Got Potential?

2008-07-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

PURPOSE

Vol. 2, Issue 26

July 07, 2008

Starry, Starry Night

“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” (Psalm 147:4)

My buddy Roger called last week. He wanted to share a new software program with me; “Stellarium.” Stellarium is a star watching program. You tell it where you live and it takes you to a grassy meadow (supposedly right outside your door) and shows you the sky. If it’s daytime, you can even ‘turn off the lights’ and view the stars that daylight is hiding in the real sky. You can speed up time and watch the starry skies pass over head. You can rotate perspective to view the north, east, west or south skies. You can move to Australia and view the night sky from Adelaide or Sydney. You can even travel to the moon and watch the stars from a lunar landscape.

After dark I like to take a look at the screen, and then walk outside to see if I can find the real constellations in the real sky. It’s a pretty neat little program if you like to watch the stars and don’t know much about what you’re looking for. Best of all, it’s free. You can download Stellarium at http://www.stellarium.org/.

*****

Ever wonder why we have such a fascination with the stars? I mean, it’s not like we don’t already have our hands full with stuff here on earth. There’s survival, getting to work on time, paying the mortgage, making sure the kids do their homework. And then there’s Disneyworld, the Grand Canyon and HBO. Why bother with the stars?

Who cares if Betelgeuse (yeah, there’s really a star named “Betelgeuse” and it’s really pronounced beetle-juice) is 427 million light years away from earth or that it’s so big that if you stuck it in the middle or our solar system its surface area would take up the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and go a ways toward Jupiter.

Betelgeuse is a long ways away and big beyond our ability to comprehend; but who cares? Why should man be so hung up on the stars? Not only have we tried to count them and name them, we’ve connected the dots and turned them into constellations … and we’ve turn the constellation into picture stories - Orion, the hunter; the Pleiades, the seven sisters; Ursa, the bear. This fascination with the stars begs the question; “Is there something more to the stars than just far away pinpoints of light in the night sky?”

I started doing a little digging in my favorite book to see what He says about the stars. What I came up with surprised me. The word star (or stars) is mentioned 67 times in the English Standard Version Bible; it’s about the same in the KJV – 66, with a wildcard “stargazers” thrown in. That doesn’t count “heaven,” “heavenlies,” “celestial bodies,” or “sun.”

God created the universe and the universe has a lot of stars in it, so it’s not a shock that the Bible mentions them 67 times. Here’s the shocker: more than half of the “star” references in the Bible are directly associated with a persona. That is, more than half of the references refer to somebody, not something.

Isaiah 14:12 speaks of Satan: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!”

Job 38:7 mentions a time “when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Psalm 148:3 commands, “Praise him, sun and moon, praise him all you shining stars.”

Does scripture really relate heavenly bodies to heavenly bodies – personalities not of this world? Or is this just a poetic way of speaking that really doesn’t mean anything literally?

Let’s find out.

The book of Revelation describes a vision of the apostle John where he saw “someone, ‘like the son of man’” and “in his right hand he held seven stars ….” (Revelation 1:16) The one “like the son of man” tells John, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches ….” (Revelation 1:20)

Revelation goes on to describe other heavenly bodies, personified stars, as it unfolds the final fate of man. “The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood.” (Revelation 8:10-11a)

“And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.” (Revelation 9:1)

Here’s my favorite: “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

Wow. Jesus refers to Himself as the “bright morning star.” Maybe there’s something more to the stars than just being faraway night-lights.

*****

God mentioned the stars when He made a promise to Abraham. “He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” (Genesis 15:5)

There are plenty of “star” mentions in the Bible referring to the Abraham’s “offspring.” God talking to Abraham: “I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven ….” (Genesis 22:17)

God talking to Isaac: “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven ….” (Genesis 26:4).

Moses talking to the tribes of Israel: “The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven.” (Deuteronomy 1:10)

The writer of Hebrews talking to early Jewish Christians: “Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven ….” (Hebrews 11:12)

There’s more, but you get the picture. The Bible makes the connection between stars and heavenly beings – angels (fallen and not fallen) and Jesus himself. And the Bible makes the connection between stars and the number of Abraham’s descendents. Any more connections we can make?

Well … there’s the connection that “… if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29) Okay. So that means you and I, if we belong to Christ, are considered Abraham’s offspring and we share in the inheritance God promised to Abraham.

And … there’s the connection that “… in the resurrection they (we) neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Matthew 22:30) And what kind of bodies can we expect to have then? According to Paul, “There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.” (I Corinthians 15:40-41)

Before we get any deeper into this connecting the dots business, let’s get a grip on what I’m saying. Am I saying that angels and even Jesus Christ are really stars and stars are them and someday we’ll be stars too? Nope. That’s a bit of a stretch.

What I’m saying is this: In the Bible there’s a connection between stars and heavenly beings. Whether it’s a physical or allegorical or spiritual connection, it’s definitely a connection. And if you want to accept God’s Word as true then you can’t ignore that the connection exists.

There’s also a connection between us and the promise God made to Abraham and that promise is counted in the stars.

There’s also a connection between what kind of bodies we will have in the resurrection and the kind of bodies heavenly beings have now.

So what’s my point?

You know how I keep talking about how your purpose and my purpose are woven together into a great tapestry that, as a whole, reflects God’s purpose? Well, even the stars are a part of that tapestry. How many, where they’re placed, the constellations, their relation to the angels of heaven - all of it is according to purpose. And being a part of His purpose, we share in it.

Like the story of our lives and our purpose, the stars tell a story. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)

The story they tell? We’ll get into that next week.

Until then I’ll leave you with the story of another friend of mine. His name is John. And like the John of Revelation, he had an experience of being ‘transported’ in the Spirit beyond this grassy meadow we call earth. According to my friend John, God took him above and beyond this earth, whether in reality, in the Spirit, or in his mind’s eye, I don’t know and he can’t say; but he knows he went and he knows what he saw. God showed him the earth and the planets and the stars – the whole vastness of the universe. You know what God told my friend John? “Do you see this?” “I am not in this universe; it is in Me.”

If what John said God told him is true - that God is so vast the entire universe exists in Him, what could possibly compare with that immensity and power?

Another thing I talk a lot about is perspective. What’s big in your world? What keeps you up at night? Worried about your job? Sweating this month’s house payment? Upset over the tiff you and your spouse had this morning? Worried that your kid isn’t going to make the grade in school?

Step back and look at the stars. Remember Who has a plan for your life. Remember Whose tapestry your future is woven into. If you have a problem too big to handle, put it into His hands; it’s a lot smaller from there.

In Him,

Steve Spillman

2008-07-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

PURPOSE

Vol. 2, Issue 25

June 29, 2008

The Great Treasure Hunt

“‘But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown, and I will multiply the number of people upon you, even the whole house of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. I will increase the number of men and animals upon you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the Lord. I will cause people, my people Israel, to walk upon you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance; you will never again deprive them of their children.’” (Ezekiel 36:8-12)

We just returned from Israel. Zion Oil & Gas held its second shareholders meeting as a public company and celebrated the dedication of its second oil well, to be drilled in September. I’m not in the oil business and I’m not a Zion Oil shareholder. I’m just an interested party.

Twenty seven years ago my father wrote a little book titled The Great Treasure Hunt. It explained his idea that Jacob (Israel) had left an inheritance to his sons that wouldn’t be available to them for a while. Not until, as Jacob put it, “in the last days.” (Genesis 49:1)

Jacob passed on an inheritance to his sons that God had promised him – the same one God had originally granted his grandfather Abraham.

“‘…Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.’” (Genesis 13:14-15)

In Jacob’s Blessing were passages that hinted at something more than the typical inheritance of those days. Crazy as it sounds, my father believed some of those passages referred to oil … not olive oil … petroleum.

Like I said – crazy.

There wasn’t any geological or historical proof when Dad made public that the Bible promises the children of Israel a great petroleum discovery for “the last days.” Only scripture and only the faith that God’s Word is true, regardless of the evidence.

But faith and scripture seems to be enough for some folks. It was enough for Dad. And it was enough for John Brown, who had just undergone a dramatic personal experience with God; a life changing, life giving metamorphosis, we refer to as being ‘born again’, when he ran into my dad.

By 1981 Dad had known about the Bible’s promise of an oil discovery in Israel for some time. Dad too, thought the idea was a little crazy … even though he believed God showed it to him … even though scripture promised it. It took him five or six years to get his head and his heart and his research around the idea enough to share it with the rest of the world.

Dad had just begun telling people that Jacob’s Blessing included a huge last days oil discovery in Israel, when he received a call inviting him to speak at a church in Clawson, Michigan.

It was winter and it was Michigan, and he had already scheduled the time for a sunny beach in Mexico. But he felt the tug he recognized as the Voice of his Employer. When God said, “Go here, and not there,” Dad generally complied. Shorts and sunglasses went back in the drawer and Dad went to Clawson.

Dad had been speaking to audiences for years. He could speak on a thousand topics at the drop of a hat. In Clawson he spoke about the promise of oil in Israel … the Voice again.

John Brown was in the audience that day. He was a newbie when it came to things Christian. He may have not been up to speed yet on just how things were done in the religion, but he figured out one thing pretty quick … the Voice. Like my dad, when John felt like God wanted him to do something he did it.

John listened to the story of Jacob’s Blessing and the promise of oil in Israel that day and he believed it. A few years later John traveled to Israel for the first time. While he was there he came upon a passage of scripture from Solomon’s prayer of dedication over the first Temple in Jerusalem.

“‘As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name - for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm - when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.’” (I Kings 8:41-43)

John saw himself as a “foreigner … come from a distant land because of [God’s] name.” He went to the Western Wall of the Temple, the Wailing Wall, and he prayed “toward” the temple. He asked that God would allow him to discover Israel’s oil.

From that day forward John brown dedicated his life to finding the oil promised in Jacob’s Blessing. A lot of water, as they say, has gone under the bridge since then.

Knowing something is true doesn’t necessarily make it real to the rest of the world. Believing in something so much that you stake your life on it doesn’t mean anyone else will believe it. Discovering the existence of a buried treasure today doesn’t mean it will pop to the surface tomorrow.

Dad shared the story of Jacob’s Blessing with a lot of folks in a lot of places around the world. A lot of good folks put their money into finding Israel’s oil. Some good men tried and failed to find Jacob’s Blessing. Some bad men used the story, and the belief of others, to line their own pockets. But nobody found the oil.

John Brown spent a lot of years and a lot of money, most of it his, looking for Israel’s oil. Most people thought he was just another religious nut, come to the Holy Land to discover treasure promised in ancient scripture. But John persisted.

Dad and John didn’t meet until 1997; sixteen years after he had first shared this story with the world, fourteen years after John has made discovering Israel’s oil his vision quest. When they finally met they connected spiritually in the way that veterans of the same foreign war connect when they first meet. They understood each other’s scars.

Dad finished his time in this world without seeing the vision of oil in Israel become a reality. I wonder if he was disappointed. I wonder if he wondered why, after being allowed to ‘discover’ the treasure hidden inside of Jacob’s Blessing, he wasn’t allowed to see it come to pass. I wonder if he just took his role in this story by faith; not questioning why it didn’t come to fruition in his lifetime. I don’t know.

But John persisted. He asked geologists and oil professionals to take a look. They politely declined. But John persisted. They doubtfully agreed to ‘take a look’; warning him in advance that they probably wouldn’t find anything.

Their findings surprised them; there was definitely ‘something’ there. It didn’t surprise John though; he knew it was there – not because of their findings, because God’s Word said it was there.

That’s the thing about faith – you don’t need any corroborating evidence. Lack of evidence doesn’t necessarily make something untrue, any more that stacks of evidence necessarily make something true. If truth is really truth, then the evidence will eventually have to submit to it.

As of last week’s meeting in Israel the evidence is submitting nicely.

******

Twenty-five years ago I left California for South Carolina. I traded the west coast for the east and the life I had known for a new life. I never looked back. I built a life for myself and my family here.

Three thousand miles is a lot of distance. If you’re not estranged to begin with the miles will do the estranging for you. My parents and siblings became family we phoned on the holidays and visited occasionally; not family we lived with.

The Great Treasure Hunt and the story of oil in the land of Israel became family history for me. Just another one of the books Dad wrote ‘back then.’ Building a new life causes the old life to fade.

We did a pretty good job building too. Elaine and I worked hard and didn’t look up too often. I got a job in a factory … twenty years and a lot of effort passed and when we finally did look up our name was on the door of the factory.

We succeeded alright; it’s just that we thought it would feel different. It was nice, it just wasn’t enough; and we knew that even if it got bigger it wouldn’t necessarily get any better. We decided to quit, sell everything and do something else.

I had always wanted to publish books but survival pushed that dream to the back burner. Survival was no longer an issue. We didn’t know anything about publishing and had no books to publish but facts have never prevented us from launching into new adventures. That was Thursday May 13, 2004.

On Saturday of the same week Elaine came home and told me that she had heard some guy mention Dad’s name on the radio. The guy’s name was John Brown and he had an oil company in Dallas, Texas named Zion. He said that he had heard a man named Jim Spillman tell about Jacob’s Blessing and discovering oil in Israel and that he had been looking for it full time since 1983; ‘coincidently’ the same year we moved east to start our ‘new life’ in South Carolina.
‘Coincidently’ I had a business meeting in Dallas the next week and we stopped in to meet this John Brown of Zion Oil. ‘Coincidently,’ after twenty years of effort, Zion Oil was drilling its first oil well in Israel the following spring and John invited Elaine and I the opening ceremony.

‘Coincidently’, our first book, Breaking the Treasure Code: The Hunts For Israel’s Oil, came out that summer.

Funny how things work out.

*****

If you’ve read this letter for any time, you know that I believe each of us has a unique purpose that was in God’s mind long before we ever came into existence.

All those individual purposes are woven, like threads in a great tapestry, into a Single Purpose … His Purpose. We being mortal, short of vision and short of time don’t always see how our thread is woven into the tapestry. It’s a unique experience to see how other threads are woven together with yours to form a part of the picture.

I’m humbled and thankful for being allowed a glimpse of it; but there’s a purpose for that too. He may have showed me a little bit of how the threads go together in my part of the picture so I can share with you that yours aren’t woven any differently. Whether you see your piece of the picture or not, it’s there and you’re a part of it.

I don’t believe Dad wonders about it anymore. I think he sees his part of the picture pretty clearly now. One day we’ll all be allowed to step back and view the finished product. That’ll be a glorious day.

Until then, allow yourself to become a part of His tapestry. He knows exactly where to weave you in.

“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (I Corinthians 13:12)

Until then.

Steve Spillman

2008-07-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

“Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:17-18)

Purpose Weekly

Vol. 2, Issue 23

June 8, 2008,

“Is ‘Church’ a Dirty Word?” Part IV

Well … this is week four on the “church” subject. As far as I know, it’s the last one. I’ve been telling you what “church” isn’t. This week I’ve promised to tell you what “church” is – according to the Bible.

From what we’ve been through we know that Webster’s may have been right in his definitions of “church” … as far as how we define “church.” That’s his job, right? Define the words in a way that’s meaningful to us? So, Webster’s is off the hook. Regardless of what the Bible says “church” is Webster’s wrote down what we think “church” is. He upheld his part of the bargain.

According to Webster’s (and those he serves) “church” is:
1. “a building”
2. “a clergy or officialdom”
3. “an organization of religious believers”
4. “a public divine worship”
5. “a profession”

We discussed that the word “church” wasn’t used when Jesus told Peter, “… upon this rock I will build my church.” Jesus, of course, didn’t say this to Peter in King James or any other sort of English. He said it in Aramaic, and Matthew wrote it down in Greek. And the Greek word Matthew wrote down was “ekklesia.” About the closest we can come to a literal translation of “ekklesia” is, “called out.” The term was used to denote an assembly of citizens being “called out” for a special purpose or event.

Let’s back up a day before the conversation between Jesus and Peter when the word “ekklesia” or “called out” was first used.

The day before Jesus talked to Peter about His “ekklesia” Jesus was wrapping up three days of ministry to a group of about four thousand, not including women and children. So maybe twelve thousand people? Maybe more?

At the end of the three days He knew these folks didn’t have any food with them and He knew they were hungry. So He took the food the disciples had left; seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. He gave thanks to His Father in Heaven for what He had and then He broke up the loaves and fishes and fed the crowd … all twelve thousand. Wouldn’t you know it – it was enough to go around; and with seven baskets of left-overs. How’d He do that?

The next morning, along come the Pharisees and Sadducees; the RGIC’s (religious guys in charge). By the way, the Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t like each other. But they didn’t like Jesus more, so they were allies. Kinda like the Russians and Americans in WWII.

The Pharisees and Sadducees said to Jesus, “If you’re the real deal, show us a sign from heaven.”

What? The Guy just fed twelve thousand people with seven loaves of bread and few fish! “Show us a sign from heaven.” Right.

Here’s a piece of advice. Anybody who says, “show me a sign from heaven,” wouldn’t believe if God came down and sat in his lap. It’s a front; a smoke screen. These guys’ minds were already made up. They just wanted Jesus out of the way.

Jesus saw through the hypocrisy of the RGIC’s and He needed to bring His disciples up to speed – get them ready to do what they had to do when the time came. He said to them, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” The disciples thought He was talking about bread. Knuckleheads.

Jesus brought His disciples through three days of teaching and miracles, feeding twelve thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish, blowing off the RGIC’s and then warning His disciples against their hypocrisy. He had them prepped when He asked, “Who do people say I am?” They had lots of answers. Then Jesus asked the million dollar question. “Who do you think I am?”

Peter, a guy who always shot from the gut (definitely not the head) said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter was usually either a total idiot or absolutely brilliant. Today he was brilliant.

“Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:17-18)

That’s the first time “church” (“ekklesia”) is mentioned in the New Testament.

What do you think Jesus meant? He gave Simon a new name, which means ‘rock’ and said that on this “rock” He will build his “ekklesia” – those whom He has “called out.”

*****

At this point I’ve got to confess something. When I said that the “church” isn’t a building, I wasn’t being completely forthcoming. The “church,” according to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians again, that figures) is a ‘building’ … but not one made of bricks and mortar.

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Wow.

We’re the bricks and mortar. Starting with Abraham, Moses, David and the rest of the OT building materials, along with Peter (the rock), John Baptist and John Revelator, and the disciples who walked and ate with Jesus and Paul himself, and those Ephesians who believed and the Roman and Jewish and Corinthian believers, and those from every tribe and nation who heard and understood and believed the message that God had come in the flesh, down to you and me; we’re the “church.” We’re those who Jesus “called out.” We’re a building, a temple, that God lives in. All of us. Together.

*****

The word “church” has packed a lot of baggage over the last two thousand years. It’s come to mean a lot of things to those it’s touched. Say “church” today and people hear “building,” “clergy,” “organization,” “profession.” Sometimes they hear “hypocrisy,” “greed,” “prejudice.” Sometimes they hear “family,” “charity,” “safety.” “Church” has a lot of definitions.

Jesus only had one; “My called out ones.”

It’s probably a little late to think about repainting all the “church” signs in the world to say “ekklesia.” I’m sure a lot of people have already tried that in their own way. Don’t like your “church”? Call it something else: “fellowship,” “gathering,” “congregation,” “meeting place.” Don’t like how things are done? Switch it up a little. Throw out the organ and get a guitar; serve doughnuts and coffee; wear cut-offs and t-shirts – now you’re getting real.

Uh-huh.

If you don’t know who you are, what you are, all the change-ups in the world aren’t going to do you any good. Unless you change your eyes and your heart and understand that you are the “church,” the “ekklesia,” the building where God lives - along with every other person that’s ever believed in Him - then you’re just part of another man-made “church”; a little louder, with a bad wardrobe and running on a caffeine/sugar high, but really no different than the “church” you left.

How do we do “church”? I don’t think I know that one. I’m still blown away by the realization that we are “church.” If we’re all bricks in the same building, stretching back over thousands of years and covering the whole earth, then I have trouble with the idea of my “church” and your “church.” Like my buddy Roger said, there’s only His “church.” And that’s us.

Yeah, but Steve; how do we do “church”?

I don’t know.

But I do know this. Jesus promised something to His disciples, the ones He “called out”: “For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.” (Matthew 18:20)

I’ll start there.

In Him,

Steve Spillman

2008-07-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

“You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.” (Romans 14:10-13)

PURPOSE

Vol. 2 Issue 24

June 17, 2008

Just Another Brick in the Wall

Something I said in the last letter has had me thinking. “If we’re all bricks in the same building, stretching back over thousands of years and covering the whole earth, then I have trouble with the idea of my ‘church’ and your ‘church.’”

There are a lot of fellow ‘bricks’ who kinda creep me out. If there’s no my church or your church, only His church, and if you and I are the church, I’d better get used to the idea that you and I are joined together forever, fellow bricks in the building that is God’s temple.

But what if I don’t like you? What if I think you’re way wrong about a lot of things pertaining to Him? What if I think you’ve missed the boat on some pretty important theological points?

What if you think the same thing about me?

Why can’t I just have my church and you have your church, and then we’ll let God sort things out in eternity?

See how easy it is to slip back into that “church is a building/ officialdom/ organization/ profession” thing again? Remember the church is us. You and me and all of those whom Christ has “called out.” It’s made up of all of us … even those who creep us out.

“Whoa Steve, you’re treading on thin ice here.” (What else is new?) “Surely you don’t mean just bunching us all up together!” “There are doctrinal issues at stake!” “Are you asking us to compromise the doctrines that make us different?”

No, not at all. That is, unless your doctrine is wrong. Then go ahead and change it.

“You’re not talking about Ecumenism are you?”

For those of you who don’t stake your lives on man’s theological constructs and their definitions, “ecumenism” is the idea of moving toward ‘universal Christian unity.’ A catholic church.

Don’t panic.

Not the Catholic Church. “Catholic” means “universal” and pertains to the idea of a single, undivided “church” … the way the first church was back in the first century. The way it will be when Christ returns to claim His church.

*****

Something else I said in an earlier letter is relevant to this week’s topic.

“Any time you get a bunch of humans together (Christians fall into this class too) they have a tendency to muck things up.” (Purpose Weekly Vol. 2, Issue 22)

I was talking to a friend on the phone the other day about the early church. We were pretty amazed at stories in the book of Acts about all the believers sharing meals and having everything in common and how a person who had something went out and sold and shared the proceeds with everyone so that no one had too much and no one went without.

Halfway kidding I said, “Communism isn’t a failed ideology; we’re a failed species.” Then I thought about it a little. Then I wasn’t kidding so much.

Communism doesn’t work. Not because it’s broken … because we’re broken.

For the same reason ecumenism, the practical establishment of a single universal church, doesn’t work. As fellow bricks in the wall we disagree with how the wall is built and what it should look like. Each of us is convinced that he or she is right and the brick that doesn’t see it our way is wrong. And we are right … unless we’re wrong. But we stick to our guns - I make my church and you make your church and that’s the way it is.

There will come a day, however, when He returns to receive His church. My church and your church will fade away pretty quickly. My stuff and your stuff won’t be important anymore. It won’t be because He fixed our systems or ideologies or the other guy’s screwed up beliefs; it’ll be because He fixed us.

*****

Artist’s oil paint comes in little tubes, like toothpaste. Between manufacturers there are thousands of colors and tints to choose from. Personally I can’t see the difference between “Brown Ochre” and “Burnt Sienna”; I must not have an artist’s eye for detail. Each pigment has its own unique shade and tint, no matter how subtle … or so they tell me.

But if a crazed pigment terrorist were to sneak into the factory and squeeze all the contents out of all the tubes into a giant pot and stir them all up with a giant stick he wouldn’t get a rainbow of all the world’s unique shades and tints of color. Each individual pigment would be compromised as it was stirred into the mix. They would all meld into one greenish, brownish, grayish goop. What a mess.

In order to graduate from college I ‘had’ to take an art appreciation class. The university wanted to be sure business and science majors had at least a dash of civilization so the institution wouldn’t be embarrassed by news of their alumni not knowing a Cezanne from a Chagall.

I’m fairly dull regarding the finer arts, but I did see a lot of pretty paintings and hear a lot of pretty music in that class and the professor did his best to penetrate our thick business major skulls as to why we should appreciate the ‘Masters.’

I don’t remember much about Cezanne or Chagall other than I’m pretty sure they were painters and not musicians. But one guy did stick in my mind. His name was Georges Seurat. He was a post-impressionist painter (don’t ask me the difference between that and a pre-impressionist painter). What I remember about this guy was that he used a painting technique called “pointillism.” That means his paintings, usually huge canvases, were made up of thousands of tiny uniform dots. It fascinated me that all those individual dots together on the canvas made up a single picture that I could understand and appreciate.

That’s about as close as I can come to explaining the “church”; those whom Christ has “called out.” Individually we’re unique colors of every imaginable shade and tint. Some of the colors go well with others, some clash. If we put all the colors together in a big pot and stirred them up with a big stick we’d get a greenish, brownish, grayish goopy mess. But in the hands of the Master all those individual pigments can come together in a wonderful whole.

It’s beyond me.

I’m beginning to learn my job as a brick; my responsibility as a tiny dot of color. It’s to fill my spot in the whole. That’s it.

I know that I’ll run into other bricks in the Temple, other dots of color on the canvas, whom I disagree with. If I run into a difference that’s too big to ignore I’ll try to follow Paul’s advice. “If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.” (II Thessalonians 3:14-15).

The truth is though, that we tend to focus on differences, even if they’re not so important; we’ll make them important enough so we can be at odds over them.

*****

God, knowing I’m a little dull, usually throws an object lesson my way when He wants me to learn something.

I had lunch with a guy last week who I didn’t think I really wanted to have lunch with. I had decided that I disagreed with this guy on a few things and those few things were important enough for me to decide that this guy was one of those ‘bricks’ who creeped me out.

I was wrong.

First of all, I didn’t know the guy at all. I’d seen him around; I had heard him and heard about him, I’d been in some of the same places at the same time. But I didn’t know the guy.

That didn’t stop me from judging him though. And it didn’t stop me from privileging the world with my opinion either. I was wrong. I apologize.

There are a few things that this brother of mine and me see differently; but we’re both ‘bricks’ in a same temple; both tiny dots of color on the same canvas. Our responsibility is to fill our spot. That’s it. We’ll leave the big picture to the Master.

I’ll end this week’s letter with a classic. I should have this one on a note, pinned to my shirt.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7: 3-5)

Until next week.

In Christ,
Steve Spillman

2008-06-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 22

June 3, 2008

The Weekly Newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Is “Church” a Dirty Word? Part III

I may have opened a can of worms by bringing up the definition of “church.” At this point in Christian history we’ve been so ingrained with our concept of what “church” is, it can be a real shock to our systems to find out what the Bible says it is.

I got a phone call from my buddy Roger this morning. He’s a pastor; he reads the Purpose Letter each week and either encourages me or sets me straight. Sometimes both. He’s been reading the last few weeks and wanted to give me a few tips about treading on thin ice.

After we discussed “church” for a few minutes – about what it was and wasn’t and was supposed to be – I asked him, “Roger, is God’s work done on earth through the church or in spite of it?”

He answered, “God’s work is done through His church and in spite of ours.” Touché.

*****

Last week we examined Webster’s definition #1 of “church” being “a building for public and especially Christian worship.” We also figured out that when Jesus first brought up the idea He didn’t use the word “church” and He wasn’t talking about a building … at least not one made from bricks and mortar.

Which brings us to Webster’s definition #2: “church” is “the clergy or officialdom of a religious body.” These are the folks who run things. Their offices are in Webster’s #1 – “church”- the building. They’re what’s known as “the clergy.” We (us in the pews) are what’s known as “the laity.” I’m one of “the laity.” Roger is one of “the clergy.” That’s how he knows so much about thin ice.

Just so you know, “clergy” means, “ordained Christian ministers collectively.” “Laity” means “people who are not priests or clerics collectively.” That’s pretty simple. According to Webster’s #2 the clergy is the church.

What’s the laity? Chopped liver?

I’m not being fair. Webster’s definition #3: “church” is “a body or organization of religious believers.” That includes the laity doesn’t it? Darned right it does. Thank Webster’s we’re still included in the “church.” But to be completely fair, Webster’s definition #5: “church” - “the clerical profession” does exclusively mean the clergy. Clergy two - Laity one ... but at least we’re mentioned, even if it’s “professional church” versus “amateur church.”

I’d better stop here and toss out a disclaimer.

I’m not throwing down on pastors, priests, bishops, deacons, prophets, apostles, reverends, or anyone else with a title who makes his (or her) living off an organization called “the church.” If it wasn’t for these folks there wouldn’t be any organization in the organization and all of us laity would be left to our own devices on Sunday morning. It’d be a mess.

My objective in all of this is to point out what Webster’s says “church” is (and definition-wise Webster’s speaks for all of us, clergy and laity alike. I mean, we bought the dictionary, didn’t we?) as opposed to what the Word says “church” is.

So let’s see if Webster’s holds water – biblically speaking.

The words “clergy” and “laity” don’t appear in the Bible. To be fair, “priest” and “priests” appear in the Bible lots and lots. “Layman,” “lay person,” and “lay people” appear too – always described as opposed to the priests. So there is a biblical precedent for the separation of “priests” and “lay people” … in the Old Testament.

The New Testament mentions “priest” and “priests” a lot too. And it seems to make a distinction, but not between priests and lay people (no mention of laity in the NT); the distinction is between “priests” and a “priest.” First there’s the “priests”; these were the “clergy” or “officialdom” of the Jewish religious world in Jesus’ time. They were also the guys always at odds with Jesus.

Probably a little jealousy and competition there.

These priests were the mediators between God and the Jewish community. They were in charge and they liked it that way. Then along comes this scruffy prophet from Nazareth (like anything good could ever come out of Nazareth) with a ragtag gaggle of disciples. Jesus dared to challenge these priests publicly, calling them hypocrites. He broke the Sabbath laws and when they called him on it, he told them that he was the “Lord of the Sabbath.” Blasphemy! He was constantly saying seditious things against these priests, the Temple and their religious system in general. There was no love lost between these priests and Jesus.

Jesus wasn’t laity, but he wasn’t one of the “priests” either. He was a priest; more accurately, the Priest. A “priest in the order of Melchizadek.” What does that mean? According to the writer of Hebrews it meant that this Priest was the last Priest, the only Priest men will ever need again.

“Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our need - one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.” (Hebrews 7:23 -28)

So much for the “clergy or officialdom” of Jesus’ day.

*****

So if the “church” isn’t a building and it’s not the “clergy” what is it? Before you fire your pastor or convert your church building into condo’s let’s dig a little deeper.

The first record of any sort of “officialdom” in the New Testament Church (only it wasn’t “church”; it was “ekklesia” - “assembly of called out ones”) appears in Act’s 6 when the Greek “called out ones” launched a complaint against the Hebrew “called out ones” for skipping over the Greek widows at food distribution time. The disciples (they were in charge by default) didn’t want to spend their days policing the food line, so they asked the “ekklesia” to choose seven spiritually and managerially qualified men to wait tables.

The “church” of the New Testament didn’t include a “priest” class. Individual members of the “ekklesia” were given gifts by the Holy Spirit in order that through each member’s gifts the “ekklesia” could function as a whole. Paul used the analogy of a body. Which is really what the “ekklesia” is - a body.

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.” (I Corinthians 12: 12 – 14a)

If we back up just a little, Paul tells us why he’s going over all of this with the body at Corinth. Any time you get a bunch of humans together (Christians fall into this class too) they have a tendency to muck things up. Individual interests start to bubble to the surface and my individual interests are pretty much always guaranteed to be different from your individual interests. The same thing was happening at the church/ekklesia/body in Corinth.

Paul, who was the guy who brought the gospel to the people of Corinth, was also the guy responsible for straightening them out when they drifted off the path. Which was what was happening in Corinth, which was why Paul had to write them a couple of letters. It seems that the church/ekklesia/body in Corinth was made up of individuals. And these individuals were adept at expressing their individualism by fulfilling their individual interests. Everybody did his own thing and those who had the power to put their individual interests above another’s did.

Paul’s job was to wrangle all these bodies into one Body.

“In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!” (I Corinthians 11:17-22)

Paul has to explain to them that this new group, what Jesus called His “ekklesia” isn’t a bunch of individuals but a single body. And in this body the individuals may have unique gifts or tasks, but the idea of one individual in this new body having a higher ranking than another because of his gift or task was about as ridiculous as a person’s ear having a higher ranking than his foot.

