Russell Mckinney's Blog

Straight Talk About God and Life

Peacemaking

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9

If there was any lingering doubt that Jesus meant for the “blessed” described in the Beatitudes to be equated with Christians, it is laid to rest with this Beatitude. This time the promise is, they shall be called “sons (children) of God.” The term is a familiar one to students of the Bible. It reminds us of John 1:12-13, which says of Jesus: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” It also takes us to Galatians 3:26: “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

And so the Christian is to be a “peacemaker.” But just exactly what does that mean? Clearly, the thought of ”making” peace goes deeper than just keeping it or even loving it. To “make” peace a Christian must exert himself. Intentional activity is involved. As Psalm 34:14 puts it: “Seek peace and pursue it.” Paul referenced this idea in Romans 14:19 and Peter referenced it in 1 Peter 3:11.   

Certainly, mending relational fences falls under the category of peacemaking. The way Barnabas brought Saul (Paul) and the disciples together is a beautiful example of this (Acts 9:26-27). So does seeking to prevent wars and end them. We hear this in David’s words, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6). 

But let me point out that confronting problems can also be placed in the category, assuming the confronting is done in a manner pleasing to God. The Old Testament prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel recognized the futility of crying ”Peace, peace!” when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14; Ezekiel 13:10). Since true peace can never be found in a compromise with evil, a peacemaker might rightly be involved in great conflicts.

We see this even in the life of Jesus. On two separate occasions, He flew into a righteous rage at the site of the greedy, corrupt money-changers defiling the Jewish temple with their unscrupulous practices (John 2:13-17; Matthew 21:12-13). Anyone who witnessed these two scenes after hearing Jesus preach the Beatitudes might have been tempted to ask, “Jesus, what was that word about how blessed are the peacemakers?” 

Of course, Jesus did know all about peacemaking. The famous quote from the angels of the story of His birth is, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14). Furthermore, Ephesians 2:14-16 explains that Jesus is the Christian’s peace and has reconciled him to God, who is the “God of peace” (Hebrews 13:20). Likewise, Romans 5:1 says: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” You see, there are valid reasons why Jesus is called “The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).  

It was the idea of the conflict between the peace the Christian has and the lost person’s lack of it that prompted some famous words from Jesus. He said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36). Jesus was letting everybody know that the one who believes in Him becomes at peace with God, and that immediately sets that person in conflict with lost people, even lost family members, because they aren’t at peace with God (Isaiah 57:20-21).

The truth is, winning a lost person to Christ is the most lasting kind of peacemaking because it creates an eternal peace between the lost person and God. So, I’ll close with two verses of scripture which speak of how important it is for Christians to win others to Christ. First, there is Romans 10:15: “And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” And, second, there is Ephesians 6:15: “and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”

February 20, 2010 Posted by russellmckinney | Evangelism, The Sermon On The Mount, Witnessing, salvation | , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Righteousness & You

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6

I’ve been a pastor a long time, long enough to have learned some things about professing Christians. One of those things is: not many of them hunger and thirst after righteousness. When you do come across such a person, you are actually taken aback by how much he or she stands out from the crowd. Your reaction is, “Wow, now that’s the way this Christianity thing is supposed to work. That’s the kind of person it’s set up to produce.”  

I take no pleasure in reporting that a high percentage of professing Christians are only interested in living righteously enough to keep God from getting too ticked off at them. The time they spend in prayer is minimal. Their Bible study is barely a blip on the radar. They attend church only if all the planets align and nothing else comes up. They give sparingly and many times even begrudge that (2 Corinthians 9:6-7). They’ve never witnessed to anyone in their lives.

