3 STEPS TO DISCERNING GOD'S DIRECTION

3 Steps to Discerning God’s Direction Today
By Dane Skelton

How do you make important decisions? Do you know how to listen for the leadership of God, how to discern his direction for your life? Now I’m not talking about those puzzling grocery store conundrums like, “Which should it be, dark chocolate mint chips or classic Klondike bars?” I’m talking about expensive, long term, even life changing decisions like: where to go to college, what to major in, which house to buy, which job to take, which person to marry. These and many more decisions affect us for the long term, contributing either to personal happiness and effectiveness in life or to dissatisfaction, distress and even misery.

Jesus promised us that God loved us and was listening to our requests, that “if we asked him for a piece of bread he would not give us a stone.” He encouraged us to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking and the answers we need would be given to us. So what does that process look like? How are followers of Jesus Christ to discern his directions?

There are at least three steps to discerning God’s direction today. And like a three-legged stool, or finding your position using three points on a map, each one is important. The three legs are:

1. The Word of God speaking to our minds, teaching us many, many things that give us clear directions in areas like money, work, marriage, authority, charity, mercy, and managing conflict.
2. The Gifts to the Church - We also have, according to Paul’s list in Ephesians, gifts to the Church - “Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph 4:11-13 NIV). Every member of the Church is gifted or experienced in some area of knowledge. We make our best decisions when we seek the wisdom of other members of the body of Christ.
3. We also have the Spirit of God. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.(John 14: 16-17 NIV). As we develop the discipline of quietness before God we learn to perceive the direction of the Spirit much as we would a gentle breeze blowing on our face.
Are you faced with a serious, life changing decision? Consult the Word. It will teach you to think Biblically about your values and priorities. Consult the Body of Christ, your gifted brothers and sisters for their wisdom. And ask the Spirit of God to show you which path to take.

God’s Love and Hell

By Dane Skelton

A recent book by a well known evangelical casts doubt on some things Jesus said about hell and judgment. The basic question is: If God is love why does he send people to hell?

First, there is a problem with the question: It assumes that we understand human nature and hell as they are presented in the Bible. We don’t.

We have a childish notion of human nature. We believe we are better than we are. We also have a mixed up view of God, we like to blame him for our choices. Therefore God’s holiness is beyond our comprehension and so is his wrath.

Second, we mistake God’s wrath for human rage. Tim Keller has a good definition of God’s wrath: “It is not an out of control temper. Wrath is the settled opposition and hatred of that which is destroying what we love.” We humans are capable of much evil, much selfishness, much that is perverse and opposed to that which God holds dear. We destroy the bodies he gave us with all kinds of toxins. We destroy the souls he gave us with things like greed, gossip, lying, self-righteousness and self-pity. And we destroy others with cutting words, with economic oppression, and with things like relentless criticism and betrayal.

Third, we assume that Jesus was too kind to mention hell. But Jesus had more to say about hell than anyone else in the New Testament. He sees hell as self-chosen; He said, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:18-19 NIV)

C. S. Lewis said it like this: Unless someone wants God and God alone he would be utterly miserable in heaven. It would be a crime to send him there for heaven is all about God.

God wishes to save us from hell. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That’s God’s love at work, doing what is best for us, making it possible for us to know him now and join him in eternity. Jesus said, “He who receives me receives the one who sent me.” He also said, “He who seeks to save his life will lose it. But he who gives up his life for my sake will save it.”

So the question is not, "Why does God send people to hell?" but rather, "What do I really want? Do I want Jesus Christ and the God who sent him? Or do I want my own life, my own way?" Either way, the choice is ours.

On Asking and Receiving the Power of God

Last night my daughter asked for lunch money for school for the week. Without a thought I opened my wallet, plucked out ten dollars, and handed it to her.

Now I want you to understand that my youngest child is a wonderful person. But she isn’t perfect. In fact, right after I arrived home from a recent trip to Canada she reported on her progress on certain tasks I had assigned her for the week: “I got this done and that done but I didn’t clean out mom’s car yet like I promised.”

It didn’t matter. I gave her the ten bucks anyway. You can tell where this is going right?

Now think back to the last time you felt like you failed God in some way. You failed to give your offering at the worship service, or you missed the service altogether. You skipped your devotions but somehow had plenty of time for your favorite TV show. You got exhausted and cranky and hurled invective at some one else who failed. You’re nodding your head aren’t you? We’ve all “been there done that.”

Jesus told a parable on prayer for people like you and me. It’s about a man who receives a late night visitor but has nothing to offer his guest. So he goes next door and asks his friend for bread. It’s recorded in Luke 11:5-13. The most well known verses are 9-10: Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened.

But the lesser known verse, the one with the message we often miss, is verse 8: I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. (Emphasis mine).

