More About Humility

“Humility is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing done to us, to feel nothing against us. It is to be at rest when nobody praises us and when we are blamed and despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord where we can go in and shut the door and kneel to our Father in secret, and be at peace when all around is trouble” (Andrew Murray).

I still think a lot about a book I read a couple of years ago called Unoffendable by Brant Hansen. It completely blew me away and forever changed my perspective on believers and anger. Basically, we should be the least offendable people on the planet because we know what grace looks like and what we were without it. We know that apart from grace, there is nothing too base for us to fall into.

Again, humility isn’t thinking less of yourself but thinking about yourself less. It’s to take all the frustration and anger to the Lord in secet and leave it there, knowing that ultimate vengeance is in God’s hands not mine. It’s to be at peace and not get caught up in the perpetual turmoil and anxiety that marks the waking life of most of the world’s population.

Humility is to see ourselves the way God sees us through the lens of seeing God as He is. Once we understand that the world does not in fact revolve around us, we see that God’s plans are so much bigger than us as individuals. We can then gladly serve wherever God calls us out of the overflow of His love to the multitudes on stages or to the few in secret. Either way, the joy of the Lord will be our strength.

Lord, I know this is a dangerous prayer, but make us humble. Keep us from the pride of thinking we can achieve Your will and Your ways through our own means instead of us relying 100% on You for everything at every moment of every single day. Amen.

A Perfect Track Record

Yes, I do. I worry way too much for someone whose God has a perfect track record. He has never failed once. He has never done less than the very best for any of His children even once. He has never not kept a promise.

So why do I worry? Why do I find myself in a state of anxiety over and over again, living like all the answers are up to me to figure out. Why do I try to carry the weight of the world’s problems on my shoulders?

It’s almost as if worry is my default setting. I don’t have to try to worry when life gets hard. I just automatically switch to worry mode the way my radio tunes to the last station I was listening to the day before. Anxiety comes way too natural for me.

But I find the more I spend time with Jesus, the more I sit at the feet of the Prince of Peace, the more I find myself at peace instead of overwrought with anxiety. The more I find that there’s a calmness at the center of my inner storms and turmoil.

I can’t remember if it was Dwight Moody or Charles Spurgeon who first said it, but I’m casting my anchor on the Prince of Peace tonight. I am deliberately and intentionally choosing trust over fear, hope over anxiety by the power of the indwelling Spirit within me.

Lord, give peace to Your children in the midst of a chaotic and ever-changing world that seems to drift from storm to storm. You alone are the port of peace, and I’d rather be dashed up against the Rock of Ages and know the peace that passes understanding than remain afraid in the harbor because I’m too afraid to risk anything or venture out of my comfort zone. Lord, give Your people joy to do Your will, boldness to set out on the journey You have laid out for us, and the steady assurance that You will be with us every step of the way until we reach our final destination of peace. Amen.

Every Time

“In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents” (Luke 15:10, NLT).

The Message says that there’s a party in heaven every time even one sinner gets saved. I get that.

I know lately I find myself overjoyed when I read about any celebrity who comes to faith or someone who is coming out of a Muslim or LGBTQ or pagan background. I love that the gospel is for anyone and everyone, and there is no one who is beyond the reach of God’s grace.

I love hearing testimonies of being delivered by the power of Jesus. That never gets old for me (and I hope it never will). It always brings me ecstatic joy and reminds me of my own early days when I first experience the joy of my own salvation. It reminds me that God is still able to seek and to save the lost.

I do a lot more praying for people’s salvation than I used to. I think maybe it’s because I appreciate the gift of salvation way more than I did when I was younger. I also realize more and more that there are no political answers to what are ultimately spiritual problems.

At the root of every war and of every act of violence and every racial epithet is sin. We are all born into sin and we all need a Savior. We are not good people who need to be better or even bad people who need to be made good but dead people who need to be made alive.

