wan·na·be

I watch "Survivor" the CBS TV ‘reality’ show and this season features a true ‘wannabe!’ A 37 year old man who goes by the name of ‘Coach’ has told wild tales of his supposed exploits in the Amazon, claimed to have esoteric spiritual knowledge, and uses the moniker - "DragonSlayer." He’s a hoot, an obvious ‘wannabe.’ He desperately wants to be somebody, but he is ‘all hat and no cattle,’ as they say in Texas.

The dictionary says that a ‘wannabe’ is "a person who aspires to a role or position, who imitates the behavior, customs, or dress of an admired person or group." Sometimes they're funny, sometimes pathetic, and sometimes down- right annoying. Usually wannabe's, at first glance, are often indistinguishable from the authentic. The difference quickly becomes obvious when the wannabe has to actually produce like the real person. The wannabe, because he hasn't put in the time learning the skills, getting the education, and developing the art, is unable to come through in the crunch.

During teenage years being a wannabe is common! It is often the first step to becoming the
authentic article. One boy in the congregation I lead is a pastor wannabe. He carefully watches my mannerisms and even how I dress because I'm his model. (That is a sobering thought.) This lad may discover God’s calling to vocational ministry as he matures. If He has, then he will need to go to school, learn the necessary skills, become an intern - and eventually - he will no longer be a ‘wannabe!’ He will be a real servant of the Lord in the church. A pathetic sight is a middle aged guy who thinks that mimicking the mannerisms of some pastor, saying the same kind of phrases, in the same tone of voice, while wearing the same kind of clothing, really makes him a pastor. That is beyond sad!

Being a wannabe is essentially a fraudulent life. The lack of substance and/or accomplishment causes the pretender to live a lie, which erodes his integrity and steals his credibility. The wannabe knows another tragic result - he never finds out who he really is or what he is really capable of doing. Focused on trying to be somebody else, he misses the joy of being who God created him to be, joyfully filling the place in this world that God, through spiritual gifts, experiences, and opportunities, creates just for him.

Here's the direct question - are you a 'for real' Christian or a 'wannabe?'
Have you submitted your life to Christ in full surrender, allowing for a complete transformation of heart and mind OR are you just trying to imitate the lifestyle of a Believer you admire?

The Bible says - "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you." (Romans 12:2-3, NLT)

God loves YOU, friend. Yes, it is absolutely true. He won't love you more if you learn to imitate Mother Theresa or Billy Graham. Truth is, if you take that route, you will offend Him! He wants
you to be you, a unique person with unique preparations to fill a unique place in this world. Self-acceptance can be difficult. Looking in the mirror- physically and spiritually - reveals reality
which isn't always pretty. But, we are worthless to God and ourselves until we face the facts. We can take the imperfections and sins to God and He will transform us by giving us the Holy Spirit to work in us. God doesn't do 'make-overs.' He does transformations. That's right - you can be an authentic saint!

This transformational process is called sanctification. That just a big word for 'becoming like Christ' through the school of the Spirit! There will be blunders along the way, but - if we are committed to Him and to being authentic- we can be sure that His promise - "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV)- will be true!

Live authentically today!

Looking for the limits

Could I actually claim to love my wife if I were constantly looking for the limits of her patience? “What is the minimal amount I have to do to stay married? How many nights can I stay out with friends before she objects? How little can I spend on gifts for her? How much attention can I give to other women without getting her angry enough to leave me?” Unless you’re clueless about love, you see the folly in that kind of thinking. Love isn’t about minimums! And yet, that line of thinking is quite common among those who say that they love the Lord.

People ask me questions like:
“Pastor, can I go hang out with old friends in bars and be a Christian?”
“Do I tithe on my net income?”
“Can I watch movies full of profanity, violence, or sex and be a Christian?”
“How often do I have to go to church?” Such questions miss the point of loving Christ entirely! They reveal a misunderstanding of what it means to know the Lord. A person who is looking for the edge cannot seriously claim to be passionately in love with Christ any more than I could honestly claim to love Bev while spending day after day doing what I wanted to do and ignoring her. Questions about minimally acceptable holiness reflect a religious spirit, rather than a love relationship! When questioning Christian behavior, the ‘why’ is equally important to the ‘what’ and that cannot be answered apart from love which is always to be our core motive that shapes every decision!

The prophet Hosea was given a most difficult assignment by the Lord. His life was to be an object lesson of love as a verb, an action word! Take a look. "The first time God spoke to Hosea he said: “Find a whore and marry her. Make this whore the mother of your children. And here’s why: This whole country has become a whorehouse, unfaithful to me, God.” Hosea did it. He picked Gomer daughter of Diblaim. She got pregnant and gave him a son." (Hosea 1:2-3, The Message) Even after he loved her, Gomer ran off from Hosea to seek other lovers! The prophet, however, did not turn against her. Instead, he went and found her and brought her home again.

