Category Archives: Christian Living

Blogs in this topic are designed focus on living a life that’s honoring to God.

The right tool for the job

Posted on January 12, 2015 by | Comments Off on The right tool for the job

toolsHaving the right tool for the job is incredibly important. I will admit that I am not as mechanically inclined as many of the men who go to church with me. I can’t listen to a car engine and know what is wrong, beyond brake repair and replacing an alternator, I’m not much good under the hood of a car. That’s fine with me and it doesn’t bother me that I lack those skill sets needed to be a mechanic. My Lord has given me other skills that I am thankful for and have been able to use to help others within our church, our families, and immediate neighbors. Whatever you do, whether it is auto mechanics, carpentry work, computer repair, or crochet, having the right tool for the job is extremely important. It often makes the difference between a well-done job with pleasing results or a patch job to get by.

The right tool: the Lord’s toolbox

I’m nothing special and it is the same with other Christians; we each have abilities and skills that complement one another. Think of the practicality of the local New Testament congregation as a toolbox for the Lord. Each member brings special skills, abilities, and talents that only they may have. When we think of a toolbox, most of us have several types of screwdrivers, a hammer or two, pliers, wire cutters, and some wrenches. Each tool is specific in its role and each tool has a purpose that the other tools cannot fill. If the tools were interchangeable and could all do the same jobs, we would only have that one tool. There would be no need for a toolbox full of tools. Paul had to discuss this very issue within the early church at Corinth: For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).

I know I have written about this very topic often; it is a very important topic that too many Christians either do not take seriously or do not understand. God has a specific purpose for each of us and He wants us to be completely surrendered to Him so that we can do that purpose. In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul is having to explain this concept; some members of the church were focused on the bigger, more visible aspects of the church ministry and were less concerned with functioning within the skills, abilities, and talents they possessed.  Paul uses the imagery of the human body to explain that not everyone in the church can be a pastor or deacon, but that the other positions in the church are just as important for the church to be able to work as a whole. Just as having a toolbox full of screwdrivers wouldn’t help a plumber much, having a church body that’s missing youth workers, Sunday school teachers, and others to allow it to successfully carry out the mission that the Lord has set before all churches.

The right tool: you have a unique roll

It is often hard to understand, especially when you’re a young-in-the-faith Christian, exactly where you fit in. You may even ask yourself what could I possibly do that someone else hasn’t or isn’t already doing? I know that I have asked that question often in my own life more than once. It is easy to get caught up in emotion during a revival or missions conference and to “surrender” to our own sense of wanting to do something for the Lord. Sure, the heart may genuinely believe that you’re doing the right thing, but soon you discover that it’s not going like you had hoped it would. For a while, I thought I was supposed to be a missionary and I tried and tried, but no matter what I did, there never seemed to be any progress made. I had to learn through experience what Paul meant: If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him (1 Corinthians 12:17-18). It didn’t matter what I called myself, what matters was what God had designed me to be. God had a distinct role for me to fulfill in His ministry. God had given me a specific set of abilities, skills, and talents that if I were truly surrendered to His will in my life, I would be able to use. Paul wrote, For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Romans 11:29). When we are using the abilities, skills, and talents that the Lord has given us to support the local ministry, we never need to be ashamed or embarrassed to do what He has set for us to do. In effect, we allow ourselves to become the right tool for the job.

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Posted in Christian Living, My Walk, Our relationship with ourselves

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God has a plan for your life

Posted on December 22, 2014 by | Comments Off on God has a plan for your life

bible_and_candle_krx5God has a plan for your life. No one has ever been born by accident or without any sort of desire by the Lord. Before any of us were even born, the Bible teaches Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself (Isaiah 44:24). Within the teachings of the Old Testament there are a handful of verses that also adds to our understanding – as Christians – of how God has a plan for each of us even before we are born! Even before the birth of Jeremiah, the prophet, God already had a plan for his life: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations (Jeremiah 1:5). Although God did have a plan for Jeremiah, it is important to understand that Jeremiah had to be surrendered to the Lord’s will before he could understand what God had planned for him.

God has a plan for all Christians

Just as God has a plan for every person ever conceived, God has a plan for every Christian who will completely surrender to His will. When I was a young-in-the-faith Christian, there was so much about my new-found faith that I simply didn’t understand. As I have shared many times, I was regularly attending a church that did have sound Bible preaching, but there was no discipleship for those, like me, who didn’t come from a Christian family. As the pastor would teach about great men of the faith such as Moses, Abraham, Billy Sunday, and even Billy Graham, I had no idea where I fit into God’s plan. All I knew was that I wanted to be used by God but I wasn’t sure if God even had a plan or purpose for my life. What I didn’t know was a simple lesson taught by Jesus himself during His earthly ministry: For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey (Matthew 25:14-15). What I didn’t understand was that I had not demonstrated to the Lord that I could be trusted with even two talents. I didn’t realize that I had not been faithful in doing the things that God had already called me to do.

God has a plan for all Christians that begins with us demonstrating we can be faithful in four simple things that all Christians are called to do. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a Christian for two weeks or two decades, there’s no spiritual growth or other things that God will place in front of you to do if you’re not being faithful in these four basic areas of Christian service. These four areas have always been a part of His plan have been the same for those who lived in the days of the Old Testament and for everyone that has lived since the times of the New Testament. This shouldn’t surprise us because the scriptures teach us, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever (Hebrews 13:8) and He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting (Habakkuk 3:6). God’s plan has never changed and never will.

