These Nine Things Are True About EVERYONE Who Is In Christ (And are true for those who do not know Christ!)

#1 – I Was Dead –  Ephesians 2:1

#2 – I Was An Object Of Wrath – Ephesians 2:2-9

#3 – I Had No Purpose –Ephesians 2:10

#4 – I Was Separate From Christ – Ephesians 2:11-12

#5 – I Was Excluded From Citizenship – Ephesians 2:12

#6 – I Was A Foreigner –  Ephesians 2:12

#7 – I Was Without Hope –  Ephesians 2:12

#8 – I Was Without God –  Ephesians 2:12

#9 – I Was Far Away –  Ephesians 2:13

AND…JESUS IS THE ONE WHO BROUGHT ME NEAR – Ephesians 2:13

However, if we are not faithful with what we have NOW then how in the world is He supposed to trust us with what He wants NEXT?

“But Perry,” you say, “I don’t have anything to offer.  Our church doesn’t have what other churches have.”

I say bull!

This thought occurred to me the other day when I was reading through the book of Exodus and read through the exchange between God and Moses.  God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the people of Israel go.

Moses freaked out, and understandably so…this was a BIG DEAL!  How in the world could Moses do this?  He had been on the backside of the desert for 40 years!  He had actually murdered a man the last time he was in Egypt.  He had never led anything other than a flock of sheep!  This thing was way larger than anything he had ever participated in.

And so finally he asks God in Exodus 4:1 something like, “OK God, what if these people don’t believe me.  After all, this whole burning bush thing is over the top…but I left my Iphone back at the house and cannot put this experience on instagram so that the people will see how incredible it is.  They are not going to believe me!”

The Lord simply replied in Exodus 4:2, “…what is that in your hand?”

Moses told him it was a staff (like God didn’t know) and then God proceeded to use the staff that Moses had in his hand to bring about an incredible miracle (you can read this for yourself in Exodus 4:1-8!)

The object of the miracle wasn’t something that Moses had to go out and find…he already had it in his hand.  (Just like in John 2 where Jesus turned the water into wine the water jars that were used in the miraculous transformation were already in the house!!!)

And then just the other day I saw this Scripture in Exodus 23:15, “…no one is to appear before me empty handed.”

Why in the world would God command people to not appear before Him empty handed if they needed something else with which to worship Him more effectively?

What I’m saying is that you already have in your hand what you need to take your next step in your walk with Christ.

Some are saying, “I don’t see how He can use what I feel like I have.”

I promise you…He can.

• Do you have confusion?  He can use it to clarify truth about Himself and cause you to love Him more deeply.
• Do you have a shady past?  He can use it to reach others who are currently in the same situation but feel as if there is no way they could ever get free of what they struggle with.
• Do you have pain?  He can take pain and turn it into progress; in fact, He is the only one I know who can!
• Do you have just a few dollars to your name?  He can take just a little and turn it into a whole bunch (remember the loaves and fish.)
• Do you have bitterness towards someone?  He can take it, heal it and then use your situation to tell others that they can be free from the prison that unforgiveness puts us in.
• Do you have a special talent or ability?  He can use it…and He knows how it needs to be used best because He loved you enough to give it to you in the first place.

He has blessed us all with the ability to do way more than we ever thought or imagined we could accomplish, but that process begins today, with what we have and with who we are.  We just need to stop asking Him for the next best thing and start thanking Him for what we have in our hands!  (AND…if we don’t know what it is that we have, then we should ask!  James 1:5)

And yet every leader I know (including the guy I shaved with this morning) deals with fear.  As I’ve traced my own journey through fear in leadership I wanted to share 10 things fear causes in our lives.

(When I speak of fear in this post I am speaking of fear of man – see Proverbs 29:25 – and irrational fear.)

#1 – Fear causes us to reduce the size of God and elevate the size and opinion of man.

#2 – Fear causes us to lead people in the wrong direction.  (Remember when the Israelites wanted to GO BACK TO EGYPT and being slaves because they feared going into the land that God had promised them?)

#3 – Fear causes us to stay quiet when we should clearly speak up.  (Mostly because many times we are OBSESSED with what others think about us, see Galatians 1:10)

#4 – Fear causes us to be passive about an issue that the Lord has clearly brought to our attention.  (As Edmund Burke once said:  ”The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.”)

