Category: Uncategorized

Words of Life and Death

A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, 
and contentions are like the bars of a citadel. 

With the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied; 
he will be satisfied with the product of his lips. 

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, 
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:19-21

Words of Death

  • Gossip
  • Criticism
  • Complaining

Anything you hear that is not encouragement, building you up and pushing you closer to God is not of Jesus, Holy Spirit nor of God.  Hate is the action that tears a person down.  It is the opposite of Love.

Words of Life

  • Edification
  • Exhortation
  • Consolation

Love is the action that builds someone up, it is the opposite of hate.  Any word that you receive that edifies you, exhorts you or consoles you, is of Jesus, Holy Spirit and God.


Finally, remember that Satan only comes to steal, kill (sacrifice is the actual word) and destroy.  And also remember that Jesus referred to him both as a thief and a liar (John 8:44, 10:10).

Finally, what does it mean in Proverbs 18:21, \”and those who love it will eat its fruit?\”  In my opinion, the author is referring to both death and life.  Which ever you choose to do: build up or tear down, you will eat the fruit of your labors:

Do not be deceived,  God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.  (Galatians 6:7-8)

Howdy: It\’s Been A While

It\’s been a long while since I\’ve posted here.

Since starting this blog, there have been dramatic changes in my life, a loss of people who I thought were friends (and the gaining of new ones), changing churches several times, a battle with cancer (my wife), and in the midst of that I managed to complete my B.Sc in Information Technology and am well on my way to completing a M.Sc..

It has been an interesting number of years, to say the least.

But I wanted to share this with you, from Frank Viola:

Rule of thumb: If you read something negative about another person, especially a fellow Christian, take it with a grain of salt. Tilt toward not believing it. Just as you would want others to do if it were you being smeared (Matthew 7:12).

If you’re concerned, go to the person directly to hear their response. There are always two sides to any story (as least). And unfortunately, some people desire to defame others, usually out of jealousy, so dishonesty abounds. 

via, Don\’t Believe Everything You Read or Hear

Proverbs 18:13
“He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.”

Learning to Pray – In Secret, Ask, Seek and Knock

It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” And He said to them, “When you pray, say:

‘Father, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
‘Give us each day our daily bread.
‘And forgive us our sins,
For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”

Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?  Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Since this blog series is about prayer, we\’ll just skip the fact that Jesus was praying and any implications that might be made around that fact.  But one of the things I do want you to see is something that most people consider anecdotal:  \”It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place …\”

Why do we find a reference to \”a certain place?\”  If there was something special about a particular place, say the garden of Gethsemane, then why wouldn\’t we be told exactly the name of that place?  I think we would, but that\’s not the case.  Rather, the important thing we\’re left to understand is that there most definitely was a \”certain place.\” 

So why is that important?  Because it\’s important that you designate a place for payer.  This isn\’t to say that you cannot pray in any place at any time, but you need a retreat, a secret place:

But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.  (Matthew 6:6)

The Model Prayer
It took me a long time to figure out that the Lord\’s prayer is a model, not something we\’re supposed to corporately repeat week after week, which is why I typically avoid repeating it at the pre-defined time.  There are a plethora of bible studies and sermons on this prayer, but suffice it to say we should remember to acknowledge who He is, and the necessity for us to be in harmony with His will and that as His will is in Heaven, so should it be here.  We ask for our needs to be met and then confess our sins, and acknowledge our responsibility to forgive those who sin against us.  And lastly, we ask for protection.  The model prayer is something in which we should pay special attention to the order of the given concepts.  We will express our priorities through prayer, and the model prayer helps us keep our priorities in line with His priorities.

Ask, Seek, Knock
This is where the meat of the lesson lives.  We find a man, who upon having a friend arrive from a long journey, realizes that he has nothing to set before him.  In other words, he can\’t meet his needs, which for any of us in a similar situation, would be embarrassing.

Asking is a necessary step.  So, lets assume, for argument\’s sake, that the man asked his wife, \”where is the food?\”  Upon learning there was none to be had, his next step was seeking.  So, out of his house he went, seeking food for the hungry traveler and seeking after the friend whom he knew could meet his needs.  Upon finding his friend\’s house, he then knocked on the door.   He could have just stood at the door, upon finding it closed.  But if he had done that, then the door would have never opened.  Many times, God provides provision, but we refuse to knock.

