Russell Mckinney's Blog

Straight Talk About God and Life

Lunchroom Trays & Jesus

You remember those lunchroom trays from your childhood, don’t you? They were so compartmentalized, so sectioned off, so “a place for everything and everything in its place.” The cream corn wasn’t to spill over into the mashed potatoes. The apple sauce couldn’t get out of its banks and make the roll soggy. The peas and Salisbury steak were strictly prohibited from mixing and mingling.

Such trays are nice things to have around when you are feeding kids. Give a seven-year old a flat playing surface with his food groups and who knows what artistic endeavors you might get? I think about Randy in that classic movie A Christmas Story. He was Ralphy’s little brother, the one who wouldn’t eat, the one who worked his mashed potatoes into the shape of a volcano and threw his peas into the side of it, making an explosion noise each time he did it. That probably wouldn’t have happened if his mother had used a lunchroom tray.

But the problem with lunchroom trays is this: Those things become so engrained in our minds when we are kids that we carry the mental imagery of them the rest of our lives. We come to think of our lives as being sectioned off into the neat little compartments of work, home, family, leisure, and religion. We shouldn’t take our work home. That is a spilling over and it’s wrong. Our leisure has no place at our worksite. If the two run together, we’ll get fired for goofing off. Home is for making the beds, sweeping the floor, mowing the yard, and cleaning the basement. It can sometimes walk hand in hand with family, but when family requires a trip to ball practice, piano lessons, dance recital, or the orthodontist, home must be left to stand alone in its own compartment of the tray. Leisure can be neighborly to home as well, what with television, dvds, and internet sites. But leisure and home can never fully join up because leisure must frequently abandon home to travel to the golf course, the lake, the campsite, the beach, or the amusement park.

And what about religion? Well, for the average Christian, religion primarily means going to church. Make no mistake, church is a wonderful thing, that is until it becomes something we merely drive to and back from. If that’s the case, church isn’t much more than a confined building where we sit and check off the program that is printed on the bulletin they hand us when we walk through the door. Opening prayer: listened to that, check. Hymn of Praise: sang that, check. Announcements: sat through them, check. Offering: paid my dues, check. Special Music: heard that, check. Sermon: got through that, check. Invitation: not for me, check. Benedictory Prayer: listened to that, check. Mission accomplished, time to leave for another section of the tray.

Let me assure you, however, that “tray living” is not what God has in mind for the Christian. The apostle Paul said, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17). He also said, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Now, tell me, can you think of anything that isn’t a “whatever”? “Whatever” doesn’t just cover a lot of territory; it covers ALL territory. It is a Ziploc bag big enough to seal in your entire tray. The Christian must do his job, conduct himself at home, interact with his family, enjoy his leisure, and do his church attending all in the name of the Lord Jesus and to the glory of God. What a concept!

Can you imagine the implications of living in such a way? The Christian would be the best worker at his jobsite because he’d work as if Jesus was standing right there beside him. His home would be a well-kept place. It’s hard to have knee-high grass, filthy floors, and unmade beds to the glory of God. His treatment of his family would be exemplary, no spousal abuse, child abuse, or disfunction on his part. Sin wouldn’t enter into his leisure time either. No internet pornography, gambling addictions, alcoholism, or drug use. You just can’t engage in those things in the name of the Lord Jesus. Church attendance would be an awesome thing too. It would be vibrant, exciting, and uplifting, the kind of experience from which a person can launch out victoriously into the world.

You see, the point is that Jesus refuses to be compartmentalized. He wants everything the Christian says or does to come under His Lordship. If it is a “whatever,” He demands jurisdiction over it. He refuses to stay behind in His pew beside you at church and wait for you to rejoin Him there the next time you come. Instead, He stands up with you, listens to the benedictory prayer, and then has the gall to walk with you out the door and get in the car with you. As He climbs in, He asks, “Where are we off to?” When you protest by saying, “Wait a minute, Jesus, You’ve got to stay here at church while I go about my life,” He says, “No, I’m going wherever you’re going.”

By the way, in case you think I’m pushing things too far in depicting Jesus as being beside the Christian all the time, let me remind you that the Bible takes the idea even further than I have. Passages such as Romans 8:10, Ephesians 3:17, and Revelation 3:20 teach that Jesus, by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit, literally lives inside the Christian’s body. You can’t get any closer than that! What better Christians we would be if we would just get a hold of this idea. There you are, tempted to undermine your boss at work, play the slacker around the house, cut your spouse to shreds with cruel words, do something seedy and call it leisure, or daydream in church. Wait a minute, you wouldn’t do any of these things if Jesus was right there watching, would you? And it just dawned on you: He is!

