Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 10
October 4, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
First Things First … continued
Last week we talked about how Jesus turned Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Human Needs” pyramid upside-down and flattened it with a single statement: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
This week we’ll discuss just what “seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness” means and how we might go about. I’m glad we’re focusing on this passage this week. For me, Matthew 6:33 is a kind of theme for how I should live my life; some folks would call it my life verse.
In ancient days, merchants and government officials used a black stone to determine the value of precious metals. They would rub gold or silver along the stone’s surface and by the color of the streak it left they would be able to determine whether the metal was pure or if it had been alloyed with something cheaper like lead or tin. This black stone came to be known as a touchstone. The term is used metaphorically these days. A touchstone is a standard by which one judges the value of an object or idea.
Matthew 6:33 is my touchstone. When I prioritize the tasks for the day, I put them up against Matthew 6:33 to see how they measure up. When I consider a new project, I let Matthew 6:33 tell me whether it’s worth my time or not. When I start to fret over making ends meet, Matthew 6:33 puts my priorities back in order and assures me that if I do my job, He’ll do His. It’s my touchstone.
We’ll try to accomplish a couple of things in this letter. First we’ll take apart Matthew 6:33, word by word, so we can try to understand the whole meaning of the passage; what Bible scholars call exegesis. Then we’ll try to apply what we understand about the scripture to real life. As an example, I’ll tell you how I apply it in my life.
Let’s exegete this verse. Matthew wrote his original gospel in Greek. Nobody knows where that one is now, but the earliest copies are also written in Greek. So, we’ll look at the Greek words Matthew used and their definitions. Then we’ll look at the context in which the words were used. Lastly we’ll put the verse back together, with our definitions and we’ll wind up with our own “Amplified” version of the verse.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
The first word “But” refers back to what Jesus was just saying before this passage. He was talking about people spending their time and energy worrying about things that didn’t matter much in the long run. Their lives were consumed with “what shall we eat” and “what shall we drink.” He said that pagans worry about stuff like that. God knows we need food and clothing and He’ll take care of it. We shouldn’t waste our lives worrying about stuff like that.
The next word “seek” is the Greek word zeteo. Zeteo is a verb that means “to seek in order to find … by thinking, meditating, reasoning, to enquire into”; to “strive after”; to “require, demand.” Bible scholars also define verbs in terms of tense (when), voice (active or passive) and mood (imperative, indicative or subjunctive). Zeteo is in the present tense, active voice and imperative mood. Basically that means, “Hey you, I mean you (active voice); do this, do it now and don’t stop doing it (present tense); and that’s not a suggestion, it’s an order (imperative mood).
“First” is the Greek word proton. Proton is an adverb; it refers to the verb we just mentioned, “seek.” It’s telling us when and how to “seek.” Proton means first in time, first in place, first in priority; it’s the number one item in rank and schedule, the chief and principal thing. There’s nothing more important than the verb to which it refers.
“Kingdom” is the Greek word basileia. It’s a noun. Basileia means “royal power, kingship, dominion, rule.” It also refers to “the royal power of Jesus as the triumphant Messiah.”
“Righteousness” is the Greek word dikaiosune. Dikaiosune is a noun that means “the state of one who is as he ought to be, the condition acceptable to God.” Or, “concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God”; “integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting.”
“All” is the Greek word pas. Pas is an adjective; it refers to a noun, in this case everything Jesus was talking about earlier - the people’s worry over food and clothing. Pas means “each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything”; “some of all types.”
The English phrase “will be given” translates the Greek word prostithemi. Prostithemi is a verb that means “to put to,” or “to add.” It’s in the future tense - an event that is yet to occur. The voice is passive - the subject is now the one receiving. The mood is indicative – it is a simple statement of fact, it’s going to happen, no maybes.
Okay, now that I’ve dragged you through Exegetics 101, what does it all mean? Let’s assemble everything together into the Steve/ [insert your name here] Amplified Modern English Version:
“But (referring to all that stuff you’ve been worrying so much about) seek (and I mean seek like you mean it, start right now and don’t quit seeking, and that’s an order, not a suggestion) first (first on your schedule, first in your day, first in importance, the highest priority in your life) his (God’s) kingdom (power, authority, dominion and rule) and his righteousness (the condition God approves of and considers acceptable; integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting), and all (all that stuff you’ve been worried about, everything, every bit of it, some of every variety, the whole shebang) these things will be given (it’s going to happen, I’m not kidding around, it’s a done deal, you can count on it) to you as well (that’s in addition to your attaining the kingdom of God, which is far more important all that stuff you were worried about that you received anyway)” (Matthew 6:33).
In seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness first, not only does He take care of all the earthly stuff we’re worried about not having enough of, we actually receive the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We enlist on His side, in His plan, in His purpose; we begin to be and do what we were born to be and do. We’re fulfilling our (His) purpose and living up to our true potential.
*****
So how does one go about seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousness? I mean practically, step by step. What do you do first? I’ll tell you what I do (I’m not batting a thousand but my average is going up) and why I do it. It might help you, it might not. But it makes sense to me.
Since Jesus says “seek first,” I seek God first thing in the morning; before watching the news, before checking my e-mail, before touching any of those “urgent” tasks that have been nagging me. If I fill my mind with news and e-mails and “urgent” tasks before spending time with God, my mind is on them, not on Him. The earlier I the morning I “seek first” the better. If I meet with God before the rest of the world gets up, they won’t bother us. The later the morning gets, the greater the gravitational pull this world and its priorities have on me.
The first thing I do is pray the Lords Prayer, following the example Jesus gave in Matthew 6:9-13. I don’t speed through it like Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers either. Because I know it so well and have prayed it so many times, I stop and hold each phrase in my mind for a moment, letting it sink into my spirit. This prayer is like a reboot for my spiritual systems. It lines up my priorities according to God’s priorities. It’s kind of like a spiritual chiropractic adjustment. If anything got out of line in the last twenty-four hours, I pray according to how Jesus instructed and “crack,” I’m lined up, right as rain and ready to move forward.
I spend time in God’s Word. He reveals Himself to us in His Word. The Bible is not just a book. Paul says, “… the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).The Holy Spirit can open my eyes to something mind blowing in a passage I have read a hundred times before. You can’t know God without knowing His Word.
I read the Bible from front to back, then start at the front again. If God leads me to some specific passage I go there. If I’m studying a particular subject I may be all over the book and in several different translations. But just for devotional habit’s sake, I go from front to back.
I know a guy who God talks to by giving him scripture verses. Whatever his problem, whatever his issue, God gives him a scripture reference and bang, it applies directly to what he’s going through and gives him direction on which way to move.
I’ve heard of people who close their eyes and stick their finger in a page; whatever verse their finger is on is the one they believe God means for them to read; kind of like Bible roulette. If it works, more power to these folks. Bible roulette doesn’t work for me; I always end up in “Between the Testaments.” It’s easier for me just to go from front to back.
You want to know something really miraculous? God speaks to me from His word, gives me exactly the appropriate scripture for what I’m going through; and I’m just going from front to back. Yesterday was Exodus 8 and it hit me right between the eyes for what was happening in my life yesterday. Today, a different set of concerns, a different set of circumstances, other things on my mind and bang, Exodus 9 is all about today’s issues. How cool is that?
I don’t have a tremendous amount of natural faith. God has to regularly send spiritual Post-it notes to assure me that He’s got my back. The longer I walk with Him and the more Post-it notes I collect, the stronger my faith gets, but I don’t come by it naturally. He’s very graceful to me in that way and I appreciate it. When He sends me a personal message from Exodus 8 on Tuesday and one from Exodus 9 on Wednesday, I remember that He’s running things and relax a little.
After I read, I spend quiet time with Him. Sometimes I pray for people He’s put on my heart, sometimes for me, sometimes just a list of people and things on my mind. A lot of times I just listen.
And you know what? Every time I listen, He speaks. I don’t have to get into some kind of hyped-up spiritual state, I just have to listen. He speaks into my mind, not my ear. I used to doubt it. I figured that it could just be me. Saying to myself what I think God would say and attributing it to Him. But now I know better. I’m not smart enough to tell me what He tells me.
Anyway, my “seek first” time each morning takes less than an hour. It sets me up for the whole day. My heart and my mind get steeped in His kingdom and His righteousness before the world can get its hands on me. Throughout the day, it’s easier to keep a “seek first” mindset when I make it my first priority of the day.
I’m not big on recipes or “seven step strategies” for spiritual success. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” is a universal imperative. It applies to all of us. But each of us is a little different; how each of us apply it to our lives may vary. I just told you how I apply it to mine. Your job is to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness”; how exactly you go about it is between you and Him.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 9
September 27, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
First Things First
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
We live in a pretty materialistic culture; we tend to confuse purpose or meaning in life with success. And we tend to confuse success with the accumulation of material possessions. The more stuff we have, the more successful we must be. The more successful we are the more purpose or meaning our lives must have. We draw meaning from the stuff we collect.
It’s not all our fault. Our need to collect stuff has its roots in the most basic of our survival instincts. Upon ejection from the garden, Adam and Eve figured out real quick that without food and protection from the elements they would die. Food and protection from the elements are the most basic of human needs; necessary for survival.
Once our ancestors garnered enough food, clothing and shelter to satisfy their immediate needs they began to squirrel away a little extra, for a rainy day. And the habit of collecting stuff was established.
After we had collected enough food, clothing and shelter to take the edge off, other needs began to pop up. According to psychology guru Abraham Maslow, when we satisfy our most basic human needs we move toward fulfilling other needs, such as the need for safety and security, love, esteem, and self-actualization. He illustrated the progression of human needs as a pyramid. Food and protection from the elements were on the bottom of the pyramid, safety and security came next, then the need for love and acceptance, then esteem and recognition. At the top of the pyramid was our need for self-actualization. Thanks to Maslow, we have the humanist version of meaning, purpose and success in a nutshell … or at least, in a pyramid.
Maslow believed that once a person’s basic needs for air, water, food and shelter were met, he or she could move on to the next level of human need, which was safety. Safety, in human culture was provided by the group - the tribe. As civilization progressed this became the state or the government. The tribe protected us from wild animals and other marauding tribes; the government protects us from criminals and other marauding governments.
Once our safety needs have been met, according to Maslow, we seek to satisfy our love or belonging needs; the need for friendship, family and sexual intimacy. Once those have been met we move on to satisfy our need for esteem; the need to be recognized by ourselves and others as important. We want self-respect and the respect of the community.
When our esteem needs have been met we’re able to climb to the uppermost level of the human needs pyramid – the need for self-actualization. Self-actualization, the peak of human needs fulfillment, is manifest by our developing a sense of morality, creativity and spontaneity; forgetting our prejudices and accepting the truth about how things are.
According to Maslow, we have to work our way up to self-actualization. We can’t address issues like morality, beauty, justice and truth until we’ve met our more basic needs, like being fed, clothed, loved and esteemed by others.
About two-thousand years ago, Jesus spoke to a huge crowd that had assembled on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. They came to witness His miracles. He came to teach them His hierarchy of human needs; without the benefit of Maslow’s pyramid.
*editor’s note: Jesus then said something I didn’t quite understand. “The eye is the lamp of the whole body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness” (22-23).
Jesus turned the Jews’ hierarchy of needs (and Maslow’s) on its head. Of their most basic needs he said: “… do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” He told them that the birds don’t work nine-to-five jobs or have fully funded 401(k)s and yet God provides food for them. The lilies of the field are dressed without the aid of Target and J.C. Penney and yet they are clothed in a splendor the richest kings of the earth couldn’t match.
Vol. 1 Issue 9
September 27, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
First Things First
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
We live in a pretty materialistic culture; we tend to confuse purpose or meaning in life with success. And we tend to confuse success with the accumulation of material possessions. The more stuff we have, the more successful we must be. The more successful we are the more purpose or meaning our lives must have. We draw meaning from the stuff we collect.
It’s not all our fault. Our need to collect stuff has its roots in the most basic of our survival instincts. Upon ejection from the garden, Adam and Eve figured out real quick that without food and protection from the elements they would die. Food and protection from the elements are the most basic of human needs; necessary for survival.
Once our ancestors garnered enough food, clothing and shelter to satisfy their immediate needs they began to squirrel away a little extra, for a rainy day. And the habit of collecting stuff was established.
After we had collected enough food, clothing and shelter to take the edge off, other needs began to pop up. According to psychology guru Abraham Maslow, when we satisfy our most basic human needs we move toward fulfilling other needs, such as the need for safety and security, love, esteem, and self-actualization. He illustrated the progression of human needs as a pyramid. Food and protection from the elements were on the bottom of the pyramid, safety and security came next, then the need for love and acceptance, then esteem and recognition. At the top of the pyramid was our need for self-actualization. Thanks to Maslow, we have the humanist version of meaning, purpose and success in a nutshell … or at least, in a pyramid.
Maslow believed that once a person’s basic needs for air, water, food and shelter were met, he or she could move on to the next level of human need, which was safety. Safety, in human culture was provided by the group - the tribe. As civilization progressed this became the state or the government. The tribe protected us from wild animals and other marauding tribes; the government protects us from criminals and other marauding governments.
Once our safety needs have been met, according to Maslow, we seek to satisfy our love or belonging needs; the need for friendship, family and sexual intimacy. Once those have been met we move on to satisfy our need for esteem; the need to be recognized by ourselves and others as important. We want self-respect and the respect of the community.
When our esteem needs have been met we’re able to climb to the uppermost level of the human needs pyramid – the need for self-actualization. Self-actualization, the peak of human needs fulfillment, is manifest by our developing a sense of morality, creativity and spontaneity; forgetting our prejudices and accepting the truth about how things are.
According to Maslow, we have to work our way up to self-actualization. We can’t address issues like morality, beauty, justice and truth until we’ve met our more basic needs, like being fed, clothed, loved and esteemed by others.
*****
About two-thousand years ago, Jesus spoke to a huge crowd that had assembled on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. They came to witness His miracles. He came to teach them His hierarchy of human needs; without the benefit of Maslow’s pyramid.
Jesus began his teaching with the most anti-success speech every given. “Blessed are the poor in spirit … blessed are those who mourn … blessed are the meek … blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness … blessed are the merciful … blessed are the pure in heart … blessed are the peacemakers … blessed are those who are persecuted.” And, for the big finish, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”
What kind of motivational talk was that? These people didn’t hike all out to the backside of nowhere to hear Jesus tell them that the worse off they were the better off they were. That didn’t even make sense. They had heard that Jesus was a miracle worker. He turned water into wine, he healed the sick and he cast out demons. They came here to see a show. They came here to have their needs met. And now, instead of miracles, Jesus is telling them that they’ll be abused and ridiculed because of their association with Him, and they should be glad about it?
Jesus knew something about their needs they didn’t know. He knew something about their needs Maslow didn’t know. Jesus was present on the day of creation. He was present when the first man took his first breath. He knew a little about what man’s needs really were. He wanted to turn their thinking around about what was really needful.
And turn their thinking around he did. Jesus turned every belief they held as sacred on its head. First he destroyed the Law. He didn’t destroy the law by abolishing it, but by fulfilling it. More accurately, He didn’t destroy the Law; He destroyed their perception of the Law. To the Jews, the Law was the Letter. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, obey the rules for divorce, fulfill your oaths, make the punishment fit the crime, love your friends – hate your enemies.
Jesus destroyed the Letter of the Law by revealing the Spirit of the Law. Anyone who speaks in anger to his brother is as guilty as a murderer. Anyone who looks at another woman in lust is guilty of adultery. Anyone who divorces his wife for a reason other than her adultery causes her to be an adulteress. Don’t make any oaths, you’re not qualified. Don’t seek justice for yourself when you’ve been wronged. Love your enemies.
