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Wisdom: The Opposite of Pride – VOTD.11.14.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | November 14th, 2017 | by

Be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:5-7

For the most part, pride is the opposite of wisdom. Wisdom and humility are often connected in the Bible and this is no coincidence. The reason: Pride leaves us vulnerable to just about every other root sin. Pride both drives us to sin and leaves us addicted. Pride destroys us. Here’s why:

Pride produces a self-righteousness, hypocritical spirit:
When we’re proud, we elevate our status in our own eyes. This makes us repugnant to the people around us (unless they’re playing along for what they can get out of it). Worse yet, pride has no room for the mercy of God. When we think we’re better (holier, closer to God) than everyone else, we’re incapable of not finding fault with others—while being blind to our own faults and weaknesses. We become slaves to our own pride. It’s a compulsion.

The Pharisees’ pride blinded them to their own sin and far worse, it blinded them to God’s mercy. It drove them to be callous and brutal toward others when they knew that loving their neighbor as themselves was God’s requirement. Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness” (Mat 23:27). The vicious cycle here was that pride left them defenseless to sinful temptations like hate, and then they had to cover their sin to protect their pride. They were trapped—prisoners of their own egos.

Pride naturally leads to rebellion:
Rebellion is the reflex response of pride in our hearts. Rebellion says, “I know better than God,” when we don’t. Often prideful rebellion blinds us to what is in our own self-interest. But even when we can see what would be best for us, a rebellious heart prevents us from doing it. (more…)

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Wisdom: Among Non-believers – VOTD.11.13.17

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

Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.  Colossians 4:5-6

There seems to be two mistakes Christians make in living out their faith in front of unbelievers. The first is not living it out and the second is living it out in unwise ways—ways that display a spirit of superiority, marginalizing, or even antagonizing the lost.

It’s important to be gracious and attractive—patient and compassionate whenever possible—when we’re dealing with the lost, and that means allowing them to define themselves just as we speak for ourselves. Often, it is in trying to explain themselves that the lost discover the weaknesses/ softness of their own position. But they’ll blow right over it if they are already on the defensive or in conflict with us.

That’s why today’s verse is so important: if we “live wisely among those who are not believers,” and make our “conversation be gracious and attractive”, many of their assumptions and stereotypes about Christians dissolve (at for least Christians like us). And often, it is negative encounters with local churches and church people that has fed their negative stereotypes about Christians—and built up walls against Jesus. (more…)

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Wisdom: The Fear of God – VOTD.11.07.17

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

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 1:7

One biblical definition of wisdom is this: Wisdom is the combination of knowledge and farsightedness which enables a person to make right choices that honor God.

This is because true wisdom, according to the Bible, always begins with God. Today’s verse tells us that the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” From a biblical perspective, if a person doesn’t know God who created everything, then they’re going to be challenged when it comes to understanding how to use the knowledge they have. They’ll base wisdom on what seems fair…or what seems morally right…or what seems best for themselves and those they identify with.

But honoring (fearing) God will not be part of their equation. This means true wisdom will elude them.

This is why we increasingly live in a world where facts don’t matter. Take away God and truth is whatever you want it to be…and we don’t have to look far to find people who will assure us that we are 100% right and everyone who doesn’t see it the way we
do is crazy—or worse. (more…)

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Wisdom: The Personal and Individual Will of God – VOTD.11.06.17

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

[Paul was imprisoned in Philippi for spreading the Gospel. That night…] Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; at once, all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains fell off… The jailor pulled out his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself; We are all here!” Acts 16:26

[Peter was imprisoned in Judea for spreading the Gospel. That night…] Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood there… he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands…So Peter went out and followed the angel… The gate opened for them by itself, and they went out. Acts 12:7-10

Two apostles, two miraculous jail breaks… but God had different plans and outcomes in mind in each situation and was pleased to treat each situation differently. You see, Paul could have run away, just as Peter did, but that wasn’t God’s plan. Peter could have hung around just as Paul did, but that wasn’t God’s plan. (more…)

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Visiting Churches 6 (end) – Don’t take it too seriously – VOTD.10.24.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | October 24th, 2017 | by

I wanted to visit you, so that we might both receive a blessing.  2 Corinthians 1:15
I was a stranger and you invited me in. Matthew 25:35

This is God
My kids told me the little girl had been staring at me through the early part of the service before being shuffled off to the children’s program. But she was back after the service dragging her reluctant mother by she hand. I smiled as they came up and the little girl said, “There he is, Mommy. This is God.” She was pointing at me. The mother, terribly embarrassed at this point, apologized to me, a visitor, and explained to her that I was not God. But the girl was not to be so easily dissuaded. She’d apparently seen illustrations of God in her Sunday school material and I guess I looked close enough. I hurried to agree with her mother that I was not God, said a few more words about how wonderful God is, and her mother dragged her away, still apologizing to me over her shoulder.

