Stephen Covey is a well-known motivator and encourager. His books, speeches, and presentations have dominated the world of self-help resources. So what about Everyday Greatness? Covey remains in his traditional stream of thought, but presenting stories and pithy proverbs to demonstrate attributes that he believes are characteristic of great people (charity, integrity, patience, etc.). Yet, his approach is informed by a faulty understanding of people (that we are basically good) with a faulty ambition for life (be the greatest you can be) and will ultimately lead to a faulty end (failure and emptiness).

While aiming to help people, what Covey has written essentially provides a Book of Virtues for “happy-addicts.” In other words, he is telling the reader “You’re a good person who wants to be happy. These are some inspirations to take that goodness and make you great, so that you’ll be really happy!” That may be the logic of the world, but in the life of the Christian disciple, this sort of thinking lacks grace, Biblical standing, and will ultimately only produce bad fruit. The discerning reader would look, instead, to Jesus Christ and find true greatness (Philippians 2).

Note: This video was produced for Operation YouTube, an evangelistic outreach designed to share the Gospel with the internet through the YouTube world.

Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina, has posted a list of “what ifs” about the early church. Answering these questions and realizing the importance of how we invest ourselves in these days is important for every disciple of Jesus to consider. If we are doing what Jesus said, there will be good fruit from it. My challenge would be for you to read this and pray that God would show you where you can better redeem the time and invest in the Kingdom of God.

Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell. Christ paid for EVERY sin, so how can I or you be judged BY GOD for a sin when the penalty was ALREADY paid. People judge but that does not matter. I was reading the Bible and The Integrity of God beginning yesterday, because soon I will see them.

These are the last recorded words of George Sodini, a 48 year old man who was the perpetrator on a very violent shootup in a Pittsburgh suburb Tuesday evening. These words were written Monday evening. I don’t ordinarily write about “news” and events that are well-covered by media outlets. But this was home territory for me. Even more, this man’s plight – lonely isolation and rejection by everyone he knew, except for very superficial contact – and the extreme violence that he committed in response, demands some consideration. Disciples of Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, ought to be like their Master, they ought to be acquainted with grief.

George was lonely. Incredibly so. He was not, as far as we know, a person with mental disorders or any typical predictors of socially destructive behavior. He had a steady job, had been promoted, made pretty good money, had two parents in the home when he was growing up, and nothing particularly different about his experience than anyone else…except the social world which rejected him. What Sodini did was wrong. Yes, he is responsible. But he was a man who fell victim, not just to the demons of the spiritual world, but also to the demons of loneliness and rejection that are assailing so many in our world today.

It’s brokenness. It’s the consequences of sin. It’s the ploy of Satan. This last paragraph in his journal contains a lot of true statements, but George did not have the whole story. He did not learn about repentance. He did not learn about turning his rebel heart over to the sovereign lordship of Jesus. The point is this: Satan’s work does not extend only to hiding the truth. It can also be with telling only part of the truth. And if you doubt Satan had anything to do with this…In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Cor. 4:4).

These words should both sadden us and drive us to the cross. We need mercy. We need courage. We need to speak up. We need to love people. We need to be a part of the healing that God has for these broken people – the brokenness that was part of our own lives before Jesus saved us. We need to do something. So let’s get going.

Note: this was originally written for Teens Set Apart. The views of TSA do not represent the views of David or [Re]Connected.

Whatever! Whatever you say
Whatever! I will obey.
Whatever! Lord, have your way.
Cause you are my God. Whatever!

Before Rush of Fools, Reilly, and a number of other great artists were out there singing the Gospel, Steven Curtis Chapman was already on it (and still is!), singing about life as a Christian. Ten years ago, he released his album Speechless. One of the (classic) songs on this collection is “Whatever” – all about Steven’s plans vs. God’s plans. It’s about the need to submit to what God has and give up your own desires to answer His call. When I look around in the Church today, I find a lot of teens who are all about plans – plans with friends, with family, with church, with school, with life. And I have to wonder…how about their plans with God?

