Being Bold About Fear

February 2, 2012 Leave a Comment

In the wake of the infamous terrorist attacks of 9-11-01, our small county held a special service at the high-school. The service was for the benefit of the high-school students, many of whom were emotionally shaken by the attacks. They were asking, “How can we have any confidence in the future if this is the new state of the world?”

One of the service’s primary organizers was Mary Sue Ledford, who had been my English teacher my freshman year and my friend and supporter ever since. When she called to ask me if I would be one of the speakers, I was honored. But it was a particular quote from Mary Sue that stood out the most from that conversation. She said, “Russell, I will not live in a county of fear.” I had known her for years but had never heard her speak with that level of sincerity and passion. She meant what she said down to the core of her being.

Several years have now passed since that conversation, but I often find myself thinking back to Mary Sue’s quote. For obvious reasons, it comes to my mind when I am facing some daunting challenge or potentially perilous situation. When my first instinct is to shy away or pull back, her words remind me that fear is no way to live. That goes for not only living in a post 9-11 world but also many other seasons in life.

Of course, the Bible is certainly not silent on this issue, particularly when addressing the Christian. Consider the following verses:

-2 Timothy 1:7: For God has not given us (Christians) a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

-1 John 4:18: There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

-Romans 8:14-15: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

-John 14:27: Peace, I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

It’s been said that courage is not the absence of fear; it is doing what you ought to do in spite of your fear. I like that. And it is with that thought in mind, as well as Mary Sue’s quote and these verses that I have listed, that I ask you, Christian, “Are you somehow letting fear dominate your life these days?” Perhaps you are scared about an upcoming event. Perhaps you are scared of what some problematic person is going to do. Perhaps you are scared about the state of the world. I don’t know your circumstance, but I do know that people can be scared of all kinds of things. All I’m saying is, whatever your big, bad thing is, face it head on with a courage befitting a bona-fide child of God. Never forget that you are not alone in the fight. God is your heavenly Father. Jesus has promised to never leave you nor forsake you. And the Holy Spirit dwells inside you. So really, Christian, with the triune God right there in the fray with you, what could you possibly have to be afraid of? There is absolutely nothing that He can’t help you handle.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Courage, fear, God's Omnipresence, The Holy Spirit, Trusting In God Tagged with , , ,

Don’t Bail Out

January 24, 2012 Leave a Comment

A pilot announced to his passengers that three of the plane’s four engines had conked out. A few seconds later he came out of the cockpit, walked past them, and put on a parachute. He opened up the back door and just before jumping said, “Don’t worry folks, I’m going for help.”

This world is filled with people who will bail out on a difficult circumstance when the sledding gets rough. They won’t be going for help either; they’ll be looking out for themselves. Sadly, too many times this applies to how we Christians relate to following Jesus.

One of the most somber questions that Jesus ever asked is found in John 6:67. Let me set the context for you. A tremendous crowd of 5,000 men (not counting women and children) gathered around Jesus to hear Him teach near the slope of a mountain hovering over the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus miraculously fed this crowd by using a young boy’s lunch of five loaves of bread and two small fish. Following this miracle, the crowd tried to take Him by force and make Him their earthly king. Wanting no part of such an election, He dispersed them, commanded the twelve to get in a boat and cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain alone.

That night a terrible windstorm swept down onto the Sea of Galilee, preventing the twelve from making much headway to the other shore. When they reached a state of exhaustion and despair for their lives, Jesus walked on the water, calmed the storm, and joined them in the boat. At that point the boat was miraculously transported to the other shore.

The following morning many of the original crowd got into boats and crossed over to find Jesus. They caught up with Him in a synagogue in Capernaum. Shortly afterward, Jesus accused these people of only following Him for His miracles. Then He launched into a weird teaching about Him being the bread of life and how they needed to eat of His flesh. You talk about throwing cold water onto a fickle bunch! When the teaching was finished, they turned away and never followed Jesus again. Just as He had said, they were only interested in following Him as long as the miracles were rolling and the teachings were pleasant and easy to understand.

It’s at that critical moment that Jesus looked at His chosen twelve and asked the penetrating question, “Do you also want to go away?” Some of them may have, but Peter spoke up before anybody else could answer. He said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Good for you, Peter!

