This week we are beginning a new Thursday series about the importance of investing in others, especially younger generations. As we dive into this new series, we will be starting by taking a close look at Deuteronomy 6:1-13.

In this passage in Deuteronomy, Moses has gathered the young nation of Israel and is reminding them of what God has done for them and the commands that He has given to them. He is explaining what they need to be doing as they prepare and enter the Promised Land. He begins this part by saying:

“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.’”
Deuteronomy 6:1-6

We see in these verses that there is a clear plan that the commands of God and living a life devoted to God are to be passed down from generation to generation. In order to do that though, God and His commands need to be fully embraced by “you”. Although the generations are mentioned, Moses is speaking to and giving these directions and reminders to the generation standing right in front of Him. The same is true of us today. We can’t pass the responsibility off to someone older or someone younger or someone with little kids or older kids or grandkids or whatever other ideas we have of who this applies to. If you are reading these words, then this applies to you. If you still have the eyesight and comprehension to read these words, it applies to you. If you’ve just learned to read and comprehend, it applies to you too. There are always people younger than us or people who have not learned and grown in God as much as we have. Those people need to hear and be taught. They need people to invest in them and help them grow in fearing the Lord our God. They need you.

So, now that we’ve established that you are needed to invest in the lives of others including the next generations where do you start? You start where this passage starts, specifically in verses 4-6 we see:

“‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.’”

These verses are so important that they formed the foundation a prayer, the Shema, recited twice a day by Jews beginning more than a hundred years before the birth of Jesus. They were considered to represent the core of their faith: an understanding of who God is, a call to love Him with everything in us, and a call to keep His commands. This is where we start. We can’t pass on a faith that we don’t really have. To invest in others and share God’s love we need to be embracing that love and faith ourselves.

We start by placing our own trust in God. If you’ve never done that, please find someone to talk to about how you do that. You can even reach out through our website and I’d be happy to discuss that with you. Choosing to follow God and make him Lord of our lives is where we start, but then we face the day-by-day, moment-by-moment choices to love Him will all our heart, soul, and might. In other words, choosing to have a loving relationship with the Mighty God. This means spending time with Him, listening to Him, talking to Him, getting to know Him, seeking His advice and direction, and serving Him. This might sound like a lot, but take a moment to think of the best relationship in your life, maybe with a spouse, a friend or someone else. You probably do, or have done, all of these things and more in that relationship. Loving God means investing in that relationship just like any other good relationship requires.

A relationship with God is different from other relationships though. It is a relationship with the Creator of the Universe. As I’ve frequently explained to kids before, God created everything so that means He knows how it works best. Because He knows how it works best, He set up rules so that we know how to get the most enjoyment from it. That is why in Deuteronomy 6:6 He says, “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.” Part of our relationship with God is understanding His guidelines and commands. They aren’t to limit us or punish us, but because He loves us so much and wants the best for us. When we can truly accept that, it makes it easier to desire to keep His commands on our heart. Once they are there, we can share them with others in love as well.

I hope you will continue to join me throughout this series on investing the next generations. As you begin to consider the importance of this, I hope that the verses we have read today encourage you to start wherever you are and make sure that you have a relationship with God worth sharing with others.

Part of being able to Discern Wonder includes being able to discern what we need. We won’t have the capacity to discern the wonder around us or lead others to if we aren’t taking care of ourselves. As leaders in church, ministries, homes, and businesses, we have to begin by leading ourselves. We can’t lead others well if we’re not leading ourselves. Part of learning to lead yourself well means using discernment to determine what it is that you need.

Being able to discern what you need starts with knowing where you are in your relationship with God. How is that relationship? What do you need there? Do you need to spend more time with Him? Do you need to spend more time in the Word or more time in prayer? What does that look like for where you are in your relationship with God? What is he telling you in that area of your life?

Beyond that, we also need discernment in our rest. One of God’s commands is for us to take a Sabbath rest. While we find that in the Old Testament and some may say that is a part of the Law and we are no longer bound to it, we also see that Jesus frequently spoke about the Sabbath as well. In fact, He said that the Sabbath is for man and not man for the Sabbath. It’s not about following a legalistic view of Sabbath that restricts and binds us, but more about the fact that we need rest and time with God. Even modern scientific research backs up the fact that we need rest. If you’ve ever had a few sleepless nights, that fact becomes obvious. So we need to use discernment to figure out what we might need to do to help us rest well so that we can be recharged and ready to lead ourselves and others well.