The Jews found safety in the Law. Jesus destroyed that safety. Under Jesus’ Law, when they were wronged, they were to take no recourse. And the private crimes of their hearts held the same penalties as adultery and murder. It they hated their brother they were as guilty as a murderer. If they lusted they were adulterers. There was no room for vengeance in this new Law. A man was to love his enemy and submit to his oppressor. The safety Israel found in the Letter of the Law was made void by the Spirit of the Law.
Moving up the pyramid, Jesus destroyed their definition of love and brotherhood. It wasn’t good enough to love their friends and family, now they must love their enemies. How could they feel a sense of closeness or the intimacy of friendship and kinship when even their enemies were to be their friends and brothers?
Jesus destroyed their sources of esteem and respect. He attacked their most sacred sources of self-righteousness. He preached that they should give quietly and secretly, not seeking any recognition for their gifts. When they prayed, it should be done in private and when they fasted they should do their best not to show any outward sign of hunger or physical distress.
Up to this point, giving to the poor had been a win/win proposition. The poor received some relief by way of a generous gift and the giver received recognition from the community. Heck, if gift is generous enough they’d even blow the temple trumpets so the crowd could witness the giver’s grandiose philanthropy. Now Jesus was saying that gifts like this didn’t even count. He warned them not to expect any reward from their Father in heaven; the “oohhs” and “aahhs” of the crowd were reward enough.
How they prayed and fasted wasn’t good enough for Jesus either. He wanted them to hide their acts of righteousness from others. How would the community know of their sanctity and holiness without public displays of prayer, loud and long, so that by its volume and duration their neighbors could appreciate what godly men they truly were? How would others know the pain of their sacrificial fasts if they hid all outward signs of their suffering? What good was fasting if their neighbors couldn’t appreciate the price of their devotion and praise them for it?
Finally Jesus attacked their holy of holies, their greatest sanctity. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
*****
*editor’s note: Jesus then said something I didn’t quite understand. “The eye is the lamp of the whole body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness” (22-23).
That passage was beyond me. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. I had to consult a few other resources for help. The Bible Knowledge Commentary explained the passage so I could understand.
The Pharisees believed the Lord materially blessed all He loved. They were intent on building great treasures on earth …. The Pharisees had this problem because their spiritual eyes were diseased. With their eyes they were coveting money and wealth. Thus they were in spiritual darkness. They were slaves to the master of greed, and their desire for money was so great they were failing in their service to their true Master, God.
Whew! It sounds like Israel was having a lot of trouble with Pharisees and greed back then. I’m sure glad we don’t have Pharisees around anymore.
*****
Jesus turned the Jews’ hierarchy of needs (and Maslow’s) on its head. Of their most basic needs he said: “… do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” He told them that the birds don’t work nine-to-five jobs or have fully funded 401(k)s and yet God provides food for them. The lilies of the field are dressed without the aid of Target and J.C. Penney and yet they are clothed in a splendor the richest kings of the earth couldn’t match.
If that is how God cares for the birds and the flowers of the field, Jesus explained, will He not much more clothe and feed you? These are the kind of things pagans worry about all day long, but you belong to God, why are you worrying about such things?
But Jesus didn’t leave them hanging. He knew about their needs and He had His own hierarchy.
It wasn’t a pyramid. It was a simple command. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Your Father in heaven knows your needs. He knows you need food and clothing. He knows your electric bill is due next Tuesday and He knows the car is starting to smoke. He knows Billy needs braces and He knows Mom’s getting older. He knows all that. If He cares for the birds and the flowers of the field do you really think He won’t care for you?
His command is simple: “… seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” He’ll take care of everything else. When you obey the Law, obey the Spirit of the Law. When you love, love like He does; love your enemies. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)
.
When you give, give in secret; He sees it. When you pray and fast, do it privately. Prayer and fasting are to glorify God, not for men to glorify you.
And for heaven’s sake, don’t worry. He’s your Father, you’re His child. What do you have to worry about? Take one day at a time and trust Him to be good to His Word. Like Jesus said,
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).
Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 8
September 20, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
Parting the Red Sea
Something’s been bothering me since the seventh grade and now’s a good time to get it off my chest. It’s about God. About His abilities actually. Did He really do all those things the Bible claims He did?
It was in seventh grade that the question first came up. Until then I just assumed that God was capable of making the sun stand still and confusing men with different languages and flooding the entire earth. That’s what the Bible stories in my Sunday school class said; why should I doubt it?
I went to a Christian school. It’s kind of ironic that a kid would be taught to doubt God for the first time in a Christian school, but that’s where it happened. In Bible class we were learning about the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. After all the plagues Pharaoh lets the Israelites go and they all leave Egypt and start out across the desert to the Promised Land. A couple of days after they’re gone, Pharaoh changes his mind. It seems he misses the Israelites and all that free labor. He rounds up his war chariots and takes off into the desert to retrieve them.
I was just kind of half-consciously following along as our teacher recounted the story. I was a preacher’s kid and I had been in Sunday school since birth. I had long since memorized every Bible story ever made for flannelgraph (a 1960’s version of PowerPoint). Everything he said was old news to me … until he got to the Red Sea.
It seems, our teacher told the class, that we’ve been mistaken about God parting the Red Sea so the Israelites could pass through on dry land. The Red Sea in the Bible, according his scholarly sources, was better translated “Reed Sea,” or “Sea of Reeds.” Apparently the “Reed Sea” was just a shallow, swampy backwater; a little mucky perhaps, but crossable on foot. There wasn’t actually any need for God to part the “Sea of Reeds” and our flannelgraph pictures of Israelites hiking a dirt path between two enormous walls of water weren’t really accurate.
Our Bible teacher went on to explain that Pharaoh’s heavy iron chariots weren’t made for mud bogging and their wheels became hopelessly mired in the mucky “Reed Sea.” And that, folks, was how the Israelites got away from the Egyptians.
My mind was swimming. The buzzing inside my head drowned out anything else he might have said during the class period. At thirteen, I was having my first spiritual meltdown. No enormous walls of water. No Israelites filing dry-sandaled through the God-made causeway at the bottom of the sea. No Egyptians throwing their hands up in terror as the sea walls above their heads came crashing down upon them.
My faith was in a nose dive - spiraling out of control and headed for a fiery crash. If God parting the Red Sea wasn’t true, what about the other Bible stories? What about the walls of Jericho? Did they really come tumbling down? How about the ark? Did all those animals really form a line two-by-two and march up the gangplank past Noah as he checked them in at the door? What about the loaves and fishes? That was my favorite. Did Jesus really feed five-thousand people with one boy’s lunch?
At thirteen it never occurred to me to ask the teacher how the entire Egyptian army could drown in a swamp that a million Hebrew men, women and children, along with all of their possessions had just slogged through without incident. Or, if I had been a better seventh grade Bible student I might have asked where the “walls of water” mentioned in Exodus chapter 14 came from. Or, if it was easier for God to part the sea for the Israelites or to drown the Egyptians in a twelve inch deep “Sea of Reeds.” Like I said, I was thirteen; to question the teacher’s logic never occurred to me.
It took me a while to get over that one. It didn’t take so long to restore my faith in God’s ability to do things we think of as miraculous. It’s pretty easy for a kid to have faith in God. What took me a while to get over, was our Bible teacher - because he couldn’t personally get it into his head as a possibility - telling all those children that God couldn’t part the Red Sea.
I may not be over it yet.
A lot of you know that my father, Jim Spillman, wrote a book titled The Great Treasure Hunt several years ago; and that I republished it recently and wrote a follow-up book called Breaking the Treasure Code: the Hunt for Israel’s Oil. The thesis of these books is that Jacob’s Blessing in Genesis and Deuteronomy contain the prophecy of a great petroleum discovery in the land of Israel in the last days. The proof behind the thesis is that the tribal borders of Israel match the prophecy exactly.
Contextually speaking, that’s a pretty sound argument. That is, if your context includes the Bible as a book written by men, relying only on their own understanding, at their specific time in history, strictly for an audience of their contemporaries.
A lot of literature is like that. When Shakespeare wrote, “What light through yonder window breaks?” It would be a little silly to postulate that he could have been referring to a 40 watt GE Softlight bulb. Electric lighting hadn’t been invented; the concept was outside of his context.
If, however, your context includes the Bible as the Word of God, that its pages were God inspired and breathed, that it is a timeless, living document, meant for men today as much as when it was first penned by the fathers, then it’s possible that its words could carry a deeper meaning than the contextual framework of its scribes.
Peter summed up how the man-God writing Bible partnership worked:
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the word of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (II Peter 2:11)
By their own admission, the Jacob/Moses/God partnership stated that the message was for the last generation of Jacob’s children, not the first … “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days” (Genesis 49:1). Hmmm … according to the contextual framework of its authors, the passages were meant for a day when oil could mean a lot more than just olive oil.
If God inspired men to prophesy (and about one-third of the Bible is prophecy) about a blessing to come upon the last generation of Israel’s children and His contextual framework included the technological and political circumstance of Israel’s children in the last days, don’t you think it’s just possible that the Bible might have been referring to petroleum oil when scripture after scripture alludes to just that?
*****
If your contextual framework can’t include the Bible, its prophecies and its miracles, coming from beyond the contextual framework of its ancient scribes, then you’re in the same position as my seventh grade Bible teacher – limiting God to what you can understand.
If the Bible is just a book of collected wisdom that was written by a bunch of wise men a long time ago and if God’s abilities are limited by your ability to understand and accept His works as possible, then why bother?
Seriously. Why bother with the Bible if it’s just a really good book? Why bother with God if He’s incapable of parting the Red Sea and raising the dead because those kinds of things are beyond the parameters of what you’re able to conceive as possible? Why bother? Hanging on to a book like that or a god like that isn’t worth your time; go read a magazine or watch TV. But please, whatever you do, don’t become a seventh grade Bible teacher.
The Bible is the living Word of God. Its message is more relevant today than it was when it was written. God knew that. He planned it that way. His contextual framework is so far beyond ours that we can’t begin to imagine what is possible to Him. Rescuing us from a life shattering tragedy is no more difficult for God than easing our slightest worry. It’s no more difficult than parting the Red Sea. For Him, it’s just a thought.
Don’t ever limit God or His Word to your contextual framework. Instead open yourself up to His. Toss aside your limitations; they don’t exist in His world.
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (I Corinthians 2:9).
Vol. 1 Issue 8
September 20, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
Parting the Red Sea
Something’s been bothering me since the seventh grade and now’s a good time to get it off my chest. It’s about God. About His abilities actually. Did He really do all those things the Bible claims He did?
It was in seventh grade that the question first came up. Until then I just assumed that God was capable of making the sun stand still and confusing men with different languages and flooding the entire earth. That’s what the Bible stories in my Sunday school class said; why should I doubt it?
I went to a Christian school. It’s kind of ironic that a kid would be taught to doubt God for the first time in a Christian school, but that’s where it happened. In Bible class we were learning about the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. After all the plagues Pharaoh lets the Israelites go and they all leave Egypt and start out across the desert to the Promised Land. A couple of days after they’re gone, Pharaoh changes his mind. It seems he misses the Israelites and all that free labor. He rounds up his war chariots and takes off into the desert to retrieve them.
I was just kind of half-consciously following along as our teacher recounted the story. I was a preacher’s kid and I had been in Sunday school since birth. I had long since memorized every Bible story ever made for flannelgraph (a 1960’s version of PowerPoint). Everything he said was old news to me … until he got to the Red Sea.
It seems, our teacher told the class, that we’ve been mistaken about God parting the Red Sea so the Israelites could pass through on dry land. The Red Sea in the Bible, according his scholarly sources, was better translated “Reed Sea,” or “Sea of Reeds.” Apparently the “Reed Sea” was just a shallow, swampy backwater; a little mucky perhaps, but crossable on foot. There wasn’t actually any need for God to part the “Sea of Reeds” and our flannelgraph pictures of Israelites hiking a dirt path between two enormous walls of water weren’t really accurate.
Our Bible teacher went on to explain that Pharaoh’s heavy iron chariots weren’t made for mud bogging and their wheels became hopelessly mired in the mucky “Reed Sea.” And that, folks, was how the Israelites got away from the Egyptians.
My mind was swimming. The buzzing inside my head drowned out anything else he might have said during the class period. At thirteen, I was having my first spiritual meltdown. No enormous walls of water. No Israelites filing dry-sandaled through the God-made causeway at the bottom of the sea. No Egyptians throwing their hands up in terror as the sea walls above their heads came crashing down upon them.
My faith was in a nose dive - spiraling out of control and headed for a fiery crash. If God parting the Red Sea wasn’t true, what about the other Bible stories? What about the walls of Jericho? Did they really come tumbling down? How about the ark? Did all those animals really form a line two-by-two and march up the gangplank past Noah as he checked them in at the door? What about the loaves and fishes? That was my favorite. Did Jesus really feed five-thousand people with one boy’s lunch?
At thirteen it never occurred to me to ask the teacher how the entire Egyptian army could drown in a swamp that a million Hebrew men, women and children, along with all of their possessions had just slogged through without incident. Or, if I had been a better seventh grade Bible student I might have asked where the “walls of water” mentioned in Exodus chapter 14 came from. Or, if it was easier for God to part the sea for the Israelites or to drown the Egyptians in a twelve inch deep “Sea of Reeds.” Like I said, I was thirteen; to question the teacher’s logic never occurred to me.
It took me a while to get over that one. It didn’t take so long to restore my faith in God’s ability to do things we think of as miraculous. It’s pretty easy for a kid to have faith in God. What took me a while to get over, was our Bible teacher - because he couldn’t personally get it into his head as a possibility - telling all those children that God couldn’t part the Red Sea.
I may not be over it yet.
*****
The Great Treasure Hunt made a convincing argument that the Bible had indeed promised oil to Israel. So convincing, in fact, that the Knesset bought books by the case and oil companies have spent millions of dollars searching for the oil based on the information in his book.
Dad was no amateur as a Bible and History scholar. He had degrees in Greek and History. He had a great analytical mind, but more importantly, a great reliance on the Holy Spirit to guide him as he searched the scriptures.
By the time I became involved, nearly twenty-five years later, I did my own research. I wanted to validate my father’s findings for myself before putting my name on a follow-up book. What I discovered, with the help of a few Christian and Jewish Bible scholars and the testimony of geological experts, only further proved his original thesis. The more we researched the subject, the more we proved its validity.
There have always been critics of Dad’s thesis that the Bible prophesies a petroleum discovery in Israel in the last days. Some of the critics are self-admitted atheists, some are secular journalists. Criticism of any connection between the Bible and the real world, for these guys, is understandable. To them, any ancient prophecy, especially from the Bible, believed to have relevance today’s real world is a sign of religious kookiness.
What I couldn’t figure out was that some of the more vocal critics came from the Christian world. A lot of them were Bible scholars. How could their interpretation of those scriptures referring to oil be so different than my father’s? It’s the same scripture. Both were looking with the critical eyes of trained Bible scholars. Both were looking from a Christian perspective, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide them. Why two different answers?
These critics argue that when the Bible speaks of oil it means olive oil and nothing else. Interestingly, this is the same argument the secular critics make. Contextually speaking, when the Bible (whether you believe it’s the Word of God or not) speaks of oil it means olive oil.
“Contextually speaking” means speaking from within the context of the document one is studying; in this case the Bible. What the critics, both Christian and secular, are saying is, in the context of the Bible, the scriptures referring to oil could only mean olive oil. The context they are referring to is that of those men of old who penned the words.
According to the critics, the Bible, when it speaks of oil, always means olive oil and certainly never means petroleum oil because the concept of petroleum oil was outside the context of those men who originally recorded the text. Basically – Moses and his Israelite contemporaries had no concept of petroleum oil, they knew only of olive oil. Since Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible and presented them to the Israelites and since neither Moses nor the Israelites of his day had any idea what petroleum oil was, but were familiar with olive oil, the Bible means olive oil when it says oil.
