Empowerment. A management motivating word for many. In fact, if you open any books written in the recent past by management gurus, I guarantee you will see this word making countless appearances, as a preface to effective leadership and as a preamble to being “the best one can be”. It is interesting that this powerful word makes its appearance in our church setting for 2008. It is not a word to be taken lightly; acknowledging it means accepting the (im)possibilities into our daily lives; embracing it comes with even greater responsibilities.

Empowerment simply means the capacity of one to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions – choices which are made when a person is in full control and with it comes the propensity to lead and influence people. It is an action that forms the backbone for almost all leadership. It is certainly the action that Jesus desired for his disciples to embrace as He cast out the great commission in Matthew 28.

What I am interested in is how one becomes empowered. I don’t believe that it is as an easy task as saying “I want to see a movie”. What I have realised is that it takes a far greater commitment than just simply saying “I want to be empowered”. From a secular context, it is difficult enough; from a biblical perspective, it is not a road one can travel alone – without God in the picture, we would just be powerless.

Luke 12:48 says “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” The “everyone” and the “one” in this verse, means one and the same, and that is you and I. The word ‘much’ should not be read as a plural counter and thus magnified. “Much” is the blessings, the talents, the giftings that our Lord has bestowed upon us – some less than others, but they are still much. They are much because our God is a sufficient God and the sufficiency we have is much more than the lacking that we may feel. This is important to grasp as the “much” He has given us is the prologue to the demands and the responsibilities that follow.

See the context of this verse as applied in the Parable of the Three Servants (Matthew 25:14 -30). The first servant doubled what was given to him initially by his master and the second followed suit. Both their actions were rewarded by the master’s praise “Well done my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you more responsibilities” (Matt 25: 21 and 23). The last servant did nothing with what was given to him and he was rebuked by his master because from “those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away” (Matt 25: 29).

How many of us are like the last servant? How many of us have been blessed by the Lord but choose to veil ourselves behind human reasoning. I am willing to counter that for the most part the reasoning is valid. But that is just what it is - human reasoning. Try replacing that with spiritual undertaking and you will see how much God will empower you. It means stepping out from a self created comfort zone and into the realm of God sanctioned possibilities.

As a leader within the working community, I am conscious of the actions I adopt and how much these will influence others. As a leader within a Christian community, I am not only accountable to those under my care but even more so to our Maker who has placed me in that position of authority. This accountability does not only apply to leaders, it applies to all of us who called upon the Lord as “My Father”. Understand these – everyone influences someone and we never know when, who or how much we will influence. This much God has entrusted upon us.

Check out Esther in the Old Testament times. In the whole ten chapters of the book of Esther, the name “God” was not mentioned a single time. But yet, if you read the book, no one can deny the indescribable power of God over this young girl’s life and how this empowered her to be a source of influence over the authority above her and her race. Imagine a young Jewish girl, no older than fifteen when she was brought into King Xerxes’ harem. Did she have a choice? No. Through a series of events, Esther was placed in a predicament where there was no way out but just forward.

When Esther’s uncle caught wind of Haman’s deceitful plan to wipe out the Jewish race, he went to Esther for help. Esther’s initial reply to her Uncle’s (Mordecai) plead for help was “Err, I am not sure I am up for this because I can’t just approach the king when he hasn’t asked for me” (paraphrasing Esther 4:11). Putting yourself in Esther’s shoes, who can blame her? She had every right to be defensive because her life would be at stake if she was to approach the king before she was beckoned. Esther gave a valid reason – she would lose her life otherwise!

But take heed of Mordecai’s reply “If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will rise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). Wow! Mordecai is effectively saying “I don’t care what your reason is! How do you know what the outcome will be if you don’t even try?” And so tried Esther did and as we read the rest of Esther, we know that God gave her the courage and hence the subsequent victory.

Empowerment comes from accepting the responsibilities that have been bestowed upon us and rising above life’s challenges through faith in God who emboldens us beyond human understanding. It means making it less about us but so much more about God. A leader for Christ is not a title, it is however the actions of being a servant in His Kingdom for His people. If Jesus in His own humility and His servitude manner gave his life as a ransom for many, how much more can we rise above our own reasoning and embrace the little ‘much’ that has been conferred on us. Yes, at times it may be inconvenient but God did not design our lives to be based around convenience. How innately wrong we would be if we assume this to be case. What a stagnant Christian life (what little is left of it) we would live.

