Putting God First Part 3: The Holy Spirit

Putting God first requires faith! Jesus challenged His disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God. Believe in Me also”, John 14.1. Or to use Tom Wright’s words from his new translation, “Trust God – and trust Me too!” Remember the words ‘believe’ and ‘faith’ have exactly the same root word in the Greek. In scripture the words trust and faith are almost synonymous.

It’s not enough to say we trust God and have faith in Him. Many faiths make this claim. We have to trust the one God puts His confidence in; the one He has sent to reveal His heart – Jesus, John 1.14, 18; 14.9-10. If we fully trust God we will trust Jesus. But Jesus isn’t here with us the way He was with the disciples He spoke these words to. He is now in Heaven at the right hand of God the Father. So how do we put him first?

Jesus made it clear to His disciples, in His final days before the crucifixion, that He was going to leave them, but not abandon them. There is a difference. He promised to send them another helper – the Holy Spirit, John 15.26.

The word for ‘another’ in the Greek is helpful because two words exist. One means another of a different kind; the other means another of the same kind. If you own a Ford and exchange it for a BMW, that is ‘another, of a different kind’. But if you exchange your Ford for another Ford that is ‘another, of the same kind’.

Jesus has promised us another helper – of the same kind. This is powerful because the Holy Spirit has been given to the church to make the Lordship of Jesus real to us. In Rom 8.9 He is called the ‘Spirit of Christ’. Not to have the spirit means we don’t belong to Jesus. The Holy Spirit makes it all real.

Jesus made this clear in His conversation with Nicodemus. He had a natural birth and now he needed a spiritual birth – to be born again by the Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit promotes and speaks of Jesus, just as Jesus always spoke and promoted His Father, John 16.13-14.

"When the spirit of truth comes, though, he will guide you in all the truth. He won’t speak on his own account, you see, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will announce to you what’s to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what belongs to me and will announce it to you.”

The Holy Spirit is here to guide the church and lead the church, by speaking what the head of the church is saying. This is why in two short chapters in Rev 2-3 we have the phrase repeated seven times; “Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches”.

Jesus walks in the midst of the seven lampstands and sees the true state of the churches. But then He sends His angel – His messenger, to speak to each of them. And that message is communicated through the Spirit, for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy, Rev 19.10.

Too often we think of guidance in personal terms, of God speaking to us as individuals. This happens. It is appropriate. But the overwhelming push of the New Testament is that God has called out for Himself a people under the New Covenant. They are the people who show forth His praises and who He is leading into His purposes – corporately. So our hearing needs to be a community affair! It’s not so much ‘What is God saying to me?’ as it is, “What is He saying to us – His church in this unique locality?”

So for me to put God first in my life means I listen and honour what the Holy Spirit is saying to me as an individual and to the church I am part of. In the book of revelation the seven messages to the seven churches were different. There were patterns of similarity but also clear distinctions. This is important. Each church must be true to the calling and unique expression that Jesus has called it to.

This is why there is such an emphasis on being ‘led by the Spirit’, Rom 8.14, ‘filled with the Sprit’, Eph 5.18, and ‘walking in the Sprit’, Gal 5.16. We can’t put God first in our lives without His (the Spirit's) help. He makes it real because He empowers to do what God calls us to do.

When the Bible speaks in Phil 2.13 of God working in you to will and do of His good pleasure, whom do you think that is referring to? When Paul speaks in Eph 3.17 of Christ (the anointed one) dwelling in your heart through faith how do you think that happens? The key is in the previous verse!

That He would grant you… to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, Eph 3.16.

It is all accomplished through the Holy Spirit! In 2Cor 3 we have Paul highlighting the main difference between the two covenants of law and grace. The contrast is between the law that was written on tablets of stone and how grace now allows God, (the Holy Spirit), to write on the human heart.

The failure of the law did not lie with the law itself. That is described elsewhere in the New Testament as Holy and good. The real failure lay in us. We are not holy, we are not good. We are broken, tainted by sin. We are not able to do what the law demands of us and so it ends up condemning us; for it highlights our failure.

Paul alludes to the time Moses went up the mountain and spent time with God. When he came down his face shone. It radiated. This would happen to Jesus on what is called the mount of transfiguration in Matt 17. So Moses took a veil to hide his face so that the people were not so scared. They were afraid to look at him.

They knew that to look at God’s Shekinah glory meant certain death and they were not going to take any chances, even with Moses. But in time this glory faded. Paul uses this to illustrate something about the nature of the two covenants, and specifically to the two ways it is possible to hear the Bible.

For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ, but even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, 2Cor 3.14-16

Notice that Paul is referring to the reading of scripture here. The problem doesn’t lie with the scripture but with the person listening. Unless there has been a surrender of ones life to Jesus, a veil lies over the heart. This stops anyone from truly seeing the goal of scripture. Unregenerate people have a veil over their hearts, but that veil is removed when they turn to the Lord.

It is relationship that opens the door to understanding. The mistake of the Pharisees was in thinking that life was in the scriptures:

You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you might have life, John 5.39-40

The scriptures are important. They point to Jesus. But life is not in the Bible – it’s in Christ and He is a person. He is a living person who calls us into relationship with Himself. Once I have found faith in Him, He opens my understanding to see the real focus of scripture. Look at Luke 24.44-45,

Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

Now back to Paul. “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away”, 2Cor 3.16. Look at the next verse. “Now the Lord is the Spirit…” Paul is explicit. The Holy Spirit is Lord just as Jesus is Lord. This is Trinitarian theology and we can’t escape it. The Holy Spirit has been given to establish the Lordship of Jesus in our personal lives and in the church.

We cannot claim that Jesus is Lord and that God is first in our life if we are living in a way that grieves or quenches the activity of the Spirit. We must welcome the Spirit and be open to the Spirit. Without His leading, guiding and power in our lives, we will accomplish nothing. To quote Jesus; “For without Me you can do nothing” John 15.5b. And Jesus has given us the Spirit so this verse holds true for Him too.

My point is simple. The Holy Spirit is in the business of removing veils, the veil of unbelief, the veil of fear, the veil of shame, the veil of guilt. All these veils can stop us from truly understanding the intent of scripture. We hear in a distorted way through the veil and text looses its transforming power.

But where God’s Spirit is active in our lives, there is freedom. His presence brings liberty! Freedom means no veils. This means we can see the glory of the Lord when we hear scripture read. It is in this place that real transformation takes place - from glory to glory.

The truth is that we become what we behold. The more we have a revelation of Jesus through scripture, the more we become like Him. The Spirit is given to show Him to us. He effects change in us so that we become more like Him. We find ourselves changed into His image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. This is what grace has made possible.

Here are a few questions for you to consider in your journey of transformation.
Is there a veil over your heart that stops you believing God can change an area of your life? Can you give a name to that veil? Ask a close friend where they have seen significant progress and change in your life.

Now dare to ask them if they have noticed any areas where you are defensive and less open to change. Are you prepared to go on a journey and address these issues? Whom will you allow to be part of that journey so that you have real accountability for your progress?

Let me encourage you to invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you through scripture. Tell Him you want Jesus to have the preeminence in every area of your life. Be specific. Invite Him to be Lord in the workplace, in your marriage, in your studies, in your relationships, in your use of time and money. And expect change to happen!

Pray through any prompting you get and share it with those journeying with you so that you are not just acting alone. In the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established is the Biblical pattern. Allow others to know what you feel God is challenging you to do or change. Their wisdom and encouragement can make a huge difference in any change process.

Finally remember that the scripture encourages us to look to God not at ourselves, Heb 12.2. Real and lasting change doesn’t happen by you making a list of all the things you think are wrong with you and then working on it. That’s self-effort. It’s works.

It happens by you coming into the presence of God where you are loved and accepted just as you are. And in that place God is able to highlight any area of your life He wants to deal with. This way you are allowing the grace of God to change you and not falling into a self-help program. Listen to James on this:

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded, James 4.8

Notice that. We take the first move. We draw near to God, and then He draws near. He watches to see if our desire is there. Once we draw near He draws near. In His presence we get convicted. That is the time to then cleanse our hands – the things we have done wrong.

Many people get this wrong. They try and get clean before coming into God’s presence and often end up staying away from fellowship. Yet the Bible says it’s being in His presence that shows us our need for cleansing. That’s grace. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. And in that place of repentance and humility comes cleansing and forgiveness so that we leave changed and free; free to pursue a life of being led and filled with the Spirit.

