Do You Love Me?

Have you ever heard that song, 

Do you love me, (do you love me) 

Do you love me, (do you love me)

Do you love me, (do you love me)... Now that I can dance... 

I can mashed potato... I can do the twist! 

I love that song! It ask a great question. "Do you love me?"

Everywhere we go there are people. Some may be saved and some may not know Jesus. Do you know Jesus? Has he changed your life? Do you love him? 

I have been hearing about an atheist who is fairly well known. When reflecting on a experience he had where a Christian approached him to share the gospel... The atheist questioned in his own mind why this did not happen more often. He pondered, "If you really believe what you say you do about heaven and hell. If you really believe what you say you do about Jesus. Then how much do you have to hate someone to not try and tell them the truth?" 

This is a simple yet heavy question. At times it is so difficult to talk to others about Jesus. Why is it so difficult for us? I know that sometimes I fear how people may respond. Sometimes I don't know what to say. Many times I forget that I have a message of love, of good news to those who are perishing. Lately I have been encouraged to grow in my faith and sharing my faith in these ways:

Find 2-3 fellow Christians and make a commitment with one another to hold each other accountable. Pray for one another. 

Make a list of ten people in your life... (maybe family, maybe neighbors, maybe co-workers) who you are unsure about their salvation. Hopefully you can think of someone who doesn't know Jesus. They are out there. I promise. 

Commit to pray for these people everyday and ask God to give you the opportunity and ability to share the gospel of Jesus with these people. Pray for their salvation. When the time comes... trust God and do it. It might be awkward at first if you have not done it a lot but it will become more natural and you will be filled with joy and strength because of your obedience.

Commit to talk with your accountability friends at least once a week about who you and they are praying for. Pray for each other and even ask if you can pray for one another's list. 

Don't worry about how to do it. Just build relationships. Start conversations. Live out in your life what you believe in your heart. Share your heart with others.

I want to encourage whoever reads this to not keep the "Good News" to yourself! Jesus taught us to love God and love others (Mk. 12:30-31). If we do... then we must tell them of his love! 

Blessings!

Say what...? Continually... sacrifice... fruit of lips?

I was reading the other day about worship and this statement really caught the attention of my heart...

"Many people foolishly believe God will accept anything offered by well meaning worshipers. It is clear, however, that sincerity is not the test of true worship" (MacArthur, Pastoral Ministry, 190).

What do you think about that? What kind of worship will God accept? We know from (John 4:19-24) that God desires worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth. Jesus explains to the woman at the well that true worship is about the attitude of a person's heart. So what makes a person's worship acceptable to God? How are we even able to come before God in worship?

Read (Hebrews 13:15). 

Jesus is the only way that we can offer to God worship that is acceptable. It is through him that we can offer a "sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name" (Heb. 13:15). It is by the cross of Christ that we are able to offer anything that is pleasing to God!

One of my favorite verses of Scripture about worship is Romans 12:1-2. Paul says that we are to offer ourselves as "living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship" (v.1). What does that mean? A living sacrifice. I often thought that I knew what it meant but really never associated it with Jesus and him being the only way we can offer acceptable worship to God. Let me explain...  

We read in (Hebrews 10:5-13), that Jesus offered for all time a single sacrifice for sin. Before Christ, there were many who offered multiple sacrifices to atone for their sins. But Jesus, the Lamb of God, has paid for sin. Notice (Hebrews 10:10). This is how the author of Hebrews can say as we read above, "Through him then (...) offer a sacrifice of praise" (Heb. 13:15). Why does Paul say in (Romans 12:1) to offer ourselves as living sacrifices? A quick survey of Romans will show us why. 

Paul begins by explaining that all are condemned and no one is righteous (Ch. 1-3).

Then he explains that we have righteousness and peace through faith (Ch. 4-5).

Now Paul explains that we are dead to sin but alive in Christ! Read (Romans 6:3-11). 

Since then, through faith we are alive in Christ (which by the way is the only way to offer acceptable worship to God) we are able to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God (Rom. 12:1). After what Christ has done for us... it is only reasonable. Consider... (1 Jn. 4:10). This understanding is reiterated again by Paul in (Gal. 2:20). 

Finally, consider this... What is worship anyway? It is more than singing songs. It is a lifestyle. We are worshipers. We are always worshiping something. Think again for a moment about (Heb. 13:15). The author says that we "continually offer." That means without ceasing! How do we do that? Well... we are already continually worshiping something. I humbly suggest that we must look to Jesus (Heb. 12:2). We must look to the cross! He is the only way, only truth and only life (Jn. 14:6)! 

