Marc Estes

 

I had the unique privilege of sharing with a young man who claimed to be a “White Magic – Calvinist – Jew.” To say that it was an interesting conversation would be a gross understatement. The good news is that I was able to lead this young man to Christ and get him plugged into the local church.  Other recent conversations seem to have some of the same undertones; people who have formulated their own definition of God and views about eternity.

Welcome to the twenty-first century!  The breakdown of absolute truth coupled with the erosion of Christian influence has paved the way to a new melting pot of religious views that have greatly impacted society, and our ability to reach those that need Christ. As a church leader, I am acutely aware of the fact that my approach to sharing the truth must radically change while still adhering to the timeless truth of the gospel; easier said than done.

Regardless of a person’s belief system or worldview, there are ten main pillars that we must continue to emphasize in our gospel approach.

 These are: (FREE TEACHING NOTES on this topic available on my Resource Page).

Pillar #1: Every person has a perception of Eternity

Regardless of religious persuasion, or lack thereof, every person has a perception of what Eternity might be. Those views may consist of; heaven, hell, reincarnation, a distant galaxy, or cease to exist.

Pillar #2: Absolute truth is the foundation to life itself

To a generation that believes that truth is relative, the need for establishing the foundation is the beginning point of sharing the gospel.

Pillar #3: The Bible is the foundation for all Truth

There is only one book that has ever stood the test of time as being 100% infallible. Establishing the Bible as the sole source of your message is vital to the presenting of any future principles.

Pillar #4: The nature and characteristics of God can be defined

God must be redefined back to His original description. Without elevating God to His rightful place in the minds of man, it is impossible to present the gospel with any sense of need or urgency.

Pillar #5: Sin is an absolute problem not a relative, narrow-minded concept

People must understand sin as “rebellion against God” and it’s affect on humanity in order to understand the immeasurable gap between themselves and God due to their own personal sin.

Pillar #6: Hope and unconditional love are available to those who seek God

Even in the midst of judgement, God provides a way of escape and the opportunity for a new life. This is key to reaching a generation without hope.

Pillar #7: The Cross remains as the central message of the Gospel

1. The message of the cross is the power of God unto salvation. The price that Christ paid for the sin of mankind must be clearly understood to make activate its power in a person’s life.
2. We need to not only give attention to the cross, but also his resurrection power, that he conquered death and hell.
3. There must also be the realization that Jesus is the only way, and no salvation is found in no other name.

Pillar #8: The only One who can truly fill needs and voids is God Himself

Society continues to look to everything but God to fill the immense holes in their life. The need for love, hope, peace, joy, purpose, acceptance and identity will only be found in God. This can only happen when people enter into a personal relationship with Christ. This too, is an important part of the gospel.

Pillar #9: Commitment to Christ is a life-long decision

People must understand the commitment of a life-long relationship before praying a prayer. Just as in a marriage, a couple must understand the cost before entering into a covenant relationship.

Pillar #10: Becoming a Fully Devoted Follower of Christ is the Goal

God desires disciples, not just decisions. The point of salvation marks the beginning of the journey, not the end. A key part of sharing the gospel is to assist people into understand the new life that has begun.

 

If there was ever a time where we need clear and concise guidelines for counseling those in need, it is now. There are a variety of societal factors that have greatly increased the number of those in need  and having some guidelines for godly counsel is a must. Yet many attempt to direct people with the best intention, but lead  them toward a distorted solution which only further complicates their situation rather than helping them toward the road to victory.

There are simple, but important principles that every leader should understand and embrace when involved in giving others counsel of any sort. We have been given the incredible privilege and responsibility to direct people toward the ‘God solution’ for their situation, and using proven Biblical guidelines will greatly increase the effectiveness of your counsel. 

I have been often asked, “What do you do with your leaders and your church to help them in counseling?” I put together a document for your review and use on my resource page. It is called, “Counseling Guidelines for the Local Church.” Take a look at it and pass it on to your leaders!

Several years ago, Dr. Ruth Berenda and a group of fellow psychologists rediscovered the dramatic power of societal pressure. In an experiment they invited ten teenagers into a room where three charts were displayed. Each chart had three lines of different lengths. The group members were asked to raise their hands when the teacher pointed to the longest line on each chart. One teen in each group did not know that the other nine teens had been instructed to raise their hands when the teacher pointed to the second longest line. The lone teen frequently looked somewhat confused but cast a wrong vote with the other nine students. Dr. Berenda’s data revealed that 75 percent of the teens allowed peer pressure to override their own better judgment.

We all need the affirmation to choose what is right rather than what is popular, which is much easier said than done. I am firmly convinced that the reason so many are persuaded by their surroundings, is their lack of identity in who Christ intended them to be. Many today allow the voice of society to define their value and worth, which always ends in disappointment. It is amazing to see what people are willing to risk losing for the sake of gaining the ‘approval’ of others.