Later in his prophecy, Hosea records God’s word about His people who look for the limits, who love other gods. God’s anger, like that of any husband, is real and deep over the unfaithfulness of those who wandered from Him. But, He was also incredibly loving! "I will punish (Israel) for all those times when she burned incense to her images of Baal, when she put on her earrings and jewels and went out to look for her lovers but forgot all about me,” says the Lord.
“But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt. When that day comes,” says the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’ instead of ‘my master.’" (Hosea 2:13-16, NLT)

Disciple, Jesus spent very little time defining the edges of acceptable behavior for those who follow Him. Instead He called us to something better. " ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40, NLT) To understand this as a permissive love is to misunderstand the basics of God and His nature. Loving Him and being loved by Him is an all encompassing love that draws us into a holy life, dedicated to Him.

What must never be forgotten is that love only flourishes when it is freely received and freely given! Any lesser motive quickly reduces love to a duty, turns the covenant into a contract. Hear the Savior’s words and let them guide you to greater intimacy with Him, starting today.
"I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place." (Revelation 2:2-5, NIV)
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Lord, the light of Your love is shining
In the midst of the darkness shining;
Jesus, Light of the World, shine upon us;
Set us free by the truth You now bring us.
Shine on me, shine on me.

Shine, Jesus, shine.
Fill this land
With the Father's glory;
Blaze, Spirit, blaze.
Set our hearts on fire.
Flow, river, flow.
Flood the nations
With grace and mercy;
Send forth Your Word,
Lord, and let there be light.

Lord, I come to Your awesome presence.
From the shadows into Your radiance;
By the blood I may enter Your brightness,
Search me, try me, consume all my darkness.
Shine on me, shine on me.

As we gaze on Your kingly brightness,
So our faces display Your likeness;
Ever changing from glory to glory,
Mirror'd here, may our lives tell Your story.
Shine on me, shine on me.

Lord The Light Of Your Love

Kendrick, Graham© 1987 Make Way Music (Admin. by Music Services)CCLI License No. 810055

The hard edge of God’s Discipline

When God says, "No!" and crosses our desire, it is not pleasant. In fact, the deeper the issue, the more it hurts. What am I talking about? Take this example. A young woman who is a Believer allows herself to become attached to a guy who is not a follower of Jesus. Then, there is that moment when her conscience is stirred by the Spirit who says, "No." The truth of the Scripture that forbids the intermarriage of Christian and non-believer confronts her. It’s a heart-breaking moment. The temptation is to choose what feels good and shrug off possible consequences.

Every Believer has these moments of decision in which they must decide if they trust God to lead them to the best life or if they will assume ‘lordship’ and do what they want to do. I can tell you from experience that sometimes doing His will feels like dying! We are wise children of the Father if we obey Him, but there will be tears when we meet the hard edge of God’s discipline.

The true test of a parent’s love is his willingness to endure the anger of his child when he tells the child he must do something he does not want to do. When I had teenagers I loved them so much. It was great to be able to give them the things they wanted, to share the happy moments of life with them. But there were darker moments, too! My love for them caused me to enforce curfew to keep them out of trouble, to tell them to get their priorities in order by getting their work done first before hanging out with friends. It wasn’t much fun for me to feel their displeasure and I knew it wasn’t much fun for them to have to obey! But my aim was not just to exercise my authority. I was trying to provide training and discipline to benefit them later in life.

The Scripture teaches us that our Heavenly Father also sometimes says, "No" to us for our own good, because He really loves us. "So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?
My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either. It’s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children.
Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them.
But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God." – (Hebrews 12:5-11, The Message)

Have you encountered the hard edge of God’s discipline, disciple?
Have you found yourself confronted with a clear choice - to do what you want or to submit to Him?
Don’t excuse, rationalize, or delay! Cry if you must, but pray for strength to die to Self and to make the choice for obedience. Though you may not see it then, the time will come when you will see that He always had your best in His heart, that He is a loving Father.
_____________________

Lord, my sole desire is to serve You,
To honor You in everything I do;
I surrender and lay down my life to You,
Holy Spirit, come now and break through.

Break through the chains in my life,
Tear down the strongholds and the walls;
Deliver me from all bondage and strife,
That I may hear when You call
And give You my all, O Lord, my all.
I give You my all, O Lord, my all,
I give You my all, O Lord, my all,
I give You my all.

