Truthworks

“…among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil.2:15).

The prophet Daniel wrote, “the people who know their God shall prove themselves strong and shall stand firm and do great exploits; they shall prevail valiantly” (Dan.11:32). The backdrop for this splendid display of moral courage and social action was a time when deceit and flattery from political leaders had seduced the mindless masses into settling for a meaningless existence.

That’s when the people of God shine the brightest – “blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil.2:15).

Is it possible, my friend, that God is summoning you out of the comfort of a convenient life into a contest for truth and justice; an epic battle against the encroaching powers of darkness, which are stalking our homes, our schools, our courts, our market places, and our churches? Is it possible that you’re the one who can stop the plague?

All it takes is the right man at the right time.

Arthur Hugh Clough said it best in his little poem — “Say not, ‘The struggle naught availeth; the labor and the toils are vain. The enemy shrinks not, nor faileth. As things have been, so they remain.’ For if hopes be dupes, then fears be liars. It may be even now, your comrades in yon smoke concealed, chase the fliers – and, but for you, possess the field.”

Your part matters far more than perhaps you may even realize; for you could be the voice that turns the battle, the life that makes the difference, that light that shines brightest in the darkest hour.

“And because iniquity will abound, the love of many will become cold.” (Matthew 24:12).

Jesus foretold of a coming day of great darkness; a time when evil would be so prevalent that it would cause many to harden their hearts and grow cold and distant in their affection for others. I’m not saying that Day has come, but we certainly are living in Times that try men’s souls.

There is an undeniable increase of wickedness in all quarters — political, industrial, religious, educational, and so on. There is scarce a place to be found that is not in some measure polluted with the infectious presence of selfishness and sin.

So what are we to do? Should we buy a farm in the Rocky highlands, and stockpile our cellars with Bibles, beans and bullets? No. Rather, we should let our light so shine before men that they see our good works and glorify our Father, who is in heaven. When evil increases — we must DO GOOD.

Listen to Paul’s advice, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” he says; and then to make sure we got it, he adds, “and again I say, Rejoice.” Joy is a powerful antibiotic to the creeping spread of hopelessness caused by rampant sin.

Paul goes on to say, “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” In other words, conduct yourself in a balanced manner, being unextreme in the things you are about.

“Be careful for nothing,” Paul then writes, “but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

A man or woman who is filled with peace and marked by joy, can single-handedly do much to stem the rising tides of evil within the sphere of their influence. How then can you and I become such a person? Paul answers that question with his concluding words –

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” ((Philippians 4:4-8).

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. These are the thoughts that fuel the flame in a heart that never grows cold. When evil increases — DO GOOD!

“One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Have you ever seen those Tractor Pull competitions on ESPN? The further the tractor moves down the track, the heavier the weight becomes on the rig that is dragging behind it.

There are a lot of people whose lives are like that. Holding on to stuff in their past, or letting stuff in their past hold on to them — the further they go, the more bogged down they become. Until, at length, they can go no further.

But we were made for eternity. This means, among a million other things, that TIME and SPACE cannot confine us, and therefore do not define us.

You are not a WHAT — but a WHO. Whatever has happened to you in the past, whether good or bad, is not WHO you are. It is merely WHAT happened to you. Who you are is determined by how you respond to what has happened.

And herein we discover the power of a forward view. “Forgetting those things that are behind,” Paul wrote, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

We can follow Paul’s example. It doesn’t mean that we are experts, or that we have arrived and have it all together. But, while we may not be all we should be, we have still got our eye on the goal and are focusing all our energies on this one thing: to be like Jesus. It is our one aspiration.

And so we lengthen our stride and stretch forth our hands, doing our best to reach everything that God has provided for us up ahead. We keep working toward that day when we will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved us for, and wants us to be.

Join us in this ageless cause — and together we will MOVE FORWARD!

“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” (Psalm 5:3)

You know the routine — it happens every morning. First, you wake up. Next, you get up. Why not go ahead and finish the process and LOOK UP. That’s the best way to begin a day. Especially if things around you are on a downward spiral. You can look up when things are going down. Furthermore, you must.