Tell me, Christian, are you right now going through a difficult time with the Lord? Are you confused? Are you frustrated? Are you out of heart? Has He hurt your feelings? Trust me, you aren’t the first to go down such a road. The question is, how will you respond? Will you turn back from following Christ? Or will you, like Peter, understand that turning away from Him is akin to turning away from the source of life and truth? Please understand that I’m not talking about a Christian possibly losing his or her salvation. As the old saying goes, “once saved, always saved.” What I’m talking about is breaking fellowship with the Lord and bailing out on what He is trying to teach you through your difficult times. Trust me, such a bail out might provide a modicum of temporary relief, but in the end you’ll come to know all too well that you should have stayed on the plane with your Savior.

Filed under Adversity, Backsliding, Choices, Christ's miracles, Commitment, Disappointment, Discipleship, Eternal Security, faithfulness, perseverance, Problems, Rebellion, Truth Tagged with , , , , ,

Burning Your Ships

December 30, 2011 Leave a Comment

Hernando (Hernan) Cortez was a Spanish Conquistador who launched ships from Spanish held Cuba and conquered Mexico in 1519. In doing so he brought about the demise of the great Aztec empire. As the legend goes, when Cortez first landed on the shores of Mexico he commanded his men to burn the ships. This burning made retreat impossible and has thus become the classic historical example of going “all in” for an endeavor.

Truth be told, many historians doubt the truth of the legend. Some of them contend that Cortez did purposely render his ships unsuitable for sailing but didn’t burn them. According to the theory, he did this because he didn’t want his men to mutiny and return to the safe haven of Cuba. Others say that the idea of Cortez burning the ships stems from a poor translation of the Latin in which the story was written. But, hey, let’s not let the facts get in the way of a great story!

If you want to run with the idea of going full bore into something by “burning your ships,” there’s a Bible story that you’ll like. It’s even one that you’ve heard. It’s the one about God parting the Red Sea for Moses and the Israelites to facilitate their escape from Pharaoh’s army. You’ll find it in Exodus chapter 14.

Exodus 14:21 says that the Lord divided the waters and turned the sea into dry land by means of a strong east wind that blew all night. In Exodus 15:8, Moses describes this wind as the blast of God’s nostrils. Isn’t that great? And so the people of Israel passed through the Red Sea on dry land. But then what happened? The Egyptian army pursued them into the dry land only to be drowned in the depths when the waters came crashing back into place once the Israelites were safely on the opposite shore.

Okay, now here’s where I’m going with this. When those waters thundered back down and closed the pathway through that sea, that was God slamming the door shut on the Israelites possibly returning to Egypt. You see, it wasn’t just His way of slaying Egypt’s army; it was also His way of forcing the Israelites to forge onward into a new day. Going back to Cortez legend, it was God burning Israel’s ships.

As you read this, perhaps God has pushed you out into a new adventure but you are considering returning back to more comfortable ground. All I’ll say is that if you genuinely believe the adventure is of the Lord, don’t try to return to Egypt. There’s nothing for you back there. It doesn’t take much faith to live in Egypt anyway. That life is what it is. But it takes a high degree of faith to let God lead you step by step into a new, uncharted land. So it might just be that a good prayer for you to pray right now would go something like this, “Lord, if you want me to continue on with this adventure, close up the waters behind me so that I’ll have to stay here in this new land. And then help me make it here.”

Filed under Adversity, Choices, Courage, Disappointment, faith, fear, God's Provision, God's Will, perseverance, prayer, Prayer Requests, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , ,

The Peace That Jesus Brings

December 23, 2011 1 Comment

In my last post I explained that even though Christ’s birth didn’t actually usher in a time of “peace on earth,” prophecy teaches that one day He will bring in such a time, one thousand years worth of it to be exact. Now, with this post, I want to explain that Christ’s birth did usher in a time when the individual who believes in Him as Savior can come to know a personal peace.

First, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with God, his Maker. The classic verse on this is Romans 5:1:

Therefore, having been justified by faith (referring to faith in Christ), we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m reminded of that story about the preacher who asked the man, “Have you made peace with God?” The man answered, “I didn’t know that we were fighting.” Well, the fact is that every member of the human race is born fighting with God. Romans 3:10-12 says:

There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.

