“I just want to know what God wants me to do,” the man said to me.

His eyes filled with rage at my answer: “No you don’t!”

“What do you mean?” he protested. “I do too; I want to know God’s will!”

As we sat across the table in my office, I reminded him that he had asked me to help him determine God’s will in his finances three times before, over a period of about six years. Each time I brought him to the same conclusion from God’s Word: “God’s will is clear—give to His work. You cannot look past His clear teaching that connects all of His financial promises to your faith in Him. You must trust Him enough to give before you can expect His guidance and blessing concerning your money situation.”

But here we were, going around the same block, considering his same questions, and reviewing God’s same answer.

Don’t Ask If You Won’t Follow

(more…)

The Apostle John says that God’s love is never comfortable (abiding) shut up in our hearts (1 John 3:17). What God’s love always wants to do is mature (have its end) by overflowing into love for others (1 John 4:11-16).

It seems there are two benefits of not suppressing His love within us.

First, our love for one another provides seeable proof of the unseeable God we serve (11-12). This is an amazing and wonderful possibility for any follower of Jesus. No one has seen God at any time, but when we love one another with His love, people see His presence on earth! This is exactly what Jesus predicted in John 13:34: They will know you are my disciples by your love.

Second, as others are seeing God’s presence in our love for one another, the Spirit is confirming His pleasure with the sure understanding that God is abiding in us (13-16).

The Priority of God’s Heart

Picture your church on a Sunday morning and all the “things” and “stuff” we focus on to attract others to Christ and prove to doubters that God exists: facilities, music, preaching, programs, bulletins, friendliness….

God’s heart is crying out for a different priority—love one another!

“Love one another,” John says, “and everyone watching will know that God is real. It is the only way they will ever “see” Christ here on earth until He shows up.”

That’s my prayer for you, for me, and for the precious Bride of Christ.

If you agree, you may want to tell your Father right now:

Father, please mature your love in me so that my life, my family, my church provides the most convincing evidence possible to a watching world that you are—my love for other Christians. Help me, please, to love others with the love you have loved me.

I’m Through With God!

A young Bible School graduate marched into my office and announced, “I’m through with God. This isn’t at all what I expected my life to look like. So I just wanted you to know that I won’t be doing anything at church anymore!”

Before I had a chance to respond, he explained his decision, careful to emphatically count off each of his supporting points on the fingers of his left hand. “I’ve been out of school for two years. I prayed for a wife, and I don’t have one yet. I prayed for a full-time position in a church, and I don’t have one yet. If I would have known that God wasn’t going to let me do these things, I could have gone to a regular college and studied engineering. I’d be making a lot of money right now.”

Nobody Gets That

After he calmed down, I jolted him with my answer: “Nobody gets that.”

He shot back. “Nobody gets what?”

“What they expected.” He seemed bewildered.

I knew I could prove my point from Scripture, but I decided to tell him stories instead.

I told him about some of the ladies in Judy’s His Alone class who did everything “right” but have to move on without a husband because he decided he would be much “happier” with a new wife and family.

I told him about a friend who teaches at a seminary who lives with a disease that randomly confines him to a wheel chair and sometimes even threatens his life.

I told him about the dedicated Christian couple whose only daughter was born with such a severe birth defect that in the precious few months they had with her this side of heaven she never smiled…never acknowledged their presence in the ways most mommies and daddies long for.

I told him stories for ten minutes.

And then I told him how the Lord used each of these disappointments and tragedies to transform not only the ones suffering through the pain, but also those who were watching.

We talked. He cried. By the end of our time together, he was able to hear what I wanted to tell him when he first walked in. “It’s not what you’re expecting God to do that matters, it’s what He wants to do. Once you get that straight, you are ready to receive His very best for your life–both the expected and the unexpected.”

“For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing”(James 1:3-4, New Living Translation).

Clyde Cook: Larger Than Life

A few years ago I wrote these words from one of my favorite places on earth—Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Judy and I walked the beach on a Monday morning with heavy hearts. One of the most important men in our lives—Dr. Clyde Cook, President Emeritus of Biola University—had died suddenly Friday evening.

