James MacDonald's Blog, page 11

Two Old Ladies, Greg Laurie and the National Day of Prayer

It’s the National Day of Prayer, and our country and its president have never needed our prayers more. Please pray for my friend @GregLaurie, and for his courageous stand in the face of intimidation not to pray before the nation at this event in Washington. I respect his courage, rooted in the story of Daniel and officials’ attempts to stop Daniel from praying. (See yesterday’s Christian Post.)

Is prayer a significant part of your spiritual life? I have a sermon to prepare for this weekend that I am very excited about, meetings to attend that deal with important matters, and much more to do, but today prayer has to have first priority. Prayer has been a huge part of my life; a blessing in some seasons and a survival mechanism in others. Thinking about God, or reflecting on spiritual matters is not necessarily praying. I try to hold myself to this legit prayer test: Was my prayer 1) alone? 2) kneeling? 3) out loud? 4) fervent? 5) with a written list of specific petitions? I praise God for the faithful youth ministers and workers in our church. I got my prayer start when I was a high school student with a wise youth pastor who recognized our rookie prayer habits and, thankfully, got us with some veterans.

On a particular Sunday after church, the high school and college people gathered in the basement for a lunch with the seniors. To this day the idea sounds bad, even boring, but for me at least the outcome changed the course of my life. We sat around tables in seats that were assigned, and I had lunch with a woman who exuded class, no doubt a great beauty in her younger days. She was classy, articulate, even persuasive in her manner, and her name was Evelyn White. When the meal ended, we heard a message on prayer and were told that the saint beside us had been assigned as our prayer partner.

From my summer visiting, I knew the potential of this gift and hoped that Mrs. White had the powerful kind of prayer life I wanted to emulate. In God’s kindness, Evelyn was a prayer giant, dwarfing even some of those I had visited. Widow to a pastor, she was living with a friend, and though impoverished materially, she was profoundly rich in the Lord. She met me regularly, prayed for me fervently, and gave me her husband’s Bible. Talking to God as a friend, she spoke words of faith over my ministry dreams that exceeded my capacity to trust the Lord at the time. So great was her impact that thirty years later, I returned to the homestead where Evelyn prayed, where I had taken my fiancée to meet her. As I walked around the property, I felt afresh the power of her prayers for our future service to Christ and was warmly greeted by the current occupant, a woman who knew Evelyn and listened to me daily on the radio. Wow! I was so excited to tell her that my ministry fruitfulness flowed in large part from the hours of prayer prayed on the property where she now lived. She was astounded.

A second woman who knew me longer and loved me even more was my grandmother, though I could not see it at the time. My grandmother was a farmer’s wife. Demanding and forceful with her opinions, she always insisted that we do more than we felt able and let us know quickly when we were falling short. Her tenderness only came out in her praying. Sitting by her second-floor bay window in chairs that faced one another, she would insist on praying personally for me every time I visited. Taking my hand, she would lean forward, pausing at length to gather her sense of God’s listening before she began. Starting with heartfelt adoration, she would praise and thank God at length before any specific petitions. She prayed for the kind of things that make you very uncomfortable: for God to crush my pride, to reinforce my total dependency, to protect me from temptation given my “great weakness,” etc. I confess to never closing my eyes as she prayed for me, spellbound by the experience of watching her pray. Grandma Eileen lost one eye to a childhood bee sting and had never had the dead eye corrected cosmetically. Her prayers would build to a fever pitch. As her fervency grew, she cried out to the Lord with the closed eye streaming tears while the other eye looked lifelessly ahead. In a scene that resembled The Shining more than an afternoon with Corrie ten Boom, she modeled a passion in prayer that most people can’t imagine. With all my heart I believe I will get to heaven one day and learn that any good accomplished through my life was 100 percent in response to the prayers of Evelyn and Eileen.

Does someone pray for you like that? Do you pray like that? I have had to learn to, and it took a while. Get started today. As our nation focuses on prayer, who should be praying more or more fervently than the followers of Jesus?