Even those who do better in some of these areas typically fall short when it comes to actually repenting of sins and making needed changes in their lives. I’ve known professing Christians who were at church every time the doors were open, but they were petty, bitter people who refused to forgive any perceived slight. I’ve known others who made prayer a vital part of their lives but didn’t mind engaging in pre-marital sex or “shacking up.” Others would give generously to the church but spend even more on alcohol or drugs. To all of these people, the idea of hungering and thirsting after righteousness was foreign. They had just enough religion to keep them at peace with themselves and certainly didn’t have a burning desire for anything more than that.

Imagine a man who hasn’t eaten for two days. He gets the opportunity to sit down at a buffet filled with delicious food. The way that man’s eyes dance over that food is the way the Christian’s eyes should dance over righteousness. The way he craves that food is the way the Christian should crave righteousness.

Imagine a woman who has been stranded in the desert for hours. When she is rescued, a rescue worker hands her a bottle of water. At that moment, there is nothing on earth she wants more. That’s how the Christian should thirst after righteousness.

Christian, when you are obsessively hungering and thirsting after righteousness, when righteousness is what you are chasing in life, you won’t have to be goaded into coming to church. You won’t have to be begged to pray. Your pastor won’t have to chide you into Bible study. It won’t take a ten-sermon series on stewardship to get you to give generously. You won’t have to be coerced into telling others about Jesus and inviting them to church. All of that will come as naturally to you as breathing. It will flow effortlessly out of your hungering and thirsting for righteousness. 1 John 2:29 describes this as “practicing” righteousness: “If you know that He (God) is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him” (1 John 5:1; John 3:1-8). 

And, furthermore, Jesus promises that your pursuit of righteousness will not be in vain. He says you shall be filled. I see a two-fold meaning in this promise. First, it only makes the sense that the more you devote your life to righteousness, the more righteousness will be exhibited in your life. Second, as for your eternal standing with God, the moment you realize that your life is stained by unrighteousness and you place your belief (faith) in Jesus as Savior, God actually imparts to you His spotless righteousness (Romans 1:16-17; 3:21-26; Philippians 3:7-9). That is an even more important filling.

So, Christian, how hungry are you? How thirsty? Are you burdened enough about righteousness to do some repenting? Will you commit to moving up to a higher level of practicing righteousness in your daily life? When you get hungry and thirsty enough to actually make some changes in how you conduct yourself, you’ll find Jesus standing ready to help you. He’ll be right there with the never-ending buffet and bottomless well. You will be filled, no doubt about that. But never forget that no one can be filled who is already full enough to suit them.

February 11, 2010 Posted by russellmckinney | Belief, Bible Study, Change, Choices, Church attendance, Discipleship, Doing Good, Evangelism, Holiness, Money, Personal Holiness, Righteousness, The Sermon On The Mount, Witnessing, faith, giving, obedience, salvation, stewardship | Leave a Comment

The Importance Of A Child’s Salvation

(Post 4 of a series of 4)

This post will be the fourth and last in this series on parenting. In my previous three, I’ve dealt with the importance of obedience in a child, the importance of individuality in a child, and the importance of spanking a child. With this one, I want to talk about the importance of a child’s salvation.

Let us never forget that little boys and little girls need salvation. Salvation isn’t just for the drunk lying in the street, the convicted killer on death row, or the Muslim terrorist. It is also for young sons and young daughters.

To get us into this, let’s look at 2 Timothy 1:1-5, where the apostle Paul writes:

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.”

In this fifth verse, Paul talks about a genuine saving faith (an authentic belief in Christ). He says to Timothy, “This saving faith (this authentic belief in Christ) was first in your grandmother Lois. She then passed it down to her daughter (your mother) Eunice. Then Eunice passed it down to you.”

The idea is that Lois and Eunice created an atmosphere in their family wherein Timothy wanted to personally put saving faith in Jesus. Lois put saving faith in Christ, and her salvation played a big part in her daughter, Eunice, putting saving faith in Christ. Eunice’s salvation, in turn, played a big part in her son, Timothy, putting saving faith in Christ.

Now, with that said, I want to devote the rest of this post to offering some practical advice about how parents should share the gospel with their small children. I’ve put this advice under the headings of three general statements. You shouldn’t have any trouble following along.

