Articles by Phil Ware at Heartlight

It's a Time to Help, not just Talk

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone -- especially to those in the family of faith (Ephesians 6:10 NLT).

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well" -- but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless (James 2:14-17).

We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion -- how can God’s love be in that person?
Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions (1 John 3:16-18).

The devastation of the tornadoes in Oklahoma these past few days have been on my mind all afternoon -- it is Monday night and I am traveling through airports in Texas and Kentucky following things on CNN and FOXNews.

I was writing an article on prayer and about to finish up our twice per year donation drive email for Heartlight.org when I was convicted to put off both in favor of dealing with the tragedy unfolding before our eyes. After the horrors of tornadoes last week, like many of you I was agonizingly transfixed watching as the tornadoes hit Moore, Oklahoma, and broadcast like a SuperBowl pre-game and postgame. Only this time, these are not games. These are real people... real lives lost and real lives tragically redefined by a series of natural phenomena bringing catastrophic results.

As you read this, we will still only be beginning to gauge the enormity of the devastation to property and will be left bewildered and weighed down by the human toll in lives lost, injuries received, emotions wrenched, and grief realized.

So what are we to do?

I don't mean to be callous, but I'm tired of all the sloganeering that we have fallen into lately. It sure feels like a simplistic and shallow way to appease our consciences with all the needs, plagues, and disasters. Let's wear this color ribbon or this color shirt to show our support for the folks who... or we're offering a percentage of all proceeds of our purchase to the victims of...* Yes, I know there are some very good folks who donate proceeds and wear colored ribbons to raise awareness. Yet right now, we need to do more than that. We need a strategy as individuals and as churches on what we are going to do when there are disasters and emergencies and how we are going to respond. We need experts in helping others to receive support and those who are on the margins trying to get their corporate or personal names in front of people to be shoved aside so we can be certain real people in real need are really being helped.

In addition to our tithe to God's work, let's learn to give alms again! Alms are the gift to those in need. In the Old Testament Jewish culture, these were given above the tithe. In other words, let's get proactive in our budgeting so we can have a fund set aside to help those in need -- locally, nationally, and globally. Then, let's give to those groups that have proven track records. I suggest church groups and para-church ministries that have proven themselves.** This is a great teaching opportunity for your kids of any age if you include them in both the budgeting and also the decision on where to give the funds. In addition, there is always the Red Cross who have experience with these kinds of disasters.

Second, while I believe in the importance of prayer, it will come third in our list because prayer warriors have already hit their knees and the rest of us need to do more than just talk about human tragedy. James reminds us that saying we pray for someone in a tragedy but doing nothing when we have the ability to help is basically saying our faith is really dead (James 2:14-21). John, while talking largely about our brothers and sisters in Christ, says if we know of a brother and sister in need and do nothing to help we show that the love of Christ is not in us so we need to demonstrate our love with action and not just words (1 John 3:16-18). So find a group, a need, a disaster, and help. Give money as a family thoughtfully, and follow through and make that help as personal as you possibly can. Learn what you can about the situation, the people, the agencies, the emergency workers and then choose a specific thing and area to help. If volunteers are needed and reputable groups are organizing them, then go or help someone go and help personally. Contact area churches and find families that have ongoing needs and help and stay connected. You won't be able to help with every, or even most, emergencies, but if you get involved long-term with one and help people truly recover you have done something Kingdom worthy and truly life-changing!

Third, pray! Again, if you can get specific and personal in your prayers, that is better for those you pray for and for you and your own spiritual growth. Pray for people by name and those they may represent. For example, people mentioned by name in the news reports, magazines and papers -- these are specific people who represent many others who are victims, their families, their neighbors. Pray especially for the ER staffers, EMT's, rescue workers, Firefighters, Law Enforcement, Public Health Officials, elected officials, government agency leaders, agencies that offer aid, and utility and infrastructure support workers who are going to be working non-stop for several weeks to do what needs to be done and will also have to deal with the trauma of what they witness. And pray for their family members who will worry about them and be apart from them dealing with their own parts of these disasters.

We live in a connected world, so we are more aware than ever before of the horrific tragedies of our world. This saturation with the impact of our broken world's disasters on humankind can make us hardened to tragedy, can overwhelm us with its pervasiveness, or call us to a plan to be God's agents of grace and redemptive helpfulness. Our hope, our prayer at Heartlight, is that we commit to the third one: we are called to a plan of action.

So we'll pray... but we'll also help. If we can't now, then let's begin a plan to be able to help in the future. Let's involve our families in every stage of the process. Let's commit to help in specific ways and in specific situations because none of us can help or bear the burden of everything. But we all can help with something. So let's see this as our call to action and begin today.

