The Life of Faith, Pt 2: What do we do now?

I don't know about you, but I ask that question a lot. You would think that after over forty years of being a Christian, I shouldn't have to keep asking that question, but I still do. I hope that you read part one of this series and are ready to tackle this question. In that post, we learned that putting your faith in Christ means that we trust Him completely. Now we related that first to our salvation. We trust Him to be faithful to what He promises us in terms of bringing us into a relationship with Him that will go on through eternity. (Jn 3: 15-16)

We exercised faith in making that commitment, so, what do we do now? Is that the only purpose of faith, to come to a saving knowledge of Christ or is there more to it than that? Since the title of this series is "The Life of Faith, I am sure you already know the answer to that. In the book of Hebrews, chapter eleven, the writer lists several examples of people who trusted in God. The author also tells us two important details concerning faith. In verse one; he gives us a description of what faith is. Heb 11:1 says "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." The examples that are given to us demonstrate that these "Heroes of Faith" were commended because they were obedient to God even though they had not yet seen the answer to a promise God had made to them. Even so, they were sure that God would fulfill His promises.

You see, God has made many promises to us beyond just our salvation. If we are to follow the examples in Hebrews, we are to be sure that God will fulfill them, even before they happen. You might say, "I can't do that, it takes more faith than I have." You wouldn't be alone in that statement, but it is not optional. Look at what it says in verse six, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." I know, now you are really feeling guilty and maybe wondering whether or not you are even a true believer. Hang on, there is good news coming.

I am sure that you would agree that we all struggle with how much faith we have. Sometimes it seems easy to believe a promise from God and other times we just can't seem to trust Him. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus said that if we have a measure of faith as small as a mustard seed, we could tell a mountain to move and it would happen, nothing would be impossible for us. That makes me feel like my faith is really puny. The question then becomes, how do we increase our faith? This is a question that has brought forth much discussion and even some controversy.

There are many people who would try to say that if you just had enough faith, God must do whatever you ask Him to do. They would use verses such as we just read to justify that position. There are some problems however with that premise. First, if God must do whatever we ask, doesn't that mean that our asking is actually a demand rather than a request? I don't think I want to demand anything from God, do you? Second, it makes us sovereign rather than God. In a sense, it puts us in the position of being God. Not a place I feel comfortable in. I have seen what happens to those who would put themselves in the place of God and it is not a pretty sight! Read what happens to Satan in the book of Revelation if you want to know more.

I think that where we go wrong, is in the understanding of what promises God actually makes to us. If he has promised something, He will deliver. That is guaranteed (2 Cor 1:20, "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us." NKJV) Ps 145:13 says that the Lord is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made. So there is no doubt that God will fulfill His promises to us no matter how little our faith is. We just need to know what His promises are. That is one reason that living a life of faith is impossible without studying the Bible. How can we know what God's promises are unless we read His revealed Word? You say, "But God speaks to my heart about these things." My question back to you is, "how can you be sure it is God speaking?" The way we test what we believe God may be impressing upon us, is weighing it against scripture and what it has already revealed to us about the nature and character of God. We must study the entire Word, not just bits and pieces, to be able to discern what He actually promises us.

Doctrines such as we discussed earlier, that leave the impression that if we just have enough faith, God must do whatever we ask (demand), usually stem from taking verses out of context and not comparing them to other parts of scripture. Also, we must study the words used and what they meant to the people that they were originally written to. This can help keep us from thinking God promised us something that He didn't. Let me illustrate.

In John 16:23 Jesus says to His disciples that His Father will give them whatever they ask in Jesus' name. Some people conclude then that if they ask for a million dollars, "In Jesus name," then God has promised they will receive it. If they don't, well then, they just did not have enough faith. This turns the phrase, "in Jesus name," into some type of magic formula. That would make me question the legitimacy of that teaching and make me want to study further to understand what Jesus meant by that statement. In so doing, I compare that statement to 1 John 5:14-15, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him. "Since the apostle John wrote both of these verses, they must go hand in hand. In fact, if you did a thorough study on the phrase "in His name," you would conclude that these phrases are really interchangeable. Asking, in His name, really means according to His will. After all, since God knows everything and He will do what is best for us, why would we want anything that is not in His will? That is where true faith is measured, believing that God does work out everything for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Ro 8:28)

So, what do we do now? We spend time with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We study His word and talk to Him in prayer. The better we get to know Him, the more our faith increases and the easier it becomes to believe in His promises to us. We learn as we go that even if we have not yet seen the completion of His promises, it will come to pass. One of my favorite promises is in Phil 1:6 "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Though this was written to believers in the church at Phillpi, it is applicable to all of us. I have yet to see the completed work of Christ in my life, but I have put my (faith) complete trust in Him to accomplish His promise!

Game Plan:

As you study the word, look for the promises God has given. Study them and see if they were specific to just a certain time and person (many are) and how God fulfilled them.

Look also for promises to all believers and ask the Lord to give you the ability to believe and rest in those promises.

May the Lord increase your faith as you continue to spend time with Him, Coach    

PS: Next up will be Pt 3 in this series "Practical Issues in Living The Life of Faith"

The Life of Faith, Pt 1

Well, here we are in the New Year 2011. Wow, sometimes it is hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday that it was January 1^st 2000 and we were all breathing a sigh of relief. The dreaded "millennium bug" was declared dead on arrival. You may recall that there were many people who were convinced it would be a disaster of untold proportions, affecting every aspect of our lives. Some even went so far as to buy years worth of food supplies and even generators for their energy source. It was really a pretty crazy time.

So, you are wondering, why I would be bringing this up? Oh, you weren't? Sorry, maybe it was just me wondering why I was bringing this up. I guess I was just remembering that time, when we not only transitioned into a new year but a new millennium and I thought to myself, why did so many people get so wrapped up in believing that the so called "Y2K" bug was going to bring calamity upon us? Was there evidence that we could look at to be sure what might happen or did we just listen to people that we thought knew a whole lot more than we did? Some so called experts seemed very convincing.

