training – Dare Greatly

August 29, 2024August 28, 2024

May You Enjoy the Blessing of Becoming Who You Were Born To Be

I wouldn’t say I’m an authority on the issue, but it seems to me there’s a natural pattern of progression and growth Christians follow.

Before I get into that, I feel it’s important to state God works according to His plan and schedule, not ours. If someone spends much more time in a given phase than someone else does, it could be because God wants it that way. It could also mean they’ve stalled in their growth, but if that’s the case I feel it’s the Holy Spirit’s job to hound them, not ours (though I’ll concede there’s a difference between lovingly confronting someone and hounding them).

I’m going to describe the Christian’s progression in five phases. Again, I’m not an expert on this, it just seems like this is a regular pattern based on my observations. The lines can easily get blurred. People might skip ahead, revert back, or repeat some of them, but in general, it seems to consist of the following pattern.

The first of the Christian’s phases is conversion. No surprise here. This is the switch from Satan’s kingdom to the Lord’s kingdom. It’s that recognition and acceptance of reality: “I’m a sinner, and I can’t meet God’s standard of perfection.” It’s here they recognize their shortcomings and their need for Christ’s sacrifice. Hell lost another one, and it makes the angels celebrate.

The second phase is thankfulness to God. Often there’s a sense of “there’s nothing I can do to repay Christ for the gift He’s given to me.” That can be very difficult for some people to accept, especially those who’ve worked hard to earn what they’ve got. Those people may spend the rest of their lives in this second phase. A heart full of genuine thankfulness and praise is often a hallmark of this phase. Think of the thief on the cross next to Christ. He spent a small fraction of his life as a believer, yet it seems to perfectly dovetail with God’s plan.

Third is a dedication to living a God-honoring life. People in this phase read the Bible and soak up its lessons, becoming a new creation in Christ. This phase can look very different for people. While Christ breaks the bonds of addiction for some almost instantly, others walk a long road toward recovery (with Christ walking alongside them every step of the way, even if they never fully get there). Some people turn their backs on their old ways or non-Christian friends and leave their surroundings while others become infused with Christ and bloom right where they’ve been living. For some this could mean fleeing an oppressive environment for one more conducive to cultivating a Christian life. I think of converts to Christianity in areas of the world where such declarations are dangerous; once you can no longer hide your conversion even if you might want to, you’re probably at least in this third phase.

The fourth phase is stepping into one’s calling. All Christians are empowered by the Holy Spirit with spiritual gifts at the moment of salvation. Taken together with their natural inclinations and interests, these characteristics generate opportunities for Christ-followers to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. It’s when they step into the role they were made for. This is where they live out Romans 12:1, becoming a living sacrifice. A big part of getting to this step is realizing you don’t need more training. You don’t need to pursue any more degrees. You already have everything you need to start doing what you’ve been called to do. It’s time to get out there and impact the world through your God-given calling, whatever that is. It’s not your job to feed the 5,000; it’s your job to bring the loaves and fish.

Finally, phase five is mentoring. Christian mentors have been believers long enough to offer the benefit of their experience as they see brothers and sisters in Christ struggle with various challenges. It’s difficult to overstate how life-giving it can be when, while facing something incredibly difficult, you find someone who’s been where you are and perfectly understands your fight. I think of infants’ moms wrestling with post-partum depression, overwhelmed immigrants in a strange new land, couples struggling to adapt to their new marriage, and young pastors getting ready to throw in the towel. The beauty of this phase is it doesn’t take any special training. You probably already possess the hard knocks experience required for the role. You just need to be open to coming alongside someone who needs you.

Again, I want to emphasize the importance of not turning this into an ego thing and judging success by the phase number reached. Each of these phases has their own brand of challenges and God custom-builds different people for different roles. Maintain humility and do your best to live a God-honoring life in whatever phase you find yourself. Do your best to do what God made you for, and phase numbers won’t matter.

June 1, 2023December 27, 2023

It’s Up to You: Volunteer or Be Voluntold

There are a lot of bible verses about leaning on God or relying/depending on God. Lots of times they’re connected to the idea either that “this is more than I can handle on my own,” or “no matter how cool I think I am, God’s really the one in charge.”

Here are a few examples:

For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. –Isaiah 41:13
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. –Proverbs 16:9
I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. –Psalm 121:1-2
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. –John 15:5
When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. –Hosea 13:6

God wants us to rely on Him, but that way of thinking doesn’t come naturally to us. That last verse from Hosea gives a little insight into God’s thoughts. When we’re happy and satisfied with our lives, we tend to drift away from God more than when we’re in the middle of some kind of crisis. During a crisis, “reliance on the Lord” becomes a hands-on lesson for us. It’s that reliance that ensures we don’t forget Him.

