The Mountaintop Huddle

And six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; Mark 9:2

Football season is again upon us! The first games of the 2006 season begin this week. Football fans are an intrepid lot; they love to cheer for their team from the opening of the season to the last day the team plays. The only ones who love football more than the fans are the players and coaches. Not only are they excited about the season, their minds and hearts are fully on the field!

There are some great spiritual lessons to be gained from playing in the game rather than just watching the game! If you want to “play reality” on the team with our Lord Jesus, there are four essential steps that cannot be neglected:

• Join the team – yield to Christ as your personal Savior and Coach.


• Get in the huddle – get the current word from the Coach on what to do next.


• Accept your assignment – find your place in a local church team and take responsibility.


• Run the play – do something significant that will help win the game!

God’s people must get in the Master’s huddle to know what’s going on. They must know their position in the line up and play it in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Savior wants bold people playing on His team … The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion. (Proverbs 28:1) He desires that each of us – at our own level and wherever we are placed – to be a difference maker, an impact player, to make a “big” play!

From this great experience on the mountain and following (Mark 9:1-29), we see that Coach Jesus wants His players and followers to be bold in a least six ways.

1. BOLD DECIDING, And Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. (Mark 9:4) You don’t decide your own play when you’re in the huddle. You trust the one called by the “Authority”.


2. BOLD LISTENING, Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!" (Mark 9:7) The huddle is not the most critical thing but it is essential to accomplish the most critical thing.


3. BOLD ACTING, And as they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man should rise from the dead. (Mark 9:9) You don’t change your position after the huddle … you play it!


4. BOLD BELIEVING, And He answered them and said, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!" (Mark 9:19) Out of the huddle your greatest asset is the determination to give 100% of your life to the play. The old saint, John Cheyne, once asked life’s most pivotal question… “What have I ever done in my years of service for God that was really bold?”


5. BOLD CONFESSING, Immediately the boy's father cried out and began saying, "I do believe; help my unbelief." (Mark 9:24) Some never really leave the huddle to run the play! They may move their bodies but they fail to move their hearts and minds. The coach never knows if he can count on them being “mentally in the game!”


6. BOLD PRAYING, And He said to them, "This kind (demon) cannot come out by anything but prayer." (Mark 9:29) You’re not in the game if you’re not in the huddle. Otherwise you will never understand your part in the team strategy and you can bust the play! Every morning our Lord asks you to huddle with Him to call the day’s play! What a shame if one doesn’t show up to learn what’s going on from the Head Coach!

The Bullet of Obedience: Revelation

Fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him lack nothing. Psalm 34:9

In essence, the Christ Life is nothing more or less than living continuously in the presence of God and receiving personal revelations of His will about one’s decisions, responses, and goals for life. The promise of the Father is that this is a daily, hourly, and ongoing praise relationship.

God has promised to do some of His part unconditionally. The fullness of the Christ Life, however, is conditioned by each believer doing his or her part by responding to God’s revelation of Himself.

The most practical thing we can do in life is to hear God’s Son and obey Him.

“I Hate Religion”

As a young Christian I can still remember one of my leaders shocking me with the words, “I hate religion.” Since he was a marvelous example of Christ-likeness, I couldn’t understand his statement. In my ignorance I though of Christianity as a religion. In the passing of the years I have learned that there is an enormous gap between them. So broad, in fact, that I find myself saying the same thing, “I hate religion.”

Religion is one of our worst words as commonly used and understood. The dictionary sums up religion as “any system of faith and worship.” Christianity is not a religion by that definition because it is a Person before it is a system. To seek of and be involved in church, the Bible, religious, denominations, theology, etc., before one has discovered God is an experiment in futility.

Religion reduces God to man’s own level. All of us in our spiritual pride seek to “domesticate Deity” for our own convenience and conscience. We develop our own religion apart from God’s truth. Faith, no matter how sincere, without Truth is an illusion.

Christ the Son, Jesus the Man, is the only One to ever tell us of God beyond our labels, creeds, and religions. Happy are those who see Him and follow Him!

Bullet of Forgiveness: Forgetfulness

Those who say they’ll forgive but won’t forget are blowing in the wind! Real love forgives and forgets!

Note God’s promises along these lines from Scripture.

I will wipe out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will remember your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25)

As far as east is from west, so far hast Thou removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)

For Thou has cast all my sins behind Thy back. (Isaiah 38:17)

Who is a God like Thee who pardons evil … for Thou will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:18-19)

Why not admit your own need for forgiveness. Tell God you really want your ways, thoughts, and actions to conform to His! He will listen and forgive if you mean it. Then the power of his forgiveness in your life will enable you to have power to forgive all others, to let go of the past, to remember their sins no more even as God has forgotten your past … just as He promised! What a release!

The Bullet of Forgiveness: Sure Victory

If you were to ask me to name the most unbelievable truth of Christianity my answer would be easy! Simply put it’s this … that God does love me like I am and will forgive me for my failures, attitudes, selfishness, and messes. I need only to be honest with God, admit my need and ask His forgiveness!

