Weaving Patience

I was informed of something profound by a new friend the other day. The word waiting, as translated in the old testament, comes from the hebrew word "qavah" which has a literal meaning of "to bind together like a cord." Weave if you will. The idea of weaving together string to make rope.

Why is this profound? I find myself in a period of waiting in my life. I am still in school, yet I know what I want to do with my life. I feel like a sitting duck, but this encourages me not to be.

Some of you may be in this similar situation. You can also apply this to relationships. Some of you are on the edge of your seat waiting to meet the person you are going to marry. But God has a reason.....

You see, God gives us times of waiting in order to "weave" together what we are moving toward. That can be God "weaving" us further into sanctification, but also mean us "weaving" together what we know God has called us to. A time of preparation. Not a time to sit back and do nothing. Prepare. Spiritually, physically, emotionally, financially, etc.

A couple days after hearing this I was reading the story of Joseph in Genesis. Joseph had a dream that one day his brothers and parents would bow to him as king. Now, God's favor was on Joseph, so I don't believe this was something he boasted about and was prideful of, nevertheless he told his father and brothers.

They didn't like him much after that. His brothers ended up faking his death and sending him into slavery.

Joseph then went through some tough transitions and situations. In each of these situations, he ended up succeeding. He ended up being sold into Potiphar's household, and moved up to the head of the house. He was then tricked by Potiphar's wife, ended up in prison. Was so well regarded in prison, had little to no supervision. Interpreted a couple of dreams for some of the prisoners. Long story short ended up the right hand man to Pharaoh.

(this is a very shortened version of Joseph's story...read Genesis 37-42 for all the juicy details)

Famine came over the whole world, Joseph had a solution that caused the whole world to flock to Egypt for  food. In the end, Joseph's family came to him (without recognizing him) and bowed before him for food.

I totally butchered how great of a story this is, and I highly encourage you to read it.

Here's my point, God gave Joseph a dream, and we know that it took at least 16 years to fulfill it. Joseph didn't sit back and become complacent in the situations he found himself in. He worked hard, became trustworthy, and moved up in each of these situations. We don't hear much about Joseph's character, but he had to be a patient dude.

Be patient where God has you in this moment, and give it your all. Whether its a vision for where God is going to lead you, or whether you are waiting for that person God is going to bring into your life, begin weaving and allowing Him to weave together your future.

Inspiring Leaders

I don't claim to be a great leader by any means. I have a ton of faults and continually look into new ways to improve on my leadership skills.

One lesson I have learned through people who have impacted my life is how to inspire the ones who you lead. I have seen great examples and terrible examples. In order for any business or ministry to be successful, the people you lead have to believe in what your doing.

The question then is, how do you inspire the people you lead to make your organization even better?
Hopefully this will help you start.

1. BELIEVE. In order to create a following, you have to be passionate about what you are leading. No one will buy into an idea that you're not convinced will work.
2. LISTEN. People will become involved more in something they have a part in. Institute ideas from your followers. Listen to what they're saying. The smallest changes could mean the world.
3. DELEGATE. This is the lesson I have to remind myself of most, but you must give your followers something to be proud of. Delegation is a great way to get things off your plate and give ownership to your followers.
4. CELEBRATE. Wins mean everything to the people you are leading. Take the time to celebrate what your organization and followers have done well! Congratulate and encourage. Build a culture that cultivates innovation through the desire to do better.
5. TESTIFY. Tell stories. This is especially important in ministry. Too often we get caught up in logistics and forget why we are working toward whatever our organization goals are. Stories can expand your vision back out. This helps your followers understand their place in what you do.

Hopefully these ideas aren't too obvious and they are a help for you in wherever you have been gifted to lead.

SPEAK NOW! (nothing about Taylor Swift)

So many times in my life, I have heard stories of how God has plainly laid things out for friends and acquaintances. There have been a few instances in my life where God gave me an idea or vision, but I tend to not trust him to reveal things in HIS time, by HIS means.

I look for Him to answer prayers through the "open the bible to a random page" method. Or the "attend 1048392 church services" method.

I was reading through Acts 10, and (as I am writing this, I am proving to myself what I am writing about) God revealed something very important to me.

He uses different mediums to speak to different people, but His timing is ALWAYS perfect.

You have this story about Cornelius, who from how the scripture reads, led a life that to the Pharisees would be seen as acceptable. He regularly sought after God and gave to the needy. God sent an angel (medium 1) to Cornelius with very specific instructions. He was told, in short, to send for Peter. He sent three of his men to fetch Peter.

