MY BIRTHDAY WISH LIST

Every year, my wife asks me, "What do you want for your birthday?" Every year, I don't know what to tell her.

So, this year, since my birthday is coming up in a little over a month, I thought I'd tell you the six items on my birthday wish list with plenty of lead time, and see what you can do about it. Remember, this is just what I want for my birthday. I may not get everything on this list; but, I can always ask. See if you can help me out here.

Birthday Wish #1 - I wish that all the church members in the town where I live would actually ATTEND the church of which they are members. I've always thought being a member of a church without participating in the life of that church was like owning a closet full of clothes and going naked all the time.

Birthday Wish #2 - I wish that Christians would remember who the enemy is. It's not that visitor in church who sat in "your" seat. It's not the church board, or the pastor, or anybody else who can bleed. We have an enemy, and his name is not on any church role in town. The devil's biggest successes occur when people forget that he and his lies are what we're supposed to be fighting, not somebody else at church, or some other church.

Birthday Wish #3 - I wish people would complain less and pray more. Not only is complaining a sin (see Philippians 2:14!), it doesn't do any good anyway. If we would spend half as much time praying for people and situations as we do complaining about them, God would do twice as many miracles. I include myself in this.

Birthday Wish #4 - I wish that more of the people who notice problems would become part of the solution. God didn't appoint any of us critics. But He did call us to be problem-solvers. You don't like how the youth leaders teach Sunday School? Ask them if there's any way you could help. You think your church's nursery needs improvement? Get involved. If you're not part of the solution, you may be part of the problem.

Birthday Wish #5 - I wish people would praise God more. I've read about places where the economy is bad. It's not bad here. My wife has worshiped in China where it's prohibited to have a Bible study in your home. A friend of mine has been in countries where church buildings are illegal. Fact is, we have it pretty good in America. Those who know where the blessings come from should give God the credit He deserves.

Final Birthday Wish - I want to be a better husband and father in the fifty-fourth year of my life than I was in the fifty-third. While my ministry at First Baptist is vital, my job at home is more important still. I thank God for a wife and family who haven't gotten too upset when I've forgotten that fact. Next to Jesus, they are the greatest gift I've ever received.

A TOUCH OR A CHANGE?

As we sat in the sanctuary, dozens of folks handled the big chunk of clay. Many touched it. Some even poked little impressions into its rounded surface.

However, after being passed through scores of hands, the ball of clay remained pretty much as it was when the first person among us touched it. Still just a more-or-less spherical glob.

It had been touched many times.

But it had not really been changed.

Reminds me of a lot of us Christians.

We go to Church on Sundays longing for a touch from God’s hand. And when He touches us, we sing with a tear in our eye or a lump in our throat, “He touched me! O, He touched me, and O! the joy that floods my soul.”

Believer, we don’t need only to be touched. We need to be changed!

Paul referred to this fact when he told the Galatian Christians he was laboring for them “until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). Jesus Himself placed before the Church the challenge to become like Him, to be remade into His likeness.

Scripture calls God the Potter and us the clay in His hands.

Have you ever seen what it takes for a potter to make something out of a lump of clay?

First, the clay has to be dug from the ground. Then it has to be ground into a fine powder, and all of the impurities removed. Next, it is mixed with water into a thick paste and extruded into big chunks. From this lump, the potter breaks off a chunk and kneads it to bring it to the right consistency. Then he slams it down onto a wheel, gradually and painstakingly turning and molding it into shape. Finally, after the clay dries, the potter places it into a blazing kiln.

Then, and only then, is the clay fit for the use designated by the potter.

It takes more than a touch.

If all you want is just a touch from God, you are welcome to ask Him, and He will probably touch you. However, if that’s all you want, it’s all you are likely to get: just a touch from God. It will be wonderful, to be sure, and your soul will be thrilled.

And, after the thrill wears off, you may remain basically unchanged.

God’s preference is that you place yourself fully into His hands. Let Him utterly remake you, and form you into the likeness of His Son.

When you go to Church this Sunday – and you WILL go to Church this Sunday, won’t you?! – don’t come out of the building the same as you went in. Prepare your heart to let God make you different, indeed, make you more like His Son Jesus.

Let such a desire be your prayer for these trying times. After all, it takes more than a touch. It takes a change.

