Author: Jojo Agot

Pastor at Victory. Faculty and adviser at Every Nation Leadership Institute (ENLI). MA in Theology and Mission at Every Nation Seminary.

FEARLESS [Max Lucado]

FEARLESS is one of those books that if you highlight the best parts with a colored pen, you end up coloring entire chapters. I’m not kidding.

When I read the first few chapters, I was blown away with the wisdom Max Lucado has put into the pages of this book. I got my copy from Thomas Nelson for book review back in 2009 and I honestly didn’t know what to do with it. How do you even say something not dumb when you are reviewing a book like this?

Perhaps the one strong message that I could not get off my head from FEARLESS was the story of the fifth sparrow. You remember the story when Jesus said in Matthew 10: 29 that two sparrows are sold for a penny? In Luke 12: 6, the story was repeated, only that this time, Luke said that five sparrows are sold for two pennies. The seller threw in the fifth sparrow for free.

I don’t know much about sparrows but I’m thinking this kind of bird is so insignificant that even if you sell it at such a low price, very few people would even care to actually buy. The fifth sparrow is much less insignificant being the free item that came with the bargain.

Let me quote Max Lucado’s exact words:

“Society still has its share of fifth sparrows: indistinct souls who feel dispensable, disposable, worth less than a penny. They drive carpools and work in cubicles. Some sleep beneath cardboard on the sidewalks and others beneath comforters in the suburbs. What they share is a feeling of smallness.”

I had to fight a lump in my throat when I read this. Every now and then, whenever I read my notes and get to this part, I couldn’t help but get teary-eyed at the realization that God cares about me.

Matthew and Luke agreed. Not one of these “worthless” sparrows fall to the ground apart from the will of the Father. They are never forgotten by God.

Teaspoon Christianity

For those of us who have been Christians for a while, it becomes easy to think that we’ve pretty much exhausted the possibilities of the Christian life. We can settle into a routine of activities at church and in our small groups and Bible studies, with little expectation of anything new. The familiar becomes the predictable, and everything from here on out will be more of the same. We dip our teaspoon into the vast ocean of the living God. Holding that teaspoon in our hand, we say, ‘This is God.’ we pour it out into our lives, and we say, ‘This is the Christian experience.’

[Raymond Ortlund, via Joshua Harris’ blog]

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

There once lived a farmer who became jaded about Christmas and all things “Christian.”

Late one raw winter night, he sat alone in the house, reading. In the quiet he heard an irregular thumping against the back porch door. He flipped on the light. To his surprise, the birds that had made their nests in a nearby tree were flying against the glass, almost as if knocking to come inside. The limb on which they had built their nest had fallen under the weight of the ice. His heart went out to them.

He pulled on his snow boots and overcoat and pushed open the storm door. Immediately the birds fluttered away. Against knee-deep snow, he made his way out to the barn. He slid open the barn door and wondered how he could get the frightened birds into its warmth and safety.

He built a massive nest out of hay, but they wouldn’t come near. He sprinkled some crackers in a path from their tree toward the barn. But they didn’t follow. He tried to shoo them in, but they only scattered. He even lit a couple of candles inside the barn, hoping the added warmth would draw them. But to the birds, he was only something to be afraid of. He knew nothing of their language and nothing of their world.

He thought, If there were just some way that I could become a bird. If only for a few moments I could communicate to them how much I care, I could get them into the barn and they would be safe and warm.

At that moment, as only God would plan it, church bells began to ring in the distance. The farmer suddenly remembered, as he looked at his watch and checked the date, that it was Christmas morning.

At that moment, he grasped the true meaning of Christmas. A man becoming a bird is nothing to be compared to God’s becoming a man. This was what the Savior did—He came to rescue the farmer himself and all humanity from the cold of sin. There in the deep snow on the back porch he fell to his knees, softened his heart, and returned to the Lord his God.

Adapted from a story by Philip Yancey and Paul Harvey, as retold by Charles R. Swindoll, in Come Before Winter and Share My Hope (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985), 351–52. Copyright © 2010 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Cash Dispenser

One reason the wise men were wise is because they came to Jesus for the right reason. They were seekers of the truth. They came to find Jesus and WORSHIP Him. Many people today try to find Jesus to ask for favors. God is provider but He is not supposed to be treated like your personal ATM.