What is it your faith prompts you to do?

I don't know how you get the topics for your blogs, but I often get inspired while reading the Bible, by sentences jumping off the page. I love it when that happens, it means God's Spirit is talking to me!

One such sentence can be found in John 17:4 where Jesus is speaking:

I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

Jesus brought glory to His Father by finishing/completing the work God gave Him to do. Work on earth, that is. I used that sentence in my blog series 'Glory to the Father'. 

And that blog series resulted in a few more blog posts about calling. Based on the words in Ephesians 2:10, I sincerely believe we are all called to do something particular, here on earth that is. Some people find that hard to believe. Others think the works need to be huge works, earth-shattering stuff... you know, the works famous people do.

Small stuff, big stuff... it doesn't matter, as long as we do what we are called to do! The Bible makes it clear, it is hard to miss it. Let's take a look at 2 Thessalonians 1:11,

So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.

Now, if that doesn't get you excited, I don't know what will. Again, we see this sentence (as in Ephesians 4:1) that we should live a life worthy of His call. Our call is also to bring glory to the Father by completing the work He gives us to do. Whatever it is. We cannot do it in our own strength, He will give us the power!

👉... accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. 

What is it your faith prompts you to do? Go for it, do it! Why? Because...

Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:12).

You have been called by God

In my previous blog post, I wrote that we all have something particular to do for God.

God calls each person to do works that He has prepared in advance (Ephesians 2:10) which I find very exciting. Shouldn't we all go on a quest to find out what it is? In the Bible, we see that age doesn't matter, circumstances don't matter, and background doesn't matter.

One of the tips I gave in my previous blog was to get inspired by reading the Bible, by the men and women that went before us. Such a man was Paul. He wrote in Ephesians 4:1,

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.

He wrote this to the believers in Ephesus, not to a particular person. His urging and encouragement were general and we can take his words to heart, even today! 👉As a matter of fact, I urge you my dear readers: 'You have been called by God.' I am not talking about a phone call here, but about the mission He has for you.

Maybe you don't know whether you are called to write or sing or preach or start a business. No panic! The apostle Paul continued his writing with this: Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

Now that is a calling we should all say YES to. The works God has prepared for each of us cannot and should not be done without practicing the right attitude. Who cares if you're successful but a pain in the butt?

We live in a crazy world where it is possible to lack good character and yet be successful. But God's standard is different. He does not want us to be all over the place, doing a zillion different things. We are called for something greater. Ephesians 4:4 says,

For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.

We all have something particular to do

I ended my latest blog series with a conclusion and a question: "I strongly believe we all have something particular to do, apart from the general works we are called to do as believers. 👉What is it He called you to do?"

In other words, what is your calling? The Bible is full of stories of people who had a specific task given by God. One smaller, one bigger, but a task nonetheless.

And whatever they did, became part of Biblical world history and God's Kingdom as we know it. All their stories are connected to Ephesians 2:10 where it is written:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Notice it says 'in' Christ Jesus. We first need to be in Him. Why? Because it is in Him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). We find our purpose in Jesus. Being in Him comes before doing something for Him. Remember that! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

We discover the specific works God has prepared for us when we are a new creation in Christ, in other words when we have been born again. How exciting! Think about it, there is a task only you can do. 

Yes, you. Why? Because you are unique. You have a specific character and background. You have specific life experiences, abilities, strengths, talents, and spiritual gifts. Some of your experiences may be painful or negative, but God will make everything new. He redeems our lives for His purposes.

I am a writer and blogger, but there are probably millions of people who do a better job than I do. Yet, I know that I am called to write about certain topics in a certain way, simply because of the way I think, the way I grew up, the way I connect with the Lord, the way I express myself etc. etc.

Furthermore, a prophetic word was given to me many years ago, before I even penned one blog, article, or book. God called me to be His 'faithful mouthpiece'. I have those words on my desk, to be reminded every day that I work for Him.

How do you find out what it is God has prepared for you?

• I believe it starts with prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal the Father's purpose for your life.
• Seek Christian gatherings where people operate in prophetic gifts and come with a genuine hunger to do His will.
• Get inspired by reading the Bible, by the men and women that went before you and take notice when your heart jumps a beat... that is a clue for further prayer.
• Journal (write down) anything that the Lord brings to mind: words, thoughts, scriptures, names... anything! They are pieces of the puzzle.
• Make sure to seek silence so you can listen to the quiet whispers of the Holy Spirit.

