Living Proof: Painting A Picture Of Jesus

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In the Bible, disciples of Christ are called "witnesses." In other words, the first believers to be called witnesses had personally seen Jesus and could testify to the Truth of His person and ministry to others. These first century believers were the living proof of Christ Jesus in this world.

Believers today are called witnesses, as well, as though through a personal conversion and experience of walking by faith we have come to know Christ and, most importantly, He has come to know us. We are the living proof of Jesus Christ in this world.

When I consider my life and how I am living it, how clearly might people be able to see living proof of Christ in it?

When I consider how I am allowing the gift that God created me to be manifest in my life, how clearly might people be able to see living proof of Christ in it?

When I consider who I am and what I do and how I do it, how clearly might people be able to see living proof of Christ in it?

Each of our lives are meant to be a portrait of Christ and a living witness to the wonder that He is. Each of our lives are meant to be a picture of Who He is that is unique to us alone, and yet one in theme with the portraits written upon the lives of believers all over the world.

We need not have paint and canvas and easel. The tools with which we paint our portrait of Christ are personal humility, quiet confidence in Christ, and a compassionate hope for all those around us.

As you watch this wonderful video, please consider how God may already be or may be desiring to paint such a portrait of Christ as this upon the days on your life.

David's Crummy Army

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After some time serving in Saul's palace as a musician, David's presence began to anger Saul and Saul purposed to kill him. Tipped off to this by his best friend Jonathan (who was also Saul's son), David fled into the desert wilderness.

There, God provided David with the army he would need to accompany him, protect him, and fulfill the ultimate will of God in placing David upon the throne of Israel. You would think that God would send a big army, or at least a smaller group of Israel's very elite soldiers. But God didn't do that. In fact, in 1 Samuel 22:2, we see that God ended up sending David a crummy army.

The Distinct Qualities of a Crummy Army
The men that God sent to David had three distinct qualities:

1. They were all distressed. The original Greek definition of the word "distressed" in this verse speaks of a person who is oppressed or has a disability.

2. They were all in debt. The original Greek definition of the word "in debt" in this verse speaks of a person who is in financial debt, while noting the possibility that the person also may have been led astray, is mentally deluded, or has been morally seduced.

3. They were all discontented. The original Greek definition of the word "discontented" in this verse speaks of a person who has a bitter vitality (in other words, as opposed to a person who is grumpy sometimes, a person whose bitterness has a life of its own).

So this was the army that God caused to gather themselves unto David, the men with whom He surrounded him, the men of whom He would make David captain......

They were oppressed or had a disability, were in financial debt and perhaps led astray or deluded or seduced, and they were men whose bitterness had a life of its own.

What a crummy army.

Trained Up In The Pasture
David was anointed as a child by the prophet Samuel, Samuel initially looked upon the outward appearance of Jesse's sons and was unable to see God's elect. God admonished Samuel that "I do not look upon outward appearance but upon the heart." The moment Samuel began to approach his assignment in the Spirit, he was led to ask if there were any more sons, David was brought to him, and Samuel saw the chosen of Israel and anointed him.

And then David assumed the throne, right? No, he didn't.

David went back to the pasture where the sheep were. There, he had been learning all about caring for and protecting his father's sheep. And in quieter moments, he would simply worship God. Years later, having been trained up in an earthly pasture to care for and protect his earthly father's earthly sheep, David would be called to care for and protect His heavenly Father's sheep (the children of Israel) as king of Israel. And he never forgot the importance of the worship he had learned in that same earthly pasture.

One Man's Desert Is Another Man's Pasture
David may have felt that he would need a proficient army to survive the rigors of the desert wilderness and the pursuits of Saul, but the reason that God sent these specific men to David had nothing to do with David. It had to do with them.

You see, God had purposed that these 400 men would go with David to be trained up in the desert wilderness just as David had been trained up in the pasture.

