Getting Control Back from Your Fears

I John 4:1 Don’t believe the false spirit of fear. There are many false spirits that attempt to trouble us and foul the plan of God. They prey on us with false evidence that appears real. They cannot overcome the power of Jesus Christ, but they can stall His plan by intimidating God’s children.

2Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
1. Fear of anything but God is a false spirit. The fear of God is the preferential choice you give to God over every other choice in life.

2. The things God has given us to combat fears in our life are;
a. Power: I John 4:4 is our source of overcoming. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Christ is in me and I in He. Nothing can separate me from the love of God, nor can any man pluck me out of His hand.
i. Fear comes when we feel powerless, and the prey of other things even of other men.
ii. Helplessness that blinds us and makes us feel a sense of desperation that there is no good solution. The spirit of power that lives in us can overcome fear.
b. Love: 1 John 4:18 Through His love He has taken away the dread of the judgment (I John 4:17) in that we can stand before Him clean and holy and without fear. Understanding His love is understanding that we are sinless in His eyes.
i. We feel the fears of criticism and of rejection that we don’t meet the standard of our peers or those that know us.
ii. In Jesus Christ we can boldly approach the throne of God in the confidence that He fully accepts us. His love for us has taken away any chance that we will not be accepted.
iii. His love conquers all our fears. Hebrews 2:15
c. The power of a sound mind. Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:32. The Lord tells us to renew our mind.
i. Fear and lies are the enemy of a sound mind. They breed confusion which is where the devil makes his gains in our lives. II Corinthians 7:5.
ii. The soundness of our mind is renewable by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Word is truth and the Spirit is confirmation of the truth.
iii. A sound mind requires daily renewal.
iv. Daily renewal will transform us. It will give us power over the lies and confusion of the enemy. It will combat our fears.

Summary: The false spirit of fear uses lies and confusion to torment us and make us believe we are powerless against them. We have been given the spirit of power, love and soundness of mind in order to combat the spirit of fear.

Pastor Appreciation is Not a Special Service

Jim Elliot said, “you cannot give your life to God in a moment, for that which is life long can only be given in a life time.”

Pastor appreciation is the same way. We had a special Pastor Appreciation service today in which we gave Austin a brick with a description of the talents, abilities and resources we were going to use to help him build Vision Baptist Church. I love that idea and think it was a great statement. Of course we had a special offering for Austin and Betty who have devoted all they have and all they are to the mission of Jesus Christ. It was a great service. I love special offerings.

But as Jim’s quote goes, so goes pastor appreciation. The response cannot be totally contained in the moment. It must perpetuate itself and become an epidemic. The words and notes on the brick must come to life and get muscle and sinew and breath. It would epitomize the lack of appreciation to say “I go sir” as the man in Matthew 21:30 and then not go. Its a hollow promise that doesnt deliver. Its a frustration to have tools that don’t work, materials that won’t hold up or workers that don’t show up.

Love shown, is better than love said. Commitment demonstrated is better than commitment described. A diligent person beats a brilliant plan any day of the week. If we learn the best ways to say it but never do it we still failed. Pastor appreciation is not a special service, its regular service every day of the week. Its more shoulders to the work and more hands on the plough. Believe me, he will appreciate that more than anything we could do.

What is fear and why does it have such power over me?

Have you had that dream that you were giving a big speech and that you looked down and realized you were not wearing any clothes? Don’t feel alone, the first man that ever was afraid had a meeting with God and realized He showed up naked.

Genesis 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
1. He was afraid because he was naked.
Fear of loss or rejection
Fear of discovery of private things
Fear of pain or punishment
Fear of conflict or confrontation

2. Fear is a result of the fall of man and the curse on the earth.
3. We were created to have dominion. We gave that up in the fall.
4. The animals that Adam named would now prey on him.

Fear is a resistance in us to risk – It is an emotion
Those who do not fear, probably do not understand the risks.

This is the beginning of a two week series in the Bridge Builders class at Vision.

Spectacular Finish

The Pastor’s conference closed last night with what looked like 1200 plus in attendance. I will have a separate post about some things, but here are the basics. The students in the seminary sang two songs as a choir of about 90 that was incredible. I thought about the construction of all the buildings and the projects I have worked on with Austin and Chris Gardner for several years while they sang. I could not help thinking that those students, and the works they will do for God is worth every minute and dollar invested and ten times more. Chris has been doing an excellent job with a huge load.

