May 16, 2014

"The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites."  Exodus 3:7-8

I guess I always thought that vision was something that arose from a powerful positive passion such as love or truth or joy. Passion is generally thought of as a positive emotion or attitude so it would be the fuel for vision. And sometimes it is.

But Moses would beg to differ, and in this case, so did God Himself.

The vision to challenge the Pharaoh and deliver the Hebrews arose from their angst over the misery of the people of God at the hand of their oppressors.

Pain can birth a vision, too. It's that Popeye moment when you cry, "that's all I can stand, I can't take anymore" and you are energized to effect positive change.

It was the force that motivated most of the prophets in the Bible.

Bill Hybels calls it the "holy discontent".

I call it the "Popeye Principle".

It is the birth of a vision. 

It is when frustration finds a future. 

Can you articulate a compelling vision for your life?

If not:

1) Identify your area of "holy discontent?

2) Have your "Popeye"moment declaring that you can't stand the way things are any longer.

3) Make sure that God is bothered by this thing that bothers you.

4) Pray and ask God to give you a vision for effecting positive change 

5) Pray for His courage and wisdom to execute your God-given vision.

What are you waiting for? The world is waiting for you!

May 15, 2014

"One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand."  Exodus 2:11-12

I don't know if you are familiar with Popeye the sailor man but I grew up watching his cartoons on TV.

Popeye was a nice, mild-mannered man with extremely large forearms. Nothing seemed to bother him except when anyone harassed the lovely and talented Olive Oyl (his girlfriend). Once that happened you could see his face become flushed and smoke would pour from his pipe and he would reach for his can of spinach. It was in those moments he could be heard muttering his famous line, "That's alls I can stands I can't stands no more!" Those grammatically challenged words were his call to action. Gulping down a quick can of spinach he would be empowered to whip the bad guy in short order and rescue his woman from danger.

In this Scriptural text, Moses had a "Popeye Moment". 

Raised as an Egyptian, and an Egyptian of privilege at that, he was still a Hebrew at heart. One day when he happened upon an Egyptian severely beating a Hebrew slave, and "it was alls he could stands he couldn't stands no more". Overcome by the passion of this "Popeye Moment" he struck the Egyptian and killed him. That ill-advised act of anger caused him to have to flee the country for fear of Pharaoh's wrath. It would alter the course of his life.

What sparked his anger was understandable and maybe even admirable. But his reaction was disastrous.

What happens in those "Popeye Moments" can make you or break you. 

Why does this matter?

Fast forward some forty years and we find the exiled shepherd standing before a burning bush and God speaks: The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”  Exodus 3:7-10

God is saying to Moses, "This is all the suffering I can stand for my people, I can't stand no more suffering. I know you can't stand it either so I am going to send you to deliver them!"

Did you hear that?

When Moses' passion lined up with God's passion it shaped the vision for the rest of his life! Moses just had to find his spinach.

The same has been true for me! My "passion point" or my "Popeye moment" is what God used to shape the vision for my life!

It may be the same for you.  It is often how God works!

Have you had a "Popeye Moment?" 

If so, what caused it? What is it that you "can't stands no more"?

What motivates you to action and stirs your passion?

Do you know?

Discovering what you can't stand may be the key to where God wants you to stand!

May 14, 2014

"Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.  His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.  Exodus 2:1-15

Moses' name was given to him by his Egyptian mother and it essentially meant "delivered from the water",

Isn't it just like God to transform one who has been delivered into a deliverer?! The story of how it happened is inspiring!

Because of God's blessing on His people, even in the midst of their captivity, the Hebrew women were giving birth at a rate that was swelling the population of Hebrews. The Pharaoh was good at math and understood that when the number of captives became equal to or greater than the number of Egyptians, they could pose a threat to their captors.

To make sure that the math never worked to his disadvantage, Pharaoh deciding to do some population control put out a decree that all male Hebrews born were to be tossed into the Nile river and drowned. Many were.

But Moses' mother came up with a plan to save her son. She crafted a plan to save her son from death. A clever plan it was, too! She wove a basket of reeds, covered it with pitch so it would float and be waterproof then she placed the baby Moses into the basket and laid it in the reeds at the edge of the Nile River and posted his sister as a sentry to guard him.

