25,915

That is the number of days in the life of the average human. Reebok commissioned the study this past year, resulting in a fitness campaign with the motto “Honor Your Days.”

So, according to Reebok, I have 10,918 days left. And while I must admit that I do find it motivational to know, according to Reebok, that I’ve already lived 58% of my life, I find this passage below from DL Moody’s The Overcoming Life, even more inspiring to “live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:10)

“Many are mentioned in Scripture of whom we read that they lived so many years and then they died. The cradle and the grave are brought close together. They lived and they died, and that is all we know about them. In these days, you could write on the tombstone of many professing Christians the date they were born and the date they died. There is nothing in between.

You can’t bury a good man’s influence. It lives on. They have not buried Daniel. His influence is as great today as it ever was. Do you tell me that Joseph is dead? His influence still lives and will continue to live on and on. You can bury the frail house of clay that a good man lives in, but you can’t get rid of his influence and example. Paul was never more powerful than he is today.

 Do you tell me that John Howard, who went into so many of the dark prisons in Europe, is dead? Is Henry Martyn, or William Wilberforce, or John Bunyan dead? Go into the southern states, and there you will find millions of men and women who once were slaves. Mention to any of them the name of Wilberforce, and see how quickly their faces light up. He lived for something beside himself, and his memory will live on in the hearts of those for whom he lived and labored.

 Are Wesley or Whitefield dead? The names of those great evangelists were never more honored than they are now. Is John Knox dead? You can go to any part of Scotland today and feel the power of his influence. The enemies of these servants of God are dead. Those who persecuted them and told lies about them are dead. But the men themselves have outlived all the lies that were uttered concerning them. Not only that, but they will also shine in another world.”

 With 2017 having just begun, and with it another 365 opportunities to daily “live for something other than yourself so your memory will live on in the hearts of those for whom you lived and labored,” we would be wise to recall the words of the late C.T. Studd,

“Only one life, yes only one,
Soon will its fleeting hours be done;
Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet,
And stand before His Judgment seat;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

This Christmas we found ourselves away from our home church, yet wanted to attend a Christmas Eve service.  So we decided to visit a local church that had an excellent reputation over the years. When we arrived, we found a first-class facility, and a warm, inviting, ethnically diverse congregation. On that point alone, I was truly impressed, as Sunday morning continues to be one of the most segregated hours in American life, with more than 8 in 10 congregations made up of one predominant racial group.

And when the service began…well…the orchestra-led worship and drama was Broadway quality, and the diversity of the congregation was reflected on the stage. Again…I was blown away. Phenomenal.

So, when we transitioned into the sermon, my expectations were through the roof, as, over the years, I had always heard great things about the quality of their expository teaching.

Now, let me preface my reflections that follow by saying:

1.     As someone in ministry for 20+ years and often the recipient of well-intentioned criticism, I make a point to avoid having a critical spirit whenever possible.

2.     As someone who is in the midst of being entrepreneurial for the Lord, and is living in such a way that, fundraising-wise, as Francis Chan writes in Forgotten God, “I am desperate for God to come through. That if He doesn’t come through, I am deep trouble.” I want and need to keep clean accounts with the Lord. (Psalm 66:18)

3.     This was one sermon, and, in fairness, should not be the basis of evaluating the ongoing teaching ministry of this particular church.  (Although that is my fear, and the source of my discouragement, given the presence, presumably, of many Christmas/Easter only visitors.)

However, I think it bears addressing, by way of a cautionary tale, that the mention of SIN was nowhere to be found, apart from the gospel presentation itself. (Again, another plus for actually presenting the gospel!) But you cannot have someone saved without his or her realizing and acknowledging that they are perishing (Romans Road 101).  When we speak in vague generalities about having a “relationship with Christ” or “receiving Christ,” we do our congregations and all members of the godhead a grave injustice.

I love this quote from a Christmas Devotional I have been reading by John Piper, Good News of Great Joy: Daily Readings for Advent,

“Christmas is an indictment before it becomes a delight. It will not have its intended effect until we feel desperately the need for a Savior.”

A.W. Tozer says in From Heaven: A 28-Day Devotional,

“Whenever Christ is preached in the power of the Spirit, a judgment seat is erected and each hearer stands to be judged by his response to the message. His moral responsibility is not to a lesson in religious history but to the divine Person who now confronts him.”

But for “Christ to be preached,” and “fruit in keeping with repentance” to occur, where an individual is confronted with their sin and the perfection of the Lord, SIN most be part of the equation, as Paul noted when defining the Gospel,

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3-4)

Otherwise, we relegate the babe in the manger who became the God-Man on the cross to a Tony Robbins-like life coach, offering us a Better Life Now, as opposed to “the way, the truth, and the life,” apart from which there is no salvation from a Christ-less eternal existence. (aka. Hell…but that’s another post)

Again…A.W. Tozer to close:

“Why would the Son of God come to our race? Our own hearts—sin and darkness and deception and moral disease—tell us what His mission should be. The sin we cannot deny tells us that He might have come to judge the world!

