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Purpose

Purpose: http://youtu.be/5XY_KIIs80Y

Show me your "nub"

Mark 3:1 "And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.

2 And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.

3 And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.

4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.

5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other"

I'm a southern boy. Born and raised in the segregated and still racially divided deep south. With that being said, we call things just like they are. No political correctness, no, as we often say "beating around the bush." We never described an amputee's infirmity as a "physical challenge"....a "handicap",...a reach deficiency. No, in the south....we called it a "nub". The amputee called it a nub. We called it a nub....and no one was offended. For the purposes of this article.....neither should you.
(My family will still call the amputated limb...a nub)

    This speaks to the power of this verse. Today in the climate of political correctness and desperation to be sensitive to everyone's feelings....we have cultivated in the modern day church a tendency to treat our fellow parishioners like a first or second date. We do everything we can to show our best faces around those we actually call our "brothers or sisters in Christ".

Why then are they the ones we are consistently the most fake with?

"I'm not fake!" You go to work or your mothers house not really concerned if you have a bad hair day.....but you'll miss Sunday school to get your hair right. We'll keep the child out of wedlock on the down low claiming it's no one else business.....won't admit our lights are shut off to your "supposed" family. But I digress.

Notice the 5th verse. Jesus said "stretch out thine hand.."
He never asked for the good hand or the withered one.
If He had asked any of us....
We would've shown Him our good hand!

Why? Because we're more concerned with the damaging of our reputation by exposing our withered hand than discovering God's restoration!

When will we learn? His strength is made perfect through our weakness.

Here's your nugget: We would rather make temporary infirmity a chronic life long handicap by masking it in spiritual religiosity rather than being transparent enough to let God use our "nub" for a testimony.

We make a temporary illness intended for a testimony into a chronic handicap.....why?

PRIDE.

LET IT MARINATE FOLKS.

Epiphany of the day

The biggest misconception of the 21st century church is that "church" is an event or a destination...when it is truly a personal identity.

Let it marinate, folks.

How resourceful are you

     David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord,

'I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg You, take away the guilt of Your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.'" - 2 Samuel 24:10

It just seems to be human nature. As we grow in wealth and ability, our confidence moves from complete trust in the Lord to trust in our resources.

    King David decided one day that he needed to know how many fighting men he had in his army. This was a grievous sin in the nation of Israel. God always made it clear to the nation that He, not their army, was their source. It was against the law of God to number the troops. David's general, Joab, knew the serious nature of such an action.

But Joab replied to the king,

"May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?" (2 Samuel 24:3)

Joab knew that David was treading in dangerous waters when he brought up the idea to him. But David had it in his mind that this is what he was going to do. And he did. The result: God judged David for this sin by smiting the nation with a plague that resulted in the loss of 70,000 lives.

Recently, I was having lunch with a former stockbroker who lost everything in the 1987 stock crash in the United States. He made an interesting comment.

"You cannot know how to fully trust the Lord in the financial area until you really have to. When I lost everything, I was forced to trust Him when I knew I could not pay my next bill unless God provided. This was the time I learned to trust God. I never had to trust God before I lost my money because I had plenty. We don't willingly enter this level of trust with God."

I, myself, have experienced this very same teaching moment with God. I went from a beachfront condo, BMW, more money than I could need, custom tailored suits every week.....monogrammed custom shirts...complete home recording studio....to being car-less, homeless, friend-less, jobless and hopeless. I lost everything including my fiancée 2 months before the wedding all back to back to back. All while serving in the church and heading the music ministry.

   I wouldn't trade those very recent 2-3 years for anything in the world. I survived an attempted suicide and severe depression. I had no where to turn but God. Nowhere.  After years of knowing about God....we really became family. He was no longer a deity, alpha and omega....the point of thousands of sermons I've heard.....not just my Savior who died for me.....He became MY DAD. The birthing of that relationship (not religion) destroyed all fear of anything, anyone, anywhere and anytime in my life. It's an incredibly liberating way of life that is beyond all description.

Ask God today to keep you from trusting in your own resources. Ask Him how to balance trust and blessing

Your past & present pain MUST equal your predestined purpose

"If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer." - 2 Corinthians 1:6

"God must love you a lot! He doesn't allow someone to go through the kinds of adversity you have experienced unless He has a special calling on your life." Those were the words said to me by two different mentors at two different times within a three-year period. Later I would learn another related truth from a respected man of God - a man who lives in another country, a man whom God uses throughout the globe. "The depth and width of your faith experiences are directly proportional to your calling." What were these men of God saying?

They were describing a process of preparation that God takes each of His leaders through when He plans to use them in significant ways. A "faith experience" is an event or "spiritual marker" in your life about which you can say, "That is where I saw God personally moving in my life." It is an unmistakable event in which God showed Himself personally to you. It was the burning bush for Moses; the crossing of the Red Sea or the Jordan River for the nation of Israel; Jacob's encounter with the angel. It was the feeding of the 5,000 for the disciples. It was the time when you saw God face to face in your life.

If God has plans of using you in the lives of many others, you can expect that He is going to allow certain faith experiences to come into your life in order to build a foundation that will be solid. That foundation is what you will be able to look back on to keep you faithful to Him in the times of testing. Each of us must have personal faith experiences in which we experience God personally so that we can move in faith to whatever He may call us. Do you need a personal faith experience right now in your life? Pray that God will reveal Himself to you. He delights in doing that.

