spiritual stuff

The Holy Spirit speaks in a very quiet voice.  Sometimes I hear him ask me to do seemingly important things and others seem small and insignificant.  Today was one of those small things but it made my life easier. 

I got both the kids dressed and ready for school and Scott was helping them get strapped in.  I sat down in the car and all I could “hear” was “Go check the girls’ calendars!”  I was thinking, oh, who cares if they were supposed to wear green today, I already have them dressed.  But His voice was insistent so I said to Scott, “Hang on, let me check their calendars so I can see if I’m supposed to bring anything today.”  I ran in and guess what the calendar said?  “No school today.  Teacher workday.” 

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

For some reason, I can’t get this verse out of my head.  I’ve been thinking of illustrations I could use to explain it, Powerpoints to use, drawings to draw, clipart to use but nothing yet has settled in my mind. 

But the thing I keep thinking about is the “the” part of that verse.  In English the word “the” means one.  Yes, pretty basic English there I’m sharing.  But Christ is reiterating the fact that He is THE way.  THE truth.  THE life.  He’s not a way to get to God.  He’s not a truth of the universe.  He’s not a little bit of life.  He’s it.  He’s the I AM.

When someone starts talking about their religious beliefs or their inner strength, all I can think of is this verse.  His words echo in my head, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  He’s not just what I’ve chosen.  His words are not arbitrary ones that I’ve picked to believe.  He’s not one of the ways I find life.  He’s not just mine.  He is THE way. THE truth.  THE life.

Yesterday we had a guest speaker at church.  He was a director of missions from some county in NC.  He was a fantastic speaker.  He kept your attention, had good stuff to say and was quite entertaining.  I know that probably shouldn’t be on “the list” of what makes a good pastor, but it helped either way.  I wanted to share the four games he said people play in church and then the four things that people can do after they quit playing games that will make a great church.

Game #1 – Blame game.  It’s always someone else’s fault when something doesn’t go right. 

Game #2 – Excuses game.  We always have an excuse.

Game #3 – Power game.  It was almost funny when he said this, you could hear the oh’s coming from people across our congregation.  This one stabbed us in the heart.  That is one of the main problems in our church.  Someone gets put at the head of the committee and they say “It’s mine.  mine. mine. mine!” in a four year old voice.  That was funny when he said it, but honest to God, that’s the way people act.

Game #4 –  Procrastination – I’ll get saved…tomorrow.  I’ll go visit them..tomorrow.  I’ll start reading my Bible…tomorrow.  We all know how that one goes.

And once you give these games up…you should take these steps taken from Matthew 9:35-37:

#1 Go!  – Jesus went and never stopped.  He got out and talked to and touched the people that no one else would.

#2 See! – When you go, you start seeing and you can’t see until you go.  When you start seeing people, you start seeing the needs of people.

#3 Compassion – When you go and see people in need, you automatically develop compassion for them.  Anyone that has been on a missions trip can attest to this.  There’s no way to describe that feeling of what you see when you went. 

#4 Pray – When you go and see the needs of people and develop this compassion for them, you will pray.  Pray like you never have before.  And prayer moves mountains.  He fills needs and moves other people to go!

This was a very condensed version of his sermon…unfortunately none of the funny stuff included, but it really touched me yesterday.  I have all these grand plans in my head and yet I procrastinate and never go.