Tag Archives: faith

What The Storm Taught Me About Jesus

Stormy Sea

“Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”

These words of Jesus recorded in Mark 4:40 always perplexed me. What do you mean, “Why am I so fearful?!” We’re in the middle of a deadly storm! (Mark 4:37) Don’t you feel the ship being tossed violently about? Don’t you see that the ship is filling with water and that we’re about to sink?! What does faith have to do with anything? This is not a matter of attitude or perspective. This threat is not spiritual. The danger is real! So, what do you mean, “Why am I so fearful?!”

The questions seemed absurd. That is, until I had to face a storm of my own.

Like the storm in Mark 4:37, mine came upon me suddenly, unexpectedly and violently. In one great swell the waters crashed on my life, threatening to tear everything apart. After barely surviving its impact, I was then hammered with wave, after wave, after wave. I lived in constant fear of the blow that would finally end it all. This went on for years.

But, Jesus was in the boat the whole time.

I was so focused on the storm, I lost sight of who He was. And, I didn’t realize the effect that Jesus was having just being there. While He seemed to me to be “sleeping”, He was the reason I had not perished. It was His presence, and not all the things I was clinging to, that was preserving me and providing for my need. What I see now, that I didn’t see then, is that He had angels encamped all around us -real people, who ministered to my real needs. As I reflect on those years, I clearly see people God sent that provided precisely what I needed both spiritually and materially in their due seasons. Why? Not because of what I had done, but because of who I was with. I was with Jesus –Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God who was sent according to the love of God for this very purpose: that those who believe in Him would not perish but have life everlasting.

That last part –Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.

This view of Jesus as God incarnate is what I believed or at least conceptually understood at some point, but lost sight of. And this is why, I believe, that Jesus asks, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” Because, if I am with Christ in the boat, do I really believe the Christ will perish? Do I really believe that He will fail to do what He came to do? Do I really believe that any promise made concerning Him will go unfulfilled? Oh Father, grant me the faith of Abraham who believed so steadfastly on your Promise because he believed God to be so faithful that He’d never go back on His word and believed God to be so powerful, that He could raise the son of Promise from the dead. (Genesis 22:1-14; Hebrews 11:19) Lord, help me to see You and to allow the reality of who You are to loom larger than the reality that I’m wrestling with!

When I believe Jesus, my hope and expectation is in the furtherance of His purposes: reconciling creation to Himself and the full coming of His kingdom. This, by faith, becomes the desire of my heart that I can be fully assured that God will give to me. (Psalm 37:4) Furthermore, if He can command even the storm, I can have confidence that nothing concerning me is beyond His control. If I live, He is in control. He has work for me and as I walk in it, no storm, no circumstance, no power in Hell -nothing can prevent it. If I die, He is in control. I can depart knowing that He is faithful to finish the work He began and that nothing that I have committed to Him will be in vain. So, whether in life or death, He is in control, His purposes will prevail, He will be glorified and my desire in Him will not fail.

As I look back from the other side of the storm, I see that the whole time I spent being anxious, frantically flailing about, I could have been resting confidently with Jesus.

Nothing To Offer

Fish and Bread

Had it been me, I wouldn’t have even bothered to offer.

But when faced with the need to feed thousands of hungry people, a boy offers his small lunch of five barley loaves and two small fish (John 6:1-14).

I would have thought so little of what I had that I wouldn’t have even considered it worth offering. I would have only come forward if I could afford to throw a great feast -a well organized event with every detail meticulously choreographed and rehearsed. And, if I can be honest, I would have done it, not primarily to help, but so that my offering would reflect well on me.

My attitude would have been that the little I have is nothing, so I will do nothing with it at all. I believe this was the attitude of the wicked servant in the Parable Of The Talents in Matthew 25:14-30. When called to give an account by his master for what he had been given, the servant feigns respect and claims that it was for fear of loss that he treated his stewardship like trash. But, I believe the Master saw right through that and recognized the servant’s disdain immediately. The Master saw that his attitude was, “What you gave me was not worth bothering to do anything with”. No wonder why, instead of just loosing his stewardship, the servant was cast into outer darkness! This is an arrogant, lazy and wicked attitude that I find I am also guilty of.

