Where Are Your Habits Leading You

Habits. We start hearing about habits from such an early age, usually associating habits with the phrase "bad habits" such as biting your finger nails, picking your nose, smoking, spitting, or belching. But habits can be a good thing as well.

As a youth pastor I began speaking to students and young children about the importance of establishing good habits such as the habit attending church and youth group, the habit of daily Scripture reading and daily prayer. It is important that these habits are started early so that these young adults will carry them on throughout their entire lives. As Proverbs 22:6 says: "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Now as a Pastor of a church I find myself making these same statements and presenting the same case to grown adults. For many adults, this is the first time they have ever heard of the importance of Christian habits, but for some individuals, this is something that has been taught to them from a very early age. One Scripture that pastor's everywhere love to quote is Hebrews 10:25: "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

But I don't want to talk about the habit of attending church, attending church doesn't get us the "prize" that Paul writes of in Philippians 3. I want to talk about the rest of the habits found in Hebrews 10:25 and the surrounding verses.

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." (Hebrews 10:24-27)

I understand how hard and how harsh these words sound, but they are straight from God's Word and so they are for us and they are for now. So, what are the "habits" we are called to in just these four verses?

• The habit of spurring one another on to love and good deeds - this is outreach and service
• The habit of meeting together regularly - this is worship and fellowship
• The habit of encouraging one another - this is teaching and training
• The habit of turning our back on sin - this is commitment

You see, we often look to the "habit" of loving God and loving others, the "habit" of doing good deeds for others, the habit of attending church and enjoying the fellowship of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and the "habit" of encouraging one another to stay the course as our duty as God's children, and rightly so. But, it's important that we realize that without making it a "habit" to turn our back to sin, to  no longer deliberately sin against God and His creation, we lose the sacrifice for sin that has been made for us, that is Jesus Christ. Without making it a "habit" to turn our back  to sin, we trade our eternal reward for judgement that leads to raging fire and separation from God.

Take a look at your habits, the good habits, the bad habits, and all those in between, and ask yourself where those habits are leading you.

Rest Assured

I was reading Psalm 121 the other day;

"I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:1-4)

Our youngest son is having some major issues sleeping right now, we are not sure if it is all because of his new teeth, because he feels bad, because he has established this as his schedule, or a mix of all three. Either way, my wife bears most of the burden of sitting with him and caring for him in the middle of the night. A couple nights ago, realizing how exhausted (and stressed) she was, I decided to sit up with him beginning at 2:00 a.m. Throughout the night I made various attempts to get him back to sleep and tried multiple "tricks" to make him happy and keep him quiet. Hours later, when the sun rose and the house began to stir, we were still awake, he was happy, I was not.

In the nights to come I have tried to talk my wife into allowing our son to "cry through it", hoping he will learn to put himself back to sleep and hoping that we can achieve a full night of sleep. Needless to say, his mother won't bite on my wonderful idea. She feels that when her son is awake, whether he is in pain, angry, or grumpy, she too needs to be awake and watching over him.

Thinking of Psalm 121, I find great comfort in knowing that God too won't sleep or slumber through our restless nights of pain, anger, or sorrow. The Psalmist continues;

"The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." (Psalm 121:5-8)

 God never sleeps or slumbers, you can rest on that. God always watches and cares for you, you can be assured of that.

Lead Strong, Love Stronger

Yesterday was Father's Day and we had the priviledge of having several great fathers join us for worship at church yesterday morning.

During our worship we honored these fathers but we also honored husbands and reminded them of their role. God has called all husbands and fathers to a higher standard. God has called husbands to love their wives in the same way that He loves us. God has called fathers to lead their children in the teachings and desires of  the Scriptures. God has called husbands and fathers to lead strong and to love stronger.

As a reminder of this calling we gave gifts to all husbands and fathers, including a bottle of Powerade. Remember: "Lead Stong, Love Stronger".

Follow Me

Recently the media technician at our church created a video using a song by Third Day titled "Follow Me". The video goes through various slides of our church family fellowshiping, worshiping, and such.

As soon as I saw the video I realized its appeal as a promotional tool for our church as a warm-hearted group of people striving to follow Jesus Christ and inviting others along in the journey. As we follow Jesus, we invite others to do the same.

Press On Toward Perfection

The NBA Finals just finished days ago. LeBron James and the overly talented Miami Heat promised their fans and the city of Miami a championship but they fell short of their promise when the Dallas Mavericks proved to be more than they could handle. A lot of players in professional and college sports make promises that they fail to deliver on, perfection seems to elude so many these days.

A few years ago I had the privilege of attending the final regular season Ball State University football game. Ball State went undefeated during the regular season, a great accomplishment among today’s college football teams. After the game I watched as thousands of individuals ran onto the field to congratulate the football team and the coaching staff and to celebrate a season in which their team was perfect. Although I have never been a Ball State fan, I found myself caught up in the excitement and felt pride for this team that I had just observed. This got me thinking about perfection.

