Feel The Power!

“Give God the first minutes of your day.”

Normally this isn’t too much of a stretch for me. As an aspiring writer, my alarm clock starts chiming at 4:50 so I can spend time moving a chapter a little farther down the road, editing a magazine article, or tinkering with a short story before work. Until this week. Until I signed a little pledge card Sunday morning and dropped it in the offering plate. Until I spent Sunday and Monday nights coughing and Tuesday night staring at the ceiling while the digital clock on the nightstand next to me counted down the minutes until sunrise.

Funny how that works, isn’t it? Because when the alarm started beeping this morning, the question running through my head wasn’t “I’m so tired, how am I going to make it through the day?” or even “What am I worried about that I couldn’t sleep last night?” No, the question battering the inside of my skull at 4:50 this morning wasn’t so politically correct. It went something like this, “Why am I doing this? Do I really think God is going to show up?”

Wow. Amazing how your thoughts crystallize after three nights without sleeping. How about it LifePoint? Am I the only one struggling to get up this week, secretly wondering if God is really going to show up? Is anybody who agreed to start giving God their first dollars this month, now having second thoughts? Is anybody else wondering whether they will really hear from God if they fast a Starbucks latte?

Or am I the only one?

As I read this post, I start to think that maybe I’m asking the wrong question. When I wrote my name on that card Sunday morning, I don’t remember seeing a box for God to check or a line where he could sign. I don’t remember hearing him say that he was in on this deal at all. Because when we get right down to it, the question that I should be asking isn’t “God, are you really going to show up if I get out of bed?” but, “Don, are you really going to be obedient even if you don’t know whether or not God will show up?”

The author of the New Testament book of Hebrews says in Chapter 11 verse 1 that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Sure enough to make decisions based on what we know God wants us to do even when we aren’t confident of the results. Faith isn’t something you stumble into, but it might require stumbling out of bed at 4:50 in the morning.

Is anybody with me?

- Don

Providential Relationships...

Bam! Bam! Bam! The door to my dorm room shuddered under the
determined blows. Rolling over on my bed, I glanced at my alarm clock.
Quarter after nine. Still plenty of time to make my 10:30 class-no
reason to getup. But I knew of only one person who would beat on
someone's door with the intensity of a jackhammer. And he wasn't going
to go away.

With a sign, I rolled out of bed and unlocked the door. A
moment later, the door burst open and Rich Jarvi exploded into my room
like a miniature tornado, oblivious to the pile of dirty laundry he had
to sidestep on his way to shake my hand.

"Hi, Don," he said, unnaturally chipper at such an ungodly hour
on a Monday morning, "just wanted to make sure that you'll be at Bible
study this afternoon."

"Yeah, Rich, I'll be there," I said, knowing all the while that
if I didn't show up I'd only get a repeat performance of this morning's
wakeup call. After a couple more minutes of small talk, Rich bustled
out of my room, undoubtedly off to wake up another unsuspecting college student.

Rich worked as a campus minister for The Navigators and he went
out of his way to pursue me during my college years. Though we attended a University designed to allow students to become lost in the crowd, Rich refused to let my friends and I fall by the wayside. He would come to check up on us several times a week, Bible in hand, and he somehow always knew whether or not we were really home. If we didn't answer right away, he'd stand in the hall, oblivious to the looks he got from other residents, and pound on our doors until we opened.

You see that year, my first year away from the steadying
influence of family and church, I felt spiritually adrift and didn't
particularly want anything to do with God. So He pursued me instead by
using Rich Jarvi, a middle aged, unassuming man who wasn't too proud to wade into the freshman dorms at The Ohio State University and drag some wayward kids back to God.

Andy said on Sunday that God uses human relationships to
influence faith and I bet if you took an honest look at your own faith
story, you'd find a Rich Jarvi waiting in the wings. In Revelations
3:20 Jesus tells the Apostle John, "Here I am! I stand at the door and
knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and
eat with him and he with me."

During those trying days in college, when I felt farthest from
God, my savior was still standing at the door and knocking. He just
looked a little like Rich Jarvi.