The breathtaking beauty of Cannon Beach and its spectacular Haystack Rock seemed a fitting backdrop to our prayers for Clyde’s beloved Anna Belle and their children. Clyde Cook was one of those Christians whose dedication to the Lord Jesus made him larger than life.

As we neared the majestic 235-foot tall monolith filled with nesting seabirds, I thought about the moment of Clyde’s transition from his life here on earth to his forever life in heaven. Dr. Cook was 73 years old when God called him to his home in heaven where he will now spend eternity.

73 years here, forever there.

73 years of faithful service here, forever years of rewarded service there.

Standing in the shadow of that great rock, I picked up a pebble from the sand and compared the two. The pebble is small; it fit in my hand. Haystack Rock is enormous, its dimensions almost beyond my comprehension.

For my friend and mentor, Clyde Cook, the pebble represents his whole life here on earth—73 years.

The great rock corresponds to the life he passed into last Friday evening—His eternity with the Lord Jesus.

And though my heart is sad and I will miss this great man of God, I smile when I think of his coming reward. The Lord Jesus Christ promises to reward His faithful followers, and few have been more faithful to their Savior than Clyde Cook.

Dr. Cook was more preoccupied with the world to come than he was with this world. He knew that His few years here on earth were his opportunity to invest in his heavenly reward.

He lived for the rock, not the pebble.

I’m asking God to use this dear saint’s tremendous example to move me to live for the world to come. Will you join me? I promise you we will never regret it.

“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward will be great in heaven!” Jesus Christ, Luke 6:23

Question: Are you living for the rock of the pebble?

God, I’m Confused Here!

Have you ever moved forward in faith, sure that you knew what God wanted you to do, only to encounter trial after trial, roadblock after roadblock?

In January of 2005 we celebrated our 90^th Anniversary by raising over $600,000 to begin transforming our campus. We knew God wanted us to build on this beautiful piece of property. A new worship center seemed like the logical choice. So we initiated a capital campaign, and started planning our construction.

Every month we poured ourselves into the project. We estimated the scope and cost, and announced it to the congregation. And then, something would happen and we would have to rethink and re-plan, and re-report the revised plans and figures to our people.

By the time we had our big Groundbreaking Ceremony under a tent over three years later, we were sure the construction was just a few days off. But it all fell apart again. Finally, we told the church that we needed to move forward with a new construction team and timeline, we would “get back to them” as soon as we had a clearer picture.

I Can’t Build a Doghouse

Since I can’t build a doghouse, I have no idea if we could have planned this better. I do know that we were on our knees every step of the way and always told the church exactly what we knew and all that we knew.

Though the Bible says nothing about how to transform a campus or build a worship center, it has a lot to say about how to lead a church—by building loving, mature trust on the leadership team and between the leaders and the people. And that is what we have dedicated ourselves to with all our heart.

At our Thursday elder meeting before the event we knew the business meeting could get dicey. The building was going to cost a lot more than we originally thought and we weren’t absolutely sure where all of the money was going to come from. But we were confident that this was where God wanted us to go.

We did know that God had blessed us with deep unity. The years of building a strong, loving bond of trust between the elders and the flock had led us to an amazingly healthy place. And so, we just decided to risk it before God—to risk God’s glory to this community under the Headship of the Lord Jesus.

And the Count Is…

When the ballots were counted it was unanimous: 159 for moving forward, 0 against.

If you’ve been around churches for more than a few months, you know that this degree of unity is more than remarkable—it’s supernatural. Our joy over the Spirit’s deep work in our lives was so strong, the chairman of the elder board forgot to vote!

We’ll have to amend the minutes at our next congregational business meeting from 159 for and 0 against to 160 for and 0 against!

It was a mighty work of God—He did His part. He always does. And though our part was small by comparison, it was critical. As shepherds, we did what He told us—we made disciples as we built a loving community.

You may be in the middle of a lengthy trial right now, or feel like the Lord is delaying your dream. You might even wonder if He has forgotten all about you.

