My Thoughts On The Election

I have received messages of concern for our nation’s future.  As you know, we have been diligent in praying for God’s will to be done and the decision has been made. That does not mean we stop praying. No matter how you feel about the leadership of our country, they are our leaders and we must pray for them.  We must continue to be diligent in praying for a spiritual revival in our nation—truly our greatest need.

One thing I sense in the messages I am receiving is fear. We must guard against this fear because we know “God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Still, the storm is very real and the waves are imposing. Jesus has not left us guessing about what we should do in the face of rough weather. In fact, the disciples encountered a treacherous sea storm detailed for us in Matthew 8. Even though they physically had Jesus with them, they let their circumstances drive them to fear.

The storm set in suddenly. Not only did the disciples face the dangers of the rough waters, but they were surrounded by darkness as well. There were no life jackets. There were no life boats. They felt they were at the mercy of the great storm.

In a panic, they called for Jesus crying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” (Matthew 8:25). As Jesus woke from His sleep, He did not instantly calm the storm. Instead, He asked the disciples, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” (Matthew 8:26). Only after His rebuke did He calm the wind and waves.

Many times, we want God to fix our problems instantly. We want the raging waters around us to cease immediately. Yet, sometimes in the middle of the crashing waves, God has a word for us. He wants to deepen our faith and to encourage growth in Him before He intervenes. He wants us to follow in faith—no matter how dark our circumstances seem.

When Jesus spoke to the disciples, He acknowledged that their fears were great and their faith was little. The relationship between faith and fear is like a seesaw. When one is up, the other is down. So when we allow fear to rise, our faith will decline. But the opposite is true as well. When we increase our faith, our fear will fall.

Jesus wasn’t talking about our saving faith, but our daily living faith. Our saving faith remains constant, but our daily living faith rises and falls according to the strength of our relationship with God. When we are not in constant intimacy with God, the first storm that hits will create fear and panic. When we give God the crumbs of our time and attention, our faith and understanding in Him will weaken.

Faith that conquers fear depends on absolute trust in God. It is the kind of faith that has an open heart to whatever God provides for us. It is a faith that is manifested as an utter dependence on the sovereignty of God. When we live by faith, we know that even when the storm is at its worst, we can trust that God is working out His purposes for us.

When Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith, He was referring to their failure to trust Him in this practical situation. How often do we trust God with our eternal souls, yet not our daily needs? God wants us to trust Him not only with our salvation, but also with our relationships, our resources, and our futures. He wants to see our professed faith in action. He wants us to put our complete trust in Him for every detail of our lives.

When we walk closely with God and trust Him daily, our faith in Christ will conquer our fears. When we focus on God, fear fades into the background. At the first sign of fear, our plan of action should be seeking God in prayer.

No matter what we face, I will continue to put my full faith and trust in Jesus Christ and will continue to proclaim His Truth here at home and around the world.  He is my salvation and my hope—as He is yours.

Here is the audio from what I shared with our church on Wednesday, November 7.

http://michaelyoussef.squarespace.com/michaels-blogs/my-thoughts-on-the-election.html?utm_source=Copy+of+The+Collision+of+Two+Runaway+Trains&utm_campaign=Election&utm_medium=email

The Authority of Truth

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you —James 4:8

It is essential that you give people the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual— you cannot act for him. It must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead him to action. Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he was previously. But once he acts, he is never the same. It is the apparent folly of the truth that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Once I press myself into action, I immediately begin to live. Anything less is merely existing. The moments I truly live are the moments when I act with my entire will.