That’s why I do what I do. If even one single person is in heave because of me posting these blogs every day for almost 16 years, then I can say it was worth it.

I hope you will join me in praying for lost people. If you want, you can comment on the people you are praying for or you can always text me at 615-556-5850. I’d love to pray for your loved ones as well. God is still good all the time, and all the time God is still good.

The Great Paradox

“The great paradox of life is that those who lose their lives will gain them. This paradox becomes visible in very ordinary situations. If we cling to our friends, we may lose them, but when we are nonpossessive in our relationships, we will make many friends. When fame is what we seek and desire, it often vanishes as soon as we acquire it, but when we have no need to be known, we might be remembered long after our deaths. When we want to be in the center, we easily end up on the margins, but when we are free enough to be wherever we must be, we find ourselves often in the center.

Giving away our lives for others is the greatest of all human arts. This will gain us our lives” (Henri Nouwen).

I think Jesus said something similar. He said those who seek to save their lives will lose them but those who lose their lives for His sake will find them. I do believe that when we die, we can only take with us that which we’ve given away. Primarily, we give away our faith when we share it with others so that they can also know Jesus and have eternal life.

It does seem like a paradox that if you seek after fame and fortune and wealth, you end up missing out on so much and not even getting what you were after. Or worse yet, you get all the fame and fortune and wealth and find out that it didn’t satisfy you like you thought it would.

But if you seek after God’s kingdom first, then everything you need is added in. When you deny yourself and take up your cross and put others first, you find utmost fulfillment and you discover your true self in the process. It’s almost the complete opposite of the way the world works.

It seems to me that life is more enjoyable when you’re less focused on yourself. The old saying goes that humility isn’t thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. I have found in those moments when I was absorbed completely in something other than me I made my best memories.

Lord, help us to live for You first, live for others second, and trust You to take care of our needs at every moment of our lives. Teach us that it’s better to give than to receive and that we are never more like You than when we are giving ourselves away for Your sake. Amen.

God’s Heartbeat

This is one example of why Dr. Adrian Rogers of Bellevue Baptist Church was one of the best communicators of God’s Word that I have ever heard. He was indeed a gifted pastor and preacher. I’m sharing one of the thousands of sermon excerpts that are the reason he is so well loved and remembered to this day, over 20 years after he passed to glory:

“Once I was reading the Houston Chronicle and came across a picture of a woman who had her ear on the chest of a man. And there was a caption under the photo that explained the man had received a heart transplant, and the heart that was beating in his chest was the heart of this woman’s son. She was listening by putting her ear to his chest to hear her son’s heart beating. When I read that, I thought, ‘Would to God that He could put His ear on my chest and hear the heartbeat of His Son.’

If God Almighty puts His ear to your chest, and Jesus is in there, you’re going to have a heartbeat for missions and evangelism. Jesus said, ‘As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’ (John 20:21). And why was He sent? Luke 19:10: ‘for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’

Does your heart beat with God’s heartbeat? Does mine? That’s not something that happens overnight. It takes a lifetime of prayer and obedience, of sacrificial love and surrender. It’s not something you can declare over yourself or magically wave a wand and automatically make it happen. It takes years of laying down your life and taking up your cross and following Jesus daily. Not sporadically or periodically or even regularly, but every single day.

Lord, make us Your disciples whose hearts truly beat with Your Son’s heartbeat. May people observe us in all our actions and hear us in our words and see not us but You in us. May they see Your Church at work and see Jesus with skin on in this world. Amen.

Rock-firm and Faithful

“You’re all I want in heaven!
You’re all I want on earth!
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
God is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again.
But I’m in the very presence of God—
oh, how refreshing it is!
I’ve made Lord God my home.
God, I’m telling the world what you do!” (Psalm 73:25-28, The Message)

Even to old age, God is faithful. When every last vestige of youth is gone, God remains the same. When everything in this world that we thought would sustain us is taken away, God is true to His word and true to us. Ultimately, when we leave this world we can take nothing with us but the faith that sustains us and the people we were faithful to share the gospel with.

