For the last 15 years, I have been captivated by the power of the message of Psalm 1. Six simple, yet profound, verses establish the importance of where we choose to camp spiritually. The author of the Psalm begins by declaring blessed the person who does not camp on the paths of the wicked, sinners, and mockers. He then goes on to say that the person who puts their roots into the law of The Lord and meditates on it constantly will celebrate abundance in God.

This is a very powerful truth. If we follow the ways of the wicked and make our spiritual home there, we will miss out on tremendous blessings, and may suffer great loss here, and in eternity. However, if we delight ourselves in God’s way, we become like trees planted by streams of fresh water that give life, we flourish, bear fruit, and find strength. In the end, those who camp with God will prosper in what they do, for their foundation will be strong and solid.

In our day, as it was in the Psalmist’s time, there are a myriad of temptations to follow ways that are not of God. Some of these ways come with great cultural support, and we can even be made to feel that we are wrong for not embracing what the world around us says is right. The Bible is clear, however, that God’s ways are not our ways, nor are God’s thoughts our thoughts. It even says that the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God.

It makes all the difference where we camp, and it affects much more than our comfort in the experience. God’s way may not be popular, but it is always right, and if we want to flourish, we must be planted near the streams of healthy water that allow us to grow and thrive.

Unfortunately, there will be times when we will need to choose between being popular and accepted, or being where God calls us to be. When we face these difficult times, it is important to remember where life and blessing are truly found. The world, even our friends, may choose to camp in unhealthy and destructive paths, but we must wisely make camp where God calls us to go.

God’s call may lead us away from what others embrace, but God is not seeking to keep us from enjoying life, instead, God is calling us to the place of blessing, where we can experience God’s abundance, and prosper in all that we do.

May the tree of your life flourish and bear fruit, and may you prosper in all you do as you build your life upon the solid, healthy foundation of God.

I already indicated my desire to stay where I was and the church shared their hope that I would remain their pastor. We were comfortable with each other and enjoying ministry together, then God stepped in with another opportunity to follow into something new.

Most of us enjoy being comfortable. We like the familiar and the predictable. There is a sense of peace that comes from knowing what to expect and where we fit in. In short, we don’t like to change, yet change is a given and can be one of God’s exciting blessings.

The church I serve, and the one I will be serving, are both facing a myriad of questions as we enter this transition. Likewise, I have questions of my own. In the past few days, as I began my advance planning, I realized I have little idea what my new worship services look like. I do not know what my weekly schedule will be, nor all of the expectations that will be awaiting me. I have only begun to become acquainted with the community and region and will have a list of questions when I arrive. My friends, my family, and everything I’ve known since I began my ministry will be hours away. My life is going to change.

It would be easy to be intimidated by all of the unknowns, but it is equally possible to be excited and energized by all of the changes. There will be new people to meet and minister with, new treasures to discover, new opportunities to share my gifts and to grow, and new encounters with God. The familiar will give way to the fascinating, and the comfortable to the creative. It will not easy, but it will be good, fun, and life-giving because God is at the center.

Too often we run from the blessing of being with God on the journey, by entrenching ourselves in what we already know and have. When we open our lives to God’s ideas and plans, the possibilities are endless.

Two scriptures have been on my mind though this transition. The first has carried me though from the beginning, “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for good to give to you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) the second, is also a favorite, “Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20)

With the truth of these two wonderful promises at work, and placing all of my hope in God, how can the future be anything other than amazing?

I wanted to be sure that the ones I purchased had no cleaning products in them, so I checked the back of the package. They were exactly what I was looking for, but when I checked, I was surprised to see directions and I wondered what directions I would need to safely clean my touchscreen. They read, ” Wipe desired area.”

I actually laughed out loud in the office supply store. “So, it’s come to this,” I thought, “We are at a point where we need to be directed to use a microfiber wipe to wipe something.” It was funny, and a little scary. Did someone really need those instructions?

The more I thought about it, I realized we are bombarded by shallow advice and information all the time. From near magical diet tips to another set of “Ten Great Secrets to Save Your Marriage,” the priceless tidbits abound. Most of these offering little more new knowledge than the back of my microfiber cloths, but somehow making us feel like we have a deeper understanding.

Sadly, this cheap guidance frequently enters our spiritual lives, as countless voices attempt to reduce our faith down to a few simple directions. Don’t get me wrong, Jesus was clear that the message of the Gospel could be expressed as, “Love God. Love people.” It is a truth grasped in a moment, but learning to live it out takes a lifetime.

