Identity

Your Glory Story

by Andy Wood on October 24, 2008

in Esteem, Exploring the Possibilities, Life Currency, LV Cycle

Somewhere in the back story of the drama that is your life, you are rehearsing a Cinderella story.  One that transforms you from zero to hero, from reject to regal.  You imagined it as a kid in ways that were unique to you.  This dream may have been fed by caring parents, or it may have been an escape from the harshness of your world.

Simply put, you dreamed of glory.

Not vainglory, mind you.  Something more.  An image that said you mattered.  Belonged.  Were wonderfully adequate for the role you’d been chosen – for your quest.

Then came the collision.  Dreams were broadsided by disappointments.  You never quite figured out how to translate that high school stardom into a career or a destiny.  Or worse, you actually found your place in the world, but stared in the mirror at a fraud.  Maybe you got what (or who) you’d always wanted, and you bombed.  Maybe you just settled into paying the bills and keeping house, and woke up a generation later wondering what happened.

Sometimes I think our greatest fear or vulnerability isn’t the evil we’re all capable of.  What we most dread or most grieve is that we’re just so ordinary. [click to continue…]

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The Hidden Battles of a Man (or Woman) of God

by Andy Wood on September 29, 2008

in Enlarging Your Capacity, LV Cycle

Job sites can be noisy places.  The clanging of tools, the heaving groans of loud masculine voices, and the hacking or high-pitched grinding of cutting instruments all suggest that something is being built with earnest.

There is another kind of construction, however, that makes precious little noise.  But the effects are powerful and completely necessary.  In the Day of the Second House, none of us can move forward without it.  I’m talking about the inner construction – the molding and shaping of character and spiritual power.

It does no good to rebuild the outward structures without taking a tough look at the inner priorities and attitudes of the heart.  That’s what’s so ridiculous about somebody facing a crisis (remember the Sunday after September 11, 2001?) by scurrying off to a church building they haven’t darkened in months.  The building or setting is meaningless unless it’s occupied by a transformed heart.

So while our friend Zerubbabel was busy governing and building a temple, his partner, Joshua, was facing some building of his own.  But this high priest was facing down his own broken walls, burned gates, and impossible mission.  Joshua was engaged in a battle for his heart, and for the soul of his nation.  Here’s how the prophet Zechariah described this internal battle:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, “ The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, ” Remove the filthy garments from him.” Again he said to him, “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the Lord was standing by. (Zechariah 3:1-5)

Every man or woman who is serious about spiritual life and victory faces similar battles.  Our destinies, as well as the destinies of others, hang in the balance.  Here are five inner battle zones: [click to continue…]

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Leading the Broken Organization: Seven Strategies for Healing and Renewal

by Andy Wood on September 10, 2008

in Leadership, Life Currency

“We have a problem,” Perry said.  Thus began the conversation the led to my first senior pastorate.  The problem he alluded to was an open church conflict that led to a lot of angry words at a time when the church Perry attended was without a pastor.

He was asking me to come and preach (I was the associate pastor at a nearby church).  I did, and the rest, as they say….

As long as businesses, churches, and other types of organizations are comprised of humans, they will eventually experience setbacks, upsets, dysfunction, and problems.  Nobody gets it right all the time, and even healthy organizations must confront serious problems.

Broken organizations, however, are different.  [click to continue…]

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A Product of Grace

by Andy Wood on August 1, 2008

in Five LV Laws, LV Alter-egos, Pleasers, Principle of Eternity

(This is a piece I wrote a few years ago after meditating on 1 Corinthians 15:10.  It amazed me how quickly the words came, and it always seems to get a surprising (to me) response.  I recently received a very nice note about it from someone I’ve never met.  Since I’m traveling today, I thought I’d share it with you.  I hope it’s an encouragement.  And, of course, if you are encouraged by it, I would be encouraged if you would encourage somebody else with it by clicking “Share This” below.  Most of all, I hope you can say it’s your testimony, too.)

I am a product of grace.

No measure of performance could ever achieve in a lifetime

what the grace of God performed in an instant.

No failure to perform could erase

what the Spirit of God has completed for all of eternity.

I am a product of grace.

No nod of any human’s approval could compare with the fulfillment, the joy,

the wonder of knowing my Heavenly Father has turned His face toward me.

No amount of mortal rejection can change the fact that my Lord God

has made me accepted in the Beloved.

I am a product of grace.

No sin of the past, no matter how grave,

can resist the transforming power of a Risen Lord.

No future failure can change the fact that I am an heir of God, a joint heir with Jesus Christ.

I am a product of grace.

No situation, no pain, no frustration can rob me of my hope.

No force without or within can deny or change the fact that I am a new creation in Christ –

that every old thing is passed away and everything has become new.

I am a product of grace.

And grace never sleeps.  It never gets tired or weak, old or crippled.

It’s as new as the sunrise, and as powerful today as it was the first Easter.

Grace is my testimony and I its trophy.  There is never a time when grace is not

covering my sin or revealing me as God’s work of art.

I am a product of grace.  And I have a story to tell.

Once I was lost, but now I’m found.

Marvelous!

Once I was blind, but now I see.

Infinite!

Once I was afraid, now I am at peace.

Matchless!

I am what I am.  That’s grace.

But I am not yet what I will be.  That, too, is grace.

Oh, how amazing!

Grace.

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DeCristo

by Andy Wood on July 29, 2008

in LV Stories

DeChristo“I am created for His kingdom and purpose.  I want to fulfill what I was created for.”  That was Connie Holloway’s firm belief and determination.  Little did she know where that would take her.

Four years ago, Connie was in a marriage that ended in a head-on collision.  A believer in Christ, she carries no anger toward her former husband.  He’s a brother in Christ, she says, and she means it. She has seen her share of hurts, but Connie is the second-happiest person I have ever known.  I’ve about decided that Molly Brown would have nothing on her.  Connie’s unsinkable.  She has that crazy idea that abundant life is available here and now – not just when we die.  What a concept.

One of Connie’s major breakthroughs happened a couple of years ago.  “We were in worship, singing ‘Enough,’ and God asked me, ‘Am I more than enough for you?’”

“Yes!” she said with joy.

On that day, Connie was set free from believing that a relationship with a man could heal her.  She learned – not just in her head, but in her heart – that our completeness is in Him, not in a marriage or the things she thought she needed in a spouse.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  Connie was enjoying a movie with Kaylee, her daughter.  The credits were rolling, and Connie saw someone’s name and thought how beautiful it was.  There she was seized with a thought:  It’s time for a new name.  For four years she’d carried a stranger’s name, and it was time for a change.

She mentioned it to Kaylee, who just seemed to get it.  Kaylee always seems to get her mother.  So there they stood – credits still running – and they started having fun, practicing new names based on the running list.

But how do you pick your own new name?  What would you do if you had that kind of freedom?

[click to continue…]

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