The Loveless Church at Ephesus

“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,

“These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’
Revelation 2:2-17 NKJV

Most people who have a love for the Word of God can be quite zealous and Berean in nature. The ultimate desire is to do right and to be right. Separation from unrighteousness is a must. Cleaving to righteousness and truth is even more imperative. Where falsehood and deception exists, those who love the Word of God will challenge it for the sake of the deliverance of the untainted truth. And for good reason. Those who do not know the truth of the Word of God can fall into error and have their salvation at stake, right?

Well that was the personality of the church at Ephesus. However it was not always that way. Ephesus was tainted by the attitudes and ideas of the Nicolaitans. Then Paul came to town with a message for them to clean up their ways and to separate themselves from heresy.

Nicolas was a native of Antioch, a convert to Judaism, and then a follower of Christ. He was chosen by the whole multitude of the disciples to be one of the first seven deacons, and he was ordained by the apostles. He was a church leader. Nicolas became indifferent to life and the pleasures of the flesh and his followers took this as a licence to give in to lust. (That statement, as it relates to the influence of Church leadership, can preach all by itself!) The Nicolaitans claimed Nicolas as their founder.They lead lives of unrestrained indulgence, ate things sacrificed to idols, and were indifferent to the practice adultery.

When Paul came with his letter to the Ephesian church concerning how to live, there were those who agreed and latched on for life to those words taught by Paul. They were determined to be obedient and to separate themselves from the Nicolaitans. It was not easy. They faced opposition (that they were not afraid to confront) and they were very patient and persistent in their endeavors.

In their zeal to be separate from that heretical lifestyle, they neglected a very important teaching from Paul to love found in Ephesians 5:1-2. They were masters of Ephesians 5:3-7! In their zeal to obey and live right and in their detest for the heresy of the Nicolaitans they neglected  to do what they were known for. They were once known for their love for all the saints and yet neglected to love. So in Revelation 2:4-5 they are reminded to return to their loving nature.

There is a lesson in this for all who are zealous for the Word of God. Love cannot be sacrificed for perceived righteousness. 1 John 4:7-8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love”. In all of your zeal, love must prevail.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples,
if you have love for one another.” 
John 13:34-35 (NKJV)

In all of your zeal, love MUST prevail. The church at Ephesus received praise for their obedience to separate themselves, however they were given a stern warning concerning their lack of love.

“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works,
or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”
Revelation 2:4-5 (NKJV)

In today’s Body of Christ we have to remember to love. Have you ever known someone or a group of people who knew the Word of God really well, but they were “a matter of fact” and cold? Sanctification from those who know better and want to practice sin is necessary. Obedience is necessary. Compromise should not be an option. But all of this means nothing without love. We are known to be children of God by our love.

 

As a Man Thinketh…

Our thoughts can literally make or break us. I mean think about it: what can we accomplish that does not first require a thought? For this reason we must guard our “thought life” and fill our minds with how we would like our lives to play out.

There have been numerous books written on the power of thoughts and the power of positive thinking. But it was first represented in the Bible. God gave us many instructions concerning our thoughts. We should take those instructions very seriously. Let’s look at a few:

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…” Proverbs 23:7

This is a scripture that is most commonly used when considering the “thought life”. It seems self-explanatory and simple enough, however there are some context clues in the the rest of the scripture and the surrounding verses. Lets take a look at the scripture in context:

“Do not eat the bread of a miser, nor desire his delicacies; For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, and waste your pleasant words.” Proverbs 23:6-8

This scripture was written about a deceitful person who was thinking one thing, but doing another. God was saying that this person’s real character was evident in the plotting in his mind. I think this is why it is only God that can judge the heart of a man, because no matter how intelligent you think you are, you cannot tell for certain what anyone is thinking. Only God knows that. But what is certain is that eventually what a person thinks will show itself in their actions. You will BE what you THINK.

