Becoming Who God Made You to Be

Building positive momentum takes time. Think of the momentum behind a freight train versus a sports car. The sports car can get going faster, but it doesn’t have the momentum of a freight train going the same speed. Once the train gets going 60 miles per hour, it’s going to take a lot to stop it. That’s how good momentum works. It takes a while to cultivate, and isn’t easily stopped.

The momentum that God began when he re-created the world through the resurrection of Jesus was a long time coming, and it isn’t easily stopped. In fact, the Bible tells us that God’s redemptive momentum through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is unstoppable. (See Romans 8:38-39 for that promise!)

God's out recruiting every human being to join up with His story of unstoppable redemptive momentum. God wants everybody to be a part of his work to set this world right, to restore broken relationships, to disarm evil with self-giving love and find our life by giving it away. God has been pursuing us from the beginning of time and longs for us to share in his redemptive story for the world.

It is a special moment when we wake up to this reality of God’s work in the world and get that text message invitation to follow Jesus. It’s not an invitation for perfect people. It's for all people – even the ones you think don’t deserve it. Yep, you!  Have you gotten that text message from God yet?

Following Jesus and joining God’s story of unstoppable redemptive momentum is an amazing adventure. It is really about living life in the fullest possible way. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.”

If you are tired of living life afraid, angry, lonely, and only for your own goals, there is another way. God made you for a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control (those are the fruit of God's Spirit. See Galatians 5:22)

Can you have this life over-night?  Perhaps. Who are we to limit what God can do.  But ordinarily long held bad habits take a while to become good habits.  Don't let relapse or struggle cause you to lose heart or give up the work of replacing bad habits with good ones.  Put the bad habits behind you and ask God for his power to help you keep becoming who God created you to be.

Keep showing up for worship. Keep reading the Bible. Keep asking God to show you His will. Keep building relationships with others who want to follow Jesus. Keep looking for ways to honor God with your body, your mind, your work and your time with your spouse and kids. Keep sowing the good habits that you know will produce the fruit of God's Spirit in your life.   Keep on becoming who God created you to be!

Don't give up! And know without a doubt, God has not given up on you.

King-Sized Hope

On Monday mornings I meet at Sweet Mama’s restaurant with a group for a Bible study. This morning the Book of Revelation and the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. collieded. It was awesome.


As you study the book of Revelation, the word hope rises over and over again. The book, with all its strange imagery, is really a book of hope. It was written to give hope to Christians who were undergoing persecution for their faith during the latter first century Roman Empire. Despite some popular theology, the book is not a coded time-table for the end of the world. While Revelation has its share of symbolism or code, its main concern is giving hope to God’s people today.

This world is created by and for God’s purposes. God created all things and called them good. But evil lies close at hand and seeks to destroy God’s good creation. There is injustice. There is exploitation. Those with power don’t always use it in God-honoring ways. How does a good and almighty God resist this evil and restore creation to its intended purpose?

Answer: The King of Kings becomes the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus confronts and destroys the ultimate power of evil through his suffering, death and resurrection from the dead. The original King-Sized Hope is born!

Because of this King-Sized Hope, all people who hope in Jesus can have this assurance:

“They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:16-17

This King-Sized Hope was the foundation of all Martin Luther King’s dreams. He didn’t just think that non-violent love was the most powerful weapon to resist every form of evil. He knew it to be true because Jesus had already revealed it to be so through his death and resurrection.

It is clear that MLK’s King-Sized Hope is deeply rooted in the hope of the King of Kings. Read this last paragraph of Martin Luther King’s last sermon, preached the day before he was killed.

“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Maybe you aren’t facing death for your faith today. But if you’re following Jesus, you probably have some form of evil that you are up against. It might be evil from within or without. But it’s evil nonetheless. You may be tempted to give up. You may be tempted to hate. You may be tempted follow lesser gods. You may think evil has won. And you’d be wrong.

We have a King-Sized Hope – the only truly unstoppable momentum the world has ever known.

Building Momentum: Walking Daily with Jesus

This week Spring of Life United Methodist Church launched an initiative to build momentum in the area of personal finance.  It's not an effort to get people to give more money to the church. Even though I think giving money to the church is a fine idea, that's not what this initiative is about.

I'm convinced that our practices of managing money are a deeply spiritual issue.  I preached on that issue this past Sunday.  I believe that most people really want to give to the people and causes that are important to them. I believe that most people would like to be free to do the work that they love and be generous. I believe that most people would like to have less stress when it comes to finances.  And I believe that all of that is possible to accomplish.

There are some basic money management principles (mostly followed by our grandparents and great grandparents) that we can learn about and follow to help us accomplish this.  Dave Ramsey teaches these things well in the 13-week Financial Peace University Course. And our church is offering that course right now to anyone who would like to attend. The course materials are $80 but don't let that be a reason not to attend. We have schoarship help for those who need it. Check out our course days and times here.

