The Monday Memo from John Stanko

904: Freewill Means Free Will

I had to take a week off last week as I prepared to leave for Kenya, where I am now. I have had a good first week of work and ministry and this coming week should be the same. If you live in or around Nairobi, I will be co-hosting a purpose seminar next Saturday, June 1. If you are interested in attending, and I hope you are, then please write me for more information.

We are almost finished with our series "Put Me In, Coach" in which we have examining the concept of the propriety of exerting and exercising our personal will when doing the will of God. Is it ever appropriate to see a situation and volunteer to be involved even if we do not sense the leading of the Lord? I have tried to make a case over these many weeks that it is and here is one more argument to help prove my case.

AN OFFERING

When Moses laid the plans before the people for the Wilderness tabernacle, he said it would be necessary to take an offering to the Lord to meet the construction cost. Here is how the people responded:

Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments. All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord. . . . All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the Lord freewill offerings for all the work the Lord through Moses had commanded them to do (Exodus 35:20-23, 29, emphasis added).

The phrase "who were willing" is used three times as Moses described how the people responded. What they gave was designated a freewill offering. Therefore, the Lord did not tell them how much to give. He only directed them to give and left how much up to each individual. He did not say, "Give what you want," and then as the people contemplated the amount, the Lord did not whisper, "ten talents of gold," only then to have the person give ten talents in obedience. That would not be a freewill offering. It would be a willing offering if the giver's heart was right, but not a freewill gift.

AN APPLICATION

Therefore, it was acceptable for the people to determine how much and what they were going to give toward the tabernacle, so let's see if we can apply this same principle to our situation today. We are building the church of Jesus and He has laid out what needs to be done. We have received gifts from the Spirit and we each have a purpose to develop and fulfill. If it was appropriate to give an offering of money or wealth for the tabernacle, why would it not be appropriate for us to give a freewill offering of who we are and what we do to the Lord's work as our hearts move us? 

What's more, since we are to exercise dominion over the earth as commanded in Genesis 1:28-29, why would it be inappropriate to offer those same gifts and talents to make the world a better place to the glory of God? Would God really be offended if you decided to help 50 orphans in Africa as an offering of thanks for His care and provision for your family? Do you think the Lord would respond, "Who told you to help 50 orphans? I only wanted you to help 10 orphans and let the other 40 suffer. How dare you step out of My will to do good? I am the boss around here, and you will do what I tell you to do--no more and no less."

That may sound preposterous, but it seems that some believe if they get ahead of the Lord or do too much or go too far that God will be displeased. My perspective is if God gave me a gift to write, then I must work to make it as good as it can be and then use it as often as possible. I spent nine years writing a verse-by-verse devotional of the entire New Testament. I started my publishing company to help other people write because I am a writer. It is a freewill offering of my gift to God's people to help them express their creativity and know the joy of having a published work. Did I go too far? Did I give too much? Am I outside the boundaries of what God permits? I will let you be the judge of that, while I continue to publish and write.

My point this week is that freewill means just that. We are to use our own judgment to freely and willingly give what we have and who we are to the world around us, both the church and society. God is not looking for slaves, although He does direct our work and at times will be quite specific about what He wants us to do and with whom. There are other times when the Lord poses the question, "What do you want to do?" and I maintain that it is permissible to respond, "Put me in, Coach!" After that, you need only look at the needs around you and put your hand to work. God won't be threatened. To the contrary, He will be honored and you will find the joy of doing something not because you have to do it but because you choose to do it. Have a blessed week!

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ALASKA! There is space for the Alaska cruise this summer from August 4-11. Here is the link with the information, but you must act now if you want to be a part. We will have a great vacation and still spend some time in the Word while we look at the concept of your life purpose. I look forward to hosting you on the cruise!

903: Becoming Efficacious

As we look to wrap up our series title "Put Me In, Coach," it occurred to me that having that life and work philosophy requires that we become efficacious people. Admit it, you didn't know efficacious was to be on your bucket list. If you are really honest, you may admit you don't even know what it means. That's fine, for I didn't know until about 15 years ago, but when I discovered the definition, I determined to become more efficacious with God's help. Let's look at the word and then an application for this week's lesson.

EFFICACY

The word efficacy simply means to make something happen or to cause something to take place. Whenever you have an idea you are making an efficacy appraisal, determining whether or not you can make something become a reality. If you think, "I should go back to school," you begin your efficacy appraisal and either talk yourself into the reality or out of it. You either think, "Yes, that will be enjoyable. I have wanted to do that for a while," or "My God, I haven't been in school for 20 years. I don't do well in math. I don't have the time. I don't have the money. This can't be the Lord."

Do you see how it works? Either you use your thinking and self-talk to move toward making something happen or preventing something from happening. You become either efficacious or inefficacious. It is important that you either trust the thoughts you have or reject them as foreigners and alien beings to be feared and eradicated. 

It is interesting that you probably never have a thought that "I should be an astronaut or a nuclear scientist." Most of the ideas you have are related to something you have the capacity to do or learn to do. Your thought of going back to school would be for something you would enjoy learning: "I have wanted to study the Bible or art or psychology; this will be my chance." God isn't trying to trick or entrap you; He is working with you to make you the best and most productive person possible. With that confidence, you can say, "Put me in school, Coach! Put me in ministry, Coach! Put me in mission, Coach! Put me in business, Coach!" That attitude will make you an efficacious person.