As Providence would have it, the daughter of the Pharaoh came to the river to bathe and chose a spot near where Moses was hidden and spotted the basket floating among the reeds. When she saw that he was a beautiful and healthy baby boy, God put it in her heart to love this child even though she knew he was a Hebrew.

Not only did this princess adopt "Moses" to be her son but she hired his sister and mother to care for him!

Isn't amazing how God can deliver His people?

Isn't it inspiring how He can use the circumstances threatening to destroy us as a way of delivering us?

He delivered Moses so Moses could become His deliverer!

That's what He did for Moses and He can do it for you!

Do you believe it?

May 13, 2014

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him,  And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil." Proverbs 3:5-7

In light of the controversy surrounding the NFL's St. Louis Rams drafting the gay defensive lineman out of the University of Missouri, Michael Sam, I share this insightful perspective from my friend, Tom Kinnan.

"Questions…they come at us all the time. And…our natural instinct is to want to answer. In fact, there are times we want to provide answers that will astound and leave the questioner in awe of our brilliance. Oh…you know it’s true.

But is that necessary? You see…questions often are full of agendas. Questions have the ability to polarize, stigmatize and antagonize. Remember the age old question, “Do you still beat your wife?” How do you answer that without losing?!

One of today’s similar questions is this: “Why do Christians hate homosexuals?” What?! How do you even begin to answer that question without seeming to be defensive or assuming the idea behind the question is valid? We need to stop trying to figure out the answers and strive to better understand the one asking the question. How do we do that?

Ask questions that honestly probe rather than assume or attack. If someone comes at you with a double barrel question…don’t pull the trigger for them. It won’t be pretty when it’s over. It would be better to come back with “Why do you ask?” From there, continue to ask questions seeking to get at the heart of the matter. Sometimes you may discover a parched soul rather than a loaded gun.

You see…we don’t need to prove we are right…or better…or more informed. We don’t need to reflect negatively on others for any reason. We don’t need to be the conscience for others. God is more than capable. We do need to provide light that helps others see the road. But any light coming from us is not our own…the light is God. We are a lamp stand. Before we give directions, we might want to discover where the questioner is headed and not assume. We need to ask questions…seek to discover…desire to understand. That doesn't mean we throw out the truth…on the contrary. We want to ask questions that help others discover truth.

Jesus was not only full of wisdom…He was full of questions (read the Gospels); and, as God’s Word says…full of grace and truth. Discoveries are nice when truth is mixed with grace: it’s more welcoming… more inviting…more desirable.

Would you like to help people discover Christ? Learn to ask questions instead of thinking you must have all the answers. I offer this principle to remember: it’s not always what you answer, it’s what you ask that can make the difference."

Thanks! Good words, Pastor Tom! 

May 12, 2014

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9

I came across this excerpt from a recent message by Dr. Erwin Lutzer, Pastor at Moody Church on the campus of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. It is a wake-up call to believers in 2014 America!

"This is this trouble, this is the rub. If you are 40 years old or younger, there’s the 40-40 split in America. If you are under 40, you probably belong to a group of evangelicals who basically see nothing wrong with same sex marriage. They are more tolerant, saying that there may be other religions that lead you to God, so on and so forth. I say it humbly: They don’t have much of a clue. Not everybody of course, but many of them have no clue what the implications are or what the real issues are. They were reared by “Will and Grace” on television. They are obsessed with technology. Many young people – not the ones that are here today by the way; they are the exception – but many young people are so narcissistic. Yesterday I heard on the news that one kid took 200 selfies – 200 pictures of himself in a single day. I mean the whole technology world out there.

So there are those who say we can’t preach against homosexuality or mention Islam or anything because we want to win these people to Christ, and that’s a barrier. So what we’ve found is that the gospel and its implications are often dumbed down. Then you have a form of ecumenism that compromises the gospel. And then there’s something else and that is it’s popular today to say, “God loves you unconditionally.”

Now, to the one who’s sitting in the pew that’s sleeping with his girlfriend, he says to himself, “I know exactly what that means. That means that it’s okay for me to continue to sleep with my girlfriend because, after all, God loves me unconditionally. That’s His job. That’s who He is.

