Motorheads know that, in cars designed for it, higher octane fuel produces more horsepower. It does that, not because it burns faster, but because it burns slower, more completely than the cheap stuff, making for better efficiency and greater power.

Not everyone cares about more power for their cars, but most believers would like to know how to get more power in their prayers. Nehemiah shows us how to do that.

The Book of Nehemiah is the personal memoir of the governor of Judah during the second half of the fifth century BC. It records his success in an impossible task, one that many others before him had failed to accomplish.

The ruined city of Jerusalem lay bare and defenseless before all enemies. Two miles of massive stone wall lay battered into tons of rubble, ten gigantic gates gouged out by fire, and perhaps more important than all this, a pummeled and demoralized people waited and longed for a leader to turn it all around. Nehemiah was that man. He did it in fifty-two days and he began his task with “high octane prayer.”

America isn’t in the same sad state as Jerusalem was, but we face difficult problems that could quickly take us there. Massive and ever-growing national debt threatens our economic security, race continues to divide us, the epidemic breakdown of the nuclear family undermines the future, and political polarization stifles effective government. All of these seem insurmountable, not to mention ISIS, a nuclear Iran, and an increasingly belligerent Russia. We need God’s help more than ever. As we approach the National Day of Prayer on May 7, we would do well to follow Nehemiah’s example.

Nehemiah’s prayer (Neh. 1:4-11) follows a well-known biblical pattern that can be laid out in an easy to remember acrostic: A.C.T.S.

Adoration
The “A” is for adoration, and adoration is worship. Worship works like octane booster for our prayers. Adoration concentrates on the attributes of God–not what he has done but who he is–and calls them out.

Verses five and six are short, but list six of God’s attributes. He is: The God of heaven, the creator God, the universal God, the God who reigns over all, the omnipresent God. He is: The Great God, the God of power and might, the God who delivered the three children from the furnace and shut the lion’s mouth, the omnipotent God. He is: the awesome God, holy, awesome in its original sense of “awe inspiring,” approached with great reverence and wonder. He is: the faithful God, the covenant keeping God who can be depended upon to do what he has promised. He is: the loving God, the God who always acts with love toward his people. “This is how God showed his love; he sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9). And finally, he is: the God who knows and sees all, (Vs. 6) the omniscient God. Nehemiah began his high octane prayer with adoration.

The first time you do this–begin your prayers with adoration–a little wave of static might wash across your mind, “My, my, aren’t we being flowery! Do you really think God cares?” Let me urge you to ignore that and pray on. We live so much in this world that we lose connection with the spiritual world, which is more real than this one anyway. Consider adoration as a way to tune the soul’s receiver to the right station. Prayer that begins with worship is stronger prayer than prayer that begins without it.

Confession
Nehemiah continues his prayer in verses six and seven with two kinds of confession: intercessory and personal. He takes ownership of the sins of the Israelites–naming them specifically–and owning the fact that he too is a sinner. Two observations flow from these two things.

First, leaders are conscious of their common humanity. They aren’t so taken with their talents as they are aware of the fact that they can fall just as fast as anyone. High octane leaders need to take ownership of their sins and be willing to be held accountable for the sins of the nation.

Second, recovery from sin requires naming the sin. The Israelites were suffering because of specific sins. Sometimes we’re suffering greatly and want restoration without first confessing the sins that brought us into that trouble. Confession is most effective when it is specific.

Thanksgiving
The third ingredient to high octane prayer is thanksgiving. In verses eight and nine, Nehemiah illustrates one of the best ways to offer thanks: recalling what God has already done. (Scriptures like Ephesians 1 can be helpful here).

High octane prayer says, “Father, these are the blessings you have already given us title to. These are the things that you have done. Our request is based on those gifts, not any merit that we bring to the table. You are the God of goodness and grace and you have shown yourself good in these things. So we ask with confidence.”

Move out from there to the blessings you’ve seen in your own life. (A prayer journal is helpful here). When we do that we start to see patterns of answered prayer. We begin to recognize the ways God has intervened in our lives, over and over again preparing the way ahead of us, giving us insight when we needed it, and help when we were weak.

The last ingredient of high octane prayer, the last letter in Nehemiah’s acrostic, is also the shortest.

