SEEKING STRENGTH FOR THE TASK

One of the areas of emphasis for the men that I associate with, from Businessmen in Christ, of Springfield, is taken from Philippians 2: 12 - 13.   This is the passage where we are commanded to "work out our salvation":

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.    (NKJV)

The idea is to exhort people, beginning with me, to not be spectators, but rather be participants in works of service and in witnessing -- all for Jesus our Savior, to bring glory to God.    So, we need to keep on putting out the effort, as leaders and workers, in works of service for ministry.   But, when we do so, we need to remember to seek strength for our tasks.

A series of devotional messages that I have been reading, Leadership: Stepping Out in Faith, is a study of the Book of Nehemiah.    I have reprinted the message from day 24 below, which is  developed as a commentary based on Nehemiah 6: 9.

SEEKING STRENGTH FOR THE TASK

It becomes terribly frustrating when you are constantly being dogged by your enemies. In one instance, it is insults.   In another, it is petty skirmishes and in yet another, it is lies, deceit and intimidation.   Many of us would crack under such relentless personal and physical attack.   Nehemiah, however, holds fast.   God has given him a high level of wisdom, and he can spot deception a mile away.

Nehemiah does not fall for the intimidating tactics of his enemies.   He recognizes them for what they are, and as is his practice, goes to God in prayer, appealing to God for strength.

Nehemiah needs strength for the physical task of building the wall.   What are some other reasons he might need strength?

Deceit is pandemic in our society.   Speak out against it when it occurs, knowing that God’s power will back you up. 

Pray: Lord, let me be prudent in my response to those who attack my credibility and to those that are deceitful.    Strengthen my hands for the work You have called me to do, in Jesus' Name.

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Nehemiah 6:9   (NKJV)

For they all were  trying  to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.” Now therefore, O  God, strengthen my hands.

"The Olympic Myth" -- and My Response

My Response to:  “The Olympic Myth”  

By:  George Nielsen - August 10, 2012

“The Olympic Myth” is a recent posting at www.preteenministry.net .  This is one of the ministries that I have ‘liked’ and subscribed to, on Facebook.    Excerpts from the post are shown below, and a link to the full post is given at the end of my response.    The basic premise of the post is that the effort and character qualities of Olympic championship athletes, that they need to reach that level of achievement, are NOT the right approach for achieving ministry and spiritual life goals.   The myth is that the same model for achievement used by Olympians will work for Christians in their spiritual life.     I agree -- that is a myth.    But I feel that the post needs to be supplemented by comments that add some balance, regarding our own effort, and don’t leave the impression that it’s okay to be a spiritual “slacker”.     

Excerpt:

As the summer olympics come to a close, I have been reflecting on what I call the olympic myth. Let me explain.

Some of the keys to success for olympians is hard work, determination and persistence. They set goals and create daily habits that move them towards their destination. Eventually those habits, combined with a good attitude bring them victory. Yes, not everyone gets an olympic medal. But the super stars do.

Now, these characteristics are good. In fact, God applauds persistence, self-determination and working hard. The danger is when we carry this attitude over into our spiritual lives.

The problem is that many of us try too hard when it comes to following Jesus. We try hard to avoid sin, maybe even setting specific goals in this area. We are determined to get closer to God. We persistently read the Bible and pray without those practices having much of an impact in how we act. We hear a message and are determined that change will happen if we make the right choices.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t work long-term. We end up frustrated and confused. The bigger problem comes when we push this approach on those that we lead. We tell them to try harder and be stronger when following Jesus. As a result, they end up frustrated and confused as well. Some even quit following Jesus. We weren’t designed by God to try harder.

We were designed to rely on Jesus more often, not try harder.

So, stop trying and start relying on Him!

My Response:
Your point is valid, regarding relying on extra effort as THE way to achieve ministry or spiritual life goals. It is not the way.  Receiving guidance and strength from Jesus is the answer, along with your own effort and persistence.    We want to teach our preteens to connect to Jesus as their Source.  One of my fellow ministers has a saying "Look to the Source for your resources."   This lines up with our Theme and prayer emphasis for this year "Fix your Eyes on Jesus."

