If we are going to get guidance from God, we must ask some significant questions about our own lives. Yesterday, I introduced the first question.  Today, I am encouraging a second question I think we need to ask and answer before God gives us guidance in the areas of lives that are not clearly spelled out in Scripture:

2. Am I living a holy and obedient life? Psalm 66:18; 84:11; Ezekiel 20:1ff, 31

God’s moral will is revealed in the Bible through the commandments and other biblical principles: – don’t steal, don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, etc. God’s moral will is connected to his specific guidance for our lives.  So, before we ask God who we should marry, where we should live, and how many children we should have, we should ask the question: Is there sin in our lives that would hinder our ability to talk to God and hear his directions for our lives clearly?

Popularity: 13% [?]

Last weekend’s message was simple but very difficult for me to deliver. Remember the major point from the weekend, as Malachi helped us to Reset Justice?  – “Correcting injustice in the world, begins with God correcting injustice in me. “  It was a heavy message for me to deliver, but God lifted my spirit in an amazing way as someone literally allowed God to immediately deal with the injustice in their own hearts.

After the 11:00 service a man approached me and said he needed to ask me to forgive him. Immediately, I wondered what it could be. He told me that when I was introduced as the candidate for the position of Senior Teaching Pastor, he didn’t vote for me. “I am sure that many people didn’t vote for me.” I opined. So, his comment was no big revelation to me. What he said next was. He said, “You need to know why I didn’t vote for you.” I continued to listen. Because of his experiences in the past, he had developed a spirit of prejudice and racism against black people. In essence, he was saying he didn’t vote for me because I was black. He began to weep and asked me if I would forgive him. I said it wasn’t a problem. He retorted, “Listen! You don’t understand. I really need you to forgive me. I don’t want the junk of prejudice and racism spilling over into my kids’ lives. I didn’t vote for you and I was wrong. God has been and is using your preaching to impact my life.”Wow! To His glory!

I realized what God was doing. This man heard God and was acting on what he heard. I forgave him. We hugged for a good while, weeping in one each other’s arms (Glad we weren’t in the men’s bathroom doing this – Smile! It was a joke). I was moved, humbled, and I rejoiced as I was reminded that God has me in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. God, thank you for using Malachi to help us see that: Correcting injustice in the world really does begin when we let God correct injustice in us. For His glory!

Popularity: 26% [?]

In John 3, the followers of John the Baptist tried to get him to drink the heart-numbing elixir of jealousy and envy when they said, “the one who you said is the Messiah is baptizing people, too.” They must have been living the thug life because they asked John: “Do you want us to put in some work and stop him?” In other words, they wanted to somehow stop Jesus’ success. John told them to slow their roll. Now, he could have been dragged into the numbers and success game, but John didn’t drink the cancerous libation. He responded with a line that is unnatural for me, but it is a principle that I need to rehearse and learn daily: “I am filled with joy at his success.”(NLT) Let’s be honest; It’s not easy being filled with joy for someone else whose . . .

ministry is larger than yours
budget is bigger than yours
popularity is greater than yours
books outpace yours
blog gets more traffic than yours
songs get played more than yours
networks are stronger than yours
living the life that should be yours
marriage is happier than yours
job pays more money than yours
body looks better than yours
enjoying the success and blessing that should be yours
checks have more zeros than yours

And the list goes on, doesn’t it?

I hear people saying all the time: “I work just as hard and spend just as many hours as they do, working on my craft, honing my skills, and being faithful to God and my family, but I don’t experience the same success.” Sometimes, it just doesn’t seem fair, does it?. Yet, John said: I am filled with joy at his (Jesus) success. So, how can I be filled with joy at the messianic status and success of others? Here is what I’m learning:

1. God gives each different gifts and niches in ministry.
2. I have to be faithful to and thankful for what God has given me.
3. We’re on the same team and playing for the same generous Coach.
4. Celebrate the success of others every chance I get.
5. Jealousy and envy are sins that prevent me from being fully present where I am.

Have you ever been tempted to drink the elixir of jealousy and envy? How difficult is it for you to be filled with joy at someone else success? What lessons are you learning?

Popularity: 13% [?]

My ten year old son asked us if he could have friends over. We usually say yes. But, this time we said no and reminded him that he had not been responsible in the small every day, normal things:

cleaning up his room
separating the recycling
picking up his clothes
helping with other household chores
going to bed on time

Because Micah had been irresponsible in smaller things, what made him think that we could and would trust him to be responsible in greater things. When he showed greater responsibility in smaller things, then we would be more apt to give him greater responsibility in bigger things. I think we miss opportunities of greater things because we cannot be trusted with the smaller things.  

However, sometimes I think God gives us greater responsibility, not because we are deserving or even because we are the most responsible people he could have chosen. Sometimes I think he gives us greater responsibility simply because he is a gracious Father and desires to bless us. But, I think he also gives us greater responsibility to expose our inability to handle the greater responsibility without him and to move us to break ourselves on his unconditional grace, creating the habit of humility.

I am readmitting today that, without God, not only can I not do the greater things, but I can do nothing. His help is not just nice, but it is absolutely necessary.

What assignments have you been given? How responsible are you in carrying out those assignments? What do you need to do to be more dependent on God in carrying out those assignments?