When God Breaks You

Posted on April 4, 2020 by russellmckinney

“Jonah” series: (post #3)

Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. (Jonah 1:17-2:1, N.K.J.V.)

When last we left Jonah he had just been thrown into the Mediterranean Sea, at his own request, by a group of sailors who were trying to keep their cargo ship from being ripped apart by a great windstorm. While it’s easy to think of Jonah struggling to bob up and down in those tumultuous waves, the Bible says that as soon as his body hit the water the sea ceased from its raging (Jonah 1:15). This miraculous calming of that storm impressed those sailors enough to cause them to not only offer up a sacrifice to God right there on their ship but also take vows to Him in what seems to have been a genuine salvation experience for each man (1:16).

The Bible doesn’t tell us how long Jonah was in the water. Neither does it tell us how he was handling the situation. Was he trying to stay afloat or was he choosing instead to end his life by way of drowning? Actually, a straightforward reading of the story seems to indicate that he really didn’t have time to either sink or swim before a great fish came along and swallowed him whole (1:17).

The Hebrew word that gets translated as “fish” in Jonah 1:17 and Jonah 2:10 is dag, and it is nothing more or nothing less than the common Hebrew word for “fish.” For example, it’s the same word used in verses such as Genesis 9:2, Numbers 11:22, Psalm 8:8, and 1 Kings 4:33 in reference to the fish of the sea. Also, it’s the word used in 2 Chronicles 33:14 and Nehemiah 3:3 in reference to the Fish Gate, which was the specific gate within Jerusalem’s walls by which fishermen were to bring their fish to sell in Jerusalem’s fish market.

There is another Hebrew word, tanniym, that can be used to refer to any type of large creature (i.e., a “monster”) that exists either on land or in the sea. This is the word the translators of the K.J.V. translated as: “whales” (Genesis 1:21), “whale” (Job 7:12), “dragon” (Nehemiah 2:13; Psalm 91:13; Isaiah 27:1; etc.), and “dragons” (Deuteronomy 32:33; Psalm 44:19; Psalm 74:13; Micah 1:8; Malachi 1:3, etc.). Again, though, this isn’t the word the original Hebrew uses to describe the creature that swallowed Jonah. Instead, the word is the basic Hebrew word for “fish.”

The popular idea that Jonah was swallowed by a whale finds its roots in the K.J.V. translation of Matthew 12:40, which quotes Jesus as saying:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The Greek word used in this verse for the creature in question is ketos, which literally means “a huge fish.” For this reason, the K.J.V. is definitely in the minority in translating the word as “whale” in the verse. Most other translations go with: “the great fish,” “the huge fish,” or even “the sea monster” (N.A.S.V., N.R.S.V., The Amplified Bible).

Still, though, the creature actually could have been some type of whale. I say this because the Old Testament and the New Testament were written long before our modern biologists started classifying whales as mammals rather than fish. To the writers of the Bible, any creature that had a vertebrate and lived in the water was a “fish.” They simply didn’t take into account that whales are warm blooded, give birth to live young rather than laying eggs, and must come up every now and then to take in air.

Whatever the creature was, it was big enough to not only swallow Jonah whole but also house him in its belly for three days and three nights. Could any such creature exist? You bet. One example is the sperm whale, which does swim the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. These whales have massive heads, mouths as large as twenty feet long and fifteen feet high, and gullets big enough to swallow a man’s entire body. For the record, these creatures are known to feed on squid, and squid oftentimes grow larger than men.

The sulphur-bottom whale, which is also called the blue whale, could be another candidate for the one that got Jonah. In 1933, a 100-foot sulphur-bottom whale was captured off the coast of Cape Cod. That whale had a mouth that was over ten feet wide. These whales also have stomachs that feature multiple compartments, any one of which is big enough to hold a full-sized man. The whales also have heads that serve as air-storage chambers.

For that matter, any whale is going to hold a certain amount of air inside it at all times. That is, after all, how they breath underwater since they don’t have gills. It’s their mandated taking in of air that requires them to breach the surface at regular intervals. So, if the creature that swallowed Jonah was indeed a whale, couldn’t Jonah have remained alive on the air the whale consistently took in?