That’s why, Christian, you should purge the concept of “tray living” from your mind. There are no sections, no compartments, no categories of your life. There is only Jesus, with you everywhere, all the time, expecting you to do everything in His name and to His glory. Yes, this is a radical way of living, but it’s a Biblical one. Live like this and your entire existence will be changed. Work won’t be the same place. Home will get an upgrade. Family will be taken to a higher level. Leisure will be good, clean fun. Religion will become something so much more than mere church attendance. Really, it won’t even be religion anymore. It will be a second-by-second relationship with Christ. Are you interested in that? Then turn in your tray and start living the way Jesus means for you to live.

 

 

August 11, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Church attendance, Commitment, Discipleship, God's Will, Personal Holiness, Work, Worship, obedience | , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Got Your Baptismal Certificate With You?

This past Sunday at Disciples Road we observed the two ordinances that God has given the church: the Lord’s Supper and believer’s baptism. The Lord’s Supper points us to Christ’s death. Believer’s baptism points us to His resurrection. Each ordinance hinges upon a right understanding of its symbolism. If we don’t get the symbolism, the reason for the ordinance will be lost upon us.

The symbolism of the Lord’s Supper isn’t hard to understand. The bread symbolizes the body of Christ, that physical, human body that hung dead on the cross for the sins of the world (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19). The wine symbolizes the blood of Christ, the blood that coursed through that body, the blood that has the power to cleanse sin (Matthew 26:27-28; Mark 14:23-24; Luke 22:20). As Christians eat the bread and drink the wine, we proclaim Christ’s death until He returns (1st Corinthians 11:23-26).

The symbolism of believer’s baptism isn’t complicated either. However, Christians seem to have more trouble grasping it. Baptism is a two-fold object lesson. First, it shows what has happened in the Christian’s earthly existence. Second, it shows what has happened in the Christian’s eternal existence.

Concerning the earthly existence, when the Christian goes under the water he publicly says, “I am now dead to my old, sinful way of living” (Romans 6:1-3). When he comes up from under the water he publicly says, “I am now alive to walk in the newness of the Christian life” (Romans 6:4, 6-7, 11-23).

Concerning the eternal existence, when the Christian goes under the water he publicly identifies himself with Christ’s death and burial (Romans 6:4). When he comes up from under the water he publicly identifies himself with Christ’s resurrection (Romans 6:5, 8-10). You see, by submitting to baptism, the believer says, “Because Jesus died and arose from the dead, my body will one day be resurrected as well, and I will enjoy my resurrected body throughout eternity.”

But it is that symbolism involving the Christian’s earthly existence that I want to deal with a little more. Christian, what if the minister who baptized you caught you committing a sin and said, “You are certainly not living up to your baptism.” You would probably ask, “What do you mean?” He would reply, “When you went under the water that day you were saying, ‘I am now dying to my old, sinful way of life.’ When you came up from under the water you were saying, ‘I am now alive to walk in the newness of the Christian life.’ But what you are doing right now looks like your old way of living, not the newness of the Christian life.” How would that make you feel? Would it drive home the point that getting baptized is a BIG deal? Would it remind you that the Christian is supposed to shun sin and live differently than the rest of the world?  

Perhaps it would do us good if every Christian was required to wear his baptismal certificate around his neck. That way we could be constantly reminded of exactly what it was we committed to when we got baptized. Maybe us pastors need to carry copies of those certificates around so that we can pull them out whenever we see a Christian sinning. That would make for an interesting experiment, wouldn’t it? My guess is, it would cut down on the rate of sin quite a bit.

July 28, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Baptism, Choices, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Commitment, Crucifixion, Disobedience, Doing Good, Dress and Appearance, Holiness, Personal Holiness, Rebellion, Sin, Temptation, The Lord's Supper, obedience | , , , , | Leave a Comment

What Love For Jesus Looks Like

Harry Winston, the famous New York diamond dealer, once heard about a wealthy Dutch merchant who was looking for a certain kind of diamond to add to his collection. Winston called the merchant, told him that he thought he had just the stone, and invited the man to come to New York to examine it.

The collector flew to New York and Winston assigned a salesman to show him the diamond. As the salesman presented the diamond he pointed out all of its exquisite features. The merchant listened attentively but finally turned away and said, “It’s wonderful stone but not exactly what I wanted.”

