Priority and Prayer
Posted: 02/08/2012 Filed under: Life with God Leave a comment »2000 years after Jesus walked on Earth there are still 2,700 unreached people-groups. 3 billion people have never heard the gospel. There are 2,252 languages without one verse being translated from the Bible. Meanwhile in China there are more evangelical Christians per capita than in Europe which was the cradle of Christianity.
How is that possible when Jesus gave an obvious command in which He determined the life-purpose and priority of every believer: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” (Mk 16:15) Jesus not just gave a last desire before He went to Heaven, but He gave a life-purpose and a task, a mission to all of us. (I’m surprised to see how many Christians are living their life without any purpose or following wrong purposes and priorities.) Where ever you are, what ever you do you have a God-given purpose, task and mission to advance the proclamation of the gospel in the whole world to the whole creation.
In the ministry of YTL we reach appr. 45-50,000 people each year. Is it good enough? Let’s calculate together: the population of Hungary is about 10 million. It would take 200 (!) years to reach the whole nation with the gospel with this paste. And than there is the whole world. We can’t lay back, we have a great task ahead of us.
Jesus never gives a command that He doesn’t provide the power for it and what He doesn’t hold us accountable to it. The goal is overwhelming, but the resources are overwhelming as well: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses.. to the end of the earth (the whole world – again!)” (Acts 1:8). If someone has the Holy Spirit that person will become a witness. If someone is not a witness, than that person is not fulfilled with the Holy Spirit. We have a divine command with a divine power to proclaim the gospel to every person in the whole world. God’s people just simply ignores this (it’s obvious from the data above). We should submit everything to this purpose and priority! We all should start our day with this question: “What do I have to do in order to help us get closer to everybody hearing the gospel everywhere?” How will our work, our profession, our relationships, our financial decisions, our time-management help everybody hearing the gospel? Everything we have we got it from Him to represent Him in this world!
What did you do with your life-purpose that Jesus gave you? He resourced you and will hold you accountable for it.
Where can you start to fulfill your life-purpose? Pray every day for the sake of the gospel!
What should you pray regarding Great Commission?
We usually are praying for many good things when we pray for the Great Commission. We pray for revival, for resources, for opportunities, for open hearts, etc. All these are important and significant needs and we need to pray for them. But Jesus commanded us to pray specifically for one thing when we pray for mission: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Mt 9:37-38) Spiritual harvest can’t be mechanized. Spiritual laborers can’t be replaced with something else (strategies, projects, buildings, tools). The most important and valuable asset of the harvest is the laborer. Jesus doesn’t say that the “harvest is plentiful, but the money is few”, or “the harvest is plentiful, but the opportunities are few”, or “the harvest is plentiful, but the open hearts are few” – the laborers are few. The greatest need in the harvest is not money (although that’s what I feel most of the times), not the lack of opportunities, not the lack of tools, strategies, but the lack of envisioned, eqiuped, dedicated spiritual laborer. The most important factor in the Great Commission are the laborers. When Jesus saw the multitudes, he had compassion for them and He didn’t say that the multitude needs more money, or needs more jobs, or needs better health, but they need more spiritual laborers, who share the good news with them and shepherd them. The solution for the needs of the multitude – according to the clear direction of Jesus – is more laborers. It is His harvest that we can contribute to by praying for more laborers. The most important prayer you can say in the Great Commission is not to pray for more money, or for more opportunities, but to pray for more laborers.
Could it be that you are that laborer?
Holiness: a required opportunity
Posted: 09/24/2011 Filed under: Life with God 1 Comment »“…the standard of daily life among professing Christians in this country has been gradually failing. I’m afraid that Christ-like charity, kindness, good-temper, unselfishness, meekness, gentleness, good-nature, self-denial, zeal to good, and separation from the world, are far less appreciated than they ought to be. The vast increase of wealth in the last 25 years has insensibly introduced a plague of worldliness, and self-indulgence, and love of ease into social life. What were once called luxuries are now comforts and necessaries, and self-denial and enduring hardness are consequently little known” – says J.C. Ryle in the middle of the 1800. If Ryle felt this way 150 years ago, what could we write about today’s Christianity which is saturated with secularism more than any generation of Christians before? Today’s Christianity is soaked with the values and practices of the world!
But the command of 1Pt 1:6 is valid today, too: “you shall be holy, for I am holy“. This command doesn’t give us room to be passive or to be ignorant, but it requests an action. Holiness is active. Ryle says this: “Is it wise to teach believers that they ought not to think so much of fighting and struggling against sin, but ought rather to “yield themselves to God” and be passive in the hands of Christ? I doubt it. A holy violence, a conflict, a warfare, a fight, a soldier’s life, a wrestling, are spoken of as characteristic of the true Christian.”
