Calling all idiots!!!

Is that you?  Are you responding to my call?  Oh, I sure hope you are, because God is looking for “idiots” for Him.  Now, before you jump to your assumptions about what an idiot is… let’s remember something: even the idiots club has standards.

 All of us have done idiotic things in our time.  We’ve all made some crazy, idiotic decisions in our lives, but may I ask you something?  Who thought that decision was idiotic?  Was it you or just those that were looking in on you?

 Some decisions we make for Christ are radical and seem a bit “idiotic” to unbelievers, but remember, God looks at the heart. Any radical heart that is going all out and living like a “God freak” for Him, is not seen as an idiot in His eyes.    

 Idiots often take huge leaps of faith.  They do things that seem irrational and crazy.  Case in point, let’s take Peter.   With “idiotic faith,” Peter met and experienced Christ on the wavy waters one night in a way that no one else in the world ever has.

 Idiotic faith is only idiotic to those looking in.  God uses risk-taking, pain enduring “idiots” all the time to turn people, societies, and even generations around.  Who does God most often use to turn ‘what if’ into ‘what is?’  If you want to do great things for God, some “idiotic” actions may need to be taken.  The world is going to see a lot that you do and think that you are an idiot, but don’t let that dishearten you.  Wouldn’t you rather please God and live all out for him, rather than please those around you?  That answer should be simple.

 A great quote to remember as you go along your idiot way today is, “Your ministry will never outgrow your threshold for pain.”  The world sees pain and suffering and an idiotic thing to endure for God.  Show the world that it’s worth it.  Anything that you can do for God and any leap of faith that can be taken for Him is worth any appearance of “idiocy” out there.

“WHAT?!?  They are letting HER in?!?”  You could hear the gasps and gossip quickly spread through the line at The Pearly Gates.  “That’s crazy!” one man exclaimed.  “If they let ‘Rahab the Prostitute’ in to Heaven then surely they will let all the rest of us!”  Many others chimed in to agree with his comments and make a few derogatory ones of their own.   

Let’s take a look at this ‘prostitute’ for just a moment.  Now, I pass no blame on those in line or the man that shouted out his thoughts.  It’s understandable as to why such things would be said, IF all one does is look at outward appearances.  Granted, this woman was no Mother Teresa to her community, and the man’s statement did hold truth – she was a prostitute; but was there more to her than just her line of work?  Obviously there was, otherwise they wouldn’t be letting her in to Heaven. 

In Hebrews 11, the “Hall of Faith” chapter in the Bible, we actually find this woman’s name listed.  Again, who would have thought (from an outward appearance perspective) that this woman would ever make it in to heaven or this famous Biblical chapter?  Don’t be too quick to judge.  We all hold much in common with this woman; maybe more than you think.  As sinners, we all have the same condemnation and need the same grace that Rahab did.  We have all fallen short of God’s glory (whether in lying, prostitution, hate, or gossip speaking) and need to rely on those precious words from scripture that we all have heard.  Rahab too had heard God’s Word and from it, her heart was changed. 

Though living in a pagan land and having a pagan profession, Rahab still clung to the stories of her ancestors.  She remembered being a child and hearing about the God that delivered her people and how He parted the Red Sea.  She knew the power of God and after helping a couple Godly spies hide from her community authorities, she was able to experience that Godly power firsthand. 

You can’t say something is true unless you put actions behind what it is that you believe.  Rahab trusted that the spies were from God and that they would save her and her family if she placed a red thread outside her window.  This red thread symbolized her action behind her faith.  She didn’t ask why they chose red or why it had to be outside the window; she just did it.  Because she did it, when the army came to destroy her city, she and her family were saved.   

This world around us is under God’s judgment.  God promises though, that His children (His faith followers) will be delivered from destruction if they follow His instructions.  We aren’t to ask a million questions or debate God’s calling for us; rather, we are to display faith by just doing what God asks us to do, when He asks us to do it.

What is a faith action step that you need to take today?  Just listen and obey.  Follow through with your faith.  From this, great deliverance will come.

We’ve all had those moments of utter embarrassment when we have had what I like to call a, “Foot-in-Mouth Disease” moment. See, this is a rather common disease and though only speaking without thinking first is the real cause, it still has no real excuse. It is comforting to know that people have had this disease since the time of Christ; it’s not new to our society.

Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, had this disease flare up quite often.  He was quick to speak and slow to think.  The open mouth then engage brain worked about as well for him as it does for us today.  But there was one thing about Peter that made him stand out above the rest of the disciples, even with this crazy disease following him and popping up at the most inappropriate times.  Peter had a passion that was backed up with faith.  This isn’t to say that at times he didn’t engage his “disease” by voicing his un-thought-out opinion, but Jesus took this passionate follower and saw past his diarrhea of the mouth and made him great.

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”  Wow!  What an honor to be told this from the Son of God.  Peter was defiantly not voted for the “Perfect Man” award, and as a matter of fact, he wasn’t even in the top 100.  Peter continuously did and said things that were outside of his brain, but no matter what he did, he did it with full force and with passion.

Let’s quickly look at the walking on the water experience.  With passion Peter jumped out of the boat to walk on the water in the storm to Jesus, but just seconds later, Peter is ecstatically crying out for Jesus to save him because he was drowning.  Again we see Peter show great passion by cutting off a solders ear while trying to defend Jesus (like Jesus, the All Mighty needed defending), but like the Foot in Mouth Disease, he acted before he though.

I was once told, “If you’re going to make a mistake, make it at full speed.”  No one wants to make a mistake or fail, that’s a given in life.  Just like our friend Peter though, we can know that as long as God sees that we are passionately trying to do His work for Him, then he can grow us from our little (and even big) mess-ups.   From mistakes, God can grow us and mold us to become the rock from which he can do great things.  Thank you Peter for being a screw-up that we can learn from.

So next time you make a mistake or accidentally open your mouth without thinking, think of Peter.  Ask yourself if you did it with passion and then pray that God will forgive you and help you to grow from it.  God is great like that - He loves taking imperfect people and using them to build his perfect Kingdom.           

Let the face-off begin.  In the ring (on Mount Carmel) we have Ahab (and everyone in Israel) vs. Elijah.  Before presenting the challenge, Elijah addresses the crowd of Israel: “How long are you going to sit on the fence? If God is the real God, follow him; if it’s Baal, follow him. Make up your minds!“ At this point all are aware that Elijah isn’t out there to play a game, he is there to prove a point. With that said, he then issues the challenge…

“I’m the only prophet of God left in Israel; and there are 450 prophets of Baal. Let the Baal prophets bring up two oxen; let them pick one, butcher it, and lay it out on an altar on firewood—but don’t ignite it. I’ll take the other ox, cut it up, and lay it on the wood. But neither will I light the fire. Then you pray to your gods and I’ll pray to God. The god who answers with fire will prove to be, in fact, God.”

 At first, all the spectators begin to think that this Olympic challenge will guarantee them the gold, but after some praying, shouting, dancing, and singing to Baal, their optimistic spirits begin to fall.  Again they try to get some response by using every religious trick and strategy they know of to make something happen on the altar, but still, nothing happened—not so much as a whisper, not even a flicker of response.

After hours of their nonsense, Elijah can’t take it any more.  “Enough of that—it’s my turn,” Elijah says.  He then put the altar back together, for by now it was in ruins thanks to their worthless efforts to get a false god’s attention.

Elijah then took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes of Jacob and he built the stones into the altar in honor of God. Then Elijah dug a fairly wide trench around the altar. He laid firewood on the altar, cut up the ox, put it on the wood, and said, “Fill four buckets with water and drench both the ox and the firewood.” Then he said, “Do it again,” and they did it. Then he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. The altar was drenched and the trench was filled with water.

When it was time for the sacrifice to be offered, Elijah the prophet came up and prayed, “O God, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make it known right now that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I’m doing what I’m doing under your orders. Answer me, God; O answer me and reveal to this people that you are God, the true God, and that you are giving these people another chance at repentance.”

Immediately the fire of God fell and burned up the offering, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and even the water in the trench.

How big is your God?  If you aren’t serving and living for this God that Elijah proved to be real and responsive, then what are you doing?  Just as God was willing to give the followers of Baal another chance , He is there waiting to do the same for you as well.  Confess to Him your sins, commit to follow His ways, and praise Him for just how big He really is.  He is ready and waiting to respond to you today.  What big dream might you have that now you and our big God accomplish together? (1 Kings 18:15 - 38)

Before reading this blog, I want you to take a moment right now, close your eyes, and honestly take a look at your life… your routines, your goals, what you have planned for the rest of the day, and what does a typical weekday look like for you?  Got it?  Can you vision these things? (go ahead, do it… I’ll give you a moment here…)

Now, I want you to visualize how those things might look if you applied God’s love for you to those areas?  What would you do for God today if you knew God absolutely loved you? If you really believe God loves you absolutely, that He takes total delight in you, warts and all, then you’d step out and do heroic things for His glory.  Your heartfelt answer to the above question is vital.  You were created in God’s love and image and you are called to do a job that only you can do… are you fulfilling that calling? 

