March 6, 2011

So far you have learned to principles that can help you grow in the grind:

Know the "how" of the harvest. Whatever you sow you will reap. So, in the midst of your daily grind make sure you sow spiritual seeds that will produce a profitable harvest. Know what kind of harvest you want and be sure you sow those seeds each day. Act - don't react. To grow in the grind - sow in the grind.

Second, know the hope of the harvest. There WILL be a harvest. It always comes - so live like it. Don't live for immediate gratification, be patient and work toward the harvest every day. Keep doing the right things. Obey everyday. Serve every day. Surrender every day. Pray every day. Read the Word every day. Fellowship with believers every day. Even in the grind of your daily routine show up and make preparation for the harvest. To grow in the grind - show up in the grind.

The third principle is based on verse 10:

“Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.” V. 6:10

To grow in the grind - glow in the grind.

What did the Apostle Paul know about growing weary in well-doing?

“Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone With out food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” II Corinthians 11:23-28

Let me ask you this, “Where would we be today if Paul would have grown weary in well-doing and given up?”

You don’t know how many people are depending on you to not give up! There are people who can only be reached by you and if you give up they may not be reached!

You don’t know how many people are watching your life to see if your faith is real of if you will give up when life gets too tough. They believe in you and they want to believe in your God – if you don’t give up!

God is planning a great harvest for you! It is closer than you think! It is yours unless you quit!

You won’t find any books on Amazon with the title – great people who gave up and quit!

How many of you have ever heard of Dr. Samuel Langley? He was competing with Wright Brothers to invent a mechanical flying machine. Although he was funded with a government grant and had a larger crew assisting him, he eventually quit and the Wright Brothers kept experimenting. They believed a harvest was coming – and it did!

How many of you have heard of George Westinghouse. He was competing with Thomas Edison to perfect the incandescent light bulb, he couldn't find the right filament material and quit. Edison experimented with thousands of materials until he found a long-lasting one. Edison believed a harvest was coming – and it did!

Noah worked every day for 120 years before he got the benefit of his work. He believed the day of delivery was coming – and it did!

Moses wandered 40 years in the desert before the Promised Land, and he didn’t even get into enter in. But he believed the harvest was coming!

Abraham waited over a quarter of a century for God’s promise to be fulfilled. He believed God’s promise and knew a son was coming!

Joseph spent several years in prison after being falsely accused before he was promoted to Pharoah’s main man. A day of harvest literally came for him and he saved his family and his nation!

HERE’S THE TRUTH – MOST OF LIFE IS LIVED IN THE GRIND – SO, THE GRIND WILL EITHER GET YOU OR IT WILL GROW YOU!

IF YOU KNOW THE "HOW "OF THE HARVEST YOU WILL GROW!

IF YOU SOW IN THE GRIND YOU WILL GROW!

IF YOU GLOW IN THE GRIND YOU WILL GROW!

March 5, 2011

"So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up." Galatians 6:9

If you want to grow through the grind you need to put together a daily routine that is based on the "how" of the harvest. The "how of the harvest is the simple truth that you will reap what you sow. You can't plant apple seeds and get an orange tree. Likewise, you can't sow to the flesh and reap spiritual results. So if your daily routine is driven by selfish desires and you sow seeds of instant gratification you will reap heartache and trouble. Heartache and trouble will wear you out! They will complicate your life!

The first principle of growing in the grind is this - sow in the grind! As you live out your daily routine make sure you sow spiritual seeds!

Our text today bluntly admits that doing good is harder than doing evil because you are working against your nature. So, choosing to do the right thing - the obedient thing every day can wear you out because you usually do not see immediate results.  Working hard and seeing no benefit can wear you down.

So, how do you keep from growing weary in the daily grind of sowing spiritual seeds?

That brings us to the second principle of growing in the grind - show up in the grind!

