I have a tendency to overlook so many details in a room. Lately, I’ve been noticing paintings that are hung in people’s houses. I usually don’t. I tend to fall prey to the stereotypical guy that doesn’t pay much attention to details. The trend had begun when my brother-in-law, asked me to offer an interpretation of a painting above his mantle. The more I looked at his painting, I marveled at the creativity and skill of the artist. Humbled by my own painting skills. At best, I can paint by numbers. I can only artistically connect the dots. In John 9, I’ve noticed that the miracle of giving sight was creative and not restorative. The Holy Spirit records this miracle to offer us understanding and encouragement in the midst of a creation that is both beautiful and marred by the result of sin. Jhn 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jhn 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” This mans blindness was not a result of sin. The religious teachers of the day had taught that it was actually possible for a child to sin in the womb. They also rationalized birth defects of a child as a result of the sin of their parents. This is a gross misinterpretation of the text. Exd 20:5 “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;” The real idea behind this, is for those people that rebel against me (God), I will keep visiting them generation after generation. Trying to protect them by dealing, convicting, and correcting them. God is declaring his consistency. He’ll never give up on you or me. I believe our current culture is not to far off from ideology of the Pharisees. We too have that tendency to declare that we are so messed up because of the influence of our parents, genetics, or science teacher. Although we are certainly affected by our environment, Scripture removes our excuses and makes us accountable to our own sin. For the believer, we have the ability to escape it all together. 1Cr 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it]” Without a doubt, all sadness, suffering, and sorrow is, indirectly, the result of sin. But this mans blindness was not the direct result of his sin, or his parents. The Lord will allow affliction, in order to do a greater work.

We all know what it feels like to not get a gift that we want. Many of us have walked away from a birthday or Christmas a bit disappointed, because we had our sights on something that we did not receive. In John 9 we continue looking at the miracle of Jesus giving the gift of sight to a man. This man born blind from birth must have wondered why so many others had received this precious gift of sight, but not him. Although Jesus’ disciples inquired whose sin had caused this man’s blindness, Jesus had assured them that the man’s blindness was not the result of sin, but He had a plan and reason for delaying this gift of sight. At times we will see a delay of God withholding a gift to develop you and I as a spiritual man. I can’t help but think of Joseph in Gen 39. Although he was a dreamer, he did nothing wrong. His brothers hatred for him had cast him into a pit, His faithfulness and stance in purity against Potiphar’s wife, had cast him in prison. The Lord had restrained the Gift of freedom for Joseph. But it was just for a season. It was for a long season, but just a season. When the Lord had giving Joseph the gift of freedom, Joseph was manicured into a thankful, humble, gentile, sensitive, appreciative, patient, reliable, and faithful servant of the Lord, that would be one of the most powerful men of the world, to help provide and nourish the multitudes. As unnatural as it may feel, praise the Lord for the delay of a gift. Incredible things happen in the waiting room.
Psa 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

The blurred text began in the fourth grade. Each subsequent visit to the eye doctor offered a report of vision loss. My vision was declining at such a steady rate that my doctor was concerned that I may be on the unfortunate path of loosing my sight. As I hit adolescence my vision fortunately plateau. I couldn’t imagine the thought of losing the gift of sight. It is reported that every 20 minutes, someone in our nation loses his or her eyesight. A terrifying thought. Most people, like myself, would rather lose some other sense, than our eyesight. What would it be like to not be able to watch my beautiful kids grow up? Jesus performed so many incredible miracles in the Bible. Jhn 21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. In fact, so many, that only a few were recorded. It appears that the most often miracle, is making blind eyes see. Jhn 9:5-7 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. One of the amazing components to this miracle of Jesus giving sight to this blind man was the fashion He worked. I don’t know if you have ever had mud in your eyes, but an eyelash can be a bit irritating. A grain of sand in my eye can arrest all activity and cause me to flush out the irritant. The idea here is that this mud must have been frustrating. Then Jesus tells the blind man to trek to the pool of Siloam to wash it out. According to a commentary, this pool was 700 yards away. Perhaps an easy task for you and I, but he was a blind man. Sometimes the Lord will allow the things that are irritating or frustrating in our lives in order to will drive us to the water of His word so that we may be healed. Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. There will be times the Lord will allow events and circumstances that will be frustrating or irritating before we are healed. Accept the mud, don’t despise it.

