What’s holding us back?

My 5-year-old son recently asked me if everyone goes to heaven, to which I told him heaven is for those who love Jesus.

“Why wouldn’t someone love Jesus?” he asked me. I told him some people have never heard about Jesus.

With innocent eyes, he replied, “Really?”

We talked about telling people about Jesus and I pretended to be one of the kids in preschool class. I asked him questions and he proceeded to give me the gospel from a 5-year-old’s perspective.

Couple things really touched my heart, on top of the just the shear beauty of hearing him talk about Jesus dying for our sins on the cross. My 5-year-old son communicated the gospel to me and did it without fear of looking dumb, hurting his reputation of being labeled an outcast. He also showed enthusiasm in wanting his friends to know about Jesus.

So what’s holding us back? This is why Jesus rebuked the disciples for trying to forbid the little children from seeing him and also why he says our faith needs to be like a child’s faith – believing in something we call cute when a child does it and then turning to our adult peers and calling them stupid for believing in such nonsense.

We need to wake up.

I recently attended a Newsboys concert in Huntington and one of the opening bands, Anthem Lights, has a song called “Can’t Shut Up” about not being able to shut up about the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ.

“We’ve got to break the silence; we’ve been quiet for too long,” is one of the verses. And they are absolutely right.

Why is it we stand up and defend America, but we shy away when our faith is attacked?

Why will invite our friends for a drink Saturday night but not to church Sunday morning?

We need to have a response like my son, who couldn’t believe that someone might not have heard that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and forgives us and makes a way to heaven for all eternity.

We need to have that childlike faith and desire to want the people in our lives to know this truth and not be ashamed to tell them how Jesus has changed our lives.

You are part of God's ministry

When you hear the word ministry, the first thoughts that come to mind are your pastor, worship leader and maybe your elders.

What about you? Are you in the ministry?

Scripture says you are. If you have called upon Jesus to be your savior, then He has called on you to a part of the ministry.

In 1 Peter 4:10, the apostle reminds followers of Jesus that “each us you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

He says if any of us speak, we should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. And when we serve, we should do so with the strength that God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

In the two preceding verses, Peter says we do this because we are to love one another deeply and offer hospitality without grumbling.

When you share the gospel with someone, when you pray with someone or when you show compassion on someone, and do so in the name of Jesus, you are doing ministry.

In Luke 10, Jesus sends out an appointed 72, two by two, because the “harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

It’s easy for us to say they were active participants in the ministry. But they were really no different than us, even the apostles, because at this point, it’s still very early in Jesus’ ministry.

Remember, you don’t have to have some theology degree or have gone to Bible college to be part of the ministry. If you’ve trusted Jesus as your savior, for the forgiveness of your sins, you are part of His ministry.

God has given you certain gifts, whether it is writing a blog or writing music or simply having people into your home.

If you aren’t sure where your spiritual gifts are, there are plenty of assessments available online. One good one that I found is Gifted2Serve at http://buildingchurch.net/g2s.htm.

It has 125 questions, but it can help you narrow down what areas of ministry you can best serve. Maybe that will be taking care of young children at church. Maybe you will find your strengths are in praying for people or maybe you’ll find that God has gifted you with the ability to walk up to complete strangers and start a conversation about Jesus.

Pray about the ministry God would have you be a part of and use tools like a spiritual gift assessment or simply talking with friends or your pastor about what strengths they see in you.

Remember, we don’t know how much time we have on this earth. Our personal ministry may last 50 years or we may only have five minutes.

Live so that the Lord will one day say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

God will fight for you

A friend shared a verse this week that really gave me rest on a day when I was feeling attacked from within my mind about who I am in Christ and was simply overwhelmed with life’s circumstances.

That verse is Exodus 14:14, in which Moses says to the fleeing Israelites “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

By itself that verse is uplifting and calming. But when you read the surrounding text, it develops a much deeper meaning.

Moses had led them out of Egypt, but they knew Pharaoh’s soldiers were coming after them. So they reach the Red Sea and tell Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

In the face of certain death and re-enslavement, Moses responds, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

In the very next verse, God responds to Moses, saying, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on,” before God uses Moses’ staff to part the Red Sea.

What are you facing today? A diagnosis, job loss or death of a loved one? Have you tried to fight your own fight or been tempted to go back to the world’s ways because it would simply be easier?

Heed the words of Moses. Stand firm and you will see deliverance. But stand firm in the stillness of knowing the Lord will fight for you.

If there’s any doubt he’ll fight for you, turn to the New Testament and see that he sent his son, Jesus, to die for you on the cross.

God wasn’t cheering from the sidelines, “Go, Bill!” He said “I know you can’t win this fight on your own, so let me fight it for you by sending the true champion.”

Remember also not to forget the times in your life that you faced an impossible situation like the Israelites and the Red Sea and God has swooped in and done a miracle in your life. It can be easy to forget, just like the Israelites did as they wondered through the dessert for all those years.

Not only did the Lord part the sea, but he sent bread from heaven and caused water to flow from a rock.

Each time, however, the people forgot how BIG their God was. Let us not forget that the God in heaven that we serve is a BIG God. And he loves you and yearns for you to see the BIG sacrifice he made for you.

The 1 Percent

Recently, we’ve seen all across the nation people setting up ‘Occupy’ protests over the idea that they are the 99 percent, while contending that the top 1 percent is getting richer at their expense.

I’m not hear to argue that one either way; but I am here to say that I am the 1 percent…when it comes to Jesus’ flock.

In Matthew 18:12, Jesus tells the story of a man who has 100 sheep that he loves so much he is willing to leave the 99 to find the one that has gone astray or gotten lost.

In that sense, I am the 1 percent. I was lost for a long time and there were plenty of times I went astray even after Jesus found me 10 years ago.

There also are times, though, that we aren’t lost or go astray, but simply stand still while the shepherd leads the rest of flock. We feel insignificant and unlovable or are just weary from life’s circumstances.

In those times, we tend to forget the lengths our shepherd, Jesus, went to restore us to his flock.

A song by Mike’s Chair, I think, sums up not only how we feel in those down times. But it also reminds us of the promises of God.

“I know you've heard the truth that God has set you free, but you think you're the one that grace could never reach. So you just keep asking, what everybody's asking …

“Am I more than flesh and bone? Am I really something beautiful? Yeah, I wanna believe, I wanna believe that I'm not just some wandering soul; That you don't see and you don't know. Yeah I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe, that I am someone worth dying for.”

As a Christian, I know this truth. I know that Jesus’ death on the cross was sufficient for my sins. I know that if I put my life in his hands and trust his death and resurrection, I will be a part of his flock for all eternity.

But there have been some moments even after I accepted Jesus in which I needed his help to believe that I was someone worth dying for, someone worth leaving the 99 to find.

Jesus says we’re so valuable that when the shepherd finds that one sheep, he is happier about that one than the 99 who were never lost.

In Luke’s gospel, Luke records Jesus as saying that there is “more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

In closing, remember the great lengths Christ went to save you: dying a painful, undeserving death on the cross so that we can have fellowship with our father in heaven.