You should note that the article doesn't give enough credit to the importance of putting in your own effort to persist with spiritual disciplines.   There is a balance -- between legitimate personal effort and reliance on supernatural help from the Lord.   We want to teach the kids to build their devotion to Jesus and stay connected spiritually to the Lord, to be faithful young disciples of Jesus.  To Be a faithful, and growing, young disciple of Jesus, it is still important to Do spiritual disciplines that strengthen that devotion.   "BE"-ing comes first, but there is also a place for emphasizing "Do"-ing, for the young disciple of Jesus.    

For the 5th graders I teach, Being a Young Disciple of Jesus is the primary goal for this year.   But I don't feel I can neglect their development of spiritual disciplines, and I feel the kids need to put in a lot more of their own effort too.

- George Nielsen

To read the full post “The Olympic Myth” - Click HERE .

What Do We Mean When We Say Someone Is “a False Convert” ?

What Do We Mean When We Say Someone Is “a False Convert” ?

By:  George Nielsen – August 8, 2012

My brother in the Lord, Bernie Lutchman Jr. of Chatham IL, minister and President of Businessmen in Christ of Springfield, writes and publishes online as part of his ministry.  He has a Ministry Blog (a link to it is given below), and today he re-published a posting from a few years ago that featured teaching by Rev. Paul Washer.   If you are not already following Bernie’s Blog, I recommend that you do so.    For a link to Bernie's Blog, click HERE.

The main point of Paul Washer’s teaching is that ‘Soft Preaching is Weakening American Christianity’ and that part of that soft preaching is what is known as “easy believe-ism”.   People who are “False Converts” are those who say what is called “the Sinner’s Prayer” after hearing and giving their assent to the message of grace and forgiveness – but have no other requirements as a believer, except that they may agree to be baptized in water – and then they live an indifferent, casual, so-called Christian life. 

What is missing, and what makes these people “false”?

Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom.    My primary teaching ministry in the Church is teaching 5^th grade Sunday School.  I teach the 5^th graders the Gospel of the Kingdom, but my experience has shown that not that many adults know this, so I have to put in quite a bit of effort, trying to bring my students’ parents up-to-speed with what I teach their kids.  

There are two primary messages in the Gospel of the Kingdom – Salvation and the Kingdom.  

¨      The Salvation message is that people need to Come to Jesus.   He paid the price for their sins, and they can be saved, by grace, through faith in Him.  The Scripture teaches that he who believes and is baptized (in water) shall be saved.

¨      The Kingdom message is that Jesus, our Risen Savior, is the King of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 28:18).   People who Come to Jesus enter the Kingdom of God by their commitment to be His disciples.   Everyone needs to examine themselves regarding their own level of commitment to discipleship.   Jesus said “if you love Me, keep My commandments.”    To keep this brief, I would simply say that there are two times that Jesus uses the word “Go” to command His disciples. 

o       In Matthew 28, Jesus said to go, and BE something, be witnesses for Him in the world who will make new disciples.  

o       In Luke 10, Jesus told the lawyer who had questioned Him to go, and DO something, do just like the Good Samaritan did, meeting other people’s needs, serving them as a demonstration of the love of God.

Jesus taught the disciples to pray and included this petition as part of the prayer He taught: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”   His disciples come to Him in worship, giving honor to Him as their Lord.  Then His disciples go, doing works that they are called to do, to extend the Kingdom of God to more and more people, throughout the world.

False converts are people who may say that they love Jesus, but they don’t serve Him – they serve themselves.    Christianity and any Christian behavior you may see in their lives is just a veneer, covering the outside.    On the inside – they are the king, not Jesus.

False converts say “I believe in Jesus”.   You need to understand that even demons from hell can say that they believe in Jesus.    The Scripture teaches that if we “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” we shall be saved (Acts 16:31).    Referring to saving faith as “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” means not only have you assented to Jesus’ message of salvation, but that you also believe these things:

¨    Jesus is the eternal Son of God,

¨    Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one who is the Messiah, our Savior; He fulfilled His ministry of salvation through His death, atoning for our sins, and His resurrection from the dead, in victory over death, hell, and the grave.

¨    Jesus has instituted a New Covenant; believing on the Lord Jesus includes your agreement to this New Covenant.   You give your allegiance to Him as King.

¨    Jesus gives new life to those who receive it, by faith, and enter in to this new life, which is called being born again.   A key characteristic of this new life is that you are led by the Holy Spirit and desire to be faithful as Jesus’ disciple.   If you fall short in being faithful, you repent and seek to be restored.   Your faith is not stagnant – it is growing.