Contextually speaking, that’s a pretty sound argument. That is, if your context includes the Bible as a book written by men, relying only on their own understanding, at their specific time in history, strictly for an audience of their contemporaries.
A lot of literature is like that. When Shakespeare wrote, “What light through yonder window breaks?” It would be a little silly to postulate that he could have been referring to a 40 watt GE Softlight bulb. Electric lighting hadn’t been invented; the concept was outside of his context.
If, however, your context includes the Bible as the Word of God, that its pages were God inspired and breathed, that it is a timeless, living document, meant for men today as much as when it was first penned by the fathers, then it’s possible that its words could carry a deeper meaning than the contextual framework of its scribes.
Let’s consider for a moment, the original authors of Jacob’s Blessing, as recorded in Genesis and Deuteronomy. Jacob, of course, was the subject. He was the guy purported to actually speak the blessing to his sons. Moses was the scribe. In Genesis, he recorded Jacob’s words in writing and in Deuteronomy, repeated Jacob’s Blessing to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land. God, if you believe the Bible is what it says it is, was the inspiration behind the words Moses inscribed. In Spirit, God was the author.
Peter summed up how the man-God writing Bible partnership worked:
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the word of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (II Peter 2:11)
By their own admission, the Jacob/Moses/God partnership stated that the message was for the last generation of Jacob’s children, not the first … “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days” (Genesis 49:1). Hmmm … according to the contextual framework of its authors, the passages were meant for a day when oil could mean a lot more than just olive oil.
If God inspired men to prophesy (and about one-third of the Bible is prophecy) about a blessing to come upon the last generation of Israel’s children and His contextual framework included the technological and political circumstance of Israel’s children in the last days, don’t you think it’s just possible that the Bible might have been referring to petroleum oil when scripture after scripture alludes to just that?
*****
If your contextual framework can’t include the Bible, its prophecies and its miracles, coming from beyond the contextual framework of its ancient scribes, then you’re in the same position as my seventh grade Bible teacher – limiting God to what you can understand.
If the Bible is just a book of collected wisdom that was written by a bunch of wise men a long time ago and if God’s abilities are limited by your ability to understand and accept His works as possible, then why bother?
Seriously. Why bother with the Bible if it’s just a really good book? Why bother with God if He’s incapable of parting the Red Sea and raising the dead because those kinds of things are beyond the parameters of what you’re able to conceive as possible? Why bother? Hanging on to a book like that or a god like that isn’t worth your time; go read a magazine or watch TV. But please, whatever you do, don’t become a seventh grade Bible teacher.
The Bible is the living Word of God. Its message is more relevant today than it was when it was written. God knew that. He planned it that way. His contextual framework is so far beyond ours that we can’t begin to imagine what is possible to Him. Rescuing us from a life shattering tragedy is no more difficult for God than easing our slightest worry. It’s no more difficult than parting the Red Sea. For Him, it’s just a thought.
Don’t ever limit God or His Word to your contextual framework. Instead open yourself up to His. Toss aside your limitations; they don’t exist in His world.
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (I Corinthians 2:9).
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Welcome to this week’s installment of the Purpose Weekly letter. Purpose Weekly is sent to your e-mail box, you guessed it, weekly. There is no subscription fee. If you didn’t receive last week’s letter or if it’s lost somewhere in e-mail oblivion, you can go to www.gotpotential.org any time and read or print archived letters and back issues of True Potential Magazine.
If 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 to sign up for a complimentary subscription.
Last week we put an audio program (also complimentary) on the website (there will be more resources available like this as we move along). My father, whom a lot of you knew, who is now in heaven, teaches “Two Stage Obedience.” It’s a classic and one of my very favorites. The download takes several minutes, depending on your internet connection, but be patient, it’s worth it.
This week’s letter tells the story of “two stage obedience” in my own life and gives a simple jumping off place for it to begin in yours.
If you’ve had a similar experience, if you’re just not sure how or where to start, or if you would like to comment, please send me an e-mail or post a comment to this week’s blog at http://gotpotential.blogspot.com. Enjoy this week’s letter.
Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 7
September 13, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
Two Stage Obedience
I’m an idea guy. I love ideas. That’s why I love books; they’re full of ideas. I read a lot. I think about things; turning them over in my head like a bread-maker kneads dough. A lot of my life has been spent inside my own head.
We live out in the country and we’re real do-it-yourselfers. We build our own barns, put up our own fences, build our own decks, and make most of the repairs around the house. We’re pretty independent in that respect.
Before I do anything on the property, though, I need to do it in my head. I need to do it over and over again in my head. I don’t mean plan out the job, I mean do the job; nail up the lumber, run the wiring, dig the trenches, everything. I build the entire project in my head several times before I pick up a hammer or a wrench.
Mentally rehearsing the job over and over kind of takes the place of drawing up blueprints and creating materials lists. It’s probably not a good substitute – I forget things – but it’s what I do. I’m wired that way.
One of the pitfalls a guy who lives inside his head so much can encounter is not knowing when to leave. Some folks may consider it admirable that I think so much and read so much and turn ideas over in my head like a bread-maker. Thanks, I appreciate your high regard. The problem though, is that I get so comfortable inside my own cranium that I tend to stay there instead of going outside when there’s real work to be done.
My wife is pretty patient. I announce that we’re going to build a fence around the lower pasture. She’s tickled. She’s wanted a fence around the lower pasture for years. Three months later there’s still no fence around the lower pasture and she’s beginning to wonder if I really meant to build a fence or if I was just talking.
What she doesn’t realize is that I’ve already built the fence, start to finish, every board, every post, every nail, about twelve times … in my head. What I don’t realize is that the fence in my head, no matter how well built, doesn’t really serve a practical purpose.
The fence in my mind is beautiful and well constructed. As far as I’m concerned, ninety percent of the work is already done. All that remains is to actually buy the boards, dig the post holes and grab a hammer. It’s a pleasant place to be. Most of my work is accomplished without the necessity of any actual labor. That’s why the queue of “ninety percent finished” jobs in my head is so long and the list of one-hundred percent finished jobs in reality is so short. It’s just easier in here.
*****
Before starting True Potential Publishing we had a packaging business. Back when I was employed by other companies, I established a reputation as a fast learner and a generally “smart guy.” I used that reputation and my ability to think through problems and express the solutions with semi-eloquence to start and build our own business.
Around the same time we started our packaging business, two salesmen from another company started their packaging business. I knew these guys from our previous employments. I admired them as go-getter salesmen and they thought of me as a kind of guru in our little industry. They used me and our company for technical jobs and brought me to their customers when they needed an outside “expert.” All in all, they thought I was very smart.
And I was. Our products were specialized; more engineered and complex. I could think big thoughts, see the big picture and persuasively express ideas for improving our industry. I was really good in a meeting.
My two friends admired what I did, but it wasn’t their bag. They liked the less technical products, the commodities - tape, bubble wrap, foam peanuts; the stuff everybody on the block was selling, but the stuff virtually every company used. They knew how to sell and that’s what they did. Every morning they’d get up and go to existing customers, meet new customers and cold call anybody they hadn’t met yet. Every day, every week, every month, all year.
Five years after we began our respective companies I went to visit my two friends at their facility. It was huge! They were five times our size and from the looks of it five times more successful. I was the smart one. I had the really special, really technical products. How could these two guys who sold bubble wrap and tape outgrow us so easily?
The answer was simple. They didn’t spend as much time building their company in their heads. They just skipped that part and went ahead building it in reality. There may have been some things they hadn’t thought through as well as I did. Their products certainly weren’t as technical or as designed as ours were. But they were a lot more successful.
They focused on execution. They just went out and sold their product. And they did it day after day after day. They didn’t spend a lot of time with meetings, forecasts, or competitor analysis. They were too busy selling tape and bubble wrap.
*****
Planning is a good thing. Mentally rehearsing can be a good thing too. But there comes a time to get out of one’s head and onto the street. A mediocre plan executed well in reality always beats the perfect plan that never gets implemented. The difference between intention and practice is the difference between knowing what you’re supposed to do and actually doing it.
My father called it “convictional obedience” versus “positional obedience.” Convictional obedience is knowing what you need to do, agreeing that it’s the right things to do and preparing yourself to do it. Positional obedience is doing it.
Here’s another little story about our former business. Before starting the business in 1997 I was an executive for a medium size manufacturing firm. I had spent about as much time as I could stomach in the corporate world and I was ready to move on.
I mentioned in an earlier letter that, instinctively, I always knew I was supposed to be in publishing. It never happened. I never planned or prepared for it. I took the first job that came my way and things just kind of worked out from there. In 1997 I was ready to go out on my own, start my own business. In 1997 I knew that I was to be writing and publishing full time. In 1997 I quit my job and started a packaging company.
Why? Why not a publishing company? That’s easy. I was afraid. I was afraid because I really didn’t know anything about publishing and I couldn’t see how things would end up down that road. Even though I knew what I was supposed to do and had known it all of my adult life, I couldn’t do it. The idea was just too big; insurmountable.
So I fell back on what I knew. I started a packaging company. I was a much younger man back then. It seems like a funny thing to say, after all, that was just ten years ago. But starting a company from scratch, with no money, bootstrapping all the way takes a toll. It ages you.
It also wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing. It’s not like I was running a prostitution ring or a drug cartel. It was a packaging company. I was gainfully and legally employed, I was supporting our family, I was providing jobs for others and contributing to the economy. There’s nothing wrong with running a packaging company. It just wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing.
Pouring your life into something, even if it’s good, may not be right. I know that I spent a big chunk of my life doing one thing when I was supposed to be doing something else. Were there books that didn’t get published, messages that didn’t reach their intended audience, lives that could have been changed but weren’t in those years? I don’t know.
All I know is that I knew what I was supposed to do in 1977. I knew in 1987. And I knew in 1997. I knew it but I didn’t do it. It was in my head, but there it stayed. I was in convictional obedience, but I didn’t do anything about it; I wasn’t in positional obedience.
It’s kind of like Moses spending forty years on the back side of the desert between “Delivering Israel I” and “Delivering Israel II.” The Israelites needed deliverance from the Egyptians a long time before Moses got around to discussing the matter with Pharaoh. Moses knew it as a young man, when he killed the Egyptian taskmaster. He knew when he was keeping an eye on the goats in Midian. He knew it when he argued with God in the desert about not being a qualified candidate for the job.
Moses knew that he was to be God’s instrument to deliver the Israelites. He always knew it. He also knew that the job was way beyond him and that he wasn’t qualified. He hadn’t seen any Israelites or Egyptians for forty years and he hadn’t parted company with either group under the best of terms. He had no clue about how to go about it and couldn’t imagine how the whole thing would all turn out.
Could he have delivered Israel twenty years earlier? Was he dragging his feet for forty years? Were there Israelite lives that should have been saved and Israelite oppression that should have been crushed while he was waiting it out in the desert? I don’t know. Moses didn’t know. Only God knows.
Don’t think that I’m trying to mess with God’s timing and purpose. I know that He has a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven (Ecc. 3:1). And I 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).
But I also know that God, in His mercy, puts things back together after we’ve screwed them up, heals our self-inflicted wounds and uses us for His purpose anyway. It’s an easy temptation for us to look back on our wasted days and attribute them to God’s timing and providence rather than to our own noncompliance with His will.
There was a very nice young man who also happened to be very rich. He had an encounter with Jesus and because of his wealth and prominence, just couldn’t bring himself to do what Jesus asked (Matthew 19: 16 – 22). From the story we can infer that the young man regretted his decision the moment after he made it. Did he ever reconsider his decision later and sell everything to follow Jesus? Did he become a follower of Christ after His crucifixion and resurrection? We don’t know; only God does.
What we do know is that this young man lost an opportunity he would never have again; to sit at the feet of Jesus, to walk with Him, listen to Him, become a friend of God while He walked among men. This young man just couldn’t take the step Jesus asked of him. He couldn’t make the transition from convictional obedience to positional obedience.
Just like building the fence in my head instead of the pasture. Just like choosing a career because it was easier than the one I was born for. Just like the young man who Jesus invited to become His disciple. All the good intentions and “wish I could’s” and “I’m gonna’s” in the world aren’t going to get you where you’re supposed to go.
Only going where you’re supposed to go will get you there. One step, a single step in the right direction is closer than you were yesterday. Don’t worry if you can’t see down the road. What do you see in front of your right foot? Make that step, I promise the next step will come into view when you do.
Until next week, God bless us all,
Steve Spillman
If 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 to sign up for a complimentary subscription.
Last week we put an audio program (also complimentary) on the website (there will be more resources available like this as we move along). My father, whom a lot of you knew, who is now in heaven, teaches “Two Stage Obedience.” It’s a classic and one of my very favorites. The download takes several minutes, depending on your internet connection, but be patient, it’s worth it.
This week’s letter tells the story of “two stage obedience” in my own life and gives a simple jumping off place for it to begin in yours.
If you’ve had a similar experience, if you’re just not sure how or where to start, or if you would like to comment, please send me an e-mail or post a comment to this week’s blog at http://gotpotential.blogspot.com. Enjoy this week’s letter.
Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 7
September 13, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
Two Stage Obedience
I’m an idea guy. I love ideas. That’s why I love books; they’re full of ideas. I read a lot. I think about things; turning them over in my head like a bread-maker kneads dough. A lot of my life has been spent inside my own head.
We live out in the country and we’re real do-it-yourselfers. We build our own barns, put up our own fences, build our own decks, and make most of the repairs around the house. We’re pretty independent in that respect.
Before I do anything on the property, though, I need to do it in my head. I need to do it over and over again in my head. I don’t mean plan out the job, I mean do the job; nail up the lumber, run the wiring, dig the trenches, everything. I build the entire project in my head several times before I pick up a hammer or a wrench.
Mentally rehearsing the job over and over kind of takes the place of drawing up blueprints and creating materials lists. It’s probably not a good substitute – I forget things – but it’s what I do. I’m wired that way.
One of the pitfalls a guy who lives inside his head so much can encounter is not knowing when to leave. Some folks may consider it admirable that I think so much and read so much and turn ideas over in my head like a bread-maker. Thanks, I appreciate your high regard. The problem though, is that I get so comfortable inside my own cranium that I tend to stay there instead of going outside when there’s real work to be done.
My wife is pretty patient. I announce that we’re going to build a fence around the lower pasture. She’s tickled. She’s wanted a fence around the lower pasture for years. Three months later there’s still no fence around the lower pasture and she’s beginning to wonder if I really meant to build a fence or if I was just talking.
What she doesn’t realize is that I’ve already built the fence, start to finish, every board, every post, every nail, about twelve times … in my head. What I don’t realize is that the fence in my head, no matter how well built, doesn’t really serve a practical purpose.
The fence in my mind is beautiful and well constructed. As far as I’m concerned, ninety percent of the work is already done. All that remains is to actually buy the boards, dig the post holes and grab a hammer. It’s a pleasant place to be. Most of my work is accomplished without the necessity of any actual labor. That’s why the queue of “ninety percent finished” jobs in my head is so long and the list of one-hundred percent finished jobs in reality is so short. It’s just easier in here.
*****
Before starting True Potential Publishing we had a packaging business. Back when I was employed by other companies, I established a reputation as a fast learner and a generally “smart guy.” I used that reputation and my ability to think through problems and express the solutions with semi-eloquence to start and build our own business.
Around the same time we started our packaging business, two salesmen from another company started their packaging business. I knew these guys from our previous employments. I admired them as go-getter salesmen and they thought of me as a kind of guru in our little industry. They used me and our company for technical jobs and brought me to their customers when they needed an outside “expert.” All in all, they thought I was very smart.
And I was. Our products were specialized; more engineered and complex. I could think big thoughts, see the big picture and persuasively express ideas for improving our industry. I was really good in a meeting.
My two friends admired what I did, but it wasn’t their bag. They liked the less technical products, the commodities - tape, bubble wrap, foam peanuts; the stuff everybody on the block was selling, but the stuff virtually every company used. They knew how to sell and that’s what they did. Every morning they’d get up and go to existing customers, meet new customers and cold call anybody they hadn’t met yet. Every day, every week, every month, all year.
