Built to Last

The rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock (Matthew 7:25).

How do you feel when a brand new purchase breaks immediately upon using it?  It wasn’t built to last!  Greg Asimakoupoulos writes about some homes that were built to last:

On October 19, 2010, a test was conducted at the Institute for Business and Home Safety in Richburg, South Carolina. Researchers constructed two 1,300-square-foot houses inside a $40 million laboratory and then observed how a simulated hurricane would impact the homes.  The first home was built according to conventional standards. The second home included reinforcement straps that connected every level of the building, from the foundation all the way to the roof. Then the researchers turned on giant fans, creating gusts of wind up to 110 miles per hour (equal to a category 3 hurricane). In the first two experiments, which lasted under ten minutes, both homes survived the intense winds. But when they tried a third experiment, turning on the fans for more than ten minutes, the conventional home began to shake and then collapsed. In contrast, the home with the floors and roof reinforced to the foundation sustained only cosmetic damage.

Are you built to last?  Jesus calls upon us to build our lives on the firm foundation of His life.  Will you base your life on obedience to His Word?  The storms will come, but they will leave you untouched and undamaged.

One Thing

This one thing I do . . . (Phil. 3:13).

How are you at multitasking?  Can you do many things well at the same time?  A Stanford News Service article focused on the price many are paying in the area of focus when they involve themselves in so many activities at the same time.  The article entitled, “Media Multitaskers Pay Mental Price,” chronicles how many multitaskers are suffering from impaired performance.  They are losing their ability to focus as their cognitive abilities become overloaded.  The article begins, “Attention, multitaskers (if you can pay attention, that is): Your brain may be in trouble.”   The article continues:

 The researchers originally set out to discover what gave multitaskers their special focus; instead, they were surprised to discover that in many ways multitasking impairs performance. So while many people think they're effective at juggling multiple tasks, they're actually pretty lousy at it.  For instance, heavy multitaskers are suckers for distraction and for irrelevancy. According to one of the researchers, "Everything distracts them." Multitaskers were also more unorganized in their ability to keep and retrieve information. They were even worse at the main thing that defines multitasking: switching from one task to the next. Heavy multitaskers underperformed in almost every area of the study.

 

Paul knew the power of focus, of doing one thing well.  He knew that by doing less, one can do more.  Are you losing your focus by trying to do too much?  Why not simplify?

Mountain Mover

Not lagging in diligence (Romans 12:11, NKJV).

What would you do with an insurmountable obstacle?  A man from India did what he could with what he had.  Van Morris writes,

When a mountain is in your way what do you do? Just ask Ramchandra Das, 53, who lives in Bihar, India. In order to access nearby fields for food and work, Das and his fellow villagers had to take a 4.3-mile trek around a mountain. Fed up with the obstacle, Das did something about it. With just a hammer and chisel, he cut a 33-foot-long, 13-foot-wide tunnel through a narrow area of the mountain. It took Das fourteen years to complete the task. 

Would you stay at a task for fourteen years?  Das did what he could with what he had.  His perseverance has not only benefitted his family, it has benefitted the villagers, as well. This mountain mover sweat, chiseled, and dug for others for almost a decade and half.  Will we be diligent for others?

Take Ownership

He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy (Proverbs 28:13, NKJV).

Have you ever owned up to a mistake?  Did you find that to be a pleasurable experience?  Probably not.  Adi Ignatius writes about how Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, took responsibility for the corporate mismanagement of the coffee chain during the years 2001-2008.  He actually assumed responsibility for company decisions made prior to his return to corporate leadership.  Such humility and honesty made his confession even more powerful.  Ignatius quotes Schultz:

When I returned in January 2008, things were actually worse than I'd thought. The decisions we made were very difficult, but first there had to be a time when we stood up in front of the entire company as leaders and made almost a confession—that the leadership had failed the 180,000 Starbucks people and their families. And even though I wasn't the CEO…I should have known better. I am responsible. We had to admit to ourselves and to the people of this company that we owned the mistakes that were made. Once we did, it was a powerful turning point. It's like when you have a secret and get it out: The burden is off your shoulders.

Scripture still offers the best response to our failures and mistakes: take ownership.  God receives our confession, removes our sin, and releases His grace into our lives.  Make confession and move on.  The enemy will try to get you to stop and stay as he maximizes your failure and minimizes God’s grace.  Don’t do it.  “The burden is off your shoulders.”  Take ownership and take off! 

Beta-Believers

Grace to you . . .  (Eph. 1:2, NKJV) 

Have you experienced God’s grace?  Are you expressing God’s grace?  Experience should lead to expression.  Author Craig Brian Larson writes about a new website phenomenon called “beta” site.  It illustrates how we should extend and expect grace from other believers.

When a new website launches, or when a website launches a new feature, they commonly go public for a period of time as what is called a "beta" site. For example, Google for years called their email feature—Gmail—a beta site. The idea of a beta site is it's a test site that is available for the public to use, but with the understanding that you may find bugs in it. The site is not making any claims to have everything worked out to perfection. If you find a problem with a beta site, you think to yourself, “Oh yeah! This is a beta site. Maybe I should send the designers an email so they know they still have a problem here.” If you are a mature person, you don't get angry with a beta site if you find a broken webpage. A beta site is a "grace-expected" web site. The site is counting on you to give them grace.

