Who Cares Who’s The Greatest

Mark 9:33 – 34 (NIV)
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

The disciples of Jesus were actually arguing about who the greatest was among the 12 of them.  Can you imagine having that discussion with a group of your friends?  What would that sound like?  Are we actually capable of having the same stupid kind of argument?  Are there those among us who truly believe they are greater than others?

I think the answer to all these questions is YES!  But the two questions we should be asking today is – what does this look like today in our own lives?  and why?  To help us see this a little better, I’m going to skip a few verses – which we will come back to – and go to verses 38 – 39.

Immediately after Jesus calls the disciples on their silly little argument and gives them the better way, this discussion comes up.

Mark 9:38 – 39 (NIV)
“Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.

This is simply a different way about arguing about who is the greatest.  It’s almost as if they understood Jesus to say they should not have these arguments amongst each other … but at the same time, they still believed they were superior to other people because they were “the disciples.”  The disciples were completely missing out on what Christ was trying to teach them.

We see Christ’s lesson in verses 35 – 37.

Mark 9:35 – 37 (NIV)
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

There are two lessons I think we should take away from this.  One is pretty much obvious.  The other is one of those lessons that is here because of what is not directly said.

1. We should never think of ourselves as better than others because of some talent or skill that we may have and may be really good at.  Ultimately, we must remember that any gift, talent or skill that we have came from Christ.  He chose to bless us with these for the purpose of serving him.  This is the simple lesson.
2. We have no excuse for not following Christ where he wants to lead us.  For some, he is calling you to be missionaries.  For some, he is calling you to start some kind of ministry in your community.  For some, he is calling you to take on some new position.  For some, he is calling you to use your skills for his glory.  And there are many who are not following because they do not think their skills or gifts are what they should be in order to succeed.  Rather than arguing about who is greatest, they would be quick to say, “not only am I not the greatest, but I’m not even good enough to be in this conversation.”  These people are denying Christ’s desire to work in their own lives.

I wish I had more space and time to explain these thoughts better, but I believe if you are reading this, the Holy Spirit can use my inabilities to accomplish his goals.  After all – in successful work that is accomplished through me is only occurring because of Christ working through me.  He’s not calling me to be the best at what I do … he’s calling me to demonstrate my faith by obeying him as fully as I am able to with the skills, gifts and talents he has given me.

Go with God,
Donald B

Good Grief … if there is such a thing

This is a great little book about dealing with grief.  Every Christian should read this book … more for the understanding of how to help someone who is grieving rather than to learn how to grieve properly.  It seems that many well-meaning Christians seem to do more damage to the grieving person than they realize by providing godly and good (or at least … so they think) advice.

Let’s look at an example.  Let’s supposed the worst thing that I can think of happens.  Let’s say one of your children die because of an accident or a sickness or something bad like that.  I know you probably don’t want to think about that … but in order to be ready to help a friend down the road, just try to work through this.  You will be experiencing grief on a large scale.  Now let’s say a Christian friend comes to try and bring you comfort.

This Christian friend says something like “remember what Romans 8:28 says … ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’ … so look for the good that God is bringing.”  Now, this just may be me … but if one of my kids … passes … I ain’t looking for no good.  And I will get really irritated with anyone who tells me that there could possibly be any good from one of my children … you know.

Yes, the Bible is true.  Yes, God does work for our good.  However, there is a time for everything.  And true or not … I probably won’t give a “Gone With The Wind” expletive.

Or how about this one.  I have 6 kids.  (And no … I am not Catholic or Mormon … we just have 6 kids.)  Could you imagine someone saying to me … “Well, at least you have the other 5″ ?  People have actually said these things to other people who have lost children.  WHAT??????  As if that’s going to make it better or easier????

Up to this point, I’ve used the death of a child as my extreme example … but people will experience grief in many different areas … loss of a job – loss of a friend, parent or other loved one – find out you have some terminal disease – lose everything financially – seriously injured in an accident of some kind – and the list goes on.