* Come on, what percentage and what minimum and what maximum are you putting in? And don't put it into small print because there are a jillion of scammers out there saying the same thing so we are not sure if you are playing on human tragedy for a marketing tool and tax deduction or that you are genuinely helping.

** We will update this later in the week with some possible folks to use that we have seen be effective in the past.

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 15+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

A Yes! Church

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

As surely as God is faithful, our word to you does not waver between "Yes" and "No." For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between "Yes" and "No." He is the one whom Silas, Timothy, and I preached to you, and as God's ultimate "Yes," he always does what he says. For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding "Yes!" And through Christ, our "Amen" (which means "Yes") ascends to God for his glory (2 Corinthians 1:18-20 NLT).

Hope you've been to one! Even more, hope you are part of one. Unfortunately, some folks have never even seen one!

I'm talking about a "Yes! Church."

When you are with a "Yes! Church" you know it because of the feel of the people and the place. You find a sense of excitement and joy. You experience an almost universal realization that God is up to something in this group of Jesus' folks and they can't wait to see what is next. They know that Jesus is the ultimate "Yes!" of God and they want others to experience this sense of purpose and promise in their lives.

The hard thing is that it is easy to slide from being a "Yes! Church" into being a "Maybe? Church" or "Not so Much Church." The sense of joy, the feeling of welcome, and the conviction of living out God's purpose has slipped away.

This slip-sliding away of joy, welcome, and purpose occurs for many different reasons. We go through hurt, division, or loss. We have a time of grief when we say goodbye to beloved friends, members, or leaders through relocation or even death. Sin rips apart key families and wounds key leaders. We grow tired and weary of the same ol' thing and begin to slide toward mediocrity. The status quo "good enough" pervades everything. The "Yes!" is gone.

Yet no matter why the "Yes!" slips from us, the issue is that one day we recognize it's gone or maybe even realize that we have never been part of the environment of "Yes!" We become convicted that what we are looking for is not so much a new preacher or youth minister or even a fresh perspective in our leadership or a less burdensome membership. What we are looking for is more "Yes!"

We yearn to be part of a people that know Jesus is present and they are about His work and are advancing by His power. And we want everyone who visits and walks through our doors and shares our pews and classrooms to experience this "Yes!" We want our community to know they can be part of living out the "Yes!" of Jesus as God fulfills His promises in us through our Lord Jesus!

So can it happen in us? Can we really be a "Yes! Church"?

Well, over the next several months, we* want to share a post each week talking about ways for us to become a "Yes! Church." So to quiet the Yabbotts -- that group of unwelcome demons in our heads and in our foyers that say, "Yeah, but that can't really happen today, with me, or with our folks!" -- I want to encourage you to grab a couple of brothers and sisters in Christ and do something each day.

Pray.

I'm not talking about normal prayers or personal prayers or "God 'gimmie' and fix me and help me" kind of prayers. I'm talking about proven, Spirit-inspired prayers that have blessed others and opened the door for God's Spirit to transform them. So join me and commit to pray each day for the next month, or more, for you and your family and your church family these prayers given to us in the book of Ephesians and release the "Yes!" into your life and your church family:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding (Ephesians 1:3-8 NLT).

I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:16-20 NLT).

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT).

Peace be with you, dear brothers and sisters, and may God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you love with faithfulness. May God's grace be eternally upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 6:23-24).

Oh, and one final thing. I know some of you are going, "Yeah, and we are supposed to become a "Yes! Church" just by praying?

So let me answer that question quite clearly: "Nope!"

You see, prayer doesn't change things. God changes things in response to our prayers and in response to our expectation of His working in us!

Prayer opens the window to heaven's grace, but we have to expect the fresh wind of God's grace to fill us with new hope and we have to be willing to breath in that wonderful fresh air! To put it in plain ol' cornbread English, we have to:

Expect God to act in response to our prayers.
Begin to act in ways that anticipate God's power at work in His people.

So pray, expecting God's power and we will be back to visit with you each week about some ways to act in anticipation of God's release of power!

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation (Psalm 5:3 NIV94).

Blessings and grace in Jesus' name!

Phil -- click to email me!

* Who is the "we"? I'm talking about my buddies at Interim Ministry Partners, Greg, Mark, and Tim. Hope you'll come find out a little more about us and let us know how we can be helpful to you. Our focus is to help churches move through periods of transition and experience God's transformation!

For more on Interim Ministry Partners, check out the website and follow along the next several weeks with the partners as they share insight into becoming a "Yes! Church" and what it takes to become one.

Upcoming Posts:

Here's a "No! Church" and How to Avoid Being One -- Mark Frost.

Practical Ways to Say "Yes!" as a Church -- Tim Woodroof or Greg Anderson.

Giving Guests a Place at Our Table -- Tim Woodroof or Greg Anderson.