Talk about feeling clean and being able to start fresh! There is nothing like it!! In fact, the most joyous and satisfied human beings on earth are those who know God’s forgiveness and who forgive other people.

It’s obvious I have offended God far more than any other human has offended me. Real life is always found in following Christ’s example. He was walked on and treated unjustly, yet He forgave. We should do likewise when we are walked on and treated unjustly.

Those who forgive always win in the end!

The Bullet of Faithfulness: Witness

How do you measure the effective witness for Christ? Do you measure it by the number who hear the message? Do you measure it by those who respond?

The Bible makes it clear that an effective witness may result in a rejection of the message as well as its acceptance (II Corinthians 2:14-17)

Acceptance or rejection, many believing or few coming to faith, a large church or a small one none of these are the issue. Following the commands of Scripture is.

The ultimate test of a person’s life is what God thinks! The only way to please God is faithfulness. Doing what the Father says … from the big things to the little … covers it all! What a responsibility! What a relief!

Of Boxes and Adventures
Guest Blogger: R.A. Stites, Ventures Saff

Sometimes we feel like we have discovered all there is worth knowing. We are comfortable with our status quo. We accept our limitations as normal. Life is familiar and we are comfortable. We like our box.

The trouble with boxes is that they tend to get opened. Sometimes adverse circumstances tear them apart. Sometimes unexpected events poke holes in them. Sometimes the tape just wears out and they pop open of their own accord. Life, the nature of the world, the vagaries of existence all act to move us out of our comfort zones.

When that happens, we have two choices: reseal the box or climb out. The weight of Scripture suggests that God is pleased when we get out and start exploring our limits. Take the Apostle Paul for example. He was quite happy with his Pharisee box as he set of to hunt down Christians. A bolt from heaven punctured his box on the Damascus road and the history of the church changed forever as he began to explore the world outside his box.

Are you comfortable with the box you have fashioned for your life? What things are trying to open your box? Instead of trying to repair it, maybe it is time to step out and see what adventure God has waiting beyond your comfortable box.

The State of the World – Fallen

Our lives are continuously messed up by “the Fall” and every single person is a victim of that mess. To grasp more and more of Christ’s attitude in response to this mess is to make every experience of life a “win” event regardless of the pain or loss! We learn how to be alive to God’s perfections in a dangerously imperfect world. Living the “Christ Life” means to accept the agonies and ecstasies of each day as inevitable experiences of “the Fall.”


This short passage is but a taste of what is waiting for you in the new issue of Mandate for the Christ Life, set for publication this August. Make sure you are on the mailing list – contact the Ventures office by e-mail or call 479-443-9474.

Bullet of Wisdom: Aging
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them — Ecclesiastes 12:1

We can’t choose to age – God made the choice for us – but we can choose how to respond to the process. Think of it, the Lord put far more expectations into age than He did youth. Robert Browning wrote, “I summon age, to claim youth’s heritage!” The older we get “in Christ” the younger we get “in power.” As Paul said in II Corinthians 4:16, “Our outer man wastes away but the inner man is renewed day by day.” The mature Christian eagerly welcomes growing older for it takes him deeper in Christ and closer to the dawn of his eternal youth. As my dear mentor, J. Sidlow Baxter, said at age 94 … “Except for a few growing physical hindrances old (age) is wonderful … I wouldn’t have missed if for the world!”

Prayer for the Vice President

I was invited to give the opening prayer for a luncheon in Springdale, Arkansas, July 24, 2006, where the Vice President of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, was the guest speaker. Here is the text of the prayer I wrote for the occasion.

Father Creator- I offer this prayer for myself in the name of your Son … and for all my friends here in whatever way they recognize there is a God in Heaven.

First, I ask You to forgive all of us of our sad ignorance about the values, sacrifices, and forces that brought our nation into existence. Let us be honest enough to admit that for too many of us the bump of knowledge on our heads concerning the wondrous founding of our nation is a dent! Help us to be true students of the miracle of the United States of America in the long history of mankind.

Secondly, thank You today for the presence of our Vice President. Enable him in his strategic position to be a leader of highest vision and deepest truth. We ask the same for our President, our national and state leaders, and especially for our military leaders as they serve in harms way. From the highest rank to the lowest may they serve with strength and integrity.

Third, we joyfully thank You for Asa and Susan and their willingness and call to pay the hard price of positive and pure public service. We love them, Father, and ask Your full measure of blessing and promotion on their lives as You will.

Lastly, give this audience today a richer vision for our country. Save all of our truly noble citizens from being captured by the liberal left or captured by the conservative right but rather make them captive to being centered on liberating truth that is both self-evident and derived from our Creator.

Teach our people that we cannot build a free nation if it is an immoral nation. With all our national faults, Father, enable us to take our true message to the Middle East and to the rest of the world.

