January 27, 2011

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12

Passion begins with a connection. Passion can be catching, you can get it from someone else who has it. No one is more passionate about life and love than Jesus!

Secondly, passion grows with conviction. Passion takes root in a belief and strengthens as you become more convinced about what you believe. Belief typically grows through experience. Experience is when your belief moves from your head to your heart. When something that you believe in your mind actually gets put to the test in life and you discover it works! From then on you believe it more!

When reality challenges your beliefs and you cling to that belief and act on it and find it passes the test, you have a stronger belief and a new view of reality. When what you hoped in proved to be worthy of your hope - your hope grows! You move from hoping to real hope! Not only does your belief get stronger but so does your passion!

It is sort like when you first walked out on the ice covering a pond or a like. You have watched it freeze and seen the ice cover more of the surface until it covers all the water. You wait while it thickens and then when you think it be thick enough you take that first tentative step. To your joy and relief your find it does support your weight. With each step your confidence grows. Soon you are skating and having a wonderful time! You have moved from hoping you were right to knowing it and enjoying it!

Conviction is discovering that you can hope in what you hoped you could believe! Then you hope more and believe stronger. Each time your belief stands the tests of life and validates your hopes you grow more passionate about what you believe. That allows you to be more patient in the face of difficulties.

Stronger hope and greater patience helps you pray with more faith! Prayer strengthen both your connection WITH Jesus and your conviction of what be believe ABOUT Him. Prayer becomes less of a job and more of a joy. It changes prayer from a last resort to a first response.

Passion originates with a connection and deepens with a conviction. When you believe what you believe you will find you more hope, patience and prayerfulness.

January 26, 2011

"Be never lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." Romans 12:11

My father would have been 80 years old today, if he was still living. He may be still living had he been able to get his passions directed in the right ways. Your passions can make you or break you. Dad's broke him.

So, how do you get your passion focused in positive ways that please God and produces fruit in your life?

As I study verses 11-13 I see three factors concerning passion. It begins with a connection, it grows through a conviction and it is sustained by a commitment. Over the next few posts I want to explore those ideas.

Spiritual passion begins with a connection - connecting to Jesus Christ by faith. Verse 11 tells you to "keep your fervor". You will have no fervor or zeal (passion) unless you have the Spirit of God present and active in your life. And you will not have the Spirit active in your life if you not have a personal spiritual faith connection with the God of the universe.

When you connect with Jesus you connect to His eternal supernatural love. There is no love like the love of God. It is unconditional. It is unlimited. It is unstoppable. And it is yours for the receiving it. You will never know godly passion until you know godly love.

When you connect with Jesus you connect you connect to His grace. Grace is the "underserved favor of God". His grace assures you that He wants to know you and wants you to know His love. Grace means that we don't always have to be at our spiritual best. It means He will strengthen us when we are weak. It means he will forgive us when we repent of sin. It means we can live in unbroken fellowship with God and know the joy of His presence. Passion arises out of getting to know God in a personal and intimate way.

When you connect with Jesus you get His hope - and His peace. You know that all is well with your soul and God is pleased with you. Knowing that you have found favor with God gives you joy. You can live each day in His peace and have hope for the future.

And, connecting with Christ connects you to His passion. He is passionate about people. He wants to work through you to be a connecting point for people who don't know Him.

God wired us to be passionate people. Everyone is passioniate about something. But the "something" you should be passionate about is "someone" - Jesus! Powerful and productive passion begins with a connection to God. Are you connected?

January 25, 2011

"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." Romans 12:11

Perhaps you buy into the notion that passion is a spontatneous and intense emotional response to some great spiritual experience or a move of God.

Maybe you understand passion to be something that springs up within randomly or capriciously and then disappears just a unpredictably.

Verse 11 presents a different idea of passion.

Passion happens intentionally, "Never be lacking in zeal", v. 11 a

Like most other things in life, passion happens because someone wants it to happen and does what it takes to make it happen. What needs to happen is zeal. Zeal is a form of passion or even a

synonym for it. An intentional decision must be made to be zealous toward the Lord, His Church and the people that make up your local church. You decide that you will maintain the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual commitment necessary to stay zealous for the Lord. You devote body, mind and, spirit to knowing and serving the Lord. You aggressively pursue it or preserve it.

