Good Old-Fashioned Follow Through

When God created the world and mankind, he wanted to have a lasting relationship with his creation. Because mankind sinned in the garden of Eden, God had to implement a plan that would bridge the gap between Him and his creation. That plan was his son, Jesus, coming into the world. Most know the rest of the story. Jesus was born to a virgin mother, grew up, taught a message of redemption, allowed his life to be taken horrifically, arose from the grave and ascended to heaven.

Every part of the plan had to play out exactly a certain way or there would not have been anything to bridge the gap between God and mankind. The bible gives us insight into what Jesus was feeling in the garden of Gethsemane when he prayed to God, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Jesus followed through on his father's plan because he knew that anything less would prevent all of mankind from being able to have a redeemed relationship with God, which would ultimately lead to eternal damnation for all.

In the past when a couple of people would shake hands on something, that meant that they were committing to following through on whatever they had agreed upon. Folks giving their word actually meant something. When somebody said they were going to do something, they followed through with it barring some earth shattering phenomena that prevented them from doing so. On the extremely rare occasion that a person was unable to follow through, they would exhaust all avenues to make sure their commitment was covered. After all, it was their integrity at stake and they were people of integrity. They understood that by not following through on their commitments, they were in essence saying to those to whom they had committed that they were not as important as other things in their lives.  Although it is true that people could have situations come up that alter their plans, those should be the rare exception and not the rule.

Unfortunately we all have to deal with those people who seem to like to add their names to sign up sheets, but the likelihood of their following through is only slightly better than the likelihood of winning the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes. As a father, I am teaching my sons to follow through on their commitments and to not commit to anything that they are not willing to follow through on. Good old fashioned follow through shouldn't just be a practice of yester-years, but also a practice of the here and now. I will do my part by making sure that I follow through on what I commit to and teach my boys to do the same. As for those who keep volunteering but don't follow through, try practicing a little integrity and start following through or just don't volunteer. It is much better for organizations to know they are going to have a shortfall in volunteers so they know how to plan instead of believing they are going to have volunteers and then have to scramble to try to fill the gaps.

Freedom Through Truth

If your life were to end within the next 24 hours, would you REALLY be ready to stand before God? This question prompted me to do a little self-examination. You see, I don’t believe Christians receive a “get out of Hell” card just because we say the sinner’s prayer and then we can do whatever we want. As Christians, we still make mistakes and sometimes we make bad decisions. Maybe I am just talking to myself on this one, but sometimes I try to justify my faulty decisions by comparing my decisions to others’. There have been times when I have searched dozens of online articles in my desire to rationalize what I wanted to do. The ironic thing about searching online is that there are always others who may share our beliefs or philosophies, but that doesn’t mean that they are correct. They’re just “like” minded. In fact, there have been times when I have found dozens of articles that would say and reiterate the exact same thing about what certain scripture verses meant. Then I would come across the one that said something that was more pleasing to what I wanted to believe and that was the one that I really wanted to accept as truth. If I were to accept those “alternative” interpretations as truth though, then who would I really be fooling?

John J. Parsons, a minister who helps clarify the Hebrew meaning of scripture for Christians wrote, “Self-deception is a universal condition of mankind. The scripture declares, “Every man’s way is right in his eyes” indicating that by nature we are self-justifying creatures, prone to believe our own “propaganda” and wishful thinking. We are apt to be biased in our self-examination and ready to excuse ourselves at every turn, rationalizing our behavior and suppressing the truth about ourselves in order to quell the voice of conscience within our hearts. When faced with an inconsistency between our behavior and our romanticized self-image, we often regard ourselves as something other than what we really are. In short, we deceive ourselves.”

I have found over the years though that I can’t really even trick myself into believing my own self-deceptions. As Christians, God put within us an inner voice that tells us when we are doing something that is not in alignment with his nature or his Word. As hard as we try, when we are outside his will we don’t have the same peace and joy that God allows us to have when we are within his will. When we are outside God’s will, we can still have momentary fun and happiness, but the true peace and joy that we really desire eludes us. In essence, we are trading temporary happiness and self-gratification for long term peace and joy.  

What is the remedy? It is through the honest confession of our condition, repentance and the turning away from those behaviors which we know are outside God’s will for our lives that we find healing. As Jesus said, you shall then know the truth, and “the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

So let’s revisit the question again. If your life were to end within the next 24 hours, would you REALLY be ready to stand before God?

Lessons From Affabel

When Karen, the boys and I go on trips, we almost always listen to the dramatized audio version of John Bevere’s, “Affabel: Window of Eternity.” It is one of my favorites.

