Lessons from 2010

As this year is coming to a close, I look back over the year and see some distinct lessons which God has taught me this year. I would like to share them with you.

1. The necessity of planning priorities.

Before the start of 2010, God used several different sources to encourage me to plan based on my priorities. 1) Podcasts by Pastor Paul Chappell 2) Blog posts by Pastor Cary Schmidt and 3) Gordon MacDonald's book Ordering Your Private World. As one who has historically been a last-minute "by-the-seat-of-the-pants" planner, I can say that I've learned a lot about the value of planning ahead (even though I have a long way to go yet). It has greatly reduced family stress, increased productivity and brought about growth in several areas of ministry. I can say that God has changed me drastically here. I pray that I will continue to improve in 2011.

2. The priority of my walk with God.

Through these sources and my own experience, I have learned that the most important things

are the easiest to neglect and the least noticeable when they're neglected. I have noticed that

living in a fallen world means that the more important the priority, the less time it tends to get.

The more important it is, the more I have to work to fit it into my schedule. This applies to

my walk with God. Think about your time with God. Is it or is it not the easiest thing to neglect?

Is it not often the hardest thing to fit into your schedule?

The converse is true: The more menial a task, the more it screams for your attention when

it doesn't get done (eg. checking your e-mail/fb...fill in the blank for what distracts you).

I have learned that at times I have to consciously ignore good things that aren't the best

(eg. momentarily ignoring the mess because I only have so much time to spend with God).

Along with learning this truth has been the realization that decisions to take on good, noble

goals or activities need to be weighed in light of whether it will overcrowd my schedule.

3. The priority of family responsibilities.

Just as time with God is the most important, my responsibility to my family comes next.

This is another one of those areas that is easy to ignore. I think Gordon MacDonald nails it when he points out in his book that the more public an activity is, the more we tend to give it attention. This fault especially gets those of us who are in ministry. We have many good pursuits that are God-ordained for our lives, but, if we are not careful, we ignore the pursuits that are more private in order to excel at what is more visible. We neglect time with our spouse and justify it by the need for "perfection" in our public ministry. If we continue down this path of family neglect, the more public ministry will end in ruin. The private life is definitely of more foundational value to our effectiveness as ministers.

4. The value of the church

God has blessed me in incredible ways this year through His church. I am thankful to be a part of a good church as well as to know many believers in other churches who love God and His message. Thank God for the blessing of fellow believers!

God has given Candy and me blessed ministry working with the musicians of Eastside as well as the young single adult ministry. God tremendously blessed the music ministry this year, with the climax being His great work through the Christmas program Silent Wonder. How amazing to see so many people come together in order to "Make Much of Jesus."

We have grown in our love for Eastside's singles group and have also been blessed to meet with the singles groups of several other churches through Cross Connect. They are truly a blessing to spend time with and have taught us much. We look forward to what God will do in 2011!

5. The truth that everything in my life flows out of the Gospel of Christ.

As the year has progressed, I have been more and more convinced that everything in my Christian life should be motivated by a dependence on Christ's death, burial, resurrection and intercession at the Father's right hand. Anything less leads to pharisaical, self-righteous religious living. A gospel-dependent life is a thankful, humble, loving, fulfilled life. A self-dependent religious life is a proud, ungrateful, self-centered, empty life which is unattractive to God, believers and the unsaved world. The gospel needs to be embraced and accepted afresh and anew by Christians as the very source of life for every moment of the Christian life.

6. The need for compassion towards others' physical needs.

As with each of the preceding lessons, I am seeking to grow in grace in this area, yet in this one my selfishness is very persistent. Suffice it to say that I see in my own life a selfishness which tends to take care of my own, my family's needs, and the needs of the ministries I oversee, but doesn't like looking much further. I trust God's grace will continue to teach me in this area.

I praise God for teaching me. His work in my heart this year has been satisfying and refreshing. Truly "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." Ps. 16:11b

I could go on, and I may in another post. What about you? What has God taught you this year? I would love to hear!

