by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 12:25–13:5 

Keeping the clay of your will supple and flexible calls for constant attention along the way. Once you grow hard and brittle to God’s leading, you’re less usable to Him. I want to take the truths we’ve wrestled with here and make them into a softening ointment you can regularly apply when a change is on the horizon. The ingredients in the ointment you need to apply include a pinch of the negative and a smidgen of the positive.

First negative: Do not remove any possibility. Stay open to whatever it is God may have for you by removing all the limitations. Tell the Lord you’re willing to cooperate. But don’t forget, you may be the next Barnabas or Paul the Lord decides to move. Remember, we’re dealing with change—changing so we might obey.

Second negative: Do not allow a lot of activity to dull your sensitivity. Remember, God spoke while they were ministering. You can be so busy in church activities you can’t figure out what the Lord’s saying.

First positive: Let God be God. He is selective when He moves people. He picked two and left three. That was His prerogative. He could have chosen all five or only one. It’s His call. Our sovereign Lord does as He pleases, and when it’s clear, our response is to obey.

Second positive: Be ready to say yes. Don’t wait for all the details to be ironed out before you agree to release and obey. Sure, there will be hardships, some uphill stretches in the road. So what? Be ready to say yes, and trust Him to take care of the rest.

Only you and the Lord know the condition of your heart. Is it soft and pliable clay, ready to be molded and shaped by the Master sculptor? Or has it hardened into brittle and fragile pottery from years of faithless living? You know exactly what God is asking you to do. It may be well beyond the boundaries of logic and far outside your comfort zone. You may even have a few friends telling you that what you believe He’s asking you to do is wrong, completely wrong. Still, His leading is clear. Only one thing is needed: say yes, Lord, yes.

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 12:25–13:3

I need to make a couple of observations about the nature of ministry. The way God chooses to lead His ministry is often difficult to get our arms around. Finding direction in the corporate world comes somewhat easier. There’s a clearly stated bottom line, shareholders to report to, and defined markets that guide company decisions.

Ministry matters are rarely that obvious and objective. We serve a Head we cannot see, and we listen to a voice we cannot literally hear. Often we feel as if we’re being asked to follow a plan we do not understand. And I need to repeat here, during the process of discovering God’s leading, we are subject to enormous changes. These are changes we must embrace in the power of the Spirit if we are to obey our Lord’s lead. Though we are accountable to the churches we serve, ultimately, each one of God’s servants answers to God. Without that sort of single-minded devotion to the Lord, we run the risk of becoming people-pleasers. Christian leaders who become pawns as they focus on pleasing people are pathetic wimps.
 
Honestly, there have been times in my younger life when I stumbled onto that slippery slide. I look back on those few occasions with only regret. Nothing good ever comes from a ministry devoted to pleasing people.

Rather than being a warrior for the King, it is easy to become an insecure wimp, relying on human opinions and longing for human approval. By His grace I won’t go there again. My responsibility is to deliver what God’s people need, not what they want. As I do, that truth hits me with the same authority as it does the folks with whom I communicate. May God deliver every honest pastor, every truth-seeking church leader, and every Christian from the bondage of pleasing people.

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 12:25–13:3

While they were ministering to the Lord—fasting, singing, teaching, witnessing, and praying—the Holy Spirit said, “Okay, hitch up the wagons, fellas . . . westward, ho! I need Barnabas and Paul for the work to which I have called them.”

Can you imagine how some would react today? “You can’t be serious. You’re gonna take two of the five chefs and send them to another joint? We’ll starve! You’re gonna reach down in our ranks and pull two of the best adult fellowship teachers we’ve got and move them to some distant mission field? That’s two-fifths of our leadership. We can’t let these guys slip through our fingers!”

But none of that occurred in Antioch. As soon as those folks realized it was the Spirit of God who was sending them on, they released them. And the change occurred (don’t miss this!) “while they were ministering.” It didn’t happen in a lull, when giving was way down, or during a period of leadership transition. God lifted these men from that exciting setting while the church was at its zenith, steaming ahead full-bore. People were coming by the cartload, deep needs were being met, souls were being saved, lives were being transformed, families were getting healthy, the place was electric! Still, the Spirit said, “It’s time for change.” Who would’ve ever imagined? But God is full of surprises, since He sees the big picture while we focus mainly on the here and now.

