The Key to Leaving Work at Work

By Ronne Rock

• Print Version

“It’s time we started making our lessons unforgettable.”

I have a short list of confessions to make as I write this article on work/life balance.
• I believe balance is overrated and rather boring. A perfectly balanced see-saw doesn’t go anywhere. We are incomplete without the ups and downs of circumstances. We learn to lean in, to share strength with others, to trust, to breathe. God reveals Himself fully in the ups and downs. He is our balance.
• I know there are seasons in every life that are “all-in” moments where extra amounts of grace are extended, extra reserves of energy are discovered and extra helpings of caffeine are welcomed.
• I am a workaholic who comes from a long line of workaholics. My grandfather neglected time with his family because “things just needed tending.” My dad found solace in alcohol and prescription drugs to deal with the stress of “never enough time to do it all.” I was diagnosed with anxiety disorder almost two decades ago, in the midst of one of the most successful chapters of my career. For me, every season was an “all-in” out-of-control rodeo ride on that see-saw.
• I’m writing this while sitting in a recliner in my flannel pajamas. I no longer work in a traditional office setting, and working from home definitely has its benefits. But leaving work at work becomes even more challenging when it lives with you.
Search Google for “time management tips” and you’ll see 365 MILLION possibilities. No matter the vocation, finding ways of doing good with our lives while we do good with our hands is something we all long for. Mind you, I’m still learning. But there are a few things I’ve discovered along the way—including the key to keeping work at work.
Time. It can be such a threatening word in a world that never seems to have enough of it. One of my favorite ways to make the most of the days I’ve been given is to use my calendar for more than scheduling meetings and project deadlines. I make appointments with myself, blocking time for strategizing and goal-setting, reading and research, and tackling administrative tasks. I even block time to simply enjoy time with others—to catch up with colleagues over coffee or to serve someone in need. I’ve found that the task list seems to get done when it’s transformed into bite-sized chunks on a calendar. The focus moves from “there’s so much to do” to “this is what I’m going to focus on right now.”
Focus. It’s a great word, and it’s something thwarted by things like anxiety and stress. The calendar is one way to help with the focus. But there’s something else I’ve found that helps me rightly focus the day before that calendar chirps its first appointment. My day begins with worship. Most mornings I’ll read scripture, journal my thoughts and spend time in honest, gut-level prayer. I’ll admit, there are some days the prayers are happening in the shower and the scripture is a Bethel Music song on the radio. Quiet time isn’t a revolutionary thought at all, I know. But it’s often the first thing that’s pushed to the side when the days are full—and all those around us feel the impact of that sacrifice.
Sacrifice. It was that word that jarred me to my core as I sat in the doctor’s office and heard the words, “You are not OK.” I thought about my husband and son, about my family and friends. I thought about the staff that trusted me to lead them, about people who trusted me to serve them. And I thought about God—the very One I had said was my Lord and my Guide. For every “what” I was willing to sacrifice to do everything well while never having enough time to get it all done, there was a “who.” My own unwillingness to leave work at work caused everyone around me to carry the load. My own all-in, out-of-control rodeo ride revealed my disregard for others. I thought about my heritage, and the history I didn’t want to repeat.
So I learned—and am learning—to invite others to ride on that see-saw with me, to help me lean in and share strength and trust and breathe. I have a trusted group of souls who ask the hard questions about my focus and my time. I ask permission rather than forgiveness of those who are closest to me in the necessary seasons of all-in. And I’m embracing the power of confession from James 5:16: “Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results.”

How to Enjoy Deeper Intimacy With God

By Jon Bloom

Provided by

• Print Version

“Intimacy with God often occurs in the places where we must trust him most.”

Intimacy with God is available to you. It is as accessible to you as God’s promises. And God’s invitation to you to enjoy intimate fellowship with him is that thing that is putting your faith to the test more than anything else (James 1:2–4).

