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LIVING ON TARGET
Third Edition Copyright © 2023 by Kelvin Smith Previous editions copyright 2009, and 2018
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the author.
ISBN: 979-8-218-31756-0
Cover art by Katelyn Smith Printed in the United States of America
To my beloved wife, Amy, who not only assisted me in writing Living on Target, but lived it.
Great is her reward.
1963 - 2022
Preface
We were driving home from Atlanta to Charlotte. Our car held four quiet and frustrated pastors who had just spent the day attending a ministry conference.
As lead pastor of our church, I had been deeply moved by the Holy Spirit to focus on discipleship. The Great Commission: “…and make disciples of all nations...” echoed in my ears. These were my Lord's last words before He ascended to His Father. This was His ﬁnal command before sending the Holy Spirit to indwell His followers. This commission reﬂected His heart, and the call to obey Him was burning in mine. I wanted desperately to shepherd His Body so that they would be well pleasing to Him. His call to discipleship could not be ignored.
Each pastor on our team shared the same vision. We had registered for this conference on “Small Groups and Discipleship” with hope and readiness. We were primed! We knew that discipleship was an imperative for the furthering of the Kingdom. We anticipated returning home with direction and focus. Instead, here we were, driving in silence, conscious only of deep disappointment.
Jesus had called us to be and to make disciples. That was viiiPreface the “what.” But no one at the conference had even begun to address the “how,” and this is what we were becoming more determined to discover.
Like a summer rain, starting with a few drops and building into a downpour, the conversation in the car became a deluge of questions:
What is biblical discipleship?
How many disciples have we trained lately?
What does a mature disciple look like?
What are the major issues surrounding discipleship in our church? In our culture?
How does real discipleship impact our personal lives, our marriages, our parenting, and our ﬁnances?
Are there any consistently effective ways to implement the discipling process?
Why, what, who, and how?
Over the next few years, the Lord began to show us the answers to these basic, yet essential questions. Discipleship is a lifestyle. Discipleship is a process.
Countless books exhorting the church to make disciples are available; yet they often seem to lack instructions on just how to reach this goal. Thus, emerged Living on Target as our humble attempt to answer some of the questions in the discipling process.
Living on Target explains why we are to be and to make disciples, what discipleship looks like, who empowers the process, and how it vis to be carried out in practice.
Beyond theory, you are about to discover in the pages of this book not only the principles, but the practices of discipleship that we have implemented at our church for years. We do not claim perfection in this endeavor; rather, our goal is faithfulness to be and make disciples who please our Lord. As
Living on Target has taken root, we have seen it bear much fruit. We invite you into this learning process with us.
Living on Target is based on the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:9 where he exhorts the church of Corinth: “So whether at home or away we make it our aim to please Him.”
The word “aim” is deﬁned as “ambition,” “goal,” or “the ability to hit a target.” We can visualize this in terms of archery. To achieve the highest score, an archer aims for the center, the bull’s eye. Similarly, in order to be well-pleasing to the Lord, we also need a target at which to aim in order to become fruitful disciples of Jesus Christ.
We have identiﬁed four vital “target areas” that encompass all our lives. Then, we identiﬁed the spiritual disciplines within each of those areas that, if practiced under the control of the Holy Spirit, would yield a mature and productive life in Christ. This gave us both an effective framework to clarify our own walk as disciples and a dynamic lifestyle to use in biblically discipling others.
Our church has been transformed by this message. Here are a few, among many statements attesting to how Living on Target has changed lives.
“In a world that competes for our attention daily, Living on Target provides a Christ-centered approach to make sure we stay on God's path of life and not the world's. It was the beginning of the life-changing work God wanted for me. It never grows old and is never ﬁnished. I went through the Living on Target discipling process, and it has, indeed, made a remarkable difference in my life. Not only did I realize the importance of my intimate relationship with Christ, but the extent to which every aspect of life is impacted by this relationship.”
“As a male, I sometimes identify myself with my occupation. I've now learned that my true occupation is “living on target” and what I do for money is simply a part of that. It also helps when things/life get out of control. Now I know where to go ﬁrst, then second, and so on to get back on the track God has planned.”
“Living on Target is ﬁlled with practical ways to recognize and demonstrate the truths of God's Word, not only in each believer's life but to also disciple and impact the lives of other Christians. This is essential as we prepare to one day stand before a holy God and give a good account.”
“I have both attended and led a Living on Target group. The beneﬁts and the relationships that are built have lasted well beyond the time spent in the meetings. The focus of living as the Word teaches us about our spouses, family, church, and community has been a blessing and something every believer should take time to invest in.”
“Using Living on Target as a discipling process is a beautiful way to live out the profound principles of Scripture. I have seen this radical change in myself and in countless others whom I have discipled. I have grown tremendously as I have led several Target groups. This has greatly improved my ability to share my own trials and victories in a transparent way and to encourage others to become disciplers themselves.”
I believe you picked up this book for a reason. It is my hope and prayer that it will challenge and bless you to know that He not only calls you to be well pleasing to Him, but He empowers you to do so. Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, may God take you deeper with Him as you enjoy “living on target.”
Introduction
So, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:9).
Living on Target is intended for everyone. This book is written with tremendous love and passion for Christ, His church, and for those who are not yet believers.
The message is simple, yet when it is truly understood and practiced from the heart, its truth will transform every person into God's likeness and for His pleasure.
Many say they believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, yet their lifestyles do not reﬂect this. They may know about God, but how many truly know Him? They aim at the temporal, empty distractions of life. But the Lord has called us to focus on a vital, faithful, contagious, consistently growing relationship with Him—one that naturally causes us to live out what we believe. We must abandon cultural Christianity and embrace biblical Christianity.
God has not only called us, but He has given His clear directions for adjusting our aim so that we can know Him, please Him, and model authentic Christianity before the world. His call and His empowerment allow us to center on becoming genuine, transparent disciples who are growing, maturing, sharing, and reproducing His life in others.
Along with every leader of Christ's Church, I, too, will give an account to God for what we teach (James 3:1) and how we watch over the souls He has entrusted to us (Hebrews 13:17). With this understanding, I submit this book to Him and to you with great humility and godly fear.
Even though I have prayed repeatedly that God would inspire this book through me, I fully realize my humanity. I encourage you to search the Scriptures, daily, to see if these things are so (Acts 17:11).
This book is saturated with the Word of God, and we know that His Word, not mine, will never come back null and void. For this reason, I pray that it convicts, encourages, afﬁrms, and drives us to be and to make disciples for His glory while we wait for His return. I echo the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1:28: “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”
The process of being and making disciples allows us to walk in truth and to share it with others, developing a biblical view of the world, as well as a biblical view of the church. Living on Target serves as a starting point for every believer, fully realizing the need for further doctrinal study.
Devoted disciples will adjust their lifestyles to make sure they are joyfully and fervently “living on target” so that on the day they give an account of their life before God, they will hear “Well done, My good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”
-Kelvin Smith
So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air (1 Corinthians 9:26).
The Apostle Paul, the great missionary for Christ, did not run his race of faith aimlessly. On the contrary, Paul exercised great discipline, desiring to labor for our Lord in a manner that would bring Him glory. That should be our aim as well! The principle “if you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it” is true in our spiritual life. If we aim at nothing, we can be certain we will achieve nothing of eternal value.
Most of us are aiming for something. Sad to say, much of what we are targeting pertains only to this world and this life because our world revolves around us. Without question, our ﬂesh, or pride, tells us to serve ourselves. Our enemy, Satan, tempts us to attend only to our self-interests. Our culture entices us with a “me ﬁrst” philosophy.
Typically, we aim to be happy, which we equate with ﬁnding the love of our life, entertainment, money, houses, cars, traveling, to name only a few of our goals. None of these, in and of themselves, are wrong, but when they become our primary aim or focus for our pursuits in life, we will eventually end up empty, still desiring more.
Selﬁshness will be more prevalent as the return of our Lord approaches. Jesus likened these days to the days of Noah and Lot:
“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark and the ﬂood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building…so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:26-28, 30).
Does this sound like our society today?
Now, again, there is nothing wrong with working hard, living life, and celebrating life's events, but when these become your primary goal, with little, if any, regard for Christ, His coming, His Kingdom, or His mission, then we are completely missing the mark, and we must give account for it when He returns.
In Philippians 3, Paul addressed this very issue, listing all the goals and achievements he had accomplished in his ﬂesh. All these things seemed impressive from a human standpoint, but he counted them all as “loss” compared with knowing Jesus His Lord. He considered his earthly achievements nothing but “rubbish” compared to what he might gain in Christ. He invited his brothers and sisters in the faith to join him in following his example, warning them against modeling their lives after those who set their minds on earthly things. Paul reminds us to stand fast in Christ as we aim, not for earthly objectives, but for spiritual goals:
“Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand ﬁrm thus in the Lord, my beloved” (Philippians 3:17-4:10).
Have we lost a sense of the eternal? Consider the words of Randy Alcorn in his book The Law of Rewards:
“A startling thing has happened among Western Christians. Many of us habitually think and act as if there were no eternity—or as if what we do in this present life has no eternal consequences…
The trend is to focus on our present circumstances instead of our eternal future. Yet Scripture states that eternal realities should inﬂuence the character of our present life, right down to every word we speak and every action we take (James 2:12; 2 Peter 3:11-12).
Our brief stay here may appear unimportant, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible tells us that although others may not remember us or care what our lives here have been, God will remember perfectly, and he cares very much—so much that the door of eternity swings on the hinges of our present lives.
The Bible tells us that this life lays the foundation upon which eternal life is built. Eternity will hold for us what we have invested there during our life on earth.
Scripture makes clear that the one central business of this life is to prepare for the next.”1
Romans 2:6-8 states that God “will render to each one according to His works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.”
Our ﬁnite minds cannot comprehend the longevity of eternity. Eternal life is just that—eternal—never ending. Our life on earth is very short, and what is accomplished in and for Christ will last for eternity.
I am sure that we can all agree that time doesn't stand still for anyone. Our birthdays seem to come more quickly every year. Time on this earth in its present state is short: “…What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). Eternity is forever; prepare for it now!
There is nothing more important than loving and glorifying God as we live by faith in an intimate and obedient relationship with Him. Biblical faith will be demonstrated by our trust in God and our obedience to His Word. The Bible tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). We please Him when our faith is active.
Salvation through faith in Christ alone is absolutely free, yet our faith in Him will be proven genuine only as we trust and obey Him (James 2:18). Faithful people establish their spiritual life as their top priority.
Jesus taught us about spiritual priorities when He instructed us to “seek ﬁrst the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Establishing and maintaining a biblical spiritual target equips us to aim for eternity and grow as we progress on our journey.
Paul had such a target: “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him” (2 Corinthians 5:9). The word “aim” can be deﬁned as “ambition,” “goal,” or “the ability to hit a target.” As an archer’s ambition is to aim for the bullseye, we should absolutely make our spiritual goals our highest ambition. These goals should be the target towards which we aim in all aspects of our lives so that we may please the Lord and become fruitful disciples.
God knows every detail of our lives. He knows our victories and challenges, our dreams and our hurts. He also knows our priorities. So, what are we aiming for? Is it all about us, or is it for the glory of God and His kingdom?
In order to be well pleasing to the Lord, I submit the following four target areas of our lives which need to be lived out in the speciﬁc order, below, so that they may become vital parts of our lifestyle both personally and corporately as a church:
LIVING in love and service to Christ
This refers to our vertical relationship with Christ. Without this relationship to our Lord, we cannot live abundant lives in the other three areas. The Christian walk was not intended to be a journey in the ﬂesh by our own determination. Christ must live His life in us and through us.
We must, daily, aim for this center. When we arise each morning, we need to have this imperative written on our hearts: to become a man or woman of prayer, the Word, and personal worship. These spiritual disciplines lead and allow us to have a marvelous relationship with God and they are to be practiced continually. Before we can disciple others in their relational walk with God, we must ﬁrst be faithful in our own walk.
If we miss this, the rest of what we do will simply be religious activity. We need to become absolutely grounded in love and intimacy with our Lord. Then, we have the privilege of discipling others as to how they, too, can achieve this intimacy with Him.
LIVING in love and service in the home
As we live in relationship with God, the ﬁrst people who should be experiencing the overﬂow of our closeness with the Lord are those who live with us. Our vertical relationship with Him should positively affect every horizontal relationship on earth, beginning with our families. We are to put our homes, singleness, marriages, our children, and ﬁnances in order so that love, acceptance, and peace are being experienced by others through us. Many of us are so challenged in our homes that there is nothing left in us to love and serve the Church and the world, our last two target areas. If, however, we are living under the control of the Holy Spirit in love and service within our homes, He equips us to best serve the Church and disciple others in these areas.
LIVING in love and service to the Church
When we become faithful in living out the ﬁrst two target areas, we position ourselves to function in love and service to the Church without being two-faced. Now we can operate as role models, shepherds, and disciplers, fulﬁlling our mission together to serve in a manner that would bring honor and glory to His name. We are also enabled to love and serve the poor, the persecuted, and the Church for whom Christ died.
LIVING in love and service to the world
Scripture teaches us that we are not of the world, but we live in the world. We are all here for a divine purpose, part of which is to evangelize our neighbors and the nations to bring them to Christ, not only to know Him, but also to make Him known.
When we have these four areas in their proper order and priority—Christ, home, church, and the world—something dynamic takes place. As we meet, love, and develop relationships with those who are lost, we will be a powerful witness to them. When an unbeliever crosses the line to faith and begins his or her journey as a disciple, we then have a lifestyle of faithfulness and obedience for them to emulate. This is why the Apostle Paul could say, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).
This gives you the privilege to ask new disciples if they would allow you to model for them and teach them how to:
live in relationship with the Lord;
become a man or woman of prayer, the Word, and worship;
put your home in biblical order with their singleness, their marriage, their children, and their money;
love and serve the church and the world.
When a person becomes a Christian or when we lead a man, woman, or child to Christ, we should be able to model for them what someone else has modeled for us. Just as you began a relationship with them, they will then also go and do the same with someone else.
Please notice that “Living on Target” is in the present tense. Our target is not a temporary program or just an academic Bible study. It is, indeed, a fundamental lifestyle, in shaping a life committed to Christ and preparing for eternity. If the Church were to operate faithfully in these four areas, we would be drastically transformed, we could impact our relationships, and we could change the world, all for the glory of God.
Dream with me for a moment of a church where everyone is living faithfully (not perfectly, but faithfully) and lovingly in these four fundamental, target areas. Can you dream of a church that will function like this? Can you envision a church where everyone experiences daily intimacy with Christ? Where our homes are in biblical order. Where we use our singleness or marriages to fulﬁll God’s purposes, where we train up godly and faithful children, exert discipline over God's money, and properly deal with materialism in our daily walk.
Can you imagine a church where everyone is characterized by his or her genuine love for one another? Can you think of a community where all the members participate in the mission Christ has given us to accomplish, where we love the lost and remember the poor; where we evangelize and then disciple those who are saved; and where we are united in purpose?
This is exactly what Christ has called us to. This dream is possible as we depend on the Holy Spirit and keep our eyes ﬁxed on the heavenly goal. Living on Target helps to re-establish discipleship in the Church.
We will never be perfect in these areas, but we can and should be faithful. This striving is a lifelong discipling process that we will never ﬁnish until God takes us to our eternal home.
Until that day, let each of us constantly evaluate our own lifestyle here on earth. Following God's order will produce peace and lasting fruit in our lives.
Many of us, sadly, are out of His order, spinning plates of busyness, chaos, apathy, and neglect in one or more of these four target areas—especially in our personal relationships with Christ and with our family. We can no longer be intimate or in order; instead, we ﬁnd our hearts wavering. We then become impotent and ineffective in serving the church and the world. This must change!
God is the God of order; Satan is the author of confusion. Jesus came to earth as a man, died on a cross, and rose again to bring us life in all of its richness and fullness—not the chaos of disorder. We have to receive Him and practice His way as a lifestyle in order to experience His presence. Submitting to God and His biblical order brings His peace, freedom, and power, accessible to us all.
We have available to us many tremendous Bible teachers, ministry programs, and messages on social media which urge us to develop biblical strategies for our lives. We should be thankful for these resources. At the same time, we must be careful not to run from Bible study to Bible study without honestly evaluating these four critical target areas in our own lives. Paul said, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves...” (2 Corinthians 13:5). Do not be afraid of truthful self-examination. It truly is for our beneﬁt. It humbles us and keeps us from living hypocritical lives.
If we are not careful, we can fall into the same trap along with the Pharisees. They knew the Law of God extremely well, yet only in their heads; the Scriptures had not gripped their hearts. As a matter of fact, in the Gospels, Jesus addressed the Pharisees as hypocrites. He said that they honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him (Mark 7:7).
Hypocrisy is intentionally giving people the impression that you are living one way when, in fact, you are not. Being faithful means that through the power of God within you, your desires and habits are to obey Him. Faithfulness is evidenced by a pattern of heart and action, consistently moving in the direction of maturity, deepening fellowship with God in loving service to Him and to people.
If our hearts are not drawn into relationship with God and people, our academic Bible knowledge is of little, if no, use. It is very important to know and understand theology but remember that the theology in sacred Scriptures should always move our hearts toward Him and others. If it does not move us in that direction, we are no better than the hypocritical Pharisees.
We can all cite examples of Christian leaders who tell the world what the Bible teaches—yet do not live it themselves. Some believers delight in debating (and defeating) others in doctrinal issues while at the same time continuously mistreat their spouse or children. Yet they refuse to see their sin and repent. We, and the world, would rightly call out such believers as hypocrites! We can only be genuinely effective if we ﬁrst put our heart, life, and house in biblical order before we “preach” to others.
To avoid the label of ‘hypocrite,” we must, above all else, allow the Word of God to penetrate deep into our own hearts and minds. It can then ﬂow out of us to inﬂuence people through relationships—something we seem to struggle with today. God absolutely wants us to achieve this objective because the Almighty is all about relationships–ﬁrst with us, then, as we develop our fellowship with Him, with others in our families, our extended families, and throughout the world. In addition to relationships, the Lord longs for us to have our ﬁnances under control and materialism in check so that we will indeed have the integrity, passion, and desire to love and serve the Church. Then, when these are under His control, we should have the time, availability, and heartfelt concern to pursue and serve the lost. As those without Christ receive Him, we need to be able to teach them in the same manner we have been taught. The divine art of discipling those who choose to follow Christ needs to be rediscovered by believers in the Church today. Living on Target is a strategy to achieve this objective.
There are simply no short cuts to these four essential areas of Living on Target: living in love and service to Christ, in the home, to the Church, and to the world. We cannot choose to practice one or two and ignore the others. We cannot practice them out of order; each one builds upon the previous one. If we do try to attempt them in a haphazard way, although we may be doing good things here on earth, we are certainly not going to accomplish the best things, eternally.
Until we have these four areas in our own lives in a balanced, biblical order, we are unable to disciple others effectively. Our Christian walk is not just so we can prepare for the day we stand before God, but so we can also live an effective, joyful, and purposeful life while we are here on this earth.
To be well pleasing to our heavenly Father, we need to live faithfully, in all four areas. If we do not make these our priority—our aim—then we will never see them achieved.
In the church, we tend to lean toward extremes or only focus on that which we personally value. For example, some people claim to love Christ, but do not express a love for the Church, His Bride. Certainly, I fully understand the disappointments, unmet expectations, disagreements, and even deep hurts that occur in the Church, but if you make the statement, “I love Jesus, but I don't love the Church,” then there is a serious disconnect.
This inconsistency shows itself in a variety of other ways that reﬂect imbalance in the four target areas. Some may enjoy attending church services—but they have not surren- dered to Christ. Others serve the church—but neglect or mistreat their spouses and families, often with tragic outcomes. Others may love Christ and their families—but turn their backs on the unsaved. Some may love and serve the lost with great passion—but want little to do with the Church. To become well developed, well balanced, and fully devoted followers of Christ, we must mature in love and service in all four of these fundamental areas.
Why is balance so important? What could be the result of imbalanced priorities? A pastor friend shared with me that at one time he had lost his love for the Church. His ministry to the Body of Christ began with a desire to be a godly pastor but having been hurt by those who had taught him the Scriptures, he did not see authenticity modeled. Furthermore, there was no room for transparency in his congregation, nor care extended to him, as well as from him. As he told me, “I had not yet learned that you must humble yourself to be cared for by the Body before you can care for Her. After forty-one years, my love for the Church had departed. Yet I was still serving her.” It was an unhealthy, destructive alliance for which his wife and family were also paying a price.
My friend became convicted and distressed, challenged with the fact he was serving the church at the expense of his family. Often, late at night, the phone would ring. A member of the congregation needed his counsel and attention. His wife began chiding, “Your other woman is calling.” My friend's face reﬂected the depth of impact which this had on him. His children were asking for him, wishing he “wasn't at the church all the time.”
He knew he could not continue. Something was terribly wrong. He left the church and determined not to re-engage.
Several years later, the Lord led him to our fellowship and the Living on Target message and lifestyle. Even though he had pastored and served congregations, he humbled himself and began to allow himself to be discipled.
He told me, “As I learned the truths presented in Living on Target, I discovered with great clarity and conviction that before I could passionately and healthfully love and serve the church and the world, I had to focus ﬁrst and foremost on my relationship with Christ. He was to be my ﬁrst love. Then, having my home in order meant that my wife was to feel my preference and protection. She and our children were my ministry—in fact 'ministry' was not reserved for the church. I was called to serve my Lord ﬁrst, then my family, then the church, and then the world. I had it backwards.”
He continued, “I am in love with the Church again! She now reminds me how to love and serve my God and my family as well as the Church and beyond. The Body of Christ is no longer functioning as a “mistress” but as a sweet reminder that I am part of Her and that God has called us to love our Bridegroom together. I can still slip into the traps of the early years. But I am responsible now to the Holy Spirit's correction and precious people who remind me of God's truth. Psalm 40 anchors me: 'Behold, I come. My ears You have opened. I delight to do Your will, O my God.'”
From personal experience and from the testimonies of those who have been discipled through this process, I can tell you without hesitation, this is powerful! As one of our members expressed:
“Living on Target has a beautiful way of making simple truths profoundly affect our lives. I have seen this radical change in both myself and countless others with whom I have gone through this teaching and discipling process.
One of the aspects I value most about the Target group is the ability it has to create a sense of community. In the weeks you spend together, you share intimately about yourself and learn much regarding each other. It establishes a deep and safe environment in which to share and be held accountable. I truly learned to rejoice with those who rejoice and grieve with those who grieve, and, in it, we became united, the Body of Christ.”
As we evangelize people and disciple believers, it is important to remember that we can do this only through God's grace and power because, at times, it can be challenging. God has called us to what can sometimes be a messy task.
Some will not listen to the Lord's call to discipleship. Some will rebel for a time, then repent and be drawn back into fellowship. Some will have multiple personal issues. We can faithfully pray, work, and rest in His sovereign power to change our lives ﬁrst, and then to work in those we are privileged to disciple.
Never give up on people. You may need to release them from your discipling relationship for a while, or even indeﬁnitely. We can never make people stay in relationship with us or be discipled by us. Someone else may be better suited for them at the time. Always leave the door open, allowing the person to re-approach you in the future. Remember, people are not projects. They are human beings made in the image of God, created to have fellowship with Him. We cannot force, control, or manipulate. We can and should love and pray for them.
God sovereignly brings discipling relationships together. We can only make ourselves available to Him and to others and leave the “heart surgery” to God. Allow the Holy Spirit to accomplish His work while we stay faithful to ours.
The concept “go and make disciples” is quite daunting to some people. They feel fearful or incapable of discipling others. Rest assured, however, that anyone the Holy Spirit empowers to live a faithful lifestyle in these four areas, can model them for someone who enters the faith. Do not let this intimidate you. People will be drawn to your honest faithfulness, struggles, and all!
Paul was not perfect in his ﬂesh, nor will you or I ever be. This is why the Bible instructs us not to walk in the power and pride of our ﬂesh, but by the Spirit of God. The Lord's provi-sions are perfect and complete. We have everything we need in His divine nature to “live on target” for His glory. Yet we must continually draw upon His divine nature within us in order to live a fruitful and godly life. Not only do we have the privilege of being His disciples and of discipling others in the faith, but we have this promise: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him Who called us to His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3).
This process must be intentional. We must eliminate anything that would hinder us from being and making disciples. Living on Target is not a temporary program; it is a perma-nent lifestyle that will bring pleasure to God. Is this your aim?
An unbalanced and aimless Christian life will lead to a wasted, joyless existence. Many of us have experienced the consequences of this already or maybe even now are experiencing them. Please know that there is forgiveness, healing, and renewed hope available through God and His Word.