Through Christ we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1)! 

Blessings!

One more thing for the really deep... 

Notice that the author of Hebrews says, "... the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name" (Heb. 13:15). What verse does that remind you of? 

Paul said, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom. 10:9).

The words acknowledge and confess are translated from the same original Greek word... homologeo (English Transliterated, Strongs #3760). Believe me... Its all about Jesus!

Worship Him!   

 

Leaders Equipping Leaders

Hey friends! This week I am on Spring Break from my studies! Maybe you are too. I'm taking a one week long class entitled Training Local Church Leaders. To be honest, it is proving to must more difficult than I expected. So... 

I wanted to share with you an exert from one of my oral presentations. It is a little different than what you normally get from me on here. It's a lot more leadership focused. However, I believe that it will either challenge you to be a part of a healthy church body and or focus you on the call of all believers to make disciples for Christ! So read on...

 

The church's main goal is to glorify God. The church's mission is to make disciples (Mt. 28:19-20). The Scriptures are clear that in order for this to happen leaders are to equip others to understand and fulfill their role in the body of Christ. 

In The Leadership Baton, author Jeff Jones says, "If we evaluate pastors primarily on how well they are doing ministry as individuals, we are emphasizing the wrong criterion" (p.35). The goal of the pastor is to equip. It is imperative that leadership development remain (or become) a high priority for any congregational body and it's leaders, if they hope to be biblical and effective in their ministry. "Without leadership the church is unable to fulfill it's purposes of ministering effectively to those within and reaching those on the outside, nor can it render the glory to God that he deserves" (Pastoral Ministry, MacArthur, ch.17). An underdeveloped leadership within the context of the local church is a recipe for a direct contradiction of Paul's exhortation for a mature body of Christ. 

"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelist, the shepherds and teachers (pastors), to equip he saints for the work of ministry, for building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," (Eph. 4:11-13). 

It is the responsibility of all believers to make disciples. This is a biblical principle. The fact that we call ourselves Christians is synonymous with the identity of disciple-makers (PM, MacArthur). But pastors and leaders are to set an example and create a culture for developing leaders by realizing and fulfilling their calling to equip. Paul disciples Timothy to live by example when he says, 

"Let no one despise you (...) but set an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim. 4:12).

This exemplary discipline of leadership must be a part of every believer's heartbeat or DNA. It must be a part of the church's culture. "As [we] work to develop a culture of leadership development, remember that [we] will create in a church what[we] model" (Baton, p.35). It is understood that most churches have no intention strategy for developing leaders. Understanding that "Strategic thinkers determine the most important long-term goals, and then develop plans to reach those goals" (p.61), leads one to acknowledge thee need for alignment among those involved in leading. Often there is a common goal of discipleship with varying philosophies about of discipleship. This even happens in the context of a local church among leadership. It is the equivalent of a car being out of alignment. This of course is a recipe for disaster as well (thought borrowed from Simple Church, Eric Gieger). 

I suggest that the most effective to equip those following is to faithfully equip by example. This will lead to the Church becoming what Paul describes as one working properly, building itself up in love (Eph. 4:16). 

(end of exert)

It is my hope and prayer that this has been encouraging to you as you seek to live obediently to the call on all believer's lives to reach the world with the love of Christ and His Gospel! 

Blessings!

Why Pray?

I want to talk about prayer... I have recently had my attention directed to prayer by a lecture from Dr. Daniel Henderson. I humbly share these thoughts... 

Jesus said, "When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward" (Matt. 6:5).

He was discussing motive. What is my motive for praying? What is your motive for praying?

We pray for many reasons. Here are some that I have heard and lived out myself:

     - Guilt

     - Approval (from God and others)

     - Need

     - Crisis

     - For peace

There are many reasons we pray. Paul taught that we should "pray without ceasing"

(1 Thess. 5:17). We should. But what motivates us to do so? 

The problem with the above mentioned motives for prayer is that they cannot motivate us to "pray without ceasing." 

Most prayer times that I've been a part of center on this question... "Does anyone have any prayer request?" This question sparks what honestly is nothing more than gossip masqueraded as prayer! Even then it usually about physical things instead of Spiritual. Before we know it... we have spent 30 mins talking about each other's family members or people who have fallen into sin until we look at our watches and say "Well, it's getting late... we better pray." This is not what God intended for prayer. 