It is a proven fact that a person will head in the direction they are looking. This is literally true, as well as figuratively true. Stop and consider for a moment what it is you spend most of your time “looking” at. Your eyes see it, your mind thinks it, your imagination dwells upon it, your soul desires it — and eventually you do it.

Why not give this pattern a chance to work in ways that matter most?

Look up unto to the Lord in the morning, while your mind is poised and your energies are fresh. Look up, and move up. See what He is saying to you, and then see yourself doing what He wants you to do. If you will cultivate this simple practice, this spiritual discipline, you will find yourself doing what the Lord wants you to do.

On the other hand, if you look down and see yourself defeated and depressed — then you will surely spend your day in a pit of despair. Look down; and you will go down. Look up; and you will go UP.

The Bible says, “They looked to Him and were radiant; their faces were not ashamed!” (Psalm 34:5). Isaiah put it this way, “Lift up your eyes all around…….then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy” (Isa.60:4,5).

One of the most beloved lyrics of all time says it simply the best — “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” (Helen H. Lemmel, 1922)

My friend, look up. When everything around you seems to be going down — look up. If you will look up — the Lord will lift you up. So LOOK UP.

I’ll see you at the top!

“For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men…Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.” (Job 33:14-17)

Augustine of Hippo (354-430AD) stands out in history as one of the preeminent theologians of the Christian Faith.  He has been called “the greatest genius among the Latin fathers,” and his writings have widespread acclaim throughout Christendom. 

While we thank God for such a man, we must be quick to add a special blessing for the man’s mother.  Had it not been for her faith in the Lord’s word, a faith that was most wonderfully enkindled through a dream, history might have seen an altogether different man than the Augustine who followed Jesus.  For, before the dream came to his mother concerning his conversion, Augustine was in all manners a most calcified sinner.

 In The Confessions, Augustine writes of the memorable dream given to his mother.  “For whence was that dream with which Thou consoledst her, so that she permitted me to live with her, and to have my meals at the same table in the house, which she had begun to avoid, hating and detesting the blasphemies of my error?”

In the dream she saw herself standing upon a ruler, which signified the rule of faith. An angel approached her and asked a reason for her sorrow, and she answered that it was the perdition of her son that she was lamenting.  The angel then assured her in the dream, saying that where she was, there also would her son be (i.e., upon the rule of faith).  The encouragement and hope which the dream gave her was unshakable.

Augustine wrote, “When she had narrated this vision to me, and I tried to put this construction on it, ‘That she rather should not despair of being some day what I was,’ she immediately replied, ‘No; for it was not told me that where he is, there thou should be, but where thou art, there he shall be.’”

Upon hearing her reply Augustine later admitted to God, “I confess to Thee, O Lord, that, to the best of my remembrance (and I have oft spoken of this), Thy answer through my watchful mother — that she was not disquieted by the spaciousness of my false interpretation, and saw in a moment what was to be seen, and which I myself had not in truth perceived before she spake –even then moved me more than the dream itself.”

Augustine blessed God for the dream, its interpretation and its fruit in his conversion to Christ.  “Thou sendest Thine hand from above, and drewest my soul out of that profound darkness, when my mother, Thy faithful one, wept to Thee on by behalf more than mothers are wont to weep the bodily deaths of their children.  For she saw that I was dead by that faith and spirit which she had from Thee, and Thou heardest her, O Lord.”

Who was it that dreamed you into the arms of Jesus?

“Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.” (1Co 7:20)

Saint Patrick’s of Ireland lived from (389-461AD. Much of what we know of him comes from The Confessions of Saint Patrick, wherein he relates several testimonies of God’s miraculous care in the life of a young boy who had been captured by Irish pirates and carried away from Britain to live as a slave in Ireland.  His captivity lasted a full six years and ended when God spoke to Patrick in a dream.

“One night I heard a voice say to me in a dream, ‘You have been right to fast because you will soon return to your country; Look, your ship is ready.’  Being a full two hundred miles from shore Patrick wasn’t sure what to make of the dream.  But, moved by it he took to flight and, as he tells it, “I came in the power of God who was guiding my way for a good purpose and I had no fear all the time until I reached the ship.”

Through God’s intervention, which Patrick dramatically explains, he boards the ship and that night hears yet another message from the Lord.  “You will be with them [on board the ship] for two months.”  It happened as the Lord said, even to the exact day.

