Brutal – Day 171

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach.

B He must not be arrogant 

C or quick-tempered 

D or a drunkard 

E or violent 

F or greedy for gain,

(Titus 1:7 ESV)

Again, I want to give you the whole verse so you can get the context, but today we’re going to talk about one aspect of this very important verse.  Remember that this is God’s litmus test for the Christian leader.  These are the things that a Christian leader is because God has made him this way.  These are the things that we are to look for when we go to choose a Christian leader, because these are the things that God says a leader is.

A leader isn’t violent.  I think that goes without saying, but obviously not, because God felt He had to say that leaders shouldn’t be violent.

So why shouldn’t leaders be violent?  There are plenty of violent leaders in the world, men and women who have no more regard for human life than they do for a flea’s.  These people lead through fear and violence, breaking the will of their followers.  Their followers don’t follow out of the leaders influence, but for fear that if they don’t harm will befall them and their family.  This is not the Christian way.  A Christian leads from love and through that love service.

A violent person thinks themselves better than other people, and they will brutalize them to show that.  They have no regard for people and see them as only resources.  They are to serve the leader.  The Christian leader knows they are know better than anyone else, and consider themselves beneath everyone else.  They will serve them and love them to show that.  They see people as the creation of God, His image-bearers, and what Christ died for.   People have infinite worth for that reason.

Thats why a Christian leader is not to be violent.  A violent leader and a Christian leader see the world and the people in it completely differently.  A violent person by definition cannot be a Christian Leader.

Christian Leadership Principle:  A Christian leader is not violent and does not lead out of fear, but leads out of love.

Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today:  Psalm 17

Prayer:  Father, keep all violence from me, and keep me from all violence.  Let me be satisfied in Your love, and not violence and retribution.  In Jesus’ Name, amen.

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See the Forest – Day 170

January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. (2 Timothy 2:14 ESV)

Have you heard the old saying that “you can’t see the forest for the trees?”  I’m betting you have, and I’m also willing to bet that you probably have wondered what that means, or at least you haven’t seen that saying as true in your own life.

So, what does that even mean?

It means that sometimes we look at the individual parts of something so much that we fail to see the beauty of the whole thing.  Now, we recognize that the forest is made up of trees, and that without each individual one it wouldn’t be as glorious, but you can’t miss the sum of the parts, either.

Paul is warning Timothy that some people in his churches will want to argue endlessly about meanings of words, interpretations, and other silly minutiae, and that it will “ruin” the people that have to sit through that.

Paul tells Timothy to tell them to knock it off.  It’s not good for them, and in fact, they will be ruined if they keep it up.  Anything that’s ruined is by definition good for nothing.  Most people who argue about meanings and interpretations are just looking for a reason to not obey the Word of God.

Some people spend so much time arguing about the small stuff that they miss the whole point of what Jesus is saying to us (yes, even in church, and yes, even about the bible).  Don’t let this be you.  And don’t let it go on in your church.  There’s a point to understanding every word of the bible and pouring over it for the meaning that Christ has given to us, but at some point you have to get back to the main point and live by that point.

Christian Leadership Principle:  Don’t let individual words and interpretations take you away from the main point of the word of God.

Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today:  Colossians 2:1-5

Prayer:  Father, thank You for Your word.  Help me never to abuse it, and always live my life by it.  Please help me, in love, to help others to appreciate Your Word for what it is.  In Christ’s Name, amen.

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As Unto You – Day 169

January 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32 ESV)

You wouldn’t think it, but this is being written to the church.  This is an often overlooked fact that I take a little solace in.  It shows me that todays churches aren’t the place in all of Christian history where people treated each other terribly.  It’s obvious from reading this letter that Paul that the people in the Ephesian church could treat one another better.  Does that ring a bell?

It’s often been said that Christians shoot their wounded.  It’s also been said that we turn on them and eat them.  I think that about sums it up.  Of all places, the church should be a place where people are compassionate kind, and forgiving.

After all, our entire salvation is based on the fact that God was compassionate and kind enough to send Jesus to die on the cross, absorbing the wrath meant for us.