The next day, as the three men approached, Peter goes to the housetop to pray. He fell into a trance and had a dream (medium 2), much less specific than Cornelius' interaction. While pondering the vision, the men arrived at where Peter was.

While pondering his dream, the Holy Spirit (medium 3) spoke to Peter and told him to go down and find the men. Peter went with the men back to Cornelius. There, Peter preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ (medium 4) and the Spirit worked through him in order to reach the people surrounding Cornelius who were living by the law. All who were there were baptized. Kingdom advanced.

Within this one story, God speaks to at least two different people in four different ways. Lessons this teaches me:
1. God can speak to us through supernatural means. The angel was what instantly got Cornelius' attention
2. God can speak to us through dreams. When we are walking instep with God, he can use our subconscious level to communicate with us. This is how great pastors and leaders come into visions and ideas.
3. God can speak to us through the Holy Spirit. Much like the idea of having an "angel" on our shoulder, the Holy Spirit can whisper immediate direction into our lives.
4. God ca speak to us through people. Whether it's friends or acquaintances, God uses people to speak to us. In this case the Holy Spirit was leading the people around Cornelius to Christ through what Peter was saying. 
5. God's timing is PERFECT. Just as the men were arriving, Peter went onto the roof to pray and God gave him this dream. Plus, if you read the scripture, you see that Peter happened to be hungry and dream about food....

In no way is this an exhausted list. Proof: God speaking to me through the revelation of this blog post and you seeing this blog post on Twitter and God (hopefully) speaking to you through it.

Jonah did what!?!

I've always heard that you shouldn't rely only on teachings in church for your eating of the word as an encourager for reading scripture yourself. That you might pick up on something that you had never learned in church before. This was proven to me this week.

I assist in leading a freshmen bible study with BCM, and this week we were originally going to talk about the prophets who predicted the coming of the messiah. But in studying I got stuck on Jonah. Jonah is the beautiful picture of salvation as almost a precursor for what God had to come. Jonah "flees from the presence of the Lord" just as Adam had done in genesis. Jonah gets in big trouble, seeks the Lord for his salvation and is rescued from the big fish after one of the most powerful prayers in scripture. And then he goes to preach God's grace and a whole city is saved. All of this in a book that is four chapters long.

But here is the kicker, in VBS or Veggitales we don't get the whole story. After Nineveh had repented and turned to the Lord, Jonah responds in a very peculiar way. Go read Jonah 4 right now.

Jonah wanted himself to be killed after he did what God asked him and prevailed. Now if you were called by God to go to Las Vegas to preach gospel and the entire city turned and repented, would your response be to ask God to kill you?

We are taught growing up that Jonah ran because he was scared of the response in Nineveh, that he would be persecuted or even killed. Or as in Veggitales slapped by fish. But if that were his motivation, why would Jonah say in chapter 4 that he fled to Tarshish because he knew the lord was good? He knew the Lord would be gracious and save Nineveh.

I listened to a message on thegospelcoalition.org that gave me one school of thought. Jonah hated the people of Nineveh. They were not part of God's chosen people. Therefore if they were not a part of Israel, they were a threat to Israel. So in Jonah's mind, his nation would be better off without Nineveh so he wanted God to destroy it. So he fled.

Here is the beautiful part: Jonah was told to preach the glory of God to a city of idolaters. But really, Jonah himself had an idol, his nation. Jonah put the security of his nation over the salvation of this other nation. He put the security of Israel over God's calling. God used the big fish to break Jonah of his Idol worship. This moment can be found in chapter 2 verse 8&9. In his prayer he realized he needed to follow after Gods call.

What are the idols in your life? What are the thing that if they were taken away, they would cause you to ask God for your death to come?

Putting aside my Martha

I am coming to what seems to be an awesome season in my life. God has opened doors to opportunities that I would have neve dreamed of. God has been providing abundantly for me financially. God has taught me lessons to help me cast aside my pride for His glory.

I think a lot of what has caused this to happen goes along with the last one there. Putting my pride aside. Too often I set out to prove what I can do on my own. To prove my self sufficiency. To show the world just how much I can balance and how excellent I can do it. And a lot of what I am doing is centered around serving the Lord.

This season full of opportunity is also full of decision making. I randomly tuned my truck radio to a Charles Stanley message tonight. His main point in the message was basically asking how we determine what is God's will for our lives and the only way we can know is to really be in His Word and meditating on it day and night. The fact that I randomly tuned to this almost brought tears to my eyes because it was something I needed to hear. That if I ask of God, and what I ask is in His will for my life, I should be 100 percent confident it is going to happen. Powerful stuff.