Holiness is a required opportunity.
Opportunity – because it is only available to those who are described by Peter this way: “obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul”. (1:9) The opportunity to live a holy life is open for those who obtained salvation. We don’t pursue holiness to receive salvation, but because we are saved, we have an opportunity to live a holy life.
Required – “I doubt, indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God.” – says Ryle. The security of salvation by grace doesn’t release us from the requirement of pursuing holiness. A true Christian has an ongoing desire to live a pure life. Although our salvation is by grace through faith, Peter warns us that God “judges impartially according to each one’s deeds.” (1:14b)
Peter gives us three helpful, practical steps to help us to live a holy life:
1. “Preparing your minds for action…” – our mind directs our actions.
The battle over holiness won in our mind – not in our feelings. We decide what kind of information and values we allow to become our convictions. And we know that our conviction guides our actions. Whatever we fill our minds with, that’s what we become. That’s why Peter tells us what kind of knowledge we need to absorb: “knowing (not feeling) that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things… but with the precious blood of Christ…”(1:18) The real knowledge of our sin and salvation is what helps us to pursue holiness. As Ryle writes: “Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption. …right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity.” The more we see how much our inherited deadly disease (sin) hurts God’s basic characteristic, His Holiness, the more we will want to pursue holiness in our everyday life. The growing knowledge in the truth about our own state and about God’s person is the very first step that leads us to live a holy life. Holiness starts with recognizing our disgusting, sinful nature and continues with the recognition of God’s pure holiness.
2. “…set your hope fully…” – our conviction about our future determines our deeds in the present.
The lost person lives in the slavery of his/her past. The saved is freed by his/her future. While the lost person’s present is determined by his/her past, the saved person’s present is determined by his/her future. We, Christians, live in the present from our future. Our hope in our future changes our present. Because we set our hope fully in the future we have, that’s why we will not live determined by our past. It is a great motivator for holiness to look ahead to the grace we will get when Christ comes back. But also it is a great motivator if we look ahead to the account we need to give when He comes back. Both the thankful heart and the fearful heart should motivate us to live a holy life. “Conduct yourself with fear…” - says Peter. There is a place for the fear of God. God is good, but He is holy. We should be fearful to commit sin.
3. “…do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance…” – in order to leave behind the old sin we need to set new patterns, determine clear boundaries and make firm decisions.
Peter uses a graphic expression here: we shouldn’t slick to the shape of the world and of our old desires. The world and our flesh has a shape, a form with it’s values, customs, deeds, desires, thinking, arguing, etc. That’s the old shape. We should not slick into that form. We have a new shape, a new form that we need to be conformed to: the shape of Christ. We need to have new customs, new values, new ways of having fun, new ways of saying things, new ways of thinking, arguing, etc. The new pattern, the new shape, the new model is God’s holiness. Slick to that. The hardest daily battle in living a holy life is when we have to take each of our old customs, habits, practice, behaviors, etc. and weigh them on the measure of God’s holiness. And with each we need to make a decision and set boundaries that we will not follow the old practice and habits, but develop new ones. Developing godly practices is the practical daily step of holiness.
What would it be like if we would really life a holy life? We should live it, because we can live it!
Our errors
Posted: 06/04/2011 Filed under: Leadership, Psalms Leave a comment »In Ps 19 David wisely realize that no matter how hard we try, we make mistakes and errors. “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins… then I shall be blameless.” (v.13.14)
Almost every day I ask myself where did I make a mistake, how did I error, what are the things I didn’t see, missed or procrastinated. Errors, hidden mistakes, weaknesses are not intentional sins of the will. I can honestly say that in all my life since I became His follower, my intention is what David writes: “I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me…” (Ps 18:21) BUT I experience that God lets me into errors and mistakes; He lets me struggle with my weaknesses and faults that I don’t see and are hidden before my eyes. Is it possible to walk with God and still make mistakes and have errors, faults, make wrong decisions? If not than it means that whoever walks with God will never make a mistake, will never make a bad decision and will never suffer from his/her weaknesses? Did Paul or Barnabas was not walking with God when they had a conflict? Who was right? Which one made the bad decision? Our errors, mistakes, weaknesses, faults are teaching tools in Gods hand to keep us humble and to help us realize that everything on this earth is imperfect and temporary. Don’t fear to error and to make a mistake, but don’t seek to make one, either. Just accept that we all have errors and faults we don’t see.