Rather than living such an aimless, empty existence, there is clear hope and direction for avoiding the consequences of an ineffective life. For us to get and stay spiritually healthy and balanced, we must grow and mature in all four areas we have been discussing.
If you have not been previously discipled, after reading and beginning to practice the Living on Target lifestyle, please consider passing this on to others. Paul charges Timothy, “… what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others also…” (2 Timothy 2:2). By discipling others, you will be fulﬁlling our Lord's command to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
This is the mandate to which He has called us: to advance His Kingdom through evangelism and discipleship for the glory of His Name.
Reflect and Respond
Do the four target areas need to be prioritized in your life for you to become a mature and effective disciple of Christ?
For which speciﬁc spiritual goal(s) have you been aiming?
In which target areas have your earthly goals seemed to take preference over your spiritual goals?
Would a speciﬁc spiritual target area (or areas) help you on your spiritual journey?
In what areas do you need to mature?
REMEMBER, with God, nothing is impossible.
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others (2 Corinthians 5:9-11).
Ready or not, every person who ever lived has an appointment with God. The Apostle John, in Revelation 20:11-15, and the Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, both stated unequivocally that unbelievers and believers alike will be judged for what they have done with their lives. Unbelievers will receive their just recompense for rejecting Christ, while believers will receive theirs for how they lived for Him.
Paul gave his life to persuade people to reconcile to God and prepare to meet Him face to face. He knew that the character of God included love, grace, and holiness. That is why Paul so deeply revered Him. I am very concerned that many of us in the Body of Christ have lost, or never even had, a true understanding of the character of God.
Unfortunately, many people make up a god in their minds that simply does not exist. It seems that belief in God has been reduced to an optional choice: perhaps a vague, objectless “faith,” a benevolent grandfather, someone to curse when things go wrong, simply irrelevant for today's life–or even “dead.” He is none of these. He is the Lord God Almighty. He has always been and will always be—holy.
God is not interested in people's opinions of who He is, nor in any “new” deﬁnitions or ideas about Him. No one has the authority to redeﬁne Him or His character. It is not up to us to determine for ourselves who He is or how to have a relationship with Him. His Word tells us who He is and how to have a relationship with Him. We are simply to submit to Him and His Word.
Paul wrote in the opening verse of this chapter that “we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ.” Are you ready to appear before a holy God? The Apostle further warns in Romans 13:11, “...that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we ﬁrst believed.” How do we prepare to meet Him? As we abide in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, He will enable us to live a life of love, grace, and holiness in godly fear. These three characteristics of God should ﬂow from every Christian's heart as we aim to be well pleasing to our Lord and anticipate our appointment with Him. There is no better motivation for living on target than living in love, grace, and holiness. Let us look at each of these three characteristics in more detail.
Love
God is love and His love is steadfast (1 John 4:8 and Psalm 145:8-9). The Bible is abundantly clear regarding the fact that God loves you. We read in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Regardless of past beliefs, doubts, or circumstances, please believe the Scriptures and receive God's love. The Father loves you so much that He gave His Son for you that you may not perish but have everlasting life. When we receive the Father's love for ourselves, we will begin to love Him and others. According to 1 John 4:19-21, “We love because He ﬁrst loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God Whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” The foremost characteristic of a Christian is to live in love.
We are not able to love others—or ourselves—until we understand and receive our Lord's love for us, ﬁrst.
Do not listen to Satan, the world, people, or even your own thoughts if the message you are receiving undermines the truth of how much you are loved by God. When we realize that, we are then able to live in love to others.
In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Paul said that if he did not have love, he considered himself “nothing.” Anything he did, good as it was, would proﬁt him nothing in God's Kingdom if he did it without love. This certainly applies to us, as well. The Bible says no matter how gifted, knowledgeable, generous, or sacriﬁcial we are, if we do not love, our works are eternally worthless; we will become as “nothing.” This foundational doctrine and this lifestyle characteristic are of utmost eternal consequence. Being loved by God and loving God and others is vital to our Christianity!
The two greatest commandments in Scripture are found in Matthew 22:36-40 where a Pharisee tested Jesus with a question: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus answered him, “You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and ﬁrst commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Paul said we are to be rooted and grounded in love (Ephesians 3:17-19). Because of His forgiveness to us, we are, above all, to put on love (Colossians 3:14; 1 Peter 4:8). When we put on love we will choose to love people—even our enemies (Luke 6:35; 1 John 4:7-12).
Everything we do for Christ needs to be motivated by our love for Him, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, and again in Galatians 5:6. His marvelous love compels us to “live on target!”
Please note how God's call to love will affect our appointment with Him on Judgment Day. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So, we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have conﬁdence for the Day of Judgement…” (1 John 4:15-17).
The Apostle Paul shares this desire in his letter to the Philippians (1:9-11): “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ﬁlled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
In 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13, we read this exhortation: “… may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”
According to these Scriptures, our love for God and others will greatly affect our experience with Him when He returns to judge all mankind. You need not fear that Day if you receive His love for you.
Grace
We read in both the Old Testament (Psalm 145:8) and in the New Testament (John 1:14) that God the Father is gracious, and God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, embodies grace and truth.
The word grace, itself, ﬁlls us with hope. Why? Because it is God's goodness and kindness poured out on us, cascading into our lives from the very heart of the Almighty, Himself. Grace is God's unmerited favor and provision for our life and salvation. It is never deserved but always lavished on His children in outrageous love and delight.
We can never wrap our minds fully around the miracle of grace. It is a truth that we begin to appropriate at salvation and then continue to discover, revel in, and respond to all the days of our walk here on earth. The grace of God saves us, offering us continual forgiveness as we confess our sins. It also empowers us to live godly, grace-ﬁlled lives. God freely offers you His wonderful grace. By “living on target” as this book describes, you can evaluate whether or not you are actively living out God’s grace in your life toward Him and others.
God's grace toward us in all its fullness naturally results in response. Yet how tempting it is to read our favorite grace passages without looking at the full context. For example, Titus 2:11 records, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people...” Wonderful! But don't stop there. In the very next breath Paul states, “…training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:12-14).
This response to God's grace is a consistent pattern in Scripture. Ephesians 2:8-9 explains, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Amen! But keep reading the very next verse: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Grace is a wonderful motivator to aim for the target of being well pleasing to God as stated in 2 Corinthians 5:9. It is His grace to us that gives us salvation, a new identity, power over sin, and a freedom we never had before.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
After you place your faith in Christ, alone, for your salvation, by His grace you become a brand new you. The new you is now very much alive to God and dead to sin (Romans 6:11). This means that sin is no longer your master. The Scriptures do not say you will be perfect, but according to Romans 6:7, you “died” to sin as your controlling inﬂuence.
As a “new creation” in Christ, your spirit desires to obey the Lord—but your ﬂesh does not. The “ﬂesh” is that part of us that seeks our own good and rebels against the Spirit of God in self-centered pride. That is why Paul instructs us to continually walk in the Holy Spirit so that we will not gratify the desires of our prideful ﬂesh (Galatians 5:16).
When you are in Christ, you will still be tempted, but you will no longer want to be under sin’s controlling inﬂuence because of Christ's life within you. By His grace, He has given you the desire and power to break the domination sin has had over you and you now have the strength to live His life through you. In essence, a new you.
Many people ask the question, “Who am I?” In fact, many people spend their entire lives searching for an answer to this most basic life question. We often look to our parents, our performance, our friends, spouse or children, or our profession to deﬁne our identity. But none of these are adequate to answer the question of who we are or why we are here.
The best place to discover the answer to this question is to look to God and His Word. For those who have accepted His gift of salvation, the ﬁrst thing He tells us about our identity is that it is “in Christ.” This phrase is repeated over and over in the New Testament, as we previously read, in 2 Corinthians 5:17. When we start watching for it, we will be amazed at who we are, and what we have, in Christ.
Those who repent and place their faith in Christ become, ﬁrst and foremost, sons and daughters of God. This is our identity. John 1:12 says, “But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”
This is astonishing because, before we became children of our heavenly Father, Paul says, we were His enemies (Romans 5:10). Now, Paul declares in 6:2-4, that Christ has cruciﬁed and buried the very ones who were His enemies and has resur-rected us as His children. This is also known as the new birth, described in the third chapter of John's gospel. We become “born again” as sons and daughters of God the moment we are saved. As Christians, then, this is our primary identity. This we can believe with conﬁdence.
But not only are we children of God. A Christian is also a saint, which means a “holy one.” We are holy in Christ. Apparently, God wanted us to internalize that fact because the New Testament refers to us as saints more than sixty times. Some might say, “If I’m a saint, then the Church is in trouble!”
We should all realize that we have prideful ﬂesh and, therefore, the capacity to sin. We might not call ourselves “saints” because we know we are not perfect—which seems to be the world's deﬁnition of “saint”–but, thankfully, perfection is not the Bible's deﬁnition of a saint.
How, then, are we saints in Christ? We received our saint-hood, or, holiness, from Christ when we received Him as our Lord and Savior. We did not receive it for what we did. In fact, we did nothing in ourselves to deserve or earn the exalted title of saint.
Your ﬁrst, earthly birth determined that you were a sinner. Your second, new spiritual birth determined that you are a saint in Christ. Why? Because at your second birth, Christ took up residence in you and you took on the righteous identity of Christ, the Holy One.
One of the greatest truths the Holy Spirit will ever show you is that you became righteous in and through Christ Jesus at the moment you repented of your sin and accepted Him as your Savior and Lord. According to Scripture, “For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Look closely at this verse. It tells us that God the Father made Jesus “to be sin” in our place. He took all our transgres-sions upon Himself at the cross. Upon our repentance from sin and placing our faith in Him alone, the righteousness of the Almighty was imparted to us, and we became the righteousness of God in Christ. At our conversion (new birth) our old self was cruciﬁed with Christ so we would no longer live for ourselves. We exchanged our old, sinful life to receive Christ Who will live His holy and righteous life in and through us (Galatians 2:20).
Theologians call this The Great Exchange. And so it is. We did not deserve or earn this righteousness. Like salvation, Paul declares in Romans 5:17, it was a gift given to us at conversion.
Therefore, based solely on the “redemption through His blood,” our position and identity as saints, have been accepted, or, “blessed…in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6-7). Again...absolute grace!
Satan will persevere in tempting us to believe the opposite about ourselves. He tempts us to doubt God, our salvation, and our identity in Christ. Revelation 12:10-11 warns us that he loves to accuse us “day and night” of many things and bring us into condemnation. His condemning accusations convince us to believe that we are, and always will be failures, that we will never quite measure up, that we are not valuable or worthy enough. Do not believe his deceit; the Bible calls him “…a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
If we are tempted to sin, or feel condemned in this way, we know that those thoughts are not from God (James 1:13; Romans 8:1). Godly sorrow, or, redemptive conviction, comes from God and leads to repentance, forgiveness, and a new identity in Him. Condemnation does not–for those who are walking in the Spirit. Reject any lies of the enemy and replace them with the truth of who you are in Christ Jesus.
No one can control the initial thoughts that enter our minds (oh, how we wish we could!), but we do have control of them after they arrive. We can either entertain those thoughts, or take “every thought captive to obey Christ,” rejecting them in the name of Jesus and walking away from them in victory (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
From this day forward, protect your thought life and make a distinction between lies and truth. We are the righteousness of God in Christ!
We know that our Father highly values our obedience, but our obedience is not for the purpose of making us more righteous. Only He can make us righteous, and He has already done that in Christ, by His amazing grace.
We are never asked to live the Christian life in our own strength. That is impossible. Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15: 4-5).
As we abide (remain) in Christ, developing daily intimacy with Him, He cultivates in us the fruit of the Spirit—which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control—so that we might live a fruitful life of service. Christians should be the most loving, joyful and servant-minded people on the entire planet, but this kind of lifestyle can only be lived if we continually abide in Christ. It brings glory and pleasure to God the Father and testiﬁes that we are His disciples. “By this My Father is gloriﬁed, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).
Many of you know that Jesus is your Lord and Savior and that you must abide in Him to live a life pleasing to Him. But do you genuinely understand that Jesus is your very Life?
Scripture declares in Colossians 3:4, “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” What does it mean for Christ to be your life? This tells us He is your ultimate Source, your All in All. He is the means by which you truly live.
In practical terms, Jesus Christ desires to live His life through you every day. This in no way wipes out your personality which God has uniquely given to you, but He wants to express Himself in and through you, desiring to use your words and actions to present Himself to the world.
Even more, Jesus Christ living through you is the only way you will be able to live a life that is pleasing to God. The Holy Spirit who resides in you is there to lead and to ﬁll you with the life of Christ so that you will have the necessary power to obey the Lord and to please Him. In fact, this is the only way you can give joy and delight to your heavenly Father.
Trying to obey God the Father without allowing Christ to live through you, produces nothing but frustrating and ineffective attempts to be “good enough.” It is good to obey God, but without the power of Christ in us to do so, it is futile. It is only by surrendering to Christ, becoming so dependent on Him, giving up our will for His, that we can become obedient to Him in all areas of our lives.
Without that surrendered obedience, regardless of how worthwhile good deeds may seem to yourself and others, anything performed through the ﬂesh (from self-centered motives) will be considered as “wood, hay, and straw.” The Bible says that such works will “burn” or, in other words, be considered as eternally worthless at the Judgement Seat of Christ (I Corinthians 3:12-15). This simply means there will be no reward.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” What did Paul mean, “to live is Christ?” He determined that every day of his journey, he was so dependent on Christ to take complete authority over every area of his life, giving up his own rights, that it was actually Christ who was manifesting Himself through Paul's daily walk.
Can you say the same thing? Are you so dependent on the Lord that you, too, can declare, “For me, to live is Christ”?
Paul stated, “For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed” (Romans 15:18). The apostle was clear the only things which really mattered to him were what Christ had carried out through him.
This is why you can exclaim with Paul, as he did in the second chapter of Galatians, verse 20, “I have been cruciﬁed with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the ﬂesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Again, Paul clearly states that he was relying on Christ to be his very life. That is the basis of your freedom in Christ, and that, too, is grace.
The Bible teaches us in Romans 6:17-18 that we are no longer dominated or enslaved by sin; we have been given the power through the Holy Spirit to live in freedom and righteousness. Why then do we continue to experience a spiritual war within us?
Paul, with tremendous transparency, continues in Romans 7 to describe his own frustrating battle with the law of sin that yet remained in him after his conversion. He admitted that there were times in his life that he did not do the good that he wanted, but would end up doing things that he hated. Can you identity with Paul? We all can, because, from the fall of Adam and Eve, we all have this law of sin within ourselves which is constantly warring against the Holy Spirit Who also lives inside us.
Before salvation, we had no power to overcome sin. Sin dominated us. At our conversion, we were set free from that domination, sealed, and empowered by the Holy Spirit Who gives us the ability to live in freedom and righteousness.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the ﬂesh. For the desires of the ﬂesh are against the
Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the ﬂesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:16-17). Notice that our responsibility is to walk by, or, to live by the Spirit. The expression “live by” means “to be occupied with,” or “to regulate one's life by.”
If we are daily allowing the Spirit of God to regulate our lives, we will not be seeking to fulﬁll our own self-centered desires. Instead, we will be more occupied in pleasing our Lord. Only then, will we bear the fruit of the Spirit as beautifully described in Galatians 5:22-23. Living by the Spirit does not free us from the temptation of sin. It frees us from the tyranny of sin.
The key to a productive and abundant, fruit-ﬁlled life is daily surrender to Christ and His powerful Holy Spirit within us. Our surrender brings us freedom: freedom from the domination of sin, freedom from religious bondage, freedom from legalism, and freedom from condemnation. We now have freedom to love, freedom to receive and extend forgiveness, freedom to experience His healing, freedom to worship, and freedom to serve our Lord with joy, passion, and thanksgiving. We will experience our ultimate liberty when we receive our sin-free bodies at the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15). We eagerly anticipate that day when we will enter heaven and live without the battle of sin. Until then, we live by the Spirit from the inside out.
Through the grace of God, we have salvation, a new identity, power over sin, and freedom. In gratitude for this divine grace, let us serve our Lord with joyful reverence and godly fear as we look toward our appointment with Him.
Holiness
The Apostles understood the complete character of God: our heavenly Father certainly is loving, patient, and gracious, but He is also a holy, consuming ﬁre. Besides love and grace, holiness, then, is the third characteristic of God that should motivate us to “live on target.”
As Hebrews 12:28-29 exhorts, “Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming ﬁre.” Peter reminds us in chapter 1 of his ﬁrst letter: “...but as He Who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'”
In 2 Corinthians 5:11 Paul testiﬁes that he had come to know the fear of the Lord. Because of his maturity in understanding this, he gave his life to persuade others to reconcile with God and to prepare to meet Him face to face. He was concerned that the fear of God had been lost and he stated that fact in Romans 3:18: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” The word “fear” means terror, reverence, respect, and honor.
Earlier in Romans 1, Paul listed some of the traits that characterized the godless people of the day. Among other things, he said that they were “immoral, full of envy, strife, deceit, violent, proud, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful.”
It is sad to say, but can we not identify with Paul's concern and echo these same words to describe our society today? We have minimized, ignored, and even celebrated as good the very things that should cause us to tremble before a holy God in repentance. In fact, there are many people claiming to be born again Christians whose lifestyles are no different than those who outright reject Christ. We simply cannot live a life of deliberate sin, refusing the Spirit's conviction, and then say that we fear God: “...by the fear of the Lord, one turns away from evil” (Proverbs 16:6).
The early churches practiced this understanding and as they walked (lived) “in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit” they multiplied (Acts 9:31). The present Church must regain that same understanding to teach and practice this biblical fear of God.
Notice that the two keys to the churches' growth and maturity were living in a deep, reverent fear of the Lord, and living in the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit. These two keys bring us freedom and power to be the sons and daughters of God that He has called us to be. Living this way strengthens us not to fear anyone or anything else, “…for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). Oh, that His church today would return to living out this truth: He is still holy!
Please note the following passages:
Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling (Psalm 2:11).
The friendship of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He makes known to them His covenant (Psalm 25:14).
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him…But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him (Psalm 103:13, 17).
Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways (Psalm 128:1).
And His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation (Luke 1:50).
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every deﬁlement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1).
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor (1 Peter 2:17).
Fear God and give him glory because the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water (Revelation 14:7.)
Because the Apostle Paul understood the character of God and the judgment to come, he gave his life in order to urge and persuade the Church to prepare for that day when they would meet Him, face to face. He articulated very clearly that he knew the fear, the holy terror of the Lord. Let us, therefore, rightly fear God and give Him glory as we anticipate His return. He is still holy and just. We must revere Him as such.
There is a difference between the Old and the New Covenants, but not in the God of these Covenants. There is not a God of the Old Covenant (Old Testament) and a different God of the New Covenant (New Testament). He is one and the same; His character has never changed and never will.
Some mistakenly believe that God was not merciful and gracious under the Old Covenant, but Exodus 34:6-7 states the opposite: “...The Lord, the Lord God, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands…”
God has always been merciful, gracious, loving, and forgiving. At the same time, He has always been holy and just. If we do not confess and repent of our sin, He will by no means clear our guilt.
In Proverbs 9:10, Scripture declares, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the
Holy One is insight.” To gain wisdom, we must, therefore, begin with understanding, accepting, and submitting to the total character of God.
We serve the Lord because of our love for Him, but our fear–our respect and reverence of God—should also drive us away from sin and to Him, cleansing ourselves “from every deﬁlement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). We can be eternally grateful for a holy God who is worthy of our reverential fear.
As we saw in 2 Corinthians 5:9-11 at the beginning of this chapter, we make it our aim to please Him. We are enabled by His Spirit to live a life of love, grace, and holiness in godly fear. Why is this so important? Paul went on in this passage to clearly cite his reason for aiming to please God: “…we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”. Yes, Jesus is love. But Jesus’ own words in John 9:39 declare, “For judgment I came into this world.” He also said, “…an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29).
Regardless of what society promotes, a judgment day is coming for all of us. All people, believers and nonbelievers alike, must prepare ourselves for our appointment with God.
It is essential that we stop and allow this fact to penetrate our hearts and minds: every person on the planet will one day stand before a very holy God and will not only give an account of their life but will experience either everlasting punishment or eternal life. “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). Please notice the words “everlasting” and
“eternal.” It never ends! Are you ready for your appointment with this supremely holy God?
The reality of this day of accounting should, in and of itself shake us, wake us, and cause us to evaluate our faith and lives in repentance. It should make us passionately determined to live a surrendered and holy life that will be well pleasing to God.
The Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:17-18, “…it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” He then asks “If the righteous is scarcely saved what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
What does await the ungodly and the sinner? In 2 Peter 3:7, he answers: “But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for ﬁre, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”
Paul also answers this question very clearly in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-9:
“This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, for which you are also suffering since, indeed, God considers it just to repay with afﬂiction those who afﬂict you, and to grant relief to you who are afﬂicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in ﬂaming ﬁre, inﬂicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.”
The Apostle John adds:
“Then I saw a great white throne and Him Who was seated on it. From His presence earth and sky ﬂed away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of ﬁre. This is the second death, the lake of ﬁre. And if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of ﬁre” (Revelation 20:11-15).
Jesus and the apostles Peter, Paul, and John all refer to this extremely horriﬁc and sobering judgment that awaits all who reject Christ. This judgment should convict and move every Christian to share the Gospel at all cost; it is a matter of eternal life or death.
If you do not know that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, please consider this: Christ paid the price for your sin on the cross. Confess that you have sinned, repent, and, by faith, receive His payment “in full” on your behalf. You will receive His righteousness in exchange for your debt of sin, and your name will be found written in the Book of Life. This is the power of the Gospel.
If, on the other hand, you do know that your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life by faith in Christ, you have nothing to fear. Thank Him and continue to live a life that pleases Him in light of our own certain appointment before God.
Thankfully, on one hand, many of us do know that our names are in the Book of Life by faith alone in Christ, but, on the other hand, we do not seem to have the proper level of fear or respect for our own appointment with God. Hear the words of Peter, “And if you call on Him as Father Who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear…” (1 Peter 1:17).
As Christians, how we conduct our lives here is obviously very important to God. The Lord did not save us only for heaven, but also to make a spiritual impact while we are here on this earth.
The results of how we live now will be brought to light at the Judgment. Many Christians may not be taking this appointment seriously, yet Paul certainly did, and so should we.
The Bible is very clear that we, as Christians, will give an account to God and that He will indeed judge us for what we did with His gift of salvation. Romans 5:9 and 1 Thessalonians 5:9 explain that we are saved from the wrath of God. Yes, we can rejoice in that! However, we are not exempt from giving an account of our lives to God. The Bible is clear: the Lord will judge His people. And judgment begins with us, the family of God. (Hebrews 10:30 and 1 Peter 4:17).
Paul also mentions this Judgment Day in Romans 14:10-12: "Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, 'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.' So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
Hebrews 4:13 says: “…no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.” Again, in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, we read, “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by ﬁre, and the ﬁre will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he, himself, will be saved, but only as through ﬁre.”
We also need to read 1 Corinthians 4:4-5:
“For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes Who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”
Yes, according to Scripture, all Christians will stand before God on Judgment Day. For Christians, our judgment will not be a question of salvation, for that is not based on what we have done but on what Jesus has done for us by His grace. Rather, our judgment will be one of heart motives, attitudes, and stewardship of what we have done with what has been given us. Our judgement will also determine what rewards and responsibilities we receive in eternity.
The Apostle Matthew is quite clear: “For the Son of Man is going to come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay each person according to what he has done” (Matthew 16:27; 25:14-30). Luke and Paul reiterate this in Luke 19:11- 27 and 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.
We may not think that being rewarded for our faith is necessary, but it is obviously what our Lord desires to do for His children. Just like earthly parents enjoy rewarding their children, God delights to do this for us. Jesus said in Revelation 22:12, “…I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with Me to repay each one for what he has done.” And again, in Revelation 3:11, “I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.”
The Apostle John counsels: “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for but may win a full reward” (2 John 1:8). Amazingly, Jesus even desires to repay us for serving people who cannot repay us on earth (Luke 14:13-14). The heart of our Lord is to reward His children for their obedience. He is the rewarder (Hebrews 11:6).
If God desires to give crowns, then we should desire to receive them from Him. This is not selﬁsh ambition, but holy ambition. Knowing this, we can release ourselves to receive from God whatever He desires to give us.
The following crowns are mentioned in the New Testament:
Crown of Life given for love and faithfulness to Christ and/or martyrdom (James 1:12; Revelation 2:10).
Imperishable Crown given for spiritual discipline and perseverance in the Christian life (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).
Crown of Rejoicing given for pouring oneself into others through evangelism and discipleship; possibly the people, themselves, are the reward (1 Thessalonians 2:19; Philippians 4:1).