A Christian leader will be kind, compassionate (tenderhearted), and forgiving because Christ was those things to us.  A Christian leader understands that because God is those things to us, we are those things to other people.  In fact, all Christians will be those things.

A Christian leader should be mindful of the influence that they have so that they can teach and model kindness, compassion, and forgiveness to those around them.  They will create a culture of kindness, compassion, and forgiveness wherever they are, reflecting Christ’s nature for the world to see.

Christian Leadership Principle:  A Christian leader is and models kindness, compassion, and forgiveness knowing that Christ shows those qualities toward us.

Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today:  Ephesians 5:1-21

Prayer:  Father, You have shown me great forgiveness, kindness, and compassion.  Help me to show others those things in Your Name.  Give me Your love and Your eyes for other people.  In Jesus’ Name, amen.

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Repetition – Day 168

January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13 ESV)

I think that repetition is good for learning.  Most people find it boring, but I know that it’s repetition that really embeds knowledge in our minds.  That being said, take a look at today’s verse.  This is one of those verses that reminds us of something we know and can probably recite in our sleep.

Or can we?

Here’s the thing.  It’s very easy to know with your head that it’s suppose to be God in charge of things and not us.  It’s very easy to know with your head that It’s God’s mission, not ours, that matters, and it’s very easy to know in your head that it is God’s will that is supreme, and not mine.

It’s easy to know, but not easy to practice.  We should constantly be asking ourselves if we are doing the will of God or ours; if we are working in the power of God, or under our own steam.

It’s not enough to be doing something good or right, because anybody can be doing that.  We’re not necessarily called to be doing every good thing in the world.  We are called to operate under the influence of God, allowing Him to work through us, guide us, and to constantly go before us.

Will we do good when we allow this?  Oh yeah.  Will we see amazing things?  Oh yeah.  Will we see the salvation of God go out into the earth?  Oh yeah.  All that and eternity with Christ.

But if we don’t, and we proceed in our own will and under our own power, we have our reward in full.

Christian leadership principle:  A Disciple does not work in his own will, but in God’s will

Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today:  Matthew 5:20

Prayer:  Father, you are supreme.  Take away my will and replace it with Yours.  Work through me, Lord.  Thank You for using me for Your will and work.  In Jesus’ Name, amen.

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Wronged – Day 167

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!  (1 Corinthians 6:8 ESV)

There is probably nothing worse than being wronged by a person in your family or close circle of friends.  It makes us feel betrayed, cheated, and foolish.  It’s terrible.

Even more so when we are treated this way by someone in the body of Christ.  Of all places in the world, the Church is the one place that should be free of betrayal, cheating, and stealing; but it isn’t.

I’m willing to be that many of you, even you who are younger, have stories about how someone in the church did you wrong, and how badly it hurt you.  Some of you may still be carrying that pain around with you.

As damaging as this kind of behavior can be, as leaders it is very easy to participate in this kind of behavior.  There are so many demands on our time, attention, and skills that we hop from place to place without so much as a thought for some of the people that we encounter.

Whenever we turn our backs on a person in need, we have wronged them.  When we rush someone out of our presence to make room for someone or something else, we defraud them.  And-worse yet- “even your own brothers!”

Take care that you give to each person as they need.  Don’t fill your day so full that you can’t make appropriate time for people.  Treat everyone the way you would want to be treated.

Today’s Christian Leadership Principle:  Don’t wrong or defraud your brothers and sisters of your time, care and service.

 Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today:  Exodus 18

Prayer:  Father, thank You that You are always there for me, never turning Your back on me in time of need.  Help me to model Your faithfulness to others by being there for them.  In Christ’s Name, amen.

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Embarrassed – Day 166

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.   (1 John 2:28 ESV)

Have you ever been ashamed?  Has anyone ever done anything to embarrass you?  Then you know how it feels to shrink away in embarrassment.  You know what it means to want to hide in your shame.

John uses this feeling to tell his readers an important truth:  If we don’t live in obedience to God and allow the Spirit of God to lead us, one of these days you’re going to be ashamed.  Remember when you were a kid and you had done something wrong and you just dreaded the time that your parents came home?  It’s kind of like that, only much more serious.

