A New Perspective on YOLO

If you are anything like me, you spend December 31st waiting on something to fall out of the sky. Not real festive, I know but tradition is tradition. I am a bit of a sentimental so I enjoy quietly reflecting on another year in the books and I certainly love giving my wife a smooch when the ball falls over Times Square. This year will most likely be no different; complete with all of the pomp and circumstance of a living room lit only by the dim light of television.

There is something about this tradition though. Every year we look for another opportunity to do something that we wish we had done in the past. We long for the endurance and perseverance to accomplish something great in the next year that we haven't completed or succeeded in before. Often times these things that we call resolutions don't even last more than a couple of weeks, if that. There's always next year, right? Well, as we all know, not necessarily. We have only been given right now. The past is in the history books and we are living in the present as God sees fit. This year I am challenging myself, my family, and my church to live in the moment. This is not to say that we can't have plans. Not only can we, but we absolutely should. I am only attempting to say that we should not let the opportunities presented in our routine lives pass us by.

A common phrase that is bantered about by my generation, (yes I am a millennial), is YOLO. I can almost see some of your eyes rolling. This phrase simply means that You Only Live Once. The underlying message behind it is that you should take every opportunity to do something meaningful because you may not get the chance again. The urges that you are encouraged not to resist by this phrase are typically fleeting, possibly even trivial things. This is most certainly not the sentiment behind what I am attempting to get across.

Jesus expects and deserves excellence. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth and said "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). Whatever you do. Whether you are eating, drinking, working, playing, cleaning the car...whatever. Do it for the glory of God. Not all of us were called to be pastors. Not all of us were called to be doctors, nurses, teachers, janitors, farmers...but all of us are called to leverage our lives for the glory of God. You can do what you are already doing but change your perspective, change your outlook, change your motivations and align the things that you are already doing for God's glory. Do you go to the grocery store? Share your faith with the clerk. Do you eat out at restaurants? Glorify God with your your generosity to your server. Do you have coworkers? Invite them to church. It's just everyday life. Again Paul writes, "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col. 3:17). Just be who God designed you to be, live according to His will, and live a meaningful and intentional life.

This year my encouragement to you is to leverage your everyday life (whatever you do, in word or deed), to do it in the name of Jesus and bring glory to God! Because YOLO!!! Am I right?!!!

Good Intentions

As a kid, I grew up in an area near an army base. Many of the people that I knew were military and I can remember hearing war-games being played even from miles away. My father was in the military and fought in Vietnam but that was before my time. I never really knew what it was like being in a military family but I had a lot of friends who were intimately acquainted with that life style.

One of the harder parts of having friends whose parents were in the military was the constant revolving door. Many people that I knew would come into our community and then seemingly just as quickly as they arrived, their parents would be stationed somewhere else or sent on a tour of duty. It was always hard to say goodbye to friends. Then came along Ben. Ben and I were inseparable. He was my very best friend and then he was gone. His dad was in the army and got stationed on a base in Germany.

Ben and I swore to each other that we would keep in touch. We decided that we would become pen-pals. I thought that was the coolest thing to send and receive letters from a friend in Germany. He would write me and tell me all about his new school, the town he lived in, and the new friends he was meeting. I would tell him about the adventures that I and our old buddies were getting into. Everyday, I would anxiously wait to see if I would receive a new letter from him in the mail. At first, I was getting them all the time. But, as you can imagine, the letters started slowing down. Then one day, I realized that they had stopped coming altogether. Unfortunately the friend that I had was so distant that we completely lost touch. We had good intentions but it just didn't last. I don't know where Ben is today or how he is doing but I think of him ever so often when reminiscing on childhood memories.

Painful as losing Ben was, I learned an important lesson that I carry with me even today. Communication is key...without it you will grow apart. Being a disciple of Christ is not all that different. Being in communication with the Father is vital to a sustainable relationship. When Christ chose His disciples, He intentionally invested in their lives. He was with them. He communicated with them. He spent time with them.