Statement #1 is: Parent, before you ask your child to believe in Jesus as Savior, it’s a good idea for you to have a basic foundation of Jesus already in place in that child’s life.

When it comes time for a child to seriously deal with Jesus and His offer of salvation, it will be so much better if there is a basic foundation of Christ already in place in that child’s life. But how does a parent lay such a foundation? The obvious ways include taking the child to church every Sunday and buying the child a children’s Bible. The sad truth is that many parents fail even in these basic areas.

Moving on from these basics, there is what I’ll call the spoken word. By the spoken word, I mean that from a child’s early days that child should hear his or her parents talking to Jesus and about Jesus.

Here are a few examples of how a child can hear a parent talk to Jesus. Parent, at mealtime let your child hear you say, “Jesus, we thank you for this food.” When it rains, say to your child, “Well, Jesus is sending us some more rain.” When your child goes to bed, make your child’s bedtime prayers to Jesus. Get on your knees beside the child’s bed, have the child close his eyes, and then you say things like, “Jesus, thank you for watching over us today. Thank you for this home. Thank you for this warm bed to sleep in.” You pray like that a few nights and then let your child do the praying. Hopefully, that child will learn to pray like you pray.

And, by the way, be sure to remind the child that Jesus is God. If the child tries to act silly during the prayer time, just say, “Now remember, you are talking to God.” You see, if you will talk to Jesus correctly in front of your child, you can build all kinds of great theology into your child’s thinking.

Just through the things your child hears you pray, your child can learn that Jesus is: God, our creator, our sustainer, our protector, and our provider. Then, when the child is mature enough to honestly deal with the issue of believing in Christ as Savior or rejecting Him, that child will have all of that wonderful foundation already in his mind. If a child already thinks of Jesus as his God, creator, sustainer, protector, and provider, it won’t be too hard for him to add Savior to the list..

Now let me mention a few examples of how a child can hear a parent talk about Jesus. Parent, when you go to the beach, stand with your child on the shore, look out at the ocean, and say, “Didn’t Jesus create a big, beautiful ocean?” When a problem comes up, say to your child, “Don’t worry. Jesus will help us with this.” At Christmas tell your child the story of how Jesus left heaven, became a baby, and was born to a virgin named Mary. At Easter tell the child the story of how Jesus died for the sins of the world and then arose from the dead. Read Bible stories about Jesus to your child. Make it a point to talk about Jesus as if He is a real person, because, after all, He is. Don’t let Jesus get lumped in with SpongeBob SquarePants, Elmo, or Big Bird.

What I’m saying is, let your child hear you using the spoken word to talk to Jesus and about Jesus. In a hundred different prayers and a hundred different conversations, use the words you speak to saturate your child’s world with Jesus. This is a great way for you to lay a basic foundation of Christ in that child’s life.

My second statement is: Parents, when it comes to the matter of salvation, don’t rush your child.

Any right-thinking parent wants their child to be saved from that fiery place the Bible calls hell. But what each parent should remember is that children under the age of accountability are not in immediate danger of hell.

If you look for the term “the age of accountability” in the Bible, you won’t find it. That doesn’t mean, though, that the idea of an age of accountability is wrong. While it’s true that each child is born a sinner, it’s also true that small children simply do not have the ability to understand the idea of salvation, let alone God’s plan of salvation. We hear a lot about the love of God, but the Bible also says quite a bit about the justness of God, and, quite frankly, it’s hard to imagine a God of justness sending the soul of a small child to hell.

The issue is not the child’s innocence because each child really is a born sinner. The issue is the fact that the plan of salvation is totally beyond the understanding of a child. How can you share the gospel with a child when that child can’t even understand your language? I know that Romans 1:20 teaches that every adult on planet earth is without excuse before God (even those who have never heard about Christ), but adults aren’t the same as little children.

