After the post on Lynn Anderson yesterday and while preparing for the funeral message for today, I came across this powerful insight written by Miles Alpern Levin, about a month after he was diagnosed with cancer. His blog on carepages.com inspired many and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate message to share for all of us!

I went to the driving range the other day and I was thinking … I was thinking how you start out with a big bucket full of golf balls, and you just start hitting away carelessly. You have dozens of them, each individual ball means nothing to you so just hit, hit, hit. One ball gone is practically inconsequential when subtracted from the your bottomless bucket. There are no practice swings or technique re-evaluations after a bad shot, because so many more tries remain. Yet eventually you start to have to reach down towards the bottom of the bucket to scavenge for another shot and you realize that tries are running out. Now with just a handful left, each swing becomes more meaningful. The right technique becomes more crucial, so between each shot you take a couple practice swings and a few deep breaths. There is a very strong need to end on a good note, even if every preceding shot was terrible, getting it right at the end means a lot. You know as you tee up your last ball, “This is my final shot, I want to crush this with perfection: I must make this count.” Limited quantities or limited time brings a new, precious value and significance to anything you do. Live every day shooting as if it’s your last shot, I know I have to.”  — Miles Alpern Levin, July 7, 2005.

I know Jackson would have quibbled with Miles — well actually, he would have been much firmer than quibbling — about wasting all those practice shots early in the bucket of balls. “Don’t want to groove that bad swing and ingrain those bad habits!”

Jackson wanted you to loosen up with some short shots, then he wanted you to waste nothing — not one ball in the bucket. But, we all do, don’t we. We all mess up, goober up, stumble, sin, flub up, hit a shank or two, and then we notice the bucket of balls is getting thin on balls. I know Jackson had regrets — times and people he wished he could go back and do better with. But I am most thankful that the years I knew Jackson, he lived life recognizing the preciousness of grace and the opportunity to make a difference.

And yes, Jackson, I still shank one from time-to-time because of that square to square curl the three fingers on the back swing thing that you despised and tried so hard to help me get out of my swing. Blessings, dear brother, I’ll catch you on the back the nine, where our swings will be natural, the iced tea will be sweet, and nobody will ever need to improve their lie.

Don’t you hope that’s something folks say about you? There are certain people that enter our world and they are blessing every moment we are around them. They find ways to be helpful. They offer encouraging words at just the right moment. When something needs to be done, they do it — they don’t wait to be asked. When someone needs assistance, they step up and do it cheerfully. Some people are blessings.

But aren’t we all supposed to be? Isn’t this the heart of our spiritual DNA? In my Heartlight.org article this week on blessing, I talk about the principle of being a blessing as part of our spiritual DNA going all the way back to Abraham. One of the most important ways we can be generous with others is to share our blessings in Jesus. Peter puts it this way:

Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy (1 Peter 3:15 MSG).

This is called (in other translations) sharing our hope.

Why do you think it is so hard for us to be generous?

• Who is someone you know that is generous?
• What do you most appreciate about them?
• How can you be more like them?

Why do we not perceive sharing Jesus as a work of generosity?

• Why not send them a note and thank them for being generous?
• What blessings do you have in your life because of Jesus?
• Who is in your life because of your shared faith in Jesus?
• When is the last time you shared these blessings you have in Jesus with others?

Read 1 Peter 3:15 and notice how sharing good news is about sharing with others the reason we have hope in Jesus.

• Take a few minutes and write a paragraph giving the reason for your hope in Jesus.
• Pray that the Lord will give you an opportunity to share it with someone this week as an act of generosity!

Finally, I’m working with something new that I’d like to incorporate into my blog. I’d love to get you to share in the poll below. Thanks!

I don’t know about you, but when I’ve tried to go deal with my mistakes in the past, or deal with the mistakes of others that have impacted me in the past, I’ve always found the process messy and painful. I think that is part of Satan’s way of discouraging us from the right thing. In this case, however, I found an image that I felt was much better to work with for the idea and when I was finished, I was moved by the image and the message.

To think that Jesus calls me his friend (John 15:15) and then demonstrates his friendship so powerfully and sacrificially (John 15:13) is almost beyond my comprehension. Jesus is willing to die for me! I know me. I’m pretty sure I’m not worth it. But that’s not the point: Jesus believes I’m worth it. How do you understand that … not just in your head, but also in your heart?

