What's Your Devotion Quotient?

The other day, I was at a good friend's house and as we were rummaging through his storage shed, I noticed a nice golf bag with a nearly new set of clubs. I commented to my friend, “I didn't know you played golf.”

He looked at me rather sheepishly and mumbled, “Yeah, that was sort of a flash in the pan venture.” He paused for a moment and then chuckled more to himself than to me. “You know the golf lifestyle looks so good… beautiful fairways in gorgeous vacation like settings. A leisurely day spent with friends, ending at the clubhouse with a nice lunch or dinner. It seemed like the perfect past time to take up.”

He walked over and picked up the golf bag. “So on the advice of a golf pro I bought these clubs and started taking lessons. But I found out it wasn't everything I thought it would be. For starters, golf didn't come easy for me, and even with lessons my progress was slow. I thought I would really like it, but quite frankly most of the time I was just plain frustrated. I began to realize that if I was to ever be proficient at the game, I was going to have to give golf a lot of my time, much more time than I bargained for.”

He paused and chuckled again, dropping the bag back onto the floor. “Yeah, it was a real flash in the pan venture.”

I smiled to myself as my friend shared his story, remembering two exercise machines I had at home that now lay collecting dust. At the time I bought them, I was convinced they would give me the rock hard abs I saw on TV. But the commercials neglected to emphasize how much effort the exercises would actually involve, even with the “magic machines.”

I think if most of us are honest, we can identify one or more “flash in the pan ventures,” things which were terribly exciting at the time, but which quickly lost their allure. We thought we would be committed to them, but in actuality our “devotion quotient” was not high enough to sustain our interest. It's easy to be intrigued with something new, only to find out it is much more difficult to sustain effort in the face of difficulty or challenge.

Jesus understood this tendency in our human makeup very well. He told His disciples: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ In the same way any of you who does not consider the cost, cannot be my disciple.” (Matthew 14:28–30; 33)

No one could ever accuse Jesus of false advertising. He repeatedly promises to give us abundant life, and He honestly tells us that similar to acquiring any skill, operating in abundant life requires our time and energy. In order to learn how to access and walk in abundant life, we must be committed to following Him, seeking His counsel and obeying His promptings.

We all want “the good life.” But what's your devotion quotient? Are you willing to count the cost of walking in the abundant life Jesus promised?

Please come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM. Our own Pastor Karl Malouff will be discussing “Promotion through Devotion,” another message in our current series, “Promotion in the Lord.”

Children of Light

Ever had someone in your life who was totally irritating, or even worse, actually hated you?  How did you handle that person?  I want to share a beautiful letter I received last week from India that describes how one of our HIM pastors dealt with just this type of difficult situation.

“Mr. A., a devout Hindu, hated his neighbor, Pastor D, with a passion, and looked for ways to destroy his life. He vowed to ruin Pastor D’s name and discredit his ministry. Mr A was constantly hurling insults at Pastor D and trying to stir up trouble in the neighborhood.

He made life very unpleasant for Pastor D, but even though it was difficult, Pastor D was friendly to Mr. A. The Pastor and his church chose to pray for Mr.A regularly.

A year later Pastor D was surprised to get a phone call from the wife of Mr. A. She was crying and frantically begging Pastor D to come quickly to the hospital. Pastor D initially was hesitant to open himself to further abuse by Mr.A, but he agreed to go and took some of his church elders with him.

Mr. A had kidney failure and had been receiving weekly dialysis treatments at the hospital for months. But this particular day, the doctor informed his wife that Mr. A’s kidney was not able to handle dialysis anymore and all his organs were beginning to shut down. He gave Mr A only a few hours to live.

Entering the hospital room, Pastor D encountered a very different Mr. A. There were tears streaming down his face as looked up at Pastor D, begged for forgiveness and asked for a blessing.

Pastor D prayed, "Lord Jesus Christ, just as You have forgiven us our sins, we are called to forgive others...so I along with my church forgive Mr. A. In your name Christ, we release healing along with forgiveness and freedom to Mr.A.”

The next morning was Sunday, and the doctor visited Mr. A. expecting to see a dead body. Instead, Mr. A. was dangling his legs from the side of the bed and smiling at the shocked doctor. After running a series of tests, the doctor found no sign of any kidney failure.

Mr. A and his family went straight to Pastor D’s church where Mr. A faced the cross and begged loudly for God to forgive him.  He and his whole family embraced Christ.”

The Pastor concluded his letter: “What did we learn from this ?!!

That as disciples of Christ, we have the authority not only to release

Forgiveness, but to release healing and freedom as well. So lets use our tongue to release His goodness on earth and bless people wherever we are!!”

Think how differently this story would have ended if Pastor D had responded to Mr. A with hatred. As children of God, we have something far more powerful than hatred and revenge.  We have the power to transform others by releasing love and blessing into their lives.

“Live as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.” (Ephesians 5:8) “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Please come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM.  We will discuss how to walk as children of light in my sermon, “Servant Leaders,” part of our current series, “Promotion in the Lord.”