Posted on

(Un)Common Sense

How To Develop Your EQ

SYNOPSIS: There are plenty of people in every age, including this one, who don’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain. They’re not stupid, mind you. Some are even very intelligent, well educated, and in some respects, quite successful people. IQ is not the problem; it’s EQ—they lack emotional intelligence: They don’t do very well in relationships, mismanage emotions, lack impulse control, fail to master delayed gratification, and habitually steer into the ditch with decision-making. But you don’t have to be one of those, because the Bible promises that God grants a treasure of common sense to those who are honest, live out integrity, display fairness, and are faithful to him.

Article: Uncommon Sense

Moments With God // Proverbs 2:7

Lord grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.

The 18th-century French philosopher Voltaire wrote, “Common sense is not so common.” I wonder if he was thinking of our age when he offered that social critique. Probably not! My guess is that every age could claim that title.

Unfortunately, common sense has rarely been all that common.

The thing is, there are people aplenty in every age, including ours, who don’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain. They’re not stupid, mind you. Some are even very intelligent, well educated, and in some respects, quite successful people. IQ is not the problem; it’s EQ—they lack emotional intelligence.

These are people who don’t do very well in their relationships, mismanage their emotions, lack impulse control, have not mastered delayed gratification, and habitually steer right into the ditch in their decision-making. Again, they lack common sense.

Do you know anyone like that? I’m sure you do; images are probably flooding your mind right now! So how about you? How’s your EQ? In reality, there’s not a whole lot you can do about how others do life, but you can work on your own emotional intelligence. How? Go to God. That’s what Proverbs 2:6 says:

For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

That’s where you start. The Bible says God is quite liberal in doling out wisdom to those who lack it and are willing to ask him for it. James 1:5-8,

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

Now, asking alone doesn’t guarantee a continual supply of Divine wisdom. God expects your cooperation in the attainment of emotional intelligence. The very next verse, Proverbs 2:7 says,

Lord grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.

That means the spigot to God’s wisdom will stay fully open to you if you will walk in honesty—with others, with yourself, and with the Lord, and if you will walk in integrity—the congruence of what you believe and how you behave. Furthermore, Proverbs 2:8 adds that God expects you to treat others fairly and to walk faithfully before him,

He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him.

As those conditions are met—honesty, integrity, fairness, faithfulness—the Lord himself has promised to not only give you wisdom but to wrap you protectively in that wisdom. Among other things, and most importantly, that means his wisdom displayed in you will protect you even from yourself.

I like what George Barnard Shaw said: “Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.” When enough of God’s wisdom gets absorbed in your core to where common sense becomes your natural response to all of life, you will be known on earth and celebrated in heaven for the best kind of genius—your uncommon sense.

Take A Moment: For the next seven days, discipline yourself to stop before every decision, every response to people, and every emotional reaction to first ask, “what would wisdom have me to do?” Then do it. It might be clumsy at first but stick with it until good sense becomes common for you.

Posted on

You’re Worth It

For the Joy Set Before Him

SYNOPSIS: Hebrews 12:2 says, “For the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross, scorning its shame.” What was the “joy” that so motivated him to go through such a humiliating, torturous death? It was you! As he hung between heaven and earth, he saw that one day you would stand with him as one of the redeemed before his Father’s throne. Yes, the cross, with all its suffering and shame, was worth it to Jesus because you’re worth it to Jesus!

Moments With God // Mark 15:24

Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross.

Mark’s account of the betrayal, arrest, trial, suffering, and crucifixion of Jesus is moving beyond words. As you read in the paragraph below his description of what Jesus went through, I would encourage you to remember that Jesus didn’t have to go through pain, shame, and suffering of the cross.

But he did—and the reason was you.

The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment. They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified. (Mark 15:16-20)

Trumped up charges, the mockery of a trial, public humiliation, mental and physical torture and rejection — the Second Person of the Trinity, the Agent of Creation, the Messiah of God’s chosen people — suffered beyond description at the hands of the people he loved. Yet he chose to endure it. Why? He did it for you! Hebrews 12:2 says,

For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame.

