Russell Mckinney's Blog

Straight Talk About God and Life

The Burned Spot

In the days when America’s west was being settled, praire fires were the scourge of the land. The very thought of them struck terror into the hearts of the people. With dry grass standing high, sometimes as high as a horse’s head, the fires could sweep over vast acreages and not lack for fuel. To get caught out in the midst of such a fire meant certain death.

Over the course of time, though, people figured out how to remain safe during such a time. The trick was to take a match and start another fire in a circular pattern in the grass. Once the grass inside that circle was consumed, a stand could be taken inside the burned spot. The praire fire would burn all around the spot but not come inside it. It couldn’t come inside because the grass there to fuel it was already burned.

When God looks down upon the earth, He still sees a certain spot just outside the old city of Jerusalem. It is a burned spot that the fires of His holy wrath consumed some two thousand years ago. The spot goes by different names: Calvary (Luke 23:33), Golgatha (John 19:17), and the Place of a Skull (Matthew 27:33). Scholars debate the precise location of it, but God knows exactly where it is. It was at that spot that Jesus died on a Roman cross for the sins of the world. The burning of the spot reached its climax when Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

The fact is, the fire of God’s wrath must sweep through the life of each sinner. His indescribable holiness demands it. Those who have believed in Jesus as Savior are granted the privilege of standing inside the burned spot of the cross. Jesus has already taken God’s wrath for us. We can watch in safety as the fire rages all around us but never touches us. On the other hand, those who have not believed in Jesus as Savior must face the fire of God’s wrath out in the open, on their own. As John 3:16-18 and 36 put it:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God…He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

 

 

February 1, 2010 Posted by russellmckinney | Belief, Christ's Death, Coming Judgment, Crucifixion, Forgiveness, God's Wrath | , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Got Any Trees That Need Cutting?

Charles Bracelan Flood’s book, Lee: The Last Years, gives us a poignant story from the life of Robert E. Lee. Lee visited the home of a Kentucky woman shortly after the end of the Civil War. The woman took him out to the remains of a grand old tree that stood in front of her home. Lee listened as she cried bitter tears and cursed the Union army for destroying the tree’s limbs and trunk. When she finished, she expected him to condemn the North or at least sympathize with her loss. Lee, instead, paused for a moment and said, “Cut it down, my dear madam, and forget it.”

Finish this sentence for me: “If I would be honest, I have never fully forgiven ………..” If no one in particular came to your mind, it’s possible that you aren’t carrying any old grudges or hatreds. On the other hand, if a name instinctively popped in there, even if you didn’t want it to pop in there, you need to address that issue in your life.

Carefully consider the following quotes from Jesus:

1. Matthew 6:14-15: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

2. Mark 11:25-26: “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

3. Luke 11:4: “And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”

4. Luke 6:37: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

It is hard to overemphasize the seriousness of these quotes. If Jesus said something once it was important. How important, then, must a subject be for him to have hammered on it multiple times? You might not see your refusing to forgive someone as a big deal, but I assure you that Jesus does.

Just like that Kentucky woman who carried a hatred for the Union army because of what they had done to her tree, perhaps you are withholding forgiveness from someone who has wronged you. Let me encourage you to take Robert E. Lee’s advice. Cut that tree down and forget it. Stop visiting it every day. Stop thinking about it all the time. Stop shedding tears about it. Stop mourning over it. Stop trying to get others to join you in your mourning. Instead, extend forgiveness to the person, even if the forgiveness is undeserved. You’ll be amazed at what a difference this will make in your life. After all, spending hours on end staring at a ruined, bombed out tree doesn’t make for much of a life.

January 8, 2010 Posted by russellmckinney | Extending Forgiveness, Forgiveness, Seeking Forgiveness | , , , , , | 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

Good Morning

Jesus was in my room this morning.

I don’t know why He came.

Unless it was the prayer last night

in which I called His name.

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It was too early for any daylight,

so I didn’t view His face.

But His love was present in the dark

and soon filled up the place.

