An Unpleasant Truth

May 7, 2012 Leave a comment

God gave the prophet Jeremiah a thankless task. Jeremiah was to prophesy, for decades, to his own people of Judah. Those people were a sinful, proud, stiff-necked bunch. Their nation stood on the precipice of being conquered by the Babylonians, and time and time again Jeremiah warned them of this impending doom. Still, despite his pleadings, the people wouldn’t heed his message and return to God. They were just too set in their sinful ways.

Since God knew this about them, the bulk of the prophesying He had Jeremiah do involved pronouncing judgment. Even though there were times when God offered some hope to the people, He never lost sight of the fact that they weren’t going to make the necessary changes to avert the Babylonian invasion. For example, in Jeremiah 13:16, Jeremiah says to the people:

Give glory to the Lord your God before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness.

You see, the use of the word “before” could imply that there was still a chance for the conquering to be averted. At least that’s what the reader initially thinks. But later on in that same message, in verse 23 to be precise, Jeremiah trumps that chance by saying:

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard change its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

What we can take from this verse is that the person who shuns God can never truly “do good.” Oh, such a person might quit some bad habits, reform a bit, get involved in some charitable causes, or do some nice things, but he will never lead a life that is genuinely pleasing to God, the kind of life that can head off eventual judgment. That kind of change is only possible via a personal, saving relationship with God wherein God changes your very nature, that sinful, Adamic nature with which we are all born.

We’d all do well to remember the unpleasant truth this verse conveys. Once a person becomes accustomed to doing evil, that’s the path he will remain in unless he somehow turns to God and allows God to do a supernatural work in his life. Don’t be fooled by the person’s hollow words, seemingly sincere resolutions, or grandiose promises to change. Putting it bluntly, change is just not that simple. All the self-will, determination, and positive attitude in the world can’t produce it any more than an Ethiopian can change his skin color or a leopard its spots. Mark it down, the people of Judah didn’t change and God eventually allowed the Babylonians to march in and lower the boom. And Jeremiah, despite all his earnest preaching and love for his people, couldn’t alter that inevitable outcome. This isn’t a happy story to be sure, but it’s certainly a real-life one from which we can learn.

Filed under Addiction, Backsliding, Change, Character, Coming Judgment, Disobedience, God's judgment, preaching, Pride, Rebellion, Repentance, salvation, Sin, The Depravity of Man Tagged with , , , ,

The Problem of Copper Nails

February 23, 2012 Leave a comment

The noted preacher Dr. F.E. Marsh once preached a sermon on the importance of confession of sin and wherever possible the restitution for wrong done to others. At the close of the service one of his church members came to him with a troubled conscience. “Pastor,” he said, “you have put me in a sad fix. I have wronged someone and am ashamed to confess it or try to put it right. You see, I am a boat builder and the man I work for is an infidel. I have talked to him often about his need of Christ and urged him to come and hear you preach, but he scoffs and ridicules it all. Lately, though, I’ve become guilty of something that, if I should acknowledge it to him, will ruin my testimony forever.”

The church member then went on to explain that sometime ago he had started building a boat for himself in his own yard. He had needed to use copper nails for the job because such nails don’t rust in water. Copper nails are expensive, however, and so he had been carrying home large quantities of them from work. He had rationalized the stealing by telling himself that his employer wasn’t paying him a large enough salary and that the employer had so many nails that he wouldn’t miss them anyway. That reasoning had kept the fellow’s conscience reasonably appeased until Dr. Marsh’s sermon.

Dr. Marsh, of course, counseled the church member to go to the employer, confess the stealing, and make the theft right. But the man just couldn’t bring himself to do it. In his mind such a thing would simply be too embarrassing. So weeks passed, and with each new week the fellow’s guilt only increased. Finally, it got to be too much for him and he broke. He went and confessed all to the employer and offered to pay for the nails. And how did the employer respond to the confession and offer? He said, “George, I always did think you were just a hypocrite, but now I begin to feel there’s something to this Christianity after all. Any religion that would make a dishonest workman come back and confess that he had been stealing copper nails and offer to settle for them must be worth having.”

And now, Christian, I’ve got just one question for you: Have you got any “copper nails” in your life that call for some confession and restitution on your part? If you do, you’d be well advised to confront the issue head on. Until you do, any sense of inner peace you have will be a false one. Remember, you can’t be wrong with men and right with God.