Five years after we began our respective companies I went to visit my two friends at their facility. It was huge! They were five times our size and from the looks of it five times more successful. I was the smart one. I had the really special, really technical products. How could these two guys who sold bubble wrap and tape outgrow us so easily?
The answer was simple. They didn’t spend as much time building their company in their heads. They just skipped that part and went ahead building it in reality. There may have been some things they hadn’t thought through as well as I did. Their products certainly weren’t as technical or as designed as ours were. But they were a lot more successful.
They focused on execution. They just went out and sold their product. And they did it day after day after day. They didn’t spend a lot of time with meetings, forecasts, or competitor analysis. They were too busy selling tape and bubble wrap.
*****
Planning is a good thing. Mentally rehearsing can be a good thing too. But there comes a time to get out of one’s head and onto the street. A mediocre plan executed well in reality always beats the perfect plan that never gets implemented. The difference between intention and practice is the difference between knowing what you’re supposed to do and actually doing it.
My father called it “convictional obedience” versus “positional obedience.” Convictional obedience is knowing what you need to do, agreeing that it’s the right things to do and preparing yourself to do it. Positional obedience is doing it.
Here’s another little story about our former business. Before starting the business in 1997 I was an executive for a medium size manufacturing firm. I had spent about as much time as I could stomach in the corporate world and I was ready to move on.
I mentioned in an earlier letter that, instinctively, I always knew I was supposed to be in publishing. It never happened. I never planned or prepared for it. I took the first job that came my way and things just kind of worked out from there. In 1997 I was ready to go out on my own, start my own business. In 1997 I knew that I was to be writing and publishing full time. In 1997 I quit my job and started a packaging company.
Why? Why not a publishing company? That’s easy. I was afraid. I was afraid because I really didn’t know anything about publishing and I couldn’t see how things would end up down that road. Even though I knew what I was supposed to do and had known it all of my adult life, I couldn’t do it. The idea was just too big; insurmountable.
So I fell back on what I knew. I started a packaging company. I was a much younger man back then. It seems like a funny thing to say, after all, that was just ten years ago. But starting a company from scratch, with no money, bootstrapping all the way takes a toll. It ages you.
It also wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing. It’s not like I was running a prostitution ring or a drug cartel. It was a packaging company. I was gainfully and legally employed, I was supporting our family, I was providing jobs for others and contributing to the economy. There’s nothing wrong with running a packaging company. It just wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing.
Pouring your life into something, even if it’s good, may not be right. I know that I spent a big chunk of my life doing one thing when I was supposed to be doing something else. Were there books that didn’t get published, messages that didn’t reach their intended audience, lives that could have been changed but weren’t in those years? I don’t know.
All I know is that I knew what I was supposed to do in 1977. I knew in 1987. And I knew in 1997. I knew it but I didn’t do it. It was in my head, but there it stayed. I was in convictional obedience, but I didn’t do anything about it; I wasn’t in positional obedience.
It’s kind of like Moses spending forty years on the back side of the desert between “Delivering Israel I” and “Delivering Israel II.” The Israelites needed deliverance from the Egyptians a long time before Moses got around to discussing the matter with Pharaoh. Moses knew it as a young man, when he killed the Egyptian taskmaster. He knew when he was keeping an eye on the goats in Midian. He knew it when he argued with God in the desert about not being a qualified candidate for the job.
Moses knew that he was to be God’s instrument to deliver the Israelites. He always knew it. He also knew that the job was way beyond him and that he wasn’t qualified. He hadn’t seen any Israelites or Egyptians for forty years and he hadn’t parted company with either group under the best of terms. He had no clue about how to go about it and couldn’t imagine how the whole thing would all turn out.
Could he have delivered Israel twenty years earlier? Was he dragging his feet for forty years? Were there Israelite lives that should have been saved and Israelite oppression that should have been crushed while he was waiting it out in the desert? I don’t know. Moses didn’t know. Only God knows.
Don’t think that I’m trying to mess with God’s timing and purpose. I know that He has a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven (Ecc. 3:1). And I 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).
But I also know that God, in His mercy, puts things back together after we’ve screwed them up, heals our self-inflicted wounds and uses us for His purpose anyway. It’s an easy temptation for us to look back on our wasted days and attribute them to God’s timing and providence rather than to our own noncompliance with His will.
There was a very nice young man who also happened to be very rich. He had an encounter with Jesus and because of his wealth and prominence, just couldn’t bring himself to do what Jesus asked (Matthew 19: 16 – 22). From the story we can infer that the young man regretted his decision the moment after he made it. Did he ever reconsider his decision later and sell everything to follow Jesus? Did he become a follower of Christ after His crucifixion and resurrection? We don’t know; only God does.
What we do know is that this young man lost an opportunity he would never have again; to sit at the feet of Jesus, to walk with Him, listen to Him, become a friend of God while He walked among men. This young man just couldn’t take the step Jesus asked of him. He couldn’t make the transition from convictional obedience to positional obedience.
Just like building the fence in my head instead of the pasture. Just like choosing a career because it was easier than the one I was born for. Just like the young man who Jesus invited to become His disciple. All the good intentions and “wish I could’s” and “I’m gonna’s” in the world aren’t going to get you where you’re supposed to go.
Only going where you’re supposed to go will get you there. One step, a single step in the right direction is closer than you were yesterday. Don’t worry if you can’t see down the road. What do you see in front of your right foot? Make that step, I promise the next step will come into view when you do.
Until next week, God bless us all,
Steve Spillman
Welcome to this week’s installment of the Purpose Weekly letter. Purpose Weekly is sent to your e-mail box, you guessed it, weekly. There is no subscription fee. If you didn’t receive last week’s letter or if it’s lost somewhere in e-mail oblivion, you can go to www.gotpotential.org any time and read or print archived letters and back issues of True Potential Magazine.
You’ve probably figured out that we’ve changed our opt-in service. This means you have to actually confirm you want Purpose Weekly to get it each week (you only have to do this once, not each week). This keeps us from getting on the wrong side of the SPAM police. If you forward Purpose Weekly to friends, ask them not to report it as SPAM and encourage them to go to www.gotpotential.org to sign up for a complimentary subscription.
We put an audio program, also complimentary, on the website. My father, whom a lot of you knew, who is now in heaven, teaches “Two Stage Obedience.” It’s a classic and one of my very favorites. The download takes several minutes, depending on your internet connection, but be patient, it’s worth it.
Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 6
September 6, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
Following Instructions
Purpose is a pretty big idea. When we talk about “understanding your purpose in life,” the subject can seem kind of insurmountable.
A while back, I was involved in a Christian outreach project with the Jewish community. They weren’t sure if they trusted my intentions, so they invited me to meet with the local Jewish Federation. A rabbi who was concerned that the “outreach” was a veiled attempt to proselytize Jews wanted to corner me with a question that might reveal any hidden agenda on my part. He asked, “What do Christians believe will happen at the end of time?”
Hmmm…. I had to scratch my head for a second on that one. “Well,” I answered. “It depends on who you ask. There are probably as many answers to that question among Christians as there are among Jews. The bottom line is that you’re Jews and we’re Christians. You’re waiting for the Messiah to come; we’re waiting for Him to come back. Fortunately, our project isn’t focused on the end of time, and frankly, we have our hands full trying to get everyone to agree on what will happen next Tuesday.”
I don’t know if my answer satisfied him or confused him. Either way, it got me through the meeting. They agreed to work with us and the project was a success.
“What is going to happen at the end of time?” is a pretty big question. I figure that if I can successfully traverse the few days between now and next Tuesday, I’m that much closer to finding out what happens at the end of time; whether it’s the end of time in general or just mine personally.
Taking on a subject like, “What’s my purpose in life?” is kind of like taking on, “What’s going to happen at the end of time.” They’re both pretty big ideas. It’s a whole lot easier to ask, “What’s my purpose today?” and “What’s going to happen next Tuesday?”
I wrote earlier that God and I had made a deal about how I could follow His lead without getting lost. He would point me in the right direction and give me something to do each day. He didn’t tell me exactly how everything would work out “at the end of time” or even what I’d be doing six months from now. Just which direction I should be pointed in and what I was supposed to do that day.
He’s been faithful about keeping up His end of the bargain. I know which direction I’m supposed to be pointed in. Whenever I veer off course He always gives me a little correctional bump. The bumps aren’t even that hard; I guess that’s His mercy showing.
He’s saved me from a lot of heartache and wasted time through those little bumps. Looking back, I shudder when I imagine where my off-course path would have taken me. Thankfully, the correctional bump usually nudges me back on course before I’ve made too much of a mess of things.
It’s the same way with what I’m supposed to do. Each day I know exactly what I need to do and each day’s task is plenty. There’s a pattern too. What I do today will be necessary for what He wants me to do tomorrow. Tomorrow’s tasks will prepare me for the next day, and so on.
I don’t think I’m on this plan because God changes His mind each day about what I’m to do with my life or that He wants to keep His options open. As a matter of fact, the Bible says just the opposite. God knew us before we were born. His purpose for you and me individually was included in the master plan of the universe. Even better, according to Paul’s letter to the Romans, God actively participates in guiding our daily activities according to the plan.
“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).
I think the reason He doesn’t give me the whole plan in one shot is that it wouldn’t do me any good. He knows that my knowing exactly how my life will turn out, what day I’ll die or what day Jesus will come back, won’t help me get my job done today. It’s my limitation, not His. I couldn’t handle it. It’s too much information and knowing it would only add distraction to the task at hand.
Elaine and I have a motorhome. Whenever we can, we use it for travel and lodging instead of flying or driving a car and staying in hotels. We’ve flown a lot and stayed in a lot of hotel rooms in the past. We choose the motorhome.
Before a trip I’ll use a computer program to make a detailed plan of our route, with turn by turn instructions, pre-planned stops, estimated times of arrival, road construction warnings, places to buy fuel; everything planned out in detail from the time we leave the house, to our final destination and back to the house again. When I print out the plan and the detailed maps it usually takes up about six or seven pages. I staple them together and viola! I have our entire trip, down to the last detail. I can skip ahead and find out exactly what time we’re supposed to arrive at each destination, how much fuel we’ll use, and if there’s going to be road construction in Cincinnati. I pack the plan in my briefcase with the rest of my stuff and we’re off!
Here’s the problem.
A few hours into the trip I come across an unfamiliar road sign or turn-off. I ask Elaine to look at the plan and tell me what to do. First she has to find the plan. No … first she has to find the briefcase.
We’re rolling at sixty-five miles per hour, decision time is coming up fast and we’re still looking for the briefcase. Seconds are ticking off the clock before I have to go left or right, Elaine finds the briefcase and finally finds the plan. By this time we’re both flustered and the “go-left, go-right” sign is right in front of us. I say to Elaine, “Which way do I go, left or right?” She says to me, “Which page of the plan are we on?”
The plan tells me every detail, beginning to end and back to beginning again. At the moment though, it’s not doing me much good. I just need to know left or right - right now. It’s in the plan, but the plan’s just too much information for me at the moment.
Our friends, Jack and Gayle Kinsella, travel by motorhome too. Jack has a thing called a “Tom-Tom.” Tom-Tom is a little trip planning computer with a screen that sticks to the windshield of his motorhome with suction cups. It does the same stuff my trip planning program back home does.
Jack puts his desired stops and his final destination into Tom-Tom just like I do with my program. Tom-Tom computes every detail, turn by turn, stop by stop; just like my program does.
There are some important differences though, between Tom-Tom and my program. The first is that Tom-Tom goes with Jack and Gayle on their trip. If they run into a glitch, Tom-Tom re-computes and gives them new directions. The second is that Tom-Tom has a built in global positioning system and an electronic compass. It uses satellites to triangulate its exact location at all times and the compass shows which way it’s headed. Since Tom-Tom is with Jack and Gayle at all times, they always know where they are and which way they’re headed too. Knowing exactly where you are and which way you’re headed can be very useful on a long trip.
The third thing Tom-Tom does, and most important to me, is give Jack specific directions exactly when he needs them. One hundred yards before Jack needs to turn left, Tom-Tom will say (yup, it speaks), “Turn left in one-hundred yards.” Just in case Jack’s attention span doesn’t last one-hundred yards, Tom-Tom will do a little countdown for him. “Turn left in fifty yards.” “Turn left in twenty-five yards.” “Turn left in ten yards.” “Turn left NOW.”
I’m getting a Tom-Tom.
*****
That’s why I think God made the deal with me. He knows that having every detail of His entire plan for my life printed out and stapled together wouldn’t do me a lot of good in the short run. What I really need to know each day is, “Do I turn or right or left?” Fumbling around with a turn by turn plan of my life trying to find today’s direction would just confuse me. I’d be on page eight instead of page two and make the wrong turn. Too much information.
The important things for me to know are: 1) There is a plan from start to finish. God planned the route, complete with turn by turn directions, rest stops, and fuel consumption. He knows what I’ll need to get to where I’m going and how long it will take to get there. 2) He’ll always provide me with the turning instructions I need when I need them and a compass so I can always see which way I’m headed. If I screw up, He’s already got the contingency instructions in the system to put me back on the route.
The lesson I learned from this is that the result of the entire trip is contained in the turn by turn instructions, not in the general overview of the trip as a whole. In my attempt to see every detail of the entire trip in advance, boiled down into six pages of turn by turn instructions, I was missing the turns. It’s in the turns that the trip is made.
If I miss a turn because I’m not paying attention to where I am right now, and if I don’t correct and get myself back on the route, I’ll never get to my intended destination. I’ll eventually come to the end of my trip, even if I don’t follow the turn by turn directions; all trips come to an end. I’ll reach a destination; it just won’t be the destination intended when I began the trip.
The great fear, the great tragedy would be to find myself at the end of a road that goes nowhere; out of fuel, out of time … my trip ended unexpectedly, but ended nevertheless.
I know that God has a purpose for my life and I know that He has chosen me alone to fulfill this unique purpose. Just like he has chosen you to fulfill yours. Our trips have been planned in advance. To have faith that the plan and purpose for my life has already been mapped out is not the same as trying to see the end of my trip from where I am now. That’s the faith part.
And because God has already planned and purposed my life doesn’t mean that the outcome is inevitable. It’s up to me to follow the turn by turn instructions. That’s the free will part. In His love for me, even though He pre-ordained my existence, He still allows me to decide whether to accept it or not.
Let’s get back to where we started. Understanding your purpose in life is a pretty big idea. If you try to see the big picture and all of its details before you’re willing to commit to the first turn, then I’m afraid you might miss the specific instruction for the first turn. Is it left or right?
Thanks to our faith that God does have the big picture, complete with turn by turn instructions in His mind, and using His Word as our compass, we are free just to trust in each turn by turn instruction as it comes.
I can see a kind of confidence in Jack that’s been built after using Tom-Tom for a while. Tom-Tom already knows where he is, Jack just enters in where he wants to go. After that Jack doesn’t worry so much about the final destination anymore, he just concentrates on following each instruction as Tom-Tom gives them and keeps an eye on the compass.
It’s enough for me to know that God has my purpose in His mind. It’s enough for me to know which direction I’m pointed and to follow instructions as they come. I know that if I do just that, the rest of the trip will take care of itself and I’ll reach my final destination. It’s wonderfully reassuring to know that if I miss an instruction or deliberately choose my path finding ability over His, He already has a contingency route mapped out for me when I come to my senses and realize I’ve screwed up.
And at the end of it I’ll be able to look back and see that the entire trip was after all, in the turn by turn instructions.
Until next week, God bless us all,
Steve Spillman
You’ve probably figured out that we’ve changed our opt-in service. This means you have to actually confirm you want Purpose Weekly to get it each week (you only have to do this once, not each week). This keeps us from getting on the wrong side of the SPAM police. If you forward Purpose Weekly to friends, ask them not to report it as SPAM and encourage them to go to www.gotpotential.org to sign up for a complimentary subscription.