Well, that same question comes to mind for many when they are thinking about God. They want to know if there is any real evidence concerning the existence of God and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, or are most believers just listening to other people who sound convincing. I could turn that around and put the shoe on the other foot. The other night, I was listening to a leader of an atheist organization, who was being interviewed on the most watched cable news show in the country. He said, "Everyone knows that all religions are just a scam." When challenged by the interviewer to support that statement, he could bring no evidence whatsoever. He just indicated that it's a well known fact. Pretty lame, don't you think?

It occurred to me that often, when Christians talk about their faith, many non-believers think we are doing the same thing. They hear people say, "you just have to take it on faith" as if we had no evidence whatsoever to support that faith. Some of our so called spokespeople don't help much. I have heard many Christians being interviewed on national television or radio say things like "I can't really explain this to you, I just believe it." My heart is grieved when the Christian faith is represented so poorly. In order to live a life of faith, we need to have a clearer picture of what faith really is.

Let's begin by defining what the word faith actually means. The Oxford Dictionary defines faith as "complete trust in someone or something." This is important because it points out that faith must have an object. We can put our faith in many things. When you sit down on a chair, you put your faith in two things. One, you believe that the person who built the chair knew what they were doing. Two, you trust that the chair will not break when you sit down. Let me ask you a question. The last time you sat in a chair, had you seen or known the person that built it? I am going to take a wild guess and say the answer is no. Why then did you trust that the chair would hold you and not break? Most likely it is because every time you sat on it before, it was just fine. You based your decision to trust the chair because you had good evidence that it would hold you. Your evidence, however, was not complete. You did not know everything there is to know about the chair. You didn't know who made it and how trustworthy they might be. You didn't know if someone else had done something to the chair that might have damaged it and caused it to break. Again, your evidence was good but not perfect, yet you chose to trust the chair.

This is similar to the person who puts their complete trust in Jesus Christ. We have very good, if not overwhelming evidence of the existence of God and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, but we don't have all the answers or understand everything there is to know about God. So we have to come to a conclusion based on what we do know. By the way, with honest historical scholarship, we have an unbelievable amount of accurate information. The Bible has been proven over and over again to be historically and scientifically accurate. There are numerous books and websites you can go to and check it out.*

The dictionary also makes this statement about the word faith, "strong conviction in the doctrines of a religion based on spiritual conviction rather than proof." I would have to take some exception to that in the case of Christianity. This again might lead someone to believe that there is no proof that leads to faith in Christ. But there is a sense in which the statement is true. Ultimately, we do make a confession of faith based upon spiritual conviction. In fact, we do not come to salvation by just believing the evidence. There has to be a conviction based upon the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

In Matthew 16, Jesus was asking the question, "Who do men say that I am?" After receiving a couple of different answers, He finally asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answers in Matt 16:16,"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (ESV) I want you to pay close attention to what Jesus says next. "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. (Matt 16:17) Now Peter had been around Jesus for about three years. He had seen Jesus perform numerous miracles, not the least of which was walking on the water himself. He had heard Jesus teach and present evidence from the scriptures of who He was. Ultimately though, he had to have the truth revealed to him by God Himself.

Our minds can be filled with knowledge and facts, but true salvation happens when our hearts are changed by the Spirit of God. Just knowing the truth isn't enough. Salvation comes by the grace of God, through faith. (Eph 2:8) Remember, faith is complete
trust in someone or something. We put our complete trust in Jesus Christ for salvation with great evidence, but more importantly by the work of the Holy Spirit revealing Him to us. (Jn 15:26) When this happens, our lives are changed forever and we begin a journey. We can now testify along with the apostle Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Gal 2:20 NIV)

Game Plan: If you have not already done so, ask the Lord to help you put your complete trust in Him. Study the verses in this post and begin looking up other verses that have to do with faith (there are at least 250 of them!)

In the next few post, we are going to look at different aspects of living the Life of Faith. Until then, may God bless you in your journey of living by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, Coach

*For great resources on the accuracy of the Bible, creation vs evolution, life death and resurrection of Jesus, check out these sites:

equip.org

thewordfortoday.org

icr.org

Born Again

Is there any concept in scripture that has been more misused, incorrectly interpreted or held up to ridicule as much as these two simple words? Let me know if you think so, but you would be hard pressed to convince me. Over the years, I have heard numerous interpretations of what that phrase means, from all kinds of sources. Even people who don't believe in the bible will use the term, with their own meaning attached to it. In the 1970's, the popular singer John Denver used it in one of his songs to imply that it meant leaving life behind and moving to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado or at least something to that effect.

This subject has been written about by dozens of Christian authors, who I am sure know much more than I do, but I thought that I would attempt to shed some light on what Jesus really meant, when He told Nicodemus that in order to see the kingdom of God, a person must be born again. Two little words, recorded in only three places, yet possibly the most significant and profound concept in the New Testament.

Why is it so important? Well, have you ever heard this statement before? "I'm a Christian but I am not one of those "born again" people. News flash, if you are not born again, you are not a Christian! Uh oh, some people are turning red right now. Give me a chance and I will explain. You see, I am not the one saying this. Jesus Christ said it. To be a Christian, you must be a believer (meaning one who puts their trust and faith in Christ). Therefore you must agree with what He says, so let's look at exactly what He says about this subject.

Nicodemus was one of the leaders of the Sanhedrin (the official ruling council of the Jews). He came to Jesus at night, most likely because he was afraid to talk to Jesus during the day, where someone might see him. Nicodemus was admitting to Jesus, that he believed He was sent from God. Jesus knew that Nicodemus did not fully understand who He was and replied, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3 NIV) Well, this really puzzled Nicodemus. He responded by asking, how a man could enter his mother's womb a second time to be born? Now surely Nicodemus did not think before he asked that question. After all, if that is what Jesus meant, what would become of anyone whose mother had died? Would they automatically be excluded from the kingdom? (Bet, you never thought of that one!) It seems a silly question.