Why did the Holy Ghost bring this proclamation and word from God that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world” (John 3:17)? Men and women are condemned in their own hearts because they know that if the Righteous One is coming, then we ought to be sentenced.

But God had a greater and far more gracious purpose—He came that sinful men might be saved. The loving mission of our Lord Jesus Christ was not to condemn but to forgive and reclaim.”

Attrition. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as a reduction in the number of employees or participants that occurs when people leave because they resign, retire, etc., and are not replaced.

Attrition happens in life. But with the Abundant Life Program’s church participation it happens at an alarmingly low rate. Occasionally, after the 6 church trainers complete the 2-day Train the Trainer Event, a church drops out, but, for the most part, normally a church’s enthusiasm only grows the further they get into the program.

This past week, while accompanying a visiting group from Washington, DC, I asked a 16-year-old volunteer why he had decided to take on the workload and time commitment of serving as a church trainer in his church’s Abundant Life program. As we listened to him describe his passion and vision for his community, I took note of the wisdom beyond his years he possessed. Often, many of us struggle with the perseverance required to achieve our goals.

Years ago I read the following story about legendary football coach, Tom Landry, from Chuck Swindoll’s book, So You Want to be Like Christ: Eight Essentials to Get You There.

“I had the privilege of getting to know the late coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry, while he served on the Dallas Theological Seminary board. He was a humble man of quite strength and dignity, and when he chose to say something an entire room would stop and lean in to hear what he had to say. Once during a breakfast with a group of men, someone asked how he was able to forge a team out of individuals so they would win, something he managed to do every year for twenty-nine years. I’ll never forget his answer. The table grew silent as he paused for a moment, and then said, ‘My job is to get men to do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to achieve.’”

This is a good reminder in all facets of our life, but notably in our walk with the Lord:

If we want what we’ve never had,
we must do what we’ve never done.

My wife can attest that I love a bargain as much as the next guy. And certainly an opportunity to take advantage of seasonal savings, in order to be a good steward of the resources the Lord has entrusted to us, is always appealing. But below are a few words of wisdom from some of the spiritual heavyweights of yesteryear, as we head into another Black Friday and the onset of the holiday shopping season.

Hudson Taylor on Opportunity over Accumulation

“I believe we are all in danger of accumulating. It may be from thoughtlessness or from pressure of occupation. Retaining things that would be useful to others, while not needed by ourselves, entails loss of blessing. If all resources of the church of God were utilized well, how much more might be accomplished! How many poor might be fed and naked clothed? And to how many of those, as yet unreached, the gospel might be carried?”

Andrew Murray on the True Value of Money

“What a wonderful religion Christianity is. It takes money, the very embodiment of the power of sense of this world, with its self-interest, its covetousness, and its pride, and it changes it into an instrument for God’s service and glory.”

Charles Ryrie on Consumption versus Compassion

“There is a generation of professing Christians now-a-days, who seem to know nothing of caring for their neighbours, and are wholly swallowed up in the concerns of number one,—that is, their own and their family’s. They eat, and drink, and sleep, and dress, and work, and get money, and spend money, year after year; and whether others are happy or miserable, well or ill, converted or unconverted, travelling toward heaven or toward hell, appear to be questions about which they are supremely indifferent. Can this be right? Can it be reconciled with the religion of Him who spoke the parable of the good Samaritan, and bade us ‘go and do likewise?’ (Luke x. 37.) I doubt it altogether.”

George Muller on Seizing Present Possibilities

“It is a point of great importance in the divine life, not to be anxiously reckoning about the morrow, nor dealing out sparingly, on account of possible future wants, which never may come; but to consider, that only the present moment to serve the Lord is ours, and that the morrow may never come to us.”

C.S. Lewis wrote, “To walk out of God’s will is to walk into nowhere.”

The book of Ruth in the Bible contains the story of Ruth, a Gentile woman who married a Jew, becoming the great grandmother and King David, and, most importantly, helped to perpetuate the line of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The story begins with Ruth’s future mother-in-law, Naomi, fleeing a famine in Bethlehem and heading to Moab:

“In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.” (Ruth 1:1-2)

This seemingly unimportant section contains an essential truth in keeping with C.S. Lewis’s caution above: No matter how difficult our circumstances, the safest place to be is in the will of God.

Most bible scholars believe the famine was an act of divine judgment for Israel’s disobedience. But instead of waiting for God’s direction and provision, Naomi and family ran to the enemy territory of Moab.

An enemy that:

– Had attacked them on their journey from Egypt to Canaan;
– Had invaded and ruled over them for 18 years;
– God describes in Psalm 60:8 as His wash pot, a picture of a humiliated nation washing the feet of the conquering soldiers.