We put an audio program, also complimentary, on the website. My father, whom a lot of you knew, who is now in heaven, teaches “Two Stage Obedience.” It’s a classic and one of my very favorites. The download takes several minutes, depending on your internet connection, but be patient, it’s worth it.
Purpose
Vol. 1 Issue 6
September 6, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
Following Instructions
Purpose is a pretty big idea. When we talk about “understanding your purpose in life,” the subject can seem kind of insurmountable.
A while back, I was involved in a Christian outreach project with the Jewish community. They weren’t sure if they trusted my intentions, so they invited me to meet with the local Jewish Federation. A rabbi who was concerned that the “outreach” was a veiled attempt to proselytize Jews wanted to corner me with a question that might reveal any hidden agenda on my part. He asked, “What do Christians believe will happen at the end of time?”
Hmmm…. I had to scratch my head for a second on that one. “Well,” I answered. “It depends on who you ask. There are probably as many answers to that question among Christians as there are among Jews. The bottom line is that you’re Jews and we’re Christians. You’re waiting for the Messiah to come; we’re waiting for Him to come back. Fortunately, our project isn’t focused on the end of time, and frankly, we have our hands full trying to get everyone to agree on what will happen next Tuesday.”
I don’t know if my answer satisfied him or confused him. Either way, it got me through the meeting. They agreed to work with us and the project was a success.
“What is going to happen at the end of time?” is a pretty big question. I figure that if I can successfully traverse the few days between now and next Tuesday, I’m that much closer to finding out what happens at the end of time; whether it’s the end of time in general or just mine personally.
Taking on a subject like, “What’s my purpose in life?” is kind of like taking on, “What’s going to happen at the end of time.” They’re both pretty big ideas. It’s a whole lot easier to ask, “What’s my purpose today?” and “What’s going to happen next Tuesday?”
I wrote earlier that God and I had made a deal about how I could follow His lead without getting lost. He would point me in the right direction and give me something to do each day. He didn’t tell me exactly how everything would work out “at the end of time” or even what I’d be doing six months from now. Just which direction I should be pointed in and what I was supposed to do that day.
He’s been faithful about keeping up His end of the bargain. I know which direction I’m supposed to be pointed in. Whenever I veer off course He always gives me a little correctional bump. The bumps aren’t even that hard; I guess that’s His mercy showing.
He’s saved me from a lot of heartache and wasted time through those little bumps. Looking back, I shudder when I imagine where my off-course path would have taken me. Thankfully, the correctional bump usually nudges me back on course before I’ve made too much of a mess of things.
It’s the same way with what I’m supposed to do. Each day I know exactly what I need to do and each day’s task is plenty. There’s a pattern too. What I do today will be necessary for what He wants me to do tomorrow. Tomorrow’s tasks will prepare me for the next day, and so on.
I don’t think I’m on this plan because God changes His mind each day about what I’m to do with my life or that He wants to keep His options open. As a matter of fact, the Bible says just the opposite. God knew us before we were born. His purpose for you and me individually was included in the master plan of the universe. Even better, according to Paul’s letter to the Romans, God actively participates in guiding our daily activities according to the plan.
“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).
I think the reason He doesn’t give me the whole plan in one shot is that it wouldn’t do me any good. He knows that my knowing exactly how my life will turn out, what day I’ll die or what day Jesus will come back, won’t help me get my job done today. It’s my limitation, not His. I couldn’t handle it. It’s too much information and knowing it would only add distraction to the task at hand.
Elaine and I have a motorhome. Whenever we can, we use it for travel and lodging instead of flying or driving a car and staying in hotels. We’ve flown a lot and stayed in a lot of hotel rooms in the past. We choose the motorhome.
Before a trip I’ll use a computer program to make a detailed plan of our route, with turn by turn instructions, pre-planned stops, estimated times of arrival, road construction warnings, places to buy fuel; everything planned out in detail from the time we leave the house, to our final destination and back to the house again. When I print out the plan and the detailed maps it usually takes up about six or seven pages. I staple them together and viola! I have our entire trip, down to the last detail. I can skip ahead and find out exactly what time we’re supposed to arrive at each destination, how much fuel we’ll use, and if there’s going to be road construction in Cincinnati. I pack the plan in my briefcase with the rest of my stuff and we’re off!
Here’s the problem.
A few hours into the trip I come across an unfamiliar road sign or turn-off. I ask Elaine to look at the plan and tell me what to do. First she has to find the plan. No … first she has to find the briefcase.
We’re rolling at sixty-five miles per hour, decision time is coming up fast and we’re still looking for the briefcase. Seconds are ticking off the clock before I have to go left or right, Elaine finds the briefcase and finally finds the plan. By this time we’re both flustered and the “go-left, go-right” sign is right in front of us. I say to Elaine, “Which way do I go, left or right?” She says to me, “Which page of the plan are we on?”
The plan tells me every detail, beginning to end and back to beginning again. At the moment though, it’s not doing me much good. I just need to know left or right - right now. It’s in the plan, but the plan’s just too much information for me at the moment.
Our friends, Jack and Gayle Kinsella, travel by motorhome too. Jack has a thing called a “Tom-Tom.” Tom-Tom is a little trip planning computer with a screen that sticks to the windshield of his motorhome with suction cups. It does the same stuff my trip planning program back home does.
Jack puts his desired stops and his final destination into Tom-Tom just like I do with my program. Tom-Tom computes every detail, turn by turn, stop by stop; just like my program does.
There are some important differences though, between Tom-Tom and my program. The first is that Tom-Tom goes with Jack and Gayle on their trip. If they run into a glitch, Tom-Tom re-computes and gives them new directions. The second is that Tom-Tom has a built in global positioning system and an electronic compass. It uses satellites to triangulate its exact location at all times and the compass shows which way it’s headed. Since Tom-Tom is with Jack and Gayle at all times, they always know where they are and which way they’re headed too. Knowing exactly where you are and which way you’re headed can be very useful on a long trip.
The third thing Tom-Tom does, and most important to me, is give Jack specific directions exactly when he needs them. One hundred yards before Jack needs to turn left, Tom-Tom will say (yup, it speaks), “Turn left in one-hundred yards.” Just in case Jack’s attention span doesn’t last one-hundred yards, Tom-Tom will do a little countdown for him. “Turn left in fifty yards.” “Turn left in twenty-five yards.” “Turn left in ten yards.” “Turn left NOW.”
I’m getting a Tom-Tom.
*****
That’s why I think God made the deal with me. He knows that having every detail of His entire plan for my life printed out and stapled together wouldn’t do me a lot of good in the short run. What I really need to know each day is, “Do I turn or right or left?” Fumbling around with a turn by turn plan of my life trying to find today’s direction would just confuse me. I’d be on page eight instead of page two and make the wrong turn. Too much information.
The important things for me to know are: 1) There is a plan from start to finish. God planned the route, complete with turn by turn directions, rest stops, and fuel consumption. He knows what I’ll need to get to where I’m going and how long it will take to get there. 2) He’ll always provide me with the turning instructions I need when I need them and a compass so I can always see which way I’m headed. If I screw up, He’s already got the contingency instructions in the system to put me back on the route.
The lesson I learned from this is that the result of the entire trip is contained in the turn by turn instructions, not in the general overview of the trip as a whole. In my attempt to see every detail of the entire trip in advance, boiled down into six pages of turn by turn instructions, I was missing the turns. It’s in the turns that the trip is made.
If I miss a turn because I’m not paying attention to where I am right now, and if I don’t correct and get myself back on the route, I’ll never get to my intended destination. I’ll eventually come to the end of my trip, even if I don’t follow the turn by turn directions; all trips come to an end. I’ll reach a destination; it just won’t be the destination intended when I began the trip.
The great fear, the great tragedy would be to find myself at the end of a road that goes nowhere; out of fuel, out of time … my trip ended unexpectedly, but ended nevertheless.
I know that God has a purpose for my life and I know that He has chosen me alone to fulfill this unique purpose. Just like he has chosen you to fulfill yours. Our trips have been planned in advance. To have faith that the plan and purpose for my life has already been mapped out is not the same as trying to see the end of my trip from where I am now. That’s the faith part.
And because God has already planned and purposed my life doesn’t mean that the outcome is inevitable. It’s up to me to follow the turn by turn instructions. That’s the free will part. In His love for me, even though He pre-ordained my existence, He still allows me to decide whether to accept it or not.
Let’s get back to where we started. Understanding your purpose in life is a pretty big idea. If you try to see the big picture and all of its details before you’re willing to commit to the first turn, then I’m afraid you might miss the specific instruction for the first turn. Is it left or right?
Thanks to our faith that God does have the big picture, complete with turn by turn instructions in His mind, and using His Word as our compass, we are free just to trust in each turn by turn instruction as it comes.
I can see a kind of confidence in Jack that’s been built after using Tom-Tom for a while. Tom-Tom already knows where he is, Jack just enters in where he wants to go. After that Jack doesn’t worry so much about the final destination anymore, he just concentrates on following each instruction as Tom-Tom gives them and keeps an eye on the compass.
It’s enough for me to know that God has my purpose in His mind. It’s enough for me to know which direction I’m pointed and to follow instructions as they come. I know that if I do just that, the rest of the trip will take care of itself and I’ll reach my final destination. It’s wonderfully reassuring to know that if I miss an instruction or deliberately choose my path finding ability over His, He already has a contingency route mapped out for me when I come to my senses and realize I’ve screwed up.
And at the end of it I’ll be able to look back and see that the entire trip was after all, in the turn by turn instructions.
Until next week, God bless us all,
Steve Spillman
Monday, September 03, 2007
Welcome to our fifth installment of the Purpose Weekly letter. Purpose Weekly is sent to your e-mail box, you guessed it, weekly. There is no subscription fee. If you want to receive Purpose Weekly free via e-mail just go to http://www.gotpotential.org/ and sign up. Purpose Weekly is a publication of True Potential Publishing.Enjoy the articles below and remember to visit http://www.gotpotential.org/ to read more or to access back issues of True Potential e-magazine.
Purpose
August 30, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
Knowing Your Purpose in Life
I received a letter a while back from a guy I know. From all appearances he’s got his act together. He is a good Christian, attends church regularly and he’s financially successful. He’s a nice guy too; he doesn’t seem to have any hidden agendas or ulterior motives. As far I can tell he really, sincerely wants to do whatever God wants him to do.
That’s why I was surprised by his question. He asked me how he could find his purpose in life. Then it hit me that there are probably a lot of people out there that are otherwise successful and happy, but have no clue about why they are here.
Not so long ago I felt the same way; that my life was meaningless. I had a great family, a successful business and people liked me; but I felt like I wasn’t doing anything of significance. I didn’t see my life as having any sort of eternal purpose.
I put my trust in myself and in what I could see. I was responsible for putting food on my table and making my way in the world. As an employee I knew that if I did my job, the company would give me a paycheck. When I started my own business I relied on my customers to do their part. My company had a contract with Joe’s company. If I came through on my end and Joe came through on his end then we would get paid. I could see where things were coming from.
When things got beyond me, when there were obstacles I thought were impossible to overcome, I would go to God. I would work until I couldn’t think straight, eventually go home and try to forget the day and then go to bed to sleep it off and recharge for the next day. By midnight my worries would wake me. I’d turn over in bed, adjust my pillow, open the window, count sheep, count backwards; anything to push myself back into sleep. When none of this worked I would get out of bed, go into the next room, find my Bible, read and confess to God that I was finally at the end of my own ability and ask Him to get me out of the jam. It usually took till about 3:00 AM to come to this point.
God was always faithful, even though I wasn’t. He would provide a way out of the jam every time. As soon as I was out of the jam I would go back to relying on myself and the support systems I could see. Until the next jam and the next time I couldn’t sleep at 3:00 AM.
In all the years I did that, God remained faithful. I was doing my own thing, serving myself in every way. If there was ever anything He wanted me to do for Him I would have missed it completely; I wasn’t paying attention.
Looking back, I can see how His purpose still worked itself in. I had to learn (and I’m a slow learner) that relying on myself and what I can see is way overrated. I had to learn that the stuff I couldn’t see was more reliable than the stuff I could see. I had to learn that everything I could accomplish in my own strength, relying on my own talent and grit, wasn’t much and it certainly didn’t transfer into the next world.
I also learned something else. I learned that God’s purpose for me kept right on trucking – even though I wasn’t mentally, physically or spiritually involved. That was the part about Him being faithful even though I wasn’t. He knew that I had to get on the other side of all that stuff before I would finally come to the realization that none of it mattered in the long run. He knew that because of my arrogance and obstinacy and selfishness, He would have to be faithful and care for me in spite of myself until I was ready to listen. I didn’t give Him any good reason to be patient with me. He just was. It was His grace that waited for me. Nothing I did deserved any sort of grace period.
Like I said, He worked in my life anyway. He directed where I went and what I did and who I met, even though I wasn’t asking for any sort of direction. A lot of people come to the realization that God loves them and has something He wants to do with their lives, and when they do they get hit with this wave of regret. Regret over all the wasted years before they came to the place where they’re ready to surrender to the purpose God has for them.
I see wasted years in my life; days I’ll never get back, time that could have been spent a lot more productively. I carry some emotional, spiritual, and physical scars that probably wouldn’t be there if I had surrendered to His plan earlier. Way worse – others carry scars of my making, that wouldn’t be there if I had surrendered to His plan earlier.
God’s grace is sufficient even for that. He heals the wounds, self-inflicted and inflicted on others. He takes the tragedies and wasted time and stupid things I’ve done – things that were not in His purpose for me – and by His grace turns them to His purpose. When I’m finally ready to surrender to Him, he begins healing and restoring the mess I’ve made. He leaves some of the scars though; as reminders of what I can accomplish in my own strength.
Looking back, I can see how He has taken the wasted time and stupid stuff and big mistakes and turned them into preparation for what He wants me to be.
A million years ago, in my first semester in college, I signed up as a journalism major. That lasted ten weeks. When the first semester was finished, so was my career as a journalist. That was a long time ago and I’ve had a lot of “careers” since then. Roto-Rooter man, sign maker, carpet cleaner, pig farmer (yup, pig farmer), factory worker, salesman, businessman and now publisher. Funny how things come back around. The point is that, instinctively, I knew what I was supposed to do, what I had been created for, but I wasn’t ready and the time hadn’t come for what God wanted me to do.
*****
Moses was born to deliver the Jews from bondage in Egypt. It was obvious. As a baby his life was miraculously spared at a time when Pharaoh had decreed that all Hebrew baby boys be thrown into the Nile River. Moses’ mother couldn’t do that. She constructed a little boat and set baby Moses afloat on the Nile. Technically, she had complied with Pharaoh’s decree.
Miraculously Moses’ little boat drifted past Pharaoh’s daughter as she was bathing in the river. Pharaoh’s daughter saw the baby and a little warm spot opened in her heart. She adopted Moses as her own son.
It seemed that God’s plan had worked perfectly. Moses life was saved and he was installed in the house of Pharaoh, as his grandson. God couldn’t have orchestrated things more perfectly! With Moses as a part of Pharaoh’s family he would be in the perfect position to answer the plight of his Hebrew brothers.
Chances are Moses knew it too. It was no secret to him that he was a Hebrew and it was no secret that his destiny had been guessed at as the deliverer of his people. Why would God place him in this position of power unless He meant to use it to aid His people?
The Children of Israel had been in Egypt for four hundred years. By this time stories of the land promised to great-great grandfather Jacob had probably faded into myth. At least ten generations of Israel’s children had been born in Egypt. And they thrived. The family of Jacob, a mere seventy souls when they first arrived in Egypt, had become a people of two million strong. The flourishing of the Hebrews didn’t escape the notice of the Egyptians. To keep them in their place the Egyptians made the Hebrews their slaves and to keep their numbers in check they decreed that all Hebrew boys were to be killed at birth.
