As with anything we do, we need to weigh it with the word first.   

Romans 14:22-23 - Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.

without getting into my personal beliefs on this whole thing, we are supposed to be living lives that are not in need of anything that we use as a substitute for the divine health God wants us to live in.  This applies to the kid with ADD whose parents have them on Ritalyn, the diabetic on insulin, or the parkinson's patient smoking marijuana.  However, if any of these things can help us to walk out of our disease and into the wholeness and fullness that God has for us, they are sometimes necessary.  If a diabetic can go through life taking their insulin and survive to minister, then by all means, they should take it.  

People's personal preference on the matter will (at least in the church) tend towards thinking that medical marijuana is 100% wrong because it was once classified as a narcotic.  However, those same people will willingly take sudafed when they have a cold.  Sudafed contains a very pure form of Methamphetamine, which we all have seen the devastating effects of in recent years.  I personally lost a family member to a meth-induced suicide.  

If we're going to put our trust in the government (FDA) to tell us the truth about potential side effects of any of the 'prescription' drugs, we have to weigh what they're saying about the things we all seem to be ok with.  we've talked about Sudafed, but the list is endless.  Chantix, a stop smoking prescription, causes suicidal depression, aneurisms, heart attacks and countless other problems.  Ritalyn, a focus drug, causes depression, decreases brain cell growth, causes heart and lung problems, etc.  Even tylenol has side effects listed like abdominal pain.  

Potheads everywhere are cheering the legalization for their own recreational use, but the medicinal uses of the plant (even the non psychotropic one) are nearly endless.

If the church were doing it's job the way it should be, no drug would be necessary, but we also can't say that just because we don't like the legalization of a once illegal chemical makes it a sin, wrong, or something they shouldn't do if the feel they need it.  If they don't condemn themselves in what they approve, they're happy - hmmm.  I think that God said something about a merry heart doing good like a medicine at one point in history.

We should be encouraging people to rely on God for their health.  Not everyone will be in that place though, and we also can't be quick to call them sinners for accepting a new 'drug' as a potential for health.

Remember that alcohol, which most believers are ok with in moderation, was once a class 1 felony if you were caught in possession of it.  Now it's not illegal, but why are we ok with it?  Cigarettes are the single deadliest drug on the planet, but they're legal, and we understand that smoking won't send you to hell, so we don't say it's a 'sin'.  

I'm thinking of Peter's time, thousands of years of law saying that they were forbidden to eat pork, and here's Peter praying and having a vision from the Lord.  God gives Peter a vision of the forbidden item of the day descending and tells him to rise, kill and eat, call nothing that I have made unclean.  Now we know that the Lord was sending Peter to the Gentiles directly after this, but this was God showing Peter that the 'illegal' item of the day, one that would most certainly cause problems with the religious men of the time, was now clean for eating.  God said 'call nothing I have made unclean'.  That would mean, to me, NOTHING He had made.  Which has to include things like animals, plant life, and our fellow man. 

Let's remove our prejudice, teach people that God's grace is enough even if we have to settle for something other than Him for our health, and understand that sometimes a 'new' old thing isn't always bad.  

Don Francisco said it best "just cause you don't like it doesn't mean it's a sin!"
Caleb

        

by Caleb Miller

One of the single most destructive beliefs that has plagued the church for centuries is the thought that we didn’t deserve the gift Christ gave us.   Of course we did!  If we were undeserving of the gift of life, it wouldn’t have been given.  God wouldn’t have resided with man in the garden, left with man when he sinned, and done everything He could to get us back to Him.

We are deserving of the gift of salvation, it’s not a sense of entitlement, but we need to get beyond this.  It affects every area of our lives, and ministry.  When we’re sick, we limit our own healing by thinking we don’t deserve the wholeness Christ provided.  When we’re lacking financially, we try to figure out where we’re missing it to get our finances back in line.  STOP IT!!!  Take a breath, tell yourself that you deserve the FREE gift that Christ willingly provided for us.  I never see Christ say “take this cup Father, they don’t deserve it”

now, let’s roll that understanding into our ministries.  the apostle Paul wrote:

1 Timothy 1:12 – And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,

we look at this verse and applaud Paul’s faithfulness, but the word faithful also has the meaning “worthy of trust”  WORTHY.  you’re worthy of the ministry God’s given to you, you deserve it.  You deserve to not be in worry about growth, finances, offense, teaching, music, or any other area of ministry.  You deserve what God gave you, it’s an important thing, and you are the one God counted faithful and put into the ministry.

Let’s get out of this rut.  We’ve been taught for too long that ‘we got what we didn’t deserve’ in relationship to our salvation, and it’s infected our ministry.  Purge the infection, thank God for counting you worthy, and begin the healing!

        

One thing I believe all ministers (and we're all ministers) struggle with is reconciling their goals with their calling.  Paul had this problem, Elijah had solved this problem, the list goes on and on.

Let's start with Paul, the man we attribute the message of grace to, the guy who wrote 80% of the new testament...

Eph 3:8 - To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

we can clearly see here that Paul was called to minister to the Gentiles.  Throughout Paul's 'career' we see him repeatedly going to areas a great jewish influence.  Paul's goal was not lining up with his call, which many times brought him disaster, pain, persecution, even death.  Don't be mistaken, we will have persecution when we're teaching grace and righteousness to people, but when we're lining ourselves up with the call God's given us, we can avoid the disaster and trial that comes along with following our own goals.