The Heart of Intimacy

Intimacy is what we call the experience of really knowing and being known by another person. We frequently use spatial language when describing this experience. An intimate friend is someone we feel very close to; they know us at a deep level. If something happens that damages the intimacy with our friend, they feel distant from us. Or a person who doesn’t know us intimately knows us at a superficial level.
But of course intimacy is not spatial but relational. We all know what it’s like to be sitting right next to a person with whom we feel distant and we can feel close to a person who is four thousand miles away.
What makes us feel intimate with another person? While there are many ingredients to intimacy and each intimate relationship we have has a different recipe, common to all of them is trust. We cannot be intimate with a person we don’t trust.
Trust is at the heart of intimacy. The more we trust someone, the closer we let them get to us. The degree to which trust is compromised in a relationship is the degree to which intimacy evaporates.

The Heart of Intimacy With God

This is as true in our relationship with God as it is in our relationships with other human beings. Our experience of God’s nearness or distance is not a description of his actual proximity to us but of our experience of intimacy with him. Scripture shows us that God is intimate with those who trust him. The more we trust God, the more intimately we come to know him. A felt distance from God is often due to a disruption in trust, such as a sin or disappointment.
This reality is vitally important to understand. As Christians, we want to experience intimacy with God. With the psalmist we say, “For me it is good to be near God” (Psalm 73:28). And we want to heed James’ exhortation and realize its promise: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). But we can seek that nearness in ways that don’t produce it.

Intimacy Is More Than Knowledge

One common mistake is thinking that nearness to God can be achieved through knowledge accumulation. Now, of course to intimately know God we must know crucial things about God. Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32), and he pointed out that many worship what they do not know (John 4:22).
But never in the history of the Christian church has so much theological knowledge been available to so many people as it is today. The American church enjoys perhaps the greatest amount of this abundance. We are awash in Bible translations, good books, insightful articles, recorded sermons, interviews, movies, documentaries, music and more. And much of it is very good. It is right for us to be very thankful.
But America is not abounding in Enochs (or finding them frequently disappearing), saints who walk with God in a profoundly intimate way (Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5). Why? Because knowledge is not synonymous with trust. That’s why Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day, some who possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture:
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39–40)
Biblical knowledge is far better than gold when it fuels our trust in God, because it fuels our intimacy with God (Psalm 19:10). But when biblical knowledge replaces our trust in God, it only fuels our pride (1 Corinthians 8:1).

Why Aesthetic Experiences Fail

Another common mistake is trying to achieve intimacy with God through subjective aesthetic experiences. We might call it a “Field of Dreams” approach: If we build the right environment, God will “come.”
Some pursue this in high liturgical environments designed to inspire an experience of transcendence and mystery. Others pursue it in contemporary worship events designed to inspire an experience of immanence. Others chase revivals, thinking that proximity to God’s power will result in proximity to God. If we truly trust God, such environments can encourage our intimacy with God. But none of them inherently possesses the power to conjure God’s nearness to us.
Think of it like this: A candle-lit dinner with romantic music may encourage a sweet moment of relational intimacy between a husband and wife, but only to the degree that the environment encourages and deepens their mutual trust and love. If there’s relational distance between them due to a lack of trust, the aesthetics themselves have no power to bridge the distance. Only restoring the trust will do that.

How We Draw Near to God

The secret to drawing near to God and having him draw near to us is revealed clearly in the Bible: We draw near to God through faith in Christ who alone gives us access to him (Hebrews 4:14–16, 7:25, Philippians 3:9), and we put our trust in all of his “precious and very great promises” which find their yes to us in Christ (2 Peter 1:4, 2 Corinthians 1:20).
God is impressed with our faith, not our feats. Where faith is lacking, he is not pleased with the quantity of our knowledge or the quality of our aesthetic events.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
When God sees a man or woman whose heart fully trusts his promises and lives by them, God comes to strongly support that saint (2 Chronicles 16:9) and manifests himself to him or her:
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21)