After hearing this, I was excited to dive into the Word tonight. I am doing a one year plan that is already laid out. It breaks up the bible in four parts.

The first part was out of psalms. Psalm 16 to be exact. Powerful in my life right now because it's reassurance that God has a plan for my life. He will not abandon me. I have a BEAUTIFUL inheritance. He is my counselor and stirs in my heart even as I sleep. Powerful stuff.

So far, Stanley's set up for what God is teaching me tonight was already powerful. Then I moved on to Genesis where God proves that He can provide what seemed unreal to Abraham. In fact Abraham laughed, literally, when God told Him that he would have a son at 99 years of age. Nothing I ask is outside of Gods reach. So powerful combined with Psalm 16.

Well that wasn't enough for the night, my next reading was 1 Chronicles 17.

Part of something I am struggling is how to respond to blessings from the Lord. I don't have an answer to that. But David did. After God ,asking His promise, David didn't understand why he was being blessed so. But he DID know who deserved the Glory for it and he made it known.

Well so far God has led me to three passages, all of which taught me a valuable lesson about things I am going through. But then...

Next section was Luke 10 where we are introduced to Mary and Martha. In response to God's blessing...Jesus visiting them...Martha went into panic serve mode. She had to make sure everything is right. Mary fell at the feet of Jesus, taking in lessons he had to teach her.
THEN IT HIT ME

I realized that God is teaching me to put aside my Martha. Stop doing. Set it all aside and take in the lessons he is teaching me.In my obedience and willingness to lay down my pride and let go of some of my responsibility, God has blessed me with a season of sitting at His feet and learning. Just like through all the scripture I had just read through. And like David did in the passage above...I will remember to give Him all the glory.

#blessed

Leadership Lessons from Nehemiah

First off, IM BACK!

        Couple years ago I read a book that talked about Nehemiah and his God Ordained passion. If you read through the first two chapters of Nehemiah, you begin learn this story of a man who has his heart broken for a people. Nehemiah was cup bearer for the king which was a pretty easy job. He pretty much had it made. Ran into some people, who like him, were from Jerusalem and informed him that the walls had been torn down. Now back in those days, walls were everything to a city. It was what protected the city from pillagers and wars. People depended heavily on their city being protected by a wall. When Nehemiah heard this, he became heart broken. The author described it as a "God ordained passion" or something that causes you to beat your fist on the table crying out of an emotional response to your passion. Long story short, the king physically saw Nehemiah's heartbreak and God provided IMMEASURABLY more than Nehemiah needed in order to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall over the next chapter.  Coolest part, Nehemiah had no experience or expertise in wall building. He went from his crazy comfortable position in the kingdom, to being an untrained wall builder, but that didn't hold him back. 

       So Nehemiah, if you can't tell, was a guy that was sensitive to God's "still small voice." His response to heartbreak was to fast and pray for days. But what I'm learning from reading more into Nehemiah is how great of an example of a leader he is. So starting in chapter 4, after the wall is half way built, the problems start coming his way. First, They face trouble from the outside. Other rulers in the area hear what Nehemiah is doing and begin to plot against him. Word gets back to Nehemiah that they are under threat of attack. His response is outstanding. Nehemiah rallies his people. He prepares people to defend the wall and tells them to "Remember the Lord" because Nehemiah knew who was in control. (And on a side note, different lesson from the same chapter. Nehemiah had the people of Jerusalem continue working with one hand, and with a weapon in the other hand. Great example for how we should do kingdom work. Always move forward on what God has called you to, but be prepared for Satan to attack. Always be working, and ready in the same. Never let your guard down on the enemy)

     Disaster averted right? Nehemiah handled it well, enemies decided not to attack because they knew that Nehemiah was aware of their plan. butttttttttt something else happened. So threat from outside extinguished. But then there became an outcry from the inside. The people from Jerusalem had been rescuing fellow Jews from slavery in places outside of Jerusalem. But when a lack of food became and issue, people started selling their land, and families to people within Jerusalem. So they were rescuing these people from slavery and putting them back into slavery. Didn't make sense. So financial unrest combined with a lack of food forced people to cry out. Nehemiah stepped in and showed the ones doing the wrong why they were doing wrong. They agreed it was a wrong and promised to stay away from it. 

What you can take away as a leader....

