Closed Doors

What are your plans for the summer?  What are you going to do in College? What are you going to do with your life? Who do you want to be? I have been asked those questions so many times over the past year, and I am sure that many of you can relate. Everyone wants where you are headed and what you are going to be doing in your future. When you are unsure of where you are headed in the future it is hard to answer those questions. You don’t want people to think that you are just wondering aimlessly through life.  I came to a point a few months ago where I had no idea where I was headed. I thought I knew where I wanted to go, but God had closed several doors.  Proverbs 16:9 says “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” I had planned my course, but God had a different plan for me. 

When God closes a door on something that you have been working toward for a long time it can be very challenging. Feelings of anger and frustration can arise. We like to think that we know better than God on what is best for us. When there are closed doors we have the opportunity to trust God more. We can change our head knowledge of God being sovereign to heart knowledge. When people have doors closed on them they come to a point where they say “If I just knew God’s will for my life everything would be so much easier and I wouldn’t have problems deciding what to do next.” 

Francis Chan in his book ‘Forgotten God’ gives an excellent view on God’s will for our lives. He writes, “I think a lot of us need to forget about God’s will for my life. God cares more about our response to his Spirit’s leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today’s decisions. It is easy to use the phrase ‘God’s will for my life’ as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. It’s much less demanding to think about God’s will for your future than it is to ask Him what He wants you to do in the next ten minutes. It’s safer to commit to following him someday instead of this day. To be honest I believe part of the desire to ‘know God’s will for my life’ is birthed in fear and results in paralysis….God wants us to listen to his Spirit on a daily basis, and even throughout the day, as difficult and as stretching moments arise, and in the midst of the mundane. My hope is that instead of searching for ‘God’s will for my life,’ each of us would learn to seek hard after ‘the Spirit’s leading in my life today.”

After several months of searching and many closed doors, I finally came to a point where I needed to trust God and be content with where I am at. This doesn’t mean I have stopped seeking God on where I should be, but until He opens something else for me I need to be faithful with what He has given me. 

I think about the parable that Jesus told about the bags of gold. Matthew 25:14-21 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.  After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!” 

In the beginning of the story it says that the master gave to each servant ‘According to his ability’.  The master knows the servants personally and he knows their ability to be trusted.  The servant with five pieces of gold returned five more. The master saw that he was faithful with small things and therefore he gave him more responsibility (opened a door).  When doors are closed it gives us a chance to reflect on whether we are being faithful with what God has given us at the moment. Praise God for open doors and new opportunities, but also praise Him for closed doors and the opportunity to learn to trust Him more.  

It Was For Freedom

 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1. Freedom, it is something that everyone wants to experience.  We get progressive stages of freedom as we get older, from the freedom of getting a driver license to the freedom of deciding the course of your life.  We enjoy freedom. As Galatians 5:1 says we have been set free by Christ’s work on the cross and we can experience freedom in every area of our life.  What type of freedom is this?  It is freedom to be holy.  It is not just freedom to now do whatever we like.

 In 1 Corinthians Paul is addressing the believers who are using their new found freedom in Christ to do whatever they want. He writes to them saying, “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but not everything is constructive.” Steven Olford describes the liberty in Christ this way “Liberty in the Biblical sense is not the license to do what you want; it is the power to do what we ought.” I know many of you want to experience freedom in your lives. You read these verses and hear quotes like this, but you do not feel like you have freedom. You may feel in bondage to sin or maybe it is just your daily routine and you do not feel the Spirit of God guiding your interactions with others, thoughts, and actions. No matter what it is you want to experience freedom.

 I believe the reason so many Christians are not experiencing freedom in their lives is because they are not fleeing. They are not fleeing from what has them in bondage. Overcoming sin is a process and there are two very important parts. The first part is praying for deliverance. We see this when the Lord was teaching the disciples to pray. He tells them to pray “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” God is the only one who can deliver us. However, we still have a role. The second part is that we must have a fleeing mindset. We live in a culture where fleeing is looked down on. We are afraid people will think we are cowards and weak. We desire to look tough as we try to battle sin head on. Stop caring about how it will look to others and only care about what is pleasing to God. 1 Timothy 6:11 says “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” Drop you ego and flee!

During the Civil War our nation was divided in half and at war with each other. The war came about for many reasons, but one of the major reasons was over the issue of slavery. During the war the slaves in the south knew that if they could make it into one of the states that was in the north they would be free. They would be protected and what not be sent back to their slavery. However, in order to do this they had to escape. They had to flee from their place of bondage. They had to leave the comfort of their familiar homes and everyday routines in order to reach freedom. It would be a long journey and very hard at times but at the end awaited freedom. Fleeing must occur if there is to be freedom. I believe too many Christians are comfortable where they are at in their sin and they don’t want to put in any effort to experience freedom. Fleeing is an active process that involves awareness and discernment. 