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 15+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

Untold Stories: Eve, the Mother of Seth

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Moms are often way too hard on themselves!

As I have visited with mothers of all ages and stages, so many of them blame any of a child's problems, misbehaviors, rebellion, medical issues, school problems, relationship struggles, and personal "mess ups" on themselves.

Instead of thinking, "Thank you, God, for the opportunity to influence this child!" -- whether as a bio mom, adoptive mom, foster mom, church mom, teacher mom, neighborhood mom, auntie mom, grandmother mom -- they often spend their time going "If only I had done this, they wouldn't have had this problem or would have done better in life."

There's something in the heart of most women that wants the best for the children God gives them to influence. So, they take it personally, even blame themselves personally, when that child doesn't find all of the goodness in life that they believe God intends for him or her.

So I'd like to share with you an insight that God had waiting for me about a year ago as I was reading through the first book of the Bible, Genesis. It's an interesting twist to an often overlooked story, but an insight that I believe that God intended for us to find!

No mother could have more deservedly blamed herself for her child's problems than Eve. No woman of influence could have more appropriately said, "If only I had done this and not done that, then they would have turned out better!" And no one could have said this with more rightful anguish than Eve!

Eve had messed up big time! Her sin messed up everything, especially her family. They lost their home and their health, their relationship with God and with each other, their honesty and integrity. They lost everything, including each other!

The unthinkable happens as a result of the sin that Eve and Adam introduced into the world. One of their sons, Cain, kills the other son, Abel! The loss of a child is devastating -- beyond words to express. Yet to have one child murder another of your children is a debilitating and unrelenting torture.

And for Eve, in this moment of loss, there is no place to hide. There is no teacher or church or peers or TV or culture upon which she can rightfully blame Cain's evil. Eve is trapped in her grief, loss, and self-blame. She opened Pandora's Box, and the results ripped apart her family and her heart.

Yet the story doesn't end for Eve on this awful note of grief, loss, and failure. God's unmistakable and incredible grace intervenes and changes the trajectory of Eve's influence and rekindles the hope in Eve's heart!

God's actions become God's message to every mother who has done her best to influence her child or the children in her circle of influence. And this message isn't just for moms who worry they have failed their child in some way, but every parent and every person of influence in the life of children.

God gives Eve another son. His name is Seth! Eve may not have felt worthy of the opportunity. She may have worried about what would happen this time with her boys. She may have doubted her ability to handle the situation, but God chose to give her another chance. The language is clear, God intentionally gave Eve another son -- the word can be translated "appointed," "granted," or "purposely gave" (Genesis 4:25).

God graced Eve with another boy... another chance... another start... another opportunity... to be a mom, to be a woman of influence, to be the person who makes a godly difference in the life of a child and in the life of a family and in the future of the world. God purposely chose to get Eve out of looking in her rearview mirror and to help her quit saying, "If only I had..." and "If only I hadn't..." and got Eve focused forward on what she could do, with God's help, to bring God's blessing to the world through a child she would name Seth -- which means "God has granted"!

There is a wonderful story and deeper story told in the Bible's fine print if we take a few minutes to read it and ask the Holy Spirit to speak God's hope, God's truth, God's grace into our lives! You see, two powerful things result from Eve's son, Seth.

For the first time, people begin to "call on the Lord" (Genesis 4:26). Seth's family begins a group of people who seek after God, who long to restore their walk with God in the cool of the day that was lost with sin! Notice it is Eve's grandson, Enosh and his birth, that begins this new journey. This is directly in contrast to Cain, who "went away from the presence of the Lord" (Genesis 4:16) and we read nothing about God in the story of Cain's descendants in Genesis 4:17-24!

While the lineage of Cain produces scoundrels and violent adulterous people, Seth's lineage brings us to Enoch, one who walked with God (Genesis 5:24). The way the Bible seems to describe it, Enoch was so close to God, that one day at the end of their walking together, God seems to have said, "Hey Enoch, we are closer to my place than yours, why don't you just come home with me for good!"

Eve's influence on Seth begins humanity's movement toward God, toward hope, and toward reconciliation and renewal of our connection to heaven's grace.

So what can we, all of us -- and especially mothers and mothers to be -- learn from all of this? What is it that God really wants to say to us?

First, we can always "what if" and "if only" till we're blue in the face and broken in heart because there will always be a boatload of things any parent wishes she or he would have done or said differently. But bottom line, if God had trouble with his first kids making wrong choices -- Adam & Eve -- then it stands to reason that we're going to have some children who make wrong choices.

Some of those choice will be influenced negatively because of some of the mistakes we have made. We don't want to sugar coat that. But, we can't own their choices any more than God is to blame for Eve and Adam's choices. But, we can work with our children, our grandchildren, and other children we influence, to redeem their choices, just as God allowed Adam and Eve to do with Seth! We can give them the opportunity to choose new paths and find new hope in fresh starts and help them move toward God!

