Beware of Religious Gatekeepers

02 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by eisakouo in Luke, Our Spiritual Process

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Bartimaeus, being blessed, being told to shut-up, blind Bartimaeus, crowds, decision makes you, feeling spiritually uncomfortable, friends, genuine faith, getting loud, God's word, Jesus, no concern for others, not receiving God's best, over-exaggerate our own importance, status quo, Sumrall quote

What if I told you there are people, even well-meaning people, out there preventing you from receiving God’s best. These folks are not hidden, unscrupulous, vicious individuals skulking around dark corners. They are some of your closest friends traveling the road with you. The problem is the noise they make. It is the rabble from their wake. They never shut-up long enough for you to hear or be heard. God has a word for you today … and everyday. Some of His messages are more important than others. There is a high likelihood you cannot hear God’s revelation for the confluence of voices surrounding you. This was exactly blind Bart’s problem. Yes, he was blind. But his biggest problem was the crowd.

³⁵As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. ³⁶Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was. ³⁷They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. ³⁸And he called out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ³⁹Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁰And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; Luke 18:35-40

This company of onlookers following Jesus was like all the other crowds surrounding the Lord. Except…this bunch was preventing this man from connecting to his destiny! His new eyes were passing by on the road right in front of him. Bartimaeus was just five minutes from being able to see. In the middle of this crowd were some nay sayers attempting to keep old Bart from seeking the Lord. Jesus’ disciples attempted the same thing with children just a few verses earlier. What do disciples know? The Kingdom belongs to children and blind men.

Here is the point about crowds…. they have no concern about others. They really don’t care about what is happening around them until someone has the audacity to halt their parade. When they get the news that their parade is about to be stopped for someone other than them personally… this is when they get louder.

Every person in the crowd could have called out to Jesus on this occasion. Only one audacious person was heard… blind Bartimaeus. What did the crowd do? They were audacious too, but not for Jesus. They sought to shut-up the one man crying out with all his heart for the Lord. They rebuked the seeker for being loud and boisterous. Bartimaeus’ courage was met with a ferocious rebuke. These “gatekeepers” believe they know what is best for you and for Jesus.

Why is it that most religious folks and even non-religious folks don’t want other people healed, restored, or redeemed? Everybody says they want the “good” from heaven to be passed around to all people. But, in reality, the exact opposite is true.

The truth is we don’t want others to get blessed until we are blessed. We want the Lord to notice us first. It is like we feel the cupboard of heaven has limited supplies. God isn’t acting fairly unless we are served first. It is sad, but true. I think this is one of the reasons we feel uncomfortable in churches where some believers express emotions and worship passionately. Since we don’t worship in this fashion… no one else should either. Since we personally do not feel the urge to get passionate, neither should others. Since the blessings of God haven’t touch us personally, then no one else should be passionate either.

Someone wrote an article a while back on “why the other line at the grocery store always moves faster than the one you are personally standing.” It really doesn’t but when you are in the line moving quickly, you really don’t think about all the poor stiffs sitting still. But, when you are stuck waiting, all you can do is think about why you are stuck and others are moving forward. In other words, it is easy to fill victimized and never give serious consideration when others are stalled. We all have a tendency to over-exaggerate our own importance and rarely consider what others are going through. Hey, if it is not happening to me, then it should not be happening to anybody. Right?

Not one person encouraged Bartimaeus to get louder. They all told him to shut-up. We have all been yelled at or shouted down. This is why we too react like the crowd. Religion even has the gall to say things like, “It is a sin to question God. It is wrong to plead, seek, and go after God like the blind man. It is wrong to be passionate!”

Wrong!!! The blind man proves it. It is not wrong to call out, to question and seek God like a mad man. It might be socially and religiously unacceptable but it is never wrong in the eyes of Jesus. Blind Bart knew better on the road that day. He got louder.

We don’t like those who speak up, who leave the status quo, who refuse to keep quiet, who reject compliance as a way of life. We would rather have people shut up than say disturbing things from a genuine faith. So we tell people to be quiet…because in reality…genuine faith scares us to death. Since God has yet to answer us personally… He is not going to answer some unknown, blind man!

