What Vision Motivates You?

“Let now your church shine as the bride

That you saw in your heart as you offered up your life”

–Savior King by Hillsong United

“Savior King” was a song we sang today in church.  What a great song for Easter time, especially the line quoted above.  What did Christ see to keep Him motivated to do what He did for us?  A shining bride, like the song shares?  He must have seen something, for I know He was God but He was also man and man so often needs a visual picture to be motivated.   You hear about this kind of thing from self-help gurus and coaches.  They tell their client to visualize what they want to be or do and then affirm this by how they talk to and encourage themself.  We even see visual pictures running businesses in the form of a “vision statement” where a short statement tells where the business is going.  The business leader visualizes his company in 5 years or so and then puts that picture into words to motivate his employees to spur them forward to achieve this goal.  I am sure there are other examples, but the point is that we often need this visual picture to press forward when the tough gets going.  What is your motivation as you serve and lead your ministry?  What picture in your mind do you envision that keeps you going when you keep facing challenge after challenge?  Do you see a child that is loved unconditionally?  Do you see a unified church?  Do you see parents who are welcome and secure?  Do you see volunteers that feel satisfied and valued?  Do you see a crucified Christ that took your place on the cross?  What is it that you see?  If you are feeling unmotivated, take the time to ask God to show you His picture for your ministry.  May you persist in finding this picture so that you can continue giving up your desires and follow after Jesus’, making your ministry effective in reaching the families you serve.

Iron Sharpening Iron

One way we can make our ministries the best they can be is by learning from other ministries.  Here are just a few that I have found in my own walk.  Please comment and share if you have others you think have great programs that can share insights for the rest of us.


Access Ministry at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, VA
Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, TX
Valley Church in Des Moines, IA
SOAR Ministry at Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall, TX
Access Ministries at Woodmen Valley Chapel in Colorado Springs, CO
Thru the Roof Ministry at Houston's First Baptist Church in Houston, TX
Green Light Ministry at Johnson Ferry in Marietta, GA
The Works of God Displayed Blog by Shannon Dingle of Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC

CHUMs for God

I woke up this morning with the word "CHUM" on the brain.  I love acronyms and knew it was an acronym I was supposed to pay attention to.  I also knew that it was related to my obedience/submission struggle.  As I prayed about it, this is what God showed me:

C-Close in and get intimate with God.  We need to go to Him in prayer even when we don't feel like it.  We need to fear God, not man, our schedules or our wallets. We need to choose God.
H- Hone in on God's word.  We need to maintain a regular time in God's word.  We need to meditate on what we read and memorize His words.  We need to equip our soul to hear God's Spirit.
U- Understand.  We are to dwell with God's word.  We are to pray and ask for wisdom.  We are to ask other God-fearing, Jesus believing souls for help.  We are to listen to God and seek His revealed word.
M- Move in and do what it is you are called to do.  We are to apply what the Spirit is prompting us to do.  We are to do God's will even when we don't want to.  We need to be diligent and complete it to the end.  We need to work by God's power, not our emotion.

So, if you too are leading then you know we are better leaders when we are better followers of our Savior.  My prayer for myself and anyone else that is struggling with this obedience/submission issue, is that we will become "CHUM"s for God.

New Resources

I just heard a pod cast from Mike and Bev Linder from Special Heart Ministries where they share their experiences as parents of three children, two of which had special needs and have also gone to be with Jesus in heaven.  They have amazing free resources for churches to minister to and encourage parents as they walk a challenging path to help their child become all that God has designed them to be.  But while I was listening, I stumbled onto the ministry with which they were being interviewed.  Need Project is a ministry that started from within Focus on the Family.  Their mission is "Healthy families and healthy children through the creation of practical resources and support for parents of special needs children."  They have a great page of resources (including books, websites, and medical information) on all sorts of disabilities.  A worthwhile resource to utilize!

Sill Struggling to Obey?

Rebellion can sometimes rear its ugly head even in long-time believers’ lives.  We are still sons of Adam and daughters of Eve and have a sinful nature.  How do we as mortal men conquer this?  We don’t and thus we can feel so disobedient and helpless at times.  Only the power of God can do this work in us.  When we trust in Jesus, we have the ability to rely and lean on the power that “is like the working of his mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised him from the dead and seated him at His right hand in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 1:19b-20)  God raised Jesus with power and it is this same power that He can resurrect our obedience. 

