2009 – Day 292.Oct 20 – The Value Of Others

2nd Passage for Study: Acts 9: 28 – 31 [NKJV] ... 28 So he [Paul] was with them [Christ’s disciples] at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. 29 And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him. 30 When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus. 31 Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

2nd Version for Study: Acts 9: 28 – 31 [The Message] ... 28-30 After that he [Paul] was accepted as one of them [the disciples], going in and out of Jerusalem with no questions asked, uninhibited as he preached in the Master's name. But then he ran afoul of a group called Hellenists—he had been engaged in a running argument with them—who plotted his murder. When his friends learned of the plot, they got him out of town, took him to Caesarea, and then shipped him off to Tarsus. … 31 Things calmed down after that and the church had smooth sailing for a while. All over the country—Judea, Samaria, Galilee—the church grew. They were permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God. The Holy Spirit was with them, strengthening them. They prospered wonderfully.

My Journal for Today: It’s good to take in this passage in the context of Paul’s growth as a disciple of Christ and as an Apostle (i.e., one called out to serve the Lord). Because it was likely during this time, in the growing Christian Church, that Paul learned the value of “the Body” of Christ and the power of interdependence therein.

Paul, the former lone-gun hitman for the Sanhedrin, had been a Lone Ranger anti-Christian; but now he was learning that going it alone as a Christian is simply counter-productive. God could use individuals for His glory. But that’s not the normal “M.O.” of God and His church, the tool He uses for His glory.

God has designed “His Body,” the church collective, to function TOGETHER; and in that paradigm, Paul had to learn that he was just one member of a living, breathing entity, … The Church. And that’s a lesson that many today, sadly, do not get. Perhaps you’ve been one of those “Lone Rangers” as a Christian, thinking that you can go it alone and serve Christ. But if you won’t humble yourself, as Paul was learning how to do at this time in his discipleship, God will lead you through some set of circumstances in life which will humble you. And that’s no fun, my friend!

I had to go through 22 years of my life, trying to go it alone, living for Bill Berry and only Bill Berry, to finally be knocked off my “high horse” in life and to discover that my only real power comes in surrender to God’s Spirit and finding how I fit into God’s plan and into His Church.

I’ve taught for years now that there are three “abilities” which every Christian needs to develop to become an effective disciple of Christ; and I believe the Apostle Paul learned to develop these three in the context of the early Church. Those abilities are: availABILITY, vulnerABILITY, and accountABILITY. And you will note that all three of these, coming in the order that I’ve listed them, are absolutely necessary for a Christian to grow in power and to be used effectively by the Holy Spirit, … all three of them requiring humility, unity, and interdependence within the Body of Christ.

I don’t have the time here to develop this teaching at this time; but the main point, which Paul came to learn, to live, and to teach was that we must integrate into Christ’s Body so that our gifts and talents can be maximized for God’s glory. If you’re out there trying to go it alone, trying to be independent as a Christian, you’ve missed God’s way of doing business, my friend. Get the message of Hebrews 10: 24-25 - linked - and get with God’s program. Choose to be available, vulnerable, and accountable – WITHIN God’s vehicle for success, The Church; or God is going to have to teach you His lesson in humility.

Take it from one who had to learn that lesson the hard way. It’s SO MUCH LESS PAINFUL to choose to be humble than to have God humble you in life. And if you can learn the lessons of mutual availability, vulnerability, and accountability, God will find a way to use you bigtime to shine His light, to use your good works, and to glorify our Lord (see Matt. 5: 14 - 16 - linked). But if you go it alone … God will let you go it ALONE, and your Christian light will become hidden under your own basket of selfishness.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, maximize my humility and my ability for Your glory by using me in Your Body. Amen

2009 – Day 63.Mar. 5 – Flammable Bushes

2009 – Day 63.Mar. 5 – Flammable Bushes

Passage of the Day: Exodus 3: 4 – 10 … 4 So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” 6 Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. 7 And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

My Journal for Today: Swindoll today in the devotional I just read from his book has come up with a fascinating word picture of what God came to Moses to set in motion for his destiny. What God needed to set His people free was a flammable bush whom He could easily set on fire for God’s glory.

Forty years earlier, Moses probably thought of himself as a strong and growing specimen of a plant; but God had to take him into the desert and replant him to re-grow this plant into a more common variety bush, tinder ready to burn for God. When Moses was exposed to God, THE Burning Bush, that day, he had to come to see that God had been preparing this newly regrown plant so that he could burn brightly for God.

And Swindoll brilliantly pictures what it takes to be a burnable bush for God’s kingdom purposes. To burn for God, one has to be a plant that has been prepared and pruned to be dried up, thorny, and brittle … qualities that appear very ordinary, but they are elements of readiness where all it takes is a spark from God’s Spirit to set the plant on fire for God. As Swindoll points out, Moses 40 years earlier was green and had foliage which was almost like asbestos, … beautiful to view, but unburnable when touched with God’s torch.

And Swindoll is right on in his contention that there are many believers out there in this world who are doing all they can to be beautiful looking plants but are totally unburnable for God. We’ve become a body of Christians who are fed by the streams of this world. Our foliage is green and very resistant to being lit up for God. What God needs, as he did with Moses, is a tinder-ready bush, prepared to burn brightly when lit by God to burn brightly in the darkness of the world.

For those 40 years in the desert, God had been pruning and drying out the bush who was Moses, making him available and quite ordinary looking, but making him a torch-ready plant who would light up the world for God. Perhaps you have wondered what it takes to burn for God’s glory in this world. And maybe you’re coming to realize what Moses was about to learn up there on that mountain in the presence of God, the Burning Bush. Yes, Moses learned that God can use any old, common looking, and possibly thorny, bush who is simply ready to be tinder branches when God lights him up.

What God needs is readiness and availability. He can prepare you as a burning bush for His glory if you let Him. But we need to allow the Lord to shape us, prune us, and prepare us to be burnable for Him. All too often, as Swindoll points out, we try to prepare ourselves; and we become plants who look good to the world but would not burn for God’s glory, even if lit by napalm. I want to be lit by God’s torch and to burn brightly, lighting up at least a small corner of God’s world so that my Lord will be glorified in heaven (see Matt. 5: 16).

How about you? Are you ready to be set on fire for God?

My Prayer for Today: Lord, make me a bush which burns brightly for Your kingdom glory. Amen