Take your place or be given one

Deuteronomy 31:14 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, the time for you to die is near; call Joshua, and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, that I may commission him." So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting.

If you feel the Lord calling you to a job or place of service you might feel tempted to go and prepare yourself. That would be good. But what if you started down a part of seeking the way to “get ahead”? In almost every field you can find help with the process of getting ahead, but ahead of what?
What you usually want to get ahead of is others. I was told over and over again in training for ministry that “unless you’re the lead dog, the scene never changes”. This became to me a graphic image of how far we have diverted from being a “body” and how much ministry is not a race for the lead. But you can also go into a time of redneck contemplation and consider the truthfulness of this statement. Here are some thoughts to consider.
• Is there only someone ahead of me isn’t there someone beside me?
• Is life only a race, what about the scenery, the views of daily life?
• Even if you are the last dog, is life all pulling? What about all the other things we do beside work?
• Do people born in North Korea, India and other places spend their life trying to figure out how to get to America so things can be easier, less confining and with less social restraints?
• Why would we bring one man’s motto into the realm of God? Why not learn from God what life should be like?

In the above passage Joshua is like David, years later. They both were chosen and called before the time for them to take their place. The time or ceremony of setting in place can be called a commissioning. It was the Lord’s good please for them to “be the guy” while living under the guy there were going to replace. Joshua was about to become the leader of the nation of Israel. He was about to be given the Law to live out and the Promise Land to conquer. Generations would be effected by his life.

Do you want to do something great with your life? Do you want to be important, to make an impact? Do you feel like you are in computation with others? Do you feel like other people are the ones that can make or break your life? If you are living under and in the world system, then that is the way it is. But in the Kingdom of God, the rules are different. So different that the world cannot understand how the last dog in the pack, the one overlooked and despised, the one serving and helping all the others – is the lead dog.

Matthew 20:26-28
"It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you (lead dog) shall be your servant (involuntary helpers or all others), and whoever wishes to be first(the best) among you shall be your slave(involuntary servant); just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Let Us make man in Our image

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (27) God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

It was agreed in heaven that we would be created in the image and likeness of God. It was heavens plan that we would be a people of God, men and women of God. Yet living our lives on the earth with this identity is one of the hardest things we do. There is barely a moment when we are not being tried to leave behind our identity and be conformed to the identity of this world.

God is content within Himself. One way we live out our identity in God is this contentment too. It is enough to be like Him and all the things we do, all the striving to be something, is the influence of the world seeking to remake us into another image. Even the most devout believer is hourly tempted to add to their identity the ways of the world. If you are in business, you face the pressure to add to your calling the acceptance and ways of the world. You will be pressured to conform to what the world thinks a business person ought to be and to deny the simple devotion of first being a believer and having all things follow that. So too the Mom will not be left alone to be a loving Mother but pressured to live up to the worlds standard of mothering. She will be tempted to go beyond devotion to Christ and perform in such a way that the never satisfied world will be happy with her.

So what specifically may the world be seeking to remove us from? What is the spirit of this age and the rulers of this world seeking to break off of our lives? One thing is fellowship and communion with God. God said, “Let us”. In His nature God is communion and fellowship. Humanity was created like no other creature, with heightened capacity to have fellowship and communion. We not only gather in herds (cities and towns) but we build family units of love, protection, devotion, support and training.

The anti-Christ spirit wants you to build your life on the identity of being alone. It desires that you feel you must be independent, self- sufficient and thus, disconnected from the Creator. God on the other hand, desires that you and I live in the reality He made for us, the reality of unbroken fellowship. At any moment in time we have access to God. God is always with us. We are made to live our entire lives in fellowship, community and felt companionship. Even when God hides himself from us, it is for deeper and more intimate communion.

Have you ever been tempted to quit the faith because you did not feel like God is real, you wondered if He was there? Maybe you judged what God was doing by a lack of His felt presence. Somewhere deep within us we are aware of this reality of “if God is real we should feel Him, encounter Him”. This is one of the battle grounds. The whole fallen world is against you. The whole system of fallen humanity desires that you do not live in community with God.

To take a step toward fellowship with God turn away from the images of this world. Turn away from striving to earn or receive status and value from the people of this world. Embrace the realty of your createdness, the reality that you were made for fellowship with God. You can live each moment of your life in communion with Him. Even when you mind fails to recognize it, your spirit will abide in union. It is not good for you to be alone. The more you silence the voices of this world which seek to make you into their image, the more you will be able to hear His voice resounding in your life. It is not easy, but few eternal things are.

One thing and more.

If joy was easy it would be less joyful.
My best friend is unfriendly in his devotion to me.
Revelation is better held than observed
When you need to shout – whisper
Freedom results in a life of service to others while bondage has only self.


