He Gets It...

HE GETS IT…It continues to plague our thoughts…‘How can the Lord who lives in heaven possibly understand our lives here on earth?…and especially in the 21st century? Many of us know He loves us…we know He has God-like understanding…we know He see’s our lives…but we still go it alone way too much because we’re not convinced He ‘feels’ our situation. The truth is Jesus went to great lengths to feel what its like be human! He learned what it is like to be tired…to be confused…to feel weak…to be abused…to bleed…to get a sliver …to be frustrated…to be enticed by evil…all the common challenges that come with humanity.
“We know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the
descendants of Abraham. Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in
every respect like us, his brothers and sisters…Since he himself has gone
through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested!”
~Hebrews 2:16-18
Have you ever thought about why did Jesus went to such lengths as to actually step into the complete human experience? I’m quite sure a different salvation plan could have been enacted. I’m not convinced this was the only way…it was just the way He chose to do it. Why? I think this verse explains it well. He wanted to help us as much as He could. Christ wasn’t interested in just finding a better way for us to return to the Fathers embrace…He also wanted to strengthen us every step of the way…personally! He wanted to feel ‘all things human’…so we’d trust Him when He offered us ‘all things Godly’! He wanted to start His conversations with us with the words, “I’ve been there”…so he’d earn the right to then say, “so follow me out of this struggle”. He gets it! He put Himself in the place to ‘get’ what it feels like to be human. The question is, do you believe that He ‘gets’ what it feels like to be you? ~Verlon

The Source Of Generosity...

THE SOURCE OF GENEROSITY…Have you ever thought about where you learned generosity? Was it by watching a parent or a friend? A further question, What is your generosity level? Are you occasionally generous? Consistently generous? Sacrificially generous? These are good questions to ponder, because it is only through giving to others that our self-centeredness is tempered. And it is only through giving that we begin to express Christ!
“And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that
comes from your faith.” ~Philemon 1:6
I have been doing a rather deep study of the early church fathers, starting with Ignatius who was the first church leader after the Apostle Paul, and working all the way through 2000 plus years to present day. It has been immensely interesting to see how these leaders have visibly expressed their faith. For example, the first communion services were actually called ‘agape feasts’…or what we might know today as ‘love feasts’. In some cities they did this 3 times a week, in which all the people would bring large & generous portions of food to a meeting place. They would invite the poor to come and eat with them. Then following the meal, in the tradition of Christ they would ‘break the bread’ and ‘lift the cup’ and remember the Lords death together. This was how communion was done the first 400 years of the church. You can see why Paul was so frustrated with the Corinthian church when the poor showed up as usual, but instead the church people gorged themselves while leaving the poor standing against the walls unfed. Great generosity has always been deeply tied to Christ… and thus even to the Lords supper. I am intrigued by the words in the above scripture that show how ‘faith growth’ causes ‘generosity growth’. Do you see that? Generosity can be learned, generosity might even be a personality trait, but generosity is always the proof of real Christ-like faith. ~Verlon

It Is Well With My Soul...

IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL…The hymn, ‘It is well with my soul’, has been a tremendous blessing to thousands since it was written in the last century. But the back-story as to why it came to be it even more tremendous. Like so many other blessings, it emerged out of pain. The author, Horatio Spafford put his wife and two daughters on an ocean liner making their way from the east coast to England. Not to long into the voyage, news reached back that the ocean liner had sunk. Horatio waited anxiously for any word as to whether his wife and daughters had survived. After a few days he received a telegram from his wife in England that simply read, “Saved, Alone”! Horatio immediately boarded the next ship to go and be with his wife and grieve their loss. When they got to the place where the previous ship had sunk, the captain came and got Horatio, took him to the rail and told him, “this is where the ship sank. This is where your daughters are”. As he leaned over the rail & stared into the dark waters, the words of this hymn came flowing into his soul. At a time when there should have been nothing but the deepest of lonely grief, there emerged a flow of words & tones that were unexplainable. A gutteral comfort, in the form of a song of surrender. By the way, this hymn has undoubtedly been sung at funerals and times of loss more than any other. Now that we can imagine him on that ship deck that day…Let’s look at the words again:
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
“it is well , it is well with my soul”!
May Christ do for us what He did for Horatio…and in the time when grief should reign alone…the pain is tempered with a hymn of comfort. ~Verlon

His Very Own People...

