A Kingdom Smackdown

I have never seen anything like this in my life. I know I am witnessing some Kingdom work getting started. A series of meetings have brought together key leaders in the state … political leaders, marketplace leaders, etc. In one of the launch meetings I was casting vision, sharing Jesus and motivating these leaders. One of the industry leaders was practical and wanted to know how impact was going to happen. What is the plan? How will this work? We were out of time and would have to take this good question up in our next gathering. I came home and wrestled with the question and many possible answers. What great answer could I give? God humbled me and after a few days clearly reminded me how the city, state and world could be reached and discipled. I needed to keep the main thing the main thing.

Men are God's method.
The Church is looking for better methods;

God is looking for better men. ”
E. M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer
 

Jesus’ strategy was not to impress the crowd, but to usher in a kingdom. Jesus needed men who could one day lead the multitudes. His worldwide plan was hinged upon reaching and developing a few ordinary men as a base on which the masses could later depend. The disciples were His “Plan A” and He had no “Plan B.” This stands in contrast to our modern day emphasis on the number of converts, rather than basic discipleship. Jesus followers became simply “missionaries cleverly disguised as neighbors, coworkers, students, employees, business owners, managers, designers, steel workers, chemists, retirees, stay at home parents, IT people, contractors, sales people, healthcare professionals, teachers and family members.”

 

Henry Varley to D.L. Moody in London: “The world has not yet seen what God will do in, and through and by and for the man totally consecrated to Him.” Moody said, “By God’s grace I’ll be that man.”

I read something this month from Eugene Peterson. One friend said this is a real smack down from St. Eugene. It stands as the reminder I needed to hear and one I trust will remind me to rely upon the power of Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Peterson says: “The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper’s concerns–how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customers will lay out more money. Some of them are very good shopkeepers. They attract a lot of customers, pull in great sums of money, and develop splendid reputations. Yet it is still shop keeping; religious shop keeping, to be sure, but shop keeping all the same. The marketing strategies of the fast-food franchise occupy the waking minds of these entrepreneurs; while asleep they dream of the kind of success that will get the attention of journalists.

“The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility in the community. The pastor’s responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades.”

Please pray Grace Adventures stays focused upon knowing Jesus and making Him known. Pray I impress the sheep with the shepherd of the sheep. Pray Jesus is lifted up because if He Is, He will draw people to Himself. Pray we stay intentional about making disciples and don’t compromise spiritual nutrition for entertainment and diets of sugar.

2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”

Pray

1. Pray for these meetings with marketplace and political leaders. Pray for modern day Daniel’s, David’s, and Joseph’s. Pray that leaders yearn to know Jesus and make Him known. Pray they develop skills in living and serve for the glory of God.

2. Pray for open doors and boldness. Pray for several new emerging opportunities in Baton Rouge.

3. Pray for revival in our land. Pray boldly. The kingdom emerges small like a mustard seed but think of what can come from it. There will be weeds but pray the wheat harvest is great (Matthew 13).

4. Pray for Donna. She works hard in the home, ministry and once again with special needs kids at Pontchartrain Elementary. She provides our medical insurance and so much more. One day I pray she will be full time with Grace Adventures and will have the time to reach out to leader’s spouses and elected women in office in special ways.

5. Praise for so many open doors. It is like Habakkuk 1:5 “Look at the nations and watch-and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”

6. Praise for a God whom never changes, always faithful, always present, always good, always in control, and always working things for my good.

Ezek. 22:30 “And I searched for a man among them … who should stand in the gap.”

Free New Resource (from SEARCH Ministries):

I give this tool to seeking people who wrestle with the “Big Questions” of life. Listen in on an honest dialogue between two good friends who want faith in God to make sense and want to build a solid basis of purpose www.thesearchformeaning.org. No nickel answers to million dollar questions here. No condescending, judgmental approaches. Discover openness, honesty and respect.

Betting the Farm on God,

Michael