Jim Collins has great advice for leaders: When things are going well, look out the window (at your people); when things aren’t going well, look in the mirror (at yourself). This is as true for business CEOs as it is for pastors.
Pastor, you leak.
I leak.
We all leak.
It’s impossible to just maintain where we are. There needs to be a constant refreshing, a constant refilling. We need to keep learning, keep changing, keep renewing. If we don’t, well, this is how Oswald Chambers described it—
“If you are in a position of authority and people are not obeying you, the greatest heart-searching you can have is the realization that the blame does not lie with them, but with you; there is always leakage going on spiritually. Get right with God yourself, and every other one will get in touch with God through you.” (my emphasis)
Pastor, don’t wait: Look in the mirror today, get right with God, replenish what’s leaked out of you, and then watch to see how others in your congregation will begin to move toward God themselves.
“I am afraid of the pastor that is another man when he enters the pulpit from what he was before. Reverend, you should never think a thought or do a deed or be caught in any situation that you couldn’t carry into the pulpit with you without embarrassment. You should never have to be a different man or get a new voice and a new sense of solemnity when you enter the pulpit. You should be able to enter the pulpit with the same spirit and the same sense of reverence that you had just before when you were talking to someone about the common affairs of life.” —A.W. Tozer
My dear fellow pastor, your congregation wants a pastor-shepherd who is authentic, not plastic. One who is real and approachable, not high-and-mighty. One who is a tour guide on the journey with them, not a travel agent that stays behind. One who is the same in the pulpit, in the restaurant, on the ball field, in the “unguarded” moments.
UPDATE: I elaborate much more on this in my book especially for pastors and church leaders called Shepherd Leadership.
This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.
Our Father
Think for one minute, have you behaved today as though God were your Father or have you to hang your head in absolute shame before Him for the miserable, mean, unworthy thoughts you have had about your life?
It all springs from one thing, you have lost hold of the idea that God is your Father. Some of us are such fussy, busy people, refusing to look up and realize the tremendous revelation in Jesus Christ’s words—“Your heavenly Father knows what you need….”
From He Shall Glorify Me
What an amazing thought that when Jesus taught us to pray, He said we could address Almighty God with the affectionate title of “Our Father.” In his book Who Do You Think You Are?, Mark Driscoll points out:
“In the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, God is referred to only as Father roughly fourteen times—and each time it’s impersonally, in reference to the nation of Israel, not to individuals. Everything radically changed with Jesus. He spoke of God as Father more than sixty times in the New Testament.”
Your heavenly Father loves you more than you can possibly imagine! Let that truth sink in. Don’t give in to the thoughts that your life is not very valuable, or even that God doesn’t like you very much.
God loves you as if you were the only person on earth to love!And He sent Jesus to earth to make it possible for you to be adopted into His family, to call Him Father. Even more than that, to call Him “Daddy God” (see Romans 8:15-17).
This morning I shared this quote from Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola’s book Jesus: A Theography—
“When Jesus said to satan, ‘Get behind Me,’ He was acknowledging that we all live with the devil. We cannot escape evil on this earth. But as long as we are in front and he is behind us, we are protected. The devil ought not be in our line of vision but in our shadow.”
It reminds me of the old song:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace
Stop looking at that loser named satan! Stop listening to the one who’s been defeated and whose fate is already sealed! Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus! Keep your ears tuned into His voice!
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)
Jesus says: I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. (Revelation 1:18)
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)
A friend of mine gave me some solid counsel a number of years ago that has always stuck with me: The mark of a maturing Christian is one who is closing the gap between sin and repentance.
Sin is open treason against God. Why would I want to overlook it or excuse it?! Once I recognize it as sin, why would I want to hold on to it?!
If we freely admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins—dismiss our lawlessness—and continuously cleanse us from all unrighteousness—everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action. (1 John 1:9 AMPC)
“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
May we all take the time to reflect on our words and actions to see if we have sinned, and then to quickly confess that sin and ask for our loving God’s forgiveness.
