On August 20, 2019 a man was found on the side of the road frantically stuffing medical gauze into a baseball sized hole in his tire. After filling the hole with gauze, the man then proceeded to put bandaid after bandaid over that same baseball sized hole intending to keep air inside of the tire…I’m sure you will be surprised to read that it didn’t work. If only the complicated problems in our life could be fixed by bandaids, duct tape, and tie wire. 

We Are in Need of Repair

The path God has you on will undoubtedly be filled with countless obstacles and struggles to overcome. We are a broken people and that brokenness is far more severe than a flat tire. Our broken state is one that is in desperate need of repair. The temptation is always there to attempt to fix this problem with a half hearted lazy approach. We’d like to just patch up our lives, put a bandaid on it and call it good enough. The problem is our brokenness will never be bound up in that way. Despite what we have heard and would desire to believe, some things require more attention and strength than a little duct tape. 

Demolition 

The human state is a gross thing. Our hearts are full of all kinds of rot and decay, and oftentimes in some state of disrepair. I have done a lot of remodeling where homes are also suffering from rot and decay. They have compromised integrity and are in desperate need of repair. Now, many homeowners would like it if those issues could simply be covered up, painted over and ignored. They desire beautiful, new, and improved homes, with fresh paint and all of the blemishes hidden but they desire it to be done while ignoring some of the most serious of problems. Or if they do decide to not ignore the problem, they are often not totally eliminated but are simply mitigated. 

We know that the Christian life is one of continued sanctification, pursuit of greater holiness and Godliness day by day. We’re quick to say that we want spiritual growth and maturity, we just want it to be easy. We want the new and abundant life that Christ offers and we want it cost free. Many of us would say that our lives are in need of remodeling and repair spiritually speaking, but what we really mean is that we want it remodeled without disturbing or changing anything. That would be great. Do it without any demolition. Fix it up and make it better just don’t tear out any weak or rotten areas. We like those areas. They are important to us. 

No Easy Way Out

God does not work that way. He requires that things are dealt with completely. The weak areas and sins in our lives do not get to be ignored or covered up, they are to be removed altogether, once and for all. We don’t like this. It will necessitate the pain and discomfort of God ripping away some of what we hold most dear. I don’t really like pain. Nor do I enjoy discomfort. I don’t like distress, hardships or unease. If given the chance I would avoid those things. If given the opportunity I would rather allow those weaknesses to remain. I would rather just put a bandaid on, cover it up and pretend it is okay, even when I know that the attempt of patching myself up will never suffice. 

The Bible talks about taking care of the heart. It also discuss dealing things at the root level. The Bible speaks of a spiritual root that bears bitterness. (Deuteronomy 19:18)  Jeremiah was told to “root out” sin (Jeremiah 1:10, and the prophet Malachi shows God dealing with the root of transgressions in the lives of His people. (Malachi 4:1) As people we would prefer to deal with the symptoms of our problems, but the problem with that is, like the stubborn weed in your garden, if we do not dig to the root it will return. 

It’s a Problem with the Heart

There is a reason that God is so greatly concerned with people’s hearts. It is from the overflow of the heart that we speak and act. What is inside of us dictates how we live, what decisions we make. Dealing with a problem by throwing a bandaid on it may make things appear to look better on the outside, but on the inside things remain as broken and twisted as ever before. 

For example, you may find that you are bitter towards someone in the church. This leads to disunity, anger, and awkwardness when around that person. An attempt to patch things up may be to simply distance yourself from that person. This may temporarily relieve some of the symptoms on the outside. It may appear as though you are: getting along, being of one mind, on mission together, and caring for each other. But it will be a short lived sham. The heart of the problem has not been addressed.

God is greatly concerned with the heart. He cares about what is really going on beneath the surface. He has no desire for us to simply try to cover up the problem areas in our lives in order to look as if we are whole and complete.

Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Not the Easy Path

Dealing with things God’s way is harder. It means not always going for the simple fix.  Although it will without question be more difficult, it is the only thing that is ultimately going to work. Don’t try to hide your brokenness. Let God expose all of it. Then let him rip it from your life and replace it with new strengthened materials. Ezekiel 36:26 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Your old dead heart cannot be fixed by some duct tape. It must be fully removed. It is only when it is fully removed that God can replace it with a new heart leading to life. 

In July, 1986, George Holtyzer of Belgium, walked 418 miles in about 6 ½ days…backwards!

