Author name: Tom Stuart

Friendliness is next to Godliness

4 Comments / Communication, Relationships /

“Wake up and look around, the fields are already ripe for harvest.” John 4:35

Jesus’ way of lovingly engaging with people, disarming their defense mechanisms and speaking insight-fully into their lives never ceases to amaze me. He exemplifies, like no one else, the ability to reach across every barrier and befriend people no matter what their age, gender, social status, ethnicity or religious persuasion. The fact that he was criticized for being a “friend of publicans (tax collectors) and sinners” testifies to that fact. (Matthew 11:19)

What was Jesus’ secret? How did he engage with people and direct the conversation toward spiritual things?

His encounter with the woman at the well in John 4 provides four wonderful insights into how to befriend people for eternal purposes.

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A prescription for waning spiritual passion

2 Comments / Overcoming, Relationship with God /

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” Isaiah 42:3

In my late twenties, several years following my conversion to Christ, I found myself struggling in my relationship with Him. I had been burning the candle at both ends carrying a full time job, trying to be a Godly husband and father with two little children while seeking to maximize whatever time was left over in serving Him. In the midst of leading a small group, teaching Sunday school, volunteering in a prison ministry and trying to be at church every time the doors were open I suddenly found myself without any passion in my personal relationship with Jesus.

Feeling overwhelmed and the need to cutback on my commitments to the church I went to the pastor to tell him about my burnout and feelings of estrangement from Jesus. With trepidation I approached him after a Sunday service and asked if he would release me from several of my serving commitments at church and pray for me.

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God’s tipping point

8 Comments / Relationship with God /

In 2006 “thought leader” Malcolm Gladwell published a book entitled “The Tipping Point.” His premise was that the viral spread of an idea, product or disease is the result of repeated behaviors that builds an accumulative effect to a critical mass. When that threshold or “tipping point” is reached, a breakthrough occurs not unlike the collapse of a dam, turning a persistent trickle turns into a flood.

This same principle is applicable in spiritual matters also. There are tipping points in the realm of the Spirit when God releases breakthroughs. Tipping points with God are always linked to prayer or the lack thereof. That is why God so earnestly looks for intercessors, those who will stand in the gap before Him for His purposes to be accomplished in the earth. (Ezekiel 22:30) Prayer and intercession move His hand to pour out blessings and stay His hand in holding back judgment. (Revelation 5:8 & 16:1)

One of the names ascribed to God by King David was Baal-perazim – the “Lord who breaks through.” The occasion was one of the times when the Philistines attacked Israel. As was David’s practice, he first sought the Lord in prayer. “Should I go out to fight the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?” The LORD replied, “Yes, go ahead. I will hand them over to you.” (1 Chronicles 14:10) So when David’s troops defeated them he exclaimed “God did it! …He used me to burst through my enemies like a raging flood!” (1 Chronicles 14:11)

Jesus gave us very specific instructions about the Father’s tipping points and how to trigger breakthroughs in our lives. In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus encouraged three things that every believer must do to move the Father’s hand to tipping points of blessing. (Matthew 6:1-8) Those three things, all forms of intercession, are alms giving, prayer and fasting. Jesus promised that when we do these things in secret, exclusively for Him and not for show, He will reward us openly.

In both the Old and New Testaments prayer and fasting were often triggers for releasing amazing breakthroughs.

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Sports fanaticism & idolatry

2 Comments / Relationship with God, Uncategorized /

It’s been a tough past five days for Minnesota sports fans. The Gopher football team lost to Penn State on Saturday, the Vikings lost to Green Bay on Sunday, the Wild lost to the Capitals on Monday and the Timberwolves lost to Sacramento on Wednesday. Losses are bad enough, but every single one of them was a winnable game. That is frustrating! When I went to bed Wednesday night I was repenting. I had just spent two fruitless hours watching another defeat and wasting valuable time and energy on something I knew ultimately could never satisfy me.

When we read in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, about the worship of idols our eyes gloss over and we relegate such behavior to that of primitive cultures. After all we are far too advanced and sophisticated to fall prey to such foolishness. Right? – Wrong! Idol worship in our modern culture is more rampant than we realize and in all honesty rivals the idol worship of even Hinduism which boast millions of gods.

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Overcoming a spirit of rejection

13 Comments / More on that message..., Overcoming, Relationship with God /

“He has made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:6 AKJV)

Why is it that we so readily give credence to the voice of rejection whispering in our ear? You know that voice. It says “I don’t belong here. No one listens to or cares about me. I have nothing to offer.” It’s always in the first person “I”, because that is the way the devil deceives us into thinking its coming from us rather than from him, the father of lies. (John 8:44)

Seeds of rejection sown into our lives through experiences of being disregarded, abandoned or betrayed are fueled by the devil’s lies and lead to self-rejection. We then become our own worst enemy. Henri Nouwen writes “Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that declares we are loved.”

The heart of the message of the Gospel is the very opposite of rejection. It is the promise of acceptance by our heavenly Father in the unconditional love of His son Jesus Christ.

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