Author: Jim Martin

I am encouraged.  Our elders are doing something pretty bold right now.  A few weeks ago, they announced to the church that they and the ministers of the Crestview Church were going to spend the next five weeks praying together daily (Monday through Friday).  And–they announced that they were not going to have any meetings during this time where they would talk about various ministries, stuff related to the church, etc.  Now of course this doesn’t include people issues.  In fact, they are encouraging people to continue to approach them for help in whatever way.  This is a first for me!  We have now been in prayer together for 10 hours in the last two weeks.  This has been a great experience.  Someone might ask, "What could you pray for every day?  Believe me, there is plenty.  Our own sins.  The present and future of the church.  People.  People.  People.  Ministry opportunities. etc.  This is a big step for us.

Looking for something to read?  What about Running on Empty?  It is a good read.  Deals with a workaholic minister and what helped him to get his life right.  If that doesn’t see like what you need, what about Sacred Parenting?

A Recent Message.  Look to the right of this blog.  Do you see "A Recent Message?"  That is actually a full length message that I recently preached.  You may find this useful.  It is often helpful to not only hear a message but then be able to read the same message.

This election.  I’ve got to admit.  I know that it is important, but I will be so glad when it is over.  I will be thankful will all advertising from all of the local and national people finally cease.  Just a few more days.

"I’ve moved up in my giving."  That is exactly what one of our college students told me recently.  This student went on to say that she had been giving on Sunday morning, $1 per week.  She now has a part-time job and so has been giving $5 per week.  I felt so encouraged when this person told me that.  There is something encouraging about a person who gets the connection between our money and our relationship with God.  That should not only impact what we give on Sunday morning but how we spend during the week.

I’ve been thinking lately about the church and ways that we destroy one another. It has to delight Satan when he sees us spreading the spiritual cancer of discouragement throughout the body of Christ. Some of Satan’s most subtle but deadly work is reserved for the body of Christ.

About 12 years ago, just before moving to Waco, I was in another state talking with a small Christian College about the possibility of joining their faculty. While there, I expressed to my host that if time permitted that I would like to drive by the building of a church that I had heard about some years earlier. During those years this church received national attention for its ministry to children in their community. This was a church that many people saw as a good model. People from all over the nation visited this church for ideas and inspiration. My host told me that the church was not what it used to be. Most had left from all of the internal fighting and quarreling. We drove by their building and I was stunned. Weeds had grown up through the cracks of the unused parking lot. This church which once had close to a thousand people (a very large church in that part of the country) then had about 45 people.

This kind of presence in the community must delight Satan. Satan is delighted when we destroy ourselves from the inside.

Satan is delighted when we judge and critique one another. Our words to each another (about each other) must bring him great delight. Instead of encouraging one another in our ministries, we communicate to one another that others in the body just don’t measure up.

Satan is delighted when we constantly complain and whine. Our griping (like our Israelite forefathers from Moses’ day) reveals our immaturity and our failure to trust in God.

Satan is delighted when we preoccupy our leaders with our grumbling. As a result, they have less time to spend encouraging the weak and going after those who are drifting away from Christ. Keep ‘um busy in endless conversations over what we don’t like this week.

Satan is delighted when we destroy the confidence and most importantly the joy of our leaders. We ask them to serve in these roles and then hammer them. As a result, too many of these leaders lose their boldness and become hesitant and tentative. Instead of asking, “Does God want this done?” they fall into the fatal trap of trying to please people.

Satan is delighted when we give up. When dreamers go away. When the Spirit of God is quenched. When we become a people who have lost our sense of mission. When we quietly resign ourselves to the way it is.

The good news is that for generations, many Christians have said “No!” to the above. Many churches through the years have refused to continue down this path. Today’s church needs to constantly be repenting of the sinful behaviors, which hurt and damage the body of Christ.

I really do have hope. But–my hope is not in people. My hope is not in being a part of the church that does it just right. At this point in my life, I am more convinced than ever that our hope is in Christ and him alone. He is my hope as a man living in the 21st century. He is the churches’ hope for the present and future.

Do you ever find yourself asking:

Why have I made so many mistakes in my life? Why must I seem to always learn the hard way?

Why have I become so cynical regarding life? What has happened to the joy that I once experienced as a Christian?

