Running the Risk

For most of us, we think very little of everyday events that might otherwise be risky; like talking on the cell phone while driving. I know none of you guys do that, but I do sometimes. Or how about digging something out of the garbage disposal? Something that just won’t grind up, so you stick your fingers down inside and try to retrieve whatever it is that’s making such a horrible noise. Only to momentarily hope the switch doesn’t get turned on while your hand is down there.

Or the simple task of eating alone. Now I know that sounds kind of paranoid, but seriously, have you ever choked on something when no one else was around? It gives you that feeling of abject vulnerability and you have a fleeting thought that “Wow that was close I could have died”. Okay maybe I’m weird like that, but people do choke you know!

Or how about surfing the internet without proper protection software? Or shopping online with a credit card, while you don’t have Norton or some other protection software? Again, maybe you think I’m being paranoid, but just wait until someone tries to steal your identity. It happened to me and it took over a year to get things straight. Fortunately the guy doing it died.
Or run with scissors in your hand, I dare you! You know, it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye; but all kidding aside.

These are everyday events that most of us think little about, as far as their risks, yet for many, there are far greater risks they take and don’t even consider the consequences or risks involved.

I’m thinking about the person who goes through life believing that they have a nice religious relationship with God, but He never really knows them on a personal basis. Or what about the person who says they’ve forgiven another, but deep in their heart forgiveness has not really occurred. What a rude awakening that will be when they stand before God and have to give an account of their failure to truly forgive.

Over and over in the Bible we see people presuming upon the grace of God. These folks run the risk of missing God’s truth and redemption, simply because of their presumption. That’s right, presumption. (Even King David prayed that the Lord would keep him from the great sin of presumption.)

This type of presumption is based upon the personal folly of thinking you know God and what He’s talking about in His Word, when in reality you filter the Word and Spirit through your own experiences, your own pains, problems and bigotry. Ergo the reason we’ve got so many types of “Christians” running around this planet. Many of which rarely if ever truly reflect the Living Christ.

So here’s the deal: We’ve all been wounded or offended from time to time. Usually by people that you’d think should know better by now, but they really don’t. And painful feelings, left unchecked, can ultimately produce a root of bitterness that keeps us from fully understanding the magnitude of God’s special grace; His willingness to save sinners such as us.

Meaning, we believe that everyone else is worse than we are. We believe that everyone else is to blame for our pain, so if they’d just stop hurting us (sinning against us) life would be good and we could get on with all the stuff God has planned for us; right? Yet we never do.

So are you Running the Risk of missing God’s special grace? Are you Running the Risk of affecting others with your foolish presumptions that keep you thinking you’re better than others?

Oh I’m sure most of you reading this have never struggled with this problem, but I know I have. And I know that Running the Risk of missing God in any given moment is simply not worth, my vain thinking that my pain in life is everyone else’s fault, but never mine.

At any given moment, I can give my pain to Him, if I will simply speak aloud to Him and ask Him to speak to me and show me what’s going on. He will, and yes it’s that simple. (Jeremiah 33:3)

But take caution, and be ready, for He will reveal things that you had no clue were causing your pain. He will show you things that are causing you to stumble, but you must be ready and willing to obey as He guides. For therein you will find the REMEDY and you will at that moment in time cease Running the Risk.

So go ahead; trust Him. Come on, you’d stick your hand in a garbage disposal, so why not trust God? He is on your side and He’d never flip the switch. At least not while your hand is down there; right?

The Doctrine of Lonely

So often in the Christian life, we’re encouraged and bolstered by the reality of relationships. Church IS community, the Kingdom of God IS family, relationship IS at the heart of God’s redemptive plan. No question whatsoever. And that’s a very good and comforting thing.

But another often overlooked and avoided component of the Christian life is The Doctrine of Lonely. That’s right, the very real occurrence of being alone in the middle of a crowd. You see this situation emerging as far back as Genesis, when Adam was alone in the midst of all the animals and beautiful creation God provided. Nonetheless he was found to be alone; the lone member of his species. And God took note and said this isn’t good.

There are many places in scripture where we can find men and women of faith, isolated because of hatred and mistreatment, war and famine, growth and discipline or just plain life circumstances. And for each, I’m sure those times were not pleasant, but they were necessary for God’s best to be developed in there lives and character.

Here’s my thought on The Doctrine of Lonely. Never in my entire Christian life have I heard a preacher make an appeal to the lost or the hopeful disciple, that included the phrase; “You will experience dark times of loneliness because of your decision to follow Christ or grow in grace.”

On the contrary, our hard sell usually includes language that tells people they are coming into the “family” or the “community”. They are entering into a “covenant” with other believers. They are beginning a “journey” with millions of other brothers and sisters; implying that you’ll have plenty of friends and family to help you along the way. Yet everyone WILL go through that lonely knothole of development.

