Tag Archives: bible

Are you becoming a dangerous leader or a biblically dangerous leader?

There are some leaders who want all the attention, overlook the needs of others, not really interested in the glory of God but love the idea of titles, making decisions and everyone respecting them. It’s the difference between a dangerous leader and a biblically dangerous leader for God’s glory!

Malachi 1:6, “‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’”

In the book of Malachi the people of Malachi’s day are living through a difficult season. Their morale is low, their souls are depleted, they have lost optimism in the Lord, and their worship in the Lord is waning so much that He brings rebuke in chapter 1 to their spiritual leaders.

Up to this point the people of Israel have grown up hearing great things about the Lord through leaders like Abraham, Moses, David, Sampson, but lately the stories haven’t been that great.

Lately they have heard about the Assyrians, a wicked people who take the 10 tribes to the north into captivity. Then, Babylon, another wicked people who take the 2 tribes to the south into captivity. Then, Persians, another ungodly people who take out the Babylonians and issue a decree allowing Israel to return home, which is great, but Israel is having to start all over.

They are having to rebuild their homes, restart their economy, re-establish their community, and they are still living under the oppression of the Persian government, so that their awe and worship of God is waning and it is trickling down into their relationships with one another. But, there is HOPE.

In Malachi 3 the Lord reminds them of His unending love, therefore, we are called to give our lives completely to Him, and when we give our lives to the Lord we will become a biblically dangerous leader for His glory. Here are 11 practical characteristics:

Make a pact with God to meet with Him daily. The Lord is worthy of our lives, therefore, we give ourselves to Him every day through the reading of His Word and prayer.
- When you read the bible ask these questions, “What does the passage teach me about the character of God? What does the passage teach me about the brokenness of humanity? How does the passage expose our need for Jesus?”
- When you pray add these elements into prayer:
  - Adoration: Awe of God.
  - Submission: Submit to His will.
  - Trust: Ask for His help to trust Him.
  - Confession: Confess areas of sin.
  - Protection: Ask for help to be on guard against the evil one.
Develop an excitement for His kingdom, rather than your kingdom. Our kingdoms are small, short-sighted, and filled with anxiety. His Kingdom is eternal, diverse, and filled with power and joy. Seek His kingdom!
Persistent growth in personal character rather than building your reputation. Confess sin daily. Uproot idols with the gospel daily. Build godly relationships with other men and women who are wanting to grow in godliness. Read God’s Word. Stop making excuses. Take responsibility. Grow in character!
Expect life to bring challenges. Life is difficult. Build your life in preparation for that difficulty. Roll with the punches. Tons of people can get excited for a season, but length of time is what makes you dangerous.
Raise up others to be a biblically dangerous leader. Pour into people. Resist the temptation of just being satisfied with people hearing what you have to say about life. Pour into people who will pour into people.
Love repentance. Love confessing sin. Love being in awe of the cross. This is what makes you the most dangerous, because you can’t believe that God would love someone who is layered in as much death and destruction as you are in life.
Rejoice in God’s grace in the life of others. Don’t give into a competitive attitude with others. Run your own race. You aren’t trying to beat out the guy next to you. You are learning about your gifts and talents that the Lord has uniquely given to you and you are doubling down on those gifts and talents. It is easy to become critical of others but instead it would be better to be known for being an encourager of others.
Celebrate little things. Life is hard. There are going to be tons of misses. If we are going to aim for becoming a biblically dangerous leader then we are going to run hard and the best medicine for running hard is celebrating little things.
Love rest. The Sabbath is ultimately in the cross, but a biblically dangerous leader loves the idea of everything not resting on your shoulders. You know how to turn it off. You know how to nap. You know how to walk with peace. You know how to be still and know that the Lord is the Lord.
Don’t get swept up in the latest fads. The cross is the coolest thing ever. A new pastor, a new book, a new -ism, a new-est is just going to come and go, but you are always going to be in awe of the cross.

