Principles of Calling.

Most of us feel called to a certain career or work. We can feel called to date and then marry a certain person. We can also feel called to a specific philanthropic work. While there is no doubt each of us have specific areas where we are talented and perform well, God has called us to some things even higher.

You see, you have been called to salvation in Christ Jesus. God ultimately wants every single person to be in a relationship with him. Just read John 3:16-17 to discover that. Through Jesus, God’s son, there was a bridge built so that God and we could have a relationship.

You have also been called to sanctification. That’s a second semester word that simply means “set apart” or “holy unto God”. Paul tells us in Romans 12 that we, as followers of Jesus, are not be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our mind. In other words, we have been set apart to live differently than the world around us. Our lifestyle is called to be holy…to look more like Jesus every day.

And you have been called to serve. As we imitate Jesus, we realize whether it was his Father or the people he interacted with daily, Jesus served. Paul says in Colossians 3:17, “Whatever you do, do it for Jesus…” And we don’t have to have it all together to do this. God actually calls those who are imperfect and untrained (see 1 Corinthians 1:26). God doesn’t call the prepared, he prepares the called.

However, when you answer God’s call for you life, know there will be a cost. When you say “yes” to Jesus, there is a price to pay. Many of you have discovered this. You are the only Christian in your work place. As you try to live for Jesus, you get criticized and experience isolation. As you represent Jesus in the PTA or the neighborhood watch group, you get called crazy for wanting to look like Jesus.

I have also noticed in my own life, God will often use your deepest pain for your greatest calling. I’ve realized that over the last 10 years. I have some personal pain in my life and I have found God wants to publicly use that to point other’s to him.

But even so, I realize that your calling will sustain you. It carries you forward in your story and the story of God. Look at Paul. He endured so much for Jesus’ cause. How did he stay passionate and moving forward? It was not because he was competent but because he was called. In Philippians 4, Paul says “He presses on for the heavenly prize…” And we should as well. Our goal is to lift the Name of Jesus and move forward knowing we will get to live with our Creator forever.

So don’t let the world talk you out of your calling. Don’t let them hinder your giftedness. God offers you salvation. He calls you to a transformed life. He wants you to serve this world through His story. Blessings on your journey.

Is God Calling You?

You may have said before that you feel called to do something. Maybe called to play football or be a professional gamer. Maybe called to marry this particular person. Maybe called to be a missionary in Africa. But Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4:1, that we are called to live a holy life. A life that is set apart for God. We are called to look different than the world around us.

See, calling is about who you are before what you do. Paul also reminds us in 2 Timothy 1, that we are called to live a set apart life. We’ve been called by God, infused by Jesus, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to accomplish that kind of living. And it’s not a future event. That calling is for us to live that out now. Calling is about your faithfulness to Jesus today.

And Paul reminds us of how inclusive your calling can be. He says in Colossians 3, “Whatever you do or say, do it in the Name of the Lord”. So anything you actually do in life, you are called to live into that in set apart and holy ways. So I am called to be a preacher, dad, and a husband but called to do that in holy, Godly ways. I can be a dad and husband but if I don’t live those out in holy ways, I’m not living into my calling.

No matter what you are doing, know the size of your assignment never determines the significance of your impact. Everything you do, do it for God. That is your calling. Live a life worthy of your calling. We are called to look like Jesus so live that idea out in every way, every day. Blessings on the journey.

You are a Masterpiece.

Culture has a way of creating a dividing line. You are either “put together” or “thrown together”. In the 80s, I felt like I was put together. I had a mullet, parachute pants, and a gold earring in my left ear. Oh…I was happening! Culture tells us that if we look right, if we make the right money, if we live in the right part of town, then we are beautiful. But God has something to say about that idea.

In Psalm 139:13-16, God says we are unique. Indeed, we have been created from the inside out, not the opposite. God has known us since we were created in mother’s womb and we are created in His image. You are special in God’s eyes. He created you. You are beautifully and wonderfully made.

Jesus battled leaders during his ministry who were so caught up in outward appearances. Jesus sets them straight in Matthew 23:25-28. He says those who are over-interested in the outward appearance are like tombs. They may have flowers on the outside but inside, you are full of dead people’s bones.

So many of us deal with the negative words people place on us everyday. We’ve been called a terrible mom or an inattentive dad. We’ve been classified as a poor coworker and a leader who doesn’t know how. We’ve been told we are a selfish friend or that we are not talented.

But know this, you are created in the image of God. No words or plastic surgery can change that. Your worth doesn’t come from a bank account or how many people praise you. Your value is that God has called you His child.

No matter what the world says, nothing can ever change who you are in Christ Jesus. He loves you and has so much in store for you. Jesus came to give us life and life to the full. Embrace that truth today. Lean in to the love God has for you. Blessings on your journey.

Graduation is a Milestone.

Right between high school proms and summer break, there is an important rite of passage for our community’s young adults to mark their transition into adulthood. High School graduation is often one of the most exciting times in a twelfth grader’s life. Not everyone fits the mold, though, of when life moves on. 

Some high school students graduate early, turning 18 as a junior as they’re anxious to move on it life. Others need another summer’s coursework to complete all the requirements to graduate. Truly, each child’s transition into adulthood is as unique as their own fingerprints. We all must find our way and path to get on with life.

I remember being 18, feeling caught in limbo between being a kid and being seen as a new adult. Once you reach voting age, life is different. Your choice of career impacts lives of people you never imagined you could help. Your voice, your career—they both make a difference in the future of others’ lives and who will become your future family.

Expectations for the future are high—no adult plans for a child not to succeed. They want children to do better than they did, not make the same mistakes. Along with the freedoms of graduation, many young adults enter the military, enter the workforce, or enter college. All are great choices. The most important memories to make, particularly during graduation, are to be surrounded by generations of your family who, one day, won’t always be able to join you in life celebrations.

There’s preschool graduation (into kindergarten), and kindergarten graduation (into first grade) and eighth grad graduation (into high school). That made me think about the fact that, most of our lives, we are being celebrated for moving “from one stage to another.” And, for every person who has transitioned up to senior year of high school, they’ve known what was coming next.

Often, graduates who have not yet chosen what they want to do in life find that military service provides excellent skill training, discipline and encourages a commitment to seeing tasks through to completion. After four years of doing jobs that require much discipline, students who enter college later in life tend to do exceedingly well.

Then, again, college is not for everyone. Businessman Richard Branson dropped out of high school when he was 15 and he’s done exceedingly well. Despite Aretha Franklin’s leaving high school at age 15, she has received 18 Grammys and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and the Berklee College of Music. 

That is very important in a young person’s life, knowing they belong, especially to a high school class of 2022, to answer to the question, “Where do you go?” That means essentially “Where do you belong?” No matter where you go, you belong, at least to your family and extended family of friends that you build in life.

Those of you who share experiences of good and bad times without fail. The contemporary term is “ride or die” friends, who always have your back, and who care if you are present or absent, who look for you when something goes wrong in life, to make sure you’re not alone in your grief. Look around you and take serious stock of who the people are in your life whom you would miss for sure if they weren’t there. 

Then, above all else, spend time with them, take photos or phone selfies, shoot videos and get their face and voice on film or phone, because in 20 years it will mean more to you than anything else you might have around you.

Dale Carnegie once said, “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” Congratulations to all of our area high school graduates this May. The world is yours for the taking. Enjoy your path to your future, and remember to stop and reflect along the way from time to time. It’s not the destination, but the journey that matters most. Always be moving forward as best you can. Go “to” rather than “from.” Blessings on your journey.

How Do I Know God's Plan for Me?

We’ve all had those moments when we let our parents down. Moments when what they had hoped for us just wasn’t in the cards. Now it doesn’t mean it can’t happen one day. But to best know what our parents want, we have to pay attention as young kids.

God has a plan for us as well. He wants some pretty specific things for us. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that we shouldn’t make decisions flippantly but consider God’s will in every day life. Seventy times in the New Testament, the “Will of God” is mentioned. Almost every time, one of two of God’s goals for us is mentioned.

The first thing God wants for you is to be like Jesus. We discover how Jesus lived in the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Our prayer is that we are transformed, holy, new creations who look like Jesus. The process can be painful as God chips away our old selves and his Son is revealed in us. But any pain will be worth the outcome.

The second thing God wants for you is to be with Jesus. God’s ultimate goal is for you to spend eternity with him. By saying “yes” to Jesus and allowing the transformative process of becoming more like him to happen, we have the promise of eternity with God,.

We almost will never get a super clear message of what God is wanting us to do but there are a couple of things we can do to lean in and be more attentive to his calling in our lives. The first thing we need to do everyday is read the Word of God. In the pages of the Bible lie every answer to life you need to know. Whether it is how to have good relationships, or a healthy marriage; whether it is how to handle money and resources or be a great parent. Everything for life is found in God’s word.

The second thing we need to do is listen to God’s people. Being with and around God’s people is so beneficial and rewarding. So many people can give you great advice since they have been down the road a little further. It’s so important since we have been corralled by COVID these past two years that we desire to be together with each other.

When we lean in to both of these ideas, transformation will occur. Know that God’s part is the transformation and your part is surrender. We surrender to God working in our life for his glory. We strive to allow Jesus to remain in us and we in him so that real transformation will occur.

God wants you to be like Jesus and his desire is that you live with him. That’s God’s will. Live into that each and every day of your life. Blessings on the journey.

Hopeful Stories in Hopelessness

I hiked Mt Evans in Colorado with a friend in 2005. It was just the two of us on the mountain. We had not prepared enough and after a full day of hiking, we were out of breath, dehydrated, delirious, and weak. We thought we would not find the car. As we were sitting bewildered, tired, and absolutely hopeless, we began to think, “it’s all over”.

In Luke 24, we read the account of two disciples walking home the Sunday after Jesus’ death. They had just been thrown a curve ball. After Jesus’ death, his disciples felt the same way I did at at the foot of that mountain. The whole city of Jerusalem had welcomed Jesus in to the city a week earlier but now, the powers that be, had Jesus crucified. A lot can change between Thursday and Sunday. What had seemed promising had become painful. What had seemed hopeful had become hopeless.

Jesus knows disappoint is caused by unmet expectations. But disappointment is healed by widening your outlook. Jesus joins these two disciples on the road home (although they didn’t recognize him) and begins to tell them the story of God through scripture. Each story reveals and reminds us that God is in control. Jesus wants to remind us no matter what’s happening, God is still on his throne. Despair never has the last word. God is begging you to remember there’s another chapter to be written in your story.

These two disciples eventually arrive at their house and invite Jesus inside for a meal. Jesus accepts. It reminds each of us that when we invite Jesus in, He will always say “yes”. And then upon breaking bread with them, Jesus reveals himself. Their hearts raced wildly and their excitement forced them to go back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples, “Jesus is risen.”

So today, walk with your head up. When you walk with your head down, you lose sight of what God is doing around you. Jesus wants to be invited into your story as well. It’s in him that our hearts race wildly and cause us to live boldly for him. Blessings on your journey.

What Does Healthy Mean?

Disagreements abound. Just look at social media and see all the arguments and comparisons. Everyone has an opinion, even when it’s not in their expert view nor in their wheelhouse of operation. Churches are not immune.

At the last church I work, there was a dad who was a Nazi about unplugging extension cords. After class each Sunday, my first desire was to connect to teens after class, not put away all the equipment. He and I went round and round about priorities until finally one day, he simply hid all the extension cords so I could not do my job. We fight about the most trivial things in a church family.

Paul is addressing this very thing in his letter to the Philippians. Relationships are messy but that doesn’t mean we ignore issues and pretend they don’t exist. So, in Philippians 4:1-5, Paul begins the chapter reminding the church what healthy looks like.