Private Worship

"But I will sing of thy power; yea I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble." Psalm 59:16

I am so thankful for the opportunity I have every week to join together with other believers to worship the Lord at His house. Each week I get to sing, give, and hear preaching because of and for my great God. When I come to public worship, I come to a gathering of believers whose lives have been changed by Jesus Christ, and I come for the purpose of joining them in pointing every thought to the One who alone is worthy of praise.

But, unfortunately, sometimes I can come to church empty. For one reason or another, when I sing, listen to the preaching, or give to the Lord, if I'm not careful, I do it out of a heart of duty or outward constraint, not from the overflow of a heart that is amazed by the greatness and goodness of my God.

When I do this, sometimes it is because of a lack of personal, private worship. This of course is not the only reason. Sometimes I am just plain distracted. But many times the problem in public worship is the absence of private worship. You or I come to a church service with hearts that are empty and haven't gazed upon our God through private devotions in a long time. We come to perform acts that are merely outward, not motivated by an inward desire to give honor to the One whose character has personally affected us.

Singing about God's greatness without having seen it personally is like me telling someone about how awesome the pyramids are to see in person, when I've never gone to Egypt to see them. I've seen pictures. I know that they are there, but I've never experienced their grandeur in person.

On the other hand, I've been to the grand canyon. I've seen its deep bottom, and driven along its expansive lengths. I've seen it's beautiful color. Let me tell you, pictures don't do it justice! You've never truly experienced the Grand Canyon until you've been there yourself!

That's how it is in the Christian life. Have you personally gazed upon God's holiness, His love, His grace, His justice, or His mercy today, this week, this month, or even this year? Is there a hollowness in your heart because you haven't personally spent time with Him? If we seek to do before men what we haven't done before God, we are like hollow robots trying to do something that doesn't truly flow from our hearts.

Do you hear about God and think it's boring? Do you hear the Word preached and wonder why the preacher is so excited about the truth he's preaching but don't understand how it applies to you? Do you struggle to praise Him? Do you simply endure church? Then the most important question you can ask yourself is, "Have I seen Him personally for myself?" Have you seen His majesty in your quiet time? Have you felt His voice calm your burdened heart with His loving Words? Have you privately stood in awe of this grace that would stoop down to redeem defiant sinners like you and me? Have you gazed at your God privately?

Sincere public worship always follows private worship. If you are struggling with just "doing church," spend some time looking at His character in the Psalms. Stand in awe of who He is. Take a truth that reveals His character and spend time thinking about that truth, and turn the truth into praise from your heart to Him. Allow God's character to change you. It will change your public worship.

The Neglected Place of Prayer

"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." Jeremiah 33:3

Prayer, along with God's Word, is the most effective weapon against Satan, but it is the most neglected. It is the most neglected because it is the least tangible. It takes the most faith.

We like to be doing things because we can see the actions and results. There is something within us (the flesh) that resists the stillness of prayer. We can justify being busy with our jobs, cleaning the house, studying for sermons, mowing the lawn, but prayer sets all of that aside, steps aside from the temporal world, and wages the battle in the spiritual realm. It's hard to do because it's hard to see. Many times, the moment we find a quiet place for prayer, everything we have to do that day floods into our minds and distracts us from focusing on our Lord. All of our "obligations" crowd out the priority that prayer should have in our lives.

Paul said, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). The Christian life is a life of faith. When we pray, because we can't always see the results, we are walking in faith. We are being obedient to our Lord. We don't see the results many times, because they are spiritual, and the unseen-spiritual results are eternal. We are actually doing that which will have the most lasting impact!

The truth is that prayer and God's Word are the highest obligation. One's relationship with God is at the core of everything else that he does. Without a proper walk with God, all of life's activities take on an emptiness that only accentuates our problems. We constantly work at getting ahead in our work, yet we only get further behind, because life's work is never done! We were made to live our lives while walking with God.

May we make it a priority to spend time in God's Word and in prayer. Don't neglect prayer. Don't justify skipping it with the "I'm to busy" excuse. Make it a priority today!