God’s Invitation to Intimacy

God wants intimacy with you. Christ has done all the hard work in the cross to make it possible. All he requires is that you believe in him (John 14:1). He wants you to trust him with all your heart (Proverbs 3:5).
Which means his invitation to you to enjoy intimacy with him is the providences in your life that are testing your faith more than anything else. What you must trust God most for right now is where he means for you to draw closer to him.
It is likely an invitation that your flesh wants to decline. But as you read your Bible, do not the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) all agree with James and Peter that the greatest testing of faith is the path to the greatest joy (James 1:2–4, 1 Peter 1:8–9)? And do they not agree with Paul that it is not worth comparing to the joy of knowing Christ and the coming glory (Philippians 3:8; Romans 8:18)?
Intimacy with God often occurs in the places where we must trust him most. Heaven on earth is the inexpressible joy and the peace that surpasses understanding that comes from trusting God wholly (Philippians 4:6–7). For, as the old hymn writer said, “they who trust him wholly find him wholly true. 

Why You Should Prioritize Keeping Your Church Young

By Dan Reiland

• Print Version

“The vision of the church must capture young people and be compelling to older generations.”

Churches age and churches die. But intentional leadership can make that divine journey significantly longer and much more spiritually productive. There are several things you can do to help keep your church young, alive and vibrant even though the chronological aging process continues.
This post isn’t about an ecclesiastical fountain of youth. However, I believe “aging” can pivot to “maturing” by making a few key decisions and commitments toward keeping your church young.

Hire young staff.

Mature staff are extremely valuable on your team. Their experience is needed for successful ministry. However, the absence of young staff, lots of young staff, is a decision to allow your church to age unnecessarily.
Some churches don’t like to hire young staff. It’s messy. Young staff lack experience, I know. But young staff will keep things alive and fun. Young staff are also full of energy and great ideas; they help you stay relevant with current culture and vision for the future.

Place a premium on children’s ministry.

When I say premium, I mean top dollars, top staff and top energy for the kids. Without this you are absolutely capping your ability to reach your community.
Please don’t confuse relevant ministry to children with childcare. They aren’t the same. In order to reach kids you need to keep up with the world they live in. That world is fast-paced and built around technology. When you add to that mix loving adult leaders who truly care about children, you create a winning program that the kids will love.

Design your Sunday morning service with a relevant feel.

What is and isn’t young and relevant is subjective. But the big issues are clear. First, choose your music wisely. If you are still singing and playing the stuff we did in the ’90s, it’s time to freshen up what you do.
Second, involve young leaders on the platform. The young musicians and singers will lead you to younger music and a younger vibe overall. Again, this attracts young people to your church! If you are thinking, “What about the older people, don’t they matter?” Of course they do. I am one, and I can still make a difference. But we should be more mature. We know that this is not about us; the mission is to reach the lost, and if you reach the next gen, other generations will follow.
Last, make sure all the components of the service reflect a young culture. As you think about humor, video, illustrations, art and especially technology, think young.
Again, if you focus on a younger crowd, the older generations with join in. If you lean toward older, the young will leave.

Invest in the next generation.

Raise up and train young leaders, invest in student ministries and champion the call to vocational ministry among your young adults. Communicate that you believe in the next gen! They are the future!
The vision of the church must capture the young people, and at the same time be compelling enough that older generations get excited about the vision in such a way that they will invest both time and resources. Let’s face it, middle-aged and older generations have no trouble loving and believing in kids; just watch a grandparent with their grandchildren!

How to Stay Christian in College

By David Mathis

Provided by

• Print Version

Your students need to know they can keep the faith even after they leave your ministry.

They call it “the bubble.” It’s the perception that your campus, however big or small, college or seminary, is cozily quarantined off from the surrounding world. Life is different when you’re safe “in the bubble.” At least for now, you’re protected from the real world and the suffocating responsibilities that being an “adult” will one day bring.
True, the realities of campus life and being a full-time student often produce a sense of disconnectedness from society. College and grad students aren’t always the sharpest on keeping up with what’s happening outside the bubble.
But while there may be some truth to the bubble experience, it can be unhelpfully deceptive and give way to a crippling lie: that campus life isn’t real life. My race hasn’t started yet. School is just a scrimmage; the real thing begins after graduation. This is one of the most important myths to dispel for the Christian student.

