Leadership - Let's Start with Followship

Just read an interesting exegesis at Pastor Jon's blog. It's a wee bit long for my taste, but has a fair bit of application for those who feel called to pursue Christ. For those who don't, it will give you a behind the scenes look at some of the strange things we believe as Christians and the ways we ought to, but often fail to, live our lives as those who have been ransomed from death.

I like the fact that he makes a point to say that being subject to does not equal passive. His quote from Briscoe is poignant, considering the level of debate often heard between believers and non believers in the majority of our media outlets. (Christianese: "believer" - one who believes that man and God are separated by sin but rejoined relationally through faith in the substituionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ's death on the cross and resurrection thereafter.)

Please, drop him a comment, when you get a chance.

Choosing Sides

The phrase "The Lord is with them/him" appears more than a dozen times in the Old Testament. Popular culture and leaders striving to motivate the masses often tout the phrase "God is on our side..." I'm asked from time to time - "What will you ask the Lord when you see Him in heaven?"

What about being "with the Lord" or "on God's side"?

Don't get me wrong, I believe the Bible to be the inerrant word of God. I just don't understand yet what He wants us to learn from the repetition of that phrase from that vantage point. He has expressed often that He desires relationship with us, that He is perfecting us into the image of His Son, so shouldn't that phrase be the other way around?

Anyone who understands the original Hebrew, could you shed some light on that for me?

Preciate ya.

Holla back.

A

You Are What You Think...

Many years ago, a mentor introduced me to a book called "Think and Grow Rich", written in the early 1900s by Napoleon Hill. He was a young man who studied some of the most wealthy people in the nation over the course of about 20 years to write this book. In it, my mentor pointed out, was the difference between the J. Paul Getty/Nelson Rockafellers of the world and the average week to week, paycheck to paycheck folks. He discovered that the key difference between those who were successful financially and those who weren't was their belief system.

20 years, hundreds of people, multiple millionaires and he comes up with "Rich people just plain think differently.

A decade later, I look at the wealth I would like in my life and I discover that it's not all measurable by dead presidents. Where do you want to earn your millions? In relationships? In wisdom? In emotional stability? In fitness? Paul teases out one of the same principles Hill discovered in the 1900s, only Paul got it from God and wrote it down 1800 years before.

"...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things." Phil. 4.9

Hill was right - thoughts are things. What you think is what you become. We are what we know, we become what we learn. So, do you take this verse like I did, like God was just trying to snuff out "fun", or is it possible that the Great Designer has better plans for us than we have ever imagined and is just waiting for us to get our act together before He unleashes a tsunami of blessings on our lives?

Relationships that Strengthen and Encourage?

For those of you who understand my home church's philosophy on "big church", this will be more obvious. For those who don't, understand that the church I attend weekly is considered one of those churches... those megachurches (insert diabolical villain music here) Not only is it large, but it is growing extremely rapidly - multiple campuses, multiple church plants, multiple "strategic partnerships". And yet, it still manages to maintain a certain intimacy, even among the timid and softspoken. The mission: "To lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating environments that encourage people to pursue intimacy with God, community with believers, and influence with outsiders" sets the stage for a thriving community of "small groups".


These groups of 5-8 men, 5-8 women, or 4-7 couples, meet weekly for accountability, Bible study, and prayer. And you know what? I just don't have time for that.
I've never had time for it, even when I wanted to know God and walk closely with Him. But, that stubborn Spirit of God that urges us to do the right thing, make the wise choice, stand in the face of danger, pushed and pushed and pushed me to make time for it over three years ago, and I can't explain in a hundred posts what impact it's had on me and my walk with the God we believe asks us to call Him "Father".
Over time, I have experienced weeks of just being "slammed" at work - no margin, no rest, no breaks, frustration, abundance, dry spells, and dam breaks that have left me drained, exhausted, depressed, or just plain overwhelmed. Those are the nights I just want to drive straight back home and drift into a coma until the alarm goes off again. Sometimes, when things aren't going my way, I just don't want anyone to see me "off". (You know what it's like, being "on" all the time, right?) These are the times that I can hear God's voice, ever so clearly steering me away from temptation.