Crown of Glory given for faithfully representing Christ through a function of spiritual leadership (1 Peter 5:1-4).
Crown of Righteousness given for preparing oneself and others to meet Christ by loving and expecting His return (2 Timothy 4:6-8).
Our ultimate reward, of course, is Christ, Himself. Any crowns that we receive will bring glory to Him. In Revelation 4:10 we read of what we may do with our crowns: “...the twenty-four elders fall down before Him Who is seated on the throne and worship Him Who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne….” Our rewards are not given merely for our recognition, but for God's glory. Consider the words of Randy Alcorn in The Law of Rewards:
“Although God's glory is the highest reason for any action, Scripture sees no contradiction between God's eternal glory and our eternal good. On the contrary, glorifying God will always result in our greatest eternal good. Likewise, pursuing our eternal good as He commands us to do…will always glorify God.”1
If it seems “unspiritual” or self-centered to desire God's rewards, then let Scripture override your hesitation. God wants to reward us. You have the freedom to whole-heartedly embrace the fact that He wants to reward His children. If you are living your life on target for Him, keeping your relationship pure, serving Him from your heart, then you can joyfully and enthusiastically receive the rewards He so desires to give you–all for His glory.
Many Christians make the mistake of believing it does not really matter how we live on earth because we have been saved by grace. They reason that they can simply claim “grace”—no matter what they do or do not do—and go to heaven even though they are living on earth more like those who profess no faith at all. There is nothing in that outlook that motivates anyone to mature in their faith! On the contrary, Paul stated, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age…” (Titus 2:11-12). The grace of God, in all its glory and beauty, never undermines His call to holiness.
It greatly matters how we live as Christians in this present world, and it matters greatly. It is very possible that countless tears will be shed on Judgment Day because some will be “saved...as through ﬁre” but will experience shame, regret, and loss of rewards for how we lived our lives before Him while on earth.
Please remember that although God will never love us more than He does right now, how we conduct our lives now will affect our experience on that Day. His unchanging and powerful love for us by no means takes away from the importance of our appointment with Him. Our righteous Judge will reward our obedience and will judge our works and motives.
Ultimately, for believers, Revelation 2:4 says there will be no shame, pain, or death in His eternal Kingdom and He will graciously wipe away every tear from our eyes. There really is no need to experience fear and shame on Judgment Day. We know about the coming judgment and we are exhorted to abide in Him so that we may have conﬁdence at His coming, not shrinking in shame before Him as 1 John 2:28 encourages us.
Fellow believers, we can “live on target” and be well pleasing to God, both now and on Judgment Day. Or we can live with eternal regret. Let us live our lives with no regrets.
We are grateful to our Lord for His love that He lavishes upon us and with which He pursues us. We should be extremely thankful for the grace of God. None of us would be saved without it! Yet neither the love of God nor His grace should be used as an excuse by Christians to live an aimless, self-centered life. Instead, we can live with purpose, joy, and sacriﬁce, laboring for the Kingdom with proper motives and stewardship. Consider the words of John Bevere in his book, The Fear of the Lord:
“Paul wrote, “In the last days there will be very difﬁcult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scofﬁng at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control; they will be cruel and have no interest in what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4, NLT).
The most somber truth is that Paul is not describing society, but the church, for he continues: “they will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly” (2 Timothy 3:5, NLT). They will frequently attend church, hear God's Word, talk God's Word, boast in the saving grace of the Lord, but will reject the power that could make them godly.
What is the power that could make them godly? The answer is simple: It is the very grace of God of which they boast.
For the past twenty to thirty years, the grace taught and believed in many of our churches is not real grace, but a perversion of it. This is the result of overemphasizing the goodness of God to the neglect of the fear of Him.
When the doctrine of the love of God is not balanced with an understanding of the fear of God, error is the result. Likewise, when the fear of God is not balanced by the love of God, we have the same results. This is why we are exhorted to “consider the goodness and severity of God'” (Romans
11:22). It takes both—and without both, we end up unbalanced.”2
We must seriously consider this as we anticipate our appointment with God. We have a tendency in the Church to elevate one aspect of truth over others. When we do, we become theologically and practically unbalanced.
We must accept and apply all of God's Word and His character to our lives. As we have read in this chapter, God's love, grace, and holiness should empower and motivate us all to live a faithful Christian life. We will give an account to Him. This is one appointment for which none of us will be late; one we cannot choose to cancel; one we are sure to keep. I pray we stay ever mindful of our inevitable, face-to-face meeting with God. It is something that we can, indeed, look forward to, with no fear and no regrets, if we are living a life that is well pleasing to Him.
If you are not a Christian, I implore you to receive Jesus Christ today as your Lord and Savior. This is the most important relationship for mankind. Jesus is the only way to the Heavenly Father.
Jesus put it this way in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.”
Christ will free you from the penalty and condemnation of sin. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Pause right now, confess to the Lord that you are a sinner, repent, and by faith, receive the free gift of salvation He offers. You will immediately begin your new life in Him. He hears the prayers of repentant people. You will not only begin the most rewarding journey on this earth but will also spend eternity in heaven and avoid the Lake of Fire.
If you are already a believer, let me encourage you to reevaluate your priorities in light of your personal appointment with God. As Randy Alcorn writes in his book, The Law of Rewards:
“Five minutes after we die, every Christian will understand that heaven is our home and earth was simply a temporary lodging on the homeward journey. Then we'll know for certain what was important and what wasn't. We will see with eternity's clarity. We will know exactly how we should have lived.
But we don’t have to wait until we die to know how we should live. We will know exactly how we should have lived. God has given us his Word to tell us how to live and his indwelling Spirit to empower us to live as we should. We can either take off the blinders now, while we still have our earthly lives to live, or wait for them to be taken off after death—when it will be too late to go back and change what we've done on earth. May what will be most important to us ﬁve minutes after we die be most important to us now.”3
Let us humble ourselves before God with a desire and passion to please him and follow the advice in Psalm 51 which urges us to approach God with a contrite and broken heart.
What you are about to read in the following chapters is not a checklist or a program to follow, but a lifestyle—one that will bring delight to the Father and will enable each of us to live an abundant and joyful life on this earth while we wait for His return.
As children of God, we please Him when we live and serve out of love, grace, and holiness in godly fear. These characteristics need to be our motivators for living on target.
If the Holy Spirit has convicted you regarding your upcoming appointment with God, pause for a moment. Tell the Father you agree with His Word and desire to live according to His purpose and plan. Ask Him to prepare and empower you with the Holy Spirit as you continue to develop into one of His mature disciples.
Reflect and Respond
How would you evaluate your love for God and for others?
In what ways are you challenged to adjust your beliefs and perspectives on God's love, grace, and holiness? How would these adjustments affect your daily life?
Do you really believe you will stand before God one day? Why?
Are you prepared to see God face to face and does your lifestyle reﬂect it?
What changes need to be made, or placed in order in your life before you personally meet God?
Evaluate your biblical fear of a holy God and how you are living this out with Him and others.
Make it your goal to hear God say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
GOD IS ALWAYS ATTRACTED to humility and brokenness.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).
God desires an intimate relationship with you, but before He wants your service unto Him, He just wants you. Please let this truth sink in.
As with a target, the center is the most important area of all. It is the “bullseye” at which an archer aims. Christ, Himself, is that center. It is He for Whom we ultimately aim. If you miss the fact that our Lord wants you ﬁrst and foremost, then nothing of eternal value will be accomplished.
Herein lies the chasm between religion with all its rules and regulations, hoping to be good enough for God, and an intimate relationship with Him simply because He loves us. God, the Savior of our souls, through His amazing fellowship and communion, invites us to “delight” ourselves in Him (Psalm 37:4).
God, in His fullness, does not need a relationship with us; instead, He desires one. “God is love” (1 John 4:16), and He so loved us that He sent His Son to die on a cross that we might have everlasting life with Him. He desires a love relationship with us so much that the ﬁrst commandment is: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30; Deuteronomy 6:5).
As we read the Scriptures, we see that God will reward our proper motives and works performed in His name. Although this is true, there is something far more signiﬁcant to our Lord than our work for Him: to keep our hearts pure and in love with Him. Christians can do good things for the Lord and others but miss the most essential ministry of all—their heart relationship with Him.
Pleasing God begins with receiving His love in a deep and intimate relationship with Him. This becomes the foundation from which our ministry to Him overﬂows with love and gratitude. To bless our Lord and to keep our hearts pure before Him, we must establish this ministry ﬁrst; it should take priority before anyone or anything else. Our vertical relationship with Him affects every horizontal relationship we have on this earth. It affects how we treat people and how we deal with every situation we face in life. He is the source of life. He desires that we draw from Him!
Let us look at some passages that specify God's call to a personal love relationship:
God loves a broken, contrite, and pure heart (Psalm 51:17; Matthew 5:8).
Your Father wants you to pray (communicate) with Him privately. (Matthew 6:6).
God's primary command is a love relationship with Him and others. (Matthew 22:36-40).
First abide in love with Him. Remaining in relationship with Christ Jesus is the only way to accomplish anything of eternal value (John 15:1).
Our faithful God actually calls you into fellowship with Christ. He wants you before He wants your service or works (1 Corinthians 1:9). Without love, our works proﬁt nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
The Lord promises to reward those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).
Our love of Christ must come before works (Revelation 2:1-5).
The people in the church at Ephesus forgot that Christ ﬁrst wanted them in a love relationship with Him. This church was started by Paul and was a powerful witness for Christ, even performing many wonderful works. However, our Lord Jesus eventually became displeased with this church. As we read in Revelation 2:1-5, even though they were working for Christ, they had abandoned their ﬁrst love who was Jesus Christ, Himself.
Many have fallen into this trap. This is why Jesus gave the church at Ephesus (and, by extension, us) instructions regarding how to recapture Him as their ﬁrst love. He told them to remember the place from which they had fallen and then to repent and do the ﬁrst works. In other words, “Go back and do what you did at the start of our relationship together—the things that you did when you ﬁrst fell in love with Me.”
Do you remember what your relationship with God was like when He saved you? You knew He had cleansed and forgiven you. You wanted to be with Him and share His love with others.
Were you thankful? Did you desire to worship Him with a grateful heart? Did you long to pray and read His Word? Did you love others with the love of Christ? Was your baptism a passionate expression of your obedience and public declaration of your new walk with Him?
Sadly, as time passes, we have a tendency to become distracted or even forget and fall away from the One who has given us life. This happened to the nation of Israel and to the church at Ephesus; this falling away occurs in many of us today. This does not take place overnight. We begin to stray gradually, which Hebrews 2:1 warns us against: “…we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”
In light of this warning, if you ﬁnd that you have drifted away, please follow the instructions of Jesus: confess this to Him, repent, and begin doing those things that will keep you in love and fellowship with Him. James 4:8 states, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” Please notice that we are to draw near to Him and then He will draw near to us.
James is not referring to location, but to fellowship. Our Lord lives within us, but we can still neglect the relationship.
If we are not experiencing a closeness in our relationship with the Lord, it is because it is we who have deviated from the path, not Him. God desires to see His sons and daughters taking the initiative to spend time in His presence.
John 15:4-5 tells us to abide in Christ and He will abide in us. The word “abide” simply means to remain or to continue. John is saying that if we continue in Christ, He will remain in us and enable us to effectively serve Him and His church.
Without Christ empowering us, how can we accomplish anything of eternal value? Remember the words of Jesus: “...for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). If we ignore love and intimacy with our Lord, then everything else just becomes religious activity. We may accomplish many good deeds, but we will achieve nothing of lasting, eternal worth.
This core area of living in an intimate relationship with the Lord simply cannot be violated or bypassed. It is the most vital aspect of our Christian walk. Let me share the following three spiritual disciplines in achieving intimacy with our Lord:
prayer, the Word, and personal worship.
Prayer
But when you pray, go into your room, and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father Who sees in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:6).
The ﬁrst of these three spiritual disciplines is prayer. I have come to believe that Matthew 6:6 is one of the most crucial verses in the entire Bible. Jesus is teaching us how to have closeness with our Heavenly Father. It is essential for each of us to ﬁnd this secret “quiet place” to meet with God on a daily basis. Jesus uses the expression, “When you pray”, not “If you pray.” He repeats the same statement three times in this teaching on prayer.
The instruction to go into our room and shut the door is signiﬁcant in light of our busy lifestyles. In the natural, we tend to retreat from isolation and solitude and run toward people and other endless forms of distractions and entertainment: television, computers, electronic devices, movies, concerts – the list goes on. Busyness and constant activity are exactly what the enemy desires: to divert us from having any time of solitude with our Lord, creating dryness and confusion.
We need to learn how to become quiet before the Father so we will develop spiritually sensitive ears to hear what the Spirit of God has to say. Prayer is not just talking to the Father; it is also listening to Him.
The primary barrier in most relationships (including our fellowship with the Lord) is not tied to our ability to talk, but rather to our ability to listen. The Almighty declares, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
Unfortunately, many of us do not hear the Lord speak to us, either in our minds, spirit, or through His Word, because we are not still or quiet long enough to hear His voice. As Christians, we should recognize the inner voice of our Shepherd as John 10:3-4 states. To know God, we must spend time with Him.
Retreating in solitude with the Lord provides an opportunity for us to develop intimacy with Him and attune our spiritual ears to continuously hear what the Spirit is saying to us.
I am constantly drawn to the statement Jesus made in Matthew 6 concerning going into our room and shutting the door in solitude. (This is certainly not easy for busy parents of young children, but even a brief visit to your “room” is beneﬁcial!)
Do you have a special place that you have designated to meet with God, alone? If not, I strongly encourage you to ﬁnd one. In discipling people in this area, I have found there are a variety of “rooms” that people retreat to, not only inside a physical building but also under the sky. Some people love to ﬁnd a quiet place with Him under a particular tree or perhaps walking down a secluded path.
The exact location is not the main issue. The main issue is ﬁnding and maintaining a quiet place where you can meet with God on a daily basis, where you can be alone with your Lord. He invites you to come to Him to get rest for your soul (Matthew 11:28-30). There is no better rest.
You can also emotionally close a door to the cares of the world: to what your schedule is like this morning, this after-noon, or tomorrow. You can lock yourself away from life's distractions and open the door of your heart to the Lord. The quiet place is extremely necessary and the absolute key to living a life that is well-pleasing to Him.
We can become so involved in good activities—even serving the Lord—that we simply forfeit being in His pres- ence, praying, reading His Word, and personally worshiping Him. It is essential to be still enough to hear what He is saying to our spirit. The answers for our life's decisions and challenges begin here.
Be aware of thoughts, Scripture passages, ideas, people’s names, clarity, revelations, dreams, understandings, or an abiding peace that you may experience. All of these could be the Lord speaking to your heart and mind.
Though this place of solitude is absolutely critical, sadly, it is an element most Christians often miss. As a result of not meeting God regularly in a quiet place to hear from Him, they experience a lack of passion for the Lord, their families, the church, and for the lost.
The good news is that there is nothing impossible with God! Whatever pain or struggles we have today, an intimate relationship with the Lord is the remedy.
There is no substitute for moving into the presence of God in our daily lives. If we are feeling distant from the Lord or having trouble in our marriage, problems with our children, struggles with our ﬁnances, attitudes, life's journey, or issues in the church, whatever it may be—there is nothing God cannot accomplish. Even though our circumstances may not change, He will change us and guide us through them. If we regularly settle in His presence, He will change our thoughts, vocabu-lary, behavior, indeed, our very lives.
Hebrews 11:6 states that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Why do we run toward people, books, and other resources instead of running ﬁrst to the Lord? God is the change agent and our rewarder, not people. We need others to pray for and encourage us, but they themselves cannot change us. God alone can transform our hearts and lives. He does so with His presence, wisdom, comfort, healing, peace, direction, and so much more. Diligently seeking Him is certainly to our advantage. He delights in our pursuit of Him!
Remember: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you!” Where? How? You ﬁnd Him in that quiet place where you listen, pray, read His Word, and worship. This is where the noise and disturbances of the day can be brushed to the side and your heart can turn to God alone. This quiet place is a vital element in experiencing His presence on a consistent basis. We can take God at His Word when He says that He rewards us for pursuing Him.
One young disciple put it this way, “I have become protective of that 'alone time' with Him. When I make God the very center of my life and allow Him to pour into me, every other aspect of life is affected by Him, and a steady reﬂection of God begins to shine through. I cannot stand in the presence of God and not be changed.”
This individual had participated with a group studying the material you are now reading, and he further commented, “Living on Target, and the person who mentored me along the way, have led me to the feet of Jesus, and He has captured my heart. It is something that constantly takes me to a deeper place in my faith and draws me closer to Him in my walk.”
There is no possible way to achieve biblical order in our lives unless we ﬁrst establish an intimate relationship with Him in our quiet place. He is the foundation upon which every other relationship or event along our journey should be built. When this intimacy is established, then and only then can any of us begin to exhibit a victorious and fruitful life.
Andrew Murray, a nineteenth century South African evan-gelist, stated, “I have learned to place myself before God every day as a vessel to be ﬁlled with the Holy Spirit. If there is one lesson that I am learning day by day, it is this...that it is God who worketh all in all.”
In this quiet place, our Lord is calling us to perhaps the greatest discipline in the Christian life: prayer. It is also one of our foremost challenges. Thankfully, Jesus did not leave us without instruction on how to pray. He taught us what is known today as “The Lord’s Prayer.” The words were not intended to be simply recited, mindlessly, as is so often the case. They were meant to be a model prayer that we can use to communicate with our Father. Praying in this manner is a great starting place for us to practice on a regular basis. Here is how Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:9-13:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
First, Jesus taught us to approach God as Our Father. The name someone is called reﬂects who they are to the person addressing them. Even though we are addressing God Almighty (Jehovah), in this prayer, Jesus teaches us to address Him as our Abba, which is an intimate Greek word meaning “Father.” He has made it so personal for us! Please make it personal for Him, as well, and open your heart to let Him experience the pleasure of being received in your life as “Abba, Father.”
Next, Jesus tells us to approach our Father, saying, Hallowed be Your name. The word “hallowed” means His name is to be revered or respected. We should open our prayer in this way and then begin to praise the Father in our own words. Give adoration and honor to Him, thanking Him ﬁrst of all for who He is and for what He has already given to us in His Son, Jesus Christ.
This time of adoration and praise adjusts our hearts, souls, and minds to see Him in His rightful place. It allows us to declare His worth, authority, attributes, and glory. We should desire to praise God before we petition Him, so spend several minutes thanking and praising the Father for who He is.
Continue in prayer declaring, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Resist the temptation to live as they did in the days of Noah, preoccu-pied with self rather than God's desires. Instead, pray daily for His literal kingdom to come and that His perfect, heavenly will would be accomplished on earth, locally and globally, in your own life, and in all your relationships. Bring people to Him, speciﬁcally, by name, asking that His perfect will be done in their current life situations as it is in heaven.
Pray for God's will to be made clear in any person or situation that concerns you. Remember, we are to pray for His will to be done, not ours. We are all tempted to ask God to agree with our plans in life instead of agreeing with His. Our Father does delight in granting our desires, but only if they are in line with His plans for our lives.
Accept His will over yours so as to bring peace to your heart and glory to God. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Petition Him to literally establish and manifest His kingdom and His will in your life and in the lives of those around you. As you faithfully pray for this on a regular basis, accept how He answers your prayer and allow Him to use you for His glory in all circumstances.
Next, we pray, Give us this day our daily bread. The early church truly depended upon God for their daily food, and so should we. For many of us, God has already provided for today's needs, yet we should pause and thank Him for His provision and continue to ask Him to supply our bread. If there is any excess above what we require, we can give it with joy to others who are hurting, hungry, in need, or who would simply be blessed by receiving it. Regularly thank Him for meeting our basic needs and for the privilege of giving to others in need.
Jesus continues teaching us how to pray by stating And forgive us our debts [or sins] as we forgive our debtors [or those who have sinned against us]. Yes, forgiveness has already been established in Christ because He is gracious and faithful to pardon us, but we still need to confess our sins and repent as John clearly states in 1 John 1:9 and Revelation 2:5. James 5:16 also instructs us to confess our sins to those we have wronged and pray for one another.
We also must forgive others who have sinned against us. Because we have been forgiven, we must forgive so that anger and bitterness will not penetrate our hearts. Though often difﬁcult, asking for and extending forgiveness is liberating and will keep our hearts pure.
Then we continue, Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. It is important to ask the Father each day to protect us from the enemy and guard our hearts and minds as we put on the armor of God—piece by piece—so we can stand ﬁrm in the faith (Ephesians 6:10-18). Since we know we will be tempted by Satan to sin against God, we can conﬁdently ask the Lord to empower us in speciﬁc situations to live lives of holiness.
Finally, we conclude our prayer with a declaration of praise: For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen and Amen! Just as we began the prayer with praise, we should also praise Him as we conclude. Give Him glory as the King who has all the power to change lives.
Peace and reconciliation begin with us. Jesus re-emphasized the importance of forgiveness in Matthew 6:14-15 saying, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Obviously, this is a huge, difﬁcult issue for all of us. Asking for and extending forgiveness keeps our intimacy pure with the Lord and our relationships with others unhindered and peaceable.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). How signiﬁ-cant this admonition is to live peaceably with all those under our own roof, with our extended families, our brothers and sisters in Christ, our neighbors, co-workers, and community contacts. And how gracious of Paul to say, “as much as it depends on you!” We are not called to force people into compliance with us or brow-beat them into a relationship with us. We are called to be peace-loving people, asking forgiveness of one another and extending forgiveness on a regular basis as much as is possible for us to do.
Hebrews 12:14-15 tells us: “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become deﬁled.”
The harsh consequences of not living in peace—living in bitterness—have caused many homes and relationships in and outside the church to deteriorate to the breaking point. Pursuing peace and holiness will bless our households, churches, and communities in ways that will provide an atmosphere for love to ﬂourish.
We must remember that there are no ﬂawless churches, ﬂawless marriages, ﬂawless families, or ﬂawless people. One of the reasons that conﬂict is a part of our lives is that we have not yet been perfected. In heaven, conﬂict will no longer exist because we will not have to contend with our ﬂesh or the enemy tempting us to sin. Until then, however, we will indeed face conﬂict regularly within our circle of relationships.
Jesus knew this would not be easy, so He gave us clear instructions on how to handle offenses and pursue peace. These principles apply to all relationships. If we would practice the following three essential teachings from Jesus, we could eliminate bitterness and keep ourselves peaceful and pure and our witness strong.
FIRST, overlook the offense
Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “…forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:12-1).
If you can forgive, overlook, and not be tempted to bitterness with the offense, then simply let it go and move forward. This is an awesome and freeing option. The scripture commends a man for overlooking an offense; it is to his glory and honor to do so (Proverbs 19:11). Not being easily offended keeps us free from anger and bitterness.
If, however, you are unable to overlook an offense, it is not sin. The good news is that Jesus has provided a way to help us resolve these hurts. If this is the situation, please follow our Lord's teaching by embracing one of the next two options so that you will not be tempted to sin with bitterness.
SECOND, approach the person who offended you
Our Lord invites us to go to the offending individual privately, without anger, and share how he or she has offended or hurt you. Receive and give clariﬁcation, understanding, and/or forgiveness from the other person.
If you achieve resolution, you have retained a relationship that would have been damaged or lost, and it keeps you free from bitterness yourself. Press into these conﬂicts until you have peace, even if there is an agreement to disagree on some issues.
If there is no resolution or reconciliation, agree together to bring in another person or two as a counselor or as witnesses.
If this is not successful, bring the situation to leaders in the church to resolve (Matthew 18:15-20). Do not retreat from the conﬂict. Press in until there is peace within you.
THIRD, approach those whom you have offended
Be the offense real or perceived, you should immediately go to the person who has expressed that you have offended or hurt them. Biblically, the offended individual should come to you ﬁrst, but typically, that is not what happens. Even if you hear of the offense through someone else, quickly go to the offended one.
It does not matter if you agree with their claim or how they handled the situation; their perception is what is real to them, and that is where we must start. If we do not deal with bitterness, we can open the door to sin, both for you and the other person.
Address their offense with clariﬁcation or by asking forgiveness. If how they handled the situation offended you, then deal with that biblically, as above. Again, the goal is to get and receive clariﬁcation, understanding, and/or ask for forgiveness. To protect the name of Christ, your integrity, and your relationship with this person, as well as not to hinder their worship, or yours, go quickly to the offended person to settle the issue in love and humility (Matthew 5:23-24).
God grant that we experience His peace as we pursue peace with all people, starting with those within our immediate and extended family, then increasing to our church family, and on to those in our employment, schooling, or other relationships.