This post might be helpful as well

And you know what, when we do the particular works, we are being shaped into the man or woman He ordained us to be. Our specific calling shapes our life for eternal purposes.

Glory to the Father (5)

To God belongs the glory, which basically means He deserves all honor. And 'He' is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, of course. In this blog series, I highlighted the glory given to the Father.

If you want to learn more about the exchanging of honor and glory, please read chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17 of the Gospel of John over and over again. It will surely bless you.

I would like to end this blog series with the prayer of Jesus as recorded in John 17. Verse one says:

After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you.

Right until His final hours on earth, Jesus had the desire to give glory to His Father. He did not want to keep it for Himself. There was this constant exchange, which I find fascinating. Desiring to give back to God what we receive from Him in the first place. What if we lived our lives that way?

Jesus lived His life that way, for sure. In verse 4 He says:

I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

Such marvelous words. Let's make them personal. The Lord has works to do for you and me, there is no doubt about it. He planned it that way (read Ephesians 2:10 in as many translations as you can)!

👉What is it He called you to do? I strongly believe we all have something particular to do, apart from the general works we are called to do as believers. If you don't know what it is, pray, seek Him, and ask Him. If you already do know what it is, do it. Stop procrastinating, stop making excuses. Pick it up again if you are discouraged. Let's bring glory to the Father here on earth by completing the work He gave us to do!

In, but not of this world (3)

Jesus said: As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you (John 15:18-19).

Jesus has chosen us out of the world, yet at the same time, He requested that God would not take us out of the world (John 17:15). How to interpret this?

As I wrote in my previous blog, this is the rescue plan: He wants to save us from this evil world. It is possible to live in this world but not belong to it, because we belong to the Kingdom of God (Galatians 1:4-5).

This evil world... is it that bad? Yes, and we should stop acting as if that is a big surprise. 1 John 5:19 says: We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. 👉The world is under control of the evil one, scary maybe... but let's not forget that the Kingdom is under God's control!

This is the difference between darkness and light. Somehow both are present in the world we live in. We can see the evil around us clearly, daily even. But what about the light? Do we shine in this dark world? Are we visible as children of the light?

In Philippians 2:14-15 it is written: Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. 

This is our calling, this is our assignment, no matter what the circumstances are. In my next post, we will look at how and what in order to make this practical!

Paid to preach?

In most churches it is common practice to pay the speaker (preacher, teacher, evangelist or pastor) for his speech.

This custom originates from the apostle Paul's exhortation in 1 Corinthians 9:14 where he states: the Lord ordered that those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from it. So far, so good.

Although Paul endorses this custom, he never made use of it himself. He continues in verse 15 with the following personal statement: Yet I have never used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that I want to start now. In fact, I would rather die than lose my right to boast about preaching without charge.

Wow, strong words. He would rather die than preaching for money. So what is it? Should preachers get paid or should they deny payment? It seems a very personal choice, Paul is sharing with us. He made a living as a tent maker (see Acts 18:3) and probably did not need anyone to pay him for sharing the Good News. I wonder, however, why he uses such strong words to explain his choice... I mean, to rather die than getting paid for a good sermon... come on! (his comment made me think though... here's a radical preacher!)

Personally, I was able to make my choice as well. When I get invited to speak somewhere I do not ask for a honorarium. I do not make use of my rights, so to speak. Why not? Because I consider myself a 'tent maker', just like Paul. I work for a living and as long as I get to do that, I can freely speak everywhere. If the host insists in giving me something, I propose an offering for our non-profit organization Traveling Light.

When someone has no income from a secular job, it would be wise to receive payment for preaching/teaching, right? Maybe one day I will make use of my rights, who knows.

I am curious to hear your take on this... Do you get to speak at conferences, in churches or at women's meetings? Do you get paid to preach?

PS: I teach on paper as well 😀If you haven't done so already, you can order my latest e-book IN MY NAME on Amazon for just 2.99.

Purpose of the church (8)

Thank you very much for reading this blog series about the purpose of the church and also for your valuable comments.

"The purpose of the church is simple, namely that everyone gets to know Jesus well" I wrote in my previous blog post. Simple maybe, but apparently not so easy to implement. In personal conversations I often discover that people can faithfully go to church for years and years and yet do not know Jesus personally. That is quite tragic and I really hope and pray that we will all experience a refreshing renewal and change in the way we do/are church.

