II Corinthians 4:7-18 (The Message)

^7-12If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at.

We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!

 ^13-15We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!

 ^16-18So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

Today I want to talk about verses 13 -15 today and maybe put together a big finally blog next week. I am going to start with a question which may not be the best literary approach but… “Aren’t we?” “Aren’t we keeping it quiet?” Paul says here that “We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life.” I am glad today that my life isn’t weighing in the balance of people sharing their faith. If you are convicted, good, me too. If you are not you are either doing a good job or just forgot how good the news is.

I wonder how much more motivated we would be if our lives do depend on it? Our lives do depend on sharing the news because had no one ever shared it with us our eternal life would have a much different outlook. For me it was my parents who shared their beliefs. And my dad has told me that story of the lady who shared her faith with him. Given the opportunity to speak with her there was someone who shared with her. I share my faith with my son and with others so you can see how sharing can ignite a significant chain of events.

I was listening to a song the other day (Lacrae – Rebel) that had a Mark Driscoll sermon excerpt in the middle. He was talking about being a rebel from his Rebel’s Guide to Joy out of Philippians. He said that if you want to be a rebel try reading your Bible because nobody is doing that anymore. He says that all other rebellious actions are tired. I am currently listening to the entire series which is pretty good, you should check it out.

I think that another rebel move is to share your faith. In the politically correct society that we live in we find it uncomfortable to speak about what we believe. More times than not people have said that they respect me for my willingness to talk about what I believe. There is no guarantee that it will make any difference in their lives but not sharing does guarantee that it won’t.

I want to close with an excerpt from Matthew Henry’s Commentary related to these verses. “…There are unseen things, as well as things that are seen. And there is this vast difference between them; unseen things are eternal, seen things but temporal, or temporary only. Let us then look off from the things which are seen; let us cease to seek for worldly advantages, or to fear present distresses. Let us give diligence to make our future happiness sure.”

II Corinthians 4:7-18 (The Message)

^7-12If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at.

We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!

 ^13-15We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!

 ^16-18So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

Verse 8-9 in the NIV reads: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” I want to pick-up there and may get through verse 12 today… it just depends on how fast I can get my “bird” fingers to peck the keys.  (Wow that was a lame start… I apologize)

The crazy thing about being pressed is that you never know just how much you can take before you are crushed, or how far can you be thrown down without breaking.  I know that when testing the strength of concrete they find the amount of pressure it takes to break it and the only way to do it is to actually break it. I am sure that there are certain scientific tests that could calculate our bone density and come close to calculating what it would take to crush us. But, the only way to really tell is to actually crush it.

Stay with me because I am not talking about some sick desire to put people in a press or start dropping people off of buildings. Today I was reading a little later in II Corinthians (11:24-27) where Paul was describing the methods in which the world had pressed and dropped him.

“²⁴Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, ²⁶I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. ²⁷I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.” (NIV)

To be honest… that sounds pretty brutal and way beyond what I would consider a legit breaking point. I don’t know about you but I don’t know if I could cut it. I am sure that Paul may have had that same thought at times but yet he did cut it. He may have passed what he thought was his breaking point many times.

Only God knows are breaking point and when we trust him that point seems to move. (I am really struggling to get the feeling that I have in my heart into rational words with some sense of proper grammar so bear with me.)  The challenges that you and I face seem overwhelming at times but it is the journey of going through them that proves time and time again that what we thought would break us only makes us stronger.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow death”… the key is to keep walking. The only way to get out is to keep walking. I know the scriptures about standing still and knowing that he is God. But I’m sorry, I am a mover. I think we want to set back and let God do and sometimes he just wants us to see what we are capable of when we allow him to work through us in lieu of for us.

In verse 12 it reads “While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!” What a seemingly bipolar scripture but there it is again… going through. We are on a journey that is more than getting from point “A” to point “B”. The end is important but the world needs to see and hear more out of us than just about the end.

I am going out on a limb here and going to say that my life is not perfect, actually quite far from it. I have a lot of positive things going for me but in many areas I feel pressed, thrown down and perplexed. This passage has reminded me to go through.

The real motivation of this portion of this passage can be found in verse 10 “…what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives!” He lives in us? He lives in us. He lives in us! HE LIVES IN US! HE LIVES IN US!!!! Yes the God that the world left for dead, the God that experienced all brokenness, all abandonment, lives in us. Maybe you have allowed yourself to forget that. Well wake up and grab a hold of that fact because he overcame all for you.

You may feel pressed, you may feel perplexed, you may feel dropped but that God who beat all odds lives in us and will remain with us as long as we let him.