“I’m so glad… I’m a part… of the family of God… I’ve been washed in the fountain… cleansed by His blood”. Sounds good and feels good, but too often is only a small part of the Christian life; if it’s to be lived according to God’s truth – no matter what.

Jesus was very clear about the costs we undertake as we say “yes” to life in the Kingdom. And one very prominent cost is times of being alone. Times of being cut off from the crowd or even family, for all the apparent wrong reasons, all the while God has a purpose for the isolation.

And what might that isolation or time of being alone produce in us? Well, it could produce remorse, resentment, anger, accusation, self-pity or even self-destruction, because being alone, especially in a crowd doesn’t feel very good. And most of us really want to avoid those feelings, but it’s inevitable, if we desire to follow and live for Jesus.

Taking a stand for the sake of Christ will produce division among people. Taking a stand for what is sane, wise and just plain right will produce division. Deciding that you are going to grow and change with God’s help will meet opposition from those less inclined.

Face it – the life of a true disciple of Jesus Christ is fraught with deep periods of loneliness. Why? Because when it’s all said and done, and you stand before Father God, to give an account for your life, you and you alone (that’s right alone) will answer. No blame, no excuses, no justification of behavior, just you answering questions from God.

And that my friends will be the loneliest moment of your very existence. You will have no one in that moment, but God. So I would suggest you begin today cultivating a relationship and the ability to be alone with just you and God. That’s right embrace The Doctrine of Lonely, because in this very important, yet often overlooked doctrine IS THE PATH TO GENUINE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

Remember, it’s easy to “follow” God when everyone else is on board, but what if they’re not? What if you are the only one in the group that genuinely desires that relationship with God and the righteousness therein? Are you more than willing? Are you more than able?

Will you be okay IF YOU HAVE TO GO IT ALONE? My suggestion to you is begin that examination right now, for sooner or later we all have to “fish or cut bait”. Sooner or later we have to decide, based upon more than just aggrandizing language like Peter. You know – “Oh Lord I’ll die for you even if no one else will”.

Be very careful what you say or pledge, because you WILL BE SIFTED by The Doctrine of Lonely. But take heart – you’re in good company.

Starting Points 2011

One of the most amazing things about life is the many and random Starting Points we’re privileged to experience.

There’s the New Year, the new week, the new day, the new hour, the new minute, the next second. The list of Starting Points could fill this page. A birth, a death, a wedding, a race, a graduation; you get my point.

Life is full of Starting Points and for that I am grateful. Because where there’s a Starting Point there’s an ending point. The end of a life, the end of an era, the end of a chapter, the end of a war, the end of oppression, the end of a struggle and so on and so forth. Each ending positioning us on the event horizon of another Starting Point – like it or not.

As we enter this New Year, itself a fresh Starting Point, may God’s amazing grace be present in all you say and do. For in the grace of God lays the key to sustaining and completing what you begin. Be it one single day or a lifetime – His grace IS sufficient as a Starting Point and an ending point.

We’ll never fully understand the power of God’s grace until we get to that ultimate Starting Point of eternity, but until then, may you know that the Starting Point of His grace for you and I began just over 2000 years ago and has yet to succumb time and tension. It just continues to stretch throughout the centuries until its arrival RIGHT HERE and NOW.

There it is, another Starting Point, don’t miss it.

Happy New Year 2011
Russell A. Kinney

LIVE LOVE LEARN LEAD LEAVE - part 5

Fifthly and finally all true disciples of Jesus Christ LEAVE. That’s right, they leave.

This is THE MOST poignant and acrid common denominator of them all. For in this denominator is couched the TIME TABLE OF GOD. In Genesis 6:3 the Lord declares; “My spirit shall not always strive with man…” For the arrogant you will simply pass over this point, but for the humble, you will take deep note of God’s sobriety.

God is very aware that His grace IS limited based upon the humanity of us all. In other words we have “X” amount of time to respond to His wooing and then the clock stops. Oh not because He is unwilling to continue, but because our days are numbered.

For instance, Jesus taught that when His disciples would enter a town and not be welcomed by their hearers, they were to turn and shake the dust (Matthew 10:14; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5) off their feet (they actually did it as recorded in Acts 13:50-51).

The point was an open DECLARATION and DEMONSTRATION of their efforts to penetrate the hard hearts of their hearers. Never underestimate the damnation associated with a hard heart. Never!

So how does that touch us in the twenty-first-century? We must be very decisive and Spirit-led as to who, what and when we present and or retract the gospel opportunity. For true disciples of Jesus Christ are led by the Holy Spirit as to how much effort is merited for any one individual. In other words, if we’ve not struck oil stop drilling and move on.

