Bible

Do all you do with love or it’s just noise

April 3, 2016 by untilfulllight

This is from my book, Devotions for Church Communicators, but it has value for everyone so I’m sharing some excerpts on this site:

Do all you do with love or it’s just noise

If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever. (1 Cor. 13:1-3 NLT)

Words without love are just noise is Rick Warren’s commentary on these verses from one message in his 40 Days of Community. Though these words apply in every interaction we have in life, I think they are especially true in the world of church communications.

I’ve often said in my seminars that I can tell when I look at publication samples if the person who was doing them was having a grumpy day or not. People often laugh. But it really isn’t a joke.

Who we are, the mood we are in, and how much we care for the people for whom we are creating the print or digital piece comes through loud and clear in church communications.Continue Reading

What does God expect of us?

March 26, 2016 by untilfulllight

When reading the Old Testament, one of the most frequent questions people ask is “Why?”

Why does God judge so harshly?

Why does he command entire groups of people to be killed?

Why does he allow his own people to suffer and go into captivity?

These are all valid questions and similar to many we might ask today. To help answer these questions and before we completely leave Deuteronomy (though I realize you’ve probably already finished it in the yearly reading plan), it’s important to remember as you read the rest of the Old Testament a key teaching in the book and that is: the importance of God’s covenant with his people.

A covenant has two sides

It’s easy to forget that God’s covenants, his agreements with his people to care for and save them are not one-sided. God’s love, grace, and saving power are unconditional in that once you are one of his people, either his chosen nation or as a believer in Jesus today, you will always be his. However, as a child of God, he has certain expectations of what your behavior should be.

There are also consequences if your behavior does not follow this commands. This is the reality that answers many of the questions we have.Continue Reading

You are an ambassador in enemy occupied territory; be prepared to be misunderstood

March 19, 2016 by untilfulllight

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Heb. 11:13-16)

We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:20, KJV)

I often feel sorry for the government spokesmen on the evening news. They are attempting to explain government policies and actions to a frequently hostile audience.

Though often obviously uncomfortable and frustrated at their inability to communicate as well as they would like, the government spokesmen don’t condemn the press, or shout unkind judgments. With professionalism they explain their positions, answer questions, and offer sources for more information.

We’re in a similar situation—spokesmen for a heavenly kingdom no one can see and many don’t believe exists.

In communicating truth about this kingdom, if we feel out of place, if we feel our values have little to do with the values of the world around us, if we feel our perspective is wildly at odds with that of our audience, there isn’t anything wrong with us. It is the proper assessment of reality. We are out of sync; we are out of place.

Like the old hymn says, “this world is not our home.” But just because it isn’t home doesn’t mean we don’t have a job to do in it.

As C.S. Lewis reminded us in Mere Christianity, “Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.”

Our sabotage work, as it is for any resistance army, is to create communications that let people know the rightful king is coming back and that this world will not always be under the present deteriorating management of sin and sadness. The early Christians were known as people whose faces were turned toward the dawn. Our communications should reflect that perspective as we look for the public return of our king.

As we speak and write for the “rightful king,” pray to do it as an ambassador worthy of his calling, someone with whom God is not ashamed to be called your God.

Make your communications a joy to receive

January 30, 2016 by untilfulllight

The large crowd listened to him with delight (Mark 12:37).

And the common people heard him gladly (Mark 12:37, KJV).

And the great crowd enjoyed listening to Him. (Mark 12:37 NLT)

Did you ever think about how much fun it was to listen to Jesus? We sometimes think Jesus sounded like some professional radio announcer with a deep, serious voice and an always condemning message—but the Bible presents a different picture. As these three translations show, he was someone people heard with delight, enjoyment, and gladly.

What a wonderful example and challenge for our church communications. Our message is the gospel—that is good news and our challenge is to communicate it in joyful ways.

Desktop publishing, the web, and social media gives us great flexibility in our work. We can do things with type, illustrations, sound, color and motion that would have been impossible a few years ago. We can send instant encouragements, humor, prayers. We can be with fellow believers and uplift their spirits no matter where we are or they are.

Spend some time brainstorming with your communication partners about what it means to create communications that your audience will “hear gladly” either in print or on the web.

It doesn’t mean we have to always do wild and crazy things with graphics, sound, and motion, but if we are working with jr. High students, what some folks consider too much might just start to get their attention.

Wild and crazy isn’t for everyone. Communications create joy when they meet needs. For the mothers of preschoolers it might mean putting together a special calendar with all the events for kids, times, places, and contact names in a large-print format that’s easy to read when taped on a refrigerator door.

For businessmen in your church it might mean putting together an upscale, high quality on-line newsletter that highlights some seminars your church offers as an outreach to their peers.

For young professionals it might be a mobile phone ap or site that provides short Bible devotions to encourage them in the midst of crazy days.

Whatever it might be, ask the Lord to give you a light heart as you create your communications so that people might “hear gladly” the messages you share from him.

Abraham, the chosen people, and the real hero of the stories

January 17, 2016 by untilfulllight

As we begin reading the story of Abraham and the early history of his chosen people, we must always keep in mind the real hero of the stories that follow. None of the individuals we are about to read about are included because they were great people. They were included because they are part of the story of our great God.

We need to be reminded of this because it goes against our human nature

We humans have such high opinions of ourselves. Not only of do we think highly of ourselves, as when we silently affirm: “Oh, I’m not really all that bad” or “At least not nearly as bad as…..”, but we are also fond of constructing celebrities. We like to put people on a pedestal, whether they are movie or music superstars or heroes of the faith.

As we move back into Genesis, we find the story of one of the first heroes of our faith Abraham. We know he was the father of the Jewish nation from whom came the Messiah. We know that “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Gal. 3:6).”

But now we get to read his story and that of his immediate family, and if we read it without preconceptions, it isn’t a pretty one.

With Job, we ask: What should we do when God disappoints and what does it really means to prosper

January 8, 2016 by untilfulllight

In the same week I was told two things that at first seemed unrelated, but were really about our expectations of God.

The first one was “You know God really wants you to prosper.”

The person saying it was well-meaning, but he was talking about making money and was trying to be encouraging to tell me that I should be better off financially than I am. I didn’t know how to respond.

The second was about someone else, but told to me. It was about a man who was very angry with God because his children had moved away and he had gotten ill. He prayed and prayed that his kids would move back and that his health would be restored, but wasn’t getting the answers he wanted in either area. He thought he deserved better; he’d been told that if he trusted God he would prosper and to him that meant he should be healthy and his kids should be around. The person telling me this story asked how he should respond to his friend.

What follows is my attempt to deal with both situations.

What does it mean to prosper according to the Bible?

Sadly, situations like this are very common. They have been from the time Job was written when his friends falsely accused him of sinning because in their thinking the only reason for a person to undergo the trials he was experiencing was because of sin.

It never occurred to them that God considered Job a very godly man and that he was honoring him before the hosts of heaven with the trials he was given. Clearly, humanity has problem with what it means to prosper in God’ eyes.

I realized that I didn’t really know what this meant either, so I did a word study on what it means “to prosper.”Continue Reading