November 6, 2011

The truth is we never really get over being “Toys R Us” kids, our toys just get more expensive and more numerous! We spend more and more money to get more and more stuff and yet have less satisfaction and bigger debts.

How God moves us from needing to own and control stuff to wanting to be owned and controlled – by Him:

1) Ownership – It’s mine! I own it! I’ll do with it what I please!

2) Stewardship – It’s mine. I will try to manage it in a way that pleases God.

3) Loanership – It is not mine. It has been given by God and I will please Him.

4) Lordship – I am His. Everything I have belongs to Him. I will serve as He directs.

“Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.” I Chronicles 29:11

Ownership – “It’s mine! I own it! I’ll do with it what I please!”

We recently paid off one of our vehicles. It felt good to get the title in the mail to formally affirm that we own this car! I won’t think about how much it cost me in car payments to own it. Nevertheless, my name is on the title and the registration.

One of the driving forces behind the “American Dream” is the desire to own expensive things like:

1) the biggest house they can afford (or not)

2) the biggest and most powerful vehicles they can afford (or make payments on)

3) the best boat they can get

4) the best motorcycle or RV or fill in the blank - _____________.

In the USA, we tend to judge success and wealth in terms of how much stuff we manage to get during life. Increasingly we see the development of the Golden Rule – those with the gold make the rules. Many live from the perspective that the one who dies with the most toys wins. However, everyone takes his or her last ride in a rented car and that hearse never has a U-Haul trailer attached.

There are two main reasons why owning stuff is at the heart of the American Dream – we are free and because we are free we are able to be prosperous. Both of those are blessings from God.

However, I can think of several other powerful needs that ownership appeals

- Owning something gives feelings of power

- Owning something gives a sense of permanence and security

- Owning something gives a sense of pride

Don’t misunderstand, I bleed red, white and blue, and I believe in capitalism, and I have stuff that I own as well as other stuff I hope to own! But when your ownership is driven by emotional needs rather than practical realities you are in dangerous territory. That path leads to materialism, which is a form of idolatry. It can also lead to slavery because it can get you into the bondage of debt. Plus, it doesn’t meet the basic need and probably will frustrate you more. Ownership is fine until you get owned by what you own or by the need to own. (AVOID – “OWERSHIP” to GET OWNERSHIP)

God’s world success is judged not so much on what you get but by what your willing to give. Jesus said, “Lay up treasures in Heaven where moths and rust do not corrupt or thieves break into to steal.” Then He makes His point, “For where your treasures are there will your heart be also!”

When you use your wealth and possessions to help others and bless others and advance God’s Kingdom you are turning the material into eternal. Investing in God will bring benefits that are out of this world?

This might be a good time to do a quick inventory of your “stuff”. Do you own it or does it own you? Are you spending your life or investing it?

Stewardship – “It’s mine. I will try to manage it in a way that pleases God.”

The “ownership attitude” is represented in the Bible by a foolish man who Jesus told about in one of His stories. This man had a bountiful harvest and decided he would build bigger barns and live it up with wine, women, and parties. But that night, he died and went into eternity unprepared. All that he owned couldn’t help him in eternity and he left all his riches to others.

Another example of the ownership attitude is the Rich Young Ruler who came to Jesus with his impressive resume of success and religious practice. But when Jesus told him to sell everything he owned and become His follower, the young man walked away.

I want to talk about what I believe is the next growth point on the road to generosity. I may challenge some assumptions at this point or make some of you just plain angry. But I think stewardship is just the second step and not the destination for givers.

I have come to that conclusion partially because of the Pharisees. They were faithful tithers – not just of their money, but they tithed on everything! This was their attitude - “It’s mine. I will try to manage it in a way that pleases God.”

However, you see them being rebuked by Jesus because they were doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. Apparently, their reason for tithing was to impress God and to impress people – the wanted to look religious. Also, they wanted to escape the guilt of not doing what they had been taught and trained to do. Their tithing wasn’t driven by a deep sense of generosity nor a deep compassion to help the poor. Wanting to earn their salvation and earn the admiration of people motivated everything they did. The Pharisees gave in order to get.

Stewardship is better than ownership. Stewardship indicates a level of spiritual growth beyond ownership. But it is often motivated by legalism rather than love. It is often ownership with a conscience. It is giving with an expectation of return. While often help up as the ultimate ideal for Christian giving, I believe it is a positive step on the journey to Lordship.

Are you tithing? What is motivating you to tithe – is it love or is it legalism? Do you view it as giving your money to Him?

Loanership – “It’s not mine. It was given to me. I will give it to God”

Jesus did a lot of miracles during His earthly ministry. One of the best known of those supernatural acts was the feeding of the 5,000 (which in fact, was 10,000 to 15,000 counting women and children). That’s a lot of happy meals and a whole bunch of people – especially when they had no food!

