Applauding Ourselves

When Ronald Reagan was still governor of California he was asked to give a speech in Mexico City. Reagan writes: “After I had finished speaking, I sat down to rather unenthusiastic applause, and I was a little embarrassed. The speaker who followed me spoke in Spanish – which I don’t understand – and he was being applauded almost at every paragraph. Well, to hide my embarrassment, I started clapping when he spoke – before everyone else and longer than everyone else – until our ambassador leaned over and said, ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Mr. Reagan. You see, that man is interpreting your speech.’”

We may hide our pride for a while but eventually it makes us stand out as fools. The danger of pride is that it feeds on our goodness. Pride reveals itself in vanity. Max Lucado writes about this particular aspect of pride when he says, “Suppose you are in a group photo. The first time you see the picture where do you look? And if you look good, do you like the picture? If you are the only one who looks good, do you still like the picture? If some are cross-eyed and others have spinach in their teeth – but you still look good – do you like the picture? If that’s what makes you like it even more, you’ve got a bad case of pride.” Pride is about comparing ourselves with others. How can there be a number one without a number two?

The key to living beyond pride is not taking your self so serious. Humility is not about convincing ourselves that we are unattractive or that we are incompetent. It’s not about trying to make ourselves into nothing. Humility has to do with a submitted willingness, a healthy self-forgetfulness. Real humility is not thinking poorly of yourself. It is just thinking more about other people. It’s getting the focus off of my needs, my desires, my hurts, my wants, and putting the focus on what other people need. Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is simply thinking less about yourself.

Dead or Alive

Out of fear many of us will stay behind. Jesus has come calling, “Follow me” and many of us have chosen to remain on the shore. The shore is secure. It never changes. It is stable. It is safe. The deep gets shaky. The deep seems too far out. The deep is too unstable. The deep has too many unknowns. I may get wet in the deep. The problem is not that we are afraid of death it is that many of us are afraid of being resurrected. The greater fear for some of us is the fear of being raised from the dead. We like being dead because at least nothing is expected of me. We like being dead because I don’t have to commit. I like being dead because I don’t have to feel emotion, I don’t have to get involved, and I don’t have to run the risk of getting hurt. At the same time being dead is just that being dead! It is not life. It is not love. It is not faith. Jesus comes along and says, “Follow me” and you say, “Nah, I think I’ll settle for my dead existence.”

Accepting the words of Jesus, “Follow me” is an invitation to rise from the dead. It is being filled with life. It is being given a purpose. It is finding in life the treasure that has been hidden for so long. If people do not follow, they remain behind. We must get out of our situation and allow God to put us into a situation where faith is possible. We must be willing to go into the deep with Jesus. This means leaving everything that would hinder responding to the call. It means selling out. It means giving up. It means letting go. The point is: the disobedient cannot have faith. Peter could not convert himself but he could leave his nets. By leaving his nets he was willing to put himself into a situation to be used by God. The road of faith passes through obedience to the call of Christ.

Community of Cracked Pots

I worship with a bunch of cracked pots. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4: 7, “We have this treasure in clay jars . ..” By divine design, the mysteries of God have been entrusted to a community of clay jars. Not perfect clay pots but cracked pots. The beauty and wonder of God has been entrusted to us – cracked pots. We, cracked pots, are recipients of the grace of God. I hope you can get a small glimpse of that image. We, cracked pots, are in possession of something we don’t deserve nor can hardly contain because of our brokenness. I believe that is the point. We are not suppose to contain it. We are suppose to allow the love of God leak out from the cracks that exist in us.

We all have our brokenness. But it is from within our brokenness that the grace of God is allowed to flow.God knows that we are all broken. God loves us because God is love and loving is what He does. God can take our broken pieces and make something beautiful. Here is a principle that is worth remembering: Brokenness is God’s requirement for usefulness. 2 Corinthians 12:9 God says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Then Paul says, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” It isn’t when you are at your strongest that people can see God’s power. It is through your weakness that God’s power is made evident. The greatest place you and I can be is the place of vulnerability. It is the place where we are no longer self-sufficient but relying on God.

Many of us work really hard to try to hide our cracks. We put on a front that everything is okay. We constantly work at covering up our cracks. But remember that God uses broken things.