Getting back to the possibility that the creature wasn’t a whale, the whale shark is actually a shark that can grow to up to 60 feet in length. Like the sulphur-bottom whale, the whale shark feeds in an interesting way. Rather than biting into its food, it simply opens its enormous mouth, takes in the food, strains out the water, and swallows whole whatever is left. In other words, these creatures don’t chew, a feature that plays right into the idea of swallowing a man without actually killing him.

What I’m trying to show you is that the story of Jonah really could have happened. This is, of course, not even taking into account the fact that God can do anything He wants to do by way of a miracle. For that matter, if you favor the interpretation that God spared Jonah’s life by way of a straight-up miracle, that interpretation might be supported by the story’s wording that the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah (1:17). That wording, obviously, could lend itself to the idea that this was a unique creature that God had created especially to use to miraculously save Jonah’s life.

At any rate, whether or not this was a 100% miracle, and whether or not the creature was a whale or some other type of marine giant, the point is that God used the experience to break Jonah of his rebellion regarding the ministry trip to Nineveh. As we’re told, Jonah prayed while he was there in the creature’s belly (2:1). And just how important was this prayer? It was important enough to take up eight verses of a book only forty-eight verses long. Putting the importance another way, it was important enough to take up virtually an entire chapter of a four-chapter book. That’s a pretty important prayer!

In the prayer, Jonah admits that God is the one who has afflicted him (2:3), but he also sings God praises for hearing his prayer (2:2) and saving him from his fate (2:5-6). Surprisingly, there is even optimism and hope in Jonah’s words as he speaks of what he is going to do in the future once God has fully rescued him. He says, “Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple” (2:4), “I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving” (2:9), and “I will pay what I have vowed” (2:9). None of that sounds like a man expecting to never leave the inside of that sea creature.

You see, the Jonah at the bottom of the sea is not the same man as the Jonah asleep aboard the cargo ship. The rebel has become the man of prayer and the runner has become the worshiper. Such brokenness is a rare thing, and we dare not miss it in all our talk of sea monsters, whales, and the like. Let us not make the same mistake that Thomas John Carlisle, the famed poet and ordained Presbyterian minister, admitted to making when he said, “I was so obsessed with what was going on inside the whale that I missed seeing the drama inside Jonah.”

On this subject of brokenness, another famed preacher, Vance Havner, once said:

God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth the perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.

Therefore, as we close this portion of Jonah’s story, we must understand the significance of his newfound brokenness. It is because of that brokenness that he is now in a place spiritually wherein God can use him in great and mighty ways. To be sure, Jonah’s training isn’t complete, but it’s complete enough to qualify him to move on to the next step in his life, which, of course, will be him making that trip to Nineveh and doing that preaching. For this reason, God speaks to the great fish, and the fish obligingly vomits Jonah out onto dry land (2:10). Do you know what you call that? Class dismissed, at least for now. The prophet has become the pupil, and the lesson he has learned is the lesson of brokenness. And that’s a lesson that you and I must learn as well if we are ever going to amount to much in service to the Lord.

Posted in Backsliding, Brokenness, Dying To Self, God's Will, Rebellion, Series: "Jonah", Service, Submission | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

When the Lord Rebukes Your Decision

Posted on April 2, 2020 by russellmckinney

“Jonah” series: (post #2)

But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. (Jonah 1:4, N.K.J.V.)

When God tells you to do something you don’t want to do, and you do something different instead, don’t be surprised if He rebukes your decision. In the case of Jonah, God told him to go to Nineveh (1:1-2), but Jonah went to Joppa instead and there boarded a ship bound for Tarshish (1:3). Nineveh was 500 miles to the northeast of Jonah’s hometown of Gath Hepher, while Tarshish was 2,500 miles to the southwest of it. As you might guess, rebelliousness of that magnitude called for a rebuke of equal proportions.

Jonah’s ship hadn’t made much progress toward Tarshish before the ship was hit by a  great windstorm sent directly from God (1:4). The storm was worse than any the sailors had ever experienced, and they feared it would rip the ship to pieces and leave them all treading water. Such a drastic situation resulted in drastic measures being taken.

Human nature being what it is, the first thing the sailors did was get religious as each man cried out to his god (1:5). But when the storm didn’t relent, they got practical and started throwing the ship’s cargo overboard to lighten the load (1:5). And what was Jonah doing during all this? Was he praying? Nope. Was he heaving cargo overboard? Nope. He was sound asleep in the lower part of the ship (1:5).