Value people. Do you care about people? All people are made in God’s image, therefore, a biblically dangerous leader cares about people. You care about how you build relationships with people. You are curious about their story. You don’t people walking away from their time with you thinking about YOUR GLORY but instead you want people to walk away and think, “I want to go read the Bible, I want to share the gospel, I want to be a better spouse. I want to know GOD’S GLORY!”

Spiritual Fitness: 2024

New year, new you! It seems like every place we look, someone or something is trying to help us prepare for the new year. Why is that? It’s not like 2023 was inherently evil and 2024 is going to provide a new outlook on life.

But a new year does provide an opportunity for reflection. The season is slowing down. Weather is cooler. Nights come earlier. It’s like all of creation is getting tucked in for bed and in the same way there are some benefits for reflecting on the care of our mind, body and soul.

Our church family provides a resource called Yearly Rhythms, which you can get for free on a Sunday morning at our resource table or you can order your own on Amazon. There are tons of resources for us to learn how to care for our bodies. This particular writing will focus on how we care for our soul.

Last summer our family was returning from our trip to South Padre Island. It’s the nicest beach in Texas, so we try to go every year. On our return home we realized we were short on gas and my wife said, “We can get gas at this exit.” But the gas station was on the other side of the highway and I didn’t want to waste ALL that time going to the other side of the highway, so I said, “We will just wait for the next exit.”

Little did I know, the next exit for gas was 40 miles away! Unfortunately we noticed this about 10 miles into our journey and my wife said, “We better turn around and go back to that gas station.” But I have this unusual gift where I find it almost impossible to turn around for anything, so I said to my family, “I bet we can make it!”

Everyone in the car sighed in disbelief. At this point I could tell my wife was irritated but I thought the worst case is that I will have to walk to the gas station, so I confidently told everyone, “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”

10 miles later into the trip, half-way there, we saw the Border CheckPoint so we all said to ourselves, “Great, we can get gas from them.” Unfortunately, the Border Patrol is familiar with these types of questions and they quickly said, “No, we don’t have gas but here’s a list of companies that will bring you gas.”

At this point the fuel gauge is beyond E. It’s not on the E. It’s fully on the other side of the E. I begin to admit defeat. I tell my family we will stop driving, leave enough gas for the AC to stay on and I will call a company to bring us gas.

But to my surprise, when we called the company to bring gas, which is a $50 fee just to transport the gas, the person asked, “What kind of car?” We told him and he said those little cars can go forever! We asked in disbelief, “Are you sure?” The gauge is beyond the E. He said, “Just keep driving. You will make it!”

Sure enough, we made it to the gas station. Of course, I turned to my family and said, “See, what were yall worried about?” Nobody thought it was funny.

I share this story because sometimes we can treat our spiritual soul like I treated our gas tank on that day. Every day, throughout the day, we have opportunities to feed our spiritual soul but many times we say to ourselves, “I will be fine! Just keep going.” This is what leads me to a few encouragements:

