"You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn't that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren't you living like people of the world? When one of you says, "I am a follower of Paul," and another says, "I follow Apollos," aren't you acting just like people of the world? After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul?...I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It's not important who does the planting, or who does the watering." (1 Cor. 3:3-7)
This verse really struck me today because as a younger Christian, I attended a locally famous church and I remember that some people who attended used to liken the pastor to Billy Graham and his gift for evangelism.
But as I've grown older in Christ and in wisdom, I realize that my Pastor that seemed so famous, pious and good is only a man. In reality, he's not really that famous, although he is, as far as I can discern, pious and good (for which I am glad).
But even when it comes down to someone like Billy Graham, a man I completely admire and respect, who is Billy? He is a man who is faithful to the call of Christ to water or plant the seed of faith in many worldwide. Yet, can even Billy Graham take credit for anything? As Paul says, "No, it was God who made it grow."
Being a former missionary, it is easy to compare accomplishments and to get into a numbers mindset. We are not rating even ourselves in the church based on Paul's metric in this verse, but instead we are trying to measure success using boardroom metrics for success. How big is our facility?, how many were "saved" this weekend?, How wide is our television net?
I am no longer a formal missionary -- I was called into business, and God has blessed my career. What this verse really speaks to me is that I really need to run my own personal race and follow my own calling. God has me in business for a purpose -- I really don't know all the ramifications of why He has placed me where I am, and it doesn't seem like I'm making a huge difference in His kingdom. However, I simply try to live and conduct myself in the Lord's ways as much as I can.
I'm not a gregarious Christian who is trying to convince everyone around me to join my church...however, I try my best to identify myself as a Christian and to lend Christian viewpoints to daily conversation. If I encounter moral challenges in my job, I try to example the Lord's ways and even attempt to convince those I report to as well as those I manage to make moral choices in our workplace decisions.
I know that I may never really truly convince someone I come across to make a choice for Christ. But, does the numbers of those who pray the sinners prayer define who I am? No -- nothing besides the truth that I am a new creation in Christ can define me from the day I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. Nothing and no one.
God places each man into a certain role in life -- and few of them, even those that seem so famous to a young Christian, truly are glamorous. The job of "watering can in the business world" is actually very mundane and hidden. But -- if I simply remain faithful to the job I've been given by the Lord, I know that I will be pleasing to Him.
Showing posts with label worth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worth. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Saturday, November 24, 2012
God is a Father; Satan is a kidnapper and abuser
"God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Gen 1: 27-28)
This morning I was thinking about the nature of how God interacts with us versus how Satan interacts with us. God created us and loves us as a parent does a child. He loves us deeply and has high hopes for us. He sets rules on our behavior because he has wisdom that we do not, and until we develop that kind of wisdom through experience, he gives us commandments to keep us safe and healthy (individually and as a society) (Ex 20). He encourages us ("You are fearfully and wonderfully made" Ps 139:14; "For I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope" Jer 29:11), and wants to see us succeed. He wants to have a relationship with us and sent his son to give us a path to forgiveness and salvation (John 3:16-17). Ultimately it leads to relationship and familial closeness.
Satan on the other hand comes to us in the guise of freedom and novelty masquerading as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14-15). He twists our thought processes to turn parental rules into seemingly binding regulations (Gen 3:1-5). For his own personal ambition and power mongering he seeks to lead souls outside of God's protection and to worship of himself (Rev 13). He encourages us to sin as he sinned in his own fall from grace (Ez 28:11-19), and he wants to turn us into ugly replicas of himself instead of the images of God that we are.
The contrast between God and Satan and their motivations have become clearer to me as I have kids of my own. It's a strange thing to move from being focused on your own life alone, to giving of yourself to your children and their needs because they are so hopeless when they are born. Children are a blank slate. They move instinctually, but they have no real awareness of who and what they are. They need to even discover their arms and legs and the motor skills to even roll over.
As a result, as they grow, parents strive to teach the child to understand their surroundings, giving them limited freedom and set rules commensurate with their ages to keep them safe. When they misbehave, we discipline them out of love, not out of hate because we know that they need to have a sense of right and wrong in order to be successful people.
I would contrast human parentage with kidnappers who abduct children. Most of these children are abused and them murdered. Others are used as slaves for personal gain or sold into prostitution. None of these kidnappers are committing their crime for the sake of the child. There is no sacrifice or love in their motivations. They are simply seeking their own gratification and power mongering attitude.