In the Bible, Abraham went on to become the father of a great nation, one of the greatest leaders and visionaries to ever walk the planet, and most importantly, a close friend of God’s.  He became these things because he decided to place his faith in the fact that the God of the universe loved him just because God said He did!

This Biblical Hall of Fame hero proves his faith again and again and truly shows the world that his trust was in his God and that he knew for a fact that this same God would do greater things than he could ever imagine.  By faith, Abraham obeyed God and went to an unknown land by following the guidance of the Lord’s hand (Hebrews 11:8).  By faith, even though he was past age and his wife Sarah was barren, he was enabled to become a father (Hebrews 11:11).  By faith, when asked of God, Abraham set his only son up to be offered as a sacrifice (Hebrews 11:17).  Are you seeing a pattern?  Take a moment again and really ask yourself what it would be that you would do for God today if you believed that he absolutely loved you?  Abraham knew God’s love, and for that reason, he accomplished great things.

The good news is, the same God that loved Abraham, loves you, today.  He loves you, just because.  Now that you know this, how can you see God use you in heroic ways, as a Christian?  Remember Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

You are absolutely loved… now go act on that love with your faith.

Have you ever asked yourself the “why” questions in life? Sure as a kid I’m sure you asked many “why” questions, but now as a grown adult, have you asked yourself “why,” recently?  Why do you do what you do, eat where and what you eat, go to the places you go, hand out with the people you hang out with and why are you in the mood you are in this very second as you read this blog?  The “why” questions are very important in life because it is through the “why” questions that we arrive at the “how” questions and then the life answers. 

Without answering the “why” questions in our lives we can’t find out what we were created to do.  Each one of us has been designed for a specifically unique task; a God-given assignment, if you will, but if we don’t know what that task is, then our worth and purpose to being here on this earth is meaningless. 

Now, before you stress yourself out thinking that you don’t know what you were put here on this earth for, take a few seconds and ask yourself the “why” questions.  These questions will lead you to discover you passions and desires.  2 Corinthians tells us that Christ’s love compels us.  That means that His love, working through us, puts passions and desires in our hearts and compels us to do what it is that He created us to individually do. 

Why do you do the things you do?  Obviously you wouldn’t do them if you didn’t like to participate in them.  So where are your passions within the things you do?  Take it slow… really evaluate yourself and arrive at these answers because you are obligated to live out God’s calling in your life.  It is for Him that you are on this earth and for His work, that He gives you breath each day. 

Life isn’t easy; I’m sure we can all agree on that, but just as this life faces us with huge obstacles, it also faces us with huge opportunities.  These opportunities are placed there by God and are meant to grow and mature us in Him so we can do greater work for Him.  There are bigger payoffs in this life than beauty, fame, and fortune.  God’s hope is that we will find those greater payoffs by doing the work that He has individually and uniquely designed for us to do.  Once in God’s will, working in the field God created you to work in, you can truly experience the abundant life that God’s promises for you.

What “why” questions do you need to ask yourself this week?  Just remember… The “why” leads to the “how” and the “how” leads to life.  God is waiting just right around the corner to bless you with that life, abundantly.         

Remember growing up and the process you had to go through before ever driving?  Chances are, as a kid, you probably had a tricycle, scooter, bike, or a motorized driving machine of some sort.  The last thing your parents would have ever done would have been to just hand you the keys on your 16^th birthday and say, ‘Go drive!’  Even before getting that first license, you had to go through some sort of classes (or at least you should have.  If you didn’t, please remind me not to ride with you!)  You spent time growing up around vehicles, watching others perform maneuvers while driving, went through classes yourself to learn how to do what you had been observing for 15 or so years, and then even after completing professional driving instruction, you still had to wait an entire year before you actually got to drive on your own.

Why in the world is driving such a huge process?  Hmmm… Well, for starters, it is very dangerous to drive!  Lives are at stake when anyone is behind the wheel.  Our society trusts that when you get in your car to drive, you have gone through the proper steps to be experiencing that privilege.

God looks at the tasks that he gives us in the exact same way.  To throw us to the finish line of an assignment would be just like putting us behind the wheel of a car without any experience.  Though God has great and wonderful things for us to do, the process of doing the items he entrusts us with are just as important as the overall outcome of the mission we accepted. 