Putting God First Part 2: The Centrality of Jesus

Many religious people claim to put God first in their life. I don’t doubt their sincerity. But scripture is explicit that to put God first means we put Jesus first. Let me explain. Jesus defined eternal life as this:

That they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent, John 17.3

Knowing God implies that we receive whom God has sent. In fact how we respond to Jesus becomes the acid test of how well we truly know God. The Pharisees claimed to follow God yet they rejected Jesus. Such actions betrayed the true condition of their hearts. Listen to Jesus on the subject:

And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe, John 5.37-38.

This is an amazing indictment. You haven’t heard Him or seen Him, “at any time”. These were the men society looked to as spiritual leaders in Israel. They were the ‘Let’s put God first’ elite – but they missed Jesus. They prided themselves in being above the average Joe when it came to religious commitment. But religious zeal is not the same as putting God first.

Consider Paul before his conversion. He persecuted Christians; all in the name of religious zeal. He thought he was serving God. But then he met Jesus on the Damascus road and it shook him to the core. Later he described himself as a blasphemer and an insolent man! He realized he had suffered from spiritual blindness. God had to open his eyes to the reality of Jesus.

To put God first must mean we begin to align our hearts affections with His. We learn to love what He loves and value what He values. And He loves and values His son, Jesus. In Matt 17 we have the record of the transfiguration on the Mount. The story is well known. When Peter comes up with the great suggestion of building booths for Moses, Elijah and Jesus a bright cloud overshadows them all and God speaks, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased – Hear Him”, Matt 17.5.

The affirmation present at the beginning of Jesus ministry is repeated here with one notable addition – ‘listen to my Son, hear what He has to say’. The Father is pointing people to Jesus! What Peter had to say was not important. It added nothing to the moment. They needed to listen to Jesus. The apostolic writers of the NT understood this.

John is perhaps the clearest of all the gospel writers. He is unequivocal.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made, ……and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, John 1.1-3,14.

Wow. Jesus is God. He created everything! Scriptures like this push our understanding of the nature of the Godhead. We are lead to see that God is a community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And Jesus was aware of this. Listen to His language in John 17.5

“And now O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was”.

Jesus knew He predated creation, sharing in the glory of the Father and He looked forward to experiencing it again!

In the book of Revelation John has a vision. He sees heaven, a throne, creatures surrounding the throne. But then at the heart of it all he sees the Lamb – the center of heavens worship. It’s Jesus, Rev 5.6-14.

This is why Paul was so adamant that the church recognizes the exaltation and supremacy of Jesus. Look at Col1.12-20.

……… Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the pre-eminence.

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

These are amazing verses. Creation is focused on Jesus. He alone has fulfilled the plan of God and has now been exalted to the highest place of honour. Heaven affords Him that place and God wants earth to do the same. That’s why we are here.

By honouring Jesus as the head of the church we are confessing His supremacy over all things. The church is a model of what it is like to live under the reign of Jesus. This is our witness to the world that will attract many to Him. Not only that; Jesus is ‘the firstborn from the dead’. That means He is the prototype of the New Creation man.

In Jesus, the future has invaded the present. The new creation has broken in even as the old creation is passing away. And like the creation recorded in Genesis there is an order; the main difference being that in the new creation this order is reversed.

So just as Adam was made on the last day and is the crown of the old creation; Jesus has become the ‘firstborn’. The new creation begins with Him and it is the universe itself that is last to be renewed. In fact Paul says the old creation is groaning in birth pangs waiting for the new creation to finally come in fullness, Rom 8.19-22.

So Jesus is at the heart of everything. Not only that, He is at the heart of scripture.

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. I do not receive honour from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive honour from one another, and do not seek the honour that comes from the only God? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words? John 5.39-47.

This is Jesus speaking. Notice what He is claiming. The scriptures ‘testify of Me’; Moses ‘wrote about Me’. Not only that, He places His words on a par with Moses writings. This is audacious language; language that continues even after the resurrection, as Jesus opens up the scriptures to His disciples.

And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself, Luke 24.27.

This is why the Bible is so important. Yes you can read it and miss Jesus. But once you know Him, it becomes a treasure chest showing us more of Him.

Jesus gives us a clue as to why His detractors in John 5 would not hear Him. They wanted the honour of men, not the honour that comes from God. This speaks to their basic motivation. They were out to impress men, not God. This is pride, pure and simple. It blinds us to truth. It blinds us to Jesus. It deafens us so that we don’t hear Him.

So whilst it is true that we can read the Bible and hear it preached and miss Jesus, it’s equally true that we can’t know the fullness of who He is and all that He has planned for us as His people without it! So we have got to learn to handle it in the right way.

Thus, putting Jesus first means we have to approach life and truth with a desire to please God; to have His approval. This is how we enter the Kingdom, through humble repentance. It becomes the pattern for how we are to engage with Biblical truth. We must be more concerned with doing it than just knowing it! James 1.22. We must allow it to shape us and change us.

Now there is a danger here. Over the years I have met countless numbers of believers (and heretics) who claim to be Biblical in their beliefs and practice. Mormons claim to be Biblical by having more than one wife citing, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and David as their examples – all great men, godly men.

I know believers who justify lying if it is to protect people, quoting the story of Rahab who lied to protect the Israelite spies from the Jericho soldiers. After all she is called a woman of faith!! But is that really Biblical?

I know leaders who teach that believers should never question or challenge leaders. They use the passage from Numbers 12 where Miriam spoke out against Moses for marrying an Ethiopian. God struck her with leprosy and only through Moses intercession was this commuted to a weeklong condition. The passage is used to put fear into people - and I don’t mean the fear of the Lord. Is that really Biblical?

I grew up in a time when saying you were a Christian became inadequate because Britain had become culturally Christian. So we added the phrase, a ‘born again’ Christian, (which if you think about it is funny. Is there any other kind?). It was our attempt to deal with a nation of people that thought being British made you a Christian.

Later we added, ‘Spirit filled’, ‘born again’ Christian to distinguish those who believed in the Baptism of the Spirit from evangelicals who thought that anything vaguely Pentecostal was, at best whacky and at worst demonic.

I remember people asking me; ‘Are you a Christian?’ Yes! But are you a born-again Christian? Yes! ‘But are you a Spirit-filled, born-again Christian? At which point I wanted to reply, ‘Listen, I’m a Spirit-filled, born-again, washed in the blood with my name written in Heaven, waiting for the return of Jesus, Christian! Is that good enough?’ (I never did have the courage to say it, but I did think it!)

So often our attempts at being Biblical are secretly a way of testing who’s up to speed with our understanding of truth. We use this approach to create insiders and outsiders. We use it push our agenda and get things done. It’s often a subtle form of manipulation.

I find it helpful to step back a little and try to understand what kind of lens are we using when we come to the Bible. I focus on two things; the person and work of Jesus. In other words I try and view scripture through the new covenant. This changes the question from, ‘Is it Biblical?’ to ‘Is it Biblical in the light of the New Covenant?’ a covenant that was established through the person and work of Jesus.

Much theology doesn’t stand up under that kind of approach. The saints in the past may have had more than one wife but in the light of the new covenant they fell short of God’s ideal. People may have been stoned to death for adultery in the past, but again in the light of the new covenant we rebuke and forgive. Miriam may have been made leprous in the wilderness story, but perhaps the issue was that she didn’t challenge Moses personally, but complained to Aaron, violating the Matt 18 principle of dealing with issues privately and personally.

Remember James and John when the Samaritan village rejected Jesus in Luke 9.51-56. They recommended genocide and quoted Elijah, who called down fire from heaven. They wanted to be Biblical! They thought they were being Biblical! But Jesus rebuked them and said they had the wrong spirit. It wasn’t new covenant. It did not represent God’s heart.

So being Biblical is more than just knowing that something was taught or practiced in the Bible. It’s seeing that it fits with who Jesus is and what He has done. It’s more than having a verse or example to quote to justify an attitude, practice or belief; it is daring to ask if the attitude, practice or belief truly fits in with the new covenant of grace.

Let me encourage you to put Jesus first. To place Him where scripture does, as head of all things. Then come with an attitude of humility to scripture, being willing to do what it says. Finally seek to understand the Bible in the light of who Jesus is and what He has done. Next time I’ll show you the vital importance of the Holy Spirit in helping us to do this.

Putting God First Part 1: Establishing an Altar

Gen 13.1-4
Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar, which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.

This text is very suggestive. It comes on the back of Abram’s journey into Egypt. He went there because he was scared. There was a famine in Canaan. God had called him to inherit this land but now things were difficult, so he left for Egypt. Here he lied about Sarai, calling her his sister, instead of his wife (a half truth). Finally he returned to Canaan. But the text seems to suggest that his return was not just geographic, it was spiritual.

