SHAMELESS POSTURING

We are so easily manipulated as a nation. These six Muslim Clerics make way too much noise together prior to boarding their plane. Then once on board, they change their seating without permission, which puts them at the only three exits. And lastly they ask for seatbelt extensions and promptly place the extensions under their seats unused. All of these moves would be highly suspicious no matter what you looked like. Being as these men were obviously middle eastern, passengers and crew went on alert. I would have done the same. As a matter of fact, I would have been set off by the loud display in the terminal. If these men were allowed to board my flight I would forfeit my ticket if need be.

Now all of this is very predictable behavior on the part of regular citizens and don't tell me that these posers didn't plan this to a tee. This is the unnerving part about random terror. The only way to protect ourselves as ordinary citizens is to react to the situation as we see it. And the clerics have the upper hand. If we do nothing, they are emboldened. If we do something, they get press as well as a book tour.

THE LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN

When it comes to
Christian growth, men generally determine to go it alone. Unlike formal education or job training, which many men will undergo, spiritual training involves personal vulnerability along with the training. This is kind of spooky and because of the personal risk, I often hear the sentence,"I'm going to learn to follow Jesus on my own."

I know this from first hand experience. In my previous posts, I have touched a little on the beginning years with Christ in my own life. I was quite determined to go it alone. As a matter of fact, I was quite determined to start my own idea of Christianity. Under the guise of not wanting my relationship with Jesus to be polluted by another man's influence, I proceded to read my Bible and pray and experience God without anyone else's influence. This was a hoax I played on myself. I was covering up. By hiding my conversion I remained a baby in Christ.

This is the reason it is so easy to find a Christian man who has been saved for a decade or more, and is more or less clueless about his Bible and about his theology. When called upon to teach, or disciple or lead in any way, these men humbly decline.

In the book of 11 Timothy chapter 2 verse 2, Paul states, "and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others." Gee, I wonder what that means?

In 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15, Peter states, "always be prepared to give an answer to anyone, who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. " So, does that mean we are supposed to talk to other people about Jesus?

You get the point. Without preparation, men will not do either of these things. They will not entrust to reliable men what they know because they cannot articulate it. They will not share their own testimony because they are not prepared to do so. And where does that leave the Christian man? It leaves him going to church, hopefully, and remembering about 10% of what he hears in church. Other than that, if he is really adventuresome, he may attend a Bible study on a sporatic basis, once again drifting through with no real spiritual underpinnings.

If you have ever asked yourself why women make up most of the workers in a church, you have now discovered the reason why. And it all comes back to being the Lone Ranger. Hey---I'm an American guy. I am my own man. I decide what I'm going to do. Besides that-----I'm growing??? I've been going to church now for several years. I must have learned something!!

Believe it or not, there are reliable men who are qualified to teach others. They are in your neighborhood and they are in your church. Some of them are at your workplace. Seek them out. Find a guy, a regular guy. A guy who has been discipled, who you can talk to about regular things. Ask him if he would be willing to invest himself in you. If he agrees, meet him faithfully. Follow his directions. Follow his example. Allow yourself to be teachable. Start the journey that you have been putting off all these years. If you do this the day will come when you will be qualified to teach others. That's the model Jesus built. He picked 12 men and said, "follow me."

You still want to be the Lone Ranger? Go ahead. You can be the Lone Ranger all over the place. In the woods, on the lakes, at your desk or on the road. But when it comes to following Jesus, be teachable.

USABLE VESSELS

Vessel is a somewhat poetic discription of individuals who are available and prepared for service to Jesus. In the book of Romans, Paul the Apostle writes about the potter,[God]and the clay[man]. Paul states in chapter nine verse twenty one, "does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?"

It is ours to discover what God has made us for. We are the clay vessels. Some of us are made for noble purpose, some for common purpose. It doesn't matter which purpose God made us for. It matters greatly that we are prepared and available. Part of the preparation is cleaning up our act, so that we are uncluttered when pressed into service. Cleaning up our act in cludes having a mind focused on the eternal. This happens when we are well established in scripture and prayer on a daily basis. I'm talking about personal, private, uninterrupted alone time with God everyday, yes, even Sunday. Along with this spiritual discipline comes some very practical habits. Avoid with a vengance the temptations that are the most vexing. If you are viewing pornography, stop it. If your leisure time includes movies with profanity and provacitive activity, stop that also. Get into the habit of replacing those activities with books and music that encourage spiritual growth. Don't give satan an inch. Learn what your triggers are. The enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for souls to devour. He knows how to lure us out into the open where we are vulnerable. Get serious about cutting the enemy off. If you are the most vulnerable when you are tired, remind yourself in advance that you are pushing it. If vulnerability comes when you are alone, plan to avoid being alone. If you know that your schedule includes unaccountable alone time, prepare in advance for warfare during those times. Don't turn on the television in your hotel room. Stay away from late night activities. After you have practiced some of these basic behaviors, make your own list of priorities. Learn from your failures. Ask for forgiveness and then press forward.