Reach up! Stretch wide! Allow God to realise His potentials in you, no matter the circumstances, regardless of the inconvenience. This to me is the fundamental essence of being empowered by our Lord, Jesus Christ. Remember the little you think you have, is already much. And this ‘much’ will have the compounding effect unbeknownst to you but celebrated by heavens above.

There’s an old Tina Turner song that goes:

Oh, what’s love got to do with it
What’s love but a second hand emotion
What’s love got to do with it
Who needs a heart
When a heart can be broken

As a kid, this was perhaps one of the most addictive songs to sing, aside from the head banging “Simply the Best”, which made the name Tina Turner forever etched on our childhood roadmaps. You gotta love those 80s lyrics. They’re considered cheesy at best now, but during that time, you can really feel those emotions running through the song; and it’s not just about angst, it’s about happiness, joy, friendship and so on. Long live the 80s!!

Anyways, as we begin our 2008 thrust into the 3Ps (Principle, Pattern and Promise of Living), I started with an introduction to it last week. I didn’t get to go through it unfortunately, as we had another introductory and affirmation time for Jeremy and Justin, who are stepping up in the cell to be Assistant Cell Leader and Intern respectively, which was fun, as all of us gave them personal encouragement and thoughts.

Here are the notes we didn’t get to go through.

What’s Love Gotta Do with It?

In order for us to understand why we need these principles (foundation) of living, we first need to understand why Paul prayed. He was first commending Collosae for being a church with faith, hope and love. The church was doing good and have made good progress in their baby walk with Christ. But this was not sufficient. One’s walk with Christ is not a static relationship. As Christians, we can never sit still or rest on our laurels. People have a tendency to live out of their past or even their present experiences and to stick with what’s comfortable for them. Since no one ever arrives at ultimate spiritual maturity in this life, there is always room for spiritual growth.

Paul presents his case in on how important love was in ministry, in his christian walk, in the church. Love has everything to do with it! I must say as our cell grows, I am learning to be more and more compassionate and sensitive of the needs of others. I can truly say that looking at the people in our cell group, there exist a love that bonds us together: not just on Fridays cell mates, but as lifelong friends.

But here is the case that Paul presents.

Love without Knowledge

First, because love and ministry without biblical insight and the knowledge of the truth will become only a soft and cheap imitation largely motivated by selfish concerns and desires. Because of this reality, Paul warned against simulated or hypocritical love (Rom. 12:9). “LOVE MUST BE WITHOUT HYPOCRISY”

And secondly, because without biblical insight and motivation, even genuine Christian love will grow dim and die. Acts of Christian love and service will be turned into drudgery and sour resignation, if they are present at all.

On the flip side; realising that some teaching like the gnostics advocates knowledge in the absence of love, Paul continues on to see the other side.

Knowledge without Love

Without love and close relationships within the body of Christ, the knowledge we gain through in-depth study of the Bible will invariably become cold, critical, boring, and mere intellectualism.

Knowledge without application is inept because it fails to grasp the meaning and purpose of knowing the Word. Bible study is never an end in itself, but it is an essential element in the life of the believer and one sorely neglected in the church today. As the apostle Paul warns, knowledge without discernment and Christ-like love becomes arrogant, literally, puffed up or inflated, and fails to fulfill the will of God (cf. Col. 2:18; 1 Cor. 8:1).⁷⁶ If our knowledge of the Savior and our life in Him does not lead to the practice of genuine love, we are nothing (1 Cor. 13:2).

Hence Knowledge and Love must co-exist. And unlike the wandering lyrics of the Tina Turner classic, God’s love is not second hand. And it has everything to do with it!

Presidential Courage, a collection of short stories about the decisions and acts of courage by American Presidents, talks of Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the United States. My history being a little defective, my only recollection of Harry Truman was from the song by Billy Joel, “We didn’t start the Fire”, the immortal first line that all boys during my time seem to be able to utter, to the audio cassette playing:

“Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray, South Pacific, something something, Joe Dimaggi-OH!”

That was a great song. I built my American History knowledge based on that.

Harry Truman’s most famous feat (at least to me) was that he ended WWII with a blast. Actually, 2 blast, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Until today, the world doesn’t know whether to place him in the hall of fame or infamy for the decision to end the war in that way. Pastor Vincent’s message last week on the Atomic Bomb conjured back my interest in WWII history and I came across this book.

It talks of Truman’s support for the creation of the Jewish State, along with a person called Edward Jacobson, and how, together with the Israeli president Chaim Weizmann went against the US Secretary of State, who opposed the creation of Israel. It’s a very interesting (although somewhat haphazard) read.

