger, honor the elder
- Ultimate multi-tasker
- Crisis manager
- With super-human patience
- And by the way - you ARE preaching this Sunday and, yes, you do have a super quick meeting with a disgruntled member right after service.

(I know that list should have come with a trigger warning.)

All jokes aside, we know our calling is bigger, grander, and weightier than the external expectations we live under, however unrealistic they may be. Our work is Kingdom work—e work—spiritual eternal work. And it’s worth the fight. As Paul instructs, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

I’m thankful for a Big Jesus, a good group of friends, and fellow pastors who can shrug off the small stuff, laugh a lot, and point everyone to the real Savior! I hope that you have these in your life too…

ordinary time… is it?!

NOTE: I am out of town 11 June - 7 July, so I thought I would use this opportunity to invite some of the leaders I have the opportunity to serve with to write a guest devotional. My “pen” will return on 12 July… and you might (rightfully) prefer their reflections to mine!

This week’s devotional comes from the pen of Pastor Jennifer Thigpen. Jenn is the Multi-Ethnic Coordinator for the Western District of The Foursquare Church. She is a Fuller Theological Seminary graduate and serves on the Foursquare Doctrine and Ethics Team and Foursquare Multiply, where she coaches and resources church planters. In her free time she is an assisting pastor at Pasadena Foursquare Church.

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“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…” Ecclesiastes 3:1, NIV

I’ve spent my life being formed by and leading in Pentecostal-Charismatic spaces, but in my adulthood, I have found a deep appreciation for the rhythms of the liturgical calendar. Seasons like Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost mark so many important days in the life of my faith. For church leaders, those big days are where we put much of our time, energy and resources. (Enter “Easter is the church’s Super Bowl” chant here.)

But the part of the liturgical calendar I have come to love the most is “Ordinary Time.” Ordinary Time is the longest season of the church year, broken into two parts: spanning the weeks between Epiphany (January 6) and Ash Wednesday, then spanning the months between Pentecost and Advent. It is all the time that isn’t marked by fasting or feasting; it’s just…ordinary. Ordinary is often cast as boring or uneventful, but it is so much more than that.

In liturgical contexts, ordinary time is marked by growth, maturing, spiritual disciplines and discipleship. It is the invitation to faithfully follow Jesus amid the (sometimes) mundane, everydayness of our lives. In fact, the life of Jesus is where the reading and liturgy of ordinary time invites us to reflect most often – the teachings, the miracles and even the mundane.

So, why do I, a Pentecostal Foursquare pastor, care about ordinary time? Because reminds me that Jesus meets me in the ordinary spaces of my life: in the rhythms of work and rest, around tables and in living rooms, in sermon prep and on walks, with friends and family, in church and outside of it. It is an invitation to orient my life in the way that Jesus oriented his.

I grew up as a product of the church growth movement of the 1990s, where so much of my discipleship and development was event-driven and experience-oriented. “Come to [x] conference!” “Bring your friends to [x] event!” For a certain generation (looking at you, fellow Millennials), we were raised to chase moments and to create experiences, but aside from giving us a formula for how to do our quiet times, there wasn’t a whole lot in the way of how to follow Jesus in ordinary time – in the days between youth group services and events, in the months between camps and conferences, in the years between revivals and great awakenings. We, like every generation before us, have had to learn how to follow Jesus in the midst of paying bills and starting businesses, raising families and building community, shepherding congregations and mentoring students, celebrating big wins and grieving big losses…you know, the ordinary stuff.

For me, the gift of ordinary time has been encounters with God and God’s people. What I used to think of as a lull in my calendar has become a meaningful slowing to reorient myself and my story to the life of Jesus and find intentional presence with God and others. For all the big days that we give our time and energy to, may we all lean in a little bit more to the gift of the ordinary for ourselves and those around us.

nestle, don’t wrestle…

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you… “I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said… My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… for the Mighty One has done great things for me--holy is his name. (Luke 1.35, 38, 46, 49)

I meet many saints crippled by unbelief, and this unbelief is a big barrier against the Holy Spirit, filling our lives. Although we may desire a fresh work of God in our lives, many of us find it difficult to believe that God will actually work in the manner we long for. We have all been taught, “There are no guarantees in life.” But this aphorism was not composed with the promises of God in mind. Jesus invites us to trust in His promises— “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Luke 11.9) In other words, Jesus tells you that if you ask to receive the Holy Spirit in fresh ways, you will receive His renewing presence in your life.

