As a pastor for 33 years, I often wondered why so many new believers drop out of the Christian “race.”  Their conversion is genuine but their endurance is sporadic.  It seems to me that as many as 2/3 of the conversions in our churches never connect or fall back into the world.  Where are we missing it?   

Jesus told the “parable of the sower.”  It gives us the secret to our problem. 

Perhaps we should make this parable into the process by which we help believers to become fruitful disciples:

Your attitudes are determining your altitude.  This phrase tells you if you are headed for the “jet stream” or a “slow crash.” How do you adjust your attitude?  The “Beatitudes” are 8 HEAVENLY ATTITUDES and it is time to “think heavenly.” The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest sermon in history.  Spoken in Matthew 5-7, its theme is “heavenly.”  It describes a mindset on Heaven, a heavenly ambassador who represents how things are done back in his homeland.

God despises pride.  He is all-powerful yet humble enough to wash the feet of His disciples.   He knows that pride was Satan’s downfall.  When I review the history of God’s generals and kings, I come to one grand conclusion:  “STAY LOW.”

Here are 5 ways to guard your humility:

The secret of your success is your ability to organize. A disorganized life is disastrous!  Your family, your marriage, your career, your ministry, your finances all suffer.  You keep trying to get ahead but your lack of organization is keeping you mediocre. I’m not the most organized person in the world.

Therefore, I can help you learn how a disorganized person can become…mainly organized:

Love is the most misunderstood word in the English language.  It mainly represents a feeling.  A “warm, fuzzy” feeling of gushing emotion.   I believe love is practical.  It engages in daily honor, respect, generosity, hospitality, and fidelity.  In Hebrews 13:1, Paul said four powerful words:  “Let brotherly love continue.”  Then, he went on to show us four practical ways that love is demonstrated on a daily basis. 

Try these out and see how your “love” is working for you:

Quick to hear…slow to speak…slow to anger.    Those three phrases in James used to bother me.  I had trouble with all three, especially the first one:  “Quick to hear.”   A better “translation” for me would have been, “Slow to listen…quick to speak…quick to get angry!”    Notice that your “listening” starts and controls the whole rest of the cycle.  First listening, then “words” and then your “emotions.”   

What are the secrets to better listening skills?

Today, I am thinking about the story of the “four lepers.”   I am presently in Asia where masses of people swarm like an ocean of fish.  Each one has a face, a name, a personality, a family, a need.  Jesus.   Why is missions becoming the lost subject in Christianity with these billions yet in darkness?

Now, we come to the “leper lessons.”  They were starving outside the gate of a besieged, starving city.  They represent me, you, all Christians.  Their story should be our story. 

Here are four lessons I learn from them:

"Stuck like Chuck".   It’s a phrase I use to describe the doldrums,  the “dead in the water” times of my life.  Everything becomes same ol' same ol',  acid-cardboard,  plain vanilla,  predictable and passionless. God is a God of endless variety.  His colors, patterns, and shapes are eye-popping. 

How do you get your creativity moving again?

Everyone talks about leaving a legacy.  I want to LIVE a legacy.  Legacy is “when the next generation models their lives and judges their achievements by you.”   

Legacy is about three words:  PURPOSE, COVENANT,  and INVESTMENT.

Everyone needs mentoring.  Mentoring is listening to someone who has made more mistakes than you.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in 47 years of ministry, and they all boil down to these ten: 

Fear and timidity can paralyze you.   Anxiety can control your every decision.   Confusion can totally derail your life’s focus.   The mind is the battleground of life.  You will inevitably face storms and crisis.   Your mind will be pressed to the breaking point.    How do you persevere until the sun breaks through again?

These three thoughts have always kept me on track:

Water, water, everywhere.  Three times the amount of rain fell on Baton Rouge as fell in Katrina!  7 trillion gallons of water deluged over 40,000 houses. With water comes “mold.”  There is a race against time to remove anything wet.  Hundreds of volunteers are stripping out churches, homes, and businesses before black mold takes over.