Unfortunately, there continues to be much strife in our homes and in the church. This strife hinders the discipleship process. We are called to be reconcilers! I pray we heed our Lord's instructions on how to achieve and live in peace with all people, inasmuch as it depends upon us. We are not responsible for the response or actions of those with whom we are pursuing peace. We are responsible for our own responses and actions. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).
The goals of intimacy with our Lord and unhindered relationships with others should keep us in the place of prayer. The Lord has given us a beautiful pattern for praying in the Lord’s Prayer. Spend time communicating with Him—not just to Him—as you pause and sit in silence, listening to what He may be saying to you.
Remember, the thoughts that enter your mind may very well be the Lord speaking, even though you may think they originated with you. This is why it is so necessary to be still and ask the Lord to give you spiritual ears to hear what He has to say.
Many things we face in life cause us concern, anxiety, or uncertainty. Our heavenly Father has given us direct access to Himself, through His Son, to hear and act on our behalf. He instructs us to make our requests known to Him through prayer with thanksgiving: “…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).
No matter what we face in life, there is always something for which to be thankful. By praying, He assures us that His peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ. We all need the peace and wisdom of God during our journey on earth. We obtain both through prayer and by accepting what He does or does not do in our lives.
Take every burden, concern, and decision to God through prayer; then rest and respond as He speaks to your heart. As we are physically in this place of quietness, the Lord will divinely strengthen us. As Paul exhorts us in Colossians 4:2 and 1 Thessalonians 5:17, we will learn to pray without ceasing throughout the day, simply communicating with God, thanking Him for His blessings, asking for wisdom or discernment about various matters or relationships, petitioning Him with speciﬁc needs, always listening for His voice or sensing His peace.
Find your quiet place and pray! This precious time with Him will encourage us to spend the rest of our day in an attitude of continuous prayer.
The Word
But He answered, “It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God'” (Matthew 4:4).
The second spiritual discipline in the center of the target, Living in love and service to Christ, is the written Word of God. Jesus declared in John 8:31, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples.”
The word “abide” means “to continue in” or “to remain.” Certainly, if we are going to make it our aim to please God, then we must continue in His Scriptures. In fact, Paul says the Word is to dwell in us richly and deeply (Colossians 3:16). Can we really declare that we are His disciples if we do not desire to read or know His Word? We cannot live out our Christianity based on our pastor's sermon once a week. Just as we need physical food each day, we desperately need to feed ourselves the Word of God each day.
This has been a challenge in churches for a long time. The church in America has sometimes been characterized as being “a mile wide and an inch deep.” When our spiritual roots are not deep or mature, it does not take a big test or the cares and pleasures of this life to knock us over...or out!
Jesus addressed this issue of spiritual roots in the Parable of the Sower found in Luke 8:13-14. In it, He describes how seeds are scattered when they are sown and how their landing place makes a big difference. Then, he compares the seeds to the Word of God. Some seeds fall onto the roadside, others onto rocks, still others among thorns, but some fall on good soil. He had this to say about seeds among the rocks and thorns: “…The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” Notice the words “no root” in verse 13 and the words “not mature” in verse 14 and the consequences that surround them. We must mature in our faith, or we, too, could fall away.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:1-2: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” We must feed ourselves daily upon the living Word of God which will cause our spiritual roots to hold fast in the good soil of faith in our Lord Jesus.
In another illustration found in Matthew 7, Jesus warned that when (not if) the storms of life come upon you and you follow our Lord's words, your spiritual “house” will stand.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the ﬂoods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the ﬂoods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
There are blessings for obeying the Word and consequences for not obeying. We will give an account to God for how we viewed and followed His Word. Hebrews 4:11-13 teaches:
“Let us, therefore, strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
The Apostle Paul wrote in the third chapter of his second letter to Timothy (vv 16-17) that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and is proﬁtable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
I have emphasized the word “proﬁtable” because many people today view the Word of God as being a tedious set of rules and regulations that restrict life, instead of truth that brings life.
Everyone likes things that are proﬁtable and beneﬁcial. But have we come to see that the Word of God is something the Lord has given us for our beneﬁt? Scripture was written for our good to help, encourage, and free us in all areas of our lives whether personal, family, business, church, school—in every area.
It is also useful to us in our doctrinal insights, leading us to better understand the heart of God. His Word corrects, or even rebukes us, when our human reasoning and understanding conﬂict with His way. If applied, the Word will indeed proﬁt us with maturity and will equip us for every good work.
The Word of God will not come back empty or void as Isaiah wrote in chapter 55:11. The Word gives us wisdom, guidance, and instruction on how to be effective, mature, and pleasing to Him, equipping us for every good work. When the Word dwells in us, Paul tells us in Colossians 3:16-17 that we will worship Him with thankfulness in our hearts.
Many feel inadequate or even too intimidated to read their Bibles. They believe they are not spiritual enough or have not been trained to understand the Scriptures. Others depend only on their pastors or gifted teachers to explain the Word to them. We thank God for gifted teachers, but God has given every believer the greatest Teacher of all: the Holy Spirit, our live-in, resident Tutor who is available at all times, night and day, to lead us into all truth (John 14:26; 1 John 2:26-27).
We enjoy the privilege of having at our disposal Bible commentaries, Bible dictionaries, sermons, study guides, and more, yet none are as powerful or as accurate as the Holy Spirit. I exhort you to enter your quiet place and study the Word of God systematically, using one of numerous Bible reading plans available or even devising your own plan. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal truth, understanding, and righteousness deep into your heart.
We shepherds of God are called to feed the sheep (the Church), and we, prayerfully, will continue to do so. But shepherds do not hand-feed their sheep. They supply their sheep with food, but the sheep must eat it themselves! Just so, we must all feed on the Word which the Good Shepherd has given us, or we will not experience the maturity necessary to truly ﬂourish in our own daily walk or to make disciples of our neighbors and all nations.
Do not make your quiet time with God complicated or turn it into a program or checklist. He desires for His sons and daughters to be alone with Him in the quiet place, to pray, to read His Scriptures, and to worship Him. The Holy Spirit will be there, ready to teach and mature us. Reading and applying God's Word to our daily walk will equip us for the work the Lord has called us to do.
When you consider the restrictions of other countries, it is wonderful that we have such an abundance of Bibles in America. Many of us own not just one, but two, three, and even more copies of the Bible.
The question is: are we reading the Bibles we have? Do we cherish the words of life, the sacred Scriptures, and are we receiving instruction and wisdom from them? Through the Word, He speaks to the deep places of our hearts and gives us nourishment.
The nineteenth century minister and author, E.M. Bounds, expressed it beautifully in The Necessity of Prayer:
“Here, let it be said, that no two things are more essential to a Spirit-ﬁlled life than Bible reading and secret prayer [emphasis added]; no two things more helpful to growth in grace; to getting the largest joy out of a Christian life; toward establishing one in the ways of eternal peace. The neglect of these all-important duties presages leanness of soul, loss of joy, absence of peace, dryness of spirit, decay in all that pertains to spiritual life. Neglecting these things paves the way for apostasy and gives the evil one an advantage such as he is not likely to ignore. Reading God's Word regularly and praying habitually in the secret place of the Most High puts one where he is absolutely safe from the attacks of the enemy of souls and guarantees him salvation and ﬁnal victory through the overcoming power of the Lamb.”1
Few things are of greater value to people than teaching them how to pray and read their Bible in the quiet place. Just these two aspects alone would change the church if we truly practiced these spiritual disciplines with a passion.
So as not to become legalistic, I will not suggest when or even how long we should spend in the Word and prayer. I will state that being in the Word and prayer in a quiet place (whether morning, noon, or night) needs to become an integral part of our lifestyle as Christians. If not, we need to stop whatever else we are doing and make sure that these two priorities are incorporated into our lives ﬁrst, before anything else—period! As the Holy Spirit leads us in prayer and Bible reading, our spiritual appetite for our Lord will continue to increase.
Personal Worship
“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24).
In addition to the ﬁrst two disciplines of prayer and the Word, the third discipline of Living in love and service to Christ is that of worship.
The question we need to ask ourselves is this: as the Father seeks true worshipers, will He ﬁnd us? To be included, our hearts must reﬂect thankfulness and gratitude toward God. Biblical worship is about value. It is our grateful response to what we truly treasure. What we value most determines our actions and becomes the driving force of our lives. Our worship pastor found and adopted a beautiful deﬁnition of worship when he said, “Worship is our response to God's revelation of Himself.”
Christianity is not just a set of mental beliefs. It is a genuine heart relationship with God. When Jesus addressed the Pharisees, He said that they honored Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him (Mark 7:6). Our beliefs may be well-anchored in the Bible, but they must also penetrate our hearts and lead us to the heart of our Lord. When they do, we are able to worship Him freely from the very depths of our being.
Today, the Father is seeking those who are ﬁlled with Him and thankful for what He has accomplished for them (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 13:15-16). It is not just singing or praying that God is looking for as an aspect of worship. No. It is our very lifestyle.
The Pharisees had begun to place the traditions of men before God. This is still happening today. We can be religious, blindly going through the motions, but the Almighty knows the true condition of our hearts. May our lives reﬂect our love for Him.
Scripture teaches us through the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Roman church (12:1-2 NIV) “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacriﬁces, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” When we make certain these verses are alive in our bodies, hearts, and minds every day as holy, living sacriﬁces before God, He receives our lifestyles as continuous worship unto Him.
Paul also reafﬁrmed this in Colossians 3:17 when he said, “Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
How we love, speak, behave, give, and serve God and others from the heart, at all times, not just on Sundays, reveals our depth of worship to Him. When we are ﬁlled with His presence and our words and deeds prove that He saved us, we will also praise Him personally and publicly through singing, making a 'joyful noise,' and in living out our lives as Scriptures exhort us:
“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1).
“Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth” (Psalm 47:1-2).
“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods… Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:1-3; 6-7).
“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth… Come into His presence with singing” (Psalm 100:1-2).
“Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord” (Psalm 134:1-2).
“Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise in the assembly of the godly! Let Israel be glad in his maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King! Let them praise His name with dancing, making melody to Him with tambourine and lyre! For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation” (Psalm 149:1-4).
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6).
“And Ezra blessed the Lord the great God, and all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen!’ lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord” (Nehemiah 8:6).
“…addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Ephesians 5:19).
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your heart to God” (Colossians 3:16).
The Bible gives us a picture of David’s uninhibited worship as he praised the Lord. He danced, shouted, gave an offering, blessed the people, and played music (2 Samuel 6:14-22). The king worshiped God with passion even though his own wife scolded him for embarrassing himself and her. King David stated to her that he would become even more “undig-niﬁed” to show his joy to the Lord. The King was not too proud to pour out his worship to his Lord.
Our own worship of God requires humility, too, in which our pride falls. We surrender all we are and have for who He is and for what He has done for us. He has set us free from sin and pride. Only with humility can true worship take place. We can and should embrace David’s passion in our own personal way of worship.
Certainly, as we come together corporately, we lift our hearts and hands to worship Him. But it also blesses the heart of our Lord when we, as His sons and daughters, privately worship Him, not only in singing from our hearts or with our voices, but in using our bodies as 'living sacriﬁces.' We express worship in our words, our actions, our behavior, and in our giving—all of these reﬂect our worship of the One who saved our souls.
Worship can also be accomplished through letting the words of a song or scripture permeate your spirit as you declare God's glory. Reading a psalm and praising God verbally is an act of worship. It declares His worth and expresses our reverence, intense love, adoration, honor, and extreme devotion to Him.
As we humble ourselves before our Lord in gratitude, let us express the freedom we have in Christ as we declare God's worth in our daily worship of Him.
In summary, to practice the central, spiritual disciplines of the ﬁrst target area Living in love and service to Christ through prayer, the Word, and personal worship, you begin by ﬁnding a quiet place to spend time with the Lord. Do not make it a religious routine or something just to check off your “to-do” list. Be creative with your quiet time to prevent it from becoming legalistic or dull.
As you begin to pray the Lord's Prayer, pause to worship Him for a few moments, blessing and thanking Him, whether it's worship through singing or just simply ascribing to Him His worth. Let everything ﬂow from your heart. Continue personalizing this model prayer for your own life and the lives of others.
Yes, there will be days when you feel less of a desire to go to your quiet place than other days. Sometimes you just need to be obedient in spite of your feelings, but do not be overly rigid about it! If you miss a day or two, do not walk around in condemnation. Our goal is to make retreating to our quiet place a lifestyle, something we desire and need to do because we want to. We do so not because we have to, but because it breathes life into our souls and blesses the heart of God. It is in the place of solitude, in the presence of the Lord, where our lives, attitudes, and actions are brought into alignment with His.
If we could duplicate and pass on just one aspect of the Christian life to another person, it would be to experience the Lord's presence in a quiet place through listening, praying, reading His Word, and worshiping Him. These spiritual disciplines and privileges would signiﬁcantly help keep our hearts pure and purposeful. With this as our lifestyle, the Lord can establish and maintain godly homes and churches through us–the second and third target areas. He would then empower us to accomplish the Great Commission, the fourth and ﬁnal target area.
There is no greater call we have than this, our ﬁrst ministry, which is to be given to our Lord. This will truly bless His heart, and ours!
Let me share this story from a person who became immersed in this ﬁrst, essential area of Living on Target:
“After being a Christian for more than fourteen years, I had never been challenged to go deeper in my relationship with the Lord. I had accepted Him as my Savior and was left right there. I knew it must be important to read the Bible because everyone talked about doing it, but I had no one in my life to whom I was accountable. I read the Bible at times. I prayed each day, and I loved singing, but it was really something I did methodically. I felt I needed to do it to be a good little Christian. Unfortunately, I became a Christian who lived by a “check-the-box” relationship with the Lord.
“Then I was asked to begin Living on Target. I can honestly say that it changed my life! It brought me out of the religious relationship with Christ into a deep, personal, real relationship with Him. I was asked the hard questions of where I was in the Word, what I was learning, and how He was speaking to me. I was asked about my prayer time and my quiet time with the Lord. I had never thought about having a quiet time because quite honestly, my life was anything but quiet. I came to an understanding about my Heavenly Father and realized that He wanted a real relationship with me and that it was quite personal for Him. Once I understood how He pursued me, loved me, wanted and longed for that time with me, He became more than a Savior. He became my Lord of all.”
I praise God when I receive reports like this! This ﬁrst area of living in love and service to Christ is the most important of all because every other choice we make in our lives stands on this. Find Him daily in your quiet place. He is your only hope and source of life.
Reflect and Respond
Do you truly believe God loves you and desires to be with you before he wants your service? If you do, how are you making sure this is happening?
Do you have a quiet place to meet God (Matthew 6:6)? If not, where would you choose to get alone with the Lord regularly?
How would you describe your love for God and your relationship with Him?
How will you consider using the Lord's Prayer as a model for praying to your Heavenly Father?
Is receiving and extending forgiveness part of your lifestyle? If not, what steps will you take toward forgiveness?
If you are not practicing a systematic reading of God's Word, would you begin to read a portion of Scripture each day and ask God to enable you to apply it to your life? What is your plan to make this a reality?
Will you begin to worship God daily? If this is already a part of your lifestyle, list the ways you ﬁnd most effective to worship Him.
AN ABIDING relationship with our Lord is the heart of everything else in life.
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain (Psalms 127:1).
The people who should beneﬁt ﬁrst and foremost from our intimacy with Christ, the center of our “target,” should be our families. God established the home to be a picture of His heart toward us. It should be a place of order and grace, laughter and wholesomeness, vulnerability, trust, discipline, warmth and, above all, love.
When we, personally, live as true disciples of Christ, we bring to our family members the Lord's example of love and submission to the Father. Compassion and servanthood to those around us, transparency and passion for our Father's glory, and joy in the journey will follow as we submit to Him.
Sadly, these characteristics often do not typify our homes which, instead, can be ﬁlled with shattered dreams, unmet expectations, and broken relationships. Some are ﬁlled with anger, silence, and even abuse. Many of our marriages seem to be lukewarm or in deep trouble. Children often break their parents' hearts and parents break their children's hearts—it is far too common.
Other than our relationship with Christ, our homes seem to be the area in our life that our enemy, the devil, is most active in attempting to destroy. We are seeing this more today than ever before. This is because our homes are so vital to God's work in the world today. If they are out of biblical order, it produces personal chaos, hinders our family relationships, destroys our witness, and hampers the effectiveness of the Church and the advancement of the Kingdom.
Next to our personal relationship with God, our homes are the most important target area for which we need to achieve and maintain biblical order.
God knows every detail of your personal life and of your home. He is a God of restoration. He wants to build strong homes. Do not run away from God; run to Him. Do not run away from your family relationships; run to them.
We know that we cannot change the past, but repentance and forgiveness can bring healing and restoration to us now and into our future. Regardless of our family dynamics today, we have the privilege and responsibility to pursue those in our home with peace. It is important to remember that following God's order brings us personal peace and freedom regardless of the responses or actions of our family members.
God has given us very clear instructions in His Word regarding how our households should function. It is, in fact, foundational to how the Church should function. In the New Testament, Paul gave Titus a speciﬁc strategy for creating a discipling process that would continuously build the lives of the men and women in the Church. He knew that having a strong, biblical church meant having strong, biblical homes. In Titus 2:1-6, Paul said:
“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, digniﬁed, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”
Paul looked for the older, mature people in the church to instruct the younger in speciﬁc areas of their lives. Are we following this pattern today? We absolutely need more spiritual fathers and mothers in the Church to disciple and mentor the younger believers. Their experience and wisdom can bring great beneﬁt to the young men and women of the faith.
After we help our young people establish intimacy with God—our ﬁrst target area—we must teach and model godly characteristics for them regarding the family. If we don’t, they may acquire much Bible knowledge, but the homes they establish may still be out of order and experience the subsequent consequences. Do we not see this in every church today?
Whatever the arrangement of your present family structure—married, with or without children, single parent, single adult, widowed, college student, young professional, or grandparent—the biblical principles of God's Word hold true and are applicable for you today. Regardless of the past, we can be ﬁlled with hope that the Lord who called us to Himself, will empower us to restore the biblical order, roles, responsibilities, and joy, one life and one home at a time.
Today, you can start the process of making a difference in your home. You can begin to establish the order, joy, and peace God intended for you from the beginning. No home is perfect, but it can be a dwelling where we are growing and learning to live by God's Word.
In the following pages, we will address the roles and the responsibilities of men and women in the home, as single or married, as Christian parents, and as handling ﬁnances. All four of these aspects in this second target area, Living in love and service in the home, must be put in order, not only for our own peacefulness, but so that God’s Kingdom will increase throughout the world. In doing so, we will give joy to our Lord and experience joy, ourselves.
Single
I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the thing of the Lord, how to please the Lord...the unmarried woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit...I say this for your own beneﬁt...to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord. 1 Corinthians 7:32ff
The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 7:6-9, 24-35, speaks to singles regarding their singleness “because of the present crisis.” At the time Paul wrote this letter (around AD 55), life in Corinth was an immoral and religious free-for-all. Politi-cally, Nero ruled the Roman world, causing great suffering for Christians. When Paul encouraged those who were not married to stay single as he was, he was not advocating against marriage. In the context of the Corinth of his day, he was emphasizing the opportunity to “serve the Lord without distraction,” free from the cares of a spouse and family in the midst of the challenging political and social culture of the day. He was urging them to give all of their time and attention to pleasing the Lord and expanding the Kingdom of God, because, as he stated, time was short and stressful He admonished believers to live their lives as if the world they were living in would soon be gone.
These verses can be difﬁcult to accept, especially if there is a strong yearning to be married. Certainly, Paul is not against marriage. Yet, 2,000 years later, the same principle holds true: if you are unmarried, then you are free to use your days to serve God without the responsibilities and pressures of marriage and children. If you are married, with or without children, your spouse and your family need to be given priority.
The Lord does give some a lifelong gift to remain single so that they may use their undivided attention to expand God's Kingdom. If you are an individual to whom God has given this assignment, then thank Him. Continue to be used for His glory and dedicate your life to serve the Church and help fulﬁll the Great Commission.
As a single, enjoy your life and the relationships that God brings to you. Use your gifts and talents to serve our Lord. Consider discipling children, teenagers, and anyone else of your gender to whom God may lead you. Single parents often need godly men and women to assist them with their children, and there will always be evangelistic and missions opportunities for you.
I certainly realize, however, through Scripture and life in general, that in most people, God has placed a longing and a desire to be married. If you feel God has not given you the assignment of singleness and you desire to be married, remember to use your gifts, talents, time, and everything that is at your disposal for His purposes while you remain single. If you become too occupied with ﬁnding a spouse, you may ﬁnd yourself being continually dissatisﬁed and ineffective with the treasure of days you were given. Keep occupied with our Lord and His mission. This will empower you to stay strong in faith and purity.
Yes, there is temptation as a single. However, you must honor your spiritual brothers and sisters, guarding your heart (and theirs) from all impurity (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8). For temptation outside the biblical boundaries of sexual purity, God has provided a way of escape. As Paul promises in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” When you seriously allow Him, the Holy Spirit will give you the power to control your eyes, mind, and body. You are called to live in relational responsibility and transparency with others who share your heart for purity.
The Lord knows the longings of your heart. While I do not pretend to perceive the exact will of God for any person, I do know from Scripture that whatever condition we are in, we are to live our lives in contentment. This does not mean we do not have dreams and desires that we lay before Him, but we are instructed to be content in all things and to be used by the Lord while we wait for our heart's longings to be fulﬁlled in Him.
Those who are single must put their homes and relationships in biblical order just like any other family.
The call is the same for you as it is for those who are married: be and make disciples! It is my prayer that the Lord Jesus raise up multitudes of men and women like Himself: single, but not alone, united with His Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit to change the world
Married
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper ﬁt for him… So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with ﬂesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, 'This at last is bone of my bones and ﬂesh of my ﬂesh; she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.'
Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one ﬂesh” (Genesis 2:18, 21-24).
God made man. God made woman out of man and for man because the Bible says he was alone and needed help! Therefore, man is to leave his father and mother, join himself to his wife and become one with her. We need to reject any of today's social deﬁnitions of marriage and family and cleave to the truths of God's Word.
In today's world, the biblical concept of marriage—its roles and responsibilities of husbands and wives—seems, to many, to be outdated and repressive. However, God's standards are not deﬁned by society, and, frankly, judging by the current state of marriage, society's deﬁnitions of roles within the home are not working.
We do not need any new deﬁnitions of marriage and family. As a result of this attempt, gender and marriage confusion is very prevalent in our society. This is causing tremendous pain, unfulﬁllment, fornication, adultery, divorce, and havoc. God is not the author of this confusion. He and His Word are clear on these subjects. The Church must echo the absolute truth of Scripture in a culture of relative truth. We will only experience freedom and fulﬁllment when we function as we were created to within our marriages and homes.
God created male and female in His image, equal, but different. There is absolutely no difference in value (Genesis 1:26-27), only in function. As men and women made in His image, we can truly value what the Word says about us, thus fulﬁlling our unique purposes before God and our families with passion and conviction. We should celebrate the differences as we fulﬁll our roles and responsibilities before God, our spouses, and our children. We will be blessed, our families will be blessed, and God will be blessed.
We will not be able to instruct our young men or young women in what a godly man or woman is—or how they are to function—if we do not believe what God's Word says regarding who we are and how we are to live out our lives.
One of the greatest gifts we can give our children and grandchildren is the example of a godly marriage. If this is not your experience right now, be assured that knowing and obeying God's Word will position you to develop a godly and joyful partnership with your spouse, and, as you act upon it, peace will come to your homes. I have seen this happen over and over in the course of my own ministry. Tragically, I have also seen the opposite result.
Marriage is being attacked on every side. In fact, society is succeeding in redeﬁning this union which was established by God. Since the beginning, marriage was always intended to be between one man and one woman. In God's eyes, it always will be, regardless of what society now tells us is “correct.”
There is a distinction between male and female. God designed us to function uniquely and differently. He has given men certain assignments, just as He has given women speciﬁc assignments. For fathers to properly raise their sons to be men, we need to know and practice what God has called men to be. The same is true for mothers and daughters. Sadly, our culture is attempting to either blur those lines or to obliterate them, altogether, creating a catastrophe of unbiblical sexuality and roles that, in God's eyes, simply does not exist.
The distinctiveness and order of God's creation is emphasized again for us in 1 Corinthians 11:3, Ephesians 6:1- 3, and Colossians 3:18-21. Christ is the head of every man, the man is the head of the wife, the husband and wife are the head (or leaders) of the children, and thus there is orderliness and distinctiveness in the family. When that order is altered, disorder prevails.
In my many years as a pastor, I have found that one of the biggest obstacles that hinders peace and freedom in marriages is the lack of understanding, or the lack of a desire to understand and practice the distinct biblical functions and responsi- bilities of husbands and wives. This disorder is causing tremendous hurt in our homes and will tempt our children to look to our present culture rather than to their parents and Scripture to deﬁne marriage. Husbands and wives, please embrace God's heart and instructions for your marriage and home.