Another area that we need to use some discernment in involves our time. How are you managing your time? Are you using discernment there? Are you spending too much time on work or too little? What about the time you spend in ministry, church, or with your family and friends? Discernment is so important in many areas of our life. When we talk about how to be discerning with our time, I go back to starting with God. Prayerfully seeking His guidance asking Him for discernment and wisdom for what and how He is directing you. I can’t help but think back to last week‘s article about the importance of dwelling with Him. The more we dwell with Him the more He gives us discernment in these areas. When we learn to hear that still, small voice speaking to us and telling us exactly what it is that we need and what it is that He has for us, we begin to see the path we need to walk to enjoy the abundant life He has promised. That definitely should be our starting place: dwelling with Him and seeking Him for our discernment.

Beyond that though, He gives us other tools to help us. The tool of wise counsel can be very helpful as we look for discernment in our time and other areas. Again, we need discernment to determine sources of wise counsel. Figuring out who to go to and who to listen to is important. I don’t know that we want to take advice in this particular area from someone who isn’t living in a way we want to follow. If someone is burned out or making poor decisions, they might not have the wisest counsel for us unless it is pitfalls to avoid.  We can look to people who are setting good examples of the way we want to live. They won’t be perfect examples, but seeking their counsel can be helpful.

There are other tools out there that can help us as well. One example is last month’s book review on Sacred Rest. There are also tools to help us take time to set or evaluate our priorities. I have gone through and helped others walk through exercises of focusing on what it is they feel called to do, how they’re using their time, and whether those priorities and their time management are aligning. This can be a very eye-opening exercise for all of us. We all go through tough seasons and have moments where we’re are living more in survival mode than anything else. During those seasons we’re doing what it takes to get us through, but if we stay in them for too long, we can easily start drifting and losing sight of our purpose and priorities. At times like that, it can be very helpful to take a step back to really think through and discern where God has us and what we are called to be doing. Taking a close look at what we’re doing and why we are doing it can help us realign with the priorities that God has for us.

If you ever find yourself in need of some reflection or tools to help you discern what it is you need, please consider using the contact page on this website to reach out for some personal coaching. I’d be happy to help walk you through some tools to help you lead yourself and others well.

When this website was started, I wrote an article explaining the meaning behind the name Discerning Wonder. If you haven’t had a chance to read that, you can find it here. In that article though, I mentioned that there were some other reasons behind the name besides the main one. Last month, I mentioned the connection to my Working Geniuses, but another one of those reasons has to do with the word Dwell.

As I was exploring names for this website, and was considering Discerning Wonder the initials “DW” really stood out at me, and made me immediately think of the word Dwell. I’ve never really been one to jump on the bandwagon of choosing a word for the year like so many do lately, but thanks to some things God was teaching me last fall I came into this year with the word Dwell heavy on my heart and mind. So each time I write down or notice the initials of Discerning Wonder it seems to point me back to that word, Dwell.

The importance of dwelling with God was something that He really began speaking to me about in the last year. It’s not that the concept of dwelling with Him was new to me. When I first asked Him to be my Savior and Lord at seven years old, I was taught the importance of spending time with God and remaining in Him. At a young age, I memorized John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” I’ve taught numerous lessons about this idea of remaining in Him. Yet, this past fall, God really called me to task that I was spending so much time dwelling in other things. Allowing other things, like my own to do lists, to guide and direct my steps, my thoughts, my energy, and my heart. He challenged me to really experience life dwelling in Him, and I have to say that it was a remarkable breath of fresh air. The peace, freedom, and rest that I experienced in dwelling in Him was incredible. It shouldn’t have been so surprising because I knew this in my head and had told others it was the case, but experiencing it on a deeper level than ever before was refreshing and wonderful.