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through the Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19)

Letting Down the Nets: A Lesson in Obedience

Most of us know the story of Jesus calling His first disciples, Simon Peter and his brother Andrew and their friends John and James, sons of Zebedee, as they were called to become "fishers of men".  But as I was reading with my son this morning, I heard it again with new eyes from Luke’s perspective in Luke 5. 

Simon and Andrew had been fishing all night in the Sea of Galilee and had caught nothing, so they came back to shore and began washing their nets.  Then, Jesus, still at the start of His ministry, asks for Simon to put his boat out a little ways so He can sit in it and teach people.  Simon kindly obliges.  What does he have to lose while he’s working on cleaning up?  Certainly not any fish!  When Jesus has finished teaching, He tells Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”  Now, Simon could be thinking, “This is crazy!” and that it is a waste of time.  He’s probably exhausted and perhaps even frustrated from a long, unfruitful night of fishing.  But, we don’t know for sure because all the text says is, “Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.’” 

Now for the part that struck me as wonderful and fresh, following Simon’s statement he continues on and says, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”  Did you hear that?  Simon said, “Because you said so.”  Talk about obedience!  This is the obedience I want in my own life - an obedience that comes from a willing heart. What nets do I have to let down?  What barriers do I have to lower?  What obstacles must I release in order to obey God as Simon did?

Simon saw the shortfall in his own efforts the night before, and yet, he tried again with Jesus and he found success.  In fact he was so successful, that his nets began to break and James and John had to be signaled to come over and help out.  When all the fish were put into their two boats, the boats were so full that they began to sink!  This event was so astonishing to Simon, his brother Andrew, James and John that they pulled in their boats, left everything and became disciples of Jesus.  Thus, Simon obeyed before he had a deep relationship with Jesus.  His obedience actually preceded their friendship and discipleship.  Furthermore, once he followed Jesus, he remained devoted until the end of his life.  Do you suppose that obedience can reward all of us with that kind of deep and significant relationship with Christ?  Do you suppose that kind of obedience will help us endure until the end of our life?

Dear God, please help my heart to be obedient simply because you say so.  Help me not to doubt that the fish are there because I haven’t seen any yet.  When you work in my life, cause me to signal others to share in the bounty’s harvest.  When you reward abundantly, help me to be so astonished that I leave it all behind just to follow you.  Keep reminding me that YOU are the reward and that your relationship is all I need.  Show me how to be faithful to the end like Simon.  Amen.

Finding Rest in Diligence

Many days I fight the feeling of being physically worn out and tired.  Lately, this has been creeping back in.  I keep wondering, “Why?”  I am also rebelling against doing a couple of little things I don’t want to do, but need to do.  Then I read Hebrews 3 today. 

^“7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:  “Today, if you hear his voice,  ⁸ do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion during the time of testing in the desert…¹⁰ That is why I was angry with that generation…¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”” – Hebrews 3: 7-11

Legitimately, God feels rebellion is hardening our heart towards Him and this rightly makes Him angry.  He is clear that when we rebel we go outside of His umbrella of protection and in this verse we see that also includes His umbrella of blessing, which includes His rest. 

How do I motivate myself in the midst of my challenge?  I need inspiration in God’s word.  I have always held on to the part of Romans 12:8 which speaks about using spiritual gifts and says, “if it is leadership, let him govern diligently.”  But for some reason that isn’t working today, so I looked up diligence and found a more motivating passage in Hebrews 6:10-12.

^“10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. ¹¹ We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. ¹² We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”


Lazy…the word I hate.  Yes, I don’t want to be lazy.  That is definitely a bit more motivating.  Looking a bit deeper though, I also find encouragement.  God is just and has a perfect memory.  He sees us when we have to fight these quiet heart battles.  He loves to see us struggle and succeed.  He even, at times, puts us in positions where we have to wrestle with these kinds of things so our faith can be strengthened and so we find joy and blessings in the hear and now.  Eternally, He rewards our diligence with an inheritance He has promised.  Ultimately, He feels love and it will not go unnoticed.
So, on I must go to wrestle down my rebellion and finish the work I was assigned for the day.  I want to find rest.  I want to love God more than myself.