Faithful Leadership

Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful. 
(1 Corinthians 4:2) 

One of the primary responsibilities of a leader is to be faithful to God.  Even if your leadership is outside of the church realms, if you want to be a good leader of people you need to be faithful.  This word has the meaning of trustworthy, believing and faithfulness.  

Doesn't seem like such a profound statement and in fact it seems like stating the obvious.  Leaders can't lead unless they are trusted.  People will disagree with you as a leader and the direction you try to lead them, but they will still often follow you because they trust you.  Sometimes you can be trustworthy and people will still not trust you or follow you.  This is what Paul was dealing with in Corinth.  People arguing and being divided in the church even though Paul was faithful to lead them.   

Paul couldn't control people he was trying to lead and we can't either.  But what we can do is make sure that we are being faithful and trustworthy in our own life and in our own responsibilities.  Let God take care those who follow well or not so well.  

Spiritual Meat

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:2-3 that the people of the church in Corinth were only able to drink spiritual milk and they were not ready for spiritual meat. He says they were still controlled by their sinful nature and it was evident.  What do you we think would be the evidence spiritual immaturity?  How do we know if we are developing maturity in Christ?  UNITY IN THE BODY!

Emotions

We men try and be so in control of our emotions. Women are emotional and men are logical and don't show our emotions.  Stereo types are silly aren't they?  I am emotional during certain sporting events like a KC Chiefs game.  It is amazing how I yell at the television like the refs, coach or players could hear me.  Not very logical...

I am coming to grips with the reality that I am an emotional being!  Created that way by our awesome God!  I want to experience God with my brain and my heart.  If someone thinks I am emotional because I raise my hand in worship (which is asked of us in the Bible 1 Timothy 2:8) or God's presence brings a tear to my eyes - I will not be ashamed or apologetic.  I want to experience all of God possible!

I still have a long way to go in embracing my emotions - except for during sporting events.  We need to open our hearts to all God has for us!

Who is Giving You Directions?

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.  Galatians 5:16

When we are the guide to our lives - we walk straight into what our sinful nature craves.  This leads to worry and anxiety because of where we are going in life; we tend to participate in destructive or wasteful activities.  We over eat, we over drink, we play video games until late in the morning hours... add to the list of things you might do when you are stressed out.  

But when the Holy Spirit guides us we can live as God desires for us to live and we can live in freedom.  Free to encourage others, free to live in healthy relationships, free to worship God, free to ministry to others... add to the list what God leads you towards when you trust in God's leading.  

Stressed out?  Full of anxiety?  Could it be that you are in charge of the direction you are headed in life instead of trusting in God's Holy Spirit?  

Our Future

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,  and no mind has imagined what God has prepared  for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9

There is a future coming with Jesus that is far beyond anything that we can imagine!  Why does it matter?

- when I think things are tough here I can focus on the future!

- when it looks like people who don't follow God seem to have it easy; I can remember what is at stake..

- when my brain cannot comprehend how good God is: I can know a God who has prepared a great future for me must love me!

- if I give up time, money, relationships, comfort or anything else for the cause of Christ: it will be worth it!

I am Fine and My Friends are Fine

Bipolar and depression disorders have a powerful impact on our lives, our communities, and our nation.  Around 14,000,000 people in the USA suffer from some sort of depression every year which is   6.7% of the population. (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance)  8,000,000 ambulance calls a year are diagnosed that depression was the major cause of the illness. (Huffington Post) Teenagers and college students are also majorly impacted by depression issues.  These disorders cause many people to believe that life is not worth living anymore and they attempt to take their own lives because of those feelings.

