Strategy and Tactics

How observant are you? Do you notice changes that happen? Do you think tactically or strategically? Do you focus on the minute details or the big picture? Can you switch your focus between the two as needed? Can you use a strategic view to build a tactical plan?

We may be so focused on the immediate goal that we do not notice changes occurring around us. We may be focused only on the tactical situation and never step back to think about the strategy. We may be focused on the details and not take time to see the big picture.

Each of us have different gifts. Some of us are gifted with attention to detail and can be laser focused on accomplishing tasks with precision. We need people with that gift so that tasks are completed well. Others are gifted with the ability to see the big picture and develop a strategy which includes a long-term goal and steps to accomplish it. We need those strategists who can see the situation, visualize the future, and develop a strategy for a better future.

As we seek to accomplish God’s will, we need both types of people. The strategists will know that God will eventually bring this world to an end. They know there are many, many people who are lost and need to hear the Word of God. Their view of the world includes the changes in culture and society, comprehending the appropriate methods for ministry.

Those who focus on the tactical details will implement the methods using a variety of steps and tools. Their attention to detail ensures ministries and events are accomplished with precision. Each of us needs to determine which gift we have and use them to accomplish God’s will. Rare is the individual who has both. But both are needed, which means we must learn to work together and recognize one another’s gifts. For God has gifted our churches with the gifts we need to accomplish his will.

I pray we all see the changes happening around us. I pray we recognize our gifts, both individually and corporately. I pray each one of us commits to accomplishing God’s will. Be observant. Know your gifts. Know the gifts of your church. Commit to accomplishing God’s will.

Isaiah 51:6

Lift up your eyes to the heavens 

and look at the earth beneath, 

for the heavens will vanish like smoke, 

the earth will wear out like a garment, 

and those who live on it will die like gnats, 

but my salvation will be forever, 

and my deliverance will never be ended.

Look to the Rock

Have you given serious thought about where or who you are from? Have you dug into your ancestry? Have you determined your family origin? Have you given any thought to the origin of all life? Have you considered that you were planned for from the beginning of time?

Family history can be very interesting. Not only do each of us have some interesting characters in our family today but there are some interesting characters in our ancestry. Tracing our ancestry to another country can be interesting. It may cause us to visit our ancestry home.

When you dig into family history, you find some of the oddest things. Though this could not happen today, I know of 2 brothers who put their wives up as collateral to purchase a horse. Now, this was in the early 1900’s. So, keep in mind things were significantly different a hundred years ago. I will also add, they paid off the horse, and their wives never left their sides. However, it is just one example of interesting things we can find in our family history.

Isaiah tells us to dig into the rock from which we have come. He is encouraging us to dig into God. For, when we boil it all down, we all come from God. He is our Creator. He is the one who put us on this earth. Why should we dig into God? We should do so to pursue righteousness. We should do so to seek him out. We should do so to get to know him better. Ultimately, as we get to know him better, our lives improve. We begin to live the abundant life Jesus promised.

I pray we all seek to know God better. I pray we dig into knowing God, who is our Creator. I pray each one of us will pursue righteousness and the abundant life God desires to give us. Seek to know God. Dig into knowing God. Pursue righteousness. Experience the abundant life.

Isaiah 51:1

Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, 

you who seek the Lord. 

Look to the rock from which you were hewn 

and to the quarry from which you were dug.

Blessed Believers

Do you believe you are blessed? Do you only believe what you can see with your own eyes? Do you believe what others tell you? Does it depend on who they are and your judgment on their trustworthiness? Will you believe in something you have neither seen nor experienced?

Belief can be a tricky thing. We have all fallen prey to believing something others have told us, only to find out later it was untrue. There are some people we know who we do not believe any further than we could throw them. We have deemed them untrustworthy based on experience.

I don’t believe Thomas thought his fellow disciples were untrustworthy. He simply could not step out in faith based on what they told him, which was opposed to what he had experienced. He saw Jesus arrested. He knew Jesus had been condemned to die on a cross, whether he was there when Pilate condemned Him or not. He also knew that no one survived a Roman crucifixion. So, Thomas was not blindly disregarding what the disciples told him.

Eventually, Thomas sees the risen Christ and falls on his knees to worship Him. He believes because he saw Him. But Jesus says those who have not seen Him and believe are blessed. That means we are blessed. Why? We are blessed to have a faith that is based on the testimony of others. Namely the writers of the New Testament. It is a blessing to be given our faith without having witnessed what we are putting our faith in.

I pray we all believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I pray we believe that He was crucified, buried, and rose again on the third day. I pray each one of us realize we are blessed to have a faith in something and someone we have not seen nor witnessed for ourselves. Believe Jesus is the Son of God. Believe Jesus was crucified. Believe Jesus rose on the third day. Be blessed in your faith.

John 20:29: Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Don’t Miss Out

Have you missed out? Do you recall a time when something important happened and you were not there? Were you supposed to be there? How did you feel not being there? Were you given a second chance to experience it? Did it cause you to commit to not missing something again?

