Church

March 1, 2013

Focused Worship or Distracted Worship?

There are times when I am leading worship I become preoccupied by the score or arrangement, or distracted by an out-of-pitch guitar string, or sidetracked by someone talking, or blurred by uncertainty in which direction to go. I know I am NOT the only one who has to take authority over my thoughts and bring them into subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I know that corporate worship needs my focus upon the Lord. I want to be focused upon Him, but sometimes even as a leader I can lose focus or have trouble concentrating on the Lord.

One common hindrance to being able to center upon the Lord is a lack of familiarity with the song we are singing. It is difficult to flow in Spirit-empowered worship when I am reading my musical score – chord by chord, note by note, or word by word. I’m not really connecting my spirit with Holy Spirit when my mind is crowded with thoughts about the upcoming key change, the transition to the bridge, the next song’s lyrics, or the rocking guitar solo that I wish I had more time to perfect.

Recognizing this limitation I honestly try to practice the songs as much as I can. I will sit with my guitar and sing through the prepared list. I will sing through and pray through my set list even while I am walking in the grocery store and visiting the rest room. While driving, I will repeat the recording of a new song until my daughter Kimberlyn can’t stand it any longer. I may not have the song perfected but I do want to have enough familiarity that I can focus on what’s important. I want my focus on the Lord; I want a Matthew 6:33 focus.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33 NIV)

Another common problem for many platform musicians and singers is lack of personal worship in private. My spiritual senses are dulled when I feast on the “world” for a week. What do I mean by “world”? Lots of things – pop music, NFL football, thanksgiving turkey, online media – whatever I consume in abundant quantity or whatever consumes my thought life during the week. I admit it – even pastors have to live in world that competes for attention. I have to remind myself to worship everyday.

I have figured out I have to tune up my spirit man before I can remain focused upon the Lord while I am in a worship service. I cannot do in front of people on Sunday mornings something that is missing from my private life. In fact, if worship is absent from my life on Monday through Saturday, worship isn’t likely to flow on Sunday. Worship really is a lifestyle. But when I take time to worship privately, my worship expression on Sunday comes much more easily.

“But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24 NLT)

Are you tuned up spiritually? Are you ready to focus your thoughts on the Lord as we enter God’s awesome presence on Sunday? Take some time to worship privately. Shut the door to your bedroom and express yourself to the Lord. Sing, shout, play your instrument, clap, pray in the tongues, bow, even dance! I bet that if all of us do it privately on Saturday we will be able to tell a difference on Sunday.

February 27, 2013

You are saved by grace but you serve by choice.

I appreciate the staff at Valley Fellowship Church! Pastor Will Umbarger is an anointed minister and a great pastor for young adults at Valley Fellowship, but this afternoon, I caught Pastor Will installing a lock in a VFCA classroom. Why? He understands service!

Valley Fellowship Christian Academy Open House is Saturday afternoon, and Will is doing what was needed to have this classroom ready for guests. You are welcome to join us on Saturday, March 2, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. Please, drop by! You can get more information at http://valleyfellowship.com/academy_home.php. The teachers and staff are BIG reasons why VFCA is the best school in Huntsville, Alabama (and beyond!). They understand that service is required of a servant of God.

Are you willing to do what’s necessary to serve in God’s kingdom?

If everyone in your local church was just like you, what kind of church would your church be?

All-out surrender is demanded of a servant. The “serve me” mentality of modern culture goes against what Jesus says in Mark 10:35-45. Jesus talks of being a servant. “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant (v. 43 NIV); For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (v. 45 NIV).”

For the Greek the highest ideal was self-determination expressed in freedom. Thus the Greek looked upon the slave as an inferior kind of person. It would have been contradictory to the Greek ideal to speak of becoming a servant to another, even to God. Christianity stood this ideal upon its head. (Harper’s Bible Dictionary, Harper & Row, 1985)

Hebrew slaves were to be freed after a period of time, but someone who had been a slave, then set free, could by choice commit to serve the master for life. I think that is the imagery that Paul (Rom 1:1), James (James 1:1), Simon Peter (2 Peter 1:1), and Jude (Jude 1) highlighted.

You are saved by grace but you serve by choice. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV)

You must choose to submit to God’s control. Are you ready to serve God by serving others?