As they traveled from plain to plain, mountain to mountain, valley to valley, cave to cave, God led and guided and protected David and his army at every turn. There were times when Saul would arrive at David's camp to find it abandoned just before, with the campfires still smoking, no doubt. Through His Holy Spirit, you see, God had warned David and his army of Saul's impending approach. They were learning what it meant to be men of war, men of obedience and men of worshipful adoration of God Almighty.

The desert wilderness through which they were chased was the same to those men as the pasture had been to David in his youth. It was God school, and they learned lessons to last a lifetime. Both the pasture and the desert were far away from their "home", their comfort, and their preferences, and so it is for us.

One man's desert is another man's pasture, and this is born out in the original Hebrew definition of the word "wilderness"; it means either "desert" or "pasture."

A Destiny Forged In The Desert, A Purpose Founded In The Pasture
We know of the Godly purpose, founded in that sheep pasture as a youth, that would eventually be realized in David.

But these 400 men, so marred and troubled when they first came to David, had a Godly destiny of their own. Having been trained up in the desert wilderness, they were later referred to as "the mighty men of valor". Yes, these 400 men in David's crummy army grew up in God to become the generals of Israel.

Going by their outward appearance, by their attitudes, by their actions, by their track records, no one could have predicted that these 401 men would amount to anything at all. But God saw their hearts, and knew their destinies, and had a purpose for each of them. For us, too.

Calling All Crummy Soldiers!
Say, are there more times than you'd like to mention when you feel oppressed? Do you sometimes feel like you have a spiritual disability? Are you financially in over your head, or feel confused or weak at times? Is it possible that you privately harbor bitter resentment that just won't go away, hard as you try?

There's a train pulling up at the railway station of your heart. Look up at the destination on the railside display, my friend. It says either "Desert" or "Pasture." Either way, this gut-wrenching but very necessary trip is in your future, and it leads to blessings unimaginable!

Be encouraged by God's Word that we've considered today, my friends. God knows your heart and He has a very special destiny and purpose for your life. He will never be disappointed in you, He will never leave you, and He will always be there to teach you about His thoughts and ways. He is your biggest fan, and He knows where you're headed. Trust Him, and He will lead you through the desert or pasture to a land of promise.

By the same token, do you have some people in your life that fit the "crummy army" description we've learned today? It is easy to look at others' outward appearance, attitudes, actions, and track record and form what we suppose to be a Godly, Biblical opinion. Maybe, though, we need to heed God's instruction to Samuel. Maybe we need to pause for a moment and ask God to reveal to us the hearts of those who stand at our sides. Maybe that's not really an annoying, obnoxious weirdo beside us at all. Maybe it's a future mighty man of valor.

If We Can Do It......
Whether it is in a pasture that is at times viciously attacked by lions and bears, or a wilderness seemingly devoid of any kindness or sustenance at all, we learn of God's plan for us. But we also learn something greater, a foundational Truth that is the underpinning of all else that we will ever learn from God. Whether it is in the pasture or in the wilderness, we learn one thing.

If we can do it, God's not in it.

Scary as it may be, we must release it all to Him. We must give Him our everything, and trust in Him alone. There will be wounds and failures in the desert and in the pasture but, in the end, God will have created within us something of eternal value...

A faithful child.


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Below is a skit version of the Max Lucado book entitled You Are Special. It is performed by young believers as someone narrates the story by reading Max Lucado's book. Please check it out; it ties in nicely with what is written above.

The Winepress of His Love

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God allows things - trials and tribulations - to come into our lives to help along the process of our transformation. As we walk through these testings with Christ, our ways of the independent flesh are replaced with God's ways as we become dependent upon Him through the Spirit.
 
God wants to get down to the real us - the "Spirit" us. And so he allows us, like grapes, to be squeezed until all that is left is the juice, the wine, the Spirit.
 
It's not fun being in the winepress of His love, not in the flesh, anyway. It discomforts....our flesh. It hurts.....our flesh. It destroys....our flesh. It is a place of learning, of chastening, of correction, of spiritual transformation.
 