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” (I Corinthians 12:4-6)

Then Paul names some of gifts or areas of responsibility that are necessary to the function of this new body (and this is where history takes over). These gifts, having names, over time, became titles. Titles, having some perceived status became offices. Offices became ranks and ranks became a hierarchy. And, Voila! A new priest class was born!

But that’s not the way it was meant to be. Let’s listen to Paul as he explained it the first time.

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts.” (I Corinthians 12:27-31)

Some scholars say that the last sentence can also be translated, “But you are eagerly desiring the greater gifts.” Which sounds like something the folks in Corinth might have done. Which may be why Paul went on to “show [them] the most excellent way”; telling them just how important these church offices were, in light of eternity.

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears…. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:8-10, 13)

*****

Well, I’ve beat this horse enough. How ‘bout I wrap up this letter by making my point?

The “church” isn’t a building. It’s not an “officialdom of clergy.” It’s not divided into classes – “priests” and “laity.” According to Scripture, it’s not even a “church”; it an “ekklesia.”

There are some of the “called out ones” who have been given gifts and assignments for special tasks within the body of “called out ones.” Some of these tasks involve being in-charge of certain body functions. Some of us (us: the body, not us: me) make their living at it. But, making a living from your task in the body doesn’t give you any more status in the body than making your living as a plumber. In this body, there’s no such thing as a professional, and there’s no such thing as an amateur. There sure aren’t any spectators. We’re all full members and we all have a job … even if it’s just being a toe.

Next week we’ll talk about what “church” … sorry, “ekklesia” is … or at least what it was meant to be. You’ll find out why I thought it was important enough to spend all this time telling you what “church” isn’t … for some of you, maybe even eternally important.

In Him,

Steve Spillman

2008-05-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 21

May 27, 2008

The Weekly Newsletter of True Potential Publishing

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”(Matthew 16:18)

Is “Church” a Dirty Word? Part II

Last week we started talking about “church.” We brought out our trusty old Webster’s Dictionary to tell us what “church” meant. According to Webster “church” is:

1. “a building for public and especially Christian worship”

2. “the clergy or officialdom of a religious body”

3. “often capitalized : a body or organization of religious believers: as

a) the whole body of Christians

b) DENOMINATION c) CONGREGATION”

4. “a public divine worship ”

5. “the clerical profession ”

According to Webster’s first three definitions (we talked about those last week), “church” is either a building, a bureaucracy, or an organization of religious believers.

Definition four, “a public divine worship ,” still has us going somewhere; like to a church (definition one). Only this going to church sounds more like going to an event, or a happening, than a building. Maybe we’re getting closer.

Definition five has “church” as a “profession” or “career.” I guess that’s where the guys who make up the “clergy or officialdom” come from.

*****

I apologize if all of this sounds a bit confusing or repetitive, or circular … but that’s because it’s confusing, repetitive and circular.

Here’s the point – Webster’s is a dictionary. Its job is to define a word accurately in light of its present meaning. What that means is that today “church” means just what Webster’s says it means. What Webster’s doesn’t tell us is that its definition is what “church” has come to mean. Webster’s is a modern definition. In this century “church” means exactly what Webster’s say’s it does.

Bummer.

You want to know why bummer?

Because what “church” means today isn’t necessarily what it meant twenty centuries ago. That means you’re trying to reconcile a first century idea of “church” with a twenty-first century definition. And most of what “church” means today isn’t what “church” meant back when Jesus first introduced the idea. If you’re a Jesus follower rather of a “church” follower, maybe that’s why you’re so frustrated with “church.” It’s certainly why I am.

If you’re starting to get your feathers fluffed a little, just relax and hear me out. You may have a great church, a wonderful church, a church that meets all your needs. I may not be talking about your church at all … of course, maybe I am.

All we’re really interested in is what the Bible says “church” is. And if your (or Webster’s) definition of “church” doesn’t jibe with what’s in the Word … well, then I guess you have a decision to make, don’t you?

Let’s start with what “church” isn't, according to the Bible. Since Webster’s has given us a pretty good idea of what “church” means in the 21st century, we’ll hold its definitions up ‘to the light of scripture’ to see if they’re light-proof.

Webster’s # 1: “Church” is a building. We all know that. Depending on where you’re from, churches are made out of limestone blocks, red brick, white clapboard, or metal siding and I-beams. Most of the time they’ve got a steeple and a lot of those have a cross on top. One thing we can all agree on - a “church” is a building.

I wonder if Jesus meant “building” when first introduced the idea of “church” to His disciple Peter? “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”(Matthew 16:18)

He says “build my church” maybe He does mean that “church” is supposed to be a building. Seems to make sense reading the verse. It must be a pretty strong building too; “the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

There’s one teensy-weensy little problem with the verse though, and I’d better bring it up. Jesus didn’t say “church” in this verse; He said “ekklesia.”

Our word “church” comes from the Middle English word “chirche.” “Chirche” comes from the Old English “cirice”; that comes ultimately from Late Greek “kyriakon.” “Kyriakon” or “kyriokos” means “belonging to the Lord (or lord).” “Kyriokos” appears in the New Testament but usually in reference to the “Lord’s Supper” or the “Lord’s Day”; never in relation to what we know as “church.”

So why the Middle English/Old English/Late Greek lesson? Is it really so important to know all this root word history stuff? What’s the problem with just reading the Bible as it is and taking the preacher’s word for what it means?

Here’s where the teensy-weensy problem in Matthew 16:18 becomes a big problem. The King James translators got the word “ekklesia” wrong the first time it appeared – here where Jesus introduced the idea to Peter. Then they went on to get it wrong 114 more times.

But they did get “ekklesia” right three times. The word means literally, “called out ones.” It has the connotation of being “called out” to an “assembly” or an assembled group of people.

The three times the King James translates “ekklesia” correctly, as “assembly” are all lumped together in the back half of Acts 19.

Luke is telling the story of a group of Christians, they were called “the Way” back then, were in a city called Ephesus; telling people about their new faith. So many Ephesians were coming to “the Way” that it began to affect business.

Ephesus was a temple town. And their temple was for the goddess Artemis. The city’s craftsmen made and its merchants sold statuettes, idols, to everyone who came to worship “the great goddess Artemis.” The Ephesians even had their own fight song, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.” “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.” What they were saying in effect was “Artemis is great and our Artemis is greater than yours.”

Well, when people started believing in “the Way” they didn’t need Artemis anymore … or the little statuettes that kept the city’s economy humming along. So the merchants and craftsmen started a riot and called the whole city into a great “assembly” at the local stadium. This “assembly” of Ephesians rioting and chanting their Artemis fight song is the only time in the KJV that “ekklesia” is rightfully translated “assembly.”

*****

Back to “church” as a building.

You want to know something else that’s pretty interesting? The only time “church” is referred to as a building (the Greek word “hieron” means “temple”) is in this same story. It was these guys again, the Ephesians, talking about their temple of the goddess Artemis.

So, at this point we know a couple of things:

When the KJV Bible says “church” (115 times total), 114 times the original word is “ekklesia” or “assembly”; one time the original word is “hieron” or “temple.” (By the way, I’m not picking on the KJV. All English translations use “church” to translate “ekklesia” … just not as much.)

The English word “church” comes, ultimately from the Greek word “kyriokos,” which means “belonging to the L(l)ord.” The problem is, when Jesus and the apostles talked about the “church” (114 times) they never said “kyriokos”; they said “ekklesia.”

Any way you shake it, when Jesus and the apostles spoke about the “ekklesia” they weren’t talking about a “hieron” - a temple or building.

But that’s not how it is today. And I’ve still got to agree with Webster's; a “church,” among other things is a building. The problem, as we’ve seen, is that when Jesus told Peter, “upon this rock I will build my church”; he didn’t say “church” he said “assembly.” Jesus wasn’t talking about a building.

Next week we’re talk more about what Jesus wasn’t talking about. Maybe we can get to what He was talking about.

2008-05-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 20
May 19, 2008
The Weekly Newsletter of True Potential Publishing

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25)

Is “Church” a Dirty Word?

I’ve always felt a little guilty over church. I felt guilty when I didn’t attend; felt guilty when I did attend; felt guilty if I didn’t become a member; felt guilty after I became a member; felt guilty when I stayed at a certain church; and felt guilty when I left that church. Then the cycle would begin all over again.

What is wrong with me? Can’t I just be satisfied with church like other Christians? Isn’t it our duty to go to church; to join the church? Doesn’t the Bible tell us that we must go to church if we are truly Christians?

I’ve had pastors tell me that my salvation was in jeopardy if I didn’t attend church regularly (in my last episode, the pastor was referring to Sunday night and Wednesday services, seeing as I was already there to get yelled at on Sunday morning).

If the Bible and the pastor tell me that attending church is an integral part of my Christianity, that my Christianity isn’t really Christianity at all without regular church attendance, then why do I feel so lousy when I do attend church? Do I possess some basic fault, which apparently doesn’t exist in other Christians, to make me feel this way?

I haven’t developed this aversion to church overnight. And, to be fair, when I do go to church, I enjoy a good bit of it. Of course, I do my best to avoid any church that I may not enjoy a good bit of.

I’m conflicted and here’s the conflict.

I’m a born-again Christian. I write on born-again Christian topics – like telling other born-again Christians how to behave. I publish books by born-again Christian authors who write about how born-again Christians ought to behave. I ought to have come to terms with this whole church thing a long time ago … but I haven’t.

And since I just turned fifty, I figure its time to deal with any basic incongruities still hanging around in my life.

Does this mean I’m going to take my place in the pew, keep my mouth shut and join the ecclesiastically satisfied masses?

Nah.

Does it mean I’m all of a sudden going to start feeling good about going church, Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesdays?

Probably not.

(By the way. If you feel great about church and have no idea what I’m talking about, consider yourself blessed and take a few weeks off. There are a lot of your brothers and sisters in Christ out there, in church and out of church, who are miserable about the whole situation and want an honest answer - just like me.)

I don’t necessarily buy what a lot of church leaders are telling me about how I should feel about church. On the other hand, as Dad would say, “you can’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” Church, whether you like it or not, is a big part of the Christian life and if you call yourself a Christian and want Him to believe it, you’d better deal with church.

*****

A little personal history.

My father was in full-time ministry since before I was born. I was raised in the church and Dad represented the leadership of the church. As a pastor and a minister, I considered my dad head and shoulders above his peers. Some of that admiration may have been prejudiced by the fact he was my dad, but looking back on his life from my current perspective I’ll stick with my story. He really was head and shoulders above a lot of his peers.

The point is that my problem with church doesn’t stem from some latent hostility toward my father as an authority figure. I liked and admired the guy when I was a kid and I admire and empathize with him more now that I’ve had the opportunity to walk a few more miles in his moccasins.

And I don’t believe my general dissatisfaction with church comes my from lack of trying. Dad was saved, educated and ordained a Baptist. His search for a more complete relationship with God, led him into baptism of the Holy Spirit (more “Pentecost” than “Pentecostalism”). Where he went, we followed. As a result, I have experienced a wide swath of churches, denominations and doctrines; most of them spending more time and effort assailing each other than winning the world.

Again, my point is that I don’t believe the answer to my dissatisfaction with church is that I just haven’t tried the “right one.”

I don’t want to be too hard on churches though. The world’s a better place with churches than without them.
The problem, I believe, is in what we think church is, the definition it has become, as opposed to what God’s desire for what the church ought to be.

The word “church” according to Webster is defined as:

1. “a building for public and especially Christian worship”

2. “the clergy or officialdom of a religious body”

3. “often capitalized : a body or organization of religious believers: as

a) the whole body of Christians

b) DENOMINATION

c) CONGREGATION”

4. “a public divine worship ”

5. “the clerical profession ”

According to Webster the primary definition of “church” is a building; a place where people, especially Christians, come to worship. It’s on every street corner, in every city or town. It can be a magnificent edifice with soaring spires that reach into the heavens or a metal building with a neon sign. The church, according to Webster is primarily a structure, sometimes magnificent, sometimes humble; built by men from wood and stone.

Secondly, Webster defines “church” as “the clergy or officialdom” - the guys in charge. If we search beyond the bricks and mortar of the structure that is the church to a deeper, other meaning we discover that the “church” is not built just of wood and stone, but also of men; a hierarchy, a government, an elite leadership that represents the “officialdom” of the structure. Be it sticks and stones or flesh and bone, that, according to Webster 1 and 2, is the “church.”

To understand the “church” according to Webster’s second meaning, I had to return to the dictionary for a definition of “officialdom”. Webster’s answer was short and sweet – “officials as a class.” A class of what? The definition seemed a little lacking, so I dug deeper; this time into the Encarta English Dictionary of North America. According to Encarta “officialdom” is a word which encompasses bureaucrats and bureaucracy; specifically, “bureaucracy and those who work within it, especially when viewed as inefficient or pompous.”

Youch!

Studying “church” was really beginning to depress me. I was discovering that I had spent my whole life, as my father had spent his, serving and supporting either a building or a bureaucracy; or perhaps some combination of the two. No wonder I felt so guilty and dissatisfied.

I had to push on. Maybe there was some light at the end of this. Surely there was more to church than bricks and bureaucrats. I continued my study.

Webster’s third definition capitalized “Church” and divided its meaning into three sub-categories: “a) the whole body of Christians; b) DENOMINATION; c) CONGREGATION.” I wasn’t sure why Webster’s listed DENOMINATION and CONGREGATION in capital letters. Maybe “DENOMINATION” and “CONGREGATION” took some sort of precedence over “Christian”.

Despite my confusion of capitals I was encouraged. At least we were talking about people! Not just the “officialdom” but those who occupied the pews.

That was me! If church could be defined as people like me I might find a solution to my problem. If the church was me and people like me, how could I feel guilty and dissatisfied? If I was part of the definition, couldn’t I be part of the solution? I may have found a bit of the light for which I was searching.

Encouraged as I was with this third definition, I still had to deal with why Webster divided its meaning into three distinct sub-categories.

a) “the whole body of Christians” - This definition I could understand. I was part of “the whole body of Christians.” I took this to mean people who belonged to - gave their hearts to - Christ. That was me! People who, just like me, recognized Jesus as the Son of God and personal savior and put the trust of their eternal future in His hands.

b) “DENOMINATION” Or as Dad used to say – abominations. Personally, I figure that any label beyond Christian (literally “slave of Christ”) puts me one step further away from the One I serve. I’ve got no use for DENOMINATIONS … probably never will.

c) “CONGREGATION” – It’s still in caps … that bothers me. Like “CONGREGATION” still outranks “the whole body of Christians.” We’ll have to deal with that one … next week.

The Bible talks about church. The New Testament mentions the word 108 times, so you know we’ve got to deal with it, conflicted or not. Here’s a little hope though, you may be surprised about what the Bible actually does say about “church”. It’s probably not what you’re thinking.

Next week we’ll get into a little etymology. That’s word study (not bug study).

Until then.

In Christ,

Steve Spillman

2008-05-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Purpose

May 12, 2008
The Weekly Newsletter of True Potential Publishing

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:27)

The Road Not Taken

Hate my father and mother? Brothers and sisters? Sounds a bit harsh doesn’t it? Not much of a Mothers Days weekend topic, Steve. Any other cheerful aphorisms you want to lay on us while we plan our special day with mom?

That verse and its twin, Matthew 10:37 are what’s known as red letter verses. Some Bibles have all the words Jesus actually said Himself printed in red ink. That way you know Jesus’ actual words from the rest of the Bible.

Want to know what else is in red letters? "… unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53) That’s a tough one to explain to a third grade Sunday school class. I’ll bet they don’t make flannelgraphs for that verse.

Jesus said a lot of disturbing things.

Do you really think He wanted folks to hate their mothers and eat His flesh and drink His blood?

Probably not.

But, for a lot of us, He was saying something equally radical. Unless you’re willing to walk away from everything you know and everything you value, everything that’s secure and meaningful in your life, you’re not worthy to become my follower. To people who put their families ahead of everything else, that meant mom and dad and brother and sister. To a young rich ruler, it meant selling everything he had and following Jesus. To the crowds who couldn’t see past Jesus’ miraculous bread and fish dinners, it meant forgetting about food and feasting on Who He really was.

Jesus was a radical. He told His followers, unless you’re prepared to be a radical too, don’t bother coming along. This disciple thing ain’t no hobby. Unless you’re willing to despise everything this world has given you, family, friends, wealth, security, sustenance, even your own life, for the sake of following Him, don’t bother coming along.

It still sounds harsh.

There’s got to be a happy medium …doesn’t there?

Sorry, there’s not. You’re in or out, that’s the deal. By the way, Jesus lost a lot of ‘disciples’ every time he said something like this. Only the radicals stayed around.

I’ve got some good news for you though. Jesus loves you. The One who wants you to give up what’s dearest to you, gave up His life so you could live forever.

Another piece of good news? He’s not interested in you hating your mom and dad and He doesn’t necessarily want to you to go through life penniless or hungry. That wasn’t the point.

This is what He meant - If you’re going to follow me, someday you’re going to get hit with a choice. It may be: follow what mom and dad have planned for you of follow what God has planned for you. It may be: keep the money and possessions you’ve worked all your life to acquire or give it all away and embark on a mission only you know is true. It may be: remain in your daily grub for sustenance because it’s a known quantity or give up your loaves and fishes and feast on food that will wake up your soul.

If you want to follow Him, the day will come when you have to decide what’s important. It always does. If you’re not willing to let go of everything you’ve got, don’t follow along.

*****

I learned a poem in high school. The only poem I’ve ever memorized. As a high school kid I thought it was pretty impressive to know any poem that didn’t start with "Jack be nimble."

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them both about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost wrote that. I rewrote it from memory … after all these years. I’m still impressed.

I’ll be fifty next week.

My high school wrestling coach, Gary Bowden, was inducted into the California Wrestling Hall of Fame last weekend. I’m proud of him, he deserves the honor. I couldn’t be there to see it. The east coast is a long way from the west coast.

I’ll call Mom on Sunday. I’ll wish her a happy Mother’s Day and she’ll wish me a happy birthday. We’re due a visit. And we’ll do it when we can, we always do. But the east coast is a long way from the west coast.

You never give up your life without getting back much more in return.

Funny thing, you get back the stuff you gave up too … only better. In the last couple of weeks I’ve spoken with high school team mates I hadn’t heard from in thirty years. Each of us recognized the other’s voice in an instant and three decades faded away like wisps of smoke.

When we do make a trip to visit family out west, it’s a real reunion. Brothers and sisters all show up; all with their own families. We get to meet the newbies, born in and married in, since our last visit. Mom’s always tickled at all the bodies and commotion. And it always ends happy/sad and much too soon, but always wonderful.

But the life I got by giving up the life I had is far beyond anything I could have created on my own. It is the one I was meant to have. I have a family and a mission and a relationship with my Master. And they are the ones I was meant to have.

It took a long time to really understand the poem. Frost was right - it has made all the difference.

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39) Another one of those red letter verses.

Until next week.

Telling this with a sigh,

Steve Spillman

2008-05-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

Purpose
Vol. 2 Issue 18
May 2, 2008
The Weekly Newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Courage Part 3

“In those days Israel had no king; every one did as he saw fit.” (Judges 17:6)

“We have met the enemy, and he is us” - Pogo

We’re going to hang with the Judges for one more week. From last week’s letter you could tell that things were beginning to go astray in Samson’s time, but after he died life in Israel really started going south.

After Samson’s story there are five chapters left in Judges. Taken as a whole the last five chapters are an unholy, depressing, disturbing mishmash. Kind of like HBO.

The theme for the whole section is, “In those days Israel had no king; every one did as he saw fit.” Whoever wrote the book just keeps repeating, “In those days Israel had no king.” It was like everybody did their own thing, no matter how screwed up, and everybody else just stood by scratching their heads wondering what was going on. Kind of like the current presidential campaign.

Let me share a little so you know I’m not kidding. Chapter 17 starts out with a guy who steals a pile of money from his mother. She throws a curse on whoever stole the money. So he gets nervous about the curse and says to mom, “Hey mom, it was just me who took your money, but here it back again. No hard feelings, right?”

Well, mom’s tickled about getting the money back. She pronounces an anti-curse and dedicates the money to God by having a silversmith mold some of the stash into idols for her son. I’m sure God appreciated that little gesture.

Son steals from mom. Mom curses son. Son returns money. Mom blesses son and makes idols with the money. Sure, I know that kind of stuff happens all the time nowadays, but back them that kind of behavior was pretty screwed up.

It just gets better from here.

Now that Micah (the son) has the idols he needs a priest. He installs one of his sons as priest … might as well keep it in the family. Between the idols and the priest Micah figures he’s got God in his corner. I can’t figure out how Micah could have mistaken a homemade priest and idols made of silver for the presence and approval of God. Boy, people sure were ignorant back then.

Then Micah cuts a better deal. A genuine bona-fide priest, a Levite, comes strolling into town. Seems he didn’t like where he came from and was looking for a better deal himself. Micah makes the deal, upgrades to a genuine bona-fide priest and sonny boy returns to civilian life. That’s much better.

“In those days Israel had no king; every one did as he saw fit.”

Enter the guys from Dan. Remember back to the children of Israel entering the Promised Land? Each tribe was given it own land by God. Everything was mapped out in advance; they just had to go claim it. Well, the tribe of Dan was having a bit of trouble convincing the current residents to vacate so they could move in. They were wandering around homeless, looking for place where the indigenous residents weren’t quite so belligerent about leaving their homes.

Way up north there was a peaceful happy little place called Laish. The Bible describes the place and its residents. “… [T]he people were living in safety … unsuspecting and secure. And since their land lacked nothing, they were prosperous. Also they lived a long way from the Sidonians and had no relationship with anyone else.” (Judges 18:7) It was a lot like Vermont.

The guys from Dan, figuring Laish was much easier pickins than the land they were supposed to occupy go up to evict the peaceniks occupying the place. On the way they stop by Micah’s house to ‘liberate’ his idols and make the priest an even better deal. “Instead of being God’s stand-in for just one family, why not be one for a whole tribe?” The priest, always looking for a better deal, took them up on it. Micah, figuring losing his idols and his priest was better than losing his head, had no choice but to let them go.

The brave Danites (guys from Dan) marched on. “They took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a peaceful and unsuspecting people. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city. There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else.” (Judges 18:27-28) Such a proud day for Israel.

We’re not done yet. Next story.

A Levite (the guys who were supposed to be God’s representatives) acquires a concubine. That’s a girl who provides all the privileges of a wife without the hassle of a legal commitment. The concubine is unfaithful (gee, funny that?) and goes home to daddy. Levite guy chases after her, spends some time with dad, and begins his journey home, concubine in tow.

Levite, manservant and concubine stop for the night in Gibeah. The manservant wanted to stay in Jebus (that’s Jerusalem) because it was closer, but Levite refuses because Jebus was full of Jebusites … “not our kind of people.” Gibeah was occupied by Benjamites … “our kind of people.”
They should have stayed in Jebus.
A man from Gibeah invites the travelers into his house and they’re just getting settled in for the night when there’s a pounding on the front door. The local chamber of commerce demands that their host turn over the Levite, “so we can have sex with him.” Nice.
The host, the epitome of hospitality, offers his virgin daughter to the mob of men, trying to spare his guest from being raped by the local menfolk. Of course the men don’t want to rape a girl.

They want to rape a man. Nice

The Levite, not wanting to put his host to any trouble, tosses his concubine to the mob. Well, a concubine is better than nothing.

The proud and noble Benjamites rape and abuse the girl throughout the night. At dawn she stumbles to the front stoop of her master’s host and falls over dead. Nice.

The Levite (remember, he’s the guy that tossed his concubine to the mob in the first place) is extremely ticked over the loss of his female property. He cuts the dead girl into twelve pieces and ships a piece to each of the tribes of Israel. Nice.

Everyone is just shocked! How could such a thing happen here!? People assemble from all over Israel to address this tragedy. The Levite tells everybody his story and off they go to teach the Benjamites of Gibeah a lesson. The rest of the Benjamites wouldn’t have that so they go to join their brothers in the defense of Gibea.

Israel sent four hundred thousand soldiers to take care of business in Gibea. That’s a lot of soldiers. The Benjamites gathered to defend Gibea were only twenty-six thousand seven hundred; but they were pretty good fighters.

Battle of Gibea - Day 1: Four hundred thousand Israelites attack the city. The Benjamites rush out to meet them, kill twenty-two thousand Israelites and go back inside the city. Well, that plan didn’t work.

Battle of Gibea – Day 2: Three hundred and seventy eight thousand Israelites attack the city. The Benjamites rush out to meet them, kill eighteen thousand Israelites and go back inside the city. Dang! We need a new plan.

Battle of Gibea – Day 3: Israelites get a new plan. Most (but not all) of the Israelites attack the city. The Benjamites rush out to meet them, the Israelites run away and the Benjamites give chase. The rest of the Israelites come out of their hiding place and run into the city while the Benjamites are gone. Plan works, twenty-five thousand Benjamites are killed, six hundred run away and the Israelites burn Gibea.

Here’s where the plan gets screwed up.

The Israelites start to feel bad that they killed all but six hundred Benjamites (Now, they feel bad). To make it up to the Benjamites, they hatch a plan to find new wives for the six hundred survivors. They burn down one of their own cities, kill everybody except for the virgin girls and give them to the left-over Benjamites.

But it wasn’t enough girls. There were still two hundred Benjamites without new wives. All the other Israelites said, “You’re not going to give our girls to the Benjamites.” So they told the two hundred wifeless guys, “Look, there’s a party in Shiloh (another one of their own cities) next week. When the girls come out of the city dancing, each of you grab one and run away” (these were their own girls!).

“In those days Israel had no king; every one did as he saw fit.”

Well, that’s how Judges ends. Pretty depressing isn’t it?

*****

It’s been an interesting week in South Carolina. An eighteen year old boy was arrested for planning to blow up his high school. Mom and dad called the police when they took delivery of ten pounds of ammonium nitrate the boy wanted delivered to the house.

Another eighteen year old boy killed his dad, step mom, little brother and step sister, and then went four-wheeling. Not a big deal, apparently.

A man drove over from Alabama and raped a fourteen year old girl he met on Myspace. That’s social networking at its finest.

You want to know the screwed up thing? This stuff is all pretty common. Doesn’t even raise an eyebrow anymore. And its not just in South Carolina; it’s in California and Indiana and everywhere else.

“In those days Israel had no king; every one did as he saw fit.”

Sounds kind of like us doesn’t it?

Any good news Steve?

Yeah there is. We live here but we’re not citizens. There’s another country we belong to where this kind of thing doesn’t happen. The country I’m talking about does have a King. And everybody does what He sees fit. Things work out better that way.

People as far back as Abraham knew about this other country and they looked forward to finally settling down there. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:13 – 16).

Keep looking up. You might catch a glimpse of it.

Until next week.

Committed to King and country,

Steve Spillman

2008-05-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

“Let me die with the Philistines!” (Judges16:30)

Purpose
Vol. 2 Issue 17
The Weekly Newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Courage Part II

What Makes a Hero?

Remember last week? Gideon fought the bad guys, the Midianites, and won. He was a Judge, remember? There was another Judge in old Israel, a few Judges down from Gideon; his name was Samson.

In the eyes of most folks Samson was a hero; the kind of stuff Sunday school stories are made of. He was bad to the bone, strong as an ox and a real ladies man. Samson was the kind of hero Israel was looking for. And they needed one. This time the bad guys were the Philistines; they had been the bad guys for about forty years. It was time for God to send Israel a new Judge, a deliverer, a hero. God had Samson in mind. You can read about him in the Old Testament book of Judges (of course); his story runs through chapters 13 to 16.

Gideon was minding his own business, just trying to stay out of the way, when the angel of God showed up to make him a Judge and a hero.

Samson's story wasn't like that. He was custom made for the job. The angel of God showed up to the lady who was to become Samson's mother. She didn't have any kids, she was sterile. God likes to prove a point. So the angel tells Samson's mom-to-be that she's going to have a very special son; he's going to be a Nazerite, and he would deliver Israel from the Philistines.

A Nazarite was someone who was set aside for a special purpose. Sometimes that meant just for a certain period of time, sometimes it was for a lifetime. Samson was supposed to be a lifetime Nazerite.

Being a Nazerite required certain behavior. For instance, Nazerites weren't allowed to touch wine or any sort of alcohol. This particular rule was so radical that Nazerites weren't even allowed to be around grapes. That's pretty radical.

If you were a Nazerite, you couldn't touch any unclean or dead thing and you couldn't cut your hair. There were a lot of restrictions.

Samson had his own way of doing things. He wasn't into restrictions.

God has His own way of doing things too. When He says something's going to happen, you'd better count on it. And how some folks think He should make His plans go down isn't necessarily the way they do.

Samson broke about every Nazerite rule there was. He liked wine, didn't mind dead things, and didn't much care for rules of any kind. He was a guy who pretty much took what he wanted ... and he wanted a lot.

Taking what he wanted got him into a lot of trouble. His strength got him out of trouble. It seems that breaking all the wine drinking, dead thing touching Nazerite rules didn't have much of an effect on Samson's strength. In the end it was getting a hair cut that did him in.

Remember the story from Sunday school? Samson goes to see his new flame, Delilah. Delilah's a bad girl in more ways than one; she's friends with the bad guys. Delilah gets him drunk, gets his attention, gets his secret, and gets him fast asleep. Then she calls in the bad guys to give Samson a haircut. Samson wakes up, jumps up and takes on the bad guys. Whoops! No more super powers. Samson finds out he's just a regular joe. The bad guys poke out his eyes and make him their slave.

The Philistines throw a huge party and Samson's the main event. They're going to celebrate by making a mockery of the guy who had made a mockery of them. By now Samson has pretty much realized he's screwed up his life. He has one last chance at destiny; one last opportunity to be what and who he was made to be. He asks the kid holding his chain to put him between the two pillars that hold the roof up. The kid, not knowing any better, does what Samson asks.

One last time, maybe the first time, Samson asks God to restore his super-strength. 3,000 bad guys got together that day to see Samson put on a show. They had no idea of the kind of show they were about to see. Samson put his left hand on the left pillar and his right hand on the right pillar. He bowed his back and pushed ... and pushed. Then something remarkable happened. There was a crack, and then a pop, and then a little dust and grit fell from the ceiling. And then the roof came down. 3,000 Philistines and one Jew were killed that day.

Samson fulfilled his purpose; he delivered his people from the bad guys.

*****

Kind of a different story from Gideon's, wasn't it? Gideon was like Barney Fife. Samson was like the Terminator. Gideon was a pip-squeak and certainly no warrior. But he did what he knew he had to do, even though it scared the ba-hookey out him. And he delivered Israel.

Samson, super dude, ate bad guys for breakfast. He never did anything he was supposed to do and the only thing that scared him was an empty wineskin. And he delivered Israel.

So what's the moral of the story?

God's going to do what He's going to do. Sometimes ... most times .... it doesn't make sense to us. The guys who are supposed to be losers turn out to be heroes. The guys who are supposed to be super-stars turn out to be royal disappointments.

Maybe it's not about the guys. Maybe it's not about how we think things are supposed to go.

Maybe it's about Him. About what He wants done and how He wants to work. Maybe we're just supposed to show up and play our part.

Gideon didn't ask to be picked for the hero job. He listened and did what he knew he had to do; even though he didn't think he was up to it, even though the idea of being a hero terrified him. In the end God kept His promise, Gideon thrashed the bad guys and Israel lived in peace and freedom for forty years. Gideon retired and lived a long and happy life. The Bible says he sired seventy sons and had many wives (things were different back then). He died old and happy.

Samson was born for the hero job. He loved being superman. He'd kill Philistines at the slightest provocation (I think he liked it). Outside of looking like a hero, acting like a hero, and liking to do hero stuff, Samson just couldn't get his head around why he was a hero and Who made him one.

The Bible says that Samson was a Judge in Israel for twenty years; that was before the Delilah thing. In that time, as far as we know, he never did anything good for the people of Israel, never kept any of his Nazerite rules and never listened to anything God might have said to him. He got himself into plenty of peccadilloes by fraternizing with the bad guys and got himself out by killing or generally hassling same. He suffered total failure and public embarrassment as a result of his final little faux pas with Delilah, ending up in chains with his eyes poked out.

Samson pretty much blew his life and the chances (minus one) of fulfilling his destiny.

My personal opinion? This was not the way God planned it. Samson was going to be Israel's hero; that part was decided. But there was an option A and an option B.