DIVINE APPOINTMENTS, ETERNAL DESTINATIONS

Have you stopped lately to consider the destinations of the people who move through your life: you know, all those folks you meet and interact with, if even for only a few moments? In any given week, there may be a hundred or more lives that you touch in one way or another. For a few of us, there are more. For some of us, there are less.

But for all of us, there are some.

These people all have a destination. As your path crosses theirs, they’re going somewhere; and because of that fact, they may seem to be in a hurry. Then again, maybe the one who is hurrying is you, with the result your encounters seem fleeting, trivial or perhaps even annoying.

But there is something vital about each momentary meeting. If you believe that God is in any sense sovereign in the affairs of His creation (and I do), your so-called “chance meeting” may in fact be a divine appointment God has been arranging for years. The blessing of a life or the salvation of a human soul may be what God would like to place on your agenda, and if you fail to understand that possibility, you may miss an appointment God made for you.

God may have arranged for the path of one who has forgotten Him to cross your path so that you can do some reminding. He may have brought a hurting heart before you so you could apply the healing touch of His blessing. That cranky teller, that absent minded clerk, or that waitress who forgets your order may be just the person God has brought to you (or sent you to), with a redemptive purpose for the meeting.

That’s why you and I must always be prayed up and ready to extend God’s blessing, share His love, and reveal His truth. You see, there is much more ministry in your day than what you may think. If you’re too busy to pray for someone, you’re too busy. Your schedule is simply too full if you don’t have a moment to ask a hurting or angry soul, “How may I pray for you?”

These people all have a destination: every one of them is headed either for heaven or hell. The very fact that you have contact with them is evidence that our sovereign God has placed you strategically in their lives as a kind of missionary.

If you know Jesus and they don’t, who else is going to tell them? You don’t think for a moment that it’s up to your pastor to tell them, do you? It’s very likely they don’t even know your pastor.

If God brought that person to you, it’s obvious He expects you to do what you can to bring that person to Him. It’s a divine appointment, and someone’s eternal destiny may be involved.

What, with the help of God, are you doing about it?

TIME TO GET DESPERATE

From time to time we sing a song at our church that is emotionally and spiritually enormous in contrast to the actual brevity of it lyrics. Every time we sing it, the words convict me about the state of my relationship with God.

“This is the air I breathe: Your Holy Presence living in me.
This is my daily bread: Your very Word spoken to me;
And I, I’m desperate for You! And I, I’m lost without You!”

The melody is so easy that is makes singing the song not so much a musical experience as an intimate prayer.

Read the words again, and think of them as praying. Go ahead. Read them again.

There, now.

Isn’t the Presence of God as important as the air you breathe? Without air, you’d be physically dead. Without God’s Presence, you’d be even worse off: spiritually dead.

And how about God’s Word? Without His Word spoken into your life by the Holy Spirit, you would become spiritually malnourished, weak and diseased.

That leads you naturally to say “Lord, I’m desperate for You! I’m lost without You!”
Since I learned the song, I haven’t been able to escape that word “desperate.” God keeps pressing the question: “Are you really desperate for Me, John? Or is that just a nice song?”

According to the huge dictionary in my office, the word “desperate,” as it is used here, means “to have an urgent need or desire,” or “to make an ultimate effort, to give all.”

Does that sound like your attitude towards your relationship with God? Kind of makes you wonder. If you were desperate for God, how would it show in your life?

If you were desperate for God, you would take exceptional steps to pursue Him.

If you were desperate for God, you would pay any price to obey Him.

If you were desperate for God, you would take any risk to experience His power.

If you were truly desperate for God, you wouldn’t put limits on what you ask Him to do. You would crave His power, and you wouldn’t care how He manifested that power.

If you were truly desperate for God, you wouldn’t mind personal inconvenience or discomfort, just so long as you could live in the Presence of God.

If you were truly desperate for the Lord, you would be willing to do anything He tells you to do, even if it were something new or different or unfamiliar.

The problem is, folks like you and me are often more concerned with comfort than with the Presence of God. And that, brothers and sisters, is a sin for which we all need to stay in a state of repentance.

Are you desperate for God? Do you “have an urgent need or desire” for His Presence? Are you willing “to make an ultimate effort, to give all” for the sake of knowing Him?

We need God like never before! And that means we may need to do something we’ve never done before. It’s time to get desperate!