Missing out on an important event can haunt us. Especially if it is an event we were supposed to be at for our children. We can carry an internal hurt and depression for a very long time. Some of those events will never happen again. Other times, we get a second chance.

When Jesus appeared to the disciples on His day of resurrection, Thomas was not there. He missed out on seeing the resurrected Son of God. He missed out on the shared experience with the other disciples. Not only had he missed out, but he would not believer their account of what happened when Jesus appeared to them. Fortunately for Thomas, he would get a second chance.

Have we missed out on seeing Jesus at work in our lives? Unfortunately, too many times we do. Jesus is continually at work in our lives, and we are often too busy to notice. Our lives have become filled with more to do than we can get done. We run ourselves ragged trying to accomplish them all. We may feel overwhelmed. We may go and go until we drop. Our sleep is interrupted with worry over what didn’t get done. Our joy is stolen. We fail to notice the birds singing, the flowers blooming, and Jesus working in our lives.

I pray we seek to see Jesus at work in our lives. I pray we strive to quit missing out on seeing Jesus. I pray each one of us will take time to stop, breathe, and notice the wonders of God. Seek to see Jesus. See Jesus working in your life. Pause every once in a while. Notice the wonders of God.

John 20:24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

Peace Be With You

Can you imagine someone appearing out of thin air in a room in which you had locked the door? Or can you imagine someone walking through the door without opening it? What if that person was someone you knew who had died and yet they started talking with you?

That is exactly what Jesus did to His disciples. They were locked away. They were in hiding from the authorities. They feared they would be the next ones to be hauled away and crucified for no other reason than they had followed Jesus. They were also enemies of the Jewish leaders.

Jesus simply comes in, whether appearing out of thin air or walking through the locked door and stands in their midst. He knew they were looking for Him. He also knew they wouldn’t find Him unless He wanted them to. So, He went to them. He had many things left to do before He ascended. He needed to see many people in a short period of time.

Jesus gave them His peace. A peace that goes beyond understanding. Imagine that peace falling on them. They suddenly know that everything will work out according to God’s plan and that Jesus dying on the cross was part of it along with His resurrection. They would fear no more. They would become bold in proclaiming His message.

We can be bold proclaiming the message of Jesus, too. Because of His resurrection, we have the promise of eternal life. I know, many of us want a comfortable life now. That is not what Jesus promised. He promised He would always be with us. He promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit. He promised us He would provide for our every need as we carried out His mission, which is to make disciples.

I pray we all trust Jesus is always with us. I pray we seek to accomplish God’s plan for our lives. I pray each one of us boldly proclaim the message of Jesus to make disciples for Him. Trust Jesus is with you. Do God’s work. Accomplish Jesus’ mission. Proclaim the gospel boldly. Make disciples.

John 20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

Celebrate God

How do you celebrate? Do you throw a big party? Do you jump for joy? Do you smile, laugh, feel joy beyond understanding? How would you celebrate if you were rescued? What if you were stranded for a very long time? Would you celebrate in a very different way?

Celebrations can be a lot of fun. We celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and achievements. If we were stranded and somebody rescues, we celebrate differently. Our joy is combined with relief. We may thank the person profusely. We may want to repay them in some way.

The Israelites sang a song to God to celebrate what God had done for them. The praised him for rescuing them. They acknowledged all that God had done to take them out of slavery. They saw his power. They recognized that he had saved them. They sang to the one who had destroyed their oppressors and performed miracles.

We can learn from their joy and desire to praise God. After all, God has rescued us, too. Through his Son, Jesus, we have been rescued from sin and death. We have been pulled from the fire of eternal punishment. We have been given an eternal life with God. Our rescue is far greater than the rescue of the Israelites. We have much more to be thankful for and to praise God for.

I pray we all choose to celebrate God. I pray we recognize what God has saved us from. I pray each one of us will praise God for being our Savior and for the gift of eternal life spent with him. Celebrate God. Know that God saved you. Praise God. Praise your Savior. Look forward to eternal life spent with God.

Exodus 15:1-2

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; 

horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. 

The Lord is my strength and my might, 

and he has become my salvation; 

this is my God, and I will praise him; 

my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

God In Us

Where do you turn for protection? Where is your place of refuge? Who do you run to when things go sideways? Who do you rely on to be your support? Who has taught you the good things you know? Where have you learned the difference between right and wrong?

Some of us like to think we can take care of ourselves. We like to think we don’t need protection. We like to think we don’t need anyone else. That is our pridefulness speaking. It is our false sense of bravado. We cannot take on the dark forces of the world on our own.

We also like to think we are good. We may have been taught to say, “Yes, sir” or “Yes, ma’am,” be kind to others, and give to charities, but that doesn’t make us good. All of us retain a mean streak within us. It is just a matter of the right buttons being pushed to reveal it. We all disobey God at different times. We have our favorite sins that we don’t want to give up.

God is our only hope. It is God who protects us. It is in him we need to take refuge. It is in him we need to place our trust. Only by God working in us and through us that we are good. It is not our good but his good. He is the only one who can overcome our sinful nature.

