Seeking the Father’s Heart Has Moved To a New Address

I’ve upgraded my site. Please join me at www.fruitfultouseful.com where you’ll find new blog posts as well as videos and my book excerpt. Please sign up on the feed burner option of my web page to receive my blog updates. Nothing has changed except my web address. God bless you…

Honoring a Fallen Hero

Reality has a way of shaking all of us out of the lethargy of the comfortable life of freedom we all experience here in the good ole U. S. of A. Turning onto Highway 80 on the way back from lunch I noticed a fire truck sitting in a rather unusual location. “That’s odd,” I thought, but then it dawned on me why. Today, a hero was returning to town, but not in the way everyone had planned. Crowds of people were parking on either side of the four-lane and hurrying to their positions along the grassy shoulders with American flags of all sizes in hand.

Police cars were positioned at every intersection, ready to move into position and block off the traffic on command. They were awaiting a hearse bearing the flag draped coffin of a fallen warrior on his return from an unpronounceable battlefield located in a foreign country halfway around the world.

The feeling that overwhelmed me at that moment was one I had experienced only once before almost 18 years ago, as the small navy skiff pulled up and I stepped out onto the U. S. S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Now, like then, I was overcome, almost choking on the surge of raw emotions. Tears filled my eyes, and for a moment I couldn’t get my breath, as waves of grief washed over me and I struggled to keep my truck on the road. As quickly as it had welled up it was gone, and a peace descended marked by a deep and distinct sense of gratitude, pride, and humility.

I am grateful for the men and women who have and are serving this country. Everything I enjoy on a daily basis has been purchased by their sacrifice. That selfless attitude I’ve seen expressed as mommas and daddies kissed their sons and daughters goodbye and watched as these brave soldiers go off to war elicits a deep sense of pride in the heritage of sacrifice woven into the very fabric of my country. And…I am humbled that any person would willingly put their life on the line so that I might enjoy the abundance and joy of freedom. On days like today, its staggering cost is a weighty reality. Freedom is never free, and its fee is eternal vigilance and the sacrifice of blood.

No feeble word of human tongue can lessen the grief or pain of this family. Only the Holy Spirit’s intimate ministry of healing comfort, the love and support of family, church, and friends, and the passing of time will bring solace to the pain they are experiencing. Though one thing is evident by what I witnessed today—this precious family will not suffer alone. This community has joined them with their prayers, love, and support.

I was struck by the sincere and simple ways the people of Brandon honored Staff Sgt. Jason Rogers along the road today. Those solemn resolute postures, the crisp salutes, the gentle waves, the fluttering flags, and the tear-filled faces all communicated the same message: “Thank you!” There are moments in life when the silence speaks far more than any words can ever say. Today its shout echoed its gratitude for a fallen son of Mississippi—a hero who has paid the ultimate price. Semper Fi!

The Pursuit of Humility

The greatest single element missing in the 2011 edition of the Church is the priceless attribute of humility. It is the essential building block needed in constructing a character of obedience to and a love for Christ, as well as the people around us. Its glaring absence seems to cast a long, dark shadow of serious doubt on anything else we claim to personally believe, publicly witness, or practically carry out in our communities. The alter ego—the hideous Mr. Hyde—the dark side of humility is arrogant pride and sadly, the church is filled with enough of this to permanently choke the life out the 9.6 billion people presently living on this blue-green planet.

Humility for most of us is like catching a fistful of wind or a handful of water. Once we’re convinced we have achieved it we find it has vanished through our fingers. The reason is simple: humility is not something you add to your collection of achievements, rather it is a choice you make—moment by moment—in that painful process of dying to yourself. We enter this world selfish, self-centered, and self-consumed. All we think about as infants is what we want. Truth is, we could care less about the rest of the little Johnnies and Jennies scattered around us. If you doubt this, visit a nursery or pre-school and quietly observe the little human inhabitants that populate it. No one teaches us to grab for what we want or scream for that holy grail of someone’s personal attention—we are born with that defective DNA. It’s a gift from the original inhabitants of the Garden. Sadly, we carry that with us as we mature emotionally, as well as spiritually. This terrible tendency does not miraculously evaporate just because Christ comes to live in us. We have to kill it; and believe me, its death will be a bloody one.

Humility is hard to define, but we all know it when we see it. Its presence refreshes us like water on the parched lips of a thirsty soul. Its encouragement pushes us to reach for more than we ever thought possible. Its validation empowers us to be everything God intended. Humility has a way of bringing forth the best of what we were created to be. It is a catalyst for real life—the quality and nature of that life Jesus died and arose to impart to us.

No man or woman is more like Jesus than in those moments when humility guides their actions and attitudes. It is cultivated, not acquired, through the seasons of our life as we willingly exchange what we desperately crave for what Jesus longs to give. As we surrender those areas of our will to His will, His kingdom comes in our lives and humility takes root and produces the sweet fruit of selfless service. Selfless simply means less of me and more of Him.