A few years back, after much training and preparation, I packed up my family for a weekend, drove eight hours to Detroit to compete in a Kendo (Japanese fencing) tournament. Because the sport is so select, the travel is usually great and the opportunities slim. In Kendo, the tournaments are single elimination and a kendoka is only guaranteed several minutes of action. When my first match had begun, I made a confident head cut. It felt so clean and effective. To my surprise the judge had awarded the point to my opponent. I shrugged it off and began my next sequence of attacks. As I physically attempted to check my 6’5” opponent into position with my body, I once again sprung back into position for a swift and clean head cut. My mouth dropped as the three judges unanimously awarded the last and final point to my opponent. I closed my match with our ceremonial sankuo (bow) and noticed one of the judges pointing to the line behind me. I stepped out of bounds. Disqualified! All that preparation, all that money, all that distance, all that work, yet it was so easy to step out of bounds. Lord, please keep us within your lines! Patrick Henry wrote, “Give me liberty or give me death.” The apostle Paul gives us a different theme in regards to liberty. In 1 Corinthians chapters 8-10, we see a different mindset. More like, give me liberty, but don’t let it cause death to those around me. We are exhorted to abandon the activities and pursuits that may cause our brothers in Christ to stumble. “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Corintians 9:26-27

Still looking at the character of John the Baptist, challenged and captivated with what came from the mouth of Jesus about him, “Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matt 11:11) I want to examine his life and see why he was so great spiritually like no other man on earth. Not only was he willing to sacrifice his own comfort and time, he brought forth the message of grace. “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, [but] grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1:16-17) This is the second effective benchmark of effective outreach and worship. We can’t acquire heaven, eternal life, or a relationship with God by our good works or deeds, but it is by His grace, an unmerited gift. “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph 2:5-9) The apostle Paul reminds us that it is the revelation of God’s goodness that leads to repentance. We turn from our own self-directed pursuits and live for Jesus. “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” (Rom 2:4) I think on how Jesus has revealed His goodness to me. I think on how He has shown His perfect love, joy, and abundant blessing to us. This is what keeps me close to Him. His goodness!

We have seen the Lord stir up our fellowship over the past several months in regards to the great commission that has been placed before the church. “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Mat 28: 18-20) Lately, I have been thinking on the life of John the Baptist. One of the things that capture my attention is what had come out of the mouth of our Lord concerning this man. Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” This intrigues me, that there has been none spiritually greater than this man on earth. As I respond to the desire that the Lord has placed in our hearts to do things well for His names sake, I’ve discovered eight things gleaned from the life from john the Baptist that can encourage us in effective outreach. The first aspect of his life was that he had counted the costs. Through the years, I’ve seen a handful of buildings that were designed to be big and bold, but the contractor never effectively counted the costs involved in the project. You seen the evidence of a potentially great work that started but due to the lack of planning and evaluating the costs, the project never finished. As John the Baptist counted the costs that were involved in serving our Lord, he realized that he had to sacrifice comfort. The Lord may not have called us to live in a dry and rugged place, wear leather and camels hair, eat a staple of locust and wild honey, but I do believe that one of the first benchmarks of effective outreach will be a sacrifice of comfort. We will be challenged beyond our comfort zones. I find that the Lord often just wants me to surrender my time. Surrender my ‘me’ time. Paul writes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service. (Rom 12:1) To count the costs, willing to sacrifice a little time and a little comfort, is simply our reasonable service to the one who laid down His entire life our sake.

