Greatness Defined

At least once a year, I watch “Band of Brothers” created by HBO. The show follows a company of US soldiers during WWII through Europe. It reminds me of the sacrifices of men and women who were part of the greatest generation and makes me appreciate all that I have. But how does greatness get defined in the Kingdom of Jesus?

In Mark 9, the disciples are arguing over who is the greatest in Jesus’ kingdom. Jesus doesn’t discourage greatness but does redefine it for us saying, “The first will be last and the last will be first”. In Matthew 20, the disciples are again arguing over who’s the greatest among the disciples. Jesus says look, I have an upside down kingdom. If you want to be great, you’ll need to be the servant and slave of all.

In Luke 22 as Jesus celebrates Passover with the disciples one last time before he’s killed, he redefines the Passover meal into what Christians celebrate today as the Lord’s supper or Eucharist. After Jesus breaks bread with them and drinks the watered wine, the disciples begin to argue over who’s the greatest! But Jesus says, “I’ve told you I want you to experience the best life possible and the path to that greatness is not pushing people around but serving those you encounter.”

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the story of a land owner who went on a trip but before he left, he gave 5 bags of silver to one servant, 2 bags of silver to another servant and 1 bag to the last servant. Upon his return, the 5-bag servant had earned 5 more bags and the 2-bag servant earned 2 more. The master said well done! Let’s celebrate and I’ll give you more because of how you used the resources to gain more.

But the 1-bag servant was afraid of the master so he hid his silver and did nothing with it. Upon the master’s return, the master took away what the last servant had and gave it to the 5-bag servant. So, what’s the moral of the story and how does it relate to greatness in Jesus’ kingdom?

Well, we notice the 5-bag servant put his resources to work immediately…he didn’t wait. Some of us make plans to work in the kingdom but after our kids graduate and leave home or after I get my nest egg built up or when I get different working hours. But Jesus reminds us it’s a mindset. We all have been given “gifts”. Gifts could be time, talents or resources. The point is, whatever we have, if you follow Jesus, start today using that for kingdom.

We also have to realize that all the resources you have (time, talent, physical resources) are entrusted to us and don’t belong to us. Everything we have was given to us by Jesus and while we have it, it’s used for His glory and for his kingdom.

Too many of us have adopted the American mentality of entitlement and owning, using what we have been blessed with for our own purposes. If this is your spirit, your joy and peace will be wrapped up in the stock market and your bank account. But if you realize what you have is really not yours, your joy and peace will be wrapped up in Jesus.

Finally, if you follow Jesus, serve others as one who will give an account of your life one day. The Bible mentions that we are allotted 70 years on earth. The current US average for life is just under 79 years. In the moment, we think we have all the time in the world to live into the life we have but the truth is, it is a very small window to make a kingdom difference.

Jesus is coming back and when he does, he will not say good job my good and faithful social media influencer or good job my good and faithful public school teach. King Jesus will recognize me by the way I stepped into kingdom life and served those around me. I look forward to the day when my Savior looks at me and says, “Well done my good and faithful SERVANT.”

As we live into the greatness of the kingdom of Jesus, we want to be like him which means we serve those around us and recognize, others are more important than we are. Blessings on the journey.

How to Share your Faith.

When it comes to sharing your faith, most of us hesitate. It is not because we don’t love our life or being a disciple of Jesus. Usually, it falls into one of three categories.

We just get busy. I mean, life happens. Most of us have no margin in our day to consider how we could share our faith. We hit the ground running in the morning getting kids ready for school with breakfast and sack lunches. After we drop them at school, we go to work and put in a full 8-hour day. Most of the time we don’t finish our work so we take it home with us. Once the kids get home, there’s homework, dinner, soccer practice. By the end of the day, we collapse into bed only to do it all again the next day.

Another is, we don’t want to be known as the weird Jesus-freak. I call them megaphone man. You see them on street corners with a megaphone calling down hate and judgment on people who don’t look like them. We just don’t want to be viewed as weird. I get that.

Finally, we don’t think we know enough about our faith. We think, “If I knew more about Jesus and my faith, I’d share more with the folks I interact with everyday.” But Paul’s prayer in Philemon 1:4-6 would indicate the opposite is true. He says that we share our faith in order to have a deeper understanding of who Jesus is to us.

With that in mind, I want to give you four ways to share your faith that you can do easily…yes, you! All of these ideas are loosely based on biblical stories from our New Testament.

You can be loving but direct. Peter used this approach in Acts 2 when we preached his sermon on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. He told the crowd the good news about Jesus and that they, the Jews, had killed the Messiah. He invited them into a relationship with Jesus. All they needed to do was change and allow Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. Now, you can’t have this voice all the time because then you simply turn into megaphone man and you’ll loose your voice.

A second way to share your faith is just to share YOUR story. How did you come Jesus? What did he do for you? You have stories of recovered health, broken addictions and healed relationships. You are a better spouse and parent because of Jesus. You have a more purposeful life because of the Risen Savior.

Third, you can invite people to church. Now, the church is more than just the four walls. There are lots of ways you can let people know about the family of believers you live life with and invite them to come and see how you do life together. Most churches have events like a trunk or treat or a Christmas event you can invite folks to. If you have an online presence on Sunday morning, invite them to check out the livestream before coming to an in-person service.

Finally, you can live a life others want. We all have chaos going on in our life. Whether it’s the loss of a family member, loss of job, dealing with cancer or the effects of COVID, the world is watching to see how Jesus-followers react. When you show joy and peace in your life no matter what is going on, the people around you notice. And they want what you have. It’s your opportunity to let them know, Jesus is the reason you have that joy, peace, and love in your life.

COVID has made it easy for us to sit back and blame the virus for not being active. But it is time we rekindle the fire and discover new ways to share our faith. You can do this with the power of the Holy Spirit living in you. Blessings on the journey.

Forgiveness unlocks the door.

You’ve had those moments. When you did something that really hurt someone you love. Maybe as a kid, you disappointed your parents by taking something that didn’t belong to you. Or maybe you said hurtful words to your parents. Or Maybe you betrayed a trust that a spouse had in you. There are so many different ways we need forgiveness in our life.

Wrong-doing or sin in the spiritual sense is when we miss the mark of how God has called us to live. It’s when we fall short to the expectations Jesus gives us to live a life as his disciple or follower. When we act out in ways that are un-godly or unlike Jesus, we call that sin. And relationally we know there are two realities we cannot deny.

Sin separates us from God so we need forgiveness. There are things we can do that we know we should not and there are things we know to do that we don’t. Either way, when we miss the mark of how God has called us to live, it’s sin. We need forgiveness for our mistakes from our Almighty God.

Forgive means to wipe the slate clean, to pardon and to cancel a debt. And Jesus offers to clean up our mess is we surrender to his Lordship and rule in our life. So when we say “yes” to following Jesus, we are saying “yes” to a repentant life and confess to God, and others, where we have gone wrong.

Now it’s easy to give a generic “I have messed up” but at the heart of forgiveness is acknowledging how it is you have sinned. So naming your sin out loud in your prayer life is so cleansing and a release. You will feel the burden lift from you as you talk to God about the type of person you want to be. We all need Jesus. No one is “good enough” to get to heaven on their own. So we need God’s forgiveness but there is also a second reality.

Sin separates us from others so we need to forgive them for how they have hurt us along the way. Forgiving someone is the act of setting someone free. We all want forgiveness for our poor choices but when it comes to others, we become very particular. We set qualifiers in place: “If they really repent…”, “If they ask me…”, “If enough time passes…", “If they make good on what they owe me…”. There are a number of ways we make excuses of why we can’t forgive someone

In the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, Jesus says something interesting. He says, “If you forgive others, God will forgive you. If you don’t forgive others, God will not forgive you.” To the extent you will forgive is the amount you’ll be forgiven. Wow! That is tough.

But forgiveness is a process. Some of you have endured very difficult moments where offering forgiveness is needed from the drunk driver who took away a loved one to slurs about your ethnicity to hurtful words spoken by your parents. Some things definitely take longer to work through than others. What I’m saying though, as a Kingdom person, would you be willing to begin the process? Who will you begin to free today? Who will you release?

The beautiful thing about forgiveness is when you free that someone who hurt you, you become free yourself in the process! You discover that the entire time you held the key to your own prison door.

But too many times, we think revenge instead of forgiveness. But the Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 12:17-21 that we leave the score-keeping to God. As followers of Jesus, we look at his example for us and mirror how he lived life. While Jesus hung on the cross, he asked God to forgive those who killed him. Kingdom people have a willingness to forgive.

So, may you find the courage to forgive. May you discover there’s a better way. May you unlock the door to your prison and run free. May the hurt that you’ve endured melt away in the shadow of the cross of Jesus. As Charles Spurgeon once said: “Go to Calvary to learn how you may be forgiven and then linger there to learn how to forgive others.” Blessings on your journey.

What Were You Thinking?

Here’s a proven way to build character: learn to control the direction of your thoughts Your thoughts, of course, are intensely powerful things. Your thoughts have the power to lift you up or drag you down; they have the power to energize you or deplete you, to inspire you to greater accomplishments or to make those accomplishments impossible.

How will you and your family members direct your thoughts today? Will you follow the instructions of Paul in Philippians 4:8 by dwelling on those things that are honorable, true, and worthy of praise? Or will you allow your thoughts to be hijacked by the negativity that seems to dominate our troubled world?

