Between: Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You

As a kid, my parents required me to eat whatever was put in front of me. While some of my childhood memories are foggy, I clearly remember sitting at the dinner table with my family at our home in Port Jervis, NY. In most cases, I liked the food that my mom made. Every once in a while, however, food appeared on my plate that I would have rather given to the dog. It wasn't that my mom was a bad cook. I just didn't like certain foods. It was during these times that my dad would say a profound phrase that I now repeat to my children in similar circumstances: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."

God said a similar thing to the Israelites in Numbers 11. They were between God's promise and His provision. In His sovereignty, God had led them through the wilderness instead of the shorter route on their way to the Promiseland because he knew that they weren't ready for the greatness of what was to come. He needed time to teach them to depend on Him.

Part of that dependence came in the form of food that fell from heaven. It was called manna. While the people were initially thankful for this food from God, they soon became discontent and began complaining. They said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna! (Num. 11:4-6)"

Have you ever noticed that discontentment skews your vision...not to mention your memory? It seems as though the Israelites forgot the tireless hours they worked as slaves in Egypt. They also forgot all that God did to get them out of Egypt. Their skewed vision caused them to be unthankful.

Now before you are too hard on the Israelites, think about your own situation.  Have you ever been unthankful for all that you have? Maybe you are looking for a job, like me. Instead of complaining that you don't have a job, begin thanking God that he is taking care of you now. Perhaps you are experiencing one health problem after the next. Instead of whining about it, start thanking God that he has sustained you through such a difficult time.

Whatever you are facing, guard yourself against unthankfulness. It leads to discontentment and it only makes your situation worse. Don't believe me? Read the rest of the scripture. God's response to their bad attitude came in the form of excessive manna for a month...until it came out of their nostrils! Yuk! Instead, heed the wisdom of Psalm 50:23 which says, "He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God."

Don't bite the hand that feeds you!

Between: Quicker Is Not Always Better

I've never really been a "back roads" kind of guy until I moved to Charlotte. When it comes to driving around here, knowledge of the shortcuts is necessary if you want to save time during peak traffic hours. Why? The main arteries of our great city are just not able to handle the volume of cars on the roads. Now, don't get me wrong! Charlotte does not even compare in this regard to Chicago or New York City, but we definitely are lacking in transportation infrastructure. That's why I love the back roads! When it comes to arriving at my destination, I look for the quickest route possible.

God, on the other hand, has a different way of thinking about things. The Israelites found this out as they were leaving Egypt. God had promised them that He would bring them out of slavery and into a land that flowed with milk and honey. After a series of plagues, He delivered them from the Egyptians, leading them out of the land with Pharoah and his army closely behind.

There were 2 routes that led to Canaan from Egypt. The Bible tells us that God did not let them take the shorter route because he knew they would have to face the Philistines and would change their minds and go back to Egypt (Ex. 13:17). Instead, he led them into the wilderness. Now why did God do this?

Read the rest of the story and you will see that God had some things that he wanted to teach them on their journey through the wilderness. God knew that they were not ready for what he had in store for them. Their faith was too weak. He had led them out of Egypt, but he needed time to get Egypt out of them. And so they found themselves on the road between God's promise and His provision. It was on this road that He prepared them for the next step in their journey.

Maybe you find yourself in a similar place? Submit to God and let him teach you all that you need to know. Remember, it may take a while because God has something really good in store for you!

Between

Between. Ever find yourself there? Let me explain. I've heard a good deal of discussion in Christian circles about God's promises and His provision. After all, it's exhilarating to read about the things God spoke to the men of old and the miracles he performed to bring about their fulfillment. Who isn't inspired by Moses parting the Red Sea and Elijah calling down fire on Mount Carmel? Or how about Jesus healing the blind man and raising Lazarus from the grave? I love to read about God moving in the lives of others.


But sometimes it's easy for us to miss the "between." This is the time after the promise and before the provision. A good portion of scripture is dedicated to recording the "between" in the lives of God's people. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has lived the Christian life for a while, for the same is true for us. Much of life is lived between God's promises and his provision.

While this may sound disparaging, it's so important to remember that God wants to do great things in us while we await the answer to our prayer. While the promise and the provision teach us about who God is, I have found that the time between teaches us to depend on God. And it's through our dependence on Him that we truly come to know Him. With that said, I'd like to do a series of blogs over the next few weeks called Between.

The principles I will share are ones that I have been chewing on during my current "between" time. Perhaps you find yourself between the promise and provision of God as well. Take heart, my friend. Be strong! You're not alone. Stay tuned for more to come.

What is Relevance?

