Russell Mckinney's Blog

Straight Talk About God and Life

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 Poor In Spirit

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:1-3)

Christ’s most famous sermon is the so-called Sermon on the Mount. The word “Mount” comes from the fact that Jesus gave this teaching to His disciples while up on a mountain (Matthew 5:1). It seems clear, though, that He preached either the entire sermon or selected parts of it at least twice. I say this because Luke 6:17-49 gives us the record of a shortened version of the sermon, a version that Jesus preached “on a level place” (N.K.J.V.) (“a plain” K.J.V.) with not only His disciples in attendance but also a great multitude of people.

Furthermore, there are slight differences in the two accounts of the sermon. In the Matthew version, Jesus promises the kingdom of heaven, while in the Luke account He promises the kingdom of God. While it’s true that both descriptions refer to the same kingdom (see Matthew 6:33), it’s also true that the word heaven brings a different image to mind than the word God.

Another example of certain differences in the accounts is found in the sermon’s opening. Whereas the Matthew version quotes Christ as saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” the Luke version omits the words ”in spirit” and cites the quote as, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

It seems that Jesus changed the wording a bit to accomodate His two different audiences. Up on the mountain, it was just Him and His disciples. But down on the level place they were joined by “a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon” (Luke 6:17).  

And why had that multitude sought out Jesus? They had come “to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits” (Luke 6:17-18). It doesn’t take much of a stretch of imagination to figure that diseased and demon-possessed people were poor. Diseased people couldn’t work and spent what money they had on doctors (Luke 8:43-44). Demon-possessed people certainly couldn’t hold down jobs either (Luke 8:26-39). 

Of course, the fact that Jesus would say to a crowd of such people, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” offers us a glimpse into why He was so popular with the common people of the land. In large part, the Jewish people still lived under the Old Testament mindset that wealth was evidence of the blessing and favor of God. To be poor, then, was to be under God’s judgment, disfavor, or curse. But here was a teacher who flipped that mindset completely on its head. According to him, the kingdom of God belonged to the poor, not the rich. That was mind-blowing news if you were a poor person!

Even before preaching the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had preached a sermon at Nazareth in which He had referenced Isaiah 61:1-2 in saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor” (Luke 4:18). Later on, He would have word sent to the imprisoned John the Baptist that “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:22). Clearly, Jesus wanted poor people to realize that the kingdom of God wasn’t just for the rich.     

Still, we must understand that the Sermon on the Mount is not the gospel. No one goes to heaven just because they are monetarily poor. One must be spiritually born again by believing in Christ as Savior and thereby becoming indwelt by God the Holy Spirit (John 3:1-18; Romans 3:10-26). Merely standing there listening to Jesus and being poor didn’t provide salvation. Those people had to believe in Him as Savior.

Also, it will help you to better apply the term “poor in spirit” if you will think of it as a deliberate choice rather than a natural personality trait. To be poor in spirit is to make yourself walk in a constant realization of your utter spiritual helplessness without God. It is to abandon any and all attempts at self-righteousness and throw yourself completely upon divine-righteousness (Titus 2:5-6; Ephesians 2:8-9). It is to truly grasp the teaching of Isaiah 64:6, that all your supposed works of righteousness are, in reality, like “filthy rags” in the sight of an infinitely holy God.  

Also, to be poor in spirit is to be humble in nature. It is to approach God as a lowly servant (Matthew 8:5-8), a respectful child (Matthew 18:4), or even a pititful beggar (Matthew 15:21-28). The person who struts toward God and thinks, “He’s lucky to get me” isn’t poor in spirit. Neither is the person who says, “I’m going to allow God into my life, but I’ll be bringing as much to the relationship as He does.” The Greek word translated here as “poor” is ptochos, and it refers to abject poverty. The one who is this poor in spirit knows that he brings nothing to God because, frankly, he doesn’t have anything to bring.