When I became a Christian and moved from the parentage of Satan to the parentage of God, I entered a household and became an adopted son (Romans 11:13-24). I went from being lost and striving toward nothingness and despair to having a structure and having a loving parent. I used to suffer bouts of deep loneliness and pits of emptiness in my soul, but since I received Christ and the Holy Spirit came to indwell within me, I have not had that feeling once. Someone has always been there with me.
I honestly shudder to think of where my life was headed and where I was going, but now I stand on firm ground and have a surety and confidence within me that I didn't have before.
I need to remember this lesson because my parents were definitely well meaning and well intended, but they were absentee parents. They were contented to ship me off to the television and have me play quietly in the corner while they weren't bothered. I needed God badly because I needed His Fatherhood in my life.
Now, as a parent of two children, they'll need me to be like God the Father and not follow the template of my own parents. Actually, I want them badly to have both - To know God first and foremost, but to also be directed to God by a loving parentage.
We often have preconceived notions about God based on our experiences with our own parents. I used to think of him as somewhat distant and very angry about sin. Sort of how I relate to my dad who ran our household more through intimidation than anything. Although I do still think that God becomes angry about sin, I now realize that there is a tremendous overwhelming love as a parent first and foremost. His anger is not at us, but at the sin itself. His love for us drives Him to coax us out of a meaningless and deadly lifestyle into adoption into His family.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming for me even when I was in the depth of my despair. You heard my soul calling out for meaning and desiring something more from life, and You came to show me Your love and healed my soul. I pray for Your help in being a father and a husband, that I may take Your ways and live them out daily in my interactions with my family. In Jesus' name, AMEN.
This morning I was thinking about the nature of how God interacts with us versus how Satan interacts with us. God created us and loves us as a parent does a child. He loves us deeply and has high hopes for us. He sets rules on our behavior because he has wisdom that we do not, and until we develop that kind of wisdom through experience, he gives us commandments to keep us safe and healthy (individually and as a society) (Ex 20). He encourages us ("You are fearfully and wonderfully made" Ps 139:14; "For I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope" Jer 29:11), and wants to see us succeed. He wants to have a relationship with us and sent his son to give us a path to forgiveness and salvation (John 3:16-17). Ultimately it leads to relationship and familial closeness.
Satan on the other hand comes to us in the guise of freedom and novelty masquerading as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14-15). He twists our thought processes to turn parental rules into seemingly binding regulations (Gen 3:1-5). For his own personal ambition and power mongering he seeks to lead souls outside of God's protection and to worship of himself (Rev 13). He encourages us to sin as he sinned in his own fall from grace (Ez 28:11-19), and he wants to turn us into ugly replicas of himself instead of the images of God that we are.
The contrast between God and Satan and their motivations have become clearer to me as I have kids of my own. It's a strange thing to move from being focused on your own life alone, to giving of yourself to your children and their needs because they are so hopeless when they are born. Children are a blank slate. They move instinctually, but they have no real awareness of who and what they are. They need to even discover their arms and legs and the motor skills to even roll over.
As a result, as they grow, parents strive to teach the child to understand their surroundings, giving them limited freedom and set rules commensurate with their ages to keep them safe. When they misbehave, we discipline them out of love, not out of hate because we know that they need to have a sense of right and wrong in order to be successful people.
I would contrast human parentage with kidnappers who abduct children. Most of these children are abused and them murdered. Others are used as slaves for personal gain or sold into prostitution. None of these kidnappers are committing their crime for the sake of the child. There is no sacrifice or love in their motivations. They are simply seeking their own gratification and power mongering attitude.
When I became a Christian and moved from the parentage of Satan to the parentage of God, I entered a household and became an adopted son (Romans 11:13-24). I went from being lost and striving toward nothingness and despair to having a structure and having a loving parent. I used to suffer bouts of deep loneliness and pits of emptiness in my soul, but since I received Christ and the Holy Spirit came to indwell within me, I have not had that feeling once. Someone has always been there with me.
I honestly shudder to think of where my life was headed and where I was going, but now I stand on firm ground and have a surety and confidence within me that I didn't have before.
I need to remember this lesson because my parents were definitely well meaning and well intended, but they were absentee parents. They were contented to ship me off to the television and have me play quietly in the corner while they weren't bothered. I needed God badly because I needed His Fatherhood in my life.
Now, as a parent of two children, they'll need me to be like God the Father and not follow the template of my own parents. Actually, I want them badly to have both - To know God first and foremost, but to also be directed to God by a loving parentage.
