Focus

I am convinced that one of the greatest battles that we face in the 21st Century is the fight for focus. There are constant distractions that tend to fight for our attention. I was reading an article last night that really struck me, the average corporate employee receives 200 emails a day. There is such a flood in people's inbox now that there are applications that you can add to Microsoft Outlook that will prioritize your emails for you so that you do not miss what is important mixed in with the unimportant.

When we lose our focus we degenerate immediately into the trap of spending our time on what is urgent as opposed to what is important. We jump from one thing to the next without ever making a difference anywhere. This breeds frustration in our personal lives. What is urgent is rarely what is important. It is learning to see through the constant blur of activity into what is truly important that is difficult.

Spiritually we can lose our focus if we are not constantly prioritizing our lives. We tend to lose focus on what is important, and we tend to flow towards what "appears" urgent. The problem with this is that it is not proactive, but rather reactive. When we constantly prioritize based upon apparent urgency we are always reacting to circumstances and situations. Much of the eternal value in our lives rarely appears urgent, but rather making focused investments into the supposed un-urgent things is of highest priority. The reason this is difficult is that we rarely see results immediately in these investments so we gravitate towards misguided beliefs that what does not show immediate results is not important.

Making deposits into your kids may not seem urgent, but it is eternal. Prayer may not seem what is urgent, but it is the only thing that makes a spiritual difference. Being still and allowing God to be God may seem counter productive, but yet that is many times when God shows up most powerfully. I am challenged daily to focus on the eternal and not chase the urgent.

The Word

I believe that the church is at a pivotal moment in history that could possibly be one of the greatest catalysts to world harvest that we have ever experienced. With all of the different discussions that are going on, I feel compelled to pause and remember one thing. Nothing of spiritual value has ever been accomplished outside of the understanding of the authority of the Word of God! New methods and ideas are wonderful, but let us not forget that methods come and go, ideas are here today and gone tomorrow, but the Word is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Every historically radical spiritual movement has begun with the Word! In Acts 6 the scripture says that the leadership of the church were getting strangled by the intense amount of service that was being done and they realized the necessity to appoint others to those positions so that they could dedicate there time to the ministry of prayer and the Word! These individuals understood that what created the environment for revival had it's birthplace in prayer and the Word! If we think that in the 21st Century we could ever do it any other way, we are selling ourselves short. In the book of Acts 8 we find the when persecution arose in the church, the disciples went everywhere preaching not their philosophy, but rather the Word, and when they did this it created a combustible environment that heated the embers of revival.

In Acts chapter 2 we find that on the day of pentecost Peter preached the word, and the scripture says that they that gladly received the word were baptized. There was a correlation between the reception of the word and the reaction to the word! In John 1:1 the Bible tells us that the Word was God, but when you continue on to John 1:11 the scriptures says that He came unto His own and his own received him not! If Jesus is the Word, then I believe it must be possible for us to call ourselves Christians, yet not be willing to receive Him! In John 1:12 we find that he continues and says, but as many as received Him, or the word, to them gave he power to become the sons of God! Therefore, it is our reception to the Word which determines our inheritance in Christ!

I am encouraged by the wave of people that are so hungry to see God move that we are beginning to think outside of the box and try new methodologies to reach the world. If we do not change our mindset and remove the barriers then we will never affect our world, but we must never become careless to let our passion for the lost remove our passion for the Word! The Word and our Passion for the lost must coexist! If we try it any other way we are presenting a Christless Theology!

God Created

The word genesis means, beginning. At the inception of scripture we find that God is busy doing what He does best, creating. A matter of fact, we call the first several chapters of the Bible the Creation Story. Creativity was so important that you discover that the fifth word that is found in the Bible is the word created, In the beginning God created! So, while thinking about all of this it makes me wonder, How come so much of what we do is mundane and not creative. Why do we enjoin ourselves so willingly to old patterns of thinking and question new creative techniques? I believe that Christians ought to be the most creative people that you can find, for the word Christian itself means Christ Like and everything that God does is a creative and a redemptive work. One avenue of thinking that we convince ourselves of unfortunately is that God is creative, but as a follower of Christ we are not to be creative, we leave that up to God, yet when we look at the scriptures we discover that God wanted to engrain creativity into mankind. The way that God would introduce Adam to valuing creativity was in the command for Adam to name all of the Animal Kingdom. Can you imagine what intense creativity it must have taken for Adam to come up with fitting names for all of the species that God had created? So, in thinking about this year let me begin where God began, Creating! What routines have I fallen into that I have lacked the energy to evaluate to see if there is a creative and new method that can be achieved with better results. Have I pushed my paradigm to think of a different angle to the same problem that I am dealing with, or could it even be possible that I have neglected creativity, and so therefore my thinking is the problem itself! Let this be a year creating and not tearing down! Let me stretch my thinking out of old routine things and allow this to be the year where all things become new.