Yes, the sinner is at war with holy God. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that Jesus, through His shed blood (Colossians 1:19-20), has laid a peace treaty on the table for any individual who will sign it. Isaiah 53:5 describes it so beautifully:

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for out iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Second, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with himself. Christ’s words from John 14:27 refer to this kind of inner peace. He says to His disciples:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

In a recent series of devotions, my friend Malcolm Woody has been dissecting Philippians chapter 4, specifically as the verses relate to the inner peace of the believer. The devotions have driven home to me afresh and anew the fact that inner peace is there for the taking if the believer desires it. But even as I read those devotions each day it didn’t dawn on me that there was one particular area of my life concerning which I didn’t have an inner peace. It wasn’t until my brother Richie pointedly said to me the other day, “You just don’t a peace about you right now,” that I came to grips with the truth of that statement. I feel like the Lord worked through Malcolm’s devotions to set me on a tee and then He worked through Richie to whack me out of the park. Since my conversation with Richie, I’ve really been working hard at accessing the inner peace that I am afforded in Jesus as it relates to that one troublesome area of my life.

Christian, I gave you that bit of personal testimony to let you know that I speak from personal experience when I ask you if your heart is troubled about something right now. Is there some circumstance, some situation, some problem in your life for which you have no inner peace? If there is, you are, as I was, living beneath your privilege because you aren’t abiding in the peace that Jesus has given you. You need to repent of your worrying. You need to give up on trying to control things you can’t control. Most of all, you need to put your complete trust in your sovereign Savior and let His peace well up from inside you and begin to dominate your life as it should. A troubled heart and the peace that Jesus has given you just can’t coexist. We, as Christians, should obey the command of Colossians 3:15 and “let the peace of God rule in our hearts.”

Third, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with others. Ephesians 2:14 plays off the fact that in the Jewish temple there was a wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the areas that were exclusively for the Jews. The verse says of Jesus:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both (the Jew and the Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.

In Bible times, it would have been impossible to imagine too more different people than the Jew and the Gentile. They were completely different races. They came from radically different backgrounds. They had strikingly different customs. And yet, through Jesus, the Jew and the Gentile could now be at peace with each other. This proves that, through Jesus, the Christian can peaceably get along with others. Jesus Himself says in Mark 9:50, “…have peace with one another.” Hebrews 12:14 chimes right in with that by saying, “…Pursue peace with all people.” And in 1 Thessalonians 5:13, Paul says to the Christians of Thessalonica, “Be at peace among yourselves.”

On the heels of such verses, you know what I’m going to ask you. Are you fighting with someone right now? Is there a person with which you currently are not at peace? If there is, let me encourage you to do all that you can to make peace with them, whoever they are. Remember that in His Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught that His followers (whom He called sons of God) should be “peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). That means you, Christian. I’ll also quote Paul again here too. In Romans 12:18, he says:

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

These words certainly ring true for any time of the year, but surely they ring all the more true for this season of Christmas. How can a Christian properly celebrate the birth of his Savior, the Peace-Giver, if he is at war with a fellow human being? I know, I know, Paul said “If it is possible…”, and maybe you are saying, “It’s just not possible with that person.” Well, maybe it isn’t, and maybe you and that person will never want to climb into a car and take a road-trip together, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t at least do your part to make peace. At the very least, you can stop throwing gasoline onto the fire and making the relationship worse. Ask Jesus to help you to know exactly what to do and what not to do, and trust that He will. Take heart in the fact that peace between yourself and others is one of the kinds of peace that He died to bring you.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Christ's birth, Christmas, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Inner Peace, Personal, Personal Holiness, salvation, The Sermon On The Mount, Trusting In God, Worry Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Ministering To Difficult People

December 6, 2011 Leave a Comment

New Yorker Stephen Merritt was an interesting man. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, he served Christ as both a minister and an undertaker. (He was the undertaker for the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant.) In addition to these two roles, he also worked tirelessly with overseas missions as well as his ministry to New York’s impoverished destitute. His ministry to the destitute was especially notable because he himself was a wealthy man who lived in a fashionable section of the city.

Merritt once extended an open invitation for all the homeless and outcast to attend a supper in his mission. Afterward, when he went to leave the supper, he found that some of the invitees had cruelly filled his hat with bacon rinds and other unsavory items. The act infuriated him, and he climbed atop a chair and passionately scolded the crowd for their ingratitude. He even threatened to call the police.

But before Merritt could finish his rebuke, the Holy Spirit brought the words of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 to his mind:

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, K.J.V.)