The Bible has much to say about perfection;

• Deuteronomy 32:4; God’s works are perfect,
• Psalm 18:30; God’s ways are perfect,
• Job 36:4; God’s knowledge is perfect,
• Psalm 19:7; God’s law is perfect,
• Psalm 50:2; God’s beauty is perfect,
• Isaiah 25:1; God’s faithfulness is perfect,
• James 1:17; God’s gifts are perfect,

What an awesome, perfect God we have the opportunity to worship and serve. But what is encouraging is that in Matthew 5:48 Jesus calls us to be perfect as well. So how can we achieve perfection? Jesus gave two steps toward achieving perfection in Matthew 19:16-30, this is the story of the rich young ruler who asked about eternal life. Jesus lays out for him the laws that he must follow and the ruler claims that he is following all of them. Then Jesus says to him, in verse 21, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” It comes down to two distinct things. If you want to be perfect as God is perfect, if you want to achieve all that God has intended for you to be you must love God and love people. Jesus states it like this in Luke 10:27; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love God and love people!

Paul writes in Philippians 3:12-14; “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” So I urge you to “press on toward the goal” that God has called you to.

Some Questions

I love a good questions. Jesus taught a lot through well-constructed, well-timed questions.

Questions have the power to help us evaluate our behavior, motives, attitudes, and actions. Questions have the power to change lives and redirect futures. The other night I was up very late, unable to sleep, and I began writing pages of questions as they cam to my mind. Here are a few of those questions.

What is most important to you?

Where do you spend the majority of your time?

What do you spend most of your energy doing?

Who do you spend most of your time with?

What thoughts consume your mind?

What is your greatest talent or ability?

What do you hope to achieve with your life?

Why does God love you?

Who do you love?

Why do you love others?

What do others do that earns your love?

What Bible verse speaks to you the most?

What Bible verse comforts you the most?

What Bible verse encourages you the most?

What do you love about Jesus?

What does Jesus call you to do?

Who has God created you to be?

Who has God created you to love?

What does judgment mean?

How should God judge you?

How should others judge you?

How should you judge others?

What is your deepest secret?

Does God have secrets?

Should friends have secrets?

Should marriages have secrets?

What do you idolize?

What do you desire?

What inspires you?

What image are you keeping?

What keeps you from doing God’s work?

What is your stumbling block?

What breaks your heart?

Do you hate evil?

What are you addicted to?

Have you surpassed temptation?

Why are you tempted?

How are you tempted?

What is the process of temptation?

Who does your temptation hurt?

How are you overcoming temptation?

How are you fleeing from Satan?

How far is Satan from you?

What do your kids think of you?

What do you want your kids to think of you?

Do you want your kids to be just like you?

How can you better lead your kids?

Who do you want your kids to be?

What do you want your kids to become?

What are you tired of?

What are you tired from?

Why do you fall for the same trap time after time?

How can you overcome the trap before you?

What race are you running?

Who are you committed to?

Who are you aiming to please?

What influences are in your life?

Who do you surround yourself with?

What do you need to do away with in your life?

What do you need to do away with in your world?

Who do you need to do away with in your life?

Setting an Example

Our children are quite a blessing to my wife and I. There are several phrases that make it into our daily language, such as, "hurry up", "use your words", and many, many more. One phrase that our five-year-old daughter hears almost everyday is "act like a five year old". You see, she has two younger brothers and often finds herself struggling to fill the oldest child role that she was born into.

I have to say that both of our sons receive more positive attention than she does and it is common that we point out their cute antics and laugh at their childish behavior. Because of this additional attention to the younger two, our oldest commonly tries to act much like them in an attempt to receive attention.

Just the other day we were paying visits to the grandparents and, when it came time to leave, she began to act like a two-year-old. We reminded her of her actual age and yet she continued to act out, and was soon disciplined for her childish actions. Why do we discipline her? Because she knows better and  because she is smarter and more mature than her behavior was showing.

As we made our way to the car we began to talk with her about her actions and that, as the oldest. she is to act in a way that leads the younger two rather than allowing their actions to lead her. We pointed out that her younger brothers want to be just like her and often follow her around, doing the exact same things that she does. She is to act in such a way that her words, actions, and behavior makes them want to be like her.

This is true for each one of us, whether we are the old or the young, whether we are the boss or the worker, whether we are surrounded by people constantly or feel like we are alone most of the time. Each one of us are called to live a mature life and to lead others through our example, through our words and actions.

This applies to the follower of Christ as well. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy "Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."  (1 Tim. 4:12) Likewise, followers of Jesus Christ are called to be in the world but not of the world, they are called to set an example for the world but not to become like the world. Followers of Jesus Christ are called to act in such a way that their words, actions, and behavior makes others want to follow after them, and after Jesus.

So, are you leading by example or are you following the example of others? Are you looking to Jesus and following His example for the way you should live your life or are you following the example set forth by the world and those who are in this world. Remember, focus on Jesus and the things that shouldn't matter won't matter any longer.