Could it be that you’re worrying about God’s part while neglecting your part? I’m sure that if you spent some time in prayer and asked a few mature Christians for some guidance, God would clearly point out your part in all of this. And once you’ve discovered that, you’re in the good place of trusting Him for the rest!

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledged Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

We just finished the Book of Genesis in our series, bible.cod, “Give us two years and we’ll give you the Bible. Every time I read the first 50 chapters of the Bible, I’m jarred by the stuff God puts up with in the life of the Patriarchs of Israel—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph

Abraham and Isaac told their wives to lie to kings to save their skin. “Tell him you’re only my sister, and sleep with him if you have to.” Jacob was a trickster and a manipulator from the beginning. Joseph seemed insensitive to the feelings of his brothers, bragging about a dream that proved they would all serve him someday.

So, why didn’t God just go out and start over with a new family? Why did God insist on moving His purposes forward through these losers? And then God’s Spirit reminds me of another loser God’s using in spite of his failures. Me!

When I consider my own life and all the ways I’ve failed Jesus and how undeserving I am, I look again at the Book of Genesis. Paul said that Abraham is the father of our faith, not because of his performance for God but because of the promise God made to Him when he believed (Genesis 15:6; Galatians 3:6).

The entire storyline of Genesis hinges on God’s response to Abraham’s faith. God made a covenant with Abraham based solely upon his faith. God promised to make Abraham a great nation in a special land that would bless the nations of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3; 15).

Jesus made a covenant promise to me personally when I trusted in Him. He said that He would give me eternal life, and nothing would ever change that (John 6:47). In the forty-some years since I believed, my performance has been up and down. But His promise has never wavered.

Question: Have you claimed God’s promise to give all who believe in His Son eternal life, or are you still trying to perform for Him? 

Mommy, Daddy, Sammy

I was sure God was going to answer our prayer.

• Our leadership team, all abiders in Christ and claiming John 15:6, begged God to rescue our budget with a huge December.
• Following our Lord’s instructions on prayer (Matthew 6:5-13; 7:7-11; Luke 11:1-13; 18:1-5), we prayed specifically and persistently.
• We prayed alone, as couples, as families, in groups, and in community at all of our Christmas leadership events.
• Most of us fasted and prayed multiple times during December.

I was so sure that God would say yes to this prayer because usually He says yes when a request burdens our community in this way.

God Said No

He said no. Emphatically no. It wasn’t that He was testing us some to see if we would trust Him enough to move forward with a more robust budget in 2012 by giving us a partial yes. Our December giving didn’t even come close.

I’m devastated and my faith is shaken.

Like you, I don’t know what to do with no answers to my purest prayers when it seems I did everything right. I started doubting whether I really was abiding, if I was asking unselfishly enough, if maybe I was foolish to be so bold and public in leading our church in this prayer.

I came up with strategies to explain away the no. Some of that I’m sure was to protect the “reputation” of God, but a lot of it was simply to try to make sense of it myself.

And then, my grandson Zachy taught me a lesson on prayer.

Jesus rejoiced in the childlike faith of His disciples. Their excited reports of what God had done for them after their first missionary journey, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name” (Luke 10:17), elicits this response from the Master:

“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will” (Luke 10:21).

Zachy

Zachy was spending the night with us for the first time in his almost three years on earth Friday night. He had moved from a world of a lot of no’s (too many if his parents were to consult Judy and me!) to a world of yes’s. He got just about everything he wanted that night. Okay, I admit it. He got everything he wanted that night.

But then, when it came time to go to bed, his little heart broke. He cried and cried, saying only, “Mommy, Daddy, Sammy” over and over again. Finally, after an hour of comforting him and stroking his little back, he fell asleep with the whispered whimper, “Mommy, Daddy, Sammy.”

The next morning when mommy and daddy and brother Sammy came to pick him up, he ran into their arms and immediately asked them for something he couldn’t have.

They told him no. He protested. And then he asked again.

Children don’t care as much about yes’s as they do about relationship. They protest and throw fits when daddy says no, but what they most fear is being away from daddy…and mommy…and Sammy.

