“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 , , , , ,

The Right Tool For The Job

May 21, 2012 Leave a comment

Last Thursday night three different storms brought booming thunder, streaks of lightning, and a deluge of rain to our little town. It was the rain that created the problem for me as a rushing current dumped a lump of old leaves and pine-needles on top of a drain cover at the bottom of our outside basement steps, right in front of the basement door. The clogged up cover became a dam that allowed the water to mount up in front of that door and begin to seep into the basement. Thankfully I was still up at the time and had the good sense to check the basement before too much water got in there. Of course, I must have been quite a site out in the yard at 12:30 a.m. in the middle of a flood trying to clear that cover. At least the lighting strikes every five seconds allowed me to see what I was doing!

Well, Friday morning was cleanup time, which meant that I needed one of those wet/dry vacs to get the water out of the basement. I got in touch with my brother Richie, who has one, but he had already left his house to go to work. He did offer to make the trip back home, but another option seemed viable. One of my church-members, a fellow named Chris, is doing some renovation work around our house these days, and he had a small wet/dry vac with him. We figured it would be big enough to handle the job since there wasn’t that much water. I soon found out, though, that we had figured wrongly.

For one thing, there was more water in that basement than I realized. For another, that little vacuum had to be emptied about every thirty seconds. I was wearing myself out walking to and fro emptying that thing, and I hadn’t even gotten to the deepest part of the water yet. Clearly it was time for a better plan. So I got in the car, drove out to our local Sears, and bit the bullet to buy a shiny new sixteen-gallon wet/dry vac. The thing cost $117, but now I had the right tool. I was tired of having to borrow Richie’s every time a water problem came up anyway.

Once I had the vacuum back home, the battle with the basement water was over quickly. Whereas I had been making numerous trips to empty that small vacuum, the sixteen-gallon one just kept pulling up water until the basement was dry. As I was emptying it for the one time afterwards I couldn’t help but think to myself, “There’s just no substitute for the RIGHT tool.”

Have you ever used a shoe to drive a nail in a wall? Have you ever used a knife to turn a screw? Have you ever used a pair of scissors to prune a bush? Speaking from experience, I can tell you that using the wrong tool might be one way to get a job done, but it will never be the best way. If I had kept working with that small vacuum, I could have eventually gotten that basement dry, but it would have taken me half the day!

As I consider all this, I honestly feel for the Lord as He tries to get His work done in this world. What do you do when a nail needs driving and your hammer won’t report for duty? You use a shoe who will report for duty. What do you do when a screw needs turning and your screwdriver is a.w.o.l.? You use a knife who is present and willing to work. What do you do when a bush needs trimming and your shears are off doing their own thing? You use a pair of scissors who will do whatever you ask them. Such is God’s plight. He has to make do with what He has available to Him, and so many times that just isn’t the best tool for the job.

Please understand that I am in no way criticizing anybody who is out there doing any work for the Lord. Much to the contrary, I praise each one for his or her willingness. As the old saying goes, God is more interested in your availability than your ability. I’m merely pointing out that God’s work gets done so much more efficiently and proficiently when the exact tool for a job is yielded to Him and willing to do it.

You see, small wet/dry vacs can do certain jobs far better than large, cumbersome ones, but it just so happens that drying up a fair amount of water from a basement isn’t one of them. And so it is with God’s work. That’s why He needs all different kinds of tools at His disposal. And, yes, that includes the tool that you are. So the question is, are you letting Him use you to do the jobs for which you are specifically designed or is He having to use the wrong tools to do those job because you refuse to report for work?

Filed under faithfulness, God's Will, Individuality, Ministry, obedience, Personal, Service, spiritual gifts, Talents Tagged with , , , ,

Lynched By Mistake

May 10, 2012 5 Comments

There’s a Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown is lying in bed talking to Snoopy, who’s lying atop the covers at Charlie’s feet. Charlie says, “Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, “Is life a multiple choice test or is it a true or false test?” Next, in the closing panel, Charlie says, “Then a voice comes to me out of the dark and says, “We hate to tell you this, but life is a thousand word essay.”

It should make sense that the older you get the easier life gets. What I mean is, you’ve got your dumb mistakes behind you. You have the advantage of experience. You are wiser, more seasoned. But the problem is that whatever help comes from being experienced and wiser gets counteracted by the fact that life’s issues become more complex. When I lie awake at night, I think back to the days when I was a kid playing with a plastic baseball and bat in my backyard. That was such a simple, carefree time. The only thing I had to worry about was hitting my ball so far into the surrounding woods that I lost it. When I got hungry, I went back inside and ate. I never gave a moment’s thought to what all was involved with getting those groceries paid for and placed in those cabinets. For that matter, I never gave a moment’s thought to how the mortgage on our house got paid. I know now that “baseball stadium” back yards don’t come cheap.