Option A: You were born for the job, dedicated at birth for the job and given unique capabilities (super strength) for job. Everybody knows you're Israel's next hero because God said you were. Seriously, look at those biceps, you're the guy. Take your job seriously, listen for the plan and execute. Gideon figured that much out - and he was a runt! God's been with you since birth. He'll be with you in battle - show up on the field and get the job done. When God is finished with you and you've fulfilled your purpose, you may get lucky like Gideon, have seventy kids and live the rest of your days in peace.

Option B: You were born for the job, dedicated at birth for the job and given unique capabilities (super strength) for job. Everybody knows you're Israel's next hero because God said you were. Seriously, look at those biceps, you're the guy. Take your own wants and desires seriously, don't deny yourself anything. You've got it all, live the good life; there'll be time to fulfill your purpose later. Take what you want, live how you want. Who's going to stop you? You're Samson. Get into a little trouble? Power your way out of it. Use your gifts to your advantage.

Every day you wake up, do what you want and ignore your purpose. The days add up. One day you wake up with no hair, no strength and no options. You had it all and now you don't. With zero options you'll have plenty of time to figure out just what went wrong. Then you get lucky; an option pops up. Just one option. It's a suicide mission, but hey, by now it's finally dawned on you that you're here to fulfill a destiny. You could have done it the easy way, but those days are gone. Now it's the hard way. One last chance to do what you were born to do. And then you're dead.

You fulfilled your destiny. Like I said, that part was decided in advance. You're the one who gets to decide if it's option A or option B.

*****

Folks, each of us have a destiny, a purpose; that part has already been decided. The part we decide is option A or option B.

If you're the Gideon type, do what you know you've got to do - he did fine, you will too.

If you're Samson in a suit, don't get cocky. It's not about you. God's gifts to you aren't your gifts to mankind. They're His gifts to mankind; you're just the carrier. You've got a job to do, take it seriously.

Courage isn't about doing what you know you can do because nobody will stop you. Courage is doing what you know you have to do even though you think you can't. That's what makes a hero.
There are a lot of heroes in the Bible. If I get the choice, I'd like my last day to be like Gideon's, not Samson's.

Until next week.

In the service of Him who makes us heroes,

Steve Spillman

2008-05-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

Purpose
Vol. 2 Issue 16
April 17, 2008
The Weekly Newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Courage

Fear is a part of life. I don’t believe people who say they’re not afraid of anything. Everybody’s afraid of something.

I used to be afraid of eighth graders. They terrified me, bullied me, threatened me and laughed at me. Of course, I was a seventh grader at the time. I’ve gotten over that particular fear.

I don’t like roller coasters. It’s not that I’m afraid of them. I can walk up to any roller coaster on the planet and look it right in the eye. No fear.

Riding on them? That’s another matter. I don’t like riding on roller coasters. I could probably lose my distaste (did I say fear?) of riding roller coasters if I put my mind to it, but what’s the point? Is my life really missing roller coaster rides?

I guess fear is either dealt with or it’s not. I dealt with my fear of eighth graders; I grew up, I moved on. I haven’t really dealt with the riding roller coasters thing, but why bother? My not getting over that particular fear isn’t going to change my life much unless I’m considering the lucrative theme park ride tester profession.

This is point in the letter, when you’re supposed to say, "Okay Steve, what’s your point?"

Here it is. Ready?

Courage isn’t the lack of fear. It’s doing what you know you have to do in spite of your fear.

*****

I read about Gideon this morning (Judges 6 – 8). Gideon was a Judge. Not a black robe, sit on the bench, listen to court cases judge. A Judge back in old Israel was a natural leader/hero that rose up to rule the people of Israel, kind of by default. It wasn’t really by default; God picked them to be judges, it’s just that not everybody knew about God picking them at the time, including the judges themselves.

Gideon was like that. He certainly didn’t see himself as any kind of epic hero. When God went to talk to him, Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress. What that really means is that Gideon was doing his chores in a place he wouldn’t normally being doing his chores because he was hiding from the bad guys.

The bad guys were the Midianites. They would sweep into Israeli territory, trample the crops, eat the sheep, steal the donkeys and do all the other things bad guys do.

This had been going on for seven years and Gideon was just trying to stay out of the way. That’s when the angel of the Lord sat down under an oak tree next to the winepress to have a talk with him. The angel said to Gideon, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior."

Mighty warrior? Not Gideon. Mighty warriors don’t do their chores in a winepress because they’re afraid of bad guys.

The story gets a little sketchy here. The angel, it turns out, either spoke for God to the extent he felt free to use first person pronouns or God Himself was doing the talking. Any way you shake it, God was having a personal powwow with Gideon. "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?"

Well, I don’t think Gideon knew who was talking to him. Gideon answered, "Look, I’m the scrawniest kid of the scrawniest family of the scrawniest tribe in Israel. You must be looking for someone else."

The Lord wasn’t easily put off and He knew that it wouldn’t be Gideon doing the heavy lifting on this job. "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

At this point Gideon suspected that he may not be talking to an ordinary stranger and it just might be You-Know-Who or one of His representatives. Oh boy. "Look," he said, "If it’s really You, wait right here and I’ll go get an offering and bring it back."

The Lord waited.

Gideon came back with a basket full of goat meat, a pot of broth and some bread. The angel, or the Lord, or Whoever, instructed Gideon to put the meat and the bread on a rock. Then he touched the meat and bread with the tip of his staff and WHOOFF! The whole thing went up in a ball of fire (what happened to the pot of broth is one of those Bible mysteries we’ll probably find out on the other side) and Whoever disappeared.

Gideon figured out Who he was dealing with. "Oh man." "Oh man." "I saw an angel of the Lord face to face and now I’m gonna die." "Oh man. Oh man. Oh man."

Not quite the response of an epic hero.

The Lord had to reassure him (I know, the story said He disappeared, but He’s still talking. I hope it wasn’t in an audible voice; otherwise folks would Gideon was nuts). "Relax," The Lord tells him. "Don’t be afraid. You’re not going to die."

So now Gideon knows God spoke to him and he isn’t going to die as a result. His brave-o-meter goes up one point.

Later that night God tells Gideon to take bull number two from his father’s herd, tear down his father’s Baal altar and cut down his father’s Asherah pole. Then he’s supposed to build a real altar and use the wood from the Asherah pole to burn up the bull as a sacrifice to God.

Courage is a funny thing. Sometimes you do something you fear because you fear the consequences of not doing it even more.

Gideon’s dad and the men of the town are going to be royally ticked off if he kills the bull, cuts down the pole, busts up the altar and sets fire to the whole kit and caboodle. On the other hand, this is God talking. Do you really not want to do what He commands?

Let’s see what the brave-o-meter does on this one.

Captain courageous waits until nightfall to do the deed; figuring nobody will catch him. The next morning comes. He’s right about one thing; the men of the town are ticked. Gideon’s lying low; no sense taking credit for this one.

The men of the town find out who did it and come for Gideon’s hide. Gideon’s dad, Joash (it’s nice that he wasn’t upset over the bull), comes out the house and says to the men of the town, "Are you fighting Baal’s battles now?" "Anyone touches my son and he’ll be dead by morning" "Go away and let Baal fight his own battles."

That backed the townsfolk down and Gideon’s brave-o-meter goes up another two points.

After all this happens the bad guys, the Midianites, join forces and invade Israel again. Gideon, who’s had some pretty good courage boosters lately, is filled with the Spirit and calls his tribe and the neighboring Israeli tribes together to go attack the bad guys.

Not being ridiculously brave, he double checks with God. Gideon puts out a sheep’s fleece one night and asks that if God really wants him to go after the bad guys, to make the fleece wet with dew but everything around it bone dry. That happens.

Attacking bad guys is serious business and Gideon want to be sure he’s got his signals straight. He pushes his luck with God by throwing the fleece out one more night. This time he asks for the fleece to be dry and everything else sopping wet. That happens.

Okie Dokie. Time to go after the bad guys.

But wait! There’s more!

The Lord wants to teach Gideon one last lesson about courage. It seems that 32,000 Israelis is really way too many for an attack on a valley full of Midianites too numerous to count. Gideon say’s to the troops, "Look if you’re so scared about this operation that you’re shaking, go on home; we won’t be needing you." The announcement didn’t go over well. 22,000 men left that day.

Apparently 10,000 Israelis is way too many to attack countless Midianites. God has Gideon dismiss 9,700 more.

Great. Now he’s got 300 men to attack a sea of bad guys. God’s right on one point, He is going to have to do the heavy lifting on this one.

You know the rest of the story. Each man gets a horn and a torch and a clay jar. They surround the Midianites in the middle of the night, break their jars, blow their horns and raised their torches … all at the same time.

The Midianites were completely freaked out by the noise and the torches. They had no clue if they were being attacked by 300 men or 300,000 men. Those who didn’t turn on each other in the confusion ran out into the desert in terror. All the bad guys were caught and killed.

Gideon was a hero.

*****

The moral of the story?

Courage isn’t fearlessness. It’s doing what you know you’ve got to do, even if you’re afraid.

Here’s the good part: God knows what you’re supposed to do and He makes sure it’s not more than you can handle. He doesn’t mind showing Himself, just so you know it’s really Him that’s talking. And most times He’ll give you something to do that’s scary, but not overly scary – like cutting down an Asherah pole. He knows that overcoming a little scary thing helps to prepare you for the big scary thing.

And when the big scary thing comes?

Hey. He told you to do it. He said He’d be right there doing the heavy lifting. And you know it was Him because He showed Himself to you. Also, you’ve got a track record; He’s given you some little scary things to conquer so you know the system works.

And after the battle? When you’re the hero and the thing that terrified you is lying at your feet? What have you learned?

The same thing Gideon learned. The battle is the Lord’s. You just showed up for the fight.

*****

We’ll stay on Courage for another week. There’s more to be said.

Until then, let Him fight your battles; but remember to show up.

In Him,

Steve Spillman

2008-04-23T07:49:00.001-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 15 April 13, 2008
The Weekly Newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Money Part 3

"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey." (Matthew 25: 14–15)

Remember the parable of the Talents? You can read about it in Matthew 25: 14 – 30. Jesus told this and a few other parables to explain what the "kingdom of heaven" would be like "at the end of the age." Interesting.

Here’s the story in a nut shell:

A man calls his three servants together before he leaves on a journey. To the first servant he gives "five talents of money."

A "talent" is a measurement of weight. In the old days money, being made out of precious metals like silver or gold, was weighed out to confirm its value. Whoever made the coins could just stamp the value on the coin along with a likeness of his boss’s head, but who’s going to take his word for it? It was safer just to weigh out the coins.

The weight of a "talent" varied over time, but when Jesus told this parable a talent of silver was about seventy-five pounds; worth a little over $20,000 in today’s money.

So, before going on his journey, this man entrusts five talents ($100,000) to one servant, two talents ($40,000) to another and one talent ($20,000) to a third servant. The expectation being that these three servants were to manage their master’s money while he was gone and give an accounting when he returned.

Well, that’s just what happened. The first servant doubled the money his master had given him. The second servant did likewise. The third servant broke even. He didn’t turn a profit, but he didn’t lose any of his master’s original capital either.

Investing money inherently involves some risk. There’s a chance you won’t make a profit and there’s a chance you could lose your entire investment. The first two servants took some risk. They could have lost their master’s money. Then there would have been hell to pay.

At least that’s what the third servant thought. He knew his master wasn’t an easy man. He expected his people to perform and he expected to profit from their work. The third servant just couldn’t bear the consequences of losing his master’s money. It was a risk he wasn’t willing to take. He dug a hole and buried the money.

By burying the money in the ground, he knew it wouldn’t earn any interest, but at least he wouldn’t risk losing his master’s original capital. His plan was safe; just bury the money and dig it up when his master returned. Nobody wins and nobody loses; can’t get any safer than that.

But that wasn’t the point. The master entrusted his money to his servants for a reason; to make a profit. By playing it safe, the third servant not only failed at his task, he disobeyed his master’s instructions. And he suffered the consequences. According to the story he was thrown "outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Bummer.

The first two servants put their master’s capital at risk, they had to; it’s part of the nature of investing. But the possibility of turning a profit is also in the nature of investing. These two succeeded at their task and enjoyed the reward. "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master’s happiness."

*****

So what’s the point Jesus was trying to get across? That we’re supposed to turn a profit? Well … yeah. I think that’s exactly what he meant.

Now you can allegorize or spiritualize this whole thing by saying investing "talents" in the parable means investing the talents God has given each of us. You know, talents, like singing, or speaking, or teaching, or managing a business, or raising kids. Whatever your talents are, use them for God’s glory. That’s nice.

But for today’s discussion, let’s just keep it simple. Jesus said "talents of money" in the parable. Let’s leave the allegory for another day and just talk about money. The parable fits; everybody gets a different amount of money, "each according to his ability."

Some people get a lot of money. Some get less. Some get even less. Each according to his own ability. That’s not a very popular concept.

Doesn’t everybody deserve to get the same amount? That would be fair. Of course it’s only fair if we all get a lot. The fairness idea loses its attractiveness if everybody getting the same amount means we get less than we think we deserve.

And we deserve a lot, don’t we? We deserve whatever we want. More money, a bigger house, a newer car, a more important job; we deserve it all. At least that’s what we’ve been told. Just watch the commercials; that’s what they’re all about, making us believe we deserve what we want.

It’s not just the commercials. We hear it all the time from guys who claim to be God’s spokesmen. Want to know how you can get your best life now? Just listen to the guy behind the pulpit. As a matter of fact you can measure how much God likes you by how much stuff you have. By the way, don’t’ forget to send in your monthly support check to the ministry.

Maybe they’re just commercials too (I know I beat this horse a lot, but it needs beating).

If you listen to Jesus, when it comes to money, we get what we get, "each according to his own ability." The important thing isn’t how much we get; it’s what we do with what we’ve got. And I don’t recommend burying it in the ground. We’re supposed to turn a profit.

That brings up another point I believe I’ve mentioned before. It’s not our money. We’re just managing it for our master. It’s His money. He’s given it to us to turn a profit while he’s gone. We he comes back, there’s going to be an accounting.

So let’s boil down the parable into a few points we can put to use.

1. Jesus was trying to explain what the "kingdom of heaven" at the "end of the age" is going to be like. So we know he was talking about then and not now.

2. The man who was going on the journey was the one who owned everything. He entrusted his property to his servants (they stayed behind) to manage (turn a profit) while he was gone.

3. Each servant got the amount of money he could handle, not the amount he thought he deserved. How much each servant could handle wasn’t up for a vote; it was up to the master – it was his money.

4. Only the servants who actually invested their money made a profit. Investing is risky, they could have lost what they had been given, but they invested it anyway. No guarantees. The guy who buried his money in the ground had two guarantees; his capital wouldn’t be at risk and he wouldn’t make a profit.

5. There was an accounting when the master returned. And his focus was on how well his servants did with the money they were given, not the money itself. If they managed risk and turned a profit they were given more, a lot more. If one was risk averse, fearing the consequences of making a bad investment so much that he hid his master’s capital in a hole in the ground until he returned, the master wasn’t satisfied to receive back his original capital. The servant screwed up, and the consequences were worse than he ever imagined.

*****

Money is a funny thing. We think it’s worth a lot, but it turns out that it really doesn’t have any value at all. We think that more money will let us do more stuff, but is only what we do with the money we already have that matters.

Money isn’t something you own, it’s something you use. It’s been given to you to use by the One who ultimately owns everything. How you use matters more than how much you’ve got to use.

Risk is inherent in everything. That’s why you’ve got to manage the money you’ve been given. If you invest it in stupid stuff, you’re going to lose it; and there’s a price to pay for that. If you bury it in the ground … well, we know from the story that there’s a price to be paid for that.

And, by the way, if you give your money to somebody that claims to be God’s spokesman but really isn’t, he’s not the only one facing consequences. You were given that money to manage; the accounting is going to come home to roost on your doorstep. If you’re going to give money to folks who say they’re God’s representatives, you’d better make sure they really are.

The most important thing I can say about money is that it’s not about the here and now. It’s about the then and there. What you do with it here and now only counts then and there.

Invest wisely.

Next week we’ll tackle a new subject - courage.

In Him,

Steve Spillman

2008-04-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 14 April 7, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Money Part 2

Thanks for your patience while I was away.

Elaine and I were out all of last week at an “equipping the saints” conference. It wasn’t really named “equipping the saints,” but you know what I mean. It was a conference for Christians by Christians, with subject matter focused on a particular facet of the faith. This one was about “prophecy.” Not “exhort-your-brother” prophecy; “end-of-the-world” prophecy.

As a book publisher, I’m supposed to go to things like this; we were invited, we went and we sold some books. So it worked out.

That was the business side of it. Usually there’s another reason I go … one I don’t know about in advance. I find out after I arrive or after it’s over and say, “oh, that’s why I was supposed to go.” This trip wasn’t any different; there was an object lesson (or two) waiting for me.

*****

Before I go any further, let me just say for the record – I’m not the kind of guy who likes to over-spiritualize things. I’d rather not. The problem is, spiritual stuff keeps happening and the only way I know how to tell you about it is with words that sound kind of … well … spiritual.

I don’t like using “spiritual” vocabulary when regular vocabulary will do. If I’m thinking something or read something in the Bible, I’d rather say, “This is what I think,” or “I read this in the Bible,” than say “God told me.”

But if God tells me or shows me something or I’d rather just be honest about it.

One last thing. When God talks to me I don’t hear an audible voice; so you don’t have to worry about that one. I wonder why people always worry about that one? It’s like if you say God speaks to you and you can’t actually hear His voice, you’re a spiritual guy. But if you do actually hear His voice, you’re a nut.

Some people think it’s a little off to think God speaks to His followers. I think it’s a little off to follow a God who doesn’t speak.

*****

Anyway, back to my trip.

This was a prophecy conference. At prophecy conferences people talk about what hasn’t happened yet, but what they believe will happen based on what they think the Bible says about what will happen, held up to the light of what’s happening now. It’s fairly confusing.

Since it hasn’t actually happened yet, not everybody agrees with everybody else. Even the people who agree with each other don’t always agree; it depends on how detailed you want to get about things that haven’t happened yet.

And there are charts. Lots of charts. My favorite chart was an illustrated timeline of every important event from the creation of the world to 2005. As you can imagine, it was a really long chart. What I liked about it was that everything had already happened. That was a chart I could follow. The chart was for sale. I should have bought it. Elaine told me to, but I didn’t. Maybe I can get it at the next conference.

The lesson I was supposed to learn last week wasn’t about prophecy; it was about people.

When I was six I had a poster of the Peanuts character, Snoopy, on my bedroom wall. He was in his classic pose, lying prone on the roof of his dog house. Inside Snoopy’s thought balloon was, “I love humanity; it’s people I can’t stand.” The saying stuck with me.

Too often, people can be jerks or nuts and their leaders can be self-aggrandizing, self-serving demagogues. It’s just human nature and, like Snoopy, I shouldn’t be too surprised when I see it.

I’m especially sensitive to it in the Christian world because we’re supposed to represent just the opposite. We’re supposed to be light and salt to the world, giving it sight and flavor. Our leaders should be servants; patterned after their leader, God who became man to be our example.

So already you know I have a low tolerance level of human frailty and have my own issues with plank-in-eye disease (see Matthew 7:3).

I show up at a prophecy conference, where everybody’s focused on lining up things that haven’t happened yet and everybody’s got their own opinion of what hasn’t happened yet, so I know I’m not going to agree with at least some of what’s being said.

I really had mixed feelings about being there … before I showed up.

After we got there, everything I was worried about evaporated like mist and things I never thought about, like the fact that I might actually enjoy being around these people, began to materialize.

Sure, there were varying opinions floating around about the nuts and bolts of the apocalypse; but that didn’t define the conference. At least not for me.

It was the people, their spirit and their attitude that affected me. It was something that I knew I was a part of; something I wanted to be a part of. The people listened, talked, shared, laughed and prayed together.

Like I said, I don’t like to overuse "church words," but if I had to name what I saw, “fellowship” would be a good word.

Oh yeah. The leaders led by serving. It was in their attitudes; you could hear it in their words and see it in their actions. Elitism and hierarchy to the greater glory of man didn’t show up at this conference. It was nice.

*****

I know. I know. This week’s letter is supposed to be about money. What’s the prophecy conference got to do with money?

Not much.

That was one of the nice things. There weren’t any tickets. The conference was free; it has been for fourteen years. They take up some offerings and sell some books and CD’s. They pay for the conference center and cover expenses. Not much more than that.

The hotel gives the guy who runs the conference their presidential suite … for free. He lets some of the guys whose ministries can’t pay for rooms share the suite and he takes a regular room. He never said anything about it; I heard about it through the grapevine. Nice.

While I was there I saw an ad for another prophecy conference that’s coming up. Different city different bunch of folks. Tickets are fifty bucks … unless you want VIP seating, that’s seventy-five. There are some big names on the marquee at the upcoming conference; real superstars.

I believe I’ll pass.

In Him,

Steve Spillman

2008-04-23T07:12:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 13 March 21, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Money Part 1

"I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor and believe me, rich is better." My dad told me that. I’ve mentioned it before. He was just kidding around when he said it and he sure wasn’t rich, but the saying stuck with me.

Funny how some things stick, isn’t it?

Everybody’s got an opinion about money. Religious people always have an opinion about money. I wonder if the opinion they give you is really the opinion they keep way down inside, away from prying eyes? I guess that’s why you got to watch what they do and not pay so much attention to what they say.

*****

Jesus told a parable about money I never could quite figure out. Like I said last week; I was getting mixed signals. It’s in Luke chapter 16. Here’s the short version:

A rich guy finds out that his accountant is crooked. He goes to the accountant and says, "I’ve heard you’re wasting my money. Put my accounts in order and turn in your ledger – you’re fired."

Well, the accountant, realizing he’s been caught, cooks up a scheme. He calls in the people who owe his boss to settle accounts. He changes the first guy’s balance from eight hundred gallons of olive oil to four hundred and second guy’s balance of a thousand bushels of wheat to eight-hundred. The accountant figures that since he’s getting fired anyway and his chances of finding another job are pretty bleak, that he’d better make friends with his boss’s debtors by cooking the books to reduce their debt. Maybe they’ll show him some financial consideration on the back end.

The accountant’s boss is no dummy. He finds out what the guy has done and in spite of being cheated out of a considerable amount of oil and wheat, he thinks the accountant is pretty shrewd.

To me, this didn’t sound like parable material. I knew Jesus was trying to make a point, but it sounds like he was giving an atta-boy to the dishonest accountant.

Right after the story Jesus said, "the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light." I picked up that he was making a difference between two groups of people – people of the world and people of light.

Jesus was telling this and some other stories to a big crowd of people who had been following him around. The crowd was filled with all kinds of people - commoners, tax-collectors and "sinners."

It’s funny; Luke is telling this story and when he describes the crowd he puts "sinners" in parentheses. Like whether or not they were really "sinners" compared to those who considered themselves "not-sinners" was up for debate.

On this particular occasion, another group showed up; kinda standing off to the side with their arms folded. They were the Pharisees and teachers of the law - the religious leaders. They liked to be in charge of telling people what to do and what to think. Jesus had been screwing that up lately.

I’m pretty sure Jesus started in on this particular set of stories just because they showed up. His words embarrassed them and people who regard themselves as important don’t like being embarrassed. But they needed embarrassing; so Jesus fired away.

You’d think that, knowing who-all was present, the religious leaders would be the "people of the light" and the tax collectors and "sinners" would be the "people of the world." I don’t think Jesus meant it that way.

He tells the crowd, "… use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." That was a head-scratcher. I didn’t get how using "worldly wealth" (money) to make friends now would get me "welcomed into eternal dwellings" later.

Jesus followed up with: "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?"

Finally, the light in my head clicked on. Money is something you’re entrusted with - like the crooked accountant in the story. It’s not yours; you’re just managing it for someone else. As manager, your job is to turn a profit for the One to whom the money belongs. Treating it like your own leads to trouble.

None of the money is yours; that’s the point. And in light of what’s coming, it’s not even all that valuable. What you do with your money (not really your money) on earth is kind of a test for what you’ll do with really valuable stuff later.

Like every other money manager, you’ve been entrusted with a certain amount. It may be just a little or it may be a whole lot. The One who owns it decided your share to manage for His own reasons.

By the way, if you’re one of the managers with just a little bit to manage, don’t envy the guy who has tons of it. He’s got his own row to hoe. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." (Luke 12:48)

Back to the story:

Then Jesus got right to the root of what he was trying to say. "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

Money’s a pretty useful tool. You can do so much stuff with it. You can buy food; you can buy a house or a car. You can send your kids to college and play golf on the weekends. You can give money to someone in need. You can give it to a church so they can spread the gospel, or feed the hungry, or build a new sanctuary, or buy a really cool chandelier for the foyer. You can even try to buy love or prestige or a little peace with it - but that has a way of backfiring.

The point is, money being so handy for doing almost anything, people kind of loose sight of the fact that it doesn’t really have any value; not in this life and for sure, not in the life to come.

When people loose sight and begin to think money is valuable, the relationship begins to change. Instead of thinking like a money manager, responsible for Somebody else’s money, you start to think that maybe the money’s there for your own uses. You know – like you own it.

When that happens things get topsy-turvy. Now the cart is pulling the horse. The servant is the master. The thing you’re supposed to be watching over for the One who owns is starts to own you. Like I said, because of all the stuff it can do, money is an excellent servant. But it’s a lousy master. And God says that there’s only room for one Master in your life. You can’t get away with trying to serve both. It doesn’t work.

As Jesus was wrapping up his parables about money and he saw the "... Pharisees, who loved money …" over in the corner sneering at him. The crowd knew how self-righteous and money-grubbing the Pharisees were, but they were the religious mucky-mucks - who were tax collectors and "sinners" to question their righteousness?

Jesus handled it. "He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.’"

Wow. The stuff we value is detestable in God’s sight. That includes money. But if we’re God’s money managers and we’re supposed to turn a profit and money is detestable in God’s sight, what are we supposed to invest our money in?

We’ll cover that next week when we talk about making a profit, when to invest, when to hold on to your money and when to give it away.

We’ll wrap up this week with a few assumptions and high points from Jesus’ story:

1. If we say we belong to God, then everything we have belongs to Him too. That makes sense.

2. That means he owns everything in our possession, including our money; and we’re just managing it for him (by the way, if this is true, then He really owns everything; your kids, your spouse, your house, your job, your plans … everything. Money’s the least valuable thing on the list).

3. If you’re managing somebody else’s money, you’d better turn a profit (that’s in the Bible too). But a profit to God doesn’t mean just making more money for Him. Money’s not very valuable to God … what’s He going to buy? He wants something that’ll last … into eternity … like your family members, your neighbor, the homeless guy under the bridge or maybe even a whole bunch of little children in a dying country that, once their stomachs are full, will listen to somebody tell them about Jesus and about another life not too far away where stomachs are never empty and where disease and civil war don’t kill their parents.

4. Everybody gets their share of money to manage. Don’t worry about how little or how much you have. He knows what you can handle. Handle it wisely and He’ll trust you with more. Good money managers are hard to find.

5. Be warned. Money’s a tricky thing. If you forget that you’re the manager and it’s the servant, it’ll poke its nose in the door. Before you know it, you’re the servant and it’s the manager … and that doesn’t work.

6. Do your job right, manage His money diligently here and now (not a very long time really) and you’ll be rewarded beyond what you can imagine later. He pays in tender He considers valuable, and that lasts for a long, long time.

Until next week,

Steve Spillman

2008-04-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 12 March 20, 2008
The Weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Money

Ooh boy. We could spend a while on this one. We will, as a matter of fact. We’ll be on this for a few weeks.

Money isn’t a comfortable subject for Christians. Privately, we don’t have much of a problem with it at all. Who doesn’t like money? But publicly, we traverse the subject like we’re walking on a new froze-over pond. We’re not sure if our next step will be on solid ice or if we’ll fall through.

It’s because we’re getting mixed signals.

"The wealth of the rich is their fortress; the poverty of the poor is their destruction." (Proverbs 10:15 NLT)

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." (Matthew 6:19)

"With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity." (Proverbs 8:18)

"How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" (Mark 10:23)

"A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children …" (Proverbs 13:22)

"… Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven …." (Mark 10:21)

Wealth is a fortress … Do not store up treasure on earth. Riches, honor, wealth and prosperity come with wisdom …It’s hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children … Sell everything you have and give to the poor.

Sheesh! The Bible applauds good stewardship and promises blessings to the faithful; at the same time it says that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.

What’s a guy to do? It takes money to live and the harder I work the more I’m supposed to make, right? Success is a good thing, right? What’s the answer?

It’s not like we’re getting the straight scoop from those in charge either. When you go to church, you hear that it’s more blessed to give than to receive and to reinforce the point, they take up an offering.

Listen to Christian TV and radio. Whatever the message, one message is clear; you need to send in your money to keep the message on the air.

So if your money isn’t supposed to be important to you, why is it so important to everyone else?

*****

That’s why we’re going to explore what the Bible says about money … and maybe un-mix the message a little. We’ll start the Hebrew and Greek languages (like usual) to find out what the original words really meant.

"Money" is used 116 times in the KJV translation of the Old Testament. All 116 times it’s the same Hebrew word: "keceph." That’s "silver"; the currency of the day. Whether it was silver coins, bars, earrings, nose rings, bracelets, or some other precious or semi-precious metal that traded like silver; "keceph" was cash.

Sure, people could buy, sell and barter with a lot of stuff other than "keceph"; gold, cattle, goats, wheat, wine and oil were used at times. But when the Hebrews talked money, they thought "keceph." At least they weren’t confused.

For two thousand years a single Hebrew word was sufficient to describe money. It’s a different story in the New Testament. Christ was born in Bethlehem around 6 BC and John penned the last words of his Revelation around 95 AD; about 101 years, start to finish. One twentieth of the Old Testament time period. In that short time the New Testament writers couldn’t describe "money" in less than eight different Greek words.

Is confusion about money a New Testament thing? Let’s see.

"Stater" after the Greek word for "standard" described a coin or a unit of money. There were actual coins called "staters" usually of silver, but sometimes in gold. A silver "stater" in Jesus time was worth four drachma. When Jesus and Peter showed up in Capernaum the tax collectors wanted them to pay a temple tax; two drachma each. Jesus told Peter to go to the lake and throw in a hook; the first fish he caught would have a "stater" in its mouth – four drachma – tax for two (Matthew 17:24). Funny how things work out.

"Argurion" is Greek for money too. Like the Hebrew "keceph," it means "silver"; not a specific amount, but cash in general. Remember the parable of the talents? A master gives his three servants five, two and one talents of money respectively (a talent is a certain weight; they weighed out money back then to make sure they weren’t getting short changed). The servants with five and two talents took the money and made a profit. The servant with one talent buried his in the ground to avoid risk … bad idea. When the master returned he rewarded the two who made a profit and threw the risk-averse servant into the "darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 25:14-30)

"Nomisma" is money that’s paid for a tax or required by law. It refers to money that’s not given up voluntarily; some things don’t change. Jesus used "nomisma" to turn the tables on those who tried to trap him by painting him as a rebel against the oppressive Roman government. "Is it right to pay taxes to the Romans?" they asked. Jesus knew what they were up to. "Show me a coin," he replied. "Whose portrait and inscription is on the coin?" "Caesar’s," they answered. "Then give Caesar what’s his and give God what belongs to Him" (Matthew 22:19). That shut ‘em up.

"Chalkos" means "copper"; small change, walking around money. When Jesus sent his disciples out to preach repentance among the villages of Judea, he told them not to bring along any food, luggage, or "chalkos"; walking around money. He wanted them to be totally dependant for their needs on those who heard the gospel.

"Kerma" means literally "clipping" or "shearing." "Kerma" referred to money from money-changers. Back when the idea of using coins for money was new, an easy way to make change was to clip or shear a coin in half or in fourths. If a loaf of bread cost one fourth of the local coinage, the dealer could simply whack the customer’s coin into fourths with a cleaver and give him three-fourths back as change.

Whacking up coins and making change eventually became the job of the guys who traded local coins for foreign coins in the market place. These guys weren’t the most honest of folks; they knew how much the foreign and local coins were worth and often their customers didn’t. They were called, you guessed it, "money-changers." Jesus had an issue with money-changers setting up shop in his Father’s house. He still does.

"Chrema" means literally "a thing that one uses or needs." It was a term for money used in business transactions or big purchases; which implies a substantial sum. More than walking around money. In the book of Acts, Barnabas sold a field and gave the money (chrema) to apostles of the nascent Christian church to help cover expenses. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? They tried the same thing, but skimmed off some of the "chrema" for themselves. That was a bad idea (Acts 5).