Mary is an example of faith to us all. She was promised the gift of a son, yet she couldn’t understand how this could happen and asked, “How can this be?” The answer was that the Holy Spirit would come upon her. How did she respond? She surrendered her life to the Lord, risking scandal, difficulties, and much future pain, and then praised God, saying that what He had promised was already true as far as she was concerned. What a far cry from our “wait-and-see” skepticism of today!

Years back, preachers would distinguish between seeking faith and resting faith. Couples coming to see me before getting married are often very nervous. They perch on the edge of the chair, eager to “get going”  and find out if I will do their wedding. As we chatted, they gradually relaxed and let the chair take their whole weight. You might say that they begin by showing seeking faith– tensed up, hoping that God might act— and end up with resting faith— a secure reliance on God’s promise.

We need to ask for the Holy Spirit in an attitude of resting faith— an attitude which takes Jesus at his word when He promises: “Streams of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.” (John 7.38, 39) John’s gospel goes on to explain, “By this Jesus meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.” (John 7.39) This means that receiving the Holy Spirit is not contingent upon merit, signal experiences, leadership potential, spiritual prowess, or your need. The Holy Spirit is God’s promised gift to you… all you have to do is ask and trust. Dear friends, your striving can cease; we can all rest in God’s promise. Like those who first waited in the upper room, it was never a question of “if” God would send His power, just the answer of “when” the power would come.

As Corrie ten Boom was fond of saying, “Nestle, don’t wrestle.”

unashamed…

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead¿8¿ Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.7-14)

This week at our denomination’s annual gathering, the theme was for pastors to hold the line, incarnate the gospel within our own lives, stay the course, and re-up to the shepherd’s heart and life that is the foundation of our calling. These messages drew me back to this testimony of the apostle Paul. It remains one of the most encouraging, motivating, and challenging passages of Scripture for me and countless others. Years ago, Bob Moorehead, former pastor of Overlake Christian Fellowship east of Seattle, was inspired by it and penned the following reflection: I hope you are inspired, motivated, and challenged by the witness of these two men as I am:

I am part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The dye has been cast. I have stepped over the line, the decision has been made...I am a disciple of Jesus, I won’t look back, go back, hold back, let up, slow down, back away, hesitate or be still! My past is redeemed, my present remade and my future re-aimed. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, dwarfed goals, deficient faith and cheap grace.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, prestige or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, lean by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my gift is grace and my God is good...my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my guide reliable, my mission clear and my power sufficient. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, diluted, distracted, deterred or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, wilt in the heat of the battle or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, let up, or burn up until I’ve preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, worked up and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed. I walk in good company; I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go until He comes, give until I drop, preach until all know, stay until all go and work until He stops. And when He comes to get His own, He’ll have no trouble recognizing me...my colors will be clear.

May we all, regardless of calling or vocation hold the line, incarnate the Gospel, stay the course, and re-up to serve under our Shepherd Jesus.

failure is inevitable… and so is victory

Do you not know that all the runners run in a race, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Brethren, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus

(1Corinthians 9.24; Philippians 3.13,14)

Failure is inevitable. It is not a question of ‘If?’ It is simply a matter of ‘When?’ At the heart of the matter is our mistaken notion that the experience of failure is an epitaph—a verdict—that marks us for the remainder of our lives. It is almost as if Descartes’ famous Enlightenment dictum, “I think, therefore I am,” has mutated into an equally errant postulation, “I fail, therefore, I am a failure.”

Setbacks, missed expectations, unrealistic goals, rejection, mistakes, ineffective programs/results, poor decisions, poor timing, etc… All this and more are the realities of life. Yet, wisdom, focus, faith, resolve, character, and hope arise from God’s grace.