Yet God’s view of you will allow you to be a persuader, not persuaded. We are first and foremost to be God pleaser, not a man pleaser (Eph. 6:6).  If we focus on what pleases God and how He values us, we have a great chance of not being persuaded and manipulated by the world and it’s opinion of us. Here are my top ten faith-builders which describes what God says about me!

1. I am God’s child.
2. I am God’s friend.
3. I am adopted into His family.
4. I am complete in Christ.
5. I have a future and hope.
6. I am part owner of God’s Kingdom.
7. I am a citizen of heaven.
8. I am significant.
9. I am special.
10. I have a purpose.

The next time that you are tempted to do something to impress someone else, ask yourself the question, “Am I being persuaded or am I persuading.” You might even print out this little list and  put it in your wallet or purse. It just might save your bacon one of these days!

Growing up, I remember driving down the road in my parent’s 1968 dark green Ford station wagon listening to them sing a popular song by Simon and Garfunkel, “Feeling Groovy (59th St. Bridge Song).” One phrase that still rings in my ears is, “Slow down you move to fast, you got to make the morning last, just kickin’ down the cobblestones, looking for fun and feeling groovy!”

This Utopian idea of life seems so distant from reality. Life is moving at a rapid pace and there never seems to be enough time to give attention to those things that are most important. The tyranny of the urgent robs us of giving our lives to what matters most. Maybe we should start a, “Feeling Groovy” campaign and live life on purpose!

I just received an email from a good friend, Carl Probyn, which reminded me again to, “slow down, because I live to fast!” Here it is for your pleasure.

“Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven’t thought about it, don’t have it on their schedule, didn’t know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine. I got to thinking one day about all those people on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back.  From then on, I’ve tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn’t suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed?  Does the word ‘refrigeration’ mean nothing to you? How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched ‘Jeopardy’ on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said , ‘How about going to lunch in a half hour?’ She would gas up and stammer, ‘I can’t.  I have clothes on the line.  My hair is dirty.  I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain’  And my personal favorite:  ‘It’s Monday.’ She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches..  We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We’ll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained.  We’ll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet.  We’ll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older.  The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer.  One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of ‘I’m going to,’ ‘I plan on,’ and ‘Someday, when things are settled down a bit.’

When anyone calls my ’seize the moment’ friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips.  She keeps an open mind on new ideas.  Her enthusiasm for life is contagious.  You talk with her for five minutes, and you’re ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years..  I love ice cream.  It’s just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process.  The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker.  If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now..go on and have a nice day.  Do something you WANT to…not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say?   And why are you waiting?

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground?  Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night?  Do you run through each day on the fly?  When you ask ‘How are you?’  Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?  Ever told your child, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow.’ And in your haste, not see his sorrow?  Ever lost touch?  Let a good friendship die?  Just call to say ‘Hi’?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift….Thrown away… Life is not a race. Take it slower.  Hear the music before the song is over.. (added mine) ‘Life is fun and I’m feeling groovy!’”

PLEASE click below on “SHARE THIS” and pass it on to some friends.

 

 

I was greatly moved by this video and the evidence of God moving upon the country of Haiti in their darkest hour. This is one video that didn’t make it to the top of the evening news, but has made it to the top of my blog for sure. With over 1,000,000 people praying and fasting for three days, 3,000 confirmed salvations of which 101 voodoo priests were saved, is worth passing this move of God on to those that doubt that God can work “ALL THINGS for his good.”  Please click below and pass this post on and let the nations see our God moving in Haiti!

 

If you have ever led someone to Christ, you know the importance of follow up.  Leading someone to Christ just starts the process and having an effective strategy is important. A few years ago, I wrote a simple follow-up booklet that can be handed to someone after praying to receive Christ.

I thought you might enjoy this booklet and wanted to offer it to you to use in your church, ministry or personal experiences. You can download this on my Resource Page.  The file is called “The Road Ahead – Follow Up Booklet.”  Let me know if this works for you.

 Working with a new convert is much more than a mechanical process. It isn’t the downloading of information, but modeling what a real Christian is to become. Here are eleven qualities of an effective discipler. Hope they help!

1. Integrity

Building a trust relationship with your new disciple is vital. You are asking this person to trust you to lay a spiritual foundation of truth in his or her life. Make sure to saturate your example with integrity. In every aspect of your life, be sure that you are as good as your word. You are representing your church, your brothers and sisters and the name of Christ!

2. Humility

It is necessary, while building trust, to show humility. Humility allows others to receive what you say. Realize that without Jesus you could not have made it as far as you have. There is no difference between us and the prostitute. We are just beggars leading another beggar to bread. Serve them, lift them up… be interested and impressed, not interesting and impressing!

