Devotion #4 - November 2005 (just in time)

TGIF Today God Is First
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by Os Hillman, November 30, 2005

Obedience-Based Decisions

We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him. - Acts 5:32

So often we as a society equate numbers with success. The larger the conference, the more successful we deem it. The larger a church, the more we believe that God is blessing. And so on. I recall planning a conference one time. Registrations were not where I felt they needed to be a few weeks before the date of the event. It wasn't long before I began to get "under the pile" about the level of attendance.

My friend, who was organizing this conference with me, called and asked how I was doing. I had to confess where I was. He immediately reminded me of my own teaching in this area. We are all called to be led by the Spirit, not by outcomes. "If God called us to put on this conference, then the outcome is up to Him if we have done our part."

He went on to explain how he learned this lesson in a similar way a few years earlier. He and a friend were led to host a Bible study group. His friend was to speak. It was nine o'clock and they were the only two people there. His friend was discouraged and was ready to leave. "No," said my friend. "We have done what the Holy Spirit directed." Hethen stood up and began to welcome people as though there were many in the room. (No one was in the room.) He introduced his friend and they began the meeting. A few minutes later, people began to straggle in. By the time the meeting was over, ten had shown up, and one man in particular was impacted by the meeting.

Being led by the Spirit often means we must not use the world's standard for success as our measuring stick. You never know what an act of obedience will yield at the time. We must leave results to God. Our role is to obey. His role is to bring results from our obedience.

Do you make decisions based on the potential outcome or by the direction of the Holy Spirit in your life? Do you overly evaluate the pros and cons without consideration to what the Holy Spirit might be saying deep inside?

We are all prone to make decisions based on reasoning alone. Ask God to give you a willingness and ability to hear the Holy Spirit and to obey His promptings.

The Business of the Kingdom

http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/1999/november15/9td042.html

Excerpts (you really need to read the whole thing - especially the last half):

Management is about people:

All managers do the same things, whatever the purpose of their organization. All of them have to bring people each possessing different knowledge together for joint performance. All of them have to make human strengths productive in performance and human weaknesses irrelevant. All of them have to think through what results are wanted in the organization and have then to define objectives.

Management by objectives is a management style identified with Drucker. Sometimes, unfortunately, the phrase has come to mean something quite different than Drucker intended. For some, management by objectives means setting targets and insisting that your staff meet them. It can stand for a relentless bottom-line mentality.

That is almost the opposite of Drucker's idea. Drucker calls for the worker, together with his boss, to develop meaningful objectives based on a thorough understanding of the work. Meaningful objectives begin with the mission of the organization and require much thought and understanding of the unique contribution a worker can make to that mission.

Management by objectives means giving workers autonomy helping them to set goals and freeing them to find their own way to reach those goals. This is quite different from supervision, in which a manager sets goals, tells the worker how to achieve them, and then keeps a close eye on the worker to see that he follows directions. Management by objectives expects a lot of creativity from workers and offers them considerable dignity.

A manager, whether in a ball-bearing manufacturer or in a large church, should spend hours placing people in the job to match their strengths, helping them to define their objectives, finding the resources they need to work effectively. Management is largely about people, not so much about their feelings as their effectiveness. Drucker's unstated assumption is that the best thing you can offer a person is the chance to contribute to a worthwhile cause.

Organizations exist to meet needs:

Drucker's understanding of business is also humane. He has never accepted profit as a goal for any enterprise. Rather, profit is a necessity for without an adequate margin of profit, business cannot survive, or if it survives, cannot grow and innovate. Profit is always a means to an end, never an end.

Nor does business, in Drucker's mind, exist to make and sell things. Business exists to meet human needs. Drucker's starting place for management is very simple but also very stimulating: you have to define what needs you will meet, and how.

