obedience

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 31-10-2007

Category : God, choice, faith, trust

Tags: , , ,

   

Sometimes the hardest thing we can do is be obedient to God.  I have spent my entire life making decisions out of selfishness and based on what I think would be “best” for me.  That all comes very naturally to me.  But the more I’ve learned about God, the more I realzie that’s not how I need to live my life.  I need to find a way to submit to God’s direction for my life.  But I find this unnatural.  I find it difficult to listen to him, and even harder to follow through. 

Of course it’s only difficult to listen if he’s telling me something I don’t want to hear!  And that’s the real challenge, you aren’t submitting to God until your will and his are at odds.  It’s only submission when you disagree. 

But it’s not as if God asks us to act without evidence or reason.  I can easily call to mind examples of where I listened to God despite disagreeing.  And in each and every one of those times I was amazed by what he’s done.  So why is it that each time I’m confronted with that decision, it feels so impossible to make?  Why is it, as they say, that my spirit is so willing, but my flesh so weak?

Is it stubborness?  Pride?  Greed? Laziness?  Are these the reasons why I find it so difficult to be obedient to God?  I’m sure they play a role.  What it comes down to, I think, is that I simply want that final decison.  I want to be the one making the choices.  And I’m not really interested in making choices that put me in dangerous or vulnerable situations. 

And that’s often exactly what God is calling us to do.  He intentionally puts us in dangerous situations.  He intentionally calls us to be vulnerable with people.  He calls us to be open, to show love, and to embrace people who might laugh at us.  And that’s hard to do!

In the end I need to trust God knows what he’s doing.  And while that’s hard to do, the alternative isn’t really an attractive option for me.  I’ve changed too much to find “my way” totally appealing. 

i’m a christian because of the money

1

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 22-10-2007

Category : God, choice, faith, prayer, radical, trust

Tags: , , , , ,

   

It may seem strange to say this, but money is the reason I’m a Christian.

“Wha-?!”  I know, that’s your reaction.  You’re either thinking I’m crazy – because for most people there is very little profit and wealth to be had in being a Christian.  Or you are probably saying, “I knew Christians were all about money!”

And yet it’s entirely true, I am a Christian because of money. So let me explain…

Deciding to give money to a church was the single most important decision I have ever made.  It was through that decision that God showed me who he was.  It was through that decision that I became a Christian.  It was through that decision I sit here at my computer typing out this post.

Of course I had no idea it would all turn out this way when I decided to make a financial commitment.  At the time I didn’t really believe in God.  I sort of thought maybe there was a god-like person out there.  But he certainly wasn’t concerned about me.  But for some reason I felt compelled to trust, and to give.

I vividly remember listening to this guy talk from a stage.  It was dark, but there were thousands of people there, and you could hear them shuffling around.  The guy from stage was talking about needing to build a bigger church so they could make room for their friends.  He talked about God, and sacrifice, and blessings, and faith, and trust.  Finally he asked us to pray.  He asked us to listen for what God might want us to do with our money. 

There was no pressure.  No threat of damnation or condemnation.  Just a simple request that we ask God what we should do – and that we follow through when God gave us his answer. 

Prior to that moment I had only taken prayer seriously on a few occasions.  And I’m not sure I had ever considered God might answer me!  I had always assumed prayer was a one way event – I talk, he listens.  So this was a new experience for me.  As I sat there, aware of my surroundings, but also not, a number popped into my head.  A big number.  A number much bigger than I would have wanted to give.  In fact, 3 times what I had planned on giving.

I had wanted to play it “safe.”  Give just what I knew I could afford, but nothing that would prevent me from living a lifestyle that I wanted. 

But this….this was risky.  This was dangerous.  As Erwin McManus says, I was hearing the Barbarian Call.  If I went with this new number it was going to be a serious financial burden.  It was going to impact my life.  I wouldn’t be able to go out with friends as much.  I’d have to cut back on a lot of things.

I can’t really say why I went with it, but I wrote that number down and turned it in.  I found I was both terrified and relieved.  I didn’t have that kind of money saved anywhere.  I didn’t even make enough to cover the difference.  I just trusted that the “voice” I heard was God, and not the burrito I had eaten for lunch.  For the first time in my life I actually trusted God.

And that simple decision changed my life forever.

Slowly God used that simple act of trust to remind me of what he could do.  He began to encourage me to trust him in other areas.  And each time I trusted I was both terrified and relieved.  Now whenever I reach a moment where I’m afraid to act, God reaches back and says, “remember when you thought that number was too big?  Remember when you said, ‘I can’t do this’?  Well, remember how I did it for you?”