I think that some of us believe that we really don’t matter to God very much. Some of us would affirm that he loves the world and that he is a loving God. However, we are convinced that we are somehow disqualified to fully receive his love. We may say that he loves the world but we think that we have messed up too much

Sure God forgives, but I had an abortion and I know that he will always hold that against me.

Sure God forgives, but I know that I have always been one big disappointment to God.

Do you know that God really will give you a fresh start? The Biblical writers often remind us that they too had received fresh starts (Read again Eph. 2:1-9 and I Cor. 6:9-11). Do you know that his care for you is greater than you failure? Do you know that Jesus’ work on the cross and his resurrection has given us hope for a new start? (Rom. 5:6-8)

It is not too late to have a fresh start.
No matter what!

I feel tired. It has been a long and hectic week. Volleyball games. Company with us for a few days. A very long meeting one day. Other not so long but nevertheless, tiring meetings on some other days. Meanwhile, a good friend who I have not talked with in sometime called yesterday. I don’t think that we have talked in almost a year. He is one of those people with whom I can talk with and it is like we had talked yesterday. He used a phrase that kind of stuck with me the rest of the day. He spoke of people who were empty. Maybe it struck me because I just bought a new book entitled, Running on Empty. (I don’t want to recommend it just yet since I have not read it.) Maybe it struck me because of the kind of week that it has been.

Running on empty. Have you been there? I have. As we talked, I thought of times when I was very much on empty. Can you relate to any of these?

1. Physically exhausted. Too much coffee. Too little sleep. No exercise. Lots of junk food. Never feeling great. In fact, most of the time you just feel fatigued.

4. Spiritually bland. You are in a rut and you know it. You are coasting. You look back to a time when you were on fire, passionate for the things of God. You wonder what happened to you. You’ve become cynical and sarcastic.

This is not a good place to be unless you are planning to seek God in your thirst. I want to be like the Psalmist who said,

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63)

The answer to feeling empty is not to just spend the day talking about how empty you are. Rather, it is to seek God. It is to let that hunger and thirst move you toward the only one who can give lasting satisfaction.

Do you ever think about the lasting impact of your life? I think about that–a lot. What will I leave behind? What will I leave behind in my wife, children, and friends that makes a difference? Sometimes it seems that nothing will last. Or at least that is what it feels like. There are days when I wonder if my life is really making a difference. Sometimes those thoughts happen in the middle of a very discouraging week. Yet, I think that I know better.

What do you want to leave behind? What do you want to be remembered for? What would you like for your children to pass on to your grandchildren? I can’t really express how important this is to me. This business of leaving a legacy has really altered the way I view life. Is there someone who has been a part of your life whose legacy has made all the difference? Maybe it is your Dad or Mom. Maybe it was another relative. Perhaps you have had a good friend all of these years whose investment in your life has made significantly altered your life.

The other day I was with a grandfather who has been spending one day per week with his young grandchildren for a number of years. He said, “I am tired of the contemporary view of grandparenting which amounts to little more than play with the grandchildren, spoil them, and then give them back to their parents. I am about ministry. I spend this time every week with these young grandchildren because there is a legacy that I want to leave with them. I want to help shape their lives and pass on some values that have been very important in my life. That is my ministry.” I think he is right on target.

What is life about? Leaving a legacy that is worth something. Leaving the family a fortune. No, I don’t mean a great amount of money. I mean a legacy that is worth a fortune. Something that can be passed on through generations. Here a couple of things that I want to pass on:

1. I want to pass on Jesus. Not just Jesus preached (I obviously believe that is pretty important). I would hope that maybe my children saw a little bit of him in me.

2. I want to pass on to my wife the legacy of a man who took his commitments seriously. I want Charlotte to remember that she could trust me. I want my girls to remember that their Dad was faithful to their family.

3. I want to pass on to my children the importance of treating people right. No matter whom they are. No matter how wealthy or how poor. I want them to remember the importance of paying debts, keeping promises, and being genuinely interested in people.

4. I want to pass on to my children the special place of the Word of God in their lives. I want them to know that they can have confidence in Scripture as it points them to God, revealing his will and desires for their lives.