Failure is inevitable. We need a Holy Spirit-inspired resiliency that empowers us to press on toward winning the prize for which God has called us heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

Next week, pastors from my denomination will gather in Washington, D.C., for our annual Foursquare Connection. If you happen to be at the Lincoln Memorial, consider this: no one exemplifies resiliency amidst failure better than Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States.

·      His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them (1818).
·      His mother died (1831).
·      He failed in business (1832).
·      He lost his job and wanted to attend law school but couldn’t get in (1833).
·      He borrowed money from a friend to begin a business, and he was bankrupt by the end of the year. (1834).
·      He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt (1834).
·      He ran for state legislature again and won (1835).
·      He was engaged to be married, his sweetheart died, and his heart was broken (1836).
·      He had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months (1838).
·      He sought to become speaker of the state legislature but was defeated (1840).
·      He sought to become an elector and was defeated (1843).
·      He ran for Congress and lost (1846).
·      He ran for Congress again, and this time, he won (1848)!
·      He ran for re-election to Congress and lost (1849).
·      He sought the job of land officer in his home state and was rejected (1854).
·      He ran for the Senate of the United States and lost (1856).
·      He sought the vice-presidential nomination at his party’s national convention, and he received less than 100 votes (1858).
·      He ran for U.S. Senate again and again, but he lost (1860).
·      He was elected President of the United States (November 6, 1860).

Leader, do not be discouraged. Run the race by God's power for God's glory, and you will win. It’s not a question of “if?” It’s just a matter of “when?”

so what?

Be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Ephesians 5.18-20)

This Sunday will be Pentecost Sunday completing the Christian trinity of “high holy days” - Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. Theologians continue to reflect on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Pastors preach the power of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit. Today, I would like to suggest 4 “under-the-radar-so-what’s” that should be hallmarks of the Holy Spirit filled woman or man of God.

First, a Holy Spirit-filled believer is one who loves to worship God. You will recognize her by her intensity in prayer, her attentiveness to God’s presence, her exuberant praise, her expressive joy, and her gracious freedom. One of the most frequent and wonderful impressions visitors to the churches I pastored had was the joy, beauty, and freedom they perceived when the congregation worshiped. On one occasion, a woman described to me how she noticed one of the men worshipping with his eyes open: “His countenance possessed joy and wonderment… I was sure he was looking at someone, so I just had to follow his gaze… The way he looked, I expected to see Jesus standing there!”

Second, the Holy Spirit-filled believer does not stop worshipping when the church service is completed. His worship continues throughout the week as he “sings and makes music in his heart to the Lord.” Worship songs, hymns, scriptures, and God-honoring images and ideas regularly fill his mind throughout the week. He will frequently be aware that this wellspring of adoration is not his own creation; instead, it is being “poured” into him by the Spirit of God Himself!

Third, the Holy Spirit-filled person is not a worshipping “lone ranger.” She looks forward to praising God with others and strives to encourage and release vital worship in her church. Like King David, she exclaims, “Glorify the Lord with me: let us exalt his name together.” (Psalm 34.3) Her enthusiasm is contagious, and she remains steadfast in her resolve to gather with other believers even when inconvenienced by weather, travel, vocation, or even family. 

Fourth, the Holy Spirit-filled believer trusts God through thanksgiving and praise for every situation. The Spirit-filled believer knows he is not called to praise God for evil or tragedy. Yet, he also understands that circumstances do not judge God's presence (or absence?) nor the verity of His ways. The Spirit-filled believer is free to thank God because he knows that God is in control.

Descartes epitomized the Enlightenment when he postulated, “I think, therefore I am.” The Holy Spirit-filled person counters, “I worship, therefore I am.”

What would your life look like if these four traits of the Holy Spirit were abundantly evident in you?

worship births mission…

The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 When they had made the prisoners [Peter and John] stand in their midst, they inquired, "By what power or by what name did you do this?"

(Acts 4.5-7).

Peter and John were in a tough situation. Their master had been crucified and they were in danger of the same fate. Here they were in front of the religious leaders who had brought about Jesus’ death. They could have chosen to answer cautiously, guardedly. Instead Peter declared, “Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” (Acts 4.10).