HIS VERY OWN PEOPLE…There is a difference between having Christ in our life and Him having us in His. There is a difference between us having the Spirit in us and us being immersed in the Spirit. Most people in an individualistic culture like ours instinctively place ourselves at the center of this conversation and only perceive what’s its doing for us. Today I want us to stop and think what it does for Christ to have us in His life. Look at this verse…
“He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, and to make us his very
own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.” ~Titus 2:14
There seems to be a certain ownership the Lord has and a certain need to have a people around Him that are truly His. Christ has an obvious need to have a core of people around Him that ‘gets it’…or maybe it’s better said, ‘gets Him’. A people who are close enough to Him to carry in their hearts a sense of His call…and feels a bit of what it’s like to host the redemption plan. In some way, this is the larger goal of the Savior, to sweep us into a a deeper place as His followers. A people who feel like they are ‘His Very Own People’. The last line of the above verse reveals the common trait that marks those who are His very own…GOOD DEEDS. This core of followers around Him are completely defined by their good deeds. Scripture talks so much more about this then we’ve been noticing in recent years. It’s one of the topics that fell off the theological grid in the last generation. But it’s making a come back! There are hundreds of verses that associate Christ’s close followers with their deep desire to fulfill His works and leave behind a mountain of good deeds. Many Christians are willing to give left-over energy to Christ’s work…but prime energy? First energy? Holding His tasks as priority?...that’s a stretch. And that’s is the difference between having Christ in our lives, vs. being in His. Do you feel a call to something deeper?
~Verlon

What Do You Hate?

WHAT DO YOU HATE?…I know it’s politically incorrect to hate anything. The primer of tolerance is to make room for any idea and anything someone else deems important. But the truth is, once we define what we love, we are automatically then defining some things we hate. For instance, when you really love a new car, you hate the idea of someone taking a hammer to it. When you really love a particular person, you hate the idea of something harmful being done to them. You see what I mean? What we love establishes what we hate. Let’s look at this verse;

“You who love the Lord, hate evil.” ~Psalm 97:10

I suppose it rather easy to be indifferent to many kinds of evil, as long as we’re not doing it. But if we truly love the Lord, and understand that when anything works against His plans, it is the very definition of evil. Then I guess there is a place for us to stand in which we actually hate all expressions of evil, because we see how it breaks Christ’s heart. This is a bit different than the adage of, ‘life and let live’, isn’t it. However, there is something quite healthy about it. Some could over wear this truth and become emotional basket cases, because there is so much evil in the world. And I’m quite sure that’s not what this verse and others like it had in mind. However, to wear it rightly does make the lines within us extremely clear. There is something very balanced about a person who knows what they love and knows what they hate….That knows who they love and reacts to the things that degrades their loved one. So let me ask it again…DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HATE? ~Verlon

It's Already In You...

IT’S ALREADY IN YOU…Dealing with limitation and self-doubt is a constant thing, isn’t it. Somehow we seem to lack the ability to measure all of our resources against the present needs and challenges. We are quick to add up our known abilities & our energy levels, but we seem to stop looking after that. And if a challenge is greater than those measurements…doubt & worry moves in.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and
self-discipline.” ~II Tim. 1:7
You know that point when you think you are tapped out? Well actually, you’re not! Most of us are blinded by the bleed-over from our pre-Christ days. Prior to Christ, we had to rely on our personality strengths and abilities. But when Christ entered our lives, He didn’t come alone. He brought some empowerments with Him of a divine origin. While we kind of know that’s true, we still default back to our human way of empowering our lives. We pull out our package of abilities each day and use them until we are drained. Then we assume we’re done and welcome worry with open arms. Here’s a good question. Why were you over-using your own limited supply of strength to begin with? Christ brought with Him an unending supply of courage…an unending supply of power…an unending supply of love…and even an unending supply of self-discipline. Are you kidding me? We even have self-discipline?...The ability to wrestle our self-desires to down to the mat and pin them? Yes we do! And here’s the final shocker…THEY ARE ALREADY INSIDE OF YOU! Christ brought them with Him when you invited Him to move in. They reside in your spirit because He lives in your spirit. So, rather than measuring your reserves by just knocking on the door of your mind and heart…try knocking on the door of your spirit. And brace yourself. What will be coming out of that door, will be potent. Do you think that’s what it means to “live by the spirit”? ~Verlon

Those Who Sacrifice...

