Life Here and There

Every time I stand up to preach, I have the privilege of watching God’s living word accomplish dynamic things in the lives of people. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul spells out three distinct functions that the Word of God performs in our lives…

As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his children.
~ 1 Thessalonians 2:11

Now watch this…

To “exhort” is to BUILD UP people.

To “comfort” is to HOLD UP people.

To “charge” is to FIRE UP people.

I don’t know about you, but I need all three of those in my life every single day I need to be built up because I crumble on my own. So Word of God… exhort me. I need to be held up because I falter on my own, so Word of God… comfort me. I need to be fired up because I flicker out on my own. So Word of God… charge me.

And every time I preach, counsel, advise, or encourage, let me do these three things in the lives of others.

Here’s my whole life in a nutshell…

For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
~ 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10

I turned… in repentance and faith, from sin’s doom to Jesus. It was an awesome day. It was in my past and it solved my past so that my past will never come to hurt me for all of eternity, and neither will my present or future failures once they are in the past either. I turned… it’s in the past.

I serve… the living and true God. That’s my life. I’m bound to Him because of the awesome work of grace He has done in my life. What else is there to live for, really? I’m His, bought with a price, and He is mine, pledged to me and guaranteed by the downpayment of the Holy Spirit in my life.

I wait… for His Son from heaven. Death is momentary and God’s wrath toward me has been extinguished by the very blood of Christ. So now I wait. He’s coming. You may or may not believe it, but you’ll believe it when it happens.

Like math? An integer is a whole number, right? Our word integrity comes from the same root as the word integer. Integrity is really the concept of being whole, of being one, or of being the same all the time. D. L. Moody said that character is who we are in the dark.

Integrity is the foundation for our relationships as well as our reputation. Much is at stake every time we make another moral choice. Do what is right and it will probably cost you. Do what is wrong and it will most likely cost you far more.

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Yesterday, our church family blessed us (yet again) with a wonderful luncheon for Pastor Appreciation month. I’m honored!! I often stand before our congregation and tell them I’d do what I do for free (of course, I don’t mind that they don’t take me up on that) because of the joy it brings. They really make it easy in many respects to be their Pastor. Let me tell you some ways this is true…

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There’s an old hymn I love called Little Is Much. The words are very simple…

Little is much when God is in it
Labor not for wealth or fame
There’s a crown and you can win it
if you’ll go in Jesus’ name.

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Blogging, for some, is a hobby. For others, it’s a career. For me, it’s perhaps a tiny bit of each (more the latter), but it’s mostly a way to get an extremely important message out – how you can know you have eternal life. In addition to blogging here at Life Here and There, I also blog here, here, and over here. Plus, I really like Twitter, Facebook, and a few other sites. So I’m beginning to understand what it’s like to expand an online influence, and though it’s certainly not the greatest priority of my life by far, I do see an eternal and purposeful impact.

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I shared this message in revival last night and wanted to pass it along here…

Acts chapter 2 is a controversial chapter. Christians like to go there to argue about when the Holy Spirit arrived, whether we can duplicate the miracle of speaking in tongues, and whether this was the “baptism” Jesus talked about. But I think God’s focus is on the end of the chapter, in verses 41 and 47, where thousands of souls were being saved and lives changed.

In verse 41, the Day of Pentecost concludes with 3,000 souls being saved and added to the church. Verse 47 tells us that God kept doing this daily, but verse 42 is the bridge that connects the two. It simply says, “and they continued…” That phrase never really hit me before but it did this week. What’s the difference between having one big day (that soon passes) and having a series of big days? Continuing! Going on like the Energizer bunny!

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Amazon’s Kindle Wireless Reading Device (aff) has just dropped in price today from $299 to $259! Why is that cool? Because with a Kindle, you can read books anywhere. I’ve seen people sitting in cars in the school car rider line, in waiting rooms, and driving down the interstate (kidding) reading their Kindles. Why don’t I have one? Because I use the Kindle iphone app, which is free. I’ve bought a few books though.

Other companies are releasing competing devices, but the Kindle may be the king of the market for a short time. Personally, I still love the feel of a nice hardback book – the older, the better – unless my wife is shopping. Then the iphone is nice!

I admire my wife’s ability to write about matters of the heart, and deeper matters about our lives. I’ve been limited in my writing about our struggle with infertility (which has ended now), but she’s put it quite well over at her blog, The Sweet Life. Read on…

What the Lord Has Done

I just finished reading Building Your Leadership Resume: Developing the Legacy that Will Outlast You (aff) by Johnny Hunt. Here’s the bottom line… I feel like I’ve sat at at a table in a coffee shop with one of America’s great Pastors as he’s filled me with word upon word of great advice!

The book is forty short chapters in length, each one centering around a different aspect of the Pastor’s leadership (and any leader, for that matter). He deals with the huge heart issues as well as the day-to-day tasks and productivity issues. Rather than try to summarize all of the chapters, I thought I’d pass along the things I’m inspired to do more and better now that I’ve read this book:

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