Most of us pray, “Lord, what do you want me to do with my life?” when we really ought to be praying, “Lord, what do you want me to do with my day?”  God’s will for us is not some grand scheme that blueprints the entire course of our lives for us.  Rather, God’s will for us is concerned about the present and what choices we are making here and now.

Jesus said,

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ … But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all  these things will be added to you.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.  (Matthew 6:31-34)

If we started out every morning by committing to put God first and follow his will for that day, the future would take care of itself.

James says essentially the same thing in James 4:13-17:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”  As it is, you boast in your arrogance.  All such boasting is evil.  So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

We are bad about removing that last part from its context to use it as a proof text against sins of omission: “You know you ought to do that, right?  Well, James 4:17 says that if you know the right thing to do and do not do it, you have sinned.”  That’s true, but that’s not the point James is making here.

James is addressing an arrogant attitude that counts on a future God has never promised.  Too many people boast about what they will be in the future, meanwhile they’re failing to follow God in the present.  James admonishes his readers, saying, “Whoever knows what they ought to be doing now and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Does that mean we can’t make plans for the future?  Of course not.  But our future hangs on little choices and behaviors we are making today.  So live wisely in the present, by the inch.

It may seem a little obsessive for a father to be thinking about what his six-year-old daughter will be wearing in ten years, but this is very important.  You see, what you wear on your body says a lot about who you are and what you think about yourself.

This is what Peter wrote to women about their clothing:

Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. (1 Pet. 3:3-4)

Some Christians take this advice too literally and simplify it as a prohibition against earrings and hair braids.  But notice that in addition to “the braiding of hair” and the “putting on of gold jewelry,” Peter mentions “the clothing you wear.”  If we press his words too far into a literal interpretation, we find ourselves in the awkward position of banning clothing!

Peter wasn’t saying it’s wrong to wear jewelry or braids or clothing.  He was emphasizing inner beauty over outward appearances.  As one translation reads, women should not allow their adorning to be “merely external” (NASB).  Rather, they ought to be noticed for inner qualities like a “gentle and quiet spirit.”

As my friend Steve Higginbotham once said, the question is, “Does the way you dress cause the opposite sex to think you are chaste, or does it cause people to think you want to be chased?”  When you dress provocatively you send out a message to others that you are not a very interesting person, that there’s nothing below the surface, that everything there is to know about you can be learned by a passing glance.  Instead of engaging others through conversation, you reveal yourself by the way you dress, because there’s really nothing else to you.

On the other hand, a young woman who refuses to be identified by her body is saying, “I’m interesting.  I demand to be respected.  There’s more to me than just my body, and I want to be noticed for who I am as a person.”

Look at the magazines in the line at the grocery store, or turn on the television set.  The world is objectifying our children, telling them they must have a certain body and show it off to be important.  The only way to battle this disrespecting influence is for parents to teach their children that they deserve respect.   Clothing can’t make someone special.  It’s the inner, imperishable beauty that counts.

Myth #1: “Gospel meetings are irrelevant.” They’ve certainly changed over the last fifty years or so, but they are not irrelevant. One congregation in our area had a very successful meeting last year in which over twenty-five Christians were restored and one person was baptized. Meetings can still be used to evangelize the lost and strengthen the saved.

Myth #2: “The meeting’s success depends on the visiting preacher.” It’s important to have a good preacher (and there’s no one better than Brother Watkins!), but, really, he carries a relatively small part of the workload. Every member should be involved in some way to make the meeting successful.

Myth #3: “There’s nothing for me to do.” No one should be able to make this excuse. The most important job of every meeting can be done by anybody—the job of inviting friends. We need lots of people to come to our meeting so that the Word will reach as many ears as possible.

There are many other things you can do, not the least of which is attending every service of the meeting. You are making an important contribution by just arriving on time, shaking a few hands, singing praises to God, listening intently to the message, and leaving with a smile on your face.

Myth #4: “I don’t know anyone who would be interested in coming.” Have you asked? You really don’t know if someone would be interested in coming to church with you until you invite them.

We have set a goal for every family in our congregation to invite four people they have never invited to church before. We’re hoping this will not only fill our building for every service, but also introduce new people to the gospel.

Myth #5: “I don’t have time.” If others can make time to come to the meeting, so can you. Everybody has the same amount of time, and you aren’t the only person who is busy. The people who come to gospel meetings are the ones who believe that these services are important and move things around so they will not miss them.

Let’s have a good meeting this year. Remember, success depends on every member. Are you doing your part?

• Remember our Pizza and Praise on February 22.  It will start at 6 PM and go until 6:50 or so.  I will provide the pizza and anything necessary for eating.  If you intend to come, I only ask that each family provide one of the following: chips/dip, drink (a box of 12 cans would be best), or a dessert.  Once again, Pizza and Praise is for any family with a kid or teen.  Please take the time to sign up on my door what you intend to bring so I can make sure to fill in any gaps and everyone can have a good meal.
• We are taking a trip to Rainbow Omega on Saturday, February 25.  We will be playing games with the residents (if it’s a nice day we will play kickball or something like that, otherwise we will be indoors).  This is open to anyone from the church who wants to come and help out.  If you want to go, let me know and I can give you the information (which is also posted on my door).
• I will be talking with youth group members about helping out with the Senior Banquet next week.  To make sure that we have the proper numbers, I will also be talking with the parents.  Just a heads up, but we will be serving the dinner and also helping in other ways.  This is a perfect opportunity to serve!