What was the “joy” that so motivated Jesus to go through such a humiliating, torturous death? I am convinced, my friend, that you were the joy Jesus saw as he hung there on the cross. And when he saw that you would one day stand with him as one of the redeemed before his Father’s throne, his heart swelled even as the life drained from his body, and he said, “it’s worth it!”

All the suffering and humiliation of the cross was worth it to Jesus, because you’re worth it!

Take A Moment: Just take a minute before you do anything else today and offer your heartfelt thanks to God yet again for what he did by placing Jesus on the cross in your stead.

Posted on

Doing Life Well

Make the “Fear of the Lord” the Center and the Circumference of Your Life

SYNOPSIS: Whether you are doing life as a parent, or you are simply doing life as a child of God, remember that holiness is a far better attribute than happiness and the fear of God outshines feeling good every time. So, learn to lean into the Lord’s discipline, and help your children to embrace it, too. Put wisdom at the top of your wish list—for you and them. And if you desire for you and yours to do life well, make “the fear of the Lord” the center and the circumference of your home.

Make “The Fear of the Lord” The Center and the Circumference of Your Life

Moments With God // Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

“You ignorant outfit!” If I heard that scathing remark from my red-faced-vein-in-the-forehead-about-to-explode father once when I was growing up, I heard it a couple dozen times. Obviously, my childhood home wasn’t one of those touchy-feely places where mom and dad gave a whole lot of thought to my self-esteem. They were determined not to produce an offspring who turned out to be a fool—someone who is, as the Bible defines it, morally deficient.

The older I get, the more I appreciate their old-school approach. As columnist George Will writes,

“Modern parents want to nurture so skillfully that Mother Nature will gasp in admiration at the marvels their parenting produces from the soft clay of children.”

Not my parents; they were more concerned that one day I would stand before God, at which point all three of us—dad, mom, and child—would hear, “well done, good and faithful servants.”

Whether you are doing life as a parent, or you are simply doing life as a child of God, remember that holiness is a far better attribute than happiness and the fear of God outshines feeling good every time. So, learn to lean into the Lord’s discipline, and help your children to embrace it, too. Put wisdom at the top of your wish list—for you and them. And if you desire for you and yours to do life well, make “the fear of the Lord” the center and the circumference of your home. Solomon said it this way in Proverbs 1:7,

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

My friend, the fear of the Lord is what enables us to do life courageously, confidently and flourishingly well—and by the way, it’s the only way that produces the kind of esteem worth having: Not self-esteem but God’s esteem!

Take A Moment: Find an opportunity as soon as possible to talk with your children about 1), what the fear of the Lord really is, and 2) the important distinction between eternal holiness and temporal happiness.

Posted on

Reaching the “Ethne”

A Clear and Compelling Mission to Reach the Unreached

Missiologist Christopher J. H. Wright states, “It is not that God has a mission for his church in the world but that God has a church for his mission in the world. Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission.”

Reaching the Ethne

That is a clear and compelling call to get on mission with God.

And just what is God’s mission? It is the establishment of God’s glorious rule over a redeemed creation. Therefore, that is your mission, your church’s mission, and the mission of Petros Network, too. That is why we exist.

Now, God has called Petros Network to particularly focus its mission on reaching the 3.2 billion people on the planet who have never heard the gospel before. Our vision is to plant gospel preaching churches within walking distance of every unreached person in the world. For sure, that is a lofty, if not impossible goal, but it is our goal, nonetheless.

You see, we passionately believe that where a person is born should not limit their access to Jesus and the blessings of his kingdom. For that reason, we have established our missiology upon taking the gospel of the kingdom to each of the world’s 7,200 unreached ethnic groups.

In fact, we believe it is these unreached people groups to which Jesus is referring when he said,

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations [Greek: panta ta Ethne], and then the end will come” (Matt 24:14).

In this series of video blogs, we want to lay out that missiology in such a compelling way that you and your church will embrace it as your own as well.  Thank you for taking a moment to watch this brief introductory video that makes the case for reaching the unreached.

Posted on

What Does God Look Like?

