Confessions of a Rule Follower

By Sallie Clingman

Almost 33 years ago, I obeyed God for the first time.
I got on my knees and said, "God, I don't understand about sin except I know I've done it; I don't understand about forgiveness except I know I need and want it; and I certainly don't understand how You can come live in my heart, but that's what I'm asking You to do."
Of all the things He could have asked me to do in obedience to Him, the one thing He wanted was for me to humble my heart and invite Him to be the God of my life.
Somehow I understood that God had made promises to me and that the Christian life was going to be the continual unfolding of these wonderful promises.
A couple of years later, I heard Bill Bright talk about the Holy Spirit and how God takes the responsibility to produce the Christian life in each of us. I longed to be obedient. I wasn't always, but something had happened in my heart, and I wanted to be obedient for the rest of my life.
What began to unfold, however, was a temptation to perform. Despite my desire to obey, too often I found myself caught up in performance and pretense.
As I've reflected on that paradox, I have found 5 distinctions between performing and obeying.
1. Obedience is fueled by relationship; performance is fueled by rules.
Relationships are powerful. "Come follow Me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men" (Mark 1:17, New International Version). To follow Him is a relationship idea.
In contrast, rules are impotent. Even God's rules are impotent.
I thought hearing what God requires of me ought to change me, but the law has no power whatsoever.
It takes God to fulfill God's rules. His rules were intended to provide a loving relationship with Him, which motivates and empowers us to do right.
2. Obedience appreciates the journey, while performance demands the destination.
We look someplace beyond where we are at and say, "I should be over there. I've been a Christian 10 years, and I'm still doing the same things -- what is wrong with me?"
We picture God saying, "Why aren't you over here?" That is such a false, defeating view of God. He is not over there; He is right here beside us.
The Christian life is not just the destination, it's the journey. Faith is daring to believe there is grace where I am right now.
A fitting example comes from my younger brother. When he was 12, his body was so gangly; first his nose got big, and then his hands. His arms were so skinny and his hands were so big, they looked like hams hanging on strings. He was sick of this awkwardness.
One day he was pouring some milk only using one hand, and milk went everywhere -- all over the cabinet, down between the cabinet and the stove, into the drawers.
He sobbed his heart out, saying, "I hate myself!"
Mother was standing nearby, and she quickly ran over to him-not to clean up the mess at first, but to comfort him. She put her arms around him and said, "Honey, it's OK. This is just part of growing up. I love you." Then they cleaned up the mess.
What happened there didn't dawn on me until years later, when I realized that sometimes I spill the milk.
I say the wrong things. I do the wrong things. I'm clumsy. I'm awkward. And I think God has His hands on His hips, saying, "I've told you a thousand times, don't spill the milk. What is wrong with you?"
But God is more like my mother, with His arms open wide to embrace me in my clumsiness and awkwardness. He says, "Honey, it's OK. I love you. This is just part of growing up. We're going somewhere together. It will take a while, but it will not take forever."
3. Obedience invests in character, while performance invests in reputation.
A great illustration of this point is the story of Ananias and Sapphira, told in Acts 5:1-11.
They observed Barnabas sell a piece of property and give all the proceeds to the church, to be distributed to those in need. Maybe they were mesmerized by the celebrity that came to Barnabas, because they went home and said, "We've got property. Let's sell it and give the money, but keep a little for ourselves."
There was no problem with that except that they lied and pretended to give it all.
More investment in reputation than in character was a fatal flaw for them. Reputation is a human-being-to-human-being thing; character is first of all a human-being-to-God thing.
4. Obedience confesses tendencies, but performance deals with tragedies.
If I pretend I'm OK -- because I think I have to be OK -- things like lust, greed or hot tempers are ignored until everything blows up in my face.
Small tendencies ignored will end in tragedy. That's why we must walk in the light and talk to God often about these tendencies.
John said, "If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:6,7; NIV).
One of the great needs of the human heart is someone to whom I can tell my deepest, darkest secrets and have that someone accept me. God is a safe, merciful Person to whom I can humbly go and confess my tendencies, and get His help to protect me from the tragedies.
5. Obedience is satisfied with God's adequacy, but performance longs for personal power.
Somehow we get it in our minds that maturity means being able to do things without God's help.
Have you ever thought that your weaknesses are the most powerful things about you? God wants to maintain His position as the strong one. He wants us to be submitted to His great power to produce all the things in our lives that He wants for us and that we long for ourselves.
I am repelled by pretense. I remember growing up and seeing my high-school friends pretending things, and it sent a shudder through my body. I wanted these people to be honest. Then I realized that despite my hunger to be obedient, I was doing a lot of pretending.
It is such a relief to know I can be honest. And there's great fruit from it. When I sense God saying to me, "Sallie, love your neighbor," I can say "yes" to Him. And when I obey, 3 things happen: God gets glory, I get joy, and someone else receives a blessing.
Without obedience, there will be no harvest. And without rejecting performance and pretense, there will be no obedience.
But praise be to God, who lives within us, empowering us to be honest and real. To put aside all pretense. To stop demanding the destination. To lay aside living by the rules and hanging on to my tendencies until they explode in my face. To put aside trying to be strong in myself.
What a blessing He is to us.

