Will Davis Jr.'s Blog, page 38

Are You Going to the Wedding?

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee . . . and both Jesus

and His disciples were invited to the wedding. John 2:1-2

I’ve read these words countless times. And yet today, when I opened my Bible, there they were with an entirely different meaning.

On the third day there’s going to be a wedding, and Jesus and his disciples are all invited.

Third days are big deals in the Bible, the biggest of which is of course the day Jesus rose from the grave, not just alive and kicking, but alive and kicking Satan’s butt. So obviously there is always great significance to third days in the Bible.

Weddings and marriage are a big deal too. The most commonly used metaphor for the relationship between Jesus and his Church is that of a bride and groom. And the book of Revelation describes that ongoing celebration we’re going to have in heaven as a big, wild and wonderful wedding banquet.

And then there are the guests. Jesus, of course, is the guest of honor. It’s all about him. But look who else is there. Jesus’ disciples! That’s us! We’re invited to the wedding!

So on that wonderful, never-ending third day somewhere in the future, we are all invited to party like there’s no tomorrow (because there won’t be) with the Lord Jesus in his heavenly banquet hall. And regardless of how much you’ve suffered in this life, regardless of how hungry or thirsty or weak or attacked you’ve been—it will all be forgotten in the amazing reality of Jesus’ holy and eternal presence.

You’re invited to the wedding. Are you going? I am, and I really hope to see you there.

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Cut the Rope

Here’s this week’s entry from Pray Big for Your Life:

Cut the Rope

It’s time to start praying for yourself. You’re not being selfish when you do. God’s Spirit has some work to do in and through you that he can’t do without your cooperation. Personal prayer is the beginning point of that cooperation process.

In the pages and chapters that follow, I’ll show you how to develop the discipline of personal intercession. You’ll learn how to find God’s promises in his Word for your life. In Chapter Three, we’ll see how the model of the Lord’s Prayer is the perfect place to start when praying for yourself.

In the second section of the book, we’ll look at some big, hairy, audacious prayers that every Christian should be praying for him or herself. When you’re finished, even if you’re not currently effective in prayer, you’ll have several high-impact, biblical prayers to pray for yourself, as well as the equipping and motivation to discover countless others.

In the final section of the book, I’ll remind you of some spiritual disciplines that can greatly enhance your prayer capacities. They’re like performance-enhancing drugs for your soul, only they’re legal and highly encouraged by God. When you connect these disciplines with your own prayers, you’ll find your prayer life hitting new heights of effectiveness.

So what happened to me on that cliff? How did I get out of my suspended mess? I cut my rope. The only way out for me was to hook onto another line that had been dropped down to me and cut the one I was originally using. When I actually put the knife to my own rope, I was terrified. After all, it was at least holding me. I had no guarantees about the new one and its security. But the pain in my legs and my desire to get off that cliff was enough to motivate me to take the risk and cut my line. When I did, I was finally free.

Maybe it’s time for you to do some rope cutting. Maybe it’s time for you to let go of your secure but unproductive form of Christianity. How would your life look a year from now if you put the knife to your spiritual status quo and prayed every day for God to build his Kingdom in your life? How would you live and love differently if you started praying prayers of wild and reckless abandon to God every day? What if, at eighty feet above the rocks, you cut your own lifeline? Would you be free? Why don’t we find out together?

Are you ready to take on the discipline of personal intercession? If you do, I can promise you that your life will never be the same.

  Discussion Questions

Describe your current habits of praying for yourself. Do you pray for yourself frequently or infrequently? When you pray for yourself, what do you pray for? Do you feel that it’s selfish to pray for yourself?
How would you describe the current condition of your spiritual life? Are you growing, declining, or in a rut? What has been the greatest factor in your spiritual development (or lack of development) recently? Why are you growing or nor growing? How do you feel about the assertion that prayer is a great way to kick-start your spiritual life?
This chapter listed three reasons that we should pray for ourselves: Jesus prayed for himself, the Holy Spirit uses prayer to make us holy, and it is impossible to live the Christian life without prayer. Which of those reasons for personal prayer made the most sense for your life right now? Why?
How will you respond to the invitation to cut the rope that ties you spiritual complacency and begin the adventure of praying for yourself?
After reading this chapter, how will you pray differently for yourself?

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Consider Yourself Dead

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11

There are some real advantages to being dead. You never get hungry or thirsty, you don’t get tired, and maybe best of all, you don’t sin.

There’s a profound biblical truth for you today: dead men don’t sin.

That’s why Paul told the believers in Rome to consider themselves dead when it came to sin.