There is nothing more encouraging than stepping out in faith and allowing God to lead you.  Learning for certain that there is a God who cares about your life and your happiness is one of the most freeing experiences a person can ever have.    

So that’s why money is the reason I’m a Christian.

who am I?

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 12-09-2007

Category : God, Saul, bible, choice, faith, old testament

Tags: , , , , ,

Sometimes God calls us to do scary things.  He calls us to leave the comforts of our homes and become missionaries.  He calls us to change jobs so we can start ministries.  Sometimes he even asks us to do something really terrifying: talk to our friends about him!  

In my life it seems every time God asks me to do something crazy I go through the same process.  First I say, “I’m sorry, you didn’t really just say that, did you?”  Followed promptly by “d’oh!” when I realize (alright…admit) I heard him the first time.  When I begin to submit to the path God has for me, I find myself honestly asking “who am I to do such things?”

Who am I to do great things in the world?  Aren’t there more qualified people?  Better educated?  Less fearful?

In the Old Testament book of Samuel, God uses a prophet by the name of (wait for it……wait for it…..) Samuel to establish a king over Israel.  Up to this time Israel had been ruled by God.  So by demanding a human king, Israel was quite literally saying God was not good enough.  They wanted to be like everyone else, and if that meant rejecting God, they were okay with that.  They wanted to do it their way, not God’s way.     

So God goes about establishing Israel’s first king, a guy by the name of Saul.  Now not everyone has a great first day of work, and that’s certainly true of Saul.  Instead of a stirring speech, or exciting victory, we find Saul hiding with some baggage.  Not a great way to start when you’re supposed to be replacing the creator of the universe…

But Saul had a big problem: his desire to do things on his own.  (Kind of like Israel’s desire, huh?)  Saul had repeatedly demonstrated that he wasn’t interested in looking to God for help.   He wanted to do things by himself.  Who knows if he wanted to be The Man, or if he was just impatient?  But whatever his reasons, he always chose to strike out on his own. 

I think that is why he was hiding.  I think when he was selected as king he was asking himself: “who am I?”  And the answer hearing was “no one.”  And so he did something entirely reasonable – he hid.  I think if I would have been Saul, I would have hidden as well.  How could you possibly take God’s place as ruler over his chosen people?  How could your resume ever match God’s?  And to make matters worse, Saul believed he had to rely on his own abilities; that he had to do it all by himself.

His fear must have been crippling.  And so he hid. 

Whenever God asks us to do something for him it’s bound to be terrifying.  God is a radical God after all.  And we often don’t like doing something that’s different.  When God moves in our lives, we will often stand out from our friends.  We will occasionally look foolish to the world.  But we are never alone.  And we never have to do things by ourselves.  In fact, God doesn’t want us to do it alone.  Part of the reason he gives us such outlandish tasks is to show us (and the world) that he is control.   We are supposed to turn to God and ask for help. 

So the next time I’m asked to do something that scares me and I find myself asking “who am I?”  I need to follow that up with, “is God with me?” or “am I alone?”

what does God want from us?

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 11-09-2007

Category : God, choice, faith

Tags: , ,

   

“…The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’” (Acts 13:2)

     

One of the things that kept me from believing in God when I was younger was the thought that the only way to serve God was to visit old people and the sick.  Things I don’t like to do, and am not particularly good at!

But I’ve begun to see that God calls us each for a unique mission.  James (John’s brother) was beheaded, but Peter was freed from jail by an Angel.  Why?  Paul and Barnabas are given a different mission than John or Peter.  Why?

It seems to me God uses the talents he gives us for specific and often different tasks.  While I need to love people (and maybe that means I need to visit nursing homes and hospitals), maybe God’s plan for me is something different.  Maybe he wants me to use the specific talents he’s given me. 

I don’t have to follow other people’s paths; just the one God lays out for me.

the choices we make

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 29-08-2007

Category : God, choice, sin, taking action

Tags: , , ,

   

“But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9)

   

Have you ever wondered why God – the same God who just finished creating the universe – would need to ask what happened to Adam and Eve?  I mean, doesn’t it seem a bit strange that God didn’t have any problem creating the universe, but he lost a couple of naked humans in a garden?

Well it seems strange to me!  Which is exactly why I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about this! 

What I’ve come to believe is that God was giving Adam and Eve a choice.  He wanted them to decide on how they would respond once they sinned.  Will they want to hide from God?  Or will they admit what they’ve done?

In many ways, this is the very same choice we are faced with today.  When we sin (defined as anything against God’s will) do we run to God?  Or run from God? 

From the very beginning of the Bible, Christianity is a religion of choices.  Adam and Eve had a choice to make.  But just because Adam and Eve royally screwed up their choice, God didn’t revoke our choices.  In fact, the Bible is filled with people making choices.  Both the right ones, and the wrong ones. 

