“God’s been hunting me down for months.”

That was my immediate and instinctive understanding of why the Lord recently sent multiple blood clots into my leg and lungs (read about it here). Three weeks and two complications later, I’m more convinced than ever that God’s been tracking me for months, with loving arrow after loving arrow, until at last He’s brought me down to the dust. Let me explain.

Up until the last year I’ve lived a more or less healthy and vigorous life. I’m 6′ 3″ and 184 lbs. Although work has pushed out regular daily exercise for a few years now, I still ski, fish, and compete at Tae Kwon Do from time to time. But over the course of the last nine months my medical file has bulged considerably (as my finances have gone the other way). Since September, I’ve had two ongoing health issues, one of which culminated in a major (and very painful) operation in November. Did that all stop me?

Not for very long.

Then came the blood clots.  Top that all off with the discovery of a genetic blood clotting problem and I’m beginning to stagger to the ground (reluctantly). So just to be sure, God sent two further medical complications over recent days (I’ll spare you the gory details), one of which will be with me as long as I’m on this earth.

This is the finger of God.

STOP!

I’ve stopped.

And I know that’s the main message God has been sending me through these afflictions. STOP!

My life and ministry had been getting faster and faster and faster for years. And since coming to the USA, I’ve added a turbo gear. It’s all good stuff: delivering lectures, preaching sermons, speaking at conferences, writing books, producing DVD’s, etc. But it’s been at the expense of daily intimacy with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Good things replaced the best thing.

I’m not talking so much about neglect of private prayer, Bible reading, family worship, church attendance, etc; all these things have been steady and routine – although definitely too routine. No, my problem has been more about what has not been happening in these regular spiritual disciplines and throughout the working day.

Ministry without spirituality
Let me summarize where I believe I erred: ministry without spirituality. Perfunctory and spiritual disciplines and going from one ministry activity to another to another to another, with hardly a moment to feel dependence upon God, cry for help, and seek the Lord’s blessing before, during, or after. Cramming every waking moment with “productive” activity. And certainly not a second in the day to “be still and know that I am God.”

But now, in the enforced stillness, I hear a loving and concerned God say, “My son, give me your heart.” Not your sermons, not your lectures, not your blogs, not your books, not your meetings, etc. But your heart. YOU!

In the back of my mind I knew that my spirituality was not where it should have been, but I said to myself that I would push through jam-packed March and April and then get back into a good spiritual frame. That was my plan.

At the end of April, I finished the last in that long series of speaking engagements, and settled down into my chair the next day to begin my planned soul-revival. And thirty minutes later I was in hospital. The Planner swept my plan off the table.

But why should I blog all this? Why not just learn the lessons privately? My indecision over this explains why this article has been sitting in my “draft” folder for two weeks. Then last week I read Michael Oh’s excellent warning to leaders about Fruitfulness without purity. Although that was not the pit I fell into, I thought I might be able to warn others about the snare that got me for a time: the large and well-populated  pit of “Ministry without spirituality.”

And I don’t just want to warn; I want to share some helps that I believe will help others avoid it or get out of it.

1. Sleep more: I’ve neglected my body for too long and it’s started disintegrating as a result. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit as much as my soul. In other words, it’s God’s house and I need to care much better for it (1 Cor. 6:19-20). For many years I’ve slept only 5-6 hours a night, worked intensely through the day, and traveled an inordinate amount as well. Through sheer will-power, I’ve pushed my body beyond its limits I’m now paying a heavy price (in more ways than one).

2. Slow down: I’m deliberately slowing down my walking, driving, and working speed. I cannot have communion with God at Mach 3. I cannot worship God and productivity. I cannot condemn all the “-holisms” apart from the one beginning with “work-” however personally enjoyable (and beneficial to others) it may be.

3. Stay at home (more): Due to ongoing blood clotting issues, I’ve had to cancel all speaking commitments outside of Grand Rapids for the rest of the year. Moving forward, I’m setting up a small accountability group to help me pick 2-3 speaking engagements/conferences each year, probably focused in the USA and Canada. I’m going to have to steward my physical resources more wisely if I’m to have any hope of extended usefulness.

4. Serve the local church: With all my traveling over the past years, I’m afraid that I lost my focus on serving the local church God has placed me in. I’m looking forward to more time in the pew, more fellowship with the believers in my own church, and more availability to serve the Grand Rapids churches.
5. Socialize more
What’s the point in preaching around the globe picking up compliments from strangers, when I don’t have time to speak with my neighbors, keep in touch with distant family, lunch with colleagues, or just build relationships with God’s dear children in my own congregation! God’s put people right under my nose. God knows that I need them; and some of them need me.

6. Switch off: Compared to many, I believe I am very disciplined in my use of technology. However, I still believe it’s had too large a place in my life. I’m in a routine now when I check email twice a day, and blogs and Twitter once a day for a limited period of time. I’ve turned off notifications on my phone. And I’ve found that the more I’ve disconnected from technology the more I’ve connected with the Lord. Which brings me on to…

7. Seek the Lord: I’ve been taking time – 5 minutes here, 15 minutes there – to simply think about the Lord and talk with Him throughout the day. To prevent further clotting, I have to walk every hour or two which forces me to leave my desk and work behind. I’m trying to meditate then on a Bible verse, or on one of the persons of the Trinity, or one of Christ’s miracles, or a Psalm, or something I read. Whatever will build my relationship with the Lord – just like I did when I was converted 20 years ago. To put it bluntly, I’m trying to relate to the Lord much more directly rather than through ministry, and more privately rather than through public service.

