To Have Friends You Must Choose To Be A Friend

3/28/2012 06:00:00 AM / Posted by Mike Landry / comments (0)



 “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.”      Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NASB)
           
         Solomon clearly stated in the passage above that “two are better than one.”  God created you with a need for companionship.  You were not intended to be friendless.

If this is true, why are so many people alone?  Because developing friendships is risky business and time consuming.  Choices to become vulnerable with a friend requires tearing down long standing walls you may have constructed to protect you.

You’ve heard the old adage, “To have friends, you must be a friend.”  Perhaps the reason you feel alone at this time is because you have not chosen to be the kind of friend you want to have. 

Rather than hide in a closet of self-pity and mourn over the absence of friends, try choosing to be the kind of friend you desire to have.  God’s Word gives some help in this area.  Below are a list of choices to make.


1.     Choose to be a friend NOW. 

Galatians 5:13-14 (NASB) For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."

2.     Choose to be a friend who can be counted on.

Proverbs 17:17 (NASB) A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity

3.     Choose to be a compassionate friend.

  Job 6:14 (NASB)  "For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend; So that he does not forsake the fear of the Almighty.
                                                                                      
4.     Choose to be a friend who can be trusted.

Prov 11:13 (NASB) He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets, But he who is trustworthy conceals a matter.

5.     Choose to be an honest friend.

Prov 27:5-6 (NASB) Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed. 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

6.     Choose to contribute to the success of your friend.

Prov 27:17 (NASB) Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

7.     Choose to become a friend of the perfect friend.

John 15:12-15 (NASB) "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 "You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

8.     Choose to be the kind of friend who introduces your best friend to other friends.

1 Corinthians 9:20-22 (NASB) To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.
22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.


         Take the initiative and choose to become a good friend.  Before you know it, you will look around and find you’re not alone any longer.  You’ve got a friend.














You’re Going To Need A Friend

3/27/2012 09:10:00 AM / Posted by Mike Landry / comments (0)

 
“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.”          Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NASB)

Turbulent times are hard on people especially if you go through them alone.  In fact, turbulent times expose just how alone you really are.

Did you know that God never intended for you to go through life alone.  From the beginning, God said to Adam, “It’s not good for a man to be alone.”   Genesis 2:18 NASB.  So He created a friend and wife – Eve.

Years later God says it again through Solomon, “Two are better than one…” Eccl 4:9.  We were not designed by God to ever be friendless.

Why do you and I need a friend?  Solomon identifies at least four reasons in Eccl 4:9-12

1.     There is HELP even when you think you don’t need anybody.    

Eccl 4:9 (NASB) Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.

2.     There is ENCOURAGEMENT when you mess up and FALL. 

Eccl 4:10 (NASB) For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

3.     There is SUPPORT when you are vulnerable. 

Eccl 4:11 (NASB) Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?

4.     There is PROTECTION when you are under attack.      

Eccl 4:12 (NASB) And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.


            Everybody needs a friend.  Turbulent times reveal this.  Don’t you think it’s about time to stop the “Lone Ranger” routine?  You don't have to try a be so tough.  Why not stop right now and pray.  Ask God to put a friend in your life if you can’t see one.  He will definitely answer this prayer because He says, “it’s not good for man to be alone.”

            Tomorrow I’ll post another blog on the choices we must make to maintain friendships that last. Talk to you then.

3 Things God Wants You To Learn Before He Answers Your Cry

3/20/2012 07:17:00 AM / Posted by Mike Landry / comments (1)



 















"I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me and heard my cry.  He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the LORD."   Psalm 40:1-3 (NASB)

The one thing about turbulent times is that it brings you to the end of yourself.  Once you realize that you are not God and cannot control everything, you begin to look for help from One who is able to change and control those things you cannot.  That's when you cry out to God.

However, just because you cry out to God in times of desperation, the answer does not always come as quickly as you and I would prefer.  Why does God make us wait?  It's because there are certain things God wants us to learn first.  It's in these turbulent times that God knows we will listen to Him. 

The three things God wants us to learn are found in the first verse of Psalm 40.  

"I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry."

1.   God wants you to trust His timing.             

          "I waited..."

        Waiting is not always a bad thing.  Some things done prematurely can hurt you.  For example, you don't want to jump off a diving board into a pool until it has been filled with water.  Your desire to jump must be delayed if you are to survive the jump.  When God delays an answer to your cry, He knows what He is doing.  He can be trusted.

2 Peter 3:9 (NASB) The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

2.   God wants you to welcome His molding and shaping of your life.  

          "I waited patiently..."                
 