 A little further in Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus teaches what is commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer. I have heard the prayer described in categories such as:

Who God is - v.9

How we respond - v.10

What we need - v.11-12

Where do we go - v.13

or...

Reverence

Response 

Request

Readiness 

Why is it so easy to spend all of our time focused on request? I believe it is because we don't know how to pray. Prayer is an act of worship. God knows our questions and needs. He doesn't mind hearing them... but we should never neglect spending time worshiping God for who he is by constantly bringing our "grocery list prayer request before him." How selfish we are!

If our motive to pray is simply because we feel we must, or to be approved, or because we have a problem... then we are not truly men and women of prayer. 

Daniel Henderson said, "The only enduring motive for prayer is that God is WORTHY to be SOUGHT!" There is a difference in seeking God's face to know him and seeking God's hand for our needs. 

Prayer is worship. We were created to worship. Live it... 

Blessings    

Do You Know God?

For those who are checking this today... I thank you and I am so blessed that you are encouraged enough by this to check it without an email reminder. The only purpose I have in sharing this weekly devotional thought is to encourage and edify the body of Christ. I pray that what I share here will be completely saturated in God's Word. I pray that God will by His Spirit guard your heart from any error that may come from my understanding. I want to point you to God's Word. 

Do not substitute reading this blog post for the sanctifying truth that is the Scriptures. Be in the Word! We must spend time with God if we hope to know Him. God speaks to us through His Word. Right now I am reading through the gospels. You can find reading plans on websites like... 

www.biblegateway.com  

I was encouraged just yesterday by someone with the thought... 10, 10, 10

This means to spend 10 mins reading God's Word, 10 mins praying to God, and 10 mins listening to Him in quite solitude. This is a strategic way to spend 30 minutes with God. Do this everyday. I suggest that you do it in the morning... if you already do this...

try... 20, 20, 20! Keep growing! We can't know God without spending time with God! 

With this said... I want to ask for your forgiveness that I am not prepared to share a deeper devotional thought today. In a effort to only edify the body of Christ I will never post something that I have not spent enough time grasping myself. I pray that God will use this short message to encourage all who read it. Anything else would be a waste of time. 

Suggested Scripture Reading: Proverbs 3:5-6, 4:23

I plan to post a devotional for this week by Friday... I will send an email to those who I have an address. 

Blessings!

The Wonderful Cross

I once heard someone say, "Man... You can't have enough songs about the cross." One of my favorite songs about the cross is Chris Tomlin's "The Wonderful Cross." A part of the chorus is:

O the wonderful cross

O the wonderful cross

Bids me come and die 

and find that I... may truly live!

Listen to it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skxiHGj6lIU

When you think about the cross... does it seem wonderful to you? What makes the cross wonderful? It was horrible! It was cruel execution. So why can we say that the cross was beautiful? The cross itself was not beautiful. It was not wonderful. We can say that the cross is beautiful because of what Jesus did for us on the cross! 1 Jn 4:10 teaches us that because God loves us, Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. I believe we can sing "O the wonderful cross" because worship begins with the cross. 

When Jesus "breathed his last" on the cross... one of the centurion that had crucified him responded in this way... "And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God'" (Mk 15:39). 

This centurion responded to the death of Christ with worship! For him... it began at the foot of the cross. He heard the cries of the cross! My favorite way to define true worship is, "Our response to who God is and what God did for us on the cross." Worship is who we are. It is what we do. We are responding. But to who? 

Today is Ash Wednesday. Today begins what most refer to as Lent. It is the season leading up to Easter. I encourage you to observe this time in some way... not because we must but in remembrance of the cross. One way is to read through the gospel accounts in the New Testament. Check out www.biblegateway.com and look for reading plans. They have one for Lent. 

There is nothing more beautiful than the cross of Christ. Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13). In order to truly live as the song says... we must be "...crucified with Christ" (Gal 2:20). We must remember the cries of the cross! That is the gospel. That is wonderful. That is beautiful. 

Reflect on the cross as we approach Easter. Remember what Christ did for us. Gather with others to worship Him for what He has done. Celebrate His victory and His life! Worship Christ alone! We have reason to sing!!! This is our Lord... and He loves us. 

Blessings

Give Me Jesus

There is a song called Give Me Jesus by Fernando Ortega. The lyrics are...