Patrick returned home to much rejoicing. His parents, who had grieved much over his loss, entreated him to swear that he would never leave them again.  Patrick writes, “It was there that I saw in a vision of the night a man coming apparently from Ireland whose name was Victoricus, with an uncountable number of letters, and he gave me one of them and I read the heading of the letter which ran, ‘The Cry of the Irish.’

“While I was reading aloud the heading of the letter I was imagining that at that very moment I heard the voice of those who were by the Wood of Volcut which is near the Western sea, and this is what they cried, as with one voice, ‘Holy boy, we are asking you to come and walk among us again.’  I was struck deeply to the heart and I was not able to read any further and at that I woke up. God be thanked,” Patrick concluded, “that after several years the Lord granted them according to their cry.”

There are several other accounts given by Patrick of the Lord visiting him in dreams and visions.  He stands out as one of the more fluent dreamers in church history. 

Patrick closes his Confessions with an unapologetic declaration:  “Let anyone laugh and revile me who wants to.  I will not keep silence nor will I conceal the signs and wonders which have been shown me by the Lord many years before they took place, for He it is who knows everything even before times eternal.”

The point I wish to make here is simple and direct– never underestimate the power of God to call you and use you for His purposes in this world. Abide in that calling and watch with wonder as God blesses the labors of your life!

“Share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.”  (Hebrews 13:16, The Message)

Recently Belinda and I were in Sugarland, Texas, visiting dear friends and ministering in their home with a gathering of lovely people. Our time was rich and delightful, and filled with a real sense of God’s presence.

Once our visit ended and we arrived at the airport to check our bags and fly home, we walked into a divine appointment. The timing of this was clearly orchestrated by the Lord.

We unloaded our bags for a curbside check-in, and we’re happy that our bags got to fly for free. There was no glitch whatsoever, as we received our boarding passes and turned to head for the gate inside the airport.

At that moment a lady seated on a bench next to the outside baggage counter burst into tears. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably.

“Honey,” I said to Belinda, “sit with this lady and I’m going to find out what’s going on.”

I turned back to the counter agent and asked, “What’s happening here?”

“She showed up for her flight to LA, but the ticket has not been paid for; and she doesn’t have enough to cover the cost.”

“I’ll pay for her ticket,” I said.

The agent was astounded, as were the curbside bag handlers. The weeping lady was floored. It turns out she is a single mom with a 19 month old baby. She was in Texas for the weekend on a job possibility, and was told that her  return ticket had been paid for by the guy who had flown her to Texas. It was not the truth.

You can only imagine the horror that struck her heart when she realized she was stranded at the airport with no options of leaving, and her babysitter would not be able to extend her services for the baby. The mother was terrified and hopeless.

As Belinda sat with the lady and I stood at the counter, the agent called a supervisor out to the curb and they reduced the price to help out. We got her checked in and were able to walk this mom to her plane and make sure she had a seat. Our plane didn’t leave until about a hour or so later. We walked to our gate filled with a sense that God had just used us in a very powerful way.

It was a small price to pay for a huge blessing that touched so many. And I wonder – what if we had just walked on by?

May I encourage you to keep a eye out for those you can help as you go to and fro throughout your day. Maybe it won’t be as obvious, or as dramatic as our encounter with this woman. But it will nevertheless be as meaningful if you stop and help.

God will notice; and the blessing will surely be yours for a good deed done in love. Please, don’t walk on by.

“Go home to your friends and tell them the great things the Lord has done.” (Mark 5:19).

The story of the Gadarene demoniac floods our imaginations with both mystery and awe. And the miraculous deliverance of his life from ruin inspires us with hope in all things.

No man ever thinks that he will be the monster in the woods that children are taught to fear; the troll under the bridge, the ogre in the cave, the creature in the lagoon. But that’s who the nameless Gadarene had become. He was the demoniac that lived among the tombs.

We are not given any details of how he fell into this woeful condition, but we are given front rows seats to his amazing deliverance. We do know that for about the space of three years he lived an inhuman existence – naked, enraged, cutting himself with stones, and terrifying any who approached him.