Jesus, being very patient explains in John 3:5-8 "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." Nicodemus, like many people today, is confounded by the words of Jesus and can only respond by asking, "How can this be?"

How sad that a teacher of Israel could not understand the meaning of Jesus' words. Nicodemus was strictly thinking in worldly, temporal terms. In fact, he was so wrapped up in the "physical impossibility," that he didn't seem to care about, or understand the "consequence" of, not being born again.

Jesus says that there are two results of not being born again. One, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Two, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Let's start by defining what the kingdom of God is. Most people would think that this means heaven, which can be true, but it is more than that. The word here in Greek, refers to the realm of a king. You could think of it as being wherever your king rules. It is true that God rules in heaven, but it is also true that Christ will reign on the earth during the millennium. If you closely study the many references to the term "kingdom of God," I think you would find that it essentially refers to participation in that millennial kingdom. However, it would be safe to say that it means anywhere that Jesus is after His return in glory.

Now, let's take the second result, first. Jesus said that without being born again, you cannot enter this kingdom. That means that you will not be participating in the millennial kingdom, nor can you be where Christ is, whether in heaven or on earth. Jesus is very straightforward on this point. He gives no leeway on this matter.

Even more than that, He says that you cannot even see the kingdom. What does He mean by that? The point He is making here is the same point that the apostle Paul makes in 1 Co 2:14, where he states that the natural man (a person who has not received the Spirit of God) does not receive the things of the Spirit, nor
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Until you are born of the Spirit, you will not understand the spiritual nature of God. You cannot even see who God really is. You cannot know Him without the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. You must be born "of The Spirit."

The reason Nicodemus had so much trouble accepting this was because he related to God strictly in a worldly and temporal mind set. He was convinced that his ticket to the kingdom was already punched by the fact that He was a Jew; one of God's chosen people. His knowledge of the scripture was limited by his lack of personal relationship with the God that he thought he was serving. This same handicap is carried by people today. They think that they are Christians because they were born in America and after all they do believe in God. Usually though, it is a god of their own making. They want a god that they can live with comfortably, and not have to change their behavior or lifestyle, a god that won't judge them for their sin. That is not the God of the Bible. That will not suffice; Jesus said you must be born again.

As I said earlier, there is no such thing as a Christian, who is not born again. When you trust in Christ as your Savior and Lord, He gives you a new nature, a spiritual nature that was previously dead because of sin. (Eph 2:1-3). This is what Jesus meant when he said that you must be born of the Spirit. The technical term is regeneration. When we are born of the Spirit, the eyes of our understanding become opened and we can see the "things of the Spirit." Paul says in Rom 8:16, (NKJV) "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." We now have a connection to God that was not there before we trusted in Christ. It is an essential part of our salvation by grace through faith.

This is what it means to be born again. It is not some silly phrase to be used flippantly. It has no real meaning apart from the Word of God. If you have trusted your life to Jesus Christ, you are a "born again" believer. We should be proud to bear the title, but not boast in ourselves because we didn't earn it. It was a gift from God. Let us be like Paul who said in 1 Cor 1:31 "Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." Amen!

Game Plan: Study the scriptures given this week about the idea of being born again. Ask at least one person what they think it means to be born again. See if God opens the door for you to share your testimony of receiving Christ and becoming born again.

May God bless you as you continue your walk with Him,

Coach

One Year and Counting!

It's hard to believe, but today marks the one year anniversary of Coach's Corner. I want to thank all of you who are faithful readers. For many people, anniversaries are one of those times that you look back and reflect on what has taken place since the last anniversary. This can be a good thing. The only drawback I see is that when you get to be my age, you realize that you have more years to look back on than you have to look forward to.J Well at least in the temporal sense.

I do believe that for Christians, it is an important thing to evaluate what each year brings into your life. I tried to think back to the day that the idea of this blog came about. Why did I feel led to do such a thing? It is interesting to contemplate what my thoughts were and I can't really say that I had a definite idea of what my real motivation was. It took a while to discover what I really hoped to accomplish by this adventure. Not too long after I had begun posting, I realized what the goal was that the Lord had instilled in me. My heart's desire was and is, to be used by the Lord to encourage other believers to grow steadily in their relationship to Him. That is what this blog is really all about.

While doing an in depth study in the book of Phillipians, I came to the conclusion that the apostle Paul had this same hope for the believers in the church at Phillipi. It is summed up in these three verses: And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God. Phi 1:9-11.

Paul brings out three important points in this prayer, contained in verse 9. Point one, is that their love might abound. You might ask, love for whom or what? The Greek word used for love here is once again, agape. It denotes love in a social or moral sense. I believe, if you keep it in context with the rest of the book, he is speaking of a love for the brethren. The type that puts others needs above your own. That kind of love is only possible when it is bestowed upon you by God, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Note that Paul says to abound in this love. This word is perisseuo in Greek and it means to "keep on flowing, like a flood."It means, continually and forcefully!

The second point is that this love has to have knowledge attached to it. The word for knowledge comes from the root word, epiginosko. It literally means, "become fully acquainted with" or to "recognize." He wants these believers to become fully acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul concludes by giving them a reason to be knowledgeable. This knowledge will give them the ability to discern what is best. The NKJV says it more literally, "to approve the things that are excellent." How important it is in our Christian life to know the things that are excellent, the things that are best.

Paul then goes on to say that this will lead to a pure (meaning tested as genuine) and blameless (because of our relationship with Christ) life. It brings a life filled with the fruit of righteousness (right actions), which comes by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within the believer. This is what our life should be like, as we wait for the day that the Lord returns. The end result is an awesome life for us and as Paul says in verse 11, it brings glory and praise to God! What could be better than that?

