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You know our problem? We confuse conversion with maturity. We’d rather these new converts clean up their act straight away before we grant them our genuine seal of Christian approval. How sad. Somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten the details of our own miserable pasts and the grace of God at work in us.
Now let me pause to clarify something important. Some Christians try to impose their rigid system of dos and don’ts to the issue of conversion. I want to caution against that sort of exercise. It’s impossible to find any single place in Scripture that reveals the one-and-only way every sinner comes to Christ. While the message of the Gospel is the same,
methods differ. We are so conditioned by denominational backgrounds, religious traditionalism, and narrow-thinking prejudice, we miss the point of God’s grace. We tend to require more than God does! Be careful about exacting requirements on someone who genuinely turns to the Savior.
At times God’s plan will frighten you. Or you’ll be intimidated by its demands. Other times you’ll be disappointed. For instance, when God tells you no, to wait, or to sit tight, you’ll want to argue. You may decide to fight. You might attempt to negotiate. You may become angry. But when your faith kicks in gear, none of those impulses will control you. Faith says, “I can do this. I trust
you, Lord. I don’t understand everything, but I trust you completely. Let’s do it.”
Let me make an observation you may need to consider. Quite possibly God has a major move in store for you in the near future. After well over sixty years on this earth, and having spent forty of those years studying and learning more about the ways of God, I can tell you His will for our lives is full of surprises. He has more mo...
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Moses. Having grown up in the prestigious environment of Pharaoh’s lavish courts, Moses had positioned himself to embrace a remarkable political future. After murdering an Egyptian citizen, however, Moses fled to the plains of Midian, where he married the daughter of a local priest. He spent the next forty years tending his father-in-law’s sheep. It wasn’t until he was eighty years old that God finally plucked the once-Egyptian prince- turned-shepherd, out of obscurity and into the annals of greatness. You read correctly: He was eighty! David.
Anointed king over Israel as a teen, he didn’t assume the throne until age thirty. After his heroic victory over Goliath, he spent the next thirteen years as a fugitive, hiding out in the caves of Engedi from King Saul, who had grown nearly insane with jealously. A few of David’s beloved psalms were born out of this crucible of solitude, but mostly he lived in obscurity, surviving in the Judean wilderness, one of the most rugged, harsh territories of the world.
He had been so busy, active, engaged, advancing, and zealous. The same words describe many Christians sitting
in churches today. And therein lies our problem. We’re not
busy doing all the wrong things or even a few terrible things. We’re certainly not persecutors or destroyers. But if the truth were known, we’ll go for miles on fumes, all t...
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Now stop and think about this for a moment. Chances are good your life has grown more complicated than it was ten years ago, or for that matter, even five years ago. Over time you’ve collected more and more stuff, engaged in more and more activities, taken on more and more debt, accepted more and more responsibilities. Now your well is dry. Bone dry. You’re not necessarily unhappy, but you’re empty! The deeper life has eluded you. Like an illness that threatens your physical life if ignored, living life on empty eventually siphons your spiritual vitality. If we hope to grow deeper, we must
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First, instead of speeding up, slow down and rethink. I don’t want you to miss any of these words. I’ve thought about them for years. Instead of speeding up, let’s find ways to slow down and rethink. Taking time to discover what really matters is essential if we’re going to lift the curse of superficiality that shadows our lives. Don’t wait for the doctor to tell you that you have six months to live. Long before anything that tragic becomes a reality, you should be growing roots deep into the soil of those things that truly matter.
But that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to terminal darkness. Take heart from the words of British author James Stalker who wrote, “Waiting is a common instrument of providential discipline for those to whom exceptional work has been appointed.”1 Pause and let that sink in. Read the statement again, slower this time. Waiting is one of God’s preferred methods of preparing special people for significant projects. The Bible makes that principle plain from cover to cover.
God prepares us during times when the whole world seems to be going on without us. He patiently, deliberately, steadily, molds us in the shadows, so that we might be properly prepared for later years when He chooses to use us in the spotlight. That’s precisely where we find our man, Saul. The eleventh chapter of Acts opens with him still hidden in the shadows as God faithfully continues to prepare him for something great.
Romans 8:25. “If we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”
Fourth, when God finally chooses to use us, it comes at a time least expected, when we feel the least qualified. That makes us effective.
F. B. Meyer wrote these fitting words in his insightful biography on Paul:
Well-known pastor and theologian, Helmut Thielicke, after an extended visit to the States was asked what he believed was the greatest defect among American Christians. His answer: “They have an inadequate view of suffering.” How’s that for insightful?