Filed under Backsliding, Character, Confession, Influence, Inner Peace, Personal Holiness, Repentance, Sin Tagged with , , , , ,

Secret Sin

January 20, 2012 Leave a comment

It’s been said that your character is what you are when no one is looking. However, it’s also been said that you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool God any time. In other words, God is always looking. And so what kind of character does He see on display from you when no one is looking?

When I was a kid I got a snazzy new tape-recorder one Christmas. In the days that followed I had a blast with that thing. One of my favorite past-times was covertly recording the conversations between my mom and dad. You just never knew when you’d catch some juicy bit of gossip, some unguarded moment of candor, or some piece of incriminating discussion that they’d rather not have laid down on cassette tape for anyone to hear. I thought it was all funny, but they weren’t always amused when they heard my playback.

I was reminded of this the other day when my youngest, Royce, tried to secretly record me on the Nintendo 3DS he got for Christmas. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it? Fortunately for me, I caught him before I could utter any blackmail-worthy remarks. Unfortunately for me, God’s tape-recorder is always running. Actually, He has more than a tape-recorder; He has a videotape-machine.

It’s with this in mind that I’ll ask you if you’ve been committing some supposedly “secret” sin lately? If you have, just know that “secret” sin on earth is open scandal in heaven. You might be fooling some of the people all of the time or even all of the people some of the time, but you aren’t fooling God any time. Furthermore, the Bible still says, “…be sure that your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). And if you don’t believe that, the only person you are fooling is yourself.

Filed under adultery, Character, God's Omnipresence, God's Omniscience, Honesty, Hypocrisy, Personal, Personal Holiness, Sin Tagged with , , , ,

Remembering Your Homeland & Culture

December 28, 2011 Leave a comment

An Englishman went to visit his longtime friend, a British military officer who was stationed in an African jungle. When he finally arrived at the officer’s hut and entered it, he was startled to find his friend dressed in formal clothing and seated at a table beautifully set with polished silverware and fine china.

When the Englishman asked the officer why he was all dressed up and seated at such a table in the middle of nowhere, the officer answered: “Once a week I follow this routine to remind myself of who I am – a British citizen. I want to maintain the customs of my real home and live according to the codes of British conduct, no matter how those around me live. I want to avoid substituting a foreign culture for that of my homeland.”

The parallel to living the Christian life is obvious. Even though we Christians are currently stationed in a foreign land, we are still citizens of the kingdom of heaven. As the Bible says, we are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13) but “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). These facts are not in question. What is in question is whether or not we are substituting the foreign culture of this world for that of our homeland.

Filed under Character, Discipleship, Doing Good, Dress and Appearance, faithfulness, Heaven, Personal Holiness Tagged with , , , ,

Baptists, Sacrifices, & Mark Twain

November 14, 2011 Leave a comment

A man was robbing a train and came to the seat of a preacher. The robber shoved his gun into the preacher’s chest and said, “Gimme your money.” The preacher said, “But you wouldn’t rob a preacher, would you?” The robber replied, “Oh, you’re a preacher? What denomination are you?” With great pride the preacher answered, “I’m a Baptist.” At that the robber switched his gun to his left hand, extended his right hand to shake the preacher’s hand, and said, “Put ‘er there, preacher, I’m a Baptist too.”

Consider the following verses:

1. 1 Samuel 15:22: So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.”

2. Proverbs 15:8: The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

3. Proverbs 21:3: To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

You’ll note that each of these Old Testament verses speaks of sacrifices. To understand this, you must understand that the Old Testament Jews lived their lives under that body of law that God had given to them through Moses. Sacrifices were a fundamental, foundational part of that law. The law laid out incredibly precise rituals for the offering up of: burnt offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, trespass offerings, freewill offerings, and heave offerings. These categories of offerings all involved the sacrificing of animals. Also, the law laid out precise rituals for grain offerings and drink offerings. Israel even had an entire tribe (the tribe of Levi) that served as its priesthood, and those priests, dressed in their priestly garments, faithfully offered up all these offerings at the tabernacle (later on, the temple).

You see, when a Jew brought an offering to a priest for it to be offered up, that was nothing less than an Old Testament worship scene. They didn’t have churches or synagogues. They had the tabernacle (the temple) and the law-prescribed sacrifices. That was how they publicly and corporately worshiped the Lord.