Eventually the captain of the ship went to Jonah, shook him awake, and told him to call upon his god. The captain’s reasoning was, “Perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish” (1:6). Translation? “We’re throwing everything we can at the wall of this situation, hoping that something will stick.” It is noteworthy, however, that no mention is made of Jonah actually praying. Whereas verse 6 ends with the captain telling him to pray, verse 7 begins with the sailors casting lots in an effort to figure out which man aboard the ship had brought the storm upon them all.

Jonah probably knew Proverbs 16:33, and so he couldn’t have been too surprised when the lot fell on him, marking him as the culprit. The sailors then demanded to know his life story (1:8). “What is your occupation?” “Where do you come from?” “What is your country?” What is your race of people?” “Who are you that you have caused this trouble to come upon us?” Jonah’s answer was, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (1:9). No doubt that part about Jonah’s God being the God who created the sea got their attention. Jonah also told them about his rebellion concerning Nineveh and how he had fled from the presence of the Lord (1:10).

Now the sailors were even more terrified, and they asked Jonah what they could do to him to make the sea calm again (1:11). He told them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me” (1:12, N.K.J.V.). The Bible doesn’t tell us why Jonah had such confidence that this plan would work. Had God inwardly told him it would? Or did Jonah just know God well enough to know His take on the situation? I myself favor that second option.

As shocking as Jonah’s response was, the response the sailors gave to it was even more shocking. Rather than take Jonah up on his offer, they rowed all the harder in an effort to make it back to dry land (1:13). Presumably, the dry land they had in mind was the Joppa port from which they had sailed.

Their efforts proved futile, however, as the wind actually increased and the waves crashed even harder into the ship (1:13). Finally, the sailors had to admit defeat and agree to throw Jonah overboard. Interestingly, they understood that in doing so they were carrying out God’s will. They said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for his man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You” (1:14, N.K.J.V., emphasis mine).

If the sailors had any doubts that sacrificing Jonah would work, those doubts quickly subsided when the sea turned calm as soon as Jonah’s body hit the water (1:15). This obvious miracle caused every man on board to not only believe that Jonah’s God was real but also fear Him. The men even offered some type of sacrifice to God right there on that ship and took vows (1:16). Evidently, these were vows to serve Jonah’s God. If this was the case, we are correct in saying that every one of those Gentile sailors got “saved,” not just in a bodily, earthly sense from that storm but also in a spiritual, eternal sense from the wrath of God.

My, my, what a story. And we haven’t even gotten to the famous part of it yet! Already, though, we’ve read enough to draw several spiritual lessons from the story. Here are five of those lessons:

  1. One person operating outside the will of God can do incredible damage, and that damage can cause other people to get hit by its shock waves. Not only did Jonah’s rebellion send all those sailors into the teeth of a windstorm, it also cost them a lot of money as they were forced to throw all their cargo overboard during that storm.
  2. While we like to believe that the person who is running from God walks around 24/7 under intense conviction, that isn’t always true. Jonah, for example, was in full-bore sprint from God, and yet he had no trouble at all sleeping in the midst of that storm.
  3. It is possible for a person to reach a state where he or she would literally rather die than mind God. Jonah was in this state when he recommended that those sailors throw him into the sea. He wasn’t willing to pray to God, but he was willing to die rather than submit to God’s will.
  4. Lost people can sometimes show more morality, integrity, and common decency than backslidden believers. Those sailors proved this when they made every effort to not throw Jonah overboard.
  5. We should never limit God as to either who He can save or the means by which He can bring those people to a saving knowledge of Him. If those sailors did truly get saved (as I and many others believe they did), that certainly proves this lesson.

Still, though, the primary lesson I’m attempting to convey in this post is this: When you choose to do what you want to do rather than what God wants you to do, you shouldn’t be surprised when God rebukes your decision. This lesson, of course, applies all the more to the saved believer. You say, “But I’m free to make my own choice.” Yes, that’s true because God grants you that freedom. What He doesn’t grant you, though, is the freedom to decide what consequences result from you making your choice. Those consequences are His department, and I assure you that He doesn’t mind doling them out in proper measure to the rebellion in question. This is a lesson that Jonah learned the hard way, and it’s one that you will learn the hard way too if you persist in your rebellion.