5. I want to pass on to the churches that I served the importance of personal integrity and having a passion for God.

I find this exciting! Just think–God can use us to make such a profound difference in people in ways that last long after we are gone.

What about you? As you begin this week, are you ready to live in a way that is consistent with the legacy that you wish to pass on? Is there anything going on in your life right now that just is not consistent with the legacy that you want to leave?

This week will you be about something that really counts? Have you already placed on your calendar something that is part of the legacy that you want to leave?

“I’m bored.” How many times have you heard that from your children? How many times have you said that? I know that I have said it far too many times. I think that when I do say it, it is because I am waiting for something to happen. It is almost like I am frustrated because nothing is happening to me or in my life that makes me feel “not bored.” Do you ever think like that? It is easy to just get into a passive mindset feeling like someone ought to do something to make you feel better. I remember one time feeling this way and then feeling irritated that no one in my family was doing anything about it.

So—here it is the first of a new week. Will I be passive and just live a mindless existence wondering why good things are not happening to me? Will I choose to “settle”?

Many people live such empty boring lives. Their lives are boring, not because they are not wealthy, or privileged, or attractive people. Their lives have become boring because they “settle.” There are a lot of people who settle for whatever lifestyle will bring no pain, bear no risk, and cost little time or money. They choose to live a “soft” life ignoring the challenges that God brings their way.

How about this for a lifestyle?

1. Relationships–“so-so.” because I rarely make the effort to take the initiative in the relationship. It is always upon the other person.

2. Family–“Just getting by.” We barely know one another. We just haven’t been willing to invest the time or the energy.

3. Church— “Oh I attend.” True but most of the time I spend critiquing and evaluating other people.

4. Personal ministry— “Don’t give it much thought.” I guess not. A lifestyle of just getting by is focused on me. It is not focused on serving others.

Contrast this with the life of faith! A few minutes ago, I was praying for some “impossible” things to happen in my life. I have a list of them written in the back of my journal. Things that are impossible unless God intervenes and makes them happen. I find that when I pray this way, I feel energized again as I begin to look for how God might respond to such requests.

What about you? Do you begin the week ready to “go for it?” Or, do you simply live for Friday. Do you go through the week focused on how dull and boring each day is? Or, do you go through the week with eyes open as to what God might be up to in your world?

A boring life is not something that happens to you. A boring life is something that you create by settling for mediocrity. Is that really what you want?

Know that many people are under regular verbal, psychological, and even physical assault. Even more important, know that you are under a spiritual attack. Over and over in a thousand ways, men and women and children are told that they are not valuable as persons. In so many ways, the glory and dignity of a person is taken away.

Trust God’s ultimate deliverance. Giving our life situation to God means that we trust him to be at work and to handle our problems. The way we pray, however, often leads us to discouragement. We believe that we know what God’s answer ought to be. Then we reason, “There is only one thing that God can do in this situation.” The answer must come now just in the way we have planned.

Consequently, we pray and then get completely frustrated. We pray for a loved one who has cancer and then dies. We pray for an adult child to become a Christian and it hasn’t happened. We get confused and exasperated and say, “Why didn’t God answer my prayer!”

I remember hearing a guy in the hospital say after his famsily member came through surgery successfully, “We knew that everything would be all right. We left it in God’s hand.” We can receive a successful surgery as an answered prayer. However, there are others who did prayed and their parent/spouse/child died. Leaving it in God’s hands is about giving the situation to God believing that whatever he does, it will ultimately be ok. It is not a guarantee that what we think ought to happen will happen.

Bring your helplessness before God. I like these lines from Ole Hallsby’s Prayer (p. 26),

I never grow weary of emphasizing our helplessness, for it is the decisive factor not only in our prayer life, but in our whole relationship to God. As long as we are conscious of our helplessness, we will not be overtaken by any difficulty, disturbed by any distress or frightened by any hindrance. We will expect nothing of ourselves and therefore bring all our difficulties and hindrances to God in prayer. And this means to open the door unto Him and to give God the opportunity to help us in our helplessness by means of the miraculous powers which are at His disposal.

Jesus once said, “Without me you can nothing” (Jn. 15:5). What is that but a simple recognition of our helplessness? Acknowledge to God over and over your helplessness.

What kind of week will you have? Whatever happens, bring your helplessness before God and know that in some way he will deliver.