The reason that Jesus was able to accomplish this amazing feat was because a young boy donated his lunch to Jesus and the disciples. This lad is an example of what I call “Loanership”, the third step in overcoming the ownership myth. His attitude was, “My lunch is not mine, it was given to me and I will give it to God.” As a youngster, he waived his ownership rights in the knowledge that all blessings come from God. He refused to claim it and was quick to share it.

Popular radio personality, Rush Limbaugh often declares his “talent is on loan from God”. It is a humorous acknowledgement of a serious fact – we are here temporarily and by the grace of God. Each of us, as well as all we have comes with an expiration date.

Missionary martyr, Jim Eliot, once said when asked why an educated young man would give up a chance at a comfortable career to go to a remote Amazon jungle, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

“Loanership” is a more spiritually mature attitude than ownership because it understands the temporary nature of life and the surrendered nature of believers. It is preferable to stewardship because it makes no claim of possession, takes no credit for earning it and seeks God’s will in how it should be used.

The “loanership” attitude of this lad, allowed Jesus to transform five loaves and two fish into the original power lunch! The simple lunch basket became a supernatural lunch buffet!

Have you grown to the “loanership” level or are you still laying claim to what He has given you to share?

Lordship – “I am God’s, everything I have is God’s and God can use it as He pleases.”

Have you noticed that many times when people say, “It’s not about the money” that it is about the money? But when God says. “It is not about the money” it is about much more that money.

With God, it’s not about ownership because He already owns everything. And it is not about stewardship because we can give our money and keep our hearts. And it is not about loanership because it is not possession He wants – He wants to possess us! He wants us to possess Him and His holiness and His authority and His power.

THAT is Lordship!

Lordship is Abraham offering Isaac on an altar when God’s will is confusing.

Lordship is Noah building an ark for over a century when it hadn’t rained.

Lordship is Joshua declaring, “As for me and my house……..”

Lordship is Job declaring, “Though He slay me, yet will I serve Him”

Lordship is a widow giving her last penny to honor God at the Temple.

Here’s what Lordship looks like:

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:42-47

MONEY SPEAKS! IT TELLS:

Who You Love

Whose Your Lord

November 5, 2011

EKG Devotional Day 30

We're probably so familiar with this opening line that the full impact of its radical nature doesn't startle us the way it did Jesus' first-century disciple. The intimacy of address Jesus used in approaching God as "Father" is our first signal to the radical nature of this prayer. No one in Jesus' day would've ever dare address the Creator and King as "our Father." This level of personal intimacy with God was unheard of.

But it wasn't an accident on Jesus' part. Nor was it descriptive only of the realtionship He had with the Fater as the result of being His Son. For Jesus would later tell His disciples, "Anything you ask the Father in My Name. He will give you'" (John 16:23)

All of His children were invited into this relationship.

This is the prayer of the child who knows that His Father's kingdom is paramount and thus His first desire is to advance the Kingdom. It is the prayer of a child who know His Father is trustwrthy and therefore He submits to the will of the Father. It is the confident prayer that knows our Father is in the heavens.

Paul said that when we recieved the gift of the Holy Spirit, He gave us the right to cry out, "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15), a word that actually carries the meaning of our word Daddy. This is a testimony to God's love and grace, not an offensive devaluation of His holiness. It took a great God to stoop down to us, to desire to be our Father.

In the space below, write a note thanking God for the privilege of calling Him Father.

November 4, 2011

EKG Day 29 Devotional



Read the prayer of Jesus carefully enough, and you begin to see that the kingdom of God breathes through every oft-quoted line and phrase. 

 

Many scholars, in fact, agree that the Lord's Prayer is at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount and therefore at the heart of our Lord's teaching on the kingdom of God. If for no other reason than this, we should hunger afresh to understand its impact.

 

I can only say that studing the Lord's Prayer has changed my life. I came to it in hopes that God would use it to improve my experience in prayer, and instead He has used it not only to alter my prayer, the Father has sinsitized me to His kingdom activity and has given me the courage to participate with Him as He advances His kingdom through me.

 

I can't wait to see and hear what this prayer doe in your life, as well.

 

 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one."
[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen] (Matthew 16:9-13)

Pray this prayer until you gain a fresh awareness of the kingdom of God!

November 3, 2011

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:13-16

Salty living means that we must embrace a lifestyle that is consistent with the character of our Father. It means that we will take seriously the demands of the beatitudes in our everyday life.

As kingdom people intent on obeying the Word of God, we know we cannot tread lightly upon these matters. As we hear Jesus begin to teach His disciples a few things about the way they should approach teir religious activity, we too must listen reverently - and be prepared to obey completely - if we're to receive our Father's reward.

When salt loses its saltiness, it becomes useless to function as salt. Christianity can be just as useless without a lifestyle that embraces the teachings of the kingdom. Then our conduct doesn't become the fuel that makes our witness stand out like a light in the dark.

Jesus discussed three important aspects of kingdom living in the first part of Matthew 6 - fasting, prayer and giving.

* Fasting prepares us for pwerful prayer.

* Prayer moves us to generosity.

* Generous giving provides visible evidence of our relationship to God.

