VISION AND BURDEN

I was blessed to spend time with Shajan and Dede yesterday morning and talk about the great work they are doing in India. Shajan mentioned that God had given him the vision and burden for the work in India. Thus began the EMFI Ministry (Evangelical Mission for India). There work is massive and meaningful ministry. Is there anything in your life that God has given you a VISION and BURDEN for. VISION is what needs to be done and BURDEN is the personal fortitude to get it done. It is my estimation that until you have the BURDEN to match the VISION the VISION will not happen. God is looking for people who will take His VISION and have a burden to get it done. We cannot do it without God and He chooses not to do it without us. 

Drifting

When we do not set our sail we just drift. When we are drifting we go wherever the current takes us. Many times I have went in a slough on the river and found all kind of junk in the back of the slough from logs to boats to diapers. Neither serving any purpose but just ended up as far back in the slough as they could go. Drifting is dangerous. You end up where you do not want to be and serving no purpose. Refuse passivity. Live with purpose. Here is a great song by Decemberadio entitled Drifter. Take time to listen and if you are a drifter come back home.  

SET YOUR SAIL

A sailboat has many parts that need to be put in place for it to go to the desired location. It is the job of the seaman to set the sail. However, when the sail it set the seaman has no control over the wind. The wind is in the hand of God. This is applicable to the Christian life. It is our job to put things in the right place and order. Proverbs say, "make the horse ready for the day of battle, but the victory is the Lord's" (Prov 21:31). It is our job to set the sail and it is His job to send the wind (wind is often used as a word picture of the Holy Spirit)  to move us in the right direction. Raising our sail is an act of obedience. It is prayer. It is reading and meditating on His Word. It is service. It is being in the right place at the right time. Today, begin to set your sail and who knows where the Holy Spirit will take you.

GREAT CALL TO NEW YEAR COMMITMENT

I think Oswald Chambers give us a better challenge for the New Year than I can muster. Read it and print it out and put it in a place where you will see it often. Highlight those areas that really speak to you or challenge you. Ultimately, the whole thing will be highlighted. 

Let Us Keep to the Point

Jan

01

2011

". . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death" —Philippians 1:20

My Utmost for His Highest. “. . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed . . . .” We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It’s as if Paul were saying, “My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory.” To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.

My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. “Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!” (see Philippians 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God’s will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God’s gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide— for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.