Winston, who had been watching the presentation from a distance, stopped the merchant and asked, “Do you mind if I show you the diamond again?” The merchant agreed and Winston presented the same stone. However, instead of talking about the stone’s fine technical features, Winston spoke of his genuine admiration of the diamond and what a rare thing of beauty it was. When he was finished, the merchant changed his mind and bought the stone.

While he was waiting for the diamond to be packaged and brought to him, the merchant asked Winston, “Why did I buy it from you when I had no difficulty turning down your salesman?” Winston answered, “The salesman is one of the best in the business. He knows more about diamonds than I do, and I pay him a good salary for what he knows. But I would gladly pay him twice as much if I could put something into him, something I have and he lacks. You see, he knows diamonds, but I love them.” 

Our churches are home to all kinds of people who know Jesus. They know about His deity, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His teachings, His death on the cross, His resurrection, and His ascension. But so many of these people don’t really love Jesus, at least not in the way that Jesus wants them to love Him. He isn’t the all-consuming passion of their lives. He isn’t their single, driving force. They don’t seek His will above their own in every decision and circumstance. 

The story of how Jesus restored Peter after Peter had denied Him three times is recorded in John 21:15-19. I won’t go into the story’s details, but the foundational question Jesus asked Peter was a simple one: “Do you love me?” Isn’t it amazing how the answer to that question can change everything about a situation?

A professing Christian is addicted to pornography. Jesus comes and asks, “Do you love me?” Another is addicted to alcohol. The question is the same: “Do you love me?” Another is considering having an affair. The question is not, “Do you love your spouse?” It is, “Do you love Me?”

You see, if the answer to the question is an honest “Yes” the sinful conduct must stop. If it doesn’t, the person’s love obviously isn’t really for Christ; it is for the sin. The heart of Christ’s question is, “If you truly love Me, you’ll stop doing this. Your love for me will  override your love for this sin.”

A father asked his wayward daughter, “Do you love Jesus?” The daughter answered, “Yes, I do.” The man responded, “I guess you think you do.” She replied, “No, I really do love Him.” The father said, “Well then, let me ask you something else. Suppose you come to me and say, ’Dad, I love you,’ but then you go out and directly disobey me. Could I honestly believe that you love me?” The daughter, already sensing where the father was headed with his logic, sheepishly answered, “No.” “How then,” said the father, “can I believe that you love Jesus when I see you each day do things He forbids?” Then the man put an exclamation point on his line of reasoning by quoting Christ’s words from John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

I dare say that no text in all the Bible needs to be preached to today’s professing Christians any more than those simple words: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” You can be a lover of Jesus or a murderer, but you can’t be both. You can love Jesus or you can commit adultery, but you can’t do both. If you covet some thing or someone that belongs to another, you forfeit your right to say, “I love Jesus.” Let us never forget that Jesus isn’t impressed with lip-service. When He looks for love, He looks at conduct. To Him, they are one and the same.

July 25, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Choices, Commitment, Disobedience, Doing Good, Holiness, Personal Holiness, Priorities, obedience | , , , , | 1 Comment

Get To Work

Throughout the Bible, we find verses that can be broken down into two parts: your part and God’s part. Here are a few examples:

-Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself also in the Lord, (your part) and He shall give you the desires of your heart. (His part)

-Proverbs 3:6: “In all your ways acknowledge Him (your part), and He shall direct your paths.” (His part)

-Matthew 6:4: “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; (your part) and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (His part)

-Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, (your part) and all these things shall be added to you.” (His part)

-Matthew 11:28: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, (your part) and I will give you rest.” (His part)

-Mark 1:17: “Follow Me, (your part) and I will make you become fishers of men.” (His part)

-Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, (your part) I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (His part)

What you need to understand is that God won’t do your part and you can’t do His part. This isn’t God imposing His will on you any more than it is you imposing your will upon Him. It is a pair working in tandem.

Earlier I cited Christ’s words from Matthew 11:28: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Now let me mention what He says in the very next verse: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). For years I missed the meaning of these words simply because I didn’t know what a “yoke” is.

Webster’s defines “yoke” as: “a wooden bar or frame by which two draft animals (as oxen) are joined at the heads or necks for working together.” To picture a yoke in your mind, envision a wooden board that is laid over the necks of two animals that are standing side by side. The board has a slight arc in each place where the necks rest. Underneath each side of the board hangs a u-shaped harnessing device that buckles the board under each animal’s neck.

