Where is your focus?

"I have set the Lord continually before me, because he is at my right hand I will not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad, my tongue rejoices and my flesh will rest secure." Psalm 16:8-9

"It’s a proven reality that we are drawn toward whatever our eyes are fixed on. In time, our fixation becomes our reality." Louie Giglio.

Today, what will you choose to be your focus?  Will you choose to focus on your past failures?  Will you choose to let the condemning voices of your past determine your future?  Today make a choice to focus on Jesus.

Sadly many of us choose to focus on our current problems?  Maybe your marriage is in trouble, or maybe it's your finances.  Your current problems become so overwhelming they steal your attention.  Your mind is filled with anxious thoughts by your problems.  They captivate your focus. But today you can choose to focus on Jesus.

Jesus is bigger than any problem you face.  He has paid the price to set you free from the bondage and penalty of sin. Today will you focus on him and be set free?

Faith

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. (Mark 11:22 NIV)

I do not doubt that God has full authority in heaven. Nor do I doubt that God has full authority on Earth. I think the scriptures are very clear about this.  The context of this verse Jesus tells his disciples to have faith and by having faith they can speak and mountains will move.

Jack Hayford has great insight about this type of faith:

"The issue of faith is never founded on our ability to “move the mountain,” but faith in the Mountain maker. Visualizing a victory or working up a “feeling” of faith is a pathetic human attempt to get something to happen. Real faith lays hold of the Faith-giver (Eph. 2:8), who holds all power for every need, and trusts Him to answer our prayer as He promised He would do. As faith-challenging situations rise, turn to the Lord. He is waiting for you to call upon Him." (Jack Hayford)

Mountains (obstacles, struggles, sin, etc) in our life remain where they are because our faith is in our faith?  Jesus tells us not to doubt but I do not think the picture here is that we purge our minds of doubt and only through that purging will mountains move.  I have heard people mourn the fact that a loved one has died from a horrible disease because they themselves did not have enough faith for God to heal them.  Such thinking reminds me of Christopher Reeve's role as Richard Collier in the 1980 film 'Somewhere in Time'.  In the movie Collier is able to travel back in time through self hypnosis to meet his true love.  Collier locks himself in a room where he removes everything modern and replaces it with items that are period specific for his time travel.  It works until a single moment of doubt (Collier finds a penny in his pocket dated from the future) brings him back to his original time period.  Collier losses his true love because he was unable to remove all doubt that he was really from a different time period.

I do not think Jesus is telling his disciples (or us) that we can see the obstacles of our lives removed only if we discipline our minds to the point we remove all doubt.  I think the answer is in verse 24 where Jesus connects faith with prayer.  The evidence of mountain moving faith is connected to prayer.

I pray because I realize that my source of mountain moving power is not in me, but in God.  Prayer is my willingness to say 'God I need you in my life', 'God I want you in my life'.

Prayer is the faith moment when I believe that God has all authority in heaven, earth and over the mountains in my life.

What if...? (pt. 2)

In a previous blog I wrote about how God was shifting my thinking from the question "God what do you want to do in my life and in Grace Church" to "God what do you want to do in Ventura."  The new question has several challenges for me.  The first challenge I talked about shifting my vision from several people to well over 100,000 people and the need to trust God and not my resources.  Today I want to write about the second reason.

The second reason penetrates a little deeper into my thinking.  If the primary questions shifts from, "God what do you want to do in the church" to "God what do you want to do in the city"; then my thinking has to shift.  I can not afford to spend my time thinking how to develop programs to grab peoples attention.  I have to stop thinking in the attractional model.  I have to let go of my obsession of trying to build an empire.  Instead I need to start thinking of being a part of the Kingdom.  I have been called to be a part of the Kingdom not an empire.  This means I have to think differently about the talents, gifts, and resources God has entrusted to me.  The talents, gifts, and resources are not intended for ministry to fellow believers but to all the unbelievers as well.  What I believe God is saying is that I am to invest, with intentionality, into the lives of those in our city.  This intentionality is to see the Kingdom of God expanded.

However the truth is I have been trained to think empire.  The truth is at the heart of building an empire is a strategy to develop a ministry plan that is better than what other churches are offering.  No matter what we tell ourselves the reality is when we think empire building the competition is other churches.

I have never seen a city where a church that grew to become a large church has not done so by attracting members from other churches in the city.  In other words the larger churches are built, at least at some degree, at the expense of the smaller churches.  As long as I continue to promote this process the churches in any city will always see sister churches as the competition.

