I didn’t realize how frustrating it would be to not see everything clearly.  Until I realized how frustrated a Christian or a church can become when we don’t see the things God sees.  We may be able to see the things God sees, but we may not see them as clearly as God does.  So what do we do whenever our spiritual eyesight is poor?  What do we do whenever we know that God sees things better than we do?

Over the next few weeks, leading up to January 2011, I will mention a few solutions for poor spiritual eyesight.  But the obvious place to begin is with faith.  Above everything else, we must trust that God knows things we may never know, and that God is in control of things we may never understand.  And God does in fact see things clearly that may be blurry to us….at least for a while.  No matter what we see, know or understand, we need to trust God unconditionally.  If we can trust God to provide eternal salvation for our souls, we must learn to trust God with some daily sources of frustrations that we don’t understand.

Check back over the next few weeks to see what other things we can do to sharpen our spiritual focus, which will enable us to see the will of God and the way of God more clearly.  Feel free to post ways that God has taught you through His word how to sharpen your focus.

Hope to “see” you soon!

So what must we be willing to do so God can work through us?

There are three simple words that answer that question.  They are the 3 E’s!

Engage….means to look for opportunities to talk with and build a relationship with people around you.  Whether they are saved or lost, we need to be about connecting people to Christ.  If they don’t know Jesus, this is the first step in building a relationship with them to talk about their eternal destiny.  If they do know Christ, this will be a chance for you to let them know what God is doing in your life, and have someone they can come to and count on.

Encourage….means we need to not only build a relationship with people around us, but we need to encourage them to either come to Christ if they are lost, but encourage them to grow in Christ if they are saved.  We need to be able to encourage a lost person to come to know Christ because we know how to and are comfortable in sharing the message of Christ with them.  We also need to be growing in our walk with Jesus as a disciple so we can challenge and encourage others who know Him to grow in theirs as well.

Enlist…..means that we need to invite people to come to Christ and share with them how they can be saved.  We need to build relationships with them, and tell them the truth, but we must tell them how to be a part of the family of God through faith in Christ.  If someone is saved, we need to enlist them to be a part of what God is doing in your neighborhood, and in our church family.  There are places to serve right here and ministries to be done.

Can you live out the 3 E’s?  Absolutely, you can.  The question is….Will you live out the 3 E’s?

Will you give up a life that centers on yourself, and live to look for others that need to be encouraged, need to be saved, and need to come into the family of God?

As soon as we finished eating, we all put our jackets on and headed outside.  I asked everybody to huddle up and listen to a description of what prayer-walking was all about.  As soon as I opened my mouth, a large dog from the neighborhood came up.  He was friendly….but too friendly.  He wanted to be center of attention, and with three kids, that isn’t hard to do.  So I kept trying to explain what prayer-walking is while telling the kids to ignore the dog.  Well, that didn’t go over well.  We just decided to start.

As soon as we left our driveway, another dog came up.  Again, they stole the attention of the kids!  Instead of helping us pray, the kids are watching these two dogs act goofy.  I took Anna by the hand, and she and I specifically prayed out loud for specific neighbors to help keep her mind on prayer.  Leigh took care of Caleb, while Nathan did well on his own.  Our prayer-walking time lasted 10 minutes.  By the time we were almost finished, another dog joined and all three were running, playing and barking.  This was not in my prayer-walking guide!

We all got in the van to go to Wal-Mart and go get some ice cream at Baskin Robbins.  Don’t you know that as soon as we got in the van, all three of those dogs were nowhere to be found!  They vanished!  Leigh and I had already told each other that our family’s first opportunity to prayer walk together was interrupted by a spiritual distraction.  We could have had an easy and fun time together, walking, praying and enjoying the night air….but instead we had to intentionally focus every second on prayer and not on silly dogs.  Even though we faced a spiritual distraction, the discipline of prayer-walking was made stronger because of what we had to overcome as well as what we knew we needed to do.

“Please take me out”

Sobbing and dazed people wandered the streets of Port-au-Prince, and voices cried out from the rubble. “Please take me out, I am dying. I have two children with me,” a woman told a journalist from under a collapsed kindergarten. The International Red Cross said some 3 million people may have been affected. Haitian Red Cross spokesman Pericles Jean-Baptiste said his organization was overwhelmed. “There are too many people who need help … We lack equipment, we lack body bags,” he said Wednesday.

