Ordinary To Extraordinary

“As has just been said: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.’  Who were they who heard and rebelled?  Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?”.      -Hebrews 3:15-16

Do you ever feel like God is talking to you?  Do you ever feel like He is asking you to do something?  How do you respond?  I mean, how does an ordinary person respond to God?  Joshua was born a slave in Egypt.  He became a general.  He helped lead, along side of Moses, the Isrealites into the Promised Land.  What about David?  You remember him I’m sure.  He was a little shepherd boy.  God called and he defeated a giant while the rest of the army stood trembling.  How about Peter?  He was a fisherman.  God called and before too long people were being healed as Pete’s shadow passed over them.  So, what do all of these mighty men of the Bible have in common?  They were ordinary.  They were blue-collar.  When they stepped up people whispered, “Uh, well, I didn’t see that coming”.   What else did they have in common?  God called, they responded.  They didn’t know what God had in store.  They didn’t know where their response would lead.  What about what they DIDN’T do?  They didn’t say, “I’m just a fisherman, God can’t use me”.  They didn’t moan, “I work in a factory, nobody needs to hear what I have to say”.  They didn’t let their upbringing stop them by proclaiming, “I am but a worthless slave, I have nothing to offer”.  No, they were ordinary people who responded to God and as a result God used them to do extraordinary things.  If you think that God doesn’t use ordinary people in 2015, well, it’s okay to be wrong.  Do not harden your hearts by ignoring God today because you think you aren’t a “spiritual giant”.  It might be as simple as a smile, a “good morning”, a silent prayer for someone.  Just trust God and respond.  You may go from ordinary to extraordinary.  And that’s not a bad place to be!

Come On In

“Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.”  -John 1:16

We are messed up.  I’m talking about all of us.  We are gripers, whiners, complainers.  We are unkind, hypocritical, ungrateful.  We are self-righteous, entitled, arrogant.  We are sinners.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.  We are messed up.  But thankfully, PRAISE GOD ALMIGHTY, we have been given grace.  No, I’m not talking about your neighbor’s kid down the street.  I’m talking about the GIFT of GRACE that can come only from God.  He says, “Hey, things are messy.  It’s ok, we can deal with that”.  He says, “My child, nothing is too big for me.  You haven’t done anything that we can’t fix.  Come on in.”  What if we, just for one day, extended grace to others in the way He does to us?  Of course, we can’t possibly extend grace in the same manner that He does.  But, what if we just TRIED?  What if we just said to that person that hurt us, “Hey, it has already been forgotten”.  What if we went to that person that we don’t care for and said, “God loves you.  I pray He blesses you”.  What if, just for one day, we didn’t put such high expectations on everyone around us, especially the ones that aren’t as “righteous” as we are.  A few months ago I had the privilege of hearing Max Lucado speak at my church (If you have never heard him or read any of his books, you are missing out).  During his sermon he said something regarding God and grace that really struck a chord with me.  He said, “God doesn’t tell you to clean up and then you can come in.  God says ‘Come on in and I will clean you up’ “.  He knows we are messed up.  He loves us anyway.  He knows we need a smack on the head.  He gives us a gentle pat and lifts us up.  He knows we think we know best.  He patiently guides us back to Him.  He has given us grace, and He is calling us: “Come on in, let me clean you up”.

Free Local Calling

“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you”.  -Jeremiah 29:12

Did you ever know that person?  Maybe you still know that person.  You know, the “professional prayer guy”.  He or she can pray forever, never taking a breath.  They can cover all categories and use just the right amount of “thees” and “thous” and even know WHEN to use them properly!  These folks are impressive.  Sometimes intimidating.  I grew up around a lot of these types of prayers.  I have to admit, I didn’t even know what they were praying about half the time.  I just knew that I couldn’t pray like that and I think it kept me from praying at times.  As I have gotten a tiny bit older I have come to realize that prayer doesn’t have to be about Biblical vocabulary.  I have learned that prayer doesn’t have to be fancy.  I understand that prayer can be, and for me usually is, quite simple.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not suggesting that there is anything wrong with the “complex” prayer.  I truly believe that some people have been given a gift from God to be able to pray in the manner they do.  But, He didn’t give me that gift.  Fortunately, God doesn’t need us to have that gift.  He just wants us to talk to Him.  He just wants us to call on Him.  He just wants us to ask.  You don’t have to worry about getting a ticket or having an accident because you don’t have to text Him.  Just talk.  You don’t have to worry about driving all over town to meet with Him somewhere.  He IS wherever you are.  You don’t have to worry about disturbing others by talking too loud.  Just whisper.  No cellular minutes used up, these conversations are free.  The only issue with prayer that needs to concern you, is if you aren’t doing it.  Depending on which translation of the Bible you are reading, the word “pray” is consistently mentioned over 100 times.  He wants you to talk to Him.  It’s always a local call.

