Vision: A View from the Top

Yet surely My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? Zechariah 1:6

Do you know what my greatest fear is? It is that I would be successful at the wrong thing. That should be your greatest fear, too, because do you know what that would mean? It would mean succeeding and failing at the same time, to miss out on why God has you here because you weren’t listening to Him, you weren’t yielding your heart to Him, and that you weren’t in a place to really hear His voice or see the vision that He has for you, your marriage, and your future.

You see, it is possible for you to go through life serving God, but never following Him. On the other hand, it is impossible to follow God without serving Him.

People serve God without following Him all the time. They do the religious thing and check the box, saying, See? I served. I went to church. I taught in Sunday school. I passed the bags for the offering. I served!

You can do these things, and that’s great, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re following Jesus. Following Jesus means that you need to hear His word and respond, and you can’t do that without picking up your cross and taking that up in your service to Him.

For example, I have three kids. Imagine that they are the best kids they could possibly be. They get perfect grades, always choose good friends, make wise decisions, work hard, and are responsible with everything they do. Yes, they do all these things, but what if they don’t listen when I speak to them? What if my words mean nothing to them?

What if they did all those things I mentioned, but then they decide to buy into some Zen religious thing, and nothing I say to them makes them turn back to God? Do you think I would be pleased with them as my children?

The answer is no. A perfect child who ignores their parents’ voices will break their parents’ hearts. That’s what God is saying to us here.

Listen, you and I will not live long, but God’s words last forever. Let’s pay attention.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You for speaking to me! Please teach my heart to listen carefully to You and help me to understand Your words and everything You say. I do not want to just serve You. I want to follow You!

Amen

Sign Language

Here am I and the children whom the LORD has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion. Isaiah 8:18

Everyone hates to lose an argument. Once you’ve taken a stand on an issue, it’s very embarrassing when you can’t defend it against opposition and they get the better of you.

So for those of us who feel this way about defending our faith in Jesus, our verse today is good news. We have an argument that no one can beat-a transformed life. No one can argue with that!

When God does a miraculous work in your life, setting you free and leading you down the right path through life, rarely are words needed. The people around you will notice the difference, they will see your confidence and peace that fly above the circumstances around you, and they will want in on what you have.

But maybe you’re reading this today, saying, Bob, you’re the sign and the wonder for people, not me. Well, my sign says that you’re the sign, because Ephesians 4 says that my job is to equip the church to do the work of the ministry. It’s my job to equip, your job to minister. Only you can shine your light and share your story; I can’t do that for you.

If you’re nervous about being the sign, chances are pretty good it’s because of sin, so let me give you some more good news: Signs stands for Standing In Grace Neutralizes Sin. When you rest in the work of Jesus on the cross and live in the love He has for you, then it breaks the power of sin in your life and sets you free to become His sign to the world around you.

This requires you to be all in. A light doesn’t shine when it’s trying to hide, but only when the electric power of God flows through it and it stands out there with a constant desire to be a witness for Christ, a lighthouse that pierces the darkness and points people in the right way.

This can be your life today. Will you choose to be the sign and wonder that God created you to be?

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for showing me signs to keep me on Your path! Please help me to not see as the world sees and hear as the world hears. But instead help me to see, hear, hope, and believe in the sign of Your love-Immanuel, God with me, You with me right now, able to help me handle anything that comes my way.

Amen

Hijacking the American Dream

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 2 Peter 1:5-7

What’s the destination of your train? Oh, you didn’t know that you have a train? Well of course you do! We all have one-it’s called Life.

At the end of your life, when your train stops and you walk out the door, where will you find yourself?

You see, this is the most important question we can answer for ourselves. But unfortunately, many of us are more caught up in how nice our train is than in where our train is going. How soft is the bed? What’s the thread count in those sheets? Is the food in the dining car gourmet, or just café? And, for goodness sake, the coffee had better be from our favorite name brand chain.

Jesus told a parable in Luke 12 to show us just how foolish this way of thinking is. He told the story of a man who had a huge harvest-I mean bumper crops-and he didn’t have enough space in his barns to hold it all. So he built bigger, better barns and thought to himself, I’m set for life! Now I can take it easy for the rest of my days, eating and drinking to my heart’s delight.

God interrupts the man’s celebrations with a terrible message. Fool, this night your soul will be required of you. Then Jesus drops the punch line, So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.

In other words, even if your train is made of pure gold, it’s worthless if it drives you straight to Hell. You would be better off in a train made of trashcans that gets you to Heaven. So how do you make sure your train is heading to the right place? It all starts with faith in Jesus’ death on the cross for your sins, but in our verses for today, Peter tells us it should build from there.

Our faith is our ticket to board a Heaven-bound train, but what makes us rich towards God is building on our faith virtue, and on virtue knowledge, and the list goes on. If we will do these things then our faith will bear fruit, storing up riches where they will last forever-in Heaven.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You for making a way for me to arrive in Heaven! I need Your help to build my life right down here on earth. Please show me how to build on my faith so that it bears fruit that will last forever!

Amen

The Full Surrender

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

What directs your life? How do you make decisions from day to day?

A lot of people simply make their own plans and head out into life in whatever direction they wish to go. However, for the Christian, this is not an option.

The reason that we should not choose our own way is because God calls that going astray. And the truth is that He has plans for our lives that, if we will submit to Him, will be a million times better than anything we would have come up with on our own.

So how do we follow His plans for our lives? What source of direction do we have so that we can perceive our path? The best source we have is God’s Word.

His Word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. When we try to walk by any other plan then we are walking in darkness and it will lead us to stumble in life. Just like if you try to find your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night when you are out camping in the mountains where there is no light, if you do not bring your flashlight then you are going to stumble.