God, thank you for living in me and reminding me that I have not reached my breaking point. Like Paul there have been times were I felt like it but you enabled me to stretch far beyond my believed breaking points. You have not abandoned me but it is imperative that I keep going. The feelings I have are a part of a journey that will ultimately bring you glory. Even though I may not know how or even see what ways, I know that you have me and my family’s best interest at heart. I am unsure why our lives seem to be in a holding pattern but I am trusting that you are preparing our landing site. It would be easy to get tired of circling the field and land in the wrong place. I pray that you will continue to provide me reminders like this to keep going. Amen.

II Corinthians 4:7-18 (The Message)

^7-12If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at.

We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!

 ^13-15We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!

 ^16-18So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

In verse 7 in the NIV it says that we carry the message in “jars of clay”. This was the first piece of this passage that grabbed. Maybe in part because it is the name of one of the first “Christian” groups that I actually owned a CD of because at that time there weren’t very many good ones. But the imagery here is pretty incredible. As a single guy this probably would have not triggered any thoughts but through my married years I have purchased my share of clay pots.

You know the plain orange pots that are the cheapest ones you can get at Home Depot. I have watched (and even assisted) as my wife has taken those plain clay pots and painted them, accessorized them, and turned them into some really nice patio and porch accents.

Along the way I have learned how fragile they are and as the verse read “not much to look at”. Whether you are a Calvin Klein underwear model or just an average Joe we really are not much to look at. I just lost some of the ladies because they are still thinking about the last Calvin Klein ad. I have met a lot of people that by many standards would be considered as a part of the “beautiful people” until they opened their mouth. I am not sure at what point in life exactly, but at some point I discovered that skin deep beauty can be nice to look at but true beauty involves something from the inside.

I don’t know how I got sidetracked but I spent too much time typing it to erase it… Anyways, the comparison to jars of clay is important because it can help us to remember exactly what we are (and should be) in comparison to God’s power. Many times we as Christ Followers make ourselves out to be something that we are not. Just yesterday I had a conversation with someone who was completely turned off by people in church pretending to not be “human”. To relate that to the pots… rough in spots, fragile, deformed, unlevel at times, half-baked, empty.

As pots go many people would like to be one of those shiny glazed ones with a really beautiful pattern on it. You know the ones that are apparently worth three times as much because they have a nice glaze and a fancy pattern. But one thing I have found in the landscaping stuff that I have done… the fancy pots can take away from the beauty of the plant/flower/tree you put in it. Maybe this is personal taste but to me this is how the text grabbed me and it’s my blog.

What I didn’t tell you was that when my wife and I paint those clay pots it is flat black with a dark orange sponge paint over the top and the accessories are just the simple “feet” things to allow the water run out the bottom.

The beauty of who we are is in our message. I am not going to go into all of the other imagery of plants and oxygen, life giving soil and how it strengthens the fragile pot, etc. because I think you can see where God was leading me. I challenge you to read this passage a few times and see where this imagery takes you.  

God,

Thank you for reminding me this week of who I am in comparison to the power of your message. Thank you for reminding me that the part of me that should catch people’s eye is you. I am sorry for the ways that I have tried to wrap my clay pot at times with facades to hide my imperfections. Even though I may have had good intentions I realize that you are able to use my challenges to enhance the beauty of you. You have reinforced my fragile shell with the infilling of your spirit and I pray that I will be a useful vessel. Amen.

Owen,

I was reading in I Corinthians 15:33 this morning with your mom and I came across this scripture which I had underlined at some point. “Bad company corrupts good character.”  I want to go on the record and say that I am proud of the character you are developing. I am going to focus on that today but I want to also mention that this is only one of the many wonderful things that make me so proud to be your dad.

Many of those other things such as intelligence, resilience and creativity will get you far in life but character (who you are when nobody is looking) is what makes your heavenly and earthly father really proud and sets men and women apart from the crowd.

In the parenting department you are blessed with a phenomenal mom who spends a lot of time sowing into your life and working with you so that you will develop into an amazing man of God. In many ways when I compare myself to her I feel under qualified and am working hard to just not undo some of the stuff she has instilled in you. But we have corporately made some decisions about the influences in your life in hopes that we can protect your character as it develops.

You are already catching on in many areas because you are so smart. Like you are questioning the fact that many of the things you get from us where around when your mom and I were kids. For example, I am glad that Transformers are back but you are 6 and the 25 year old cartoons that we bought you for your birthday are better for you than the recent PG-13 movies. Yes the movie had some really cool robot battles but son the sexual references and images in this movie are not for you. (I saw the way that the Victoria Secret commercials grab your attention even at 5 so I know that your mind is already beginning to process some things.)