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that Christian young people don’t care about God. Many of them do. They go to church a little, they pray a little, they read their Bibles a little. Where’s the plans, though? In Ephesians, the apostle Paul was writing to a church who really didn’t understand much about God’s plans. They were saved. They loved Jesus. They even loved and shared with other Christians. But they didn’t understand that they were not just God’s people. They were a called people. They were marked by the plans of God and it was not their own work, their own idea, but it was in the heart of God from the beginning. That’s why Paul was writing to them. He tells them in Ephesians 1:18-19 that he prays “that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe…”

Later on he would go on to tell us what this looks like. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10). God had a plan from the beginning to save us when we didn’t deserve it. He had a plan to give us faith in the work of Jesus on the cross and by the power of His resurrection to raise us to a life that never ends. He planned this without getting our take on it. He planned this without seeing how well we would perform. He planned it and He made us to carry out His plans – and those are plans for good works – Gospel-driven things done for His glory and the good of other people.

We don’t always know what those good works are going to be. So, this is where I really appreciate Steven’s song because it’s a continual reminder to me that I need to go to God and submit to Him and say, “God, whatever it is You want me to do is what I want to do. Please help me to do it well so that people will praise You.” The best part is that this isn’t something we can do with our own strength. God has to do it. Those of us who are believers of Christ have received the Holy Spirit and have Him dwelling in our hearts. The Holy Spirit gives us all the power and guidance we need to live and to do the things God has for us. So, we have one charge: lovingly submit to the God who called you, planned you, and has made you to do all the good things He has planned for you and for others.

I like walking barefoot…doesn’t much matter where: grassy fields, hot asphalt, brick-laid  paths, and – my favorite – a wet beach, right on the shoreline. The other day, I took a walk along Lake Erie. At first, I kept my sandals on, letting the water lap at my feet as I went. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to go barefoot. As I was walking further along, I noticed something: my feet were sinking, sliding, and slipping. And there’s nothing unnatural about that. Sand, particularly wet sand that’s being barraged by the waves of Lake Erie, is not the most stable piece of ground you can choose to walk on. But there was a strong difference between my experience of walking barefoot and what it had been like with sandals on. When the sandals were on, my feet didn’t sink, slide or slip.

God used this moment to teach me something. When I was younger, my mom had us memorize Ephesians 6:10-20, which is about the armor of God. It’s pretty easy to understand the use of a shield, a sword, a helmet and most of the other pieces that Paul talks about in this large metaphor for the equipping power of the Holy Spirit. But having “as shoes for your feet, the readiness given by the gospel of peace” isn’t as obvious a need (Eph. 6:15). Yet, clearly, for whatever reason – and I don’t claim to understand how – having shoes on gives us stability in our walk and prevents the ground from coming around to trap your feet.

As I was thinking on this insight that God had shown me, it struck me that I wasn’t quite sure what it meant to be clothing my feet with the Gospel. A few suggestions came to mind but I quickly dismissed them. They didn’t hold up to the standard of the passage. Fulfilling the Great Commission (“how beautiful the feet of those who bring good news”) didn’t answer the warlike urgency of the passage. Salvation itself wasn’t in view, since Paul had assigned that to the helmet. So what was it?

So I turned to Ephesians to study some more and see what God would show me. If there’s one thing about Ephesians, it’s a rich epistle. In God’s New Society, John Stott informs us that it was Calvin’s favorite letter. He also tells us that the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge described it as “the Queen of the Epistles” (Stott 15). Rightly so. Of all the Pauline epistles, Ephesians is the most elegant, with the largest themes, and having, at its center, the exaltation of Christ in the heavenly places, and the promise of God’s people sharing in those riches.

But “peace” is a big word in Ephesians, too. Ephesians 2 is riddled with references to it. “For [Christ] himself is our peace…that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace…And he came and preached peace to you who were far off  [Gentiles] and peace to those who were near [Jews]” (Ephesians 2:14, 15, 17). The next reference is in Ephesians 6:15, as the “gospel of peace.” So, we have peace with God, are reconciled to those people we were once at war with, and this gospel we have received has been given us by Christ Himself. The Gospel’s reconciling work – us to God, and us to all mankind – is the gospel of peace that we are called to walk in. And when we step (live) in the reality of that truth, we stand firm and the instability and frailty of our lives in this present age will never trip us up.