With that said, basic money management principles are not everything you need to build the momentum God wants you to have.  The only true way to financial peace (and any other kind of peace) is to walk daily with the Prince of Peace. Really, having finacial peace is only one aspect of becoming the whole person that God created us to be.

The weekly devotions on this blog will help you to get to know Jesus and build momentum in your relationship with God.

If you’ve never considered putting God first in your marriage, in your work, in your finances, in everything - here is the invitation to give that a try. God doesn’t promise to make our life work out like we want, but he does promise to surprise us with His healing grace. And he promises that over-time our lives will begin to bear the fruit of His Spirit – Love, Joy , Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control.

While initially these devotions will focus more on the area of financial discipleship, you will see that this area affects everything else – our friendships, our job, our marriage, our prayer life, worship life, even our physical health. Perhaps this is one reason why over 800 verses in the Bible reference personal finance. Perhaps it is why Jesus talked more about money and giving than anything else.

God’s guidance, the Financial Peace University course and your willing spirit are an amazing combination for helping you make some changes and build some positive momentum in the area of personal finance.

Take a look at these short stories from people who have begun to feel the momentum. Feel free to share your own experience on this blog.

Practicing Limits

"God's divine Power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3

We live in a culture that is in denial of limits. In all likelihood we would not be in a recession if we had practiced limits financially. Easy credit made it easy for us to spend an average of $1.22 for every dollar we made. Today over 70% of us live paycheck to paycheck. And many of us know someone or have ourselves experienced the crisis of that no limit life-style when our job is downsized or terminated.

But our culture denies limits in other ways too. We are obsessed with finding ways to do more in less time. I suppose a big reason for this is related to our lack of limits financially. I'll confess to being enamored with everybody else over the latest electronic devices and social media. They are entertaining and do help make simple communication quicker. But without limits, these gadgets turn the lost art of listening, intimacy and being into something entirely extinct. Doing more in less time may be a value of our culture, but I'm not sure it's a value of the Kingdom of God.

During the last month as my father in law approached the end of his life, it occurred to me that I do not like the reality that our life has limits. While none of us want to see those we love go through prolonged pain, a part of us also wishes for a longer limit on life. I think the intense commitment that our culture has made to find a cure for cancer is an expression of this desire to extend our limits in life. I know that my father in law lived longer because of the cancer treatments he received. I am grateful for that! But I can also tell you that I am equally grateful for the day that he made the decision to limit any more treatment so that he could practice those lost arts of listening, intimacy and being with the time he had left. A life in denial of limits is no life at all. I think he knew that.

I am extremely grateful for the grace of a Church that resists a culture that lives in denial of limits. I don't mean to imply that people in the Church don't struggle with denial of limits. I just mean that I'm grateful for a Church that gives us help practicing limits through things like Sabbath, accountable friendships, worship of the triune God, devotional Bible reading, just to name a few.

At the end of my days, whether that's today, tomorrow or many days from now, I want to be able to say with the writer of 2 Peter, "I have everything I need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called me by His own glory and goodness." I have everything I need, no matter what is left on my "to do list."

I need to keep practicing limits so I'll be able to do that. How about you?

Body and Soul Medicine: Reflection on the Developing Lake Nona Medical City

[I wrote following post a year ago. After attending the "Healthy Community Symposium" at the Lake Nona YMCA this evening I decided to share it.]

I believe the church offers a critical but sometimes overlooked contribution to the story of Lake Nona's developing medical city in Orlando, Florida. The church won't be the engine that fires up new jobs in the medical city, but it must be the conscience of the science. Good work isn't good just because it produces financial wealth for a community. Good work must reflect the work of God, who is actively working to restore justice, relationships, and wholeness to all creation.

The long-term success of any city cannot be based solely on employment rates and profit margins. Success must be rooted in a larger story. The church's job is to remind people of that story.

God has done some amazing things with dirt. He made us for one thing! God gave us an inventive spirit, a desire for justice, and a longing for a healthy world. Remembering all this helps our lives and cities take on an attitude of gratitude, joy and humility.

God knows that we are prone to be impressed with our own sense of self-importance and consequently sabotage community. God knows that we too quickly resent what others have and ignore what we've been given. God knows we will forget that we are the creatures and He is the Creator. God knows we are predisposed to use our power destructively rather than constructively. And God knows His power is all that is capable of restoring all that is broken.

The church is that community of people who are called to be living proof of God's power to restore bodies and souls. To put it bluntly, Christians are really screwed up people who trust a gracious God to help us love our enemies, put others first yet treat our bodies like God's temple, attend to the suffering and restore dignity to the ignored. This is the body and soul medicine that Jesus makes possible through his resurrection from the dead and the power of the Holy Spirit. Though spiritual, this is a real world, earthy calling.

I am reminded of a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." If the church is doing its job, then it should be making a difference on this earth. Because of the church, things here ought to be looking more like God intends them to be. This is the larger story in which this medical city (and every city) can find its true success.