So, tell me, is this you? Do you think of yourself as such a spiritual beggar? Or do you pull back from having such a degrading opinion of yourself? Since Jesus (God the Son) thought you were valuable enough to die for, I’m certainly not saying that God sees you as nothing in His eyes. But the truth is, He wants you to see yourself as nothing in comparison to Him.

He doesn’t necessarily want you to be poor in life (even though He doesn’t want everybody to rich either), but He does want you to be poor in spirit. This will allow you to have the attitude and perspective that will make it easy for you to not only experience salvation by believing in Jesus but also to look to Him each day to meet all your needs. After all, that’s what beggars do. They look to someone else to take care of them. Jesus will be that person to you if you will let Him.

February 5, 2010 Posted by russellmckinney | Attitude, Belief, God's Holiness, Humility, The Holy Spirit, The Sermon On The Mount, Trusting In God, faith, needs, salvation | , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Will God Meet My Need?

In the mid-nineteenth century, poverty characterized the people of the northeast Highlands of Scotland. During those days, a man named John Murray was praying for guidance by a riverside. Many of his neighbors were imigrating to America, and he was wondering if he should join them. As he was praying, he heard a loud thud on the grass behind him. A salmon had leaped right out of the water and was lying there for him! Murray took it as an answer that the Lord could provide for him in Scotland. 

Philippians 4:19 says: “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” This verse is very well known, for good reason. However, I would like to point out one important fact about the verse’s application.

That fact is: The verse was written by a Christian (the apostle Paul) to other Christians (the Christians of Philippi). You see, it’s not just anyone who can rightly say, “I know that God will supply all my need according to His riches in glory.” The verse doesn’t obligate God to provide for those who do not know Jesus as Savior. Pay careful attention to the wording: God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

I’m not saying that God won’t supply the need of a lost person. The truth is, He usually does. As Jesus said, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). I’m simply pointing out the vast difference between knowing God as one’s heavenly Father and merely knowing Him as “the man upstairs.”

Imagine me walking around the mall with my two boys. It’s 6:00 p.m. and they haven’t had supper. They look at me and say, “Daddy, we’re hungry. Will you buy us something to eat?” I will buy them something because I’m their father, a fact which obligates me to provide for their needs. That is how God responds to the Christian’s needs. He meets them out of a fatherly obligation.

But now imagine another boy, a total stranger, coming up to me in the mall and saying, “Mister, I’m hungry. Will you buy me something to eat?” Based upon my assessment of the situation, if I sense a genuine need in the child, I will buy him something to eat. But I’m not obligated to do it, am I? Do you see the difference? I meet my boys’ need out of parental obligation, but I meet the other boy’s need out of something else, call it mercy, pity, charity, kindness, or compassion.

So, I’ll leave you with two thoughts. First, if you do not know Jesus as your Savior, you are not a child of God. You are loved by Him and you are desired by Him, but you are not His child. You must believe in Christ as Savior to actually join the family (John 1:12). And then, second, if you do know Jesus as Savior, you really shouldn’t worry about the meeting of your needs. Remember that your heavenly Father has inexhaustible “riches” and is obligated to take care of you, even if he has to drop a salmon on your bank to do it.

February 2, 2010 Posted by russellmckinney | God's Love, God's Provision, Trusting In God, Worry, faith, needs | , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Big Snows, Global Warming, & God

I don’t know how the weather is where you are, but here in Spruce Pine, NC we’re still buried in snow. It started snowing early Friday morning and didn’t stop until late Saturday night. By that time we had twelve inches on the ground. Yes, that’s right, a full foot of the white stuff. Actually, the highest elevations in our three-county area got two feet.

Since this snow is one of those “heavy” ones, we’ve been living under the constant threat of broken branches falling down onto power lines. Fortunately, our house only lost power for about three hours on Friday night. But other folks in the area didn’t fare so well. Some were without power for over a day. As for church today, we cancelled, just like virtually everybody else around here did.

The thing that has fascinated me about this snow is the effect it has had upon my two boys. They’ve seen snow before, but they haven’t seen a big storm like this. These mountains of western North Carolina get a fair amount of snow, but you have to go back to the winter of 1993 to find a storm that dumped this much on us. 