* So what about you? Are you willing to be a Rich Jarvi? This
week put yourself in an intentional relational environment and see what
happens. Blog about the experience.


Don

Trust

"I'm willing step out in Faith-I just want to know that's what you want
me to do."

I wrote that line in one of my prayer journals during a time
when I was intensely seeking God's plan for my life. I remember that
when I uttered that prayer to God the thought seemed perfectly logical,
noble even. Here I was, willingly telling my Father that I'd be happy
to follow his directions-if he'd just light the road ahead with a
burning bush or two.

You see a relationship with God, more so than any other
relationship, is based on trust. We can't see God, or feel him, and
most of the time when he speaks, he doesn't use an audible voice
accompanied by an earthquake or a celestial spotlight. But in order to
experience him, we have to make the intentional decision to trust our
lives to someone we've never physically met.

Which brings me back to the line from my prayer journal. On
Sunday, Andy said, "None of us will ever stumble into Faith. Faith
isn't going to just happen." Another pastor friend of mine expressed
similar sentiments when he said, "I think a lot of people look for God
to work first, then step out in Faith. Some of the dramatic works of
God in the Bible were like that...but by far the normal pattern is that
God's people make choices to serve him using wisdom they've gained from
the Bible, godly friends, mentors, and life experiences."

Both of these friends were trying to tell me that life with God
can only be lived through trust and that the decision to trust must be
made in Faith. Faith that God has a story for my life if I'll just
reach out and grab it.

So what about you? Do you trust Him or are you still just
stumbling along? Imagine what your life could look like if you'd just
muster the courage to take that first step. Join me-let's experience
this together.

- Don

* Andy said that the story of the Bible is a story of trust. How
does trust play into your relationship with God?
* Can you think of a time when God did something amazing in your
life once you decided to trust him? Share it.

Play to win...

"Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19.

If you're like me, then you'd probably rather sit through a root
canal then purposefully share your faith with someone. The thought of
going up to a friend, or even worse a stranger, and attempting to
distill the entire Bible into a thirty second conversation centered
around sin, the four spiritual laws, some kind of bridge, and maybe the
Roman Road leaves me feeling a queasy. And maybe it should.

If you read the account of Jesus calling his first disciples in
the Gospel of Matthew 4:19, you'll see that he approaches things a
little differently. When Jesus invited two brothers, Peter and Andrew,
to join his ministry, he made it abundantly clear that they would be
leaving their old lives behind. But at the same time, Jesus couched his
invitation in terms that they would understand. He could just as easily
have invited them to become healers of men, or shepherds of men, or
teachers of men, but he didn't. Jesus told the brothers that he would
teach them to become fishers of men. Why? Because Peter and Andrew
were fishermen and Jesus knew that they would instantly understand his
message.

So how does that apply to us? Pastor and evangelist Tony Evans
once explained the process of sharing your faith by comparing the action
to a Dallas Cowboys fan talking about football. Tony stated that a
Cowboys fan doesn't have to try to work the subject of football into a
conversation. Since the fan is already passionate about football, he
talks about the Cowboys naturally without worrying about what he'll say
or how he'll say it. Tony's point is that if we are truly passionate
about something, talking about it will come easily.

Just like the fisherman who first related to Christ through
their life experiences, I've found that I share my faith most
effectively when I focus less on New Testament theology and more on what
God has done in my life. When I think of how good my Father has been to
me, I naturally want to share this story with others. Not as a
theologian or Biblical scholar, but as a simple, passionate fan who
can't wait to tell his friends the Good News.

So what about it? Are you ready to follow and fish or are you
still standing on the beach? Hurting people, desperate to hear a
positive story, surround you. Tell them yours.

- Don
* Tony Evans talked about sharing your passions with friends with
the expectation that your relationship with Christ will be one of those
passions. What if it's not? On Sunday, Andy said that God wants to
replace your indifference with passion. Will you let him? Tell me
about it.

* In the same teaching I referenced above, Tony Evans suggested
praying this prayer every morning: "God, I ask you to give me the
opportunity to share my faith with someone today, the wisdom to
recognize that opportunity when it comes, and the courage to act on it."
Pray that prayer for the next week and tell me what happens when you do.