——————————————————-

The early morning was cold outside,

blanketed by a frost.

But I realized with Jesus at hand

nary a hope was lost.

——————————————————-

I’d spent the night in an awful gloom,

ashamed of my many sins.

I’d prayed that God would open my heart

and let His Son come in.

——————————————————-

But I had not received an answer,

at least I didn’t think so.

Till I awoke and felt Jesus’ presence,

then I began to know.

——————————————————-

To know that my prayer had been answered,

to know how much He cares.

To know that He is my Comforter,

to know my pain He shares.

——————————————————-

And then I noticed some light outside,

cast by a rising sun.

Soon the entire house began to stir,

for a new day had begun.

——————————————————-

So I cried, “My dear precious Jesus,

please do not leave me now.

For I have to start this brand new day

and I’m just not sure how.

——————————————————-

You’ve only just arrived to my room

for the early morning light.”

Then a voice said, “I’ll never leave you,

don’t you know I spent the night?”

                                                                      Russell Mckinney

November 12, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Forgiveness, God's Love, Personal, Problems, Seeking Forgiveness, Worry, prayer, trials | , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

God’s Thoughts, Plans, & Love

Jeremiah 29:11 is an often-quoted verse. It says: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the Lord, “thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (N.K.J.V.) The Hebrew word that is translated as “thoughts” carries with it the idea of planning, plotting, intending, devising, imagining, and purposing. That’s why every translation other than the King James and the New King James translate the word as “plans.” For example, the N.I.V. renders the verse: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” The point is, God doesn’t just think good thoughts; He also devises plans that will bring those good thoughts to pass.

Obviously, this is a beautiful verse that conveys a very pleasant idea. But we must be sure to take the verse’s context into account. This isn’t Paul writing to Christians. This is God speaking through the Jewish prophet Jeremiah to the Old Testament Jews. God is telling them what He is going to do for them once their seventy-year captivity in Babylon has ended. The previous verse, verse 10, makes this clear. It says: For thus says the Lord: “After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place (Jerusalem).” So, you see, there really isn’t anybody alive on Earth right now who can specifically claim verse 11 as their own.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the general principle of the verse can’t be carried over into our day. We shouldn’t think of God as creation’s mean-spirited policeman. We do Him an injustice when we depict Him as a cosmic killjoy who won’t let us have any fun. The truth is, He would much rather think good thoughts than bad ones toward people. He’d much rather devise plans for good than bad. He’d much rather bless than judge.

God didn’t enjoy allowing the Babylonians to conquer Judah and carry the Jews off to Babylon for seventy years of captivity. He only did that because those Jews needed chastening. For a 490-year period, they had ignored His command to let the land rest every seventh year (Exodus 23:11). This meant that they owed the land seventy individual years of rest. The land got each year of that rest during those seventy years the people were exiled in Babylon (Leviticus 26:27-35; 2 Chronicles 36:15-21).  

Certainly that punishment conveys one side of God’s nature. But it isn’t the only side. As soon as the seventy years of whipping were finished, what was God’s word to those Jews? It was, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Do you see the perfect balance? 

If there were ever any lingering doubts about God loving all people, they were dispelled when Jesus (God the Son) came into this world and became one of us. This was God giving to all humanity the absolute best He had: Himself. He did this even though He knew the gift would be ridiculed, misunderstood, mocked, rejected, arrested, whipped, and nailed to a cross to die. Why would God do such a thing? To save believers from their sins! As John 3:16 says: ”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (N.I.V.)        

I don’t know how you are feeling right now. But I can tell you with all certainty that God loves you. He loves you so much that Jesus died for you so that God can spend all eternity with you. You’ve got to love someone a whole bunch to want to be around them forever!!! Jesus came to Earth so that you could go to Heaven. He lived and died so that you could die and live. He paid a debt He did not owe because you owed a debt you could not pay. So the next time you to start to doubt that God loves you, look to the cross. There you’ll find the indisputable measure of His love.

