September 30, 2011

The Booster Rocket
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Friday, September 30 2011

“After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: “Moses My servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them-to the Israelites.” Joshua 1:1-2

A rocket launch is truly an amazing phenomenon to me. Tons of weight is stacked vertically to the sky with thousands of gallons of fuel exploding in a matter of moments. Soon the rocket drops its take-off boosters and uses additional boosters to move the rocket to the next stage of the mission. The first engines have a unique purpose…to get the rocket to the next stage.

Joshua was known for almost 40 years as “Joshua, servant of Moses.” God’s preparation for him required years of selfless service, training in the desert, and tests of faith. Those preparation years were booster rockets designed to move Joshua into each new stage of his development and his ultimate calling.

God allows each of us preparation times to lay a foundation that He plans to build on. Some of those foundation times appear to be laborious and meaningless, yet these varied experiences are what God is using to frame your life for the message He plans to speak through you. Without these foundational experiences, the Jordan River can never be crossed and we cannot enter the Promised Land.

Embrace these times of seeming inactivity from God. They, too, are a rocket booster to your next stage of your walk with God.

Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 9/30/2011

Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near.
–Isaiah 55:6, NLT
Jesus told her, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.
–John 11:25 NLT

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September 29, 2011

Visions and Dreams
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Thursday, September 29 2011

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions; your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17

“I need to meet with you,” said the man from England during a break at a conference overseas. We walked outside to have a coffee break and sat down. “God wants you to know that He removed your finances in order to reserve His reward for you in Heaven. He has done you a great service.”

I was shocked. I’d never met this gentleman before. How would he have known I had lost a half million dollars in the previous few years, virtually all of my financial net worth, to some unusual calamities? We shared for the next several minutes.

That week, during our lunch and dinner times, I had been enjoying wonderful, juicy oranges from this island in the Mediterranean Sea. It came time for the gentleman and I to conclude our coffee break. We bowed in prayer. As we prayed, the man began to describe a picture he was seeing in his mind.

“I see a picture of a large orange tree. The tree is full of large, ripened oranges. They are beginning to fall to the ground. You are the tree!”

Again, I looked at the man with shock and amazement, and now tears in my eyes.

“You are the third person in three years that has had a similar vision during a prayer time like this. The first two people were also strangers to me.”

I went back into the meeting rejoicing that God could be so personal in my life. He used a servant who had gone through similar trials to supernaturally speak a word of encouragement in a way that I would know it was God who was speaking.

There are times when God supernaturally speaks into our lives. He does this to demonstrate His power, His love, and His intimacy with us. Do not be surprised if God sends one of His messengers to speak into your life when you need it most. Be open to how God might want to speak into your life today.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers (Psalm 1:3).

TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 9/29/2011

Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.
–Psalm 5:3, NLT
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.
–John 10:11 NLT

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Building the Church
Ron Walters

At first it seems impossible. How can a Boeing 747, weighing nearly one million pounds, ever get off the ground? Nothing that big could suspend itself in air. Feathery birds can fly but not massive tubes of metal. Nope, it just can’t happen. It’s impossible. 500 tons of shiny steel will never be airborne.

But the truth is; it has to fly. In fact, it can’t do anything but fly.

Here’s why: When an aircraft moves down a runway the air pressure around the wings changes. The air moving over the rounded surface on the topside of the wing is forced to travel in a curve. As it does, its air speed increases which causes the air pressure to drop. Meanwhile, on the bottom side of the wing, the air moves in a straight line and, because it’s moving slower than the air on top of the wing, the pressure is intensified.

Now, here’s where it really gets exciting! Any high-pressure area always moves toward a low-pressure area. Meaning, the underneath-air pushes up on the wings trying to get to the area over the wings. Therefore, the faster the 747 rolls down the runway, the greater the pressure on the bottom of the wings. And the greater the underside-pressure the more lift to the aircraft.

As the jet increases its speed there’s more and more pressure pushing on the bottom of the wings. And in moments, bingo! One million pounds of 747 lift off the ground.

What at first appeared impossible becomes an everyday occurrence, because it has to. It’s not a miracle, it’s simply a physical law designed by the Architect of the Universe.