So what if your thoughts are not pure? What if you thoughts are more negative than what you are displaying physically? What if you are always thinking the worse about people, places and things? How do you prevent that from becoming who you are?

There are three ways:

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2

This world is negative and naturally against the things of God (1 John 2:14-16). Not only that, but our natural carnal minds are enmity against God (or an enemy of God) (Romans 8:6-8). In order to prevent that from becoming who you are you must renew your mind daily with the Word of God. The more you study your Bible, the more it will cause a metamorphosis in your life. It will transform you into the person God intended for you to be and it will expose those traps that the enemy puts in place to you get out of God’s will.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

Arrest wrong thoughts with God’s Word. What does His Word say? That is what you should be thinking and saying. Don’t procrastinate. The longer your think negatively, the more it begins to change you and then you become that negative person you never wanted to be.

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9

Think positive and you’ll become positive. Not only will you become positive, you will have peace. And not just peace, God’s Peace! That is a peace that passes all natural understanding. (Phil.4:7).

It is time to begin to guard what you are thinking. Start meditating on the Word daily and steer your life in right direction.

 

Whole Again

Many of us have had our share of good times and bad times in life. There are days that are too wonderful to forget. We play them over and over in our minds in order to remember the feeling of joy. Then there are days that are so tragic in life that we work really hard to downplay the severity in order to survive the event. And that we do – survive.

It’s interesting. I”ve been watching the behaviors of people. It’s what I do. No, not for a living. I just like watching people. What motivates them? What makes them act and react? It is fascinating to me, both the complexities and simplicity of humanity. The patterns of human behavior are often very predictable, yet when we are experiencing certain moments in life that are overwhelming we often think our situations and reactions are so unique.

What I’m finding though is a pattern of behavior that is interestingly deceptive and damaging. It prevents us from living our lives in the abundance that Jesus gave His life for. So many are experiencing what I’m seeing and no one is admitting it. I am seeing a large amount of damaged individuals who have convinced themselves that they are okay mentally and emotionally, simply because they have survived a dramatic event. They are intelligent and have filled themselves with self-talk, but their behavior shows they are not over those tragic events. What’s really interesting is they think that no one notices.

Of course it is a victory to have survived, but it is a tragedy to bury the events in the dark cave of repression. When that happens the tragic aftermath of the event shows itself with either aggression, passive behavior, codependency, and/or addiction. Now, I’m sure when you read that last sentence your mind started to think about all  of the people you know who struggle with those problems. You probably thought about your controlling boss, your friend who lets everyone walk all over them, or your family member struggling with addiction. But I want to challenge you to take a good hard look at yourself.

Why do you work excessively hard to keep the peace? Why do you feel that small hint of panic when your environment feels aggressive? Why do you work so hard at daily giving people the “do it or else kind of attitude”? Why does it have to be your way or the highway? Why do you HAVE to be in control? Why is that THING controlling you? Why are you struggling to stop, but it seems like you can’t? Why do you make excuses for people? Why do you have to be the one to fix it?

If you find yourself in any of the questions above then you probably have some repressed issues that you need to deal with. That is good news if you decide to face the issues and actually work through them. However, many of us think we are ok because we are here in on piece. Meanwhile, we’re chipping away at ourselves and/or the people we care about with our words, controlling attitudes, addictions or codependent behaviors.

If you saw yourself in the questions above and you started to make excuses to validate your behavior, you could be in trouble. If you read the questions and you began to think, “yeah, why do I do that?” and then started to examine some of things you may not have conquered, yay for you! You could be on the road to healing that damaged part of you and being whole again.

Just because it has been a long time since __________ happened to you does not necessarily mean that you are over it. What does your behavior say abut whether or not you are over it?

There is hope. You can be whole again. There are steps you can take. I can begin to write an outline of what those are, but I’ve found a better resource than my words. It is a book called Breakthough. Don’t you want to breakthrough that fog that you’ve been in and begin seeing brighter days? Then don’t hesitate. Order a copy of the book and start now. As a matter of fact you can literally start now. While you are waiting on the book you ordered you can download a chapter of the book on this Perspicacity blog.