How One Person Can Change the World

Remember your favorite teacher? She showed you how the lesson applied to everyday life. Maybe he helped you to experience his passion for a subject firsthand.
But even good teachers rarely expect their pupils to become the teacher to someone else. God expects more.
He has always built a pass-along principle into His creation. God never intended that any living thing He created should just be born, live and die.
When it comes to evangelism, it's not enough to make converts and teach them the basics of the faith; we need to make sure that each one we reach can pass on the life of the kingdom to others who can pass it on to others.
Why is this principle absolutely vital?
1. It's biblical
The first 2 commands that God gave mankind were "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). He was saying, "I want more like you -- lots more!"
Jesus Christ demonstrated the principle several times, not the least when He gave us the Great Commission: "...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matthew 28:20, emphasis mine).
In other words, Jesus told His disciples to teach their disciples everything He first taught them. And look what happened: "Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied" (Acts 6:7, New King James Version).
In only a few years, they had "turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6, NKJV). Take notice: This was without the benefit of radio, TV, the printing press or the Internet.
Instead, the responsibility was borne by each individual.
Consider the apostle Paul's strategic mission statement in 2 Timothy 2:2. He didn't limit himself to developing a doctrinally sound, well-trained Timothy.
Instead, Paul was looking 2 generations beyond his young disciple: "The things which you [second generation] have heard from me [first generation] in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men [third generation] who will be able to teach others also [fourth generation]."
2. It works
Let's have a race. But we won't match athletes or cars; we'll match strategies. The finish line for our race? Winning all 6 billion people in the world to Jesus Christ.
One competitor will be "Reach the World by Addition." With this strategy, we will equip a church to add 1,000 people to heaven's roll every year. No, wait -- let's think big: Let's equip 10,000 churches to accomplish this supernatural goal every year.
Our other competitor will be...one guy. Meet Joe Multiplier, one lone fellow who decides to lead one person to Christ every year, disciple the new believer and train him how to do the same with someone else. By teaching others to become teachers, Joe will multiply himself.
You might be thinking, "No contest! Poor Joe is going to get smoked!" Well, do the math. The addition strategy, as impressive as it looks on the surface, will take 600 years to reach the world, and that's assuming a zero population-growth rate.
But since statistics suggest that we're currently adding 135 million to the world's population each year, the followers of the addition strategy will actually never reach the finish line.
Joe's strategy, on the other hand, will surpass it. Surely, he starts slow: After one year, there are only 2 disciples. At the end of the second year, 4. Third year, there are 8 followers of Jesus. Fourth year, 16. However, by year 33, you will have more than 8.5 billion Christians.
Worried about the population explosion? No problem -- we'll be at 34 billion Christians just 2 years later. Can you see the powerful potential of a ministry of multiplication, compared to one of addition?
3. It ensures quality
Think about what we're producing with the first strategy above. When we're busy cranking out 1,000 converts a year in a church, we don't have much time, energy or people to pay attention to their spiritual growth.
But Joe Multiplier, and those he has led to Christ and mentored, will spend quality time with each and every "baby" to make sure they are firmly grounded in their faith and able to pass it on to others. Each one becomes a new fountainhead of growth and reproduction.
Yes, this takes time, but quality always does.
In the 21st century, we demand production, numbers and results now. We are the microwave generation. But we must realize that the Eternal One still prefers the Crock-Pot.
His ways are always the best; He has eternity in mind. So how do I begin a ministry of spiritual multiplication?
PrayNever forget that God is infinitely more concerned with growth and reproduction than you could ever be. He causes and directs the growth, and generates spiritual transformation. And the most amazing thing of all is that He invites you to join in partnership with Him. So ask God what to do, who to begin investing your time in and how to start. As you begin working with someone, pray every day for love, discernment and direction.
ReadThe DNA of spiritual multiplication is disciplemaking. There are many great books that will inspire and inform you regarding how to engage in this vital, one-to-one or small-group ministry. For example, Robert Coleman's Master Plan of Evangelism, Bill Bright's How You Can Help Fulfill the Great Commission and my own Personal Disciplemaking have proven helpful to many people.
Find a "Barnabas"Paul built into Timothy's life, but for many years Barnabas built into Paul's. There is no better way to learn how to be a spiritual multiplier than to be on the receiving end of a multiplier's ministry. Find a more mature man or woman who would be willing and able to mentor you.
Have a planWhat will you do with your disciples? Teach them to study the Bible and apply it to their lives, but interact with all areas of their lives. Start out with a good, foundational Bible study, such as Campus Crusade for Christ's Ten Basic Steps Toward Spiritual Maturity, Priority Associates' Practical Christian Living or Disciplemakers International's Connecting With God.
Talk about it -- a lotDon't let the disciple forget that he is not meant to be a dead end, but a freeway. God wants to travel to many others through him and help them grow to maturity. That's not the model of teaching we are used to, so you will need to frequently remind him of the pass-along principle.
God's ministry method down through the ages has always been for us to work with the few to reach the many: "The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation" (Isaiah 60:22, New International Version). God wants to multiply His life a thousand-fold, and He wants to do it through you.

