Time with My Friend

A friend is someone I will make time for. If someone offers friendship to me, it's a rare privilege, but if I do not make time to be with him, we are not friends. Moses understood this.

"The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend."

- Exodus 33:11

This is the kind of relationship with God I desire, that he would talk with me "as a man speaks to his friend." In Moses' time this was a very rare privilege that was unavailable to the rest of the Israelites. But today this kind of relationship is accessible because of Jesus. He called his followers (and that includes you and me)  his "friends" (John 15:15).

 Moses pleaded with God to not give up on his people but to continue to personally go with them on their journey. God reassured Moses, "you have found favor with me, and you are my friend" (Ex. 33:17).

I have favor with God and I am his friend, not because of anything great I have done, but because Jesus has made it accessible to me--and you. Both Moses and Jesus modeled this friendship with God by spending time with him, abiding with him.

As someone who desires to be a leader after God's own heart, friendship with God is available to me--what a privilege! My response is to to stop from my busyness, rest, abide, hang out with God for awhile today, spend time with my friend. That's what I'm going to do. How about you?

Who a Leader Listens to

A leader must know who to listen to.

When Moses failed to come back down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. "Look," they said, "make us some gods who can lead us...." So Aaron said, "Tell your wives and sons and daughters to take off their gold earrings, and then bring them to me." All the people obeyed Aaron and brought him their gold earrings. Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded and tooled it into the shape of a calf. The people exclaimed, "O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt!"

- Exodus 32:1-4, NLT

Aaron had been chosen by God as Israel's High Priest. And yet he totally blew it. He was a leader who led the people the wrong way. His intentions may not have been bad, but he listened to the wrong voices.

As a leader, I have to be careful not to lead God's people to worship anything other than God! Regardless of how much people ask and plead and push--no matter what seemingly great ideas they have, I must not give in. A leader after God's own heart learns to listen to one voice above all the babble of human voices. A leader after God's own heart has spent enough time with God to know and follow his voice and lead others to worship and serve him only.

Some of those human voices will be very strong, and we will be tempted to listen to and follow them. Some will reverberate with reason and a certain power and authority, yet God's still small voice is more powerful to the leader after God's own heart. Some human voices promise popularity, power, position, and even prosperity, but the leader after God's own heart does not give in to them.

What "golden calf" have I made for the people I lead? Numbers? Buildings? Organization? Programs? ? The success of my church or ministry or group? Is it time to stop, ask for God's forgiveness, and turn back toward the one true God?


Oh, Father, you have called me to leadership in your church and I want to follow you because I know your voice! Amid the babble of all the other human voices competing for my attention, I desire to hear your still, small voice loud and clear. As a leader after your own heart, Father, help me to stay true to you and your way so that I may lead people to worship nothing and no one else but you.

Follow the Instructions

I love building things, but I hate following instructions. So, I often end up with extra pieces ... or find I've skipped a step, so I have to take half the thing apart and rebuild it ... or the "completed" project just does not work. I end up having to look at the directions anyway to see where I went wrong. It was like that when the Israelites were building the Tabernacle and it's like that today when God is using us to build our families, our small groups, or his church. He told Moses,

"They must follow exactly all the instructions I have given you."

- Exodus 31:11

It was not enough that God called and gifted specific people to build his Tabernacle, they were to do it exactly the way he had instructed them. It's the same today. He calls us and He gifts us to carry out His instructions for His church.

God did not provide detailed instructions in the New Testament for building his church as he did for the construction of the Tabernacle or Temple in the Old Testament. Or maybe he has, but the instructions are different.

The New Testament church is about relationships, not structures. God now resides in the hearts of his people, not in buildings. God now provides grace-based guidelines rather than legalistic regulations. Therefore his instructions today are relational in nature. They are about how to be in relationship with him and one another.

Yes, we still need to follow God's instructions, and when we don't, his church does not work very well. There are "extra pieces" that don't seem to fit. We have to constantly go back and try to fix things that are not working. Or the church just does not seem to work at all. So we finally go back and see what the instructions say:

• Love one another
• Carry each others' burdens
• Serve one another
• Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another
• Honor one another above yourselves
• Submit to one another
• Teach and admonish one another
• Bear with one another
• Encourage one another

Imagine if we followed exactly these instructions the Lord has given us!

It's OK to Bowl Alone

Yesterday I went bowling alone, and I enjoyed it immensely. I was in Evansville, Indiana, with my son Dru and his friend Christian who were in a bouldering competition. I had a couple hours to kill before the comp actually started, so I puttered around Barnes & Noble and then went bowling. Around the fourth frame of the third game, I thought about the book, Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam, which describes the decline of community in America since 1950. But I was really enjoying my time bowling alone! And then I thought of Jesus and how he often got away from the crowds to be in solitude.

"But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."

- Luke 5:16

It may be surprising to hear a community junkie like me say this, but I believe that being in community and being in solitude are equally vital for our spiritual and emotional health. They form a symbiotic relationship. As the church today we are doing a great job promoting community, but a poor job promoting solitude.

In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said,

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community . . . Let him who is not in community beware of being alone . . . Each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils. One who wants to fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.

Father, help me to live a balanced life in both community and solitude. Help me to enjoy times alone with you and times together in community. Help me to be more Christ-like ... to not fear being alone, but to often seek time away from the crowds and the groups to be alone with you.