I ran across this blog post from Tim Stevens, a pastor on staff at Granger Community Church, about relevance and the Church. The word "relevance" has caused a lot of confusion and fear in the Church over the years. I think Tim does a good job of bringing clarification to this sometimes emotionally charged word. Here's what he has to say:

• Relevance doesn’t necessarily mean cool or flashy or trendy.
• Relevance doesn’t mean it’s never been done before.
• Relevance isn’t defined by doing something so crazy that you get the attention of church leaders from around the country.
• Relevance is all about being missional. You are studying the culture and figuring out what works. The goal is to communicate. So you figure out what it takes to communicate (either one-on-one or in a group setting) to the people in front of you.
• You can’t use blanket statements in regards to relevance. You can’t say, “Your church has a choir so it must be irrelevant” or “Your pastor preaches in faded jeans and a shirt from The Buckle so he must be relevant.” Relevance is contextual—and every context is different.
• Relevance must be constantly evaluated. What was relevant last year may be irrelevant this year.
• Relevance is best determined by a team. What seems incredibly relevant to one person may be deemed irrelevant by a crowd of people. We tend to think smarter about these things when we have a diverse team helping us out.
• Relevance is hard work. At Granger, it is a very high value. In fact, cultural relevance is one of our core values. However, I bet we miss the mark on this three or four times each year. We go into a series totally convinced that it will be a home run—and at times we have found out that it had very little relevance to our crowd. We don’t let this discourage us, though. We just keep trying to be better at knowing our culture.
• Relevance doesn’t necessarily equal “felt need sermon series.” Sometimes it will—like when you deliver a parenting or marriage series because you believe that is the most relevant topic you can offer to connect people to Jesus. At other times, the most relevant thing you can do is offer some theological grounding or invite people to prayer and worship.

Preaching to Myself

I've been working on perfecting a certain discipline in my life lately. I've been preaching to myself. Yes, you read that right! We live in a nation chock-full of spiritual resources. We have books on every subject imaginable (now digitized for your Kindall), all kinds of Bibles, webcasts, podcasts, webinars, iTunes...you get the idea. We have access to more material now than ever before! Even so, it's important that we preach to ourselves.

Now before you start getting your Sunday clothes on and practicing your introduction, let me explain what I mean. The good news is that this type of preaching doesn't require any classes in hermeneutics or homiletics! I am simply talking about reminding ourselves of who God is and what His promises are for us. In many cases, preaching to ourselves may include some of the resources listed above. What makes it unique, however, is that it flows out of our own personal experience.

The psalmist did this in Psalm 42:5. He cried out, "Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God—soon I'll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He's my God (Msg)." Another great example of this principle is found in 1 Sam. 30:6 where the scriptures state that David "encouraged himself in the Lord his God." Study the context of these scriptures and you will find that both declarations came in great times of struggle.

It's good to draw on the strength of others. God meant it to be this way. But He also knew that there would be times in our lives when we would be alone and in need of Him--thus, the importance of the discipline of preaching to yourself.

How's your soul doing today? Need some encouragement? Start speaking to your soul! Remind yourself of all that God has done in your life and start singing a song about God's amazing grace. Here's a great song I've been singing to my soul! Enjoy!

Looking For A Church

I live in Charlotte, NC, home to over 700 churches. We have churches of all sizes and forms. In fact, if you do the math you'll find that a person could shop for churches for 13 1/2 years without ever visiting the same church twice! Wow!

So how is a person who is looking for a church to find one? Unfortunately, there is no verse of scripture with instructions...or is there? Well, not exactly! But scripture does describe the birth of the Church in the book of Acts with much detail. I believe that Acts is a great starting point.

It would be good for anyone who is looking for a church home to reread the book of Acts before they continue their search. Keep in mind that no church is going to look exactly like the early Church in form (i.e. government, style, culture, etc.). What's most important is that a church's values and practices align with scripture. It seems as if I could write a book on this subject. For the sake of space, here are some of the key ingredients of the early church:

1. They were outwardly focused and sought to transform their world. 
2. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit.
3. They devoted themselves to scripture.
4. They devoted themselves to prayer and worship.
5. They spent time with each other and practiced true Christian love.
6. They were culturally relevant.
7. They were generous givers. 

Remember, what's important is that a church is currently practicing these things. It's not enough for these things to be written on a church's website or statement of beliefs. With these 7 foundational principles as the backdrop, here are some additional qualities (this is in no way exhaustive) that are essential to the health of a church and are worth looking for:

-A clear, consistent and godly vision. 
-Strong, trustworthy, unified and humble leadership.
-An emphasis on grace. Legalism is a killer of spiritual life!
-A Kingdom mindset (i.e. not an island unto itself!).
-Opportunities to serve. 
-Accountability: financially and otherwise.
-People take priority over programs. 
-Transformation is more important than tradition.
-Multicultural.
-Forward-looking.
-Able to minister well to all generations.


Now, before you give up on your current church or on finding a new one, remember that no church is perfect. It's vitally important that all of us walk in love and forgiveness! Oh, and one more important word of advice: When looking for a church, make it a serious matter of prayer. Obviously, there's no way a person could completely know everything about a church; however, the Holy Spirit has a way of helping us sense things that are beyond our reach. When it's all said and done, it's also good to know that God has called you to your new place of worship.

My prayer is that those of you who are searching for a new church home will find a place where you and your family can grow in the Lord and you can accomplish His will alongside the Body of Christ.

The Big Red Tractor

The Big Red Tractor from Jacob Lewis on Vimeo.