Lord, I am sorry and I repent!

Jesus taught in another account of stewardship that whoever is faithful with a little is faithful with much and how you handle what you have now determines what will be committed to you later. There are a plethora of books and courses aimed at discontent people promising to improve our pitiful lot with titles like “From Zero to Hero” and “From Nothing To Everything”. But, the truth is that none of us have “nothing”. God has granted something to everyone. The question is have we been diligent to take inventory of what we have and are we being faithful with it? Are we aiming to make maximum use of what we’ve been given so to return the best possible profit for the One who gave us our stewardship?

I confess that I could do a lot better. It begins with becoming as a child, like the boy with the five barley loaves and two small fish -having a heart that gives no consideration to how it may make me look but simply making what I have available for Jesus to use.

In the days we live in it seems that many of the issues we’re faced with are insurmountable. But, we were chosen for such a time as this. He has given us everything we need to be salt and light in the earth right now. Therefore, it is my intent from this day forth to remember the example of the boy and his lunch, offer what I have in faith and trust God for the rest.

There are at least two things I believe I can contribute as salt and light and this is where I’ll start:
1. Helping people achieve sufficiency through entrepreneurship to provide for their families and invest into the uplift of their communities.
2. Walking with couples to build successful marriages and families that glorify God and serve as a dependable vehicle to transfer wealth and knowledge for future generations.

It’s a work in progress but here’s a rough draft of the vision and plan.

For more information about the entrepreneurship courses and community, see here: https://bit.ly/3wT8yNE

If you’re interested in joining a fellowship for married couples, join us here: https://bit.ly/3seeXjd

 

Love Lifted Me

Starkville Cloudy Sky

“I’ve messed up,” I say to myself looking up at a grey winter sky. It was true, I had really made a mess of things. I had gotten kicked out of school, lost a full scholarship, stolen my Dad’s credit card and racked up $30,000 dollars in charges taking multiple women out at a time, I abandoned my mother, was totally not there for my little brother, I had been fired from J.C. Penney’s for stealing and had been evicted from my apartment in College Station just a little more than a month earlier. I was a wretch. Now, I’m on campus, out in the cold, staring down at a bright yellow boot on the place I called home -my car.

I’m angry but not angry. I’m sad but not sad. Those things are there but I’ve tipped beyond feeling. I’m resigned. “I’m done. There’s no point,” I think. But before I end it all, I felt the overwhelming need to apologize. I wanted absolution. I remembered back when I interned at Entergy in Jackson, MS, there was a man who knew I was going to Mississippi State that told me to visit his friend, Dr. Gregory Jones. And, at that time, Dr. Jones had an office at the Baptist Student Union. So, I trek across campus, walk into the BSU and am met by a large, bald-headed man with silver aviator style glasses sitting atop round, rosy cheeks that seemed to be permanently fixed in a grin. Wasting no time, I ask, “May I talk to you?” He ushers me into his office. With tears, I immediately began to share everything I had done wrong or even thought I had done wrong since leaving home.

Dr. Jones sat all the way back in his chair, his face now more stern, squared his body to mine, leaned forward slowly, resting his elbows on his desk with his large hands clasped and said out of nowhere, “God does not hate you.” As though he could see me mentally recoiling from the notion, he continued, “How do I know? Because, He sent Help just for people who makes mistakes.” Dr. Jones talked for several more minutes but I don’t remember what he said. I could not hear him. His voice became muffled as though he were speaking from another room. I was shell-shocked. My hardened heart was being eviscerated by the blast of those words,

“God does not hate you.”

It felt like there was Something in that room besides Dr. Jones and I. I was convicted but no longer felt condemned. I could see the gravity of my error but was somehow no longer under the weight of them. There was a compassion and a hopeful, alternative view of my future. Something shifted in me. Though nothing had changed about my circumstances, there was suddenly power to go on. It was that day that I looked upon Christ and was saved. And, this is not hyperbole, on a dreary, cold winter day, the clouds parted and the sun shone in the office at that very moment.