Our faith demands an investment on our part. There are no shortcuts or cheap advice, only a willingness to be led by the Spirit as we grow deeper in our faith. It is my hope that the people of God will never be satisfied with another round of obvious advice, but will seek out a deeper relationship with God. There, we can daily grow in the knowledge and love of God, and prepare ourselves to bring substance to a world drowning in the frivolous. It is a challenge worth taking for ourselves and for the world.

Today, let’s choose to go deep; to move beyond a superficial relationship with church or religion, and take hold of the Savior of the world. Let’s echo the words of the first disciples when they said, “Where else can we go? For you alone have the words of life.”

Whenever significant changes occur in such public ways, there are always many questions and many assumptions. This news is no different and the discussion even made its way into our van as we came home last night. My son began talking about who could replace Jobs and where Apple would look to find someone. This provoked some interesting conversation, but a key point I raised in our discussion was that any company looking to successfully navigate a change like this would be wise to look for someone within the company who understood the company’s DNA. My wife and son agreed then they said, “but it won’t be the same.”

They are right. We all know that when leadership changes, something significant shifts. Even though we talk about the power of an institution to follow its design, we know that leadership plays a significant roll in how the vision is put into practice and how people are willing to follow.

The Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1) He understood the importance of leadership to shape others, and he also understood that the good leadership involves being a good follower.

Leadership is a popular theme in the world, and it is in the Church as well. It seems everyone wants to be a leader. Those in charge are highly valued and respected and many aspire to be in someone else’s position. It is almost like an adult version of King of the Hill. The best leaders, however, are not just those with the right degrees, background or connections. Great leadership comes from following a great model and then modeling those same great behaviors for others to follow.

This is why Paul could tell his listeners to follow him, for he knew that he was following Christ. He sought to model his life after the life of Jesus and invited the Corinthians to do the same by following him to Christ. We should do likewise.

Jesus invested tremendous time in his disciples, helping them understand the kingdom of God through his words and actions. On the night of his crucifixion, he began his last meal with them, by taking on the role of a servant and washing their feet. Then he told them that they should do as he did, following his example.

 Jesus is our example. We need to follow him, and then we need to be Jesus with flesh on for the world around us. When people look at us they should see the One who we follow in us, in our words and in our actions. It should be clear that we belong to him.

Thankfully, our leader will never resign, so there is no concern over his replacement, but as followers, we can help others follow as well. If we follow the model set before us, and allow him to dwell within us, then we too, can encourage those around us to follow us as we follow Christ. We need to be good followers first, then we can begin to think about becoming leaders.

May the eyes of our hearts be on the Leader so that we can be followers worth following.

The real challenge is keeping that focus. Every day, I try to put those three things first in my thoughts and then in my actions, but there are often so many distractions that it is easy to lose focus. The denomination has paperwork it wants. There are meetings to attend, calls to make, and emails to write. Occasionally, there are small fires to put out, and there is the reality that other people think they know your job description better than you do. It the midst of it all, it is hard to attend to what is truly most important.

At one point, early in our ministry, my wife gave me a small cartoon of a man (clearly a pastor) sitting in his chair looking quite frazzled as his wife smiles at him and says, “Always remember dear, Jesus loves you and everyone else has a wonderful plan for your life.” It made me smile, but there was truth in the humor.

Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do and these are just the challenges that come to cloud the more significant responsibilities of ministry, and more importantly, what happens to me, happens to you too. Every calling from pastor to parent, evangelist to engineer, has it’s core foci and its distractions. Each of us must take responsibility for our calling and see that we do not lose our true focus in the midst of a pile of daily details.

Here are some of the tools I use to keep my focus:

1. Put first things first. Make a plan that schedules time for what is most important. There will always be a litany of urgent requests crying out for your attention, but the loudest voice is not always the one to be listening to.

2. Set times each day to check your course. Just like navagaing a trip, it is important to check your position and the path you are taking.

3. Never stop taking direction from God. It is easy to trust in our own management skills to get us though, but God’s way is not always our way, and while we may “get through” on our own, we may miss the greater blessing God has in store if we follow his path.

4. Learn to say, “no.” All of us want others to like us and we can give in to unnecessary, and sometimes unrealistic, expectations in order to make others happy. It is good to care about other people, but only we can take responsibility for our calling. We must do what we were called to do and that may mean not doing some things others think we should do.