Now we’re getting to the touchy stuff.

"Philarguria" means "love of money." "Phileo" is the Greek word for "affection." "Argurion" (above) is the Greek word for "silver." "Philarguria" is loving money for itself and dreading the idea of parting with it. Remember "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils …." (1 Timothy 6:10)? That’s "philarguria." It’s a nasty habit. Common, but nasty.

There’s another word for money, the KJV calls it by its old Greek name "mammon." It’s one step further out than "philarguria." "Mammon" is confidence in or the personification of money. That means your hope and trust are tied up in money. Money has become a personal thing for you, you know, like a god. "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Luke 16:13) God doesn’t appreciate the competition.

******

That was a lovely history lesson Steve, but what’s it got to do with me?

More than you think. When it comes to money, we’re like the New Testament Greeks. We can’t think about money with just a single word or idea coming to mind. We can’t even describe it without a half dozen synonyms trailing behind. Cash, dollars, dinero, moolah, greenbacks, paycheck, bills, taxes, tithes offerings, savings, credit, debt.

Money isn’t a single idea to us. That’s why we have so many words for it. That’s why the Bible has different words for it. In reality, money is what it is. It doesn’t have any value or meaning on its own. You put value and meaning behind it by how you think about it and what you do with it.

That’s where the mixed signals are coming from. And that’s what we’re going to get to the bottom of.

Next week.

Until then, don’t worry; "saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:31-34).

In Him,

Steve Spillman

2008-04-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 11March 14, 2008

The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Integrity

Integrity is an interesting word.

Everybody wants it. A lot of folks claim to have it. And a lot of folks that claim to have it, turns out, don’t really have so much of it as they led us to believe.

All you’ve got to do is watch the evening news. Preachers, politicians, business leaders; all folks you’d expect to be full of integrity, we find out maybe didn’t have so much after all.

Like I said, integrity is an interesting word. We all use it, we look for it in others and, oh yeah, in ourselves. And we all know exactly what it means to have integrity.

Integrity means … well, it means … when somebody has integrity, he … well … umm ….Integrity is an interesting word. We expect it in others. We think we’ve got it, but secretly know we don’t have as much of it as we let on. But we can’t say exactly what it means when we’re put on the spot.

That’s why I figured I’d dig into it a little. I didn’t want to preach to others about integrity without really having a handle on it myself.

I thought about asking the folks who talked about integrity the most, you know, the movers and shakers. I thought about going to our government leaders … but who would I ask? Maybe getting a politician’s advice regarding integrity isn’t such a good idea right now. I thought about asking religious leaders, but that could get a little dicey too. Maybe we’d better stick with folks we don’t know too personally.

*****

I was a businessman in a former life. I’m a businessman now, I guess, but back then I was a real businessman, if you know what I mean. I’ve always liked books and since I was in the business world for so many years I collected a lot of books about business, leadership, personal effectiveness, success - that kind of stuff. I still have the books so I looked up what the best-of-the-best had to say about “integrity.”

This is what I found out:

Personal effectiveness guru Stephen Covey has a reserved seat at the top of the human empowerment pyramid so I thought I’d hit him first. Covey, in his modern classic, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has this to say:

• Integrity is the opposite of being “inwardly duplicitous.”

• “Integrity includes but goes beyond honesty. Honesty is telling the truth – in other words, conforming our words to reality. Integrity is conforming reality to our words – in other words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.”

• “… if we have integrity, our intent cannot be to deceive.”

• “… if we can’t make and keep commitments to ourselves as well as others, our commitments become meaningless.”

Corporate leadership gurus James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner weigh in on personal integrity in their business textbook, The Leadership Challenge.

“You cannot lead others until you have first led yourself through a struggle with opposing values …. personal integrity is essential to believability. A leader with integrity has one self, at home and at work, with family and colleagues. He or she has a unifying set of values that guide choices of action regardless of the situation. This does not mean that leaders are one-dimensional people who only focus narrowly on their work …. We are not suggesting that the ideal leader is a saint. However, we are suggesting that leaders who cannot personally adhere to a firm set of values cannot convince others of the worthiness of those values. Leaders without integrity are only putting on an act. The believability and credibility so essential for leadership are earned when your behavior is consistent with your beliefs.”

Lastly, management gurus, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, in their book, Leaders, contribute: “In order for an organization to have integrity, it must have an identity – that is, a sense of who it is and what it is to do.”

Okie-dokie. The gurus of personal effectiveness, business leadership and management have all weighed in. Let’s try to boil it down into something we can use.

Covey seems to be good at telling us what integrity isn’t. According to Covey integrity isn’t “inwardly duplicitous,” “deceptive,” or “meaningless.”

If I look up the opposite of all that, I get that he’s saying integrity is similar to honesty; but he also say’s it’s more than honesty. This is about the best I can get from Covey regarding what integrity is: “keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.” No wonder Covey’s so popular in the business world; he’s turned integrity into a McDonald’s slogan.

Kouzes, Posner, Bennis and Nanus are a little more practical. According to them integrity has to do with knowing who you are and allowing your values to guide your actions. That sounds pretty good. You have integrity “when your behavior is consistent with your beliefs.”

Of course … if your beliefs are all screwed up and your behavior is consistent with them, are you still to be considered a person of integrity?

Growing up, I knew a girl who thought she was a horse. She whinnied and neighed and pranced around. She loved oatmeal. Her behavior was consistent too. I never saw her when she wasn’t acting like a horse. Her behavior was in line with her beliefs, but I’m not sure I’d call what she was doing “integrity.”

The business gurus have taken a shot at defining “integrity”; but I believe I’ll keep looking.

Webster (I’ve always liked him) defines integrity as: “moral soundness, probity (scrupulous honesty) // wholeness, completeness // the quality or state of being unimpaired. From the Latin integritas – wholeness.”

I like the part about “moral soundness,” “completeness,” and “being unimpaired.” I’m beginning to feel like I may be getting a grip on the meaning of “integrity.”

The Old Testament (ESV) mentions “integrity” twenty-four times. It’s the Hebrew word “tom” or “tam.” It means “complete,” “blameless,” “upright,” “sound,” “wholesome.” The word and its derivatives come from the Hebrew “tamam”; meaning “to be complete, be finished, be at an end.”

The New Testament (ESV) only mentions “integrity” once. It’s the Greek word, “adiaphthoria”; meaning “incorruptibility.” The KJV uses the word, “uncorruptness.”

Incorruptible means “incapable of being corrupted” (so much for the politicians). Incorruptible also means “not subject to decomposition,” “imperishable,” “living forever.” One of my favorite mentions in the Bible is when Peter is comparing our old flesh to grass that withers and goes away, but our new flesh to the word of the Lord which lives forever. “… having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever ….” (I Peter 1:23)

So, according to the Bible, integrity means “to be complete” and “to be finished.” It also alludes to “incorruptibility” or “imperishability.”

*****

It’s funny how the experts can stumble around with a word like “integrity.” They’ll give a whack at telling us what it isn’t, and they’ll formulate answers that sound pretty good, but don’t really work - but they just don’t seem to have a purchase on the meaning themselves.

Webster does a pretty good job, but my guess is that he was leaning a little on biblical interpretation anyway.

The Bible, like always, cuts right to the chase and give the big picture at the same time. Living with integrity means showing signs that we’re being completed. Not complete, but being completed. Completed means finished, that restoration or “putting back together.” It’s the work Christ does in everyone who takes advantage of it.

Someday we’ll experience the full meaning of integrity. We’ll be fully integrated, fully complete, fully finished, and fully alive.

“For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’” (I Corinthians 15:52-54)

Until next week. Walk in integrity.

Steve Spillman

2008-04-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 10March 7, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Self-Control

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

It’s probably fitting that “self-control” is the last fruit of the Spirit in our nine week study. It may be the most personal of all the aspects of the fruit of the Spirit. It’s certainly the most inward looking. The struggle for self-control goes on entirely inside an individual, but the results of self-control, or lack of it, show up entirely on the outside of a person.

Our struggles with fear, anger, addictions, indulgence, laziness, escapism all happen inside of us. Our struggle is with ourselves; it’s private. Yet the evidence of the struggle, defeat or victory, is very public.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness can all be demonstrated on others. I can only demonstrate self-control on me.

But if self-control is me acting on me, why is it listed as a fruit of the Spirit? Isn’t it, by definition, self-generated; something I’m supposed to do on my own?

If we look at the worldly (carnal) idea of success, self-control plays heavily. The self-made man or woman is supposed to demonstrate self control; a person that has mastered his desires, exercise regimen, eating habits, positive mindset, and time management.

Self-control seems to be a pretty worldly facet of success. If we’re Christians, isn’t God supposed to be in control of us? Haven’t we surrendered our wills to His? Shouldn’t we be shooting for God control rather than self-control? It just doesn’t seem to fit as a fruit of the Spirit.

There’s got to be a reason it’s on the list.

*****

The apostle Paul had a lot to say about self-control. He said, “I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can’t. I do what I don’t want to – what I hate.”(Romans 7:15) And “When I want to do good I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway.” (Romans 7:19)

This is Paul talking. He’s the guy that came up with the fruit of the Spirit list in the first place. It sounds like he’s totally out of control. It sounds like he finds the concept of self-control completely unreachable.

The same Paul wrote to the churches in Corinth, “So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I fight to win. I’m not just shadow-boxing or playing around.” (I Corinthians 9:26)

So Paul, super-apostle, tells the Christians in Rome, “… I really want to do what is right, but I can’t.” He tells the Corinthians, “… I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step.” And he tells the Galatians that “self-control” is a fruit of the Spirit.

This guy is all over the place.

Was Paul a hypocrite? Maybe he was totally out of control when he wrote to the Romans but then developed the habit by the time he wrote to the Corinthians and the Galatians. After all, Romans comes first in the New Testament, then Corinthians and Galatians.

Nice try. Paul’s letters in the New Testament aren’t in chronological order. Fact is, Paul wrote his letter to the churches in Corinth and Galatia before he wrote to the Romans.

So how can he preach that he’s got his act completely together; “I fight to win.” And then confess that he can’t control himself? “… when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway.”

Paul wasn’t a schizoid or a hypocrite. And he didn’t have behavior issues; at least not any more than you or me. He was trying to get a point across.

Paul was telling the Christians in Rome about human nature. It’s human to want to behave one way but behave another. It’s human to try to do right, but end up doing wrong. It’s human to be totally out of control.

No matter how much it looks like a person has his act together, if he’s operating on his own power, from his own will and direction, he’s not really in control at all. The surface may look calm, but down inside there’s a war going on.

That’s why the world’s idea of human potential, purpose, success and self control doesn’t work. Man can’t do it on his own. There’s a piece missing. It’s in our nature – something we can get rid of.

Unless. We get rid of our human nature and take on another nature.

Now we’re beginning to get Paul’s point.

Real self-control goes against human nature. We’re a bundle of desires. We want what we want and we’ll scream til we get it. No matter how hard we try to put a lid on our desires, they’re going to pop up somewhere, some way. It’s human nature.

The only way to get real self-control is to loose self-control. Sounds a little confusing, doesn’t it?

The whole idea of Christianity, of being a follower of Christ, is to take on His nature. To identify with Him. Christ was crucified, hung on a cross until his body was dead, to make payment for man’s sin. In our identifying with Him the Bible says that we have to “crucify ourselves” if we want to be His followers.The Bible doesn’t mean it literally. We don’t have to have Romans nail us to a cross until we die. It means it spiritually; we have to nail ourselves to a cross (spiritually) until we die (spiritually).

We’ve been studying the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23, for nine weeks now, right? You want to know what the next verse, Galatians 9:24 says?

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” There it is. It’s the secret to self-control. It’s the secret to every item on the fruit of the Spirit list.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are not aspects of human nature. They’re aspects of Spirit nature. That’s what Paul says in the next verse, Galatians 5:25. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

It goes against our human reasoning to say that in order to get self-control you have to give up self-control. It goes against our human reasoning to say that in order to live you’ve got to die. But that’s just what we’ve got to do.

The Savior of man had to die in order for men to live. In accepting that death He took on life for all men. When we identify with Him by taking on our own spiritual death, killing spiritually the sinful man we were born with, we take on His life. When we’re alive in Him, His Spirit lives inside of us. His Spirit living inside of us begins a change in our natures. As His Spirit does it’s work, our human natures begin to loose control and His Spirit nature begins to take over. That begins to show certain results in our lives, you could call it fruit … fruit of the Spirit. Yeah that’s it, fruit of the Spirit.

Until next week, may His Spirit live inside of you.

Steve Spillman

True Potential Publishing, 103 Hush Hole Road, Travelers Rest, SC 29690, USAIf you didn't receive last week's letter you can go to www.gotpotential.org any time and read or print back issues. When you forward Purpose Weekly to friends (and we want you to), ask them not to report it as SPAM. If they like the letter encourage them to go to www.gotpotential.org so they can sign up for a complimentary subscription. We've been getting some great mail. Keep it coming, or post a comment to this week's blog at http://gotpotential.blogspot.com.

2008-04-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 9February 29, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Gentleness

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5: 22-23)

We’ve been at this study of the fruit of the Spirit for eight weeks now; and we’ve got one week yet to go. Why spend nine weeks studying two Bible verses when this weekly letter is supposed to be about finding and achieving purpose in our lives?

The reason we’ve spent so long on the fruit of the Spirit is the same reason I started this letter in the first place. It’s the reason I started True Potential Publishing. A lot of what we’ve been told, a lot of what we’ve come to believe, about purpose, success, achievement, fulfillment, meaning and human potential is wrong. It starts in the wrong place; which means you end up in the wrong place.

The nine attributes of fruit of the Spirit, spelled out in Galatians 5: 22-23 are absolutely key to understanding God’s perspective of what we ought to be. The term “fruit” means “end product” or “result.” The “result” of God’s Spirit dwelling inside of you is (or should be) these nine attributes we’ve been studying. And, as we’ve discovered, these attributes God expects us to exhibit are really attributes of God Himself. God’s purpose for us is to be more like Him. The Bible calls it “being conformed to the likeness of his son.” (Romans 8:29)

They’re the building blocks of human purpose. Purpose begins with being conformed into the likeness of God. The tragedy of the world’s concept of man’s purpose is that it begins and ends with man. They start in the wrong place … they’ve got to end up in the wrong place.

There may be no better example of the difference between God’s idea of success and man’s idea of success than the idea of “gentleness.” Another word for gentleness is meekness. Both gentleness and meekness portray a sense of submission. From man’s perspective, meekness means weakness. From God’s perspective, nothing could be further from the truth.

Gentleness is a measure of true strength and maturity. It’s a sign that I’m taking on the attributes and perspective of God. Gentleness speaks of relationship on three levels: my relationship with God, my relationship with others and my relationship with myself.

*****

A gentle spirit in my relationship with God is a sign of trust. It’s a sign that I’m relying on God to act on my behalf; relying on God’s strength rather than my own. It’s submission to Him; the understanding that He’s the author of my purpose and destiny and that His will for my life isn’t up for a vote. It’s His plan, He’s in charge, He’s the potter and I’m the clay.

Even understanding that, when life is looking up, I have a tendency to revert back to relying on myself. When life is good it’s easy for me to trust in me. I don’t know why it’s so easy for me to slip into the habit of self-confidence when things are going good, but it seems to be a universal phenonmenon.

Our society as a whole may be suffering from the good-times self-confidence disease. As a culture, we’ve had it pretty good for a long time. The better things are the less we feel we need to include God in our daily plans.

I’ve got to admit, I like it better when things are going well than I do when things are going bad. I don’t want to wish any hardship on myself or on our nation as a whole, but it seems to be a truth that we reach out to God more when things go wrong.

Even when things begin to go wrong, I still believe I can keep things under control through my own efforts. When I start to see things go south, my first response is to jump in and fix it; as if the problem isn’t worthy of relying on God’s help if I think I can still handle it on my own.

Finally, when things have gotten so far beyond my control that I have no hope of fixing them without help I cry out to God, “Oh God, You’re in control. Please get me out of this!” THEN, my problems are worthy of God’s attention.

I may feel in control sometimes, I may feel like I’m loosing control sometimes and I may feel like things are completely out of control sometimes. The reality is that I’m fooling myself to ever think that I had any real control in the first place. It would be a lot easier just to trust in Him whether things are good, bad or in between.

*****

When I know that God, provides for me, defends me, and guides me, it’s easier for me to regard others with a gentle spirit.

Why should I be offended if I’m not responsible for my defense? Why should I be proud or haughty if God fights my battles and wins my victories?Why should I compete or argue? Who am I really competing or arguing with? God has reserved my job for me since the beginning of time. Am I really competing with Bob, in the next office, for that? If I take my orders from God, who would I argue with and what would I argue about? If there’s a real argument to be had, let the other guy argue with God. He’s my defender and His win/loss record is pretty spectacular.

Gentleness with others is a sign of strength and maturity. Competition and discord with others is a sign of spiritual immaturity and weakness.

Another reason for having a gentle spirit with others is that gentleness is an attribute of God. If Christ showed gentleness and compassion to me, shouldn’t I show gentleness and compassion to others?

*****

Lastly I should have a gentle spirit with myself. It may sound a little weird at first, to be gentle with myself, but that’s where most issues of gentleness toward others come from. There are a lot of self-generated emotions that can not only screw up my relationship with myself but spill over into my relationship with others and with God. Worry, fear, anger, bitterness, self-interest, ambition, and pride are all self-generated and are all signs of who I’m putting my trust in.

If I really believe that God has a plan for me, that He loves me and takes care of my needs, that he defends me; what do I have to be afraid of or worry about? Who am I going to hold a grudge against?

If I’m under orders from Him; If I’ve already submitted myself to His plan for me, what place do self-interest, selfish ambition or pride have in my life. He’s in charge. I work for Him. I don’t have a plan outside of His plan. Outside of what He wants for me, I have nothing to fear, nothing to worry about nothing to strive for.

Gentleness (King James would have said meekness) is really a very peaceful and a very powerful place to be. It’s peaceful in that I don’t have to create a way on my own. He’s already made the way, I just have to listen and obey. I’ve already submitted my will to His so I don’t have to worry about getting my own way, whatever that is.

I don’t have to worry about competing with others. I already have a custom plan to follow, made up for me by the Creator of the universe at the beginning of time. Who would I compete against?

Gentleness is powerful in that I work for God. I belong to Him. Who or what can stand against that?

If you’re worried that submitting to God will somehow take away your freedom or limit your options, think again. Life is submission. Your only choice is who you’re going to submit to. Submit to the Creator of the universe, the One who planned for you when He brought everything into existence, and you’ll be given power to stand against any power or authority in existence. Try to hold on to your “free agency” and you’ll find yourself a slave to every petty dictator of your time and attention that comes along.

We’ve been sold a lie. The world wants us to believe that gentleness, meekness, is weakness and slavery. The truth is just the opposite. There’s no one as powerful and no one as free as someone who has submitted his or her will to the God of the universe. Out of that power and freedom comes a gentle spirit. It’s being conformed into the image of Christ. Who could ask for more?

2008-04-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 8February 21, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Faithfulness

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22)

Holman’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary has a pretty extensive entry under “Faith/Faithfulness.” You’d expect that. “Faith” and “faithfulness” are pretty big subjects in the Bible. But here’s the part in the Holman’s definition that caught my eye: “… faith (a human response to God) and faithfulness (a virtue of God and his servants).”

It seems like we keep coming back to the idea that these attributes (the fruit of the Spirit) that God wants us to have are really attributes of God Himself. We’ve lived under this idea (at least I have) that the Bible is a list of rules for human behavior: “God wants you to be good, to be faithful, to be kind, to be gentle, to love, to experience joy, to have peace.” But the bigger message is that God is good, God is kind, God is gentle, God is the author of love, joy and peace. God is saying, simply, “Be like Me.”

It’s a lot more personal than I had imagined.

So, in light of Holman’s definition, what’s the difference between “faith” and “faithfulness”? To me, it’s the difference between an act and a habit.

When I was first presented with the Gospel, the message of who God is and how He wants to interact with me; and I either had to accept that it might be true or might not be true. If I accepted that the message might be true I had to believe in it enough to act on it. When I acted on it, that was faith.

That initial act of faith may not have been too powerful on my account, I probably just raised my hand in public or mouthed a silent prayer; but it was sufficient as far as God was concerned … for the moment.

*****

If you’re old enough, you remember what a “Red Man Writing Tablet” was. It had a red paper cover with a picture of an Indian on the front. The pages were a sort of wood-pulpy grayish-white and they had rows of lines printed on them. Each row consisted of a solid top and bottom line with a dashed line in the middle.

These were the tablets on which we practiced writing our ABC’s in first grade. We were taught to stay inside the lines and that the capital letters reached from top to bottom, but the lower-case letters couldn’t come above dashed line in the middle (unless they had little sticks like b’s and d’s). My six year-old intuition told me that that’s why they were called “lower-case.”

Technically, I learned to write when I was six. Upper-case, lower-case, Aa, Bb, Cc; I knew ‘em all, all twenty-six of them. That was my first act of writing.

As the years went by and I progressed through the first grade, second grade and beyond; I practiced and my writing advanced. By third grade I was learning cursive. By sixth grade I was writing stories. By eighth grade I had a pen-pal in Belgium. The older I got the more I learned what writing was all about.

Today I’m pushing fifty and still writing. Some days I do a lot better than those stories I wrote in grade school … some days I wonder. I know this however; I’m a lot better at writing today than I was that first day I put pencil to my Red Man tablet. I’m hoping that ten years from now I’ll be a lot better at writing than I am today. It’s a progression; a habit. The more I practice it the more I learn.

*****

That’s about as close as I can come to explaining faith and faithfulness. For us, faith is that first act; like the first time I focused all my concentration on making that first “A a”. Then it’s on to the next act and the next. Each act of faith grows us just a little.

With each act of faith we become just a little more comfortable with acting out our faith. By persistence we get better; but then the challenges to our faith tend to get a little bigger too. That’s a good thing.

It’s like writing lessons. The lessons I faced in fifth grade composition were a lot tougher than those I conquered in third grade cursive. They planned it that way. It was a progression. I was supposed to be making progress with each lesson; tackling tougher problems as I practiced.

Faith is a progression. Each lesson is a little tougher than the last. When that progression becomes a habit, or as Holman says, “a virtue,” faith becomes faithfulness. Faithfulness is a kind of running record of acting on faith.

Another thing I noticed was that the Bible mentions God’s faithfulness several times, but never states that God has faith or acted on faith.

Faithfulness is a sign that, through the Holy Spirit, we’re taking on God’s attributes; having faith or acting on faith isn’t an attribute of God. That’s our territory only. God doesn’t need faith and He doesn’t need to act on faith. But He is faithful.

Faith, according to Webster, is “trust, confidence, complete acceptance of a truth which cannot be demonstrated or proved by the process of logical thought.”

That’s why God doesn’t need faith. He’s the author of all truth; He was there at the beginning and He will be there at the ending of all things. As a matter of fact, ideas like beginning and ending don’t have the same relevance to God as they do to us; because He exists beyond our sense of time and space; beyond past and future. He knows the past and future because He is in the past and He is in the future. He’s not “was” or “going to be.” He just is. That concept defies man’s logic; which is exactly why we need faith and He doesn’t.

Faithfulness is another matter. Faithfulness denotes “reliability” or “trustworthiness to adhere to an original precept.”

Faithfulness, on God’s side of the equation, means that He can be trusted to reliably complete what He started or bring about what He promised. Faithfulness, on man’s side of the equation, if faith is defined as “mans response to God,” means a reliability in responding to God.

To respond to God by trusting that what He says is true and then acting upon it is faith. To make a habit of reliably responding to God by trusting that what He says is true and continually acting upon it is faithfulness.

Faithfulness then, in the relationship between you and God, is God reliably doing what He says He will do and you trusting that He will and reliably acting on it.

So how do you develop the “virtue” of faithfulness? Practice, practice practice.

Respond to God. Trust that what He’s saying is true, in spite of your ability to justify it logically. Act (another word for obey) based on what you know God wants you to do and trust that He’ll keep His promise. Do it over and over again until it becomes part of your resume. That’s faithfulness.

God doesn’t expect you to live a life of blind trust though. He’ll throw evidence your way that your faith is working. Be prepared though. Like I said, this faithfulness stuff is a process. Just when you think you’re getting the hang of it, a challenge comes along that your logic can’t cope with. That’s why it’s called faith; each step gets a little bigger.

I really don’t think that Jesus was just being metaphorical when he told his disciples, “… if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)

We make it a metaphor because we don’t believe it; it defies our logic. But that’s kind of the point of faith, isn’t it? What defies your logic right now? What’s the thing you know you’re supposed to do that you can’t do because it’s impossible?

If God says that nothing is impossible and you “respond to God” by obeying Him even though the chances of success “cannot be demonstrated or proved by the process of logical thought.” Then you’re acting on faith.

You act on faith, God proves Himself faithful, and the thing your logic told you was impossible yesterday is now possible. Your logic readjusts and you’re ready to move up the next “impossible” task. It’s a progression. Keep at it long enough and moving the mountain doesn’t seem so metaphorical.

*****

By the way, I didn’t learn to write that day I scratched my first capital A on the Red Man page. I haven’t finished learning to write yet. It’s a process, a progression.

If you think “faithfulness” began and ended the day you lifted your hand in church or mouthed a silent prayer, think again. That was an act of faith; your first but not your last. “Faithfulness” is a progression. If you’re sitting fat and happy in the Christian life and your faith hasn’t been challenged for a while, you’d better check your progress.

The Holy Spirit’s job is to mold you into the likeness of God. How you know that’s working is demonstrated when you start taking on attributes that belong to God; kindness, goodness, faithfulness – the fruit of the Holy Spirit. “Fruit” means “produce” or “product” or “result.” The end result of the Holy Spirit doing its work in you is that you begin to take on the likeness of God. It’s not a single event; it’s a lifelong process.

I promise, you’re not there yet; neither am I. But we will be one day. That’s the way He meant for us to be in the beginning and that’s the way we will to be in the end.

Until next week, In Him,

Steve Spillman

2008-04-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 7 February 14, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22)

Goodness

Last week we talked about “kindness” as a fruit of the Spirit. When Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians, “kindness” comes just before “goodness.” That’s what I read in the Bible I study most, which is a New International Version. The King James Version uses the word “gentleness” where the NIV uses “kindness.” A few fruit down the list, the NIV uses “gentleness” where the KJV uses “meekness.”

“Kindness,” “goodness” and “gentleness” kind of sound like three ways of saying the same thing to me. I figured I’d better dig into the words to find out why Paul would have listed all three if they all meant pretty much the same thing.

Looking the words up in my concordance didn’t seem to clear up the matter. Searching out all the times “kindness,” “goodness” and “gentleness” are used in the Bible turned out to be sort of a jumble. Sometimes “goodness” is the Hebrew for “kindness.” Sometimes “kindness” is the Greek word for “goodness”. The words are mixed around and mixed together. It’s all very confusing.

Why are “kindness,” “goodness” and even “gentleness” used so interchangeably in different translations of the English Bible? Do they all pretty much mean the same thing? If they all mean pretty much the same thing, then why does each have its own word in the original language? And if they all mean pretty much the same thing, why would each be listed in Galatians 5: 22-23 as fruit of the Spirit? Was Paul just repeating himself, using different words to convey the same meaning for emphasis?

For us, it’s kind of easy to fall into the trap of spiritualizing what Paul was saying and blend each of these attributes of the fruit of the Spirit into a sort of homogenous pudding of spiritual “niceness.” Is that really what Paul was trying to get across? A benign, cloud-floating, passive, “niceness”?

Well, Paul wasn’t repeating himself by using different words all having the same general meaning. And he wasn’t mixing up a “niceness” pudding, by blending all these words with apparently similar meanings. Galatians 5:22-23 lists nine attributes of the fruit of the Spirit. Each of these nine is different from the others; none are redundant and none are superfluous.

“Kindness” (the KJV uses “gentleness”), is “chrestotes” in Greek. We talked about kindness last week. The closest way to describe “chrestotes” in English would be “moral goodness,” “integrity,” “benignity,” or simply, “kindness.”

“Gentleness” or “meekness,” is something we’ll be talking about in a few weeks. The Greek word the NIV translates as “gentleness” and the KJV translates as “meekness” is “praotes.” It’s like “chrestotes,” but more passive; “mildness” is another English word you might use for “praotes.” Again, we’ll talk more about it in a few weeks.

“Goodness,” in the NIV and KJV (and every other English translation worth a flip) is the Greek word “agathosune.” “Agathosune” only appears in the Bible four times, and it’s always translated “goodness.” It means, “uprightness of heart and life.”

So why all this back and forth on these three words? Don’t they really mean about the same thing? Aren’t they all trying to say, “be good,” “be kind,” “be nice,” “be meek,” “be mild,” “be benign”?

“Benign.”

That’s an interesting word, isn’t it? According to the Encarta Dictionary, “benign” means: “kindly, not life-threatening, harmless, favorable (mild).” Is that what “goodness” is describing? Is it just another word for “harmless” or “mild”?

Two of our nine words describing the fruit of the Spirit are “kindness” and “gentleness”. Jesus taught us that the meek will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5) and that if someone strikes you on your right cheek you should turn your left to him as well (Matthew 5:39). Meekness, mildness, benignity and harmlessness are pretty well established facets of following Christ, are they not? So why am I trying so hard to make a distinction between “kindness,” “goodness” and “gentleness” they’re all different words for the same general idea, right?

Wrong.

Let’s take another look at the definition of “agathosune” (goodness): “uprightness of heart and life.” Again, the word is only used four times in the Bible. Besides Galatians 5:22, it’s used in Romans 15:14, Ephesians 5:9 and II Thessalonians 1:11. Do you want to know the words it’s associated with in those passages? “Knowledge,” “instruction,” “righteousness,” “truth,” “power” and “purpose.” Is it starting to sound a little less “benign”; a little less “harmless”?

“Goodness” isn’t a sissy word. There’s something extremely powerful, sometimes even frightening (if you’re on the wrong side of it) about goodness.

William Barclay writes in his Daily Study Bible commentary, that: “It [agathosune] is the widest word for goodness; it is defined as ‘virtue equipped at every point.’ … Agathosune might, and could, rebuke and discipline ....”

John W. Ritenbaugh, in Forerunner Commentary says of Romans 15:14: “This verse provides a clear sense of an active, even aggressive, goodness.”

Agathosune is a pretty big word; it covers a lot of territory. It’s “virtue equipped at every point.” That can mean doing the right thing in a quiet and gentle way, like giving a cup of cold water to a thirsty man. But it can also mean not letting wickedness and hypocrisy stand; being consumed with the knowledge and power and purpose of God’s goodness. It can mean causing a stir, when it’s a stir that’s needed.Remember when Jesus made a whip out of cords and went on a tirade in the Temple; kicking over tables of the merchants and moneychangers?

Remember when he berated Israel’s religious leaders in front of the crowds, calling them “hypocrites” and “blind guides”? Jesus’ behavior doesn’t sound very “benign” or “harmless,” does it?

A lot of Bible scholars believe that Jesus was showing “agathosune” in one of its purest forms. John remembered the prophecy that the Christ would be consumed with zeal for God’s house (John 2: 17). Jesus was consumed with “goodness”; consumed with “uprightness of heart and life.”

Jesus allowed himself to be spat upon and allowed a crown of thorns to pierce his brow; he allowed a mob to put him on a cross and he asked his Father in Heaven to forgive them for what they had done. He fed the hungry, healed the sick and allowed children to come and sit on his lap as he spoke to the crowds. The same Jesus violently and forcefully cleared the Temple of thieves dressed as respectable businessmen and publicly rebuked hypocrites who pretended to represent God.

“Goodness” is a bigger word than “kindness.” “Uprightness of heart and life” means that you’ll feed the hungry and care for the sick. It means that you’ll love your neighbor as yourself. It means that you’ll take time for a child, even when the crowd is pressing in; and that you’ll be ready to forgive and turn away anger with a soft word.

But “goodness” also means that “uprightness of heart and mind” will consume you. You’ll not let evil stand; especially in the place where goodness is meant to be made manifest.

Do you want goodness to rule your life? Answer anger with a soft word. Turn the other cheek. Forgive. Care for those who hurt. And when necessary, kick over a few tables; cause a stir when it’s a stir that’s needed. It’s all goodness.