My Resignation

I wanted to wait until we returned from the Holy Land to make my decision public. I am officially announcing my resignation today from a job I have long held, and frequently done very poorly. I am not sure how I got into this profession. I know I wasn’t invited, and I have often been deeply unappreciated. Why spend your life doing something neither required by the Lord, nor welcomed by others? Frankly, I gave up the job a while back, but felt constrained to make my decision known to all who read this blog. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t see me at my post, I am really done this time. Yes, for me it’s over. No more fixing people—I resign.

No more setting people straight, helping others see the light. No more putting people on a program or convincing them to look in the mirror and see what they refuse to believe. Helping? Yes. Praying? For sure! Preaching? Always and with increased power, I pray. But fixing people individually? I’m done! No more stepping up or stepping in or stepping on toes to ring a broken bell that clangs discordantly with the facts about friend or foe. If you were wounded in a bad fix or a fast fix or a bad response to a fast fix, please accept my apologies—I truly hope you are doing better, I know that I am. Unless requested, unless an obvious critical-path, life or death emergency, ‘the fix’ is off!

Was it the temptation to push the pulpit application too far that caused fixing people to spill over into personal interaction? Did knowledge puff me up? I don’t remember thinking I was better, but I do recall needing people to be more or better or different. For my sake or for theirs? For God’s kingdom no doubt, but also as an increased efficiency in the crossing of paths and the sharing of responsibility. “I’m not sure if anyone has ever pointed this out to you, but do you realize…” “It’s not easy to say this to you, but from a heart of love I feel I must…” “This is not going to end well…” Like the understated dentist who offers, “This is gonna pinch,” the fixer has a variety of ‘opens’ that don’t really prepare the hearer adequately for what is to follow.

Fixes should end well, we should be ready at all times to receive the “reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2), but many are not. Yes, “reprove a wise man, and he will love you for it” (Proverbs 9:8), but apparently there are “not many wise” (1 Corinthians 1:26), and many blows are too often needed (Proverbs 17:10). Where the fixer is uninvited and the receiving heart is unreceptive, it’s far better to pull up and kneel down—interceding for a better reception, a more timely time, or a more worthy messenger.

Let’s start with some easy ones first:

I’m not going to fix the oblivious pedestrian wandering aimlessly through the busy airport terminal, dragging their carry-on across the feet of determined passengers seeking an open road to a late flight.
I’m not going to fix the store clerk who promises three different times by phone, that my friend can pick up my new golf clubs as long as he brings the receipt…then refuses to do so without reason, each time ‘friend’ drives over while I was out of the country. I wish that person could get fixed, but I went to get the clubs myself and quietly retrieved them without incident—because no one was with me who fixes people.
I am not fixing drivers or drive-through window guys or anyone else driving me, or those I love, nuts. I’m not fixing flight attendants or church attenders or church members or members of the human race. If it’s your problem, then guess what? It’s not mine. I will pray, I will quietly attend to those I love when invited. I will always be willing to lend a hand or help the hurting or even instruct the weak by invitation or direct responsibility (1 Thessalonians 5:14), but by God’s grace I will be patient with all. The fix is off.
I’m not going to fix staff members who want to complain instead of work, or sleep instead of work, or do whatever they do instead of work. If you won’t work, you can’t eat—at least not on our dime—but we aren’t going to try to fix you. You’ll have all the time in the world when you don’t work here anymore. I’m not going to fix elders who complain instead of lead, or family members who think love is a one-way street, or friends who think that doing life together means everything always the same, forever. I’m not going to help you be more grateful or more generous or more anything individually. I am here to help when asked, and “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). But “each must bear his own load” (Galatians 6:5), and from now on the ‘fix’ falls under your job description. No more allowing the single digits to block my view of the many who are the vast majority that make serving God pure joy.
I’m not going to fix preachers in error or erroneous ministry methods or methodical madness of any kind. Just gonna preach the Word in season and out of season, and seek to fulfill my ministry (2 Timothy 4:1-5). I don’t wish you were more loving or more truthful or, truthfully, more anything. I wish I was more of what Jesus calls me to be for my family and church family. You answer for your congregation—that should be enough responsibility. I know that answering for mine keeps me on my knees long enough, without reflecting on what you should be doing more or better or less.

