Don't Judge Another Persons Journey

Theology is only kept pure if we do not base it on experiences. And so we cannot change our belief in God's Word because of any experience we have had. The Word of God is our standard, our filter, our anchor.

But things do happen in our lives which are not addressed in God's Word or are not clarified to the extent that we can make difinitive decisions about them.

If God's Word speaks neither for those experiences nor against them, then they can become an acceptable part of your journey, but we never make them a part of our core belief system.

We must make an area for these experiences in our lives. They are more like Permanant Residents or Green Card holders but not Citizens. They are always subject to deportation if they ever get out of alignment with Kingdom Law which is God's Word.

With that in mind, we have to not only allow for these experiences in our lives, but in the lives of others as well.

It is very easy to judge another persons journey and to become like a movie critic, evaluating and forming opinions about their life from a distance. Giving them a thumbs up or a thumbs down rating in our mind. Things get even more out of hand when we start sharing these opinions with other people. I think you already know this, but that's called gossip.

Luke 6:31 (NIV)

"Do to others as you would have them do to you."

We should apply this principal even to the way we talk about or think about other people.

Legalistic judgmentalism and gossip is one of the most prevelant and destructive sins in the Church today, as it has always been. We don't seem to be making much progress in cleansing our spiritual communities from this. It's to the point that when we find a Church that is more free from it, it is shocking, but in a good way.

We often hold standards over people much in the same way that the Pharicees did in Jesus' time.

Matthew 23:3-5 (NIV)

"3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 "Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;"

What the Bible says must be strictly adhered to. But on all of the subjects in which the Bible does not make distinctions, we must apply wisdom, discernment and grace. How much of what we believe is opinion or comes from tradition or even from culture rather than from pure application of the Word of God? Allot!

So the next time you begin to judge someone because of what they drink or how they entertain themselves, where or who they hang-out with (like the Pharisees did to Jesus), how a person dresses, what they do for a living, how they raise their kids, how they spend their money, what kind of Church they attend, the way they met their fiance or spouse, or the next time you start thinking to yourself that a person is "getting what they deserve" when things go wrong for them, stop yourself. That's not the devil attacking you, that's your own carnal mind bringing you down.

Will you sometimes see things that are clearly wrong according to God's Word?  Yes!  And you should confront those things with firmness and with grace.

If there are those who have a different stance then you do about the debatable issues in the Bible, then you cannot walk with them. But at the same time, you simply cannot waste your time criticizing them or being in competition with them. Let them go their way, and you go yours. Bless them then leave them alone.

Amos 3:3 (NIV)

"Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?"

Don't judge someone else's journey, because if you do, the next journey that may be judged by others could very well be your own.

Luke 6:36-38 (NIV)

36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

How to get to the next level...

I received an Email today from a well known minister in America which was an Easter greeting inviting the readers to click on the button to receive their breakthrough which included going to another level.  If you clicked on it, you would be directed to a secure portal to give your miracle seed offering by Visa, Mastercard or Paypal.  The big hint he was giving is that if you give to his ministry, he will included you in his prayers (I doubt personally since there will be thousands who click) and you will receive your miracle and hit your next level since you had the faith to sow into his ministry.

 

What came to my mind is that after Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine, the next thing He did was go and cleanse the temple in Jerusalem of people who were making God’s house into a marketplace.

You obviously have deduced by now that I probably don’t believe that giving of your finances will necessarily take you to the next level.   Well, it’s not that simple.  If God tells you by His Holy Spirit to give, then I do believe that you should and that there will be great benefit based on your obedience.  But you need to beware of manipulation.

So, how do you get to the next level?

Matthew 23:23-24 (MSG)

^23-24 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.  Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?

What is normally thought is that you have to make a change in order to make it further in this Christian life, in blessing, in anointing, in calling and more...  And when using human intellect, this would make sense.  Common sense.  After all, we know according to a famous quote by Albert Einstein that "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  In other words, if you keep doing the same thing and expect different results, you will continue to fail.  In many ways I agree, but not in achieving a higher level the Kingdom which requires the use of UnCommon Sense!

In God’s Kingdom, we must not be like the Pharisees and try to get fancy, trying to figure out some new thing or focusing on some minor thing.  (the minor thing Jesus accused them of making too big of a deal about in the above scripture was in being legalistic about tithing, but it’s just one example)   Instead, we must always be diligent to get back to the basics of what God’s Word requires of us.  If you did the basics to get to where you are now, don’t get off track, instead, get back on the track... the very same track that got you this far and go around again!  It’s like a lap race.  The more laps that you complete on the same track, the more levels you will achieve in your relationship with Christ!