Convicted by the Spirit in this way, Merritt quickly stopped his tirade and right then and there apologized to the crowd, admitting to them that He had grieved His Lord. Then he invited them all to another dinner the following night. When he was finished, the practical jokers confessed their prank. That next night forty men accepted Christ as Savior.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Ministry, Missions Tagged with , ,

Making Excuses For Your Sins

September 13, 2011 1 Comment

Four old codgers were playing poker for money in the back of their local store. Suddenly the sheriff walked in on them and said, “Gambling again, eh? This time I’m going to arrest you fellows just to teach you a lesson.”

At that point the excuses started flying. One of the men said, “I wasn’t playing sheriff; I just dropped in to talk.” Another one said, “I wasn’t playing either, Sheriff; I was just visiting.” A third said, “I just came in to warm up by the stove.”

The fourth man sat quietly as all this went on around him. He continued to hold his cards and never once took his eyes off them. The sheriff looked at him and said with a smile, “Well, you certainly can’t deny that you’ve been playing cards.” The old man, still not looking up from his cards, slowly drawled, “Now, Sheriff, who would I be playing with?”

Oh, the excuses we make for our sins! We blame everyone from our parents to the government, when all the while the heart of the problem lies with us. Please understand that I’m not minimizing any sins that have been committed by your parents or your government, but also understand that there comes a time when you have to look in the mirror and take responsibility for your own sins. Face it, you have about as much of God as you want in your life.

You probably know Christ’s most famous parable, the one about the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). But do you know the verse that marks the turning point of that story? It’s Luke 15:17, which says of the son:

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!’”

Be sure not to miss those all important words: But when he came to himself. You see, the prodigal’s life didn’t change for the better until he conducted a personal evaluation and was sufficiently shocked by what he found. And notice that Jesus didn’t say that the young man came to a revelation about how his parents had raised him, or one about how others had done him wrong, or one about the ills of his society. No, he came to a revelation about himself. He thought, “I brought myself to this lowly state.”

I don’t know your life, but perhaps you, like the prodigal, need to come to yourself. Maybe you need to stop blaming others for your troubles and start admitting to your own role in creating your mess. Excuses will only keep the status quo in tact and prevent you from returning to the blessings of the father’s house. I could also say a lot here about the importance of confession and repentance, but I’ll leave that off for another time. Right now the first order of business is to get you to realize that you are the problem. Until that happens, you’ll never be ready for the next step.

Filed under Addiction, Adversity, Attitude, Backsliding, Change, Personal Holiness, Problems, Rebellion, Sin Tagged with , , , , ,

Elephants, Grass, & Spiritual Warfare

September 12, 2011 2 Comments

My mother is a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Dr. C. Mark Corts was the pastor of that church for almost forty years. He died in 2006.

In his retirement years, just before his death, Dr. Corts wrote an excellent book entitled The Truth About Spiritual Warfare. In the first chapter of the book, he deals with the story of Job and explains that spiritual warfare isn’t about us. It is, instead, a battle between God and Satan. Corts writes:

Natives in Africa say, “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.” That’s what we see happening in the Book of Job – the clearest look behind the curtain in the Bible. Two titans, God and Satan, were engaged in warfare, and Job was the grass that got trampled.

This whole understanding of spiritual warfare has become very helpful to me whenever I find myself having to play the role of the grass. Nowadays when I sense that I’m in the throes of spiritual warfare, I ask myself two questions. Question 1: What is God trying to accomplish in this situation? Question 2: How is Satan working to keep it from happening?

Let me illustrate. A mother approached me a few weeks ago and asked, “Aren’t you Russell Mckinney?” When I answered, “Yes,” she proceeded to tell me how much she enjoyed my Sunday morning radio broadcast on one of our local stations. She is particularly enjoying my current series Life-Lessons From Proverbs and asked if she could get copies of the sermons for her teenage son. I said, “Sure, I’ll get you some. Give me your phone number and I’ll call you when they’re ready.” She promptly obliged. But a couple of weeks later I called the number and got no answer. I ended up leaving a message saying that the first round of cds was ready and if she would call me back we could agree to a meeting place where I could give them to her.

Several days afterward, though, I hadn’t received a callback. I thought that seemed kind of odd because she had seemed so genuinely interested in getting the sermons. My first instinct was to call her again, but then I got to thinking that I didn’t want to pester her. Perhaps she had changed her mind. I certainly didn’t want to make a nuisance of myself by forcing my own preaching onto her!