And, as the winepress of God's love tightens around our fleshly perception of ourselves and our fleshly opinions and our fleshly priorities and our fleshly goals, then - one by one - they are broken and then crushed amidst His love for us.
 
It is a disconcerting, disappointing and humbling experience to watch the skin, and the stem, and the pulp and the seeds of our own personalities spew forth as we are transformed to have the personality of Christ.
 
But, in the end, all that is left......is Wine.
Spirit.
Truth.
And Peace.
 
And this is a precious vision of our Father's love, that when we do not choose the right way, He will choose to bring us back to it.
 
Gently as possible.
Firmly as needed.
This is the Love of our Father.
 
Now no chastening for the present seemeth joyous, but grievious: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Hebrews 12:11

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In her song Less Like Scars, Sara Groves sings so eloquently of this process of change and growth and transformation in Christ. Please read the lyrics, watch the video, and be blessed as you reflect upon this aspect of the Journey that we are all sharing.





Less Like Scars

It's been a hard year
But I'm climbing out of the rubble
These lessons are hard
Healing changes are subtle
But every day it's

Less like tearing, more like building
Less like captive, more like willing
Less like breakdown, more like surrender
Less like haunting, more like remember

And I feel you here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars and more like
Character

Less like a prison, more like my room
It's less like a casket, more like a womb
Less like dying, more like transcending
Less like fear, less like an ending

And I feel you here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars

Just a little while ago
I couldn't feel the power or the hope
I couldn't cope, I couldn't feel a thing
Just a little while back
I was desperate, broken, laid out, hoping
You would come

And I need you
And I want you here
And I feel you

And I know you're here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad, bad situation
But you are able

And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars (x3)

And more like
Character

Paul Potts: Hidden Treasures

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Paul Potts, the now winner of the Britain's Got Talent competition, had a moving first performance before the competition's judges, which included American Idol star Simon Cowell.

Before his performance, Paul - a simple, down-to-earth cell phone salesman - spoke of how it was difficult for him to have confidence. Even as he spoke with the judges before he performed, one could sense his hesitation to believe in his gift.

But when this man opened his mouth and began to share the vocal gift that he has within him, the audience, judges and viewers alike were left stunned by the astounding beauty of his voice.

I, like may others, wept as I listened to this man sing out the treasure that was hidden within him.

People of faith can be much like Paul. We know that we are just "regular people," though we hear and would probably like to believe that each of us has been made to be a special gift to others. We'd like to believe that there is a spiritual treasure within us, hidden away, that might touch or bless or perhaps even inspire others around us. Yet too often, we are afraid to allow that spiritual treasure within to see the light of day for lack of confidence.

As you listen to Paul speak of his battles with confidence, and then hear him bravely share his wondrous gift, please consider that spiritual gift that lies within you and ponder how letting it see the light of day might profoundly affect others for Christ.

Get the tissue box, and enjoy.

[A quiet smile and an appreciative nod to Kent at Faithfully Dangerous for his original post about this video. Thanks, Kent]

It's All About The One

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I organized a team of 15 traveling to Sandy Lake, Ontario, Canada to do a Vacation Bible School, outreach and special services at the Native Reserve there. The drive is 1425 miles to Red Lake, Ontario, Canada and 300 miles by plane from there.

Arriving in Red Lake in time for our flight, I was informed that our plane had gone "mechanical,” meaning "IT BROKE!” A smaller plane was available, but it could manage only about 7 of the team. It seemed as though the decision had been made for us.

After prayer, I sent half the team on to Sandy Lake on the smaller plane and got a hotel for the rest of us. That afternoon we drove over to the lake for a picnic and some swimming. The water is very cold and not too many went in, but everyone was having fun.