    There's a difference between "waiting" and "waiting patiently."  The difference is that patience indicates an understanding of God's purpose in making us wait.  We are like wooden blocks in the hands of God.  He has a carving knife and sand paper and is shaping us.  He is committed to us becoming what He intended.  We are a project under construction and it will take time to finish.  

   You wouldn't hand a Van Gogh masterpiece to a toddler with crayons.  God is waiting for you and I to get to the point we can responsibly handle His answer.

   Patience says to God, "I understand that I'm not ready for your answer and choose to cooperate with your timing until You think I am ready."

James 1:2-4 (NASB) Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Philippians 1:6 (NASB) For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

3.   God wants you to desire Him more than what He can do for you.    

      "I waiting patiently for the Lord."

   Another reason God delays answers to our cries is to ween us from seeing Him as some kind of divine store clerk who exists to serve us.  Obviously He can do anything and take care of any problem we face in turbulent times.  But He created man for Himself.  He wants us to see Him as being all we need.  Too often we get confused and start thinking it's what He can do for us that we need.

    The greatest lesson we could learn is that when you've got Jesus, you've got everything you'll ever need. 
Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NASB) Thus says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches;
24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the LORD.

     The answer to your cry is on the way.  God has heard you and wants to deliver His answer on time.  Why not take a moment and talk to Him again?  Tell Him you know He can be trusted to do the right thing in the right way and at the perfect time.  Then rest in that truth and trust Him.

“In Turbulent Times You Can Trust God’s Word”

3/13/2012 07:57:00 AM / Posted by Mike Landry / comments (0)


            Nobody in his or her right mind looks forward to turbulent times.  But turbulent times are inevitable.  You are going to struggle with financial, health, relationship, social, educational, and job issues.  It’s an inseparable part of living life.  In fact, oftentimes you will have absolutely no control over these things and you will feel like a walking bulls-eye.  The darts will keep hitting you and you will wonder if there will ever be any relief.

            And, what’s to keep you from giving up or going into a tailspin that you can’t pull out of?  What’s to keep you from getting sour or bitter?  In fact, when God doesn’t protect you from suffering, what’s to keep you from concluding that God hates you?

            That’s where God’s Word, the Bible, comes in.  God is not going keep you from all suffering but He has promised to sustain us and comfort us during those times.  However, it’s at those times that we are so tempted to ignore Him and look for any other kind of relief. 

            Because of our tendency to try and weather the storms of life on our own, I thought I’d take the time to remind us both how God has promised to use His Word to help us during turbulent times.

1.    God’s Word refreshes you when you are on empty.

Psalms 119:25 (NASB) My soul cleaves to the dust; revive me according to Your word.

2.    God’s Word comforts you when you are hurting.

Psalms 119:52 (NASB) I have remembered Your ordinances from of old, O LORD, and comfort myself.


3.    God’s Word will warn you when you’re tempted to abandon God’s best.

Psalms 119:11 (NASB) Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.


4.    God’s Word will be a course correction map when you take a wrong turn.

Psalms 119:67 (NASB) Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.


5.    God’s Word will shed light on decisions you struggle with.

Psalms 119:105 (NASB) Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalms 119:130 (NASB) The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.

                                                                                                        
6.    God’s Word will give you courage when you’re tempted to run.

Joshua 1:7 (NASB) "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.


7.    God’s Word will give you strength when you don’t think you can go on.

Isaiah 40:31 (NASB) Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.


         Now don’t you think it’s about time to spend some time in God’s Word!



The Fellowship of the Burning Heart #4

3/02/2012 07:45:00 AM / Posted by Mike Landry / comments (0)


           So far, we’ve looked at three of the commitments required as a member of Dr. Halverson’s “The Fellowship of the Burning Heart.”  Today’s blog ties the previous commitments together with a fourth commitment of total surrender.

            The first commitment of Dr. Halverson’s “Fellowship of the Burning Heart” (found in They Found the Secret byRaymond Edmond) revealed the role of the Holy Spirit in one’s personal spiritual growth and maturity.  Cooperation with this Spirit-initiated process requires a daily refocusing on Him.  Clarity in this refocusing requires immersion in God’s Word.

            The second commitment of the “Fellowship of the Burning Heart” pertains to one’s character.  Holy living, self denial, and self-discipline are the tracks one must travel to develop the kind of character that emulates the Lord Jesus.

            The third commitment highlights the mission of every follower of Jesus Christ.  The love of God was sacrificially demonstrated when Jesus died on the cross.  Our assignment, as long as we have breath,  is to glorify God by getting the word out and inviting people to receive the grace necessary to experience the redemption provided at the cross.

            The fourth and final commitment removes any possible limitation that might interfere with God’s desire to live through you and to do what only God could do.  The Fellowship of the Burning Heart requires total abandonment to Jesus Christ.