Austin Gardner is, in my opinion, a man who takes the Bible and makes it a usable book for the greatest of men and the lowest of men. I have had many “road to Emmaus” trips with my Pastor and friend while he opens the Scriptures and my heart burns as i see Jesus. Friday night was no exception. His message was as refreshing as it was pointed, and I beleive it will bear fruit in the hearts of the hundreds that attended.

Many wonderful specials were sung as well as congregational songs that you will just have to experience to understand. I was shocked again as I was presented with a huge mock up under a glass case of the Bible College. It is complete according to the plan of what the finished product will be. I will have it back in the states as soon as I figure out how to get it there. It is impressive and once again, I was without words. I think I said “wow” which translates in Spanish perfectly. I invite you to check out Businessmen Committed to World Evangelism to see how you can get involved in this project.

I also got to take a taxi ride home with Benjamin Armstrong. I am extremely impressed with this young man. He worked without much rest at all this week doing basically whatever was asked of him. I got to meet Benjamin’s dad a couple years ago. He is Brent Armstrong, Pastor of Oakwood Baptist Church in Anderson SC. Brent has an incredible testimony and a great church. I beleive you will be seeing this young man going places.

We finished the night at Turco’s for a midnight (literally) snack, which is another reason you need to put a trip to Peru in 2008 on your calendar today. God is doing incredible things here.

Jesus on Time Management – John Chapter 11

Time is not really something you can manage. What we can manage are our priorities within the time that we have been given. This is really about managing your “one thing” in life. The thing you are here for. Imagine if all you did in your day was the one thing that God has made you for. Finding and executing that relentlessly is what true time management is about. A multitude of books have been written on this subject. Most of them teach us how to be a fast moving generalist. Real time management is about how to be a content specialist. In learning about Jesus’ method of managing priorities we learn that time only means something to us in light of the fact that we have a job that only we can do. In this case, it was to raise Lazarus. For Jesus was the only one who could do it. Jesus had two basic time management principles.

Never let primary things wait on secondary things: Timing is so important Primary things are primary because of our purpose. Imagine doing only the things that you alone can do. These would all be primary things. A specialist, not a generalist.

Multiply yourself through others: Delegation Anything that can be done by someone else should be. Moses demonstrated that in his lesson on delegation in Exodus 18.

John 11:1-44 In these verses we are given a crisis which would normally incite us to urgent action. Jesus managed this situation because it was made for Him by His heavenly Father.

1. Jesus recognize the right application of who He was to the situation. John 11:11 Know who you are and what you were made for. Jesus understood the situation better than anyone else because he could think through all the possible outcomes in light of all His possible skills.

a. Jesus could easily have healed Lazarus. It was also possible that Lazarus would have been healed by a doctor or a family member that did the right things.
b. There was only one person that could raise him from the dead. Jesus had already healed several people.
c. This was important to Him and very touching. John 11:5, 33-35.
d. The situation included more than a usual amount of people being so close to the time and place of the Passover.
e. The fact that He was the right man for this job, and that He could handle any outcome because this was His specialty, made the time constraint meaningless. John 11:23

2. Jesus recognized the right time to act. Learn how to recognize those situations that were made for you by God, then make an assessment on the right time to act. This is about knowing the right time to act on the right task.

a. We have unfinished things everywhere because the urgent keeps us running.
b. Jesus was not positioned to handle the situation then and would have had to take a lesser result by healing him from a distance.
c. Jesus continued in the place and in the situation He was currently working on until it was complete before going to Bethany. Though these people were very close to Him, He did not change His plans.

i. To lose focus on what we are doing at the present, especially if it is a task designed for us, is to upset the divine timing of our lives.
ii. Delay was good for the situation. John 11:15 It allowed the situation to ripen or mature into exactly the point where Jesus would fulfill His role and accomplish His ends.

d. Urgency is a tyrant that demands we drop what we are doing and commence something else.
e. Thinking and doing things in the order of importance is the key. Important things are things that only you can do.
f. Those that asked Jesus to come were probably astonished that although He loved them and they had a friendship, Jesus seemed not to mind that their affliction increased while He finished His current task.
g. There are boundaries of the work day. John 11:9-10 There is never enough time to do everything, but always enough time to do the right things. Our lives were designed that way.