Posted in Backsliding, Choices, Decisions, Disobedience, God's Wrath, God's Judgment, God's Will, Obedience, Rebellion, Salvation, Series: "Jonah" | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

When God Tells You to Do Something You Don’t Want to Do

Posted on March 31, 2020 by russellmckinney

“Jonah” series: (post #1)

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” (Jonah 1:1-2, N.K.J.V.)

Jonah was one of God’s prophets to Israel’s northern kingdom, a kingdom that consisted of the nation’s ten northern tribes and was literally called “Israel.” His hometown was Gath Hepher (2 Kings 14:25), which was located near Nazareth about 14 miles west of the Sea of Galilee. This meant that first and foremost Jonah was a prophet to his own people.

When the world thinks of Jonah, however, it does not associate him with Gath Hepher or anywhere else in the northern kingdom. Instead, we associate him with Nineveh, a city that stood 500 miles to the northeast of Gath Hepher. Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian empire.

So why does Jonah always get associated with Nineveh? It’s because the opening sentence of the book of Jonah says that God commanded him to travel to Nineveh and cry out against that great city because of its wickedness. Interestingly, that command made no mention of Jonah even evangelizing Nineveh. It was as if God simply wanted him to go to the city and pronounce its impending doom.

Like everyone else in Israel, Jonah not only loathed the Assyrians but feared them for their reputation of showing excessive cruelty in war. Noted pastor and author David Jeremiah, in his commentary The Runaway Prophet, says of the Assyrians:

Perhaps the only modern gauge by which to measure their cruelty is the Holocaust — Nazi German’s reign of terror upon Jewish people in World War II. The Assyrians skinned their captives alive. They pulled out tongues. They gouged out eyes. They mutilated entire cities by driving over their population with chariots fixed with scythes on the wheels. They burned children alive and resorted to other atrocities designed to create fear and submission among their subjects. They engaged in every sort of unspeakable physical cruelty and terror imaginable against those they conquered.

Actually, it would have been perfectly understandable if Jonah had been terrified to go tell such a bunch of roughnecks that God was fed up with their ways. But if Jonah was afraid of what the Assyrians might do to him, they book never mentions it. What the book does clearly indicate is that Jonah wanted God to judge the Assyrians, a fact that should have caused Jonah to be pleased with the message God gave him to deliver. Rather than Jonah being happy about God’s assignment, though, he absolutely despised it. Why?

The answer isn’t revealed until the final chapter of the book, but I’ll go ahead and spoil it for you. According to Jonah 4:2, as soon as Jonah received that word from God, he started figuring that God was up to something other than destroying the Ninevites. Jonah knew that God was gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abundant in lovingkindness, and quick to relent from doing harm, and none of that favored God following through on His threat to lay waste to Nineveh. Therefore, Jonah thought to himself, “If those people never hear my warning, they will never repent of their sins, and God will never have an out to not destroy them.”

Jonah is probably the only preacher in history who didn’t want his assigned audience to hear and heed his message. That’s why he made other travel arrangements. Rather than head northeast toward Nineveh, he made the trip south to Joppa, a city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. From there, he paid his fare to board a ship bound due west for Tarshish, which was located some 2,500 miles from Joppa. Once you understand where all these cities were located on the map, you can understand that it was Jonah’s plan to get as far away from Nineveh as he possibly could in the complete opposite direction! How that’s for not doing something that God wants you to do?

Like Jonah, we must each make the decision to either obey God or disobey Him when He tells us to do something. Also like Jonah, the decisions we make are oftentimes the result of whether or not we actually want to do what God tell us to do. If we want to do it, we’re quick to obey, but if we don’t want to do it, heel-dragging and procrastination become the norm.

The flip side to Jonah’s behavior is how Abraham responded to God’s command for him to take his son Isaac to the land of Moriah and there offer up Isaac as a burnt offering. After hearing that command, the Bible says:

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. (Genesis 22:3, N.K.J.V. emphasis mine)

That’s what you call getting an early start to obey an unpleasant command, and it’s an example we should all strive to follow whenever God tells us to do things we would rather not do. Perhaps there is something right now that God is burdening you to do, but you are putting it off because it cuts against your grain. Even worse than just putting it off, maybe you are right now on a ship sailing in the complete opposite direction of God’s command. Well, if that’s you, all I can tell you is, get ready for God to deal harshly with your rebellion. Trust me, when God says, “Nineveh” He means Nineveh. Not Joppa. Not Tarshish. Not even your comfortable home turf of Gath Hepher. And all the procrastinating and running you do won’t change His mind. So, you might as well stop playing Jonah and start playing Abraham. I speak from personal experience on this, and I’m shooting you straight.