Living this truth out isn’t difficult in the explaining, but in the doing. We must walk knowing that we are at peace with God – that no sin or any other barrier stands between us and Him because of the work of Christ.  However, we must also walk knowing that we have been called to be at peace with all people – that no loyalty or any other barrier stands between us and them because of the same work of Christ.

Disciple of Christ, it is time to lay down arms. You have been put at peace with God, so lay down works of your flesh and self righteousness. You have been put at peace with everyone, so lay down your separation, your division, your competition. You know the commandments! “And [Christ] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all you 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” (Matthew 22:37-39). No qualifications. No exceptions. Just the command of a Holy God, the work of a Savior Who makes it possible, and the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

How can I deal with sin that just sticks with me? How can I survive the tough times that come my direction? Why should I worry about my friend’s Christian walk? What’s the point of reading my Bible and praying regularly? Although these questions seem only loosely related, Mark Hall’s Your Own Jesus does a tremendous job of presenting the truth that everyone needs to be in a saving, enduring relationship with the God of the universe.

“God has no grandchildren” as the saying goes and Mark shows convincingly the need for believers to not depend on their parents, churches, friends, or books and music to be their source of experiencing Jesus. Believers need to be in their own intimate walk with the Savior Who bought them with His own blood and will bring good, lasting fruit into their lives. For anyone who considers themselves a disciple of Jesus, this book is highly recommended as a helpful resource as you pursue Christ and get to know the One and Only Jesus Christ.

“I know what I call you in Bemba” Vincent said, “Umuntu! It means you’re like me!” Those were words that were told me on a recent trip I made to Ndola, Zambia to assist in the building of a school. In writing The Hole in Our Gospel, Stearns notes that the Gospel we preach has often left out the command to seek justice for the poor and oppressed, to love our neighbor. Stearns is right that we, who have received the mercy of God in infinite abundance, have so often failed to show and share that mercy with our fellow men around the world, who lay dying. So Stearns issues a prophetic, God-honoring call to action…but misses a beat.

His vision is somewhat dampened, I think, by the sense that it is Christians who will put all wrong to right in the world. We are the agents of redemption, but this redemption will be realized and consummated by Christ. I would heartily recommend reading The Hole in Our Gospel to anyone, only exhorting them to trust in the sovereign work of God and not depend upon their own actions, but the Holy Spirit’s effective power.

I have been reflecting a bit on this flight back to the States – mostly sleeping, but some reflecting. One of the things that struck me about being in Zambia was how at-home I felt almost every moment. It didn’t matter that I only knew a few words in Bemba and our co-workers weren’t the best English-speakers….I was comfortable. Some would say that I felt this way because that was clearly where God wanted me, but I think that puts too much credit to my account. Rather, I am coming to believe that I felt this way because I was living in the open door of ministry that God had provided.

Contentment in ministry will never be found in a paycheck, in relationships, or even in the quantitative success of your work…it can only come from entering and living in the open door God provides. For Paul, those doors were sometimes behind bars (Philippians)…and sometimes it was years in a city (Acts 28 in Rome). But in the pursuit of Christ, the training of His Lord forced him to embrace these doors. I hope, as much as anything else God has taught me on this trip, that He will allow me to see the doors He provides.

PS: Not much conversation on the flight back…didn’t get seats by English-speakers until we were flying from D.C. to Pittsburgh. Really made me wish I knew Bemba or Swahili!

Note: This concludes the Zambia journal for E-Team 2009. Hope you were blessed by it! -DK

I’ll be honest here…I don’t want to write in this journal right now. Important conversation and my body’s insistent demands for sleep provide, to my mind, plent of reason not to write tonight. But where, then, is grace? So, I write.

There’s not a whole lot to write, however. Today was our drive from Ndola to Lusaka. We are staying at Lilayi Lodge – a very nice compound which maintains a safari-like game reserve. Tomorrow at 8:30 AM, we will depart, eventually getting to Lusaka Int’l Airport to begin our final leg of travel back to Pittsburgh. I’m very curious to see what God will do.