Who’s Going to Fill These Shoes?

Now more than ever in our present day culture; people need responsible leadership. Unfortunately, the kinds of individuals that are fully willing to allow God to use them are coming up in short supply. A selfish spirit will always short circuit selfless disciples.
How can a Christian shine bright if there is faulty wiring within their connection to Christ? Because Christians aren’t consistently walking between the lines of Scripture, they are falling like flies to the lies of society.
When Christians don’t behave their beliefs properly, it results in a mixed up morally and hypocritical church. How can we reverse the curse and aspire to inspire once again?
What does it mean to be a Christian leader? A very general definition within the context of spirituality would be: Someone who commits their all to the Lord’s call and wholeheartedly guides a group of people towards a godly goal.
For that to occur, ego and pride must be put aside. One of the reasons that I believe neither presidential candidate is a good leader is because both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton are so pompously inflated by their accomplishments, they don’t know the first thing about humility.  Rather than sacrificially serve their constituents, they both tend to use people to exaggerate their own statistics. 
We must allow God to lead and shape our lives as he sees fit if we ever hope to leave an eternal impact upon our world. If the Lord proceeds to direct our paths, then we succeed in positioning ourselves right smack dab behind him.
We must go beyond just a casual verbal acknowledgment of biblical doctrine with our lips and begin to fervently devote our committed hearts to answering the call with our lives.
What we end up choosing, we have no worries about losing. We need to be often reminded of what we claim we already know. Truths may resonate with our minds, but if they don’t capture our hearts, our affection will be superficial and shallow.
Desperate times demand a desperate cry. It’s simple enough; God resists the proud because the proud resist God. If you aren’t willing to make room in your life for the Lord to dwell, then don’t whine and complain when you get stuck in hell.
Today is the day to allow the Holy Spirit to give you a check-up from the neck up. This is the hour to examine genuinely the source of your power. 
Just like you can get a cavity in your tooth by chomping on a bit too many sweets; you can develop a hole in your soul by filling your plate with only the delectable delights of earth.
When the Lord asks us to open up our mouths so he may feed us from the delicacies on his banqueting table, it is no time to lose your appetite. Like the old hymn says, “Feed us until we want no more Lord.”    
What begins with gross idolatry can end with a godly influence. What began with grave sin can climax in a glorious salvation. What seems impossible to change can still become drastically different when a child of God refuses to douse the light and is willing to house the power and might Heaven provides especially for the here and now.
Rise up and reach out, repent of yesterday and rely on the Lord today. What if the church once again became a conduit of renewal and revival?
Spiritually gifted leaders live in such a way that when God ignites them, they light up and begin pouring holy lighter fluid on the wicks of their people. God gives a vision, and a leader starts thinking about it, praying about it, and preaching about it.
Pretty soon, the fire spreads and the parade begins. There is so much power released when Spirit-filled ministers start casting a godly vision. It draws people out of the woodwork.
It gets bored spectators onto the playing field. It wakes up the church to be the church so the idols don’t interest them. Leaders don’t use people; they place them in the proper positions.
Leaders take the time to know their teammates. Leaders find out strengths and weaknesses of those around them. They then develop those individuals and together create God’s dream team.
That kind of synergy and unity and teamwork is powerful. Leaders motivate and don’t manipulate their people. Motivation makes work fun. It can make thankless tasks exciting.
It can make beaten-down people feel renewed and rejuvenated. People with the spiritual gift of leadership have a God-given ability to know what to say and how to inspire different people.
And they keep it real.
A leader will step up and into his or her God-given shoes for the journey. The enemy wants to deceive Christians into thinking that the church’s best days are behind her.
It is way too easy to throw in the towel when we should be blowing the trumpet calling all believers to run to the battle. If we still have a pulse, God still has a purpose for us.
Don’t be playing those funeral dirges because we are not dead yet. Rushing wind, come to your people and remind us anew what we can do when we properly connected to you.
We will never know if we are a no show. Put the coffin back in the closet because the church triumphant is alive and well.   
Haiti has a history of being hammered. Their latest foe has been a hurricane that ripped through and wreaked havoc on their side of the island.
Many committed Christians have shown up to offer assistance and hope. As one of the rescue workers was passing through a make-shift morgue, she was overwhelmed by witnessing a pile of dead bodies.
She was even more unhinged when she heard a voice crying out from a place where nobody should be making a peep.
An older man had been brought there to die by his family because they could no longer care for him, so they put him where he would eventually end up.
Except he was there prematurely. The woman got help, and they rescued the man and nurtured him back to health. 
Many think that there are no heroes left to save the day. Jesus thinks differently. Jesus rescued us from certain death. Jesus pulled us out of the pile.
And now as his church, we gather with other people who were rescued! We sing and we pray, and we study the word in preparation to step into our “Good News Shoes.” Shoes that Jesus is looking for you to wear! Church on Sunday is the dress rehearsal, yet so many people have gotten into the habit of skipping it. 
“I love Jesus but hate the church,” many say. If someone said, “Rudy, I love you, but I hate your bride, Terri,” I would have a problem with that person.
Terri and I are one and the same. Jesus and His bride, the church, are inseparable.
Anyone who says they hate the church hates the Jesus who died on the cross.! Jesus didn’t just die to save people-but to lead them to life.
Who’s going to wear those shoes of leadership? It all starts with feet that follow. It is time for believers to be on their toes.