How should I support my family? What church should I pastor? Where should we live? Am I doing right by my wife Tonya? Am I being a good father to my boys, Ryan and Royce? Should we renovate our garage apartment and rent it out? Are we putting enough money back for retirement? What sermon should I preach this Sunday? What post should I write today for my blog? These are the kinds of topics that I struggle with nowadays. And, yes, despite all my experience and seasoning, it’s a struggle. You want essay questions? I got ‘em.

I’ve read that at Boot Hill Cemetery in Arizona there is a grave-marker that says: Lynched By Mistake. That tells me that all mistakes aren’t created equal. Some of them carry far greater consequences than others. This is why I obsess so much over God’s specific will for my life, which just also happens to coincide with His specific will for my family’s life. I don’t want to make a bad decision that will get me, Tonya, Ryan, or Royce lynched. I’m not talking about getting lynched on an old-west gallows. I’m talking about getting lynched on the gallows of ending up in a setting or circumstance that isn’t in God’s will. You see, places like that make for dangerous ground. Gallows are everywhere if we only had the spiritual discernment to recognize them for what they are.

It is for this reason that I pray frequently and fervently, and I try to talk with God as opposed to just talking at Him. Why do I want my prayers to be dialogues and not monologues? It’s because I understand that I don’t have the answers to life’s essay questions. My best decisions come when I willingly play the role of sheep and let the Lord play the role of shepherd. I don’t always agree with the direction in which He leads me, but I do try to obey Him. Admittedly, that takes more faith in regards to some decisions than others, but I’ve learned that whenever I obey Him a great weight of responsibility is taken off my shoulders. How the decision turns out is no longer my department because I’m working out His plan, not mine. And I’m happy to report that neither I nor Tonya and the boys have gotten lynched yet.

Filed under Choices, faith, Fatherhood, fear, God's Omniscience, God's Will, Husbands, obedience, Parenting, Personal, prayer, submission, Trusting In God, Worry, Youth Tagged with , , , , , ,

Water Lines & Old Paths

May 4, 2012 Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Clinched Fist Of Joseph Stalin

December 15, 2011 Leave a comment

Ravi Zacharias tells a story that he heard personally from Malcolm Muggeridge, the legendary English journalist, author, and media personality. Muggeridge had spent some time with Svetlana Stalin, the daughter of Joseph Stalin, while they were working together on a BBC production on the life of her father. Joseph Stalin was, of course, the communist leader who once ruled Russia with an iron fist and an incomprehensible coldness. During his reign, untold millions of people were put to death by his command. The numbers are so high that experts can only give broad estimates as to the actual total.

According to the story that Svetlana told Muggeridge, and Muggeridge in turn told Zacharias, Stalin was plagued by terrifying hallucinations as he lay dying on his bed. Then suddenly he sat halfway up in bed, clenched his fist toward the heavens, fell back upon his pillow, and was dead. It was if his last gesture in life was literally a clenched fist toward God.

It would be easy to assume that a man such as Stalin had lived his entire life in open rebellion and opposition to the idea of any kind of God. That would be a wrong assumption, however. The fact is that when Stalin was sixteen he received a scholarship to a Georgian Orthodox seminary. He even did well in his classes until he missed his final exams and was expelled. Not long afterward he began reading the writings of Vladimir Lenin and became a Marxist revolutionary.

Looking back over Stalin’s life it isn’t hard to deduce that he had an excellent opportunity to not only receive Christ as Savior but also spend his life in service to Him. After all, that is what seminary students usually do. But somewhere along the way Stalin came to a spiritual crossroad and chose to reject Jesus. Then, like Pharaoh in the Old Testament story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, once the hardening of his heart began there was no stopping it.

We should all take Stalin’s example and learn from it. For one thing, it is a dangerous thing to reject Jesus when He comes to you offering salvation. For another, even if you are a Christian, it is a dangerous thing when He comes to you offering guidance, direction, and commands for your life. To reject light is to embrace darkness. To rebel against a word from the Lord is to choose to walk in your own foolishness. To shun blessing is to invite judgment.