Paul says the church should have a big heart full of love for each other. He uses words of affinity for the church. I mean, orthodoxy and holiness are important but according to Jesus, not more important than love for each other. John 13, Jesus tells us the love is how the world will know you are mine.

Paul goes on to say the church should also have a firm stance in the Gospel message. Fourteen times in the New Testament, we are called to stand firm. It gives the suggestion that there may be times we, as Christians, tend to hide or run or camouflage who we are. But Paul wants us to look like Jesus and proclaim his love for the world.

A healthy church has a warm embrace. We are called to love each other. The two women mentioned in chapter four are in a disagreement that seems to be polarizing the church. Paul says, “Look, you both belong to the Lord so work it out.”

When a band plays, it is a blend of different instruments. But the song is only produced when the band leader is calling the pieces together to play their part. It’s the same in the church. Jesus is our leader. He’s calling each of us to use our giftedness and create a blended harmony with each other for one purpose…to show Jesus to the world.

A healthy church also has a joyful soul. Paul says “rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice.” But sometimes, life happens in unexpected ways and it’s hard to rejoice. When your baby only lives a few hours after birth, it’s hard to rejoice. When the divorce gets ugly and very public, it’s hard to rejoice. When your spouse is suddenly taken away at a young age, it’s hard to rejoice. Paul lists all the trouble he had in 2 Corinthians 6 because he followed Jesus. But Paul is saying even when life is not turning out like you hoped, in Christ, we can rejoice.

Sometimes, we have disagreements. Sometimes we’ve been hurt by people who call themselves Christians. You were not included because you were single. You were looked down on because of the divorce. You were gossiped about because of a weekend you made a poor choice. You were ostracized because you look different than most people at your church. I want to say, “I so sorry.” That’s not how the church was designed.

But I want to challenge you. Jesus never said, “Follow my church” or “Follow the pastor” or “Follow my people.” No, Jesus said, “Follow me.” Don’t take out on Jesus what others have done to you. It’s time to settle differences. It’s time to allow Jesus to heal. It’s time to get healthy. Blessings on your journey.

Well, That's Garbage!

Grab a piece of paper and a pencil.  Go ahead, get something to write on and with.  Now, make a list of all the things you consider of value to you or that you are proud of.  Include in that list material possessions, personal accomplishments, honors and awards, and other things you value deeply.  How do these make you feel?  How much are they worth to you?

Paul had accomplished quite a bit in his life.  He was a man of high esteem, incredible education, significant social clout, and he was probably fairly wealthy.  His greatest value was the religious accomplishments he had obtained, being a Pharisee taught by one of the most important Jewish teachers of his day.  Paul tells us that if anyone had the ability to be proud, he was it.  He had power, prestige, social status, kept God’s law as a Pharisee, and was super committed to his church.  But compared to knowing Jesus Christ, all this is just a pile of dung.  Oops, I shouldn’t write that, but that is exactly what he said.  Read Philippians 3:8 again.  He says that he considers all his accomplishments and possessions “rubbish” compared to knowing Christ Jesus his Lord.  The word rubbish is the Greek word for dung or excrement.  Yep, it’s in the Bible.  Paul is saying that all the stuff the world has, and all the awards, trophies, possessions, money, power, prestige, social standing… are dung compared to an awesome relationship with Christ.  Think about this for a moment.  What would have to happen in your life for you to get to the point where you consider the list you made as no more value than rubbish in comparison to knowing Jesus?

Furthermore, look at the path Paul says he will take to know Christ deeply in Philippians 3:7-11.  The path includes the power of the resurrection, that’s pretty good.  But what about the rest, “the fellowship of his suffering, being conformed to his death.”  That does not seem like an enjoyable journey, but this is what Paul is getting at.  The path to true joy and great purpose is the path of the cross-centered life.  From the outside, that path looks ridiculous.  No way experiencing the suffering of Jesus is better than my car, my house, my trophies, my accomplishments.  But a person on that path discovers something, or someone that is vastly better than my stuff, they find Jesus.  He is the greatest prize, he is the most wonderful experience, he is the source of joy.  Paul is expressing what many have found, compared to knowing Jesus, the list is poop.