Likewise, we are “Beta-believers.”  We are a work in progress.  Shouldn’t we extend grace to each other?  Can we refuse to give what God has lavished upon us?  Grace to you!  Grace through you!   

Consider the Cross

And He, bearing His cross . . .  (John 19:17, NKJV) 

Van Morris writes about the tragic event in 2008 at the famous Taj Mahal Palace in India and how it illustrates for us a certain aspect of Christ’s death on the cross for us:

On November 26, 2008, a gang of terrorists stormed the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai, India. After the carnage had left 200 people dead, a reporter interviewed a guest who had been at the hotel for dinner that night. The guest described how he and his friends were eating dinner when they heard gunshots. Someone grabbed him and pulled him under the table. The assassins came striding through the restaurant, shooting at will, until everyone (or so they thought) had been killed. Miraculously, this man survived. When the interviewer asked the guest how he lived when everyone else at his table had been killed, he replied, "I suppose because I was covered in someone else's blood, and they took me for dead."

Are you covered in Someone Else’s blood, in the blood of the Lamb?  John exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).  The only way the Lamb of God could take away your sin would be to die—as your sacrifice on the cross!  Does the cross move you to worship?  Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, once wrote: “Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple drops by which you have been cleansed: See the thorn-crown; mark His scourged shoulders, still gushing with [an] encrimsoned [flow]. . . .  And if you do not [fall] prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it.”  When you find yourself chilled by discouragement and doubt, consider the cross.  When anxiety threatens to choke your faith, consider the cross.  When numbing indifference creeps over your soul, consider the cross.  Jesus didn’t just bear His cross; He bore His cross for you.  You’re really alive because of Someone Else’s blood.    

The Blesser of All Blessings

“Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon. . .” (Matthew 16:17, NKJV).


Our Lord pronounces a blessing on Simon Peter because of his spiritual insight into the work of the Father through His Son. This blessing is really paradigmatic, for all blessing comes through Christ. While His blessings fall on the just and the unjust, there are special blessings targeted for His own. These blessings gravitate to the believer on a regular basis.

The word for “blessing” in the original language of our text is “makarios.” This word is rich with meaning. Haddon Robinson, in his book, What Jesus Said About Successful Living, offers insight into the origin of the word makarios:

In secular Greek the island of Cyprus was called the makarios isle, the blest isle. The idea was that those who lived on Cyprus never had to leave its shores in order to have all they needed to be content. They had natural resources and minerals. They had a beautiful place to live, with fruit and flowers. The island was self-contained. No one had to search for the needs and wants of life. . . . When we are blessed by God, we are in a sense self-contained; that is, our happiness does not come from circumstances, or by accidents, or through diligent searches. It comes because we stand approved before the Creator of the universe. . . . To be blessed means to sense the joy, or happiness, that comes from knowing that we stand approved before God (Robinson, Successful Living, 28).

Likewise, the Christian experiences no blessing apart from Jesus Christ, who is a kind of island unto Himself. He is the “Makarios Isle.” You’re a citizen of His King-dom[inion]. Every blessing that Jesus possesses can become yours. Are you experiencing His blessings? Are you expressing His blessings? All you need for contentment and satisfaction can be found in Christ: “For all of the promises of God are in Him [Jesus] ‘Yes’, and through Him ‘Amen,’ to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1.20).

Reluctant Prophet Series: Jonah and Jesus on Mission with God.

Sermon on Matthew 12:38-41 [Play] [Download]

Reluctant Prophet Series: Mission Accomplished.

Sermon on Jonah 4:1-11 [Play] [Download]

Reluctant Prophet Series: Running with the Word.

Sermon on Jonah 3:1-10 [Play] [Download]

Reluctant Prophet Series: Thinking Outside the Fish.

Sermon on Jonah 2:1-10 [Play] [Download]

Reluctant Prophet Series: On Mission with God.

Sermon from Jonah 1:1-17 [Play] [Download]

The Brightest One of All

[Jesus] had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength (Rev. 1:16, NKJV).


Craig Larson writes about the newest discovery from astrophysicists–the brightest star ever found in the universe:

In July 2010, Paul Crowther, professor of astrophysics from the University of Sheffield's Department of Physics and Astronomy, announced that he and his research team had discovered a star they described as the brightest star ever found in the universe. Not even a welder's helmet would help you face the light from this giant. The mass of the star is roughly 265 times that of our sun. But that's nothing. The brightness of this star is some 10 million times greater than the light coming from our sun!

Can you imagine a star that bright? Yet, the brightest star imaginable pales in comparison with the glory that Jesus possesses. He is the brightest Star in the firmament. John beheld a small portion of His glory and that was enough to overwhelm him and cause him to fear for his life. Do you acknowledge His glory? You should. One day we will behold Him in all of His glory (1 Pet. 4.13). We will glory in His glory!