Second, passion happens internally.

Passion is something that stirs within you once you decide to pursue it and possess it. Zeal comes to your mind and spirit as a result of committing them to God's Spirit. It comes from His Word as you hide it in your heart and meditate on it in your mind. Once you intentionally commit to pleasing God, His pleasure fills you from the inside out.

Passion happens in service to God.

Zeal increases as it is expressed by self-sacrificing service. Passion is something you can put your hands around. Zeal cannot be contained. What obedience and surrender allow the Spirit to stir within in you will have to express itself by serving others. Passion that seeks God must also service God.

Passion is a decision. Zeal is a determination to know God, to experience God, and to show God in your piety, your personal relationship to him and your personal investment ministering to the needs of others.

Are you zealous for the Lord? Are you passionate in the Lord?

January 24, 2011

"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." Romans 12:11 (TNIV)

“Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame." Romans 12:11 (The Message)

What are you passionate about?

How do you fuel that passion?

What robs you of your passion?

Those are some of the issues addressed in this middle section of Romans 12.

How do you define passion? Is it an emotional state? Is it an attitude? Is it a spiritual condition?

Here, Paul defines it as a level of commitment. He equates it with "zeal".

Commitment implies a narrowed focus. When you are committed to numerous things you are, in fact, not committed. You may have multiple interests but minimal commitment. Most people nowadays can relate to the concept of being "over committed".

What happens to over committed people? Don't they usually become over stressed? Once you are over stressed what happens to your passion? What happens to your energy level? What happens to your level of performance?

I established at the beginning of this series that God calls you to the purpose of overcoming evil with His goodness. But what are the chances of overcoming evil if you are overwhelmed by too many commitments?

"But, Brad" you argue, "The things I am committed to are all good things! Isn't that how you overcome evil?"

While I will give you that if you are going to be overwhelmed it is better to be overwhelmed with good things than by bad things, but the net result is pretty much the same. In my experience, the

most common hindrance to believers overcoming evil WITH good is being overcome BY good. Doing the good things is usually what prevents you from doing the best things.

"So," you ask, "How do I narrow my focus? How do I prioritize my commitments?"

Discover that and you will take a giant step toward living with passion. I will give you a hint, Jesus said, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

January 23, 2011

“LIVING ON PURPOSE”

Week Three – “Finding Your Purity” Romans 12:9-10


Review:


Our Purpose – “overcoming evil with good”

We are a team – every member has a position to play and the team wins as each member plays his position and gets wins at that position. Each of us matters and it matters to the team what we do.

We are a body – every member has an equally important place in that body and must find it for the body to become healthy and growing.

Our Unity – comes from surrendering to God:
Our Ego
Our Evil
Our Efforts

Our Community – comes from serving in the church in the Spirit

How do we preserve and maintain this healthy climate in the church?

PURITY

“Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves.” Romans 12:9-10

PURITY = MATURITY, as in, mature love. That is what we have seen displayed in David and Trish Tait over the years they have served FWC. It is the love that Gerald and Brenda have modeled as they lead the church and even now as they serve.

Once a team, once a body finds the unity and community that are essential to a godly, growing, healthy church – then they must maintain it. How?

PURE LOVE THAT IS MATURE IS:

1) HONEST – “Love must be honest and true……”

This deals with your motives. Honest love isn’t manipulative. Honest love faces the hard truth of selfish love and repents of it. Get real with God!

2) HOLY – “…..hate what is evil….”

This deals with your Master. Who is the source of your love? How do you get it? You have to hate your selfish love to get sincere love. This will take some true repentance. It will require some discipline. You can’t love and hate at the same time.

3) HELPFUL – “….hold onto what is good….”

This deals with your mission. The purpose of believers is to be confront the evil in the world with the goodness of God!

4) HEARTY – “…..love each other deeply…..”

This deals with your meaning. Are you going to devote your life to self-seeking or are you going to invest in others? Are you willing to be vulnerable? Will you risk getting hurt by others in order to be able to help them?

5) HUMBLE – “…..honor others more than yourselves.”