Someone has written, “Reticence can be as harmful as unguided speech, and it is not always what Christians say, but what they don’t say, that misrepresents the things of God.” If we say nothing about these things, people will assume that they are not important. Worse still, if we remain silent when we have an opportunity to speak for Christ, we are virtually denying Him.

Why are some bold and others reticent when it comes to sharing our faith? The answer lies partly, but not predominantly in temperament and personality. Our witness is tied to our worship — our devoted submission and praise for the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We talk and share experiences about the things and relationships that we value the most. If we truly place God on the highest place in our lives; if we are filled with a love for Jesus; and if Kingdom issues are very real to us— then we will testify easily and naturally to the truth, forgiveness, and freedom that we have found in Christ.

Consider C.S. Lewis’ observation from his Reflections on the Psalms (pp. 94-95):

The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game—praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praise least… Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible… I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about most.

Let’s pray for ourselves and other women and men to have a fresh vision and experience of Jesus and the reality of His Kingdom come. A present vision that inspires our worship, fills our souls with a devout love for Him, and which will then organically overflow to others in personal testimony. We cannot just rely on the great spiritual experiences of our past. We need the Holy Spirit’s presence and activity each day as we read the Bible, praise, pray, and go about our daily lives. Otherwise we shall find ourselves preoccupied with things of secondary importance.

Beloved, please take a moment to reflect upon your own "praise life…” Has it become routine? For those of us responsible for worship gatherings, has our own "well" run dry because praise has been reduced to a production preoccupied with numbers, the most current “playlist,” and the reaction of others? Could it be that our personal witness is muted by the absence of our own vibrant praise encumbered by a transactional faith that reduces praise to “what we got” rather than “Who He is?”

There is no way around it — the mission of the Church is intrinsically connected with the worship of the Church. A small God who exists only to please us will always lead to anemic mission — the witness of "nice.” And the painful truth is: “nice” is hardly going to command attention and transform lives.

integrity is Christ-centered…

When Jesus saw the crowds He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him and He began to teach them saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit... Blessed are those who mourn... Blessed are the meek... Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness... Blessed are the merciful... Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God... Blessed are the peacemakers... Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness... Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you... You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world... You have heard it said, “Do not murder... Do not commit adultery... When you pray do not be like the hypocrites... Do not worry... The man who hears my words and does not do them...” (Matthew 5-7)

The Sermon on the Mount contrasts two ways of living before God. One way to measure faithfulness is by what we do, and the other is by who we are. In short, the Sermon on the Mount is about integrity that is distinctly Christian. Every sentence bears the conviction that who we are on the inside matters immensely to Jesus because there is no inherent relationship between what we do and who we truly are. A woman may go to church, sing the songs, and read her Bible but never have the essential poverty of spirit that God blesses with salvation, love, and strength (Matthew 5.3). A man may not cheat on his girlfriend or wife, but his obsession compromises his fidelity with lust and sexual fantasies of every kind (Matthew 5.27-30). Anyone may pray eloquently in front of others, but God knows that it is not an expression of faith but a will to impress, influence, and manipulate (Matthew 6.5-15).

Christian integrity is distinct. Philosophers suggest that integrity means living according to a consistent set of principles, but surely consistency is the wrong criterion because one could then argue that the devil or a “Hitler” has integrity! Christian integrity is less a state and more an exercise of living, discerning, loving, reflecting, and doing that is inspired, empowered, and exemplified by the person and power of Jesus.

There are three basic steps to pursuing a life of Christian integrity. The first step is to spend the time to discern the presence of Jesus in our lives. Our relationship with Him is our foundation for understanding right and wrong, good and evil, commitment and hypocrisy. Therefore, prayer, Bible study, and quiet reflection are essential disciplines for those seeking a life of integrity. Christian integrity is distinct because we live according to our relationship with Jesus— He alone is our living “set of principles” that we seek to be consistent with.

The second step to a life of Christian integrity is to struggle to live according to our relationship or faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is a free gift but the Christian life is a lifetime-encompassing challenge. We pursue a life of integrity when we are willing to fight, strive, and persevere to live in a manner that reflects the life of Jesus Christ within us. This means that a life of Christian integrity will be counter-intuitive. We will love those who Jesus loves although we may initially feel no natural attraction; we will take actions that will advance Christ but do little for us; we will risk the loss of favor and esteem to live out our life in Christ.