It seems like mankind keeps trying to make God into a very small image, one that is easy to grasp. This may come from our desire to move Him where we will and control Him. I believe the reality of God is that most of His beauty is hidden in extremes. It is like God takes two extremes and offers them to us as a snap shot of who He is. He does this, not like a coin having two sides, but as two very different things being the same thing. It is like the God of three who is one.
Could it be that God loves that? Does He love the busy worshipper, the simple proclaiming of profound truths, the humility of greatness and the devotion of the distracted lover? Man would tend to say, “let me be glorified by my achievement”, but God says, “enjoy living”. One is the pursuit of an idea so that we can arrive, the other is daily enjoying the gift of life we have been given. While we may think that the focused pursuit will have the best results, we miss that reality that we are made for relationships.

To practice the presence of the Lord is to surrender your focus, to a partnership with God. And then, since you are walking with God, others will be freely entering and exiting your daily life because he invited them in. So now the life of focus is filled with God invited distractions. Your ability to stay on trask and achieve is interrupted by divine desire to have your life full, but full of what? Living!
There are numerous Christians seeking to grow into maturity in Christ Jesus by cutting off the things of life so that they can focus on God and mature. This may be good for a season but it only leads to immaturity. We are called to be light in the dark. We need to be more humble and seek not to protect our self and our ideas as much as live out fully the life God has called us to, a life of living in the extremes with Him.

Over the past few years I have heard messages about the “one thing”. I have listed below some of the text from those messages. Please note that the “one thing” was different for each person. This is God’s way of extremism. He could have easily of given us an outline of devotion. But instead He gave us Himself in a relationship that is expressive, simple, complex …. We are called to know the unknowable. What could be more exciting than that? Oh, by the way. Some of us will have one “one thing” and others of us a few more.

(Psalms 27:4) One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.

(Ecclesiastes 7:18) It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.

(Mark 10:21, Luke 18:22) Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

(Luke 10:42) but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

(Philippians 3:13) Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

Loving God and Others

Relationships matter. God calls us to relationships with Him and one another. Yet we are daily tempted to live “on our own” and interact with others according to what we need or desire. This “me” focused pressure manifest in a person’s prayer life when they mainly pray to get answered prayers. Praying to get answers to prayers is not bad, it just isn’t as fulfilling as having a relationship with God that transcends personal needs. God is the source and center for all we need, but according to the teachings of Jesus, “Jesus is not all we need”. We need one another too.

So how do we relate in the prayer room? Even if we are not talking to one another or praying for each other, is there a building up of one another in relationships?
• Just as you go to a movie with friends and mostly do not interact with each other, so too being in the prayer room increases our relationships one to another. Doing it together matters. This is true in hunting, fishing, sporting events, movies and numerous activities we do together but do not focus on one another.
• If you are called to a life of prayer or just called to give an hour or two a week to intercession, having a place brings accountability and wars against isolation. Sure you can pray alone at home. But you can also be encouraged by others seeking the Lord. It’s like “birds of a feather flocking together”.
• We are physical beings and we are spiritual beings. Why our bodies may not be connecting in the prayer room, our spirits can be entering into fellowship and unity. It is a spirit of unity that we seek for our city and region, yet we can be distracted from seeing this spiritual endeavor as we look for physical manifestations. These two, the physical and spiritual, are not in competition but complementary.
• We are instructed to know people “not after the flesh”. In our world of seeing, we can be deceived that appearance is everything. Being with others in a mainly spiritual atmosphere helps us to know one another in an entirely different way.

Every family that has family devotions knows that while they seek God together, God can strengthen personal relationships. Even when the focus is not on the family, the family can be bound together in love and devotion for one another.

In my isolation
You did not touch me
Yet your presence
Healed by soul
Love unbounded
Reached out to me
Speaking brother
“You are not alone"

False teachers, prophets, apostles….false everything

In the wisdom of God, He allows both the wheat and the tares to grow together until it is time to bunch up the tares. These tares are not false teachers or prophets, they represent “false everything”. They represent all the stuff that is sown into God’s field so that the real is chocked out or at least diminished in growth. So you may be thinking in the natural and wonder, why doesn’t God believe in weeding His garden? God does gather the weeds, but only after they have served His purpose for His people.

Matthew 24:5
"For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many.