Don’t procrastinate. There is no better time than the present.

 

Breakthrough Review

Wow! How therapeutic! I have to admit that when I decided to read this book I did not believe it was a book written for me. I believed it was a book that would help me to relate to other people so that I could understand and help them through any issues they may be facing. If you’ve read the book you would laugh at the sentences above and realize immediately that I could fall in the “fixer” category.

There are so many people tiptoeing on the eggshells that has become their life. The sad things is that they believe they are walking tall and strong. Breakthrough, by Tim Clinton and Pat Sprinkle, will definitely cause you to face yourself and those issues that have been limiting you in life.

If you take your time through this book and really work the principles, as well as ask yourself the tough questions, you just may experience a Breakthrough!

 

Read a Chapter of Breakthrough

Click the here to download a sample chapter from “Break-Through”.

 

Your God Given Assignment, pt.1 – Numbers 4

 

 

Numbers Chapter 4

 

Everyone in the body of Christ has an appointed place all directed by the Holy Spirit, by God’s supreme design (1 Cor 12:4-14). The organization of this was seen with the children of Israel in Numbers chapter 4. It is in this chapter that God is giving the tribes of Israel their assignments. In giving those assignments God is being very specific about the age of the men being selected.

With every call there comes a level of maturity necessary. It is a ripening of the character that is required before operating fully in the assignment to which one is called. In Numbers chapter 4 you see God choosing men between the ages of 30-50. This was an age of maturity. It was the age where they would be at their best. Any younger could produce childish and youthful ways. Now you will see men chosen in different areas of Numbers (chapt. 8) at the age of 25 and sometimes you would see them at 20, however they were in a time of probation and preparation.

There is much to learn from what we see above. We often want to go from knowing what our call is to operating  fully in it. That is usually not the case. Even Jesus had a time of preparation. Moses had 40 years after he realized his call. He had to prepare and it was not easy. It is necessary to be patient in that time of preparation. If we’re not and step out on our own or if we are appointed by others before our time, we can bring damage to the people around us and to ourselves.

Giver’s Prayer

Father,

As I give this offering, I give it willingly and cheerfully in order to provide resources to spread the gospel. I thank you Lord that you have blessed me with abundance so that I am able to give.

I pray that this seed is multiplied to do your good will. I pray that it is used to feed the hungry, to give drink to those who are thirsty, to provide for the widow and to spread the truth of your Word and the hope that is given to us through Jesus.

I thank you Lord that as you continue to bless me that I am able to be a blessing to others.

In Jesus’ Name I pray.

Amen!

 

The Oil, The Light and the Candlestick (Lev. 24:1-4)

” ¹And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ²Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually.³Without the vail of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations. ⁴He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually.”
(Leviticus 24:1-4)

The lamps must always be kept burning. The law for this was shown before in Exodus 27:20,21. It is repeated here, probably because it now beginning to be put into execution. The people were to provide oil (Leviticus 24:2), and this, as everything else that was to be used in God’s service, must be of the best, pure olive-oil, beaten. It was probably double-strained. This was to cause the lamps to burn.  All  of our English copies read it lamps, but in the original it is singular (Leviticus 24:2–to cause the lamp to burn). It is then plural in Leviticus 24:4—he shall order the lamps.  The seven lamps made all one lamp. Why is this important?  Because the blessed Spirit of grace is represented by seven lamps of fire before the throne (Revelation 4:5),( 1 Corinthians 12:4).

The priests were to tend the lamps; they must snuff them, clean the candlestick, and supply them with oil, morning and evening (Leviticus 24:3,4). It is the work of the ministers of the gospel to hold forth that word of life, not to set up new lights, but, by expounding and preaching the word, to make the light of it more clear and extensive. Also considering that we are the vessel in which the Holy Spirit dwells, we as priest, should tend to this vessel.