#5 – Fear causes us to seek consensus rather than really seeking the voice of the Lord.

#6 – Fear causes us to not engage the broken, the hurting, the misfits and the neglected because if we include them in our lives and actually invite them into our homes then it could get messy.  (I’m so glad Jesus didn’t have that attitude…if He would have then I would have been screwed!)

#7 – Fear causes us to refuse to embrace change because we care way more about being comfortable than being conformed into the image of Christ.

#8 – Fear causes us to control things and take matters into our own hands rather than trusting the Lord and trusting others.  (People who are control freaks really do fear when things don’t go their way!  BUT…remember, control is the biggest illusion in the world, I wrote about that here.)

#9 – Fear causes us to conceal sin and shame in our lives when God’s Word is so clear that we should ask others for help – James 5:16

#10 – Fear causes us to seek the easy decision rather than seeking the right one.

We were driving home from church a couple of months ago and I asked her this question, “Charisse, did you know that your daddy loves you?”

“Yes sir,” she replied.

“Well, do you know why I love you,” I asked.

“Because I’m your little girl,” she answered.

THEN I asked the BIG Question:

“Do you think daddy could ever stop loving you?”

“No sir,” she said.

“And why not,” I asked.

“Because I’m your little girl and I will always be your little girl!”

I smiled and thought, SHE’S GOT IT…she knows that my love for her is NOT based on her performance but rather her position as my daughter.  Even though she will break some rules in the future and do some things that I am quite sure will grieve my heart…she will always be loved by me because she is mine.

I’ve told her on numerous occasions, “You can’t make me not love you!”

It’s funny though…even though I know this when it comes to me and my relationship with Charisse I sometimes struggle with it when it comes to my relationship with God.  If I am not careful I will naturally drift into a performance mentality, actually believing He loves me because of how much time I spent reading my Bible, how many people responded to the sermon I preached or how well I fought the urge to sin…

And then during the times when I mess up, when I have a bad attitude, when I entertain a lustful thought…I begin the focus on who I am and think, “there’s no way He loves me, heck, I don’t even love me right now!”

But, what’s true about me and my daughter is true of me and my relationship with God (AND you too if you belong to Him!)  That His love for us is not based on our performance but rather our position as His child.

The Apostle Paul said it best in Romans 8:38-39 where He said that NOTHING can separate us from God’s love!  NOTHING!  (And…if you will read those verses it’s a pretty extensive list!)

I believe it is essential for every believer in Christ to get this…because I am convinced that our lives would look so much different if we lived them out in the confidence that He loves us rather than the false idea that we’re somehow trying to earn His love.

God’s love is based on position, not performance…just felt like someone needed to hear that today.

“Covering laziness in prayer is not a spiritual discipline.”

It was retweeted several times; however, there were also a few people who said that the statement was confusing and asked for an explanation.  So here goes…

I believe that many people in the Body of Christ use prayer as an excuse for inactivity and laziness.

Yes, I am ALL ABOUT PRAYER!  I’ve seen Jesus do things through the power of prayer that would make a Methodist shout.

However, there are some things that we simply cannot “cover in prayer” and hope they will get better.  Nope, we’ve got to take action!!!  Things such as…

If you need to lose weight you are not going to “pray the pounds away!”  It’s just not going to happen!!!  You are going to have to get your butt up off of the couch and exercise.  You are going to have to stop slamming cookies in your mouth.  You are going to have to stop drinking 10 sodas a day!  You can pray all you want…but if you do not put action with your prayer it’s NOT going to help!

If your marriage is in trouble and is on edge then you are not going to “pray it back into a great place.”  You are going to have to start paying attention to your wife…and turn the freakin TV off.  You are going to have to pursue her…and NOT just when you want something from her.  You are going to have to stop being a jerk.  And ladies, you are going to have to stop gossipping about your husband to your friends.  You are going to have to stop telling your children their father is a loser.

If you want your kids to admire and respect you it’s not going to happen through “just praying about it.”  You are going to have to spend time with them.  You are going to have to talk with them, even the awkward subjects.  You are going to have to admit your sins and shortcomings to them and ask for their forgiveness.  You are going to have to STOP trying to be their friend and actually be the parent!