Ask yourself an honest question, if it came between the things listed on this page and your relationship with Jesus, which would you choose?  Remember, in reality the stuff you wrote on your list is really just dung! Blessings on your journey.

Shifting Perspective.

I love the movies. I can usually figure things out inside of 15 minutes into the movie. The first movie that really ever “got me” was the 1999 movie, “The Sixth Sense”. In the last moments of the movie, it was revealed one of the main characters had been dead the whole movie. Mind blown! I had no idea. It changed my perspective.

Jesus calls us to change our perspective in how we live…how we see things. He gives us an upside-down perspective compared to what the world offers. It’s never more evident than in Philippians 2 where Paul calls us to be of one mind and purpose.

See, how you think determines what you become. Paul wants us to the have mind of Christ. We can discover how Jesus lived by looking at the Gospel accounts of his life. Jesus was always caring. He had consistent joy in his life. He was obedient to what the Father had called him to do. He was patient with all those around him. He was compassionate to those society had deemed, “Not worthy.”

So, if you think like Jesus thought, you’ll live like Jesus lived. Paul reminds us in Philippians 2 that Jesus was a humble person. He left everything he was entitled to have to come to earth. Jesus shows us that God desires self-abandonment, not self-promotion. In deed, Jesus says in Mark 8:35, “Whoever loses their life for me will actually find it…”

Paul introduces himself as a “slave” to Jesus in the opening line of Philippians. Paul goes on to show Jesus was a servant or slave for us. So we, as followers of Jesus, imitate him by realizing we too are slaves and servants. See, serving is not what I do. A servant his who I am.

So the call today, reflecting on Jesus in Philippians 2, is to change your perspective. No matter what is going on in your life, you are Jesus’ person, created in his image, reflecting him in the world around you. Be transformed. Humble yourself. Discover and live out the Spirit of Jesus living in you. Blessings on your journey.

How to Live Well.

The letter of Philippians is overflowing with first-hand wisdom and encouragement from Paul about how to live well, as followers of Jesus. He's preparing the church to be a community of believers who know how to live fully in the now, defending and motivated by the Gospel, whilst waiting for His return. This preparation is underpinned by three types of love.

We need to have a love that grows. It is Paul's prayer to this church that their love would 'abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is pure and blameless for the day of Christ' (Philippians 1:9-10). 

Another translation describes this as a love that will 'flourish and that will not only love much, but love well.' This 'loving well' that we are called into, is one that continually grows deeper the more we follow Christ, and therefore spurs us to love one another simultaneously. It's one that is never switched off, always kept on. It's one that teaches us to show sincere, non-superficial love, one that is modelled by the example of Christ. 

We must show a love for Jesus. Paul also calls us to live a life that is marked by loving, living for, and speaking about Jesus.  Love for Jesus overflows into the desire to tell others about him. Paul's life is primarily characterised by his relentless desire to preach the Gospel; 'the important thing is, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached' (1:18), and 'for me to live is Christ, to die is gain' (1:21).

Paul even talks about being torn between the two (1:23-26); living for Christ now, and being with Christ forever. Yet Paul calls us to stand, wherever we are, whatever season - at school, University, college, gap year - united in our love for Jesus, in courage against opposition, in hope of future with Him!

Finally, we need a love that suffers. One final love is Paul's call to live a life worthy of the Gospel, and he explains that part of this includes suffering (1:29-30). I love the translation, 'the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting. You're involved in the same kind of struggle you saw me go through.' This love that suffers is not one that suffers alone (1:29), nor one that will suffer forever, as we see in Paul's example. We have total confidence that we serve and love our God who stands with us.

I love this first chapter of Philippians because it gives a beautiful outline of what a life sold-out for Jesus looks like today. My prayer is that we'll cultivate lives that never cease to grow in our love for Jesus. Blessings on the journey.