“The Ball’s In Your Court, God”

May 24, 2012 1 Comment

Anyone familiar with tennis, ping-pong, or volleyball understands the words, “The ball’s in your court.” If I speak these words to my playing partner it means that the match cannot continue until he hits the ball back to me. Thus, the line has become an idiom for, “The next move is yours.”

There have been times in my walk with the Lord when I’ve gone as far as I could go on my end. At that point the ball was in God’s court. If the situation was going to progress any further He would have to hit the ball back to me. In one sense, it’s comforting to get to such a place. It’s comforting because the pressure and responsibility is off you for the moment. In another sense, however, such a place is frustrating. It’s frustrating because you can grow impatient waiting for God, who seldom rushes anything, to hurry up and hit the ball back to you. Honestly, there have been times in my life when I felt like God had stopped playing the point altogether, walked over to the sidelines, toweled Himself off, and was enjoying a cool drink while I stood out on the hot court waiting for Him to return the ball to me.

As we study the Bible we find numerous examples of my subject today. Noah could obey God’s instructions to the letter and build that ark, but He couldn’t make it rain (Genesis chapters 6 and 7). The rain was a ball in God’s court. Moses could obediently return to Egypt and confront Pharaoh about freeing the people of Israel from their bondage, but He couldn’t provide the ten plagues that would eventually break Pharaoh’s will (Exodus chapters 3-12). Each one of those was a ball in God’s court. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego could refuse to bow down before Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image and allow themselves to be thrown into the fiery furnace, but they couldn’t keep themselves safe in that fire (Daniel chapter 3). That was a ball in God’s court. Peter could remain faithful to the cause of Christ and allow himself to be thrown into prison by Herod, but he couldn’t cause his miraculous release from that prison (Acts 12:1-19). That was a ball in God’s court.

Perhaps you are reading this right now and you’ve done all that God has told you to do about a certain situation, but things seem to be at an utter standstill. That’s okay. It just means that the ball is now in God’s court and He is taking His time with the return. Trust me, you’ll know when He has hit the ball back to you and the next move is yours. That might be today. It might be next week. It might be next year. But whenever it happens you’ll know it.

Oh, and by the way, I should also mention that God never hits a “winner” that you can’t return. This is because His goal with you is to always keep the point going, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. You see, in that way the game never ends, and He absolutely loves playing with you.

Filed under Discipleship, Patience, perseverance, obedience, God's Love, Trusting In God, God's Timing, Waiting, Impatience Tagged with , , , , ,

Water Lines & Old Paths

May 4, 2012 Leave a comment

You don’t have to be a nautical expert to know that boats must be as solid below the water line as they are above it. A boat that looks good above the water line but is rotten below it will eventually sink. Well, the same kind of thing holds true for Christians. Those who have a fellowship with Christ that looks good on a surface level, but who are rotting away spiritually on the inside, are in trouble. Eventually they will sink into the murky depths of life.

And so how can you, as a Christian, ensure that such a thing doesn’t happen to you? The answer is simple: You must do that which is necessary to keep your fellowship with Christ maintained and strong. How do you accomplish this? You do it through such things as: daily prayer, daily Bible study, weekly church attendance, cheerful giving, frequent witnessing, and regular confession and repentance. I know, I know, these things have been promoted so much they’ve become virtual cliches of Christianity. But they’ve been promoted so much because they work!

In Jeremiah 6:16, the prophet Jeremiah says to the people of Judah:

Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls…”

By encouraging the people to ask for the old paths God was telling them, “The things I’ve had you do before will still work and keep you in right fellowship with me.” To those Jews that meant keeping the moral specifics of the Mosaic law, bringing their sacrifices to the temple as acts of worship, offering up their prayers to God, confessing their sins and repenting of them, and looking to God for their guidance and protection. Sadly, though, those people would have none of it. Jeremiah 6:16 ends with the mournful words:

…But they said, ‘We will not walk in it (the good way found in the old paths).’

Now, I do realize that the “old paths” for the Christian today aren’t the same as the ones the Old Testament Jews were to walk. However, the basic template is still the same: adherence to God’s word, worship, prayer, confession, repentance, and seeking God’s guidance and protection. The Christian whose life evidences these things need never worry about rotting or sinking because his spiritual boat will be solid and worthy of sailing the seas of life. As we all know, those seas can sometimes be stormy, choppy, and downright dangerous, but the Christian who is walking God’s in old paths won’t sink. How can he when he has the Lord Himself as his captain?