February 24, 2013

Male & Female: Shared Rulership

Male and female are designed by God to co-labor together with Him. When Patti (my wife!) was five years old, she told her dad, “God just told me , I’m going to be a preacher.”

Wirt (my father-in-law) chuckled, “Is that right?”

“Well, I will either marry a preacher, or he will marry one, or both!” Patti insisted. Even at that young age in Boise, Idaho, she recognized God’s call upon her life. Guess what? She married a preacher and so did I!

I knew I wanted a partner in ministry, too. I met Patti during my sophomore year at Oral Roberts University, and I quickly determined she was the one I was to marry. A couple of weeks after asking her out, I had the opportunity to hear Patti lead a brother-sister wing devotional in the Fireside Room on campus. I think she had 12 or more pages of notes, barely got through three of them, but I was hooked! Without a doubt, she had the mantle of ministry. Actually, Patti is a better communicator than me. I get to preach publicly much more than she does, but she is definitely my partner in ministry. I need her; she needs me. We aren’t perfect, but together, we get to lead one of the best congregations in the world!

Male and female need one another. One is not inferior; the other is not superior – male and female are designed by God to be co-workers, co-laborers.

Within God’s original creation, both man and woman shared responsibility for the garden. Male and female were co-regents over the abundance of God’s creation. The command of Genesis 1:26 expresses shared dominion: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” (NASB)

God’s command was given to them, not him. God’s original statement must govern our thinking on this subject! Ha’adam, with the definite article ha, used in Genesis 1:26, 27 for “man,” is not the proper name Adam with an article. Ha’adam is a generic term meaning “humanity” or “mankind.” That’s why the plural “them” is used. If God meant a single person, the pronoun, “I,” “he,” or “him” would have been used, but not “them.” This text tells us God did not give His command to rule just to one person, but to all humanity, including the soon-to-be-made woman. (Charles Trombley, Who Said Women Can’t Teach?, 1985, p. 67)

Both shared individual responsibility and dominion over the garden, animals, and soon-to-be-kids, but not necessarily the same responsibilities. They are equal, but still distinct from one another. This does not mean that men and women should perform all the same responsibilities. God has made clear distinctions between us.

For example, male and female are not interchangeable as marriage partners. To put it more clearly, a man isn’t to marry a man, and a woman isn’t to marry a woman. Men are not made to carry a baby through pregnancy and childbirth. Praise God! There was a distinction between male and female, but teamwork was an ingredient in Adam and Eve’s relationship and responsibility. Fulfilling God’s will requires teamwork.

I am not trying to beat up on men, but the concept of teamwork seems far removed from the out-of-balance domination that characterizes many husband-wife relationships. The New Testament does teach “headship” of the man within marriage, but loving leadership is not abusive or domineering. Submission does not equal stupidity. Wives, your opinion counts! You have been put together for a purpose. We need one another. We accomplish more as a team.

Some men ask, “What about Genesis 3:16? Didn’t the Lord tell me to rule?” Let’s take into account that verse. Rulership of the man over the woman was not a part of the original created order. “Rule” was the result of the Fall. The statement of Genesis 3:16 is a declaration, a prediction.

To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16 NASB)

As I researched his verse, several people adeptly clarify the “rule” referred to in Genesis 3:16, and richly reveal the tenor of this verse:

“Results of the fall of man can never be construed as God’s divine order for him. God told Adam he was going to eat by the sweat of his brow (see Gen. 3:19), but that was a consequence of sin rather than God’s divine intention for him.” (Fuchsia Pickett, “Equal In Creation,” SpiritLed Woman, June/July 1999, p. 14)
“If God ordered such a command, the verb “shall” or “will” would have been in the imperative mood – a command . . . this verb is in the simple imperfect, and not a command at all . . .The imperative is only found in the present tense, so this simple imperfect tense prevents translation of “shall” as a command. It doesn’t say man “shall” but “will” rule her; it’s not a command but a consequence. God did not tell Eve she must bear children, but that she would. He didn’t tell Adam “you must” work by the sweat of your brow, but “you will.” He didn’t say that men must rule and dominate women, but that they will!” (Trombley, p. 112-113)
Genesis 3:16 “is not a prescription of what should be, but a description of what happens through sin where redemption is not overcoming the effects of the fall.” (John Piper and Wayne Grudem, “Charity, Clarity, and Hope: The Controversy and the Cause of Christ,” Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, 2001, http://www.cbmw.org/resources/articles/cberesponse.html)
“God created the man and woman to be a team with a corporate destiny bigger than both of them separately . . . to be able to accomplish something higher than each of them could do alone.” (Cindy Jacobs, Women of Destiny, 1998, p. 209)

God expected the man and woman to work together in order to achieve His purposes. Teamwork is required. Enjoying vital relationships requires teamwork. God expects male and female to work together in order to achieve His purposes.

We can be laborers together.

February 23, 2013

Tapestry of Worship

Did any of you sense the spiritual release that shook our congregation during last Sunday’s 10 AM worship? As Kimberlyn began to sing “Place of Freedom”, I felt heaven enter. At the chorus – “I’m gonna lift my hands till I can reach heaven” – the congregation connected in a tremendous way, as if the words came directly from our own hearts and our own experiences. After the service, several folks told me they sensed angels joining us at that moment. Brenda N. told me, “Last Sunday was off the chain!”

“Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.” (Psalm 22:3 NASB)

Could you hear and/or see the response? I liked it. I enjoy touching heaven. How about you? Isn’t it awesome that God does something unique every time we come together in worship? Every worship service is an irreplaceable event.

In his excellent book Following the River (2004), Bob Sorge employs the imagery of a tapestry to describe corporate worship.

Each event of congregational worship is an unreplicated, one-of-a-kind, never-been-seen-before-in-the-history-of-the-planet, never-to-be-seen-again, breathing love exchange with our Beloved. Why? Because never before, in the history of the world, has this specific group of people gathered together in this way, with all their existing mindsets, attitudes, and the emotional trappings of their current life issues. So when we express ourselves together before the throne of God, the nature and themes of our expressions will be different from any other worship service that has ever transpired. When this group of saint touches the heart of God, a tapestry of worship will begin to emerge that will be absolutely unique in its emphasis and flavor. (p. 43-44)

The tapestry is a terrific metaphor for corporate worship. A tapestry consists of individual threads combined into one. In the hands of an expert artist the individual threads are woven together to produce something beautiful. Every believer has his or her own thread. The Holy Spirit is the worship leader that connects and weaves and stretches and twists our individual life threads into a worship tapestry for the Father’s glory.

“All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27 NLT)

For the tapestry to be complete, we need everyone – pastors, elders, worship leaders, singers, musicians, and the congregation – to lend their threads. For our Sunday worship tapestry to have full expression of color, glitter, and shining beauty, we need everyone’s life thread. The corporate tapestry lacks the fulfillment of its splendor if everyone is not available. Everyone one has a vital role, but a person’s thread can be withdrawn from being used by the Holy Spirit because of complacency or passivity or tiredness or anxiety.

“He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” (Ephesians 4:16 NLT)

If I am disengaged or withdrawn, my thread will be missed. I must press in for myself. I must yield the thread of my giftings, my anointing, my posture, my thoughts. I must yield myself. By yielding I surrender my thread to be woven into a tapestry of love, affection, and worship for the Lord Jesus Christ. Our congregational worship is significant and our worship is powerful. It impacts people with the power and presence of the Lord.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9 NIV)

I can’t help but have excitement about what the Lord may do this weekend. It’s time to connect with God in Real Worship! What the tapestry will look like on Sunday?

February 21, 2013

Plastic Imitation is a Fruitless Substitute for Real Worship

I have a green plant in my office – a fake, plastic plant in the corner of my window seal. Years ago, I had a real aloe vera plant, but I eventually gave it away. The plastic plant is so much easier to maintain. I just wipe the dust off of it every once in a while and it looks fine. Artificial vegetation doesn’t need watering. Synthetic leaves don’t turn brown from lack of adequate light. Imitation roots demand no fertilize. Man-made flora looks okay. The fake plant doesn’t require my time, attention, work.

That’s the actual issue – I didn’t want to invest the energy to have a real plant; I didn’t want to spend the time; I didn’t want the work. To have a healthy and growing living plant, I have to supply soil, air, water and light – and in the right quantities. With the appropriate ingredients a plant will grow green and lush.

