Who’s Your Daddy…

“Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ I became your father through the Gospel.”  I Corinthians 4:15

We have a lust for knowledge in our world.  We always want to know and we feel an obligation to help everyone else to know what we know.

There are many people who know about Christ but don’t know Him.

What we need is not more spiritual teachers, but rather, more spiritual fathers.  Being a spiritual teacher and being a spiritual father are two different things.  One only takes responsibility for giving information but not for the development of that person as they process and work through that information.  A Father takes responsibility for the process from birth to maturity.  Teachers will come and go but a father is always a father to his sons and daughters.  A teacher has a job.  A father has a relationship.  A teacher doesn’t have to feel anything.  A father feels everything!

This is the investment God is calling us to make; to be fathers to sons and daughters of the Kingdom.

Who’s your Daddy? 

Who are you a spiritual father to?

A Sure Footing…

“The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.”  Proverbs 10:9 (NIV)

Amy and I just got back from a week in San Antonio, Texas where we were invited to speak at a retreat by a great friend and his wife.  The time we spent with Robbie and Annie made me think of the first part of the verse above.  Robbie is a Youth Pastor with 412 Youth Ministry at Trinity Church.  and was a part of the camp ministry we were involved in over the last 15 years.  We have had the pleasure of watching Robbie grow into a man of God and one of the best Youth Pastors I know.  Over the last week I felt like a proud parent as I watched Robbie handle very trying issues with the utmost integrity. 

Integrity is a most precious commodity.  It is Kingdom currency.  While others around you compromise and operated dishonestly, men and women of the Kingdom of righteousness must walk in integrity.  Integrity enjoys the favor of God.  It sustains you in the pleasure of the Father.  It keeps you on a sure footing.

A lack of integrity robs your security and any attempt to hide dishonest or compromising ways will be short lived.  God’s plan for our lives is too important to the Kingdom for Him to leave us living lives that lack integrity.  He will allow us to go in the wrong direction in order to deal with what is lacking or needed in our lives in order to make us more effective for the kingdom.