Pop the Bubble

After living four years “in the bubble” as an undergraduate, then working on staff with a college ministry for four more, taking graduate courses, and now interacting with students about How to Stay Christian in Seminary, one of the most important lessons I’ve learned personally, and am eager to pass along to full-time students, is this: Pop the bubble.
Don’t believe the lie that life really hasn’t begun because you’re a full-time student. Don’t think that what you do, or don’t do, on campus won’t affect the trajectory of the rest of your life and bring consequences that can be hard to shake. In particular, don’t give yourself a pass on the normal Christian life because “this is a special season” that somehow makes you immune to temptation, demonic attack and the deep deceitfulness remaining in your own heart.
If you’re a student full-time, it is a special season for growth—for study, for developing habits of mind and heart that will benefit you, and others, for a lifetime. It is a springboard to lifelong learning, not one long last day of recess. Be vigilant to protect class and study time, within reason; if God’s call on your life for now is to be a student, embrace his call and don’t squander this season of preparation for a life of need-meeting.
But it is vital to fight the instinct to think of ourselves as exceptional. That we’re exempt from saturating our lives in the word of God, or continually availing ourselves of his ear in prayer, or genuinely belonging to his body in a local church. You are not a student first, but ten thousand times a Christian first.
And in Christianity, there are no holding patterns, no pauses or time-outs, no respites from everyday soul-care. No bubbles. Today always matters (Psalm 95:7; Hebrews 3:13). The risen Christ is ever on his throne. Satan is always scheming. And your heart is never in neutral, but either getting hotter or colder. This “special season” of life is way too special (and normal) to give yourself a pass on Jesus, his gospel or his church.

This Is Real Life

It’s important to hear that the life of a student is not a retreat from real life; it is real life. Real faith, real holiness, real warmth and softness of heart, real relationships, real eternity lie in the balance. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “There is no such thing as a holiday in the spiritual realm.”
The secret to “staying Christian” as a student, whether at a secular college or a Christian seminary, is that there’s no real secret. It’s just ordinary, everyday, world-transforming Christianity. The key to staying Christian in any season of life, any place on the planet, any time in history is simply this: being a Christian today. Hearts don’t harden all at once, but a day at a time.
There’s a sense in which it can be even more dangerous for the Bible and seminary student than for the student at a secular university. If the gospel is the aroma of life to life, and death to death, then studying theology is either the fast-track to sanctification or to condemnation (2 Corinthians 2:15–16), to increasing faith or diminishing belief.
But what’s true in the incubator of Bible college is true as well on the secular campus. All things were created in, through and for Jesus (Colossians 1:16). Every course of study is about Jesus, if we only have the eyes to see. And “he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). Biology, physics, business, chemistry, communications, literature, medicine, philosophy and political science will either draw you nearer to Jesus or pull you farther from him.

Your Most Important Homework

Heart-work, said Puritan great John Flavel, is the “one great business of a Christian’s life.” If you are a Christian, your most important homework (and classwork, for that matter) is heart-work. The life of the student is cognitively demanding, but we should relentlessly labor to make our mind-work serve our heart-work.
And we do so, not leaning on our own understanding and resources, but with the wind of the Holy Spirit in our sails. Staying Christian in college, seminary or any other season of life means expending energy to “keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21). And that is the very thing he stands ready to do for and through us: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling” (Jude 24). 