Matthew chapter 18 comes into play here. In that chapter we find the story of Jesus calling a little child to Him. In using that child as an object lesson to teach His disciples, Jesus said to them, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” That’s interesting, isn’t it? Little children have angels who always behold the face of God the Father in heaven. I don’t know everything there is to know about that, but I sure like the sounds of it.

In addition to that passage, we have the story from 2nd Samuel chapter 12. David’s infant son died, and David said of him, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” When David thought about the afterlife he certainly wasn’t planning on spending eternity apart from God. He wrote in Psalm 23:6, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” His words about his son, then, seem to indicate that David thought of the soul of his dead, infant son as being with God.

Furthermore, 2nd Samuel chapter 12 isn’t just a story from the life of David. It is also a part of the inspired word of God. That means that those words aren’t just wishful thinking on David’s part.

Because of these passages and some others I could mention, I have enough confidence in the idea of an age of accountability to say that a parent shouldn’t rush their small child to “make a decision” for Jesus. Parent, the last thing you want to do is rush your child into making some kind of shallow, uninformed, false decision for Christ.

If you do that, here’s what might very well happen. After your child makes that false decision, you will then get the child baptized as soon as possible. Following that baptism, you will want the child to officially join the church membership roll. But that baptism and that joining of the church membership list will hurt the church and the child.

It will hurt the church because ideally each person on the church’s membership roll is a true Christian. It will hurt the child because the child will grow up thinking that he or she is on the way to heaven when in reality they are not. That might very well make that child resistant to truly believing in Christ.

You see, parent, you and your child stand to lose far too much if you rush that child on the matter of salvation. That’s why you should wait until you are rock-solid sure that your child is ready to decide either for or against Christ.

Of course, the age of accountability is different for each child. Anyone who knows children knows that children don’t mature at the same rate. Therefore, I don’t know how old your child will be when he or she has the mental capability to genuinely believe in Christ as Savior. But what I’m saying is, please don’t rush your child on this.

And then my third and last statement is: Parent, when you explain the plan of salvation to your child, keep it simple.

When you are giving your child the gospel, stay on topic and stick with the essentials. You don’t need to include a teaching on the Rapture. You don’t need to get into what the Bible says about bodily resurrection. You don’t need to try to explain election and predestination. You don’t need to bring up the topic of spiritual gifts. Just stick with the basic, vital, mandatory information. The child is a sinner; Jesus is the Son of God; Jesus died to pay for the child’s sins; the child needs to believe in Jesus as Savior. Once a child truly believes in Christ as Savior, then you can start the gradual process of giving that child more and more knowledge concerning Christ.

On the other hand, don’t oversimplify things and pronounce the child a Christian when he or she isn’t. Lay out the bare bones of the gospel and see how the child responds. Ask the child, “Do you understand this?” Even if the child says, “Yes,” don’t just take the child’s word for it. Quiz the child to see if he or she really does understand. If the understanding is there, push on to the decision part. If the understanding isn’t there, the child is probably just too young to really grasp what you are saying. He or she hasn’t reached the age of accountability yet.

In closing, let me remind each parent that a child’s salvation is the most important goal in bringing up a child. Parents put such careful thought and work into planning for a child’s college education, but they give little attention to bringing that child to saving belief in Christ. Parents knock themselves out to see to it that their children have food, clothing, and a home, but they put little or no effort into leading their children to Christ. What we need today are some parents like Lois and Eunice. If we have those, some Timothys will surely follow.

January 30, 2010 Posted by russellmckinney | Baptism, Belief, Children, Church attendance, Evangelism, Parenting, Witnessing, salvation | , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Tim Tebow and Jesus

The Monday (10-12-09) edition of USA TODAY ran an interesting article entitled “And I’d like to thank God Almighty.” The article addressed the issue of Christian athletes loudly bringing their Christianity into sports. If you’re any kind of fan, you’ve seen them do this. The basketball player makes the winning shot and then says in the courtside interview, “I just want to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for helping me make that shot.” The Nascar driver wins the race, emerges from his car, dons a cap, and says to the reporter in victory lane, “First of all, I want to thank Jesus Christ, for without him none of this would have been possible.”