3. Right results and the greatest benefit. Jesus knew all along that this situation was fully in His control and that the benefits of Him executing this in person and at the right time would bring about exactly the right results.

a. Jesus moved closer to His goal in two ways.

i. He presented to them the resurrection and taught them the truth that death had no power over Him or them. John 11:45-46
ii. He moved the Pharisees to begin planning His capture and death which was very much a necessary part of the plan.

b. Jesus strengthened His disciples by showing them the resurrection.
c. They now know that it doesn’t matter if they die or not. The resurrection and the life is with them.

Summary: Time management is more about knowing your purpose and priorities than it is about cramming a bunch of stuff in one day. Becoming the specialist that God designed us to be not a generalist with a string of unsatisfying attempts at things. Organizing and executing around the priorities of your purpose, not selfishly, but because you know you were made for something and only you can play that role.

Hunter

We visited the Hunter Baptist Church tonight. This was the first church that Austin worked in when he came to Peru in 1988. Austin preached a great message on victory which was heard by over 620 people. Hugh Watson gave a testimony and Micah Smith translated. It was good to see Micah who went to Peru in the Spring to get married.

I met with a group of six young people (16 to 17 year old) that were graduating this year from the seconday school and would be starting the colegio in January. They wanted to talk to me about their promocion, which is what they call their graduation. They wanted me to know that they named it after me. I cannot tell you how honored I was by that. These are some of the sweetest people you will ever meet.

If you want to see what Vision Baptist Church will look like one day, a trip to Arequipa is essential. It is amazing what God has done here in the lives of the people here.

That’s My Pastor

The Wednesday night service at Igelsia Bautista Fe, where Chris Gardner is the pastor was a packed house. Once again it was great to see a lot of friends and enjoy the service. I was blessed to get to give the offering devotion.

Austin preached a message out of Judges on Samson entitled, its not the sin, it’s the direction your going. I have to tell you that I have heard that message in English and in Spanish and while both versions are sobering, the Spanish version was powerful beyond belief.

I can tell you that the Holy Spirit used Austin last night is an incredible way. The altar was full and I believe that hearts were changed. I thank the Lord for the way he has used Austin and consider how blessed we are at Vision to have him as our pastor.

Pray for him as they preach him to death this week.

Pastor’s Conference

Well, we had Pastor’s conference most of the day yesterday. Austin in the main speaker and the Pastor’s really benefit from his years of experience in the ministry. This is the ninth year for this conference that Austin started while he was a missionary here.

I had three 45 minutes sessions on time management, goal setting and getting things done. This is the second trip that I have taught in Spanish, although I think the training wheels have been permanently removed. I looked around in each class and noticed that they gave me no gringo to help in case I got stuck. Even Mark Coffey forsook me.

Pray for the conference.

Thanks a bunch Kathy

I was stopped in the hall Thursday night at Vision by Kathy Fies who said she needed a picture of me. While that is a strange thing, you have to know that lots of strange things happen at Vision. She took the picture and I looked at it to see how bad it was. It was bad. I just hoped it didn’t show up anywhere, like the website.

I showed up last night on the wall in the Bush chapel here at the Bible College as they inducted me into the hall of faith. It was an honor way past anything I deserve but was honored and uncharacteristically at a loss for words.

I know that at the heart of that was the great opportunity that I have had because of the work of Austin and his family. I thank the Lord for them and the endless list of lives that have been touched through the work of the Lord in Arequipa.

Thanks Kathy, you could have at least photo-shopped some more hair into that picture.

In Peru

If you keep up with the vision blog, you know we arrived safely in Peru on Tuesday. Its always a nice greeting and reunion at the airport. Its great to see so many friends. You always hit the ground running here and the action never ceases.

The travel part of the trip had one long layover in Miami. We were entertained by a little mouse that was running from chair to chair. We were in a section that had no departures and so, no people either. Sandy was feeding the mouse peanuts. She loved that little mouse.

Brian and Carmen are with us here in Arequipa until Thursday when they leave to go to Machu Pichu. It was also great to meet up with Hugo Navarette again. He was with us nearly from the start at Vision and has become a great friend. We were sad when he moved back to Lima in September, but can see how God was in that. He is working with Reuben Effio in his church in Lima. He is with us in Arequipa this week.

I am praying for my Spanish to hold up.