Pastor Gregory Jones was an agent of grace. He depended on it and shared it freely. As a result, I am here to share this testimony. Dr. Jones would often say, “You don’t have to be perfect, just available.” I thank God that He made Dr. Gregory Jones available to me.

I love you Rev. Jones.

Originally posted to Facebook on January 24, 2017. It is being posted here again in loving memory of my friend and Pastor, Dr. Gregory Wilson Jones.

Until I Get My Life Right

lost-places-1646374_1920

What I hear more than anything as I encounter people who consider themselves “unchurched”, is a reluctance to come to worship “until I get my life right.” Surprisingly, there is an element of this that is good theology and demonstrates a knowledge of God that many “churched” folks have lost as a result of their religion: God is holy and I must be holy or in “right standing” to enter into His presence. That’s truth.

But, here’s the good news (the gospel): God loves you so much and is so committed to being with you, that even before the beginning, He architected an ingenious Way for you to be in His presence without compromising His holiness. He provided a Savior able to pay the debt required for our sin and thereby making us able to be in right-standing (righteous). Not only that, but when we believe Christ, we’re given a new heart, HIS heart, a seed that grows unto a new spiritual man and empowers us to put to death our former, godless appetites. And, as we undergo the process of being re-made to look more and more like a Son of the Father (sanctification), we enter the presence of God by the blood (the work and person) of Christ. As a result, when God sees you, He sees His Son in whom He is well pleased so that you can dwell boldly in His presence. Hallelujah! #TheDoorOfTheChurchIsOpen

In loving memory of the greatest teacher of grace I’ve ever known, my mentor and friend, Dr. Gregory Wilson Jones.

Fake Good

church-africa-mission-737988

Among Satan’s most powerful deceptions is fake “good”. I suspect it’s why we do mission trips to Africa instead of San Francisco. The poor think anything’s better than what they have and the rich think they’re good and have need of nothing. But both are deceived (Revelation 3:17). Good is not attaining affluence or material possessions (Mark 10:21, Mark 10:25). Good is right relationships -having a right relationship with God which causes us to have a right relationship with everything else (Mark 12:29-31).

And, a right relationship with God is made possible exclusively through Jesus Christ (Matthew 11:27, 1 John 2:23) . Without Christ, any idea or understanding​ that we have of God is askew which causes us to relate improperly to everything else (family, money, ourselves, etc). So, let us pursue real good which begins with feasting on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ (John 6:53-58). Start here.

Dying For An Apology

Couple Disagreement

Has someone ever offended you and it seemed that the relationship was “on hold” until they apologized? Yep, me too. It naturally makes sense to think that the one who broke it should fix it. But, Jesus teaches something very different in Matthew 18:15. There, we’re told when someone hurts us, that we are to take initiative to restore the relationship and go to the offender. You’ll also find in Matthew 5:23-24, that Jesus commands those who realize they’ve hurt someone to take immediate action to restore the relationship. What does this mean? Regardless of who is in the wrong, I am responsible for doing all I can to pursue a healthy relationship.

I think this speaks to the heart of what it means to be Christian, a follower of Christ. Jesus’s entire purpose was to reconcile creation to God (Colossians 1:20). And to be Christian, is to be Christ-like. Therefore, we also have this ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). What this means to me is that our default disposition should be one of restoral. We should be driven, looking, to restore people to fellowship with God and then with us.

This helps me, especially in marriage. When my wife and I are at odds, I must take responsibility for restoring that fellowship -regardless of whether I hurt her or if she hurt me. Practically speaking, if I truly desire to maintain the relationship, I would remove any obstacles that prevent us from getting there. And among the first obstacles to remove is the idea that because I offended her or I was offended by her, I’ve taken a position that is against her. Instead, I must communicate, even over-communicate, that I am for her, I am not her enemy, and desire to be in fellowship with her again.