Filed under Adversity, Backsliding, Bible Study, Church attendance, Commitment, Discipleship, Doing Good, faithfulness, giving, obedience, perseverance, prayer, Priorities, Repentance, Righteousness, Scripture, Service, Sin, stewardship, The Bible, Trusting In God, Witnessing, Worry, Worship Tagged with , , ,

Empty Bottle Membership

March 30, 2012 Leave a comment

The story is told of a man who hopped from church to church, never remaining long in any one place as a member. One day he asked his current pastor, “What would you think if I joined another church?” The pastor said, “I think it would be all right in your case. It doesn’t do any harm to change the label on an empty bottle.”

Have you ever met a professing Christian who couldn’t settle down in any one church? I have. Have you ever met one whose church letter never seemed to translate into much holy living? I have. Have you ever met one who seemed to think that church membership was some kind of get-out-of-jail-free card in regards to sin? I have.

I’m not trying to devalue having your name on a church roll, but I would like to point out that it’s not exactly the end-all-be-all of living the Christian life. I forget who it was but some famous preacher once said, “The Lord has some the church doesn’t have, and the church has some the Lord doesn’t have.” That sums up the situation pretty well, doesn’t it? As another preacher once said concerning the “dead wood” on our church rolls, “We’ve got some members even the C.I.A. couldn’t find.”

Unfortunately, the church growth movement that swept this county some years ago has wired us to equate spirituality and God’s blessing with the number of names on a membership roll. Again, I’m not railing against church membership, but I do want to remind us that the great commission calls for the making of disciples, not just church members (Matthew 28:18-20). Give me a choice between a disciple and an “empty bottle” church member, and I’ll take the disciple every time.

Filed under church, Church attendance, Discipleship 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 , , , , ,

Making Perception Align With Reality

January 16, 2012 1 Comment

The owner of a candy store noticed that one of his salesgirls would have customers lined up waiting for her even as his other girls stood by doing nothing. Perplexed by this, he went to the girl and asked for her secret. She answered, “The other girls scoop up more than the requested amount of candy and then start taking away. I scoop up less and then add to it.”

It’s all about perception, isn’t it? Those customers were perceiving themselves to be getting more candy from that salesgirl, even though they really weren’t. Of course, that’s the problem with perception: it usually bears little semblance to the truth.

We Christians must admit that the perception lost people have of us usually isn’t all that glowing. They perceive us to be hypocritical, judgmental, bigoted, closed-minded, ignorant, irrational, and angry. Admittedly, some Christians can rightly be classified under each of those adjectives. There are many Christians, however, who can’t, and these are the ones who can’t be so easily explained away by lost people.

A world traveler visited the land of what had once been a savage race of cannibals. Actually, the only reason the man could even visit the land was because Christian missionaries had previously blazed the trail, learned the language, and won many of those cannibals to Christ. As the traveler struck up a conversation with one of the natives, he couldn’t resist sharing his views on Christianity with the native. He said, “I myself have no use for the religion. I don’t believe the Bible to be anything other than a man-made book. I don’t believe that Jesus was God in the flesh. And I don’t believe that I will somehow be changed if I believe in Him as my Savior.” To that the native answered, “My friend, if Jesus does not change lives, you would be in a pot by now.”

Is that story real? I doubt it. But could it be? Absolutely! As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.

The test that we Christians must pass daily is that of making the reality of this change align with the world’s perception of us. Putting it another way, we’ve got to act “new.” If we continue to commit our same old sins and hold to our same old wrong attitudes, that will create a false perception of us. Lost people will look at us and think, “I guess that Jesus thing didn’t work out so well.” On the other hand, if we exhibit a genuine change from cannibalistic to cordial (to go back to my illustration), from hypocritical to holy, from angry to affable, from judgmental to just, etc., then they won’t be able to dismiss us so quickly. And that is why it is so important that we walk the walk in addition to talking the talk.

Filed under Change, Discipleship, Doing Good, Dress and Appearance, faithfulness, Personal Holiness, Righteousness, salvation, Sin, Truth Tagged with , , , , ,

The Keeper of the Spring

January 3, 2012 2 Comments

In a little hamlet, the town council held a meeting to discuss how to cut expenses. They studied over the budget more seriously than ever and noticed an item that had previously escaped their attention. It was a small fee that was paid each month to someone labeled “The Keeper of the Spring.”

As the council members tried to figure out just exactly who “The Keeper of the Spring” was and why he was paid a fee each month, only one member could even offer a clue. He said, “I think there is an old man who lives near the top of the mountain, and he cleans out all the springs and creeks that flow down to the river that fills the reservoir that provides the town’s drinking water.”

The other council members didn’t dispute the answer, but they didn’t see the need to keep paying the fee either. One said, “We’ve never even seen this man.” Another said, “That’s right, so how can we be sure that he’s doing his job?” A third added, “If he was an old man, he might even be dead by now.” So the council voted unanimously to stop paying “The Keeper of the Spring” and sent out a letter of dismissal to the mountaintop address to which the fee had always been sent.