Action

I have been mesmerized by how many times we get stuck in bad thinking. I have discovered that many of us think that we will be judged by what we think and not by what we do. The old adage says, Actions speak louder than words and although I agree with that statement, I don't think it takes it far enough. I believe that words hold little weight at all in the eternal, rather action is the defining characteristic of us all. Many people get caught up in trying to define who they are, but really the legacy we leave will be based upon the actions that we take in this life. An interesting study on this thought is found in the book of James 2.
Every action that we take is speaking something. We can say a lot without opening our mouths or placing ink on a piece of paper. I pray that I will be slow to speak, but quick to act, for in so doing I display my faith. The true walk of faith is not to discuss how God is good, but to show how God is good. The true walk of faith is not to talk about how God gave, but to be one that gives out of the Love of God. The true walk of faith is not to live in fear of opinions and strap ourselves into a box, but live with the eternal in mind and actively pursue a life pleasing to God! I wonder how my day would change if I could not speak at all, but all I could do was act? What would people say about me if all they knew was what I did, not what I said I believe. A study in this would be to read the book of Acts, or the book of Actions. It is interesting to note that there was never a book written called the book of thoughts, simply because a good thought that is never placed into actions never changes culture!

Innovation

Yesterday while in the car on the long drive from St. Louis to Little Rock I watched as my 3 year old taught me a valuable lesson with his bobble head toy named wobble head. 8-) Reese kept dropping his toy and then he proceeded to try and discover unique ways to reach him to do it all over again. Little did he realize, but he was teaching a valuable lesson on innovation.

There is a statement that says, "Necessity is the mother of all invention." I believe this statement whole heartedly because there have been times in my life that I have discovered things out of necessity, but what I learned on our long trip yesterday in the car was something that I believe takes the step even a little further. If necessity is the mother of all invention, then I believe curiosity and desire are the creators of innovation.

What I have learned from my children, even though they do not know what they are doing sometimes, is that if they truly love something and desire to do something, it really will not matter what the stated rules are, they will find a way to do what they want to do. This immediately began to get my mind to wonder, at what age do we cease to lose our curiosity and desire and we align ourselves with the paradigm that is filled with reasons of why we can't? What would happen if we could stir our God given curiosity and pursue after our passions? What if the words, I can't, did not exist in our language. What innovations would spring up if we could open our minds and value creative ways to accomplish things. In doing this we could quite possibly change our realities through innovation.

I desire more than anything to never lose my curiosity. I hope I never become a part of the party that says that certain things can not be done. I hope I challenge myself to find innovative and creative ways to forge ahead into the 21st century that will spark momentum and passion into peoples lives to fulfill the purpose that God has for them.

The Power of a Question

Have you ever had a question that it just seemed you could not get answered?  We live in a world that no longer struggles trying to find information, but rather the true test of the day is to sift through a plethora of information until you find what you are really looking for.  The struggle is finding what it is that is needed in a fast paced hyperactive world.  The answer lies in something that seems very simple, yet it is more difficult than what one could imagine.  To get the right answer we must be willing to ask the right question.   The scripture says...  You don't have, because you don't ask.  

I feel that many times as leaders it is difficult for us to ask the right question because we are concerned about how we will be perceived.  The facade that we have built around ourselves many times is what we hide behind.  If we ask a question, we are concerned that we will be perceived as not knowledgeable. Unfortunately we end up becoming a slave to ourselves that has not, because we were never willing to ask.  

What is the right question?  One question can open up so many doors in our lives.  Questions have the ability to dig deep into a matter, or they can become surface oriented and leave us wondering.  We learn by asking questions, and if we do not allow questions to be asked we are limiting our potential for knowledge.  When was the last time you put thought into the question you were going to ask?  How quickly could an argument be resolved if we knew what question to ask?  What depths of knowledge could be unlocked if we knew how to arrive at the right question.  

Let me challenge you today, before your next meeting, spend time thinking about what questions you are going to ask.  Think of the power of one question and always remember,  You many times don't have, simply because you didn't ask.

Ambassadors for Christ

Over the last week or so my mind has been in constant thought of the scripture that says, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ...2 Corinthians 5:20 KJV. In order to truly understand what this scripture is saying we have to understand what the word ambassador actually means. According to Webster's dictionary an Ambassador is a diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative. Our whole identity and purpose is found in this one word, ambassador.

When Paul says, we are ambassadors, he is speaking directly to our identity in Christ. Ambassador is what we are when Christ views us. If I am truly an ambassador then that means that I am viewed by Christ as an official representative of highest rank. It is so difficult for us to comprehend the value that Christ places in us. The battle that I face on a daily basis is the thought of what I truly am in Christ. So many times we feel unworthy of our salvation, let alone the calling of being an ambassador of highest rank. When we view ourselves as unworthy of being Christ's ambassador then we minimize the work that Christ did on the cross.

I noticed something very impacting in this scripture as well because it says that we are ambassadors FOR Christ. This coincides with the word ambassador in the fact that we have been sent by Him as his mouthpiece and resident representative. We are in this world, but we are not of this world. We reside in this world yet we are not citizens of this world. We have all of the authority to operate on behalf of Christ in this alien land. As a church we must understand that it is not only our right, but it is our obligation to work on behalf of Christ in this earth, for this is the purpose of our existence on this earth. Christ would have immediately translated us into heaven at the moment of our New Birth if He did not have a mission for us to do as His ambassadors on this earth. If we do not operate as his ambassadors then Christ will not have a representative on this earth! Although God could easily do the work by himself, He has chosen men and women to propagate His work on this earth. So, go be an ambassador for Christ! Be His Representative today and know that God is not only with you, but he has empowered you to operate on His behalf. You are Sent as a High Ranking Official by Him who is Sovereign.