One of the things we must avoid when considering this example is that God is not annoyed with us, neither are we an inconvenience when encountered through prayer.  The point the Jesus is making regarding the two men is two fold: true friends meet each others needs, and secondly, you have to seek, ask and knock when opportunities are presented.

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15)

Relationship and Persistence
So, why did the man go to his friends house?  I know, it\’s a rhetorical question, but it\’s worth considering.  He could have stopped at any other house along the way.  The answer is simple: when we ask favors of people whom we have not earned the right to impose upon, we are more often than not, rejected.  But our friends are different.  We\’ve invested in them and we\’ve earned the right to ask favors of them.  True friends help one another, and there is no more truer a friend than Jesus.  Again, we\’re getting back to knowing the nature of God, for we don\’t earn the right to ask, seek and knock at His door, rather we are imputed with that authority.

But why the persistence?  Because persistence represents conviction – the conviction that we know who we\’re dealing with, that we know the nature of God, and that we know His will.  The man continued to knock on the door because he knew that eventually, his friend would get up and meet his needs.   While persistence helped, it was the relationship that provided a basis for having his needs met.  And that\’s the position from which we must approach God.

Learning to Pray – Knowing Him

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. (1 John 5:14-15)

In a previous post, I suggested that there is a vast difference between doing for God and knowing God.  Interestingly enough, that concept segues into our greatest problem with prayer: understanding how to apply scripture like 1 John 5:14-15.  Which poses the question, how do you know His will?

Answer: just like any child knows the will of their parents.

Children can tell you what their parents would think of many different things.  They can tell you when they\’re likely to get into trouble through their actions, and when they\’re likely to receive praise.  Is this information impossible to come by?  Apparently not, for through a simple thing called relationship and \”getting to know someone,\” children come to exercise these abilities naturally.

And therein lies the rub.  We\’re too busy learning pseudo-doctrine, denominational tradition and how to keep the Law, and in doing so, we substitute those things for getting to know Him.  The Scribes and Pharisees had the same problem:   they were well versed in the Law, but didn\’t have a clue when it came to knowing who God was and what he was all about.

In order to know Him, you generally have to give some things up, such as your view of church or your reliance upon the Law.  Church isn\’t about the worship service, it\’s not about the sermon, and it is most definitely not about the preacher, the projects or the ministries.  Church is about exercising the heart and nature of God.  With certainty, those things can be found in the aforementioned.  But it is woefully too easy to just do those things because it\’s the right thing to do, rather than because it is an overflow of His nature pouring out of you.  There is a vast difference between the two, as seen in Matthew 7:21-23:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.  Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

So, boys and girls, our assignment today is to get to know something about His nature and His character.  And here\’s a suggestion on how to do that.  Read a Psalm, and when you finish a verse or a complete thought, ask this question: why?  Why did the Psalmist say that?  Why would God say that?

Here\’s something to get you started:

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, loving kindness shall surround him. (Ps. 32:10)

Why?  Why would God surround us with loving kindness simply because we trusted in Him?  What does that say about His nature?  Next, can you imagine an experience that must have been necessary in order for those words to flow from the authors heart?

Consider those questions, or others you may prefer, and consider the answers that would be consistent with other Bible passages that you\’re familiar with.  The purpose of the exercise is to learn something about the nature and character of God.  Doing so will enable us to understand His will, at least in some limited fashion.

Isaiah 41:10-12

“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
 
“Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored … You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them …\”

Serving vs. Knowing

Where or what, are your priorities in life as a Disciple of Christ?

But before getting too much into that, you need to determine for yourself one thing: are you a Christian or a disciple of Christ?  There\’s a difference.  According to the world today and the various diverse denominations, being a Christian is pretty much being anything you want to be: just ask the people as Westboro Baptist Church – they\’ve garnered more press for Christendom than any one else in recent history.  If you attempt to define Christian through scripture, you\’ll find it to be a difficult thing to do, since it\’s only used three times:

Acts 11:26  and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. 

