Know Your Niche

Who am I? Where do I fit in? What is my purpose? According to Christian psychologists Tim Clinton and Chap Clark these are questions we need to answer. They suggested the following questions for us to answer:

“Tell me the choice you are concerned about today. What are the options you have considered? If you picture a future in a career path, what do you envision?

What input have you gotten from people who know you best? What would your peers say your talents and skills are? Do you value their insights into your life? Do you agree with them?

Are there any Biblical principles or directives that are guiding you? If so, what are they? As you pray, do you have a sense that God’s Spirit is leading you in a direction? Are you willing to do God’s will if He shows it to you clearly?

What are the doors that are open to you at this point? On a scale of 0-10, how well would you say you are obeying God and pursuing Him now? How will you be convinced that you know what God wants you to do?” [1]

Consider the long-term implications of your decisions.

If you are not where you should be, ask the Lord to get you on track. Make your request known to God with thanksgiving. God says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” [2] God will lead you.

The love chapter follows the spiritual gifts chapter. In the love chapter, the Lord tells us that no matter what our calling and gifting is, the foundation for making it work is love.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” [3] All work unless done out of love is unprofitable.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Levite and Priest were highly trained in the Word of God. They had position and authority, but they lacked love. When they saw a person in need, they passed him right up. In America, people become famous and rich because they can do something better than others or because they look good. But do we ever stop and ask ourselves if this person is doing what he or she does out of love?

When thinking about our niche, we need to know what God wants. Not what the world wants.

For example, my passion is to speak and to write for the Lord, but the world is full of speakers and writers. I hear preachers who are better than me. When I look at the book section at Walmart there are many writers better than me. Who am I that I should serve the Lord in this way?

However, dollars and cents do not validate my calling. Popularity does not validate my calling. It is NOT about me. It is about love. God’s love!

In God’s economy, unless I have love I am nothing. There are a lot of great speeches and books that are going to burn someday, but what has been spoken, written, or done out of love for God and neighbor shall endure.

The world lightly values what is of great worth to God. The world does not value God. BUT embrace God anyway. God is the best employer. He pays good wages. He supplies all our needs according to His riches and glory.

God pays for what He wants done. Hudson Taylor once said, “God’s work done in God’s way will have God’s provision.

In regards to personal appearance, Dustin Hoffman recently asked the question, “How many interesting women have I written off because their outward appearance didn't meet my expectation?” It is so easy to rate people by their outward appearance and miss their great inner worth.

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” [4]

I like God’s economy. He takes people like Fanny Crosby, a blind woman and calls her to help seeing people see. She wrote some of Christendom’s most beautiful hymns. God takes people like Joni Eareckson-Tada, a quadriplegic, and calls her to teach people with operational limbs how to serve the Lord well.

Our Father is a Gardener. [5] We are in the best of care when we put ourselves in His care. Consider all the plant life He sustains! Let God cultivate you! Let God nurture you! Let Him fight off your pests and pestilences! In His hands you will bear much fruit.

When I was a boy, one uncle asked me, “Are you a conformist or nonconformist?” I aim to be a conformist to the will of God, and a non-conformist to the will of the world. I do my best for God and the herd when I be who God made me to be. My goal is to serve the Word of God and to testify for Jesus. [6]

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” [7]

Present yourself to God. Let God have you. Do not allow your lack of experience or ability to stop you from serving God.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” [8]

How do I become better? The answer is transformation!

Transformation is what made the Rocky movies so powerful. When that song “Feeling Strong Now” starts and Rocky Balboa starts working out, it is like, okay, I have been going nowhere, but now with an excellent mentor and steadfast commitment to the mission, I am going to win.

For me, the movie was never about Rocky becoming the heavy weight champion of the world. It was about me doing what God made me to do.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment...” [9]

God has us at our best when He has us humbly serving Him. Proud people are hard to teach. Hard to mold! Who can tell them anything? They know it all. In their mind, the entire world is out of step with them. They are hard to work with. They are not team players. God prefers to work through a BODY of believers.