Perhaps I should explain: Jesus doesn’t sin. And as Christians, we’re in Jesus. We exist in him. We have no life or existence outside of him. As Paul said, our lives are hidden in him (Col 3:3).

When you became a Christian, your former self died. You became an entirely new creation in Jesus Christ. And remember, Jesus doesn’t sin. So if you’re going to sin, you have to go and dig up and resuscitate your former, dead self. And that, believe me, is as nasty as it sounds.

The Bible says it’s something like a dog returning to his vomit.

So what’s the alternative? Embrace your new life. The message of Romans 6 is that it is against your nature to sin. You are not a struggling sinner who is trying to become holy. You’re a holy saint who is free from sin.

It’s a complete act of spiritual and emotional rebellion and backsliding for a follower of Jesus to sin. It’s simply against our nature.

Today, don’t walk as a struggling sinner that you’re not. Walk as the holy saint that you are.

And when you get tempted, consider yourself dead.

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A Higher Rank

This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I,

for He existed before me.’ John 1:30

Life is much easier when we know where to look for wisdom and guidance. Everyday, including today, we are required to make very important decisions, some with far reaching implications.

If we know where to look for help, making wise choices can be much less stressful.

As John the Baptist was introducing Jesus to his disciples, he made this remarkable statement about him. He described Jesus as having a higher rank. John literally said, “He is in front of me.” And then he added, “Because he existed before me.”

Now, given that John was six months older than Jesus, that’s some amazing insight. John was beginning to see Jesus’ eternal nature. And even though Jesus was John’s younger cousin, Jesus still far out-ranked John.

Such revelation gave John permission to fade to the background, to stand at the end of the line and to be led instead of having to lead. He saw the wisdom of yielding to his superior.

We need to be equally wise. Sometimes my own arrogance and self-assurance astounds me. I mean, sometimes I actually think that I know better than God how my life needs to look. I tend to forget those details about God’s rank and eternal existence.

I need the wisdom and humility to yield to the eternal one.

Do you? Do you have the wisdom to recognize the obvious qualifications of Jesus to rule and reign your life? Are you willing to humble yourself before the eternal one and let him lead you?

Life doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it. We have en eternal guide, and eternal God to lead us. Today, step to the end of the line. Jesus pre-dates you and has a much higher rank. Let him go first, he’s better at it.

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Are You Poor in Love?

 

One of our missions staff members who just returned from Uganda shared this with me. I was so moved by it I asked permission to share it with you. It speaks for itself.

After church one Sunday, our teaching team was holding the Pastor’s Conference while our children’s teams gathered to spend time teaching, worshipping and playing with the Pastors’ and villagers’ children.  Grace, a parent and teacher in this Ugandan village’s school, greeted me warmly and we quickly fell into conversation comparing teaching tips and the differences in life in our respective villages.

I asked Grace about her school day routine.

She said, “We go to school early in the morning until midday when it gets very hot.  Then we return to our homes.  Our people are very poor and may not have enough to eat, so we gather what food we have, and then come together in the center of the village and share our food so all can have some to eat.  Then we relax together in the shade and play with our children until it is time to return home for evening and sleep.”  

She then asked about our school day and I, a little embarrassed, said, “We send our children to school early in the morning where they stay until late afternoon.  Once school is over, many go to play sports, tutoring, or music lessons.  If the family can, everyone gathers for dinner and then more homework until bedtime.”  

Grace lamented this and tried to comfort me, repeating, “I am very sorry!”  

Next I asked if her church day was always like this, with everyone gathering and resting and playing in the shade of the trees right outside the village’s church.  

She said, “Oh yes!  We share stories of the Lord and our ancestors and talk about our dreams for our children.  We play here until it gets very hot.  Then we go to our homes and rest and spend time gathering food.  We then come back to the church and cook a large meal to share and stay together until it is time for bed.”  

Now it was my turn.  I really felt ashamed and uncomfortable as I told her,

“We go to our church for about an hour…maybe an hour and a half.  We then might go to lunch with a few others from our church, or just our own family.  Then we head to our own homes where we stay, or even have more busyness with activities like sports or meetings.”  

At this Grace really fell into mourning for us.  

 

 

She took both of my hands and said, “Sweet sister.  We are poor in food and belongings.  But you and your village are very poor in other ways.  You are poor in love.”

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Some of You

Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11

In Jesus’ Kingdom, none of us are what we used to be. Praise God.

The Apostle Paul felt the need to remind the believers in Corinth of their spiritual roots. He gave them a long and detailed list of the kind of behaviors that are inconsistent with the Christian life and that are most likely evidence of a lack of salvation (See 1 Cor. 6:9-10).