So, there you have it. Now you know why I do this. I pray that Coach's Corner has and will continue to encourage you to … "live a life worthy of the calling you have received." (Eph 4:1, Col 1:10,1Th 2:12) In order to do that you must surrender your life, fully and completely to your redeemer, the lover of your soul, Jesus Christ. I pray that you have already done that, but if not, don't wait. Do it now. Learn what it is like to have the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God who created you, to be in control of your life. Just ask Him to come into your life and take full control. He promises in His word that He will do it. (Jn 6:37)

May God bless you and keep you,

Coach

Do You Have a Power Shortage?

Growing up as an athlete, you learn that nothing comes easy. Hard work, dedication to training, self reliance all play a part in your success. As a coach, I tried to convey these same principles to my players. In order to improve, you must be willing to work very hard. How much you improve and how well you perform is tied directly to how hard you work. Often times a player who may not have the most talent, will succeed where a more talented player fails, just because of his or her work ethic.
As a young Christian, I always thought it would work the same way in my Christian life. If I just worked hard enough at it I would be a better Christian. I would be kinder, more self sacrificing, loving, and less sinful. I would be more like Jesus. The problem was, the harder I tried, the more I seemed to fail. The more I failed, the more guilt I felt. That guilt would drive me farther from the Lord rather than closer to Him. I didn't want to face Him because I thought He would be angry with me. I would just want to give up and forget trying to be a "better" Christian. Have you ever felt that way? 

I couldn't figure out why this wasn't working. After all, it worked fine in every other area of my life. I would set a goal, work as hard as I possibly could and reach my goal. Let me illustrate. When I made up my mind that I was called to be a teacher and coach, I set my goal to be a Head Football Coach at the High School level, by the time I reached my thirtieth birthday. I started coaching freshman football for no pay, scouted for the varsity, went to coaching clinics in the off season and learned everything I possibly could about coaching and the game of football. As I gained confidence in my abilities and knowledge of the game, I became a varsity defensive coordinator (the person in charge of the defense) and started applying for every Head Football job that came open. I was willing to go just about anywhere to get that job. At the age of twenty nine, (after finishing second at least eight or nine times) I landed my first Head Coaching position at a school in central California. I had reached my goal.

This made sense to me. If you are willing to work hard enough, eventually you succeed. Why would it be any different in my walk with Christ? Why then, did it seem that no matter how hard I tried, I just continued to fail? Maybe some of you are in that place right now. It is frustrating and demoralizing. You might even be thinking of giving the whole thing up. How many times have I heard people say, "This just isn't working for me?"

If that is you, I have some good news for you. Don't give up, there is a solution and it is not to try harder. In fact, it is just the opposite. You see, we need to understand that we have a power shortage. The truth of the matter is that we don't have the power in and of ourselves to be more Christ like. First of all, Jesus never told us to try to be more like Him. In fact, He said "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."(Matt 11:28-30 NIV) Now I guarantee you that no coach that I ever had, said that to me, nor did I ever say that to any of my players. Instead it would be, "C'mon, suck it up and work harder!"

But in the Christian life, that just won't work. That which works in the realm of the flesh and the world, does not work in our spiritual lives. Why not? Because as Jesus said in John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."


Paul says in Rom 7:18 "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out." For us to become more like Christ is a completely spiritual work. It cannot be done in the flesh no matter how hard we try, so we need to find a different "power source" than ourselves. That power source is God Himself, working through the person and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Let me share some words from the book of Phillipians, which I think will help you to understand this mystery. Paul says in Phil 1:6 "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Ok, look at the verse and answer these questions.

1. Who began the work, was it you?
2. Who will carry on the work, is it you?
3. When will the work be completed? Is that any time in the near future, at least that we know of?

Do you get Paul's point here? God was doing a spiritual work in the lives of these believers, just as He is in your life if you are a believer. He is going to continue that work until we pass away or He returns. Later in the chapter Paul tells us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. 

He goes on to say in Chapter Two, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Notice the term is work out, not work at. He does not mean that we do the work because in the very next verse he says, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."(Phil 2:13 NIV) The word used for works here is energeoon in Greek. It comes from the root word energeo, which is where we get our word energize from. God, the Holy Spirit is our energy source. He provides all the power we ever need to live the life worthy of our calling. What we must do is tap into that energy source by just spending time with God in worship, prayer and study of His word. God is so good that He even provides us the energeo to do that! 

Now I don't mean this in some mystical sense. The Holy Spirit is a person, the third Person of the triune God. But the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, providing us the power to live a Christ like life. (Ro 8:9-11)

We do have one part to play in this. We must be willing to surrender ourselves to the working of the Spirit in our lives. We must allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit and then let Him do the work. When Paul was discussing his inability to do that which was good, he concluded this way, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom 7:24-25 NIV) What a wonderful Savior we have, who not only saves us and calls us to a holy life, but then furnishes the power to live it. Praise His mighty name!
Game Plan:

1. Begin a reading plan in the book of Acts. See how many times you can find examples of the Holy Spirit empowering the believers.
2. Ask the Lord to empower you through His Holy Spirit each morning for one week and see what the Lord does.
3. Thank Him for your salvation and power in your life.

May God bless you as you allow Him to strengthen and empower you to fulfill His calling in your life,
Coach

Show Me, Don’t Tell Me!

If you would ask any of my former players to give you examples of my coaching philosophy, I am sure they would mention this phrase. I used it every day, probably more than once a day. Maybe, they heard it so much, they got sick of hearing it, but I'll guarantee you one thing, they remembered it. It actually would get to a point each season, where I wouldn't have to say it anymore, because the players would repeat the saying before it even got out of my mouth. Let me illustrate. If we had run a play several times and a certain player continued to miss his assignment, I might say (very gently and kindly, of course), "Son, do you have any idea of what you are supposed to do on this play?" The reply might go something like this. "Yes coach, I am supposed to… I know, I know, show you, don't tell you, right?" "You've got it, son!"

