Tim Spencer

Serve. Grow. Lead.

God and Country

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flag_waversIn celebration of Independence Day, and a renewed, steadfast faith in God, it feels appropriate to take an extended look at the words of George Washington in his 1796 Farewell Address:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest prop of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge in the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle…Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?

For much of our history, national morality, religious principle and patriotic devotion have seemed to work together. It’s why we’ve so often put the words “God and country” together.

Perhaps like no other time in our nation’s history, the relationship between God and country is strained. The disconnect is about more than any single moral or policy issue, centering on a general reluctance to trust God for our lives, our futures and our good.

I am a citizen of the United States, but I am also a citizen of another Kingdom. Paul says:

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. – Philippians 3:20-21 (NIV)

We know that being a citizen of God’s kingdom means that we are in the world, but not of the world. So what can we do to serve both God and country? I’m committing to do 3 things:

  1. Love Christ more than the world. I’m seeking to value what the Bible says over worldly definitions. Even when the the chorus says otherwise, stand firm in your faith and put Christ first.
  2. Love others more than myself. I’m learning to put the needs of others (especially the need they have for Christ) above my own selfish desires. This absolutely includes loving people I don’t agree with. Loving Christ means loving others.
  3. Love the Kingdom of God more than material things. Instead of seeking material comforts and embracing a culture of more, I want to value the truly important things. I want to share my faith and follow Jesus’ command to make disciples.

So what’s the Big Idea?

Being a citizen of God’s kingdom means that we are in the world, but not of the world. Love Christ more than the world, love others more than yourself, and love the Kingdom of God more than material things.

Resources


Source

George Washington’s Farewell Address, September 17, 1796.

From Self-Reliance to God-Reliance

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handsThink about the ways that being independent gets sewn into your life. It happens in school from the first day you go to Kindergarten. It happens in business as you learn to promote yourself and advance your career. It happens as you move away from home and take responsibility for things your parents used to do for you.

But after all those lessons in becoming independent, you have to live in the opposite direction. For most of us, the first big lesson happens in marriage. We discover the limits of self-reliance and the beauty of a collaborative, loving relationship with someone else.

But the greatest lesson in dependent living is the one we learn as a child of God. Jesus said:

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. – John 15:5 (NIV)

Abiding in Christ means that you depend on Him in every corner of your life. That happens most readily through prayer. Bill Hybels said it this way:

From birth we have been learning the rules of self-reliance as we strain and struggle to achieve self-sufficiency. Prayer flies in the face of those deep-seated values. It is an assault on human autonomy, an indictment of independent living. To people in the fast lane, determined to make it on their own, prayer is an embarrassing interruption.

Interruption or not, prayer is the indispensable ingredient in any relationship with a communicating God. Without it, the faith relationship breaks down and your independence asserts itself once more. To break the chains of self-reliance and self-sufficiency:

  1. Start your day with prayer. Confess your sins before God and commit to an attitude of worship and Spirit-sensitivity throughout the day. Taking that simple step at the start helps build a supernatural perspective for the daily grind.
  2. Live with God-reliance vs. self-reliance. Approach your daily routine with healthy skepticism about old habits and tendencies. Ask key questions to keep the proper perspective for living a life on mission for God. Pray short prayers throughout the day, asking God to help in both the big and small things.
  3. Consider the source of every decision you make. Are you making decisions with human wisdom, knowledge and motivation, or is a supernatural God transforming and directing your life? Remember that prayer and meditation is not an interruption, it’s at the heart of your relationship with a communicating God.
  4. Acknowledge your inadequacy at every turn. Demonstrate humility and servant leadership, remembering that God is holy and you are not. Believers are not meant to operate independently from the sustaining presence of their God. Your humble words and actions make that task a lot easier.

So what’s the Big Idea?

Live with God-reliance vs. self-reliance in every aspect of your life. The key is regular communication with God in the big and small things of life. That unnatural activity pushes self-reliance to the side and leads you to embrace total dependence on an eternally faithful God.

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Source

Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray: Slowing Down to Be with God (10th Anniversary Edition, Revised and Expanded), 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 9.

Make Prayer Part of Your Daily Routine

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routineIs prayer “missing in action” in your personal routine, family or church? I’m ashamed to admit that prayer falls to the bottom of my agenda far too often. Priorities and the tyranny of the urgent are the culprit, but there’s more to it than making easy excuses.

I’m compelled to ask myself whether or not I really believe in prayer. Do I faithfully expect that God will take my work and multiply it in the prayers I offer? Or do I have lowered expectations for the work God wants to do in and through me?