I suppose I assumed when I began that everyone wanted what I wanted…to be better. I have accepted, even solicited, and been blessed by the critical feedback of friends, and picked diligently through the rubbish of those who sought my ruin to great advantage. But I have erred in thinking those who dish it out can take it, and had to learn that when you want it for people more than they want it for themselves, it won’t end well. Sadly, when you overestimate your ability to change the behavior of others, and rush in where fools fear to tread, you heap scorn for yourself and have little to show for it, aside from the faithful wounds of a well-intentioned friend (Proverbs 27:6).

Available, as always, for the humble and teachable and lowly of heart—but no more fixing people. It doesn’t work, it’s not fun, and it often hurts. Maybe you learned this a long time ago and took a pass on fixing me. Thanks for your patience. I have it now, the fix is in place for no more fixing. Take this job and . . . I quit!

Vertical Purpose Leads to Horizontal Effectiveness

My Wednesday post on how the glory of God is the only fire that can sustain evangelistic zeal in local church ministry, may seem a very indirect evangelistic approach to you. If you believe intentional evangelism is what reaches people, you may find it hard to accept what I am writing.

Watch this video (we have many many like it) and imagine a fire to share Christ effectively being lit in the hearts of those who attend your church—a fire to see people we know and love come to know Jesus. Not to keep them from hell, primarily, and not as our guilt-induced duty, but as our overflowing passion to see them experience in Christ what we have found. A joy in His glory among us that eclipses everything we would have previously called joy.

Need proof that vertical purpose leads to horizontal effectiveness in reaching people for Christ? Watch this summary of a single weekend in our church, for the GLORY OF GOD!

(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

The Most Destructive Error in the Church

Soteriology is a word that comes from the Greek word soterios, which means “to save.” Doxology comes from the Greek word for glory and names the single stanza hymn. While many have heard the Westminster Confession that “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,” fewer have understood that doxology is the highest purpose for church. Doxological is a good descriptor for the mission of God’s glory. Placing evangelistic mission above the mission of God’s glory is the single most destructive error in the church today and the one from which many other errors fall out. God’s own glory as the priority for your church and every church needs no reflection on our part, only obedience. Glory is not a threat to reaching lost people but is actually the most biblical and God-honoring way to get there:

Yes, God is passionate to see the elect brought into the church.
Yes, God honors the efforts of those committed to scattering the seed.
Yes, God calls us to let down the net for a catch as fishers of men.
Yes, God is “not wishing that any should perish.” (2 Peter 3:9)
Yes, God “desires all people to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3–4)
Yes, “whosoever shall call,” and “God so loved the world,” and “we are ambassadors for Christ.” (Romans 10:13 KJV; John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:20)

The statements above are biblical fuel on the fire of evangelism, but the Scripture also puts parameters on how far that zeal can go. “For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word” (2 Corinthians 2:17). When soteriology becomes a higher priority than doxology, much is done “to reach people” that grieves the Holy Spirit and forfeits manifest presence. Like a man paddling across the Atlantic with a hole in his boat, God’s glory can be briefly neglected, but if not soon corrected, we will find ourselves in a place where the only choice is to sink. Neglect of glory is not a small oversight but the hinge on which God’s glorious favor swings in or out in any church. The error of failing to make the glory of God your highest priority is very difficult to address in a horizontal church because they believe their mission is “winning the lost, end of story!” If that horizontal mission results in numerically successful outcomes, the methods will be considered “above reproach” ipso facto, and that is the great disaster. Even where churches have doxology in their mission statements, it is too often assumed. Those resistant to what I write might reply, “Of course God is glorified in our efforts to reach people for Him, why would He not be?” Possible answers:

Because preachers are not carnival barkers, and Jesus is not a midway prize. (2 Corinthians 5:20)
Because some methods use content that offends God’s holiness—ask King Saul if sincerity is an adequate reason to disregard God’s holy reputation. (1 Samuel 15:22)
Because some methods reveal the wisdom of humans and not the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:4–5)
Because some methods provoke people to praise the strategy, not the God who saves. (Jonah 2:9; Acts 13:48)
Because Ichabod can become a reality just when everything looks to be going great!