Supplication – The “Ask”
This is where we usually start: our needs. But when we start on the horizontal plane the needs just seem to grow bigger and more impossible. Not so for Nehemiah. He spent the majority of his prayer in Adoration, Confession, and Thanksgiving so that when he finally got around to asking for what he wanted, he saw a very large God answering a very small request.

No doubt during that fifty-two days Nehemiah discussed many aspects, avenues, and angles on the rebuilding project with God and with his friends. No doubt his friends were praying with him. But when A.C.T. is first, the S. is always less complicated and more confident.

One last observation: It’s ok to ask for success! Do you ever get nervous about that? Asking God for success in some difficult endeavor? “Who am I to be asking for that? I’m not good enough, worthy enough.” But that’s why A.C.T.S. is such a good approach. In the end, high octane prayers aren’t about us or for us. High octane prayers, the prayers that God hears, are prayers about God’s plans and those plans come to us as we pray through Nehemiah’s pattern. God’s will gets bigger, ours gets smaller, and his purposes in our lives are achieved.

We are busy, responsible people. That’s a good thing. God expects us to be good stewards of the things he’s given us and honors hard work. But, as Solomon noted, there’s a time for everything under the sun, a time to work, and a time to take a break. The scripture calls it Sabbath, which at its root means: Cease, desist. As Jesus explained, the Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. It isn’t meant to be a religious straitjacket. It’s meant to bring restoration, to put back in what six days of life takes out.

The problem is that we aren’t very good at it. Once the belt is moving beneath our feet it’s hard to get off the treadmill. Here then are four reasons resting is hard for us to do along with some suggestions on how to build rest back into your schedule.

First, we feel guilty when we relax. We live in one of the most productive societies in history. Our cultural value system idolizes productivity, makes a god out of it. If I’m not aggressively using my waking hours to “make something happen” I’m going against the grain and feel out of sync with the rest of the world.

Rest Suggestion One: Give yourself permission to smash the productivity idol. Offer your rest up to God as an act of worship.

Second, we live passively. We are led around by life instead of leading ourselves through life. But our lives are a stewardship from God. We care for them and invest them on His behalf. We need to be proactive about how we spend them.

Rest Suggestion Two: Think of time as a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills. Would you leave it open on a picnic table in the wind, or bank it and figure out how to invest it? That’s what I thought. Do the same thing with your time and you’ll find time to rest.

Third, the ability to rest is a values decision. Dodge tells me I can’t be macho unless I drive the newest RAM truck. Apple tells me I won’t be cool till I have the Apple Watch. Disney tells me I won’t have family fun till I take my kids to Disney World. But my checkbook tells me I can’t have those things unless I work two jobs. So what do I value more?

Rest Suggestion Three: Figure out what you value most and budget your life accordingly.

Finally, as soon as I figure out what I value most, rest becomes a boundaries decision. Our physical, emotional and spiritual energies are finite, limited. “The need to establish boundaries that allow us to say no is a mathematical necessity,” said Richard Swenson. We can’t fill all the demands and expectations of family and friends and colleagues. So we have to learn to say “no” gracefully.

Rest Suggestion Four: Give yourself permission to say no. As you do, your energy margins will increase and you will have more to give to the people that matter.

Last Monday I took the motorcycle out for the first time this season. I ride an old cruiser bike (I gave up asphalt blistering power years ago) and I pride myself on taking good care of it. In the two weeks prior I had changed the oil, inspected the pads and flushed the brake lines, installed a new luggage rack, and polished the chrome. It has lots of chrome . Right before I stored it for the winter I had mounted a new back tire.

Like I said, I take good care of it. That’s why I was rebuking myself less than a block away from the house because I noticed two things right away: the low fuel light was on and the front end was wallowing. That meant I’d left a parked bike with an empty gas tank over a cold, humid winter, the perfect recipe for rust inducing condensation build up inside the tank. Further, I’d forgotten to check the air in the tires before I rode.

Rust and gasoline don’t mix. If it did take hold it will be the dickens to get out. (Anybody got a bore scope to loan?) And if you’ve ever pushed a heavy wheel barrow with a nearly flat tire you have a feel for riding a five hundred plus pound motorcycle on underinflated rubber. Rust in the tank can plug up the fuel system and stop your engine. Low tire pressure can wreck you. Thankfully, neither thing happened. I filled the tank and the tire and got home safely. But I was ticked at myself for polishing chrome, outside stuff, when I should have been tending to fuel and air pressure, the invisible, inside stuff. (You see where this is headed, right?)