Actually, when I was a kid, some thirty or thirty-five years ago, we got these big snows much more frequently. I’m being serious and literal when I say that one year we were out of school for virtually the entire month of January. But, alas, now our typical snows are in the two to four-inch range. That’s what made this one such an event for the boys.

Over the past couple of days, they’ve ridden their snowboards for hours on end, built not one but two snowmen in our front yard, and begun construction on a couple of snow forts in the back yard. I don’t think the forts will get finished, but the boys have never even begun such forts after previous snows. That right there tells you that this storm is one for the memory banks.

Ryan, the twelve-year-old, said something interesting to me yesterday. He said, “Daddy, I’ve never seen a snow this big. Is this one of those like you got when you were a kid?” I said, “Yes, son, it is. It really is.” Following that conversation, I thought to myself, “Here is a boy twelve years old, and yet he’s just now seeing a snow this big. What should I make of that?” What I made of it is that our weather seems to have changed even over the course of my lifetime.

But, please, don’t put me on the global warming bandwagon with Al Gore and the others just yet. I have no point of reference for the weather in other parts of the world. Furthermore, even if our planet is getting warmer, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the increase is the result of what mankind has been doing to the planet. Maybe we have simply entered into a different long-term weather cycle.  

What I’m absolutely, positively, don’t have a doubt in my mind about, 100% sure of is that global warming isn’t going to bring about the end of life of earth. I’ve studied Bible prophecy and I know how things are going to play out. Yes, the book of The Revelation describes ecological disasters and cataclysmic events, but they all take place under the sovereign control of God. Our weather operates inside His mighty hands.

So, Chicken Little, calm down and know that God is in charge of such big departments as the weather and life on earth. I don’t mean to convey a “don’t worry, be happy” attitude, because much of the prophesied stuff for this earth’s future is very grim. But let’s never forget that God is in control. Not man. Not mother nature. Not mother earth. Not big business. Not Greenpeace. Not the United Nations. There is no panic in heaven, and the whole situation down here is in no way spiraling toward some undetermined end.

I can’t speak for you, but that simple, childlike faith in a sovereign God gives me great comfort. It makes me feel “safe.” What’s even better is the fact that this sovereign God once took human flesh upon Himself and was crucified on a Roman cross for the sins of the world. Even better than that is the fact that He arose from the dead and ascended back to heaven. Even better than that is the fact that I have placed my belief in Him as Savior. So, come deep snow, wintry mix, rain, or sunshine, I can rest in the knowledge that I will spend eternity with Him. That should give anybody a warm feeling on a night when there is a blanket of snow on the ground.

December 21, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Christ's birth, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, God's Omnipotence, Personal, Prophecy, Worry, faith, fear, salvation, weather | , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Lessons Learned From The Tiger Woods Story

Things are getting kind of bizarre in the story of Tiger Woods, the world’s top-ranked golfer. News broke early Tuesday that an ambulance had been dispatched to his Florida mansion sometime around 2:30 a.m. in response to a 911 call. The ambulance picked up Barbro Holmberg, Woods’ mother-in-law. She was rushed to a local hospital and listed as an “advanced life support” patient. Such a listing simply means that paramedics went beyond basic CPR methods in helping her. She was admitted for “stomach pain,” evidently responded well to treatment, and was released Tuesday afternoon to return to Woods’ home. 

This was just the latest chapter in a sad series of events that have played out over the past couple of weeks. The timeline runs like this:

-At 2:25 a.m. of November 27th, Woods crashes his vehicle into a fire hydrant and his neighbor’s tree. He is taken to a local hospital and treated for minor facial lacerations. He is quickly released and returns home. (Woods refuses to talk to Florida State Troopers for the next three days, and is finally cited for careless driving and fined $164.) 

-Shortly after the accident, the tabloids and internet become abuzz with rumors of Woods’ marital infidelity. (As of now, it’s impossible to sort out fact from lies, but the current number of alleged mistresses stands anywhere from seven to ten.) 