Notice the elements of this passage: Pure olive oil brought by the people was to be the fuel which produced the light of the candelabra. It was to burn continuously and was never to go out. It was especially to be burning at night. From evening to morning Aaron was responsible to keep the light going because then, of course, this was the sole illumination of the tabernacle. And the light was to be placed on the golden candlestick.

What does all this mean? If you are familiar with these beautiful symbols of the Old Testament you can easily interpret the passage.

• Light is very often represented in scripture as truth.  God has given us a mental faculty, a rational abilityto think, to explore, to search out, to investigate, to study and correlate and relate one aspect of life to another. The whole functioning of the mind is designed to produce truth.
• Notice that the light (THE truth) is produced by the oil, and oil is, in Scripture, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. So here is truth produced and made known by the Holy Spirit; in other words, truth revealed by God. That is to be the governing faculty in man. That is where we are to get our basic understanding of who we are, and where we are, of what life is all about, and what the world is here for, and how the universe functions. All this is to come from the mind illuminated by the Spirit.

• The light is to be held up by the golden candlestick, and gold is always the symbol of Deity.

All this is a marvelous picture of how believers are to function in the world. We are to start with the mind taught by God to see life as God sees it. Most of the problems which come into our lives originate because we don’t do this. We all tend to come and sit and listen to truth from the Word of God on Sunday, which explains what life is like, how people are to live, what we are to do, and how we are to react to the situations which confront us, and we all pay attention and are helped and stirred and nod our heads in agreement, but on Monday morning we go back to our business, our shop, our kitchen, our homes and family relationships – the ordinary circumstances of life – and we forget all about it! We revert to natural thinking and start acting again like everybody else around us.

But the whole purpose of the services we attend is that we might be governed not by natural thinking, but by a mind illuminated by the truth which God reveals about life – which is the way it really is.

There is probably nothing more desperately necessary for Christians today than that we personally and individually expose our minds and thoughts to the revelation of God’s truth and consistently practice looking at life as he tells us it is, not as the world or our feelings say it is – and that we take his teaching seriously. To fail to do so is what gets us confounded and confused and acting out in the flesh.

Our flesh will deceive us into thinking that what we can rationalize is truth. But God’s thoughts are so much higher than ours and we must be willing to surrender our finite knowledge to God’s infinite knowledge. We don’t need to add to or take away from what God says or instructs in the Bible to suit what we feel is the right way it should be interpreted. Instead let’s decide that God knows exactly what He meant to say. We are the created. He is the Creator. Face it, He knows more than we do. We can rely on being guided by His truth and His Spirit.

God, His light of Truth and His Spirit – it is all represented here in the oil, the light, and the candlestick.

From pbc.org and Mathew Henry Commentary

 

Rest – Leviticus 25

Rest

The first verse in Leviticus 25 starts with “And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai”. God gave most of the book of Leviticus to Moses as he stood in the entry door of the tabernacle. There the LORD unfolded the sacrifices and the ceremonies, the rituals and the cleansings – all of which speak of the work of Christ on our behalf. They had to do with redemption, with handling the problem of evil in the individual heart. But when God begins to speak about government he speaks from Sinai. The Ten Commandments were given from Sinai and from Sinai God gives to Moses the information and regulations concerning the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee.

God selected this people to be His chosen people and to be a demonstration, a model nation, to teach the rest of the nations how God operates in the world. Also He is teaching how He desires and intends to run every nation.  This is why what was said to Israel is so significant.

Sabbath

In the first seven verses are the instructions concerning the sabbatical year:

And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD. ³ Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; ⁴ but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. ⁵ What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. ⁶ And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, ⁷ for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food

I am sure you are familiar with the weekly Sabbath, with the fact that God had marked out one day in seven to be observed by Israel  as a day of rest from labor. It is a very important principle.  This Sabbath lies at the heart of everything God does, from creation on. Many say that the Sabbath is an old testament law, however the Sabbath appears before the law. God does want us to accept His gift of rest. If it is good enough for Him, it is good enough for us.