What if my thinking were to change.  What if I invested my time and my resources into my neighbors life and they became a follower of Jesus yet chose to attend another church, would I be ok with that?  What if my thinking changed to believing people coming into the kingdom and choosing to attend another church should be celebrated as a win not mourned as a loss.   Just thought of this. . ., how cool would it be if once a year every church in the city celebrated each others baptisms for that year.  Celebrate anyone giving their life to Jesus is a win for the Kingdom and therefore a win for all of us.  In Kingdom thinking the competition is not sister churches but the kingdom of darkness.  Therefore when one of the sister churches of Ventura wins, Grace Church wins, God wins.  What if my thinking were to change from a limited vision of the four corners of a building to the four corners of a city or indeed the world?...

What if?

What if....? An important question. (pt. 1)

Recently God has been speaking to me about purpose. Now this is not a new subject that God has brought to my attention. For years the purpose God has for my life and the church I pastor has been constantly before me. I have tried to fully understand his purpose and then live my life accordingly. To accomplish this my prayer has been "God what do you want to do in my life and in Grace church". Recently God is showing me that it is time to ask the question differently. The question today is "God what do you want to do in Ventura".

The question is different for me in several reasons.  Frist, and most obvious, reasons is that my thinking has shifted from a limited view of a few people to over 100,000.  In considering this question I have asked myself do I really believe that God wants to use me to work in the lives of over 100,000 people?  That is a hard question because I do believe that God wants to work in Ventura, but I am not sure He wants to use me.  Our church does not have the resources of some the larger churches in town.  So I comfortably conclude "Surely God wants to use the larger churches to reach our city, after all they have the resources."  There it was!  The crux of my unbelief.  My faith is in the resources of man, and not in God.  My mind immediately went to different Bible passages that teach of trusting in God as opposed to what man deems important.  I think of David and his battle with Goliath where God requested David to trust him with a rock and a sling to defeat the giant, or Joshua at the battle of Jericho where God requested Joshua to trust Him with a choir to bring down the mighty walls of the city, or Jesus taking unschooled ordinary men to trust Him and they would help change the world.

What if I decided to trust God?  What if I decided to believe God that He can use me to help reach Ventura?  What if what God has already deposited into Grace Church is exactly what God needs to reach this city?  What if I were to stop trusting in the resources and abilities of men (me), and start trusting in God?  What if I had kingdom thinking, then instead of a few rocks I would see a giant killing weapons?  What if instead of seeing a few voices singing I would see hearts filled with praise that will bring down walls of separation in our city?  What if instead of seeing ordinary men I would see that God can change our city as we surrender to Him?

What would you see if your thinking were to shift from the limited to the limitless possibilities of God?

What if...?

(to be continued)

"IN" vs. "OF" this World

11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13 "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. (John 17:11-16)

Jesus taught us that the Christian life is both here and not here. We are to live "IN" this world but we are not to be "OF" this world. The missional life understands this contrast.


When I live "IN" this world I keep my priorities straight.  I understand that I was not created for the pleasures and achievements of this world.  So instead of pursing possessions, positions, power, etc. I pursue God.  When I live in this world I daily surrender myself to what God desires to do in me and through me.  Surrendering myself to God keeps me from substituting my plans for God's plans.  Everyday God asks me to surrender my plans, my hurts, my hangups to him.  When I am willing to do this the priorities of my life change.  I no longer believe that my happiness or fulfillment is found in the things "OF" this world.  It is like the old hymn states when we turn our eyes upon Jesus, "the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace".


But living in the world is not only about surrendering my stuff to God it also includes being a part of God's working.  God invites us to be a part of what He is doing in this world.  Simply God is on a mission to redeem the lost world to Himself.  The material things that we value and collect are, at best, tools God uses to carry out his mission.  Think about your job, your neighborhood, or your circle of friends.  Those things are not there to serve you, but simply venues to a greater mission.  The people that I encounter everyday God seeks to bring them into His kingdom.  To be "IN" the world is to join God in his mission.


However; if I am "OF" the world then possessions, positions, power become the ends.  In other words I live my life so that I may keep what I have or to gather more.  In this affluent Christian society the line between the two becomes very blurred.

My observation is that most of christian teaching seeks to tell us how to "not be of this world" with little emphasis on how to "live in this world".  What I mean is we (and I am included in the we) seem to emphasis our teaching on what we should not do.  I do not think there is necessarily anything wrong with this teaching, but I do think there needs to be more emphasis on how to live "IN" the world. Missional followers learn how to live in the world without being distracted by the trappings of being of this world.

A New Year

A new year always seems to bring a promise of hope.  The new year marks a new beginning.  Maybe a chance to correct some mistakes.  In any event this is the time of year when we make promises to ourselves that we want to be a better person.  So we make resolutions in an attempt to better our lives.  I do not think I have ever heard someone make a resolution to be more lazy, self-centered, stingy, etc. . . (well maybe I have heard such resolutions but I was only joking about it).

