10 Questions That Determine Success...

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.  But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel,  so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear - Philippians 1:9-15, 

Paul, Jesus Bondservant

I stole the idea (not so much the content) from an article I saw in INC Magazine online...The idea was simply 10 questions that can determine success. So, for the follower of Jesus here are 10 questions you might consider. I am sure there are many others. Hopefully these are a good starting point for your everyday walk with God and your success in this life!

1. Have I started my day today at the Love's source, Jesus Christ-Worship-Study-Prayer-Meditation?

2. Have I expressed the overflow of His love for me to others around me?

3. With Love as a guide, have I determined how I could better the world around me, even if it is some small thing?

4. Am I taking care of my body so I can express my best to the world around me?

5. Am I bathed in an attitude of gratitude (It will determine how I approach adventures, challenges and people)

6. Do I maintain a continual conversation with Jesus throughout the day? (It will determine how I act in private. This is where all my life plans are formed as well as in public where I act them out).

7. Have I thoughtfully approached conversations with others to strengthen and encourage them and provide God the greatest opportunity to work in and through them?

8. As I review in midday, is it clear I am accomplishing God honoring tasks?

9. Not "have I" but whom have I lifted and helped today that is less fortunate than I?

10. What are the stories and exploits I have started, attempted and/or accomplished today; write them down?

BONUS: Was this a "God-sized" day today or what!??!

Here's the thing.  The questions you ask yourself on a daily basis determine your focus, and your focus determines your effectiveness. Do you want to be passionate? Do you want to find your passion? Be fulfilled? Then plug in each day early to your Heavenly Father...Heaven itself, with all its power and lack of limitations will flow in and through you!

I remain...

InHISgrip,
  ~J~

The Leader Who Waits…The One Who Lingers & Even Meanders!

So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at the pace of the droves before me and that of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir. - Genesis 33:14

Our work often determines that we move at a pace that can put incredible stresses upon people and relationships. We all have our own pace. I like speed. It speaks efficiency and tells me that I am more competent for my ability to move quickly. I like feeling like I am competent. I also get annoyed when things do not move at my pace and in my direction.

In the Old Testament there was a certain man who would one day be known as Israel. His name was Jacob. Jacob was a man who learned to manipulate and control outcomes. He even stole the birthright of his older brother, Esau, through trickery. The Bible speaks of Jacob as a man who strived with God. That means he tried to push God along like a child wanting to leave one place to go to another, Jacob would "pester" God.I am sure those around him would say that Jacob had a knack of forcing issues to his advantage. Because his motives were selfish and greedy took years for God to break down all the rough edges of Jacob so that he could be worthy of becoming the patriarch of the 12 tribes of Israel. God saw something in Jacob that He could use.

Robert Hicks, in his book, Masculine Journey, describes five biblical stages of manhood that must be passed through before a man becomes a mature man of God. I like the idea of this. It's linear. My experience however is that God is not linear in His dealings with me; at least not necessarily. Nonetheless, one of those early stages is known as the "warrior stage." In this stage of manhood, the man is known by what he does, what he accomplishes, and he is primarily defined by his performance. It can be a tumultuous time for the man and those close to him. It is often signified by broken relationships because the goal is often about him, his needs, his goals, his aspirations, his work and this phase is most about about the goals and not the way the goal is accomplished. Yesterday I had the chance to meet with a man who was through this phase. You can tell. He was not driven in the conversation. But, he did talk about this phase without naming it; a time when he was dogged and relentless in his pursuits.

In an effort to get to the point I have shown a time when Jacob had successfully passed through these five stages based on the verse above. It takes someone mature to be able to "move along slowly at the pace of the droves before me and that of the children." Leaders who never come to understand this may be successful materially but fail at the most important aspect of leadership-leading at a pace that his followers can maintain and where they feel an integral part and also accomplished. The lives of men are full of wives, children, and workers who cannot keep up with the pace of leaders and are left behind with broken dreams, broken hearts, and unfulfilled promises.

Are you a person who is more concerned with outcome than how you achieve the outcome? Can the people around you describe you as someone who leads at a pace that ensures respect, admiration and an observed value on what is also important to those around you? Ask the Lord for the ability to be a godly leader who understands the condition of those left in his charge and stop to observe and best understand the pace in which you can lead without alienating those for whom God has made you accountable.