We often have preconceived notions about God based on our experiences with our own parents. I used to think of him as somewhat distant and very angry about sin. Sort of how I relate to my dad who ran our household more through intimidation than anything. Although I do still think that God becomes angry about sin, I now realize that there is a tremendous overwhelming love as a parent first and foremost. His anger is not at us, but at the sin itself. His love for us drives Him to coax us out of a meaningless and deadly lifestyle into adoption into His family.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming for me even when I was in the depth of my despair. You heard my soul calling out for meaning and desiring something more from life, and You came to show me Your love and healed my soul. I pray for Your help in being a father and a husband, that I may take Your ways and live them out daily in my interactions with my family. In Jesus' name, AMEN.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Be Content In Marriage And Money
4Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. 5Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU," 6so that we confidently say,
"THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID.
WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?"
(Hebrews 13:4-6)
As I read this passage, I noticed that the Lord is asking us to live with a sense of gratefulness and appreciation for what we have. Along with that spirit of thankfulness, we need to also practice delayed gratification as well.
We live in a fast food, instant gratification world. It is such a luxury that we can jump into our cars and purchase anything under the sun whenever we like with only a piece of plastic instead of carrying around cash. If we want to be entertained, our movies are fed straight to our big screen TVs over high definition (or our everywhere internet connected smartphones). It's an awesome thing - luxuries no one could have even imagined just 20-30 years ago.
As great as these things are, that attitude of instant gratification cannot carry into our married life or our finances. Perhaps more than anywhere else in our lives, God needs to reign in us when it comes to those two things.
I am so glad for my wife. We are such different people and that can lead to great complementary aids, or great disagreements. But through everything, she is a loving support for me through tough times. Marriage has also been the toughest test for me in my entire life. The concept of "two becoming one" seems romantic when you're single, but when actually doing the process in real life, it can also be like surgery. For others, there might also be times when it can seem mundane because you see a person everyday. Either way, staying the course in marriage isn't necessarily easy.
It can seem attractive to bail out and to find someone new in order to rekindle excitement or somehow feel validated or "manly". But, we are called to be pure and loyal in our marriages. It is a sanctioned contract under and before God, where we swear to live our whole lives serving our spouses.
The reward for us is the supernatural miracle of two persons truly functioning as one unit. Each supporting the other in different ways and creating a solid foundation and shelter from which to raise the next generation for Christ. There is deep joy in being able to share one's life with another and to lean on them in times of need. We were made to live in marriage (other than those who are called to be single to serve God fully), and when we are able to live out the journey of life through the journey of marriage, we are fulfilled to the depths of our souls.
Money on the other hand is a trap for us. Money's threat is to replace our sense of security in the Lord with the security of a full bank account. In addition, it feeds our greed to obtain and collect things - focusing on material acquisition rather than the fruits of the Spirit.
Making purchases feels empowering. We are drawn to possession and it makes us feel validated. We judge a person's social status and rank by the type of things they have, where they live, the car they drive, and the clothes they wear. God doesn't judge on any of those things. Not a single one.
It is not wrong to be rich. God desires for us to be successful. But, we cannot worship things and compromise ourselves in order to obtain things. We cannot compromise our faith, or our relationship and assignment from the Lord in order to drive a nice car or live in a nice house. Instead, we know that it is God that is our ultimate provider - not our bank accounts. We need to worship the giver and not the gifts.
Be content with what you have, says the Lord. God knows our characters and when we give our lives over to Him, we are submitting to His provision and His timing. He knows us better than ourselves and knows whether we have the characters to live with more or less. Since money is not a factor in God's success, the level of money in our lives has nothing to do with whether or not God believes in us or loves us. He simply has called us to live with a certain amount of funds.
The world is littered with lives that have been destroyed by the love of money. Relationships, one of the greatest treasures that we can have, are severed by jealousy, envy or greed all rooted in the love of money. While it is necessary to live and function, it is meaningless to God's Kingdom.
Lord Jesus, thank You for reminding me about the power and gift of a pure marriage, and warning me about the dangers of the love of money. One is possibly the greatest treasure during our lives here on Earth, and the other is completely worthless in the whole scheme of things. Thank You for being the provider for our family, helping and encouraging us to grow little by little. At the same time, please protect our marriage and help us to grow more and more into the one unit that lives for You alone. In Jesus' name, AMEN.
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