My point? You’ve got to have a sense of humor if you’re going to be a good visitor. Things will go wrong. Mistakes will be made. Unexpected opportunities will present themselves, too. Graciousness is a good habit at any time, but especially if you’re visiting a church meeting. This is THEIR meeting after all. And you are the guest.

Sometimes it’s ‘grin-and-bear-it’. As a visitor, I’ve managed to be trapped in a few after-church congregational business meetings—the kind where the leadership won’t let anyone leave the service until a business meeting has occurred. Not a good place to be for a visitor who really doesn’t belong there. I suppose that if they allow a few visitors to slip out, it would embolden some of the cowed church members to sneak out with them. So I became privy to information that no outsider should have heard. I wonder how the congregants feel about being told that no one can leave the sanctuary until the business meeting is over? (more…)

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Visiting Churches 5 – It’s Gotta be Real – VOTD.10.23.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | October 23rd, 2017 | by

I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many. 1 Corinthians 10:33

While doing research for this topic of visiting churches, I came across 2 web sites back-to-back. One gave a list of 10 things visitor-friendly churches MUST do, and the other was 10 ways to drive introverts AWAY from your church. The two lists were very opposite…almost point for point. And that’s believable. As a visitor not everyone is looking for the same thing. In fact, an extrovert and an introvert might prefer to be treated very differently—just like you would treat anyone you met for the first time… you don’t follow a script, you pick up on their cues and treat them accordingly.

Problem is, churches usually enlist their most gregarious people as official welcomers. And that can bowl many more reserved people over. It might be worth looking for some more empathetic people to do your greeting tasks… people who are good at picking up on signals like voice, body language, etc., and treat people where they are at. (more…)

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Visiting Churches 4 – Finding Rest – VOTD.10.17.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | October 17th, 2017 | by

The rain and snow come down from the heavens, and remain, watering the earth and making it bring forth vegetation, so that it gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater.  Isaiah 55:10

Isaac was living in the land of Gerar in Genesis 26, and decided to go to Egypt because famine had arisen in Gerar. But the Lord told him to stay and that He would bless Him in that land. The Bible tells us in v 12 that, “Isaac sowed in THAT LAND, and received in the same year a hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.” Sowing in a land that is experiencing famine makes no sense. It was expensive and made him look silly to his neighbors and work-force. Yet Isaac sowed in that land of famine based on the word of God and the Lord blessed him.

Last time we looked a bit at ‘casting bread upon the water’ (Ecc 11:1) and that it returns in some unexpected ways. My point was: when we’re doing it in ministry to ‘the least of these my brothers’ and sisters, God takes it personally, and He is the One we’re sowing for (Mat 25:40). And when we’re sowing, we’re not just giving something away. We’re ministering to a need—even if it’s just making a stranger feel honored.

It’s a lesson I learned visiting a west-coast church. We had visited that church several times as we passed through; it was the third time we’d visited at night. The meetings got out late and for our east-coast biological clocks we were tired. The first 2 times, when we asked the security person if we could just park our self-contained, sleep-in van in their parking lot for the night, that it was ok with them.

But on this third occasion, a security person with a different view of things said no. I mentioned that we had been allowed to on earlier occasions. He wasn’t budging. So we went Walmart for the night (Walmart usually allows campers to park the night at their stores). There were more than a dozen other campers in the Walmart lot when we arrived and we sacked out immediately.

The next morning I noticed the Walmart security circling the lot as usual. But then the security man stopped at our van. I figured that maybe we had done something wrong, but if we had, why choose us out of the many campers? Turns out the employees of Walmart had put together a care package for us—two bags of groceries, which he presented to us. I was shocked—and blessed. This had never happened to us before.

Later, as we drove, I asked the Lord if there was a point to all this. He brought to mind Proverbs 11:25. “The generous soul shall be made fat: and he that waters shall be watered also himself.”

You see, Walmart got a blessing for blessing us, because God took it personally. And in a sense, Walmart got the blessing that church could have gotten. I’m saying this as a principle, not in angsts against that church or the security person. I still like the church, and the security person probably thought he was doing his job. But the principle is the same. Walmart got the blessing.

Jesus tells us to “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall people give into your lap. For with the same measure that you sow it shall be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38). Notice: It’s PEOPLE who pour into your lap. God uses people, even when they are unaware.

As a side note: I visit these churches because I want to. I don’t wish to give the impression that anyone has to visit churches as they travel. We have done it as we’ve felt the desire to. I have been enriched by meeting new people and learning new lessons. But I don’t want to pass this on as some kind of obligation or a way of earning spirituality points.