What’s all that got to do with the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42? When Jesus came to visit, Mary sat at his feet, filling up her soul. She was working on her inner person. Martha was so busy fussing with preparations, making the meal, serving and no doubt cleaning up, she didn’t have time to tend to inner things. When she complained that Mary wasn’t helping “polish the chrome” Jesus gently rebuked her.

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

In other words, Mary was paying attention to the invisible stuff of life, communing with Jesus in soul and spirit. Martha wasn’t. It’s not as though dinner wasn’t important. It’s just that it shouldn’t have been the only thing on her agenda. She could have let the dishes sit and tended to her soul.

Here’s the thing, all of us are Marthas from time to time. It’s easy to keep ourselves so busy, so overloaded with external responsibilities that we let the inner tank run dry, the inner tube run flat. Staying spiritually healthy means taking time to fill up on Jesus, to talk with him and to listen, to worship and to learn in the daily rhythms of life, Sunday morning alone won’t do it.

What about you? How’s the inside stuff doing? Got enough air in your spiritual tires? Keeping your spiritual tank full? Remember, the chrome can wait. When you get out on the road of life, it’s the inside stuff that matters.

Cinderella has taken a beating in the last forty-odd years. The animated classic first released in 1950 has been criticized for everything from racism, to sexism, and impossible-to-emulate, Barbie-like image mongering. She has been lampooned, ridiculed and dismissed as irrelevant in this, the age of gender bending equivalency.

Yet she keeps coming back, ever popular with girls of every generation. Ever wonder why that is?

Of course there’s the legendary Disney brilliance and creativity. Movie-making excellence abounds in this live act out version. But Disney’s newest vision of one its oldest classics is a delight to both the eyes and the heart. And it’s the heart that really matters, the values at the core of the story revealed in plot and pictures.

Innocence is there, along with generosity, shining in glory against the narcissistic backdrop of stepsister greed. Childlike goodness too perseveres amidst adult cruelty, subtle and profound. Cinderella’s loyalty to family and home, her determination to keep the promises she made at whatever the cost serves as solid foundation, something that promises to outlast the grasping desperation of her bankrupt stepmother.

But the spirit of Cinderella, the force that continues to drive her appeal sixty-five years after her debut, is made of three things: beauty, kindness, and courage.

As Douglas S. O’Donnell says, “Biblically speaking, beauty is like a cut rose. It’s worth beholding even though you know it is withering away. It’s worth beholding even though its thorns can prick. It’s worth beholding because the flower’s beauty in that moment points to the beauty of, not Mother Nature, but of Father God.” Cinderella’s exquisite joy as her tattered dress transforms into a beautiful ball gown is a testimony of the goodness of beauty, of truly feminine beauty, that points us to the beauty of God. Something inside the souls of little girls, indeed inside all of us, knows that.

Something else we intuit, that drives Cinderella’s appeal, is that the beauty isn’t only skin deep. Some women are physically beautiful, but hard, like Cate Blanchette’s version of the stepmother in this film. Others are attractive but frail, brittle, unable to bear the brutalities of life. Cinderella is radiant, shining with courage and kindness that comes from within. That isn’t an easy thing to portray on film, and Lily James does it to perfection.

As we see in Cinderella, these values come with a cost. The world envies true beauty, and tries to destroy it. It takes advantage of kindness, and abuses it. And it seeks to overwhelm courage, to defeat it. I want to urge you, whether you are a very young girl, seeing Cinderella for the first time, or a very experienced grown up, never give up on beauty, kindness, and courage. Having been married to a real Cinderella for over thirty years, I can tell you, they are worth it.

“Prank, a mischievous trick or joke, especially one in which something is done rather than said.” So says Dictionary.com. I was pranked in a good way last Sunday, in a way that was deeply moving and personally gratifying on many levels, all because I am a member of a healthy local church.