Are you fearful, angry bored, or worried? Are you so preoccupied with the concerns of this day that you fail to thank God for the promise of eternity? Are you confused, bitter, or pessimistic? If so, God wants to have a little talk with you.

Watch what you think. If your inner voice is, in reality, your inner critic, you need to tone down the criticism now. And while you’re at it, train yourself to begin thinking thoughts that are more rational, more accepting, and less judgmental.

It’s up to you and your loved ones to celebrate the life that God has given you by focusing your minds upon “whatever is commendable.” So form the habit of spending more time thinking about your blessings and less time fretting about your hardships. Then, take time to thank the Giver of Life for the gifts that are, in truth, far too numerous to count!

With less media intake and the help of the Holy Spirit, you can do this. Get into God’s Word. Talk to God through prayer everyday. Continue to focus on blessing and not cursing. Be the light. Blessings on your journey.

But I want that...

Did you ever want something so bad you could taste it? I remember as a young guy watching Magnum, P.I. He drove that Ferrari Deno. It was sweet. I even hung a poster of it above my bed when I was at Harding University. I always wanted one of those and it is on my bucket list to at least to “rent” and drive one day.

But there are moments when what we want gets in the way of our relationships with people and God and our health. Jesus warns us in Luke 12:13-21, “Beware. Watch out…” Our selfish desires can sneak up on us. With sexual sin, the Bible tells us to “run”. But greed and selfish desire sneaks up on us. There are some things we learn from the story Jesus tells in the text.

Greed can confuse your self-worth. We have to remember “things” do not define us. Jesus does! We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. Jesus is our King and brother. We are made in his image. Nothing on earth compares to that.

Greed can ruin your relationships. Some of my closest friends and even relatives have ended up focusing on money. Every time we were together, it was always about money. And if I didn’t give them money or what they wanted in the moment, I did not love them. At least, that’s what they told me. So, because of greed, I’ve lost many relationships and some have turned into very shallow interaction.

Greed can harden your heart as well. If you’ve seen The Return of the King in the Lord of Ring series, you saw what happened to Gollum. He was a Hobbit that started out fishing with a friend. Before the day was over, they had found the ring and Gollum’s friend was dead. He lost everything after that because he only cared about himself and the ring. If we aren’t careful and live life with open hands, we’ll end up with a closed heart.

But what if your identity was all about what and how you give in your life, not about what you keep? Jesus says at the end of Luke 12, “Your treasure is where your heart is.” I’m not always good at it but I gave my heart to Jesus a long time ago. He is my treasure. Won’t you make him yours? Learning to let go of stuff is a tough one but as followers of Jesus, we learn to let go in order to hang on to him. Blessings on your journey.

Oh the Single Life!

It’s been decades since I was a single man. I look around and cringe at the dating scene today in our culture. I feel like I would resign myself to be a bachelor. It seems a little scary.

I also know the church and our families don’t make if easy to be single. Most of our ministries in our churches focus on families or couples. We don’t plan well to include single members of Christ’s body. Even with our parents and grands, we get a lot of pressure to find Mr. or Mrs. Right and tie the knot. After all, the Bible is clear early on (Genesis 3) that the two will become one.

But, have we (the church) missed one of the gifts of the Spirit in singleness? When one reads Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 7:7, he reminds the reader he is single, not married. The very next sentence talks about the gifts of the Spirit and we should use them to God’s glory. So if being single is a gift, the church and our families should treat it like a gift. Here are a few ideas I take away from 1 Corinthians 7 as I read about following Jesus whether married or single.

Pursue Jesus. Whatever you do, however you’ve chosen life at this stage, pursue Jesus. Maybe you are married. Together, live for Jesus. Perhaps you find yourself in a single state right now. Maybe that singleness is because you’ve chosen that path; maybe you’re dating; maybe you’ve gone through a divorce; maybe you have lost your mate to death. Paul says, pursue Jesus the Christ with everything you have. Heart and soul, love Jesus.

Paul reminds those who are single to stay sexually pure. Strive to set the example in purity for those around you. Run from sexual temptation. The world is pushing you to experiment sexually outside the covenant of marriage. Paul reminds us to stay disciplined…keep your eyes on Jesus. Don’t conform to the world and it’s thinking but be transformed by a disciplined mind.

Finally, pray for patience. Pray that God will give you wisdom and discernment in your relationships to better know what His will is for you. Pray that you’ll patiently follow Jesus and live in such a way as to be a light on the hill for your friends, family, work place and neighborhood.

Paul says when you’re single, you can focus totally on Jesus and building up his kingdom here on earth. So, for those of us that are married, encourage those who are single. Ask them to lunch and dinner. Invite them into ministry with you. Challenge them to live for Jesus. Be a person they can depend on and look to for guidance and wisdom. Everyone is welcomed at God’s table. Let’s actively engage everyone in kingdom family work. Blessings on your journey.