Just look at Jesus

SYNOPSIS: No one has ever seen God and lived to tell about it. But if you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen God. Colossians 1:15 & 19 tell us, “Jesus is the image of the invisible God … For in Jesus all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” In Jesus, God has identified with you so you can identify with Him. In Jesus, God has come near to you so you can come near to God. In Jesus, God has made a way for you to live before Him with complete confidence and daring prayerfulness. In Jesus, you get a live demonstration of what God is like. That means today, even at this very moment, you can experience all of God through Jesus. How? Simply and confidently “come boldly to the throne of your gracious God, and there you will receive His mercy and you will find His grace to help you when you need it most.” (Heb 4:16)

New Article: What God Is Like

Moments With God // Mark 10:13-14

One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.”

What does God look like? No human being has ever seen him and lived to tell about it. So we are left to wonder.

I love the story of the little girl who was drawing a picture when her mother asked, “Honey, what are you drawing?” Quite confidently, the little girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God!” The mother reminded her that no one really knows what God looks like. To which the little girl said, “They will when I get done.”

In Jesus’ day, the people of Israel had never seen God. They only knew of him from their wooden rituals, vacuous traditions, and misguided theologies. They had no visible clue as to what God was like, but Jesus came along and said, “They will when I get done.”

So what does God looks like? Just look at Jesus. The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 1:15, “Jesus is the image of the invisible God.” Verse 19 says, “For in Jesus all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

In other words, when you see Jesus, you’re seeing God himself. Jesus is the perfect picture of God; the absolutely accurate image of the Father. Jesus is the invisible God made visible.

So what does watching Jesus tell us about God here in Mark 10? Well, how does God feel about your marriage? Just look at Jesus telling the Pharisees, “What God has joined together let not man separate.” (Mark 10:9)

How does God feel about your children? Just look at Jesus gathering up a bunch of kids in his arms and saying, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.” (Mark 10:14)

How does God feel about your struggle to let go of earthly dependencies? Just look at Jesus’ interaction with the rich young ruler: “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” (Mark 10:21)

How does God feel about your competitiveness with others? Just look at Jesus saying to his disciples, “Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.” (Mark 10:44)

How does God feel about the things you care about? Just look at Jesus asking blind Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51)

What is God like? What does he look like? How does he feel about you? Just take a look at Jesus—it will really encourage you. Take a moment just to drink in what Hebrews 4:15 (The Message) has to say about it:

In Jesus, we don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

In Jesus, God has identified with us so we can identify with him. In Jesus, God has come near to us so we can come near to God. In Jesus, God has made a way for us to live before him with complete confidence and daring prayerfulness—we can “come boldly to the throne of our gracious God, and there we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

Wow! In Jesus, we get a live demonstration of what God is like. And that’s a good deal for us way beyond description!

Take A Moment: Offer this prayer of gratitude that God has revealed himself to you by his Son, Jesus Christ: “Father, thank you for making yourself known to me in Jesus. And thank you for making a way through Jesus for me to come into your presence to receive the mercy and find the grace that I need to make it through this day in victorious fashion.”

Posted on

Unholy Fire

God, Make Me Holy

SYNOPSIS: Thankfully, we live in an era where God, in his grace and mercy, has made a way through Jesus for us to approach his throne with confidence and boldness. Jesus, our High Priest who ever lives to intercede for us, bore in his body the brunt of God’s holy wrath for our sin and our perpetual un-holiness. And by his sacrifice, we can stand before God and not be consumed. Thank God, by Christ’s blood, we are made holy.

Unholy Fire

Moments With God // Leviticus 10:1-3

Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown. Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Moses then said to Aaron, ‘This is what the LORD spoke of when he said: “Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.” Aaron remained silent.

I imagine if we had been front-row witnesses to this terrifying scene, we would have done as Aaron did: Nothing! He couldn’t speak. All he could do was stand there in stunned silence, trying to comprehend what had just happened to his sons. Imagine in the twinkling of an eye seeing your loved ones incinerated by the holiness of God. Imagine trying to come to terms with a loving God who had just revealed his holiness in the most dreadful way imaginable; who had just demonstrated in reality what he had been warning his people about verbally: not to take his holiness lightly.

As I read this story I realize how much I long to behold the glory of the Lord—but only on my terms. However, this sobering story makes me wonder if could I really ever gaze upon God’s holiness and not experience the Nadab and Abihu effect. I seriously doubt it. This cautionary tale is an unforgettable and sad reminder that God is holy and demands holiness from his people—especially from those who minister before him in particular as representatives of his presence to his people.