As a disciple of Christ, I am afforded the same luxury. I get to spend time with God. He communicates with me through His Word and I to Him through prayer. Unfortunately many do not prioritize this withness. To them it is enough to attend church sporadically and clear their conscious with their attendance. God desires a much closer relationship with us than that. He desires to speak into our lives on a daily basis. I would even argue that He desires constant contact with us. He desires to be with us.

One thing is for certain, if staying in touch with God isn't a priority, we will experience distance. But as my wife has asked me on more than one occasion, "Who moved?" It was always me.

Seasons

Fall is by far my favorite time of the year. Leaves, family, cooler weather...the list could go on and on. God has placed it on my heart to write today of the beauty of the leaves changing. The colorful canopy of leaves is brought about by the actual death of the leaves themselves. While we are rendered breathless by their beauty, the leaves are surrendering to the inevitable. This time marks a dormant period in the life of a tree. The tree gives way to the harsh and lifeless cold winter as it sheds this colorful arrangement.

As I write this, one of the dear saints and a patriarch of our church and community has gone on to be with his Lord. While we, as a church family, are grieving, we can notice the beauty in even such a time as this. You see, the Lord considers the death of His saints as a beautiful thing. Psalm 116:15 says this "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints". While for us, it marks the beginning of a time of bereavement, for the Lord it marks the beginning of an eternity of fellowship with one of His followers.

Another passage of Scripture that the Lord continues to remind of over the last several months is 1Thessalonians 4:13-18, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵ For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words." 

When a leaf dies, we perceive it as a beautiful thing. When a saint dies, the beauty is that their life is just beginning. We grieve, yes we do. But, we do not grieve as those who have no hope because Jesus will bring with Him those who have gone on before us when He comes to rapture His church. It may feel as though as cold and harsh winter is upon us but we can trust in the Lord that He is bringing about life. As a follower of Christ, I simply want to follow the admonition from Paul in verse 18 above. I want to encourage you with these words. If you are a follower of Christ, death is a beautiful thing. Being absent from the body is to be immediately present with our Lord. That is what makes life livable and that is what makes death overcome-able.

Please, whatever you do, follow Jesus and make followers of Him!

Ends Of The Earth

To the ends of the earth. Go everywhere with the rich fullness of the Gospel. Leave no place out. Tell the nations of matchless grace and mercy.

That is what Jesus told us to do. He has all authority in Heaven and on Earth to give us this commission. It is in His able hands. All we must do is be faithful. Go when, Go how, Go where He sends us. If we believe that He has all authority to send us, then we must also believe that He has all power to equip and enable us.

My heart has been broken for some time for the Quebecois people in Montreal. This is a burden that I have struggled with for over a year now. I do not know how God is going to use me to share His love in Montreal but I do know that I must be obedient. In His providence and grace, I am being allowed to go on a trip soon to this beautiful city and discover what God is already doing and what He wants to continue to do. I ask you that you pray for the city of Montreal and the province of Quebec. Pray that people will continue to respond to the good news. Pray that the church planters will be able to continue their work. Pray that God will provide guidance and vision to me as I go and seek His will in this area. Pray that the Lord will send laborers into the harvest. Prayerfully consider if you are one of the laborers that He might be wanting to send.

You were born for this.

Please watch a short video about what God is doing in Montreal and about the trip that I will be going on!

Our Samaria

Anyone who knows much about me knows that I really enjoy sports. I especially enjoy rooting for the Georgia Bulldogs! While I am not a sports connoisseur, I enjoy them enough to appreciate a lot of different sports. As a result of this, one of the things that I also really enjoy is the Olympic Games. Much can be learned from observing the Olympics but one particular thing that stood out to me during the summer games in Rio this year was the sportsmanship displayed by many of the athletes. I remember specifically thinking of how many of these athletes represented countries that were in opposition to each other...some even at war with one another. Yet the athletes competed with professionalism, sportsmanship, and integrity. While there were exceptions and there were some obvious tense moments during the games, overall I sensed some unity and respect among the athletes.