So, has the Lord been telling you to do something? Perhaps He has been convicting you of your need of the salvation found only in Jesus. Or, if you have experienced that salvation, perhaps He has been giving you some specific command or word of wisdom concerning a situation. Well, all I can say is that whatever He has been sharing with you, you need to grab hold of it incorporate it fully into your life. I’m not saying that you will ever end up like Joseph Stalin, but I am saying that there is always a great danger in clenching your fist toward the Lord and saying, “No.” With that in mind, I’ll leave you with the words of Proverbs 29:1:

He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Filed under Attitude, Choices, Disobedience, God's Will, obedience, Rebellion, salvation Tagged with , , , , , ,

You’ve Got All You Can Handle Today

November 16, 2011 1 Comment

Scotland’s George MacDonald was a Christian author and minister. He said:

No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourself so. If you find yourself so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God’s. He begs you to leave the future to Him and mind the present.

Of course, MacDonald’s words merely echo the words of Christ from Matthew 6:34:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Yesterday I made a quick trip to the bank, picked Ryan up from school, and wolfed down a bite of lunch. Other than those three breaks, I spent the rest of the daylight working in my yard. I trimmed back bushes, disposed of the trimmings, raked leaves, blew leaves, and toted leaves. I worked until dark and still didn’t get everything done that I had planned to do. Needless to say, I had let the place go a little too much and really needed to have such a work day.

And the fact is that during my morning prayer time, when I first got up yesterday, I got a clear leading from the Lord to devote the day to getting the yard back in shape. But, you know, before I could even finish breakfast and get out the door, some doubts started creeping into my mind. I started thinking, “Maybe I need to work on my Sunday morning sermon for a while before I head outside.”

You see, that was a case of me borrowing from a future day’s trouble. Like I said, I had so much yard work to do that I worked all day and still didn’t get finished. Obviously, I didn’t have an extra hour or two to devote to sermon preparation. But what was I worrying about anyway? I’ve still got today, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to get that sermon in order. In God’s will and plan, my main job yesterday was yard work, not sermon work.

So what’s the application of all this for you today? It’s simple: All you have to get done today is what God has scheduled for you today. One of my life verses is Ephesians 2:10, which says:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

I take this verse to mean that God has certain good works that He has prepared beforehand for me to do in my lifetime. If that’s true, then it only makes sense that these good works are laid out on a day-by-day basis. That’s why I get up each morning and literally say something like this, “Lord, thank you for the rest that I was able to get last night, and thank you for this day. Help me to do my list for today, whatever that is.” Then I do my best to let the Lord lead me step by step through my day. Some days play out pretty much as I could have guessed. Other days are filled with all kinds of wrinkles and “plan Bs.” At any rate, the point is that we need to think of each day as being a life of its own. That includes this current day. So tell me, are you focused on this 24-hour period? Or are you worrying about some future day? Be honest in how you answer and change any thinking that you need to change.

Filed under Attitude, Doing Good, faithfulness, God's Timing, God's Work, obedience, Personal, prayer, Prayer Requests, Priorities, Service, Work, Worry Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Baptists, Sacrifices, & Mark Twain

November 14, 2011 Leave a comment

A man was robbing a train and came to the seat of a preacher. The robber shoved his gun into the preacher’s chest and said, “Gimme your money.” The preacher said, “But you wouldn’t rob a preacher, would you?” The robber replied, “Oh, you’re a preacher? What denomination are you?” With great pride the preacher answered, “I’m a Baptist.” At that the robber switched his gun to his left hand, extended his right hand to shake the preacher’s hand, and said, “Put ‘er there, preacher, I’m a Baptist too.”

Consider the following verses:

1. 1 Samuel 15:22: So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.”

2. Proverbs 15:8: The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.

3. Proverbs 21:3: To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

You’ll note that each of these Old Testament verses speaks of sacrifices. To understand this, you must understand that the Old Testament Jews lived their lives under that body of law that God had given to them through Moses. Sacrifices were a fundamental, foundational part of that law. The law laid out incredibly precise rituals for the offering up of: burnt offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, trespass offerings, freewill offerings, and heave offerings. These categories of offerings all involved the sacrificing of animals. Also, the law laid out precise rituals for grain offerings and drink offerings. Israel even had an entire tribe (the tribe of Levi) that served as its priesthood, and those priests, dressed in their priestly garments, faithfully offered up all these offerings at the tabernacle (later on, the temple).

You see, when a Jew brought an offering to a priest for it to be offered up, that was nothing less than an Old Testament worship scene. They didn’t have churches or synagogues. They had the tabernacle (the temple) and the law-prescribed sacrifices. That was how they publicly and corporately worshiped the Lord.