The article prominently mentioned Tim Tebow, the star quarterback for the Florida Gators, the nation’s top-ranked college football team. Tebow has been a part of two national championship teams at Florida. He’s won the Heisman Trophy. He’s been named All American. He’s been praised as a leader, an upstanding student, and an ideal role model. He’s also been an outspoken Christian who has fervently mixed his Christianity with his football since the first day he stepped foot on campus. 

The problem Tom Krattenmaker, the writer of the article, has with Tebow is the staunchly conservative brand of Christianity that Tebow promotes. He points out that Tebow takes off-season missionary trips to Asia under the auspices of his father’s organization, The Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association. According to Krattenmaker, the bottom line of that organization is: “Only those who assent to its version of Christianity will avoid eternal punishment.” He then cites two examples of the concerns he has with the organization. First, the ministry boldly states, “We reject the modern ecumenical movement.” Second, the ministry’s literature estimates that 75% of the inhabitants of the Philippines “have never once heard the gospel of Christ,” even though more than 80% of Philippine citizens identify themselves as Roman Catholic.

Now, before I press on to what I really want to say with this post, let me be clear about a few things:

#1: I understand full well the inherent danger of doctrinal compromise in the modern ecumenical movement. There are reasons why I pastor a non-denominational church, and that’s one of them.

#2: Despite my wariness of ecumenicalism, I know there are sincere Christians to be found throughout the various denominations (Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Baptists, Pentecostals, Church of Christ, etc.)           

#3: I do believe that the religious system of Catholicism is a false hybrid of authentic New Testament Christianity and that it is laced with erroneous teachings and practices.

#4: I do believe there are some legitimate Christians within Catholicism’s ranks.  

#5: I do believe in the eternal punishment of those who die without ever having placed their belief in Christ as Savior.

So, you see, I’m not writing to lambaste the beliefs of Tim Tebow or The Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association. For the most part, with a few exceptions, I agree with their basic tenets. Instead, what I want to write about is the “Jesus always makes you a winner” mentality.

Are we to believe that Jesus always wants His followers to succeed in sports? Does the fact that Tim Tebow’s team beat Louisiana State last Saturday prove that Jesus favors Tim Tebow over the players on the L.S.U. team? Maybe the Lord just doesn’t like the state of Louisiana in general. After all, He sent Hurricane Katrina to “get” New Orleans, didn’t He? We’ll just conveniently overlook the minor detail that Katrina did incredible damage to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, a conservative school in the Southern Baptist Convention denomination. We’ll also overlook the fact that there might just be some Christians on a team from Louisiana.

What I’m saying is, it’s very easy for Tim Tebow to give all praise to Jesus for letting him run for touchdowns when he is doing that running behind one of the biggest, baddest offensive lines in college football. It’s very easy for him to credit Jesus for letting him throw touchdown passes when he is throwing those passes to some of the fastest, most skilled receivers on planet Earth. I wonder, would Jesus seem nearly as powerful to Tebow if he played for a team that wasn’t loaded with such players?

Tebow can talk all he wants about the power of the Lord, but when it came time for him to choose a college team to play for, this home-schooled son of a missionary didn’t pick a small, Christian, ultra conservative, non-ecumenical school that barely had a football team. He picked one of the most secular ”football factories” in the United States. Think about that. There’s the power of the Lord, and then there’s the power of incredibly gifted teammates. It’s easy to shine for Jesus when the greatest disappointment you have to face in a season is the gap between winning a national championship or having to settle for finishing second in your conference and in the top five nationally.