The danger of “Soft Preaching” is that a truncated message, not preaching the entire Gospel of the Kingdom, is actually a deceptive message.   People can be deceived concerning their eternal destiny, and then grow cold to living the new life in Christ, because they think they don’t have to live any differently.   “Being led by the Holy Spirit” will actually occur only if a person listens and is willing to obey.

Soft preachers may be afraid to “get in your face” and as a result they stick with an easy Gospel message.    Just because the price for your salvation was paid-in-full by Jesus, don’t think there is nothing for you to do.   Instead, commit to being faithful, growing disciples of Jesus.   Be people whose Christian lives are characterized by taking action to fulfill your calling from God, being people of integrity, and growing faith.    

A Prophecy for Today: "What Hath God Wrought!"

What Hath GOD Wrought!

By: George Nielsen, August 3, 2012

  Numbers 23.23b and 24a

according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! ²⁴Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion   [KJV]

This prophecy that was spoken about God’s Chosen People, Israel, still is the destiny that God has for His children today – the sons and daughters of God who have Come to Jesus, and are led by the Spirit.

In our time of prayer, we can speak this word from Numbers 23, claiming it as our prophetic destiny: 

– it shall be said of those who are united with God’s Vision, “What hath God wrought !”

   In other words, it will be said “Look at what amazing things God has accomplished through His people.” 

And what will be one of the keys to this?    The Scripture says “Behold, the people shall rise up”.   This is step Number One:

o       the end of ‘casual’ Christianity, with its inward-focused,  Sunday-mornings-only, mentality that has a negligible impact on anything outside the Church’s buildings.

o       Those Christians that do rise up, becoming part of what has been termed “the Triumphant Reserve”, will find their calling, find new associations or connections to join together with, and will act.   Saying this, using military language, would be to say the Triumphant reservists have been mobilized, and are being deployed on-mission.    

o       The reservists will take action because they have internalized the word St. Paul the Apostle spoke to the Philippian church – that they would work out their salvation, and that God, in them, is doing His work (see Philippians 2: 12-13).

Another key to this is taken from the repetition of the metaphor of the lion in verse 24.   The great lion, gifted and anointed by God, is able to do great things.  

o       Jesus commanded us to do great things, the things that He had done Himself, while He ministered here on the earth, and even greater things (see John 14:12).   And I always follow up, when mentioning John 14:12, with the statement – He wasn’t just ‘kidding around’. Jesus said this, the night before He was crucified, so His disciples would know they could do what He did, in hands-on ministry for people.

o       The great lion will also “lift up himself as a young lion”.   The fulfillment of the meaning of the young lion metaphor will be two-fold.   

¨      First the Triumphant reservist will lift up himself in the sense of re-invigorating himself both physically and spiritually.   So, he or she will have energy and stamina, and the activity level more like their younger days.  Also, he or she will be more active prophetically, seeing the vision that God has for them.   Finally, the reservist will be growing in faith, because they are becoming more locked-in and focused on their own devotional life (remembering “their first love”), and they are faithfully following their spiritual disciplines.

¨      Second, and even more importantly, the Triumphant reservist is committed to being a mentor to young Christians, “Millennial’s” in their teens and twenties.  Furthermore, reservists are especially focused on supporting the development of our youngest generation, “the iGeneration” – children born after the year 2000, basically preschool-age through sixth grade, so that they become the young lions.    The reservist focuses both on their own grandchildren, or children in this age group, and also all the other iGeneration kids they can minister to.    This is being fruitful and multiplying.     The goal is that by the time they are sixth graders, the kids are committed, warrior sons and daughters of God, ready to be mobilized and minister in their giftings as they go into junior high school, among their young teen peers.  

        

Receive, in your own spirit, this prophecy, as being “yours,” for today.     Pray, with thanksgiving to God for His strengthening you, to be a great lion.   This is “calling things that be not, as though they are” – a positive declaration of God’s Word.   That’s what this word was when it was spoken back in the ancient land of Moab by Balaam, declaring God’s intended outcome for the children of Israel – in advance of it actually happening.

Use the phrase from verse 23 as your “battle cry”.   God is the Source, but you are His force, the Triumphant reserve.   What hath God wrought!      

