The End of the Beginning?

                        

"Now this is not the end.  It is not even the beginning of the end.  But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” This famous quote from Winston Churchill expresses our reality as we come to the "end" of Great Beginnings.  Great Beginnings is not something to be carried out only as a year-beginning blast of focus on setting our priorities straight.   It is meant to get us started out with the right focus, priorities, and habits that need to continue throughout the year. 

So...from now on...

“In the beginning God…” needs to remain the first sentence of our lives

The gospel needs to be the foundation of all we are and do.  Christ is the first fruits of those who will be resurrected.

Our identity needs to be grounded in being the people of God, the "first fruits of all He has created."

God needs to get the first-fruits of our lives.  Certainly Great Beginnings is only the start of identifying areas of our lives where we need to be more intentional about giving God first fruits. 

Think through some particular areas of life:  thought life, family life, financial priorities, work, mission...

Also, think through the message of Great Beginnings:  how do we keep the heat turned up under the areas of prayer, fasting (and other spiritual disciplines), God's Word, and God-honoring choices. 

This is the end of the beginning...so let's move on to the middle...and end of the beginning, bringing with us and building upon the gains of Great Beginnings! 

                              

            Lord, thank you for great beginnings, for Your mercies new every morning! For the Greatest Beginning, my Savior, Jesus Christ! Teach me to number my days that I may gain a heart of wisdom! Be the beginning, middle, and end of all my days!

                             

A God of Second Chances!

         

Do you ever think that you'll never get it right? 

Good News!                                                                                   

Lamentations 3:22-23a says:

Because of the Lord's great love we're not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning;

                       

           Our God is a God of second chances (and third and fourth and ...) and new BEGINNINGS!

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do; Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14

Thank you, Father!  Help me to please you today.

                       

More?

                         

(Trust and Obey, Big Daddy Weave)

Many people start the New Year by resolving to change something in their life.  This usually involves setting a goal.  Sometimes these goals are unattainable because they cannot be measured.  If I say I want to be more patient with people, a better person, or more understanding, how do I measure those things?

God has revealed to us, in His word, how we are to walk in obedience.  He does not say be more obedient, as if He is coaxing us to follow Him a little bit  better, no, He simply says be obedient.

As we take part in the “21 Days of Great Beginnings” let us resolve to be obedient in our relationship with our Lord.  Deuteronomy 10:12 says:

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

             

            Lord, help me not just to want to be more obedient, but to just BE obedient. I resolve to fear You, obey You, love You, and serve You with all of my heart, and all of my soul. I long to be called a person after Your own heart. You know my desire; guide me in Your ways.

                              

Go and Sin No More!

Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.  When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”  John 8:8-11   

               

      We are in the midst of 21 days of Great Beginnings.  In a beginning, something new is starting.

     Unless you are perfect (and what are the chances of that?) you need to change something in your life.  If the change is going to be effective and meaningful, the change has to come from the Lord, not you.  Any change involving the Lord's participation starts with you identifying your area of weakness (let's call it sin) and asking for forgiveness.

     Jesus promises forgiveness, which is a new start, or a beginning.

     In the Scripture referenced above, Jesus took a woman who was facing disgrace and death, and gave her a beginning.  Note that her beginning had a string attached:  stop doing what you used to do.  Think it's any different for you?

      Most of our sin is patterned; we tend to do the same things over and over.  I believe that all sin starts in the mind.  I also believe, based on what others have said, on my personal experience and most importantly, on what the Bible says, you absolutely can bring your mind under control.

      Please read II Corinthians 10: 3-5. 

       For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

       Now, read it again.  

        See, your mind does not have a mind of its own and you can bring it under control, with Jesus' help. When your mind next starts down the wrong path, take that thought captive in Jesus' name.  The Bible says you can.

   

        So, what do you do next?  Read Philippians 4:8-9 and follow it.  Simple.  Effective.

            In this Great Beginning of this New Year and throughout it, let me dwell on what is true, honorable, right, and pure. Help me to take every thought captive and inhabit what is good.

                           

What Else Can We Do?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to Our true likeness….So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.  Genesis 1:1; 26-27

Another awe-inspiring reality about God is His plurality. We read in these very early parts of the Bible that God was having a conversation with Himself, saying, “Let US make man in OUR own image, according to OUR true likeness (Genesis 1:26, emphasis mine). What is this? We don’t know until later, until the New Testament reveals God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But even in these earliest places we do see that there is more to God than we can wrap our minds around. And we later learn that God is One in nature and Three in Person. He is a Trinity…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe it was Augustine who said of this truth, “Try to understand it and you will lose your mind, but deny it and you lose your soul.” Well said!