We realize that you will someday know that an ass is more than another name for a donkey and that the words that don’t make any sense in the radio edition of” Boom Boom Pow” really are just cuss words that the FCC won’t allow. At some point you will see that if Luke Skywalker had his hand cut off it would bleed like a stuffed pig (Unless the light saber cauterizes also?) but in 1980 that wasn’t a significant part of the plot.

Many parents (some reading this right now) will say that we are shielding you. My response to them is “yes we are”. As mentioned above I know that you will be exposed to this and so much more during life. I realize that at some point you are going to have to battle with raging hormones and strong negative influences but our prayer is that these battles will be easier because you were prepared a little longer with some positive character influences.

For example, before too long you and I are going to sit down for the first of many “talks”. Yes there won’t be just one but many conversations about sex and the feelings that you have. I can’t say that I am looking forward to those in many ways but I am looking forward to being the influence that you hear it from. Some might say that seeing Megan Fox mount somebody on screen is a great communication starter. Though this may be true I think that is a different conversation.

Son, your mom and I love you very much and are trying to be the best character influences we can be. We know that God has big plans for your life and that it is our job to assist in preparing you. This may lead to some confusion as to how Bumblebee went from a VW to a Camaro. This may even cost you a little bit of “coolness”. But son my goal as your dad is not to make you cool or even popular. Son my job is to help you become a man. A man who has enough character to stand up for what you believe in. A man that is strong enough to fight against the path of least resistance and be a leader.

Today you are a Padawan in your quest to be a Jedi (the certificate is in the scrapbook your mom made), though important I am focused more on your training to be warrior in God’s army.

We proceeded to pray this morning for the influences in your life and I started with me. I want to be your hero. I will share the roll today with Bibleman, Luke Skywalker and Optimus Prime but when you are a dad I want you to see me as a hero in your life. I want you to view me as someone who was willing to fight for you and our family at the cost of being over protective, conservative, old fashioned, and a little crazy.

These tactics and God’s hand on you have been doing wonders so far. You are a wonderful young man with so much potential. Many might even say you can be anything you want. I won’t say that because I don’t want you to be just anything… I want you to be exactly who God wants you to be. In that Owen you can and will find happiness.  

I love you Owen. Happy 6^th Birthday.

Dad

Today I had a thought of how Jesus must have felt when he wasn’t successful in reaching them. I wonder if the prevailing emotion was pain, pity, anger, frustration or a mixture of all of them. As we witness to people and they reject Jesus it impacts us (or at least it should) but I didn’t leave heaven to die a cruel death for them. I can’t speak for anybody else today but “Jesus I am sorry for the times that I refused and rejected you.  I am sorry for taking for granted what you did for me on Calvary. I am sorry that I have broken your heart more than once.”

John 3:18-21 (NIV)

¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

This past year has been probably one of the most challenging of my life. Looking back now I am reminded of how Satan tempted Jesus in the desert during His fast. At the time I had some thoughts of what that might look like and expected it to occur during or immediately following. Now I understand that would have been a mistake because in the natural a person would be weakest after an extended fast, but in the spiritual the opposite is true.

So today represents day 328 since I finished that fast and it is just now dawning on me that my fast may be the reason that I will survive the desert temptation. To be quite transparent the last 6 months have been filled with a lot of temptations. Not to leave my wife for somebody else or other obvious temptations. But those ones that make you want to quit, give up, walk away, stop fighting, stop pursuing, question, doubt, blow-up, get frustrated, be angry, become needy, self centered, lethargic, and just not care.

It has come from things such as the multitude of resumes that were not responded to, unreturned phone calls, the promised phone calls that never came, opportunities that were on the radar that apparently developed stealth technology, financial challenges of unemployment, the process of piecing life back together, the feelings of abandonment, etc.   

Frankly it has made me mad at hell. No that isn’t a misprint. For the past few months I have been on an emotional roller coaster. The 4 people that read this blog know me fairly well and this is not normal for me. I confirmed this with my wife today because I didn’t want to misrepresent myself. She concurred (fun word to use) that I am pretty emotionally stable and that I do not normally get bent one way or the other.

I am glad that God brought back to my memory my fast and helped me to realize just what is going on with me. God also reminded me yesterday that unemployment is not part of my calling. (I have a secular job now, thank God, but I have been unemployed from ministry for 7 months) Even though I am trying to be found working and am having a lot of fun witnessing to coworkers and friends I miss the rush of being a “missionary”.  I miss the pleasure of feeling like I am doing and being exactly what God created me to be.