My young friend, Joshua Coe, invited me to take a small part in his Eagle Scout ceremony this past Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PM; “just an opening prayer and maybe a word or two about Joshua, then a blessing for the food,” his mom told me. Knowing that I’m usually enjoying my NASCAR induced “hundred lap nap” about then, she kept reminding me of it, mentioning “how important it is to Joshua,” that I would be there.

So I went. I was about half asleep, but I went, as did about fifty others from FCC. I should insert here that becoming an Eagle Scout is a big deal. Only 1% of Scouts make Eagle. Not only that, but Joshua Coe is a special young man. I’ve watched him grow up, not only in the church but in our neighborhood, as the Coes live a couple blocks away. Joshua has the makings of a first class leader with the intellect, the talent, the diligence, the spirituality and the personality to succeed in almost any endeavor. I’m not using hyperbole when I say that if he wanted to, he could be president one day. Andy and Joy have done a marvelous job of raising him and have a lot to be proud of. (Joshua, if you’re reading this, don’t let it go to your head kid).

Having offered the opening prayer and taken my seat I enjoyed watching the ceremony unfold, thinking I was done for the day. Imagine my surprise when the MC announced that each new Eagle Scout gets to recognize a significant person in his life who has served as a mentor. “Would Pastor Dane Skelton please come to the front?” Joshua then pinned a badge on my jacket that says Eagle Scout Mentor.

I think my family would like to know that I didn’t actually cry at this point. But it was a good thing I didn’t have to give a speech because I couldn’t talk either. I never achieved anything as noble as Eagle Scout when I was a teenager, but now I can at least say that I helped someone who did. That badge will stay on that jacket as long as I live.

Joshua is the only Eagle Scout I’ve had the privilege to mentor, but he isn’t the only young man I’ve had the privilege to influence. That great pleasure is an answer to a very early prayer, a dream really, that I began offering to God over thirty years ago. I used to think the dream would take the shape of working in a boys’ home, but I realized later that I’m not cut out for that. Instead, through the ancient institution known as the local church, God has fulfilled my desire to mentor young men. What an awesome honor!

Bill Hybels said, “There’s nothing like the local church when the local church is working right.” Never was a truer word spoken. Lives are changed in a healthy church. Marriages are strengthened and restored in a healthy church. Children develop a confident walk with Jesus Christ in a healthy church. People with addictions are set free. The poor and needy become spiritually healthy and economically viable through the ministry of a healthy church. Young men and women are mentored by mature adults in the local church. The list goes on and on!

So what is your dream? What is your prayer of service to others? God can fulfill it through his marvelous creation, the Church of Jesus Christ. And who knows? You may find him fulfilling your dream one day by being pranked in a good way.

Dear followers of daneskelton.com

It came to my attention this week that in my haste to post this blog I made a mistake about the doctrine of salvation in Islam.

For your records I have pasted in the corrected version of the article below. As I know some of you like to share these with friends I would appreciate it if you would do the same with this correction.

I apologize for my mistake and going forward will do my best to fact check before I post.

Blessings,
Dane

It’s all very confusing, is it not? ISIS slaughters left and right, Christians as well as fellow Muslims. Boko Haram murders its way through northern Nigeria in the name of Muhammad. And the creators of Charlie Hebdo are ruthlessly assassinated by Muslim converts shouting, “The prophet has been avenged!”

In response, leaders in America from the White House to famous athletes deny any substantive connection between Islam and violence. It is mind-boggling to say the least.

I’ve written about that disconnect in the past and others are writing brilliantly about it today, see: http://www.wsj.com/articles/an-administration-adrift-on-denial-1424392150, so I’ll leave that job to them. I do however want to address some basic theology that, because it is so often left out of the discussion, adds to the confusion.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, (I remember when he was basketball star Lew Alcindor), revealed the heart of the theological confusion at the beginning of his January 26, 2015 article in TIME, Paris Was Not About Religion, saying, “For me, religion–no matter which one–is ultimately about people wanting to live humble, moral lives that create a harmonious community and promote tolerance and friendship. All religious rules should be in service of this goal. The Islam I learned and practice does just that … Violence committed in the name of religion is never about religion–it’s about the money.”