Husbands
The presence of godly men, not only in our homes, but also in our churches and communities, is essential, and the world will see the beneﬁts. However, before the world experiences the worth of godly men, our wives and children should beneﬁt ﬁrst! The absence of such men, husbands, and fathers often wreaks havoc and we are seeing tremendous and tragic consequences as a result. Men, stand up and fulﬁll your role—our families, churches, and society need you!
In the context of marriage, the husband is, ﬁrst and foremost, to submit to his head, the Lord Jesus Christ. In marriage, his role, or function, is meant to be who he is in the marriage: he is the head of his wife, taking the lead spiritually, emotionally, and physically. “For the husband is head of the wife” (Ephesians 5:23;1 Corinthians 11:3). His responsibility is how he is to fulﬁll his role: he is to love his wife as Christ loved the Church and to give himself for her as Christ gave Himself for the Church (Ephesians 5:25-33; Colossians 3:19). This daily, sacriﬁ-cial love for the wife, following the sacriﬁcial example of Jesus for the Church, would transform any marriage. It is possible only when God's love is ﬂowing through him.
A husband is also to ﬁnancially provide for his family as Paul exhorts in 1 Timothy 5:8; and 2 Thessalonians 3:10. Certainly he can utilize his wife's assistance, if necessary, but he is not to neglect his personal involvement with his family while providing for them. Men can live in the home yet still be absent, emotionally.
In situations where young children do not live with their father, he must still take care of them ﬁnancially and spend as much time with them as possible (with the exception of an abusive relationship). Men, we cannot abandon our wives and children spiritually, emotionally, physically, or ﬁnancially. The results are devastating. Remember, we will give an account before God.
There is protection and fulﬁllment for our wives and our children under our spiritual covering when we are submitting to the Lord. Here's what a leader in our church shared:
“The Living on Target process has established in me a consis-tency of being in His presence and abiding in His Word on a daily basis that I had never previously experienced. It has also created in me a profound challenge of loving my wife as Christ loves His church! The simplicity and yet profoundness of this discipleship process has had a powerful impact on my life. If it were possible to take an x-ray of my inner man, I believe anybody would be able to see those “crosshairs” of the Target etched into my heart and mind!”
In order to live the life God intended, men must assume their rightful place in the home. They must do so with humility and submission yet with clarity, passion, and conviction to love and lead their wives and children in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord. But to do so, they must, ﬁrst, as part of submitting to their head, the Lord, make their personal time with Him top priority.
It is my prayer that the Almighty raises up an army of godly men in the church who will not retreat from their families but who will stand strong over them. We need men who take their rightful position in the home and church, who will leave legacies for their sons and daughters as godly husbands and fathers who are not ashamed of Jesus.
I long to see husbands and fathers who are not embar- rassed to show affection to their wives, sons, and daughters and to say the words “I love you” often; to physically touch, hug, and kiss them. I also long to see men read and model Scripture to their spouses and families to truly be an example of what a godly man is. What a heritage to leave our wives, children, and grandchildren as they observe us loving Christ, them, and the mission of the church. What a heritage to leave for the church and society—all for the glory of God!
Wives
Godly women, no one can take your place: no one! Our families, churches, and society need you! It is essential for godly women, who will not be ashamed of Jesus or His Word, or the work to which He has called them, to boldly take their rightful place in the home, church, and society. Social culture will continue its intimidating attempts to redeﬁne what a woman is, how she should look, dress, behave, and how (or if) she should parent. But Scripture must be our guide, not culture, not magazines, not social media—only God's Holy Word.
Wives, you have an amazing inﬂuence in your homes to draw your husbands into the things of God just by living with them in love, respect, submission, and contentment.
Deep in the heart of women is a desire to be lovingly led and spiritually covered by her husband. A godly wife will fulﬁll her role, or function, as his partner, supporting him in whatever he needs or cannot do as well, himself. They are to work together as Genesis 2:18-24 describes: God could see that it was not good for man to be alone; he needed someone to help him who was suitable to the task. So, He said, “I will make a helper ﬁt for him” and made woman, as He did man, in the image of God. Not only did God want to alleviate Adam's loneliness, He also knew that Adam could not do the job God had assigned him in the garden by himself. He needed help—as we still do, today!
In woman, God met both his needs. It is a wise man who partners with his wife, asking for her wisdom and insight. He remains the head of the home, and the ultimate responsibility rests on his shoulders, but he has a trusted partner with whom he is safe and from whom he can receive a different perspective. Wives, we need you!
A wife’s role, or function, then, is to support and partner with her husband. Her responsibility is to biblically submit and respect her husband by supporting his leadership of the family while providing him with rich, gentle input and safe partnership. Paul again tells wives to “submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands” (Ephesians 5:22, 24; Colossians 3:18; Titus 2:4-5).
That word “submit” may be a daunting word for some these days. At times, it has been mis-deﬁned, misunderstood, and misused to oppressively dominate and hurt women. Biblical submission is never demeaning, rejecting, or abusive in any way, verbally, emotionally, or physically. Submission is not a prohibition against a wife’s disagreeing or expressing her own opinion. A godly wife can certainly disagree with or express her opinion to her husband, which is, in fact, part of her responsibility in helping him, but she should do so respect-fully. Her husband, therefore, should gratefully receive her input as such.
Wives, let me say, again, that I am certainly not suggesting you subject yourselves to verbally, emotionally, or physically abusive husbands, or when he demands that you sin against God or His Word in the name of “submission.” In these tragic situations, you may need to actually leave the home for your safety or your children's safety and seek godly counsel. And perhaps, in conjunction with biblical counsel, you may need to seek legal protection. Yet even in your absence from the home, attempt to respond to him with a godly and loving manner. Your godly conduct will bless the heart of your Lord and the lives of those around you. It may even win him back to the Lord.
Be encouraged! Although there are no guarantees for your spouse’s actions to change if he or she chooses not to, if you have a deep desire for you and your spouse to follow God's way, no heart is impossible for God to change according to His will. You are not responsible for your spouse’s behavior. You are, however, responsible for your behavior towards your spouse. We are all called to pursue peace with all people, as much as it is possible, as Paul states in Romans 12, and that includes within our marriages.
Biblical submission, then, is meant to provide love, security, protection, and encouragement. It is meant to mirror the submission of the Church to Christ, as a bride to her husband. What an amazing comparison! The Church receives protection and security from submitting to Her relationship with Christ. He died for the Church, His Bride. He loves Her with a sacriﬁcial, joyful, life-giving love. To submit to Christ is in the Church's best interest. In the same way, for a wife to submit to her husband's Christ-like, sacriﬁcial love is also in her best interest.
Both men and women are often surprised when Paul clearly instructs men to submit. That is, a husband is to submit to Christ and the authority of His Word that instructs him to love his wife as Christ loved the Church. In First Corinthians 11:3, Paul lays out an unmistakable order of submitting: Christ to God; man to Christ; wife to husband. “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” There is beauty and protection in God's plan of submission.
If you happen to be a wife whose husband is not obeying the Word, your natural tendency may be to criticize, complain, or become fearful. Peter teaches us another way:
“Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that, even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear-but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening” (1 Peter 3:1-6).
When Peter exhorts women to display the “imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit…” the Apostle was not advocating that women be silent. In this passage he was addressing a woman's spirit. He is saying that no matter her personality, the Lord ﬁnds it “very precious” when a woman's heart is calm, not harsh, and who has within her spirit a strong and peaceful center. This can only be a reality when the Holy Spirit is in control.
God longs to see older women mentor younger women in the church, teaching them intentionally how “…to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not reviled” (Titus 2:4-5). This mentoring is crucial, especially during difﬁcult times when husbands and children are not acting in a loveable manner.
Living on Target was used by God to bring powerful change in one woman's life and marriage. She recounted:
“I never realized how much God really cared about my marriage and my role as a wife. Although my life was out of order it has been changed and transformed. The journey started when I approached people in my life who I had given priority over my husband. I repented and asked them to hold me accountable to never put them there again. I did not realize the impact it would make on others; I was just trying to be obedient. My sister was one of the people I put before my husband. When I went to her and repented, she was convicted to do the same in her marriage.
I then went to my husband. Wow, he broke down. Never did I realize that sharing this with him and repenting for putting other people in his place would bring a closeness between us that I did not even realize we both were longing for. This started a journey for us in communicating. It also started a journey of learning to trust each other again. As I started taking steps to walk in my role and letting Christ ﬁll the holes in my heart that were there from the past, then God started healing my marriage. I am ﬁnally walking in the God- given role and place God designed for me. I am able to love, respect, and encourage my husband.
By learning to be the right person for my mate, he has been impacted and is learning to become the right person for me. Now that is God at work! He has totally restored our marriage and I am walking in such a place of freedom and love and respect for my husband now that I understand God's heart for me as a wife.”
Wives, after your relationship with Christ, your immediate family should be your foremost priority even if you need or choose to work outside the home. There are obviously different seasons of life that allow for differing allocations of time. Not every woman functions well with the same level of demands. Within the holy calling to women is a vast freedom to embrace differing personalities, giftedness, skills, and passions. All godly wives and mothers do not have the same strengths and methods, nor manage their homes identically. There are, however, biblical principles that guide them, and when women follow God's Word with determination, they will be free to develop their God-given strengths and giftedness to be uniquely expressed in their homes, their churches, and their communities.
Wives, your home should be where your heart is. Remember, if a woman's heart leaves her home, devastating results will always follow. We know the wife of Proverbs 31 was an excep-tional businesswoman, but it is also clear that her home was her priority. As in verse 28, when you give precedence to your home, your children and husband, like hers, will “rise up” and honor you. May you be an absolute blessing to your husband, children, grandchildren, church, and society, all for the glory of God.
Paul emphasizes in Ephesians 5:33, that while the husband is to love his wife as he loves himself, the wife must “see that she respects her husband.” Both love from husbands and respect from wives are critical attributes to achieve joyful and secure marriages. A marriage, as it was meant to be lived, works in a mutual life-giving cycle.
When a husband loves and leads his wife in the same, sacriﬁcial way Christ loves us, his wife then desires to respect him. Her response motivates her husband to love and lead even more, which causes his wife to respect and respond to his leadership even more. You can see where this is going: it is a beautiful, upward cycle. This is how marriage was meant to be lived out.
We are all human and we will continue to have disagreements and struggles, making many mistakes along the way. Yet with this ongoing cycle of love, respect, forgiveness, and appreciation being given and received, both husband and wife will lift each other up, giving strength and joy to one another and to their marriage. This is how husbands and wives should function. When we do, marriage is awesome!
Trouble starts when you, your husband, or both of you become self-centered in ﬂeshly pride, and that can become very hurtful. If one spouse neglects his or her role and responsibility, it does not negate the other spouse from their own responsibility. If your spouse acts in a way that is foolish or destructive, you are not called to respect the detrimental behavior; you are, however, called to respect your spouse as you would anyone, making a distinction between the behavior and the person.
In the ﬂesh, when your spouse behaves in a disrespectful or foolish manner, you are often tempted to trade jab for jab. But this is not the way of Scripture. Regardless of your spouse’s behavior, you are still called to fulﬁll your own role, whether it be demonstrating sacriﬁcial love for the wife (Ephesians 5:25) or respectful interaction with the husband (Ephesians 5:33). You are to continue to live out your own marriage function and responsibility regardless of the action or attitude of your spouse. Our Lord will give you peace and power to live as the witness He has called you to be. God desires to use your love, respect, and conduct in your marriage as He convicts your spouse of sin. May our marriages give witness to Christ’s love for His Church.
Husbands and wives, are you ready to gently and honestly discuss with each other how you are doing in fulﬁlling your biblical functions and responsibilities?
Husband, are you leading and loving your wife in a way that builds her up, allowing her to be her best, and brings life to her? Wife, share with your husband the ways you are or are not experiencing his leadership and love. Then, without attacking, communicate the ways that you may feel a lack in these areas and what you desire from him.
Wife, are you helping him to be and do more than he could on his own, and are you biblically respecting your husband in a manner that gives him the conﬁdence and afﬁr-mation he needs to lead? Husband, share with your wife the ways you are or are not experiencing that help and respect. Then, again without attacking, let her know if you feel a lack in these areas and what you desire from her.
It is imperative that we honor the Lord by following our identity in Him as saints of God, as sons and daughters of the Most High, and to function in the way He has designed us as husbands and wives. If we do, our marriages and families will be fulﬁlling, and our Lord will be gloriﬁed.
The following dialogue exercise has proven to be extremely beneﬁcial to couples. Honestly ask your spouse how well you participate in the spiritual, emotional, and physical intimacy of your marriage. Be open concerning what you need to give to your mate in these areas and then listen to what they say they desire from you—not what you think they desire, but what they know they desire.
Please communicate gently from your heart and receive what your spouse is communicating without becoming defensive or angry. The Scriptures teach us to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). This type of communication is necessary to establish and maintain joyful and satisfying marriages.
Share truthfully what you require from each other spiritually (praying, reading, going to church together), emotionally (conversation, affection, time together, laughing, romance), and physically (physical touch, fulﬁlling each other's sexual needs). If you have not done so, begin now. Pursuing your spouse in these three ways helps to resist any immorality that tempts you to draw away from your spouse. Tragically, pornography, adultery, and other forms of real or virtual fornication are wreaking havoc in our personal and married lives from just such a lack of meeting one another's deep needs in these areas.
The answer Paul gave to the temptation of sexual immorality was that the husband and wife were to meet each other's sexual and emotional needs (1 Corinthians 7:1-5). Please understand this: because of immoral temptation, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. What a clear and biblical solution to sexual temptation: your spouse!
When spiritual, emotional, and physical desires are lovingly met within the marriage, there should be absolutely no excuse to look outside your marriage for satisfaction. Even if desires are not fully met, that is still never an excuse to seek outside fulﬁlment. Never! We are promised in James 4:7, “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will ﬂee from you.”
Under no circumstances should men be talking to women other than their wives, or women to men other than their husbands, about the intimate spiritual, emotional, or physical issues of their marriages. The only exception would be conﬁding with a godly pastor, trained counselor, or an older, mature saint, and even that must be handled with great care. These deep conversations with the opposite sex can throw open an emotional door that must not be opened. Do not do it!
It might be awkward or even painful to know what your spouse is struggling with and what he or she needs from you, but the alternative of a disconnected marriage or an unfaithful spouse will be even more painful. Communicate with God and with your spouse. Do not retreat. Your marriage is worth it!
Though God has clearly established biblical order, we are also called to mutually submit to one another out of love and honor for each other (Ephesians 5:21-33). Men, though we are still responsible to lead with love and wisdom, we would all beneﬁt by listening to our wives. They have insight and a perspective that we absolutely need. God gave us a mate to help us because He knew that we needed help! Prayerfully consider your wife's perspective and wisdom before making crucial decisions. This will draw you closer together, and you will both receive the beneﬁts of your combined wisdom.
Men, if you are like me, we sometimes think we have an answer before our wives even ﬁnish asking a question. Sometimes, our wives are not looking for a “solution.” Their hearts are simply longing to be heard by their husband. We need to truly listen to our spouses. Scripture teaches us that we are to live with our wives in an understanding way, showing honor to them. This will beneﬁt our wives, and it will beneﬁt us. Our prayers will not be hindered, according to what Peter tells us in chapter 3 of his ﬁrst letter, and we will proﬁt from our wives' perspectives.
Often, the best response to our wives can be repeating what they stated and showing affection (such as a hug or a gentle kiss). We do not always need to fully understand or ﬁx things, but we do need to understand the vital importance of communicating and listening. It demonstrates that we are there for them, showing them how much we deeply care. I am indebted to my precious wife, Amy, for teaching me this important lesson in the many years of our marriage before her passing, and I continue to learn from my wonderful daughter and daughter-in-law, about how to listen. They are great teachers!
Women, as you desire communication from your husbands, be aware of the various ways they communicate. Do not dismiss an act of service as being unrelated to his love for you. They may not express themselves exactly as you would, so honor them by accepting their forms of communication, just as you desire the same from them about your ways of communicating.
As you talk with your husband and feel you are truly being heard, be sure to also listen carefully to his perspective. Allow him to fully express his thoughts. Then, it is extremely important that you honor and respect him by following his leadership in a way that afﬁrms him, thus, strengthening his conﬁdence as the God-ordained head of your home. Even if the ﬁnal decision is not exactly as you thought it should be, give him the honor of following as a partner and encourager.
Learn which times are best for talking together. Bringing up deep wounds or engaging in intense discussion may not be wise when one or both of you are tired. Men and women can both ﬁnd it difﬁcult to communicate, but as we listen, learn, and respond appropriately to each other, healing and life-giving afﬁrmation will constantly strengthen our marriage relationship. This will not just happen. We must constantly pursue our spouse with love, respect, and communication in order to achieve and maintain a fulﬁlling marriage. It is well worth the effort.
One of the older, spiritually mature men in a group I was leading applied the biblical principle of sacriﬁcially loving his wife by asking what her true desires were, and then trying various ways to meet them. He was amazed to discover how much their marriage relationship improved.
Once you acknowledge the importance of your needs and desires, remember that no person was created to meet each and every one of them. Only God can ultimately supply what is required. We are called to be used by God to bless and enrich the lives of our spouses, being His conduit for love and encouragement.
We all know that we have fallen short in our marriage relationship at one time or another. When we hurt our spouse, we must ask for forgiveness from our heart with a true desire to change our behavior. Confessing our sin and praying for one another can bring healing.
Amy and I were married for over thirty years. We attempted to follow the truths in this chapter faithfully, though not ﬂawlessly. Like most, we had our weaknesses in this area.
In 2009, we fell into the worst pit of our married life. Our children were getting older and independent, and the empty nest was just ahead. Over the years I had allowed myself to get so engrossed in my increasingly demanding ministry that Amy had come to a place of wondering where she ﬁt in with me, with the family, and with the church. Once our children grew older, the focus had changed, and it was then that we realized that, at times, we had not nurtured each other. This was one of those times.
I was not loving her well and, because of that, she was struggling to respect me. We were thankful that we had already built into our lives the commitments found in Living on Target. Since we both aimed to please Him, it brought us back from this pit and restored our relationship. It was a hard journey, but thankfully, for a short season.
One of the most important things we both walked away with was the importance of loving and serving God ﬁrst and then each other. We both had to submit to the Lord every single day in order to love and respect each other as God designed us to do.
Amy's life verse was Proverbs 3:5-6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” We cannot let our circumstances distract us from the Lord and from the paths along which He desires to lead us; we must be diligent to acknowledge Him, trusting Him over any circumstance.
Amy often said she wished she had trusted the Lord enough to walk through our journey without the pain we had caused each other. That pain, however, worked to bring us to a deeper place with the Lord and with each other. Once we both became broken and repentant, committed to “living on target” in our personal lives and in our marriage, the Lord brought peace to our hearts. Peace replaced hurt.
We both learned so much, with all glory going to our faithful and trustworthy Lord for bringing us through this deep, dark time in our lives. The enemy so desires to destroy believers’ relationships with God, spouses, families, and ministries, but he did not win this one. Thankfully, by the grace of God, we spent many more years loving and respecting each other, faithfully committed to ﬁnishing the race together until the Lord took her Home after a long illness.
As we “live on target” in our marriages, we are modeling authentic Christianity for our children. We can give our children one of the most valuable gifts of all: a godly, committed marriage to provide them with stability and love, and to emulate in their own lives and marriages.
It is my deep hope that this process of asking for and receiving forgiveness, discussing roles, responsibilities, and sharing desires, hopes and dreams brings healing, life, and joy into our marriages. This communication process is a large part of living on target for the glory of God—and so that your marriage can be all that you and God desire for it to be.
When we aim to live in authentic, biblical order in our homes, our marriages can be all that we and God desire for them to be.
Christian Parenting
Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:13-15).
This verse gives us a wonderful, tender glimpse into Jesus' compassion for children. The disciples were probably attempting to protect Jesus' time and energy, yet they missed His love and heart for children. He genuinely desired to be with them.
An observation of many of our struggling family relationships today begs the question: do we as parents have a genuine desire to be with our children and to train them in the ways of our Lord? Do we have a passion to show them affection and care, give them clear spiritual direction, and inﬂuence them for God's glory? Or do we regard our children as a distraction and an invasion of our time? Jesus reprimanded His disciples for adopting this very attitude.
That our children will be subjected to spiritual inﬂuences is not the question. They will be. The questions are, how will they be inﬂuenced, and by whom? Simply put, our Lord has chosen parents, and in particular, fathers, to be the primary spiritual inﬂuence for children. Ephesians 6:4 states, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”
Children, whether they admit it or not, long for loving and healthy relationships with their fathers. The painful wounds, both physical and emotional, that many sons and daughters carry from absent or abusive fathers, are utterly tragic. It creates a cycle of pain and hurt that lasts for generations. We join with the prophet Malachi, and the apostle Luke, in praying that the hearts of the fathers turn back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers (Malachi 4:5-6; Luke 1:17).
The importance of godly mothers, as well, is incalculable.
Our children need intentionally involved mothers who, whether they work outside or inside the home, teach and care for their children with affection and sacriﬁcial love. A woman who is sincere in her faith and conﬁdent in God's call to godly motherhood will have an eternal impact on her children.
If we, as fathers and mothers, have caused wounds, intentionally or unintentionally, we must repent and ask our children, age appropriately, for their forgiveness. Healing, restoration, and revival begin with us.
The Psalmist says in 127:3-5 that our children are the most precious earthly gift God has given us. We have the privilege and responsibility to love and train them in His ways (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Ephesians 6:4). The Lord seeks godly offspring (Malachi 2:14-16).
“Living on target” as a daily lifestyle with our children is a wonderful way to train and disciple them. First, however, we must establish a trusting relationship with them. Please remember: rules and instruction without a relationship usually lead to rebellion.
To create such a relationship, our children must know that we love them, unconditionally. Tell them and show them! Hug, kiss, and afﬁrm them whenever possible and appropriate. Find the best way to connect with your child. As my children were growing up, it was a joy for me to date my daughter and have “Dad Nights” with my sons. We just hung out, ate together, shopped, watched ball games, or talked about life. Even now that they are grown, we still cherish the times we spend together.
With this type of relationship with your children, you can encourage them in their walk with God and others and help them develop a biblical world view. With this type of relation- ship, when and where necessary, you can lovingly correct and discipline them to show your love and concern.
Do not be afraid to tell them what they need to hear. Ephesians 4:15 tells us to speak the truth in love; that applies to instructing our children as well as fellow believers. They need to trust that you will love them as their parent, no matter what. Each child is uniquely different. Your approach to your children may vary, but never give up on connecting with them. It may be sports, video games, exercise, shopping, or simply enjoying a cup of coffee together—whatever is of interest to them. Find out how to connect and do it as often as you can. This has a way of opening their heart for other meaningful communication.
Attempt to be a safe place for listening, encouragement, laughter, and having fun together. These things are absolutely necessary to create a loving bond between parent and child (of any age). Do not make discipling your children a purely academic process—or as only punishment. Yes, read the Word to them, but also show them the Word in your own “living on target” lifestyle. As you live life with your children, you will have the connection to walk with them in their struggles, victories, decision-making, friendships, and life’s ups and downs.
How we handle life's decisions, how we respond to conﬂict, and how we desire to fulﬁll the mission of His Church, all contribute to the discipling of our children. Though we make mistakes as we raise our sons and daughters, there is forgiveness and hope in Christ. As a matter of fact, even how we handle our shortcomings or mistakes is also a part of the discipling process.
Let us purpose in our hearts to become the parents that He desires for us to be: our children need and deserve godly parents.
Our ﬁrst step in training our children is to acknowledge Jesus' desire that we, ourselves, become childlike in our own faith toward Him. The disciples once were arguing over who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus used little children as examples to teach his disciples of humility, dependence, and faith—qualities without which no one would enter the Kingdom. In Matthew 18:3-4, the apostle records Jesus as saying, “…unless you will turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
We all need these same characteristics as we surrender our lives to Christ and continue in our own relationship with Him as His children. They are certainly required in parenting our children, as well.
Being a mom or dad can be the most rewarding and, at the same time, the most challenging time of our lives. The pain we feel when our children are sick, sinful, hurting, struggling, in trouble, or rebellious can be overwhelming. We may ask ourselves what we could have done to prevent such problems, or we may berate ourselves with a list of the “should haves.”
Certainly, we must evaluate our involvement, or lack of our involvement with our children and take responsibility to correct where necessary. When we do, we all need the comfort of Christ's love and the compassion of brothers and sisters being poured out on us; “pat” answers and condemnation from others are just not acceptable.
