How is God speaking to You?

We have come to the second week of our fasting challenge. I pray that you have been encouraged as you have practiced this discipline. No one said it would be easy. It is hard. Real hard! No doubt you have been hungry. No doubt you have wanted something to eat. If we only hungered as much for Jesus and His Word!

When we put it into perspective, it is not nearly as hard as what Jesus willingly endured upon the cross for us. He gave up his life. Not only did he give up his life, but it was an agonizing death he suffered. When we fast, it helps us to put into perspective the depth of his love and the great lengths he went to save us from our sin.

Last Sunday, I added quiet solitude to go along with fasting. We live such fast paced busy lives. We have so much to get done. We often feel as if there are not enough minutes in a day.

But the reality is that God gave us just enough time to accomplish the significant purpose for which we were created. If you have more to do than you have time to get it done. Then you are doing too much. You are doing more than God intended for you to do. God in his infinite wisdom created 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 365 days in a year. He has numbered your days, so that you can complete all that you were made to do.

If you are doing so much that you don't have time to stop, that is precisely the reason you need to stop. It is time to be quiet and to listen to the voice of God. When we take the time to listen to God, he speaks to us to give us a higher perspective, to sort out his priorities, to build our faith, to renew our strength, and to grow us to spiritual maturity. In other words, it is in the quiet that we discover God's effectiveness and efficiency to accomplish all that he has called us to accomplish.

So make sure to take that time this week. Spend some quiet time with him. Listen to hear what he has to say to you. The quiet may not be something you are comfortable with. All I can say is try it. Discover the blessing!

I leave you this week the 23rd Psalm redo that I shared on Sunday. Some of you had requested a copy of this. So I am glad to share:

The Lord is my strength, I shall not panic;
He helps me relax and rest in quiet trust.
He reminds me that I belong to Him and restores my serenity;
He leads me in my decisions and gives me calmness of mind.
His presence is peace.
Even though I walk through the valley of the fear of failure,
I will not worry, for He will be with me.
His truth, grace, and lovingkindness will stabilize me.
He prepares release and renewal in the midst of my stress.
He anoints my mind with wisdom;
My cup overflows with fresh energy.
Surely goodness and mercy will be communicated through me,
For I shall walk in the strength of my Lord,
And dwell in His presence forever. Amen.

Axiom

One book I especially enjoy in the Bible is Proverbs. The reason that I like Proverbs is that it is filled with nuggets of wisdom. You can spend a couple of minutes or hours pondering the truths in this book.

The book Axiom is much like the book of Proverbs. It is a quick read. I breezed through this book in less than a week. It is filled with insights from Bill Hybel's experiences as the leader of Willow Creek Community Church.

There are many different opinions about Willow Creek, but there is no denying that they have accomplished much for the kingdom. One would be foolish to think that there is nothing to be learned from Bill Hybels.

Whether you have 5 minutes or 5 hours, you can walk away with new and profound insights. I found that the best way to take this book was one chapter at a time and then to ponder and reflect that truths of God's Word as they related.

I have learned so much in my 9 years of being a pastor. Seminary training is good. I learned a lot about being a pastor and a theologian. But I did not learn much about being a leader. Rick Warren has a quote that goes along the line of "you want to lead a church of 125 you can go to seminary, but if you want to lead a church that is any larger you need to go to seminars." I can relate to this.

I think this will be keeping Axiom close at hand for reference.

Hello March

How does the saying go? In like a lion and out like a lamb. March is here. The promise of warmer weather. We are about one month from opening day of baseball. Days are getting longer. I noticed I am occasionally driving home while it is still light out.

Yeah!

Opening the Illinois General Assembly

I will have the honor of leading the opening invocation of the Illinois General Assembly on March 24 in Springfield, IL. I am looking forward to this opportunity as the Illinois State Government has often been in the news recently. Unfortunately, the news has not been the most positive. I ask for your prayers as I prepare for this event. If you are interested in attending the session with me on that day, let me know.

Here is an interesting note I received today from our LCMS president about representation in the US government:

Speaking of Washington, D.C., I note that two new members of Congress are members of LCMS congregations as well. They are U.S. Reps. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., and Erik Paulsen, R-Minn. They join two incumbent congressmen who also are Missouri Synod Lutherans: Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., and Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill.

A total of 23 Lutherans-14 Democrats and nine Republicans-currently are serving in the 111th Congress. In addition to the four LCMS members in the House of Representatives, there are 13 representatives and four senators who are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and two representatives who are Wisconsin Synod Lutherans.

According to a study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 30 percent of those in the Congress are Roman Catholic, followed by Baptists (12 percent), Methodists (11 percent), Presbyterians (8 percent), Episcopalians (7 percent), and Lutherans (4.5 percent).

