Finding True “Joy”

If you asked a thousand people if they wanted to experience “joy” in their lives, I have to believe that you would get a thousand positive answers.  When you dig deep down into the motivations of our hearts we see that we are motivated by a desire to experience ”joy.”

With that in mind, let’s reflect for just a moment on Psalm 4.  David writes:

“Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!  You have given me relief when I was in distress.  Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!

O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?  How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?  But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him. 

Be angry and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.  Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.

There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?  Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”  You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

Did you catch that?  “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.”  I couldn’t help being reminded of a couple of things when I read this verse earlier this week.  First, ultimate joy comes from intimacy with God.  True joy is not based upon our circumstances.  It comes from the truth that we can know and be known by the creator of the universe…the One who holds the world in His hands.  When I, by faith, trust in what Christ has done for me while dead in my sins, (namely His death, burial, and resurrection) I experience that which before was never possible…true joy.

Secondly, I was reminded of how much greater intimacy with Christ is than anything else in this world.  David reminds us that the joy God gives us is far greater than the accumulation of worldly things.  David is not saying that wine and grain are bad.  He is simply saying that these things will never satisfy!  They will never be able to compare to the joy that comes from God through Jesus Christ His Son.  When their is intimacy with Christ we can have joy in times of abundance and in seasons of loss.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable Gift!

 

Final Musings from the Catalyst Conference

Well, its Monday morning and the conference ended at 5:30 on Friday.  It’s taken me that long to process much of what I heard over those two jam packed days.

I have shared with you about some of the highlights…great worship…encouraging testimonies…challenging speakers…and a great time with friends.  I left there feeling blessed to have been part of the conference and encouraged as I made my way back to Winston-Salem thinking about ways to implement what I have learned and been challenged with.

I want to close with some thoughts from the final message that we heard.  At each Catalyst Conference they led Andy Stanley do the first talk and the last talk.  As he talked about leadership he shared that with the people you lead you have “Expectations” and your “Experiences” with them in the work place.  Hopefully most of the time your experiences match your expectations.  But when they don’t a “gap” is created.  In other words, “Occasionally, there are gaps between whate we expect people to do and what they actually do.”   And what you do with that “gap” is going to make a profound difference in your church or organization.

The choice you have at that point is really pretty simple.  You can either choose to believe the best OR assume the worst.  Trust is a decision we make and the more trust we have in one another the stronger the organization will be.  And here is where I was challenged: “Developing a culture of trust begins with the leader.”  Whether we lead large staff teams or small staff teams…whether we lead volunteers or just an administrative assistant…developing a culture of trust begins with the leader.  I left challenged and asking myself, “Will I choose to believe the best or assume the worst?”

By God’s grace I will choose to believe the best!

Let me share 5 Commitments that Andy Stanley challenged us with:

1. When there is a gap between what I expected and what I experienced, I will believe the best.
2. When othr people assume the worst about you (people you lead), I will come to your defense.
3. If what I experience begins to erode my trust, I will come directly to you about it.
4. When I’m convinced I will not be able to deliver on a promise, I will inform you ahead of time.
5. When you confront me about the gaps I’ve created, I will tell you the truth.

What a great message and a great conference.  I can’t wait till next year.

 

Musings from the Catalyst Conference – Pt. 6

Right now we are listening to some statistics on churches and church leaders from Ed Stetzer and Reggie Joyner.  Pretty interesting.

I have to confess that one of the highlights of the conference was hearing from Dr. Chuck Swindoll.  He received from the conference a lifetime achievement award.  He is very deserving.  He has profoundly impacted people for over 50 years.  He shared with us the leadership lessons that he has learned over the last 50 years.  Here are his 10 lessons in leadership:

1. It’s lonely to lead
2. It’s dangerous to succeed  quickly (especially when you are young)
3. It’s hardest at home
4. It’s essential to be real
5. It’s painful to obey
6. Brokenness and failure are necessary
7. My attitude is more important than my actions
8. Integrity eclipses image
9. God’s way is better than my way
10. Christ-likeness begins and ends with humility

And here are 5 statements that he gave to remember over the next 50 years of our ministries:

• Whatever you do…do more with others and less alone
• Whenever you do ministry emphasize quality over quantity
• Whenever you do ministry do it the same as if you were among those who know you best
• Whoever may respond keep a level head
• However long you lead, keep on dripping gratitude and grace

Final thought from Swindoll, “Whenever God wants to do an impossible task he takes an impossible person and crushes him.”

Awesome message!  Now looking forward to hearing from Louie Giglio.

 

Musings from the Catalyst Conference – Pt.5

This morning began with an excellent message from Priscilla Shirer who is the daughter of Dr. Tony Evans.  By the way, one of the funnier moments of the conference, was when Dave Ramsey (who spoke immediately after her) kept calling her Phyllis!  What was making it even funnier is that he was using her as an illustration of what it means to “focus”.  I digress.

Her message was from Joshua 3 and she shared some leadership principles from Joshua’s life.  Her four main points were:

1. Joshua acted immediately when God called him to action.
2. Joshua acted fearlessly.
3. Joshua acknowledged the presence of God.
4. Joshua anticipated God’s miracles.

As she spoke you could really sense her passion and desire to honor Christ with both her words and her life.  It was a great joy listening to her.