In Him,

Steve Spillman

2008-04-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 6 February 7, 2008
The weekly newsletter from True Potential Publishing

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22)

Kindness

When I told my wife I was writing about “kindness” this week, she choked … I’m sure it was just a reflex action; nothing personal. But still, I figured I’d better do a little more research.

It’s funny how sometimes a thing can be so important and so obvious and so easy to overlook all at the same time. “Kindness” might be one of those things. Especially for men.

Let’s look at the definition of kindness: “sympathetic, helpful, friendly, thoughtful, gentle, well disposed” … it almost sounds effeminate, doesn’t it? Maybe kindness is women’s territory. Women are the nurturers, the caregivers; they build the nest and care for the young.

Men are warriors, protectors, providers. They’re job is to leave the cave, kill something and drag it home. “Kindness” sounds a little girlie for a man’s world. That’s what we’ve been taught, right? Listen to the TV psychologists. When they talk about men being kind and sensitive to the needs of others they say that we need to “get in touch with our feminine side.”

My feminine side is my wife. I’m okay with both halves of me being masculine.

If it sounds like I’m picking on men it’s because I’m prejudiced by my own experience. Kindness doesn’t come naturally to me. Rough and tumble comes natural. Battle and conquest, no problem. But not kindness. It’s not that I’m a mean or cruel person; it’s just that I’m a man – and probably a typical man. I’m sure there are a lot of naturally kind and sensitive guys out there; they’re just not crowding out the rest of us.

When I say that kindness doesn’t come naturally, don’t assume that unkindness does. Unkindness implies action and intention; that somebody is doing something unkind. What I’m really talking about is lack of action and intention on the kindness side. Intentionally doing acts of kindness as opposed to not intending anything and letting nature take its course. And when nature takes its course guys tend to fall short on kindness.

Rather than dig myself any further into this hole, why don’t we just get on to kindness in general.

*****

Kindness, like the other fruit of the Spirit, is really an attribute of God. The reason we are to practice kindness is because He practices kindness … on us.

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” (Titus 3:4-5a)

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6: 35-36)

Kindness isn’t a state of mind or a mood; it’s an action. And until it becomes a natural part of who you are, it needs to be an intentional action. That means until kind actions flow naturally from you because your heart is filled with kindness you have to practice kindness.

Kindness isn’t just a matter of helping an old lady cross the street or rescuing a cat from a tree. It’s not just good deeds you put into your schedule as part of your “practicing kindness master plan.” This kind of kindness really doesn’t get in your way. It doesn’t require that you change your schedule, your lifestyle, or your mood. It’s Kindness Lite – “do nice things without really changing your day!”

Sometimes kindness doesn’t work out that way.

Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? (Luke 10: 30-37) I don’t need to retell the whole story, everybody knows it already; let’s just hit the high points.

The beat up guy in the ditch was a Jew. The Good Samaritan was … well, a Samaritan. These two groups didn’t like each other, they didn’t associate. The Jews reviled the Samaritans and the Samaritans knew it.

The Samaritan had a schedule to keep. He was apparently a man with business to conduct. He wasn’t poor and he was on the road to somewhere so we’ve got to assume he had things to do and people to see. He didn’t have a lot of time for distractions.

Helping the Jew in the ditch was going to cost the Samaritan time and money, and there was no promise of ever getting reimbursed. Knowing the injured man was a Jew and knowing what Jews thought of Samaritans, there was wasn’t much hope of even getting thanked.

The Samaritan dragged the injured man out of the ditch, dressed his wounds, set him on his own donkey and brought him to an inn, where he could have a bed and be cared for. The Samaritan, already late for his appointment, stayed the night with the injured guy at the inn. The next morning he paid the innkeeper in advance and promised to return and pay any further expense for the traveler’s recovery. The Samaritan made sure the guy was taken care of; he followed through and followed up.

Sometime kindness puts you into contact with folks you’d really not prefer to have contact with. Sometimes it forces you to go out of your way and totally wrecks your schedule. Sometimes there are out-of-pocket expenses you’re probably not going to recover. And once you’re involved, kindness often requires some follow-up to make sure the job’s completed. Kindness can be intrusive like that.

The Good Samaritan story brings up another side to this kindness coin I really ought to mention. God first practiced kindness to us so that His mercy would lead us to repentance. What that means, is that God has given us a massive break that we might, in turn, give others a break. When we fail to show kindness to others, it’s like spitting on the kindness God showed us. And that does not play well with God.

“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.” (Romans 2: 4-8).

Remember the first part of the Good Samaritan story? After the guy gets beat up, robbed and thrown in a ditch, two people pass by; a priest and a Levite. Both of these men were Jews; their brother was beaten and lying in a ditch, naked. The first guy, the priest, was a religious leader, supposedly a representative of God. The second guy, the Levite, was a civic leader, folks in town looked up to him. Neither man could be bothered with their brother in the ditch; they had schedules to keep. I would not want to be one of those guys on Judgment Day.

Kindness is a serious business. It’s serious because of how God showed kindness to us and what it cost Him. We didn’t deserve His kindness; He provided it out of the goodness of His heart. In light of the great kindness He did us, He doesn’t take lightly the little kindnesses we do each other. We practice kindness and we reap immortality. We take His kindness too lightly by neglecting kindness to others and we are subject to His wrath.

*****

One more thing about kindness. It’s pretty important so stay with me.

Kindness might not have anything to do with helping strangers. It might have to do how you treat those you know real well. Practicing forgiveness and forbearance is practicing kindness. (Forbearance is an interesting word. It means “to control one’s patience,” “not give way to anger,” to endure,” “to tolerate.”) This kind of kindness doesn’t mess with your schedule or your or your pocketbook; it messes with your mood and with your rights.

Listen to your spouse and your kids and your parents and the guy at work who always has something to say. Don’t listen to answer back, don’t listen to show what a great martyr you are by listening – just listen. When a careless word offends you, let it roll off your back like Teflon. When your kid screws up by acting like a kid, don’t blow up; put your arm around her.

Be aware of this: those you’re around every day are the ones to whom you’re most blind to your little unkindnesses and they’re the ones who will be most profoundly affected by your little kindnesses. Practice kindness with those you know best – your spouse, your kids, your parents, the folks you work with every day. They’re the one’s who know if you’re a hypocrite or not.

By the way, my wife says I’m getting better at this … I think she’s just being kind.

Until next week. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

Steve Spillman

2008-04-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 5 January 31, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Being “Long of Nose”

This is week four of a nine week study of the fruit of the Spirit and what it has to do with finding purpose in life. This week’s subject fruit is “patience.” How does possessing patience relate to understanding and achieving my purpose in life?

First, let’s define “patience.” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines “patience” as: “the capacity, habit, or fact of being patient.” Not much to go on there. We could look up “patient” or find another dictionary that might expand Merriam-Webster’s un-generous definition, but you know by now, that’s not where I generally head next.

The Old Testament writers got their point across in Hebrew or Aramaic. The New Testament writers studied Hebrew (Luke was the only Gentile in the pack) and wrote in Greek. So to really understand what they said we need to understand what they said.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the last few weeks going over the meanings of Greek and Hebrew words and I’d apologize if I thought I owed it to you, but a lot of this stuff is just too good to pass up and if I don’t tell you who’s going to?

*****

When your English Old Testament says “patience” it’s actually translating two Hebrew words, ךרא (arek) “long” and ףא (af) “nose”. The literal English translation is “long nose.”

So having a long nose is a fruit of the Spirit? Maybe literally, but not really. Ancient Hebrews (possibly modern Hebrews) saw someone’s nose turning red as a sign that they were getting angry. Therefore the word for “nose” and the word for “anger” became synonymous. If a person didn’t anger easily, if it took a long time for his nose to turn red, he was, in Hebrew parlance, “long of nose”; slow to anger.

I’ll bet not everyone knows “patience” means “long nose” in Hebrew. You could corner the dinner table conversation with that one.

Bible translators probably didn’t want to go to the trouble to explain all this so they substituted “patience” for “long nose,” which seemed to work out well.

There are two Greek words for “patience” in the New Testament; both of them are worth digging into. The first is “makrothumia.” It’s the same word the English Bible translates “longsuffering.” “Makrothumia” means: “patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance, forbearance, longsuffering, slowness in avenging wrongs.”

The other Greek word for “patience” is “hupomone”. Strong’s Lexicon defines “hupomone” as “the characteristic of a man [or woman] who is not swerved from his [or her] deliberate purpose and his [or her] loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.” Boy, I like that one. I could write a whole book on that one … maybe later.

So “patience,” the character trait Paul mentions as a fruit of the Spirit, is a lot richer than I ever imagined. It means “slow to anger” and “slow to avenge wrongs” (turning the other cheek); but it means a lot more. It means “endurance,” the capacity to keep going or put up with pain and hardship for a long time; “constancy,” loyalty as a partner and a friend; “steadfastness,” adhering firmly and faithfully to a principle or cause; “perseverance,” trying hard and continuously in spite of obstacles and difficulties; “forbearance,” refraining from action, even when it’s your legal right; “longsuffering,” forgiving, resigned, tolerant, accommodating, selfless.

Wow.

What kind of person could I be if my life was characterized by that kind of patience? What affect would it have on the world if believers demonstrated that kind of patience in their lives? Living out “makrothumia” patience would make us better people and make the world a better place to live, wouldn’t it?

But what do you think the Bible means when it calls patience a fruit of the Spirit? Why do you think it lists nine characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit at all? Is it to make us better people? To make the good, gooder? To make the world a better place to live?

I think it’s something deeper. Let me show you what I mean.

“What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory …?” (Romans 9:22-23)

“But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”(I Timothy 1:16)

“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.” (II Peter 3:15)

Do you see it? Patience isn’t a characteristic of man; it’s a characteristic of God. His goal isn’t to make us into good people; He’s making us to be like Him. That’s what the fruit of the Spirit is describing.

Look at the list again; “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Those aren’t characteristics that come naturally to people, we know better than that; they’re characteristics of God. He’s got something much bigger in mind for us than just being good folks.

Something eternal is happening in you when the Holy Spirit dwells inside. The Holy Spirit’s job isn’t to remake you into a better person; it’s to remake you into the image of God. That’s the way it was in the beginning. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness ….” (Genesis 1:26)

God’s intent wasn’t to make us into the image of really good folks; it was to make us in His own image. The fruit of the Spirit is evidence of a restoring process. It isn’t an indication that we’re being molded into good citizens of this world, but that we’re being transformed into children of the next.

God’s characteristics are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” The fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” See the connection? We’re not being made into a better version of the old man; we’re being made into something new, into a reflection of God.

And that requires patience … on His part and ours. He is our example, we’re to copy Him. Why should we be “slow to anger” with those who have wronged us? Because He is “slow to anger” with those who have wronged Him (you’re in that group, by the way). Why should we endure - put up with pain and hardship?

Remember when God endured - put up with pain and hardship, even the point of being nailed to a cross?

We’ve been adopted into a new family, born into a new life. Patience is a characteristic of that new life and of the Father who has adopted us. It’s a characteristic that makes us better people, as this world sees things; but that’s only because it is a characteristic of that life we’re intended toward, a reflection of what is to come. Like the other fruit, it’s a piece of eternity allowed to us today.

Until next week, live in God’s image … practice patience.

Love & Prayers,

Steve Spillman

*****

In the next few weeks we’ll undergo a few format changes to make the Purpose letter friendlier. For instance we’re putting all the housekeeping stuff (below) at the end of the letter so you can get right into the meat of each issue. As we change things around a bit give me your feedback, does it work or doesn’t it? Any ideas you have for making things better are welcome.

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2008-01-29T08:44:00.000-08:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 4
January 24, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

The Roadmap to Peace

George W. Bush and I were in Israel earlier this month … not together. But I did see his airplane on the tarmac at Ben Gurion. He came over as part of an eight day trip to bring peace to the Middle East. I appreciate his optimism, but eight days isn’t much time.

Like I usually do before writing about a particular subject I research the definitions of key words to get a feel for what they really mean. This week’s subject, “Peace,” wasn’t any different. Webster’s defines “peace” as: “the condition that exists when nations or other groups are not fighting//the end of a state of war//the treaty that marks the end of war//friendly relations between individuals, untroubled by disputes.”

“The condition that exists when nations or other groups are not fighting.” That sounds reasonable. That’s what everybody wants for the Middle East, right? That’s why President Bush went over there, right? He wants peace in the Middle East. That’s what I want too.

I get most of my instructions from a Book that has a lot to say about Israel and a lot to say about peace. It’s the single most authoritative work on Israel and on peace ever written. As a matter of fact, it includes a Roadmap to Peace in the Middle East; it’s been in there for nearly two thousand years. I’m talking about the Bible, of course, and I wonder why more politicians don’t consult it as they work toward peace in the Middle East.

*****

The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek originally. And since that’s the Book I’m studying to understand how to achieve peace (whether it’s in the Middle East or in my own heart) I figured I’d better understand the definition of peace in those languages.
“Eirene” is the Greek word for peace in the New Testament. There’s another word, “sigao,” translated peace in English but it means “be quiet” or “hold your tongue” as in “keep your peace.” Not the kind of peace we’re looking for right now.

Eirene, to the secular Greeks back in New Testament days, meant about the same as “peace” means to us as defined by Webster, “the absence of war.” The New Testament writers, though, drew on their Hebrew roots to make eirene mean something deeper then just “not fighting.”

The Hebrew word for “peace” is probably the best known Hebrew word, by Jews and Gentiles alike, around the world. It’s the word, “Shalom.” “Shalom” means more than just “the absence of war.” According to the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary; “It was not a negative or passive concept but involved wholeness and completeness. The related verb could mean to ‘repay’ or ‘fulfill a vow’ and so referred to completing or repairing a relationship. A related adjective could be used to describe something as ‘uninjured, safe, complete, peaceable.’”

So, “Shalom” peace means “wholeness, completeness, that something’s already been paid for or that a vow has been fulfilled.” It means that “a relationship has been completed or repaired.” Wow. That’s a lot more than just “not fighting.”

Remember a few weeks ago when we talked about the Greek words for “love”? The Greeks never really used the word, agapao in secular society. Agapao referred to God’s sacrificial love in response to our need; it was a word and a definition reserved for the Christians.

“Eirene”(peace) was treated the same way. The secular Greeks limited its definition to “the absence of war.” Early Christians, however, had a deeper meaning for “eirene”; drawn from their Hebraic roots and their relationship with the resurrected Christ, who became “peace” for them.

“Peace,” to the early Christians (and hopefully to us later Christians) meant much more than “the absence of war”; it was a relationship with the One who reconciles what is broken so that it is once again whole, once again as it should be, once again at peace.

Peace is a relationship. It’s reconciliation between God and man. The relationship between God and man was broken when our father Adam chose his own way. Peace is a state of being whole; that state of being was broken in the Garden. Fixing that broken relationship, that broken state of being, required that a price be paid.

Jesus Christ, God’s Son, understood the broken relationship and the price for making it whole again. Through his death on the cross, He made payment for Adam’s sin debt, providing the way for Adam’s children to be reconciled, be at peace, with God; their relationship restored.

Broken relationships between men are only reflections and symptoms of the broken relationship between God and man. Likewise, peace between men is only possible when man has come to a place of peace with God. The one key relationship must be restored in order to make restoring other relationships possible.

Hostility between Jews and Arabs is no new thing. It began nearly four thousand years ago, between competing sons of the same father. One son, the eldest and rightful heir in earthly terms was tossed out in the cold when his younger half-brother was conceived. The younger son, the child of a promise, was given the birthright and the blessing of his father, which in turn, was the birthright and blessing of God. Ironically, the story repeated itself a generation later between twin brothers.

This animosity between brothers grew into an animosity between people; between the sons of Isaac and Jacob and the sons of Ishmael and Esau; between Jews and Arabs. The relationship, broken between brothers thousands of years ago, prevents peace between their children today.

The only way there’s ever going to be peace between the Jews and the Arabs is to restore the relationship that was broken so long ago. But that’s not going to happen … not until another, more important relationship is restored.

In his letter to the believers in Ephesus, Paul explained this peace process; how Christ mended the relationship between God and man, and in doing so not only made peace between God and man, but also a way of peace between all men.

"For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit."

(Ephesians 2:14-22 Living Bible)

*****

“Unit[ing] Jews and Gentiles into one people”? “Hostility toward each other … put to death”? Is such a thing even possible between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East?

Yup. I witnessed it.

At the same time President Bush was talking to the Israelis and the Palestinians about making peace I was with Israelis and Palestinians who had already made peace.

They were the people of Carmel Assembly in Haifa. Israeli Jews, Arabs, Druze, and Gentiles from around the world. Because of Jesus, they were all now members of one family, they were “one people”; a new creation. They sang together, prayed together, ate together, brought up their children together; one family. Their peace between each other, their repaired relationship between Jew and Arab, was made possible through Christ, who repaired their relationship with God and gave them a peace deeper than any man-made Roadmap to Peace could offer.

It’s a definition of peace that goes way beyond “the absence of war.” It’s a “shalom” peace. It’s wholeness, completeness, a bill that’s been paid, a vow that’s been fulfilled; it’s a relationship that’s been repaired. Theirs is a peace between restored brothers of the same father; not Abraham, but God.

I pray every day for peace in the Middle East. I know it’s possible, I’ve seen it in action.

I wish President Bush all the luck in the world as he tries to make the Roadmap to Peace work, and I appreciate the efforts of politicians, leaders, and well-wishers from around the world as they work for peace in the Middle East. I just think they’re going about it the wrong way.

Pray for peace. He’s already provided the way.

Until next week … Shalom,

Steve Spillman

2008-01-29T08:36:00.000-08:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 3
January 18, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Joy

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Thinking of this week’s subject, joy, I was having a tough time getting my mind around the idea. Joy, according to Webster’s Dictionary is: “intense happiness or great delight.” Happiness or delight about what? People display joy (intense happiness or great delight) over all sorts of things – a new house, a new car, a new baby. What makes joy, as a fruit of the Spirit any different than joy in general?

As usual, God had an object lesson in mind for me.

*****

I attended church services at Kehilat HaCarmel last Saturday. Kehilat HaCarmel, or Carmel Assembly, is a non-denominational Christian church on Mount Carmel in northern Israel; not too far from the seaside city of Haifa and not too far from the Lebanese border. Remember the Bible story about Elijah calling fire down on the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel? That’s the place.

Carmel Assembly is a Messianic Jewish congregation; that is, most of the congregation is made up of Israeli Jews who have accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah. But the congregation is by no means exclusively of Israeli or Jewish descent. The Christians of Carmel Assembly are made up of native Jewish, Arab, and Druze Israelis and immigrants from America, Russia, Asia and Africa – it’s a pretty international group.

Christian pilgrims from around the world often visit Carmel Assembly when they’re in Israel. My friend, John, knew the pastor from past visits and invited me and a few other friends to join him for Sabbath services. We sang hymns and worship songs in Hebrew (the words were translated into English and Russian so the non-Hebrew speakers could understand and sing along). The sermon was preached by an Arab pastor, in Hebrew, and translated into Russian by an interpreter on stage. I listened through headphones as an unseen interpreter fed me the pastor’s words in English.

I’m not a big fan of going to church for church’s sake. Christians gathering together in fellowship, community and worship is a good thing; we’re told to do it in the Bible. But, going to a building every week, sitting through a bunch of music and words and thinking that the act will somehow gain you brownie points in Heaven isn’t biblical and frankly, it’s a waste of your time.

When the Bible talks about the church it’s talking about you and me, those individuals who make up the body of Christ. It’s not talking about a building or a denomination or a tradition. It’s too easy for folks to confuse a relationship with Jesus Christ with “going to church.” The difference between the two is that one will give you eternal life and the other one won’t.

The people (the church) that gathered at Carmel Assembly last Saturday were, to me, a wonderful example of what a church gathering ought to be. People from every nation, language, tradition, and race, united in worship of the One who made them a family and gave them a life that doesn’t end.

What I saw in their faces and heard in their voices was joy. By joy, I’m trying to convey something more transcendent than just mere happiness. Happiness speaks to the circumstances - a new house, a new car, a new baby. Joy is deeper; it speaks of something beyond our present circumstance.

The people (the church) in Carmel come from a lot of different backgrounds and life experience. In many ways their daily existence probably isn’t a lot different from ours. They have jobs and spouses and kids. They need groceries and electricity. They worry about the world going to pot all around them and the unique dangers we all face from the outside world in this century. They juggle families and parents and in-laws; all of these relationships in various states of grace or disrepair; just like us.

They’re a lot like us … almost. Their faith, because of their unique location and situation seems a little closer to the surface, a little more practical in light of their daily reality. Whether we like the idea or not, it’s a universal truth that faith is developed and matured in the presence of trouble. If life is good and everything is going your way how much opportunity do you really have to get your faith out of the closet, dust it off and expose it to the light of day?

Let me explain. Yousef, the pastor who gave the sermon on Saturday is an Arab Christian. He wasn’t born into a nice Arab Christian home and he didn’t grow up in a nice Arab Christian neighborhood. He was born and raised a Moslem. When Yousef gave his life to Christ, he was kicked out of his home. His family hasn’t spoken to him since.

Before they were married, Yousef’s pretty wife gave her life to Christ and became a part of the family of God too. Good thing, because her family divorced them both on the spot and haven’t spoken to them since. Still, they got off easy. It’s perfectly acceptable under Islamic law to have them both murdered for rejecting Islam and disgracing their families.

Undeterred, they started a small fellowship for Arab Christians. Their little church was firebombed by the neighborhood watch. Did that discourage them? Nah … in fact they rejoiced. Their unique circumstance allowed them to experience the kind of faith described by James the brother of Jesus. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (James 1:2).

David and Karen, the husband and wife team who founded Carmel Assembly began their ministry in Israel by opening a drug rehabilitation center. Worthy cause right? The community wasn’t exactly happy about the idea. The men of the town paid the couple a visit to voice their displeasure … with guns. Did the death threats put their plans on hold? Nah … they found joy in Paul’s words as his life was threatened for preaching the good news of Christ. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (II Corinthians 4:17-18).

Church announcements were along the same lines as church announcements in this country, but the details were a little different. “Don’t forget that next Saturday after the service we begin our fifty hour intercessory prayer meeting.” “For all of those beginning the forty day fast next week, we ask that you not fast from water.” “Our mid-week prayer service will be held in the bomb shelter.” Like I said, typical church announcements, only the details are a little different from what we’re used to.

Are these people better Christians or intrinsically more holy than us here at home? I don’t think so. It’s just that their unique circumstance gives them more opportunity to practice their faith in the light of tribulation that the Bible promises will come upon us in this life.

If you live your Christian life in a world where nothing ever goes wrong, where your family never threatens to murder you for your faith, where the neighbors never fire-bomb your church or threaten to kill you for ministering to drug addicts, where you never have prayer meetings in the same bomb shelter you retreat to during missile attacks, then certain aspects of your faith can seem sort of theoretical. Believe me, trials and tribulation aren’t theoretical to the people of Carmel Assembly.

So what affected me so remarkably about this group of Christians? Was it their situation or perseverance or sacrifice or exposure to imminent threat? All those things are a part of their daily reality, much more so than we, as a body, in this country have ever experienced. But that wasn’t what impressed me. It was their joy.

They celebrated plenty in their worship; singing, dancing, hugging and greeting one another, but they weren’t necessarily more joyous than Christians here. A lot of us do that sort of thing. I’m not comparing their level of joy as Christians to ours. I’m comparing the evident source of their joy, or rather, their joy in spite of their surroundings.

Because I learned a little bit about their reality, I could see that their joy wasn’t because their daily circumstance was all that great, it was because they know what their eternal circumstance is. I’m not criticizing Christians who have been blessed by living in a society where mom and dad love Jesus and they’re tickled you do too, where the neighbors are happy to see a new church or street ministry pop up and don’t consider fire-bombing the church building or coming to your house with guns in the night to discourage your ministry and where we don’t have bomb shelters because we don’t have missile attacks. I don’t wish any of that on us or on them. I’m profoundly thankful that my reality isn’t their reality, but I take it as a gift, as a blessing I’m not deserving of and as a responsibility to use what I’ve been blessed with in His service.

What I was able to see in them was a spirit of joy that I knew didn’t come from an easy situation or abundant possessions in this world. It came from their hope in the next. Joy, as displayed by the folks of Carmel Assembly, is a fruit of the Spirit. It’s a result of God living inside of us. It’s something the world has no ability to give to us and no power to take away. Joy is immune to hardship and trouble and tribulation. It’s a gift from the next world that we’re allowed to hold onto today.

Peter, who was a guy that knew something about church and something about tribulation, also knew something about joy. He explained the relationship.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! The inheritance to which we are born is one that nothing can destroy or spoil or whither. It is kept for you in heaven, and you, because you put your faith in God, are under the protection of his power until salvation comes – the salvation which even now is in readiness and will be revealed at the end of time. This is cause for great joy, even though now you smart for a little while, if need be, under trials of many kinds. Even gold passes through the assayer’s fire, and more precious than perishable gold is faith which has stood the test. These trials have come so that your faith may prove itself worthy of all praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. You have not seen him, yet you love him; and trusting in him now without seeing him, you are transported with a joy too great for words, while you reap the harvest of your faith, that is, salvation for your souls.” (I Peter 3-9)

*****

In yours prayers, remember our brothers and sisters in Carmel and around the world who share our joy in spite of their circumstance. Until next week, I wish you joy in Christ.

Steve Spillman

2008-01-29T07:51:00.000-08:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 2
January 10, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Love

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

I was beginning to wonder if spending nine weeks exploring the fruit of the Spirit might be a little too preachy, a little too much like I was giving a sermon instead of writing about purpose and human potential. The fruit of the Spirit includes some wonderful character traits, but is it really on topic for this newsletter?

When I started reading Paul’s introduction to the fruit of the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians, I realized that he was writing about freedom; escaping the slavery that prevents us from accomplishing our purpose and embracing the freedom to become whole, fully-realized human beings – as God intended us. That’s about as on-topic for our weekly Purpose letter as I can imagine.

*****

When we talk about “love” in the New Testament, we always have to start out with a Greek lesson. The New Testament was written in Greek and then translated into other languages; ours being English. The thing is, the Greek words the New Testament writers used don’t always have an English equivalent that’s going to accurately and fully convey the meaning the writer was trying to get across. “Love” may be the best example in the New Testament. In fact, “love” may be the most important word in the New Testament.

In English we use the word “love” to convey a lot of different meanings, from I “love” hotdogs, to I “love” the guys on my bowling team, to the sign on that seedy little video store on the west side of town called the “Love Shop,” to “For God so loved the world…”.

It can get a little confusing. That’s why the Greeks had different words for all those meanings of “love” … and that’s why we need a Greek lesson before we start to consider what the New Testament means when it speaks of “love.”

“Epithumia” is a Greek word that could be translated “love” in English. “Epithumia” means “craving, a desire for what is forbidden, lust.” It’s what that guy at the video store was thinking when he ordered his sign. When the Bible uses “epithumia” it’s not a good thing and certainly not what Paul was talking about as fruit of the Spirit.

“Eros” means “erotic or sexual love.” “Eros” isn’t in the same irredeemable league as “epithumia.” It still has mainly to do with sex, but is can mean the romantic and intimate love between man and wife. Not altogether bad, but not a word used in the Bible, so we’ll move on.

Of the two words used to convey “love” as we generally understand it, “phileo” would be the meaning we use most commonly as part of our everyday life. “Phileo” means “to approve of, to like, to treat affectionately or kindly, to welcome, befriend, to be fond of doing.” When I say that I “love” hotdogs and I “love” the guys on my bowling team, I’m talking about “phileo.” It’s a nice word, but not fruit of the Spirit.

“Agapao” (or “agape”) is what the Bible says we should have as a result of God’s Spirit living inside of us. “Agapao” wasn’t used much in Greek culture at the time the New Testament books were written; it was more of a “church” word. Believers used “agapao” to express the unconditional love God has shown to us in Christ and that believers should show toward their brothers.

My friend and author David Pawson explains “agape” love in his book, Is John 3:16 the Gospel?

"[Agape] is the love of action. In other words, ‘eros’ is centered in the heart, ‘phileo’ in the mind, but ‘agape’ is centered in the will. The nearest English word I can get to ‘agape’ is care. To care for someone means giving them two things: your attention and your action. It is to do something loving on their behalf. Essentially, it is a response to someone’s need. It is neither a response to their attractiveness nor a response to things which may interest them. To act in agape love is to respond to someone else’s need, pay attention to that need, and then do something about it."

The kind of love Paul lists as fruit of the Spirit is a love of will and action. It’s a love that would sacrifice itself to come to the rescue of others. It’s the same love Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about; “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Paul tried to show the early believers that no matter what else they considered a sign of being godly, if they didn’t have love they were wasting their time. He told them that they could display all the gifts of the Spirit; they could speak in tongues, they could prophecy, they could have all the wisdom and knowledge and power in the world, they could give all their money to the poor and sacrifice their lives, but if they didn’t possess love (agape) it would all be for nothing.

Right after that, he explained what agape love is and isn’t: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (I Corinthians 13: 4-8a).

Agape love isn’t a feeling; it’s a matter of will. You have to practice it intentionally.

How do you incorporate agape love into your everyday? Take Paul’s advice. The next time your spouse or child or coworker aggravates you, take a breath, be patient; look past your irritation to their need.

The next time you see a young mother in a parking lot, in the rain, trying to wrangle three children and get her groceries in the trunk at the same time, offer a hand. The next time the kid in line ahead of you is fifty cents short, dig out your change. The next time you see a soldier in an airport buying lunch or a coffee, pay the cashier. Be kind.

Don’t worry about Bob having a nicer car than you, or about Sally having a bigger house. Life is about loving Bob and Sally, not about loving their stuff. If Bob or Sally is a little green about you having the nice car and big house, blow it off; Bob and Sally are more important than your stuff too. Don’t envy, don’t boast.

Don’t be rude, don’t be self-serving, don’t get angry every time something isn’t going your way, don’t hold a grudge. You get the idea. Take Paul’s list above and make your own list.

*****

To say that love is the key to success in life, the key to fulfilling our life’s purpose and living to our highest potential seems a bit naive in light of today’s philosophy and concept of success. In a world that defines success as “the attainment of fame, wealth and power,” can love really trump all of man’s schemes and strategies to make his life matter?

As I said in last week’s letter; everything this world has told you about success, purpose and human potential is wrong. True success goes beyond the here and now. True success lasts; real meaning and purpose are still alive long after the cars and houses have turned to dust and long after the opinions on men have been lost in the history of eternity.

When our lives on earth come to an end and when this earth itself finally passes away, Paul tells us, only three things from the here and now will remain: “faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

*****

I mentioned my friend David Pawson, above. David lives, writes and teaches in the United Kingdom. His book, Is John 3:16 the Gospel? And many, many other wonderful resources can be purchased from www.goodseed.org.

Next week, we will explore joy, and discover how joy is integral to living out our purpose and living up to our true potential. Until then, may God bless you and keep you.

Steve Spillman

2008-01-29T07:41:00.000-08:00

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 1
January 3, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Producing Fruit

I started True Potential Publishing to address how we define success and human potential in this culture. Before founding the publishing company I had been in business for several years and had been in full time sales for years before that. As a young, energetic, thinking salesman I gravitated toward books and audio tapes about how to become more successful in my career and in life.

All of the success literature I read and listened to had pretty much the same message. “You are in control of your own destiny.” Their action steps were pretty similar as well:

1. I deserve and I can accomplish anything I can imagine.
2. I will determine that nothing will get in the way accomplishing my goal.
3. I will make a plan for my life.
4. I will execute my plan – every day, every week, every month, every year – until I accomplish my goal.
5. I will look in the mirror every morning and tell myself, “I am good.” “I am worthy.” “I deserve success.” “I can accomplish anything.”
6. Putting myself first will enable me to help others later.

See a common theme here? The words “I” and “me” come up a lot don’t they? I am in control, I decide, I make it happen, I deserve it, I am the center of my own universe; it’s all about me.

As I studied I could see the self-serving and self-absorbed focus of this kind of success literature. I had been raised in a Christian home, believed that Christ was my savior and down inside knew that there had to be something a little more to success in life than “I” and “me.” So I went looking for the success guys who claimed to be, or at least hinted at being, Christians. But I was disappointed. What I found was the same old “I” philosophy dressed in “God” verbiage.

If you dress a pig in a tutu you haven’t turned it into a ballerina; it’s just a pig in a tutu. You can’t make a carnal philosophy holy by dressing it in religious words or preaching it from a pulpit. No matter how you dress it up, it’s still a pig in a tutu.
I had to completely dump everything I had learned about “success” and “human potential” and begin again from an entirely different perspective – God’s.