I remain…

InHISGrip, ~J~

How To Knock Someone Down With A Feather-Ask to Pray for Them!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. - Philippians 4:6

So I sauntered into my favorite coffee house this last week to the delicious (er...not so much) sounds of a wheezing barrista. The young lady behind the counter appeared to be gasping for breath and nearly as white as a sheet!

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Allergies," she she gasped. "When the weather changes in the fall it gets so bad I can hardly breathe."

"Can I pray for you?" I asked.

She looked up at me with eyes as big as saucers! "Oh, I don't want to take up God's time with something as silly as my hassles. I should have just taken a Benadryl this morning. But thank you for asking." she replied. The woman was touched that I would offer to pray for her and, as a side note, I did anyway, silently, at my table with my Mango Green Tea.

The next time I was in I told her my prayer group was praying for her. She could not believe that I would do such a thing for her. Tears well in her eyes.

It is interesting what happens when you offer to pray for someone isn't it? It can be the most genuine and loving thing you can do for another. It can be the one means of getting a conversation on a spiritual plane that cuts across religious stigmas and gets to the root of the problem-the person's real need. The act of the offer immediately reveals your own values and sets the stage for future encounters. All it takes is a little Holy Spirit led boldness to step through the door when the opportunity seems to present itself. Besides it is a recognition to ourselves that we realize how much has been done for us.

Is there anything too small to pray about? Do we, in fact, bother God when we make any request that is not dealing with only the poor in Calcutta? Paul clearly tells us in this passage that prayer is talking with God. It is having such a relationship with Him that we can bring anything to His attention.

We've all heard the housewife's prayer for a parking spot or other such seemingly trivial prayer requests, but are they trivial to God? If God is our closest and most intimate friend, then it becomes very natural to talk to Him as you would a friend who might be sitting next to you in the car. Yes, God desires to have such close communion with you and me that we can pray about anything-even a parking spot.

As you enter the your day today, ask a friend, a child, a son, daughter or co-worker if you can pray for them about something. You may be surprised at what doors will open as a result...some lead into eternity with Christ!

I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

All That Is New

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:13b-14

Our past can be a hindrance or a help in moving toward God's purposes for each of us. For some, the past has meant pain and heartache, and grace is required so that we do not let that which shaped us dictate our responses and the outcomes of those responses in our future. If we allow our past to make us a victim, then we have not entered into the grace that God has for us. To be sure it is a decision we make. God's grace saves us and changes us or it does not. If we live on memories of past successes and fail to raise our vision for new things, we again are victims of our past. Our past becomes our highlight reel.

That is not God's vision for your life

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland - Isaiah 43:19.

Our past should only be viewed for what we can learn from it. We should understand it so we can trace the finger of God, even when we were in rebellion, in our lives. We must move forward and avoid viewing the negative or the positive for more than what we can learn; for how our Heavenly Father can take that information and build our future from and with it. Are you going to allow your past dictate your future.? God is always about doing new things in our lives. New things means He is doing something unique today and will again do something unique to you and I in our tomorrow's. He gives fresh insight of His purposes in our lives. At the very least these new adventures provide us with new clues to His calling and His election of us into the offices to which only He can call us.
Do not live in the past. Do not hold onto bitterness that may hinder God from doing new and exciting things in your life.

Our eternal Father turns our wastelands into streams of water to give life, not death. He means for each event and memory to lead to the glory of His name. Your quest, your adventure is to figure out how.

How are we viewing our past? How much time are we giving to it? Are we glorying in it? Has it hindered us to become more of Jesus Christ? Have you relied on past successes to dictate what you will do in the future or stymy you from moving forward toward new goals? Put your memories in their proper place. Allow God to do a new things in your life. Seek His guidance to assist you to see the new things He wants to do in and through you today.

"When your memories are bigger than your dreams, you're headed for the grave" [Author unknown]...I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

Takin' It Easy - Not So Biblical After All

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!- Psalm 90:12-17

This last week, at my favorite coffee house, as I prepared my lesson for Sunday, a group of 4 walked in, ordered their drinks and sat right across from me and my Mac. One gentleman of the group just started shaking hands with all the patrons. He must've shook hands with a half-dozen folks he’d never met before. Then he looked at me, and with a grin and a twinkle in his eye, walked over, bent slightly at my table and whipped out his hand in my direction. I grabbed hold, smiled and realized that this was a working mans hand! It was a hand you could strike a match on, toughened by decades of rugged toil.