Israel had to decide if they wanted to worship God or pagan idols.  Jews had to decide if Jesus was the Messiah or a false prophet.  The Disciples had to choose to follow Jesus and spread his message or live to see old age.  Even today God gives us choices to make.  We are given the opportunity to help those in need, to show compassion to those around us, to reach out with a helping hand.  In short, to actively show the kind of love Jesus talked about.  Or we can turn our back on all of those things.

God never forces us to to follow him or to act in his name.  He always leaves that decision up to us.   

So why should we choose to make decisions that God approves of?  Because knowing God is more important than anything else.  At some point everything else in this world will let us down.  But God will not.  God will always be there, demonstrating his patience and his love.  That alone is enough for me to strive to make the right decisions. 

I don’t want to pretend some of the choices we face are easy.  Most of them aren’t.  And a great many of them involve giving something up.  Often times something we value a great deal.  That’s not always easy to do when you’re tired, hurting, or distracted.  Heck, it’s not always easy when your rich, prosperous, and healthy! 

Of course I certainly make more than my fair share of bad decisions.  But even in my sin I always come back to one thought: I want to run towards God, not away from God.  Sometimes I just take a longer path. 

does God exist in the dentist office?

Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 27-08-2007

Category : God, choice, taking action, trust

Tags: , , ,

   

Sometimes I want to believe that my faith will make my decisions easy.  That somehow believing in God is this magic elixir that makes everything work out.  To be honest I’m not sure where this idea comes from.  I don’t remember ever sitting down and learning this.  It’s just this thought that my mind is always drifting towards.  Of course if you look at the Bible it becomes obvious that the people closest to God are almost always those with huge challenges (some may call them disasters) in their lives.  Jonah was eaten by a whale for cryin’ out loud!

Today is one of those days where I feel like I was just eaten by a whale.  A whale named ‘the dentist’.  I went in for a routine cleaning and learned I had a cavity.  Now the real issue is that this cavity is on the same tooth I paid $250 to get fixed a few months ago.  A tooth that was part of a $5000 dental package involving removal of wisdom teeth, filling cavities, and getting a crown.  And for those of you scoring at home, it was as much fun as it sounds.

That was hard to deal with because, well, I don’t have $5000 laying around in a bucket marked “doing nothing”.  But at least in some way I felt like it was my fault.  I had skipped my regular visits to the dentist for a few years.  So in a way I thought I at least deserved some cavities or tooth problems.  Maybe not $5000 worth, but there was still some culpability there.  In my mind I told myself “lesson learned.”

Today is a different story.  Since that initial visit I’ve had 3 cleanings, I brush 2-3 times a day and floss regularly.  I’m conscientious of my diet, I don’t drink pop or coffee.  I do everything I’m supposed to in order to protect my teeth.  Sometimes I wonder if I’m too obsessive.  But it still wasn’t enough.  Now I’m staring at $1000 bill and a wasted $250 from last year.

Right now I have a choice to make.  I can choose to get the tooth fixed or I can ignore the problem and do nothing, telling myself it’s not fair. Depending what I decide, each choice comes with its own set of consequences and problems.  And while one is an obviously better solution, I am free to choose to ignore the cavity.  No one is forcing me to make the “right” choice. 

But there’s another choice for me as well, one that may not be as obvious.  I can choose to be angry, (a highly tempting choice by the way), or I can choose to accept reality and turn to God so I can demonstrate his love even though I don’t feel much like doing it.

Again each of these choices comes with consequences and God does not force us to make the “right” choice.  We have to decide for ourselves what path we want to follow.

Often we are confronted with situations where we don’t feel much like behaving like Jesus.  We don’t feel much like ascribing worth to people.  And we don’t feel much like embracing God.  But it’s in those times that it becomes crucial.  Because it is these choices that set us apart as Kingdom people.  It’s actions like this that show others we’re not just people who say nice things – but only when our lives are going well. 

The Bible is filled with choices people had to make in order to follow God.  Often times these situations were less than ideal.  And their choices cost them friends, family, money, and even their lives.  I’m sure Jesus could have escaped his fate on the cross if he chose to.  He could have called down angels or lightning or a swarm of fighter planes to protect himself.  But he chose to die. Choice is how you explain Stephen’s ability to pray for forgiveness for the very people who were throwing large rocks at him so that they could kill him.  He chose to emulate God’s love and sacrifice for all people – even those who hated him. 

There are many examples of people sacrificing everything to choose to follow God when the choice not to follow him was so much more appealing.  It kind of puts my $1000 of dental work in perspective.  But even so, I still have a choice to make. And sometimes making that choice is still difficult.

Next