Please keep these and all our legislators and other government leaders in your prayers and encourage your members to do the same.

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday. We begin the Holy Season of Lent as we count 40 days till Easter (excluding Sundays). We are less then seven weeks away.

A couple of things in regards to today. First, just a reminder that Ash Wednesday worship is tonight at Lord of Life at 7pm. Second, today we begin our church wide Lenten fasting challenge. Many of you committed to taking this fast and I pray it will be a blessing for you to grow in your faith.

Some of you have come and asked me specific questions about the fast. My first response to most of these questions has been to remember that the fast is done in Christian freedom and is not out of obligation. In other words, we should not fast because we have to, but because we want to. Second, it is not about the details, but about the spirit of the fast. That was a problem with the Pharisees in Jesus day. They got so wrapped up in the details of their spiritual practices that they missed out on what it was all about.

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1) The challenge is to fast for 24 hours from dinner on Tuesday, till dinner time on Wednesday. So have dinner on Tuesday night, but avoid that midnight snack. Then hold back from breakfast and lunch on Wednesday, breaking the fast with dinner that evening. What it boils down to is essentially a 24 hour fast.

2) Take your vitamins. Feel free to take in juice or water. Limit your activities for the day. Don't go off an run a marathon. Pace yourself.

3) Use the time you would have devoted to eating for spiritual exercise be it prayer, the study of God's Word, or just quiet time with the Father. You might consider joining me at noon at Lord of Life in the Fellowship Center for about a half hour for prayer.

4) Consider using the $5-$10 you might have spent on lunch and consider how you can use that money you would have spent on yourself and use it as a blessing for someone else.

5) Know you are going to be hungry. That's ok. When you are hungry, turn your thoughts to your need for the Lord. Call out to him. Cry out to him. Ask him to be your bread of life. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

We know that fasting is not a magic wand. Fasting is not to convince God to do what we want him to do. But it puts us in a place to better hear God and listen. It helps us tune in and connect with him on a much deeper level.

Here are some final parting words to ponder from an old Lenten Hymn titled: "O Lord, Throughout These 40 Days":

O Lord, through-out these 40 days
You prayed and kept the fast;
Inspire repentance for our sin,
An free us from our past

You strove with Satan, and you won;
Your faithfulness endured;
Lend us your nerve, your skill, and trust
In God's eternal Word.

Though parched and hungry, yet you prayed
And fixed your mind above;
So teach us to deny ourselves
Since we have known God's love.

Be with us through this season, Lord,
And all our earthly days,
That when the final Easter dawns,
We join in heaven's praise.

Challenges

This was a really good weekend.  We had 200 some people attend our Fireproof Movie Event at Lord of Life.  As part of the movie event, many of the couples committed to taking the 40 Day Love Dare Challenge.  Barbara and I are going to be doing this ourselves for the next couple of weeks.  All the couples who participate in the challenge will have the opportunity to renew their vows on April 5, which is Palm Sunday.

Kicked off our new message series today - Holy Habits, Wholly Living.  I issued a church wide challenge to commit to a 24 hour fast each Wednesday during the season of Lent.

This week Lent begins.  Ash Wednesday service will be at 7pm at Lord of Life.  I am excited for the celebration of Easter this year.  Lent is an important time of preparation for the celebration of the resurrection.  On Easter we will be doing the One Month to Live Challenge.  I am going to lead the staff through that challenge starting tomorrow during our staff meeting.

So I have got a lot of challenges going on now.  I've got the Love Dare, the Fasting Challenge, and starting tomorrow the One Month to Live Challenge.  

So thanks for your prayers to stay faithful to these challenges.

Made to Stick

This is a book I would highly recommend to any preacher or teacher. It is about why there are some messages or ideas that you heard even 10 years ago that are fresh in your mind, but other messages even yesterday that you cannot recall a thing.

The authors of this book establish six characteristics of messages or ideas that "stick". They use a simple acrostic SUCCES. SUCCES stands for Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotional, and Stories. Using these concepts effectively will dramatically improve the ability to drive your idea home.

One concept I was able to identify with was what the authors termed "the curse of knowledge." The curse of knowledge is when you are knowledge in a certain field you begin to talk shop. The problem is that most people are not able to talk shop with you. And you forget they cannot talk shop and don't have the knowledge you have. So you end up talking over their head.

A concrete example of this is tapping out the beat of a song like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. It would seem obvious that as you tap out the song, that another person would be able to identify it. But the reality is it would be practically impossible except for a miraculous guess. It would seem easy for the other person to identify the song because it is so clear in your head. But the other person does not have in their head what you have in your head.

What I took away from this book was a new way to evaluate the sermons I prepare. Making sure as best as I am able that each sermon I prepare has at least one sticky characteristic. The more the better!