Making God Our Priority

If we are not careful, we can find ourselves swept away by the cares and the busyness of this world. When I say that, I am sort of preaching to myself. For as my ministry work gets increasingly busier, I am finding it more difficult to fit everything within the 24 hour day the Lord has given me to work with. The problem many Christians make when they come to Christ is that they tend to view Christianity as something they add on to their pre-existing life. But we must make the things of God our priority at the expense of the other things we value.

As Jesus taught the parable of the seed and the sower, He said some of the seeds fell among the thorns. When asked by His disciples about the meaning, He replied, “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). This verse captures the heart of this world’s preoccupation: worldly cares and riches.

God is not against us enjoying the things of this world. The problem comes when we allow our worldly concerns to prevent the Word from becoming fruitful in us. And I believe there are many Christians who attend church regularly to receive the Word of God, but they fail to grow because they just have too much going on in their lives to make the investment required to put that Word into practice. When we find ourselves in that position, we must re-arrange our priorities so that our spiritual growth does not suffer.

In order for some Christians to effectively do this, they will have to make a radical shift. For instance, I know some believers who work two or even three jobs because they have this bad habit of living above their means. Because of those long term financial obligations that are outstanding, there is no easy way to properly balance their life. But I submit to you that there is absolutely nothing in this life that we should value more than our relationship with God. Furthermore, our relationship with Him can be no better than what we are willing to invest into it.

There are so many things competing for our time these days. That trend will only increase with time. As I listened to the news earlier today, as an example, a reporter stated that Facebook claims to now have 500 million users! It was also stated that for some people, those popular social networks such as Facebook are an addiction. People can’t seem to stay off of them. I can’t help but wonder what kind of hit on productivity the American workplace is taking as employees spend work time “talking” to their “friends” on Facebook. This is just one more thing that also competes with the time we have to make available for God.

The irony of this message is sort of like the subject of money, right? All the money we have comes from God, but then He has trouble getting a portion back from us so the work of the kingdom can be financed. By the same token, all the time we have comes from God, but for many Christians, God has trouble getting a portion of that time back from them so that they can grow properly.

Copyright ©2010 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Accepting Your Uniqueness

Many people fall into the temptation of wanting to be like somebody else. When I was a teen, there were a couple of pro athletes I said I wanted to be just like. I was not fascinated with looking like them, but I wanted to play the sport as well as they did, and to experience the success and the notoriety they did. During the past year, I came across several episodes on TV in which an everyday person got a complete makeover in an effort to look like his or her favorite star, if only for a day.

That same spirit oftentimes gets a hold of us in the ministry. For instance, I know of pastors who changed their style of worship because they believed that this particular form of worship was a key element in the success of a well-known mega church that is watched by millions across the country. The thinking is that if they model their ministry after this growing church, they will realize similar growth. Then there is the everyday church member who feels inadequate when he compares himself with fellow members who seem to be the total package.

But there is no one like you. No person on the face of this entire earth who can come close to being the person God made you to be. Why should you try to be someone whom God did not make you to be? He did not create you an original only to live your life trying to become a copy.

In several places, the Scriptures speak about the body of Christ in terms of the human body. In one place, the Bible says, “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Romans 12:5). Though there are millions of Christians throughout the earth, and though we have more denominations within Christendom than we can count, collectively, we are one body in Christ. Every Christian plays an important role in that one body. There are no excess parts in the body. What each of us has to contribute makes a difference.

In 1979, while playing ball in the gym of my alma mater, I tore a cartilage in my right knee. I didn’t know that was the problem until several months later. Before the doctor made that determination, all I knew was that I found myself walking bent legged as much as a week at a time. Once the leg straightened out again, I thought all was well. But when I played on it, I repeated the bent-leg experience all over again. It amazed me that one torn cartilage could affect the performance of my entire body.

You see, that cartilage plays a specific role in my body, and nothing else inside of me can compensate for its failure to function. Nobody pays it any attention until it fails to perform its God-given duty. The same goes for many of God’s people. They may not play the visible role. Perhaps they get little or no thanks. But from the foundation of the world, God ordained that they would be an important member of the body of Christ.

Perhaps the person I’m talking about is you. Know that you are unique. Accept, and cooperate with your uniqueness. You bring an edifying effect to the body like no one else on God’s earth can bring. Others may not appreciate you for who you are, but God does. In the end, that’s what really counts.