Perhaps that is the ultimate definition of humility—“me” dies and He lives in and through me. Perhaps it would do us all good to remember that if we confess Christ as Savior and Lord, it means we were crucified with Christ. For me that means I died the day Christ came to live in me. The goal of crucifixion was death, and as far as I know, not one person ever climbed down from a cross. I no longer have a right to what I want or what I need. Rather, Christ is set free to do in and through me whatever He wills because I am dead and the dead offer no resistance.

A life marked by humility has an aroma that attracts both the dying and the desperate and offers a quality and quantity of life that can be found in no other place. To be a person of no reputation allows the reputation of the risen and living Lord to be lived out in a vibrancy of color that nothing else in creation can rival.

The first step to humility is the transfer of personal value. That is, everyone else must become more important than we think we are. That, my friend, is a bloody decision to embrace death. If you think not—just try it!

Useful Not Just Fruitful

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. And His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, to gather the wheat to His barn… (Luke 3:16-17)

I am a creature of habit. I like things to stay where I put them and routines to be, well…routine. It gives me an exhilaratingly false sense of control in an otherwise out of control existence. Change bothers me and I adapt at a begrudging snail’s pace. If evolution were true my picture would be front and center in the dictionary alongside eight track tapes, leisure suits, and pet rocks. For some reason I have convinced myself that everything is all right with me and if that’s so then the way I do things must be alright with God. Now I know that concept is far from true yet I clench my fists and hold on like a city under siege. If confession really is good for the soul, it would probably do you good to join me at the altar. We are legion, but God has a recipe for this faulty belief system. I call it God’s threshing floor.

The threshing floor is a metaphor for God’s workshop. Here the accumulation of life’s trash is removed by God to reveal the treasure He has sown in us. Like a grain farmer, God intends to get His investment back, plus interest. The threshing floor is where that fruitful crop (you and me) becomes a useful commodity. We are fruitful if Christ lives within us, but not all of us are useful to the kingdom in our current condition. A transformation must occur.

There are few things in creation more beautiful than a field of golden wheat at harvest time. It’s wonderful to look at, but worthless for human consumption. That wheat must take a journey to the threshing floor where it will be broken and crushed until the wheat grain is released. Often oxen were used to thresh the wheat or barley. Their sharp hooves pressed the wheat stalks against the stony surface and over time the grain was set free.

Perhaps you find yourself in a rut from time to time as I do. Ruts are nothing more than graves with the ends kicked out. God hates ruts and will often use His threshing floor to rescue us from that habit-filled grave. All of us have had those moments when we awaken to find our worship of, intimacy with, obedience to, or faithfulness in God a bit less than exciting and certainly not fulfilling. All of us have stalled at this address, and if you find yourself there right now, you may have a trip to the threshing floor in your future.

It occurs when we get comfortable. It is so easy to focus our attention on what people see (our exterior) rather than on the things God gazes into (our interior). When this happens, we resemble wheat far more than we care to admit. A sheaf (bundle) of wheat is mostly fluff with a small amount of grain. That description probably bothers you as much as it bothers me, but it’s true. When it comes to our faith walk with Jesus it is often more chaff than grain. God is out to change that.

Through times of testing, hardship, and trial, God threshes us. He never does it to destroy, only to bring the release of our destiny hidden deep within each of us. His desire is to liberate us from all that chaff to become living, breathing facsimiles of His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. The threshing floor releases the Christ in us to live through us, but you and I must be broken before it will happen on a consistent basis.

The fruitful wheat of the field must go through a process of transformation before it becomes bread on the table. Bread is useful to hungry people. Like wheat, God’s desire is to transform all of us into living examples of the Bread of Life. For this to happen, we must all visit God’s threshing floor from time to time, so that we might become useful, not just fruitful.

Perception vs. Reality: The Power of a Well Placed Conjunction

Chaos is the name of the world I live in…but the Lord is my shepherd.

All around me swirls a teeming mass of overwhelming need…but I shall not want.

The faces of war—earthquakes—tsunami—famine—disease melt my mind…but He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

The noise is deafening and the demands never end…but He leads me beside still waters.

Rush here—rush there—do this—do that—I’m totally exhausted…but He restores my soul.

My eyes and ears are assaulted by perversion and indecency at every turn…but He guides me in the paths of righteousness.

All cry out for popularity and demand their own way…but for His name’s sake.

Death and darkness shout their claim of victory…but even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Evil is loosed and terror stalks the streets…but I fear no evil.

Loneliness and emptiness poison the masses with despair…but You are with me.

There is little peace and lots of pain…but Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me.

The opposition is overwhelming and their attacks withering…but You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

I am wounded, worn out and desperately want to quit…but You have anointed my head with oil.

Overwhelmed and helpless—I am pursued by the dark hordes of hopelessness…but surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.

Some days God…You seem a million miles away…but I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

A Sure Cure for Spoiled Babies

One of the greatest lessons any child can learn is to say “please” and “thank you.” Those simple words will take a person far in this life and in the next one as well. Lessons learned in the natural realm always translate into the spiritual realm. If saying “thanks” is so important in your day-to-day life, how much more essential is it in your moment-by-moment relationship with your heavenly Father?