Acts 26:28  Agrippa replied to Paul, \”In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.\” 

1 Peter 4:16  but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.

Based upon these verses, we might say that Christians are disciples, possibly persuasive and sometimes suffers.   It\’s also safe to assume that disciple, in the context of Acts 11, refers to a follower of Christ.  So if that\’s what you mean when you call yourself a Christian, you\’ve made a step in the right direction.  But you\’re still not off the hook, you still must define what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  In the NASB, the word \’disciple\’ is found as follows:

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255 verses found, 272 matches
Isaiah
2 verses found
3 matches
Matthew
73 verses found
76 matches
Mark
42 verses found
46 matches
Luke
36 verses found
38 matches
John
74 verses found
79 matches
Acts
28 verses found
30 matches

So hold onto that thought about being a disciple, because I\’m going to get back to it.  But until then, I would suggest that …

Your First Priority is to Know Him, Not to be Used by Him

You probably think I\’m off my rocker, for any good Christian wants to be useful to God.  It\’s what we hear week after week from the pulpit: find a place to serve God in your church.  What they really mean is stop being lazy and help us do the job you\’ve hired us to do because we can\’t do it all by ourselves.  But I digress…

Eventually, if you hang around long enough, you\’ll hear one of them say something about being \”put on the shelf\” or finding yourself \”useless\” for kingdom work.  They will claim that it usually happens because of some sin you\’ve committed, or because you\’re just not interested in Godly things, or you\’re a back-slider or just simply in rebellion towards God.

But it turns out, more often than not, being found useless is our greatest fear, right?  Well then you might want to also remember this:  that which you fear loosing most is that wherein you\’ve placed your security.  Which means, if you fear being useless to God, then your security in your relationship to God is found through your usefulness to Him, not in His nature, not in His character, nor in His loving kindness towards you.

Which means this: you have a performance based relationship with God: if you do good things, you\’re rewarded with cookies and candy.  But if you do bad things – or possibly no things at all – you\’re punished by being ignored and cast away like a worthless piece of trash.

If you still think I\’m off my rocker, then answer this question: do you want to be used by your spouse?  Do you want to have a relationship wherein your spouse micro-manages your life, tells you what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and then judges you on the outcomes?  Or possibly you have an enlightened view of the marital relationship and you want to figure out what pleases your spouse the most and then be judged on your performance?  Sounds like a perfect relationship right?  No?

Actually, the truth about the marriage relationship is that you need to get to know your spouse.  Only after you have learned who your spouse is can you anticipate his or her needs.  When you know your spouse, you know what they are doing at any given time, what they will think regarding a given situation.  When you know your spouse, you can act with confidence in your relationship towards others on their behalf.  And when your relationship is built upon mutual trust, love, affection and respect, then you can live your life with them in safety and assurance.  That is how the marriage is supposed to work.

But we\’re quick to forget that our relationship to God is described as a husband and wife relationship.  Instead, we turn it into that which we have created in our churches: an employer relationship wherein we hire the employee and then let him run our spiritual lives.  Kinda like we treat God: we employ Him to save our souls and then expect Him to run (or ruin) our lives through micro-management and weekly, judgmental performance evaluations.  And in this dysfunctional, co-dependent relationship, we are taught to believe that only through service and wanting to be used by God can we find true happiness.

Serving God is fine.  Unless it\’s what you do instead of who you are.  Jesus never called us to \”do witnessing.\”  Rather, He said we would \”be witnesses.\”  There\’s a big difference.  Any one can purger themselves by doing witnessing in a court of law, but it is only the real witness that can enter and leave the courts of law with confidence and a clear conscience.  People who \”do for God\” may eventually burn out or retire from the ministry because what they were doing was a vocation, not a reflection of who they were in Christ.