It was in this experience of dwelling in God that I was finally able to begin to recapture some of the wonder that had been missing in my life, or least begin to see the wonder that had always been around me. When I was spending more time dwelling in my to do list than dwelling in God, it was difficult to notice, let alone feel wonder. This connection, and the importance of dwelling in Him can be seen throughout Scripture. I particularly like how the psalmist expressed it in Psalm 27:4

This is week six in our series on what Scripture teaches us about the value of wonder in our lives and ministries.
 
Today’s Scripture passage is Luke 5:26 (NLT)

This verse comes from the passage where Jesus was preaching to a room so crowded that the only way a group of men could get their paralyzed friend to Jesus for healing was to go up on the roof and lower their friend down into the middle of the crowd. Jesus then forgave the man’s sins and healed him. This verse, Luke 5:26, was the crowd’s response to what they had just seen.

They weren’t just quietly wondering. They were “gripped” with “great wonder and awe.” When was the last time that you were gripped with wonder and awe over something that God had done? That word “gripped” gives me a picture of wonder and awe closing in all around me, surrounding me, and making it impossible to ignore. When was the last time that you simply couldn’t ignore the wonder of God in a moment?

If it’s been awhile, is it because God doesn’t do wonderful and amazing things that often anymore or is because we’re just failing to be gripped? I fear that it’s become far to easy for us to evade this grip of wonder and awe. We’re busy and move right past it without looking or giving it time to grip us. We’re so focused on other things we miss the moments entirely, or maybe we’ve just come to expect those moments and take them for granted.

Maybe we need to slow down just a bit so we don’t miss or just brush past these opportunities to be gripped with wonder. You may be saying, “That sounds great, but you don’t know my schedules, the demands and responsibilities I have. I don’t have time to slow down.” Do you have time not to? If it’s been a while since you’ve been “gripped with great wonder and awe,” then I would wonder how your soul is doing? I know when I get caught in seasons that are so busy or stressful that I stop noticing the wonderful and amazing things that God is doing around me, whether I want to admit it or not, I feel it in my soul. Instead of wonder and awe and praise filling me, I find myself struggling with discouragement or discontent or envy or bitterness or even anger.

So I ask again, do we really have time not to slow down and take notice of the wonders that God is doing around us? In difficult times, it might start out with looking for the small everyday things that we have been missing: a sunrise, a sunset, a flower, a interesting cloud formation, something or anything that reminds us that God is good and still pretty amazing. It also might start with going back to John 3:16, Romans 5:8, or another favorite verse that reminds us how much God loves us and how truly wonderful He has been to us.

I would challenge you, and me, this week to start opening our eyes to the wonders around us and then respond as this crowd did by praising God and exclaiming to ourselves and others that “We have seen amazing things today!”

Each year as we celebrate Easter, we often lead up to it by detailing the account of the Passion or Holy Week going all the way to the empty tomb. We celebrate the fact that “He is Risen” on Easter morning and then move on to focusing on other parts of Scripture.

It can be easy for us to lose sight of the fact that Jesus continued appearing to people after His resurrection for 40 days before He ascended to Heaven. What do we know about those days and appearances, and what can we learn from those encounters with the Risen Savior?

During the next few weeks, each Thursday we are going to take a look at one of the post-resurrection encounters with Jesus that are mentioned in the four gospels. Today we are going to start with the one we may have heard about on Easter Sunday: the women at the tomb.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all begin their accounts of the resurrection indicating that Mary Magdalene and some of the other women following Jesus headed to the tomb to finish properly preparing Jesus’s body for burial. When they arrived at the tomb, they found that the stone had been rolled away and an angel gave them that great message so famously quoted from Matthew 28:6 “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.” The women were then instructed to go tell the disciples.

After this happened, Matthew tells us that Jesus appeared to the women and they worshipped Him and went to tell the disciples. Mark and John single out Mary Magdalene and tell about her encounter with Jesus after His resurrection. John describes it this way in chapter 20 verses 14 though 18:

As we look at these encounters with the Risen Savior during the next few weeks, we will see that Mary was not alone in not immediately recognizing Jesus after the resurrection. Clearly He no longer looked the same. Even when He first spoke there was not an immediate recognition, but when He said her name something changed.

We don’t know exactly what it was about that that made her realize who He was. Maybe it was just that He didn’t give her ears to hear until that moment. Maybe she was too distracted by her grief until that moment. Maybe it was the familiarity of His voice speaking her name that finally broke through. Maybe He spoke her name with such care and compassion that she realized it could only be Him.

