Lead by Example

Leading by doing the thing you want others to do can be very difficult.  It has always been a practice of mine to live my life in a manner that others would want to follow.  This can be very demanding in a world that wants to set its own standards.  We must be strong in making these decisions to do what is right, versus doing what is popular.  I always want to lead by example by doing what is right, regardless of the cost, and regardless of what the rest of the world would want me to do.  God has the same approach through His Son Jesus Christ.  Christ lived a sinless life despite the sinful nature of the world He was living in.  We should be proud to follow in His footsteps. 

“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.”  1 Peter 2:21-25

 We all have the ability of choosing, of making decisions each and every day that have an impact on those who are watching our every move.  These include our co-workers, our friends and our family members and most importantly, our children.  We are impacting the lives of others when we make our decisions on living a life full of what God intended us to be.  Our obligation is to a God who sent His Son to die so that “by His wounds we are healed.”  We are commanded by our loving God to live a life like Jesus lived.  We have the greatest example to follow.  The only thing left to do is to get in line.

 

But we have other ideas, other plans, other goals and objectives. We want to march to our own drummer and live a life that pleases our ego, and not our God.  It’s this sinful life that begins to make its way into our daily routine.  We fight and we argue over the slightest issues, creating the snowball of evil that continues to grow because we want the last word.  I can attest to this because I want to win an argument each time I get into one.  We all have this competitive gene, yet we do nothing to control it. 

 Christ has the solution to this problem.  All we have to do is to follow His lead.  But that would mean changing, and we all hate change.  That would mean cleaning up our act and we all want to misbehave now and then.  That would mean cleaning up our language, but it feels so good to throw out the occasional curse word.  I understand how difficult the change can be.  God knows that I’m trying, but the world wants to make it so difficult at times.  My only advice would be to visit God’s Word when you are feeling these emotions, because it will “lead by example.” 

 

“in the world, not of the world” 

No One Told Me

No One Told Me…

We all have used the defense “no one told me it was wrong.”  I have used this and I heard this used many times in my career as a supervisor.  The “quick and easy” excuse for doing something wrong is the one that says you had no knowledge that it was actually wrong.  This can make life tough because we are always looking for the easy and most applicable excuse.  But this excuse, this justification for our mistakes only goes so far.  We have been told.  We have been warned of the consequences and we have been instructed on what is right. 

“Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.’ Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”  1 Corinthians 10:6-13(NASB)

We are all tempted to do something we know we should not.  We are all drawn into situations that, although we do not create it, we are now up in the middle of the mess.  It can be tempting to just simply go with the flow, to join the crowd because this is how the world works.  The world convinces us that these things are acceptable and right, when we know deep down in our hearts that they are not so.  But in order to be accepted and loved by the world, we play along.  We make decisions, we buy certain things, we work ourselves to death so that we make more money so that we can buy more stuff.  This train continues down the same track until it faces another train and we can’t get off. 

It seems that we are taught the right way at a very early age.  We are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us in making the decisions and choosing a way of life that is pleasing to our God.  But we fight these feelings because the world has other ideas, and we want to be just like everyone else, to fit in, to have what everyone else has.  Yet God, our Father in Heaven, has already laid things out for us.  In the Old Testament, He gives us examples of what NOT do.  Paul reiterates these in the New Testament to the Church in Corinth.  There is no secret as to the life we need to lead.  There is no mystery as to our instructions on how to live this life of dedicated to a God who has told us how to behave.  He has given us the written instructions on how to live a life according to His rules.  And we still ignore it.  This does not bode well, because history has a way of repeating itself. 

We have been warned!

“in the world, not of the world”

Now What?

Now What?

All of the presents have been opened, some have already been returned.  The decorations have lost a little of their luster.  Everyone seems to be moving a little slower, a little less animated not that Christmas has come and gone.  Now What?  What is left when we begin putting the decorations away, storing the leftover wrapping paper for next year, and taking down the mistletoe?  We even wrap our Baby Jesus from our nativity scene and place Him in a box for safekeeping.  I think we need to let Him spend the rest of the year snuggled away in our hearts.  We need to allow Christ to take up residence in our hearts so that our minds can stay focused on Him, and not on things of this world.  We are in need of renewal. 