On the other hand, there are many godly parents who have loved, taught, and guided their children in a very biblical manner, yet their children still willfully choose to reject God. Christian parents, who have faithfully attempted to train up their children in God’s way, often live with shame because of the unwise choices their children have made. These parents need to leave that shame at the cross and entrust their children to Him.
If you have not built a safe relationship with your children based on love and respect, and you desire deeply for that to change, they will need time to recognize that your instruction and involvement are coming out of love for them and a desire to be obedient to God. You may need to express your repentant heart to them and your desire to begin a new relationship and direction with them.
Parenting takes courage and commitment, and we cannot retreat from our responsibilities. Parents who have not invested in their children’s spiritual walk through life, neglecting to help them develop a biblical world view, need to intentionally begin doing so. We Christian parents must engage in the spiritual battle for the hearts of our sons and daughters.
Yes, as parents, we have all made mistakes, and will continue to do so. Remember your own teenage years and the lessons you learned, usually the hard way. You, too, may have had, or perhaps caused conﬂicts with your own parents in the process of growing up.
An expectation of being the perfect “mistake-free” parent creates a type of bondage and can even become idolatry if we allow that expectation to take precedence above all else. At the same time, though we will never be perfect parents, we cannot let that be an excuse to exempt ourselves from praying for and spiritually investing in our children, both in word and in deed. The principles of God's Word are still in effect and apply today.
If your relationship with your children, no matter their age, is not what you would like, pursue them! Even if they do not seem to respond, never give up. Although you must not enable your children's sin, you need to love and pray for them unceasingly. With your older teen and adult children, participate in their lives to whatever extent they allow. If you know that you have blown it in certain areas with them, ask for forgiveness. Asking for and extending forgiveness is the key to reconciling and restoring any relationship. We will not be perfect, but we can and should be faithful.
This is why we must come to Christ, ourselves, in childlike faith, humility, and dependence. Godly wisdom is essential as we lead and guide our sons and daughters. This is exactly what Christ provides as we remain dependent on Him (1 Corinthians 1:30).
What a relief to know that we do not have to parent in our own strength and wisdom. We have all faced frustration from trying it on our own. Thankfully, the Lord loves each one of our children so much that He desires to care for and parent them “through us” as we stay surrendered to Him. This is great news for every mother and father!
In spite of the difﬁculties, we will also experience the joys and rewards of parenting. We must not quit! We must never give up on God's power, on ourselves as parents, or on our children. To raise godly offspring that will rise up and be a blessing to God, to us, to the Church, and to the world is one of our greatest privileges.
Finances
“No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Matthew 6:24 records Jesus as making this forthright statement. Improper handling of money has become a major obstacle for people, and we must either get this part of our life in order and under control or we will be rendered ineffective for the Lord and His service. Financial pressure can seem overwhelming; it will test the resolve of even the strongest people and marriages.
Money is a spiritual issue. God knew we would have to deal with it daily. Either we, by the Spirit, will control money, or money will control us. There is no middle ground. God owns everything we have, not just the tithes and offerings. When His mission becomes our mission, personally, we will view and use His money with eternity in mind. Luke said in chapter 16 of his gospel, we are stewards of His resources and will one day give an account of how we used them. A good steward will use them to properly care for his or her family, and for other Kingdom purposes.
In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus stated that where our treasure is, that is where our heart will be. We must ask ourselves if Jesus (and His mission) is truly our treasure? If so, there our heart will be drawn. If not, our heart will only be drawn to temporal human appetites. He tells us not to store up for ourselves treasures on earth which can be destroyed or stolen, but to store up for ourselves “treasures in heaven.” Even though we may not know exactly how we will experience this in heaven, we do know that we cannot take our earthly “treasures” with us, so Jesus exhorts us to think in terms of heavenly treasures. In eternity, we will know exactly what that will look like, and either be thankful we heeded the instruction, or regret that we did not. It is what the Bible teaches, and we can trust its reality.
A dear man of God in our church who is well along in years shared with me the adventure he and his wife experienced in this area of discipleship. He wrote:
“The part of Living on Target that impressed my wife and me the most was to determine where our priorities were in life. The question we asked ourselves was: ‘where are our treasures?’
Our lives have been greatly impacted, especially in the area of ﬁnances. Our focus used to be what we had accu-mulated in “stuff.” We realize now that material things don't really matter in light of eternity. Along with other lifestyle changes, we both felt compelled by the Lord to give a large amount of money from the savings we had been accumulating for our retirement. As we sought the Lord individually as to the amount He wanted us to give, He told each of us separately the exact same amount! We gave with joy, adjusting our lifestyle in order to live as good stewards.
In the past few years, we have kept a list of the blessings that the Lord has poured back into our lives. God has given us amazing beneﬁts. Living by His principles has brought speciﬁc blessings and ﬁnancial soundness, but we are also careful to note the non-ﬁnancial blessings that He has sent. His Kingdom economy looks very different from our earthly economy. We are delighted to invest in eternal things, trusting Him to supply what we truly need.
It is only laying up treasures in Heaven that count because this is how the Gospel can be spread both at home and abroad (Matthew 6:19-21). Every day we thank the Lord that we are privileged to lay up those treasures.”
In 1 Timothy 6:17-19 Paul tells us we are to continue giving generously so that as we are giving and sharing what God has blessed us with, we are laying up for ourselves a good foundation for the time to come. As we give, we not only bless God out of obedience, but in some way, when we reach heaven, we are going to be blessed with what we have presented to God on earth. He loves to bless His children and their obedience.
We do not give simply to “get” for ourselves. Not at all! Rather, we give in grateful response to what we have already received from Him, that is, the ultimate gift of life forever and ever with Him. It is a blessing and an honor to give to the Lord out of gratitude for that. This would be enough, but He desires to bless our obedience—and we should desire to receive His blessing. What a generous God we serve!
Christians should be characterized as people of extreme generosity because of our extreme thankfulness to our Lord, and because of our passion to fulﬁll the mission He has given us.
Paul admonished Timothy, his young co-worker, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1Timothy 6:6-8).
Notice the words “great gain.” The greatest gain we can achieve is a life content in God and His mission. Author John Piper is often quoted as saying, “God is most gloriﬁed in us when we are most satisﬁed in Him.”
If, and when, God's sons and daughters get to this place of satisfaction in Him, can you imagine the impact on our giving? Our priority will reﬂect His priority. What is important to Him will be important to us. We will begin to see the Church and the world the way He sees it. His mission will become our mission.
In Scripture, Paul states that with godly contentment, we will be satisﬁed if we have clothes to wear and food to eat. These items are seen as rights in our country, but they are not rights—they are blessings! God forgive us for our sense of entitlement! We are so blessed!
Paul goes on to admonish Timothy that those who are rich are not to be prideful of what they have, but to recognize that is it God who provides us with all things to enjoy. “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but to God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasures for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life” (1Timothy 6:17-19).
Paul's deﬁnition of “rich” in the verses above is far different than our culture's deﬁnition. We certainly have ﬁnancial issues in America and in our homes, but most of us have food and clothing—far more than we need! Let us complain less, be thankful more, and make our ﬁnancial decisions based upon His mission—not just our wants and desires.
Our ﬂesh will never be satisﬁed; it always wants more! Paul had to learn how to live contentedly in Christ as he matured in the faith. Hear his words in Philippians 4:11-13: “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” The “all things” refers to Paul practicing contentment in every circumstance in which he found himself. We, too, should learn this same principle of satisfaction and contentment in every situation in which we ﬁnd ourselves.
Hebrews 13:5 puts the challenge in these words: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
God will give us strength to control money and materialism and to empower us to live lives of godliness and contentment. If we do not allow Him to strengthen us in this area, then we will face unnecessary temptation and its possible consequences. Temptations can become a snare, leading to many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into misery. Paul warns Timothy, in chapter six of his ﬁrst letter to this young pastor, that it is through this craving for money that
“some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” In other words, Paul says that it is the love of money, not money, itself, that is a root of “all kinds of evil” that can lead us to ruin, destruction, leaving the faith, and the heavy burden of many heartaches.
There is nothing inherently wrong with money. It can be a great tool. It is how we view it and use it that determines if we please God, or not. When the Lord ﬁnancially prospers His children, it is not for the purpose of continually spending it on ourselves and our families, but to be generous to others in need of the Gospel and the basics of life.
The prophet Malachi called out the priests of Israel for robbing God because they stopped giving to the Lord. The people of Israel, following their priests, found themselves in trouble, as well, when they, too, lived a lifestyle of withholding from God what was rightfully His.
If we are honest, we must all confess that we have made mistakes dealing with money. It is a struggle for most of us to manage ﬁnances well. But even more so, as Malachi accused the priests and people of Israel, many of us in the Church, today, are also robbing God. How? By taking most (if not all) He has given to us and spending it on ourselves instead of considering it His to accomplish the work He has for us to do. Because of this, many have misused His resources and ﬁnd themselves deep in debt, and, as a result, have a hard time serving God unencumbered. Please do not feel condemned, but many of us need to be convicted in this area. Our objective should be to eliminate excessive debt and place ourselves in a position of being generous givers and not borrowers.
Even though we do not live under the Old (Testament) Covenant, the principle still remains because God does not change: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need” (Malachi 3:10). There are tremendous physical and spiritual needs in the world. God has given the Church all that is necessary to address these needs if we will be obedient in our giving.
It is essential that we deal with this aspect of ﬁnances head-on instead of evading the subject or offering excuses for our behavior. We must not allow money or materialism to master us. These things must be under the control of the Holy Spirit. We can make the decision to give the “ﬁrst fruits” of our income to Him regularly because we desire to, not because we have to. We are privileged and delighted to do so. Our choice should reﬂect a generous, open heart.
Yes, we must take care of ourselves and provide for our families. But we are also called to ﬁnance the Kingdom of God (“…that there may be food in My house…”) so that the Church might continue to use these resources to achieve the Great Commission, helping meet critical needs here at home and around the world. In this way, our Heavenly Father is well pleased, and we are well blessed.
What exactly are our “first fruits?” God used tithing (giving ten percent of their goods and income) under the Old Covenant as a requirement for the citizens and leaders of Israel to function physically and spiritually as a nation. The Christian Church is referred to as a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9) with a clear mission to fulﬁll. Under the New (Testament) Covenant, we certainly do not promote the ten percent tithe as a requirement, but as a model for the church to fulﬁll Her mission of evangelism, discipleship, and ministry to the poor and those in need.
The emphasis of this chapter is not to debate tithing in the New Testament church. Even though the New Covenant does not emphasize a speciﬁc amount, we do have tithing as an example for us from the Old Covenant. Jesus' teachings always raised the requirements of the Law to the heart level and so instructed the Pharisees to tithe, but not to neglect justice, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23). Giving, according to Jesus, is a heart issue, not just a money issue.
God used one of the tithes under the Old Covenant to teach the Israelites to learn to “revere the Lord your God always” (Deuteronomy 14:22-23). Proverbs 3:9-10 instructs us to honor the Lord with all our possessions and the ﬁrst fruits of our increased blessings. The context was for the agricul-tural nation of Israel who literally gave from their crops to the storehouse in the temple. In today's system, a tithe of your “ﬁrst fruits” would simply be a tenth of your income. Again, though the percentage is not a requirement today, the principle of tithing from our increase teaches us to honor our Lord with what He has given to us and keeps our priorities in check with His.
There is a distinction between those who say they love God and the ones who show they love God. When someone really wants to know if we are committed to a cause, we may hear the phrase, “Put your money where your mouth is.” Are there any causes greater than Kingdom causes? We can say we love Him with our mouths, but when we systematically give Him back the “ﬁrst fruits” of His money, it proves that we love and revere Him.
Our giving is also a way to show God who truly serves Him and who does not (Malachi 3:16-18). When we ﬁnancially give, it honors our Lord, it enables the Church to fulﬁll Her mission, and it blesses us both here and in heaven. Giving from a thankful heart is an act of worship.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9, that living under New Covenant grace should motivate us to give bountifully with a cheerful heart to accomplish the mission God has given us. Grace keeps us from becoming legalistic and it causes us to give beyond any speciﬁc percentage of giving. We give, not because of a religious duty or a “have-to” mentality, but because we desire to. It truly is “…more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
Can you imagine how the world would be impacted for Christ if all His children gave like this? When we do, the mission of Christ becomes ours.
Contentment and giving are the greatest antidotes for greed and materialism. Again, in 2 Corinthians 9 we read, “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.”
As we sow, or give back the “seed” that He supplies, He desires to prosper us in order for us to be even more generous in every way. I refer to this as biblical prosperity—prospering us to be a blessing to others. According to the Scriptures, as we give more to God, we reap more, to give more.
Working hard and making money is biblical, and we should be thankful for the opportunity. God blesses His children to be a blessing! We have to have money before we can give money. Remember, as Paul told Timothy, money is not the problem. It is the love of it, the grasping of it for what it can give us, that leads us to destruction. Let us purpose in our hearts to release our money for eternal purposes as we become generous givers to bless Kingdom causes.
We will reap what we sow on earth and in heaven. This is why Paul says we must always give with a cheerful and thankful attitude. God loves it when we give with joy.
In a culture of materialism, the Lord calls us to be different, to be good stewards, to manage well the resources with which He has entrusted us. God is no kill-joy. He is not against us enjoying the material items He blesses us with. Our heavenly Father simply does not want those items to control us. First Timothy 6:17-19 reminds us that He has not called us to guilt, but to be a blessing.
The Lord gave me a personal experience around this issue. It began with His gift to me: a heart for the poor. I have lived with great passion for God's heart in this area and at one time would unfairly judge people who did not have the same level of conviction. Keenly aware of the suffering of people in my own city, country, and the world, I struggled with guilt for the material blessings God had given me.
I have had opportunities to spend time in several developing countries around the world. One of those was a trip to Sudan, Africa where I encountered extreme poverty ﬁrst hand. I saw people, with little or no clothing coming out of the bush in search of life-sustaining resources like a blanket for cover or a morsel of food. How my heart broke to see them. How God's heart must break. We must respond!
After our ministry there in the Sudan bush was completed, my co-workers and I gathered in a restaurant in the nearest city and sat down for dinner. I ordered a nice meal. As the plate was set down before me, the guilt was overwhelming! I could not imagine putting a bite of that food in my mouth. I was unable to eat. The guilt held me burdened and sorrowful. Then the Lord spoke very clearly to my heart, “I have not called you to guilt. I have blessed you to be a blessing! Now rise up and eat”—and man, did I eat!
The burden and passion for God's heart for the poor remains strong and growing in me to this very day, but the guilt for being blessed is gone. Now I desire His blessing, not for myself, but so that I can be a blessing to my immediate family, my church family, and the world. Thank You, Lord!
Enjoy a simple life—but do not judge others in their deﬁnition of this. Be thankful for what He has given to you and give all you can to the Kingdom of God. That investment will never return void. Using God's money His way will bring tremendous pleasure to both Him and you. You can never out-give the Lord!
As we sum up our second target area, Living in love and service in the home, we ﬁnd that, whether married or single, parents or not, well-off or not, we need to function the way God has ordained. We must use our homes, relationships, and ﬁnances to glorify Him and advance His Kingdom.
We learned that men need to live in the manner to which God has called them as His sons: whether single or married, parenting or not, old or young. They should continually grow in their relationship with the Lord, leading and loving their wives, fathering their children well, keeping their ﬁnances under control as stewards of God's money. Women, too, must live in the same manner to which God has called them as His daughters.
Can you imagine how living by God's Word in our personal lives and in our homes will position us to disciple someone else in the faith? This frees us to love and serve the Church and the world—the ﬁnal two target areas—which we cannot fulﬁll if we do not have the ﬁrst two in proper order. It would be hypocritical.
If we attempt to love and serve the church before loving and ministering to Christ and in our homes, we have it all backwards. However, if we have these in order—not ﬂawlessly, but faithfully—we prepare ourselves to not only love and serve the church, but also the world.
No man or woman should be considered for any leadership function in the church until they have become faithful in the ﬁrst two foundations: living in love and service ﬁrst to Christ, and then in the home.
If we are not spending time alone with our Lord, what can we possibly offer to others spiritually? If our homes, singleness, marriages, children, and ﬁnances are not in order, how can we teach and model for others how a Christian home should function?
Churches are weak and ineffective when their leaders do not personally practice these ﬁrst two foundations, in that order, yet are trying to lead others. Remember, Jesus challenged the religious people of His day who had plenty of head knowledge, but their lives did not reﬂect godly lifestyles.
Today, two thousand years later, it is still necessary for us to evaluate our lives in the light of our Lord's Word. We need to ask God to convict our hearts, allowing the Holy Spirit to empower us to repent, ask for forgiveness if necessary, and make changes. It is my prayer that this process will cause our homes to be ﬁlled with his presence and peace.
Reflect and Respond
Single:
How are you using your God-given gifts and skills to further the Kingdom?
Evaluate how you are honoring God in your home and relationships.
In what area(s) do you need to grow and mature?
Married:
How are you fulﬁlling your God-given role and responsibility as a husband/wife?
Evaluate your spiritual, emotional, and physical intimacy with each other.
What changes are needed?
Parents:
Evaluate your parenting and the relationship that you currently have with your children ( and grandchildren). What changes would you make?
Do you constantly pray for, love, and attempt to connect with your children?
Are you walking with your children, modeling the “Living on Target” lifestyle and passing it on to them?
Finances:
Where is your treasure?
As His steward, are you ready to give an account to God of how you view and use His money?
Have you personally owned Christ's mission? How is this reﬂected in your giving?
If you are in excessive debt, what is your speciﬁc plan to eliminate the ﬁnancial pressure?
Since all you have is the Lord's, what is your view of the tithing principle and giving offerings to Him to further His Kingdom? If you are not doing that, when will you begin?
UNLESS WE ASK the Lord to build our home, we are building it in vain.
So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19).
The word “church” is the Greek word ecclesia. It means “a called-out assembly”—biblically describing those who have exchanged the darkness of their sin for His marvelous light. Though we tend to think of “church” as a building or a place, it is not. Rather, the Church is us: the people of God.
Certainly, we have our difﬁculties, yet the Lord views us as His prized possession. He loves the Church with an extreme love, so much so, that He died for Her. He has also called us to cherish and serve the Church with all our hearts.
It is vital that we develop a true love for the global Church. But we also learn to love the local Church, and then, particu-larly, the speciﬁc church of which we are a part. Shouldn't every pastor and member of a local congregation believe in their church and hold her in high regard? I certainly do!
This does not mean that you look past situations which need to be addressed. There will be difﬁculties in every congregation, simply because there are humans involved. But it is essential that we love the Church and that we stop chroni-cally complaining against Her.
It is necessary to pray for the leadership and not be critical of them. Share with them and other mature believers issues or concerns that are troubling you but determine to become part of the solution instead of being a part of the problem. Because of our love for Christ and each other we need to address any issues that would hinder our unity.
There may be times you have prayerfully dealt with all the issues you could, and you still must leave a local congregation. Please do not depart with bitterness. Remember that we, who have placed our faith in Christ alone, are all brothers and sisters, even with our differences and disputes. We are still family in Christ.
Never forget that Jesus died for the Church, all believers, whom He calls His Bride. If we love Him, the Bridegroom, we must love the Church, His Bride. As mature disciples, we will overﬂow with love for the global Church and for the local church. We will want to serve His Bride with our time, spiritual gifts, talents, and ﬁnances.
As we disciple people in the faith, it is important that we mentor them in truly loving the Church. She will never be perfect. There will be plenty of conﬂicts, doctrinal disagreements, leadership issues, integrity questions, hypocrisy, and problems of sin. Even so, we have a base-line: the Body of Christ, the Church, is the Bride of Christ. We must learn how to love Her! There are some who attempt to serve the Church, but, for various reasons, have lost their love for Her. Those who have been hurt by the Church, or who have hurt Her (for some, both may apply) must learn to embrace Her again through reconciliation and forgiveness so that the love relationship may be restored.
Let us see and care for the Church the way Christ does, pressing through the issues that hinder us, which may require reconciliation as described in chapter three, and purposing to love His Bride. Our witness to the world is on the line.
Jesus stated that the world would know we are His disciples by our love for one another (John 13:34-35). As vital as evangelism, preaching, and doctrine are, Jesus said that we would be identiﬁed ﬁrst and foremost as His disciples because of our love for one another. Jesus has given the world a standard to use to evaluate if we are truly His: our love for each other.
As we put this love into practice, it gives a clear witness that we truly have been saved and transformed by Jesus Christ. Living in oneness is extremely important to God for both our witness and for our experience on Judgment Day, as we discussed in chapter two. How are we, as believers, doing in this area? How are you doing in it?
Our Lord prayed to His Father in John 17:20-23 that we in the Church would live and worship in unity, not allowing anything to divide us: Jew, Gentile, black, white, Latino, African, Asian—all ethnicities. We have been called to live together as one uniﬁed body, to break down any walls of denominationalism, racism, sexism, and classism. All of those “isms” should fall at the foot of the cross.
According to Scripture, the foremost evangelistic tool we have is our unity in Christ. God's Word records how Jesus prayed, not once, but twice, that His future followers would be one in Him. Why was this so important to Him? The answer is simple, yet profound: so that the world would believe the Father had sent Him.
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that you have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as you loved Me” (John 17:20-23).
It is for this reason Paul wrote the church in Ephesus to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body in Christ.
Unity does not come at the cost of heresy or unrepentant habitual sinful behavior. Those are different issues requiring different resolutions, but all other issues should be pressed through for our unity to remain strong. His reputation among unbelievers is measured by our unity. We must disciple people in this crucial area. We are called to be the Church, not just attend church.
“And they sang a new song, saying, 'Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth’” (Revelation 5:9-10).
By these verses we see clearly God's plan and desire that all people from all nations be represented in His heavenly Kingdom. He desires that His Church on earth reﬂect that same multi-ethnic inclusion.
In the early church, there was a strong enmity—a “wall” or division—between the Jewish and Gentile believers. They had yet to learn, and even more, to accept that Christ had broken down that wall and created one new people, His one Church. This was such a startling, radical concept to the new Church that it took them a while to understand why He did so: in order that they might live peaceably together, thus creating a witness of Him to their world.
The following verses from Ephesians 2:14-16 had already come to pass on the cross:
“For He, Himself, is our peace, Who has made us both one and has broken down in His ﬂesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility.”
The context here was the hostility between Jew and Gentile, but our application of these verses, today, can certainly include our own “walls” between ethnicities. Is it not time to put an end to division and hostility? We worship the same Lord, yet our prejudices and preferences have kept us segregated within the conﬁnes of the Church. “Separate, but equal” is still quoted by some in the Body of Christ, but this quote is not found anywhere in the Bible. Surely this must break our Lord's heart!
After some Gentiles from the house of Cornelius turned to Christ (Acts 10), the Jewish believers began to debate about how to connect them to the Church. For many people, and many churches, that same debate of how to unite “the nations” into the local congregation continues to this very day. But others fail to wrestle with it at all and remain ﬁrmly entrenched behind their walls. It is very clear from Scripture that it should be a priority for all Christians to consider how to live out their faith, together, as the uniﬁed Body of Christ.
We know from Scripture that the walls of division between “Jew and Gentile,” that is, between all peoples and cultures, were removed in Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago. What keeps us from experiencing the unity Christ already accomplished, and still desires for His church? Certainly, continued prejudices, preferences, and pride are high on the list. These characteristics must be cruciﬁed for unity to advance and mature.
We can praise the Lord that there are, indeed, an increasing number of Christians and Church leaders today who desire to see our Lord's Church look on earth as we know it is in heaven. Where every tribe, language, people, and nation are represented, as so beautifully pictured in Revelation 5:9-10. More and more churches are returning to Scripture, attempting to remove barriers and create an atmosphere of total racial unity. For the ﬁrst time in the history of the Church, we are seeing the fruit of racial reconciliation in greater measure than ever before.
Paul wrote this to the church in Philippi (Philippians 2:1-4):
“So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selﬁsh ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more signiﬁcant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
Please notice that we must humble ourselves and consider others not just equal but “more signiﬁcant” than ourselves. This attitude can only be achieved by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is a huge difference between tolerating others and truly valuing and accepting them—and people know that difference. Paul exhorts us not just to accept all people, but to consider others better than ourselves.
When Christians stop judging their fellow man according to their own self-righteous standards and prejudices, and truly begin to view others as better than themselves, as Paul admon-ishes, then our Lord's desire for His Church will be accomplished.
I have seen this take place in the congregation in which I have served for over thirty years. It has been the most wonderful and challenging journey of my life. I love this church and believe we are a beautiful expression of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. This environment does not just happen. We continually love, learn, and aim at mutual submission to one another as one family of believers. It is not easy, but it is beautiful!