The Bali 9, Executed As They Sang 10,000 Reasons

Posted by Craig Borlase on 27 January 2016 | 3 Comments

Tags: Devotional, global

Forget winning two Grammy Awards and a stint at the top of the Billboard Christian Songs chart, 10,000 Reasons is a song that made the news recently for an even more surprising reason.
On April 29th 2015, eight convicted drugs traffickers were executed in a maximum-security prison on Nusa Kambangan, Indonesia. Having been sentenced to death years earlier, they were given just a few days’ notice of their execution.
But the long years in prison had changed them. Seven had become Christians, "By all accounts,” wrote Brian Houston (Senior Pastor, Hillsong) of two of the Australians in the group, “[they] have not only accepted the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, but have also rehabilitated themselves to be upstanding members of the prison system… Even in jail they have made a positive contribution to the lives of other prisoners, and sought to pay their debt to society.”
And so they died as they had learned to live: praising God. They sang hymns like Amazing Grace in their final hours and refused to wear blindfolds as they faced the firing squad. And as the final seconds of their lives counted down, they started to sing a new song: 10,000 Reasons.
“It was breathtaking,” said Pastor Karina De Vega who was assigned to counsel one of the men. “This was the first time I witnessed someone so excited to meet their God.”
For Matt Redman, co-writer of 10,000 Reasons, hearing the news had a profound affect.
“I felt majorly encouraged that this little song had found its way out there. But I also thought ‘how astounding an example of worship is that?’ When people call someone like me a worship leader it’s almost a joke compared to people facing a loaded gun and still singing out to Jesus.
“It made me realise that you can face anything in this life and still sing a song of worship on your lips. Anything.
“And it reminded me that these songs have a habit of showing up in the most unlikely of places. We’ve heard story after story of that song helping people, and about 15 different people have told me how they were asked to play it to a loved one as they died. It puts things back into perspective. Keeps it all centred and level.”
10,000 Reasons had an unlikely beginning. “If it had been up to me the song wouldn’t have been on the album. That’s the most brilliant thing of all. Jonas Myrin had a bit of melody and we wrote the song really quick, but I still thought it was a bit folky and didn’t know if it was finished  - there’s no pre-chorus, no bridge, and I thought it might also be a bit too “hymny” for the record! But when we played it to Nathan [Nockels, the producer] he said ‘I don’t care what we’re dropping from the album, that song’s going on’. That was when I first had an inkling that that there was something to this song.
“It goes to show that I don’t really know anything at the end of the day! But I like it like that. It’s good.”

Super Bowl QB Cam Newton counts a Godly heritage, exhibits uneven path to glory

Super Bowl QB Cam Newton counts a Godly heritage, exhibits uneven path to glory

By Mark Ellis and Robert Ashcraft, Special to ASSIST News Service

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (February 1, 2016) -- When Carolina Panthers Quarterback Cam Newton walked away relatively unscathed from a horrible accident that rolled his truck in December 2014, he offered praise to God.

“Somebody had His good hands on me,” Newton told reporters. “One plus one always equals two. I’m looking at this truck. I’m looking at this accident, and I’m like dude, one plus one ain’t equaling two, because I’m looking at this truck, and I’m like, somebody is supposed to be dead. Me being a religious person, God is good. I’m lucky to be standing in front of you today.”

Newton, arguably the NFL’s greatest player of 2015-16 and a Super Bowl contender, is on top of the world. Passing for 400 yards in his debut game in 2012, he bested Peyton Manning’s passing record of 280 yards in Manning’s first regular season game. This year, the Panthers are 15-1. His dual threat capabilities crushed the Arizona Cardinals 49-15 in the NFC finals.

But while his professional trajectory seemed to sail through the air on heaven’s wings, things in his personal life have not always gone so well. He was hounded by an NCAA investigation for receiving payment to enroll at college, and he was accused of stealing a laptop at Auburn University. As a pro, he met and began to live with ex-stripper Kia Proctor.

Newton had grown up with God. His father, Cecil Newton, is a bishop overseeing five Pentecostal churches in Georgia.

But the intoxicating power of riding atop the sports world may have caused a momentarily lapse from his humble, God-fearing roots. After the accident left him shaken, he received a none-too-subtle reminder about his need for God.

On that fateful day, he was negotiating a confusing intersection in Charlotte when another car slammed into the rear side of his black pickup truck and sent it rolling. He clambered out the back cabin window, and paramedics took him to the hospital where doctors treated him for minor fractures in his lower back.

He only missed one game as a result of the accident.

“I am a prime example of how God can turn something that was bad into something that good,” Newton said after the crash.

Photo captions: 1) Cam Newton in action. 2) Mark Ellis.

