Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: 1 Corinthians 5
Notes: Accommodation is exactly what the spirit of this day would have us do...and don't we have a lot of leaven leavening the dough of the Church today. Yet, how do we avoid legalism on the other hand? Who has the spiritual wisdom and the guts to correctly lead a congregation so that church discipline heals rather than destroys? How will an entire community have the spiritual discernment to differentiate between a 'wicked person' and the one who is genuinely desiring to follow God, but still battling the fleshly nature (as in progressive sanctification)? How would a pastor even broach this subject in a culture that looks to cultural values ("live and let live") over biblical teaching? Yet, how do we avoid abuse in so fleshly a Church if the church attempts to practice church discipline? On the other hand, in a large and more anonymous church, how many people does it take so that "the Church" is making a decision - or will anonymity shield any but the most obviously wicked person? "Not associate with" - where we're not sure, may we err on the side of love and associate, or will we then just ignore this teaching, not really knowing anyone well enough?

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 44
Notes: The Jewish men's decision to flee to Egypt placed them right back in the midst of idolatry, and they ignored or (more likely) supported their wives' worship of the 'Queen of Heaven.' When Jeremiah confronts them, they reject his message with revisionist history ascribing what blessings they had in the past to their former idolatry. -> We are responsible for the environments we place our family in, and for what worship we allow in our households. A culture that teaches 'to everyone his own' should not distract us from our call to live right worship in our homes. Note that while God's message came to the adults first, he vowed to hold every member of their family responsible.

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 42 and 43
Notes: A people that is stricken with fear will gladly find an excuse why they do not need to obey God's directions. Once panicked, they will force others to join them. Like Jeremiah, we need to be careful nonetheless to faithfully proclaim God's message to them.

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 40
Notes: The Babylonian who set Jeremiah free recognized the authority of God, even as he had helped to defeat God's people. Gedliah, the new governor, wanted to bring peace and order to the land, but failed to call on God, even after all that had happened, both generally and specifically regarding the allegations about a threat on his life. Taking care of your people is good, but it must come out of a relationship with and dependence on God.

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 39
Notes: In the midst of the low point in Jerusalem's history, the destruction by the Babylonians, God (who had called them to carry out his judgment) saves three (groups of) people: Ebed-melech the Ethiopian - a foreigner - "because he trusted in the Lord," God's prophet, and the very poor whom their own countrymen had oppressed all these years, and who now receive the vineyards and fields their fellow Jews would not let them have. The last thing Zedekiah ever saw was not just the slaughter of his sons but also that of the bad advisors he felt too weak to oppose for the sake of righteousness.

Why I Am Not Giving Up Facebook for Lent

As a minister, I'm in the people/relationships business. It may not be all I do, but it is a major part. Facebook is one of four major communications platforms for me (face-to-face, phone, and e-mail being the others). If I'm going to be salt and light, shutting off communication is not going to be my first step.

Do Not Judge, Lest You be Judged

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned."
Luke 6:37 NASB

Therefore, any judging is wrong and to be deplored. Right?

Then why might Jesus say,

"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."
John 7:18 NASB

Why does Paul tell the church in Corinth

"For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present."
1 Corinthians 5:3 NASB

If I am going to be a witness to others with the goal of them becoming part of the family of God, I will have to come to a conclusion whether I believe they are already Christians or not. Otherwise, I'd have to treat Billy Graham and Michael Newdow the same. Equally, if a church is going to practice the biblical mandate of Church discipline, it will be impossible to treat any action we didn't commit ourselves as morally neutral or beneficial.

We should heed what Jesus taught us in Luke 6, in particular what he says about mercy. Yet, building a nugget theology of "any judgment of what things are like at any time is to be deplored" will not make us more, but less obedient to Scripture. It'll merely make us pander to the Zeitgeist.

KISS

No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.

Peter Drucker

Motivation and Ability

If you try to motivate someone who is unable, the result is not change but depression.

Joseph Grenny

Bad Days

Get clear with yourself: If you are "on a mission," there will be bad days.

Tom Peters

Nuts

The mightiest oak was once a little nut that held its ground.

Source: unknown.

Blessed

What do you have that you did not receive? 1 Corinthians 4:7

When pride or self-satisfaction come knocking, remember.

Optimism

"The optimists are usually wrong and the pessimists are usually right. Yet, all the great changes in history were done by optimists."

Thomas Friedmann, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner [quote is not verbatim]

Doing My Best

If the 18 teams of the Bundesliga (top German soccer league) have an average of 25 players on roll, that's 450 pro's. Compared to the 6.3 million members of the Deutscher Fussball-Bund, that's 0.007%. Am I in the top 0.007% in my calling? Am I on my way there? Or do I want to spend my life playing Kreisklasse?

Balanced Lives

Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven't paid the price to decide what is really important to them.

Stephen Covey

Fruitfulness

Source: Microsoft ClipArt

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

John 15:8 NASB

Oh, that we would be fruitful!

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season [...]

Psalm 1:1-3 NASB

Change

When the winds of change are blowing, some people are building shelters, and others are building windmills.

Chinese Proverb

Leadership and Community

We have to strike the right balance between being in touch, and being in control. The irony is, the more in control we are, the more out of touch we become.

A. G. Lafley, CEO of Procter & Gamble

Efficiency and Importance

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

Peter F. Drucker

Change

People are not afraid of change. They fear the unknown.

Dick Brown, chairman and CEO of EDS