I think that most of us would agree that actions speak louder than words, wouldn't we? How often have the actions of a person, betrayed what they have said? Sometimes this plays out in a simple thing, like promising a friend to help them with a chore and then not showing up to do it. Have you ever done that? (Rhetorical question, you don't have to answer). This may not seem like a very important issue but what does it say about our character? It can be very easy to develop a habit of promising and never delivering.

The reason that I emphasized this to my players so much was because I believed it was such an important part of character development. Anybody can tell you what they will do, but it really means nothing unless they actually do it. The criminal justice system is filled with people who have said that they will not commit another crime and will seek help, but never do. My classes are filled with students who guarantee me that they will do everything they should and will pass the class, but are non-suit the next day. I can't tell you how many parent conferences I have been to and heard a parent say, "I will make sure my student is in class every day from now on," but within a week, they are truant again. It seems that there is an epidemic of integrity deficit when it comes to following through on commitment.

So often, when I am counseling with people, the reason a relationship is strained or broken, is because one or both people have not put actions to their words. For example, a person who tells their spouse that they love them, but then refuses to get help for their alcohol addiction. A parent, who assures their child how much they care about them, yet is always too busy to be involved in their life. How about a pastor, who preaches the gospel, but gets caught living a secret life of sexual sin? Let me ask you, do their words have any value or meaning? The old saying that actions speak louder than words is very true, don't you think?

Did you know that the Bible actually has a lot to say on this subject? Let's start with a parable from Jesus. "What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' "'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went."Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. "Which of the two did what his father wanted?" "The first," they answered. (Matt 21:28-31 NIV) Do you agree with their answer? Of course! You see, it wasn't what was said by the second son that got the job done, it was the actions of the first son.

Jesus was using this parable to rebuke the leaders of Israel, who talked a good game about loving God and being righteous, but would not repent of their sin. He also would rebuke them for putting burdens upon people which they could not carry and then not lift one finger to help them! All talk, no action. In fact Jesus exhorted us to not make boastful pledges to do things, but just let your 'yes be yes' and your 'no be no' (Mt 5:37). James reiterated this in Jas 5:12. We need to take this to heart.

The Bible makes it clear that we will be known by our fruit (works led by the Holy Spirit), not our words. You can read Mt 7:16-20 and be sure of that. James pulls no punches about this topic. James 1:22-24 "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man, who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like."

The Apostle John is adamant that your actions much match your words when you speak of your relationship with Christ. Look at these verses:

1 John 1:6 If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

1 John 2:4-6 The man who says, "I know Him," but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in Him. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.

1 John 3:6-7 No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.

1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

I could go on and on with scriptures, but you get the picture. What we do speaks louder than what we say. Now, I am not telling you that we should never say to a loved one, "I love you." We need to do that. But we need to back it up with action. I also do not want you to be discouraged because you have not always done what you have said you would do. We have all fallen short in that area. Let's not live in guilt but remember that John also said that if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin. What I do hope, though, is that we would recognize the importance of our actions and strive in our lives, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to let them speak for themselves.

GAME PLAN: Ask the Lord to show you in prayer, where you might have fallen short in letting your actions match what you say. Ask forgiveness for this. Receive God's forgiveness and pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to help you in this area. Look for opportunities to serve the Lord and do it without telling anyone what you are going to do. Just do it! (Apologies to Nike, but they were not the first one to use this phrase)

God bless you as you follow Christ,

Coach

Can I Take a Mulligan?

Ok, for those of you who have never played golf, I will attempt to explain this to you. In golf, you have to count every stroke it takes to get the ball into the hole. You may, on a rare occasion after hitting a bad shot, ask for a mulligan. If your playing partners agree to it, you don't count that shot and hit another one to take its place. Everyone understand? Now, when you get as old as I am, it is always good to play with younger players. That way you can claim a senior citizen mulligan for every nine holes. Of course, it is not written in any rule book, but I always seem to get away with it. Then again, maybe that's because my partners usually beat me by eight to ten strokes anyway, so they let me think that I'm two strokes better than I really am.

It may seem silly, but it always feels good, after hitting a terrible shot, to be able to redeem yourself with a better one. It's interesting that the second shot is almost always better than the first one. I wonder why that is? There is actually more pressure on the second try than the first, because you never ask for two mulligans in a row. That would be really bad form.

Right now you are probably wondering why it is, that you are bothering to read the musings of an old football coach, who takes liberties with his golf score? Good question. It's probably because you are fascinated with inner workings of the mind of a person, who has spent almost forty years trying to get teenagers to run one lap. Or, maybe you are just bored because no one has been posting any thrilling news on your facebook wall. You know, like "just went to Starbucks and ordered triple chocolate caffeine free mocha something or other." Don't want to miss that news!

Well, if it's the first reason, here is where I was going. It occurred to me that so often in our lives, we wish we could take a mulligan. Think about it. How often would you like to take back something that you have said or done and then get to try again? Sometimes, we know immediately that something we have said or done was wrong. How we wish it wouldn't have happened. It was not what we wanted to say or do and we would love to do it over right away. Sometimes we get that opportunity, but often we don't

When I was coaching, there were many times I wanted to take a mulligan. Sometimes, I might make a play call and before the play would even start, I knew it was a bad call and the result of the play would not be good. Guess what, no mulligans in football (unless of course the other team got a penalty, but I'm not sure that counts). Usually, you just have to live with the results and try to make up for your mistake by doing better on the next play. There were games where our coaching staff would have liked to have taken a mulligan on our entire game plan. It's kind of like realizing that you should have hit a nine iron instead of your sand wedge. You thought the plan was good, but it came up short. If you have no idea what I was just talking about, please refer to "The Complete Guide to Golf for Idiots" or tune in to the Golf Channel.

