Usefulness is Better than Greatness

Once upon a time the trees decided to choose a king.  First they said to the olive tree,
‘Be our king!’  But the olive tree refused, saying, ‘Should I quit producing the olive oil
 that blesses both God and people, just to wave back and forth over the trees?’

 (Judges 9:8 NLT)

Pursuing leadership is a good thing if you are doing it for the right reason.  If you seek to be great, you will never be useful.  If you strive to be useful, God can make you great.

The story unfolds as Abimelech, Gideon’s son, through his cunning, becomes King.  His first act as King is to kill all of his seventy half-brothers except one, Jotham.  Jotham tells an interesting parable (Judges 9:7-16 NLT).  The trees decided to choose a King.  It was offered to valuable trees like the olive, the fig, and the grapevine. They all wanted to serve rather than to assume control, to do good rather than rule.  Yet, when the same suggestion was made to the thornbush, it was accepted with glee.  Someone once said that if you find a person looking for authority, give them responsibility.  If you find a person seeking responsibility, give them authority. 

We should never seek leadership for the fame, fortune, or power that comes with it.  These things may become necessary by-products of your position, but should never be the reasons we seek authority.  Position yourself to serve, and if God has gifted you with leadership skills, watch God nurture your abilities and make then evident to others. 

Those who are faithful in little things will be faithful in much.  You can be useful before you are great, but you can never be great before you are useful.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Following Christ from a Distance

Having arrested Him, they led Him away and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a distance. (Luke 22:54 NASB)

Peter's Denial

Peter tried to follow what was happening to Christ without being seen.  One of the gravest mistakes we can make is to try and follow Jesus from a distance. 

If we walk down that road of not being seen or heard for Christ, it can eventually lead us to deny him.  In times where following Christ can put us in an uncomfortable or precarious situation, we can start to distance ourselves from him.  We don’t outright deny Christ, we just begin to be silent and become a sort of a secret Christian.  We never receive the power to live for him by distancing ourselves from him.  If we become more and more silent, in a moment of weakness, we can find ourselves denying him.  There is no status quo in the Kingdom of God, we are either moving towards Christ or away from him.

I wish I could tell you that I have always had victory in this area, but I would be lying to you if I did.  I can remember numerous times where I should have spoken up for Christ, but I didn’t.  My sin was not of co-mission, but of omission.  It was not what I did but what I didn’t do.  In spite of my weakness, I have found, like Peter did, that God always gives us another chance.  God understands our frailty and gives us grace in time of our need.

God is our strength.  We never receive the grace to live for Christ by moving away from him but towards him.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Joshua, A Servant Leader

After all the land was divided among the tribes, the Israelites gave a piece of land to Joshua as his allocation.  For the Lord had said he could have any town he wanted. 
(Joshua 19:49-50a NLT) 

Joshua was the oldest and most significant of all Israel, yet he was the last to receive his inheritance.  Joshua personified the servant-heart of Christ, where the first becomes last.

When Jesus’ disciples were jockeying for position and trying to get the best positions in serving their Master, Jesus gave them a lesson in authentic leadership (Matthew 20: 25-28 NLT). He told them that they were not to lord it over people as the Gentiles do, and the last would first and the first, last.  We see this same mindset in Joshua.  The leader of Israel could have had any town he wanted at any time he wanted, yet Joshua fought for all the other Israelites to received their inheritance and then he took his.  If Joshua had been a captain of a sinking ship, he would have waited for his crew to disembark before he did.  Joshua had the essential quality of all good leaders, seeing his role as taking care of his followers, not them existing just for him.  It is the example that Jesus modeled for us when he put our needs first and gave his life for us.

In God’s service, we can often feel like we are always playing a backup role.  It appears that others receive their inheritance before we do, yet we must remember what Jesus told us, the first will be last.  In the Kingdom of God, often, those who laugh last, laugh best.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

The Fultility of Self-sufficiency

Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too. (Matthew 26:35 NASB)

Peter's denial of Christ

Peter made a bold statement, but he did not understand his own heart.  He was sincere in his belief that he could never deny his Lord, yet he relied too much on his self-sufficiency.