November 11, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Belief, Christ's Death, Crucifixion, Disobedience, Forgiveness, God's Love, Heaven, balance, salvation | , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

The Blessing Of Changing A Sermon

Two Sundays ago I had in mind to preach a sermon on prayer. Specifically, I planned to preach on the so-called “Lord’s Prayer.” But as I began to ease into my studying and preparing for that sermon, the Lord made it clear that He wanted me to preach something else. He commanded a sermon on salvation.

The text He told me to use was Matthew 7:21-23, where Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Since preachers are always being told how important it is to grab the listener’s attention with the sermon’s introduction, I opened up with these words: “You can die and go to hell from a seat in church just as much as you can from living in a box in some rat-infested alley, taking your meals out of a garbage can.” Pretty attention-grabbing, huh?

From there I proceeded to explain that the person who has experienced genuine salvation will evidence that experience in his or her conduct. The state of being saved will show up in the way the person lives life. As James 2:20 so succinctly puts it: “faith without works is dead.” Good works can never produce salvation, but salvation will inevitably produce good works. Good works can never flow into salvation, but they must flow out of it.

This doesn’t mean the person who gets saved will never sin again. Romans chapter 7 is the Bible’s best passage on why saved people (Christians) still sin. There Paul explains that the Christian has two inner natures that are constantly at war. On the one hand, at the moment of salvation, God the Holy Spirit comes to live inside the Christian’s body, and the Spirit brings the nature of God to the person. That nature seeks control over the person, a control that will lead to deeds of righteousness. But, on the other hand, even when the Spirit comes to indwell the individual, His presence doesn’t eliminate the individual’s old nature (the nature with which everyone is born, the nature of Adam). This nature also seeks control over the Christian, a control that will lead to deeds of sin.

The point is, though, that the truly saved person will evidence salvation, to some degree, in his or her life. Some Christians evidence it more than others because they handle the Romans chapter 7 set-up better, but every Christian must evidence it somewhat. That was my central message.

As part of the sermon, I walked the listeners through the plan of salvation. I told them that salvation required a head knowledge of certain facts:

Fact #1: There is a God. Psalm 14:1: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Fact #2: God is thoroughly holy. Psalm 47:8: “God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.”

Fact #3: You are a sinner. Romans 3:10,23: “There is none that is righteous, no, not one…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Fact #4: Your sin separates you from God. Psalm 5:4: “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You.”

Fact #5: Jesus (God the Son) left heaven, came to the earth, took human form upon Himself, and ultimately died on a Roman cross for all the sins of the world (and that included all your sins). 1st Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all…”

Fact #6: On the third day after His burial, Jesus arose from the dead and eventually ascended back up to heaven. Matthew 28:5: “…the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen…’”

Once you have these six facts settled in your mind (you believe them, you agree with them), then you have to get your heart involved. It is with your heart that you must voluntarily, willfully, purposefully place your belief in Jesus as your personal Savior. In Acts 16:30-31, a jailor in the city of Philippi asks Paul and Silas a straight question: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The answer they give him is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” And then Romans 10:10 shows us that this belief must be from the heart. That verse says: “…for with the heart one believes unto righteousness.”

Please understand that the Bible uses different terminology to describe this saving belief. It speaks of coming to Jesus, opening the door to Jesus, putting your faith in Jesus, trusting in Jesus, and calling upon Jesus. But these aren’t separate experiences. They are just different ways of describing what it is to believe in Jesus in a saving way. Salvation is not a process; it is a moment-in-time experience.

But now let me get back to my story. What were the results of my sermon on salvation? Well, at the close of that Sunday-morning service, I got no response. That was a little disappointing, but I thought, “Lord, I obeyed and preached what You told me to preach. That’s all I can do. I’m sure You had Your reasons for having me preach that today.” Then I put the sermon out of my mind and went on about my business.