If we have never trust in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we need to start there. It is our faith in Jesus that gives us a spiritual tank to fill up!
Next, Jesus calls us to fill up our spiritual tanks every day, throughout the day. Jesus calls it being a disciple. Jesus has this conversation with Peter when Jesus goes to wash their feet. At first Peter protests, “You could never wash my feet” because Peter thought this would be too humiliating. But Jesus’ response is, “Peter, you have already been made clean. You just need to be washed.” Filling up our spiritual soul is like a good washing!
Time in Scripture. It can be a verse a day. It can be a passage or a chapter. It can be a quick reading or a deep study but the key is to ask ourselves these three questions:
- What does the Scripture teach me about God’s character?
- What does the Scripture teach me about humanities character?
- How does Jesus bring us rescue?
Prayer. In the same way, prayers can be long, short, silent, written; it doesn’t matter. On January 21, 2024 our church family taught through the Lord’s prayer and made these observations to include in our prayers:
- Adoration
- Submission
- Trust
- Confession
- Protection.
Gospel. Our time in God’s Word and prayer should lead us to a place of repentance. Repentance means to turn from sin and turn to Jesus. Repentance softens our heart for God. Repentance reminds us of the glory of God. Repentance shouldn’t fill us with shame and sorrow but joy and hope.
Rest. The bible calls it Sabbath but our faith in Jesus gives us an eternal Sabbath, so that our rest can take place in many shapes and sizes besides one day of the week. But we should still look to incorporate times in our week when we remind ourselves, “God is my provider and protector!”
Giving. Giving financially is a way to remind our soul that we are not the provider and protector. Our country provides opportunities for comfort and prosperity, so that it is easy to feel like we are the ones providing and protecting, therefore, giving is a tangible act of worship, so as to say, “This dollar is not my savior!” You can give in a lot of different ways but if you Partner with North Village Church then you can see how to give HERE.
Serving. God’s Word calls us to look not only after our own interests but also the interests of others, therefore, where in your week are you serving someone else that doesn’t benefit your own interests? I have found that I enter into those moments kicking and screaming. I tell myself, “I don’t have time, I don’t have energy” and yet every time afterwards I think to myself, “I am so glad I did that!”
Sunday Worship. Are you connected to a church family? A church family provides a spiritual covering of protection. I can’t imagine going throughout the day or week all alone. We all need to be committed to a church family.
Fellowship. Our culture is increasingly moving toward an isolated culture. We can pick what we want to eat, what we want to watch, what we want to listen to and curl up in our bed and never have to be around other people. At first glance, it sounds awesome but over time I have found that we will become bored and depressed when we are just focusing on our interests. We need the flavor of other people!

I have found when I am incorporating these spiritual disciplines into my life it leads me to a spiritual tank that is full. It doesn’t mean I won’t have any problems in life. I still have all kinds of problems but it does mean I can weather those problems more securely. My roots in Christ are deeper. My foundation is more solid. My support is more deep. My emotional maturity is more grounded. My thoughts are more clear.

It doesn’t mean layers of anxiety, fear, and discouragement never come my way but it means I can spot them sooner and the truth of God’s Word shapes how I respond to them when I see them coming.

Who Am I to Speak into Someone’s Life?

How many times do we think to ourselves, “I should probably give direction based on God’s Word about what this person should do with their life?” There are probably some of us who can’t help ourselves, some of us who think those things internally but never say anything, and there are also some of us who think, “Why would someone listen to what we have to say?”

Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.”

But God’s Word actually invites us to speak into the lives of other people and below are just a few responses we might give to that invitation:

Nobody would care what we have to say.
I am not qualified to speak into someone’s life.
I need to get my life in order before I talk to someone else.
I’ve made too many mistakes.

As a result, we tend to see people in our life put themselves in a harmful place and we never say anything. Even worse, we wait till that horrible thing happens in their life and then we say under our breath, “I saw that coming a mile away!” But let’s look at Exodus 3:

10 Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”

12 And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”

13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”

Moses has all the typical excuses that we give today. Who am I? What will I say? Why should they listen? If we looked at the next chapter we would see, “What if they don’t listen? I am not good at this? You should send someone else.”

What is God’s response to all those objections? Look at Exodus 3:

14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

15 God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.

16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.

We tend to give excuses by focusing on ourselves, our resources, our abilities, our wisdom, our gifts but God’s response is to look at His calling, His power, His resources, His wisdom and invites us to trust in Him.

This doesn’t mean we need to walk up to strangers and tell them what to do but God has called us to speak into the lives of others who are in Christ. We are called by God to prayerfully consider, “Who needs to be encouraged, who needs to be challenged, who needs to be acknowledged, who needs to be served, who needs to be prayed for” and we get this opportunity every time we come together on Sunday morning for worship.