Have you ever tried to walk backwards? It’s hard. It’s so hard that most people give up before they’ve gone very far at all. Even George. As impressive as his effort might’ve been, he quit in less than a week, simply because human beings weren’t designed to face opposite of the direction in which they travel. The shape of our feet, the placement of our eyes, and the arrangement of our toes are all indicators that God, when He created us, intended that our focus should remain in the very same direction that we walk. Forward…Always forward.

PREOCCUPIED WITH THE PAST

Most people understand this just fine. They know enough to keep looking onward so that they can see where they’re going, at least in the physical realm. But when it comes to spiritual things, many people are walking completely backwards. They try their best to move ahead in life, but their attention is always on that which lies behind them. They’ve experienced something in the past that has so thoroughly captured their attention that they simply refuse to turn away from it. They’re convinced that who they are today, and where they go tomorrow, has ultimately been answered by what they’ve experienced in the past, for better or for worse.

Walking backwards…can cripple you over time

For some it may be the faulty genes they inherited at conception, the negative influences that shaped them as a child, or a particular trauma they suffered along the way. For others it’s a more positive experience; their “golden years” perhaps, or their college days; their wedding, or the birth of a child. It hardly matters whether the details of a person’s past are upsetting or uplifting. Either one has the same potential to keep a person so mesmerized by the events of yesteryear that they can neither face the challenges nor see the opportunities that lie ahead. Walking backwards might seem exciting at first, and preferable for a while, but it can cripple you over time.  

A DANGEROUS JOURNEY

When a person pays greater attention to where they’ve been than to where they’re going (whether physically or spiritually) they’re making the journey far more difficult, dangerous, and inefficient than the Lord meant for it to be. In sharp contrast, modern psychology insists that every problem we face in life is somehow linked to our past. God, however, designed us to move forward, with our focus in front, not behind.

The Apostle Paul writes to the believers in Philippi saying, “One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind, I reach forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Apparently, God has ‘prizes’ for those who get their directions right. That makes Paul a good example for us to follow. Not George. Paul. Thanks Paul.

FALLING DOWN

There’s no better way to set yourself up to stumble and fall than trying to walk backwards. A person can’t prepare for the future when they’re still staring into the past. Yet many walk this way, not only because they’ve been captivated by something behind them, but because they’ve got so little to look forward to.

Spiritually unambitious, they give little attention to God’s Word which gives them the promise of eternal life. With little or no awareness that their life is eternal, they give little or no attention to what lies ahead of them. With no eternal perspective, their whole life is wasted with tripping over the smallest of sins and obstacles. Their backward walk with Christ is little more than one injury after another. It’s frustrating for them and for Jesus both.

FACING THE FUTURE

God is very intent that His children get a firm grasp of the reality of their spiritual and physical future: “Those who die in the LORD will live; their bodies will rise again! Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy!” (Isaiah 26:19). Jesus wants us all to know that “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live…whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

Why should we walk backwards through this life when we’ve got so much to look forward to and prepare for? It’s a foolish waste of time to remain unable to “reach forward to what lies ahead” because you’re so engrossed with “what lies behind”…especially since you don’t have to! If your “progress of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” is being hindered, it might be your own fault. Nobody walks backward by accident. Not even George Holtyzer. If you’re doing it, it’s because you’ve chosen to. You need to turn around and find your stride. Walking backwards for too long will compromise your entire spiritual posture.  

Nobody walks backward by accident

It’s not as hard as you think to turn around. Anybody can do it. Some people, like George, realize this after only 6 ½ relatively brief, yet agonizing days. For others, unfortunately, it’ll take a bit longer.

PRESSING ON

What’s in your past is history. Have you accomplished great things for the Lord? Congratulations, but there’s more to be done. Have you sinned? Move on. Have you suffered? Get going. Have you fallen? Get up, get some help, and push ahead. You’ll die soon enough, so there’s no need for you to live like it’s already happened. Time is running short for all of us, and the only chance you have to invest in your own afterlife is now while you live. Don’t waste your time. Serve Jesus, fight the fight; run the race.

You can spend your time walking backwards if you like, or you can march ahead like Jesus who, “For the joy set before Him” endured the greatest trauma known to any living being in history. Nothing stopped Him from going forward. May we all, without distraction, move forward like soldiers, undeterred by the experiences and events of yesterday.

