What are your strengths?

This is one of those leadership questions that comes at us from time to time. Typically we think of strengths as those activities we are good at or do well. But we all know there are some activities that we do well but suck the very life out of us leaving us feeling cold and dried up inside. What is a strength? Marcus Buckingham a “leadership guru” has a different take on strengths. He defines a strength as, “an activity that makes you strong.”

There are three signs of strengths to look for as you consider say last week from Marcus Buckingham. The first is a yearning quality. Which activities do you look forward to doing? Secondly, is a natural inquisitiveness? Which activities do you keep learning from or take no effort to occupy your mind or spark your creativity and imagination? The third sign is a restorative quality. This activity leaves you feeling strong and magnificent. Yes, you may be tired from the task but you feel restored, accomplished, strong, capable yes, magnificent (in a humble way or not so humbly).

Activities that you have a lot of appetite for but little to no ability at are called…hobbies. A hobby is an activity that no one pays you to do or no one would pay you for because you stink at it BUT love it. You know those folks who sing every time at karaoke but should not! It’s a hobby for them. They need to keep their day job!

What does this have to do with spiritual things?

Some of those faith practices we don’t do well with and leave us feeling dry. Well, it is the difference between religion and relationship. In a religion we are to accomplish a set of spiritual practices. We go to church, pray, study, serve, meditate, journal completing all or one of the tasks but end up empty and cold. Not really any different than when we started. In a relationship we look for those activities that connect us to God and HIS Presence. Those will make us feel strong and connected.

Consider reading the Bible. In a religion we read the Bible to learn what to do. In a relationship we read to get to know God. IN a religion prayer is a list of requests and confessions to appease the Creator. In a relationship it is a conversation between friends with requests and instruction, laughter and just hanging out. Meditation in a religion is a structured ritual to purify your mind by erasing the problems of the day. In a relationship meditation is a concentrated act of focus on God who is the solution to problems and a friend who never leaves you.

So we get the need for a relationship but let’s face it not all of those activities are strengths. It may be tough for you to pray more than two minutes or two seconds. You try but fail and feel defeated. How about writing them out as a letter. You may have tried to journal (like me) and quit (like me) on multiple occasions. Maybe your prayer needs to include action or sound and not words. Those things make you feel strong. Reading the bible maybe tedious and you nod off before you know it. What about the audio Bible or the YouVerson app of the Bible that will read selected translations to you?

The point is our strength comes from the Lord in a relationship WITH Him not a religion OF Him.

Not by strength or by might, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of Hosts. Zechariah 4:6 HCSB

¹⁰ Last of all I want to remind you that your strength must come from the Lord’s mighty power within you. Ephesians 9:10 TLB 

 Look for those activities of faith that are your strengths. Those activities that make you feel strong, connected to the Lord and His Spirit within you. Those are your strengths. Play to them and let the others rest beside your path.

In HIS Service and Yours,

Bro G

It's Easter! It comes every year!

It comes every year! For some of us church and Easter are always new clothes, pictures and candy and a long, packed church. It has happened so many times it is routine. Routine, Easter routine can that even be possible? If it is routine maybe no difference maybe all the difference. The preacher is going to preach about the cross, the death and the empty tomb. He does every year about the same way. Maybe you know the story AND the sermon already. So, why go to church at all. You already know how the story turns out and you wonder if there is a point anyway. That is the routine and then it’s done and so are you. Let’s eat.

Seems like a lot to do about nothing. That’s what is important the “nothing.” The focus of Easter is not the cross the method of death. It’s not the counting of time and days or the exact location. It’s not even the borrowed grave. It’s the “nothing” in the hole revealed on Sunday. The empty tomb is the message of Easter. That nothing where something should be is the thing.

How could nothing be something? Because Jesus was alive and then killed D-E-A-D, no swooning or fainting he was dead Rome was sure of that. Nothing in the tomb as those women discovered on Sunday morning is proof that he is alive. The proof of his words being true! This nothing where there should be something means where there is death there can be life, where there is sin there can be forgiveness, where there is despair there can be hope and where there is defeat there can be victory! Now THAT is something out of nothing.

As I went outside this morning to walk with the dog the moon illuminated the yard so there was no need for a flashlight. It was easy to see. But the moon makes no light. It is nothing but a dead, barren, atmosphere-less hunk of rock orbiting this planet. It is nothing really. But this morning it was something because it reflects the light of the sun. Nothing became something because of…you got it the resurrection.

Nothing becomes something when we believe in the “nothing” of the empty tomb!

Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. Romans 10:9 The Message

That belief takes us from the dead to the living, from the sinner to the saved, from the impossible to the possible. It is not behavior modification it is radical, earth shaking transformation into the very image of Jesus Christ. Something we tried to do but failed. We are like the moon, not the source still nothing but a hunk of flesh but He the SON makes us radiate with his life and light for all to see.

There you go, something out of nothing.

If you believe! You can if you will!

In HIS Service and Yours,

Bro G

I want to be a "they" someday.