"And a great day to you sir," I said. "You look like a man who enjoys life. What do you do for a living?" I inquired of my brand new friend.

"Me? Well, I'm a farmer from back in the Midwest. It is what I do and I guess I have gotten to be pretty fair at it."

"Really? I guess I'm not surprised, since you've got hands like sandpaper! Those are some tough hands!" "Ya, well son, yours aren't so much but you look like you pluck on that gizmo there pretty good. What do you do?" After sharing with him my work and passions he patted me on the back and said, "I like it!"

He then laughed . . . asked me a couple of insightful questions, then told me about his plans for traveling with his new girlfriend (and he winked). "She's the young one over there at the table."

"What did you do last week?" I asked.

His answer stunned me. "Last week I finished harvesting 90,000 bushels of corn," he said with a smile.

I then blurted out, "Ninety thousand! How old are you, my friend?"

He didn't seem at all hesitant or embarrassed by my question. "I'm just a couple months shy o' 90." He laughed again as I shook my head. Wow!

the man in front of me had lived through four or five wars, the Great Depression, seventeen presidents, ninety Midwest winters, who knows how many personal hardships, and he was still taking life by the throat. I had to ask him the secret of his long and productive life. "Hard work and integrity" was his quick reply. "Be honest, do what you say and do more than they think you can. That's all."

As we parted company, he looked back over his shoulder and added, "Don't take it easy, young feller. Stay at it!" This wisdom from a ninety year old to a fifty pluser...truly.

The Bible is filled with folks who refused to take it easy. In the Old Testament is the story of a man named Caleb, who, at age 85, attacked the powerful Anakim in the hill country and successfully drove them out (Josh. 14)? Or Abraham, the Father of our Faith, who had a baby (well, actually Sarah did) when he was "in his old age" . . . he was 100, she was 90 (Gen. 21)? Or Noah or Moses or Samuel or Anna, the 84-year-old prophetess . . . significant people, all.

Age means zilch. Wrinkles, gray hair, and spots on your hands, less than zilch. If God chooses to leave you on this earth, great. If He makes it possible for you to step aside from your work and move on to new vistas with fresh challenges, that's also great. Be sensitive to the spirit to expect to be doing more in your future, not less...

And whatever else you do, don't take it easy!

"No disease is more lethal than the boredom that follows retirement" (Norman Cousins).

As I typed this I wasn't sure of the deep spiritual truths other than I just was inspired by it and felt for someone out there who's butt might have grown a size or two in the past year or so, take heed! Death waits at the door, spiritually and physically of those who quit on life and godliness!

I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

Single Moms - Are They Our New Widows?

Throughout the Bible, God’s people are instructed to care for those who often cannot thrive on their own, most often widows and orphans. Because of the lack of honorable employment available for women in ancient times, widows were in an especially difficult position. Without secular institutions to care for these women, widows either relied heavily on family members for financial assistance or lived in poverty.

Throughout scripture, God instructs his people in no uncertain terms to take it upon themselves to make sure these women are provided for. No fewer than 66 Old Testament passages mention widows, saying (among many other things) that widows are not to be taken advantage of (Exodus 22:22), that God defends them (Deuteronommy 10:18), that food is to be left for them to eat (Deuteronomy 24:20-21), and that those who withhold justice from them are cursed (Deuteronomy 27:19). In the New Testament, Jesus — even on the cross — entrusts the care of his mother, Mary, to the disciple John, demonstrating even in his anguish the importance widows play in his kingdom (John 19:26-27). The church is implored on a number of occasions to take care of the widows in their midst. James’ language is actually rather direct along these lines: “True religion” is taking care of widows and orphans (James 1:27).

Today, our world is quite different. Women have access to a formal education that prepares them for careers on par (though still not equal, sadly) with men in both pay scale and advancement. Even a less educated woman can receive a decent hourly job and provide for herself. In this way, a woman’s options for provision have not run out should her husband or partner pass away.