I watched as an Indian walked around the lake towards our bus. Once within earshot he called out, "Pastor?" Puzzled I swung around answering, "Yes, may I help you?" "You don't remember me do you,” he asked quizzically. Still perplexed I answered, "No, I don't!" "It was 3 years ago you lead my wife and I to the Lord at a tent meeting on the reserve,“ he explained. He went on to tell the story of their conversion, their move to Winnipeg, Manitoba, how they had walked away from God, and their subsequent return to this area.

He continued, "Last week my wife and I decided that we needed help! We knelt down in the kitchen and prayed for God to send you back into our lives and here you are!" I was dumbfounded, I could say nothing but wonder at the hand of God working in our lives. Later that evening I dropped off the team at the hotel, taking a young brother with me to visit the couple and, there in their kitchen, they renewed their commitment to Jesus.

One week later my wife, daughter and I flew out of the reserve early to prepare the bus for the home trip. While in a diner a young man entered, walked to my table and greeted us. It was a former pastor, who had fallen into sin. I greeted him and asked what he was doing here, I thought that he was in Manitoba. His answer shocked me. "I was, but I felt as though I had to fly to Red Lake this morning, I don't know why. Then as I walked down the street I saw the Ohio plates on the bus and knew that you were here."

I queried, "What can I do for you?" His answer brought tears to my eyes, "I need to talk to you about my soul!"

1425 miles, a broken plane, delays in my schedule all for the ONE person that God would have me touch. One at the lake, one in the diner.

It is all about the one.

When Christ hung on the cross it was about one.

Lord, give me the willingness to go to the one!

Insinuations

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The author of "Insinuations" says that it speaks to how we as Christians sometimes "go through the motions of kindness, while not loving and accepting the way that Jesus did."

There are many people both outside and within the Church that are desperately attempting to make a connection with us as the people that are the Church.

It is good for us to remember that their hearts and lives - like our own - are fragile, and that we should handle them with care.

As you read this compelling writing, written from the standpoint of someone seeking to be both accepted and loved by the Church, consider God's own words to us all:

Little children, let us not love [merely] in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity).
1 John 3:18

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You think it's hard to deal with me.

What you don't understand is it's hard to depend on you.

Knowing I'm accepted, not wanted.

You've never been in this position, and you never will.

I come and I go still feeling alone.

If home is where the heart is, I have yet to find my heart.

When I leave will all be solved?

If it were so, I would not have stuck around this long.

I push myself away from you.

Because if I come too close my soul might be exposed.

And we wouldn't want that.

You might find I'm real and I hurt and I'm not made of stone.

If fact, I cry. Quite often.

But it's not for you to hear, it's for me to know. To do. To experience.

So I suppose... Let's stay this way.

Never finding out what might happen if we accept one another.

Jesus said to love. And then He died.

He didn't say "Love them if they're different and unsure."

It was only insinuated.

Example Speaks For Itself

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A couple years ago I wrote about my friends. They were the perfect couple. The husband and I roomed together in college nearly 40 years ago. While I struggled to make C's, he breezed through with all A's. After graduation while I was going through my hippie phase and hitchhiking across the country, he was going to medical school. And later when I was trying to get my construction business off the ground and I could barely afford to put food on the table, he and his wife were building a house that I could only dream of one day owning. And finally, when it seemed that all we did was referee our kids who were constantly fighting with one another, they raised four daughters whose worst sin was calling someone dumb in a fit of anger one day at school.

But his wife, the mother of the most perfect family I know, wrote us last year to say that her marriage was in serious trouble. Her husband, my friend for the past 40 years, was having an affair. At that time she said they were getting counseling and hoped to heal the rift in their marriage, but apparently it didn't help them. Last week she called to say they had separated and it looked like their 30-year-old marriage won't survive.

Yes, I know that a lot of marriages end up in divorce, but not this couple. They had everything going for them. They both came from good families who really cared for one another. They are deeply committed in their faith. They have no financial worries that can destroy even the strongest marriages. And when I say their kids were the ones that everyone would compare to their own children and ask, "Why can't you be like their girls?" that is no exaggeration.