We then heard from Dave Ramsey, who is well known for his radio show, books, and finance show on Fox Business Channel. DR spoke on what he calls the “Momentum Theorem” which is “Focused Intensity, over Time, multiplied by God, equals Unstoppable Momentum!”  There were challenging aspects, but I think that we must be careful that we don’t communicate that “Hard work = God’s blessing” (as the world considers blessing).  Just a thought.

Preparing now to hear from Chuck Swindoll.  Pretty excited about that!

 

Musings from the Catalyst Conference – Pt. 4

What a great ending to an incredible day at the Catalyst Conference.

The afternoon session ended with an incredible message from Matt Chandler.  God really has His hand on MC’s life.  He is a phenomenal communicator but more importantly he passionately communicates not his own ideas, but the riches of the Scriptures. He gave a challenging message from Hebrews 11 and 12, one that I won’t soon forget.  We are, as MC reminded us, a part of God’s plan for seeing the nations worship Him!  Thanks Matt.

The night ended with a message from Francis Chan and communion.  FC read scripture over us and encouraged us to think back over our salvation and what Jesus has done for us and in us.  It was a simple and unbelievably powerful word.  We were led in worship by Aaron Keys.  It was so rich!  There is just something beautiful about listening to 12,000 people lifting up their voices to the King of Kings.  I think it was a little taste of heaven.

Well the day is done and I can’t wait for tomorrow!

 

Musings from Catalyst Conference – Pt.3

Well, it’s mid afternoon and we have had an incredible day thus far.  We just heard a pretty challenging message from Rob Bell as he talked about “Is Bigger Really Better?”

Here are some of the questions that he challenged us to ponder:

1. Do you have anxiety over your achievements?
2. Do you have anxiety over what you are “building?”
3. Is there any way that you have had stress over the size of your ministry?
4. What are the ways that you have neglected to take care of yourself?
5. How are you observing a Sabbath?  What day do you turn your cell phone off?  What day to you refuse to respond to emails?
6. Does your spouse get the very best of you or the scraps that are left over from what you are trying to build in ministry?
7. What about your children?

A great challenge and right on time!

 

Musings from the Catalyst Conference – Pt. 2

WOW!  Just listened to Malcom Gladwell as he shared an incredible talk on humility.  He is a phenomenal story teller and did an amazing job giving giving context to the stories he told.  He was captivating and had us at the edge of our seats.

The context of his message was really quite simple and yet unbelievably challenging.  The lesson I took away was that, “In times of crisis we think we need daring and bold leadership and decision making.  But what we really need his humility!”

Gladwell shared stories and examples from the Civil War, the financial crisis from 1929, and the current economic crisis.  In each of those situations there were people in control that were not inept.  They were overconfident and unwilling to listen to counsel! He said that we can become trapped by our overconfidence and this can be more damaging and dangerous than incompetence.

Good stuff!

 

Musings from the Catalyst Conference – Pt. 1

As I said yesterday, I have the privilege of going to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, today and tomorrow.  There is a phenomenal lineup of speakers and I have already enjoyed the worship and challenging message from Andy Stanley.  He shared a message from Joshua and challenged us to leave not a mark for ourselves but to glorify our Heavenly Father by leaving His mark on all that we are and all that we do!

One of the most challenging quotes from Andy was, “Our mark isn’t worth our life—it’s too small thing.  To be used by God to leave His mark—is a wonderful joy!”

Right now I have the privilege of listening to Jessica Jackley who is founder of KIVA.  You should really check out their website.  It’s www.kiva.org.

More to come!

 

Thoughts on Suffering Pt. 2

Here is a passage of Scripture from Acts 4:23-31:

“When they were released they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,  ’Why do the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his ‘Anointed’–for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Ponitus Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.  And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  And when they prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”

This is a pretty incredible prayer.  And its in the midst of this prayer that we see what the apostles and early believers believed about suffering.  They saw suffering as a part of God’s sovereign plan.  They acknowledged God’s sovereignty over creation and nature, God’s sovereignty over the suffering of Jesus (quoting from Psalm 2), and God’s sovereignty over the suffering that they were facing from the religious leaders of their day!

Think about this…if God is sovereign over our suffering then our suffering must be purposeful. It is not just some random occurrence or just happenstance.  Wherever you are and whatever you are going through, God is sovereign!  Stay the course, beat on His chest, and know that He is intimately aware of what you are going through and your circumstances.  And He can totally relate!

By the way, I have the privilege of attending the Catalyst conference in Atlanta, Georgia tomorrow and Friday.  I look forward to sharing with you about the experience.

 

A Question on Suffering

Ok…first let me apologize for not updating my blog sooner.  It’s been quite a while and I hope that there will not be such length between posts from this moment forward.

I’ve been thinking alot about suffering over the last couple of weeks in preparation for a message that I am going to be sharing tomorrow with our church (Elevate and Calvary West).  We see throughout the Scriptures that suffering happens for a variety of reasons.  We see suffering that results from persecution…we see suffering that results from our sin and God’s discipline in our lives…and we see accounts of suffering where at the time there seems to be no reason.

Regardless of the reason, we know that as followers of Christ we will experience suffering, as many of us can contest.

So here is my question  (and I know that it will require some vulnerability): “When was the time in your life when you felt/or feel you have suffered the most?  And what were the circumstances that surrounded this occassion?”

You don’t have to leave your name!  You can be totally anonymous.  I am just curious to hear from you and the challenges that you have faced.  And over the next few days I am going to be posting some additional thoughts suffering and how it impacts our lives.

Thanks in advance!