He came back to the altar he had made at first; to the place where his tent had been at the beginning. Finally, in that place, ‘Abram called on the name of the LORD. We know from Rom 10.13 that all those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, (delivered, healed, kept safe). We also know that it was during the time of Seth’s son, Enosh in Gen 4.26, that men ‘began to call on the name of the Lord’.

In other words there was an entire generation where God was left out of the frame. People lived life without God as their reference point. But then Seth had a son and it all changed. One man can make a huge difference! Men began to call upon the Name of the Lord. They wanted His involvement in their lives. They wanted, healing, deliverance, salvation.

A generation passed were people forgot to involve God but then Enosh and his generation changed all that. Perhaps they saw the consequences of a generation that forgot about God. Perhaps they were inspired by stories from Adam about what it was like to walk with God, (Adam would have been alive at that time). Whatever the reason they called on the name of the Lord.

And that’s what Abram did. He called on God again as he had done in the beginning. He re-established fellowship with God. He drew near to God and God drew near to him. And in that place of fellowship God revealed more of His plan to Abram.

The reality is that we are wired for fellowship. In Gen 3.8 the Lord walked in the garden in the cool of the day. He and Adam had fellowship. They talked. They engaged together in the naming of the animals. Yet that partnership was incomplete. Adam was alone. So God made Eve, taking part of Adam to create a complementary partner. He extended Adam’s capacity for fellowship.

1John 1.3 says: that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Notice that. We are wired for fellowship with each other, God’s people and with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Yet life shows us how difficult it is to get on with other people. It is a testament to the reality of the fall. Sin has left its mark in us and in creation. It’s all out of whack!

Just like Adam who disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit, so we too are left wanting to hide, self-conscious, guilty, afraid and wanting to blame others. No wonder we talk about dysfunctional relationships, dysfunctional families and dysfunctional organisations.

Yet there is good news. Jesus died to restore our fellowship to God and each other that was broken by sin. Eph 2.19-20 says:

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.

The human spirit is made alive through the new birth. We can be reconnected to God and that ensures we can connect to each other. The lines are open! But we are talking about a relationship. It’s not automatic. All relationships need to be cultivated, nurtured, time taken to invest in them. And none is more important than our relationship with God.

Let’s go back to Abram. He came back to the altar he had made at the beginning; the place where he met with God. He was in fact restoring spiritual priorities. He was putting God first. He was seeking fellowship again. The beauty of fellowship with God is that when we give Him devotion He often gives us direction!

God doesn’t want our lives to be directed by fear (of a famine), or guilt, failure, shame or insecurity. He wants to speak words of promise that inspire us to live by faith, trusting in Him. That’s what He did for Abram.

Every believer needs an altar; a place where they meet with God; a place where they invite His intervention in their life; a place where they can worship and pray. This is what the new birth does. It establishes an altar; a place where we can commune with God.

As I was growing up this was called a ‘Quiet Time’. Today it’s often called having a ‘Devotional’. The label is not important, but establishing a regular time with God is. Jesus did this. The gospel of Mark tells us that a great while before dawn Jesus withdrew to a deserted place and there He prayed, Mark 1.35.

In the midst of a busy ministry schedule Jesus took time to talk and listen to His Father. It kept Him focused on God’s priorities rather than the demands of ministry. Notice from Mark 1.38 that Jesus knew He needed to move on to other cities. The demands of ministry remained. Everyone was looking for Him, but He moved on to other cities in obedience to the Father.

This became His pattern right up until His final anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, Luke 5.16; 22.39-44. But even here scripture tells us that the garden was a regular place for Him to visit when in Jerusalem. Like all the other places He withdrew to, it was a place where He had established an altar.

There He found strength - Luke 22.43, direction – Mark 1.35, insight – Luke 22.31 and there He prayed for those He loved – John 17. We are naive to think we can do well as believers and not take time to establish an altar. Jesus did it. He withdrew. And He taught us to do the same.

And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly, Matt 6.5-6.

Notice that. We have to shut the door on the world if we are to spend time with the Father. We must withdraw in order to be refreshed. In the OT it took time to build an altar. The rocks could not be shaped with a human instrument. They had to be found and put together.

I have a Jewish friend. He told me that the Rabbi’s believe that this prescription was given for two reasons. The first was that no human effort could be used for shaping the altar where we meet with God. The temptation to take pride in what we have built is ever present.

But secondly the fact that the stones had to fit together to some degree meant that the builder was very purposeful in choosing rocks that had a good fit. It therefore took time and they couldn’t rush the process. I like that. Experience tells me it takes time to find a place where there are no distractions.

John Wesley had a special room in his house. I’ve seen it. The room has a window that overlooks a beautiful garden. In the room is a chair, one that Wesley designed himself. It had a small shelf on the back. There he sat in reverse so he could rest his Bible on the small shelf and read it. Nothing else was in the room; just an empty room with a chair and a Bible. He called it the powerhouse.

All the great men of the Bible and history spent time with God. They knew that this was the true source of their success in ministry. They valued it. They cultivated it. They modelled it to their disciples.

Where are you able to pray and read God’s word without distractions? Jesus spent most of His time outside in places where it was hard to find people and hard for people to find Him. He removed Himself from the demands of ministry and ministered to God instead.

When you find that place, establish a regular time for going there. People are different. Some do it very early while others do it very late. Daniel did it three times a day! What works for you?

This is not to take away from the spontaneous nature of prayer that can happen anywhere, at any time. Rather it is to have a daily point of reference for meeting with God where you take time to listen to Him. Without this altar, putting God first remains little more than rhetoric.

And the beauty of Abraham’s story is that you can always return to an altar. It remains. Starting over again is always a genuine possibility. In fact Abraham’s life is characterised by the fact that every time he moved to a new place he built an altar. He wanted to put God first in every step of his journey. Let me encourage you to do the same!

Joyful Living - a sign of Godly Character

Tom Wright has done a new translation. It’s called the New Testament for everyone. Take a look at these familiar scriptures from his fresh perspective.

The result is this: since we have been declared ‘in the right’ on the basis of faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Through him we have been allowed to approach, by faith, into this grace in which we stand; and we celebrate the hope of the glory of God. That’s not all. We also celebrate in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patience, patience produces a well-formed character, and a character like that produces hope. Hope in its turn, does not make us ashamed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts thorough the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Rom 5.3-5

My dear family, when you find yourselves tumbling into various trials and tribulations, learn to look at it with complete joy, because you know that, when your faith is put to the test, what comes out is patience. James 1.2-3

I’m speaking the truth in the Messiah, I’m not lying. I call my conscience as witness, in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and endless pain in my heart. Left to my own self, I am half inclined to pray that I would be accursed, cut off from the Messiah, on behalf of my family, my own flesh and blood relatives. Rom 9.1-3

There is no doubt in my mind that Joy is both a means and a goal in expressing Godly character. It is second in the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Gal 5.22. Thus it is intrinsically part of the character of God. He is a joyful God. The Old prophet Zephaniah said that God would ‘joy over us with singing’, Zeph 3.10..

The apostolic writers were clear that joy was a means of developing character. Paul said he gloried or to use Wright’s translation he ‘celebrated’ tribulations. This was because he understood that something was going on through the process of every trial. Each trial was designed to produce perseverance in us and this helped to create, ‘well formed character’.

This in turn led to a genuine hope in God that did not lead to disappointment. Rather it led to largeness of heart because of the Holy Spirit poured out into our hearts. The danger with every trial is to react in the wrong way; to become bitter, angry, disappointed. So James agrees with Paul, ‘Count it all joy when you stumble into various trials’.

Like Paul, James knew that something precious or of value was happening in this process. It was producing patience so that we could be ‘complete and lack nothing’. Wow. What a goal. God is in the business of forming and shaping us so that we are ready for anything He has for us.

Now the danger with any teaching on joy is that we bury or ignore our times of sorrow. Sorrow, like joy is a powerful emotion. It is a natural part of life and often precedes real joy. Jesus spoke of the woman who travails in birth pains but then forgets her sorrow because of the joy of giving birth, John 16.21. As the Psalmist put it, ‘weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning’, Psalm 30.5.

In Rom 9 Paul speaks of his continual sorrow of heart for the nation of Israel. He is emphatic. Three times he emphasizes that this is how he truly feels. This is from the same man who penned, ‘rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice’, Phil 4.6. The one who celebrated, ‘tribulations’. What is going on?