Second, we can't redeem the future by spending all of our time looking in the rear view mirror at the mistakes we have made. That only causes more wrecks because our focus is in the wrong direction and on the wrong things. With every new generation, we can focus forward. We can work in the lives of each child God has brought into our circle of influence, and point them in the direction of the Father.

While we don't know a lot about Seth, we do know this: when his son was born, his family began to call upon the Lord and it changed everything! Their worship of God, their honor for God, their trust in God, their dependence upon God opened the way for multiple generations of faith -- deeply devout and wonderfully blessed!

And God put this story in the great story of Scripture for you and me, for us -- and especially for our women of influence so that we can move from the "if only" conversations we have with ourselves and so that we can quit spending so much time looking in the rearview mirror beating ourselves up for what was done or not done in the past.

God wants us to follow the example of Eve, the mother of Seth. The Father wants us to focus forward and build a legacy of faith through the children he gives us to influence today so that generations later, folks can see a person walking with God and say, "This person walks with God because many generations ago, someone chose to be like Eve, the mother of Seth, who God used to change everything!"

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 15+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

Untold Stories: Onesiphorus — The Refreshing Gift of Friendship

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 05 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus (2 Timothy 1:16 NIV).

At an earlier time, when the grizzled ol' apostle Paul was in prison and when everyone was abandoning him and the faith because they were afraid to be known as his friend, one person steps in and is faithful to him. This person is named Onesiphorus, a guy not normally mentioned in the list of the Bible's greatest heroes.

Onesiphorus makes the hard trip from Ephesus to Rome to serve Paul while the old apostle is in prison. He has to search long and hard until he finds Paul. Then, Onesiphorus visits Paul in prison, openly showing loyalty and relationship to this prisoner condemned to die for his faith. Pretty heroic in my book, and certainly powerfully important to the imprisoned apostle!

Onesiphorus is the story behind the big story in the last few years of the apostle's life! He is the wind beneath the great apostle's wings. He is the helper to get Paul past his heartache. Onesiphorus repeatedly goes to see Paul in prison and often refreshed Paul's spirit and restored joy to the soul of this well-traveled dying servant of God.

Onesiphorus' actions, along with Paul's blessing of him, remind us of something Jesus promised:

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward (Matthew 10:42 NIV).

Onesiphorus is the cup of cool watered Paul needed! He refreshed Paul's spirit in Jesus' name! He helped the apostle hang on in a tough time when everyone else abandoned him. And because of Jesus' promise and Paul's blessing, we know how precious Onesiphorus is to God!

So often we look at our lives and don't think we've done anything of significance for the Kingdom. I spoke a few days ago with a precious servant of God who has done so many important things to bless others. Yet, this precious sister in Christ had tears in her eyes as she talked about not having done anything great for the Kingdom.

I know better. Those she has brought food to in times of bereavement or illness know better. The ladies she has influenced and taught know better. Her husband knows better. Most importantly, the Lord knows better and will make sure she knows better when He returns and brings her home.

But how do we help her -- and maybe you -- know how precious you are to God?

Look at Onesiphorus! See his quiet and determined faithfulness. Notice how precious he was to Paul. Now think of how you have done something similar -- on the surface not so big or important, but for those whom you served, it was a cup of cold water given in Jesus' name that refreshed the spirit of someone who needed grace. Now rejoice in knowing that Jesus has seen this... appreciates this... will not forget this... and will reward this!

And when the opportunity presents itself, let's be like Onesiphorus again... faithfully serving and refreshing whether anyone notices or not, because we know that the Lord knows and has seen and is pleased and will reward!

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matthew 6:4 NIV).

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 15+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

The Wrong Direction

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Like many of you, I was both horrified and amazed when I saw both video and still images of the bomb blasts near the finish line at the Boston Marathon. Horrified at the gruesome damage done to human lives by bombs intended to do what they did. Amazed again at the first responders -- law enforcement, fire, and medical personnel -- who ran "in the wrong direction" from the rest of the crowd.

While everyone was running away to escape the danger, these people were running toward the danger to help others. And they did this all week long in Boston. This was equally true of first responders in West, Texas, when a fire broke out at the fertilizer plant and caused a horrific explosion that killed at least nine first responders, leveled part of a small town, and wounded and killed many others.

What amazed me most was that their reaction "to run the wrong direction" -- to run toward the trouble, to run toward the danger, to run to rescue the wounded and hurting -- was that this reaction was instantaneous. These first responders had a sort of reverse instinct from the rest of us in the face of danger and destruction. While most ran away from danger or ducked for cover, these first responders turned and ran toward danger and possible death!

