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!”

That’s a much more important question than you might imagine. When Jesus gave the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), the Lord wasn’t laying down a plan for evangelism. No, Jesus’ words push us much deeper than simply sharing the Good News of the Kingdom. Look more closely and you will see the key verb can literally be translated “disciple” — it’s nearly always translated “make disciples” but the focus is on going to people, leading them to the point of baptism, and then walking beside them until the truth of Jesus comes alive in them. This is far more than sharing a gospel presentation. This is a commitment to pass on our our passion and it is a passion to pass on our commitment!

In my post in Heartlight.org this week, “The Greatest Glory,” I emphasize that a leader — parent, teacher, coach, counselor, manager, boss, friend, etc. — finds his or her greatest joy in seeing someone he or she has trained investing and forming others. Take a look at that post and then I’d really like to hear from you about the questions at the end of the post:

Who is someone who has invested in you to help you become the woman or man of God that you are today?

• What would you like to say about them to thank them for their investment?
• When was the last time you said it?
• Why not write them a note and thank them now if they are still living and if they have gone to be with the Lord, then thank one of their children or grandchildren telling them about this person who made such a difference in your life?

Who is someone in whom you are investing — or should be investing — your passion, values, and goals?

• What skills and character qualities do you see in them?
• How can they bless the Kingdom of God?
• When was the last time you told them these things?
• How are you going to share these things with them in the near future?

A friend once said, “We can’t live for our children, that’s too limited a horizon. We must live for our grandchildren! That means we’ve got to help our children pass on to our grandchildren what we hold as most valuable to us.”

What do you think about this thought?

• How does this more accurately reflect what Paul taught to Timothy (2 Timothy 2:1-2)?
• How did Jesus embody this principle of passing on faith to multiple generations?
• How can you embody this principle in your relationships?

What is your greatest glory and joy in your influence and leadership of others?

One of our annual Christmas traditions is to either watch Christmas Vacation, or at least talk about our favorite parts of it. One of my favorite things is Sparky’s (aka Clark Griswold) desire to have the best lights and decorations on his house and in his lawn. Part of my love for this parody and the humor involved in the whole lighting extravaganza at the Griswold home is based on having lived next door to someone who actually went that overboard with decorations. So to my great delight, a fellow staff member forwarded me the following picture. I only wish I had thought of this!

I Wish I Had Thought of This!

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!

Of course, I can’t leave out my wife’s favorite chuckler, Flex the Golden Pipes!:

Of course, I can’t leave out the baby giggles times 4:

Okay, so I know it ain’t serious stuff today, but sometimes I need a serious dose of the sacred gift of laughter. Today is one of those days! If God could name one of the three great patriarchs of Israel Isaac (which means laughter), then I’m going to have a little chuckle before I start what will be a hard day. Grace to you and I hope you find more than a touch or two of joy in your day!

I’m sorry, but I’m tired of all the “worthless worm” talk and songs that tell us we are depraved and worthless. Yes, without Jesus, we can’t come to God and have no righteousness of our own. But even unsaved, we are still made in the image of God (James 3:9) and were created with purpose and known by God in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-16). How can we call that junk? How can we call be for “the sanctity of life” and not recognize the inestimable value we have in the eyes of our Creator?

Yes, we battle the fleshly side of our natures, but by the Spirit of the living God, we are being transformed to be more like Jesus every day (2 Corinthians 3:18) as we keep our gaze, our hearts, on Jesus. That Holy Spirit empowers and transforms us and helps us be who we were conceived by God to be, in Christ! We are God’s holy temple, the place where He dwells and we were made to glorify Him in that temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

And as God’s children, we are far more than forgiven: we are forgiven and cleansed (Colossians 1:21-23; 1 John 1:5-2:2). We are recreated in Christ as God’s workmanship, God’s artistry, our Father’s unique creation made to do great things. You see, grace doesn’t just save us from something awful, but it also saves as someone special and it saves us for God’s holy purpose in our broken world (Ephesians 2:1-10). Yeah, we may not be there yet, it may take some more transforming, it may take some chiseling, but God has plans for us because we are His … and we are His workmanship, His artistry. So don’t believe you’re junk. You’re His Masterpiece … so please, let Him finish His work before you give up on who you are in His eyes!

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 was blessed with a preview of their new greatest hits album, History Makers, and it’s got about 30 or so of their greatest songs. If you get a chance, take a look and see what you think. While some of their older favorites are best known — “Lord You Have My Heart,” “Shout to the North,” “Majesty,” “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble,” & “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” — I love some of their new stuff as well as the old stuff — “Paint the Town Red” & “History Maker.” My all time devotional song to Jesus is one of their older ones, “What a Friend I’ve Found.” And during one of the darkest times in my journey of faith, the song “Every Little Thing” seemed to pop up again and again to minister to the broken and wounded parts of my heart. Here’s the lyrics of that song for you to ponder.

Everything must change
There’s a mirror showing me the ugly truth
These bones they ache with holy fire
But I’ve got nothing to give, just a life to live
If your world is without colour
I will carry you, if you carry me

Every little thing’s gonna be alright
Every little thing’s gonna be alright [x2]

There’s no-one else to blame
I live my life between the fire and the flame
I’ve built my house where the ocean meets the land
It’s time to live again, pull my dreams out of the sand
Let your world be full of colour
I will carry you, if you carry me

When it’s all falling down on you
You’re crying out but you’re breaking in two
When it’s all crashing down on you
When there’s nothing you can do
There is someone who can carry you

Here’s to BlueTree rising to fill the void, both lyrically and also musically, but they’ve got big (white) shoes to fill!

To the Delirious? lads, thank you and good work. Most of all, thanks for the passion you have for Jesus … oh, and here’s a little reminder, every little thing is going to be all right because there is Someone who can carry you!

Clearly, one of the reasons this image was used had to do with the culture and nomadic lifestyle of early Israelites, yet even in a more urban world in which the church was born, this image and style of leadership was used to describe church leaders.

My weekly heartlight.org article, A Really Inconvenient Truth, focuses on this the subject of shepherd-leaders. Great chapters of Scripture focus on this subject as well — Ezekiel 34, Psalm 23 and John 10 are probably the three most notable, but many others exist.

So let’s do some thinking about the shepherd image in Scripture and answer some questions to get us going:

Why do you think the image of a shepherd, as a leader, is so important in the Bible?

Why is it used to describe God so frequently and intimately?

Who has been the shepherding leader in your life — whether the shepherd was an official leader or not?

For whom can you be a shepherding leader?

What trait of God as Shepherd blesses you most?