The Hebrews were ripe for deliverance. But it’s doubtful that they understood deliverance meant being ejected from their adopted country of more than four hundred years, wandering through a desert wilderness for forty years and then getting deposited into a land overrun with tribes of giants that would definitely react with hostility toward a sea of newcomers. The Hebrews weren’t looking for that kind of deliverance.
It’s a pretty good bet that Moses, even though he may have known in his heart that he was to deliver his people, had no idea what deliverance meant. He gave it a go early on and his efforts ended in disaster.
Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. The next day he tried to break up a fight between two of his Hebrew brothers and they both turned on him.
“Who are you to be the judge over us? Will you kill us like you did the Egyptian?” The news was out. Moses was a wanted man. The Hebrews wanted nothing to do him and the Egyptians wanted him dead. In utter confusion and in fear for his life, Moses took off for the back side of the desert.
Can you imagine what was going through Moses’ mind? He had always felt a sense of destiny. Everything in his life up until now had pointed to him as the deliverer of his people. Now he was a fugitive, running for his life into the desert.
For forty years Moses hid out in the desert. I wonder how often he thought about Egypt and his people. About how sure he had been that he was to be their deliverer. How he had been put in a position of power in Egypt, the perfect platform from which to rescue his people. And how he had blown it; killed a man and killed any chance of fulfilling his destiny.
Moses knew his destiny instinctively, but he had no way of knowing how God would fulfill that destiny in him. It took forty years to prepare Moses to fulfill his destiny God’s way and not his own.
*****
Back to my friend who didn’t seem to know his purpose in life. I believe that each of us has an inkling of why we’re here. God’s purpose is ingrained in us like DNA. It’s there, and if you can’t see it now, you’ll be surprised by its familiarity when you finally do see it.
Hindsight is 20/20. It’s easier to see our purpose in retrospect. We look back over our lives and say, “Ahh! I always knew that’s what I was supposed to do, but I never guessed it would have happened that way.”
Now you’re probably saying, “Thanks for all the warm words Steve, but how does that help me now? I want to know what I’m supposed to be doing now. I don’t care about looking back over my life and saying, ‘Ahh!’ I want to look ahead and figure out which way to go.”
Okay, fair enough. Here’s how to know what God wants you to do right now. Here’s how to fulfill your eternal purpose, your personal destiny right now. Ready? Got a pencil and paper? It’s a three step process, so I don’t want you to miss anything.
1. Ask Him – He knows what He wants you to do. He knows that down deep inside, you know too. You may not know you know, but it’s down there. Ask. That way He knows you’re ready for step number two.
2. Listen – The primary thing to do after you’ve asked someone a question is to listen for his reply. Weirdly enough, we don’t do this a lot. Weirder still, we hardly do it at all when we’re talking with God. The few minutes we actually spend talking with God is really spent talking to God: “Please God do this for me.” “Please God do that for me.” “Please God take care of Aunt Bessie and make her gout go away.” “Please God watch out for my kid; he just got his driver’s license and I don’t want him running into a tree.” “Please God don’t make my boss such a jerk.” “And if You have time, please, please, please make sure my wife gets that raise; we really need the extra money.” “Thanks so much for all You do and thanks so much for listening. Okay. I gotta go.”
If God ever did want to say anything to you He wouldn’t have the chance. Just stop and listen. He already knows what you need, so if you’re in a rush, cut out some of the asking time and turn it into listening time. Better yet, don’t be in such a rush. Do you really think anything else in your schedule is more important? Give Him a few minutes. Quiet your mind and open your heart. He’ll start talking as soon as he knows you’re ready to listen. And don’t get all spooky about the idea of God talking to you. There won’t be any lightning bolts or trumpets (if there are let me know). That’s why it’s called “a still small voice,” so people won’t freak out when they hear it. It’s the Holy Spirit. He’s supposed to be living inside you when you give your heart to God. You hear His voice with your mind and heart, not with your ears. That brings us to step number three.
3. Do what He tells you - And He won’t tell you to jump off the roof or leave your wife. If it’s God, whatever He says will agree with His Word. If it goes against what’s written in the Bible, you’d better go back to step number one.
God made a deal with me a few years back, when I was finally ready to do what He said. He let me know the general direction He was taking me and He lets me know every day what He wants me to do. Both of these things I know unequivocally. There’s no doubt, no question in my mind. In the beginning He had to prove it to me with regular and miraculous “coincidences” all piling up in His favor. After a while I got the hang of it and just learned to trust Him for these two things. I have no clue where I’ll wind up or what I’ll be doing six months from now. But I know exactly which direction I’m pointed and what I’m supposed to being doing today. The system works pretty well.
Like I said, it’s a deal God made with me. I don’t know if He does that for everybody. Some people have a lot more faith and probably don’t need the constant reassurance. God knows what I’m capable of and so He does it this way with me. Whatever method He uses to guide you, He’ll tailor it to fit you and you’ll know it’s Him.
So, to the friend who wrote the letter, if you’re still listening, try this. If you’re not the guy who wrote the letter but you’re listening anyway, feel free to try it too. If you want to know your purpose in life:
1. Ask God
2. Listen to what He tells you
3. Do it.
Sounds almost too simple doesn’t it?
Purpose News
A new feature you’ll see on our www.gotpotential.org website will be some free resources, including audio teaching on MP3 and e-booklets for free download. You should see the first of these popping up on the website by next week’s letter.
Until then, God bless you and keep you.
In Him,
Steve Spillman
Purpose
August 30, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
Knowing Your Purpose in Life
I received a letter a while back from a guy I know. From all appearances he’s got his act together. He is a good Christian, attends church regularly and he’s financially successful. He’s a nice guy too; he doesn’t seem to have any hidden agendas or ulterior motives. As far I can tell he really, sincerely wants to do whatever God wants him to do.
That’s why I was surprised by his question. He asked me how he could find his purpose in life. Then it hit me that there are probably a lot of people out there that are otherwise successful and happy, but have no clue about why they are here.
Not so long ago I felt the same way; that my life was meaningless. I had a great family, a successful business and people liked me; but I felt like I wasn’t doing anything of significance. I didn’t see my life as having any sort of eternal purpose.
I put my trust in myself and in what I could see. I was responsible for putting food on my table and making my way in the world. As an employee I knew that if I did my job, the company would give me a paycheck. When I started my own business I relied on my customers to do their part. My company had a contract with Joe’s company. If I came through on my end and Joe came through on his end then we would get paid. I could see where things were coming from.
When things got beyond me, when there were obstacles I thought were impossible to overcome, I would go to God. I would work until I couldn’t think straight, eventually go home and try to forget the day and then go to bed to sleep it off and recharge for the next day. By midnight my worries would wake me. I’d turn over in bed, adjust my pillow, open the window, count sheep, count backwards; anything to push myself back into sleep. When none of this worked I would get out of bed, go into the next room, find my Bible, read and confess to God that I was finally at the end of my own ability and ask Him to get me out of the jam. It usually took till about 3:00 AM to come to this point.
God was always faithful, even though I wasn’t. He would provide a way out of the jam every time. As soon as I was out of the jam I would go back to relying on myself and the support systems I could see. Until the next jam and the next time I couldn’t sleep at 3:00 AM.
In all the years I did that, God remained faithful. I was doing my own thing, serving myself in every way. If there was ever anything He wanted me to do for Him I would have missed it completely; I wasn’t paying attention.
Looking back, I can see how His purpose still worked itself in. I had to learn (and I’m a slow learner) that relying on myself and what I can see is way overrated. I had to learn that the stuff I couldn’t see was more reliable than the stuff I could see. I had to learn that everything I could accomplish in my own strength, relying on my own talent and grit, wasn’t much and it certainly didn’t transfer into the next world.
I also learned something else. I learned that God’s purpose for me kept right on trucking – even though I wasn’t mentally, physically or spiritually involved. That was the part about Him being faithful even though I wasn’t. He knew that I had to get on the other side of all that stuff before I would finally come to the realization that none of it mattered in the long run. He knew that because of my arrogance and obstinacy and selfishness, He would have to be faithful and care for me in spite of myself until I was ready to listen. I didn’t give Him any good reason to be patient with me. He just was. It was His grace that waited for me. Nothing I did deserved any sort of grace period.
Like I said, He worked in my life anyway. He directed where I went and what I did and who I met, even though I wasn’t asking for any sort of direction. A lot of people come to the realization that God loves them and has something He wants to do with their lives, and when they do they get hit with this wave of regret. Regret over all the wasted years before they came to the place where they’re ready to surrender to the purpose God has for them.
I see wasted years in my life; days I’ll never get back, time that could have been spent a lot more productively. I carry some emotional, spiritual, and physical scars that probably wouldn’t be there if I had surrendered to His plan earlier. Way worse – others carry scars of my making, that wouldn’t be there if I had surrendered to His plan earlier.
God’s grace is sufficient even for that. He heals the wounds, self-inflicted and inflicted on others. He takes the tragedies and wasted time and stupid things I’ve done – things that were not in His purpose for me – and by His grace turns them to His purpose. When I’m finally ready to surrender to Him, he begins healing and restoring the mess I’ve made. He leaves some of the scars though; as reminders of what I can accomplish in my own strength.
Looking back, I can see how He has taken the wasted time and stupid stuff and big mistakes and turned them into preparation for what He wants me to be.
A million years ago, in my first semester in college, I signed up as a journalism major. That lasted ten weeks. When the first semester was finished, so was my career as a journalist. That was a long time ago and I’ve had a lot of “careers” since then. Roto-Rooter man, sign maker, carpet cleaner, pig farmer (yup, pig farmer), factory worker, salesman, businessman and now publisher. Funny how things come back around. The point is that, instinctively, I knew what I was supposed to do, what I had been created for, but I wasn’t ready and the time hadn’t come for what God wanted me to do.
*****
Moses was born to deliver the Jews from bondage in Egypt. It was obvious. As a baby his life was miraculously spared at a time when Pharaoh had decreed that all Hebrew baby boys be thrown into the Nile River. Moses’ mother couldn’t do that. She constructed a little boat and set baby Moses afloat on the Nile. Technically, she had complied with Pharaoh’s decree.
Miraculously Moses’ little boat drifted past Pharaoh’s daughter as she was bathing in the river. Pharaoh’s daughter saw the baby and a little warm spot opened in her heart. She adopted Moses as her own son.
It seemed that God’s plan had worked perfectly. Moses life was saved and he was installed in the house of Pharaoh, as his grandson. God couldn’t have orchestrated things more perfectly! With Moses as a part of Pharaoh’s family he would be in the perfect position to answer the plight of his Hebrew brothers.
Chances are Moses knew it too. It was no secret to him that he was a Hebrew and it was no secret that his destiny had been guessed at as the deliverer of his people. Why would God place him in this position of power unless He meant to use it to aid His people?
The Children of Israel had been in Egypt for four hundred years. By this time stories of the land promised to great-great grandfather Jacob had probably faded into myth. At least ten generations of Israel’s children had been born in Egypt. And they thrived. The family of Jacob, a mere seventy souls when they first arrived in Egypt, had become a people of two million strong. The flourishing of the Hebrews didn’t escape the notice of the Egyptians. To keep them in their place the Egyptians made the Hebrews their slaves and to keep their numbers in check they decreed that all Hebrew boys were to be killed at birth.
The Hebrews were ripe for deliverance. But it’s doubtful that they understood deliverance meant being ejected from their adopted country of more than four hundred years, wandering through a desert wilderness for forty years and then getting deposited into a land overrun with tribes of giants that would definitely react with hostility toward a sea of newcomers. The Hebrews weren’t looking for that kind of deliverance.
It’s a pretty good bet that Moses, even though he may have known in his heart that he was to deliver his people, had no idea what deliverance meant. He gave it a go early on and his efforts ended in disaster.
Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. The next day he tried to break up a fight between two of his Hebrew brothers and they both turned on him.
“Who are you to be the judge over us? Will you kill us like you did the Egyptian?” The news was out. Moses was a wanted man. The Hebrews wanted nothing to do him and the Egyptians wanted him dead. In utter confusion and in fear for his life, Moses took off for the back side of the desert.
Can you imagine what was going through Moses’ mind? He had always felt a sense of destiny. Everything in his life up until now had pointed to him as the deliverer of his people. Now he was a fugitive, running for his life into the desert.
For forty years Moses hid out in the desert. I wonder how often he thought about Egypt and his people. About how sure he had been that he was to be their deliverer. How he had been put in a position of power in Egypt, the perfect platform from which to rescue his people. And how he had blown it; killed a man and killed any chance of fulfilling his destiny.
Moses knew his destiny instinctively, but he had no way of knowing how God would fulfill that destiny in him. It took forty years to prepare Moses to fulfill his destiny God’s way and not his own.
*****
Back to my friend who didn’t seem to know his purpose in life. I believe that each of us has an inkling of why we’re here. God’s purpose is ingrained in us like DNA. It’s there, and if you can’t see it now, you’ll be surprised by its familiarity when you finally do see it.
Hindsight is 20/20. It’s easier to see our purpose in retrospect. We look back over our lives and say, “Ahh! I always knew that’s what I was supposed to do, but I never guessed it would have happened that way.”
Now you’re probably saying, “Thanks for all the warm words Steve, but how does that help me now? I want to know what I’m supposed to be doing now. I don’t care about looking back over my life and saying, ‘Ahh!’ I want to look ahead and figure out which way to go.”
Okay, fair enough. Here’s how to know what God wants you to do right now. Here’s how to fulfill your eternal purpose, your personal destiny right now. Ready? Got a pencil and paper? It’s a three step process, so I don’t want you to miss anything.
1. Ask Him – He knows what He wants you to do. He knows that down deep inside, you know too. You may not know you know, but it’s down there. Ask. That way He knows you’re ready for step number two.
2. Listen – The primary thing to do after you’ve asked someone a question is to listen for his reply. Weirdly enough, we don’t do this a lot. Weirder still, we hardly do it at all when we’re talking with God. The few minutes we actually spend talking with God is really spent talking to God: “Please God do this for me.” “Please God do that for me.” “Please God take care of Aunt Bessie and make her gout go away.” “Please God watch out for my kid; he just got his driver’s license and I don’t want him running into a tree.” “Please God don’t make my boss such a jerk.” “And if You have time, please, please, please make sure my wife gets that raise; we really need the extra money.” “Thanks so much for all You do and thanks so much for listening. Okay. I gotta go.”
If God ever did want to say anything to you He wouldn’t have the chance. Just stop and listen. He already knows what you need, so if you’re in a rush, cut out some of the asking time and turn it into listening time. Better yet, don’t be in such a rush. Do you really think anything else in your schedule is more important? Give Him a few minutes. Quiet your mind and open your heart. He’ll start talking as soon as he knows you’re ready to listen. And don’t get all spooky about the idea of God talking to you. There won’t be any lightning bolts or trumpets (if there are let me know). That’s why it’s called “a still small voice,” so people won’t freak out when they hear it. It’s the Holy Spirit. He’s supposed to be living inside you when you give your heart to God. You hear His voice with your mind and heart, not with your ears. That brings us to step number three.
3. Do what He tells you - And He won’t tell you to jump off the roof or leave your wife. If it’s God, whatever He says will agree with His Word. If it goes against what’s written in the Bible, you’d better go back to step number one.
God made a deal with me a few years back, when I was finally ready to do what He said. He let me know the general direction He was taking me and He lets me know every day what He wants me to do. Both of these things I know unequivocally. There’s no doubt, no question in my mind. In the beginning He had to prove it to me with regular and miraculous “coincidences” all piling up in His favor. After a while I got the hang of it and just learned to trust Him for these two things. I have no clue where I’ll wind up or what I’ll be doing six months from now. But I know exactly which direction I’m pointed and what I’m supposed to being doing today. The system works pretty well.
