"Father Knows Best"
8/4/2024
Lucky or Fortunate?
I do not believe in luck. Luck is driven by chance that often masquerades as unscheduled risk and opportunity. Luck pays no dividends to the diligent. Rather, though it’s allure to the hapless mind, promises an odds-breaking payout for little to no effort.
I believe in fortune. For instance, it is fortune to recognize the hand of a master designer in our everyday affairs. There is no point of chance. Everything is by design. While I cannot depend on chance’s odds, fortune has a winning record that, with proper insight and perspective, always seeks the best for me.
Chance is man trying to make something happen. Fortune is the pre-ordained movement of an omnipotent guiding hand to order the affairs of individuals intent on finding God’s will and staying close to his heart.
I’m not a lucky man. I’m a fortunate one that recognizes the providential movement of a God who wants only to bless me and guide me through my valleys. It is in that fortune that I submit gladly to my heavenly father. He knows what’s ahead and will take me through it.
Father knows best.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11
The Essential Element of 'Favor'
7/12/2024
An individual can strive for excellence in scholastics but still not have the favor of God. An athlete can train vigorously to become the best in their chosen sport, but still not have God’s favor.
Someone once said, “We shape our destinies by what we strive for and by what we accomplish. In effect, it is our own effort that gets us to the goal line of life.”
While that statement holds limited veracity in today’s world, finishing strong in life also depends on something else.
It is the favor of God.
As a skinny teenager, I asked God for favor in athletics. He graciously granted my request. Before graduating high school, I had the privilege of participating in five state championships in two different sports.
But the important things that God showed me during those early years of my life was that without Him granting favor, nothing could have been accomplished worthy of eventually shaping my adult life.
God listens to prayers seeking his favor. He also examines the heart to see if that favor could bring adverse changes to the individual’s request. After all, we need to understand that our lives are in His hands and without that security, all would be lost.
Go ahead. Seek his favor.
Ask Him to bless the work of your hands. It’s a win-win. He gets the honor, and your dreams and goals take life. He sees that you are willing to be a good steward of your gifts and we see that He listens and is faithful.
"End of the Limb" Life and Leadership - Part 2
7/3/2024
We have all heard the phrase, “going out on a limb.” We usually infer that to do so is irresponsible and reckless, when in fact, it is where we will experience fruitfulness—both in our lives and ministries.
There are a few thoughts about fruitfulness that bring the whole imperative for visionary life and leadership into focus. It’s simple and I am sure I am not the only one to have received this epiphany, but it is relevant in justifying our existence.
Here’s my pitch line: we need to spend more time at the end of the branch. That’s the area that represents faith and that’s the area where fruitfulness will occur.
One final thought – offered by Craig Van Gelder in his book, Ministry of the Missional Church. He points out that when organizational loyalty is lost, one of the available options is to heighten compliance with rules and procedures. That option also accompanies down-sizing and the management of organizational entropy (gradual death).
My question is this: Are we experiencing faith at the end of the limb or are we hugging the trunk?
Life and leadership that provides impetus is life and leadership that is willing to go out on a limb.
"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5
"End of the Limb" Life and Leadership - Part 1
6/28/2024
It is easy to talk about faith in generic terms. That is safe and even predictable.
If we all agree in general terms but do not allow ourselves to get too far out on the limb, we only maintain a theoretical substitute for the real thing. Many—even most—have settled for the operation of faith within the context of their own ability.
That is called management—not faith.
Faith drives vision. Vision builds the bridge to one’s preferred future. It is at this point that we all must realize we were called by God to do more than just preside over the status-quo.
It is at this juncture of understanding and conviction that we must become familiar with life at the end of the limb.
It is not a place of comfort. Nor is it a place of irresponsibility. It is the place we get to see first-hand just what God can really do if given the chance.
Anyone who has been around me for very long has discovered that I don’t like getting bogged down in details. I’m not ashamed to admit my focus problem. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just not in my nature to haggle over minor issues when there is a bigger issue—at least in my thinking—on the table.
Haggling over minor issues keeps true life and leadership from engaging and bringing change or growth to whatever we value.
We must always provide an example of fruitfulness in our own lives and ministries. We can never be effective if we only offer theory but have never led a model of health.
Next: Part 2 - "End of the Limb" Life and Leadership
Hitting the Wall
5/22/2024
Distance runners know well that time when they simply ‘hit the wall.’ Every shred of energy and effort evaporates as the dreaded depletion drains their determination to finish at the top. Now, just finishing seems a long shot.
Life is a long-distance race. Runners must make the pace adjustment to accommodate various twists and turns on life’s course where they face steep uphill climbs and rapid downhill changes.
A wise mentor of mine told me that I needed to pace myself for the lang haul. What he meant was that I needed to allow time in my life’s pace to recharge my batteries and learn the discipline of sabbatical. The racecourse we call ‘life’ would still be out there in front of me. It is not a sprint, but a methodical and continual adjustment to the demands of the course.