Just as we pray “in the name of Jesus”, people are going to come in that same spirit, “in the name of Jesus” and tell us that Jesus is the Christ. That is good, that is as it should be. Yet even some of these are going to mislead many. Are these false prophets, shepherds or teachers? Probable not.
In this passage in Matthew Jesus gets to false prophets in verse 11, but this section is a warning of all the stuff in life (what is to come) that can get us off track. Good people with bad direction, wars, international conflict, famine and earthquakes are all going to be stuff you need to go through and stay on course. God is giving us this “heads up” so we are in the know and not focused on this stuff, but Him.
A false prophet, teacher or Christian is not an immature one. A false is one who tries to take the place of the real. When someone who is not called to be a worship leader tries to be one, that would be a false worship leader. The same goes for pastor or teacher. When we go beyond the will of God for our lives, even if we think it is best for us (especially if we think it is best for us) we enter into a self-centered or man-pleasing motivation and choose ourselves over God. That can, for a time, be immaturity. But if we do not grow up we can mature into rebellious self living as we live our lives in the church. Do you know of any people who have loved God for decades and yet are still in bondage to themselves? Are they false Christians or broken Christians? God does know but we may not.
Presently in America I think we face the biggest challenge of being mislead through our longing for an easy life. We have strong desires to be a blessed people and our desire to be a blessing to others is fading. We are presently challenged to give according to our desires rather than the will of God. Sacrifice can mean, “Sharing the extra I have left over” and dedication can become “what I do after all my personal and family needs are met”.
God instructs us to discern according to fruit – not gifts. But we might be in some muddy waters if our vision of fruit is “man’s idea” and not God’s. (Isn’t there anything we can do on our own?) I encourage everyone to look carefully at and for the fruitfulness of others, just as soon as you get that thing out of your vision that is irritating you. When you can look on others with love and not fear or anger, you can see well.

Best Ways to Control

Here is my meditation on the best ways to control others
1. Pretend not to hear what they are saying. You can give this technique even more power by saying some mocking word in reply – like “excuse me”.

2. Quickly get mad about most anything you don’t like. It won’t take long and people just won’t trouble you with stuff you don’t like. All good for you.

3. If you are not all that skillful yet at #2, you can follow up by going to others who know the two of you and say “I don’t know what is wrong with _______________”. You can also say “I just don’t know what they were thinking” as long as you really mean “I don’t know what is wrong with”.

4. Moan or groan when you are talking to people and they say things you disagree with. Turing you head is disgust or rolling you eyes helps people with hearing problems “get it” faster.

5. If you are in a discussion you can say about anything as long as you start with “I agree, but I think if we were wise…” Don’t say this to fast. Take a long pause after “agree” and say the word “wise” and thoughtfully as possible.

6. Don’t say “we have never done that before”, that just keys in those who know how to control the controlling person. You want to ask, “has that worked in the past” and since they never did it in the past it has not worked, so if it didn’t work in the past, why try it now.

7. Don’t be in a hurry to try and stop things you want to control, just slow them down and the busyness of life will take over. Instead of going forward suggest “slowing down for a little more insight”. Taking time to get everyone on board is a great way to control too. When was the last time everyone was on board (don’t mention that)?

8. If you find that you want to control people who are going to spend money in an area or way that you don’t want – just remind them that they promised to do ______________________ before they made any others investments. If you have been with this group long you should have several things they were suppose to do but you got them to not do them because that is not what you wanted them to do. Make sure you remember the things they were to do but failed to do, you can always use these later.

9. Threaten to quit. Don’t threaten to quit yourself, but rather say someone else will quit if this goes ahead. This other person should be someone who doesn’t like the direction and someone who is honest. Even if they are willing to yield you can gain control by threatening the group with this other persons leaving, someone who they probably like more than you.

10. If all else fails and you think your efforts to control are lost, go all out in the opposite direction. Go to the store and ask for those “cheerleader” vitamins and promote, encourage and sell others on this new direction. Hopefully others are so sick of you by now that they will go completely in the opposite direction just to avoid agreeing with you.

A Great Harvest

If a great harvest is coming to Peoria and Central IL, we presently need to have many more troubles!
As I have prayer for a million souls from Central IL, I realize that if God answers that prayer, we will need every church in the region to take part in their discipleship and fellowship. And if the present trend continues some will go one place for worship, another for fellowship, a third for recreation and activities and possibly another for prayer. The church in Central IL could end up sharing people. It could be like one church with numerous ministries, personalities and emphasis. But have I been trained enough by God to let this happen?
Do I have enough humility and enough love to allow others to be vital in the work of the Kingdom? Do I feel a desire to correct the leadership of others? Do I want to avoid certain leaders who are Godly people, but just not enough like me to be trusted?
If we had more troubles then we presently do we could learn (even faster) how to act, and not react to those who are different than we are. We could learn how to suffer with Christ and in Christ and not be wounded or feel rejected when God moves through someone other than us. We could learn how to relate and talk with one another so that problems are solved and not just overlooked. Wow! If we had more troubles we would be gaining authority in the Spirit to minister to others, we would forgo our blessing to be a blessing to others.
So in my mystical redneck way – God bring on the darkness that I may learn that light invades the dark. Help me Father to be more faithful (full of faith) than secure, more redemptive than comfortable and more joyful in tribulation. Now what is it that tribulation does again? Rom. 5:3