Usable vessels are clean vessels. Usable vessels experience God's work in a very personal way. Usable vessles have a joy and a purpose that is set apart. Usable vessels are men who are dead to the world and alive in Christ.

Here is a practical illustration. You may have seen the tapes of the young men leaving the terrorists training camps. These men have a tape made describing how they want their funeral to take place. They give instructions to their family about the distribution of their possessions. They consider themselves already dead as they head off to be part of a sleeper cell somewhere in the world. These men are dangerous because they are by their own description, dead. A dead man is a dangerous man. O.K., got it. Now, turn this around. Instead of being a dead man for evil, be a dead man for Christ. Be a dangerous man for Christ. Everytime satan tries to lure you with the world tell him to kiss off. You are dead to the world. And you are living for the greatest challenge and joy that is available to mankind. As you journey in this purpose keep your vessel clean, and Jesus will fill it with with His perfect will.

DOWN FOR THE COUNT

We steadly lost money for the first three quarters of 1996. What I had projected out was coming true. Regardless of these losses we were tithing my pretax salary along with additional offerings. In September of 1996 I attended a men's conference on stewardship. I don't remember much of what was said. I was writing a letter to myself and to the Lord. I explained how things were. I flirted with the notion of reducing my tithing committment, stating that it was too aggressive and couldn't be sustained. I decided that when the conference ended I was going to tell my wife exactly where we were financially, and ask her advice. I laid everything out. Here are our bills. Here is what we have left to pay those bills. We are not going to make it. We will be completely broke by the end of the year. The business will be out of assets and we will be in serious debt. I stated that our tithes and offerings simply could not be maintained at this time and asked her what to do. She said to me, "pay the Lord first." I couldn't believe it. I said, " apparently you do not realize the gravity of the situation. We don't have the money for anyone, much less God." She said to me, "pay the Lord first." It made me crazy. How could this be sensible advice?

Lest you get the wrong idea, my wife made her career in banking. She understood very well where we were financially. She also had been a life long tither. She was giving me the benefit of her experience. I did what she said. I paid the Lord our third quarter tithe as well as the offerings.

As you might expect, things got worse. By late November I found myself in a coffee shop staring into a bowl of soup. I closed my eyes and asked the Lord to bless the meal. I was very grateful for the food in front of me and that moment has stuck with me all these years.

We forged ahead. I hadn't lost the business yet. I was accumulating debt at an alarming rate. In January of 1997 we made some changes in our pricing and our expenses. We continued to go into debt but at a much slower rate. In the following year we hit the wall. My creditors would not be stalled any longer. I drove home on a rainy Tuesday and told my wife that I needed all her savings. She gave it to me. Sixteen years of savings was spent by me before noon that day. That bought us a little time and during that time we continued to restructure how the business was being run.

I tell you all these things so that God will be glorified. I didn't know at the time that He was purging the business. He took it to the ground to eliminate all the stolen money that had built the business. He showed me that giving was going to be and is to this day, our greatest spiritual gift.

Now let me keep the air clear. We face financial challenges every month. We are not highly profitable. There has been no expansion. We still live on a salary. God has made many changes in our daily business lives. We distribute free Bibles from both business locations. We honor Jesus Christ at every meeting. We have signage in both locations stating that "God Owns Our Business." My co-workers and I often seek each other out for prayer. We have demonstrated our committment to the Lord in the way we treat each customer. Many times we felt like we were under attack and being tested by the unreasonable demands we faced, but through it all God has provided and continues to provide.

Finally I must state, this is not a formula. This is about giving glory to God in every aspect of living. It's about putting Him first. It's about living in expctation of His will. It's about failing, and stumbling, and repenting, and renewal. It's about living out, "THY WILL BE DONE."

JUST BUSINESS

Do you live out your Christian walk with Jesus during the week the same way you live it out in church on Sunday morning? If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence amongst your business peers, to convict you? ---My answer was no to both questions.

In the spring of 1975 at the ripe old age of 30 I opened for business. Having worked previously for a man who trained me to run a business in the ways of the world. His training was thorough and I was an attentive student. Along with learning the ropes of being a small businessman I also learned very well how to cheat.

Here is the premise. You are a small businessman and the deck is stacked against you. Taxes are too high. Employees are too expensive, landlords don't give you a fair shake and suppliers only provide deep discounts to volume buyers. Of all of those statements only the last one is essentially true. All of the others are reasons to cheat. Once the cheating begins it is quickly applied to every area. The first and most obvious is what is famously known as "two sets of books." In my case this wasn't true, I had one set of books and I entered only the information that I wanted to be known. The rest of the information and money was unaccounted for. That seemed the safest to me. No record, no case.

Cash was king. I worshiped cash. It made the whole enterprise worthwhile and gave me a sense of power that my cleverness was triumphing over the world. I ran my business this way for 21 years.