And then he gave them (and us) the beautiful words of verse 11: Such were some of you.

The Corinthian church wasn’t filled with people who had “gotten it” all their lives. They didn’t have good church and spiritual resumes. They are all former somethings—former liars and adulterers and swindlers. In today’s language they were former drug dealers and porn addicts and gossips and prostitutes and tax evaders.

But remember Paul’s wording—Such were some of you. Were tells us all we need to know. We were those things, but we’re not anymore. Somebody please say AMEN!!!!!!!

What changed? Paul gives us three amazing verbs—we were washed, sanctified and justified, each of which have everything to do with the grace-filled work of God and nothing to do with us.

As a son or daughter of God, you are a spiritual has-been. You used to be something and by God’s grace you’re not that anymore. And rather than hiding or not sharing that story, God wants you to tell it. Churches that require their members to be all perfect and put-together mute these great and God-honoring stories.

You have been changed. Praise God for it and then tell someone.

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Follow Me

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee.

Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” John 1:43

I remember being at a seminar in Kentucky with about 200 other people. The speaker, a woman, was dynamic and very effective. We all sat enthralled as she shared her wisdom with us.

So imagine my shock when she invited me up to the front to be Exhibit A in her presentation. To my knowledge, I had done nothing to draw attention to myself or to single myself out from the rest of the attendees. But she picked me out. And there I was, standing in front of 200 complete strangers, receiving the undivided attention (and scrutiny, I might add) of the resident expert.

Now try to imagine how Philip must have felt when the rising star on the prophetic scene walked right up to him and personally requested that he join his team. Think how much fear, joy and excitement must have simultaneously coursed through Philip’s veins as Jesus singled him out.

Imagine how Phillip must have felt when Jesus asked him to be his disciple.

Disciples are learners; they’re students. They follow a master-teacher. Jesus’ invitation to Phillip implied that he (Phillip) still had some things to learn and that he (Jesus) could teach them to him.

In reality, Philip had no idea what he was getting in to. How could he have known that he was about to become a student of the creating God of the universe? 

Are you a disciple? Are you following Jesus? Please know that any pull you have toward Jesus is exactly that, a pull. God is wooing you.

Any spiritual insight you have and any desire you have seek God are from God. You’re following him because he called you.  He walked right up to you, singled you out and invited you to join his team. It may feel like it was your idea, but it wasn’t. You were called.

Christian discipleship is an invitation-only process. Following Christ is not something you just wake up one day and choose to do. You have to be invited into Christ and given the proper equipment (the Holy Spirit) for the long journey ahead. And guess what?  You’ve been invited. Have you responded yet?

Following Jesus involves being a life-long learner. No one ever reaches full maturity in Christ. If you follow Jesus you will be a trainee until you get heaven. That doesn’t mean that you won’t be given massive kingdom assignments and other disciples to help along the way. But remember, Jesus is the wisdom of God incarnate. You’re not likely to master all that he has to say anytime soon.

Are you a disciple? Philip did not come to Jesus bargaining and posturing. Jesus found him and made a non-negotiable offer: Come follow me. He asks the same of you and me today.

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What are You Seeking?

Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them,

“What are you seeking?” John 1:38

We’re all seekers. At our very core each of us has a deep, profound yearning for something beyond ourselves. It drives us, it propels us, it motivates us, and it sometimes causes us to do some very stupid things. And all of this is done because we are seeking something.

What are you seeking?

Seeking is the fruit of our being spiritual. Because we are multi-dimensional, because we are body, soul and spirit, we are not content to just pursue physical sustenance. We want intellectual and emotional stimuli. And we want, ultimately, to be spiritually fulfilled. We long for a spiritual interaction that will satisfy the deep hunger in our soul. Thus, we seek.

What are you seeking?

Now bear in mind that we are not all fully aware of this spiritual drive. We often mistake our need for spiritual interaction for a need for more physical comfort, and so we throw more nice stuff at our souls. That just makes us hungrier. Sometimes we mistake the spiritual hunger as a need for sex. Our culture tells us today that sex is the key to happiness, and so we pursue more sex in the hopes of finding that deep, soul-needs solution. Some of us think adrenaline is what we need, so we fill our lives with as much adventure, risk and danger as we can muster. We end up spending lots of money and time, and sometimes hurting ourselves or others, in the name of a short-lived adrenaline rush. And it still doesn’t satisfy.

What are you seeking?