The truth is that many of us, like Paul, carry a secret sorrow. A loved one who is not yet saved; a son or daughter who is no longer walking with God; a yearning for pregnancy after so many miscarriages; a desire for healing, but carrying pain; a longing to provide well for your family but facing unemployment. All these are genuine sorrows.

And just to remind us, Jesus felt sorrow – even to the point of death, Mark 14.34. But neither Jesus nor any of the apostles allowed themselves to be overwhelmed with sorrow. Rather they chose to rejoice and exalt the greatness of God even in their time of sorrow and pain.

We see this a lot in the Psalms. In Psalm 50.23 God speaks to His people and says; “Whoever offers praise glorifies me and to him who orders his conduct (Literally, Journey in the Hebrew) aright, I will show the salvation of God”.

To praise God is to glorify Him. It is in effect saying, through our worship, that He is bigger than our problems. This kind of response positions our hearts to be able to discern the right road to take. We are all on a journey but we are not all on the right road; we are not all heading in the right direction.

Joyful praise has a way of impacting our conduct. We don’t react the way others do to disappointment or trials. Rather we seek to cooperate with God to bring about His purpose, even in the midst of distress and pain. This is the journey of seeking the Kingdom first. It’s the journey of faith. We believe that things will be different.

I have a friend who has conducted hundreds if not thousands of funerals. He has covered the full gambit from the young to the old; those who have died through natural causes to those who have died violently or through suicide. He has done memorials for believers and unbelievers alike.

What is fascinating to me is that in the twenty something years he has been providing this service he claims that in his experience there is no discernable difference to the way believers and unbelievers react to grief. This is tragic. Paul is explicit. We don’t grieve the way the world grieves. We have hope, 1 Thess 4.13. The resurrection makes a difference for us - today! The resurrection is God's vindication that He can bring life out of death. Death can give way to a new creation!

Weeping is an appropriate response to grief but remember, joy comes in the morning, Psalm 30.5. In other words we should expect to pass through the grief and come to a place of genuine heartfelt rejoicing. Neh 8,10 says that ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength’. Imagine that! Of all the qualities that Nehemiah could have chosen in the character of God he highlights God’s joy as the source of our strength.

This is not difficult to grasp. Happy people are energized people. They are motivated people. They see life as a gift and enter each day with a sense of wonder and expectation. Something deep within is then source of their strength – the joy of God.

Listen to the prophet Habakkuk on this subject:

Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labour of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls – Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Hab 3.17-18.

You couldn’t paint a bleaker picture in an agricultural society. Crops and livestock alike fail. It looks grim. It looks hopeless. It’s a depressing scene. But Habakkuk makes a decision. He is not looking at the temporal he is looking at the eternal. He is focusing on God.

Consider Isaiah in the 6th chapter of his book. In the year that King Uzziah died he saw the Lord high and lifted up. He went from a place of grief to a place of worship and awe. That’s what Habakkuk was doing. He wouldn’t let the grief overwhelm him. God is bigger. God is greater.

Psalm 98.4 says, 'Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise'. Everything in creation is designed to rejoice in the Lord and one day it will. In the mean time we can be the vangaurd of God's creation that chooses to rejoice and praise Him because we understand what He has achieved in Christ for us!

Jesus has been exalted far above principalities and powers, thrones and dominions. He truly is Lord and as we worship and rejoice in Him He can change any situation. Think of Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail. Despite their beatings they were praising God. They were joying in the God of their salvation and He sent an earthquake that loosed their chains and set in motion events that would change the city by establishing a worshipping community - a church.

This ability to joy in God is a fruit of the Spirit. We can cultivate it by choosing to rejoice in all the circumstances of life. Ask yourself this question: “What is the one thing that could happen to me that would silence my praise and rob me of joy?” Whatever it is, it has power over you until you release it to God and choose to worship and joy in Him.

That’s what Habakkuk did. For a farmer failed crops and sick livestock was the one thing that could rob them of joy. But Habakkuk is hopeful because he serves the God of Hope – the God of Joy. Listen to his closing words from his short prophetic book;

The Lord is my strength’ He will make my feet like deer’s feet. And He will make me walk on my high hills. This is a song! It’s a hymn of praise to the God who never changes no matter what happens in life. This is where our real strength lies.

Take time this week to cultivate a spirit of joyful thanksgiving every day. Your name is written in heaven and Jesus said this is to be a source of rejoicing, Luke 10.20. It is true every day. Focus on eternal realities and your life will be like a thermostat not a thermometer. You will change the atmosphere around you instead of being changed by it!

Make Every Effort Part 5

Make every effort to guard the unity that the Spirit gives, with your lives bound together in peace. Eph 4.3 Translated by Tom Wright.

Eph 4.1-16 is a key passage of scripture. Once again the phrase ‘Make every effort’ is used. Notice that we are not asked to produce unity, only to guard it! It is not of human origin. It is based on the work of Jesus. His death on the cross has removed all barriers to God and to each other.

In Paul’s context the biggest social and religious barriers existed between Jews and non-Jews, (often called Gentiles). They simply didn’t mix. But now Paul declares that through Messiah Jesus the partition that divides them is broken down. Now they are both united in Him. Together they make up the one new man, Eph 2.14-18.

From Ephesians we can say a number of things about this unity.

1. It is organic not organizational. It may develop organizational expression over time, but in essence it’s organic in nature. In other words it is based on a shared life source. Trees have structure but its life is organic. A tree can remain standing even after it is dead. But its fruitfulness is dependent on maintaining life.

2. It is communal not common. The life that we share is ‘in the Spirit’ and we all share it in Christ. To use Paul’s language again from 1 Cor 12.13 NIV For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Our sense of community is created by this shared life in the Spirit.

3. It is a unity based on fulfilled righteousness that is now sealed in God’s peace. Jesus didn’t conquer armies to secure this unity. He was no Alexander. He died on a cross to fulfill the penalty of the law securing righteousness as a gift for all those who believe. Now we have peace with God and each other. So we can’t keep this unity through fighting for it! We don't fight flesh and blood! We guard against the enemy destroying it through believers that become fleshly in their attitudes and actions. More on that later.

If we unpack these sixteen verses from Ephesians 4 we can see seven things that help us to preserve the unity of the Spirit. They are seven things we must make an effort towards. Here they are as I see it:

1. Live up to your calling – Eph 4.1 This is so needed today in the body of Christ. Our calling is characterized by four things; it’s a high calling – Phil 3.14; it’s a heavenly calling – Heb 3.1;It's a holy calling - 2Tim 1.9 and it’s a humble calling – 1Cor 1.26.

Prince William in the UK has been educated differently to most people because he is 2nd in line for the throne. It is a high calling. Things that ordinary people do he can’t do. His calling demands lively differently. And he accepts it. A high call means high privilege and high responsibility.

A heavenly calling shows us the source of our call. It is from above. John the Baptist said that a man can receive nothing unless it is from heaven. This is the source of all true authority and anointing. A church can give you a salary, a car, a manse and insurance but only God can give you a calling that empowers you to fulfill His will.

Christians who get drunk are not living up to their holy calling. Something is missing. One way of making a real effort to keep the unity of the Spirit is not to grieve the Spirit by living as though we don’t know Jesus. This issue of personal holiness is important. Holy means separated, set apart for God’s use. If we learn to live with that attitude it is easier to say no to stuff that makes you an instrument in the hand of the enemy.

Finally we have a humble calling. None of us get into the Kingdom through self effort. We all have to become like little children and receive God's grace and forgiveness. Boasting is excluded.

2. Work on attitudes and actions – Eph 4.2. Paul includes four; humility, gentleness, patience and forbearance. Each one of these is both an attitude and an action.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less! Jesus demonstrated this by washing feet. He didn’t see Himself above this task. That was His attitude. He washed the feet of the disciples, that was the action that followed. We need both. I know those who work hard on having a good attitude but are light on actions that follow through. Others are good at following through but do so with gritted teeth. Attitude is somewhat lacking.

Gentleness. I love this word. None of us like to be handled roughly either physically or emotionally. Recently I had keyhole surgery to unlock my ‘frozen shoulder’. For the first time in a year I can raise my left arm above my head. Wonderful! But I am enduring five weeks of physiotherapy where my muscles are being stretched in order to regain full movement. It’s painful at times. But the folk who work with me know what they are doing. Above all they are gentle. They understand that after invasive surgery like this I don’t need an aggressive body building maneuvers. Slow and gentle does it. We need to handle people in the same way. Too many are broken and abused. Paul tells us in Gal 6.1 that those who need restoration should be cared for by those who are spiritual and have a spirit of gentleness. Attitude and action again working together.