In the last half of 1995 I was under great conviction about how I was handling the money that the Lord had entrusted me with. By this time I had been saved for 4 years and my declaration to God, about how I wasn't going to give His church any money until I died, was wearing thin. The problem was I was simply too scared to make any changes. What I had been doing for the last 21 years was wrong, yes wrong, but it paid the bills and left me with spending money. Doing anything to upset that system gave me the willies.

In the last quarter of 1995, with my wife's encouragement, I decided that in January of 1996 I was going to surrender the business to the Lord. That's it. Lock, Stock and Barrel. It was going to be His and I would go on salary. Along with all of the dramatic financial changes that were going to be taking place, I was also going to tithe 10% of all the before tax profits.

It was a surrender second only to giving my heart to Jesus. On January 2nd 1996 I arrived at work and felt as though I was stepping straight off a cliff. I had made all these promises to the Lord. No more cheating---period. My employees would no longer receive cash bonuses. We would declare exactly where every penny was and where it was going. We would start all our company meetings with prayer. We would do all these things in the name of the Lord and with His help. Unfortunately I didn't lay out a plan to succeed financially in this new climate. The only thing I did was project out how long I could last. My calculations told me we would be out of business by the 3rd quarter of 1996. On that happy note I began the most daring journey of my Christian life.

DISCIPLINE

No discipline----no growth. Everything else I'm going to say here, can be summed up in that first sentence. It is our tendancy as men to rationalize and procrastinate. The best man among us participates in these two activities, rationalizing and procrastinating. Both of these activities are a cancer on the disciplined life. They are the tools that eat away at the very core of living a disciplined life.

I'll give you an example. I know a man who ranks very high on the discipline chart. He is by all outward appearances the model of constant discipline. He is every woman's dream and every child's hope. He practices the golden rule. He is patriotic, healthy and smart. And if you ask him about his discipline, he will tell you he fails regularly to maintain the standards that are his goal.

So I think it is safe to say, that the best man among us participates in rationalization and procrastination. Why do we intentionally shoot ourselves in the foot? Why, when we know what to do, and when to do it, do we not do it?

Read the book of Proverbs. If you don't have a Bible, borrow one or go on line. Read the whole book. It won't take you long. Write down how many times you see the word discipline in the book. And then, read the warning that accompanies the word. Proverbs is one of those texts that are recommended reading for newlyweds as well as old guys like me. It becomes quickly apparent that and undisciplined life if rife with trouble.

As it turns out, discipline is our friend. Used properly, it will provide daily benefits that add up to yearly gain. If it were easy to attain, it wouldn't be called discipline. The very nature of the word suggests it's meaning.

Jesus had twelve disciples. They were being exposed to His teaching, both through His words and His modeling of how to live life. Did they bumble along? You bet they did. Did they vie for position and power? Yep. Did they miss the point of many of Jesus' statements? Of course they did. Did they end up spreading the gospel until their dying breath? Yes.

My conclusion is keep at it. In second Timothy 2:2, Paul states, "and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men, who will also be qualified to teach others." Reliable men are disciplined men. Qualified men are disciplined men. It is impossible to make very much progress with a man who isn't personally disciplined.

EARTHLY REWARDS

Several years ago, the man who disciples me, Peter Angier, told me that I would benefit greatly from scripture memorization. I told him in no uncertain terms that I couldn't do that. I said it just like that, "I can't memorize scripture." He said, " yes you can." I said, "NO I can't. He said, "yes you can, I said "NO I CAN'T, and I'll tell you why. I spent too many years on drugs and alcohol, steadily burning brain cells. And now I am old, so the combination of age and an already partially fried brain, just make it impossible to memorize scripture."

Peter was understanding but firm. He encouraged me to try anyway, relying on the Holy Spirit to assist me. As a result, I now consider scripture memorization an "earthly reward." I want to explain three steps.

First of all, memorize the chapter and verse number and say it before and after reciting the verse. That way the verse and it's location are linked.

Second, when you can recite the verse exactly as written, ask your wife or a friend if you can practice the verse on them. Hand them the verse written out, so they can check you for accuracy. You will find that it is one thing to say it alone, it is quite another thing to recite it out loud to another.

Finally, become so familiar with the verse that you can included it smoothly into your conversation. When that happens, you now "own" the verse. It is yours for life. You will be able to recall it when ever you want and it will serve you, encourage you and comfort you till death.

The process of "owning" a verse takes at least eight weeks. And constant review of the verses you memorize will keep them fresh and relevant in your life.

I have found that since I spend a great deal of my time in the cab of a truck, I have written out the verse in large print on a "POST IT" and stuck it to the dash. That way, when I am stuck in traffic, I can memorize and review the verse. Once the verse is comitted to memory I transfer it to a small flash card and put it with the other verse cards. These cards are easy to carry in my pocket, so when I am waiting to meet a man for lunch, or pick up my grandsons from school, or any other time that could easily be wasted, I pull out my pack of cards and review.

Nothing cuts to the truth like scripture. The Bible describes it as being sharper than a double edged sword. So I say, don't leave home without your sword.