The following Monday was an especially busy day. I hardly stopped all day. Even at 7:00 that night, I had to have Ryan at baseball practice for his all-star team. I’m an assistant coach on that team, and the practice lasted for over two hours. Ryan and I got back home around 9:30. I was whipped.

No sooner had I gotten in the door than Tonya said to me, “We need to talk.” Royce, our eight-year old, was sitting in her lap. The whole scene made me respond, “Oh, no, what do we need to talk about?” She said, “It’s nothing bad.” That calmed my fears, but I was still a bit apprehensive. We ended up taking Royce back into his bedroom, where Tonya explained to me that he wanted to get saved. My sermon had bothered him. He didn’t want to go to hell; he wanted to go to heaven. He wanted Jesus to forgive him of all his sins and be his personal Savior.

And what did I do? Right then and there I took him by his hand and said, “I’m going to pray and I want you to repeat what I say.” Then I led him through a version of what you might call “a sinner’s prayer.” I kept the focus on the basics: sin, Christ’s death, belief, and forgiveness. Don’t ever force a child to become a Bible scholar to get saved. That child has the rest of his or life to learn all the finer points of Christian doctrine. Just keep things simple and anchored to the basics. That will do just fine.

Since I never want to rush a child into the waters of baptism, I’ll wait a while before baptizing Royce. Over the coming weeks, I’ll talk with him some more and make sure that he really does know Jesus as his Savior. Then, when the Lord tells me he’s ready, I’ll gladly baptize him. In all honestly, though, I have full confidence that the little fellow experienced authentic salvation that Monday night. What a glorious thing that is! As a father, there’s nothing better than knowing that both my sons are now Christians. 

And now, as I finish up this post, I want to leave you with a word. That word is obedience. Just as I obeyed God by changing my plans and preaching that sermon on salvation, you must obey God and do what He is telling you to do. Even if you don’t fully understand it or agree with it, you must obey. If He is giving you a command, He has His reasons and they are good ones. I’m not saying that your obedience will lead to someone getting saved, but, you know, you just never can tell.

July 15, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Belief, Change, Children, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Disobedience, Forgiveness, Parenting, Personal, Reward, Seeking Forgiveness, Sin, The Holy Spirit, obedience, preaching, salvation | , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

My Runaway Child

Last night Tonya had to chaperon a school-dance for a couple of hours. That left me at home with the boys. Everything was going fine until Royce, my eight year old, decided that he wanted to go outside and practice his baseball swing. There he stood, holding his plastic ball and bat, while I told him that it was getting too dark to go outside. He didn’t like my verdict, but he seemed to take it in stride.

Not long afterwards, I heard some kind of crash down in our basement. I didn’t think too much about it because I knew that Royce had gone down there after I had told him he couldn’t go outside. I also knew that he has an average of three or four “crashes” every day. If they are serious enough, he comes and reports. Since he didn’t report, I figured that everything was okay.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes had passed, Royce came to me in tears. As it turned out, he had taken his ball and bat downstairs to practice his swing. He had thrown the ball up and hit it straight into one of our fluorescent lights. The light was now lying in a milion pieces all over the basement floor.

Here’s where I need to give a little background to the story. A few weeks ago, Ryan and Royce busted another light by throwing balls in the basement. At that time I laid down one of those eternal, never-to-be challenged rules concerning balls, the basement, and fluorescent lights. Fathers love doing that kind of thing. Naturally, when Royce busted another light with another ball, he knew he was in for a spanking.

Oh, yes, we practice the art of spanking around our house. We don’t cross the line into child abuse, but we do spank. If you disagree with this time-honored parenting method, please read the following Bible passages: Hebrews 12:5-11; Psalm 119:67; Proverbs 3:11-12; 13:24; 19:18; 26:15; 23:13-14; and 29:15,17. The board of education applied to the seat of knowledge can do wonders for the thought process of the mind. God gave us extra padding back there for a reason! 