THOSE WHO SACRIFICE…The mission of Christ has only advanced because of sacrifice. It started with the great sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, eternally scarring His soul with the indelible stains of our sin. And the mission has continued through the ages because there were people willing to suffer so the good news could be told again to the people in their generation. This begs the question, who is willing and able to sacrifice now?
“But share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.”. ~II Tim. 1:8
These are the powerful words of Paul to the young and developing church leader, Timothy. Paul had already learned to sacrifice. Timothy was on the front side of the lesson. There is a simple word in Paul’s empowerment of Timothy that we need to meditate upon at length. It’s the word “by”. Most of us get the corrolation between suffering and the advancement of the gospel. What we struggle with is how we can become able to pay that price. Finding the strength to suffer and sacrifice is honestly the deepest question we have. Paul obviously saw that same concern in Timothy’s eyes. So in this verse Paul gave him the secret, and this is it. Strength to sacrifice comes “by” the power of God. God dispenses the ability to rise early, work hard, sacrifice our schedules, deprive ourselves of comfort and pour ourselves out so others can be blessed by Christ. Downloading the power of God is the way of life for THOSE WHO SACRIFICE. ~verlon

Diluted Godliness...

DILUTED GODLINESS…Each of us has a definition of Godliness in our minds. And most work hard at closing the gap between that vision and our actual behaviors. But the fact remains, our God-like-ness gets undercut by our human desires at times. Here is an interesting test Paul gave to Timothy to protect the purity of his Godliness…
“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment…if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”. ~I Tim. 6:6
Wow, is it possible that godliness is mostly measured by contentment? Is it further possible that any godliness that isn’t coupled with the symptom of contentment isn’t a very good version of godliness? I don’t know about you, but I find the underpinning questions of this verse a bit disturbing. Mainly because I find to much discontentment in myself. We live in a part of the world where wealth is so available, especially when compared to the nations south of the equator. We live in the wealthy northern hemisphere. Even in these economic downturn times, people all around us are taking exotic vacations, buying houses and driving nice cars. This American reality stirs up more in us than we probably realize. A voice of comparison emerges, and those tones come across our spirituality like a fog, and they blur the motivations that Christ is endeavoring to inspire in us. Somehow we must all learn to silence that ‘comparison voice’. We can do so by verbally thanking the Lord for the food and clothes we do have. Any other response leads to one place…DILUTED GODLINESS. ~verlon

Divine Persistence...

DIVINE PERSISTENCE…I am grateful that God is willing to reach for our attention more than once. Where would we be if we got only one chance to get it right. But thankfully, that’s not the way He is. He brings His truth over and over and over again. In fact, one of the modern theologians calls the Holy Spirit ‘the hound of heaven’, because He is so persistent in His search for people. The name is actually catching on…others are now using it too. There is a very interesting story in the old testament about the prophet Jeremiah writing a word from God on a parchment and sending it to the king. That was the way God instructed and warned people in those days. The king however was perturbed by what he read and responded in an ugly way…
“Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire…until the whole scroll was burned up.” ~Jer. 36:23
I guess it’s safe to say that the king didn’t want to hear that particular word from God. What’s intriguing is God’s response to the kings protest. Four verses later it reads…
“The Lord gave Jeremiah another message. He said, ‘get another scroll, and write everything again just as you did on the scroll King Jehoiakim burned.” ~Jer. 36:27
Isn’t that hilarious. The Lord just kept coming. It’s true today too. Truth just keeps coming! You can curse it, you can burn it, you can run from it, you can even outlaw it, it just keeps coming! Suppressive efforts ultimately fail! In our life-time we’ve witnessed the end of Mao’s cultural revolution, the iron curtain and the Berlin wall. All were bastions of secularism…determined to suppress the gospel message. All are now gone! This gospel must truly be important…His Divine Persistence isn’t showing up again and again for nothing. ~Verlon

The Different Way...

THE DIFFERENT WAY…It’s hard for us to imagine how much has changed with Christ’s death on the cross. We would have needed to be present prior to Christ to grasp how large of an affect the new covenant had on human life. I think it’s important to revisit this, so we have an appropriate appreciation for how much more available God has made himself to us. This verse touches it…
“This is the new covenant I will make with my people…I will put my laws in their hearts…”. ~Hebrews 10:16
The old covenant placed the responsibility to build the bridge back to God on mans shoulders. By maintaining a righteous set of attitudes and actions would one have access to God. Some today are still trying to work out their spiritual lives that way. They feel responsible to get themselves cleaned up and build a bridge back to God. Thus their Christianity is a very wearisome task. They seriously need our prayers. But the new covenant that Jesus opened up removed all that. When Jesus died upon the cross, He became the bridge. No longer was access to God gained by man forging forward into righteousness, now it was Christ that was forging forward…into our lives. I think most Christians understand this, in theory. However, I fear many don’t understand how it plays out in actual daily experience. The old covenant was navigated from ‘the mind’ and ‘raw human will’. That was the only way we could put on righteousness and close the gap between us and God. But the new covenant is navigated from a completely different place in our person. The verse above reveals how the new covenant is enacted from a deeper part of the human soul. In the new covenant, Christ himself moves into our spirits, and starts writing His plans on the walls of our hearts. Then these Christ-inspired desires start flowing out of us. Christianity becomes an upsurge…rather than an obligation. That’s how the new covenant affects us. That’s the different way! ~Verlon

Overflow...