5. Learn from mistakes and practice grace. At the end of the day, if you realize that you lost focus on your way, discover what pulled you away and prayerfully discern how to bolster that part of your life and ministry to protect it from another occurance in the future. Don’t give up or give in to frustration. Accept that you are human, trust in the love of God and look to the Holy Spirit to guide you forward.

My grandfather used to say, “Charlie, what gets your attention, gets you.” Since I want God to have me in his hand, I want to give my attention to God. I trust you do too. That is what makes the effort worthwhile.

Reflecting on those words, I penned this prayer:

The blessing of abundance is upon us,
But who will be there to gather it in?
God, send us workers to receive your promise for this season.
You, O Lord, have called your people
For such a time as this.
A time to gather
A time to share
A time to celebrate
May the joyful noise of your people declare your goodness to the nations.
May the poor and the broken,
The hurting and the lost be welcomed.
May healing come bringing life in it’s wake.
May your promise be fulfilled
As we lift our eyes to the hills and declare,
“Our help comes from God!
Our help is in the Lord’s name!
Blessed be God!
Blessed be the name of the Lord”

It seems like there is an increasing number of Christians who are well versed in talking about what they are against, but what about what they are for. Why is it that we seem to be so negative? I recognize that there are numerous social ills that need correction and current culture is not necessarily pro-Christian, but similar ethical dilemmas and cultural biases existed in Jesus’ day, yet His message remained one of hope, joy, peace and love. He pointed, not to the problems, but to the solution. His words were (and remain) words of life, not death.

Certainly, we need to speak out against injustices, but our faith goes so much further than that. We have so much more to offer than merely pointing out other people’s sins. Sure, we can show people that their passions are misplaced, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see what would happen if we pointed them toward the Passion of passions? Jesus said, “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) As the body of Christ, doesn’t it make sense to follow in His footsteps?

In short, it seems that we have become quite good at condemnation, yet Romans reminds us that, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) And the Apostle Paul made it clear that it was not our place to judge those outside of the faith. So, maybe we can be those who will be committed to moving from condemnation to revelation. Maybe, instead of speaking about the brokenness around us, we can start bringing the healing of Christ. Maybe, instead of pointing people’s attention toward their sin, we could point them to the One who takes away the sins of the world.

All of us want our physicians to be able to diagnose our ailments, but we also want them to suggest a plan for moving toward wholeness. We would never continue visiting a doctor who only told us everything that is wrong with us, while never treating us. Likewise, we have a responsibility to speak the truth in love, and while that includes humbly pointing out areas in need of transformation, it also involves leading the broken and hurting to the power of the cross in order for them to receive the wholeness God purchased in Jesus Christ.

I encourage you to be witness of God’s transforming power as you serve as God’s ministers of revelation and, as we work for the kingdom, let us keep praying that revelation abounds to and through us all.

The sons of Issachar understood the times. What a powerful declaration. Not only did they have a grasp on the season in which they lived, but they also knew what Israel ought to do. Talk about the power of wisdom and revelation of the Lord. God downloaded necessary skill and knowledge to those who would steward it for the good of the whole nation of Israel.

This is such a powerful word for us in this season. God is downloading revelation to His people so that they can impart wisdom and understanding to the world around them. Many people are lost, and in this season, they know that they are. Multitudes are looking for understanding and direction. It is a wonderful opportunity for the church of Jesus Christ to shine. When we hear from heaven we can speak something important to the world around us.

People don’t need more empty human reason, even from Christians. They need to hear a word from the Lord and God is offering us a multitude of opportunities to speak His word to the world.

It is such an awesome season to be alive and to be in ministry. It is not easy, but what a wonderful time to have the King of Kings walking through the chaos of the world with you. What a great time to declare by word and action that there is peace to be found in Jesus Christ. I am so excited about what God is doing.

All around me, there is the same struggles that are around others. There are still issues and concerns. There is still political unrest, poverty and fear, but if you look deeper you can see that a new thing is happening. God is raising up His church and revival is being birthed in our midst. God is so good!

I hope that the excitement is contagious. Keep looking to Jesus to transform your circumstances. This is a season of extreme favor. I believe it, not just because He wants to bless us, but because God wants to provide us with all that we need to accomplish His purposes for this time. So it is my prayer that you and I will understand our times and know what needs to be done.