I have dwarves on my lawn. Three of them, and they’re all from the same family. One of them was born in Wright County, MN, while the other two (believe it or not) are grandchildren of the Duchess of Oldenburg. They came up on a truck from Missouri shortly after we moved in 10 years ago, and they’ve been living in my yard ever since. Not to be confused with the average, lifeless garden gnome either, mine are alive & real and full of fruit. And, as of late, they’re making me nervous.   

Malus Pumila from the Rosaceae family, otherwise known as “Honeycrisp”, the three apple trees in my backyard are of what’s called a “dwarf” variety. Topping out at 8-10 feet tall, these dwarves will never grow to be as large as some of their relatives within the greater Rosaceae family, but they’re perfectly suited to occupy a small yard like mine (which they do, and have, for many years now). They may be small, but they’ve weathered many storms and survived some of the coldest winters on record. They came in the mail no bigger than twigs, but they’ve long since grown into strong young trees, eager to provide my family with applesauce and pie. These are no ordinary dwarves. The Duchess of Oldenburg would be proud.

Slow Growing

As strong as they are, and as proud as the Duchess may be, these dwarf trees haven’t yet reached their full potential. Over the duration of their life in my yard, I’ve seen very little fruit. One of them just last year yielded its first (and only) apple, while another had yet to produce even a single blossom. It almost goes without saying that I haven’t been eating a lot of pie in recent years. However, I hadn’t necessarily been expecting a whole lot of fruit from them either. I know that it takes time for a fruit tree to mature, and I’ve been willing to wait. My dwarves haven’t disappointed me in the least. On the contrary, I am delighted to have them in my yard…apples or not. 

In fact, at the start of prior seasons I remember pinching blossoms off of my trees in order to give the branches time to grow & thicken. Apples get heavy, and producing fruit too soon can break the limbs and prove counterproductive. Dwarf trees are known for doing this, and I didn’t want that to happen with mine. Better to make sure the tree is strong enough to handle the fruit it produces, rather than producing fruit as fast as possible to the detriment of the tree. I’m not hoping for apples this year only. I’m after fruit that lasts season after season.

Full of Potential

Well, this year has proven to be different from the rest. In mid-June all three trees were so filled with white apple blossoms, it looked like it had snowed on them. Pinching them off would’ve taken a month, so I figured that it was time to let my little dwarves do what they were always meant to do: Make fruit.

It wasn’t long before their blossoms gave way to tiny green apples. Those apples went from tiny to small, then from small to medium, and by mid-summer they had become substantial in both size and weight. The Thomson’s and the Rosaceae’s alike had been waiting a long time for this. It was exciting for all of us.  

It’s now late summer, and my trees have had a year like none before. They are liberally decorated with the finest fruit they have ever produced. The apples they hold are healthy & beautiful, absolutely delicious, and simply too many to count. And with the end of the growing season still several weeks away, they’re bound to grow even larger, juicier, and, of course, heavier. And that is the cause of my recent concern.

“Producing fruit too soon can break the limbs”

The fruit I’ve so patiently waited for has now become the very thing that’s making me nervous. The branches are still relatively thin, and bowing like wooden rainbows with the weight of the apples. Can they handle it? Will they break? Is it possible for a tree be ruined by its own fruit?  

Self-Destruction

The three trees in my yard make me wonder if we sometimes underestimate the value and importance of a fruitless season in our spiritual life. It’s a good thing I barred them from bearing too much fruit in years past, they can hardly carry the weight of the apples they’ve got now! Those dwarves, just like us, need to recognize spiritual maturity as being equally critical to the ongoing success of our ministry as the fruit we covet.

We’re so easily discouraged when the growth of our church stagnates for too long, or when our efforts to reach the lost fail to produce immediate results. But how can we be sure that periods of barrenness aren’t by God’s design? What if slow growth and scant success is God’s way of keeping us from destroying ourselves? Just because we can’t see any fruit doesn’t mean that the tree has died. It’s more likely an indication that its best years are still to come.

Conversely, even when a ministry seems to be producing volumes, it’s still susceptible to breakage. Some churches have been known to do that, and I don’t want it to happen to mine. I’ve looked over the fence into neighboring orchards that were far more prolific than ours, and what I’ve seen isn’t always a pretty sight. I’ve seen ministries that grew up so quickly and produced fruit so fast that the ministry itself crumbled under the weight of it. It came and went like a boom town, and all that’s left to show for it now are a few scattered apple cores. Overnight success is sometimes the worst thing that could happen to an organization. Let’s be careful what we wish for, and content with what we have.  