I love the part in the gospel where Jesus has lost the majority of His followers after He told them some hard truths. He then turns to His disciples and asks if they’re leaving as well. Peter says, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life” (John 6:68, NLT).

Where else is there to go? Any other religion is bankrupt and false. Any other belief system leads nowhere and does nothing. The only way which guarantees us real and eternal life is the way of Jesus and the way to Jesus and the way through Jesus to the Father. He said that He’s the only way, the only truth, and the only life not because He was being exclusive but because He was being truthful. There is no other way.

So Lord, at the end of the day, You’re all I want in heaven and on earth. Long past when I’m gone from this world, You will still be faithful and true. You will still have the words of eternal life. May everyone who trusts in Your name always be faithful to love Your name and share Your name with all the world from now until You return. Amen.

God is Good No Matter What

“Often I have heard people say, ‘How good God is. We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at this lovely weather!’

Yes, God is good when He sends weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister Betsie to starve to death before my eyes in the German concentration camp.

I remember on one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us.

‘No, Corrie,’ said Betsie, ‘He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: ‘For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who Fear Him.’ [Psalm 103:11]

There is an ocean of God’s love available … There is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love — whatever the circumstances” (Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook).

God is good when the miraculous healing comes, and God is good when He choses to take the person to heaven.

God is good when the job comes, and God is good when there’s no job and no money.

God is good when you meet the love of your life and get married, and God is good when you spend your life single and dedicated to serving Him only.

God is good when everything goes your way, and God is good when you are facing more than you can handle and are forced to rely on God’s strength to carry you through.

God is good on the good days, and God is good on the bad days. We know no matter what God is with us and above anything God could give us, what we need most is God Himself. Even if we perish, God is still good.

A Liturgy for Community

I liked this one so much I decided to borrow it for my own blog post. It’s by Douglas McKelvey and it’s for those who are seeking biblical community. I’ve been learning recently that there’s a reason why there are no Lone Ranger Christians in the Bible. We were designed and created for community. We’re better together. So here’s the post (with a link to the actual liturgy at the end):

"Good Father Who Gives Good Gifts
to His Children,

Like Abraham, in a step of faith
I have journeyed from the comforting
sameness of all I once knew—my family
and home, my friends, my neighborhood,
my church, my old school, my settled
rhythms and routines.

I have moved far from all
that was familiar, foundational,
and steadying. The distance is
disorienting in ways I did not foresee.

For now I have little to anchor my life.
That organic and interconnected web of
community was so deep a part of my identity.

In this new place
I do not know
where I fit.

I feel myself adrift.
So let my life here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.
I do not yet have here the same
resources of vital relationship
to sustain me.

I feel like a weary pioneer recently arrived
with one meager pack of supplies,
who must now find a good place
to begin to carve out a homestead,
a place to sink new roots in hopes
of finding good soil for flourishing.
A meaningful life must somehow be
constructed in this open prairie
of undefined possibilities.

O God, I am lonely here.
But you are present with me.
I am unmoored,
but you are my anchor.
I am unsteady.
But you are my rock.

Now lead me into good community.
Let me forge new friendships.
Give me a place in this place.
Graft me in to your Body, and into
this community, in ways that I might be
blessed, and also be a blessing. Plant me
in places where I might find delight—in
serving and in receiving, in fellowship
and celebration, in sharing the many joys
and griefs and labors, and small and
meaningful moments of which friendships
and fellowships and the community
of saints are finally built.
So let my life here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.

Use now even this time of disorientation
to draw my heart closer to yours; to teach
me how better to trust and hope
in your promises, how better
to rest in your love.

Let whatever hardships I endure
for a time be turned—under the sway
of your Spirit—into a more mindful
and active compassion extended toward
others who might suffer similar dismay.