Patience is the ability to handle pressure without letting your blood boil. There will always be situation in life where people press your buttons. They get to you. They wind you up. The temptation is to ‘let them have it!’ But blasting people in this way seldom helps. You may feel justified, you may feel better for getting that off your chest but it does nothing to preserve the unity of the Spirit. Those who work with anger management talk about AT - Anger Threshold. Some people have a LAT – low anger threshold. They have to work at getting a HAT – high anger threshold. In other words they keep cool for longer. For the believer this is not just about keeping a lid on things then punching a cushion when you get home – however helpful that might be! It’s about an inner transformation through the work of the Spirit. Paul tells us we need to show patience to ‘all men’.

Finally we have forbearance. This is similar to patience but is more nuanced. It is the ability to let things that are legitimately irritating to us slide. To use the JB Philips translation; ‘Make a generous allowance for one another’. I like that. Most parents understand this. If you over correct a child they loose heart. The motivation to want to do better next time goes. I had to learn how to major on the majors and let the other stuff go. Some parents major on the minors and the majors and all the chords in between. It doesn’t really work as a long-term strategy for ringing about change. It doesn’t make for peace, only conformity. It doesn’t preserve the unity of the Spirit.

3. Eph 4.4-6 NIV There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. This verse had a beautiful chiasm structure that places Jesus at the centre of everything. There may be many churches that express the Kingdom of God locally but only one body. This should have a profound impact on the way we relate to other believers from other fellowships. It is not a competition. It’s collaboration. Recognising this truth gives us the motivation to make more effort with other believers who see things differently from us. Jesus died for them too. He loves them as well as us. Let’s not erect barriers He died to pull down!

4. Get to know your grace gift – Eph 4. 7 NIV But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. Each one of us has a grace gift. It is much easier to make an effort to keep the unity of the Spirit if I know who you are and what you’re called to do. Too often I have seen grace gifts defined purely in terms of Eph 4.11 and the zenith is reached when you are full time. But the grace gift of pastoral care can operate in many vocational settings. I know a businessman who is great at discipling other businessmen. His pastoral gift works in the market place looking after other businessmen. Trying to be what we are not doesn’t preserve unity, it destroys it. I read a report recently of a large church that imploded after five years. It was a church with thousands of members. 60% left over a very short period of time. An analysis was made by a Christian Consultant as to why. He did a personality profile test of the leadership and then of the members. He discovered that the members were trying to be like the leaders in personality but it was contrary to their type. They were trying to be what they were not! And after a few years of trying they couldn’t sustain the pressure. Some people are more intuitive while others are ore analytical. Some are introvert while others are more extroverts. Our grace gift will work through our different personality types.

5. Learn to receive the grace gift of others, especially those that equip you for service – Eph 4.11-13. Jesus put it like this; If you receive a prophet in the name of a prophet you receive the prophet’s reward; Matt 10.41 Receiving from others helps to preserve unity. We receive as well as give. We minister and are ministered to. That’s how it works. The ministries of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher are there to, "give God's people the equipment they need for their work of service", Tom Wright's translation. Only by receiving them within the sphere of the gift they operate in do we benefit from their ministry.

6. Aim for maturity – Eph 4.13-16. Some Christians need to grow up! The basic problem of the Corinthian church was immaturity. They acted as babes in Christ. Babies are cute and adorable but we rightly expect them to grow and mature. A child that isn’t able to talk and be potty trained by five is a worry. Here are three things Paul highlights in the text that he looks for in a maturing Christian.

Discernment. The ability to spot a wind of teaching and navigate through it so that you stay on course instead of jumping from one Christian fad to the next.

Truthing it in our relationships. I am trying to convey the force of the Greek here as Paul wrote it. Most times it is translated ‘speaking the truth’, but ‘truthing it’ is better. Again the force is attitude and action. Being truthful, not just with our words but with our life.

Being connected. Joints are the points of connection in the body. It is where two members meet and interact. Mature believers understand the importance of connection. They don’t need to be told to go to church or get into a connect group. They understand that this was how the early church organised itself in order to do life together. Who are you connected to? Who speaks into your life? Who do you go to for advice and counsel? And do those people demonstrate that they too are following Jesus?

7. Finally Eph 4.16 focuses on every part doing its share of the work. This causes growth of the body in love, ‘as each part does its work’. Taking personal responsibility for your life is crucial. Nothing significant or lasting will happen until you do. Every one of us has a vital part to play in building up the body. So play your part. Getting connected puts you into a set of relationships that helps you to know where, when and how you can serve. My hand is joined to my wrist. It is not on the end of my ankle! It knows it’s a hand through the connection of relationships it has. It’s the same with us. Our relationships are intended to help us know who we are so we can serve effectively. You can’t serve in isolation. You need the body and the body needs you.

To make an effort in anything requires us to re prioritize our life. The unity of the Spirit is a reality Jesus gave His life for. Ask for grace to apply these seven points of progress to your life so that you become a person who actively guards unity. And then watch what God is able to do with a company of people who live in this way.

Make Every Effort Part 4

But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured more eagerly to see your face with great desire. Therefore we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us, 1Thess 2.17-18

This is another occasion when Paul uses the phrase ‘Make every effort’. From the account in Acts we learn that Paul had to flee Thessalonica because of persecution only two weeks after the establishment of the church. But in that short space of time he had taken them into his heart. Now he had to leave.

At the first opportunity he writes to them, expressing both his desire to see them and explained the many failed attempts he had made to get to them. But it still stands that he had ‘made every effort’ to see their face. They were separated in presence but not in heart. That is a wonderful thought. It tells us that relationships that have real value are heart relationships. I believe they display four essential qualities:

1. You are mindful of the other person even when you are not together. You carry them in your heart. It is difficult not to pray for such people. They are present in your thinking. Paul felt snatched away from these saints and longed to be with them.

2. You look forward to the reunion - to when you can be together. Paul desired to be with this church. All of us have experienced this. Those who have been in love know exactly what is being said here. The one you love takes up your thoughts so much so that when you are separated you long to be together. To quote Shakespeare: ”Absence makes the heart grow fonder”.

3. You actively seek ways to be together. That’s what Paul was doing. He had made several failed attempts to get to them, but he wanted them to know he hadn’t given up. He wrote to them so that they would be assured of his love, that he was mindful of them and that he would make it there – one day!

4. You openly share the value you place on the relationship. This is a very vulnerable place to be. To declare love for another, whether a friend, a sweetheart or even another family member is never easy. Taking the initiative leaves you open to rejection. We all want reciprocation when we declare love for another – but there are no guarantees.

Paul had no such reservations. He openly declares his love and joy in this group of believers. He would make every effort to see them again. The enemy would not have the last word.

I love the tenacious spirit Paul displays. It shows the priority that he places on relationships, especially with other believers. Even when absent he felt connected. That’s what heart connection does. It transcends time and distance.

I have a friend who is a Doctor of Psychology. Her thesis was written on “The Absent Father”. She explored the impact that this generation has experienced through fathers who were busy building careers and were not at home much. She included missionaries and pastors, who often spend extended periods away from their children. To her surprise the kids of many (though not all) missionaries and pastors fared well, while the kids of most (though not all) businessmen suffered identity issues and problems with self worth.

After careful study she came to this conclusion: A father can be absent but emotionally present and present but emotionally absent. The degree of emotional or heart connection was the crucial factor. Letters and phone calls had value when the father returned home and was emotionally present. Without heart connection the children still felt the distance.

In the church we need to prioritise emotional presence in our relationships. I must confess I have had to learn how to do this over the years. It didn’t come naturally to me. Have you ever had a conversation with someone and you felt like they weren’t there? They were in another place. Ask them to repeat your last sentence and they couldn’t. They are already thinking about their next appointment or how to deal with that problem that keeps occupying them. That was me. But for the most part I've changed. I've learned active listening skills that have helped make make genuine connection. To really be present with a person.

Jesus knew how to be emotionally connected to people. He had heart connection. He could weep over Jerusalem for missing their hour of opportunity. He could weep at the grave of Lazarus, even though He knew he would rise from the dead. He could look at a young man who was bound by money and love him. Heart connection. You can’t fake it. People know when it’s there and when it isn’t.

When Jesus called the twelve to follow Him they literally went on a journey. ‘Follow Me’ was the only requirement. But in the process of time the nature of their relationship changed. He took them into His heart. They went from being servants to friends; a friendship characterised by openhearted sharing:

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you, John 15.15 NIV.