Small but Strong

Our church is what many would consider a “dwarf” variety. We’re one of the small ones. We’ll never get too big, and we don’t grow very fast, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t capable of producing fruit. Indeed, producing fruit is what we are meant to do, and I believe that we already are in some measure. We’re certainly not dead. However, if our sole focus is on the production of spiritual fruit, we might be in big trouble. If the branch itself doesn’t have enough integrity, the weight of the fruit is going to destroy us.   

“Is it possible for a tree to be ruined by its own fruit?”

Being a relatively young church, we might feel discouraged when we look back across our own branches and see so few apples dangling from them. It’s easy to get frustrated at how long it can take for a ministry to gain some traction. But I can assure you, God is not disappointed in what He’s getting from our little fellowship. The last decade might feel like a long time to us, but God’s in no hurry for gobs of fruit. Not like we are anyway. If anybody’s getting impatient, it’s us.

If God would’ve allowed us to produce the all the fruit we’ve ever wanted, especially early on, we’d be broken to bits by now (it certainly wouldn’t have been the first time fruit got somebody in trouble with God). But He didn’t let that happen to us, with good reason. He’s spent the last 10 years keeping us safe from ourselves and making us stronger in the meantime, preparing us for what’s to come. And I believe that He is pleased with the growth He sees, and that our best years are still to come. We owe God our sincere thanks for pinching off our blossoms in times past.

Branches Full of Blossoms

With the startup of campus ministry upon us, and a new year looming just ahead, the JFB community is entering into an exciting new season of ministry with a lot of potential. We have high hopes. We see branches full of blossoms, and like every year, we’re starting to ask the same questions: “Will it work? Is this the year? Will we finally bear a substantial amount of fruit?” But these are the wrong questions to be asking. Rather than concerning ourselves with whether we’ll produce fruit or not, we ought to be concerned with whether we could handle it if we did. 

This might be the year. But are we ready? Maybe we’re ready, maybe we’re not. Perhaps we’ll enter into a season of great fruitfulness. But can we handle it? Maybe so, but it’s equally possible that the Lord’s decided we need another year to thicken. Either way we’re in good hands. God knows exactly what we need to survive the cruelest of seasons and weather the worst of storms. We’ve been through plenty of it already, and we’re still alive. If we don’t see fruit today, we will tomorrow…Jesus promised, “I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit”.

Keep Going, Keep Growing

whether it’s a fruitful year for us or another barren one, progress is being made here. The future looks good for us, and the Lord is pleased with us and our dwarf church.

As far as the Rosaceae family is concerned, I might need to go and rescue them from doing permanent damage to themselves. It’s been raining all day, and they’re drooping like crazy. Looks like the Thomson’s will be having pie pretty soon.

Privacy Kills

Somewhere between four & five thousand healthy American’s die annually from choking on food, which means it kills more people than accidental shootings or airplane accidents. It’s number four on the National Safety Council’s list of death caused by “unintentional injury”. Somebody chokes to death every 2 hours, and over 95% of them will die in a safe & comfortable environment: At home. Statistics show that more people die from choking than die in fires. These statistics, however, as true they are, can be misleading.  

It’s common knowledge in the medical world that many choking deaths could’ve been prevented if only the individual hadn’t been so afraid of public humiliation. Out of sheer embarrassment, choking victims are known to silently excuse themselves from their company, calmly walk from the dinner table to the bathroom, lock themselves inside, and die privately. Ask any paramedic and you’ll find that the real cause of death in many of these cases wasn’t choking at all, it was too much dignity.

Choking at Church

The House of God is no stranger to dangerous levels of dignity. People can get comfortable over time in an environment like ours. They start feeling “at home” in their position, not realizing that home is the most dangerous place to be in regard to choking. Complacency sets in, and once it does, they grow a little too over-confident & self-permissive; they start to indulge in questionable attitudes & practices. Pretty soon they’re stuffing more unholy thoughts, desires, and behaviors into their life than their soul is able to swallow. Everything seems alright until they’re unexpectedly seized by an abnormally large portion of sin that they aren’t able to spit out. Not wanting to draw any attention to themselves, they do what they can to hide the truth of the situation. And more dangerous than the actual choking, they impulsively conceal their panic behind a calm demeanor and pretend to be fine.  