So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.

Funny, God knows us so well. When we're depressed, exhausted, overwhelmed, we often just want to let the night do its magic - to shut down, reboot, and see a new sun the next day. The enemy longs to lead us into the lie that "I just shouldn't/can't/don't want to be/am too X to be around people right now. And, we have a great propensity to believe the lie. God has wired us to thrive, yes, even introverts, on the accountability, belonging, and care of the Church, that is, the body of Christ.

Chipper Jones is only batting about one in three as of today. But imagine him trying to bat by sitting in the dugout and just sending his arms to do the work while he watched from the side. Chipper Jones - batting .336 (7/19/06)We individual body parts work best when we are attached to the body. (To the Red Sox Nation: I am only using a Braves player to appear relevant to the offline community here in Atlanta. My ATL audience already know I am a die hard Sox fan. They are so blinded by Satan that they believe that the Braves actually have a chance this year.** That's why the evil empire of Atlanta Police towed my car at the Sox game three weeks ago here at Turner Stadium, not because I was illegally parked with the other 9 people who got towed that night.)

Moral of the story - get connected. If you're already connected, stay connected. If you're tired, angry, depressed, busy, too scattered, too upset - re-connect. Don't let the enemy convince you that solitude will get you out - the worst things can happen when we're alone at night, sleeping too much, drinking too much - how would your life look if the last thing in your mind before bed was a controlled, deliberate, intentional prayer, thought, or meditation, versus haphazard, random thoughts with no connection to your long term direction?

Need to get away? You may be right. But, staying away never solves the problems that have driven us there, muchless shaped us or our character the way God is forging us during those difficult times. Leverage the relationships God has given you to keep yourself strong and plugged in.

Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thess. 5.11 (NIV)

Do you know someone who is depressed or angry and needs to reach out or be reached out to? Someone who knows they need to be around people but has grown reclusive? Would you please send them this link and ask them for their opinion on it?

** for those who have a tendency to react with anger, disgust, or confusion to overrighteous Christians, please re-freakin-lax. I'm being sarcastic here. The Sox rule, I am not implying that Braves fans or players, or Atlanta's finest are in league with Lucifer (That's Johnny Demon you're thinking of...) or that there's some cosmic conspiracy going on in the world of worldly sports. I'm just being a boisterous fan. Get over it and enjoy some Biblical truth, yo.

Oh, and Go SOX, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dessert Before Dinner

Tonight (yes, it would be nice if Wednesday's post came out more than an hour before it were no longer Wednesday...), I'd like us to have a little fluff before we get to the meat. I was over at Tall Skinny Kiwi, another blog I need to blogroll and visit more often, and saw this post on how to fold a shirt. I promise, that while bringing you the truth about what God has revealed to us, helping us to sort through the lies of the enemy with the sword of the spirit, that I will also inform you of other, extra-Biblical nuggets of applicable wisdom from time to time.

Here is one.

Enjoy.

I Wanna Be Like Mike

Thinking like God is both a noble desire and a dangerous quest. When we read the circumstances surrounding what separated us from God in the first place, it was the enemy who chided Eve - "You won't die if you eat that fruit, God's just holding out on you because He doesn't want you to be like Him..."

Wherein is the lie? Does God not want us to know His ways? Does God not want us to think like Him?

If the Bible is truly God revealed to us, then the answer must be "yes, He wants us to know His ways and to think like Him. More than 30 times in the course of the 66 books we call the Bible do we see the phrase "your ways". Each and every time, someone is talking about the distance between who we are and who God isn't. In other words, God is righteous and holy and majestic and omnipotent and we are not. The Bible also makes it clear in 1 Cor. 1.30 that we are only righteous, or "good enough", because of the substitutional sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

But, if being like God was what got us in trouble with Him in the first place, why is His word so insistent on the theme of making our ways more like His?

Adam and Eve's sin wasn't over thinking like God. I believe that it was because they wanted to think like Him for selfish reasons. The enemy broke the trust and planted a selfish thought in their hearts. Think about it, these two were walking with the God of the universe in the Garden... everyday. If they just wanted to be like Him, they'd have asked Him. Instead, the enemy sold them on the idea that God was holding out. This distrust got in the way of them consulting or confronting God on this issue.

So, today, as we lead people at work, as we lead people in marketing, sales, accounts payable, server station 2, kiosk number 5, Wal-Mart 527, or CEO roundtable 12, we must lead not from our own selfish, untrusting desire, but from a zealous, thankful, and trusting heart that understands God's ways, yet is in alignment with them also.

Where do you slip up? Where do you see selfishness get in the way of serving the Lord? If this whole Bible thing is true and God is as great as He says He is, and a God that great is worthy of being worshipped, followed, and honored, then why do you and I so frequently get stuck on what "we" want instead of what "God wants"?

Show Me Some Love

No greater love...

Is there anywhere in the world another faith whose central teaching is that to love and follow the Creator, one must be willing to die for their friends? Is there another faith anywhere in the world wherein the Creator would die for His creation?

I don't have much more to ask you today. I'm just occupied by the thought that Christianity - not the religion, but the act of following Christ, the lifestyle of pursuing the God of the Bible - is not about a lifestyle. It's about an event. It's about a sacrifice, a resurrection, and leaning on that event with one's whole soul. It then follows, that the only logical lifestyle is to love others. I still think I'm lousy at it, but that cross, that cross, that rugged old cross - it keeps bringing me back to the fact that that guy who just cut me off, that girl who's completely immodest, that sales force from a competitive company, I ought to love them as Christ did the church.

"just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy." (somewhere in Ephesians 5. I'm tired. Look it up, I dare you...)

Can you imagine loving God so much that you're willing to love your competition, the lost, the difficult?

Why Are You Here?

Lately, I've been wrestling with exactly why I am on the path that I'm on. Am I here because of the challenge my job presents to my skill set? Am I here because of the money I'll make this year? Am I here to help members of my company's staff grow in their own walk with Christ? Am I here so that 6 months from now I could be making a sales call and hear something in conversation with my prospect that leads to a conversation that leads them to church that leads them to the Word that leads them to the Lord?

Paul's introductions always bear out that he is doing the Lord's work. Whether to the Ephesian church, the Roman church, the believers at Corinth, he was always prefacing his letter from the standpoint of why he was there.

At dinner tonight, some friends and I wrestled with what it looks like to live for God - do you have to work at a church, in ministry, as a missionary? So many of the examples we have of those who serve God are the "pros". People who "do God stuff" for a living. But, what about just being an Account Rep, a Sales Manager, an Accounts Payable Director, a CEO, a CIO, a PhD in XYZ?

No, I don't have a point that I'm driving at today, just wanted to stir up some fo the mud that's settled in our collective brains to see if we're on track or off track. No matter what you do, are you doing it for the Lord, not for men? For the Lord, not for the Benjamins? For the Lord and not for the recognition? Check yo sef.

Field Trip - Precious or Porn?

Wednesday is our day to bring up issues or purity or relationships. For our field trip today, we're going offsite to an Albert Mohler article, I'd like to direct your attention to the slippery slope of "erotica" versus "pornography". First, I believe that if we read the Bible cover to cover, regardless of whether we take it seriously or not, we see that "sexual immorality" could most cogently be described as "anything that points toward sex outside of marriage". This definition in mind, there is no difference between erotica and pornography - neither have any place in front of my eyes.

What grieves me today is the article linked below. There are a handful of artists who insist that there is a very clear line between erotica and pornography, all the while blurring the line between decency and disgust. There is nothing graphic in this article, but I still find it disturbing.

The Ever-blurring Line Between Art and Sick...

All jokes about Alabama aside, I think their court system may have gotten this one right. No, I'm sure they got this one right.

Your comments appreciated, as usual, especially if you think I'm a conservative, fundamentalist, right wing psycho bent on conforming society and the government to some narrow-minded first century philosophy.