He held nothing back. In doing so Jesus teaches us the importance of these kinds of friendships and these kinds of connections – heart connections. We see this later in Paul’s letter to Timothy. This was a man he had done ministry with for at least 15 years. He considered him a son in the faith; a close friend.

Remember Paul’s pastoral letters are his last words to two young pastors before he dies. They are at the end of his ministry. And at the close of this letter to Timothy listen to his heart cry:

Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica, 1Tim 4.9.

The phrase ‘Do your best’ is the same Greek word we have been studying translated in other places as, ‘Make very effort’. A co-worker has abandoned Paul; he feels the loneliness; he feels the pain. He wants Timothy. And then in verse 21 we get: "Do your best to get here before winter".

“Come quickly, come before winter”, is the cry of his heart. Twice within a few verses Paul shares his need; not for money but for friendship; for someone who is loyal and understands him. I find this very moving. To paraphrase Paul: “Make every effort to get here soon and definitely before winter”. The unspoken subtext, “I need you here, now”.

Timothy was in Ephesus leading the church; Paul was in Rome awaiting execution by Nero. Paul didn’t want Timothy to miss the opportunity of taking a sea going vessel to Rome before the winter made sea journeys hazardous. He wanted the presence of the man he felt the most heart connection to. And Timothy was a man who would make every effort.

That’s when friendship counts; when you are up against it, when you are abandoned; when you feel alone. When Jesus faced Gethsemane He asked for Peter, James and John to be with Him. Yet Jesus was surprised they couldn't manage to pray for even one hour with Him. Perhaps they needed to make more effort! When David was on the run from King Saul he took strength and comfort from Jonathan. They had heart connection. And Jonathan made the effort to encourage, protect David and speak up for him before his father.

But friendship also counts in times of celebration too. In Matt 22 we have the story of the wedding feast. The guests were invited but they refused to come. They would not make the effort. It said something about the value they placed on the relationship. There was no real heart connection.

The son who left home discovered this in Luke 15. When his money ran out so did his friends. They were fair-weather friends in it for the ride, not the relationship. When he finally came to himself he considered how the servants in his fathers house were treated and suddenly he saw things differently. They were loved and cared for, appreciated.

And on his return he got another shock. He was reinstated as a son because the father would not withhold this heart connection from his own son. Ironically the older brother suffered from the same disconnection, even though he stayed on the farm. He could not enter into the celebration of the return of his younger brother. He too needed to have a change of heart.

The story is called "The Prodigal Son” when it should be called "The Longing Father”, as in longing for genuine heartfelt connection with his two sons. Both of them had failed in different ways to appreciate what their father had to give them. In bad times, in good times we need friends around and we need to make every effort to be with them in those times.

A ten year study of people over seventy years old in Australia found that an active network of friends increase life expectancy by 22%. No friends and you die younger; that’s how important real friendships are to life and health. And like all things in life worth having it requires effort, but if we truly place value on relationships then the effort is not difficult. It is one of ordering our priorities.

Think if Zacchaeus in Luke 19.1-10. He was wealthy and a chief tax collector and short! Everyone knew him. But he was passionate about meeting Jesus and so he did a very undignified thing for a chief, wealthy, tax collector to do. He climbed a tree – just to see Jesus. While others may have been amused by this sight Jesus invited Himself to his house. He took him very seriously and that little man’s life was changed forever. He made every effort. He was prepared to look foolish. Jesus mattered more.

Think of blind Bartimeaus in Mark 10.46. When he knew that Jesus was passing by he would not stop crying out. When people told him to be silent he cried out even louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”. By calling Jesus the Son of David he was acknowledging His legitimate claim to the thrown of Israel. Jesus was their King and Messiah and Bartimaeus freely confessed this. He made every effort to get Jesus attention and he succeeded. The result – he received his sight fully restored, and then followed Him.

Think of the Canaanite woman with her demonised daughter in Matt 15.21. The disciples want her to be sent away. Jesus reminds her that He is sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel – not the Canaanite gentiles. But she persists, worshipping Him, beseeching Him. And then Jesus is at His most controversial. He tells her it is not right to take the children’s bread and feed it to the dogs.

She doesn’t get offended. She is on a mission. Nothing will stop her. The well being of her daughter is at stake and only Jesus can help. She is making every effort to touch His heart. And her reply is astonishing, humble and clever. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the masters table”. Genius!

Jesus is impressed. "I have not found faith like this, not even in all Israel". This woman gets it and Jesus commends her faith. For that is what it is. Faith inspires us to make every effort to press in to God; to find heart connection. This is the only time in the NT where a person is delivered from a demon and Jesus is not actually present with the afflicted person. Such was the level of her faith. She made every effort and her faith was rewarded.

Think now of Hebrews 10.24-25.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Meeting together is always an effort. If you have a family it means getting up early enough for everyone to have time to get showered and dressed. I’ve done this with six kids. I know what’s involved. It often means organising what you eat for lunch the day before, even preparing it then sometimes. But if you value the church, if you value fellowship, if you value corporate worship, if you value God’s word then you will make every effort to be there.

I’m saddened by some of the excuses I hear people make as to why they don’t make it to church sometimes; a late night, a busy week, no time for breakfast, difficult children. Come on! That is the stuff of life. It wouldn’t stop us getting to work most days of the week. You find a way to make it happen. Just this past month I know of guys who get up early to watch the Rugby World Cup, but can’t make the effort to be at a prayer meeting on a Sunday evening. They are making every effort to watch the Rugby.

I have no problem with that. That's great. Now let’s make an effort to pray together. Let’s see it as a priority that can make a difference in our town, our country, and our world. What I am talking about is valuing what God values so that what we make an effort to do comes out of a sense of conviction.

In John 21 we have the story of Peter who decides to go fishing. He goes back to his old trade. The chances are that after his vehement denial of Jesus he now saw himself disqualified for ministry. He had disqualified himself. So off he went and because he is a leader a group of them followed him, including John. You see your gift keeps operating in all circumstances! They all made a huge effort to catch fish. They stayed up all night. Experienced fishermen. Yet they caught nothing.

Think of how demoralised they would have felt. This was their trade. Imagine what went through Peter’s head. I’m no good as an apostle and now I’m no good at fishing either. Disaster! And then Jesus shows up and tells them to cast the net on the other side. They are tired. They are hungry. They are demoralised. But they make very effort to obey. It isn’t a huge demand but for where they were at, it took a gargantuan effort to move that net. But when they did, result!

We can make all kinds of effort and put that effort into the right thing but without Jesus, without His guidance and help, we achieve nothing. But to make every effort in response to what Jesus has said changes everything. And when they get to shore Jesus already has breakfast for them. He meets every need. He restores Peter’s dignity as a fisherman; He feeds him as a friend and then restores him as an apostle. Wonderful. Jesus made the effort to be there for Peter because He valued the man and saw beyond his failure.

And John finishes where he began; with a simple phrase that tells us what discipleship is all about, ‘Follow Me’. This is what we must make every effort to do. Follow Him. And as we do we too will find ourselves being there for each other as Paul was for Timothy, as Barnabas was for Paul, as Jesus was for the twelve. John the aged apostle calls it laying down your life for the brethren, 1John 3.16. Now that is worth making an effort for.

Make Every Effort Part 3

James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along, Gal 2.10

Like all of the other passages we have looked at in recent blogs, the Greek word for eager, spoudazō, means ‘make every effort’. What is clear from this text is that all of the apostolic leaders believed that caring for the poor was an important priority. They were eager to do it and they made every effort to do it throughout their ministries.

But why this commitment to caring for the poor? What informed their convictions? Here are some key scriptures that shaped the social conscience of Israel in the past and so would, in turn, have shaped them.

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God, Lev 19.9-10.

During a harvest there would be a group of workers that went through a field in line with sickles cutting and then others followed gathering the sheaves. Invariably there were parts that were missed between each of the reapers. These could have been caught in a second wave of reaping but God forbade this. It had to be left for the poor or the foreigner in the land. These people along with orphans and widows were the most vulnerable in any society. So God made laws to protect them.

In one sense this was an enforced generosity on the part of the field owner towards the poor. But in relation to the whole harvest, the gleanings, those parts of the field missed in the first wave of reaping, was a tiny percentage of the whole. God was tempering our tendency towards greed by making the landowners leave enough for the poor. It did not substantially effect their profit.

This is what makes the story of Ruth so beautiful. She was a poor widow who gathered the gleanings from Boaz’s field. When they meet his heart went out to her and he told the reapers who worked for him to intentionally leave handfuls of grain, just for her, Ruth 2.1-12.

