Be a True Fan of Jesus

I have been reading a book by Seth Godin called "Tribes" and have found it to be very insightful about what a church leader should look for. There is one place (p33) where he says,

"Too many organizations care about numbers, not fans. They care about hits or turnstile clicks or media mentions. What they are missing is the depth of commitment and interconnection that true fans deliver. Instead of always being on the hunt for one more set of eyeballs, true leaders have figured out that the real win is in turning a casual fan into a true one.

Fans, true fans, are hard to find and precious. Just a few can change everything."

So if we change the word fan to "committed disciples of Jesus Christ" then suddenly it gives you a real vision for true church growth and impact. My focus, my passion, my drive in the last five years has been developing around this very idea and yet Mr Godin (not even follower of Christ as far as I know) has nailed it in just two paragraphs.

Oh what kind of "tribe" we could have if there we had 300 people that were so sold out to God that their passion was to do exactly what Jesus said, "Love God with all your heart soul and mind and then love people." If we truly love God we will truly love people and if 300 of us were wholeheartedly committed to it then 300 of us would share it and 300 of us we disciple 300 others and we would soon have 600 true fans of Jesus. And so on, and so on, and so on.

But we are not there yet. So how many true fans of Jesus do we have at Osceola Grace? How many are commending to others what they cherish most in God? Do you believe in the "product" you are pushing? Do you believe it enough to live it out boldly?

The Fear Factor

I read this today and was awakened to a truth in my life.

I have fear. Fear of what people think of me. Fear of not having friends. Fear of bad things happening. Fear of people not approving of my decisions. Fear of people that do not believe like I believe. Fear of making people mad. Fear of not having enough money to pay the bills. Fear of doing this leadership thing wrong. Fear of teaching something wrong to 275 people. Fear of not accomplishing the purpose for which I am here.

Yet, I do not seem to grasp in my heart of hearts that these fears are all trivial. I read this Psalm and begin to see that my greatest fear needs to be a fear of God. When I act out of my fear of a great and fearsome God – all of the other fears seem to pale. What can man do to me that could be worse than what God could bring upon me?

By the way – I love verses 7 and 8. Security – that is the bottom line.

Psalm 112

1 Praise the Lord.

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,

who finds great delight in his commands.

2 His children will be mighty in the land;

the generation of the upright will be blessed.

3 Wealth and riches are in his house,

and his righteousness endures forever.

4 Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,

for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.

5 Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,

who conducts his affairs with justice.

6 Surely he will never be shaken;

a righteous man will be remembered forever.

7 He will have no fear of bad news;

his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

8 His heart is secure, he will have no fear;

in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.

9 He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor,

his righteousness endures forever;

his horn will be lifted high in honor.

10 The wicked man will see and be vexed,

he will gnash his teeth and waste away;

the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.

The Laundry Man

It's Friday and sometimes (only sometimes) I try to do a little laundry on my day off. My wife does it best and I try to help out with out messing it up or ruining some item of clothing. I'll admit - I am not good at it. You would think that it is a simple thing – just time consuming – but nevertheless I seem to mess something up every time I try to help.

    I forget to pre-treat something

    I forget to put the "delicates" in a bag that somehow has super powers to protect them?

    I dry something too long (which may be happening right now as I stubbornly type while knowing I should go check)

    I don't lay out the right things and I mix the wrong items together

    I do it in the wrong order so that the towels are drying forever which holds up the rest of the process with everything else.

Anyway, one thing I notice is that even when things go right – over time – our clothes are not as brilliant or bright. The whites are a little dingier and the colors are a little more faded and my jeans look more and more like I should stop wearing the min public (although, I could make a case for them now being in style based on what I see out there).

Funny, huh? We try and try and try t get things clean and even though we get the dirt out we still have stains or spots. Our precious whites are not so white even though they have the appearance of clean. When laid next to new things, the contrast is obvious.

Sort of like trying to clean up my life – spiritually speaking – on my own. I can make things look good or "better" but never quite right. If I compare myself to other "dirty" things or people – I may look fine – just fine – but when I begin to lay my heart next to the Word of God as my standard… No comparison. The dirt seems to come alive and the cleanliness of the Word makes the contrast outstanding and obvious. So what do I do?

The beautiful solution? The blood of Jesus Christ. He died and shed His blood – red - in order to wash me clean of ALL my sins. Accept it – God's Word says that the blood of Jesus makes me whiter (WHITER) than snow. Wow…forgiveness of sins that cleans my heart as clean as it can ever get and makes it look new again – "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation". All my stains are gone – I don't get dingier and faded as I walk this walk of daily forgiveness. Instead, I can become as pure white through the red blood of Christ can make me. And friends that is getting rid of some dirty laundry.

Ahhh, Consequences

I remember growing up, that I was often called upon to confess my wrong doing. Not in a church setting or in a spiritual setting - just in my "everyday kid life" – I was doing things I should not have done and thought I could get away with it. When I got caught, I was sorry. Well, sorry that I got caught, anyway. So I behaved sorry; I said "I'm sorry"; I even tried to make amends sometimes (when I was made to).

But did I really think about what my disobedience was costing me? Time away from friends – for sure. Missed events – that hurt. Sometimes penalties that cost me money – no fun. But I don't think that I usually allowed the enormity of my behavior to sink in regarding how it affected others.

You see, I thought that if "I" chose to do wrong (to sin) that it was "MY" decision and that IF "I" got caught then it was "ME" that had to pay the consequences. If I was willing to risk that to have a little "fun" then I would go for it. After all, it was only me anyway – not anyone else.

I don't know when I realized how wrong that self-centered concept was. MY sin, MY risks, MY behavior, MY disobedience – all MY choices because I can. But almost all of those choices had an effect on others, too. I broke my mom's heart the day I got caught egging a house and some cars. I hurt my sister when I called her horrible names because I was mad at her. I hurt a girlfriend by saying something about her that was unfair and did not need to be shared. I hurt a friend by spreading something he shared without thinking that he trusted me to keep it quiet. I hurt a teacher by spreading things that were not true about her. All in all, I was a little sneaky and wherever possible I would deny it or at least deny it was intentional. Deep down – I was selfish – I thought that my actions only affected me and I discovered (and cared) way too late in life that the consequences of my sin affected more people than just me. My sin caused deep hurts and when I realized that it made me think a little more before I made those bad choices.

There are other consequences that are far deeper, too. Sometimes we think that we can just walk away if we "confess" and "say we are sorry" without having to pay the price. However, sometimes – even when we are truly sorry and intend to repent and walk away from our sin and stop behaving that way – there are still consequences that cannot be avoided or averted. Things like an unexpected teen pregnancy, an arrest that leads to a permanent record, an injury that changes the course of a life, a death that rocks your world or even a friendship that is destroyed because trust was broken. Sometimes there is no going back.

Two things to remember – most consequences are deeper than you think and EVERY act of disobedience to God has consequences that affect more than JUST YOU. It is not all about you – it IS ALL about God! Sometimes the consequences help bring us back to reality and we are compelled to change our focus off of ourselves.