*****

The ancient Greeks came up with the idea that the earth is the center of the universe and all celestial bodies - the other planets, the sun and the stars revolve around it. This belief persisted for a long time; nearly two thousand years.

The idea that the universe revolves around the earth made sense to pretty much everyone; it seemed true from where they were standing. The sun came up in the east every morning and went down in the west. Likewise the moon rose and set in an arc across the sky. The stars, from their observation, rotated around them in the heavens. From their perspective, everything seemed to rotate in its orbit around the earth.

It was also evident to them that the earth didn’t move. If a man jumped off the ground he landed in the same spot he jumped from - not two feet away. If the earth traveled in an orbit around the sun, they reasoned, it would be moving so fast that surely everyone would be flung into space. The earth didn’t move, therefore it must be the center of the universe.

Another reason the idea of the earth being the center of the universe hung around so long was that it just appealed to folks. The earth being the center of the universe and man being the dominant inhabitant of the earth meant, by extension, that man was also the center of the universe. Thinking this way puts me, being the man I’m most closely acquainted with, in essence, at the center of the universe. What a nice thought!

Until Copernicus came along in 1514 and proposed that the earth really revolves around the sun and isn’t the center of the universe after all. Drat!

Well, today’s humanist philosophy and most success and human potential gurus prefer the old view; being the center of the universe works well for them and they’d like to stay that way.

Problem is, as Copernicus found out, we’re not. Not only is the earth not at the center of cosmos, I’m not at the center of my own little universe – although I tend to act like it sometimes.

So if I’m not at the center of the universe and fulfilling my purpose and achieving my potential as a human being isn’t about me, me, me … what is it about? As I said, I had to throw out everything I learned about success, purpose and human potential from the “gurus” and go back square one.

*****

If I believe in a personal and intentional Creator; One that knows me and put me here for a reason, then it would follow that my purpose has something to do with His purpose and my potential as a human being has to be connected to fulfilling the reason He put me here for.

Then it occurred to me why I couldn’t be the center of the universe. He created me for His purpose; I was the object not the subject. I’m not the author of my purpose. I don’t decide my destiny; He does – He already has. For me to say that I am the author of my own purpose and the captain of my own destiny is as silly as a teapot saying it’s a hammer. It’s not. It’s a teapot. That’s what it was created to be – it was the intention of the teapot’s creator that it be a teapot. The teapot can only fulfill its full potential as a teapot. If it lives under the delusion that it’s a hammer the delusion and the teapot will be shattered the moment it tries to drive its first nail.

When I discovered that I had to see my purpose and potential from the eyes of the One who created me, I had to relearn what success, purpose and human potential were from His perspective. So I asked Him. “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:8).
True to His word, He told me. I’ve said before; don’t talk to God if you’re uncomfortable with Him answering you. Because He does. He may speak to you in the quietness of your own heart and mind, He may speak to you through a teacher or preacher or friend, He may speak to you in an audible voice from above (although most folks quickly qualify that they don’t hear Him that way; people would think they’re nuts). Mostly though, God speaks to you from His Word, the Bible. That’s what it’s there for.

So I started looking for definitions of success, purpose and human potential in the Bible; to get God’s opinion on the matter. And boy, what I found didn’t look anything like what the gurus were saying. Stuff like “deny yourself,” “take up your cross,” “if someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn your left to him also,” “sell all you have and give it to the poor,” “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.” This wasn’t in the success literature! Jesus apparently never listened to tapes and CD’s.

So that’s why I started True Potential; that’s why I write this letter every week – because everything the gurus have told you is wrong. It’s not about you; it’s about Him. It’s not about being rich on earth; it’s about being rich in heaven. It’s not about receiving praise and glory; it’s about giving praise and glory.

Fulfilling your true human potential is about fulfilling His purpose; the one he assigned you before creation began. To do that requires a whole new way of thinking. It’s not so new, actually, it’s about two thousand years old, and the guru who showed it to us is God’s own Son.

For the next nine weeks we’re going to embark on a journey into the heart of God’s perspective on human success, purpose and potential. When Jesus left us to return to His Father he promised us a Helper – God’s own Holy Spirit. He promised that His Holy Spirit would indwell us, that is, live inside of us, and change us to conform to God’s perspective.

According to the Bible, there are two groups of things that come along with the Holy Spirit. One group it calls the Gifts of the Spirit; things like messages of wisdom or knowledge, faith, the power to heal or perform miracles, prophecy, speaking in tongues. These are gifts the Holy Spirit gives to people. Christians seem to pay a lot of attention to the Gifts of the Spirit; they’re flashy so folks like to focus on them … or fight about them.

The other group is the Fruit of the Spirit. They’re more like results than gifts. They’re what happen to you when you let God’s Spirit start reshaping your life. They’re what your life produces, that’s why they’re called fruit.

In his letter to the Galatians (5:22-23), Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit and lists nine: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Each week, for the next nine weeks, we’re going to cover one of these fruits of the Spirit. If you’re looking for success and purpose, if you want to live up to you true potential as a human being, this is a good place to start. If these nine fruits, or results, are a part of your life, you can bet you’re on the right track from His point of view. If they’re not, no matter how successful you are in any other area of life, you will have failed the success test in His eyes.

I’d like to thank Anne, one of our readers, for her suggestion for doing this series. It was a great idea. What you produce, your fruit, is what measures your success. So fasten your seatbelts! We’ll start next week.

Until then, may God bless you and keep you.

In Him,
Steve Spillman

2008-01-29T07:33:00.000-08:00

Purpose

Vol. 1 Issue 22
December 27, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

New Years Resolutions

“A good resolution is like an old horse, which is often saddled but rarely ridden.”
- Mexican Proverb -

I must be part Mexican.

I love New Years resolutions … making them, that is. I’m not sure what happens on the keeping them side, but I make them faithfully. I have kept a personal journal, irregularly, for years. Irregularly meaning that I have faithfully kept a personal journal each year for the last twenty years, but have consistently avoided making daily entries. Fortunately enough for this week’s letter, each yearly journal includes an entry for January 1. After that, things get sketchy.

The reason for my faithfully beginning a journal each year is that it is always on my New Years resolution list; thus the January 1 entry. The reason it’s always on my New Years resolution list is that each year I fail to keep up the journal entries on any regular basis.

One thing that has proven my yearly personal journal useful, however, is that it always includes my New Years resolutions. And every year the list is pretty much the same.

Thus my suspicion of a Mexican heritage. My old horse is often saddled but rarely ridden.

It may seem like some sort of psychosis to constantly make resolutions only to fail in implementing them, only to make the resolutions again. It may not just seem like a psychosis, it may be a psychosis. But let’s not explore that path any longer.

My point is that it’s part of the human condition to want to improve one’s self. Each year we have a fresh start, a new chance at improvement, or dare I say, even perfection. Well, perfection seems like stretching the point. I mean, after all who’s perfect anyway? Certainly not you and me.

The problem is, if you’re a follower of Christ, that the Bible commands you to be perfect. Jesus Himself ordered it. “Be perfect, therefore, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

“Be perfect.” Oh great. We can’t even be good!

By the way, Jesus Himself laid that one on us too. Remember the rich young ruler? The guy who really was pretty good and trying to get gooder? Jesus’ answer to him was; “Why do you call me good? … No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18).
So, no one is good but God alone and we’re commanded to be perfect. That, they taught us in school, is a conundrum – a puzzler.

But I think I may have figured out the puzzle. It’s in what the words “good” and “perfect” really mean in the New Testament Greek in which they were written. “Good,” the Greek word agathos, just means “good” … not going far there. “Perfect” though, gets pretty interesting.

“Perfect,” in New Testament Greek is teleios; it means “complete.” More fully, it means “complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.) completeness - of full age, man, perfect.”

It’s the finished product –what we’re supposed to look like when we’re done.
Today we have our own meanings for the words “good” and “perfect.” “Good,” for us, is weighed out by its ingredients. If we add up all of our actions and intentions and come up with a result of 46% bad and 54% good, then we’re ready to consider ourselves mostly good. “Perfect” on the other hand, means flawless; and nobody’s flawless.

God, however, gives us a very different definition of the words. “Good,” in God’s eyes, is good; something as it should be, the way it was meant to be, it doesn’t require any change or alteration. “Perfect,” in God’s lexicon, means complete or finished. It’s what the object of perfection should look like once it’s done. It refers to the intended final outcome of a work in process.

When Jesus said that no one but God is “good,” He meant that no one (other than God) is as he should be - not requiring any change or alteration. And when He commanded us to be “perfect,” He knew that we weren’t already “perfect” (finished) but that we were a work in process, intended for “perfection” (completion) and that we must submit ourselves to that process.

Our daughter, Angie, is a potter. She sculpts bowls, vases, and other works of art from clay. When she throws a lump of gray, wet clay on her wheel, she has a finished piece in mind. In her hand she holds a lump of unformed clay; in her mind she holds the finished product. As the wheel turns and the clay submits itself to her hands it begins to take the shape of the finished (perfected) product.

Angie’s intention for that lump of clay was never for it to remain a lump of clay, but to become a finished work of art. In the mind of the potter the clay and the work of art are the same material. As a lump of clay, its potential for becoming a finished (perfected) work of art already exists, but is only evident in the mind of the potter. In its completed form, its potential has been brought to the surface and the world can see the finished (perfected) product that was in the mind of the potter all along.
It’s interesting that in the Bible’s creation account all things were spoken into existence but man. God formed man from the dust of the earth; literally He made man from a lump of clay. Throughout the Bible the analogy of God being the potter and man being the clay is made.

“Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8).

*****

We’re not “good.” We’re not as we should be - not needing any change or alteration. But we are “perfect”; already complete – in the mind of the Potter. Our command to be “perfect” is our command to be clay; to submit ourselves to the hand of the Potter, to become in reality what we are already in His mind.

We know this. Inside we all know that we are incomplete. Our souls cry out for completion - for perfection. We’re clay, but we weren’t made to stay clay. We were made to become works of art, vessels made for the use of the Potter.

That’s why I make resolutions each year. I sense the finished product. Even though I fail at keeping most of my resolutions, the wheel is turning and I’m being shaped. Each year I become a little more the finished product and a little less the lump of clay. And there will come a day when He is finished with me. A day when the lump has been transformed into the finished product, just as it was in the mind of its Creator when He began. On that day I will see myself as He sees me and I will know myself as I am known by Him (I Corinthians 13:12).

The apostle Paul understood the shaping process. He understood how he could be “perfect” in the mind of his Creator while he was still being transformed from a lump of clay.

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

*****

You’re not “good.” Not in His eyes. You’re not without the need for change or alteration. But you are “perfect” in His eyes. You are already the finished product in His mind. You just need a little more time on the wheel.

Go ahead and make your New Years resolutions. They’re a sign that you can sense yourself being completed and perfected, becoming that finished vessel that exists already in the mind of the Potter.

2008-01-29T07:25:00.000-08:00

Purpose

Vol. 1 Issue 21
December 20, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

It’s A Wonderful Life

Every Christmas season I watch Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” on television. It’s not that I plan it or anything; it just happens to come on some night when I happen to be watching TV. Usually, one of the networks will air the movie on the 23rd of December; sometimes even Christmas Eve. This year “It’s A Wonderful Life” came early, in the first week of the month.

I really love that movie. I guess I’ve known about it most of my life. It’s been on television every year as long as I’ve been alive. But I never really sat down to watch it, start to finish, until about eight years ago. Old black and white 1947 era sentimental movies aren’t exactly “young people” fare, so I guess I had to grow a few gray hairs before I could appreciate it.

A lot of folks probably think a sixty-year old feel-good movie is a little too schmaltzy for the days we’re living in now. I think just the opposite. I think the movie’s sentimentality is a testament to something we’ve lost over the last six decades. I’m not much of a nostalgia buff and I don’t believe the “good old days” were necessarily as good as we imagine. We tend to romanticize the hardships and exaggerate the good times. But we did lose something I wish we hadn’t. Somewhere in our progress and advancement as a society we’ve lost our innocence and naiveté as a people. I do miss that.

“It’s A Wonderful Life” is a remembrance of that innocence. For those who need a quick refresher, the movie is about a guy named George Bailey. George is a small town guy with big plans. He wants to see the world and make something of himself out there in it. The problem is that his plans always seem to be frustrated by the needs of those around him. On the eve of his departure for university, the gateway to his “bigger” life, George’s father dies suddenly, leaving George to put his plans on hold and stay in sleepy little Bedford Falls to tend the family’s savings and loan business.

Back in 1947 the Savings and Loan was where folks borrowed the money to build or buy their own homes; a new practice for the working class at the time. For a working family, owning your own home meant escaping the serfdom of a landlord; usually the same man or institution that owned everything else in the town. Taking ownership of your home was symbolic of taking ownership of your life. You no longer considered yourself under the lordship of the landlord.

The landlord in Bedford Falls was Mr. Potter. He was a mean old man; mean and rich. Potter owned the town … except for the Savings and Loan and the homes of those to whom George gave loans. Owning the town was personal to Potter and Bailey’s Savings and Loan grated him. George and his business were all that stood between Potter and domination of the town.

George knew that. So he put his plans on hold for a few years and stayed in Bedford Falls. A few years became a few years more … and then a few years more. George always stood in the gap; keeping the doors of the Savings and Loan open and the townspeople out of Potter’s grasp. It seemed that every time they moved ahead some emergency would push them behind. The day George could leave town for a bigger life seemed to always be just beyond his reach.

Well, this Christmas another emergency was cast upon the Savings and Loan. Only, this one was bigger than the rest. George was floored; this was just too big to overcome and it promised to sink the business.

Here he was, years of his plans being put on hold, years of his life wasted in this little town, years of his family living on a shoestring while his friends saw the world, built great businesses and great wealth. George had been stuck, foregoing his dreams to give his life to the people of this one-horse town.

Now the Savings and Loan was sure to come to ruin. It would close its doors forever and Potter would have his way. The townspeople would be pulled back into the poverty and servitude that came with Potter’s world. George’s family, who had sacrificed and skimped right along with him through the years, would suffer the same fate.

There was nowhere to turn, no answer in sight. George had failed the business, failed the town and failed his family. Thoughts of suicide entered his mind. His life insurance policy was the last thing he had of any value; at least his wife and children would be clothed and fed for awhile. It would be better for everyone, he reasoned, if he had never been born.

But this was Christmas and Christmas is full of miracles. That night George met his angel; kind of a failure himself, as angels go. His angel explained that the people around him wouldn’t really be better off if he had never been born. In fact, without George’s influence, the angel proves to him, Bedford Falls would be a nightmare - a hell on earth.

After his epiphany George knows that however insurmountable the circumstance he has a purpose in this town. He returns home to find most of the town gathered in his living room and spilling out into the yard. They’ve gotten news of the trouble at the Savings and Loan and now they’ve joined to rescue the man and the institution that had rescued each of them in the past.

Of course, the movie has a very happy ending. Potter is foiled and George’s friends declare him the “richest man in town.”

After so many years of watching the movie and so many changes in the world that have reshaped how we regard our lives and our fellow man, you’d think this sentimental old story would be worn out in the telling. Not so. It gets better with age. Watch it this year … and next. Watch it each year for the next ten Christmases. You’ll see what I mean.

George Bailey is you and me. He’s everyone who has ever put his own plans on hold for a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, or a lifetime, because the needs of another cried out a little louder. He’s everyone that’s ever been in a predicament bigger than himself and can’t imagine a way out. He’s everyone that has ever despaired of victory and believed for a moment that his life and work have come to nothing. He’s everyone that ever believed the world would be better off without him.
And he’s everyone that grace has ever looked down upon, miraculously plucked from an insurmountable circumstance and set gently down on the other side. George is everyone who has discovered that true riches don’t come in the form of houses and cars and that the prestige that flows from men’s hearts is sweeter by far than the prestige that comes from their envy.

This Christmas, I pray, George is you and me. Surrounded by those he loves and who love him; seeing his purpose and success in this life reflected in their faces. It is a wonderful life.

*****

I’ll leave you with a little story I received this week from a friend. Jenny Lou Jones is the bride of a man I worked with in the old days. Back in 1995 Jenny Lou survived leukemia and a bone marrow transplant. Today she lives her purpose through writing devotionals like the one below and counseling those who face the same insurmountable circumstances she did then. Jenny Lou can be reached at jlou7@comcast.net.

Lingering

When I was young, I went to Girl Scout camp for many years. The beginning of the week seemed to go slowly. The counselors made us hike up the small, craggy mountains in Oklahoma. They showed us how to watch out for rattlesnake nests and how to dodge when we saw a tarantula. We ate in the mess hall for breakfast and lunch and then cooked something like American Chopped Suey or Hobos over a fire for dinner.

In Oklahoma, the tents were on stilts (I think this had to do with rattlesnakes and tarantulas). The year I was a counselor, we had to gather all the girls in the middle of the night and head down into a hole in the ground because a tornado was coming. There was always some kind of peril at camp; if it wasn’t nature attacking us then it was the “call of nature” and having to use the outdoor latrines. Somehow, sometime during the week, the seats of the latrine got “Vaselined” and then the culprit put plastic wrap under the seat. No one ‘fessed up’ to these antics.

With these memories, you’d think I’d be glad to forget about camp and bugs and chigger bites, but camp is where I met other girls from around our state, where I learned camp songs that I eventually sang to my kids as lullabies, and the fact that I know without a doubt that I’d rather stay in a motel than camp any day.

Even though I was always a bit homesick at the first of the week, by the end, I never wanted to leave the outdoors and my friends. The last night of the camp, we’d sit around the campfire and sing; we always ended with a song called, “Linger”. It went:

Mmm…mmm. I want to linger
Mmm…mmm, a little longer
Mmm…mmm, a little longer here with you
Mmm…mmm, it’s such a special night
Mmm…mmm, to be with you tonight
Mmm…mmm, to be with friends who are so true?

By the end of the song, little elementary girls were weeping over the thought of having to go home to the ordinary.

As I was daydreaming the other day, it made me think that’s probably what all the secondary characters of the Nativity thought when they came to the stable for Christ’s birth.

The baby, the King of Kings, the Deliverer, the Messiah was born “Away in a Manger” during a routine “Silent Night” in “Little Town of Bethlehem” when “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” as “Angels We Have Heard on High” sang “Gloria”. And then I think they probably sang the little Girl Scout song about how they’d like to linger in the presence of the Savior who came as a baby. I’m sure they didn’t want to go back to the ordinary after what they had witnessed.

As we approach these next few days until Christmas, take time to linger with the Christmas Child who became a man and gives us Eternal Life.

Mmm…I want to linger.
Mmm…A little longer.
Mmm…A little longer here with you.

Have a beautiful “lingering” Christmas with those you love,

Jenny Lou Jones
Mama Chick

2008-01-29T06:56:00.000-08:00

Purpose

Vol. 1 Issue 20
December 13, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Putting it all Together

In the last seven weeks we’ve covered seven characteristics related to God’s purpose for your life. Understanding these characteristics will help you recognize and accept the purpose God has planned for you. They’re not strategies for spiritual success that I or anyone else have created. They’re facets of our lives and His character that reveal how He weaves each of us into the tapestry of His eternal purpose.

This week we’re going to review these seven ideas and see if we can’t boil them down into a workable game plan.

1. You were built for your purpose

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).

God considered you personally enough to give you your own unique personality and abilities and matched them to your unique purpose. You’ve been made to order.

God knew who you would be and what He had in store for you long before you were born. Who you are as a person, your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes, are matched to what it is He has for you to accomplish.

When you accepted Christ you underwent a second birth, a birth of the spirit. What makes up your spiritual nature are the gifts and the measure of faith you were endowed with as a result of your spiritual birth. “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith” (Romans 12:6).

Your physical traits aren’t any more of an accident in God’s plan than the spiritual traits you received as a result of your spiritual birth. He made you physically and spiritually to fulfill His purpose.

Don’t think too highly of your talents and abilities; they were given as a gift, to use in His purpose. Don’t cling too tightly to the people, traditions and things you love; they are blessings on loan for His purpose. Don’t mourn your shortcomings or be disappointed in your handicaps; they may be your greatest gift in His economy. And be careful about what and who you disdain; they may be the very palette on which God paints His purpose in your life.

2. Your personal history has equipped you for your purpose

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Have you ever regretted something that’s happened to you or something you’ve done? How about a certain part of your life when you wish you could take a do-over?
How do you feel about your present existence? Do you feel like what you’re doing doesn’t really count for much in light of eternity? Wish you could do something important with your life?

All the seemingly bad stuff that’s happened in your past and the seemingly boring stuff that’s happening today aren’t outside of God’s plan or in spite of God’s plan. They’re a part of God’s plan. If you’re thinking that it would take a miracle for your mixed bag of past and present to ever add up to anything worthwhile in God’s eternal plan, you’re right it would. That’s what He does.

The problem with being in the middle of life is that, usually, you’re just to close to it to see God’s plan unfolding. But the plan is there anyway. Seeing it at work is only a matter of perspective. Just kept on trucking and God will work His plan.

3. It’s really His purpose – working in you.

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21).

The Bible indicates that plan tends to look at things from man’s side of the equation and purpose tends to look at things from God’s side. The biggest problem with our concept of purpose lies in just whose purpose we’re really talking about. We’re all too eager for God’s purpose to fit into our plans. We’re really big on believing that God’s purpose is to prosper us or to give us good health or to keep us safe from harm. But we’re not so big on God’s purpose being personal sacrifice or personal holiness, or personal obedience.

How often do we pray, “Thy will be done,” and really mean it?

The most important thing to remember is that your purpose is really His purpose for your existence. God’s purpose for man is to glorify Himself. His purpose for your existence is that you may glorify Him.

What if God’s will, His purpose for your life didn’t include health, wealth and happiness? Would you still be able to pray, “Thy will be done”?

Sometimes His purpose overrides our plans; that’s as it should be. There are some things more important than health, wealth and happiness. There are some things more important than life itself.

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12: 24-25).

4. Behavior – obedience with a little “o”.

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

When you think about your purpose in life it’s easy picture the glorious stuff - the big task. The basics, the little tasks that come along every day, sometimes just aren’t interesting enough to hold your attention.

Too many people spend their lives waiting for the big task while they ignore the little tasks God puts in their path every day. They’re looking for a hundred yard kick-off return and ignoring the blocking and tackling. The irony is that if they never get the blocking and tackling right, they’ll never be able to make the spectacular play they’ve been waiting for all their lives.

So what’s the blocking and tackling in the Christian life? It’s the stuff we already know. It’s found in Matthew 22:37-39. If you get this right, when the big play comes, you’ll be ready.

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Your purpose, what God’s plan is for your life, is unique and individual and meant just for you … and … it’s universal, meant for every person that ever existed. It’s both. The unique part of your purpose has to do with your individual mission in life. The universal part of your purpose has to do with how you’re to treat your God and your neighbor every day. It’s the blocking and tackling; it’s obedience with a little “o”.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind.” If you can’t get this one right you can forget about finding your purpose in life. Without the Purpose Giver, you have no purpose. How much private one-on-one time do you spend with Him every day?

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Our neighbors are everyone we come into contact with; the lovelies and the un-lovelies. They’re our neighbors when they’re a pain and they’re our neighbors when they’re in pain.

Jesus’ time on earth was spent teaching us who our neighbors were and how to treat them. The less important they were, the more unlovely they were, the greater grace and love Jesus showed them.

What’s your purpose in life? You already know parts one and two: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind …” and “… love your neighbor as yourself.” Those are the basics. Get those two things right and the spectacular plays will follow along behind just fine.

5. Communication – purpose requires relationship.

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

If God is interested enough in you that He had you in mind when He first spun the world into existence. If your reason for being is that important in the grand scheme of things, don’t you think a regular morning meeting is a pretty good idea?

Way too often, people have told me that they just can’t find God’s will for their lives. At the same time they completely ignore God’s will for their day. You miss God’s will for your day enough times and you will miss God’s will for your life.

Having a daily meeting with God can be pretty simple. He already knows what you need. But He also wants you to ask. He wants you to ask so that you know He responds. But don’t spend the whole meeting telling God what you want and never listening for any feedback from Him. That’s a to-do list; not a meeting.

The most important part of the daily meeting is about listening. You’ve got a role to play in God’s eternal purpose and in that role there’s a task at hand today. You miss that and you’ve missed the reason for the meeting.

Today’s schedule involves your role in carrying out your purpose - today. If you handle today’s tasks today, then you’ll be ready for tomorrow’s tasks tomorrow. And don’t spend too much time on what got screwed up yesterday. Obsessing over yesterday takes your eye off the ball today. Today has its own issues and its own schedule. Focus on that.

Don’t get bored or disappointed if the daily schedule starts to seem a little, well … daily. Trust Him for the big picture and settle into the task at hand.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).

6. Stepping out of the boat – Obedience with a big “O”.

Obedience, with a big “O” is about stepping out of the boat; and it brings, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself” to another level.

Big “O” is the complete surrender of everything you consider “yours.” It’s obedience to His call in spite of tradition, safety, common sense, security, even family. It’s obedience when it doesn’t make any sense, in the natural, to obey. It’s obedience in spite of your personality, your talents and your plans for the future.

The day will come, or it already has, when God will tell you what He wants you to do. It may not agree with your tradition or experience or career, or retirement plan. It may not make any sense on the surface and your friends and family may think you’ve lost your marbles, but when God talks to you personally about what He wants you to do with your life there’s no mistaking the meeting.

Your future lies in your response. Just because God had your part of His purpose planned when He created the universe, doesn’t mean you have to follow it. But the little “o” is never enough once you’ve had that intimate conversation with God. The big “O” demands that you make a decision. The decision to make “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself” personal. The decision to bet your life on it. When that time comes, and it comes for each of us, make the bet. There’s a lot more at stake than your retirement plan.

7. Timing – knowing when He’s called and how to answer.

You can have one big task in your lifetime that defines the reason God put you on this earth or you may have been given a lot of little tasks that together define why He put you here.

People have a tendency to always be looking for the “big task,” the big reason that will define their purpose. Too often we romanticize the “big task” and downplay the little tasks. But little tasks add up.

Timing is being ready to jump when you’re called. It’s also about not worrying if what you’re being called to do is the “big task” or not.

If you’ve already heard that call and jumped out of the boat and the waves are getting big and the wind is starting to scare you, stop for a second and remember Who called you out of the boat in the first place.

If you feel like you’re still in the boat waiting for the “big task” to come along, do what’s right in front of you. Purpose is everywhere. Sometimes big “O” it’s hiding in the little “o”.

*****

Those are our seven characteristics of His purpose for your life. So, can we turn them into a game plan? Seven simple steps? Let’s try.

1. Know that you’re capable of fulfilling His purpose for your life. He built you with all the parts you need.

2. Don’t worry about your past. Consider it training for your future.

3. Remember Whose purpose it really is. You’re a part of His plan, not visa-versa.

4. Fulfill your purpose daily by loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind and loving your neighbor as yourself.

5. Spend time every day talking and listening to God. Purpose requires relationship and relationship requires communication.

6. When He calls, step out of the boat. There’s nothing too scary, too big or too demanding to keep you from the task He has planned for you.

7. Purpose is everywhere. Be ready for the Big “O” when it comes by answering the daily call to little “o”.

There! We’ve done it! All that talk boiled down into seven simple steps. Seriously, fulfilling your purpose in this life isn’t that complicated. As a matter of fact, I think we can boil it down even more; into three words … trust, listen and obey.

*****

Until next week. May God bless you and keep you and may his face shine upon you.
In Him,

Steve Spillman

2008-01-29T06:45:00.000-08:00

We’re in week seven of a seven week series covering seven aspects of discovering God’s purpose for your life. Last week we talked about obedience; little “o” versus big “O”.. If you missed last week’s letter, just go to http://www.gotpotential.org/ and look for (Purpose Vol. 1, Issue 18).

This is a week we’re talking about timing. Just when will the call come; when will you know that unique purpose God has planned for you?

Purpose

Vol. 1 Issue 19
December 6, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Week 7: Timing

I heard someone say once that the definition of “luck” was “preparation meeting opportunity.” The point the speaker was making was that those people we consider “lucky,” having fallen into some overnight success, are really people who quietly and diligently prepared for an opportunity they believed would one day come. Because of their preparation, they were ready to take advantage of opportunity when it arrived.

For the last six weeks we’ve been discussing several aspects of recognizing and understanding your unique God given purpose; that special thing you we’re created to accomplish in God’s plan for mankind.

By now you know that you’ve been built for the unique purpose God has planned for you; it’s in your DNA. Your life experience and circumstance, the path you’ve traveled, has been leading you to and preparing you for your purpose.

You’ve learned that in order to take on your role in His purpose, you have to relinquish control of the steering wheel. In order make your life matter eternally, you have to be willing to surrender your own say-so about where your life is going right now.

You’ve learned that your purpose and your behavior are two different things. What’s required of you every day isn’t so unique; it’s required of each of us. And you can’t be on purpose and off behavior at the same time. You can’t disobey the rules that were set out for all of us and expect to successfully follow the unique purpose the Rule Maker has laid out specifically for you.

You’ve learned that you can’t follow the Leader without ever talking to Him or listening to Him. The One who gave you purpose expects relationship. Without it you’ll never be able to stay on the path; because He’s the one leading you.

Last week you learned about obedience and the difference between little “o” and big “O”. Little “o” is behavior; acting the way you know you’re supposed to act. Big “O” is obedience when He’s given you a task. Here’s the secret: the “task” is your purpose. The big thing you’ve been looking for. The thing we’ve been talking about all this time!

You can have one big task in your lifetime that defines the reason God put you on this earth or you may have been given a lot of little tasks that together define why He put you here.
People have a tendency to always be looking for the “big task,” the big reason that will define their purpose. Too often we romanticize or glorify the “big task” and ignore or downplay the little tasks. But little tasks add up.

*****

Almost sixty years ago, in the city of Calcutta, a little Albanian nun gave a starving child a bit of rice. She had no resources; undoubtedly the rice she gave away was meant for her own nourishment. The act went unnoticed by the world (not by the child).

The city they were living in was gripped by famine; millions of people were starving. The poorest of the poor, like this child, had no hope at all. There was no chance for their survival. What good would it do to give this one child one bit of rice? It wouldn’t stop the poverty in the city; this child and more like her would soon succumb to death by starvation and disease. One tiny act of mercy couldn’t possibly make a difference.

The little nun had no means of support. Many times she was reduced to begging for food and supplies to feed and care for those hopeless, dying souls around her. She was overwhelmed, but she kept moving; one child, one leper, one terminally ill patient at a time.

I doubt if she had the “big task” in mind. She was just doing as she was told, one little act of mercy at a time. If you asked her, the reason she was living on the street with the sick and starving was simple. “I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith.” God had spoken to her, had given her a task; it was the big “O”.

When she said yes to the big “O” it was with a “little task”; an act of mercy so small no one else noticed. But she was faithful to her purpose with another small act of mercy and another and another.

The first year was miserable. She actually became one of the starving and destitute she had come to comfort. But she survived.

Little by little, over forty years, workers came to join her and others donated money to help her with her mission. When her task was over it was evident to the world that Mother Theresa had been singled out by God for a very special purpose. By the time she had finished the purpose she had been given, 4,000 sisters, 300 brothers and over 100,000 lay volunteers had joined her, working in 610 missions in 123 countries.

Today it’s easy for us to see Mother Theresa’s purpose in life; her “big task.” Do you think anyone saw it then? That first year when she left the comfort of the convent to live by herself in the streets of the world’s most impoverished city? Do you think she saw herself as doing the “big task”; the unique thing her Creator had planned for her life at the beginning of all things?
I don’t think so. I think she heard His voice and heard it clearly and jumped out of the boat. She was simply doing what she was told; no matter how uncomfortable or dangerous or foolish it seemed at the time.

*****

Timing is being ready to jump when you’re called. It’s also about not worrying if what you’re being called to do is the “big task” or not.

If you’ve already heard that call and jumped out of the boat and the waves are getting big and the wind is starting to scare you, stop for a second and remember Who called you out of the boat in the first place.

Don’t you think the disciples in the boat thought Peter was an idiot when he jumped overboard? Don’t you think Peter thought he was an idiot himself as he started sinking beneath the waves? It was only afterward, after everything turned out okay that everybody patted him on the back and considered him a man of great faith.