The role of the church-God’s handmade instrument to engage and change the culture-is not dissimilar to the principle of flight. Everything tells you it’s impossible, there’s too much opposition, the odds are against us. But, whether your church is a 747 or an Ultralight, divine rules apply. The same great Architect who crafted the universe has also birthed the Church. And, He’s laid out biblical principles that govern her survival and effectiveness.

And yet, at times, it still seems impossible; unmet needs are staggering, the leadership shortage continues, sin abounds, and staff clashes threaten to bring down years of ministry. It all seems to spell doom to His church.

But, this Master Builder has issued an iron-clad guarantee: ?The gates of Hell will not prevail against it.? This is His church, and His promise is irrefutable.

The job of leading His church is daunting to be sure. But, the great Architect has purposely placed His handpicked recruits-you and me-to insure the proper building and maintenance of the Body. He’s even gifted us with the necessary tools for the work. Nothing will derail His church.

Ours is no ordinary role. No calling in the world is quite like God’s call to lead His people. Pastoring is the ultimate life and death profession. Our job requirements differ from every other occupation; the demands are intense, the hours are long, and the stakes are high. Tending wayward sheep has never been easy.

But, it is doable.

At times our jobs may look impossible. But in every generation frail leaders, just like us, have taken the reigns for the task. And, surprisingly, God does the undoable. He uses mortal pastors to accomplish His work. It’s not a miracle, it’s simply a spiritual law designed by this same Architect.

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September 28, 2011

Be as Little Children
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Wednesday, September 28 2011

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1a

“I have an important business meeting in the morning. Would you please set the alarm for 5:30 a.m.?” I said to my wife.

“Oh, that won’t be necessary. Just tell the Lord what time you want to wake up. He does it for me all the time,” my wife said.

I rolled my eyes in disbelief. “Well, I’d feel more comfortable if we set the alarm.”

“Okay, ye of little faith. But just to prove my point I am going to ask the Lord to wake us up just before 5:30.”

The next morning I awoke before the alarm went off. I looked at the clock. It read 5:15. I looked at my wife, who had just awakened at the same time with an I-told-you-so smile.

Sometimes we wrongfully view God as someone we go to for only the “big things.” The idea of “bothering God” for such a trivial matter seems foolish and presumptuous. However, when you were a child and had to get up in the morning for school, didn’t your mom or dad come wake you up? They were your parents, and you could come to them with the most trivial concerns or requests. Why would our heavenly Father be any less approachable? Perhaps our problem is that we simply have not developed a level of intimacy with God so that we feel the freedom to approach Him at these daily, routine levels. We often operate with an unwritten code that says our needs must have a certain degree of importance or crisis before we come to God with them. This is not God’s character towards us.

Does the Lord desire this level of intimacy with you and me? The apostle Paul exhorted us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17 KJV). There is never a caution to pray only about matters of greater importance.

Today, go to God with matters that you might view as trivial and would normally avoid bringing to God. Ask God to increase your level of intimacy with Him. You may even be able to get rid of your alarm clock.
TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 9/28/2011

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.
–Romans 12:12, NLT
Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.
–John 10:9 NLT

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September 27, 2011

A Joseph Story
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Tuesday, September 27 2011

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“I’d like you to help us develop our marketing program beginning in January,” said the CEO of a sports product company. The consultant was delighted to have the opportunity. It was the first new business opportunity he’d had in some time. He had just come out of some very difficult business and personal circumstances in the last few years. A few months into the relationship, the CEO asked the consultant to manage the entire marketing department, placing him over the current marketing staff. It appeared that God was blessing his efforts with several successful initiatives. The consultant began to build a relationship with a few of the executives. One day, the sales manager came into his office and asked for help on a personal crisis. One thing led to another, and two months later, the consultant found himself leading the sales manager in the sinner’s prayer in the sales manager’s office.

God prepares His servants in many ways to accomplish His purpose. The story of Joseph is repeated every workday in the lives of His people. The circumstances may be different, but the results are the same. God trains His servant through sometimes difficult “boot camps.” When that training is complete, He places them in strategic places to be a provider-both physically and spiritually.