This scenario that played out in the Olympic Games made me consider the whole of humanity. While governments may declare war on opposing governments, there are still people who, by and large, are peaceful people and are not represented well by their leaders. It is not until we get to know people on individual levels that we get to see the humanity that is inherent to them. It is not fair to place anyone under an umbrella of hatred based on where they came from, what they look like, or their socioeconomic status. It is easy to affirm stereotypes when we are actively seeking them but when we get down to the individual level with people, we can see that most people do not fit the stereotypes that we have labelled them with.

The Bible is specific in Leviticus 19:18 when it tells us to love our neighbors. A lawyer, wanting to test Jesus, once asked Him who his neighbor was. To this Jesus replied with the Parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10:25-37. Jews and Samaritans generally despised one another...they were certainly not very neighborly! Jesus, after having told the parable to the lawyer asked the lawyer to identify the neighbor. Much to his surprise, the lawyer had to identify the Samaritan as the neighbor. We can identify all Samaritans as enemies or we can see them as Jesus sees them. Jesus wound up telling the lawyer that he should act as the Samaritan did in this parable. That is a tough pill to swallow. I, in my own heart, would hesitate at the thought of acting as someone who I had been trained to think of as an enemy.

Samaritan or otherwise, Jesus shed His blood for the whole of humanity. It is our responsibility to break down walls of hatred that have been ingrained in us, often times with no logical reasoning, to make disciples. So ask yourself, who is your Samaria? Why? Should you be harboring hate for anyone in your heart? Obviously not...so how will you make disciples of the Samaritans in your life?

Our Judea

Back in June, I had the awesome opportunity to attend the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis MO. While there, I heard a passionate message from the former SBC President, Dr. Ronnie Floyd. In his message, Dr. Floyd made a quote that has stuck with me since that day. He said "God has you where you are at the right time to accomplish the purpose of God". Now I don't know about you but I needed to hear this!

God is a sovereign God who is in control of all of our circumstances. He is not a careless watchmaker who sets things in motion in the beginning and then lets the watch go and fulfill its purpose. No, our God is one who has His hand in our everyday lives, not because He desires to control us, but because He loves and cares for us. He has placed you in your setting for a purpose. Consider the words of God recorded in Jeremiah 1:5: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you". Again consider these words recorded in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope". 

God knows us in our innermost being. He created us and He has purpose for us. Another thing that Dr. Floyd said in his message was this, "You may have given up on yourself but God has not. He can do more in a moment than you can do in a lifetime". With over seven billion people on our planet, it is easy to feel insignificant, but God made us in His image with great purpose. We can leverage this to the advantage of the Kingdom. 
  
While we might not reach millions and certainly not billions, we can have a significant impact on our circle of influence; our Judea, if you will. Everyone of us can fulfill the Great Commission in our own communities. Do your neighbors know of the great love with which God loves them? How about the clerk in the grocery store? The person who sits across from you on the daily bus commute? The guy who picks up the garbage every week? These are people with whom we interact with weekly, if not daily. These are people God loves so much that He would send His Son to die for. Do they know the reason for the hope that is within you? 

God sovereignly created you for such a time as this. He placed you in the community in which He desires for you to serve. He makes no mistakes. It is time to be intentional disciple-makers in our communities. It is time to reach out to a world that is lost by simply walking across the street. Remember when you feel insignificant that "He can do more in a moment than you can do in a lifetime". He is our strength! He is our boldness!

It Begins With You And It Starts At Home

The Great Commission is a global commission!

All too often it seems that people default to thinking about foreign missions when they begin to ponder the Great Commission. While this is a fundamental part of the Great Commission, it is certainly not the whole of the Great Commission. Acts 1:8 says "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” I have had this verse explained to me this way:
Jerusalem=Family
Judea=Friends
Samaria=Foes
End of the Earth=Foreigners

I know that this analysis of the verse breaks down on some levels and is not perfect but it has certainly changed the way that I think of the Great Commission. We are not supposed to only obey part of the Great Commission. We are to obey the whole of it. While it is not possible to go to every ends of the Earth individually, we are still responsible for sending...that is why  the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offerings are so vital. They enable us to send. But...