The House of God is no stranger to dignity…

In the church culture, this lethal form of dignity is better known as ‘pride’. Pride is refusing to concede that something has gone wrong at all. It’s not asking for help when you need it the most, for fear of the imagined social repercussions. It’s defending your integrity to your own detriment. When sin lodges itself in your heart and cuts off your life-giving supply of the Spirit, pride is what keeps you acting like everything’s normal. You might be dying, but pride doesn’t care. Rather than seeking help, pride steers you to the bathroom where you can try and save your own life, all by yourself, in private. And once that happens, you’re in greater danger than ever.

Swallow Your Pride

There is a calculated maneuver which has proven effective time & time again in rescuing a person from airway obstruction. It’s a technique that can be used by anybody, amateurs and professionals alike. It has saved lives every day (over 100,000 in fact) since its initiation in 1974. The dilemma, however, for those with too much dignity, is that it requires the help of another person. And that’s exactly what victims of pride try to avoid. Nothing scares them as badly as needing help from someone else. In some cases, it appears, death is preferred over accepting rescue.

Nothing less than full surrender…can liberate a person from pride

There is likewise a cure for pride, but like its medical counterpart, it’s stubbornly avoided by those who need it most. The Biblical practices of confession, repentance, and seeking forgiveness are some of the most sidestepped activities among pride-choked Christians. Some would rather die than to go through the inevitable shame associated with a procedure like that. They might try to put everyone at ease by making a forced confession (without really owning it), repenting outwardly (but not inwardly), and asking for forgiveness (before they’re even really convinced of their wrong), only to realize, you cannot dislodge pride with minimal effort. The issue is still an issue, and you still can’t breathe. Nothing less than full surrender to God’s instruction in a life & death situation like this can liberate a person from pride. Many victims have realized the truth of this just a little too late.

Unwanted Publicity

Perhaps it’s the nature of the rescue procedure itself. It hurts! The cure for choking is aggressive to say the least. The victim is usually pounded in the back, slapped, punched, and when that doesn’t work, squeezed until they hopefully spit up. Ribs are sometimes broken. The whole process is invasive & demeaning. It’s confrontational, and, worst of all, it’s usually public. If only choking were between me and you alone, but it rarely is. Choking never checks to see whether you’re dining alone, or if the restaurant is packed, with a line out the door. And pride is no different. Pride doesn’t care if people are watching. In most cases, it waits until they are.

No One Here Doesn’t Choke

All of us will choke, but only some of us will die. It should go without saying, but there’s nothing dignified about being found, dead & alone, on the proverbial bathroom floor with a throat full of pride. You haven’t protected yourself from embarrassment by hiding your issues from us, you’ve only secured it for yourself by refusing our help. Godly people don’t reject help…Godly people pray for it. “If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Don’t let me refuse it” (Ps.141:5).

Sometimes it’s comforting to know that the one who’s helping you, has himself needed help from others at one time or another. We all have pride, and we all choke on it sooner or later. If you have reason to be ashamed of yourself, please understand, we all do! We’ve all felt that embarrassment, and we’ve all been tempted to ignore the truth of our situation. No one looks forward to the Biblical rescue process, because the techniques that save our life hurt every time. But we’ve all felt that pain, and we probably will again. So you are not alone. 

All of us will choke, but only some of us will die

How many of our friends, who share space with us at the Lord’s Table, are choking on their dignity right now? How many are pretending that they’ve swallowed their pride when they’re still not able to enjoy the fresh air of Christian fellowship? Don’t avoid help because it hurts, & don’t reject it because it offends. If you do that, you’ll die on the floor. And we’ll all know the real reason why.

   

I’ve always been intrigued by sailboats. I think that they are brilliant inventions. They directly take an energy source that can be attributed to nothing other than the power of God in order to move across the sea to reach desired destinations. The fastest sailboat ever recorded went as quick as 65.45 knots. (That’s over 75 mph for those of us who desire to stay on solid and dry ground.) It seems intuitive that sailboats can travel with the wind at their backs, but a skilled captain can harness wind blowing in any direction in order to get wherever they need to go. It is only when there is a lack of any wind that a sailboat will become unable to move. 