And for the benefit of all the rest of  us who struggle with this from time to time - Jesus was not about to gloss over any one of these matters without confronting us on the issue of motive. The Pharisee prayed to be seen; the sinner prayed privately (Luke 18:9-14). Some gave for public acclaim; the widow quietly gave her all (Luke 21:1-4)

Salty behavior both demands and deserves illumination. Unless we explain the source of our righteousness, the world will neversee the light.

Ask God to reveal to you your true motives for kingdom work. Are you salt and light?

November 2, 2011

"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6

The words hunger and thirst in Matthew 5:6 suggest a deep, profound, even painful desire that increases with desperation until it is fed.

That's how the kingdom citizen pursues righteousness should be both recurring and ongoing. When we eat a sandwich at lunch, it may hold us for a while, but it doesn't satisfy our hunger for the rest of our lives, Our appetite for righteousness should keep growing. When we lose our appetite for the Lord and His kingdom, when we're just as content with the world's junk food as we are with the Word of God, something is wrong.

Kingdom hunger is:

* an unquenchable desire to know Him;

* a desire to be free from sin because sin separates us from God;

* a desire to be free from the power of sin and controlled by God's Spirit;

* a desire to be free from the desire for sin and eager to please the Father;

* a desire to be like Jesus.

How do we seek righteousness? We let God show us who we really are. We do away with the pretense. As long as we think we're better than most, we are not hungry for righteousenss. Spiritual fulfillment begins with an awareness of our spiritual bankruptcy. We must remove anything that dulls our spiritual appetite, whether it's overtly sinful or not. It might be NFL football, or boating, or a harmless hobby but if it gets in the way of our pursuit of righteousness, it needs to go. Kingdom hunger demands it.

This requires real sacrifice, but it results in real satisfaction because those who orient their "hunger and thirst" in the direction of righteousness are guaranteed to find themselves "filled". When was the last time any sin left you feeling that way?

Are good things in your life keeping you away from the best God Has to offer? Seek His righteousness.

November 1, 2011

EKG Day 25 Devotional

"The meek shall inherit the earth" Matthew 5:5

Jesus said the meek, the gentle, would inherit the earth. But our culture has created a different breed of inheritors. Thereis nothing remotely meek about the heroes of our day. Meekness and gentleness are not virtues we greatly admire , and this beatitude ma not appeal to us.

In our minds meekness is often associated with weakness, passivity, or even cowardice. Or we may think it's simply a person's natural disposition, a tendency to be quiet and mellow, which some have nd some don't. If either of these two is correct, (1) Jesus wouldn't have praised it, and (2) those of us who aren't so calm and collected by nature would be out of luck satisfying Christ's command.

The Bible says that gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23) - a Christlike character trait prodced in the believer's life by the Holy Spirit. And furtermore, meekness is not weakness, it is power under control. Power restrained by gentlenes. I like that.

We see this quality in Jesus. In the wilderness Satan offered Him all a man could want. Jesus could have had physical satifaction, public acclaim, universal power. But He chose to submit to His Father. In Gethsemene, His human flesh begged to avoid the cross, but He submitted to the Father's eternal plan."'Not what I will, but wat you will.'" (Mark 14:36). Do you remember the taunting cry of the criminal? "Aren't You the Messiah? Save Yourself and us!" (Luke 23:39). Everything in Jesus' human nature must have desired to come down and show them the fierce anger of the Lord. If we were there, we would have cheered if He had torn Himself free of the cross and taken His own revenge. But it was His meekness that held Him there, enabling Him to endure the shame and buy mankind's redemption.

Our ability to be meek - or not to be - is most often seen in our relationships with other people. When you're in difficult situations, are you in control of your emotions? Do you have meekness - power under control?

October 31, 2011

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Isaiah 58:11

I grew up loving God. I have been a believer for 54 years.

Even though I have never seen God He is more real to me that any person I know. I knew intellectually He was the one thing I needed most of all.

But, there was a time in my life when it seemed I had lost just about everything that mattered to me. I was devastated and complained to God, "I have lost everything! All I have left is You!" This was in the early hours of a sleepless night as I was having a pity party. God broke the silence when He answered, "What else do you need?"

That was a turning point in my life. I went from knowing God to KNOWING GOD! When I was at the point of really understanding God was all I had - I discovered God was all I needed.

Even though I was a believer. Even though I was a pastor. I lived with the silent and mistaken assumption that what I needed for happiness was God plus....... What I discovered was that God IS the plus. True happiness is God - period! Living under the assumption that God plus anything will bring happiness elevates the plus to equal status with God. That sounds like idolatry to me. God isn't really God until He is unrivaled in your life.

Once I discovered that God IS ALL I NEED and once I committed to become complete in Him, I understood that everything else is a bonus!

What is your formula for happiness?

Complete this equation: God + _______ = Satisfaction.

Whatever you write into that blank - a person, a possession, a relationship - whatever, commit that to God and discover that there is no plus there is only a period! When you come to the place where you discover God is all you really want that is the place you will discover He is all you need!

Ready to REALLY know God?