Who could argue with that? He’s paraphrasing Micah 6:8. “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

I have deep respect for Mr. Abdul-Jabbar. He has contributed much to the goodness of our country since his basketball days, but his theology is more akin to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD, the phrase coined by Christian Smith ) than it is to Quranic Islam, or Biblical Christianity. In fact, many cultural Christians follow the same basic theology: there is a god–that’s the deism part, he wants us to be good–that’s the moral part, he helps us with our problems–that’s the therapeutic part. But MTD leaves out core doctrine that drives both religions, and that explains the violence of the one and the peace-loving nature of the other.

That doctrine is the holiness of God, or Allah, take your pick. In Biblical Christianity, God is so holy, so perfect in righteousness, so morally pure and infinitely good, and man is so sinful that God cannot be reconciled to man apart from some kind of atonement. Some price for the sins of men and women must be paid in order for justice to be satisfied.

In Christianity that price was paid on the Cross by Jesus, who, as God in the flesh, was the only perfect human being who ever lived and the only one competent to take on the sins of the world. When we accept his gift of payment for our sins we are “cleansed from all unrighteousness,” and made acceptable in God’s sight. God’s holiness and wrath against the sins of man is satisfied. (See 1 Peter 3:18; Romans Ch. 3-6; Colossians Ch. 1 etc.)

Biblical Christians live in the joy and peace of that gift and seek to share it with others, following the command and example of love, service and sacrifice set by their savior. The characteristics lauded by Kareem are acts of gratitude for the goodness of God.

In Quranic Islam man is basically good, but fallible. Men and women must live perfect lives in order to deserve paradise and nations must live according to the Quran in order to honor the righteousness of Allah. Allah can tip the balance if he chooses, but his will is unknowable and one should always live in fear of Allah and the judgment. Every nation which refuses to submit, (submission is the basic meaning of Islam), must be forced to do so and every offense against the holiness of Allah and his prophet must be avenged. This is the Islam practiced by conservative Muslims everywhere.

Quranic Muslims live in constant fear of judgment, ever doubtful that their righteous deeds will be enough to save them from hell. It is no wonder then that even if they do not participate in violent jihad (one of the few things guaranteed to tip the scales of judgment in their favor) they do not actively oppose those who do.

So as much as I’d like to agree with Mr. Abdul-Jabbar, it isn’t about the money. It’s about the theology.

Anyone involved in American Christianity on any level at all would have to be in a coma to have missed the anxious discussion about the departure from the church of the millennial generation. They’re called “the nones” because of the way they answer the religion question on census surveys. We’ve had that discussion at FCC and it was and continues to be an important dialogue. FCC was founded almost thirty years ago by people who were trying very hard to “major on the majors of the Christian faith and minor on the minors … It would be inclusive of all people, contemporary in style, yet conservative in beliefs …” addressing the deep longings of the human soul with sensitivity and insight. Only God can say how effective we’ve been at fulfilling that dream, but I can say that we’ve tried very hard.

Nonetheless, some of the criticisms of the church brought by the millennials are important. It is far too easy, as baby-boomers, to be seduced by the siren song of politics. As Cal Thomas rightly noted in a recent post: “The moral quality of America did not improve during the two terms of Ronald Reagan, who rarely attended church, or the one term of Jimmy Carter, who did. The moral compass did not point in a different direction during the two terms of George W. Bush, who said in a 2000 presidential debate that his favorite “philosopher” was Jesus.” And contrary to some of our most cherished notions, post-modernism may turn out to be a greater friend to evangelism than modernism ever could be, as it at least allows for the idea that truth might be determined by something other than the material sciences.

These and many other explanations are cited as the motive for millennial disenchantment with Christianity, but as I meditated through the Gospel of Luke recently I came upon another, much older reason. It’s buried in Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the sower, which comes just before it in Luke 8:4-8 (which you should read).

Before I go on, I’d like to ask my millennial friends to think of me, not as “Pastor Dane,” but as a regular guy, just like you, with the same struggles and problems you face, only I’ve had twenty years longer to work on mine. No, make that thirty, (gee I am getting old!).