So what did I do? I took the matter to God in prayer and asked Him if I should make another run at contacting the woman. He answered by reminding me of what Dr. Corts had taught about spiritual warfare. I asked the two questions. What was God trying to accomplish in this situation? Answer: Obviously, He wanted that teenage son to hear the spiritual truths of those life-lessons from Proverbs. And how was Satan trying to keep that from happening? Answer: He was somehow keeping the lines of communication broken down between me and that mother.

Well, once I had that information, I called the woman again. I was disappointed to have to leave another message, but this time she called me back pretty quickly. We worked out a plan for how I could get the cds to her, and she’ll be getting them either today or tomorrow. She also explained why she hadn’t called me back the first time. It hadn’t been anything personal. She had meant to call but, for whatever reason, just hadn’t gotten around to it. I didn’t tell her that I truly believed that Satan had assigned some of his troops to her case and was actively working to keep her son from getting those sermons. I didn’t want to scare her.

And now we come to the application portion of this post. Do you feel like you are currently under spiritual attack? Is the aura of spiritual warfare hanging heavy around you right now? If the answer is yes, please take some time right now to ask yourself the two basic questions about the warfare. What is God trying to accomplish in the situation? And how is Satan working to keep it from happening? You’ll probably be surprised at how straightforward and simple the answers are. Then, once you have those answers, you’ll be able to move forward wisely concerning the situation. Understand that you are the grass upon which two elephants are engaged in battle and keep doing your part to help God accomplish His will.

Filed under Adversity, Angels, Choices, Demons, Doing Good, God's Will, Influence, Personal, prayer, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, The Devil, trials Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Rejoicing In The Lord Always

September 6, 2011 2 Comments

Many years ago, in Germany, a young man was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. The cancer would spread unless the tongue was completely removed. That was an undesirable line of treatment, but it had to be done.

On the day of the surgery, a group of students gathered around the operating table to observe the procedure. Before the surgeon began, though, he bent down over the patient and said to him, “My friend, if you wish to say anything, you now have the opportunity. But I must warn you that your words will be the last words that you will ever utter. Think well about what you wish to say.”

The young man did take considerable time before speaking, and those moments of silence hung heavy in the air as the surgeon and the students waited. Finally, they heard him utter these simple words: “Thank God, Jesus Christ.” That response brought tears to their eyes.

I have to question if I would express such devotion at such a time. My last words could well have been: “Why, Lord?” or “I don’t understand, Lord.” Maybe I’m underestimating myself. Then again, maybe I’m not.

The New Testament book of Philippians is a letter the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians of Philippi. It is a short book, just four chapters long, but over the course of those four chapters Paul uses some variation of the word “rejoice” no less than eleven times. Furthermore, he uses the word “joy” six times. What makes these words all the more amazing is the fact that Paul wrote the letter while he was under house arrest in Rome. This explains his references to “the palace guard” (1:13) and “Caesar’s household” (4:22).

How could a man talk so much about rejoicing and joy when he was chained to a Roman soldier twenty-four hours a day? (The guards operated in six-hour shifts). How could he say, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”? (Philippians 4:4) Obviously, Paul had learned that inner joy isn’t dependent upon outward circumstances. He understood that he had been granted spiritual life by Christ. He understood that his sins had all been forgiven. He understood that God could use him no matter what his circumstances were. He understood that even if Rome put him to death that would just be his promotion to heaven. This explains the joy that was bubbling out of him.

Christian, I don’t know where you find yourself in life today, but I do know that you can have joy there. Even if your earthly circumstances aren’t all that pleasant, you can focus on your eventual entrance into heaven. In that glorious place there will be no more sorrow, pain, sickness, shame, or regret. You will be eternally wedded to Christ as a part of the church, His bride. And you will surely have never-ending reason to say, as that young man in Germany chose to say, “Thank God, Jesus Christ!”

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Comfort, contentment, Forgiveness, Heaven, Joy, perseverance, Reward, salvation, The Tongue Tagged with , , , , , ,

Wise As Serpents, Harmless As Doves

September 2, 2011 1 Comment

In Matthew chapter 10, we find Matthew’s account of Christ’s commissioning of His chosen twelve. It’s a marvelous chapter to study in terms of basic ministry, bold evangelism, and preaching for a decision. With that said, I’d like to draw your attention to a single verse from the chapter. It’s verse 16. Jesus says:

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”

Notice that Jesus begins by describing Christians as sheep. That’s good. But then He says that we are sent out into a world filled with wolves. That’s bad. Because of this, we can’t be regular sheep. Like all sheep, we are to be as harmless as doves. But unlike sheep, we are also to be as wise as serpents.

