The Plans We Have

Tonight is senior night at youth group, that is, it is the night that I turn to the seniors to share with the rest of the youth group. The get a chance to share what they’ve learned, how God has taught them over the years, fun experiences and advice they have for other youth group members.

It’s always a bitter sweet time. Exciting to see them grow up and graduate. But sad knowing that soon they will be heading off to college and leaving youth group behind.

My hope and prayer for the graduates, and all youth group members, is that they will know Christ and the power of His Word. I’ve often said, that if a student graduates our youth group knowing the importance of regularly spending time with Jesus in His Word, then I have confidence of where they will go.

The unfortunate statistic is that only 19% of professing Christians read the Bible everyday (according to a LifeWay Poll). The Word of God is to be our lifeline, our way of connecting to God and the way to hear His voice in our lives. We need to encourage one another to take advantage of the opportunity we have to connect with God daily in His Word.

The Word of God contains promises for our lives that will give us the strength to stand strong everyday (2 Peter 1:4). One promise that comes to mind as we congratulate the graduates is Proverbs 16:9.

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”

Every graduate has dreams, plans and desires of what they will be or do. I did. But life doesn’t always work out the way we plan them, but God is the one who establishes, or directs, every step.

I often remember the time I wrote a paper in my “Understanding the Times” class my senior year. We had to write about where we thought we would be in 10 years. I wrote a very detailed account of my entrance in the military, engineering would be my educational pursuit, career path and even the name of the girl I was going to marry and how many kids we would have.

If you know me at all, you know right away that most of the above didn’t happen in my life. I never entered the military, I didn’t pursue engineering, I did not marry that girl or any girl, and I have no kids. But I had a plan.

Looking back at what did happen in my life is far different from the plans I made, but I can see how God ordered every step. I see how He directed my life and I wouldn’t trade my life for my old plan.

So to the seniors, pursue God, pursue your dreams, take the next step. When you encounter a bump in your plan, don’t worry, God is working all things out for your good (Romans 8:28). And when you keep Christ at the center of your plan, you will not regret the life you live.

Finishing Strong: A Persevering Faith

Whether you are running a race, coming to the final minutes of a sports game, completing an essay for class or nearing the end of the semester, it is easy to want to give up or cut corners, isn’t it? Physical, mental and emotional fatigue causes us to desire a break, to give in to our body and rest. But you are so close, the end is near, even if you can’t see it yet.

It’s in the moments where we desire to cut corners or give up that we make the biggest mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes don’t matter too much, other times it may cost us the game or the grade, and yet other times it can be even more severe than we realize. Particularly when it comes to spiritual matters.

Fighting off temptation to sin is a lot like fighting the desire to give up in a race.

My first year running, I set a goal to run a half marathon. Seriously, a couch potato to half marathon goal is attainable for anyone, given the right amount of time and proper training methods. That first year was great, I went from hating running to craving running. And I trained and ran well.

Yet my second year was different. I had “been there done that” and began to be overconfident in my achievement. I didn’t train as hard. I began to cut corners. I put on a few pounds and ate the wrong type of foods. Before I realized it, I injured my knee and had to take time off. I lost the joy of running and it became a chore.

The problem was I over estimated myself and lost a clear focus of my goal. I tried to cut corners and in the end it hurt me. In this scenario, the cost was not that great, but I continue to live with the effects of my decision. However, we face many other realities on daily basis that have far greater a cost, and yet we follow a similar pattern.

Darkest Day

Consider the example we have in the life of Peter (Mark 14:27-50, 66-72). Here we have the story of Jesus’ best friend and closest companion. On this side of history, we know him as the Apostle Peter who preached the sermon at Pentecost, walked out of a prison, wrote books of the Bible and was crucified upside down for his commitment to Christ.

Peter’s story is a story of finishing strong and a persevering faith. Yet he wasn’t always so faithful.

Jesus told all the disciples that persecution was coming and all the disciples would run away and abandon Him. Peter did not like this one bit, so he said, “though all abandon you, I will stick by your side even till death!”

When we talk about hard times, we want our friends to have our back. Peter is just saying, “Jesus, I got your back!” It seems like a good thing to say, but Jesus is the Lord and He knows what’s about to happen. And Peter has the audacity to correct Jesus.

Jesus told Peter that before the rooster crows, Peter will deny him three times. Peter affirms his commitment to Jesus and says he will never deny Christ, not even if it costs him his life.

Have you ever felt super confident in yourself? You felt sure you could handle something no matter what? Only to find that you failed? That’s where Peter is at in our story. He is self-confident and self-reliant.

Jesus asks his friends to stay up and pray with them, but all of them, including Peter, falls asleep. How is this guy who can’t even stay awake in a prayer meeting, going to stand firm till the end?

When the mob came to arrest Jesus, Peter took his sword and cut off the servant’s ear. Despite spending three years with Jesus and seeing how Jesus handled difficult situations peacefully, Peter attacks a man. Jesus heals the servant’s ear and rebukes Peter.