Is God preparing you to be a provider in the workplace? Do not fret at the difficult training ground you may be required to endure. He has a plan. If you’ll allow Him to carry out His plan, you’ll be privileged to be used by the Master’s hand. I know because I am that consultant.

TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 9/27/2011

Joyful are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home!
–Proverbs 8:34, NLT
Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.
–John 8:12 NLT

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September 26, 2011

Situational Ethics
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Monday, September 26 2011

“Lord, who may dwell in Your sanctuary? Who may live on Your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart.” Psalm 15:1-2

“I cannot believe they are not going to honor my bonus agreement,” said the executive who was about to take another position in a new city. Her understanding of her present work agreement called for a bonus at the end of the year. Management saw the situation differently. “It’s not right. I am entitled to that bonus,” she complained.

It was time to leave. The company had given her a laptop to use. However, when she left, she decided that because the company was not going to pay her the bonus she was entitled to, she would simply keep the laptop as compensation due her. “And they would never miss it,” she reasoned. She was now in the employment of the new company. As each day passed, she grew uneasier about her decision. She could not get it off her mind. Finally, she concluded that the Holy Spirit was telling her this decision was wrong and that she needed to call her former boss to confess her action. She called him and confessed what she had done and why she had done it. Her boss accepted her confession and forgave her. Strangely enough, he allowed her to keep the laptop computer.

Truth never changes. It is absolute. When we make decisions based on other actions that are taken, we move into making decisions based on the situation, not truth and righteousness. The executive may indeed have been wronged, but she had to address the wrong in the appropriate way. Trying to compensate for the wrong by doing something that violates another scriptural principle is called situational ethics. If the employer had never wronged the executive, do you think she would have felt justified in taking the computer? Probably not. When you isolate the two situations, you see that one action was taken in response to the other action. Have you had any experiences in which you have used situational ethics? The Lord desires His people to have a higher standard, even at the cost of being wronged. Ask the Lord to reveal any business practices that may indicate situational ethics. You might be surprised what will happen when you do the right thing.
TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 9/26/2011

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
–Colossians 4:2, NLT
Jesus replied, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty
–John 6:35 NLT

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September 25, 2011

A Shoe Salesman
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Sunday, September 25 2011

“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” Matthew 19:26

Dwight L. Moody was a poorly educated, unordained, shoe salesman who felt God’s call to preach the gospel. Early one morning he and some friends gathered in a hay field for a season of prayer, confession, and consecration. His friend Henry Varley said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.” Moody was deeply moved by these words. He later went to a meeting where Charles Spurgeon was speaking. In that meeting Moody recalled the words spoken by his friend, “The world had yet to see!…with and for and through and in!…A man!” Varley meant any man! Varley didn’t say he had to be educated, or brilliant, or anything else. Just a man! Well, by the Holy Spirit in him, he’d be one of those men. Then suddenly, in that high gallery, he saw something he’d never realized before. It was not Mr. Spurgeon, after all, who was doing that work; it was God. And if God could use Mr. Spurgeon, why should He not use the rest of us, and why should we not all just lay ourselves at the Master’s feet and say to Him, “Send me! Use me!”

D.L. Moody was an ordinary man who sought to be fully and wholly committed to Christ. God did extraordinary things through this ordinary man. Moody became one of the great evangelists of modern times. He founded a Bible college, Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, which sends out men and women trained in service for God. Are you an ordinary man or woman in whom God wants to do extraordinary things? God desires that for every child of His. Ask God to do extraordinary things in your life. Begin today to trust Him to accomplish great things for His Kingdom through you.
TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 9/25/2011

Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.
–Psalm 25:5, NLT
God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.
–1 Thessalonians 4:7 NLT

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September 24, 2011

God’s Messengers
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Saturday, September 24 2011

“Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7

“You are called to free workplace believers from the Esau life.” Those were the words spoken to me years ago by someone God sent into my life. I had been in the midst of trying to understand some catastrophic events that shook my world. Years later, I was able to see that God gave this person supernatural insight that revealed God’s calling on my life.