Posted in Choices, Decisions, Disobedience, Faithfulness, God's Will, God's Work, Obedience, Rebellion, Series: "Jonah", Submission | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Christian Verses” Podcast: Matthew 5:45

Posted on March 29, 2020 by russellmckinney

Is the Coronavirus Covid 19 God’s specific judgment upon the world at large including America? Some folks believe it is. Then again, there are others who view the virus simply as being another nuisance — like every other sickness and disease — that comes with living in a fallen world. So, which take is the correct one? Well, Malcolm and I don’t claim to have received a text message from God concerning the issue, but in the new podcast we do offer our answer to the question. To hear that answer just click on the link below:

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When a Nightmare Becomes a Reality

Posted on March 28, 2020 by russellmckinney

6’10, 235 pound Darrall Imhoff was a great basketball player. He was a two-time All American at the University of California, was a starter on that school’s 1959 team that won the NCAA championship, won a gold medal as a player on the United States’ 1960 Olympic team, and played twelve seasons as a professional player in the National Basketball Association. He was inducted into the University of California’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988, was inducted into the PAC-10 conference’s Hall of Fame in 2005, and had his jersey retired at the University of California in 2009. He’s also a member of basketball’s Naismith Hall of Fame as part of that 1960 Olympic team that won the gold medal.

But Imhoff had a bad night, a colossally bad night, on March 2, 1962. That was the night an even greater basketball player, Wilt Chamberlain, scored 100 points in defeating Imhoff’s team in a game played in the Hershey Sports Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania. That night Chamberlain was the starting center for his Philadelphia Warriors team, and Imhoff was the starting center for his New York Knickerbockers team. That meant that Imhoff had the difficult assignment of guarding Chamberlain. Needless to say, Chamberlain got the better of the match-up. After the game, Imhoff’s classic quote was, “I can’t have a nightmare tonight. I’ve just lived through one.”

While Imhoff’s line was humorous, there’s nothing funny about having to live through a nightmare. That nightmare could be you losing a loved one by way of death. It could be you being diagnosed with a terminal disease. It could be you losing your job. It could be your marriage ending in divorce. Nightmares, after all, can be different things to different people.

In the case of Christ’s chosen 12 apostles, one nightmare they had to live through was the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of their leader, Jesus. Every time Jesus broached the subject in the days leading up to His arrest, the apostles didn’t take it well. For example, in Matthew 16:21-23, when Jesus first mentions the subject, Peter takes Him aside and actually rebukes Him for even saying such a thing. Likewise, in Matthew 17:22-23, when Jesus again repeats the news, the apostles are “exceedingly sorrowful” upon hearing it. They thought, “Our Messiah arrested, tried, and crucified? There’s no way we will ever have to experience that.”

And yet they did have to experience it. Not surprisingly, they didn’t handle it well, either. Rather than hone in on what Jesus had plainly told them would follow His arrest, trial, and crucifixion — namely His resurrection! — they went into hiding, terrified that what had befallen their leader would soon befall them as well. They just couldn’t foresee the empty tomb because they couldn’t get past seeing Jesus hanging on that cross. To them, the notion that God could bring anything good out of Christ’s death was unthinkable.

Perhaps you are someone who has lived through a nightmare. As the old saying goes, you’ve been there and gotten the t-shirt. But tell me, have you made your way over to the empty tomb of that nightmare yet? What I mean is, have you reached a place where you can take your eyes off the bad and begin to live in the light of the good that God has brought out of the bad? If you haven’t, then you are like those pre-Easter apostles in that you are living in fear, disillusionment, depression, and probably a fair amount of anger. That, of course, is exactly where Satan wants you.

For God’s part, though, He wants you to press on through all the hurt and reach the other end of your ordeal. Why? It’s because He knows that’s the end where you’ll find the resurrection of your hope and joy. You see, the message of Easter is not just that God the Father resurrected God the Son; it’s also that God can resurrect you in the wake of that personal nightmare you’ve had to experience. Like those apostles, you too can move out of the closing chapters of the gospels and move into the opening chapters of the book of Acts, complete with a fresh wave of God’s empowering, The only question is, will you do it or will continue to fixate on your nightmare?