AN EXAMPLE

In the book of Acts, Paul and his team were praying for the Lord to put them in the game of missions. They had been trying to go in one direction but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them to go:

Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them (Acts 16:6-10).

What can we learn from this passage to help us be efficacious? The team was actively seeking the Lord, and were in motion trying to find the open door. They trusted that the Lord was with them and wanted them to go in the game. When Paul had the dream, he was confident it was not a trick. The vision he had was not outlandish, but something they could and wanted to do. Then was the most important step in the story: they got ready at once to act. They did not need more confirmation or time to wait on the Lord. They packed their bags and became efficacious, causing the vision Paul had to become a reality.

Are you probing and experimenting to discover what position God wants you to play in the game? When you have an idea, are you immediately looking for a way to make it happen? Do you trust the Lord to guide and not trick or mislead you? If you answer yes to those questions, then you are on your way to becoming an efficacious person. If not, you have some work to do so you can stop being the biggest obstacle between you and the Lord's will for your life. 

God is with you and not against you. Armed with that knowledge, you can be confident to step out and into the game, no matter what game God has assigned to you. When you do that, you will be God's partner as together you work to make a mark in the world only you two can make. When you don't do that, you will devote your energy and creativity to blocking instead of enhancing God's purpose for you. The choice is yours and I pray you choose efficacy. Have a blessed week!

902: Learning to Trust Your Heart

As we continue our "Put Me In, Coach" theme, I want to look at the issue of our heart this week, not the one that beats and keeps our blood circulating, but our inner one where our emotions, desires, and our unseen parts exist. If you are looking for an exact description of what our heart is or does, you will be disappointed, for I will not attempt to explain the heart in detail, but will show why you can trust what's in your heart far more often than you have up to this point in your life. At the end, you can tell me how well I did in trying to accomplish my objective. 

THE HEART IS WICKED

I regularly hear a comment or read something that warns me and the other listeners and readers to be careful when it comes to our heart. We are warned that the heart is wicked and evil and not to be trusted. The basis for this warning is found in Jeremiah 17:9, where the Lord said to the prophet, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" We have been repeatedly warned that to trust one's heart is an invitation to sin and disaster. And who can argue with that? We have enough life experience to know that doing what's in our heart has brought and can bring long-term negative consequences. We heed the warning and thus don't trust what's in us, requesting and demanding confirmation after confirmation before we will even begin to trust the listen to what our heart may be telling us.

The problem with all this is that we heed the warning in Jeremiah 17:9 without moving on to the next verse, where the Lord answered His own question: "“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve" (Jeremiah 17:10). It would seem from the context that God evaluates our heart matters and they are not all evil, otherwise there would be nothing to reward. God would have said, "I am here to punish all your deeds if they emanate from your heart, which is evil and beyond hope." That is not what He said.

If there may be some remnant of hope for our heart, how can we learn to trust it, for we will need our heart if we are going to live out the put-me-in-coach philosophy? The key is not to acknowledge the truth in Jeremiah 17:9 but to read what else the Lord said that pertains to the heart.

A NEW HEART

The Lord promised He would do a new thing in our hearts when He introduced a new covenant:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people" (Jeremiah 31:31-33).

It seems that God promised to override the operating system of our old heart with a new script, new code if you think in computer tterminology. Therefore, some things in our hearts may be good, recorded there in God's own handwriting, but that still may mean that we have an old wineskin of a heart and Jesus said new wine cannot go into an old wineskin or the skin will burst. 

God took care of that problem as He explained to the prophet Ezekiel:

“‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws" (Ezekiel 36:24-26). 

So God promised a new covenant, the terms of which He would write on our hearts, and promised a new heart that would not be made of stone but of flesh. I argue that this new heart was not given to Israel in the context of a new land and temple when they returned from exile, but was done in the power of the Spirit made possible by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. 

If all this is true and has happened, then we certainly cannot trust our old heart but we can trust our new one because we can trust its creator, shepherd, and surgeon. The Lord is the one who works in our hearts and I have learned to trust the God of my heart. If it's on my heart to write, I write. If it's on my heart to go, I go. If it's on my heart to help, I help. God isn't trying to trick me and the old heart that still shows up every now, is being gradually filled and overwritten with love messages and directives from the Lord.

This is important if we are going to live out the "Put Me In, Coach" philosophy, for there are times when your heart moves you and you should act--should I say must act? May the God of your heart give you confidence not in your old heart but in the new one He has shaped and fashioned and my you learn not to trust your heart, but the God of your heart, who will never lead you astray. Have a blessed week!

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ALASKA (Aug 2019) AND ISRAEL (Apr 2020):Don't forget about my upcoming trips to Alaskaand Israel. Click on the link to get the information you need.

AND NOW KENYA (Feb 2020):Download the attached flier and then pay your deposit to reserve a place on my next trip to Kenya.

Download Kenya flier 2020_preview version