This makes me wonder: Do I listen to Him that carefully? Do I recognize His voice as clearly as Mary eventually did? Or do I fail to recognize His voice like Mary first did because I am distracted with my own thoughts and a difference focus?

My prayer today for me and for you is that He will open my ears and hear Jesus clearly. I pray that we don’t miss out on anything He is saying to us because we are too distracted to recognize His voice. Then when we hear His voice, let us be like Mary and boldly be able to tell others “I have seen the Lord.”

This is week four in our series on what Scripture teaches us about the value of wonder in our lives and ministries.

​Today's Scripture passage is Daniel 4:3 (NASB).
​

In a previous article in this series, we talked about the importance of recognizing God’s wonders. This verse from Daniel starts off in much the same way, but those last two lines are different than other verses we’ve looked at about wonder. They remind us that these amazing wonders are a part of God’s everlasting kingdom which has gone and will continue to go from generation to generation. And we get to be a part of that!

This verse is actually spoken by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon as he is giving credit to God after a very challenging season and time of learning. If you aren’t familiar with the story, I highly encourage you to read all of Daniel chapter 4, but understand that Nebuchadnezzar was greatly humbled before he learned to fully appreciate not just God’s wonders but His sovereignty as well. Like Nebuchadnezzar, pride can often keep us from recognizing God, His wonders, and his dominion in our lives and in the world. If we take time to humble ourselves before God, then maybe He won’t need to humble us like He did the king.

Pride makes us think or act like everything is about us or because of us or for us. Pride makes us think that we’re the main character in the story. When we humble ourselves before God, we remember that He is the main character of the story. We simply get to be a part of one chapter, or one page or maybe just one paragraph of His everlasting story.

But think about that for a moment. We get to be a part of the story of the King of kings, Creator of the Universe, Lord of lords, and Savior. We get to see and experience His wonders. At times we even get to be a part of His wonders. We’re not a part because of our timing or coincidence or just because we accidentally stumbled into His great story. We get to be a part of it because He chose for us to be a part. We get to be a part of it because He loves us. What an amazing perspective!

So what’s your viewpoint today? Are you frustrated with your story and focused on yourself? Or are you wondering over the fact that God loves you and chose you to be a part of His everlasting kingdom story?

This is week three in our series on what Scripture teaches us about the value of wonder in our lives and ministries.
  
Today’s Scripture passage is Habakkuk 1:5 (NASB)

​God is “doing something in your days” something we wouldn’t believe. Do you really believe that statement?

For those of us in ministry, isn’t that at least part of why we got into ministry in the first place? We wanted to be a part of what God was doing. And you definitely don’t have to be in full-time ministry to feel that way.

But as the home page of this website says, sometimes in the busyness of our lives and ministry we start to lose sight of the fact that God is doing things, astonishing, wonderful things all around us. And at times He is even doing those things in or through us.

So why is it so easy for us to lose sight of this? Why does it become so easy to read that verse and hear a small voice in our head saying: Really? Even now? Even in…whatever mess, craziness, challenge or trial we find ourselves in at the moment?

Is it possible that we’ve stopped looking and observing? Is it possible that we might be a little like Peter who stepped out of the boat with his eyes fully on Jesus only to find himself sinking like a rock when his focus shifted back to the storm? I don’t know about you, but all too often I find myself feeling this way. Those storms around us can be really distracting. We feel like they need our attention. We’re adults. We’re leaders. We have responsibilities. We can’t ignore the storms. Was Peter ignoring the storm while His eyes were on Jesus or was He trusting Jesus to  help him in the midst of the storm?

Why do we feel like keeping our eyes, attention, and focus on Jesus means we’ll end up missing something or neglecting what we’re supposed to do in the midst of the storm? As I ask myself that question, any answer that I come up with ultimately seems to come back to a lack of trust: being afraid I’ll miss something important, being afraid that something will catch me off guard, being afraid that people will think I’m shirking my responsibilities. All of those are ultimately a lack of trust that Jesus will walk me through the storm as I focus on Him.