Here’s the problem-we want the five-year plan. We want the ten-year package. We want the blueprints of our life to float down from Heaven and land on the kitchen table. But God’s Word doesn’t promise that, and do you know why? Because if He gave us those things then we would check out.

We would stop seeking Him, looking to Him for direction, pursuing Him for His presence along our path. We would try to accomplish His plans on our own, and that would never work because His plans for our lives are such that He wants to be a part of them. In fact, they even are so amazing that they are things we could never accomplish on our own without Him.

Listen, if you’re not in God’s Word then you are thinking too highly of yourself. We cannot do life on our own-either stumbling in the dark without a light or trying to live by the light with more faith in ourselves than in God.

Let’s do life right-in the light of God’s Word with faith in the One who can bring us all the way home.

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You for being my light and my salvation! Thank You for Your Word that guides me on my path! Please help me to hear Your direction clearly and give me faith to walk with You all my life.

Amen

Home Safe

But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10

What is on your mind today? Is it sports, your job, issues in your family, or some other thing that consumes your earthly life?

My hope today is that your mind is set on Heaven, because what Paul tells us in these verses is that Heaven is so far beyond anything we have here that it’s not even worth comparing them. He is telling us that we need to get excited about what’s to come more than we are excited about what is down here.

Think of the most outrageous thing you have ever seen or heard. Paul says that Heaven is way beyond that. It’s better than the best Super Bowl halftime show, more impressive than the latest special effects masterpiece in digital 3-D, grander than fireworks on the Fourth of July. Even Mount Everest, the Great Barrier Reef, and the galaxies of space pale in contrast. Nothing you have seen, whether in creation or made by man can compare to Heaven.

You might think that such an incredible place would be hard to imagine, but wait-look at the rest of what Paul said. God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. Hallelujah! Do you realize what that means? God does not want this to be a mystery to you! He wants you to know what Heaven is like so that you will be excited about it! And not just excited, but out of your mind in anticipation of arriving to your heavenly home and hearing your Father say, Home safe! Well done, good and faithful servant.

We cannot comprehend Heaven on our own, but God reveals these things to us by the Holy Spirit. Do you want to learn what Heaven will be like? Then pray with me:

Prayer Holy Spirit,

Thank You for making Heaven such a wonderful place! Please reveal to me the mystery of Heaven, so that I will be captivated by it instead of by the things of this world.

Amen

All Aboard

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

What do you do on Mondays?

Church is done. Your religious duty of time with believers-half of whom you think are nuts-and of giving money into the offering are done. Now the rest of your week is before you. What do you do?

I know you know the right answer, but I’m interested in the true answer. Do you forget God during the week? Do you live a double-life? Can your family recognize God in your life when you aren’t dressed up for church?

You see, anyone can behave themselves for two hours on a Sunday. The real test comes when real life hits.

It is for this reason that Paul wrote our verses for today, inspired by the Holy Spirit who saw us and our struggles all the way back when He gave these words to Paul’s pen. And you know what, the faith and the love in our verses today are inseparably connected, and they need to be connected in our lives as well.

First, we need to stand fast in our faith. That means that our faith does not end when we drive out of the church parking lot. Our faith exists beyond Sunday morning into Monday morning when we go serve our employers at work and when we come home from a long Monday at work to our family who needs our attention, affection, and love. God stays present in our lives in all of these things.

Well, what about me? you say. Just wait, we’ll get to that.

We keep God present in our lives by living with love. Everything we do, we do it because of, and out of, and with, and through love. Our motivation is love. Our desire is love. And the biggest sign of this is that we do not live selfishly, but rather we live with others in mind first, seeking the benefit of others before insisting on our own desires.

It is this kind of love that requires faith-faith that someone else is going to take care of us when we make our life about loving others first. That is why we need to be strong and brave, because it can be scary living with others in mind first, trusting God to meet our needs, to be our provider.

Yet that is the life to which we are called. Will you choose to live that life today?

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for loving me! You are the perfect example of someone who loved others even when it cost You everything. Please help me to be strong and full of faith that You will take care of me as I choose to love the people around me!

Amen

Choose Your Glue

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew…But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Sprit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:7-8,10-11

What do you know about God?

Maybe you’ve gone to church your whole life. Maybe you’ve even taught Sunday school or gone to Bible college; maybe you have a degree in Theology-the study of God-and you know a lot about God.

Did you know that you can know all these things about God and still be in the dark on the things that matter?

Paul tells us that no one-let that sink in: No One-no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. What that means is that no amount of time spent in classrooms or church sanctuaries will reveal the heart of God. Only God’s Spirit can reveal those things to you.

This means that the only thing in me that glorifies God is Him in me. It’s His Spirit in me and nothing else that reveals what is worthwhile. Only His Spirit can show me what is worth living for, what is in His heart. And only His Spirit can show me my place within His body, who I am in Him and the service to which He has called me.

We can’t figure these things out on our own, and I learned this the hard way. I thought I had to go to Bible college, and then I thought I needed a master’s degree. When that wasn’t enough, I got a doctorate in ministry, and after all that-only after all that, after worshiping at the altar of education and paying all that tuition-only then did it dawn on me that Scripture says, Only the Spirit of God reveals the heart of God. No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Like never before, now I understand that life isn’t about me, because I can’t figure it all out anyway.

Do you understand that you need God’s Spirit? Let’s pray to Him together right now.

Prayer Holy Spirit,

Thank You for revealing the heart of God! I know now that all my pursuit of knowing You is useless unless You show Yourself to me. Please open my eyes, open my ears, and open my heart as You reveal Yourself to me and show me what is in Your heart!

Amen