What are the basics?  Jesus did not go into great detail in this scripture.  He mentioned as example, fairness, compassion and commitment.  But there are many more basics.  I will not complete the list but will add prayer life, worship, study of the Word, having accountability relationships and more.  The big word that I believe describes the basics in our Christian walk is “consistency.”  The key to achieving another level is being consistent in the basics over long periods of time. 

It is consistency in the basics that promotes you!

The more worn your trail of the basics in your relationship with God gets, the more familiar you are in the basic disciplines of your faith, the deeper your relationship will be to Jesus who is the source of all power, all wisdom, all anointing and every good thing you could possibly desire.  My advice to you?  Find out what the basics of God’s Word are and make your goal to put them into practice every day and in every way that you can.  Before you know it, you will have completed another lap in this race called life, another level in your relationship with God!

WONDER

We often say that Christmas is filled with “WONDER.”  Usually what we are talking about is how little kids are reacting to the sights & the sounds of seeing big trees lit up or when they see a present with their name on it.  I suppose they have wonder about such things because they only get them or see them occasionally. 

But we know that the Reason for the season, the only One who can provide lasting wonder in our lives is Jesus Christ.  Everything else, the decorations, the gifts and such only delight us for a moment.

But what does “wonder” really mean?  It is being so impressed with something that you wonder how it could have happened.  How did they build the pyramids?  It’s a wonder!  How did man fly to the moon?  A wonder!  More importantly, why did God send His only Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins??  That’s the greatest wonder of all!

But there are more wonders.  Wonders which are yet to come.  The Bible speaks often about Signs & Wonders being performed through believers by God and by the Holy Spirit.  Signs and wonders include miracles and supernatural deeds of all kinds.

And so I leave you with this.  If this is a season of wonder, shouldn’t it be our job to fill the lives of others with signs and wonders?  And not just by presenting those we care about with greetings and gifts, but by truly ministering to them to the point that they “wonder” how God could care about them so much as to touch them by sending you as His vessel to their life and situation for such a time as this!?

So go and prophesy, go and pray for people, go and speak the good news, go and make Christmas a miracle for somebody by walking in the power of God through the Holy Spirit!  Then it will truly be a Merry Christmas, filled with Joy and Wonder because of your faithfulness as an agent of wonder!

We don't need Leaders like "Napoleon"

I was in Melbourne, Australia a few months ago speaking for a Church camp and conducting some other Church ministry.  A friend of mine took me to a wonderful museum in which we visited an incredible exhibit about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte which featured many relics & paintings.

Since then, I have thought about his life, the glory & the tragedy of it, quite a bit.  Thinking about him has impacted me more than I ever could have imagined. 

Napoleon was a key person in the French Revolution which featured overthrowing the Absolute Monarchy, Marie Antoinette, the Bastille and more.  Many movies and the classic book "A Tale of Two Cities" feature this famous time in history.   

He helped to free the French people through his efforts as a young officer who acheived fame, only later to make himself not only Emperor of France but of much of the world.  He freed people only to put them under his own foot of control.  They got rid of a King and got an Emperor instead.  What's the difference??

This reminds me of many leaders in the world and especially in the Church today.  I often see the results of ministers and ministries who have loosened the ties of the enemy on the lives of people through the power of the Gospel only then to bring them into a new kind of bondage.  It is as if they were set free from the forces of darkness only to be be re-shackled under the influence of modern day Pharisees.

The problem is that people often will follow the most charismatic, the most dynamic visionaries and they can be blinded by it all.  No wonder Jesus said the Pharisees were like the blind leading the blind.  (Luke 6:39).  I have discovered that just because somebody can preach very well, that doesn't make them qualified to lead and it certainly doesn't mean they know how to raise up disciples, which is what it is really all about. 

If we are to follow a visionary, which we should, we must make certain that their vision is from God and for God and not from their own imagination of becoming someone great by using God.

And even more importantly, we need to make sure we don't become little Napoleon's in Christ's Church.