In answer to his disciple’s request to explain the parable, Jesus says:

11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And 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. 14 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. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

In Jesus’ explanation, people leave the faith not for sociological reasons, not because of politics, and not because of worship styles; they leave for spiritual reasons. In some cases, the seed bounces off of hardened hearts and the word of God is easy pickings for the king of thieves. Never discount that. Some just don’t want to hear. Others aren’t clearing the ground for God’s word in their lives. They have shallow souls, strewn with rocks and rootless, no match for the tests that will surely come. Finally, in Jesus’ assessment, many are spiritually overcome, too focused on worldly – as in “not-spiritual” – concerns and drunk on pleasure to experience real growth. They like the whole spiritual life thing, but they like pleasure better and they’ve realized they can’t have it both ways, so they leave.

From that I draw two conclusions that I would like to offer to my millennial friends:

First, it takes a certain, well not exactly arrogance, but shall we say, overconfidence, for a 20-something adult with no job, no spouse, no children, no mortgage, no house to care for, pretty much no responsibilities and a liberal education his parents probably paid for, to tell people who’ve served the kingdom for twice as long as he’s been on the planet that they’re doing a lousy job of carrying on the Kingdom’s work. Go do all of that, accomplish something, see how hard it is, and then start and staff your own church, or pour yourself into serving in just one of the ministries of the one you left, and you’ll learn that it’s a lot tougher than we make it look.

Second, take a look in the mirror. Ask God, “What is the condition of my soul? If you were to drop your seed in it today, what would happen?” And listen for his answer.

By God’s grace, we’ll still be here, chugging along doing our best to keep the Kingdom going, when you’re ready to come home and go to work.

OK, to be honest, I wanted to use John Ortberg’s title: IF YOU WANT TO WALK ON WATER, YOU’VE GOT TO GET OUT OF THE BOAT. It’s brilliant, capturing the life of faith in one pithy line. But that’s Ortberg’s title and besides, I’m talking about a different passage of scripture.

The lesson, however, is surely the same: Once you know who Jesus really is, amazement and awe aren’t enough of a response; he calls you to take action. In fact, he calls you to take a risk.

Luke 5:1-11 records the calling of the first disciples, Simon Peter, James and John; partners in a little fishing LLC on the shore of Lake Gennesaret. The beginning of a new adventure came at the end of a depressing shift for the three friends. They’d “worked hard all night,” with nothing to show for it and were cleaning their nets when Jesus asked to borrow a boat to put some distance between himself and the crowd he was teaching. Not being one to lend his boat to a land-lubber, Simon pulled him out a ways and listened as Jesus spoke. No doubt the effect on the rough-hewn fisherman was like that in other places the young rabbi taught: amazement and awe.

That’s when things got interesting.

On finishing his talk, Jesus, who in my imagination must have had a funny grin on his face, looked at Simon and, like a man challenging a friend to a foot race said, “Row out into the deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

Put yourself in Simon’s sandals for a minute. You don’t know this guy from Adam. Well, OK, maybe his reputation has preceded him, but today is the first day you’ve ever seen him in person, seen him in action. And yeah, OK, he’s a pretty good teacher. But fish? He doesn’t know a carp from a catfish and he obviously doesn’t know anything about their feeding habits. “Ya see Rabbi,” he says politely, “we fish at night, up to sunrise, because that’s the best time for a catch. In fact we fished all night and got nada.” Hint, hint! I’m tired, my buddies are tired. We have more work to do before we can call it a day, and now you’re asking us for uncompensated overtime. But something in Jesus’ eye, something in his body-language must have moved Simon. “Ok, just because you say so, I’ll let down the nets,” but I know nothing’s gonna happen!

Well, you know the rest of the story. The catch was so big Simon had to call for help to pull it in. More importantly, Simon understood he was in the presence of immeasurable spiritual power. Understandably, he asked to be excused. “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

But Jesus had other plans, plans that would not only change Simon Peter’s life, but the whole world. The catch was that Simon and his partners would have to leave the fish, so to speak. If they were to follow Jesus, they had to leave their boats, leave their home town, leave the only life they knew, leave everything familiar; even leave their livelihood. That’s a tough call for any man.

Here’s the deal. It’s one thing to hear the Word of God and say, “Wow! That was really good. It spoke to me.” It’s another thing entirely to act on what you’ve heard; to so trust the One who is calling you that you will take a risk for him in the land of the familiar, in your boat with your nets on “your” lake. If we do take that step, the likelihood is that we will see something amazing and be compelled to worship. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. We may even be compelled to say, “Please go away, I’m not good enough to hang around you.”