I suggest we update our definition “widow” to include single mothers, perhaps the most vulnerable members of our contemporary societies and churches. I am not suggesting we cease our financial, spiritual, and emotional care for women (and men) who have lost their spouses. But as Christians who read our Bibles as “living and active” words from God for all people in all contexts, we seek to broaden our traditional understandings of certain scriptures based on changes in our context. In saying this, I am also not detracting from the strength and courage of many single mothers. For most single moms in America, though, the math just doesn’t work in their favor: Even one child that is not yet school-aged can prevent the only able-bodied worker – mom – from having a job outside the home, without shelling out hundreds of dollars in day-care bills each week.

Sadly, the church has a shameful reputation in its treatment of single mothers, primarily because of the stigmas associated with being a single mom. They live messy lives. I know, I had one.

Our views on divorce and irresponsible premarital sex often underlie this bias ... even today in our enlightened state where we are beginning to realize that sin is sin and all sinners need a touch from God, the Holy Spirit and His people - constantly!

Those who hold most of the resources are too often the ones casting judgment on those whom they believe had a central role in creating their own fate, translating this into a general stinginess of time and money toward single moms. "The spiritual" people most often play the part of moral judge and jury, shunning fellow members who divorce and never completely welcoming those single moms who come to them following their “sin.” It is no secret that the church is often quite a lonely place to be for a divorced woman, let alone a woman who had her children out of wedlock.

We must update our spiritual lexicon regarding the word “widow” to include single moms. Right next door to many of our churches – and too often within them – these courageous women are sacrificing greatly for the well-being of their children while Christians look on primarily with judgment rather than compassion. We must consider the possibility that, placing ourselves within the story of the adulterous woman “caught in the act” in John 8, we are in fact the Pharisees and teachers of the law to whom Jesus sternly says, “Let anyone who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

This son of a widow and a divorcee...remains within HIS grip...

~J~

When God Kicked the Dog

I was listening this morning to a radio host who came dangerously close to letting the world off the hook. You may ask what I mean by that...

He was quoting a leading voice in the Emergent Church movement who was talking about the concept of Hell. Essentially, this leader, Brian McLaren, was saying that there was a "problem" with traditional theology it's teaching on Hell and on the idea of the centrality of the Cross of Jesus Christ. I've embedded a YouTube video. Listen to what this sweet and gentle voice of reason says and then get back to me on the other side of listening.



Oh Lord! May it never be said that you can't do something you ask of others! How insidious is that!

Guys, this may all sound very clever, but it does not match up with Scripture. Hell is not antithetical to the cross! Hell exists because of one very important aspect of the person of our God. He is a holy and perfectly just God. He takes rebellion against Him, His person, His truth, His leadership and yes, His rule ...He is a God that takes sin seriously. He is not a god who values personal lawlessness (don't call it freedom - God has a definition of freedom and that for another teaching) or that could care less regarding the way you live out your days on earth.

And what of Jesus? Jesus died on the cross because God is both perfectly just AND infinitely gracious. A God who could in fact take the hit of having His most precious relationship, His most precious and fully perfect Son humiliated in the site of the "piss ants of the Milky Way," human beings. Jesus actions represented how God made a way in which He could extend His grace to us without compromising His justice.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus ~ Romans 3:21-26

That is the gospel! If God were not just, Jesus’ sacrifice inclusive of the cross would not have been necessary. God, said it was required. And if God were not gracious, He would have left you and I separated in our sins rather than sending His Son to a wretch like me. We can be forgiven because grace and justice met at the cross. Praise God that He is both Just AND the Justifier!

Let’s proclaim the Biblical Gospel faithfully! It is the only Gospel that saves. We have to take a stand. Dr. McLaren may not wish to stymie a "conversation" but the fact is Paul, Peter, John, Eusibius, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Finney, Moody, Ironside, Graham, Swindoll, MacArthur, Beth Moore, and Joyce Meyer and 10,000,000 more some who just preached it and others who interpreted it had it right. There is a hell to shun and a heaven to gain! And, while we are at it, let us make sure that when we are hit with these kinds of thought processes, from these kinds of heretical corners of unacceptable liberalism, thoughts that elevate the idea of love at any cost, including the Bible account, that we have a standard and know where we stand.

I remain...in the arms of my loving Savior and grateful from all He has saved me from, including an actual Hell.

InHISgrip,
~J~