If you just jumped out of the boat, don’t spend a lot of time worrying about the waves or dreaming about the ticker-tape parade you’ll get on shore; just keep your eyes on the One who called you and keep moving.

If you’re still in the boat, waiting for the big call, take a look around you. Purpose is everywhere. Sometimes it’s hiding in the little “o”.

How did you do at work today? Did you stand up for the guy being ridiculed for his faith, or his looks, or his inability to fit in with the office clique? How about the dirty jokes or the nasty little gossip session? Did you let your light shine?

How about at home with the kids? Did you praise God for those little gems and consider them with wonder and thanksgiving. Or did you scream at the little brats and threaten them with theirs lives because they were acting like children.

How about the bum sitting on the park bench? How about the old lady in the grocery store parking lot who can’t seem to wrestle the dog food bag into her trunk? How about the single mom next door with the crappy yard that the neighborhood is so ashamed of?

You get the idea. If you feel like you’re still in the boat waiting for the big call, the “big task” to come along, pick up a rake and get to work; you may just be surprised how easy this purpose thing is.

You may also be surprised that the measly little nothing act of mercy you just did, leads to another … and another.

*****

Next week, we’ll put it all together. Let’s see if we can boil down these last seven weeks into a simple game plan.

Until then: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).

In Him,

Steve Spillman

2007-11-29T14:24:00.000-08:00

We’re in week six of a seven week series covering seven different aspects of discovering God’s purpose for your life. Last week we talked about communication; keeping today’s focus on today. If you missed last week’s letter, just go to www.gotpotential.org and look for (Purpose Vol. 1, Issue 17).

This is a week for the good stuff! And the scary stuff! This, as my father used to say, is where the rubber meets the road. We’re talking about Obedience, with a big “O”. Obedience with a big “O” is personal.

Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 18
November 29, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Week 6: Obedience; Big “O”

Obedience, with a big “O” isn’t how we behave. We talked about behavior a few weeks ago (Purpose Issue 16). Behavior is like obedience with a little “o”. It’s acting how we know we’re supposed to act everyday. It’s what most of us think the two greatest commandments, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.” are all about.

We believe those two commandments mean, “go to church,” “don’t lie,” “don’t cheat,” “don’t think bad thoughts,” “pay your taxes,” “don’t kick your neighbor’s cat,” etc. etc. Kind of an American Ten Commandments. Too many of us believe that’s what the Christian life consists of. Follow the rules (obedience, little “o”) and you’ll go to Heaven when you die.

That list of stuff, whatever your list is, is great and it’s right and it should be part of your behavior. And it is part of what the two greatest commandments mean. But only part. You’re responsible for little “o”; and it’s not little “o” because it isn’t important. It’s important enough that Jesus taught it to the crowds every day. When He preached to the masses He preached little “o”. He preached it to the masses because it was required of the masses. Little “o” is required of you and me … it’s required of everyone. In the words of Paul, it’s our “reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).

What we’re talking about this week is Obedience with a big “O”. It’s not big “O” because it supersedes how we are to behave toward our God and others, it’s big “O” because it’s personal and specific.

Jesus required big “O” when he spoke one-on-one with those individuals who followed Him … or wanted to. Remember the rich young man who asked Jesus what was required of him to get eternal life? Jesus gave him little “o” first; “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 19:18b-19).

Little “o” requires something. It requires that we change our behavior, our actions and our thoughts to conform to righteousness and turn away from sin. Little “o” is required of everyone; it’s a starting place.

This young man was a pro at little “o”. He had the rules down; he knew how to behave. He answered Jesus, “All these I have kept … What do I still lack?”

Jesus had his attention now. The conversation was turning personal. Jesus was no longer speaking for the benefit of those in the crowd. This was now an intimate, one-on-one interaction with the Master. “If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.”
Big “O” requires everything. Big “O” is personal. Big “O” is complete surrender of everything you consider “yours.” It’s obedience in spite of tradition, safety, common sense, security, even family. It’s obedience when it doesn’t make any sense, in the natural, to obey. It’s obedience in spite of your personality, your talents and your plans for the future. It’s obedience in the face of danger.

*****

Peter was a guy who wasn’t that great at little “o”. In his short time as a disciple of Jesus he screwed up a lot. He was the only disciple Jesus referred to as “Satan” for trying to push his own agenda. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut during Christ’s transfiguration and started babbling about erecting shrines to Jesus, Elijah and Moses. God the Father Himself had to interrupt him saying essentially, “This is my son, would you please shut up and listen to what he has to say?” Peter was the one Jesus scolded for falling asleep in the garden of Gethsemane as the eternal fate of all mankind hung in the balance. Of course, only a few minutes later, Peter was also the one who jumped up and cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant. That same night he denied three times that he even knew Jesus. Peter screwed up little “o” a lot.

But one thing Peter got right was the big “O”. When confronted with an offer from God, no matter how dangerous or seemingly senseless, Peter jumped … literally.
Out in a boat on the Sea of Galilee late one night a storm was blowing; the wind and waves were beginning to cause some real consternation among those inside. Jesus came to them in the midst of the storm, walking on the water. And Jesus beckoned Peter to jump out of the boat and meet him on the water. With the wind and waves the disciples had a pretty good chance of dying that night just by staying inside the boat. Now Jesus was asking Peter to jump out of the boat, defy nature and the laws of physics by coming to meet Him on, not in, the water. It was an insane request; nothing about it made any sense. Peter jumped out of the boat that night. And we’re still talking about it today.

In spite of all the behavioral (little “o”) screw ups, and some of them were pretty big, Jesus knew Peter could be trusted with the big “O”. After He was crucified and resurrected, Jesus met some of His disciples on the shores of Galilee. They had returned, they thought, to their old fishing job. Jesus had other plans for them, particularly for Peter. He and Peter shared an intimate conversation on the beach that morning.

Using the name his mother had given him, Jesus asked; “Simon Son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” Peter answered that he did. “Feed my lambs,” was Jesus instruction. This transaction had to come three times before Jesus was satisfied with Peter’s answer. Then Jesus predicted that Peter would be martyred, hung upside-down on a cross; an earthly reward for obeying his Master.

This was big “O”. Peter was receiving the commission that had been planned for him since the foundation of the world. The mission he was to spend the rest of his life completing; regardless of the pay, the humility, the danger, the retirement plan, his family’s opinion. Peter was obeying with a big “O”. He had finally come to a place of understanding the full meaning of “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Those two commandments encompass all the commandments from God to man. They cover "thou shall not steal,” thou shall not covet,” “thou shall not bear false witness,” and all the other “thou shalls” and “thou shall nots.” They cover them generally. They’re for the entire group. They’re important and they’re required. They’re how we practice our reverence to God and our love for our fellow man every day; but they’re obedience with a little “o”.

I’ve said before that God doesn’t save the group; He saves the individual. God’s purpose is the same. His purpose involves the group – all of mankind; because it involves each individual. God speaks to the group in the “thou shalls” and “thou shall nots.” He provided a way of redemption and salvation and reconciliation to the group when His Son was hung on a cross and paid the penalty of sin for the group (by the way, that was Jesus’ big “O”; the personal thing only He could do). But the group can’t claim that redemption and salvation and reconciliation; only you and me as individuals can do that.

Little “o” is for all of us. You’re responsible for little “o” like everybody else. It’s your reasonable service. But the day will come, or it already has, when God will come to you for an intimate conversation; just the two of you. And He’ll tell you what He wants you to do. It may not agree with your tradition or experience or career, or retirement plan. It may not make any common sense on the surface and your friends and family may think you’ve lost your marbles, but when God talks to you personally about what He personally wants you to do with your life, what He’s planned for you, there’s no mistaking the meeting.

Your future lies in your response. Just because God had your part of His purpose planned when He created the universe, doesn’t mean you have to follow it. Peter didn’t have to jump out of the boat that night. He didn’t have to quit fishing to become the founder of the church, that first group of believers who trusted that Jesus was the Christ the risen Lord. He didn’t have to Obey with a big “O”. He probably would have had an easier life if he didn’t.

But the little “o” is never enough once you’ve had that intimate conversation with God. The big “O” demands that you make a decision. The decision to make “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself” personal. The decision to bet your life on it. When that time comes, and it comes for each of us, make the bet. There’s a lot more at stake than your retirement plan.

*****

I know a lady who’s had a few of those intimate conversations with God. She’s jumped out of the boat obeying her Master with a big “O” a few times. If you ask her, she’ll tell you that it’s been worth it. I agree. Happy birthday Mom.
Next week we’ll talk about just when big “O” will show up at your door. If He hasn’t already, when God will show up for His intimate conversation with you.
Until then, God bless you and those you love.

In Him,

Steve Spillman

2007-11-29T14:21:00.000-08:00

Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 17
November 23 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Week 5: Communication

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

I used to work at a place where we had daily meetings. Every morning at 8:00 we would sit down for fifteen minutes and go over the day’s schedule, discuss yesterday’s production, correct mistakes and add on to this day’s schedule anything we may have missed yesterday.

We all knew our jobs and responsibilities. It wasn’t like we had to re-learn how to make widgets; that wasn’t the purpose for the meeting. When you came to the meeting each morning it was assumed you already knew your job description. The purpose for the daily production meeting was to focus on the work due that particular day. We also took time to correct anything that might have gone off-target or been left undone the previous day.

The daily meeting wasn’t a cheerleading session or a re-statement of corporate goals. We already knew our responsibilities and we knew the company’s mission statement and long term objectives. The meeting wasn’t about that. Sometimes our boss would have to use time in the daily meeting to correct the general direction of our performance and to effectively communicate the company’s mission in relation to our continued employment; but that wasn’t the purpose of the daily meeting.

Our part of the daily meeting was to let the boss know what we needed to keep our production on schedule and to bring up any problems in the work flow. If we didn’t understand a task or a process, this was the time to bring it up. If there was a problem on the floor with machinery or co-workers, now was the time to take care of it.

It wasn’t like our boss needed to be informed about what we needed or what yesterday’s production problems were. He had grown up in the business and he was usually better at anticipating our needs than we were at identifying them. He also kept his eye on the production floor. He knew when a machine or process was starting to go south and he had a pretty good idea of who the slackers were.

The boss liked to get our input out of the way first. It was like he wanted us to get our problems and points of view out on the table before he laid out the day’s work for us. We liked that too. It made us feel like we had been heard and that he cared about what we needed and our concerns with how things were going.

We felt pretty good speaking up about what we wanted and needed on the floor or about our worries that machines or other employees wouldn’t live up to our expectations. We felt like our voices were being heard and our needs were being met. We didn’t realize that we weren’t really there to have our voices heard and our needs met. Our voices were heard and our needs were met as a result, but it wasn’t the main purpose of the daily meeting. It wasn’t why we kept our jobs. It was the last half of the meeting that kept us employed.

After we presented our needs and concerns, the boss wanted to share with us the needs of the company that day and what our particular roles would be in fulfilling those needs. It was, after all, what we were here for.

The purpose of the meeting was to focus on daily production needs and our roles in fulfilling them in light of the overall goals and objectives of the company. The overall goals and objectives of the company were too big picture and too long term to hold our attention each day. Our boss knew that. He also knew that if he could keep us focused on just the day’s goals and objectives and if he could do that consistently day after day, we’d accomplish the long term goals and objectives of the company – even if we weren’t aware of it.

So that’s what the daily meeting did for us. It gave us a voice in our own jobs and it focused us for our tasks of the day in relation to the company’s long term goals and objectives. On occasion, there was a little cheerleading; every so often there may have even been a butt-chewing. But the purpose for that meeting was to prepare ourselves for the day ahead.

A daily meeting is a pretty good idea. It keeps the channels of communication open and keeps everyone focused on the task at hand. I’ve worked at companies that held meetings weekly instead of daily. Weekly meetings beat no meetings at all, but they were never as effective for keeping our focus as the daily meetings. It was just too easy to lose track without that short get-together each morning.

*****

Let’s rethink for a second what’s really real; what’s really important. Assuming you believe that God exists and that He’s interested enough in you that He had a purpose for you, not just when you came into the world but long before that – He had you in mind when He first spun the world itself into existence. If your purpose - your reason for being – is that important in the grand scheme of things, don’t you think a regular morning meeting is a pretty good idea? You know, just to keep the plan on track.

The structure of your daily meeting with God doesn’t have to be a lot different than those we had back in my company days. Use the first part of the meeting for requests and concerns. God already knows what you need and He already knows your concerns. But He also wants you to ask. He wants you to ask so that you know He responds. How would you know you had needs and that He supplied them unless you were somehow involved in the process? He involves you for your benefit, not for His.

It’s a little crazy to spend the whole meeting telling God what you want and never listening for any feedback from Him. That’s a to-do list; not a meeting. It’s too bad, but a lot of folks think communicating with God only involves them asking Him for stuff, going over their worries and fears, and then hanging up. They assume it’s a one sided discussion because they really don’t expect God to answer. As a matter of fact, they’d fall out of their chair if He did. If you don’t like the idea of God talking back to you when talk to Him, skip the meeting. It’s pointless to talk to God if you never expect a response. There are more productive things in life to do than talking to gods who never answer.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks we have regarding our purpose here is thinking that it’s all about us. Our needs and concerns are so important to us because they’re ours. It’s like the old joke; “What’s the difference between minor surgery and major surgery?” Minor surgery is when it’s being performed on someone else. Major surgery is when it’s being performed on us! Our needs affect us. Our problems happen to us. Because God loves us He provides for our needs and solves our problems – but that’s not the reason for our existence or His. His provision is a result, not a reason for being.

We’re here because we’re a part of His plan and purpose. Too often, the only time we want to involve God in our dialog is when we want something from Him. So the daily meetings end up being one sided; “I need this.” “I’m worried about that.” “Could you please do this?” “Thanks.” And then we leave the room.

That’s not what the meeting is about and that’s not what your existence here is about. The last part of the daily meeting, the most important part, is about listening. You’ve got a job to do; a role to play in God’s eternal purpose. And in that role there’s a task at hand today. You miss that and you’ve missed the reason for the meeting.

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That’s the big picture; we’ve been over that part already. God has a role for specifically for you in His eternal purpose. He’s built you and prepared you for that role. It’s what you were created for. That’s the big picture too. He’s given you instructions for how you’re to regard Him and how you’re to treat your neighbor. We covered that last week - still the big picture. When you come to the daily meeting it’s assumed that you understand the idea of the big picture. The purpose for daily meeting isn’t forever discussing, worrying about or continually re-hashing the big picture. The purpose for the daily meeting is to bring up your needs and concerns for the day and to receive your work assignment for the day.

And don’t think your purpose changes from day to day just because He’s willing to lay out your assignment every day. The big picture remains intact. Today’s schedule involves your role in carrying out your purpose - today. If you handle today’s tasks today, then you’ll be ready for tomorrow’s tasks tomorrow. Don’t worry about tomorrow’s tasks today; you’ll just mess things up by taking attention away from today – then you won’t be ready for tomorrow.

And don’t spend too much time on what got screwed up yesterday. If you’ve got any issues left over from yesterday, get them out of the way at the beginning of today’s meeting. Obsessing over yesterday’s issues is unproductive; it takes your eye off the ball today. Today has its own issues and its own schedule. You need to focus on that.
Don’t get bored or disappointed if the daily schedule starts to seem a little, well … daily. Trust Him for the big picture and settle into the task at hand.

And don’t worry that you can’t see every detail of the big picture. When you’re not sure of God’s will and purpose for your life, just focus on the task at hand. He made the big picture and He made the task at hand. It all works together. If you don’t see the relationship now, trust Him for it; you’ll see it one day. Way too many times, people have told me that they just can’t find God’s will and purpose for their lives. At the same time they’re completely ignoring God’s will and purpose for their day. You miss God’s purpose for your day enough times and you will miss God’s will and purpose for your life. That’s what your life’s made up of – days.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).

*****

Next week we’ll talk about stepping out of the boat. What to do when you know what you should do but don’t know if you’ve got the courage to do it. Now we’re getting to the good stuff! A little scary sometimes, but good. Don’t miss next week!

2007-11-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 16
November 15 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Week 4: Blocking and Tackling

It was something I should have learned in High School football. After all, I played tackle; it would have made my experience more meaningful if I knew it then. But I didn’t. It was a lot of years after high school; when I was in business and a mentor shared it with me.

“The secret of success is in the blocking and tackling. Focus on the blocking and tackling and everything else will come along.” I didn’t miss the football analogy. What my mentor meant was that in business, like in football, you can’t win the game if you fail at the basics.

Everybody enjoys watching football when there’s a hundred yard kick-off return or a wide receiver jumps up over the heads of his defenders to catch, one-handed, a sixty yard Hail Mary pass. That’s where the glory is. That’s what gets replayed over and over in the television highlights.

Plays like that are exciting to watch; but ask any coach, seasons aren’t made in the spectacular one handed receptions or the hundred yard kick-off returns. You can’t get to the play-offs unless you’ve perfected the basics - blocking and tackling.
Life is the same. When we think about our purpose in life we picture the glorious stuff - the big kick-off returns and magnificent receptions. Blocking and tackling just isn’t interesting enough to hold our attention.

Too many times, someone has asked me, “How do I find God’s will, His purpose for my life?” They tell me that they’ve spent their whole life searching for God’s will but they’re still coming up blank; still not knowing what the big thing is that God wants them to accomplish.

What they’re looking for is the hundred yard kick-off return or the immaculate reception. They’re not looking for the blocking and tackling; it’s just not glorious enough. Problem is, if they haven’t got the blocking and tackling right, they may never have the opportunity to make the spectacular play they’ve been searching for all their lives.

There’s an old joke about a boy stopping classical pianist Artur Rubinstein on the streets of New York asking for directions. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” the boy inquired. “Practice young man, practice,” was Rubinstein’s answer. Rubinstein knew how to get to Carnegie Hall; by practice – by perfecting the blocking and tackling.

So what’s the blocking and tackling in the Christian life? It’s the stuff we already know. The easy stuff - easy stuff to know, not necessarily easy stuff to do. There are some things you need to do that are absolutely necessary to understanding and accomplishing your purpose in life. The list is pretty easy and it’s pretty short. I’ll bet you can recite it for me from memory.

In case you’re having trouble remembering, I’ll give you a hint; the secret to blocking and tackling is found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter twenty-two, verses thirty-seven through thirty-nine. If you get this list right, every other detail of your purpose in life, every spectacular play that you’ve been looking for, will come your way; and more importantly, you’ll be ready for them when they come.

Let’s look at the secret to blocking and tackling:

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Pretty simple list isn’t it?
1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Like I said, I’ll bet you already knew that list, didn’t you?

Jesus said that “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” What He meant was that everything in scripture (and everything in life) hangs on these two points. By the way, do you know who He was talking to when He pointed this out? The Pharisees and the Sadducees; the religious leaders of Israel who came to trip Him up with their legalese. Imagine that, the guys who were supposed to be the spiritual leaders were the ones who needed a lesson in blocking and tackling.

“Okay,” you might be saying. “I know about the two greatest commandments and I understand that you keep trying to make this football analogy; but what does this have to do with understanding my purpose in life. How does it help me find out what it is I’m supposed to be doing with my life?”

Well … it is what you’re supposed to being doing with your life. Throughout all these letters I’ve been talking about your unique purpose in life; the thing that God has planned for you, and no one but you. But there’s something about your purpose I haven’t been talking about; something I’m going to cover now. The blocking and tackling.

Your purpose, what God’s plan is for your life, is unique and individual and meant just for you … and … it’s universal, meant for every person that ever existed. It’s both. The unique and individual part of your purpose has to do with your mission in life, the specific action or actions you were created for in this time and place. The universal part of your purpose has to do with your behavior, how you’re to act, how you’re to treat your God and your neighbor every day. It’s the part of your purpose that you share with every other person on the planet. It’s the blocking and tackling.
So, if everything hangs on these two points. What do they mean? How do I Love the Lord my God with all of my heart, soul and mind? How do I love my neighbor as myself?

You’ve got a pretty good idea what that means already, don’t you? Everybody does. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says that even people that have never heard about the Law and the Prophets have the requirements of the Law, “written on their hearts.” It’s intrinsic, it’s written on your heart. You already know how to behave. That’s the easy part about blocking and tackling. Everybody knows how to do it. The hard part is in the actually doing it.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind.” That’s an easy one. We all know that one. Let’s go on to something new, something more spectacular; like my own unique, special purpose in life; the thing that’s going to go down in cosmic history as my big contribution.

Whoa, there cowboy! Let’s hold up just a minute and look at this one. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind.” The concept is pretty easy to grasp … what about the practice? Do you “love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind”? How much time do you spend with Him? No, not listening to Christian radio in the car, or sticking an “In Case of Rapture” sticker to your bumper, or even going to church. How much time do you spend with Him? Just the two of you, nobody else, no interruptions, no multi-tasking.

Jesus said that this was the big number one. Without obeying this rule, nothing else mattered. If you can’t get this one right you can forget about finding your purpose in life. Without the Purpose Giver, you have no purpose. So back to the question: How much private one-on-one time do you spend with Him every day? This is blocking and tackling lesson one. Get this one solved first; then we’ll move on to lesson two.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” This one trips up a lot of folks. When Jesus answered those religious leaders, their very next question was, “just who is my neighbor?”

Always wanting to qualify things aren’t we? “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Does that mean my family, my spouse and kids, Mom and Dad, aunts and uncles? Yeah I can do that. Except for the holidays, they drive me nuts on the holidays. And the kids! Sometimes they just won’t shut up! And my spouse! I swear he acts like an idiot sometimes! Where’s his head at!? Okay, I may need some work on love my family.

But who else is my neighbor? Did Jesus mean my real neighbor; the guy next door? Jesus obviously never met my neighbor. The guy lets his dog do his business in my front yard … just lets him go wandering, looking for the perfect place. And what about the parties? Last Christmas his guests tried to use my lawn as a parking lot! If I’ve got to love my neighbor as myself, the least the guy could do is love me back by not being such a rotten neighbor!

And what about my neighbors on the other side? They’re okay; no dogs, no parties – but they’re Jehovah’s Witnesses. When Jesus said to love my neighbor as myself surely He didn’t mean the JW’s! That’s just too creepy.

And what about the guy that stands at the off ramp every morning with the cardboard sign that says “Stranded Need Help” “God Bless You”? Sure, he’s wearing ratty clothes but he’s there every day. That guy ain’t stranded; he’s just working it - like everybody else. Surely Jesus didn’t mean that guy.

Jesus made it pretty clear who He meant by our neighbor; both in His illustrations and in His ministry. Our neighbors are everyone we come into contact with; the lovelies and the un-lovelies. They’re our neighbors when they’re a pain and they’re our neighbors when they’re in pain.

Jesus’ entire time on earth was spent teaching us by His example just who our neighbors were and how to treat them. The less important they were, the more unlovely they were, the greater grace and love Jesus showed them. The only neighbors Jesus really had any issues with were the religious elite, the same guys who spent so much time and effort qualifying just who their neighbors were.

*****

Several years ago I accepted a lunch meeting with an executive who wanted something I had. I met him earlier that day at his company. As he toured me around his business he commented on how many factories and trucks and airplanes he had and he told me his plans for the future. It was very impressive. He was pretty impressive personally too. He was tall, good looking, powerful and dignified. He was even a former professional football player; overall a pretty impressive guy. He invited me over for the day because he believed I held the key to success in one of his new business divisions. He put on a real dog and pony show. He wanted to impress me, and I’ve got to admit, I was pretty impressed.

After the plant tour we went to lunch. The waitress came over to our table to take our order. She seemed like a sweet young lady; probably about nineteen – just trying to do her job and get through the day. When she delivered our salads I saw a funny look come over the face of my host; kind of a sneer of disgust mixed with revulsion. For a minute I thought maybe a bug was crawling around on his plate. I didn’t know what the problem was.

Then I found out. His salad dressing was on the salad; not on the side. “Miss!” he shouted over the general din of the restaurant. “Miss! Come here!” The poor girl came back to our table where he proceeded to read her the riot act for being so stupid and careless over such a simple thing as putting dressing on the side and not on the salad. The waitress took the defective salad from the table and brought a replacement with dressing on the side. How she kept from crying or quitting I don’t know. She continued to serve us throughout the meal and she never said a word about the incident.

My host was oblivious to what he had just done. The important thing was that he got his salad right. The waitress was there to serve and, by God, she’d better do it properly. I was silent for the rest of the meal. I had seen something ugly come out and had made the connection. He was all peaches and cream to me because wanted something from me. Would he treat me like had just treated this waitress the minute he felt he no longer had a use for me? I got the message. We didn’t do the deal and I have no idea how that new division of his ever worked out.

*****

For a long time I thought the lesson was about him; about how he treated the waitress, about what his action revealed about loving your neighbor as yourself. Then it occurred to me what my reaction revealed about loving my neighbor as myself. When he yelled at the waitress I wanted to punch the guy. I was embarrassed for the waitress, for the restaurant and for myself. But mostly for myself. I never said a word in her defense.

Did I really love my neighbor as myself if I didn’t stand up for this poor girl as she was being lambasted? Did I love my neighbor as myself when I refrained from jerking Mr. Important up short and explaining why people weren’t to be treated like this? If there was ever a time this guy would listen to what I had to say it would have been then. But nope, I held my peace. No need getting into and embarrassing and uncomfortable situation over it. After all, It wasn’t I who acted so ass-like and it’s not like he insulted my sister; she was just a waitress.

Sounds pretty simple now doesn’t it? Pretty simple but it took me a long time to see it. How I love my neighbor as myself is a lot more important than what I think about how you love your neighbor as yourself. The lesson is pretty clear now. In that situation I was just as guilty in my silence as Mr. Important was in his display.
Knowing “love your neighbor as yourself” is a lot easier than doing “love your neighbor as yourself.”

What’s your purpose in life? What is that thing God created you for? Well, we know the first part - Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. And we know the second part – love your neighbor as yourself. That’s the basics; that’s blocking and tackling. Get those two things right and the spectacular plays will follow along behind just fine.

*****
Next week we’ll cover how to recognize and act on your unique purpose.

2007-11-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 15
November 8 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Week 3: Whose Purpose is it Anyway?

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21).

I discovered something interesting today. I looked up all the times “purpose” and “plan” were used in the Bible. In the overwhelming majority of cases, “purpose” referred to God’s purpose regarding man and/or creation. There were mentions of this man or that man purposing something, but the majority of references dealt with God’s purpose.

On the other hand, mentions of “plan,” almost always referred to the plans of men. Again, there were passages that referred to God’s plan, but in most cases, where “plan” was used, it was in the context of a plan of men. By the way, my search software used the English Standard Version as its default translation. The word “plan” doesn’t even occur in the King James Translation of the Bible.

So what does all this mean? Why split hairs? Aren’t purpose and plan just different ways to say the same thing? After all, isn’t the plan to fulfill our purpose in life? We want to be happy, and fulfilled; we want to be free from need and we want to be loved. Isn’t that what God wants for our lives too? Isn’t God’s purpose, or plan, for us to live long and happy lives? So what’s the difference between a “purpose” and a “plan” and why does the Bible focus on God when it speaks of purpose and on man when it speaks of plan?

The Bible indicates that plan tends to look at things from man’s side of the equation and purpose tends to look at things from God’s side. The biggest problem I see in our concept of purpose today is in just whose purpose we’re really talking about. We’re all too eager for God’s purpose to fit into our plans. We’re really big on believing that God’s purpose is to prosper us or to give us good health or to keep us safe from harm. But we’re not so big on God’s purpose being personal sacrifice or personal holiness, or personal obedience.

The tone of our prayers is too often, “God help me get that promotion”; “Help me pass this test”; “Keep us safe on vacation and help us all have a good time without killing each other.” How often do we pray, “Thy will be done,” and really mean it?

What if God’s will, His purpose for your life didn’t include health, wealth and happiness? What if his purpose for you was death? Sounds kind of harsh doesn’t it? Surely God’s purpose for me isn’t an untimely and hideous death? What if it were? Would you still be able to pray, “Thy will be done”?

*****

Five bodies floated in Ecuador’s Curaray River. All the bodies of young men, the oldest not yet thirty-two, the youngest twenty-seven. They were family men; all had wives, four had young children. One of the wives was eight months pregnant. All of the men were college graduates, all were missionaries.

Their adult lives were just beginning and they were full of promise. They had undergone intense training and were dedicated to spending their lives bringing the good news of God’s love to a people who had never heard of Jesus Christ. Each of these men and their families had given up family, friends and a future at home to follow the purpose they believed God had put in their lives.

Jim, Nate, Pete, Ed and Roger and their families had spent months “in country” learning the language and customs of the people they were trying to reach with the Gospel. The five men had spent weeks flying Nate’s Piper airplane over a tiny settlement, dropping gifts and calling out in the native language, “We like you.” “We are your friends.” Finally they landed as close as they could; on a sand spit next to the river, still several hours by foot trail from the tiny village.

“Auca” means “savage” and that was the name the outside world had given to this remote group of people. The “savages” had a history of murder in every encounter with the outside since the conquistadors came to South America. They lived in the jungles of Ecuador; remote enough that after every bloody ambush, they would simply dissolve into the jungle and the outsiders would move on to safer territory.
But by 1956 the world was getting smaller. Oil exploration, the need to develop agricultural land, and the authority of the Ecuadorian government and its army, were all making their creeping encroach on the jungle. A final encounter with the Auca was inevitable.

These five friends knew that if their encounter with the outside world was one of force the Auca would not survive. They would be exterminated as pests; enemies of the greater good of progress. The mission of the five was to reach this tribe, win their trust, and tell them about the love of a God they did not know.

Three days after their initial landing two Auca women and a man appeared at their camp. The first meeting went well; the man even took a ride in Nate’s airplane. Afterward the three disappeared into the jungle like they had come. There was no more friendly contact. Three days later the missionaries were dead; murdered by the Auca.

Five young men full of promise, murdered. All with wives and four with young children; all dedicated to serving God with their lives. Five young widows, abandoned in a foreign land, would have to live through the grief and some how put their lives back together. Nine orphaned children; one unborn and the others so young that most would not even remember their father’s face.

And they didn’t even accomplish the mission, the purpose, they believed God had given them; to share the good news of God’s love with the Auca people.

When those five young men prayed, “Thy will be done.” Do you think they had any idea just how that prayer would be answered? Was it really God’s will, God’s purpose that these five men would die on that sand spit in the middle of the jungle? Was it God’s purpose that five young women would lose their husbands and nine little children would grow up without their fathers? How could anyone say that something so senseless and tragic could ever be God’s will? Is it one of those stories we just chalk up to fate or, as we Christians like to say, “the unsearchable mind of God”? What good could ever become of something so bad?

The story continues ….

How the five men behaved in the midst of the massacre remained a puzzle for the Auca warriors who had slain them. There were only six Aucas and there were five white men with guns. Why hadn’t the white men defended themselves? One had fired his gun into the air as a warning shot and had inadvertently wounded an Auca when they grabbed his arm to stop him, but the white men didn’t use their guns in defense of their lives. Why, wondered the Auca, would they behave in such a way, not even to defend their own lives?

Rachel Saint, Nate’s sister and Elizabeth Elliot, Jim’s widow returned to the jungle to tell the Aucas why the five young men had tried to make contact with them. That they had wanted to share the story of “Wangongi’s” (creator God’s) love for them and the gift of His son. The women explained that these five men had made a commitment not to harm the Aucas, even if it meant giving up their lives.

The Aucas listened and they responded. The believed that Wangongi, creator God, loved them; that His own Son refused to defend Himself when men came to kill Him. They learned that the Son of Wangongi had come with a message of love as well; it was the same message these five men had wanted to share with the Auca.

Because of Jim, Nate, Pete, Ed and Roger the Auca’s inevitable encounter with the outside resulted in life for the tribe instead of death. They haven’t disappeared into the jungle or been exterminated by those who protect the progress of nations. They live in peace and worship the God these men had come to share with them. By the way, they’re not called Auca, “Savages,” anymore. That was a name given to them by the outside world. They’re called by their own name, the “Huaorani,” the “People.”

Gikita, the man who led the attack on the missionaries and personally ended the life of Nate Saint and Ed McCully with his spear, became a Christian and an elder in the Huaorani church. He had the privilege of seeing his grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up; a privilege the five missionary men never enjoyed. Gikita died in 1997 at the age of eighty-one. His final wish was to go to Heaven and live peacefully with the five missionary men.

Steve Saint, Nate’s son, five years old at the time of his father’s murder, has lived and worked with the Huaorani throughout his life. He summed up what he believed to be God’s purpose in the lives of the five men who died that day in the jungle.