Here is a prayer:

Dear Lord, My brokenness,
leads me back to you.
Renew my heart.
Mold me and shape me.
Not my will but yours be done.
Into your hands I commit my life. Amen.

Love Your Enemies

A pastor in Florida is making news by spreading hate. He is threatening to burn The Quran on September 11th. As a result he is inciting hate. He is also transforming his call to Gospel ministry into a political tool instead of preaching "Christ crucified." I wonder how he sleeps at night knowing that his actions have put thousands of American Soldiers at risk? How does he feel knowing that years of incarnational ministry among Muslims is going to be threatened because of this simple publicity stunt? How can he claim to be a follower of Jesus when Jesus says, "Love your enemies?"

Dr. Timothy Tennet, President of Asbury Seminary, says, "In 1900 34% of the world population called themselves Christian. In 2000 33% of the world population called themselves Christian. The figures demonstrate that Christianity simply kept steady with the population growth of the world. In 1900 12% of the world population called themselves Muslim. In 2000 20% of the world population called themselves Muslim. The Muslim faith grew 8% over the rate of population growth. This makes Islam the fastest growing religion in the world." In the 18th and 19th century, Judaism was the second largest religious group outside of Christianity in the United States. Currently Islam is on the same level as Judaism and is expected to surpass Judaism in the United States for the title of second largest religion within a decade. Islam is a highly misunderstood and feared religion by many of us in the West. Yet we are moving into an era where we will have neighbors that are of the Muslim faith. Our children will sit beside children of the Islamic faith in school. We visit restaurants where the owners are Muslim. It is becoming more common everyday to come across and interact with a person of the Muslim faith. We can choose to ignore the fact. We can refuse the Scripture’s mandate to love and just turn our backs on our neighbors or we can begin to have a conversation.

As parting words, Jesus tells his disciples and us, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18ff). The word “nations” in the Greek is not what we consider when we think of nations. It does not mean nation-states with borders and boundaries. “Nations” in this passage refers to ethnic groups. There are approximately 24,000 ethnic groups in the world today. 10,0000 of those belong to a world religion outside of Christianity. 4,000 ethnic groups currently belong to Islam. If we are going to be faithful to the command of Jesus we must reach out to the Muslims. If we chose to leave out any people group simply because they seem difficult, unreachable, or none of our concern then we are not faithful to Christ. Our call is to invite all Muslims into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Our invitation is to all peoples to be followers of Jesus.

How Am I Investing My Time?

In a lifetime the average North American will spend: Six months sitting at stoplights, Eight months opening junk mail, One year looking for misplaced objects, 2years unsuccessfully returning phone calls, 5 years waiting in line, 6 years eating, and 21 years watching television. An article was once published entitled, “If You Are 35, You Have 500 Days To Live.” The article went on to contend that when you subtract the time you spend sleeping, working, tending to personal matters, eating, traveling, doing chores, attending to personal hygiene, and add in the miscellaneous time stealers, in the next 36 years you will have only 500 days to spend as you wish. Think about how you spend your time. When all of the necessary things are done, how much time is left?

God did not give us all the same amount of talent. I believe we all have gifts but it seems that some are more gifted than others. God did not give us all the same amount of wealth. Some have more money than others. But God has given us each the same amount of time. Each person started the day with the same amount of hours as the next person. We each have twenty-four hours to spend today. Imagine a bank depositing $86,400.00 in your account at the start of each day. No balance is carried over from day to day. Any balance is deleted in the evening. What would you do if you knew that you would have money left over at the end of the day? You would do a withdrawal.

In a way we do have this kind of bank. It is called the First Bank of Father Time. Everyday we are credited 86,400 seconds. Every night, that which we don’t use is debited from our account. The bank of Father Time does not allow for overdrafts, there is no going back to deposit more into the account. It does not allow you to borrow from tomorrow. All we have is what we have at this moment. We say time is money.

But in reality time is not money. If you lose money, you can always make it some other way. We can never regain lost time. Whatever time we lose we can never get back. So the greatest investment we can make is not with money but with time. One of the greatest value based questions we can ask is “how am I investing my time?”