Good coaches build on positives but confront players who fail to put forth effort. Diligence is the difference maker between professionals and amateurs. “Do you see a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.” [10]

Finally, consider this, God did His best for us when He gave us His only begotten Son. Should we not do the same for Him? Let us respect and cheer one another on in this game called life. God has given us gifts. Let God identify, cultivate, and make them produce for you. God knows our niche and He helps us fulfill it!

[1] Dr. Tim Clinton, Dr, Chap Clark with Dr. Joshua Straub, The Quick Reference Guide to Counseling Teenagers, Baker Books Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, MI 49516, © 2010, p. 155
[2] James 1:5-6
[3] 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
[4] 1 Samuel 16:7
[5] John 15:1
[6] Revelation 1:2
[7] Romans 12:1
[8] Romans 12:2
[9] Romans 12:3-5
[10] Proverbs 22:29

Spiritual Fire Versus Fiery Judgmental

“Jesus sent messengers before His face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for Him. But they did not receive Him, because His face was set towards Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did?’ But Jesus turned, and rebuked them, and said, ‘You know not what manner of spirit you are of; for the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ And they went to another village.” [1]

Jesus Christ is God’s Savior. He seeks to save people. That is what He does. He also allows people to refuse His saving grace. The Lord is not quick to anger.

The Samaritans did not receive Jesus into their city because of a disappointment. He was just passing through and not staying to minister. So, behind their rejection was a desire to receive Him. Later, an entire village of Samaritans believed in Jesus.

“Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word.” [2]

Jesus also spoke well of a Samaritan to harsh religious leaders. He told them of a certain Samaritan who understood well what to do with the divine mandate to love one’s neighbor. [3]

James and John were too quick to condemn the Samaritans when they said to Jesus, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did?” Jesus rebuked them. [4]

Jesus told these same disciples that after they received His Holy Spirit, they would be His witnesses in Samaria. And they were! The city of Samaria was under the spell of a sorcerer named Simon until Philip came and did healing miracles among them. They believed in Jesus and were baptized in water. Afterwards, Peter and John laid hands on them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The Samaritans got the fire. The fire of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit! [5]

Let no one be quick to condemn people. Jesus does not want to destroy people with fire, He wants to transform them with the fire of the Holy Spirit so they can be saved and live with Him in paradise.

Later on life, Peter wrote about God’s judgement. God threw the angels who sinned down to hell. God did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness. God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. He made them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly. God judges unjust, lustful, self-willed people who are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, but He is not hasty to condemn them. Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” [6]

In the Old Testament, King Saul persecuted God’s servant David. King Saul died in defeat before his enemies. In the New Testament, Saul of Tarsus persecuted believers in Jesus Christ. Rather than send fire from the sky to destroy Saul of Tarsus, God sent Saul the revelation of Jesus Christ. Saul believed in Jesus and became one of His most prolific writers and speakers. Our Lord prefers to fire up His enemies not fire them away.

May we all become more like Jesus Christ in this way!

[1] Luke 9:52-56
[2] John 4:39-41
[3] Luke 10:25-37
[4] Luke 9:54-55
[5] Acts 1:8; Acts 8:6-17
[6] 2 Peter 2:4-10; 2 Peter 3:9

Millions of Muslims Converting to Christ

Salem Voice Ministries recently reported that more Muslims have converted to faith in Christ over the past decade than at any other time in human history. Muslims from Morocco, Somalia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Maldives have embraced Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah.

In Iraq, more than five thousand Muslims converted to Christ since the end of major combat operations. Fourteen new churches opened in Baghdad. Dozens of new churches opened in Kurdistan, some with between five and eight hundred members. More than one million Bibles have been shipped into the country since 2003. Iraqis are snatching Bibles up so fast they constantly need more.