For years the church responded with:  "There must be a spiritual issue in your life!"  "You need to just pray more!"  "I will pray for you!"  The church approached it as simply a spiritual issue when it wasn't completely a spiritual issue.  I guess we can make the case that everything is tied to our spiritual being so everything is a spiritual issue, but there is a lot going on here besides just spiritual issues.   There are many causes of depression - stress, hormones, trauma, etc. and they start in the brain and impact the physical body.  As the church we need to understand and help people find help to overcome depression in their lives.  Up to 80% of people who get help for their depression are able to be cured.  But around 50% of people with depression never seek help.  We need to pray for people and help them find help!  You may need to find help in your own journey instead of being ashamed of the reality you are facing depression.

There is a very short verse in the Bible that reminds us that Jesus was able to experience great emotions because of grief and suffering in this world.  John wrote that at Lazarus funeral that "Jesus wept."  We need to embrace the realities of our emotions and the God created us as emotional beings.  Being emotional beings means there may be times we need some help dealing with those emotions.  Let's quit believing that we are always okay and that all our friends will be okay.  Let's be willing to ask the tough questions of ourselves and the people we love.  

United With Jesus

God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.
 1 Corinthians 1:30

Jesus makes us right with God!
You know what it means to have a relationship that feels right? When you feel connected and in tune with another person.  And you know what it feels like when a relationship is not right? You can't always explain it but there seems to be some tension that separates you from the other person.  Sin separates has from a right relationship but Jesus makes us right with God!

Jesus makes us pure and holy!  There is only one way to purity and holiness!  It is not through our religious efforts.  We can maybe be good with a lot of work and self-control, but never pure and holy.  Our only hope for purity is through our trusting in Jesus holiness to cover us!

Jesus frees us from sin!  Sin is what keeps us bond by guilt and shame!  Enslaved to regret and hopelessness!  But when we are trusting in Jesus we can be free and if Jesus sets us free we can be truly free!

We are the ones who benefit when we trust Jesus!  That doesn't mean it is always easy. This doesn't mean life will always go your way.  But even if we lose our lives and gain Christ Jesus we have benefited!

Conflict is Key to Great Story

I have avoided conflict most of my life.  I avoided fights because I thought I was too weak to stand up for myself or others.  I avoided difficult conversations because of an overwhelming fear that would rise up within me.  I just wanted peace in my life and for everything to be comfortable and easy.
I can look back on my life and see the ways God was trying to bring out of me the courage to stand up and fight.  Sometimes it would help and I would gain courage and rise up, but other times I would shrink back and feel like a failure.
I took some steps in courage in sports.  I found myself sitting the bench in 9th grade basketball when I had been a guy who played a lot the year before.  I went to the coach to talk about the situation and he had one of those tough conversations where he told me I just didn't show the effort or the heart that some of the other boys were showing.  If I wanted to play more I would have to play harder and not be such a nice guy.  I wanted to play so I started working harder and playing harder and it paid off in time on the court.

I was watching Donald Millers video on Right Now Media - "Let Story Guide You" and Donald talks about the fact that conflict is an essential part of our story.  A story has to have: 1. Lead character, 2. Objective, 3. Conflict, and 4. Resolution.  Every great story has great conflict.   If we want to the story of our lives to be a great story we have to realize we must overcome great conflict.  So when I live my life to avoid conflict I am really saying I want an average life with an average story.  If you want to live out a great story we need to have a great objective and then to overcome the conflict it takes to have a great story.
God often says to people in the Bible - Do not be afraid!  I must keep my fear of conflict away from having a life of conflict and truly having a great story.

Quick Text

I sent a text message to a worship team member this week that was short and to the point.  A few minutes later I felt the Spirit convict me and so I sent another text message that was longer and hopefully more kind. I was worried that maybe my text might have been received differently then what I intended.  Some days my communication skills can be found lacking clarity!  I received a response that the short and to the point message was fine and received positively!  "Good deal" I thought, but why did God check me on that?  God went on to communicate to me that in my busy schedule my communication with God had been a little too much like my brief text.  It was there but was lacking clarity and depth. Planned prayer retreat was postponed because plumber was needing to talk about new building.  I had found time for golf but not for more personal time with Jesus. So this will be a short and to the point blog post while I spent some quality time with Jesus!