I cannot help but equate this story to the spiritual condition many people are in when their world is rocked by challenges and difficulties.  When any of us, but especially someone who doesn’t know Christ, experiences something devastating like a hurricane, tornado or a violent earthquake, or lives through a divorce or a death of a loved one or an unexpected job change, the world seems to turn upside down.  And what do we do?  Where do we turn for sanity or comfort or hope?  For those who know Christ, we don’t need to wait until a disaster comes in someone’s life and assume we don’t have the equipment or the ability to do anything to help.  We need to get the gospel to the lost before they experience another life-altering challenge, so that when the difficulty comes, their personal relationship with God through Christ will carry them through.  Everyone of us are missionaries whether it is during a natural disaster or a spiritual disaster.  People are hurting and need Christ whether they have lost their home in an earthquake or lost their home because they lost their job.  In any case, and in all cases, people need the Lord.

“Whether he can recover as a person depends on his faith. He’s said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.’”

Of course, a media firestorm ensued and many negative comments have been flying ever since Brit Hume went on record by suggesting that Tiger Woods turn to the Christian faith.  But for the record, Brit Hume didn’t mention Jesus Christ, but rather just mentioned the Christian faith.  He stated that even mentioning the Christian faith was enough to bring about this strong response.  Listen to his explanation to Bill O’Reilly….

I admire Brit Hume, and I appreciate his openness to share his faith in Christ, and the transformation that comes from being born again.  He took a risk on national television, and put his own career on the line by stating that Jesus Christ saves and transforms lives.  Brit Hume may be a journalist, and I thank God that he is a believer, but whether any of us realizes it or not, Brit Hume is a missionary!  He shared the saving message of Christ within his workplace, and his workplace happened to feature a world-wide broadcast.  Many have been saying hurtful things to and about Hume for his comments.  But I thank God that he was willing to share, no matter the cost!

Jesus explained the difference in coming to Him and coming after Him.  Many people may want to come to Him (for salvation) but only those who are willing to put Him first will be His disciple.  And He went on to say that to come after Him (or follow Him as a disciple), we must be willing to take up our cross.  While I may want to be the neighbor I should be, and while I may want my life to be a reflection of the gospel, I must be willing to put Jesus first and die to myself in order to live out both of those desires.  May God help us all to be faithful followers of Jesus who reflect Christ in all we do!

But what about inside your own home?  Think of the marvelous ways to share your faith inside your home.  Of course, if anyone lives in your home that doesn’t know Christ, they are your most available mission field.  But when people come into your home for dinner, or a visit, or even a Bible study, you are intentionally sharing your faith whether you are intentional about it or not.  You are a display of the grace of Christ to your guests in how you treat one another as a family.  Your home is a display of God’s grace by the magazines you read, the movies you own and watch, the web sites you visit on the computer, and even by the pictures and artwork displayed in your home.  Never underestimate the opportunities to share the word with those who need to hear, even by the “unintentional” intentional ways!

And outside the home….don’t forget about how you witness at work.  I realize there may be many of you who don’t have or don’t feel the freedom to discuss Christ freely with people you work with or work for.  But even in your attitudes and actions, or how you spend your free time at work,  will speak volumes about your walk with Christ.  Bringing your Bible to work with you, having a Christ-like spirit with others, displaying hope even in challenging days that we all have, are all practical ways to be a witness.  And of course, if God gives opportunity, you may be able to speak about the grace of God where you work.  Never underestimate those times when God opens a door for someone who needs to hear….even if you speak without words!

In the last few months, I have preached or referenced two parables of Jesus that will help give direction to our church as we seek to meet needs and share the gospel as a church as well as individually.  Luke 8 and Luke 10 contain parables on the sower and on the samaritan.  So, in our church, I pray that we will combine the instruction from Jesus from those two parables, and by His Spirit, be used by God to be a Sower and a Samaritan.  We are going to continue discussing ways that we can meet needs and share the gospel as individuals, as families and as a church in the days ahead.  But the best place to begin is by asking God to give you eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart that is moved and a mind that perceives when and where He is calling you to be involved in bringing people into His Kingdom.

Pray right now……Lord, I thank you for allowing me to be part of your Kingdom and your family.  Help me to see the needs that You see in others, and help me to understand how I can be used by You to meet those needs, and God above all, move my heart to want to meet those needs and to share my faith!  In Jesus’ name, Amen!

The Prayer Team developed resources to help lead our church in prayer this week.  One of those resources is a daily prayer guide that is available on line to view or print.  To view the prayer guide, visit…

http://www.fbbc.org/pdf/2009-Daily-Prayer-Guide.pdf

I pray that God speaks to your heart during this week of intentional and focused prayer.  May God find us faithful as His

All of that sounds great, but if I am going to do that, what can I expect to see?  What will happen in me and around me that is different by living with an intentional focus on my own walk with Christ and the need of others around me who need Jesus?

Since this is the first week of my commitment to live as an intentional missionary, share your thoughts, comments, concerns and stories on what you have experienced this first week?  By sharing your experiences, you might find that others will be encouraged that God is working in them and around them in the same way!