There are a lot of circumstances in life that drive a closer reliance on God. Loss of a loved one, an extended illness or other medical situation, a job loss, relationship problems, and on and on and on. It’s kind of the opposite of “fair weather followers;” when things are fine we don’t talk to God much, but we cozy right up to Him when we need or want something. It’s human nature.

Here’s the part that’s important to remember. If we don’t rely on God on our own, He tends to introduce events in our lives that force us to reconsider. I think it’s interesting to note that as you look at famous biblical characters (Moses, Nehemiah, and Paul, for example), they all had their personal problems, certainly, but those problems were not the primary outlets for their reliance on God. Rather, their reliance showed through when they were doing something bigger than themselves, focusing up and out rather than down and in. When Moses was focused on leading the Israelites out of Egypt, he wasn’t terribly focused on his speech impediment. Nehemiah took charge of a project that gave a ruined city its identity and confidence, allowing him to look past the anxiety he felt for his languishing brethren. Paul traveled all along major trade routes spreading the gospel, planting churches, and empowering the next generation of Christian teachers, not really sweating the small stuff like multiple shipwrecks, beatings, imprisonments, or being bitten by a poisonous snake.

Another way of saying this is that if you’re not looking at the big possibilities and purposes God is offering you, you’re limiting the options He has in your life to teach you this continual lesson. You leave only the opportunity to experience “defensive” lean-on-God moments, and by avoiding the tasks that stretch you, you shut the door on the “offensive” version. When you don’t give Him options, He creates His own, and that often leads to “crisis mode” situations. This is doubly troubling; when we do this, not only are we turning down the opportunity to do big things for God’s kingdom, we’re also unintentionally sending God the message “hey, I’m not getting it; I need you to do something that grabs my attention.”

Don’t misunderstand; even if you do everything right and jump in with both feet every time God sets a challenge before you, your personal life is not guaranteed to be free of stress and crises. We live in a fallen world. People die. We harm, betray, or steal from one another. What I’m saying is that by responding to God’s calling for your life, by reaching for something that’s beyond what you can achieve on your own, you willingly walk a life of dependence on God, and He looks on that favorably.

One final example. Peter got out of the boat and walked on water. Imagine if he opted instead to stay in the boat. God still would have had ample opportunities to use him for His plans, but He may have had to sideline Peter for a little bit to teach him reliance through a sudden personal tragedy. Peter probably would’ve learned the lesson, but it wouldn’t be nearly as inspirational as what actually happened.

What do you think, have you only been giving God “defensive” reliance opportunities? Maybe it’s time to get out of the boat and walk on water.

January 13, 2022December 27, 2023

The Hierarchy of Christian Focus

Today’s post marks sort of an interesting milestone. Since I started the site, I’ve had three posts written by guest authors. Since this is the blog’s 203^rd post, that makes this the 200^th entry I’ve written. Woohoo!

Okay, something a little different today. I’ve been trying to develop this one for awhile, but I don’t know that it’s baked all the way through just yet. I can’t be the first person to think of this concept; there’s probably something similar in a seminary textbook or some theological dissertation somewhere, but this is the version I came up with and am sharing with you.

You’ve probably heard of Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs.” In short, you need to have your basic needs met before you can tackle more advanced challenges. If you’re not sure where your next meal is coming from or where you’re going to sleep tonight, you’re probably not throwing yourself into difficult engineering scenarios or sculpting great pieces of art. Another way of looking at it is to see that the people doing big things in life probably aren’t worried about the things that are near the bottom of the hierarchy.

This is a famous principle that’s been around for quite some time now. I’m not sure what got me thinking about it, but I started thinking…there’s got to be a version of this that applies to Christ followers.

Now, before I get into this, I want to acknowledge that the Holy Spirit does as He sees fit, and is perfectly able to do anything He’d like through anyone that’s anywhere on this scale, so I don’t want to make it seem like someone is a failure if they don’t get past the first level. The thief hanging on the cross next to Christ didn’t get real far on this hierarchy, yet his example has been referenced countless times since then to God’s glory and for the benefit of other believers. For some, though, my hope is that this helps spur them on in their Christian walk, possibly encouraging someone seeing this post to move up a level or more.