MORE 

About the writers: Mark Ellis is senior correspondent for the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net), and also founder of www.GodReports.com, a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church around the world. He is also co-host for “Windows on the World” with ANS founder, Dan Wooding, on the Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network (http://hsbn.tv). Robert Ashcraft is a student at the Lighthouse Christian Academy in Santa Monica, California.

** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net).

Freedom in Grief, Not Freedom From Grief

By Jason Tippetts

• Print Version

“Giving freedom means letting go of expectations and allowing new norms to form and take root.”

As Kara’s and my story has been shared with so many people, I have received many emails and messages asking how to walk through grief in a healthy way—some are losing a wife, a child, some are wanting to help their friends in their grief, and some are running away from it and want to stop. I don’t have great answers, but I thought I would just share some things I’ve learned as I’ve traveled this journey.
These are simply my thoughts; I could be wrong or immature, but this is the fruit of my grief at this point.

One thing that has been so valuable in this season is people giving me freedom to create my own path of grief. I imagine that some in my close community have struggled with this. Giving freedom means letting go of expectations and allowing new norms to form and take root. It is common and helpful for people to watch for unhealthy paths of grief. But make sure in your watching, you are first loving. I appreciate my friends who have helped me evaluate these paths, but I also appreciate the freedom I have been given.
Our culture would like to explain the grief process as a dot on a line: safe, controlled, progressing at a “normal” pace. For me, a better illustration is a framed window. I can live and move within this large space where the border is framed not by cultural expectations (e.g., You will be better in six months) or personal expectations (e.g., You need a hobby to fill your mind), but by asking, How does an emotionally healthy person live?
It seems that we will deal with grief the way we deal with common issues in life; meaning, you will not likely be a completely different person. If you are quiet and reflective, you will probably grieve that way. Kara and I communicated a lot. We enjoyed discussing life together; it was just how we operated. So now in my grief without her, I have to talk and communicate my process and questions to someone else.
Don’t expect someone who is generally more reserved to want to talk through all the facets of grief. Walking along the grief takes a level of relational warmth. Pay attention to how they operate and allow them to grieve in a way that is helpful to them;  remember—it may not be helpful to you, but they are the ones whose lives have been changed in every single aspect.
In the same vein, don’t expect someone who is not usually emotional to be really emotional in grief. They may or may not; let them decide and give them the space to choose. Allow them to frame their own window of healthy grief.

Don’t be afraid to bring up their loss. A loss is inescapable and constantly on their mind, so give them the opportunity to talk or not talk. Don’t fear making them sad: They are sad already. Acknowledging their loss is better than ignoring it and hoping they will bring it up. If you want to open the door for them, you could say something like, I imagine your days are an emotional rollercoaster. Making statements of care that allow the grief stricken to answer, long or short, is a wonderful way to notice them and validate their grief. Be graciously inquisitive and engaging, but not demanding. At the core of grief is the missing of a person, a relationship and a future no longer available.

I mentioned relational warmth; this is a quality that we all appreciate in friends. It is the ability to be selfless, gracious and peaceful—all while giving the griever the freedom to be none of these—and assuring them you will still love them and they are safe with you.

Jill and Kara write about this in Just Show Up. This book is not specific to walking with someone in grief but just walking with someone in the hard parts of their life. The first step in any relationship is to notice them and then to move toward them.

Walking toward someone takes a lot of selflessness and sympathy, love, a tender heart, and a humble mind (I Peter 3:8). These attributes are helpful to focus on as you give freedom to the grieving. But we need to remember there is no secret formula—sometimes our efforts are received, and sometimes they are not. And that’s OK. What is valuable is engaging someone without expectation that they will be who you want them to be and grieve how you want them to grieve. Love them by giving them this freedom.

Have you ever laid expectations on someone who is grieving and felt at a loss when their grief did not meet that expectation? How did you love them at that point? Is there someone in your life—church, school, work, neighborhood—who is grieving? How can you move toward them in kindness, offering freedom and safety? Maybe you are the one who is grieving. What does your grief process look like? Is it a dot on a line? A framed window? Something else? What has been particularly helpful to you? Has someone loved you well in your grief?