Break Through The Chains
McDonald, Gary / Walker, Tommy
© 1995 Integrity's Hosanna! Music (c/o Integrity Music, Inc.) / Integrity's Praise! Music (c/o Integrity Music, Inc.) CCLI License No. 810055

GODISNOWHERE!

GODISNOWHERE!

The billboard caught my attention. "Wow," I thought in the first moment, "are atheists starting to advertise?" My brain decoded the letters as the phrase, "God is no where!" Then I saw the sponsor of the message was a church and my brain re-read, "God is now here!" The context changed the message. When I had the opportunity I googled the phrase and found a website urging followers of Christ to take up His call to "go and teach all nations, making disciples!"

So, where are you today? Are you thinking, "God is no where" because you’re discouraged by what you see happening in our world, or because you have been deceived by what you hear about the absence of Truth? Or are you thanking Him, letting your life make the statement, "God is now here!" as you commit yourself to living in the Spirit?

The world we live in is rapidly changing, values and ideas we hold true and foundational are being challenged. Religions other than Christianity are making their influence felt because the world is so much smaller than it was just a generation ago. Tolerance is in full bloom making it unpopular to hold to a claim of exclusive Truth in Christ.

But, He is here and He does not change! We must choose to "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere."
(Ephesians 6:10-18, NLT)

Disciple, I urge you to carefully choose your battles! I am distressed that the Church is too often drawn from her primary mission of proclaiming the Good News about Christ into lesser skirmishes. We cannot expect those who do not know Jesus, who are not alive in the Spirit, to think and act as children of God! To spend great amounts of energy fighting sins is a mistake, in my opinion. Christ’s Kingdom does not advance on words of condemnation. Our ministry is one of reconciliation! "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:18-19, NIV)

Our mission is to proclaim in both our words and our actions that "God is now here!" Let’s be so full of the Love of God that the rich abundance Jesus promised makes the Gospel the thing of beauty that it is. I do not want to known as the man who is against this or that, though I have strong and firm convictions. Much more I want to known as a man who belongs to Jesus, who is full of His grace and goodness, who loves God and others deeply. Don’t you?
____________

Click here to listen to a song of reconciliation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_4g8_e16dc

Who owns you?

"Nobody tells me what to do! I’m my own person." Independence and self-reliance are much admired by us, aren’t they? But we are not really as ‘free’ as we might imagine. In my life, there are various overlapping responsibilities to people, organizations, and principles. I belong to God. Bev, my wife, has a claim on my life that is exclusive. The church I pastor has a right to a big chunk of my life. The government takes a bite out of my income. The list continues.. but, you get the point. You know how these demands compete, even conflict, with each other. We need to make a living and our family needs us. Where’s the balance? It’s not always simple to discern the line between the demands of being a disciple of Christ and a citizen of some earthly realm!

In the sermon I preached yesterday, one point touched on the word, ‘consecration.’ Drawing on a lesson learned from a king of ancient Judah, I noted the most important decision facing us today: giving ourselves, without reservation, to the Lord Jesus Christ! Upon becoming king in Jerusalem at age 25, Hezekiah took note of that the once holy ground of the Temple was now a warehouse, full of junk! He brought the priests together and demanded: "Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the LORD, the God of your fathers. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary." Consecrate? Other translations say, "purify or sanctify."

Hezekiah’s reforms and call for renewed dedication was met by a huge house-cleaning effort. The Bible says that "they went in to purify the temple of the LORD, as the king had ordered, following the word of the LORD. The priests went into the sanctuary of the LORD to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the LORD's temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the LORD. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley."

This is an apt metaphor for us personally. God is no longer housed in temples of stone. He lives, by His Spirit, in us! 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, "Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?" The competing demands of life begin to find order when we make the priority choice to give ourselves first and entirely to God! All other claims - family, spouse, job, personal desire - fall secondary to His ownership. Order flows that the decision to consecrate ourselves to Him!

If you continue to read the story of Hezekiah’s re-dedication of the priests and the Temple, you will find that two things happened in Judah - the nation rejoiced and she recovered her identity. Consecration will bring joy, though at first, it may cause pain as the Spirit cleans out the sin that clutters the hallways of our hearts! Consecration will also restore our identity, allowing us to be the people of the Lord who live for the honor of His Name.

"Or don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NLT)
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Take time to be holy.
Speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always,
And feed on His Word.
Make friends with God's children;
Help those who are weak,
Forgetting in nothing
His blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy.
The world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret
With Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus,
Like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct
His likeness shall see.
　
Take Time To Be Holy
Longstaff, William D. / Stebbins, George C.
© Public Domain