The Refrigerator

By a twist of events we landed in the basement for prayer. We were a bunch of men sitting around asking God to pour out love, and as we sat emptying out hearts and refilling, recharging with that sweet Spirit of the Lord, I became aware of the old refrigerator next to me.  

It was gurgling and churning, chugging away.   It was scraped up, dented, paint chipped, and soiled from its many years living in the basement....yet here it was next to me, whirring.

It was doing its job.

I don't know the brand name of the refrigerator.  I don't know how old it is, how well it's made, or how much it cost the day it was wheeled off the showroom floor.   Don't really care.

It's doing what it was designed to do.

Fulfilling its purpose.

Plugged into the source of power, and it's working.

God,

To the rest of this world, make me like this refrigerator.

If I can just keep plugged into the source, if I can remember daily that my value, my identity, is found in You, I'll be able to do the things in this world that You designed me to do.

The world might kick me shut now and then, doors might slam shut from time to time, and on that outer shell if I've really lived, there should be an ample amount of scrapes and scars.  Life should be soiled into my pores.

But on the inside, where the power of Your Love flows, I'll be filled.

Not measured by the standard of man, but instead by the breadth of Your Hand.

When I'm held by You my name, my status, my rights.... my glory is not my own.  

Help me to do just what You built me to do.

In Your Name.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  

Eph 2:10

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self–discipline. 

2 Tim 1:7

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

1 Cor 13:3

Perspective

What does it take to be a missionary today?

To do as the bible says, to go and make disciples.
In the workplace, at home, or around the world, 

it really comes down to just one thing.

Perspective.

Really, you say?  What could that possibly have to do with it?

Consider this:

You can go the best school.

You can have the best teachers.

You can have the best training.

You can study under the greatest minds.

You can have the full backing and support of the church.

You can have the blood of royalty flowing through your veins.

You can be gifted in linguistics.  

You can be passionate and full of fire.  

You can be on the cutting edge of society.

You can, in the eyes of the world, be completely and totally accomplished.

You can be gifted.

Guess what?

It still comes down to

 Perspective.

Where you fit in a God-sized economy.

There was another man who was top of the top, best of the best in his class. 

He had all of the above, including

Power.

Money.

Status.

Reputation.

Job security.

The right name.

And yet he considered his entire life-work of accomplishments comparable to one thing:  

Poop.

Yep. Stinky. Smelly, Steamy

Excrement.

Allow me to burn this illustration into your mind:

Take a big whiff...hold it..... really let it sizzle the hairs in your nostrils....

in fact, click on the image and get a nice close-up....

hold it...really study it....

ahhhh.

Can't you almost smell that from where you're sitting?

That's right.  

In Philippians 3:8, Paul said every credential in his life amounted to something so worthless that the mere sight and smell might make you gag, all for the greatness

of just KNOWING Christ.

So what does it take to know Jesus Christ, to be found in Him, to be about 

His business

and not our own?

Perspective.

If you step in a little 'credentials' along the way, whether they be your own or the residual of someone who's traveled the road before you,

no worries.

Just scrape it off and keep walking in the Lord.

When it's His power and not our own, 

that's when we'll have what it takes to make disciples.

Darkness and Light

We can’t escape the fact that one of the world’s most evil men has been eliminated. Several years ago Saddam Hussein was executed, and now Osama Bin Laden has been eliminated, no doubt two of the most evil men my generation has dealt with. While I am not interested in discussing all the factors, nor do I want to debate the implications of what this means to America, or to the world in general, I would like to make a small minor point that I think is important for Christians. You do not make a room brighter by taking away darkness, removing darkness will never add light. The smallest candle flame will provide more light than removing darkness ever will. I’m not attacking, or defending, the action of the Government, but merely suggesting to Christians that if we truly want to change the world, we need to let our light shine. While I do believe the Bible calls for justice to be served, and evil to be dealt with, one thing you can’t deny, is Jesus’ explicit instruction to Go Make Disciples. Jesus knew that the world would always be filled with evil, but his last command was not “go eliminate evil”. His last command given in Matthew 28:19, known as the great commission, is to Go Make Disciples. Acts 1:8 says “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Remember Paul? Paul the apostle who was instrumental in writing the New Testament, the same Paul who persecuted Christians, the same Paul who recorded in his own words in 1 Timothy 1:13 “though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief”. Paul went from a zealous persecutor of Christianity to a courageous promoter of Christianity. What changed Paul? Jesus did! Romans 1:16 says that the power of God is displayed in… The Gospel! And as Christians we must remember that the Gospel is the way to brighten a room, the Gospel is the way to change the world. Go Make Disciples!