As usual, we have some great stuff planned, and I really hope that you make plans to come.  We’ve got anything from service to hanging out over the next month, and this is the perfect time to step up and help out.  I’m looking forward to it!

Since it is the end if January, I’d like to go over what we have planned for February.

• Next week (February 5) our monthly devo will be here at the church.  We will do what we have been doing the past few months and meet in the teen classroom to sing, then follow up the devo with dinner in the fellowship hall.  As always, parents are welcome to stay if they would like.
• Don’t forget the Area Wide Youth Series (February 19) at Roebuck Parkway.  We will be leaving at 4:30PM.
• We will have a Pizza and Praise on Wednesday, February 22, at 6PM for any family with kids in the 1^st-6^th grades as well as the youth group.  I will have sign-ups on my door for those who want to come. I am asking that you bring only one of either: chips/dip, drink, or dessert (this is per family, not per head).  I hope that you can make it to dinner and fellowship before we worship that Wednesday!
• The following Saturday (the 25^th) the youth group and any parents who want to be involved are traveling to Rainbow Omega to play games with the residents.  We will be leaving at 12:45 that afternoon and returning around 4:15.  If it is a nice day outside we will play games such as kickball outdoors; if the weather does not permit that we will play board games inside the resident’s homes.  If you are on the fence about going, be sure to talk to anyone who went last year to see what a great time was had by all.  I hope that you are able to make it!

I’m looking forward to a great month.

Jesus called us to lead lives that are radically different from the world.  His disciple Paul commanded us to leave the world and “be separate” (2 Cor. 6:17).  This means we should get the world’s attention by the way we live.  Our lives are supposed to be different, strikingly different.

Here’s where we need to be careful.  Just because you are different, that doesn’t mean you are living the life Christ intended for you to live.  Take, for example, the Jews who rejected Jesus Christ.  Paul said, “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Rom. 10:2).  They were different alright, and enthusiastic too.  But their lives were not reasonable, and that was the problem.  Many Christians have made the same mistake.  They make sacrifices, they change their lives, they get attention, but they harm the cause of Christ because they are being unreasonable.

Peter said, “But in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15).  Two words from this verse demand our attention.  The first is “defense,” which is translated from a Greek word that comes from the same word from which the English word “apology” is derived.  However, Peter is not talking about saying “I’m sorry.”  The word he used is the regular term for a defense before a judge (Acts 22:1; 25:16).  Here it applies to a reasoned explanation.  The second word is “reason,” which is sometimes translated “account.”  This word signifies intelligent discourse.  So what Peter is saying is, “Always be prepared to give a reasonable explanation to anyone who asks for an intelligent conversation with you about the hope that is in you.”

Studies show that disagreements are more likely to be resolved when the people on either side of a problem understand one another.  In the same way, the world is more likely to respond to the gospel when they understand the reason why Christians live the way they live.

The Christian life is not simply radical.  It’s reasonably radical.

These days, it is not uncommon to find believers who just don’t want to get involved. Some of them are honest about it: “I believe in God, but I don’t go to church.” Others sit on pews every Sunday, but they are just as irrelevant as the people who sleep in on Sundays, because they do not use their abilities in the service of God’s kingdom. The Lord is not pleased with detached Christians. In the words of Brother Burns, “You might be on the train, but when the conductor comes around for the tickets, you will have to get off.”

How can a detached Christian get involved? First, he should examine himself. The church is a body comprised of individual members operating in different ways. Each one of these members is functional and important, for “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose” (1 Cor. 12:18). Before a Christian can get involved in the work of his local congregation, he must discover his special opportunities and talents. A good question to ask oneself is, “How has God arranged me in the body?” Everyone can do something for the Lord. Sometimes it takes a little digging to find out what you do best, but the answer is there.

After examining himself, the next thing a detached Christian should do to get involved is examine his congregation. Every church is unique because it is set in a unique location and it consists of a unique membership. A common mistake that new members often make is assuming that their new congregation is just like the one they moved from. A great deal of frustration and misunderstanding could be avoided by eliminating this presupposition. We should study the congregation where we currently serve to see if we can identify needs that correspond to our special opportunities and talents.

Involvement is a responsibility God has placed upon every member of the Lord’s body. Paul instructed the Corinthians, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58). Churches in which twenty percent of the members do all the work do not grow. In the words of Donald M. Kimball, “There’s no place where success comes before work, except in the dictionary.”