This reverse instinct "to run the wrong direction" in the face of danger and death moves us to something deeper than admiration or envy. Their confidence of purpose in the face of grave risks is something most of us are not sure we possess. We are even less sure we want to find out in the crucible of life and death realities to see if we do possess it. Yet stirring just below the surface of our conscious thought, there lurks the hidden realization that all of us, in one way or another, will have to face these life and death realities. Sooner or later, we are all going to have to decide "to run the wrong direction" in the face of our life's ultimate realities.

As we come to the final chapters of our journey through the Bible, The Story, we reach a point where we have to decide what we believe. We have to decide what truth we will build our lives upon. We have to determine if we have the courage "to run the wrong direction" from the rest of the world that has no real confident hope when confronted with the realities of physical death.

The old grizzled apostle Paul, now in his second imprisonment in Rome, finds himself in the cold, dank, dark, and oppressive confines of Mamertine prison -- originally the two cells of the prison had been cisterns to hold water, which they didn't do very well, but they made great places to confine and torment those awaiting death in the most uncomfortable of surroundings. Winter is coming. A number of Paul's friends, converts, and apprentices have abandoned him. Some have even abandoned their faith in the face of Emperor Nero's persecutions (2 Timothy 1:6-12). Paul is alone and knows he is facing certain death. His requests are few -- for Timothy to come to him, that Timothy bring John Mark with him, along with a coat and the parchments (2 Timothy 4:9-18).

In the face of certain martyrdom, this well-traveled, often beaten, imprisoned, and persecuted apostle of Jesus once again runs "the wrong direction" in the face of danger and death. By example, the ol' grizzled apostle also calls us to face danger with courage. He calls us to a hope that is stronger than death. He invites us to share a confidence that our future is connected to and invested in a Kingdom that cannot be taken from us by death:

As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me -- the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8 NLT).

Like Jesus, Paul can say that not only did he finish what God called him to do, but that he finished strong! There's a victor's crown in his future! He is confident. He is ready. In the face of certain death for the cause of Christ, in the face of many abandoning him and the message he proclaimed to them, he chooses "to run the wrong direction" from the crowd and he chooses to run in the direction of Jesus, fully convinced that victory and deliverance and reward are ahead.

We began our thoughts today with admiration for first responders. We focused on Paul who shows us how to have that first responder's mentality in the face of life's ultimate crisis. But, I want us to finish with the real declaration of confidence that we, as followers of Christ, can have... all of us! Look again at the last part of verse 8. This confidence, this reward, this victory is ours!

And now the prize awaits me -- the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8 -- emphasis added).

Over a decade ago, our son Zach was driving his grandparents and fiancée (now his wife) home to our house for Easter weekend. About the time we expected them to arrive, I got a call from him.

"Dad, we're going to be a little late, because of an accident problem." Zach said calmly.

Because of the nonchalance in his voice, I replied with no thought of worry, "Is this an accident you are stuck waiting to clear or an accident you are in?"

"One we are in... but don't get all upset and speed getting here, dad. Another accident won't help. I think we are all ok."

"So is everyone is alright?" I asked trying to disguise my panic.

"Well an ambulance is taking MiMi and Grandfather and Mandy to the hospital. Mimi is having some problems breathing, but I think we are all going to be ok!" This time, his voice seemed to quaver a little bit and my heart was pounding out of my chest.

It took me about fifty minutes to make it to the accident scene. I arrived to see Zach as the fire department pulled off his shirt and washed the glass dust out of his hair. I am thankful that I was able to see that he was physically fine, because about that time they pulled the car out of the ditch. When I saw it, and I saw how badly damaged it was from this 120 mph plus head on collision, I got the dry heaves and my knees buckled.

The cars had come over the top of a hill and were caught in a sudden downpour. Zach had slowed some in the rain, but the car coming the other way spun out of control and hit him head on. The driver admitted he had been going over 75 mph. Zach's steering wheel finished about 11 inches from the seat. The motor came through the firewall on his side of the car. The State Trooper was both shocked and amazed, remarking that he had never seen an accident of this severity and collision speed that didn't involve a fatality.

Having seen this kind of collision before, I told Zach I had never seen an accident with this much damage where the driver had not broken an ankle or hip or leg or arm from pressing the brake and holding the steering wheel. His response, as a twenty year old, blew me away.

"Dad, I assumed I was going to die and that my job was to keep the car on the road, but avoid as much of the collision as possible and not go over the side of the embankment. In a way, dad, this was a blessing, because you never are sure that you really believe what you say you believe. In that moment, I found out that I really believed it, and it made a big difference. I was able to relax and just try to do what I could to save everyone else."