What does that mean? It means you have hope! It means that you understand the seasons of life and you have hope in the cerainty of the seasons. Ecclesiastes reminds us that everything has a season and a time. "There is a time to sow and a time to reap". This principle understands that if you have the hope of the harvest will show up every day to sow seeds of righteousness in the power of God's love. You understand that if you do the hard work now, it will be more than worth it at the time of the harvest.

Don't let the grind of daily doing good cause you to lose hope in the harvest. The harvest WILL come and when it comes it will bring the results of what you have sown! In that hope - no, in that certainty - develop a daily routine where you show up and sow spiritual seeds.

Without the hope of the harvest you will wear out and stop showing up so when the harvest comes it will reveal the results of your neglect.

Are you growing weary in your routine? Remember the hope of the harvest! Show up today and sow spiritual seeds - seeds of obedience, seeds of grace, seeds of truth, seeds of faith, and seeds of love in the power of God's Spirit. When the day of harvest shows up, you will be glad you did, too!

March 4, 2011

"Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit."  Galatians 6:7-8

Life is measured in years but it is lived out in seconds and minutes and hours and days. In those seconds and minutes and hours and days you face choices regarding good and evil. Each choice carries consequences. The legacy you leave at the end of your years will be the result of those choices made in the seconds and minutes. You will reap then what you are sowing today. There are no "throw away" decisions. Every choice matters!

That fact adds weight to the importance of the dreaded "r" word - "routine". Everyone has one, whether they mean to or not. It is how you order your day and the choices you make in daily living. Routines are like dental appointments, you may not like them but it is hard to live without them. Doing the same routine day after day after day can become a grind and that grind can get you!

In Galatians 6:7-10, Paul deals with the significance of our daily choices. He frames it in the analogy of planting and harvesting. Understanding these truths can help you not only get through the grind BUT to grow through the grind.

So, the first thing I want to call your attention to is the "hows" of the harvest. If you can understand how sowing and reaping (or planting and harvesting) work, you can understand what goes into establishing a good routine.

The "how" of the harvest is this - you will reap what you sow. If you plant beans today you will not reap potatoes in the harvest. You will harvest what you planted - beans. And if you planted lima beans you will harvest lima beans not green beans.

Likewise, if in the seconds and minutes of your daily routine you make selfish decisions based on feelings or on what is easiest, you will suffer the consequences of those selfish decisions. Bad choices come back to bite you! Unfortunately, they will also bite those who love you and are touched by your routine.

When you plant your garden in a few weeks you will ask yourself this question, "What vegetables do I want to have by the end of the Summer. If you want corn and beans and tomatoes and carrots, those are the seeds you will plant. Your planting routine will be decided by what you want to harvest.

In exactly the same way, you should make your daily decisions and build your daily routine around your desired results. If you want a good harvest, you must make spiritual decisions based on what pleases God, not what makes you feel good.

Our "Living on Purpose" study showed us that it is our purpose to "overcome evil with good". That is the outcome God expects. So, every decision every day must be made to overcome evil with good. And the next day should be the same. And the next.....

That is a routine you can live with! When your routine is determined by the "how" of the harvest you will grow through your grind!

March 3, 2011

"Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith."   Galatians 6:7-10

You get up at the same time every morning and climb out of the same side of the bed and look at the same exhausted face through the same bleery eyes in the same bathroom mirror as you prepare for the identical routine you endured yesterday. When you throw in a sick child or bad weather or a sinus headache it gets even tougher!

Once you have packed all the lunches and eaten the same cereal from the same bowl, you rush to your car to take the same route through the same traffic to sit in the same cubicle in the same office with the same co-workers trying to get it done for the same boss who doesn't really appreciate what you do.

And God expects you to be a good witness for your faith? Are you kidding?

That is what the Scripture says. "Do not become weary in well-doing"!

How can you be a spiritual giant when you have to grind it out every day just to survive? How do you keep the grind from getting you?

That is the question of the week! If you take Scripture seriously, which Christians must do, then you have to find a way to grow through the grind of daily living.