God took five common young men of uncommon commitment and used them for his own glory. They never had the privilege they so enthusiastically pursued to tell the Huaorani of the God they loved and served. But for every Huaorani who today follows God's trail through the efforts of others, there are a thousand cowodi (outsiders) who follow God's trail more resolutely because of their example. This success withheld from them in life God multiplied and continues to multiply as a memorial to their obedience and his faithfulness.

Nate Saint, Jim Elliott, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming and Roger Youderian all prayed, “Thy will be done.” There was One will; it led them to the same place, they shared the same purpose for their lives. Their final purpose was their first purpose. It was planned for them at the beginning of creation. I’m sure it didn’t fit into whatever plans they had for their lives, but they were willing to submit their plans to His purpose. The death of these five men wasn’t a just tragic accident and it’s not that they hadn’t considered the danger they were stepping into. His purpose already at work, Jim Elliott made this journal entry on October 28, 1949, the year he graduated from Wheaton College; “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot loose.”

*****

I wish you all good things in life; that you would be happy, healthy and free from want. That you would live a long and prosperous life and watch your grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up. But more than that, I pray that God’s purpose would be fulfilled in your life.

Sometimes His purpose overrides our plans; that’s as it should be. There are some things more important than health, wealth and happiness. There are some things more important than life itself.

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12: 24-25).

*****

Nate Saint’s, Jim Elliott’s, Ed McCully’s, Pete Fleming’s and Roger Youderian’s story is told in the books, “Through the Gates of Splendor” and “End of the Spear,” and in the films “Through Gates of Splendor” (1967); “Beyond the Gates of Splendor” (2004) and “End of the Spear” (2006).Steve Saint’s Christianity Today article “Did They Have to Die?” can be found at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/6ta/6ta020.html and http://www.atanycost.org/images/DidTheyHaveToDie.pdf

2007-11-08T18:42:00.000-08:00

Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 14
November 4 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Week 2: Your History - Past, Present and Future

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Most of us know that verse. It usually pops up when something bad has just happened. It’s kind of a Christian, “keep your chin up!” But there’s another time the verse pops up. It’s when you look back at something in your life that seemed not-so-good at the time, which you realize now was for the best.

Have you ever regretted something that’s happened to you or something you’ve done? We all have. How about a certain part of your life when you wish you could take a do-over? Think you’ve lost a couple of months or years on the road to your real purpose in life? Days of your life you’ll never get back? Like I said, we all have.

How about right now? Wondering if your life is kind of stuck in rut mode? You’re hung in the hum-drum. Your day is a repeat of yesterday. Wake up, climb on the hamster wheel, run like the dickens until it’s time to fall back in bed again. Tomorrow? Same stuff – different day.

How do you think God feels about your present existence? Do you ever wonder if He still sees you, loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life? And if He does have a wonderful plan for your life, is this it? Is this the plan? From down here the plan doesn’t look so hot most days.

Do you feel like what you’re doing doesn’t really count for much in light of eternity? Kind of hoping for something more? A little higher purpose than the hamster wheel? Wish you could do something important with your life?

Most of us have been there. A lot of us are still there. We had high hopes early on that there was something really special waiting for us in life. The idealism of youth kind of fades away as the realities of adulthood take over.

There are certain guys in the Bible I really like. Whose lives I can look at and see a parallel and hope for my own situation when I’m feeling a little adrift. That’s where Joseph comes in.

*****

You already know the story of Joseph. If you don’t, pick up a Bible and read Genesis chapters thirty-seven and thirty-nine through forty-seven. Here’s Joseph’s life in bullets.

Second from the youngest of twelve boys. Dad’s favorite
Good looking, well built and smart; but clueless on sibling politics.
Has dreams about his brothers and parents bowing down before him. Family not thrilled.
Dodges assassination attempt by the brothers and is sold as a slave to Midianite traders.
Traders sell him to Egyptian bureaucrat and he gets promoted to head of household staff.
Bureaucrat’s wife gets the hots, gets rebuffed and gets even. Joseph goes to jail.
Gets another promotion and becomes the de-facto jail administrator.
Interprets dreams and seals the fate of Pharaoh’s baker and cup bearer. Cup bearer immediately forgets his emancipator and Joseph’s stuck in jail another two years.
Pharaoh has a dream, cupbearer remembers an overdue debt, Joseph meets Pharaoh.
Joseph interprets dream, becomes prime-minister, rescues family from the famine, and becomes the catalyst by which the family of Jacob becomes the nation of Israel.

*****

Looking at the big picture, it’s obvious to us that Joseph lived a life of eternal destiny. If God hadn’t brought him to Egypt and then brought him to power, if there hadn’t been a severe famine in the land, his family would have never moved to Goshen; a piece of prime real estate where they would survive and thrive and eventually grow from a family into a nation. You can see God’s hand in Joseph’s life with every twist of fate.

But I wonder if Joseph felt that way at the time? At seventeen, he was ripped from his home and family and sold as a slave. He spent thirteen years in a foreign country, either as a slave or in prison. God was watching over him and he enjoyed a certain level of success, but he was still a slave and a prisoner in a foreign land.

I’ll bet there were times in those thirteen years that Joseph wondered what had gone wrong with his life. What great divine plan had separated him from his home and family and had put him in servitude and in prison? He remembered the promise God had made to his father Jacob. He remembered his dreams that one day his family would bow before him. Where were the promise and the dreams now? The way his life was shaping up, he was sure that he would never see his family or homeland again.

At thirty years old Joseph’s life had a dramatic turn-around. Through a whirlwind series of events he found himself as prime-minister of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. He experienced about as much success and fortune as a man could imagine in this foreign country; still his heart ached for his home and family.

Another eight or nine years transpired. Joseph was pushing forty and it looked like God’s promise and his dreams were part of another life; long ago and far away from his present situation.

Joseph made the best of his circumstance, whatever the circumstance happened to be at the moment. He had no idea how God would keep His promise to Jacob or how his own dreams would be fulfilled. From where he was all he could see was the situation at hand. He had to trust God for the big picture.

Almost four thousand years later we can see the big picture pretty clearly. If Joseph hadn’t been sold by his brothers into slavery he would have never traveled to Egypt. If he hadn’t resisted the amorous advances of Potipher’s wife he would have never landed in prison. If he hadn’t gone out on a limb to interpret the dreams of the cupbearer and baker he wouldn’t have found his way to Pharaoh’s court. And if he hadn’t stepped up and interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams he wouldn’t have been put in a position of power. If there hadn’t been a great famine, Joseph’s brothers would never have seen him again. And if Joseph’s family hadn’t moved to Egypt there would have been no nation of Israel four hundred years later … or today.

All the seemingly bad stuff that happened to Joseph in those twenty odd years wasn’t outside of God’s plan and it wasn’t in spite of God’s plan. It was God’s plan. Looking at the big picture, over the span of Joseph’s life and beyond, it’s easy to see God working His plan and Joseph’s eternal purpose unfolding.But Joseph didn’t have the advantage of perspective. When you’re working as a slave in a foreigner’s house, dodging his wife’s little love traps or when you’re sitting in a prison, falsely accused, it’s a little difficult to see God’s plan unfolding in your life.

But the plan is there anyway. Seeing it at work is only a matter of perspective. The great thing about Joseph is that he just kept on trucking, whether he could see the plan working or not. He found himself in a lot of different situations; some of them pretty good, some of them pretty bad. A lot of different situations, but only one Plan. There were probably times when Joseph felt God’s plan for his life had gone terribly awry. But whatever the circumstance, he honored God in his actions. And God worked His plan.

*****

In my own eyes, a lot of the years behind me have been wasted or at least, off target. How could those years be counted as part of God’s plan for my life? In my own eyes, in my own strength, in my own plan, they couldn’t. It would be a miracle if my mixed bag of past and present ever added up to something worthwhile in God’s eternal plan for my life.
A miracle, that’s what it would be. Looking at the big picture that’s just what it is. Just ask Joseph and his brothers, the children of Israel.

“But Joseph said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives’” (Genesis 50: 19, 20).

2007-11-08T18:33:00.000-08:00

Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 13
October 26, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

How You’re Built

I wrote in an earlier letter (Purpose Vol. 1, Issue 10) that I wasn’t big on recipes or seven step strategies for spiritual success. Well, I’m not. But until now I may have been a little philosophical or “big picture” in my approach to understanding our real purpose and fulfilling the true potential God has given each of us.

In order to put the subject in a practical form that you can relate to your life. I’ve identified some aspects of God’s specific purpose for your life and how He works to fulfill that purpose. And, wouldn’t you know, there were seven of them. So, in the tradition of eating my words, we’ll discuss, over the next seven weeks, seven aspects of identifying and living in the specific purpose God has planned for each of our lives.

Thankfully, we’re clear of formulating a recipe and these seven aspects of purpose certainly aren’t strategies for spiritual success that I or anyone else have created. They’re just facets of our lives and His character in which we can begin to see how He weaves the tapestry of His eternal purpose in each of us.

Each week we’ll discuss one of these seven aspects. We won’t deal with them in order of importance or chronology; although there is one that is by far, first and most important … but that won’t come until week three. Today and next week we’ll explore two components of your own make-up and circumstance that reveals God’s specific and eternal intentions toward you.

Week three will be the biggee; without it, nothing else matters, with it everything else makes perfect sense. Weeks four, five and six cover the interaction necessary between you and God to make His purpose in your life a reality. Week seven refers back to God’s character and the perspective you must have regarding your own existence that makes flowing in His purpose possible.

We touched on some of these aspects already, a few we covered in some depth. In the next seven weeks we’ll present each aspect so that at the end of our discussion, on week eight we can put them all together to see how your purpose, more accurately - His purpose for you, is worked out in every fiber of your existence and every facet of His character.

Week 1: How You’re Built

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).

If God has a purpose for you specifically in the time and space of creation and if He considered you personally enough to give you your own unique personality and abilities, wouldn’t it also make sense that His purpose in your existence and His consideration of your unique personality and abilities may be a matched set? In short, you’ve been made to order.

God didn’t create you in such a way as to be incapable or disinterested in what He wants you to accomplish in your life. At times it may seem that what He wants you to do is beyond your capabilities or outside of your interests, but that’s just a part of growing and shaping process each of us must undergo to become useful to His purpose.

Who you are; your personality, your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes - those traits the make you distinctly you - are yours and only yours for a purpose. God knew who you would be long before you were ever born and He knew what He had in store for you as well. Who you are as a person is matched to what it is He has for you to accomplish.

I’m not talking about the bad habits you’ve picked up or the inherited rebellion of the old sin nature left to you by great-grandpa Adam. I’m talking about the character traits, natural talents, abilities and limitations you were born with; what you inherited from mom and dad. Yup, God knew who mom and dad would be too. He knew that you’d be a mix of their chromosomes and He knew how the mix would turn out.

Psychologists pretty much agree that who we are is a result of nature - who mom, dad, grandpa and grandma were - and nurture, how we were raised; our life experience. We’ll talk about the nurture aspect of all this next week.

Mom and dad each contributed twenty-three chromosomes to your genetic make-up. Chromosomes are rod-like structures made up of thousands of genes. Genes are made up of complex DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecules. DNA, we learned in high school biology, is the recipe that makes you, you. How you came out is kind of like shaking dice from a Yahtzee cup. Dominant genes push ahead, recessive genes shrink back and a lot of genes just kind of average out.

Little Suzie may have mom’s eyes, dad’s temperament and Grandpa Jim’s knack for math. It all depends on whether there’s a win, loose or draw between each of the twenty-three chromosome pairings. That’s why you are the way you are … as far as your first birth is concerned.

God also has in store for you a second set of chromosomes, a spiritual set, as a result of your second birth. When you accepted Christ you underwent a second birth, a birth of the spirit (see Purpose Volume 1, Issue 3). You don’t inherit spiritual chromosome pairs from mom and dad in your spiritual birth; but like your physical birth, who you are spiritually is the result of your spiritual nature and nurture. Your spiritual nurture, we’ll cover next week.

What makes up your spiritual nature are the gifts and the measure of faith you were endowed with as a result of your spiritual birth. “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith” (Romans 12:6).

The physical traits - strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes - you inherited from your parents aren’t any more of an accident in God’s plan than the spiritual traits you received as a result of your spiritual birth. He made you physically to fulfill His purpose just like He made you spiritually to fulfill His purpose.

I’m not talking about just the good stuff either. Your weaknesses and dislikes have been given to you to serve His purpose as well. Too often we think of our strengths as a blessing and our weaknesses as a curse. We want to surround ourselves with people and things we like and eliminate from our lives everything and everyone we dislike. That’s man’s economy and man’s plan; not God’s.

God has a purpose for each of your strengths and has instilled in you natural preferences, those types of people and things you’re naturally attracted to. But He’s also allowed your weaknesses and your natural dislikes to be an integral part of His purpose. The apostle Paul knew too well that God chose to use his weakness as well as his strength. Paul carried with him what he called, “… a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” Three times Paul pled with God to remove this weakness from his life. God’s answer to Paul showed His purpose. “… My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Even those people and things to which you have a natural aversion or find unlovely have their purpose in God’s plan for your life. Jesus taught, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that” (Luke 6:32-33).

There is nothing in your natural make-up, those traits you inherited as a result of your natural birth, or in your spiritual make-up, the gifts and proportion of faith you received as a result of your second birth that isn’t a part of God’s perfect will and plan for your life.

Your strengths, the things you’re really good at, glorify God because He gave them to you. Your natural talents and abilities were given to you with a purpose for their use in mind. Do you really think God would have given you an eye for beauty and a hand with the natural dexterity to translate the pictures in your mind onto a palette painted for the eyes of others if He didn’t mean for you to share it as part of His purpose? Do you think he gave you a knack for business and leadership if He didn’t want you to use it in His eternal purpose?

How about your love of animals? You’re nuts about anything with fur. Did you ever ask yourself, or ask Him, why? It’s the same if you have a deep natural love for music, nature, or architecture. What about your love for children or the empathy for those who are hurting? Did God give you those natural loves without a purpose in mind?

It’s easy for us to see our talents, abilities and interests as gifts from God, to be used for His purpose. But what about our shortcomings and handicaps? What about those natural aversions, the things and people we just can’t seem to gather up any sort of natural affection for? Are our weaknesses and dislikes a part of God’s purpose as well?

When you’re focused on your purpose the most important thing to remember is that your purpose is really His purpose for your existence. God’s purpose for man is to glorify Himself. His purpose for your existence is that you may glorify Him. You were designed to do that with every aspect of your being, even those you sometimes wish you didn’t have.

*****

Moses was a man full of insecurities. When God assigned him the task of delivering the Israelites from Egypt, Moses made every excuse possible to get out of the job and begged God to send someone else.

Peter couldn’t help running his mouth before engaging his brain. He was known as the disciple with the foot shaped mouth. He was weak and wishy-washy. One moment he was ready to kill anyone who meant harm to Jesus, in the next he denied even knowing Him.

Paul had a weakness so cruel he called it a “messenger from Satan.”

*****

God put your weaknesses there for a purpose, for His purpose. When your weaknesses become tools for God’s glory it’s obvious to others that some greater hand is at work than your own.

Just like your weaknesses, when God turns your natural aversions around to His glory the world takes notice. Saul was a Pharisee. He was a Jew’s Jew. Anything gentile including the Gentiles themselves were unclean and objects of disdain. That is, until he met Jesus on the Damascus road; the resurrected Messiah to the Jews and the Gentiles. God turned Saul’s natural aversion into Paul’s mission of being the apostle to the Gentiles.

How you’re built, the gifts and handicaps you’ve been given, your likes and dislikes - all things that bundled together make you, you - are there for a purpose. The spiritual gifts God has given to you and the measure of faith allotted to you are sufficient to accomplish the purpose God put you here for.

Don’t think too highly of your talents and abilities; they were given as a gift, to use in His purpose. Don’t cling too tightly to the people, traditions and things you love; they are blessings on loan for His purpose. Don’t mourn your shortcomings or be disappointed in your handicaps; they may be your greatest gift in His economy. And be careful about what and who you disdain; they may be the very palette on which God paints His purpose in your life.

*****

Don’t miss next week. We’ll talk about nurture – how what happens to you prepares you for His purpose.

Until then, may God bless you and keep you.

In Him,
Steve Spillman

2007-11-08T17:57:00.000-08:00

Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 12
October 18, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Individual Purpose vs. Corporate Purpose

Up to this point, Purpose Weekly has focused on individual purpose. But what about corporate purpose? Doesn’t God have a purpose for mankind in general or for the church as a whole? Isn’t focusing on individual purpose a little self-serving? Aren’t we pushing individualism at the expense of the Body of Christ?

There’s a big difference between individual purpose and individualism. Individualism stresses independence and individual rights over that of society as a whole. What’s good for me is more important than what’s good for the group. My rights as an individual are never to be subsumed into the rights of the group.

Individualism flies in the face of the idea that, in Christ, we are one Body, one Bride. The Bible says that, “… in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12: 5).

If we are all one in Christ, shouldn’t we be thinking a little more corporately when it comes to God’s purpose? If we’re all in this together why focus so much on individual purpose? Isn’t the Body as a whole, more important than each of us individually?

We all fall under the same grace; we are all subject to the same commandments. Doesn’t God’s purpose extend to all as well? Isn’t His purpose for all of us summed up in the words of the Westminster Catechism? “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

So what makes the idea of a unique individual purpose so special? All that’s required of any of us is to accept Christ as Savior, avoid sin and ask forgiveness when we’ve stumbled; right? Isn’t living the normal Christian life, going to church, putting money in the plate, raising the kids in a good home, getting along with my spouse, enough? If I try to be a good Christian aren’t I really fulfilling the purpose God has given me, has given all men, in this life?

*****

Jesus met a rich young man in his travels; the story is recorded in Matthew chapter 19, Mark chapter 10 and Luke chapter 18. From the conversation you could infer that the young man was not just wealthy but a pretty good guy as well. From all appearances he was doing everything right.

If we put him in a time machine and zapped him into the 21st century, he would fit quite nicely into any upscale community right here in the States. He would have a successful business or manage an impressive investment portfolio. He would have a wife, two kids and be an upstanding, not to mention financially important, member of his church. What’s more, he’d be a great guy. He would always be helping with projects at the church and in the community. His record of public integrity would be spotless. He would be admired by everyone in the community. If there was a Successful Christian club, this guy would be the poster child.

When this young man approached Jesus he was already living a good, upright, synagogue-going life, but he wanted more. Being good wasn’t good enough; he wanted to be perfect. With the right attitude and an open heart he asked, “What good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus saw through the man’s question to his need: “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good.” Then Jesus gave the man an answer he could understand: “If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”

Now the young man had something he could hold onto. “Which ones?” he wanted to know.

“‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"

“All these I have kept,” the young man replied. “What do I still lack?”

Jesus cut to the bone. “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

This guy had life nailed in every way but one. The man who had everything couldn’t give it up for the one thing. Jesus was asking too much. He followed all the rules but he couldn’t follow the ruler. The story ends with one of the saddest statements I know of in the Bible. It breaks my heart because it happens around us every day. “When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

*****

The Bible is full of commands regarding how we should behave. They are universal in scope and authority. They apply to everybody. Jesus boiled them down into two: “… Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind …” and “… Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22: 37, 39).

We are all under the same instructions regarding how to behave, but each of us has unique instructions regarding how to serve; what, specifically, we should be doing with our lives. This individual purpose speaks to our mission, not to our behavior. It is our unique contribution toward God’s purpose. Don’t ever mix up how He wants you to behave with what He wants you to do.

Paul explained the difference between the two:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
(Romans 12: 1-8)

Paul starts off addressing the group as a whole. His instructions are behavioral and meant for everyone to follow: “offer your bodies as living sacrifices,” “do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Why does Paul want the group, all of them, to behave this way?

So they can, “test and approve what God’s will is.” Concerning their behavior as a group, they don’t need to “test and approve what God’s will is.” They already know. Paul just told them how to behave; “offer your bodies as living sacrifices.” The Law and the Prophets told them how to behave. Jesus, when He walked among them told them how to behave. The apostles wrote them letters filled with instructions about how to behave. They knew how they should behave.

So why was Paul telling them to, “test and approve what God’s will is”? Paul was making a transition from corporate behavior to individual purpose. You can see the transition in the next sentence. “I say to every one of you.” He’s speaking to them as individuals regarding their individual roles and purpose in the group. He’s saying that each member has been given a specific measure of faith and grace and each member has a different gift. Each individual in the group has his or her unique purpose. Each acts individually, but like the members of an orchestra; each plays his or her instrument in concert with the whole.

If we look closely, individual purpose is obvious in group actions. First Baptist Church of Centerville decides, as a group, to build a homeless shelter. This is a group mission, a group purpose. No individual in the group possesses the money and the skills to accomplish this purpose individually. Individual purpose here has been subjugated to the group purpose, right?

Not right. Individual purpose is all over this project. George is a lousy carpenter and he doesn’t know enough about electricity to change a light bulb; but he knows finances. George is the wealthiest guy in the church; everybody knows it but they don’t say much about it. George especially doesn’t make a deal of it; he figures God put him in this position to serve Him. As far as George is concerned it’s God’s money, he just writes the checks. George is tickled to use what he has to be a part of this project.

Bob’s not a rich man; he struggles to make his house payment and keep the lights on each month. His truck odometer is getting ready to roll over 200,000 miles, but it stays running, with a little help. Bob’s got a gift though; he can see a building before it’s built; every beam, every pipe every wire. It just comes natural to him. He’s excited about putting his talent to work on something that will mean more than a paycheck. He can’t afford to take time off work; it’ll have to be on nights and weekends, but that’s okay, he doesn’t mind.

Jan’s not rich and she doesn’t have any construction skills. Her schedule doesn’t allow for a lot of time working on projects away from home. Jan has six kids. Her husband Phil is a long haul trucker. He’s gone a lot, but his paycheck keeps a roof over their heads and the family fed. And if there’s one thing Jan can do it’s feed a family. You can’t survive six kids if you can’t cook and Jan, thank God, can cook. When Jan cooks it’s like she’s cooking for an army. With three of the boys in high school now, the family eats like an army, so it works out. Jan was surprised when she was asked to consider planning the kitchen and menus for the shelter. Her kids were so excited over the project that they volunteered as part time kitchen staff … at home and at the shelter.

The church took on this project; it was a group mission, a group purpose. But any group action is really just a concert of individual players. George, Bob and Jan each have their own gifts and their unique God given purposes. Neither has the gifting or the calling of the other. Each plays his or her own instrument, and the orchestra works.

*****

Jesus didn’t hang on the cross for the group. I know that sounds provocative, maybe even heretical, but think about it. Jesus paid the price for your sin and my sin, not our sin. If I go to hell it won’t be for your sins or Nero’s sins or Hitler’s sins; it’ll be for my sins. When Billy Graham gave his heart to Jesus I wasn’t assured of eternal life, he was.

We all suffer from the same fatal disease. The cure, through faith in Christ, is offered to all of us equally; but not as a group. When I stand before God, it’ll be for my life, not yours. When I trusted Jesus and allowed God’s Holy Spirit into my spirit, I opened up a personal relationship with Him that will last for eternity.

I love my wife and children; so much so that I would die for any of them without a thought. I don’t consider giving up my life for theirs a bad trade. But my relationship with God, the thing that makes my eternal life worthwhile and preserving my life on earth not so important, is mine. It doesn’t belong to them. I couldn’t give it to them if I wanted to. It’s not an option.

God considers us individually. My salvation is personal; it’s only good for one and it’s non-transferable. When God created the universe, He had me individually in mind. He had a purpose for me and me alone, to be fulfilled at this moment in time. God is very personal in His relationships.

The incomprehensible thing about God though, is that your salvation and your purpose are personal too. He had you specifically in mind when he created the universe. His will is that all mankind be saved, but we’re saved one at a time. He has a purpose for all mankind because he has a purpose for every individual. God loves the orchestra because God loves the oboe player, and the violinist and the cellist and the drummer ….

2007-11-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 11
October 11, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Success

This newsletter is really about success. I know it says “Purpose” on the top and I keep talking about “true potential,” but the degree of success you will experience in life comes from understanding your purpose and fulfilling your true potential. So, yup, this is really just a success newsletter.

What separates it from most of the other success literature is its point of view. As far as I can tell, there are only two points of view regarding success. The first we’ll call “man-centric,” the second we’ll call “God-centric.” In the first, the universe revolves around man – me in particular. In the second, the universe revolves around its Creator, and I’m just a part of that revolving universe.

For the past few weeks we’ve discussed purpose, potential and success from the God-centric point of view. This week we’ll try to get a handle on success from the man-centric point of view; definitely the more popular as far as success literature is concerned.

The man-centric point of view puts man – me in particular – at the center of all things. Success in these terms means satisfying my needs and desires and fulfilling my own goals and plans; living according to a purpose I have set for myself. The world and everything in it - the universe itself - is defined in terms of how it relates to me. I am the center and all of creation transverses its orbit around me.

Kind of defines the term self-centered doesn’t it? I am the center of my own universe and everything revolves around me. To be fair, this point of view didn’t really start with man; it had its beginnings much earlier. The inventor and chief promoter of this point of view wasn’t a man at all. But it would suit him just fine if all men, you and me included, followed his example.

Lucifer, the father of man’s most popular success program, was put into a position unparalleled in Creation. In effect, Lucifer was a Prime Minister for God. The earth at the least and possibly the entire universe was under his supervision. Ezekiel prophesied of his glorious position:

You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created.
(Ezekiel 28: 12-15)

Lucifer was about as high and lifted up any created being had ever been. He had been put in a position of nearly absolute power; second only to God. His relationship to all of creation was that of superior to subordinate.

There was a problem though. Lucifer in all of his glory and majesty and power and authority mistook his position of Prime Minister with that of Crown Prince. What directly follows the description of Lucifer’s magnificence as the most glorious of all creatures vividly describes the speed and finality of his fall from grace:

… till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.
(Ezekiel 28:15b-19)

Isaiah related Lucifer’s fall from grace as well:

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.
(Isaiah 14:12-15)

Heaven’s true Crown Prince, Jesus related to his disciples the event to which he was eye-witness: “‘… I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven’” (Luke 10:18).

What happened? How could God’s most glorious creature become the most reviled and twisted being in the universe? Lucifer mistook God’s glory for his own. He mistook Gods majesty and power for his own. He mistook God’s purpose and property for his own. Lucifer mistook the role of servant for the role of master.

Lucifer attributed his position and power to himself. He came to believe that he was self-made. He came to believe that he could accomplish anything his will desired. “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” He came to believe that he was the master of his own destiny, the cause of his own success, and the author of his purpose and plan.

Sound familiar? “Anything you can imagine, you can accomplish.” “You are the master of your own destiny.” “You deserve the very best life has to offer.” “Man is the measure of all things.” “You determine your own reality.”

A little success tends to go to our heads. We see our position and the wealth we’ve acquired and think somehow that we are the cause of it; that we have created our own situation. And that because of our hard work and talent and beauty and skill we somehow deserve what we have and anything else we could imagine or desire. It’s an old feeling; now at least you know where it comes from.

******

Satan tried his program on Jesus. He caught him at a low point; alone and in the wilderness, after forty days with nothing to eat. Physically and psychologically Jesus had pushed it to the limit. He was being prepared for the next three years of his life on earth and boot camp was hell. Now at the end of it, Satan appeared on the scene to offer Jesus a little worldly relief.

“You’re hungry.” Satan said to Jesus. “You’ve not had a bite to eat for forty days.” “I’ll bet you’re wondering too - are you really the Christ, the anointed one?” “Turn these stones into bread. If, at your command, the stones become bread you will erase all doubt that you are the Son of God and you will be fed.” “Why not see for yourself if this is true?”

Satan tempted Jesus with the most basic of human needs. He was hungry. Satan wanted Jesus to look to himself for the provision of his needs. Surely Jesus was capable of something as simple as providing food for himself. If he was truly the son of God, he could change stones into bread with a word. He knew he had the power. Surely Jesus could demonstrate his self-sufficiency in an act as simple as providing his own meal.

Jesus saw through Satan’s trap. Man’s sustenance doesn’t come from himself, not even the Son of Man, and bread doesn’t equal life. Man finds his sustenance in the Word of God and his supply at the hand of God; even in something as simple as a loaf of bread. Jesus answered Satan’s tactic with scripture. “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Having failed at twisting this most basic human need to his own purpose, Satan moved up the pyramid a notch (remember Maslow’s pyramid and the hierarchy of human needs?). He brought Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple, its highest point. Adjusting his strategy to include scripture he said, “Throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Satan was appealing to his need for safety and security. It was promised in scripture that God would not allow His chosen one to come to harm. He was also appealing to his need for acceptance. The Temple was a very public place. If the Jews were to see Jesus plummet from the highest point of the temple, only to be caught up by the angels of God before his foot was allowed to strike a single stone of the pavement below, then surely the Jews would recognized his position of majesty and authority as the Son of God, the Anointed One.

Jesus, however, already knew the source of his safety and security. He knew that even if the entire world failed to recognize him as the Son of God, acceptance and approval from his Father in heaven was sufficient. He didn’t need to prove himself at the request of his adversary. He answered Satan’s twisting of scripture with scripture. “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Finally Satan played his trump card. The strategy that had worked for him since man began to populate the earth. A universal weakness in man, something Satan had recognized from the beginning because it was also the weakness that precipitated his personal fall from grace.

Satan took Jesus to a place where he could view the kingdoms of the earth in all of their splendor, wealth and glory. “I will give you all of their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

All the kingdoms of the earth. All of their wealth. All of the power, the glory, the honor that comes along with ruling the kingdoms of the earth. Quite a success story. “Anything you can imagine, you can accomplish.” “You are the master of your own destiny.” “You deserve the very best life has to offer.” “Man is the measure of all things.” “You determine your own reality.” “All you need to do is fall down on your knees and worship me.”

Jesus was hungry and ragged. He had been in the wilderness for forty days. By all appearances he was no King of Kings. His current circumstance certainly didn’t reflect his role of the Chosen One. But Jesus did know his true position and authority. He knew his destiny and was confident in his ultimate reward. He knew also, Whom he served and his place in the Kingdom. Anything Satan could offer in his kingdom was insufficient in light of the Kingdom to come. “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” Jesus’ reply silenced his adversary. Satan left him to wait “for a more opportune moment.”

*****

We’ve discussed before how our drive for success has its roots in the necessity of fulfilling our basic needs. We’ve also discussed how God’s instruction of how to go about fulfilling our needs is very different from man’s philosophy. Now that we’ve seen who invented man’s philosophy of success, we can get a glimpse of its ultimate end.

Man can make up some pretty impressive positive affirmations: “You are the master of your own destiny.” “Recognition for your accomplishments and position rightfully falls on your own shoulders.” “Your position, accomplishments and wealth are the result of your own efforts and talent.” “You deserve the credit.” “If you put your mind and resolve to it, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.” “Your reality is determined by your thinking.” “If you think on a thing long enough and hard enough, you can make it come to pass.” “The power of attraction will draw all things unto you.” “Imagine yourself at the center of your own universe; all things orbit around you and were created for your benefit.”

Keep working on the slogans. You can create a modicum of success and self-satisfaction in this world through your own efforts. People do it all the time. You can create your own reality, your own universe; and all of the objects in your own self-made universe can find their orbit around your center. A lot of very successful people have done just that. They are, in their understanding, self-made. Like the inventor of the program, these folks believe they are the master of all they survey, the source of their own glory.

But be warned. The inventor of this success plan has a miserable future waiting for him. Ultimately, those that follow the program are headed for the same destination. Unfortunately that’s where the plan leads.

But there is a better plan. One in which you’re not the center of your own little universe, but a unique part of a much larger one. One in which you give glory and honor instead of receive it. One in which you accept the position and destiny created for you before the foundations of the world, rather than trying to carve out your own. The only one that ultimately leads to the kind of success we’ve been taking about.

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:3-6 ESV)

*****

Looks like I’ve done it again! Remember a few weeks ago when I gave Paul credit for something Peter wrote? Well, last week I attributed a passage in Hebrews to the Apostle Paul. A long time ago people called Hebrews, “The Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews,” but Bible scholars pretty much agree that Paul didn’t write it. They don’t know who did, but they don’t think it was Paul. So, sorry again for giving Paul more credit than he’s due (I must really like the guy). As far as I know, I’ve never attributed an Old Testament book to Paul, but keep an eye on me.

Until next week, may God bless you and keep you and may all your paths be made straight.

Steve Spillman