And so, Royce knew that he was in for some disciplining. But he had a better idea. While I went downstairs to survey the damage, he headed out the door toward the garage. By the time I came back upstairs, he already had his little scooter out. When I said, “Get in here,” he said, “I’m going to run away because I don’t want another spanking.” I said, ”What are you going to do, just walk the roads?” He said, “That’s why I got my scooter.” I said, “And how do you plan to eat?” At that point he showed me that he had gone to his room and gotten his little billfold. He said, “I’ve got $30.” (That was the truth. He’d been saving his “Grandpaw” and “Grandmaw” money.)

Well, even though he had obviously thought things out pretty clearly, I still made him come in the house. And, yes, I gave him a one-swat spanking. (Two-swat spankings are reserved for really bad disobedience.) When Tonya came home and got the whole report, she said, “I can’t leave you alone with them for two hours.” I said, “I thought I was doing good by not letting him go outside at dark.” I’m telling you, I just can’t win for losing. As for how Royce was going to live on $30, he said he would just keep on buying bags of Cheetos.

Two things struck me about Royce wanting to run away. First, I was actually glad that he had enough healthy fear of me to know that disobedience would bring punishment. Did you know that a child gets his first concept of God from his father? How the father acts pushes the child towards that idea of God. Abusive fathers turn God into a bully. Absentee fathers turn Him into someone who cares more about everyone else than the child. Milquetoast fathers turn Him into a timid, unassertive weakling. I don’t mind influencing Royce to view God as an authority figure who will punish disobedience. After all, that’s what He is.

The same book of Proverbs that has so much to say about spanking also has lots to say about the fear of the Lord. This is far from a coincidence. God understands full well what I just said about a child getting his first impression of God from his father. According to Proverbs, the fear of the Lord:

-is the beginning of knowledge (1:7)

-leads to a departing from evil (3:7, 16:6)

-will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones (3:8)      

-leads to a hatred of evil (8:13)

-is the beginning of wisdom (9:10)

-prolongs days (10:27)

-brings strong confidence (14:26)

-is a fountain of life (14:27)

-turns one away from the snares of death (14:27)

-is the instruction of wisdom (15:33)

-leads to life, an abiding in satisfaction, and a protection from evil (19:23)

-leads to riches, honor, and life (22:4)

Now you see why it is so important for Royce to have a healthy fear of me. As he grows up, he will be able to naturally transfer that fear from his earthly father to his heavenly father. Last night showed that we are on schedule in that department.

The second thing that struck me about Royce wanting to run away was how much it reminded me of Adam and Eve. When they heard God walking in the garden of Eden after their sin, their first impulse was to hide, get away, and keep from reporting (Genesis 3:8). The fact that this was Royce’s same response after he had disobeyed me proved that the inherited sin-nature is alive and well in the little fellow. He was born with mommy’s eyes, daddy’s nose, and Adam’s nature.

Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I can see even more similarities between Royce’s situation and Adam and Eve’s:

#1: I didn’t want Royce to run away and hide any more than God wanted Adam and Eve to run away and hide. It would have crushed me to lose my son forever just as it would have crushed God to lose His two kids forever.

#2: Like Adam and Eve, Royce was all ready to accept an inferior way of living rather than confess his sin. Adam and Eve had their fig leaves; he had his Cheetos.

#3: Just as God couldn’t wink at Adam and Eve’s disobedience and say, “We’ll let it go this time,” I couldn’t let Royce off the hook. The disobedience had to be addressed.

#4: After the disobedience was addressed, the fellowship was restored. The souls of Adam and Eve are in heaven right now, still enjoying fellowship with God. Royce and I are getting along just fine today too.

#5: Even though the disobedience was dealt with and the fellowship restored, the fallout from the sin remains. We lost our basement light and Adam and Eve lost their sinless perfection, innocence, and immortality. Sin does damage, and there’s no getting around that.

