Keep Plowing

Last week I had the privelige of being invited to speak at a spiritual retreat at a school for troubled teens in the Dominican Republic. There are about 40 high school students there who have been sent by their parents to go through a Bible based, boot camp type school to deal with a wide variety of issues. For a week, they suspended classes and I was the speaker every morning and evening.

Most of these students are very much hardened to the world and to the Lord. It was a challenge to say the least. I was astonished when the two oldest boys, who had been in the program for years and were the leading “atheists” on campus each went to counselors after the service the first night and said, “I am tired of fighting God. It is too hard to not believe.” The next night one of them got up and read an essay he had written about stepping out to trust God. It sent shock waves through the students. By the end of the week, a third to half of the students had given their lives to the Lord. I ended up spending four days doing back to back counseling with students. There was no hype, it was just an awesome, spontaneous move of God!

One day I got to speak to just the staff. I stressed to them that, by no means was I under the illusion that what was going on had anything to do with me. I was just some guy passing through and getting to do some harvesting. None of it would have been possible if they had not been there day after day, month after month, year after year planting and watering the seeds of God’s word and love. Some of these people had gone round and round with these young men for up to four years, then suddenly, everything broke loose. I would describe myself as a migrant farm working coming through for the harvest season. The teachers, counselors, and house parents are the farmers. They have loved, prayed, and shed tears over the students. They have sacrificed by living in the Dominican Republic (a beautiful place but without the comforts of home like reliable electricity and water). They are the true heroes!

The problem is that there aren’t too many of us who want to be the planter or the waterers. It is great fun to be the harvester. It was an incredible experience. But it isn’t always so much fun being the one to love on kids who reject you and your Lord. I run a youth center and after school program that doesn’t always seem to be bearing fruit. But I am called to plow up the ground. I may never be the harvester in these kids’ lives. I may never even get to see the harvest. Am I still willing to plow and plant and water? Many times I get frustrated and want to quit. But there is no harvest without the guys doing the dirty work all year long. So keep plowing and thank God for the times you get to swoop in and harvest where someone else has been faithful to prepare the ground for you!

DO Good

How have we come to the point where the world identifies Christians by what they are against? The number one thing non-church goers think of when they think of us is that we are anti-gay. As I read 3 John I was once again reminded that YOU called us to be FOR something, not against stuff.

Verse 11 says “…do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God…” YOU didn’t tell us to protest, picket, scream at, judge, or kill evil. YOU just said, don’t imitate it. Our job is simply to imitate good: to do good. YOU taught us to DO to others would we would have them do to us (Mt. 7:12). We are supposed to be proactive in living and doing good.

The evil in this world will not change because we attack it and complain about it. If we would just go out and live YOUR love, then the world will change. Evil will not be defeated by being attacked. It will be defeated because the virtue of good will outshine it. You can’t change darkness by attacking it, you just turn on the light and it goes away. LORD, help me to live FOR YOU not against everything else!

My Brother’s Slave

I am amazed at the way James, the brother of Jesus opens his letter. If I was writing to a bunch of people and I wanted them to listen to what I had to say, I would open with something like, “James the brother of God, the one who knows Him better than anyone, acknowledged leader of the church in Jerusalem…” Instead, James simply says, “James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The only title he claims is servant. Actually, he calls himself a slave. There was no such thing as a hired servant in those days, you bought your “servants” at the slave market. So James is calling himself his brother’s slave. Talk about humility!

This attitude seems to differ with much of the teaching I hear these days. We are always trying to talk about who we are in Christ. It doesn’t matter who I am in Christ. What matters is who Christ is in me! I am a slave, He is everything. I don’t need to pump myself up with pop-psychology, self esteem building words. I choose the words of James, I am a slave. This doesn’t mean I walk around with a woe is me attitude. It is better to be slave to the king than to be owner of nothing. He is the best master in the universe. He cares for His slaves!

Lord, help me find myself in You. Help me humble myself and trust You. Simply being Your slave is better than anything this world has to offer.

Rights or Freedom?