Do you have “mold in your soul?”  It is a creeping, silent enemy in your heart.   It is a hidden disease, thriving on the darkness.

Here are 5 basic steps to eradicate it:

On time is what every airline strives for.  I’m told the Swiss run a news story if a train is a few minutes late!  What difference does it makes to be “on time” and how can you hit that elusive mark?  I can help you with that.

Every Wednesday morning at 7:30 for six years I met our Governor and his staff for a Bible study.  One morning, I WOKE UP at 6:50!  In eight minutes I was up, showered, dressed and out the door!  I walked in breathing hard with five minutes to spare…and learned a valuable few lessons. 

Here they are:

Here in Baton Rouge, the unthinkable happened this past Sunday morning:  three police officers dead and three wounded.  From Dallas to Nice to Baton Rouge, we are all on an emotional roller coaster of tragedy.

How do we cope?  Where do we find the courage to keep loving, keep forgiving, keep giving?  Jesus repeatedly told those in distress to "take courage."  It was a COMMAND:  "TAKE courage."  Don’t leave it laying on the ground, pick it up.

Here are a few ways you "take courage" when you are in a time of deep distress: 

We are in a stressful time.  Political changes are unnerving.  Our enemies are gaining strength.  The economy is fragile.  Diseases are coming out of nowhere.  Travel has become dangerous.  It’s always good to come back to my “true north”:  “how big is my God?”  I was recently in Colorado.  I was dwarfed by the massive 14,000 foot mountains.  Mt. Everest in the Himalayas is 2 1/2 times their height!

If you are feeling small, take a look at five BIG THINGS about God in Isaiah 40:

I hate cruise control.  I hate it but I love it.  But I hate it.  It is so limiting.   It requires me to go only at a certain pace.  I love it because I can relax and just ride.  I hate it because I want to get there ahead of the guy in front of me! In our world today, everyone is in a hurry.  Patients are dying in hospitals because of the haste to move on to the next patient.  Everyone is on the move.  We are squeezing every second out of one activity to pour into the next one.

Think about these things when you are galloping toward your next ferry that is about to pull out:

Stress is killing people.  Guilt is not far behind.  In between those two extremes is a simple word:  “No.”  Getting that word out is the hard thing.  We hint, we beat around the bush, we psychologize.  We stay mad because we couldn’t say that word.  We avoid certain people and events because we can’t say that word.  Business leaders, parents, pastors, and politicians all have a difficult time saying that word. Your world will change when someone shows you how to say “No.”  I’ve battled it for years.  After all, they’re my friend.  What if I ruin a relationship?  Didn’t Christ teach me to serve?  What if their reputation tells me that what they borrow will never be returned?  How can I add another thing to an already overloaded schedule?  Stress or guilt?

Here are a few helpers to help you get that word out:

How do you know if you are going in the wrong direction or making a wrong decision?  Is God able to get your attention?  Have you ever “gone over the cliff” and you never had a clue you were close to the edge?  Balaam was a prophet in the Old Testament.  He was headed in the wrong direction (Num. 22).  God used his donkey to try to tell him.  Balaam was too hardheaded to listen and he finally lost his life. I have seen four ways God uses people to warn me that I am moving in a wrong direction.  If you don’t read on, you may be close to the cliff and not even know it!  

The donkey in the story did four things that people also do who are trying to warn you of a wrong direction:

40 years ago this week, I got married.  Two weeks later, I was in Africa with my bride.  I spent the better part of two years with her in the “bush” of Ghana and Nigeria often with no electricity and no running water.  Why have I invested 35 million dollars of the Lord’s money overseas in the last 33 years (and almost that much in local missions in the U.S.)?

As I reflect on this last forty years, here are a few thoughts that come to my mind:

My Daddy had a famous phrase:  “Keep it simple, hang loose, travel light.”  I remember a time I was helping my daughter move home from London.  She had at least eight suitcases.  We were trying to get on the subway for the airport and I found myself at the bottom of an escalator sprawled on the floor with all eight piled on top of me!  WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF. 

It convicted me to unload in several areas: