Want a more peaceful life? Then follow Paul's prescription to Titus...
“Warn a quarrelsome person once or twice, but then be done with him.”
(Titus 3:10 MESSAGE)
So many times in our effort to appear correct to everyone under the sun, we are constantly fussing with people over scripture and ministry styles... it seems to validate us to have everyone agree with us - but truthfully not everyone will... our call is to be true to God's call on our lives - to be true to how He put us together and be ourselves in Christ...
I believe a valuable action to learn is to simply smile and nod - after explaining something to someone once or twice only to have them come 3 and 4 and 50 times over style issues simply look them in the eye and smile, while nodding to the fact you are hearing them and go off and do what God has given you to do the way that God has given you to do it... now understand I am not talking about violating leadership when they are trying to teach you a certain way of doing things - I am talking about people you are not to be submitted to trying to sway you in what you are doing or how you are doing it... if we give in and are always explaining or arguing with them then we move into a place of submission to that person's approval of what we are doing - always working at trying to gain it... after explaining it once or twice simply let them know you are not going to fuss with them anymore about this or that and move on...
God has given us a great mission to accomplish with His Holy Spirit - He has uniquely made us as individuals and as a congregation... we simply are not here to be another cookie cutter church producing cookie cutter Christians that are powerless and impotent... look around us - lives are radically changing and hearts are burning for God - the fruit speaks for the method God has given us...
What I have found is that usually people who are constantly arguing with us over things struggle with the issue of discipleship - usually they aren't one hence the lack of humble teachability to anything new or different from what they are used to...
We are here to be disciples and make disciples - not convince everyone we are right...
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
So that you may have many grandchildren...
““Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.””
(Jeremiah 29:5-7 NLT-SE)
“This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.”
(Jeremiah 29:10 NLT-SE)
These passages where in our daily reader for the day and they jumped out at me... Now truthfully they jumped out because of the reference to having many grandchildren and anyone who knows me very well knows I have great plans for having many grandchildren and I am ready to start seeing them come to pass... but obviously there are somethings that need to happen first - but that is another blog post...
But anyways as I read this passage and thought about it during the day I saw it in a couple different ways...
1. Many have the attitude of come Lord Jesus and get me out of here quickly... they are more "rapture" oriented than they are seeing the Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven...
I am all about wanting to see Jesus come but I do not want to be like the disciples when Jesus went up into the clouds in Acts 1 - standing with my mouth hanging open wondering "What the...?" I want to be found busy advancing the Kingdom...
Verses 5-7 are really an echo of Genesis 1:28...
“Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.””
(Genesis 1:28 NLT-SE)
Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare...
What a powerful thought... God has attached a blessing for our lives from our bringing a blessing to the world around us...
2. Now as I was considering verse 10 in Jeremiah 29 I thought about the region I live in. It is a military town and many people who live here are from somewhere else and many times they are merely living here and waiting to go back home...
I remember a cross-stitch picture my wife Bonnie did one time that said "Bloom where you are planted..." There really is no good reason to not be fruitful and productive right where we are no matter where it is we would rather be... whether we are waiting to get out and go back home or we are deployed and want to be back with our family and friends...
Let us be ones who redeem the time and use it to advance the Kingdom no matter where we currently find ourselves...
God has blessed you - go be fruitful, multiply and advance the Kingdom...
(Jeremiah 29:5-7 NLT-SE)
“This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.”
(Jeremiah 29:10 NLT-SE)
These passages where in our daily reader for the day and they jumped out at me... Now truthfully they jumped out because of the reference to having many grandchildren and anyone who knows me very well knows I have great plans for having many grandchildren and I am ready to start seeing them come to pass... but obviously there are somethings that need to happen first - but that is another blog post...
But anyways as I read this passage and thought about it during the day I saw it in a couple different ways...
1. Many have the attitude of come Lord Jesus and get me out of here quickly... they are more "rapture" oriented than they are seeing the Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven...
I am all about wanting to see Jesus come but I do not want to be like the disciples when Jesus went up into the clouds in Acts 1 - standing with my mouth hanging open wondering "What the...?" I want to be found busy advancing the Kingdom...