The prophet Jeremiah told us “The heart is more deceitful than all else
 And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)  The greatest of all deceptions come through an improper view of who we are.  We often have a skewed view of reality about ourselves in comparison to God.  Peter had commitment, passion, and yes, even love for Christ, but he lacked the understanding that his ability to fully follow Christ rested in God and not himself.  Peter was not able to grasp that when he thought he was strong, he was actually weak. Jesus had told him that by the time the cock crowed Peter would deny him three times.  Peter rejected this because he was full of self-confidence and self-reliance.  Anything we do for God that starts with self is doomed to failure.

God uses the strength of personality, but only after it has been harnessed.  This process generally involves some form of brokenness.  After the cock crowed, Peter was a broken man (Matthew 26:69-72 NASB).  A wild stallion is never useful to its owner until it has been broken and trained to obey its master.  Peter had to learn that his sufficiency did not lie in his will or strength of character, but in God’s grace.

Peter saw how weak he was without Christ which eventually made him strong with God.  He learned the futility of self-sufficiency.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Flirting With Fire

 Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

(Deuteronomy 17:16-17 NASB)

 

God is a jealous God and man has always been enticed from God by riches, honor, and pleasure.  Pursuing these things is like flirting with fire.

Moses was instructing the people about the king they would choose after they entered the Promised Land.  In following Christ and putting our hands to the plowshare, there is always a temptation to look back to what we have left behind.  The Kings of Egypt would arrive in a procession on many horses.  Israel was not to copy the ways of the world.  Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey.  The King was not to pursue many wives or great wealth.  I John 2: 16 tells us, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”  Beware of putting riches, honor, and pleasures before God.

The world has always been swayed by an inordinate desire for what we can have, or can do, or how we can satisfy the flesh.  Solomon, the wisest man of his day, fell prey to multiplying wives and they turned his heart away from God.  You can only serve one God, the God of heaven.  Serving the gods of this world, like riches, honor, and pleasure is like flirting with fire.  You will always get burnt.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

God's Glory or Mine

  I will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are!”. (Numbers 14:12 NLT)

Moses and his people

God was intending to destroy all Israel and Moses could have had it all.  The greatest hindrance to God receiving his glory has always been man’s ambition.

The pivotal question all believers in Christ must ask themselves is, am I living for God or myself?  Israel had been whining and complaining and had rebelled against Moses’ authority continually.  Even God had grown weary of their attitudes and actions.   The Lord finally placed a proposition before Moses.  God would get rid of this quarrelsome people and start over with Moses and make a nation far greater than the present one.  Wow, what an opportunity for Moses.  How would you and I have responded to such a suggestion?  Moses countered by dwelling on God’s glory and the welfare of his people and not just his own good (vs. 15-19).  Moses asked God to forgive them, and he did (v. 20).  It would mean more of the same, the complaints of a worrisome people.  Also, it would lead in part to Moses not being able to enter the Promised Land.  True love always has associated consequences.  Love can be defined as willing the highest possible good for all concerned, including God, others, and ourselves.

Moses, the humblest man on earth (Numbers 12:3), first and foremost, sought God’s glory over his own.  It is possible to do all the right things for all the wrong reasons.  One day the righteous judge of the universe will lay bare the thoughts and intentions of my heart. Only then will I know if it was about God’s glory or mine.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

What Does Repentance Look Like?

“Now the Lord was angry with me on your account, and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. (Deuteronomy 4:21 NASB)

 

Moses had disobeyed God, and as a result, he had been forbidden to enter the Promised Land.  His response to the consequence for his sin is a portrait of a repentant man.

Moses understood God’s character.  He knew God was just and merciful at the same time.  First, Moses knew his justice. “So watch yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you....  For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Duet. 4:23a-24).  We do not see Moses complaining about his consequence for his sin.  He asked the Lord once to relent.  God said no, and that was it (Duet 3:23-27).  He then turned his attention to helping Joshua and Israel obtain their inheritance.  Moses was quick to embrace the justice of God.

Though accepting God’s justice, he also hoped in his mercy.  In instructing Israel of the results of breaking their covenant with God, he reminds them that if they repent and turn back to him that he will show mercy to them. “For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them” (Ch. 4, v. 31}.

Though God did not allow Moses to go into the Promised Land, in mercy, he allowed him to view it from a distance.  Moses was a portrait of repentance.  He quickly embraced God’s justice, and the Lord could promptly grant him his mercy.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com