It was God’s way of telling Barnabas and Paul it was time to move. By the way, the Lord did the speaking. In those days the Lord revealed Himself in a number of ways. Today, I believe He speaks to us through His Word, through the gentle nudging of the Spirit, and through the collective witness of His people. Then it may have been in a night vision, or during a time while the disciples were praying, meditating on the Scriptures, or while fasting. A couple of the leaders sensed the Lord’s leading in a new direction. Others verified the voice. The Lord said, in effect, “I have work for two of you to do elsewhere. Not all of you, only two, and My plan is best. Release Barnabas and Paul. They are the two I’m calling elsewhere.”

Westward, ho!

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 11:19–26

In every ministry there are at least three essentials that produce an atmosphere of joyous cooperation. They are objectives, people, and places.

First, whatever God plans, He pursues. That has to do with the ministry essential of objectives. There’s nothing wrong with having a clearly defined mission statement that gives direction and purpose to the vision of a ministry. In fact, there’s everything right about it as long as it is the Lord who provides the direction. God’s plan unfolds in ways that confound human wisdom and sometimes defy common sense. But it is His plan. Objectives are essential when they are His objectives, not ours.

Second, whomever God chooses, He uses. That has to do with the ministry essential of people. And I must quickly add, the people God chooses are never perfect. That includes me. That includes you. In fact, we prove more useful to the Lord when we accept that reality and trust Him with our imperfections.

Third, wherever God selects, He sends. That has to do with the ministry essential of places. I wish He would send all of the great ones to Stonebriar Community Church. And I wish He would never let any of them leave. That’s desire based on my limited human perspective. I never prayed this prayer, but I’ve been tempted to pray, “Lord, send us only the great ones and keep them here forever. Don’t ever take them anywhere else.” (Being imperfect, I’m not above a few selfish prayers!)

God’s plan, however, includes removing some very gifted people among us and sending them elsewhere. His ways are not our ways. His places are not the places we would choose to go on our own. None of that matters. What matters is this: God sends people of His choosing to places of His choosing. The sooner we accept and embrace that truth, the more contented we will be.

Ministering together is always an adventure. It’s about embracing change. It’s about maintaining flexibility. It’s about walking with God through the surprising events He has designed. Barnabas needed help. The work was too much for one gifted but limited man. Paul stepped into the gap. And together they turned Antioch upside down for Christ.

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Acts 11:19–26

Do you recall what David did after he killed Goliath? God had already appointed the young shepherd as the next king of Israel. Most young conquerors would have located the nearest Macy’s and tried on crowns. Not David. He went right back to the Judean hills to keep his father’s sheep—a true shepherd with a servant’s heart.

Paul kept a similar vigil in Tarsus. He waited patiently until Barnabas tapped him on the shoulder. Only then did he step into that critical, highly visible role of leadership. I find nothing more attractive in a gifted and competent leader than authentic humility. Paul’s giftedness was framed in the crucible of solitude where he had been honed and retooled by the living Christ.

The evangelist Dwight L. Moody, although unschooled, was a gifted man of God preaching in Birmingham, England, far back in 1875. A noted congregational minister and well-respected theologian, Dr. R. W. Dale, cooperated in that enormously successful campaign. After watching and listening to Moody preach and witnessing the incredible results of the ministry of that simple man, Dr. Dale wrote in his denominational magazine, “I told Mr. Moody that the work was most plainly of God, for I could see no real relation between him and what he had done. Moody laughed cheerily and said, ‘I should be very sorry if it were otherwise.’” No defensiveness, no feeling of being put upon, no embarrassing uneasiness. Moody was the most surprised of anyone that God chose to use him so mightily.

That was Paul. No wonder Barnabas wanted Paul to lead the program in Antioch. What a duet they sang! For an entire year these two men served side by side, and God was greatly glorified.