Jesus concludes: Which of you fathers, if you son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Here’s the bottom line on answered prayer: You don’t have to be perfect to receive the power of the Holy Spirit necessary to live the Christian life. You just need the boldness to believe that God is a better parent than you are. God does not answer our prayers for his power because we’ve been regular in our devotions; or because we are faithful tithers; or because we’ve faithfully taught, or sung, or served in some other way for so many years. He answers them because he is good.

So be bold, ASK, even when you feel like you don’t deserve God’s power. He gives it because he is good.

TORNADO OF LOVE

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life… (John 9:1-3 NIV)
…Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. (John 9:6-7NIV)

“How can a good God who loves us allow tragedies like the Tuscaloosa tornado happen?” It’s one of the most challenging questions posed when we talk about a loving, personal God who cares for his creatures enough to send his Son to pay for our sins. The technical term for the answers that theologians offer to such questions is theodicy, from theo – meaning God and the Greek dike – meaning justice.

Theodicy is an important part of the work of the apologist. But the truth is that John 9:1-7 is about as close as Jesus ever came to answering it. “…this happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” And from that day to this, whenever natural disaster, sickness, war or any other kind of tragedy comes into human life the followers of Jesus have stepped in to relieve suffering.

That’s what happened last week as a tornado struck FCC member’s Eric and Desiree Shaffer’s farm. The photos here don’t do justice to the damage nor to the recovery effort. But here are just a few brief facts: Sharon Stratton, Desiree’s Mom, was spared when two massive trees fell on her house; Eric, Desiree’ and the children were spared the destruction of their home and only escaped injury by mere seconds as all the windows on the back of the house were blown out and every tree in the immediate vicinity came crashing down. Eric’s father and step-mom Ed and Rose Shaffer were uninjured as the roof was lifted off their new home. That was the first tornado.

The second tornado was the tornado of love that poured out of the hearts of FCC’rs and others who spent the next four days supplying food, water, shelter, cars, trucks, tractors, chain saws and lots of heavy duty work to help them crawl out from under the wreckage and begin to rebuild. The work was so complete and so rapid that even though the Shaffers were grateful when the Red Cross showed up the legendary service organization didn’t have much to do. As Eric said, “I’ve learned a lot of things this week. But the greatest thing is that my worst nightmare has turned into the greatest blessing of my life.”

WHO ARE YOU?

WHO ARE YOU?

When you stand and look in the mirror what kind of person do you see? Who are you?

Some of us see people we are really disappointed in. Some of us see people who “haven’t lived up to expectations.” Some of us see failures. Some of us see the unlovely and unloved. But that is not what God sees. Consider the following scripture passages, what they say about you and what God thinks of you when you become a believer.

· Col. 2:13 - You have been “made alive with Christ” and are no longer “dead in trespasses and sins.”

· Col. 3:1 – You have been “raised with Christ” and your life is now “hidden with Christ in God.”

· Heb. 10: 10 – You have been “made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Christ once for all.”

· Rom. 5:1 – You have been justified – completely forgiven and made righteous in the sight of God. (See also 5:19)

· Rom. 8:1 – You are free forever from condemnation.

· 1 Cor. 1:30 – You have been placed into Christ by God’s doing.

· 1 Cor. 2:12 – You have received the Spirit of God into your life that you might know the things freely given to you by God.

· 1 Cor. 2:16 – You have been given the mind of Christ.

· 1 Cor. 6: 19-20 – You have been bought with a price; You are not your own; You belong to God.

· 1 Thess. 1:4 & Jude 1:1 – You are loved by God, chosen by him and called by him.

You are a righteous, complete, accepted, beloved and chosen person. This is what God says is true of you and every believer. This is what Easter accomplished for you and me. We have been forever changed, our status before God forever altered by the work of Jesus Christ, his death, burial and resurrection. But some of us have a hard time accepting that. We see ourselves as something less than God sees us, something inferior. And that has a negative effect on what we can become because: What we believe about ourselves determines who we will become.

What You Believe Determines Who You Will Become –
Proverbs says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” That’s wisdom.

Tom Friends of The New York Times asked Coach Jimmy Johnson what he told his players before leading the Dallas Cowboys onto the field for the 1993 Super Bowl.

"I told them that if I laid a two-by-four across the floor, everybody there would walk across it and not fall, because our focus would be on walking the length of that board. But if I put that same board 10 stories high between two buildings, only a few would make it, because the focus would be on falling."

Johnson told his players not to focus on the crowd, the media, or the possibility of falling, but to focus on each play of the game as if it were a good practice session. The Cowboys won the game 52-7.[1]

So if a Christian sees himself – focuses on himself - as unholy, unlovable, unworthy and incompetent, what kind of man or woman is he/she going to be?

Depressed, insecure, resentful and angry. Why? Because life for a defeated Christian feels like a game you can’t win, a role where you can never remember all the lines, a set of expectations that are impossible to meet. It feels like a two-by-four you have to cross that’s ten stories high. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to leave us feeling like that!