Now Elijah is a great example of answering the call and ignoring your own goals.


1 Kings 17:2-7 - ² Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ³ “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. ⁴ And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” ⁵ So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. ⁷ And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

Elijah set his own goals to the side, followed the call of God and was not only fed, but was able to minister to people along the way.  after this he goes on to the widow and shows the power of God to her and her son.  Ministry presented itself!


So how do we make the distinction?  it's actually pretty simple.  Sit down, turn off the tv, radio, cell phone, close your email and get a piece of paper. 

Write down the GOALS for your ministry FIRST!  everything you can think that you're striving for, reaching toward and spending time on.  Get them all down. 

Then, flip the paper over and write down your Calling!  Most of us can sum up our calling in one to two sentences. 

Then, compare the two.  I think you'll find, much like I did, that there are plenty of things we've been striving for that were never meant to be a part of our ministry.  That's not to say that they're bad things, just things that are in the way of us fulfilling the call on our lives. 

If God's called you to teach, does that mean that you are to be teaching to a church of 10,000, or to 1,000 churches of 10? 
If you're called to lead worship, does that mean you'll have a record deal?
If you're called to minister one on one to people, does that mean you're called to be a senior pastor?
If God called you to plant a church, are you supposed to stay there?

I think if we can all step back, view our situations from God's perspective, renew our calling, and remove the goals we've set on ourselves, we'll spend 2010 living in fulfillment rather than frustration, and our local churches might see some change, but they'll explode with growth when we're all doing what we're called to do rather than shooting for something that's not ours to fill.
when we aim too far away from our calling we not only frustrate ourselves, but we limit the ones who are truly called to fulfill that role, frustrating them.  let's stop the cycle!

peace,
caleb miller

        

Get Planted
By Caleb Miller

Daily, we are surrounded by those who have felt a call of God for something deeper than the normal life, who have struggled and fallen trying to fulfill that call.   God began working in my own heart a few years back about the principles of being planted, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about today.

Leviticus 19:23 – 25: ‘when you come into the land, and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as uncircumcised. Three years it shall be as uncircumcised to you. It shall not be eaten. ²⁴ But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, a praise to the LORD. ²⁵ And in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, that it may yield to you its increase: I am the LORD your God.

So what we’ve seen here is that the Lord gave a command to Israel to not touch the fruit of the trees they’ve planted for four years.  There’s a strong principle here and a number of things we can grab hold of. 

·      Immature plants yield immature fruit – A young apple tree will still yield apples, yet they’re often small, bitter, and not full of what they can be. 

·      Fruit that falls from the tree fertilizes the tree itself – as the fruit that begins to fall to the ground decomposes, it releases all the vitamins and minerals it contains, the very ones the tree used in creating the fruit, back into the ground, being absorbed by the roots and used as food in creating the next crop.

·      Timing is everything – 4 years is a period of growth, in which the tree has had the time to grow, mature, feed itself, and begin to produce mass amounts of fruit, as opposed to the first crops which are seldom anything to look twice at.

·      Mature trees not only offer fruit, but shade for other life that is growing.

I believe that what God’s saying here is that if we will simply plant ourselves in a place, allow his word to feed us in our initial growth, what will happen is that our own fruit will begin to feed us.  It will fall from our heads, hearts & hands and provide the growth for our spirit that only revelation and the Spirit of God can give.

The New Testament also has examples of this principle.  Paul tells us in  1 Timothy 3:6 that we are not to let a novice be in a pastoral position.  That word novice doesn’t mean they are new to ministry, it means they’re a new convert.  This is not a legalism, it’s grace being imparted to a young plant that needs the time to begin to grow, to send his/her roots down deep, begin to feed themselves first, and then move into feeding others.  This same principle is what Paul was talking about when he refers to being babes in Christ.  If we can’t feed ourselves, why would we even try feeding others! 

Don’t get bound up by that, if you’re receiving from the Holy Spirit, you’re feeding yourself.  I’m not saying that you should have no need for teaching; every plant needs food until the day it dies.  My dad has said that he desires to be receiving revelation until the day he goes home, yet he feeds himself on a daily basis.

Again in 1 Timothy, we see Paul addressing the issue of youth in ministry, this time from a different angle.

1 Timothy 4:12-13: Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. ¹³ Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

 Is Paul contradicting himself here? NO! What He’s literally saying to Timothy, is to give no one reason to despise your youth, be a good example to those who are still in this new growth period, and don’t let your fruit fall too far off your own tree until it’s had time to feed you!

Even the man who wrote our modern faith, the Apostle Paul, tells of how he took time to learn directly from the Lord (Gal 1:16-18) Paul tells us he did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, meaning that for a period of 3 years, he took the time to begin to listen to the Lord, and let his fruit feed himself before ‘unleashing’ it on the world!

Another interesting principle is that we would never uproot an orange tree in order to get the oranges to people, we simply pick the fruit and take it to them.  As you begin to step out into the full realization of that calling, God will always keep you planted firmly, and if we’ll be willing to let Him, He’ll cause our branches to grow even further, feeding everyone along the way

Let’s take these examples.  It’s never too late to plant yourself firmly in a church where you can begin the process of growth.  Allow the time of worship, teaching and fellowship to water your roots as you begin to grow, and before you know it, you’ll be feeding all those around you with the fruit that starts to grow. 

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There’s joy in the journey!