Have you gotten quiet? Have some of your friends discouraged you from seeking the Lord more passionately. Have they said something like… “It didn’t work for me, so it is not going to work for you. I tried praying like that but it didn’t work. God didn’t hear me, so He is not going to hear you. You should just settle down and get quiet.”

If blind Bartimaeus could speak to us again today it would be… “Seek the Lord with all your heart. Don’t listen to the crowd… get louder until the Lord hears you.”

Blessings – From God’s Incubator,

Pastor

Learning to Hate Your Family!

29 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by eisakouo in Discipletips, Luke

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alienated, allegiances change, Dana Curry, family, family circle, first demand of a true disciple, friends, Gary Ezzo quote, hate, Heather Mercer, insane, loving God more, Luke 14:26, mother and father, place Christ at the center, primary structures in proper order, prisoner, Prisoners of Hope, sane, setting boundaries, stranger, to prefer above

If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:26

Are you surprised that sweet, peaceful, loving Jesus would ask you to “hate” ma, pa, gramps, and grandma? How can this be Jesus’ first demand to becoming a real disciple? As a young believer I looked at this verse and knew there had to be a catch somewhere… I hoped! I felt guilty kicking my mother to the curb and throwing my father under the bus! I resolved to understand it later when I could better grasp it.

Since Jesus listed it first when relating to the demands of being a disciple of His, we can’t put it off any longer. Actually, Jesus didn’t use the word “hate” in these verses… translators did. The word Jesus used is “sane”. It means “to prefer above.” The Lord is inferring or demanding our total allegiance. In other words, to be a disciple, we must love Jesus more than we love anyone else–even our closest family members. Our love for Jesus should be so powerful that in comparison, it seems as if we hate everyone else. It is not a matter of hating anyone. It is about loving God more.

Let me ask a hard question. Has your love for the Lord ever alienated you against certain members of your family? If it hasn’t yet, it eventually will… or it should. Why? Because when we truly prefer the Lord over others, they eventually get offended. We do not do it on purpose, they just move into second place. When our allegiances change, so do our priorities even in family circles.

Gary Ezzo says that one of the problems with families today is that the husband and wife join hands to form a family circle and then a child comes along and they place the child in the center with the husband and wife still forming the circle. Now everything revolves around the child. Then a second child comes and that child is also placed in the circle. And now everything revolves around two children. And as the family becomes larger the center becomes so big that the hands of the father and mother are pulled apart and the circle is broken.

What we must do is form the circle but with Christ in the center. Then as each child is born, they join hands with mom and dad to make the circle bigger. The result is that the circle is never broken as long as Christ is the center.

As a disciple, if we cannot get these basic primary structures in proper order, there will be no way to withstand the pressures of the world coupled with Satan’s attacks against us. Once we are able to “prefer the Lord” over and above our family, then we are able to move forward into the next stages of real discipleship. It is that simple. If the Lord hasn’t addressed your primary relationship issues, He will. Allow Him to set the boundaries.

Heather Mercer and Dana Curry were arrested by the Taliban and held prisoner for 128 days in Afghanistan. They both attended Baylor, and surrendered their lives to be fully devoted followers of Jesus. Afterward, Dateline interviewed Heather Mercer’s mother. It was the kind of story the media likes because they discovered Heather’s mother was totally opposed to Heather’s decision to work in Afghanistan. The media really tried to play up the story to show Heather’s commitment to Christ had divided her family. They wanted to keep asking her how she could do something her mother opposed. This is what Jesus meant in verse 26. Heather and Dana had to prefer the Lord over their family and even their own life!

In her book, Prisoners of Hope, Heather wrote:
“We answered hard questions posed by our families and friends. Extraordinary are the parents who don’t balk at the idea of their child moving to a third-world, war-ravaged, drought-stricken country–and, in this case, a country serving as a hub for international terrorist activity. That we had decided to go as Christian aid workers to a country where a harsh, unpredictable regime severely curtailed religious freedom gave most of our loved ones pause at best, and otherwise prompted serious alarm. We were asked: ‘ Aren’t you being foolish? Why would you jeopardize your own safety?’”

When God calls and leads you, you will have to make some difficult decisions. Those closest to you (your friends and family) will not jump up and down and rejoice over those choices. But…this the first demand of a true disciple.