Not only is it a sad reminder, but it is also an unforgettable reminder: We must not take God lightly or treat the holy as common. To anyone who saw what happened to these two priests, this would be an object lesson they would never forget. When God chooses to make a point, he truly makes a point!

Thankfully, we live in an era where God, in his grace and mercy, has made a way that through Jesus we can approach his throne with confidence and boldness. (Hebrews 4:16) Jesus is our High Priest who ever lives to intercede for us. As our priestly representative, he bore in his own body the brunt of God’s holy wrath for our sin and our perpetual un-holiness. And by his sacrifice, we can stand before God and not be consumed. By his blood, we are saved. By his stripes, we are healed.

God help us, short of the Nadab and Abihu experience, to never forget the undeserved privilege of knowing Jesus and the inexpressible honor of being the receiving end of his sacrifice when he was made our sin offering. God made a point in Jesus’ death, and what an unforgettable point it was!

Now even though through Christ’s substitutionary death we are invited to come boldly into God’s holy presence, let us temper our confidence before God’s throne with humble gratitude that we are standing in a place that in all reality should seal our death sentence to receive grace instead of fire. We don’t deserve to be there; we deserve the punishment of Nadab and Abihu. Yet through Jesus, we are declared holy and thereby approach the throne of a holy God as his holy people.

Truthfully, for reasons polar opposite of Aaron’s, all I can do is stand before God in stunned silence—but not in terror and grief, but in thankfulness and gratitude.

Take A Moment: Holiness is a very big deal to God. Though he may not deal with our un-holiness the same way he did with Nadab and Abihu, thankfully, it is no less important to him that we walk before him as his holy people. Here is a prayer that I am offering today—you may want to join me in it: “Almighty God, you are holy. That’s what the angels around your throne cry day and night; the citizens of heaven who fall before your throne offer up a continual cry of “holy”. The essence of your being is holiness. But I confess, I don’t come close to comprehending your holiness; I take it for granted; I affirm it in the “Christian-ese” that I have learned to speak. But I really don’t get it. Father, help me to develop a greater appreciation for the truth, “Among those who approach me, I will show myself holy.” I am aware that I tolerate some unholy things in my life—and I want to rid myself of those—but I’m also sure there are some things I don’t even realize that are unholy. I suspect that Nadab and Abihu didn’t deliberately violate their calling—most likely they were just too casual in approaching you. I don’t want to be too casual, to treat sin lightly, to take my relationship with you and my calling to stand as a priest before you flippantly. Father, teach me to be holy; destroy in me anything that could destroy me. Purify me and make me holy to the highest degree in my daily, hourly, moment-by-moment walk with you.”

Posted on

God Did It!

He Finishes What He Starts

SYNOPSIS: All I need to know about anything and everything I learn in Genesis 1, which is simple yet profoundly this: God did it! In the opening line of the Bible, the first thing I discover about God is that he is the creator of all, and the second thing I learn is that he hovers over the chaos, bringing order, beauty, and glory from it. And that is a great comfort to my soul, for that is his ongoing work in me—and you, too!

New Article: God Did It!

Moments With God // Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

The first thing we learn about God in reading the Bible is that he is Creator. The second thing we learn is that he hovers over the chaos and brings order, beauty, and glory from it.

Now the writer of Hebrews tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) Jesus, who is God, whom John tells us was the agent of creation (John 1:1-4) is still actively creating and ordering in the lives of his followers.

I am grateful that through Jesus, creating and ordering is still God’s activity in my life. He is still forming beauty and glory out of my unruly, empty, dark chaotic life. And while it seems that I am a long way from being finished, I am at the present moment his workmanship (Ephesians 2:10).

Thank God for a Creator who finishes his work, for “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

Take A Moment: What do we learn from Genesis 1? Simply this: God did it. He started it all from nothing, he is shepherding what he started, and he will bring it to the completion he desires—he will finish it in fine fashion. That includes his work in your life, too. Take a moment to offer your gratitude for the Author and Finisher of your faith.