So do you see the teaching? Let’s use the Proverbs 21:3 verse as an example. If it was being written to the Christian realm today, it could read something like this:

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable than going to church, praying, reading your Bible, dropping money in an offering plate, or giving to missions.

The point is that God really isn’t all that impressed with your attempts to worship Him when you spend the vast majority of your life doing sinful things. What you call “worship” doesn’t fix, excuse, or legitimize a lifestyle of habitual sin. If you lay drunk all week and then come to church on Sunday, that’s a problem. If you smoke pot or do other kinds of drugs Monday through Saturday and then come to church on Sunday, that’s a problem. If you roll out of bed with a person to whom you aren’t married and then drive to church, that’s a problem. If you won’t pay your bills, but you drop $10 in the offering plate every Sunday, that’s a problem. If you engage in dishonest business practices but you say the blessing before every meal, that’s a problem. If you treat people like dirt but you read your Bible every night, that’s a problem.

There’s an old story that supposedly comes from the life of Mark Twain, and it sums up what I’m trying to say here. So I’ll close with it. A man once said to Twain, “I’m going to take a trip to Israel. When I get there I’m going to hike to the top of Mount Sinai, and then I’m going to shout down the ten commandments.” Twain looked at the fellow and said, “I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t you stay home and keep them?” That was a good comeback then, and today’s church-goers and professing Christians could still learn something from it.

Filed under Backsliding, Character, Commitment, Discipleship, Doing Good, faithfulness, obedience, Personal Holiness Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Common Sense & God’s Will

November 11, 2011 Leave a comment

Today I’d like to share with you one of my biggest pet peeves about Christians. It’s this whole idea that God’s will for a specific situation must always be the logical, rational, “smart” plan of attack. Oh, I’ve heard the line of reasoning more times than I can begin to remember: “God gave man common sense, and so it’s only right that I make the move here that makes the most common sense. I mean, after all, God wouldn’t want me to do anything stupid, would He?” Once you’ve got this reasoning settled in your mind, you can then head right out and do whatever seems to you like the right thing.

Now, I’ll grant you that 2 Timothy 1:7 does say that God gives the Christian a “sound mind.” The Holman Christian Standard translation even renders the Greek as “sound judgment.” Furthermore, the Bible offers us an exceedingly practical and commonsensical book (Proverbs) on the subject of worldly wisdom. So I’m not saying that you always have to check your brains at the door in order to choose God’s will. But what I am saying is that you’d be amazed at how illogical, irrational, implausible, incongruous, and inconvenient God’s will can be. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a quick tour through the Bible:

1. It made no sense to Cain to kill a defenseless animal just to bring an offering. (Genesis 4:1-7; Jude 11)

2. It made no sense to Noah to build a gigantic ark in a world that had never seen rain. (Genesis 2:4-6; Genesis 6:13-22)

3. It made no sense to Abram (Abraham) to leave his country and his family and travel to an unknown land that God would show him. (Genesis 12:1)

4. It made no sense to Abraham to take his son Isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering atop Mount Moriah. (Genesis 22:1-19)

5. It made no sense to Joseph that it would be God’s will for his father Jacob to pronounce the patriarchal blessing upon Ephraim (Joseph’s youngest son) rather than upon Manasseh (Joseph’s oldest son). (Genesis 48:8-20)

6. It made no sense to Moses that God would want him to return to Egypt after forty years away and lead the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. (Exodus chapters 3 and 4).

7. It made no sense that God would lead Moses and the Israelites to the shore of the Red Sea, a place where Pharaoh’s army could easily close in behind them and trap them. (Exodus 14:1-12)

8. It made no sense to the majority of the people of Israel that God would want them to enter into the land of Canaan and fight against the giants who lived there. (Numbers chapters 13 and 14)

9. It made no sense to Gideon that God would want him to lead the people of Israel against the Midianites. (Judges 6:11-24)

10. It made no sense to Jesse that God would chose David (his youngest son) over all his other sons to be king of Israel. (1 Samuel 16:1-13)

11. It made no sense that the young David, armed with nothing but a sling and some stones, would take on the giant Goliath. (1 Samuel 17:1-54)

12. It made no sense to Naaman to go wash in the Jordan river seven times to cure him of his leprosy. (2 Kings 5:1-19)

13. It made no sense that God would allow Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego to be thrown into Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. (Daniel 3:1-30)

14. It made no sense that God would allow Daniel to be thrown into the den of lions. (Daniel 6:1-28)

15. It made no sense for Jesus to command His disciples to get into a boat and row to the other side of the Sea of Galilee when a tremendous wind storm would prevent them from doing so. (Mark 6:45-52)

