I came across a coffee mug in New Jersey with an interesting phrase emblazoned on its side: “Investing in Families; Building Legacies”. This simple, yet poignant phrase caused me to reflect on the word, families.
Most believers do not understand the value of a family. I am not referring to the political catch phrase “family values” which is so easily bantered around today. I am referring to the family as the foundation of the Christian Body. There are numerous references in the scriptures to the family unit and how closely it resembles the Body of Christ. The very basis whether a person qualifies for leadership in the House of the Lord is whether they can rule their household (family) righteously or not.
Unfortunately, the value of the family, many times, is not viewed through spiritual eyes. The scriptures that guide parents to train their children in the ways of the Lord and children to honor their parents are often ignored or mishandled. Lost is the attitude that love covers a multitude of sins and all of this to everyone’s own spiritual peril. What is ultimately at stake is much more than the family; it is the legacy of the family. The very future of the family is the legacy and that affects the generations that are still to come.
I can’t help but wonder how many people were lost eternally as a result of an evil king from the previous generation. We can read the records of evil kings and of such losses of children and adults in 2 Chronicles. We must care (invest) in families if we are to build solid legacies for our descendants. The very breath of the spiritual family is the Holy Spirit himself. Recognizing this fact would lead us in the scriptures to how He operates to build such a legacy and the devices of evil kings towards the destruction of the legacy.
Let us first consider the promotion or the investment in the Family of God:
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galations 5: 22-26 NIV)
For the sake of the legacy we must exhibit the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our daily walk and works within the Family of God. There is one fruit (singular) listed here which has 9 different elements. To be absent in one of these elements is to say that the Fruit of the Holy Spirit is absent. Removing chicken from chicken soup means that you do not have chicken soup! You may have a broth but it is not chicken soup. All 9 portions must be present to have the FRUIT of the Holy Spirit. Are they evident in your Family of God? This is important to consider because it not only affects your family, but also your legacy.
Similarly, let us also examine the destruction and derailment of the family legacy.
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galations 5: 16 – 21) NIV
An interesting point in this passage is that the phrase “acts of the sinful nature” is in the plural form. There is one Fruit of the Holy Spirit but the sinful nature can be expressed in 9 different ways. Anyone of these sinful acts that are present and allowed to flourish in the Family will derail and destroy the legacy. I am reminded how Jesus warns us of the Pharisee’s leaven. It doesn’t take very much to spoil the entire batch. Are they evident in your Family of God? If so, then the family has been polluted and the object of destruction is the legacy or the next generation of God’s children. It may not seem as significant at the time but a destructive result has been set in motion. Seemingly, insignificant acts that may cause discord (lack of peace), dissensions (strong disagreements) or factions (people taking sides) are very dangerous and must be guarded against. These acts (not the people) must be rooted out for the good of the Family.
If we as the Family of God are to be the incarnate Christ on the earth today and for the future than we must be aware of and on guard as to what is allowed to either fester or to flourish in our families.
Remember that coffee mug, found of all places in New Jersey, which reads:
“Investing in Families; Building Legacies”.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
MINISTRY of DOING vs MINISTRY of BEING
Ministry: for some the driving force for being a Christian. It is the reason for their value and existence on the earth today. "What can I do for Jesus and His people today?" It sounds so holy, so right and yet it is filthy in its own rights. It is that pesky, but yet formidable, little word of "I" that pollutes it all. If only we can ask in its place, "Father, what would "You" want from me today" and accept that it might be to sit still and be quiet before Him.
What we do and how we do, whatever we may do, is never as important as why we do. The why begs to know the source of "our ministry". The feeding of the hungry, the caring for the widows and the visiting of the prisoners is not good enough because they are hungry, widows or prisoners. If we feed, care for and visit because we feel a need to do so we pollute the ministry by putting our filthy hands on the plow. Filthy because the source is from us, our souls, and the acts become "soulish acts". While the very same actions will be different if Father God speaks to our spirits and directs us to feed, care and visit. Then it becomes "spiritual acts of being" rather than "soulish acts of doing".
In reality God would not speak to our spirits as much as He would move through our spirit, once we are one with Him. We must learn to become one with the Father as Jesus was one with Him. We must learn to be like Jesus and do and say only AFTER we see and hear from the Father as Jesus did. We must become childlike and wait for our daddy to direct us.