How did the church get this way? I don’t know the whole history, but I do remember the impact of a book that came out in 1980 titled The Complete Book of Church Growth by Elmer Towns, John Vaughan, and David Seifert. It lists the top 200 churches in North America by attendance. Interestingly, in 1980, the largest two churches had about 5,000 attendees. By the time they got down to the 200th church, they had gone under 2,000 in attendance. As of 2011, there were 1,200+ churches in America with attendance over 2,000; more than 100 churches that have attendance over 5,000; and more than 25 with attendance over 10,000. But wait! It’s a trick, because during that same time the population has grown by more than 40 percent and the total number of people actually attending church has fallen by greater than 15 percent. Bottom line: in real numbers, millions of people who were worshipping Christ in a Protestant church in 1980 are not doing so today. So who are we kidding? Horizontal, soteriologically driven church is not growing the body of Christ as a whole. Even if you are seeing a “win” on your side of town, we are a “loss” collectively. Do you care? Regardless of size, every Bible-believing, gospel-saturated church, and those that want to get there, matter to God. Just because a few churches in big cities are flooding with people does not mean that those methods are helpful to the church as a whole. What if Satan allowed a few churches to burst at the seams, knowing that selfish shepherds everywhere would mimic those horizontal methods and plunge churches from coast to coast into a vortex of decline?

Sadly, many who read this believe that pursuit of the glory of God is an abandonment of evangelistic impact, when in fact the opposite is true. Check back Friday for some evidence. :)

Sadness and Madness

Thank God for Rick and Kay Warren, and for Keith and Beth Moore. Beth says it better than I could, so let this woman of God be heard…”Sadness and Madness“

Why Am I Struggling Spiritually?

In John 9, the disciples wanted to debate with Jesus about the source of a man’s blindness—when Jesus saw him much differently. Not as an issue to discuss, but as a person to help.

Why do some Christians see everything so differently? Possibly they have become consumers of spiritual content vs. disciples who are not only learning and growing, but most importantly, investing in others. Nothing will amplify your insight into what God’s doing like involvement. People on the sidelines don’t see it the same way that people who are involved see it. If you’re stagnant or struggling in your faith just now, maybe you’ve stopped actively serving. It’s a common heart ailment that often goes undiagnosed.

One of our earliest and most faithful leaders throughout the years taught us this diagram. I think it comes originally from the Navigators, but I’m not sure. Either way, I know this: roll-up-your-sleeves-involvement opens your eyes to see God working. True followers of Jesus aren’t just consuming spiritual content, they are serving the kingdom by helping to get God’s truth to others in a personal, practical way.

(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

Things to Think about During Holy Week

This is Holy Week. And with the outpouring of ministry that will accompany it among our churches, I want to take a few minutes encourage my fellow pastors as we prepare for its significance.

(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

Visit TheDayJesusDied.com
Download the videos
Download the devotionals

Prioritize the Word of Truth

I love this: “accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). When I was a kid, I memorized this verse in the King James Version as “rightly dividing the word of truth.” Actually, in the original Greek there’s just one word. It’s a compound word that means cut it straight. Don’t you love that picture? We are supposed to be cutting it straight, rightly dividing, accurately handling the Word of Truth.

We need to cut it straight in our families. When your daughter wants to date an unbeliever—but the Word of Truth says in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers”—you go to her and cut it straight. When your son wants to listen to ungodly music in your house—but the Word of Truth says in Philippians 4:8, “Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely . . . dwell on these things”—go to him and cut it straight.