Once we have freed people from the enemy, we must be the vessels which connect these new branches to the Vine (Jesus) directly.  Not making branches connected to other branches.  We need to guide them from a position of not being in the way and not making them relient on us.  Not controlling or driving them.  Not owning them and not receiving glory but rather giving all glory to God by building the overall Kingdom of God rather than our own sub-kingdoms.

Galatians 5:1-3 (NIV)

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law."

The 787 Dreamliner Wineskin

While preaching a while ago on the far South Side of Chicago, almost to the Indiana border, I received a vision for that Church which also helped me further shape my understanding of the words of Jesus.

Matthew 9:16-18 (NIV)

¹⁶ “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. ¹⁷ Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

I saw Wineskins flying in the air.  They were Boeing Wineskins.  Not that the Boeing Airplane Manufacturer makes Wineskins, but this is a vision with some artistic license.  There were the different varieties of models of Boeing Airplanes I have flown in.  I'm not old enough to go back before the 727, which I flew allot when I was a young boy.  I also saw the 737 which is still very popular now.  There was the 747, which we are starting to see in the sky less.  Singapore Airlines is retiring it's last one soon and is having a special flight with it.  The 757 was there as was the 767 which are both still around but not too many now.  The 777 was there too and it is still very popular today.  Then I saw it.  The new 787 Dreamliner.  The airplane the world has been waiting for.  Just a few have been delivered so far.  It was the newest Wineskin in my dream.

I watched a video presentation on a United Airlines flight recently in which the CEO was excitedly talking about the fact that they have ordered 50 of these new 787 Dreamliners.  He said something along the lines of, "we will be able to fly routes that we previously have been unable to fly."  Interesting.  Because of the new technology used and the new construction materials now available never previously used, they have been able to make an airplane which can go further, more efficiently than any commercial aircraft before in history.

I remember as a kid, flying between Manila and Seattle on the first Pan Am 747's, we had to stop in Honolulu to refuel.  Airplanes haven't needed to do that in years.  Most US aircraft now fly from Tokyo to any city in America they want.  Because of newer technology in the newer aircraft.  And now it is going to even a greater level!

God is doing something new and He is raising up a new breed of Churches...  not even Churches necessarily...  A new breed of Christ followers who are bringing in the Harvest, the New Wine and are refusing to put them into Old Wine Skins.  As a matter of fact, this new generation knows that they are not a part of the Church, they realize that they are the Church!  That is so awesome because not only will this cause the Old Wine Skins to not burst (because putting New Wine in Old Wine Skins will burst them), but it will fill the New Wine Skins with people who will go further and more efficiently than they ever could have gone before!  Why would anyone want to be in an Old, Limited, Outdated Wine Skin anyway?  They can...  God allows it.  It's part of His plan, but you can't put the New Harvest in there.  Of course there are those who want the Old Wine Skins for reasons of comfort , tradition and more.  Leave em' alone.  It's OK...  For them...

Wanna hear something weird?  Jesus never said you can't put Old Wine into New Wine Skins...  Personally, I know that I'm Old Wine even though I hide it pretty well.  I'm stuck in some traditions and I struggle with legalism, religiosity and compacency deeply inbred because of my upbringing.  But I don't want to!  I want to get inside a New Wine Skin!  What about you???

I want to fly higher, farther, more efficiently and with as many folks on board as I possibly can!  My prayer continues to be that God will show me the new ways, but without falling prey to the gimmicks and games which some in the Church often wrongly believe are the New Skins.  God wants us to adapt, but not to compromise.  Just because it's new, doesn't mean it's from God..

In my thinking, part of the new thing that God is doing is He is mobilizing people to "GO", not trying to build up big groups of people who are isolated from the world, but going into the world and being the salt and light.  Not that this isn't what He has always wanted, it is!  But He is breaking down the walls of tradition and demolishing wrong mind-sets as we speak.  People are becoming true desciples.  Not just learners, but those who learn and train others to learn and train others so that multiplication occurs.  These are exciting times!

All aboard!!  Let's get onto the newest Wine Skin now, but remember, there will be an even newer one coming sooner than you expect.  Don't get too comfortable or fall in love with this one...
 

Good Karma?