As a runner adjusts his pace to the rigors of the course, success emerges as proximity to the finish line awaits the breaking of the tape. The sides of the course lay strewn with sprinters who couldn’t make the adjustment to the length of the race.
Those who rightly prepared and understood the race stood atop the victory platform. Race finished. Reward eminent. Hit the wall or hit the ribbon.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith . . .”
– 2 Timothy 4:7
The Lamb That Came to Dinner
3/29/2024
The ancient Egyptians worshipped many deities. Among them was the small lamb. During Passover each year, the Hebrew people were to bring a small, unblemished lamb into their home four days prior the actual Passover event. Then, after the family grew accustomed to the cute little creature, they were to kill it and eat it for their Passover meal.
If you’re a parent, you can see the problem here. The children most likely romped around the home with the furry little guy. Then, when the time came to follow their religious laws, the romping ceased. Children probably cried.
A perfect lamb was to provide the atonement for their sins and was to be recognized as their sacrifice to God.
Consider the lamb. Innocent, yet destined to be the sacrificial gap between God and man. So, why a lamb? Because it represented the “cute” things we allow to become idols.
That little lamb was a type and symbol of the coming Christ. As the little lamb represented an Egyptian idol, the Hebrews were to cut the bond with idolatry and give the lamb as a gift to God. Its cuteness was not to deter the ceremony and its innocence provided what God required.
Good news! Jesus came into the world to be that spotless lamb. No more animal sacrifices. No more dalliance with idolatry. The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of everyone who calls out His name entreating Him to see them right where they are.
What we could not so for ourselves, Jesus the Christ did for us.
Happy Easter and Resurrection weekend!
Turned Upside Down
2/10/2024
The Scriptural narrative recounting Moses’ encounter with God provides us with a great lesson about an eternal promise.
As Moses stood before God prior to confronting Pharaoh, God asked Moses an interesting question.
“What is that in your hand?”
Moses replied, “A rod.”
“Throw it down,” God commanded.
I’m sure Moses wondered about the relevance of the command to his particular situation. But he dropped the rod to the ground. What happened next made his eyes bug out. The rod became a snake – a real hot rod.
Then, God told him to pick it up by the tail. Again, Moses must have wondered, ‘why the tail?’ He knew people experienced with snakes just didn’t pick them up by the tail. They could get bitten.
As he reached for the snake and grabbed its wriggling tail, to his amazement, it again became a rod. This time, upside down.
Now, several thousand years later, we garner a timeless truth from what happened between Moses and God that day. Moses had always leaned upon his rod as it provided him sure footing along a narrow path.
But God turned upside down the thing upon which Moses leaned. In fact, it was never again called the ‘rod of Moses.’ From that time on, it was called ‘the rod of God.’
God may need to turn upside down the things upon which we lean – especially if they take the place of his provisi0n for our lives. Our initial response in faith unlocks the dormant potential already placed within each of us by our creator.
Upon what do you lean? Let him turn it upside down.
Treasures of Darkness
2/5/2024
Not all darkness comes from the devil. In fact, God intentionally allows periods of darkness in our lives that has nothing to do with evil. Why would he do that?
We have a way of settling into our beliefs and growing complacent with the world around us. We go through the motions of faith without feeling a sense of God’s sweet presence in our daily routines.
So, what are the benefits of God-induced darkness?
1. You’ll learn what you really know about God. In this day and age, it is possible to learn spiritual truth without ourselves becoming spiritual.
2. You’ll be humbled. Are you often the one with the answers? Do you apply those answers to your own life?
3. You’ll learn again the feeling of the lost. Some have been “in the faith” for so long, they have little to say to a broken, hurting street person. The darkness of God teaches you to care.
4. You’ll prove the power of prayer. I think of the lessons Jonah learned in Whale Belly University. You can bet he prayed! He began to feel the doom of an entire city to whom he refused to preach.
5. You’ll come out into a greater light. You cannot know or appreciate the brightness of the light you already walk in until you have experienced the revealing product of darkness.
Your tunnel will end. It’s not permanent. While in your particular darkness, open your eyes.
An Encouraging Word
1/31/2024
God had given us each a measure of influence. Therefore, we should use that influence to affirm others. Words of affirmation have the power to bolster confidence in those who seem to struggle under the load of life’s heavy burden.
I recall a point in my life – 36 years ago – when someone reached out to me during an especially low point in my life. My wife and I had planted a church and saw it grow to around 300 people.
Having sensed my time as its pastor had come to an end, I took a job as a patrolman in a community north of where we lived and accepted the midnight shift. That gave me lots of time to feel sorry for myself.
During an especially low point in my destructive self-talk, I received phone calls from two men I admired and respected. The calls from Ray Smith and Del Lumbard simply told me they were praying for me, and that God still had a plan for my life. Those calls literally saved my life.
You never know what a well-placed word of encouragement can do for someone. Use the influence you have. Reach out to someone God lays on your heart. Pray for them. You may just save their life.
Jim
“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.”
Proverbs 3:27
Carbon Copy, book three of the Adrian Chandler Series, is now available for purchase.