I don’t want to be the person who is standing before God and where I should be crying tears of joy, am ashamed because I wasn’t the steward that I should have been.

Every Christian will stand before God and give an account of the stewardship that God has given them.  We aren’t judged like those who don’t believe, but we are accountable nonetheless.  Our punishment isn’t eternal separation from God, but shame at not doing  what little we can for the God who saves us.

I don’t know about you, but I want to hear “well done, good and faithful servant.”  That’s what I want to hear from Jesus when I stand before Him.

Bottom line is this:  we have to keep our relationship with God at it’s peak and be constantly led by His spirit if we’re going to be good and faithful servants.

Christian Leadership Principle:  Keeping our relationship with God close and vibrant allows us to hear and perform God’s will in our lives.

Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today:  Luke 12: 41-48

Prayer:  Father, I want to do Your work.  I want to stand before You unashamed.  Help me, Father.   Help me keep close to you, and to listen for and obey Your call on my life.  In Christ’s Name, amen.

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Trade Hate For a Blessing – Day 165

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  (Romans 12:14 ESV)

And so, we come to the part that nobody wants to hear, and start looking at those sections of the Bible that we think are just too hard to do, and so we ignore.

If we take the easy road, and just ignore these parts or look forward to the day that we are spiritual enough to do them, we are really missing something about Christianity and about Christ Himself.

This verse ranks right up there with forgive them 70×7 times as things we know and rarely do.  And yet, the New Testament takes a lot of time talking about things like forgiveness and loving our enemies.

Why?

For starters, it’s the human (fallen) nature to dislike those that dislike us, or who have done something terrible to us.  Thankfully, God has freed us from our fallen nature, allowing us to be Christ-like.

You might remember that it was Jesus who despite our sin, loved us enough to die for us, taking our guilt and wraith and taking it upon himself.  Now, we are probably pretty happy that Jesus was paying attention to his own words, loving those that sinned against Him and loving those who didn’t love him.

And that’s why it’s so important to love our enemies, and to forgive those that sin against us.  It’s a sure sign that we have been transformed by that same kind of love and forgiveness.  It’s a witness that another way is possible, one outside of the endless cycle of revenge and hate that has permeated the world and seems to rule it.

Stop being part of the world.  Love those who don’t love you.  forgive those that have done terrible things to you, even if they don’t ask for it.

Christian Leadership Principle:  We love those who don’t love us because it reflects Christ’s love that He has for us.

Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today:  Romans 5

Prayer:  Father, destroy the hypocrisy that exists in me.  Help me to love others as You have loved me.  Help me to remember that no matter how unlovable a person is, we were the same way to You before You saved us.  In Jesus’ Name, amen.

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Set Free – Day 164

December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.   (Galatians 5:1 ESV)

One of the most beautiful and dangerous aspects of our salvation is the freedom that Christ died to give us.  Nothing presents more opportunities to serve and minister other people and to fall back into idolatry as freedom does.

For the western church and the western Christian, I think freedom proves very difficult.  We have experienced political freedom for a long time.  So long in fact, that many of us have forgotten that with freedom comes responsibility.  Political freedom requires the nurturing of those things which promote freedom, and the participation in the political system.  If you take away these things, our political freedom erodes, and it’s our own fault.

Christian freedom, while obviously different from political freedom, is very similar.   If we are now free, we were once slaves.  Christ died to set us free from the power and domain of sin, and to take the wraith of God for us.  He freed us to serve Him and others, our lives uncluttered and unsullied by our sin and selfishness.

Our responsibility is to nourish those things that build us up in Christ.  Worship, prayer, and bible study are a good start.  When we do these things our eyes are on Christ, and we are centered in Him.  When we don’t, our eyes tend to be on ourselves, and you can bet that at those times we serve ourselves.

We also have to participate in our freedom.  That means loving people and serving them just as Christ loves and serves us.  Other people see Christ in us, and are introduced to Christ who frees them also.  Freedom is contagious.

When we don’t nourish our freedom or participate in our freedom, we slip quickly again into serving ourselves, and into a life of sin, which is slavery.  We don’t want that, and the people we serve deserve something better.