As the guards arrest and escort Jesus, Peter begins to follow at a distant. Peter continues to drift farther and farther from Jesus. As he finds himself outside, in the court yard as Jesus is being questioned, Peter experience his own trial.

“You are a Galilean with Jesus!” “No I am not!” “You are one of His disciples!” “No I’m not!” “You are with Jesus of Nazareth!” “I swear I am not!”

Then he hears it! The rooster crows and reality sets in. He has just denied his best friend, his Savior and His lord. Tears begin to flow at the realization of his failure in his darkest moments.

Reality Hits Home

Have you ever had that moment where you gave into sin, only to realize your failure right away? You’ve just blown up at your parents for not getting your way and then the Bible verse “honor your mother and father” pops in your head. Guilt floods over you.

You just finished looking at something you shouldn’t be looking at, and as you turn, your Bible is opened on your desk. Immediately you are ashamed of your actions.

You just gossiped about a friend of yours, humiliating them, and she sends you an encouraging text. Instantly you knew you were wrong.

So often we get carried away, thinking we are doing good, and we cut corners, only to fall. And immediately, the truth comes to us and we realize how stupid we were.

It’s in these moments that we think we are worthless, and we want to give up. How could God use a failure like me?

Empowered by God

It’s easy to want to give up and think less of ourselves. But what does God think? He loves us beyond our understanding. That is what the cross was all about (Romans 5:8). Let’s go back to Peter’s story (John 21:15-17).

When Jesus rose again, He met up with Peter, the one who denied Him. “Peter do you love me?” He asked. “Yes Lord I love you!” “Feed my sheep!”

“Peter do you love me?” He asked. “Yes Lord I love you!” “Feed my sheep!”

“Peter do you love me?” He asked. “Yes Lord, you know everything, you know I love you!” “Feed my sheep!”

Wow! The threefold reinstatement of Peter is a powerful reminder that no matter how dark our days have been, there is forgiveness in Christ. Not only does He forgive Peter, but He wants to use Peter to encourage others to follow Jesus!

The answer to overcoming is loving Jesus. Do you love Jesus more than your sin? Do you love Jesus more than your failure? When we love Jesus, all is forgiven and we are empowered.

In reading Peter’s own words (1 & 2 Peter) you can almost feel the urgency and the dedication he has to Jesus. He experienced a deep and dark fall, but had been raised to new life. Let’s learn from Peter’s example to not allow our failures to keep us from being used by Christ.

Establishing a Pattern

We will fail and fall. It will happen. Proverbs says a righteous person falls 7 times but gets up again. We are human and battle our sinful nature. Yet, we must establish a pattern to prevent failure. Peter gives us a pattern for growth (2 Peter 1:5-8). He then assures us that if we follow this pattern in an increasing way we will never fall (2 Peter 1:10)! That’s awesome.

The pattern we avoid is self-reliance, self-confidence and self-righteousness. Instead we rely on the Spirit, we boast in Christ, and we cloth ourselves in the righteousness of Jesus.

Now as we near the end of school and you are tempted to cut corners, remember to finish strong. Persevere until the end. When it comes to temptations to sin, keep on keeping on. Trust Christ to be your strength.

But if and when you fall, learn from Peter’s example. Don’t allow your failure to keep you down, but learn to love Jesus more than your sin.

Speak No Evil: Navigating Media in a Digital Age

You just looked at your phone and realized you had “butt dialed” me 45 minutes ago and the line is still open. What thoughts run through your head? Isn’t that an awful feeling? When the sudden realization that someone was invited to eavesdrop on your conversation without you being aware of it.

Why do we get nervous about that?

What if I told you that your phone has been recording your conversations over the last month and at 3pm today it is going to release that recording to the public? Would you be excited or terrified?

Did I slip? Did I say something bad about so and so? Did I gossip? And the questions continue to run through your mind.

Better yet, what if all your texts, tweets, and Instagram posts were going to be transcribed and sent to your parents? Wouldn’t that be exciting?

Let me put your mind at ease, this is not going to happen.

BUT, I hope you get the point that all of us struggle with our words. If you only spoke good stuff all the time, you would never worry about whose listening. But James 3 tells us that it is almost impossible to tame the tongue and nobody is perfect.

Divinity In Words

Did you know that the first words ever spoken were not spoken by a human?

The Bible opens with the existence of God who spoke the world into existence (Genesis 1). There was nothing in the material universe, including the existence of the material universe, and God spoke and the universe came into existence, the earth took on form, the light, stars, sun, trees, plants, animals, etc. all came into existence through the power of words.

 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host” Psalm 33:6

Words have power. Ever since the first word was sounded, words were given power to create and to bring life. This was the intended use for words: life. All words belong to God, and in the beginning, God made man stewards of His creation. Part of being created in God’s image is that we speak and we are stewards of God’s creation, including our words.

But man fell, and sin entered the world. Sin tainted the words we were given. What was intended to bring creativity and life, now could bring death, destruction and deception. All of mankind was being distorted by the words of the enemy.