3. Sensitivity

Maintain a high level of sensitivity. Most people come to Christ because of a significant need in their life. Discerning their needs and being sensitive to them will help you offer comfort and counsel in the appropriate areas. Discern the need and minister through it, don’t be ignorant to it.

4. Patience

Working with new converts requires great patience. They do things they shouldn’t do, say things they shouldn’t say, and think things that are not Christ- like. Remember, they are newborn babes and require special attention. Be patient and loving at all times. Don’t rush people: The Holy Spirit brings the change, you bring the love and the understanding.

5. Persistence

It is difficult for most new believers to talk freely about God, to pray, or to worship. Because of this, you must be persistent, but not obnoxious. Allow the Holy Spirit to show you the proper level of persistence needed, while being careful not to turn your new convert away from you, the church, or God.

6. Respect

One of the quickest ways to repel people is to be condescending. In doing this, you create a teacher/student relationship. You should instead create a friend/ friend relationship. Talk about areas that interest them and that they are good at. Be interested and build them up. Introduce them to others, don’t be embarrassed to have them hanging around you. Show them you respect them.

7. Listening

It has been said, “Gain permission to speak by first listening.” Once you begin a conversation with someone, ask him or her open-ended questions about job, family, or social life. Try to find common ground and allow the person to speak. You were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. The best way to get to know someone and understand them is to just sit and listen. Don’t monopolize time. Ask many questions, and let them talk. It helps build relationship as well.

8. Graciousness and Understanding

There will be times when people will reject what you say. Often Christians react negatively in these situations. Getting upset can cause confusion and bitterness in a new convert and make it difficult to move forward in the follow-up process. When someone is unwilling to listen to you, smile, love them, leave them with a positive, caring perception, and wait for the proper time to share your concerns. The harvest is messed up with mulitple, very complex problems. It took years to get into the mess they are in, and it will take years to get out.

9. Exhorting in Love

As your relationship deepens, you may feel led to confront an area in this person’s life. Be sure to combine your exhortation with love. People need more strokes than pokes. Often, the person already knows that the area of sin is wrong. Exhortation without love is hard-handed judgment. Exhortation with love is compassion.

10. Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is contagious! Successful companies have enthusiastic employees because enthusiasm attracts people. No one wants to listen to dull, uninteresting people. Effective disciplers have enthusiasm as well. Allow God’s light to shine through you. Use expression when you speak about Jesus. Let the person see that Christianity is not just a religion, but a relationship.

11. Friendliness

Eighty-six percent of people who come to Christ are influenced through friends, neighbors, relatives, or co-workers. If a relationship does not already exist, your goal should be to build a relationship with your new convert as quickly as possible. Don’t disciple out of obligation.

 

 

 

I wanted to share with you some amazing stories of people who changed the course of history. Listen closely and try to pull out the common thread in each story.

Story One: In 1962, four nervous young musicians played their first record audition for the executives of the Decca Recording company. The executives were not impressed. While turning down the British rock group called the “Beatles” one executive said, “we don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.”¹

Story Two: A Six year old boy was sent home from school one day with a note from his teacher suggesting that he be taken out of school, as he was “too stupid to learn.” He lost most of his hearing by the age of eight but Thomas Edison went on to invent the electric light, phonograph, microphones, mimeograph, fluoroscope, movies and over a hundred other useful inventions.

Story Three:In 1870 a Bishop in a local church stood and made this statement. “The millennium is at hand. Man has invented everything that can be invented. He has done all, he can do.” A man in the congregation said a great invention would take place within the next 50 years and the bishop asked, “What kind?” The man replied, “I think man will learn how to fly.” The bishop said, “That is blasphemy. Don’t you know that flying was reserved for angels?” the bishop was, Milton Wright, the father of Orville and Wilbur.

Story Four: In 1927, while attending the John Murray Anderson Drama School, a little red-headed lady received some instruction from the head instructor, “Try any other profession..any other!” Lucille Ball did not take his advice and became one of the great actresses of all times. 

The greatest common thread through these stories is “choices made today shape tomorrow’s future!” They all could have “gone with the flow”, and taken the easy and convenient road, but made a decision that changed their lives forever.

If  we were to look back at our own lives, we could all quickly think of some significant decisions we made that made us what we are today. Some have been great choices, while others have been bad choices. In either case, we lived out the consequences or rewards of those choices. The choices you make today will shape tomorrow’s reality.

 

Most people live their entire lives without ever discovering who they really are and what they were created to be. In this post I want to help you to understand how God has created you and give you seven key assessment tests that you can take on your own. These are found on my Resources page under the heading, “Free Self Assessment Tests.” 

