A Little Island Gospel

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. – Matthew 6:20 (NIV)

“I got the feeling that there's more like me, Born in Babylon but you just got to be free.  Shackles on your feet that you and me can't see

but you can feel them and they're heavy, so you need that key.

And so you're looking at your hands saying, ‘Man, if I ditch the system these could be mine.’  But then you hear a voice come up from behind, ‘Don't even think about stepping out of line.’”

These are some of my favorite words from one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands called Soldier of Jah Army.  If you know anything about the band then you know they are deeply rooted in Rastafarianism.  Now I am not a Rastafarian and I certainly don’t believe in their basis of Christianity but I do believe that if we are confident in our faith in Christ then we can all learn from other faiths. 

Personally, I am a reggae fanatic!! I just love the music genre.  Much of it has to do with the fact that it takes me to a place in my mind where palm trees sway and life is easy but I also love it because they are often unabashed in their proclamation and love for God.  They write this in their lyrics and sing this in their songs.  Call it the island mans gospel music!  But there is also another very important theme in this music as you can see from the lyrics above.  There is a focus that our treasures are not here on earth but rather stored up in heaven as the Bible says.  The world is a heavy place and in it are heavy burdens to conform to worldly ideas and worldly ways.  Bob Marley’s dying words to his son Ziggy were, “Money can’t buy life.”  How right he is.  The danger of this world is the distraction it brings.  I laugh at how we blame the “culture” for our love affair with worldly things when we are the very people creating that culture.  Still, we go to church and we sing our songs and we pray that God will change the world so we won’t have to deal with it.  Have you ever wondered why he hasn’t done it yet?  Because He is not the one that needs to do the changing.  We are.  The key to removing the shackles on your feet is not to ask the world to change but to ask God to help us all change our focus to where it belongs – on Christ.

In Love,

Jesse

A Purposeful Creation

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” - Corinthians 5:17


“Are you a minister?”, she asked with a most honest smile? My response was slow to come and my heart quickly became humbled. As I looked into the face of this beautiful elderly woman the warmth of her sincerity left me almost speechless. “Well not technically but I have started a ministry”, I told her. She smiled politely and reached for my hand saying, “I could tell, just by looking at you.” Wow! The moment was yet another epiphany in a string of prophetic revelations that God has sent my way over the past few years. I can tell you that I have been called many things in my life, by many people, but I promise you that until this moment the word minister was never one of them! The next 30 minutes following this exchange involved me down on one knee as this woman poured her heart out to me. I listened while she spoke of triumphs and tragedies in here lifetime. She spoke of her faith and her love for God. She laughed at the many memories and she cried when she spoke about her own children and how far their hearts are from Christ. Was this a powerful moment in my life and in my own personal ministry? You bet. But as she asked me to pray for her children and to pray that God would not pass them over, it suddenly became clear that what was really important was what God was doing with this moment. In my path He placed a woman, in the twilight of her life, looking for someone to listen to her, and maybe even to love her a little. She was looking for a sign of hope in this life that she could hold onto. Was I able to provide that for her? Only she and God know that. What I do know is that were I not a new creation in Christ then her need for hope and prayer and love could have been passed over that day even though I may still have been in her presence. The difference in this woman’s day was made the moment I found Christ waiting for me with open arms. In that moment He promised to make me a new creation. There is still plenty of molding and shaping left to do with this 35 year old new creation that is writing you right now, but praise His name that He would even spend the time working on a wretch like me.

Chances are that if you are reading this blog then you may also have become a new creation in Christ but there is also a chance that you have not. If not, then I want you to know that’s OK too. You see we all come to the Kingdom at different times. There is nothing I can do on my own to influence you to trust God and to follow Christ. Any movement in your heart towards the direction of God comes from Him and Him alone. People sometimes laugh at the thought that they can seek out a great and mighty God on their own. Well, there is a little to laugh about there because you certainly don’t do it on your own but just like me you will find that as you seek Him and when you find Him (and you will find Him) you will see that He has been searching for you and is waiting with open arms. Like a parent who loses a child in a crowd and finds them again you will feel the loving and forgiving arms of your Father in Heaven and that is the moment which makes the lyrics of “Amazing Grace” so sweet when it says, “I once was lost but now I’m found”. 

Becoming a new creation can be an instant process or, like me, take a little extra time in order to make sure all the kinks are out. Even then you may not have all the kinks out.  The good news is that it's covered.  So relax a little.  However, when it happens, you become an immediate impact on the world in ways you had never thought of. The power of God and the love of Christ can shine through in your life and it will be the difference that is made in someone else’s life even to the point that you can know longer take for granted the influence you have in this world. Your shine will be the trigger that has people call you out as a minister or as a difference maker and that will be the instrument that is used by God to make sure that you are soundly on purpose in your own life.

Whether you have found yourself in Christ or whether you are still searching, I would encourage you to dig down deep and seek out a purpose for your own life. Seek. God will show you the way. If not for yourself then consider at least the impact that you can make on the lives of other people. Pain and suffering are real in this world and the need for hope is as great now as it ever has been. Could you be the difference for someone else? Would you be the difference for someone else? Ask yourself…..what is my purpose? Then pray and God will give you the answer.