So do you see the teaching? Let’s use the Proverbs 21:3 verse as an example. If it was being written to the Christian realm today, it could read something like this:

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable than going to church, praying, reading your Bible, dropping money in an offering plate, or giving to missions.

The point is that God really isn’t all that impressed with your attempts to worship Him when you spend the vast majority of your life doing sinful things. What you call “worship” doesn’t fix, excuse, or legitimize a lifestyle of habitual sin. If you lay drunk all week and then come to church on Sunday, that’s a problem. If you smoke pot or do other kinds of drugs Monday through Saturday and then come to church on Sunday, that’s a problem. If you roll out of bed with a person to whom you aren’t married and then drive to church, that’s a problem. If you won’t pay your bills, but you drop $10 in the offering plate every Sunday, that’s a problem. If you engage in dishonest business practices but you say the blessing before every meal, that’s a problem. If you treat people like dirt but you read your Bible every night, that’s a problem.

There’s an old story that supposedly comes from the life of Mark Twain, and it sums up what I’m trying to say here. So I’ll close with it. A man once said to Twain, “I’m going to take a trip to Israel. When I get there I’m going to hike to the top of Mount Sinai, and then I’m going to shout down the ten commandments.” Twain looked at the fellow and said, “I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t you stay home and keep them?” That was a good comeback then, and today’s church-goers and professing Christians could still learn something from it.

Filed under Backsliding, Character, Commitment, Discipleship, Doing Good, faithfulness, obedience, Personal Holiness Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Physical Beauty

November 9, 2011 Leave a comment

I walked past Tonya the other day as she was watching the Miss World beauty pageant. It didn’t take me long to notice that the host looked like a Keebler elf compared to those Amazons. I mean, really, if the girls all have to be in the 5’11-6’0 range, the show is going to have to hire a basketball player as the host. But I digress.

When I think of physical beauty, I think of the Bible’s Esther. She won a national beauty contest and became the Queen of Medo-Persia, the most powerful empire of that day (Esther 2:1-18). Working from that position she became the vessel through which God kept Haman (an Old Testament Adolf Hitler) from wiping out the entire Jewish race. Do you know what that tells me? It tells me that God can use physical beauty to accomplish His work.

Of course, there’s no doubt that Satan can use it to accomplish his too, is there? Every smut magazine, pornographic film, scantily clad model, and “sex object” starlet is evidence of that. Take beauty pageants for example. The only way they will ever have my respect is if they take out the swimsuit competition. Yeah, right, like that’s going to happen.

In Proverbs 31:30, the Bible says that “beauty is passing.” Likewise, Psalm 49:14 says that it shall be “consumed in the grave.” So the real issue is: How will a woman use her beauty during those years in which she has it? Will she be an Esther who uses it for God’s glory? Or will she use it to tempt, entice, allure, and manipulate men to accomplish the devil’s purposes? I’ll leave you with Proverbs 11:22, a verse that I think a lot of women need to heed these days. It says simply:

As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.

Filed under Aging, Character, Dress and Appearance, God's Work, Personal Holiness, Sex, Sin, Temptation Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

“Yes, We Know That Man”

October 4, 2011 Leave a comment

A missionary assigned to a foreign land zealously embraced his new ministry by promptly telling a crowd of the natives about Jesus. He spoke of Christ’s love, compassion, and power to heal. As he spoke, he was surprised to see the people smile and nod their heads. It was as if they already knew all about Jesus.

Finally, at the end of his sermon, the missionary asked, “And how many of you have ever heard of this man?” Oddly the entire crowd indicated that they knew of him. This puzzled the missionary and he began to further question them. What he discovered was that they all thought he was talking about a Christian doctor who had lived among them at one time and faithfully ministered to them.

Now that, fellow Christian, is what you are after. To live such a life that the unlearned could so closely associate you with Jesus is the ideal. The apostle Paul described it this way:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

There’s an old gospel hymn entitled “Let Others See Jesus In You.” Christian, do your best to live out that ideal today. You’ll be amazed at the impact it makes not just upon you but upon others as well.

Filed under Character, Discipleship, Doing Good, God's Work, Influence, Ministry, Missions, Personal Holiness, Service, 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 , , , , , ,

Life’s Army Barracks

August 22, 2011 Leave a comment

The Presbyterian preacher Harry Rimmer told the story of a young man who entered the army. This young man was in the habit of studying his Bible in his bedroom each evening and then kneeling down to pray before retiring for the night. He knew, however, that the army barracks would be a real test of that nightly routine.

