My last post was on Monday, September 17th. Several things have taken priority over updating the website and posting my weekly blog since then. There are no blog posts for 9/24, 10/1, 10/8, and 10/15. Some recent challenges in my life directed my attention elsewhere. However, as I regain my focus, I think of you and I am encouraged by your readership. So,having resumed blogging, I want to welcome you back to what goes on in my heart and mind as I serve here at Calvary.
Holding On To Stuff
Susan and I have moved a lot in ministry. We married in Texas and moved to Indiana to start Life in Jesus Ministries back in 1986. I remember giving away a lot of things that we didn't think we needed when we moved. I also remember, after we settled into Indiana, looking for those same things and wondering where we put them, only to remember they were giving away.
We have moved several more times, as an Evangelist and in the course of pastoring three churches here in Indiana. Again, we would look for things we had at our previous location only to find they were missing at the new location. You get used to it and you also realize how little you needed those things. I've held on to things for years and have never really used them for anything. All of us have said, "I'll hang onto that, I may need it someday."
This process of holding onto stuff is not just an external one. We also tend to hold onto things in our hearts and minds. Whether you call it baggage or something else, the root of it comes from unforgiveness. That's why, at Calvary, we have landed on the subject of woundedness and are camping there until we can truly release ourselves from the hurts of the past.
Letting It Go
The Apostle Paul was a man that I admire greatly. He let nothing stop him from proclaiming the message of salvation. This determination cost him a great deal. He was originally an influential man and an up and coming star in his religion. He had great respect among his peers and he could command authority with those who were the religious leaders of his day.
When he met Christ though, it all changed. Where once he was sent to towns to crush those who preached the Gospel, he was now driven from towns for preaching it himself. Where once the leaders of his religion gave him authority to do their will, now they accused him of subversion. All of this added up to great losses for Paul. He lost his reputation, his wealth, his position, and his friends and family. Amazingly, this meant little to Paul. He had found a pearl of great price that would satisfy him completely.
In Philippians chapter 3, verse 7 through 9 Paul writes, “7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”
Paul knew how to let things go, but I get totally upset when I can't find a screwdriver. Paul suffered the loss of all things, yet counted them as garbage. He had something much greater that he was holding onto with all his might. As Susan and I have moved from place to place in serving the Lord, things have turned up missing. Much of it can just be purchased again. Some of it is irreplaceable. One thing we've learned though is, like Paul, a lot of it was garbage.
In our lives we will find the same thing. Many of the idols of our hearts are simply garbage compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus. The more we realize this the less the losses will affect us. Personally, I can relate to Paul in some areas: friends and family who betray you, religious leaders who reject you, and church members who lie about you. It tears deeply into my soul, but to prevent woundedness from setting in, I must forgive.
Counting The Cost
It has been said that salvation is a free gift that will only cost you everything. I concur. There are few remaining things in my life that I hold onto as precious, except for knowing Christ as my Savior. My hope and prayer for others is that they will come to this realization much earlier than I did and quit trying to find life in anything but the Lord.
Another saying that I've heard states that once Christ is all you have left, you find that he is all you really need. To this I also concur. He is sufficient. He will be there when it seems all have forsaken you, all have wounded you, and all have misunderstood you. He knows you. He knows how you have suffered loss and have endured it. He will bless you and help you to understand, "Apart from the Lord there is no savior.” (Isaiah 43:11) Possessions, money, power, fame — nothing will provide what he desires to freely give to you.
“1 My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have stilled and quietened my soul; like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and for evermore.”
Psalms 131:1-3
It is good to be back writing my weekly blog. Although they may have to be shorter for the remainder of the year (I am involved in building a Prayer Tower here at Calvary), this coming year this blog, and other ministries, will expand. Continue to pray for me as I lift you up in prayer also. In 2013 we are looking for resurrection life to flow through every part of our ministry and our lives here at Calvary.
“20 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant
brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
21 equip you with everything good for doing his will,
and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Hebrews 13:20, 21
See you next week.