Priorities

So, what has all this got to do with priorities?  If your priorities are to be used of God, then your priorities are wrong.  You\’re in a performance based relationship.  You\’re either trying to perform for God, or you\’re trying to perform for man, or possibly both.  In either case, it\’s your ego that you\’re feeding through adulation and approval.  While you can gain the approval of Man, there\’s not a blooming thing you can do to gain the approval of God, for Jesus has already earned and imputed that approval to you.  If you are not made righteous by God, then you\’re not righteous or worthy of any kind of approval by God, at all, period-the-end.

So then, what\’s the priority?  Get to know Him.

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
(Php 3:8-12)

What did a Disciple Do?

When you consider the disciples of Christ, what was it that they did?  Well, basically, they just followed Jesus around every where He went.  Yes, that\’s a very small way of looking at it, I know.  But consider it for a moment and ask yourself, why did they do that?  What benefit was there?  Could they have not picked up a sermon on the mount here and there and figured out what Jesus was all about?  Everyone else seemed to, or at least we can assume that many people did.

The Disciples followed Jesus in order to get to know Him.  You don\’t really know someone until you\’ve lived with them, walked in their paths, experienced them in those private times – it\’s only then will you learn if their talk matches their walk.  That\’s what a disciple does – He learns who his master really is, and what his master is really all about.

You can be a Christian and define yourself anyway you want to.  But in order to call your self a disciple of Christ, you must yield to a higher authority and a different standard.  And in doing so, you will learn the difference between knowing Jesus and serving Jesus.

Retired from the Ministry

I recently read something by a retired, Lutheran pastor.  It was a how-to regarding sharpening tools.  According to his comments,  he had been in the ministry for 40 years and apparently had determined that it was time to leave all of that behind and move on to something else.

And it got me thinking.

What exactly is retirement, and how does it fit – in its classical definition – to a member of the body of Christ?

In terms of occupation, there are a couple definitions that bring into focus exactly what we mean when speaking of retirement:

  • to remove from active service or the usual field of activity, as an army officer or business executive.
  • to withdraw (a machine, ship, etc.) permanently from its normal service, usually for scrapping; take out of use. (dictionary.reference.com)

Therefore, a pastor or teacher who has retired considers themselves to no longer be a pastor or teacher.  They would say, \”I used to be a pastor, but I\’m retired now.\”  Which begs the question: \”what are you now?\”  And the answer?  \”Not a pastor or a teacher.\”  Out of work, out of service, and possibly, no longer useful.

The Holy Spirit teaches us a many things about being a member of the Body of Christ, and using the example set forth, He says that \”He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers … \” (Ephesians 4:11).  I\’ve talked a lot about the Body of Christ and it\’s responsibilities throughout this blog, so I won\’t go back through those issues again.  But lets add one thing to the thought of being a member of the Body of Christ: \”the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable\” (Romans 11:29).  And lest the connection between gifts and being a pastor/teacher is missed, I\’ll remind us that the Holy Spirit also says that  \”there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.  There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.  But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good\” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7).

The Holy Spirit draws many parallels between a living, breathing and functioning human body, and the Body of Christ, which God equips for ministry.  He even goes as far to suggest that one part of the body cannot say to itself or to another,  \’you are of no use, I shall cut you off\’  (1 Corinthians 12).

In other words, you\’re not allowed to suggest that you (or anyone else for that matter) are no longer useful.  This isn\’t to say, however, that there are not differing periods and shades of ministry throughout our lives.  But the fact of the matter is this: we is who we are, and we ain\’t gonna change that.   Just because one does not stand before multitudes does not make them any less of a preacher or a teacher than one who shares their story to a friend or acquaintance.

Which brings us back to retirement.  Is there really retirement for the pastor or teacher, for the evangelist or the healer?  Can one who spent his entire life guiding and shepherding or teaching actually say, \”that\’s no longer who I am, I do not do that any more?\”

I believe the answer is no.

How would you like it if your kidneys decided one day that they were just going to stop working?  That actually happens, you know.  People without medical treatment die pretty quickly, and even those who do get treatment sometimes do not survive.  Of course, God is bigger than all of that and His will shall be done.  So we don\’t have to worry that the Body of Christ is going to wither up and die, though it certainly does look quiet ill these days, at least in some parts of the world that I\’m familiar with.