-On November 29th, Woods releases a statement on his website in which he says the accident was his fault and asks for privacy while his family works through a difficult time.

-On November 30th, it is announced that Woods will not be participating in his next scheduled golf tournament. The given reason for his withdrawal is injuries from the accident.

-On December 2nd, Woods releases a new statement in which he says, “I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart.”

-A few days later, several media outlets begin reporting that Woods’ wife, Elin Nordegren, has moved out of the house. (I haven’t heard whether or not she took the couple’s two-year old daughter and infant son with her.) 

-Then comes Tuesday’s story about the mother-in-law being rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night.

As for Woods, he still hasn’t been seen publicly since his accident. Whatever the exact details of everything are, it now seems fairly obvious that it’s a sad situation. The entire family needs our prayers. I have been praying for them, and I hope you will as well.

With that said, I’d like to offer some Biblical lessons here. I don’t do this to kick Tiger Woods while he is down. As I said, I’m praying sincere prayers for him and his family. I offer these merely as a way to view the story through the lens of God’s written word.

Lesson #1: A son needs his daddy. Tiger’s father, Earl, died on May 3rd, 2006. He was a military man who stood for honesty, integrity, and responsibility. Up until his death, he was the driving influence in Tiger’s life. He was the one who molded young Tiger into a golf prodigy. Later on he wrote two books about his no-nonsense parenting style. Tiger has often mentioned how much he misses his dad. In 1st Thessalonians 2:11, the Bible teaches that a father should exhort, comfort, and charge his children. Proverbs 1:8 speaks of a father instructing his son. Would Tiger be in the mess he’s in now if his dad was still alive? No one can say for sure, but many would answer, “No.”

Lesson #2: Every husband must work at remaining sexually satisfied with his wife. Affairs typically occur when husbands aren’t sexually satisfied with their wives alone. The lust for more sex or “different” sex is a powerful, primal thing. That’s why Proverbs 5:18-19 warns: “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love.”

Lesson #3: The sin of adultery is a fire that burns the one who commits it. Proverbs 6:27-28 says: “Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared?” 1st Corinthians 6:18 says: “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”

Lesson #4: No matter how much success, fame, and wealth a man has, his world can still come tumbling down if he doesn’t practice self-control. Proverbs 25:28 says: “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.” A city without walls is wide open to be attacked and destroyed. So is a life lived without self-control.

Lesson #5: If you want to fall, be full of pride. Tiger Woods is well known for being supremely confident in his abilities, even to the point of being egotistical. Proverbs 16:18 says: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Surely one of Woods’ motivations for committing adultery was that his ego told him he could get away with it.

Lesson #6: All the self-will one can muster will eventually lose out to the power of the flesh (that inborn sinful nature of individuals). Woods’ strong will on the golf course is a major part of what makes him so good. But no man is so strong-willed that he can keep his inner nature of sin at bay for long. In Romans 7:18-19, the apostle Paul writes: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”

Lesson #7: Your sins WILL eventually be discovered. Numbers 32:23 says: “…be sure your sin will find you out.” Isaiah 29:15 says: “Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, and their works are in the dark. They say, ‘Who sees us?” and ’Who knows us?’”    

Lesson #8: Wealth doesn’t equate to contentment. Even though Woods has earned multiplied millions through his golfing and endorsements, there was obviously still something that prevented him from being content with his family life. 1st Timothy 6:6-8 says: “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.”