Being led by the Spirit as to who is good soil and not, IS VERY CRITICAL. Because if we don’t listen to the Spirit’s leading, we can WASTE precious time. Or we can be trampled and bitten by the unwilling-pigs, even with our greatest efforts (Matthew 7:6).

Which leads to the second aspect of this Fifth Common denominator: we are leaving this planet soon. I’ll never forget my first exposure to a life-time-mortgage.

I was painting for a living while attending Bible College, and happened to get a job finishing a new home on the south side of Springfield, Missouri. It was an executive home that was very large. My client was an old friend’s brother from years passed. In speaking with my friend, he told me his brother’s mortgage was open-ended; in other words a life-time mortgage.

That simply meant that this guy would really only be “renting” this place until he sold it, because the cost was so huge that he could never really pay it off.

Here’s the point: WE DON’T HAVE an unlimited amount of time here on this earth. Period! Some generation will be the LAST generation. Some generation will actually witness the Parousia first hand.

For the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are left will be caught up in the air, to connect with Christ and live forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 – take note of the comfort we are to have in this truth, verse 18)). Man that sounds like sci-fi; but IT’S NOT!!!

The end of all we know IS coming sometime and that should influence how we live here on this earth. Granted, no one knows that day or hour; but we must spiritually prepare as if THIS IS THE DAY!!!

I remember going to summer Bible camp at our Iowa District Camp Grounds (Storm Lake, Iowa). They would wake us with the revolutions of a crackling old LP that played: “This could be the dawning of that grand and glorious day…”

At fourteen that was very unsettling. At fifty it’s still unsettling, to the degree that no eschatological events are preventing the rapture of the church. That’s right, we could go at any minute and God would press on with His agenda.

That being said, disciples LEAVE. Whether it’s from the context of personal evangelism and people reject the message of LIFE, or the context of the rapture, this place IS NOT OUR HOME!!!

Circa 1978 Larry Norman pressed a record entitled: Only Visiting this Planet – Part 1 of the Trilogy. As I listened to this Message, I realized he was right. This place IS NOT my home; therefore I better not plant too deeply.

A life-time mortgage or even a 30 year mortgage seems totally unrealistic for the Disciple of Jesus Christ. Although there have been countless devotees of Christ who have believe the end was so near they sold all and sat on a mountain; I’m not one of them.

But I am constantly aware of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES that keep me looking up.

If you are NOT looking up on a daily basis, my guess is you are looking too deeply into the earth on which you were born for your comfort and confidence.

Ignoring the truth and even the facts WILL NOT CHANGE THEM!!! Disciples KNOW WHEN to leave according to the Spirit’s impetus or leading. They pay close attention to what the Spirit tells them; as to how much and when to stop scattering. And they pay close attention to what the Spirit tells them as to when to leave; because THAT DAY IS COMING SOON… like it or not.

So there it is: Five Common Denominators of all True Disciples of Jesus Christ. Fourteen hours from now we will clock out and clock in to 2011. Are YOU a True Disciple of Jesus Christ?

LIVE LOVE LEARN LEAD LEAVE - part 4

Fourthly all true disciples of Jesus Christ LEAD. For anyone to believe that they are not a leader of someone, they are mistaken. For all of us have someone watching us and looking to us to see how we live, react, behave, perform, etc. Oh not that they are all watching for us to mess up (although some are), but even if it’s the person taking your money at the convenience store, how we interact with and treat the world around us, speaks volumes as to how we take our leadership seriously.

In other words, we must be vigilant about our lives and behavior, because we INFLUENCE more than just ourselves. I believe it was John Maxwell who capitalized on the idea that leadership is influence. If that’s true, then we ALL influence someone, somehow, someway, sometime; therefore we’re all leaders from time to time. It’s inescapable.

Jesus was very serious about leading others. He was equally serious about leading others down the right or the wrong path. And one does not have to be pushing dope to be leading someone down the wrong path. If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ and you mistreat others, you may be causing them to go down a wrong path. Ever heard of the term “misleading”?

Most of the time that term is linked to spurious sales techniques and even to some televangelists, but think about that word; misleading. Or could we say leading-amiss?

Before we get too far into this thought on leadership, we need to delineate the two directions of leadership. That’s right, ultimately there are only two directions one can be led. Up or down, left or right, black or white, heaven or hell, the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness.

Oh I know you may think that most of life is lived in the gray areas or the margins, but ultimately everything leads in one direction or another. Cosmos polarity IS a reality. And Jesus was very clear about the risks we all run when it comes to influencing others because of our magnetism one direction or another. And ambivalence to this divine polarity is ABSOLUTELY condemned (Revelation 3:15-16). So pick a side buddy!

In Matthew 5 and 18 Jesus teaches very plainly about offenses. But so often we miss the real crux of the matter, for the onus of offense is upon the one who should by now know better. What? That’s right, the one whose been exposed to and embraced the truth so as to taste a measure of life.