Like I said, it’s a deal God made with me. I don’t know if He does that for everybody. Some people have a lot more faith and probably don’t need the constant reassurance. God knows what I’m capable of and so He does it this way with me. Whatever method He uses to guide you, He’ll tailor it to fit you and you’ll know it’s Him.
So, to the friend who wrote the letter, if you’re still listening, try this. If you’re not the guy who wrote the letter but you’re listening anyway, feel free to try it too. If you want to know your purpose in life:
1. Ask God
2. Listen to what He tells you
3. Do it.
Sounds almost too simple doesn’t it?
Purpose News
A new feature you’ll see on our www.gotpotential.org website will be some free resources, including audio teaching on MP3 and e-booklets for free download. You should see the first of these popping up on the website by next week’s letter.
Until then, God bless you and keep you.
In Him,
Steve Spillman
I’m back - after three weeks, not two like I promised. Sorry about that. Two weeks out of telephone and internet communication stirs up a real backlog. Fishing in the Canadian wilderness was awesome. Spending one on one time with our grandson Chase was better. Thanks for your patience.
Welcome to our fourth installment of the Purpose Weekly letter. Purpose Weekly is sent to your e-mail box weekly. There is no subscription fee. If you want to receive Purpose Weekly free via e-mail just go to http://www.gotpotential.org/ and sign up. Purpose Weekly is a publication of True Potential Publishing. Enjoy the articles below and remember to visit http://www.gotpotential.org/ to read more or to access back issues of True Potential e-magazine.
Purpose
August 23, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
Faith
I don’t have cable TV or a satellite dish. Several years ago I came to the conclusion that it was pointless to pay fifty dollars a month for two-hundred channels and still find nothing worthwhile to watch on TV. I cancelled the satellite subscription.
We live out in the sticks so our “air” TV reception isn’t so good. I never bothered putting up a TV antenna so we were able to receive only one channel, a major network, since the satellite was pulled. I figured that if there was nothing to watch on a TV with two hundred channels, it would be just as easy to watch it on a TV with one channel. If the end of the world came and the one network we could watch didn’t broadcast it, we would miss it entirely.
Sometime last year I picked up a second hand rooftop antenna at a garage sale. A few weeks ago I finally got around to putting it up. I’m proud to announce that the Spillman family now receives the same network channel we’ve always had, the other two major networks (poorly), public television (pretty good), and the local Christian station.
I’ve never been a fan of Christian TV. Most of it is just too icky for me. I never could get past all the big hair and crying and self-serving money-begging in the name of God. It hurt my heart, so I didn’t watch it.
Now I have a confession to make. I’ve been sneaking some peeks lately. A lot of the icky stuff is still there, probably more than before, but now some good stuff gets through. I don’t know if Christian TV has changed or if it’s me that’s changed. All I know is that in the midst of all the icky stuff, some good stuff gets through.
With that defense noted, I’ll get back to the icky stuff. I was watching a talk show on the Christian TV channel. It was really just a dialog between two guys, sitting at a table, drinking coffee; the set was fixed up to look like someone’s kitchen, complete with big picture window.
One of the guys was a famous “faith” teacher. His guest was a businessman and they were discussing “faith.” How God has all this great stuff for us and how we can have anything we want if we just believe we can get it and say the right words. The “faith” expert kept saying that “faith” wasn’t about getting money. He kept saying that “faith” was about way more than just money and that getting rich was only a minor benefit, kind of a side-effect of having “faith.”
But something about the guy just wasn’t ringing true. Even though he kept saying that “faith” wasn’t about money, you could see that everything about the guy was saying that he believed “faith” really was about the money. Because he had “faith” God gave him a big car and a big house and a private jet and a real expensive gold watch - but those were just side-effects; having “faith” was way more important that all that stuff.
It made me wonder … even though “faith” wasn’t about the money … if the guy suddenly lost his TV show, his bank account, his house, his car, his private jet and his gold watch, if he would still be telling folks about “faith”?
That got me thinking about what “faith” might mean from God’s point of view. After all, when we talk about “faith” we’re talking about an interaction with God, right? And if having “faith” in God means that we’re believing or trusting in something we don’t quite understand but He does, then we should probably get His point of view on what “faith” means before we start to ponder about the things “faith” gets us.
The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to Hebrews (Jews) who had become Christians and part of it was dedicated to the topic of faith. He knew the Jews would understand what he was saying about faith because he used their famous fore-fathers as examples.
In the beginning of his section on faith (if you want to follow along, it’s in the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter eleven), he gives his readers a definition of what faith is: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” According to Paul, faith is being positive about receiving something we’ve been promised, without any physical proof that we’re actually going to get it.
That part seemed to be in line with what the “faith” expert on TV was saying. He got all his stuff by believing that he would get stuff because God promised it to him.
Then Paul went on to show how all the famous Jewish patriarchs demonstrated faith in what they did and how they pleased God by their actions. But a couple of things really struck me about the people Paul had listed as the heroes of faith.
The first was that they didn’t seem to be getting any big pay-off from their faith. They weren’t getting rich and they never made the move to easy street. It’s like these guys were always in trouble with the authorities or on the brink of some great calamity. In their stories, God always prevailed miraculously in the end, but it wasn’t like these guys were living at the country club during the process.
The second thing I noticed was that none of these heroes of faith seemed to be professing positive faith talk or claiming good stuff into existence. They just seemed to be doing something God told them to do.
And most of what God was telling them to do wasn’t some great glorious task involving a well-paying job. Most of it was dirty and dangerous work; a lot of them were killed in the process. And all of it went against the grain of whoever was in charge at the time. It seemed like being a faith hero in the old days wasn’t a very popular job.
Then Paul said something that really shook me up. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised ….”
You obey God, you live by faith, and then you die. What kind of pay-off is that!? This wasn’t jibing at all with what the “faith” expert on TV was saying. Even though the money was only a minor part of the “faith” life, according to the TV guy, it was a pretty darned important part.
What happened to these faith heroes Paul was talking about? These guys were supposed to be the examples of how faith works. How come they all died without getting the big pay-off?
Then I found something else Paul said about the faith heroes of old. It was right after he said that they all died without ever getting what they were promised.
… they only saw [the promises] 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.
Wow. I finally saw it. The big pay-off. It wasn’t about the money or cars or houses or private jets. It wasn’t about anything on earth. There wasn’t anything on earth good enough as a reward for having faith.
Those guys who Paul wrote about knew they were just passing through. Their real home wasn’t here and the stuff here didn’t really matter compared to the stuff waiting for them in their real home. The pay-off was ahead of them.
What earthly pay-off could possibly equal God not being ashamed to call Himself your God and Personally preparing a city for you to spend forever in?
What I got out of my lesson on faith is that having faith isn’t about expecting something back in return, not in this life anyway. I also got that faith isn’t “confessing” anything; saying the right words or not saying the wrong words. And faith certainly isn’t about sending “seed money” to some TV preacher. Keep your money, the guy’s a crook. He’ll have his own row to hoe on the other side of this life.
Faith is about obeying. Obeying God by doing the thing He told you to do. Knowing in your heart that God is really real and that He cares for you personally and that obeying Him will make your life worth living – without any physical evidence that all of that is true.
The thing God wants you to do may seem unpleasant at times and it will probably go against the grain of what folks around you expect of you. Doing what God wants you to do isn’t very popular most of the time.
There’s a pretty good chance that the job God has given you to do is way beyond your ability to do it. That’s one of the cool things. It proves that God gave it to you; there’s no way you can accomplish it without His regular involvement.
Living by faith, obeying God even though you can’t see the outcome, is really core to understanding your purpose and true potential in this life. You are here according to God’s plan and purpose. He has something He wants you to do for Him. For His glory. That’s your purpose. That’s why He created you. Living up to your full potential, your true potential, involves getting that purpose accomplished.
If good stuff comes your way in this life, more power to you. God loves you and He wants the best for you in this life and the next. But if listening to God and obeying Him brings a little pain and heartache, don’t sweat it and don’t turn back. Real faith means keeping to the task at hand even when there’s no evidence that things will ever get any better.
Besides, you’re in good company. Paul called all those faith heroes of old “a great cloud of witnesses.” They’ve been through the same stuff you’ll go through, they’re watching from above, cheering you on, and they’re saving a place for you.
Next Week…
We’ll be back next week with another issue. I hope by then to have our blog set up so we can receive and respond to reader comments and contributions in forum environment. In the mean time, if you have a question or comment just drop me an e-mail. We’ve received a lot of messages from you already, so far all positive (thanks). If there is anything specific you want to see covered regarding our purpose and potential, let me know. Until then, God bless you and keep you.
In Him,
Steve Spillman
Welcome to our fourth installment of the Purpose Weekly letter. Purpose Weekly is sent to your e-mail box weekly. There is no subscription fee. If you want to receive Purpose Weekly free via e-mail just go to http://www.gotpotential.org/ and sign up. Purpose Weekly is a publication of True Potential Publishing. Enjoy the articles below and remember to visit http://www.gotpotential.org/ to read more or to access back issues of True Potential e-magazine.
Purpose
August 23, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
Faith
I don’t have cable TV or a satellite dish. Several years ago I came to the conclusion that it was pointless to pay fifty dollars a month for two-hundred channels and still find nothing worthwhile to watch on TV. I cancelled the satellite subscription.
We live out in the sticks so our “air” TV reception isn’t so good. I never bothered putting up a TV antenna so we were able to receive only one channel, a major network, since the satellite was pulled. I figured that if there was nothing to watch on a TV with two hundred channels, it would be just as easy to watch it on a TV with one channel. If the end of the world came and the one network we could watch didn’t broadcast it, we would miss it entirely.
Sometime last year I picked up a second hand rooftop antenna at a garage sale. A few weeks ago I finally got around to putting it up. I’m proud to announce that the Spillman family now receives the same network channel we’ve always had, the other two major networks (poorly), public television (pretty good), and the local Christian station.
I’ve never been a fan of Christian TV. Most of it is just too icky for me. I never could get past all the big hair and crying and self-serving money-begging in the name of God. It hurt my heart, so I didn’t watch it.
Now I have a confession to make. I’ve been sneaking some peeks lately. A lot of the icky stuff is still there, probably more than before, but now some good stuff gets through. I don’t know if Christian TV has changed or if it’s me that’s changed. All I know is that in the midst of all the icky stuff, some good stuff gets through.
With that defense noted, I’ll get back to the icky stuff. I was watching a talk show on the Christian TV channel. It was really just a dialog between two guys, sitting at a table, drinking coffee; the set was fixed up to look like someone’s kitchen, complete with big picture window.
One of the guys was a famous “faith” teacher. His guest was a businessman and they were discussing “faith.” How God has all this great stuff for us and how we can have anything we want if we just believe we can get it and say the right words. The “faith” expert kept saying that “faith” wasn’t about getting money. He kept saying that “faith” was about way more than just money and that getting rich was only a minor benefit, kind of a side-effect of having “faith.”
But something about the guy just wasn’t ringing true. Even though he kept saying that “faith” wasn’t about money, you could see that everything about the guy was saying that he believed “faith” really was about the money. Because he had “faith” God gave him a big car and a big house and a private jet and a real expensive gold watch - but those were just side-effects; having “faith” was way more important that all that stuff.
It made me wonder … even though “faith” wasn’t about the money … if the guy suddenly lost his TV show, his bank account, his house, his car, his private jet and his gold watch, if he would still be telling folks about “faith”?
That got me thinking about what “faith” might mean from God’s point of view. After all, when we talk about “faith” we’re talking about an interaction with God, right? And if having “faith” in God means that we’re believing or trusting in something we don’t quite understand but He does, then we should probably get His point of view on what “faith” means before we start to ponder about the things “faith” gets us.
The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to Hebrews (Jews) who had become Christians and part of it was dedicated to the topic of faith. He knew the Jews would understand what he was saying about faith because he used their famous fore-fathers as examples.
In the beginning of his section on faith (if you want to follow along, it’s in the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter eleven), he gives his readers a definition of what faith is: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” According to Paul, faith is being positive about receiving something we’ve been promised, without any physical proof that we’re actually going to get it.
That part seemed to be in line with what the “faith” expert on TV was saying. He got all his stuff by believing that he would get stuff because God promised it to him.
Then Paul went on to show how all the famous Jewish patriarchs demonstrated faith in what they did and how they pleased God by their actions. But a couple of things really struck me about the people Paul had listed as the heroes of faith.
The first was that they didn’t seem to be getting any big pay-off from their faith. They weren’t getting rich and they never made the move to easy street. It’s like these guys were always in trouble with the authorities or on the brink of some great calamity. In their stories, God always prevailed miraculously in the end, but it wasn’t like these guys were living at the country club during the process.
The second thing I noticed was that none of these heroes of faith seemed to be professing positive faith talk or claiming good stuff into existence. They just seemed to be doing something God told them to do.
And most of what God was telling them to do wasn’t some great glorious task involving a well-paying job. Most of it was dirty and dangerous work; a lot of them were killed in the process. And all of it went against the grain of whoever was in charge at the time. It seemed like being a faith hero in the old days wasn’t a very popular job.
Then Paul said something that really shook me up. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised ….”
You obey God, you live by faith, and then you die. What kind of pay-off is that!? This wasn’t jibing at all with what the “faith” expert on TV was saying. Even though the money was only a minor part of the “faith” life, according to the TV guy, it was a pretty darned important part.
What happened to these faith heroes Paul was talking about? These guys were supposed to be the examples of how faith works. How come they all died without getting the big pay-off?
Then I found something else Paul said about the faith heroes of old. It was right after he said that they all died without ever getting what they were promised.
… they only saw [the promises] 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.
Wow. I finally saw it. The big pay-off. It wasn’t about the money or cars or houses or private jets. It wasn’t about anything on earth. There wasn’t anything on earth good enough as a reward for having faith.
Those guys who Paul wrote about knew they were just passing through. Their real home wasn’t here and the stuff here didn’t really matter compared to the stuff waiting for them in their real home. The pay-off was ahead of them.
What earthly pay-off could possibly equal God not being ashamed to call Himself your God and Personally preparing a city for you to spend forever in?
What I got out of my lesson on faith is that having faith isn’t about expecting something back in return, not in this life anyway. I also got that faith isn’t “confessing” anything; saying the right words or not saying the wrong words. And faith certainly isn’t about sending “seed money” to some TV preacher. Keep your money, the guy’s a crook. He’ll have his own row to hoe on the other side of this life.
Faith is about obeying. Obeying God by doing the thing He told you to do. Knowing in your heart that God is really real and that He cares for you personally and that obeying Him will make your life worth living – without any physical evidence that all of that is true.
The thing God wants you to do may seem unpleasant at times and it will probably go against the grain of what folks around you expect of you. Doing what God wants you to do isn’t very popular most of the time.
There’s a pretty good chance that the job God has given you to do is way beyond your ability to do it. That’s one of the cool things. It proves that God gave it to you; there’s no way you can accomplish it without His regular involvement.
Living by faith, obeying God even though you can’t see the outcome, is really core to understanding your purpose and true potential in this life. You are here according to God’s plan and purpose. He has something He wants you to do for Him. For His glory. That’s your purpose. That’s why He created you. Living up to your full potential, your true potential, involves getting that purpose accomplished.
If good stuff comes your way in this life, more power to you. God loves you and He wants the best for you in this life and the next. But if listening to God and obeying Him brings a little pain and heartache, don’t sweat it and don’t turn back. Real faith means keeping to the task at hand even when there’s no evidence that things will ever get any better.
Besides, you’re in good company. Paul called all those faith heroes of old “a great cloud of witnesses.” They’ve been through the same stuff you’ll go through, they’re watching from above, cheering you on, and they’re saving a place for you.