My son Ryan is a Christian. His belief in Christ is real and he is a great kid. He’s also a good athlete whose best sport might very well be football. However, through no fault of his own, he suffers from attending a school system that rates very low in sports. He never won a football game during his 5th-grade season. Likewise for his 6th. That 6th-grade team scored three touchdowns total. Ryan ran for two and threw for the other one. This season was his middle-school, 7th-grade season. He made all-conference, but his team won one game.

Since Ryan and Tim Tebow both claim the same Savior, why does that Savior work so hard to get Tebow his wins and acclaim but allows Ryan to get gang-tackled season after season? I submit that Tebow’s natural ability and otherworldly teammates have much more to do with his athletic success than Jesus. I say that Jesus isn’t nearly as personally involved in the outcome of sporting events as Christian athletes want to believe. Put a batter up against a pitcher and the outcome will depend much more upon how good the pitcher’s stuff is than how often the batter prays.

Please understand that I’m not trying to completely eliminate Jesus from sports. After all, His sovereignty knows no limits. And let’s face it, any Savior who knows the number of hairs on a person’s head has to be interested in all of life, right down to the minutest details. But we need to get back into the realm of reality on this subject. If an athlete wants to thank Jesus for allowing him the health to compete, that’s fine. If He wants to give Him praise for dying on the cross for his sins, that’s a form of witnessing. When it comes to final scores, though, he needs to keep his mouth shut about Jesus. If Jesus was really that actively involved in that department, Notre Dame would never lose a game. Remember, that’s the school with the famous “Touchdown Jesus” shrine. Oh, wait, scratch what I just said. I forgot, they’re Catholics.

October 14, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Evangelism, Sports, Thankfulness, Witnessing | , , , , , | 3 Comments

Life Is A Vapor, But Then What?

I got the call yesterday morning that a faithful member of our church passed away during the night. What made the news so shocking was the fact that Bill had seemed fine Sunday morning. He and his wife, Celeine, had taken their usual seats in church and enjoyed the service just like they always did. 

I myself wasn’t fine that Sunday morning, and Bill picked up on it as soon as he saw me. For various reasons, I didn’t sleep well Saturday night. Then I woke up Sunday morning with a fair amount of vertigo. That was only the second time in my life I had experienced vertigo, and I don’t want there to ever be a third. As I walked into church, I put up a brave front and figured that nobody would be able to tell that I was struggling a little just to remain upright. But when I walked over to shake hands with Bill and Celeine, Bill looked right at me and said, “You’re sick.” I’ve got to admit that I was taken aback by the straightforwardness of his remark and the accuracy of his diagnosis.

After I explained to him what was going on with me, he asked me something I will never forget. His question was, “When was the last time you had a physical?” I stuttered and stammered a little and then finally got out the answer, “Oh, I don’t know, I guess it was five or so years ago.” The truth was, I couldn’t remember. Bill’s reply was, “You ought to go have one. You might have some high blood pressure.” (For the record, I’ve had my blood pressure checked in the past few months. It was fine.)

After the Sunday service, I got involved talking to other people and didn’t really say much to Bill and Celeine. I regret that now. If I had known that was the last time I would see Bill on this earth, I would have made a point of spending a lot of time with him. But we never know such things, do we? Life really is “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).

We don’t know exactly what took Bill’s life around 1:00 a.m. Monday morning. He lived each day with a garden variety of physical ailments. I can’t even begin to remember the number of hospital stays he endured, the surgeries and the procedures. At his home yesterday afternoon the family showed me the list of medications that he took. It looked like an encyclopedia of Latin. He had to have a chart just to keep it all straight. I think that’s why he encouraged me to get a physical. He knew far better than most how quickly your health can deteriorate.

I took great joy in informing the family that Bill no longer needs all his pills or his oxygen machine. His soul has now departed (Genesis 35:18-19) from his “body of death” (Romans 7:24). I’m happy for him. I’m also a little envious. I’ve noticed that something strange has happened to me over the past few years. I’ve begun longing for heaven to a degree I didn’t expect to reach until I was much older.