One of the most impressive built with the most advanced engineering in the industry is the “Black Pearl” (not from the movie). It is 350 feet long and complete with three masts each over 200 feet tall. The ship has the ability to travel across the globe using energy solely harnessed by the wind. It is an impressive invention. Yet none of its advanced technology and no amount of skill found in its captain causes the sails to fill and propel the ship with no wind. There is little that we can do to cause the wind to blow, but we can set the sail. When winds do come, there must be a ship in the water, that can withstand the waves, a captain with enough skill to pilot the ship, and sails that are set and raised in order to catch the wind. Otherwise, winds will come and the opportunity for movement will be lost. 

We Want to Move… Even when there is no wind

If you’re taking the time to read this article I assume that you want to see God do great work. I would assume that you want to see and experience God moving in big ways. That is a good thing. As Christians, we know that God has things that He is accomplishing. He is at work in us, causing our sanctification, growth, Christ-likeness. He is doing work all around us, accomplishing great things and bringing glory to His name. And yet if we are honest, sometimes we want to see God do more. We want to see him move and it may seem to us as if He isn’t. We desire faster growth, deeper maturity, we want to become more like Christ, and we want it now. There is a desire to move. And sometimes it seems like there is no movement, no progress, as though there is no wind moving us forward. 

Pray for Wind

You can try as hard as you like, but you will never create real wind that leads to progressive movement on your own. Likewise, we cannot force ourselves to grow, we cannot force God to accomplish something according to our wishes. Maybe you have a coworker that you desperately desire to be saved. You cannot make that work happen. Maybe you’re looking for restoration in your family, again nothing you can do will fix the issue with finality. Of course, there are steps to take, and things to do that will be beneficial. Some things you do may even appear to fix problems temporarily, but in the end, we are entirely dependent upon the grace of God. 

A passage from “The Sailors Prayer Book” 1852 reads, “Surely God Almighty, ever-present, is alone fit for a sailor’s refuge. We may by care and skill be able to trim our ship, to steer our course, or to keep our reckoning; but we cannot control the winds, or subdue deceitful currents, or prevent disasters.” God is going to do what He is going to do. We must realize that. Then pray earnestly that he would cause the wind to blow to accomplish His work that we desire.

Raise Your Sails

We cannot create wind, but we can and must be faithful to set our sails. Sometimes we will wait for a long time to see the movement and work of God that we desire. Although there is nothing we can do to force God to work in a way and time frame that matches our own plans we better do all that we can to be prepared.

Are you remaining humble? Do you stay where you know God wants you? Then when He sends the wind to push you forward you’re there to catch it? Are you learning what you can so that when it comes time to captain your life you have the skills and knowledge to know whether to turn to the right or to the left? Remember that coworker that you desire to come to faith in Jesus? You cannot force them to be interested in Christ. But it’d be a shame if the day comes where they have a question about God and you are ill-prepared. 

2 Peter 1:10. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling, election, if you practice these qualities you’ll never fall.

A Word of Warning

Just to be clear doing these things doesn’t mean that the wind will blow. You must live the entirety of your life absolutely and desperately dependant for God to come through. Live needing God to show himself strong, because the fact is we just will not be able to do it on our own. Even if we could is that the journey we want? A journey full of self-determination and your own strength sounds empty and lonely to me. Striving for righteous living is not a way to trick God into getting you where you want to be, but if the wind blows and the sail is not up There is no doubt that effectiveness may be lost. 

Reaching Our Destination

Years ago I got the chance to go sailing on Lake Superior. The large boat seemed to move effortlessly through the water, but eventually, we found ourselves drifting aimlessly. There was no wind to be found. No matter how high we raised the mast or which direction our experienced and skilled captain turned the sail we were getting nowhere. We could have brought the sail down and given up. If so we would have had to stay there until late December when we could trek back into Bayfield on the ice. But we didn’t instead we set the sail and waited for the wind to return bringing us where we needed to be. 

Let’s be sure that we do our part, let’s “have our sail set’ so that when God does the work that He will do we are ready. If we fail to do so, the wind will still blow. He will get His ship where He desires, but what will our part be? Will we be holding on for dear life as the ship is tipped over and pushed by the waves. Will we find ourselves screaming as we bounce off every rock possible on the way? Or maybe find that the voyage took far longer than necessary because we didn’t follow a straight path and instead went from port to port wasting valuable time.  

Or will we, having done our part, set our sails and our sight focused on the direction and destination God has for us. If we are prepared we will find joy in being able to participate in the work He does. God has his children on a grand adventure. Be diligent to set the sails and enjoy the trip. 