The third and overlooked step to a life of Christian integrity requires us to be open and emphatic about Who and what we are living by— to say why we do the things we are doing or believe the things we believe. Witness is an essential ingredient to Christian integrity because integrity, as a lifestyle, can never be separated from the person and power of Jesus Christ. We live, believe, act, relate, love, hope, judge, and yearn the way we do because of Jesus. Christian integrity mandates that we bear witness to Him because it is only His person Who can make sense of the life of integrity that we struggle to achieve.

Christian integrity must be Christ-centered lest we understand integrity legalistically rather than relationally. Integrity flows from His living presence in our lives and it returns to Him as our living sacrifice. Integrity is never a “box we check”. It will always be a life we aspire to live.

a daily resolve…

Romans 12.2: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Galatians 4.8-10 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods; but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more?

Ephesisan 6.10: Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

I took a partial day off a few days ago and made my way to Strasbourg, Germany, to see its famous cathedral. This cathedral towered over the “modern world” and was the world’s tallest building from 1439 to 1869. Yet, despite its immensity, the world passes it by with only a passing nod to history and the architectural marvel it represents. One doesn’t need an academic’s insight or keen powers of observation to recognize that the “spirit of the times” has changed…

Zeitgeist is a German word that historians and sociologists have adopted as a technical term. It comes from two words: “zeit” (time) and “geist” (spirit). Zeitgeist refers to the spirit of the time—the taste, culture, and outlook characteristic of a period or generation. It is the unseen force or tide that carries people, communities, and nations in its stream. A crisis — whether political or ideological— occurs whenever one zeitgeist confronts another.

Thus, for example, wars are the result of competing zeitgeists. The political and cultural upheavals that polarize and divide us also illustrate the fallout when zeitgeists collide. Scholars attempt to understand the zeitgeist of any period to gain an understanding of the unseen forces (spirits!) behind human behavior, perception, and decision-making.

Scripture recognizes the reality of living in a world that daily tempts followers of Jesus Christ to exchange their liberty for enslavement. Therefore, we must make a deliberate decision every day to be filled with the power and resolve of the Heilige Geist (the Holy Spirit), lest we become carried along by the tidal wave of the zeitgeist. Without this daily resolve, we will:

• Equate “blessings” solely with prosperity, convenience, acquisition, title, or power.

• Subjugate Christian truth to personal experience or our own need for security and acceptance.

• Believe God only for what is “believable” (i.e., realistic and practical) and avoid the need for a faith that is dependent on God.

• Rationalize our selfish “wants” as representing God’s will for our life.

• Perceive inconvenience, challenge, or conflict solely as the devil instead of God’s discipline.

• Relativize the Scriptures to avoid God’s truth and life-changing conviction.

• Pursue sexual gratification, self-esteem, and self-aggrandizement as the great goals of life.

• Tolerate sin and avoid personal accountability.

• Perceive ourselves as a victim rather than as a victor and overcomer through Christ.

• Flirt and fixate with pornographic materials or sexual imagery that titillate.

• Blame our parents, spouses, culture, or education for what we don’t like about ourselves.

• Prejudge others by appearance, ethnicity, nationality, party loyalty, or vocation.

• Capitulate to cultural moral conformities

• Lose our evangelistic commitment

• Settle for mediocrity rather than yearn for “His utmost for our highest.”

Without this daily resolve, followers of Jesus Christ will become nondescript residents of society with little to distinguish them from the world in which they reside. Oh, some may still retain peculiar habits like going to church, praying occasionally, reading the Bible or observing Christian holidays. But in reality, the values, concerns, and pleasures of this world will draw them back, and they will again be subject to its demands and mastery. Such Christians will hardly influence and impact the lives around them.

Our freedom is maintained by our steadfast commitment to struggle against “powers and spiritual forces” that seek to enslave us (Ephesians 6.12). How do we do this? “Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.” Free is the person who daily seeks the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and presses into the abiding presence of Jesus.