God, I know You have plans for my family and I. I am trying to be patient while waiting for them (even though You know it is crazy hard for me). I want to thank You in advance for those plans and I also want to thank You for leading me in a season of preparation almost a year ago to help through my desert experience. I pray that You will continue to remind me of who You are and what You have already enabled me to overcome. I pray that You will continue to remind of specifics in Your Word that I can use as my sword in this battle. I pray for Your favor, Your direction, and Your will. Amen.

I am sure some of it is linked to the life changes that we have underwent as a family and our son trying to express that but regardless we needed some fresh (and hopefully effective) ideas.

My son picks up the DVD case, reads it over and says, and I quote “Dr. Dobson, I hate that guy! He’s the one who told you to spank me.”  Around our house we have taught that hate is a very strong word and we are not supposed to hate other people. It is ok to be angry with someone but we are not to hate…

In this case my wife was too busy laughing to turn this into a teachable moment and I had a hard time not backing him up on his thought process. It might upset me a little if I believed one person was responsible for every spanking I received. LOL 

So we have read “The Strong Willed Child” and “Bringing Up Boys” but we could use another book reference on how to deal with “The Strong Willed Boy Who is Too Smart, Sarcastic (Like His Mother), Knows How to Work the System, Cute and Funny (Like His Dad) so He is Tough to Discipline.” Thanks.

So maybe you have a go to response but for me I have to work through my response on a case by case basis. So this blog entry is going to be nothing more than me responding to “the question”: How can God allow (insert bad thing here)? Or another variation: How can there be a God if (insert bad thing here) is happening?

I am not going to present all of the details because I have limited knowledge of the situation but in general we have a married individual with an infant child who has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness. I am sure we could all take this story and immediately personalize it with a similar story. As with most things the closer the story is to home the greater the impact.

If this was your spouse, your child, your sibling, your parent, etc. the impact is greater than if it is just somebody you know. It is this level of emotional connection that I find the most challenging to balance in my response. Sometimes you have the “consequences of actions” argument. For example the person who smoked 3 packs a day for 30 years who has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

I personally hate pulling this card because isn’t God able to heal that individual as much as somebody who didn’t “do anything wrong.” Besides what message does that send about God’s grace… I am thankful that I don’t get what I deserve.

In this situation I don’t know all the parameters so I couldn’t speak to that anyways. So here are some of my thoughts in no particular order as I try to work through what God would have me say:

God didn’t create us to be sick. It wasn’t until sin came into the picture that we would have to face a physical death and illness. In Genesis it talks about being created in His image and I promise you God isn’t concerned about getting the swine flu. I don’t have time to go into the “God gave us the choice because true love is a choice not a requirement” conversation but it is the curse of sin that causes sickness.

The sickness doesn’t even have to reflect your personal actions as described above but it is the overall curse of sin. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

There are a ton more scriptures to reference here but I need to keep moving. So God didn’t make us sick but He has the choice to allow it. This is where the conversation gets complicated. Why does God heal certain people and let others suffer and/or die? Let me start by responding I don’t know exactly but my faith has to say that in either case He is God. Now for the unbeliever this makes no sense and I get that because there have been many times that this has been a tough pill for me to swallow.

God has the ability to “cure” His creation. The important thing to remember is that ultimately He has done that by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross. This was done for all of our sins and provides us the cure for every illness and provides us eternal life in heaven. (Insert John 3:16 here)  This is really, really, really good news but offers little comfort to the unbeliever, and even the believer, who is dealing with this.

I look at Paul, author of a majority of the New Testament, who was afflicted with a “thorn in his flesh”. Was this an illness, a temptation, a crazy family, I don’t know but it was obviously a big enough deal for him to bring it up multiple times. Regardless of what it was God chose not to “heal” him of it.

In the end we have to figure out a way to release the “BIG picture” to God. It is easy to allow doubt to creep in and destroy our faith during these circumstances. Doesn’t Paul’s thorn give us some sort of comfort today? It does for me. His faith and obedience to God all the while facing his struggle gives me hope that I can too. This is just a glimpse of the “BIG picture” that God may or may not have had for Paul.

I don’t know if I am any closer to a great response to the question but I am running out of blog time so here are a few closing thoughts:

I don’t believe that God’s sovereignty (supreme power) is increased by our faith but our faith is increased by His sovereignty. What I am saying is that if God chooses not to heal, He no less God.

I am not a gambling man but my odds of being healed are far greater when I am investing in a personal relationship with Him. Worst case scenario this relationship will give me eternal healing in heaven.