“The Fellowship of the Burning Heart”

“Having come to a personal belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and realizing that the urgency of the hour in which we live demands the highest type of Christian Discipleship.  I wish to unite with a band of young people offering themselves as expendables, with a vision of evangelizing the youth of the world for Jesus Christ in the shortest possible time.”

COMMITMENT #4

“I AM COMMITTED TO THE PRINCIPLE that Christian discipleship demands nothing less than absolute consecration to Jesus Christ.  Therefore I present my body a live sacrifice, utterly abandoned to God.  By this commitment, I desire that God’s perfect will shall find complete expression in my life; and I offer myself in all sobriety to be expendable for Jesus Christ. (Romans 12:1-2; Philippians 3:7-14)


Romans 12:1-2 (NASB) Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Philippians 3:7-14 (NASB) But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

KEY PHRASES TO CONSIDER WHEN EVALUATING YOUR COMMITMENT TO THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST:

·      “ABSOLUTE CONSECRATION” – Have you given up all your rights and totally submitted yourself to serve Jesus Christ?

·      “A LIVE SACRIFICE” – Rather than a willingness to die for Jesus; are you willing to live for Jesus?

·      “ABANDONED TO GOD” – Do you genuinely want to please God more than man?

·      “SOBRIETY” – Have you counted the cost of this kind of commitment?

·      “EXPENDABLE” – Are you willing to do the least desirable tasks without recognition should the Master ask it?


A special thanks to Dr. Richard Halverson for listening to God and taking the time to pass on to fellow followers of Christ the lessons he learned concerning “The Fellowship of the Burning Heart.”

RichardHalverson (1916-1995) was a minister of the former United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and served from 1958 until 1981 as the Senior Pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, Maryland. He served as the Chaplain of the United States Senate from February 2, 1981 until December 31, 1994.  He was an associate of the National Prayer Breakfast movement starting in 1956. Halverson also was a member of the Board of World Vision, from 1956 to 1983, serving as chairman from 1966 to 1983.  He was the President of Concern Ministries, a charitable foundation in Washington, D.C.

The Fellowship of the Burning Heart #3

3/01/2012 07:51:00 AM / Posted by Mike Landry / comments (0)


           The first commitment of Dr. Halverson’s “Fellowship of the Burning Heart” (found in  They Found the Secret by Raymond Edmond) reveals the role of the Holy Spirit in one’s personal spiritual growth and maturity.  Cooperation with this Spirit initiated process requires a daily refocusing on Him.  Clarity in this refocusing requires immersion in God’s Word.

            The second commitment of the “Fellowship of the Burning Heart” pertains to one’s character.  Holy living, self denial, and self-discipline are the tracks one must travel to develop the kind of character that emulates the Lord Jesus.

            The third commitment highlights the mission of every follower of Jesus Christ.  The love of God was sacrificially demonstrated when Jesus died on the cross.  Our assignment, as long as we have breath,  is to glorify God by getting the word out and inviting people to receive the grace necessary to experience the redemption provided at the cross.

“The Fellowship of the Burning Heart”

“Having come to a personal belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and realizing that the urgency of the hour in which we live demands the highest type of Christian Discipleship.  I wish to unite with a band of young people offering themselves as expendables, with a vision of evangelizing the youth of the world for Jesus Christ in the shortest possible time.”

COMMITMENT #3

“I AM COMMITTED TO THE PRINCIPLE that Christian discipleship exercises itself principally in winning of the lost to Jesus Christ. Therefore I pledge myself to seek every possible opportunity to witness in order that I may always be engaged in winning someone to Jesus Christ. (Matthew 28:19, Acts 1:8)


Matthew 28:19 (NASB) "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,”

Acts 1:8 (NASB) “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

KEY PHRASES TO CONSIDER WHEN EVALUATING YOUR COMMITMENT TO EVANGELIZE:

·      “WINNING OF THE LOST” – Do you care about the spiritual condition of others?

·      “EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY” – Are you aware of the Divine appointments God has scheduled for you each day?

·      “ENGAGED IN WINNING SOMEONE TO JESUS” – Did you share the good news about Jesus to someone yesterday…how about in the last week?  When do you plan to do it?


Richard Halverson (1916-1995) was a minister of the former United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and served from 1958 until 1981 as the Senior Pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, Maryland. He served as the Chaplain of the United States Senate from February 2, 1981 until December 31, 1994.  He was an associate of the National Prayer Breakfast movement starting in 1956. Halverson also was a member of the Board of World Vision, from 1956 to 1983, serving as chairman from 1966 to 1983.  He was the President of Concern Ministries, a charitable foundation in Washington, D.C.

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