So here’s the image — or at least a smaller version of it, the real images are 1024 x 768. I hope it’s a blessing to you. You can use this, or one of the other related images in the set, for your personal use, on your blog, in church or small group presentations. Just don’t place it on a commercial website or in print. Links to the full size images are below the image. I hope this gets you thinking about how treasured you are by Jesus!

Free Download of Full Size Set from heartlight.org

Image Above |  Title Plus |  Title Only |  Text

This year, as I try to emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit each day through the SpiritFire devotionals, I am praying a combination of many of these prayers each morning. Sometimes I do it before my feet hit the floor, sometimes while I’m taking my morning shower, other times as I’m driving to work, and sometimes at different times in the day. I thought I would share this with you, not so much so that you would pray the same prayer, but that you would put together one of your own to pray each day. This one is rooted in Scripture — in fact, much of it is actually praying Scripture. I hope it is a blessing!

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13)

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:1-2)

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (Psalm 51:10-12)

Please fill me this day with the Holy Spirit so that I can live before others and declare in word and deed the grace of Jesus, with all boldness. (Luke 11:13; Acts 4:31)

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14-15).

And bless me with the fruit of Your Holy Spirit as the Spirit conforms me to the character and compassion of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18). Please form in me love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control as I pledge to walk in step with Your Spirit (Galatians 5:22-27).

Dear Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, please bless those I love and all who belong to Jesus with an abiding sense of Your presence and power. I pray that your Spirit in their inner being will strengthen them with might. I pray that they will know your glorious riches of mercy and grace and be able to understand the incredible love Jesus has for them. I pray that they may be filled with all of Your fullness, O God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)

Now to You, O God, Who alone is able to do immeasurably more than all that we can ask or imagine by your power at work within us, to You be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Now here are some questions for thought and I’d love to get your reaction to them, to the Heartlight.org article, or to the ideas of today’s blog post!

Have you noticed how narrow our prayer focus so often seems to be?

• Do you find yourself praying for your needs more than others?
• Do you find yourself asking God for more than you thank him for what you have received?

Who that you know needs to know the presence of God in his or her life and needs to have the Holy Spirit fill them with God’s power?

• Why not pray — alone or with a group of others — for these folks?

What ministries need the power of the Holy Spirit released into them to bless their service to Jesus?

When is the last time you prayed for God’s blessings through the Holy Spirit to come upon your church family … your physical family … your small group … missionaries you know … church leaders you know?

• Why not pray for them by name right now?

How can you incorporate a regular time of prayer each day for God to release and bless your family, your church family, your friends, and those in need with the Holy Spirit?

Do not read that as an emphasis on ego. Think of it as a question you ask to God … as a recognition that you are not good enough, equipped enough, smart enough, or whatever enough you feel you lack.

“ME?”

That was Moses’ question to God in Exodus 3. In fact, Moses made a whole lot of excuses about why it couldn’t be “ME?”

Moses was thrilled God had heard, seen, and understood His people’s sufferings. After all, those sufferings are what got Moses run out of Egypt and sent him chasing woolies in the wilderness for 40 years. So when God said He was coming to deliver His people, Moses’ heart must have skipped a beat or two with excitement. But when God said the way He was coming down to deliver His people was through Moses, well, let’s just say Moses’ heart stopped and his stuttering began.

“ME? No way!” And then the questions and excuses began.

• “Who am I that I should go?” (3:11)
• “What is Your name? Who should I say has sent me?” (3:13)
• “Why would the people believe you sent me to deliver them?” (4:1)
• “Where will I get the ability to lead since I can’t speak very well?” (4:10)
• “Why don’t you just pick someone else?” (4:13)

So what is God asking you to do?

Why do you keep answering, “ME?”

Admit it: you’ve been wondering, “Why doesn’t somebody do something?” So maybe you are that “somebody” — for more on this see my Heartlight.org piece this week and also look at Rubel Shelly’s article called “Mercy”!

And for those who are church leaders, let’s quit saying “ME?” and get back to building churches the way Jesus wanted them built. See Frances Chan’s convicting article, “The Comfortable Substitute!”

“ME?” To which God says, “Absolutely, you betcha, get on with it!”

Fall has been incredible nice in West Texas this year. Early rain and moderate temperatures and even several days without wind. We’ve got a touch of color on the trees — yes, we do have a few — and it actually feels like autumn.