One of Drucker's examples is the emergency room of a hospital. "It took us a long time to come up with the very simple and (most people thought) too obvious statement that the emergency room was there to give assurance to the afflicted . In a good emergency room, the function is to tell eight out of ten people there is nothing wrong that a good night's sleep won't take care of. Translating that mission statement into action meant that everybody who comes in is now seen by a qualified person in less than a minute. That is the mission; that is the goal. The rest is implementation. Some people are immediately rushed to intensive care, others get a lot of tests, and yet others are told: 'Go back home, go to sleep, take an aspirin, and don't worry. If these things persist, see a physician tomorrow.' But the first objective is to see everybody, almost immediately because that is the only way to give assurance."

Coach's Pep Talk

(Article from ChristianityToday.com

http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2005/cln51114.html)

Leader's Insight: Get Back in the Game!A halftime speech to a tired teammate.
by Clark Cothern, guest columnist

To my fellow teammate in the great contest:

Encouragement is my thing. Admonishment isn't. I'd rather be with the team, bolstering confidence and rooting them to victory, than in the locker room at halftime, screaming at them to get their act together, pointing out what I'm quite sure they already know that they're doing wrong.

That's why I usually go in for practical pats on the back, and why I shy away from spiritual coaching that turns out sounding like a rebuke or a reprimand. I try to imitate one of my favorite coaches of all time, Paul.

Paul followed pretty much in the coaching footsteps of Jesus. Paul told stories about his amazing recruitment: how he went from being a scout for the wrong team to becoming first-string quarterback for Team Jesus. But occasionally, when some of his fellow teammates started running toward the wrong goalposts, even Paul had to haul out some halftime speeches that singed the old ear hairs.

But you know what? Teams that win have coaches that aren't afraid to coach. And from what I understood, Paul wanted to win—not just the Homecoming game, but the whole championship. That's why he said, "Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win" (1 Corinthians 9:24, MSG).
I'm not completely sure, but it's a fair guess that the same Paul who wrote "Run to win!" also wrote, "God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised" (Hebrews 6:10-12, NIV).

Now here's the deal. Listen up. I know you're sucking air, but take a few deep breaths and focus. From watching the first half, it's pretty obvious that you have been up against it. You're up against it emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Join the club, because all of us are a wadded up conglomeration of emotion, intellect and spirit.

That's why I'm passing along to you, my weary teammate, some of the same halftime admonishments passed along to me by Coach Paul, because his coaching has been responsible for many battles won, including a few of my own. And I know you want to win battles … don't you? Don't you?!!

Need I remind you what stakes we are playing for? Need I remind you that over that goal line of faith lies victory—forever—to those who cross it? Need I remind you that we carry the gospel and we hand it off to others, and we block for them and we bust a gut for them so that they too can cross the line, and so that they too can know Jesus? Need I remind you that part of our game plan includes "admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ" (Colossians 1:28, NASB)?

How are we supposed to present every man? (I can't hear you.)

How are we supposed to present every man? (I still can't hear you!)

HOW are we supposed to present every man? (That's better.)

That's right. Complete in Christ. It is for this purpose (presenting every man complete in Christ) that we work until our tongues hang out. We're not working just to put points up on the board. We're working, striving, digging in, getting muddy, getting beat up, leaving some blood on the field, because what we do matters!

How can we be complete if we crawl off into the locker room at halftime and lick our wounds? Not by going to the whirlpool while everybody else gets out there and takes the hits. Nope, we're going to get our blood pumping again by fueling up with the Coach's power. I'm not talking about me. I'm not even talking about Coach Paul. I'm not talking about some powder-puff power. I'm talking game-winning mighty power! It's that mighty power that works within us, but only if we draw strength from the other weary warriors who are beating their brains out in the same game. You feel me, dawg?!

Would you like to know what the opposing team's coach has cookin' in his playbook? He would love to see our team members, one by one, start crawling off into their own corners of the locker room, where his whisper campaign can kick in: "You're losing," he snarls. "You ain't got what it takes," he sneers. "Might as well pack it in and rub on the Icy Hot, 'cause the game's over for you." Those whispers start sounding pretty loud when you're all alone in a cavernous locker room where the voices bounce off the walls. The best way to silence those voices is to get some other teammates around you to absorb the sound waves from the enemy.