Is being moral enough?

I recently heard someone use the phrase “moral Christianity” to describe what they believe is the current temperature of faith in America, and it grieved me. Moral Christianity points people toward godly—or moral—answers without pointing them toward God. It shows people how to live by good rules without showing them how to be disciples of the Good Shepherd.

Don’t misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with teaching others to live by godly principles. After all, God’s Word is an instructional manual for a successful, godly life. It’s a light for one’s path (Psalm 119:105). But there is something wrong with teaching “moral, do-good Christianity” without showing others how to connect with the Savior. If we simply do what’s right without being disciples of the Author of Life, we may look more like the unbelieving Jews than the disciples.

I’m sharing this because lately I have been convicted about this, I have been asking myself, does what i share cause others to want Jesus, not just want to do the right things or have a better life so they can be more comfortable?

If I only offer up moral Christianity without pointing you to Christ, what good am I honestly doing?

In John 5:39-40 Jesus said to the Jews . . .

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

Knowing truth and knowing the Author of Truth are two entirely different things—and only one of them leads to the life we desperately need.

At the end of January, during a quiet moment with the Lord, I scrawled these thoughts, which I believe He gave me, in my journal.

Knowing the right answers will not transform you. Going to church alone will not transform you. Being religious and even memorizing Scripture will not transform you. Only being in right relationship with me while you experience these things will transform you. The Jews in the New Testament knew the answers, but they didn’t know Me. They did not have a love relationship with Me, therefore their hearts remained unchanged. Knowledge of the truth alone cannot transform. It’s My love working together with truth that transforms.

People who are experiencing war overseas, divorce in the United States, and death in their families don’t need to know just good principles without knowing the Prince of Peace. They don’t need to know how to live unless they know the One who gave them life. To give them truth without pointing them to The Truth is dishonoring to the Lord—and offering a balm to the wounded that does not heal.

So what does this have to do with you? A lot, actually. Just like me, you are preaching a sermon with your life. You may not be standing in a pulpit or putting words on a page. But every day, you are a witness for the Lord. Will you only show others what it means to be a moral Christian—or will you demonstrate what it looks like to intimately walk with the Savior?

Why Those Who Help You Plant a Church Leave So Early

By Dave Page

I had a dream of having friends I started the church with go the distance with me serving as ministry partners for forty years and then riding together off into the sunset much like Billy Graham has done with Cliff Barrows and George Beverly Shea. It didn’t happen.

Here’s what I know: Those who start the journey with you seldom finish with you. In the church planting world I call this principle THE LAW OF SCAFFOLDING. The people you start the church with are not the people you grow the church with. This is one of the hardest lessons I had to learn as a church planter. I am a highly relational person – a people person. I enjoy people and working together as a team to see changed lives. It was emotionally painful for me anytime somebody left the church. However, part of the process of growth was learning the law of scaffolding.

In the late 1800’s Missiologist John Nevius once referred to missionaries to China as “scaffolds” to be removed when the building was established. Scaffolding is a temporary structure used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings. It must eventually be dismantled and removed from the building.

In church planting scaffolding refers to believers in the core group that God uses to help build the early structure of the church body. They are compelled by a vision of starting something new from scratch. Most of them are early members of the new church that transferred in from other local churches to help get the church off the ground. Once the church grows and becomes sustainable these pioneers normally move on to do it again somewhere else.

SWAT (Servants Willing and Temporary) workers are a unique type of scaffolding. SWAT workers are believers on loan from other churches in the area who help serve on a temporary basis, usually just at the monthly preview services and at the grand opening. After the church starts they return to their own church.

I ended up starting three churches so I went through this process multiple times. I learned to prepare for it after the first experience and how to better deal with it. Here are three lessons I learned that I hope will help you on your journey:

 Don’t Beat Yourself Up When People Leave

Whenever people left our church I took it personally. I thought it was a reflection on my leadership ability and maybe it was but I needed to learn to not beat myself up when people left. Early on I tried to hold onto people and even begged one person not to leave. I learned it is better to bless people as they go. You can’t effectively lead those who don’t want to be on your team. Move with the movers and trust God to lead those who leave to a church where they fit better.

 Don’t Believe The Fallacy That Good People Can’t Be Replaced

Whenever a key player would leave my team I would panic. Who is going to replace this star player? In the beginning I thought nobody could replace them. Some of the hardest losses were people who were tithers. Not only did the church lose the service of these gifted people but it also took a hit financially. I needed to change my perspective from one of scarcity to abundance. I needed to increase my faith and believe God could and would replace those who left. I learned that there are good people all around me and saw God replace what I thought was irreplaceable.

 Do Appreciate Those Who Were Briefly With You

The wise sage Solomon said, “There is a season for everything, and a time for every event under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). There is a season when a unique person is needed to help the leader succeed. This is especially true at the beginning of a church plant. God brings highly skilled people to help the church get to the next level that would not have been possible without them. These people travel with the leader for just a season and then move on. I learned to let them go gracefully. I realized that some of them needed to play that role for other leaders.

It’s never any fun seeing people leave for whatever reason. It hurts. I miss many of them. I hope they miss me too. I never want to get to a point where it doesn’t hurt. The good news is some people will stay! And for that I am extremely grateful. These people will charge hell with you with a squirt gun! Celebrate these people. Love these people. Appreciate these people. Reward these people. Treasure these people. They will always have a special place in my heart.

Get out of the boat

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