It’s an allegory of our own lives here on earth, how we are given talents from God, how we use them, our faith in King Jalyn (Jesus), and our future eternity. The main story revolves around Deceived, Selfish, Independent, Faint Heart, and Charity who are taught the ways of King Jalyn at the School of Endel (Earth) beginning at very young ages who all subsequently graduate to enter secular society.  Sageous (Holy Spirit) mentors these five while in Endel and continues to observe them while they function in society.

Choices these five make while interacting with others and their faith (or lack thereof) help determine their eternity.  One day the Royal Guards (Angels) of Affabel (Heaven) come and round everyone up; the Day of Judgement is at hand.  They are brought to Affabel, go through the Hall of Judgment, and individually meet their Judge, King Jalyn, who judges their lives based on their actions compared to the written instructions that he provided, which ultimately determines their place in eternity.

One of my favorite scenes is when Selfish, who was elected mayor of Endel after he graduated, is standing before King Jalyn and he finds out that one of the ladies he knew in Endel as an administrative assistant is now a sub-ruler in Affabel. He is surprised and then surmises that since she was in his opinion a nobody in Endel and that he was the mayor, surely he would be given a higher position of ruler ship in Affabel. When King Jalyn asks the record keeper how many people Selfish had influenced for his Kingdom, the record keeper gives a number in the mid-teens. Selfish is feeling smug until he finds out that the woman had influenced more than five thousand people. Selfish asks how that is possible since she was so quiet and not in a real position of influence. King Jalyn states that the woman had influenced a man named “evangelist” and that all those that he had influenced for King Jalyn’s kingdom were also credited to her.

As a person in a position of influence within the church, who is strongly endorsed by Church leadership in many denominations, John Bevere was making quite a bold statement when he wrote this portion of Affabel. There seems to be a certain discriminatory mind-set within the Christian church that implies that if people are not out loudly proselytizing their Christian beliefs that they are not really doing much to influence the Kingdom of God. Some very public and outspoken Christian leaders have even stated that anybody who is not loudly proclaiming their beliefs as a Child of God is not giving God their all and will someday stand before God and have to give account for their lack of passion.

Hmmmm….

I imagine that passion is a lot like pain, it is hard to quantify because it can’t be accurately measured and is subjective based on the person involved. Outward manifestation of passion doesn’t really mean anything. Two people could be watching the same sports event, movie or something that stirs them and both be very passionately moved yet one may scream loudly and act crazy while the other sits quietly, smiles and shows no other outward behavior.  Could it be that God created people differently for a reason?

Dallas Holm has a song titled “Prayer Warriors” and the first few lyrics are: “Most will never see their faces, Never know their names, What they do they do alone, They don't need no fame.”

God is able to use many types of people. Some have very loud and sometimes forceful passion, while others are more quiet and reserved. Some serve in full view of the public while others serve in more intimate areas. Prayer Warriors are examples of the latter.  God knows what each person in this world needs in order for them to be receptive to having a relationship with Him. He knows what type of person will be most effective at influencing those to whom he has sent them.

I am glad that God is the ultimate final judge. Since He is the only one who ultimately knows the hearts of all men and women, and knows what each person is doing to influence others for His kingdom, He is the only who can truly judge, punish and reward without prejudice. In the meantime, we Christians need to be less judgmental of how other Christians go about doing what God has task them to do and perhaps even learn how to support each other in our endeavors.

Unquantifiable Faith

When I was in my mid-teens I had a friend that I hung out with that was several years older than me. He was an aspiring youth pastor and we seemed to compliment each other’s personalities. At times he could be very impulsive and extremely carefree and I was very conservative and extremely serious. He would introduce me as his “analytical friend.” I always laughed because I thought it amusing. We were friends for years, but as time and relationships sometimes changes things, we grew apart and started living very different lives.

Being an analytical person has served me well in the secular arena. In high school and college I experienced very little difficulty in learning whatever I was required to learn and I was always an honor student. In my career field I have blossomed and excelled. My official career title even includes the word “analyst” in it. As an analyst, I am expected to evaluate data and propose ways to improve my organization's efficiency. I advise our leadership, at all levels, on how to make our organization more viable through reduced costs and increased revenues. Since I am a dual analyst, I am also responsible for researching, planning, coordinating and recommending software and hardware system choices to meet our organization’s technology requirements.