We know there will be more jobs and more money generated (2,900 between the VA and Nemours by 2012), but how will this economic vigor contribute to the reconciliation of people and communities? How will it inspire people to care for the earth? How will it include the overlooked and the ignored in places of honor?

I'm glad to hear the church raising these kind of questions at community symposiums, coffee shops, board meetings, ball games and dinner tables. They are questions that point us toward Jesus' kind of of body and soul medicine. They are questions that will lead toward the kind of healthy community God longs for his creation.

The medical city at Lake Nona will bring new jobs and a much-needed economic boost to Central Florida. Its long-term success, however, will depend on how rooted it will be in God's hope to bring body and soul medicine to a broken world.

For the sake of healthy community, keep asking good questions church!

A Dream for the Team

Every year around this time, football teams across the country take the field for their first games. They all start the season with goals and hopes for success. The long hours of physical training, eating well, and team practices will now be put to use in the game.

I was talking to a football player today and he said the average play lasts about 5 or 6 seconds. And the average player might be part of 40 plays in a game. That's a total of about 4 minutes of intense action per game. And it's usually only about 3 or 4 plays per game that become Big Highlight Plays.

The thing that keeps coming back to me about those 3 or 4 Big Highlight Plays per game is this:
The Big Highlight Plays wouldn't be possible without the regular, routine, repetitious, sometimes boring habits that take hours every day.

No coach worth his sweat would imagine their players being ready for the Big Play without the regular, routine, repetitious and rigorous habits of football practice.

This has wonderful parallels for the Christian life.
It is the regular, routine, repetitious, sometimes boring habits that prepare us for the few Big Plays in our life.

I spoke with a man in our church whose family is facing a "Big Play" right now – unexpected costs to treat a family member's illness. The costs are not just financial. They are emotional, spiritual and even physical costs involved in this "Big Play."

Going through this "Big Play" will be difficult and challenging for this family. That's the nature of Big Plays. But this family is not unprepared for the challenge.

I've known this family for 8 years now, and they have practiced spiritual, financial and physical discipleship regularly, routinely, repetitiously and rigorously.

• They worship regularly.
  
• They have taken Disciple Bible study and other small group studies to grow in their faith.
  
• They served God through mission trips, community outreach, VBS, building the church building etc.
  
• They ordered their life in a way that they were able to give a tithe (10 percent) of their income to the church.
  
• They have no debt except for their house mortgage.
  
• They saved an emergency fund.
  

So this man tells me that he wishes he knew how this "Big Play" was going to turn out, but that their faith and the support of their church family would be more important than ever for them now. He said, "I don't want to do this but we are going to have to stop tithing 10% of our income to the church during this season of treatment. But the good news is that we are not going to go into debt. We're going to be ok."

This man and his family are spiritually, financially and physically ready for this "Big Play" that has come their way.

I dream of a church full of people who are willing to practice discipleship regularly, routinely, repetitiously and rigorously so that they are ready for the "Big Play" that comes their way and extend needed help when they see other families facing their own "Big Play."

That's my dream for the team!

Lesson from Rwanda: Imagining a Different Future

"When they had done this they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break." Luke 5:6

As I listened to the story of John Damascene today I wondered how this 17 year old boy's life could ever be different. He never knew his dad and his mother died when he was eight. Since then he has lived with an uncle who abused him until the uncle died. Then John worked every day to try and feed himself and his two sisters Ruth and Jan.

When John joined up with a working group of other orphans through Zoe Ministry he was given training in farming in order to cultivate a small plot of land that his family owned, and he was given some rabbits to begin a small business selling them to make money to support his family. He was so hungry that he missed meetings with his working group to cultivate his land and all but one of his rabbits died. John continued collecting grass for a neighbor's cow in order to get a little food to eat for himself and his sisters.

How could John Damascene imagine a different future than the one he was currently living?

It is a question many have asked about their own circumstances. The disciples who had fished all night and caught nothing couldn't imagine going back out in the same waters and catching fish. But Jesus apparently could imagine it for them. Jesus said, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."

They did this without much expectation and were surprised by hope!

We share the question with John Damascene and the disciples. How can we imagine a future other than the one we are currently living?

Maybe we aren't worried about when our next meal will come from, but maybe we are worried about what life will be like after a loved one dies.

Maybe we wonder if we will ever know anything other than sadness after our divorce.

Maybe we wonder if our world will ever know a time without war.

Maybe we wonder what life will be like after foreclosure, bankruptcy, oil spills, cancer, hurricanes, economic crisis and job loss.

Is God at all a part of that future for you? If you want to have the capacity to imagine a different future from the reality you are currently living then God must be involved.

After hearing John Damascene's story someone asked, "Is there anything that Zoe Ministry can do for him?"

The answer began as 25 other orphans in John's working group showed up and joined him that day weeding his garden and helping him gather grass for his neighbor's cow as a show of support and hope that a different future wasn't all that far away.