So where does the notion of retirement come from, as applied to a member of the Body of Christ?  No where else other than the world system of secular, God denying, thought.  Which Christians have embraced with gusto and applied liberally to their organizations, called churches.  We may even go as far call the Pastor the head, or Chief Executive Officer of the church.  In other words, chop off the head, and the church will crumble, or at least the members find another head to follow.

But the problem with that philosophy, and those who set themselves up as an authority to be obeyed in the local church (locally autonomous or not), is that such a system doesn\’t come from the Holy Spirit.  Rather, He says that Jesus is the head of the Church, not some guy in a robe with gold cords and a bad accent.  But be as that may, God is certainly aware that we\’re going to put these organizations together, for He also says, \”submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority,  or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right\” (James 2:13-14).  So being a member of the local Religious Institution on the corner isn\’t wrong, until we forget who is the real Head of the Church.

But I digress.

The point I\’m trying to make is this:  when does a Christian get to retire?  Possibly when The Ministry is a vocation and not a calling?

Retirement from functioning in ones gifts isn\’t something that should naturally occur to a member of the Body of Christ.  While God does  provide periods of rest and seasons of change in ministry to His children, we will never cease to be who we are, as gifted by God, in Christ.  And it makes me wonder regarding those of use who would retire from ministry: were we ever one with Christ in the first place, or did we just have a vocation?

Why should you believe?

On the next day, when they had left Bethany, {Jesus} became hungry.  Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening. 
…
As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.  Being reminded, Peter *said to Him, “ Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”  And Jesus *answered saying to them, “ Have faith in God.   Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.  Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.  Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. (Mark 11:12-14, 20-25)

There is a vast dichotomy taught in our churches.  On the one hand, we\’re told to have \”faith in God.\”  But on the other hand, when troubles come we\’re expected to just take our lumps because \”God doesn\’t do that any more – we have Doctors now.\”

So, in all honesty, what does this passage of scripture mean for us today?  Here are my questions:

  1. Was this given to the just the disciples of Jesus of that day?
  2. Was it given just to the apostles?
  3. Or was it intended to be given to all, for all time (which infers that it\’s not just something for us to know about and believe that happened)

And lastly,what does \”have faith in God\” really mean, and specifically, what does it mean in this context?  I have an idea, or two about that.

Escaping the Thorns

The following scenario is from The Gospel for the Middle – A Synchroblog

Fielding Melish and his wife Felicia have two children, ages 10 and 6. They live in a very remote part of Maine, USA. They are surrounded by extended family, none of whom are Christians. The nearest churches are one hour away, and by all evangelical standards, none of them are good. These churches are either highly legalistic, highly libertine, or just flat-out flaky.

One of Fielding’s cousins is a practicing Christian. They see each other once a year. Fielding’s cousin has shared Christ with Fielding many times over the years. Whenever they’ve talked about spiritual things, Fielding shows interest.

Felicia grew up in a Christian home. She’s received Christ, but she isn’t evangelistic and is overwhelmed with working long hours and raising two small children. She would love to find a church nearby for the spiritual support and instruction, but none exist.

Fielding has no college education. While he is capable of reading, he is not a reader. He doesn’t use the Web either. He’s a man who works with his hands, both for his career and for recreation. He’s an “outdoorsman.” He hunts, he builds, he does manual labor, etc. In his spare time, he helps his elderly parents with various building projects.

Fielding is not an atheist. Neither is he an agnostic. He believes in God. He believes Jesus is the Savior of the world who died for our sins and rose again from the dead. He hasn’t fully surrendered his life to Christ, but he is not sure what that looks like exactly. His children know a little about the Lord, mostly because of what their mother has taught them.

Recently Fielding asked this question:

When I’m with my cousin once a year, I want to learn more about God. But when I come back home, and I’m around everyone else, my mind is off of God, and I am back to working, raising my kids, and helping my parents. Someone needs to come up with a solution for people like me . . . people who are in the middle. (By “in the middle,” Fielding means someone who believes in Jesus, but who isn’t fully absorbed in the faith yet either. They simply don’t know enough nor do they have any spiritual support system around them.)

Relocating is not an option for Fielding and his wife. Even if they wanted to relocate, they don’t see a way they could do it financially.