1. Genesis 2:2
   And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
   Genesis 2:1-3 (in Context) Genesis 2 (Whole Chapter)
2. Genesis 2:3
   Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
   Genesis 2:2-4 (in Context) Genesis 2 (Whole Chapter)
3. Genesis 8:4
   Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
   Genesis 8:3-5 (in Context) Genesis 8 (Whole Chapter)

In Hebrews 4 God speaks of the eternal Sabbath. So when I say that the Sabbath is not obsolete, it is because He meant from the beginning to preface the eternal Sabbath. Just as Jesus tells us to take communion in remembrance of what he has done. God asks us to keep the Sabbath not only for what He has done but He will do. In essence as we live our lives for Him we are putting in the six days and when he comes back for us we enter the Sabbath rest.

I believe God wants to drive home to human hearts an absolutely necessary truth, one which is fundamental to our humanity, and that is that we must operate out of rest. Haven’t you discovered that in your own life? It is so stressful when we are filled with anxiety and pressure, and when in all our  activity we get restless and feverish and upset, and we press on thinking that it all depends upon us, that we’ve got to get everything done ourselves.  We have to make it happen. It drives us crazy, because we don’t have enough time nor energy and it sometimes seems as though we don’t have the opportunity we need!

What God is trying to show us is that this was never His design for human lives.  Mankind is supposed to operate out of rest.  When you rest and relax and depend on the promises of God you are invoking those promises to manifest.

Now we come to the sabbatical year. Not only was one day out of seven to be rested, but one year out of seven. Every seventh year Israel was to let the land rest for a year.  They were not to sow any crops or to reap anything. They were not even to prune the vineyards, but were to let the trees and the vines grow without hindrance. They were to eat nothing which grew of itself, but were to let the land lie.  (How many of you who made a living off of your crops or used them for food would have an issue with this?)

This is actually a very important principle of horticulture.  You can write the U.S. Department of Agriculture  and they will send you pamphlets which urge you to allow your land to rest every now and then.  The result will be, as this passage tells us in Verse 6, an increase of yield.  You will get much more out of the land if you let it rest periodically, because it needs to rest. (Selah – pause and calmly think of that).

Two consecutive years were to be observed as Sabbath years; the forty-ninth year would be a sabbatical year, and the fiftieth was a year of jubilee.  So there would be two years without the planting of crops.

Here’s the answer to the question people would normally raise: “Well, if we have to let the land lie and can’t reap any crops or harvest any grapes or anything, how are we going to eat?”  Or “if we are not doing anything, how are we going to produce any results”? And God says, “That’s exactly what I wanted you to ask, because I’m trying to impress a principle upon you:  It isn’t the land which supports you; it is I. It is not the works of your hands, it is I that gives you the power to gain wealth (Deuteronomy 8). According to what is written here in Leviticus, He will cause them to have an abundant harvest the years prior and after  in order to provide time for this rest. Every seventh year He wanted us experience the fact that He is able to take care of us despite the outward circumstances, that it is God that we  are dependent on, not the land, not our own energy and labor. Although that is part of the picture, that is not where our well-being arises.  It comes from God.

The Heart of the Matter

In Verses 18-22 you have the heart of this chapter. Here are great principles involved in the year of jubilee, which, remember, is itself an intensified sabbath year.

 ¹⁸ ‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. ¹⁹ Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety. ²⁰ ‘And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” ²¹ Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. ²² And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest. {Lev 25:18-22 RSV}

(Read  Joshua 1:8)
 

So God makes a beautiful three-fold promise – Lev 25:18-22. First, security:  “Keep my ordinances and perform them, so you will dwell in the land securely.  The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell in it securely.” This forms a parenthesis.  At the beginning and the end of this great promise he emphasizes that no one will attack you, no enemy will come against you, you’ll be safe and secure if you learn this principle of rest from work. Second, you will be able to produce the crop without struggle:  “The land will yield its fruit.”  With relative ease the crop will grow.  Arduous toil and sweat and pain and trouble and tears won’t be necessary.  The land will readily produce its crop. Third, there will be a sufficiency of supply: “You will eat your fill.”  All you can eat! Every seventh year, and every fiftieth year, you will have all you want, because God is at work.