His day of dramatic freedom came when Jesus of Nazareth crossed the sea of Tiberias on a mission to reclaim this solitary soul. A storm rose at sea attempting to capsize the vessel and negate the mission. Jesus rebuked the winds and they ceased.

Arriving on shore the demons bellowed out at Jesus asking Him to leave them alone. He did not comply with their wishes. Instead He cast the ugly horde into a herd of swine, who then ran headlong off a cliff into the sea and drowned.

Suddenly a quietness came over the tormented man and he began to weep in unspeakable gratitude.  Jesus sat down next to him, put His arm around his shoulder wept with him. After a while the man began laughing. And Jesus was laughing with Him.

The story ends with this man sitting, clothed and in his right mind. Then Jesus directs him to return to the great city from which he had originally come, and tell the story to all his friends of what Jesus had done.

The bottom line is this  – if Jesus can deliver this man from so dark a pit and transform him into such an irresistible force for the Kingdom of God….what in the world do you think He can do with you?

“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1 Thess.5:18).

Give thanks. Well, of course – only a self-indulgent fool would fail to do so. But seriously, stop and deliberately think about all for which you can be thankful. Sure there are the big things – health and happiness; salvation; food on the table; kids who are well adjusted and doing fine for themselves; and so on.

But what about the little things? The otherwise ordinary things that often go completely unnoticed and unacknowledged?

Here’s a challenge – each day compile a new list of at least fifty things you are truly thankful for; you will find it difficult at first, but then a wonderful thing will happen. The lights will come on and you will begin to see all that you have in your life that give you endless reasons to be thankful.

Stuff like – toothpaste in the morning; shampoo that clears up dandruff; a neighbor’s dog that does not bark all night long; gas in your car; a working computer; downloads that don’t take hours to install; socks; a note from a friend; an opportunity to serve somewhere in a manner that matters; appliances that work when you push the button…..and on, and on, and on.

The net result of deliberately engaging in this practice will soften your heart and transform you from a default grump to a giver of thanks. Your attitude will change your outlook, and carry you forward and upward into the day. Instead of hustling and bustling, grinding and grumbling – your life will become marked by praise and gratitude.

The truth of the matter is that there are a million things we each can be thankful for, and by giving thanks our lives will be enriched in great measure. And that’s a million and one things a thank ful heart can find.

“You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” (Psalm 27:8, English Standard Version).

The New Living Translations says, “My heart has heard You say, “Come and talk with Me.” And my heart responds, “LORD, I am coming.” There is an old saying, “Deep calleth unto deep.” It suggests that something deep within us is ever hungering after, and always listening for that Voice that gives us life.

This aptly fits many of us today who remember the beginnings of our journey with Jesus. The move of the Spirit was strong and widespread, the preaching of the Word was without manipulation, and Worship was innocent — unchained from the love of money.

But these days are rather mediocre in comparison. The presses are filled with over-stated claims of how God is moving here and there, while people are running to and from to jump in the river. Preaching has all but been stripped of prophetic power, opting instead for power-point presentations that give neat and tidy tips on how to improve just about anything in your life. And, as for worship — send in the clowns!

Deep calls unto deep. We long for a renewal; a return to the days of our first love; a fresh awakening in our fellowship with the Lord. If these longings are present in your heart, then be encouraged — for it is the Lord calling you back!

Back to that place where you delighted in God’s ways and learned how to discern God’s will. Back to that place where you desired God’s Word above all other things, and could always be found doing His work. Back to that place where faith was passionate, and devotions were enlightening. Back to that place where worship was real, and prayer was sweet.

“Sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care, and bids me at my Father’s throne make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief, and oft escaped the Tempter’s snare by thy return — sweet hour of prayer!

“Sweet hour of prayer; the joys I feel, the bliss I share with those whose hungry spirits burn with strong desire for Thy return! With such I hasten to the place where God my Savior shows His face. I gladly take my station there, and wait for thee — sweet hour of prayer.

“Sweet hour of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear to Him, whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless; and since He bids me seek His face, believe His word, and trust His grace — I’ll cast on Him my every care, and wait for thee: sweet hour of prayer.”

Deep calleth unto deep. The Lord calling you back! And He is even now awaiting your reply.
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