Posted in Adversity, Anger, Brokenness, Change, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Comfort, Courage, Crucifixion, Depression, Disappointment, Easter, Encouragement, Faith, Fear, God's Sovereignty, God's Work, Good Friday, Inner Peace, Joy, Perseverance, Problems, Restoration, Resurrection, Sports, Suffering, Trials, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Five Keys For Happiness

Posted on March 26, 2020 by russellmckinney

I ran across a little piece from Ord L. Morrow the other day and thought I’d share it. It’s entitled “Five Keys For Happiness.” Those five keys, along with the proof-text scriptures Morrow suggested, are as follows: (scriptures from the N.K.J.V.)

  1. Give God the first hour of each day. This means pray as soon as you wake up. Even if you can’t pray for a literal hour, pray as long as you can. As Mark 1:35 says of Jesus: “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”
  2.  Give God the first day of the week. This means become actively involved in a good local church and make church one of the foundations upon which you build your week. As the apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 16:2, instructed the Christians of Corinth: “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”
  3. Give God the first portion of your income. This means always be sure that God gets His proper share of your earnings. As Proverbs 3:9 says: “Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase;”
  4. Give God the first consideration in every decision. This means make God’s will your absolute top priority in all decisions. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
  5. Give God’s Son first place in your heart always. This means make Jesus not just your Savior but also the LORD of every breath you take. As Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 8:5, concerning the way the devout Christians of Macedonia responded to him and his ministry team: “…but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.”

I trust you will agree with me that these five keys are timeless. That’s why I cut the piece out and kept it for my files. Of course, if you can get that fifth one mastered you won’t have any trouble carrying out the other four. Like those Christians of Macedonia, first give yourself to the Lord and then mind Him as He leads you into His will for each and every situation.

Posted in Choices, Church, Church Attendance, Decisions, Discipleship, Doing Good, Faithfulness, Giving, God's Will, God's Work, Money, Obedience, Service, Stewardship, Worship | Tagged , | Leave a comment

It’s a Really Good Time to Pray For Your Leaders

Posted on March 23, 2020 by russellmckinney

After a young seminary student had preached a particularly fiery sermon, one church-goer said to him, “You are a model preacher.” This filled the young student with pride until he took the time to look up the definition of the word “model.” That definition read: “a small imitation of the real thing.”

Humbled, the young preacher decided that he’d better try a different approach than his fire-and-brimstone one. So the next time he preached, his words oozed with love and compassion. Afterward, a church-goer told him, “You are such a warm preacher.” This made the young preacher feel good until he looked up the definition of the word “warm.” It read: “not so hot.”

I wanted to use this illustration today because the Coronavirus is forcing pastors everywhere to make some difficult decisions in terms of ministry. Should we have church services or cancel them? Should we visit our church members or stay at home and avoid the risk of either catching the virus ourselves or spreading it to one of them if we unknowingly have it? If we do decide to cancel services and stay close to home, how can we continue to minister to our folks?

Needless to say, your pastor really needs your prayers right now. For every second that you bash him for what he is or isn’t doing, take two more seconds to pray that God will give him the wisdom and discernment he needs to make God-approved decisions during these difficult days. And along the same lines, let me also encourage you to pray for our President and our other political leaders (national and local) as they attempt to steer our nation, states, counties, and cities through this crisis. As Paul, writing under the inspiration of God, tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:1-2:

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quite and peaceable life in all goodness and reverence. (N.K.J.V.)       

You say, “But I didn’t vote for that person.” I hear you, but Paul didn’t exactly vote for Nero to be the Emperor of Rome, either, and yet he still instructed Christians to pray for Nero and all others who were in authority at the time. You see, this is all a part of being that “salt” and “light” that Jesus said we are (Matthew 5:13-16). Sure, it’s easy to be an arm-chair quarterback who handles every situation perfectly and never makes a bad call. It’s also easy to second-guess every decision a leader makes. But your second-guessing will be curtailed quite a bit if you will ask yourself, “How would I like to be in that person’s shoes right now?” And it will be curtailed even more if you will pray for that leader in accordance with the Bible’s command. Now, if you will excuse me, there’s some praying that I myself need to go do for some political leaders.