When we put our trust and confidence in God, our lives change. We become people who are not only confident but become the person God wants us to be. For it is his good that makes us good and guides us along the path he wants us to walk. The more we surrender to God, the better our lives become.

I pray we all seek God’s protection. I pray we take refuge in God. I pray each one of us realize God is the only good within us and decide to put our trust and confidence in him. Seek God’s protection. Take refuge in God. Know that only God is good. Put your trust in God.

Psalm 16:1-2

Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; 

I have no good apart from you.”

Not Blind Faith

Do you believe in things you have not seen? Do you believe in people you have not seen? Do you rejoice over them? That can be difficult to do, can’t it? How can we believe in and rejoice over someone we do not know? Are we willing to take what we hear on faith?

Perhaps the closest we can get to believing in someone we have not seen is by supporting a child through a child support organization. Over the years, I have supported a variety of children and currently support one in Brazil. But I have seen the child in a picture.

In today’s world, it is hard for there to be someone we have not seen. We can research them on the internet and find all sorts of information. We can find pictures of them on social media, in news articles, or even obituary listings. If we cannot find something on the internet about them, we should be suspicious, even if they do not use a computer or smart phone.

But in the first century, the internet did not exist. People had to believe and put their faith in people they had never seen. Such is the case for the people Peter is writing to. He commends them for their love for Jesus and their belief in Him, though they had not seen Him. Not only did they believe but they rejoiced in Him and received salvation. Their faith was not completely blind. After all, they had been told about Him. They believed what the apostles and other traveling preachers told them about Him.

We have a great opportunity today to learn about Jesus. We have numerous translations of the Bible. There are commentaries available to us that are written by Greek scholars that tell us what the original Greek meaning was. We can read about Jesus by numerous reputable authors. We have no excuse for not believing and rejoicing in Him.

I pray we all seek to know more about Jesus. I pray we put our faith in Him. I pray each one of us rejoice in the salvation we have and experience the joy that only comes from Jesus. Seek to know more about Jesus. Put your faith in Jesus. Rejoice in Jesus. Experience the joy of Jesus.

1 Peter 1:8-9 Although you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Living Hope

Do you have a living hope? Do you believe you have an inheritance? Do you believe it is perfect and will never go away? Do you know it is held in perpetuity for you? Do you know it is held in the most secure place it could ever be held? Are you anxiously waiting for it to be revealed?

The hope of a Christian is to be a living hope. Why? Because our hope is in the risen Son of God. It is not a false hope. It is hope based on the promises of God. It is based on Jesus Christ. Our hope is not wishful thinking but one the Creator of all things. Our hope is belief and trust.

One of Jesus’s promises is that an inheritance is waiting for us. It is not just any inheritance, but one that is perfect and imperishable. It is an inheritance that is safely kept for us in heaven and protected by the power of God. There is no safer place our inheritance could be kept. We can be assured it can never be taken from us.

Our lives are to reflect the living hope we have. It is to reflect the trust we have in the inheritance that is waiting for us. It is to be lived with confidence, not in ourselves, but in God, who loves us and has our best interest at heart. As we live in the hope we have in God, we live the abundant life Jesus promised us.

I pray we all choose to live in the hope of God. I pray we know we have an imperishable inheritance. I pray each one of us live in the power of God and trust him at all times. Live in hope. Know you have an inheritance. Trust it is protected by God. Live in confidence.

1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

He Is Risen!

Easter Sunday is such a special day. Our worship seems to be more joyous. We sing louder. There are smiles on everyone’s faces. We celebrate the risen Christ. We all have a little extra bounce in our step. The church is decorated in Lily’s. What a beautiful day?!

Celebrating Jesus’ resurrection is wonderful, but we should not celebrate only once per year. It is something for us to celebrate every day. It also provides a vision of our future resurrection and the joy that will come with it. It is a joy we should all look forward to.

Mary was joyfully surprised when she turned to see Jesus standing there beside her. It is hard for us to imagine the joy she felt. She may have jumped up and down. She may have had happy feet. I’m sure the smile on her face stretched all the way across it. She could not contain it.

We feel some of that same joy on Easter Sunday. Our joy exceeds the sorrow we felt on Friday. The rising of the sun on Easter reminds us of the rising of the Son on that day nearly two thousand years ago. Isn’t it appropriate that Easter comes in the spring? Just as the blooms on the trees and flowers remind us life is renewed, Easter reminds us we have all been renewed in Jesus.

But our celebrations do end with the worship service. We enjoy fellowship time with one another. We may continue our celebrations with a family gathering. Our smiles may remain with us the entire day. All of it was made possible by Jesus.

I pray we all celebrate the risen Son on Easter. I pray we continue to celebrate Him all year long. I pray each one of us worship with joyous hearts and are renewed in our faith that Jesus is the Son of God, our Lord, and our Savior. Celebrate Jesus today. Celebrate Him all year. Joyfully worship Him. Be renewed in your faith.

John 20:16: Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).