Our ethnically diverse congregation of over forty nations has learned that to be part of our local church, everyone must give up some personal preferences. We have learned and are still learning how to temper our personal choices in music, worship style, church structure, language, dress, (to mention only a few of our cultural differences) to value others better than ourselves. We are certainly not perfect in this process, but we continue to mature.
Loving and serving our fellow man has always been part of the call of the Gospel and it should be a high value for the Church. When this is authentically lived out, it creates an atmosphere where everyone feels welcome and at home. This has always been our Lord's desire for His Church. Jesus, Himself, taught His disciples: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”(Mark 11:17).
Our local congregations should reﬂect the Kingdom of God. It is not natural for different cultures to live life and worship together in the same church, but because Christ broke that barrier, we are to no longer live in the natural. We walk by the supernatural and it truly causes the world to ponder how this could be. It is our prayer that they will observe the love in the Church for one another from “all the nations” and will have to declare to themselves, as in John 17, that truly the Father has sent the Son.
One ﬁnal note on this subject: Please do not put yourself or your church under pressure to force a multi-ethnic congregation into being. It certainly is a vital, biblical goal, for which we should intentionally aim, but God must achieve this. We cannot make the races and cultures come together, but we can hinder this from happening. I submit to you to practice the Kingdom principles noted above so as not to hinder anyone from experiencing God's love and acceptance in your congregation and so that your church will become a house of prayer for all people. We are responsible for our actions and attitudes as we prayerfully trust God to add to His church as He wills.
Love the way He loves and leave the growth and diversity to Him. Our Lord will be pleased with churches that love like this. Remember, the Church belongs to Him.
“Lord, give us spiritual eyes to see people as You see them. Help us to love, respond to, and embrace them with Your heart, for the sake of Your reputation and to reach those who are lost. All for Your glory!”
The following ﬁve areas are signiﬁcant to the Church, the Body of Christ: community, communion, corporate worship, serving those in need, and supporting the persecuted church. Let us examine each one in light of our own involvement and commitment.
Community
As the Body of Christ, we are to live life together. In Acts 2:42-47 the early Church:
learned together praised God and prayed together shared meals and communion in their homes together lived relationally in community together
Our goal is not to duplicate the cultural context of the early church but instead to strive for the same objectives in our culture today.
It seems that the ﬁrst area of our life which suffers because of our fast-paced schedule is that of relationships with God, our families, believers within the Church, and people in the world. Every person in a Christian fellowship needs relationships that will encourage and equip them in their faith. It is an essential ingredient for our spiritual maturity and development.
The Bible cautions “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conﬁdence ﬁrm to the end” (Hebrews 3:12-14). This passage exhorts us to come along side each other to encourage one another. We should regularly speak into each other's lives with godly counsel, appreciation, love, and prayer. Each of us could use more of this support.
Please note from this verse that sin is deceitful. We all have blind spots and we need our brothers and sisters in Christ to help us with our weaknesses. We need others to encourage us to arrest sin and live out Christ's righteousness in us. Without that, our hearts can drift and eventually become so hardened that we may be tempted to walk away from the living God. If our spiritual lives begin to decline, it is extremely important that we are living in such closeness with fellow believers that they notice and can bring it, lovingly, to our attention. Can you honestly say that you have these kinds of relationships within the church? They are vital!
We were not meant to live the Christian life alone. When a country is at war, its army lives, eats, trains, and ﬁghts together against their common enemy. They battle side by side because it is a matter of victory or defeat, of life or death.
It is no different in our spiritual lives. We are involved in spiritual warfare (2 Corinthians 10:3-5) with a very real enemy and his demons of darkness. We should never drift away from our band of brothers and sisters in Christ. Our enemy is like a sniper who loves to pick off isolated believers who drift away emotionally, spiritually, or physically from God and from the army of God, His Church. Alone, we are an easy target for the enemy to accuse and destroy us. As it is with physical armies, staying together is a matter of spiritual victory or defeat–and possibly, spiritual life and death. We are called to ﬁght the good ﬁght of faith—together.
To be realistic, we cannot be intimately acquainted with a large number of people even though we worship in the same location each week. Yet the Bible exhorts us to live out the “one anothers” in our spiritual family: we are to submit to one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, serve one another, exhort one another, to name a few. This is why we promote small “Life Groups” within our church. We have found that it is an effective way to live out those “one another's” of Scripture in the setting of a more intimate gathering.
As we make it our aim to be well-pleasing to God, we believe every Christian should commit to a small community of believers, (even if only with one or two others) especially within the context of a larger church community. A small group is a safe haven where your brothers and sisters carry each other’s burdens to our Lord, openly and honestly, receiving prayer and loving, practical care. It is a place where we can equip one another to “live on target” as we journey through this life together.
We need to pray for one another on a regular basis. Our enemy seeks to kill, steal, and destroy us. Life comes at us fast, with all its unpredictable challenges and struggles. There is not a person on this planet who does not need prayer. Pride, laziness, or gossip will keep people from praying for one another, which is exactly what our enemy desires. Our adver-sary does not want anyone to be healed, but our God does! James (chapter 5) urged his readers to “…confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power…”
God desires to see His Church as a safe, loving place for individuals to confess sin and various struggles, and to sincerely pray for one another. James says that we should then expect more lives to be healed, physically, mentally, and spiritually. This is the environment that God desires for His Church.
Do you gather with a safe, small group on a regular basis? Do you help in creating those environments of trust and conﬁ-dentiality? In your congregation, who are you praying for regularly, and who is praying for you? If you are not involved in a small group, join or start one for your beneﬁt and for the beneﬁt of others.
Allow me to share just one example of what takes place as a result of small groups.
A couple joined our church and became involved in a Life Group where the ”living on target” lifestyle was taught and modeled. They heard Scriptures read about a particular topic, and listened as people shared from their hearts where they stood, personally, in relation to that topic.
Some men expressed their struggles to fulﬁlling the spiritual leadership role in their homes and how they found it difﬁcult to pray with their wives. This prompted other men to encourage them, then gather around to lay hands on them, praying for the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to lead their homes in a godly manner. As weeks went by, this couple saw men follow up with each other, checking up on progress, providing additional encouragement, or sometimes just listening. This couple saw real life, with real Christians overcoming real problems, empowered by a real Holy Spirit.
These safe places—where people gather to be taught and equipped in the Scriptures, encouraged, loved, and perhaps, at times, even corrected—are vital. They are life-giving, not only for those already in the Church, but for individuals convicted by the Holy Spirit, who seek a fellowship of believers.
Many are drawn out of sinful lifestyles or have lived under tremendous emotional and sometimes even physical bondage. It is of utmost importance that we in the church create places for people to come for forgiveness and healing without judgement or condemnation. Of course, there will always be the few truly toxic or abusive cases in which other biblical boundaries must apply, but when men and women come to the church broken and repentant, they need to know that we accept them as Christ accepts them. The church must love and minister the way Jesus did.
When we live in community together for a span of several years, we not only celebrate life's joys, but also comfort each other in the sorrows and disappointments of our journeys. We need each other in both good and bad times. I have observed some “mature” believers who opt out of the community life of the church. They seem to believe that they do not need other people—they only need God. Many others simply do not have or make time to invest in the lives of their brothers and sisters in the congregation. We know that the Lord is our source of life, but He instructs us to invest that life into one another, especially, into discipling others.
Mature believers need to make themselves available as godly examples to younger and less mature in the faith as they support each other. Everyone—whether old or young in the faith—needs prayer, care, and training in the Scriptures. Everyone is needed to be and make disciples.
It is wonderful when other like-minded brothers and sisters can gently encourage each other to stay “on target.” This is only one of the many beneﬁts of a small group. We are in a spiritual battle for the souls and godly maturity of men and women so that all will end their race of faith strong. Let us then pray for one another, cheering each other on to the ﬁnish line…together!
Communion
As we aim to be well-pleasing to the Lord in community with one another, we need to look at the early Church for examples. One of the main aspects of the Christian walk, practiced in communal home settings, was the regular obser-vance of communion, (also known as the Lord’s Supper or eucharist).
First Corinthians 11:17-34 is the only reference in the New Testament giving instructions about the Lord's Supper and, interestingly, it was corrective in nature. The church at Corinth was not honoring the Lord or His Supper properly and Paul let them know. Let us learn from their mistake—and his correction—to see communion as a command of our Lord: “Do this in remembrance of me” (verse 24).
For approximately the ﬁrst three hundred years of Church history, believers took communion together in their homes. Following their example, we encourage our Life Groups to practice communion in the home as well. It provides an intimate environment, uniting fellow believers over a meal and the sharing of the Lord’s Supper together. The Bible refers to this as a love feast where everybody brings food, enjoyment of relationships, laughter, and encouragement to each other. Then, we gather around the elements, silently examining our hearts for any unconfessed sin, worshipping with thanksgiving, and focusing on what the Lord's Supper represents as we share the bread and cup together. This is how we proclaim “the Lord's death until He comes” as the Scriptures teach.
It is essential that every Christian participate in the Lord's Supper on a regular basis, whether corporately as a church, or in a small group. The Bible does not mandate a speciﬁc time, place, or frequency; our only directive is to do this as a continual reminder of His sacriﬁce for us.
Acknowledging and proclaiming His death, regularly, brings our attention and focus on what our Lord accomplished for us on the cross. We certainly celebrate His resurrection and His life within us, yet we are clearly instructed to remember His death through participating in this memorial. This honors and brings joy to Him.
However, the Apostle Paul warned that there were dire consequences for not taking communion seriously. The Apostle plainly stated that many had become sick and weak, and others had died by dishonoring the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11:30).
Today, there are still those who regularly partake of communion while, outside church doors, they deliberately live in willful disobedience to God's commands. Paul's warning applies to us as much as it did to the ﬁrst century church: dishonoring the Lord’s Supper can not only affect the physical and spiritual health of the individual believer, but the corporate body of believers, as well.
This can be avoided by examining ourselves with an honest soul-searching and confession of sin. Paul told us to judge ourselves so that the Lord would not have to (1 Corinthians 11:31-32).
God is very serious about this memorial and how we approach it. The consequences of dishonoring the Lord's Body are enormous. Is it possible that some of our anemic witness, lack of passion for the Lord, and even some of our illnesses are direct results of our disobedience to the command to properly observe the Lord's Supper? His instructions are clear. We must heed and obey them. There should be no excuse for any true believer not to take communion with a pure and thankful heart on a regular basis. This is an essential part of our Christian faith. I pray the Holy Spirit induces us all to participate with passion, conviction, and holy reverence.
Corporate Worship
Joshua, one of the early leaders of the nation of Israel, gathered all the tribes of Israel together, exhorting them to put away the foreign gods of their fathers and choose whom they would serve. In the account found in Joshua 24:15, we read his famous statement, which should be echoed by every believer today: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”
Every household of believers should make it their practice to serve our Lord daily and to worship Him together as a family at least weekly.
We are tempted with all types of entertainment, sporting events, shopping—the list of attractions is long and enticing. Yet, the Scriptures say, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:23-25).
As we gather together, we pray, read the Word, and worship, lifting our hearts, voices, and hands as one. This is a picture of Jesus' desire for us to be one as He and the Father are One. This not only gloriﬁes the God we love and serve, it also blesses the saints and draws the unsaved to Him. Meeting together is with both corporate (the entire congregation) and small groups.
We are to unite together as a family of believers, at least weekly, making it a part of our lifestyle. Our children should not be asking if we are going to church this Sunday. It should already be ingrained in them that they will be there each week with their family, faithfully serving and worshipping the Lord with the entire church family.
God has established the corporate gathering of believers with purposeful intention. Please evaluate your participation in the following aspects of corporate worship:
Giving a greeting of love
There is something powerful about the expression of mutual affection exchanged among believers. It emphasizes the motivation under which we operate: ﬁrst, the love we experience from God, then the love that overﬂows to our brothers and sisters in Christ (1 Corinthians 16:20).
Giving our worship to God
Though we personally express our worship in countless ways during the week, lifting our voices corporately to Him as we gather together reﬂects our desire to live in agreement with Jesus' prayer that we be one, as He and the Father are One. King David wrote in Psalm 29:2, “We honor Him when we worship the Lord together in the beauty of holiness.”
Giving our tithes and offerings as an act of our worship
This is a time set aside to worship God through our giving. It is our joy to present our ﬁnances for Kingdom purposes. Proverbs 3:9-10 says “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the ﬁrst fruits of all your produce...” Regularly meeting together establishes a method for obeying and sharing in the delight of giving as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 16:2.
Giving ourselves to serve others
Corporate gatherings should include the opportunity to serve each other. Our service may include the ministries of teaching, prayer, discipling our children, or helping wherever needed—whether greeting worshippers or changing diapers. We should be available as willing servants to serve the Church, locally and around the world.
We must also remember to receive what is offered from fellow believers. None of us are excluded from needing the gifts of the Body of Christ. The reciprocal blessings of giving and receiving help keep us humble, integrated, and apprecia-tive of each other and of the God who designed us to live in community (Hebrews 10:24-25).
Receiving His Word
Sitting together under the teaching and preaching of God's Word gives us understanding and biblical guidance. His Word is living and powerful and, when applied to our personal lives, will prepare us for the work God has called us to do.
When we receive His word, we give ourselves the opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts to be convicted, encouraged, burdened, blessed, challenged, and afﬁrmed. As we consistently receive His Word, we build famil-iarity with His precious truths he has given us. Through these, we receive spiritual knowledge and insight (2 Timothy 3:16). The apostle John quotes Jesus as telling the Jews who believed in Him, “If you abide in my word…you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” When we receive His Word, its truth will set us—and keep us—free.
Notice that of these ﬁve aspects of corporate worship, four involve giving. Only one involves receiving. In today’s cultural Christianity, people seem to come to church only to receive. Yes, even as we give in the four aspects of worship, we certainly do receive blessings and joy from our Lord. But speciﬁcally, in the ﬁfth aspect of worship, when we receive His Word, we are constantly empowered and strengthened to give more to others in continual love and service. Is this your perspective in corporate worship?
SERVING those in need
God's heart and concern for those in physical need is clear in both covenants (Old and New Testaments). More than four hundred verses throughout the entire Bible speak about God's passion for those in need. His desire is that His followers would share His deep concern.
Jesus was so burdened over how the poor were treated that Matthew tells us we will be judged by how we minister to them. Jesus declares:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'
Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'
Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal ﬁre prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me no food, I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger, and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?'
Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:31-46).
It seems very clear in this passage that serving those in need proves our faith in Christ. In his letter, James echoes this, exhorting us that just listening to the Word is not enough: we must also act on what it says. One of those actions is to meet the needs of the orphans and widows while keeping ourselves inwardly clean (James 1:22; 27). Throughout Scripture we are commanded to take care of those in need.
Our heart is assured of our love relationship with God when it overﬂows in deliberate acts of love and truth. The Father's abiding love in the believer will, of necessity, show itself by caring action. “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does Gods' love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before Him…” (1 John 3:16-19).
Long ago, King Solomon penned this, found in Proverbs 14:31: “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors Him.” Can it be any clearer? God's heart is extremely merciful and compassionate toward the poor, and if we are disciples living on target, we will share His deep concern. Our actions will reﬂect our joint passion with God for the needy.
Although our ministry to the poor includes loving and serving those in need outside the church, it starts with caring for our own brothers and sisters within the church, near and far. As Paul writes in Galatians, chapter 6, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
As we live for the glory of God, our desire as Christians should be to assist anyone in need, not bypassing that we are instructed to help those in the Church ﬁrst.
“Father, may we give and use Your resources in a manner that will do good to all and will bring glory to Your name. Give us a heart for the poor and those in need.”
SUPPORTING the Persecuted Church
In Living in love and service to the Church, I believe we must also include the necessity to grow in our love for the persecuted church. In America, we have tremendous freedom when it comes to our faith. This is not the case in many countries around the world. The Bible gives this admonition in Hebrews chapter 13: “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.”
Sadly, there are many in our global family of believers who are suffering greatly: persecuted, arrested, beaten, impris-oned, ﬁred from their jobs, refused employment, or martyred simply because of their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Much of the Church throughout the world is forced to gather in hiding. They cannot freely or publicly express their worship to Christ as their Lord and Savior.
We sometimes talk about “suffering for Christ” here in America, but we must make a clear distinction between our mere inconveniences as compared to the true suffering experi- enced by so many of our brothers and sisters living in the four corners of the earth. However, even in our own country, the more we stand for Christ, the more we will experience persecution at some level.
The ﬁfth chapter of Acts records the persecution of the apostles: “and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” We, too, must prepare for this persecution to increase as we approach the return of Christ. The Apostle Paul reminds us in his second letter to Timothy, chapter 3, that, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
Following our Lord will cost us (Luke 14:25-33), but He is absolutely worth it. He suffered for us. Lord, give us strength to stand for You at all cost!
We are called as the Body of Christ to live as true disciples of Christ. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 12 that if one of our members suffers, we all should suffer with them. If one of our members rejoices, we also rejoice with them.
This is the picture, not only of the local congregation, but also of the global Church. For us to mature as believers, we must see the Bride of Christ—the Church—the way our Lord sees Her. She is bigger than any physical location and continues to expand around the world. Yet in many nations, She is greatly suffering.
It is our honor and responsibility to stand in prayer and support with our brothers and sisters who are experiencing intense persecution even today. Though we do not personally know them, they are our family, and families both rejoice and suffer together.
There are countless ways of Living in love and service to the Church. In this chapter, we have looked at ﬁve areas of serving the Church through: community, communion, corporate worship, serving those in need, and supporting the persecuted church. Living out these ﬁve areas as a lifestyle with the uniﬁed Body of Christ will bring great delight to our Lord.
Make a commitment to habitually assemble together in community with those to whom God has joined you, to corporately worship as family, and to take communion on a regular basis with fellow believers as Jesus commanded us. This lifestyle will set an example and leave a godly legacy for our children and grandchildren.
Let me encourage you to live in community with other Christians by joining a small group where you are known by name and can fellowship and pray with one another.
We need to accept our privilege and responsibility in creating a safe place where any person can come and feel welcomed and loved. This will be a haven of healing and equipping as we “live on target” together.
Let us mature in our love for the poor, those in need, and the persecuted Church. They all need our support, both in prayer and action.
If we practice these ﬁve areas faithfully, we will please our Lord and bless others. We will also position ourselves to be strong disciples and effective disciple-makers. Today, prayerfully make this your aim.
Reflect and Respond
How would you describe your love for Christ's Church?
What changes are necessary to bring you into a loving relationship with Christ's Church?
How do you love and serve your local congregation?
Do you desire to live and worship with all people?
Are there any prejudices or unresolved relationships that you need to address?
Are you living community life with other Christians in a small group? Who are you praying for and who is praying for you?
How important is the Lord's Supper to you? Are you participating in communion on a regular basis?
Is weekly corporate worship part of your lifestyle? Why or why not?
Do you have compassion for the poor, the persecuted and those who are suffering? How is your concern demonstrated?
REMEMBER, as we are the Body of Christ, God's reputation is measured by our unity.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
Thank God that He loved the world enough to send His Son. But here is a truth we cannot avoid: If God loves the world, then as Christians, so should we!
When we mention the word “world” it seems like a very vague, non-speciﬁc place, almost too big a concept to grasp. Well, the world starts right where you are: with those who live around you who are not yet Christians.
The book of Acts (1:8) reminds us of this very thing: that “the world” begins with the community where you live, then expands outward until it encompasses the entire globe. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The context in Acts is the physical nation of Israel with Jerusalem as her capital city. To bring it into our own context, our “Jerusalem” becomes our own local area in which we live, expanding to our state, our country, and across the world. Jesus' command did not say “Jerusalem or Judea or Samaria or the end of the earth.” The directive says and which means we are to take the message everywhere.
As disciples of Christ, pleasing Him includes making an impact in our communities and beyond with the Gospel and with our active presence of love and holiness. To the same degree that we mature in our discipleship, we will reﬂect His love for everyone. This is why we need to ask the Lord to give us eyes to view the world the way He does. In this fourth target area, loving and serving the world, will become part of our lifestyle.
Jesus was compassionate toward people who did not know Him. In the Gospel of Matthew, we see Him journeying into cities and villages preaching the Gospel and healing people. We read in Matthew 9:36-39, “When he saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'”
As we personally make it our goal to be well pleasing to Him, it is vital that we aim for this fourth and ﬁnal, yet still essential target area: Living in love and service to the world. Our Lord is sending us out to love and serve the lost people in our community, country, and beyond—to all nations—to make disciples for Christ.
We all enjoy relaxing, having fun, hanging out with family and friends—all in safety and comfort. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those activities, but if they become our life priority, we lose the drive to penetrate a lost world and, thereby, become ineffective in making disciples and advancing God's Kingdom.
It will take an intentional effort that will cost us time, money, possibly reputation, and stepping out of our comfort zones to accomplish the Great Commission and live out true Christianity. It certainly will take risk, dying to our self-inter-ests, and valuing others above ourselves. It may even cost us our very lives. Luke records in his gospel (Luke 9:23) that Jesus urged his followers to take up His cross, deny themselves and follow Him. The same is still true for us now.
In Philippians 1:20, we read, “as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now, as always, Christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by death.” Time is short. Every day, people are passing from this life to the next without Christ. Jesus warns us in John 9:4 that, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” We must fulﬁll our assignment while we still have time.
When we physically die, we will then cease from our labors, and our earthly deeds will follow us into eternity. In his Book of Revelation, John records a voice he heard from heaven saying: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” And the Spirit responded, “Blessed indeed…that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them” (Revelation 14:13).
Let every breath we take, and every beat of our heart be dedicated to accomplish our Lord's work. There will come a day when we will eternally rest forever and enjoy the results of labor for Him...but not now! Souls are at stake!
The Lord gave us a great example of His love for the lost. The Pharisees always misunderstood this. These very “religious” men knew the law of God but, sadly, had forgotten the heart of the Father toward people. These men were especially perturbed that Jesus would “lower" Himself to eat with sinners; His ministry to sinners intimidated and angered them. The true ministry of Jesus still threatens religious people today.
The Bible recounts the time (Matthew 9:9-13) when Jesus was eating at Matthew's house with people the Pharisees considered the very dregs of their society: “tax collectors and sinners.” The Pharisees indignantly asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard them and answered their question: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacriﬁce.' For I came not to call the righteous but sinners.”
Jesus was not afraid to associate with sinful people because they were the ones He came to redeem. These sinners were drawn to His presence because they obviously perceived that Jesus was the One who offered them life. We need believers, today, secure enough in their relationship with Christ to love the way He loves in order to penetrate a lost and dying world. We are to call sinners to repentance, not in a haughty and self-righteous manner, but with love and compassion as Jesus did.
Jesus had a heart of mercy for those who were like lost sheep with no shepherd. We need to ask ourselves, do we carry that same burden and concern? Do we really love those who are lost? Does lack of concern or fear hinder us from proclaiming Jesus’ message to the lost? In our heart of hearts, would we prefer that someone else tell them?
Our neighborhoods and cities are overﬂowing with people who desperately need Christ. We know this is true, yet we try to justify our apathy, telling ourselves, “Well, I don't want to spend time with her because all she does is gossip,” or “He's so self-centered,” or “She can't be trusted,” or “They're living in sin...besides, there's a church on practically every corner they could go to.” And the list goes on. “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctiﬁed, you were justiﬁed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:11). We were no better than anyone else before we were saved by the grace of God.
Remember, the same grace that attracted us continues to draw sinful, broken, and hurting people. He loves to take immoral, messy, uncontrolled lives and bring His righteousness and order to them.
Sometimes, we would prefer not to deal with people's chaotic lives or sinful behavior, so we tend to back away instead of pursuing them. They live this way because they have not been transformed by Jesus Christ! We must pursue them with love, acts of kindness, hospitality, and the truth of the Gospel, in word and deed. Their lives on earth and their souls in eternity are at stake.
Although we can have true, intimate fellowship only with other believers (2 Corinthians 6:14), we can and should pursue nonbelievers with a heart of love and compassion. Let us not become haughty or indifferent but convicted by the Holy Spirit to see hurting and empty people ﬁlled with the life-changing love of Jesus. How much do we really care? Jesus pursued them. So should we.
Do we still believe in hell, and do people still need to be rescued from it? This is not a popular topic today, but none-theless, it’s a reality.
The Bible is very clear about this horriﬁc place of eternal, conscious torment. The reality of this literal place should compel us to witness to everyone at any cost! Please consider our Lord's teaching from Luke 16:19-31 on this place of anguish:
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and ﬁne linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his ﬁnger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this ﬂame.' But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been ﬁxed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.' And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house—for I have ﬁve brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead'” (Luke 16:19-31).