Let me ask you something: Do you honestly think you would EVER see Paul crawlin' away when the goin' got tough? Huh? Paul might have gotten tired in the game, but he never, NEVER got tired of the game.

And let me tell you something from my own experience. On those days when I'd just as soon turn in my resignation and get me a real job, I'd show up, take a deep breath, start to feel that mighty power well up within me, and by the time we finished with practice, or with the game, I discovered that the rest of the members of the team had given back to me what I didn't even have to give them when I showed up. That mighty power is unleashed in community. And that same power is sucked away like a dirt devil when you're all alone.

Listen. If Paul were here, he'd lean in close and tell you, with holy spit on his lips and holy tears in his eyes, that he prays for you. That's the kind of coach he is. He'd say that he prays, not just every now and then, but he prays for you both night and day. That's how earnest he is about his goal of presenting you complete in Christ. He'd say, "I want to help supply you with what is lacking in your game. I want to fill the cracks in your faith" (See 1 Thessalonians 3:10).

One last word before we head back onto the field. You can't build a man up by putting him down. I'm not giving you this speech to tear you down. I'm giving you this halftime speech because I want to build you up. I want you back in the game. I want to challenge you to rise up, not poop out; to stand tall, not shrink back; to move forward, not retreat. I want you to be all you can be, in Christ, complete in him. What you do matters. So take a deep breath and get back in the game.

Now let's get back out there and win a championship!

(Clark Cothern pastors Living Water Community Church, Ypsilanti, MI.)

Evangelicals today...by Bill Hybels

The Chicago Sun Times had an article where they interviewed Bill Hybels about the current series he's doing at Willow Creek. Here is the link, it's interesting.

http://www.suntimes.com/special_sections/evangelical/cst-nws-willow24.html

Also, here is Willow Creek's website and Mars Hills website.

http://www.willowcreek.org/
http://www.mhbcmi.org/findex.html

Blessings!

Spiritual Growth: Training vs Trying (Part III)

The Practice of Solitude

(Excerpts adapted from a message by John Ortberg and taken out of Bible Study on Spiritual Transformation from Willow Creek Resources)

John Ortberg:

Not long after moving to Chicago, I called a wise friend to ask for some spiritual direction. I described the pace at which things tend to move in my setting. I told him of the rhythms of our family life, about the present condition of my heart as best I could discern it. What did I need to do, I asked him, to be spiritually healthy?

There was a long pause. "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life," he said slowly. Another long pause.

"Okay, I've written that one down," I told him, a little impatiently. "Now what else is there?" I had many things to do and this was a long-distance call, so I was anxious to cram as many units of spiritual wisdom into the least amount of time possible.

"There is nothing else," he said.

This is the wisest spiritual mentor I have ever known. He knows me well. And from an immense quiver of spiritual wisdom he drew only one arrow. "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."

Suffering from Hurry Sickness

We worship at the shrine of the Golden Arches not because they sell good food or even cheap food but fast food. And even after the invention of fast food, people still had to take the time to park their cars and go inside to order and eat - which took time. So we invented the drive-thru lane. Now families can eat in vans, as God intended.

Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. For most of us, the danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. Hurry will destroy your soul. It will keep you from life. Depth always comes slowly; this is simply a truth about human formation. You cannot microwave maturity.

Perhaps the most serious aspect of hurry sickness is a damaged capacity to love. For love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time. Hurry kills love. Hurry prevents us from receiving love from the Father or giving it to his children.

In the final analysis, hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.

But there is hope. You can change. You really can. But it will not happen merely by trying. Once again, you must enter a life of training.

Follow the Leader

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus went to the wilderness for an extended period of fasting and prayer. He also withdrew when he heard of the death of John the Baptist, again when he was choosing his disciples, and frequently after a full day of ministry. The practice continued through his final days, when he withdrew to a garden to pray. He ended his ministry as he began it, with the practice of solitude.