In other words: “Woe to you who should know better by now”. If we by our very example cause anyone (especially the weaker or younger in the faith) to digress, it would be better for us to be placed into cement overshoes and be tossed into the Des Moines River, than to have caused one of these little ones to stray from trust in Christ.

I have at least a dozen books on Leadership in my personal library. The authors are diverse, but the emphasis is the same. The question I have to ask myself is; does reading books on the subject of Leadership make me a better leader? And the answer IS NOT necessarily.

For leading is not so much about skills at using a “carrot on the end of a stick” as it is about the internal replication of truth. People are rarely (except in countries of tyranny) led by the stick. Most often people are led by a carrot.

The Bible is very clear that the “carrot on the end of a stick” IS NOT biblical in its approach as motivation. “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.” (Deuteronomy 25:4; 1 Corinthians 9:9; 1 Timothy 5:18 – KJV)

Eventually the carrot must be received or the power of deception is the simple and only motivation to keep going. We keep reaching out to chomp the carrot but never get our teeth sunk in.

Leadership MUST be about what IS working for us, and if we EVER use false results or motivation to move anyone along our agendas – that IS sin. Grievous sin when it comes to God and us.

So what about your leadership? What IS your motivation in seeking to control or influence those around you? Is it selfish? (James 4:1-5) You’ve got to answer that question, because the Fourth Common Denominator of All True Disciples of Jesus Christ is Leadership. I’m not sure who coined the phrase; but it’s pretty good. “Lead, follow, or get out of the way!” Because ultimately YOU DO influence others… and you will be held accountable for the direction you lead them.

LIVE LOVE LEARN LEAD LEAVE - part 3

The Third Common Denominator of all True Disciples of Jesus Christ; LEARN.

Here’s where we might loose some slackers. I’m not talking about full blown academia requiring years of graduate school, although if that’s your thing go for it. But I’m talking about a daily assimilation of fresh revelation from God’s Word and Spirit. I’m talking about developing a greater relationship with Wisdom (Jesus Christ).

And this learning starts on the inside of each one of us. Learning about who we are and what makes us tick will lead to learning about others and things beyond ourselves. All of which is the true cure for prejudice and bigotry.

“I'm sure you've read this quote before: ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ Socrates said that at his trial for heresy. He was on trial for encouraging his students to challenge the accepted beliefs of the time and think for themselves. The sentence was death but Socrates had the option of suggesting an alternative punishment. He could have chosen life in prison or exile, and would likely have avoided death.”

“But Socrates believed that these alternatives would rob him of the only thing that made life useful: Examining the world around him and discussing how to make the world a better place. Without his "examined life" there was no point in living. So he suggested that Athens reward him for his service to society. The result, of course, is that they had no alternative and were forced to vote for a punishment of death.” (Karl W. Palachuk)

The above quotes are not mine, but they suggest a great deal. Are you growing? Are you learning about yourself, others, the world around you, God and the universe? Or are you stuck with Facebook, Twitter, Xbox Live, and satellite TV?

I’m not suggesting that we all become book worms, but we live in an information age and most people have stopped learning anything of real value. Check the statistics. Oh we’re kind of techno savvy, but true knowledge and wisdom? As a matter of fact, I think stupid is in vogue these days. That’s unfortunate.

Anyway, true disciples of Jesus Christ are learners, especially in the arena of the Bible and the Spirit, but also of life. Check out the definition of disciple, you might be surprised as to what you’re supposed to be doing with your call to follow Jesus.

From Practical to Profane

I was just sitting here listening to some very absorbing worship music and these thoughts came into my head. How often do we gravitate to the practical side of Christianity, the stuff we can “do” that seems right unto us, yet ultimately leads us into the profane practice of ignoring the very presence of the One for which we should be doing all we do for (Revelation 2:1-5)? I mean really, can’t anyone do acts of kindness and compassion without knowing the One who actually originated and greatest act of cosmic compassion ever known (Romans 5:6; Revelation 13:8)?

What the Spirit means by these questions: doing is far less than being. That’s right; we are not called human-doings, but human-beings. For God is way more concerned with our being than our doing. Oh granted our faith is shown or proven by what we do as believers, but be very careful my friend. Because it can quickly become a competition as to how much and what we can do for Him in light of what others are doing and the direction Christian service is tracking.

If and when that level of Christian service flaunts its faux beauty, we can easily become enamored with our next conquest for Him, even without actually loving Him – thus turning the Practical to the Profane.

Be very careful my dear friends. May we NEVER EVER turn the Practical to the Profane. For the Father desires our love more than our acts of love. And sometimes that’s way harder to live than a works mentality. Because works of kindness and compassion – frankly any acts of service – almost always make us feel good about ourselves, for a season.

Can we, will we, return to our FIRST LOVE? May today be the first day of many on that return trip.