Wheels of Glory! Blog

Vision, Farsighted and Perceptive – VOTD.03.21.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | March 21st, 2017 | by

Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, so that anyone can see it as they pass by. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it seems slow in coming, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.  Habakkuk 2:2,3

Some reading this series so far might think I’m leading up to setting goals and vision statements and so forth. Not at all. That ground has been well trodden over the past many years. When I speak of visions and purpose, I’m talking about something God gives us. A destination and a goal. Something ‘God lays on our hearts’ and gives us a passion for.

God gave King David a passion when he wrote his famous lines: “One thing I ask from the Lord” (Ps 27) and it’s often in the spiritual realm but not always. Nehemiah’s vision was to build a wall. What makes our visions Godly is that they come from God, Himself.

Godly vision consists of a farsightedness and perceptiveness that come from Him. Farsightedness vision allows us to know what is ahead like a telescope. It connects us to the future God has prepared for us. Foresight is the part of a God-given vision that can ‘taste’ the future and gives us the motivation to press on toward the goal God has placed before us (Phil 3:14). (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Vision, Purpose, Goals – VOTD.03.20.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | March 20th, 2017 | by

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.  Ephesians 1:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish.  Proverbs 29:18

Vision is the bridge between our present and our future. Without it we perish, figuratively at least…Perhaps emotionally and even physically, too. When we’re without vision we spend our lives avoiding instead of engaging…avoiding risk, avoiding bother, avoiding discomfort.

That makes sense: If we’re not going anywhere, why deal with obstacles and irritations others face in order to get somewhere? (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Clean Honors Clean – VOTD.03.14.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | March 14th, 2017 | by Wheels of Glory

The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Acts 10:15

You’re probably familiar with the story today’s verse comes from. Peter was about to be called to minister to some people who were “unclean” by his estimation, but he didn’t know it yet. To prepare Peter for this major paradigm shift, Jesus sent some animals to him in a vision—these animals were sinful to eat—and told him to eat them anyway. It says this happened 3 times and Peter rebuked the idea all 3 times.

Ahh—what to do when our personal ideas about people are stiffer than Jesus’. God knew what to do—how to prepare Peter for a giant leap into the infinite extent of His grace as it extended to people he considered “unclean”. He didn’t call Peter out, He simply led His ex-fishing buddy to a more complete understanding of the word “Clean”.

If we had even a glimpse of the extent Jesus went to make each of us clean, we might be easier on each other. If we could internalize today’s verse—don’t call impure what God has called clean.

Notice that the Centurion sinner and his family and friends had not even turned to Jesus yet. When Peter showed up at their house they bowed down and worshiped him. Apparently worshiping people was not outside their list of sins. Not great prospects for ministry. But Jesus had already declared them to be “clean”.

Among other things, that meant that all the shaming, guilting, dishonoring that Peter held toward them was missing the point. Jesus still loved them and wasn’t willing to see them miss out on knowing Him, Peter wrote later (2 Pet 3:9). (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Clean – VOTD.03.13.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | March 13th, 2017 | by

He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. Romans 4:25

Suppose you saw an ad for a laundry detergent that admitted that their product doesn’t get your clothes very clean and suggested the solution is for you not to get your clothes so dirty. However honest the commercial might be, how likely are you to buy that product?

What if instead of improving their product, they gave you a list of things you could do to prevent dirty clothes, like wearing a disposable bib when eating, using better antiperspirants. Wearing dark colors or keeping your children inside, etc.

Yet when it comes to dealing with the problem of sin and falling short of God’s glory, that is how some Christian teachings come across. It’s an example of what is called “blaming the victim”. As today’s verse tells us, that instead of blaming the victim, Jesus became our victim. Clearly, Jesus isn’t blaming the victim. (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Unity vs Peace – VOTD 03.07.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | March 7th, 2017 | by

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3

Last time we saw that rather than seeking unity, we should seek love, and then love will be the key to unity. The same thing is similar for peace. When unity becomes the goal, we may end up with some kind of ceasefire, but we will never find true unity (or even real peace).

Often we confuse peace and unity. Peace does not lead to unity; unity leads to peace. When we get this backwards we end up like a church I was a part of for many years. It thought it had unity because it carefully suppressed any problems rather than dealing with them. It ended up disintegrating over time because despite the appearance of peace and unity, the people had little binding them together.

Or another way we confuse peace and unity is when there is no freedom to disagree or have personal convictions. Many cult leaders see ‘no-disagreement’ as unity, so they invoke a no “boat-rocking” policy. You even see this in churches sometimes. They mistake no-visible-dissent for “unity”. To make sure there are no dissenters usually requires that they resort to hardline control-freak tactics. This is often the backdrop for all sorts of scandals and cover-ups, not real unity.

It is so tempting to pursue peace as a means of achieving unity because we mistakenly think unity and conformity are pretty much the same thing. If you and I are Christians and our understanding of unity is askew, then we will soon be pursuing conformity and at that point control/unquestioning submission become the tools of this kind of false unity. (more…)

Wheels of Glory! Blog

Unity vs. Love – VOTD 03.06.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | March 6th, 2017 | by

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:13,14

I’ve watched churches and individuals struggle with the unity thing for most of my adult life. And I’ve watched the grapple to build unity. If I’ve learned one thing from all this observation, it’s that if our goal is unity, we’re doomed. But if our goal is love, unity will grow out of that.

The key to true unity is to make sure that unity isn’t the goal—love is the goal. So, rather than seeking unity, we should seek love, and then we can let love be the key to unity.

Love forgives when we are wronged. Love chooses to ignore differences of opinion. Love overlooks variations in behavior. When we truly love people, differing political opinions and theological persuasions become all part of the diversity of the Living Organism we call the Body of Christ, rather than opportunity for taking offense which leads to division and strife. (more…)