Often we find it hard to keep resolutions to be a better person.  They begin with such hope and promise but soon we find that we are back to our old ways.  I think I have made the same resolution for the past 15 years.  We have great intentions to lose weight, read our Bible more, to save money, to spend more time with family but after a few months we discover that it is business as usual.  We find that we want to do the right thing but we don't do it, or that we want to stop doing the wrong thing, but we keep doing it.  This can be a frustrating dilemma.  It is the same struggle that Paul wrote about in Romans 7.  Paul discovered the answer to the dilemma is found Jesus Christ.

The Bible is the story of God's redemption of humanity.  It is the story of second chances and hope.  It is the story that opens the door to anyone who seeks to have a new beginning.  The word redemption means to be set free by the payment of a price.  Because Jesus died on a cross for our sins his blood paid the price for our freedom.  Jesus paid the price for our second chance.

The story of God's redemption is more than a resolution, it is a transformation.  The reason that resolutions fail is because will power alone is not enough to cause us to do the right things. . . to be a better person.  What we need is God's power in our lives to transform us.  God's transforming power comes to us in our intimate relationship with Him.  It is through this relationship with Jesus that He begins to transform us into the person He wants us to be.  In fact the Bible goes so far as to identify us as new creations in Christ.  WOW!  God's plan is to make me into a new creation.  I think this is much better than attempting to add a few good things in my life through resolutions.  I begin this journey of transformation through confession and surrender.

Father I confess that I have not lived in a manner that you have called me to live.  There are things that you desire to do differently in my life and I ask that you would transform me.  I surrender my life to you and ask you to use this life for your Kingdom in 2011.

Interruptions

"We interrupt this broadcast . . ."  That means something significant has happened and we should stop what we are doing and pay attention.

Often God interrupts my day and when He does I have no choice but to stop what I am doing and listen to what He has to say. Well I do have a choice but once God interrupts us can we really choose to ignore Him?  I mean if I call Him Lord does that not mean that He can and should interrupt my day and expect me to stop what I am doing and listen to what He has to say!  Think about it.  How silly is to call Him Lord and when He interrupts we tell Him 'hold on', or worse 'no'.  I have heard Charles Stanley say (and correctly I might add) "you kaint (southern for can not) call him Lord and say no.  To call him Lord is to say yes."

Anyway back to the interruption.  I have been asking God for the past four years, "God what do you want Grace Church to look like?"  I believe it is important that as a church we follow God's agenda and not our own.  Admittedly the struggle is distinguishing between our agenda and God's agenda.  I find that often we like to project upon God the things about church we like, because after all surely God likes the things we like.  The Holy Spirit spoke to me that the question I have been asking is not broad enough nor does it fully reflect his heart.  The better question is, "God what do you want Ventura to look like?"

Now I am still trying to unpack the full meaning between the two questions, but so far here is what I have.

1. The first questions is inward focused on Grace, the second question is outward focused on Ventura.  This means that the first questions seeks to address the issues (good or bad) inside the church where as the second seeks to address issues in the city. It is hard to be salt and light to Ventura if the focus is inward.
2. The first question seeks to maintain what we are, the second question seeks to influence the city.  What I know about churches as a system is that churches are currently producing exactly what the system of the church is designed to produce.  It does not matter what we 'say' we want to produce, the system will produce what it produced yesterday.  Another way of saying this is that churches will continue to produce what they are currently producing unless there is an intentional intervention into the system of the church. As long as our question is, "God what do you want Grace Church to look like" we will continue to be what we were yesterday.  However by asking the question, "God what do you want Ventura to look like" the system of the church is being changed to produce something different.  This leads me to my third observation.
3. The first question often leads to competition, the second opens up the kingdom.  In a previous blog I mentioned my conversation with Kevin where we talked about how churches often get caught up competing with each other by having the best programs in the city.  The focus is on building a better or just as good a church as the one we seek to model.  The second question focuses on influence.  How can we as a church influence the people who live in Ventura to be open to the transforming power of the gospel?  How can I as a follower of Christ be the hands and feet of Jesus to those who live in Ventura?  How can I love them so that it opens their eyes to the great love the Father has for them.

What all this boils down to is that God is showing me how to be missional.  I am learning that being missional is not an event or project but a way of life.  Being missional is a lifestyle!  God is calling me, dare I say He is calling each of us, to be missional.  I find this troublesome because it means that I and the church can not continue to be what it has been in the past.  

I wonder what would you be willing to do today that would allow someone else to know that you love them because Jesus loves them.  I hope you have found this interruption as troublesome as me.

". . . let's never return to our regularly scheduled programs."