Lastly, regardless of where you fit into the equation I have found no greater source of hope than in Christ. In a world that has bad news around every corner I have found there can only be one true source of hope. I may not understand everything that God does or doesn’t do but I have faith that He has my best interest at heart. I don’t think there is any other being qualified enough for me to trust that much.

 Like any great Dad He wants the best for His kids. I can imagine that there is a lot of pain on His side as we refuse to let Him be a part of our lives.  So my prayer in this specific situation is that whether it is the sick spouse, the healthy spouse who may be left to raise the child alone, The child who may grow up missing a parent, the parents, the siblings, the family and the friends, that they would discover the hope that I have. The hope that says regardless of how bad it may look there is no greater source to turn to. This world can offer up some nasty hurt but ultimate healing can only come through one source… God.

After 1,112 words I still have no great response. God help future ministers if I ever get the opportunity to amend a licensing test.

My Prayer: God, please give me wisdom and knowledge beyond this should I ever get the opportunity to minister to this family. Amen.

I am reading a book (because we don’t have cable LOL) entitled The Church of Facebook - How the Hyperconnected Are Redefining Community by Jesse Rice. Now I am only two chapters in so I am not ready to put my name on a recommendation. (Not that it would mean a whole lot to him.) Anyways… so far the author has written a lot so far about the importance of community and the studies that show the negative impact in not participating in community. I am assuming there will be future discussion on the fact that Facebook doesn’t reflect true relationship. Or it might talk about the value of community in the church. I am not real sure where the book is going yet but maybe I’ll write a continuation blog in a few more chapters.

My question is this: If being in community is so critical and happiness can be found there, why does nobody seem to want to do it? Why is it so hard for all of us to interact with each other? Why is it that people could seemingly care less about those around them? How as a culture did we get to be so self centered that nobody has time for anybody else?

I am not saying that I am not convicted by these questions but is anybody tired of trying to create community when it is unwanted, unappreciated, and a ludicrous thought altogether? Well if you are STOP IT! It is time that we “Christ Followers” look rejection in the face and smack it around. The world needs to be reminded how the world can be transformed by a community of believers.

The size of your community is irrelevant. You could be in a bible study of 10 or a church of 10,000. At the end of the day it is about making up your mind and impacting your “community” with the love of Christ. Since leaving the mssion field of our church plant in South Florida I have had to evaluate what the Great Commission looks like for me. What was the City of Weston,FL 6 months ago is now the office of Cuhaci & Peterson Architects.

You may say that I have lowered my expectations. No,  I just improved my odds. Let’s face it winning an entire city is highly unlikely but 86 employees? Ok so all of them is unlikely also but I have to start somewhere and considering I have 8+ hours a day 5 days a week to walk out my faith out in front of them…  I have an opportunity to interact in their day to day lives and be an influence. My prayer is that this influence would be a good one and reflect my God.

So here is the challenge: Live what you know. (I stole that from a sermon series title) We all know what Christ called us to do and showed us the impact it can have. So let’s do it!

So my bookworm wife brings home new books all of the time. We have a library full of books on a variety of different topics. I will be honest I am a bipolar reader and will read a whole bunch for a while and then read nothing for a while (okay that while usually lines up with football season). I like to read but it better be a good book because otherwise it winds up on the shelf with bookmark placed where I got bored reading it.

She recently brought home What to Do on the Worst Day of Your Life by Brian Zahnd. As a side note check out this blog post… it is pretty good.  Harmony usually acts as my pre-reader and after she is done she evaluates as to whether I will enjoy it or not. She said that I would so I gave it a shot.

You might ask why I chose to read this book. Did I experience the worst day of my life recently? The answer is no. I have had some disappointments lately. I thought that today I would be in a different place with different challenges. I thought that I may be involved in full time ministry somewhere. I believed that our recovery plan would be going a little differently, etc. but worst day? Certainly not.

But it was just one of those things that I just did. Even though it is a fairly short book it is good that it wasn’t the worst day of my life because it took me a week to read what to do on it. But with that said it was a fantastic book with some fantastic advice. It is a book that I would recommend to anybody going through “the worst day” of their lives or those who often times are in position to minister to those who are.

So many times we have opportunities to help people but we have a short period of time to do so. Going back to the opening question… this is exactly what happened to me this week. I am so thankful that I was able to refer this book to a friend that I may not ever have the opportunity to set down with. It was pretty cool how the whole conversation started and if it never goes any further (which I hope it does) I was able to refer them to this great book.

You can read a portion on Amazon or my five blog readers can trust me that David’s Ziklag story can help you or somebody you know everyday, even if it’s only your 232nd worst day.