Just as being an analytical person has served me well in the secular arena, it has been a hindrance to me in the spiritual. You see, I want everything to be testable and quantifiable. In my mind, the only things that can be unequivocally accepted as true are those things that can be “proven” through scientific methodologies. The concept of taking things based on “faith” is extremely challenging. Why? Because taking things based on faith frequently requires me to lay aside those mechanisms that I have been endowed with that help me “analyze” testable and quantifiable data, and just accept what somebody else wrote and/or said. That is disconcerting to somebody like me. Especially considering that I have learned not to “trust” or “believe” so many people over the years. 

So just what is the biggest issue? I find myself having to trust people that I haven’t met, or ever will get to meet in this lifetime, that when they wrote the Bible they were truly being led by God (Holy Spirit) to do so and that they didn’t make any mistakes. Thus, I can't use scientific methodology to prove or disprove every page of the Bible or the existence of God. So what does that leave me with? FAITH.

Faith is a strong belief in God, or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof. Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it. Some things we all experience in life can't be explained through the use of scientific methodologies, but we still know they exist. Take the intangible and abstract entity that we know as "love".

The physiological manifestations of love are somewhat quantifiable. Chemical reactions in the brain formulates the basic gamut of love. The non-chemical portion of love is not so easily quantified. The feelings, thoughts, memories, experiences, wants, hopes, wishes, dreams, and expectations one associates with the word “love” are all unique and independent. No matter how much one may argue love is simply a chemical reaction occurring in the brain, there is a definite variability in every person’s view on the definition of love.

A long time ago I decided that I was going to choose to trust the accuracy of the Bible and the existence of God, even if I could not prove them utilizing scientific methodologies. That is where faith comes in. I know my thoughts on this are not going to sway purist "analytical" people who are unwilling to accept anything on "faith", but it may help explain why an intelligent person may choose to believe in things that he or she cannot physically see, hear, smell, taste or touch.

The Anti-God State of Mind

C.S. Lewis called pride “the great sin.” In his book, Mere Christianity, Lewis said, "According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea bites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind…… it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began."

In the secular arena, leaders who have a high level of self-confidence usually excel because they fully comprehend their abilities and are able to leverage those abilities to make things happen. Self-confidence is not bad in of itself, but when it reaches the point where a person becomes un-teachable and/or self-righteous, then it may no longer be self-confidence but pride. It is this type of pride which is being referred to in this blog. The most destructive thing that can plague any leader is pride, but especially when it is a Christian leader.

So what is meant by unteachable? As leaders, we often become set in doing things a certain way because that is what has worked for us in the past. Because of past "victories", we become blind to other ways of doing things. We adopt a "it's my way or the highway" mentality that can actually hinder the work that God wants to do. How? God may be preparing new people with new ideas who can reach people in a way that we haven't been able to reach them before. Some people are receptive to the gospel through music and others through drama. For some, they may only be receptive to the gospel through in-your-face evangelism or one-on-one mentoring. It is for this reason that leaders need to be receptive to new ideas and not attempt to monopolize all decision making and force others to conform to their ideas. As leaders, we need to let God be God because we really don't know it all. We need to stop surrounding ourselves with people who have adopted the exact same practices that we have adopted. We need to replace the "yes men/women" who tell us what we want to hear with Godly men/women who tell us what God is telling them.

So what is meant by self-righteous? As leaders, we sometimes lose sight of our own weaknesses and faults. We sometimes forget that we are mere humans and that we make mistakes, just like everybody else. We become critical of others and start finding faults in others without taking a good hard look at ourselves. We sometimes start believing that we are not accountable to anyone and may even forget that we are accountable to God. We become demanding and controlling to the point where we will not to let go of anything that we were instrumental in starting, and in which we may not have been actively participating, because we feel that we still know best. As a secular leader, I have been involved in many projects from the conception to  implementation of an idea. In the very beginning, I micro-managed those projects to make sure that they were implemented as true to the conceived idea as possible, but at some point I had to learn to let go of my projects and hand the reins over to other people. Sometimes those people would take the project in a slightly different direction because that was what was best for the organization. I suspect that in the spiritual arena, God works the same way. He gives somebody an idea to implement, but at some point they have to turn the reins over and allow others to take it in any new direction that God intends. At that point, we do have to allow God to be God.

Cinnamon Toast, Monopoly and Popcorn

As a kid, I paid very little attention to what the inside of other people’s homes looked like. I just remember the fun times that I had playing games with them or watching tv at somebody else’s house who had better reception than our tv with rabbit ears. One house that I visited, because my Mom needed somebody to watch me while I was sick and she had to work, belonged to a “hippy” family that was very poor. I don’t remember what the house looked like on the inside, I just remember that our lunch consisted of the best cinnamon toast made lovingly by a woman who had nothing else to give. It was where I learned to play a much faster version of Monopoly, which I still play to this day. It was warm, safe and nurturing to me as a young boy.