The majority of the blow was on the left front of the car -- Zach's side. Zach held the car on the road long enough to keep from rolling down the steep embankment and into the trees -- something the state trooper said would have meant certain death. My twenty year old son, in the face of what he thought was certain death, chose "to run the wrong direction" to try to save his grandparents and his fiancée, and he did... and he did it with a calm and confidence that blew me away.

Why?

How?

Zach decided in that moment -- a moment when things happen so quickly and yet your mind seems to slow it all down and you can think of a jillion things at once -- that he really believed what he said he believed:

And now the prize awaits me -- the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8 -- emphasis added).

There's a victor's crown in our future! We need to look carefully at those words and grab a hold of them and take them into our hearts. They can be our confidence when we face that ultimate reality when we have to decide what we really believe and need "to run the wrong direction" in the face of danger and possible death. When we need to believe that at worst, we are running into the arms of Jesus who is waiting to reward us with the victor's crown that no one can take away.

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 15+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

The Story: Three Windows of Grace

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Our church sanctuary works pretty well as a place to worship together. However, there is one thing that drives me crazy: there are no windows! Not a single one in the whole place. I'd love to flood the drab gray-green fluorescent lighting hue in the room with natural light!

Maybe that kind of thing isn't a big deal to you, but windows are a huge deal to many of us. We need to see the light -- natural light, not some energy efficient, half-hue that looks dingy and makes us feel subhuman.

At Antioch, we meet a church with three beautiful windows (Acts 11:19-30; Acts 13:1-4). And these are windows we want in our churches today! Not stained glass windows... not draped windows... not storm windows... not solar treated windows... These three windows are windows of grace. Windows fashioned in the lives of the people of this incredible group of believers because Jesus had touched their hearts and changed their lives. They had become Christ-formed people and this opened up their lives to install these three windows of grace.

Antioch is the first place people were ever called Christians (Acts 11:26), and it probably wasn't used as a compliment. The term "Christian" was probably what unbelievers called followers of Christ to differentiate them from other Jews, and appears to have been used mockingly (Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16). We even have evidence that historians used this term to stand for followers of "Chrestus" -- Jesus Christ.

However, the brothers and sisters in Jesus' family simply took it to mean that they were Christ-formed people. And at Antioch, this belief led them to three convictions about grace. They wanted to offer this grace to everyone so they could begin to understand how much God actually loved them.

What do we learn if we look in Antioch's three windows of grace? We learn that a Christ-formed people believe...

grace thrives where people are given second chances
grace welcomes all kinds of people into the family
grace shares all of God's good gifts with others

These are Antioch's three Windows of grace. Each window we add to our own lives lets in a little bit more of the light of heaven's grace. Let's look at each of them a little more closely.

Christ-formed people believe that grace thrives where people are given second chances -- this is first and the key window of grace we must have!

Notice how this great church at Antioch was started! It wasn't because of missional commitment by the church in Jerusalem. It wasn't because the apostles took the Great Commission literally. It wasn't because the church was visionary. No, the church in Jerusalem faced a horrible crisis!

Stephen, one of the important leaders in the Jerusalem church, was stoned to death and a massive persecution broke out against Jesus' followers (Acts 8:1-4). And the stoning was led by a fellow named Saul of Tarsus -- the guy we know later as the apostle Paul. The church in Antioch started because Saul murdered one of their leaders and began a campaign of terror to persecute followers of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Syria -- where Antioch was located! The people who came to Antioch and started the church did it because they were run out of Jerusalem because of persecution.

Now several years later, when the church is growing and blowing the doors off every place they are meeting, who does Barnabas get to come help him grow and mature the church? Saul -- Saul of Tarsus!

Even though Saul became a follower of Jesus Christ, not everything went smoothly for him: in fact, things got a lot better when Saul left Jerusalem after his conversion (Acts 9:26-31). So Saul went back home and spent time in the desert for a decade! He was put on the shelf, hung out to dry, and largely forgotten. Then, as Antioch outgrows its leadership base, Barnabas goes to Tarsus and reclaims Saul!

Now think for a minute with me about how in the world Barnabas could explain to the leaders in the church in Antioch why he was going to get Saul of Tarsus to work with them.

"Well, he's the guy who helped start the church!?"

"Yeah, by murdering Jesus' followers and running us out of Jerusalem."

It takes more than sarcasm for the former persecutor who unwittingly helped start the Jesus movement in Antioch! It takes grace!! Real grace. The kind of grace that breaks down barriers between races, overcomes fear, runs out prejudice, and banishes layers of hatred. This is a huge window of grace, the kind of grace that gives a murderer a second chance. (For a powerful modern story of this kind of grace, read the moving story about Frank, Elizabeth, and Tommy.)

This is the kind of grace that allows people to forgive unspeakable hurt. It's the kind of window that allows us the fresh breath of air that clears our head and reminds us that we were forgiven and enormous wound inflicted upon the Savior, yet he still loves us and died for us and rose for us and sent the Spirit to us because of his grace love for us (Romans 5:6-11).