Lesson #9: When you raise a child to worship the idol of sports, you shouldn’t be surprised when that child grows up to be lacking in morality and character. As I mentioned earlier, Earl Woods was an uncommonly influential father. No one can deny that he raised a champion golfer. But all those championships came at a high price. As far back as Tiger can remember, Earl led him to obsess over the sport of golf and devote himself fanactically to mastering it. Earl never taught Tiger how to keep golf in proper perspective and allow his spiritual side to develop. That inevitably caused some chinks in Tiger’s character and morality. In Matthew 16:26, Jesus asks the profound question, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  

Lesson #10: Buddhism simply cannot offer the help people need. By Woods’ own admission, he is something of a nominal Buddhist through his mother, who is from Thailand. He especially values the Buddhist practice of meditation. In a March, 2008 interview with Reuters, Woods said of Buddhism, “In the Buddhist religion, you have to work for it yourself internally in order to achieve anything in life…and in Buddhism to set up the next life. But in Buddhism it’s all about what you do and internal work.” Sadly, this religion and philosophy fly right in the face of Christ’s words from John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” They also go against Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God., not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

So, let me close by saying that Tiger Woods is just like anybody else on planet Earth in that he needs to place his faith (belief) in Jesus as his personal Savior. That will bring him forgiveness of sin (Colossians 1:14), spiritual life (John 5:40), salvation (Acts 16:30-31), and the empowerment to resist temptation and sin (Philippians 4:13). Certainly Tiger’s life has taken a tragic turn for the worse, but if that turn leads him to the open arms of Jesus, the best will be yet to come for him. That’s my prayer, for not only Tiger but his entire family.

December 9, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Adversity, Belief, Character, Choices, Desires, Fatherhood, Forgiveness, Husbands, Marriage, Money, Parenting, Priorities, Seeking Forgiveness, Sex, Sin, Sports, Temptation, adultery, contentment, faith | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Faith

Last night was movie night at the church. I showed the film Flywheel. That was the first movie that was done by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. Most of my crowd had seen the church’s other two movies, Facing The Giants and Fireproof. Only a few, though, had seen Flywheel. (For the record, I highly recommend each of the films.) At the end of Flywheel, the lead character names his new baby girl Faith. This comes on the heels of all the lessons about faith that God has been teaching him.

I once heard David Gibbs. Sr. say, “The faith walk is on a need-to-know basis.” In my own walk with the Lord, I’ve experienced enough to learn the truth of these words. God never gives me the full revelation of what He’s up to in my life. I pretty much just get the guidance and instruction I need to take the next step. Whenever I think I’ve got the path figured out and can, perhaps, run ahead, He throws me a curveball to keep Me looking to Him.

Hebrews 11:1 in the New Living Translation describes faith as “the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen” and “the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” Tell me, are you “hoping” for a particular thing from God? Are you desiring something you “cannot yet see”? Rest assured that if the thing is God’s will, He will bring it to pass in His timing and way.

But in the meantime He wants you to have real faith that He is going to do what you want Him to do. There simply is no substitute for this faith, and it makes an incalculable difference in your overall attitude and mindset. Faith creates optimism, hope, and joy; a lack of it creates pessimism, despair, and gloom. So, if you were naming your baby girl today, could you honestly name her Faith? If you couldn’t you need to admit it and have a long talk with God about it. The answers you are looking for are found in Him.

November 21, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Belief, God's Will, Patience, Personal, Reward, faith, perseverance, prayer | , , , , | Leave a Comment

God’s Delays

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “God, you are taking too long,” you come from a large tribe. I, for one, am very impatient. You know that you are impatient when microwaves, fast food restaurants, and remote controls are too slow for you!

But we must learn that God’s timing, though oftentimes seemingly insane, is always best. Consider the story found in John 11:1-45. Lazarus, a close friend of Jesus, lay sick and near death. Lazarus’ two sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word to Jesus. Those women fully expected Him to drop whatever He was doing and rush to Lazarus’ side.

But after receiving the news that Lazarus was gravely ill,  Jesus remained where He was for the next two days. His reaction to the news was simply, “This sickness will not end in death. It is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” It was only after the two days had passed that Jesus said to His disciples, “Lazarus is dead.”

By the time that Jesus arrived at Lazarus’ home, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Apparently, he had died shortly after that messenger had been dispatched to Jesus. It took the messenger a day to get to Jesus, and it took Jesus a day to get to Lazarus. Add in the two days of delay and you get four days in the tomb. I’ve read that the Jews believed that the spirit hovered near the body for three days and then departed. With Lazarus being in the tomb for four days, it seemed that even Jesus wouldn’t be able to do anything. 