God still uses His prophets today to reveal His plans in the lives of His people. I have seen this Scripture proved over and over in the lives of people. It is as though God sends out His “scouts” to inform His servants what is ahead for them. Sometimes He does this because He knows the event will require such changes in that person’s life and so He wants to assure them of His love. I have experienced the Lord using me in this way in the life of other individuals. God did this in the life of Moses. He came to Moses at the burning bush to reveal His purposes for the people of Israel and His call on Moses to free them.

Has God placed individuals in your life to speak His plans for you? Are your eyes and ears spiritually sensitive so that you will know who are messengers of God? Elisha had a servant who could not see or hear with spiritual eyes and ears until Elisha prayed they would be opened. Then the servant could see the great army of God protecting them (see 2 Kings 6:17). Pray that you might see and hear with the Spirit. He may desire to reveal His purposes and plans through another individual.
TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 9/24/2011

Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus.
–1 Timothy 1:14, NLT
A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer in the bones.
— Proverbs 14:30 NLT

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September 23, 2011

Your Irrevocable Calling
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Friday, September 23 2011

“For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.” Romans 11:29
It is dangerous to align your calling and your vocation as dependent on each other. God calls us into relationship with Him. That is our foremost calling. It is from this relationship that our “physical” calling results. Whether that is to be a teacher, a stockbroker, a nurse, a pastor, or any number of vocations, we must realize that when He calls us, the change in vocation never changes His call on our lives. It is a mere change in the landscape of our calling. This is why it is dangerous to associate our purpose and calling too closely with our work. When we define our work life exclusively as our calling, we fall into the trap of locking up our identity into our vocation. This promotes aspiration because of a need to gain greater self-worth through what we do.

Os Guinness, author of The Call, describes the great artist Picasso, who fell into this trap.

“‘When a man knows how to do something,’ Pablo Picasso told a friend, ‘he ceases being a man when he stops doing it.’ The result was a driven man. Picasso’s gift, once idolized, held him in thrall. Every empty canvass was an affront to his creativity. Like an addict, he made work his source of satisfaction only to find himself dissatisfied. ‘I have only one thought: work,’ Picasso said toward the end of his life, when neither his family nor his friends could help him relax.” [Os Guiness, The Call (Nashville, Tennessee: Word Publishing, 1998), 242.]

What happens when you lose your job? Do you lose your calling? Do you lose your identity? Do you lose your sense of well-being? No. Calling involves different stages and experiences in life. Disruptions in your work are an important training ground for God to fulfill all aspects of His calling on your life. Trust in your God who says your calling is irrevocable and that all things come from Him.

TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 9/23/2011

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.

–Ephesians 2:8, NLT

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

–Proverbs 4:23 NLT

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September 22, 2011

Is Perception Reality?
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Thursday, September 22 2011

“Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18).

One the great acts of the prophet Elijah took place at Mount Carmel where he called down fire upon the altar of Baal and slaughtered 400 prophets of Baal. I have been to Mount Carmel in Israel and stood upon this mountain where this took place. Once the miracle took place Elijah was forced to flee because Jezebel swore to take his life for what he did.

Elijah went into depression after this event. He fled to the desert and sat under a broom tree and asked God to let him die. He was so discouraged because he felt he was the only godly prophet left in the land of Israel. This is often what happens after God does a significant work through us. Satan comes along and wants to steal what God has done and bring the servant of God down. Satan makes us believe a lie about our situation. This was the case for Elijah.

Elijah’s perception was not reality. He thought he was the last of the prophets. He could not see what God was doing. God informed Elijah that there were actually seven thousand of His representatives in the land who had not bowed down to Baal. Now give some thought to that statement. Elijah thought he was the only one left. God says there are 7,000 left! What a discrepancy in perception and reality.

This is often the case for you and I. We look at our situations and conclude based on the circumstances that reality must be this way. But God says, “No, you do not see what I see or what I know or what I am doing. The situation is very different than what you are perceiving.”

Be careful not to draw conclusions about your situation that may not be based on truth. God always has a plan for His servants that we may not know about. Ask God to give you His perception of the situation, not yours.

TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 9/22/2011

Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.

–2 Peter 3:18, NLT

Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

–Psalm 23:6 NLT

I am Second Film

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