Here's the deal, either you have to change your routine OR change your reason!

Paul, writing to the Christians at Galatia says, "Change your reason for going through the grind! And don't just GO through the grind, GROW through it!"

That's what I will be sharing through out the rest of the week. Before I do, let me issue you this challenge today - start your routine by rejoicing in it! That's right, rejoice in it! Rejoice that you have a bed to get out of and a bathroom to go into and a spouse that you could lay next to and beautiful children to prepare for and a job to head to and for freedom that allows you to do these things and health to keep up with it!

HOW you go through the grind determines if you can grow through it.

After you have washed some sleep from your eyes and had a sip of coffee - thank God for the grind! Rejoice in the blessings of it! Invite Him to be your Reason in your routine!

March 2, 2011

"Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith."  Galatians 6:7-10

I remember as a kid how much fun it was to sled down the hill in the Winter snow! There aren't a lot of hills in Indiana but we happened to live atop the highest hill in our little town. All the kids from the neighborhood would come and slide down our hill. When there were a lot of kids sledding the snow would get packed down and become a sheet of solid ice. Wow! How we would fly down that hill! With a running start we could slide down the hill and for another block or two before we would come to a stop.

But then we would have to walk all the way back UP the slippery hill carrying our sleds. Not so easy and not so fun!

To enjoy the easy part and the fun part we had to endure the hard uphill part.

Now that I am older and no longer enjoy sledding, or snow or carrying a sled up a slippery hill in the snow, I have come to understand that life is similar to my boyhood sledding experience. There some easy downhill times and there are some hard uphill climbs. And, when you are a Christian who is trying to live a life that pleases God and impacts others, that is mostly an uphill climb.

As we discovered in our study of Romans 12, we are called to overcome evil with good. Evil is easy and natural like sliding down the hill. Goodness goes against our nature, so it can feel like climbing up a slippery hill.

In the case of the sledding, that maybe happened a few times a year so trekking up the hill was bearable. But the call to goodness is a daily challenge to overcome the sinful nature and obey God. You climb the hill one day and then get up the next morning and do it all over again. It can get tiring, especially as you watch all those who are sliding down the hill and seemingly having fun.

You understand the admonition to "be not weary in well doing". You are aware that doing good all day every day can take its toll. Obviously, if doing good was as easy as doing bad, we would live in a good world instead of an evil one. But we don't.

Have you grown weary from doing the right thing? Have you been tempted to just slide down the hill with everyone else? Perhaps you have been climbing the hill every day and wearing yourself out to always do the right thing and you don't see much of a payoff for all the investment. Maybe that is where you are today.

You have always heard that it pays to do the right thing. You read in your Bible that things that are pleasing to God - and you want to please Him. You know that sinful living, while easier to do, doesn't end well. But resisting evil and doing right is JUST HARD! SOME DAYS IT IS EXHAUSTING. How do you you keep from growing weary while you do the right things?

Paul wrote this portion of Scripture to encourage these believers because he knew they were growing weary. He, of all people, knew what it was to become weary in serving God. So, he encouraged them with the same encouragement he had found for himself.

I will be sharing that with you over the next few posts. I believe you will find it helpful. But, in the meantime, draw upon His strength. Live in the power of His Spirit. Saturate you brain with the promises of God and let them soak into your spirit. Walk by faith not by feelings. And finally, rejoice in Him that He has given you the desire to please Him, because that alone is a gift! God has taken away your bondage to sin and set you free to live for God.

And, as you prepare to climb the hill again today - remember to thank Him for the hill He climbed for you!

March 1, 2011

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."  Galatians 6:7

What if you saw your neighbor out working in his garden and you went out to visit with him and you asked him, "What are you doing?"

He replies, "I am planting my garden!"

"Great!", you reply, "What are you planting?"

"I am planting corn!", he says with excitement.

"Really?" you respond with surprise, "Those are bean seeds you are putting into the ground!"

"No," he insists, "I am planting corn."

