Category Archives: christianity

Words of Encouragement…

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Today, while preparing for a counseling session, I was reading The Hidden Value of a Man, where Smalley and Trent identify a “Gold Sword” of compassion and encouragement men need to use. The “Silver Sword” is the one men use to battle through life. The “Gold Sword” is the one they use to nurture, protect, and encourage others.

The authors wrote:

Men tend to remember for decades specific words of encouragement their fathers spoke to them. When a man makes an effort to pick up the gold sword and use it under God’s control, the world takes note. Women and children certainly take note. And the more we pick it up, the more we will shape those who love us and look to us to help define their lives. ~Smalley and Trent in The Hidden Value of a Man, p.93.

That’s truth.

I can tell you it’s truth because a memory I tend to savor is one where my father said after church one Sunday morning, “Steve, your a good preacher.”

Now, the question becomes, “How can I wield the Gold Sword in a similar way to help those around me become the men and women God wants them to be?”

How to Get Back on Track…

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Did you have a model railroad set when you were a kid?

When I was a little boy my parents bought me a railroad set. It was neat to put the track together and see the train go around the figure eight — over the train trestles that came in the box. One of the most frustrating things about a model train is how easy it is for it to become derailed. It’s easy for it to get off the track.

In that way, a model train is a lot like human beings. It’s easy for us to get off track. Even Christians have trouble staying on the tracks that Jesus laid down for his followers. Let me give you a couple examples: The Spanish Inquisition. The Crusades. Neither of those embody true Christianity. They are examples of a people – people who professed to follow Jesus — getting off track. OK — that’s an understatement. They are examples of complete derailments of Christianity. Total train-wrecks.

We can say with certainty that these kinds of things are not in keeping with Jesus’ teaching and example. And you can find evidence for that many places — including our text today. We pick up the story in verse 50, where Judas is standing before Jesus, ready to betray him.

This podcast examines Jesus’ behavior in the Garden of Gethsemane — at his arrest — and helps us stay on track with what he desires.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Grace — It’s Positive Energy…

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I read today about the essentiality — yeah, that’s a word — of optimism in leadership. Corporations headed by pessimists, whether they be churches or tech giants, seldom overcome obstacles necessary to grow.  I need to be optimistic. What’s frustrating is how easy it is to be negative. It’s easier to say, “Nazareth?! Can anything good come from there,” than it is to say, “We have found the Christ,” (John 1). And it’s easy to be swayed by negative energy. It has a power to stifle both productivity and creativity.

Today I was feeling anything but positive about what God was doing in my life… until the UPS man came to my door. No, he didn’t drop off that 65 inch television I’ve been dreaming about. Instead, he dropped off the cross that we ordered to replace the one Anna bought in memory of her husband. You may recall the original cross had been stolen. Immediately, Laurel and I hopped into the car and headed up to see Anna. As we drove, I shared my negative feelings with Laurel and my struggle to be optimistic.

Then we arrived at Anna’s home. She showed us in and we talked about her health, the church, her home, and her family. I showed her the new cross and told her the story of how God had provided a larger cross for the same price as the smaller one with which we’d all been dissatisfied. We rejoiced together. We then prayed together, taking time to pray that the person who had stolen the original cross would turn to Jesus and find forgiveness. That was a great visit, but probably not for the reasons you would expect. It wasn’t because of the prayer. It wasn’t because of the new cross. It was because Anna epitomizes grace. Grace toward the thief. Grace toward her brothers and sisters in Christ. And grace toward people who crank out negative energy. She was so gracious and positive I left feeling like a completely different person. I said to Laurel, “Every now and then, God surprises you with a person who brings incredible joy.” Such people are people of grace.

As you go to God in prayer, may I suggest praying three ways:

  1. Pray that you can be a person of grace, for people of grace are anything but negative.
  2. Pray that God would use you to be a gracious influence on people around you so that when they leave they feel like life is a good thing.
  3. Pray for those who struggle with negativity — that God will so bless them they can’t help but see him in the world around them.

Oh — and pray for me, that I might have the optimism essential to ministry and life.

Let your conversation be always full of grace… (Colossians 4)