I’ve tried to implement this by establishing ongoing gestures that communicate my openness and good-will toward her. One of these gestures is simply to kiss her on the cheek or on her forehead every night before we retire to sleep (Ephesians 4:26). Whether she’s angry or whether I’m angry, I try to do this to communicate there’s hope and I’m open to restoring fellowship.

How is God doing that for you? How has He communicated His openness to you and the hope of fellowship with Him? First, have you received His gesture of goodwill? And secondly, how can you do more of that for others?

The Paralysis Of A Perfect Plan

Planning Whiteboard

I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted waiting to develop the perfect, fail proof plan. I have to constantly remind myself that if God wanted to make me a robot that operates on strict step-by-step instructions, He would have. Instead, He made me creative, resourceful, able to navigate obstacles and has given me discretion over how I represent His interests. So, I must simply be led by a desire to please God, put my hand to the task before me with what I have and work to grow my stewardship. There is no need to agonize over my next move. If I first aim to have His heart and relate to the world as He does, my steps will be guided in the process.

That 90’s R&B Type Love

Black Couple
So, listening to 90’s R&B yesterday evening has got me in my feelings and thinking about the blissful allure of an intense, all-consuming, never-ending love that characterized our music. And, sometimes I think I want that, but I’ve learned to ask, “Is that really good?” Is the way I want to be loved healthy?

If I can be real for just a second, I will admit that I sometimes struggle with wanting to be the center of my wife’s universe. But I know that isn’t good because I lack the “weight” or kabad to hold everything in her universe together. Being the center of her universe puts me in a position to do something I’m not built for -to sustain someone else’s existence forever. Conversely, it puts my wife in a position to be sustained by something that will surely fail (even if I were perfect, I have to die at some point). Apply even a little Bible and you’ll quickly find that my looking to be central to another: to be exalted and worshiped, isn’t love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil…”

To be blunt the love trumpeted by most music is promoting idolatry -a diversion of attention to someone or something else for what we should be getting from God.

So, what SHOULD we want? Answer: an intense, all-consuming, never-ending love with the only one who can deliver it -God. I believe the first step in really enjoying love is to be completely satisfied with Him -alone. Only then, can we really love or be loved by others, because if God is love (1 John 4:8), to love is to share God. And, for that He has to be central.

Happiness Is Easier Knowing I’m Never Satisifed

I think it’s easier to be happy when you know there’s a part of you that will never be satisfied.

I believe there are ideas in the world that, when accepted, become part of us, such as the spirit that seeks fulfillment through indulgence, apart from God. This is biblically referred to as our “flesh” (not to be confused with our biology). We all wrestle with it and it can never be satisfied, not with any achievement, any possession, any experience, any relationship -anything. It robs us of joy and peace because it’s restless, discontent, constantly grasping but never laying hold of.

When my flesh is aroused and I find myself dissatisfied with my life, the temptation is to feed this hunger, to do something that gets me more of something: more enjoyment, more recognition, more money, more power. But this focus on “getting” runs counter to the purposes the Bible says we are created for: to be fruitful, to create, to produce -to give. So, I find the key to my peace is not feeding this fleshly hunger but to starve it, to redirect my focus and energy from what I want to get out of the world to what I want to put out into it that yields life. That’s where I find fulfillment.

Jesus put it this way, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” [Matt 16:25] What is His sake? That we may have life. [John 10:10]

Is Mississippi HB1523 Pro- Or Anti- Christian?

mississippi-religious-freedom-bill

Here’s my understanding of the Gospel:

God has condemned harm and all that has been contaminated by it to destruction. Christ was sent to express the goodwill of God towards man, save them out of that coming destruction and give them new life marked by love.

Jesus achieves this by drawing near to His enemies and dying, not only through the sacrifice of His body, but by “dying to self”; laying aside His rights, His privileges and His self-interest to make the love of God known.

I ask my fellow Christians, is His cause our cause? Does Mississippi House Bill 1523 and our conversations around it achieve this end?