What a child wants most is the secure love of a parent and the familiar surroundings of the community of the family.

But they never stop asking!

The Measure of Faith

There’s my lesson. We tend to measure faith by adult behavior. God measures faith by childlike behavior.

I’m still begging my Father for more money to do the things we want to do for His Kingdom in 2012, but I’m not going to try to fine tune my prayers.

He’s given me what my redeemed heart longs for most: His unfailing love and strength, and a community of faith where I feel safe.

Just like Zachy, what we really want is the presence of our Father rather than His yes.

Question: When God says no to your prayers, do you tend toward more adult behavior of explanation or the childlike behavior of running to His arms and protesting His no?

Throw-Away Week?

I use to think of the week between Christmas and New Year’s as a throw away week. It was a time to decide to somehow stop eating everything in sight and try to put together a few New Year’s Resolutions I knew I wasn’t going to keep.

Or Year In Review?

Then I got an idea that changed my mind about this week. I now view it as maybe the most important weeks of the year.

Instead of watching and listening the mindless dribble of television and radio reviews of what happened on earth last year, I spend time with God thinking about what heaven thinks about my life last year.

Since I’m addicted to journaling, I dedicate this week to reading through the pages of my spiritual journal from the year before. Using a red highlighter, I underline and make notes asking God to help me condense the pages into the one lesson He was teaching me last year.

At the end of the week I complete this sentence and write it on the first page of my journal for the next year: “Last year God taught Ed…………………………………”

(more…)

In his Letters to Marc, Henri Nouwen says, “Success has isolated a lot of people and made them lonely. It seems sometimes as though meetings between people generally happen on the way to something or someone else.”

We live in a world where we’re all on our way to something else and someone else.

Just last month I asked Judy if there was any way I could love her better. She didn’t hesitate. “Yes, Eddie. You could put up that stupid iphone. Sometimes I feel that I’d get more of your attention if I were an app on your iphone”

Ouch!

It’s true, isn’t it? We’re hardly ever present with the one we’re with. We’re always on our way to someone else or something else.

The message to our hearts from early on is, “Nobody really has time for me. They’re all on their way to someone else or something else more important than me.”

“Stop interrupting me, can’t you see I’m on the phone…or watching the game…or on the computer? Go in your room and play, or put on a video. Just find something to do!”

Message to child? “I’m on my way to someone or something more important than you.

Those messages just keep on coming for the rest of our lives.

And then we meet Jesus.

Who is never in a hurry, never preoccupied, never impatient.

In fact, what He wants most of all is to spend time with us.

He gathers us in communities called churches.

And what do we do?

We turn church into the busiest place on earth where everyone is on their way to something or someone else…more important, more spiritual, more significant, more worthy of my time.

Just one more place where lonely people gather wondering, “Does anyone have an app for me?”

“Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well. You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had” (Philippians 2:3-5).

Question: Can you remember a time when you felt alone and isolated at church? What would you have wanted to say to your leaders?

Last week, I taught Galatians5.1-6 for our faith community–Church of the Open Door. We talked about the importance of reading the warnings of these verses in context. These verses warn us against losing our grip on grace by resubmitting to works-righteousness. They are not warning us against losing our salvation–the free gift of eternal life given to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

Since so many Christians have been abused by the false teaching of legalists, I thought it would be important to explain why this paragraph does not teach loss of salvation. I offered 5 reasons:

1. This would revoke the promises of God (John 3:16; John 6:47; Ephesians 2:8-9). Romans 8:29 tells us plainly that this will never happen.
2. Paul calls the readers brothers and sisters (v 11) even after telling them that those who are submitting to circumcision have “fallen from grace.”
3. This is describing two contrasting systems of righteousness—law/grace; works/faith—not two states of being (saved/unsaved).
4. The verbs speak of losing our grip on something (grace) or rendering something useless (our resources in Christ). They do not speak of God losing His grip on us because that will never happen (John 10:29-30).
5. Logically, this would mean that even the slightest submission to legalism would mean loss of salvation.

Question: Do you know someone who lives in fear of losing their salvation? Why not forward this to them?