Remember: Fielding and his wife don’t personally know any Christians. None of their extended family or coworkers are believers either. And the nearest churches (which are an hour away) aren’t recommended.

Question

If you were Fielding’s cousin, how would you instruct him and his wife the next time you saw them?

Answer

Mark 4:3,7-9: The sower went out to sow; as he was sowing …{some} seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” And He was saying, “ He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 

It\’s all up to You
In all honesty, there is nothing that anyone can create to help people who are looking for things to do (other than changing their behaviors) to build and strengthen their relationship with God.  Relationship with and thirst for God is not found through traditions, programs, churches, pastors or teachers.  Those things may be helpful in supplementing our pre-existing relationship with God, but it is our desire, our seeking that fulfills the need.

It can be likened to a woman finding a man she loves and wants to marry, but then finding that she also adores his family.  So she ends up spending all of her time with his family, listening to his father and mother speaking wonderful things about her husband-to-be, all the while wondering, \”why is my relationship with the man I love, suffering?  I\’m learning about him, I\’m understanding things about him, I love him, but his relationship to me and my relationship to him are practically non-existent.\”  What did she do wrong?  She applied an inappropriate focus.  There were many things his family could teach her about her husband-to-be, but it was the relationship that suffered because she refused to seek after him and, instead, sought after something related to him. 

Seeking follows Drawing
Jesus said, \”and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.\” (John 12:32)  Did Jesus mean that the crucifixion would draw men, or was He speaking of His intention to draw all men?  I believe He was speaking of His intention to draw all men:

So also it is written, \’The first man, Adam, became a living soul.\’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.\” (1 Corinthians 15:45-46)
So, the drawing of the life-giving spirit happens in the natural first.  Once we are aware of a drawing, we then may seek after it – which means we \”do something.\”  Conversely, when we do something without His drawing, then we are answering a calling from the flesh, or better, the spirit of man.

Doing vs. Seeking
We have been continually, repeatedly, ad-nauseum taught to \”do\” things for God.  Doing in and of itself is not wrong – it is how we teach children – but the Scriptures teach us to be seekers.  And I do not mean \”Seeker\” in the man-made traditional sense, but a Seeker in the Biblical sense.  Consider Psalm 1: 

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!  But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.  He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.  The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Where does a person walk?  Towards that thing which they seek.  Why would a person obtain counsel?  Because they seek wisdom.  Why do we stand in or walk in a path?  Because we seek the destination to which it leads.  Seeking is our first step, which is followed by doing.  A person who is tired of doing has been doing for the sake of doing.  It is most likely they never attempted to seek first the Lord.  There is a difference in seeking the Lord for the sake of seeking the Lord – it being the end its self, and seeking God for the purpose of asking Him, \”what do I do?\” We do and do and do but with the wrong fuel to power the engine.  Seeking the Lord for the relationship with the Lord is the fuel, seeking Him moves us towards the Drawer of all men, Jesus Christ. 

Conclusion

In the end, you must determine for your self: do I know Him?  If the answer is yes, then you need to answer the next question: why do I let the cares of the world choke out His drawing of me towards Him?  Once you\’ve either answered that question, or accepted that it is the truth of your existence, then you have a decision to make.  Are you going to continue life in the weeds, or are you going to make time to seek after God?  
There are a lot of ways to seek after God – the Bible is full of them, but the Psalms are a good place to start.  The Psalms reflect the hearts of those seeking after God through their fears, their hurts and their joys.  They also make for incredible discussion material with God.  For example,

I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “ I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; and You forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32)

In essence, the Lord has given us conversational material to use in building our relationship with Him.

If you don\’t like to read, then I would suggest that you listen instead.  One of the best auditory versions of the Bible is the KJV by Alexander Scourby.  The KJV may be difficult for some to read, but Alexander Scourby makes the KJV extremely accessible and easily understood.

Deuteronomy 4:5-6a, 9: See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes … Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons

Psalm 119:2-3: How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart. They also do no unrighteousness; they walk in His ways.

Matthew 6:33: But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Hebrews 11:6: And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.