To me, it seems like a parallel, on the book of Esther. How Chaim represents Mordecai, who knew a person (Esther, represented by Jacobson) that could get an audience with the king, (represented here by the more uncouth Truman), and how together they convinced a powerful ally (US, the modern day Persia) to protect the Jews from being wiped out by their enemies. History does repeat itself.

Throughout the short excerpt, Jacobson continues to be persistent in his pursuit to save the Jewish state. At the end, with Truman on their side, they overruled the Secretary of State, Truman risking his political career and re-election and against all political logic, created the state of Israel in Palestinian land. Truman, at the end compares himself to Cyrus, who liberated the Jews from Babylonian captivity. But the true hero here is the modern day Esther, Edward Jacobson, who saved the Jewish state from being wiped clean by the Arabs.

Read the book here:

BeschlossMichael.BookExcerpt.PresCourage.05.07.pdf

Well, we’re at 2008 now…and our cell is headed into our third year, and hopefully transitioning from a young cell group into a middle aged one! It’s hard to believe it’s almost 3 years since I became a cell leader, but seeing the cell grow; perhaps not so much in numbers than in camaraderie, friendship and spiritual walk; is an experience I am sure all leaders share.

We started this year’s cell group with a farewell of sorts. Angie leaves us for her second half in Europe for another 3 months. But we had a great time worshiping and later just reviewing and sharing with each other how 2007 was and how 2008 will be. It seems that there’s going to be a whole lot of exciting stuff in store for us this year.

I think last year has been a year of building for many of us. In terms of our walk with God; in terms of our friendship; in terms of our mutual trust with each other. The cell group has come to a stage where close bonds have been forged between some; and God willing, lasting friendships through life. I shared that one of my habits whenever I was on stage was to look out for my cell members and where they are sitting; and see if they are responsive to the message.

For all leaders, having their members step up for ministry is something we all look forward to. For me, seeing someone respond to the sermon; coming up and being prayed for at the altar; getting touched by the Spirit; it just gives me a lift. Not of personal satisfaction; but of excitement, of what God’s doing inside him or her, and the changes that would come. I might not look like it, but certainly, it encourages me tremendously if there is a response and I know there has been, recently.

We also looked into Colossians 1:9-14, and this year, as a cell, it will be our text to focus:

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you^[d] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. – Col 1:9-14

We can basically break these 5 verses down further into the 3Ps, which will be our thrust for this year:

Let’s chew on this for a while, we’ll definitely run through these in more details; but for now, let’s look forward to our resolutions (if any) for 2008; and like last year’s work towards them! Happy new year!

“So what? Then what?” must have been reverberating a number of us as we delve deeper into God’s word.
                                                                                               
As young adults with the fuelling desire to undertake the world, we all set off with our envision ideals, thoughts as well as aspiration eccentric to each and everyone of us and transport it to the world with the anticipation that we possibly will create a difference for God out there. And given that each one of us are unique children of God, I would suppose that we embark with Godly purposes and intentions, be it whether around the clock service in His enterprise or His marketplace ministers. And so off we set into the world, with great enthusiasm.
 
However, there are two issues – first of all, it is a fallen world, and secondly we are fallen beings. Left uncheck, our ambition turn out to be our obsessions. The initial focus we set out with, becomes (more and more) shady and (more and more) blur. Surely we crave for recognition, power and influence, plus riches. And once we achieved that illusion of what the world defines as success, we turn out to be arrogant, boastful, egocentric, and often voracious. At this point, we want M-O-R-E. The Lord will subsequently gently taps on our shoulder and ask us, “So what? Then what?”
                                                                                               
Jesus asked what good is man who gains the whole world but loses his soul (Matt 16:26). After lamenting that all the riches and glory in the world is useless, Solomon was right when he concluded that we must fear God and keep His commandments with emphasis that it is our duty to do so. (Ecc 12:13)                   
 
An initial slight off-tangent angle can position a course of an airplane into a difficult direction. Keeping perspective of intention and direction is remarkably essential. We are bombarded with massive amounts of information every day and how we react to them will set the direction for us. In the human mind, there are two elements to which we respond to evidently: materialism and fear. It is uncomplicated to provoke dissatisfaction and suspicion. And only through prayer and surrender that we can keep life into perspective.
 
And as we embark on each milestone in our lives, do keep in mind the Lord will constantly ask, “So what? Then what?” Well, we do not need to a life of sophisticated success. All we need is a life of Godly significance – for the Lord, our family, and for our church.