To obey the whole of the Great Commission is to begin at home with family. The way in which we live out our discipleship in front of our families speaks volumes of the authenticity of our relationship with Christ. It is simply not enough to put our "Christian" hats on at church. To follow Jesus is to follow Him wherever He might go and trust me it is His desire to be a part of our homes. Modeling Christ-likeness to your family may very well be the greatest influence that they have to become followers of Jesus for themselves. Being His witnesses requires that we bear testimony of our encounters with His Holiness wherever we have opportunity. What greater purpose can we have than to influence people to follow Him? What greater blessing can we receive than to lead those closest to us into a meaningful relationship with the King of Kings?

To fulfill the Great Commission is to make the final words of Christ on this Earth our first priority. Make it a priority in your life to fulfill the Great Commission at home with the people who are closest to you.

The next step of obedience is to be His witnesses in your "Judea". Your friends...your community. That will be the subject of my next post. 

Thanks for reading!

It Starts With You

To be a disciple-maker it seems rather obvious that first you must be a disciple yourself. Jesus made disciples who inevitably wanted to be His disciples. He never forced anyone to follow Him. Look no further than the account of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-22 to find evidence of this fact. To make disciples is to obey the Great Commission but it requires desire in your own heart to follow.

Recently I preached a sermon at my church where I made an illustration of how contagious yawning is. At first the congregation had no idea what I was doing as I stopped in mid-sentence and let out a big yawn...of course this was intentional. I wanted to see how many people I could get to yawn back at me. The number of yawners was impressive...go ahead make your jokes...I know you are thinking that it was the skill (or lack thereof) in my preaching that produced this effect. HaHa! This little experiment was to demonstrate that our actions can be contagious. Such is a life that exudes the love of Christ.

Richard Foster is quoted to say, "Conversion does not make us perfect, but it does catapult us into a total experience of discipleship that affects - and infects - every sphere of our living". Conversion is that moment when you decide to fully follow Christ...that is what discipleship truly is. Anyone who has genuinely experienced the redemptive love of Christ Jesus will ultimately be catapulted into a place where Jesus commands their very existence. It is then and only then that you can go about your life in obedience. When Christ has full control of your life, your joy and devotion to Him can, and potentially will be, contagious to those around you.

The Apostle Paul certainly understood this concept. He did not tell others how to live without demonstration. He did not adhere to the cliche of "do as I say, not as I do". Paul led by example. He said in Philippians 4:9 "What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me - practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you" (emphasis mine). Let them learn. Let them receive. Let them hear. But above all let them see discipleship at work in your own life.

Start Simple

I follow a lot of church leaders who regularly invest in the kingdom by posting encouraging and uplifting material. My Social Media news feed gets filled up with pointers, tips, and top-ten lists of things to do to be a successful follower of Jesus or a successful ministry leader...I am sure that I will get to that level with this blog at some point...but I am new at this and I haven't been vetted yet...so you are still wondering if you should even be wasting your time with anything that I might have to say...so I am going to keep it simple for you.

Jesus said that the whole of the law could be summed up by:

Greatest Commandment #1: Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Greatest Commandment #2: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Don't believe me...go look it up for yourself in Mark 12:30-31


Obedience requires loving God and your neighbors...(or everybody)!

Best way to love God and your neighbors?

Go and tell your neighbors of the majesties of God.
Tell them the truth about a God who loves them so much that He would give His very best in Christ for them! Tell them about Grace! Tell them about Mercy! Tell them about Jesus!....
........Make Disciples of them.

You have no greater purpose.

As you can see by the title of the blog...I believe that our greatest purpose in this life is to make disciples for King Jesus. I am beginning this blog to serve several purposes...to share my journey of faith as I learn more about how to make disciples as well as to...wait...you guessed it...actually make disciples. As I am inspired to write, I will be updating my blog regularly with material, devotions, and inspiration as it pertains to the Kingdom of God. So here it goes...Jesus' last words should be our first priority. He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth to tell me to do something....I mean He is God and I am not...so He gets to tell me what to do...it is not the other way around!!!!

So what did He tell me? (well not just me) ;)... He told anyone who would follow Him.

He told me to Go and Make Disciples!

I am going. This will be one of the many ways that I will go as well as chronicle my goings.

Will you go with me?