So what went wrong? The obvious answer was the husband's affair, but like all marriage problems, the root causes are often far more complex than that. So, my wife and I did what we all do when our friends are hurting - we drove 200 miles to see them, to talk with them, to try to help them through their crisis.

What we learned was that their marriage was not nearly as perfect as we thought, even from the beginning. The husband said when they were first married and he was struggling in medical school, he thought about dropping out and going into real estate, but his wife made it clear that she had married a doctor, not a salesman. "I can't tell you how bad that made me feel, like she didn't even care about me," he said.

And she said that he spent more time with his patients than he did with his family, and that made her feel like he didn't care about her.

Both said they have felt all alone, married but living separate lives all these years.

I wanted desperately to have some insight into their problems, to be able to offer them some amazing bit of advice, to be able to help them somehow magically break through 30 years of hidden hurts and loneliness, but there was nothing I could say. I just listened.

Later that day when we were all driving back to what was now just the wife's house, on the busiest road in town, my car just stopped running, backing up traffic behind us for blocks. So I put on the emergency blinkers and called 911, and for the next hour all four of us stood there, stuck in traffic 200 miles from home and waited for the tow truck to arrive.

My and I didn't think we said anything special, but when we left our two friends that night they both thanked us for what we said to them on the side of the road about their marriage.

"But we didn't say anything about marriage there," I said. "We mostly talked about where to get the car fixed."

"That's what we mean," they said. "You didn't get angry or blame each other. You just talked about how to work out the car problem together. We've never done that, but maybe we can try that now."

Tony Hall, who spent 24 years in Congress and is now the chief United States spokesman in the world fight against hunger, once said that he would rather see a sermon than hear one. I think that's what our two friends were saying. For most of the day my wife and I talked and talked and talked with them about how to treat one another, but it wasn't until they actually saw it lived out in my wife and I waiting for a tow truck in the middle of a busy intersection that they actually heard us.

Like the commercial says: "Tow truck - $100. Car rental - $150. Transmission repairs - $300. Helping two friends get back on the right track - priceless."

Where The Streets Have No Name

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One of our nameless, faceless friends recently made us aware of this video of the U2 song Where The Streets Have No Name. In doing so, they share:

"This is by far my favorite video of all time. If you are not familiar with this, it is a portion of the half time show at the 2002 Super Bowl four months after 911. Five years later it still brings a shiver up my spine and a lump to my throat."

We concur, and believe that you will, too.

How precious a gift now and at the time it was first shared, when believers and unbelievers alike were searching their hearts as to how to respond to such unspeakable horror as that which took place on September 11, 2001.

In the midst of loss, God has a wondrous way of manifesting Himself more than ever before. "When one of us dies," my young son once told me, "two more of us will step forward as never before."

How precious a gift this song is, then, when so many more than one of us had died.

How precious a gift from God that through it He would lovingly draw our eyes away from the sometimes disturbing episodes in our Journey and point us back to the superceding wonder of our Destination.

Oh, what a joy it will be to see the streets of New Jerusalem, glorious and pure. The Streets With No Name.

Thank You, Father, for replacing unspeakable horror with Your unspeakable gift.

Click on the arrow in the middle of the screen below to play the video of U2's Where The Streets Have No Name.

Hope and The Church

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As we seek to become that which God intended His Church to be, we must have hope born of Him, and retain that hope with an utmost confidence in His ability to transform us into the image of His Son.




If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.
Thomas Merton

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite a virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
Reinhold Niebuhr

If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
Arundhati Roy

Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.
When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"
Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up.
He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what He had said.
That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right."
But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.
Romans 4:17-25

A Sam's Club Kind of Faith Community

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I was shaving this morning and thanking God for a little thing. I was thanking Him that I had discovered that, while I would have to pay upwards of $8.00 for 4 razor blades for my shaver, I could buy 20 blades at Sam's Club for about $30.00. That's 25% less! I get more, and it costs me less.