I love Warren Wiersbe’s succinct definition of ministry: “Ministry takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory of God.” Paul and Barnabas could have sat for that portrait. Why did Paul and Barnabas experience such pleasure in serving together? No competition. No battle of egos. No one threatened by the other’s gifts. No hidden agendas. No unresolved conflicts. Their single-minded goal was to magnify Christ. It didn’t matter if the crowds multiplied to thousands or shrank to only a few. All that mattered was that Christ be proclaimed and worshipped.

Praise God for the power of two!

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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by Charles R. Swindoll

Read 2 Corinthians 12:2–10

Release the idea that contentment requires comfort. Contentment is possible no matter how dire your circumstances. While under house arrest, Paul wrote, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13). There it is again. Did you see it? The secret to Paul’s contentment was knowing Christ’s strength was perfected in his weakness. He really got it . . . and what a liberating concept it became!

Suffering is a delicate subject. It’s not easy to address because I realize I’m writing to people who have known a depth of suffering to which I have never gone. In no way do I wish to give the impression that I am a model of how to go through it. To be honest with you, I fail in my responses to adversity more than I succeed. It’s a lot easier to write a chapter on it than it is to model those things that look good in print. Along with the occasional pity parties I throw for myself, my heart is occasionally broken, and my spirit takes a tumble. So if that is your experience today, I can identify with that.

My desire is for you and me, together, to claim grace and cultivate grit in the midst of our suffering—like Paul. And in the process to wean ourselves from the rabid pursuit of happiness so prevalent in our culture. Happiness is a byproduct of contentment. Once Paul discovered that, he lived it. I’m not fully there yet. Most likely, neither are you. And so, we press on together, growing and learning, reminding ourselves that He must increase, and we must decrease.

Next time you hear a knock at the back door, before you open it, repeat these words to yourself: “His grace is sufficient for me.”

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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by Charles R. Swindoll

Read 2 Corinthians 12:2–10

Remember that suffering is not new. In what is probably the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job, we read, “For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). Now there’s a statement we need to teach our children and grandchildren, starting today. The message they consistently hear is that God has nothing but happiness and success in store for them if they’ll entrust their lives to Him. The Bible never promises that! Amazingly, while scraping sores from his diseased and pain-racked body, Job asked, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not adversity?” He made that statement in response to his wife’s advice to “curse God and die.” She too was broken from the loss of her children and the misery of watching her husband suffer so terribly. (As a young preacher, I came down too hard on Job’s wife. Now I go easier on her. She was grieving, not blaming. She needed God’s perspective on her pain.) It was when her husband witnessed how deep her grief was that he responded as he did. He wanted her to realize that God is not a heavenly bellboy, delivering only pleasurable and comforting things to our door. He doesn’t exist to make us happy. We exist to bring Him glory.

We live in superficial, skeptical times. When hard times occur you will find scores of newly released titles questioning how a loving God could be so unfair and unjust. It is easy to be confused in one’s understanding of God. But He has not changed. His ways have not been altered. As with Job and Paul, He continues to allow suffering to mold us into humble, useful servants.

Throw one of us in a dungeon and we want to talk to our lawyer! Throw those guys in prison, and the world ends up with Pilgrim’s Progress, or some other magnificent literary work that endures for centuries, putting our suffering back into perspective. Resist the temptation to rethink God just because hard times come. Look deeper. Cling to Him tighter. Refuse to question His motives. He’s doing something great within you. Suffering is nothing new.

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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by Charles R. Swindoll

Read 2 Corinthians 12:2–10

I need to underscore a foundational fact: God’s goal is not to make sure you’re happy. No matter how hard it is for you to believe this, it’s time to do so. Life is not about your being comfortable and happy and successful and pain free. It’s about becoming the man or woman God has called you to be. Unfortunately, we will rarely hear that message proclaimed today. All the more reason for me to say it again: Life is not about you! It’s about God.

How can I say that with assurance? Because of Paul’s response: “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (vv. 9–10). That’s it! He got it too. And he went with it for the rest of his days.