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Visiting Churches 3 – Just Passing Through – VOTD.10.16.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | October 16th, 2017 | by

And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?  Matthew 5:47

I’ve had many good experiences with people treating me very graciously when visiting their church, even though they know I’m passing through— I won’t be returning there regularly (see below). But one of the downers of church visiting is when people who greet you drop you cold when they discover that you aren’t a perspective new congregant. It’s one of the hazards of church visiting when traveling. But it always makes me feel like I’ve let some people down.

When we look at each unfamiliar face as little more than a potential new member, it can be pretty discouraging to find they don’t live in the area. In one church we visited, more than one person literally asked us if we would move across the continent so we could go to their church. This seemed odd until we found out that there were many families in that church who had done just that. I had never stopped to consider just how desperate some people are for a better church experience.

But to the point, do we value people who come into our midst whether they’re local or just passing through? Or do we even bother to greet people who aren’t our “own people”. It would be easy to assume that God doesn’t have much to say on the subject, but over and over again in the Old and New Testaments, God tells His people to honor strangers in their midst. (e.g. Deut 10:19, Lev 19:34).

And then, Hebrews puts this twist on it, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it” (13:2). Obviously, we’re not angels. But do you know I’ve been handed official visitor bags with some pretty neat stuff (worship CD’s, mementoes, books, etc.)? Gift certificates for free stuff at their foyer store or coffee shop…

All of that was on a ‘church-level’. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned by visiting churches, no official visitor ministry set up by the church can match the individual, ad-hoc kindnesses that congregants do on their own.

On that person-to-person level, I’ve had people invite my family to meals even though we visit with no object in moving to the area. As visitors, we’ve experienced people handing us money—significant sums of money—to honor us on our way; or giving us food… This seems pretty extreme to me, but I’m mentioning it to give glory to God and acknowledgment to people who are better at honoring strangers in their midst than I am.

It’s almost like these people—these churches—have learned that if you bless God’s kids, He blesses you back… That if you “Cast your bread upon the waters: you shall find it after many days” (Ecc 11:1). Blessing others is their life-style and they receive as they bless.

More on this next time…

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Visiting Churches 2 – VOTD.10.10.17

Posted in Verse of the Day | October 10th, 2017 | by

And to godliness, warm friendliness, and generous love. With these qualities actively growing in your life, you won’t be unproductive and fruitless in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:7

In a Twitter poll, first-time visitors were asked why they chose not to return to churches they visited only once. ‘Unfriendly church members’ came in second to the top in reasons visitors never return (Number 1 was ‘Having a stand up and be welcomed in the worship service’—no surprise there!)

Since as I said last time, I’ve been on the road all summer and visited a lot of churches, I wasn’t surprised that ‘Unfriendly church members’ rated so high. But the enlightening thing was the number of respondents who included ‘non-genuine friendliness’ as what really bothered them. In other words, the visitors could tell the ‘friendliness’ of some of the congregants was a sham.

In contrast, at one smallish church on the east coast we visited, two different people getting out of their cars saw us arrive in the parking area and came over to welcome us and offered to help us find where we needed to be, and to answer any questions we had. They weren’t the welcoming committee. You couldn’t pay staff to be that friendly. (So I ask myself if I would be that friendly if our roles were reversed. Would I even notice?) By the way, that church didn’t have greeters at the door… they didn’t need them with all the honestly friendly and helpful people we met.

Another huge church on the west coast, we were still in the parking area when a woman came over and introduced herself. She had seen us at a meeting before and told us how blessed she had been to sit behind us. She loved her church and it was genuine. I don’t think we could have been made to feel more welcome—certainly not by the assigned greeters at the door. (more…)

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VOTD.10.09.17 Visiting Churches

Posted in Verse of the Day | October 9th, 2017 | by

Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended.  Ecclesiastes 7:9

I’ve been traveling a lot this past summer and this has meant being a visitor in a number of churches. Over the course of visiting many churches I have had great experiences as a guest along with some not-so-great ones. But for the most part my visits to churches, both recently and in the past, have been pleasant, though some are more memorable than others (for good and not-so-good) reasons.

Somewhere along the way I got the idea that it would be fun to do a few meditations on being a good church visitor. That led to another idea: What makes a church one that makes visitors feel welcome. So I offer this as a public service to visitors and churches that want to encourage visitors. Here’s a few ideas…

Churches need to realize that you only have a few minutes to make a first impression, and that usually means that the first impression is not made by the paid staff, it’s made by congregants. It’s made in the parking lot. It’s made by people (if any) at the door or people who people you sit near.

That’s a scary thought to those who want to orchestrate a visitor’s experience at their church. But scarier yet is that a visitor’s impression of the church may be hijacked by some offbeat individual who is friendly, but… unusual (or perhaps not so friendly). Every church seems to have at least one… someone who undoubtedly means well, but lacks social graces or is too full of their own agenda. (more…)

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