You see it used to be, and some of you who are older would remember this, that preachers used to preach against sin, and then when people knew that they couldn’t live up to God’s standard, and they were aware of their sin, then grace was offered to them. Thank God for amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

Today grace is offered up front. Grace is offered to people when they don’t even know they need it and whether or not they really care as to whether or not they want it because God loves you “unconditionally.” Not to put too fine a point on it, but there are several different passages in Scripture in the Psalms where it says that God says, “I am angry with the wicked every day.”

Certainly, God loves the elect, those who are saved and He loved them, the Bible says, from the foundation of the world. But to throw that out there for everybody to hear – that God loves you unconditionally – is really to water down the seriousness of sin and the real understanding of  grace. Because you cannot understand grace until you fully understand sin and the better you understand sin the better you will magnify grace. But we don’t have that today in our society.”

May 11, 2014

"She looks well to the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: "Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all."…" Proverbs 31:27-29

It was late Sunday afternoon on January 15, 1950 and a very pregnant Reita Mae Snyder was sitting on a stool in her kitchen in Bourbon, Indiana frying some steaks for dinner.

Trust me, the woman can cook! But the steaks on the stove were about to be interrupted by the "bun in the oven" as labor pains began in a serious way.

Don Snyder devoured both steaks while Reita packed her stuff for the 16.2 miles trip down U.S. 30 to the Murphy Medical Center in Warsaw, Indiana. Around 10:30 that night they welcomed a 9' 15" 22 1/2 " baby boy into the world. They named him Bradley Donn Snyder.

Over the next ten years she gave birth to four daughters and another son and, she took on a step-son. We all call her, "Mom". We still do!

Despite working two jobs in addition to cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, grocery shopping and canning fruits and vegetables she made sure we got to church Sunday morning and Sunday night and midweek prayer meeting. She "brought us up in the way we should go" as the Bible instructs.

Functioning essentially as a single parent, she prayed for us, punished us, and pushed us in the direction of the Christian faith and Christian friends. She wasn't above chasing away friends of ours that she didn't like. If she thought they were a bad influence and we didn't listen you her urging  to stop hanging out with certain friends, she would take it upon herself to suggest they get lost.

Mom wasn't perfect but her love was and her intentions were. You could call some of her methods into question but you had to give her a high grade for tenacity. For Pete's sake, she spanked me when I was 16 years old!

There are seven productive contributing adults making the world a better place because "Mom" built the right stuff into us and beat the bad stuff out of us!

On this Mother's Day, Mom, your children rise up and call you blessed!

Happy Mother's Day!
.

May 10, 2014

"But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Genesis 2:20-24

This week leading up to Mother's Day we have focused on the great mothers of the Bible. It's kind of hard to do that without including Eve. None of us would be here without her.

God made Eve from Adam and for Adam to be a "helpmate". Life is challenging and even more so when you tackle it alone. I find it a great tribute to women that even though Adam was intricately connected with God, He saw the need to create another "helper" or "soul-mate" for Adam. It almost looks as though God created woman to be a helper for man BUT ALSO as a helper for God!

I told my son the other day, "Next to God, a good woman is the best thing that can happen to a man." It has been true in my life. I think God would agree with that.

As happy and satisfied as Adam was with God it was God Himself Who recognized Adam needed something else - woman. She was handmade by Him to complete a perfect creation!

Eve, the first wife and the first mother was a marvelous gift from God! She was hand-picked and hand-made for Adam by God. She was God's gift to Adam and God's tool to help shape his life, grace his journey and lighten his burden.

Of course, we know how it ended. We know that the very same one who completed paradise eventually brought it down by her disobedience. So, she was the first and final perfect woman.

Still, women are one of God's great ideas! I am thankful that He created them. Not only have the played a HUGE part in the history of mankind, they have been key contributors in the development of the Christian faith and particularly in the local church.

Thank God for women! Thank God for the women in my life - my mother, my wonderful wife, my daughter, my daughter-in-law, my sisters, my grand daughters and the strong women in my church. I honor you. I bless you!

This is your week leading up to your day! May you know how much you matter!