On a much more serious note, I have to admit that there were times I would have loved to have taken a mulligan on something I said or how I handled a situation with a player. How you speak and act toward your players has a much more lasting effect on them than the amount of games you win or lose. I always tried to remember this when dealing with my players but I know that sometimes I said or did the wrong thing and there was no mulligan to be taken. You had to live with the consequences of your actions. Those consequences can be very painful. You know this to be true, because all of us have suffered loss of relationships by things we have said or done, have we not? We have had to live with the results of bad decisions that we wished we could have "done over." Oh how we would love to take a mulligan!

Well, I am sure by now that you are trying to figure out what spiritual application there is to this post. It's quite simple really. Do you realize that God gives us a mulligan on life? In spite of all the times we miss the mark (sin), rebel against God, do or say things that would hurt Him; He has granted us a mulligan. God gives us the opportunity to come to Him, receive His love and forgiveness and start life over. He allows us that second chance to get it right. Have you ever thought to yourself, "I just wish I could just start over?" That's what God let's you do. When you come to him in repentance (which means agreeing with him that you have been going the wrong direction and agree to turn toward Him), He will forgive you and bring you into a wonderful relationship with Him.

The purpose of Jesus dying on the cross was to give you life. Not just life, but a much better life than the one that you have been living without Him. John 10:10 says, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." He has suffered the consequences of our sin, so that we don't have to. The theological term for this is called justification. You may think of this as "just as if I never sinned" because that is how God looks at us once we have received Jesus as our Savior. Look at these verses

Ps 103:10-12, "he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

Heb 10:17 "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."

Even after we receive Christ, we are going to make mistakes. We will not live perfect lives. But guess what, as far as our relationship with God is concerned, we still get mulligans. God continually forgives us and gives us another chance to do it better. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

This is a continual process. We are continually cleansed and continually forgiven. We are warned however to not take this forgiveness lightly. If we do the Bible declares that we are Godless. Jude 4, "For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only sovereign and Lord." God's grace is a marvelous thing, not to be taken for granted. I can't imagine after my playing partners have granted me a second chance, that I would purposely hit another bad shot, just to see if they would give me another one. We want to be thankful for God's amazing grace and ask Him for the power to do it right the next time!

If you are ready to take a mulligan on your life, to start over and live it God's way rather than your way, follow the game plan.

GAME PLAN: If you have never received Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, I pray that today you would make that commitment and begin your new life. If you look to the right side of this blog, you can find the steps on How to Become a Christian. Talk to another believer and share what you have done. Find a church that centers on teaching the Bible and get into fellowship with other Christians. I promise that you will never regret the decision you made.

May God bless you as you walk with Him, Coach

Decisions, pt 3: The Big Ones

Have you ever had to make a really big decision, I mean the kind that can literally be life changing, and you just don't know which choice to make or which direction to take? I'm sure that most of you have been there. I know I certainly have. What even makes it worse is that we often think that as a Christian, that shouldn't happen. After all, if I am walking with Christ and seeking His will, shouldn't I always know which way He is leading me? I have some Christian friends that tell me that unless they hear clearly and specifically from the Lord, they never move on any big decisions. I don't know if I am just too impatient or spiritually less mature, but that is not how it has always worked in my life. I admit that I would like it better that way.

I think that it always helps to look at people in the Bible to see if it always worked that way for them as well. We see many times in the Old Testament when God spoke clearly to men about doing something that would change their life. Here are a few examples:

1 Noah was told by God to build an Ark which would save him from the destruction of the earth (Gen 6)

2 God told Abram to leave his country and go to a land that He would show him (Gen 12:1)

3. God spoke to Moses and sent him to deliver Israel from the bondage of Egypt (Ex3:10)

At first glance, these examples would seem to indicate that God speaks clearly when it comes to the life changing decisions. A closer examination though, might give us a different perspective. In each of these situations you might notice that none of these men were seeking God about decision in their life. God was making a decision that would change their lives forever but it wasn't as though they were asking for that. So, are there examples of people who were praying and got absolute, clear direction from God?

The answer is yes. One beautiful example is found in Genesis. Abraham wanted Isaac to take a wife from his own people, not from the Canaanites that he was living among. He sent his chief steward to accomplish that task. The steward, in approaching the town, prayed for God's guidance in finding the right woman. He asked for specific requirements to be met, so that he would not make a mistake. You can read the story in Genesis 24 and see that God answered his prayer in no uncertain terms. He knew with absolute certainty that he was accomplishing God's will.

Well, those are some great Old Testament examples of how God spoke directly to people, giving them exact directions for their life, but what can we learn in the lives of people in the New Testament? Who could we look to for an example of how to make those big decisions of life? My first response would be to look at the life of Paul. Now he had real guidance is making a decision that would change his life. Basically, Jesus knocked him off his donkey to get his attention. Then He told him exactly what to do next. You can read about it in Acts, chapter 9. Once again, as in the life of the Old Testament examples we saw, Paul was not praying about any big decision. God just forced him to make one. In fact, I can't find an instance recorded in the Bible that says that any of the apostles were seeking to make a big change in their life when Jesus happened to show up and call them. What bigger, radically life changing decision could they have made than to answer the call of Jesus?

Right now you are probably saying, "I thought you promised some help in making big decisions and now I'm more confused than ever." That's OK, so am I. Just kidding. What I really want us to see is that I don't think there is any simple formula when it comes to making those big decisions. I believe that God works differently at different times in our lives. Sometimes He makes His leading unmistakable, but at other times we might just have to take a step of faith. I know that this has been true in my life. I can only share with you the ways that I approach those big decisions and hope that it might give you some help in making yours.

First let's clear up what kind of decisions we are talking about here. I'm talking about things like career changes, whether or not to marry someone, moving to another state, buying or selling a home. How about care decisions for your elderly parents or even your own major health decisions, such as whether or not to have surgery or try a different treatment? Those are really important and often very difficult decisions. How do we go about making the best decision? How do we discern God's leading when it doesn't seem to be obvious, even though we may have spent countless hours in prayer?