So … what should you do as a Christian brother or sister? 

Here’s what I would advise.  Remember that you are not all-wise.  Remember that you have NO CLUE what this person is experiencing (most of the time).  Remember that it’s NOT YOU who is grieving.  Remember they are hurting.  Remember that they probably aren’t in the right frame of mind to receive “good” advice from us.

Simply love them.  Be there.  Listen.  Don’t talk.  Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know.  Don’t get upset if they scream at God.  Remember … God doesn’t need you to protect His name.  He’s much bigger than you are … and He can take a child of his being angry with Him (whether it’s the right thing or not).  Allow them to cry.  Allow them to wail if they need it.  JUST BE THERE.  Cry with them.  Laugh with them.  And bring up the good memories.

Let me try to end with this final discussion.  Do you know someone who has lost a loved one to death?  When you are with them … do you avoid bringing up the person’s name in fear that you may bring to the surface old hurts?  Well … STOP!!! 

One thing many griefers have said (or think) is something like this … “No one ever talks about him/her … so he/she must have not been really important to them”  or “no one really cared about him/her”.  Yes … bringing up the person in a conversation may bring more tears … but what is better is that it helps with the healing.  Grieving people love for others to remember their lost loved one.

 For instance, something happens in church or somewhere, and you might say, “If Johnny were here, he would have laughed his head off …” (Johnny being the loved one).  This is a good thing.

Closing now …

If you are asking … “Why are you writing about this?” … the answer is … “I don’t know.”  I just felt the need to get this out there.

Final suggestion …

Click on the book image above and purchase this book.  It’ll take you about 30 – 45 minutes to read … and it is well worth it.

Go with God,
Donald B

Useless …

Isaiah 49:4 (NLT)
I replied, “But my work seems so useless!
      I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose.
   Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand;
      I will trust God for my reward.”

I came across this verse in a Men’s Devotional I use, and it really jumped out at me.  Have you ever felt as if the only thing you can do for the Kingdom of God is serve as an example of how NOT to be a Christian?  Have you ever missed opportunities to tell someone about Christ?  Have you ever quit a position at church or not taken a position at church out of fear or frustration or simple laziness … and then, felt convicted or bad about it?

Have you ever NOT … to any thing God has called you to?  Do you feel like a sinner more than you feel like a saint?

If you have answered yes to any of the above … the one thing I would say right up front is that God is active in your life!  Why?  The only way you can answer yes to the questions above is if you care the least bit about your relationship with Christ.  Only the Holy Spirit can convict.  Satan seems to only send messages of guilt when we are living for Christ.  You must be doing something right. 

 Take some time to meditate on the verse above.  Look at what it is saying.  Basically, in my eyes, I seem like a failure.  It seems like I can’t do anything right … and that I am constantly falling in my attempts to serve the Lord.  But the last part is the important part.  Stop concerning yourself with measuring how successful you are or are not.  Leave that to God.

The encouragement I get from this is that even though I do fail … my responsibility is to keep trying.  Trying is the key.  God will continue to help us.  And God will reward us.

Have you said YES to God’s offer of being saved from your sins?  If so … there is a reward for you.  Try not to focus on your faults.  Don’t let them drag you down.  Simply focus on God!

Go with God,
Donald B

Breaking the addiction …

Looks good … doesn’t it!  I think it does.  Unfortunately, I think it looks TOO good.  You see, I was in the habit of drinking 5 or more cups of coffee a day.  You may not think that is much until I tell you that my cup is a 24 oz. Dunkin’ Donuts coffee mug.  That’s a lot of coffee!

The problem with my coffee drinking is that it controlled me.  Not to mention the effects it has on me physically – raises my blood pressure, keeps me awake at night, and it messes with my stomach.  I mentioned how it affects my blood pressure to a professor where I go to school, and he asked “why would you continue to do something that is obviously causing you harm?”  At first, I just blew that off … but then, I asked myself, “why ARE you doing something that is obviously causing you harm?”  And the only answer is the addiction.  I have to have it!  It affects the outcome of my day!  It gets me going in the morning!  It is my juice of life!  But then … we start thinking about that whole “who’s your master” thing.

Matthew 6:24 (NLT)
No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

While this verse speaks of money, it is true for anything that has mastery over you.  You CAN NOT have two masters … period!  That means money, coffee, sodas, cigarettes, tobacco, soap operas, reality TV shows, TV in general, eating, and on and on.

But since mine is coffee, I want to speak a little more on that.

Who can guess what this is???

If you said caffeine, you are correct!  This is a caffeine molecule and it’s logical diagram.  My problem is caffeine.  Yes, there are studies that say caffeine is good for you.  People are all the time telling me that one.  And they are partaking in caffeine BECAUSE it is good for them.  But guess what … EXERCISE is good for you too.  And those same people will not exercise.  The point I am trying to make is let’s not make excuses for the things in our lives that have mastery over us.

So … I’m trying to quit.  Today is my 4th day without caffeine.  The withdrawal symptoms are heavy upon me.  Fortunately, I don’t get head aches … but I do get constipated (sorry for having to share that), I have a lack of appetite (which is a big thing for me), and I am VERY fatigued.  I noticed it BIG TIME when I tried to go running today.  I am a runner.  Running 5 – 9 miles a day is something that I’ve grown to enjoy.  I was shooting for 6 miles today.  I made it 5 minutes.  I have never felt so drained in my entire life.

It almost made me want to get a cup of coffee. 

So … how do we overcome?

By daily being filled with God’s Holy Spirit and allowing Him to work in us and through us.

 Ephesians 5:18 (NLT)
Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit

(While getting drunk is a no-no … drinking wine is not forbidden … so, focus on the last part of the verse.)

INSTEAD, BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT!

For me, I might be able to paraphrase this verse to say … Don’t be dependent upon coffee to keep you going.  Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

By immersing myself into God’s Word and praying to Him continuously (begin the morning in prayer, pray as you drive, pray when you feel weak, pray when you are bored).

In closing … I hope this has helped you.  And I also covet your prayers!

Go with God,
Donald B

What could 3 accomplish?

Have you ever felt like this?
            Or does this describe your life now?

Ecclesiastes 4:2 – 3 (NIV)
And I declared that the dead,
    who had already died,
    are happier than the living,
    who are still alive.

But better than both
    is he who has not yet been,
    who has not seen the evil
    that is done under the sun.

I know I have. And my own opinion is that if you said “no” … you are not being completely honest with yourself. At some point in our lives, we all have to come face to face with the “why am I here”, “what is my purpose” or “who cares that I’m here” questions.

Some of you may be saying … “YES! That’s me now! As a matter of fact … that’s me all the time!”

Are we supposed to live feeling this way? I don’t think so.

What’s the solution? PEOPLE

That answer came pretty quick. Let me show you why I believe this to be true.

We are given these scriptures in the first part of Ecclesiastes 4. But then we get verses 9 – 12, and I firmly believe that God’s Word is so well written and constructed that there is a reason why certain verses follow certain other verses. So, read verses 9 – 12.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 – 12 (NIV)
Two are better than one, 
   because they have a good return for their work:

If one falls down, 
   his friend can help him up. 
   But pity the man who falls 
   and has no one to help him up!

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. 
   But how can one keep warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered, 
   two can defend themselves. 
   A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

The answer is people! God’s answer to our loneliness, our lack of will power, our inability to stay on a diet, our failure in the world of fitness … and even more importantly, our lack of spiritual growth, our lack of desire to apply God’s principles in our lives, and our inability to establish a consistent quite time … is PEOPLE!

I’m sure I could continue that list above. Parenting, being a teenager, work ethics, taxes, etc. And I’m sure you have your own list that you have been going through in your head.

Our inability to be all that God wants us to be comes when we try to “go at it alone.”

I was thinking yesterday that if I had 2 brothers who would commit (me committing also) to making daily verbal contact with each other for the purpose of asking a set of prying questions we have all agreed to and for the purpose of pushing each other to do the things we’ve committed to do I would be able to qualify and finish the Ironman Triathlon (if you know me … HA to that.) But as silly as that seems even to me … things even greater than this could be accomplished. Spiritual growth as never seen before could happen!

Some of you may be saying … “That’s all fine and good, but a sign of spiritual maturity is being able to stand on your own without being dependent on others.” (Did that sound snooty? I was going for snooty.)

BALONEY!!!

God designed us for relationships! Look in Genesis about why God created Eve.

Genesis 2:18 (NIV)
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

We were designed to work best together when we work together.

Are you depressed now because you don’t have these kind of people in your life? Well, stop. Pray! Ask God to bring them into your life. He will.

You … be ready. Remember, you have to commit to them also.

Go with God,
Donald B

Can Christians ask God to bless them?

What do you think? Maybe you feel like me. Yes, I believe that Christians can ask God to bless them … but I do not do this enough because I feel guily for even thinking about it. Therefore, since my flesh is incapable of answering this, let’s go to the source. God’s Word!

1 Chronicles 4:10 (ESV)
Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.

If you have not read The Prayer of Jabez, you should give it a read some time. Very enlightening on this subject.

The story of Jabez is very short. 1 Chronicles 4:9 – 10 is it. His name – in the Hebrew language – sounds like the same word they use for pain. We read his prayer in the first part of verse 10. But the best part is the last part … “And God granted what he asked.” Jabez asked to be blessed … and God said OK!!! Don’t miss that.

And do not forget about Solomon. He asked for wisdom and received it. However … the important thing to grasp here is this:

1 Kings 3:5 (ESV)
At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”

GOD TOLD HIM TO ASK!!!!

Now, let’s read through quite a few (not all) scriptures from the New Testament related to our asking God for things.

Matthew 7:7 – 8 (ESV)
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Matthew 7:11 (ESV)
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Matthew 21:22 (ESV)
And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.

John 14:13 (ESV)
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 15:16 (ESV)
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

John 16:23 (ESV)
In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

So, you may be asking … “where’s the catch?” Well, there is a “catch”, but I do not view it as a “catch.” Let me try to explain …

Matthew 6:33 (ESV)
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

God tells us to SEEK HIM FIRST … and then, He will meet all of our needs. This is true with all of our asking. We first need to align ourselves with God’s Will (Check Knowing God’s Will??? for a little more info on that.)

Here’s why I do not view this as a catch.

God is omniscient … ALL KNOWING!
God is omnipresent … EVERYWHERE AT ONCE!
God is omnipotent … ALL POWERFUL!
And God’s love for me is described with the Greek word Agape. This means He loves me more than I could ever imagine or even love myself.

So, we have a God who loves us more than anything we can imagine – which means he wants what is best for us, we have a God who knows everything, we have a God who sees everything, and we have a God who is able to do anything because He is all powerful … it only makes sense that I would want the things He wants me to have because those things will be what is best for me.

So … yes, we can – AND SHOULD – ask God to bless us. We should seek to be in line with His will and pray as He leads us to pray.

Here’s the tough part.

Be ready to receive!

This is where we seem to go wrong. We allow our guilt or pride or whatever to lead us to say NO to God’s blessings. It’s kind of like Granny combined with Bill Gates (loving and rich) wanting to give you $20 and you saying … “No thanks Granny!” Just take the $20 and be grateful!

The reason we do not receive is because we do not ask.

John 16:24 (ESV)
Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Hope this helps someone!

Go with God,
Donald B

What Are You Keeping From God?

Originally posted in a previous blog on January 16, 2007.

My wife and I are currently reading the book Your Money Counts for a small group study that we are co-leading for our church. The study is “The Crown Small Group Study” offered through Crown Financial Ministries.

There is a chapter or two in this book that deal with understanding ownership. Basically, we have to understand who owns everything – and the simple answer is it’s not us. God owns everything! The quicker we can learn this concept the better we will be at managing the assets God gives us to manage (money, vehicles, houses, kids, marriages, work, etc.)

The book discusses how many people – once saved – are willing to give God control of almost everything except their check book. What about you? What are you willing to give to God? Or asked from a different angle, what are you keeping from God?

I was talking with my wife about this today. The book talks of a man whose house burned down (I think John Wesley … but I could be wrong). His response was, “Oh well. One less responsibility for me?” Another story the book uses is about a young man who made a conscience effort to give God everything. He bought a new car. Two days later someone ran into his car. His response was something like “God, now why would you want a dent in your car?” How do you think you would respond?

Here’s the question to ask yourself. I think this question will give you a good idea of where you stand in the ownership category with God. If your house were to burn to the ground (and all of your family members and pets were safe) how would this effect your life? Would you be devastated because of the loss of all the material possessions? Would you be forever miserable because of all the family heirlooms lost? Would you feel as if a piece of you was removed because of all the pictures and videos of the kids that are never to be recovered?

I can’t say 100% for sure how I would respond, but I would hope that these losses would not mentally or psychologically destroy me. I would hope that I could immediately begin to focus on what God is doing, how he is to be glorified, and where he is taking us too.

If you look at Job, his complaint was not a “woe is me, everything I have is gone.” His complaint to God was not even really a “why did this happen?” His complaint was more of a “God, where are you? Why have you left me? Why are you not responding to me?”

What is our focus? What do we cling on to and try to keep away from God? What … if it were forever removed from us … would cause us to curse God or give up on life?

I would encourage you today to begin working at giving that thing to God. I believe we all have those things. It should be our goal to identify them and turn them over. For most, it is probably our money or finances. For others, it could be some material possession. And still for others, it could be family members or friends or loved ones.

Remember that God cares about all those things too, but he is more concerned with each of us being 100% sold out to him and nothing else.

Go with God,
Donald B

Trusting God With Our Needs

Originally posted in a previous blog on October 18th, 2006.

I have been listening to God today. Through thoughts of Job and thoughts about how God works … I’ve come to a point where I realize that when we say we trust God to take care of our needs His way in His time … that doesn’t mean that everything is necessarily going to be “good” as we see it. It doesn’t mean that something we view as a “need” will be taken care of immediately. It doesn’t mean that things will not go wrong (in our eyes). Let me try to illustrate.

Let’s say we come to the point where we need milk because we just used our last gallon or something. There’s nothing to say that we won’t go a week or 2 without milk. Does that mean God isn’t watching out for our needs? I don’t think so. He is still in control.

Let’s say that you forget to write something down in your checkbook and over-extend yourself. If a certain amount of money doesn’t come in before you have bank fees and other charges, does that mean God isn’t watching out for our needs? I don’t think so. He is still in control.

Just because we may go through troubles at times does not mean that God has forgotten that we have needs. He is still in control even if we are homeless.

We preach and teach that God uses trials to grow us. Why, then, should we believe that we will not encounter these trials. What Job went through was bad stuff. But God was still in control.

I’ve always heard it preached that a righteous man named Job went through these trials and suffered through no fault of his own … but why? Was it just a demo for the rest of the world? Was it just for us to have something to say to those going through trials? Or was it because Job had something to learn about God that He wasn’t learning in his present situation? Maybe God said the things he did to satan in order to entice him to attack Job in order to teach Job something new about Himself.

Bottom line … God is in control. There are things that are going to happen that are hard to live with. There are going to be times of struggle. Our responsibility is to learn to trust God completely through it all. And by trusting God, I mean maintaining the good attitude as well. Through the good and bad alike. What better way to glorify God than to be a positive spirit in the midst of troubling times.

Go with God,
Donald B