Another home that I spent even more time at was several miles away from mine and the family again had very limited resources.  We played a lot of games, read books and watched some tv at that house. We also ate a lot of popcorn with nutritional yeast on it.  My friend’s Mom was very health conscious and had little to work with, but the popcorn was filling and the environment was comforting. You know what? As hard as I try, I still cannot picture what the condition of the home was on the inside. I can only remember that I felt comfortable and safe there.

I miss those days when people would get together to just sit around and enjoy each other’s company without anybody worrying about what other people were thinking about their possessions. I know it’s not just my imagination that people actually worry about that. I have on repeated occasions overheard people talking about not feeling comfortable with having others over to their homes because they felt their homes were not “guest worthy.”

I will even admit that there have been times when I felt the same way. Our house has that “lived” in look. We keep our house clean, but it is far from perfect. Yes, there is clutter from time to time and on occasion a dog-hair tumbleweed will roll across the floor. We have wood laminate floors throughout the living room and kitchen and the dog-hair tumbleweeds are very obvious! The funny thing about dog-hair tumble weeds is that we can sweep the floor and then 10 minutes later a dog-hair tumbleweed presents itself. I swear my dogs should be completely bald by how much hair they lose on a daily basis.

I guess my point is, I feel like sometimes I am missing out on enjoying others people’s company (whether at my house or theirs) because we sometimes focus on things that are really not that important. So what if a person has a stack of magazines sitting on their kitchen table. I don’t care! So what if they have unfolded laundry sitting in a laundry basket in their living room. I don’t care!  It is not the end of the world and I don’t really care about silly things like that. If Jesus were to walk into anybody’s house right now, I don’t think he would be looking at their possessions with the intent of judging them by their worth. I truly believe he would be more interested in eternal matters and how they have helped others in this life. Why should I be any different?

Apologizing to God

Going into 2015, I was thinking about how good God has been to my family for the last several years and 2014 was the best one by far. I have come to the realization that God doesn't bless me and my family because we perform in some way that makes him obligatory to us; he chooses to bless my family because he loves us. Because I sometimes over-analyze things, I started thinking a lot about why the last couple of years have been better than others and Pastor's sermon this morning got me to thinking even more. You see, there was a period of time when I didn't live my life in a way that was totally pleasing to God and that may have very well have been a limiting factor in what God was able to do for my family. As the leader of my home, when I make a mistake, it affects my entire family.

Most of the great leaders in Scripture at some time in their lives made mistakes. For instance: When Abraham should have waited for God to give him a son, he took matters into his own hands; Moses, in trying to help his people, ran ahead of the Lord and killed the Egyptian. Later, against the command of God, he struck the rock in his anger; When David should have been out in the field of battle, he stayed home and committed adultery with Bathsheba and then plotted the murder of her husband; Peter, in spite of his self-confidence and his great boast, denied Christ, as did the rest of the disciples who fled the night of Christ’s arrest. There is a fundamental principle here. Sometimes God allows us to make mistakes before he brings about success with us. Our mistakes are often rungs on the ladder of growth—if we will learn from our mistakes rather than grovel in the dirt.

But I also learned this over the past couple of years about God’s grace and our mistakes. God expects us to acknowledge our mistakes and don’t try to hide behind excuses. When we sin, we need to confess our sins to God and then learn from our mistakes. We need to put safeguards in place to prevent the same or like mistakes from taking place again. Lastly, we need to put the mistake behind us and move ahead.

Because I am human, I continue to make mistakes. When I do, I have to correct them as best as is humanly possible, ask God and those whom I have hurt for forgiveness, and then move on. I believe that is why God has allowed us to prosper over the last couple of years; because I acknowledge my mistakes, attempt to correct them and then move on.

Where I am going with this? Sometimes families and organizations, including Churches, limit the blessings that God wants to bestow upon them because they do things that God finds offensive. Sure, God will continue to bless their endeavors, but he is unwilling to fully bestow his greatest blessings upon those organizations because there is ongoing and unresolved "sin." Like I stated earlier, when I make mistakes it affects my entire family and when organizational leaders make mistakes, it affects the entire organization and the blessings that God truly wants to bestow upon that organization. So, if you're the leader of your own family or the leader of an organization and you want to receive the greatest blessings from God, acknowledge any mistakes you may have made, apologize to those hurt (and if the mistake was made publicly, apologize publicly) and then move on.