And here’s the shocking thing (at least it’s shocking to me): My increased longing for heaven springs much more from a desire to leave behind the pain, suffering, injustice, and wickedness of this world than it does a desire to see the splendors of heaven. I’ve begun to see heaven not so much as a desirable location but as an escape from an undesirable one. I’m as excited about getting to leave this world as I am about getting to enter into heaven.            

Do I still love my wife and want to spend our “golden years” together? Yes. Do I still love my two boys and want to watch them finish growing up? Yes. Do I want to hold grandbabies in my arms and get to spoil them? Yes. Do I want to keep on enjoying all the pleasures of life? Yes. But do I now see this life for what it is and look forward to a better afterlife? Most definitely! I think it’s quite appropriate that the text God has given me for Bill’s funeral sermon is Job 14:1-6, a passage which begins with the words: “Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”

Bill is out of that trouble now. He is in that better place that we like to talk about. But his is only a better place because he knew Jesus as his personal Savior. Can you imagine how awful it would be if this life was the highlight of your eternal existence? Can you imagine being born of woman, living out your ”few” days (few in relation to eternity), experiencing all of life’s trouble, and then having your soul depart for a gruesome place of suffering and anguish? Can you imagine lifting up your eyes in hell and being in torment (Luke 16:19-23)? I don’t even want to think about such a horror.      

But the stark reality is that most of the people on earth right now are staring straight down the gun-barrel of that horror. They don’t know Christ as Savior and if they die tonight their souls will not go to heaven. This should compel us Christians to be all the more involved in evangelism. We must share the good news of Christ’s gospel with those who need it. Someone once shared that gospel with Bill, and he responded by placing his belief in Jesus as his personal Savior. For that reason, I won’t have problems preaching his funeral and his family won’t have to search fruitlessly for comfort. But that puts us in the minority, not the majority. And that, Christian, is not a good thing.

You say, “But Russell, I’m just one person and the task of world evangelism is far too overwhelming.” You’re right, it is. That’s why Jesus doesn’t expect you to take on that task. What He expects you to do is engage in individual evangelism. Don’t focus on winning the masses of China to Christ. Focus on that one person the Lord puts right in front of you today. You know the one, the one with your name on them.

Maybe the person is a family member. Maybe the person is a friend. Maybe the person is a co-worker. Maybe the person is a neighbor. Maybe the person is a fellow parent from your kid’s ball team. What I’m saying is, door-to-door evangelism to rank strangers has its place, but so does relational evangelism to people you already know.    

You see, the fact is, some “Bills” will die tonight, and one of them might just be a lost person you know. That person needs Christ, which means that he or she needs you to tell them about Him. Stop talking about politics, the weather, the economy, or the ball game, and press on into spiritual matters, eternal matters. Be tactful, but get the conversation there. Tell that person about Jesus.

If you don’t feel comfortable quoting scripture, at least tell the person what Jesus has done for you. Talk about the trouble you’ve experienced in this world and then talk about heaven. Make a point of explaining that you are guaranteed heaven only because Jesus died on the cross for your sins and you have believed in Him as Savior. You don’t have to hold an evangelistic crusade. You don’t have to try to be someone you’re not. But you do need to be a witness who’s trying. And don’t worry about how the person responds to what you say. That’s not your department. Your job is simply the telling.      

I will miss my friend Bill, but I know his soul now resides in heaven’s glory. He has been reunited with Christian loved ones who passed on before him. Most importantly, he now sees Jesus face to face. That Savior that he only knew by faith he now knows by personal appearance. That’s a joy that everyone should get to experience. I realize that’s not going to happen, but you and I can help it happen for some folks if we will open up our closed lips and share the gospel.

October 6, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Adversity, Belief, Christ's Death, Coming Judgment, Evangelism, Heaven, Witnessing, death, hell, salvation, trials | , , , , , , | Leave a Comment