“The Ball’s In Your Court, God”

May 24, 2012 1 Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

How To Handle A Bad Inning

March 5, 2012 Leave a comment

My son Ryan has now officially begun his high-school baseball career. He had his first j.v. game last Friday. It’s put me in the mood to share one of my favorite “baseball” illustrations.

At a Little League game the visiting team had already scored 21 runs and was still batting in the top of the first inning. The mother of the kid in right-field began to worry that such a staggeringly lopsided loss would demoralize her child and destroy his confidence. So she left her seat in the stands and made her way out to the right-field fence. She stood there on her side of it and yelled out to him, “Son, this has to be an awful experience for you, and I just want you to know that you don’t have to keep playing if you don’t want to. I’ll take you home right now and explain things to your coach.” The boy, however, seemed shocked by the suggestion. He simply smiled back at her and said, “But mom, we can still win this game. We haven’t come to bat yet!”

You have a choice to make as to how you approach life. You can operate with an optimistic attitude or a defeatist one. You can believe that God is up to something good in your life or that He is leading you off a cliff. The choice is yours.

As for the optimistic approach, I’m not talking about some pie-in-the-sky, “hope so” kind of thing. I’m talking about you putting your faith in a Savior who loves you enough to die on the cross for your sins and stands ready to give your life ideal meaning and purpose. I’m talking about heeding Him when He says, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). I’m talking about relating to the apostle Paul when he says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Does following Jesus mean that you will never experience any blowout defeats? Hardly. But it does mean at least two things. First, if you stay submitted to Christ’s will for your life He will keep you out of a lot of those situations that would end badly for you. Second, even when those difficult times do come along, Jesus will not only give you what you need to get through them but also use them to increase your strength and wisdom.

I don’t know where this post finds you today, but perhaps you are right now guilty of bringing a defeatist attitude to the playing field. I suppose this is understandable for a person who doesn’t know Christ as Savior. After all, if I didn’t have the hope provided by Him, the state of this world would have me down in the dumps too. But it should be different for the Christian. Our Savior wasn’t a quitter, even as battered, bloodied, and bruised He carried the cross up Calvary’s hill. None of us will ever have a worse day than that one, and yet the eternal good He accomplished through it is far too deep for our human minds to grasp. That should teach us that the hardest things we have to endure in life can produce the greatest good. And that’s why we shouldn’t quit playing even in the midst of a bad inning.

Filed under Attitude, Belief, Choices, Christ's Death, Disappointment, Encouragement, God's Love, God's Provision, God's Will, perseverance, Personal, trials, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Romans 8:28 & Roan Mountain

February 28, 2012 2 Comments

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

I grew up in the small town of Bakersville, North Carolina. I would call it Mayberry, but Mayberry looks bigger on television. Nationally speaking, Bakersville’s claim to fame is that it lies at the foot of the North Carolina side of Roan Mountain, a well known tourist site.

And what is it that makes tourists want to come see Roan Mountain? Rhododendrons. The mountain is home to the largest display of blooming rhododendrons in the world, and the display is 100% natural. All told, the plants cover over 600 acres of the mountain. We’re talking the world’s most exquisite rhododendron garden, marvelously nestled along a mountain ridge 6,300 feet high. It really is quite a site. The plants usually bloom sometime around mid June, and Bakersville holds an annual Rhododendron festival complete with a beauty pageant, street dance, 10K run, and car show. Can you say, “small town Americana”?

Back in the 1800s people held to the general notion that high mountains offered mystical, healing powers. To cash in on this idea, mining tycoon John Wilder built the grand three-story Cloudland Hotel atop Roan Mountain. The hotel was completed in 1885 and was billed as a health resort. It featured beautiful carpets, fine furniture, copper bathtubs, steam heat, a bowling alley, a croquet course, and a small golf course. The hotel thrived for several years as a class of wealthy patrons ranging from American politicians to European royalty frequented it. Ultimately, however, the high cost of operating such a place on a mountaintop marked the end of the Cloudland. By 1910 the hotel was out of operation. A few years later, just before his death, Wilder sold it. Shortly afterward the new owner auctioned off the materials of the decaying building. By 1927 nothing but rubble was left. Now even the rubble is gone.