I remember a social studies teacher Mrs. Vierling quoting a very bright student with those words. You know “They say” or “they think.” I have to admit I have wanted to be a “they” as well. That is until I realized the responsibility that goes along with being a “they” expert. Once you become a “they” you have a rep to maintain. People believe what you say (well except your wife/husband that is a lost cause) and expect you to say profound wise stuff. If you have read these articles/blog for a bit you know what I know. It is hard to say profound, wise stuff when you are a fool like me. So I guess I thought I was a “they” but alas I am not.

More is better is the mantra of our culture. The opposite is more often true regarding the quantity and quality of words. Bob Goff author of Love Dares posted today speaking of God "I am." When you have all the power, you don't need all the words. God’s name “I AM” amazing in its brevity. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is only 2minutes and thirty seconds long. Lincoln was not regarded as a good speaker or even a speaker at all but he was the President and invited to speak and the nation remembered this most gruesome of battles where 46,000 to 51,000 Americans (Union and Confederate died). Great American Documents.com wrote of the address,

Lincoln was not the featured orator at the event—that was Edward Everett who spoke for over two hours. However, the president's two-minute, 272-word Gettysburg Address is arguably the most famous and most quoted in United States history.

“I should be glad…that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes,” Everett said.

It is easy to fall into the trap, I do it weekly, that more words will better explain it rather than the right words. God set the standard for brevity.

 ¹³ Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what should I tell them?” ¹⁴ God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” Exodus 3:13-14 HCSB

What a fabulous answer. The God who was and is and is to come God, ever present, always there said “I AM” is my name. He always is. Now that’s a name. Lincoln must have wondered about following a great orator of the day. He may have thought of Everett as a “they.” Lincoln was there to add a “few appropriate remarks” and what remarks he added. He did not consider himself a “they.” He was there to honor the Americans who gave their lives. He was faithful to himself and his convictions. Less was more.

Less of ourselves, less of our importance and more of the one who is important. I AM is his name. Jesus as he made his way to Golgotha did not intend to become a “they.” NO, he was simply and resolutely determined to follow his Father and His plan for my/our salvation. In so doing he became a “they.”

Maybe one day I will be…          

In HIS Service and Yours,
Bro G

There is a plan!

Last week was a busy one actually the second of two busy weeks. It seemed each day never let up until I fell into bed and then awake and right back to the break neck pace. The first week included the unexpected death of a husband and father of one of our families. It was a shock for all. He was a husband and father but also loved bikes and bikers. He was most comfortable in leathers and sunglasses with bikes and bikers on the road. He also felt comfortable at Crossroads Church.

With that in mind his family decided to have a memorial service for him in our temporary facility at the Assembly, our first. He had trusted Christ as his Savior and Lord. I thought that was cool but more so the opportunity to share the Gospel with bikers and others who would be there in his memory. That was why we exist to connect the unconnected. It sure seemed like a one of a kind opportunity and so I began to prepare thoughts and words for the moment. I had a plan. You know sometimes our plans are not God’s.

Saturday morning the day of the memorial service I awoke at 1am with the stomach bug. Every hour on the hour, I and the great white porcelain god met in an intimate and torturous exchange of a most unpleasant nature. It was not pretty. Sometimes, I can will myself to be better for the moments I need and then fall apart. Not this time, when I would begin to stir so did my stomach and to the bathroom I went. I held out until 11am trying and wishing I could do this thing later in the day. It was an important time for me and the family and possibly some in attendance. But I had to call the family and tell them I could not make it. They didn’t want me there with my bug either.

I was disappointed. I thought evil was hindering me from my purpose. But I felt terrible. The night before we had set up 124 chairs and set aside 20 more for overflow. After a few initial technical problems Barbara and Geoff were under way. I was in the bed glad to be laying down. Then came a text from Barbara, “the room is packed SRO” (standing room only). I replied, “That makes me feel worse.” It did. I was missing a great opportunity because of a stomach bug. The next, “Lots of long grey pony tails.” I still felt bad. Then came the sweetest text, “Right now the whole room is hearing the Gospel from one of their own.” At that moment I was overwhelmed with emotion (not from the bug). I remembered Paul being Glad the Gospel was preached regardless of the motive. I was glad the Gospel was being preached. “SWEET,” I replied followed by, “Then its best I am not there.” There was a plan.

Turns out it was not what I had thought. Sometimes we as people of faith think we’ve got God pegged. We don’t. I forgot that. Sunday I was much better. At worship his widow told me she asked a believer-bike shop owner-rider-friend who was on the program to speak. He replied he had not prepared anything. He was prepared. There was a plan. Barbara counted 175-180 people and more bikes rumbling away than could be counted. There is a plan.

Here I am a preacher and I didn’t know the plan. I thought I knew and then God showed up and all bets were off.

It was better than I planned.

The bug was worse than I thought.

God is more amazing than I knew.

He is more amazing than you know as well.

There IS a plan and it is GREATER than you can imagine.

 

In HIS Service and Yours,

Bro G