But . . . I don’t appreciate keeping a live plant in my office enough to do what is obligatory. Instead, I settle for a cheap substitute – the plastic plant in the corner.

I wonder how many times people settle for a cheap, fruitless substitute in worship. Honest worship naturally flows from an appreciative attitude, yielded thought-life and relinquished self-will. Unfortunately, much of what is labeled “worship” is actually a plastic imitation, a karaoke caricature of the real thing. Is the spectator/performance mentality of so many the natural result of a lack of interest in doing what is required to have healthy living worship?

To really worship, to really connect spirit with Spirit, effort is required. Spirit-empowered worship entails time in God’s presence. It mandates spiritual connection to the True Vine we as believers are connected as branches.

“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” (John 15:5 MSG)

Worship is a living, breathing exchange between the Lord Jesus Christ and His beloved bride. Worship shouldn’t just be turned on and off on weekends. Folks who only worship when someone is watching them don’t inspire worship in others. People perceive the emptiness. They may not be able to identify the impediment, but will sense something fake, something artificial, something plastic about the worship. Connection to the Vine is demanded.

For worship to flourish like a plant with beautiful, deep green leaves, we must connect with God EVERY day. My wife and daughters know I treasure them when I spend time with them. Time is the commodity by which I water, fertilize, and cultivate the relationships I value. Time is the super bloom for healthy relationships.

It is not too late to revive your worship! Just because there are some browning leaves on the plant doesn’t mean it’s time to throw away the plant! No matter how you feel, there is hope. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Draw near and He will run to you. Let your worship blossom!

Invest time privately in connecting with the Lord. With your investment, God’s noticeable presence will be experienced. Your private worship will prepare the way for incredible worship experiences during Sunday services. Connection with God allows worship to have life, truth, joy, peace – God’s manifest kingdom.

I may settle for a plastic plant in my office, but I am not willing to relinquish real worship in the sanctuary. I want worship gatherings at Valley Fellowship to fulfill God’s ordained purpose. I want our congregational worship to be real. I want us to touch heaven. Please, join with me in greening up our worship! Spend some time with The Vine.

February 20, 2013

Vital Relationship of Female & Male

Last year, Patti and I celebrated 25 years of marriage. Thank You Jesus! Heavenly Father always gives me much better than I deserve. God knew I needed a partner in life and ministry. I wasn’t made to do life alone.

Enjoying vital relationships is a good thing! We were created to be relational beings. Both man and woman share relationship with God and each other in the garden. Look back into the first chapter of Genesis; notice the last word of verse 10, 12, 18, 21, and 25. What’s the word God uses of His creation? “Good”!

Land and Seas: “God saw that it was good.” (1:10)
Vegetation, plants and trees: “God saw that it was good.” (1:12)
Stars, sun and moon: “God saw that it was good.” (1:18)
Fish and birds: “God saw that it was good.” (1:21)
Animals and livestock: “God saw that it was good.” (1:25)

Genesis 1:31 underscores “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (NIV) However, the Lord says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18 NIV) It is not good for any person to be alone.

Men and women who are kept in isolation suffer in many ways. We like reading stories about Robinson Crusoe’s lonely adventure and laugh in the theater as Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball, but in reality, human beings do not function well alone. We don’t want aloneness to happen to us. Man was not made to be completely alone! We are to enjoy vital relationships with God and with each other.

I am intrigued by what’s told in Genesis 3:8. Shortly after the Fall, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (NIV) It appears that from time to time the Lord would fellowship with them in the garden. Both hid – not just Adam, Eve hid, too – because both apparently recognized the sound the Lord made as He was walking. This wasn’t something new. They both had a personal relationship with God along with sharing intimate relationship with one another.

Look back at the phrase “a helper suitable for him” in Genesis 2:18. This verse has been the tool used (by some folks) to somehow substantiate that women are insubordinate or inferior to men. However, the Hebrew phrase does not contain that connotation. Instead, the term emphasizes the adequacy of the woman. She is just what he needed! She is the answer to a problem. Relationship between male and female corrected the “not good.”