This leads to Ephesians 1:1-14, the passage that tells us that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are working together on our salvation from eternity past, through the present and will complete our salvation in eternity future.  Along with being under God’s eternal triple-teamed watchful loving care comes many spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3).  Find some time to read this reflectively—feast on these words of life, people of God! 

Ephesians 1 three times repeats that we are to praise your glorious grace, Lord.  What else can we do?  Father… (praise Him).  Son, Jesus… (praise Him).  Spirit… (praise Him).  How indeed You, Triune God, are the first sentence of our lives. 

            Lord, in this new year, let me grow daily in knowledge of You, but not be so caught up in knowledge of You that I forget to praise You. I praise You, Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth! I praise You, Son, My Redeemer and King! I praise You, Holy Spirit, my Comforter and my Guide!

Lord Over Time (The First Sentence, Continued...)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

One of the great benefits of making this the first sentence of our lives is how it brings the reality of God’s greatness into the center of our awareness.  Today, let’s consider that God was “in the beginning...”  He is eternal, not bound by time.  God created time, the time we know as sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, etc.   But He does not live within time, is not bound by it. 

This is one of the more comforting realities about our Lord!  Time is one of our cruelest masters, most precious resources, and greatest challenges.  And He is above it all!  This is why we start this year (there’s that time master again!) with Great Beginnings – we entrust the first sentence of our lives, our beginnings, our priorities, the ordering of our lives, to the One who had no beginning!  He is Lord over time!  He is not in a hurry, He is not worried, He is never early or late or short on time.  And yet…in the Person of Jesus, God entered time and even became subject to it.  Jesus was conceived, born, lived for a certain number of years, and most amazingly hung on a Roman cross for six hours.  He understands time and all of its pressures.  And now He reigns and lives again above it! 

            Lord, sometimes it feels like time is killing me!  I desperately need You, the One, the only One above time, to comfort and empower me to live in time!  I surrender my time to you!  Please help me to number my days, so that I may gain a heart of wisdom.  

Even Me!

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Galatians 6:14-15

I can think of three goals Jesus came to earth to accomplish:

     1. To fulfill prophetic scripture.

     2. To provide a means of salvation that we could never attain on our own. 

     3. To show us who the Father is and what He's like.

     It is this third goal I'd like to focus on.  Repeatedly, throughout the gospels, we see Jesus reflecting the love of the Father:  to the woman who touched His robe, to Zacchaeus, to the woman at the well, to the father whose son had seizures, to His disciples.

     Let's take a look at His disciples.  They are much like us, that is to say, they were far from perfect.  They were quarrelsome, jealous (remember them arguing about which of them was the best, while Jesus was preparing to go to the cross?), boastful, inconsistent and doubting.  Jesus knew all about them.  As He prepared to sacrifice His life for them (and for you and me), He knelt down and performed the function of the lowest servant; He washed their filthy feet. Then He told them (and us) to do likewise.

     Jesus loved these men despite their pettiness, their imperfections.  They became the foundation of the early church--true New Creations.  They didn't let their past sins and failures paralyze them into ineffectiveness.  Instead, embracing the New Creation, they were transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and used mightily.

     Have you ever felt that because of your past (or maybe your present) God couldn't embrace -you?  You're wrong. You're ignoring the clear lesson of the gospels.  You don't have to try to hide anything from Him.  You can't.  You don't have to strive for God's approval.  You already have it.  Oh, by the way, just as He used imperfect disciples 2,000 years ago, He can use you in a mighty way.  After all, aren't you a New Creation?

May I never boast except in the cross of my Lord Jesus!  And remind me that I cannot and need not hide anything from you. Lord, help me to remember that I am a New Creation!

How to be Used by Him

He must increase; but I must decrease. John 3:30 (NASB)

It’s not about being busy it’s about priorities.  We are only on this earth for a short time and we need to know what gift or gifts God has given us and what God’s plan is for us.

We all have busy lives and some days we get upset with all the interruptions in our lives, but we need to take a good look at the interruptions and realize that God may have sent them.  When someone calls or stops to visit and asks for prayer or has a need, they usually need help NOW, not later, when we get around to it.

Don’t pass up an opportunity to be used by God.  Put God first and see how your life will change.

      

         Lord, help me to realize that you love me so much and you trust me to help your people.  Give me encouragement and wisdom through your Holy Spirit to do Your will.

"But God..."

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 
I Peter 1:3

     

This scripture represents hope, as do many others.  That's good.  In fact, it's incredibly wonderful.  But, there's a complication. The complication is me.  When a problem arises, my tendency is to focus on the problem, even fixate on it and start thinking about what I can do to solve it.  Too often, I don't let God into the process.  Too often, I don't even think about God, His Word, His resources, until too late.  Either too late to effectively deal with the problem as the Lord would have me deal with it, or too late to spare me the needless stress, pain, wasted effort and emotions that necessarily attend my feeble efforts. 