I love Royce, and we’ll buy a new light. God loves Adam and Eve (and their race), and He sent His Son to die so that His blood could cleanse all sin (John 3:16). Adam and Eve placed their belief in the Lord and learned the lesson that forgiveness of sin only comes via the shed blood of a sacrifice (Genesis 3:21). Now the question is, Have you placed your belief in Jesus and allowed the blood He shed in dying to cleanse you from all sin (Hebrews 10:4-14)? Or are you still going down life’s highway on your scooter, living on Cheetos?

May 23, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Christ's Death, Disobedience, Fatherhood, Forgiveness, Parenting, Rebellion, Sin, contentment | , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Getting Your Toes Stepped On

A preacher had just finished a very strong sermon on the subject of sin. One of the officers of his church came to him and asked for a private word in the preacher’s study. Once there, the scolding began. The officer said, “We don’t want you to talk so openly about man’s guilt and corruption. If our boys and girls hear you discussing such subjects they will more easily become sinners. Please do not speak so plainly about sin.” To that the preacher said, ”Consider a bottle of strychnine. On the bottle the word “Poison” is written in red letters. Do you understand what you are asking me to do? You are suggesting that I change the label on the bottle. Suppose I paste on the label “Essence of Peppermint”? Don’t you see what might happen? Someone would use it, not knowing the danger involved, and would certainly die. So it is with the matter of sin. The milder you make your label, the more dangerous you make your posion!”

As a preacher, I must admit that such illustrations sting me a bit. They cause me to wonder if I don’t preach too lightly against sin. My problem is that, like most preachers, I don’t want to offend anyone. I don’t enjoy fighting. I don’t like to hurt peoples’ feelings. Jesus took that stuff out of me some time ago.

But if I don’t call sin what it is, I’m not much of a preacher. Sometimes I have to remind myself that God didn’t call me to be liked. Of course, I want to be liked. Every right-thinking person does. That includes preachers. Being liked, though, can come at too steep a price. If I have to shave the edges off the truth, water down right doctrine, and wink at sin, I’ll have to get used to being disliked by some.

As for having a preacher “step on your toes,” did you know that the Bible teaches that how you respond sets the course of your life? Note carefully the following verses from the book of Proverbs: 

-Proverbs 13:18: “Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction. But he who regards a rebuke will be honored.”

-Proverbs 15:31-32: “The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. He who disdains instruction despises his own soul. But he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.”

-Proverbs 15:5: “He who receives correction is prudent.”

-Proverbs 15:10: “He who hates correction will die.”

We don’t have to read very far into the Bible to find a man who didn’t receive rebuke and correction well. The story of Cain is recorded in Genesis 4:1-24. Cain and his younger brother Abel each brought offerings unto the Lord. Cain’s offering consisted of the fruit of the ground. Abel’s was the firstborn of his flock. God accepted Abel’s offering but not Cain’s.

Theologians have long debated why God didn’t accept Cain’s offering, but I agree with those who say the reason involved the shedding of blood. After Adam and Eve’s sin, God made them tunics of skin to wear to cover their nakedness (Genesis 3:21). This meant that He shed the blood of two animals. This was the world’s first object lesson on the subject of forgiveness of sin. God only forgives on the basis of shed blood (Hebrews 9:22). Evidently, Adam and Eve passed this divine truth down to their sons, Cain and Abel. Abel received it gladly and brought an offering in line with it. Cain rejected it and brought a bloodless offering that appealed to him. 

And how did Cain respond to God’s rejection of the offering? He got mad (Genesis 4:5)! That’s when God came to him and warned him about the ramifications of his attitude towards the rebuke. He said, “Cain, if you do well, will you not be accepted?” That was God’s way of telling Cain that He wasn’t playing favorites with Abel. But then God gave the warning, “And if you do not well, sin lies at the door.” Clearly, Cain had a choice to make. He could heed the rebuke and get understanding or he could disdain it and send his life down a bad road. The choice was his. 

Sadly, Cain chose poorly. Rather than bring the right kind of offering to God, Cain went out and killed Abel. He wouldn’t shed the blood of a sacrificial animal, but he would shed the blood of his brother! For that murder God said to him, “Now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” Cain then lived out the rest of his long life away from his family and out of relationship with God.