Here, though, is where the story of Roan Mountain’s rhododendrons takes an interesting turn. After the Cloudland’s closure, workers were hired to come in with machinery and dig up the mountain’s rhododendrons. The plants were then sold off to different places. Obviously, the conservationist movement hadn’t exactly taken hold yet! The removal of the plants left the once beautiful mountaintop looking barren and scarred, and the local people who lived on either side of the mountain were grieved and outraged. They thought the days of Roan Mountain being defined by its trademark rhododendrons were gone forever.

But something unexpected started happening a couple of springtimes later. The roots of the old plants, roots that had been down too deep for the workers to touch, started sprouting new growth. And the wonderful thing was that this new growth was even more beautiful than the previous growth had been. Whereas the previous growth had looked somewhat unkept and wild, the new growth actually looked cultured, even intelligently pruned. It wasn’t too long then before the mountaintop was once again a natural rhododendron garden, with this garden being even more breathtaking than the original one.

Now let’s be clear, the digging up of those original rhododendrons was certainly not a good thing. Today we look back on it and are appalled at such a ravaging of God’s creation. But God, in His infinite power and sovereignty, was able to take that “bad” and make it work for Roan Mountain’s “good.” And you can rest assured that if He was able to do that with a bunch of rhododendrons atop a mountain, He can do it with the “bad” of your life. Do you remember what Jesus said about another kind of flowers, the lilies? He said,

…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matthew 6:28-30)

The point is that God cares much more about you than He does flowers, even gorgeous lilies or stunning rhododendrons. This doesn’t mean that He will keep everything “bad” from happening to you. But it does mean that, if you know Jesus as your Savior, He will take even the “bad” in your life and use it to produce something “good.” He’ll bring a positive out of the negative. He’ll work with the ugly to create something of beauty. Claim this promise today, Christian, and if you need an object lesson from nature, go visit Roan Mountain along about the second week of June.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Comfort, Creation, Disappointment, Encouragement, God's Love, God's Omnipotence, perseverance, Personal, Problems, trials, Trusting In God, Worry Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Now That’s A Good Question

January 11, 2012 Leave a comment

A great debate was held between a devout Christian and a staunch atheist. The Christian was allowed to speak first, but without saying a word he simply pulled an orange from his pocket and began to peel it. Then, with thousands of eyes watching him in curiosity, he separated the orange into slices and ate each slice.

The Christian then looked over to the atheist and asked, “How did the orange taste?” The atheist, with a smirk, answered, “I don’t know; I didn’t taste it.” To that the Christian responded, “Then why do you talk against Christianity and salvation? You haven’t tasted or experienced the blessings of salvation and the joy Jesus gives to those who serve Him. So how can you intelligently debate something of which you know nothing?”

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him. (Psalm 34:8)

Filed under Atheism, God's Love, God's Provision, salvation, Trusting In God Tagged with , , ,

Getting Ready For Thanksgiving

November 22, 2011 Leave a comment

Charles Spurgeon, the most famous preacher from the Victorian England era, said, “God’s people are prone to engrave their trials in marble and write their blessings in the sand.” Truer words were never spoken. I myself do far too much marble engraving.

Yesterday at our local pastors’ conference, the moderator asked each of us to name at least one thing for which we are thankful. The next twenty minutes or so turned out to be the highlight of the conference. Even though the singing was nice and the weekly sermon was interesting, hearing each pastor talk about the great things that God had done for him was spellbinding. Many of them cried as they spoke. All of them spoke in utter humility. One man told of how Jesus had saved him out of a family of bootleggers. Another talked about how wild he used to be before Christ’s transforming power radically changed his life. Another praised the Lord for meeting every need he had ever had. Another described how God had raised up his alcoholic daddy from a seemingly terminal illness to mercifully give that father more days to accept Christ as Savior and have, for the first time, a true relationship with his son. On and on it went like that around the room, story after story. The next time that you get to thinking that all preachers are fakes, hypocrites, or money hungry manipulators, come with me to a certain pastors’ conference that meets on Monday mornings. I know some men of God who are real.

And what word of thankfulness did I offer up when my turn came? Well, I thanked the Lord for how He broke me when I was in my early twenties. That experience changed me from a backslidden Christian into a sold out disciple and set me on the path to becoming a preacher. I also thanked Him for my wife and two boys. And yes, I was one of those who teared up as he spoke. Needless to say, I could have gone on for an hour naming things for which I am thankful (as each of us could have), but we had to restrain ourselves a bit if the scheduled speaker was going to be left any time to preach.