Copyright ©2010 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Can Your Faith Support Your Dream(s)?

Many people want to go places in life where their faith can’t take them. The driving fuel for life does not come from the things we say or even dream about but from what we believe. That’s why it’s so important that we cultivate our faith in God. “If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes,” the Bible says (Mark 9:23). So if all things are possible then that means nothing is impossible to those who believe. Hence, we are limited in life by our faith in God.

On the one hand, faith is simple but it is also a complex animal. When someone boasts about his faith and what he plans to accomplish in life, you can’t tell by listening to him whether or not there is any substance to the claim. Faith is known by what one does not by what he says. But if I were to meet this same person ten years later, and not only has he not reached his self-proclaimed goal in life, but also he has done nothing aimed at preparing him for the same, I would conclude that his chance of reaching his goal in life is questionable at best. So it is when our dream and aspirations are bigger than our faith in God to accomplish the same.

An awesome dynamic occurs when we have a conviction about a God-given purpose in life or when we have a consuming dream in life; and secondly, our faith in God is strong enough to support that conviction or dream. When our faith and dream unite this way, there is no force or setback on earth or no assault from the demons of hell that can stop us from moving forward. At times, we may have more questions than answers as to how it will all turn out, but still we move toward the goal trusting God for the outcome because that’s the nature of true faith.

Our faith in God is vital to our success in life. As we read in the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews, we find a long list of people who accomplished great things through their faith in God. This is not to say that these servants were not gifted in their abilities, but the Bible attributes their success to their faith in God. You see, no matter how capable we are, our faith in God must be strong enough to sustain us when oppositions and personal tragedies come against us.

What do you want to accomplish for God, or what is your aspiration in life? The question is, is your faith strong enough to support your dream, or is it too weak to go the distance?

I understand the power of our words and our confession. But all talk and no action constitutes dead faith, and that type of faith accomplishes nothing, no matter how passionately or how many times we boast about our great faith. God has called us to do extraordinary things, and they in turn bring extraordinary challenges. One of the reasons He has given us the Bible is so we can use it to feed and build up our faith daily. Doing this should be a priority for us because the measure of our faith in God greatly defines the boundaries of where we can go in life.

Copyright ©2010 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

The Tale of Two Declarations of Independence

Like most Americans I will be celebrating Independence Day on this fourth of July in some way. For many of us, that means eating, drinking, being merry, and enjoying fireworks and family. That all has its place, but it’s so much more to it than that.

The awesome document called the Declaration of Independence that was adopted in 1776, resulted from Britain's oppressive control over the American colonies. In the portion of the document known as A Declaration of Rights, the authors eloquently stated, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Everyone wants to be treated with respect. No people want to be governed by a body that gives them no say. To the authors of the Declaration, these rights are given us by God, and no one has the right to take them away. Out of this passion, the colonies made their appeals to Britain and its king but to no avail. All attempts having failed, the signers of the Declaration felt that the only recourse they had was to declare the colonies independent, with all ties to Britain ended.

As I reflect on the independence movement that gave rise to the Declaration of Independence and the great country that has resulted--the greatest in all the world--I believe that it was more than Congress appointing a committee to pen a Declaration, but also God must have had His hand somewhere in the matter. I am so thankful to Him that He has blessed me to be born in this country wherein I can pursue and realize the "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" that the authors of the Declaration envisioned. Hopefully, you feel the same.

It all started with a cry of the human soul that refused to be silenced. And so here we are—America, land of the free, home of the brave. To really appreciate it all, we must reflect on the story behind the historic moment that has brought us to the point of celebrating this holiday as we currently do.

I see a parallel between the Declaration of Independence and our Redemption through Christ. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, all of humanity was in bondage and oppressed by the devil. There was no one throughout all of humanity who could help us. We were hopelessly doomed to hell. “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law…” (Galatians 4:4-5a).

In conclusion, the right to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is an ideal that characterizes the spirit of America, but the truth is that only through Christ’s redemptive work on the cross, can we know true life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the Declaration that heaven has made on our behalf, signed by Christ’s blood that He shed on Calvary. This is the message that we must proclaim—if present day America has any hope of fully realizing the vision of the authors of the Declaration of Independence. God bless our great country, our soldiers and our veterans. Amen.

Copyright ©2010 by Frank King. All rights reserved.