Jesus was often busy, but never hurried. He had much to do, but he never did it in a way that severed the life-giving connection between himself and his Father. He never did it in a way that interfered with his ability to give love. He observed a regular rhythm of withdrawal from activity for solitude and prayer.

And he taught his followers to do the same: "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest," he said to them (Mark 6:31) - and he says to them still. Following Jesus cannot be done at a sprint. If you want to follow someone, you can't go faster than the one who is leading.

Solitude

Wise followers of Jesus have always understood solitude to be a foundational practice - the furnace of transformation. But what exactly is solitude? People wonder sometimes: What do I do when I practice solitude? What should I bring with me?

The primary answer, of course is nothing. Not long ago, a man told how he prepared for his first extended period of solitude: He brought along books, tapes, CDs, and a VCR - the very things you go into solitude to get away from.

At its heart, solitude is primarily about not doing something. When I go into solitude, I withdraw from conversation, from the presence of others, from noise, from the constant barrage of stimulation. I leave behind all the stuff I use to keep myself propped up. I have no friends to talk with, no phone calls, no TV to entertain, no pile of books to occupy or distract. I am, in the words of the old hymn, "just as I am" - not my accomplishments, my possessions, or my relationships. Just me and my sinfulness; my desire for God and my lack of desire for God.

Of course, solitude may be used as an occasion to engage in other practices as well. Prayer, self-examination and meditation on Scripture are probably the most helpful practices to engage in during solitude.

I find it helpful to think about solitude in two categories. I need brief periods on a regular basis - preferably each day. Sometimes I begin the day by praying over the day's schedule. I anticipate tasks I must perform, people I will be with, meetings I will be in, and place it all in God's hands, asking for his strength and wisdom.

Throughout the day I may take five-minute breaks to reconnect with God and to remind myself of his presence. Sometimes in the evening, I review the day with God - to see what he might want to say to me and to hand any anxieties over to him.

Several times a year, I also need extended periods of solitude - a half-day, a day, or a few days. Unless I pull out my calendar and block out times in advance, they will not happen. But they are critical times for more significant review of the work of God in my life.

Don't Give Up

Pursuing solitude will take relentless perseverance. At first, you may even feel it's a waste of time. This is because we are conditioned to feel that our existence is justified only when we are doing something or accomplishing something.

You may feel frustrated at your inability to stay focused. The first time I tried extended solitude, my mind wandered like a tourist with a Eurail pass. I have come to realize, over time, that focused prayer, interspersed with wanderings, is all my mind is capable of now. In his book The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence put it his way: "For many years, I was bothered by the thought that I was a failure at prayer. Then one day, I realized I would always be a failure at prayer; and I've gotten along much better ever since."

Are you tired of the effects of your hurry sickness? Don't you feel a yearning for something more? A pull toward a deeper, fuller experience of God's presence? If so, it's time to enter training for another way to live. The practice of solitude will begin opening that door.

Spiritual Exercise -

Your challenge this week is to "ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life." We are not asking you to stop being busy. Rather, this exercise is designed to help you train yourself away from the kind of hurriedness that keeps you chronically preoccupied and anxious - that hinders you from receiving love from the Father and giving it to others.

• Write out the words, "You cannot go faster than the One who is leading." and post it somewhere where you see it throughout the day.
• Even before you get out of bed each morning, pause to acknowledge God's presence.
• Thank him for seeing you through the night. Invite him to be with you through the day.
• Slow down when you eat your meals. Taste it. Enjoy it. Thank God for it. Slow down when you are driving.
• Resolve to take this day one activity at a time. Commit to being genuinely present in each moment - with your kids, in the meeting, with your wife, etc.
• Take a 5-minute break periodically throughout the day to reconnect with God.
• Listen to the people you converse with today - really listen. See if you can make it through the conversation without interrupting.
• Before going to bed, spend a few minutes reflecting on the day - thank God for it and see what God might say to you about it.