This deals with your maturity. Are you willing to stand in the shadows and shine the spotlight on others? Are you willing to be a “nobody” to help make “somebodys”. Will you decrease so others can increase?

THIS IS PURE LOVE!

THIS IS POWERFUL LOVE!

THIS IS CHRISTIAN LOVE!

THIS IS CONTAGIOUS LOVE!

THIS IS DAVID AND TRISH LOVE!

THIS IS WHY WE WILL MISS THEM SO MUCH!

WE WILL NEED SOME PEOPLE TO STEP UP AND LEARN TO LOVE LIKE THEM!

WHO WILL THAT BE? WHO WILL COMMIT TO LOVE:

HONESTLY
HOLY
HELPFUL
HEARTY

HUMBLE

January 22, 2011

"Your love must be real. Hate what is evil, and hold on to what is good. Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

Telling someone to love like this is equivalent to telling your dog to act like a cat. It is unnatural. The love that God demands of you in this portion of Scripture is unnatural. Think about it!

To love this way you must be sincere, i.e. - authentic, the real deal! That is not your nature! It is natural to fake it. You show only your best side and mask or hide your faults, flaws and weaknesses. You don't like those parts of your nature and you are sure that if others knew how you really are they wouldn't like you either!

Loving others with a real, true, genuine and sincere love is not natural!

Likewise, expecting someone to hate evil and cling to good is very idealistic isn't it? That won't really happen. It is not the way we are! How can you hate evil when your very nature is controlled by evil? Your natural way of loving is selfish love. It is a love that manipulates others to get what it wants. Therefore selfish love uses other people, sometimes abuses them to gratify its desires.

Loving others with a holy and unselfish love is unnatural.

So it is with brotherly love or a love that prefers others above your own wants and needs. It is not in your nature to honor others. You want the spotlight! You want the credit! Center-stage belongs to you! You deserve the honor! You have earned it!

Honor others? Why?

Pure love requires a maturity that is not natural. True love, Christian love, requires a fundamental change in your nature. As the Scripture declares, you must "be transformed by the renewing of your mind"! That is not just unnatural it is supernatural! Only God can do that because only God loves like that! It begins the moment you recieve the love that God has for you in Christ Jesus! When you recieve His love you also recieve the desire to love others. Along with that desire comes the ability to love others because - HE LOVES THROUGH YOU!

Are you ready for some radical love? Are you tired of shallow self-centered love? Are you wanting to help others rather than hurting them?

Repent of your selfish love and surrender to the supernatural endless love of God!

January 21, 2011

"Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other." Romans 12:9-10

You have heard about "love/hate" relationships. Maybe you have had some. So you know there really is a fine line between love and hate. They are equally strong passions. Love has tremendous power for good while hatred can cause great harm.

Both love and hatred have a place in the heart of a Christian. In some situations you must hate one thing in order to love another. For instance, if you love the Chicago Bears (as I do) you MUST hate the Green Bay Packers. That's just the way it is! Always has been that way and always will be.

Okay, maybe I can find a better example.

In verses nine and ten, you are told that in order to love others with a godly love, you must hate evil. That would be the evil that tries to intrude into your heart as well and the evil that would attack or invade others. The word used here is a strong word. It indicates that you must be disgusted by evil and find it loathsome.

Do you?

If you saw an imminent physical threat to your loved one you would immediate cry out ro warm them or run to protect them. That is because true love protects. So, how then can you truly love someone and ignore a greater threat - the threat of evil to their immortal soul?

What would you think of a lifeguard at the beach who sees someone struggling in the waves and while fully aware of the threat, chooses to ignore it, preferring to work on his tan. That would anger you! And it should! You would conclude that lifeguard does not care about people nor takes his job seriously.

But in the same way, when you see evil or destructive habits or behavior in a loved one and you tolerate it you are not doing your duty as a Christian.

One measure of how much you love a brother or a sister is how much evil you are willing to tolerate in their lives. Or, another indication would be how much evil you are willing to condone or even participate in with them. The degree to which you ignore or tolerate evil is an indication of how little you love. Perhaps you have remained silent not wanting to offend or force a confrontation. Maybe you have convinced yourself that is the loving thing to do. Romans 12:9-10 challenges that notion.

Loving God and loving others demands a hatred of evil.