“If my soul has turned perversely to the dark;
If I have left some brother wounded by the way;
If I have preferred my aims to Yours;
If I have been impatient and would not wait;
If I have marred the pattern drawn out for my life;
My dear fellow pastor, we should all heed these words—
“…If some preachers would refrain from rhetoric and tell their plain unvarnished tale, they would succeed better than they do now. Do you think that God meant his ministers to kill themselves in order come out on Sundays with one or two splendid displays of ‘intellect’ and eloquence? Surely this is not God’s way of doing things. I do not believe that Paul ever preached a fine sermon, or that Peter ever dreamed of any display of intellect. I asked the other day of one who had heard a sermon if it was likely that sinners would be converted by it. He said, ‘Oh no; by no means; but it was an intellectual treat.’ Is there anywhere in the Bible a word about intellectual treats, or anything approximating to such an idea?” —Charles Spurgeon
I’m not sure I can add much to this advice from the “prince of preachers” except to say, preach to glorify God, not to impress your earthly audience. Jesus said if we would lift Him up, He will draw everyone to Himself.
This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.
Venting In Prayer
When you are worked up to a pitch emotionally, read some of the Psalms, and the Spirit of God will gradually teach you how to form a spiritual nous*, a mind whereby you will not only understand but will slowly and surely get to the place where you can express your spirit, you will have a totally new language.
* To read what Chambers means by the Greek word nous,click here.
Sometimes we’re too timid in our prayers. We think we need to hold back, or not really say what’s on our mind. We probably think that some of the language we use might be too offensive for God’s ears.
Have you ever read some of the Psalms? As Oswald Chambers suggests, this is a great place to form your prayer vocabulary. David really “lets loose” in some of his prayers, calling his enemies all sorts of names, and basically saying, “Get ‘em, God!”
So you don’t want to say those kinds of things to God? Don’t you think He already knows what you’re thinking? Wouldn’t it be much more effective to “vent” in prayer—in the safe presence of your loving Heavenly Father? It’s really only after you “get it out” that the Holy Spirit can help you work it out.
Express yourself—vent in God’s presence instead of the presence of those who are troubling you—and then listen to how God’s Spirit will help you slowly and surely get a brand new perspective on your situation.
UPDATE: I have a whole chapter called ‘Your Emergency Release Valve’ about these types of prayers in my book When Sheep Bite.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Have you ever experienced this? You are certain that God has spoken to you. You’ve launched out in obedience, things are sailing along smoothly, and then <wham!> a storm threatens to swamp you. And you begin to second-guess what you thought God said to you. You begin to wonder if perhaps you misunderstood the directions God spoke: “Did God send me into this?!”
Ever been there?
The disciples of Jesus must have felt that way. Jesus says, “Let’s get into the boat and head over to the other side of the lake.” The disciples obeyed Jesus only to have a huge storm come crashing down on them, to the point that their boat was about to be swamped (see Luke 8:22-25).
What were they thinking then? What would you have been thinking? Perhaps you might have thought, “Did I miss something God said?”
I love this thought from Oswald Chambers—
You say, “If I had not obeyed Jesus I should not have got into this complication.” Exactly. The problems in our walk with God are to be accounted for along this line, and the temptation is to say, “God could have never told me to go there, if He had done so this would not have happened.” We discover then whether we are going to trust God’s integrity or listen to our own expressed skepticism.
God knows what He’s doing. He knows what He needs to accomplish.
Too many times I get focused on the destination, while God is focusing on the process. I often will learn more about my faith, and about the power and faithfulness and love of my God, during these storms than I will in an incident-free journey.
If you are on a journey on which God sent you and your boat’s rocking, don’t second-guess what God said. Keep your eyes on Jesus, and watch to see what He’s developing in you during your stormy trip.