The four basics we all must do

After 2006, when I became serious about my relationship with the Lord, I began to pray daily and read my Bible with a new intensity that I had never had before. Not sure where to start in my Bible reading, I began in Proverbs, reading a chapter each morning before I began my daily routine. What I began to learn from my Bible study, the sermons of the pastor where I attended, and from the leading of the Holy Spirit is that praying and studying the Bible were two of the four things that God wants those who love Him to do. Over time, I learned that the other two things, bearing witness to others of Christ’s love and the willingness to worship God alone, when done with a servant’s heart, is where true obedience and spiritual growth begins in the life of a believer. We cannot expect the Lord to use us in any ministry or lay on our hearts a specific calling if we are not faithfully doing the very basic things of our faith. Do you want to be more than a pew-sitter within your church? Then you must be faithful in the things that God has already called you to do.

We are to be willing to read and study the Bible

David, the psalmist, wrote Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psalms 119:11) and the apostle Paul left the instructions to Timothy, Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Both men understood a simple truth that Paul understood well: For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). It is through our personal reading of the Bible that we truly begin to learn of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His will for our life. Regular Bible reading bears fruit and is never a waste of our time and effort. As inspired by the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul wrote, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). When we truly study the Bible on a daily basis we are opening the door for the Lord, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, to truly make and mold us into the Christian that God has called us to be.

We are to be willing to have an active prayer life

When I first became a Christian, the extent of my prayer life was in giving thanks for the meals I ate each day. After the decision was made to become more serious in my walk with the Lord, my prayer life had to change as well. I asked the pastor of the church I was attending in Carbondale the best way to do this and he offered me perhaps the best advice I ever received on the topic of prayer: Don’t worry about them – just talk to the Lord as if He is in the room with you and don’t be afraid to pour out your heart and soul to Him. This is similar advice to what the apostle Paul wrote, And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear (1 Peter 1:17). God doesn’t compare the prayers of Christians to one another but he judges our prayers according to the contents of our heart. As I have studied the psalms there’s a consistency to David’s writings. He is completely open with the Lord in all of his psalms. He tells God how he is feeling, the fears he has, the sorrows and pain, and even the joys he has. I believe that too many of us treat the Lord as if he doesn’t already know the content of our heart and we pray what we think He wants to hear from us.

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Powerless churches and weak Christians

Posted on December 17, 2014 by | Comments Off on Powerless churches and weak Christians

6182411664_f6311e9c14_zPowerless churches are everywhere in our nation. Within Henderson, Kentucky, the town where I live, there are over fifty churches within the county according to the Internet and phone book, yet there are still scores of people hurting, people longing for something more in life, and people dying and beginning an eternity in Hell. Within these churches, many of the congregations often have less than a hundred members in attendance on Sunday morning.  The church of the twenty-first century is a far cry from the churches that dominated the communities of our nation in the previous four centuries.

From the early colonial days of America until the 1870s, the members of the local church oversaw questions dealing with morality and public behavior in the town. Members of local congregations were often called by the town to serve on the school board, to serve as justices of the peace, and were even elected to public office. It was the local church that served to meet the needs  of the poor, the homeless, orphan, and widow. Two “Great Awakenings” happened in our nation’s history that started when preachers stood up and taught the belief that the time of Christ’s return was near. Since the mid-Twentieth century, there has been a decline in the importance of the church in our communities. What has happened to change the church from a place of God’s authority, compassion, and mercy in the community to a place of inconsequential importance?

It is easy to blame the lost world for the diminished role of the church in modern times. I have even heard pastors, missionaries, and regular church goers comment that it is because the temptations of the world have grown greater than what once existed. While this argument may satisfy some, it is a rather weak and pathetic defense of the church. Yes, the world has progressed in technology and the means to sin, but temptation, wickedness, and sin have always existed. To find out why the church has grown weak and ineffective over the last hundred years, I believe it is imperative we take a look at the local church. The first thing that is easy to notice is many Christians and local churches have forgotten the simple truth that Jesus is coming again.

How powerless churches begin

The return of Jesus Christ is a real, foretold event. Early Christians, and those disciples that made up the first church, truly believed in a literal second coming of our Lord. The disciples believed it to be true because they had heard from Jesus’ own mouth a promise that would burn in their very hearts:  In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:2-3). They believed this to the extent that it gave them a great strength and boldness to preach the gospel, to bring the lost to Him, and to do so even in the face of persecution and death. 

I often think of the parable that Jesus used to illustrate this very concept of His return and what he expects of His followers until He does: For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey (Matthew 24:14-15). Jesus himself is the “man traveling into a far country” each born – again believer is His servant, and we each have been given some job, some task, some calling to do while we await his return. The most common application of this parable is that Jesus expects us to do something with the gifts and talents that he gives us; however, the teaching is there – He is coming back. He is going to return. Two of the servants realized this and did what they knew must be done while the third, unsure of when the Master would return, didn’t put what was left for him to do as being that important. This is where powerless churches begin.

When Christians do not believe the Lord could come back at any moment, it becomes easy to for the church to lose its importance within the community. The sole mission of the church is to spread the gospel with its secondary purpose being for the edification, the worship of the Lord, and the teaching of His people. When Christians do not take the return of the Lord as being a real event that could happen at any moment; this is what allows for complacency to happen. Unbelief in the return of Christ allows the need to spread the gospel seem less urgent. It makes separating ourselves from temptations to sin less important, and it makes the need for immediate and sincere compassion on those around us a little less important. When we live as if we do not believe His return is imminent, then we become comfortable in our sins, we become lazy in our Christian service and the result is powerless churches and weak Christians.

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Posted in Christian Responsibility, Increasing Faith, Our relationship with God

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