Of course, we can not solely expect that from leadership (sometimes they have no clue either), we are in this together. Let us take a look again at the words in Ephesians 4: 11-13. This time, for the sake of clarity, I used the Good News translation and cut it into pieces because the sentences are very long:

• It was he [Jesus] who “gave gifts to people”; he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers.
• He did this to prepare all God's people for the work of Christian service
• in order to build up the body of Christ.
• And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God
• we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature.

Wow, we shall become mature people (a perfect man the NKJV says) attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. What a wonderful purpose. I want that! Even if I have to sit in a pew for a while :)

I suggest that we all compare the above list (the Word of God) with our church setting and customs and ask ourselves some critical questions: Is there a five fold leadership available in my church/congregation to prepare me to serve, so that the church/congregation can grow, and do we get to know Christ better? And finally .... am I on my way to maturity?

I sincerely hope that we will be church, with a purpose!

Purpose of the church (5)

And  He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry... (Ephesians 4:11).

How often can you read such a text? Not often enough, I think. We can learn so much that will help us today to build a healthy spiritual community, a church that is truly the Body (the representation) of Christ on earth.

Jesus gave it like this for a reason; let us not take anything away from it and add nothing to it. I sincerely believe it would be very useful to take a closer look at the forms of leadership in our contemporary churches in light of Ephesians 4:11-13. By the way, I think it is easier to start a new church with these verses in mind, than to reorganize an existing one with the dogma's, patterns and systems already in place, but that aside.

The people (whether you are a hairdresser, construction worker or nurse) who are called and assigned to one or more of the five functions, tasks or ministries mentioned must always bear in mind that they do that work as part of a team in order to to equip (prepare, get ready) believers to serve God. The Good News Translation calls it 'works of Christian service'.

When we think about the purpose of the church these verses keep popping up. We do not come together just to come together (although that can be very useful from a spiritual and social point of view) but to be equipped for work in the service of God. In that sense we could see the church as a vocational school. We don't know much when we enroll, we learn and learn and ask questions and do our homework. We are not supposed to stay in grade 5 or 6 for ten years, we are called to grow and graduate!

The equipping must always lead to service. There will come a time when we will put the acquired knowledge into practice, when we will do what we have learned. There comes a time when we are going to share God's love with a world in need, whether that is around the corner or in a distant land. In doing so it is very possible that we are called once more... to equip others!

Purpose of the church (3)

In my previous blog post I quoted the basic scripture I will use for this series, in three different translations. Ephesians 4: 11-13 gives us an idea about the purpose of the church, don't you think?

Of course these verses are part of a chapter and that chapter is part of a Bible book, in this case a letter the apostle Paul wrote to the faithful believers in Ephesus in the 1st century AD. Ephesus was at that time the capital of the Roman province of Asia, in western Turkey.

Let's take a closer look at what the Bible says here ...

And He Himself [Jesus] gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers...

That sentence in itself gives quite some interesting food for thought and discussion, but is also reason for much gratitude. Jesus gave (appointed or called) some people for a specific task. How wonderful, is my first thought, at least we do not have to invent or set up our own system. The GNT says 'It was he who “gave gifts to people”. The callings and functions are a gift, we cannot earn or get them any other way, we can only receive in obedience.

Some theologians and religious denominations claim that apostles and prophets are no longer given today, that they were only given for a season to start the church two thousand years ago. They believe that only evangelists, shepherds (pastors) and teachers are still being appointed ... To me that seems a random selection with a devastating consequence: by deleting some of the people (functions, gifts, callings) Jesus gave to build up the church we  have elevated others, often to isolated positions.

No one is surprised if someone presents himself as 'the pastor of such and such congregation' or 'the minister of such and such church'. But if someone, for example, claims to be 'the prophet of such and such congregation' he will get the stamp 'strange' or 'sectarian' or 'false'. Now, how in the world did this happen? I invite you to think with me. Biblically speaking it is simply not correct!

Because.... the five are called together for a common task!

Give me an A

In my Bible alphabet blog series A stands for Apostle.

It is a word that only appears in the New Testament. Jesus intro-duced the term when He appointed (or ordained) several of his disciples as apostles.