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George Nielsen is an ordained minister in the Christian Church and Churches of Christ.  He is a teacher and evangelist with Faith Hope and Love Christian Ministries, of Springfield Illinois and teaches in the Children’s Christian Education ministry at Rochester Christian Church.   He is a member of the United States Reformation Prayer Network (USRPN) and is affiliated with Mountain Alliance of Illinois.   He is a US Army veteran and retiree.

GABBY DOUGLAS

U.S. Olympic Athlete Gabrielle "Gabby" Douglas

This week, Gabby Douglas made history by being the first African-American woman to win the gold medal in the ladies’ gymnastics all-around and the first American gymnast to win gold in both the individual and team events.

In the moments after receiving her individual gold medal, Gabby told a reporter,

“It is everything I thought it would be; being the Olympic champion – it definitely is an amazing feeling.   And I give all the glory to God.   It's kind of a win-win situation.    The glory goes up to him and the blessings fall down on me.”    

The 16-year-old celebrated the moment with a tribute to God, sent out using her Twitter account.   "Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things He does for me," she tweeted.   

Helping Pre-Teen Children Become Young Disciples of Jesus

Thoughts About My Pre-Teen Students – Helping Them To Be Young Disciples of Jesus
By George Nielsen – July 4, 2012

Being a Young Disciple of Jesus is presented as a goal and the goal is restated, almost every week, to the 5th graders that I teach on Sundays.

What am I actually expecting?   The list written below describes what I am trying to accomplish with my 5th grade students, over this next year.

Most people who set tangible goals know that the idea of goal-setting is to have goals that are meaningful, written, as specific as possible, and attainable.   The goals should motivate you or me, the goal setter, to work to achieve them, following action steps related to the goals.    My action step is primarily to carry out my teaching ministry on Sundays, which also includes prayer and encouragement for the kids, both inside and outside the classroom.

It is absolutely vital that the parents be involved in this, building on my one-hour-per-week of teaching.    All of the parents in this year’s class have been mailed a copy of the 5th Grade Learning Objectives.  Parents should realize that their input into their children’s spiritual development is essential; telling them to “go to church” isn’t enough to meet our objectives.

Helping children be young disciples of Jesus involves the following:

1. Increasing a student’s knowledge of God and the Christian story
2. a student’s willingness to internalize or “own” their faith; we present this to the kids as “choosing to live their lives ‘On the Right Path’” (it is developmentally appropriate to give 5th graders this freedom to choose, while still teaching them to make the right choice – “I Serve Jesus”)
3. teaching a set of beliefs by which students interact with their world and make sense of things (developing a “Biblical Christian worldview”)
4. starting the process of acceptance into and participation with their faith community; in other words, starting to get them outside the “bubble” of kids’ programming in the church, connecting with ‘big people’ and serving others through service projects (participating in the Impact discipleship group)
5. the work of God’s Spirit, which may be mysterious, both to kids and to parents; but in spite of its newness to them, we still plant and water the seed, namely that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, can be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that they have been and will continue to be imparted by the Spirit with special gifts; sometimes the gifts are only understandable through hindsight or reflection.

I have said this several times, and wrote about it often – that in 5th grade, we teach the children that Christianity is “a Way of life.”     Young disciples of Jesus need to learn the more-Christ-like way of living.   This is a process that must ultimately be internally motivated, not dictated by a parent, teacher or youth worker (but we are important, as mentors!).   The result is not just Christian behavior.   It is following Christ out of their deepest, most thought-out convictions.    This does take time.  But we start the process in 5th grade, by building on the nurturing in the faith from the student’s earlier years.  The key element is not the knowledge we present to the kids, as much as it is to develop their internal motivation.

One hazard to avoid is to attempt to reduce discipleship down to a simplistic monitoring of the children’s behavior.    As a teacher, I try to build a relationship, make and maintain a connection with the children.      Parents already have the relationship, but should really strive to build their connection with their children.    When you are connected, you are in a position to influence, not just to lecture. The saying is true that “rules without relationship leads to rebellion.”   When parents keep-up a strong relational connection with their kids, they won’t have to lose their influence and surrender to the peer group or the Disney/MTV-driven social pressures their pre-teens will experience.

To see the 5th Grade Learning Objectives - click HERE .