“The one Jesus that skeptics refuse to tolerate is a uniquely divine, miraculous, prophesy-fulfilling, and resurrected Jesus—even if the evidence points persuasively in that direction. After all, that would put them in the place of being beholden to Him. Their personal sovereignty and moral independence would be at risk. The problem is: that’s the real Jesus.” —Lee Strobel
Jesus was crucified. He was in the grave for three days. Then God raised Him from the dead, fulfilling everything that had been prophesied about Him! That’s the real Jesus!
But those who don’t want to acknowledge those facts have concocted all sorts of conspiracy theories as to His death and resurrection.
On Easter morning, Calvary Assembly of God will be presenting an original drama called Conspiracy! to tackle these conspiracies head-on. The cast of characters is interesting, the dialogue is witty and fast-moving, so this will be a very memorable morning!
Cost: FREE but we suggest you get a ticket to make sure you have a seat. You can reserve your spot by clicking here and emailing your ticket request to me.
A delicious breakfast + some uplifting music + a memorable drama = a great morning learning about the risen Jesus. Please don’t miss it!
We are taking a practical look at the incredible definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13. We’re doing this in the context of learning how to love the “unloveable”—or maybe I should say, loving those who are the most resistant to real love. If we can show them love, how much more will the love of Jesus be seen!
All of these verbs are present tense verbs. That means they aren’t exhausted in the past, and they aren’t waiting for future conditions to improve—they are in operation NOW.
Far too many people know Christians more by what we’re against than by what we’re for. So where the biblical text say “love does not” or “love isn’t,” I’ve changed it into the positive “love is.”
You can read about the first five attributes love love by clicking here.
The next five attributes are:
Love is graceful
The root word means something that should be covered up, or something we’re ashamed of. Because our words and actions are graceful, they are things we wouldn’t have to defend, or explain, or apologize for later. They are words and actions that wouldn’t embarrass us.
“Agape will do nothing that misbecomes it.” —Matthew Henry
Love knows our relationship > my rights
True love “does not demand its own way” (New Living Translation) nor does it “insist on its own rights” (Amplified Bible). Instead it always seeks ways that the relationship can be repaired or enhanced, even if that means giving up something I consider to be “my right.”
NOTE: I’m not saying that you become a doormat. This is not a license for someone to abuse you, but it is a call for us to balance our responses. Romans 12:18 says as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
The Amplified Bible says it well: love isnot touchy or fretful or resentful.
This Greek word means not getting stirred up or exasperated. So we need to lighten up!
There are some places where we’ve become too sensitive, too touchy, too short-fused. The fire of hurt has replaced the fire of love. So Matthew Henry advises us: “Where the fire of love is kept in, the flames of wrath will not easily kindle, nor long keep burning.”
Love is forgiving
The New International Version says lovekeeps no record of wrongs.
This Greek phrase speaks of an accountant tallying up the hurts (where there is an overdrawn account), seeing there is a debt to be paid back, and then appointing himself as the bill collector. True love cancels those IOUs.
We don’t forgive others because they deserve forgiveness, but we forgive others because we received forgiveness from God that we did not deserve!
For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (Matthew 6:14 AMP)
Love is God-honoring
Agape loves what God loves and hates what God hates.
Agape loves when people find God’s truth, and hates anything that blocks that pursuit.
Agape loves the sinner and hates the sin.
“The sins of others are the grief of an agape spirit [not] its sport or delight; they will touch it to the quick….” —Matthew Henry
Here’s where the real test comes in: How will you apply these attributes of love to someone in your life? More specifically: to someone you think is “unloveable”?
I know you have someone in your life that you think is unloveable. With that person’s face clearly in mind, how will you fill in the blanks:
I can be graceful in…
I can give up my right to…
I need to lighten up in this area…
I must forgive them for…
I need to pray for a breakthrough in…
If you would like a downloadable PDF of this worksheet, click here –> Love is… worksheet 2
Jim Collins has great advice for leaders: When things are going well, look out the window (at your people); when things aren’t going well, look in the mirror (at yourself). This is as true for business CEOs as it is for pastors.
Craig T. Owens 