Once upon a time, you were small. Very small. Nearly invisible. Almost as tall as a poppy seed, in fact. Your whole body, from top to bottom, used to be no more than two cells wide. But those two cells were healthy and active, and they multiplied. And they multiplied again. And then they multiplied yet again. The zygomatic stage was a short one, and nine months later, you were hardly recognizable. Ten years after that and you were another several bazillion times larger. And now? We’ll, you’re nothing short of megalithic. A virtual monster by comparison. You could probably crush a pop can if you wanted to.

Physical growth is normal & expected of a fetus. It’s anticipated and celebrated. Growth is a telltale sign of good health, hope, and strength; an expression of life and the promise of a future. And it’s also quite instructive.

In many ways, the physical body is a walking, talking parable of the church, with much to teach us about typical growth & development if we’re willing to learn. One of the simplest, yet easy to miss lessons is this: If the cells are healthy, the body is healthy. It may sound elementary, but it’s important to remember. If you hope to grow bigger, you’ll need strength at the cellular level. And it’s no different for churches. If the people in it are healthy, active, and reproducing, the church will flourish. If they are spiritually sick, sluggish, and sterile, the church is going to die.

Personal Effort

The smartest man in the world once said that, “winning souls” was a mark of true wisdom (Proverbs 11:30). What Solomon meant is that the intelligence of an individual is partly revealed in the success of their evangelistic efforts. In other words, seeking converts is not the work of fools. Whether they can’t do it because they’re foolish, or they won’t do it which only proves them to be foolish, evangelism is a field in which fools will rarely if ever be found. Because the winning of souls doesn’t happen mindlessly, fruitful evangelism is reserved for the wise. It requires thinking, and it requires labor, and it requires bravery. Lots of it.

Salvation is never accidental. If souls are to be won, it’ll either happen on purpose, or it won’t happen at all. It takes passion, prayer, thought, and effort (probably in that same order). Take away any one of those crucial ingredients and you’re bound to lose the souls you had expected to win, or left them to be won by someone else. Someone wise.

Personal Responsibility

Please notice that the work is to be done by the individual, not the church. A fellowship full of people who count on the activities of the church to do their evangelism for them is guaranteed to stunt in its growth. Outreaches will never be as fruitful as one-on-one ministry. Until the cells are ready and able to proliferate on their own, the body can’t grow. Healthy cells multiply, and when they do, the body gets stronger.

A church only grows if and when its people are eager and desperate to win souls. A prayerful & persistent Christian can do more effective advertising for the church in a single month than all the cereal commercials at General Mills can do in the entire year. The effectiveness you hope for is directly linked to the work you do within the field of evangelism. You can work your fingers to the bone in all other areas, but if you neglect that one particular field, the church will atrophy.

Personal Assessment

When a cell stops working, it dies and gets replaced. This does not guarantee, however, that the cell automatically goes away. The body is full of dead cells that still manage to attach themselves to it, even though they no longer contribute to the health & growth of the body. Unfortunately, the same is true of God’s church.

People who used to invite everyone they knew to join them on their mission, have long since lost their enthusiasm. They became too intellectual or grew too complacent. Some got too busy. Others replaced evangelism in their community with a service position in their church, and the fire that used to burn for the lost souls around them flickered out. And then they got bored. And though they don’t necessarily pose any real threat to the overall health of the body, they don’t hold any real value either. They bear a striking resemblance to who they were when they still had passion, but the life has long since gone out of them. They’re still stuck in the same spot as they were when they died, and like dead skin, they’re just waiting to fall off. Don’t let that be you.

A Personal Note

Dear Church: As we head into these summer months (which tend to be very outreach oriented and evangelistic in nature), let’s be careful that we’re still looking for personal opportunities to multiply. After all, those are the ones that will make the real difference. The health of the body depends on the cells.

Are there opportunities right in front of you that are getting missed because you’re too preoccupied with private interests? Are you expecting the church to fill the quota for personal evangelism that you alone are responsible for? Prove yourself healthy by pushing yourself into the lives of those around you with a spiritual purpose. Prove yourself alive by engaging with those outside of the church about eternal matters. Never let the busyness of your schedule suffocate the personal concern you have for the lost. Don’t let yourself rest until you’ve made yourself available to them. It’s time to fish for men.  

-Pastor Justin