We say with the Psalmist…”Let us run in the way of Your commandments so that we can enlarge our hearts.”

We ask that our hearts be enlarged as we enjoy this gathering. May we hear well – respond well – do well – and love well – the true American Vision!

AMEN

Bullet of Praise: The Bottom Line

“The bottom line” is a bedrock conversation phrase in the financial world but it is just as critical for the “Becoming in Christ Believer”. What is “the bottom line” for your relationship with Christ Jesus? The best way to measure how close you are coming to the Savior is praise!

You know you are sharing Christ’s triumph when you find yourself in high praise regardless of your circumstances! Turning the best and worst events of your life into praise means you’ve won with Him, no matter what you have lost (or gained) on earth! As my dear, departed friend, Mickey Bonner, so beautifully put it … “a man’s maturity in Christ is revealed by his level of praise during his time of hardest testing.”

To see this happening in you life puts the words of the Psalmist in your heart … “May the high praise of God be in my mouth.”(Psalm 149:6) This is the only place in Hebrew Scriptures “high praise” is used. The entire Psalm (only nine verses) is a sweep of creation (1-3), salvation (4-6), celebration (7-9a), and exaltation (9b). This Psalm suggests there are three levels of celebration … joy, praise, and high praise!

Praise is bottom line stuff if one is serious about the Master. In fact, His presence with us is most clearly revealed to others by the magnitude of the praise within us!

The Bullet of Praise: Preparation

You cannot prepare ahead of time for the crises that will come into your life …
But you can prepare your heart in the moment to be a person of praise …
And in doing that you are prepared for whatever the future holds.

The Bullet of Wisdom: I Corinthians 1:30

It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

I Corinthians 1:30

The Lord lifted me recently with I Corinthians 1:30. It is only in Christ we have the wisdom that 1) conquers our blindness (righteousness), 2) completes our inadequacies (holiness), and 3) covers our failures (redemption). What a praise that He would do that for the likes of us!

The Bullet of Understanding

Understand you live in a broken world that constantly pressures you and knocks you down.
Only Answer: Keep getting up … Christ will enable you if you start! (II Corinthians 4:1, 16-18)

Understand that death to the secondary things make you alive to the best things.
Only Answer: Seek the Cross … Christ will enable you if you start! (John 12:23-26)

Understand that failure is inevitable to every person, but that doesn’t mean you are a failure.
Only Answer: Accept your sin and weakness … Forgive yourself! Christ will enable you if you start! ((Hebrews 10:14-14)

Understand the wounds and suffering of life, which cannot be escaped, will either defeat us by deceit or direct us to truth.
Only Answer: Endure whatever comes … Don’t quit! Christ will enable you if you start! (Romans 5:1-5)

Understand that all human beings (including you) are flawed and partial people. They will all disappoint you, hurt you, and be inadequate for you. You will do the same to yourself.
Only answer: Fill in their gaps (and yours) with the wisdom and power of God’s forgiveness. Christ will enable you if you start! (Ephesians 4:29-32)

Understand that praise (worship) is your ultimate strength against depression, aimlessness, weariness, and insignificance. His presence will be sovereign over you if you praise Him.
Only Answer: Praise Him continually, especially in the non-praise situations. Christ will enable you if you start! (Psalm 149:6)

Understand that you must practice and become continuously proficient in putting every experience of your life … good or bad, victorious or catastrophic … in Christ. There is no other “balance!”
Only Answer: Discover the hidden promises of God … dig! Christ will enable you if you start! (Colossians 2:1-8)

Understand God’s purpose on this fallen and broken world. Life is hard … very hard. Most try to escape the reality of it, but God must make us face hardness if we are to be trained in Christ’s likeness and become His warriors in spiritual combat!
Only Answer: You must learn to see everything … everything … from God’s point of view. Be eager and ready for problems and learn to process truth quickly! Christ will enable you if you start! (II Corinthians 5:13-21)

Understand that joy … indescribable joy … is possible on earth, but it is a gift of God and not experienced or achieved by anything we do. It is a gift only for those who please God. It is greater than happiness. Life is boring, meaningless, and sad without God’s kind of joy.
Only Answer: Finding God’s joy is the true source of overcoming-strength! Christ will enable you if you start! (John 10:7-10; 15:11; 16:33)

When Your Dream Fails

If your dream is smashed, get a bigger dream.

God and Country

We do the most for our country when we “first” do the most we can for our King.


From Patriotism and the Kingdom

Remember the Cost of Freedom

In 1776, John Adams said, “If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering if my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, and that a free country!”

The Bullet of Encouragement: Wisdom

The Lord lifted me recently with I Corinthians 1:30. It is only in Christ we have the wisdom that 1) conquers our blindness (righteousness), 2) completes our inadequacies (holiness), and 3) covers our failures (redemptions). What a praise that He would do that for the likes of us! What an encouragement that He did!

Who is in Control?

The issue is not learning to control your circumstances but yielding enough to allow the Father to control your consequences.

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