So that makes this question of Jesus all the more profound. He noticed that some of John the Baptist’s disciples had left John’s ranks and were following him. Jesus turned and confronted them about their motives: What are you seeking? It’s a great question, and one that John’s disciples weren’t expecting. They fumbled around for an answer and finally came up with, “We want to see where you’re staying.” That was a good, safe response, and not totally untrue. In short, they were investigating Jesus. Checking out where he lived was just part of the process. But in reality, they were wondering what Jesus was all about.

Jesus’ question was for their benefit, not his. Jesus wanted these seekers to think about what it was they were really looking for.

Jesus wants you to stop and think about what you’re really after. He wants you to come to the sobering realization that what you seek can’t be found in stuff, sex, thrills, intellectual or emotional stimuli, or anything else.

That’s why so many people look at Jesus and then walk away: He’s not offering what they think they need.

So Jesus asks us, What are you seeking? The question gets to the heart of every seeker. It forces you to examine the motives and hopes of your great search. And, it helps direct you to what you really need. Let me say that differently: It helps direct you to Whom you really need—Jesus.

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Why Pray for Yourself?

Here’s this week’s entry from Pray Big for Your Life. Click here to purchase the book from Guideposts.

I need prayer, and lots of it. Think about it: There is no other person in my life with a greater capacity to impact the work of God in my life than me. The same is true for you.

This is a critical point, so let me say it very clearly: The person in your life with the greatest capacity to help or hinder God’s work in you is you. You need to be praying for you—your heart, your attitudes, your habits, your relationships, your resources, your temptations and your ministry—because no other person can or will impact God’s Kingdom processes in your life as much as you will. For that reason alone, you need to pray every day for yourself.

I’m still amazed when I meet Christ-followers who don’t pray for themselves. Somehow they’ve gotten the idea that it’s selfish or self-centered to pray for their own needs. But what they don’t realize is that by not praying for themselves, they’re choosing to live a life of Christian mediocrity and they’re greatly limiting the degree to which they can experience the abundant life that Jesus offered (see John 10:10).

Christians who don’t pray for themselves aren’t being humble or selfless. Rather, they’re choosing to greatly limit their spiritual impact. Christians who don’t pray over their own needs and lives are the spiritual equivalent of a football player who takes the field without any protective pads; or worse, a soldier who runs into battle completely unarmed. They’re just totally set up to fail.

Bless Me Indeed

Let me offer you three great reasons to become a self-intercessor. There are certainly more reasons than just these three, some of which we’ll touch on later. But these three reasons make up a good theological foundation for why it is necessary to pray for ourselves.

First of all, we need to pray for ourselves because Jesus prayed for himself. You’ve got to figure that if Jesus felt the need to pray for himself, and he was the perfect, sinless, Son of God, then it’s reasonable to conclude that we need to pray for our lives as well. We can actually take that reasoning one step further: Maybe Jesus was able to live such an anointed life because he was a man of prayer. Surely Jesus’s ability to resist temptation, speak with authority, heal the sick and always choose wisely was due in part to the unbroken communion he felt with God through his unceasing prayers.

In the next chapter, we’ll take a close look at why prayer was so important to Jesus. For our purposes here, let’s just acknowledge that Jesus found prayer to be his main means of maintaining unbroken fellowship with his Father. Remember, humanity was a new experience for Jesus. He had existed for all eternity in perfect, spiritual communion with God. And then, wham-o, he wakes up as a crying baby in a manger. He had to learn to relate to God on an entirely new level.

I think Jesus found prayer to be helpful and comforting because it reminded him of his home. There is something to the sweetness and intimacy of prayer that reminded Jesus of heaven. Meaningful moments with God in prayer are one of the ways we can get closest to a heavenly reality on earth. That’s why Jesus liked it and made it such a priority in his life.

Doesn’t it seem rather obvious then, that if God’s holy Son, the world’s only perfect human, felt the need to pray for himself, then we who are far less than perfect need it as well? Doesn’t it make sense that if Jesus’s perfect soul still needed the comfort that prayer could bring, then our wounded and needy souls need it even more?  And doesn’t it make sense that if Jesus built his life on the discipline of personal prayer, then we should too?

Jesus was the world’s only expert human. More than any other person in history, Jesus showed us what humanity was meant to be—and he did so against the backdrop of prayer. If we learn anything from Jesus’s amazing life, it’s that we as humans need to pray.

Second, we need to pray for ourselves because the Holy Spirit is trying to make us holy.  In Philippians 1:6, Paul wrote that God would continue the work of making us pure and holy until we reached heaven. Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified (made holy) by his Word (see John 17:17). In short, Jesus is making us holy for our eternal home. He promised to present us as his perfect bride to our Heavenly Father; but before he can, he has to complete the process of our purification. Prayer is one of the main things we can do to help that process along.