Hold fast…

Fix your thoughts upon Jesus… For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end… Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 3.1, 14; 10.23)

This week I am in Albania, the first country in history to officially declare itself an atheist nation (1946). This was not an empty declaration of the state. It was backed up by the destruction of worship spaces of any faith and the ruthless persecution, including the execution of anyone professing faith or guilty of assembly. Museums narrate these nightmare decades with vivid and oppressive detail.

As I walked the streets of Tirana, I wondered: Would I be faithful in such a context? Would I “cave in” or “stand up?” Would I capitulate or challenge? Would I surrender or lead? Would I isolate or gather?

On such occasions, I turn to the Scriptures, and what I learn again is that the correspondence within the New Testament contains a distinctive focus and a singular challenge.

The distinctive focus is on the uniqueness and supremacy of Jesus Christ, the Reconciler, Redeemer, Reigning Lord, and Returning King.

The singular challenge is: “Believers in Jesus Christ should worship, live and love like believers.” no matter our circumstances. In fact, I believe the Scriptures admonish us that our alarms and our adversities are irrelevant to the heart determined to have a first-love faithfulness to Christ.

Consider this: the book of Hebrews was written to Christians who were beset by difficult circumstances and besieged by impending tribulation that loomed on the horizon. This letter was sent to encourage those tempted by their circumstances to give up their faith and abandon the distinctiveness of a Christian lifestyle. The central message of the letter is simple: “There is no one like Jesus... therefore hold fast to Him.”

He is God’s last word...
  He is the Heir of all things...
    He is the creator of the universe...
      He reflects God’s glory...
    He is the great High Priest...
   He is the supreme and final atonement for sin…
He is the great Pastor who understands us completely.

Therefore, live like followers of Jesus
and HOLD FAST TO HIM!

Or consider this… Thirty-five years after the Ascension, Jesus Himself inspired the apostle John to write a letter to Christians in Ephesus who were facing turbulent times due to their city's apostasy (Revelation 2). They strove to uphold God’s truth and righteousness amidst a culture that had lost its moral and theological compass. Nevertheless, their passion for Jesus was in jeopardy, and they were exhorted to return to their first love. Jesus wants our hearts and devotion. He is not glorified by cold, stoic, and passionless people who can merely “gut things out.”

There is one thing and one thing only that God is looking for— an abiding and lifelong passion for Jesus Christ.

In God’s eyes, there are no excuses.
War, persecution,
Prosperity, achievement,
Poverty, illness,
Family needs, marital strife,
Personal “woundedness,” loneliness,
Ministry and/or the distractions of leadership

are all inadequate reasons for allowing our hearts to wane in our affection for Jesus Christ. Let me say it again: THERE ARE NO EXCUSES FOR ALLOWING OUR ONE HOLY PASSION FOR GOD—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—TO DIMINISH. God is responsible for our salvation, and we are responsible for our passion, love, and affection for Jesus.

After fourteen years of suffering under the Romanian Communist regime, pastor Richard Wurmbrand wrote, “There exists only one method of resisting brain-washing, and that is heart-washing. If the love of Jesus cleanses the heart, if the heart loves Him, you can resist all tortures” or successes or distractions or temptations.

So, I return to the question that prompts this week’s devotional: would I be found faithful in Christ if I were alive during the perilous decades Albanian believers were forced to live through? My answer is, “I don’t know.” What I do know is “as now, so then.” As I devote my heart to Him now, I will be cultivating a faith that might stand then… If I live now with a casual, easily distracted, shallow, culturally coopted faith, there will be little chance that I will have any desire to hold fast then.

How might I keep my passion for Christ that He might be my “first love,” — preeminent in all things? I can do no worse than to follow the first pattern of the Ephesians (see Acts 19):

they came to the cross,
they were filled with the Holy Spirit,
they gave serious attention to God’s Word,
they got rid of anything that displeased Him,
and they took decisive steps to put Jesus first.

I do not think that God expects me to do anything less…

Albanian saints— you who have gone before me— thank you for convicting me afresh: there is nothing more important than the deliberate and passionate submission of

my affection,
my attention,
my ambition
my actions and
my associations
before the relentless love of my God.

as now, so then…