It's Not The How; It's The Wow!

by Jon Walker
The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional

"Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20 NLT)

Long ago and far away, there was a teacher who worked painstakingly to teach me how to play the guitar. Every week, we'd climb up and down musical stairs crafted from the pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic, and octatonic scales. This emphasis upon technique frustrated me, and I grew to hate it so much that I abandoned the guitar – until playing it again became a positive part of my mid-life crisis.

OK, OK ... Yes, I would have been better guitar player today if I'd practiced what my teacher told me (and, kids, eat your spinach too). But somehow I became so buried in the technique of making music that I lost the exhilarating pleasure of the music – with its power to make my heart soar toward the grace-filled face of God.

You might say the “How” of guitar-ianity muted the “Wow!” of the music.
And in our well-intentioned focus on the “How” of Christianity, I sometimes wonder if we lose sight of the “Wow!” – that God's Holy Spirit lives within us and that he is with us always, day after day after day, until the very end of time.

Wow!

Can I get an “Amen?” Say this with me, brothers and sisters:

Wow! The God of the universe is present by his Spirit within me!

Wow! The God who spoke the world into existence lives within me!

Wow! The same God who placed the moon and the stars and the sun into the sky also placed his
spirit within me!

Wow! The God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills considers me one of his heirs and is pleased to give me a share in his kingdom!

Wow! The God of Creation spoke me into my mother's womb, SHAPEd me as a masterpiece crafted for the mission of proclaiming his Wow! throughout the world! (Jeremiah 1:5)
It's not the How; it’s the Wow!

Good God Almighty, he lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives in me today! (Galatians 2:20) The Wow! is with me always and forever, yesterday today and tomorrow, forever and again, amen.

The Good News we proclaim without shame is that the Wow! is in our hearts, and the Wow! will come into any heart that confesses Jesus Christ as Lord.

What does this mean?

1. Set your heart on the Wow! – You must be deliberate in staying focused on the Wow! "Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." (Colossians 3:1b-2 NIV)
2. Relationship over results – God is more interested in you than he is in your methods. Wow! And the Good News we carry is that God is truly interested in the life of each person he placed on the planet. Are there some relationships where you emphasize the How over the Wow?
3. No commandment harmed – No commandment was harmed in the making of this devotional. Ha! Staying intimately focused on the Wow! does not suggest the How is unimportant or that the Wow! can compromise biblical truth or downgrade "the way, the truth, and the life." (John 14:6 HCSB)
4. The greatest How – is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." The second is "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-40 HCSB)

The Wow! guides the How.

© 2007 Jon Walker . All rights reserved.

This bell is who we are... Amazing!!

THE BELL

I KNOW WHO I AM

I am God's child (John 1:12)

I am Christ's friend (John 15:15)

I am united with the Lord(1 Cor. 6:17)

I am bought with a price(1 Cor. 6:19-20)

I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)

I am a p ersonal witness of Christ (Acts 1:8)

I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt.5:13-14)

I am a member of the body of Christ(1 Cor 12:27)

I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)

I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant ( Phil.3:20)

I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31-34)

I am a minister of reconciliation for God(2 Cor.5:17-21)

I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)

I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)

I cannot be separated from the love of God(Rom.8:35- 39)

I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor.1:21-22)

I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8: 28)

I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16)

I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12)

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)

I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)

I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)

I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)

I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship( Eph. 2:10)

I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected (Phil 1: 5)

I have been redeemed and forgiven (Col. 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child(Eph 1:5)

I belong to God

Do you know

who you

are!?

"The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn His face toward youand give you peace." Numbers 6:24-26

Faith Reaches Out

by Mark Kelly

Matthew 9:20-22 (TEV)

20 A woman who had suffered from severe bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, "If only I touch his cloak, I will get well." 22 Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, "Courage, my daughter! Your faith has made you well." At that very moment the woman became well.