In the movie “The Bourne Identity” the main character is being chased for most of the movie. At one point in the movie he tells the person that he is with that whenever he goes into a building he automatically locates the quickest escapes in case his pursues catch up to him. This is the mindset we need to have.  We must be constantly aware and ready to flee. 2 Timothy 2:22 says “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” We have been set free and that should cause us to give thanks and praise God, and we should use our freedom to pursue holiness. 

Renewing the Passion

In the last few weeks I have been to several graduations. Friends are graduating high school and getting ready to start a new phase of their life. Others are graduating college and they are going to start doing what they have wanted to do for years. Most of them are very excited about the new changes to come. As I sat through several graduations I found myself praying for the graduates. I was not praying that they would have a smooth transition into school or into work, or that they would have enough money for college. I was praying that they would become more passionate for God and His church.

 You see we live in a generation that is becoming less and less passionate for God and the church. We can call ourselves “Christians” and it really doesn’t mean anything anymore. I have heard it said, “Do not look at what someone says they believe, look at what they love. That will show where their heart is.” I want to see these graduates not just hold the title Christian but to really love the church body, their fellow believers, and above all else their Savior. You will love what you are passionate about.

 I hear people say, “I just can’t find passion for anything, I am not a passionate person.” I laugh a little whenever I hear that because I believe everyone is passionate, but many times in the wrong areas. For example I know that people have passion on Sundays, they just have it during the wrong part of the day. I see people sit through church with the arms crossed mumbling along. Then they go home and turn on the football games for the afternoon. These people who barely moved in church are now jumping up and down and screaming. If people were as passionate about church as they are about football amazing things would happen. Rodney Mullins wrote a great blog post about the issue of decreasing passion in the church. I thought it would be worth including.

 Confronting Casual Christianity.

 “I believe that the greatest problem that we are facing in America is that many Christians have lost their passion for God. They no longer seek God for their purpose in life. They no longer pray with a passion or worship with a passion. They have lost whatever it was that caused them to hunger after God.

Millions are going to Hell and Christians have no or little fear of a Holy God. I have watched for years as Spirit filled Christians with a fervor for the Holy things of God walk away to a less passionate place. Hearts that once burned with a fresh fire live on a weekly religious experience of fluff and conviction less teaching. Seeker churches have produced an apathy for the power of the pentecostal experience. Thousands of one time powerful Christians have delegated their spiritual responsibilities to a few and traded their heritage for a powerless convictionless play at church.

Those precious commodities in church have become a mockery to those who laugh to scorn the Holy Spirit filled church they once loved. Church to them is just a place to go once a week to hear a soft overly protective sermon and avoid spiritual accountability while stroking their religious itch.

They have traded their passion for spiritual hymns and songs to a yearning for the mundane and earthly. They have given themselves over to denying the covenant they once had with God to spirtualized excuses for breaking that covenant. Their hearts are far from God and seem to be in love with the present world and it’s pleasures.

My heart breaks as I realize that we Christians are more to blame for being casual than sinners are for being lost. The enemy has one goal and that is to keep sinners lost and Christians ineffective. I hunger again for those day’s when the people of God were on fire with passion for him. I thirst for the time when we appreciated the conviction of the word and longed for God’s presence. I have a burning desire to see people come early and stay late in his glory and holiness.

What we need is revival. A revival that plunges us to our knees and our hearts to repentance. A revival that turns the hearts of the children to their parents and the hearts of the parents to God. A revival where spiritual accountability is sought after and the preaching of the word is loved. A revival where we will seek to please the Lord and not the desires of our flesh. A revival of lasting and life changing results.”

How do we become more passionate? Unfortunately there is not a “Three easy steps to becoming a more passionate Christian” to guide us. However, there are things that will make us more passionate. I said earlier that you will love what you are passionate about. It goes the other way too. You will be passionate about what you love. The more you love God and His church the more passion you will have.

• Study the Bible, not to just check it off your list of things to do for the day, but because of a yearning to know God more.  
• Pray all throughout the day so you are always in communication with your heavenly Father.
• Read Christian books to expand your knowledge and to grow, but do not let it replace the Word.
• Get connected in a church, not just on Sunday mornings but throughout the week.

C. J. Mahaney said, “To grow in your passion for what Jesus has done, increase your understanding of what He has done.” Let us reverse the trend of passionless Christians and rise up to be who God has called us to be.