Rest is meant to recharge, rebuild and replenish. Each time you reap crops, you reap out the nourishment from the soil. If you don’t allow the ground recharge it ceases to yield nourishments. It has no more strength to yield out. That is the same for us.

Rest is a growth phase – like babies and adolescences. During rest the body is building up its strength to support growth just like the ground with the Sabbath and just like us when we rest.

I know we often defer to the spiritual rest. However, there is an actual rest. If I do not sleep and just say that I will rely on God’s strength to get me through while I work, then my body will surely give out on me. Our muscles, among other things regenerate, recharge and repair while we are sleeping. God made rest necessary to our physical, emotional and mental survival. You don’t have to be afraid. If you are obedient God has already made supplication for the time while you are resting. This is more than about having a day off.  It is about obedience to observe all that God has commanded us to do – then he will provide more than enough and then we will enjoy his Sabbath rest. (Joshua 1:8)

We often work so hard because we are after success. However the word success is only in one place in the bible Joshua  1:8 – He gives us the formula. Obedience = rest. Disobedience = unrest. When are not in that successful place then we tend to work harder and not rest. But I challenge you to before you begin to work harder – ask God for direction. Did you miss something, get out of His will, or get off somewhere? It may not be a matter of work, it may be a matter of obedience. Because all we should truly have to do is what God has commanded us to do and if we do it then we would have good success and can honor God by accepting the Sabbath rest that he has provided for us.

God does not want us to be burned out or stressed out. He has provided times of necessary rest and even liberty (which is the premise of Jubilee). Let’s accept that gift, refuel, recharge and be strengthened. Let’s make a promise to ourselves and each other resolve what’s keeping us from that rest by seeking God will and way. Because according to Leviticus 25-18-22 if we are obedient he will provide more than enough to allow us to enjoy His gift of rest.

To close, let’s not forget this something very important. We’ve reviewed in great detail how this rest will benefit our lives, Even in this but remember that the Sabbath was holy unto THE LORD. Not us, but Him. So make sure you are worshiping Him and reading His Word during that time of rest. If you are not doing that you are missing the point entirely.

 

Large parts of the message was taken from http://www.pbc.org/messages/3582

 

Being More than Ordinary

Have you ever heard someone say or maybe even you said out loud, “I’m just your ordinary….” or “I am an ordinary…”. Have you ever paid attention to the definition of the word ordinary?

or·di·nar·y [awr-dn-er-ee]
1. of no special quality or interest; commonplace; unexceptional
2. plain or undistinguished
3. somewhat inferior or below average; mediocre.

Now, who really wants to be ordinary? No one! So why would anyone call themselves ordinary? Let’s be real. The statement itself gives us permission not to do anything more than what we feel like doing. It is the pajamas, mask, and bed of laziness and/or burnout.

I know there was a time in your life when you had big dreams and wanted to accomplish extraordinary things. However, somewhere something got off track. You are running on the treadmill of life. You know what I mean – panting, getting tired, and sweating profusely, but getting nowhere.

Step off the treadmill and into your prayer closet. Be refreshed by the water of the Word. Pour your heart out to the Lord. It may be time to hit the reset button and place your feet back on the path that you were originally supposed to walk on. Things get heavy when we get off track, however His yoke is easy and His burden is light. So take some time to get back on track.

It is then that you will cease to settle for ordinary and be inspired to do the extraordinary. Wouldn’t you much rather be extraordinary?

ex·traor·di·nar·y – [ik-strawr-dn-er-ee, ek-struh-awr-]
1. beyond what is usual, ordinary, regular, or established.
2. exceptional in character, amount, extent, degree, etc.;noteworthy; remarkable.