I believe we need to consider several things. First, we must look at what the scriptures say about the subject. That may seem like a no brainer, but we often make bad decisions because we fail to apply scriptural principles. One example would be a Christian praying about marrying a non believer. No need to pray about that one, the scripture is clear. The answer is NO! (2 Co 6:14) You will not pray your way into changing God's mind on an issue. Follow the biblical principles. This requires diligence in searching out which scriptures may apply to the decision we are considering but it will be well worth the effort.

Next, we should look at our circumstances and see if there is evidence that God is working. Often times God will arrange a pattern of circumstances that should be getting our attention, demonstrating that He is leading us. Sometimes God even drops something right in our lap and we fail to recognize it as His leading. However, this should never be the only consideration. Circumstances don't always lead us in the right direction. They should be viewed as a piece of the puzzle.

Along those same lines, a good way to discover God's plan is to ask Him to open doors that He wants you to go through and close the ones that might lead you in the wrong direction. A good example of this is found in Acts 16. Paul wanted to take Timothy on a mission trip to begin training him. In verse 6 it says that they traveled throughout Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit kept them from going to Asia. Though we are not told how the Spirit did this, we know it was a closed door. The same thing occurred when they tried to enter Bithynia. They decided to go to Troas. Read what happens next. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:9-10 NIV) Closed doors, open doors!

Personally, when I am faced with making a life changing decision, I tend to emphasize the closed door in my prayers. I ask God to close any door that would allow me to make a choice that He would not want me to make and I trust that He will. Remember, God wants what is best for you and if you are sincerely seeking His will He is not going to lead you in the wrong direction. Jesus said in Matt 7:9-11 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?"

One last thing you should do when making those big decisions. Seek Godly counsel. Don't go to someone who you know will just give you the answer you may want to hear. Go to a mature believer, who will help you to seek God's will. Often times their counsel will confirm what you already know God wants you to do. Prov 11:14 says "Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety." NKJV

The key to the whole process is, seek God's will in these decisions, rather than your own. When you ask for His will to be done rather than yours, you can rest assured that He will guide you. Use biblical principles, circumstances, open and closed doors and Godly counsel. Trust Him! Just as He did Paul, the Holy Spirit will guide you. When you know the Holy Spirit is guiding and directing, you can experience His peace.

Game Plan: Read the stories listed above and see what God shows you about the decision making process. See if you can find any other examples that would also apply

God bless you as you seek His will, Coach

Decisions, Pt 2

Ok, Ok, I know I'm late for my usual posting time but I couldn't decide what to write. Seriously, it seems that whenever you teach on any area of spiritual growth, you will bring testing upon yourself. I will tell you that before I could write about some practical ways of making good decisions, I had to examine myself to see if I had anything of real value to share. I hope that I do, but that will be for the reader to decide.

Over the years as a Head Football Coach, Athletic Director and high school administrator, I learned that there were some decisions that must be made immediately and some that did not. It was important to learn how to prioritize. Now this could sometimes offend other people who were certain that a particular decision must be made at once. I often got home late at night and had five to ten phone messages that were "urgent", with such major issues as, "My son's name was misspelled in the game program" or "the coach made Susie run an extra lap after practice and it wasn't fair." Now, these folks always expected an immediate call back, no matter how late it was (which was usually between ten to eleven pm). Let's see. Do I spend the next hour or so responding to these types of problems or try to get some sleep so that I can function the next day? Well, fortunately my answering machine died, (probably from overuse) so I just didn't get another one! I thought that was an excellent decision, you might disagree.

The question still remains though, how do I even decide what to prioritize and then, when a decision has to be made, how do I make good ones. The obvious answer for all Christians is found in Phil 4:6 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God ( NKJV). This verse begins with an important concept that we often forget. Our first priority in decision making is to not be anxious. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, to not be anxious (meaning don't worry), shows trust in God. When we know that God loves us and has our eternal good in mind, what do we really have to worry about? I'm not saying that we act like there is never anything to be concerned over, but that we trust in God's provision for all of our needs and obey our Savior when he tells us not to worry.

The second reason is that anxiousness often leads to bad decisions. If we are so worried about what might happen if we don't do something immediately, we become hasty in our decision and often don't give God time to work out the solution. I know by experience how hasty decisions can get us into trouble! I could give you numerous personal examples here, but I would really rather not. It's too painful. Ok, I will give you one, but only one. When my son was ready to turn 16, I wanted to have a car that I thought was safe and reliable that he could use when he needed to. Usually, I would take time to really pray and shop around, but I wanted him to practice driving the car he would take his driver's test in. Well, to make a long story short, I immediately went out a got a "really good deal" on a used (I won't mention the brand) car. Does the term money pit mean anything to you? It lasted less than two years before I had to part ways with it. Dumb decision!

Instead of being anxious, we want to follow the second part of this verse which is pray, pray, pray. Look at what verse 7 tells us will happen when we do that. (Phil 4:7) "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (NKJV) Now, we often think this verse means that we should always have this perfect peace in every decision that we make or we shouldn't make it. At the risk of being called a heretic by some, I don't think that is exactly what this verse means. It is true that often times God will help us with a decision by really giving us a peace about that specific decision. But just having peace about it does not make it the right decision. You want an example? How about this one? I have heard of several examples of supposedly Christian couples who have been living together without being married. Then they say, "We have prayed about it and we have a real peace". That's nice, but it doesn't change the fact that you are living in rebellion to the Lord on that issue.

Really, what these two verses in conjunction are telling us is, that a life lived in prayer instead of worry will be a peaceful life and that God desires us to live that way. He loves it when we come to Him for our needs instead of worrying. Do you realize that you can never ask for God's help too often? Even Jesus prayed constantly to His Father in heaven. Should we do any less? 1st Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to "pray without ceasing". That means constantly!

