Following The Leader

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouFCE3VjNQs

(Don’t feel the need to watch past 30 seconds)

From a young age we are taught about “following the leader.” People talk about leadership all the time. Hundreds of books, speakers, sermons, classes, and whole institutions seek to instill “leadership qualities” into people. Why are we obsessed with leadership?

There are probably many answers for that question. I think one of the fundamental reasons that we are all looking for leadership is because we were made to follow The Leader. We were created to report to a higher authority. Our society seeks to raise up strong leaders, because we want someone that we can follow.

Obviously I’m not saying we don’t need human leaders, or that grooming leaders to be leaders is wrong. But it shows us something about ourselves. We need someone to follow! We need a commanding officer.

I think one of the best biblical examples of leadership is Joshua.

Joshua was anointed by God to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. God gave him a “job description”, and then empowered him to fulfill it.

God said to Joshua in verse 1:8-9

“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Wow, what an interaction. Imagine, God calling you to lead a nation. Could you do it?

God called Joshua to lead a nation, but Joshua was not alone. Joshua was under the authority of God. Look at this interaction in Joshua 5:13-6:2

“Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”  The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

 Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.”

Joshua was a great leader, because he recognized that he was a servant to “The Commander of the Lord’s Army.” He asked for the Lord’s leadership, and followed it to a T. And guess what happened?

This great video will sum it up for you!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paW46_GsRJ4

(what’s up with the childhood flashbacks?!)

Joshua, who was not actually a cucumber (unfortunately),walked in faith, under the authority of the true Leader. When we look back on the Old Testament nowadays, we can see that “The Commander of the Lord’s Army” was Jesus. What a job title. Jesus is our commander!

I want to emphasize that the best way to fulfill our job description, laid out in Genesis 1:28 and last week’s blog post, is to know our Commander.

Once again, remember the theme verse:

No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him."

2 Timothy 2:4

If we don’t know our Commander, the one who enlisted us, then how can we follow his leadership? How can we please him?

Joshua recognized his Commander, and he “fell facedown to the ground in reverence.” Joshua turned out to be a very successful leader, and he won many battles. He was so successful because he knew and revered the Lord, and he followed the commands of the “Commander of the Lord’s Army.”

We have to trust Jesus in his directions. Everything He calls us to, He also empowers us to do it.  And we trust that He is truly doing the best thing for us. That is the mindset of a soldier. A soldier will “not be afraid” and “not be discouraged,” because they can trust that “the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

We are no longer civilians, because we can have a relationship with our Commander. We seek to please Him. And remember, “He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him” (John Piper quote, used in last week’s blog.) I encourage you to know Jesus, your commander. I encourage you to follow Him, because you were made to follow Him. We are all made to follow a leader, and Jesus Christ is the perfect Leader. Lay down your life, and stop worrying about civilian affairs. Your commander has called you to a battle. Meditate on His words, His instructions, His battle plans, day and night. Follow Jesus, your commander, for He knows what is best for you!

 

As always, if you ever have any questions, rebuttles, or you need prayer, or any clarification, please contact me via facebook (Tobin James Kriwiel), or comment on a post. Thanks for reading, I pray that you are blessed.

More Than a Job Description

Get ready, cause we’re about to go deep. Get your scuba gear on, straighten up your goggles, pop your ears, and let’s dive in.

So, we’re not made to be civilians. I hope we’ve all established that by now.

First of all, how are we made to be more than civilians?

Time to whip out some Bible. “I whip my Bible back and forth,” figuratively.

Genesis 1:27-28- “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

There it is, the job description. He made us, blessed us, and then commissioned us. He created the human race, something completely unique, for a unique purpose. Angels, spirits, and animals, could not perform this task. We are called to fill the earth and subdue it. Ahh, what a MASSIVE calling. The Human Race, called to administer God’s administration. Remember the theme verse…

No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him."

2 Timothy 2:4

Our commanding officer, has imparted himself to us, and delegated a task to us. We have a duty.

Ope, I said the word duty.

I don’t even like that word. Not only can it be easily mistaken with “doody,” but its connotations make my face cringe. I’ve had duties before. My mom used to give me a chore chart every day when I was a kid. I hated the chore chart. Every morning I had to look at that list of fun-killing chores, and I couldn’t do anything I wanted to do until they were done. I fought my mom every day on that list. I rebelled against the chore chart, because I just wanted to have fun. But oh how “duty” doodied all over my fun.

Apparently it’s way to late to be writing a blog post.


I don’t think God was just giving us a chore list though.

We were made in God’s very image, in his like-ness. And I’m pretty sure God loves to do what God wants to do. God doesn’t drag his feet. He loves doing His work on the planet, and loves doing it through us. I truly believe, we also love what God wants us to do.

In Genesis, after God commissioned the Human Race, he followed it with creating the Garden of Eden. He set Adam and Eve up in a utopian garden, calling them to source from the Tree of Life. They lived off the Tree of Life.

The Bible points to the Tree of Life as Jesus Christ.

God set the Human Race with a job description, but also set them up with an abounding life source, the Tree of Life, who is Jesus Christ.

This is why Paul in Phillipians 3 can write:

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

Paul, your nuts. You mean everything is rubbish to you? All the good food, fun games, pretty women, just trash to you? How is that so?

Paul was sourcing from the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ himself. Paul was a worker for the Lord, and he followed God’s original Genesis 1 commission closely. He filled the earth and subdued it, but it sourced out of “the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord!”

Sourcing from Jesus is the absolute best thing for us! We were wired to eat from the Tree of Life. This John Piper quote explains it well…

 “He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

We will walk out the Human Race destiny in Genesis 1 when we are most satisfied in Christ. He has wired us to be overwhelmingly fulfilled by Himself! Our job is not just a duty anymore, it’s an outpouring of the glorious “Life” inside of us.

Ephesians 1:18- “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people”

The hope to which he has called us, and the riches of his glorious inheritance is Jesus Christ himself.

I pray this verse over every reader of this blog, over myself, and over the church of God.

 

I tell you, God has created you to be more than a civilian, and it is the absolute best thing for you.

Peace.

 

 
 

Let The Games Begin

 

Bang!

That’s all I’ve got. A four letter onomatopoeia. I’ve been thinking of a way to start off this blog “with a bang” for about a month now, and that’s allll I came up with. After contemplating, and re-contemplating, and double re-contemplating about the blog, this question came up: “Well, what is the most amazing beginning… of anything?”

In my futile mind, of course I thought of the first play of a Superbowl, a kickoff return for a touchdown by Devin Hester. Nothing gets a football fan’s blood pumping like when a kick returner breaks through the first seam, especially on the first play of a Superbowl. But unfortunately ladies and gentlemen, this is not the Superbowl, and I am not Devin Hester. And you are not just one of the fans taking a flash picture while the kickoff is soaring through the air.

After some praying about this blog, the Lord gave me a better answer for the earlier question: “What is the most amazing beginning of anything?” Surely it’s more than a kickoff return. I’m sure God, the One who is uncreated, who “is before all things, and in him all things hold together”, knows much more about beginnings than I ever will.

 

Here’s one of the greatest beginnings ever.…

Genesis 1:3-  “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”

Now that’s starting with a bang. No exclamation point needed. “Let there be Light.”

Genesis isn’t even talking about the creation of the sun here, because that wasn’t created till the 4^th day. We find out in John 1, that Jesus is the light that was sent on that first day of creation. Jesus is in the business of starting things with a bang. And He isn’t just starting things, because He’s also a finisher. He’s taking this badboy all the way to the end zone, no matter how many tackles He’s gonna break.

People, understand that we are in the middle of an amazing storyline! The Light has come into the world, and He is waging war against darkness! Are you on His side? Have you acknowledged the war you are living in, between Light and Darkness? Do you know your role in this war?

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we are not made to be civilians. We are made to be soldiers, Soldiers of the Light.  

“No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him” – 2 Timothy 2:4.

 

As for some of the logistics of “No Longer a Civilian.” This blog is not about me. I’m not inviting readers to “take a step into my brain,” and this is not me simply informing you on my life circumstances. This blog is going to consistently talk about the glorious storyline of the Light, our role in the Christ’s army, and the battle we are currently in. I pray this is a source of awakening and encouragement for every believing reader. I pray the Lord will reveal the vast glory of His storyline to you, and that you would know your specific role in that story.

I tell you, we are not made to be civilians.

I encourage you to listen to this song, in reference to the earlier explanation of the light in Genesis 1 being Jesus, not the creation of the sun, and also in reference, well, to the entire blog post.

Peace.