Once we realize that grace gives people second chances, and that we are in God's family because of our second or third or fourth chance, grace changes us. We offer that grace to others. And when we begin to offer second and third and fourth chances of grace to others, the whole world opens up to us because our heart begins to beat in rhythm with the heart of God.

So we also begin to realize that a Christ-formed people believe that grace welcomes all kinds of people into the family -- this is our second window of grace we want to add!

Antioch was the place folks began to welcome other races and cultures into their fellowship -- where all the people gathered around the Lord's Table on Sunday didn't look alike or sound alike or share a common heritage (Romans 15:7). At Antioch, they lived this grace!

Antioch was a place where the love of Jesus meant more than the differences in their skin color and language and culture and politics. They remembered that Jesus' last words were to go make followers of Jesus from people of all nations! There was to be no barrier. The great passage on personal grace (Ephesians 2:1-10) is immediately followed by an equally important passage on grace for all people -- that Jesus' death on the cross tore down the wall of separation between races and cultures and provided a way for us to be cleansed and viewed as holy (Ephesians 2:11-22). Once we realize that grace gives people second chances, and that we are in God's family because of our second or third or fourth chance, it changes us. We offer that grace to others... especially others who are different than we are.

And when we begin to offer second chances of grace to others, the whole world opens up to us because our heart begins to beat in rhythm with the heart of God. So we know that a Christ-formed people believe that grace shares all of God's good gifts with others.

At Antioch we see this principle lived out as they learn of a famine in Jerusalem, the very place where some folks are having a hard time with non-Jews being considered Christians. And what do they do when they learn about this problem? They share what they have with others. They send money so their brothers and sisters don't go hungry!

Now here's the challenge. Putting windows in a church sanctuary wall may make it a better place to come and sit and go to church, but it won't make it a better church. We can't call a contractor or a window mill to make us three windows of grace for our hearts or for our churches. For us to have these three windows -- these revolutionary and community-changing and world-touching windows -- each of us needs to ask the Holy Spirit to help us install them in our heart!

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 15+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files

The Story: Second Incarnation

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Years ago when our kids were young, we put our house on the market while we built a new one with a little more room. The first house sold very quickly, long before the new one would be ready. We had to find a place to live quickly!

We decided on an apartment complex that had short term rates and moved there. We were not ready for the junior version of the plagues that we would encounter. The first night, I got up for a late night glass of water and I saw roaches scurrying everywhere. The next day, the apartment manager sent an exterminator. This really seemed to do the trick as we saw no more scurrying roaches -- a few dead ones, but no more lives ones! Yay!

Then a few days later, I came home to an unhappy wife with flea bites all over her legs and our pre-school daughter covered in them. The apartment manager called a guy to "bomb" the place, but we had to stay out of the apartment for 24 hours. When we finally came home, there were no more roaches and no more fleas. Hooray!

Then a few days later, sugar ants started showing up everywhere. We were given a bunch of little baited traps and set them out, but we were urged to be patient a few more days for the traps to do the trick. As you can imagine, these were not the words any of us wanted to hear!

"Will we ever be rid of these roaches, fleas, and ants?"

I know this is how Annas, the Jewish "High Priest," must have felt about the early disciples and their use of "the name of Jesus"! He had done everything to get rid of the followers of Jesus and eradicate any trace of Jesus from Jewish life. He was sick of any mention of the name of Jesus.

I can imagine him calling Saul of Tarsus in for a visit about the problem before he sent Saul -- who would later become known as the apostle Paul -- out for his "witch hunt" for Jesus' followers in Damascus.

Annas:
"How can I get rid of Jesus' band of roaches, fleas, and ants! I'm sick of hearing the name of Jesus. I'm sick of having to deal with the problem of Jesus. I'm sick of being blamed for the death of Jesus."

Saul:
"Yeah, there were rumors about him still being alive after his crucifixion, but his vermin followers remained hidden and quiet for weeks after his crucifixion!"

Annas:
Yes, the tomb was discovered empty, but we explained that his body was stolen (Matthew 28:11-13; 1 Corinthians 15:5-7). And there were rumors about him appearing to some of them, but they all remained hidden and quiet, afraid as mice just as they had when we crucified that false messiah!

Saul:
I know about the disturbance at Pentecost -- that bizarre windstorm and all the baptisms and uproar... People calling on the name of the Lord, blasphemously referring to Jesus and the Almighty! (Acts 2:21).

Annas:
Yes, there were 3,000 that were baptized in pools all around the Temple precinct. They baptized fellow Jews into that awful name: "We baptize you in the name of Jesus the Messiah." It hurts my ears to even think those words (Acts 2:38).

Annas:
Then came the beginning of the crisis. During the afternoon time of prayer, right after the Shofar blast calling people to worship in the Temple, a couple of them entered Gate Beautiful and healed the lame beggar. Then Simeon Peter, the dumb and vulgar fisherman said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk" (Acts 3:6).

Saul:
Yes, I heard he just kept saying it, over and over. "It is by faith in Jesus name that this lame man is healed!" (Acts 3:16).

Annas:
And when we arrested and hauled them in, we were dumb enough to ask them by what authority they had created such a commotion and the fisherman answered us: "The name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified and God raised from the dead!" (Acts 4:10).

Annas:
So we warned them and threatened them. "Stop it! Shut up! No more of this Jesus talk!" (Acts 4:17-18). But no, it didn't work, and the next thing you know, they're back in the Temple doing it all over again, speaking about Jesus and doing miracles in his name! (Acts 4:29-30).

Annas:
And when that didn't work, we brought them in again. And we warned and threatened them for filling the whole city with their blasphemy, and then ultimately... to prove we were serious, we beat them! (Acts 5:28; Acts 5:40).

Saul:
But I heard that only seemed to fill them with joy. That they counted it an honor to suffer for the name of this despicable Jesus! (Acts 5:41).

Annas:
So Saul of Tarsus, scholar from Gamaliel's school, passionate protector of all things sacred, the only thing that seems to have worked is your passionate persecution! You ran the Jesus rats out of Jerusalem when you supervised the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1-2).

Saul:
Yes, that got them out of Jerusalem, but these vermin blasphemers spread the awful name of Jesus to Samaria and even into Syria! (Acts 8:12).

Annas:
So Saul, here are the papers you asked for. Go bring everyone who calls on that awful name of Jesus to Jerusalem so we can convince them... or intimidate them... or kill them if necessary... to stop them from speaking the vile name of the Nazarene.

So Saul left his meeting with Annas the High Priest full of passion for God, full of fury at any mention of the name of Jesus, and with a deep conviction he must arrest, hurt, and kill anyone who confessed his name!

And then everything changed, as Paul would later testify:

"One day I was on such a mission to Damascus, armed with the authority and commission of the leading priests. About noon, Your Majesty, as I was on the road, a light from heaven brighter than the sun shone down on me and my companions. We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will.'

"'Who are you, lord?' I asked. "And the Lord replied, 'I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. You are to tell the world what you have seen and what I will show you in the future. And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God's people, who are set apart by faith in me.' " (Acts 26:12-18 NLT).

Yes, everything changed! Christianity would never just be a sect of the Jewish faith, tucked away in a dusty and violent corner of the Middle East. In less than 70 years, the name of Jesus would be spoken by people all over the world!

Years ago, an older preacher I admired had been in conversation talking about Jesus with several Chinese students. While they all admired the things that Jesus did and taught, one young lady was stunned at the teaching about Jesus' resurrection. She inquisitively said, "If Jesus is raised from the dead, he is alive and I can... know him!"

She is right, you know! We've been in church buildings so long we forget it. We've turned the name of Jesus into the mandatory trailer hitch at the end of our prayers so we can attach the "Amen" and we've forgotten just how powerful and glorious it is to pray with the help of the real, living Jesus as we go to the Father!

You see... Jesus is not just raised, he is resurrected! He has a resurrection body and one day we will have one like his.

And see... Jesus is not just resurrected, he is present! He is not just at the right hand of God, Jesus is present among us. And this occurs in at least 3 ways.

First, Jesus is present through our faith in his name. When we invoke the name of Jesus, we call upon our present Lord to act for the glory of his name and the good his mission! This happens when we pray in his name, when we gather in his name, when we baptize someone in his name, and when we serve and heal and clothe and comfort those in need in his name.

A second way Jesus is present today is through his gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the gift that Jesus gives to those who come to him -- he poured out at Pentecost (Acts 2:17-18; Acts 2:33) and on each of us when we were baptized (Titus 3:4-7).

A third way Jesus is present today through our experiencing of Immanuel. Matthew reminds us that Jesus is God with us in the story of his life and ministry (Matthew 1:23), and through authentic community (Matthew 18:20), service to those in need (Matthew 25:40), and walking with folks of other cultures until they come to full discipleship in Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20).

You see, we are not called to go to church, to have church, or to even be church -- although being part of a congregation is part of our discipleship. We are called as Jesus' church to be his second incarnation: Jesus' physical presence in the world, the people in whom his love and character are daily displayed!

But, for Jesus' presence to be real... to be more than church talk in church land... we must truly live in the name of Jesus -- we must live in expectation he is here and that we can experience his presence! And that, it seems to me, is all the difference between a sterile and lifeless faith, and a life lived boldly with the presence of Jesus.

Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 15+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.

Website: The Phil Files