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

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