Different Kinds of Stuff, And Lots Of It
People love Sam's Club because you can find almost anything you'd want to buy at their giant, sprawling stores. You can get a lot of different kinds of stuff there, and whatever kind of stuff you'd like to get, you can get a lot of it.

When you've been shopping in a regular grocery, Sam's Club overwhelms you. From floor to ceiling, from side to side as far as you can see, there's beautiful stuff everywhere. You know the way you feel the first time you walk into a Catholic cathedral? That's how people in the world feel when they walk into a Sam's Club for the first time. Complete, speechless awe.

You see, satan binds people by offering them temporary escape from their problems with a false form of comfort that’s always running out. That false form of comfort might be alcohol or drugs or sex or soap operas or football games or biting their nails. The effects are always temporary, and the supply always runs out. People who trust in a false form of comfort are always wanting and needing.

As believers, though, we should walk out of every encounter with Christ saying what people who are shopping at Sam’s Club sometimes do. "How in the world am I going to use all this stuff?"

And that's the point. We can't use all of what He's given us for ourselves. It's too much. It's too big. From the floor to the ceiling of our hearts, from side to side of our lives as far as you can see, there's beautiful stuff everywhere.

"How in the world are we going to use all this stuff?" By giving it away to a needy world.

.....At A Lower Cost
People also love Sam's Club because you pay less there. Since Sam's Club is so big, they can buy everything at a lower cost, and pass on the savings to the customers they serve.

In Revelation 3:18, Jesus tells the Laodicean church, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

Jesus is our storehouse. We can buy wondrous things from Him - big things - at a much lower price than weight and sin will extract from us. And it's not just so we'll be blessed. It's so that we may pass these blessings on to others.

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

On a physical level, consumers at Sam's Club and - on a spiritual level - the lost in this world are concerned with the "cost of living."

On a physical level, Sam's Club and - on a spiritual level - much of the church today is sometimes concerned with the "cost of giving."

This is an important understanding for believers, because our attitude about giving reflects what we perceive to be "the cost of giving." If we are consumed with what we perceive to be an endless struggle through life, in spite of our Christianity, we will eventually become bitter and resentful toward those in need. What's more, we'll not be able to spiritually recognize just how much God has given and is giving to us. We won't be able to see that daily He has loaded us with blessings.

You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
Hebrews 10:34-35

And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so.
Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little‘;
2 Corinthians 8:10-15

The bottom line is that when we daily comprehend and joy in the great blessings we have received from God at a price to us that is so low, we will be able to "pass on the savings" to others.

Free Gifts
Another reason that people love Sam's Club is because there are people standing around all over the place giving you free samples of stuff. Not expensive stuff, but neat stuff or tasty stuff. And it's cool because it's all free.

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Romans 8:32

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Ephesians 2:8

Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
Acts 3:6

And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Matthew 10:7-8

We in the church may not have silver and gold, but that's not what people are really looking for, either. We do have what people are really looking for; peace with God through salvation in Christ Jesus. We have comfort. We have joy. We have hope.

When people come to church, wouldn't it be wonderful if they saw people standing around all over the place giving you free samples of that kind of stuff? Neat stuff or tasty stuff. And it would be really cool, because it was all free.

Try It For Free!
At Sam's Club, anyone can get a free membership for a day. That means they treat you like a real member for the day that you're visiting. It doesn't matter how you're dressed or how you talk or what side of town you're from; anyone can be treated like a full-fledged member on the day they're visiting. The employees are really nice to you, too, and you walk around the place in wonder, thinking, "Wow, I would love to be able to be a member and come here all the time. There's so much neat and tasty stuff here, it's stacked up so wide and so tall, it's everywhere! And everyone is so nice and helpful."