The barracks certainly didn’t disappoint as the young fellow found himself surrounded by scores of rough servicemen. They joked around, made crude comments, and cursed. His first instinct was to read his Bible by keeping it half covered under his blanket. But then a wave of conviction came over him and he thought, “I’m a Christian! I must take my stand for the Lord. I won’t hide my faith. I’ll just do as I did at home.” He then took his Bible, read a chapter, and knelt down to pray quietly beside his cot.

When the other men noticed what the young man was doing, a few of them sneered. But in just a few minutes the barracks became strangely quiet as others who respected the new recruit’s devotion hushed those who sneered. After a while the talk began again, but this time without the crudeness and cursing.

The next night when the young man opened his Bible eight other men dug out theirs and did the same. Within a month every soldier in the outfit respected the young Christian so much that they would defend him against anyone who dared criticize him. Even more than that, they would bring their troubles and questions to him and ask for counsel. Rimmer concluded the story by saying, “He influenced more men for Christ than half a dozen chaplains could have in a year of Sundays.”

This world can be a raw, coarse, vulgar place, and being a Christian who tries to live a holy life in its midst can be difficult. Do the people at your workplace tell dirty jokes? Do some of your fellow students use profanity? Do you feel like you would be mocked and ridiculed if you were caught on site reading your Bible or praying? Welcome to your army barracks.

What would Jesus have you do? Well, what example did He set? Did He isolate Himself in a cave atop a mountain and shun the “real” world? No. Did He only converse with His devout followers, people who thought and spoke like He did? No. Did He act one way in private but another way in public? No. To the contrary, He lived what He preached. And what was that? He told His followers to resist the urge to hide their light under a basket and let it, instead, shine before men (Matthew 5:15-16).

So, Christian, I hope you take this post as a call to arms. Stop hiding your light under a basket. Those around you need to see it burning brightly for your Savior. Who knows what domino effect you taking a stand for Christ might start? My guess is that there are others in your setting who are just as offended with certain things as you are. They just need a leader to show them how to create change. And that leader could be you!

Filed under Adversity, Bible Study, Character, Courage, Discipleship, Doing Good, faithfulness, God's Will, God's Word, Influence, obedience, Persecution, Personal Holiness, Scripture, Witnessing, Work, Youth Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Examined Yourself Lately?

August 18, 2011 Leave a comment

Everyone today knows the name Billy Graham, the most well known evangelist of our time. But back in the closing decades of the 1800s the evangelist’s name on everyone’s lips was D.L. Moody. His quick wit and humor made him immensely likable.

Moody once met a drunk who was tottering along, barely able to walk. The drunk said, “Oh, it’s you, is it, Mr. Moody? Don’t you know me? I am one of your converts.” Moody put his arm around the man to steady him and said, “Well, my son, you look like one of mine – you’re surely not one of the Lord’s.”

Moody was merely pointing out the obvious fact that salvation should lead to godly living. The New Testament is replete with verses that teach this basic idea. It’s such a shame, then, that so many professing Christians exhibit so much unholiness in their conduct. We’re not talking about being saved by good works; we’re talking about good works inevitably flowing out of a true salvation experience.

And do we have a right to question the supposed “salvation” of someone who’s life is marked by obvious, undeniable, outward sin? Of course we do. Playing the role of fruit-inspector is not the same as playing the role of judge, jury, and executioner. Let us not forget these solemn words from Jesus:

Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. (Matthew 7:17-18)

We shouldn’t take these words to mean that the true Christian never sins. We’ll drop the ball every now and then as long as we are living out this sin-tainted existence. But there’s a big difference between dropping the ball every now and then and not even being able to find the stadium where the game is played. Do you see what I mean?

In Galatians 6:4, the apostle Paul says, “But let each one examine his own work…” In 1 Corinthians 11:28, he says, “But let a man examine himself…” In 2 Corinthians 13:5, he says, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves…” You see, the life of the true Christian should always be able to bear up to examination. Again, we’re not talking sinless perfection here, just at least a reasonable amount of personal holiness that others can point to as evidence of you being a new creation in Christ. If you are “one of the Lord’s,” that evidence should be there. If it isn’t, could it be that you are a different kind of tree?

Filed under Change, Character, Doing Good, Personal Holiness, salvation, Sin, The Depravity of Man Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

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