In Love,


Jesse

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." – Matthew 22:36-40

A couple of years ago my wife and I found ourselves in a unique conundrum.  As a family we are in a position to be both blessed and burdened by the fact that we were now in the market for a new automobile for my wife.  The new car part is exciting but the new car buying part is, well, extremely annoying.  I have yet to step on a car lot during this process where I have not felt like the fatted calf.  My apologies to anyone of you who are in the car business.  I understand it is a system problem not necessarily a personality problem – I think!

Anyone of you who have gone through this process knows what I am talking about.  You step on the lot only to see a hungry salesman looking out of the showroom with his face stuck to the glass, mouth salivating.  He stares at you during your seemingly endless walk up to the showroom.  Then suddenly, disappointment appears all over his face.  You wonder what kind of travesty is headed your way that this person would signal defeat on his part for no apparent reason.  That is, until you notice them.  Three sales men, all at different angles, walking with a quickened pace in your direction.  The race is on for them – first one to the new meat wins!  What do you do?  You either retreat to the car or take your chances with the carnivore in the showroom.  Either way a decision has to be made.

I wish the drama of the story ended there but sadly it is just the beginning of the process.  You then go through the process of filling out information that has nothing to do with why you are there and they won’t even answer a question for you until you do.  After that the car salesman is quick to say yes or give you anything you need, regardless of whether it is practical or not.  Let us not forget about the endless phone calls you receive regarding your interest in a car even after you have decided not to buy – and told them that!  Needless to say, the search continues on our part for a car for the family and many of these wonderful experiences still lay waiting for us.

For better or for worst my entire professional career has been spent in the world of sales.  Luckily it has been in the world of wholesale insurance sales but sales non-the-less.  In my career I have never made a significant sale where my strategy consisted of vulturing over a prospect and throwing at them whatever I thought they needed in order to buy my product.  Rather I have always taken the approach of learning about the client.  What are their needs?  What is their business model?  What is their plan for growth?  What is their thought process towards their employees? Etc, etc.  Once I can understand my prospective client only then can I begin to piece together a solution for them that fits strategically within what they are trying to accomplish as a company.  Once I do that then there is no need for a “sale” – there is only need for a decision.  Unfortunately, sometimes the prospective client will make a negative decision.  They may have influence from outside interests keeping them from moving forward or they may just not want to move forward because of cost even if the information provided indicates that it fits best in their long term plans as a company.  When that happens all I can do is leave them with the truth and let time reveal to them that the plan that was laid out for them is really the best fit for their long term goals.

OK, so by now you probably picked up on my innuendo.  Many of us approach our own commitment to the “Great Commission” given by Christ in a very similar way as a sales person.  In itself that concept is not entirely bad.  I mean, after all, as Christians we have a great product.  Not only that but the concept of helping the world become a better place for the sake of Christ  and helping to inspire others to their own salvation can lead to some great rewards come payday – um, I mean Judgment Day.  So the motivation is there to reach out to others because of the change that happened in our own life but therein lays the issue all of us have faced if we have ever given an honest effort at witnessing to people.  The issue is that people are different.  We all have different lives, different perspectives, different backgrounds, different goals – different ways of looking at God.  Since that is the case then why would you be interested in buying what I have to offer if all I can tell you is what I think you need to know in order to save your soul even if I have never met you?

So what is the solution?  I remember hearing Dr. Joel Hunter of Northland Church once say (and I am paraphrasing), “Why would you expect a non-believer to care about what is in the Bible if they have never read it and if they don’t believe in the first place?”  Interesting question I think.  As people I believe we put a lot of emphasis on language for emotional purposes but what really makes a difference in our lives, and in the lives of others, is how we live and act and love.  As a teenager I was a professional liar and a self-convinced smooth talker.  My father knew better (as is always the case) and constantly challenged me with the statement, “Oh yeah, well I’m from Missouri!”  That always drove me nuts!  Partly because when he said it he knew I was lying and partly because as a teenager that just seemed like a dumb thing for your dad to say.  For those of you that aren’t from Missouri or don’t know what he meant when he said that the nickname for Missouri is the “Show Me State”.  In my father’s language he was basically telling me to “put up or shut up”.

So how do we get a solution from that.  In Stephen Covey’s book The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, he talks about the concept to “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”  This is the concept I illustrated when I talked about how I differentiated myself from the car salesman earlier in this newsletter.  The solution is investing in others.  Seeking to understand who they are and what their circumstances are.  Learning about their pain and how they see the world.  Showing grace to them over and over by caring for them and loving them, even in the midst of their own sin.  You don’t condemn them for what they’ve done, you hold them while they weep.  Only then can you try and make sense of how they view God and to help lead them to Cross.  You may get to witness a little in this time and you may not but you do it by showing them that because Christ invested in you now you are investing in them.  You love them like Christ loved you and they will see.  The path to the foot of the cross will open up and Jesus will say “I’ll take it from here”.

Just remember, your relationship to Christ is important to you but it may not be important to someone else.  Invest in others.  Seek to understand them and try to focus on how you can relate to them in their terms.  In business there is a famous line that goes, “no one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”  That line is truth in all aspects of our lives.  You show someone how much you care about them and eventually they will want to know why.  When I kiss my daughter goodnight and she asks me, “Daddy, why do you love me so much?”  You better believe I have an answer.  And one day when a person you have invested in comes to you and asks why you have been so good to them for so long, well, hopefully you will have an answer for them just like I do.

In Love,

Jesse

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