Can you picture sheep in the midst of a ravenous pack of wolves? That doesn’t conjure up a pretty outcome, does it? Oh, but wait, these aren’t regular sheep. These sheep are as wise as serpents. Going all the way back to the garden of Eden, the serpent is described as being more cunning than any of the other creatures. A sheep as wise as a serpent wouldn’t be such easy pickings for the wolves. And that’s exactly the point that Jesus is making.

A Christian who is as wise as a serpent will exhibit good sense, prudence, and tact when it comes to evangelism. He will not go out into the world wide-eyed, ignorant, and hopelessly naive. He will not be of the world, but he will be in the world, and he will understand what all comes with that. Charles Spurgeon described the situation as follows:

He sends them, not to fight with wolves, nor to drive them out of their haunts, but to transform them. The disciples were sent to fierce men to convince them, and therefore they must be wise…The Christian missionary will need to be wary, to avoid receiving harm; but he must be of a guileless mind, that he do no harm…we are to be simple-hearted, but we are not to be simpletons.

Is it a tough balancing act to stay as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove? You’d better believe it. Let’s admit that the typical way of thinking is to equate wisdom with power and, by implication, the ability to inflict harm. But that’s just not how Jesus expects His followers to wield their wisdom.

Do you remember the story where James and John learned this lesson? It’s found in Luke 9:51-56. When Jesus and the twelve came to a certain village in Samaria, the citizens of the village wouldn’t let them enter the village. James and John, being as wise as serpents in the racial hatred that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans, understand the roadblock for the insult that it was. They responded by wanting to strike like King Cobras and exact revenge on those Samaritans. They said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” But Jesus rebuked them and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” He might as well have said, “Calm down boys, I need doves not King Cobras.”

And so, Christian, I’ll ask you how you are doing on your balancing act. Are you a sheep that has either too much dove or too much serpent about you? Neither imbalance is good. If you are too gullible in worldly matters, you need to develop more of an edge. On the other hand, if you are too quick to strike, you need to develop more of a calm and peaceable nature. Think of it this way: Too much dove will make you easy pickings for the wolves, but too much serpent will keep you from converting any of the wolves into sheep. And, at the end of the day, turning wolves into sheep is why we’re to go out in the first place, right?

Filed under Adversity, balance, Evangelism, God's Work, Ministry, Missions, salvation, Witnessing Tagged with , , , , , ,

Old Bearskin

August 30, 2011 1 Comment

Notre Dame football has had a long and highly successful history. It stood the tallest, though, when Knute Rockne was the head coach. From 1918 to 1930, the team’s winning percentage was .881. They lost only twelve games during those thirteen years and won six national championships. The unprecedented success would no doubt have continued had Rockne not been killed in a tragic plane crash on March 31, 1931. He was just 43 years old.

During Rockne’s tenure at Notre Dame, a football column regularly appeared in the school newspaper. The column’s writer would say incredibly mean, nasty, and insulting things about the team. He would not only ridicule the team as a whole but also pointedly criticize individual players. The writer always remained anonymous and merely signed his name as “Old Bearskin.”

What was most shocking about the column was that the writer seemed to have inside information concerning the team. He knew which players were lazy, which ones were ladies’men, and which ones kept scrapbooks to read their own press clippings. Every player on the team hated “Old Bearskin.” When a player would come to practice and complain about something that had been written, Coach Rockne would sympathize and say that no one should write such things. Then he would say to the team, “Boys, let’s get out there and show ‘Old Bearskin’that the things he writes aren’t true.”

It was only after Rockne’s death that “Old Bearskin” was revealed to be none other than Rockne himself. His purpose in writing the column was to keep his players humble and hungry as opposed to egotistical and content to rest on their laurels. Rockne understood the pitfalls of pride and went to the extreme of the column to keep his players from succumbing to them.

I trust that this illustration will help us all to understand why God sometimes allows us or even causes us to experience humbling setbacks and defeats. We don’t like such experiences any more than Knute Rockne’s players liked that newspaper column. But how can we argue that we don’t, at times, need these experiences? Believe it or not, they are nothing less than acts of love on God’s part. You see, He knows Proverbs 16:18, and He wants better for us than its words:

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Filed under Adversity, balance, Character, Criticism, God's Love, Humility, Pride, Problems, Prosperity, Sports Tagged with , , , , , ,

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