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| John 3:26-27
"They came to John and said to him, 'Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.'
To this John replied, 'A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.'"
As I was reading this passage of scripture, John’s statement here really jumped out at me. John’s disciples have come to him with a report. In actuality, it seems they have come to him like little children ready to tattle on their brother, or a band of gossips who cannot wait to deliver some gossip that is sure to send their listener into the midst of some heated drama. They want John to get stirred up. Some guy is stealing their converts!
“Look man, that dude, you know the one YOU said was the Messiah, the one YOU baptized, well he is over there baptizing too. Everyone is starting to go over to him instead of coming to you. You need to do something about this.”
John’s response probably took them by total surprise. It is the opposite of what they were expecting, the opposite of how almost any human would have responded. John didn’t jump to his feet and set his PR Firm into a Follow John campaign. He didn’t come out with a new sermon series highlighted by the most dazzling and advanced multimedia equipment available in all of Judea. Here is what John says:
“That is cool. I can only receive what God has given me.”
John is at total peace with this. He doesn’t get all puffed up and outraged that Jesus was moving in on his turf or that his flock was starting to follow Him. John realizes that everything we are given comes from the Father, and to expect more, to kick and scream about it, to try to change this is as futile as futility can be. He is content with God’s will for him.
John’s response leads me to ask a question, are we satisfied with what God has given to us? Do we sometimes try to go beyond God’s will in acquiring things we don’t have or a ministry that isn’t ours? I believe that often we do, at least I do.
Now, does this mean that we shouldn’t strive for the best in our lives in ministries? Does this mean that we shouldn’t do everything we can to live a great life or have the most effective ministry possible? Not at all. But what is most important for us to strive for is the best life and ministry that we can have in what God has given us. What we want to do is look at the things that God has given us and say, “Am I doing all I can, am I taking care of everything that God has given me to the best of the abilities that God has given me?”
Too often, we are looking for more and better. We examine our lives, our ministries and compare them against others and find ourselves frustrated because they don’t measure up to someone else’s. We want what they have. We want more than what God has given us. This is dangerous to our faith in Christ. Ultimately, not being satisfied in what God has given us leads to disillusionment with ourselves, our lives, our ministires, and in the end, God.
I examine my own heart and realize that I have been guilty of this dissatisfaction, and that the confusion in my heart and mind can be directly attributed to this. But when I think of John’s answer to his disciples, I feel a peace about my life that I haven’t felt in a long time. I am thankful for what God has given me, and I truly want nothing more. And more than that, I am thankful for the mercy God has shown me by teaching me this. | | |
| Well, it has been a couple of weeks. They sure have flown by, and it
has been longer than I expected since I have posted. These last few
weeks, I certainly have felt as though I am stumbling into grace more
than I am walking in it, and a light bulb of sorts has gone on in my
head. Even when we are stumbling, tripping, and rolling headlong down
the path of walking with Christ, we are still on the path. Whether we
are stumbling into or walking in grace, God's grace and mercy abounds
in our lives. Of course, walking in God's grace is much easier and full
of less skinned knees than tumbling down the trail, and is of course
the preferred method of travel.
When we are stumbling though our
lives, it is important that we keep remembering that God still extends
His grace to us, because when we forget, that is when we will stumble
along the trail, and then frustrated, walk off of it, and away from the
goal and the prize toward which we run, walk, jog, sprint, and stumble:
God Himself. | | |
| I have been thinking of moving my blog over to Blogger for awhile now, but hadn't decided to do it for sure. There are somethings I like better about Blogger,
but am still unsure. So I think for awhile I will just post the
blog at both for awhile and decided which one I like better. Here
is my Blogger site if you want to look at it, still under construction
of course: http://brightwings.blogspot.com/
I am trying to get back in the habit of spending daily time in the
Bible and in prayer, and I am using Oswald Chamber's My Utmost For His Highest,
to help me get started. I generally don't like using devotionals,
kind of feeling like I am cheating, and often feeling I am above
them. That sounds really humble, doesn't it? Well, I am
coming to find out two things: 1) Don't tread on those who have walked
the path before, whose wisdom has stood the test of time, 2) A thirsty
soul will lap up any droplet of water that it can find in the
wilderness. So far, Oswald Chambers is both of those things to
me, wisdom that has stood the test of time and a droplet of water for a
thirsting wandering soul in the desert.