When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will, not necessarily externally in your physical life. Record it with ink and with blood— work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God’s almighty power is available on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, confess we are wrong, but go back again. Then we approach it again and turn back, until we finally learn we have no business going back. When we are confronted with such a word of truth from our redeeming Lord, we must move directly to transact business with Him. “Come to Me . . .” (Matthew 11:28). His word come means “to act.” Yet the last thing we want to do is come. But everyone who does come knows that, at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God invades him. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act has joined you to God and tapped you in to His redemptive power.

http://utmost.org/the-authority-of-truth/

The Trial of Faith

If you have faith as a mustard seed . . . nothing will be impossible for you —Matthew 17:20

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith— faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.” The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is— “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).

http://utmost.org/the-trial-of-faith/

Storm Tracker

“Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” Matthew 14:29-30

Normally, my favorite way to drive a speedboat is full-tilt, skipping across the water with the wind in my face. But this time my usual penchant for speed was tempered by the precious cargo being towed behind the boat—two of my granddaughters, Sophie, who was 4, and Maggie, who was 6, were going tubing for the first time. Our plan was to pull them gently along behind the boat on a huge tube designed with little cockpits for them to sit in.

So, I’m sitting in the driver’s seat of the speedboat and Maggie and Sophie are decked out in their life vests, nestled down into the tube, ready to go on their first-ever tube ride. And, good grandfather that I am, I resisted the lure of the boat’s horsepower and gently eased the throttle down ever so slowly, not wanting to scare the little girls who were already feeling a little tentative. But though well-intended, I was clueless. The tube was not designed to go slow. When pulled fast enough, the tube planes out on top of the water. When pulled slowly, water gushes over the front of the tube and actually pulls it underwater.

Well, you can imagine the terrified look on Sophie and Maggie’s faces as the tube took on more and more water! Their panicked cries of desperation could be heard all across the lake. Think of it, only 4 and 6 years old, and headed to Davy Jones’s locker!  Needless to say, I stopped the boat immediately and we began reeling the tube in. The whole time we were pulling the tube in, we kept calling, “Look up here, it’s going to be okay! We’ve got you; you’re alright. Look up here!”

As they got close to us and heard our assuring words, their panic subsided and you could see their faces relax. They were no longer focused on the water around them and the real danger in the lake. Getting close to and keeping their eyes on the one helping them made all the difference.

To me that seems a lot like what happened to Peter in Matthew 14:1-34. No tubes and no speed boat, but real danger nevertheless. His bravery and courage took him quite a distance—in fact, all the way outside of a boat onto storm-tossed waves in the howling wind. For a few minutes, it was just him and Jesus, and Peter was able to do the impossible. He was walking on water! But then his attention got diverted. Suddenly he saw the churning water and the angry waves, and, Scripture records, he became afraid. The circumstances didn’t change, but the focus of his attention did.

But then Jesus reached out, drawing Peter’s focus away from the wind and back to Him. Back to the safety and security that Jesus always promises in the midst of the storm.

That’s the reminder we need when we’re in the midst of life’s storms. It’s so easy, isn’t it, to fixate on the very real dangers and distress that come with life’s problems. And yet our loving, gracious, infinitely powerful heavenly Father calls out to us: “Look up here; it’s going to be okay. I’ve got you, and I will bring you in safely.”

For Peter, it started with a simple, unadorned, heartfelt prayer. “Lord, save me!” We can cry out those same words as we look away from the waves and into the face of our Father today. As the old song says:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace!

Remember, He didn’t bring you this far to let you drown!

YOUR JOURNEY…

• How have you seen God’s saving hand bring you safely through earlier storms in your life?
• What “waves” have captured your attention right now?
• How can you tangibly turn your attention away from those waves and storms and toward the face of God?

http://getmorestrength.org/daily/storm-tracker/

The Method of Missions

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . . —Matthew 28:19

Jesus Christ did not say, “Go and save souls” (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but He said, “Go . . . make disciples of all the nations . . . .” Yet you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself. When the disciples returned from their first mission, they were filled with joy because even the demons were subject to them. But Jesus said, in effect, “Don’t rejoice in successful service— the great secret of joy is that you have the right relationship with Me” (see Luke 10:17-20). The missionary’s great essential is remaining true to the call of God, and realizing that his one and only purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus. Remember that there is a passion for souls that does not come from God, but from our desire to make converts to our point of view.