In my journey, I am now being asked to do some things not only secularly within the Call Center industry here in the Philippines, but also within the publishing industry.  My hope is to be salt and light in the world, in the market place.  In order to be effective, I cannot be outwardly evangelistic.  Below is an ariticle I wrote for a journal designed for college students.  I know some people do not understand this approach, but please pray for me as I attempt to inspire this generation in creative ways, to think about and seek after God.
_______________________________________________

“Good Karma”

We live in an age where language has become more flexible, more adaptable, less specific but at the same time more impacting through creativity…  We freely and intentionally break the rules of language in order to make our point clearer and stronger.  It is actually becoming hard to determine what good sentence structure or grammar is anymore as the languages of the world continue to progress, or according to many opinions, digress.  Personally, I love it.  I love words and the power of them.  I love the fact that we can be free in our linguistics in a way that we can make a powerful impression with our words, though we would have achieved an F in class.

And languages and concepts are now blending.  In Asia, we have “Taglish”, “Singlish” and others, there is British English, Australian English American English and more…  there really is even Filipino English, Korean English, Thai English and more.  Just about every country which has embraced English now has their own version where some of the same words have differing meanings from country to country and culture to culture.  It can get confusing if you don’t pay attention, but I find it fascinating.  Because when you know the way a person speaks, you know more about the way they think.

For my subject today, I want to take the word “Karma” which traditionally comes from East Indian and Chinese roots.    www.M-W.com defines KARMA as “the force generated by a person's actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person's next existence.”

I find in the Western world that the idea of Karma has become so popular that it is literally all over television and the bookstores are filled with hundreds, if not thousands of books loosely based on the topic.  But where in Hinduism and Buddhism, Karma is more about the ramification of a persons actions affecting their “next life” as those religions believe exist, most people try to use Karma to affect a person’s near term consequences also referred to by many as blessings.  In most Christian traditions, the followers believe that they can by performing good deeds, improve their life now and increase their “chances” in the after-life.  Christians often refer to this concept as the principle of sowing and reaping, which is farming terminology.  Whatever “seed” (deed) you “sow” into the ground (work you do), care for, water, etc., then it will grow and you will eventually end up able to “reap” it (harvest it), thereby benefitting from your previous effort.

Whether the idea of Karma or of Sowing and Reaping, neither has to do with fate or luck, but they do have plenty to do with destiny.  What we need to remember about destiny is that for the most part, outside of whatever divine intervention you may believe in, you make your own destiny.  So, how’s your KARMA?  In other words, how are you doing, working on your destiny?

Many people that I know when they speak of a successful person with a hint of jealousy often refer to them as lucky or they make some kind of an excuse as to why that person is successful and the one speaking, possibly, is not.  A friend of mine who dropped out of medical school always speaks negatively of doctors.  He says, “they came from rich families, they are more favored, they are lucky,” etc.  But at the end of the day, every doctor that I know had to sacrifice and work hard to get to where they are today.  Of course they have talent, ability and opportunity, but the point is that it wasn’t fate or luck.  They are where they are today because they took the resources and opportunities that they had and made the best of them.  I was at a Doctor’s office last week and the two Doc’s who share the same office had their diploma’s on the wall in the waiting area.  One graduated from Stanford University in California.  One of the finest, most famous Medical School’s in the world.  It obviously cost his family a small fortune to send him there.  I believe that he probably was born with a golden spoon in his mouth (that means he was a high class baby).  The other graduated from a local University in the Philippines.  If you are not from the Philippines, you likely have never heard of it.  He probably had a silver spoon in his mouth growing up (middle class)…  Or maybe a wooden spoon (low class)…  But today, they earn and are respected about the same.  My point is this.  They both made the best of their situations, they both worked hard, and today in modern use of language, they both have “Good Karma.”  They achieved this by working hard.  They made their own destiny!

Once when I was in a desperate financial situation, just the right amount of money came from an anonymous source.  It really blew my mind!  But later, I found out that it came from someone who I had years earlier, helped financially while he was a young student.  Was it Karma?  Was it sowing and Reaping?  Yes!  Because I had done something good in the past, something good happened to me in the future!  And that really is how life often works!

We make the most of every opportunity to help people, to work hard, to improve others lives and to improve ourselves.  Later, there will be a reward.  Invest in the lives of others and in your future liberally and generously my friends!  Then you too, in the modern use of the word, will experience “Good KARMA!!!”

So if you see me on the street and ask me, “do you believe in Karma?”  My answer will be, “I’m not a Hindu, but if you mean that if I do something productive today, I will benefit from it later, then the answer is YES, I believe in Karma!”