This part of today's reading really resonated within me: "It is easier
to belong to a faction that simply tells what Jesus has done for me,
and easier to become a devotee of divine healing, or of a special type
of sanctification, or of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But Paul
did not say, 'Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for
me,' [or preach about divine healing, or sanctification, or baptism of
the Holy Spirit] but, '. . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!'
(1 Corinthians 9:16). And this is the gospel-'the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world!'"
This message is getting lost in the Church today. You can walk
into churches throughout the United States today and often never hear
about the fact that Jesus died to take away your sins. Sermons,
today abound on topics like: purpose, marriage, success, peaceful life,
joy, healing, intimacy with God. But often in the consumer market
of the Church, pastors don't want to preach the simple gospel of Jesus
Christ. Many reasons can be made: it isn't sexy, it isn't seeker
friendy, everyone knows that already and this truth is more important,
it isn't warm and fuzzy. The reasons are many. But most
likely the ultimate, untalked about reason is that, in order to do that
we have to address the fact that we are all sinners, and hey we don't
want to OFFEND anyone by calling them a sinner now do we.
It is easy to judge the Church as being impotent in this area, but I
have to look at my life, and the lives of those who are claiming to be
Christians and I realize, we aren't doing that much to live out the
message of Jesus' redemptive work in our own lives. What about me
and what I do and say points out to my co-workers the gospel. Do
they see that living a life redeemed by Christ is any different or
better, or more fulfilling than the one they already live? Mine
often doesn't. And if I, or we are going to accept the fact that
we are ALL missionaries, and that by using the giftings that the Holy
Spirit has given us, we are to bring all Glory and Honor to Jesus, and
thereby glorifyiig the Father, we have to examine our lives and say,
"Does the life I live preach the message of the Gospel?"
Does this mean that we must be perfect, by no means. But it does
mean this, people should be able to see how we live and recognize that
even though we are a mess, there is something different about us.
We can say to them, "Yeah I know I am a screw up, but it doesn't
matter, because Someone came and erased all that."
All this may be nothing new to you, but like I said, I am a thirsty
soul in the desert right now, and a droplet feels like a river to me.
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| BTW, here is an incredible video by Sigur Ros: http://http://www.apple.com/enews/2005/qissue/20/08h.html
I can definitely see it as an allegory about redemption and re-birth.
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| Last night I went to Solomon's Porch, a house church pastored by a
friend/mentor of mine. It was really neat. Their worship
time and part of their teaching time includes the children. It
was neat holding my daughter and singing with her, and praying that
theses songs of worship would begin to teach my 14 month old daughter
about the Lord, even now. It was neat to see other parents doing
the same. Worshipping the Father with their childern on their
laps, or in their arms.
Before we had a child, worship settings like that were distracting to
me. But as a parent, I can see the situation differently. I
understand the value of families worshipping together and teaching
their children together. It was an awesome time.
We talked about the fruits of the Spirit last night. The next few
meetings will concentrate on a different fruit for each session.
The fruit of the Spirit is a fairly neglected part of many of our
Christian walks. We would rather talk about, concentrate on, and
ask God for the gifts of the Spirit. Now, I am not suggesting
that the gifts are not important, because they are, but I think in alot
of ways, the fruit of the Spirit are more important and more vital to
our walk with Christ and operating in the Kingdom than are gifts.
Yet many Christians seem to want to focus more on the gifts.
Let me clarify. I have seen many people who have been given a
gift or gifts from the Holy Spirit, who use those gifts in a mighty
way, yet at some point fall at some point, in sin, and often in big and
destructive ways. The gifts of the Spirit are just that,
gifts. They are not earned or deserved. They are in no way
an indication of whether or not we are living a life of purity.
The gifts are something we do, the fruit of the Spirit is not something
we do or perform, it is directly related to who we are.
The fruit is shown in our ability of let he Holy Spirit work in our
hearts and our lives. We cannot fake it. We sow seed no
matter what we do. If we sow bad seed we will show forth bad
fruit. If we sow seed in purity and in obedience to the Holy
Spirit, we will show forth good fruit. We may be able to appear
to have good fruit for awhile, but if it is not sincere fruit from
walking the Spirit of God it will rot and be shown for what it really
is.
So my prayer is not to have more or greater gifts of the Spirit, but to
walk more faithfully in the Spirit, and to have His fruits in my life,
so as to become the man God desires me to be.
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