In the morning when I rise

In the morning when I rise

In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus, 

Give me Jesus, 

You can have all this world, 

Give me Jesus

When I am alone

When I am alone

When I am alone, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus, 

Give me Jesus, 

You can have all this world, 

Give me Jesus

When I come to die

When I come to die

When I come to die, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus, 

Give me Jesus, 

You can have all this world, 

Give me Jesus

Please listen to and watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7INRn4LRrE&feature=related

Billy Graham has been a servant of Jesus Christ along with his wife Ruth for decades. His crusades have seen millions of people commit their lives to Christ! God has taken the surrendered hearts of this couple and used them to reach an entire world with the love of Christ and the power of the gospel! They were a great team. Its been said that every great spiritual leader or pastor has a great godly helper and partner by his side. Ruth Graham devoted her life to serving God and her husband and went home to be with the Lord in 2007. Together they raised five children to know Jesus! One among them being Franklin Graham who leads Samaritan's Purse and will be his father's successor.

Paul knew what it meant to live a life devoted to Christ! For Paul nothing was more important than Christ. 

1 Cor. 2:2 says, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." 

Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am sure that neither death not life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

It is all about him!!! Nothing else matters!

Jesus himself said, "... apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5). 

I try so many times to live my life without him. As a follower of Christ I should follow him! He alone is good. He alone is what I need. As the song says, "Give me Jesus... You can have all this world... You can have all this world... You can have all this world... but give me Jesus!!!"

He loves us! He died for us. Give me Jesus! "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13). Jesus then then says, "These things I command you so that you will love one another" (v.17). 

You see God is love (1 Jn 4:8). Love is not God but God is love. We sometimes get confused that we can love without God being our first love. This thinking could not be more insane. There are various types of love. Google the Greek words for love and read about them. We must remember that "love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God" (v.7). The greek word being used in this passage is agape. This is the same love that is described in 1 Cor 13. From this love all other forms of love are shared. Without it we cannot love. 

To keep Christ as our first agape (Rev 2:4) is to live a life of worship to our God!!! I love God because he first loved me. He saved my soul! He made me new. He is my Lover, my Savior, my Lord, my Friend and my Life. He is Jesus. 

Give me Jesus.  

Promotion or Devotion?

One of the most common Scriptures that I hear quoted is Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." It is a powerful, motivational and great claim to grab on to this truth! The concern I have is that most of the time I hear people quoting it they are speaking of "all things" in reference to their worldly ambitions. Is this you? Do you say, "I will get that promotion, or I will achieve this goal"? 

The word ambition comes from the Latin word meaning "campaigning for promotion." I have often thought of myself as an ambitious guy. When I was 18 I couldn't sleep one night thinking about what I was going to do with my life. The year before was the year of 9/11 when our towers fell because of terrorist's ambition. I got out of bed and researched online about the military. The next day I spoke with a recruiter. The next week I enlisted in the Marine Corp. I was very ambitious. I think I even remember saying, "I can do this through Christ who strengthens me." It is true that Christ could strengthen me to serve in our nations military but was he asking me to that or was I simply compelled by my own ambition? I've learned that the later is true. A year later God provided a way out of this commitment that I had made and through a series of events I ended up in my first ministry position as a youth pastor. 

The amazing thing to understand is that Paul was referring to living a life of being content without in any situation. Read vv.10-12 to see what I mean. Never single out a verse and claim it apart from it's context. 

Think of how this applies to a believer's service to the kingdom of God and the body of Christ. Are we really ready to be a servant as Christ was a servant. "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life..." (Mk 10:45). Oswald Chambers said, "It is one thing to follow God's way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a doormat under other people's feet" (Utmost for His Highest; Feb. 5th). Are we servants when in all circumstances or just the easy ones? I pray all! 

It is not wrong to want better. Ambition is no sin. The sin is in the heart of the ambitious. By what are we compelled? Promotion or devotion? J Oswald Sanders said, "Ambition which centers on the glory of God and welfare of the church is a mighty force for good" (Spiritual Leadership, p.13). Chambers asks, "Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted - not seeking to be ministered to but to minister?" (Feb. 5th).

It is this type of service Jesus was talking about when he said, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mt 16:24). I believe it is this type of servant who can truly cling to the proclamation "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). 

Blessings! 

Copyright: Jonathan Spencer, 2009.

    

What a Thought!!!

God is good! If we get that today then we've moved forward. 

Blessings.

My First Blog Post! Here I Come!

So... I think I'll blog.