Posted in Church, Current Events, Government, Intercessory Prayer, Pastors, Politics, Prayer | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“Christian Verses” Podcast: James 1:5

Posted on March 22, 2020 by russellmckinney

Not one of us has ever had to live through a pandemic. Therefore, there’s no playbook for how to do it. This means that we are all kind of “flying by the seat of our pants” regarding what used to be simple, day-to-day decisions. Should we have church? Should we go to the store? Should we keep our appointments? If we are cooped up at home, how should we fill the time? On and on the questions (and decisions) go.

Fortunately, God has the answers to all of our questions. Even more than that, He has promised to impart to us the wisdom we need to make any decision. This promise is found in James 1:5, and so Malcolm and I thought that verse would be a good one to build this week’s podcast around. Here’s the link:

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Not My Typical Week

Posted on March 21, 2020 by russellmckinney

I spent this past week gathering as much information as I could about the Coronavirus in an effort to figure out how to conduct church services in a reasonably safe way. I also met with our church deacons Tuesday night and with a small group of pastors Friday morning. Both meetings were about one question: “Should we continue to have church services during this pandemic?”

I wish everyone could have sat in on that pastors meeting. That way everyone would understand and appreciate not only how much us pastors loathe cancelling church but also our motivations for that loathing. It’s not about our egos, our desire for the spotlight, or our fear that we might lose a paycheck. What it’s all about is our concern for Christ’s church, the people that comprise it, and this nation itself. As I said in that meeting, “Isn’t it awful that in this time of national crisis (pestilence), a time when our churches ought to be full as we seek God’s help, they are empty?”

The topics we kicked around in that meeting were definitely a mixed “box of chocolates.” For example, we talked about the option of forging ahead with regular services and having faith that God will keep our people safe. We talked about having our congregations meet in multiple rooms and getting the sermon feed into those rooms, the idea being that more space will allow our members to keep a six-foot separation between themselves. We talked about setting up loud speakers and letting people sit in their cars and listen to the sermon. We talked about letting people bring their camping chairs and sit in our church yards as they listen. We even talked about the best way to disinfect and sanitize a pew without ruining the varnish on it. Now there’s a conversation I never expected to have!

Here are some other topics that got mentioned:

  • Hebrews 10:25 does tell Christians to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, but it doesn’t say to do so in the midst of a pestilence.
  • Our elderly members, who by all accounts are the most susceptible to the Coronavirus, will be the first ones in attendance if church is held.
  • Those older members are the same ones who are the least likely to have internet access and be able to watch a sermon online.
  • If some people get out of the “routine” of attending church, they will never get back into church.
  • If those people don’t come back, are they genuine Christians anyway?
  • Could this virus be God’s way of separating the “wheat” from the “tares” (Matthew 13:24-30, 34-43) in His church to get us back to a spiritually purer membership?
  • Is this virus God’s way of testing the church to see just how much faith we have?

Friday night one of the pastors followed up our meeting by texting out a link to an article written by Michael Brown, who is a well known pastor, theologian, and Christian radio host. The article was a good read on the subject of whether or not to have church in the midst of a pandemic. Here are three quotes from it:

…even if I am not concerned about my own health, I run the risk of becoming infected and carrying the virus to someone else. And so, when hundreds of us gather together for a church service, unless we can guarantee that every person there has sufficient faith not to be infected, then our gathering presents a health hazard to others. That’s why I do not see this as an infringement of our rights as much as an opportunity to love my neighbor.

…It is also wisdom that shows us what to do. That’s why, when we are driving on the highway and there are ice patches forming all over the road, we slow down. That’s why, when there is a hurricane coming, we shutter up the windows. That’s also why we lock our doors at night. And why we don’t let our 5-year-old child wander around the neighborhood. It’s called wisdom.

If and when the government illegitimately seeks to steal our rights, we will stand up and say, “We must obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29). This, however, is not that time.

Lastly, let me mention one other topic that we addressed in that meeting of pastors. One of the men offered the legitimate criticism that the actions of the church during this pandemic have really not been all that different from the actions of the world at large. While I agreed with his assessment, I likened the situation to the church being in a boxing match and getting hit with a haymaker punch in the opening seconds of the fight. As the old saying in boxing goes, “Everybody has a plan until they get hit.” Well, we got hit with a devastating right hand thrown by the Coronavirus and it addled us, knocked us off our game plan, and forced us to either lay down and take a count-out or get up and try a new plan.