Maybe you’re thinking, Hey, to be honest with you, my marriage is not doing very well right now. It’s more work than wow, for sure! I have to be honest and tell you that some days, in my darkest moments, I wonder if I can make it. I’m just not sure I can stick it out for the rest of my life. But the Word of Truth says in Matthew 19:6, “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” So put that thinking out of your mind, and cut it straight.

Maybe you’ve been having a hard time at work, and the finances aren’t what they used to be. This hasn’t been a good year; sales are down, and you’ve been tempted to cut some corners. Maybe you’ve thought about withholding your giving to your church because you think, God, I have to provide for my family and cover certain obligations. You’ve been tempted to compromise the Word of Truth. But then you remember Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” No longer will you allow yourself the luxury of wandering from what the Word of God says. You are “cutting it straight”; you are accurately handling the Word of Truth. And you are making the Word of God a priority.

A number of years ago, we had some major rainstorms in our area. Many people had their basements completely flooded. The morning after the storm, two sweet sisters who live next door to us came by and said, “We were calling you on the phone in the middle of the night. We wanted to make sure your basement didn’t flood.”

“Well, we only have cordless phones,” I said. “When the power went out, our phones didn’t ring.”

“Only a couple of cordless phones for a family your size?” the sisters answered. “We have six phones in our house: three cordless phones, and three regular phones.”

I couldn’t believe it. “Wow, you have six phones? For what?” They answered, “Well, we work for the phone company. What do you expect? Isn’t your house full of Bibles?”

I laughed out loud, “Well, yes, as a matter of fact, it is!” I walked away smiling to myself, because that’s what I want our family and our church family to be known for—full of the truth of God’s Word.

That’s almost a decade ago now. Thankfully, those sisters gave their lives to Christ—in fact I saw them in church last weekend.

Forgiveness: The Only Way Forward for a Family

My heart goes out to the family that is in a downward spiral. You know what I mean. Whether they live in the same house or come from the same parents or worship at the same church, ‘families’ can fall into bad patterns that become very hard to break. Where every step forward is quickly met by two steps back. Where bad times and lonely times overwhelmingly outnumber the times of true joy. Where it seems like no matter how hard you try, the pain of failures past and the wounds of family conflict are just too close to the surface to get anything good going in a consistent way.

Do you feel like that? Do you find it hard to believe that your family can really begin to work well, because your mind is filled with vivid pictures of times when it hasn’t?

If so, you may have wondered to yourself, What exactly can turn the corner for my family? What can break the cycle of neglect, confrontation, injury, and withdrawal, followed by even greater neglect? If you’re wondering how to heal the past and get some forward momentum going, the answer is without a doubt, forgiveness!

I know you’ve heard that word before, but don’t knock it until you have really tried it according to the principles of God’s Word. Forgiveness is much easier to say than to accomplish, yet it is a God-given mandate that brings incredible healing. Please remember, we are not the People for the American Way; we are not the Rotary Club; and we are not the John Birch Society. We are the followers of Jesus Christ, and our Lord has commanded us to stay busy in this matter of forgiveness. How about a quick review of Jesus’ teaching on the subject?

Jesus on Forgiveness

In Mark 11:25, Jesus said, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.” In Luke 6:37, He stated, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven”. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Wow! Are you ready for that? Those are some pretty significant statements. Where would you be if the Lord chose to forgive you as you forgive others? Somehow God is keeping track of the way that we forgive and the degree to which we forgive, and He is measuring His forgiveness back to us in the same portion. Yikes!

But Jesus didn’t simply talk about forgiveness. He modeled it in His every­day life. From the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1–11) to His final words on the cross—“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34)—Jesus was and is all about forgiveness.

How about you? If you profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ, are you all about forgiveness? No doubt there are countless people who have injured you; they have said false things about you; they have wounded you with their actions and reactions. Maybe the hardship came from a supervisor at work, or a neighbor across the street, or a teacher in school, but regardless of where it came from, the fallout from unforgiveness is huge. It’s huge, and nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the home. So much of the anger and strife that exists in the family today is rooted in people’s unwillingness to forgive.