OVERFLOW…The most common reason people don’t feel they can do much for God is…they’re already tired! Unfortunately we misunderstand something when Christ calls to us. And we decide our involvements like we decide all other things in our lives…by measuring our resources. But Christ’s stuff isn’t like anything else in life. It simply doesn’t initiate from our resources…like other things do. Believe it or not…Christ isn’t asking us to pour out of our tired and depleted resources of mind, body and emotions. He actually only asking us to let His resources flow through us.
“May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.” ~I Thess. 3:12
Notice the word ‘overflow’. This is a critical and constant part of God plan that we all truly need to understand. Whenever God asks us to engage in His work… He’s actually asking if we’d mind if He filled us up with His unconditional love until it spills over in a direction of His choice. Gary Chapman in his classic book, ‘Love Languages’, gives a metaphor of how everyone ‘a love bucket’ in their soul. And when that bucket is full, they perform well in life. But when it gets empty, we see another side of them. That’s an interesting way to view the soul, isn’t it. This truth is never more experienced then when engaging in the work of Christ. His underlying assumption of every request is that we become filled… filled…filled…until a divine generosity spills out in the direction He is pointing. When we go to work…our boss is asking for us to deplete our energy for his business. Even when we play…we are depleting our energy for our amusement. But when we step forward to fulfill the requests of Christ…we are agreeing to let His amazing love pour into us…until an unexplainable fullness occurs…and a surprising generosity ensues…and an overflow starts spilling into someone else’s life. Saying yes to Christ…is saying yes to OVERFLOW. ~Verlon

On The Front Side...

ON THE FRONT SIDE…What is it about human nature that forgets the past miraculous interventions of God at the first sight of a new challenge? I don’t get it. But we all do it, don’t we.
“They did not remember his power, or the day when he redeemed them from the foe, when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.”. ~Psalm 78:42-43
Most of us have some great stories about God showing up in the most interesting way and bailing us out just in the knick of time. Whether it’s the way Christ saved us, or the way He made a miraculous provision from an unseen source or the way He literally shredded a threat that was pressing against us, we have our stories of how God showed up for us. And yet, these are the last things we think about when we are faced with a new and present problem, aren’t they. Almost instinctively we go into panic mode, our memory goes blank and we start thrashing like we’re drowning. In our panic we actually start to believe that this threat is way worse than any previous one, so the miraculous God stories don’t apply this time. Actually, we’re just facing another…ole fashion...run of the mill…impossibility. The kind that are common to man. We’ve seen em before, we’ll see em again, and some are here now. Boy are we going to feel stupid when He shows up again…like He always does…and dissolves away the impossibility…like He always does…and restores our balance…like He always does. Think we can ever learn to remember ON THE FRONT SIDE? ~verlon

A Quality Life...

A QUALITY LIFE…There is a weak spot in many peoples thinking. They are mistaking quantity for quality. In other words, they are rushing after as much of life as they can grab. They squeeze their schedules to the bursting point to add more hobbies, sports camps, vacation sites, and don’t forget the new run of theater stage shows. For them, life is good when they get ‘more’. Without realizing it they become “a mile wide but only an inch deep”…as a person. They have quantity…they don’t have quality in their life. There is a scriptural call to know what makes for quality. Here’s an interesting way to view it…
“Jeremiah, I have made you a tester of metals, that you may determine the quality of my people”. ~Jer. 6:27
I guess in some way, every spiritual leader is a tester of the quality of God’s people. But what I wanted you to notice is how important quality and depth is to God. There’s an old saying, ‘what gets measured gets done’. God knows that human nature gets sloppy on the soul-deep issues. For that reason He has put people in each of our lives that in some way measure our depth and mirror it back to us. Sometimes we avoid these measurements…probably like we avoid stepping on the scales after the holidays…but these measurements remain all the same. In later verses, we see that many people in Jeremiah’s day had drifted away from soul-deep-ness. They had rationalized abandoning orphans & widows…their worship of God had slipped to second place in favor of many other things…and their quality of life was degenerating before their very eyes. There is a timeless lesson here for all of us. QUALITY OF LIFE FLOWS FROM QUALITY OF SOUL! There is a subtle divine pressure to stop rushing after another activity that we think is a ‘must’. There is a soft divine voice calling us to look inward…to test our metal…to mirror Christ and His ways…to deepen our soul…to find the real ‘quality life’. ~Verlon

Thinking Filter...