So that servant came, and [told] his lord [that all whom He had at first invited to His supper had refused]. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

Luke 14:21-23

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
John 13:34-35

But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.
John 12:32

When people come to church, wouldn't it be wonderful if they felt as though they were loved like a full-fledged member and not just as a visitor? Imagine those people visiting church and receiving all that neat stuff and tasty stuff from people that really seemed to love them and each other.

The Best of Both Kinds.....
Our churches are not meant to be a bunch of isolated, independent Mom and Pop corner stores. Mom and Pop corner stores are nice because you know the people that work and shop there. It's comfortable and familiar.

But there's a lot of stuff that you can't get at a Mom and Pop corner store that you can get at Sam’s Club.

I think that Jesus would like us to understand that instead of our churches being isolated, independent Mom and Pop corner stores in our town, we are actually like different departments in a Godly Sam's Club.

Each department offers something different, and lots of it, at a great price. Some people will tend to shop more in certain departments, but at some point we all will venture into every department in this Godly Sam's Club and be able to experience the loving wonder of His blessings and the loving touch of His people who work there.

If the leadership and management of Sam's Club could ever their stores to feel like a Mom and Pop corner store, no one would ever shop anywhere else again.

When people come to church, wouldn't it be wonderful if they experienced the intimacy of our welcoming love, coupled with the wonder of God's storehouse of blessings? That would give our Godly Sam's Club the intimate, friendly feel of a Mom and Pop corner store. And if that were the case, it's hard to imagine people in the world ever wanting to "shop" anywhere else again.

It's A Good Thing To Be Unpopular With satan
Now, when a Sam's Club moves into a community, there is sometimes a great outcry against it. It comes from Mom and Pop corner stores who claim (and rightfully so) that Sam's Club will eventually draw everyone away from their own stores. They claim that, because of Sam's Club's ability to provide more to people at a lower cost, people will eventually completely abandon Mom and Pop corner stores and they will forced to close.

While this might be bad news in the business world, it is great news in the spiritual world. The writing is on the wall for Mom and Pop churches that have chosen to be isolated and independent from the rest of God‘s people and the world of the lost. }

God is bringing together His people to manifest the oneness that He gave them through His Holy Spirit through whatever means necessary; gently as possible, firmly as needed.

God is building a Sam's Club that feels like a Mom and Pop store.

You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:5

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22

satan is scared of this. satan doesn't want a Godly Sam's Club that feels like a Mom and Pop store. He doesn't want that kind of a manifestation and demonstration of God's great blessings or our great love. It was the same way with satan and his followers in the days of Acts.

And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.
And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto
them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;
Acts 17:2-6

When Paul preached Christ, it turned the world upside down. When Paul preached Christ, Jews, Greeks and many important women believed on Him. As we learn Christ, live Christ and preach Christ it will be the same. Through God's Holy Spirit, many different peoples will be transformed into one Body by one Christ.

In Closing
So, yes, there will be opposition, but it spite of that opposition God will bring many souls to Himself and transform them. What's the right way to handle opposition?

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
Acts 4:29-30

Notice how it was okay for the disciples in this passage to ask God to be aware of the great opposition that was facing them. But, having done that, they then turned their attention to where it should be; upon God and upon those in need.

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness. Stretch out Your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.

Focusing too much on opposition makes everything about "us." And it's not about us anymore. It's about God, and it's about those who are still without Christ, broken and hurting and without hope. It's about them. So we must acknowledge that opposition is imminent and ask for God's help, but then turn to God for His unmerited favor that we might stretch forth His hand to the world.

In turning my own eyes away from myself and toward the lost, I am asking myself a question and answering it with the only answer I can give:

Do I think the world is ready to receive big blessings from God at a low price ("For my yoke is easy, and My burden is light"), in an awe-inspiring storehouse of God that feels like a Mom and Pop store, surrounded by welcoming people that pour out their sincere love for them and each other?

"Welcome to Sam's Club. How may I help you today?