A great example of a man who had to experience a process (and quite a long process) before a successful outcome could be displayed, would be Moses.  Moses was a great “Hero” of the Bible.  See, God could have just let Moses become pharaoh over Egypt, but Moses wasn’t ready to get behind the wheel of that car.  He needed a lot of work before his days of driving Egypt could ever occur. 

Though not normally thought of as a “problem” when being asked by God to do something, part of Moses’ problem was that he was too strong.  Moses needed to realize that God couldn’t use him to his greatest potential until he saw how weak he really was and that all true strength comes from the Almighty God. 

God prepared Moses overtime, not all at once.  Just as God took great men and women of the Bible and chose to make them go through the process of growth and maturing before assignments were accomplished, so he chooses to have us do the same.  What is most important to God is the work that He does in us before we ever arrive at the awaited goal. 

It takes a lot of faith to know a goal that God has in mind for you and to continuously be working toward that goal, but yet wait and wait and wait for it when it seems so far away.  Well, starting today, stop making excuses!  If you know the goal that God has been tugging at your heart to reach, accept in your heart and mind that one has to submit to God’s process before a successful outcome can ever emerge.  Be willing to go the extra mile and to grow with the process and I guarantee, not only will the outcome of the task be great… but you too will be a much greater person in Christ.  

There it sat, the piano I had remembered as a small child.  Oh how I dreaded my mom making me go to classes and bribing me to practice for just 30 minutes each day.  Back then it seemed so hard to focus on just a simple piece of music and truly, the interest just wasn’t there.  Now, I look back on those hours of wasted time and wish I had actually applied what my mom, the great pianist, had instilled upon me. 

After staring at the dusty music box for a few minutes, I wondered if it was even possible to get piano lessons at my age.  Music lessons, especially those that started at the most basic level, were for kids, weren’t they?  Thoughts of what people might think about me taking lessons also went through my head.  The daughter of such a great pianist should already know how to play the piano.  I’d hate to bring embarrassment to my mother by trying to pick up the skill now.  Maybe I could just do it privately and in secret, so that no on would know.  The desire was really there and the gift of music was in my blood.  This time I wanted to make it happen; even if it was just at a basic level.

Mrs. Silvia Spivey was more than thrilled to take on a new student.  After just four weeks I felt confident in everything she had taught me.  I knew that four lessons didn’t make one skilled at anything, but if I continued with my one hour lessons, one time a week, for a year, I thought I’d be good enough to at least play a song for my mother.  It came as a shock to me that I actually wanted to practice during the week.  My busy schedule kept me from practicing as much as I wanted, but still, progress was being made, even if it was just a little at a time.

After three months with Mrs. Spivey she asked if I might be interested in taking lessons twice a week.  She was proud of how far I had come so quickly and seemed to think that I had great potential to make it far, like my mother, with the piano.  I agreed to the extra lessons, but wasn’t sure I could really do the extra practicing.  After all, this was only a hobby and I did have a social life to keep up with.

What happened next completely blows my mind.  Before I knew it, my secret was out.  Mrs. Spivey had played a few of my recorded lesson to a couple of groups seeking a professional pianist.  Though I felt quite inadequate to even accept an interview, I knew that if Mrs. Spivey suggested it, then I should go for it.  My practicing hours increased because I was loving nothing more than this beautiful box at fingertips.  My hours with Mrs. Spivey increased too.  Our time together no longer seemed like lessons, but rather, a bonding experience between two close friends.  I made it a point to not miss a single minute of our sessions together.  A few times I even asked if I could stay for just a bit longer to go over a couple more things.  She always agreed to any extra time I asked for.

Let’s now take a minute and rethink this story, because it truly is a spiritual lesson from above.  (You knew I was going to throw that in there, didn’t you?)  If for just one hour a week, we go to church and listen to the Pastor preach, do you think we will grow much, spiritually?  Minor progress might be made, but true growth and change won’t be very evident.

Now, let’s consider not only going to church (our lesson) once a week, but also taking a few minutes each day to spend time with God in prayer and Bible reading (practice).  This, my friend, will begin to increase your relationship with God and your spiritual growth will truly flourish.  Just as I desired to practice the piano more, the more comfortable I became with playing it, so will you with your spiritual walk with Christ, the more time you put in to it. 

You will only get out of it what you put in to it.  This truth applies to everything in life.  God is there with arms opened wide, waiting for you to come to Him.  A super close relationship with God doesn’t happen overnight, just as a master pianist doesn’t come from just a couple lessons and practice sessions.  It takes time to build a relationship and time to grow.  Consider taking just few extra moments this week with God.  Watch how just a little extra time turns in to great extra growth.