Nick’s Walk

Yesterday we consider that more of Jesus’ dirt in our hands, more service, is yet another way of getting more Jesus in our lives.  What if we serve, but see no fruit? That’s a vine problem. It won’t help to try harder, pray harder or extend our service borders. Fruit is the product of a healthy vine. Spiritual fruit is produced by a good connection, read that as relationship, with Jesus.  Fruit is produced by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. A vine produces well if it is consistently expertly pruned, buried in good soil, with proper sun and water. We need to be willing for God to prune those things from our lives that sap energy from our fruit-producing function, that could be anything but our relationship with Jesus. God is the great vine tender. He knows what needs to be pruned. Be careful about trusting your own judgment or those of others on this point. Listen for His word and yield to His pruning touch.  As the branch spends more time grafted into the vine, the branch begins to look more like the vine and produce richer and sweeter fruit. If […]

For most of us, nothing is less appealing as a way to get more of Jesus than getting our hands dirty. Jesus came as a servant, not the head servant but the lowest servant. Cleaning the feet of visitors was, and still is, the job of the lowest ranked slave in a household. So when Jesus performed this task, it was a startling example to the disciples. One of my favorite stories is about the seminary student who was considered by his classmates as “least likely to succeed.” He had a speech impediment. He was last in most of his classes. It took him months after graduation to get his first job. At the first meeting at his new tiny church, he couldn’t be found until someone located him in the back of the room, feeding a quadriplegic by hand.  He’s a great pastor today. We need to live with a service attitude. We need to wake each morning considering whom and how we can serve. If we are honest, this is completely contrary to the way we live. If we consider service, we think of it as something we do when we complete everything we have to do […]

Our society doesn’t handle death very well. We don’t talk about it. We have a youth culture. We don’t honor and respect the aged. We don’t see death as part of the process of life. It’s little wonder than when we consider that we need to “die” to self to get more of Jesus we resist the idea. But death precedes new life. A seed falls to the ground and dies before a new plant sprouts. We are happy to consider new birth, but are uncomfortable with the death of the old that new life implies. We can never achieve the full power of the new life if we are hanging on to aspects of the old man. We don’t have all aspects of the old man die at once; parts of him are put to death bit by bit.  The goal is to have Christ inside seen in our lives; the old man filters and dims that light. The bottom line is that if we want to have more of Jesus; there needs to be less of us. Suffer a little death and  Be blessed. Nick

 Praise You in the Storm. As we consider ways of getting more of Jesus into our lives, we move to more praise on our lips.  It’s easy to praise Jesus when life is going well, but Jesus is still worthy of praise whether the sun is shining or a storm is howling.  Praise isn’t great music or terriffic atmosphere. It doesn’t require raised hands or loud voices. It’s a deliberate choice to thank Jesus for who He is. We can start with considering what He’s done; but we really want to move on to who He is. You see we may not “feel” that He is doing anything at any particular time. And memory fades as to what He has done for us in the past. Yes, even with Jesus we can get a “What have you done for me lately?” attitude. But who He is doesn’t change. His unchanging character is our rock, our harbor in stormy times. Knowing His character and acknowledging it with our praise, helps us remember He’s still there. He still loves us. He’s still ready to take control of the parts of our life we have tried to wrestle from Him, with the resulting disaster we’re facing. […]

We continue to consider ways to get more of Jesus in our lives as suggested  by Anne Graham Lotz’s in, Pursuing More of Jesus, (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2009). Pursue more of His tears on your face.  We generally believe, especially us guys, that tears are to be avoided. Jesus didn’t think so. He wept and he wept publicly. Actually, failing to cry, keeping our pain and sorrow inside is dangerous to both our physical and mental help. In his new book, Through My Eyes, Tim Tebow Denver Bronco quarterback talks without embarrassment about his emotions. He has been videoed several times crying: the last time he ran into the stadium at the University of Florida, and when the Gators lost to Alabama in his senior year, for example. When we have passion about something, we’re going to get emotional, and shed tears, when we have significant setbacks. Jesus understands and cares when we’re crying tears of pain. We draw closer to Him. We get more of Him when we mourn over the things Jesus cared about: the pain of His people, lost souls, rejection of God, failure to trust and follow. It’s foolish to cry over “spilt milk” but not […]

Today we look at the second way to get more of Jesus suggested by Anne Graham Lotz’s in, Pursuing More of Jesus, (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2009).  Pursue more of His voice in your ear. Every Christian knows that we should be listening to the voice of Jesus. But how do we filter His voice out of the all the noise that fills our lives. Jesus’ voice has characteristics that set it apart. If we keep these in mind we will know when it’s really God speaking. God’s voice is biblical. When we think we are hearing from God our first move should be to check it against scripture. God’s word is never contrary to God’s Word. That seems pretty obvious doesn’t it? But often we hear Christians claiming to be acting on God’s word in doing things which are clearly not biblical. God’s voice is personal. God know where we are better than we know ourselves. Unlike other voices which try lead us, God’s voice speaks to the precise need in our lives. We miss God sometimes in this area since we are often confused about where we really are and what is really important. God cuts through all that and […]

You will recall that yesterday I had a bad day. Today was much better. I spent time with my Wednesday morning prayer group and had lunch with the leader of our next Kairos. That helped because today through them I had more of Jesus. I also read a wonderful column which was a report on Anne Graham Lotz’s recent book, Pursuing More of Jesus, (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2009).  The report listed 13 ways to pursue more of Jesus. I recommend reading the report here which may move you to read the book. I would like to share just one of the thirteen ways with you today. Go for the maximum, not the minimum. Choose to go after more than just the bare minimum God has to offer you. Make your faith about more than just trying to escape hell and get your ticket punched to heaven. Invite God to completely transform you: bending your will, awakening your conscience, breaking your heart, transforming your mind, overcoming your prejudices, soaring in your spirit, and conforming you into His glorious image.  We all want to escape hell, but our feet begin to drag when we consider inviting God to change us. Why is that? […]

I had a bad day. I wish I could look at the calendar and know in advance when I was going to have a bad day. I could go hide somewhere.  It doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t work that way because we don’t always control how our day will go. We are at the mercy of others. I wish I knew in advance who would turn my day around. I could avoid them; but we don’t know that either. It would seem after all these years I would have learned how to respond to turn a bad day good. I haven’t. Just a word from someone, out of the blue and unexpected,  can turn things bad. I guess I should consider that I, no doubt, cause others to have bad days. That really doesn’t help. I guess all we can do is our best. If we are expecting appreciation, we are sure to be disappointed. Tomorrow is another day. It’s got to be better. Doesn’t it? I hope so. There aren’t that many days left. Be blessed. Nick