The other day I read a really weird story in the Bible.I know, I know, I will need to be more specific than that: There are a lot of strange stories in the Bible. But this one is not actually spelled out in the Bible. It is the back story behind a letter. It takes place while Paul is in prison. He meets a man in this prison and leads him to the Lord. Then he finds out that the man was a runaway slave. Coincidentally, the slave, Onesimus, belonged to another man, Philemon, that Paul had led to the Lord. So Paul insists that the slave go back to his master. He writes a nice letter using guilt better than just about anyone to make sure the master takes the slave back without hurting him. Paul even offers to pay anything the slave may owe the master or that he may have stolen. Very nice of him, don’t you think? But I still have a hard time with the fact that Paul sent the runaway slave back to his SLAVERY. What is up with that?

I believe Paul is more concerned for the slave’s spiritual freedom than his physical freedom. Onesimus would be free spiritually if he submitted and did the right thing even when it was incredibly hard. Paul chose not to make a political statement by resisting slavery at that moment. He knew that when an individual fights for his/her rights they usually becomes so independent that they tell God what to do. Whenever we defend our own rights, it creates bitterness in our hearts. Bitterness is more dangerous than outward injustice. Bitterness can kill us inside where it matters, injustice can’t. Whenever I start thinking in terms of what I deserve, I become hard and dry in my spirit. Maybe I am struggling for the wrong kind of freedom. Maybe I need to fight for  spiritual freedom and let God deal with the injustice that has been done to me.

I know there is a time to stand up against the system. I know there is a time for political statement. Without the Word of God, slavery would still be widespread in the world. We all need to stand up together against injustice. But maybe it is not for ME to defend MY rights.  I need to stand up for YOUR rights but demanding my own makes me self-centered and angry.

Whatever the implications of this little letter in the back of our Bible, it does show that spiritual freedom is more important than physical freedom. My flesh does not like that. But maybe that is why my flesh needs to be crucified daily. Lord, help me understand that the softness of my heart is more important than being right and more important than making sure everyone else treats me right.

I Gotta Know Who I Am

This is the last in the series of posts about how Jesus connected to world by humbling Himself, making Himself a slave, and serving the world. If this is how Jesus lived, shouldn’t His followers follow?

In John 13 we see a very interesting story. We all know the story. It is the one where Jesus washes His disciple’s feet. Read it one more time, “3 Jesus knew that the Father had given Him authority over everything and that He had come from God and would return to God. 4 So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him.” Usually, we are so grossed out by the foot washing thing that we miss verse 3. Before Jesus started wash camel poo out from between grown men’s toes, John tells us HE knew who HE was, where He came from, and where He was going. We cannot serve without understanding these things.

Jesus knew the Father had given HIM authority. Do we know that? I am not talking about authority to boss people around or to command the seas to be still. The authority here is the authority to serve. It is the authority of being a son. Jesus knew He was the Father’s son. HE had nothing to prove to anybody. The reason I can’t serve is that I am afraid someone will treat me like a servant. I am always concerned about my position. Jesus didn’t worry about HIS position so HE could freely serve. If I really understand that I am the son of the Father and HE loves me no matter what, I can humble myself. You can treat me how you want to, it won’t change who I am.

Jesus also knew where HE came from and where HE was going. Many times, I don’t know where I am going but I do know WHO I am trying to follow. I know I am going to be with HIM. I can lay down my life and stop demanding my rights and respect because I am am following the ONE WHO showed me how. There is freedom there. There is life there.

My life will be much fuller when I stop trying to impress people. I will be free when I stop trying to fight for my position in the hierarchy. I will be truly and fully alive when I realize my worth comes from being a son of the Living God and not from how you treat me or judge me. After all, the true test of a servant is how we act when we are treated like a servant. Jesus filled the role; Will I?

Serving is the Point

A couple weeks ago I did a talk on how Jesus connected to the world. I believe the Lord would have all HIS followers follow him in connecting to the world the same way HE did. So how did HE do it? He connected by serving the world and according to Paul, we all need an attitude adjustment to learn to serve the way Jesus did.

Another reason we have a hard time following Jesus as He made HIMself a slave to others is that we think service is just a minor point. There is only one (BIG) problem; when we read Jesus’ words, we find that service is THE point. The goal is to become a slave to others. We read in Matthew 20:25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave– 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” James & John’s mother had just asked Jesus if they could be 2nd & 3rd in command. They wanted to most important positions in the kingdom that were left since “God” was already taken. Jesus explains that the point is to become a servant/ slave, not to work your way into being the boss. This is not minor, it is important.

