Short Weeks!

I didn't get to dig into my "Sunday Night Reflections" even though I did have some reflections. I was doing something far more valuable ... taking Rachel to school. Interesting to me that I dropped my blog right after taking her to Indiana Wesleyan University a year ago. I get the feeling that it is always going to be a bitter-sweet experience. Its so tough to let go and see her flourish ... and yet how rewarding is it to see her becoming more and more a woman of God. Thank you, Lord!

I was SO encouraged by the two full glass jars at the end of Sunday's service. That people are taking so seriously the call to be the relational bridge by which others can come to meet Jesus is so critical! We are the Church and we are a vital link between those without Christ and Christ.

As I studied for last week's message on spiritual leadership it seemed to me to be so critical that EVERY believer have a burden to help lead others to Christ. On Tuesday I was in the book of Job and came across Job's yearning for someone to come along and mediate his case before God.

If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me. For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. Job 9:30-33 (ESV)

Job had a conflict. He looked to his "friends" to help lead him out of that conflict, but they weren't of much use. He longed for an arbitrator, someone to negotiate some peace between him and God. But at that time he found no one - the arbitrator that he so longed for and needed to mediate the conflict would come to earth thousands of years later - Jesus Christ!
Now, thousands of years after the coming of this Arbitrator, people still have the same need. And they need someone to lead them to the Arbitrator! That's where THE CHURCH comes it! We who have been recipients of the Arbitrator's grace and peacemaking work through His own blood now have the incredible privilege of leading others to know the divine and eternal Arbitrator.
That is in large measure what Back to Church Sunday is all about - An opportunity for one beggar to tell another where they can find bread for their soul and peace before an Almighty God.
When I talked about the characteristics of a good leader of people's souls on Sunday I wonder if I did an adequate job of applying it to leading people to Christ. Think about the qualities of leadership that are essential for leading people to know and experience the fullness of Christ in their lives:

Reputation for Peacemaking - Ask God to help you display the peace of God in your life to those around you that they would wonder "What's up with the person?"

Filled with the Holy Spirit - Seek the Spirit's fruitfulness to a higher degree than ever. Keep in mind that the fruits of the Spirit (from Galatians 5:20) are best on display in the midst of conflict and stress. When you feel the pressure coming on - trust in the Lord for his supply of grace!

Filled with Wisdom - Be open and aware of things that the Lord would put in your mind that would lead you to someone who you'd never expect to be led toward to invite to church and that He will give you the words to say that will prompt the Holy Spirit's work in someone.

Filled with Faith - As God to fill you with the wonder of His ability to do beyond what we could think of or imagine. May he show himself to be VERY big in our eyes this week.

Filled with the love of Christ - May those to whom the Lord is leading us become objects of our affection because the love of Christ has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.