Christian leadership Principle:  Our freedom in Christ needs to be nourished and participated in order to keep us from falling into the slavery of sin and self

Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today:  Judges 2:11-23

Prayer:  Father, help me to keep my eyes on You.  Give me a renewed joy in the freedom that You have given me, and help me to nourish that freedom and reside in it.  In Jesus’ Name, amen.

 

164 NIL 365

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Religion – Day 163

December 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—  (Colossians 2:20 ESV)

First of all, if we’re going to talk about this verse, lets get some language barriers out of the way.  When Paul is talking about regulations here; he isn’t talking about laws and regulations that governments set up.  Paul isn’t asking why people obey those laws.  What Paul is talking about is religious laws.

One of Paul’s pet peeves is religion.  He would know, too.  Before his conversion to Christianity, Paul was one of the most religious men on the planet.  To him, the letter of the law was more important than the spirit of the law.

Look at how Paul words this whole verse:  He talks of death to the world and the ways of the world.  He says that those who are submitting to the regulations (the old regulations under the law of Moses) are acting like they are still alive in the world, because those who have died in Christ don’t need those regulations, they live under a different system.

So what is religion?  Religion, in a nutshell, is man trying to get to God.  It’s us trying to climb the ladder to heaven.  It’s everything we do that we think God should see and say, “look at him, he’s a good man.  He’s gets to spend eternity with me.”

What we don’t understand is that we can’t climb to heaven, and there’s nothing that we can do that makes us good enough to go to heaven.  Even our best is filthy in the presence of a Holy God.  God gave us the way in His Son, Jesus.  Only Jesus’ righteousness is good enough to get into heaven.  And here’s the good part:  He gives it to us if we have faith in him.

I wonder how many of you are living under “regulations.”  How many of us have made our spiritual life more about the religion and less about relationship?  Jesus reminds us that Life in Him is about relationship with the Father and relationship with others.  That’s why Jesus said that the whole of the law can be boiled down to those two things.

Christian Leadership Principle:  A Christian Leader puts relationships above religion

Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today:   Matthew 5

Prayer:  Father, help me to remember that my faith is about relationships, loving You and others.  Clear my heart of wanting to climb up to you.  Help me to know that Your Son died for me, and that He is my salvation.  In Christ’s Name, amen.

 

163 NIL 365

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Bitter – Day 162

December 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.   (Ephesians 4:31 ESV)

Leaders are defined by many things, but most often it is their followers.  If you think about it, if a leader has no followers than obviously they  aren’t leaders.  Leadership is about personal relationships.

For that matter, so is Christianity.  Sure, it’s Christ and the atonement that define us, but after that, we are identified by the way we love one another and treat other people.

So when Paul gives us this laundry list of things that we shouldn’t do, it doesn’t surprise us that they are all about the way we feel about and treat other people.  Notice that Paul even seems to follow a progression from bitterness to wrath and anger ending in slander.

Paul’s on to something here that we don’t like to face.  In our interpersonal relationships, most of us don’t just set out to slander someone.  It all starts with some hurt that the person causes us, either intentionally or unintentionally.  If we don’t act quickly to forgive that person, loving them as we should, we start to get angry.  Eventually it gets so bad that we slander that person.

Most of the time that person doesn’t even know we’re angry at them.  That’s the danger here.  We are quick to sin if we aren’t quick to forgive.  Remember this in your own personal life, and as you deal with other people as a leader.

If we don’t quickly deal in our own hearts with whatever bad feelings we are carrying for another person, we will quickly devolve into sin.  One of the things that makes a leader is their ability to deal quickly and decisively with their sin.  If there is a problem with another person, a leader has enough courage to face that person and either forgive them or ask forgiveness of them.

Christian Leadership Principle:  A Leader deals quickly with negative feelings about other people before they grow into sin.

Here’s a set of verses to meditate on today:  Matthew 5:21-26

Prayer:  Father, guard my heart.  Help me to identify it when I have negative feelings for another person.   Help me to ask for their forgiveness or forgive them as I need to.  Guard me against sin.  In Jesus’ Name, amen.

 

162 NIL 365

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