Thankfully, that latter option is what’s happening in churches all across America as we are putting in the effort to figure out how to “do church” in this strange new society the virus has created. We’re streaming sermons online. We’re posting helpful things on Facebook. We’re writing blog posts. We’re writing articles. We’re doing podcasts. We’re sending out group texts. We’re using Twitter and Instagram. Seriously, it’s a great thing to see because if there is one thing our churches tend to struggle with it’s ministering in fresh and creative ways. So, in that sense, God is bringing good out of the Coronavirus just like He promises to do in Romans 8:28, and He’s still ministering through His church just like He promises to do in Matthew 16:18. For that I’m grateful and truly amazed at just how resilient (and dare I say resourceful) the church can be. It’s just a shame that it takes something like this virus to force us out of our comfort zones and get us there.

Posted in Adversity, Church, Church Attendance, Current Events, God's Work, Pastors, Preaching, Problems, Service | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

A Very Helpful Spiritual Exercise

Posted on March 19, 2020 by russellmckinney

Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me. For You are the God of my salvation; On you I wait all the day. (Psalm 25:4-5, N.K.J.V.)

Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness. (Psalm 143:10, N.K.J.V.)

If I ever wrote a book in which I listed the spiritual exercises that have helped me the most in my walk with the Lord, there is one exercise that would unquestionably be on the list. This is an exercise I use anytime I want to do God’s will but am genuinely confused as to what that will is. The exercise goes like this: I talk to God in prayer about the various options I have before me concerning the situation, and I say, “Lord, if you called me up to heaven right now and told me that I had to pick one course of action right now, I would choose…”

In the practical application of this exercise, I’ve found that there are times when I feel pretty strongly about the choice that I voice to God. Other times, however, my choice comes as the result of a razor-thin 50.1 to 49.9 vote. It all depends upon how confused I am about the situation.

The important thing to remember, though, is that the exercise isn’t meant to produce a final decision anyway. Instead, it’s just a way for me to get my up-to-the-minute bearings regarding where my thinking currently stands about the situation. Then, once I have those bearings and understand which way I’m at least leaning, God can move the process of revealing His specific will further along by either confirming my correct leaning or fixing my faulty leaning.

You see, what I’m talking about is what we might call the process of God revealing His will to me about my situation. Rather than give me His answer in one fell swoop that only requires me to seek His guidance one time, God bleeds out the revealing of His will because He wants to spend even more time in intimate fellowship with me. It’s as if He reveals a little bit of His will during one prayer session and then says to me, “Come back later and I’ll reveal some more. I’m enjoying our times together.”

I think this is what David was getting at in both of our text passages when he asked God to teach him His paths and how to do His will. Typically, it takes multiple classes and multiple lessons for a student to truly learn a subject, doesn’t it? And, of course, the more complex the subject, the more classes and lessons are required to learn it.

So, in keeping with this analogy, those times when I put my spiritual exercise into practice become midterm exams that show me how well I’m currently doing at mastering the subject in question. If I’m already leaning toward choosing God’s path for me, He gives me a passing grade and says, “Well done, you’re on the right track. Keep following it until I make my will crystal clear to you and you’ve done it.” But if I’m already leaning toward choosing a path that God doesn’t want for me, He gives me a failing grade and says, “Okay, you’ve got some work to do, but you can still ace the subject in the end if you let Me teach you.”

Perhaps right now you are standing at a fork in the road and you are going to have to choose one road or the other very soon. Well, do you honestly want to choose the road that God has in mind for you? I ask that question because the cold, hard truth is that many people don’t! If, however, you are one of the minority who do want to choose God’s road, then I advise you to use the spiritual exercise I’ve described in this post. Be honest with God about which way you are leaning right now, and then listen carefully for that still, small voice of His as He grades your answer. If He lets you know that you are leaning the right way, then keep up the good work until you have completely mastered the subject and done His will in the matter. But, on the other hand, if He lets you know that you aren’t leaning the right way, then enroll yourself in even more class-time with Him and work even harder to learn what He is trying to teach you. Trust me, if you’ll do that you can still earn your PhD degree in the subject even though you failed your first test. God is, after all, the most loving, patient, and gracious teacher you will ever have.

Posted in Choices, Decisions, Discipleship, Dying To Self, God's Love, God's Will, Personal, Prayer, Submission | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment