Does God promise health and wealth?

A lot of people believe that when you become a God-follower everything in life gets rosy. You become healthy and wealthy and all of life’s troubles get put on hold. There are some churches that even teach that kind of thought process.

I find it interesting that when we look at the life of Jesus, for some reason, his life was not a cake walk. I mean Jesus was the ultimate God-follower and following God led him to be crucified! When it comes to wealth, the Bible says that Jesus didn’t even have a place to lay his head. (Matthew 8:20)

Consider this episode in the life of Jesus. Jesus gets baptized and the voice of God thunders from heaven, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” (Mark 1:11) God gives his ultimate stamp of approval. Life doesn’t get any better than that. You would think Jesus would now begin his fairy tale life.

But look at what happens immediately after Jesus was baptized. “The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days.” (Mark 1:12-13)

That can’t be right! God just placed his stamp of approval on Jesus. Jesus should go have some nice lamb chops for dinner. He should go have a party with his disciples. He should go turn some water into wine! Doesn’t happen.

Jesus finds himself in the wilderness. Jesus finds himself with nothing to eat. Jesus finds himself face to face with Satan.

Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? You decided to follow God and then you found out you had cancer. You decided to follow God and three months later your spouse told you they don’t love you anymore. You decided to follow God and you still didn’t have enough money to pay your bills.

Some people would tell you that you need to have more faith. Others would tell you that you’re not trying hard enough. Still others would ask you what sin in your life is causing all this bad stuff to happen.

If you’re a God-follower and you have some tough situations you are facing in life, you know what I think is your problem? You’re like Jesus. And do you know where God is when you find yourself, like Jesus, in the wilderness? The same place God was when Jesus was in the wilderness—he is right there with you.

God doesn’t promise to eliminate every storm in your life but he does promise to be with you in the midst of every storm.

Taking flak

In Releasing Your Church's Potential, Robert Logan and Tom Clegg wrote, "I believe that the enemy divides all people into two categories: those he can ignore and those he has to fight. I want to be one of those he has to fight." He went on to quote a World War II bomber pilot: "If you're taking flak, you're over the target."

The Apostle Paul said it this way to young Timothy: "Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there's no getting around it." (2 Timothy 3:12)

Awhile back I saw these song lyrics written on a dry erase board outside our green room at church. (The green room is where the musicians and vocalists hang out in between services.)
Some people want to live within the sound of chapel bells, but I want to run a mission a yard from the gates of hell! The lyrics are from an old song called Run To The Battle by Steve Camp.

For me personally, send me to the front lines!

Morning prayer

Here's another of my favorite prayers to begin the day:

O God, you alone know what lies before me this day, grant that in every hour of it I may stay close to You. Let me be in the world, yet not of it. Let me use this world without abusing it. If I buy something, let me be as though I did not own it. If I have nothing, let me be as though I possessed all things. Let me today embark on no undertaking that is not in line with Your will for my life, nor shrink from any sacrifice which Your will may demand. Suggest, direct, control every movement of my mind; for my Lord Christ's sake. Amen.

John Baillie wrote this prayer in the early 1900s. His book "A Diary Of Private Prayer," is my favorite book of prayers.

Prayer of relinquishment

Richard Foster wrote one of my favorite prayers to begin each day:

Today, O Lord, I yield myself to You.
May Your will be my delight today.
May You have perfect sway in me.
May your love be the pattern of my living.
I surrender to You my hopes, my dreams, my ambitions.
Do with them what You will, when You will, as You will.
I place into Your loving care my family, my friends, my future.
Care for them with a care that I can never give.
I release into Your hands my need to control, my craving for status, my fear of obscurity.
Eradicate the evil, purify the good, and establish Your Kingdom on earth.
For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

God, I love her

I just spent a long day at the office. I'm not complaining because I love what I do. And please don't e-mail me with rebukes-- this typically only happens one day a week. On Wednesdays I spend from 8 AM to 10 PM in meetings.

So, here I am in my home office. I have a window overlooking our front yard. It's snowing and my wife is taking our new puppy out for a bathroom break. As she slides down our driveway I can see her frozen breath and I think to myself, "God, I love this woman."

Sooo, I'm going to go tell her . . . after she comes inside."

Cell phones

Recently, I was standing in the checkout line at a local department store. The woman in front of me was talking on her cell phone. As she approached the cashier at the register, she continued talking on her cell phone. In fact, throughout the entire process of making her purchases . . . she carried on her conversation with her unknown friend on the other end of the call. The young girl who was checking her out actually had to interrupt her conversation several times in order to complete the transaction.

As the woman collected her packages and walked out of the store, she never stopped talking on her cell phone. Not once.

I was amazed.

As I made my purchases, I asked the cashier if that happens often? “If what happens often?” “Do people ignore you while they’re checking out by continuing to talk on their cell phones?” “Oh yeah, all the time.” “How does that make you feel?” “I hate it, but what can I do?”

So, since that young girl doesn’t feel like she can do anything about people being rude to her, treating her as if she had very little value, while continuing their all important conversations, how about you and I doing something about it?

How about you and I ending our conversations on our cell phones BEFORE we get in line to check out? How about you and I looking at the cashier’s name tag and greeting them by name (maybe that’s why they wear them)? How about you and I treating servers everywhere with dignity?

God says, “Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. (Philippians 2:3-4)

The only way we can live out these words of God is if we are secure in who we are. When we know that we are valuable because we are created in God’s image, then we can add value to others. We can shut off our cell phones and serve the person who is supposed to be serving us.

Ooops, gotta go, my cell phone is ringing.

My most important reading

I read a lot. And I like to talk about the books I read. But, by far, the most important book I read on a daily basis is God's Word, the Bible.

This morning I finished reading through the New Testament. This time I read it through in The Message translation. I love the freshness of Eugene Peterson's translation. It's not a great version to study, but it is a great version for devotional reading.

My goal is to read through the New Testament twice in a twelve month period of time and then to read through the Old Testament the next year. You can do this by reading about five chapters a day.

It's amazing that you can read the Bible over and over again, and every time, God will speak to you in a new and fresh way. I completely understand why Hebrews 4:12 says that "the Word of God is living and active."

So, tomorrow morning I'll start in the Book of Matthew once again. I'm going to read in the New Living translation this time. There's nothing like reading about the life and teachings of Jesus!

Grace

In front of our Portage Street Campus, we have a large sign. Currently on the sign, the message reads: Have you had an abortion? You are welcome here.

I'm kind of amazed at the number of calls we receive from "Christians" who want us to change the message. Ummm, and the calls aren't very nice. Ranting is a better way to describe them.

What message should we put on the front sign? If you've had an abortion, you can go to hell! Or how about, If you've had an abortion, stay away!

I guess my thoughts are that if we put a condemning message on the front sign, then we should put a different one every day. If you've told a lie, then fire and brimstone for you! Or, If you've ever looked at porn, then smoldering eternity you deserve. Or how about, If you gossip, you go to the grave!

Don't get me wrong. I believe abortion is murder. In fact, because I know how much God values children, every time a living fetus is ripped from its mother's womb, God weeps. For God's sake and the sake of the unborn, we NEED to be pro-life!!!

But it's pro-life all the way. Pro-life for the mom who made the decision and is now carrying enormous guilt. Pro-life for the man who encouraged her to cast aside something so important. I believe Jesus was pro-life for everyone.

Sooo, I think we'll keep the message on the front sign: Have you had an abortion? You are welcome here.

Secret agents

In his book, "The Secret Message Of Jesus," Brian McLaren asks the question: What if the real difference is made in the world not by us preachers but by those who endure our preaching, those who quietly live out the secret message of the kingdom of God in the daily, workaday lives in the laboratory, classroom, office, cockpit, parliament, kitchen, market, factory, and neighborhood?

I don't think the question should be "What if?" I think a statement needs to be made: The world won't be changed by a bunch of preachers, it will be changed by a bunch of people who love God and desperately love the people around them--all the people of the world.

Sooo, rather than separating ourselves into two groups, the professionals and the lay people, let's drop the categories, link arms and bring God's Kingdom to earth right here and right now!

Snowmobiling and serious conversation

This past week I went snowmobiling with three other Pastors. We all met in Chicago and then drove six hours to Northern Wisconsin (We had to get to where the snow is!). Snowmobiling is a blast! It actually enhanced my prayer life . . . One prayer went something like this "God, thank-you for the beauty of that lake and the snow on the pines." Another prayer went something like this, "Oh God, please don't let me hit that tree!"

As much fun as the sledding was, the best part was by far the time spent with my friends. We're all about the same age. We all Pastor churches of about the same size. And we all struggle with many of the same challenges in life. We intentionally get together about three times a year.

We talk about how to stay healthy. How not to sleep with someone other than our wives. How to keep our egos in check. In other words, we trust one another and we love each other enough to ask honest questions and give honest answers.

Staying pure isn't easy. Becoming like Jesus takes people around us who are willing to encourage us but also to say the hard things.

Do you have people like that in your life?

Why men hate going to church

I read a book a couple of years ago called, “Why Men Hate Going To Church.” It was a fascinating read. One of my favorite quotes from the book is, “Men regard churchgoing like a prostate exam; it’s something that can save their lives, but it’s so unpleasant and invasive, they put it off.”

Studies show that ninety percent of the men in America believe in God, and five out of six call themselves Christians. But only two out of six attend church on any given Sunday.

It would be easy to place the blame on the men who are skipping church to head to the golf course, or to their favorite hunting spot, or their favorite coffee shop. And perhaps some men do need a swift kick. But I’m wondering if a lot of the blame should be placed on the church?

Here’s what I mean. When you go to most church services, what do you do? You sing. And you don’t just sing, you sing songs that are irrelevant to music that is outdated. You sit and listen to someone talk. And a lot of times it’s talk about subjects that don’t seem to matter to everyday life from someone who doesn’t seem in touch with the real world. You give your money away. Money that you’ve worked hard to earn! Is it any wonder most men stay away?

But guys, there is hope. Some churches are waking up. We’re talking about topics that are life changing. We still have music, but it’s not like when you were growing up. And you can keep your money, at least until you’re ready to invest it in changing the world.

Maybe you should give church another chance?

Against or for?

Why is it that the Church is known more for what we’re against than what we’re for? We’re against abortion. We’re against homosexuality. We’re against divorce. We’re against Democrats. We’re against Republicans. Half of the time, we’re against other churches!

The convicting thing is that when you study the life of Jesus, he was most often for things. He was for the woman who had been married and divorced five times. He was for little children who wanted to sit in his lap. He was for the diseased who had been outcast from society. He was for the poor, the blind, the crippled, the downtrodden.

Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (John 13:35) We’re supposed to be known for our love! My grandmother used to say, “You know you catch a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar.” The Church will have a lot more influence by what we’re for than what we’re against.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are times when, like Jesus, we have to take a strong stand against sin and injustice in the world. But, when we’re known for our love, those stands that we need to take will have much greater impact than when we’re always on the defensive.

James said it this way, "Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time." (James 2:13 MSG)