A few months later the town’s citizens began to notice that their drinking water wasn’t as clear and sparkling as it used to be. No fuss was raised, though, because it wasn’t that big a deal. More months passed and they noticed that the water’s color was now different. Still, though, there didn’t seem to be any cause for alarm. More months passed and some of the citizens started getting sick. It wasn’t even suspected, however, that the town’s water might be the reason. Finally, a full-fledged epidemic broke out and some of the citizens lost their lives.

Panic now ruled the streets and the town council voted unanimously to have a team do a thorough investigation to discover the cause of the epidemic. You can guess how the report came back: a polluted, unsafe water supply. Obviously, the town council had failed to realize just how important “The Keeper of the Springs” was. Even though they hadn’t known it, he was the true secret to the town’s livelihood and happiness.

Going into this new year let me encourage you to realize that Jesus Christ is “The Keeper of the Springs” for you. As long as your relationship and fellowship with Him are right, there will be a purity and vitality to your life and you will know the joy, comfort, and inner peace that are only found through Him. But, on the other hand, if you foolishly chose to ignore Him and try to operate without Him, at some point you will have to deal with the costly fallout from your choice. Jesus doesn’t want that for you, and you wouldn’t want it for yourself if you had enough sense to know it. So this year, day in and day out, night in and night out, build your life around Jesus and let Him be “The Keeper of the Spring” for you. If you’ll do that, you can rest assured that He will keep the issues of your life clear and pure.

Filed under Choices, Comfort, Commitment, Discipleship, Inner Peace, Joy, New Year, Personal Holiness, Priorities 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 , , , , , , , , ,

“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 , , , ,

The Spirit Is Willing, But the Flesh Is Weak

August 24, 2011 2 Comments

Let’s take a test. For years, a man makes a habit of going camping on Sunday rather than attend church. One Sunday he sees a mountain lion coming toward him. He says, “God, if you will get me out of this danger I promise that I will start going to church every Sunday.” As soon as he finishes that quick prayer, the mountain lion calmly walks away.

Now here’s the test question: Do you think that man will honor the “deal” that he made with God? The answer is: There’s a pretty good chance that he will go to church that first Sunday, but if nothing else changes he won’t keep up the attendance for long.

You see, it takes more than a quick moment of desperation to create a lasting turnaround in your life. As a pastor, I’ve seen so many people who were going through difficult times make grandiose boasts about what all they were going to do for the Lord if He helped them out of their messes. But how many of those boasts actually came to pass, even after the Lord gave the help? Maybe there were two or three, but right now I can’t even remember there being that many.

One Sunday morning I preached and gave an invitation, and a woman promptly made her way to the altar and knelt for prayer. When I went over and asked her why she had responded to the invitation, she told me something along the lines of she wanted to dedicate herself more completely to Jesus. She was crying hot tears and her face was something of a mess from the running makeup. I knew that she was sincere. I also knew that she was a good Christian woman who had some areas of her life that could have been more submitted to Christ’s lordship. So I prayed with her and asked the Lord to help her be even more devoted to Him. The emotion of the moment was almost palpable.

But did that woman even show up for the evening service that same Sunday? No. As I looked around the sanctuary that night and didn’t see her, I was in virtual disbelief. That was the moment when I truly understood for the first time just how fickle and inconsistent we are when it comes to serving the Lord.

Jesus knew us all too well. On the night of His arrest, He took Peter, James, and John into the garden of Gethsemane with Him. He said to them, “Stay here and watch with Me.” Then He walked alone a little further into the heart of the garden and prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). Following that prayer, He returned to where He had left Peter, James, and John at their watch-post. And what did He find? Rather than keeping diligent watch, they had all drifted off to sleep.

After a fairly strong rebuke, Jesus summed up the problem by saying, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). In my opinion, those words perfectly describe why that Christian woman didn’t come back for church that Sunday night. Her spirit was willing, but her flesh was weak. When she had devoted herself more fully to Jesus in the altar that morning, she had meant it. In that moment, she couldn’t have meant it any more. But, unfortunately, that moment had soon passed and the rest of her life had come crashing back in upon her.

I’m saying all of this to encourage you to work at eliminating the fickleness from your walk with the Lord. Try to avoid the roller-coaster devotion that marks the lives of so many people. I know that your flesh is weak. So is mine. But we can’t keep using that excuse to consistently fail the Lord and not live up to the commitments we have made to Him. And, by the way, we needn’t expect Him to keep sending mountain lions to keep us committed either.

Filed under Backsliding, Change, Church attendance, Commitment, Discipleship, faithfulness, obedience, Personal Holiness Tagged with , , , , ,

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