Good Morning, my Friends. I hope you made it through the Thanksgiving festivities in good spirits. Pam and I have never had the interest or the nerve to participate in the Black Friday commotion, so we I just hung out here during the weekend and did Christmas decorations. She put up a beautiful tree right out side my office, so I can look at it as I’m working. Yesterday was our Wind Symphony rehearsal for our Christmas concerts this weekend, and tonight is the SLSO Holiday Brass concert rehearsal for three concerts tomorrow. Needless to say, I’m shifting gears from Thanksgiving to Christmas, but I love the music for this season and I feel honored to be part of such great music-making endeavors. But, I gotta start writing because I have a busy afternoon. I just got fresh coffee; Cliff and Glenn are snoozing beside me, so here we go……
The idea for this posting has been brewing in my head for a few days, but it took until my walk this morning to settle in on this approach for writing about it. I am, and always have been, a believer in processes, although for a long time the term process wasn’t a word I used to defined the steps I was taking to achieve my goal. In fact, I’m not even sure I knew I was involved in a process. But today it seems I see processes all around me. I see the “twelve step” recovery program of AA as a process; I hear the businessmen in the BBT program talking about implementing new processes to enhance the effectiveness of their business; I recently read a posting by a long-time friend who was writing about his successful career, and he outlined the process he followed for getting there. What really caught my eye in George’s writing was this statement; “there are no short-cuts to success.” When I read that my mind took me to the idea of processes, meaning the systematic, step-by-step approach to achieving one’s goal.
I even see a process in the Christian walk. For instance, the mantra of my church (Discovery Church) is “seek-grow-serve” meaning: we seek God and His will for our lives; we grow in our knowledge and relationship with Him; and we serve each other and Him by sharing the gospel of grace. So where is the process in this mantra? Well…we begin by realizing we have a problem. Whether it is Step 1 in AA (realizing we are powerless over our addiction and that our life is unmanageable); or a person coming face to face with a catastrophic experience (divorce, financial ruin, caught in an act of betrayal; a health issue,etc.), we realize we are facing an over-whelming problem, and we need HELP! Perhaps for the first time we realize our own inability and we cry out, “God Help Me!!”
I know, and I suspect you also know, people who have experienced an epiphany (a revelation, a burning bush experience) and have turned to God. All I can say to that is, “Praise God!” But unfortunately, for most of us it takes the threat of a life-changing experience (our own “road to Damascus experience”) to get our attention. The good news for us is found in Deut. 31:6, “Be strong and courageous…He will never leave you or forsake you.” And in James 4:10 we find; “When we bow down before the Lord and admit our dependence on him, he will lift us up and give us honor.” So whatever the reason, whether it is an epiphany or a catastrophe, we come to realize our need for a power greater than ourselves to empower us to tackle the issue we are facing. In other words, we know we have a problem and we know we need HELP!
Now we are ready to seek God. But how do we do that? Where do we go? Well, the Word of God, The Holy Bible, is the logical answer. As I have stated in previous postings, I believe there are two fundamental principles, either stated verbatim or inter-woven throughout the scriptures, that shout loud and clear from each page of the Bible. Those two principles are: (1) God is love, and (2) God wants a relationship with each one of us…an eternal relationship. Now this should come as no surprise, but since God is God, he knows something about relationships! He knew that in order for us to develop a relationship with him, we would have to get know him…what he says, what he thinks, what he says about us, what his standards are, what his promises are, how we receive his promises, etc. Only after we have answers to these questions can we choose to enter into a relationship with Him. That is why God chose to reveal himself to us through his Word, The Holy Bible. 2 Peter 1:21-22 says “…you must understand that no prophecy or scripture ever came about from the prophets themselves or because they wanted to prophesy. It was the Holy Spirit who moved the prophets to speak the word of God.” 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is inspired by God…”
Having made the decision to seek God, next comes the matter of growing in the truth of His Word. One of my favorite Christian authors, Neal Anderson, stated in his book, Victory Over the Darkness, “you can’t have faith in something you don’t know anything about.” Since the essence of Christianity is faith, Rom. 10:17 tells us very specifically, “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God.” In Heb. 11:1, it says, “…faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” As we grow in the truth of God’s word, we come to realize, as stated clearly and succinctly in 1 John 4:8, “God is love.” And about relationship… numerous prophets in the Old Testament were inspired to speak time and again with the same message; “turn from your sins and turn to God.” Jer. 31:34 confirms this message, “For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.”
Step 3 of AA states this most eloquently. “We became willing to turn our will and our life over to the care of God, as we understand him.” The more we come to know God and discover his true nature, the more we realize he is a God of forgiveness, grace, acceptance, kindness, righteousness, patience and that nothing pleases him more than blessing us. The God portrayed in the Holy Bible is the same Father as portrayed in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 11: 15-32). In this story, the father was hoping beyond hope that his lost son would return home. He would look down the road everyday hoping to see his son returning, and when he finally did see him, he ran to meet him with open arms and said, “Welcome Home!” Just like the father the parable, God is waiting for us to come home.
After we have committed ourselves to seek God, (Deut. 4:29 tells us, “…if you seek the Lord, you will find him”) from that endeavor itself begins spiritual growth. What happens is this. The more we experience the truth of God’s word coming alive in our hearts, the more we can build a solid scriptural foundation on which to stand. As the Word of God becomes the “living word” in us, we begin to see our life changing for the better. What I am describing is how we build our faith! As our faith continues to grow, the more we want to share this life-changing message with others.
Now we are ready to enter the serving (or message-carrying part) of this process. I find it interesting that the last message from Christ to his Apostles was, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” (Matt. 28:19) Step 12 in AA is, “Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we carry this message to other alcoholics who are suffering and practice these principles in all of our affairs.” The ultimate goal of both processes is being of service to our brethren, and carrying the message of hope and salvation to those still held in bondage. Judging from the message from both AA and the Christian walk, I believe we can safely conclude that “our life is a mission” to help others.
As we can see from the previous examples, the beauty of a process is its systematic approach. It is a step-by-step process with the next step based on, or growing out of, the previous one. The intent is to logically lead us toward a stated goal. I quoted my friend George’s perspective in the first paragraph, “there are no short-cuts to success.” AA says, “half-measures avail us nothing.” Christianity stands on, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14;6) There is a process involved in each of the above endeavors, and ‘ol George had it right… “there are no short-cuts”. My suggestion to you is…just follow the steps and don’t change them or rearrange them.
My question to you today is… are you involved in a process that is taking you toward a goal? Are you committed to it?
May God Bless, ya. Feel free to give me feedback on this. Go to the top of the page and click on the title of today’s blog at the top of the list of previous blogs.
Dan Presgrave (a.k.s. Pastor Dan)
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