YAY!!

When Turning Makes Sense

Amazing Picture

Amazing.

One picture represents years of accumulated and various experiences, that have also been transferred to another, through an effective training system.

This is a friend, Peggy, from church, who with her husband, Bill, have spent a life time, [as long as the rest of us have been alive] training horses and performing, (with excellence).

Any learning points here for becoming a healthy church that is Turning Hearts Toward God?

• Accumulated experiences
• Effective transfer
• Informed observation

Having just relocated to Tennessee, we were looking for the church God wanted us to serve in. On our first visit to Whites Creek Baptist Church, among the fine loving people, my soul stepped into sync with Bill and Peggy. Gingerly attempting my fledgling attempts to initiate conversations, I asked Bill about his belt buckle. It was shiny and large, and looked natural with his boots, jeans and western shirt. I was not prepared for his response. "I earned it." I had spent time in rodeo bleachers, admiring the skills, but never talking to a rider.

Bill and Peggy have spent years breaking and training horses to compete at levels of competition that earned them a living. Together they produced horses that others would pay considerable amounts for, (quite some distance above my pay grade).

They would buy a horse. Break the horse. I am pretty sure that means, meeting a horse where he is at, and turning him from his misdirected ambitions, and turning him toward skilled productive service. Something which I believe the horse actually learns to desire. 

This is fascinating.

What if people, (who are also known as church), could mimic this dynamic. Engage people who are running from God with misdirected ambitions, and turn them toward God in the skilled productive service of turning hearts toward God?

Accumulated experiences. This level of accomplishment does not come from only reading about it. The things we need to do, we need to learn by doing. Getting out in the corral. Working hard. Daily. Over time. Failing.  Falling. Making improvements. These various experiences contributed to their goal. Also, they leaned into their strengths. They did what God had gifted and designed them to do. That has always been the sustainable way. They may not have been as long-term successful on the NASCAR circuit. Although I admire their abilities, I am not fussing because I cannot train and ride like them.

It is by accumulating various experiences, as we follow the Father's lead that we grow in ability to effectively turn hearts toward God. The things we need to do, we need to learn by doing. Only reading about it is not the same as doing. Making even feeble repeated attempts to grow in godliness, initiate conversations or to serve, results in deposits in your resource reservoir for further use.

What do you thoroughly enjoy doing? What are your top three gifts? How has God designed you? Unwrap your gifts. Practice using them. Get familiar with them. Become skillful with them. Lean into your strengths. This is sustainable activity that gets results and glorifies the Father.

Effective transfer.  Knowing how to break and train a horse, and thinking one is skilled at the task will always come up short if the horse does not perform up to the expectations. Skill is meant for demonstration. When a trainer can successfully navigate the horse through the transitions from the horse’s misdirected ambitions, and turn him toward skilled sustained productive service, then the trainer’s skill has been demonstrated.

And yet the focus is not on the trainer, but on the performance of the horse. The evaluative question is, “Is the horse’s progress in step with the amount of time and training invested in it?” What are the best activities to facilitate the horse’s transitions and accomplishments? How can we make the horse win?

Assuming that one has the knowledge and skill for turning hearts toward God will come up short if it is not characterized by reproductivity. The performance standard requires me to invest in you in such a way that you will be capable of investing in your friend, who will, because of the quality of your investment in her; she will be capable of fruitful investment in her friend.

This level of achievement requires an effective transfer of knowledge and skill. Time spent together. Doing things together. Going places together. The things we need to do, we need to learn by doing. Ask, “What is the best way for my friend to learn this and to develop proficiency?” “Who’s helping me to help her?”

Informed observation. To a person who knows barrel racing, the above picture tells them a good deal about the horse and its rider.

Not knowing what to look for severely hamstrings the process of turning hearts toward God.

Assuming one knows what to look for severely hamstrings the process of turning hearts toward God.

What belongs in the picture that captures the essence of turning hearts toward God?

How do you know these features belong in the picture? What justifies their presence?

I've been zinged

Fall 2014 Update - The Move, plus . . .

Doing the right things and yet . . .

If you call yourself a Christian, a Christ follower, and rely on God’s Word for daily re-calibrating, and boast in God’s provision and protection, and know His will and approve of the irreducible essentials, being taught the Bible by stellar teachers, and are confident that you yourself are a guide for those growing in godliness and light for turning hearts toward God, a corrector of foolishness, a teacher of the immature, having in the Bible the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you who teach another, do you not teach yourself?

You who teach how to follow Christ, do you follow yourself?

You who preach do not covet, do you covet?

You who say that one should not commit adultery, do your eyes or emotions commit adultery?

You who abhor idols, do you turn to your comfort idols?

You who boast in God’s Word, through your drifting from God’s will, do you dishonor God?

For “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.

[Now compare Rm 7.14-25. What are the similarities?]

For indeed Bible reading and prayer are of value if you practice God’s will, but if you are a transgressor of God’s ways, your Bible reading and prayers become non-Bible reading and non-prayers. So if a non-Bible reader does God’s will, will he not be regarded as a Bible reader? For he is not a Christ follower who is one outwardly, but he is a Christ follower who is one inwardly, one whose heart is turned toward God, by the Spirit, not by externals; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

(A modified applicational reading of Romans 2.12-29, craving today’s demonstration.)

Solution:

Romans 8, heart of the solution.

Solution summary:

Two agents responsible for sustainable change.

“ . . . if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8.13

This is a winnable war.

Turning Hearts Toward God,

Paul A Lewis

Rocky Mountain Raspberry, Update 1308