Almost every other time the Hebrew root of “helper” is uses in the Old Testament, it refers to God our help. For example, the same Hebrew root spoke of Eve’s relationship to Adam is used of the Lord in:

His second son was named Eliezer, for Moses had said, “The God of my ancestors was my helper; he rescued me from the sword of Pharaoh.” (Exodus 18:4 NLT)
Blessed are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will tread on their heights.” (Deuteronomy 33:29 NIV)
We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. (Psalms 33:20 NLT)
But as for me, I am poor and needy; please hurry to my aid, O God. You are my helper and my savior; O Lord, do not delay. (Psalms 70:5 NLT)
O Israel, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. All you who fear the Lord, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. (Psalms 115:9-11 NLT)
I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! (Psalms 121:1-2 NLT)

Saying, “The Lord is my helper” does not insinuate that the Lord is less! “This would suggest that the helper envisioned in Genesis 2:18 is not inferior in essence to the one helped. Rather, the helper is to be thought of as a co-worker or enabler.” (Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 1998, p. 564) The man needed the woman, but the women needed the man, too.

One is not inferior; the other is not superior. Male and female need one another. We are created for relationship.

February 14, 2013

The Encouragement of Community

Spending time with God’s family is an important source of encouragement.

Folks at Valley love the Lord and really love people. The relationship and kinship in which I participate encourages me! Sharing life together with the people who make up our local congregation inspires me! I love my Valley Fellowship family!

I also love my home. Time with Patti and my daughters is a blessing. We appreciate holidays with brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts. Mom had the Simon clan gather in Nashville for Christmas 1993 (four months after the death of my Dad), and visiting the Gaylord Opryland Hotel during the Christmas season became a family tradition. Look at us last year!

Don’t we look happy? We had fun – together. One reason for my joy is that my natural family is made up of people who love the Lord.

Although you can encourage yourself all by yourself (read more in tomorrow’s post), enormous encouragement comes from relationship with Christ’s Body, the church. The writer of Hebrews connects your call to encourage others with a call to meet together. “Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25 MSG)

You need encouragement that only comes from a face-to-face, in-the-flesh encounter with another child of God.

Mutual encouragement results from time invested in fellowship, connection, community. Consider Paul’s stated desire to the family of God in Rome: “When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.” (Romans 1:12 NLT) Paul was certain that time spent with the Roman believers – whom he had yet to meet in person – would generate encouragement. Upon what was this certainty based? At least partially, His experience!

Early in his walk with Christ, Paul received encouragement from a peer relationship with Barnabas whose nickname actually means “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36).
Paul was a member of the team that hand-delivered a letter from Jerusalem that prompted encouragement in Antioch, “When they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.” (Acts 15:31 HCSB)
In Antioch, Paul witnessed how prophets and church leaders “said much to encourage and strengthen the believers.” (Acts 15:32b NIV)
Paul personally benefited from his relationship with the church family, “Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.” (Philemon 1:7 NIV)

Paul understood the presence of an individual can release encouragement. That is one the big reasons why Paul regularly sent individuals on assignment – to impart encouragement.

“We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith.” (1 Thessalonians 3:2 NIV)
“I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.” (Ephesians 6:22 NIV)
“I am sending him [faithful minister Tychicus] to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.” (Colossians 4:8 NIV)

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5-6 NIV)

As you encourage others, pray for them, and give them insights into God’s Word, you’ll grow in confidence and self–value. You’ll discover that you do have something to give away—you have the Word of God and the Spirit of God resident in you and freely flowing through you to others. The prophet Jeremiah wrote about the children of God that even though they were clay pots, they were as valuable as fine gold (see Lam. 4:2). You, too, are a vessel that God desires to use. He is seeking continually to pour Himself through you to others. Open your mouth and your heart, and begin to encourage people the Lord sends your way. (Charles Stanley, The Source of My Strength, 1994)

February 13, 2013

Heaven is real – I know folks there

My dear friend Brother Elmer T. entered heaven tonight. He has gone to be with his Savior, his wife, and so many others. I saw him earlier today, said goodbye, but I miss him already. He is breathing deeply in heaven’s atmosphere, but I miss him on earth. I struggle, unable to find the appropriate words to communicate my sadness, my hope. I know where he is. I miss him.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:15 NIV84)

February 12, 2013

Encouragers Are Aspiration Advancers

Encouragers grasp what is but they also comprehend what can be. Encouragers acknowledge the real and the ideal. A person who only sees what is real but cannot see the ideal is an auditor, an accountant – not an aspiration advancer. A person who only imagines what can be without understanding what is – casts unattainable vision. Encouragers spot the actual and the possible, the present certainty and the future hope.