"Friend!", you persist, "You may want corn but you are going to get beans because those are bean seeds you are planting!"

He becomes more insistant that he is planting corn, but you know better so you continue to challenge him. As your conversation is beginning a bit heated, he finally blurts out, "Okay! Corn, beans, it doesn't matter! It's all the same!"

You would walk back across your backyard shaking your head wondering about the intelligence or the sanity of your neighbor.

When it comes to planting, the seed you plant is the vegetable that is going to grow. You may, like your neighbor, fool yourself, but you won't fool nature.

This verse reminds you that what you sow into the ground is what you will reap at the harvest.

So, it is with life. What you so into your life and into the life of others is what will be exactly what will be produced.

God knows exactly what seeds you are sowing with you life. If you pretend to be sowing spiritual seed but are actually sowing to your flesh, you may fool yourself and you may fool others, but you will not fool God. When the harvest season comes your foolishness will be revealed.

The very notion that you can fool God is exceedingly foolish. The fact that you would want to fool God is exceedingly sinful.

If you are sowing to the flesh while appearing to be spiritual, you will be exposed when the harvest season reveals the true nature of your deception.

What do you want to harvest? That is the seed you need to sow.

If you want an eternal spiritual harvest, sow spiritual seeds! Sow seeds of truth and sincerity and obedience and love and faithfulness. Good fruit wll be produced from those seeds and that fruit will produce more good fruit! 

Are you planting spiritual seeds?

If not, who are you trying to fool?

February 28, 2011

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  II Corinthians 4:16-18

Hope is an incredibly powerful force! You know that! But maybe you don't always know where to look for hope.

Scientists have proven the significance of hope. They have documented that people can live longer without food or water than they can without hope. Perhaps that is true because the spirit is more important that the body!

Paul wrote to these Corinthian Christians to offer some hope to these struggling believers. I want to share that hope with you today just in case you are in short supply.

Where can you look for hope?

Hope In God's Power!

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day," V. 16

Aging can take a toll on you. It can stir up doubts and anxieties as you see strength and vitality ebb. Illness can do the same. So can suffering.

You are an eternal soul contained within a temporary body. Getting out of bed each morning is a reminder of the that! Aching joints and muscles can be reminders of that! A glance in the mirror can be a reminder of that! The graying hair and the sagging skin remind you that your body is wearing away.

Where is the hope in that?

Paul answers that by reminding you that when the reality of aging causes you to despair, remember a great reality - the power of God that is at work in you! His spiritual power at work within in you is greater than the force of aging, the force of illness, the force of life's pressure, or any other hope-draining challenge you may face!

Are you a believer? Do you know Him as your Savior? Then His power is at work in you! Hope in His power!

Hope In His Promise!

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."  V. 17

Suffering, pain and misery can rob you of your hope! As the long hours meld into long days, your optimism can melt like wax. Maybe that is where you find yourself today.

How can I hold onto hope when life hurts all the time?

In addition to God's power at work in you - which is no small thing! You also have the promises of God - all of them - hundreds of them - that assure you that your celebration will far outlast your suffering!

Find your comfort in His power today and take your hope from His promises for tomorrow!

Hope In His Perspective!

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." V. 18 

You know that a glass of water can be seen as half-full or half- empty. Both are true but can result in a different set of emotions and a different set of decisions.

Reality is like that glass of water, it is part awareness and part attitude.

The awareness keeps you in touch with what is happening around you but your attitude determines how you will respond to it. Will you lose hope or will you choose hope! Paul encourages you to be aware of the reality you face but at the same time, be aware of a greater and eternal reality that awaits you! Your attitude toward your present reality and the actions you take will impact your eternal reality.

Hope comes not from avoiding reality but hope comes from believing in a greater reality - a more powerful and eternal reality! You live today because you are hoping for tomorrow - and the tomorrow after that!

There is hope that awaits you today! The hope of His power! The hope of His promise! The hope of His perspective!