If you are broke then you are not going to just “pray money into your bank account.”  You are going to have to put God first in your finances.  You are going to have to STOP spending money you don’t have to buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t like.  You are going to have to get on a budget and live within your means.

If you are struggling with a particular sin that is kicking your rear end you aren’t going to “pray it out of your life!”  (By the way, many of you have tried that, I just wanted to ask, “how’s that going for you?”)  Nope…you are going to need to do what James 5:16 says and confess it, OUT LOUD, to another human being who is stronger than you spiritually and that can help you fight through this issue!

If you are a church leader and there is a situation that is dominating you and your ministry, you’ve got to do something about it!!!  David didn’t just pray and pray and God, through his prayer times, took Goliath out!  Nope, David picked up five rocks, walked down into the valley and handled business.  You cannot be passive about an issue and believe that “through prayer” God will just take it away.  If you are a leader and God brings an issue to your attention…He most likely did so because He expects you to take ACTION!

I could go on, but you get the point.  Prayer is essential!  Prayer is necessary!  Prayer is commanded!  Prayer is a powerful weapon which we should make more use of in the church; however, God did not just call us to PRAY about His will but also to PARTICIPATE in it. And too many times Christians are willing to pray about things and think we’ve done our part…and then get angry at God because He did not do something amazing to compensate for our laziness and passivity.

Don’t just pray to God…but participate with God as He moves!

Let this be the year that we don’t just pray big prayers…but we take bold steps and believe that as we pray and participate we will see God do amazing things!

GOD IS NOT THROUGH WITH YOU!!!

For weeks, months, maybe even years you have bought into the lie that “it’s over” when it comes to you doing something great for God; after all, you did (fill in the blank)…and because of that there is no way He could ever use you.

Let me be very clear and to the point:  If God were done with you then He would have killed you…but the very fact that you have air in your lungs right now means that HE IS NOT THROUGH WITH YOU!

“But Perry, I screwed up,” you say!

Of course you did!  We all do…which is NOT an excuse to go out and screw up your life, but rather a reminder that in the Bible the ONLY people God used were people who had screwed up.

• David committed adultery AND murder (talk about a guy you don’t want to invite over for dinner!  Seriously, David would not have been allowed to serve and most likely attend a lot of churches!)  HOWEVER, David repented of his sin (see Psalm 51) and today we know him as “a man after God’s own heart!”
• Moses killed a man…and God used him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to the border of the Promised Land.
• Paul was a murderer…and God used him to write most of the New Testament.
• Peter denied Christ and chose to walk away from Him…and God used him to preach on the Day of Pentecost where 3,000 people accepted Christ in one day!

I could go on and on, but you get the point…your past does not disqualify you from an amazing future if you are in Christ!!!

God’s not through with you…and…as I so often say, if you don’t let your past die then it will not let you live and one of the consequences of that is you will allow the enemy to talk you out of the amazing things God has planned for you.

When we repent of sin (which is the most powerful thing we can do in our walk with Christ) we become unstoppable.  And so, if you screwed up…and if you have repented of sin…then STOP believing the lie that there’s no way God could use you!  Take a look at I Corinthians 6:9-11!!!

God’s not through with you!  GET UP…GET ON YOUR FEET…and do whatever He tells you to do!

I can’t do the impossible…He Can!

I can’t turn a bad situation into something amazing…He Can!

I can’t bring dead things back to life…He Can!

I can’t guarantee how things will turn out…He Can!

I can’t heal your hurts…He Can!

I can’t see the big picture all at once…He Can!

I can’t take something broken and turn it into something beautiful…He Can!

I can’t fill your heart with joy…He Can!

I can’t tell you what your purpose is on this planet…He Can!

I’m so thankful that HE CAN trumps I CAN’T in anything that comes my way!

It was one of the most divine slaps in the face I had ever received; in fact, I’m still recovering from it, let me explain…

A little over a month ago I was with a group of about ten people or so in a restaurant where we had gathered to celebrate and reflect on the end of a pretty intense season of ministry we had just completed.  We had seen God do some amazing things and had more than enough reasons to be excited about the evening.

We got our menus, spoke with each other about the options in front of us and then chatted about what we preferred and then placed our order with the waiter.