Jesus is Sending a new Tribe of Prophets, Sages & Teachers

It is a stereotype that women take longer to dress than men do, though I know many men who take longer than the ladies do.  But we can all agree that a Bride takes a long time to prepare in her dressing, make-up and more, especially if you include the shopping aspect of what she she will wear on her wedding day, the process sometimes lasting more than a year.

Ephesians 5:25-28 (NIV)
²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Paul taught husbands how to be loving to their wives and tied it into the idea that this is similar to what Jesus did when He offered himself as a sacrifice for His Bride, the Church.  We see that washing with Water of the Word of God removes the blemishes, the spots and the wrinkles in the preparation of the Bride so that she, the Church, may be presented to Him radiant at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (a description of the beginning of Eternal Life with Jesus - Revelation 19:9).

I want to challenge you today that simply pouring water on something does not wash it.  There must be scrubbing, soaking, application in order for change to come.  This is why the Bible states that we cannot just "hear the Word", but we must "do the Word."  Otherwise we will "deceive ourselves."  (James 1:22)

Jesus declared 7 "woes" recorded in Matthew 23:13-39.  A careful study will reveal that what made Jesus say "woe" more than 2,000 years ago in relation to how the Pharisees & Teachers of the Law were treating the ministry and people of God are much the same as they are today.  I believe Jesus could speak the exact same message today and many of the Church leaders would be considered by Him to be a "brood of vipers."  Sad...

In the 2nd of the woes in verse 15 (NIV), Jesus said “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are."

This is a truly amazing and surprisingly harsh statement requiring a double take.  As a matter of fact, I posted this verse on Facebook awhile back and received "concerned" inbox messages and Emails as a result.  Very few, it seems are comfortable with Jesus' terminology here.  Converts can be Children of Hell?!?

He wasn't condemning the religious leaders for slacking in their work.  They travelled land and sea to win converts.  I think of all the work of the Church today, outreaches, missions, crusades and more, all done with the purpose of winning converts.  All done with great enthusiasm, passion and with intense focus.  But Jesus didn't end His time on earth saying to go and win converts, He said to "Go and Make Disciples..."  (Matthew 28:16-20)

When all that we do is win a convert and they only hear the Word and don't do what it says...  do they then become a Bride with Spots and Wrinkles?  What Jesus called a child of hell twice as bad as a pharisee?  Yes they do.  Because it takes application of God's Word, it takes discipleship, true washing with the water of the Word in order to produce the harvest that Jesus died for.

At the end of the 7 woes sermon in Matthew 23:33-34 (NIV), Jesus said, ³³ “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? ³⁴ Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town."

Jesus said that because of the 7 Woes caused by the Pharisees and the Religious Leaders of the day, that He is sending some folks.  Some people who will do the true job of the Kingdom of God!  People who will not only fight the devil and the systems of the world, but would also fight the religious systems which mislead people supposedly in the name of God and pious righteousness.

Jesus called them Prophets, Sages and Teachers.  A new generation, a new tribe, those who would speak from the heart of God!  A prophet speaks what God tells him to.  A sage is a man of wisdom who helps people to make good decisions according to heavenly concepts and strategies (an apostle who builds things/people according to God's specifications).  A teacher is someone who expounds the word of God.  The difference of these that Jesus would send is that they would not be building their own kingdoms.  They wouldn't be winning converts to a denomination or to a single church, but they would advance God's Kingdom and make disciples not to themselves but to Jesus.  Their focus would not be on drawing people to the temple (or to the cutting edge modern day church facility) (attractional model of ministry), but they would actually "GO."  Anonymously doing all for the glory of the One who sent them.  This is not to say that we should not have nice facilities and should not do our best to have amazing services which people will actually want to attend.  We are supposed to do that.  And this new tribe will need to worship together and relate together in Churches where those of the same ideals can meet.  But not as the main point.  We should never mistake the "house work" of the Church with the "Kingdom work" of going out into the businesses, the homes, the schools, the territories, on the hi-ways and on the bi-ways to be the salt and light for this generation.  To give people what they really need.  An opportunity to become a disciple, a Bride without blemish, spot or wrinkle, living in the freedom that life led by the Spirit enables us to live!

What about you?  Do you want to be one of these that Jesus is sending?  A prophet, a sage or a teacher facing the forces of darkness and religion so that you can reach your hand out in the love &  power of Jesus and win the lost?  This is the calling I have chosen.  That many have chosen and are choosing!  Let's reach the lost before some pharisee reaches them... shall we?  :-)