So my challenge, and am I guessing yours, is to stop giving so much of our focus and attention to the tasks and trials around us and trust to Jesus to walk us through as we look at Him and observe what He is doing. In our astonishment and wonder at what He is doing in our day, we might just be reminded of the joy that comes from joining Him along the way.

It doesn’t take long in life, or ministry, to hit a season of difficulty and challenge. Seasons of uncertainty, fear, and grief rock us all at times.


We each have our own tendencies in how we try to get through these types of seasons. We might try to buckle down, work even harder, and just plow through. We might try to bury our heads in the sand and try to act like everything is okay. We might do our best to get through what we have to, and then distract or numb ourselves so we don’t have to deal with our thoughts and feelings. We might isolate ourselves so we don’t have explain to others what we are dealing with. We might do the opposite and vent to trusted people or anyone who will listen. We might get angry and explode on those around us. It could be that we do any one of those or possibly a mix of them depending on the situation and season that we are facing.


Maybe we look for healthier alternatives though. We might seek a trusted advisor. We might try to process our thoughts and feeling through journaling. We might do some deep breathing or seek to exercise or eat healthier. We might look for some books to help us where we are struggling. We might look to spend time with friends and family. We might finally take time to rest. While these are definitely strategies that are much better for us than the first ones, Psalm 31:24 has an even better idea for us:


“Be strong and let your heart take courage,
All you who hope in the Lord.”


Read that verse again, and maybe one more time after that. I don’t know about you, but reading those words lets me just take a much needed deep breath. At the same time I find myself wanting to say: I want to be strong. I want to be courageous, but I just don’t know if I know how or if I can.


There is good news. The key is in the second part of that verse: “All you who hope in the Lord.” This is where we begin. When we’re uncertain, when we’re afraid, when we’re grieving or struggling, we need to start by hoping in the Lord. Sometimes we don’t just isolate ourselves from others. Sometimes in difficult seasons of life we isolate ourselves from God too. We know that’s not helpful, but we do. So start there. Stop isolating yourself from God. He hasn’t left you. He is waiting with open arms for you to come pour out your hurt, your pain, your fears, your worries, and your sorrow to Him. Not only can He take it, but He will love you through it. He will walk with you through whatever fire surrounds you.


When we go to God in difficult times, His love and His truth sparks hope in our souls. Not hope in our situation or anything else that we tend to cling to, but hope in Him. It is that hope that enables us to be strong and take courage. When we’re at the end of our rope and we can’t muster up that strength and courage on our own, it comes from hope in Him.


So are you facing uncertainty, fears or sorrow today? Spend some time with God. Enjoy His presence. Pour out your struggles and allow Him to fill you hope, strength, and courage.

This is week two in our series on what Scripture teaches us about the value of wonder in our lives and ministries.
  
Today’s Scripture passage is Psalm 77:11-15 (NASB)
“I shall remember the deeds of the Lord;
Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will meditate on all Your work
And muse on Your deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy;
What god is great like our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
You have made known Your strength among the peoples.
You have by Your power redeemed Your people,
The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.”

“You are the God who works wonders.”
Do you really believe that? What are some of the wonders you have seen God do?

I hope that some things immediately came to mind. If not, I would sincerely recommend taking some time to reflect on that further. Life is tough and the psalmist understood that remembering these wonders from God can help us in those tough times. In fact, in the New American Standard Bible the heading at the top of Psalm 77 says, “Comfort in Trouble from Recalling God’s Mighty Deeds.”

Why is this so important? In life and in ministry, tough times will happen. In fact Jesus Himself promised us that in John 16:33: “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

Like the psalmist describes in these verses from Psalm 77, remembering the wonders we’ve seen and even the ones recounted for us in Scripture and then meditating and musing on focusing and dwelling on them help us through these tough times. It helps us remember how great and powerful God truly is. Remembering that and focusing on Him helps us to put our current difficulties in better perspective. Our problems don’t disappear, but we remember that we aren’t alone. The God who works wonders is with us.

So are you struggling with things in your life? Are you dealing with struggles and difficulties in your ministry? Take time to remember the wonders that God has done. Take time to remember the God who works wonders. Remember that He is Holy. Remember that He is great. Remember that He is strong and powerful. Remember that He redeems.