Obama Aborting America's Conscience

WASHINGTON, Mar. 6 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Obama administration published its official request to rescind the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regulation that clarifies that healthcare professionals have a right to conscience and should not be forced to participate in aborting a baby, or other medical services, that offend their moral convictions."President Obama is working to deprive the country of medical professionals who use their consciences when treating their patients," said Heartbeat International President Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D. "Women, babies, and families deserve conscientious healthcare by doctors who believe in the sanctity of human life. It is wrong for the U.S. government to condemn doctors who follow the Hippocratic principle of 'do no harm'. This is un-American.""The reversal of this regulation could cause conscientious doctors to stop practicing medicine leaving a significant void in the availability of healthcare providers. And the problem will be compounded if the government attempts to force Catholic hospitals to offer abortion." said Hartshorn. "Please email HHS to stop Obama's first attempt to purge healthcare of all people with religious or moral objections to taking human life."The official publication in the Federal Register indicates: "The [HHS] Department is proposing to rescind in its entirety the final rule entitled 'Ensuring That Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices in Violation of Federal Law,' published in the Federal Register on December 19, 2008."HHS accepts public comment for 30 days. Please send an email to proposedrescission@hhs.gov indicating that the December 19, 2008 regulation (73 FR 78072, 45 CFR Part 88) should not be rescinded. Heartbeat International affiliates provide all the facts on abortion - from post-traumatic stress disorder to possible medical complications - that abortion clinics often leave out. Heartbeat affiliates provide emotional support and practical help needed to sustain a healthy pregnancy. They set the standard for true reproductive healthcare for women in America.