It would be blasphemous for me to describe Jesus as an ox. It would also be blasphemous for me to place myself right alongside Him in anything. But it’s a different story when He does these things. And that is exactly what He does in this verse. He says to me, “I have taken my place here on one side of the yoke. The board rests upon my shoulders. The harness is tightened underneath my neck. I’m ready to work. Now I want you to take your place alongside me in the yoke. Let the other side of the board rest upon your shoulders and let the other harnessing device hang tight under your neck.” Get the picture?

And, in Christ’s illustration, who is the farmer who owns the yoke and is ready to work the team of animals? He is God the Father. Remember that Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me” (John 9:4). You see, Jesus wants me to work with Him to get the work of God the Father done. Since Jesus is all-powerful, He could do the work by Himself. But He desires that I work with Him.

Now think about that. For Jesus to want to work right alongside me day after day, night after night, He must enjoy my company. He must enjoy having a relationship with me and spending time with me. You see, it’s an honor for Jesus to ask a person to work beside Him! It means that He has saved a place for that person inside the yoke. There He is, shoulders stooped, with the yoke resting upon Him. He turns His head inside the harness, looks at the person, gives a little grin, and says, “Get in here, we’ve got work to do.” 

You say, “But I’m not sure I like the sounds of that. I’m kind of lazy. I’m afraid that the work Jesus has in mind for me would wear me out.” Don’t worry. That’s not how it plays out. Notice that Jesus ends the verse with the words, “and you will find rest for your souls.” Then, He follows that up by saying, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

I realize this doesn’t make sense. A yoke shouldn’t be easy, and the burden of being in one shouldn’t be light. Keep in mind, though, that we are talking about Jesus. He can make possible that which seems impossible. Just as He never tires of doing God the Father’s work, you won’t tire of it when you work with Him. To the contrary, you will find yourself rested.

Oh, and by the way, you don’t have to be super qualified before you can get in the yoke with Jesus. I’ve heard that farmers will put an inexperienced animal in yoke with an experienced one. They do this so the experienced animal can teach the inexperienced one how to do the work. By mimicking what the experienced animal does inside the yoke, the inexperienced one learns. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.” He’s saying, “You don’t know how to do God the Father’s work, but I do. All you have to do is follow my lead and do as I do. In that way you will learn.” 

Tell me, how much of God the Father’s work are you getting done these days? If it isn’t much, you aren’t living the life Jesus wants you to live. Even if you are getting some of the work done, but it is tiring you out, something is wrong there too. The answer to both problems is simple: Get in yoke with Jesus. That will result in not only God the Father’s work getting done in your life, but also in you enjoying a rest for your soul. Each of these things is good. So what are you waiting for? Take your place alongside Jesus in God the Father’s yoke and get to work.

April 24, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Commitment, Discipleship, God's Work | , , | Leave a Comment

Church Or YBOA Basketball?

For the past three years, my son Ryan has played two categories of youth basketball. One, he has played in our county’s recreation league. Two, he has played on our county’s YBOA (Youth Basketball of America) team for his age division.

The rec. games are relatively low-pressure games that are played locally. Scores and standings are kept, but the rules promise a certain amount of playing time for all the kids. The games are played through the week, but no games are played on Sundays or Wednesday nights.

YBOA, on the other hand, is more serious. The players are, for the most part, the county’s elite. The coaching is better, and the whole atmosphere is much more intense. No kid is guaranteed any playing time either. It has to be earned. The games are all travel games, played on the weekends, starting as early as Friday night and ending as late as Sunday night. Each weekend offers a new tournament, and the number of games your team plays in a given weekend is dependent upon how many games it wins that weekend. Our team has never won a tournament.

Some parents complain about the gas it takes to drive to the YBOA sites. Others complain about the money that is required for the down times between games. For example, let’s say that your team plays three games on a Saturday. The first is at 9:30 a.m. The second is at 2:30 p.m. The third is at 7:30 p.m. During all the hours between those three games, there is basically nothing else to do but hang around the city in which you’re playing and spend money (Mcdonald’s, the Mall, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc.).

Still, my main problem with YBOA is that the schedulers have no qualms whatsoever about scheduling games during what has traditionally been Sunday morning “church time.” They think nothing of starting a game at 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. on Sunday. Admittedly, if your team has won enough games on Saturday, it will probably be rewarded by not having to play Sunday before 2:00 p.m. But if you happen to be on a team that loses a game or two Saturday, watch out. Your church attendance is about to be tested.