In Mark 3:14-15 we can read what was expected of them:

He appointed twelve[a] that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

[a] Some manuscripts twelve—designating them apostles—

Disciples of the Lord Jesus that were appointed as apostles had a clear calling and function:

• they had to be with (close to) Him
• they had to be ready to be sent out
• they had to preach
• they had to use their authority

Were there more than the twelve apostles Jesus appointed? Yes! Paul, for example, was probably the most famous one after that time. Do apostles still exist? Yes! They are still being appointed today for the benefit of His church world wide. Ephesians 4:11-12 says it like this: So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up...

The five functions as mentioned above are given by Jesus for the building up of the church (the body of Christ on earth). Most churches today still recognize and have evangelists, pastors and teachers, but to a much lesser extent apostles and prophets. That is weird if you think about it, because they are needed to equip (new) believers for work in service of God!

Christ gave them to us until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). Well, I am sorry to say, but we are not there yet. So we must ask the Holy Spirit to continue to appoint apostles for the benefit of the church.

If you have a clear calling on your life (a desire, a passion, an inner conviction) to be with (close to) Jesus, to go out and preach (in your street or the other side of the world) and to use your God given authority, then that is a calling from Jesus Himself. Don't let ANYONE stop you to answer that call!

Life on the couch?

On rainy days like today, I enjoy reading through old journals... just to measure my spiritual growth and development. I came across a page where I had written with big letters:

I cannot live a godly life on automatic pilot

I wrote it in a period of my life where I became aware of the talents and passions God had planted in my heart.

Talents and passions that need to be worked out and exercised and that will keep me from spending a life on the couch.

I wrote it down long before Twitter became popular, but I think it makes a cool tweet, don't you?

Talent & the Kingdom (6)

So far we have learned a lot from Jesus's words regarding the parable of the talents:

• The advancing of the Kingdom is an assignment for the believers
• Jesus will ask us what we have done with the talents he gave us
• Building God's Kingdom is not an option!
• God is still the owner of our talents, we are the stewards
• Everyone has received at least one talent from God

Let's go back to His words, one more time. Matthew 25:14-15 says, Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. What struck me the most in this scripture is the part where it says 'each according to his ability'. That shows the love and care and precision of our heavenly Father. We will receive just what we can handle, something that fits our personality. That means our talent is unique for the building of Gods Kingdom.

We are able to do something in a way, no one else can. Of course, there are many people with a writing talent. Personally I know hundreds of people who do a much better job than I do. My writing talent in itself is not so special. But... my writing talent in combination with my character, background, humor, and knowledge is very special! The way I see things, perceive things, process things in my mind and the way I add a  personal touch to a story... THAT makes my talent unique.

So it is with your talent. Maybe nothing special in itself... But, in combination with your unique personality, experiences and background it becomes a unique tool for God. He desires to use everything and everyone to spread His Word and Truth around the globe; whether we use a pen, brush, screwdriver, or crochet hook!

Talent & the Kingdom (4)

It is fun to write this series on Talent & the Kingdom in a period that I have two new books published, one in the USA and one in Holland. My Neigbor's House is the fifth book in a series about the Ten Commandments in the 21st century and deals with the last commandment: do not covet... It will be available later this year and I can only pray and hope this book will be a tremendous help in your spiritual journey.

In the previous posts we have seen that building or advancing God's Kingdom is not optional, it is an assignment, a calling we receive from the King. Let's go back to Matthew 25:14-15: Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The next thing we can learn from this introduction to the parable of the talents is that the man entrusted his property (talents, money) to his servants. He entrusts the property to them, which means he is still the owner! His servants are the stewards.

Jesus is still the owner of whatever He has entrusted us with. Whether that is money, talents or opportunities. However, we are called to do something with it, so as to reach other people, who can reach other people... yes, you got it. It doesn't matter which field your talent is in. Let's say you bake the best apple pies in town. Why not organize a coffee morning once a month or so for women in your street? Women you may never meet in any church. Ask your kids to make flyers and start inviting people. You do not have to preach or teach, this is about building relationships. The deeper conversations will come before you know it... especially after everyone has enjoyed your scrumptious apple pie!

This is only a very simple example of using (managing) the very thing God has given you. He is still the owner and entrusts us with basic assignments. It is His desire that we will go into the world with what we have and with what we can do. Let's not make this too difficult :) He trusts us to go for it.

4) God is still the owner of our talents, we are the stewards!