I know, your next question is "what about when you have to make an immediate decision and there is no time to pray more than, "Lord help me". Well, number one "Lord help me" is a great prayer. Simple and to the point. But, my answer to your question lies in what you do with your time when you don't have to make an immediate decision. Do you spend time before your day gets going in prayer? If you do, and you are asking the Lord to lead you by His Holy Spirit in all that you do for that day, then trust He will be guiding you in those "must make immediately decisions". Pray for wisdom each day and James says in Ch 1, verse 5 that God will give it to you generously.

The other preparation you need to have in order to make good, quick decisions is to have a "working" knowledge of His word. The more you know God's word, the more built in guidelines you have at your disposal. Now, I don't just mean having memorized verses. You must have understanding of what they teach. This is why it says in 2 Tim 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.( NKJV) Rightly dividing the word of truth means knowing how to apply it correctly. This is a tremendous safeguard in preventing bad decisions, especially when they need to be made in a hurry. A great rule of thumb is, don't make any decision that you know goes against the will of God as contained in His Word. I can't think of anytime in my life that following this rule didn't lead to good results. God's word is living and active… it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb 4:12). The Holy Spirit teaches us how to use it properly and that is the basis for good and Godly decision making.

Next post, "The Big Ones." How do we go about making those "life changing" types of decisions?

Until then may God bless you as you seek His direction for your life, Coach

 

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Have you ever really stopped and thought about how many decisions you must make every day of your life? For that matter, think about how many you make every hour of every day. Some of us can hardly count the ones we have to make each minute. Do you ever get overwhelmed to the point that you would rather just have someone else make them for you? Oh, you mean I'm the only one that does? OK then, maybe I'll just decide to pick another topic to write aboutJ.

Seriously, having to make constant decisions can be very wearing, can't it? Maybe you thought I was exaggerating when I said each minute, but as a teacher and coach, you literally do make decisions on a minute by minute basis. In each class, your students will force you to decide some things. It may be that they are disobeying a class or school rule and you have to decide if it is going to be worth the time and distraction to enforce it. They may ask an inappropriate question and you must decide how you will answer. Maybe you're giving a test and you think a student is cheating. You must decide how to approach that student in order to get to the truth without possibly accusing them falsely. Are you getting my drift here? As a high school teacher, you are faced with multiple decisions for each of your five class periods.

When I was coaching, the amount of decisions could be quadrupled, especially as a Head coach. It is hard for anyone who has not had that experience, to imagine how many decisions a Head football coach makes each day. Just like in the classroom, you know that sometimes what even seems like a small, nondescript decision can affect one of your players in a big way. Let me give you one example. One year I had a wonderful young man, an extremely hard worker, who injured himself in a drill. He said his neck hurt a little bit, but that he was fine and wanted to get back in the action. He looked and acted perfectly fine and it would have been easy to do just that. Instead, we called his mom and asked her to come down and take him in to be examined by a doctor, which she did. By the time he got there, he was acting strangely and felt ill. He was immediately taken into emergency and the situation quickly turned worse. The doctor said that he had pinched an artery in his neck, which cut off blood flow to his brain. He informed the player's mom that had he not gotten treatment in the next twenty minutes or so, he would not have survived. Fortunately, he was treated in time and everything turned out well. Unfortunately, he didn't play again for us, but that, I'm sure, was a good decision.

I can guarantee you that an event like that, made our coaching staff realize how important our decisions could be. During each practice, literally hundreds of decisions are made which will affect the outcome of an upcoming game, but also will have an effect on individual player's lives. In my coaching career, I never wanted to take either of those two elements lightly. I remember another time when I wished I had made a different decision than the one I made. We were running what we call "team offense", which means that we run a certain number of our plays against our defense, live. We had run what was scripted to be our last play, but we did not execute properly, so I gave the famous coaching command, "RUN IT AGAIN." At the end of that play, my quarterback, the best player on the team, went down with a knee injury. It was his last play of the season. I cannot describe to you how badly I felt for that young man. There is nothing worse in sports, than having a player who has worked hard and sacrificed so much in order to perform at their highest level, lose the opportunity to play because of injury. Even after twenty five years, I wish I would have ended practice that day rather than saying those words.

I guess that the point is to realize that we make many decisions every day and those decisions have consequences attached to them. That is why it's easy to become overwhelmed by the weight of decision making. How do we deal with that issue? Is there a way to guarantee that we make good decisions? Can we eliminate the bad ones? Well, those are good questions, so now I will have to decide whether or not to try and answer them. I will tell you up front that I have certainly made my share of bad decisions. We all do, but I think that there are some things that we can do which will help us make the best decisions possible most of the time.

The first and most important thing you must do is make the biggest decision of your life. If you haven't already done so, you need to turn your life over to God. He created you to have fellowship with Him. This happens when you trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. When you do that, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you. One of His main purposes is to give you guidance in the entire decision making process. John 16:13 says, "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth." Col 2:3 tells us that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In order for us to make wise decisions, we must ourselves be "in Christ". Think about it. If God is omniscient (knows all there is to know, beginning to end), wouldn't it make sense to rely on him for guidance in our decision making?

Without this important first step, there is really nothing I could tell you that would help you to make good decisions. Why? Because God is concerned not only with temporal issues, but eternal ones. We tend to make our decisions based on what seems good for us here and now, but God wants what is best for our eternal soul. So without His involvement, we are bound to make wrong decisions. It really shouldn't be that hard to choose what God wants, rather than what we might think we want, when we realize how much He loves us. Consider this verse. Jer 29:11 " For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

GAME PLAN:
During this next week, look at the book of Genesis in the Old Testament and read about three men, Abraham, Joseph and Moses. Write down what strikes you about how they made their decisions.

In the next post, I hope to share some practical ways to make good, Godly decisions. Until then, may God bless you as you seek to follow Him.

Coach