Everybody knows that Thanksgiving is this Thursday. But why wait until then to go to the Lord in prayer and express your gratitude? Have you got 30 minutes today? Then spend it just going down the list of all the things for which you are thankful. Don’t make any new requests. Don’t mention any of your problems. And put down that marble engraver for a while. Just have a time of saying, “Thank you” to the Lord. If you will make the effort to do this, I promise you that it will get your heart and mind prepared to genuinely celebrate Thanksgiving this coming Thursday.

Filed under Attitude, Backsliding, Change, God's Love, God's Provision, prayer, preaching, Thanksgiving Tagged with , , , , ,

“Is Anybody Up There?”

November 8, 2011 1 Comment

Many of us have sometimes felt like the little boy who bowed his head to pray and said, “Hello, is anybody up there?” There are times when God seems so distant. Even worse, there are times when He seems downright deaf.

When one of my two boys says, “Daddy, I want to talk you,” that child has my attention. He doesn’t have to beg or audition for it. The mere fact that I am a loving father and want to hear whatever my child might deem worthy to discuss is all it takes. Well, in Matthew 7:7-11, as part of a teaching on prayer, Jesus says this:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his sons asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Okay, so we understand that God will not only do anything that an earthly father will do but also “how much more” than the earthly father. We like the sounds of that, don’t we? And if we stopped right there we’d have a nice little blog post. But we can’t stop right there. Do you know why? It’s because the title of this post isn’t “How Much More.” The title “Is Anybody Up There?”

I know what Jesus said. I also know that I have sometimes felt like I was talking to the ceiling as I tried to pray. I’ve asked and not had it given to me. I’ve sought and not found. I’ve knocked and had the owner behind the door seem out of town. So what do we do with such times? How do we explain them? How do we keep our faith during them?

I think the best approach we can take is to go back to Christ’s comparison of God and an earthly father. I’m sure that each of my two boys sometimes thinks that I am distant, but that’s not because I actually am distant. It’s simply because I don’t treat every conversation that I have with the child as if it’s the singular most important conversation that we will ever have. I’m hearing what the child is saying, but I don’t feel the need to immediately rush to the child’s side and smother him with kisses and assurances. Do you see my point?

Let me explain it another way. Experts in the New Testament’s original Greek tell us that the Greek behind Christ’s words from Matthew 7:7-11 are best translated as “keep on asking,” “keep on seeking,” and “keep on knocking.” The teaching is that God doesn’t always immediately grant the giving, the finding, or the opening. Sometimes He only grants it after you’ve gone to Him with many, many repetitions of the same request. So let’s say that you are in the midst of requesting the same thing for the fifteenth time but you don’t really feel like God is hearing you. That’s like my son Royce hitting me with his fifteenth request to go to McDonalds. If I haven’t taken him for those fries by then, he might feel like he’s talking to the wall. But the reality of the situation will be that I’m just waiting on the best time to take him to McDonalds. I’m hearing the fifteenth request, just like I heard the fourteen that came before it. I know what I’m doing, even if Royce doesn’t understand me.

I can’t say where all this finds you today, but maybe you’ve been praying and praying for a certain thing that God hasn’t granted yet. And maybe you’re wondering today, “Is anybody up there?” Well, God had me write this post for you. Yes, He’s up there. Yes, He’s listening. Yes, He heard all your previous prayers. He’s just waiting on His perfect timing to grant your request. Remember, if an earthly father can eventually get his kid to McDonalds, how much more can a loving, all powerful, heavenly father grant your requests?

Filed under faith, Fatherhood, God's Love, God's Timing, Impatience, Patience, perseverance, prayer, Prayer Requests Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

A Description of Prayer

September 28, 2011 2 Comments

Christian, have you prayed today? If you have, what motivation did you have for praying? I hope you’re not like the little boy who was asked, “Do you pray every day?” He answered, “No, some days I don’t want anything.”

Now, I realize that God’s word does tell us to make our requests to Him (Philippians 4:6; Psalm 21:1-2; James 4:2). I get that. But God’s word also teaches that prayer should be so much more than just you handing God a grocery list or sending Him on an errand. If that’s all your prayers are, you’re no better than that little boy.