Everything about this situation was improper. This woman’s problem was more than physical. According to the Law, her illness made her unclean before God. Anyone she touched would be made unclean and have to endure the hassle of ritual purification. She had lived in isolation all these years, forbidden to touch or be touched. Her condition would have prevented marriage; if she had been married, her husband most likely had divorced her. She should not have been in a crowd where everyone was bumping into everyone else. If people hadn’t been so focused on Jesus, an angry mob would have chased her away.

This woman was desperate, utterly at the end of herself. She had no one to help, no hope for anything better in life ... except this teacher who everyone said could work miracles. Reaching out to touch Jesus was scandalously inappropriate. But Jesus was far more concerned about people than about religious rules. Desperate souls need the healing touch of God’s love and forgiveness – even more when those souls are isolated and alone. When we realize our only hope is Jesus, faith is met with healing. When our faith reaches out, desperate souls find love and forgiveness.

PRAYER: Lord, I’ve never been able to fix what’s wrong with me and neither has anyone else. Only you have the power to heal body and soul. Thank you for the healing you bring into my life. Help me be sensitive to those in the crowd around me, the lonely, hurting souls desperate for healing. Give me the faith to reach out to them – without worrying what others will think – so you can pour your love and forgiveness into their lives through me.

POINT TO PONDER: Faith reaches out, without worrying what others will think.

The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional

Jesus And The Jerks

by Jon Walker
Pupose Driven Life Daily Devotional

“But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NIV)

Jerk: A person regarded as disagreeable, contemptible, especially as the result of foolish or mean behavior.

One of the biggest jerks I ever knew was a 23-year-old college graduate whose anger and arrogance spilled into many of his relationships. His hypocrisy was astounding – one moment he claimed to be a Christian and the next he acted like a son of hell. If it had been my choice, I would have avoided him all together – but since that jerk was me, I was stuck being around him!
Most of us try to avoid jerks. We pat ourselves on the back for not telling them off. We applaud ourselves for putting up with them. We remind ourselves everybody has a cross to bear, and so we grudgingly accept certain jerks as our divinely ordained burden.
But is that what we’re called to do?

Jesus embraced jerks; he graced them with love – while stilling telling them the truth in love. Now he had no qualms about pointing out a whitewashed tomb when he saw one, but the corporate evil of the Pharisees was a far more serious matter than mere human jerkiness.
The point is this: Jesus didn’t shelter himself from the pain and heartache caused by jerks. In fact, he voluntarily stretched out his arms on the cross and allowed several jerks to slam nails into his hands and feet.

Behind all their stomp and snort, jerks are still spiritual beings, created in God's image and destined for heaven or hell. We’re compelled to be ministers of reconciliation, willing to embrace the pain of a fallen world for the sake of our God. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

The heart of the gospel is that God loves the unlovely. Could it be that the jerks God places in our lives are there to teach us to be more like Christ, to teach us the God-like quality of loving the unlovely?

Most of us take for granted the incredible change God initiated in our own lives: We were once jerks to God, yet even while we were still jerks, Christ died for us!

Jerks are never easy to embrace. If it were easy to love everyone, then Christ need not have died; we could love them on our own. But in order to embrace the jerks in our life, we need the Life of Christ within us so that, as new creations, we can overwhelm jerks with God’s grace, showing them the only power that will stop them from stumbling in the darkness, teaching them to cling to the only thing able to move them from being jerks to being Jesus-followers.

So what?

· Jesus loves jerks too – Even the most difficult people are spiritual beings in need of Christ.

· Jesus transforms you – Jesus can use the “jerks” in your life to transform you into a more Christ-like believer. Is it possible that the “jerk” who annoys you is God’s instrument to show you areas where you should grow, areas where you have difficulty loving unconditionally, the way that Christ loves you?

· God’s plan for you – If God allows a difficult person in your life, consider that he may want you to (1) pray for them and (2) show them by your own example how much God loves them, regardless of their behavior.

· Your mission – Who in your life seems disagreeable, contemptible, foolish, or mean? How would God have you approach them from now on? What can you do today to show them the love of Christ?

© 2007 Jon Walker. All rights reserved.