The challenge to the missionary does not come from the fact that people are difficult to bring to salvation, that backsliders are difficult to reclaim, or that there is a barrier of callous indifference. No, the challenge comes from the perspective of the missionary’s own personal relationship with Jesus Christ— “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Matthew 9:28). Our Lord unwaveringly asks us that question, and it confronts us in every individual situation we encounter. The one great challenge to us is— do I know my risen Lord? Do I know the power of His indwelling Spirit? Am I wise enough in God’s sight, but foolish enough according to the wisdom of the world, to trust in what Jesus Christ has said? Or am I abandoning the great supernatural position of limitless confidence in Christ Jesus, which is really God’s only call for a missionary? If I follow any other method, I depart altogether from the methods prescribed by our Lord— “All authority has been given to Me . . . . Gotherefore. . .” (Matthew 28:18-19).

http://utmost.org/the-method-of-missions/

Productive Pain

“All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

I’ll never forget when our youngest child Matthew fell and broke his wrist. It was grotesque! His arm took a sharp left turn at his wrist and then turned again to resume its normal journey to his hand.

We rushed him to the hospital where the doctor began to set his wrist. I watched as the physician pulled and twisted Matthew’s arm. I wanted to jump up and pull him away from my son! But I simply sat and watched, knowing that the agony was necessary to make Matt whole again.

If we trust earthly doctors to do that for our children, how much more we should be willing to trust God, the Great Physician, to reset our broken lives “to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). One of God’s purposes in pain is to brand the image of Jesus in our hearts. Can we weep with those who weep? God may need to stain our cheeks with our own tears so that we can genuinely empathize with others as Jesus did. Are we self-sufficient? God may need to strip away our security to conform us to the God-sufficiency that Christ displayed. Are we faithless? It may require a tragedy to teach us to trust the Father as Jesus did.

Next time you feel broken, don’t panic—praise Him! God is at work!

Life’s fractures can be mended By faith in Christ the Lord— At first the pain but then the gain And usefulness restored. —Hess

God’s purpose in pain is to brand His image in our hearts.

http://getmorestrength.org/daily/productive-pain/

But I Have No Enemies by Scot McKnight

Matthew 5:43-48

“Love your enemies.”

Matthew 5:44

G. K. Chesterton once observed that the reason Jesus connected “neighbors” and “enemies” is because they are often the same people! Chesterton had a knack for saying the cleverest of things, but on this one he got it exactly backward. Jesus’ concern is not so much that our neighbors have become our enemies, but that we are summoned to make our enemies into our neighbors. That difference is what Jesus is all about.

We must ask, “Who are our enemies?” For Jesus’ world, the “enemy” undoubtedly was a covert reference to the Romans because of their oppressive presence in Israel–taxing, shoving around, and building. Jesus had just referred to how a Roman soldier could demand help for transportation (Matthew 5:38-42). We might be tempted, then, to say “Well, I like the Romans. I have no enemies. Can we move on to Matthew 6 or to Paul?” But let’s slow down.

We measure enemies according to the measure of Jesus, and that measure is table fellowship. So, let’s ask ourselves a different question: Who would you much rather not invite to dinner? Or lunch? Or coffee? Think about it because it is right there at the intersection of our life and fellowship with others that enemies emerge. In my experience, many American Christians treat Muslims and homosexuals as their natural enemies. Just to make this even more clear, I’d like to ask you what I’m asking myself right now: How many Muslims and homosexuals have I spent time with this year? The way to break down partitions between us is to take the first step in inviting people to coffee or lunch or dinner.

At the table, we experienced the grace of fellowship with Jesus; at the table we hear the words over the bread and cup and find reconciliation. Jesus was completely convinced that we are called to love all people, and he took the radical step of more by saying we are to love our enemies. Who is your enemy? Are you willing to share the table with that enemy? Jesus invites you to the table so you can invite others.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What have you learned to be signs that someone is your enemy? Do you think Jesus really wants us to show love to our enemies? What do you think that means for Jesus and for us? What are you doing about turning enemies into neighbors?