Understandably, Mary and Martha were angry and disappointed with Jesus. On separate occasions, each of them uttered the same line: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Martha did add in a touch of faith to her complaint by saying, “But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give You.” She wanted to believe that Jesus was going to do something miraculous.

And, of course, He did. He went out to the tomb and, with many onlookers in attendance, raised Lazarus from the dead. When Lazarus came out of that cave still loosely wrapped in burial cloths, Jesus said to some of those people, “Loose him and let him go.” I wonder who volunteered for that job. How would you like to unwrap a mummy?       

Then, just when we think the story can’t get any better, we get the payoff. John 11:45 says: Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in him .” You see, just as Jesus gave physical life to Lazarus that day, He gave spiritual life to all those new believers. That two-day wait of His had set the stage for a prolific evangelistic harvest.

This story should teach us that if God delays doing something, He has a good reason for the delay. He doesn’t make us wait just so He can watch us squirm. He’s not trying to toy with us like a puppet on a string. No, He’s always up to something bigger and better. So, if He currently has you in the midst of a delay, make yourself be patient. Keep your faith high that He hasn’t forgotten about your situation, and just let Him work things out not only in His will but in His timing. You never know what miracle, either physical or spiritual, He might have in mind.

November 16, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Belief, Patience, faith | , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Maybe So, Maybe Not

Last week I wrote a blog entitled “Let’s Get Real.” In that blog I questioned why God allows Satan to win so many battles, even though I have no doubts that God has already won the eternal war. The post was about being honest with God. If we don’t understand what He is doing, or agree with it, we shouldn’t shy away from expressing that to Him in prayer. After all, how can prayer be real if it isn’t honest?

A few days later I was digging around in my files looking for something on a completely unrelated subject. In my digging I came across a story that I had saved from about a year and half ago. James Merritt, the pastor of Cross Pointe Church in Duluth Georgia, used the story on one of his t.v. broadcasts and I jotted it down after hearing it. Since it applies to questioning the way God handles things, I thought I’d share it with you as a companion piece to “Let’s Get Real.”

There was an old man who was known as the wisest man in a certain village. Whenever someone wanted council they would go see this man. One day a farmer went to him and said, “A horrible thing has happened to me: My ox died. I’m a farmer and I depended upon that ox to get my fields plowed and my crops planted. Now I can’t plant my crops and I’m going to starve. Do you agree that this is the worst possible thing that could have happened to me? The wise man said, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

The very next day the farmer looked out his window and saw a strong, sturdy horse come galloping up to his farm. The farmer wouldn’t have tried to catch the horse if he had still had the ox, but the ox’s death led him to go out and catch the horse. It turned out that the horse was much younger and stronger than the ox and could plow ground much faster. Because of this, over the next couple of weeks, the man was able to plant twice as much as he would have been able to plant with the ox.

The man went back to the wise man and said, “I owe you an apology.” Then he told him the story about the horse. He finished the story by saying, “You were right. My ox dying wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. It was a blessing in disguise. The best thing that could have happened to me was getting this horse.” The wise man said, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

Three days later the farmer’s son took the horse out for a ride. But the horse threw him and the fall broke both of the son’s legs. Since the young man was the only worker the farmer had to help him get in his crops, the farmer was devastated. He went back to the wise man and said, “How did you know that me catching that horse was not going to be a good thing? My son getting both his legs broken has to be the worst thing that ever happened to me.” The wise man said, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

The very next day troops came to the village to take every young man away to fight a war that had just broken out. The only young man who wasn’t taken was the farmer’s son who was laid up with those two broken legs. Tragically, a few days later the village got word that every one of those young men had been killed in that war. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

My search through my files also uncovered two quotes from the late, great evangelist Vance Havner. First, Havner said, “God marks across some of our days, ‘Will explain later.’” Second, he said, “…all question marks will be straightened into exclamation points.”

So, how does this “Maybe So, Maybe Not” piece walk hand in hand with the ”Let’s Get Real” piece? The answer is, let us be honest enough with God to question Him or disagree with Him, but at the same time let us be humble enough to admit that His wisdom is infinitely superior to our’s. Another quote I like is, “Even when I can’t track Him, I can trust Him.”

We all need to be reminded of that, don’t we? Our knowledge and understanding are so limited. We don’t know what the next second holds, to say nothing of the next day, week, month, or year. But God does, and He can be trusted to always do right. Remember this the next time you’ve got a problem with the way He is handling things. I’m going to take my own advice and try to do it too.

July 12, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Adversity, God's Will, Patience, Problems, contentment, faith, perseverance, trials | Leave a Comment

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

This past Sunday I preached on the subject of spiritual warfare. My text was Ephesians 6:12. I opened the sermon by showing a scene from the movie Jesus of Nazareth. The scene depicted the story of the demon-possessed son who kept throwing himself into fire and water (Matthew 17:14-21; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-42).

The father in that story brought the son to Jesus and said, “If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” The word “If” gives us a glimpse into the man’s heart. He was open-minded about Jesus, but not convinced. He was willing to give Jesus a try, but he couldn’t make himself unreservedly believe that Jesus could cure the boy. Let’s not be too harsh on the man, though. He wasn’t a bad sort of fellow. He was just a parent at his wit’s end over his child’s deplorable condition.

Jesus knew this, and He didn’t lambaste the guy for using the word “If.” Instead of getting all defensive about His miracle-working power, Jesus went on the offensive. He said to the father, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” You gota love that comeback. ”The issue is not My power; it is your belief.”

And now we come to my favorite part of the story. The father’s response to Jesus is, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” There is blunt honesty on display. “Lord, I’m not totally faithless. I’m not a rank unbeliever. There is a very real part of me that does believe you can heal my son. But I won’t lie and say that my faith is perfect. It’s not. I need you to help it. I want to be the believer You want me to be, but You are going to have to help me get there.”

Of all the Bible stories in which I could be cast, perhaps this one would be the most natural for me. I believe the Lord can and will do wonderful things in my life, but my belief frequently needs help. In such times I need a fresh measure of the Lord’s strengthening grace. I need Him to look at me through eyes of mercy and not let my bad cancel out my good.

Those of us who know something about weightlifting know the term ”spotter.” A spotter is a person who stands behind the bench while the weightlifter lies on the bench and benchpresses as much weight as he can. When the weightlifter reaches the limit of what he can lift, and the weight starts coming back down toward his chest, the spotter reaches down with both hands, grabs the weight, pulls it back up, and places it in the holding bars.

I see myself as a weightlifter who can benchpress a limited amount of weight. I know where the spiritual gym is, and I know how to handle myself in the midst of a spiritual benchpress. But when the weight becomes too heavy for me, when I can no longer lift it, when I feel it is just about to crash down hard onto my chest, I’m glad I have Jesus as my spotter. His strength makes up for weakness. His ability covers over my inability. He can pick up where I leave off.

I write this as a way of encouraging each of you who are too hard on yourself concerning your level of faith. If you are a Christian, and if you have a legitimate amount of faith, don’t think that your lack of “ideal” faith keeps the Lord from doing what He wants to do in your life. If Jesus had waited until the father of that demon-possessed boy had “perfected” his belief, who knows when that boy would have been delivered and healed? Would he ever have been?  

You see, it’s not that your somewhat deficient faith is a good thing. We know better than that. But the Lord always stands ready to give credit where credit is due. He understands that some faith is certainly better than no faith. Think of it this way: A loving father who sees that his child is obviously making an attempt to live up to his wishes will not give up on the child. What he will do is work with the child, show patience, and give the child time to do even better. And my point is, if an earthly father will operate like that, how much more will God?

June 30, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Belief, faith | , , , , , , | Leave a Comment