There were only five hundred known Christians in Iran in 1979, but there are more than one million Iranians who believe in Christ today.

Around a million Muslims believed in Jesus over the past decade in Egypt. The Egyptian Bible Society used to sell about three thousand copies of the JESUS film a year in the early 1990’s. In the year 2000, they sold 600,000 copies, plus 750,000 copies of the individual cassette tapes and about a half million copies of the Arabic New Testament. There’s one congregation which meets in an enormous cave on the outskirts of Cairo. Some ten thousand believers worship there every weekend. A prayer conference there drew some twenty thousand believers.

There were only seventeen known Afghan Christians in 2001. There are more than ten thousand believers in Christ now. Dozens of baptisms are done each week!

In 1990, there were only three known Christians in Kazakhstan and no Christians in Uzbekistan, but now there are more than 15,000 in Kazakhstan and 30,000 in Uzbekistan.

In Sudan, more than one million Muslims have converted since 2000, and some five million have become Christians since the early 1990’s despite persecution that has killed more than 200,000 Christians. Bible instruction happens even in caves.

In December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad al Qataani, a leading Saudi cleric, appeared on a live interview on Al-Jazeera satellite television to confirm that, sure enough, Muslims were turning to Jesus in alarming numbers. “Every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity,” Al Qataani warned. “Every day, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity.”

One of the most dramatic developments is that many Muslims are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus and thus coming into churches explaining that they have already converted and now need a Bible. This fulfills a Bible prophecy spoken by Joel, “In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days... And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” [1]

[1] Joel 2:28-32

Divine Intervention

Divine intervention

Yes we need it

Yes we want it

Divine intervention

After God established him

After God made him strong

He abandoned God

Due to his unfaithfulness

War broke out and many died

Twelve hundred chariots

Sixty thousand horsemen

Troops beyond count

Fortified cities fell to his foes

He became subject to foreigners

Foreigners took his treasures

They replaced finery with poverty

Rehoboam and his leaders

Humbled themselves

The king had not set his heart

To serve the Lord

The Lord intervened

The king repented

God’s anger turned from him

The king’s life was spared

Divine intervention

Yes we need it

Yes we want it

Divine intervention

Based on 2 Chronicles 12:1-14

Receive The Holy Spirit

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is to make Him out to be evil. [1] For example, if we don’t talk about Him because of the tongues or gifts controversy or snake handling controversy. If we fear to enter dialogue about the Holy Spirit because of these issues, we are essence saying the Holy Spirit is undesirable in our midst.

The truth is the Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus. He reveals truth to us. The Holy Spirit empowers us to testify for truth and to worship the Father in truth. He is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. [2] His baptism is a baptism of love for God and others. He is not an unclean spirit. He is the HOLY Spirit. He helps us to say no to sin, and yes to righteousness.

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter (Paraclete) who comes along side of us. He is our Advocate and Helper. He sighs in groans too deep for us to discern when we don’t know how to pray. He is Christ in us, the hope of glory. [3] God indwells people by His Spirit. Instead of Jesus walking in one place in Galilee, we have Jesus walking all over the world in many places at the same time, through His people the Church.

The Church is where the Holy Spirit is. The Church began when the Holy Spirit filled believers in Christ on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. We must be born of the Spirit to enter God’s kingdom. People profess that Jesus is their Lord by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit bears fruit in believers. He gives grace-gifts to believers. In a world full of put-downs, the Holy Spirit is the builder-up. The Holy Spirit is the source of our fellowship with God.

Jesus is still saying to disciples today, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” [5]

[1] Matthew 12:31-32
[2] John 15:25; John 16:13; Acts 1:8; John 4:24; Romans 5:5
[3] John 14:26; Romans 8:26; Colossians 1:27
[4] Acts 2:4; Mark 1:4; John 3:6; 1 Corinthians 12:3; Galatians 5:22-23; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 2 Corinthians 13:14
[5] John 20:22