PRAYER: Our Father, how wonderful it is that you have turned us from enemies into your family and neighbors. How great it is that we have experienced fellowship with you at your table. And how wonderful it is that we have experienced fellowship with so many brothers and sisters at your table.

Now, Father, take that table and apply its graces to our enemies. Reveal to us just who our enemies are. I ask you to do this for me. Show me who my enemies are through this simple idea: Who would I rather not invite for coffee or lunch or dinner?

And I ask you to give me the courage, through the example of Jesus’ own life and the power of the Spirit, to do what you have done: make enemies into neighbors. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/i-have-no-enemies

That’s a Little Over the Top by Scot McKnight

Matthew 5:21-26

“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.”

Matthew 5:22

One time on our campus, I got into a heated argument with an administrator. In fact, it was mostly a one-way set of accusations from my mouth against that administrator’s stupid, unjust, and unprofessional act. I used those very words. When I was done I walked away with my blood pressure up, my heart pounding, and my mind asteamin’. I felt very good about myself and what I had said because I had cleared my chest. I felt good about it until the next week when I was teaching the Sermon on the Mount at 8 a.m. to my Jesus of Nazareth class. Then, I read the words from the passage above, and my “interaction” with the administrator came to mind. I wish that event had not come to mind, but it’s the way God’s Word works.

The problem was that as I read the words of Jesus, I got to thinking that Jesus’ words were a little over the top. I mean, after all, anger isn’t the same thing as murder–I hadn’t murdered, I had only chastised. But the words of Jesus kept pushing back against my “over the top” thinking–Jesus sets out three ways of seeing the same thing: anger, calling someone “Raca” (a term of contempt, fill in the translation with your own terms), or calling someone “fool.” Jesus says anger expressed in words of contempt fit the bill, and my words “stupid” and “unprofessional” were close enough. As I continued to teach, I entered into a prayer of confession and I did make up with that administrator later, because I realized Jesus had just pointed his finger at me.

Jesus expects more of his followers. He summons us not just to tolerate people we don’t like or those with whom we sharply disagree; he summons us to reconciliation at all costs (the point made in 5:23-26). He wants us to see that murder begins with anger and accusations, but not only that. Our anger and accusation and contempt can wipe someone off the map of existence and fellowship with us. So Jesus calls us to more…a more exemplary, loving life that seeks fellowship and love with all.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: With whom are you angry? Have you used some caustic, accusatory terms for other humans today or yesterday or this week or month? Do you need to make things right? Do you see that Jesus wants us, because we are called to “more,” to live reconciled relationships with others?

PRAYER: Our Father, even though my sin occurred years ago, its reminder leads me to confess the sin of anger and accusation. I ask for your grace of forgiveness, and I am grateful for your forgiveness and the reconciliation I have experienced.

I ask for quick revelations from the Spirit when anger and accusation begin to roll themselves toward the destruction of another human. I ask for your Spirit to speak quickly and to stop the process. I ask also for the grace of revelation to reveal where else I have acted in anger and am in need of reconciliation. I ask for the courage to respond in obedience.

I ask this because in your Son you changed us from your enemies into your dear children; you took us from rebel lands and made us participants in your kingdom. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/thats-little-over-top

Get a Haircut

“These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” Matthew 15:8

There we were, sitting in the middle of a statewide meeting for ministry leaders when the pastor of a large church leaned over and said to me, “You know, Joe, your hair is too long for you to be able to sing in my choir!” Actually there were probably better reasons that I couldn’t sing in his church choir, but I just smiled and said, “Oh really?”

The guy, who in so many words had told me to “get a haircut,” was a household name in our denomination, was nationally sought after as a preacher, and was what every aspiring minister hoped he could become. So, given how strict he was, you can imagine how shocked I was to later hear that he abandoned his church and family to move in with a woman he had been counseling.