Our driving force should be to become mature sons of God which can only happen by being consumed by the holy, loving God of eternity. Once we are consumed we no longer exist but are recreated by the One who consumes. The old creature and creation is gone, along with all of its ideas of how to deal with situations, and the new creature and creation is in place with the mind and spirit of God.
T. Austin Sparks writes the following in "The Stewardship of the Mystery" pages 76, 77.
"It is what Christ is in us by His Spirit that determines everything. It determines all the values, settles forever the question of effectiveness, answers all the questions and problems. I wish we had had this understanding, this knowledge sooner. If only we could have this as the foundation of our life from the beginning, what a lot we should be saved from.
Ministry is the expression of life, and not the taking on of a uniform and a title. Once I thought that to be in the ministry was to go into a certain kind of work, to come out of business, and, well, be a minister! So one got into the thing. Many, many are laboring and toiling in it, breaking their hearts, afraid to leave that order of things, lest they should be violating what they conceived to be a Divine call. Many others cannot get out of it because it is a means of livelihood, and they too are breaking their hearts. It is all false. Ministry is not a system like that. Ministry is the expression of life, and that is but saying in other words that it is the outworking of the indwelling of Christ. Disaster lies before the man or woman who ministers on any other ground than that. When the Lord gets a chance in us, and we really will trust Him on that ground, take our position there, He will show us that there is ministry enough for us; we shall have not to go round looking for it. The real labour so often is to get us down to that ground, the delivering of us from this present evil age even in its conception of the ministry, unto the heavenly ministry.
The Lord Jesus is our pattern. You see the spontaneous ministry, the restful ministry of that Heavenly Man. I covet that! It does not mean that we shall become careless, but it does deliver us from so much unnecessary strain. That is how it should be. May the Lord bring us to it; the Heavenly Man with the heavenly life as the full heavenly resource."
What we do and how we do, whatever we may do, is never as important as why we do. The why begs to know the source of "our ministry". The feeding of the hungry, the caring for the widows and the visiting of the prisoners is not good enough because they are hungry, widows or prisoners. If we feed, care for and visit because we feel a need to do so we pollute the ministry by putting our filthy hands on the plow. Filthy because the source is from us, our souls, and the acts become "soulish acts". While the very same actions will be different if Father God speaks to our spirits and directs us to feed, care and visit. Then it becomes "spiritual acts of being" rather than "soulish acts of doing".
In reality God would not speak to our spirits as much as He would move through our spirit, once we are one with Him. We must learn to become one with the Father as Jesus was one with Him. We must learn to be like Jesus and do and say only AFTER we see and hear from the Father as Jesus did. We must become childlike and wait for our daddy to direct us.
Our driving force should be to become mature sons of God which can only happen by being consumed by the holy, loving God of eternity. Once we are consumed we no longer exist but are recreated by the One who consumes. The old creature and creation is gone, along with all of its ideas of how to deal with situations, and the new creature and creation is in place with the mind and spirit of God.
T. Austin Sparks writes the following in "The Stewardship of the Mystery" pages 76, 77.
"It is what Christ is in us by His Spirit that determines everything. It determines all the values, settles forever the question of effectiveness, answers all the questions and problems. I wish we had had this understanding, this knowledge sooner. If only we could have this as the foundation of our life from the beginning, what a lot we should be saved from.
Ministry is the expression of life, and not the taking on of a uniform and a title. Once I thought that to be in the ministry was to go into a certain kind of work, to come out of business, and, well, be a minister! So one got into the thing. Many, many are laboring and toiling in it, breaking their hearts, afraid to leave that order of things, lest they should be violating what they conceived to be a Divine call. Many others cannot get out of it because it is a means of livelihood, and they too are breaking their hearts. It is all false. Ministry is not a system like that. Ministry is the expression of life, and that is but saying in other words that it is the outworking of the indwelling of Christ. Disaster lies before the man or woman who ministers on any other ground than that. When the Lord gets a chance in us, and we really will trust Him on that ground, take our position there, He will show us that there is ministry enough for us; we shall have not to go round looking for it. The real labour so often is to get us down to that ground, the delivering of us from this present evil age even in its conception of the ministry, unto the heavenly ministry.
The Lord Jesus is our pattern. You see the spontaneous ministry, the restful ministry of that Heavenly Man. I covet that! It does not mean that we shall become careless, but it does deliver us from so much unnecessary strain. That is how it should be. May the Lord bring us to it; the Heavenly Man with the heavenly life as the full heavenly resource."
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