Verses 5-7 are really an echo of Genesis 1:28...
“Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.””
(Genesis 1:28 NLT-SE)
Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare...
What a powerful thought... God has attached a blessing for our lives from our bringing a blessing to the world around us...
2. Now as I was considering verse 10 in Jeremiah 29 I thought about the region I live in. It is a military town and many people who live here are from somewhere else and many times they are merely living here and waiting to go back home...
I remember a cross-stitch picture my wife Bonnie did one time that said "Bloom where you are planted..." There really is no good reason to not be fruitful and productive right where we are no matter where it is we would rather be... whether we are waiting to get out and go back home or we are deployed and want to be back with our family and friends...
Let us be ones who redeem the time and use it to advance the Kingdom no matter where we currently find ourselves...
God has blessed you - go be fruitful, multiply and advance the Kingdom...
Thursday, October 9, 2008
A Mark of a Disciple...
I found this mark of a disciple tucked in Proverbs 9...
Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding. Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
(Proverbs 9:6-10 NIV)
Have you ever seen someone receive godly/biblical correction and then they rise up in arrogance and pride and anger or maybe they go off and complain about the one giving the correction - usually a leader of some sort (a parent, employer, or spiritual leader)? They begin insulting them or verbally abusing them or maybe it manifests through arguing openly and angrily... perhaps they withdraw and withhold relationship from the person correcting them...
How often have we ever seen someone get corrected and they thank the person correcting them and show more love to that person who loved them enough to say something... can you imagine correcting your child and them thanking you and giving you a huge hug?
I believe what we see here in Proverbs 9 is something that we want in our hearts as disciples and in the hearts of our children and the people we are discipling... we do not want the ones we love to be mockers or wicked fools...
Our response to correction and discipline says a lot about where we are in life... I desire to be wise and increase in wisdom... to add to my learning... I want my children to be wise and increase in wisdom and to add to their learning... I want my spiritual sons and daughters to be wise and increase in wisdom and to add to their learning...
I love how this passage reads in the Message Bible...
Leave your impoverished confusion and live! Walk up the street to a life with meaning. If you reason with an arrogant cynic, you’ll get slapped in the face; confront bad behavior and get a kick in the shins. So don’t waste your time on a scoffer; all you’ll get for your pains is abuse. But if you correct those who care about life, that’s different—they’ll love you for it! Save your breath for the wise—they’ll be wiser for it; tell good people what you know—they’ll profit from it. Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God, insight into life from knowing a Holy God.
(Proverbs 9:6-10 MESSAGE)
Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding. Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
(Proverbs 9:6-10 NIV)
Have you ever seen someone receive godly/biblical correction and then they rise up in arrogance and pride and anger or maybe they go off and complain about the one giving the correction - usually a leader of some sort (a parent, employer, or spiritual leader)? They begin insulting them or verbally abusing them or maybe it manifests through arguing openly and angrily... perhaps they withdraw and withhold relationship from the person correcting them...
How often have we ever seen someone get corrected and they thank the person correcting them and show more love to that person who loved them enough to say something... can you imagine correcting your child and them thanking you and giving you a huge hug?
I believe what we see here in Proverbs 9 is something that we want in our hearts as disciples and in the hearts of our children and the people we are discipling... we do not want the ones we love to be mockers or wicked fools...
Our response to correction and discipline says a lot about where we are in life... I desire to be wise and increase in wisdom... to add to my learning... I want my children to be wise and increase in wisdom and to add to their learning... I want my spiritual sons and daughters to be wise and increase in wisdom and to add to their learning...
I love how this passage reads in the Message Bible...
Leave your impoverished confusion and live! Walk up the street to a life with meaning. If you reason with an arrogant cynic, you’ll get slapped in the face; confront bad behavior and get a kick in the shins. So don’t waste your time on a scoffer; all you’ll get for your pains is abuse. But if you correct those who care about life, that’s different—they’ll love you for it! Save your breath for the wise—they’ll be wiser for it; tell good people what you know—they’ll profit from it. Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God, insight into life from knowing a Holy God.
(Proverbs 9:6-10 MESSAGE)
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