Be like David

“After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’”   -Acts 13:22

These days there are a lot of people in the world who are identified as “role models”;  athletes, singers, actors, authors.  We ask our children what they want to be when they grow up; policemen, firemen, doctors, astronauts.  The media talks about the wonderful things these people do; visit sick children, raise money for diseases, provide clothing, shelter and food to those that don’t have it.  Don’t misinterpret what I am saying, these are wonderful acts and I wish that I was more of a philanthropist myself.  Now that I am all grown up (yeah right), I understand more these days that what I choose to do with my heart is more important than anything else.  And the state of my heart is what matters to God.   What if I could have a heart like HIM??  Holy Cow!  What if God would say, “I have found Todd, a man after my own heart”.  What if God knew that I would do everything He wanted me to do?  How different would my life be?  Likely it would be less convenient.  Probably I would have more enemies.  Good chance that there would be many battles ahead.  But something tells me that God would see me through.  I don’t believe that we should ever get complacent in our efforts to please God.  I don’t believe that we should ever stop trying to be more like Him.  I know God never gets confused, but it sure would be cool if when He sees me coming, He asks, “Is that David? No. It is my servant Todd.  He, too, is a man after my own heart.  With him I am well pleased!”.  Yeah, I wanna be like David.

5 Star Recruiters

“He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”   -Mark 16:15

If you are a college football fan, or more specifically, if you have a college football team that you follow (GO VOLS!) then today is a very important day to you.  Today is National Signing Day.  This is the day that all of the best high school football players around the country get to sign with a college that recruited them to play.  Players get ranked throughout their high school career with a “star” system.  If you are a 5 Star player, you can probably play just about anywhere you want.  Coaches have to be pretty good recruiters too.  They have to go out into the homes of these high school kids and convince them and their parents that their college is the best choice.  University of Tennessee head football coach Butch Jones has often said that recruiting at Tennessee is easy because the program sells itself.   I can’t help but wonder what kind of recruiter I am…..as a Christ follower.  You see, our program should be easy to sell, but it’s not.  It’s actually very difficult to sell.  Mainly because of, well…..us.  We Christians don’t always make Christianity appealing to others.  We are hypocrites.  We are unkind.  We are snobs.  We are human.  But if we want to help others to come to know Christ, we have to put more effort into the recruiting process.  Jesus told us to go out into all the world and tell them about Him.  I believe that He meant that in a literal sense, but also in how we present ourselves each and every day.  We don’t all have to be preachers.  Heck, I’m pretty confident I would fail in that arena.  But we can be great recruiters for the Kingdom just by living our lives in such a way as to honor Him.  If the Church spent more time honoring Him with their attitudes, their behaviors and their words, then imagine the recruits that would line up!  THEN, our program would sell itself.  There is no short supply of recruits in this world.  What God is looking for are a few more 5 Star recruiters!

World Champs

“You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?”  -Galatians 5:7

It seems like most seasons the two teams that should be in the Super Bowl, are.  And that usually means a really good football game.  This year was no exception.  I have to admit, I couldn’t have cared less which team won this year, but I just hoped to see a good game.  I was not disappointed.  As a general fan of the game, I love to see the back and forth battle.  I love to see the confidence in the quarterbacks eyes as they walk back onto the field, knowing that they have to lead their team to reclaim a lead.  It was so exciting to see Seattle march back down the field and put themselves in a position to win it all with just a few ticks left on the clock.  Wait…..what happened? The victory was in hand…..It was all over but the singing….Why did they change their game plan???  You see, Seattle had, arguably, the best running back in the league this year.  “Beast Mode” was nearly impossible to bring down in short yardage situations.  They had the tools to score the winning points and take home the prize.  But they changed their game plan.  They thought that they could win it another way.  How often do we try to change the game plan in our spiritual lives?  We live by the instructions for a while, things are going pretty well.  Then, we think, “I bet I can do this better myself”.  “What if I did it this way, instead of the way that God has me doing it?”  Backfire!  Interception!  Game over!  God knows what is gonna get us the victory.  He has laid out a game plan for us to follow.  He doesn’t make us follow it, but He allows us to suffer the consequences when we don’t.  The good news is that at this moment, the game isn’t over for us.  We can get back on track and continue to push forward to victory.  I’m pretty sure Seattle would like to have a “do over”.  So, if you have set the game plan down, pick it back up, ask for forgiveness and start marching back down the field!  This is YOUR World Championship!