The moment a person genuinely believes in Christ as Savior, he or she is “born again” (John 3:1-21). To be born again is to have God the Holy Spirit literally come into your body and take up residence (Romans 8:9-11). And it is through this glorious experience that you become nothing less than a child of God. First, in a sense, you become His child by way of birth (the new birth, which is not a physical birth but a spiritual one). Second, you become His child by way of adoption as He adopts you into His family (Romans 8:15-17; Galatians 4:4-7). All this explains John 1:12-13, which says:

But as many as received Him (Jesus), 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.

Okay, now here’s where I’m headed. Imagine a child who only talks to his or her father to put in requests. “Dad, take us on vacation this year.” End of conversation. “Dad, give me some money.” End of conversation. “Dad, buy me a car.” End of conversation. “Dad, make that guy be my boyfriend.” End of conversation. How do you think a father would feel if the only talking his child ever did with him involved requesting him to do something? Surely he would think, “I’m just a magic genie to this child. This child doesn’t love me or want to spend time with me. The child isn’t interested in hearing my opinion or allowing me to impart my wisdom. I’m just a means to an end.”

Well, if that’s what an earthly father would think about such a child, do you think that God, the Christian’s heavenly father, thinks any differently? You see, He wants your prayer-time to be a dialogue not a monologue. He wants it to be a confessional booth in which you confess your sins to Him. He wants it to be a psychologist’s couch upon which you lie down and pour out your deepest feelings, emotions, fears, hurts, disappointments, and regrets. He wants it to be an altar at which you resolve to live for Him and do His will. He wants it to be a classroom in which He instructs you. He wants it to be a dining table at which you feast on His wisdom and His word. He wants it to be a general’s desk at which battle plans for how to defeat the enemy are laid out and discussed. He wants it to be a pickup truck in which the two of you just drive along and talk about anything and everything under the sun. :)

So tell me, Christian, is your prayer-time all these things? If it isn’t, then you need to make it so. The problem isn’t with God; it’s with you. He longs for your prayers to be everything that I’ve described and even more. He’s willing to stay as long as you want to stay and go as deep as you want to go. But He won’t force Himself upon you. Remember, it’s you that holds the key to the door of an ideal prayer life.

Filed under Belief, God's Love, prayer, Prayer Requests Tagged with , , , , ,

Got A Need?

September 20, 2011 3 Comments

A small Bible college was growing so fast that it desperately needed more dormitory space. If a new dormitory couldn’t be built, students would have to be turned away. The school’s president took the matter to God in prayer and left the request with Him.

Not long afterward, the president was invited to speak at a conference in another city. One night, after the service, he was handed a small envelope with a note inside it. The note was a request from an elderly woman. She wanted to meet with the president.

The following day he went to her home for tea. In his heart he couldn’t deny that he hoped that God would work through the woman to meet the financial need. But as the visit came to a close, no offer had been made.

Somewhat disappointed, the president headed for the door. As he did, the woman’s face suddenly lit up. “Oh my,” she said, “I almost forgot.” Then she left the room momentarily and came back carrying a small folder. She handed it to him and said, “This is for you and the work you are doing for the young people.” The folder contained many thousands of dollars of stocks and bonds. As a matter of fact, the amount totaled up to the exact amount needed to build the dormitory.

Now, this story is supposedly true, but, frankly, the Christian realm is filled with such stories. Preachers like myself know all about books of illustrations, and these books offer many such stories about God meeting needs. I’m not trying to sound cold or hard, but the stories are so numerous as to be almost cliched. But are they true? Do such things really happen? Does God really meet needs?

I speak from personal experience when I answer, “Yes.” During our first few years of Disciples Road Church, God ran me through a class on this subject. Oh, I had always preached that God would meet every need, but it’s a different deal altogether when you find yourself sincerely wondering how you are going to pay the light bill, the phone bill, the car payment, the mortgage payment, etc. That’s when you find out if all those corny old stories you’ve read are for real. And again let me say: they are.

So who am I writing this to today? Is it you? Do you have some pressing need staring you squarely in the face right now? If you do, take heart. God can and will meet that need if you will sincerely turn it over to him. Remember, Philippians 4:19 is still in the Bible:

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Filed under faith, God's Love, God's Provision, needs, Personal, Prayer Requests, Trusting In God, Worry Tagged with , , , , , ,

Old Bearskin

August 30, 2011 1 Comment

Notre Dame football has had a long and highly successful history. It stood the tallest, though, when Knute Rockne was the head coach. From 1918 to 1930, the team’s winning percentage was .881. They lost only twelve games during those thirteen years and won six national championships. The unprecedented success would no doubt have continued had Rockne not been killed in a tragic plane crash on March 31, 1931. He was just 43 years old.