            It all comes down to what I truly believe about God, about His character and about His word.  When presented with a troubling situation, I can say: "God is powerful, loving, caring etc. BUT I have this big problem..." or, I can say, "I have this big problem, BUT GOD is greater than my problem."

              I need less of my thinking and more "BUT GOD" thinking.   How about you?

     

     

            God, You are greater than my problems! You must be my daily, minute-ly focus, through every problem, through every trial! I lay my days at Your feet; Let the things of earth grow strangely dim, and let Your glory shine brightly into my life!

It Begins With Us!

Ready to BEGIN to make a difference?  Dissatisfied with the direction the world is going?  Do you want your family, friends, neighbors, people around the world to come to salvation?

For it is time for judgment to BEGIN with God's household; and if it BEGINS with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?  And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"

 I Peter 4: 17-18

Is it time to look at ourselves and ask whether we are acting out our righteousness in Christ?  If we are practicing evil how will the world know the Savior?

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." I Peter 1: 15-16

Lord, help us examine our lives and courageously change so we can better show the life of Christ in us.  Amen

Gravel and Stones

               For what I received I passed on to you as first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. I Corinthians 15:3-6

There is a visual aid that pastors and motivational speakers have used for years to emphasize the importance of setting priorities; it is the exercise consisting of a bucket or jar of gravel and stones. Gravel is meant to represent the small details in life, things we should do, like vacuuming the carpets, grocery shopping, or tearing down that old shed in the far end of the yard. Not unimportant things, just, the small details. Larger stones represent the important things in life: Time spent in the Word, prayer, relationships, etc…, whatever are the most important things in your life. 

   In this exercise, if you put the gravel in the jar first, there will not be enough room left for all of the large stones. But…if you put the large stones in first, not only will all of the large stones fit, but all of the gravel will spill around the large stones, filling in the empty spaces.

            Christ—believing Him, praising Him, striving to be like Him, telling others about Him—should be the largest stone in the “jar” of our lives; let everything else spill all around Him. He should be the first priority of the day, the first priority of our existence. Paul said, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins…” (verse 3). There is nothing in life more important than what He has done! No greater priority, no greater purpose for our lives.

Lord Jesus, I make You my priority! Help me not to put the gravel in first! I place You in my life first. I repent of not making You first in my life. Change my heart, oh God! And renew a right Spirit within me.

Losing Focus

              One of the things we need to overcome in a long fast is losing our focus. Whatever way we are participating in this “21 Days of Great Beginnings”, we must remember it is not about what we are giving up, but it is about taking time to seek God.

 It is so easy to put off spending time with the Lord.  So many things scream at us for attention. Try putting off those things for a few minutes, focus on the Lord and your relationship with Him; the other things will fall in place. 

    Psalm 127:1-2 puts it in perspective:

  Unless the Lord builds the house,
    the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
   the guards stand watch in vain.
In vain you rise early
    and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—

    for he grants sleep to those he loves.

We can spend our time trying to do life on our own, even become a success according to worldly standards but be a miserable failure in life and the things that are important in life.  If that is where you are in your life, why not use this chance to change your life focus?

            Lord, keep me focused, give me clarity of thought for the things You are trying to reveal to me. Forgive my failures and my lack of focus, and set my eyes on You.

In Awe of Him!

      In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 

        “How big is God?” was yesterday’s question. He is big, bigger than we can create words to describe. Today let’s consider another question: “How small is God?” God’s creation is massive beyond description, and yet…also tiny beyond imagination. Consider, for example, the following scientist’s description of a single-cell: (it has) Artificial languages and their decoding systems, memory banks for information storage and retrieval, elegant control systems regulating the automated assembly of parts and components, error fail-safe and proof-reading devices utilized for quality control, assembly processes involving the principle of prefabrication and modular construction…and a capacity not equaled in any of our own most advanced machines, for it would be capable of replicating its entire structure within a matter of a few hours. (From The Way of A Cell by Franklin Harold)

        And these single-cells are microscopic, not visible to the naked eye. The human body is made up of over 80 trillion single cells of all different types and specialties. And each of those 80 trillion cells are indescribably complex little factories of life! And it gets smaller: because a typical cell takes 10 million atoms to build. How small must an atom be?

         How small is God? As big as He is big, is as small as He is small! Please remember, we are not equating God with His creation. He is the creator, separate from His creation, eternal and self-existing, who spoke all things, great and small, into existence! How great is our God!

        And we have not yet approached the greatest example of how small our great God is willing to become. He was willing to become an embryo implanted in the womb of a teenage girl named Mary. How small did Jesus the human begin, how many cells, what stage of development…we don’t know exactly. But wow how small was God the Son! And that isn’t the smallest He became. As it says in Philippians 2:

        Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8 

Lord, every time I consider something new about You I am more in awe of Who You are! Out of this awe please guide me in making you First in all things!

With His Arms Outstretched, How Big Is God?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

              How big is God?  When our kids were little we used to play that fun game that recognized how rapidly they were growing.  The one where we would ask “How big is Nicole, or how big is Josiah”…and they would stretch out their little arms and we would say together “Sooooo big!”  Not a bad practice to help “in the beginning God” become our first and life-defining sentence.  How big is God?  He created the heavens and the earth!

 How big are the heavens?  There are 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy.  Our sun is 150 trillion miles from the center of our galaxy.  Our galaxy is just one of more than an estimated 100 billion galaxies, and each galaxy has over 100 billion stars! God created the heavens and the earth!   He spoke these things into existence! 

How big is God? 

Lord, You must be first! Your greatness is so far beyond our comprehension!  Rather than try to comprehend, we worship! We put you first in our lives, our priorities. 

My Shadow Mission

         
             But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 

             In his book When The Game Is Over It All Goes Back In The Box, John Ortberg says, "Just as we all have a mission - a way of contributing to God's kingdom that we were designed and gifted for - we also have what might be called a shadow mission. My shadow mission is what I will do with my life if I drift on autopilot. It consists of the activities toward which I will gravitate if I allow my natural temptations and selfishness to take over. Everybody has a shadow mission."

             He goes on to give some examples. One is the rich fool in the Bible, whose shadow mission was to build bigger barns and lay up plenty of goods for the coming years. Another is Esther, whose shadow mission was to be "arm candy for the most powerful man on earth". What God had for her was much different - to save all of her people from slaughter. God's mission for us might not be to save an entire race from annihilation, but He has gifted all of us with different talents, strengths, and weaknesses to accomplish the mission He has prepared for us before we were even born. And it is probably not to go to work, come home, watch TV, surf the Internet and go to bed every day on autopilot. During this time of fasting and prayer, let's ask God to reveal to us what our real mission is and then let us listen and obey.

             "If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." Martin Luther King Jr.

             Lord, help me not to get so caught up in my shadow mission that I do not fulfill Your mission for me. Help me to know the difference and to set my priorities. Help my becoming more like Christ be the top priority of each new day. Lord, the most important mission You gave me is to carry the name of Jesus always, everywhere I go. My gifts and talents I lay at Your feet to use for Your glory; reveal to me how to best use them for You.

My Greatest Enemy

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

          For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. II Peter 1:3-8

Fasting brings me face to face with my greatest enemy.  It forces me to deal with the root cause of most of my problems. I suspect that all of us, if we could be honest with ourselves, have the same problem. Self will.

I know what the Lord commands us to do as Christians; To love the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). But sometimes, when I know I need to do something, the first thought in my mind is “I will do that when I finish what I want to do”.  There it is again, Self Will.  It isn’t always something I need to do for someone else; it can be something in my life that is not pleasing to God that I need to deal with. 

We need to realize we are in a spiritual battle.  Read II Peter 1:3-8 again and see that God has given us all the power to be successful in everything we are called to do.  We need to use what He has already given to us.

Thank You, Father, that your divine power has already given me everything I need for a godly life! Help me to grow in knowledge and see past my self will to do Your will. Help me to reflect on the things You desire to change in me, and help me to change.

      

Be Like Anna

Is it time for a new beginning?  As we reflected yesterday, we may have known Jesus for a long time and remained steadfast in our faith.  But there is, indeed, a difference between being steadfast and having joy in Christ. Has the excitement of your first encounter with Christ diminished? Let the testimony of Anna’s life fill you with renewed faith:

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher.  She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.  She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.  Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. Luke 2: 36-38

Father, Help me, like Anna, to celebrate Jesus with us, and inspire me to boldly introduce Him to everyone I know who is seeking.

First Love

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.  But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Revelation 2:1-7

                Maybe you were five, or maybe you were twenty-five, but, most people remember their first “love.” Maybe you remember the pounding of your heart when that special someone entered the room. Remember the shy glances, the smiles? So hard to forget.

Maybe you felt a passion for Christ when you first came to know Him. Were you aching to share with the world how He changed you, made you whole, redeemed you? But somehow, the pounding in the heart once felt for Christ may have lightened. The smiles may have faded as we have gone about the business of working hard at “doing right”. The glances, no, gazes into the Word, have now turned away to other things, maybe not things that are intrinsically wrong, but things which steal our time and attention from Him.

.

Take this time to stop and reflect: Have you lost the love you first had for Him? Was there a time when joy of learning more about Christ overflowed?

            Lord Jesus, my sweet Redeemer, I turn my gaze back to You now! Fill me with the passion for Your Word I once had. I repent that I have let that passion fade. Let my heart long for You, and my deeds follow, and not the other way around. Jesus, be my Victory!