When you and I boast of our strengths, we get the credit, and we keep going under our own head of steam. But when we boast in what He is doing in the midst of our brokenness, inability, and inadequacy, Christ comes to the front. His strength comes to our rescue. He is honored.

Don’t miss that point. The very things we dread and run from in our lives are precisely what brought contentment to Paul. Look at the list: I am content when I lose. I am content when I am weak. I am content with insults. I am content when I’m slandered. I am content in distresses. I am content with persecutions. I am content with difficulties and pressures that are so tight I can hardly turn around. Why? “Because when I am weak then I’m strong.”  Knowing that brought the apostle, ablaze with the flaming oracles of heaven, to his knees. What a way to live your life—content in everything—knowing that divine strength comes when human weakness is evident.

That’s what gave the man of grace true grit. It will do the same for us.

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DailyDevo/~3/mPDM7mwxz9o/its-not-about-you.html

by Charles R. Swindoll

Read 2 Corinthians 12:2–10

This is a good time to correct faulty thinking. It is not always God’s will that you be healed. It is not always the Father’s plan to relieve the pressure. Our happiness is not God’s chief aim. He doesn’t have a wonderful (meaning “comfortable”) plan for everybody’s life—not from a human perspective. Often His plan is nowhere near wonderful. As with Paul, His answer is not what we prayed and hoped for. But, remembering that He is forming us more and more into the image of His Son, it helps us to understand His answer is based on His long-range plan, not our immediate relief.

Thankfully, in the midst of that suffering, He gently whispers, “My grace is sufficient for you” (v. 9). As with Paul, His grace supplies more than we need to endure whatever it is that threatens to undo us. Let me amplify that thought. His grace is more sufficient than your strength. His grace is more sufficient than the advice of any trained counselor or close friend (though God uses both). His grace is sufficient to carry you through whatever your own unique “thorn” may be. His grace—that’s the ticket.

Would you like to know why? Because God’s power is perfected in weakness (v. 9). What an amazing statement from the Lord! And all this time we thought power was perfected in success. We’ve been taught all our lives that it is achievement that makes us strong. No. A thousand times, no! Those things make us proud and self-sufficient and independent. Painful thorns make us weak. But the good news is this: when we are weak, He pours His strength into us, which gives an entirely new perspective on pain and suffering, hardship and pressure. Those stresses and strains drive us to our knees. It’s at that point our God comes through, takes us by the hand, and by His grace lifts us up.

His grace is sufficient for you too.

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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by Charles R. Swindoll

Read 2 Corinthians 12:2–10

Sailors on the high seas understand the importance of securing themselves to something sturdy in a fierce gale. You learn to cling to what’s secure in a storm. Paul learned to cling to what he knew to be true about himself and the Lord who held him in His grip.

I see an interesting tension here. While Satan punched and pounded the apostle’s resolve, the Lord’s purpose was to humble him, to keep him from exalting himself. Pride doesn’t reside in the hearts of the broken, the split-apart, the wounded, or the anguished of soul.

Many years ago I read these words: “Pain plants the flag of reality in the fortress of a rebel heart.” Mothers and fathers keeping vigil in the leukemia ward of a children’s hospital do not wrestle with issues of pride. They are humbled to the point of despair.

I’m not qualified to give you the intimate details of how Paul’s thorn affected him. However, he does confess that he begged the Lord on three separate occasions to remove it from him (v. 8). And you know what? We would have done the same. You and I would have prayed and prayed and begged for relief. “Father, please take away the thorn. Lord, I beg of You, remove it. Take this pain away from me.” That was Paul’s response.

I see amazing transparency written in those lines. The world needs more followers of Christ who embrace pain and hardship rather than deny them. How helpful for us to see all this as God’s plan to keep us humble. That can’t be taught in Bible colleges or seminaries. Those lessons are learned in the trenches of life. What people of prayer we would become! How often we would turn to Him. How fully we would lean on Him. And what insights we would glean.

That is precisely what happened as Paul turned again and again to his Lord. And God gave an answer he never expected.

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

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