Notice that after both men physically died, they were conscious and able to communicate. Jesus meant to teach us that there is, absolutely, life after death. The question is where will we spend it—heaven or hell? Notice, also, that the word “torment” is used four times in various forms in Jesus' teaching here. This fact alone should shake us all to our core! The rich man was in so much anguish that he begged Abraham to send Lazarus back to his father's house so that he could tell them about this place of torment.
This man wanted his family to repent so they would not end up with him in this awful destination. If other people in Hades could speak to their own family from this literal place, they would emphatically say the same thing. Because Jesus, Himself, gave us this story as a warning, we must take hell very seriously and love people enough to warn them. It is a matter of eternal life or eternal death and torment. Love for a lost world is what moved the Father to send His Son, not to condemn the world, but to save it.
Does the truth of an eternal lake of ﬁre compel us to rescue even one soul from this eternal fate? Hell is a dreadful reality. To speak of it lightly proves that we do not grasp its horror. I know of no one who has overstated the terrors of hell. We can scarcely surpass the horrid images Jesus used. We are meant to shudder. Author John Piper paints a sobering picture of hell in his book, Let the Nations Be Glad:
“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing ﬂoor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable ﬁre” (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17). This is John the Baptist's prediction of the judgment that Jesus will bring in the end. He pictures a decisive separation. The term “unquenchable ﬁre” implies a ﬁre that will not be extinguished and therefore a punishment that will not end. This is conﬁrmed in Mark 9:43-48: “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable ﬁre. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and the ﬁre is not quenched.” Here the “unquenchable ﬁre” is clearly hell, and the last line shows that the point is the unending misery of those who go there (“their worm does not die”).”1
There are many passages in Scripture concerning this place of eternal torment:
“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell” (Matthew 10:28).
“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life”(Matthew 25:46).
“…those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ…will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).
“And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of ﬁre” (Revelation 20:15).
“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with ﬁre and sulfur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).
However one may interpret these passages (literally or ﬁguratively), most would agree that this destination is not a good one and has eternal consequences. These scriptures should shake, convict, and move us all to action. Though an often-rejected notion today, the reality of hell is a fact; we have a choice to make. With the power of the Holy Spirit, we can either penetrate a sinful world with the love of Christ and the truth of the Gospel, or we will make excuses and ignore these passages in Scripture.
If we are not continually convicted about the reality of hell, we could end up hunkered down in a defensive mode within a Christian bubble of our own homes and churches. Yes, we can certainly protect what we believe and why we believe it. Jesus, however, tells us to not selﬁshly keep the Gospel for ourselves, but rather to preach the message to the world.
Our Lord is patient with us, “not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
Jesus declared His followers to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and tram-pled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:13-14).
The salt and light must not stay within the walls of the church. We are called to evangelize, disciple, and minister, not just where we live, but also globally. We must partner with other Christians around the world to achieve the Great Commission. This mandate is obviously a matter of spiritual life versus eternal damnation. Again, we must ask the question: how much do we care?
Jesus’ last, “Great Commission” to his disciples, found in Matthew 28:19-20, was to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations [races], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
This mission has been given to all of us, not just to church leaders. The enemy will tell you that you are not qualiﬁed. You may think you need a Bible degree, but though valuable, that is not a requirement for witnessing to the lost or discipling the saved. You may think you are not eloquent, but when we share our testimony of salvation and the Gospel message of repentance and faith in Christ, alone, the Holy Spirit will accomplish His work through our words.
We do not have the power to save anyone. God the Father draws a person to salvation; God the Holy Spirit convicts of sin. Our role is simply to love and testify that God the Son, Jesus Christ, is the only way to the Father and salvation. As Jesus said to Thomas (and to us), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
As we share the Gospel and people repent and come to faith in Christ, we now have the privilege of welcoming them to the family of God and asking if they would allow us to show them how we live our lives aiming to please the Lord. Very simply, that is discipleship.
Discipling new believers is not a program, nor is it handing them a rigid, religious manual of do's and don'ts. It is simply teaching and modeling what we are already doing, thus the importance of consistently living on target. It, then, naturally ﬂows out of our daily walk with Him and into our life with the new disciples.
If we were discipled, then we can continue the legacy of disciple-making. If we were not discipled, we can begin a new legacy by starting to intentionally live on target and then by modeling those principles to new (or older) believers. Their newfound zeal and passion for the things of the Lord give them an acute receptivity to learning and to telling others what the Lord has just accomplished in their lives.
For the church to practice this fourth target area, we must live faithfully in the ﬁrst three areas: living in love and service to Christ, in the home, and to the Church. Only then will we have the availability, integrity, and passion for living in love and service to the world.
The charge for the church is to make disciples of all nations. Since God is a missionary God and He desires for all people to come to repentance, then missions should be a priority for His church. This includes every Christian. He calls us all to participate.
The Lord has called each of us to the fourth target area, Living in love and service to the world, by being witnesses for Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. If we want the church to be strong in missions, then it is imperative we have the other three areas of our life target in order so that the Great Commission can become a primary emphasis in our own life.
Fulﬁlling His Commission does not mean that we must move to another country. While many are called to such a ministry, we are all appointed to participate through prayer, through our own active service of sharing the Gospel wherever we live, through our giving, and through staying united in the Great Commission until every man, woman, and child has heard the Gospel of Jesus. I earnestly pray this mission stirs your heart to the point that evangelism and discipleship become an integral part of your life.
This is an eternal goal and a biblical aim. This is truly “living on target.”
Reflect and Respond
Have you counted the cost of true Christianity? In light of that, are you willing to live for, and possibly be persecuted for, Christ?
What conclusions have you come to about the place of torment, and do you believe that people need to be rescued from it?
What are you doing to own the “lostness” of your neighbors, your city, and the world? What could be more important than saving a soul from hell?
What do you think it means to be salt and light?
Do you love unbelievers? If so, how do you share your faith with them?
How are you participating in the Great Commission?
REMEMBER, with God nothing is impossible!
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age (Matthew 28:1-9).
The four areas of Living on Target that you have just examined are not meant only for you and your own spiritual growth. They are designed to equip you to invest your life in others, or, in the words of Jesus, to make disciples. How can we do this?
We must live what we believe and teach. We are not perfect, but if we are faithful in living on target, we can simply and humbly encourage others to follow our example. That is discipleship, a goal for which every Christian should aim.
One of the foremost aspects of becoming an effective disciple-maker is to learn to listen far more than to speak. James 1:19 tells us “…let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak…” This includes having ears to hear not only what the Spirit has to say, but what the person we are discipling has to say. People will not care how much of the Bible we know until they see that we truly care about them. One way of showing that is to ﬁrst listen well, with all your attention. Then you may speak words of truth and life to them. But listening will not happen if we do not create a safe, conﬁdential environment in our churches where people can trust us enough to share their hearts with us. They will not speak freely if they feel they will be judged, condemned, shamed, looked down upon, or betrayed through gossip.
Could it be that we would experience more healings and deliverance if we intentionally cultivated a safe, gossip-free environment where we listen and pray for one another in strict conﬁdence, with mercy, grace, and unconditional love?
John tells us in the eighth chapter of his gospel that it was with such loving mercy that Jesus ministered to the woman the Scribes and Pharisees brought to Him demanding she be stoned for adultery. Jesus, who embodied righteousness and unconditional love, responded to her sinful brokenness with mercy, grace, and compassion instead of condemnation, shaming, and rebuke.
Jesus was not soft on sin. He shed His light on her accusers' sins, and they dropped their stones, slinking away. Rather, He was strong in mercy. Like a father to a daughter, Jesus acknowledged the woman's guilt but did not condemn or shame her. Rather, in great mercy, he told her to go “and sin no more.” Now that is a safe environment!
I want to meet this woman in heaven! I wish we had a record of her life after her encounter with Jesus. Can you imagine her gratefulness knowing that she should have died, but that Jesus extended mercy and life?
The reality is that we are her! Like her, we have all fallen short of His glory and stand before God having broken His righteous law. Like her, we all deserve death and torment. But just as He did for her, He has extended mercy and forgiveness to us. How thankful we are for His saving grace.
Do we minister like those religious leaders, with “stones” in our hands, ready to condemn? Or do we minister like Jesus did, extending compassion and mercy in our hands when we encounter broken lives and hearts?
The Church of Jesus Christ must minister like Him, offering life to people instead of condemnation. If we do not minister in the manner of our Lord, we should not call ourselves a church, but rather an institution simply dispensing Bible knowledge with no heart or life-changing power. Hypocrites honor Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him (Mark 7:6-8). Where is your heart?
The Apostle Paul did not just teach and preach; he invested his life into people. He unconditionally loved those whom he discipled. To the believers at Thessalonica, he wrote, “But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own [lives], because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8).
What a marvelous example of a “safe environment!” Paul was not just an apostle or a gifted teacher. He wanted to live life with those for whom he deeply cared. Let us follow his example.
The thought of discipling someone can be daunting! Where should we start? First, get to know the person. Sit down over a cup of coffee and share your life stories. Since most people are reluctant to open up to someone they do not know, feel free to tell a little about your life ﬁrst, but keep it short. Then, at the appropriate moment, ask, “Would you mind sharing your story with me?”
I led my ﬁrst Living on Target group with the other pastors on my staff. Even though some of us had been serving together in the church for several years, we had not taken the time to share our life stories as a group.
We listened and learned a lot about each other. We confessed our struggles, gave words of encouragement, and prayed together. This investment of our time deepened our trust and appreciation for each other tremendously. It is a process which cannot be bypassed with anyone we disciple. This principle applies to people you have known for years or to those you are just meeting. Such an exchange is necessary since you need to know a person's heart and that person needs to know yours. Your early meetings should center on developing trust, offering encouragement, and praying for each other.
As trust develops, more intimate issues may be shared. Assure the person (and mean it!) that your conversations will be kept conﬁdential. Continue to encourage and afﬁrm the individual, laying the groundwork for further discipling that will take place as your relationship deepens.
Let me share this account, by permission, of how this process unfolded in real life.
A gentleman came to our church one Sunday and sat in the back row. The message touched him, and he came forward at the end of the service. He was broken before God and desperate to change.
This man was an alcoholic with a tragic story. He had grown up in an alcoholic family where his father was abusive and regularly told him that he would never amount to anything.
Weeks before God touched him, his mother had died in his arms after an accident, his brother had committed suicide, he had been abusive to his wife, he was about to lose his marriage, and he was contemplating suicide.
As he came to the front for prayer, one of our leaders was able to connect him with a discipler who met with him weekly to listen and pray. This went on for several months.
Then he got connected to a life group to participate with the men in a bi-weekly Living on Target discipleship meeting. Through this process, the man was able to hear directly from God through the Holy Spirit about who the Lord says he is rather than allowing his actions or others to deﬁne him. He learned to accept that he had great value to God and that the Lord had uniquely gifted him for a purpose. His life now had hope.
This brother learned how to walk with God through regular reading of the Bible, prayer, and worship. Another brother from the group took ownership of coming alongside him to teach him how to manage his ﬁnances as a steward of God.
It has now been several years since he originally walked into the church, and he is on the right path. The discipler later reported receiving a call from him saying, “I have another friend who needs help. I want to disciple him like you are discipling me!”
It is amazing how the discipling process works in real life with real people. We have a real God! It is my prayer that making disciples continues for His glory and the expansion of His Kingdom.
Besides creating an environment of trust by listening, keeping conﬁdences, and sharing your stories, you can give your disciple examples of how you are practicing the spiritual disciplines of Living on Target. Talk candidly about the victories you have had in these areas, or how you were humbled, or how you just blew it! Your own transparency opens the way for them to be open and transparent with you, and that gives opportunities to celebrate success when we have been faithful and opportunities to pray for each other when we have faltered. This is why we constantly afﬁrm that “living on target” is a lifestyle.
As we press forward to become all that Christ has intended for us, we should continue to grow in these four vital areas:
Living in Love and Service to Christ We must become men and women of prayer, the Word, and personal worship.
Living in Love and Service in the Home We must place our homes, singleness, marriages, children, and ﬁnances in biblical order.
Living in Love and Service to the Church We must love and disciple the Bride of Christ (the Church) and be united in ministering to the persecuted and those in need.
Living in Love and Service to the World We must love and pursue the lost, near and far, evangelizing and discipling with an authentic witness for Christ and His salvation.
Paul was forthright regarding exactly how to accomplish the discipling process. He preached Jesus! “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Colossians 1: 28).
Paul states emphatically that we should not talk about some generic God, but rather boldly proclaim with John, his fellow apostle, that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). We are not to be timid or afraid to warn those we love. We are to tell them:
Jesus is the only way to the Father.
There is a real heaven and a real hell.
There are consequences to sin, but there is power to live a godly life.
Paul did not compromise on the authority and divinity of Jesus. He warned people of the results of sin, teaching and modeling for them how to live a life that is pleasing to God. We should follow his example.
What a privilege we have to equip others to become disciples, leading them to walk in their true identity in Christ and experience the purpose He has for them.
Please understand that discipling is not just going to happen. There is hard work involved as Paul describes it in Colossians 1:29: “For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me.”
The good news is that God does the work through us. He is the One who actually accomplishes the discipling. The Lord is simply looking for people who are willing to be used in this process for His glory.
New believers may not mature as fast as we would like them to, but do not ever give up on them—especially since Christ did not give up on us! At times, Paul expressed disappointment in people, but he stuck with them until he saw Christ fully formed in their lives (Galatians 4:19). Let us follow his example and serve with love for the sake of their maturity in Christ. They will become our joy and our crown (Philippians 4:1;1 Thessalonians 2:19).
It does matter how we live on this earth. We will all stand before a holy God and will give an account of our love, devotion, work, and motives. Believers who have made it their lifelong aim to please Him long to hear His words, “Well done, good and faithful servant” Matthew 25:23). Tragically, unbelievers will face judgment before God and an eternity in the Lake of Fire.
To the unbeliever or seeker, according to John 14:6 and Acts 4:10, Jesus is the only way to the Father. I pray you will repent, surrender, and give your life to Jesus today. Find a Bible-teaching church where people will not only instruct you in the Gospel but will invest their lives into you personally and relationally. Every Christian needs to live in community with other believers, to have a safe place where honesty, transparency, confession, and learning can occur without condemnation and with absolute, unconditional love.
I am an optimistic person. I strongly believe the Body of Christ is the greatest organism in the world! I am honored to be part of Her and humbled to help lead Her in some small way. It is my constant prayer that the Lord will unite us together to have the impact that is so desperately needed on behalf of a lost and dying humanity.
I wrote this book in answer to the questions we pastors found ourselves asking after the frustrating Discipleship conference I mentioned earlier. It is my desire to get back to the original plan the Lord gave us to change the world: “Go and make disciples!”
But let us be honest. How many disciples have we personally made in the last year—two—three—how about ten years? We must ask ourselves the question, “Why are we not effective in discipling?”
Today, we can get more caught up in just “going” to church, while we miss the reality of “being” the Church. Our presence at a Sunday service or a Bible study is certainly important, and many of us are there regularly, and we should be. But why do we not see more life changes, more love, peace, joy, and contentment, more passion for Christ for our spouses and intentional parenting of our children? Why do we not ﬁnd more generous giving or more disciple makers and servants in the Church? Where is that unwavering commitment to fulﬁll the “Great Commission” in Jesus' name? The Church will not have the power or impact that She could have until every member, leader and pastor ﬁrst learns how to commune with God by themselves in the quiet place and stay empowered by the Holy Spirit.
It is here where our hearts are constantly spoken to, healed, encouraged, convicted, corrected, and empowered by the Lord. It is here where sons and daughters of God begin to function as they were designed, where marriages are restored, where parents and children are convicted and given new life, where God's money is released back into His hands, where the Church is loved, discipled, and prayed for, and where the persecuted, poor, and lost become a passion for us. It is here where God's heart becomes our heart.
Over two thousand years ago, Paul wrote a letter to the church at Galatia. They started their Christian walk in the Spirit, yet over time, they tried to perfect themselves by means of their own efforts and deeds.
As I read church history and observe the challenges of the modern church, it seems very clear to me that the same temp- tation is with us today. Even with our best intentions, it appears we all face the temptation to perfect ourselves by our own logic, reasoning, and personal attempts at good behavior. Every church leader desires to ﬁnd the keys to leading a fruitful church. We are in a constant search for the right curriculum, the right program, the right strategy, the right method. To grow the church and to heal and mature people in the faith, we seem to run to other individuals or programs looking for the “silver bullet.”
In reality, no human being or human program can transform a person's heart. We have attempted to change people by our own strength and wisdom for far too long, and in the process, we are frustrated, disappointed, or worn out trying to ﬁx people. We can’t repair lives, but we have been empowered to lead men and women to the One who can.
If, through discipleship, we would teach and model how to experience the presence of God and the power of the Holy Spirit daily, we should certainly see ongoing transformation in lives.
We cannot substitute the divine presence of God’s Spirit for anything—even good plans and programs. He is our ultimate source and life changer. Lead people to meet Him in the quiet place.
I cannot emphasize enough that the greatest tool we can give ourselves and others to mature in faith is the quiet place—the haven where we develop ears to hear what the Spirit has to say to us.
Our ﬂesh, Satan, and our busyness will all ﬁght against this solitude and being still long enough to commune with God. When we discover and abide habitually in the quiet place with the Almighty, our hearts will revive and our lives will bear fruit.
Our primary ministry as a Christian is to minister ﬁrst and foremost to our Lord. Our labor for God will come from our love for Him and from our time spent with Him.
There is a price to be paid for living a life well pleasing to God, yet that has always been the call of following Jesus. And it still is today: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, daily, and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it proﬁt a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself ? For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:23-26). Stand ﬁrm in Christ!
A life lived by denying self and taking up one's cross, daily, to follow Him brings joy, contentment, purpose, hope, and the abundant life. We must abandon cultural Christianity and fully embrace biblical Christianity to please our Lord.
May we all “live on target” each day in honor of Christ as we eagerly await His return. To Him, and Him alone, be all glory, praise, and honor!
Reflect and Respond
In what ways have you spiritually invested yourself in the lives of others?
Do you consider yourself a “safe person” to whom others can come to be discipled?
Are you willing to proclaim Christ, warning, and teaching (in word and lifestyle) so that others may mature in Christ?
Are you willing to accept that the discipling process is costly in time, resources, and labor (but worth every minute)?
How do you see the importance of Living on Target as a lifestyle until Jesus comes for us?
Evaluate the four areas of Living on Target as they relate to you. In which are you the strongest? Where do you need to develop and mature?
What changes are you committed to make as a result of reading this book?
MARANATHA—OUR Lord, come quickly!
Countless men and women have been touched by Living on Target. Here are the personal accounts of four individuals whose lives have been changed through adopting this lifestyle.
From a mom:
“I used to be so busy with work, being a mom and wife and working in church activities. I kept my inner life hidden. I wore the mask of perfection well and stayed in my dark place of struggles for a very long time.
To talk to anyone else about my inner battles seemed unfamiliar and wrong. ‘People are looking up to you. Never let them see you sweat, hurt, or cry.’ Mentally, that kept me in bondage until three years ago. I began a relationship with a Living on Target group. God used this to change my life! I was becoming accountable and transparent. My relationships have been different. First my relationship with the Lord became personal and alive. Satan could no longer hold my past over me—causing me to think that I was unworthy to serve.
There was freedom in being transparent with others whom the Lord placed in my life for that purpose. To have people know my true struggles in life and have them walk alongside of me, praying for me, holding me accountable in life because they loved me was wonderful. That they cared and desired to see me grow was—and still is—amazing!
I have learned that Living on Target is not simply something you do once and then it's over. It is not something you 'go through' and you're done. It is a lifestyle. It is a daily walk with the One who pursues and desires to be in relationship with you. It is a lifestyle to be modeled in any setting to bring individuals into a real love relationship with Jesus Christ, others, the church, and the world!”
From a dad:
“The Living on Target discipleship model has been life-changing for me as well as my family. The simple focus on the four areas has shaped and continues to shape how we structure our day-to-day lives into a Christ-driven life.
Recognizing that Living on Target is a lifestyle and not just a discipleship tool has been liberating. At the core of all our decisions as a family is this question: With the time we have in each day, how can we continue to focus on developing a more meaningful and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ—with my wife as well as her relationship with me, our relationship with our children as well as with our extended family?
In our love and service to the church and the world, we pose the same question. With the gifts, resources, and ministries the Holy Spirit has empowered us with as a family, how can they be used to further develop meaningful relationships with our Christian family and those who do not know Christ? The focus of meaningful relationships is deﬁned in the areas we call the “ships”: Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, and Friendship.
Finally, one is always processing 2 Timothy 2:2 in relation to each of the four areas as a discipler. How can I develop meaningful relationships within my family and the Body of Christ in order to disciple them in a way they can disciple others?
In other words, we strive to accomplish Matthew 28:20 so that others we touch will be able to observe all that God has commanded.”
From a young woman:
“It is nearly impossible to put into words how Living on Target has affected my life. I was only a junior in high school when I went through the process with my small group, and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that my life has been radically changed by something incredibly simple.
I have had my fair share of useful and enlightening Bible studies, but nothing compares to what Living on Target offers a person when it is modeled accurately. Living on Target is something which changes a person's life from the inside out, gives a person a biblical foundation to stand on and shows him how to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. And this is exactly what it has done in me through the power of the Holy Spirit. It has taken me to a place of absolute intimacy in my relationship with the Lord, a place I had never before experienced, and a place that keeps me hungry and thirsty for more of Jesus every day.
My quiet times—even the notion of that was new to me when I started Living on Target—have become my daily source of life, strength, joy, and excitement. The list goes on and on, because when I meet with Him, I encounter a perfect God who loves me even in my imperfection and I discover that He is my everything and I am in such desperate need of Him.
I am humbled by my Heavenly Father like a little girl is when she gets to spend that privileged alone time with her papa and knows that she is dearly and affectionately loved. I have come to realize just how protective I am of that alone time I spend with Him; for when I make God the very center of my life and allow Him to pour into me, every other aspect of life is affected by it as well, and a steady reﬂection of Christ begins to shine through. I cannot stand in the presence of God and not be changed.
Living on Target, and the woman who mentored me along the way, have led me to the feet of Jesus and He has captured my heart. It is something which constantly takes me to a deeper place in my faith and draws me closer to Him in my walk.”
From a discipler:
“A young lady in her twenties was hurt, and emotionally wounded. She was unsure about God and even though she grew up in a Christian home, she had never fully received a relationship with Christ as her own, but she wasn't aware of this at the time. She was seeking something in the world to validate her existence. She turned to cutting herself, bulimia, alcohol, and drugs. She was trying to numb herself from the pains of life.
When she came to the church, a couple of women took time to meet with her, to listen to her story and pray for her. She appreciated their time, but she wasn't yet ready to accept the truth.
She left and we didn't see her for a while. Then one of the ladies who had prayed with her got a call from the young lady's parents saying that she had tried to commit suicide and she was refusing to speak with anyone but this woman who had prayed for her. They had a chance to meet and talk again. The woman encouraged her and shared that she really could have her own relationship with God that He loved her and wanted to spend time with her. They continued to meet and the young lady entered a Christian recovery program.
The woman faithfully drove her to the program which was several hours away.
She would go to visit her to encourage her. She wrote letters and provided a room in her house when the young lady graduated from the program, so she could adjust and transi-tion back into the work world. She regularly prayed for her.
The young lady received a real relationship with Christ where she can pray to Him and He speaks to her. He loves her and she knows it. This young lady is now active in the church and a part of a Living on Target discipling group. She is learning how to live a Christian life and get her ﬁnances in order. She works at a local ministry and desires to learn how to listen to and pray for others who are hurting. Her future has purpose, and she enjoys all of the feelings and emotions of life, desiring others to experience what she has in Christ.”
A final word:
Let me encourage you to take the principles found on these pages and adopt “living on target” as your way of life.
I am praying that the Lord will use this to help form your spiritual development—and those with whom you come in contact—to continue in the faith, become grounded and steadfast in Him until His return (Colossians 1:21-23).
If Living on Target has made an impact on your life or your church, we would love to hear your story. Please email me through our website at:
https://www.steelecreek.org or at kelvin@steelecreek.org.
It is my prayer that God will richly bless you and give you the privilege of living in love and service to Him, in your home, in His Church, and in the world—for His honor and glory.
— Kelvin Smith —

Amharic Living On Target

English

Copyright and Imprint Information

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: What Are You Aiming For?

Chapter 2: Our Appointment With God

Chapter 3: Living in Love and Service to Christ

Chapter 4: Living in Love and Service in the Home

Chapter 5: Living in Love and Service to the Church

Chapter 6: Living in Love and Service to the World

Chapter 7: The Process of Discipleship

Chapter 8: The Impact Of Living On Target