The same was true for the grape harvest. Not every grape was picked on the first pass of reaping. Invariably some were missed and God legislated that these should be left for the poor and the foreigner. God was establishing laws that would help to shape a just society. The burden was not placed just on the state but on the people as a whole.

In Lev 25.4-7; 11-12 we read:
But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of Sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

The Sabbath rest was a weekly feature in Israeli life. But God also built this principle of rest into how the land was worked. So every seven years the land rested. There was no sowing and no reaping allowed. If anything grew up it did so from the previous years seeding. So whatever harvest appeared was a free for all, including the animals.

This was then extended to the year of Jubilee that happened every 50 years when all debts were cancelled and lands returned to their ancestral owners. Thus year 49 was a Sabbath year followed by another Sabbath year in year 50. Two years of Sabbaths. Now if were in any way disadvantaged as a citizen if Israel during that time it was wonderful for you. You had food for your family! You could live.

The spirit of all this is best captured by the verse in Deut 15.11:
There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open-handed toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

God knew that the poor would always be there but He didn’t want the Israelite community to become hardened and indifferent to this reality. He wanted them to be ‘open-handed’ towards the poor and needy. On the other side of the coin God had these instructions to those who wandered into a neighbours field in Duet 23.24-25:
If you go into your neighbour's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you wish, but do not put any grapes into your basket.25 If you go into your neighbour's grain field, you may pick grain with your hands, but you must not cut down your neighbour's grain with your sickle, NCV.

I find this amazing. There was freedom to take enough food from someone else’s harvest for yourself but no more, no matter whom you were. Again the thinking behind this was that in proportion to the harvest, this was an insignificant amount and expressed God’s heart of generosity.

All of this teaching and practice was well known to the apostles and endorsed by Jesus. In Luke 14.13-14 NCV Jesus challenged His hearers with this statement:
“Instead, when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then you will be blessed, because they have nothing and cannot pay you back. But you will be repaid when the good people rise from the dead."

Notice His reasoning here, ‘They cannot repay you’. We give to those who are powerless to give back in this lifetime. In one sense this helps us define who the poor are, those who have nothing to repay us with. Paul goes on to quote Jesus to the Ephesian elders. They are some of his parting words to them:
I showed you in all things that you should work as I did and help the weak. I taught you to remember the words Jesus said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'

There is a blessing in receiving for sure. We all like being blessed. But the truth is that it is more blessed to give than to receive. I did not understand this truth until I had children. But the joy of seeing their response when I did something for them far outweighed what it cost me to do it in the first place. I felt more blessed than they did!

When we get to the book of Acts we see how this principle of making every effort to care for the poor played out in the new church community. For a start they relinquished personal ownership of land and property in order to release money to care for the community,

The apostles were doing many miracles and signs, and everyone felt great respect for God. All the believers were together and shared everything. They would sell their land and the things they owned and then divide the money and give it to anyone who needed it. The believers met together in the Temple every day. They ate together in their homes, happy to share their food with joyful hearts. They praised God and were liked by all the people. Every day the Lord added those who were being saved to the group of believers, Acts 2.43-47 NCV.

In the midst of God’s awesome presence seen in signs and wonders the following happened:

1. They shared everything they had!
2. They gave to those who needed it.
3. They met daily.
4. They ate together, happy to share their food.
5. They praised God
6. They were liked by the people who watched them
7. Everyday believers were added to their number.

The generosity of spirit they had was as a direct result of their surrender to the Lordship of Jesus. The OT commands were now being worked out in their community spontaneously. Awesome!

This is played out further in Acts 4.32-37 and 5.1-11 where a sharp contrast is made between Barnabas and his generosity and the deceit of Ananias and Sapphira. The issue was not the reluctance of this couple to give everything. Holding back something for themselves was their free choice, their right. There was nothing sinful in this. The problem was that they lied about how much they received for the property. They left the community with the impression that they had given everything.

It is hard to know what was in their thinking when they did this. Perhaps they thought that giving all was the only option. Perhaps they felt guilty about keeping something back for themselves. Perhaps they felt less spiritual if the others knew this. Perhaps they felt they couldn’t live up to the expectations of others. Whatever the reason they lied. And it cost them their lives. This is the first case of church discipline that we read about. As you might expect fear fell upon the whole community, inside and outside of the church.

All this took place under the new covenant of grace established by Jesus! Why? I believe it was because the church was moving forward with great momentum and the Holy Spirit knew that this sin would slow the process. He did not want the hearts of the people discouraged by this deceit. Honesty before God and the people in such matters was crucial.

Notice too that Sapphira was judged separately from her husband. Saying she was submitting to his leadership was no excuse. She too had a choice and she chose to collude with Ananias. God held her accountable for her choice! They were judged as individuals unlike Achan and his family in the book of Joshua.

When we get to Acts 6 we find the first record of unrest in the church. Essentially it is a social justice issue. The Greek speaking Jewish widows were finding themselves disadvantaged when it came to food distribution. The Hebrew speaking widows were getting more! We are not told who was perpetrating this injustice. Luke records it in a way that hints it is rooted in racism similar to the problems that existed between Jews and Samaritans.

The key thing to see is that the apostles took this issue seriously and acted. They laid out criteria for the selection of a new level of leadership that could take care of this problem. And the criteria combined the spiritual with the practical. Remember that in the Bible wisdom was the ability to live life practically and well according to Proverbs. So they chose men full of the Spirit and wisdom and the apostles appointed them, Acts 6.1-6.

These men acted impartially so that justice in the community was restored. Listen to the consequence for the whole church in the next verse:
The word of God was continuing to spread. The group of followers in Jerusalem increased, and a great number of the Jewish priests believed and obeyed, Acts 6.7.

Not only were people saved but priests, the hardest group to win, were converted. Amazing. Later in Acts 11.29-30 the believers in Antioch learn, through a prophetic utterance, of a famine throughout the world. In response they determine to send relief aid to the believers in Jerusalem. They saw themselves as connected to that distant community and so social justice became a burden they willingly carried.

It’s worth noting that they responded according to their ability.
The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the believers living in Judea, Acts 11.29 TNIV. None gave beyond their means, but they did give.

This apostolic practice is further endorsed in the letters of Paul, James and John. Take a look at James 2.15-18, 1 John 3.16-18 (which strongly resonates with Deut 15.11). Listen to Paul in 1Thess 5.14;
And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

Everyone needs patience and to be dealt with patiently. That’s where Paul ends. Yet three specific categories of people are listed here. The lazy and disruptive (one word in the Greek), the fainthearted (literally small souled) and the weak. With each group Paul suggests a different approach whilst all need patience.

The lazy group are able to work but choose not to. Paul says, ‘warn them’. In other words they need a kick, a challenge. He will later go so far as to say if a man won’t work he shouldn’t eat. Now there is a way of motivating someone. He even says don’t eat with such a person. They are not living up to Biblical standards and have no grasp of their social responsibility.

The fainthearted don’t need to be challenged, warned or rebuked. These people have a small capacity. They need massive encouragement, building up. This of course requires discernment. We have to be able to tell the difference! If not, we may end up rebuking the fainthearted and encouraging the lazy. Not good! I’ve seen it happen.

The final group are the weak. This term includes the poor, the sick, the lame, the blind, the orphan and the widow. These people need our support. Paul is clear that by support he means financial support. That is the context for using the word in Acts 20.35 NKJV.

All of this resonates with the words of Jesus in Matt 25.31-47 where He speaks of the judgment of the nations. Look at part of the text here:
Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

This is Jesus speaking. We can rely on His words. Notice how unselfconscious the sheep are to these acts of kindness. It was part of their lifestyle. They did it without fanfare or hope of recognition. How amazing that when we care for the weak we are in fact caring for Jesus. Wow. I believe it’s time for the church to make an effort to care for the poor; to get involved in social justice issues. To find men full of the Spirit and wisdom who can come up with creative solutions to difficult social problems.

We cannot look to government agencies to have the answers. They need to look to us, to the church. And we need to look to the Lord and step out in obedience. Paul tells us that love is expressed by loving our neighbour. A lawyer tried to justify himself once by asking Jesus who his neighbour was. Jesus then told the parable about the certain Samaritan. You'll find it in Luke 10.25-37.

This is helpful. We cannot meet all the needs around us but we can meet the needs of those God puts in our way. Crossing over to the other side, as though we haven’t noticed, is not a legitimate option. We need to get involved. And like the Samaritan it costs us something in time, energy and money. But as we do, we have the assurance we are doing this to Jesus.