After the waiter was gone I pulled out my cell phone.  Please understand, no one had texted me.  No one had called me.  I did not have any voice messages from earlier in the day.  Why did I pull out my cell phone then?  Simple…I needed to check Twitter.

As I did this something told me to stop and listen…and when I did I heard no conversations taking place at the table.  No laughing.  No celebration.  No recalling what the Lord had done.  Then I looked up and discovered why…

EVERY SINGLE PERSON AT THE TABLE WAS LOOKING DOWN AT THEIR CELL PHONE!

Doing what, I have no idea…probably twitter, facebook or whatever…but what stood out to me in a very convicting way was that ALL of us were neglecting being connected with the people who were right in front of us and were engaging in something else that, for some reason we all considered to be more important.

I was convicted!  BIG TIME!  Here I was with a group of friends that I should be enjoying life with and instead I was obsessed with an online perception that I somehow felt was more important than the relationships that were right in front of me.

Thought began to flood my mind of other times I had done the same…

• The times I had been on the couch with Lucretia, and instead of engaging her in conversation I am seeing how many people retweeted me.
• The times that Charisse had been trying to get my attention and instead I was trying to see how many “likes” that NewSpring’s facebook page had.
• The times that I had been in a room FULL of people and opportunities to engage in conversations that mattered, but instead I was more obsessed with clearing another level of Angry Birds.

Like I said, it was a divine slap in the face and I realized that I was neglecting real community, real people who were right in front of me and instead engaging in relationships online that were superficial at best and achieving “high scores” on games that had absolutely zero significant value.

Honestly, if I found out today that I had 30 days to live my obsessions would not become how many twitter followers I could gain, how many times I could dominate “words with friends” or even having to check who had written on my facebook wall in the past 15 minutes.  It would be people, REAL people and REAL relationships that would be important to me.

Please do not misunderstand this!  I am NOT the anti-social media guy!  I love keeping up with people via the world wide web.  I love playing a game or two on occasion.  I love the fact that I know a lot about my friends all over the world because they update their lives via social media.

However, I finally came to realize that I had personally allowed social media to become an obsession that was distracting me from what was really important rather than a tool that I could make use of.  I had allowed it to steal time away from my family and my friends…and call it what you will, but I had to call it sin.

What am I doing about it?

FIGHTING through it!  I believe social media CAN be as addicting as alcohol, drugs or gambling.  It meets a perceived need of inclusion, acceptance and friendship (you DO understand that most of your facebook friends are not actually your friends don’t you?)

• I’m having to FIGHT to make the decision that at dinner time the cell phone does not come with me to the dinner table.  That is my time with my family…and any “emergency” will just have to wait!
• I’m having to FIGHT through the “need” to check up on twitter when I am in a group of people with whom the Lord has put me in a live, active relationship with.
• I’m having to FIGHT to not play games on my phone or Ipad when I’m in a room full of people with whom I need to be paying attention to.
• I’m having to FIGHT to not be engaged with an online audience at night when opportunities to engage with my wife and daughter are way more important and way more fruitful in the long run.
• I’m having to FIGHT to not take my phone with me into important meetings and carry on texting conversations that cause me to disconnect from what I should be paying attention to!

It’s a fight…and just something I’m learning and wrestling with.  I will still be blogging, still be tweeting…but for me it’s going to have to be put in it’s proper place.  Because…I’ve also seen that an addiction to social media can take our eyes off of Jesus and put them on people, thus causing us to cave into the fear of man and completely forget that we are called to fear God.

And…many times we can’t even obey what the Lord says in Psalm 46:10 because we are so dang connected!!!  We can’t respond to the voice of God because we’ve been trained like Pavlov’s dog that when we hear “the tuning fork” (aka. notification from our phone that we have a text/email) that we feel the need to immediately respond, thus ignoring what is right in front of us.

One more time let me say it again–I’m NOT against social media, smart phones, games and such…but they should be used wisely and be a tool in our hands rather than the obsession of our day that we just can’t seem to do without.

#2 – Intellectual – We’re called to worship the Lord with our minds by renewing it and fixing it on Him. (Colossians 3:1-2)

#3 – Emotional- Worship is overwhelming when we realize how deeply we were entrenched in sin, how helpless we were and how incredible it is that Jesus would rescue us.  (The reality of Romans 5:8 BLOWS ME AWAY!)