When you pray, especially for yourself, you soften the soil of your heart and make your will more pliable in God’s hands. Prayer paves the way for God’s Spirit to move and work without hindrance in the deep recesses of your heart. Your personal prayers grant the Spirit permission to mold and reshape you into the image of Jesus.

Isaiah the prophet predicted that there would be a forerunner to Jesus. He said that a messenger would come who would call the nation of Israel to prepare a way for the coming king and to clear a straight path for him. John the Baptist was that messenger (see Luke 3:1-6). He told expectant Hebrews to get their hearts ready for repentance and the baptism of God’s Holy Spirit.

Prayer does that too. It prepares the way for the king and makes you ready for the cleansing changes he wants to bring to your life. It’s like rolling out the red carpet for the Holy Spirit to walk right into your heart.

To be prayerless, or at least to not pray for yourself, is to keep your heart hard and calloused toward the work of God in you. It creates a spiritual environment in your soul that’s less conducive to the sanctifying work of God’s Spirit in you. It might mean that God has to use a sledge hammer or a two-by-four, rather than his gentle hand, to soften your heart and begin to bring about the changes that he wants to make in you. In the biblical imagery of the potter and clay, prayer simply makes it easier for God to mold you without breaking you in the process. To me, that’s a great reason to pray.

Finally, we need to pray for ourselves because the life that God calls us to live is impossible without it. Go read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Review Jesus’s call for us to live Kingdom-focused lives: to love our enemies, to turn the other cheek, to not worry about provision, to not have lustful thoughts and to never judge others inappropriately. Hear Jesus’s command for us to be perfect as his Father is perfect, and then know that the life Jesus challenged us to live is absolutely impossible for any human. Without the anointing and equipping of God’s Spirit, we can never live, love, serve and give as God expects us to.

The religious elite of Jesus’s day had turned rule-keeping and religious duty into a finely-tuned science. If the God-pleasing life could be reached through human effort, then these guys certainly would have been voted Most Likely to Succeed in Kingdom things. But Jesus rebuked them for their empty religiosity. He actually said that to live a true Kingdom life, our righteousness had to exceed that of the religious elite (see Matthew 5:20). Jesus’s point was that Kingdom living is about living a received life, not an achieved one. And the life that he wants for us is one that we receive through prayer.

In John 6:63, Jesus taught that his Spirit alone gives life (Kingdom life); the flesh (our best efforts) profits nothing. If you are serious about living the biblical and godly life that God calls you to, then you’ve got to live it by the power of his Spirit. And the best way to become a Spirit-drenched person is through regular, focused prayer.

In John 15:8, Jesus challenged his disciples to bear much fruit for his glory. He also told them how to live fruit-bearing lives: by abiding in him (John 15:4-5). Prayer tethers you to God. It drives the tent pegs of your heart and soul deep into the soil of God’s holy ground. Prayer connects you to God so that the life-giving power of his Spirit can flow through you and cause you to bear fruit and glorify his name. Jesus never envisioned his disciples living Kingdom lives without significant personal prayer.

 

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When Sheep are Smarter than People

But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him

because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice. John 10:5

In this great passage, Jesus used the common image of a shepherd and his sheep to describe his relationship with us. That’s actually pretty funny when you think about it, as Jesus had a plethora of potential images from which to draw, yet he choose sheep.

In Jesus’ world, shepherds and sheep were common sights. Many in Jesus’ audience had firsthand experience with the adventures of working with sheep.

And for all the abuse sheep get for not being the brightest of God’s creations, they do have one uncanny ability: A sheep can learn its shepherd’s voice and distinguish it from anyone else’s. That’s why Jesus said that a sheep will run from a stranger—it simply doesn’t recognize his voice.

Oh that humans were that smart. We know from the pages of the Bible and from our own pain-filled personal experience that we all too often make really poor choices about whom we follow. We’ve lost our discerning abilities and we simply let all sorts of false and evil shepherds lead us astray.

And our world looks like it. Far from the tranquility and safety of the pastoral scene of a shepherd and his sheep, many of our lives look like something that has been ravaged by a false shepherd, if not a wolf or a lion.

Do you know Jesus’ voice? Do you know how to discern it from all the other voices around you? Can you tell the difference between truth and lies? Are you biblically-minded enough to not just recognize falsehood, but to flee from it?

Friends, Jesus used the image a sheep for a reason. We really do need a shepherd. We really do need protecting. And left to ourselves, we will inevitably wander into trouble.

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me, John 10:14.

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