I want to be careful not to sound holier-than-thou, but there is an important lesson here. If we are not careful, we can conform to a bunch of rules that keep us looking good on the outside while ignoring the condition of our hearts. It’s like buying good-looking peaches only to find out that when you cut them open they are bad on the inside.

Jesus confronted this “we’re-OK-because-we-keep-our-rules” attitude when the Pharisees pointed out that the disciples were not washing their hands before they ate. It’s not like the Pharisees were worried about any kind of sanitary issue. No, they had their tunics in a twist because the disciples were breaking a tradition, that is, not following their rules. I’m sure you could have heard a pin drop when Jesus stopped them cold by saying to these keepers of man-made rules, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’” (Matthew 15:7-8). What a gut-wrenching indictment!

So in light of Jesus’ strong words on this point, how do we know when our hearts are far from God? One of the ways we know is when we see our Christianity in terms of the externals. Authentic Christianity is not about the right haircut, being at church every time the doors are opened, serving as an elder or using all of the “Christianese” lingo known to man. You can be all cleaned up on the outside while pride, jealousy, greed, and a dozen other internal demons happily feast on your heart. Let’s remember that “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

Jesus longs to have a real heart-to-heart connection with us that expresses our love to Him in heartfelt acts of devotion instead of just living a life of dutifully keeping all the rules. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

My pastor friend found that he ended up with nothing when his heart was far from God—no ministry, no family, no devoted relationship with God. Fortunately, he repented and ended up reconciling with his wife. He would be the first to tell you that a true love for Christ cannot be replaced by a squeaky clean record of conduct according to “the rules.” When we let the rules rule, our faith is reduced to something like grocery shopping—it’s just another thing on our list of things to do.

So the choice is yours. Your life can be all about the burdensome duties of your Christianity or about the blessings of a heart that is devoted to Jesus. And, by the way, if your heart belongs to Jesus, the rules will take care of themselves!

YOUR JOURNEY…

• Pray and ask God to give you His perspective on the man-made rules in your life. Does He want you to follow them as a sign of respect to people in authority, for the safety of others, for your own safety?
• Divide a sheet of paper into two columns. List five or six of God’s rules in one column and five or six man-made rules in the other column. How are God’s rules different from man-made rules?
• When you interact with people, are you more concerned with what’s on the outside or what’s inside? How does this compare with God’s perspective?

http://getmorestrength.org/daily/get-a-haircut/

The Witness of the Spirit

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit . . . —Romans 8:16

We are in danger of getting into a bargaining spirit with God when we come to Him—we want the witness of the Spirit before we have done what God tells us to do.

Why doesn’t God reveal Himself to you? He cannot. It is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the way as long as you won’t abandon yourself to Him in total surrender. Yet once you do, immediately God witnesses to Himself—He cannot witness to you, but He instantly witnesses to His own nature in you. If you received the witness of the Spirit before the reality and truth that comes from obedience, it would simply result in sentimental emotion. But when you act on the basis of redemption, and stop the disrespectfulness of debating with God, He immediately gives His witness. As soon as you abandon your own reasoning and arguing, God witnesses to what He has done, and you are amazed at your total disrespect in having kept Him waiting. If you are debating as to whether or not God can deliver from sin, then either let Him do it or tell Him that He cannot. Do not quote this or that person to Him. Simply obey Matthew 11:28 , “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden . . . .” Come, if you are weary, and ask, if you know you are evil (see Luke 11:9-13).

The Spirit of God witnesses to the redemption of our Lord, and to nothing else. He cannot witness to our reason. We are inclined to mistake the simplicity that comes from our natural commonsense decisions for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of redemption, never to our reason. If we are trying to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder that we are in darkness and uncertainty. Throw it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give you the witness of the Spirit.

http://utmost.org/the-witness-of-the-spirit/