• Mind reader.  You’ll hear little or nothing as you think, “What is this person really thinking or feeling?”
• Rehearser.  Your mental tryouts for “Here’s what I’ll say next” tune out the speaker.
• Filterer.  Some call this selective listening—hearing only what you want to hear.
• Dreamer.  Drifting off during a face-to-face conversation can lead to an embarrassing, “What did you say?” or, “Could you repeat that?”
• Identifier.  If you refer everything you hear to your experience, you probably didn’t really hear what was said.
• Comparer.  When you get side-tracked assessing the messenger, you’re sure to miss the message.
• Derailer.  Changing the subject too quickly soon tells others you’re not interested in anything they have to say.
• Sparrer.  You hear what’s said but quickly belittle it or discount it.  That puts you in the same class as the derailer.
• Placater.  Agreeing with everything you hear just to be nice or to avoid conflict does not mean you’re a good listener.

Being a good listener is key to Christian living.  James wrote, “…be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (Jas. 1:19).

Christians must listen as they spread the gospel of Christ.  In the book of Acts there are numerous examples of evangelists who were successful because they began teaching at the level of the student’s understanding.  For example, when Philip encountered the Ethiopian Eunuch, he did not begin with the Creation account or Moses, but began with the Scripture the eunuch was reading and “told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35).  This important method should be continued today, but how can any teacher gauge his student’s knowledge if he is not listening?

Christians must listen as they communicate with one another.  Think about the last conversation you had with a brother or sister in Christ.  Who did the most talking?  Do you remember inquiring about the other person’s life—his family, his job, his problems?  More harmony could be encouraged in the church through an application of Paul’s principle, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4).

Christians must listen as they communicate with their spouses.  Peter advised husbands, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way…” (1 Pet. 3:7).  But many husbands violate this command by not paying attention to what their wives are saying.  The problem can also work in the other direction, as some wives are in the habit of shutting their husbands out.  Good marriages last through loving communication.

God gave us two ears and one mouth.  Maybe it’s time we stop overworking one part of the body so that we can get more use out of another.

Yet another term that stems from this word (via the Middle French [i.e. Medieval French]) is the term “culture”.  Culture is something that we are all engrained in, yet is something that is uniquely distinct amongst many groups.  What I mean is that we are all currently residents of the Birmingham area, thus we share a common culture, and we have different cultural interactions from that of people in Atlanta, Nashville, or Memphis.  (In fact, I would say that the cultures of Memphis and Birmingham are indeed different… I still get weird looks from people when I tell them that I support neither Alabama nor Auburn and that football isn’t that big deal to me.)  We do share some commonalities in that the cities listed are Southern cities (everyone has had fried chicken before, and sweet tea is sweet, not iced).  If you were to travel to California, the culture would still be different, but the common language would be English (language is the foundation of what makes a culture a culture).  Still branching out we could say that different generations are different culturally. (Drew, who is only 10 years my senior, and I differ vehemently over what is “good” 90’s music even now as I listen to Collective Soul on Pandora Radio.)

The point of all this is that we live in a unified yet compartmentalized “culture”… each and every one of us.  Yet culture has not always meant, “What age someone was born in, what region someone lives in, and what language someone speaks.”  Culture is something that has something to do with worship.  Here is where we can share a common bond.  Rather than being “citizens of Leeds, born in the year 19XX speaking English,” why can’t our culture be Christian?

We can still like football or basketball better, and we can still prefer to say “Coke” instead of “soda pop” (like my Illinois born grandmother); but the definition of our existence is the worship of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ.  That is what defines our culture!

Much Love.

If anybody belongs in the class of “ordinary” Bible characters, it is Eutychus.  This young man holds the distinction of being the only person in the Bible who fell asleep during a sermon—a sermon preached by Paul, at that!  In Acts 20 Luke writes that Paul and his traveling companions lingered in Troas until the first day of the week, when they gathered together with the Christians to break bread.  Knowing that he had to depart on the next day, Paul preached a prolonged sermon, speaking until midnight.  This was too much for poor Eutychus.  Maybe he had gotten up early that morning, or perhaps it was a little warm.  Whatever the excuse, he “sank into a deep sleep” and fell to the ground out of his perch in a third story window.  This was one nap he should not have taken, for Luke says he “was taken up dead.”  Now, all of us have nodded off in church, but thankfully none of us has lost his life over it!  Paul immediately went down to see about the young man and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.”  The apostle raised his sleepy friend from the dead and Eutychus walked away alive (vv. 7-12).

Maybe some would criticize Eutychus, saying, “He should have stayed awake!  How could he fall asleep to Paul’s preaching?  If he had been taking notes, this would not have happened!”  However, I think Eutychus is to be commended because he was doing his best.  How many young people would have attended a church meeting that lasted until midnight?  How many would have sat in a window when there was no more room?  Eutychus put forth his best effort—though it wasn’t much—and look at the results.  His weakness gave Paul an opportunity to demonstrate the power of God, and the name “Eutychus” has been immortalized because of it!

The next time you get frustrated because you don’t have the patience of Job, think of Eutychus.  When you feel “dull” because you cannot teach with the wisdom of Paul, think of Eutychus.  The next time you struggle with fear or human weakness, think of Eutychus.  Just do your best.  That is all God asks of you.

Perhaps the greatest compliment Jesus ever paid was to an unnamed woman who anointed His head with expensive perfume.  He said of her, “She has done what she could” (Mk. 14:8).  Are you doing what you can for God?  If you are doing your best, that is all He expects.