During Ryan’s first two years of YBOA, he never missed a Sunday morning service. Most of the time our team went winless on Saturdays and didn’t even qualify for the Sunday rounds of play. On the few occasions we did, our first games didn’t tip off until after church. I always knew, though, that we were walking a tightrope between YBOA and church.

Lately, we have fallen off that tightrope. Two of the last three Sunday mornings, Ryan has missed our church services because he was playing YBOA games. One game started at 9:30 a.m. and the other at 11:00 a.m. The site of each game was an hour’s drive from our house. Since it was impossible for Ryan to be in two places at once, both Sunday mornings I sent him off with Tonya while Royce and I went to church.

Just so you know, I prayed earnestly about doing that. I asked God what He wanted me to do and obeyed the word He gave me. I realize that some of my hardline, more conservative brothers and sisters in Christ will dispute that God told me to have Ryan (and Tonya) attend a ball game rather than church. But I know what God told me. I also know that He gave me a tremendous peace about it. Before you label me a heretic, consider the following couple of principles from the Bible:

1. Ecclesiastes 9:10 (an Old Testament verse) and Colossians 3:23 (a New Testament verse) both instruct us to do whatever we do ”heartily” and “with might.” Playing YBOA basketball has to be classified as a “whatever.” If you are going to play it, play it to the best of your ability.

2. Proverbs 25:19 says: “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.” I want both my boys to be people who understand the importance of faithfulness and commitment to a cause. You can’t build a life around not showing up to honor your commitments any time the waters turn choppy.

Furthermore, here are four more thoughts for you to mull over:

1. Ryan is a Christian who, as a pastor’s son, has already attended more church services that many people will in a lifetime.

2. If I had told him that he had to miss the games and attend church, he would have done it without argument.

3. If our family’s annual vacation encompasses a Sunday morning, we don’t seek out a place to worship that morning. We just miss church altogether that day. 

4. While it’s certainly true that Hebrews 10:25 tells Christians not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, that general command doesn’t strictly forbid a Christian from ever missing a church service.  

But now here’s where I’ve been headed with all this. Yesterday we played a team that had made a solemn commitment that they weren’t going to play on Sunday if it meant missing church. The Lord, in His providence, arranged for me to “just happen” to have a conversation with their coach yesterday afternoon. The fellow told me without stutter, stammer, or hesitation, “If we win our next game, we will play at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow. That will be alright. But if we lose this next game, we’ll have to play at 11:00 a.m. And if that’s the case, we won’t be here. Our boys go to church.”

Guess what happened. His team won that next game and got to play today at 2:00 p.m. I couldn’t help but think of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. When they refused to obey King Nebuchadnezzar’s command to bow down before his image of gold, he promised to have them thrown in the fiery furnace. In doing so, he asked, “And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” They responded, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O King. But if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image you have set up.” You gotta love that. “King, our God can deliver us if He so chooses. But even if He doesn’t, we’re not going to change our minds.” It was as if that coach and that team were saying to those tournament organizers, “Our God can have us win this next game. But even if He doesn’t, we’re still not playing at 11:00 tomorrow morning.”     

I don’t know if I’ll ever see that coach again, but I’ll always be indebted to him. He became walking, talking, living proof to me that a Christian can still take a stand in this modern world. He showed me that I wasn’t the only parent who saw the problem with scheduling basketball games on Sunday morning.

As I said earlier, I was in God’s will by having Ryan and Tonya miss those church services. I don’t doubt that because God didn’t bring me under any conviction over those decisions. He knew my heart, and He knew what He told me to do. But that didn’t mean that I enjoyed doing it. And now I know that He saw that part of it too. He had me allow Ryan to play in the two Sunday morning games to let me experience that side of the fence. Then He brought that devoted Christian coach into my life yesterday to let me experience the other side. I believe that He wanted me to make a thoroughly informed decision concerning what to do about Sunday morning games from here on out.

And what decision have I made? I’ve decided that Ryan will no longer miss Sunday morning services on account of YBOA. We’ll play Friday nights, all day Saturdays, and after church on Sundays, but we won’t play until we have attended church. I haven’t talked to our coach about this decision yet, but I will. This YBOA season is over, and next season won’t start until late fall, but I’m not going to change my mind over the summer. I’m going to say, “Coach, you can have Ryan full bore all season, except for those Sunday morning games.” In 1 Samuel 2:30, God says, “Those who honor Me I will honor.” I’m looking forward to finding out just how much He means that.

March 29, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Choices, Church attendance, Commitment, God's Will, Parenting, Personal, Priorities, Sports | , , , , , , | Leave a Comment