Spiritual issues and problems require supernatural solutions, and that’s where regular prayer becomes important. Prayer leads me to evaluate my priorities, decisions, motives and attitudes. It impacts my heart and mind, making me a more effective leader and servant.

Bill Hybels describes this “supernatural walk with a living, dynamic, communicating God” this way:

Authentic Christians are persons who stand apart from others, even other Christians, as though listening to a different drummer. Their character seems deeper, their ideas fresher, their spirit softer, their courage greater, their leadership stronger, their concerns wider, their compassion more genuine and their convictions more concrete.

I want that kind of power and conviction in my life, family and church. Perhaps you do too. If so, ask yourself some key questions about prayer:

  1. Where does prayer rate in your daily schedule?
  2. Does your family pray together regularly?
  3. Is prayer valued in your church or organization?
  4. How can you develop more effective prayer habits?

On that last point, let me offer a prayer model from Dr. Greg Frizzell, Prayer and Spiritual Awakening Specialist with the Oklahoma Baptist Convention. Based on The Lord’s Prayer, our most important biblical model, Dr. Frizzell’s PRISM acrostic is a powerful way to pray every day:

P = Praise
R = Repentance
I = Intercession (about spiritual things and for spiritual protection and deliverance)
S = Supplication (petition)
M = Meditation on the Word (listening for lessons in Scripture)

So what’s the Big Idea?

Make prayer part of your daily routine for greater effectiveness in every area of your life. Expand that principle to your family and church to appropriate divine power for living the everyday mission of God. Most of all, believe in the power of prayer.

Resources


Sources

Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray: Slowing Down to Be with God (10th Anniversary Edition, Revised and Expanded), 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 125.

Greg Frizzell, PRISM Prayer Model, January 19, 2015.

Olympic Legacy

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I admit it.  I have always been fascinated by the Olympics and the men and women who focus their youth on the singular goal of medaling in the Games.  I keep up with the athletes and the storylines, and Olympic events are just about the only thing on our family’s television during those two weeks of summer and winter every two years.  This year, I have joined the rest of the world to watch the London Games.

I spent a day wandering London several years ago…riding the Tube, walking the street and watching people.  I really had no agenda, except seeing a few obscure sites I had missed on previous visits to the city.  I saw Team GB’s rich spiritual heritage on full display everywhere I went.  It was nice to see, of course, but I couldn’t help but wonder where all the energy, youth and vitality had gone.

England, Scotland and Wales represent a significant part of our spiritual heritage.  It’s where great communicators of the Word were used by God to revitalize and renew our churches.  It’s where great revival movements began.  And it’s where the impetus for modern missions first took flight with men and women who devoted their entire lives and families to far away peoples they barely knew.

What strikes any believer who goes to Britain today is the sheer absence of Christian faith in the national consciousness.  Churches all over Team GB are shells of what they once were.  The decline began in the 19th century, when many attended church as a moral commitment instead of a spiritual one.  Secularization and anti-Christian sentiment gradually increased, crowding out and marginalizing those with a discernable Biblical worldview.

Sound familiar?  Team USA has been arriving at a similar spiritual place for some time now.  But our god is the God of hope and second chances, both now and in the past.

In 1904 at Seth Joshua’s “God Meeting” in Blaenanerch, Wales, the spirit of God fell on a 26-year old man named Evan Roberts.  God told him to begin to cry out, and that’s what he did: “Bend me!  Bend me!  Bend me!  Bend us, oh Lord.”  After that, eyewitnesses recall that the Holy Spirit came upon the people with power that figuratively shook the congregation to its core.

The great Welsh Revival had begun.

Evan Roberts preached “The Four Great Tenets,” and they seem as appropriate for us today as they were for the unrevived Welsh church in 1904.  He implored every Christian to:

  1. Confess all known sin.
  2. Deal with and get rid of anything ‘doubtful’ in your life.
  3. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly.
  4. Confess Christ publicly.

For me, this is Britain’s real olympian legacy…a legacy from men like Evan Roberts, C.H. Spurgeon and William Carey.  It’s a legacy of great movements of spiritual revival and renewal.

There is an opening for genuine revival in our own land at the start of the 21st century, just as God moved among Welsh believers at the beginning of the last century.  We have two roads before us: turn, listen and wait for the Holy Spirit’s voice of revival, or continue down the road of spiritual obligation, complacency and increasing irrelevance.

It’s time to seize the day.  Evan Roberts’ four points seem like a good place to start.