THINKING FILTER…I saw an interesting bumper sticker a month ago, “don’t believe everything you think”. Humanity the world over tends to treat their thoughts as ‘gospel’. Further, they seldom stop to evaluate the thoughts they are holding in their minds and hearts. If its there…its just there…end of story. Consider this verse with me:
“Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, worthy of praise…think about these things”. ~Phil. 4:8
Thoughts lead us to places. They are not inanimate. They are not static. Rather they create movement. They cause our minds to create answers and make plans. So if we are spending time with thoughts that aren’t helpful, then our minds will start serving that unhelpful thought and creating ways to empower that thought. This is an unhealthy pursuit. For this reason scripture points to the wisdom of only keeping thoughts around that have a helpful and hopeful future, rather than a degenerative and downward pull. We are free to think whatever we want. But do we really want to? Do we want to be so undisciplined as to keep thoughts bouncing around in our heads that prompt painful plans? The above list is a great antiseptic against such negative mental fodder. Take some time to read and reread this verse until it becomes for you an actual THINKING FILTER! ~verlon

Intentional Forgetting...

INTENTIONAL FORGETTING…It’s early in the football season and already I’ve heard the phrase “he’s got a short memory” uttered at least 10 times. It’s usually referring to a quarterback who threw an interception, only to run back on the field a few minutes later and throw a touchdown. Some football players are better than others at forgetting the mistakes of a few minutes ago and making the next play in uninhibited fashion. That’s an admiral trait.
“Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal…the upward call of God. ~Phil. 3:13-14
It’s the mistakes of yesterday that keep most Christians from finding the best version of their ‘upward call’ today. We humans are so ridiculously affected by our history isn’t funny. We are clearly over-informed by the historical perspective, rather than a future call. We presuppose the way God is going to show up today based on what happened yesterday. And we presuppose our own spiritual performance based on our worst moments of the past. Why do we do that to ourselves? Can we ever stop anticipating the future based on the weaknesses of yesterday? In short, can we develop a short memory of our frailties? We will never strain forward boldly into any future so long as we are remembering our pasts. It takes a singular laser-like forward focus to actually move into the future with a boldness and momentum equal to our calling. Perhaps its time for you to do some INTENTIONAL FORGETTING! ~verlon

Confidence...

CONFIDENCE…There is a downside to becoming a confident person. When we grow in our education and aptitudes a beguiling voice starts sounding…attempting to lure us away from our true source of personal effectiveness. Here is a warning…
“Glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.” ~Phil. 3:4
There is something profoundly unshakable about being dependent upon Christ for our daily strength. Yet there is a need, and even an expectation for us to develop our skills and aptitudes. But when we do, a temptation emerges that wasn’t there before. The temptation to lean on what we’ve learned and the skill-set we’ve developed. All so suddenly the dependency we grasped early in our walk with Christ becomes eclipsed by a new dependency…self development! In the above verse Paul revealed his struggle with these dueling voices that were calling for his allegiance to depend on them. In a moment of unusual candor he stated he had many reasons to lean on himself. He was a highly intelligent and educated man. Further he was deeply devoted and capable of more sacrifice than most. And if that weren’t enough, he had many well-developed aptitudes in leadership and theological reasoning. He was tough, smart & engaged…and he knew it. But Paul had one more thing that some brilliant Christian leaders had somehow overlooked…he had the ability to remember his first dependency…on Christ and Christ alone. Where lay-eth your CONFIDENCE? ~verlon

Day Of Christ...

DAY OF CHRIST…It’s human nature to get comfortable in our routines. We can get so comfortable with certain seasons of life that we forget it’s only a season. I fear this has happened in part to many in the church of Jesus Christ.
“holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” ~Phil. 2:16
I am moved by the phrase, ‘the day of Christ’. This verse is obviously talking about a season in time in which the influence of the Lord is more prominent than other times. In a different scripture Paul used the phrase, “the day of salvation” to refer to these present days where the salvation of the Lord is available to all. In yet another scripture Paul talks about the ‘judgment of works’ where the saints will appear before Christ to be rewarded for what they accomplished for Him on the earth. It too is a season where the Christ is front and center. And then there is the reality that a person can enter into a daily walking relationship in which His divine influence becomes huge in their lives. What ever way you look at it, there are seasons in which the influence of Christ runs high. This is a deeply important time on the earth. And if we are keeping attentive to Christ’s daily leadership, it’s a deeply important time in our lives…important enough for us to consider and reconsider and re-re-consider how to best invest ourselves in the DAY OF CHRIST? ~verlon