We sometimes think that serving is just something we did early on in our walk with Jesus but now we have “paid our dues.” We would not say it but we think we are too important to serve others any more. I once served as the “Minister of Helps” in a church. That meant I painted the ten rental houses the church owned. Then I became the Youth Pastor of the same church. They paid me $100/month and I paid them $350/ month to live in one of the rental houses that they owned free and clear. That pastor believed that everyone should pay their dues in ministry. But that was just something you did until you got important enough to be served by some other kids paying his dues. The danger in this thinking is not about paying a pastor, it is the thought that there comes a time when you stop being a servant. When did Jesus stop being a servant? If HE didn’t stop until HE went back to heaven, should I stop before I go to heaven? When I think I am too important to do a certain job, I am missing the mark of the high calling of God for my life! When I do just enough to get by in any area of my life, I am falling short of HIS abundant life for me. Servanthood is the high calling; it is abundant life; it is the point.

Serving Is Spiritual

A couple weeks ago I did a talk on how Jesus connected to the world. I believe the Lord would have all HIS followers follow him in connecting to the world the same way HE did. So how did HE do it? He connected by serving the world and according to Paul, we all need an attitude adjustment to learn to serve the way Jesus did.

One reason it is so hard to follow Jesus as HE took on the form of a slave and served others is that we don’t really think serving is very spiritual. I have always been a part of a Pentecostal tradition where we ridicule workers. For many years I have heard the story of Mary & Martha (Luke 10:38-41). Preachers always seem to beat poor Martha up for working so hard. Mary is made out to be the good one because she sat at Jesus’ feet. Then one day I read a book by Tommy Tenney titled Chasing God and Serving Man. Tenney points out that although Jesus said Mary had chosen the “better part,” HE still ate the dinner Martha made. HE did not tell Martha to stop working. HE told her to stop whining about Mary. Then HE probably asked her to add some more salt. In other words, serving is spiritual too.

Then there is John 11:5 where the Bible says that Jesus loved Lazerus and Martha and her sister… Don’t tell me that the person who sits at Jesus’ feet is more spiritual and more loved than the one who serves. Jesus came to this world to show us how to live abundantly full lives. HE modeled it for us. It consisted of times of prayer AND times of serving people. No wonder our lives are empty and meaningless when all we think HE has called us to is a life where we do our thing all week and then go to “worship” for a couple hours (remember, I am Pentecostal. I have never been in a one hour service in my life) on Sunday. We think we have really grown spiritually if we have quiet time every day before we do our own thing and focus on our needs. The truth is we need to be in HIS presence to get the strength to live as voluntary slaves to others. Only there is abundant life to be found.

How Jesus Connected to HIS World

Last Sunday I did a talk on how Jesus connected to the world. I believe the Lord would have all HIS followers follow him in connecting to the world the same way HE did. So how did HE do it? He connected by serving the world and according to Paul, we all need an attitude adjustment to learn to serve the way Jesus did.

I get all of this from Phillipians 2:5-8 where Paul says, your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though HE was God, HE did not demand and cling to HIS rights as God. HE made HIMSELF nothing, HE took on the humble position of a slave (NLT)… I know that we are used to that passage being translated as HE took on the nature of a servant… This is one of those places where the translators are trying to make something sound better to our modern ears but in doing so, they lose the power of the passage. The only real translation of the original word here is slave. In Bible days there was no servant like there is today. Today the word servant evokes pictures of housekeepers, nannies, gardeners… People we pay to do things we don’t want to do. That is humble enough but in Bible days there was no such thing. When you wanted a “servant” to clean your house, you went to the slave market to buy a “servant.” In todays language, we would call that a slave. There were two kinds of slaves in ancient times, house slaves and field slaves but there were no servants in the modern sense. So Jesus became a slave in order to connect to the world around HIM.

As if being a slave was not enough to turn the modern American stomach, HE did not demand or cling to HIS rights as God… That is about as un-American as you can get! How can we possibly give up our rights??? You might say, “no one can take my God given rights from me.” That is true. No one took Jesus’ rights away from HIM either; HE laid them down freely by HIS own choice. “But I might become a doormat for someone.” Thank God Jesus became a doormat for me!

As I read this passage, I realize I need an attitude adjustment. My attitude is anything but that of someone who freely gives up his rights and chooses to become a slave. But if I call myself a follower of Jesus, I must follow HIM. That means that if HE gave up HIS rights and became a slave, I must follow. Only there is true life found. Not in using God as a cosmic slot machine to make me rich in return for my goodness.