Give me grace enough that I might,
even in my own season of discomfort,
still offer friendship and fellowship to
others who also struggle to find their place.
Let us build good community
and strong friendship
by serving one another.
So let my life here take root,
O Christ, and flourish again,
nurtured by your Spirit
and your people, and
bearing good fruit in time.
Amen."

https://rabbitroom.substack.com/p/a-liturgy-for-seeking-to-find-your

Spiritual Pivot

Starting this Sunday, my church will be temporarily meeting in a new location. We’re doing some upgrades and improvements to our sanctuary, so we can’t meet in the building for a few weeks. That means that we’ll be in the Fisher Center at Belmont University for a bit, then over to Sevier Park for an outdoor worship service.

It will be different, and different isn’t necessarily bad. Sometimes, different can be a good thing. I imagine people that have no connection to The Church at Avenue South might be intrigued by Sunday services on the Belmont campus. Some people might be driving by the park one Sunday and see a bunch of people gathered in worship. People who might not step foot in our present location might still hear the gospel and see the tangible love of Jesus on display.

That’s definitely a good thing. I know ideally in a perfect world, all the improvements would have been completed before we moved into the present location. But as my pastor always says, this is a beautiful but broken world we’re living in, so perfect doesn’t exist. Still, God can take what’s less than perfect and work good from it.

I imagine when the people of God first arrived into their new homes in Babylon, it took some adjusting. They had lost everything they knew and loved back home and were completely unfamiliar with their new surroundings in Babylon. But what did God say? He said to plant gardens and get married and have lots of kids. You’re going to be here for a while.

In our case, the exile is only for four weeks, but God is reminding us that the Church is not brick and mortar or a location. It’s the people of God gathered to proclaim the praises of God and live out the purposes of God through the preaching of the Word and worship. We are the living stones that make up God’s dwelling place in this world.

Right now around the world, people are gathering together in homes and in sheds and under a canopy of trees to worship. Some aren’t allowed to have large gatherings. Some don’t have a building to meet in. But they are serving and singing to and loving the same God as the ones meeting in megachurches. It’s the same Holy Spirit power that lives inside of them that lives inside the ones sitting in comfortable chairs in air-conditioned buildings.

It’s like in the Christmas Vacation movie when the kid asks how Santa will know where to find them since they’re staying with the Griswolds. Church isn’t like that. The Holy Spirit knows exactly where to go on Sunday when the people of God are temporarily displaced. God is still showing up and we can still experience that presence if we’re prepared and prayed up.

Thank You, Lord, that wherever Your people are gathered in Your name, even if it’s only two or three, You’re there in the midst of them. Make Your name famous wherever we are, whether it’s at 901 Acklen Avenue or 2020 Belmont Boulevard or 3021 Lealand Lane. Do what only You can do and draw people to Yourself and thank You that we get to be a part of it. Amen.

Transforming Not Conforming

“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity” (2 Cor. 10:3-6, The Message).

I had a pastor who used to say regularly, “Don’t let the world teach you theology.”

I still think about that statement a lot, especially since so many believers get their theology from just about any any every source out there except for the Bible. We’re judging the Bible and God by our own humanistic standards of right and wrong. We have the mentality of saying that “God would never” because we would never, making ourselves the standard to which even God must abide.

But thankfully Romans 12:1-2 talks about being transformed not conformed. Being conformed means that eventually you cease looking like Christ and look exactly like the world. You end up with no message to give a sick society because you have become equally sick. But being transformed means that we no longer are carried along by every wind and wave. It means that we stand out as beacons of hope in a dark world that is desperately searching for meaning and a way out of the chaos it created.

Lord, help us no longer to be conformed to this world and the messages it is constantly sending us through the news and social media and advertising. Instead, transform us by the renewing of our minds through Your holy Word as we saturate ourselves with Scripture. May we be in the world but not of it. May we show the world not what it is but what it can be and be the means through which You can continue to rescue people out of a perishing world into a glorious Kingdom of Light. Amen.