We are a disposable culture. Pampers have replaced washable and reusable cloth diapers. Paper plates, cups, and cutlery have saved people time and effort at the sink washing dishes. Printer cartridges are one and done components, in fact, sometimes one can replace a printer more cost effectively than buying an ink cartridge.

On the other hand perhaps you practice the concepts of “reduce, recycle, reuse, or repurpose.” Learning to find new applications for used up products can save lots of money and can also keep our earth a little “greener.” Yard sales and thrift shops are economic pluses for both sellers and buyers. Twice a year, our church conducts our “Encore Shop” in which new or gently used items sell at a bargain price, finding new life for the items and providing valuable resources for the buyers.

As I thought about the blessings of the most recent Encore Shop, I remembered a walk God and Jeremiah took which we find recorded in Jeremiah 18:1-6. God allowed Jeremiah to observe a patient potter working with uncooperative lump of clay. Rather than throwing away the lump and starting fresh with new clay, the potter continued until he finally fashioned it into a vessel that was both beautiful and useful. The reminder was the He does the same with us.

When your life seems to be spinning out of control, consider that you may be spinning on the pottery wheel of the Master Artisan. When you feel squeezed, consider it rather to be the gentle pressure of His loving hands forming you into a more Christ-like image. When life seems to get a little hot, consider it the blast furnace that eventually solidifies and sets your heart for His purposes.

The Master Craftsman is at work in your life. You are His masterpiece. He has so much invested in you and your outcome is certain and glorious even if the process is difficult and unclear. While in the Potter’s Hand, listen for His voice in His Word, look for His work in your circumstances, and learn to trust in His providential plan working out His purpose for your life.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10

And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. – Philippians 1:6

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son… – Hebrews 11:17

I will always remember the day I put my personal Isaac on the altar.

When leaders from my previous church informed me that I was being asked to resign my position of Senior Pastor, I thought my time in ministry had come to a close. Who would want a cast off?

An opportunity finally emerged some four months later, but in the process of meeting with the search team, I hit a major roadblock. For the first time in my months out of the pastorate, real fear began to cripple me. The roadblock seemed insurmountable not just for the present opportunity but my fear was the roadblock would doom any future opportunities in ministry as well.

In half-depression, half-desperation, I finally surrendered ministry to the Lord. I told Him if He wanted my to continue to pastor, I would gladly do it, and if for some reason He was through with me in that roll and wanted me to support my family some other way while serving as a layman in a church, I would do that as well. I discovered that ministry was my “Isaac.”

Ministry was God’s promise to me. Ministry was all that I would foresee in the future, but I was finally a broken man and willing to give it all up as long as God would show me WHAT He wanted me to do next. God had to test me where my greater love was directed – to Him or to ministry. Was I ministering FOR God or had ministry BECOME my god? It was at that moment that God flooded my soul with His peace and He began to dismantle my roadblock bit by bit.

I can honestly say that placing my Isaac on the altar was not an attempt to appease or manipulate God. I sincerely believed that afternoon that I would never pastor again and that rather than a new chapter in my life, God was closing the book all together. He finally showed me that He wanted ME more than He wanted my MINISTRY.

I can say now that God has placed me in a GREAT PLACE. I love my church and I love ministry in this setting. As much as I love my church, I have grown deeper in my love for GOD, since now I see Him as the Provider and Purpose of the calling on my life. I had to give up MY ministry so it could once again be HIS ministry.

Is there something in your life you fear God may be asking you to surrender? I know how scary that can seem, but as someone who has been there, and done that, I can testify that He only wants you to be willing, TRULY WILLING, to give it up. If you do, will He give it back to you? Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever He does, it will be better than what you held in your hand before you let it go.

With God, the best is always yet to come.

I don’t often read newspapers, but rather get most of my news online. One day, however, I picked up a copy of the local paper sitting on a table while eating my lunch at the office. About the only thing that really caught my interest was the section entitled “Police Report.” I was curious to see if anyone I knew was listed in that section.

I was shocked to see four of the eight people charged by the city police department cited for a misdemeanor of which I had never heard: aggressive begging. I looked it up in the Municipal Code and there it was. Section 46-62 states, “No person shall engage in aggressive begging in any public place in the city.” The section defines “aggressive begging as “begging with the intent to intimidate another person into giving money or goods.” The section goes on to define the words “begging,” “public place,” and “intimidate.” I honestly had never heard of this.

There is one case in the Bible, nonetheless, where Jesus encourages us to plead persistently with God for specific needs.

And He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. – Luke 18:1

Jesus expounded on the parable in Luke 18:2-8 when He told a story of a woman who constantly begged a local judge to give her a just decision against her adversary. The judge finally relented, not due to a desire for justice, but due to a desire for peace and quiet! Jesus contrasted a godless judge who cared not for doing right but acted only from selfishness with a loving Father God who takes great joy in giving good things to His children. He encouraged His followers to cry out to God “day and night” and expect God to act “speedily.” Jesus then equated this kind of persistent prayer with strong faith when He asked the question, “…when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The lesson for us is to continue to pray persistently for those needs that weigh heavily on our heart. We may feel that God is not listening or does not care, but our Lord encourages us to prove that we believe by not giving up in our prayer effort.

What needs have you carried for a long time? Has God seemed to stop listening? Do you think God is punishing you by ignoring you? Has the devil tempted you to give up and look for answers elsewhere? Let me encourage you to hang in there and keep praying.

Hang in there; your answer is on the way in due time. While it may be illegal in your city, God honors aggressive begging.