#4 – Intentional- No one accidentally follows Christ…if we are going to worship Him, it will be done purposefully!

#5 – Relational – Worship impacts every relationship we have, it is impossible to be a fully devoted worshipper of Christ and be a jerk to your wife or try as often as possible to take advantage of the opposite sex.

#6 – Financial – Until following Christ has impacted our finances in a sacrificial way we are not followers of Christ.  Would you like to see the primary object of your worship…look at your checkbook!

#7 – Unconditional – (and NOT situational!)  Worship is consistent, 24/7, not just when I feel good or God is giving me all that I want.  If we worship only when things are good, we do not worship God…we worship a genie!

We eat there at least two or three times a week (not kidding…we’ve actually pushed that number up to 6-7 a few times.)

The food is ALWAYS good, they get the order right nearly every time and their customer service is second to none.  It is always clean and no matter how long the line seems to be people are always served as quickly and efficiently as possible.

So, imagine my surprise when my wife came home the other day and, as we were catching each other up on the things that had taken place while we had been apart all morning and afternoon she told me about a bad experience she had at Chick-Fil-A.

I was immediately frustrated!  (Any husband would be!)  AND…before I knew it I had literally told myself in my mind, “Well, if that’s the way things are going to be then I guess we just won’t be going to Chick-Fil-A anymore, they’ve lost my business.”

TIME OUT!!!  How stupid was THAT thought?  Seriously, let’s review…

• #1 – They ALWAYS deliver great food!
• #2 – They ALWAYS have friendly people!
• #3 – They ALWAYS have a clean environment!
• #4 – What my wife had experienced was not in line with what normally happens.

(AND…I want to be completely fair to Lucretia, she was NOT saying she would not go back, nor was she angry…she was just telling me about her day and I am the one who became irrational!)  :-)

I lost my mind!  I was literally going to allow one bad experience with one employee ruin a reputation of excellence that had been consistent for years!  (AND…no one knows what was going on in that employees life…she could have had one of the worst days of her life and was trying her best to just hold it together until she could clock out!)

Before you agree with me too quickly…I think there are people who have done the same thing to the church!

It has become quite popular, even in some “Christian” circles, to bash the church for all of the dumb things that she has done.

I have met people since being in ministry for over 20 years that have the same attitude with the church that I almost had with Chick-Fil-A!  They will attend, serve, be devoted to a local church for months or even years…and then, all of a sudden…

• Someone didn’t call them when they were out for two weeks.
• Someone said something hurtful to or about them.
• They didn’t like what the preacher said.
• They didn’t like what the youth group was doing.

I could go on and on…but you get the point.  There are times when people will allow one thing in the church to trump the decades of ministry and impact that have taken place through that body of believers, and that’s a bit insane.

• Yes, if you stay in a church long enough I promise you that you will see hypocrisy.
• Someone will say something to you or about you that will hurt you.
• Decisions will be made that you do not like.
• There are going to be sermons that make you mad.

When that happens the enemy is going to try his best to convince you to just walk away…because he knows that the first step away from God is usually getting people to step away from the people of God.

Yes, the church, EVERY church, has made some unwise decisions and, in the process have hurt or disappointed people along the way…but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater…

• She’s STILL being built by Jesus–that makes her important!
• She’s STILL reaching out to the broken, the forgotten and the poor.
• She’s STILL making a difference that’s going to be seen for eternity.
• She’s STILL GOD’S PLAN for reaching the world.
• She’s STILL necessary for believers!  (If church is not necessary then why did Jesus say He would build it, died for it, will one day redeem it and spends so much time in the NT talking to it and about it?”

No, the church is NOT perfect…but neither are you (or me!)  So, when we’re tempted to walk away because of the one thing that seems to hurt us or trip us up we should simply ask, “is this consistant with this churches character?”

Stay in a church long enough and you will have a bad experience…but let that push you closer to Jesus as you recognize that HE uses imperfect people in His plan, which means sometimes they get it wrong, and then beg the Lord to teach both them and yourself how to best deal with the situation…because, she’s STILL the church and STILL His bride.

Now…anyone want to go to Chick-Fil-A with me?  :-)