I’ve always been intrigued with the idea of studying an opponent. Competition demands its careful examination. Whether business or in sport, films will reveal mistakes, and scouts can obtain details that will employ opportunity. Those, whom are classified, as elite in sport, are fully aware of how their opponent plays. They tend to careful study of their opponent. This may be essential in business and sport, but critical in war. You and I fight a spiritual war each day. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places] (Ephesians 6:12). To fight the good fight, we must also be students of war. We don’t want to ignorant to the attacks of our spiritual enemy. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2 Cor 2:11. The enemy has 3 critical attacks. First, is the most obvious, an unhealthy relationship with him. Witchcraft, mystics, occults, and drugs all open the doors to his camp. John 8:44 Jesus reminds us that the devil is a murderer from the beginning, a liar. In fact, he is the father of lies. Satan rips people off. Being bound to him is destructive. Second is not to even be aware of him. An enemy is extremely dangerous when those who are under siege aren’t cognoscente of his agenda. Often, we are side swiped by a critical spirit, a seed of division, wrestling with fear, and prey to discouragement. These are the weapons of our enemy. It is dangerous and effective, when we don’t recognize the source of the attack. The third is the one that continually hamstrings us and takes us off course. This attack is called complacency. The author of Hebrews challenges us in chapter 2:1 “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let [them] slip.” The phrase ‘at any time we should let [them] slip’ is pararreō in the Greek. This is a nautical term speaking of drifting. Like taking a boat out in water? It takes some effort to leave shore and get beyond the pounding waves. What happens when you cut the engine? You begin to drift. As soon as we stop moving forward with our walk with the Lord, we begin to spiritually drift. We drift in our intimacy with Jesus. We lose the expectancy of divine appointments, and His voice becomes dull. If we drift too long, we become complacent. I will then lose the craving to meet with the Living God, loose sight of His promises, and stop gaining ground for the Kingdom. Sin cuts off our engine. We must be aggressive with removing sin in our lives. We must be proactive in prayer and in the Word. It is essential to sit before Jesus and let Him lay out the plan for our day. We plan financially, vocationally, and socially. Let’s not abandon our spiritual planning. Lets keep our engines on so that we might not drift.
But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Heb 3:13

We have so many choices. What clothes to wear? What food to eat? In many regards, how we conduct our day. Thank God for our freedom. I’ve been thinking a lot about a trip that Jen and I took to Romania about a decade ago. At that time, communism had only fallen ten years prior. Romania had been devastated by its effects. The economy was wrecked. The black market dominated business. The morale of the people was demolished, and even worse, their knowledge of our Creator was quenched. On our return to the States, Jen and I were so overwhelmed with the reality of how much we had. We realized how blessed we were with material things, comforts, and choices. Jesus speaks to us, with a more valued level of freedom. If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:36). We are exhorted to walk in the newness of life (Romans 6:4) This makes sense to us if the Lord has interrupted your life of living for self, changed your focus, adjusted your priorities, and your heart begins to break like His. So many people are still in bondage to their own sin. We want to steer clear of those old traps and snares. The apostle Paul reminds us of three important words of application in Romans 6:4-13. Know, reckon, and yield. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin (Romans 6:6). Know what the Lord has done. Understand that Jesus has taken your old man, that carnal, self-serving man, and put it to death on the cross with Him. Know that your old man has also been crucified and we no longer have to be slaves to sin. Secondly, reckon or remember. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When temptation and testing come, remember that Jesus who died on the Cross, to cover all our sins, yesterday, today, and forever, also placed our old nature on that cross, so we should no longer serve sin. Lastly, yield. Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God (Romans 6:13). Know that the work of freedom has been done. Remember that we are to stay in that freedom, and just submit and yield to what is right in God’s eyes.
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

Jhn 21:1-2 “After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he [himself]. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the [sons] of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.” There, Simon Peter said to the gang, “I go a fishing” and the rest of the disciples followed. In the last chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus asks this small group of disciples to go to the familiar fishing hole of the Sea of Galilee. Whether it was wrong for them to actually go fishing or not, we don’t know. The Lord does not rebuke them for it. But they were getting restless and they had lousy results. Jhn 21:3 “Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.” We certainly do know that they were now restless and frustrated. They were professionals. They knew how to fish. But that night of failure was in the plan and purpose of God for them. The rest of the story continues in a chain of events that we can identify with. As we become restless and frustrated, we hear the Lord calling out to us. He may ask us a question. He knows that answer, but wondering if we know the answer, even if it is obvious. Jhn 21:5 “Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.” His voice may then redirect us. Jhn 21:6 “And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.” Then we might also respond in worship and running to Him like Peter, as we see Jesus’ hand at work in our lives through our frustration. Jhn 21:7 “Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt [his] fisher’s coat [unto him], (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.” Peter and the gang see again the working hand of Jesus in their lives. My frustration, I’ll give Him; His directing, I’ll take it; the adjustments, I’ll make them; the fruit, I’ll take it. We thank you Lord for your working hand in our lives!