God intervened in the plight of man, by gathering His people at Mount Sinai, where His voice was heard once again. From Mount Sinai, God spoke the Law. The Law was given to show man how to approach God and his desperate need for a Savior.

God continued to speak to His people through the prophets, but suddenly there came a silence. After Malachi, there was 400 years of silence. Nothing.

Until that blessed day when the silence was broken through the cries of a baby. The Creator God, who spoke the universe into existence and breathed the breath into man, has now entered into His creation as a baby. He brought His voice back to mankind, “and the Word became flesh.”

Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate, showed us the way to use Words to point people to the Father. He was perfect and perfectly used His Words to teach, to heal, to forgive and to build up. He was hated for it. And He was crucified. From the Cross, God spoke Gospel. He spoke new life, forgiveness, freedom and redemption.

Life and Death…You Choose

“DEATH and LIFE are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Proverbs 18:21

God brought life through words and intended words to be used to cultivate life. We failed. So He sent the Word to bring life to a fallen race. In Christ, we have the opportunity to be made new (2 Corinthians 5:17). As new creations, we can allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to speak life and truth.

In God’s Word, He gave us instructions, cautions and commands to help us know Him and honor Him in our lives. Proverbs, the book of wisdom, is super practical advice. Paul Trip summarizes them like this:

“The book of Proverbs is, in ways, a treatise on talk. I would summarize it this way: words give life; words bring death — you choose. What does this mean? It means you have never spoken a neutral word in your life. Your words have direction to them…life…or death…May God help us never to look at talk as something that doesn’t matter.”

Ok, I have to be transparent here. This is hard for me to study, write, and teach because it is SO CONVICTING! I admit I fail at this. I confess, I more often than not, do not consider the importance of the words I speak.

“We think that words are not that important because we think of words as little utilitarian tools for making our life easier and more efficient, when they are actually a powerful gift given by a communicating God for his divine purpose” (Paul Tripp).

Yet when I stop to think about words in this way, it brings so much sense to me and a desire to better craft my words to only bring life. When the conviction of the Holy Spirit points out our inadequacy, our evil and vile use of His gift of words, it’s an opportunity to be refined. It’s God demonstrating His love in our day to day life. He loves us so much that He has brought redemption to our world, to our life and to our words. “The gospel is so robust we don’t need to be afraid of looking at the horror of the trouble of our world of talk, because Jesus is — and because he’s our Savior” (Paul Tripp).

Do your words bring life? Do they bring encouragement, hope, love, peace, unity, instruction, wisdom, and correction.

Or do you use words that bring death? Words of anger, malice, slander, jealousy, gossip, division, contempt, racism, violence, judgment, and condemnation.

It’s A Heart Problem

Bad words are evidence of heart problem. Jeremiah tells us that our hearts are deceitful and sick (17:9). And Jesus tells us that our words are an overflow of what is in our heart (Luke 6:45). Our natural bent is corrupt and therefore corrupt words flow from our mouth.

God tells us to guard our heart, because from our heart flows the springs of life (Proverbs 4:23). You need to fill your heart and mind with the Word of God so that He shapes the words that we speak.

Jesus has come to give us a new heart and a new mind (Ezekiel 36:26). Only in submitting to the Gospel message will we find the answer to our heart problem. When we choose to love Christ, He makes a new and gives us power to use words of life.

Speak Words of Life: Verbally and Digitally

The Bible has many things to say about how we are to use our words for God’s glory. We’ve already looked at a few of them. But often we relegate the commands of God to our verbally spoken words, but seem to forget about God’s commands when we use texting or social media.

Words are words and they have power whether you hear them with your ears or read them with your eyes. You can bring life or death whether it’s with your mouth or with your fingers.

^“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” Ephesians 4:29.

Let’s rephrase that for the digital age.

“Let no corrupt texts, tweets, snaps or posts be found on your phone, Facebook, Intagram, or SnapChat, but only text what is good for encouraging others, that brings grace to your friends list.”

In the digital world, it is more than just the words, but pictures and videos you might post or share. Inappropriate pictures or videos portraying sex or using expletives are bringing death to your readers.

Ask yourself, why am I texting this? What am I hoping to accomplish with this post? Is this for the good of those who are receiving this? Is this self-serving? Prideful? Does it contain foul language, sexual innuendos?

There is a temptation to be “braver” behind a keyboard or on your phone that causes you to feel freer to say things digitally you would never say face to face. Don’t send something you would not say to the person face to face.

Remember words have power. Cyber bullying is a clear evidence of that. Many teenagers have committed suicide as a result of being bullied on social media. Quite literally, those words brought death.

May our words never bring death, but may they be filled with life.

Your words matter and you will be held accountable for how you steward the words God has given to us.

I will leave you with the words of Jesus found in Matthew 12:33-37:

³³ “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. ³⁵ The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. ³⁶ I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, ³⁷ for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”