Nobody knows for sure. And you know what that means? It doesn’t matter. The man who endured it calls it a “messenger of Satan.” The enemy hoped to use it to cause the apostle to defect or to retreat from his calling. God used it to keep the gifted servant on his knees.
Suffering is not about identifying the cause; it’s about focusing on the response. I plead with you—do not miss that! It’s about willingly accepting God’s plan, no matter what the circumstance. It’s about finding contentment in God’s grace, regardless.
While they were ministering to the Lord, fasting, singing, teaching, witnessing, and praying, the Holy Spirit said, “Okay, hitch up the wagons, fellas . . . westward ho!” (Swindoll revised paraphrase.) “I need Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Without that sort of single-minded devotion to the Lord, we run the risk of becoming people-pleasers. Christian leaders who become pawns as they focus on pleasing people are pathetic wimps.
Honestly, there have been times in my younger life when I stumbled onto that slippery slide. I look back on those few occasions with only regret. Nothing good ever comes from a ministry devoted to pleasing people.
Releasing and obeying requires that kind of fearless devotion to God’s will. Learn to welcome the risk. Stop waiting for all the answers. All your ducks will never swim in a straight row. Such a guarded mentality requires very little faith, and involves absolutely no adventure. There’s a word for those who take all the risk out of living . . . boring!
I’m convinced that there are two lasting benefits of focusing one’s ministry on God’s Word: We know we are getting reliable truth, and our faith is strengthened.
Let’s trace his sermon outline through the passage in Acts thirteen. In doing so, we’re able to see the biblical journey on which he led his fellow worshipers. Genesis and Exodus Acts 13:17 Numbers Acts 13:18 Joshua Acts 13:19 Judges
Acts 13:20
Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and the Chronicles Acts 13:21–22
It wasn’t human opinion that called you into the work you’re doing. So don’t let human responses or criticisms get you sidetracked. Keep going.
What’s true of children is true of all God’s people. Good leadership balances the tender nurturing of a mother with the loving affirmation of a father. Encouragement is like an oasis in the desert. It brings needed refreshment to weary individuals whose souls are parched from time spent in the desert of self-doubt. There’s also the desert of failure when we’ve tried so hard to succeed and the desert of no progress when we so wanted something to happen. And there’s the desert of family rejection, abuse, and a thousand other arid, barren landscapes of life.
When facing negative criticism . . . • refuse to get caught up in the emotion of the charges. • stay with the facts. • tell the truth with a clear conscience. • identify the original source of the accusations. • don’t surrender or quit. • don’t become impatient and bitter. • stand firm on the promises of God.
I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because Jesus said, “If you receive a little child, you receive me.” So every abortion is the denial of receiving Jesus, the neglect of receiving Jesus.” Abortion is really a war against the child, and I hate the killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that the mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love. . . . Any country that accepts abortion is not
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Paul offers no conditions, no restrictions, no boundaries that come to bear on his contentment. Regardless of his station in life, he lived above his circumstances. I’m convinced that’s what allowed God to use the man so effectively. That’s what made his impact heroic. Not once in all the stories we’ve observed in these few chapters on Paul has he displayed a pitiful, victim mentality. Rather, through “humble means,” or “prosperity,” going “hungry,” or being “filled,” Paul remained content. Though his circumstances were often extreme, the man’s attitude remained virtually bulletproof.
No one that I know endured the level of hardship he did as a good solider of Christ. What makes him all-the-more amazing is this: Never once does he leave a hint of complaint over being chained to a burly Roman soldier or about the inconvenience of being confined to such cramped quarters. The man simply would not grumble. By God’s grace, he lived above it all. I repeat, he had learned the secret of contentment.
The secret to Paul’s contentment did not emerge from a manual on how to live the Christian life or from a workshop on positive thinking. He didn’t have access to a stack of self-help scrolls promising to shore up his sagging self-confidence. Paul’s secret was not found in a program, but in a Person. Christ made the difference. He taught His servant to endure all situations, every circumstance, each difficult challenge, no matter how adverse, through His power. Paul released all rights to His Master and, in turn, He released all the strength Paul needed.
When your attitude overshadows your situation, transformation really begins.
Paul wrote, in effect, “Timothy, be gentle to those sheep! I know they’re stubborn. But they still belong to the Lord.” Timothy would have his critics, just as Paul did. But there was no need to clobber saints with Truth, no matter how ornery they may be. Paul recommended a gentle, servant-hearted approach for dealing with opposition.