That’s when things will get really interesting. “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” There is no end to what God can do with a repentant man who will put everything on the line to follow him.

So what is Jesus asking you to do this week? Where is he asking you to take a risk? Do it! And watch for what comes next.

How effective are you at overcoming temptation? Americans, on the whole, aren’t very serious about it. In fact, we’re more likely to see temptation as a positive tool in the advertiser’s bag of tricks; something to chuckle about or think hmmm, I’d like one of those, as the commercial fades, rather than run from. But temptation is serious stuff to the spiritually minded because it has marked the beginning of the end of so many good things. Before a family ruins their finances they are tempted to buy more than they can afford. Before a governor betrays his oath he is tempted to justify means by their ends. Before a husband breaks his vows he is tempted to believe that the rules don’t apply to him.

Temptation is serious business indeed.

Perhaps that’s why one of the first things Luke records in the life of Christ is his temptation in the wilderness. It’s helpful to reflect on this as we take our first steps into a new year. Take these four quick observations on Luke 4:1-13 and tuck them away as reminders as you head off into 2015.

First, the temptation took place under devilishly advantageous conditions to the tempter. Jesus was under duress in the desert for an extended time, alone, hungry, and exhausted. We are never more vulnerable than when we are isolated, underfed, and fatigued. We can be in a crowd of hundreds and still be socially isolated; well fed yet emotionally hungry; physically rested yet mentally fatigued. Pay attention to the conditions under which you are operating. The more desert-like your circumstances the more vulnerable you are to temptation.

Second, the appeal of instant gratification can be overwhelming, especially in a time of easy credit. “If you are the Son of God,” the devil said in effect, “what’s in your wallet? Prove it!” Every day we have opportunities to live by feel rather than by faith, to do for ourselves instantly (and on credit) what seems to take too long to do God’s way. The more ability we have, the harder it is to wait for God’s provision, to live on his every word. Jesus took the way of faith, trusting God to meet his needs. So should we.

Third, short-cuts seem best when we want to accomplish tough tasks. I can’t help but hear Darth Vader in the Devil’s offer in verses 5-7, “Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You’ve only begun to discover your power! Join me, and I will complete your training! With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict, and bring order to the galaxy.” How many politicians have fallen for this line, only to find that the alliance they made with a power broker was a devils’ bargain.

Short-cuts to authority to solve problems aren’t limited to politicians. All of us can be tempted to take power that isn’t ours. But as Chuck Swindoll’s recent Facebook post said: “One of the quickest ways to complicate a mess is to jump in with both feet and try to do it all without God.”

Fourth, as frustration and disappointment mount, so does the temptation to manipulate God. The Devil’s taunt to throw himself down was a direct challenge to Jesus about the goodness and love of his Father. “You believe God loves you? God chose you? Make him prove it!”

Times will come in your life and mine, maybe today, maybe this year, when the enemy of souls will whisper doubts in our ears about God’s love for us. When that happens remember to answer back, “No one manipulates God. He is God and we are not.”

Temptation is serious stuff, but it doesn’t have to be the beginning of the end of good things. When it comes your way this year, remember how our Lord handled it, and let it motivate you to trust God more than ever.

I gasped as my web browser opened to its Google News homepage yesterday. 12 KILLED IN SHOOTING AT FRENCH SATIRICAL MAGAZINE, 15 Wounded. I didn’t need to read the rest of the report to learn that the perpetrators were Islamic jihadists. The pattern is all too familiar.  The Fort Hood Massacre, the Boston bombers, the Australian coffee shop shooter, the Canadian Parliament attack, the Oklahoma Islamist who gunned down and then murdered his co-workers, the “honor killings;” the list goes on and on and is clear evidence that the philosophy of the keepers of Quranic Islam has not changed.

“It is written in the Quran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged the Muslim’s authority were sinners, that it was the Muslim’s right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Muslim who should be slain in battle was sure to go to paradise.”*

That quote amplifies the two things that I believe Jesus would say us on a day like today, when 12 more innocent people have been murdered by Muslim jihadists.