We always seek the perfect solution, the perfect decision, the perfect situation and the perfect people. This desire of ours for perfection is a sign of being created for the image of God. He installed this desire in our soul that we would constantly face with frustration in this imperfect world and would realize that only He can fulfill this desire. David realized that even the man who delights in the Word of God can be a subject and the object of faults and errors in a fallen world and. The excessive fear of making mistakes and errors can paralyze us. As a leader this is a depressing responsibility. What percentage of my decisions that influenced families and ministries were mistakes? Many decisions’ consequences are only visible after many years or decades. Not to face with the possibility of errors and mistakes is arrogance. Not to make a decision because of the possibility of errors and mistakes is ignorance, irresponsibility and cowardice. Unfortunately, to many Christian leaders are either paralyzed in cowardice and their decisions are not reflecting any faith. Or on the other hand they are in the infallible arrogance where they vindicate spiritual authority for themselves and tossing people into irresponsible and unreasonable sacrifices. Most of the decisions carry risks and the possibility of errors. Jonathan’s attempt to attack the enemy carried on obvious opportunity to fail. But if he was not willing to take the risk and doesn’t take the ownership over a possible error, than he would have never win the battle. (1Sam 14:6)
Our hidden weaknesses can be obvious for others. Arrogance and pride can hinder us from accepting others to speak into our weaknesses. Only the humble can remain blameless – says David in the Psalm quoted above. The anti-doze of errors is not perfection or perfect decisions, but humility. Humility realizes our own limitations and our dependence on God and others.
Life-lessons
Posted: 05/03/2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »from my journey with God in the past 28 years since I’m actively involved in the ministry of CCC (as student first than as staff in the past 19 years).
In Isiah 48:17 God tells us that He will teach us what will be for our profit and that He will lead us on the way we must walk on! The lessons I’ve learned are lessons I had to learn and still need to learn about God, about life and about me.
What did I learn that stood out from the many other lessons and repeated over and over again? (These are my personal lessons from my journey on my road that God led me through. Yours could be totally different.)
- Security never comes from where we desire it to come from. Security never existed in my circumstances. I grew up as a child in total insecurity and all my life I’ve experienced financial, legal, housing, medical and all kinds of insecurities. We never had a ministry year where we had stability, sustainability or we could relax, because we are secure. The sense of security always are coming from God. Ps 4:8 was true all the time: “You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
- God always look at the heart of the person and not his/her abilities, talents, opportunities or position. God uses the weak, the poor, the nobodies, the untrained if their heart is for God. I had been the least potential for any kind of leadership in the ministry during my student years as well my first few years as staff. God overcame the huge deficit I grew up with.
- God always wanted me to live beyond my capacities. He wanted me to live beyond my physical, emotional, mental, relational, social and spiritual capacities. He is not limited by my talents, abilities or capacities. He always stretches us greatly.
- God always wanted me to face and do the impossible. Whatever I had to accomplish, resources I had from my own was never enough for it. He always asked impossible things and through that forced me to live by faith.
- Suffering, pain and losses always accompanied me on my journey. The pain of loosing friends who were my comrades in the battle had been the worst of all. But He took us through all kinds of physical, emotional, relational, financial, legal and mental sufferings and pain. He always gave strength and rescued us from each, but the pain over the losses of friends stayed with me.
- God always provided and protected us and the ministry. He always helped us through – so I have all the reasons to believe that He will continue to provide and protect us.
- Humbly I’m saying this, but He always used us and this ministry to change lives. We always saw people turning to Christ and growing into life-long laborers of Him. Our impact had been much greater than we’ve hoped for.
- God is the owner of everything I have, and He acts accordingly. He owns my ministry, my assets, my family, my health and my life. He has all the right to do whatever He desires.
As I look ahead of the road we must walk on because God has prepared it for us – beside of these life-lessons I’ve learned from the experience of the years walking on the road He prepared for us, I know one thing for sure: He promised His presence to us. His face will come with us, so whatever comes to us on our journey, He will face with it. That is our peace, security and comfort. Pray that God would pour the peace and joy of His Holy Spirit into our anxious heart!
Power, Identity and Mission
Posted: 02/14/2011 Filed under: Acts Leave a comment »Read: Acts 1:8
Jesus is spending his lost moments on Earth. How did He use His time? (Acts 1:1-8) He was with His disciples, He proved themselves that He is alive, thought them and gave them perspective about their future.