Blessings – From God’s Incubator,

Pastor

Live With Intention

30 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by eisakouo in Quotes

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blessings, Christian quotes, friends, inspirational quotes, laugh, listen, live, live with intention, play, pray

It has been great to take a few days off from blogging. It has been hot down here in the South… too hot. I hope you are staying cool. I share a quote for you to digest this holiday weekend… be blessed and live with intention.

Blessings,

Pastor

The Altar of Ministry

29 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by eisakouo in Abraham: Life of Faith

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call of God, David, Elton Trueblood, family, family devotions, family prayer, friends, Genesis 13:17-18, keeping boundaries, losing our blessings, performing, relationships, ruin ministry, separate from Lot

Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.” ¹⁸ Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD. Genesis 13:17-18

Abraham built an altar at the site where King David would begin to reign and extend the Kingdom of Israel to its uttermost borders. Abraham walked the entire length and breadth of his inheritance. Finally, at the Hebron altar, Abraham sought the Lord and laid claimed to his inheritance for future generations.

Before anyone can build the altar of ministry, the other two altars of dedication and worship must already be established.

Imagine this for a moment. A man whispered to me in private, “Hey, if you call on me in church I would be honored to pray publicly.” I say, “Great, I’ll call on you sometime.” A few moments later this man’s wife approached me and said, “I really wish you wouldn’t call on him to pray in church. He can do it and has prayed very eloquent prayers before….its just, well uh, I know he never has a quiet time and rarely prays to God alone. He believes in it; he just doesn’t do it. Also, I have begged and begged him to have family devotions and family prayer times with the children and myself but he never does. In fact, he usually calls on the kids to pray during meal time. It would bother me to hear him pray at church when I know he never prays alone or with his family.”

The point is none of us can have an effective ministry unless we have established in our lives the altar of dedication and worship. If you seek to minister before building these types of altars then you will simply be performing. I know you will agree with me that we have had enough of this in church.

Notice what was going on in Abraham’s life just before he built this altar of ministry. God allowed him to separate himself from Lot. (see Genesis 13:6-14)

In order for God to use us for ministry we must separate ourselves from all the “Lots” in our lives. “Lots” are merely the people we have in our lives that will potentially ruin any ministry God develops. What God allows in our earlier walk with Him has to be excluded as we advance spiritually. It is only when we completely separate ourselves that the altar of ministry can be built.

We commonly call this process “keeping boundaries” here at our house. Sometimes in order for you move on with God, certain relationships or friendships have to go. They may even be family members! It is not that these relationships are bad or sinful. They simply keep you from becoming all God called you to be. It is about where God is taking YOU, not them. God will always let you know the boundaries you need to keep and maintain. It is your choice whether or not you are obedient with these boundaries.

Abraham had to separate from Lot before he could fully enter into his promised land and claim the inheritance God had for him. God speaks about boundaries all the time and He has been speaking to you about the boundaries you need to make and keep. He has been doing this for years.

Remember Abraham’s initial call to leave his home, his land, and his family. Yet, when he left, who did he take with him? Lot, his dead brother’s son. Yes, I am sure Lot needed someone to look after him. Yes, I am sure Abraham was the one responsible for him. God allowed Lot to journey with Abraham for a season.

But Abraham’s original call did not include Lot. In fact, the call excluded Lot. As Abraham was entering into the full measure of his blessing there had to be a separation and boundaries had to be kept.

Why? Because if you and I do not keep well maintained boundaries, we will ultimately lose God’s blessings. Notice, Abraham was already dividing up the Promised Land with Lot. This was not what God originally desired.

When we finally kneel at the altar of ministry, we come alone. It is not about anyone else. It is not about being nice and generous to family and friends. Lot was not walking the same spiritual road as Abraham and Sarah. Lot didn’t keep boundaries and frequently compromised. He and his wife ultimately lived in a whole society full of all types of perversions. For the sake of Abraham, if God had not dragged Lot out of the city, he and his family would have been destroyed.

Are you ready to move forward in your call to effective ministry. I don’t know any pursuer of God who has not had to forsake certain relationships in order to maintain spiritual purity. What are your boundaries? Allow the Lord to speak to these issues today.

Blessings,

Pastor