BE REAL: THE ISLAMIC MISSION IS NOT GOING AWAY

Chuck Colson, in a 2006 speech, provided much needed context: In 732, barely a hundred years after the founding of Islam, a very significant battle was fought just outside of Paris at a place called Poitiers. Muslim armies seeking to conquer Europe were stopped. For the next 951 years Crusades were called to throw them back. The Muslims countered until finally, in 1683, the armies of the Ottoman Empire were decisively defeated by Polish and German infantry near Vienna. The date? September 11. Bin Laden didn’t choose that date out of thin air.^

Westerners assume that the conflict we have with Islam began in 2001. It began when Islam was founded and it has never stopped. I think the first thing Jesus would have his people understand is that Islam and its mission to overcome the west is not going away.

The question for us is, how are followers of Jesus to react to this reality? Make up your mind to love people in Islam, even the violent ones, with the love of Christ (Matthew 5:43-48).

I confess that when I hear that there is a man in town trying to start a mosque my immediate reaction is to dislike him. But Jesus tells us otherwise. As a Muslim the man may be an enemy of the gospel. But as a man he is loved by God every bit as much as God loves me. I am to treat him with all of the respect and kindness that I would any Christian.

We aren’t to fear Islam or Muslims. We aren’t to seek revenge for 9-11 or other attacks. Biblically, it is the role of the state to pursue justice and punish evil. As believers we are to seek peace in all of our personal contacts, to overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:17-21).

The second thing I think Jesus would tell us is that loving our enemies and seeking peace doesn’t mean being naïve. I think he would tell us to:

BE ON GUARD
Just before sending the twelve apostles on a mission trip Jesus warned them not to be naïve. He also told them not to be afraid to speak the truth no matter what the cost (Matthew 10:16-28). Paul did essentially the same thing with his protégé Timothy. “Be on your guard…” (2 Timothy 4:14-15). We need to be on our guard against the mission and the mandate of Islam.

Most Muslims are like most other religious people in the world: they are concerned with making a living, educating their children, worshiping their god and keeping food on the table. But the keepers of Quranic Islam, the conservatives who insist on implementing Sharia, aren’t interested in assimilating into Western culture on an equal footing with other religions.

Omar Ahmed, the founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim “civil liberties” group in the United States said:

“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”**

Many westerners in government and in churches are being foolish about Quranic Islam. They are ignoring the slow and steady insurgency of Sharia into our legal system, and creeping Sharia law creates the conditions from which violence springs.

What is Sharia? After Mohammed finished writing the Quran there was a three hundred year long discussion and argument about how it was to be interpreted and applied. That was settled into what is known as the hadith (a kind of official commentary on the Quran) upon which Sharia law is based.

“Sharia is an all-encompassing legalistic structure for the Islamic way of life, determining what is forbidden and what is permitted. It contains detailed instructions for personal daily life and how to practice the pillars of Islam.”^^

The West is making accommodations to Sharia everywhere. What is important to remember about this is that each time Sharia wins a victory, be it in the legislature or the courtroom or academia or business, any attempts to reverse it or question it, any opposition to it, becomes in Islamic thought not a defense of the Constitution, not a matter of freedom of speech and not a defense of religious liberty; it becomes an attack on Islam itself which, according to the Quran, justifies jihad.

And that brings us back to the attack on Charlie Hebdo. Hebdo is an equal opportunity insulter when it comes to religion. It’s what we call freedom of speech. But we are so committed to the idea of multi-culturalism and so afraid of the charge of Islamophobia that we aren’t taking into account the fact that Islam’s intent is to implement Sharia everywhere, not just in mosques. Thus, we aren’t speaking forthrightly about it. These murderers, along with all the other perpetrators of such crimes, were acting in accord with their Quranically informed consciences, pursuing what they saw as their duty under Sharia law. We are fools to believe that appeasement will bring an end to such things. We need to be on guard.

*Abd al-Rahman al-Ajar, personal representative of the Pasha of Tripoli quoted in Michael B. Oren’s Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, pg. 27
^Colson, Chuck; Presentation to the Wilberforce Forum Centurions Program Participants, Given March 4, 2006
**Sookhdeo, Patrick, The CHALLENGE OF ISLAM To the Church and Its Mission, pg. 15; Isaac Publishing. Quoting Lisa Gardiner in “American Muslim Leader Urges Faithful to Spread the Word,” San Ramon Valley (CA) Herald, July 4, 1998.
^^ Ibid, p. 25.