Depressed people don’t dream dreams. Insecure people won’t take risks. Angry people can’t build lasting friendships.

But what happens to a man or woman who begins to believe in his worth, his value, his competence, and his goodness? That man or woman becomes a world changer. That person will invest himself in life, in dreams that change things and make life better for everybody.

So let me ask it this way: What does God think of you? Is he proud of you? Does he love you? Who are you?

Musings on the Resurrection

The last scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is nothing if not brief. It lasts all of about two minutes. But those one hundred and twenty seconds, coming as they do on the heels of the betrayal and violence of Jesus’ last few hours on earth, are heavy with meaning.

Sunlight streams into the tomb, cascading down its walls as the stone, just off camera, rolls quietly out of the way. The light lands finally on the linens slowly collapsing on the ledge, no body in place now to fill them out. The camera pauses there and then slowly zooms out to the foot of the ledge, taking in the profile of seated Jesus, eyes closed, face to the light. His eyes open, looking up into the brightness, reflecting recognition, vulnerability. They close again, quiet, composed. Then they reopen, slightly narrowed, focused, horizontal, purposeful. He rises. The camera catches one last fleeting glimpse, the top of a nail scarred hand. Then in one stride he is gone, out of the tomb and into history. The scene is brief but the message is unmistakable. Nothing on earth, not even brutal death, is as it seems.

I spent some time musing on that this week. I hope that you will too. Here is what came to mind. I’d appreciate it if you would share what comes to yours.

The world as we know it, with all of its chaos and confusion, greed and brutality, disaster and tragedy, is not all there is. There is more, so much more goodness and peace, order and kindness, prosperity and joy that in the Apostle Paul’s words, we cannot even begin to imagine it.

The tiny glimpses of Jesus, the moments of spiritual clarity that have come during times of worship and prayer and meditation; the consciousness of the Presence, transcendent power manifesting itself in ultimate stillness as if one were sitting at the foot of the Red Sea watching the fish swim as Moses and the Israelites walked through on dry ground, feeling the weight of the wall of water yet not fearing it; that all of these things have been but the briefest shadow of the magnificent Power that watches over us flitting across the soul. The reality waits on the other side.

The Word of God, with all of its predictions, all of its promises, all of its wisdom and all of its judgments will ultimately be fulfilled to the wonder and awe of all the earth.

I will see Mike again, and Steve and Joseph and Dad.

And we – all of us - will see Jesus no longer, “through a glass, darkly” but face to face, and that will be enough.

THE PROSTITUTE AND THE PHARISEE

It’s a simple story told in Luke’s characteristically lucid style. Jesus is dining with a Pharisee named Simon. A woman who has obviously heard Jesus’ preaching steps into the room. Her name is not given but it is not needed. Everyone knows her, the town prostitute. But she is not composed, not there to impress or seduce. She is weeping with gratitude, on her knees over the feet of the reclining rabbi from Nazareth, pouring out years of pent-up guilt, little rivers of happiness, down upon his ankles and between his toes. She bends further now and wipes the watery dirt away with her hair. Then she withdraws an alabaster jar of expensive perfume and empties it on his feet, rubbing it in with her hands as the sweet aroma fills the room.

Simon is aghast. The Pharisees were known for their righteousness, their religious purity and high moral character. They were the successful middle class evangelicals of their day. They didn’t hang out with sinful people and didn’t approve of those who did. Scenes like this were too much for such men. “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is…” he groused within.

Jesus heard Simon’s thoughts. He knew exactly what she was, a broken woman who had experienced forgiveness and freedom through her faith. But Jesus also knew something else: exactly what kind of man Simon was, a successful man in need of humility, a man every bit as lost in his pride as the prostitute had been in her immorality. The only difference between the two was that the woman knew her sin and knew she needed a savior. Simon’s success blinded him to both things in his life.

Jesus tells Simon a story of two forgiven debtors, one who owed eighteen months wages and one who owed about two months. “Now which of them will love the forgiving moneylender more?”

Simon can’t help but answer, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”

Then Jesus said the most important thing in the whole story, the thing that reveals who he really is. “Correct!” He looked at the woman. “See this woman? I came to your house yet you have not offered to me the least of common courtesies. But she has not ceased, since the moment I walked in, to show me the greatest love and devotion. Therefore I tell you, her sins which are many have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

In other words, “Simon, in the grand scheme of things I’m the lender, I’m the one that everyone is indebted to. I’m God. Your achievements in life and religion matter very little. Your relationship to me is all important.”

And as if to put an exclamation point on it he said to the woman something only God has the authority to say, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

It isn’t what we’ve done or not done in life that determines our salvation. It isn’t how religious we’ve been or how irreligious. The only thing that matters is our ability to acknowledge our sin to the one who “holds the note” on it and trust him to forgive it. Then every room we enter will be filled with the aroma of our love for him.