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”  Psalm 51:10-11(NKJV)

We talk about resolutions, we fuss about how we want to look in the new year, we rant and rave at the latest craze when we have the obvious solution staring us in the face.  We don’t want this renewal, this new creation to take hold because it means losing our old self.  We try our best not to slip into this realm because we are too comfortable in our sinful existence.  We want nothing to do with becoming like Christ.  We fight these feelings because they would mean allowing Christ to take up residence in our heart.  But that’s what needs to happen if we are to become more like Him.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  Romans 12:2

The key phrase in this passage is “transformed by the renewing.”  We can be changed if we renew our minds, doing what is right, what is acceptable in the eyes of our God.  It’s just that simple, or is it?  We want to hang on to what we feel is right, what we know is acceptable to a world that seems to dictate our actions and control our minds.  It sounds easy enough, but actually going through this renewal, making this huge transformation can be extremely difficult because the world keeps pulling us back into the depths of sin.  We know what is right, we know what we should do, but our ego and the yearning to be accepted in our peer group is just too strong. 

The decision is all yours and yours alone.  You have everything you need to be transformed.  You have access to all the things you need to know in order to live a “Christ-like” life.  It’s not about becoming perfect.  God tells us that this is His long term goal.  It’s about making the effort to transform.  It’s about trying our best to have a new outlook, one that is acceptable to God, and not to the world.  We need to have pure and untainted aspirations, but it is tough to do this in a very tainted world. 

That’s why is so important to be “in the world, not of the world.” 

Revival

What do we need?  Revival

When do we need it?  Now

This country, along with the rest of the world, is growing dark.  We are becoming so distant from our God.  We are mere remnants of what used to be a strong Christian community.  We have fallen prey to the influences of evil.  Satan has disguised himself and hides among all of our desires, our lusts, our greed and our jealousy.  We are quickly becoming worshippers of money, idolater’s of status and we hunger for more.  We can’t seem to help ourselves at times, rolling into whatever the world has to offer, demanding more and more of the stuff we crave.  It may be time that we stop dead in our tracks and take a good look around us.  If we don’t do this soon, we may fail to recognize just how far we have gone.  I think it’s time for a revival.  Not the week long church services aimed at preaching fire and brimstone, but a revival of the individual soul.  We each need to re-examine our hearts to determine just where we want our lives to go. 

I was reading a book titled “The Next Christian” by Gabe Lyons.  He offers this advice.  “The first thing for the Christian is to recover the Gospel—to relearn and fall in love again with that historic, beautiful, redemptive, faithful, demanding, reconciling, all powerful, restorative, atoning, grace-abounding, soul quenching, spiritually fulfilling good news of God’s love.”  This is true revival, a new awareness of just who God is and what He means to us.  We need to discover God all over again, making Him new, making Him to be the omnipotent and all powerful Creator He is to us. 

When we place God in his rightful place in our lives, everything else begins to make more sense.  I think it’s time for revival, both an individual revival and a community or worldly revival.  It will not happen until you make the decision to change.  We cannot change the world if we are refusing to change ourselves.  We cannot expect things to get better until we are willing to improve our lives.  It’s time we made things new again. 

When I researched the word “revival,” I came across a few interesting adjectives used to describe the activities of revival.  One word stands out for me.  It is a “re-awakening.”  Now what this term means to me is that the “re” part means it has happened before.  This should not be strange territory for the Christian looking to engage the world with their beliefs.  We just need to try harder, to put forth more effort to sharing the good news in a world that is in desperate need of it.  We need to create a movement that gains momentum in the face of adversity, not one that fades into the world and becomes transparent.  But all of this can’t happen until we, as individuals, make the decision to change. 

We need revival, and we need it now. 

“in the world, not of the world”