Each new level in this hierarchy is something amazing and miraculous to the person that’s just arrived there. Getting to a particular level is not a sign of a certain level of intelligence or some other measure of worldly success; it’s more often an indication of a person’s level of maturity in Christ. There may not be clear delineations between levels, and there may be some rising and falling that occurs along the way. Some believers may reverse some of the levels in this pyramid or even skip a level every now and then, and some levels may even intertwine. This is just a general version of life after acceptance of Christ.

Let’s get started.

Often, when a person commits their life to Christ, crossing over from Satan’s kingdom to that of eternal life in Christ, it’s marked with a sense of awe, of wonder, at God’s mercy and grace. “He did that for me!” It’s incredibly humbling to realize the extent of Christ’s sacrifice, and those that are young in the faith are often overwhelmed by the fact that God left the comfort of Heaven to be a part of Humanity, fully knowing what would happen and how many would reject Him. The first level of the “Hierarchy of Christian Focus” is “Marveling at Christ’s Mercy and Grace.”

What comes next? Those new to the faith, whether they fall on shallow soil or good soil, want to know more about God, praise Him for His goodness, and draw nearer to Him. It’s so important to get new Christians plugged into a community of fellow believers where they can grow in the faith. Too often they fizzle out because they don’t find anywhere to get plugged in and receive mentoring or guidance from those that are more mature in the faith. The second level of the hierarchy is an Excitement to connect with God.

Those two are very close together and are often interwoven. After that it gets a little tricky. Do you think the Devil is going to stand idly by while someone that defected from his rule assists his enemy? (Spoiler alert: no.) He’s going to try lots of different things to get your faith to die on the vine. If he can’t stop you from defecting, he’ll do what he can to limit the amount of damage you can do to him and his domain. I wrote a series on some of the tactics he uses awhile back. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) Though it can happen anywhere in the pyramid, in the third level, Christians have their first major encounters with doubt and pushback. They start learning to overcome those obstacles, and it’s something they’ll likely encounter for the rest of their lives. When we start getting down on ourselves, it’s easier to worry that maybe we’re on our own. I’m fond of the line from one of Lauren Daigle’s songs: “Remind me once again just whose I am because I need to know.”

Precursors and hints at the fourth level of a Christian’s focus may have been happening even before they accepted Christ, but in the fourth level, Christians stop fighting the calling that God’s been whispering (or even shouting) in their ear. This is where believers move beyond a faith that had, up until now, been able to “fly under the radar.” Some people have an easier time following their calling than others, but it generally involves being willing to say “yes” to a feeling that prompts them to enter waters they perceive are a little too deep. There’s a stark realization that “I can’t do this on my own, but I also can’t not do it.” Think Gideon, David, Peter, and Paul. “What I’m doing right now makes no sense, but I know it’s what I’m supposed to do.” It’s the thing you were placed on Earth to do; it’s your purpose in life. You can ignore it if you’d like, but you’re intentionally avoiding the fulfillment of your potential if you do.

I’ve heard it said that God is working on you until you take your last breath. That means He’s always stretching and growing you. In the fourth level you step out in faith to pursue the path you believe Christ has for your life, but in the fifth level you look back at the amazing things He’s accomplished through you, only to find another seemingly impossible challenge that will grow you in a different way (or maybe place a new, insurmountable spin on something you were already working on). Successfully start a business that you didn’t see coming? Congratulations, now it’s time for you to adopt a child refugee or sell the business and go to seminary. At this level, it’s important to keep leaning on God even though you start growing comfortable with the idea of doing things that “can’t be done.”

By the time you reach the sixth level, you’ve seen and done a lot of things in your Christian walk. You’ve learned a lot, both about how to do things and how not to do things. In the sixth level, you realize that the most important legacy you can leave is to help pave the way for those believers that will come behind you. You want to train and/or empower them to do things that will advance the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ. I recently heard a speaker say that as he’s laying on his deathbed sometime in the future, it’s his desire to see the backs of fellow believers advancing past him to go further and do things that he never could. Ladies and gentlemen, the things we do with our lives are important, but there are few things more important than helping other believers reach their potential. This is true for Christian parents, Christian mentors in all areas of life, and Christian peers. Iron sharpens iron.

All along the way, there are upward and downward pressures that help or hinder movement up the pyramid. Time spent reading the Bible, praying, and relying on Christ all help grow the trust you have in Him and help you move up the levels, but at the same time the Devil is trying all manner of tactics to bring you back down. If he can’t stop you from switching teams, he’ll do everything he can to render you ineffective at the upper levels and keep your faith to yourself.

There may be more levels, but I simply may not know what they are.

Like I said earlier, God can use anyone at any level to bring glory to Himself and for the benefit of other believers, but I believe we should all strive to get to a higher level.

And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5