I hope you remember Cain the next time a preacher comes down hard on your sin. Remember that Cain’s response to being rebuked pointed him in an undesirable direction he continued in the rest of his life. Don’t get mad at the messenger and ignore the message. Instead, embrace both as God’s way of keeping you from poison. And, by the way, if you have a preacher who doesn’t shy away from preaching against sin, be thankful for him. I can tell you from personal experience that the man doesn’t have an easy job.

April 15, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Choices, Forgiveness, Sin | 2 Comments

God’s Chemistry

My yard is covered in snow this morning, the result of an April winter storm. Living where I do, I’m quite used to snow. Last night’s local news featured a family from Florida who happened to be driving through our area when the snow started falling yesterday afternoon. The father actually pulled off the road and let the kids enjoy the thrill of playing in the white stuff. They had never seen it before. I thought, “How odd. I can’t imagine living in a place where it doesn’t snow.”

But there is one thing about snow that always, without exception, takes me by surprise: how bright it is. Each time I pull back the curtains on a new day and find snow on the ground, my eyes receive a jolt. I’m never ready for the startling effect of snow’s pure whiteness.

All of this takes my mind to Psalm 51:7, where David says to God, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” The heading of this Psalm leaves no doubt as to what prompted David’s need of forgiveness. The prophet Nathan had just confronted him regarding the adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband Uriah (2 Samuel c. 11-12:1-15). David, the “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), had broken three of the ten commandments that made up the moral summation of the body of law that God had given to Israel. He had coveted his neighbor’s wife (Exodus 20:17). He had committed adultery (Exodus 20:14). He had murdered (Exodus 20:13).

David understood that only God could remove the dark stain of his sins. There was no heroic deed that could be performed to remove that stain. There was no list of good works, no rite, no ritual. There was only God. If He would forgive, David could be restored. If He wouldn’t, there was no hope.

And did David receive his forgiveness and cleansing? Yes. God used that odd chemical process of His. He took David’s sins, which were a crimson, scarlet red in His sight (Isaiah 1:18), and covered them with sacrificial blood, which was also crimson, scarlet red (Hebrews 9:22). This turned those sins as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). I know that dark red on dark red shouldn’t produce white, but in God’s chemistry it does.

Of course, David lived in Old Testament days, days in which God commanded the Israelites to offer up blood sacrifices to Him (Leviticus 17:11). What we must understand, though, is that these sacrifices couldn’t “take away” sin (Hebrews 10:4,11). They could only roll the sin forward and stay the wrath of God (Hebrews 10:1-3) until Jesus, the One whose blood could take away sin (John 1:29), would come and die on the cross (Hebrews 10:12-14). All of the Old Testament sacrifices found their legitimacy in His death. Just as we look back upon Christ’s death, Old Testament believers such as David looked ahead to it. It was in the crimson blood that flowed through Christ’s sacrificial body that David found his eternal cleansing.

Maybe you have done something that makes you want to cry out to God for cleansing. Maybe you have committed a sin that you want God to make whiter than snow. Such forgiveness is available to you. It’s found in Jesus. He died on a Roman cross as an Old-Testament style, blood sacrifice for the sins of the entire world (1 John 2:2). There is no sin so scarlet that He cannot plunge it in His blood and make it as white as snow.

But just as there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood, there is no application of Christ’s blood without belief in Him. His death was sufficient for everyone’s sins, but it is only efficient for those who place their belief in Him as Savior (John 3:16-18). 1 John 1:7 offers a profound, doctrinal truth when it says that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, but that verse was specifically written to Christians, people who have placed their belief in Christ. You see, God’s chemistry does work. Scarlet sins really can be turned snow white. But the agent that produces the reaction is the shed blood of Christ, and that blood only gets applied to those who make the voluntary choice to believe in Him.

April 7, 2009 Posted by russellmckinney | Forgiveness, Sacrifice, salvation | , , , , , , | 2 Comments