The father of the Jewish nation, Abraham himself had made the same mistake in Gen 12:10 when he encountered a famine and fled to Egypt instead of waiting for God’s direction and provision.

What’s the lesson, you ask?

When trouble comes we can approach it in 3 different ways:

1.   Endure it – where trials can become our master and we can become bitter
2.  Escape it – where we may miss the purposes God wants to achieve in our lives
3.  Or…Enlist – where the trial becomes our servants and works for us to bring about our good and God’s glory. (Romans 8:28)*

*From Wiersbe’s New Testament Commentary

When I have the privilege of speaking, I often make a point of stressing that there is no distinction between the sacred and the secular when it comes to the Church, the body of Christ. Often there is the misconception that those who are called to full-time Christian work, whether stateside or overseas, are engaged in more sacred efforts than those who labor daily in the workforce or to raise a family.

In fact, the term “secular” indicates that an individual does not believe God to be foundational or central. To be “secular” doesn’t necessitate that you are an atheist or agnostic. It simply means that God has been pushed to the edge of consideration. By that definition, “secular individuals” engage in daily pursuits from priorities and philosophies that reflect a human-centered agenda as opposed to a God-centered one.

In The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer summarizes it nicely when he states,

 “Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.”

The “Why” of life can be seen in:

The Westminster Shorter Catechism

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”  

1 Corinthians 10:31

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

 Two final thoughts:

Those engaged in overseas mission work need believers in the labor force to support their gospel-centered efforts.

1. “Every believer is called to pray for the nations and support the cause of missions, but not every believer is called to leave their homeland and go overseas. Some will help send and support, and others will go, tell and serve.” – John Piper
2. A great resource to assist you and your family in the sacred fundamentals of the Christian faith is New City Catechism, a collaborative effort of The Gospel Coalition and Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

 

The Lord has blessed Empowering Action with an exceedingly godly and capable in-country team in regards to operations, which means that my role is overwhelmingly that of storyteller in the United States. This is a role that I relish, as it allows me to proclaim God’s wondrous deeds (Prov. 26:7), and, in addition, years ago I read that,

“The excellent leader is the steward-in-chief of the organization’s story…Leadership comes down to protecting the story, bringing others into the story, and keeping the organization accountable to the story. The leader tells the story, over and over again, refining it, updating it and driving it home.”

A recent story telling opportunity enabled me to reconnect with two former members of my junior high ministry, now in college. As I witnessed their leadership within their on-campus ministry and strength of their personal walk with the Lord, I was grateful to the Lord for allowing me to play a role in their spiritual development, resulting in a desire to “live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:10)

I found myself reflecting on the words of the Apostle John in 3 John 1:3-4,

“It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

3 John is the shortest book in the bible. It was written about 60 years after Jesus had ascended to heaven. It was a letter to a man named Gaius. It is believed that the Apostle John had probably led Gaius to the Lord, and Gaius had taken off in his faith, with a church meeting in his home. John writes to commend and encourage Gaius and the church members, calling them his “children.”

Were they literally his children?

His readers were “children of God,” as John 1:12 promises that “to all who receive Jesus Christ, to those who believe in His name, He gives them right to become children of God.”

But they were not John’s literal physical offspring. However, John, as their spiritual overseer, viewed them as his own spiritual children. He says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

After 20 years of student ministry, I can tell you that the greatest joy of ministry for me is not to teach the truth. It is not to even know that students understand the truth. The greatest joy in ministry is to see “my spiritual children” walk in the truth, by passionately living out God’s Word daily.

I can recall often standing before our students at the conclusion of a message, after having proclaimed the truth of God’s Word and saying,

“If you want to put a smile on my face, don’t raise my salary. Don’t give me a nicer office. Don’t increase my vacation time…Simply walk in the truth. There is no greater joy.”

The five-hour rule. Admired business leaders such as Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg all practice it.   Despite extremely busy schedules, each sets aside at least an hour a day (or five hours a week) to read and learn.

Learning is essential for Christian leaders, and we would be wise to note this practice. However, a word of caution is in order.

Charles Spurgeon wisely counseled,

“Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.”

In his book Leadership as an Identity Pastor Crawford Lorritts provides the following essential insights:

 “As leaders we want to get things done; we want results. And we should! This gives us a bent toward the pragmatic. However, we need to make sure that the truths and approaches we import and adopt are not contaminated. They should be consistent with what the Scriptures teach. The Word of God should be the rule, the standard for everything we are and do. What we believe, how we think, and how we act should be governed by our biblical framework.”

 “We must fight the encroaching secularization both of Christianity and Christian leadership in particular. As leaders we ought to be students of our culture, but we need to be discerning. We must learn to recognize worldviews and approaches that are human-centered rather than God-centered. Yes, by all means passionately search for principles and approaches that will help us advance His cause, but in the process let’s make sure that we edit our findings through the grid of the Word of God.”

Read to learn, in order to lead, but prioritize God’s Word in that you might “examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)