Defining Forgiveness

I want to be really clear about what I mean by forgiveness. It’s important for us to be on the same page if we’re going to get anywhere, so here’s our working definition. Forgiveness is a decision to release a person from the obligation that resulted when they injured you. Imagine for a moment that I dumped a bowl of breakfast cereal in my son’s lap for no other reason than to aggravate him. Of course that would be wrong, and as a result of my choice to injure my son, there would be an existing obligation—in a sense I would owe him. I did something that was not right, and now I am in debt to him. Of course the matters that separate in families are much more serious than a cereal spill, but the silliness shows the simplicity of the choice we must make in matters more severe.

My son would be faced with two choices: Either he could become bitter and suffer over the wrong done against him, or he could release me from the obligation that resulted when I injured him. That is the essence of forgiveness—a decision to release a person from the obligation that resulted when they injured you.

My prayer is that, as you read this, God will reveal whom you need to forgive, the specifics of that forgiveness, and that you will then make a choice to forgive them. Are you up for the challenge?

In the past thirty years I have frequently faced the fact that the only way forward is forgiveness. Waiting for the person to figure it out has produced only silence and greater tension between us. Demanding that I be heard or heeded in a matter of injustice has only made things worse. Appealing to third parties for sympathy and affirmation of my just cause has taken me further into self-pity and self-justification (we are not without fault in most matters needing our forgiveness). The only thing, and I mean the ONLY thing that has promised and actually provided a way forward is forgiveness. Up, out of bitterness, on past regret and resentment, through the tangled mess of memories and specific moments where we were wronged—forgiveness is the only way to freedom.

Until they see their sin it remains between me and God, but in heartfelt recognition of my own need for grace I say: “You don’t owe me. You don’t have to come back or make it right, or even hear my offense. If you come to see it I will treat you with kindness, but if you never do I will think of you with appreciation where possible, or at least acceptance. I have been forgiven much, and I choose to forgive you. You may have meant it for evil; God knows your heart, and He meant it for good. He has used you in my life to show my faults, grow my character and increase my faith. I forgive you, I release you, and I am cultivating a heart of love toward you. I pray for God to bless you and encourage you and show you favor. I don’t need to be best friends, I’m not ready to trust you completely or expose myself again to your selfish conduct, but I do forgive you. I won’t bring these matters up to you, or to others, or with God’s help, to myself. I am walking out of this prison of imagining you’re paying for what you have done, and I am not coming back. I am rejoicing today that your sin is under the same Savior as mine and that you are no more undeserving of God’s forgiveness than I. I pray for the opportunity to relate to you in a matter reflective of this decision. Tonight at dinner, tomorrow as the day begins, wherever and as often as our paths may cross, I will see and speak to you as God does to me, forgiven.”

Five Things My Mom Taught Me

Happy Friday…I’ve been thinking about my mom a lot this week. I think that’s partly because I spoke at Moody Founders Week—she always used to loved to come and hear me there.

We also just passed her third birthday in heaven, which was January 31—I’m sure she had an awesome day.

Also because our first grandson Carter was born on my mom’s birthday, January 31. And this week we welcomed our fifth grandson, Graham Lucas MacDonald, to Luke and Kristen’s family and to our MacDonald family.

Picture of the baby, picture of my mom—all that got me thinking. And then a friend emailed me a little poem my mom used to repeat to us frequently, when we would get our feelings hurt or would come home from school feeling like we had been unfairly treated.

“I’ve asked the Lord to take from me

My super-sensitivity

That robs the soul of joy and peace

And causes fellowship to cease…”

I’ve used that in sermons many times through the years. Here’s a video clip of one way I’ve used it.

(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

Teaching it and living it are two different things. Thankfully, the Lord has allowed me to continue to do the first, and has assisted me greatly in my progress on the second.

I hope you have a great weekend serving the Lord and that you preach God’s Word in the power of the Holy Spirit, from a heart full of gratitude for all of His faithfulness to us.

James