Next Week…
We’ll be back next week with another issue. I hope by then to have our blog set up so we can receive and respond to reader comments and contributions in forum environment. In the mean time, if you have a question or comment just drop me an e-mail. We’ve received a lot of messages from you already, so far all positive (thanks). If there is anything specific you want to see covered regarding our purpose and potential, let me know. Until then, God bless you and keep you.
In Him,
Steve Spillman
Welcome to our third installment of the Purpose Weekly letter. Purpose Weekly is sent to your e-mail box weekly. There is no subscription fee. If you want to receive Purpose Weekly free via e-mail just go to http://www.gotpotential.org/ and sign up. Purpose Weekly is a publication of True Potential Publishing.Enjoy the articles below and remember to visit http://www.gotpotential.org/ to read more or to access back issues of True Potential e-magazine.
Last week’s letter covered two basics for understanding your true potential. The first is to understand that the universe is no accident. Everything in it was created on purpose, including you.
The second thing we discussed last week was that you are part of a much bigger plan. God knew when you would show up on this planet and He planned a special purpose for you long before you ever arrived here.
This week is about taking the single most important step to realizing your true potential and fulfilling your purpose in life. Without this, everything else is meaningless. With this, nothing in this world can do you any permanent harm or prevent you from achieving your purpose.
Purpose
August 3, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
The Light of the World
“In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 3: 4).
We’ve been talking about God’s plan and purpose for the universe and His plan and purpose for you and me as individuals. We discussed how God has purposed us from the very beginning. He knew us before we were ever born and knew exactly when we would be here.
There was something else God purposed from the beginning; that the Light of the world should, at a specific moment in time, come to this earth and live among men and die on their behalf.
This Light was with God in the very beginning when He spoke the universe into existence. As a matter of fact, the Apostle John called this Light the Word; as if it were the Light itself that spoke things into existence. John said that the Word was present at the beginning when all things were made and that there wasn’t anything made that the Word didn’t participate in.
Jesus is the one John called the Word and the Light. Jesus is called a lot of things in John’s book. He’s called “The lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” He’s also called God’s “one and only son.”
When you’re watching football on TV, do you ever see some guy holding a cardboard sign that says, JOHN 3:16? Holding a cardboard sign with JOHN 3:16 painted on it at a football game may sound a little wacky, but that guy was doing it for a reason. He’s trying, in his way, to tell people that God sent his “one and only son” to save the world.
Here’s John 3:16. “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.”
That’s God’s plan for all man, including you and me; that we have eternal life. God has a unique purpose for each of us, something He wants us to do. But without this first part of God’s plan we can’t fulfill any of the rest of His purpose for us.
The term “born again” has been used so much that it has become a part of the common language. People refer to Christians as born-agains, most times in a derogatory sense. It has become a tag by which the world identifies practicing Christians. We have even made a distinction between “Christians” and “born-again Christians.”
A lot of folks, if asked, “Are you a Christian?” would say, “Sure I’m a Christian. I go to church, I’m an American, I give to the Red Cross and just last year I spent a weekend helping build a house with Habitat for Humanity.”
But if those same folks were asked, “Are you a born-again Christian?” They would start a nervous back-pedal.
Being born-again smacks of religious fanaticism. Born-agains seem to be different from everyone else, a little out there; not quite accepted by polite society.
They might ask, “Is this whole born-again thing really necessary? I believe in God, I mean I believe He’s up there somewhere, looking down on us occasionally. I go to church … well, I don’t go that much, but I belong to one. I try to do good things and help people. You know - leave the world a little bit better than I found it. I vote Republican. Isn’t that enough? I mean how much can really be expected of me? I don’t really know why I shouldn’t go to Heaven; I’m doing all the right things, right?”
It’s funny. The reasoning above sounds kind of 21st century doesn’t it? Sounds like the kind of thing you would hear in your neighborhood from your friends or coworkers, maybe even something you might have said.
Well, the reasoning isn’t as 21st century as you might think. It’s been around for a long time.
Two thousand years ago a man named Nicodemus came to visit Jesus (he came at night so his friends wouldn’t see him talking to Jesus). He said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus answered him by saying, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
That’s where the term “born-again” comes from.
Like most folks, Nicodemus, didn’t understand. “How can a man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
But that’s not the kind of birth Jesus was talking about. Jesus explained. “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
What Jesus meant is that it wasn’t good enough for a man was born into this world only; he has to be born into another world, one from above, if he is to see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus, like so many folks today, was a good man. He was a religious man and a leader in the synagogue. He gave his money to the temple, he did good deeds, he obeyed the Law, he pretty much did everything right. Why then, was Jesus telling this good man that he had to do something else, something as incomprehensible as being born-again, to get into heaven?
I worked with a guy once who was a lot like Nicodemus. He was a deacon in his church, he taught Sunday school, he was always helping with the youth group, he was a good neighbor, he had a nice wife and great kids, he was a responsible employee; pretty much a great guy all around.
He knew I was a Christian so he shared his church life with me on occasion. He told me that he really liked his church, loved helping the kids and doing good things for those less fortunate; it made him feel great. He admitted that he didn’t know about “this whole born-again thing, but all my good deeds have got to count for something, right?”
This guy was just like Nicodemus, doing all the right things, but missing the necessary thing.
We can’t fulfill our purpose; we can’t live up to our true potential unless we are born-again. It’s impossible.
When God created the first man, Adam, he made him from the ground, the materials of this earth. Then God actually breathed His Spirit into the man to make him come alive. Adam was born (created) of the earth and he was born (given life) of the Spirit. Adam was alive in the flesh and in the Spirit.
Then something went terribly wrong. Adam and his wife, Eve did the only thing they weren’t allowed to do. They ate fruit from a tree that would let them know the difference between good and evil.
This action, according to the one who talked them into it, would put them on a par with God. They would know good from evil, be able to judge it for themselves and make their own decisions. They would be able to shape their own destiny, determine their own purpose. And they were right. Their own destiny, however, was tragic.
By choosing for themselves what God had reserved for Himself, part of them died. They lost the Spirit life that God had breathed into them; the connection that allowed them to be a part of God’s kingdom and His plan. With that part of them dead, they were forever doomed to live according to their own plans and purpose.
God knew ahead of time what the fate of this first man would be. He knew that all of the man’s offspring would suffer the same consequence. When they came into the world they would be born only of the earth, only of man. They would not be born with the Spirit life that was breathed into Adam because Adam had lost it, he didn’t have it to give.
That is why Jesus, God’s Son, the One who was there with God in the beginning, who was a part of speaking all things into existence, came to earth. He came to give man back that Spirit life. He came to set right that which had gone so wrong with Adam back in the Garden.
That’s what He was trying to explain to Nicodemus. The only way to see God’s kingdom, to participate in His plan, to fulfill His destiny for you, is to get back that Spirit life, to be born again.
Being born-again isn’t hard. Jesus has already done all of the work. All you have to do is what Jesus told Nicodemus to do, believe in Him. Believe that Jesus really is God’s Son, that He is the Light of the world and that He came to give that Spirit life, back to you.
If you’re already born-again, you’ve been through this and you know it. You felt the Spirit life come into you then and you can feel it now.
If you haven’t been born-again you know it too. It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you go to church or you’re a good person, or you give to the poor.
It also doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you’re a rotten person and you’ve done some bad or stupid things in the past. There isn’t anything you’ve done that being born-again won’t wash away.
According to God, unless you’re born-again, you’re never good enough to be a part of His kingdom and once you have been born-again, nothing you’ve ever done will prevent you from being a part of His kingdom.
Here’s how to be born-again; it’s pretty easy. Stop what you’re doing and talk to God. If it helps, close your eyes, but it’s really not necessary. God will hear you whether you have your eyes opened or closed.
Tell Him, “God, I believe your Son Jesus is the Light of the world. I believe that he came to breathe that Spirit life back into me. I accept what He did for me and I want to be a part of the plan that You have for me.”
That’s it! No Hail Marys. No walking over broken glass. Nothing else. The gift of eternal life is free. You don’t have to do anything but receive it.
If you did ask God to breathe that Spirit life back into you, drop me a note. I’d really like to hear about it and tell other folks what happened. Don’t worry, I won’t use your name or anything, what you did was between you and God. But I do want to hear about it. It’s the most important thing you’ve ever done and somebody needs to know!
Gone Fishing. Back in Two weeks.
We’ll be up in the north woods next week, getting mosquito bit and hopefully eating fresh fish. But Purpose Weekly will be back on August 17th and we’ll get into how to start really living our purpose.
Until then, God Bless us.
The second thing we discussed last week was that you are part of a much bigger plan. God knew when you would show up on this planet and He planned a special purpose for you long before you ever arrived here.
This week is about taking the single most important step to realizing your true potential and fulfilling your purpose in life. Without this, everything else is meaningless. With this, nothing in this world can do you any permanent harm or prevent you from achieving your purpose.
Purpose
August 3, 2007
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing
The Light of the World
“In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 3: 4).
We’ve been talking about God’s plan and purpose for the universe and His plan and purpose for you and me as individuals. We discussed how God has purposed us from the very beginning. He knew us before we were ever born and knew exactly when we would be here.
There was something else God purposed from the beginning; that the Light of the world should, at a specific moment in time, come to this earth and live among men and die on their behalf.
This Light was with God in the very beginning when He spoke the universe into existence. As a matter of fact, the Apostle John called this Light the Word; as if it were the Light itself that spoke things into existence. John said that the Word was present at the beginning when all things were made and that there wasn’t anything made that the Word didn’t participate in.
Jesus is the one John called the Word and the Light. Jesus is called a lot of things in John’s book. He’s called “The lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” He’s also called God’s “one and only son.”
When you’re watching football on TV, do you ever see some guy holding a cardboard sign that says, JOHN 3:16? Holding a cardboard sign with JOHN 3:16 painted on it at a football game may sound a little wacky, but that guy was doing it for a reason. He’s trying, in his way, to tell people that God sent his “one and only son” to save the world.
Here’s John 3:16. “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.”
That’s God’s plan for all man, including you and me; that we have eternal life. God has a unique purpose for each of us, something He wants us to do. But without this first part of God’s plan we can’t fulfill any of the rest of His purpose for us.
The term “born again” has been used so much that it has become a part of the common language. People refer to Christians as born-agains, most times in a derogatory sense. It has become a tag by which the world identifies practicing Christians. We have even made a distinction between “Christians” and “born-again Christians.”
A lot of folks, if asked, “Are you a Christian?” would say, “Sure I’m a Christian. I go to church, I’m an American, I give to the Red Cross and just last year I spent a weekend helping build a house with Habitat for Humanity.”
But if those same folks were asked, “Are you a born-again Christian?” They would start a nervous back-pedal.
Being born-again smacks of religious fanaticism. Born-agains seem to be different from everyone else, a little out there; not quite accepted by polite society.
They might ask, “Is this whole born-again thing really necessary? I believe in God, I mean I believe He’s up there somewhere, looking down on us occasionally. I go to church … well, I don’t go that much, but I belong to one. I try to do good things and help people. You know - leave the world a little bit better than I found it. I vote Republican. Isn’t that enough? I mean how much can really be expected of me? I don’t really know why I shouldn’t go to Heaven; I’m doing all the right things, right?”
It’s funny. The reasoning above sounds kind of 21st century doesn’t it? Sounds like the kind of thing you would hear in your neighborhood from your friends or coworkers, maybe even something you might have said.
Well, the reasoning isn’t as 21st century as you might think. It’s been around for a long time.
Two thousand years ago a man named Nicodemus came to visit Jesus (he came at night so his friends wouldn’t see him talking to Jesus). He said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus answered him by saying, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
That’s where the term “born-again” comes from.
Like most folks, Nicodemus, didn’t understand. “How can a man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
But that’s not the kind of birth Jesus was talking about. Jesus explained. “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
What Jesus meant is that it wasn’t good enough for a man was born into this world only; he has to be born into another world, one from above, if he is to see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus, like so many folks today, was a good man. He was a religious man and a leader in the synagogue. He gave his money to the temple, he did good deeds, he obeyed the Law, he pretty much did everything right. Why then, was Jesus telling this good man that he had to do something else, something as incomprehensible as being born-again, to get into heaven?
I worked with a guy once who was a lot like Nicodemus. He was a deacon in his church, he taught Sunday school, he was always helping with the youth group, he was a good neighbor, he had a nice wife and great kids, he was a responsible employee; pretty much a great guy all around.
He knew I was a Christian so he shared his church life with me on occasion. He told me that he really liked his church, loved helping the kids and doing good things for those less fortunate; it made him feel great. He admitted that he didn’t know about “this whole born-again thing, but all my good deeds have got to count for something, right?”
This guy was just like Nicodemus, doing all the right things, but missing the necessary thing.
We can’t fulfill our purpose; we can’t live up to our true potential unless we are born-again. It’s impossible.
When God created the first man, Adam, he made him from the ground, the materials of this earth. Then God actually breathed His Spirit into the man to make him come alive. Adam was born (created) of the earth and he was born (given life) of the Spirit. Adam was alive in the flesh and in the Spirit.
Then something went terribly wrong. Adam and his wife, Eve did the only thing they weren’t allowed to do. They ate fruit from a tree that would let them know the difference between good and evil.
This action, according to the one who talked them into it, would put them on a par with God. They would know good from evil, be able to judge it for themselves and make their own decisions. They would be able to shape their own destiny, determine their own purpose. And they were right. Their own destiny, however, was tragic.
By choosing for themselves what God had reserved for Himself, part of them died. They lost the Spirit life that God had breathed into them; the connection that allowed them to be a part of God’s kingdom and His plan. With that part of them dead, they were forever doomed to live according to their own plans and purpose.
God knew ahead of time what the fate of this first man would be. He knew that all of the man’s offspring would suffer the same consequence. When they came into the world they would be born only of the earth, only of man. They would not be born with the Spirit life that was breathed into Adam because Adam had lost it, he didn’t have it to give.
That is why Jesus, God’s Son, the One who was there with God in the beginning, who was a part of speaking all things into existence, came to earth. He came to give man back that Spirit life. He came to set right that which had gone so wrong with Adam back in the Garden.
That’s what He was trying to explain to Nicodemus. The only way to see God’s kingdom, to participate in His plan, to fulfill His destiny for you, is to get back that Spirit life, to be born again.
Being born-again isn’t hard. Jesus has already done all of the work. All you have to do is what Jesus told Nicodemus to do, believe in Him. Believe that Jesus really is God’s Son, that He is the Light of the world and that He came to give that Spirit life, back to you.
If you’re already born-again, you’ve been through this and you know it. You felt the Spirit life come into you then and you can feel it now.
If you haven’t been born-again you know it too. It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you go to church or you’re a good person, or you give to the poor.
It also doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you’re a rotten person and you’ve done some bad or stupid things in the past. There isn’t anything you’ve done that being born-again won’t wash away.
According to God, unless you’re born-again, you’re never good enough to be a part of His kingdom and once you have been born-again, nothing you’ve ever done will prevent you from being a part of His kingdom.
Here’s how to be born-again; it’s pretty easy. Stop what you’re doing and talk to God. If it helps, close your eyes, but it’s really not necessary. God will hear you whether you have your eyes opened or closed.
Tell Him, “God, I believe your Son Jesus is the Light of the world. I believe that he came to breathe that Spirit life back into me. I accept what He did for me and I want to be a part of the plan that You have for me.”
That’s it! No Hail Marys. No walking over broken glass. Nothing else. The gift of eternal life is free. You don’t have to do anything but receive it.
If you did ask God to breathe that Spirit life back into you, drop me a note. I’d really like to hear about it and tell other folks what happened. Don’t worry, I won’t use your name or anything, what you did was between you and God. But I do want to hear about it. It’s the most important thing you’ve ever done and somebody needs to know!
Gone Fishing. Back in Two weeks.
We’ll be up in the north woods next week, getting mosquito bit and hopefully eating fresh fish. But Purpose Weekly will be back on August 17th and we’ll get into how to start really living our purpose.
Until then, God Bless us.
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