Here are a few suggestions for how you can begin.

1. In the parable of the certain Samaritan scripture tells us he was ‘moved with compassion’. The important thing is to allow yourself to feel what others are going through. Everything Jesus did came from this ability to have compassion on people in their pain and need. Pray that God opens your heart to embrace the pain of others. We must learn to weep with those who weep out of genuine empathy not as professional mourners.

2. Let this compassion be translated into action of some kind. Dare to get involved. The Samaritan did what he could; he treated the man’s wounds and then bound them up, put him on his own donkey, took him to a place of refuge, paid for an extended stay and further care (two days wages – about £200 by todays reckoning), then promised to return to settle any outstanding accounts. That is very comprehensive.

3. Involvement will always cost you something. It takes time, energy and money to make a difference. Choose a lifestyle that leaves enough for such demands. If you aim to live on 80% of your income then you will have money on hand when you need it. Too often we match our lifestyle to our full income. Remember if you have a bed to sleep in, a cupboard for your clothes and a roof over our head you have more than 75% of the people in the world!

4. The goal is to help people so that they are empowered to help themselves and others. We don’t want to create dependency on us. The idea is to see people become whole so that they can face life with faith and hope. That’s what the Samaritan did for the man who fell among robbers. He knew it would take time but he had a clear goal.

5. Dare to go on trip that takes you out of your comfort zone. There are many places in the world with great need. Don’t go on your own. Go with someone who knows what they are doing. You can easily find yourself out of your depth. And when you feel totally overwhelmed with the needs around you, remind yourself that you serve a God whose heart is so big He is able to meet all those needs through Jesus.

I pray that as a believer and as a church we are able to embrace the needs of a broken people in a broken world and bring the touch of heaven to those who need it. Make every effort to remember the poor!

Make Every Effort Part 2

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is near-sighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2Pet 1.5-11 NIV

Twice in this passage the phrase ‘Make every effort’ is used. The text is really important for us. Like the other texts we have already looked at this is about ordering our priorities in life and ministry so that we succeed. That’s what the apostle Peter wants; that we be fruitful Christians. He says it’s possible for us to ‘confirm’ our calling. In other words our life matches our profession.

The key idea here is adding; to make sure you add to your faith. Faith is foundational according to 1Cor 3.11. Jesus is that foundation and faith in Him creates that foundation in your own life. Without it you are lost. But with Him as your foundation you are able to build a life that can bring praise to God.

We build be adding. Peter gives us a list of things. He begins with virtue. This is moral excellence or goodness. This along with, perseverance, self control, and love are also listed by Paul as a product of the fruit of the Spirit in Gal 5.21-22.

This tells me two things in particular. The first is that the fruit of the Spirit is not meant to be an exhaustive list. In Peter’s list there are four things mentioned also by Paul. Fruit can have many expressions. It is not limited to the list of nine by Paul or seven by Peter.

The second thing is that fruit is a product of life. It is organic. Like a tree that grows and produces fruit, so we too are meant to grow and produce fruit. So when Peter tells us to ‘make every effort’ he is not telling us to try hard to produce fruit. He is telling us to order our lives in such a way that the organic process of God’s life in us will manifest in fruit.

Many Christians begin well but then something in life makes them stumble. Maybe they get offended. Maybe they drift away. Maybe the cares of this world overwhelm them and the life of the seed is choked. Peter tells us that if we are purposeful and add to our faith we will continue to grow in our knowledge of Jesus.

Now a house is built from the bottom up. First there is a superstructure, then the roof, windows and doors and then the fittings and utilities. Finally the place is decorated. This is how we are to build our lives. We add to the foundation so that a house is built.

If we don’t add to our faith we remain vulnerable. Peter implies that we eventually develop spiritual myopia. We simply can’t see clearly and without clear vision people cast off restraint, Prov 29.18. Growth and advancement are meant to be the norm for believers.

As we add to our faith we keep our vision clear. It helps us make good decisions in life, because we have established good priorities. These priorities develop our character and this in turn helps to shape our choices and ultimately our destiny. Adding to our faith is a must but where do we begin?

This is not difficult. Just be honest with what you are struggling with in your life. Are you in a situation where you feel like giving up? Then maybe you need to add perseverance to your faith. Your present circumstances often tell you what it is God is working on right now in terms of developing your character.

For the person who is newly saved but lives with a partner they need to add knowledge and virtue to their faith. Knowledge of how God sees marriage. Studying what the Bible has to say on this issue, or doing a marriage course can help with this. Virtue enables them to be able to talk to their partner in a loving way. In time something should change.

The teenager who has lived with few boundaries and so is brash and undisciplined needs to add self-control to their faith. Without it they are captive to badly learned patterns of behaving. Remember too that this is a process. It takes time. Nor do these additions to our faith need to be sequential. Some can be happening at the same time. They are often linked.

This kind of process often means coming into a relationship where someone else can hold you accountable for your progress. Wanting to change is half the battle but some people confuse desire with accomplishment. We often judge ourselves by our intentions but others by their actions. To ourselves we are gracious while to others we can be unnecessarily tough. Someone else can help us keep it real.

Adding to your faith is a life long process. That’s why I try and position myself to be a lifetime learner. Paul says in 1 Cor 8.1 that knowledge can puff up. The danger is that we think we have arrived. He encourages the Corinthians to take a different position. “We don’t yet know as we ought to know”. There is more!

There is a certain quality I find with lifetime learners.

1. They are more eager to listen than to speak. This resonates with the book of proverbs that often distinguishes the wise man as the one who will listen or take a rebuke. The proud and the foolish don’t do this. They blurt out every thought without really considering their audience or the impact they will have.

2. They don’t write people off just because they disagree with them over some issues. Many believers have vilified Dan Brown because of his book, ‘The Da Vinci Code’. I’ve read it. It’s disappointing. He is not a theologian or a historian. Maybe if he were he would be better informed. But it is a piece of fiction and he has written some other great books. ‘Digital Fortress’ and ‘Deception Point’ are excellent. In my opinion they would make great movies. Lifetime learners know how to make a discerning choice. They don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!

3. They read widely. Doing a Masters Degree brought a certain discipline into my life when it came to study. It forced me to read widely around the subject I was preparing my thesis for. My professor helped to point me towards all the authors who had made a significant contribution to this field of study. I find some believers very narrow in their thinking. They read one book on an issue and think they now have the truth on that subject. It’s sloppy and careless.

Read widely around a topic and use a mentor to point you to the authors who really have something to say. I know believers whose only view of the end times is informed by the ‘Left Behind’ series of books and films. If you want to be provoked to consider a different view then read Tom Wright’s book, ‘Surprised by Hope’. He is a brilliant theologian. Try adding to that the ‘Counterpoint Series’ published by Zondervan that presents different views on several topics each held by sincere orthodox Christians.

4. They welcome critique and input from peers. This is fundamental to good research. This is why we do life together. We need the input and feedback of others. Even when it comes to interpreting the Bible we should do it as a community. We have a shared faith. Gordon Fee says the first community we are indebted to is the church in history. In other words what others have said in the past is important to know!

5. They give deference to those who have helped them in their journey. Growing up in a little Brethren church helped me understand the meaning of hospitality. They were great at that and I’m grateful for what they showed me. But it was John Wimber who helped me add the experience of worship and healing to my faith.

Peter Drucker became a great influence on my take on servant leadership. Through the writings of Henry Cloud and John Townsend I added boundaries to my life and it brought a whole new experience of freedom to me. I honour what each of them brought to my Christian experience and understanding.

6. They remain open to learning something new all the time, even in an area where, according to others, they may be an acknowledged expert. Life has taught me that the more I know about a subject, the less I fully know. It helps to create a genuine humility in me. Someone may actually be able to add to my knowledge and experience of God if I maintain that posture of heart.

7. They don’t presume what others don’t know. They begin by listening and then asking questions. The great Danish theologian and writer Søren Kierkegaard said that we couldn’t presume to teach anyone until we first learn what he or she knows. This is the attitude of a real servant. Don't presume what people need to know. Get to know them first, then you can help them.

Let me challenge you this week to reflect on your own journey of faith. Are there some missing pieces? Is there a need for you to add to your faith? Everyone should be able to answer this in the affirmative. The only real question is what do you need to add.

Take some time to think this through. Ask some of your close friends or peers what they think. Dare to listen to what they have to say. Then ‘make every effort’ to realign your life and priorities so that God can add this to you too. Remember, if you do, you will never be barren or unfruitful and your progress will be apparent to everyone around you.