Suffice it to say that the Church is under attack these days. Abroad, Christians are barbarically beheaded for their belief; and here at home we have become the victim state-sponsored discrimination and cultural intolerance. In these days, how we respond to the treatment will either draw people to Jesus or repel them once and for all. How then, should we respond to our culture’s ill treatment of our faith?

Peter wrote a letter to Christians flushed from their homes and uprooted from their lives through the fires of persecution. He wrote to encourage beleaguered believers around the world to hold true to the faith and to respond in a Christ-like manner. His advice to those 1^st Century believers is sound wisdom for us today.

Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. 1 Peter 2:17

Honor everyone. To honor is to attribute worth or value to something or someone. We give honor when we recognize intrinsic worth. The reason we still experience racism and brutality is because we view others with little regard. We think because of their skin color, occupation, social standing, or appearance (or any number of other excuses) that they are worth less than we are. This Biblical command reminds us to treat EVERYONE with respect and dignity, even when we don’t agree with them.

Love the brotherhood. Why should we expect our culture to respect our fellow Jesus-followers when we don’t respect them? Isn’t it quite hypocritical for us to get upset at our culture for harassing and persecuting Christians when we are so critical of each other, gossip about each other, back-bite, lie, and cheat eat other? We need to love our brothers and sisters in Christ the way He loves us – sacrificially and unconditionally.  Jesus said that the world will know we are His disciples indeed by the way we love each other.

Fear God. We no longer recognize the holiness of God. We have turned the sacred into common. I’m not talking about superficial, legalistic displays of fleshly piety; I am talking about heart issues. The most sacred place of all is the believer’s heart, yet we allow our hearts to be divided – giving God only a share while making room for sinful attitudes, thoughts, actions, and pursuits.

Honor the emperor. Regardless of our personal political leanings, we should respect for the office our leaders hold. Whether we like it or not, the “powers that be are ordained of God.” (Romans 13:1) We can and should sound off on matters of morality and righteousness in the public and government forum. We can and should express discontent and disagreement with platforms, policies, procedures, and practices in government. We should NEVER, however, personally attack our leaders. I confess, I have all too often been guilty of such, but God has shown me the need to pray for our leaders and pray that God would send us leaders after His heart.

Respect for all, love for fellow believers, devotion to God, and honor to our leaders. This is a tall order, indeed, since we have grown accustomed to behaving on the contrary; but in these times of harassment and persecution, God has shown us how not merely to survive but to THRIVE.

We live an ever increasingly fragmented life. We have 86,000 seconds in a day, and it seems s though we cannot divide them adequately between all that is demanded of us and needed by us. Most of us are pulled in so many directions that we feel a little like William Wallace in his last scene in Braveheart. We certainly would like some freedom from the tyranny of the urgent that ungulfs us.

The best among us (a group of which I am not a member) have grown adept at what we call prioritizing. You know the drill, make a list of all the things required or demanded of us and put them in linear order, the most important at the top and the most dispensable at the bottom. The list changes according to the “Squeaky Wheel Principle.” Even the religiously conscientious will include God at the top of the list of priorities, asserting the He is the most important thing/person on our list.

Jesus, however, is not interested in occupying the top spot on our priority list. While we would never explicitly state it, we can put Him at the top of the list, give him token time, and then move on to the other items on the list leaving Him behind. Notice carefully the position Jesus desires in our lives:

And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in everything He might be preeminent. (Colossians 1:18)

Jesus does not want to be preeminent OVER the things in our life, but He wants to be the most important thing IN it.   Instead of being one item on a list of many, even the top item on the list, He instead wants to be the reason for us engaging all of those other items. Jesus wants to use the roles of my life for His purposes.

I challenge you today to look for ways throughout this day to use the situations of the day for His purpose in your life. Speak a word of encouragement to those you encounter. Spread the love of Jesus, be patient and kind to people, offer to pray for those around you, invite them to church or, better yet, as you go on tour way, tell someone what Jesus has done for you.

The challenge is to change the priority paradigm from a linear list over which Jesus sits at the top, to a multi-spoked wheel with Jesus at the hub giving support, meaning, and value to everything in our life.

As this year’s baseball season dawns, allow me to share with you a modern day baseball/church parable that has circulated for years.  I am unaware of the source, but may it challenge us to be in church on Sunday ready to field our position.

Behold a ball team went forth to play a game of ball.

Just as the umpire was saying “Batter Up,” the catcher for the home team arrived and took his place. The center fielder and the second baseman didn’t arrive until the middle of the second inning. The first baseman didn’t come at all, but later sent his regrets and said that he had to go to a family reunion. The third baseman likewise failed to show up, having been up late the night before watching television, and preferred to spend the rest of the day in bed. The left fielder was away attending another ball game across town. The shortstop was present, but left his glove at home.

Verily when the pitcher stepped onto the mound, he looked around to see his teammates, and lo, his heart was heavy when he saw many empty places in the lineup. The game had been announced, and visitors were already in the stands to see the game. There was nothing left for him to do but go ahead and pitch and hope for the best.

So the pitcher tightened his belt, stepped to the mound and did his level best to put it over the plate. But for some strange reason he just couldn’t find the groove. Some of his teammates began to ride him for wild pitching and booed him all through the game.

At the close of the game, his home team was mercilessly beaten. The game produced a considerable amount of discussion and when the rest of the team heard about the disgraceful defeat, everyone decided that the reasons should be found. They finally came to a unanimous decision: it must have been the pitcher’s poor pitching that lost the game.

Behold, a sunny Sunday morning, a preacher stood up to preach . . . but that’s another story.

May God help us all to be team players who contribute faithfully to the work He wants to do in our churches.