16. It made no sense to Peter to let down his fishing nets in the deeper water during the day when fish were usually caught in the shallower waters at night. (Luke 5:1-11)

17. It made no sense for Jesus to delay in going to visit His gravely ill friend Lazarus. (John 11:1-44)

18. It made no sense for God to pull Phillip away from a tremendously fruitful evangelistic work that he was doing in Samaria just so he could go and witness to one Ethiopian eunuch in Gaza. (Acts 8:4-13, 26-40)

19. It made no sense to Ananias for God to command him to pay a visit to Saul of Tarsus, a notorious persecutor of Christians. (Acts 9:10-19)

20. It made no sense to Peter for God to show him that he no longer had to abide by the dietary regulations of the Old Testament law. (Acts 10:9-48)

I trust that this list of examples makes my point. And the fact is, the list is not even remotely near being all-inclusive. You see, it’s quite common for God to mess up our neat, ordered little lives by asking us to do things totally unexpected, things that don’t add up on paper. That is when we must step out on faith and do what He is asking. If your own logic keeps you from stepping out, you’ll never know the thrilling experience of watching God make a way where there seems to be no way. You’ll also miss out on the incredible blessings that can only be found in walking with God out on the edge. Think of it this way: Your logic, human reasoning, and common sense will never take you to those God-anointed places where the human race is preserved via one family aboard an ark, you become the forefather of God’s chosen nation (Israel), you see the Red Sea parted, you come out unscathed from a fiery furnace or a lions’ den, you get cured of leprosy, you experience a miraculous catch of fish, you see Christ walking on the water, or you see Lazarus raised from the dead. Such illogical blessings only stem from you obeying illogical commands. Keep that in mind the next time you are faced with a choice concerning God’s will.

Filed under Choices, Courage, faith, God's Will, obedience, Reward, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , , , ,

The Spirit Is Willing, But the Flesh Is Weak

August 24, 2011 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life’s Army Barracks

August 22, 2011 Leave a comment

The Presbyterian preacher Harry Rimmer told the story of a young man who entered the army. This young man was in the habit of studying his Bible in his bedroom each evening and then kneeling down to pray before retiring for the night. He knew, however, that the army barracks would be a real test of that nightly routine.

The barracks certainly didn’t disappoint as the young fellow found himself surrounded by scores of rough servicemen. They joked around, made crude comments, and cursed. His first instinct was to read his Bible by keeping it half covered under his blanket. But then a wave of conviction came over him and he thought, “I’m a Christian! I must take my stand for the Lord. I won’t hide my faith. I’ll just do as I did at home.” He then took his Bible, read a chapter, and knelt down to pray quietly beside his cot.

When the other men noticed what the young man was doing, a few of them sneered. But in just a few minutes the barracks became strangely quiet as others who respected the new recruit’s devotion hushed those who sneered. After a while the talk began again, but this time without the crudeness and cursing.

The next night when the young man opened his Bible eight other men dug out theirs and did the same. Within a month every soldier in the outfit respected the young Christian so much that they would defend him against anyone who dared criticize him. Even more than that, they would bring their troubles and questions to him and ask for counsel. Rimmer concluded the story by saying, “He influenced more men for Christ than half a dozen chaplains could have in a year of Sundays.”

This world can be a raw, coarse, vulgar place, and being a Christian who tries to live a holy life in its midst can be difficult. Do the people at your workplace tell dirty jokes? Do some of your fellow students use profanity? Do you feel like you would be mocked and ridiculed if you were caught on site reading your Bible or praying? Welcome to your army barracks.

What would Jesus have you do? Well, what example did He set? Did He isolate Himself in a cave atop a mountain and shun the “real” world? No. Did He only converse with His devout followers, people who thought and spoke like He did? No. Did He act one way in private but another way in public? No. To the contrary, He lived what He preached. And what was that? He told His followers to resist the urge to hide their light under a basket and let it, instead, shine before men (Matthew 5:15-16).

So, Christian, I hope you take this post as a call to arms. Stop hiding your light under a basket. Those around you need to see it burning brightly for your Savior. Who knows what domino effect you taking a stand for Christ might start? My guess is that there are others in your setting who are just as offended with certain things as you are. They just need a leader to show them how to create change. And that leader could be you!

Filed under Adversity, Bible Study, Character, Courage, Discipleship, Doing Good, faithfulness, God's Will, God's Word, Influence, obedience, Persecution, Personal Holiness, Scripture, Witnessing, Work, Youth Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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