God has given you certain gifts, talents, and abilities. He has placed deep within your heart certain passions for people, issues, and areas of ministry. He has allowed experiences in life to shape your character, perspective, and worldview. He has also given you the opportunity to grow and mature in Christ, in hopes that you might maximize the time you have been given for kingdom purposes. All of these components combined are the byproduct of how God made you.

We will discuss seven major components briefly below. They are; passions, talents and abilities, personal makeup, spiritual gifts, life-shaping experiences, spiritual maturity and availability. These individual components are different in every individual. Understanding these seven components and incorporating them into everyday life are critical to living successful lives of purpose. These components come from three different sources: God, life’s experiences, and our own personal choices and disciplines.

God-Shaping Factors

There are four main components to how God made you that come directly from Him and are woven into the fabric of your being:

1. Passions
2. Talents and abilities
3. Personal makeup
4. Spiritual gifts

Life-Shaping Experiences

God also allows trials, tribulations, and tragedies to come our way as a means to help build character. The Bible is filled with great men and women who faced unbelievable life-shaping experiences that are recorded in the Bible for generations to come. For some, life-shaping experiences allowed them to adjust something that was amiss in their life, or even to remove sinful habits.

Life-shaping experiences are often allowed by God (however, they are not always initiated by Him) to prepare and shape us for our purpose. “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Pet. 4:12–13, TNIV).

Personal Choices and Disciplines

The level of our hunger and pursuit for spiritual things will determine the level of spiritual health, growth, and maturity. That’s why the writer of Hebrews admonished those who were not living up to their full potential in Christ with these words: “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” (Heb. 5:12, TNIV).

In addition, our willingness to be used by God will ultimately determine the outcome of our lives. We can have all the God-given potential and gifting needed but still fail as a result of not being available. Psalm 39:4–5 should be our mindset toward being available for Him: “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath” (TNIV).

You are a child of God, created in His image, with certain characteristics that are yours alone. God knows your frame; He sees every part of your makeup and believes in your ability to measure up to the big plans He has for you. Regardless of your past—whether you were a Korean War orphan or the son of an aeronautical engineer—or even your present circumstance, you have a purpose to fulfill, and your uniqueness makes you the only one qualified to do so. You playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking back so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. You were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; unfathomably, it is in everyone.

You can read more in detail by ordering my book, What Now.

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There are three shocking realities that have moved into a place of acceptance in our society today. Each of these have a profound affect on the culture in which we live, and many of us don’t fully understand the ramifications of such atrocities:

• We can have Morality without Religion
• Whatever is Legal is Moral 
• Morality Cannot Be Legislated

Gene Edward Veith states in His book, ‘Post Modern Times’, “While people have always committed sins, they at least acknowledged these were sins. A century ago a person may have committed adultery flagrantly and in defiance of God and man, but he would have admitted that what he was doing was a sin. What we have today is not only immoral behavior, but a loss of moral criteria… We face not only a moral collapse but a collapse of meaning…”

 In the book, ‘Rebirth of America’ is a paralyzing statement is made. It reads as follows, “Forgetting to acknowledge ‘the Power that mad and preserved us a nation,’ her citizens began to congratulate themselves on their own achievements, to celebrate man, while relegating God to the back seat… Wallowing in materialism self-centeredness and pride, many Americans decided that they really did not need God after all. Some began to taper with God’s absolute standards, and to tolerate what they would never have allowed before, in their own lives or in society around them. That which God says is never right could be sometimes right, depending on the situation… America once legislated against those things that God said to be wrong. But gradually we began to tolerate, then accept, then condone openly, and even promote, that which was once unthinkable. The perversion and degradation that once made us blush are now flaunted before the eyes of a nation that was conceived in the fear of God. It happened little by little, right before our eyes, not because someone forced it on us, but seemingly because we did not care. We just didn’t care…”

So we change the titles that God labeled as sin to something more appealing:        

• Sin as rebellion towards God  to Personal Preference or Choice
• Drunkenness to Adult Entertainment or at best a Social Disease
• Perversion to Adult Movies
• Sodomy to Alternate Lifestyle
• Immorality to a New Morality

 

We can debate the terms and definitions all we want but we can’t argue or deny their effect.

• Crime now costs taxpayer $2 Billion a year
• Serious crime is committed every 3 seconds
• Someone is robbed every 83 seconds
• Someone is murdered every 27 minutes
• Suicide is the second largest killer of teenagers.
• One of every three children under age of Eighteen have been, or will be, sexually molested.
• 100,000 handguns are taken to schools every day.

 

What is the Answer?

We must once again be open to analyze how we define our morals and values and be willing to lovingly adjust those that seem to be the reason we have gotten so far off track! Change in a nation starts with change in you. We can’t change a nation until we first change ourselves. We must once again recognize sin for what it is and call it for what it actually is and not be embarrassed to make the personal changes that are necessary as well as stand for righteousness in a land that has lost its focus.