Donna grew up in southern Ohio and she has always maintained that West Texas didn’t have autumn — with it’s smell, the color of leaves, the gentle chill in the air — just FALL: one day it’s 90, a norther blows through and it’s 22, then on the third day the leaves die and the wind blows them into Mexico. I’d have to say I think she is right most years, but this one has been beautiful.

I will go to my place in the country, hanging out in trees waiting to see walks by and listening to the night and then morning turn on and see what God has in store this evening and tomorrow morning.

And as I watch the leaves change to gold and brown, I am going to continue to hope it’s a great fall to love burnt orange. Hook ‘em and keep setting those great examples on an off the field Colt and Jordan. And to my favorite gunslinger, Taylor, you have displayed such grace in the unfairness and insanity of a pirate’s stinking ship — keep the faith brother.

Blessings to all of ya’ll for a great autumn weekend!

Heartlight.org started on April 3 in 1996. By God’s grace, we reach hundreds of thousands of different folks every month, ten of thousands a day. These folks come from over 175 countries. They use our Heartlight.org resources — articles, devotionals, graphics, and blogs — to help bless their own lives and the lives of others. Only God knows how many people are blessed downstream from these first time users. But Heartlight.org is much bigger than just our main web site. In addition we provide or are partnered with the following free resources:

• searchgodsword.org — A Bible search, commentary, and original language tool
• iluminalma.com.br — The Portuguese version of Heartlight with it’s own content
• hermeneutica.com.br — A Portuguese resource for pastors, church leaders, and teachers
• radiokd.ru — A Russian Christian Music Radio station with daily study resources
• yssa.nl — A Dutch site using Heartlight resources for daily devotionals and resources
• laluzdelalma.com — A Spanish version of Today’s Verse
• homegathering.net – A mobile version website with Heartlight.org resources and resources for home gatherings (house church worship and Bible studies)
• heartlight.mobi — The mobile device version of Heartlight.org (works best for iPhones, PalmPre, Blackberry browsers)

This is just our little corner of the world, but let’s talk about doing good, working for social justice, and making a difference in the lives of others in real ways. Several interests I have and am invested in personally seek to do good in the world by releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name, providing clean water, providing mosquito nets, giving business opportunities through mico-loans, and other tools for people who do not have access to those.

Compassion International is a favorite ministry for doing good for children. Donna and I currently sponsor three children and I have been to see one of them on a Compassion trip to Uganda, Africa in February of 2008. This life changing trip was a great opportunity for several of us who were on the web to create a buz and get a lot of folks more involved in sponsoring children through Compassion. Here’s the YouTube video of my home visit to our little girl:

You can read more about this visit in my Heartlight article.

In addition to Compassion, several other related “do something good” efforts made possible by the web that I like are:

• BiteBack — providing mosquito nets to prevent Malaria, a leading killer of children in many under-developed parts of the world. Along with unclean water, Malaria kills more children than war or other diseases and this disease is largely preventable with mosquito nets and the planting of certain trees and plants that drive away mosquitoes.
• charity: water — providing clean drinking water for the billion folks in our world without it. Along with Malaria, unclean water kills more children than war or other diseases and these water-borne diseases are largely preventable with clean water.
• Village of Hope — rescuing children from all sorts of poverty, war, and being orphaned, this ministry in Ghana is a powerful tool of giving children a new hope for this life and connecting them with the life of Jesus.
• Eternal Threads — providing a business opportunity to help folks out of poverty and offering purses and bags for use and for gifts for Westerners and helps monetize poor families through a sustainable system of lifting folks out of poverty and giving them the dignity of doing it through work.
• Pockets of Dreams — little girl dresses made by those in need funds and jobs in under-developed countries: great for gifts and helps monetize poor families through a sustainable system of lifting folks out of poverty and giving them the dignity of doing it through work.
• Kiva — micro-loans that help folks in undeveloped countries start businesses and then pay back their loans: proceeds from loan pay back then provide for more loans, which becomes a self-sustaining system of lifting folks out of poverty and giving them the dignity of doing it through work.
• Christian Homes and Family Services — a great organization that helps women who have unexpected pregnancies work their way through the decisions of parenting and adoption and helps families looking to adopt find a child for them. A growing emphasis also involves foster care and foster-to-adopt programs. We love to give donations in honor of those we love as gifts for Christmas, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, and other special events.

Don’t know what you are doing for Christmas, but how about using the upcoming holidays to center your family on giving to those in need and purchasing gifts that help lift people out of poverty. Fed up with what’s bad? Then join me and others who are using the web to do good, work for social justice, and give folks a chance to do something better in their lives!

He has shown all you people what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8 TNIV).

That’s what my heartlight.org article, “Promises Kept,” is all about this week: Jesus’ promises can be trusted. Take a read and then I’d love to hear your response to the following questions (or, even if you don’t read the article, what’s your take on the questions?)

What are your favorite promises of Jesus?

* Why can you trust these promises to be true?

* What do they help you look forward to experiencing with God in the future?

* How do they help give you reassurance in difficult times?

Why do you think we tend to forget Jesus’ promises when we are going through times of trouble?

How does Jesus’ proof of his faithfulness to the hard and painful promises give us assurance that he will keep the glorious promises?

What can you do to help some other believer hear and accept the promises of Jesus?

I remember when I first read this bumper sticker 14-15 years ago in church parking lot. I laughed out loud even by myself. Being involved in church ministry for well over 30 years, I know our tendency to make everything into a program and then create a committee to carry out that program. In the years since, I’ve seen and hear this bumper sticker modified in different ways. For God so loved the world, He didn’t send …

• a program.
• a clergyman.
• an initiative.
• a politician.
• a parachurch ministry.
• a radio program.
• a book.
• a philosopher (or philosophy).
• etc.

Now don’t misunderstand: there is nothing inherently wrong with any of the above. But God didn’t send one of those, He sent Jesus, His Son.

And just as God sent Jesus into the world, Jesus has sent us! (Matthew 28:18-20; John 17:18; 20:21) We are the ones called to carry out Jesus’ ministry in the world. No wonder that one of the key images of Jesus’ church is “the Body of Christ.” We are His presence in the world. And since we are sent into the world as Jesus was, that changes everything … especially our sense of strategy, purpose, mission, and evangelism.

In my Heartlight.org article this week, also called Incarnational, I try to distinguish between the difference of looking at the Great Commission of Jesus as an evangelism passage or a call to incarnational ministry. I tried to define incarnational ministry and proclaiming, training, and living the Good News of the Kingdom with people. In our church, we try to define our mission in similar terms. We want to be God’s community front porch — a place where folks can meet  God and His family. But for that to happen, we know we have to invite them into the life of Jesus (proclaim), include them in the family of Jesus (live), and involve them in the mission of Jesus (train).

Incarantaional ministry means that we have to enter the worlds of those who do not know Jesus, walk alongside them, and accompany them through the transformation the Holy Spirit carries out in their lives when they yield to the Lordship of Jesus. If we don’t, we’ve just spoken a message — we’ve only given them a drive by sound-byte of the Kingdom of God. God didn’t do that. His message, His Word, was enfleshed in Jesus (John 1:1-18). How can we do anything less?

Cody is  friend on our Refresh planning team who recently moved out of town. As I was thinking through these ideas of incarnational ministry, like a gift from heaven, Cody’s email arrived where he pointed us to the following video trying to capture the essential difference of God’s offer of salvation in Jesus versus other religious answers. It is a fundamental difference. God didn’t send a message or even just a messenger. God came and entered our mess Himself, vulnerable to our stuff, to include us.

Here are some discussion questions for home gatherings or small groups. I’d love to get your take on some or all of them and the whole concept of incarnational ministry.

What is difference between evangelism and incarnational ministry?

How can such an approach make your life more purposeful?

Do you think a good definition of incarnational ministry is “people who proclaim, train, and live the Good News of Jesus alongside those they want to reach”?

Which of the three is most important — proclaim, train, or live the Good News?

Can we fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus and leave out any of these three elements?

What do you need to do to incorporate an incarnational approach of Good News Kingdom living into your daily life?

How can such an approach make your life more purposeful?

Where can you incorporate this incarnational approach to Good News Kingdom living into your daily life?

How does it work in your family? (Deuteronomy 6:1-9)
How does it work in your workplace or school? (1 Peter 3:15)
How does it work in your public life? (Matthew 5:13-16)

Who is someone with whom you can partner in an accountability commitment to fulfill the Great Commission in your world?