A very happy birthday
Thus far, the Lord has given me a submissive spirit to His providence. I celebrated my 45th birthday on Saturday and it meant more to me than any other birthday I’ve had. It’s good to be alive. But it’s also been good to be afflicted, for I have learned so much about God and His grace through it (Ps. 119:71).

I still have shooting pain from time to time in my chest, I get tired after 5-6 hours of work, especially if it involves intense interaction with people, and medication has not yet stabilized my clotting at a safe level. However, I know more of the love of God in Christ than I’ve ever known before, and perhaps especially in the well-directed sting of a loving Father’s wise chastisement.

This is one buck that’s very thankful for the life-giving accuracy of the heavenly archer.

There’s an awful lot of negativity around today, especially in Christian circles, about technology and the damage it is doing. Here’s an infographic that re-dresses that imbalance by showing how technology is helping us to fulfill God’s mandate to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion …” (Gen. 1:28).

Click through to launch the infographic.

A couple of weeks ago, David Blake contacted me via Facebook to tell me the inspiring and encouraging story of how he is using God’s technology for God’s glory. I asked David to write his story and here it is.

Since my ‘second conversion’ – the one from PC to Mac – I’ve been intrigued by the way that Apple are always breaking new ground. As a result I became a follower of all things Mac, and in particular their ‘apps’ for iPhone and iPads. So last October I set myself a challenge to write an app. Up until then I had never possessed an iPhone or iPad and I can honestly say that the mobile phone scene had passed me by. The number of text messages I had ever sent up until then could be counted on about half the fingers of my left hand and if you had asked me for my mobile phone number I could not have given it to you. Phones were for my emergency use only. So writing an app for an iPhone was a pretty tall challenge.

Three weeks later I submitted my app to the Apple store for their approval and about 8 days later it was approved and went ‘live’.

So what has all this got to do with serving the Lord?

Well the first app I chose to develop was something akin to an ebook and since there are plenty of apps of books around I figured that this fitted well with my ideas. My first app was Psalm 1 with four accompanying commentaries. The user can read the Psalm, select any verse from the commentaries and additionally make their own notes. To this I added a link out to SermonAudio.

About 4 or 5 days after it went live I happened to look at the downlaod statistics which Apple can track, along with country and city. I was amazed to see that in a few days, with no advertising or promotion of any kind, that this app had been downloaded nearly 75 times. As of today, some 9 weeks later, there have been more than 550 downloads from 51 countries and 299 cities – again with no promotion whatsoever. The app is free to download.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China, Japan, Ethiopia, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, India to name but a few as well as the US and many European countries.

As soon as I began to see what was happening I decided to make the offer of 2 booklets free of charge – ‘How can I find God today? and ‘How can I become a real Christian?’. This has resulted in a steady stream of requests and I can use this opportunity to write to the user and send them the free literature. Having their contact details will also allow me to keep in touch with them if they so wish.

One of the most encouraging requests was from a lady in the US who wanted to know if I could supply her with 50 copies each of these two booklets for her outreach work. Bulk orders!

I have since created apps for Psalm 2 and 3 and these are attracting similar attention – please don’t ask what I will do with Psalm 119 – that will be a real challenge!! I have just completed an app specifically aimed at seekers, atheists, cults and Muslims and that should go live a few weeks time. It is linked to an established website and ministry here in the UK and includes video and audio material.

The apps will run on iPhones and iPads and I have since converted them to run on the Android platform. Thus the complete smartphone and iPad market is covered.

So what started out as a bit of a personal challenge has developed into a little outreach ministry and has opened my eyes the potential of how technology can be used for the spreading of the Word. It may be that many of the users are the Lord’s people, but that doesn’t matter, if it helps to build the Lord’s people up in their faith then that is a great goal to work for. However, since these booklets are being requested it leads me to think that there are seekers out there who are downloading it.

I see this as no different to standing on the street corner handing out Christian literature, except that here the world is passing by and which one of would ever have the opportunity of reaching into some of the countries mentioned above. Plus, I capture their contact details, not the easiest thing to to do on the street corner.

Needless to say I now have more ideas than I can possibly cope with. I would value any thoughts you may have on how this work could be developed and of course your prayers, especially that I would not be deflected from the work I have to do in my local church with outreach and among the young people. It is so easy to let technology become an idol as opposed to an effective tool in the service of our Lord.

The iphone/iPad download can be found here and the Android www.androlib.com/android.application.com-databeuro-psalm1-zjwnw.aspx” target=”_blank”>here. Searching in Google under Psalm 1 app will bring various store links up in the top 3 or 4

David is a member of Westoning Baptist Church. He lives in the heart of Bunyan country – the oak tree he preached from is just a few yards along the road and he was arrested about a mile away. If you wish to contact him about this work his email address is jaquacanga@gmail.com

A bit more info about Christians get depressed too in these interviews:

God and Culture interview with Paul Edwards (starts at 29.10).
Covenant Radio interview with Todd Pedlar and Bill Hill.
Blog interview by Glenda Mathes, also published in Christian Renewal.

And here’s another on God’s Technology with Kevin Boling at Knowing the Truth.