During Rockne’s tenure at Notre Dame, a football column regularly appeared in the school newspaper. The column’s writer would say incredibly mean, nasty, and insulting things about the team. He would not only ridicule the team as a whole but also pointedly criticize individual players. The writer always remained anonymous and merely signed his name as “Old Bearskin.”

What was most shocking about the column was that the writer seemed to have inside information concerning the team. He knew which players were lazy, which ones were ladies’ men, and which ones kept scrapbooks to read their own press clippings. Every player on the team hated “Old Bearskin.” When a player would come to practice and complain about something that had been written, Coach Rockne would sympathize and say that no one should write such things. Then he would say to the team, “Boys, let’s get out there and show ‘Old Bearskin’ that the things he writes aren’t true.”

It was only after Rockne’s death that “Old Bearskin” was revealed to be none other than Rockne himself. His purpose in writing the column was to keep his players humble and hungry as opposed to egotistical and content to rest on their laurels. Rockne understood the pitfalls of pride and went to the extreme of the column to keep his players from succumbing to them.

I trust that this illustration will help us all to understand why God sometimes allows us or even causes us to experience humbling setbacks and defeats. We don’t like such experiences any more than Knute Rockne’s players liked that newspaper column. But how can we argue that we don’t, at times, need these experiences? Believe it or not, they are nothing less than acts of love on God’s part. You see, He knows Proverbs 16:18, and He wants better for us than its words:

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Filed under Adversity, balance, Character, Criticism, God's Love, Humility, Pride, Problems, Prosperity, Sports Tagged with , , , , , ,

Recalculating

July 27, 2011 3 Comments

In my last post, I told you that Tonya and I borrowed a G.P.S. system to use during our vacation trip. For the record, that system gave its directions via the voice of a woman. I don’t know if they all use a woman’s voice. I guess it’s possible that you have the set-up option to choose between the voice of a woman or a man. All I know is that the system we borrowed featured a woman’s voice. When I asked why it would be a woman’s voice, my son Ryan had a good answer. He said, “Well, since men never ask for directions, they probably figured that mostly women would be using it.” That’s good logic.

The more we drove, the more we became accustomed to having the woman in the van with us. Every so often we’d hear her say something like, “In 1.2 miles turn right onto Deer Park road and continue 3.6 miles.” It was pretty cool stuff. I even began to anticipate her voice piping up. When I knew we were coming to a turn, I’d ask Tonya, “Shouldn’t that woman be saying something by now?”

Unfortunately, though, there was one word that we heard the woman use a few too many times on the trip. That word was, “Recalculating.” Whenever we would miss a stated turnoff, she would go silent for a moment and then say, “Recalculating.” Then she would pick her directions back up from our new position. It got to the point where we would miss a turn and I would immediately say, “That woman is not going to like that.” Then right on cue we would hear, “Recalculating.”

I’m glad that when it comes to God’s guidance in our lives, He knows how to recalculate. If we do miss His will for a given situation, it isn’t the end of our walk with Him. He doesn’t throw up His hands and say, “You missed it. Now you’re on your own.” Instead, it’s as if He says, “Recalculating.”

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that missing God’s will is ever good or acceptable. He never grins about it and playfully says, “Oh, you little rascal, what am I going to do with you?” Missing His will is always serious, serious business, and there will always be unpleasant consequences for doing so. My point is simply that missing one of the turns of God’s will doesn’t mean the end of your journey with Him. If it did, we would all be hopelessly adrift as we move through life, forevermore cut off from the voice and guidance of our Maker.

I don’t know where this post finds you today, but maybe you are just coming out of a situation in which you really missed God’s will. Well, I”m not patting you on the back and saying, “There, there, honey, what you did was understandable,” but I am saying that God hasn’t abandoned you. Even now He is in “recalculating” mode concerning you, and He wants you to pick back up with Him right where you are and start following His new instructions. If you will do that, you’ll find that He can still take you to some wonderful places. Even more than that, there will be some great scenery for you to enjoy along the way.

Filed under Backsliding, Choices, Disobedience, God's Love, God's Omniscience, God's Will, obedience, Repentance, submission, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 40 other followers