It is interesting that Jesus didn’t spend His lost days to prove to the multitudes who He is and to preach the gospel on the whole Earth. Instead of preaching the gospel to multitudes, He invested all His lost 40 days only in to the disciples.
The key message in Jesus’ last days are the promise of the Holy Spirit. Jesus doesn’t give a command to be a witness, but give a promise for sending the Holy Spirit end empowering them to become a witness. The result of the coming of the Holy Spirit will be that we’ll become witnesses of His to the end of the Earth. Jesus didn’t formulate a strategy to fulfill the Great Commission, but He gave power for it. We don’t lack plans or strategies or tool, but we lack power. When we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit than the Great Commission will be obeyed. There is a direct connection between being fulfilled with the Holy Spirit and the gospel getting to the end of the Earth. The reason the Great Commission is not fulfilled is not lack of money, lack of tools or lack of plans, but the lack of number of Christians walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus didn’t give a task when he said you’ll be my witnesses, but he gave an identity. To be a witness is not an expectation, but a reality of our new identity. To become a witness is a sign, a sign of walking in the Holy Spirit.
The disciples want to know when the Kingdom of God will come to Israel. Jesus doesn’t talk about timing and dates (matter fact he says that timing is not our business), but He talks about how the Kingdom of God will come. It will happen as the Holy Spirit transforms us and empowers us to become witnesses of His and the gospel will get to the end of the Earth. The most we can do to help fulfill the Great Commission is to help other Christians to understand and appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can transform someone into a witness. We can involve people into projects, we can give them assignments, but we can’t give them power. We can teach technics or methods, but only the Holy Spirit can transform them into a witness.
The only way the Church can get to the end of the Earth with the gospel if there will be enough number of Christians who are walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s the greatest problem of the Universe is this: Christians not living out their full identity and appropriating the power God promised to them!
God is the home for the trackless men – Ps 90
Posted: 01/30/2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment »Read: Ps 90
“Lord, you had been our dwelling place…” Ps 90:1
God is a dwelling place – a home for the trackless men.
Home is security, protection, provision, intimacy. A place where we can live. A place where we experience love, care, acceptance, understanding, care. Home is an answer to our basic needs for existing. God is ETERNAL home for the MORTAL man.
“Who DWELLS in the shelter of the Most High, will ABIDE in the shadow of the Almighty” – Ps 91:1. Dwelling, resting, to be at home at God.
“Teach us to count our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” Ps 90:12
How can we have a heart of wisdom? (Notice that he doesn’t talk about the MIND of wisdom, but the HEART of wisdom. Wisdom is more than just pure mindful understanding – it is character, attitude, understanding, spirituality.)
Wisdom comes when we understand our limitations: the time and impact of our life is limited and not under our control. This is how Moses expresses this in this Psalm:
- Our life is a vapor, a dream. Unsignificant and short.
- Our time is very limited and it is controled by God. He decided when we enter into life and when we live this life. We can’t control what we want to control so badly.
- Our limited resources are mostly wasted.
- Our impact is limited. Who will be remembered 500 years from now? Hardly anybody will be trakcable. We want to leave behind tracks so badly. We want to be remembered. Was there any reasult, impact of my life, or I was just eating, drinking, consuming?
Wisdom comes when we understand that our trackless life can connect to eternity if we connect with the eternal God. This eternal God offers an eternal home for the mortal and trackless people.
What we do for God is the only thing that will have a track. “Establish the work of our hands for us!”
A dangerous process – Ps 81.
Posted: 01/30/2011 Filed under: Psalms 1 Comment »Read: Psalm 81
A dangerous process is going on in lot of people’s life: the process of alienation from God. The process is described in v.7-13.
Step 1. – v.9. and 12. – We don’t listen to God’s Word.
Step 2. – v.10. and 12.b – We don’t obey to God’s Word. God gave a commend, they didn’t obey because they were not listening.
Step 3. – v.13a. – Our heart is hardened. If we don’t listen and obey the Word of God, He allows our heart to be hardened. The hardened heart is a result of a process, which process began with the lack of willingness to listen to His Word.
Step 4. – 13b. – We convince ourselves about our own truth. Our perpective will narrow to our own understanding.
Step 5. – total depravity
The process started with not listening to the Word of God and leads to total depravity. When someone closes out the word of God from his/her life the result will be that he/she will only have her own truth to stand on. And if someone lives his/her life on his/her own truth, will destroy it. Following our own advice and our own understanding always leads to depravity.