In a day of political corruption and distorted media reports, so many are crying out, “Tell it like it is!” Honesty is important, but real encouragers go the next step – seeing it as it could be; telling it like it could be. In the late 1800s, American education advocate Elisabeth Harrison said, “The men who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize.”

“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ.” (Colossians 2:2 NIV)

“Encouragement is speaking a word of hope. It is expressing to another person—and to yourself—the sure certainty that God created you with a greater potential for good and that God desires to help you fulfill your potential.
Your future can be better than your past or present.
You can grow and develop and be ever more transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
You can experience greater fulfillment and wholeness than you are presently experiencing.
You can have an even more abundant life than the one you presently have.” (Charles Stanley, Sharing the Gift of Encouragement)

We need people who root for us –exhorters, inspirers, coaches, helpers, mentors, teachers, parents, pastors. We all benefit from encouragement and we should all encourage others. Be an encourager!

I appreciate the hundreds of hours that VFCA volunteer coaches invest in kids. Thank you, coaches! I enjoyed watching my daughter Kimberlyn’s game last night. Down 12 with less than 3 minutes to go in the last quarter, the ladies mounted a great comeback – with Coach Deahl and Coach Ruff cheering them on! They coach ladies differently than they coached guys twenty years ago.

I am thankful the coaches at VFCA seek to embody Paul’s command, “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” (Ephesians 4:29 NLT) I cheer for the New Orleans Saints, but I think most NFL coaches would benefit from Paul’s wisdom!

Great coaches like Vince Lombardi or Paul Bryant have a knack for realizing when a player needs correction or encouragement. Vince Lombardi was a master motivator and one of the best football coaches of all time. The Lombardi Trophy given to the Super Bowl champion was named in his honor. Lombardi sometimes challenged his players in pretty rough ways, but his biography (David Maraniss, When Pride Still Mattered) also tells of how he encouraged his players. Legendary Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant inspired a legacy of encouragement. Bryant said:

I’m just a plowhand from Arkansas, but I have learned how to hold a team together. How to lift some men up, how to calm others, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat together: a team. There are just three things I’d ever say: If anything goes bad, ‘I did it’. If anything goes semi-good, then ‘we did it’. If anything goes real good, then ‘you did it’. (Jim Grassi, Crunch Time in the Red Zone, p.131)

I can hear you from here – “ROLL TIDE”! I hope you are ready to coach up the people around you. See what is and what can be. Don’t just “tell is like it is”; tell it like it could be! Become an aspiration advancer!

February 7, 2013

Gaining God’s Perspective

Perspective alters our attitude and our action. Our perspective can filter or distort what we experience.

When I watch the replay of a New Orleans Saints’ game in which I already know they won, I feel differently about a missed a field goal or a turnover. The final result is already set, so I know my favorite team somehow will overcome the mistake. That doesn’t mean I LIKE the missed field goal or turnover! Of course not – I want the Saints to play perfectly! But, stressing out isn’t going to change the recording. How do you view your life? What’s your perspective?

I want God’s perspective. I want to see my life and the lives the people around me through His eyes. In Christ, you and I have a seat with Him in the heavenly realms. Gaining God’s perspective will transform the way in which I:

love my wife, laying down my life to minister to her need.
train my children, expecting God’s gifts to flourish.
show up for a job, working for Lord and for His glory.
resolve conflict, forgiving quickly and not holding on to anger.
overcome temptation, looking for the escape route He promised.
pay my bills, stewarding the resources He has entrusted to me.
study for an examination.
handle discouragement and disappointment.
listen to and talk back to media.
live every aspect of my life.

At last night’s mens meeting at Valley Fellowship Church, Josh Laster did a great job of leading the call for Better Men. He made a significant comment (my paraphrase): “If we could see the other side of every obstacle – like God does – we would joyfully tackle whatever is in the way.”

God perspective is so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). God sees the end and the beginning. He sees stuff inside of us that we can’t even see. He sees the end result of His beautiful work in our lives.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NASB)