1. Responding to OUTSIDE threats to your God Ordained Passion: 

BE READY! Satan doesn't want you to accomplish what God has placed on your heart. Be expecting he will bring everything in on you from the outside. Whether it's financial struggles, illness, accidents, bad school work, or even busyness. Be prepared. Continue your work with one hand while staying on guard with the other. 

2. Responding to INSIDE threats to your God Ordained Passion:

 In anything, especially ministry, I have learned your going to face issues from the inside. Whether it is a small disagreement about ways things should be done, or someone completely trying to destroy what you are doing from the inside. But look at how Nehemiah responded in Nehemiah 5:6-7 

 "⁶I was very angry when I heard^(F) their outcry and these words. ⁷I took counsel with myself,"

    He could have busted in and made a big fuss. But no, Nehemiah got his composure when he caught himself getting angry. He knew what God had called him to do. He knew that this was going to get in the way. He faced this issue head on after getting his composure. Something all leaders NEED to get.


more to come soon...hopefully.

Let's Risk the Ocean

        Last week was one of the most eye opening weeks of my life. I spent a week the furthest west I have ever been, in the delta of Mississippi at the intersection of two roads in a community called Ferrell-Sherard. This place automatically finds a place in your heart. You literally drive on a completely straight road for an immeasurable amount of time surrounded completely by farms. You come across this cluster of small, colorfully painted homes with a brick building in the middle of them. It's the Habitat for Humanity guest house where me and 36 other BCM-ers were to stay. It's a place there will forever be in my memory. The people have so little there, but are completely/humbly thankful for what God has given them. The residents would introduce themselves as homeowners if they owned a home. How often do I meet someone in Kennesaw to hear "I am Steven and I am a homeowner?" Never. One couple ( the pastor and his wife) came and met with us one night to tell us we would be working on their house some. Come to find out these people had lost two homes and two children. Still so faithful and relient on the Lord. One home lost in a fire, another lost in tornado. I heard the wife, Mrs. Debbie, telling us about giving her sons organs up when he passed and her emotion when she met the man who had her sons heart. She said, while getting teary eyed, the connection was so strong. I write all this to say that sometimes when God calls us, we don't know what we are in for. In the end, all our fears come back to one thing, the unknown.
     While we were in Mississippi I was asked to do a devotional one of the nights and I hit on this very topic. I used a scene from Monsters Inc. to set this up. There is a great scene where "Boo" is discovered in the restaurant and the people go into mass panic mode. They don't know what happens when a child is in their world. The mosters overreact and start seeing/saying crazy things like the kid blew up a car. Basically showing a perfect example of how we react to the fear of the unknown. So I wondered how I could tie this into some scripture and thought of a story in Matthew 8:23-27.
     Jesus and the disciples get on a boat, whether it was to travel or to get a break from the crowds, and Jesus goes down into the deck to sleep. A storm comes up and whips the boat around scaring the disciples. They quickly go get Jesus out of fear who in reply asked them why they have so little faith and stops the storm. I chuckle when I read that passage. Think of the disciples freaking out like the monsters from the movie. I can imagine them running down there "Jesus help! The waves are 100 feet high. This is the worst storm I've ever seen. The boat will be destroyed." and Jesus simply tells the storm to be calm, and they are over. I bet the disciples (although in awe), felt like ding dongs, for lack of a better term.
     The crazy thing is, jump back a few books and look at the kind of disciples Jesus picked out. Matthew 4:18-21 talks about disciples who, when called, "immediately"(nasb) or "at once"(niv) got up and followed him. They were more than willing to serve even though they had to give up their known (being fishermen) for the much scarier unknown.
    A lot of us are ready and willing to serve. One perfect example I think of in my circle of friends is a guy named Daniel. There is a guy who's heart is willing to serve no matter where God leads. Something I admire greatly. Daniel recently got accepted to Journeymen where he found out Thursday, he will be serving in Japan. On friday Japan experienced one of the most intense natural disasters in history. Everything in my gut says God has big plans in Japan after that. Yet Daniel, who is facing I'm sure an unbelievable amount of unknowns has not wavered.
    Many of us are like the disciples, and like my friend Daniel. We are ready to go where God leads us, but unknowns cripple us. What we have to realize is God will calm those storms. Bottom line, Romans 8 especially verses 28-30. God takes care of those he calls, and gets the glory for it. Win win situation. Love. Like Crowder says in his new song on the Passion cd, "Let's risk the ocean, there's only grace"