The Truth About Feelings

by Jon Walker
Pupose Driven Life Daily Devotional

“… And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ ….” (Philippians 1:9-10 NIV)

Submitted now for your consideration is Pamela, a loving wife, a nurturing mother, a prayerful Christian. This morning her husband, Richard, left a tender note on the bathroom mirror, inviting Pamela to join him for lunch at their favorite restaurant.

Pamela eyes the clock all morning, anticipating meeting her life-long love at 1 p.m. She’s excited and feeling extraordinarily loved by her husband, so she leaves for the restaurant early so she can buy Richard a small gift. She splurges a little, buying two balloons that float from the ribbon around the present.

As she pays for the gift, she notices her cell phone isn’t in her purse – again. No matter, it’s 12:30 and in a few short minutes she’ll be with Richard, giving him her undivided attention. Who needs a cell phone in moments like that?

Pamela arrives at the restaurant first, and she patiently waits for Richard to arrive. What she doesn’t yet know is that there has been in a horrible, tragic traffic accident, and Richard died at about the time she was tying the balloons to his present, excitedly anticipating their romantic rendezvous.

The point to this painful snapshot is that our feelings don’t always reflect the truth. Pamela was soaring high on feelings of love, completely unaware of the awful truth bearing down on her. Her feelings are not yet in line with the truth.

Imagine Pamela as she waits for her husband. When he doesn’t arrive soon, she becomes annoyed. After 20 minutes, she’s irritated and hurt. Her feelings still do not line up with the truth.

By the time 40 minutes have passed, she is worrying. This just isn’t like Richard. Maybe something has happened. She borrows the restaurant's phone and calls Richard’s office. His boss says, “Pamela, we’ve been trying to reach you. There’s been a terrible accident ….” The truth and Pamela’s feelings collide – and become one.

There’s nothing wrong with our feelings; God gave them to us. As one of my friends often says, “Feelings are just feelings.” Sometimes they reflect the truth; often times they don’t. They can serve as an early warning system, such as when fear alerts us to danger, or they can draw your attention to the one God wants you to marry, when you feel an overwhelming sense of love.

But your feelings do not define the truth. Only God defines the truth. You may feel worthless, but the truth is you are uniquely created by God, who loves you deeply. You may feel like you can walk on water, but the truth is you can only do that if Jesus calls you from the boat. You can’t; God can.

The apostle Paul teaches us to discern the truth, not through our feelings, but through knowledge and insight. He writes, “… and this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ ….” (Philippians 1:9-10 NIV)

Eugene Peterson, in The Message paraphrase, translates that passage like this: “… You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush ….” (Philippians 1:9b-10a MSG) Otherwise, you end up in a life “shaped by things and feelings instead of God.” (Colossians 3:5 MSG)

Your feelings are from God; they are a gift, and there is no need to avoid them or be ashamed of them. However, God never meant for our feelings to measure our life and determine how we live it. Your feelings do not define you; they are not designed to interpret the situations you now face. Only God’s truth can define you, and only God’s truth can pass judgment on the circumstances of your life.

The great and best Good News is this: God’s truth is a person – Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So what?

· You are not your emotions – You are defined by God, not your emotions. You may not feel like it, but God says you are wonderfully and fearfully created in his image, accepted in the Beloved. He loves you no matter what you’ve done.

· God uses your feelings – God may use your feelings to reveal a piece of your heart that you need to turn over to him. He may use your feelings to draw you closer to him. Paul speaks of feeling like a wretched man, and that draws him deeper into the grace of God. Your feelings of hopelessness in a situation may be what God uses to show you that you’re hanging your hopes on the wrong thing – because he is the God of a hope that will not disappoint.

· Your obedience is based on the truth, not feelings – The facts may appear daunting, but it is up to God, not you and your feelings, to interpret the facts. God calls us to be obedient to the truth, not to the way we feel. As C.S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity, if you don’t love someone, behave as if you do, and your feelings will catch up.

© 2007 Jon Walker. All rights reserved.