Many believers are more concerned about the prayers God seems not to have answered than the multiple ones He has. It is very easy to become a spoiled spiritual brat. No one likes to be around a child that cries, complains, and throws a tantrum over a specific toy he did not receive, while sitting among a host of bright shiny new ones. Tragically, this is how most of God’s kids act. They sit, whine, complain, and are more concerned with what they seems to lack than the spiritual abundance piled in heaps all around them. Their wants have blinded them to the grace-filled provisions that God has so graciously provided. “Thank you” has quickly become a trite little phrase found in worship songs but not echoed out of the hearts of grateful children.

Thoughts are the fruit of the heart and mind. Thoughts produce words, and words communicate the depths of one’s heart and mind. Therefore, the fruit of the lips reveals a person’s heart. A tree that produces no fruit is worthless and takes up space and nourishment that could be given to a more productive tree. So, not to belabor the question but: What kind of tree are you? You see, giving thanks is ultimately a heart issue.

“Thanks” is not something you say occasionally when you get what you want. Thanksgiving is not a day you celebrate once a year either. The act of giving thanks is a sacrificial lifestyle all of us must continually walk in. Your level of gratitude reveals your grasp on the tremendous price Christ was required to pay for your sins. For many, God has become a vending machine where one deposits the counterfeit spiritual currency of money, effort, activities, or time, and then waits expecting Him to spit out your spiritual beverage of choice. In reality, that does not, cannot, and will not happen. Sadly many are sitting like spoiled brats in the midst of heaps of blessings, but seeing what they do not have, while anxiously longing for only what they want.

How arrogant! How presumptuous! How ignorant! It is amazing that a creature would say to the Creator, “Give me what I want or I will hold my breath till I turn blue!” Lack of oxygen in the natural kills brain cells, renders the body unable to function, and eventually leads to death. Yet, a life of thanksgiving is like breathing pure spiritual oxygen. A lack of it over a long period of time will weaken and kill your ability to grow in your relationship with God, eventually turning you into a weak, anemic, bawling brat, who resembles the god of this world instead of Jesus. I know those are tough words, but they are words of sober truth just the same.

It may be time to check your output of praise and thanksgiving. Is it continual and sacrificial? That is, does it consistently cost you anything? The words of King David ring with a clarion call every believer should heed when it comes to giving thanks: “…I will not offer a sacrifice to the LORD my God which cost me nothing” (2 Sam. 24:24). Lack of consistency and cost ultimately reveal one’s lack of value in God’s indescribable gift—Jesus Christ. Are you throwing a tantrum surrounded by mountains of blessing, or are you wildly proclaiming the glories of your God? The fruit of your lips will proclaim the truth you really believe.

Peering into the Prophetic

The Hebrew people knew God as the Vision Giver. He was the One who gave specific guidance to His people at every juncture of their pilgrimage, and very often through what we might call a vision. A vision is a prophecy or oracle that provides direction, promotes instruction, or prescribes correction. God’s plan was more often than not revealed through his prophets. In fact, the prophet Amos put it this way: “Surely the LORD God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).

Often the prophet would have a vision in an ecstatic state produced by the Holy Spirit. At other times the prophet would have a night vision or perhaps what we might term a “divinely inspired dream.” Both types of visions have numerous examples in the books of Ezekiel and Zechariah. The prophet witnessed the vision, and he or she would prophesy the vision to the people. To prophesy in its basic form means to hear a word from God and then speak it to the people. This was and is God’s way of sharing His secrets with that faithful remnant of His people who are listening.

The interesting thing about God is that if someone refuses to listen God does not waste His time or efforts sharing His secrets with that person. Secrets are shared between friends, not simple acquaintances. You would not share your deepest secrets with someone you did not know and so too, God does not share His secret counsel or His visions with those who have little or no relationship with Him.

You might be thinking, what does all this have to do with me? Everything! It has everything to do with you. Are you hearing the present tense voice of God from time to time? Are you experiencing dreams and visions in which God is sharing His secrets with you? The apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost declared that this would be the norm—one of the distinguishing marks—of His people called the Church: “In the last days God said I will pour out My Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out My Spirit upon all My servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18). We live in the last days and the word “all” means “all kinds of people.”

The key to hearing God or seeing the vision He wants to communicate is your willingness to be humble in faith, while you listen, watch, and wait. If you will not listen, you will not hear. If you will not open the eyes of your spirit, you certainly will not see the secrets of the Lord as He reveals them. The problem therefore rests on the receivers rather than the Sender—it is us, not Him.

But…some who read this have heard God speak, and they have seen a secret revealed through a vision or word. God does not reveal secrets simply to impress you with what He knows. He reveals His hidden counsel to those who are listening so that they can communicate it to those who are not listening. God loves the spiritually deaf and hard of hearing as much as He loves you or me. Your job is to listen and then speak what you hear or see. Don’t get discouraged at the unconcern or unwillingness of others to pay attention; your job is not to make people listen, but to speak what God is saying, and those who are listening will hear. Be encouraged—God’s vision will be fulfilled right on time.

“For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay” (Habakkuk 2:3).